The Glass Family

The Glass Family

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Silhouette Giveaway!

Just a heads-up to those who follow my blog!

The blog The DIY Show Off is having a Silhouette giveaway! For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a great machine that is used to cut out different shapes and pictures you can use to do just about any craft. The best part is you don't need a cartridge to get the shapes like a Cricut. You can create your own images with the software provided or you can download images from the internet. I've been wanting one for a long time, so of course I entered the drawing.

Head on over and enter! Here is the link.

This is a great blog full of fun craft ideas. Even if you don't enter, you should check it out!

The DIY Show Off

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Warm weather, skateboards, and the writing on the wall

This past week has been a good one. Busy, but good. George is still "enjoying" his Trauma surgery rotation but is looking forward to a rotation that does not require him to make rounds in the hospital at 4:30 a.m. every morning. He loves what he's doing, but the crazy schedule is wearing him pretty thin. We don't get to see much of him, either, but we try to make the most of it and have our sights set one week from now when this rotation is officially over!

The boys and I have tried to stay busy and not fall into our regular trap of turning on the TV to fill the time. 

Every morning while I cook breakfast and clean up the dishes, it's always interesting trying to keep Jude entertained while still getting the work done. One morning, he was playing with the pots and pans and discovered a new hiding place:
Yeah, don't look too closely at our cupboards. After I took this picture and looked at it, I spent the next 15 minutes scrubbing all the doors and handles. There is only so much you can do to improve these "lovely" cabinets (most of the drips you see are permanently in the finish), but at least they are now clean!

The boys played Legos together (Lance is getting much better at being patient with Jude)...

 ...and even built forts out of couch cushions! 

This is one of Jude's favorite things. For his Birthday he got this great tube that folds down to a small disc. He will find it and carry it around and beg you to open it so he can crawl through. It's really cute and keeps him happy for a long time. Best gift ever!


Lance and I have been trying to do a little school each morning and work on reading and writing and a little math. We do okay for the most part, but it's been difficult trying to find ways to teach that will captivate Lance's attention while still getting the point across. This morning we tried something new to practice writing our letters and it turned out to be a lot of fun! 

We wrote on the wall.

Okay, we wrote on the sliding glass door with dry erase markers, but for the destructive little guy that's bottled up inside of Lance begging to come out, it might as well have been the wall. He LOVED it!
 I would write words or letters and he would read them and then write the word himself. We did letters, we did numbers, we did math. Lance smiled and laughed and thought this was just the greatest thing ever! It lasted for a long time... 

About 20 minutes.
And we were done.
(And if you're wondering why Lance is wearing shorts on the bottom AND the top, he wanted to. It's his "Indian clothes" as he calls them. Not terribly PC, but whatever.)


The weather has been unseasonably warm for the past couple days so we have all had a great time playing outside. I LOVE this time of year. So much energy and fun.

Lance, Jabrien, Killian and Kendall found an old skateboard over by the dumpster a couple days ago and spend a good hour riding it down the hill behind our friend's apartment.
 Killian

 Jude scooting down the hill

Killian rolling down the hill backwards... brave boy!

My boys having a great time in the warm afternoon.

Trying to stand while going down the hill...

The kids experimented rolling down the hill in different ways to determine which was the most fun.

Jude was content to just walk around and hang out. He loves being outside!

Lance and Jabrien

Weee!


Today the weather was even nicer and we spent a large chunk of the afternoon playing on the playground with our friends.

I love this series of pictures. Jude and Bo walked over to this little bench and ate their lollipops sitting next to each other. It was so cute! They are great buddies and have a great time playing together. We are lucky to have such good friends that live so close.

Lance wanted to swing in the baby swing for some reason, but was quite content to swing and eat his own lollipop. Silly boy!

Jude and Olivia

Jude loves climbing all over the jungle gym now and thinks he's one of the big boys.

Some of the many friends we were playing with.

 Lance being a monkey.

Crazy boy!

It was wonderful to be outside enjoying the warm weather for the first time in months! Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's! I can't wait!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

How you know you're married to a Med Student...

