One more round down by the old Millstream in Amana ... We first met when we made the offer on our home in Iowa City sitting on the steps of the little brewery and have had a lot of happy times picnicking and sampling the beer with friends and family on their porch ... In Heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here ...

One more roundabout on the ponies at a festival in Amana ... Patrick, Snickers, Butterscotch, we'll miss you, too. Giddyap Ponies!

A couple more chances to hang upside-down with our best friends before the school year draws to a close ...

One last invitation to this annual event ... The Roast.

Except this year, the food was fantastic and our name is on the program ... I've waited a long time to see this day; one of many Graduation Days in Joel's life, and a proud, proud one. I am so proud of Joel's hard, hard work, his patience with himself and others, his gifted memory, his problem-solving, and his willingness to show up.To quote a wise man, Confucius says “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

But most of all, I am proud of Joel's good sense of humor. Without it, how could you swallow that bitter pill of experience, with its maddening ups and downs, rights and wrongs? Good thing that Confucius also say "half of a large intestine is equal to one semicolon."

Happy Graduation Day, Joela.

One more time, we prepare our para diddles and plies with friends wearing our glitter and tulle to celebrate the end of our tenure in Iowa City with a big, dancy finale ... (Our bunhead is the first one on the left, and our Baby Gene Kelly is in the Hawaiian shirt on the right.)

One more foray into the Mushroom Forest to say good-bye to all the paths, steps, meadows, glens, bridges, and gnome-homes. And still one more time to sit at the edge of the forest, perched on an ancient fossil and stand tall with the May wind across Coralville Lake making your hair ruffle at its bidding ...

There are many more things and people to remember, but these are the ones that I'm thinking about today.

I run.

I’m a Runner.

I’ve been running couple-three miles, two to three times a week since the end of February.

Last October, after months of midnight charley horses, buckling joints on staircases, and an inability to bend at the knees and hug my kids, I visited a Physical Therapist. Structurally, all was sound, but my right knee was painful and its supporting muscles tense and weak. I was inspired by this no-surgery news, and dove right into the stretching program that was recommended. I faithfully stretched through Thanksgiving and then, in December, my Physical Therapist said that it was time to “add some cardio” to my regimen. Excited and eager, I started a Return to Run program, and began by light jogging for one minute at regular intervals during a 40 minute walk. I slowly advanced from one minute to alternating jogging and walking every four minutes, until one day at the end of February, to the voices of All Songs Considered’s Bob and Robin on my playlist, I ran for 21 minutes straight.

And suddenly, a girl who was on the Cross Country Team in high school for ONE day is a runner.

What makes me a runner? I regularly put on my Nikes and run a loop around the big park behind my house. Sure, perhaps I don’t run as fast as you run or perhaps not as far as you run, but I run. And I am proud of me.

I love the solitude that running gives me during our busy, overactive family schedule. I love the sense of sweaty accomplishment that follows me though the rest of my day. I also love that I’ve replaced a fussy, old lady knee with toe cramps and blisters.

This morning I did my loop in 24 minutes, shaving four minutes from my previous effort. I was buoyed along my track this morning by inspirational phrases chalked on the path by our elementary school girl’s track club. Phrases like “You can do it,” “You are strong,” “Believe in yourself,” and “Blueberries” caught my eye. Sometimes blueberries inspire me, too (especially when paired with whipped cream and a butter crust). But what really inspired me this morning was the idea that I was not alone. I am not on this loop or in my goal to improve my well-being.

I’d been debating about how to share this little snippet of news from my corner of Toadsland when the news from Boston made me identify differently with my achievements. It’s hard to find the perfect words to describe our fears, our worries, and then, our defiance, our pride. But, perhaps my actions will speak louder than any words. We have the right to peaceful assembly in this great country, and I will show my solidarity this year by assembling together with others. I will run a 5K this year. It’s a goal and a promise.

Our Adelaide is a girl who loves science. Fractions? Mental math? Geometry? Well, they're okay ... Entomology? Biology? Archaeology? A resounding "Yes!"

