The Staycation

Ed and I took 3 days off last week for a "staycation" in our new/old home town.  The Lolos were here so we had childcare and were torn between getting much needed chores done around the house and having fun.  Given that it was above 95 each day and the grandparents had acclimated to a yearly high temp of 65 on the Oregon coast we tried not to roast them in outside activities.  So what else is a more fun indoor activity than painting???  No clue; well try painting 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with 9 ft ceilings!!  Woo Hoo we really know how to have fun around here.  Our beds and baths look so much better now though and we do not at all regret it.  We are motivated now to get window treatments and pictures up on the walls.

We threw a little fun in too; on Thursday we drove out on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Chateau Morrisette for a fabulous lunch, a little wine tasting and some gorgeous views. 

Listening to the specials???

 On Friday we went back to finishing our painting again but Saturday after ballet class took the Lolos to one of their favorite East Coast restaurants: Cracker Barrel.  We then enjoyed crabs caught by Lolo in Oregon for dinner. They were delicious!  Are you noticing an eating theme here(keep reading it gets better)......I started exercising with a trainer at work this past Tuesday!

Yummy crab!

B loves our local tomatoes - Grandin Rd Farmers Market

On Saturday night my parents drove in from Kentucky to join the family reunion.  Ed and I are so lucky to have met early on in life(like high school) and being from a small town our families knew each other more or less.   Since we have been together for a number of years our parents have grown close and we are so blessed to have such a tight knit family even though we are all far apart.

Sunday we packed a picnic and headed out to the park along the Roanoke River.  We hadn't ever been down to the river before but one of our favorite activities pre-kids, pre-Atlanta days was canoeing so we are excited to get the kids acclimated to moving water.  Needless to say they loved it.  The whole gang wasn't prepared for wading so we didn't get pics of everyone but it was a blast. 

Ed's rock skipping perfect form

Sunday night we enjoyed a Filipino feast of our favorite foods prepared by Lola.  She has a few signature dishes two of which are Barbecue(marinated grilled pork skewers) and Pancit(a noodle dish with chicken, pork, shrimp and julienned vegetables). There is a family tradition of eating the skewers right off the grill - see below examples.



Cheers!



And the Pancit:

C likes it....she doesn't like much so this is big!

We ended the evening with some swinging and a roaring fire after a 90 degree day.  I did mention Ed is a borderline pyromaniac right??

On Monday Ed and I returned to work to deal with our food hangovers and the grandparents had a special day with the kids at the Mill Mountain Zoo.  Apparently it was a hit.  B loved the train...that is his new favorite thing now that we don't live 20 feet from one!



So we are back to reality with some extra pounds(thanks Lola), many mosquito bites, and I have a spreading case of poison ivy(not sure where that came from). I am not going to lie it feels sort of good to be back in the routine of things but it was a great staycation; a proper mix of "getting things done", relaxing, and family time. 





Love your Family

It has been a true pleasure to have Ed's parents here this past week.  Beyond the meals and laundry it has been a joy to me seeing them interact with their grandchildren and watching our kids grow to love them.  Now it hasn't come without its fair share of TV watching, sugar eating and gum chewing....but when you only see your grandparents 1x a year why not??

We are taking the rest of the week off to get a little work done around the house(maybe) and have a little fun as a family.  

I am also enamored with Eds new position as bass player in our worship band.  18 years ago when we met I was a groupie in his high school garage(basement actually) band.  It was the height of the grunge age...I recall wearing extra big jeans and extra big flannel shirts.   I only hope when C becomes a teen that the same style is in!  He and his buddies screamed Pearl Jam and Velvet Underground from their distorted electric guitars.  "Sweet Jane" is still one of my favorite tunes.

His groupies have changed a little now.  C and Little Man love to dance to the music.  His Dad has also been playing a little.  Lots of great memories being made here....life is good folks.  I hope you are finding joy in your lives too.

Boy this kid is brave!

Good times on the porch

Lawnmower Update: You get what you pay for !

