The Huffman Crew

Winter whirlwind

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:39:00 +0000

So many pictures, so little time to post! I promise there are brilliant blog posts rolling around in my brain at all times, but again, this whole 'job' thing really eats away at my 'writing about my family' time. Anyhoo, catching up here. . .

We took a day trip north of here a few weekends ago and visiting Castle Rising and Hunstanton. The boys took their own cameras along and had an awesome time taking pictures of the castle. Hunstanton is a sweet village along the coast where we had hoped to find some good fossils. We didn't have any luck, but had fun exploring the beach and watching the crazy kiteboarders who were out in freezing arse water all afternoon.

Castle Rising has a cool past--it is a 12th century castle that had it's most famous period in its history when it was home to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II. Apparently, she was never imprisoned for the murder, but was sent to Castle Rising to live, which was not a bad punishment as far as I can tell!

Both boys are playing basketball, although the rotten lighting in the gym is seriously holding me back in the photo documentation department!

On the way home from basketball last week, the boys were just beating the poo out of each other in the car. Driving in the English countryside is challenging enough without seeing/hearing two boys fighting to the death, so I devised a new punishment (as it seemed that threatening to pull over and beat their arses wasn't working). Here are the end products:

The kids convinced Dave to have a water balloon fight with them, on a 35ish degree morning.

Last weekend, I headed to Bury St. Edmunds to find Butterworths, an amazing, teeny tiny little natural food store that has so many of the bits and pieces that I can't find anywhere else here. The markets here are so cool, and Bury's was booming.

Which brings me to a few pics of the yummy goods I've been making/eating since returning to 'veganhood' after Christmas. I've got some cool new kitchen tools (spiralizer, mandolin) and bought nice UK versions of a few gadgets I left behind (juicer, food processor). Some of my tastier creations:

Kale chips

Asian Zucchini 'Noodles'
Zucchini noodles made with the spiralizer (all three kids loved eating 2 foot long strands of squash, including Casey who has literally vomited almost every time we force him to eat a 'vengetable')

Secret sauce ingredients

Add some chopped/shredded carrots, red bell pepper, snap peas, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Really yummy and filling.

We spent a day in London last weekend for the Chinese New Year festivities. It was crowded and cold, but the kids made the best of it by finding a nice spot to come in from the cold. . .I'm still trying to figure out how our fun cultural outing ended with a tour of the 4-story overstimulating commercial meca of M & M World.

This morning, we woke up to our first UK snow! After scrambling to find gloves and boots to fit everyone (Keller ended up in mine, sign of how big the boy-child is getting), Dave, the kids, and Juno headed out to dive into the white stuff. Juno made her first escape since arriving here a month ago. We're not sure how long she had been gone (she snuck out a side gate that we didn't know was open), but she made a few friends along the way and a kind neighbor helped Dave track her down.

With the morning's snow came news that yet another of Marley's birthday parties had been sabotaged by winter weather. Poor girl--her birthday always falls around Super Bowl weekend and/or a snow storm. We had an extra layer of party-prep chaos today when Dave drove over to base to pick up Marley's cake and the pizzas for the party, only to get turned away at the gate because base was locked down due to the weather. (Let me just mention that we got 2-3" of snow, which where I grew up in western PA would've meant that you had to wear socks that day to keep your ankles warm--certainly wouldn't have amounted to a delay or closing of anything!). Not only were we blocked from getting on base, but the people who live on base couldn't get out--which meant that three of Marley's party guests had to cancel on us. Dave bravely ventured to the British grocery store to find a random cake and some take-and-bake pizzas to save the day. Marley's best buddy Aiden came, and I swear she couldn't have been any happier if she would've had 40 kids here.

We've booked flights back to the States and hope to see as many of you as possible sometime between June 20th and July 5th, when we'll be on tour of the east coast. Until then, I'll try to keep you updated with photos and corny captions of our adventures over here!

On aging gracefully. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:01:00 +0000

On this, my 38th birthday, I felt an instinctive urging to surround myself with beautiful things which have withstood the tests and torments of growing old. I bundled up, packed my camera gear, and headed out for a peaceful morning of reflection and appreciation of things made better by age as I explored centuries-old flint churches whose grace and beauty were evident despite the passage of time.

St. Nicholas' Church, Feltwell, Norfolk: built in the year 689

St. Peter's Church, Hockwold, Norfolk: built in the mid-14th century

All Saints' Church, Wordwell, Suffolk: built in the year 1100

12 Days of Christmas, California Style

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:11:00 +0000

I'm suffering from heinous jet lag, and am too out-of-it to organize meaningful thoughts into written words. . .but I'm also anxious to get some of these great photos out of flash card purgatory, so please enjoy this rather prolific photo documentary of our time in California.

La Brea Tar Pits

Hollywood Farmers Market

Disneyland

Hike to Hollywood sign

Griffith Observatory

Santa Monica Pier

El Matador Beach in Malibu

Sturtevant Falls

Christmas morning

Christmas afternoon at the Haryung's and park

Livin' Large with Uncle Jim

Leo Carillo Beach in Malibu

Soaking up the last day of sun and fun:
Hangin' in the hot tub (on December 26!)

Griffith Park Playground (with our world-traveling monkey, Coco)

Gingerbread Men

Casey's lost tooth (he's lost 4 so far: 2 in Virginia, 1 in England, 1 in California--meaning that the Tooth Fairy has to travel far and wide to deliver!)

California Dreamin'

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:32:00 +0000

California has welcomed us with sunny skies, warm weather, and all of the things we miss about being so far from the States--family, Target, Trader Joe's, wide roads, sidewalks. . . the list goes on ;) We arrived in the middle of the night on Thursday, weary after 13 total hours of air time, and after a night of sleep that held mixed success for each of the five of us, we hit the ground running with wedding festivities. Everything has gone wonderfully so far and we are looking forward to our extended stay here and all of the fun we can jam into our visit over the next two weeks.

Terranea Resort

Wedding Rehearsal

Wedding day breakfast at Ruby's Diner in Redondo Beach

Pre-Wedding Photos

Handsome groom and his beautiful bride (a.k.a. Uncle Jim and Aunt Kristen)

Reception

Random photo of the trip: parade Santas walking through the rain

'Vaganza'

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:20:00 +0000

Malta, with it's other-worldly blue waters, stunning views, and friendly local peeps made our non-traditional Thanksgiving just slightly more than bearable ;) While I'll admit that traversing three islands with a non-working GPS and some of the most random street signage in the world proved challenging, we saw a truly beautiful part of the world that none of the five of us could have even located on a map two months ago. And on days when the aches and pains involved when a mostly stay-at-home-mom joins the work force full-time (in a foreign country. . .far from family and my glass-of-wine girlfriends) gets to be too much, I know these pictures will serve as a welcome reminder of all that awaits us on this crazy adventure.

We stayed on the island of Malta
View from our hotel

Mellieha Bay

Blue Grotto and Sea Caves

We took a ferry boat to the nearby tiny island of Comino, where we swam in the most beautiful blue waters imaginable

Ferry ride

Blue Lagoon and coast of Comino

Twister that lost steam as we sailed away from the island!

We spent a full day on another nearby island, Gozo, which had absolutely breathtaking views
Gozo Ferry

Dwejra Bay

Blue Hole at Dwejra Bay

Sneak peek of the Azure Window, which provided a pretty amazing backdrop for the Huffman family 2011 Christmas card photo!

Sunset near Ta'Cenc

And what would a Huffman Crew post be without a few random shots?

Awesome view of the Swiss Alps on the flight over

Best photography assistant ever!

