Countdown

It's an exciting time around here....there are so many things to look forward to!  


16 days until....the (somewhat) annual ski trip with these folks:

We'll be coming from as far as Pennsylvania and Tennessee and as close as....New Mexico :)  The destination this time?  Aspen....where the beer flows like wine!  If you don't get that reference, we can't be friends.  I keep losing count but I think there are going to be 13 of us in attendance this year and we've rented a pretty awesome lodge for the week.  I won't be skiing (sad face) this year but look forward to watching ESPN's Winter X Games live in action at Aspen!


100 days until...the projected arrival of Mini Moore!  

Again, forgive the bad photo.  It's a picture of a picture.  

The photo above was taken at 20 weeks....which was 6 weeks ago.  Word on the street is that yes, we've got a name selected and no, you won't hear what it is until he arrives.  Stay tuned!


166 days until....my best friend's wedding!

Janelle and Thomas will get married in June in Charlottesville, VA and I couldn't be more excited to be out there for the weekend.  Should be a pretty rockin' time....even if we'll be learning on the job how to travel with a 9-week-old :)


199 days until...the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. 

Is there still some lingering bitterness that Chicago was not selected for the host city for 2012?  Sure...but I think we can all move on and enjoy the wonder that is the Olympics.  Favorite summer events?  Swimming races, diving, and gymnastics!


So life is good :)  Hope there are things on your life's horizon that are getting you as excited.


Keep It Real!


P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 25.6 of 29.5 miles completed, 2.9 miles to go.  No progress since the last post but with icy trails, I don't like to go hiking by myself these days.  I'll get there though!

Bethlehemian Rhapsody

Merry Christmas!  Today, Leni and I are chilling at home and enjoying the time together.  Late this evening, his parents will arrive from TX and spend most of the week celebrating with us.


In keeping with the tradition of a Christmas video every year on this blog, please enjoy this fun little diddy I found a couple weeks ago.





Hope everyone is doing well!  Merry Christmas!  For unto us a child is born!


Keep It Real!

Trading the Trades

Those of you who know my family, know that, in a lot of ways, my brother and I married people who are wonderful, yet INCREDIBLY different from each other.  (understatement)


Meet Leni and Claire:

First pic ever taken of them, at our wedding

Hanging around the two of them is usually particularly hysterical.  Their differences can be basically boiled down to the following: Claire is a student of the arts, and Leni is a student of science.  This is the basis for any interaction that ends in disagreement of any degree.


I remember back in March listening to a discussion where Claire thought it was ridiculous that Leni didn't know the color wheel.  Leni, probably having heard the words color and wheel in the same sentence (and not in relation to cars) for the very first time that day, shot back something about Claire needing to learn the Periodic Table of Elements.  As with most discussions of this nature between these two, it ended quickly before elbows and fists were thrown.


Back in early July, a new version of this came to life.  Standing by a crappy piece of art that we got at a yard sale for pennies, Leni started talking about what he would do to it if he had the talent.  Claire jumped into action and before I could take another breath, there was an easel set up complete with the necessary paints - and Leni standing around watching like a lost puppy.

The original

Considering the plethora of options

Learning some basics from Claire

It became a collaborative effort

As it stands now.  There is talk of more work later perhaps.

The fun doesn't stop there, folks!  Over Thanksgiving, Claire was up at our house and, in holding up her end of the bargain, spent some time assisting Leni in his craft: car stuff in the garage.  


Here's Claire cutting a long piece of metal for some fabrication work:

And here she is doing some actual welding:

In the art project and the garage project, the apprentices were both good sports and very patient and it was quite entertaining for me to be an observer.  Many props go out to both Leni and Claire for being open to new things!


Keep It Real!


P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update:  25.6 of 29.5 miles completed.....3.9 miles to go!

Holiday Peeves

If you have ever read much of what I say on Facebook leading up to the holidays, you know that I strongly DETEST when Christmas is celebrated before Thanksgiving.  It's just not right.


But that's not what my current pet peeve is about.  This peeve exists on a year-round basis but operates at threat level red during the days leading up to Thanksgiving.  It's this...

...a crowded grocery store.  More specifically (although not blatantly pictured above), I loathe those unaware shoppers who block entire aisles.


You've seen it; the patron who leaves their cart on one side of the aisle while blocking the rest of the aisle with their body while looking at a shelf of goods.  This happens 365 days a year and it is not okay.  But it is most ESPECIALLY wrong on high capacity shopping days such as...oh I don't know...the days leading up to Thanksgiving!


It creates a lot of problems but most importantly, it aggravates Yours Truly and causes her to think unholy thoughts about people around her who are, presumably, otherwise nice people.  I  literally prayed for forgiveness after exiting the store today due to the awful things I'd thought in my head about my fellow shoppers.


So please...I'm beggin' you...if you visit a grocery store in the next few days, PLEASE be a conscientious shopper.  If you need to linger in a particular spot, be sure that your cart and your body are on the same side of the aisle so that others can pass.  


I miss the days when my biggest complaint about the grocery store involved waiting for people at the register to scribble out a check for their groceries.  When's the last time you saw that?


Keep It Real!

P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 24.4 of 29.5 miles completed....5.1 miles to go!

Two Victories

This week in the Moore house hold came complete with many victories probably, but two stand out and are worth mentioning.


