Aaron's New Stepstool

Aaron got a present in the mail today. Papa made him his very own stepstool like his brother's. He loves sitting on it and he and Alex posed side by side for me, with Alex sitting on the stool Papa made him. Thanks, Papa!

Aaron Turns Two

We celebrated the second anniversary of the birth of our youngest son today. Aaron turned 2 today - which, not coincidentally, has become his new favorite number. We started the celebration last night with dinner at the Champps restaurant at the mall and then a screening of the new Curious George movie (very well done adaptation). Aaron loved the movie so much that he talked about it incessantly...during the movie. Mostly he wanted to make sure I was paying attention and took note of whatever fascinated him at the moment - DADDY?!?! as he was pointing at the screen.

Today we opened presents after eating the cake Becky made. Aaron got a lot of fun Playmobile toys, bath toys, and educational games and toys. He still likes to open one thing at a time and then play with it for awhile, while the rest of us were encouraging him to move on to the next gift. After a well deserved nap, we found out that Chuck E Cheese's is VERY crowded on a Saturday night. Aaron and Alex had a blast. Now we begin the Terrible Twos. As what I'm sure is a premonition of what is to come, his newest favorite word is "No." However, to his credit, his still says it very cutely.

Double Layer Chocolate Elmo Cake with Strawberry Frosting

The title says it all. Becky made this one herself for Aaron's birthday. We had a small family celebration and didn't need a a lot of extra cake sitting around. The centerpiece is an edible sticker sheet, but Becky did everything else, including baking the two layers, flavoring the icing, piping on the decorative icing and writing on it with more colored icing. have I mentioned the icing? It was delicious!

Occupations Day: Family Physician

Alex's kindergarten had a special guest today that he got to introduce - his dad! I was asked by his teacher to come and speak to the entire preschool/ kindergarten (50+ kids) about being a being a doctor during occupations month. Alex got to be my model to show them how I used some of my tools. 

Aaron's Big Boy Bed

Becky and Susan heard a thump during naptime today and found that Aaron had built up the courage to climb out of his crib. He's such climber that we knew it was only a matter of time. So before bedtime, Becky and I took the front rail of the crib of, put up a roll guard, and put a child safety gate in his doorway. He loves the change. We're still getting used to it. Our baby is growing up!

Cellphone Safety Tip Of The Day

Don't drop your cell phone down a flight of stairs while in the open position.

Field Trip to the Fire Station

Today Alex's class went to the Perrysburg, OH Fire Station. He got to meet the firefighters, hear about fire safety, and check out the vehicle in the apparatus bay. He really enjoyed it. Becky volunteered as a chaperone and took these great pictures.

Underworld: Evolution

Every once in a while I can talk Becky into seeing a vampire movie with me. I'm not sure why I like them - they're usually stylized productions with often very clear delineations between good and evil. My favorite movies tend to play with these conventions and blur that line. Underworld and its sequel that we saw today, Underworld: Evolution, do just that. As with most of these, it was gorier than Becky usually prefers. I enjoyed this one more than its precursor because it seemed more original in its style, whereas the first movie was derivative of several other movies I had seen. If you like action-packed horror movies, this one is a must see. This one is definitely not for the kids.

Playing In A Meager Snow

The forecasters called for 4-6 inches in our area, but we got less than an inch. However, we did promise the kids a romp in the snow. There wasn't too much to do other than slide down the plastic slide and throw handfuls around. It wasn't a "snowman snow" - not sticky enough to roll into balls. The kids loved it anyway.

Alex's Sunburst

Alex made this at school this week. It is a painted on white paper, then cut out and pasted to blue construction paper. It is a little larger than would fit on the scanner but this gives you the idea.

Alex's Week Ending Feb. 3, 2006

At school I made a headband and a bracelet out of connecting plastic pieces that I got to bring home. I got enough Play Points to open a new mini-game in Super Monkey Ball 2 on our GameCube. We played a new game in Music class called Cut The Cake. Grammy came to see us today. We picked her up at the airport during a snowstorm. We might make a snowman tomorrow if we have enough "snowman snow".