Crazy Sicilian bikers who, along with about 200 biker friends, descended upon Dwejra Bay and briefly shattered the calm serenity of the area before riding off to their next destination

Unsuspecting mom about to get skewered by a speed boat at the Blue Lagoon

And last, but not least... a few selected bloopers from the Huffman family photo shoot
(note Marley's very productive nostril above)

Stay tuned for our next post, which will include Uncle Jim and soon-to-be Aunt Kristen's wedding, Christmas and two weeks of Huffman madness in sunny California!

Fall Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:10:00 +0000

So, once again, the challenges of being a full-time working mom have interfered with my best intentions, and nearly a month has passed since my last blog post. But tonight, I will take a stand against the role of overburdened woman in a foreign land, and painfully extract a bazillion photos from my assorted flash cards for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy these snippets of our first fall season living in the English countryside! OK, so I just counted, and the "snippets" amounted to 67 pictures--oops!

Nowton Park

Ickworth House

Flag Football:

Pumpkin patch & pumpkin carving

Keller's 9th birthday party which was really wild (corny joke, I know). Yes, Marley was present and did actually touch some animals, she just did it so quickly that I didn't get any clear pics. And yes, there were lots of other kids there, but they are new friends and I'm not sure how their parents would feel about me plastering their kids' faces all over the internet ;)

Warwick Castle--part of Keller's birthday gift was a trip to the haunted castle with Dave, Casey, and some new friends

Halloween (Ash Ketchum, Princess Peach, and a Mad Scientist!)

High Lodge Forest Centre at Thetford Forest--I took the kids there today for the first time and can't believe we've never explored there before. The Brits really know how to put together a playground!

I've been flying solo with the kids since Thursday while Dave attempted to recreate scenes from the Hangover with his brother's bachelor party crew in NYC. In strict accordance with Murphy's Law, the following unexpected events happened: the babysitter who was supposed to watch the boys on Friday while I had a teacher work day came down with a stomach virus and I was stuck bringing the boys to school with me for the entire day while I tried to work on progress reports; Keller came down with a stomach bug on Friday night and christened the new carpeting in his bedroom; Marley came down with the aforementioned stomach bug on Saturday and christened the carpet in her bedroom. It's been a long and tiring weekend, and so, I'll leave you with a few random shots that brought a smile to this exhausted mama's face tonight:

We knew Keller was due for a hair cut when we realized it would fit into a nice pony tail.

After--the shortest hair cut he has had in a couple of years. He looks so handsome and mature, it breaks my heart a little.

First sign Marley might be coming down with the 'ick' that Keller had--this is how I found her laying in the hallway after her bath. Of course I also videotaped the snoring that accompanied the scene!

And finally, meet Tommy, the cutest ugly pup we've ever had the pleasure of dogsitting. He belongs to some friends I know from work and CrossFit, and we kept him while they went hiking in Wales last weekend. It was like having some kind of snorting goblin in the house ;)

Our new 'hood

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:48:00 +0000

For those who are curious about what the local scene is like here in the happenin' village of Barton Mills, we took a little walk-about last weekend and snapped some pictures. There is a really beautiful trail that follows the River Lark beginning in our neighborhood and ending in the village center in Mildenhall. So, check your maps and follow along for a tour:

your tour guide and maps (note the important locations listed on the map key, gotta love those Brits and their pubs):

the historic homes on our street:

the churches . . .

the pubs:

along the River Lark:

the next one is the backyard of our across-the-street neighbors. we were feeling pretty good about our big front and back 'gardens' until we saw what the neighbors have ;)

the park in Mildenhall (the kids love the way the playgrounds are so different here, although the risk of motion sickness is higher with every thing spinning in circles!):

the phone booth:

a local kid with stereotypical British teeth:

and finally, our house (and my Subaru, which may just be the best thing I brought from the States! Dave has been demoted to UK mini-van driver, although he does not seem to mind the crazy right side steering wheel):

We moved in two weeks ago, and are enjoying stretching out and exploring our new 'home.' It's been a crazy 4 months since I first interviewed for my job, but we've held it together amazingly well. Other than some pangs of homesickness, especially for poor Casey, the adjustment has gone strangely smooth. So many changes for all of us, and we've just sort of huddled together and weathered all of them together. I've got a million more pictures to post and at least that many thoughts rolling around in my head that I'd love to share, so hopefully as we settle into the new 'normal,' I'll find more time and energy to put it all on here more often.

Until then . . . Cheers, and pop over for a brilliant spot of tea any time ;)

Cheerio from Lovely England!

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 06:38:00 +0000

Greetings faithful readers, you few brave and patient souls! I apologize for any carpal tunnel or premature arthritis that may have developed in your cramped fingers over the past two months of anxiously clicking away at that 'refresh' button. It's been hard to find time to blog, what with an international relocation and such. Who knew? Anyway, I'll keep the verbage brief and the photo montage plentiful.

(Insert British accent before continuining to read) England has treated us quite lovely so far. It's been a bit busy and we're all adjusting to having a full-time working Mum, but so far, everyone has done just brilliant! (Accent off now). How'd you do? Need some practice? You should hear Keller--he's a natural! Marley is the one I'm most interested to hear about 2 years from now--with Chinese as her first language, American English as her second, cleft palate related speech issues, and spending this year in a British preschool--she is going to have one brilliantly unique accent ;)

Sit back and relax. . .here comes the photo dump!

Going for a big rewind here to catch up on the end of summer as well. . .

In July, we did a Pirate Ship adventure on the Bay, leaving from Annapolis. Keller, Casey and Shane had a blast. Marley whined and clung to Heather and I the whole time, but seriously rocked out to the captain's groovy music a few times, and she was ready to jump right in when it was time to dish out treasures.

In a whirlwind trip to PA in August, we: had a picnic at my grandparents' farm, took a day trip to Idlewild Park, tried out the entertaining sport of EuroBungee, cooked out with the Steinhoffs, visited 'Poppy', and made "CoCo" the stuffed monkey who has been enjoying a jet-setting lifestyle rivaled only by Flat Stanley.

The week before we left Virginia, in between watching the movers box up all of our worldly goods (which are still at sea, making a slow voyage to us) and readying ourselves for the big day, we said 'see you soon' to our bestest buds, the Driggers and the Gildeas.

We saw Juno safely settled into her temporary home at my sister's house, where she is reportedly enjoying the company of Bear and Daisy. . .but still makes a break for it, given the chance! Naughty girl. She will join us here after Christmas and we are looking forward to seeing her lumpy-headed self. And we said 'farewell for now' to Heather, Ken & the boys, which was tough. They are missed so much already.

That's the end of the photos that should have shown up in a post about a month ago, entitled "Summer: Part II." Moving on here to. . .

The Great Adventure Begins

We loaded up three kids, two adults, fifteen bags, and CoCo for our first official 'pond crossing' on Friday, August 19th, which just happened to be our 11th wedding anniversary. Spending the night on the plane with the kids wasn't exactly the romantic celebration we'd dreamed of, but we did share some Aunt Annie's pretzel nuggets in the airport, so that counts for something, right ;) Poor Keller discovered air sickness during the landing, and didn't bounce back until a day later.

I think someone out there has a similar picture of me from my 21st birthday ;)

We took a day trip on the 28th to Birmingham to visit Cadbury World and the Sea Life Centre.

We ventured into Cambridge last weekend, which is only about 30 minutes away. Burleigh Street was great--the kids loved the skateboard shop and comic book store, and I had fun perusing the awesome thrift/consignment stores for cool finds.Marley found everything she needed to put together the perfect outfit for the upcoming Fancy Nancy Tea Party on base.

