Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Since I haven't blogged since the tragedy at Carter's school (for which I've provided a brief update at the very end), I wanted to put something a little "happier" at the top of the queue...  So what better than a picture of the cutest little boy on the planet hugging my favorite college mascot?

The KU Alumni Association hosted a happy hour in August (free food and beer!) and in the corner of the brewery, they had a giant inflatable Jayhawk.  As soon as Carter saw it, he ran up to it and gave it a big hug (cue "AWWWW!" from everyone in attendance) - and I captured the sweet moment with my phone camera:

All of the Greenies are looking forward Fall and a little KU basketball!!!  This is the year, folks!

Hope you had a nice long Labor Day weekend!
Kerrie

PS Just a quick update on the daycare drama:  Sandra (Carter's teacher) was indicted, but only after the Attorney General passed the decision off to a Grand Jury at the 11th hour.  Sandra's immigration status is in question (and before you get all judgmental on me and complain about the illegals in this country, take a step back…).  She was brought to this country by her parents at age 9 and I can only guess that at NINE she wasn’t questioning her citizenship or questioning whether the paperwork was filed to allow her to freely stay in the US...  While the daycare DID complete the background checks during her hiring, they aren’t required to check citizenship status.  And sure, I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think ANY state is required to fully check and ask for documentation about your immigration status during a criminal background check (sans Arizona…).  So all those idiots on the media pages throwing daggers at my daycare owners calling for them to close up shop for hiring illegals, well, get off your soapbox.  They followed the rules, they did the background checks, and again, this is a horrible, unfortunate tragedy.  Plus, I don’t frankly care WHAT your citizenship is when you’re providing safe, loving care for my son!

I digress…

So because Sandra’s immigration status is in question, the family (who I might add does NOT want to press charges  - remember, the little boy that died was Sandra’s nephew) cannot post bond.  If they post bond, Sandra will be transferred to an immigration holding facility in El Paso and will subsequently be deported to Mexico.  No one wins in that scenario.

As such, we all wait.  The Greenies were unable to attend Gabriel’s funeral (it was on a Thursday), but we sent a generous sum of cash to Gabriel’s mother and a heartfelt sympathy card.  They’ve also opened a bank account to help cover funeral and legal expenses.  I also wrote a very thorough character reference letter for Sandra and I will be the first in line to testify on her behalf when it comes time to do so.

With our legal system moving so quickly here in New Mexico, I can only imagine that Sandra’s case will not come up for 2 more years.  The last case that I’ve read about was a woman that left her 1 year old in the car while she went for a doctor’s appointment.  That was in 2009 and it’s just NOW in the legal system.  Sandra’s already missed her own son’s 1^st birthday by sitting in jail and will no doubt miss many more.  IF, and a big IF, she is convicted of “child abuse resulting in death,” the _minimum_ punishment is 18 years in jail.  At age 19, that’s nearly a lifetime…

Our heart still goes out to Sandra and the whole family.  Wish I could invent that time machine and go back to that horrible morning in August…

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

You MIGHT have heard the clapping and happy shouting coming from the Greenie house this weekend... That's right, the University of Kansas Jayhawks took the Big 12 champ title on Saturday evening! Thought I should memorialize the excitement with a short little blog post...

Carter was running around clapping and saying "shayshock" during the games and was happy as a lark (much to his mother's enjoyment!).

Let's hear it for the KU Jayhawks!!! Now we just need to take the NCAA title!
Rock Chalk Jayhawk! KKKKKKKUUUUUUU!
~kerrie the superfan

PS These photos were from Sunday's photo shoot - more to come for sure...

Just Like Mike

...Michael Jordan that is! Remember those awesome commercials for Nike shoes that had Michael Jordan jumping, like, 400 feet in the air? Well, I think Carter is trying to tell us something...

I can't quite put my finger on it... Maybe these photos will hold some clue...
Oh yeah, the kid's a nut... Jumping in the crib is his new favorite past time! Couple short videos of the action below.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Oh yeah, that kid gets some SERIOUS air!! Looks like he's got the makings of a basketball player (for the Jayhawks, of course...)!

Seriously behind on blogging, but I couldn't resist posting these tonight!
~kerrie

The Lobo Kid

So, yeah, I'm pretty much WAY behind on my posting... Been battling this head cold crap (sinus infection, turned to bronchitis, turned back into a sinus infection...) and well, let's hope this THIRD round of antibiotics does the trick, eh?

