Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

my man, the oil guru

A lot of you might not know what Paul does at work, so here are some 'photies' he has sent me in the last few months. Growing up in Colorado, I never thought much about subsea drilling operations. Well, now I could tell you more than you ever want to know! Anyway, this is the helicopter Paul rides out to the rig...





and this is the rig. In a recent interview I conducted with Paul, he described his job as designing, refurbishing, and installing subsea equipment up to 6,000 feet deep.(what he actually said was, "I'm a subsea guru".) He has worked 11 years on 5 continents in I-don't-know-how-many-different jobs. His last job was in 'block 15' Kizomba, Angola, on the west coast of Africa. When completed it will be the world's largest subsea development with 190 Christmas Trees on the ocean floor (you'll need to google that, I don't understand that whole ordeal)! I asked how much oil they got every day, and he said if I were to publish that, he would lose his job and we would be sued, so I guess you'll need to google that too! Right now he's in Texas working on the most advanced semi-submersible (google) rig. The coolest, or most famous, place he's worked was at the Harlan & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, where the Titanic was built. He says it's a lot of hard work and the days are really long. He called me once before going to bed and he had been awake for about 36 hours. The rigs can be very dangerous for everybody out there. There are huge moving parts that weigh several tons each, not to mention the possibilities of malaria or freezing cold water in the ocean below, depending on what part of the world you're in. I know it's a lot of hard work, but when he's gone for four weeks at a time and I'm here with three kids and all this work to do, there's only one image in my mind.





Sunday, November 11, 2007

Who ate all the Halloween candy?


Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, but I have found some redeeming value since the kids were born. I heard someone say once that, 'if most of the world can ignore the true meaning of Christmas and still enjoy the holiday, maybe we can do the same thing for Halloween!' Besides, there is something great about wearing crazy costumes with your whole family and eating absurd amounts of candy for one night! Calories don't count on October 31st, right?!? Anywho, we had a fun one this year! Jacob wanted to be a SWAT team guy... the only requirements he had for his costume this year were a gun and a helmet. Liam and Daddy started a game a couple of months ago calling each other 'Little Dragon and Big Dragon' and we managed to find a dragon costume at a discount shoppe. Ewan and I were the princess and the pea, and I must say that we looked pretty cool. I do think that my big brother and his youngest boy won the contest hands down! Byrne was an organ grinder and his one-year-old son Samuel was the monkey! They looked awesome! Byrne even got Sam to make a noise like a monkey a couple of times. That was a great costume. We went trick-or-treating to our Uncle's house and at one of my mom's neighbors who we've known a long time. I guess we always manage to get so much candy at church, I don't bother with the door-to-door. Speaking of which, This last photo needs the story to go along with it! These are the boys' trick-or-treat bags. Now, I don't actually know how much was in them to begin with. We had pretty much been together all night, in all the same places, doing all the same games and things so, I would assume that their bags should have been filled to about the same level. A couple different times throughout the night, people came to tell me that Liam was hiding somewhere eating candy, and since I never buy it at home, I let it go every now and then. I must admit that I did not keep track of his rate of consumption! When I looked at Jacob's basket and then saw Liam's I had to ask;"Liam, what happened to all of your candy?" His reply was simply; "I ate one..."

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Happy Birthday, Liam!

William Seth Anderson was born in Houston, TX on October 24, 2004. He is the funniest little guy you've ever seen, and we had fun celebrating his 3rd birthday. Uncle Tim, Auntie Cristina and Emma invited us to the park for lunch the on his birthday! Auntie Cristina surprised us with chocolate cupcakes that were soooo good! We had fun there for a couple hours and then we went bowling and out to dinner with Grammy and Grampy! I don't know what got into this kid, but he wanted to have a bowling party, so we did of course!



The kids had such a great time bowling and Ewan slept through the whole thing. He'll be getting in on the fun soon enough though! Liam's party wasn't until the Saturday after his birthday, and it was really great. I have so much fun planning the kids parties! I think sometimes I enjoy it more than they do! I like to make all of their invitations and decorations, but with this new little guy, I knew it wasn't going to happen. So, we just ordered all the stuff. I still made the cake, though! I cannot relegate that responsibility to anyone else, it's too much fun for me! With Ewan only five weeks old we didn't go over board on the party. We just ordered pizzas and had a salad, but everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Throwing his weight around...all 8 pounds






