classes for little ones

I've been spending a decent amount of time lately researching dance classes for Abigail. She took a ballet class last fall that she really enjoyed, but I think at the time she was a little young for it. But she's been asking again lately when she's going to start ballet again, and I'm trying to find the balance between having fun activities that she enjoys, and keeping us all from going crazy shuttling her to classes that she may or may not actually participate in (since she has the attention span of the average four-year-old). We did a soccer camp this spring that was rather frustrating for me, since she seemed to spend most of her time picking dandelions, but insisted that she looooovved playing soccer and MUST go every day! I've also been thinking about starting her with a Suzuki violin teacher, but...I just don't know. To be honest, I think Juliet would probably be way more into things like that at this point than Abigail is, just because of their different personalities and ways of approaching things. At this point, I think we'll hold off until next semester to enroll in classes for Abigail, since we're still in the adjustment phase with Isaac, but it's still lurking in the back of my mind.

What's your opinion on this? How do you feel about gymnastics, swimming, art, dance, soccer, music lessons, etc. for small children? When did you start these kinds of activities as a child? If you're a parent, how do you find a balance between exciting and enriching activities for your children, and simply being overscheduled?

saturday at our house

Wake up, run into Mommy and Daddy's room, and commence snuggling. Break for blueberry pancakes.



do a bit of clothes shopping for Abigail's winter attire, and discover one of those animal child leash/backpacks on super sale--Neil promptly buys it, buckles it on Juliet, and declares it his favorite purchase ever. Juliet thinks having a buckle-on monkey friend is the pinnacle of happiness, so it's good news all around. Abigail tries to control Juliet via the leash and we have a quick and very serious talk about how "only Mommy and Daddy hold the monkey tail."

**Digression--if someone hasn't clued you in on this, check out secondhand stores and garage sales for kid clothes. I know it seems totally obvious, but I never thought about it because I always thought of those places as kind of DI-esque...more the kind of place you go when you need something to wear to the Demolition Derby. So we would always go to the Park City outlets when Abigail was a baby, and I would cringe at the cost, and I didn't really realize there were alternatives until we moved here and more experienced moms filled me in! We are fortunate enough to have a branch of Once Upon A Child here, which I love because all the clothes are adorable, in excellent shape, and generally from stores like Gymboree, Baby Gap, The Children's Place, etc. The good kind of clothes that are not only cute, but well-made with those essential details like adjustable waistbands, and for about a fifth of the original price. Lots of times things still have the original store tags on them, which seems crazy until you realize how fast little kids grow! Okay, end of digression. **

We decide that the cool weather is perfect for a cookout and stop off at the grocery store for a few essentials. Like dark chocolate for s'mores. Oh yum.


And much as I adore flowers, my garden friends are a pretty good substitute.

Or these. Which are all gone now. And I must confess I had a horrendous sugar-induced headache today, since I haven't eaten this much refined sugar since last fall's mallocreme pumpkins first appeared in stores. I love these things way too much.

But not quite as much as I love this little man (and the handsome guy holding him).

we had ourselves a wonderful time. Our ward's meeting time just changing to 11 am from 9 am, so we didn't even worry about bedtime--we just let the kids play outside in the dark until they were exhausted and sticky and smoky and deliriously happy.

and then we put the kids to bed and sat out by the fire poking at the coals and talking. It was such a nice day, and it's been such a nice weekend. When we were taking a walk with the kids tonight, we were talking about how happy it is to be a family together and how nice it is to have all five of us to love. And it really is wonderful (especially on days like today where everyone but Neil--who was hometeaching--accidentally takes a nap until 6 pm because of our late night and our later church time, and we wake up and Daddy has made a delicious dinner, and then we go for broke on the bedtime thing AGAIN and take the kids for a walk out in the twilight and talk about stars and planets. Those are good days).

adorableness, thy name is Isaac

A few shots of Isaac today, post-church in his darling little buttondown.



If you've ever thought, "Eh, I don't know if I'd really want kids..." five minutes with this little doll will have you running for the prenatal vitamins. This teeny man is a total charmer. He sleeps like a champion, makes the most adorable little cooing noises, and has a head of soft downy hair that practically begs to be stroked. He loves to cuddle, but won't scream when you put him down. Ideal baby, I tell you. We love this little guy so much. He is the most snugglable good-natured baby ever!




