Missy & Shane’s Blog

Boys, Bicycles, & Baseball

Thu, 5 Aug 2010 19:41:30 -0700

So I’ve tried about five times to write this blog post and it’s just not happening so I am going to put up what I have.... a half written unedited little thing. That’s the way it goes these days. Who knows if and when I’ll get back in sync with this blog, maybe in another year when we start having adventures outside of the house again. Until then you can always find us on Facebook for the short simple updates it offers... Shane and Missy

-----

It's often that a good bike ride inspires me to write. It used to be a nice single track or a long ride out a country road that got my mind clear and focused some thoughts or inspired some new perspective. This time however it happened to be a bike ride with about 60 parents and kids from a park to a baseball game, Kidical Mass.
We've been doing Kidical Mass in Eugene for over two years now and some rides are still a very casual affairs simply meeting at a park and riding to another park, ice cream spot or other fun destination. This months ride though I helped organize a "Bike to Baseball" ride where we got sponsors, had people register, and got discounted reserved tickets, a meal, and our name up on the jumbotron at the local minor league team, the Eugene Emeralds. It was a lot of fun.
Riding with Isadora to the game was a treat in and of itself, we wore our matching Kidical Mass shirts and took our first long ride in our brand new Bakfiets cargobike. We had the music going and she was super relaxed and even dancing in her seat a couple times, it was a real joy. But this post isn't really about the ride, that's just what inspired me to get writing. At the baseball game we sat in a special Kidical Mass reserved section with a bunch of other families and in front of us were a dad with his son and his son's friend. Watching Isadroa play with the boys got me to thinking about what it's going to be like in the years to come when we make outings like this with our three little ones. Since most folks reading the blog are also on Facebook I assume most know all about the twin boys but if you don’t...
Two weeks before the birth of our second baby we got our second ultrasound at PeaceHealth because things just seemed a little ‘funny’. The tech did a little double take, checked her computer and asked us if we had an ultrasound anywhere else. We said no. She checked Missy again and then asked, “Did you know you were having twins”?! Uh...NO!
Since that moment it has been a wild ride!

Napa Springbreak

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:47:45 -0700

We spent the past week down in Napa celebrating Quacky’s 96th birthday and having a family reunion of Missy’s Mom’s side of the family (her sister Lorna and her two son’s families). It was a great week, which of course flew by. It was also very sunny which is even more enjoyed in retrospect now that we are back in Eugene with some major rain!

There were plenty of helping hands over the week and between cousins India & Fiona, Auntie J, Grammy, Rock, and other family we actually got out to have some time alone and to just relax even when we were with everyone. It was a really nice time.

Here is a little slideshow that includes some photos from a photo shoot Richard did with a fancy camera he borrowed.

Aint Nobody Here But Us Chickens

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 17:54:30 -0800

A little video of our little girl and the other ladies of the garden.

Happy New Year

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 16:49:57 -0800

Well the holiday season has ended and we find ourselves in a brand new year. What a flash this past year was! I can’t believe that we started the year waiting for the last few months to pass for our little Muffin to join us and now we enter this year with Isadora crawling around and making new discoveries every moment. It’s also hard to believe that we are entering this new year waiting for the months to pass until our little Cupcake joins us....as some of you know we are expecting another baby! We’re still adjusting to this reality but we better do so quick because he/she’s due in 6 months! With all the attention and love we have been focusing on Isadora it’s hard to imagine expanding that to another baby already. Though it was sooner than we had planned we knew we wanted another and with the ‘later’ start we got it’s kind of nice to ‘get on with it’. I think it will be great for them as they grow up to always have a playmate so near their age and from our friends who have kids close together they say that once you get through the toddler years it’s a great thing... here’s to hoping we make it through these first few years.

We had a wonderful winter break, driving down to Napa to spend a week and a half with Missy’s family. We stayed with the Medaris clan in our wonderful ‘guest suite’ and spent most of the time sharing food and watching Isadora. She changed so much even in the time we were there.

We were back in Eugene for two days (one of which Missy worked- New Years Day) before we headed up to my family cabin in the Cascades. Mom & Larry came up for the weekend too and we had another mini-Christmas. I tried out a new ‘sled’ project for Isadora too- see the “Creations” section for the “Burley Pulk” design (also seen in the photos below).

