Meet Our New Baby, Non-Secular

About month ago, Mike and I finalized the details with an artist to do a painting for us. The artist happens to be a good friend of mine from college, Casey Kasparek. Casey does a lot of awesome work (check out his website here), and has some of his work on display in a studio in the Netherlands that also shows some of Andy Warhol's work. Casey has won awards for his work, including Best of Show at Chalk the Walk in Mount Vernon, Iowa, on two separate occasions . Some of my favorites are the pieces he does on newsprint, because they are so unique and interesting.

Anyway, I could talk up Casey all day long, but that's not the point here. Friday afternoon Mike and I headed out for St. Louis, where Casey and his girlfriend Jen live. The weather was not great, but thankfully the roads weren't too treacherous. We finally arrived at our hotel around 9:30 or 10:00 that night, and we were lucky enough to get a free upgrade on our room. Originally they had put us in a room right next to the elevator (ugh), but with our upgrade, this was the view that we were lucky enough to have.

We hooked up with Casey and Jen and met them at their apartment for some drinks and good conversation. Probably the thing that makes Mike the most uncomfortable is opening gifts in front of people, so he was nervous to see the painting for the first time and to feel like he was on the spot. We were both excited and a little nervous, wondering what would happen if we didn't like the painting. So after a few glasses of wine (for me, anyway), Casey showed us to his studio and opened the door, allowing us to see our painting for the first time without any extra eyes on us. We were not disappointed at all. We had told Casey which of the abstract paintings on his website were our favorites, and that we liked bright, vibrant colors. Casey also does this cool thing called "abstracting out," where an abstract painting actually has sort of a hidden figure in it, but it doesn't exactly jump right out at you. You will find a great example of one of those here. At first we didn't think we wanted anything abstracted out, but then we decided that we did want a cross abstracted out. Thus, Casey named the painting "Non-Secular." It's very difficult to get a good photo of our painting. With the flash on, there is a big glare that washes out the painting, but with the flash off, it's difficult to see the vibrancy of the colors. This seems to be the best photo we've gotten so far. Can you see the cross?

On Saturday we slept in and then met Casey and Jen for breakfast at a really delicious restaurant right by their apartment. Then Jen headed off to take a test for people applying for state jobs, so Mike, Casey, and I went down to the Cherokee area of St. Louis to peruse the shops. It reminded me so much of my childhood- being in a new place and going to a bunch of antique shops. I hated doing that as a kid, but enjoy it much more now. I don't think Mike did that much as a kid, so he's evolved to about the place I was probably as a teenager- he doesn't enjoy it, but he puts up with it and doesn't complain the whole time. Mike was a good sport about the shopping and actually didn't seem to mind it too much. There were a lot of neat shops, and it was fun to just walk and talk and catch up with Casey.

After Jen got done with her test, we met her and we all headed out to City Museum. If you ever go to St. Louis, I definitely recommend City Museum. It was a blast. It's hard to describe the place. Casey and Jen had never been there before, but they said it'd been described to them as "an adult jungle gym," and that was fairly accurate. I thought of it almost as a children's museum for adults, though it was great for kids as well. There were all kinds of metal tubes, like giant springs made of rebar and other materials, and you could climb inside of them from one floor to the next, or from the floor up to another structure. You'd have to twist your body all funny to get through the tubes. There were some big slides, including one twisty slide deep in the bowels of the museum that somebody told us was 10 stories long. That was fun. There's an aquarium inside City Museum, a shoelace factory, an art center, an arcade with antique arcade games, caves, and even a thrift shop. Then on the outside there's another whole huge climbing area. It was too cold for me to go out there, but I'd say it's worth a summer-time trip back to St. Louis just to try it out. Because of all the climbing and everything, we didn't take our camera inside, so I have no pictures of it. It was very cool, though, and a lot of fun.

