Forgive the hiatus on our blog!  We have big plans to turn this into an active blog now that things have stabilized for our family. For those interested, what follows is a brief recounting of the events during the past year.

April 22, 2009: Arlie’s pregnancy itching worried her doctors enough to do a stress test and draw her blood. We went home thinking things were fine, but later that day Arlie received a call from them indicating what we had most feared– the itching was a symptom of cholestasis, where the bile salts of the liver come through the muscle, causing the intense itching. They told her to go right away to Akron General Hospital to have more testing done. We arrived there for what was supposed to be a couple hours’ monitoring, but further tests indicated that it would be best to keep Arlie under constant monitoring and deliver the baby early, because her condition was associated with a high risk of stillbirth. She was 33 weeks pregnant at that point. The doctors gave Arlie steroid shots to accelerate baby’s lung maturity.

April 23, 2009: Arlie had another ultrasound to check up on baby boy, but the technician and doctor noticed an anomaly that was not present at the 20 week ultrasound: a shifted heart. They took Arlie into another room with a more sophisticated ultrasound machine, and it showed them that baby has a diaphragmatic hernia: a hole in baby’s diaphragm that allows bowel, stomach, and other organs to come up into the chest cavity. This was a very difficult day for us. A Muslim doctor came into our room to tell us all of the things that could go wrong: mortality rates are high for this condition, and even if he lived he’d be on a ventilator, or possibly even ECMO (a sophisticated, and very invasive, way to oxygenate the baby’s blood).

April 24-May 13, 2009: Arlie is on bed rest with constant monitoring in her hospital room for the next three weeks, with daily bio-physical profiles on the baby. Meanwhile, Isaac has to take care of the dogs at home, study for law school finals, and stay with his sick wife and baby at the hospital. We get visits from family and friends, and we pray, trying to trust God– that He will work all things to His glory and give us the Grace to bear whatever happens. At this point we had tied a sacred relic from the Athonite monastery of Vatopedi around Arlie’s belly. It was a strip of cloth which has itself been placed upon the holy belt of the Mother of God which is kept there. This particular relic had come to us a couple months before the ordeal had begun– a friend who had stayed on Mt. Athos for three months spent a night with us on his way up to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. He gave us that little relic and a stone from the Holy Mountain. All this time, our priests were coming to visit us along with Church family. Our team of doctors met with us every day. The plan was to keep waiting, keep monitoring the baby. They wanted to keep him in as long as it remained safe to do so, to give his lungs a chance to develop. There were positive signs all along– the fact that the condition hadn’t been noticed at 20 weeks was a good sign that his lungs had had the chance to develop somewhat before the condition. Isaac managed to pass all of his finals, having studied for the most part in the spare bed next to Arlie’s, in a double room which the nurses had kept as a single for us, out of their deep kindness and generosity.

May 14, 2009: The doctors all agreed that the best thing was to induce labor in the morning and get the baby out.  Arlie’s labor was difficult– the pitocin was brutal on her and the contractions were painfully intense. Once it was time to push, though, he was out in only three pushes! We saw him come out and he made a little cry.  The doctors and nurses took him into the next room where the team was doing all sorts of things to stabilize him. Arlie was wheeled back into another room where we wait and wait to see him. Our priest had given us his blessing to baptize him if he was born alive, since his situation was so serious.  His godfather, David, was there with us when they finally wheeled his big incubation transport thing into our room. He was hooked up to so many things!   Isaac used a bottle of holy water, baptizing with three little pourings on the head and the invocation of the Holy Trinity after the Orthodox manner (immersion was of course out of the question). Many of the team had come into the room to watch, and many people were crying.

Robby was then taken to Akron Children’s Hospital NICU, and Arlie had to stay in her bed to recover to make sure her liver condition was resolved. Isaac and David, after getting Arlie settled back into her room, went to see the baby boy.

May 15-18, 2009: Robert’s condition continued to improve. His blood oxygen levels were so good that they began to allow him to breath room air through the ventilator, and started to talk about when to do his surgery.   The minimum time they wait for anyone with this condition is five days– which is all they waited for Robby.

May 19, 2009: Surgery in the morning. Isaac’s mother flew in from St. Louis to see the baby, along with his sister, brother-in-law , and their baby boy.  The surgeon comes back to us in the waiting room after three hours– it was succesful! He went through it with flying colors, and the hole was a mere four centimeters. This allowed the surgeon– once he had put the stomach and bowels back in the abdomen– to simply sew it up without the use of a gortex patch. That means his chances of re-herniation are much lower than they would have otherwise been. They also removed his appendix, a standard procedure in this situation, and LADS– a procedure where they correct the mal-rotation of his intestines. Isaac, unable to contain himself, hugs the surgeon.

Incidentally this day was not done with troubles for us. On our way back to the NICU from a brief return home we were rear-ended by a man driving a Lexus, going about 30 miles an hour, trying to make it through the yellow light. Robby of course was still in the hospital– thank God– because we’re hit hard.  The man was kind and apologetic, however.  His insurance paid for our car’s repair, our rental car, and a replacement for the car seat which we had just installed that day.

May 23, 2009: Our priest and his matushka came to visit and pray the Eighth Day naming prayers over Robert. This was still the Paschal season for us Orthodox, so as we venerate the Cross, he greeted us with “Christ is Risen,” to which we say, “Indeed He is Risen!” Fr. Nicholas placed the Cross up next to Robert’s incubation crib and said, “Christ is Risen!” to which Robert immediately replied with a huge kick!  That’s our boy!

May 24, 2009: Arlie’s 26th birthday. She’s been out of the hospital herself now for several days and we’re constantly over at the NICU. We actually stay at the hospital’s family center for a few nights because Zac’s mother and sister were both staying at the little apartment, getting it ready and buying stuff for baby (we had canceled our baby showers once Arlie had been hospitalized). Family eventually leaves and we get to stay in our own bed, while visiting Robert at the hospital all day.

We should also mention at this point that the Muslim doctor came to us during rounds with his medical team. Whereas once he had been the grim bearer of sad news, he was now all smiles. He told us, “The prayers are working!” Undeniably they were. Robert continued to recover, eventually allowing us to hold him. He loses his ventilator and one by one his medicines are weaned. At this point we know we’re going to get him home and we have to watch all of these videos in the NICU about caring for the baby.

