Two Loons plus two

How quickly they grow

2011-03-28T07:36:00.000-04:00

Perle our farm dog is almost one year old.

Germany

2011-02-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

This is just an aside, but I've started looking into where views of this page come from. And if it is you who are viewing in Germany, please tell me why. There are more than double the views from Germany than there are from the US. I find this odd. No other country views this blog. Huh.

Found a lot of good photos

2011-01-31T16:32:00.001-05:00

I just looked at the files on a memory card from summer. Check out all these great pics.

Voi-la'

2010-09-06T19:41:00.004-04:00

Took less than 3 hours after the nest boxes went in...

Threatening Chickens

2010-09-06T11:31:00.002-04:00

I threatened the chickens this week.

I took the advice of a nice lady I met at a hops picking session last weekend. She's a Traverse City native who lives in the jungle of Costa Rica. She lives off her farm including roasting her own coffee and grinding her own chocolate so I figured she must know what she's talking about.

So I told them if we didn't see any eggs soon, we'd be eating chicken soup for dinner all winter long.

Joel is building egg boxes as we speak. So we'll see....

New Addition

2010-05-16T21:07:00.004-04:00

Everyone meet Perle. She should be joining our family sometime in Mid June. She is a Great Pyrenees and we are excited to have yet another girl in our house. Adeline, me, Perle, Guinness, 27 chickens and 2500 hops plants; all girls.

2010-04-03T20:11:00.005-04:00

EASTER EGGS!

Today we took Adeline to her very first Easter Egg Hunt. It was a huge event. More than 17000 eggs spread over three fields all nicely divided by age so that our 0-3 didn't get trampled by someone else's 7-12.

The (much needed) rain held off until after all the eggs were collected and Adeline had a good time. It took her a few moments to realize what the idea was but then she took off like a shot bypassing less than stellar egg choices for the ones that obviously held superior candy. (I have no idea why she skipped some and went for others.) But she had a great time and so did Joel and I.

Holding Emilee's hand.

It's windy out here mommy!

When does this show get on the road?

This yellow one will do nicely.....

2010-03-08T14:06:00.000-05:00

For all you disbelievers out there.

So our backyard may look like this today.

But next to the house we have these images!!!

We also have strange critters living in our trees.

2010-02-15T22:00:00.001-05:00

I wanna be just like my mom!!!

2010-02-13T16:13:00.000-05:00

We went outside today and played in the snow. Adeline doesn't like putting all her snow gear on and she definitely resembles Ralphie's little brother "I can't put my arms down!" However once you get her outside she has a lot of fun in the snow. We got about 4" of fresh fluffy stuff to play in this morning. And yeah... she really enjoys making snow angels.

2009-12-05T07:14:00.004-05:00

Christmas is Coming!!!

It's very exciting for a little girl when Christmas is coming. A tree in the back getting lights was Dela's first clue that something was happening. But it was hard getting into the Christmas spirit with out any snow. Well that is no longer a problem. Here is that Christmas tree now.
It's the tree in the background not the foreground. We got lots of snow this week and the forecast has snow in it everyday until... well spring I think. As a result we had to get Adeline prepared. So we went out and bought her a snow suit, some boots, hat and mittens and of course a sled. She was a little hesitant at first.
But after a while we got the gist of it.

After a quick "Hi Tree!" in the morning:

It was time to decorate it after we got our pajamas on that night.

Dela now knows with out a shadow of a doubt that something is happening. It's all so very exciting...

2009-11-22T15:21:00.000-05:00

New post at www.loonhops.blogspot.com

2009-10-18T20:36:00.000-04:00

check out www.loonhops.blogspot.com

2009-10-15T23:25:00.004-04:00

Fall is here and quickly acting like its leaving again. Sarah and I have been very busy with family visits and starting our new small business. We have had little time to rest and look forward to some quiet times soon. But first we have to build our little trellis. In the mean time here are some pictures to brighten everyone's day.

Hey Kelly, Lemme show you this stuff.

Reading books with Unckey Kevin

Grampa Bo's 60th birthday!!
(That's like my age times... 60)

These here apples, they're good for ya.

Here's dad being scared

Getting chilly out. It's good to cuddle with mom.

BYE BYE!!

2009-09-28T21:34:00.002-04:00

Sarah and I like to call ourselves runners, however my last real run was cheered on by a cute wife with a pregnant belly. So, yeah, it's been a while. We found the incentive we need to start being runners again...yeah... you dress up and everything.

2009-09-02T11:43:00.002-04:00

WE GOT A NAME!!!!!

After much deliberation we have finally come up with a name for our farm. Ready?...

Fresh Roots Organics.

We like this because we feel the our organic methods of farming is a relatively new and fresh look on how mainstream agriculture is done, however it is deep rooted in how food has been produced for centuries. We feel like our methods are very healthy methods, which the term "fresh" brings to mind. It's kinda fun because it's an oxymoron. Fresh = new, roots = old tradition.

On a personal level we like the name because we have a new homestead that Sarah and I feel we are putting roots down into hopefully for many many years to come. So there it is: Fresh Roots Organics. If you like you can just say FRO. Let's hope I can take the name legally as a business.

2009-08-20T18:10:00.002-04:00

Life's a Beach

Well since Finn did a beach blog, we thought we'd respond in kind.

We Saw Ducks!!!!

The sun made me do funny faces

The waves tickled my feet

But the best part was splashing dad

2009-08-12T21:41:00.002-04:00

PEE

Our little girl is growing up so fast! It seems like just yesterday we were oohing and ahhing over her sitting on her own and now we are applauding the sitting again.
As it turns out Adeline has some pretty tell tale signs that she is relieving herself. Pee and Stinky are also a part of her vocabulary (She also pointed to the moon today and said "moon" out of the blue.) So today while at Target I thought "Why not?" and got her her own potty chair to put next the "Mommy Potty". Twice during the day when she made her signs we said "Do you have to pee?" and she would go running toward the bathroom. Of course it was too late and we just changed diapers but tonight right before her bath she wanted to sit on her little chair and she used it! Happily proclaiming "Pee, Pee, Potty, Pee." She's not even 18 months yet. Then she wanted me to sit on the Mommy potty and keep her company.
I know it was all about timing and that in truth she pees in the bath every night. She probably won't do it again for six months. We just caught the right moment but she was very proud of herself and as doting parents Joel and I couldn't help but be proud too. Now she just needs to figure out how to take off her pants.

2009-08-11T22:21:00.002-04:00

Adeline is into photos

So Dela found the camera and quickly learned that one certain button made the flash go off. This is the first picture taken completely by her. Oddly enough it was taken of her.

The rest of the pictures she took were not worth displaying, but her are some of her that are worth it.

She likes to get a close look at nature just like her ole man.

It's official. There are three loons now.

2009-07-16T16:53:00.007-04:00

Picture time.

So here we go with some more pictures. There are some old and some new. We had a few compiled because our new connection does not upload pictures as fast as our old, so it takes a good time investment to post a blog. Today, I got some time

When we first moved up to T.C. we found a little park next to the bay. Adeline loved the swings.

Grandpa and Nana liked them too.

Here is the father's day present that Adeline got me this year. She usually has ulterior motives in her gifts.

Here is the photo of the kitchen we took when we were house hunting.

Here are some shots of the kitchen now that we've had our spin on it.

I put in a new sink in and new fixtures on it. Doing dishes has never been so satisfying.

Dela is getting big quick. She now can use the stool Grandma M. got her to brush her teeth at the sink.

Well we're gunna sneak out of here.
Love to all from the Looney Mulders

2009-06-29T19:44:00.005-04:00

The New Lodge

So I've been getting some grief that there should be pictures of the new place posted. So here we go...

Finally, a place to hang this without any intentions of taking it down again.

This is the front of the house, so if you are coming to visit this is what you look for.

Here is the front porch room where we pontificate.

The backyard is beautiful. The previous owners were master rose gardeners. Here are some pics of our back patio. Standing on it, I once counted 25 varieties of roses.

Here is the back yard from the patio. At that small treeline on the top of the hill you can see about 6 more acres that are ours.

This is the backyard willow tree and pond. A meager beginning to the water features and shade gardens to follow.

Sarah wants to turn this space into an Adeline friendly garden.

This is a freeloader. Not only do we give him free room, but evidently the fish I put in the pond a week ago provided him with free meals too.

I had some pictures of the rose gardens, but for some reason they won't load onto blogspot.

Sarah and I are very happy with our new place, and are eager to get working on all the gardens. But there is no shortness of things to do. The reason there are no pictures of this inside of this house is because we are not quite unpacked yet. Adeline's room was first on our list and is almost done. Pictures to follow.

So come visit, everyone. The Two Loons' door is always open.

2009-06-10T20:10:00.003-04:00

We're back online!!!

Just a quick post to say we've secured internet out here in the sticks. But we're still very busy, so there will be not cute Dela pictures here (besides, she's not that cute these days. She got some kinda stomach puke virus during the move). We are heading back to Cleveland tomorrow. We'll see some of you there.

2009-05-23T15:45:00.009-04:00

LOOK WHAT I CAN DO
or
ADELINE AT THE ZOO

HI!

I'm 15 months old now and I just had my check-up to prove it! I now weigh 21 and a half pounds. I can say lots of things like Ma-ma and Da-Da, ball, baby, more, nana, no, Hi, kitty, hereyago, caca (that's coffee) gack (that's sock/shoe) and car (that's my favorite. I say it at least 10 times every time we go for a walk.)

I know where my belly is and my eyes and my nose and my mouth. Aunt Kelly also taught me where my pants are. Who knew they were so close?
this morning we all went for a walk and I ran around the tennis courts for a long time. I found a ball there and learned how to throw it. I can get it a whole 3 feet!! Then I have to go chasing after it. I can also do downward dog balancing on my head with my arms out behind me. I can even then pick up one leg. But of course I won't let mommy take a picture of it 'cause that would be really silly that she have proof of this amazing feat.
I still love chicken and whatever other crazy concoction mommy and daddy think up to give me. Peas are my favorite veggie, bananas and blueberries are my favorite fruit. Teddy Grams and "juice" rock when I can get them. Don't tell my parents but I figured out where they are kept.

I like to be outside and go for walks. Last weekend we went for a walk at the zoo. it was lots of fun!

I liked the giraffes. I even tried to climb through the fence to get to them.

I also liked the gorillas. I thump my chest when I see them 'cause that's what mommy does when she reads me the gorilla book.

Daddy thought I matched the flamingos and tried to give me away.... At least that's what I thought was happening.

I was sooo tired at the end I almost fell asleep in daddy's arms..... ah so fun!

Now I have to go and help mommy and daddy pack. Moving day is right around the corner...

.

I love you all!!!

2009-05-17T11:31:00.004-04:00

Spring Time is Busy

OK, so I need to update this blog. I realized that Bo had updated his more recently than mine and that is just plain unacceptable. We've been very busy getting this house ready to no longer be our house. We've had 4 inspections so far and we have two more to go. Each inspector needs to find their own things to zing us on. I think they actually look at the previous inspections and think "I can find a few more things, otherwise me being here is pointless." The city inspections are over and I am proud to say that this 88 year old house is violation free. We have a pest inspection on Thursday and then a final private inspection on Saturday just to see if we did the stuff we promised to do. It's hard to imagine that in three weeks we will be living in a new house. Our official move date is June 5th. We will be homeless for the night and get possession of our new place on June 6th. If you're curious, yes, my last day of school is June 5th. We get out of work at noon, and I'm hittin' the road. No pressure there, eh?

Adeline is growing up amazingly fast. It seems spring has the same growth effects on her as it does on the vegetation. She is no longer a baby, but rather a very astute little girl. She picks up new words every day. The latest super cute phrase is that when she hands you something, she often says, "here ya go." It really makes you realize that she is listening to everything you say. I'm also happy to say that she seems to have lost interest in all her toys. I'm happy to say that because she has replaced that curiosity with curiosity of nature. My kid, right? She loves to just walk around outside picking things up like rocks and dirt and giving them a good taste. She hasn't found anything particularly tasty yet, but she'll stumble upon the herb garden eventually.

We took her to the botanical gardens where they had their annual butterfly exhibit. She really enjoyed the photo opportunities.

Dela is also excited about moving north. Our last trip up there we stopped at Cabela's and she picked out a kayak. She's developing so many new skills.

