The Holiday Shuffle (including new video)

The Holiday Shuffle is well underway, be it going to the YMCA to sing Christmas Carols, or taking off soon for Grandma Laurie's - and then Grandma Linda's - in Michigan. The photo above shows just how to get 3 and 4 year-olds from point A to point B without getting one lost or hit by a car! They were walking over from Preschool to sing their big Christmas Carol Concert at the lobby of the YMCA, and you simply HAVE to see the video of it (the video can also be found at right, but here is a bigger version). Not exactly Carnegie Hall quality, but very cute nonetheless:
Another part of the Holiday Shuffle: Driving up to Ohio to see Grandpa just before - and back from after - a big snowstorm struck the area. The fun part was getting to enjoy the snow during the stay itself. Uncle Joel led the children in this creative arts endeavor... later when asked the highlight of his day, Evan replied, "making the snow spiral!"
Looking forward to the final chapter of the holidays, in Michigan for a week of family fun (leaving tomorrow, staying with Grandma Laurie then Grandma Linda). I don't think the kids realize how spoiled they are about to become... and now, we leave you with a glimpse of the Christmas Village that sits in our living room. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Happy Holidays... Couple Cute Things

Just a quick couple of neat pictures for you. Above are Christmas trees Autumn and Evan made in Preschool yesterday. Their teacher wrote down 10 things that they said they love on the heart ornaments, and they used their hand prints to make the tree. Click on the pic for a larger view, some of the things they said are quite cute (Evan's on left, Autumn's on right)!

Autumn and Evan also recently went to a kids concert at the local library, which landed their pic in the local weekly newspaper (as usual, complete with incorrect spelling of our last name), see below:

Happy holidays, hope all is well with you!
-Mark, Marisa, Autumn, and Evan

Winter Arrives in WV

The kids are home sick, hanging out with Daddy instead of pre-school. We need them to get healthy (they've been coughing seemingly for weeks), and yet, we just received our first light snow accumulation of the season. What a conundrum. OH! and it's that perfect wet packing snow! That decided it for us...

While outside, Autumn and Evan met a new neighbor kid who looked very sad and afraid. He is kinda short, his eyes don't match, and wears a funny looking orange plastic hat. They decided to take the new kid under their wing, to make him feel more welcome. It was hard to get that frown off his face, but after some time, the warmth that Autumn and Evan showed him justed melted his heart... and the rest of him, I'm afraid.

A few quotable notables:

Daddy: "Autumn, are you eating snow?"
Autumn: "No..."
Daddy: "How does it taste?"
Autumn: "Good!"

Mom: "I want to show you your advent calendar."
Autumn: "Is it a Dora one?" Evan" "Is it a Spiderman one?"

Evan: "Don't go to sleep, Daddy, because I have SO many questions." (while trying to get him to go to bed)

Autumn: "I'm going to KEEP this Daddy... this silly, cool Daddy."

Well, Marisa just got home from her work to take over the kids... now I have to go to my work. Somehow, we have been able to sort out the kids sick time. We've only used one day of family sick leave so far this season. :)

-Mark

I Dreamt of a White Thanksgiving

After a rainy Wednesday drive up to Michigan, we woke up Thanksgiving Day to a beautiful first snow of the season at Grandma Laurie's! It felt more like Christmas than Thanksgiving as we bundled up in winter coats, and with maple-pecan sweet potatoes in hand, drove over the river and through the woods to Aunt Mary and Uncle Frank's house! We were joyfully reunited with Marisa's brother Joel and three cousins we grew up with - Andrea, Julie, Matt, and Andrea's darling daughters. We had a wonderful feast... and much to be thankful for. The next day we hung out with the Berry side of the family, where again we got to see some dear cousins, Jill, Heather, and Dana. We all went to see Marisa's grandpa, who seemed a little overwhelmed with Autumn and Evan wrestling in his room but enjoyed the visit nonetheless.We hung out with Marisa's aunts and uncles and cousins Fri. night and had a blast. Saturday we relaxed and chilled with Grandma Laurie, who enjoyed a day with the kids to herself!

