Ordinario (extra?)

I am starting out by including here (and I hope they don't mind) some beautiful pics of Matias, Shawnie and Angelica's boy. They all live in Oregon and we miss them terribly. For us it was just another ordinary, fast moving weekend. Cavindoor has once again written the kids a letter requesting that they go on a mission. This is a character that Alfie came up with about a year ago and he and I just revived him by sending Mason, Aman, Isaiahand Anika another letter from Cavindoor. Their first mission to complete as the "Green Brigade" involves protecting queen Terrabee by finding a green pinecone and putting it on the largest grate they could find on the campus of the university. During our search for a green pine cone we found the doors open at one of the large gymnasiums on campus and snuck in... the kids were fascinated. So many bleachers to climb and places to hide. But that led us to finding the real treasure find of the day. Huge mats used for breaking the fall of pole vaulters. They are like huge matresses but 3.5 feet thick and huge!!! We stacked a bunch up and climbed and jumped and played for about 3 hours! It was fantabulous. In the excitement I forgot to take pics... but you can imagine what sort of happiness would be instilled in 3 (or maybe 4 with me) boys with access to 8 extremely oversized matresses in the middle of large gymn... Sunday involved completing first mission (depositing the pinecone with their initials in the appropriate spot), play dates for the kids and a trip to see The Sneeches and Stone Soup put on by the Baha'i children's theatre. I stayed home and tried to organize our files... what a mess! I also had a chance to do some recording. Modern technology is so wonderful. I sent a copy of the song called Never for David to peruse in CR and he immediately plugged it in to his system and put a nice bass line to the whole thing. Follow the link to listen to the results of the jam session across 4500 miles. I also include two images of artwork from the walls of Anna's room in Summerville. Well, the week has started and ... man that weekend was short!!!

Feliz/Happy Naw Ruz!

So I am standing taking a break from shoveling snow right about where Anika was playing in the puddle two days earlier. Nutty New England weather... we got about 12 inches. And tomorrow is the first day of spring and the last day of the Fast. Besides staying up after eating in the morning I did a few other funny things this time around. I willed myself not to put my fingers in my mouth to bite my nails, a habit I have had since the early teens. I now have a beautiful set of nails on my fingers for the first time in a while (and I keep scratching myself horribly cause I am not used to them). We will see how long this lasts... I also kept myself to two meals a day only and mellow ones at that... no stretched tummy trying to cram in the evening or morning. I managed to get through all the special Fast prayers in the prayer book... I love the one where each paragraph ends in, "Thou seest me holding to Thy name, the Most Holy, the Most Luminous, the Most Mighty, the Most Great, the Most Exalted, the Most Glorious, and clinging to the Hem of the Robe to which have clung all in this world and the world to come". We have been getting in that last of the winter's activities like sledding, shoveling and building a snowman. Aman had a little presentation at school today where he read for a small audience. Britt went and said it was very cute. There have been haircuts (where I killed my unblemished record by seriously taking a fat chunk out of Aman's ear [his and my fault]) children's class and the usual non stop cleaning, washing, folding, scolding, holding, reading, skidding, jumping, yelling, singing, bouncing, mopping, brushing blah blah blah blah... and on.... daily routine of the Ruhe household.... Happy last day for all of you who are fasting and Happy New Year (Naw Ruz)!!!!