2009-04-22T19:09:00.007-04:00

WASABI, EYESHADOW and
TODDLING

Well here you go. Baby Adeline is no longer with us. She has morphed quite smoothly into toddler Adeline complete with the bruises acquired proving her walking skills.
This bruise also represents our first trip to the ER. Joel got a call in the middle of the day saying Adeline had hit her head/ eye on a bookcase. She was doing OK but when I heard that she had been hit this close to her eye and on the side of her head I wanted to be sure so I had Joel take her in while I took care of other peoples children at work. Needless to say She did just fine.

Adeline is also picking up several words. her favorite right now is "Ball".
Enjoy the video

Where does the Wasabi come in? Well I made Wasabi Soy Salmon burgers (turned just into Salmon mash) for dinner tonight and Adeline loved it. I was a little hesitant because of the 2 full teaspoons of Wasabi I put into it but we couldn't get it too her fast enough. I think she ate more than I did. She wanted it all on her fork so Joel and I took turns loading up the fork and handing it to her so that she could eat it. Very cute.

P.S. Notice anything different about this picture?...

2009-04-20T12:36:00.004-04:00

Homeless in Cleveland

Well we are getting closer and closer to coming to an agreement and selling our home. As many of you know it is now under contract with a nice local couple. I think they'll make great neighbors for those of you we are leaving behind.

We are a little miffed at the work they want us to do on the house before we leave. Mainly the electrical. Electrical is obviously not their inspector's forte. Some of the changes they've asked us to make might actually make the house more dangerous. But how do you say that when you're talking through realtors and inspectors? "Hi mr. inspector, you don't know what you're talking about. That book you read was probably 15 years outdated." (sigh) But now we've agreed to hire an electrician to "fix" it. Ironic that the electrician has to hire an electrician.

They've also asked us to move the wood in the garage so that they can check for bugs. Even though their 7 days for inspection are up. We were going to just leave it for them so that they could enjoy fire and wine like we did for so many years but I guess we'll be getting rid of it before then. Anyone want some nicely aged hardwood firewood? Were we able to talk to them face to face I'd save them the trouble. Yes there are bugs in the garage. Ants, moths, worms, spiders, just about everything but termites and anything that requires a tropical climate. On a good day you might even find a skunk, racoon, rabbit, stay cat, opossum, neighbor kid or 14 point buck in the backyard too. A pair of doest ate the heads off of all of my tulips in the back gardens (or the buyers tulips I should say) last weekend. See previous posts for pics.

Anyway as the title of this blog suggests, though we get possession of our home in Cherry-mort City on June 6th, I still have to work in Cleveland for 3 weeks after we leave Hyde Park. (maybe I'll sleep in the garage when the new buyers aren't looking) So I'll probably be doing a lot of driving and missing my baby girl.

I guess this whole home selling thing is like one of my favorite African prverbs. "When you pray for rain you also pray for mud..."

Anyway, I'm done rambling for now...Love you all!

Sarah

2009-04-15T19:33:00.004-04:00

SPRINGTIME!!!!

Spring is here and mom and dad let me play outside when its warm... even if its raining. Check out my new walking skills with the awesome toy I got from Grandma M.

Easter Sunday came and I got all fancied up. I like to sit in my rocking chair, but I'm not quite sure why my parents put it in the front yard.

On the same day I got a basket full of goodies. Including a marshmallow thing that is called a peep! If you never tried one, I highly recommend it. I shoved the whole thing in my mouth it was soooooo gooooood. I couldn't sleep during my first naptime.

For some reason the peep seemed vaguely familiar.. .. as if I've seen one before...

2009-04-05T20:21:00.005-04:00

HOOORRAAAHHHH!!!!!

Yup. We got the house we wanted. Here is some preliminary pictures for all you folks who have yet to see them.

We are very excited. It comes with 10 acres of beautiful land and it is only 4 miles away from downtown Traverse City. To top it all off, we got it for below the price we had in our heads as the "we won't go any higher than this" price. All we have to do now is get inspection, find a mover, sell the Cleveland house and each sell a kidney to afford a down payment. Everything is going according to plan.

I wonder what color Adeline is going to pick for her room...

2009-03-22T15:35:00.002-04:00

Walkin'

2009-03-07T18:36:00.003-05:00

Adeline is getting bigger every day. She is such a little lady now. She will sit and "read" books for quite some time. Her great-grandma's rocking chair is the perfect spot. She is also getting very close to walking. She can stand on her own and do complex things while standing like looking at her tummy. But when it comes to taking steps she either insists on the moral support of one of mommy or daddy's fingers or she plops down and crawls.

2009-03-05T17:46:00.002-05:00

Well today is the day. This is the scene at our house.The ole broad is looking pretty good these days. Sarah and I have been pouring our hearts and souls into making here look that way. If you'd like to take a look at the listing, go to howardhanna.com and search for listings on Hyde Park Ave. We have about 4 months left until we move to Traverse City. Those of you who know me for more than 25 years (and that narrows it down to about 5 people who read this blog) know how I feel about the ole "For Sale" sign in the yard of my house. I feel I've gotten better over the years about dealing with such a powerful symbol of complete life change. It still holds trepidation for me, but it also shows the promise of a new life for my family and me. Adeline will have lots of open spaces to run around in (that's assuming she learns how) and Sarah and I can expand our gardens to our hearts content. So over all its a good symbol to me. As long as we can sell it. Karen, three is a much better number than two. Do you want to have a satillite home in Ohio?

2009-02-26T20:07:00.002-05:00

Funniest Daycare Thing Ever!!

Today when I went to pick up Adeline from daycare I caught the tail end of the funniest thing ever. A daycare fire drill. Mass chaos as you could imagine. toddlers who haven't been outside in oh say about 4 months all of a sudden in the parking lot. Aides trying to keep them all from running everywhere. But the cutest part was the infants. It turns out the protocol for emptying a day-care of all of it's infants is to load them all up into the biggest crib in the room and wheel it outside. Just try to imagine 5 almost toddlers peaking over the side of a crib watching all the "big kids" go nuts in the parking lot. Maybe that's what the octomom's family will look like in a few months...

By the way, in case anyone is keeping track Adeline is now 19lbs. She just got her one year check-up and vaccines on Monday. No Rubella for her!!!

2009-02-22T10:04:00.003-05:00

Adeline is 1 years old!!!

and yes, she does love cake for anyone who was wondering. Sarah and I are completely amazed when we think about how much she has changed in one year. Not to mention the fact that one year has gone by already. It seems like just last month she looked like this:
Now she's scooting around the house and calling us by our official titles: Ma ma and Ad da. (Da da still refers to the cat.) Speaking of the cat, Dela has definitely reached higher intellect that the cat. She has on more than one occasion successfully cornered the cat in an attempt to "play." Guinny has been a great cat in the respect that when cornered instead of fighting her way out she finds the alternative of a great leap of faith over Dela. This isn't easy for her as she has put on a lot of post baby weight, and she will rue the day that Dela gets fast enough reflexes to reach up when Guinny jumps.
Anywho, we had a delightful Dela-versary, filled with friends and family. We missed all who could not attend. Of the non-attenders, Grandma and Grandpa Mulder had the best reason of all not to attend. They were in Minnesota welcoming Dela's new cousin, Morgan Grace Grogg. Congratulations, Groggs!!!! and when are you starting a blog so that I can see more pictures?
Well Dela sends her best wishes to all and thanks to all who sent presents. To whomever sent the musical cube in the mail, she would like to know who you are. It came with no identification.
Love to all.

2009-02-02T18:30:00.003-05:00

I don't know how she did it but I think the pressure is on...

2009-01-27T22:46:00.002-05:00

Single Mom

Not really and I'm glad of it. joel is in lovely Napa valley this week living it up with the admin from Heights High. I heard from him this morning so I know he made it out safe despite having to set foot in Texas. I'm pretty sure after the airport insident of '01 they would shot him on sight and hang him from the gun rack with the 30/30 that brought him down. Just kidding... maybe

Adeline and I are hunkered down and expecting 5 inches of snow tonight and 5 more tomorrow. The weatherpeople around here are so melodramatic though, I'm pretty sure we'll only see 2 inches at the most.

She has been doing well but misses her daddy. She especially looks for him when it's time to get her giraffe and go to bed. She's growing up so fast. She now gets her teeth brushed every night which of course she doesn't understand but enjoys thanks to vast improvements in the taste of children's toothpaste.
We have a new list of favorite foods. Now on the menu we have:
of course chicken, bananas, carrots but also
waffles
cheese
edamame
alvocado (she really likes this)
tomatoes
cucumber
olives
pears
daddy's pasta
mac'n'cheese
chickpeas
snot

not on the menu:
mommy :-(

2009-01-19T21:54:00.007-05:00

For all of those who haven't been to the Two Loons' Lodge for a while... Here's what we've been working on.

The new dining room color and sans aquarium

Sarah painted the back staircase and the plant room

A new dinette in the eating nook

and new appliances

Dela works daily on a gianormous mess of molded plastic and stuffed animals
Her project is moving along the fastest.

2009-01-17T09:53:00.004-05:00

Random Rambles

OK so I've been a little negligent on the postings. I'm a busy guy. Especially when both my girls get afflicted with some kind of virus that makes them loose their lunch, or dinner, or snack, or whatever happens to be in them at the time. Now everyone is healthy again. Adeline is starting the transition to toddler. Yikes. Not only is she getting closer and closer to walking everyday (now she can stand briefly) but she also is developing the charming toddler trait of screaming when the slightest thing doesn't go her way. I guess that comes with the territory until she can communicate with words. She is starting to know what NO means. She is getting more picky when it comes to eating too. Before she was a gaping mouth that you could put anything in and it would happily go down. Now if she doesn't like it... of course a scream. Sarah and my lives are changing quicker than ever.
Our slowly but surely house flip is moving quicker these days. Sarah and I re-painted the dining room this weekend. It looks really sharp. Last weekend Kevin and I built a nice set of shelves in the master closet. I'm really happy with the results (Thanks Kevin). Now all I have to do in the master bedroom is to trim it out. While Kevin and I were doing that, Sarah painted the back stairwell. Sometimes its amazing how much you didn't realize how dingy something was until you put a new coat of paint on it. Next we tackle the back hall.
Well I guess I'd better wrap this post up with some random pictures. I would put a video here, since I got a reallllly nice video camera for Christmas (thanks dad) but I've found that now taking videos is so easy that I'm never satisfied with the results. The "I can get a better shot of that" idea causes me to delete most of what I film. I'll keep working on it.

The family Christmas at Greg and Jill's was wonderful.

Dad finally filled that prescription for stronger glasses.

Due to good presents...
Sarah's pressing cheese.
And I'm making pasta.Anyone is welcome for dinner at any time.

2008-12-24T09:20:00.002-05:00

Poopcicles

Adeline is more than 10 months old now and Joel and I have become accustomed to being parents. One of the chores that we have worked into our lives with baby is that of washing diapers. I don't even notice the extra loads anymore. It's just all very routine. Joel does his share too and to be honest I find stuffing and folding clean diapers in the evening kind of relaxing, the bright colors stacked on the couch in fluffy rows. However, anyone who is thinking about making cloth diapers part of your routine I have one new piece of advice for you:

Don't leave the used diapers from daycare in the car overnight when it's 4 degrees outside. The resulting diaper ice cubes are a challenge to un-stuff and wash. They will undoubtedly be covered in pee frost and filled with frozen poo which may sound like it would be less offensive but trust us. It's not.

2008-12-23T10:12:00.003-05:00

AN OPEN INVITATION

To Christmas Eve Dinner

Tomorrow Night 6pm

The Mulder House

Children of all ages welcome

2008-12-18T05:24:00.001-05:00

Dela at Dinner

Well the time has come to start giving Adeline real food. Last night we had Chicken and peas (sorry Karen if that offends you). Dela loved the chicken. There is no question about that. Turn the volume up on your computer to hear what I mean.

