Boots and Bikes

I'm excited about the graduation gift I got for Nathan:

A pair of Lucchese boots! Sweet!

Today we went to a boot store so Nathan could pick out the pair he wanted.

At first, he was really attracted to the alligator skin boots, but as they were $800 (!), we moved on to some that were a little more reasonable. I love the ones he picked out. Don't they look good with jeans?
Initially, Nathan chose these boots for the dark brown color, which he liked a lot. I think it was a great choice. Also, this particular pair is great because they'll work for both casual and dressy occasions.

The other fun thing we got today was Noah's first bike! Nathan and Uncle Andrew picked it out together. It's still a little big for Noah, but we figured he'd grow into it.

He had a lot of fun going for his first few rides.

I think this is a great picture with my dad.

Welcome to Texas, Beneshes! Time for boots and bikes!

Stream of Consciousness Review of Lauren's First Days in Houston

Hot.
Flat.
Mosquitoes!
Lots of concrete here.
Miss my cute Victorian house.
Oh my gosh, it's hot.
Don't have clothes cool enough for this climate.
Have to drive so far for everything!
Reverse culture shock = a little deflated.
Neat to see Noah's grandparents love him so much.
Neat to see Noah loves his grandparents so much.
The grass is really green.
It's nice to sit outside in the evening, even in the humidity.
The wind in the trees is nice.
Can't wait to have my own grill.
It'll be fun to be grown-ups now.
Did someone mention a Texas-shaped waffle iron? I really want one of those.

Nathan P. Benesh, Ph.D.

I'd like to introduce you to my husband: Dr. Nathan Benesh.

Noah-isms

Noah is so funny these days. What's so great is that because he's talking more now, we're getting a better picture of what's been rolling around in that little head of his. Sometimes he surprises us with the things he comes up with, which is delightful. Here are some things that have come out of his mouth lately:

"That's funny." He says this a lot these days, and there are a couple of things that make it extra funny to us. First of all, he often says it in a deadpan voice. I mean, there is a little giggle behind it, you can tell, but he doesn't say it like he's shouting it from the rooftops, as his typical enthusiasm would imply he'd do. Rather, he'll see something funny, give a little laugh, and say, "That's funny," then continue laughing to himself about it. Another thing that cracks us up about him saying this now is that sometimes it's hilarious to see what he thinks is funny. For example, the other day, Nathan said something like, "Come on, Noah, we're all going to get in the car." And Noah just stopped short, started cracking up, and said, "'All?!' 'All!' That's funny." Like we had just made up a ridiculous word or something. The word "all" just struck him as a funny word.

"I know, right?" Have you ever heard anyone say that? It's fairly common, but I am not sure where he got it, because as far as I know, I don't say that. But somehow Noah has picked up the idea that you should put "right?" at the end of the phrase "I know."

"Bye, Mommy. Have fun, Mommy." Whenever I drop Noah off anywhere, I always say, "Bye, Noah. Have fun." And as of the last couple of days, he has started saying the same thing to me whenever I go somewhere. It's very cute and sweet and thoughtful of him. I like it. Not to mention that it probably is also a bit revealing about what he values in his little life (fun!), since he's kindly wishing it for me, too.

I have to say, it really is fun living with a two year old. Don't let anyone tell you different.

Sad News and Prayer Requests

Hello blog peeps,

I typically do not put terribly personal things up on the blog, especially goings on that might be particularly sad. But we've had some things going on lately, and after some thought, I decided that rather than keep some sad things to ourselves, I'd prefer to check in with the members of the family of God that read this blog and ask you for your prayers.

I already shared with you that last Monday, Nathan's uncle died suddenly of a heart attack. Well, in addition to this family tragedy, Nathan's grandfather died yesterday, as well. This was not as unexpected as Uncle Bruce's death, but it is still a sad loss. Nathan was really hoping to see Grandpa again, particularly to have him see Noah and Jane. To that end, we had planned to make the drive up to see him the first weekend we were able to do so after moving back to Texas. Unfortunately, he just didn't make it that long.

Because of everything we've got going on right now in Boston (wrapping everything up before our move, etc.), Nathan was not able to attend his uncle's funeral. But he really wanted to make it to his grandfather's funeral, which is this coming Wednesday. Unfortunately, the timing of it just did not work out. He would have needed to be in and out of town in a 24-hour period, and the flights were just not scheduled in our favor.

