My Favorite Tush

One of my favorite things this month is Landon's tiger butt pants. Thanks, Grandpa!

"Are you looking at my bum? You bum lookers!" *

* Give yourself points if you said this quote in your head à la Simon (Mike Myers) circa mid-90s Saturday Night Live.

Family Bonus

Last week, Erik had to renew his certification for a swim physical; it took him away to Norfolk, VA for four days. And I realized it was the first time he'd been away for more than a day in recent history.

Erik and I have been back in the States a little over a year now and my how it has flown. [Pun semi-intended.] Going from three years of interrupted time together in Japan (home for a month, deployed for four, meet in a port for a few days, back to deployment, rinse, repeat, etc) to being at home together every single day was quite an adjustment. Admittedly a bumpy road at first, but now I can't imagine it any other way. Which is dangerous since I know he'll soon be returning to back-to-back sea tours which means he'll be in deployable squadrons for 5-6 years straight. I know I'm spoiled right now. Like, *big time* spoiled.

We (well, Erik) lost a large financial bonus to take the route of going back to get his pilot wings. Instead of extending his original commitment, it kind of resets the whole thing and puts him in that semi-awkward sea tour path. Which we are fine with - this has always been considered a long term career and he loves loves loves flying. But little did I realize that it was the best thing that could have happened for our family unit. The fact that Landon is almost 5 months old and has only missed seeing his dad for about 6 days during that time is not a privilege I take lightly in this day and age. Regardless if you are military; families are working hard.

Knowing what I know now, I can honestly say it is undoubtedly, definitely worth the loss of the bonus and longer sea time to have Erik home with our baby boy... and of course seeing him happier as he learns to take control of "the stick" and fly "the ball."

Nap time at 4 weeks old.

We Heart iPhone Videos

While Erik was away at his Swim Physical in Norfolk for a few days (he passed!), Landon and I made sure to capture plenty of phone videos to send each day. [Can I just take a moment to say how happy I am we got the unlimited text, photo, video plan for our phones. Just in those four days, we sent a butt ton of videos - hooray for all inclusive pricing.]

This first video below is how we are greeted each morning that we peek over Landon's crib. He is a *super* happy baby in the morning. I love how the video ends on a maniacal pause.



This second video shows off Landon's flexibility. I guess he was practicing yoga in utero and is now gracing us with a demonstration of his skills.



Does right foot taste better than left foot? 'Cause he doesn't seem interested in lefty toes.

What's on TV

Now that the Little Bit has settled more into a routine, I am back to enjoying the boob tube and can follow along with series. God bless the DVR - there is no time for commercials in this house.

I've been steadily maintaining my addiction to Chopped All Stars (love to see the judges in the hot seat!) and Top Chef All Stars (my vote is for subtlely crazy Richard!). Erik is on board with watching the shows and is into the excitement; I'm glad to have a buddy for the ride. We were thinking of having a Chopped competition of our own. If the ingredients were ham, cheese and bread, Erik would be a shoo-in.

"Winning!"

And after hearing an awesome piece on PBS' This American Life a couple years ago about people who buy unclaimed storage lockers, I wanted to pee my pants with excitement over A&E's new show Storage Wars. Alas, it's a little too staged for my liking, but I'll still DVR a marathon just to listen to Barry's quips.

This all, of course, is in addition to anything on HGTV - especially Cash & Cari and The Antonio Treatment. Side note: After enjoying House Hunters for years, I will never look at it the same way after learning a crucial piece about the production of the show (I won't write it here - don't want to break anyone else's heart).

Don't feel bad for Erik - he has plenty of time to play his Legos games on the Playstation. We are an equal opportunity TV household.

Happy Birthday to Grandma Marian!

Landon says: "Ah-gooooo *burp* ohhhh *fart, burp* *shriek* gooooo"

Translation: "Happy Birthday, Grandma! Can't wait to get more cuddles when I see you next month!"

[Mental naps at 3 weeks old.]

Double Negative

A linguistics professor was lecturing his class one day.

'In English', he said, 'A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative.'

A loud voice from the back of the room piped up, 'Yeah, right.'

[Thanks, Cynthia, for the Facebook post that made me smile!]

Recipe Try Out: Slow Cooker Turkey Breast

Last week's new recipe adventure wasn't really a recipe at all. In line with my modus operandus of few ingredients and little clean up, the steps were as follows:

(1) Throw (or gently place, if you prefer) a turkey breast in the crockpot. Mine was about 2 or 2.5 pounds and I took the skin off, rinsed the breast and patted down with a couple paper towels.

(2) Toss (or gently spoon, if you prefer) a couple cans of cream of mushroom soup on top. I like using the healthy request, low sodium variety.

(3) Set on low for about 8 hours.

Appetizing as the process sounds (especially when the soup makes a good ol' *shhluuurp* sound coming out of the can), it turned out really great. The solid hunk o' meat was falling apart and the soup had become a yummy-and-not-too-thick gravy consistency. We tossed it over some egg noodles and steamed some asparagus to go along with everything.

I was a little surprised that a 2.5 lb turkey breast cost about 8 or 9 buckaroos, but we definitely got a lot of servings out of the darn thing. Turkey for dinner? Check. Turkey for lunch? Check. Turkey for dinner...again? Check.

I did not take a photo; I thought about it towards the end, but everything looked like dog food on my plate at that point. No, but really, you should try it some time.

