Weather Channel Bias

Ahhh, the Onion. I haven't posted anything from you for a while.


Weather Channel Accused of Pro-Weather Bias

Merry Christmas

to all

Our Apologies.

Dear everyone,

We apologize for the lack of updates. We have either been lazy or incredibly busy since Thanksgiving. It was probably a bit of both. There is a new album of some pictures here.


At daycare, Emmie did some craft projects (meaning that the teachers did craft projects with Emmie making a mess of everything). This one is my favorite. I honestly crack up every time I see it. Emmie's head is a little too big for the scarecrow body and she has the absolute goofiest little grin on. Very funny.




For Thanksgiving we went out to Des Moines to visit Chad and Betsy like we have for the last couple years. I'm not sure if we go so Julianne can visit her old college friend Betsy, or if it is so Julianne can go shopping. Probably a bit of both. In any case, it was a lot of fun. Here is Julianne and Susie.



This was an attempt at a nice picture of Emilia and our 2 neighbors, Ella and Lola (who are forsaking us and moving to Texas next month . . . boooooooooo!). Ok, back to the picture. Ella was trying to make Lola sit nice, and obviously Lola is having none of that. Emmie is just oblivious to the whole struggle, content chewing on her toes.




Emilia turned 6 months old! Holy yikes! We can't believe it. She is 25th percentile for her head, 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. Our perfectly proportioned baby is turning into a tall, skinny, smallheaded bald baby. She's cute though, so that's ok. She is rolling all over the place, and looks like she could start crawling in the next month or so. As you can see, she still drools a lot.




Emilia got a cute hat, but it is usually over her whole face - probably due to her freakishly small head.







Squash!




Julianne made this shirt for her. I think she should go into business selling stuff like this. Any orders?




Emilia's dessert-themed stocking that Julianne made.




Emilia's first Christmas ornament. We're going to do all candy/treats for her ornaments. This one is perfect with the red hair. Thanks for the tip Linda.

Flight of the Conchords Season 2 Premier

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only) - watch more funny videos

Emilia eats, laughs, displays bad manners

How rude! Laughing with your mouth full of food! Shame Emmie! Shame!

Emilia @ 5 months

Emilia had quite a few new tricks to share.

1. We bought her a Jumperoo, and she goes absolutely nuts in it. We're just waiting for her to jump right out of it. She's like some Riverdance prodigy with all of her fancy footwork. A budding Michael Flatley, but better looking and without the nasty sweatband. Best of all, it keeps her incredibly happy, even when she is getting tired. As evidence, here is a video.



2. Emilia also learned how to ride a bike. We know, some would say its a bit early, considering that she can't even crawl or walk yet, but we thought we should start early. It was hard training, especially since her legs only reach about 1/10th of the way to the pedals.






3. Emilia has honed her concentration skills. We dare you to challenge her to a staring contest, because the girl won't blink. She's like some wild animal, intent on her prey. Here's a good example. The poor sheep didn't know what hit him.

Julianne and Emilia's Trip to the Garden of Eden

That's right - the Garden of Eden. I was out of town from about Oct. 22-26 at the Western History Association Conference in Salt Lake City, and from Oct 25 - Nov. 1, Julianne and Emmie went to Bellingham, WA to visit Brenden's family. That's right, Bellingham is the promised land - its the Garden of Eden. The first time I took Julianne there in Dec. 2003, she said, "I didn't know people actually lived in places like this! Its like something from a magazine." And, she was right - it is like something from a magazine . . . a really awesome magazine. I also attribute her reaction to the fact that she grew up in the barren wasteland, the veritable lone and dreary wilderness of Arizona.

We weren't scheduled to make another trip to WA until Christmas of 2009, and that would make Emmie 18 months old before any of my aunts, uncles and grandparents would meet her. So, we sent the girls up to hang. Lorinda, Jenna and Cora also came for the week. I was SO jealous.

Here are some Picture from the Trip:
(view all of them HERE)



Emilia really liked swinging with Cora and Jenna




Grandpa Pete and Grandma Linda with their favorite grand-daughter (right guys? right?)




Jenna was Snow White, and everyone else dressed up like dwarves. Cora and Emilia even had little beards drawn on.




Julianne doesn't look too good with facial hair does she . . .




Emmie with Uncle Ken




How precious. This is what I've been saying for years, the girls are always all over Ken. They just can't keep their hands off him.




Either Emmie was feeling camera shy, or her face turned into a maple leaf.




