Phil and Julie's life

Marie Manilla's webpage

2008-07-28T09:24:00.006-04:00

Phil here.

My writer friend Marie Manilla just created her webpage www.mariemanilla.com. Check it out. She's an excellent writer whose first novel, Shrapnel, won the 2008 Fred Bonnie Award sponsored by River City Publishing in Montgomery, Alabama.

Way to go Marie!

In outdoor news...

2008-06-08T16:51:00.002-04:00

The garden is coming along nicely, thanks to the wikkid hot weather interspersed with rainy days. Julie once again ordered tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings from an online company called www.chileplants.com. The plants are very healthy and the packaging is ingenious!

I got six tomatoes (2 each of Aker's West Virginian, Coyote, and Big Zebra),

four peppers (2 each of Banana Supreme Hybrid and Blushing Beauty Hybrid)

and two eggplants (Ping Tung Long). I also got some cukes, squash and herbs from River's Edge Nursery, a lovely spot just down the street, and some Purple Pod Pole Beans from seed.

We also moved our arbor which previously held a REALLY aggressive wisteria vine. The construction guys plucked that beast out of the ground and the arbor now is waiting to receive two grape vines.

The picture is blurry but those bumps on the vine are now leaves!

Soon the rhubarb, chives and lettuce will have garden companions.

Time for the semi-annual blog post

2008-06-05T11:12:00.003-04:00

We are such bad, bad bloggers. For anyone who is still interested, Julie is still knitting:

The kids are still smiling

and Shreck is still trying to kill Quinn

Our house construction is done, Phil is building bookshelves, and we are investigating the possibility of buying a swingset this summer (and the race for who gets stitches first begins!). I'll post more when there are more pictures to display, because what fun is a blog with no pictures?

What to do with all that pesky free time

2007-11-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

I, Julie, decided that I needed a hobby. I went to the local vo-tech and took a beginner's knitting class, and I did really well and liked it a lot. First I learned to do this:

Then I learned how to do this:

Then I looked in a book and learned how to do this:

And eventually I got the courage to try this:

Its a blanket but its starting to look a little too camouflage for my style. Those multi-colored yarns look so much better when they're still in a ball.

Don't go putting orders in for sweaters or anything. Phil says the soundtrack to his evening is now "click...click...click..crap!..click...crap!"

Bring on year #3!

2007-11-12T18:44:00.000-05:00

The kids turned two this weekend, and our house is overrun with Elmo. Elmo TMX, Singing Pizza Elmo, Elmo cell phone, Elmo books, Elmo balloons, even Elmo cupcakes. I don't know what it is about that red monster who can never refer to himself in the first person, but he's got a choke hold on toddlers. It was a great day nonetheless. Now on to toilet training!

The Carson Kids model this year's pumpkins

2007-10-23T20:56:00.001-04:00

So its been a long time since we've posted anything, and for good reason. Two toddlers, Julie's new job, and all other things that happen in life have happened in the last year. The kids are now about to turn 2 years old and here's a recent shot of them. Maybe the pumpkin-on-the-front-steps shot will be our annual thing. It seems to be so far.

Pics

2006-07-18T18:41:00.000-04:00

Pics

2006-07-18T18:39:00.000-04:00

Had to throw this picture of Thomason up. This was done on the first spoonful, with one swipe of the hand.

It's official, Thomason is an artist.

Pics

2006-07-18T07:36:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the pic that isn't working. I uploaded them quickly, found out later that I had hit my web quota, had to delete some junk, but the pics were stuck on the computer at home. I'll put them up when I get back home.

2006-07-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

More pics

2006-07-18T07:31:00.000-04:00

It just goes on.

Head down, cutting wood

2006-07-18T07:25:00.000-04:00

I just kept going, working during every spare hour, 2-3 hours after work (my day job that actually pays a salary), and 7-9 hours a day on weekends. All of this was to try to get it all done by our July 4th party.

...And Continues...

2006-06-19T07:09:00.000-04:00

more more more

...And Continues...

2006-06-19T07:06:00.000-04:00

More to come.

...And Continues...

2006-06-19T07:05:00.000-04:00

Will post details later.

Work continues

2006-06-18T11:38:00.000-04:00

The next week I took Tuesday off and was able to build and mount the middle and outside beams. Instead of drilling holes into the concrete footings with a masonry bit for the bolt that could hold the bases of the posts in place, the contracter convinced me to get a Hilti, which is a popular brand name for a "powder actuated fastener."

Essentially, it's a gun that uses .22 caliber shells with no slugs, and a nail at the end of the barrel. The one I got is a single shot $20 deal but it's still pretty cool, and after fastening 7 posts to concrete I'm no longer afraid of it, but still respectful.

Next day of work

2006-06-18T11:20:00.000-04:00

Many days of rain followed the pouring of the footings, then I ordered three cubic yards of gravel to go under the deck on top of the landscape fabric to keep an oak tree from growing up through the deck.

Then we were out of town for a week. On Memorial Day I cut and mounted the extended ledger and first notched post.

New Deck

2006-06-18T10:50:00.000-04:00

A few months ago we decided that we'd like to have a deck on the back of the house. I said to Julie, "I think I can build that".

