Nate's Song

I was scanning thru our iTunes library the other day and came across a tune that Nathan made in Garage Band on our Mac one night while I was at work and he was bored. I stole it, without his permission of course, and decided to post it here on my blog!
He did all the vocal and instrumental stuff on our computer and then threw it all together to make a song. What fun!
Listen to Nate's song here
He said it's a work in progress, but I still think it's super cool! Let me know what you think!

Goin' to the chapel

Well folks, it's official! I've been an old married lady for FIVE years! Today, Nathan and I celebrate our fifth anniversary -- five years of being crazy about each other, of putting up with each other, and of sharing all our joys and challenges! What a great five years it's been!! Today, I keep finding myself thinking back to my wedding day, and all the emotions and joy that were involved. It was far and away one of the very best days of my life! The first photo was taken at the end of the ceremony. The second is my bridal portrait, back when I was a young 22-year-old!! :) (Photos by Brent Kuhlmann)

Sucking Oranges

Well, we found a new treat that Asher likes best ... sucking on California oranges. I was at the grocery store a few days ago and suddenly remembered how much Gabriel loved lemons when he was a baby. So I quickly picked out a few lemons and limes, and also a bag of oranges. We slice them up and just let Asher go crazy, gumming them to pieces. He LOVES it! So now, in the mornings, Gabriel and Asher share an orange. It tends to get Ash pretty messy, with the juice and the pulp running everywhere, but that's okay! It's worth it to see the look on his face! It's really funny, because as soon as he finishes up a slice, he starts yelling at it quite loudly, (not at ME, but at the orange! Crazy!) until I replace the chewed up version with a brand new slice. Then all is right with the world. What a funny little man!

True Love

For those of you without kids, this is a photo of Lightning McQueen.(photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar) I've been seeing a lot of him lately -- more than I'd care to actually!
The other day, I surprised Gabriel by bringing home the Disney/Pixar video game CARS for our Mac. He was THRILLED. His eyes got huge and he immediately ran to play the game on our computer.
The catch?
We soon found out that although Gabriel REALLY REALLY wanted to race, the "races" had to be unlocked by defeating all 10 activity games on the darn thing. (Each activity having 5 levels each, for a total of 50)
Also, the game had four movie clips, each of which had to be "unlocked" by defeating the games, and then winning all of the races, and then going back and beating all your best scores at the various games and races, etc.
Needless to say, this would have taken Gabriel a year.
So I'm guessing that most of you can deduce how I spent Asher & Gabriel's naptime yesterday? Instead of flopping on the couch with my newest summer romance novel, I sat in front of our Mac and spent two hours slowly defeating each and every game so that my 4-year-old could wake up from his nap and race cars and watch the movie clips. Ugh. Double UGH. I can't admit to the fact that it was COMPLETELY without fun, but come on ... after two hours I was ready to bash my head against a wall, and I had cursed at my Mac in record amounts. But in the end, a happy 4-year-old more than made up for the effort.
So what was Nathan doing when I left for work today? Trying to beat all my scores. Because the rest of the movies don't unlock unless you beat them AGAIN. And of course the first thing out of Gabriel's mouth this morning was "Why are some of the movies still locked???"
When I left, Nate only had one more game to beat. Pray for his sanity, folks. Yes indeed ... pray!

Farm boy

I took Gabriel and Asher to the Farm Tech Days festival here in Sheboygan. It's this big deal that always happens somewhere in Wisconsin every summer, and this year, it was in our town. Basically, there are a gazillion tractors, combines, etc. that you can look at or, if you're age 4, climb up and sit on, as long as you're super careful and "don't touch ANYTHING!!!" (That was my line all day today). Gabe had such a blast! (Asher slept through most of it while in a carrier on my back). Gabe said his favorite part of the day was riding the toy tractors (as you can see in the photos) and fishing in the kid's tent. (also in the photo) He also liked the ice cream, but was leary of the petting zoo. (Check out the photo of the goat who REALLY wanted to say hello!) And after three hours, I could barely pull him away from the monster tractors. He kept saying, "Just one more mama!" I heard that about five times! How sweet! (I especially like the photo of him standing under the ginormous tractor! These things were HUGE! Some of them had cabs that were roomier than my first apartment!) Anyway, we had a fun afternoon! And it was very affordable! What was my grand total for an afternoon of fun with my boys? Inclduing admission, parking AND ice cream ... $7. A steal, no matter how you look at it!