June 2, 2009: Robert comes home! We waited 21 days since his birth for this! Our little Crabtree-sprout sure had changed our lives!

July 12, 2009: This is the Sunday when Robert was “churched” along with Arlie. For him, this involved everything but baptism– prayers, chrismation, communion. There was a little bit more of a waiting period than usual because of his being medically fragile. He had gotten MRSA on a bed sore while paralyzed in the hospital, which was cured with strong antibiotics. Isaac’s sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came up for it, along with Arlie’s sister and father. Our parish threw us a lavish shower afterward, since Arlie’s hospitalization had cancelled her earlier planned ones.

Late August 2009: What seemed at first to be a stomach virus for Robby turned out to be something more serious: scar tissue had developed in his intestines from the surgery and these several blockages prevented him from keeping any food down.  His surgery is performed by the same great surgeon that had corrected the hernia, and just as before he recovered very quickly thanks to everyone’s prayers.

September 2009: The family moves to St. Louis, now that Isaac had finished law school.  However, we soon get more tragic news: Arlie’s mother has stage IV breast cancer that had moved to various other parts of her body.  She began chemotherapy shortly after diagnosis and she continues to show improvement, but the doctors were clear that such a course of action was not a cure.

To present day: Now that we’re all in St. Louis, Isaac studies everyday for the Missouri Bar Exam in February.  Little Robby is doing great… his doctors here are absolutely amazed at how healthy he is– 98th-percentile in weight (this after having spent a month of his life in hospitals on artificial nutrition) and 75th-percentile in height.  He laughs and smiles, sits up, rolls over, can almost crawl, and has begun to mimic syllables.

Glory to God for His great and rich mercy toward us.  We’re back at our old parish in St. Louis, a thriving community (we mean it– lots of young families– the children now outnumber the adults) under the Russian Church Abroad.  We look forward to making this blog an active one, and we ask our few readers’ forgiveness for the long hiatus.  Below are a few photos from this previous year.

Robby and I made this little Santa hat for Peanut to wear, but Cori said it looked more like a dunce cap.  She only wore it for about 2 minutes, but that was long enough to get this picture -

Capshun by Kevin

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Years ago, my buddy and I had friends that would go to SkyBox Bar & Grill in North Glendale. It was a restaurant that turned into a bar scene at night. Always a great place to hang out, not! Seemed okay at the time but now that I think about it, it really wasn’t that cool. It was actually gross most of the time.

OK…here’s what was gross on one occasion I was there.

If you were there at night, when it became a bar, you would see things that you couldn’t understand. I remember going into the bathroom stall only to find nastiness. There was not only puke all over the toilet and ground but there was also crap, as well. Here’s what I want to know….which came first?? Was it so bad when someone walked in that they just had to throw up? Or, was it the opposite – did someone see the throw-up and not care and sat down to go anyways? Or, is there a 3rd option – was it one person who did both??

Extra gross….

There wasn’t even any toilet paper in the toilet, the holder, anywhere!!! How gross can we get, really, how gross? It’s probably the same kind of person that doesn’t wash their hands and walks out the door back into the world. Be careful to shake hands at SkyBox – or any night time venue for that matter.

Sorry for all the grossness – I typically don’t share stuff this gross.

Any gross stories to share, feel free!

Yesterday I picked up my friends 5-year-old son from school along with my daughter.   Robby gets along quite well with younger kids, so he and Elijah were having a great time together before we left for church.  I overheard some discussion involving a gold tooth, so I couldn’t resist in the car on the way to church asking what that was about.

Elijah:  Yeah, my Dad has a gold tooth.

Robby:  Nobody gets gold teeth.  Maybe silver, but not gold.  A dentist wouldn’t do that.

Elijah:  Well, he does and I saw it.  Plus he told me.

Robby:  I don’t believe it.

Long pause…

Elijah:  My Mom has screws in her teeth.

Robby:  Screws?  How do you get those on your teeth?

Elijah:  They rot.

I am thinking the gold tooth probably sounds intriguing as one might think it desirable if for nothing but novelty’s sake.  The screws require rotting teeth.  I’m thinking not so much on that one.

Robby has always enjoyed helping out in the kitchen, but lately he has become even more interested.  I am not sure where this is coming from, as he didn’t get any cooking genes from my side of the family.  Nonetheless, he is insisting that one of his possibilities for future employment now include being a “cooker.”

The other night while we were watching TV Robby went into the kitchen and decided to make hot chocolate.  It was discovered that he had poured milk into the tea kettle.  In his mind he figured he could just boil up the milk like we do the water and have a more “authentic” hot chocolate experience.  Needless to say he has a few things to learn in the cooking department.

Yesterday we were talking about Robby enrolling in some kind of homeschool class.  I named off several areas of interest he might have – P.E., art, music, etc.  But what he said he really wanted to do was take a cooking class.  My first thought was, will there be other boys in a cooking class?  I hate to be that way, but I just couldn’t help but wonder how he would feel about that.  So I suggested perhaps if he was interested we could do some cooking here at home.

I was thinking simple, you know, like PB & J or scrambled eggs and the like.  But Robby wanted to go through the recipes in some old cookbooks I had sitting on the kitchen counter.  In the first one he looked at he discovered there was a section on beverages.  When he asked what a bloody Mary was I told him he was in the wrong cookbook.

So I went downstairs and dug out of a box a cookbook that I had when I was probably Robby’s age.  If you are a child of the 70’s you may recognize it -

Robby was enthralled with this cookbook.  He immediately started asking about ingredients, as he is very much about the doing whatever it is he is interested in.

The recipes in the book are so dated, it is just funny to look at the pictures and illustrations.  I particularly got a kick out of the page on etiquette at the dinner table, especially under “Fun at Dinnertime” where we are admonished to only talk about “happy subjects.”  No depressing dialogue allowed at the dinner table.

This morning Robby was up bright and early, as he decided he needed time to make breakfast before starting the school day.  So out came the cookbook and he scanned the pages until he came to French Toast.

“Do we have an egg beater?”