Edit: this is saying Neil wrote the post, but really it is Rachael accidentally signed in as Neil. So Neil isn't the one gushing. :-)

of updates

Juliet's hair: If you've known Juliet since she was born, you will realize how momentous this picture is. Many friends commented when they saw a newborn Isaac, "Wow, does he have more hair than Juliet does now?"

Cloth diapers: still really happy with our decision to switch. Even if you don't want to cloth diaper an older child, seriously consider it for a newborn. We put Isaac in cloth (prefolds and wraps) as soon as the cord stump fell off, and let me tell you, when you're changing 12-14 diapers a day, that 19 cents per diaper really adds up (and that's using Luvs, not even Huggies or Pampers). And the cloth really has been easy for him. The only thing is that he is growing SO fast--we bought the Thirsties One-Size adjustable wraps, and he went from using the smallest setting to the largest in about two weeks. Then again, he is also insanely big. We did buy 7 more bumGenius one-size diapers, which I really like because we can use them for either Isaac or Juliet. Those are also nice to have as he's starting to sleep for longer periods of time, since they "last" longer than the wraps (note: he definitely urinates a lot more than the girls, so this might not be an issue with another baby). And like many other people who cloth diaper, we have yet to see a blowout using the cloth (he will occasionally soak through his clothes when wearing the prefolds, but I am doing a LOT less diaper-leak laundry than I ever have before!!)

Work: I am doing a lot of editing right now. While the income is nice (especially considering things like the transmission, or the fact that the dentist we really like isn't on our insurance, etc.), it's been really hard for me to balance everything the last couple of weeks. Case in point: in the last 10 days I did over eighteen hours of editing, canned salsa, tomatoes, and peaches, froze peaches, beans, sun-dried tomatoes, and pesto, plus visiting teaching appointments, pediatrician visits for both Juliet and Isaac, my six-week checkup, a trip to the dentist, etc. And then I also had the regular housework and entertaining the kids--plus a six-week old baby. It has been really crazy and I've been really stressed. I'm glad it's the weekend now, and I'm glad that after next week things will calm down (first deadline for two editing projects, a visit to Juliet's ENT, a visit to the dermatologist to make sure I don't have skin cancer, and a couple more fillings at the dentist).

Kids: We've really been having a rough couple of months with Abigail. I don't want to go into it too much, but we've been working a LOT on obedience and truthfulness. It's really been hard for everyone concerned. Really, really, really hard. I have decided that I need to be praying for guidance a lot more, and she needs some other activities. So I signed her up for two days of preschool kind of last minute; I'm hoping that this gives us all a bit of a respite and allows her to be creatively challenged, since quite honestly I just don't have the time right now to sit down with her and do a lot of the fun learning activities I'd like to do. I went for a walk alone with her the other night after Juliet and Isaac were in bed and it was so nice.

Juliet is two and everything that entails. She is willful, enchanting, infuriating, and adorable. She has to do everything Abigail does. Sometimes it's funny, like when she'll backtrack on a walk to check out the same grass clump Abigail just kicked, and sometimes it's maddening, like when she jumps off the couch while I'm still busy reminding Abigail that we do not jump off the furniture. But mostly she's a doll, and she is talking SO much in such long sentences. She is incredibly affectionate this days with everyone; whenever I read stories to her she links her arm through mine and says "I misssssss you, Mommmmy," and we are forever finding Hippo Hippo or her dolly carefully wrapped up in a bumGenius and wearing one of Isaac's sleepers, carefully buckled into Isaac's carseat or swing, complete with blanket and pacifier. Fortunately she's just as loving with Isaac, and if Isaac is left in his swing or bouncy seat for a minute or two, Hippo Hippo generally makes an appearance next to him so "he not get sad, Mom."

Isaac is a doll. He sleeps well, is gaining weight like a little sumo wrestler, and every now and then gives us a rare and utterly adorable smile. He is the noisiest little baby possible and is constantly cracking us up with his sleepy "wuffle" noises.