Now the holiday break is over and I’m back to work tomorrow. In one way this was a nice long relaxing break. In another it went by in a flash. Time is pretty tweaked these days. I’m still amazed at how much more time everything takes- the packing up, organizing, and getting somewhere is a major process! Even when you’ve got a system and you’re organized (like I like to think I am) it still seems to double the time to do anything. Everything is in such a time shift, it’s like someone hit the fast forward button, my brain is still adjusting. This New Years didn’t really feel like anything special, between the drive up to Oregon the day before and the fact that the major milestone marker for our year didn’t really have anything to do with this day (it happened just over 8 months ago), it just seemed like another day in the year. Now that work is starting again though it feels like the new year and as I start to write 2010 it’s sinking in. 2009 was a pretty amazing year and 2010 has some incredible potential to be even better!

Here are some photos from our holiday (click on a photo to go to Flickr- for captions and more):

Deck Family Farm Meat CSA

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:55:22 -0800

We went out to the Deck Family Farm yesterday and picked up the first part of a meat CSA we joined. It’s about a half hour outside of Eugene near Junction City. We got to ‘meet’ a lot of the animals...some of which could be our dinner someday. Seems strange but also so right or at least better than knowing that we’re eating drug pumped, factory farmed, stressed out animals. I was vegetarian for about ten years and Missy was for six. We don’t eat a lot of meat in our diet now but I think that it can be an important part of it. However, when you look at the way meat is normally raised and it’s environmental and social impact it’s easy to think about not eating it anymore. To help balance some of these issues buying meat from a small local farmer like this is a great way to go. Sure it’s a bit more expensive for our bottom line but really the other type of meat is much more expensive... we just don’t see the indirect costs, they are hidden in environmental and social degradation (not to mention government subsidies and health care costs).

With this meat CSA we’re paying closer to the ‘real price’, the amount needed to support a small local family to raise these animals and prepare them for us to eat. We like to grow our own food in the backyard and have chickens for eggs but it’s unlikely that we’ll be raising pigs or cows for our own meat so it’s nice to have a local family whose willing to raise them for us. We also don’t grow enough veggies to keep us stocked, for that we have farm CSA.

Thanks to the Deck family and Mari & David of Lost Creek Farm for feeding our family!

Fun Toy at Six Months

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 17:20:30 -0800

Here’s a little video of Isadora playing with her new favorite toy!

Also, just put some new shots in the Isadora Gallery which can be found at:
http://gallery.me.com/shanerh#100222

Or if you have an RSS reader you can subscribe to it at:
http://photocast.me.com/shanerh/100222/rss

Missing Ginger

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 10:36:00 -0700

**Second Update- While we were in Napa Ginger died, peacefully in her nest. She joins her sister Adara in the great green field in the sky.**

**Update- Ginger has returned. Still tired and weak but still with us!**

For the past couple weeks Ginger has not been acting her spicy self and we’ve thought that she might be leaving us soon. Yesterday we were doing a lot of work in the garden, tearing out the summer crops and getting the beds ready for fall/winter. We let the birds out of their run to scratch around since they don’t get to do that much (otherwise we’d have no garden at all).
All the birds were excited to get out to find fresh grass, lots of worms and maybe a snail or two. Even Ginger who has been very mellow and sleeping a lot during the day moved around the yard nibbling and drinking water off the wet leaves.
We took a break from yard work and went down to Saturday Market for some lunch and to get some meat from the Deck Family Farm and whatever else looked good. When we got back Missy and Isadora checked on the birds and they were still out and about. We left the gate open for them to find their way into the coop (as they always do). Missy went out at dusk to make sure they all made it in alright. She came back in a couple minutes later to say Ginger wasn’t in the coop. As I gave Isadora a bath she went out with the flashlight to search some more. When we finished the bath and Isadora was ready to nurse and go to bed I went out to look. No sign of her anywhere. This past week she has been sleeping down in the nest boxes instead of up with her sisters so we know she is too weak to fly up anywhere. She didn’t even fly up into the raised beds (where all the birds know the good stuff is).
The best we could hope for was that she found a good hiding place and that in the morning we’d see her waiting at the fence ready to get back with her sisters or still roaming around the yard looking for more worms. But this morning, as her sisters rose and scratched around the run there was no Ginger to be seen. We both looked again but didn’t see any sign of her; no sound, no spot of feathers where a raccoon or possum would have gotten her, nothing. She just disappeared.
Ginger has always been the feisty and spicy one (part of why she got the name) so it has been interesting to see her these past couple weeks turn into this very mellow bird. She’s also been the one most excited to get out (though Goldie has also taken on this roll now) so we’re glad that if she is indeed gone that her last day was spent exploring the yard. It’s hard to think we won’t get to see her again, to bury her and to say goodbye to her. Of our three original birds (the ones Missy gave me for my 33rd birthday) Pretty is still around and looking very healthy four and a half years later. The average life span of a chicken is said to be 5-10 years so we’ll see.
Last night was a Harvest Moon, the full moon after the autumnal equinox, a time when a farmer can work into the night harvesting their corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, etc. It’s a large magical moon and as we watched it last night and it lit the backyard my hope is that Ginger was guided to her peaceful place by its light.