I’m thinking of the carton of Egg Beaters sitting on the shelf in Kroger.  So he had to show me the picture -

Ah, yes, ye olde egg beater.  The word antiquated was the first thing that came to my mind.  “No we don’t have one.  But a fork will work just fine.”

Let’s just say Robby was distressed that we did not possess the proper tools for cooking as demonstrated in this 1960’s cookbook.  It took some convincing that a fork could whip up as mean a French Toast froth as the girl in the picture was making.

I may have to invest in more updated, age-appropriate cooking material…

Well, we finally broke down and went to the pet store on Monday night.  Robby had worked and earned his money and kept his end of the deal, so we had to keep ours.  Of course had I understood how much STUFF Guinea Pigs needed to survive (food, additional hay to eat (necessary for their diet), bedding, water bottle, vitamin C drops so they don’t get scurvy because their bodies don’t produce vitamin C and a “hiding place”), I may have required more monetary input from the would be owner of this little varmint.  Oh well.

I have to say, I didn’t think I was going to be that into a Guinea Pig.  But on a cuteness scale of 1 – 10, she gets a 9.5.

Apparently there are different “breeds” of Guinea Pig, and our little girl is an Abyssinian .  She was by far the smallest of the GP’s at Petco, hence the name “Peanut.”  So far she is really sweet and seems to be settling in just fine.  I think Robby will be very happy with his decision to trade off snake handling for fur cuddling.  I know I will…

Given the option of snakes or small furry rodents, Robby opted for cute and fuzzy.  So last Saturday Robby and his friend from down the street took snakey out to the woods and released him into the wild.  Let’s just say I didn’t shed any tears over the departure.

That afternoon we took Robby to the pet store.  They didn’t have much in their inventory of rodents.  In fact, they only had one gerbil (which is what I had in mind) and after hearing the employees there refer to her as “meanie” I was not much inclined to make a purchase.  So Robby held and stroked every furball in the place until he finally announced he had decided that the guinea pigs had caught his fancy.

This was not what I had expected.  In fact, that wasn’t even on my radar.  Especially when I saw that they cost roughly three times as much as the gerbils.  Dang that meanie.

So we struck a deal.  Robby would need to work and earn at least a portion of the money needed if this was what he wanted to do.  Needless to say, he didn’t waste any time figuring out how to make this happen as quickly as possible.

On Sunday afternoon he worked for 2 hours cleaning up in the backyard and doing other tasks assigned by Tad.  He made some pretty good money for that effort.

On Monday I walked into the kitchen to observe Robby outside cleaning all the windows with glass cleaner.  He was not asked to do this, but I knew what he was up to.  Then he cleaned all the glass in the house, dusted the furniture and wiped the dust from the top of the fan in our living room.  Of course after this burst of industrious behavior came the demand to be paid.  I offered $2 and he was incredulous.  I explained that I thought this was more than generous given the fact that I hadn’t requested the work to be done and that it took him all of 20 minutes to complete these tasks.  He walked away defeated.

On Tuesday morning he announced that he would be going with me out to the office that afternoon as his father had offered him some work out there which would allow him to far exceed his goal.  He had the opportunity to make as much as $54.  When I asked him how he was going to earn this kind of money he said “planting blueberry seeds.”  Hmmm.  Never heard of blueberry “seeds.”  He said Tad had offered him $1 for every seed he planted and that since there were 54, it stood to reason he could make a total of $54.  After talking to Tad I realized what he had said was 54 plants, in one gallon containers planted in a hole which had to be dug out with a shovel.  While Robby was envisioning dropping 54 seeds in the ground in record time, Tad was talking about several hours of somewhat hard labor.

So he has made the money he needs for his new pet, but we have not made the acquisition as of yet.  I am certain we will hear no end of this until the deed is done.

The last few days have been spent trying to learn all we can about snakes.  Not having a CLUE what to do with one, I turned to the internet as a source of education.  That’s when I found Southeastern Reptile Rescue located down in Oak Hill, Georgia.  I emailed the founder and president, Jason Clark, with some questions about our new little friend, along with a picture for a positive ID on this critter.

I got an email back almost immediately from Jason, who sounds like a super nice guy.  He confirmed that we did have, in fact, a rat snake, which would grow to be 7 – 8 feet long.  He gave us some general information about caring for these snakes and then he told me something I had never heard before.  It is apparently illegal to capture or keep in captivity any non-venomous snake that is native to Georgia without a permit.  These permits are only given to wildlife educators in the state of Georgia.  He didn’t think anyone would come knocking down our door over it, but felt like he should let us know what the law says.

Of course we had no idea about this, but I did find this page on the DNR website that lists all the MANY types of species that are illegal to keep in the state of Georgia.  Who’d have thunk such a thing…

Jason offered to give Robby another snake that he had if we decided to get rid of the rat snake.  He said the best all around snake for a beginner would be the Ball Python.  He said that they only grow to about 3 – 4 feet in length and are very docile.

Have you seen one of these things?  They have heads as big as mine.  Docile or not, they still freak me out.

Needless to say, Robby thought this to be a great idea.  Hence commenced the 24 hour snake drama as we tried to decide what to do.

When I talked to my sister this morning on the phone, she suggested maybe Robby could be talked into another kind of pet, something preferably small and furry like a gerbil.

Sooooo, let’s see.  We could either do option A:

Or option B:

So we decided to give Robby the choice.  Guess we’ll see what we end up with.

In an attempt to marry my passion, wine, with my occupation in the construction industry, I began to develop some new concepts in wine storage and display with a focus on: ease of installation, space-conscious design, unique wine buying and stocking options, and a realistic, workable budget.

The real breakthrough for this project came with an inexpensive custom racking design that is versatile in multiple space-saving applications. I paid a one-armed metal fabricator $12 to make a prototype wine rack, and with the completed sample in hand I set out to make it myself.

The project I am sharing with you here is my first official application of my custom wine cubby design. My goal with the cubbies was to create a decorative, unique and affordable way to store and display wine for a customer with little existing space.