So I have some prayer requests for you. Pray for Nathan, because he is sad about this passing. We also have a lot going on this week (the movers come tomorrow, Commencement is on Thursday, and we fly to Texas on Saturday), so pray that things go smoothly. Pray that we can still feel the joy and significance of this graduation. Pray for our hearts as we leave the place where we've lived for six years--the place where we have spent most of our marriage and where we started our family. Pray that everyone else stays well! No more unexpected anythings! Pray for Nathan's parents, who have really not been home for a week and won't get home to their house until after flying to Texas with us on Saturday. I imagine they are running low on physical and emotional energy. And please pray for Nathan's dad, who has lost a brother and his father within a week of one another.

Thanks in advance for petitioning the throne of God on our behalf. How honored we are that you would do that for us.

Like in Real Life

I saw these at a drugstore recently and could not walk by without taking a picture.

They're HD glasses. Because we all know real life is too low res without them.

It just cracked me up.

Yesterday

Because my mom has been on me for pictures of the kiddos, I made it a point to take some yesterday. Here you go, Mom.

Here is Janey, after her bath.
Cutie pie.

She loves to suck on her fists. In fact, lately we've been hearing her slurping from a couple of rooms away!

On the way to Nathan's advisor's house for dinner, Noah was in a pretty foul two-year-old mood. This is the look he was giving me.

So I decided to play a game with him. I started taking pictures of him and showing them to him on the camera. He thought it was fun to see all the faces he could make. This is what he did when I asked him to smile.

Then I asked him to make a funny face.

Then I got the sweetest smile from Jane.

Which was in dramatic contrast to this face.

Trying to get the game going again, I suggested he stick his tongue out.

Then I asked him to show me a happy face.

Luckily, the game sort of worked. He cheered up a little.

And here is Nathan with his "Dr. Nathan" cake at the dinner in his honor.

What a Week

Has it really only been three days since I last posted? It feels more like a week, at least. So much has been happening.

For one thing, we're really busy getting all the little things done to wrap up our move: getting the cats their shots, mailing a few things to my parents' house, getting the car tuned up, attending a dinner in Nathan's honor, touring Orchard House yesterday (which I've wanted to do for years and made a point to see it this week), scheduling our utilities to be turned off, having our mail forwarded, buying some Harvard shirts, taking things to the drycleaners (and not forgetting to pick them up!), getting a haircut, taking the train so that Noah has a chance to do that before we leave, Nathan's wrapping a few things up at work, and so on. But on top of all of that, we've had a couple of other things happen this week.

First the good news: We found a house! HOORAY! I'm so glad we have a place to live lined up! For a little while, we were pretty discouraged because the houses we were seeing in the more central locations we were considering were either very expensive or rather cheap but very run down. There didn't seem to be anything in the middle. But on Monday, a house was put on the market that has everything we need and more and is pretty much exactly what we wanted to pay. We jumped on it immediately, and at this point, we just have to sign the lease and send in our pet info, so I think it's pretty much a done deal. We are very happy and very relieved to have this settled.

But we also had a family tragedy this week. Nathan's uncle died suddenly of a heart attack. He and his family live in the Dallas area, but because this is such a hectic time for us, Nathan will be unable to attend the funeral. Nathan's parents and many other family members have rushed to be with Uncle Bruce's wife and 17 year old son and to help bear the burden of planning the funeral, telling Bruce's parents, etc. It is very sad, particularly because it was so sudden. Please pray for the family, especially Bruce's wife, Traci; their son, Barrett (who has Down's syndrome and is having trouble understanding what is going on); and Nathan's grandparents (Bruce's parents).

The Public Defense

About a week and a half ago, Nathan defended his dissertation to his doctoral committee. When they passed him, that's when he technically completed his degree.

However, Harvard has a nice tradition of having two separate defenses: one private (with your committee) and one public (which anyone can attend). The advantage of this system over having only one defense is that your friends and family members aren't there if you fail! And although nearly no one fails because no one's advisor would let them get that far if they thought you weren't going to pass, not having your family and friends at such an already stressful event does take some of the pressure off.