We left City Museum to get some dinner at BB's Jazz, Blues, and Soup, Inc., and left just as a young, 18 year-old kid was starting to play some great music. We went back to our hotel and changed and then headed to Naughti Gras 3, which isn't as risque as it sounds. In St. Louis they celebrate Marti Gras for approximately one month, and we were there right in the middle of that time. Naughti Gras is an erotic art exhibition, so most of the artwork there consists of naked people, but it's not like it's pornography or anything. It's one of the things that Mike and I would probably never go to, but Casey had a piece in the show, so we wanted to go to see his work and support him. It was an interesting experience. There were a few pieces that left me wide-eyed and blushing, but the part I found most interesting was the people-watching. I noticed an unusually high number of short men there- shorter than me, and I'm about 5' 6". Anyway, interesting is really the most accurate word I can use to describe the whole experience.

Here is Casey with the painting. As I said before, the flash really makes it difficult to see what the painting really looks like. And no, Casey isn't wearing a Mickey Mouse hat. The way the light hit the doors behind him just makes it look that way.

Here's a cute picture of Casey and Jen shortly before we left them. Thanks so much for the hospitality this weekend, guys!

We didn't stay at the art show for terribly long because Mike and I needed to end the evening early so we could get up very early and get back home in time for Zach's one o'clock basketball game. We stopped by Casey and Jen's apartment one last time to pick up our new baby, as we were calling it, and said our good-byes. We were in bed by 11:30, and up again at 5:00 for the 5-6 hour drive home. Thankfully the drive home was uneventful and faster than the drive down. We hung our painting as soon as we got home, and we are definitely enjoying it above our fireplace. When Zach saw it, he said, "Whooooaaa! That's neat!" and then this morning he asked me, "How come your friend can paint such a better painting than I can?" I told him it's the expensive paint, lots of time, and lots of practice that make Casey's paintings so good. He also helped Grandma Linda and Grandpa Curt find the cross.

Though it was a lot of driving and little sleep for a quick trip, we had such a good time. Casey and I haven't seen each other hardly at all in the last 10 years, and we haven't been great about keeping in touch. I really enjoyed getting to see him and talk with him again like we used to do in college. Mike enjoyed getting to know Casey better, and both Mike and I enjoyed getting to know Jen. We couldn't be happier with our painting, and we think it's just so neat to have an original piece of artwork that was done specifically for us.

A Much Better Basketball Video

Zach had his second basketball game last Sunday, and he had a great time again. I had to talk to him once about the mean face he makes on defense, but other than that, there were no issues. He later told me that Coach Ross told him during football to make a mean face and growl at the other players. He didn't realize that Coach Ross was kidding, but I told him that football and basketball are a little different. Today he said something to me about a girl on the other team making a mean face at him, and he said it in a sad voice. I said, "Well, you made a mean face throughout the whole game, so what's the big deal?" It kind of cracked me up.

Anyway, this time Mike's parents were all at the game, so I had a little help with entertaining Drew, which made it much easier to videotape the game. Plus, I learned last time that I have to pay much better attention to what I'm doing. So here is a video that won't make you sick, or at least not as sick as the first video I posted.

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First Basketball Game

Zach had his first basketball game yesterday. He's playing in the YMCA preschool league with his friend Caleb, just like football. And, also like football, Mike and Ross, Caleb's dad, are helping with the coaching. The first two weeks the kids had basketball practice, and Sunday they started their first of four basketball games. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Soccer this past fall was our first experience with organized sports, and Zach was the youngest on his team and was involved, but at times seemed to not know what was going on. Football was next, and he was totally focused and knew what to do. Basketball, thankfully, seems to be more like football. Zach seemed focused and went after the ball a lot. The kids are actually not supposed to steal the ball other than to intercept a pass or to grab a loose ball. We didn't know that, so on the way to the game Mike had talked Zach up on stealing the ball right out of the other team's hands. Whoops. I only saw Zach do it a couple of times, I think.

Here's Zach playing defense. His buddy Chase, my friend Tyra's son, is in the yellow shirt on the far left. Mike is in the background, behind the kid with the ball, yelling at Zach to steal it. Apparently this is before he learned the rule about stealing.