Me. While I'd be happier if we had a more regular routine established right now, I feel really blessed right now. I'm looking forward to fall and the crisp days that brings; I'm glad that I'm energetic enough these days to flip through my cookbooks again and try new recipes. I really missed that the last couple months of pregnancy. I'm rejoicing in being able to run again and thinking about training for a half or full marathon; I'm thrilled about the yoga classes my parents gave me for my birthday. My head is bursting with projects to do around the house (for one, Neil and I are going to build the kids a dollhouse for Christmas! I am SOOO excited and I have all these visions of teeny little quilts and wallpaper samples), and I love that with the addition of Isaac, our family is feeling more complete. Not finished, but more complete.

and Neil--you'll have to ask him, since he always says things like, "I don't see how people can put all this personal stuff on a blog." But since I have to say something, I think that he is, in general, very lucky to be married to me. :-) And vice versa. We figured out the other day that we've been married for 80 months now. I always get a bit reminiscent this time of year, since this is when we met.

I do believe in fairies!

ps...can you tell Abigail is directing the color-saturation editing of these pics?

uh-oh

Juliet's favorite food in the world: whole-wheat bread.

Juliet's allergy test results: egg whites and wheat.

Her pediatrician has ordered additional testing, since apparently the ImmunoCAP test is a bit sensitive to wheat. Please keep Juliet in your prayers; I have a feeling that if this wasn't a false positive, we're going to have a very distressed little girl.

Now I'm going to go debate whether or not she gets to eat the whole-wheat banana bread I baked for their afternoon snack...

mascara baby

I guess she's really been paying attention when she watches me put on my makeup every day.



I must say, I'm pretty impressed by her general accuracy.



And this little chunkster is 6 weeks old today! Did I mention he's in the 97th percentile for weight?

The first picture I've taken all of all three of them since Isaac was born--do you like Abigail's crazy bathtub hair and the fact that Juliet looks bigger than Abigail?

adventures in gratitude

I just finished writing some thank-you notes and realized that I never wrote about our truly incredible experience when the transmission died. We felt blessed by so many people and kept saying the whole time, “This has happened in the best possible way.”

We were fairly delayed leaving town by some emergency funding issues that I found out about (thanks to our wonderful neighbor in a long and complicated chain of events, but essentially she came running over right as I was loading the kids in the car) that had a major impact on whether Neil would have a stipend and a tuition waiver for this fall. So we spent an hour and a half working those out and going to various professors on campus, so the kids had been in the car for quite awhile before we actually left, and we were all a bit depressed and very relieved to go on vacation (note: we did find out two days later that Neil had full funding support, so that was a relief!!)

We had been driving for about an hour and stopped at a gas station so that everyone could go to the bathroom, run around for awhile, and Isaac could be fed. Five minutes after we started up, the van jerked, and Neil and I both looked at each other with slightly panic-stricken eyes. The failure was complete, fast, and catastrophic. Just a moment or two later, we found ourselves with absolutely no power from the transmission. We pulled off the road, thanked our lucky stars that we’d chosen to drive the “scenic route” instead of the interstate, and started investigating and praying. It only took a few minutes for us to realize that the transmission was completely dead.

We called for a tow truck (again grateful that my mom had given us an emergency cell phone for my birthday last year, since we’re some of those lingering few who don’t have cell phones as our main contact point) and settled down to wait. And wait. And wait. While we waited, we tried to figure out a) where we were going to take the van for repair b) where we were going to spend the night c) how we were going to get back home d) how we were even going to leave the site, since the dispatcher told us the tow truck would not have room for all of us e) where the heck we were, since there were no road signs and we were surrounded by cornfields. This also gave us the chance for me to cry a lot, Abigail to wail, “Will we ever get home,” and Juliet to attempt a dash across the road in front of oncoming traffic (a brief and misguided attempt to let the kids stand at the side of the car after about an hour of waiting inside).


To make a longer story somewhat shorter, we found a man living nearby who was willing to jump the car, since the battery was now dead, and we were hoping that a bit of juice would allow us to make it to the nearest town, since the tow truck was supposedly still 45 minutes away (we were seriously in the middle of nowhere). We also made contact with a local friend of my little sister’s who was willing to come get us and take us to a hotel, although they warned that area hotels were very expensive and offered to let us stay at their house instead.