First, I finished our Christmas shopping.  Done and done.  Some gifts will be delivered in person when we see various family at Thanksgiving.  Others will need to be shipped to two locations and I will do that sometime in December when it is closer to the actual holiday.  Others will be given in person at Christmas itself.  But that's the easy part.  Being able to check off the To Do List that the gift selections and purchasing have been completed, is an enormous relief every year and being able to get it done in early November only adds to that enormity.


Secondly, after a drought in working toward my trail completion goal, I made some real progress yesterday.  I had completed 18.8 miles of my 29.5 mile target and had 10.7 miles to go, which involved 7 trails.  This weekend, we hiked the longest of these 7 trails and knocked off 4.9 miles, bringing the number of miles completed to 23.7 and the miles needed to only 5.8 and 6 trails.  Given that the average length of these trails is only 1.18 miles, it felt great to cross off 4.9 of the remaining needed miles in one trip.


Here's hoping that your Veterans Day Weekend was productive.  A special thanks to all the Veteran readers for the sacrifices they have made.  Only they and their families truly know the reality of those sacrifices and, whatever they are for each individual, I am thankful for them.


Keep It Real!


P.S. Los Alamos Trails Goal Update: 23.7 of 29.5 miles completed...getting there!

Happy Halloween and a Rant

Our Halloween was drawn out and fun this year.  It started on Thursday when we had 3 kids from a family we know from church over for some pizza and pumpkin carving.

Charlotte, Leni, Malcolm, and Sasha!

After the kids went home with their parents, I found a few minutes to carve my own pumpkin:

Get it?

We had been invited to a halloween party on Saturday night.  We were excited about our costumes so the day couldn't come fast enough.  Other people got a kick out of our costumes, which made the event a riot for me.

We got good use out of the costumes again on Monday when we actually trick-or-treated a couple pre-selected homes of friends.


A quick note to any readers who turn their noses up at the idea of one claiming to be Christian while still taking part in Halloween festivities:  CHILL OUT.  There were no seances or devil worship or ouija boards.  The weekend was spent entertaining three siblings so their parents could have a date, and dressing up silly with some friends.  Want the real scoop on pagan holidays?  Look up the polytheistic pagan roots of Christmas and Easter.  It's not about how it started, folks.  It's how you celebrate it NOW.


Soapbox....dismount.


Keep it Real!

Dental Care

Ever seen any material from comedian Mitch Hedberg?  It's hysterical to me.  None of his jokes flow but they are examples of some of the most accurate and funny observational humor I've ever heard.


I'm digressing already.....here's a quote of his...not his best ever, but pertinent to the subject of this post:


"People who smoke cigarettes, they say, 'You don't know how hard it is to quit smoking.' Yes I do.  It's as hard as it is to start flossing."  ~ Mitch Hedberg


Flossing.  We all know we should do it.  Some even do!  This past Monday, I went to the dentist's office.  It was my first visit to this particular practice and they have quite an extensively organized system for getting you through all the hoops that need to be jumped through before seeing the actual dentist himself.  After checking in at the desk (note to self: the office staff in dentists' offices always seem so happy and cheerful....possible future career move?), I was taken by Hygienist #1 to the xray room where we cleared up that pregnant people probably shouldn't be xrayed.  She then escorted me to an examination room.


The exam room was delightful.  They had flatscreen televisions mounted directly to the ceiling for patients to enjoy while they are in that reclined chair.  How lovely!  A few minutes later, Hygienist #2 came in to clean my teeth.  There was a little of the dreaded scraping with the mini pirate hook on the end of a metal stick but not too bad.  Nowadays, apparently, they use a tiny power washer to spray water all up in there to knock the nast from away from my teeth and gums.


As pleasant as this may sound, it hurt like hell.  I learned from the nice lady that one symptom of pregnancy is super sensitive gums, also known as "Pregnancy Gingivitis".  Awesome.  She finished up her work as gently as she could and gave me the usual speech about how super important it is to floss.  I had admitted that I do not floss regularly, although I do brush religiously.


Goodbye Hygienist #2, enter Hygienist #3.  Her role in this whole circus was to actually floss my teeth for me and then polish them.  Knowing that my gums were sensitive, she was very gentle with her flossing while, of course, shaming me for not being a regular flosser.


Finally, I got to see the dentist.  I made his job pretty easy because since there were no xrays to look at, he couldn't identify cavities (not that I think I have any) or anything else.  He basically got paid the big bucks to speak to me, again, about flossing.  He actually had additional information to share.  Apparently the infection associated with Pregnancy Gingivitis can lead to preeclampsia and pre-mature labor.


So, needless to say, the shame-filled flossing riot act read to me by the clown car of dental health care workers hit home.  Loud and clear, guys!  I'll start flossing!


So I've flossed every day since then.  I don't like regular floss.  It makes me feel like I have to stick both fists in my mouth to get the job done.  But I've found flossing piks to be amazing tools.

Flossing is still a chore but it is getting less and less uncomfortable every day.  And the amount of junk I am pulling out from between my teeth, even after good brushing, is grossing me out to the point that I WANT to floss.  Nasty.  


So it worked.  I'm a believer.  And apparently, according to Mr. Hedberg, if I ever took up smoking, I'd be awesome at quitting it.  


I think I'll just take his word for it.


Please floss.  And if you refuse to, don't go to my dentist because you'll get the floss speech three times by three different people.


Keep It Real!