Adelaide's elementary school hosted a science fair last weekend, and we were proud to offer our entry: Building the Great Pyramid! A clever (parental-guided) compilation of mathematics, geometry, and history, our display included a scale* model of The Great Pyramid made from sugar cubes! (*One of our sugar cubes = 10 limestone blocks of the real thing) Adelaide proudly displayed her efforts and research to a host of parents, grandparents, community members, teachers, and fellow students.

Since January, we'd been hard at work, reading lots and lots about those crafty engineers, the Ancient Egyptians. We uncovered great details that architectural wonder The Great Pyramid; for example, did you know that The Great Pyramid, comprised of over 2 million limestone blocks, actually looks the smallest among the three at Giza? Did you know that the tools the Egyptians used to make the pyramids included wooden hammers, plumb lines, smoothing stones, and lots of heavy lifting? Of course you know that the pyramids are tombs for the ancient pharaohs, but did you know that construction on a pyramid would begin soon after the pharaoh's coronation?

The research was all very fun and interesting, but I think our favorite part of the project was spray painting the successfully constructed pyramid!

(Look for an upcoming entry about Joel's big science project, Grand Rounds!)

Before this morning, Iowa City snowfall was 9.9 inches for 2013. Although that's an increase from last year, the fuddy-duddy who makes the Minnesota state climatology reports had a bunch of naysaying pessimism to share: "All of the snow that has fallen over the winter by and large remains on top of the landscape, a landscape that is largely frozen ... Now the dust remains beneath the concrete."

Bummer.

Still, we have high hopes that the dry cracks in the ground on the side of our house will some how be healed by the moisturizing snow by Eastertime.

Nonetheless, it sure feels more like winter with that lovely mantle of white, free range sledding, and snowman and snowfort construction over the past few weeks!

=

This just in: School was cancelled in the face of another 5-7 inches this morning! Snow day!! Whee!

It was a charming little neighborhood library!

The idea, of course, is that you recycle your gently enjoyed tomes in the library and pick up something new to read while your at it! Henry snagged a James Marshall - always good for a laugh - and Adelaide found a treasure in a Nate the Great mystery. Unfortunately, there was a lot of Patricia Cornwall in the adult section, so I passed today, but have great hopes for something fun for me in the future.

We didn't have any books with us this time to add to the library, but we certainly have plenty at home that will find a new home soon!

Good ol' Iowa City.

When Adelaide was a baby, we did a fair amount of cozy (but dangerous!) co-sleeping, and even when she transferred to the beloved pull-out couch (long since consumed by Ophelia) she was a poor sleeper. So, during Henry's infancy, we enforced a strict solo-sleep policy (and a fair amount of cry-yourself-to-sleep-while-we-cover-our-heads-with-a-pillow), and he has proven to be a much better sleeper than his sister.

He has recently been making up for lost time, however, by slipping silently out of his bed, creeping down the dark hallway, and climbing up into ours. There he'll spend a happy few hours until he gets too hot and kicks one of us in the face or experiences diaper insufficiency. Adelaide has occasionally gotten in on the act, and there are nights when I wake up in a bed that's a thousand degrees with Aimee, two kids, and a cat. These are nights that I slip into Adelaide's bed, which has Memory Foam and is secretly my favorite place to sleep. Even this strategy is not without risk, as Henry and Adelaide will sometimes crawl back out of our bed and back into their own (but never each other's). The main drawback with escaping to Adelaide's bed, however, is that our dog-standards have slipped to the point that the only furniture that Ophelia is not allowed up on is the kitchen table and my bed, so I'll occasionally wake up in Adelaide's bed with the dog half on top of me.

Co-sleeping with our kids is no longer a danger to their physical health, and, generally speaking, we're getting enough rest these days. I'm not in any particular hurry, therefore, to lay down the law and impose a no-snuggling policy. If you come to visit and stay overnight, however, be prepared for some company.

There's no school for anyone (but Joel) today; Adelaide's winter break has begun! We'll be in and out and in and out all day long, starting now at 7:37 a.m. through evening (I predict).

Henry, the sleepy bear, is still snoozing, but he'll join in the fun soon!

