I went in for an ultrasound today so they could figure out exactly how far along I am. It turns out I am 8 weeks along today, which makes my due date April 12. I got to hear the babies heart beat and see a few images of the tiny baby who is starting to form little arm and leg “buds” and is about the size of a kidney bean. The sonographer said everything looks healthy and great, so we are happy for the good news.
Zoe Laughing, originally uploaded by J Webeck.
This is just a cute video of Zoë laughing as I tickle her with my chin and give her kisses. This is about a month old – from when we were in Austin. I’ve really missed my mac mini.
While we were in Kansas (for about 3 weeks), visiting my parents, we discovered Veggie Tales on Netflix Instant Play. It was quite a hit with Aurora as you will see in this video.
This will have to be fairly brief since it’s past my 10:30 bedtime, but I didn’t want this day to pass without sharing some of our fun and adventure from today. The day started out with a trip to the local train museum here in Atchison, KS. Surprisingly enough, we never visited the museum, even with all the time we spent here during Sean’s deployment. But Aurora is now old enough to enjoy it, so we went and had a good time exploring the old trains from the Atchsion, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads. We also made a brief visit to the Atchison History museum while we waited for a train to come by and squish some pennies I put on the railroad tracks for souvenirs. After the train came by, Mom noticed some birds pecking at what appeared to be a very big worm in the grass. It turned out to be a baby snake which we rescued from the birds and moved to a safer location. I’d never seen a snake like this one – it was grey and silver on top with an orange belly. It was so soft and smooth. I’m not really sure why I like reptiles as much as I do, but I guess I always have.
Anyway, mom mentioned her neighbor across the Missouri river who takes her up occasionally in his little two-seater planes. She said that she can take as many aerial pictures as she wants, and he won’t charge her for the flight, but she can’t sell any of the pictures she takes. This got me very interested in the possibility of going up for a ride as well, so she gave him a call. A few hours later his wife called us back and said he’d be willing to take me up right after he ate lunch. Mom had just left for Leavenworth, so I had to find a babysitter quick. Luckily the neighbors right next door were kind enough to watch them while I went for a ride. He took me up in his Cesna which is the smallest plane I’ve ever flown in. (By the way, I have plenty of pictures from today, but my card reader is with Sean on his way to CA. We will be joining him on Friday.) He took me up and showed me all the main sights of Atchison, flew me right down the Missouri river, past my parents house a couple of times while I leaned out the window and snapped pictures of everything, including the Amelia Earhart Earthwork (a land mural portrait of the famous pilot) which can only be seen from the sky. You can see it at this link: http://www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org/
He offered to fly further down the river to check out some other things, but by this point I was getting more than a little air sick. At first I just told him that I didn’t feel the need to go see more, but I didn’t want to tell him it was because I was feeling queasy. It wasn’t until we were just moments from landing that I knew I had to tell him because I didn’t think I’d make it until we landed. Unfortunately, I was right. I told him just in time, and happily, he was prepared with barf bags behind his seat. He grabbed one, opened it up and handed it to me just in time for me to use it. I felt immediate relief for my stomach, but I was definitely a bit embarrassed. He was quick to offer comfort, saying that “It happens to all of us,” and “if you haven’t flown in a while, you’re more likely to get air sick”. That helped me feel somewhat better. Overall though, I felt incredibly lucky to have had such a unique opportunity to go flying. It really was a great day for me. I also had a really nice visit with our neighbors (and future in-laws of theirs who were visiting) when I brought some cookies over as a “thank you” for babysitting my girls. I probably ended up staying 45 minutes or so, and while I was there I learned that Okinawa, Japan is an awesome place that I need to add to my travel wish-list. So now I have Turkey, and Okinawa, Japan on that wish list.
So much for a short post. 
I’ve joked with Sean on a number of occasions that we will be forever known as the family who makes plans and breaks them. Well, many of you know that we are not yet out in California. We are, however, in the process of packing up from Austin (where we’ve been residing with Sean’s family temporarily) in preparation for our move out to California. Our current goal is to be heading up to Kansas for about 2 – 3 weeks and then to drive from there to California (to be there by the middle of May). Sean will then be flying back to Austin, loading up the U-haul truck and driving it out to California. In a previous post I mentioned that we’ll be staying in a small two-bedroom apartment right near the beach. Well, that plan changed as well, but for the better I believe. We won’t be quite as close to the beach, but we will be in a larger – 3 bedroom duplex (or maybe it’s a single family dwelling – not sure on that yet), for less than we were going to pay for the tiny apartment. So that’ll be really good for us and give the girls more room to play in (and our own backyard). Hopefully we’ll be able to stick with these plans and we won’t have too many more obstacles to overcome before making it out there. It’s been quite an adventure.