2008-12-14T12:57:00.003-05:00

The Holidays in Full Swing

It seems to me that the holidays rather snuck up on us this year. Maybe it's the baby, maybe the busy change in work maybe even the fact that it's about 50 degrees outside today. In any case Thanksgiving was delicious and is now long gone and we patiently await Christmas which we will be spending here in Cleveland. We are looking forward to seeing both sides of the family including grandparents that we don't often get a chance to hug the week after.
We put up our tree last weekend, it's not the best tree ever but it's pretty. We have a tradition when it comes to decorating the tree. Forget the eggnog we always break out a bottle of champagne. We put the lights on the tree first of course but then we fish through the ornaments and find the cork from last years bottle of champagne and hang that on the tree first. Then come all of the glittering homemade and story laden ornaments including a bulb we had as a wedding favor at our reception, a broken Bethlehem ornament Joel's parents brought him back from the West Bank. Due to a tree stabilization mishap in aught 4 it now just says Beth em. We finish the bottle of champagne in front of the fire and the last ornament to go on the tree is this year's cork. It's a great tradition but one that may leave our tree covered in cork by the time we are grandparents ourselves. Maybe we'll start stringing them together into garland....
Happy Holidays everyone! and an open invitation: Whether you celebrate or not you are welcome to our house on December 24th for a Christmas dinner. We will be in town and hope to share some of the holiday with our friends.

2008-11-25T13:13:00.002-05:00

Heading North

Tomorrow morning Joel and Adeline will be picking me up from Lakewood after my overnight shift and we will be driving North for Thanksgiving. It's Adeline's first, obviously, so we are very excited to spend it with the Vandenbergh/Hull clan. It will be a quick trip because I have to work on Sunday but I wanted to take a minute and wish all of our adored family and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving and to share some things that we are thankful for.

We are thankful that we are healthy and warm
We are thankful for our beautiful daughter
We are thankful for our family and friends here in Cleveland and around the world
We are thankful for our home and the food in our kitchen
We are thankful that we both have been blessed with jobs which allow us to make a difference in the lives of children and families
We are thankful for each other

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

2008-11-09T22:07:00.007-05:00

To Ponder

Why is champagne always better when it's enjoyed with friends? and blue?

Why do babies like to suck snot from their face?

How do babies always know the difference between the real remote and the crappy old one you've taken the batteries out of and given them to appease them??

2008-10-31T19:58:00.002-04:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

For Adeline's first Halloween we went reverse trick or treating. We visited a few friends on the street and handed out candy. No we did not throw her onto the ice but we did have to explain our outfits to a few people.
For those of you who are not hockey fans or from Michigan it is the tradition at a Red Wings game to throw an octopus onto the ice when the Wings are doing well or just need some motivation. It all started many years ago when a hockey team needed to win eight games to win the Stanley cup. A seafood store owner in Detroit decided an octopus on the ice would be the perfect "rally call" and the rest is very stinky and messy history.

2008-10-30T18:28:00.004-04:00

I dunno. I guess coming from a family who are both environmentalist and who both love cultures from all over the world, one being an educator, one being a healer, we feel comparing the good points makes the decision for us.

Get out an vote this Tuesday.

2008-10-27T17:21:00.004-04:00

In Bloom

I am proud to announce that after growing orchids for more than 5 years with plenty of new growth but never a flower I now have one orchid in bloom (my phalenopsis) and 2 more in "spike" which will bloom soon.

In addition the Hibiscus hasn't stopped blooming since August and I even have flowers on my african violet. I am very good at keeping plants alive and getting them to grow but I have never been able to get anything to bloom. I don't know what's going on but I love it!

OK so it bloomed sideways. I'm not picky!

ps thank you to my wonderfully greenthumbed husband for teaching me everything I know.

2008-10-19T08:13:00.002-04:00

8 MONTHS!!!!!

How do you like me now?

2008-10-14T22:55:00.003-04:00

More Boston

The last post was added in a hurry. Now it's the weekend and I thought I'd add a little more about our adventure to Boston. I also added some to the movie. We had a great time. Dela made her first plane trip with ease. She fussed a little on the way out there, but slept for the entire plane ride on the way home. Her battle with Lob-lob must have worn her out. Sarah enjoyed many conference talks about various medical things and Adeline and I enjoyed the town. One day Dela and I went to the Boston community gardens right near Fenway Park. I was really neat to see all those small garden plots competing to look their best. As a whole family we went down to the New England Aquarium and watched lots of sea life doing their thing. Then we walked next door to Local Sea Food and ate lots of sea life. On Saturday we rented a Cadillac. (Well actually we rented a "Ford Aveo or similar" but the car company screwed up our reservation and only had a nice souped up Caddie for us.) So we took our pimped ride up to Concord, NH to see our friends Sean and Sadie. They moved out there this summer from Ohio, and we miss them already. They are expecting their first little boy on Halloween. Unfortunately we forgot the camera when we went up their. All in all we had a great time in Boston. One thing we didn't anticipate is with a little kid along for the ride, you can't leave your hotel room after she goes to bed...7 pm. So next time we go up, Dela's going to visit some grandparents, so Sarah and I can check out Boston's night life.

2008-09-24T17:30:00.004-04:00

Hi! Look at me in my basket with my friends!! I'm having so much fun.

Mommmmmmyyyy I don't want any of my friends from school to see you kiss me!

What????? I'm teething. I'm allowed....

Here's proof. You can see my little tooth in this shot.

2008-09-13T14:55:00.003-04:00

Rainy weekend

It's been a pretty quiet week in the Mulder house. Adeline has adapted to sleeping without a pacifier though every once in a while we'll walk past one in the house and her hand will shoot out at it. I think she secretly wishes for elasto-arms. Guinness is glad there is no such thing. Adeline is also putting up her first tooth. You can barely see the little white point sticking out of her lower gum. Poor thing. She has forgotten how to eat solid food and all she wants to do is nurse and chew on a teething ring. We can't keep them cold long enough.

The school year is in full swing for Joel and I am counting down my chief days. October 20th is my first day as not a chief. I can't wait. In the mean time I submitted my proposal to completely overhaul the residency program to my boss. I mean scrap the whole curriculum and start over. He's excited about it and now I have to stall him so that none of it happens before I'm long gone. They can blame all the change on me once I'm gone... I don't mind.

In similar news I signed my contract for my Job starting next summer in Traverse City. We'll miss Cleveland, esp. the people here.... Ya'll know who you are :-(

Our house is being painted and we got new windows for the front of the house. Both updates are badly needed and the paint job especially is long overdue. We'll post some pics when it is done.

I posted new pictures on our Shutterfly account in response to a Grandparent uprising. Enjoy!

2008-09-05T07:59:00.002-04:00

Last March of the Pacifiers

On Wednesday we decided it was time to get rid of the pacifier. Adeline is 6 months old now and there is no reason why she should still have it. In my heart I know it will be easier to get rid of now than in another 6 months. So.....

Wednesday night we put her down without it. She cried for about 45 minutes like she did when we first started with the bedtime routine. But she fell asleep with only a few visits from mom and dad to tell her everything was OK. She slept the rest of the night and only woke twice for a few minutes at a time.

THEN we took her to day care. Joel dropped her off sans pacifier but since miss Bella doesn't come in until 8 Joel didn't get to tell her we were weaning. Long story short when Joel picked up Dela at 4 she had a brand new Winnie the Poo pacifier that the ladies from daycare had gone out and bought her. They felt bad that Adeline's mom and dad could be so mean and had forgotten one for the day. She apparently had the biggest "I-fooled-you" smile on her face we have seen yet.

Needless to say we had to start over last night but it wasn't as bad. She only cried for about 15 minutes and slept through the whole night with only one squeal around 1am.

I personally feel bad for denying Adeline of her one guilty pleasure while she's just ramping up to teething and when we were in the book store with her Wednesday we got her a monkey puppet which she LOVES. It's like the kitty but it lets her yank on it's tail and put it in her mouth.

We named it Paci.

2008-08-31T00:30:00.002-04:00

Here is a compilation of a typical Dela day

2008-08-18T12:14:00.004-04:00

....We Made Her For The World

Well the day has finally come. Adeline had her first day at Ghettocare today. It's actually The Cleveland Heights Educare but I have always called it by the first name, even before we had Dela. I joke because the outside looks like a lock-down high security building but it's a very nice daycare with bright clean rooms and friendly staff, good ratios and all the right activities. Adeline's "teacher" is Isabella who is kind of like an elderly Romanian Merry Poppins. Very sweet.

I know that we are very lucky to have put off daycare for 6 months. We certainly could not have done it without my mother and Joel's mother both of whom are saints for pitching in 3 or more weeks to watch Adeline. We are eternally greatful for them. But time has flown and here we are.

I couldn't actually be the one to drop Adeline off. I would have started crying like I did all last night. Instead I helped pack her up, wrote her name in permanent marker in all of her diapers, put together a care bag with all the things a baby might need, kissed her and watched as Joel and Adeline cheerfully marched down the street in the stroller. She smiled a lot and I wonder if she wondered why she was going for a stroller ride so early in the morning. Joel assures me that Dela handled the drop off well and was very interested in all the new people and toys. Still I can't wait to see her when I get home from work today.

It's not that I think daycare is a bad thing. It's actually really good for kids to play with other children, learn all about sharing and rules not to mention not being the center of the universe for a few hours each day. The trade off is the snot nose. (Which Joel has vowed Adeline will never have...) Still it is a hard transition as many of you know. God bless my wonderful husband for helping me through it. Last night I was all blubbering about being a bad mom and wishing I could quit my job and career. Joel made me feel better and said something that I've been repeating to myself all day to get me through. He said "She is a precious baby but we didn't make her just for us. We made her for the world and now we have to share". I love them both so much!

So now I think I should share my Baby Bill of Rights. These are things that I believe all babies are entitled to. Let me know what you think.

1. A baby is entitled to be loved unconditionally by both parents and as many grandparents as possible.

2. A baby has the right to be healthy and to the privileges available to make that happen including vaccines, car seats, vigilant parents etc.

3. A baby has the right to a complete meltdown after 5 hours in a car or the 5th pass between strangers.

4. A baby has the right to a routine and a safe, quiet place to sleep every night.

5. A baby has a right to his/her mother's breast milk whenever and wherever they please as well as all of the benefits and privileges included therein.

6. A baby has the right to be taken outside and to new places to explore his/her world through touch, sound, smell, sight and occasionally even taste.

7. A baby has the right to be held by their mother if they are in pain.

8. A baby has the right to an advocate at home, at daycare and at the doctor's office.

9. A baby has the right to a clean diaper and a regular bath.

10. A baby has the right to laugh, play, learn and love as they please.

2008-08-13T16:03:00.016-04:00

What an Adventure!!!

Dela has been having the time of her life. First, Nana and Grampa Bo come from Michigan to visit for the weekend. Then the next weekend we drive to Starved Rock State Park on the Illinois River for another Mulder Family Adventure. Having grandparents around two weekends in a row can really spoil a girl, but Dela doesn't seem to mind.
She had a grand adventure. She got to see caves for the first time, and even go inside them... with a little help from dad and Tyler. We had a good game of where's the Adeline.
And long talks during hikes. But the best thing was all the cousins. Nathan is a little behind, so there are no cousins on the Hull side. Ellen, Laura, Jared, Tyler, and Ben were all very happy to see Adeline. This was not the first time they met Adeline, but it is the first time they were all together at once. Ellen and Laura of course are thrilled that Adeline has made the ratio of girl cousins to boy cousins equal.

The boys really liked Adeline too however... especially. The first thing he would say upon entering the room was, "Where's Baby Adeline?" He was really good with her. We all had a really good time. There was also a water park which we didn't get any picture in (if any other Mulders have pictures, we'd love a copy) that Dela loved. She splashed in the kiddie pool and grabbed at the waterfalls. Unfortunately, she would on occasion try to lick the water and ended up with a face full. That wasn't as fun.
All in all, all had a good time. Another successful Mulder Family Adventure has come to pass.

2008-08-08T12:32:00.012-04:00

Dela's First Family Adventure!!

Yes, it's that time of year again for the Mulder Family Adventure. We are really looking forward to it, since this will be Adeline's first one. It's hard to believe she's almost 6 months old already. As you can see, she is quite the happy little kid.She is also a big advocate for A.I.D.S. relief in Africa, as you can see by her "Red Campaign" outfit. She is eating solid foods now and enjoys beans, bananas (see previous post) and carrots. For carrots she has decided to go into a little more artistic media of color accented black and white.

Note the drama in her eyes... and on her face.

Playing has also become a lot more enjoyable, since Dela has figured out how to sit on her own. She is obviously very proud of that. That will come in handy on the Family Adventure which we are leaving for today. After that, Dela's next big excitement is the start of football season...
I think we need to have a talk with her about loyalties.

"Hey, where's the remote?"

2008-08-04T16:10:00.004-04:00

Bananas

As many of you know Joel (and I) have this thing against bananas. They are bad for the environment, one of the most genetically modified plants you can buy, (ever see a seed in your banana), they are economically devastating to parts of central america and yes they even have been known to fund terrorism in the form of rebel guerrillas.

