Creature Bug

Iceland for a day

Although it was not our intention to spend a day and night in Iceland on our way to Scotland, I would highly recommend doing it if you had the opportunity. Icelandair even encourages the layover by not charging people extra to have an extended stop in Keflavik/Reykjavik before heading on to their final destination. I wouldn't think you'd need very much time there to get a great feel for the country--I think two days would be sufficient--and the two main attractions (from what I could tell) are the famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa and the rather charming city of Reykjavik. And, of course, there's the volcano. My aunt and uncle spent two weeks there, and a former student of mine is spending six weeks there this summer, so of course a person can find things to do.  But. If you were doing a whirlwind kind of trip, you can do a lot in one or two days.

Brother Tyler and Sarah are hoping to visit Andrea next year, and after my relatively lovely experience, they're thinking they might travel with Icelandair and have a (planned) stop in Iceland. I hope they do. (And, of course, I hope their plane doesn't break down in Seattle like ours did.)

We landed in Iceland at 9:30 in the morning, and pretty quickly learned that we would be stuck there for the day and night because there were no more flights to mainland Europe.

It was one of those "it is what it is" deals, and even though I was mightily disappointed I wasn't going to be taking a nap in my sister's Glasgow flat that afternoon, we thought we might as well make the best of it. It helped that the airline covered our hotel stay and meals while we were in Iceland.

All of us who had missed our connecting flights were bussed to a hotel, and by a happy accident Jason and I had to sit on the floor at the front of the bus. I chatted up our driver who told me that there were two things a person could do: go to the Blue Lagoon (we didn't have swimsuits, so we opted not to) or take a bus from the hotel to Reykjavik. I learned from my dad and the few group tours I've been on that sitting at the front of the bus is a good idea because (1) you might find out some fabulous information from the bus driver and (2) you will be the first person off the bus.

Getting off the bus first at the hotel proved to be a major bonus because we got checked into our hotel room quickly. After many long hours of traveling, I was feeling a bit desperate for a shower.

If I had had my international wits about me, I would have inquired straight away at the hotel desk for a city map and when and where the next bus was going into town. But because I was tired and hungry and didn't know exactly what we were going to do for the day, we didn't ask until later in the afternoon. And, alas, when we did make it into Reykjavik we had only a short window of time to be there because we needed to make sure we got the last bus back to our hotel.

That small mistake notwithstanding, we were still able to see a bit of Iceland.

First we ate lunch. We ordered the local fish, which, for a non-fish eater like myself, was a bit more fishy and salty for my taste.

But we nibbled at it, and patted ourselves on the back for trying something new. However, for dinner we had the chicken.

Near our hotel:

In Reykjavik:

Reykjavik really is a beautiful city, and I wish we could have spent more time there but it was quite cold and we had not packed for those kind of temperatures; and it got dark rather early, and we didn't want to be wandering around the city in the dark.

We still got to wander around a bit and managed to find the Hofdi House.

Its claim to fame is being the location where Reagan and Gorbachev met to discuss ending the Cold War. Hooray for historical sites!

Very pretty building.

It wasn't open for tourists, but I was happy to see it anyway. And it gave us the opportunity to have an adventure not unlike the kind you see on Amazing Race.

We had to hustle to get the Hofdi House in order to take pictures and then be able to run back to the bus station to catch our bus.

The distance wasn't that far--not even a mile--so we were pretty confident that we would be okay on time. But, not being quite familiar with how roads intersected, we misread our map and ended up overshooting the bus station and ending up on the wrong side of a freeway. We finally got on top of a hill to see where we needed to go. We had about 4 minutes to get to a location that seemed a long ways away, so we started sprinting down the shoulder of some major road. We were darting across traffic, running down embankments, and checking our watches every 30 seconds.

We run into the bus depot's parking lot to see our bus. driving. away.

And, Amazing Race fans, you would have been proud of me.

We saw that the bus was going to have to backtrack a bit through the parking lot to get out onto the road, so I ran through the parking lot, waving my arms, and eventually running in front of the bus so that it would stop and let us on.

We made the bus.

So, that was our adventure in Iceland. It was lovely, and while I don't imagine I will ever go back, if I had the chance I would.