Future musician

So yesterday I was cleaning my room, and came across my flute (which, incidentally, I had been searching for, for quite some time). I quickly picked it up and rattled off a few scales, and Asher just sat there frozen on the bed, in mid chew, (holding a teething ring). His eyes got HUGE as he stared at my mouth, wondering where in the world these sounds were coming from. It was adorable! Afterwards, I let him have a look at the "magical" instrument. He had great fun holding it. Surprisingly, he didn't try to chew on it at all! (My new nickname for the munchkin is "Mr. Chew." If you've seen the Pengiun's Xmas Caper movie on the DVD of Madagasgar, you know that the rabid dog owned by the old lady in that cartoon is "Mr. Chew." Well, since Asher drools and chews on everything within arms reach, I figured the name was appropriate.)
In other news, he's getting quite close to crawling. There have been a couple times in the past few days where I thought he would go for it. He gets up on his knees and arms and rocks back and forth, gazing longingly at a toy that is just out of his reach. One of these days soon, he'll figure out that he can move, and that will be the end of my quiet, peacefull life as I know it!

Arrrg Matey! What be yer name?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm SUPER excited about the new Pirates movie coming out in theaters TODAY! Due to babysitting snags, I'm sure I won't get to see it for a few weeks yet, but I'm still really pumped about it!
This post is totally inspired by my old college roomate, Francie Krantz, and her blog. She has one of these cool gizboos on her blog, and I found a similar one online. For the life of me, I can't figure out how to do links on blogs (can anyone help me?) so once again, you have to click on the headline "Arrg Matey!" and it will take you to a fun page that will give you your very own pirate name!
When you comment, make sure you share what your name is! Mine is "Black Cloud," which to me, sounds more Indian than pirate, but oh well! ARRRRRRG Matey!!!!!

This just in ... the world is warped.

It often happens that I read a disturbing story at work that is difficult to digest. It's part of my job. Especially since I spend a great deal of time scanning the AP wire for stories to put on various pages of the newspaper. In fact, one of the hardest aspects of my job is letting go of these stories when I come home. Too often, if I'm especially antsy or just plain NOT tired when I get home at 12:15 a.m., I find myself laying awake at night, bothered by something I read on the wire. Having heard similar comments from coworkers, I've come to realize that it's part of the baggage we have to carry as journalists. I may not LIKE to read about a man who kills 10 people etc., but it's part of the job.
So tonight, as I was sitting here putting together the Nation/World page for tomorrow's newspaper, a story broke around 9 p.m. "Subway rider attacked with power saws" And I can't help but think ... WHAT THE HECK!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD?
To enlighten you, a 30-year-old man went ballistic in a NY City subway system, and attacked random strangers with chain saws!!! Folks, I couldn't even make this stuff up if I had to! Check out this link, courtesy of CNN. (You have to click on the title of this blog entry to get there) It will make you never want to take your family on a public transit system again. Ever. YOWZA.

Growing up!

My garden has grown by leaps and bounds during the month since I've planted it! You can't tell here, but the corn is waist-high (not knee high!!) and the tomatoes and zucchini are HUGE and full of blossoms. My blue hydrangeas bloomed in the front yard. The white ones have yet to pop out. Anyway, this is just a little post in tribute of my garden! In the photo with Roxy, you can see a bit of it -- tomatoes, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, red cabbage and lettuce in the back. What fun!