1.  When you empty out his pockets before doing laundry, you find gauze, alcohol prep pads and even sutures instead of coins and receipts

2.  When you’re out with friends (who are, of course, other students), the topic of conversation inevitably turns to what rotation they are currently on, the different patients they’ve seen, and how the medical system is ultimately flawed.

3.  Even when he’s participated in a code where the patient didn’t make it, he still comes home and talks about how cool it was to see them crack open a chest right there in the ED and manually pump the heart.

4.  He’s gone around 4:30 a.m. every morning to round on patients.

5.  He’s usually home for dinner, but asleep before the kids.

6.  More often than not, Saturday and Sunday mornings find you alone with the kids while he’s off at the hospital.

7.  He spends the night before a different rotation begins moaning about how terrible it will be and how much he’ll hate it, but then afterwards can’t stop talking about how great it was and how much he enjoyed it.

8.  What he wants to do “when he grows up” changes with each rotation.

9.  He sheepishly asks to celebrate Valentine's Day in a couple weeks when his Trauma Surgery rotation is over and he's not a zombie and you can't be even a little disappointed because you know how tired he is and how hard he's been working.

10.  You spend a good amount of time each night telling him he’s almost done, being tired does not mean you’re going to die, that he really does like medicine, and we will all survive to reach residency.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Chinese New Year!

This year we celebrated Chinese New Year with George's family up in Ashburn. We usually get together at his Uncle's house, but this year they decided to celebrate at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. It was lots of fun to be with so many family members and the best part? We got to enjoy tasty food and no one had to cook or clean! Score!

 "Bean paste...Yum!"

Chicken on a stick--you just can't beat it. (Bryce)

Yeah, I'm not really sure what Lance is eating, but at least he likes it.

Dueling chopsticks

Most of the gang

Jude discovered that not only is Jell-O great for eating, it's great for making as big a mess as possible.

The rest of the group. Don't you love kids? (I love Eric's face in the background as he checks on Callie.)

The kids filling the time while the adults talked. Those iPod Touches come in handy!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Dinner Conversation--an interesting perspective

Me: "Lance, I like it when you eat your dinner... it makes me feel good to know you're going to grow and not shrink." 

[blank stare from Lance]

Me: "Do you think people can shrink?"

Lance: "Yeah, if they're really old."

Me: "That's true--when you're really old you do shrink some."

Lance: "I think Grandmom is, like, 100."

Me: "Wait... Grandma or Grandmom?"

Lance: "GrandMOM".

Me: "No she isn't. Why do you think that?"

Lance:  [matter-of-factly] "Well, she's really small..."





About a week ago, George and I were talking while the boys got ready for bed and George mentioned that someone at work said that when he smiled, his eyes lit up. We both made a few more comments on the subject when Lance walked up, looked at George's face and told him to smile. Then I hear Lance's voice from across the room:

"It doesn't look like your eyes are glowing to me."

Friday, February 4, 2011

Walking boy, "Ba-na-na", and old pictures

A couple quick family updates!

First, Jude is officially walking! Yay! A couple weeks ago he was walking a step or two between things, but one day he got up in the middle of the floor and started "practicing" taking steps. By the end of the day he was pretty much walking all by himself! Good job, Jude!

Jude has learned a new word: banana. It's super cute to hear him say it: "ba-na-Na". He knows exactly what it means and has subsequently received several bananas for a snack this week. I can't believe how fast kids learn.

George was able to rescue the hard drive from my old computer and I now have access to all my old pictures of when Lance was little. Here are a few treasures I found:

Lance's Blessing Day

9 months old at New Smyrna Beach, FL

9 months old--4 generations!

First Mother's Day!

9 months old at the beach

12 months old.

13 months old (he's loving on Mr. Knightley)

About 18 months old

18 months old

Helping make Grandma's Birthday cake. 18 months old.

The rest are when he's about 2 years old:
Puppies!

Needless to say, I'm so excited to have these pictures back! I even have pictures of George when he was a kid:


And me:


And us together!

 2001

 2001

 2000

 2000

 2001

 2000

2000

Fun memories!