The 3 cousins. I will feel SO sorry for the first boy cousin born into this family. The poor kid - its gonna be rough.




So cute.




Emilia with Great-Grandpa Mel and Great-Grandma Lorraine and their dog Teddi.

Finally, its over! My only political blog post

Phew! What a tiring election process. I will be glad to recapture some of my leisure TV viewing time from the grips of the alluring political punditry that I have found myself all to often watching. It was interesting watching the results come in last night, and listening to the different ways that the left-wing and right-wing cable news anchors were reporting the results.

When all was said and done though, regardless of whether the pundit was Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, they all agreed on one thing: this was an historic moment for the United States and for the world, and cause for celebration no matter what your political persuasion.

I hope we don't delude ourselves into thinking that this means race is no longer an issue in American society. However, things will be forever different - all interracial or ethnicity-based issues in our society will all be forever changed. Minority parents in the U.S. can now say to their children, "You can be whatever you want when you grow up," and have it be more than a tired platitude.

I am not convinced that Obama will be able to save our country as some of the Messianic-esque hype has declared. This said, I do hope for the best. I hope America will be a better place 4 years down the road. We'll see . . .

Thanks to my friend Ryan who directed me to a great set of photographs of our President-elect. Enjoy

BR

Emmie edited

We have been messing around with some of our digital images on the computer. We're not very good at it, but its fun to mess around. Here are some results.

Some new Emilia Pictures

Julianne has been on a photo-snapping spree. Here are some of the latest results.

(full album here)


Emmie has been really fascinated by her fingers lately, like she just had an epiphany - "Oh my goodness! What ARE these things attached to my hands?!?!" She chews on them quite a bit and likes grabbing at your face.




Julianne likes this one for some reason. Maybe its the chubby cheeks.




Emmie laying on the living room ottoman.




Emmie's toes.





Emmie laying on her back. We had a few scares when she tucked her knees to her tummy and almost rolled right off the thing.

NW friends

Dear NW friends,

do you live in the Pacific Northwest or within driving distance of Portland, OR? Are you in dire need of convincing the world that you are indeed attractive? If so, I have a great friend that is starting a photography business in Portland and does some great stuff. Also, his prices are VERY good. Check him out at You Look Nice Today Photography.

B.

4 months old Tomorrow

Can you believe it?! We can't. Emilia will be 4 months old tomorrow. On one hand it seems like she just barely arrived, but in another way it seems like she's always been here. She is starting to laugh and squeal. She is also start to intentionally grab things and play with them. In the words of Grandma Jody, she's gifted. Well, she certain is "special," if you know what I mean. So far we've identified one major talent - spitting. Wow. She has that one mastered. Its her super power. We'll call her Spit-Girl. Or Captain "I just ruined 3 of my mom favorite outfits in one day" Woman. Despite the prolifically of her projectile drools, we love her. Lots.

Here's a few new pictures.

Check out my awesome torso.

My quacker PJs

"My dad is just a goober."


Just lounging on the lawn

Presidential Debate reactions from my class

So, I told my students that they could get extra credit for watching Tuesday's Presidential debate fi they turned in a short paper listing 3 things they liked and disliked about each candidate. Out of the ones turned in so far (about 40), there were 2 things that almost everyone said in their responce, or during our short Q&A in class today.

1. They didn't like when either candidate talked negatively about the other. Many disliked McCain's snide comments and sarcastic attempts at humor directly negatively at Obama. They also didn't like Obama talking so much about past things that McCain had done.
2. When asked if the debate changed their mind about who they were voting for, only 2 people raised their hands.
   

Make what you will of this, but I found it interesting.

My MA Thesis got Wordled

That's right, Wordled. There is a great free website that creates word clouds for any text you enter in. Here is what my MA Thesis popped out. The bigger the word, the more frequent it was in the text.

Other Misc. Pictures

So, we haven't been very good at posting our new pictures. Here's some samples from the latest batch (whole album here).

Emilia in her exersaucer




Emilia in b/w contrast




Emilia squealing




Oh my word! Julianne is so gorgeous!




Family pictures at the Sunken Gardens here in Lincoln.




Me playing with Emilia after work (hence, the super snazzy duds)

A Redhead?!?!

Yes, from the get go, it has been looking like Emilia will be a redhead. Well, maybe a strawberry-blond-head. Here's the latest photographic evidence:

Here's a closeup of her slowly growing peach fuzz.