BUT:

While at Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) this weekend we found an alternative source of bananas. There is a group in Costa Rica that uses banana farming to teach sustainable agriculture to local people. The Earth brand pays them fair wages and doesn't destroy their land. So now we can have bananas. I would also encourage any of you who shop at all at Whole Fools to consider buying these rather than from Dole, Delmonte or Chiquita.

Check it out.
http://www.earth-brand.org/social.php

The best part is Dela can now have bananas with her homemade string bean baby food and rice cereal. Yes I'm that mother......

2008-07-25T10:36:00.003-04:00

Toys Rule!!

Here's a clip of Adeline in her new Exersaucer that we got from a friend. I thought it would make a good Delafix for you grandparents out there who don't get to see her as much as grandparents would want.

**** Warning: this video contains scenes of graphic cuteness****

2008-07-18T21:56:00.002-04:00

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 egg beaten
1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon vanilla
(combine in large bowl)
1 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Combine in separate small bowl and blend into liquid mixture
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
12 oz chocolate chips

Stir these into other ingredients, mix well, drop onto baking sheet like every other cookie you've ever made.
Bake @ 350 degrees 10-15 minutes

2008-07-15T19:57:00.000-04:00

BEETS!!!

What does one do with beets?

2008-07-14T13:51:00.006-04:00

A LA CUISINE!!!

This week's secret ingredient is cabbage!!

For those of you who are thoroughly confused let me take a step back and explain.

The Hatgas' and the Mulders have joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) group. Every Tuesday we walk down to Coventry and pick-up our share of veggies for the week. The great part about a CSA is that you don't always know what you are going to get. This week we got potatoes, scallions, yellow squash, zucchini, radishes a pint of blackberries and, you guessed it, a head of cabbage.

The 4 of us decided that it would be fun to take the craziest ingredient in the bag and have a cook off the following weekend using that ingredient, Iron Chef style. (I'm not going to explain that show to you but it's worth checking out sometime especially if you've never thought about turning raw blue footed chicken into ice cream)

Last night was battle cabbage. It was an interesting meal. We started with a cabbage and potato soup that Joel made (Irish) Then continued on to my favorite; Kelly's Cabbage Stir fry with shrimp (Chinese) next my Cabbage Tikkis with yellow squash Chutney (Indian) and finished with Kevin's Cabbage, bacon, barbecue pancake (Japanese). I would call all of them a success but in the end my Tikki's took home the prize. It was a lot of fun and it was a great chance to learn how to cook with a vegetable that I've never taken a second look at in the grocery store. I always thought it was for sauerkraut and coleslaw and I've never been a fan of either. I'm hoping that the next ingredient is just as challenging. Maybe some Bok choi.

In the meantime here are a few things we all learned about cabbage:

1) It gets everywhere
2) It does not freeze well

3) 1 head of cabbage will give you about 6 cups of shredded green stuff.

4) It doesn't go as well with Bacon as it does with shrimp.

5) Most Cabbage recipes also call for onions

6) It's not just for green Jell-o anymore!!!!

Adeline recommends the alligator.

2008-07-08T21:17:00.004-04:00

A Trip North for the 4th

It was a long weekend but as always worth the trip. Joel, Dela and I drove North to the farm/lake last Thursday and spent a long weekend visiting with aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandparents and great-grandparents. Adeline did great. She was tired by the end and she is still catching up on sleep but we couldn't ask for a better baby.

As always when we head back to Michigan we are reminded of all the wonderful things that wait for us in "pure" Michigan and the reasons why, though Cleveland has a lot to offer, we feel the need to raise Dela there. Of course there is the "proximity to family" but beyond that there are a few less tangible reasons. Here are two, I have many...

The sunrise. When we stay at the farm, one of the things that I notice is the sunrise. It sounds silly and even a little cliche but it took me 4 years of living in the city to realize that I had missed over a thousand sunrises. Not that the sun doesn't rise in Ohio (though some maize and blue fans may suggest it) but it is obscured by row after row of house after house, building after building and instead you wake with the sense that the sun is up or perhaps, if you are lucky and travel East in the morning, you may steal a glimpse of it rising over buildings, a 5 lane road paving the way. I have sorely missed the moment that, looking out to the East, you can see the sun rise over the horizon obscured by nothing but the arc of the earth. At sunset in Cleveland you never get to see the shadow of a tree stretch on for what seems like an infinity before disappearing altogether into the shade. In the same way are lost the moonrise and the moonset.

The stars. I can count the stars in the city and within 40 miles of it. In Northern Michigan on a clear night there are more stars than dark sky. You can barely make out the constellations not because they are dim but because all the stars in between are so bright. You can see the Milky Way and sometimes the Northern lights. I want Dela to grow up knowing what a night sky should look like.

To even it out I feel i should add one reason why staying in Ohio wouldn't be all bad. The drivers. Sure when you get off the expressway and onto Chippewa Lake Road everyone waves at everyone else regardless of familiarity. It's just how it's done. However, once you hit an expressway, that is to say I-96 and South, you get the Michigan ("We invented 'em, we built 'em, we'll drive 'em into the ground") driver. This said, on this trip, I found myself as the "quintessential Michigan Driver" you have heard me talk about before. This is because at our first pit stop on the way home I opened the back door to get Adeline out to stretch and two spent shotgun shells fell to the pavement. Anyone who can help me figure out how they got in my truck will be rewarded.

2008-06-29T10:03:00.005-04:00

Where have the Mulders been??

good question but if you had this at home would you be able to put it down and blog???

So here is a brief run down of our last month or so.

1. I was offered a job in Traverse City. We're moving next June.

2. Joel had his first Father's Day. Dela got him a kiddy pool. Fun ensued....

3. I've taken up cheese making, inspired by some friends of ours. So far I've made queso blanco, mozerella and ricotta. They all turned out pretty well.

4. Tim Russert Died. We are very sad. GGRRR Nachos GRRRR Football GRRR GOP. I don't know how we're going to make it through this year's presidential elections.

5. Joel is now Mr. Mom. He and Adeline have been spending some good quality time together while I'm at work.

6. We've both finished reading World War Z and feel pretty confident I could survive the Zombie wars. Sorry Kevin and Holly you aren't getting your Machete back. Now I'm on to the Omnivore's Dilemma. Adeline has taken to her nighttime story. She tries to reach for the pictures and grab the words. Curious george is covered in drool.

7. Adeline had her 4 month check up. She now weighs about 13# 7oz and is growing more every day.

8. Our garden was decimated not by the usual suspects like deer, rabbits and slugs but by quarter sized hail.

9. The new residents start on Tuesday as does my 2nd tenure as chief. God save us all.

10. We're heading up to the farm this weekend to show off the baby and to get a little R&R. We'll see many of you soon.

2008-05-27T21:22:00.008-04:00

Memorial Day Weekend
through the eyes of a three month old

"What the...."

"I don't know what it is daddy, but it's big!"

"Nana does this hat make my head look small?"

"oohhhh bubbles...."

"Mommy don't leave me with the monkeys!!"

"What the....."

"Mommy, what is daddy doing???"

"It's NOT MY FAULT!!"

"Kelly made me do it.."
or
"Mommy I said don't leave me with the monkeys!!!"

"Life's pretty good....."

"....But it's bed time"

2008-05-16T11:18:00.002-04:00

STUCK

So Wednesday afternoon I came to work after a morning interview at Avon. I parked on the roof of the parking garage and on the way out my arms were full with breast pump, purse, box of free samples and a coffee mug so I took the elevator. I NEVER take the elevator. NEVER.
Anyway I got stuck in the elevator on the 6th floor. I hit the alarm button. It made a lot of noise and I heard people outside say "I wonder what that noise is?" I yelled, I screamed, I jumped up and down. I used the little phone to call the cops who at first didn't answer and then didn't come and finally the door just opened and I got out.
I am never taking the elevator again.

S

2008-05-12T21:16:00.007-04:00

A weekend trip

Last Wednesday the Mulder crew took another trip North. This time for an interview in Traverse City better known in some circles as Voldemort City where good friends are separated by state lines and big 10 (11) rivalries. The trip up went well. Adeline slept the whole way. We always know when we hit Michigan when we are passed by the quintessential Michigan vehicle on 23 North. Last time it was a Chevy pick-up doing about 90 with a NRA sticker in the back window, a W sticker on the tailgate and a can of Budlight on the bumper. (No Joke) This time it was a Ford mini-van with a bumpersticker that read 'welcome to Michigan speed-limit: Bat out of Hell" At any rate it was kind of nice to be around people who didn't laugh when I used my right hand to describe where I had grown up.
The interview went well and I'm waiting to hear one way or the other if I got the job. it would be nice to be back in Michigan but we've got a pretty good thing going here in Cleveland as well.

While in traverse City we took several walks along the lake and board walk. We went wine tasting in the Leelanau penninsula, drove up to old mission so that Dela could cross the 45 for the first time which is a right of passage only slightly less important than making it south of the Equator before she turns 18. She also took her first dip in a pool. We think she liked it but who can really tell?
Now we are back in Cleveland. Nana is with us for 3 weeks to watch Adeline during the day. Again we are eternally greatful for the wonderful family we have. Dela doesn't know it yet but she is one lucky girl....
Speaking of which I got my first mother's day card this weekend. It was signed with an outline of Adelines little hand and I found it next to her with a tin of chocolate covered almonds on Mother's Day morning when I went to check on her. She was lying in bed with the biggest grin on her face. It was as if she knew her daddy had helped her with her first mother's day present for me! We love her so....

2008-05-03T11:17:00.006-04:00

May at last

Well life in Cleveland Heights is pretty good. Spring is here, the tulips are past prime and the lilacs are now in full bloom. Adeline is getting cuter by the day if that is at all possible and yesterday she had to say "Bye-bye for now grandma Mulder". We are eternally greatful for the time she spent with us and we know in our hearts that Adeline will miss her. While Grandma took care of Dela, grandpa prepped and painted the basement. No small feat for anyone who has seen our basement!!

This week I get to stay home and love my baby. It will be a wonderful break from the residency office. (Why can't people just do what they are supposed to do?) and this coming weekend the three of us are treking up to Traverse City for a job interview with a nice private practice up there. (Can anyone say cherry wine??) Joel and I are excited about the possibility of getting back to Michigan but sad that we might be leaving Cleveland. Not so much Cleveland it's self (In what other city in the world would someone dare to saw off the top of a parking meter during rush hour?) but the great friends we've met here. It's all very up in the air and who knows if I'll even like the practice or if they will like me.

Sorry girls but I'm going to miss book club this week because of our trip north. I did like the book(I should say I do like the book 'cause I have about 50 pages to go) Good choice guys!

Today it's raining and Joel has been moving houseplants outside for an hour now. I'm not sure how but they seemed to multiply over the winter. We usually have at least a few fatalities but this year all the plants seem to have made it. Check out the photo albums. I'm going to post some more pics and everyone keep in touch! Even though we've been home bodies lately we love you all!

Sarah

2008-04-20T16:06:00.007-04:00

Grandma and Me

Well Joel's mom has been with us for a week now and we've all gotten into a pretty good routine. Now that I'm back to work Carole and Dela are home alone during the day. Apparently the first morning was a little rough and grandma had to trick Adeline into taking a bottle but since then they have gotten used to each other and it has been running a lot smoother, or so I'm told. I believe it though, Dela seems to be getting bigger every day.
Now Adeline has taken to her grandmother as if she has been here forever, greeting her in the morning with a smile and baby coos . It's very cute. It has been great having her around. Dela loves her and I know she is being taken care of with as much love and patience as Joel and I could offer ourselves with the added touch only a grandma can give.
Yesterday our neighbor Eef threw Dela a welcome to the world party for the neighborhood in traditional Dutch fashion complete with Muisjes. This is Dutch for "little mice" and involves spreading a cracker with butter and then sprinkling candy covered aniseed over them and eating them. It was surprisingly good. All the neighbors came over and we all sat on the front porch and enjoyed the 75 degree Cleveland Spring day. Dela napped through a lot of it and I'm sure she had no idea that the fuss was all in her name but non the less it was a great way to introduce her formally to the neighborhood.

I can't believe that she is 2 months old now and would you believe that she slept though the night on Friday night??!! It probably won't happen again for a while but Joel and I did appreciate it.
This week Grandpa Mulder is coming in from Chicago on Tuesday, our friends Kevin and Kelly get the keys to their house on Thursday (meaning Joel and I will be up late TPing that night) and I have a job interview on Friday. Wish us all luck and safe travels!!

