L'aventure américaine

We had grand plans to camp this weekend... Sometimes you just have to get away.  But, once again, during the weekend we decided to camp, the weather was crummy. (Last time we went anyway... And moved from the tent to the car at 2am... The second night we stayed in a hotel.). So, we're in Klamath this weekend and decided to do a hike instead.  Hike #1 led us into some snow and sleet. We stayed on the trail for about a quarter mile until we decided to try something at a lower elevation. I think that I'm tough until it's sleeting and I'm in shorts.  Hike #2 was at the newly completed Spence Mountain Trail. Kudos to trail activists in Klamath- this one is beautiful! We stayed dry, we stayed warm, and we had the best time. Nice work, Klamath. Well done. 

I was briefly perusing my blog since Milo was born and realized that I have done it...  I have done what I said I wouldn't do.  Namely, cease posting about all of those things that are so important to me (politics, community volunteering, funny Randal anecdotes) and have posted solely about Milo. Obviously, he's a 20 lb, soul-snatching monster (albeit the cutest and best one ever).  So, here goes life outside of Milo. The Wellness Center opened to the public in March , celebrating a year of being open.  (See our front page story!)  We celebrated by adding huge new challenges to our agenda, so while I had hoped that we would coast for a bit, we are exploring the world of marketing, insurance reimbursement, and worksite wellness.  Needless to say, I am not bored, but continually challenged and stimulated by my work. We also continue to work on community endeavors.  They broke ground on the Geo Trail (we received a grant to build this trail in Octo...

Religious or not, Easter brings people together. And so, when the oregon Popes heard that the Irish Jochims were headed to Indiana for Easter, we had to hop on a plan and crash their party. Family time never disappoints. Milo got to meet his cousins and they him. He was spoiled. We got to see so many friends and family, play with the Irish Jochims and bask in Daniel's jokes ("what's more important, the news or Star Wars?" "Both. Because they might talk about Star Wars on the news!") and Josephine's singing ("swing low, sweet chariot" was a favorite.). It was perfect. The only downside? Saying goodbye.  Milo and Randal at Easter.  Visiting the treehouse.  Greene County's newest addition. A rather unwelcome one.  Cousins! Chihouli hunting at the children's museum.  First ride on the infamous carousel! Checking out the newest land acquisition.  This boy loves his grandmother...

You know what is hard? Keeping a blog and working more than full time and being a mom. Something has to give... It's been the blog.  I have so much to share and hope to soon sit down and do it, but until then... Here's baby Milo from month 1 to month 6! 

So, having a kid is fun and all.  But, having a kid is AWESOME at Halloween.  Especially when the kid has no opinions about his costume and especially when your last name is Pope and the current Pope happens to be fantastic. I was very proud of my first homemade kid's costume and smugly judged all of the other costumes at this year's Halloween trick-or-treating extravaganza.  (I don't know how many we had, but I'm guessing that we had around 600-700 trick-or-treaters.)  All of the other kids came up short.  Milo Pope as Pope Milo won top prize .  (Obama would have loved Milo!) I deemed Milo's first holiday as a huge success. In fact, the fun never stops in Klamath Falls and Randal has been very busy improving the downtown.  He's been painting the building like a madman, although he recently had to slow down, since the temperature have dipped a little too low to powerwash and paint a giant building. I even helped paint one afternoon, al...

Last night, I had a very vivid dream about emptying a sink full of vomit.  It was so gross.  I had to reach my hand in and pull the plug.  Disgusting.  In my dream, it smelled just terrible. Upon waking, it makes me think that I should change the sheets.  Evidently, the smell of spit up and spoiled milk has permeated my subconscious. Gross. In other news, Milo was in the paper!  Okay.  You can't actually see his face, but he's there, tucked away in his Ergo Baby.  You can find the article here .  He is a big supporter of the Complete Streets model and improving the built environment.  Randal is on the Built Environment Blue Zones committee, so will be instrumental in downtown improvements.  Some ideas include making our downtown streets two-way, removing push buttons on walk signals so that they turn automatically, and improving our alleyways. Milo celebrated his one-month birthday in Denver where Randal and I went for a f...

Tuesday morning, Milo woke me up to sing happy birthday...  the crying and grunting version.  (It really doesn't sound much like happy birthday...)  I was, of course, very happy because it was my birthday and because Milo is the cutest.  Case in point: The morning was great... until all of a sudden, it wasn't.  Milo went back to sleep at 5:30am and woke up again an hour and a half later and wouldn't be soothed.  He didn't want to eat much and the nice shirt that I had put on in honor of my birthday was soaked with breastmilk in about 5 minutes.  (The other side got soaked an hour later...)  I sat down and tried to nurse him and made the mistake of reading a book about parenting. Holy moly.  I was already failing...  less than a month into this.  I have not mastered one handed diapering.  I have not started to read stories to Milo at bedtime as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (starting at birth!). ...