Then the tow truck arrived. And the driver told us that he had an extended cab, since he had kids of his own, and he would be happy to take us all together--which was an enormous relief to me, since I was really stressed about separating. We drove into town, stopped at a gas station for directions to the insurance-approved transmission shop, and a friendly local walked over and asked where we were planning to go. He advised us not to go to the local shop, and told us several horror stories about them, since he was a mechanic himself. Several other passersby concurred. We began to feel pretty stressed again, and at this point, the tow truck driver offered to drive us to his hometown, about forty-five minutes away, so that we could go to a shop that he could recommend. He told us that he would charge us a little less than a third of what this extended tow would actually cost.

When we arrived in town, the tow truck driver took us to a hotel within walking distance of grocery stores and restaurants so we’d have a place to eat the next day. He carried Abigail, who was sound asleep, to our room, since I was carrying Isaac and Neil had Jules. He helped Neil bring in our luggage, then drove him to the transmission shop to drop off the car. When we thanked him for his kindness, he told us how relieved he was that we had decided to stay in this town rather than the one where we originally were, which had a rough reputation, and how he was glad he could leave us safe and with a mechanic he knew and trusted. He told us that his worst nightmare was to see people he’d towed on the news the next day for some tragedy, and told us again he was just glad we were safe.

The desk clerk at the hotel gave us their largest and nicest room (a king-size and queen-size bed, a fold-out couch, etc.) for their cheapest small-room price, and told us we could check out late the next day. They brought us a crib for Isaac, and we settled down for the night. The next morning the transmission shop people came to the hotel to pick up our keys, saving Neil a three-mile jog. They called later and offered to rebuild the transmission rather than simply putting in a new one—which saved us over a thousand dollars. And my amazing parents left their vacation—at the beach—so they could drive two hours home, get another car, drive two hours to the town where we were, and take us back to their house.

The price tag for our little adventure wasn’t fun, but it was the most amazing exercise in gratitude I’ve ever had in my life. At midnight in our hotel room, I made up two cups of hot chocolate (packed in our luggage in anticipation of that night’s campout on the beach), wedged myself in next to Neil in the hotel bathroom (since the kids were all asleep out in the bedroom), and just talked about how incredible all the people were who had helped us that day. I think we offered up some of the most heartfelt prayers of our lives that night in gratitude for the way things had turned out.

oh yum

keep-up-with-the-garden projects for today include continuing to dry tomatoes, making pesto, and--i am so excited about this!!--making fresh ratatouille!! I love that my garden is at the point now where it can supply all the ingredients. I've been working on the base sauce this morning and my kitchen is redolent of ripe tomatoes and fresh basil. it smells, as Abigail put it, "like a princess." I don't know any princesses who smell like that, but I suppose that's the ultimate four-year-old accolade.


also on the menu this weekend--"green garden soup" (my mom's recipe) with zucchini, beans, and leeks. it is absolutely heavenly. and I'm thinking about trying my hand at polenta with chunky tomato and feta sauce, and let's not forget paninis with fresh pesto, mozzarella, and tomatoes, plus a luncheon quiche with leeks and...more tomatoes!




image via Amazon.com

don't you love tomato time? What's making this absolutely fantastic for me this year is that I just picked up a copy of Anna Thomas's The New Vegetarian Epicure, which focuses on the way I love to cook: tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, and no attempts to recreate meat-like dishes with tofu or tempeh. Just celebrating the plants!! I also love that it's more gourmet-style cooking with really inventive, creative, and tasty dishes--so many vegetarian cookbooks seem to focus on kind of bland things that aren't very exciting to cook. I would seriously recommend this cookbook even if you aren't a vegetarian--it's just so tasty and amazing and inspiring!

a list

things my kitchen smelled like today:

• French toast
• Dehydrating tomatoes (last 24 hours and still going strong)
• Canned salsa
• Blanching green beans
• feta-spinach lasagna with pesto and basil-tomato sauce (thank goodness for freezer meals!!)
• Zucchini bread

in other words, I spent the entire day preserving food. Minus an hour on a conference call with a client (the girls had a playdate this morning) and nursing, but other than that, entire day in the kitchen. Good thing Juliet just had a birthday and the girls are still entranced by the new toys.

things I did not do today:

• shower
• go running (despite putting on my running clothes when I got up--it's 9:54 p.m. and I'm just now sitting down for the first time all day in preparation to go to bed)
• mop the tomato-splattered kitchen floor

quite a contrast from last Thursday, which we spent here:

back to work

image via world market

Today I took Juliet and Isaac to the doctor (Isaac is 12 lbs 1 oz, the little chunk!) for their well-baby checks and immunizations, took all three kids to the hospital and held Juliet down while they drew 5 cc's of blood for allergy testing (horrible, horrible, not fun at all with a sobbing two-year-old who is ever so trusting and doesn't even try to wiggle away, just sobs quietly and tells you "a big poke in my arm hurt so bad, Mommy!), walked three blocks through the rain back to our car, sat in traffic within sight of my house for twenty minutes while Isaac screamed and I generally went crazy thinking about everything I had to do when I got home.

