Panda Goes to the Big Apple for Residency Interviews

The most expensive traveling of Seth's life has begun. Residency interviews have started and Seth is going on 16 interviews. SIX-TEEN. The week before Thanksgiving he hit up the northeast for three interviews...Cornell (Manhattan), Dartmouth (Lebanon, NH) and U of Vermont (Burlington, VT). He felt good about the interviews and seemed excited about all of them. He stayed with his good friend, Ryan Simmons and his wife Kimberly, in Manhattan and got really excited about us living there. That is until we found out we could live there, but go with out food, electricity, heat, clothing, and transportation. Unless Santa brings us a financial miracle, like the lottery, we probably won't end up going there.

Of course, what's a trip to NYC without a Panda pic in front of the Statue of Liberty.

At the end of this week, Seth is off on a Rock and Shock tour of the Southeast. On the way he's hitting up Phoenix and Taft and I get to tag along.


We really appreciate the friends and family who have offered their homes, guest beds, and couches for this interview process.

Back with a Mac

I'm back in blogging business. Mac arrived today and we couldn't be happier. Well, maybe a little happier. I bought a used one (it was our compromise) and it was supposed to have iPhoto/Movie on it and it doesn't. And the volume was being weird but I figured it out. Thanks Google.

Posts to come soon....maybe:

Taftman is 8 months old
4th Anniversary
Panda goes to the Big Apple
Good Riddance J&K+8

So tired. So very, very tired.

You might be surprised to know that trying to get over jet lag with a baby who is also trying to get over jag lag is not very fun at all. In fact, it's pretty miserable. Taft has been miserably tired most of the daylight hours and I end up putting him to bed about 5 or 6 because he is just a wreck. Then about 2 am he is ready to play and get going for the day. We've been home for three days now and this is how it has been each day. He's not napping much during the day, but will still only sleep from 5 or 6 until 2. He really didn't have much of a hard time at all adjusting to Belgium time, but he's having a heck of a time now. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get him back on Utah time? I'm dying here.

"Simple Living Myth"

I waste a lot of time thinking about how my home looks, how I want it to look, and that having a home that looks like it was ripped from a page in a magazine would make me the happiest person in the world. I know it's vain and superficial, I don't know why I do it, I know it's not that important, but I still do. So what. I came across this little ditty today...I love how google reader suggests new blogs.  Do you think google reader can read our minds?

I think she was speaking to me.

"It’s fun to read magazines that give us tips and ideas, but don’t lose sight of the fact that these magazines are for entertainment, not for new standards of living.

In the pages of a home and garden magazine:

- Closets look more organized because the clothes are all matching neutral colors with plenty of space between the hangers.

- Storage containers are always pretty, and usually expensive.

- There are no tell-tale signs of little kids actually playing.

- The photos are executed by a professional photographer with a crew of assistants, stylists, and editors.

- The stylish furniture and products were borrowed for the shoot, and then later returned to the retailer.

- If the photos are taken in someone’s home, a team of professionals stepped in to rearrange furniture and temporarily take out the clutter.

If it was real, they would never tell you that if you own the right things, you’ll be happier. New boots are not a cure-all, they’re just boots. If it was real, there would be dishes in the sink from dinner, laundry from the baby, and a trail of toys from whatever game was made up today. Don’t think of those things as imperfections, be thankful for all the signs of life within your home." ---www.simplenotebook.org

Help Here

Since our laptop was stolen/lost (we prefer to think it was stolen) the day we arrived in this blessed EU, we've come the conclusion that a computer is just something we cannot live without. Since Christmas is right around the corner we've justified spending school loan money on a computer, wouldn't you? Here's the dilemma, I really want a Mac but they're quite on the expensive side. I've been trying to talk Seth into it but my only argument as been, "But I just really like the way look". I need a stronger selling point. After spending oodles of time on the in-laws Macs, I've realized I like iPhoto loads better than the Windows version, I think iMovie looks like fun, and I still just really like the way it looks. Sometimes when trying to sell Seth on the idea I use the word "aesthetics" to make me sound like I know what I'm talking about. I've looked all over Mac's website and I'm convinced, but how do I get Seth to want it just as much or more than I do?