Some Links for Peeps in Japan

One of my Japanese friends, Tomoko-san, sent me an email with information for the US families in Japan who may be further seeking English-based information. I wanted to share for our Nihongo blog readers:

I quickly create Twitter and Web site of Earthquake related information for non-Japanese speakers.

I want to share the sites including JFS (NGO) website [Japan for Sustainability, a Non Government Organization], which I work, with you and your colleagues in Japan. It aims to provide necessary information (mostly in English) for anyone who does not understand Japanese as soon as possible.

Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/forestfriendtom

Blogs
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ianekam2011311

JFS Web site has a portal site, "EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI IN JAPAN'S TOHOKU DISTRICT". It covers Japan's Earthquake and Nuclear Power Plant Information, and Safety Confirmation, Donation for Disaster Relief and Messages for Japan.

Japan for Sustainability (JFS)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/030700.html

What Would You Do?

Living Social is offering a deal in which you donate $5 and they will match it to contribute $10 in total to the American Red Cross.

https://livingsocial.com/deals/32115-5-for-10-donation-to-red-cross-relief-efforts

I'm not sure how all the funds are being distributed at this time, but I'd like to think it contributes to some greater good that can help down the road as the chaos subsides. Worst case scenario, you have donated to a legitimate organization that will help someone, someday, somewhere.

As for our military friends and the voluntary evacuation that was announced a couple days ago, there are some who are deciding to stay and some who will be leaving. But (as with anything Navy), there is a lot of "hurry up and wait" going on. They have prioritized families with wee ones and pregnancies to head out first. Where to? Even they don't know. But I do understand operationally this is a lot to coordinate in a small amount of time. They are allowed to bring 35 or 50 pounds of belongings, unsure of when (if?) they will return to their homes and when they will see their spouses next. I can see how it would be a hard decision to leave and I'm sure there are a multitude of emotions that come with that. But if I know my friends over there, they will push through the maze of unknowns and will make it work (do you need a PoA for that? hehehe). Rock on, ladies.

Helping our Far East Friends

My heart continues to break for Japan. What a beautiful country and beautiful people. If you have not yet done so, but are interested in contributing to relief efforts, the following Yahoo link has a nice summary of options:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110311/wl_yblog_newsroom/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-how-to-help

You can also visit the Google Crisis Response page to donate to the Japanese Red Cross. Note that donations will be made in Yen and then converted:

http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

We lived about 45 minutes from Tokyo during our time there; that area remains largely unaffected although the base is now detecting low levels of radiation, much like other areas of the country. I have been told, though, by our friends on base that the media has made that aspect of the story rather bloated and they personally do not feel particularly in danger of radiation side effects. The bigger story lies within the absolute heartbreak and destruction farther north.

Please consider helping. Arigato gozaimasu!

Snoozefest 2011

Woohoo! He sleeps through the night! Goes to bed at 8:30p and wakes up around 7:00a. I thought it may have been a fluke, but it's officially four nights in a row now. Hallelujah. Now I've just got to get back in the mode of continuous sleep - my body still wakes up around 4:00a instinctively. I'm pretty sure I can kick that habit this week. I'm also hoping my body will get on board with adjusting my milk supply this week, too (ouchie!).

Halvorson San Antonio Weekend

I'm a little behind on my postings, but as Facebook photos have advertised, we did have the Halvorson family down here to visit a couple weekends ago. Grandma, The Dude and Aunt Schming flew in for a 3 day weekend. They forgot to tell Uncle Bobo until it was too late - woops. Sorry, Uncle Bobo - you were missed!

Anyhoodles, our journey began in San Antonio which is about a 2.5 hour drive from Kingsville. Of course the majority of the weekend was spent meandering around the River Walk, reviewing menus and slumping into chairs, ordering crisp beers to battle exhaustion. It was a great time and after a chilly morning, the sun came out and graced us with its presence. It worked out well there was the Texas Independence celebration (in the form of reenactments at The Alamo) and also Mardi Grad weekend (in the form of beads pelting us on the river bank).

Staying classy with Bud Light tall boys.

Staying classy with copious amounts of Mardi Gras beads

The grandparents promptly bought Landon some San Antonio accessories while we were out visiting all the little shops along the way. The only thing missing was a mini gun holster.

"Why am I the only one in this get-up, Mom?"

All in all, Landon did a great job keeping up with the shenanigans. It doesn't hurt when you are super portable and can be carried everywhere.


The last day was spent relaxing back in good ol' Kingsville. We visited the King Ranch museum (beautiful black and white photos of ranch life - me likey and want to go back!) and ate some simple soup to allow our tummies to adjust back to normalcy.

The house felt really empty after everyone left... more visitors please!!!!

Yumm-o

Landon tried out putting some solid food down the hatch this weekend. Ironically, we did not try the whole "here comes the airplane!" approach with the spoon - we just kept things simple.



I was a bit hesitant to start him on solids despite the fact that it's pretty common to give it a go around the four month mark. I'm not quite sure what my hesitance was (maybe I'm lamenting another milestone which continues to propel him out of babyhood?), but I could no longer deny the fact that Landon intensely stares at us while we are eating. He even started to make some uncoordinated hand swipes at our plates recently.

So it has been marked on the calendar: Landon James Halvorson ate rice cereal mixed with booby milk. The high chair has been assembled and the backup pack of bibs has been opened for this new daily activity.