Here are some of the sayings from Adelle during the first few days of being with Esther:

• Mom, why doesn’t she have any eyebrows?
  
• Mom, why is she drinking from your pit?
  
• Mom, I like her!  She’s SO cute!
  

Adelle has always been very interested in reading.  She would probably read (well, be read to) for hours every day.  As it is, I probably read to her a total of 30 min or so a day, sometimes a little more.  She has been learning her letters and letter sounds, and I recently got the “Bob Books” for her from the library.  So today, we started work on the “Bob Books”.  She read the first two books by herself!  We are so impressed with her!  She is really taking off with reading.  

Rich and I went with some friends to a Colorado Rockies game this past Friday.  It was a great game, and the Rockies won 10-8.  We stayed until the end of the 7th inning where all the action happened.  The Rockies were down with two outs, bases loaded, and the next batter hit a home run – grand slam!  And Taco Bell has a deal out here where if the Rockies score at least 7 runs in a game, they offer 2 for a $1 tacos with your Rockies ticket.

So, Rich and Adelle got tacos for dinner Saturday night.  And tacos are spicy, they have lettuce, and they come in a hard corn tortilla shell, all things Adelle usually turns her nose up at.  Rich and I were very surprised when she downed THREE tacos for dinner!  Maybe we should get Taco Bell more often?!  Yeah, right…

We are very excited for Adelle.  For the past year she has been day-time potty-trained but has still wet herself at night (but a pull-up a night has kept any actual accidents or bed wetting at bay).  Starting this year, she’d have 2 to 3 nights a week that she stayed dry.  And, this past month and a half she has stayed dry every night!  A few weeks ago we moved from pull-ups to regular underwear at night with no accidents yet!  Good job, Adelle!

I purchased my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sets of quality leather gloves while working as a road construction surveyor during summer break from college in 1997. The job consisted of pounding wooden stakes into the ground with a sledge hammer for 12 hours a day. Needless to say, gloves were a necessity. Experienced coworkers suggested that I purchase roping gloves and I have never regretted heeding their advice.

The best gloves are made from deer or elk skin and are AMAZINGLY soft, yet incredibly durable and are the most expensive costing ~$15/pair. However, cow hide gloves are not as soft, but work nearly as well and are much cheaper, especially if purchased at Harbor Freight ($5).

When I put on leather gloves, I become a different person…a real man. Bug? Worms (aka snakes when I was 4 years old)? Spiders? Not a problem. Gloves make me invulnerable to pests. Lifting bricks, shoveling dirt, pushing a lawn mower, and wood working all become enjoyable when I am wearing my ropin’ gloves. I even restrained a screaming rabbit (yes, rabbits do scream when they are scared) while cutting him free from the garden twine he got caught in on Saturday.

Rubber gloves are another amazing product I think all new mothers should purchase for their husbands. Diapers, poo, urine, boogers, and vomit are all cleanable when hands are properly protected. Cleaning toilets, scrubbing tile, working on a car…all tasks that I can conquer with rubber gloves. Harbor Freight also carries these at 100 gloves / $5. Gloves are WONDERFUL.

Adelle has mentioned several times recently that she wants to be a doctor.  She enjoys gathering random items from around the house to be used for her doctor equipment (stethoscope, thermometer, tongue depressor, etc).  And she really enjoys playing with the play doctor equipment at Grandma and Grandpa Grish’s (we got to visit a couple weeks ago).

On Wednesday this past week, Adelle decided to play doctor.  I was curious to find out what equipment she would be using this time.  She was holding on to her play tool box complete with hammer, saw, screwdriver, etc.  I was instructed to lie on the couch while she checked the baby out.  I wasn’t sure what to think when she pulled out the saw and said she would be cutting my stomach open.  She told me that she wanted to cut me open, pull the baby out to check it, put the baby back in, then hammer me back together again.  I tried to explain that doctors normally use an ultrasound machine to look at the new baby, but there was no convincing her that the saw wasn’t necessary.  So, she “cut” me open with the saw to check out the baby then used the hammer to put me back together.  Should I be concerned??

