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.

Miss Jan's

One of the things I miss most about Raleigh is Miss Jan's preschool. She has such a special way with kids. Oliver just adored her! This was on Oliver's last day of school. I miss seeing MY friends at preschool pickup/drop-off, too. This photo was taken by the adorable Ryan B. He got most of us in the picture and didn't drop the camera, so we'll count that as a success.

Happy Birthday Dear Oliver

Our sweet little Oliver turned 4 this month. Since he really wanted to have a party with his friends from preschool we had a party before we left Raleigh and then another little family celebration here in Nashville on his actual birthday. He is thrilled to be 4 and is quite convinced that he's all grown up. He takes great pride in all the things he can do by himself: buckle himself into his booster seat, put on his shoes, get dressed (mostly it gets put on backwards), put his clothes in the hamper, and get water out of the fridge water filter, among other wonders. Some things, such as eating salad  and being a life guard at the Y, he has decided he will save until he is really grown up...which according to him is when you turn 9.

 

I am pretty lame when it comes to planning parties. I really, really appreciate well planned parties, I am just not so good on the execution myself. So when it came time to plan Oliver's 4th birthday party, I abdicated all responsibility and called up the local bounce place. Simple. End of story. All I had to do was show up (and make cupcakes, which, really I didn't even have to do, because you can order a cake through them, too). Anyway, to say that this party was a success would be a gross understatement. Oliver and his buddies had an absolute blast!!

 

Elliot looks terrified but he really liked the giant slide, I promise! How cute are these kids!? Everyone wanted a chance to sit in the giant inflatable throne so we let them take turns and I took pictures. 

 

We are happy to be here in Nashville (really!) but I wish we could take these friends with us. These kids are all so dear to me. It's with these kids that Oliver has learned the first lessons in being a good friend--looking out for each other, sharing, taking turns, talking about poop*, etc. Those are important early experiences and I couldn't have asked for better little guys and girls to share those first friendships. 

*The truth about playdates is slowly coming out. I thought he was wiling away the hours playing with cars or engaging in high order dramatic play (see post about "Mom and Dad Are Dead"), but it turns out he was just eating toothpaste and talking about poop! Good times.

Drivin' and Cryin'

If my life were a country song, that's what it would be called. On Saturday morning we drove out of Raleigh and headed west. Nine hours and 600 miles later we arrived tired and stinky in Nashville, TN.

The car trip itself was uneventful. We ducked two converging snowstorms and had mostly clear weather. The boys napped for a lot of the trip. Every now and then Oliver would ask, from the back seat, how many miles "from Ethan's house" we were. That really got me weepy. I don't think he understands that he's not going to see his friends again for a long time. He keeps asking if it is a preschool day and talks excitedly about what he is going to bring in to show and tell. I think he thinks we are just on vacation. Which is sort of how it feels to me, too.

It doesn't seem real in part because we are still sort of in limbo. We found a rental house that we LOVE but the owners want to keep in on the market for the next few months. So most of our stuff is in storage while we live here in this furnished place. My dream is that they will decide it's much better to have us as their charming and reliable renters than try to sell in this market and let us sign a 2 year lease. I can't describe how much I adore this place. It is perfect. I know I am setting myself up for major disappointment. If you want to check it out you can click here. Really, who WOULDN'T want to buy this house?

Just before we left Raleigh some friends hosted a little going away party for us. This is a highlight from the party. Thank you to all our Raleigh friends for making us feel so loved. We love you guys and miss you terribly!!!

Bizzarre-o Valentine's Sentiments

Tomorrow is Oliver's last day of preschool (sob) and they are having a Valentine's Day party. We made some really cute heart crayons like the ones below to give to his classmates. It is a very easy craft, the toughest part being peeling the crayons. You can read the how to here. 

Rather than write a cute but corny little message like "You melt my heart or "Have a colorful Valentine's Day" I decided to let Oliver dictate his own Valentine's Day messages. This is my favorite:

To: Ryan

Ryan likes playing Power Rangers and "Mom and Dad are Dead" and guns. Ollie loves Ryan. 

Love, 

Oliver

Now isn't that sweet?!? "Mom and Dad are Dead" apparently is a favorite game among Oliver's buddies (he runs with a tough crowd). Apparently it's sort of like "playing house" but to add to the verisimilitude the kids are not just pretending to be the parents, in this scenario they actually have to fill roles that were abruptly vacated when the adults got offed, sometimes in a tragic convenience store shooting (really??? they LOVE this game?!?!)

Anyway, that made me laugh. I tried to get Oliver to sign each of the cards (8 in total) but he was totally side tracked when he decided to draw a picture of a car for his buddy Jack in lieu of an actual message. Jack loves cars so it's appropriate I suppose.  So only about 3 of them have his name scrawled on them. Oh well. In the process I realized that Oliver needs big time help with writing, so I guess I have that to work on when we are in Nashville.

We are driving out on Saturday. The packers came and boxed up our house today and the loaders are coming tomorrow (or rather in 2 hours, it's already "tomorrow") to load up the truck. This feels like such a surreal experience. It feels like we are very prematurely bringing to an end a wonderful chapter of our life here in Raleigh. Neither Ryan nor I are "excited" about any aspect of this move but we feel resolute and that somehow this is all going to work out. I have a strong feeling that we'll be able to look back and see the purpose and wisdom of this move, but right now it feels pretty capricious. I guess we'll find out soon enough. 

Park City Preview

It's way early in the morning, I can't sleep, so what better way to fight insomnia than trying out the blogger app on my iPhone. Here are some photos of our recent trip.

Or just one...can't figure out, ok here we go. Now if I could figure out how to add the video of Oliver skiing we'd be in business.








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