[This is the first of what I hope to be a weekly feature on the Evans Family Blog, similar to a Newsletter that his class does for school each week. I'm transcribing, but eventually he may type these in. -JE]

Alex's MidTerm Report Card

Ok, he really doesn't get a report card. We sat down with his teacher and reviewed his progress so far. Becky had to do the last one by herself in October because I was in Louisiana. Overall he's doing very well. He's one of the best readers in his class and had strong academic strengths all around. His biggest areas of concern were mostly with behavior issues. At times he is a follower when other kids are misbehaving. He also will do anything for a laugh and doesn't know when enough goes to too much. I'd say we've seen a general improvent in this since last year as he has gotten older and is in a smaller class. By the end of the conversation we were quite pleased overall with what we heard. The areas of improvement he has to work on were about what we expected.

This week we met with the Head of the Lower School to find out what 1st grade would be like. They actually spend 2 years in the Primary level of Lower School, correspoinding to 1st and 2nd grade. So, he'll be joining some kids who've already been there a year, many of them he'll be rejoining from when they advanced out of Kindergarten last year. This pattern continues through Middle School ("8th grade") so he'll get to know the kids in his grade level and one year in either direction. This allows older kids to help him when he needs it and for him to reinforce what he knows by helping kids younger than him. We think it's a great system. We were very satisfied after talking to the Lower School Head about what next year holds for him. We're going to start doing "homework" now several nights a week - having Alex read to us or doing a workbook page - to prepare him for what he will be doing next year.

Comings and Goings

What a day! The President gave his State of the Union address today and the state of our union is...wait for it...strong. The Oscar nominees were named and were populated by a bunch of movies we haven't seen. Samuel Alito was confirmed as Supreme Court Justice, likely tipping the Court to the right. Coretta Scott King died today at 78. Alan Greenspan stepped down after 18 years as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Twins were born in my practice today and my oldest patient died a peaceful but sudden death at 103. She was on virtually no medicine and got out of the house everyday. She always had a smile on her face and made my day every time I saw her. All of this will take a few days to sink in.

Our New Nephew

Manning Bryce Evans was born to my brother Mark and his wife Melinda today. He was 8# 2 oz. and 19 inches long. Mom, baby, and the rest of the family are doing well. Welcome, Manning!

Aaron's New Words

Aaron has been saying several new words lately after a drought that seemed at times intentional. Including today's "toe", his latest are "no", "yoyo", "home", and "two".

Will Rogers Follies

Last Sunday Becky and I saw The Will Rogers Follies as a part of the Broadway series at the local Stranahan theater. It was a musical Ziegfield Follies-style production of Will Rogers' life. Growing up in Oklahoma, I had learned a lot about Will Rogers growing up. I went to Will Rogers Elementary through the 4th grade. We went on field trips to the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore. I didn't really realize until the musical what a big radio, movie and newspaper columnist star he was. I linked him in my head to Mark Twain, I guess because of all the wonderful quotes that they produced, though they really worked in different media. It wasn't the best show we've seen this season, but it was fun and had several memorable tunes. A must see for any Will Rogers fans, this won the Tony for Best Musical over Miss Saigon in 1991. It looks like its playing in Oklahoma with Larry Gatlin (a different cast than the one we saw) for a couple of weeks if you're interested.

Sitting at the Big Table

I'd like to take a moment to bid adieu to the high chair that has been a part of our lives for 6 years. There was about 1 year in between the boy where it took a hiatus. But both boys are sitting at the big table now and the high chair is in a children's resale shop. We will not miss tripping over it, but Aaron will miss using it as a jungle gym.

Halloween 2005 - Buzz & Rex - Take 2

We went to Portrait Innovations at the end of the year last year and took some more pictures in the kids Halloween costumes. They were too cute to wear just once I guess. Alex would wear his every day if we let him.

A Pirate Adventure

Last night we went to see Dora Live! A Pirate Adventure - a live action stage show of one of the kids favorite shows. We tugged in booster seats to make it easier for them to see, but Aaron still spent much of the show in my lap. There were chances to yell back at the performers and dance in front of our seats. Alex enjoyed it but didn't participate much. Aaron was amazed to see the performers singing his favorite Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! songs. They got Dora lights and fun memories for souvenirs.

