Spring Time

Spring is finally here. We celebrated Sunday by going to the dog-baby-tennis park and laying in the grass. JC worked on a crossword puzzle until attacked by a nap. Laura chatted on the phone while people watching then soaked in some rays.

Sunshine feels so good! We cannot wait for the summertime!

Second Rugby Match ... more mud, more goosepoo

Media Rugby won our second match against Quantico Marines. Highlight of the game was the kilted Marine who played the Marine Anthem on the bagpipes at every kick-off. We scored often so we were able to hear the pipes quite a bit.

Final score: I never remember this ... we scored more than they did.


(I'm the one on the far right. The joy of being a back = being far from the scrum, but I still earned my mud and bruises.)

Greener Pastures

Five months ago, I joined the Independence Seaport Museum Visitor Services Department. Unfortunately, the exciting position offered to me turns out to be much more in the lines of "ticket taker" than "energetic program developer". The museum has a great deal of potential and the little black cloud hanging over it is getting smaller ... but they still need to do a lot of work.

This past Tuesday I gave my two weeks notice so that I could move on to greener pastures. And, gosh, did greener pastures come quickly.

• Within an hour of resigning, I was offer a position teaching sailing for Getaway Sailing for the summer. Sure it is in Baltimore, but Joshua and I are thinking that I can teach on the weekends and it can be mini vacations for us. While I teach sailing for the day, he can sit on a boat, sip coffee, and play Age of Empires on the computer.

• Yesterday I found out that I was awarded the teaching assistant position for the Urban Studies program at Temple University that I have been anxiously waiting to hear about. This means that I can attend school full-time starting in the Fall with full tuition remission (= free!) and will be earning more than I do now working part-time.

Not bad pastures, if you are asking me. Now I just need to find a part-time gig in Philly for during the weekdays. I'm sure something fun will pop up soon enough!

Have we gone overboard already?

Yes. Yes, we probably have gone overboard.* She is just soooooo cute even with her upper respiratory infection (common among shelter cats) -- she has been walking around with one eye closed and sneezing plumes of snot all over the place. Too funny.

*And by "we", know that I mean "Laura". It is just so much more fun to speak in the Pontifical plural!

Introducing: SHANTI!

Meet our new cat.

Her name means "Inner Peace" (or Peace of Mind). We decided on the name because our yoga teacher in Philadelphia ends every practice by tellings us:

"Shanti Shanti Shanti. Shanti means peace," in the most wonderfully childlike and meaningful tone.


As you can see by the pictures, we are awaiting the time when she feels more comfortable in our house. It took her a whole 26 minutes from the time we got her home until the time she started napping.

St. Patrick's Day 2007:

* Eat mass quantities of corned beef and boiled cabbage.

* Ride the subway (Joshua's first time, but doesn't he look like a pro!)

* Watch a lacrosse game (also a first for Joshua!) with the Kivlens while huge snowflakes float down on our heads. (l-r: Uncle Bob, Cousin Joe, Cousin Tommy, LC and JC)

* Enjoy a pint or two at the pub with the cousins in order to warm up again.

Can you believe how beautiful this baby is?!?!
(Baby Grant)

Or how cute this kid is?!?
(Toddler Hayden)

I know that we can't! Gosh, these Chisholm children are handsome!

We know that life is pretty awesome when:

• We have smudgy windows caused by Joshua rubbing his bare chest against the windows the night of Mardi Gras in order to get some beads from passing revelers (or, you know,just random people who were walking down our street that night)

• Our ketchup is re-labeled to say "BLOOD"

• We are getting a kitten ... for real this time. Stay tuned!

Let the Rugby Games Begin ...

Joshua's first rugby match could be summed up as follows:

Wow, that was a lot of goose poop.
Joshua is not pictured because he always had the ball and was running too fast to be captured by modern day technology ... and because it is so exciting to watch him play that it becomes difficult to take photos -- even for me! Needless to say, the game was a blow-out with Joshua's team dominating.

Central Pennsylvania ... or as Philadelphians call it, Western Philadelphia

This past weekend we ventured into the wilds of Central Pennsylvania to visit Mom and Dad Thompson. On Sunday afternoon while driving through the countryside, we got caught in a traffic jam:
We got to see the local grammar/middle/high school (a.k.a. one room school house):

Note the outhouses and the more-than-adequate playground equipment of four swings and two see-saws.

We also saw a whole farm full of parked buggies as some of the Amish met up for Sunday church services ... although we did not take a photo because we didn't want to accidentally catch someone in the shot (they do not approve of having their photos taken).

SCHIP

Currently, Joshua is in D.C. working to ensure that the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program) is a priority in the Bush administration's upcoming budget. Currently, the budget is planning to keep the program afloat (barely) for five more years. However that is far from the $60 billion expansion that is needed. If this program does not receive this additional funding, it would have to DROP a large number of those currently insured. Already there are two million uninsured children who are eligible for SCHIP but not yet enrolled -- but they are only one-fifth of the uninsured children in the United States.

If you write your congressperson today!!!

WELCOME

In analyzing the costs involved with keeping a website/blog, we decided to go with a much more economical option: FREE!

Thanks for finding us!

Love,
Laura and Joshua