I went to sleep dreaming of having elevensies with my sister the following day.

Unfortunately, we got to the airport and discovered that Icelandair doesn't fly to Glasgow on Mondays, and so we would be routed through Amsterdam and arrive in Glasgow that evening.

It was one thing to miss a day with my sister. It was an entirely other thing to miss TWO days with my sister, and have to waste more time hanging out in an airport instead of hanging out in Scotland.

I was undone.

I cried and cried and talked to a very nice airline representative who told me there was nothing that could be done. Perhaps we could be on the flight to Manchester (England), but there were no guarantees that we could catch the flight from Manchester to Glasgow. Please, I sobbed, I just want to get to Glasgow. She was sympathetic, but when you're dealing with airplanes and flight plans and small things like oceans, there's only so much a person can do.

We flew from Iceland to Amsterdam, and what seemed like a small eternity, flew from Amsterdam to Glasgow.

I finally got to see my sister.

And our Scotland Adventure finally began! First stop: Edinburgh.

We Took A Trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big thing happened while I was away from here.

Huge.

Exciting.

Something we've been planning for more than a year.

We went to Scotland.

Just Jason and me.

It was amazing.

A student asked me if I'd like to go back, and I said, "If I had the money, I'd go in a heartbeat."

And he said, "I like how money is your first thought, and not the responsibilities you have at home like your kids and your job." And then I punched him in the nose and drop kicked him out the door.

Not really. (You figured that, huh?)

He was just teasing me anyway, so no big deal. But really, if we had the money, we'd go again. The grandparents stepped up and took care of the girls--Jason's mom did the lion's share of the work by staying out our house with the girls and keeping them fed and clothed--and Jason was on spring break so the work thing and the house thing and the taking care of the kids thing was all good. Because my spring break was the week before we left, I did cancel my classes for the week that I was gone, but I had worked it out all ahead of time, so it was good too.

Anyway! Those the logistics of how people like us go do crazy things like travel to a foreign country for a week.

So, Saturday, March 31st, we flew from Portland to Seattle and then to Iceland. Then we were supposed to fly from Iceland to Glasgow and arrive there Sunday morning. However, our plane in Seattle broke, so we had to wait around for a plane to arrive from Iceland, and even though I am a good and easy traveler who does not fret about flying, I admit that eventually this plane breaking down business had me sobbing in front of some Icelandic woman who really wished she had taken that day off from work.

But before that drama, we had this drama.

And by drama, I mean dramatic.

And by dramatic, I mean awesome amazingness of flying over the top of the world and seeing the sun rise.

I got very little sleep on the plane because I was excited, and because I was reading "Hunger Games" over Jason's shoulder (I didn't start until half way through, so I know the end, but haven't actually read the whole book). But I did doze off a little bit.

And when I woke up, we were hitting the Icelandic coastline.

(all these pictures are with my iPhone because I packed my point-and-shoot in my luggage)

Because of our delay and because the Iceland airport evidently doesn't have any flights off the island after 9 am, we discovered upon our arrival that we would not be going to Scotland that day. We--and about 60 others from our flight--would be hanging out in Iceland for the day and evening (our hotel and meals courtesy of IcelandAir).

Though I was bummed, I had a good attitude. When would we ever have a chance to visit Iceland? Never. How fun could this be? Very.

So we made the best of it and spent Sunday hanging out in Reyjavik thinking that we'd be catching the early morning flight to Glasgow the next morning and I'd be giving my sister a big ole' hug by 10:30 am.

Little did we know: IcelandAir does not fly directly from Iceland to Scotland on Mondays. There would be no 10:30 am hugging of my sister. There would instead be lots of tears.

...to be continued...

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 16)

: 1 :

I'm feeling good about hopping on the blog bandwagon again. I had intended to blog every day in May, but I fell asleep at 9 pm last night. I really do love sleeping.

Fortunately, I got a lovely view of the sun setting out my office window before I fell asleep.

: 2 :

I raved and bragged all over Facebook about this, but in case you are one of the few people who knows me here and not there, let me brag some more: my youngest brother Jake ran the Boston Marathon and finished 93rd.