I was able to use preexisting knee walls for the cubbies:

With minimal wall space, I was able to frame relatively small boxes, apply stone and slate, install the wine racks and finish with some trim and paint. The entire application took about two days and has an eight bottle holding capacity. What makes the cubby design unique is the ability to lay them out in almost any size, shape, pattern, and bottle capacity on most walls.

Currently, various designs and projects are in the works, including a conversion of a full closet into a wine bar with custom cabinetry, counter space and storage. I will be posting pictures of the progress soon, stay tuned.

-Rob

Contact rwb5150@hotmail.com for more information, or to inquire about adding additional wine storage to your home!

This morning I was putting on my makeup in the front bathroom when my husband came in.  I thought he was here to pick up something he left when he went to work this morning.  But suddenly there was Robby, thrusting a small plastic cage into my face – with a snake inside.

“WHAAAAT????”

Apparently one of Tad’s employees found the baby snake on a job yesterday.  He thought Robby would like it, so he put it in this plastic cage and brought it to the office.  How thoughtful :-|

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like snakes?  That’s probably putting it mildly.  Loathing is likely a more appropriate description of my feelings towards these reptiles.

This one supposedly is a rat snake, non-venomous.  Doesn’t really matter to me – a snake is a snake.  The internet says rat snakes grow to be 42 – 72 inches long.  Do you know how long that is?  I do, because I took out a tape measure so I could see for myself.  Believe me, it’s very long.  Too long.

They typically eat rats (i.e. the name “rat” snake).  Did I mention I hate rats as well?  From the internet -

Rat snakes are primarily known as rodent eaters, however other food preferences do exist. As juveniles, rat snakes eat small lizards, baby mice, and an occasional small frog. Adult rat snakes have a diet mainly consisting of mice and rats, but also include chipmunks, moles, and other small rodents. Adults also eat bird eggs and young. Rat snakes kill their prey by constriction.

Did they say constriction?  It’s bad enough to see that stuff on PBS.   I don’t think I can handle constriction in my living room.

Robby informed me we could probably find some rats under our house.  Let’s not find out.

Last week Robby was begging for a bird because his buddy down the street got one.  At the time I nixed the idea, but birds are not sounding so bad right now.  I would say they beat snakes hands down.

Robby found a snake in our backyard some months ago.  It was a ringneck snake.  It was so tiny I thought the thing was a worm when I first looked at it.  Via Google I learned they only get about 12 inches long, max.  Very small snakes that eat earthworms.  When the thing got away, I felt relieved.  But snakes that are 12 inches long seem more palatable than ones that are 72 inches long.

Let me just say that Robby has not stopped talking for even one minute about this snake.  I don’t know when he has been this excited about something.  I heard him mumbling to  himself  “Definitely showing this to Aaron.  Definitely.”

Aaron has birds.  Wish we had birds.

Then he said something I hadn’t thought of yet.

“Mom, do you think that’s a girl snake?  Cause if it is there might be babies.”

Oh, the sacrifices we Moms make…

I always knew Robby had a negative bent in his personality, which we are always working on.  Constantly I find myself trying to redirect his thinking toward things that are more positive.  Sometimes one can grow weary in trying, however.

Take today for example.  We started on a unit study I put together about the National Parks.  This all started because he seemed to have an interest in the subject, which I immediately jumped on with great enthusiasm.  I already had a book that belonged to the girls when they were around his age which was written on about his reading level.  It’s a mystery about wolves and the setting is Yellowstone.  I was really excited thinking he would be digging this book.  Think again.

“Mom, you know I don’t like books without pictures.”

“Not every book you read will have pictures.  You will have to read books without pictures.  Get used to it.”

“But this looks dumb.  I don’t think I will even be interested in a book like this.”

“Just try.  Just read the first chapter.”

After he read the book for 30 minutes he pronounced it stupid and boring.  So much for that great idea.

Then we opened this great coloring book that he picked out on the National Parks.

“I don’t even know why I got this book.  It’s actually pretty boring.”

“How can you say that?  Look, there’s the Grand Canyon.”

“I don’t think I would ever want to go there.  Look, it’s just rocks.  Rocks, rocks, rocks. And I hate mountain climbing because I’m afraid of heights.  I never want to go there.”

“Okay, well let’s look at the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Over 260,000 acres of natural beauty.  Wow, I bet that’s a sight.”

“I know I’m not going there.  I’d probably get lost – it’s so big.  Bet you can’t use a cell phone out there.  Probably get lost and die.  Not going there.”

Lord help me.

So I am feeling like I don’t have any time to do anything anymore, which is why I have been so delinquent in blogging.  Now my days are filled with Robby.  Robby in the morning, Robby at noon, Robby in the evening by the light of the moon…

I have been on a roller coaster ride of the 4 R’s -Readin’, Ritin’, Rithmetic and Robby.  We decided at the end of the school year this past Spring that we would pull Robby from public school and home educate.  I settled on a virtual school through the state of Georgia, which meant it was actually public school done via computer and textbooks, etc.  Since it was paid for by tax dollars it sounded very appealing, as did the promise of being able to keep Robby’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and the support of a Special Education teacher.

Let’s just say after two weeks of sheer torture I finally had a revelation – this plan was not working.  Basically I had taken Robby out of a brick and mortar public school, which was clearly not working for him, to public school at home.  What was I thinking?

Thankfully the good Lord brought me to my senses.  Priorities needed to be reexamined, methods needed to be reevaluated.  Now we are on a path to homeschooling Robby in a way that is best for him, which for Robby means fewer textbooks and worksheets and more creative methods.  I realize this will be more time consuming for me, but better for him.

We did decide to try medication again.  I really didn’t think we would do this, but I think he needs the help with self-control and impulsive behavior.  If it doesn’t work, we don’t have to continue with it.  I gave him his first dose this morning.  About 15 minutes after I gave it to him I caught him with a pair of scissors trying to give our dog a haircut.  Guess it takes longer than 15 minutes to start working…

On a funnier note Robby has started asking for “man” shampoo.  He no longer wants his hair to smell like a fruit stand, which is what you get with most kids shampoos.  Tad calls it “manpoo.”  Anyway, he took forever to pick out the bottle he wanted at the Kroger the other night, but finally settled on one he liked.  He likes it because it smells like deodorant.  So instead of his hair smelling fruity, it now smells like armpits.  Excuse me, “man” armpits.  I guess that’s a fair trade

Robby’s 18th birthday was about a week ago, so he organized a weekend trip to Northstar to celebrate!  Last Friday, I got off work, grabbed some dinner, got in Robby’s truck, and we set off.  It was Josh, Cob, Robby, and I.  We left my house at 7:00 PM and got to the campsite around midnight, with a stop at In N’ Out of course.  Robby owned it with the driving.