However, I do remember that after Caleb defended at MIT, his committee introduced him to the crowd by saying, "I'd like to present Dr. Hug!" And that is a pretty neat moment, I think.

But although I wasn't present the moment Nathan became "Nathan Benesh, Ph.D.," I do like Harvard's private-then-public defense idea, because, as Nathan's advisor pointed out when he introduced Nathan, the public defense then becomes a sort of celebration. You've already passed, and now you get to tell everyone what you did. Hooray!

Last Monday, Jane and I attended Nathan's public defense. I'd actually never heard Nathan give a talk, so it was kind of fun for me in that respect, especially since he did such a good job. As he gave an overview of his research, I was following along pretty well and feeling pretty proud of myself for understanding what he was talking about. But then he got into the quantitative nitty-gritty of the stuff, and for a while I was in the "smile and nod" mode. Luckily for me, Jane needed attention about that time (bad time for a drippy diaper, my girl!), and I was glad I didn't miss something I otherwise would have understood. :) After the talk, there was a champagne reception, and everyone present signed the mat of a framed certificate for Nathan, commemorating the occasion.

Here's a picture of Nathan and the first slide of his presentation, which gives the title of his dissertation. I would have taken pictures of some of the neat figures, but I didn't want to be the kind of quasi-embarrassing wife who is in the back snapping pictures the whole time.

Here is Nathan's advisor, John Shaw. In addition to being a stellar teacher/speaker, researcher, and administrator, he has always done a fantastic job of being an objective and helpful advisor. He also has a really cute family. We will see them this week, because he and his wife are having everyone over for dinner primarily to celebrate Nathan's graduation, which is very kind.

And just for kicks, here's a picture of Noah and Nathan Robinson playing outside the restaurant we went to yesterday after Jane's dedication at church (which I'll share more about later when I get the video loaded). Those boys sure do love to play together.

New England Art

I realized recently that while I've been in Boston, I've met and been exposed to some pretty neat local artists. For whatever reason, this never happened in Texas, though that is not to say there aren't some wonderful artists there, too.

I've mentioned J.L. Munro here on the blog before because we ran across her paintings at a fair and again at an antiques show, where we bought some prints. We recently had the prints framed and are looking forward to hanging them in our new home, wherever that may be. Her work has been purchased by several presidential families, is in a couple of museums, etc. My guess is that she is the most commercially successful of the three artists I've come in contact with during our time here in Boston. Her subjects are usually of natural/quaint New England scenes. Here is an example of her work:
I love the realistic detail in her paintings, as well as the sense of familiarity in them, as if you could picture yourself looking down on that scene in person. Another reason I like them is because I simply like New England, the subject in most of her paintings.

Another artist I actually do know personally is Melissa Fassel Dunn. I knew her when I worked at HGSE, as she was also employed there. She did a great job as the webmaster, but I would be willing to bet that her first love is painting. She does whimsical paintings of buildings, mostly, and they are quite charming and interesting to look at. Here's an example:
I believe Melissa is currently working on a book with a children's author, and I think that'll be a great application of her style.

The artist whose work I probably admire the most is Laura Tryon Jennings. I knew her husband from HGSE, as well. I just find her stuff incredibly sophisticated, complicated, and very pleasing to look at. On her website, she has written an artist's statement in which describes her style, and what she has to say interesting and compelling. In part, she says, "Within each piece I use an amalgam of color and composition to depict the wavering tension between tranquility and chaos." I find that interesting. She also says, "Each piece conveys the message that we ought to take time from our hectic pace to reflect, treasure life's simplicity, if only for a moment." That sentiment is reflected in her painting of a bowl of cereal, for example. Here are some pieces I like:That last one is in Harvard Yard, and I might just have to buy a print, since my commute to work for a couple of years involved walking through there.

This is not by any current local painter, obviously, but I think I am going to buy a print of it. It's an old map of Boston (1873). A friend of mine has a copy of this hanging on her wall, and I was immediately fascinated by it; I love old maps. I've wanted to buy one for a while, but I'm just now getting around to it. If you zoom in, you can actually see our church in the painting, which is pretty neat.

I just thought I'd share. Enjoy!

A Blooming Imagination

Lately, it's been so fun to see Noah's imagination bloom. He is just coming up with the funniest things!