There is a beautiful park/open space that the kids love across the road from Marley's preschool. It's called Aspal Close and it is really quite lovely. We had one of our first encounters with a grumpy Brit when we accidentally stayed beyond closing time and had to call a terribly unfriendly gatekeeper of sorts to come and let our car out of the lot ;)

Last weekend, we drove an hour and a half to Blakeney to see the North Sea. It was amazing and beautiful and so incredibly different from any beach we have seen in the states. The kids loved climbing the pebbly dunes and couldn't contain their laughter over the intensely strong winds. The kids found tons of sea treasures--two shark or ray egg pods (not sure which), dried star fish by the dozen, shells, fossils. The village is quaint and peaceful (or it was until the Beverly Huffman-billies showed up)and I'm sure we'll go back again.

The boys have been hanging out at the skateboard park behind my school just about every afternoon lately, and are starting to get some beginning skills, build their nerves, and make some friends who begin and end every single statement with "Dude!" We're hoping our shipement of stuff that includes their pads will show up here soon so they'll feel comfortable getting totally rad at the skatepark. Here they are trying out their first ramps.

Now,for the blooper reel. . .

We are living in a hotel on base for a few more weeks, and although there is a pull-out bed available to Marley, she has decided she would rather slumber in a cozy compartment she's made for herself inside the closet of the boys' room.

This one is for all of my Western PA friends. The next time someone makes fun of you for saying "slippy" instead of "slippery," tell them that "slippy" is considered proper English in England, and maybe throw in a little "so there" at the end.

We have had several sightings of 'manpris' here, including this fine pair of Denim Manpris, also known as Jeanpris.

I am going to make a genuine effort to keep up with the blog while we are over here, but I have to admit that working full-time sure eats up my 'free' time. I feel inspired to write about our adventures and encounters here, but drop into bed each night completely exhausted from a day of work and the millions of errands involved in settling and establishing ourselves here--house, cars, cell phones, bank accounts, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. . .

Love to you all from surprisingly sunny Lakenheath, England!

Summer: Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:16:00 +0000

So, it's probably no secret to my 11 faithful readers that we Huffmans are about to embark on a European adventure. In about a month, we'll be packing up and moving to England where I'll be teaching! We are excited and full of all of those feel-good emotions that come along with shaking things up and making big changes. We are also honing our hoop-jumping skills, as all of this is happening on very short notice. From the day I first received an email asking if I wanted to interview to the day that I need to show up for work for "Operation: Holly Goes Back to Work Full-Time, and Oh, Did We Mention it Will be in a Foreign Country?" is about a 9-week span of time. Scary part is that we are already almost half way through that timeframe and we still have sooooo much to do. There are days when it feels like our question-to-answer ratio is about 75:1, but we're getting there. We are checking things off the 'to-do' list daily, while trying to make sure the kids still have an awesome summer with their friends and family who we will all miss so much.

Here is our official "Summer: Part 1" photo essay. . .

Cub Scout Camp Out at Burke Lake (Doesn't Keller look like he stepped right out of the 70s with that long hair and the old school Cub Scout uniform?!)

After a series of debaucles that only the Huffman family can pull off, we ended up at Tim's Rivershore 2 for Father's Day dinner. Cold beer and hot crabs. . .not a bad way to end the day!

We've spent even more time at the pool on weekends than in past years because we haven't been travelling on the weekends at all. The kids are loving the pot lucks, moon bounce, raft races, and good times with their buddies. A few random pool shots

We spent an afternoon with Heather, Kale and Shane at Caledon State Park. We hiked (read: Heather and I took turns carrying Marley. . .and Casey), walked along the beach, searched for shark teeth and sea glass. And swam. In the no-swimming area. Bad Mommy ;)

I could (and might if I ever find time) write an entire blog post about my weekend retreat to Sri Swami Satchidananda's Yoga Ashram. Despite a few amusing "Dharma Initiative" moments, it was a wonderful weekend of learning to calm my inner critic and learning to live in the moment. My instructor Cathy Woods was fantastic, the vegetarian meals were delish, and the quiet (think: no ringing cell phones, no raised voices, no traffic) atmosphere was just what I needed to recharge a bit before things get really crazy around here. A few photos from the weekend, including the Lotus shrine where we went for meditation.

Fourth of July: Fun Run, Fountain, Fun at the Pool, and Fireworks!

Some of these cool fireworks shots were taken by the boys!

One last picture, just because she looks so stinkin' cute!

Next on our summer schedule: fossil hunting and beach picnic with the Zechers at Breezy Point, visit to Pennsylvania, including a trip to Idlewild Park, Keller has a week of parkour camp, we're going to play pirates for a day, and who knows what other adventures we'll squeeze in before we leave. . .'cause, you know we're not going to let a little transatlantic move prep slow us down ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:02:00 +0000

My apologies for the blog hiatus.

I’d like to say I’ve been on some grand adventure, circling the world via a combination of kayak, snowmobile, and hang glider. Really, I’ve just been circling my house, the kids’ schools and the greater Fairfax area via a combination of an 11 year-old Subaru Outback and a minivan that I still cannot park on the first try, after 2 ½ years of practice. I’d love to brag about how I’ve been so busy keeping all of my ducks in a row, maintaining an organized household where to-do lists are checked off regularly, nothing and no one is ever late, and my blood pressure is set to ‘chill.’

In reality, I’ve somehow managed to skip the tracks for the past two months, careening toward the chaos that ensues at the end of the school year. A general indication of my state of being--the calendar in the kids’ toy room is still showing April, and hangs on the wall above a fish tank that hasn’t had any residents for quite some time. Casey proudly wore his school spirit t-shirt to school today (tomorrow is Spirit Day), and this morning I presented a serious road hazard by driving from the garden center to Marley’s school while carefully planting stalks of bamboo into little pots between my knees, complete with pea gravel and water, so that she could give her teachers a bit of ‘lucky bamboo’ on her last day of preschool. In an effort to ease some of the craziness, I’ve opted to shirk volunteer duties for the kids’ end-of-year parties and field days. I just can’t do it all, so I made a pact with my inner over-achiever to do none of it this time around. Instead, I’m enjoying good, hard work-outs at the gym, burying my nose in books any second I can escape from the madness, and slowly working on plans for keeping the kids busy enough but not insanely entertained for the summer.

I’ve also planned and booked a solitary getaway for myself, which has been long overdue. I’ve got some things in my brain that have rattled around forever, and I could use a little space to sort out what’s worth my mental energies and what is headed for the cerebral circular file. In trying to figure out the best venue for brain-sorting of this type, I bounced around between a million ideas—maybe an orphanage in Costa Rica for a week of voluntourism? A trip to New Mexico to stay in an old hacienda? A writing retreat in Maine? After a lot of soul-searching (and a lot of kayak.com searching) I found what I hope will be an awesome escape. In a couple weeks, I’ll be spending a three-day weekend at an ashram, doing yoga, meditating, chanting, eating vegetarian meals, and generally “getting my ‘om’ on.” I realize that posting this is a bit like flying my freak flag and pushes my kook factor a little higher in some of your minds, but I’m okay with that. I don’t know anyone out there who couldn’t benefit from a weekend without distraction to work through some of your ‘stuff.’ Maybe some of you find that at the beach, in the mountains, or in the depths of Nordstrom Rack. I’m hoping to find it at the
ashram. Or maybe this will happen:

After a ridiculous amount of procrastination, I finally spent 2 ½ hours clearing photos off of flash cards, organizing pictures files on my computer, and backing everything up in a hundred places. Here are some of the good ones that were stuck in digital photo purgatory for the past weeks and months:

Mother's Day in Old Town--we visited Gadsby's (where we got married), took the kids to Hard Times for chili, hung out at the water front, and finished with ice cream

Dave and I took a day off from our real lives to go for a 5 hour hike. We conquered Old Rag Mountain, and enjoyed some of ever-illusive and greatly-coveted uninterrupted conversation time.

