Silent Monks sing Hallelujah

I'm stealing this from my friend's blog, but I thought it was too good not to share. Enjoy!

Brian is going green!

So, I keep hearing in the media that I should buy some screw in fluorescent “energy efficient” lamps for my house. I happened to be in a lighting store the other day (O.K. I guess that isn't too hard to believe since I work in one) and saw some of these on the shelf. Sure enough they did say, “screw in fluorescent”, and “energy saving”. So I decided I would do my part for the environment and bought a couple to try out…

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Here they are after screwing them in my front room fixture.

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I’m not sure they will save me much energy but I do feel closer to nature now that the sun is inside my front room!

For reference to understand the pictures below here are some figures:


Light is commonly measured in foot candles (fc). Some common light levels are:


An overcast day will produce an intensity of around 1,000 fc

An operating table will be around 1,000 fc

General, Open offices 50 fc or 30 fc for offices where a lot of computer work is performed

Warehouse 10-30 fc

Pro Basketball court 125 - 300 fc

Hotel Front Desk 50 fc

Hotel lobby 10 fc.

My meter can't read over 1,000 fc so I had to be a few feet away to get a reading under 1,000.

Light level on the couch.

Bradley taking a reading near the floor. It would have been higher if he would have held it level.

Just a post

I figure that I should probably post something so we're not stuck on Halloween pictures forever. The only problem is, I don't really have anything particular to post. So, you're going to get a quick update.

We are all doing well and staying healthy despite the mounds of snow and arctic temperatures. Brian and Bradley recently celebrated their birthdays. We kept the celebrations pretty low key this year, but enjoyed the events anyway. Bradley was particularly excited about opening presents and was more than glad to help Brian on his birthday. It was also nice to have my mom in town for Bradley's special day. Her trip wasn't meant for his birthday, but it was a nice coincidence that she was here anyway.

Daniel is a handful. He is such a happy baby, and brings so much joy into our home, but he keeps me busy. He is growing so fast, you can hardly call him a baby anymore. He has been army crawling since the end of October, got his first two teeth and perfected sitting in November, and is now faster and stronger and all over the place.

As for me, I'm learning what it feels like to wake up really early again. I've started running with a couple of people that I met through my book club, but the best time for us to meet is 5:30 in the morning. It is so nice to get out and run again, but it is especially nice to have people to run with. They keep me motivated and have talked me into some crazy races in the spring.

I guess that's enough of an update for now. It may be a month before I get around to blogging again, so in the mean time, enjoy your holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Why we dressed up

I realize it's the middle of November, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about our Halloween. This year we all dressed up. Originally, Bradley didn't have any interest in dressing up, but then we found this costume.

Obviously Bradley needed a counterpart, so we dressed Brian up too.

Daniel was always going to be this.

So, I got in on the action and dressed up as well.

And there you have it, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, and the less specific Dragon and his Princess. Not exactly a cohesive unit, but a couple of great pairs for a fun night of trick-or-treating.

Similarities Anybody?

If you've followed this blog since the beginning, you might remember this video.

Now look at this.

What is it about the jumper that brings out the boisterousness of my children? Bradley is about 3 1/2 months older than Daniel (though they're about the same size)in his video,so his jumping skills are a little more advanced, but something about that jumper makes my boys sing.

Painting

Yesterday I had to get some paints from the craft store to paint my paper-mache mask that I made as an example for my Cub Scouts. While at the craft store Bradley wanted to get a little bit of everything he saw. We settled on some watercolors so he could paint too. Here is Bradley in action. He wanted Daniel to watch him, so he is in the high chair wondering what's going on.

This is Bradley's very first watercolor picture.

And, here is my mask. It looks like a bear, which is what I was hoping for.

Pictures

This post is mostly for my mom. In talking with her yesterday, she mentioned that I needed to post some pictures of my growing boys. Daniel is getting so big. He is full of smiles, he's started to roll over, and he loves to watch his big brother. Bradley is tall and skinny, still loves to play with his cars, and is getting to be very chatty. If you'll lend an ear, he'll talk it right off. So, for my mom, and anyone else who wants to see, here are some pictures of my boys from May to today.

MAY



JUNE



JULY




AUGUST



SEPTEMBER



OCTOBER