Monday, May 14, 2012
We actually had a break from the rain over the weekend. We went on a really nice walk and found even more great places and buildings in Providence. (which means I will also be posting on Buildings in RI today) We walked by a beautiful little park called the Gladys Potter Garden, and Atlas wanted to stop so we went in and explored for a while.
It had a very Secret Garden/Snow White feel, with iron gates and trees surrounding the entire park. Tons of squirrels and birds were wandering around. There were a few little playgrounds and lots of communal toys.
On Saturday Nick spent most of the day writing a final paper while Atlas and I hung out with the 3 youngest Culley kids.
We walked to a park.
Tyson showed Atlas how to hit a baseball.
And we all ran around and got exhausted. We also had a pretty wild dance party, that I will post the video of if I can figure it out.
On Mother's Day we woke up and went to church. When we came home Atlas helped me unwrap my presents. I always give Nick crap because the only presents he knows how to give are books. Surprise, I got a pile of books!
Don't get me wrong. I love them all. Two of them even had Mother's Day drawings inside done by the authors.
After I read Nick's paper to check for grammatical errors we went to visit our friend Eric who just got home from the hospital. His surgery went well but he will be recovering for a while. Afterwards we went straight to Becky and Mohammed's for dinner. It was nice not to have to cook my own Mother's Day dinner and to have a bit of social time before coming back so that Nick could revise his paper some more. Unfortunately our day was so packed that we didn't get to skype either of our own Mothers, but look forward to doing that today.
It had a very Secret Garden/Snow White feel, with iron gates and trees surrounding the entire park. Tons of squirrels and birds were wandering around. There were a few little playgrounds and lots of communal toys.
On Saturday Nick spent most of the day writing a final paper while Atlas and I hung out with the 3 youngest Culley kids.
We walked to a park.
Tyson showed Atlas how to hit a baseball.
And we all ran around and got exhausted. We also had a pretty wild dance party, that I will post the video of if I can figure it out.
On Mother's Day we woke up and went to church. When we came home Atlas helped me unwrap my presents. I always give Nick crap because the only presents he knows how to give are books. Surprise, I got a pile of books!
Don't get me wrong. I love them all. Two of them even had Mother's Day drawings inside done by the authors.
After I read Nick's paper to check for grammatical errors we went to visit our friend Eric who just got home from the hospital. His surgery went well but he will be recovering for a while. Afterwards we went straight to Becky and Mohammed's for dinner. It was nice not to have to cook my own Mother's Day dinner and to have a bit of social time before coming back so that Nick could revise his paper some more. Unfortunately our day was so packed that we didn't get to skype either of our own Mothers, but look forward to doing that today.
Monday, May 7, 2012
It's been very rainy lately. It feels like we haven't seen the sun for two weeks. Needless to say, we have mostly been lazy. Well, mostly just Atlas and I, as Nick has been writing final papers and running around to different readings. He did sneak in a nap this weekend though.
On Friday we went stir crazy and broke the bank and went to The Pirates: Band of Misfits. It's always fun to go to a matinee on a weekday cause the theater is empty (and it's the only time we go since matinee's here are as expensive as regular showtimes in Utah) Sometimes Nick's weird schedule really is awesome.
Call me morbid, but I love cemeterys. Pres. Monson has remarked quite a few times that in order to get a feel for a town you should visit a cemetery. The cemeterys in Rhode Island are amazing, as some of the first settlers of the United States came here. The graves are old and broken and many are so worn that they are impossible to read. The ones that you can read will often be interesting, noting people's military service, how young they were when they died etc. There is an extremely gigantic cemetery that we can always see from the freeway and we decided to go take a stroll.
We barely walked through a portion of the cemetery because it is so large, but even on our short stroll we couldn't help but notice a large amount of Potter names.
It made me wonder about our genealogies and if either of us have ancestors who immigrated into New England, which I am sure we did.
In the car, Atlas says "Hey mom, I stuck popcorn in my ears!" He was pretty proud.
We also went to the Farmers Market on Saturday. Here is our haul.
I made some beet bruschetta on the baguette with fried queso blanco. It was sooooo good.
After a nap we went to a downtown block party for Cinco De Mayo. Dowtown Providence is really pretty, and really hard to drive/park in so we don't head there very often. It's always nice to be there though because they have really awesome shops and small local businesses.
Today the sun is actually out. We are playing with toys inside right now, but are going to go to the park as soon as Nick gets home. My plans to walk around all the pretty neighborhoods is on hold for a while as we are training Bixler to not be so afraid of other dogs, so we try to walk at dog parks. Our trainer took us out last weekend and worked on what we should do when he starts howling at other dogs, so that is our next step that we need to practice. Oh Bixler... he's SLOWLY turning into a better dog.
We also spent some time this weekend visiting/helping out a friend who is currently in the hospital. Eric is really the only person from Nick's program that we spend a lot of time with. Atlas loves him. For the last month of so his legs have been randomly giving out. He went to a Dr. who sent him to a neurologist, who did some MRI's and CAT scans and thought he had a bone spur in his spine and checked him into the hospital. Upon further inspection, turns out he has a tumor growing around his spinal column. It will be incredibly tricky to remove and they will have to take out portions of his spine and rebuild it. It's very close the spinal cord which makes things pretty scary. He is undergoing surgery on Tuesday, but has been in the hospital all weekend getting doses of steroids and other treatments to hopefully make the surgery go better. We are praying for him and hope that you will too!
On Friday we went stir crazy and broke the bank and went to The Pirates: Band of Misfits. It's always fun to go to a matinee on a weekday cause the theater is empty (and it's the only time we go since matinee's here are as expensive as regular showtimes in Utah) Sometimes Nick's weird schedule really is awesome.