Ninety-third out of more than 10,000 runners. He ran it in 2:41, which breaks out to 6:09 minute miles, which I am afraid I would never be able to run in my life. My brother is seriously so amazing. I told Jason that I could train my whole life and never run a marathon in under 3 hours.

He laughed hysterically.

I think that means he agreed with me.

I found out later, though, that a 40-year-old woman beat Jake by 20 seconds. And I thought to myself, "In four years, I could be that 40-year-old woman kicking some youngster's fancy kicks to the curb." So. There's hope (albeit small and unrealistic hope since I can't imagine spending the amount of time necessary to compete at that kind of level).

: 3 :

Speaking of marathons, I still am planning on running the Portland Marathon in October. My training has been a bit, um, uninspired. But I have all summer. And I'm relying on the fact that brother Jake and I
share the same genes and somehow that is going to help me cross the finish line this fall. (My brother is rolling his eyes right now and muttering about his delusional older sister.)

: 4 :

I made Jules hide my iPhone from me this morning. I just had stuff I had to get done, and darn it all if that little machine is not the biggest distraction I have. Don't get me wrong. I love my iPhone. But I lack some self-control. I don't know where Jules put my phone, but when I was done with my chores, she went and got it for me.

And you know what I missed while I was separated from my phone?

Nothing. Not a text, email, or emergency Instagram.

You know what I gained? Three hours of uninterrupted time.

Yep.

: 5 :

According to the weather people, it is supposed to be sunny next week. Maybe, MAYBE, even get close to 80 degrees.

If it doesn't happen I will cry.

I will rejoice in the Lord and be thankful for the day He has given, but I will cry. I need some sunshine, people. The rain is good, but the sun is really good.

: 6 :

My plans for all the sunny weather? Work on my garden. So far we have planted carrots and beets and peas. And we have seeds for all sorts of other yummy garden goodness, and I'm going to pick up some tomato starts. Oh joy! Garden food!

: 7 :

Also perfect timing for the cloudless skies? The supermoon! Tomorrow night the moon will be the biggest and brightest it will be all year. I love supermoons. They are one of the most glorious sights to behold.

Happy Friday, friends!

{For more Quick Takes, click here!}

To dance, to speak, to stand on her tip toes

A few weeks ago, for a school assignment, Sydney was asked to write down what she wanted to be when she grows up. "How am I supposed to know that?" she asked. I told her it's just for fun. For guessing. Not for anything she had to commit to.

She thought and thought.

We made suggestions. Ballerina? Nope. Teacher? No. Musician? Meh.

Well, we said, let's think about what you like. You like roller coasters.

Yes. She likes roller coasters. A lot.

And people have to design roller coasters. They're called engineers.

It was as if we'd spoken the magic words. Roller Coaster. Engineer. That's what she wants to be.

She looks very engineery here, doesn't she?

No?

How about here?

This is her new costume that's for her end-of-the-year ballet recital, and she wanted me to take a picture of her wearing it so that she could give it to her teacher. I suppose all engineers have to be almost eight years old and adore their teachers at some point in their life. (For the record, I'm not at all convinced that engineering is the field for Sydney. Certainly, I'll encourage her, but I'm thinking she'd have to develop some serious boldness to push her way around in a male-dominated field like engineering. Boldness is not one of her strong traits. Math and science are, though, so who knows.)

Future roller coaster designing plans aside, I can tell you what she is good at right now. Right now on the cusp of turning eight, my little Syd is good at making me laugh and ridiculing my lame attempts at ballet positions. She is good at playing the piano, and dancing, and singing. She is good at reading, good at avoiding eating meat, good at knowing exactly where her glasses are.

Some days she wants to focus on what she's not good at, and I tell her that no one is perfect and not to worry that she fights with her sister or that she doesn't like school or have many friends. It's hard for her though. Figuring out how to grow up. It's messy work.

Today, however, was not a day to focus on what she isn't good at. Today she got to do what she loves to do.

She got to compete in her classroom's speech meet.

She knew from the moment she got the assignment how she wanted the competition to turn out: I want to win it again just like last year.

And you know what? She did.

First place.

I can't imagine where she gets her flair for the dramatic (*cough*), but speaking from experience, there are a few times in life when the melodramatic personalities get kudos instead of eye rolling. Speech meets happen to fall into that category.