Swimming in a sunset

Without a doubt, this was one of my favorite moments from our past weekend in St. Joseph, Michigan. It rained for a good portion of our trip, but on Sunday night, it suddenly cleared off at about 8 p.m. and the sun came out. We hurried down to the beach with the boys, (We got there just before the crowd hit, because of course, we weren't the only ones to notice the gorgeous weather ... and it stays light there until almost 10 p.m.) Now the first thing you have to understand is that the Michigan side of the lake is MUCH MUCH warmer than the Wisconsin side. The water was about 68-70 degrees. Like a bathtub compared to our frigid Sheboygan water! (Trust me, we tried to swim in Wisconsin this afternoon and it was bone-chillingly FREEZING!!) So in Michigan, the boys and I had fun playing in the water. Asher yelled at first, but soon got used to the gentle waves, as long as he could cling to his mama for dear life in the process. But anytime brother Gabriel tried to splash us, even the tiniest bit, he let out an angry yowl of disapproval, accompanied by a severe look in his brother's direction. Ah yes dear readers, everyday these two act more and more like true siblings!

When it was me

Okay, so some might consider this my "selfish" post. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to be self-centered here, but the other day, I got to thinking about how odd it is (and yet NOT odd really) that almost ALL my blog posts are about my kids, and NOT about anything else. Then I got to thinking about how strange and wonderful it is, that when you have kids, they really become your entire life. And any dreams and aspirations you had as a singleton, or a young married woman, do in fact, get put on hold. And rightly so! But, I've decided to try and make more of an effort to post a few more personal entries, which tell my few readers more about ME. (The photo is of me on my honeymoon in Deadwood, SD. ... when it was still just me in my life...me and a brand new hubby!)
So without further adu: Here are some things you may or may not want to know about Katrina!
My favortie color: Pink
Favorite faraway place I've visited: Rome. I'm super excited for the upcoming trip my hubby and I are taking for our 5th anniversary -- we'll get to see it again!
Favorite author/poet: Carl Sandburg -- Chicago Poems
Biggest pet peaves: 1) When you're the only one in a huge bathroom with a million stalls and someone comes in and goes into the stall right next to yours. 2) When people have their windshield wipers on and it's not raining, and they start to make that aggrevating, high-pitch squeaking noise on the glass. ARGGHH!! :)
Favorite band/song lyrics: I love Dave Matthews, and they haven't let me down yet. One of my favorite lyrics by Dave? "The first time I kissed you I lost my legs..." (Old Dirt Hill (song)-- Stand up (CD))
Favorite way to exercise: Lately it's pilates/yoga. I look pretty hilarious trying to balance in precarious positions such as "downward facing dog" and "plank." But hey, I do it when no one else is home, so nobody can laugh as I stumble gracelessly through the air while in "warrior" pose!
How I got my name: My mother came up with it in a dream.
Actor/Actress who stars in most of the movies I own: Marilyn Monroe, followed closely by Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks.
Favorite food: Crab legs. KING crab legs! I love it when my honey makes me a ginormous pot of crab legs ... with hot drawn butter for dipping. HEAAAAVEN!!
Person I'd be happy to become: My grandma. She had a wonderful love of God, family, and all the wonderful, fine things that grow out of the ground! :)
Person I'd most like to trip while they were running: Regis Philbin. I don't know why.
What I would have been, if I hadn't been a journalist: Anthropologist.

Well that's just a little bit of useless Katrina trivia. Hey, if you respond to this email with a comment, feel free to fill in your own answers to some of these questions too! I often wonder how my friends and family would respond to these kinds of "quizzes."

Over the rainbow

We had a gorgeous rainbow tonight. I called from work to tell my boys to look out the window, and Nathan said Gabriel was so excited and happy to see it. He gave a little gasp of surprise and said "Ooohh! A rainbow!" Very sweet. I wonder if we all secretely think these words when we see rainbows -- the little kid in all of us marveling at the sky. For me, it was a nice reminder of the "finer" things in life. And I had a nice little moment while looking out the window -- remembering a specific time in my childhood when a friend and I went looking for the end of a rainbow, to find the promised pot of gold. We never did find it of course, but it must've been a fun adventure anyhow, for me to have remembered it so many years later. It just goes to show that the journey is often just as important as the destination!

Finding Asher's Giggle Button

Click on this audio post and you'll be amazed at the belly laughs coming out of Asher! (don't be alarmed by the sort of "screaching" noise he uses to start out his laughter ... he does that all the time!!) I found his "Giggle Button" today. Apparently, he is helpless when you tickle his chubby thighs -- erupting in helpless gales of laughter and grins. What a great time we had today, laughing and playing! On a separate note, I was in the middle of making dinner tonight, when Asher got fussy. So Gabriel is happy to announce that he fed Asher most of his Gerber Apple/Banana dessert while mama kept one eye on him, and the other eye on a pot full of parbroiling brats'n beer. Gabe was so proud of himself! Everyday it seems, he takes his role of big brother more and more to heart!

