Kimber has
enjoyed much more time at home in the early part of this year versus last
year. This has allowed us to enjoy much
more time together and to do a few more activities together. The biggest event
in the early part of the year is the BP MS150 bike ride over two days from
Houston to Austin. This is the second year Kirk and Kimber have done the ride
together. The difference this year is that we were able to train much more.
Kimber rode some 1600 miles on the road or in the gym. Kirk rode less but still
had plenty of training. And Sidney helped us pedal at least 300 miles with her
participation in several preparatory rides of 50 miles each. What a trooper! And what a trio we make with
the tandem and trail a bike.
This year's MS150
will be hard to top. The ride was April 20 and 21. The weather was beautiful.
The temperatures were not too hot and the wind was at our back. We averaged a
little over 18 miles per hour for the two days on our tandem. And it was
Kimber's birthday on the Saturday of the ride. What a great way to celebrate.
Doing an activity that promotes physical fitness, raises money for a great
cause and allowed Kirk and Kimber to spend all day together. We could really tell the difference this year
that training made. We were finished on day 1 by 1:30 pm and felt great. We
were able to enjoy the rest of the day and felt good getting in the bike the
next day.
Being home has
also allowed Kimber to finish a couple of projects. The first was a t-shirt quilt she has been working
on for quite some time. The sewing is now done and eventually she will get
around to tying the quilt. And then she will have enough shirts for another
quilt. She also made this button
bunny. She saw an example while visiting
a friend with Sidney over spring break.
Kimber used all the buttons she has been collecting for a while from new
clothes, etc. It was a fun project and Sidney really likes it. Because Kimber didn't buy any buttons, it is
truly a calico rabbit with lots of color.
We have also had
a new family member. Kirk brought home a
bird. It is a green-cheeked conure that
flew into a neighbors house. The neighbor had previously had birds and
recognized that it was tame and needed a home. They couldn't find the owner so
they posted to our neighborhood Facebook page that it needed a home. And Kirk
was sold. The bird was named Kiwi by
Sidney in about 30 seconds. The bird
loves Kirk, tolerates Sidney, tolerates the cat, and bites Kimber every chance
he gets. We are going to work on the biting
thing but need to get some help from a bird expert.
Kirk's position
at St. Joseph's hospital was eliminated in mid February. Although the loss of a job is never welcome,
it was nice to have him at home for a while. It made life a little easier. With
the busy Houston market, it didn't take long to find a new job. He now works
for UT Health in the medical center. He is a research nurse coordinator working with stem cell treatments for stroke, among other stroke-related studies. The commute is a little less stressful and the
job much less stressful.
Kirk also was
able to attend the men's retreats with members of our church at Mo Ranch in the Texas Hill Country in
early May. It is an activity he enjoys and it gives him a much deserved break
from the ladies in his life. He went rappelling on this trip along with the
other activities available at the ranch. Now he is impressed with the height of
his rappel but Kimber used to rappel much further as part of her training for
high angle rescue years ago Big Spring and Texas City. But he had fun and that
is the best part. And Kimber and Sidney had a nice girls weekend.
The weekend
before his get away, Kirk and the other Girl Scout troop leader took eight of
the girls in Sidney's troop camping out a Stephen F. Austin State Park. The
girls had a blast and so did he even though it rained a good 6 inches on
them. They all stayed mostly dry but all
their stuff came home dripping and required a few extra loads of laundry by
Kimber.
Kimber hasn't
been travel-free. She goes to Reno to support Marathon's oil sands research
facility at least once each month. She also has been to Death Valley supporting
a geology field trip with the group she supports. It was a great experience, helping her learn
about the risks associated with the trips but also she learned a lot of geology
which she wants to share with Sidney on a trip to the same area some time. It was a really great experience.