2008-04-03T12:00:00.006-04:00

A Few Moments To Catch Up

Well it's been a few weeks but never fear, we are alive and well.
Over Easter weekend Adeline, Joel and I went on our first extended trip. We headed North to Michigan to introduce our little angel to several family members and friends that she wanted to meet. All in all it was a good trip but by the end Dela was very cranky and wanted nothing more than to be at home so I'm afraid that the last few people to meet her, (Namely her uncle Greg, Aunt Jill and her cousins Ellen, Laura and Jared) met Adelines alter ego Cry-Face, Crap-Pants.

This week it seems Adeline learns a new trick every day. She can hold her head up for quite a while and with some help can prop herself on her arms. She is making a lot of fun noises like "Agoo" and "auug" She smiles a lot and has really taken well to her bedtime routine.

Here's Adeline with her Great-Nana and her Great Grandpa Grevengoed.

Tonight she and Daddy get to do the bed time routine by themselves because Mommy is going to her book club meeting. This month we read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. It was a great book written from the perspective of a 15 year old with autism. I recommend it to anyone who might have any interest in what goes on in the mind of someone with an autism spectrum disorder. It is a far more accurate description than anything you will see on Good Morning America or CNN.

I've added a new album so click on "Our Albums" on the right of this page to see a lot more pics from our weekend.

Oh and next time you see Joel just ask him.........

2008-03-20T14:59:00.004-04:00

Adventures in Motherhood
or
The Cloth Diaper Diaries

So Adeline is one month old now. I can't believe that the time is flying by so fast. She is growing bigger every day and it won't be long before spring is here and we can play outside in the grass. For about two weeks now our little one has been in cloth diapers. People have called Joel and I crazy (For many things, the cloth diapers are just one of the most recent adventures to earn us this title) but I think it's working out very well.
For those of you who are picturing the folding, pinning and layering that used to encompass cloth diapers, fear not. The cloth diapers of late are all in one, waterproof, velcro, fleece and elastic wonders that could very well be the works of NASA engineers (or stay at home moms). Joel and I have gotten very good with them and I think Dela even prefers them over the rough plastic things even if the Bumgenius diapers make her butt look big. (Move over J. Lo)
Other than the rainbow of colors INSIDE Dela's diaper my life is pretty dull at the moment. A highlight on my week is having made it to the gym a few times and running again. That said I live for every new development in my little girl no matter how small. For example, she is holding her head up on her own and I swear she is even smiling every once in a while. She has developed a liking for baths and last night slept a full 5 hours. She likes rattley, bright, music singing toys and tummy time (mainly being on mommy or daddy's tummy)

This weekend we are taking our first road trip to Michigan to visit grandparents, great grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. Wish us luck!

Oh and if you like you can check out the link below. Click on the Spring 2008 issue. If you scroll down to the 4th page you'll find an article I wrote for the American Academy of Pediatrics Resident Report about my trip to Africa last winter. Enjoy!

http://www.aap.org/sections/ypn/r/newsletters/

2008-03-15T18:02:00.003-04:00

A fine nearly spring day

Well March is half way over and we are settling into a "routine" here at the lodge. Joel is back at work so he scoots out early in the morning. Dela and I get up soon there after and spend the rest of the day in a cycle that goes something like this

Eat-poop-cry-change-cry-eat-sleep-poop

She is a lot more awake now and is starting to interact a little more. She loves the play mat her grandma Mulder got her for Christmas and goes between that, her rocker chair and mommy's arms. Last weekend she meet her uncles Nathan and David who made it to Cleveland despite 20 inches of snow fall that weekend. They ended up staying a day longer than expected and left with Nana Cindy on Sunday morning after she beat the lot of them in a heated poker game. It's a good thing it was just chips at stake. our father may be the master chess player but mom could be on the poker tours in Vegas.

It was wonderful having Nana Cindy around for a week and I don't know how new moms ever do this without supportive family and patient helpful husbands. I often find myself pondering how single moms and teen mothers ever manage....

Today we put together our new stroller (Thank you Nana) and got out of the house. It was nearly 50 degrees today despite all the snow still left on the ground. We went around the block and through Cain Park. Adeline slept for most of the trip but I'm pretty sure she enjoyed herself despite that. Later while Joel and Dela finished her nap I finally made it to the gym and put a few miles in on the treadmill. Nothing has ever felt so good even if my body has forgotten what a crunch is.

Anyway, We hope to hear from you all soon. Be sure to check out our pics on Shutterfly!

Love you All!

Sarah

2008-02-22T10:45:00.015-05:00

We're home!!!

I am proud to e-announce the arrival of Adeline Emma into our lives. This was quite an adventure. One that I will need to forget somewhat by the time we consider our second child. Adeline didn't come easy. We avoided a c-section, but we had almost every other complication available. Before the little girl came out she decided (with no consult from mom or dad) that it would be good to wrap her umbilical cord around her neck and then head toward the birth canal sideways. I think if she had the chance to reconsider this choice, she would. She did ponder the options for quite some time, since she had about 26 hours after Sarah's water broke to think about it before she was born. As a result we utilized every tool imaginable to get the gorgeous little one into this world. Needless to say there were some red flags during delivery that caused Dela to stay the first few days of here life in the intensive care unit. After that she was given a clean bill of health. Bo and Cindy came early, since it was their first grandchild and their only princess, and got to see Adeline right after delivery. Look how proud the new grandparents are.

Grandma and grandpa Mulder came the next day and reveled in the amazing beauty that is Adeline. As you can see, Dela was well liked by all, and it didn't take long before she was rolling with peeps of her own. She does know, however, that peeps are peeps but there is nothing like family. Yesterday the whole family came home and dad proved that he could take a sleeping baby and put her in a 5 point harness car seat with out even waking her. Dad is quickly developing a new skill set.

Today is Friday and all the grandparents are gone... having filled themselves on grandparental love. Now it's just the immediate loons left and the papa loon is left taking care of his two girls. They are using up some well earned nap times.

2008-02-17T12:16:00.005-05:00

The Weekend

Well here we are. Nearly a week late and no sign of Adeline yet. For having very punctual parents this girl is taking her sweet time!

To pass the time yesterday Joel and I picked up where we had left off in our quest for a new car worthy enough to replace the Trusty, Rusty Taurus. (I only say trusty because I don't want to hurt the old girl's feelings, she was liable to call it quits for good at any moment.)
We had been looking at several hybrid cars and had wanted to check out the Ford Escape Hybrid. The only problem with that was that they don't make a lot of them and on the off chance that they show up at dealerships they disappear quickly for prices well above MSRP. I don't know about you all but I kind of wanted to drive one before committing to buying one and waiting 6 months on a list for one to show up didn't exactly appeal to me.

So yesterday we did some calling around and found a dealership that happened to have a 2008 on the lot. The only catch was that it was used. Some Dude bought it about 2 months ago put 800 miles on it and decided he wanted something with a little more power so he traded it in a few days ago. His loss... long story short Joel and I now own a slightly used 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. It's a ton of fun to drive. When you pull to a stop you hear nothing. It sounds like you've stalled out. It's got more umph than we were expecting and certainly more than either car we owned before and you can't beat 34 mpg for an SUV.

So here are a few interesting points worth mentioning.

1. Somewhere along the line my Taurus dropped in value to $400 in the Kelly Blue Book. They gave us $500 for her because last Christmas my wonderful husband put a new stereo with a CD player in it for me. That means that a full 20% of my car's value was in the $99 sound system.

2. Why are American car companies shutting down factories and laying people off yet they have a highly advertised model SUV that they can't keep in stock? Can't they convert some of those plants to produce a car in high demand?

3. In all of our research we found a pretty cool website you should check out if your ADD has kicked in. Its www.fueleconomy.gov and you can go there and figure out the carbon footprint and actual fuel economy of any vehicle you are thinking about buying or may own already.

4. Joel is not a negotiator. I think he was a little scared that I was going to call someone a thief and walk away. (A trick that works great if you are ever trying to buy something in a market on Zanzibar) He negotiated keyless entry for us. I got us 10% off the asking price.

5. Some of you may remember the first Ford Escape that Joel and I drove. It was a rental on our honeymoon and we sunk it in a swamp in the middle of a crocadile reserve in Belize. The Pic below is from when
A. the vehicle was still upright and not filled with swamp water and
B. I still thought it was funny.

Needless to say we got over our deep seeded fear of the smallest of the Ford SUVs and welcome the newest member of the family with excitement and a little saddness for the loss of a close, blue, rusted out, friend. At least until the baby comes........

Sarah

2008-02-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

OK so its been quite some time since the last blog. We've been a little busy. It's been nine months of get ready get ready, and now we're ready and all we have to do is wait. Today is the official due date. But there is still no sign of Dela. Sarah is still carrying around this belly. And as you can see, I put up the traditional block wooden letters to spell Dela's name. We're very happy how the nursery turned out. It's a warm cozy little place for our little one. I also have another picture of Dela around here somewhere... lemme see... its from an ultrasound about a month ago... here it is. Isn't she cute. Its hard to believe that in just a few days I'm going to be a dad. I guess I'm still in a little bit of denial. I still feel too young to be a dad, but we went to a birthday party a few nights back and there were a lot of parents there. Most of which were younger than me. In fact there was only one older than me. So maybe its time. I mean after all, I have put together a woodshop, a backyard fire pit, and now a nursery. I've developed a mountain's worth of patience (high school teacher), an off beat sense of humor and a taste for beer. I now have the ability to annoy my wife with out even trying, embarrass her with a single comment and make her laugh with just a look, which I can only imaging will transfer to the daughter. What more does a dad need? This is not a rhetorical question. You dad's out there... please comment. What more does a dad need? We'll keep you all posted for when the little one makes her appearance. Love to you all.

-Loons

2007-11-05T16:19:00.000-05:00

So here is another update. Sarah and I still seem to have very little time for leisurely activities such as updating a blog. I can only assume that we will have more free time once the baby arrives. Sarah is growing quite a good little belly. Here is a succession of shots for all of those who can not make it to see the real thing at this time.What a cutie. The nursery is progressing nicely. Mom and dad Mulder came down last weekend and helped me hang drywall and start the mudding. It was a great help!! Sarah and I feel that this coming weekend, we will be able to paint the nursery. I guess that means that we will have to come up with colors this week. We are thinking red black and purple stripes. That is not set in stone yet though. Little "Foxey" is not much help in the decision making. All she can do at this point is kick, but she never does it in response to a question about room color. You'd think she would care a little more about her own room. I have been mudding the room ever since dad Mulder left and I've learned a few things. 1. Mud is cheap... buy as much as you need, then buy some more. 2. Always work your mud. It comes out of the bucket with lots of bubbles. Things will work more smoothly if you slap it around a bit first (insert crude joke here). 3. The bigger the blade, the broader the stroke. 4. In this case, pressure is a good thing. 5. There is great beauty in the phrase, "you're in a closet... don't try so hard." In all reality, if the drywall ends up looking like a perfect, smooth wall then it won't match the rest of the house. In other news, we are trying to narrow the search of baby names down, but it is still going rough. I am quite disappointed in the lack of participation in the baby name contest on this blog. Do I have to up the stakes. Who ever comes up with the winning name gets a free month of spending time with "Foxy" at their house (while Joel and Sarah go on a cruise)

2007-10-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

Well see??!!! We finally have something that is worth writing about. The ultra sound we had was truly amazing. We could see little hands and feet, movement and thumb sucking. Our child looks absolutely beautiful. Here's a peak. Look at that cute little merger of loons. Yeah, we found out what sex our child is, and no we're not telling you. Everything in the ultrasound looked good. The only thing out of the ordinary that the sonographer mentioned is that our child has very long fingers. Which grandparent wants to buy Fox a piano? Sarah is doing very well. She is starting to have difficulty dealing with her belly sticking out in front of her. She has even mentioned that it feels kinda like its not even a part of her, just something she's got to carry around. I on the other hand have it worse because my side of the bed is getting smaller and smaller. With her belly and her 23 pillows I feel the pressure to finish our new bedroom so that I can stay in the guest room.
In other news, I finished my marathon last weekend. I felt really good about it and only hobbled around for two days afterwards. My official time was 3:33:04. Not bad for my first one. I got a picture off the marathon website. Don't tell anyone. If you want to see more, just go to akronmarathon.com and click the "preview and order pictures" button on the right. search for bib number 387. It was really fun running to the next point where I could see my wife cheering me on. I don't think it will be my last marathon, but it will be my only one for a while. I'm giving myself plenty of time to lick my wounds.
Until the next time we have something interesting to blog about.
-Ohio Mulders

2007-07-11T17:33:00.001-04:00

And now for a pleasant stroll through the Mulder Gardens. Despite the lack of rain, there is much beauty in the Mulder Gardens this time of year. The pond is full of life including two goldfish that showed up out of nowhere last summer and lived under the ice this winter.
Many things are sprouting new. On the left you see Pepe's Mango tree. It was planted in honor of Pepe's creation and seems to be growing faster than Pepe. Very exciting news it that after being planted 6 months ago, the Baobab seed that I received in my stocking finally sprouted. These trees grow huge. In about 500 years I can build a house out of it. So far it's only four leaves big.
The avocado that Sarah planted when we started dating is doing very well. I fear that after this summer, I will not be able to fit him in the house anymore. He lives happily next to the garage. Elsewhere in the garden things are blooming all around. We have a few orange day lilies, some fantastic purple Pickerel weed in the pond as well as a delicious apricot water lily that blooms constantly. Even the Venus Flytraps in the bog are flowering. It's a wonderful sight. There is trouble in paradise however...