Here’s a Flickr slideshow of Ginger:

Laughin' in Napa

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:29:23 -0700

Doing some visiting in Napa, San Luis Obispo, and the East Bay. Time is flying! Loads of showing off this beautiful little girl! Here’s a video of some great laughing (by her and us) as well as some photos from the trip.

July Fourth BBQ

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 15:23:16 -0700

Some photos from our Fourth of July Potluck BBQ with some of the new babies in town and other good friends.....

First Fathers Day

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:24:35 -0700

Spending our Fathers Day weekend up in the Cascades at the ‘Rhodes Cabin’.
It took us awhile to get out of the house and up here on Saturday, it’s amazing how much more time things take and what a time warp parenthood pulls you into! After a busy week with some great visiting with Linda and Richard and the Medaris Family including a quick trip up to Hillsboro to visit Jen, Justin, India, & Fiona up at their friends Jeff & Jan’s and then a Kidical Mass ride/Bar-b-que on Friday it took some effort to get ourselves and the house together enough to spend the weekend up here.
It’s been so worth it. Mom, Larry, Kristin, and Matt came up on Saturday afternoon and we had a very fun night of bumper pool, Isadora watching, and a dinner made up from lot’s of veggies from our garden and CSA box (from our friends farm, Lost Creek).
Sunday Larry and I spent the day working on the plumbing at the cabin, a nice way to spend Fathers Day. The plumbing has been the one major issue we’ve been dealing with at the cabin almost every trip up here. The system my Grandpa installed worked for them for decades but something about the draining system just didn’t seem to be working for us and we’ve had so many broken pipes over the past two winters that I now understand plumbing A LOT better than ever before. Even having fixed all the issues so far and understanding the system a little better I’m still not sure we won’t have any broken pipes this coming winter so hopefully sometime this Summer/Fall we can re-plumb the whole thing- a daunting thought at this point. Luckily Larry is a very handy guy and has helped with the issue so far and has offered his expertise for the job.
It was really great spending Fathers Day with family, I also thought a lot about my Grandpa who built this cabin the year I was born and was another important father figure in my life. I made this video about him after he died over a year and a half ago.

We’re also fully outfitted to document Isadora growing up, with Missy’s gift of a Flip video for her birthday from her folks and the new digital camera I got for Fathers Day (since our last one was held together with duct tape and had seen better days). So here are some photos from the past couple weeks:

Smile

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 21:37:24 -0700

It’s been five weeks now.
Filled with smiles and joy.
Here’s a little video to show you how.

Since You’ve Been Gone

Sat, 16 May 2009 23:40:35 -0700

A special tribute to the Bennett/MacDonald/Medaris family as an update since they left after being here for the birth and offering us so much love and support- Thanks guys!

First Bath

Sun, 3 May 2009 19:01:31 -0700

Let the official parent videos begin!!
Isadora not only gets her first bath but also finds and sucks her thumb for the first time!! Things are Happening! What a smarty she is... and cute- please, totally IsAdorable!!!

Isadora Flynn

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:05:18 -0700

Isadora Flynn MacDonald-Rhodes... soon to be MacRhodes.
Still a lot to tell and share but for now we are too busy staring at her, laughing with her, and just being in pure wonderment of the perfect state of joy she brings to our lives.

Here are some photos from the last few days, for the die hard ‘fans’ you can subscribe, download, upload, and watch slideshows at the gallery page:
• Isadora Flynn

Muffin’s Home

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:32:37 -0700

We’re still catching up after a long birth where Missy labored at home from 1:30 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. and then finally delivered at Sacred Heart at 2:04 p.m. on Friday, April 24th. It was an amazing, beautiful, hard, and incredibly rewarding experience for us all and there is so much to tell but as I am working on about 3 hours of sleep I’ll leave you with the basics here and maybe in the next few days we can write about the full experience and put some more photos up.

Our little Muffin (we are getting closer to a name- we’ve at least crossed off half the names now that we know that she isn’t a he):

Weight: 8 pounds and 10 ounces
Length: 20 1/4 inches
Time: 2 04 p.m.
Date: Friday, April 24, 2009
Delivered by: Colleen Forbes, Midwife & Paul Qualtere-Burcher, M.D.
(from Sacred Heart Site- http://tinyurl.com/d264jv )