We built raised flower beds and planted ourselves a nice little garden this year. Here are a few pics from the construction in April, and recent pics of our progress. We harvested our first hot pepper last week and added it to our tilapia fajitas. Mmmmm:

One night last week, the boys brought out a pile of beach towels and two 10-pound dumbbells. When asked what they were doing they said, "Practicing Tai Chi, Mom." And here I thought they were arming themselves for one of their usual brotherly brawls. Silly mommy.

They also made their own version of the TV show "Destroy Build Destroy" which involved taking apart car seats and Ikea chairs, taping/bungee cording them to various wheeled objects, and riding them down the slide. I know parents have different opinions on such things--sure we were probably 75% likely to need an emergency room trip, but there's something to be said for letting kids channel their creative (and destructive) energy, right?

Last week started some of the end-of-year school events; Casey's kindergarten performance (where he showed some serious skillz on the triangle) and Marley's beach day (where she proudly modeled the lastest in Target swimwear)

Keller's skillfully-designed and created catamaran took first place at his Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta over the weekend. He and Dave did their homework, chose a winning design, and then Keller did what he is best at--blew hot air! The past eight years of continually making ridiculous screeching/screaming/hooting/howling noises have led to some pretty well-developed lungs, apparently ;)Casey made his own boat, too, and they had a very short-lived race against each other at the end. And yes, Casey was shirtless in a public place. Again.

Next up for us? Dave and the boys are camping this weekend, the boys will finish school next week, and then we'll launch into the much-anticipated (and slightly-feared) craziness of SUMMER!

West Virginia: Wild & Wonderful (a.k.a. "Just call us 'The Griswolds')

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:20:00 +0000

We spent spring break in a great little cabin in scenic Canaan Valley, WV. While it was an amazing and strangely relaxing adventure--the week was not without many, many National Lampoon's moments. Enjoy the highlights, and laugh at our expense about the low lights.

Monday

Highlight: Enjoying a beautiful fire and s'mores before bedtime at the cabin

Lowlight: Spending all morning packing, with kids under foot and causing trouble, finally getting ourselves in the van to go. . . and realizing we have a dead battery. Thanks to my dad and his super-handy home-and-car-repair gift-giving tendencies, we actually have an emergency jumper cable thingamajig that we used right in the garage, rather than having to push the van outside next to the Scooby (Subaru for those not in the know) to jump it.

Tuesday

Highlight: Hiking at Blackwater Falls State Park, after a morning of thunderstorms which made the falls beautiful in a violent, 'Go, Mother Nature!' kind of way

The boys found a hidden 'letter box' that Casey wrote our names and date in and re-hid

We found a cool cave that the boys bravely explored

Rock climbing in flip-flops, definitely not advisable, but hey, we were on vacation, right?

Lowlight #1: Casey had a wardrobe malfunction that led to multiple meltdowns (he and I both), and sent Dave into MacGyver mode. Casey almost ended up wearing boxer shorts with the legs of Dave's zip-off hiking pants attached by binder clips, until I found an ancient pair of size 4T sweatpants in the glove compartment, which Casey squeezed his tiny butt into for the rest of the hike

Lowlight #2: Dave and Casey proved that piggyback rides and wet, slippery rocks do not go well together

Wednesday

Highlight #1: We ventured about 45 minutes south to Seneca Caverns where the kids enjoyed sluicing for gemstones and exploring the caverns. Let's amend that to say "the boys enjoyed. . . ." Marley actually enjoyed taking all of the gemstones out of her $8 bag of dirt and throwing them down the drain of the sluice, and the caverns. . . let's just say that darkness and bats are not her favs

Highlight#2/Lowlight #1: If there was an award for being responsible hikers, Dave & I would not have been handed any medals after our excursion into Dolly Sods Wilderness Area with the kids. Although it was beautiful and gave the kids a taste of true wilderness. . .

. . .a goal of Dolly Sods is to keep it very wild and natural, so things like maps drawn to scale, and oh, I don't know, trail markers, aren't big priorities. We set out for what we expected to be a 1-2 hour hike with the kids, and ended up spending over 4 hours covering some really tough terrain, not really sure if we were heading in the right direction. And we kept seeing these giant tracks in the mud, which could've been from any number of large carnivorous critters

At about 7:00pm, we started talking to the kids about the possibility of finding a safe, sheltered spot to sleep on the mountain for the night, before it got too dark to scope out our surroundings. It was stressful and we pushed the kids to the limit, but our kids were incredibly tough and hiked the last two hours with no rest, minor sips of water, and no snacks. We kept going and thankfully made it to our car at around 8:15, as dark settled in. The kids were rewarded for their efforts with their first ever 'Twinkies' (although the only grocery store in a 50 mile radius only had generic 'Zingers')

Lowlight #2: When I was in 1st grade, I had an allergic reaction Penicillin. That was the first and last time in my 37 years of life that I ever had hives. Until Tuesday, when, 35 miles from the nearest healthcare, and in a cabin with no phone or cell or internet connection, I woke up looking like this all over my body

After a frantic, itchy drive to a tiny local store for Benadryl, I survived the day with 10-12 hours of crazy hives that spread and morphed into one giant patch of itch. I have no clue what caused it and hope to hell it never happens again, especially because it brought with it a horribly sick stomach, which was pretty inconvenient during our four hours in Dolly Sods.

Thursday

Highlight #1: The boys and I went on an hour-long horseback ride in Canaan Valley State Park. The views were amazing (the ski slopes still have patches of white) and the boys smiled ear-to-ear the whole time

Highlight #2: Marley had her first horse ride, and she loved all 5 minutes of it! She kept saying "Giddy-ah-up Tocks" (Socks) to her horse. We also took her in the little petting zoo part of the farm where she made some pals

Highlight #3: I could've taken a million pictures of the kids playing on this playground in the park, with the big open sky and towering mountains in the background.

Highlight #4: We hiked at Blackwater Falls again, as this was the kids' favorite place of the week.

Back in the secret cave for a little more exploring. . .

. . .where Keller found a nice jagged rock that gave him a nasty goose egg (Lowlight #1)

Friday

Lowlight: Casey woke me up at 6:30am to say he didn't feel well, which of course led to him riding the Vomitron for the couple of hours that it took us to pack the car and get ready for our drive home. After handing out Dramamine to Casey and Juno (she doesn't do so well on long car rides), we hit the road with a supply of plastic bags, paper towels and changes of clothes within easy reach.

Highlight: Making it home with no major catastrophies

A "few" random pictures from the trip

Casey Rocks Out the Big 0-6

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:38:00 +0000

The look on his face says it all!

Love the One You're With

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:48:00 +0000

Almost nine years after we left her, Colorado has recently begun loudly calling to us with her siren song of clear sunny weather, year-round outdoor activities, and an overall lifestyle that is a better fit with how we want to live and how we want to raise the kids. She fills our minds with photo snippets of the two years we lived there as newlyweds--concerts at Red Rocks, day long hikes with the dogs, four seasons of adventure. She lures us toward old friends, big mountains, and the kind of skies that can make even a non-believer proclaim "This is God's country."