For one thing, he has a pretend pig that he plays with. "Peent ped," he calls it (translation: "pink pig"--he has trouble with those g's and k's). The pig shows up a lot these days. For example, he'll bring you the pig so you can pet it. He also likes to take the pig to bed with him. The other day, he put it in his crib at bedtime, and the next morning, he remembered it was there, and he carefully picked it up and brought it out of the bed with him.

He is also really interested in snakes. Ever since we watched the cartoon Robin Hood (the one with the snake who is Prince John's right hand . . . snake), he has been noticing anything that looks like a snake. Plus, Nathan took him outside and showed him worms, which he thinks are snakes, so now he looks for holes in the dirt where snakes might live EVERY time we go outside. It is pretty cute, but it does slow down the process of getting in the car. He also loves to run up to you, hissing, and poke you with his pointer finger, pretending that it's a biting snake. Then he kisses it to make it better.

Noah's really into Curious George right now. We watch the cartoon every morning, and he also loves his Curious George books. Lately, one of the games we play consists of him acting out scenes from the book, such as when George puts out a forest fire (Noah likes to pretend to pour buckets of water on some flames, or perhaps poke them with a finger and shout, "Ouch!"). In another book, George falls overboard into the sea, and some sailors pull him out by his feet. So Nathan and Noah play that the couches are the ship and the floor is the water; Noah falls overboard, then Nathan rescues him by pulling him up by his feet.

He's just a fun little kid. Imagination rocks.

Various and Sundry

• I had a professor in college who used the phrase "various and sundry" a whole lot. Like, I'd say at least once a week. And when you consider that you are only in class for three hours a week, I guess that means he used it at least once every three hours. It just means various and . . . various. Which is going to be the character of this post.
• There are several things in my house that I'm looking forward to throwing away when we move. 1.) The diaper pail. It might kinda sorta stink like a landfill. 2.) The dish rack. Hallelujah for dishwashers. 3.) The bathroom rugs. They need to be replaced, anyway. And so on.
• I cannot tell you how thankful I am that Nathan's company is covering the cost of movers and packers. If I had to pack up our apartment right now, I'd be so stressed out. Even without Jane, it would be a lot of work, but with a toddler and a new baby, it'd be even more of a stressor. I'm thankful that all I have to do is some organizing.
  
• It seems really odd that we're moving halfway across the country in like two weeks. It does not seem real.
• In addition to dairy products, it looks like Jane's tummy is also bothered by chocolate. Oh no!
• I told Nathan recently that you know you had a really fatiguing pregnancy when you are actually less tired during the first two months of your baby's life. He responded that towards the end, he actually thought we might not be having any more kids after this pregnancy. What?! I thought I did pretty well, considering! Wow!
  
• Noah is really into bugs right now. He loves to look under rocks every time we go outside to see if he can find ants or beetles. Tonight he was devastated that he dropped a roly poly and couldn't find it again. One day, as we were getting out of the car at a friend's house, I heard him in their yard saying, in the most friendly, inviting voice, "Hi, bee!" I just figured he was talking to something that maybe looked like a bee, but lo and behold, I went and checked it out, and there was a giant bumblebee that he was trying to catch with his hand. Good thing I checked on the situation before he got stung! He still has yet to learn that some bugs are not as friendly as he is.
  
• We are also going to have to find a good preschool for Noah this fall. He really needs the social outlet. He truly loves people and loves to talk about his friends. In fact, he uses the word "friends" all the time. On days when we have play dates, it's fun to tell him, "Noah, we're going to play with your friends today!" His response is usually, "Friends!!!!!" One day, out of the blue, I guess he got kind of bored with his toys and came up to me and said, "Friends? Friends, Mommy?" As if to say, "Can we go see some friends?" It's so sweet. Though I will say that it breaks my heart when he is on our front porch and yells, "HI FRIENDS!" to the neighborhood kids who then totally ignore him.
• Noah is also really into Berenstain Bears. He loves those books, and I ordered a bunch for him recently. They came in a box yesterday, and I told him that Mommy got him a surprise that we'd open after dinner. He was pretty darn pleased with those books, and the best part was that today he said to me, "'Prise, Mommy. Thank you, Mommy." He can be so sweet sometimes. Love that kid.
  