UPDATE! From 8:27 a.m.,

We'll worry about breakfast later ... Henry's in pjs under his new snowpants! Hooray for fun!

After a long week of late-night tech rehearsals, Nutcracker opened to an adoring Iowa City crowd on Friday night. After Friday night's performance, we returned home to find assembled members of the Wurzie clan, who'd made the trip to kickoff the holiday season and support Adelaide's grand debut. What a weekend!

At noon on Saturday, it was time for Adelaide to don her baby mouse costume and apply whiskers for the sixth time. I volunteered as a Backstage Helper, getting the mice arranged and keeping them entertained below the stage as they waited for their moment to shine. Backstage, the four baby mice wondered, "Why are we wearing dresses? Aren't we supposed to be evil?" Such a good question, but if they could see how cute they look from stage, perhaps they'd understand.

Just before the mice took the stage, Adelaide said, "Mom, Mom, look at my tooth!" and she opened her mouth to reveal to me that one of her little baby eye teeth was dangling down from her gum. I quickly grabbed a tissue, gave the tooth some firm pressure, and the show became all the more memorable when Adelaide pulled back the tissue to showcase the tiny tooth to all her friends!

After a successful matinee, Adelaide and I met Erin and Marmee at the Java House for some much needed refreshment before heading back to the house. Our downtown is decked out for the holidays, and this year even the trees are getting into the spirit with fancy knitted tree scarves. Cute!

In the evening, we all attended the performance, sitting four rows from the Orchestra Pit. Our little baby mouse garnered much applause and giggles as she cleverly wove in and out of the soldiers, got shot in the butt with a candy cane, and struck the Rat King's sword after his fall. Adelaide's comic relief was a delight to all!

After Intermission, the baby mice were excused and Adelaide joined our family in the audience to take in the Divertissments of Act 2. For the first time, Henry lasted the entire show, watching the Grande Pas de Deux at the finale with rapt attention.

At about 10 p.m., we returned home to find a delightful batch of Marmee-made Snickerdoodle cupcakes and champagne to celebrate Adelaide's success.

It was a roller coaster weekend with lots of highs. Adelaide was a real champion, making it through six performances (including invited dress rehearsal and school matinee) in three days. At times, I could barely express a coherent thought, but all of the worry and stress melted away to see the love of theatre developing on my kid's face.

Adelaide was cast as a Baby Mouse in our dance studio's production of the Nutcracker earlier this fall. Adelaide has been learning and practicing her part every Friday since September and has loved rubbing elbows with the older, more seasoned performers playing Clara, soldiers, and the rats. Adelaide's Baby Mouse is prominently featured in the ballet's Battle Scene where Clara and the Nutcracker fight an enemy army of rats and defeat the Rat King with a big sword fight. This week, our once-a-week rehearsals have morphed into a busy, late-night-every-night Tech Week at the wonderful old Englert in downtown Iowa City.

On Monday after work, I zipped downtown with Adelaide in tow for her first rehearsal on stage. I had a commitment to teach a childbirth class at the hospital and had only a short time to settle Adelaide into the theatre. We changed from school clothes into her leotard and tights, whipped her hair up into a bun, and found a couple of seats in the audience. The stage was bare to the brickwork back and filled with ballerinas - older girls from Adelaide's studio - practicing their ronde de jambe and pirouttes. Downstage, Adelaide's ballet instructor and the director of the Nutcracker, kept time to the music with a practiced foot. Although the seats was mostly empty when we arrived, I knew that soon it would be bustling with parents and dancers, all ready to take the stage for the first time.

I was completely overwhelmed. I was so torn between wanting to stay and having to leave. Although I knew that Adelaide was safe in the hands of her teachers and other parents and that Joel would be zooming downtown as soon as his work was ended to join Adelaide, I was still overwhelmed. Adelaide doesn't usually like good-byes and will linger over them. At school, Adelaide and I have developed a little farewell mantra to get her through the moment. I say, "Adelaide, you are brave. You are bold. You are strong. And you are loved." And then I give a big hug and she knows that's her cue to separate.