The trouble lies in the vegetable garden and surrounding gardens. These gardens are at the back of the yard quite a ways from the house, so I can't keep a close eye on them. Imagine my horror when I came out to find my peppers pilfered. They were the first to go. The plants were eaten down to just sticks with some peppers hanging on them. Now I had some raccoon problems in previous times, but they had never gone after pepper plants. I was baffled. Later I noticed that every single flower bud was eaten off of the day lilies in the back. No sea of orange along our back fence this year. A few days later the leaves from the cucumber and acorn squash were disappearing. Then came the last straw. My big beautiful zucchini was devoured. I was (and am) furious.
The culprit turned out to be quite amazing. I knew that I would not be deemed credible by the majority of my family, so I took photographic proof. Yup... DEER!! You read correctly. Urban deer tough enough to go after peppers and spikey zucchini leaves. We see these two guys each evening that we spend in the garden. They are brazen enough to hang out in the neighbors yard while we have a group a friends around the fire pit. Who can blame them with the impressive antlers that they have. The photos don't do them justice, since I counted an impressive 14 points on the bigger fella. Even the one we call "the little guy" has 8 points. I guess with no hunting pressure they grow big around here.
So I suggest to Bo that he bring a shot gun next time he comes down. If you rid me of these pests, I promise not to let Pepe use the mango tree on you. Venison anyone??

2007-06-22T16:56:00.000-04:00

OK. I know, I know... there is quite a bit of time between blog updates from the two loons. That is because there is very little excitement in the home of the two loons. But all that will be changing soon. I just got back from the doctor where I got to see for the first time the heartbeat of a very small li'l loon. That's right. My child already has a fully working heart. Sarah and I are both very excited to know that our child appears to be healthy and progressing nicely. The preliminary due date is Feb. 11. So with that we open the floor for corporate sponsorship of the name. How does Starbucks Mulder sound?

2007-05-21T20:20:00.000-04:00

The results are in!! Sarah and I both completed the half marathon on Sunday. That's 13.1 miles people. Sarah did an impressive 2 hr. 13 min. run, beating her previous score all during a month of working in the Neo-Natal intensive care(NICU) wards where she had little time to train. Joel feels good about his run too, running a 1 hr. 42 min run. His only hope is that he beat his sister's first long run pace. I mean really, there's gotta be something in life he's better than Karen at.
Other than the race, there is little going on here in Cleveland. The NICU wards have been keeping Sarah very busy and with school wrapping up, Joel has had little time to breath as well. There is only nine more days of school left before exams and the summer will be more than welcome. The good news for Joel is that he continues to love teaching high school as well as continues to impress his employers. The latest recruit to the "hire Joel" bandwagon is the football coach. That's a long story. Let's just say that if there is any business sense rubbed off from Joel's father, it's the ability to befriend just about anyone (Although Joel can't put a radio together to save his life... not even a crappy one.)
Sarah this week received her Ohio Medical License in the mail along with a wallet version. I guess she has to keep that in case there is the age ole question of "is there a doctor in the house?" Sucker. Now she's obligated to assist any ailing Ohioian who asks the question. No Bo... you do not qualify as an Ohioian. In fact from what I hear lately, you're getting closer and closer to qualifying as a nomad.
At the end of May, Sarah starts her mini-chief month (which some have referred to as a " mini-vacation month") and Joel is done teaching. Then will start the salad days. We look forward to a good summer this year. Lots of gardening and a little house work. Although, our plans on house work have changed. There will be no major renovations this summer, just a little sprucing up. If you were involved in said processes, communication will be forthcoming.
In conclusion, to all those who harassed the Ohio Mulders about updating their blog... for shame. When is the last time you updated yours. I know of only one who even has a blog. The plank in your eyes preclude you from asking me to remove my speck. Kelly, I do acknowledge that you updated before I did, but six times?... Let's not exaggerate. You caught up a little.... a little.

2007-04-15T13:10:00.000-04:00

Ok Ok. Here is a new post. I didn't even realize it's been over a month since the last post. Wow how time flies when you are incredibly busy. Let's see.... what has happened since the last post. Oh yeah, Sarah came home. Sarah arrived home from Malawi on the first day of my spring break. This came as great convenience in the fact that we had some down time to catch up with each other. The weather was wonderful. It had been warm for two weeks and the crocus bulbs that I had planted in October had flowered just in time for Sarah to be greeted home by a floral valentine. We spent the first three days of the week in the Hocking Hills for a mini-vacation. I intended to take pictures of the spring flowers in that beautiful region of the state, but Sarah and I never left our little cabin in the woods. We spent the whole time talking, and telling stories, and filling each other in on the last two months of our lives. I am truly lucky to have a wife who is my best friend. The last half of the week we went up to Michigan to see some family. Sarah's brother, Nathan, is getting married soon and wedding showers have began for his fiance, Heather. So while Sarah attended a shower the Hull boys and I went to do guy stuff... a war movie. 200 is a cinematic masterpiece, although it is a bit historically inaccurate. It's as if some one read his history book at the same time as Lord of the Rings and tried to recall the Spartans' story a year later. After having our sense of history offended we went up to the farm to cool off. That is some beautiful land up there this time of year. The wildlife is all starting to get active after winter's sleep. If anyone reading this is within a short drive of Big Rapids, I know Bo would love company, and its really worth the trip. On our way home from the farm we stopped at Greg and Jill's for a wonderful dinner with family. Not only did we get to see Greg's family, who obviously didn't wait for spring to do their growing, but the Grevengoeds were there as well. It was great to catch up with all of them. Then we came home and had our sights on spring gardening the next weekend. Sarah and I drempt of digging in the dirt and planting flowers and vegetables and then Ohio did what it does best... depress you. We got our biggest snow storm of the season. On Easter morning the city of Cleveland shut down. We spent Easter morning with our friends and neighbors digging ourselves our. Although this sounds sad it really isn't. We all agreed that the gregarious time and love of friends really showed that the God of Love is truly alive. Between working hard to dig out and playing hard with friends Sarah and I stopped to give thanks for the storm (and the snowthrower dad gave us.) So life plods on and we have put our heads down to wait our the last hurrah of winter. The snow is just about gone now but the cold has not quite given up yet. Winter is still around, but there is promise of spring. Yesterday I saw our local stray cat (OSKy) waddle through our backyard with an obvious promise of spring time kittens. Anyone want a calico?

2007-03-14T20:20:00.000-04:00

Time for another wonderful Mulder blog. Sarah is doing well in Africa and all I have to say about that is "only 10 more days!!!" I have been keeping very busy with work, which has been nice. I'm so exhausted by the time I hit the pillow that I barely notice that my bed is lonely. I have been really enjoying teaching at the high school. I'm turning the most notorious classes around and making lots of friends. This photo is evidence to why it is a bad idea to fall asleep in Mr. Mulder's classroom... especially when he brought a camera that day. I am very proud of the progress my students have made in science. More and more I have students coming for extra help after school and administration commenting about the good reports they are receiving from both students and staff. They are even overlooking some of my more unorthodox behaviors. One day I had my whole class walking backwards down the hallway to try to get a grasp on the concept of "frame of reference." Yesterday I was even immortalized in a student made comic book, which I believe may be the highest honor a teacher can receive.
I did take a few days off last week and flew down to Florida to see my parents at The Villages. As much as it was "Disney for the retired" I had a lot of fun. I got to go fishing with T.J., my college room mate, the first day there and man did I catch a big fish. T.J. caught it on film.I think the angle of the picture makes it look smaller or something, because that thing must have weighed 4 lbs. easy. My dad, Tj and I had a great day on the river, even if the fish weren't biting all that readily. Since the last time I really saw Tj, he acquired a wife and three daughters, but he hasn't changed a bit. He's still a great guy who will do anything for ya. I hope to make it a habit to go down to Orlando and do some fishing with him. I have to go at least once more, because he wants to meet the crazy woman who would marry his old room mate, and that crazy woman would like to meet him too. Another great thing about heading down to Florida was seeing my sister and her family. It's always a great thing to spend some time as the uncle. I promised Sarah some blog photos of some healthy kids, so here they are... in their pajamas.
All in all life is going pretty good. It's very busy, but in 10 days my wife comes home on the same day my spring break starts. We are then disappearing into the woods for a while, followed by a trip up to Michigan. Since Nathan and Heather's wedding is approaching, the bridal showers have started. My job will to be to keep Nathan and Bo company during the event, and gosh darn it I'm going to give it my all!

2007-03-03T17:20:00.000-05:00

I was reminded of the quote today and I can't help but think that it applies to everyone I have ever met. I think it would make a fitting title to my post

"Work Like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like nobody is watching"

Greetings everyone, I wish I could say that I am blogging from Malawi but alas the internet is too slow to upload anything and this comes by way of my own personal knight in shining armor with high speed internet!

Here in Blantyre the big news today is that one of the two cell phone companies in the country burned to the ground taking its mainframe with it and leaving more than half of Malawi without any means of communication. The buzz around town is that the rival phone company set the fire because more people were switching to that service. Scandal, Arson and Corporate espionage in Malawi!!! You wouldn't think that cell phones are big here, but the dark continent is not so in the dark. Often I'll be seeing a patient, lying on the bed with literally a rag for a pair of pants and no shirt on next to his mother who is wrapped in the traditional Malawian swaths of fabric, faded with years of wear. And I am always amazed when I hear the distinct tune of fur Elise escaping from the shopping bag that doubles as a purse, suitcase (more rags) and lunch box. Everyone has a cell phone, only very rich people have a land line.

Malaria season is in full gear. Every bed in the children's ward is taken and on my ward we've added half beds. The 4 year old boy in bed 11 1/2 sleeps on the floor between beds eleven and twelve. His name is Madalitso and he happens to be my favorite patient right now and not just because he loves to run around after hours with no pants on but he is a very happy and outgoing kid. Yesterday he was nice enough to draw me a 10' by 12' picture of a "gallimoto" or a cab on the floor of the ward with his new box of crayons. All 12 families in the room had to leave for an hour while his mom mopped it off the floor. I wish I had my camera for that. All the mothers sleep on the floor next to the beds or sometimes they sleep sitting up on benches resting their heads on their child's bed. Sometimes they have other kids with them. Madalitso's little brother Hardwork (yes that's his name) has been on the ward for the whole time his big brother has been hospitalized.

My favorite part of the day is when I hand a kid a mosquito net and say "see you in a month Madalitso, watch out for the mosquitoes" My least favorite part of the day is when they don't make it to that point.

There is so much I wish I could share with all of you but to sum it up, pineapple and passion fruit are in season, it rains at 3pm most days, Malawian people are really into shoes and HIV sucks.

