I know it's been a while, but we've been busy. I'm in seminary again. Just for checking in, here's a treat. If you use Google Chrome, paste the following text in to the address bar and press enter, then press start and right click to destroy the web page with a katamari snowball. One of the perks of beintg a computer teacher is learning from my students. One of them showed me this trick.

javascript:var i,s,ss=['http://kathack.com/js/kh.js','http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js'];
for(i=0;i!=ss.length;i++){s=document.createElement('script');s.src=ss[i];document.body.appendChild(s);}void(0);

Finished!

As You May Have Heard...

We got some snow here. A lot of snow. In our attempt to be both frugal and stay with the church here in NY through Christmas (as it turns out, almost everyone in the church went "home" for Christmas) we booked a December 28 flight to Tennessee which was cancelled following this week's blizzard.

Ezra offered to clear the runway at LGA with his snow plow (a plastic tub) so that our plane could take off. I informed him that I had no snow clearing device (we just have the one plastic tub) and he told me that was okay, I could just use my hands. After some convincing, he finally accepted the fact that he and I would not be able to clear the runways ourselves. His back-up plan was to walk to Tennessee. We could just put him in the backpack carrier. He could wear his sunglasses so that the snow wouldn't blow into his eyes and he'd wear his snow pants and we could just start walking. He really, really wanted to see his grandparents.

Here are some of the sights from Long Island City:





I took a video from our window, but will have to try again later to upload it. In the meantime, enjoy this time lapse video of the snowfall by Mike Black:

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.

Today, Corey completed plans for the boys' bunk beds in Google Sketchup. The plan is for toddler sized mattresses and the top bed is only 44" from the ground. We plan to hang room darkening curtains from the top rail. Ezra had been sleeping in a Kidco Peapod Plus, which we loved until it broke. (We got a lot of wear out of it and will likely buy another someday.) Elias is in a Pack-N-Play, but we'd like to have real beds for them, so this is our plan:



There WILL be a rail on that bottom bed and we may put an extra rail up top. I'll post some pictures when we get it finished.

Ezra and I went out to the playground this morning and started work on an igloo. We plan to close in the roof tomorrow and post some pictures. Stay tuned. We got our place cleaned up and are working on a video tour for you.

We're pretty bummed about not being able to see friends and family for Christmas and New Year's celebrations, but it has been nice to have some downtime together.

L

While You Were (Supposed to Be) Sleeping

I came home from a late night grocery run to discover Ezra, rather than sleeping, had been doing a little work in TuxPaint. Computer on mute so as not to be discovered by Corey. Apparently he had also been shopping for a new iPod, browsing Photo Booth pics, and adjusting the settings on my laptop.

*GASP!* There's Blood EVERYWHERE!

So today things were going fairly well. Then Ezra decided to use our apple peeler/corer/slicer to prepare himself a snack. Not to be outdone, little e. raced to get in on the action.

(DISCLAIMER: this story gets disgusting. If you are squeamish, you should stop reading now.)

Minor altercation in the kitchen.

Boys were separated and returned to a (relatively) safe position.

Ezra's world ends. Not only have I taken his hope of a snack, but I have also kept him from beating his brother in what otherwise would have been a fair fight.

Flailing ensues.

Flailing continues.

Flailing and mourning make a tour of the living room/dining room/bedroom.

The disturbed elder child ends his raging after taking a flying leap into his brother's bed. When I feel he has calmed down enough to hear what's going to happen next, I approach. (Side note: I do not condone the throwing of fits. It prompts in me such distaste that I have found it best lately to remain calm and not engage in emotional warfare with my 2-year-old.)

I stop. Blood. Everywhere. Something incoherent about boogers.

I figure he has a bloody nose, but how? It's all over his face, hands, and neck. It's almost as disgusting as the time a couple of months back that the little guy drew on the walls... I'll stop. Suffice it to say that they have now each had a "Carrie" moment.

So the elder is not injured. He's still mumbling about boogers and his apple slicer as I race off to find the younger who must surely have collapsed by now.

Little guy is clean. Back to Ezra. I managed to find the tiniest cut on the tip of his small finger. Apparently he had cut it on the slicer, but the cut was so minor he either didn't realize or didn't care. I calm down and take a look around and that's when I notice...