Swimming boys

Here are some photos of my boys swimming in Gabe's new paddle pool in our backyard yesterday morning. Nate had just finished mowing the lawn, and surprised Gabriel by jumping into the pool with him! They had some fun splashing each other and pouring buckets of water on each other as they slid down the inflatable slide. Asher and I watched from afar, and took pictures! What a fun afternoon!

All that Yucky Love stuff...

So I had a much-needed chat with one of my gal-pal coworkers yesterday, all about the merits of what we leave behind when we go off to work everyday. Lately, I've been having a tough time with this, as I'm sure, do many women across America who decide to take it upon themselves to be a wife, mother AND full-time worker. We can do it all, gosh darn it! Or at least, it certainly feels that way. But for me, lately, the stress of what I'm leaving behind everyday, has started to grind me down. Luckily, I get to be with my sons all day long. Buy my husband is a different story, and we've been "two ships passing in the night" so to speak, for quite awhile now. I work nights, and he works days. We see eachother for about 30 minutes at the "changing of the guard" when he comes home from work to take care of the boys and I dash madly to the car with my briefcase in one hand and my coffee in the other. "Hi honey! Bye honey! See ya tomorrow!" For us, that is sadly, quite often the case, as he is soundly asleep when I get home, and the day is over with us having spent all of 20 minutes or so together. To put it mildly, it stinks. We both think so, but there's not much that can be done about it at this point.
These are some of my favorite pictures of us. The black and white photo was taken one evening last summer, when we were camping at the base of Devil's Tower in Wyoming. The sunset photo was taken while we were still dating, on a trip to Door County/Cana Island in winter. We had just broken through the foliage of the island and this spectacular sight was what met our eyes. Nate rolled up a snowball, put his camera on top of it and ... walllah! One of our first, most romantic spots of memory was ours on film forever!
So to all the women in my life, friends and family alike, go home and kiss your husbands when you see them. Because not everyone is so lucky to spend time together everyday, and you never know when hectic, crazy schedules may change on a dime! Appreciate one another, as well as the simple joys in life, like sharing dinner around the table at night. Those are the things that some of us miss mightily!

Bathtubs and hanging out

Well, as you can see from the photo, Gabriel and Ash had their first bath together yesterday! It was one of those nights where my husband and I decided at the last minute to go out to dinner somewhere nice, so I had 30 minutes to get both boys washed, dressed and "shoed" (the most painstaking part of the process due to the fact that Gabriel takes 8 years to find his various footwear and then decide which pair to wear, and THEN put them on himself!!) oh, and I had to get myself ready as well. So both boys got a bath together. Asher wasn't too happy about it, as you can see from his face. I made the mistake of turning the water on while he was in the tub and he FLIPPED out! He's ususally such a happy baby that this was quite an impressive show of anger and just plain ticked-off frowns and yells! Wow! Meanwhile, Gabe had a fun time showing Asher all of his tub toys and introducing him to the joys to be found in splashing mom and the rest of the bathroom, while getting clean!
The other photos show my boys hanging out yesterday. It was a long day, with just the three of us, as my husband was shooting a wedding. (FYI: He's a photographer, not a big game hunter...) Gabe sat with me on our swing in the backyard, and Asher crashed out on the couch surrounded by pillows, in the unlikely event that he decided to roll. I love his position here .... he looks as though he's quite had enough. Check out the hair! It was all sweaty, because he actually fell asleep on top of me first, while I was relaxing on the couch, and got all warm ... and then his hair started sticking up in the front like some sort of crazy flock of seagulls doo from the 80s. Very fun.