Za Rheine in '09

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary early this year (Nov. 17) over the weekend. Seth and I went to Bachrach, Germany on the Rheine to spend Friday night and Saturday. T-bone stayed with Gram and Pop and had such a great time he didn't even realize we were gone. We had a great time too and found how strange is was to be able to go to bed whenever we wanted, sleep until whenever we wanted, eat whenever, and only had to worry whether our own bodies were cold. We spent Saturday riding bikes along the Rheine and "reconnecting". It seems like either Seth or I seem to say that we need to "reconnect" a lot. So we did. It was freezing but we still had a really great time. We were very grateful to have free overnight babysitting.

We stayed in the place behind Seth

The kind of picture you get with a bike, a backpack, and a self timer.

How fitting that this dog sign is a weiner dog.

Happy Halloween

a day late, but still.

  

Sept Mois

Actually sept and a half mois old but I never remembered to take his picture until yesterday. We really feel like just in the last month Taft has changed a lot. He has a funny personality and loves to laugh, especially at Seth. He has two teeth that just broke through the gum in the last couple of weeks. He is sleeping from about 7-7,  but doesn't really take longer than 1 hr. - 1.5 hr. naps. He eats well and eats anything he is given. He's discovering he can yell and really likes to try it out while eating oatmeal in the early hours of the morning. He still loves bath time and being outside.

Post Edit: Yes, his duck fluff is starting to lay down and it is sad. I also forgot to mention that one of my favorite parts of the day is when I go to get him in the morning or from a nap and when he sees me he straightens his legs, shakes his arms, and takes a big squealing inhale and smiles. I love it. Also, I think the best sound in the world is when your baby laughs. It is so great.

Getting to Know Belgium

Now that Seth has started his rotation here in Brussels, we've been having a good time doing traditional Belgian things like eating mussels, frites, Leonidas chocolates, pannekucken (something like that) and dame noir ice cream,  walking on beautiful Chateau property, riding bikes with babies, and visiting Pop at NATO headquarters.

(aw...so cute. We're all brown-brown-matchy-matchy)

(probably not the safest way to ride a bike with a baby)

(this one is huge just because i love him so much)

Den Haag

We went to Den Haag in the Netherlands yesterday for lunch and to visit Mauritshuis art museum. This is where the Vermeer "Girl with the Pearl Earring". I also had probably my most delicious European meal yet. SO. GOOD.

Our Trip: Part Deux

Morocco

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(this dumb slide show cuts some of the pictures off but you get the point)

The first place we stayed- I loved it. It was a small Moroccan B&B type of place and we were the only ones there. We were right in Marakesh and really close to the main Jemaa El Fna Square. Fresh squeezed orange juice was one of the main attractions and it was gooooood. Marakesh stinks waaaay bad so I highly recommend not spending much or any time there if you are in the pukey stage of pregnancy and/or have a sensitive gag reflex. The souks (shops) were really cool and I found some great things. Seth (not a shopping lover) had a great time too thanks to the game of bartering.

Marakesh was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life, it was really incredible. So if you didn't know, but you probably do, most Moroccans are Muslim. We heard the Muslim Call to Prayer over the loud speakers five times a day, including the 5:00 a.m. call. I was expecting people to drop down right then and there to start praying, but shows how much I knew. We had a really great driver at one of the places we stayed that enlightened us on some Muslim factoids and it turns out that you only pray in the mosque or I guess you can do it at home, but you must pray five times a day. Only Muslims are allowed in the mosque. We saw some women covered head to toe, some only had their eyes showing, while others just had their hair covered. Our driver told us it is up to the women to decide, but all women must cover their heads. I asked when women start covering their heads and he said "when they become women" if you know what he means. He was really great even though he thinks that 9-11 was an inside job. It was pretty humbling to see how devout the majority of the country, or at least what we saw of it, is. When talking about praying five times and having to go to a mosque to do it, our driver kept saying it wasn't a big deal, that you just leave work and it takes about 10 minutes. It sounds like a big deal to me!

