I love dogs, I used to own two dogs, both of which were rescue dogs. That said, I don't think the time is quite right for a dog. Now, in our house, I am severely in the minority with that position. Basically everyone else wants a dog, attributes human emotions and personality traits to dogs and gets very attached to dogs in general.
So my policy has been to actively encourage dog sitting at the house. There are a few dog owner friends who travel enough that we generally have a dog over once every couple of months. This seems to hold the waters back somewhat (though I do feel like the boy with my finger in the dike) on us getting a dog. It also re-affirms my belief that we are not ready since I am generally the one to walk the dogs (the kids will go when prompted) and feed the dogs. In fact we had one this past weekend. A BIG mutt named Fargo. Fargo weighs something like 120lbs but looks bigger. That is because he has a full blown long winter coat of fur which makes him seem truly enormous. He is one of those dogs that give you pause when you see coming the other way, particularly when he is being walked by a child that he would surely drag if he really wanted to go somewhere. Turns out Fargo is a gentle giant, 7 years old and very mellow. He is a really great dog.
So for now that is my policy, dog sit when ever possible and stall on owning one ourselves.
p.s. (and I know that in her heart of hearts Melissa knows we are not ready, but that does not stop her from REALLY wanting one.)
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Snow Camping - Extreme version
A friend of mine, Jason Kuo, loaned me much of the equipment I used when snow camping last week including the tent, sleep bag and many other things. He is major outdoor enthusiast and limber so he had real high-quality gear.
He just got back from a trip to British Columbia where he did some hard core back country camping, hiking and climbing and he sent pictures. I thought they were so cool in light of the trip I just went on that I would post the link.
Here is his note about the trip:
"Hey Y'all,
I'm in Vancouver now. Just got back from a three day ski and climbing trip with my buddy Aaron. We're in the backcountry mountains behind Whistler.
http://flickr.com/photos/jjkuo/sets/72157604237578919/show/
He just got back from a trip to British Columbia where he did some hard core back country camping, hiking and climbing and he sent pictures. I thought they were so cool in light of the trip I just went on that I would post the link.
Here is his note about the trip:
"Hey Y'all,
I'm in Vancouver now. Just got back from a three day ski and climbing trip with my buddy Aaron. We're in the backcountry mountains behind Whistler.
http://flickr.com/photos/jjkuo/sets/72157604237578919/show/
- Day 1 - Travel to the backcountry via the Blackcomb ski lift and a 6 mile up and down high mountain ski traverse.
- Day 2 - Climb Mt. Patterson via short, scratchy mixed route and snow scramble. Bit of skiing too.
- Day 3 - Dig ourselves out of an intense, short storm and head home. Skies cleared for the final shot.
Happy times!"
Enjoy!
Unfortunate knowledge for a 3 year old
Nicolas is a really sweet kid, playing the part of the 3rd child and often the peace maker he is kind and wonderful. He also has eczuma which is a general term for a dry skin disease that results in very itchy and irratated skin. It is also the common cause of him waking up each night and coming into our bed complaining from the itching.
The result is one of us getting up, finding his special cream, and smearing it on his most annoying spots, usually on his legs or arms. This is of course after we generally lather him up before putting him to bed. So most of our nights are interupted by the little man who needs our support.
Julia had it too, though not as bad. Hopefully he will grow out of it like Julia did.
The unfortunate knowledge is that he knows what he has and what is condition is called. When he comes into our room in the night he says "my eczuma is itchy!" He also knows what foods seem to irritate it so he avoids those as much as possible (which is tough because he likes gold fish for example, who doesn't!)
The result is one of us getting up, finding his special cream, and smearing it on his most annoying spots, usually on his legs or arms. This is of course after we generally lather him up before putting him to bed. So most of our nights are interupted by the little man who needs our support.
Julia had it too, though not as bad. Hopefully he will grow out of it like Julia did.
The unfortunate knowledge is that he knows what he has and what is condition is called. When he comes into our room in the night he says "my eczuma is itchy!" He also knows what foods seem to irritate it so he avoids those as much as possible (which is tough because he likes gold fish for example, who doesn't!)
Friday, March 21, 2008
Happy Birthday to Lea!!