Call me morbid, but I love cemeterys. Pres. Monson has remarked quite a few times that in order to get a feel for a town you should visit a cemetery. The cemeterys in Rhode Island are amazing, as some of the first settlers of the United States came here. The graves are old and broken and many are so worn that they are impossible to read. The ones that you can read will often be interesting, noting people's military service, how young they were when they died etc. There is an extremely gigantic cemetery that we can always see from the freeway and we decided to go take a stroll.
We barely walked through a portion of the cemetery because it is so large, but even on our short stroll we couldn't help but notice a large amount of Potter names.
It made me wonder about our genealogies and if either of us have ancestors who immigrated into New England, which I am sure we did.
In the car, Atlas says "Hey mom, I stuck popcorn in my ears!" He was pretty proud.
We also went to the Farmers Market on Saturday. Here is our haul.
I made some beet bruschetta on the baguette with fried queso blanco. It was sooooo good.
After a nap we went to a downtown block party for Cinco De Mayo. Dowtown Providence is really pretty, and really hard to drive/park in so we don't head there very often. It's always nice to be there though because they have really awesome shops and small local businesses.
Today the sun is actually out. We are playing with toys inside right now, but are going to go to the park as soon as Nick gets home. My plans to walk around all the pretty neighborhoods is on hold for a while as we are training Bixler to not be so afraid of other dogs, so we try to walk at dog parks. Our trainer took us out last weekend and worked on what we should do when he starts howling at other dogs, so that is our next step that we need to practice. Oh Bixler... he's SLOWLY turning into a better dog.
We also spent some time this weekend visiting/helping out a friend who is currently in the hospital. Eric is really the only person from Nick's program that we spend a lot of time with. Atlas loves him. For the last month of so his legs have been randomly giving out. He went to a Dr. who sent him to a neurologist, who did some MRI's and CAT scans and thought he had a bone spur in his spine and checked him into the hospital. Upon further inspection, turns out he has a tumor growing around his spinal column. It will be incredibly tricky to remove and they will have to take out portions of his spine and rebuild it. It's very close the spinal cord which makes things pretty scary. He is undergoing surgery on Tuesday, but has been in the hospital all weekend getting doses of steroids and other treatments to hopefully make the surgery go better. We are praying for him and hope that you will too!
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Last night Atlas got to go over to the Culley's to get tended- one of his absolute favorite things to do. The Culleys are an awesome family in our ward that has been incredibly helpful and kind to us while we have been in Rhode Island. They have 4 kids, all of which Atlas love. They are a bit older than him, but that just makes it so they can show him all sorts of cool stuff. I keep meaning to get a picture of Atlas with them, but always forget. I haven't been taking too many photos lately, so I have none to put up.
Nick read one of his short stories at a reading last night and he did a great job. We also were able to go out to dinner together, something that we have only done one other time while we have been out here. It was a nice evening and fun to watch Nick read. He is very talented (but I like to make fun of him a lot so he doesn't get a big head.)
We are starting to plan out our trip West this summer. I can't believe it is already May. Time is flying. Nick went to his last class of the semester today. That means he is already half way through his program!
Atlas seems older to me everyday. He is still the sweetest kid on Earth. A couple nights ago I was laying with him to get him to sleep. Sometimes he has a hard time choosing who he wants to cuddle with and read him stories before bed. We turned out the lights and he was pretty still. I thought he was asleep, then he bolts up and says "Mom, I have a great idea! Let's ALL sleep together!" I said "no, we tried that a few nights ago and it made it so Daddy and I couldn't sleep." To which he says "It's ok, I will hold your hands!" as if that would solve the problem of not sleeping. He loves holding hands so much. Lately he always says "You are the best mommy I ever did seen." 3 years old is fun- he's so sweet and smart and funny and still very innocent. He has such an upbeat positive personality lately that makes life really fun. It makes me sad to think that he isn't always going to be this way. I wish I could freeze time or perfectly remember everything, but when I think about it, I don't even really remember what he was like at 1 years old, so I am sure I will slowly forget a lot of this too. I've been taking a lot of videos lately, but he never acts normal when the camera is on. I am going to try and upload some videos to the blog here soon. I don't know exactly how, cause I have never dealt with video files before, but I will figure it out.
Nick read one of his short stories at a reading last night and he did a great job. We also were able to go out to dinner together, something that we have only done one other time while we have been out here. It was a nice evening and fun to watch Nick read. He is very talented (but I like to make fun of him a lot so he doesn't get a big head.)
We are starting to plan out our trip West this summer. I can't believe it is already May. Time is flying. Nick went to his last class of the semester today. That means he is already half way through his program!
Atlas seems older to me everyday. He is still the sweetest kid on Earth. A couple nights ago I was laying with him to get him to sleep. Sometimes he has a hard time choosing who he wants to cuddle with and read him stories before bed. We turned out the lights and he was pretty still. I thought he was asleep, then he bolts up and says "Mom, I have a great idea! Let's ALL sleep together!" I said "no, we tried that a few nights ago and it made it so Daddy and I couldn't sleep." To which he says "It's ok, I will hold your hands!" as if that would solve the problem of not sleeping. He loves holding hands so much. Lately he always says "You are the best mommy I ever did seen." 3 years old is fun- he's so sweet and smart and funny and still very innocent. He has such an upbeat positive personality lately that makes life really fun. It makes me sad to think that he isn't always going to be this way. I wish I could freeze time or perfectly remember everything, but when I think about it, I don't even really remember what he was like at 1 years old, so I am sure I will slowly forget a lot of this too. I've been taking a lot of videos lately, but he never acts normal when the camera is on. I am going to try and upload some videos to the blog here soon. I don't know exactly how, cause I have never dealt with video files before, but I will figure it out.
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