So my friends I am sorry to say sometimes it is worth it to pay full price. Unfortunately on mow #2 the "re manufactured" lawnmower had to be returned to Lowes. After being reluctant to start the mower sounded like it hit the biggest tree root ever(it did not) then started smoking. Ed and his Dad returned it to Lowes right away at 9:30 pm and returned home with a brand new Troy-Bilt and less $140. I really wish I had a picture of the smoking lawnmower but the mood in the moment was not one supporting photo-journalism. Sorry my friends.

On the other hand we are enjoying some summer visitors. Lolo and Lola(Ed's parents) are here visiting us and we are having a great time. The kids are being properly spoiled as are Ed and I with live in cooks and laundry help. Here are some pics of our fun with the "Lolos"

Waiting at the airport

Flowers for Lola

Simple fun....yes we still have boxes to unpack!

Catching fireflies

FIREPIT!!

An Americana 4th of July

I wouldn't have believed it if we hadn't experienced it first-hand. Our street, moreover our block has the mother of all 4th of July block parties.  It comes complete with parade led by antique tractor, decorated kid vehicles,  homemade ice cream,  full regalia Uncle Sam, Declaration of Independence reading, and semi-professional fireworks show(from SC of course!!)

Given that we had only lived on this block 1 week we were elated to get a flyer in our front door inviting us to the festivities. It is the talk of Roanoke City, friends had already mentioned we were moving to the block with fab holiday parties!  The parade started at 2pm and the fireworks lasted until 10.  The kids loved all of this and surprisingly weren't scared of the fireworks and in fact loved them. It was a great opportunity for us to meet a lot of our new neighbors who seem like great folks that we can't wait to get to know better.

Most of this post will be dedicated to pictures to prove there is a true "American Spirit" remaining here in Roanoke, VA and hopefully in your town too.

The Declaration of Independence is serious business 

All decorated for the 4th!

Dad needs to make it into the pics more, what a great Papa!

Dear readers I just want you to know the sheer joy and happiness this little family has experienced over the past 3 weeks.  From simple things like greeting the elderly ladies that walk 3x per day around our block and sharing the joy of our young children with them, to experiencing an honest to goodness 4th of July, to walking Caroline to her new ballet class, dropping her off, and shopping at the farmers market across the street and walking home all together; we are very very grateful to be experiencing life here.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow my friends, enjoy your summer!  

A Chronology of Lawnmowers

This post is dedicated to David Thompson our former neighbor who loves a yard like none other...and he loves Virginia as much as we do.  He also went to the other well-known school in Virginia and loves to constantly remind of us this fact :)

So our lawnmower just couldn't keep up.  We moved from a postage stamp of a yard where it took more time to get the lawn tools out of the garage than it did to actually cut the lawn to more than 1/2 acre of lawn.  Now let me be clear in the past 6  years lawn care has not been an activity I participated in personally.  For some reason ladies in Atlanta did not do lawn mowing.  Maybe it is the Scarlet O'Hara influence??  Where I grew up every woman did lawn mowing, I did it, my mom did it, my aunts did it.  No one actually hired out lawn care...gasp!!

I personally was banished from lawn mowing when I destroyed Ed's childhood mower on the sewer cleanout in our Atlanta yard.  Now you have to understand that Ed is not in favor of buying much in the way of home appliances new; he sees no point to spend large sums of money on something that is going to get beat up and dirty.  We still have our gas grill from 11 years ago(we keep replacing the burners) and that lawn mower I mentioned.....it really was from his childhood.  He seriously was sad when I bent the axle on that thing.

So in support of Ed's habit of recycled lawn equipment my Dad provided another "used" lawnmower to satiate Ed's need to not spend money on such things back in the 2007 timeframe.  Honestly in Atlanta it would be a bit silly to invest in much of a lawn mowing machine....you could have done it with a focused weed eater.  Now this mower had a  few "modifications".  The handle hardware had long given out and in lieu of hardware a permanent weld had been put in place.  I had also gently run the car into the lawnmower wheel at one point and Ed had straightened that damage out.  Ed also discovered today that the air filter was missing from the beast too.

A good weld and a failed weld.  Note the absence of hardware.

Don't think that is going to cut it.

