Claire's Big Adventure

The girls and I had a wonderful frolic these past two weeks taking in the sights of western North America. Claire got to meet all kinds of fun relatives and other strangers. It's pretty amazing how she can draw an audience with the smallest little fit that she might occasionally throw in public places. But we love it!

As mentioned on Claire's blog she has taken to rotating herself; she can go from front to back and back to front at will these days. Sometimes it takes a touch of anger to get the roll going, but more often she will just roll over for no apparent reason. This is great but requires a tad more supervision than we Nortons were accustomed to. Claire also likes to make a fun new noise from the back of her throat that is difficult to explain but easy to imitate. She loves it when we make it back to her.

Our trip started out visiting my Mother, her parents and my sisters. This was great fun and lasted for two days.

After this little adventure we took Claire to meet my father and my other two sisters.
She loved meeting all of her aunts and finds them very entertaining!

After all of this excitment we went to the beach for the annual Rice Family Renunion. (Rice is my paternal grandmother's maiden name.) We have missed the last two of these reunions due to scheduling conflicts, so it was fun to get to see everyone for the first time in a few years. Then it was off to Camano Island, WA to visit some of Claire's great aunts, great uncles and second cousins!
Whew! This was a lot for Claire to take in, so the next morning we decided to take a break pool-side for some R&R. To make it more fun, we invited seven cousins, an aunt and an uncle to join us. It made for an exciting and fun-filled morning before we departed for Canada!

Next on the agenda was Whistler Mountain Resort. This is the site of a number of events for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and I really wanted to go check it out as I haven't been in nine years and never during the summer. It was really neat to enjoy the scenery from the comfort of shorts and flip-flops. We tried to go on a tour of the top of the moutain, but Claire protested. So instead we just did our own little tour and really had a wonderful time!

The newest Gondola system at Whistler is pretty amazing. It goes from the top of Whister Mountain to the top of Blackcomb Mountain. Each car can hold 28 people, and the views are spectacular!

For our Hell's Kitchen fans, we did make an impromptu stop at Araxi. While the prices at Araxi were not as out of control as I expected, I got the distinct feeling we weren't welcome with a three-month-old.

Instead we opted for fondu at Bavaria. This was probably the only time we will ever eat at a fondu restaraunt, as it did not exactly knock our socks off (note the 'Bavarian Fries' served as our side!), but we had a great time!

One more stop to see Grandma & Granapa Wines and then off to Portland. We spent our last night there with Uncle Clay and Aunt Lori. We had a wonderful time with them, and we weren't quite ready to leave. But alas it was time, and we journeyed home on Friday.

More pics, and perhaps a video coming soon!

The Answer

Thank you to my one faithful reader for your quick and possibly correct answer to the little puzzle I presented.

I challenge you to watch the video again, this time don't try to count anything -- perhaps you will notice a large gorilla in the room!

Isn't that just like life, we so often get focused on the task at hand, meanwhile we miss everything else happening around us. I challenge everyone to take time this week to look at the big picture; don't get caught up in the details.

This will be easy for Amy, Claire and me this week as we are embarking on the Norton family summer vacation. Fun destinations in store, and we will try to share pictures along the way!

Have a great two weeks, and we will chat latter!

Fun Test

Oh do try it --

Try to count the number of bounce passes among the white team. Leave your answer in the comments -- you may only watch the video once. No cheating!

Click on THIS link

The surprising answer coming soon!

Fabulous Birthday

I (Amy) had a FABULOUS birthday this year. It started with a celebration with my brother and his wife when they visited us over the Fourth of July weekend. Then my husband and daughter took me to Outback for dinner on my birthday to celebrate; and I celebrated with the rest of my family last week while in Tulsa. Here are the pics of my wonderful gifts:

From Matt and Randi - a beautiful picture frame that says "Together we have it all" - it's going to look perfect in my bedroom. Thanks, Matt and Randi. I love it! (Now I just need to get my act together and get my pictures printed.)

My parents gave me the cart cover / high chair cover that matches all of Claire's things - black and white toile. It's just what I wanted! Thanks Mom and Dad!
My friend, Valerie, gave me this beautiful piece of "I love New York" artwork that I have proudly hung in my living room. It's a perfect addition. Thanks, Val! I love it!And my wonderful, thoughtful husband gave me the perfect gift - a pocket-sized video camera! It's pink, of course! He also gave me an SD card that holds 4 hours of HD movies! I have been taking lots of videos of our daughter and her great accomplishments. We have now ordered more memory for our computer so that we can upload them, edit them and post them for your viewing pleasure. Look for those soon.My parents, grandparents, aunt, brother, sister-in-law and niece gave me money so that I can go shopping for some new clothes. Nothing in my closet seems to fit right since I have lost so much weight. A very good problem to have, I might add! Thanks, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Nanny, Fran, Adam, Shannon and Analise.

And Steve's Aunt Lori gave me a gift card to Cold Stone Creamery - one of my very favorite places! Birthday Cake Remix, here I come! Thanks, Aunt Lori!

I had a wonderful birthday! Thank you to everyone who helped me celebrate! Let's do it again next year!

Juror #44

Yes sir-eee

That was my number 44 -- surely since they only needed 12 people, #44 wouldn't even be considered for the jury. Wrong-o, heck #58 was selected before they finally eliminated everyone from the initial pool. Anyway, my first time on a Jury was interesting.

I have to admit, the lawyers really did a good job of selecting us, as we were all really level headed and pretty much on the same page. Then there was Juror #16 - we were all secretly praying that she would not be put on the Jury. Every time they asked a question she would pipe up with some contradicting statement. Oh the headache that would have caused (thankfully she was eliminated).