Kimber also had
the chance to make a quick trip back to Stavanger to help with preparations for
some seismic acquisition work to be done this summer. She didn't think she would be back in
Stavanger for a long time after leaving the international support group. So it
was a treat to be able to go back. She was able to get into Stavanger in time
to make the end of church and say hello to everyone there. She was also able to see our dear friend
Gwynne who was Sidney's reception year teacher while we lived in Norway. Gwynne and Jorgen and their sweet son Gus are
dear to our heart. Kimber brought home a few of Sidney's favorite Norwegian
delicacies. The first was dried cod. This made Kimber's suitcase stink like
fish and attracted the cat. Sidney then took these to school as her snack. The
teacher may not forgive Kimber. Kimber also brought back brown cheese, various
"osts" which are soft cheese in a tube, and bacon flavored snacks.
There have nearly been brawls over the bacon snacks and "osts" in the
house. However, Sidney has exclusive rights to the brown cheese and dried fish.
We have had a
pleasant and long spring this year. Even through the last week it has been nice
to be outside all day. We even had a cloud snap in early May that nearly had us
turning on the heater again. That being said, Sidney has already eaten several
handfuls of tomatoes from the garden and Kimber will pick the first bean
harvest over the next weekend. We have been eating lettuce and herbs nearly all
winter and spring. Sorry all you northerners! And the monarch butterflies like
us too. They have eaten all of the butterfly weed and we currently have 6
chrysalis, several on the fences and several on the porch. Now we need to go
put in more weed to keep the next round of caterpillars fed. We love to watch the evolution from egg, to
caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly.
We have had a
few awesome weekends together since the activities in April. The second weekend
in May, the weekend of Mother's Day tops the cake though. Sidney spent Saturday
afternoon with a girlfriend while Kirk and Kimber went to a wine education
class where roughly the equivalent of a bottle of wine is served to each
student. Neither of us drank all we were served but some of the wine was
fantastic and Kimber definitely suffered the most. Kimber's notes regarding the
characteristics of the white wines were quite detailed and thorough. By the
reds, which Kimber doesn't like much anyway, the notes were something like
"red", color "blood", and "good for a red" or
"bad". It took some hours to
recover. We then watched Apollo 13 because Sidney had seen parts of it at the
YMCA and showed interest. Following the
movie, her singing cat courtesy of Gwynne and Build A Bear, came downstairs in
her space suit and Apollo 13 capsule. The capsule was made from a Styrofoam box
that formerly held medicine. It had a blanket inside and said "Apallo
13" on the outside. It also carried a Norwegian flag. The child can
re-purpose anything she finds. Watch your trash. She will take it.
The best part of
the weekend was still to come. And that was Mother's Day. Kimber got up early
and went for a nice 22 mile bike ride before breakfast. Kirk and Sidney cooked
her a big fat breakfast of bacon and hash browns (and eggs for them). We then
enjoyed a lovely church service. After that, we drove down south of Houston to
Skydive Spaceland, for Kimber to redeem her Christmas present. Kimber went on a
tandem skydive. It was crazy. The plane you go up in is basically a tin can
with wings and an engine. There are bench seats on both sides and you cram in
like sardines. Fortunately the ride is just over 10 minutes, and one-way. The weather was great so we got to jump from
14,000 feet. The free fall is the first 8000 feet and you reach 120 mph. You
pull the chute at 6000 feet and have a relaxing ride after that. The first part, the free fall, is very
intense. It is cold and loud and fast. The parachute part though is a lot of
fun. You can turn and weave and talk. So
Kimber signed up to do another dive and this time she is taking Kirk along. Pictures
can be found on Kimber's Facebook. We also have video which which is pretty
cool. It isn't something we want to take up, but Kimber would like the chance
to enjoy the free fall part more now that she knows what to expect and to learn
to turn and help get out of the plane. Then we are done!
Well that
catches us up for a while. As a parting gift for this post, we are sharing a picture of some of Sidney's artwork. The first part of summer will see Sidney off to
Grandma Carolyn in Georgia. Later Sidney and Kimber will venture to Germany.
Sidney will stay in Germany a week longer than Kimber and will fly home alone.
Kimber will continue trips to Reno as well as a few other short trips. Kirk has a brief work trip to Phoenix (in July!) So until
the next update, have a fun filled and safe spring and summer.