There have been many excited conversations around here lately about 'just going for it'--renting out our house, packing up and heading west. Dave has flexibility with his job that may not always be there; the kids are young enough to not completely hate us if we tear them away from their friends; and we've struggled long enough with the undercurrent of feeling like Northern Virginia just isn't 'home' to us. Between Dave and I, we've lived in five east coast states, and have yet to find a place that we can say with certainty is where we want to put down roots for the long haul. But, there is no denying we've got some roots to consider. Grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, school friends and neighborhood friends, girl friends who've known me since my perming/frosting years, and girlfriends who have seen me at my best and worst mothering moments (and still love me!). We've found good schools, doctors, speech therapists, hair stylists. We have favorites in all categories from playgrounds to restaurants to instructors at the gym. The notion of starting over, far away from friends and family is enough to make me take a double dose of Nyquil just to shut my brain down at night. Not that I would ever do that, or anything.

Our heads spinning with "what if. . ." and "I can't wait for . . . " and "we could always . . .", Dave and I have each taken turns going to bed gung-ho on the idea of moving, and then waking up feeling like it's not the right time. We've considered every conceivable option: renting our house versus selling it; waiting a year versus going now; me working full-time in the fall or continuing part-time (in Colorado or Virginia); and even recently spent a few days discussing the option of moving to my small and very affordable hometown for a year to save big bucks and head west with a nest egg approaching more the size of a Cadbury versus what we have now.

In the process of all of this thinking and wondering and dreaming, every little thing suddenly became a big thing--Should I put the wall decals in Marley's room or hold off? Should we buy a backyard composter or wait? Should we re-do our front and back patios on the cheap or something nicer? It has truly been like putting our thoughts and emotions in a blender, turning that sucker on the 'ice crusher' setting for 45 seconds, and then pouring out a little at a time, with some parts settling and other bits floating depending on who is doing the mixing, the pouring, and the drinking.

At the moment, we've made the very grown-up (and very un-Holly-like) decision to put the whole topic on hold for six months, and in the meantime, we're gonna do our best to "Love the One We're With." We've got a great (albeit small) house in a great neighborhood. We're lucky to have found a place to call home that has a forest, stream and trail directly outside of our gate and a huge yard for the kids and dog to go crazy in. We have good schools, good neighbors, and are within 90 minutes of mountains and beaches. We have friends and family dotting the east coast. Dave and I both have jobs that are fulfilling and flexible--two qualities that I can't imagine sacrificing, even if it meant no more 100 degree hot and humid summer days or weeks on end of cold weather and depressing grey skies. Ok, maybe ;)

We've got a lot here, much more than many people could ever dream of, but most importantly, we've got each other. All five of us crazies, with our individual quirks and oddities. Keeping it real, keeping each other in check, keeping it fun. These things are gonna make our home feel more like 'home' until we find a place, maybe Colorado and maybe not, to put down roots and watch our family bloom and grow. And by 'grow,' I absolutely do not mean grow in number. We are chronically out-numbered and positively finished with family building around here.

So in the spirit of loving life in the glorious suburbs of Washington DC (no sarcasm there, I swear) here are some fun pictures (and even funnier outtakes) from the past few weeks:

We took our first fossil hunt of the year at Brownie's Beach:

Keller had a sinus infection last week that was so bad fluid pooled in his eye while he slept and he woke up looking like he'd been on the receiving end of a good ole knuckle sandwich. In my typical 'mom of the year' mode, I found this hilarious:

Marley sat still long enough for me to straighten her hair one day, a task I feel strangely guilty about in a "will she think there is something wrong with her beautiful curls and need therapy later in life?" kind of way:

Casey, Marley and I went to a Lowe's Build and Grow workshop which was pretty cool. They got nifty handyman aprons, kits we used to make wooden 'fortune tellers', certificates of achievement and patches to iron on their aprons--all for free, which makes it a blog-worthy event in and of itself.

For the record, I asked the fortune teller "Should we move to Colorado," and here is what it said:

I took the kids for a hike on Sunday afternoon and let Casey have a whirl at some more photography practice. Here are my favs of the many he took. Kid has a good eye, wouldn't you agree?

Marley decided to hone that future-mom quality of being an excellent multi-tasker; here she is applying make-up while using the potty!

Marley loves Ni Hao Kai-Lan and showed off her 'Rintoo flip' for us, listen for the 'ta-dah' at the end. Nadia Comenaci's got nothing on her ;)

Finally, prepare to bust a gut while the Huffman kids bust a move! The videos are long, but worth every second, especial Keller's. Not sure where he gets his moves. I know Dave and I do not, could not, would not ever move like that!Casey forbade me from posting his dance video on here, and I have to respect his tender ego. For now. (Fast forward to his graduation party and insert evil laughter)

If you read my blog posts via Facebook, you'll need to click on 'view original post' (or something like that) or you won't be able to see the videos, and trust me, these are worth it!

Camp In

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 01:11:00 +0000
What do you do with a day like this?

This is the stream behind our house, which overflowed it's banks mid-day today and has totally flooded the trail we love to walk/run/bike on. Crazy!

Now, let me add a little more detail to the question I posed. What do you do with a day like this. . .on the fifth consecutive day that your co-pilot on the hair-raising ride of parenthood has been out of town? Staring down the barrel of a day full of "I'm bored" and "Can you buy me ____?" and "Can I watch _____?", I did a little braingoogling and came up with the idea for a Camp In with the kiddos. We've camped in the living room before, but this time we made a full day of it.

Camp Huffman

Campsite, with tent door strategically turned toward TV for afternoon viewing of "Up"

Camp food, which anyone who knows me will be shocked to see! I've been known to be just a wee bit of a food nazi, so it was definitely outside my comfort zone to plan a list and buy junky cereals, miniature turkey dogs, and ingredients for a s'more cookie pie as the basis of the kids' diet for the day. Best part of being vegan--no temptation on my part to partake of any of the goods. The kids were in enriched sugar heaven all day.

Trail mix fixins (more like Sugar Rush mix!)At least I got some almonds in there, right?
Individual pans of Campfire Mac 'n Cheese, weenie kabobs, and corn bread muffins
S'more cookie bars. Ok, so there was ONE moment of temptation to partake in the junk--these piles of gooey goodness smelled so good! I didn't cave though.

Camp Arts 'n Crafts. Cornstarch, baking soda, and some unbent wire hangers made fancy personalized marshmallow roasting sticks for summer camp-outs. They are drying and will be painted tomorrow. Keller's is a log (see the wood grain he added!); Marley's looks like 4 marshmallows; and Casey's is going to be either a rockstar handle or Pokemon, he couldn't decide so we went with nothing for the time being!

In Other News . . .

The boys and I are almost finished with a 10-week Tae Kwon Do class. I really like the class. It's a decent workout and it's good for working on focusing. I think the structure and discipline are good for the boys. Casey likes it, but I can't convince him to sign up for another session. Keller, well, Keller just wants to get back to rock climbing, which is fine. So I guess my days of chopping, punching, and kicking are numbered. Yesterday was sparring practice and Keller took a friend to class.

My loves . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:58:00 +0000
Dave. . .who truly has his hands full with the kids (and me!) constantly demanding his attention and general cool-dad-liness.

Marley. . .who has a wonderfully innocent and untainted awareness of her own beauty and is always willing to strike a pose. Here she is modeling her fancy Valentine's Day outfit from Grandma Nancy and B.O.B.

Casey. . .who took these incredible pictures with my camera yesterday on a hike. I love that he is becoming a more confident little guy who isn't afraid to try something new.

Keller . . .who keeps me laughing with his antics, both intentional and unintentional. Here is the note he left me when I sent a cold grilled cheese sandwich in his school snack ("I do not like it cold mom"); the green tea he made me for my birthday (note entire tea package included!); and the list we made of options for him for spring season events/classes, which he made an addition to.

Valentine's date night. . .this year rather than going out for dinner and a movie, we dropped the kids off at our gym for Parents Night Out on Saturday, got carry-out from our local vegetarian place (Lotus) and watched a movie in the quiet, calm surroundings of our own home, which too frequently is not the relaxing retreat we long for it to be.