She said, "OK, well, the farther you get the less it'll cost to pay someone to finish."

Actually, she's been very supportive, allowing several tool purchases just for the deck building. So here's the first picture of progress. We did hire a contractor to dig and pour the footings since I had difficulty imagining myself having any fun at all digging seven holes each four feet deep then mixing and pouring 50 or so bags of cement.

New Pictures

2006-06-18T10:21:00.000-04:00

Several people have reminded us that we're falling down on the job of posting new pics of Thomason and Natalie. Having the babies all the time we sometimes forget how few pictures find their way out of the house.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time so I picked my current favorite and a few recent photos.

Enjoy!

We're still smiling

2006-03-25T14:36:00.000-05:00

Two months have gone by and we're still alive. The babies are smiling and finally cooing. Natalie is having full conversations (cooing style) and Thomason is not far behind. Much of the time we spend playing the binky game (baby spit out, Mommy/Daddy put back in, other baby spit out, Daddy/Mommy put back in).

As for sleeping, Thomason would sleep all night long if we let him but Natalie is a little more demanding of her food, but even she is getting 5-6 hours at a stretch.

No solid food yet; that's probably a couple months off still. We're getting ready for our first vacation and we're enjoying more interactive play.

One-Handed Blogging

2006-01-10T13:43:00.000-05:00

The babies are now almost 9 weeks old and weigh in at a whopping 7 lbs., 13 oz. (that's Natalie) and 8 lbs., 6 oz. (and that's Thomason). We had a great first Christmas with them and they really got all kinds of good loot from Santa. Natalie is in my (Julie's) lap right now, waiting patiently for me to finish this so she can eat. They eat every 4 hours which makes for nearly constant bottle-washing and burping. We're having lots of fun with them and are waiting for the day when they can actually interact with us. Its a little like keeping Sea Monkeys right now; we feed them, we keep them alive, once in a while we watch them do something interesting, but they have no understanding of the world or people around them. They'll probably be able to make eye contact any day now, which will be a huge treat.

Homecoming

2005-12-12T14:40:00.000-05:00

No steel crib, no beeping monitors, no wires coming out of their blankets, it's the next big thing: wireless babies at home! We went in to the hospital today to visit Natalie, bringing Thomason along, and asked how close she was to coming home. We knew she was pretty close but didn't know what day it would happen. They checked with the doctor and, sure enough, today was Natalie's day.

So there they are, Natalie on the left, Thomason on the right (already finding the papparazzi tiresome).

We're going to take a nap now and enjoy not going in to the hospital tomorrow, the first time since October 18th that that has happened.

Half way there

2005-12-08T21:41:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple new pictures of the bambinos. We just wanted to post a note to say that we brought Thomason home yesterday. He's doing great, though none of us slept very well his first night home, totally expected, what with my (Phil's) mostly irrational worry every few minutes that he might not be breathing and, when he wasn't silent, his general grunting and not sleeping.

Julie and I are doing ok now, but with a few more nights like that we may hit the wall. We were warned that a baby's first night home from the nursery, at least the special care nusery, can be more restless than in the nursery so hopefully he will get used to the sounds and smells of the house soon.

More pictures to come before long.

Phil

A Step Closer to Home

2005-12-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

Thomason and Natalie are doing very well and are just one milestone away from being sprung from the hospital. They're eating fully by mouth (note there are no feeding tubes up the nose in these new pictures), they're gaining weight steadily, and they're regulating their body temperature and are now in a real baby crib together. We even had a little hope that Thomason would be coming home today, but he had a bad breathing spell which knocked him back to going another 5 days with no apnea and bradycardia episodes.

As of now Natalie's favorite thing is eating - she can knock back a bottle of milk like there's no tomorrow and still suck her fingers afterward. Thomason's favorite thing is gaze around the room with a furrowed brow, possibly critiquing the poor lighting in the special care nursery. They both hate being naked and REALLY hate it when the wipes are cold during a diaper change (can you blame them?).

We have the house stocked with diapers and bottles, the baby furniture is all set up, and the dog and cats have had ample warning about what is to come. Now we just wait for the kids to mature a bit more and they'll be home before we know it.

Big Update

2005-11-21T22:10:00.000-05:00

Well, we never got back to posting again after August, but around mid October we got a little busy. One of the twins' membranes partially ruptured on the 19th, which they told us could mean a delivery within 48 hours, and this was when they were just past 28 weeks.

Julie was admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital antenatal unit and began amazing the staff day after day by not delivering.

Three and a half weeks later, at 31 weeks and 6 days, we went down for her daily non stress test and it looked like she was having contractions. The doctor sent her to the labor and delivery floor, where they monitored her, gave her IV fluids, and waited to see if the contractions would stop. They didn't and the OB on duty called the pregnancy due to labor and scheduled the C-section.

On November 10th Thomason Joseph Carson was born at 6:09 pm, 4 lbs. 4 oz., 17" long and Natalie Rose Carson was born at 6:10 pm, 3 lbs. 10 oz., 15.5" long.

Here are some pictures.

First post

2005-08-24T16:13:00.000-04:00

This is our first post on our blog. Julie is very tired so we have nothing more to say tonight. We'll post more soon.