First day

Today is the first day of school. Here are the kids going out the door on a drizzly morning. Before they left, M4 said he felt like he had to throw up!! They rode the bus...they ride the same bus which stops first at M4's school, then goes on to M3's school so that's convenient. I followed the bus to M4's school and walked in with him. He was totally fine! He was all ready to kiss me goodbye and get on with his day. He got to take his new mountain lion with him. I am excited to see how the year goes. We met the teachers yesterday. M4's teacher will be great with him, I'm sure. M3's teacher seemed a bit nonchalant, so we'll see. I hear he's "fun," which is fine as long as he's a good teacher. M3 was a total spaz last night and this morning, so I guess she was excited. Guess I'll go start moving stuff next door. We close on our house today.

BE VIGILANT!

Someone stole my credit card number. I have the one and only card, so they got it online. It seems like they might have gotten it from iTunes, because those were the first fraudulent charges. I have an iTunes account.

I'm just lucky I checked my account online today and noticed the weird charges before they charged anything big!!

So check your accounts often! I have shopped online for a long time without anything like this happening.

Any tips from anyone on how they protect themselves while making transactions over the internet?

Rocky Mountain High

Our trip was so fantastic! I highly encourage everyone to go to Rocky Mountain National Park when you can. Some highlights:

• the Junior Ranger program. M3 and M4 got little booklets in which they learned all the about the Rocky Mtn. ecosystems and animals. They had to complete activities in the books to get their badges. It was so sweet; the Ranger asked for the attention of everyone in the visitor's center when he announced their Junior Ranger status, and they got a nice round of applause.


• the evening Ranger programs. We learned more about Rocky Mtn. animals and heard great stories. Obviously, the Rangers love their job!


• Trail Ridge Road up to the tundra and seeing pikas and marmots.


• any and all of the hiking and camping


• hanging with my family in Estes Park. As always, it makes me sad we can't all be together more often. We missed C and M. It was so cool to see L seriously preggers! She looks fantastic, of course! Can't wait for the new cousin!


• seeing Boulder with our friend Steve (and taking our first shower in almost a week at his house!)


• not encountering any bears, mountains lions or bubonic plague. Yeah!

Not so great:

• getting the car stuck in the sand at Lake McConaghey


• getting hailed on while horseback-riding

Gotta have a few misadventures while you're on vacation! Here's a few pics. I'll post more when I load the pics from M3's camera:

Lake McConaghey, NE
Little hikers
A friend on the trail
Yeah, it was cold!
Cool clouds

Weird science

Our friend Steve (and M1's old roommate) doing some cool research on biofuels:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/08/12/bug.diesel/index.html#cnnSTCText

He's in the video, too.

But will he give it up to the Tooth Fairy?

By the way, M4 has his first loose tooth! I could cry!

Tagged

More than a month ago, Jenn tagged me. I am lame, so I haven't been "it" yet. As we are leaving for our vacation soon, here it is, Rocky Mountain National Park edition:

My joys:

• My family (including everyone we'll be seeing soon...yay!)
• Sitting around the campfire under the stars with a beer in my hand
• Watching my children dance around in the dark with glow sticks

My fears:

• Large wildlife (this includes bears and mountain lions)
• Bubonic plague? (in Rocky Mtn Natl Park...what?!)
• Campground bathrooms

My goals:

• Patience
• Hiking Longs Peak (this is M1's plan...12 hours round trip? I'm not so sure)
• Leaving behind my worries of possibly carrying two mortgages soon

My current obsessions/collections:

• Yoga (this has no direct connection to the Rockies, but it would be pretty to cool to do Mountain pose at the top of a mountain!)
• Bubonic plague (obsessing, not collecting)
• Maps (park maps, campground maps...one has to know how to find the pit toilet in the dark!)

Random surprising facts about me:

• My ability to obsess over worst-case scenarios: bear attack, mountain lion attack, fleas carrying plague, thunderstorms above tree line, below freezing nighttime temps, full campgrounds (you get the picture)
• I still love sleeping in a tent and living outdoors
• Nature is the place that can most easily convince me of the possibility of a greater power

Of course, it's hard to narrow these categories down to three answers each! Also, I don't know enough bloggers to tag anyone. I can't just tag you back, Jenn! So if anyone reads this and wants to think about these things, cool. If not, that's cool, too.

In sharp relief

I have to remind myself often to really look at my children's faces. Too often I'm just hollering at them to get out the door or something, and a day will go by and I'll think, "Did I really look at them today?" That kind of look where you're really absorbing the details of their being, y'know? Because in a few years, I won't even have the opportunity to look every day.

Last night, M4 wanted to have a dance party after dinner...since the rest of us were finishing dessert, I went and sat, eating ice cream and watching him dance. It was just this lovely few moments of him dancing with his audience of one. He was so free and unself-conscious (not his usual state!) and creative. I wanted to burn the images into my brain...really look so that I wouldn't lose the details. So of course I tried to get it on camera, and that just didn't do the moment justice. He got self-conscious and silly, and then M3 came in and hogged the camera as she does. But I have to remind myself to really look in those moments, too.