Last day of School

Today is Gabe's last day of school in the 3K program at Trinity Lutheran here in town. I can NOT believe that an entire school year has already gone by since that first day when we drove him to class and I cried all the way out of the school building. My little man is just growing like a weed! What a big boy he is now! Next year it's 4K and in the blink of an eye, he'll be graduating college. Wow. How the time does fly! We took this photo a few hours ago, as Nathan was getting ready to take Gabriel to school.

Photo Shoot attempts

So I decided to do a photo shoot of my boys yesterday afternoon, and I quickly discovered why I am NOT the photographer in our family! I don't have the patience OR the talent for it!! So without further adu, here are some photos from my clumsy attempt at pretending to be Annie Leibovitz for a day. I think I'll leave it to Nathan from now on!

Serenade

Gabriel made my day yesterday when he told me to sit on the porch swing in our backyard. He then proceeded to serenade me by singing James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" at the top of his lungs, with his head flung back and his little voice warbling and shaking as he belted out "You're beautiful! You're beautiful! You're beautiful, it's true! I saw your face, in a -------(missing words here due to the fact that he's not really sure what the words are, even though it's supposed to be "crowded place") and I don't know what to do! Cause I'll never be with you!"
But you don't need me to tell you how it sounded. Check out this audio post!! Gabriel was kind enough to perform his tune once again today, for the benefit of "audioblogger" so you could all enjoy it!

Photos of the boys

Here are some pictures I took of the boys yesterday morning! I had great fun styling Asher's hair into a spiked, cupie-doll sort of thing -- he seemed to enjoy it too! Meanwhile, Gabe was taking it easy sitting with Roxy and watching Bob the Builder after school got out.

Hear Nathan and Keith LIVE!

Helloooo all! I'm proud to announce that I've learned a new trick. There's something called "Audioblog" available with bloger.com now, where you can use your phone to record anything you want, and it automatically posts it on your blog -- for FREE! Pretty neat trick! So here's a rough copy of one of the live songs that Nathan and Keith played at the coffee house last night. It's not the best quality, but you can at least hear part of it! I'm hoping to get better at this audioblogging stuff! Think of it ... when Asher finally spits out his first word, I can post it for all to hear! Yahoo!!

Highland Grog and a musical evening

Nathan and Keith performed at the Upper Room, a Christian coffee house here in Sheboygan, last night. They did an acoustic set that lasted for about an hour and a half. About 40 people showed up to watch and listen, and it was really neat to see the Harrmann brothers use their musical talents to praise God together! It was especially bittersweet, as Keith just graduated from Concordia, Mequon and is about to leave Wisconsin for the wilds of Wyoming to train for a new job. So it was a great chance for the boys to do some male bonding -- before saying goodbye for awhile. Ash slept through most of the event, but there were so many eager arms to hold him (a great many friends and family being present) that I was actually able to sit back with a cup of Highland Grog and enjoy watching my sweetie play the guitar I bought him for his 30th birthday. An enjoyable evening!

hot dogs and bananas

Look at how pretty my new garden fence is!! Nathan even surprised me by making a fancy gate. While I was busy planting tomatoes, zuchinni, strawberries, lettuce, red cabbage, eggplants, corn, beans, pumpkins, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower ... (what DIDN'T I plant this year!!) he was busy in the garage making the pretty gate that you see in the photo!! I was very surprised!
Gabe was excited to get our garden in. When I asked him what he wanted to plant, in his own special area, he said "Bananas and hot dogs." Well, why not! :) For a 4-year-old, this would make perfect sense! It was pretty cute!
So we had fun planting seeds together. He would count them out very carefully and then pat a little bit of dirt overtop. His section of the garden includes the pumpkins, corn, beans and strawberry's. We can hardly wait for things to get growing!

Sitting up

Well, Asher is officially sitting up! Well, perhaps I should clarify ... He's not pulling himself up into a sitting position, but when we put him on the floor in a sitting position, he usually lasts for a few minutes now, before toppling over in slow motion onto his side. It's very exciting for all of us -- especially Gabriel, who seems to think that now Asher is one step closer to being a real playmate.
On a separate note, Gabriel delivered his first marriage proposal in school last week, and got shot down! He came home from school very dejected, with stooped shoulders and a sad little face, letting me know that he had "asked Samantha to marry me ... but she said no." So I tried to tell him, in a very serious manner, (hiding my smile) that he has plenty of time to find a wife -- but he still seems somewhat bothered by the fact that he doesn't have a wife yet. After all, there are a lot of "fish" in the sea, but he is closing in on 4 and a half!! :)

Everything's Growing!