As I hemmed and hawed over my Monday night good-bye to Adelaide, worried about how she would handle being alone without Joel and I for an hour, I watched her rapt with attention to the activities on the stage. Then she suddenly turned, noticing me, smiled a very benevolent smile, and said, "Mama, you are brave. You are bold. You are strong. And you are loved, by me!" She threw her arms around my neck for a beat, pulled back into her seat, and resumed watching the dancers. I could barely move, I was so surprised and delighted. Adelaide turned and looked at me again and said, "OK, Mom, good-bye!"

What could I do? I turned, walked out of the Englert into the frigid night, and left my grown-up six year-old to the guardians and protectors of the theatre.

And she had a great night.

Some may say that theatre is in her blood. Now, I know it is.

This Thanksgiving we're thankful for hugs and nuzzles,

Prairie hikes,

and high spirits for all creatures great and small.

Happy Election Day!

At Adelaide's school today, lessons in civic responsibility abound. The students were dressed in a sea of red, white, and blue. In Adelaide's classroom, they read a book about a duck who ran for President. Adelaide brought home a worksheet about the book that had a blank for the child to write "This is who I voted for" and in the blank Adelaide wrote "secret"; I think not only lessons about civic responsibility, but civic manners were discussed in her first grade classroom. Adelaide also brought home an Election Day word search and hunted for words like "ballot," "button," "vote," "republican," and "democrat". Three cheers for great new vocab! And finally, Adelaide's school was a precinct polling station, so while the children cast their mock ballots in the library, moms and dads cast their actual ballots in the music room. In the spirit of civic manners, I won't tell you who Adelaide told me she voted for, but I can tell that this was the most fun I've had on Election Day in a long time.

Update: I bounced out of bed this morning, stumbled toward Joel, and asked "Who's president? Who won?" Last night, we eschewed our usual nighttime movie (we're working our way through Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings) for lots of clicking on our laptops to watch the returns come in, but I couldn't keep my eyes open after 10 p.m. and so went to bed without knowing the final results.

This morning, to wrap up our civics lesson, Adelaide, Henry, and I ate our eggs and yogurt while watching the President's acceptance speech on YouTube. At one point, Obama said something like, "And I applaud MItt Romney for all of his hard work on the campaign trail ..." Adelaide snorted and looked at me and said, "That's weird! Mitt Romney and President Obama are going camping?!" Election Day lessons abound ... Even our President could improve his diction! Thank goodness he'll have the next four years to practice. ;)

October is one of our favorite months of the year. The wind has a bite, the leaves are crunchy, and Halloween is nigh! We carved four pumpkins in the backyard the weekend before the the big. This year, Adelaide cleaned the guts out of her pumpkin all by herself, but still got a little help from Joel and I for the carving part (Joel has a poorly functioning pinky on his right hand from a pumpkin carving accident when he was but a lad, so we've always had the kids draw their faces on their pumpkins, then grown-ups wield the knives.).

The day before Halloween, Henry stomped around his dance class wearing his dragon costume. Miss Leslie, Henry's teacher, chirped when the class assembled for a photo: "If you're a dragon, say 'ROAR!' and if you're a princess, say 'Hello!'" Hysterical.

Henry's tap shoes were the perfect accompaniment to his costume.

On Halloween day I joined other parents in Adelaide's classroom to help host a Halloween Party for the first graders. We had a ball!

And, I finally snapped the first photo of Adelaide with her teacher, Miss Beuter, who cleverly dressed as a Lego for the party.

We bustled home after school, had an omelet supper and then got all dressed up for the big Trick-or-Treating fun: Adelaide, a witch; Henry, a dragon; and Joel, Doofenschmirtz from the Disney's Phineas and Ferb. They looked superb.

After trick-or-treating for about an hour around the neighborhood, the kids came home and rifled through their loot. Henry ate about seven pieces of candy. Adelaide ate about three. Joel squirreled away all of the kids' Almond Joys and I ate the first Butterfinger I've eaten in probably 20 years ... Just as stick-to-your-teeth-delicious as I remember ...

Happy Halloween!