The charge in the case was indecency with a child. We found out afterwards that this was the second go at this trial, as the first trail ended in a hung jury. It's heart wrenching how prevalent this type of behavior is. More than half of the 65 people selected for the initial panel had some 'experience' with this charge, and so the question had to become 'could you put your feelings aside?'

I think that is dreadful -- it broke my heart to see some people simply break down and cry when asked why they didn't think they could put their feelings aside. I challenge everyone to pray hard against this, to bring protection to our children, and to cast out this evil behavior. We found the guy guilty, that didn't take long (8 minutes I think). Sentencing was a bit harder, ultimately we all agreed 6 months in jail, 10 years probation with required therapy for those 10 years, and a 10K fine was adequate.

The one good thing about my call to duty, was I was able to be home every night this week, and Amy and I were able to have a wonderful Birthday celebration for her Thursday night! I couldn't resist giving her her present a day early; as she really needed it! I'll let her tell you all about it, I'll just say she dropped the perfect hint for me this year, leaving no doubt as to what she desired.

There are some wonderful pictures on Claire's Blog of our fun times with Aunt Lori last week -- coming soon pics of Claire's first Yachting!

Have a good weekend!

Quick Update!

Amy knows I love a deal so the other day I come home, and she tells me I need to watch a segment on the Rachel Ray show that she recorded for me. A bit puzzled I obey. The segment was great!
It was about a woman who wrote a cookbook using only items found at her local 99 Cents Only Store. She then takes us on a tour of the store where I am amazed at some of the finds. At her particular store they even carried expensive wines that were reaching the end of their shelf life for --- you guessed it -- 99 Cents.
So Amy, Claire and I load up the family car and make our way to this little mecca of shopping for what is sure to be a delight. And honestly it truly was -- here are some of my 'bargains'

We all know Claire needs a sticker album -- where well else can this be found for less than a dollar?

I'm still not convinced this is the cheapest place to buy these two items -- but we needed them anyway.

A STEAL!!! 'SOS' PADS!!! And I think in the future we will steer clear of the 99 Cent 'Facial Tissue' AKA micro-derm-abrasion in a box.

And finally, its come to our attention that most normal parents don't often take their one month old swimming. While we have tried to find a good deal on newborn swimsuits, it has been nearly impossible. The only store to carry such a thing is Baby's R' Us, and very few things are a good deal at that store. Would you believe that we found two NEWBORN swim suits at the 99 Cents Store, for 99 Cents each?

There was no meat or wine department as advertised on the RR segment, when I queried the clerk, she simply said -- "You must have seen Rachel Ray, trust me I'd know if there was a wine department!"

Amy has actually made one more special trip to this store to stock up on a salsa we tried (not pictured) and loved, she was able to buy a whole case for $12.00, not bad.

Moving on ---

We all remember my classic post about the SHAM - wow

Noting the emphasis, lets have a look at the most recent picture of the overexcited goon that promotes this little absorbing wonder


A tad different from his normal image as the face of SHAM - wow (note the emphasis).

That's all I got for now -- fun time in store this weekend. Time with Aunt Lori, and some Texas travels that you know will end with a funny story or two. (I believe I see a ferry ride on our itinerary today -- Claire's first boat ride!!)

I'm Busy!

So I get home from two grueling HOT days of work last night at about 7:57PM, which incidentally was a feat in itself as my airplane wasn't due to land until 8:00PM; oh yes I did pull some strings, and buy the gate manager a Monster Energy drink for a PRIMO parking spot. Anyway I notice my yard was a bit out of control. Due to the lack of rain here in Houston for the past couple of months I've been watering like crazy, the latest sprinkler setting has the back yard on for an hour and the front for 45 minutes.

All this watering coupled with the small rain storm we had last week evidently gave our lawn the boost that it needed, because it was a bit out of control. The fact that it needed to be mowed was a touch more aggravated by the fact that my edger/weed whacker is broken (the little pull cord broke). So I do what any red-blooded American would and borrow the neighbors for an instant mowing.

I quickly change my clothes as 'daylight's burnin,' and immediately start with my neighbors line trimmer. A little history: My neighbor and I don't exactly agree on HOW to mow a lawn. He likes his about 5 inches tall, I'm more of a 2 inches tall kind a' guy. While he insists I'm burning the roots, I insist that it looks better. All this to say I was prohibited from mowing the side of our house where our lawns meet about two years ago. So now here I am using his trimmer, and I can see him eye-balling me; this soon turns into an excursion on his part to my side of the driveway.

He explains that he is going to show me how a 'real man' edges his lawn! I learned a long time ago to always take advantage of learning opportunities, so I patiently watch, and quickly realize his way takes FOREVER, but none the less I'm watching intently. After his fourth pass down the same edge I reach to take the edger back, and he insists on finishing is so it 'looks like his'. Remembering that 'daylight's burnin' I decide to get my mower and start mowing, as my neighbor seems to have the edging under control.

I do hope this didn't offend him, shortly after I started mowing he turned off the line trimmer and set it back down on my driveway. I will admit that the edge he manicured does look a lot like his, except of course my grass is considerably shorter. I think I'll take my machine to the shop today, and have a new edging blade installed while I'm at it.

More company arriving tomorrow, my wonderful Aunt Lori will be here for a week, getting a sneak peak at her Great-Niece. We have lots of fun time in store, including a visit to San Marcos, a mecca of outlet shopping.