This picture kind of cracks me up because you can tell the coaches have told the kids to stand with their hands up, and for a lot of kids, that's pretty much how they spent the whole game- standing around with their hands up in the air. At least they followed directions, right? Zach is right in the middle, pretty much under the ball. His friend Caleb is right next to him in the blue shorts.

Here's Zach on a fast break-away. I have no idea if he scored on this or not. He had probably 4 or 5 break-aways in the game, and on some of them he scored, and on some he didn't. Zach has been dribbling the basketball for a long time, so he's pretty good at that skill. Dribbling left-handed and shooting are two things we need to work on. Oh, and passing the ball- he's a little bit like his dad- a ball hog.

Now for the video. Drew and I drove to the game separately so we didn't have to spend as much time there, especially because it was right at nap time and I wanted to get out of there quickly. It was a big struggle to even get Drew out of the house, and the entire (no exaggeration) way to the game, Drew cried/yelled/whined, "Home...Home...Home!" He did not want to go. Seeing the video camera helped improve his mood slightly, but also made it hard to videotape very well because Drew had to be able to see the screen (of a very small camera) or else he would scream at me and make a scene. So I apologize right now for the quality of this video- it's pretty terrible- lots of neck or waist-down, very shaky footage. And because the screen on this camera is so small, it's sometimes difficult to follow all the action of something as fast-paced as preschool basketball. I taped just the first few minutes of the game, and then in the fourth quarter I went to the other end of the court to try to get a close-up video of Zach shooting. Finally, I wanted to clip this video in a few different places, but it didn't seem like that was possible, so there are moments of action followed by moments of video of the floor. So you might want to watch the video in the following segments:

-0:10-0:33

-0:53-1:17

-1:53-2:14

-2:49-3:50

-4:08-end

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Just like with football, I initially did not want Zach to play basketball. I didn't have a strong feeling against it, but I just thought, he's four and a half; how much can he really do playing basketball? It only took one game, though, for me to see how much fun he had and to feel happy that we decided to do it, just like football. I did see Mike and Zach on the bench at one point, and Zach didn't look very happy. Mike later told me that he was getting after Zach because Zach came off the court saying something along the lines of, "I'm beating the other team with all the baskets I'm scoring!" We also got a laugh out of Zach's game face, which is probably what Zach would call his "mean" face, and the fact that he is always bouncing around out there on the court.

All in all, it was a really fun game to watch. Good job, Zach- you made your mom and dad proud!

Brotherly Love

On Monday I had to wake Zach up at about 7:25 to eat breakfast and get ready for school. I was holding Drew in my arms when I woke Zach, and Zach said in his sleepy state, "Where's Drew?" I told him, "Right here. Why?" Zach said, "I want to snuggle him." Drew had already been saying he wanted to eat, so I didn't know how it would go, but I sort of laid Drew down on Zach (Zach was on his side, and I laid Drew down so they were sort of perpendicular to each other), and the two boys just laid there and snuggled, Zach rubbing Drew's head and me rubbing Zach's head. It was precious. What a great way to start the day. It's funny, because Drew loves to give Zach hugs, and will randomly go up to Zach during any given day and say, "Hug," and the boys will hug each other. Sadly, Drew does not do this to Mike or me. He loves his big brother, that's for sure.

Here's a little video of the boys playing after naps on Monday. First we had the beach towels out and were playing beach in the hallway upstairs, and then the boys decided to play pirates. Zach put on his cowboy boots (no pants, though, as he naps in his underwear and really delays putting his pants back on as long as possible) as his pirate boots, and Drew decided he needed boots, too. The only boots Drew has are his snow boots, but he was fine with those becoming pirate boots. So we played pirates, and they got on their ship (our bed), and then they became tackling pirates. This video cracks me up because of their outfits and because of them tackling each other. Watch Drew when he gets tackled or tackles Zach- he does this funny thing where he sort of pokes Zach's cheek. He tackled me once and did it to me, too. I'm not sure what he's trying to do, but I find it very cute and funny.

1/24/10 Update- My mom told me earlier today that the video of Drew singing is on the end of this video. I have no idea how that happened.