The kids were also thrilled to spend a couple days with Uncle Joel, though he had to go back to GR to work Saturday... speaking of GR, we missed all you guys but can't wait to see ya'll at Christmas. We can only do so much driving in four days!

Now that we're home, boxes full of Christmas decos fill the house and Autumn festively encourages us to keep decorating, despite mounds of laundry and an unpacked suitcase! But she's right - decorating is more fun!

Twins In Trees

Enjoying the brief lull after what has been a couple busy weeks... and getting ready for our Thanksgiving Trip to Michigan. We spent a nice family day at Valley Park, where Autumn and Evan found a few nice trees to hug and trails to ride bikes on. We also managed to get some work done, including cleaning and vacuuming our neglected vehicles!

Our little boy is on his third ear infection in two months! We took him to urgent care yesterday with him kicking and screaming from his ear ache. Just got hooked up with a more serious form of antibiotics artillery which should hopefully wipe it out before our trip (oh please, we hope!!!).

A few Quotable Notables:

"Evan, Mama will take care of the parenting."

-Autumn, after Evan told her not to do something.

"Mooommmmmm? Where does God LIVE?"

-Evan

"Why both of them have white hair? Because they're very old? Why do they not even die?"

-Evan, a very innocent inquiry after an old couple passed us in the park.

"Does that mean we can go to his house and give him a hug?" -Autumn, after I told her that Uncle Frank did well in his surgery.

And finally, one of the funnier mispellings you'll ever see, spotted just outside of Valley Park: Go to http://www.pellfambackdrops.blogspot.com/ to see the picture. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Daddy's Home!

After a long 8 days, Mark drove home yesterday from Long Island. I met him on my way home from work at the Y, and we walked in to pick the kids up together. Mark hid in the coat closet while I said, "I have a surprise for you!" When Autumn and Evan saw Daddy, they smothered him in hugs and shrieks! Later, Autumn admitted that she thought the surprise was candy! The sweet tooth on that girl...

Here's a candid from a recent chilly morning, when Evan went to hang out with Autumn and her animals upon waking. Notice Autumn's lovely morning hair and sleepy eyes!

We had a little scare this morning when I had left-side chest pain all night, and this morning was getting worse. We were this close to making the mistake of going to the ER, but I got ready for work, we dropped the kids off at school, and walked into my doctor's office as it opened at 8:30, and they were able to squeeze be in, thank goodness. My doc figures I have a bruised, possibly cracked, rib, which I can only guess I got rough-housing with the kids. They're always jumping on and climbling all over us. So it will take a long time to heal but we were just so relieved it wasn't a heart issue! Speaking of, please keep my dear Uncle Frank in your prayers as he undergoes heart surgery tommorrow.

Well, exhausted here, goodnight to all...

Long Time From Home on Long Island

Greetings all, from beautiful Long Island, New York. I have been here for a week of job training, including a course on Fire Behavior Calculations that just started today and goes through Sunday.

After cramming my brain full through 5 pm each day, I have managed to check out the local sights. Late afternoon Monday, I went to Fire Island. It was a fantastic sunset, and I collected a few large clamshells to bring back to the kids for them to paint. It was only 48 degrees at the time, so I had most of the beach to myself (except for a few fishermen).

I was very fortunate to have the chance to see the Monahans, conveniently located in New Jersey's western NYC suburbs on my way to Long Island Sunday. Gina (Vantuno) and I haven't seen eachother since Marisa and I got married... we go all the way back to our years in the Michigan Marching Band. And at long last, I finally had the pleasure of meeting her husband Tim, and their cute li'l baby growing in Gina's tummy. Thanks for dinner guys! And enjoy your independence while it lasts. :) Gina is in the final trimester.