2007-03-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

Hello all. Yeah, it's been awhile since the last blog. It's March already for crying out loud. Maybe it's because not much goes on without my wife. Maybe it's because I have no time to sit down at my computer. Since I started my new job as a science teacher, I've been going non-stop. I didn't realize it would be so much work and be so draining. It's now Saturday morning and its the first time I've had to relax in two weeks. My plans are to do absolutely nothing, and I love it. I also love my new job. I have got a great bunch of kids. This photo is only one of my 5 classes of freshman. Yeah, those are 9th graders. They are making them bigger these days. They were all very excited to take the picture (especially when they heard that Mrs. Mulder would be seeing it in Africa) but as you can see the guys still have to keep up that cool look. The guy in the front is Andre. He's my class clown. I'm pretty sure Andre's going to be a lawyer, because he will always try to argue a technicality in order to avoid schoolwork. I have a total of 90 students each day and I love every one of them. I'm not saying I get along with all of them or that some don't drive me up a wall. I'm just saying that deep down my kids have great potential and I love trying to show it to them. Sometimes getting them to see it is the hardest part. This past Thursday was parent teacher night. Six hours of parents cycling through different subjects. It was fun to meet the parents of some of my kids, but unfortunately only a small fraction of the parents attended. A lot of parents don't seem to care, and it always shows in their students behavior. As much as I was embarrassed each time I found little notes all over my locker the next day, I'm very lucky to have parents that always came to my parent teacher nights when I was in school.
Well the coffee is ready, so I'm going to start my busy day of drinking coffee and wishing it was spring time.

2007-02-12T19:40:00.000-05:00

Today I started my first day as a full time teacher. Wooof!! So the story goes that this teacher started the new year in September and took medical leave less than two months later. Huh? A substitute who we'll call Hat guy (due to the ridiculous hat he liked to wear in the winter time) filled in for this nice lady while she was gone. Just recently she told the school board that she was taking early retirement. "Well [Hat guy] is going to have to fill in for the rest of the year," said the principal
"How's he doing in that classroom?" "More than 2/3 of the class is failing!!" "Really?! Is [Hat guy] qualified to be doing this?" "I'll check his credentials... OOPSS!!" "Quick find a certified long term sub for science."
This looks like a job for Mr. Mulder.
Joel was asked by the principal on a Monday. Due to multiple snow days, some formalities were skipped and Human Resources called him on Thursday afternoon, telling him to start Monday. Being the intrepid go getter that he is, on Friday Joel travels makes the 1/2 mile trek to the high school to meet this principal again and get a handle on "the ropes." Our hero's heart sunk when he learned from the secretary that the principal was out sick that day, and no one in the office new anything about him starting on Monday. The only advice given was come back Monday morning.
Well Joel doesn't take this lying down. He tracks down a science teacher that he knows and gets the scoop on the curriculum. He spends the weekend refreshing his memory on Newton's laws and force diagrams.
When Monday arrives our fearless warrior, akin to the greats such as Gilgamesh and Jason of Troy, finds the principal and is told that Hat guy will be working with him for the first week, so that those legendary "ropes" may be found. But first the principal had to find [Hat guy] in the building so that he could inform him that Friday is his last day. YEAH!! POOR HAT GUY DIDN'T KNOW!!! Well let's just say that the rest of the day was , hmmm.... awkward. Hat guy was not happy. I figured since this was the first day of the week, I'd just observe his class to get to know the students and see where they are. I mean, our hero did. At the end of the day the bomb fell squarely in Gilgajoelson's face. Hat guy announced, "I'm not coming back this week. You're on your own." Now our warrior must head into battle tomorrow on his own. Cannons to the left of him. Cannons to the right of him. Cannons in front of him. Rides the one. Oh yeah, Gilgajoelson was also informed today that the nice lady who went on medical leave did so because of her (now his) sixth period class. The likes of which the high school has never seen. Medical leave was code for nervous breakdown. DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!
tune in next time for more adventures from the tales of "What did I sign up for??!!"

ps. Sarah arrived safely in Africa and so did her luggage... two days later.

2007-02-06T17:30:00.000-05:00

Well ok. So it has been awhile since the last post. I figured the previously mentioned humdrums would buy me some time, since very little occurs during the humdrums. On top of the humdrums, we are in this deep freeze that is reminiscent of the bottom level of Dante's inferno. Our old house is having a hard time battling out the cold. At times a slight cold wind will be felt inside. Sarah and I have dealt with this the best way we know... going to the botanical gardens. The gardens are a favorite of ours for many reasons: they remind us of our wedding day at the Meijer gardens, they warm us up in the hard winter, and they give us a slight taste of how life will be when we move to the middle of the jungle and disappear from society. Aahh life will be good. Living off the land without a care in the world. We already have the majority of the vaccinations known to man and we know the secrets of the fire swamp, so we feel we could live quite comfortable in the wilds. Here Sarah is coaxing in a scrumptious butterfly to have as a tapas in a jungle feast. See that look of hunger in her eyes? The exodus grows closer and closer everyday. In two days Sarah leaves for Africa. One of her missions is to stake out a place in the Great Rift Valley where we could create a homestead. She leaves me here to start packing. If she can find a good one, I'll join her soon enough. But until then we must just dream of our futures, and live in the present. Towards that end there is some good news in the "present" category. It seems I have procured a long term teaching position at the high school. I'll have my own classroom, a steady job, and about twice the pay. The only hitch is that it's been so cold lately that the schools are closed, so I'm having trouble tracking down the principal to discuss the job. I bet African schools are never closed due to cold.

Sarah Here Now: Well I have a couple of days left here in the Frigid cold (we're getting soft, it's a whole 8 degrees outside) before I trade it for 85 and raining each day. I'm going to try to post a few blogs from Malawi if I can. If I can't I'll try to stay in touch with e-mail. I'll let you all know when I find our new homestead. The address might be something like this:
The hut next to the lake just north of the old hippo field. Wish me luck everyone and enjoy the rest of the winter!
Stay warm everyone, and keep dreaming of spring like us.

2007-01-17T11:41:00.000-05:00

Life plods on here in Ohio. We are smack in the middle of the Ohio seasonal humdrums. It rained for about three days strait. After which we had the luck of it turning to snow. I got to use my snow thrower again. Previously I only had a chance to use it for one snowfall and it's a lot of fun to use. So we are again blanketed in white and in sub freezing temperatures. It came just in time to successfully put the buds and bulbs back into hibernation. They were almost to their point of no return. A couple more days of 40's and 50's and our lilac bushes would have had leaves.
There seems to be no work for subs this week. The public schools here in Cleveland Heights have their final exams this week. That means shortened days and plenty of full time teachers available so that they don't have to pay subs. It does allow me to get other projects done. I put together my workshop. Check it out. As you can see there is a pegboard with my lovely tools hanging above a desk level work area. The old work bench is still there in the distance with my wonderful miter saw on it. Between the two is new shelving. The piece de resistance is the peninsula coming into the foreground of the picture. It features my new table saw(thanks Bo) built in, which I used to build the aforementioned, as well as a fold out extention creating a large beautiful work area. Now the eloquent pieces of wooden poetry may flow from my tools, mind, and inspiration.
Speaking of inspiration, the lack of it for my new running hobby is problematic with this kind of weather. Even with my new ipod running gadgety gizmo (thanks dad) it was getting tough to find the motivation to get out and run. Towards that end Sarah and I both signed up for the Cleveland half marathon this May 10th. Now I have to train, or suffer the humiliation of not completing the run which I'm sure Sarah will complete. Free housing will be available for any who want to come cheer us on.

2006-12-28T08:18:00.000-05:00

Well Christmas has come and gone. It was one of the better ones. We unfortunately did not have enough time to see all our family, and we miss you guys who we couldn't see. But we did get to spend time with our immeadiate families. We first went to Chicago and saw the Mulders in all their glory (well Laura was not in her full glory... a touch of the Christmas flu I think.) Being soundly past that horrible phase in life when the family is a drag, the more time I spend with them, the more I wish I could see them more often. For the record, Brian and I are the Euchre champs for 2006. For Sarah this Christmas was monumental. For one, she got off work for a couple of days for it. More importantly, she hosted her family's Christmas for the first time this year. Our house was filled with 8 Hull family members. The tree overflowed with gifts and the mantel couldn't handle many more stockings. All in all, it was a wonderful year. My woodshop got a little bigger, the running gear got cooler, and the snow got a lot easier to throw, but greatest of all is the love of family living and growing. May we be even stronger next year. Merry Christmas everyone... we love you all.

2006-12-09T18:32:00.000-05:00

Two Loons
So I hear some people think that this Blog under-represents the second and likely loonier loon in the marriage so here is my post...
Life is good. I'm working at the pediatric ER at a community hospital across town. The hours are great, the people there are great and the patients are great too. 9 out of 10 of them have nothing that needs to be addressed in an ER. (chief complaint: belly pain x 2 months should be seen by the regular doctor not 1am on Thursday morning) but I've seen some pretty sick kids too. And I don't even mind seeing all the kids with colds.
The other day I saw a little boy who was crafting with his mother and suddenly began complaining of nose pain. Mom brought him to the ER and after a thorough exam I discovered he had an eye in his nose. That's right, I took my light and peered up the left nostril and saw a googlie eye staring back at me. I resisted the temptation to ask him to shake his head so I could see the plastic pupil role back and forth and rather removed it with a pair of tweezers. An easy cure and a warning to anyone who thinks paper reindeer crafting is harmless.
I also wonder about parenting skills on the west side of town as I have fixed more nursemaids elbows in the past 2 weeks than I have seen in my entire career. They must be yanking their kids around by the wrist all day.
Anyway enough about work. Life at home is great too. Joel seems to be enjoying teaching for the most part. (see last post) but I think I may need to get him a kevlar vest for Christmas. I do admit that his Christmas decorations this year are pretty cool and I can't wait to have my family in town to see them this Christmas. I'm trying not to get myself to excited about the holiday yet because I have to take the third step of my licensing exam on the 20th and 21st. Wish me luck. I don't remember much about adult medicine except that I hear crushing chest pain is bad. Love you all and hopefully Joel will let me post again soon!
Sarah

2006-12-01T16:04:00.000-05:00

What a day. Sarah and I both had a harrowing day. The difference is that Sarah just left for work, so her day isn't over. I just got home and am having a nice drink to settle my nerves. More on that later. So if you live in Cleveland or are a big fan of the weather channel, you know that there are two big air masses colliding over Cleveland right now. This is creating a fair amount of wind. Enough wind, it turns out, to pull the biggest branch off the biggest tree on our property. Those of you who know our property and are thinking of the trees right now might be asking yourself, "Is the biggest tree on the Mulders' property that maple that the power lines run under." Yes. Yes it is. Luckily, the powerlines didn't break... unluckily they ripped the service off our house and scattered it in pieces in our side yard and the live wires landed in that big puddle that likes to form in our driveway. So here is the good news.... the newly restored garage survived unscathed!!! and we got some firewood for the winter. The electric company responded quickly and everything is back together. Well as far as electrical is concerned. Now we have to call the other utilities and get those reconnected to the house. Pretty exciting day for Sarah. Mine however was more exciting. Some of my blogging audience may be Pearl Jam fans. I find them to be a predictable cliche but my wife likes them and told me about the song "Jeremy." This is a song about a boy in school named Jeremy who got picked on by his classmates and had such a rough life that it made him snap. Well, yeah. I had a boy in my class today named Jeremy. He's a good kid. Those who are reading this who have the last name Mulder, did you get called "moldy" as a kid? I did. Jeremy got called "Germy," and didn't take it well. He was in my homeroom class as well as first period science. By the end of science class I thought Jeremy was a trouble maker, since I saw him jump up and sucker punch Joshua in the face. He went to the principal. I had Jeremy in my lunch period and my ninth period. After talking to Jeremy in my lunch period, I realized that Jeremy was picked on everyday by his peers. It reminded me of people calling me moldy. We talked about ignoring it, and Jeremy told me how hard it was. In my ninth period Jeremy was off in the corner looking at the gerbil cage. When I asked him to sit down, he told me that he was focusing on the gerbils because it helped him ignore the students picking on him. I invited him to come sit at my desk with me and he thought that was cool. Man am I glad he was sitting next to me, because the class I had was the most unmanageable class I've ever had. Jeremy and I were talking about his dog when the class decided to taunt him again. I had already given out detentions for this behavior, but they didn't seem to have an effect. Poor Jeremy heard Germy one too many times, and for the first time in my life I saw white hot blinding rage. Jeremy grabbed a pair of scissors of my desk and jumped at the girl who called him Germy. I caught him. I had him in a bear hug with one hand on the scissors. For 5 minutes he fought with all he was worth. The obscenities he was spewing and threats he was making made the whole class sober up and close their mouths. Jeremy talked of killing everyone in the school. "I want to bring a gun and kill the teachers, the students, the office people, then I want to blow up the school." I realized that it was a good thing I had one hand on the pair of scissors, because he was looking to stab anyone he could. As much as he argued I held him until security showed up. I did get the scissors away from him. After Jeremy left, the whole class and I had a good talk about what it meant to be ridiculed, how it felt, and why we did it ourselves. Many students apologized to me afterwards and said they felt bad for Jeremy. I wish I could talk to Jeremy though. I wonder what's going to happen to him. I know he's in counseling right now. About five teachers from nearby classrooms see me as a hero. After school they all came to my classroom to meet me and apologize for Jeremy. I told them I liked Jeremy. The poor guy has never been taught how to deal with ridicule. I remember my teasing education and the most meaningful phrase, "Joel, you need to have a thicker shell." Thanks dad. I wish everyone could teach their children how to handle the world. That's one reason I got into teaching. I hope I helped today. I'd like to think I did.