Upon arriving at the campsite, we noticed there was the sound of flowing water.  Robby said he booked the site closest to the river that runs parallel with the campgrounds.  Stoked, we explored the area with flashlights, and checked it out.  It was surprisingly cold though, so we set up the tent real quick, and went to bed.  In the morning I got out of the tent and found you could see the river clearly from our campsite.  At night it seemed like we hiked a trail through the dark woods for a while to get to it.  Funny how much less epic stuff seems when you can see!  Anyway, the view was awesome from the campsite.

We got camp squared away, Josh got a fire going, we had some Cheerios for breakfast, and made some sandwiches to bring with us for lunch.  Everyone began checking over their bikes and adjusting air pressure.  I was the only Northstar virgin so I had no idea what to expect.  I’ve just heard the trails were super dusty and rocky.

We loaded up, blasted some Sabbath on the way over, got our lift tickets, and headed up to the top of the mountain.  We decided to hit Livewire as a warm-up, which was probably a good call.  It was sketchy at first, because I hadn’t ridden my dh bike in a while, but I got used to it fast.  I was stoked on Livewire!  You just cruise down hitting jumps the whole way.  There were some cool features too, like a giant dirt on/off fruit cup and a 90 degree corner after a g-out, so you float over it as you hip it.  Once we got to the bottom, we drank some water and did another run on Livewire.  It was much more fun the 2nd time as I knew what to expect.  After that, everyone wanted to hit some of the gnarlier trails, which sounded good.  Josh wamted to hit Boondocks, so we went with that and it was sick!  Just a cool trail with lots of different sections, like rough rock gardens and smooth drops, jumps, and berms.  I had a pretty sketchy moment, but luckily didn’t crash!  There was a drop off a big rock, so I went off to see an expected landing, and landed perfect.  A few corners later, there was another big rock that had a drop off of it, so I hit that as well, thinking there would be another landing.  It was quite the opposite, with a big hole and rocks at the bottom.  I was already nosed it, so I just leaned back and ended up riding out!  After that run, we all hit Gypsy.  I was stoked on this, because there was a fun looking step-down on it that I kept seeing from the lift.  Gypsy was much rockier than Boondocks, and had sections with what seemed like a solid foot of silty dust, waiting to be shot up into the air.  It was kinda gnarly, because you could only see the tops of big rocks as you tried to pick your lines.  When it got stirred up though, we couldn’t see a thing!  All you could do was point your bike in the general direction of the helmet that floated through the dust in front of you.  It was fun though, and once we got to the bottom we decided it was time for lunch.  As we began riding down to the cars, I thought my bike felt weird.  I stopped to take a look, and found the linkage came loose, and I got a rear flat!  It was kinda slow, so I pumped some air into it, but it only lasted about halfway down the trail to the base of the mountain.  I started walking, and Josh and Robby pointed out the dirt jumps.  Stoked, we checked them out and they looked awesome!

Right then and there Idecided I was done riding the mountain for the day and was just going to grab my dj bike and ride here.  I did just that after a delicious sandwich for lunch.  Cob joined me and we had a sesh!  The dirt jumps are basically at the base of the mountain, with just a short climb up a fireroad from the parking lot.  We cruised up, and took a more in depth look at the lines.  I figured I should warm up on the medium line, because the big ones were good sized and I wasn’t used to my hardtail at all.  I hit the first jump and just about landed on the next lip!  Sketched, I skidded to a stop and Cob looks at me and asks “Why are you hitting those?”.  We both tried the big line and stopped after the 3rd jump because the line splits in 2 and we didn’t know where to go.  After a few runs, we started getting them dialed.  Robby was tired so he watched and filmed, and Josh showed up a little later after doing some runs on the other side of the mountain.  Cob found several hoses that paralleled the jumps.  We couldn’t figure out how to turn them on though.  Cob followed a water pipe and reached the main valves over on the side of the fireroad.  He turned them on and we were in business!  Happy Jumps = Fun Sesh.

Now it was really time to ride!  The set was really sick, as it was quite a bit different from the jumps here in Aptos.  It was a long downhill trail of 8 doubles.  They start out small, and get bigger as you pick up speed down the hill.  What was also different was how they were technical.  If you pumped landings, you’d find yourself landing to flat on the next jump.  The jumps were big though, and the bottom ones felt similar to the trick jumps at Crankworx Colorado.  Next time I go there, I’m planning on bringing my Rampant as it should be good training for practicing different lines of tricks.  Speaking of tricks, Cob started busting out the biggest tucks.  I don’t know how the timing was off on this shot, because he was holding his arms out for literally 1 second.  Granted, it is a little point and shoot.

We threw down lots of tricks and got some really sick shots for LOCations!  I had a couple sketchy moments, like the first time I 3′d the last jump.  I spun slow, knowing I would have to because the jump was so big, but as I came around, I realized I was still way up in the air.  I was pretty nosed in too, and landed 90 degrees past a 360!  Thinking I was going to for sure fall, and making Cob get up and start to run over, I somehow got away with dabbing a foot and riding out!  Sketch moment #2 wasn’t as scary, but still bad.  I was going to do a pendulum and did a big opposite can for the first can.  As I pulled my bike in to kick over for the second can, the bike whipped out crazy.  I brought my leg over, and kicked the seat to get the bike back under me, and ended up getting one pedal and riding out!  Besides that, everything was dialed!  Got some epic trails going on the last 3 jumps.  I top-side no-foot-canned the 1st,  downside t-whipped the 2nd, and super-seatered the 3rd, while Cob busted a huge table on the first, the biggest tuck I’ve ever seen on the 2nd, and a nice moto whip on the 3rd.  I was stoked on pulling some tricks like 1-foot x-up 3s, and a pendulum on those jumps as well!  Overall it was an awesome sesh!  As we were wrapping up the filming, Kevin, the main builder there, showed up.  He brought pieces to fix the hoses, as some of them had big holes in the sides.  We got those dialed in, gave the jumps more water, and rode a little more to finish filming.  We were completely beat anyway, so after a few runs, we called it a day and drove back to camp.  Robby completely submerged himself in the river, which was tempting as it must have been refreshing.  The water was pretty cold though.  I decided to go for it, and it felt great!  Josh washed off too, and we got a fire going.