Embracing Paper

I love paper. I never thought I’d be saying something like this. It seems I have always been trying to go more and more digital. My 1st handheld computer was a Velo 1 which I upgraded to an HP Jornada 680 until I realized that I kept advising everyone who asked me to get a Palm PDA, which of course I did too. In addition I digitally record TV, listen to digital music on my iPod, get weather maps on my digital phone and read email from Becky on my digital pager. With all this, I was baffled as to how I could be so digitally enhanced and so disorganized. My latest handheld Palm OS PDA, a Sony Clie TJ-35, has a calendar, address book, and to do list, so why wasn’t I getting anything done? The Palm OS is the simplest, most intuitive handheld platform on the market, but to enter a To Do item I still had to pull it out, turn it on, pull out the stylus, navigate to the To Do section, pick New To Do Item from a menu, and then either type it in on a tiny onscreen keyboard or use Grafiti – special 1-2 stroke gestures I learned to write on the screen for it to recognize them as letters – to enter the item. It took a minute or two, but often I was so busy that I wouldn’t do it. I’d either try to juggle it in my head or I’d jot it on a scrap of paper and shove it in my pocket to either remind me about the To Do item or enter into my Clie when I had time.

A few months ago I stumbled onto a reference online to the Hipster PDA. I built my own from scratch at home for less than $1 and it changed my life. The Hipster is a stack of 3x5” note cards and a binder clip. That, plus a pen, has helped me get more things done in the last few months than all of my digital sources combined. I have one card with a To Do list (write it down, cross it off), one card that just list the next action I need to take to complete something on my To Do list, Project cards for items that have multiple steps, monthly calendar cards where I can jot events down quickly and retrieve them at a glance, a shopping cards for things I want to get for myself or others, a Someday/Maybe card for bigger ideas that I want to ruminate on, and a few blank cards for whatever else I need. I still use my PDA all the time. It is great for storing and searching databases like my Epocrates medication reference or my address book (though I do keep a card in the Hipster with frequently called numbers on it).

My latest paper acquisition is a Moleskine pocket journal. It is slightly larger than my Hipster, with creamy pages bound beautifully in a hard cover that closes with an integrated elastic band. It has a woven ribbon to mark what page I was on. Its almost too beautiful to write in...almost. I’m using it for more permanent thoughts – short term goals, a journal entry, a record of Aaron’s first words so far. I have a larger journal I have been filling for 3 years now, but it is too big to carry around routinely, so I hope to do more writing because I can carry it easier. Think about adding a little bit of useful paper to your life, too.

Happy New Year 2006

We hope your New Year is full of Joy and Peace.

Alex's 6 Year Checkup

We took Alex to his yearly checkup today and he is doing just fine. He's over his ear infection except for a little bit of fluid behind the eardrum. For those keeping score, he was 48.5 lbs. and 45.5 in. tall - just at the 50th %ile for his age. He's growing up to fast - but at least he's healthy. He was just happy to have a checkup with no shots.

Castaway Bay

We just got back from Castaway Bay in Sandusky, OH. It is a hotel with an indoor waterpark attached. We got their yesterday, checked in and went straight to the waterpark. We broke for dinner and spent some time in the arcade where we won enough tickets to get a toy crab. We crashed in our room and got up the next day, checked out, and did the waterpark again until this evening. We're tired, but we had a lot of fun. For the record, someone else bagged the shark.

Our Year in Pictures 2005

This is a video I made using Photostory 3 for WindowsXP. It is a journey in pictures through 2005. It is about 11.5 minutes long but a lot of fun if you are a fan of our children, which of course are featured prominently throughout as they are what we most often take pictures of. I intentionally did not include pictures from my relief effort in Louisiana in October - I wanted this to be about everything our family did together this year. I may make a separate photostory with those. This video player is courtesy of youtube.com. If you have trouble playing it, make sure you have the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player installed on your computer. It is free, safe and easy to download from here. If it won't play, follow this link.

