What Carter wants for his birthday

We went to the mall & Carter made his birthday wish list:
White or Gray Zhu Zhu pet
Zhu Zhu babies or Giant Hamster Fun House or Boat
Red Light Saber (Star Wars)
Water Nerf Gun
Long Strike Nerf Gun (use judgement, if this looks super dangerous, no way, lol!)


He also wants Star Wars Lego sets.  I don't know if you've seen the prices lately, but cash or gift certificates to Target or Toys R Us so he can combine for big sets would be great.

He also needs Size 6 pajamas :)

More Family in the News!

This is my cousin Jeremy, the artist in this story that appeared on our local news today

http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Spaceworks-Tacoma-89056927.html

He's currently having a show at  http://www.bherdclothing.com/

Paul in the News

Dad was asking if Paul's team had made news headlines... here you go!

Channel 13 Sports Article
http://www.q13fox.com/sports/kcpq-030110-curling,0,2939663.story

USA Curling article about the team getting into finals

http://curling.teamusa.org/news/2010/02/26/kalamazoo-set-to-host-2010-national-championships-men-s-olympic-team-withdraws-from-event/33883

The following article was in the Kalamazoo newspaper, front page of the sports section (Paul has actual section):

http://www.mlive.com/sports/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/03/team_johnson_in_hunt_at_usa_cu.html

On my own...

After not making it to the semis, Paul decided to go back home with his parents for a few days before coming home with his ticket from Chicago. While he's gone we've been taking it kind of easy. Thursday was swimming, then Friday Carter went to school and Henri and Erin headed off to MOPs, then brought home an extra kid to watch for a few hours before Carter came home.  Then we ate dinner early (the kids have been getting hungry around 4:30 and with not having to wait for Paul to get home, we just eat then) and decided to go see my cousin, Jeremy's Art show...  http://www.bherdclothing.com/ for info.

Henri did try to get his own dinner, though around 4:15...

Jeremy was excited to see us, Carter dutifully looked all around, pointed out which ones were Jeremy's (Henri pointed and squealed at several) then announced, "I'm done looking at art."  We then met Shawnte for some Red Robin and the kids passed out in the car on the way home.  Henri woke up this morning early and I had him sleep in my bed so I could get a few more hours of sleep. It was sweet that he woke up happy and came up to kiss me... until I realized he still had garlic breath from stealing Shawnte's garlic fries at Red Robin.  It was still sweet, just a little stinky.

We even got to clown around at the gallery.  There were actually quite a few kids there and Jeremy said the owner was excited of all the calls he got of people asking for more information and if they could bring kids along.

US Curling Nationals in Kalamazoo, MI

After mom and dad got back from Costa Rica Tuesday I called them up and asked if they missed the kids.  My mom, totally on to me asked, "why?" then I sprung it on them I was looking for a babysitter for 4 days so I could watch the majority of the games Paul was playing in leading up to the US Nationals.  After getting some sleep, she agreed.

Paul's parents flew home Wednesday, Paul flew to Chicago then drove with his team to Kalamazoo (after realizing they had flown into Midway and he was at O'Hare).  I babysat Friday night, then Saturday morning went to the airport to fly to Chicago.  I then got a rental car and drove into downtown to meet Kari who works at the Sears Tower

Then I talked her into taking me to go get Giordano's stuffed pizza.  YUMMMMM.  Then we walked around Michigan Ave and found the cutest jewelry store. 

Then I had to head back to my car to drive to Kalamazoo in time for the 8:30pm game.

Got to Kalamazoo, checked into my hotel (across town from the stadium and the hotel Paul and Larry were at-Larry had driven down from Ontario) and raced to the game, which the guys won 5-4.  Then slept pretty much until the Saturday noon game.

Saturday noon game they also won, 7-4.  Then for some reason they decided to get more agressive for points and change their strategy, which did not work since the next games were lost 2-6 and 4-7.

Saturday in between the midday game and the night game, I met up with Diane, my friend off my scrapbook message board.  She took me to the Tractor supply store where I not only found the cow bells that Larry had requested, but something to help the curlers with their chafing...