Only God knows how my little dancer's life is going to turn out. Engineering? Maybe. Artsy creative type? Possibly. A love for public speaking no matter what her profession?

Yep. Pretty sure she's on her way toward that.

Proud mama. That's me.

 

It's a Tulip

"What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what kind of a person you are." ~C.S. Lewis

I had not intended to stop writing for two months. (And, let's be honest, it's really been much longer than that that I've been writing consistently.)

However, as we all know, there are a finite number of minutes in the day, and I decided that writing did not fit into those minutes. Primarily, I decided to make sleep a serious priority. And so if you are wondering where I have been, I will tell you: I was sleeping. The girls would go to bed, and then a few minutes later, I would too.

And since that left my day with few moments to pause, drink some tea uninterrupted and sit at the computer, then...well, here we are. Months later.

However!

Nevertheless!

But!

My school year has ended. My energy level is normalizing (ergo, I'm finding that I don't need 10 hours of sleep a night to function), and so I'm dusting off the keyboard and trying to remember how to put a sentence together.

Plus, Sarah and I went to see the tulips and any tulip excursion is incomplete until I splash those beautiful pictures all over my blog. I can give up writing for months at a time, but as soon as tulips make their way into my camera's viewfinder, I get this urge to start writing about it. Tulips and blogging. They are inextricably linked in my psyche.

Once upon a time, eight years ago, Sarah and I started this funny little tradition of taking our kids to see tulips. Rain or shine, pregnancy or carrying a newborn, we have gone. We never have a particular day marked on our calendar to go, but it's as faithful to arrive as any other annual holiday. We just have to go because that's what we do.

This was a year of firsts for us. The first year for Wavey's first tulip adventure. The first year of 80 degree weather. The first year we relied heavily on our iPhones for most of our photography (in fact, Sarah didn't even take along another camera). It's true. I'm rather smitten with iPhonography.

(Sidenote: Since getting my iPhone in February, I have taken up Instagramming. I am a teensy tiny bit addicted to Instagram--a photo sharing app, for those of you who aren't familiar with it--and if you're on there, find me! I'm @stephstaley.)

I snapped and edited this little gem all with my phone.

Not with my phone?

The group shot.

Behold the seven cousins! We don't fuss about perfect expressions anymore. If you're facing the camera, then it's good enough.

This wasn't Addie's first year, but it was her first year as a fully mobile child.

You know what she did with those strong little legs of hers?

She found every single mud puddle and went walking in it. Admittedly, I was a bit surprised that there were puddles at all after the string of hot weathered days we'd had. One might even say I was a bit suspicious that the puddles were there naturally....without any orchestrating from the tulip people...who may or may not think it's funny to see children getting muddy and mothers getting frantic that the perfect photo op is going to be ruined. Mmhmm. I've got my eye on those tulippers. Very crafty.

As it just so happened, though, I did not care that Addie tromped and splashed through all the puddles. She was happy doing it, and I was happy to let her (until she started throwing mud at her cousin, at which I drew the line).

It was a fun time, and always makes me wish I had acres of tulips in my yard. I never grow tired of tulips. Hands down, one of my favorite flowers.

If you want to see more of our tulip adventures, I somehow managed to get a handful up on Flickr.

Tulips? Done and done.

Revisiting my habit of blogging more consistently? Well, I got this far.

Give the credit to the tulips.

Not just any Wednesday

A couple months ago, I heard that my favorite blogging duo--John and Sherry of Young House Love--were coming to Portland.

Every once in awhile I would check out the Portland Home and Garden Show's Facebook page to see what the news was on the Petersik's Portland arrival. Last week, I managed to snag a few tickets to see John and Sherry at a blogging seminar.

Yesterday, me, Sarah, and friend Emily (and baby Waverly) hung out together at the Expo Center and listened to John and Sherry talk about blogging. That's us in the back, directly behind the Petersiks. Even though their talk was about monetizing your blog and making a living from blogging (which is not on my radar as something I want to do), it was just pure fun listening to them.

It's true, the Petersiks have no idea who I am--I very rarely leave comments on their blog--but their whole DIY spirit has really inspired me. I'm painting my kitchen cabinets using their technique. I've put art on my walls, spray painted frames, and hung my curtains high and wide thanks to their blog.