Decluttering for 2006

I've recently set some short term goals for myself that I try to look at everyday. A couple of them are centered around decluttering our house and my office. One problem that I have is that I never seem to have enough time. Time spent at the office decluttering is more time away from my family, for example. The problem with this logic trap is that clutter takes time anyway. It takes time on a regular basis to put it away, store it, move it, think about it, etc. not to mention the time it takes to recover after tripping over it. I think about it this time of year as we are giving and receiving presents to/from loved ones. We try not to give people things that would just clutter up their lives. We also try to integrate our new gifts with our current lifestyle and small house. Let me be clear, clutter is not necesarily trash (though trash most assuredly is clutter). Clutter can be old things that you've been packratting for years or a shiny new gift that you have no use for. Decluttering is not an event but an ongoing process. There will be events - like decluttering a particular room or cabinet - but it also involves planning places and uses for the things you do have and thinking about non-cluttering - avoiding clutter before it enters your life. An excellent source for learning about clutter and decluttering is just about any book by Don Aslett.
Starting this week and moving into 2006, I'm going to try to systematically declutter my life. I want my life, home and office filled with things that make me happy, productive, and at peace, that let me interact with my family and friends, that help me remove stress and not add stress. I want to share pictures and videos with those that care to see them, instead of just store them on a hard drive or on a shelf. That's one of the reasons I started this blog. Home decluttering will require planning and compromise with Becky. She and I have different perspectives on this sometimes, but we've made it work before. I may describe some of the process here if I think it would be useful. Decluttering pays dividends everyday. Time to get started.

The Wardrobe Beckons

Becky and I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe last night and we would strongly recommend this to all. I have always been a fan of the Narnia books. Becky has read this one and seen the animated version as well. This movie version was absolutely the way it should have been done as a live action movie. The performances were excellent by all, especially the children. The digital animation was great. Since several of the characters are animals, they could blend shots of a real pack of wolves running with animated shots of them talking without us being able to tell the difference. This effect was done nicely with horses too. There are some intense scenes and swordfighting violence, but virtually no gore. We didn't feel like we could let our kids see it yet, but at the same time we were eager for the day when we could show it to them because it was a great movie from a great book. I got Alex the book set for Chrstimas and I plan on reading them to him over the next year.

Children's Wonderland

We took this kids back to the Children's Wonderland at the Lucas County Rec Center. It is a large collection of displays of winter and holiday dioramas animated with animatronic figures. The highlights were the Christmas train and the talking tree that enticed us to sing "Rudolph" with him. Alex is still amazed at how the tree knew he was there and would talk to him. Aaron loved a large globe spinning from the ceiling above the Holiday Traditions of the World display.

Alex's Winter Concert 2005

Today was Alex's winter concert at school. THe entire preschool/kindergarten class performed songs they had been working on all semester so there was a mix of general song and rhythm exercises and Halloween, Thanksgiving, and of course several winter holiday tunes. The biggest hit (and kid favorite) was "All I Want For Chrithmuth Ith My Two Front Teeth". Alex was just getting over a cold but he did a great job. We were all there to see it and Aaron was very tickled to se "Bubba" up on stage. He even danced to many of the songs in front of his auditorium chair when the kids on stage were dancing and clapped when everyone else did. We can't wait for the spring concert.

Putting up the tree

We put up our new artificial tree last week and let the boys put some balls on it. It is 7 1/2 feet tall with lights already attached. The ends of the branches are shaped like spruce leaves which overall makes for a very nice effect. The lights have an attached foot pedal for easy on and off. The kids loved decorating it, though Alex tend to pick a favorite spot and cluster his ornaments. We redistributed them after they went to bed.

Alex's 6th Birthday

We spent Alex's 6th birthday in Oklahoma at Nana and Papa's house. It was also Thanksgiving. He got to have the party with his cousins Marli and Marcus. We had pizza and had a moon rock scavenger hunt to go with his Buzz Lightyear party. Then he opened some presents and had cake and ice cream. Later that evening we had Thanksgiving dinner.

Becky's Jewelry

Becky was introduced to making jewelry several months ago by her mom. She loves putting together earrings, bracelets, and necklaces and her pieces are looking great. She's even been taking some classes at a local college. Here's a few of her recent ones.

Paella

I tried a new recipe for paella last night that was very tasty. I modified it slightly from a recipe in Parade magazine by Paul Angelucci. It is a modification of a traditional Spanish dish. It even came out a little sweet. This recipe serves 8 - the next time I'm going to cut it in half. Prepare as much ahead of time as you can.

