Boys' Life

 

Oliver was really excited to play soccer this spring and by a stroke of good fortune we were able to get him onto a team even though the league registration closed months ago. Incidentally, this team is made up of all the kids whose parents missed the deadline...which makes me VERY comfortable. I'm in my element. Slacker parents unite!! The coach seems awesome. His first tip for these budding Peles and Ronaldinhos was "the guys on the other team will be wearing different shirts." Yeah, so if they can keep that in mind, and remember which goal is theirs they should be in good shape. Oliver is really excited about the IDEA of playing soccer but he is not too keen on participation when it comes right down to it. Here he is not doing push-ups with the rest of his team (the Comets).

What he does love to do is swing on the swing set. He and Elliot have a blast in the front yard. Hopefully at some point it will stop raining and warm up so we can enjoy more time outdoors.

 

Letting The Good Times Roll

Despite the fact that we are so far from so many of the people we love we are actually really enjoying our first 5 weeks in Nashville. Last night Ryan and I went out on a much needed "date night" and checked out the local music scene. Actually, we probably checked out the tourist music scene since it was Saturday night on the main honkytonk strip, but no matter, it was fun and we heard some really awesome live music. We went to a place called Robert's Western World and heard some "traditional" country music. Here's a video clip of the band.

OK, we OBVIOUSLY (oh, on SO many levels) did NOT participate in Nude Karaoke, but we thought it was worth documenting that this sort of thing goes on here in Nashville, TN. It struck us as funny that some people might actually SEEK OUT the opportunity to sing naked in front of a crowd of strangers. Really, I can't IMAGINE a more humiliating experience...I mean, don't people have nightmares about this type of thing? What kind of bizarre torture would that be? I shudder to think.

I Am A Child of God

Oliver sings "I Am A Child of God". Clearly we don't have a musical prodigy on our hands but we think he's cute.

Tired Baby

Elliot fell asleep at dinner the other night. I thought it was hilarious...which is why the camera is shaking so much.

The Joy of Joy School

Rather than try to enroll Oliver in a preschool program midway through the year we joined up with a group of families doing Joy School. Joy School is a preschool co-op. The curriculum is organized around "Joys" such as the "Joy of Honesty and Candor" or the "Joy of Interest and Curiosity" and so on. I have always wanted to do Joy School so I was so happy that it worked out so nicely for us to join this group. There are 5 other families involved, with the moms taking turns teaching each week.

The unit we are doing now is called the "Joy of Trust and Confidence." It's basically about how it can be fun to try new things and that not everybody is good at things the first time they try, but that's ok, because it can still be fun just to try it. Also, that you can do hard things if you put your mind to it (and are helped by people whom you love and trust.)

So, this morning was my first time teaching. We sang songs, did the date and weather, read a book called "All By Myself" and I performed a behind-the-couch puppet show for a rapt audience. I also decided that as part of our lesson (on trying something hard) we would climb  the "mountain" in our backyard woods.

It was sunny and warm and the first shoots of spring are just starting to poke through the leaf litter on the ground. The six little Joy Schoolers did admirably well on the 1/4 mile steep ascent. They encouraged each other and sat next to each other when they needed a rest. I carried Elliot and a bag of juice boxes and goldfish for the requisite snack at the "summit." It is really beautiful at the top, there is a 360 degree view of the surrounding Harpeth Hills and the town of Bellevue. There is also a big tree that toppled over that makes a great bench right next to a fire ring for bonfires or marshmallow roasts. The kids sat down on the log and had a snack while I read Green Eggs and Ham (about trying a new food). Ahhh, I thought to myself, this IS joyful!!

But then Elliot started playing in the charcoal in the fire ring. One little boy started to wander off and it basically went downhill (literally) from there. Oliver felt sick and decided he needed to be carried down. I refused. He bawled the entire way down. Another little boy hit a little girl with a stick. A few of them tripped and fell. I was sweating profusely because it was quite warm and Elliot is getting heavy. As the chorus of sobbing children grew louder around me and I hastily wiped sweaty tears from the faces of my young pupils, I began to question the brilliance of my backyard "mountain climb"  idea. The Joy School handbook offers this helpful tip:

One overall guideline that applies to all aspects of Joy School is the word JOY.
Remember that joy is both the objective of the program and the main method of the
program. By feeling joy that comes through a certain activity, children become motivated
to repeat the joy by repeating the action.