2006-11-24T12:56:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all. It was a great day. We had a 20 lb turkey, so the sandwiches will be many. Since there is a five year tradition of Thanksgiving alternating between being hosted by the Mulders and the Stimmells, Sean and I have created a competition of who had the bigger bird. I fear eventually we will be eating ostrich just to keep the competition going. For dinner this year we had eight people: Nate, Tracy, Sadie, Sean, Sarah, Joel, Angela, and Kata (left to right). Kevin and Kelly showed up after dinner for games. Lily and Charlie, the four legged ones, made the day quite lively. The only mishap was that we forgot the traditional green jell-o in the fridge and nobody got any. To give credit where credit is due, Sean is the card champion of Thanksgiving 2006. The guy seems to have a gift when it comes to playing hearts.
Sarah and I started Thanksgiving day with the five mile Turkey Trot race. It was a beautiful day and we got to do a lovely run around downtown Cleveland. We also both had very good running times. However, the first 100 across the finish line got pumpkin pies and we didn't get one. I actully placed 363rd. Sarah was a little behind me. There was a total of 1982 runners. Because we ran 5 miles in the morning, we felt justified while feasting that afternoon. All in all it was a great day. If anyone is interested in leftovers, we have plenty.

2006-11-20T09:57:00.000-05:00

OK so it took two weeks for an update this time. The reason for this is simple... nothing happened the first week. Now there is plenty to talk about. Sarah starts a new rotation today, ER. I assume it will be just like the t.v. show. The great part about this rotation is that she will come home to me every night this month (Don't get your hopes up, Bo). Most days it's a normal 9 to 5 job. This will be nice during the Thanksgiving/ Christmas season. As for me, I have been teaching like crazy. I run back and forth between high school and middle school. I printed up some business cards which I would leave on the teacher's desk when I leave, and they worked like a charm. I have so much work that now I only leave cards on the science teachers desks. The learning curve for the substitute teacher is sharp. Every day I impliment new tactics to manage my classroom, but still some days I come home feeling like I just spent the day in a wrestling ring. There are rewards though (besides the meager paycheck) Last week when I got lunch in the cafeteria, a table of students begged me to sit and eat lunch with them. Now that's a good feeling. By the way, cafeteria pizza hasn't changed in 20 years.
Another exciting time for the Ohio Mulders is the event we attended this weekend, a fish auction. Yea, just like a regular auction, only everyone there is a fish geek, including me. We spent a better part of the day in bidding wars for African cichlids. Using some Christmas money from the Grevengoeds, (THANKS GRAMPS!!) we got some nice one's. The pictures aren't great, because taking pictures through an aquarium has been rated as one of the most difficult things to do. It's right there below hearding cats. However, you can get the gist of our great acquisitions. The first picture (from top to bottom) shows brichardi, julichromis, compressiscep, and another brichardi. The next picture shows the hazards these new little guys have in their tank. Note the new fish below the striped one. Sushi anyone? All in all we got 20 new fish, and the tank is hoppin'.
Now to finish up this post with a quick movie review. Having half the genes of our fathers, we felt compelled to venture forth to view the new bond movie on opening night. Believe it or not, Sarah had to convince me... yup, Sarah's idea. I must say I liked it. It is a pre-quil, and it definitly shows a less refined Bond. He doesn't even know how he likes his martini's yet. It's a little more action and intensity then previous Bond flicks and definitely not for kids. However, the suspense and the plot twists make for a great film. The Ohio Mulders give it two thumbs up.
Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!! We are thankful for all of you.
-Mulders

2006-11-07T12:16:00.000-05:00

It's another rainy day in Cleveland. This is the start of the "sun? what's a sun?" season here. This season will last until around May. Today is election day here in these beautiful United States of America. I hope all who read this have done their civic duty. Well Ok, perhaps some readers are too young to vote yet, but when the time comes you know what to do... and if you don't, find out. I will say no other political commentary here, other than vote for who you feel is looking out for you, and not themselves. Besides if I did make some commentary, I probably would get a red flag and a government log started on some mainframe in the pentagon's basement. However, living in Ohio I do feel I have the most right to complain. Has anyone looked into our election lately... many people vote by absentee to protest poorly secured voting machines and mysteriously the absentee ballots disappear. Does it have anything to do with the fact that the person in charge of running the elections is also running for governor? Nah, why would a conflict of interest alarm go off? Just because half of Ohio's incumbants have criminal records.... enough said about that.
On a happier note, I'm working more steadily in the substituting trenches (and I thought construction was hard.) I really enjoy it and am getting a lot of good feedback. The substitute office at the C.H. board of Ed. is already getting request for me from some teachers. I've also had students ask when I'll start teaching at their school. I've found that the middle schoolers are easier to manage than the high schoolers. I think it's because I can still strike a little fear into the middle schoolers. It's hard to intimidate someone twice your size. I'm not saying I haven't done it... I'm saying it was hard.
We had a visit from Bo and Cindy this past weekend and it was delightful. It's always nice to see Cindy. We would love any more visits from anyone reading this blog. We bought a big house in order to make guest feel welcome. We haven't seen most of you in Cleveland since the first summer we lived here. There is so much more to see and do here at the Two Loon's Lodge.

We'll leave a light on for ya.

Oh yea I changed the Photo Gallery link so that it is now a shutterfly website. There are more pictures to view and (per request) you can order prints if you'd like. Have fun.

2006-11-01T20:13:00.000-05:00

Annnnnnnnd. DONE!!! I managed to rebuild a corrupt boot volume within my computer and she's online again. Although from the amount of comments (either on the blog or any other means) I receive, I pretty sure no one even noticed that my beginning of the week update didn't occur. I set up the blog to receive anyone's comments. Halloween came and went and we saw all kinds of kids at our door. It is fun living in a neighborhood. I must say, however, that the general public is getting quite ridiculous. We had many a kids and teens who had no costume and just walked around for candy. Worse than that, we had many parents who had their own bags (still no costume) and would pocket some for themselves. I even had one mother whom after I told her cute little girl to take one piece of candy from the bowl helped herself to three candy bars greedily saying, "MMMM these are good... Oh I like these too!!" The little girl followed instructions and took only one, but looked heart broken when she saw that mommy had three. On the off chance that that mother is reading my blog... You should be ashamed. Anywho, Sarah is working in the nursery these days and often exclaims upon arriving home, "There are some really cute babies in the nursery." I don't quite know what she's getting at. For me... I finally will be teaching 9-12 grade math tomorrow. Anyone remember what the Pythagorean theorem is???

2006-10-31T13:59:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, blogs will not be updated frequently due to the recent power surge frying my computer. We're working on the problem.

2006-10-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

Another weeks gone by. Not a lot going on this week. Sarah worked like crazy and Joel just wishes he would get some work. We did finalize holiday plans this week, so those of you keeping track here ya go. Thanksgiving will be here in Ohio. Sarah did get the day off, so we will be cooking a large turkey, making pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and of course green jell-o. As tradition states, albeit a short one, Sean and Sadie will be joining us for Thanksgiving, but that only makes four of us and if tradition hold, we will cook enough food for 10. So if you'd like to come spend the day with us, just RSVP and bring a bottle of wine. For Christmas we will be spending the weekend before in Chicago for the Mulder family Celebration and returning to Ohio on Christmas eve where we have the honor of hosting the Hull family Christmas. Sarah is very excited to host her first family Christmas and I believe I saw a little bit of a 10 year old's fervor in her.
As for the current holidays, we did a little festive pumpkin carving on Saturday. We both won awards in very legitimate categories. Sarah won "most reflective of actual art," and Joel won "most inefficient use of space." We are both very proud. Come to think of it... everyone at the party won in some category or another... huh. Anyway, today is Monday and things just aren't right here. Check out this picture of my mums. See anything wrong for mid-October. Ahhhhh!!! It's snowing like crazy! This is just going to make Sarah more anxious for Joel to get the electrical out to the garage.

2006-10-15T00:06:00.000-04:00

What? Huh? Another week's gone by? Time flies these days. So many things show how time just flits on past us. The most obvious in Ohio this week was our first snow. Yeah. Snow. Here we are, minding our own business, thinking we got plenty of time left in the summer to do all those crazy awesome things that we do in the summer, and BOOM, it snows. Truth be known, it was kinda fun to see. Anywho. We keep on keepin' on. Sarah is still in PICU (pediatric intesive care unit) and it's still kinda rough. She's on call every fourth night, which is acceptable for a month or so, but since Sarah is going to do a lot of interviews for new residents coming up, the powers that be scheduled all her heavy call months early in the year. She has been on call every fourth night since July. Much more of this and she will need some kind of 'ICU. Unfortunately she has one more rotation of it. As for Joel, he plunges head first into substituting next week. (hey, who's writing this?) All the paperwork is in order, fingerprints have been taken and filed, and FBI background checks have all cleared (told ya so). He is excited to get back to work again. Although with that and a full time school schedule, he may need an 'ICU. He did run his first competitive race today and it was a complete success. Although not as spectacular as Sarah's 26.2 mile triumph, Joel and Kevin ran a respectable 5K run in Cleveland's Race for the Cure. They completed it in less than 34 minutes... that's 10.8 minutes per mile people! Well hey, they were proud, it's their first race... but not their last. Plans are underway for next month's "Turkey trot." It's a 5 mile run that helps support food shelters in Cleveland. Kevin and Joel like to run for causes, using their powers for the good of mankind.
Well that's about all there is this week in Ohio. Enjoy the fall my friends. It's a magical time of year.

2006-10-09T22:57:00.000-04:00

I've added a some new links, over there... to your right. There is not a lot in the photo gallery now, but the galleries will grow. You can also sponsor Joel in his 5K this Saturday. The money supports cancer research. And then there's Kevin's blog... the views expressed on Kevin's blog are those of his own and may not reflect the views of Two Loon's... but then again... they may.

2006-10-08T15:07:00.000-04:00

So here it is. The Ohio Mulders have decided to take that extra jump into the 21st century and create a blog. This will be handy for all the friends and family to catch up on the Ohio Mulders who are notorious for going a long time without phone calls or emails or any other signs of life. So here ya go. There is a lot going on in Ohio. Most exciting is that Sarah finished her first marathon!! Yeah, she and our friend Sadie ran 26+ miles for no apparent reason. Sean, Sadie's husband, and I watched as best we knew how. She finished in 5 hrs. and 2 minutes. Not to shabby. It was truly inspiring for me, and I have decided to join her running hobby as well. This Saturday I will be running a small 5K race for the cure in Cleveland. Yeah, I'm starting out small, but we are already looking at different marathons around the area that we could both do together. The beauty of the whole thing is the price of the hobby. $70 for a nice pair of shoes and you're good to go.
In other news, as some already know, I have decided to leave collegiate academia. It was a hard decision, but I feel that my talents and temperament is better suited for a different path. The path that I am now embarking on is secondary education. Since I already have a lot of experience in biology content as well as some teaching experience, I was accepted into an accelerated program at Cleveland State University (CSU). I will be fully licensed to teach by next fall and just like my new hobby it is free. Since Ohio is in need of good high school science teachers there is a state grant to train qualified individuals. I applied and they fell for it. That demand in Ohio also all but guarantees me a job in the fall. Finally I'll be out in the real world again. I've started classes and enjoy them. Next week I'll begin substituting for Cleveland Heights School district.
That's about all that is going on. It's fall and the world is beautiful. The nights are getting so cold that Sarah and I pulled in our house plants from outside. We counted 53 this year. Sarah insists we have enough, but I'm not so sure. Keep checking this site, since I intend to post frequently. Emphasis on "intend." And to all who read this blog remember, there is always a room at the Two Loon's Lodge.