Then I put on my new apron to make lunch and slice tomatoes for the dehydrator and I felt better. Don't you just love pretties? (I also have a new coconut-husk doormat striped in berry, amber, taupe, and brown that makes me smile every time I see it).

we were only gone for a week but i swear the garden tried to take over the world.

that is all i have to say.

ma famille

we've been enjoying our extended-by-the-dead-transmission vacation (hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow!) highlights include paintballing, lots of shopping, the beach, trips to the movies (Julie & Julia is perfect for this foodie crowd), and, of course, lots of cooking. more on that later.

yesterday we took a bunch of pictures after church.


abigail and juliet with my grandparents



kissing my darling little man



we blessed Isaac yesterday--my dad, Neil, Jordan (Ruth's husband), and my grandfather were all in the circle. It was a wonderful blessing and really made me realize just how special our little guy is. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, blessing an infant isn't like infant baptism; it's a special ordinance where men holding the Melchizedek Priesthood give a baby a name (which is recorded on the records of the church) and then a special blessing, as prompted by the Spirit, which often talks about the child's future. For instance, Isaac's blessing mentioned a desire to serve others, a keen intellect and a strong body, a desire to stay morally clean and make righteous judgments, the opportunity to make covenants in the temple and raise a righteous posterity, and to serve in the church all the days of his life. It's a wonderful experience and a special opportunity (for a family home evening lesson on the topic, go here).



Mary Beth, Elise, Dad, me, Ruth, and Rosalind



all of us with Mom and Dad



apparently Elise and I missed the memo on the jewel-toned shirts!


we took approximately twenty pictures of our little family. they are hilariously funny to scroll through--it's like a movie of small wiggly children and desperate parents.

and last but not least...we have been eating a LOT. on average, we go to the grocery store at least twice a day (there have been some days where it was five). and while we've been doing all kinds of exciting food forays--like our Japanese night (sushi, gyoza, panko-stuffed mushrooms, soba noodles and bok choy), we always seem to end the night back at our French faves. oh...and the thirteen (yes, thirteen) boxes of ice cream currently in the freezer (a slight mishap involving various groups being at the grocery stores simultaneously and not consulting beforehand, but nobody's complaining!)

off to a good start

when i envisioned the first day of our vacation...

...it did not involve a tow truck and a new transmission.

more on this later. for now suffice to say that we are safe and sound and incredibly grateful for the kindness of complete strangers.

i am so lonely. sigh. it is totally killing me that all my sisters are home from college (and Jordan!) and my whole entire family is camping on the lakeshore without me. this has been weighing me down all weekend (especially Saturday when Neil went in to work for the entire day, and I really really wanted to just drive home right then).

two more days...i can make it.

dining room redo

May 2007

When we first moved into our house in October 2006, one of the things we were really excited for was the separate dining area. Hurray, we thought! An end to eating in the kitchen! So we joyfully ripped down the really heinous wallpaper borders (hearts that said "peace, love, hope" in all sorts of nauseating pastels), filled all the holes, and picked out paint colors. We hosted an enormous Thanksgiving celebration the month after we moved in, and I was so excited about having a room big enough to (squeeze in) 12 people for dinner!

Except then we realized that eating in a carpeted dining room with a toddler was awful. We vacuumed after dinner every night, spread out towels beneath her chair, etc., but nothing was really working perfectly.

When someone in another ward gave us a dining room table (which I STILL am refinishing, very very slowly), we put that table in the dining room. And I put the original table in the kitchen and we all started eating in there for breakfast, because it was more convenient for quick meals. And sometimes I guiltily served dinner in there too--I felt bad that we were eating in the kitchen rather than in our "formal" dining area, but the kitchen was so warm and friendly and happy (plus toddler-proof!) whereas the dining room felt big and empty and cold. The table was too small, the walls seemed too bare, and so forth. Every time I was in there I felt glum about the state of the room.