I think we can count this as Waverly's first (blogging) celebrity sighting. She was so in awe she hardly made a sound.

As proof that I am a nerd: one of the highlights of the presentation? John's Keynote presentation (Mac's version of PowerPoint). It was super duper professional, and the transitions were a-mazing. Yes, I'm a slideware freak because I work with PowerPoint on an almost daily basis. As a public speech teacher, you don't even know how much I appreciate a good slideware presentation. Tears. In my eyes.

Another highlight?

Emily made this sweet little art piece and gave it to John and Sherry. They liked it so much they even showcased it on their blog. So Sarah and I are pretty proud of Emily for being clever and artsy.

The icing on the cake was hanging out with these girls. It only would have been made better by having my sister there. *sigh* She was missed.

While just hanging at the garden show would have been enough, we were moms on the town, and so we went to get tacos. But not just any tacos.

Tacos from Por Que No. Oh man. Good food.

There may have margaritas consumed as well. Possibly pomegranate. Which was possibly very tasty.

All in all, it was a fun day. Fun to meet in person bloggers that I admire, fun to hang with friends, and fun to huddle around a table with only a space heater and laughter keeping us warm.

I vote for Wednesdays always being this grand.

With Love

Happy Valentine's Day to you, friends! Hope your day is lovely.

gettin' my valentine's day card on

I have had one of those weeks where I wish I could do it again. Not because I regret anything I did, but because I had a list a mile long of things I needed to get done this week, and didn't. My to-do list wasn't helped by me getting some sort of bug in the middle of teaching class on Thursday (Student: You look terrible. You really need to sleep more. Me: I think I have the flu. Didn't you see me leave for a few minutes in the middle of class because I was so ill? Student: I didn't notice. Suuuuper.) It was one of those days I wished I didn't work 70 miles from home. I had to stop halfway through my commute to take a nap at a rest stop area. Good times.

Fortunately, I'm feeling better.

Fortunately, Addie is feeling better too. She got what I had (or something like it) and had a temperature of 102. Poor baby.

So, yes. The week. Not what I had planned.

One thing that I knew would make me feel better? Picture cards.

Today I managed to make the girls' Valentine's Day cards (found this idea from Pinterest; I think the original idea came from here).

{Tootsie Pop illustration by Sarah Morrissey.}

Of course, the cards will have real Tootsie Pops in them, but I Photoshopped in a little illustrated one here so you get the basic effect. I'm pretty tickled with how the cards turned out--especially since I had a photo credit at Costco, so the pictures didn't cost anything. The girls' favorite part? The hearts. They told me where to place each of them, and the thrill of Photoshopped heart placement was almost too much for them. They were crazy with power.

And lest little Miss Addie should feel left out, I managed to put one together for her:

{Font and owl graphic free from MTF.}

Truthfully, I just wanted a reason to make this picture into a card. Is it not so ridiculously adorable? On the practical side, however, she'll get to pass them around to her college buddies on Tuesday. College kids need Valentine's Day cards too.

So, that was my Saturday. Even if "make Valentine's Day cards" was supposed to be done a week ago, at least I know that the classroom cards will be delivered on time. The family cards that I frantically addressed and mailed out today? Well, sometimes it's the thought that counts. I hope so anyway.

Joining the Farm

{All the photos in the post except the last one are from Sarah.}

Last week, when Wednesday the 25th was only 52 minutes old, my niece was born.

Meet Waverly Lou. She was almost born in the car, but my brother carried his laboring wife into the hospital and a few nurses managed to catch the baby just in time. She was 6 pounds 13 ounces when she was born, and evidently Addie was exactly that small when she was born.

I do not remember her being that small. I remember small. But not that small.

Jason assures me that, yes, Addie was that small.

I do remember the joy of snuggling a tiny newborn. Time just slips away, and all you want to do is memorize every little feature of her face, her tiny fingers, her fuzzy hairline.

Wavey doesn't know it yet, but she has entered a world that will be filled with lots of kids who will hug and love her, who will tease and trip her, who will thump her on the head and jump with her on the trampoline. She joins a big family.

