Science Fair!

Okay, so first off I have to admit that I was really excited about coming up with a project and participating in the science fair.

Ian and I (well, mostly me really) got our idea from reading through a Usborne book about Ecology. I found this sidebar: The sidebar talked about the presence of lichen and how it indicated the air quality in a given area. I got to thinking about it and wondered how much lichen we had at our house in the Raleigh area compared to my in-laws' house in Murphy (in the NC mountains). It also happened to be an extremely convenient project since I spent the last 10 days at their house!

First, I took pictures of lichen in Murphy: I noted that I really didn't find much lichen on live trees. The really leafy colorful lichen that indicates good air quality was exclusively on dead tree material. In fact, most of the pictures that I took were from the fence posts in the horse corral. We breathed easy in Murphy knowing that we had clean air.

When we got back home we surveyed the trees in our backyard. The only tree that had any lichen on it was alive. It was a silver maple that is probably 50 years old. I checked some dead limbs from the yard but they had no lichen. This leads me think that we have fairly polluted air here in Raleigh. We had a bit of the leafy stuff but almost no lichen at all on the newer trees and bushes. Yikes!

It was fun to take a small blurb in a book and really run with it and think about how it applies to our everyday life. Thanks for the great idea, Iain and Evie!!

Happy Birthday Ian!

Tap, tap, is this thing on?

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I have just been really busy and crappy about writing.

In Februaury I scrambled to get all my doula reading done before my training at the end of the month. I also made it through my first Jensen D-Day fairly unscathed.

In March I spent a week with Ian and my father-in-law while my MIL was in NYC. I spent another week without internet service since we just ported our home phone number to one of our cell phones and so we had no line for DSL until AT&T could come out and fix it.

Today is a special day though because Ian is 4!

I can't believe my son is already four. He has so many wonderful ideas about life and the world. He likes "mushroom kisses" (a term he coined...I am still not 100% sure what it means) but he doesn't want me to kiss hurts anymore. He likes to be the leader but he still likes to hold my hand and stick by my side in new situations. He adores his dad but he still calls his room "Mama and my room."

I am so lucky to have him in my life. He keeps me on my toes and helps me want to be a better person. He melts my heart when he says, "Mom, we're best friends for-EVER!"

His Spiderman birthday party is on Saturday. This is the first year he has wanted to have a party with friends. We bought a bounce house. I think it will be fun.

I'm a DIT!

No, not a ditz, a dit! That's a doula-in-training. I just mailed off my registration today for my doula training which will take place in February. I just lined up the childbirth class that I need to audit before I take my training. I just checked out all the books on my reading list that I don't already own. I feel like things are falling into place.

I have been toying with the idea of becoming a doula (and maybe eventually a midwife) for a little while now. It has been in the back of my mind-something I didn't even want to consider seriously since I lacked the confidence to go ahead with it. Right around Christmas I started thinking about it again and it just seemed like the right time to go for it.

I have always been the type of person who let myself get bogged down by the what-ifs and doubts in my head. I really thought about this and tried to keep my head out of the decision to go ahead and get certified. I love babies and moms and this is a way for me to help new moms and babies get a good start together. It can be really part-time and it is something I can stop doing for a while if I need to, and then I can pick it up and easily get re-certified.

I'm pretty excited (and also a tiny bit anxious) about this new venture. Everyone I have told has been super-supportive. My mom told me that I seemed born for this kind of work! Having a lot of folks backing me up feels really good.

These guys will always be my first priority. I feel so lucky every day to have them in my life.

According to Ian

You don't really think these sweet little animals would hop in a Transformers spaceship and try to take over the world, do you? Nah, me neither.

Holiday stress and photo play

There's not too much going on at Chez I Candy besides the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas! I have all my out of town packages shipped, the presents are wrapped, Christmas cards are sent, and most of the laundry (but none of the packing) is done. I always manage to get pretty stressed before Christmas but I am relived when it is almost here and most of the work is done for better or for worse.

So I didn't make handmade cards this year, that's okay. The extra time was another moment that I could spend connecting with my family. I didn't make those cookies that I wanted to try this year, oh well, that's something to look forward to next year.

Buck turned 38 on Monday. He requested a yellow cake with vanilla frosting. I didn't realize until right before we sang and did candles that we are missing an "8" candle so I had to do 35 and add 3 single candles. It looked pretty sad....

One thing I have been doing lately is playing with my camera. Jensen had a DSLR and since we talked photography a lot I knew he would want me to have it. I don't have the manual or the software that goes with it but I am slowly learning how to use it. Ian has been a patient model for me while I play around.

Merry Christmas!

Holy crap! I saw Rachael Ray!

Last night we went to a book signing for Rachael Ray's new book (Just in Time). Buck's cousin (CC) is crazy about her and so she and her mom drove seven hours to see her.

The signing started at 7:30ish and the line-up started at 6, so by the time we got our stuff signed and we were on the way home it was 8:20. We were put into 3 groups to wait for a signature, and we were lucky enough to be in the first group. I felt sorry for everyone waiting when I saw how the line snaked all over the store!

Rachael was really chatty and nice and she told CC that she was beautiful which made her day. Rachael is really cute and looked just the same in person as on TV. I only managed to get crappy pictures because I had to stand about 20' away and behind a stanchion to take pictures. The fluorescent lights didn't help matters.

Rachael shook CC's hand as we left the signing. On the way to the car CC said, "I have Rachael Ray on my hand. I am never going to stop sniffing it!" She always makes me laugh my ass off....

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!

We bought our tree last night and spent the evening decorating the tree and the house. The Advent calendar is filled with treats, the stockings are hung (by the chimney with care), the lights are up inside.

I can't for the life of me seem to get a decent picture of my Christmas tree. I did get a picture of my most favorite part of the tree though-my garland.

When I was a little girl we lived in the same town as my grandparents and so we spent Christmas morning at our house and then went to "Fort Evergreen" as my Grandpa called their place, in the afternoon. I loved to dance around their living room, admiring the decorations and especially the candy garland on the Christmas tree. It looked like lifesavers and of course I had to taste it just to make sure it wasn't real. It is plastic, glittery, kinda tacky and was probably made in the 60s but nothing says Christmas to me like that garland on my tree! When my grandma died 3 years ago it was one of the only things I asked for from the house.

This weekend Buck will have his annual "Rednecks on the roof" party. This is when he dons a "Buckzilla" shirt and a bunch of his friends come over to drink beer, eat NC barbecue, and listen to redneck Christmas music while putting our lights up on the roof and around the house.

We enjoyed a marvelous day with Evie and her boys today. I was treated to Iain the Human Pretzel:


and Luigi:










Ian and I had such a good time with our friends. Iain and Ryan always play so well with Ian even though he is younger than they are. They hunted zombie aliens and played with castles and legos and all kinds of fun stuff. Ryan and Ian invaded Evie's jewelry box for magic rings and artifacts and she was so patient and generous with them to let them use her pretty things.

Evie and I got to chat for a long time which was so fun for me. It is wonderful to have a friend who is an unschooler like me since I don't seem to know many at home. I just wish we lived closer to each other so we could meet up more than once every month! Thanks for inviting us, Evie.