It's birthday season Chez Kreisa and today it is Lea's turn!
On this day in Neuilly-Sur-Seine France Lea Rose came to us!
Happy Birthday Lea!!!
View Larger Map
On this day in Neuilly-Sur-Seine France Lea Rose came to us!
Happy Birthday Lea!!!
View Larger Map
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Melissa get's her mention
Melissa just sent a link to a Valley Catholic Newspaper article about the joint efforts between Sunnyvale Prebyterian Church and Catholic Charities to help refugees in the local area. She is quoted in the article and I think this is her first official press hit!
Enjoy!
http://www.dsj.org/_082006site_backup/community/valleyissue.asp?id=45&story=2255
Enjoy!
http://www.dsj.org/_082006site_backup/community/valleyissue.asp?id=45&story=2255
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Snow Camping
Generally the first question I get when I tell people I went snow camping is "were you cold?" which I guess makes sense but to me also indicates a latent fear that many people seem to have about freezing to death.
The answer is no, not if you dress appropriately, which we all did thanks to great preparation from the group leader Steve Harrington. Steve is a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) instructor as well as a wilderness first responder and member of the US ski patrol so we were in very good hands during the entire trip.
We had a nice eclectic group of 7 folks on the trip and we had many laughs and a lot of fun. We were out for 3 days and 2 nights in the snow.
We snowshoed about 3 miles back into the mountains in Bear Valley CA.
View Larger Map
There was about 6-8 feet of snow on the ground when we went in and found a campsite. We were on the southwest side of the lake you can see in the map above. If you put it into terrain view you can see Inspiration point - we hike up to that ridge on the second day.
The first day we spent most of our time making camp which involved clearing and stamping areas for our tents, digging a nifty snow kitchen complete with cooking area and bench seats all made of snow, and digging a snow cave. There are pictures of all of those things as well as the Igloo that was start and finished on the second day.
When one is active it actually does not take that many layers to stay warm even in the snow. So we became practiced at layering down for activity and layering up for times when we were sitting around. Steve guided everyone to think 30 minutes ahead in terms of managing layers because it is much easier to stay warm than get warm again and this worked very well.
Probably the biggest issue for everyone was hands and feet or the extremities in general. When cooking or doing other activities it was often necessary to take your hands out of your gloves and that was when they started to get cold, touching cold metal of the pans, stove or other things.
There are many more details regarding the mini-classes Steve gave us as well as the hikes. I will fill in more details in my next blog entry as I have to cut this one short at the moment.
In the mean time here are some links to some of the pictures from the trip, enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/Sheueling.Shantz/SnowCamping20080315?authkey=9hEI3LoFBiM
http://picasaweb.google.com/scottp100/2008SnowCamping
The answer is no, not if you dress appropriately, which we all did thanks to great preparation from the group leader Steve Harrington. Steve is a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) instructor as well as a wilderness first responder and member of the US ski patrol so we were in very good hands during the entire trip.
We had a nice eclectic group of 7 folks on the trip and we had many laughs and a lot of fun. We were out for 3 days and 2 nights in the snow.
We snowshoed about 3 miles back into the mountains in Bear Valley CA.
View Larger Map
There was about 6-8 feet of snow on the ground when we went in and found a campsite. We were on the southwest side of the lake you can see in the map above. If you put it into terrain view you can see Inspiration point - we hike up to that ridge on the second day.
The first day we spent most of our time making camp which involved clearing and stamping areas for our tents, digging a nifty snow kitchen complete with cooking area and bench seats all made of snow, and digging a snow cave. There are pictures of all of those things as well as the Igloo that was start and finished on the second day.
When one is active it actually does not take that many layers to stay warm even in the snow. So we became practiced at layering down for activity and layering up for times when we were sitting around. Steve guided everyone to think 30 minutes ahead in terms of managing layers because it is much easier to stay warm than get warm again and this worked very well.
Probably the biggest issue for everyone was hands and feet or the extremities in general. When cooking or doing other activities it was often necessary to take your hands out of your gloves and that was when they started to get cold, touching cold metal of the pans, stove or other things.