For the rice:
2 Tbs olive oil, 2 cups converted rice, 1 large onion - chopped, 2 Tbs chopped garlic, 1 c. salsa, 4 c. hot chicken broth

For the rest:
2 Tbs olive oil, 1 large onion - chopped, 1 lb. smoked sausage - sliced 1/2 in. thick, 2 tsp paprika, 1 lb. chicken breast cut into 1 1/2 in. pieces, 2 carrots - cut into 1/2 inch dice, 1 red bell pepper - seeded and cut into 1/2 in. dice, 2 Tbs. chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste, 1 lb large peeled shrimp, 2 c. frozen peas - thawed

For the Rice: Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the rice and onion: cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice begins to brown lightly - about 12 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Add the salsa and stir until liquid is absorbed. Stir in the hot chicken broth and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it rest, covered, for 20 minutes.

For the rest: Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and smoked sausage and cook, stirring, until the onion softens. Sprinkle in the paprika and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken, carrots, bell pepper, garlic and salt/pepper to taste. Cook, stirring frequently until the chicken is cooked through. Add the shrimp and peas and cook until the shrimp turns pink. Mix it with the rice and serve.

Hairspray the Musical

On Sunday we saw the matinee showing of Hairspray the Musical. Neither of us had seen it before, nor the John Waters movie on which it was based. This was a great show - one of the best we have ever seen. The music was very catchy and varied. We really loved the message in the show - you can't always judge a book by its cover. Please try to see this whenever you can. You'll love it.

Alex's Kid Party

Alex's birthday is in less than 2 weeks, but since it is so close to Thanksgiving every year (actually on it this year), it is hard to have a "kid" party without everyone being out of town. So, we had it today at Chuck E. Cheese's. Alex had about 17 of his friends there. They played games, rode rides, ate pizza, danced with Chucky and ate a little cake. Alex had a blast and it seemed like everyone else did too.

Sesame Street Live 2005

Last night we went to the 2005 production of Sesame Street Live when it came to the Seagate Convention Center. The theme was "Super Grover: Ready For Action!" and it was great. The kids got to see their favorite Sesame Street characters dance and sing about getting your superness by getting plenty of sleep, eating good food, keeping clean with good hygiene, and exercising your muscles. Both of them loved it.

Our Sweet Boys

Becky wanted a picture of the boys together for a special project she has planned. We couldn't have asked for sweeter smiles, and a nice hand hold from Aaron.

Alex's Kindergarten Picture

This is Alex's 2005-06 Kindergarten picture. What a great smile!

Surgery in the mobile clinic

On our first day in New Orleans, we set up a clinic from 9 to 5 in an empty hospital parking lot in a part of town that had been flooded. The first day started a little slow, but we got busier as word of our presence spread. Some New Orleans police officers came by and got immunizations that they hadn't had a chance to get yet. A few hours later one of the cops we helped brought in a fellow officer who had been injured in his own home. He had been using a carpet knife to cut out rotted carpet from his own home and had sliced right across his index finger. It missed major vessels and tendons, but needed to be sewn up. The nurses on our team cleaned it out and we quickly assembled a suture kit, sterile gloves, and suture. I was able to close the wound right there in the mobile VA truck that had come down from NY for us to use. He would have to follow up at an area hospital that had re-opened - the closest was 30-45 minutes away - to get the stitches out in a few days. I did 2 other laceration repairs in that location.

Katrina mission pictures are online

I've put pictures from my trip to Louisiana online at http://jevansfp.photosite.com/Katrina/. If you click on a picture on the bottom of the filmstrip, it will pop up to the center picture spot. If you click on the center picture, it will blow up to a larger one with captions and you can then use the arrow keys to move through one at a time. There is also a slideshow button which takes them fullscreen. On each of the single photo pages there is a "Save to my computer" link. If you need a higher quality copy to print, let me know and I'll email it to you. There were several pictures that didn't come out well on the disposable cameras I had - either too dark or out focus. You can use or share these however you wish. Also, please email me with any questions about any of the pictures. I am getting pictures from other people I was there with and will put some of the more interesting ones up on this blog with some more details.

Jason