Eventually, we were eating all our meals in the kitchen. The dining room stood empty, and I thought "what a waste of space!" every time I passed it. I also hated the fact that it was the very first room that visitors saw when they walked into our house, and it was bare, cold, and unfurnished.

So I decided to do something about it. I started on the "makeover" in August 2008. My vision was a space that would become sort of the heart of our home in that it would serve as both an office and a playroom, but I also wanted it to look attractive and welcoming, since it was so visible to guests. My vision was something that would be streamlined, balanced, and functional, while keeping clutter to a minimum and toys out of sight. I also wanted a place where the kids could curl up and read while I did office stuff, and where I could read to them.

So I began--slowly, for reasons both fiscal and because I didn't want to just "settle" for what I saw on a single shopping trip. I gave away our old bulky desk that housed not only the computer, but all our files, movies, pens, etc. and took up a massive chunk of space in our bedroom. I bought dramatic floor-length curtains. I framed black-and-white photos of the girls. I searched out a new desk and two new bookcases (I left the other two in the living room). I tried four different ways of organizing toys and books for a month or so each. I bought a new lamp. Slowly, the room began coming together, but I wasn't able to find any seating that was within our budget. After several months, I bought a futon (from a friend who was moving) that had a solid frame (in the same style as the desk) and a good mattress, but an absolutely hideous cover, which I concealed beneath bed sheets until I had time and the budget wiggle room to recover it. It was still too big for the space, but worth it in the extra-bed-for-guests trade-off.

Last week, I ordered the fabric I've been eyeing for four months with my birthday money (thanks, G'ma and Papa!) and after it arrived on Friday, I spent naptime yesterday sewing a cover for the futon. And so I am pleased to present my made-over library, which has become the most-used room in our house over the last year. I absolutely love it. While it's not totally finished (I still need to find a brushed pewter vase to balance the lamp [and then move the picture frame somewhere else, and I would like to fill the vase with pink peonies rather than the orange gerberas] and an office chair that is comfortable but still sleek and pretty--i.e. no swivel chairs here!), I am so happy with how it has turned out! What you can't see (purposefully, since this shot is taken from our foyer) is that one wall is occupied by a big bookcase housing all the children's books (with a big bucket of puzzles on top. Toys have no problem finding their way in here on their own. :-) Oh, and the rocking horse isn't a decor addition--it's in time-out because it was the source of an Abigail vs. Juliet tug-o-war.

August 2009

Opinion poll: what do I do about throw pillows for this? I don't want to clash with the pattern, but I think it needs something more (just bigger pillows?) And do you know of any good chair sources?

3 weeks

when it is your birthday...

...and you are only two years old

...and you are looking forward to lunch at the "chicken restaurant with slides"

...and you are very excited

...and the morning has been spent in carefully coordinating everyone's schedules to make an outing possible

...and you go into the garage to get in the car

...and the garage door doesn't open

...because the torsion spring snapped

...and the cars are trapped inside

...and you cannot go anywhere

...that is a sad birthday.

And of course, I was planning to go to the grocery store tonight when Isaac was sleeping, so we had nothing wherewith to easily contrive a party.

So in an effort to salvage the situation (and being creative with the contents of the 'fridge and pantry), we had an outdoor picnic with homemade lemonade, deviled eggs, tomatoes, and pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins for lunch. an odd combination, but it met with toddler approval.

fortunately, we were able to get a repairman here today. and also fortunately, i had not yet clicked the "purchase" button for the new diapers I was planning to buy (left the window open on the computer as everyone was getting loaded into the car) that came to the exact same total as the new torsion spring. c'est la vie!!

hibbo hibbo

it's sure nice to have a hippo as your best friend.

what would we do around here without "hibbo hibbo" (Hippo hippo)--I surely do not know!

good thing we have the hippo to keep us all happy.

****

Isaac update: at 3 weeks old, continues to be absolutely darling. he does a champion job of sleeping right away after his night feedings, which makes a world of difference!! actually, he just sleeps a lot, period. he's like one of those dolls whose eyes automatically close as soon as they go remotely horizontal.