There are many more details regarding the mini-classes Steve gave us as well as the hikes. I will fill in more details in my next blog entry as I have to cut this one short at the moment.
In the mean time here are some links to some of the pictures from the trip, enjoy! http://picasaweb.google.com/Sheueling.Shantz/SnowCamping20080315?authkey=9hEI3LoFBiM
http://picasaweb.google.com/scottp100/2008SnowCamping
Monday, March 10, 2008
Obsessed with time
We gave Julia a watch for her birthday and and she has become somewhat obsessed with expressing the exact time for something to occur. For example when we ask her to do something she will either look at her watch or the nearest clock and say "OK I'll do it at 8:20" or if we tell her we will be up to tuck her in she says " how about you come up at 7:45". She will even bargain with you on the time of an event down to the minute! Funny.
I guess that is good because we want her to become more aware of time. It is just a funny little obsession.
I guess that is good because we want her to become more aware of time. It is just a funny little obsession.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
What a day in CA
Apologies to those of you in the mid-west and east but today was a phenomenal day here in Northern California! It was sunny and warm with almost no wind. It was so pleasant that shorts and t-shirts was all that was called for.
We had a relatively lazy Sunday morning around the house followed by an all outdoor afternoon. First we took the kids on a moderate bike ride to a park where they played for over an hour in the sand, on the slides, rings, monkey bars etc. Nicolas built several "volcano's" and even discovered a plastic toy soldier while digging much to his delight.
We then rode back from the park to our house and due to the warm afternoon temps the kids were complaining a bit about being hot. So, what does one do when your hot on a Sunday afternoon? Yes, we went to the pool. Our pool is open and is heated (common in NorCal) and we were far from the only ones there. Lots of children including some of their friends from school were there. I will also say here that I could really tell the difference from a winter of swimming lessons. The girls were swimming around like fish with really good technique. Lea could easily dive down and get anything off the bottom and was comfortable everywhere. Even bigger news was Nicolas who in prior years needed swimming help from floaties, noodle or something else. He was doing great and unafraid of the water. He spent most of the time jumping off the side and swimming to me about 10-12 feet out in the water. His stroke was mainly doggy paddle but he could keep himself up and move forward to the wall or to me. He is not quite water safe but certainly will be by the end of what will probably be a busy summer at the pool.
This warm amazing weather and trip to the pool is all the more amazing when you consider that I will be snow camping later this week!
We had a relatively lazy Sunday morning around the house followed by an all outdoor afternoon. First we took the kids on a moderate bike ride to a park where they played for over an hour in the sand, on the slides, rings, monkey bars etc. Nicolas built several "volcano's" and even discovered a plastic toy soldier while digging much to his delight.
We then rode back from the park to our house and due to the warm afternoon temps the kids were complaining a bit about being hot. So, what does one do when your hot on a Sunday afternoon? Yes, we went to the pool. Our pool is open and is heated (common in NorCal) and we were far from the only ones there. Lots of children including some of their friends from school were there. I will also say here that I could really tell the difference from a winter of swimming lessons. The girls were swimming around like fish with really good technique. Lea could easily dive down and get anything off the bottom and was comfortable everywhere. Even bigger news was Nicolas who in prior years needed swimming help from floaties, noodle or something else. He was doing great and unafraid of the water. He spent most of the time jumping off the side and swimming to me about 10-12 feet out in the water. His stroke was mainly doggy paddle but he could keep himself up and move forward to the wall or to me. He is not quite water safe but certainly will be by the end of what will probably be a busy summer at the pool.
This warm amazing weather and trip to the pool is all the more amazing when you consider that I will be snow camping later this week!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Happy Birthday to Julia!!!
8 years ago today in a country far far away (Australia) Julia came into our lives! It is cliche'ish to say but it seems like yesterday.
Today we are celebrating all day doing the things Julia wants to do like go to the discovery museum, eat cake etc.
Later she will join her close friend Lindsey (who was also born today and I must say is a pea-in-the-pod with Julia) at her American girl themed birthday party.
Happy Birthday Julia Rae!
Today we are celebrating all day doing the things Julia wants to do like go to the discovery museum, eat cake etc.