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Scenes from Winter

It's been one heck of a winter in Iowa. After the massive snow storm back in early December, there was another massive snow storm late in December, and then EXTREMELY cold temperatures. The worst part, in my opinion, though, is the huge snow drifts that make it very difficult to see when driving. You have to creep way out practically into the road you're turning on/crossing, just to see if there are any cars coming. It's dangerous and nerve-wracking. Finally last weekend the thermometer snuck above freezing, so some of the snow and ice finally began to melt. But then at night it'd drop below freezing again, and the roads would be slick in the morning. On Saturday the boys and I arrived home from an outing to find Mike taking advantage of the"warm" (about 33 degrees) temperatures by chopping up the ice at the bottom of our driveway. The boys just had to help.

They got all the ice broken up and cleared out, which makes the drive up into our driveway much smoother.

This next picture was taken at Mike's office. There is a good 6 inches of ice pushing the gutter away from the building. At first Mike wasn't able to get ahold of the landlord, who lives in Virginia, but finally she got back to him and sent somebody out to take care of the problem... sort of. Today he said somebody came out and stripped off most of the gutters, but the gutter right above his door is hanging off now.

One of the perks of all this snowy, cold weather we've been having is that the trees have been flocked in snow many days, and it's just beautiful. I really love seeing the trees like that, and I don't remember another winter where they looked that way so much. It's like they're right out of a painting or something. Here is one tree from our front yard on Tuesday.

And a close-up of some branches.

So most of the ice had melted, and then, at about 3 a.m. yesterday, the freezing rain started. Today was yet another day where all the schools canceled, making it 5 snow days so far this year. Here is what our swing set in the backyard looked like this afternoon.

And a close-up of the icicles.

This is what our tree branches looked like.

The concern now is that the wind is supposed to pick up, and we are worried about our tree branches breaking. Some power lines have already gone down, but thankfully ours are underground, so we should be good, I think. We have had trouble getting into our garage, because the garage door is so heavy with ice that it can't go up on it's own. I don't know if the freezing rain is supposed to continue tonight or not, but I'm hoping not. The main roads are not so terrible; it's the parking lots and driveways that are really bad.

Hopefully the temperatures will warm up again so we can melt the newest round of ice. Seriously, though, how long until spring?!

Drew's Own American Idol Audition

Drew decided he didn't care that he does not meet the minimum age requirement for American Idol; he was going to audition anyway.

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Randy said, "Yo, dawg, I like how you added your own style at the end there. That was cool, man, but I don't know if I'm feelin' it."

Simon said (be sure to read this in a British accent), "If we were looking for the winner of a toddler pageant, that would have been quite good, but we're looking for the next American Idol. I think the chicks will like you."

Kara said, "That was very honest. I could tell you were feeling it."

And if Paula were still there, she would have said, "Shut up, Simon! Drew, it was a little pitchy, but you know, it's just so amazing that a young child like you could come and sing for us. You're like a bright light in a winding, dark tunnel, shining into the sky, shining on the birds flying and the clouds floating overhead, illuminating everything around you. And, I, well, you moved me."

Faux Hawks

When our friend Molly started cutting Zach's hair, she introduced us to the world of the faux hawk. I like to give Zach faux hawks, but after a little teasing (or maybe not even teasing, but just comments) from preschool classmates earlier this year, Zach decided he didn't want faux hawks anymore. Occasionally he gives in and decides he does want one, and he gets so many compliments when he does. I know faux hawks aren't for everyone, but I think they look darn cute.

One day last week as the boys and I were going upstairs to brush teeth before preschool, I asked Zach one day if he wanted a faux hawk. He said no, but Drew immediately started grabbing at his hair and saying, "Hawk! Hair. Hawk!" So then Zach decided that if Drew was getting a faux hawk, he should, too. I couldn't resist taking pictures of my two little hip boys.

The next day Zach decided they should have faux hawks again, and Drew was happy to go along with it. I didn't get pictures of them both that day, but I did get a couple of cute shots of Drew while we were playing when Zach was at preschool.

I always wanted a daughter with long, pretty hair that I could french-braid. Faux hawks aren't nearly as fun as that, but I guess they will have to do!