Happy Birthday and Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:07:00 +0000

a certain someone celebrated her birthday this weekend--hard to believe my 'baby' is now the big 0-4! she chose a 'China' party and we did it up right. . .

yummy dumplings and such

stencil paintings

chopstick marshmallow races

a Strawberry Shortcake cake--very random but we couldn't find a bakery to do a cool Year of the Rabbit cake for us

favor boxes--chocolate coins in red envelopes, chopsticks 'helpers', panda cookies, fortune cookies

best big brother--Keller played Littlest Pet Shop with Marley after the party

we followed up yesterday's party with a trip to Chinatown today for the Chinese New Year parade and festivities. . .

IN OTHER NEWS
Keller won the award for "Most Creative" at the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby last weekend. his car was painfully slow, but we set out to win style points, not speed ;)

the kids had 3 snow days, followed by a weekend, followed by 2 teacher work days. add it all up and get about 7 days of chaos.

dave and keller took advantage of a recent snowfall and played hookie for a day to hit the mountains for some snowboarding. . .

off to go watch my STEELERS kick ass and bring home #7!

Thoughts on hitting the big 3-7

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:28:00 +0000
37 years, done. That's roughly 13,505 days, not accounting for leap years and any strange zodiac calculations that I'm uncapable of figuring out. I am not often inclined to bouts of deep personal reflection and introspection, but tend to steer my life using abrupt mid-course directional shifts when something feels not-quite-right. So rather than elaborating on the joys and sorrows of my life thus far, I'll pose this question to you, in honor of the beginning of my 38th year. . .

As for me?

I'm planning to give more, with a goal of one family volunteer activity/month this year, as well as volunteering individually when I can:

Our whole fam volunteered on MLK Day (we made dog and cat toys for animal rescues, cards for solider and for military kids, packed snack and activity bags for homeless kids, made bracelets for kids in the hospital, and valentines for former foster youth who are away at college, without a permanent family to send them care packages)

Say yes more often, and worry about the mess later

Keller's idea for today's snow day--Water World, which included a Sink or Float? station, biggest splash contest, dam building and a boat race; followed my Marley giving all of her plastic animals a good scrubbing on the kitchen floor

Feed my body and soul with the things that make me feel strong and healthy

My new favorite cookbook, which is helping me as I transition back to being a vegetarian--2+ weeks and counting with no meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, alcohol or coffee <

Dave has made me promise to read this and learn how to clear some mental clutter and rid myself of quiet-induced giggling fits for at least 8 minutes/day<

My creative and talented brother-in-law and his fiancee gave me this, with advice to read it slowly as I allow myself to indulge in thinking of myself and my writing; I have found inspiration in its pages so far

Along that vein, Write more, make less excuses for not spinning stories from the ideas in my head that have been brushed aside for too long

Accept each experience I'm given, and love it for what it gives and takes from my one wild and precious life, because in words we learned as kids of the 70s-80s, You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the facts of life ;) Told you I wasn't big on serious introspection!

Clean

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 02:52:00 +0000
As Dave and I close out our 4th and final day of our first (but not final!) Cleanse/Detox, I thought I'd share a few highlights and lowlights from the whole experience.

First a word of wisdom--cleansing is definitely a look-before-you-leap undertaking. Unfortunately, I did something that might be better described as 'glance'-before-we-leap preparation. Sure, I researched the best juicers and plopped down $150 for a stainless steel centrifugal whoozy-whatzit. And yes, I did spend an hour searching the aisles of Whole Foods for things like galangal root and kombu to make sure we had every single ingredient for the first few days. I even spent time looking over the recipes. . .but apparently not enough time. See, I'm a big fan of Trader Joe's Green Plant or Naked Green Machine juices. They are tasty enough that my kids will even drink them. I looked at the recipes in my cleanse book and saw many of the same ingredients, so I figured we'd be good to go on Monday morning.

If I had to sum up Monday morning with a couple of punny song lyrics, they would have to be Just Beet It and I Nearly Lost You There. Let's just say that the ratio of kale/chard/cucumber/beet to apple apparently did not follow Trader Joe's guidelines. Yuck! I mean, I've never eaten a beet that I enjoyed, so I'm not sure why I thought drinking them would be any better, but I suffered through a 16 ounce cup of the swill, which involved holding my nose, chugging, making hair-ball hacking sounds, and then downing two huge glasses of water with lemon. This experience was my first indication that the 5-day cleanse I had chosen for Dave and I to follow might not have been the right choice. (Full disclosure here, Dave had suggested that we start off with a shorter, less stringent cleanse for our first one, but when Holly has her mind made up and feels more educated on a subject, Holly is not big on compromising. Three more disgusting green juices, one wheat grass shot and two bowls of broth later--I went to bed Monday night with a rumbling stomach despite having to eat crow and apologize profusely to Dave for the martyrdom I had enlisted both of us in.) We decided that night to switch to a different cleanse from the same book, which used many of the same ingredients but allowed for intake of solid food and included less dark greens in the juices and zero beets.

Here is what we ate/drank each day on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday:

2 green tonics made in the juicer(celery, kale, cucumber, apple, dandelion greens, parsley) Not terrific, but a huge improvement over the Monday swills.

1 wheat grass shot. Palatable, but not something we'll keep on the menu around here.

1 smoothie made in the blender (almond milk, green powder, bee pollen, lecithin granules, berries--we used goji, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, Udo's oil, Himalayan sea salt, MSM powder) It was actually really good and filling--we drank these around 10:30 or 11am and were fine without food until about 2pm.

1 humongous salad (mixed baby lettuces, avocado, apple, cucumber, sprouts, soaked almonds, dressing made from Udo's oil, lemon juice, and Himalayan sea salt) Delicious and filling. The salads were absolutely huge.

1 bowl of soup We had a veggie stew two nights (fennel, celery, butternut squash, zucchini, onion, garlic, artichoke hearts, water, salt, hot chili paste) and gazpacho one night (cucumber, cherry tomatoes, arugula, dulse, water, garlic, salt, cilantro, avocado). Both soups were good, but we both liked the gazpacho better.

What we didn't eat all week:
*dairy
*meat
*poultry
*fish
*grains
*coffee
*alcohol

Things turned around for us on Tuesday and I can honestly say that if we hadn't run out of a few ingredients tonight, I'd be up for keeping this cleanse going for another couple of days. Dave is not sold on that idea--he has been dreaming of bacon cheeseburgers (which I have never personally witnessed him eating in the nearly 14 years I've known him).

That leads me to a different point, which is our reasons for cleansing. As the days have gone on, it's become clear that we had different goals for our radical dietary change this week. Dave cleansed for the purpose of detoxing and clearing his blood, liver, kidneys, etc. of chemicals that we all ingest through foods we eat and from the environment. I shared that reason, but also added to it a desire to get closer to the vegetarian (technically pescitarian) lifestyle that I had for five years before Keller was born. So now as the cleanse draws to a close, I'm as excited about the TJ's frozen quinoa/veggie dish in my freezer as Dave is about his fish tacos he's planning to get at Baja Fresh tomorrow.

How did we feel during the cleanse? I would say Monday was the hardest for me--the juices were so incredibly unpalatable to me that I almost swore off vegetables forever that day. The broths were tasty, but took forever to prepare (chopping veggies and obscure roots, simmering for 90 minutes, waiting 30 minutes to cool, straining away broth, blending it with small portion of squash or sweet potatoes in blender)and definitely weren't filling us up.