Perhaps your spidey sense has been tingling, making you wonder at what might be going on with us here at Toadsland. We haven't blogged since our awesome Labor Day campout for very good reasons:

1) Homework. Joel is studying like a madman for his upcoming AP/CP board examination in Tampa, Florida. Need I say more? Our house is like a little pressure cooker; we raked leaves this afternoon to let off some of the building steam. Additionally, Adelaide is spending every weekday afternoon since school started experimenting with the bounce of different sized balls, counting coins, and working on those challenge words for her weekly spelling tests. Homework in first grade is a new idea to Joel and I, but making a daily habit of "getting our homework done" will hopefully ward off teenage procrastination!

2) After-School Activities. In between work and school, Adelaide and Henry log seven hours every week at ballet, jazz, tap, swimming lessons, track club and sunday school. Perhaps seven hours doesn't seem like much to you, but we're very excited that today is the last day of swimming class for the semester!

3) Oktoberfest. As is our custom, we partied at the annual Wurzberger family reunion over in the Amana Colonies at this year's Oktoberfest. We spent the day soaking up the glorious sunshine, sampling the local brews and kraut, and bringing our general laughter and vigorous polkas around the place. It was a barrel of laughs last weekend, and I think we're finally sober. (The above photo is one of the best from the day, my Mom rocking her usual big smile and cute outfit with Henry - Spidey - savoring his parade candy.)

4) Work. What can I say? Our Mother-Baby patients are more challenging, there seem to be more of them, and we're losing nursing staff left and right. I've been putting in extra hours here and there to lend a hand, but I must say that I need my nap on my days off to re-cooperate from our busy work life. Joel, too, took his first turn as the "Hot Seat" fellow: a job where rapid, preliminary diagnosis is the name of the game. On average, Joel would diagnose 130 cases (reviewing up to 600 slides) every day.

5) Nutcracker. Adelaide attends weekly rehearsal at her dance studio for her role as a Baby Mouse in the annual holiday production of The Nutcracker. She loves her rehearsals, and found out just last week that she'll get to brandish a sword during the show. Thrill of thrills!

6) Job Hunt. Beginning at the end of August and culminating through the end of September, Joel and I are pleased to announce that our job hunt is over. In July 2013, Joel will begin his pathology career at St. Cloud Pathologists in St. Cloud, Minnesota. St. Cloud, about 45 minutes north of the Twin Cities on the Mississippi, is the town where I grew up. We are delighted at the opportunity to work and live so close to our families and become real-life Minnesotans. There will be so many decisions to make in the upcoming months, but for this moment, we are just trying to take deep breaths, relax, and enjoy our good fortune.

In between the start of a new school year (for Joel and Adelaide) and the busy activity schedule that routinely follows the first day of school, our family breathed deeply and inhaled summer's last choking heat and ragweed pollen by camping in Decorah, that time-honored, familiar stomping ground. We sneezed, we spilled, we skipped our showers, and had a sensational time.

We set up our home away from home beneath a grove of cottonwood trees next to the Upper Iowa River at the Hutchinson Family Farm. After pitching our tent, we drove off to Seed Savers and spent a delicious afternoon strolling around the gardens, feeding the ducks, ogling the Ancient White Park cattle, and sampling the fruits of summer.

Seed Savers hosted a Tomato Tasting during our visit. We tasted probably 80 varieties of tomatoes. Delicious. The children played for hours in a friendly sand pit with other little visitors, but they did break away long enough to attend a mini-lecture on seed saving and folded a little origami packet of seeds to take home

My favorite of the tomato tasting was the charming, novel Igleheart's German Cocktail. I hope to host a cocktail hour in the future that features this little beauty, perhaps in the bottom of martini glass?

The sun set on the Tomato Tasting as Molly and Doug drove up to Seed Savers, our prearranged rendezvous spot. We had not seen Molly and Doug since Christmas and loved every minute of our campout together (except for maybe the time when we had to call a locksmith to get their Scamp trailer door unstuck). We had good campfire suppers, a cart-and-pony ride from our campsite hosts, a sticky trip to the Whippy Dip, a trek up steep hills to see Effigy Mounds, a picnic by the mighty Mississip, meeting new friends, and a lot of fun.