The Many Uses of Duct Tape

I am in no way an expert on the use of duct tape or parenting, but this blog is about a little of both. I was told to write this blog. Not by God, He keeps up with my thoughts the normal way (via Facebook) but by a friend who said that she wanted to be able to see in a more linear and outlined way the random sagacity that streams through my mind, particularly on parenting for some reason...

The Baptism!

The kid got dunked today! I was led to believe this would result in his being much more mild tempered, angelic even, with no more screaming cries or diapers that contain an explosion of evil or loud burps in church. I was lied to on all counts. Granted I was the one who came up with those ideas and was telling myself this, but you think I could trust myself! I'm such a liar. The kid did all three in the course of his Baptism. Here's a play by play, with some explanation for the nonodox out there.

The Promised Update

Well here's the post I promised you here, but without the promised content. See, we ended up not going on the Youth Retreat because of, to borrow a phrase, a series of unfortunate events and the fact that we had a ton of stuff to do. Stuff I'm going to tell you about now! Starting with last Sunday's dinner, because it was beautiful and needed to be shared.

Fresh Baklava

Yes, our little chubbers will be getting dunked tomorrow. That's what the baklava is for. Well not for the actual baptism, Orthodox do not actually baptize using olive oil and honey (I was surprised too) but for the min-reception thingy tomorrow after. The baklava is Lenten, the cake will not be.

Family Resemblances

Apparently we're running a cloning factory...

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

First Glimpse of St. Vladimir's

So, most of you know and have been following with edge-of-your-seat excitement our long trip across the United States from California to New York. Here, however, are some photos you didn't see of Athanasius visiting a zoo in Oklahoma with OrthoMom's Mom:

The giant black ball fountain, which he at first seemed to think was the entire point of the trip.
He was very upset to leave behind the big "Bah." The petting zoo was exciting for him, however.

Exciting for us too, as we got to yell "THOSE AREN'T JELLYBEANS!" in a horrific moment of realization as to what was about to happen.
And a very interactive elephant exhibit where the kids just got to crawl all over a live elephant:

Because who cares about elephant rights when you can get photos this cute?
I rest my case.
That animal was seriously drugged.

Anyway, we made it to New York after a visit to Ohio to the ol' Wesseler Homestead. I have a video of that on my phone I need to post. We came to our new home to find out that our stuff was not going to be delivered that day; it couldn't get there until Monday. That made the movers very unhappy as we juggled their schedule. Imagine their joy when I had to call back on Monday and tell them the POD people had told us the pods would be delivered between eight and twelve, and could only be left with us for three hours because we're in the Metro New York area apparently. New Yorkers can get very angry. Anyway the pod people eventually said that we could keep the pods here because it's on a campus and not a street so whatever and it all worked out and I was stressed out for nothing because God is good.

Here's what we've been slowly unpacking:

The living room. TV's on pianos is so hot right now.
Kitchen, which is being supplemented with a pantry (which hasn't come yet) and an island (which has)
Our bedroom, the one room with an air conditioner.
The dining room/library/study room, which doesn't look much different.
And this room, which we haven't found a use for yet.
I know people have been asking for pictures of the campus and our apartment, but this is all we have for now. Still trying to get everything settled in. We're waiting on a loft bed to go over our bed to serve as extra storage space, and once we get that up and running (later this week we think) we should be able to take you on a tour of the campus and show off our finalized abode. So for now, that's all, Folks!