Cleanse/detox diets can lead to a lot of side effects such as: mood swings, headaches, gross tongue coating, fatigue, nausea, insomnia, vivid dreams, and a few other gems. I'd say we got off pretty easily, probably because this was not the most stringent of detoxes. I had a mild headache on Tuesday morning and again that night, but that could be attributed to getting off of caffeine. Dave and I have both struggled a bit with our mental faculties slipping at times--being forgetful, having trouble concentrating. Neither of us overexerted ourselves this week, limiting our exercise to brisk walks (together, which was quite nice), Dave went for a swim one morning, and we made a few attempts on the rockwall with the boys tonight. If I had tried to do my usual three bootcamp-style classes this week, I surely would've been carried out of the gym on a stretcher, or would have at least vomited green stuff everywhere. We both did get a bit of a yucky tongue coating, but that's a good sign that gunk is leaving our bodies. I'd say both of our moods have stayed positive, and we were able to cheer each other on when needed. Overall, our household has felt very calm this week compared to our normal mode of operating.

A few pointers for anyone considering cleansing:

* Do your homework. There are a lot of great books on cleansing. We used Adina Niemerow's "Super Cleanse". I bought it for my Kindle, which was super handy when I had to ask for help in Whole Foods with a few ingredients--I just pulled it out and showed them the list and the descriptions Niemerow gave for the really unfamiliar items. "Clean" by Alejandro Junger just arrived in the mailbox today and we are both anxious to read the scientific basis for including and eliminating different things in our diets.

*If the recipes look like they will take forever, they probably will. Some things can be prepared in advance, but the green juices are meant to be consumed pretty much right away, or at least within the same day. I spent more time in the kitchen this week than in the previous three weeks combined, and that time span included making an entire Christmas dinner.

*If the ingredients look costly, they probably are. I bought most of our ingredients from Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) because we figured if we were going to the cleanse, we should do it right and use organic products. Some of the supplements we needed such as bee pollen, lecithin granules, and MSM were pricey, but we have plenty left to incorporate into our regular diet now. I had to get a few things at the asian market because WF didn't have them, which involved calling Dave from the store and saying "Can you google Korean and Japanese names for Burdock Root?" (It's "gobo" if you're interested).

*If you don't like something in solid form, you won't like it in liquid form either. Trust me on that one.

*Plan a menu for the non-cleansers in the house. We had the kids draw up a list of five quick, easy dinners they all agreed on (spaghetti and meatballs, tortellini, pizza, grilled cheese, quesadillas) so we could have all of the supplies on hand and could throw their dinner together in between juicing and blending our own meals.

Will we do this again? I definitely will, and I think Dave would be up for another similar cleanse. I'm looking forward to learning how to integrate some of the things I've learned through this process into daily life.

Now for the TMI category. You can stop here if you are easily disgusted.

*Don't expect much to happen in the solid waste removal department. Cleanse advocates recommend all kinds of interesting processes such as colonics and home enemas. No thank you, but I could see why people might want to see more of a mass exodus during the cleansing process.

*On the other hand, gals, invest in some good t.p. because you are going to be visiting the potty to pee about every 30 minutes. I haven't had to worry so much about where the nearest toilet was since the last time I was pregnant.

*Beets will present themselves somewhere in your 'eliminations.' Dave had purple pee for an entire day, and I had little tinge to a different by-product.

*Mother Nature decided to mess with me and delivered her curse a week early, beginning the first day of the cleanse. I found that all of my usual symptoms were greatly reduced--less cramps, no bloating, less irritability. I may have to do this every month to make myself more bearable.

Marley's 2nd Gotcha Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:40:00 +0000
Two years ago tomorrow, I held Dave's hand as we walked into a seemingly deserted civil affairs office in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China and walked back out with a daughter.

She was tiny, stinky (we teased her and said she had 'Breath of the Dragon'), and so far delayed that I admit to feeling more than a bit scared ("terrified" might be a more appropriate term), but she was my daughter and in many ways the experience of meeting her and holding her that first time fulfilled the dream of adoption that had been in my heart since girlhood.

We had done our homework in preparation for adopting, and expected a child who was fearful and rejected one or both of us. Instead, we met this calm little child who seemed to wonder just where we'd been for her first 23 months of life and what the hell had taken us so long to get there. I loved that, but I wondered and worried if she'd look at every stranger the way she looked at Dave & I that day--so trusting, so open, so willing to be ours that it scared me.

Spend five minutes with her now, and there is no doubt who her family is and which four lucky people get to claim her as ours.

She loves her brothers and finds their antics hilarious.

She thinks her daddy can do no wrong and has been known to profess how much she likes him, especially when she's mad at me ;)

She loves me, her Mama, even though I didn't get to do so many of the 'mama' things I did with the boys when they were babies. I think of her birthmother and what she gave up, and hope that someday, somehow, she will know how pure and honest and deep my love for Marley is.

There are things that Marley does (including being so incredibly stubborn that I am torn between frustration and admiration) that make me wonder: Is this a girl thing? a little sister thing? a birth family/genetic thing? an orphanage thing? an adoption thing? a Marley thing? or simply a thing thing? It's kind of like rattling off all of the usual questions we moms ask ourselves about our kids, but with a few extra layers piled on top to keep it interesting. And, keeping it interesting is something she excels at. When I look back at the pictures and videos of the strides we celebrated with her, it almost breaks my heart all over again because it is right there in front of my eyes, how much impact the orphanage setting had on her early development. But she had so much in store for us and has exceeded every tentative hope I felt for her.

At 2, she learned to pull up in her crib:

At 2 1/2, she had a few clear words:

A few months later, she started preschool in a language-enriched non-categorical special education program. Big lump in the throat that day, watching her "big" brother carry that Tinkerbell backpack for her.
And I'll admit to having a big old hunk of "stuff" to work through regarding the whole special ed thing. You'd think that as a special ed teacher, I'd instantly feel comfortable with my daughter being in special education classes, but that was just not the case. Knowing in my head that she needed the help didn't go very far to help me get through conversations that went something like this:
"Where does your daughter go to preschool?"
"She goes to ____".
"Oh, I didn't know they had a preschool."
"She's actually in the special ed program."
"Oh. . . " (long pause).
I'm still learning not to end that conversation with a rushed apology/explanation "She's adopted from China and had a cleft palate blah blah blah." Anytime I've said that, I end up with someone staring at me like I'm some sort of saint, not a mom who gets totally pissed when my 3 year old is saying something for the 100th time that I can't understand and we're both losing our noodles over it. I get mad at myself for trying to explain away her special needs, rather than stating them for what they are--obstacles she has fought like hell to overcome, but that still drive us all batty once in awhile.

This summer, at age 3 1/2, she learned to swim without her life jacket, including underwater backward somersaults and picking dive toys off the bottom of the pool.

To see her now. . .it still takes my breath away at times to think of how much she has changed and how easily she grew into an independent spirit. She talks in full sentences, she sings, she dances, she says "No" and gives me death stares that I was hoping not to face until the teenage years. She loves to cook and to play with her babies. She loves to ham it up for the camera:

She likes to get fancied up:

But is just as happy taking a fully-clothed dip in a river:

Every day she lines up an entire fleet of strollers and cars packed full of so much junk that you'd think she was preparing for a bag lady convention.

I emptied her purse two weeks ago and found a gigantic can of artichoke hearts inside. That sucker was heavy and I have no idea how long she had been lugging it around. As I type, Casey is giving her hell for hiding his Big Time Rush CD inside her Little People farm, and I just dug the whisk, a plastic walrus, 4 legos and a dried up fruit snack out of the seat of her Elmo car. Seriously, we may have a future star of one of those reality TV shows like "Hoarders Anonymous" or maybe a remake of "Sanford & Son". And yes, this is one of those things that leaves me wondering: Is it an orphanage thing? an adoption thing? a Marley thing?. . . .