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is the first time I’ve ever just read a Shakespeare play for my own enjoyment as opposed to for a class assignment. I was afraid the language would make it difficult to get into, but with the help of the notes about the less-known words on the left-side pages, it turned out to be quite an enjoyable (and fast) read. My favorite part of course is the very end when the Shrew has been tamed and turns to the other newly-wedded brides and very eloquently explains the duties of a wife to her husband. This is just a part of her soliloquy at the end of the book that I like so much:”Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee, And for thy maintenance commits his body To painful labor both by sea and land, To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, Whilst though liest warm at home, secure and safe, And craves no other tribute at thy hands But love, fair looks, and true obedience- Too little payment for so great a debt. Such duty as the subject owes the prince, Even such a woman oweth to her husband; And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, And not obedient to his honest will, What is she but a foul contending rebel And graceless traitor to her loving lord? I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace, Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.”
Since I didn’t really talk about A Thomas Jefferson Education in my last post, and since Abby requested it, I have written this review for the book.
This book talks about the necessity of having an education (for ourselves, our children or our students) which will prepare us for the eventual time when we will be called as leaders. It might be in our home, our community, or the government. When that time comes, a mediocre education will not be enough. Leadership Education, which he refers to as a “Thomas Jefferson Education” teaches students how to think and prepares them to be leaders. This is done primarily through the use of mentors and classics both which are meant to inspire the student to educate himself.
I really enjoyed reading this book as it has help me see not only how inadequate my own “education” really was, but it has inspired me to want to take a much more active role in educating myself and that of my children. I never was a reader growing up and I rarely finished a book even if it was required reading for a class, but I have started reading books from his list of classics and recommended readings (ok, I just finished my second so far), and I can’t get enough of it. I hardly want to put the books down. I love the lessons I’m learning and the knowledge I’m gaining as I’m reading these books and I’m excited to start sharing my thoughts from these books as well.
I recently purchased and read the Thomas Jefferson Education which has inspired me to want to read more books that are considered “Classics”. In his book, Oliver Van DeMille has a few lists of books he recommends as classics. The first one I decided to read was The Lonesome Gods by Louis L’Amour. Here’s what I put in my review on Good Reads which I finally decided to join, now that I’m finally becoming more of a “reader”.
Oh, and for any of you TJEd fans, check out the Thomas Jefferson Education Consortium. It looks to be a good discussion board for the classics, among other things mentioned in his book.
The Lonesome Gods by Louis L’Amour
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was the first western I’ve ever read (at least as best I can recall), and probably one of the longer books I’ve read. I wouldn’t have chosen it other than it was the only book the library had of the 5 classics I was looking for suggested from the Thomas Jefferson Education. It was surprisingly good and had many great nuggets of wisdom. Here are my favorite quotes (with page numbers at the beginning of each quote):
115 – Johannes’s dad – “How young is too young to begin to discover the power and the beauty of words? Perhaps he will not understand, but there is a clash of shields and a call of trumpets in those lines. One cannot begin too young nor linger too long with learning….People, I think, read too much to themselves; they should read aloud from time to time to hear the language, to feel the sounds. “Homer told his stories accompanied by the lyre, and it was the best way, I think, to tell such stories. Men needed stories to lead them to create, to build, to conquer, even to survive, and without them the human race would have vanished long ago. Men strive for peace, but it is their enemies that give them strength, and I think if man no longer had enemies, he would have to invent them, for his strength only grows from struggle….My friend, I do not know what else Ishall leave my son, but if I have left him a love of language, of literature, a taste for Homer, for thte poets, the people who have told our story – and by ‘our’ I mean the story of mankind – then he will have legacy enough.
164 – Fraser – “Listen to the men who come here. Listen well. Education is by no means confined to schools. Listen to such men talk, hear their philosophy, their ideas about the country, about business, trade, shipping, politics. Listen and learn. Some people only learn by reading, others by doing or seeing, some by hearing. Learn however you can, but learn!”165 – Mr. Fraser – “Actually, all education is self-education. A teacher is only a guide, to point out the way, and no school, no matter how excellent, can give you an education. What you receive is like the outlines in a child’s coloring book. You must fill in the colors yourself. I hope, in these classes to give you an idea of where you came from, how you got here, and what has been said about it.”
173 – Miss Nesselrode – “Neither age nor size makes a man, Johannes. It is willingness to accept responsibility.”