To catch up on the blog, we'll go way back to March 27, 2010. The University of New Mexico "Lobos" made it to the NCAA tournament (which I'm told doesn't happen on a regular basis...), so Carter was supporting his local team by wearing his Lobo tee. Snapped a few photos before school, so he wasn't quite awake and therefore, wasn't hamming it up for the camera.

But he still looked adorable:
A little bit of, "Hey wait a minute, Mommy...this isn't a KU shirt?!"
"Oh, boy, the other kids will think I'm confused!!"
"Oh well, let's get this show on the road! Goooo Lobos!"
Unfortunately the Lobos didn't make it to the Sweet 16. They lost by nearly 20 points to Washington (and hey, at least my 'hawks only lost by TWO...). There's always next year, huh?

Rock chalk, Jayhawk!
~kerrie

Walking With Dinosaurs (In a New Seat)

Now that Carter has reached the 1-year mark (and is over 23 pounds!), it was time to move him into his new car seat... Which allows him to see where we're GOING, not where we've BEEN!

At first, he was just in awe of how great the whole new-seat-thing really was:
And then it sunk in that he gets to STAY facing this way! He was all smiles!
So we took him on a little trip up to Rio Rancho (neighboring city to Albuquerque - heading north). Our wonderful neighbors, Kristin and Justin, got us free tickets to "Walking With Dinosaurs." It's a live arena show with ACTUAL dinosaurs! (Ok, they're not really real, but wow, they were quite life-like!)

Couldn't use a camera flash, so I tried to snap a few photos when the lighting was at it's best (click on the pics to actually see them...). Here's our buddy, Stegs:
Another pal - Brontosaurus:
A whole slew of dinos:
Again, Bronto - one of my faves:
Some replica pre-historic flowers:
Triceratops (or something like that - I should call Noah to confirm, eh? He's 5 and knows all of them by heart...):
And the King - T-Rex:
Tyrannosaurus - shouting at the crowd:
And then I took a little video of the "action" so you can "walk" with the dinosaurs too - check out these 20 seconds of fun (the mom T-Rex was protecting her baby T-Rex from the "bad guys"):


We had a blast at the show and really owe Kristin and Justin a big THANKS! Wasn't sure we were even going to make it with all the sick bugs we were carting around, but we pulled through and really enjoyed the experience! Carter sat still for nearly all of it and then started to doze off toward the end.

All-in-all it was a great weekend...until KU lost to Amelia's boys (Northern Iowa U). Sheesh. Maybe next year, eh?

Rock chalk,
~kerrie

Wagons and Winners

Prior to hitting the monthly library book sale this morning, I tried to snap a few photos of Carter playing around in the living room. I tell ya, our lil' guy has gone from the potted-plant-stage baby to the busy-bee toddler in the blink of an eye!!! He wouldn't pause for a photo for anything!

He was pushing his new wagon (thanks again, Kristin!) back and forth and was having quite a good time:He then did a switchover to his walker toy:
Quick turn around and walked back the other way:
Ok, another switchover back to the wagon:
Seeing that in real time - here's a quick little (and a tad shaky, sorry) video of Carter pushing his wagon around:


Spotted some toys at the other end of the room - off to check it out:
Ah yes, it's the barnyard toys (...another musical toy from Grandma C...):
Then I gave up with the camera, as he was on to 5 other things! Let's see if this 'ol mom can keep up in the coming months, eh?

And yes, for the record, I only decided to snap the photos this morning because Carter looked so cute in his KU gear. Gotten enough crap for posting "other" collegiate teams on this blog, so I'm showing a little more love for my Jayhawks! Let's beat up on some Wildcats today! Rock chalk!
~kerrie

Rock Chalk Jayhawk

I THINK I've mentioned here and there that I'm a BIT of a University of Kansas basketball fanatic... Well, as "my" Jayhawks whooped up on Kansas State University last night (and secured KU the Big 12 regular season champs title!), I thought I'd dedicated an entire post to basketball!

Unfortunately, without having cable TV, I rarely get to actually WATCH a game. Instead, I listen to them play via internet radio (which is great, because it broadcasts straight out of Lawrence). Carter (in his trendy space jammies) and Daddy listened to the game with me last night, right up to the very end:
During the final minute, I was clapping with joy and Carter joined in on the clapping fun:


One more game to go and then the regular season is over. Hope they whoop up on Mizzou on Saturday afternoon, too! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
~kerrie

Happy [Belated] Birthday to Jennifer!