Okay, so I'm one of those weirdo's who actually, seriously enjoys yard work. Really. There's nothing quite so satisfying as a yard that has been freshly mowed and now looks like a golf course, it's so perfect! (Yeah, I'm crazy I know.) We're in the process of putting up a really pretty lattice fence and gate up around my garden, which I'll hopefully be planting this coming weekend. I'll post photos as soon as we're done with it! It should look marvelous, and I can't wait to get some kind of vine or climbing rose to put over the arbor. It's going to be just beautiful! Anyway, here's a shot of Roxy, taken 5 minutes ago, as she wanders through our raspberry bushes. I think she's eagerly awaiting July, when they will be full of berries!

I love the smell of fresh cut grass in the morning...

Well folks, my hubby gets the 'Man of the year' award today, that's for sure! Nathan took both boys with him to praise band practice this morning at church. What did this mean for me? Only that I had the most relaxing morning I've had in MONTHS. I slept till 11:30 a.m. That's right! 11:30! I woke up on my own too -- I'm sure you all know that delicious feeling of opening your eyes wrapped in a cozy cocoon of blankets, perfectly caught up on all your sleep -- and when you stretch out, you can feel it all the way to your toes. Ahhhhh! Bliss! Then I quickly burrowed under my blankets to the foot of my bed and laid there, soaking up the breeze coming in through the open window, as the smell of fresh cut grass from next door came wafting through. Now, that's the smell of spring!
On a completely different topic, I must relate a highly unusual thing that happened to me yesterday, while walking down the street from the Press, to Legend Larry's, to pick up my dinner. (They have the best chicken wings in the world...)
Okay ladies, perhaps this won't sound strange, as I'm sure it has happened many times to each of you, but wonder of wonders, I got whistled at by a car full of boys in their late teens. Now, for those of you who are married with kids, perhaps you can relate to my feelings here -- I've spent a large portion of the past six months ... (or more like four years) being a mom, and therefore being covered in bleff, (that's our nice word for baby vomit) spitup, formula etc. or up to my elbows in poopy diapers. So needless to say, it felt quite STRANGE to get whistled at. My husband laughed when I told him that my initial reaction was to check my rear end to see if I had something stuck to it, or check my shoes for toilet paper comets. It simply seemed too weird to get honked and whistled at. I'm hardly a college girl on campus anymore. But to make a long story short -- it was a surreal sort of Friday experience.

Dead duck.

Ahh, it's a sad day in the newsroom. I'm not trying to be maudlin ... but I just found out that my favorite ducks, who often greet me in the Press parking lot (see previous blog entry which equates the arrival of spring with 'ducks in my parking space...') are no more. According to staff reports, feathers and other various duck paraphenalia were found scattered about in glorious disarray outside the front door of the Press yesterday morning. (where the nest is located). Unfortunately, that also means the eggs in the nest will go unhatched. Now that really does make me sad. Because the only thing better than ducks puddling about the parking lot, is of course ... baby ducks -- likewise engaged. The hope is that one of the male ducks survived the attack. (we have yet to apprehend the "attacker" but it is believed to have been a wild animal of the racoon or skunk persuasion) I'll let you know if there's a sighting of the survivor anytime soon.... :)

Sleepy Baby

This is my sleepy baby Ash, this afternoon. I love the second photo of him in his crib, because you can see his little bald spot, which REFUSES to fill in! We call it his Martin Luther spot, because it makes him look like a little monk. Too cute! Ash sure is getting big! Just yesterday, he held his bottle through an entire feeding, and even batted my hand away when I attempted to help him out! What a stinker! But he sure is cute when he's sleeping! Usually, he flings his left hand up over his eyes and suck his right thumb. What a doll! Today, he discovered he could make clicking noises with his tongue. So we spent the better part of an hour, as I folded laundry, clicking back and forth at each other. I think we may have invented a brand new, undiscovered Swahili-type language of our very own!