Not the kind of the big family where all the kids live under the same roof (although Waverly is baby #4 in her family); the kind of big family where aunts and uncles and cousins and more cousins and grandparents gather together to be with each other.

Sarah has a big family--Waverly is grandchild #17.

On Ty's and my side of the family, Waverly is grandchild #7.

Also? Wavey is Family Farm member #19.

Although we do have two teenagers hanging around the farm, we also have eight kids under the age of 10.

A couple weeks ago, I was reading friend Gretchen's post about the upside of a having a big family. I was thinking then what I thought earlier this week when I saw the little cousins running around, looking at the baby, patting the baby, holding the baby: we have our own kind of big family.

Yes, we have a few sets of parents to distribute the wealth of children, and each home has its own personality and responsibilities. But we're also in this together.

These kids are growing up together, spending days at the creek together, picking blueberries together, having slumber parties together. Amanda, Clover and Sydney stick together, and Jules and Toby stick together, and in some way or another Med and Addie and Wavey will stick together. Although I suspect that Addie and Wavey might tell Med to go hang out with Grandpa a good deal of the time.

Around here, it takes a farm to raise a kid.

Welcome to the Family Farm, Waverly. You are in for some fun and crazy times.

Turning 36

I turned 36 today.

I have to admit, 36 feels...old, well, old-ish. It feels a lot closer to 40 than 35 felt, although I am looking forward to turning 40 because Jason and I are going to Hawaii with our friends Robbie and Megan (the boys aren't sure about this; Megan and I are VERY SURE).

When I was 18--thinking about what it meant to be older--doubling my age would have put me squarely in that category. And now...I'm there. I'm twice the age of my students. I'm not old, but I'm definitely older. I am, as my youngest brother tried to advise me, too old to wear tall boots over my jeans because that's a look for young hipster girls. As it turns out, I love tall boots over jeans too much to follow my brother's advice, but since he was sweet enough to send me an Amazon gift card for my birthday all is forgiven.

I'm 4 x 9, and the 9 times table always felt like old numbers to me. 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90. Important numbers.

(I relayed my 9 times table feelings to Jason just now, and he said he prefers to think of us as 12 x 3, but the 12 times table doesn't strike me emotionally for reasons that are between 12 and me.)

Thirty-six. Yep. That's me.

On my birthday I'm always reminded about blogging because I pay for my blog every year on this date. So, I ask myself, do I still want to be doing this? I've been doing it for eight years. Kind of a long time. In blog years it's a very long time. But I guess I'll keep doing it. I still got stuff I can talk about.

As for today...it was a lovely day.

I took Jules to her naturopath, who is happy with her progress (so are we) and we won't need to go back for a couple of weeks.

We went to Home Depot where I picked out a new light fixture for the entryway.

I got to sit in my mom's kitchen and visit with my mom and my aunt.

I saw my new niece Waverly, born a week ago today.

Sneak peek at some adorableness:

(Yes, that is my snot-nosed child giggling over a newborn. Goodness gracious.)

I got to squeal in glee at seeing my passport in the mail. Two months from today we will be in Scotland.

I got to find my birthday presents through following hot-and-cold directions from Jules. Going into the playroom...warmer! Going into the office...colder! Looking under the table...warmer...under the easel...hotter! And score. A box of Junior Mints and conversation hearts.

My girls know me all too well.

It was a good day to turn 36. Even when we were eating dinner at Red Robin and Addie was melting down because she hadn't had a nap, and Jules was crying because she had been asked to please not grab ice cubes out of my water glass, and Sydney was loudly practicing phrases she had learned in Spanish class today ("Buenes tardes! Como estas? Asi asi!"), I still felt happy. Happy to be with my family, crying children, loud Spanish greetings, melting ice cream sundae and all.

And that is the upside to turning 36. Because 18 years ago I would not have handled any of those things particularly well. Fifteen years ago, spending the day like I spent it today might not have seemed like a win. I definitely would not have been excited about having the electrician come and install an outdoor electrical socket. That's how I wanted to spend my birthday money? On a electrical socket? Yes. Yes, it is.

Turning 36? Yes, it does feel oldish. But the older I get the happier I am with where I am in life.

Another candle on the cake just means one more wish.

I like it.