After the Sunday noon game, I drove up to East Lansing to meet my friend Kristy who I had not seen in several years and had lunch with her and her future sister-in-law.  By the time I got back, Linda had driven down.  Then we watched an incredibly disappointing game:

If you can see through the glare, that's the other team with 10 points, us with 1 and yes, that was the final score!

We had something to eat and the guys regrouped.  The next set of scores were much better.  Tuesday they had one game and won it 10-3 after 7 ends.

Wednesday I watched online at work to watch them win two more; 9-6 and 8-5.  Not only did they win, but many of the scores were in ends where they did not have the hammer (advantage of throwing the last rock).

Thursday was the final game to get to the semi-finals.  They lost 3-9 after the other team scored 4 points in one end.  But they achieved their goal of not only making it to the Nationals, but also winning more games than they lost.  The other team members had all been to Nationals before, and some  to Worlds, but this was Paul's first time at Nationals.

As if we weren't busy in our house...

Last Saturday Paul's parents called me up.  They decided to fly in to visit Paul for his birthday!  So they flew in Tuesday.  It's been very handy having them around so I can sneak in a periodic nap and they are babysitting for us, so I can go into work right after Henri wakes me up and get my hours in at work, then come home early afternoon.  It's been great not having to run the kids around to drop them off places.

Then, this Friday morning, we got a call.  The USA team that was curling in the Olympics, dropped out of the US Men's Nationals competition.  They get an automatic bid into the Nationals the year after the Olympics.  Since Paul's team was next in line, they get their spot.  This is great news because they worked hard to get to nationals.  However, would have been nice to have more than a week's notice!  So now besides having houseguests, we are running around trying to get Paul's team some uniforms, airline tickets and hotel accomodations.  I have no idea if I'll be able to get out there and watch any of it or not. 

Friday afternoon, Paul and I left the kids with Paul's parents and headed up to Vancouver to have dinner with friends from my scrapbooking message board (we stayed the night with one of them) then Saturday morning headed to see the Bronze Men's game.  Sweden v. Switzerland.  We went really early and got right through security.  After walking SEVERAL blocks in the POURING rain.  So we used our extra time to stand under the blow driers in the bathrooms and dry and thaw out before going into the very cold curling rink.

I like to pick a team to root for and decided on Sweden after watching them do some really cool helicopter stretches with their brooms (I tried to get a video, but missed it!)

The game was excellent.  Switzerland did win, but it came down to the final two rocks.  Very exciting.  Oh, and one thing you won't see on TV- 1/2 way through a lady completely fell down the stairs head over heals!  She came back to watch in the front row with a bandaged nose and her arm in a sling.

Sweden is in the blue/yellow, Switzerland is in the red/white:

The Swiss team wins...

This was one of the most awesome shots:

Then we came home and Paul's team for Nationals played against the Jr Men's Nationals team, which is flying out to Switzerland and is from our club.

Today we did the Ride the Ducks tour...

Then we rode the carosel after eating at Ivar's

Then the boys got ice cream.

Updating

So I haven't updated in awhile.  To say we have been busy is an understatement.

Let's see, Paul's team got to the challenge round, then lost by one game for going to Nationals. 

Other than that Erin's working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with Carter to school both Mondays and Wednesdays and my mom taking them Tuesdays, Henri going to backup childcare at daycare through Paul's work.  It's about to get crazier because my parents are in Costa Rica right now, so Tuesdays are going elsewhere and my backup childcare is about to expire (we only get 100 hours, which is about 10 days) so I'm using the babysitting co-op I'm in as well as nearby friends I'm exchanging childcare with and will probably be paying someone from my MOPs table for a few days as well.  I'm really hoping we can end this job the end of March and not work in April!

Thursdays are busy with swimming, playdates and running errands and house chores. Fridays have playdates, MOPs, etc.  Carter usually also goes to school on Fridays, so normally it's Henri and I.

Paul's birthday is on Wednesday, so that's our current focus this week!