We barely had any wood though, so we made a plan.  Josh was the only one with 2 pairs of shoes, so he walked across the river with his shoes on to hike up around on the other side.  He found a dead tree, so he broke off branches that Robby and I shuttled back across the river and to the campsite.  A few times someone would slip on a rock and loose balance, dropping the the wood in the river.  There was plenty of wood though, so it worked out great!

In the mean time, Cob worked on cooking the pasta and sausage for the pesto pasta that we would have for dinner.  We started with the pot of water on the stove, and I said “Let’s just set it on the fire!”.  BAM!  Before we knew it, we had boiling water.  Now the challange was getting the pot off the fire.  Cob and Josh grabbed a solid piece of firewood, and successfully made the transfer from fire to stove.

There was a really epic sunset, with pink and purple clouds that make everything pink.  I got some epic shots for LOCations, and we feasted on our pasta.  It was crazy how good it was after such a long day of riding!  After that, we just chilled around the fire, and Cob and Robby drove into town to get fix’ns for smores.  When they got back, they told us about this giant party they said in some neighborhood on the way there.  We figured we might as well check it out as there wasn’t much else to do.  We ate some smores, and set off, sprinting down Highway 89 in the dark.  After a few minutes, we started hearing music and seeing lights.  We finally got there and found it to be a big birthday party or something.  There were little kids everywhere and they all got super pumped when we would do manuals.  Josh ran over something, and got a slow flat.  We sprinted back to camp, and made it there before his tire ran out.  The people camping next to us generously gave us tons of spare wood that they had, so we really got the fire cookin.  We basically just chilled around the fire until we couldn’t stay awake any long and went to bed planning on getting back up and doing it all again!

The next day started similar.  We got some rain last night, so we were stoked that the trails would be that much less dusty.  I fixed my flat the previous night, and we drove to the mountain.  We already had our lift tickets, so we B-Lined it to the lift and started schralpin the mountain.  We did a warm-up run on Livewire again, but Robby came down with a pully-less derailleur.  Cob rented a demo bike for him (which was good for a run) so he could at least ride a little more.  With that, it was time to check out the trails on the other side of the mountain.  Josh showed us this cool rock wallride at the top of some trail, so we hit that and then hit Flame-out.  It was kind of pedaly, but had some sick stuff with highspeed rock gardens, flowy single track, and a cool ladder that winds around between trees.  I tried gapping part of one of the rock gardens, and upon landing, sunk into some really soft silty dirt.  It threw my weight way forward, but that was right where the trail connects to the fireroad, so it got smooth and I rode out!  Cob and I pinned it to the bottom, and took a break.  As we waited we realized it had been a while, and wondered if something had happened.  Then we for sure thought something happened and figured it must be serious if they hadn’t gotten down by now.  All of a sudden we heard a yell coming from the lift.  It was Josh and Robby.  They said they somehow took a trail that went to the very base of the mountain, so they had to take the gondola back up to where we were.  Relieved, Cob had to return the demo bike, and we went up for more.  Robby stayed back to see if he could fix his bike.  We met up with Kevin, Alex, Nathan, and Chris, which was cool.  Cob asked Kevin what the funnest trail was and he told us to follow him.  He PINNED it!  I kept trying to keep him in sight but kept finding myself falling further and further back.  The line included the new section of Sticks and Stones, which apparently had a new feature on it.  The trail has tons of flowly little booter jumps, and one lip was particularly big.  I went off assuming it would be like the rest, but found that the landing was a rock that was about a bike length long, with something like a 4 foot drop off the end.  Already in the air, and not even close to making it, I cased the rock super bad, hit the drop off sketchy, but rode out.  Josh told everyone to be quite and sure enough, we heard the dreaded “psssssssssssssssssssss”.  It was my 2nd flat of the trip.  I was just stoked that all I got was a flat.  I could have messed up my wheel, or even gotten hurt myself.  We heard Nathan, Alex, and Chris coming down and Nathan did the exact same thing I did, but snapped his pedal!  Luckily, he was ok too!  Everyone carried on and I started walking down the fireroad.  Feeling like I wasn’t getting anywhere, I decided to just walk down a ski run.  It was steep, but got me to the bottom pretty fast.  I took the gondola back down to the parking lot and met up with Robby at his truck.  Unfortunately he wasn’t able to find the right parts for his derailleur.  We made some sandwiches, and Cob, Kevin, and Josh met up with us.  Kevin said he was about to head up to the dirt jumps and wanted to set up a cable-cam to film us.  We were all down, so we headed over there with the dj bikes.  Kevin and his friend Carl got the cable-cam all set up and Cob and I watered the jumps.

As we warmed-up, Kevin got the timing dialed with the camera, and soon it went off.  I was able to pull that same line as yesterday (topside nfc to downside t-whip to super seater) a couple times to get the shots, and I 1-foot x-up 3′d the last one again.  Cob killed it with insane steeze and the biggest tucks.  I shot a few clips to give an idea of what the last 3 jumps look like and how Kevin’s cable-cam set-up worked.  Oh and that case Cob did was probably the only case he did the whole time on those jumps, and I was lucky enough to get it on film ahah!

Cob said that he would try a flatspin invert if I tried a double-whip on the last one.  That got me thinking about it, and once I did all of the stuff I wanted filmed, I decided to go for it.  The first try I spun the bike right off the lip and landed with it basically vertical in front of me, so I just ran down the landing.  The 2nd try was more committed, and I got one pedal, but when I went to put my foot on the other pedal, I missed and slid out down the landing.  I was stoked I only got a few scrapes and nothing more.  We had to go, though, as we had planned to leave several hours earlier.  We said later to Kevin and Carl, rode down to the truck, loaded up, and drove back to our campsite.  We had already packed up camp and loaded it in the truck in the morning, but everyone wanted to wash off in the river real quick, so we weren’t all gross on the way back.  I washed off my scrapes, and BAM we were on the road.  Expecting a 5 hour drive like the way over, we planned on getting home at midnight.  So far so good until we got into Sacramento.  We got stuck in stop and go traffic for 2 hours!

