Greetings Everyone - after a long delay we have returned to populating the blog. Robert is guest blogging the narrative because Dr. Laura has not returned from her 5 month post PH.D bender as of yet.

As you can see the winter weather here in Tulsa is quite mild - soft breeze, gentle sun, warm days. Who are we kidding, we just has the worst snowstorm in Tulsa history yesterday which dumped 14" of snow on us. On the plus side the temperatures made it all the way to 10 degrees today for the high! Tonight it will be -7 with a brutal windchill. Since the city is completely shut down and the plows didn't get started until today we have had a family snow day - to go with the snow day yesterday - and likely the snow day tomorrow and Friday!



Gray and I watched an America's Test Kitchen episode where they made brownies. So naturally we made brownies. Luckily we duped Mom into helping with all the hard parts (basically everything that doesn't require the licking of a spoon)




Next up was a drive around town in our SUV - because we could. Robert likes to drive in the snow, especially around and around in circles. Gray took a bunch of pictures including this one




Here is our driveway - which doesn't do the 4 foot snow drift in front of the garage door any justice. Laura notes this is after a lot of shoveling and driving her SUV up and down the driveway over and over.



Our house from the street - or what we thought was the street, we could have been driving on the neighbors lawn for all we know.



Then, once the storm passed the requisite snow angels. Unfortunately the snow is so light that its very hard to make snowmen (Gray was sad) or snowballs (Robert was sad). Perhaps after a day or two.





Finally, toasting marshmallows by the fire. This picture is misleading - Gray's view on marshmallow toasting starts with putting one on the end of the stick as a diversion. His parents start to worry about where he's putting the stick and meantime he just eats the marshmallows out of the bag!



The good news is that it will be above freezing on Sunday, just in time for another snow storm Monday...

Laura's rule of life #117

If you ruin dinner (in this case by using stale arborio rice to make risotto and don't figure it out until you start tasting the risotto half an hour into cooking)...



You can always order a pizza!

The Stanwood-Camano Community Fair

Last week while we were back in Seattle we went to the Stanwood-Camano Community Fair. Every time we go Robert and his family regale us with stories of Megan showing sheep, running the Republican ice cream stand and performing in the parade. Having grown up in a huge city instead of a small rural town I still get a kick out of it all.


Here is Gray and Aunt Megan after going on the "scary" ride. He spent the whole ride curled up in a ball but wanted to go again afterward.


Riding the Ferris Wheel with Dad. When they got on the ride operator very seriously told Robert not to rock. Every time they got to the top the whole thing creaked and popped, maybe we should have called this one the "scary" ride.


Eating ice cream with Papa.


Aunt Megan, Cousin Wendy and Gray with a Goat. We also got to feed an Alpaca, and we petted a bunny and a dairy cow.

Happy Birthday Nana

First a Tulsa Shock game.


Then dinner and cupcakes. Happy Birthday Mom. We love you!


Someone REALLY likes chocolate cupcakes.

This morning we drove out of Tulsa to the Thunderbird farm.


There we picked our own blueberries.


A very proud little boy.


We bought eggs and honey from Farmer Don.


Then we came home and used our eggs, honey,


and blueberries to make


muffins. Yum!


Not a bad way to spend a hot summer morning.

Dr. Mom

I have spent the last 2 days trying to come up with some funny or clever way to post about my big news. However, I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing funny or clever about it!
To that end:
I PASSED MY DISSERTATION DEFENSE!
This means that (except for turning in my paper on August 11th at 10am - yes I had to make an appointment for it) I have now earned a Ph.D in Experimental Psychology. This also means that Robert intends to call me Dr. Laura for the rest of my life, which he thinks is a lot more humorous than it actually is!
Now I am going to sleep for a month!

Big Boy Bed

So, as Gray's parents we have utterly failed at potty training...thus far. In a sad, pathetic effort to feel better about ourselves we decided to move him from his crib (where he was totally happy and from which he never even attempted to escape) to a big boy bed. You know, so at least he's progressing a little bit. If this works we will feel much better about ourselves! We are also planning on several trips this summer and he has outgrown portable cribs (even sleeping at a diagonal)so he will have to sleep in real beds. We thought that having some practice would be a good idea before we left.

Meanwhile, from Gray's perspective "I have a big boy bed? Does this mean I am a big boy? That would be so cool - no bedtime, all the popsicles I can eat, and Toy Story 3 on demand. Wait doesn't that also mean taxes, vegetables, and the occasional jury duty? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"



"Sweet, my bed is lower to the ground so the chubby cat can sleep on the other end. Wouldn't be soooo bad except for his snoring. Thanks Mom and Dad"