The trip has been great, but is already plenty long enough... looking forward to getting back home to Maris and the kiddies. Long Island is much bigger than I thought it would be, and surprisingly wooded and beautiful. Brookhaven National Lab (location of my training) is HUGE sprawling campus, basically its own city. I have met many wonderful people here from many disciplines, including New York City firefighters, Forest Service throughout New England - and a truly wonderful group of marine biologists from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation... they rescue wayward dolphins, whales, and sea turtles.

As for other wildlife, this place has turkeys like most other places have squirrels or geese. It's hilarious, they'll walk right in front of your vehicle as you try to leave the parking lot!

Happy Halloween! And Celebrating 5 Years...

Happy Halloween! Unfortunately, Mark is leaving tomorrow for Long Island, for a week of training. We are having a final Family Day complete with pumpkin carving. Luckily, though Mark will miss Halloween,
we have already had a costume party at the YMCA. The kids are dragons this year! Thanks to Amy for the hand-me-down costumes.

The glorious peak of "Autumn" colors have just blazed through West Virginia the last few days, and we have celebrated it with hikes and leaf-collecting.

Also, of course, we just had our Five Year Anniversary last week. Evan took this impromptu picture of us. We just love this time of year, for so many reasons!

Last Saturday, Mark was the Incident Meteorologist for Bridge Day, the largest annual event in West Virginia... this year, it brought an estimated 155,000 people. The weather behaved (sustained winds stayed just below the critical event-closing 15 mph), and there were only 5 or 6 minor injuries... last year, there was a fatality. Just incredible: 876 parachute jumps ("basejumping") off of the New River Gorge Bridge, coincidentally a 876 foot drop. Also rafters, kayakers, and repellers. Check out the 2 1/2 minute video Mark put together on our subsidiary website, pellfam backdrops. If this teaser video doesn't make you want to see it, nothing will:



Have a good Halloween! -Mark, Marisa, Autumn, and Evan

5th Anniversary! and Leaf Play Video

Hello all,

Just a quick update to let you know: The Leaf Play Video is now available on the right side of the webpage. Click on it to feel like a kid again!

And we're on the eve of our 5th Anniversary! Tomorrow, we both have to work but will be going out with some friends on a dinner date followed by Kathy Griffin, live at the Clay Center. I'm sure we'll enjoy it after wading through the crowd of protesters... (see letter to the editor "Protest Griffin’s Emmy blasphemy" at bottom of this page -http://wvgazette.com/webtools/email/Opinion/Letters/2007101036)

-Mark

Carrots, frozen peas, leaves, chuck e. cheese, a hike, and pellfam backdrops (?!?!)

Just a little bit of everything, crammed into the past 3 days! It all began with Marisa's harrowing epi-K laser eye surgery Friday morning, followed by sleep for most of the rest of the day. The perk for the kids was a surprise trip to Chuck E. Cheese, so that Marisa could continue her rest. And thanks to us crashing another child's birthday party, Autumn and Evan were absolutely enamored to meet Chuck IN PERSON.

Marisa was pretty much in utter pain all weekend with stinging eyes that could be barely forced to remain open longer than a few seconds. The first post-surgery check-up was Saturday morning, which was followed by the kids' first visit to Krispy Kreme, next door to the eye center. It was a good thing that a window separated them from the donut machine, because they were enthralled. After that, we really needed to be around some HEALTHY food, so it was time to harvest the carrot crop out of our garden. We repeatedly had to stop Autumn from consuming unwashed carrots caked with dirt.

Finally, things got a tad better for Marisa's eyes after a quick visit to the laser eye doc's office and the magic of temporary dilation. The good news that we found out is that they're already 85% healed, and with the eye bandages/contacts still in place, it's actually a big part of why her eyes have been hurting so much. And why she has had to "Give Peas a Chance" all weekend.

We then explored St. Albans City Park for the first time and had a picnic complete with nature hike. The kids loved exploring the forest and collecting leaves.

