So, we’d had a fun grown-up party way back in 2002 celebrating the Chinese New Year with good food, friends, games… it was so fun I decided then and there I’d make it a tradition. I think we did have one in 2004, before Burke was born, but it’s not really been as traditional as I’d hoped. At any rate, sometime around mid-February, we had an Asian Celebration of sorts as a family. We’d totally missed the holiday, but decided to celebrate with good food anyway. The menu included Chinese Stir Fry, Korean Kimchee, and Japanese sushi. Here are photos of the kids making candy sushi. I’ll make a second post with a recipe and photos of Conan and I making KimChee.

Our Inspiration: Veggi Sushi. I think Keane tried some pickled ginger, but that’s as far as that experimentation went.

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For those that want to see many more pictures of our trip, I’ve posted a larger segment:

http://picasaweb.google.com/conan.heiselt/Florence?authkey=UUf6brBVcpU

My apologies that it’s taken so long to develop this post about our wonderful journey to Florence, Italy. And that it’s SO long! I have about 500 photos to sort through, lots of beautiful memories, and until yesterday, little or no internet connection. Here, at long last, is the brief summary of our wonderful journey to Florence. As our 11th anniversary was just a month away, we decided to make it, as much as possible, a romantic Honeymoon getaway. We took an extra day to explore, and I’m so very glad we did. Once Conan’s conference started he was gone until 10pm or later most nights, so it was wonderful to have those couple of days to explore together.  Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so I’m at home doing my regular rigmarole with the boys and I get this interesting phone call from Conan:

Conan: Hey Love, do you know where my passport is?

Melissa: Of course. What for?

Conan: Well, I’m being sent to a conference for work, and it’s in Florence.

Melissa: Ha ha ha… Florence…Michigan?

Conan: No, seriously, Florence. Italy.

Melissa: No way!

SO, despite the fact that finding a way for me to come too was not something Conan even thought of, I of course immediately began scheming to find a way to make it work. I mean, come on, if we can’t take the opportunity to go to Italy when the hotel and Conan’s airfare are covered… when would we EVER go together?!  So as it happens, we just refinanced our home to lower the interest rate and save $26,000 over the life of the loan (hey, we’re one of those crazy people who actually intend to stay in one spot and own our own home), and as a side benefit, we get to skip a mortgage payment. So, I’m thinkin’ that looks a lot like a plane ticket to me! Now we just need to find a way to convince some one (or some ones) to take three little boys for a week in April… any ideas? What would you do?

Just looking through some of my old pictures, and noticing how much I love my husband. Just all the small little ways that he cares for me, his children, and just IS.

I love that he helps our kids with structural design. I am apt to say, "have at it, kids!" then am dismayed to find that their creative fun is short-lived. Conan, however steps in, gives good advice, and helps them succeed. Remember the Spiderweb they built in Indiana? Cannot find that post to link to it, but some of you may remember.

I love how everything he does, he does with style. Like beautiful orange peelings… just everything. I think that’s so cool.

 He’s a happy helper. OK, well, maybe not looking so happy here; but he’s tired, yet he’s helping his niece finish off a purple knitted scarf the day before Christmas Eve. He’s my kinda guy.

I love that he loves his kids and helping them bake cookies, and do projects, and just be around them. And he loves his Mommy.

I love you Conan! 

OK.  I’m really grateful that Melissa doesn’t get morning sickness bad at all.  I know there are times where she’s a bit woozy, but overall she’s said that she’s got it pretty good.

That’s her.  Me, on the other hand, I always get sick and nauseated when she’s pregnant.   For instance, right now. 9:00 in the morning at work and my stomach is bouncing breakfast around like a trampoline.  Or take this Sunday.  We got to church a bit early (how did that happen?!) and the boys said they were hungry (not like they didn’t eat breakfast 30 minutes before), so we broke out some light snacks we had in the diaper bag from I don’t even want to know when.  Everything was fine and good for five minutes.

Then, all of a sudden, I got a whiff of the goldfish crackers.  I’m not sure what it was but I think I’d rather have been smelling poopy diapers.  My insides started swirling around like crazy.  I tried to calm down, telling myself that it was all in my mind, and took a slow, deep breath.  Big mistake.  All I could smell was more goldfish crackers.

I sprinted (as reverently and slowly as possible) to the bathroom, locked my self in a stall.  After a few moments of relaxing and breathing I…puked.  Yep.  So there you go.  It’s just so weird.  I feel for  you women that are less fortunate than my wife. 

Melissa, however, she’d got nothing on me…well, aside from the fact that in six months she’ll start to be getting big and have back aches and be tired and later have to go through the whole delivery thing and the breast feeding stuff…but besides that, she’s got nothing.

So, we’ve got lots of randomness here, but not so much on the big picture. SO, with our long-distance loved-ones, and those with whom we have lost touch, and those who have stumbled across us and whom we have not yet touched, here is a summary of the last few years.

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