Since my Jayhawks lost today (*sniff...but it'll be ok, right? And if history repeats itself, the last time Oklahoma State beat KU, the 'hawks went on to win the National Championship...I'm just saying...)

...I digress. Point was, since I'm moping around (and Matt and I have head colds), I thought I'd catch up on a few blogs. First up, a big, happy [belated] birthday wish to our pal Jennifer. Celebrating a milestone birthday (29th, duh...), the Greenies were fortunate enough to participate in the festivities with her and her buddies!

Here's the grinning birthday girl (and yes that's a purple cake...she's a K-State nut and their house is disgustingly decorated in purple and white...but they're still ok in my book, even if they have no taste in Kansas colleges):
Carter and Mommy hanging with the crowd:
Another shot of the revelers after chowing on some cake:
And Jennifer's awesome hubby, Brett (you may recognize him as Chris Farley, the motivitational speaker from the 2009 Halloween Costume Party - link takes you to the party photos):
And finally, the celebrity of the night - the fluffiest cat I've ever seen (Matt put the coke can by her for "scale"...):
We had a great time, as did Carter (hamming it up for the ladies, as usual) and Jennifer, hope you're enjoying the end of your 20's (like me!)!
~kerrie

Award Winning Taliesin West

As KU starts the overtime period against Colorado (bah!), I figured I'd type up a few blogs. Sitting here on my bum is as good a time as any since I'm a little behind in my blogging because I've been traveling a bit.

Over the weekend, I took a trip over to Phoenix for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Region Conference. Kicked off the Conference with a tour of Taliesin West, the famous architectural school and home of Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale, Arizona. While I'm not very up on my architecture, I gotta say, Taliesin was AMAZINGLY cool! If you ever get a chance to visit any of his homes, go for it! You won't be disappointed!

First up - a shot of me at the entrance of the tour:
My SWE pals Elizabeth and Sarah:
A view from outside - this portion used to be the "home" for the architectural students (apartments along the top, dining in the front area, and the grass/pool were play areas for the kiddos):Another view from outside (note that the buildings are not very high, as Wright believed it shouldn't be taller than the surrounding cacti and trees):He even designed the totally sweet chairs (and this was a low table that you could review architectural drawings; and yes, that's a plant in the middle - nature was included in every part of the property):
A view of downtown Scottsdale - can't see it? That's the point - it's pretty far out there (and most of the plants were imported):
One neato aspect was the fact that there weren't any interior lights. The windows were all angled such that the 360-some days of sunshine would provide all of the light needed and at night time, the fireplaces (in every room) provided the light:
Maybe on my future travels I'll try to catch a few more Frank Lloyd Wright houses, as I think I caught the architecture bug!

For the remainder of the SWE Conference, I had a blast. Got to catch up with all of my SWE pals, sit in on a few interesting presentations, and enjoy the warm Phoenix weather.

However, the REAL highlight for the Conference was being awarded with the "Emerging Leader" Award for the Region. I had no idea that I won, so I was quite thrilled when they called my name! Here's a cheesy picture with my pal Deb (and I can't take credit for the photo and honestly, I'm not sure who snapped it...):
But now, I'm back in gloomy Albuquerque (it snowed today) and am counting the minutes until Spring gets here... At least I'm back home with my boys, so all is grand! (And KU just won the game!)

Rock chalk,
~kerrie

Basketball Tubes

Quick post for the morning (didn't have time last night with dinner, laundry, and conference calls...) - Matt took the dude to the pediatric ear-nose-and-throat doc yesterday and it took him all of about 30 seconds to peek in Carter's ears to say, "Yep, he needs ear tubes." Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration on the 30 seconds, but reviewing his medical history really hit it home. Guess we got a pretty good case of chronic ear infections, fluid build-up, horrible medicine reactions, and the like, so tubes will be the prescribed remedy.

He agreed that it's ok to be concerned (I mean it IS surgery), but he assured us that the tubes will DEFINITELY make our lil' guy feel better. So now I just wait on the surgery scheduling people, but the rest of this process should move much more quickly. And then we get to follow up with quarterly doctor visits for the rest of his life (ok, probably not quite that long...).

In other news, college basketball season is starting!!! For me, this is one of the most wonderful times of the year (cue Andy Williams song...)! Since I don't have any current photos with me to put up, I'll put up another first-month shot from the Spring - here's Carter getting ready for some much-loved KU basketball:

Wish us luck for a quick, pain-free surgery for our guy and for an even quicker recovery! And Rock Chalk, Jayhawk, baby!!
~kerrie