THERE. IS. BLOOD. EVERYWHERE.

Everything he rolled around on and stomped across. Books. Carpet, (yay, washable FLOR tiles!) pillows, rugs, couch cushions, blankets...I could go on, but I'm sure that's more than enough for you. Call it a late Halloween story. ...or Reformation Day story, whichever you prefer because believe me, there will be a reformation in the life of my elder child. (How 'bout them apples, big E.?) I sincerely hope we are nearing the end of our "fireside chats" on the topic of tantrums.

Time With Boys and Fun at Maker Faire

Couple of pictures taken recently;

the boys driving around inside Home Depot, and Ezra at the cafe for man-time. The pictures say enough about themselves

What great boys!

Trying to upload video from the make magazine world maker faire, which Leann presented at, making paper with her partner Grace. I sneaked away and watched this cool demonstration of the coke zero and Mentos trick.

Kimpossible and the Civil War

We're still alive! Our neighborhood is not Mr. Rogers' in the least, but they haven't gotten us yet. We're pretty fast. Don't worry about us! We're safe here and so are the kids. Well, little e. is shaping up to be quite the scrapper, so at least one of the kids is safe. There are a number of things to account for our recent lack of posts. Nothing, I'm sure that would be of interest to you--just ordinary life stuff. I have started a business with a friend of ours. We've made a whopping $15. We would mow yards to supplement, but we haven't found any yet. Heh.

If you know any kids in NY, let them know they're missing out on some top-notch arts experiences.

As for our living arrangements, I had some old photos, but the place looks completely different now. We've got a storage unit we're clearing out so every time we bring something home, the whole place has to shift. I'll get some pictures of our apartment on here for you to see. Here are a couple of winter photos for you to puzzle over in the meantime:

I'm not sure what Queens residents have with cartoon characters. Maybe Garfield and Kimpossible are unrelated and we shouldn't make a case study.

Corey says it's like we're living in a puzzle. And it is! For example:

Yesterday we brought home some furniture so I had to get rid of a floor lamp and replace it with a wall sconce. The sconce-hanging process involved unplugging and rearranging 6 different devices whose cords were wedged behind large pieces of furniture. It was moderately comical. I had to unplug everything we have and move every piece of large furniture in our house in order to hang a lamp. (I told you you wouldn't be interested to hear what we've been up to. Heh.)

For those of you who were wondering what we've been up to with The Gallery, here's the rundown:

-Corey has been working to fine-tune membership stuff. That includes record-keeping, letter sending, and all that goes along with that. The things that, if you've been in a church that's had a hundred years to fine-tune, you probably haven't thought much about. We hadn't.

-I have been working with the Gallery mommas to get a story time running. It ultimately geared toward helping us get to know the families in our area. I'll also be stepping in to a more hands-on role in our children's ministry.

-Corey has also started seminary with the SBTS extension here. We feel that the strong presence of a theologically solid seminary will be vital to ministry in the city. We have seen first hand the effects of misinformation and lack of knowledge on undue prejudices against believers.

-We have been building relationships with members. We have tried to love and encourage and strengthen the community of believers and the church whenever possible. I'm not sure how to quantify this for you, but we feel we have been able to be of particular help in this area.

We plan to send out a more detailed letter in the near future to let you know where we've been and what the future may look like for us. If you've never received anything from us at your current address, please send mailing address to: leann [dot] gregory [at] gmail [dot] com.

One thing I've picked up on is that there exists in many New Yorkers I have spoken with personally a certain prejudice against Southerners. I wonder how much of that is still left from postbellum America. I've been thinking a lot about...about how we develop our systems of thought and belief or, in some cases, fail to adequately develop them... (by adequate, I might just mean adequate by my standards.) I've been hanging around artists and watching a lot of Civil War movies. And bits of reality TV. If you shake that up in a person's brain with a little bit of Chesterton and a night time view of Manhattan, strange things happen. Maybe I'll save all of this for later.

Let's see who's still reading. What's your favorite Civil War movie? If you're not into Civil War movies, what's your favorite book about the Civil War?

Leann