Yeah, I think it's going to be a while before these guys seek out the "joy" of hiking again.

Camera Sale

Hey everybody. We are selling our Nikon D40 camera on Craigslist. I thought I'd give you guys a heads up on this, too, since we are selling it for a really good price ($275).



It's a great camera in excellent condition. We are selling only the body, not the lens. This is a fantastic digital SLR. We have been really happy with it. All the pictures here on our blog have been taken with it, so we think it does a pretty good job of capturing the moments.


It's 6.1 megapixels, and very easy to use. Again, we are selling the camera body only, but it comes with the camera strap, battery, battery charger and USB cable.


The best part is, that it is still under warranty from Ritz/Wolf Camera and that warranty is fully transferable. No joke, this warranty covers if you drop the camera or it winds up underwater, etc. Pretty awesome. Fortunately we haven't had to use it!

Send an email to anna(dot)halverson(at)gmail(dot)com if you're interested!

Stick Shifts and Safety Belts...

I am going to cut right to the punch line: We bought a minivan.
Hello Odyssey, good-bye Cross Country.

Sorry devotees of Chez Halverson, you are stuck with a blog post by Ryan. Anna would not succumb to the indignity of posting about a minivan.

Now, despite its impeccable safety record, I was never a fan of the Wagon and have been lobbying heavily the last three years to move up to the Mini. The Wagon was Anna’s idea. For her, the Wagon somehow separated herself from the reality of being a stay-at-home-mother-of-two-living-in-suburbia. For her it embodied some sort of liberal, visceral, earth-bound pastoral connection, similar to how someone might envision eating grass-fed steak with home-grown organic vegetables in the backyard of a farmhouse on a hill in Tuscany with say, Michael Pollan or the hosts of Splendid Table.

But her vision was never met with reality. The reality is that the Volvo was designed by Swedish engineers with the express purpose of withstanding the full impact of hitting a moose, but with no thought of a modern family. It’s like driving an empty refrigerator box with wheels on it.

You have to know that Anna is a bit of a Luddite (someone who is opposed to technological change). Case in point: Anna taught me the word, “Luddite”. She’s far better equipped to handle a SAT Verbal quiz than to opine on any technological advancement. Over the years we’ve had the following conversations (and I’m not exaggerating these).

Ryan: Let’s get high-speed Internet. Dial up is awful.
Anna: What are you talking about? It’s fine.
After he can’t take it anymore, Ryan upgrades.
Anna: Oh my gosh! High speed is incredible. I can’t believe we waited.

Ryan: Let’s get High Definition TV. Analog is awful.
Anna: What are you talking about? It’s fine.
After he can’t take it anymore, Ryan upgrades.
Anna: Oh my gosh! HDTV is amazing!!. I can’t believe we waited.

Ryan: Let’s get you an iPhone. Your flip phone is awful.
Anna: What are you talking about? It’s fine. Anytime I need the Internet on the road I call my sister Abby. (true)
After he can’t take it anymore, Ryan upgrades.
Anna: Oh my gosh! I looove my iPhone. I can’t believe I waited!!

You can see where this ends… Enter the minivan. And, Anna loves it.

Now, in all fairness, it says something about my state in life where I am more interested in blogging about a minivan than say… my new job, or… moving to Nashville… or, how much I hate winter.

(PS – Winter, if you’re reading this, you deserve to know that you are hated, unloved and unwelcome. Please go away. Ask anyone and they would agree).

No, instead, I am writing about how awesome it is to own a Honda Odyssey. What self-respecting man does that? Hey, maybe I’m just a realist. And the reality is I’m 36, bald, pasty-white, with a wife, 2 kids, a mortgage and a desk job and, shamelessly, love me a good minivan.