The past week when my parents were here they had both attempted to mow our new lawn with "the beast" and it had whipped my Mom and Dad both; my Mom had even suggested upgrading the lawn mower to a self propelled version.  Now I can't even begin to tell you how guilty one feels when their middle aged parents are out mowing the lawn in their new home....but read a past post about the motivation level of the women in my family.  Once they get an idea in their head there is not stopping them.....I am dead serious about this.  Same holds true for my Dad's family as well.  I recall working on a front porch railing project at the age of about 8 with my grandmother with spot lights at night in the summer because she would not quit nor let anyone else.

So the it was time to cut the grass again today and Ed decided to see how far he could get at lunch time in the 30 minutes he had to devote to the activity.  After spending 10 minutes walking the yard trying to find the missing air filter he decided to give up on that and just cut.  After a few minutes of mowing the mower took on a strange wobble and he noticed the permanent welds had failed.

Now Ed being Ed he was really wanting to find another used mower but the lawn really really needed cut and endeavors such as Craigslist need some time to cultivate a good deal.  We also don't really know any of our neighbors well enough to ask to borrow their prime piece of lawn equipment so this evening was devoted to finding *gasp* a NEW mower.

Pulling up in front of Lowes Ed immediately noticed the pile of push-mowers off to the side labeled "repaired"....he had found his nirvana in a sea of new mowers.  The salesman convinced us of the lawn-worthiness of these machines and off we went with our mostly new self propelled 7HP 22' cutting blade John Deere lawn mower and $150 more bucks in our account than if we had bought new.

Preparing for the inaugural ride. Love that John Deere Green! 

Ed started mowing at 8pm and got 95% of the way through the lawn by 9:15.  He said it was so much easier with the new machine and the lawn in darkness(my only viewing choice) looks great.  Thanks Mom for convincing him to get a new machine, maybe you won't have to cut our grass any more!!

The Northern Migration

So we are here in our lovely new to us home and we really really love it.  There are still some lingering boxes in the main parts of the house but for the most part we do know where most things are. 

The journey north started 2.5 weeks ago; I had to attend a leadership course in Atlanta at the end of the week prior to the movers starting the following Monday so I camped out in our "furnished and staged" yet non- functional Atlanta house.  The fridge had been unplugged and the pantry emptied so it was mostly like living in a hotel, just that it was our house.  I found myself spending most of my time at home on the front porch with our neighbors....I didn't realize how much I had missed outside time with those that know me!

The weekend was great for many many reasons.  First I got to spend some quality time with the dear friends we are leaving behind in Atlanta.  Ed arrived to join me on Sunday after 3 days of solo parenting and we had plans of making some last shopping runs in Atlanta but joyfully spent most of our weekend on living room sofas saying goodbyes to the people that made Atlanta so special for us. If you are one of those folks you really really are special and will be missed.  Secondly I had an entire day in Atlanta for myself!!!  It was great doing what I wanted to do when I wanted it for an entire day; of course GE took part of that time while I got caught up on work stuff after 2 solid days of training; but after that I hit the mall, nail salon, and dinner with some special ladies.

Then the drama began; first our moving company had called the Friday before to tell me that they weren't going to start our move until Tuesday instead of the originally planned Monday.  Now this sent me into a panic for a few reasons:  1) We had to be back in Virginia on Thursday at 3pm for the closing on our new home and 2) We have never had a move run on time and know very few people who had.  Our move to Atlanta 6 years ago had Ed and Abbie dog pulling an all nighter road trip to Atlanta to make our closing on the Atlanta home.   Not something I nor Ed wanted to repeat.....  I tried my best arguing with the moving company and insisting that it was going to take every minute of the planned time.  The company agreed to note my concerns and check in more frequently to make sure we met our closing time.  So off we went to work on Monday trying to remain calm knowing that things were going to be tight....very tight. 

Tuesday morning the truck arrived on schedule but with only 3 persons: 2 solid looking guys and 1 lady.  Now I am all for gender equality and probably more adamant on this topic than some but when it comes to moving furniture some male brawn is needed....so this team did not make me feel we were going to hit the road in time.  The first day(Tuesday) they didn't even get completed with packing the house. They did inform me though that they were picking up 2 more local people for Wednesday so there was hope :)  Needless to say it was down to the wire getting that truck loaded...and of course a typical Atlanta thunderstorm hit at about 5pm that required all the garage items to be carried up through the basement vs through the backyard.  Ed had to join in with the team to get it done 1 hr after the deadline I had given the team. 