Finally, the simple joys of playing in the leaves late this afternoon. Yay! And I had no idea how good sleds (obtained from garage sale yesterday for $4 for the pair) could work on leaves, with just a little bit of a slope. I can't wait to show you the video... which I'll upload to the website in coming days.

A bit exhausted, but a pretty fun few days. So, that covers everything in the title of this blog entry. Oh, wait... except for pellfam backdrops. Whazzat? Well...

ANNOUNCING PELLFAM BACKDROPS, another wing of the pellfam blogworld. A place for us to share some of the surroundings of our life here in WV, or the places we travel. The first installment: Bridges. One thing this area has plenty of is large rivers, and thus, plenty of beautiful spans across them. Check it out! Pellfam Backdrops will not be updated as frequently as our family website, but I'll let you know here the times that it is. And the link is always available on the right, under the Time/Temp bug.

-Mark

Another wild weekend!

We were treated to another fun weekend thanks to a visit from Grandma Laurie! We took a trip to the rip-roaring Pumpkin Festival in Milton, and Saturday went to The World Hospice Day picnic, organized by the amazing volunteers at my place of employment! Evan chose to have his face painted as a wolf, while Autumn opted for the fiesty kitten look - both appropriate to how they've been acting up lately! The important thing though is that the kids are angelic at school. After sadly dropping off Grandma at the airport Sunday, we went out to a local campground to hang out with our old Timberlake friends, Zach and Teresa, who were visiting from out of state. The kids had a blast running around as the night grew dark! And we had a delicious camp meal together before parting again for many months. This weekend we will be taking it easy after another hectic workweek, and on Friday I am going in for laser eye surgery! After nineteen years of glasses and contacts, I'm taking the plunge (thanks to Mark's tremendous overtime earnings while working the wildfire in Idaho!). I'll be trying to relax and recover this weekend... no easy task with our little monkeys!




And finally, the latest quotable notables:

"I want to be a firefighter when I grow up… actually, I want to be a Princess." -Autumn talking to Daddy after getting picked up from preschool.

"I’m being a teacher, I want to be a teacher when I grow up… actually, I want to be a scooter driver." -Autumn, while giving Marisa a "lesson"

"…with Justice and Liverpie for all." -Autumn trying to recall the Pledge of Allegiance

"Hey dad, that day we went on a nature hike was 2 days ago… or 3... or 4 or 5... or 1 or 2." -Evan a few days after camping

"Autumn, do you know what Life cereal is for? It makes your life safed." -Evan at breakfast yesterday

Kids say the darndest things...

We just got back from a tiring but fun weekend campout at Kanawha State Forest, with the UUC (United Universalist Congregation). Hiking, biking, campfire, marshmallows, etc. And also, a 1 a.m. trip to the bathroom during the crisp clear cold night with a nearly full moon. Awesome.

We also used our new camcorder, which records in widescreen format. For website purposes, that means having to squish it down a bit from the original. So no, we haven't lost weight. :) Enjoy the new video on the right side of the site.

The kids lately have been saying all sorts of darndest things... here's a sampling:

EVAN:
"Daddy, does your armpit hair tickle your armpit?"
"What's an armpit for? I guess we'll have to ask God that one!"

"I definitely love camping."
(unsolicited response while laying in the tent)

"Winter... Spring... Summer... Fall... Winter... Spring... Summer... ZZZZZZZZZ"
(The last thing Evan said before falling asleep in the tent)

AUTUMN:
"I guess God will fix that... How will God get here?"
(Autumn riding by a pothole on a path while we were camping in Kanawha State Forest)

"Mrs. Frunga lives in a lovely white house... with flowers and birthday cakes... but not birthday cakes to eat."
(Autumn making up a storyline while we were driving through a nice, hilly neighborhood)

That's just from memory... we've promised ourselves to write down their cute quotes more often, before we forget them. They say these kinds of things nearly on a daily basis.