She is a joy and a little turkey at the same time, but mostly she's an amazing girl who squeezes as much playtime, affection and attention out of every day as she deems adequate. And while I won't pretend that having three kids is easy (too many of my loyal readers would call my bluff on that anyway), I know without a doubt that getting to be her Mama, giving her brothers the gift of growing up with a sister, and her Daddy the gift of having a little girl who thinks he's the bees knees--these things will sustain me through those days that leave me yearning for more and less all at the same time.

For my friends who read my posts on facebook only, click on 'see original post' so that you will be able to view the videos.

Holiday Picture Bloopers

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:29:00 +0000
Following is a random sampling of the pictures that did NOT make it onto this year's Huffman family Christmas card. Please feel free to laugh at our expense!

Mom watches bratty eldest child after Dad huffs glue:

Eldest child gets one naughty face closer to a big twisty arm pinch from Mom:

Forlorn children sit with Mom who somehow gained 30 pounds for this one picture and Dad who suffers sudden intestinal distress:

Last attempt before nightfall on photo shoot Day 1; coincides with eldest son's only genuine smile of the day:

Two youngest children accept bribe; oldest does not; parents think of ways to exact revenge:

Sunglasses anyone?

Duh. . .

"One" silly picture before we get serious; day 1 of photo attempts; taken by 82 year old grandpa known as Big Ole Bob:

Another gem by B.O.B.:

Boys do what they do best--take rearview self-portraits:

Middle child exerts authority and takes charge of remote button; eldest and youngest seen in typical form:

Cocoa and Climbing and Christmas. . .Oh My!

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:05:00 +0000
Cocoa With an inch or two of snow on the ground and the kids' first official 'snow day' (actually, a 2 hour early dismissal), I felt inspired to search for a "from scratch" kind of cocoa recipe last night. And, lord, did I find it! My only regret was giving it to the kids right before bedtime--poor Casey was awake until 11:00. Thank goodness for this morning's 2 hour delay; he happily snuggled deeper under his blankets and slept past 9:00. Without further delay, here is the recipe (makes 3 servings):
What you'll need:
3 cups milk
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate grated (we used mini morsels)
1 tablespoon white sugar (we used 2 tablespoons powdered)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg
What you'll do:
1. Nuke milk for 2 minutes.
2. Stir in chocolate, sugar, cinnamon.
3. Whisk egg until totally smooth and add to the mixture.
4. Nuke for 3-4 minutes until foamy (don't boil).
5. Whisk again and poor into mugs.
6. Enjoy! (preferrably several hours before bedtime!)

Climbing
Keller climbed in his second competition on Saturday, the 11th. He had a case of jitters this time around, as the competition was run very differently from the last one, and he had to have peers watch him and sign off on his climbs. But he's a natural climber and he did an awesome job of getting up the walls! Here's a video of him climbing one of the easier climbs of the day. For this route/problem, he had to climb using the holds taped with white for his hands, and any foot holds. The tougher climbs of the day aren't video taped because his mom was too busy fretting and ringing my hands to remember to pull the camera out!

Christmas
With an inch or so of the white stuff on the ground, snow boots drying by the door, and me running from store to store like a lunatic---it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! Some of my favorite parts of this year's Christmas countdown so far:
* Casey and I had a "date" last Sunday to go shopping for his brother and sister. When he came down from bed in the morning, he had on a collared shirt--commonly known around here as a "school picture shirt." I asked why he was fancied up and he very shyly said, "I thought it would look nice for our date." Be still my heart. Someone is going to be very lucky some day when he turns his little romantic heart in her direction. Off we went to watch the Steelers game and have lunch (during which he kept innocently yelling "Go, black guys" despite my gentle prompting to call them "Steelers" instead), and to Toys R Us where the masses were huddled; with my sweet boy in his collared shirt.
*We've started a "12 Days of Christmas Huffman Family Game Night Challenge" around here. So far, many rounds of Toy Story Yahtzee, Kerplunk, Monopoly Jr. and Shut the Box have been played. We missed last night (too busy enjoying our delish cocoa), but I'm not allowing myself too much guilt over it. This is a new tradition for our family, and I think it's okay to flub up a bit in the beginning ;)
*The kids had a two hour delay this morning (only in the WDC metro area would this dusting of snow qualify as delay-worthy!) so Dave had Keller and Marley out in the yard making snow piles while Casey caught up on missed sleep. Something about seeing everyone bundled up out there just makes things feel 'right' as we get closer to Christmas.

Saturday Night Fever at the Huffman House

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:08:00 +0000

Thanksgiving, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:23:00 +0000
Phase 2 of "Turkey Day, Huffman-style" included a pinch of this:

a dash of this:

a sprinkle of this:

and a few glasses of yummy wine mixed with sparkling blueberry goodness:

All while (Dave and?) I worked on this:

Our first "solo family" Thanksgiving was (mainly) a success. We had one minor glitch in the stuffing department, but I'm all for letting go and moving on. So many hours spent walking around in an apron, feeling all Martha Stewart-y. . .and now it's all over!

On our kids' thankful lists:

Keller. . ."bread, in all of its forms"
Casey. . . "TV! Oh, and Keller"
Marley very sweetly named all of us, and her grandparents. Then gave a whopper fake burp to end her sentiment. That's my girl!

We had two unfortunate losses in the family today. While I cooked away, unaware of her actions, Marley apparently tried to teach her Zhu-Zhu pets to swim. RIP, you noisy rodents:

Thanksgiving, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 16:22:00 +0000
Our little crew decided to spend Thanksgiving at home this year, with just the five of us. It's barely noon and we've already made a few memories that will last a life time, for better or worse ;)

My cooking assistants: (Casey would not participate because he is sad about turkeys being killed. We thought we had a budding vegetarian in the family, until I reminded him that his much beloved bacon comes from a pig, and that said pig does not tend to live through the experience of having the bacon removed!)

Our berry crumb pie "after" picture ("after" Marley pulled it off the counter and dropped it onto Juno's food and water bowls):

Keller is known to be an out-of-the-box thinker. Not so much this morning:

Stay tuned. . .

Just pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Holly) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:20:00 +0000
I've got lots of pictures, but not lots of time to write, so enjoy the photos and brief, yet fascinating captions, from the past two weeks!

Marley, my sister, my mom and I went to Berkeley Springs, WV for the weekend to celebrate a milestone birthday for my mom. Marley never figured out that the weekend wasn't actually meant to be a celebration for HER ;)

Casey's kindergarten class took a trip to Ticonderoga Farm

We took our annual family trip to Cox Farms Fall Festival, where I tried unsuccessfully to take a nice picture of all 3 kids smiling and looking at the camera. Why do I even try?!

We took a hike out at SNP Saturday and were rewarded with awesome views from the top, an incredible sunset, and an amazing and exciting encounter with a baby black bear! Don't worry, we were safely inside the van and happened to spot it in the woods, just 20 feet or so away from the road.

Anyone who knows Keller knows he loves to go vertical. Yesterday I searched the house for him, sure that his silence meant he was sneaking screen time somewhere. And then I spotted him. I'm going to require him to wear his climbing gear 24/7.

Alfred E. Neuman, a stealthy ninja, and a very sassy cheerleader descended upon the neighborhood last night for trick-or-treat.

Marley earned her entrance into Stitch Club last night after an excited post-trick-or-treat dash into the living room that ended with eyebrow-to-coffee table contact. We snuggled on a bed in the ER and watched the Steelers game together for two hours. I can't believe we made it 8 years with no stitches in the family--just hoping that her brothers don't rush to join this particular club!