New floors!

Finally finally, we have started replacing our floors.  I'm so very happy.  Here is the progress so far.

-Shirin

We've been to Lowe's multiple times a day.  David got a stowaway on one of the trips.

After removing the carpet, we had to do all sorts of prep work before laying the laminate.  Bren and I also painted the living room a new coat of the same off-white color.

I figured we ought to paint before the new floors went in, so I painted like the wind.

Laying the padding down.  It's really roof padding, but David says it'll work.

What the boys are doing while we are working (some of the time).  

Starting the laborious process of laying and measuring the floor pieces.  Gabriel and I could never do this without David.

Brendan, also, has been an invaluable assistant.

This is where all our stuff from the living room went.  It was pretty much chaos this weekend.

Plugging along.

Gabriel using the nail gun on the quarter round (molding).

Success!  One room done...lots more to go!

The finished product.  Aaah, so beautiful!

The boys finally able to enjoy the room again.

Until we moved all the kitchen stuff into the living room to get the kitchen prepped.

This morning, I had to go to work, but I set the bubsies up with breakfast first.

The living room doesn't look as nice with all that crap in it.

When I got home from work, the dining area was almost finished!

Gabriel and I played shuffleboard with Kai as our puck.

Poor David sure does pay dearly by being our friend.  He gets put to work all the time!  Hopefully, tomorrow we will be able to finish the hallway and kitchen floor.  We leave early on Wednesday morning for FL to celebrate Thanksgiving, so we'll have to work on the bedroom floors another weekend.

We celebrated our hard work at Olive Garden on Sunday night and Thai Spoon on Monday night.  Good times with some of my favorite people.

Our trip to Atlanta to see Tita and Daniel

Now that my sister is only an hour and a half away, we get to go see her more often. I'm so glad she's back!

On our latest trip, we drove down to ATL after I got back from work on Saturday afternoon.  I had originally signed up for a CE course in Atlanta on Nutrition, but, at the last minute, I decided I just wanted to be with my family and cancelled it.  I have done a lot of CE this year, so it wasn't a required course, just something I am interested in.  After we got to her place, we headed over to her boyfriend Daniel's house.  He lives in a cool part of Atlanta called Cabbagetown.  Once we got there, we never had to drive again the rest of the weekend.  We walked to restaurants and the park and played poker at home.  It was really nice.

-Shirin

This is before Daniel won all our money.  Since he had bought Tita's way into the game with his own money, he really just won my and Gabriel's money.

After an amazing vegan brunch on Sunday morning, we went to a really beautiful and huge cemetery near Daniel's house.

It really was very large with gorgeous trees, all turning lovely fall colors.

Daniel and Cyrus in a tree.

Gabriel with the littlest cute bubsy.

At the cool little playground near Daniel's house.

Daniel and Tita on a really cool climbing apparatus.

Cyrus can read and write cursive!

Yet one more reason I love Cyrus' school is how much they emphasize and challenge children to read and write (cursive) at a young age.  Being the book worm than he is, Cyrus has embraced this challenge and excelled in this area.  He has written lots of things in his journal in the Yellow Class, as well as some reports and letters.  Below are a few examples.  

-Shirin

Cyrus reading to Kai at breakfast time.

Translation: 

From Cyrus, For K

I love you Daddy and Mommy and the most Kai, my brother.  I love you Kai.  Write a word.

This was a report about the White House he asked to do.  His teacher said that he found a book about President Obama and where he lived, so he wanted to write about it (obviously, he copied what he read from the book; Kai wrote drew all over it, unfortunately).  

Translation:

The White House has been a symbol of America for more than two hundred years.  The President of the United States lives in the While House with his family.

Another assignment that Cyrus is supposed to do is read to his parents for at least 10 minutes a day.  I'll be the first to admit that we don't always find time for it, but we try at least several times a week and Cyrus has shown steady and remarkable progress.  On Monday, he read the entire book "Green Eggs and Ham," with very few mistakes or pauses.  We've come a long way, baby!

Despite the fact that I am still gone a lot for work, the boys and I still find time now and then to read.  They really like the magazines they got from their Baba for their birthdays, "Highlights" and "Ranger Rick."  Those were both mags I read as a kid, so it gives me much pleasure to read them with the boys.  

One other way we encourage him to read is by playing board games.  He loves to win, so he works hard on figuring out what the cards and boards have written on them.  He doesn't even know he's learning, since he's having so much fun! (Not that learning isn't fun, but ya know.)  It also helps the boys with counting and math.  Kai is getting better at letters and numbers too, so it's only a matter of times before we have two little readers in the house.  I can't wait!

23 and me

For my birthday, Gabriel got me a really cool present (as always).  It was a DNA test kit that can tell me all sorts of things about myself, good and bad.  Check out www.23andme.com if interested. The company analyzed my DNA after I sent in a sample of saliva--it was that easy!  They can tell, just from that, my ancestry, likely traits, likelihood for numerous cancers or diseases, susceptibility to drugs, likelihood to overeat or smoke, whether I am likely to have brown or blue eyes, freckles, curly hair, a certain blood type, and SOOOO much more.  I felt just a little bit nervous about hearing some terrible result, like I had an increased genetic predisposition for breast cancer or ALS, but I just would rather know and confront it or prevent it.  Living in the dark is just not for me.
The good news is my genetics are pretty good.  I'm not likely to have colon cancer, breast cancer, early onset ovarian cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's, to name a few of the biggest ones.  My greatest possible issue was an above average chance to develop Macular Degeneration, a loss of eyesight between the ages of 43-76.  I know there's at least one person in my extended family with that, but he's over 70, so it will hopefully not hit me at all or not for a long time.  I think I'll at least go in annually for ocular exams with an ophthalmologist, though, since the changes can be detected and slowed down.
Interestingly, some of the other genetic traits they found were things I definitely have always thought about myself but never could prove.  Exampes. 1. I'm likely to overeat. 2. I'm more likely than average to vomit (post-op). 3. I take a long time to metabolize caffeine.  4. I have an average breast size.  5. I was slower than average to get permanent teeth. 6. I don't have problems with the bitter foods. 7. I am likely to have benefited up to 7 IQ points since my mother breast-fed me (some people's genes don't seem to allow the IQ increase many babies get from being breastfed).
Two things I didn't agree with: 1. I am likely to only have average-sized babies, 2. Typical height.  Oh well, the rest was pretty darn accurate.  (I'm assuming Gabriel's large genes made my babies so ginormous).  One of the most interesting parts, the Ancestry Analysis, is not completed yet, so I have to wait another 1-2 weeks for that.  I can't wait!
-Shirin