Happy Mother's Day

The Conundrum of the Week

I'd love to hear from my Houstonian peeps out there in Blogville today.

We've solved the rent vs. buy conundrum and decided to rent a house for two years. So now we just need to find a house to rent. We're looking in two different areas, and that leads us to our new conundrum: do we live way out in Spring or more centrally?

If we choose to live out in Spring, we'll be in a newer, bigger, brighter house. It'll have more modern amenities and will probably be more energy efficient. It'll probably be closer to my parents (yay for free and super-willing babysitters, a phenomenon we have yet to experience!). Nathan will be spending the first 16 months of his job within about 20 minutes from wherever we'd live in Spring, but he'd spend the next 8 months about 45-60 minutes away.

The other area we're considering is the Garden Oaks/Oak Forest area, just north of the Heights off of 610. The houses were built mostly in the 1950's, which means they are smaller, don't generally have the "bonus room"--like an office or study--that we'd use as a play room, and they often need updating in the kitchens and especially the bathrooms. However, there are some considerable draws for us in this area. The first is that we'd be living about 20 minutes from both the offices where Nathan will be working during his first two years (it's about halfway between them). It would only be about 10 minutes further from my parents than a house in Spring would be. Some of our good friends, Sarah & Ryan, live there, so we'd sort of have an instant community, especially since Sarah just had a baby girl a month after Jane was born. And since it's fairly central, we would be closer to the rest of our friends in Houston, too, who live in many different areas.

My problem is that there are pros and cons in each area, and we can't make up our minds as to which side of the scale we fall on.

In Spring, the houses are better and are probably closer to my family, but the distance might keep us from our friends.
In Garden Oaks, we miss out on extra space and updates (the loss of a play room really rubs me the wrong way), but we're closer to the people we know.

When we first started talking about moving back to Houston a couple of years ago, my mom advised me to look in areas where we already know people. At the time, my reaction was, "That's not such a huge priority, because we'll build a community wherever we live." And, really, coming from people who moved halfway across the country just after getting married, that sentiment is true. One of the things that experience taught us is that you can find wonderful friends wherever you land. However, the closer we get to our return to Houston, the more I find I really do want to live near people I know. (Yes, Mom, I am admitting that you are right!) One of my concerns is that if we choose to live in Spring, and especially if we rent a house that's not freeway-friendly, that we won't ever see our friends!

There are so many things to consider and think about when you're making such a big move. I guess this is just our conundrum of the week!

Dr. Daddy

Yesterday was Nathan's doctoral defense, and it went great! We can now call him Dr. Benesh.

Of course, Noah has another special name for him:

Is that not the cutest thing?

You all know how hard Nathan worked to finish his dissertation last week. It was quite a haul towards the end. However, he still had one major hurdle: the defense. Nathan was pretty nervous going into the defense, because, of course, it's kind of the apex of the Ph.D. And technically, it's this presentation to these people that would determine whether or not he gets to graduate. However, whether or not he'd pass was not really in question; he was confident in his research, and we knew his advisor wouldn't let him get this far without knowing he'd succeed. Nathan was more worried about doing well when it came to the questioning. After all, the members of his committee are experts in their fields, and though their fields all touch on his, Nathan is not an expert on everything they know, so he was afraid they'd ask him difficult questions he couldn't answer. However, the whole morning went great! They were complimentary of him, and they had very few revisions for him to do. Hooray! It was a momentous day. From here on out, it's pretty much cake.

For those of you who are interested, I think the title of his dissertation is "The Mechanics of Fault-Bend Folding and Tear Fault Systems in the Niger Delta."

I realized I'd never gotten a picture of Nathan at his desk at Harvard.
Here he is:

I just noticed something--for those who enlarged that picture and are wondering about that bumper sticker, it says "ShiFt Happens." Just wanted to be clear on that. :)

Some of his friends from work offered to take him out to lunch after his successful defense, and Noah, Jane, and I tagged along. From left to right, there's Kristian, Nora, and Glenn.

Congratulations, Nathan! I am proud of you for working so hard and for utilizing the brain God gave you. And I'm very thankful you're still a humble, down-to-earth guy, even after earning a Harvard Ph.D. I have a pretty awesome husband. Love you, Babe!