We made the best of it by blasting Afroman with the windows down, but it was still lame, especially for Robby who had work at 7:30 the next day!  We got through it though, and stopped in the next town to get some food.  I’d been eating Cheerios the whole time, so I was ready for something new.

Cob and I split a pizza from Pizza Hut and we continued the voyage back to Santa Cruz.  We got to my house at a little after 2:00 AM so I brought my bikes and bags in, and passed out on my bed.  What an epic trip!  Some of the 2 longest days of riding I’ve been on in a long time!  It was awesome though, and I can’t wait to go back!  Hopefully we are gonna go up in mid-September after the Fam Jam!

So it’s hard to believe that summer is over and we are back into the school year again.  It’s been a whirlwind of activity, and this week has been spent trying to put some order back into our day, which is easier said than done for people with a brain like mine…

As a recap, I just thought I would share a few of the crazy things that went on with Robby -

During the week we had VBS at our church, I left Robby at home that afternoon with my middle daughter Cori (age 15) while I went to put in a few hours at the office.  When I got home, I went to the refrigerator and saw a huge plate of half cooked sausage patties sitting there.  After some interrogation it was found that Robby got hungry, and with his sister locked away in her room he decided to cook up some sausage he saw in the freezer.  Unfortunately, he didn’t realize the oven had to be preheated so he turned the oven on and stuck the patties in frozen.  Needless to say, they weren’t cooked thoroughly when he took them out, but you know when a boy is hungry he’s got to eat, so he ate FIVE half cooked sausage patties.  I spent the rest of the night wondering if he had trichinosis or some other food borne illness.  Thankfully we escaped this blunder without any further incident.

Then there was the throat-slashing episode.  Well, maybe that’s a little over the top.  He didn’t actually slash his throat.  It just looked like he had.  Basically what happened was we were out at the office and Robby went out to ride his go-cart.  The go-cart has an engine like that of a lawn mower, so when you want to start it you have to pull the cord back like you would if you were starting a lawn mower.  At some point it stopped running, and instead of asking Mom or Dad to come out and get it going again he decided to take matters into his own hands by pulling the cord back with all the strength he had.  When he did this, he released the cord and it caught him at the throat, thus leaving something that looked much like a long rope burn across his neck.  Ouch.  I think that one might leave a scar.

Then last week he was down at our neighbor’s house and somehow was hit in the mouth by their dog and chipped a pretty good little chunk off one of his front teeth.  We’ll be getting that fixed in a few weeks as that was the only opening they had.  So until then I guess between the scar on his neck and the chipped tooth he’ll look like he’s been in a bar fight.

So I guess that’s about it.  I’m sure there were some other things that happened that I’ve not mentioned, but it’s all kind of a blur now.  At this point I’m just trying to get my mind around how to harness all this energy Robby has into getting even 15 minutes worth of math done every day…

Head-beekeeper, Robby-Bob, came by yesterday and added a shallow super to both hives.

Based on the progress that was observed in the last bee post, the hives were past due for some extra expansion room.  It took a little while to source the correct size frames for the shallower top boxes, and Robby installed them while I was in class.  Ideally the bees will use the new frames mostly for honey that we can later harvest.  Robby decided not to use a queen excluder, so there’s the potential that the queen will get up there and lay eggs.  We have enough supplies for one more box on each hive depending on how well they take to the new frames.

So Monday night was robby’s last night in the city and he was working, so I went to go see him one more time before he left. A bunch of his friends were there, including this one older, married couple. The guy looked about mid-50s at least, and his wife and him had been together for 7 years. I chatted to them a bit and after they left, Robby asked if the guy had said anything to me. I was like, “umm he said something about how he enjoyed talking to me and how not many people are easy to have conversations with when you first meet them…” and Robby kinda smiled and didn’t say anything. Half an hour later, after I’d hugged and kissed him goodbye, he says, “he asked for your number!” I must have looked shocked, and Robby went on, “he does that all the time. So should I give it to him??” and I knew Robby was kidding about actually giving my number out, but what the heck! That is how our whole whatever relationship ends? With his old married friend trying to get my number?? Men!

Then yesterday, Smith (my potential roomie, who I btw have decided not to live with since I like clear lines), texts me a couple times and near 11pm he goes, “my boy rob likes you”. Um, WTF am I supposed to do with that information??first of all, Rob didn’t een really talk to me all night- the last I remember seeing of him he looked like he was hittin on these other two girls. Second, Smith and I were totally making out like maybe 6 feet at the most from where Rob was standing all night! How could he have missed that? Unless- and a few friends are saying this- Smith is just testing me? The friend I met him through reminded me that he was an engineer in college…ie his social skills may not be that great! Lol

Anyway i finally just texted back, “Well, it’s been known to happen! ” what else was I supposed to say?

Argh, boys!

Where or where could Reid be?

On this past Monday’s episode, the kicked off bachelors came together to discuss the cattiness that was very much alive in their man-house. Everyone, except Reid, and, of course Wes, who wouldn’t show his red-neck self in front of the bachelors, nor the women-filled studio audience, who i’m sure would just love to throw some food at him, if he was there.

The Men Tell All (TMTA) episode was nothing exciting, as they usually never are, they are put there mainly to keep us itching to see the last drama-filled episode.

The main things that did happen at TMTA was that David and Juan still have it out for one another, or really, David has it our for our golden LA boy, Juan.    David, and several other catty men, agreed that Juan is purely a fake. They explained that when on the show, the cameras would show how David and Robby (who always had a drink in his hand; Jill must be happy she let that guy go) would be slamming back shots; when Juan, who would be upstairs alone for most of the day, would change shirts, race downstairs and pretend to take a shot, while really, he would only take a sip. David was enraged! How dare you be a man, and not slam back that shot completely!