-Mark

On the Bike Trail

Fall is falling! The kids enjoyed a recent trip to a nearby wooded bike trail in Huntington, while Mark and I got a much-needed workout chasing after them. At a lookout in the park, Evan took this picture of the bridge by himself! We were very impressed. This weekend we are going camping with the families in our church and Mark has promised the weather will be lovely - cold enough that we'll even have to bundle up and cuddle in the tent tommorrow night! We might have a picture or two to put on the blog in a few days...

A beautiful weekend!

We celebrated the cooler, beautiful weather by playing at the park, and later on Saturday Mark took Evan to the Marshall game! They had a blast. Autumn and I had a mommy-daughter date which involved grocery shopping (which she loves) and out to dinner. Things have been good lately except for some major Evan temper tantrums. Last night after swimming at the pool he stood in the parking lot and screamed for over five (very long) minutes for someone to carry him twenty feet to the car because his legs were tired. We're beginning to take away priviledges now, such as last night when he had to go to bed without bedtime stories. I thought we were done with the tantrums after they were two!

First MOPS meeting a success!

On Tuesday, after much preparation of the MOPS Steering Team, we had a wonderful first meeting with nearly 30 moms in attendance. This year's theme is The Home Factor, and we encorporated the theme by making our first meeting a housewarming party! I really love this great team of women I'm working with, and looking forward to this year. I'm also very thankful that I'm able to work and still have Tuesdays off to do MOPS. All the kids go to MOPPETS while the Moms get their time together. For more info on MOPS, there is a link at the right to the International website. I'm not going to convention this year, with work and all, but five women from our group are going to Orlando next week. Have fun girls!

Daddy's Home

I made it back home yesterday evening, to gather my long-anticipated and sorely-missed hugs and kisses. Marisa and the kids met me at the airport, even though I had my car parked there. Why? Well, it took Daddy all of two seconds upon arrival for my brain to shut off... I put some of my bags into the trunk WITH MY KEYS. My mind woke up a fraction of a second after my arms pushed down to say "No, wait you idiot!" (perhaps some four letter words were mixed in) but it was too late. So there I was on the cell phone, "Honey, I made it home!... now come to the airport cuz I locked my keys in the trunk."

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I encountered an interesting phenomonom while visiting the few very small towns that are threatened by the wildfire. Many weeks ago, the fire fighters wrapped up a lot of the buildings and houses in fire-resistant foil. They looked like Christmas presents. Most of the residents are grateful for all of the protection, but a few our starting to get eager (and LOUD) to take the wrapping off pre-emptively. It's been like that for more than 50 days. One of the challenges of managing and incident, is managing to locals! There always seems to be that voiceful few, that no matter how much is done for them, it's never enough and they are never happy. But the vast majority are wonderful to work with.

On my last full day in Idaho, my new trainer Dave and I drove to Mammoth Mountain to the fireline. We had a couple days of cooler weather after a little bit of rain, so the fire was tame enough to get close. It was creeping and smoldering slowly in the direction of the wind.

We also went up to Lemon Saddle, for a good view. Recent rain and cooler temperatures brought some real clarity the air, so you could see more detail of the fire area... with little plumes of smoke rising throughout (waiting for the next critical fire weather day).

The next morning, right before I left, was breathtakingly beautiful. A heavy frost covered the ground around camp, and fog filled much of the valley while rising from the Red River.

Finally, after going through the demobilization process, I took the long but scenic 6 hour drive out of the Nez Perce National Forest, to Boise where I would spend the night before flying back. And on the way out of the forest is this piece of mountain, overhanging the road. Very cool.

An incredible couple of weeks, but I'm glad to finally be home!

Important thanks to my co-workers, who covered my shifts while I was gone, to my trainers, who taught me so much... and of course to Marisa for taking care of EVERYTHING on the homefront. Today, we're both lazy and totally out of energy, just hanging around the house.

-Mark