Work was amazingly productive on Thursday of all days…the day before a 4 day weekend. It was so enjoyable and productive that I actually regretted leaving for the weekend. Days like that are few and far between. I work as a design engineer and the majority of my daily tasks are usually clerical instead of actual engineering or design. On the other hand, Thursday was action packed with CAD modeling and problem solving and design work and thinking! I actually had to use my brain to do my job! Wow…that is a very invigorating feeling.

Anyway, this weekend has been very fun and relaxing. We visited the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs (~1 hour away) and did some hiking and took photos and just relaxed for a nice drive. That was the first “sight seeing” we’ve done since moving. I hope to ascend my first 14'er (14,000-ft tall mountain) in another few weeks. It turns out that there is a paved road all the way to the top of Pikes Peak. So…it may not be much of a work out (aside from breathing more from thinner air), but there will be spectacular views.

I am concerned about Adelle’s mental health…I think she may have a multiple personality problem. She spends each day as one of approximately 30 personalities (including combinations of individual personalities): Cinderella, Ester, Cinderell-Ester, Grandma Grish, Grandma Burnside, mommy, princess, jewelry shop owner, etc. She also whispers to herself and has an imagination that may involve playing Cinderella or school or any number of other scenarios. Being a first time parent, am I over reacting? She I be concerned? Or should I be thankful that she is playing quietly in the other room? I think the later is what I will choose to believe.

This past week was a major milestone at work…the test of PA-1. That’s Pad Abort – 1. PA-1 is the “ejector seat” for the Orion space capsule. Similar in concept as an ejector seat for a military jet aircraft, this will abort a failing rocket launch in hopes of preventing another Challenger event. The test was a complete success. The rocket shot up into the sky and reached ~600-mph in ~3 seconds…that’s a LOT of acceleration. All of the forces involved with accelerating up and then down and all around will cause most astronauts to pass out AND lose their lunch (or breakfast or dinner…depending on the time of the launch!) I didn’t work on any of this hardware, but I will be supporting future launches and tests. Anyway, check out the video…it’s really cool.

I think there may be no better time to start a weightloss program then immediately following a sickness like the flu. And the best time would be after a really bad stomach flu…the kind that involves losing 5-lbs in 3 days. Symptoms may include all those with feeling completely miserable, especially those that deal mainly with inability to retain…um…bodily fluids.

As you may have deduced, we have been sick this week. I believe some disease carrying child infected Adelle at church. Adelle then hugged and kissed me goodnight and then I took Tuesday, part of Wednesday, and part of Thursday off work to recover. Karen, using the power of green (i.e. smells like dirt) smoothies, stayed the virus from knocking her down until Wednesday night.

There are many excellent places to start an Illness Based Weightloss Program (IBWP – google-ing this brings no hits, so this is original and I have just coined this phrase and now own it!…that may turn out to be a bad thing…) The local church primary and/or nursery is one such place and may be conveniently visited while dropping your child off. This may seem like a radical approach to weightloss and it is exactly that. This system is for people genuinely committed…committed to shedding pounds that is. A quick 5-lbs weightloss is just what many people need to get started.

For those that are more ambitious and energetic, I recommend visiting hospitals to start this plan…emergency rooms are especially good during the winter months for finding willing suppliers of infectious diseases and viruses. Illnesses from hospitals can greatly increase that initial loss from 5-lbs to 25-lbs and maybe 50-lbs if you hit the jackpot.

I woke up this morning and shuffled into the bathroom and turned on the shower.  After taking a long, hot shower, I dried off and checked the clock to see how much time until I needed to leave…1:30 AM.  What!?  1:30 AM.  So…I shuffled back to bed.  Luckily I fall asleep quickly.  This is the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve done it in the past 4 years.  Ugh.

Topic Change…after 2 years, I finally completed my first wood working project and it came out significantly better than I would have thought, though not perfect.  I built a puzzle holder for Adelle.  I started working on it in California and scrapped my work since I couldn’t make straight cuts.  However, I’ve upgraded to a 2.5-hp router that cuts wood like a hot knife through butter…it’s a LOT of fun.  I did learn a lot during the project.  One tip I picked up from my brother-in-law is the use of wood filler…it makes the project look a lot better than it would have otherwise.  However, none of the pictures are closeups for a reason…the box looks better from a distance…but then again, so does the Mona Lisa…so this is actually a work of art!