Chris, however, asked David what the big deal was? The audience, which consists mostly of women, or women who dragged their men there, hollered and clapped, which only made David that much more angry at the world for not understanding him.

David also told Jake, in a malicious tone, that he acted like a little girl when he was sobbing over the balcony, when Jake flew to Jillian, to warn her of Wes. The women in the audience booed David, once again, for that remark. Sascha joins in on pouring the salt into Jake’s wounds, and comments on how Jake always told the camera, when on the show, that he was termed too perfect. Sascha says he thinks Jake thinks he is too perfect.

Perfect Jake looks mighty pissed off. He turns around and tells Sascha, F-off! and asks, is that perfect? He looks mighty pleased with his comment, as does the entire audience who cheers for him.

Could our perfect Jake be on the next Bachelor? The audience seems to think so, or at least is hoping they’ll see him on the next series find someone who does want such a perfect man.

Reid:

And then there’s Reid. We soon realize, from clips to come on the next episode, that Reid saunters back into Jillian’s life, and what perfect timing, he comes to her at the final rose ceremony, where Jillian decides to pick between Ed, Kiptyn…and now Reid?

There is a quick clip of Reid holding a wedding band in his hand; but will Jillian believe Reid is past his indecsiveness? And will she let go of Ed, who seems to be perfect for her?

There are rumours, as Suzanne from CityTV points out, that Ed may have a girlfriend back in the windy city. Could our cool, and calm boy really be playing Jillian? Maybe that’s why Ed’s dad was crying when he met Jillian!

http://blogs.citytv.com/bachelorette/

My guess is that she will let Kiptyn go; and be torn between Reid, who she gets along with so well, and Ed, who she has a steamy connection with. In the end, I think she’ll pick Ed, fingers crossed!

So I had a fun weekend. Well, it was fun up until a point. Then it got crappy, & I was reminded that in five short days I’ll be stuck on an airplane with Robert J on our way to Baltimore MD. Where I’ll be working & Robby J will be… um… well, er… I guess he’s just annoying. You know, I’ve never given much thought to what he actually does, I just know he’s not working… I might have to look into that… Er, but we digress.

Seeing how my time here in the great northwest is limited (My secret is out! It’s ok though, I live in the woods so it’s not like any of you could ever find me) I’ve decided to spend this week as happily as possible. The result was a great weekend that ended with me, my girlfriend, & two of the three software triplets seeing the new Harry Potter movie. Good wholesome fun, that is until we went out for a bite to eat afterwards.

I hang out with a funny bunch. Most of our humor is crude, but harmless. But with my travel arrangements looming around the corner, they couldn’t help but lay it on me. Accusations flew. Fables of how Rob & I are going to share a studio apartment, & how he’s going to be the big spoon. Tall Tales of us holding hands whilst skipping merrily around Baltimore singing our song of glee.

We’re buddieeees
We’re skipping & we’re laughing
& we’re chummyyyy
Give me a HIGH-FIVE!!!

Assumptions that I’d be stuck in a three person row on the plane with Rob at the window, his fat bulging out of his seat & spilling onto me, & Sammy Shrieker on the other side, frightened by everyone passing her in the aisle.

What’s that, I’ve never told you about Samantha Shrieker? Samantha Shrieker is a kind hearted woman in her forties. She’s a conspiracy theorist, she’s paranoid of damn near everything, & as the name suggests she’s very VERY jumpy. Sam has an interesting accent that no one can quite place, she grew up in the Midwest, but has an accent that’s reminiscent of Eastern Europe. I like her because, like me, she stays low key. But due to our upcoming travels I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more from her.

Ok, so I’ve wanted to write about this for a while now but I keep forgetting. Luckily I was given a pleasant reminder earlier today. My favorite person in the world is Teresa Anders. Who is Teresa Anders? I don’t know. What does she look like? No idea. I don’t know anything about this person. All I know is that people have been calling Robert J’s phone for months looking for her & every time someone does Rob throws a tantrum. It’s better than Christmas when it happens.

It all began a few days after Rob started working here. He wanted to show off how much of a badass he was by having his new blackberry mailed to the office. Hours after setting it up he got a call.

Rob “H-hello? No, there’s no one here named Teresa, you’ve got the wrong number. No, I don’t know where you can reach her at. Ok, bye.” *Click*

But it didn’t stop there, call after call came in for this mystery person. Some mornings Rob would come in exhausted because he had gotten calls all night. After a couple of months he changed his phone message while at work.

Rob “Hi! You’ve reached the voice mail box of ROBERT J, not Teresa Anders. I don’t know Teresa Anders. I don’t know how you can reach Teresa Anders. My Name is ROB J. R-O-B-E-R-T J. If you’re calling for Teresa Anders, please go fuck yourself. Thank you.”

You’d think that would stop the calls, but it didn’t. They’ve kept coming & coming, dying down at times to the point where we’d all forget about them before we’re all pleasantly reminded that Teresa Anders is our hero.

Well, that’s it for today. Short & sweet. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to make a call…

Let’s start with an artist who’s better-known for acting Edward Cullen in the film adaptation of Twilight, rather than for his singer skills. However, I have to talk about him because he’s obviously good at music: Rob plays guitar, piano, and composes his own songs.

He appears as a singer on the Twilight soundtrack with two songs:  Never think and Let me Sign. That’s what I’m going to talk about today.

Never think is a very folksy ballad. The acoustic guitar and laid-back vocals create a solemn and deep atmosphere that kept growing in me since I listened to it. Rob Pattinson’s bluesy singing is absolutely great and emotive, a bit weak though. Anyway, this track is such an intense love song that it completely leaves me wanting for nothing.

Let me Sign is another amazing acoustic track! It’s very slow to start and builds up note by note with very distant guitars and strings. Rob Pattinson’s voice is so unique, mature and heart-rending here that he really makes me sorrowful. It’s a joy to hear though. He really renders the melodramatic tension that the music seems to express.

 I really like these songs and I hope you too.  I think that Rob is really gifted for music and I do hope he’ll continue that way.  He may have to start a solo career just to see what is able to do. Anyway, the Twilight Soundtrack has already sold 2 millions copies worldwide ^^