Marakesh was dirrrrrty and poor. It really hasn't made much progress as far as technology, health care, food standards, living standards, etc. are concerned. Walking through the souks we realized we were no longer in the tourist zone as we heard a chicken squaking as it was heading for the chopping block. Huge carcasses hung on ropes with flies starting to eat away at them. It was disgusting. Moroccans, like Italians, love, love, LOVE babies. Seth was already a little OCD when it comes to germs and especially germs around Taft. But everytime someone touched, kissed, or even looked at Taft, Seth doused him with hand sanitizer.

The second place we stayed at was about 10 miles out of the city and it was wonderful. It was a very relaxing, again B&B type place, about 10 rooms total, Morrocan villa with olive trees all over the property. We were just ten steps from the pool and had breakfast and lunch served pool side daily. Taft loved the pool and took great naps which let up relax by the pool for a couple hours at a time. It was great. Taft never really adjusted from Belgium to Morocco time though, so we all pretty much crashed around 7 or 8 p.m. at night and were up at 5 or 6 a.m.

We took a day trip to a port town called Essouria which was also beautiful, but again very stinky.

Overall, I can't saw much for the food, which is too bad. I guess we just lost our appetite for anything Moroccan after seeing how it was sold in the streets. We did enjoy our Moroccan breakfasts and lunches though. We ended up having spaghetti (safest dish on the planet) four times and our last dinner consisted of Pringles and Snickers. I did expand my three phrase French vocabulary and learned to say "Coca light avec citroen, si vous plait". Diet coke with lemon, please.

We stopped for Coca light avec citroen at Dar Essalam. We watched Alfred Hitchcock's, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day right before we left. It was filmed in Morocco and they ate at this restaurant.

We started the trip off with three binkies and lost the first two. We had three days left, including a plane flight, and only one binky. We attached floss to the binky and attached it to whatever Taft was in, the stroller, the carrier, etc. We had regular binky checks to know where it was at all times. I really need to get those things that they make to prevent these types of crises.

I don't know if we really had highlights or low lights on this trip. Overall was really great and the only thing that stunk (besides the air) was we were all sick basically the entire time. Even still, we had a really great time. Seth is a great trip planner and I never have to worry about one bit of the planning stuff. I love it.

For The Nana

(or anyone else who misses the Bumski)

Dress Up with a T-shirt in a Hotel Room

As a Russian babushka..Oyveh.
As a camel trainer.
As the middle-eastern Pope.

Antwerp

Seth and I went to Antwerp Saturday while Taft stayed home with Grammie and Pop. These are my conclusions about life after visiting Antwerp/Europe in general:

1. The U.S. really missed the boat on good bread. Who cares about sliced bread. I want a baguette!

2. Europeans really know how to dress their kids. Seriously, the clothes are TO DIE FOR.

3. Traveling by train is my favorite kind of travel.

I talked to my dad later that day and if he asked me if I saw Tom Shane buying any diamonds. I had my eye out, but unfortunately didn't see him.

I did see this painting which I think would be so cute in a little boys room.

And who wants to see this movie with me?

Our trip: Part 1



This is Taft as a world traveler. He was great on the flight (about 9 hours) and even slept for a few hours. He adjusted pretty quickly to the time change and has been a real trooper by skipping naps here and there, eating and napping on the go, and staying up past bed time.

This was one of the first towns we went to, but I don't remember the name of it. For a much better description of our trip visit this blog. This town was supposedly known for it's ceramics. I thought these ceramic steps were pretty cool.

The next day we went to Taormina which was really beautiful. We walked around the town, visited this amazing Greek theater, ate lunch with a gorgeous view (the picture isn't very good), and then went down to the beach. Bumski was pooped.

This is how Taft felt about the beach. He loved it. I tried to overcome my fish fear by attempting to snorkel. You can see my attempt here.

To be continued...