Later she will join her close friend Lindsey (who was also born today and I must say is a pea-in-the-pod with Julia) at her American girl themed birthday party.
Happy Birthday Julia Rae!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Obeservations from Saturday's Refugee Meeting
Last Saturday we hosted nearly 50 people at our house for a refugee related meeting in our neighborhood. The meeting was put on by a combination of Catholic Charities, Sunnyvale Presbyterian church representatives (Melissa and Elsa) and the Rivermark Mom's group. The primary goal of the meeting was to introduce mothers and families in Rivermark to some of he refugees in order to see if there were English as a Second Language (ESL) volunteer tutors or employment opportunities for the refugee woman. Though the event was scheduled to run from 10-12 it actually went from 10-2 primarily due to the big turnout an enthusiasm of the attendees.
All in all the meeting was a success, ESL volunteers and job opportunities were identified for many of the woman. I helped by watching children and talking to the 3 other fathers who came to the event.
I made a few observations after the event that I thought I would write about. Specifically by observing the people and talking to the dad's I noticed two things: people are willing to help but just need a catalyst, and there are lots of 1st and 2nd generation immigrants or refugees here locally with a positive immigration experience and they want to give back.
Maybe it is general human nature or maybe just the area but one thing that I consistently see is a desire for people to help the refugees. The big thing for them is that they just don't know how or where to start. Additionally like everyone else in the valley they are pretty busy and are mainly looking for some small thing they can do to start. This is the great thing about what Melissa has been doing. She has been putting in the extra time to help identify the "small ways" that people can contribute and the sum is greater than the parts. By facilitating meetings like we had here on Friday nearly 30 people learned how they could help in some small way including provide employment in the form of mother's helps etc. This gives the refugee woman dignity and a form of self sufficiency that gets them on the way to settling here in the U.S.
The second thing I noticed this weekend was that many of the people in this area are 1st or 2nd generation immigrant or refugee. This gives them a feeling of a special bond to the current group of refugees no matter if they come from Burma, Somalia or Iraq. I think this is also a motivator to help and in fact one of the families who were here on Saturday have committed to giving a very generous an unsolicited donation to help the local cause.
This weekend was the kind of event that makes you feel good all over am I am glad we opened up our house to make it happen. It was one tiny step towards making a big difference. I am also extremely proud of Melissa for following her passion here and leading by example. She is providing the much needed catalyst and subsequently making a much bigger impact in these lives.
Finally I urge you to get involved in your passion, even in some small way.
All in all the meeting was a success, ESL volunteers and job opportunities were identified for many of the woman. I helped by watching children and talking to the 3 other fathers who came to the event.
I made a few observations after the event that I thought I would write about. Specifically by observing the people and talking to the dad's I noticed two things: people are willing to help but just need a catalyst, and there are lots of 1st and 2nd generation immigrants or refugees here locally with a positive immigration experience and they want to give back.
Maybe it is general human nature or maybe just the area but one thing that I consistently see is a desire for people to help the refugees. The big thing for them is that they just don't know how or where to start. Additionally like everyone else in the valley they are pretty busy and are mainly looking for some small thing they can do to start. This is the great thing about what Melissa has been doing. She has been putting in the extra time to help identify the "small ways" that people can contribute and the sum is greater than the parts. By facilitating meetings like we had here on Friday nearly 30 people learned how they could help in some small way including provide employment in the form of mother's helps etc. This gives the refugee woman dignity and a form of self sufficiency that gets them on the way to settling here in the U.S.
The second thing I noticed this weekend was that many of the people in this area are 1st or 2nd generation immigrant or refugee. This gives them a feeling of a special bond to the current group of refugees no matter if they come from Burma, Somalia or Iraq. I think this is also a motivator to help and in fact one of the families who were here on Saturday have committed to giving a very generous an unsolicited donation to help the local cause.
This weekend was the kind of event that makes you feel good all over am I am glad we opened up our house to make it happen. It was one tiny step towards making a big difference. I am also extremely proud of Melissa for following her passion here and leading by example. She is providing the much needed catalyst and subsequently making a much bigger impact in these lives.
Finally I urge you to get involved in your passion, even in some small way.
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