Day 1: not much made it on the truck


So we hit the road at 7pm in our 1 way rental car packed with flammables, aerosols, plants, and paint(moving co won't take these things).  Our desire was to get some road behind us in the 7 hour journey to Virginia.  Now recall the "God is in the details" posts because it hit me when I realized how tight our timeline was going to be that we should spend the night in Greenville, SC which is about 2.5 hours north of Atlanta.  Now it just happens that our best friends from "life #1" in Roanoke live in Greenville, SC so isn't it fitting that on our return journey to VA that we did an overnight pit stop with them? After a rather somber, drizzling trip up I-85 it was uplifting to be greeted by folks that understood where we were headed. 

Pulling away...you can't see the weepy eyes through the camera!

Needless to say we made the closing and in fact were about 30 minutes early.  We signed our life away for the next 30 years(again) got our keys and headed to back to our apartment to get some essentials and go check out our place but instead crashed for about 2 hours.  The stress of the past week had taken the best of us and looking back on it would continue to for about 5 days more so this rest was definitely needed!

Unloading that truck the next morning(Friday) was a slowwwww process.  It seemed like they spent all morning on garage and basement stuff(Ed pitched in again because it became clear it was taking forever and that stuff is his....lots of it ).  I was just itching to get my hands on some boxes that had critical content....like the kitchen boxes.  Those didn't come off the truck until 6pm....no energy left but tried to unpack as much of it as I had the energy for.  The team left at 8pm.  The next day started with the team headed to our apartment to pack it up then unload it to our new house.  It again took a full day; the team left at 7:30pm.  Kitchen stuff again was last to unload.  Our morale was very low because we were swimming in a sea of boxes despite the team's help setting up beds and unpacking some items.  The kids were returning with grandparents in tow to help the next day and we couldn't even find where our underwear were to take a shower.....  Having moved from essentially 3 locations(1 house, 1 apartment, and 1 storage unit) was making for a confusing mess.

Sunday morning we woke up with sore feet but an energized spirit; we were excited to show our kids their new home so we kicked it into overdrive after some coffee and breakfast and got the place somewhat live able by 4pm.  Then of course the dread of returning to work on Monday set in.  I had 2 sets of high level guests coming Monday staying through Wednesday and Ed had to figure out how to get his computer set back up and find his desk to re-start remote work Monday morning in the sea of boxes that had piled into his office.

Needless to say the kids loved the place; or should I say they loved being reunited with their toys.  Before we had even gotten through the first floor tour C asked to see her room.  She is so excited to be back in her big "princess bed" and Little Man is sleeping fine solo in his own room again. 

Now the real kicker for the kids was their swing set and that is why G-Dad was here for the installation.  It took a few days but we saved a significant chunk of money with G-Dad's efforts and the "love factor" included in the installation is huge; C will always remember G-Dad building that for her(with Papa and G-Mama's help) and I know G-Dad will remember C's exclamation of "I love it" when she arrived home to it complete on Wednesday evening. 

Adding a little splash to the ride in their new play-yard

So in addition to the transition, Friday July 1 was our 11 year wedding anniversary so my parents gratefully spent 1 more day with us doing 1 more project and providing babysitting for a date night: Mom continued to pull the weeds that are threatening to take over our house(morning glories go away!) while Dad and Ed(despite the anniversary) scraped paint, sealed windows and repainted the back entrance to our house which had been totally neglected the past 6 years.  Ed and I still got the opportunity to have a wonderful dinner out at a restaurant owned by our former neighbors.  The food was honestly as good as any I have had at any Atlanta restaurant and it was only 1/2 mile from our home! Roanokers check it out Rockfish

It has been a great 11 years with my best friend; our life has been a great adventure and we are both so excited to see what is in store for us next!  Happy 4th of July....a future post will detail the coming block party!!

We will not be sporting these in our 4th of July parade tomorrow.  Ed pointed out that velvet hats in 90 degree heat likely wouldn't be fully utilized!

One final note: our moving company is sending a check to compensate Ed for his "extra efforts" to keeping us on schedule.  They were very embarrassed a customer had to help with their work.  They also admitted our load was around 20% over the weight estimated for us.....just as we had said ;)