March Teaser

Next week will be the official first day of spring and the weather got incredibly warm this week. All the snow is practically melted off and gone. We can actually shoot baskets in the back now without the ball getting wet on the pile of snow. It was only a small teaser because there is a winter storm coming this way tomorrow and saturday (another 3 inches of snow maybe). But it is part of the spring ritual, you get a few quick glimpses then it is taken away a few times before kicking in for the summer. We took a great hike on saturday with Isaiah's friend Nick to rattlesnake gutter. I published some pics a while back on the same hike but in the fall. This was still as magical except with snow, wet snow. We got soaked and frozen but had a great time. Ali even called during middle of it and told us some jokes that the kids have been retelling to everyone they can find. We were distracted and couldn't talk that long (sorry about that dude) and plus we didn't really wanting to hear about how he was in the car on the way to go scuba diving in 85 degree weather (happy for him of course but...). This past week and a half has been uneventful. Work has been nutty. I have been working second shift alot. The deadline for delivery of this system is right around the corner and everyone is loosing their minds! A few fun romps, children's class, and others. Aman read all of Go Dog Go to me last night alone and unaided! I am amazed at the strides he's making. I also include a pic of Anna's first 3-D movie that I forgot to include in the last post and a pic of the boys at a lacrosse game at Umass. 6 more full days left in this fasting period. It has been amazing so far. For the first time I have been getting up to eat and staying up having about an hour of quiet time praying, reading, spacing out, writing in the blog or whatever. Just my time in the quiet house before Britt and the boys get up or I have to rush off early to work. It has been a bit tiring in the evenings but I get to bed early. In other news, we bought our tickets for a visit to CR in late July. I will be there a little over a week and Britt and the boys just over 2 weeks. We are excited to see everyone and have some romps. Ted and Rita came down from Maine to visit the Alschulers and the boys put together a little show which started off a skit about Luke and Obiwan confronting Jabba the Hut but just completely degraded (of course) and had us in stitches. The little things taped on are arms with light sabers (in case you were wondering). Here's a few sillys for you. Isaiah_Story & Happy_poopy_pants & Miracles

Dessert a lo Tico

Well, here it is. Step1 (man I love lists):Put on your boots, gloves and coat, get a bowl and a flashlight if it is dark out, find yourself the cleanest batch of snow and fill your bowl with it (watch out for the yellow patches those are definitely not considered clean). Take off your coat, boots and gloves, put them away neatly, return the flashlight if borrowed and mosey on into the kitchen. Step2 (did I say how much I love lists?): Open up the bottle recently bestowed upon you as a birthday gift by dearly loved relatives (thanks Mom and Jere) of... Sirope de Kola made by Cruz Blanca of course (with vitamin C). Step3: (Ah glorious step 3!! It looks so good!!!) Smother your snow/ice stuff with this delicious concoction. Step4: A generous helping of Pinito on top (another birthday gift). Step5: Find a spoon and an out-of-the-way place to eat it so no one can break your concentration.... ummmmm! but don't eat too fast for a serious brain freeze awaits you... Wow, can you tell I am fasting??? Enough silliness. Let's see what is going on... I submitted a little article fasting to the UPI's Religion and Spirituality website and they published it. It is still there today but might not be for long so if you wanna check it out here is the link (http://www.religionandspirituality.com/). I was searching a few months ago for sites that would let me know what is latest religious news out there. What religious issues are news worthy and what is the rest of the world saying. I get a little of that at this site but more important are these small articles written by various people around the globe. Some are silly but there is alot of wonderful sparks out there. People really are talking about more than just the weather and thinking about how we can change the craziness around/in us.

I took friday off and pulled the boys out of school to go to the museum of science in Boston. What an amazing place! So much to do, see and learn. There was once exhibit that was a huge bank of tv screens and some terminals in front of it. On some you could design your own fish based on your eating habits, depth at which you lived, level of fear and others and you send him into the virtual world where he would interact with the rest of the fish on the all the screens (like looking into a huge fish tank). On others you controlled predators and their patterns etc. Alot of fun.

Anna joined us for a bit and we all saw a 3D movie on bugs (Britt and I swore they filmed it in the little river behind our house in Costa Rica). We then met Anna's house mate Katrinka for fast breaking at a diner near their house and had a quick tour of Anna's fabulous apartment. On sunday after Baha'i school the boys and hiked to the top of skinner mt, had a picnic and sledded down the whole thing. Anyway, I have written too much. Enjoy the pics. I would like to include here a huge thanks to Zia for updating his blog with the great pics of Dubai (see the Saunders link on this page). Keep'm coming especially of that awesome family of yours!! We miss you.