When we moved to Houston Paul made me buy a used grey minvan. It was slightly banged and bruised, nondescript, and totally not me! But we wouldn't have a car payment and I didn't have to worry about door dings or stray shopping carts! So, we bought the stinkin' thing, OOps, I mean the practical thing from a slightly questionable man on the freeway north of our house. Paul promised me that if I would do the deed and drive the wretched beast for a couple of years, that he would buy me a cool car after I did my time. Well, he finally made good on the deal! We test drove this car just for fun, (that is a whole different story involving an overly flattering car sales woman and a squirrel who was in the wrong place at the wrong time!) and loved it. We bought the car on Ewan's due date (sept 15) and it arrived on the 18th! Paul
brought it home about 2 pm and Ewan was born about
10 pm. I told Paul "See! He was just waiting for the right
time! He was in there saying; 'I'm ready, but I'm not riding
around in that awful van! I'm not being born until you get
me something decent to drive!' "

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Happy Birthday!

Hi honey! I thought I'd send some photos of your other baby for your birthday! I hope you have a great day even if you don't get to spend time with the orange lady! I bet you're wondering how on earth I managed to set up a blog site!? Well, the simple answer is: I didn't! Cristina came down one morning and showed me how to turn on the computer and put a disk in the little drawer and all that stuff! I was really at quite a loss, but she's a great teacher (thanks sis)! I wanted to get you something for your birthday besides WWII books and t-shirts with offensive slogans on the front! Now you can keep up with your kids from work. That is, if I can manage to keep up with the blog site! I'll try my best! Here are some photos of your other kids!


- Jacob's school pictures turned out great! You can just see the mischief in his eyes! The picture of Ewan is one of his first little smiles. There's Jake introducing Ewan to Scooby Doo. And I have no idea what Liam is doing with that hat, but this little man keeps me laughing all day. Where does he get this stuff!?

Someone new for you to meet




Here he is! our new little guy! He's so cool.
Ewan James Anderson
born September 18, 2007
9:58 pm
8 lbs
21 1/4 inches long
This was our first home birth and it was absolutely wonderful. It was great to be in my own comfortable house and have Paul there to catch the baby. I feel truly blessed with the whole experience.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Memories of a forgotten waistline



Although I know it isn't true, I sometimes think that I have been pregnant for the last five years. I once made a Scrapbook page that was titled - "I have known Paul for twenty-seven months, I have been pregnant for 18 of them." Paul is such a hero! He has put up with dreadful mood swings, tears out of nowhere for no reason, not to mention extremely odd food cravings! He's played right along with the whole thing, though!! He must have eaten Chinese food about 5 nights a week when we were pregnant with Liam, and never complained. It was so hot this summer when I was getting really big with Ewan. Paul didn't even bat an eyelash when he asked what was for dinner one night and his answer was a teary; "yogurt and grapes". Having said all that, I enjoy being pregnant for the most part. I've never had morning sickness. Moodiness aside, I've never actually threatened to injure Paul or any of his vehicles. Other than a few questionable decorating choices, ( DO NOT choose paint colors or buy living room furniture in the third trimester) I feel pretty good when I'm pregnant. Not to mention the culmination of nine months hard labor is well worth the effort!!!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Proud Daddy

Look at this boy with his boys! If he's watching television with them, or taking a camping trip in the back yard complete with sleeping bags and flashlights, he is all daddy! It's hard sometimes on Paul and the boys when he's away for a long time, but they sure make up for lost time when he's back home! When Ewan was born in
September, Paul had those boys off and running every day! He took them to Sporting Goods stores (Sportsmans Warehouse and Specialty Sports are two local favorites), the nature trail, a drive to Denver and even to the mall to play on the indoor play park (and for those of you who know Paul, he DOES NOT go to the mall)! I especially appreciated all of those little day trips when Ewan was so tiny! I got to take a couple of naps, get caught up on laundry and just enjoy the general solitude that comes with boy-free house!

3 little boys, 3 little blessings

This picture represents the first time I took all three of these little guys out of the house by myself! It was a much smaller fiasco than I expected. I had been putting it off until the latest possible date, but when it came time, they were awesome. They stayed by me in the stores and didn't even argue about what to have for lunch! I could have planned it better, because having professional photos done on our very first outing was probably not the best idea I've ever had. Trying to get three little boys to sit still for 10 minutes ( or 10 seconds) is kind of a lost cause. Somehow we got through it, and ended up with some nice photos! I'll tell you what though; that is not happening every six months! We went and had our pictures taken, had lunch in the mall (entirely organic, of course) bought our halloween costumes and even went to the kids play area for a little while! I'm pleased to report that I never lost a kid or brought any extras home with us!