175 – Miss Nesselrode – “Our Constitution provides that no law shall forbid us from keeping and bearing arms because of the necessity for a militia. We have a militia of a sort, but our greatest strength lies in the fact that so many of our people not only possess weapons but also understand their use, and above all they are prepared to defend themselves against any sudden attack by an enemy. You will remember that we won our freedom because we were armed. We were not a simple peasantry unused to weapons. The men who wrote our Constitution knew our people would be safe as long as they were armed.”
177 – Fraser – “You are history. Do not think of history as something remote that concerns only king, queens, and generals. It concerns you…You and your families march across the pages of history, and often he who plows a furrow is of more importance than he who leads an army. The army can destroy, the furrow can feed…Each of you is a part of what is happening here. Do not think you can sit idly by while it grows to a great city, as it assuredly will. A city is made up of citizens, and citizens are so called because they inhabit a city, and if they will, can direct its destiny.”
211 – Johannes – “No individual completely acquires the experience of another, but if even a small part may be carried over to the next generation, much time can be saved. In technical ways, methods of working and such, knowledge has been passed on, but too few have learned from experience. I remembered my father once saying that perhaps in the future some device might be constructed to which all historical knowledge could be fed, particularly all knowledge of government, of diplomacy, of statecraft, and then this device might tell us what mistakes have been continually made and what situations to avoid. Men have passed on the knowledge of how to mix cement, lay brick, splice a line, navigate a ship, make steel, and dozens of other crafts, yet in politics, statecraft and social relationships we continue to repeat old mistakes.
242 – Johannes – “We are nothing until we make ourselves something…I do not know what I shall be except that I wish to be something, to be someone…what I wish is to be complete in myself.” Ramon – “Not too complete – to be too complete is often to be lonely. A man needs a woman, and a woman a man. It is the way of things.”
246 – Ramon – “Do you think this Tahquitz a monster?”Johannes – “No, he reads. No one who reads can quite be a monster. Or, perhaps he is only partially a monster.”Ramon – “I cannot read.”Johannes – “But you think, and you listen.”
328 – Miss Nesselrode – “Human relationships are often fragile, they need to be nurtured until they can put down roots, and Johannes is one of the most complete human beings I have known…What you must understand is that Johannes does not need anyone.”Meghan – “Then what chance would there be for me?”Miss N – “I said he did not need anyone. I did not say that he did not want someone. He told me once that happiness was born a twin, that it must be shared.”
336 – Johannes – “Great wealth had never been one of my ambitions. It was more important for me to become a good human being, and to learn, for there was so much to learn, from the Cahuillas, from the desert and mountains, from books, and from the people around me.”
341 – Johannes – “They rode forth to battle without a flag except that flown by their own courage, loyal to the last fiber of their being, and strong with the knowledge that if men are to survive upon the earth there must be law, and there must be justice, and all men must stand together against those who would strike at the roots of what men have so carefully built….We have hedged ourselves round with law, for we know that if man is to survive it must be through cooperative effort.”
342 – Johannes – “If man is to vanish from the earth, let him vanish in the moment of creation, when he is creating something new, opening a path to the tomorrow he may never see. It is man’s nature to reach out, to grasp for the tangible on the way to the intangible.”
I just finished this 8×10 of Aurora for the 12 months of 2009, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share it and explain what we’re up to right now.
I know I’ve totally been slacking on the blog, but I have been very busy working to prepare for our upcoming move to Monterey, CA. Yes, we’ve not only made a firm decision, but we’ve even paid our security deposit for our apartment, and paid school fees to get in. We’re totally excited about getting out of the army and going to live in Monterey. It is where we met after all, and it’s probably one of the most beautiful places in the United States and maybe even the world. It’s definitely a bit magical for us. We’re lucky enough to have found a place right on the beach. We don’t exactly have a view of the beach because we’re on the first floor, but it’s literally about 100 feet from our apartment to the beach. It’s also got a great jogging path right next to it, and a bike path that Sean can use to get to school. He’ll be doing the Arabic Summer Intensive Language Program starting in June (and I’m also toying with the idea of doing it one of the three summers we hope to be in Monterey), and then he will start the Masters program in International Policy in Fall.
So I guess that about catches us up as far as our plans go. We will be packing to leave in less than one month and we should arrive in Monterey the first week of March if all goes according to our plans.
Here’s a link to the google map of surfiside apartments. And here’s a screen capture of the satellite view of the apartments.
I might’ve exaggerated a little. It’s probably about 200 feet to the beach. But who’s counting?
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