Back to It

So I've taken a hiatus from posting about food and recipes ever since Jane was born. This is, of course, due to the fact that I am not thinking about food and recipes! Part of the reason for this is that we had parents with us for a while who took care of the food, and then many dear friends brought dinners over for us until Jane was over a month old (and if you are blessed enough to be the recipient of either or both of those situations, you are blessed indeed!). But since the meals have stopped coming to my front door, I still haven't cooked a whole lot, and what I have cooked has certainly not been inspired. It's more like, "Oh, this frozen thing looks like it'd be easy," or "I'll just make the spaghetti I've made a hundred times." But I'm starting to get back into my regular cooking routine . . . on some days, anyway. For example, I'm cooking a bunch of chicken breasts in the crock pot today, because I have a few recipes for this week that call for cooked chicken. Among them are: Chicken Crescent Rolls and Orange-Scented Couscous (which we're having today as a cool salad because it's been pretty hot in my house since we have no air conditioning). I seem to be on track this week, but I really don't have high hopes that I'll be doing a bunch of inspired cooking for the next little while until we get more of a rhythm at home. The period of the day that starts when the kids wake up from naps until after dinner is a pretty chaotic time most days, so I think that expecting myself to churn out awesome meals all the time is a bit much. But I think that with a little planning, we can eat better than frozen meals and spaghetti . . . most of the time. :)

Two Months Old!

What my two-month-old Janey is doing:

• Getting cuter every day.
• Sucking on those fists a lot.
• Routinely getting those arms out of her swaddle. I have to get better at swaddling her, because there is something magical about keeping those arms in. She just sleeps longer that way.
  
• Smiling more, especially if you just make eye contact and talk to her.
• Cooing. It is so sweet. You can just see that she wants to tell you things. I hope we can always chat with as much mutual satisfaction as we do now.
• She loves her daddy and gives him lots of smiles, but I think she might be a mama's girl. That would be nice, since Noah is a daddy's boy.

Jane's New Stats

Jane Elisabeth is two months old today! She had her checkup, and all is well. Here are her new stats:

Weight: 12 lbs., .5 oz. - 77th percentile
Height: 24.75 inches - 98.5th percentile (!)

The only health issue we've had is a small one (though I warn you, this is not for the squeamish non-parents out there): green poop. I mean, it's so green at times that it deserves two syllables: greee-een. Unfortunately, Jane is allergic to milk proteins, like her brother was as a small baby. It just means that, as of about a week ago, I have had to give up dairy products, and I do really miss my milk and yogurt. But at least this means that Jane won't have an upset tummy, and the doctor said they generally outgrow it by about four months old, so we don't have that far to go.

She did have to have two shots today, and the poor girl didn't know what hit her. She was just so surprised when she got stuck the first time that the shock of it was almost more pitiable than the pain. As soon as I picked her up, though, she stopped crying. (Wow! I didn't have that power with Noah!)

Anyway, Jane is healthy and strong. She's looking good!

Picnic!

Big news: Nathan finished his dissertation yesterday! Hooray! It's a big accomplishment, and let me tell you, he worked long, hard hours. Twice last week, he went in at 9 or 10am and came home at 6pm the following day, having worked through the night and through another work day. He got about 3 hours of sleep the rest of the nights (and I'd say he'd only been getting 3-6 hrs/night for the last few weeks). I told him I didn't know what he was running on, but it sure wasn't sleep!

His defense is this coming Wednesday. That will be a big day to celebrate, but yesterday was significant, too. (It was also my mom's birthday--Happy Birthday, Mom!)

One of the top reasons I am glad that this hurdle is behind us is that Nathan can now spend more time with us, and we wasted no time getting started. I let him sleep until 11 this morning, then I woke him up and told him we were going on a picnic. We went to a park near our house and really enjoyed ourselves. Today was one of the first beautiful days of spring that we've had--a bright, sunny, 70-degree day.

Miss Jane hung out on a blanket next to me.
(Thanks, Aunt Meredith, for making such a great blanket!)

Baby toes and Daddy toes

The field we were sitting in had dandelions strewn across it. Typical of his Texan self, Nathan said, "They're not bluebonnets, but they're nice."

Noah had a nice time running around and exploring. That tree trunk was inspected thoroughly.

Nathan and the kiddos

Mommy and Jane