It's a wonder we go boating anymore....

Watch out squirrels here come B and G-Dad...note the safety glasses.

Friends, this past weekend reminded me of the past boating adventures I have had with my Dad in our nearly 34 years together.  Some of them are laughable and some of them are down right dangerous but most of all they are memorable.  Each individual story could take up an entire post of which I wish to do but do not have the time for. 

Disclaimer: this post has been approved for release by G-Dad !

The activity that sparked my memory is we took the kids out on a first motor boat ride with G-Dad during our visit home this past weekend.  After you read to the end of this blog you may wonder why we did such a thing, but something in my family just keeps us coming back to rivers and lakes. 

In my childhood we had a boat for most of my memorable years.  My parents had one when they were expecting me even. Now I realize our boats were not lavish by any means; they were mostly a recreational vehicle for my Dad to go bass fishing in and occasionally we would use the boat for family fun on the weekends.  Our first boat I remember wasn't much; it was a fishing only boat but it did go fast enough that my mom and I both learned to water ski on it(my mom did this to impress my Dad I am sure of it).  I think it only seated 4 people max and you were in trouble if the wake got too big on the lake.  But at that time in my life I realized none of this; I was just happy to be on the water and having some summer fun.

After 3 or 4 years my Dad realized he needed to upsize the boat and he found a fish and ski that gave us some additional space and made us a little more legit for skiing.  Boats were so much in my blood from these formative years that Ed and I owned a boat for about a year during our first years in VA.  We learned they were a lot of work and not nearly as much fun to own as they are to visit; so we sold it pretty quickly.  Honestly once the kids are older we will probably be back in the game....keep reading.

The boats themselves are not the memories; the experiences are.  Among some of the minor  "situations" we encountered were many batteries not being charged(if you aren't aware that means you get stuck when you try to start the engine), multiple thunderstorms weathered under bridges while still in the water, oh and don't forget "ALWAYS put the plug in the boat!"

Some of the more major incidents were boating in our "original" boat on 4th of July on the Ohio River to watch Billy Ray Cyrus(during his early hit "Achy Breaky Heart" years).  Getting there wasn't much of a problem but boating back up the Ohio in the dark with barge traffic after the show was a little scary.  The Ohio isn't known for a debris free waterway. And for some reason we decided to do that again the next year and put my partially paralyzed grandfather on the boat with us....life jackets don't discriminate your physical handicaps right?  Needless to say we are all here today to tell the story(my late grandfather being the exception for other reasons than our boating adventures, RIP Papaw).

My mother reminded me this weekend of one particular Saturday morning fishing trip I took with my Dad.  That typically involved getting up at about 5am and freezing on the lake until the sun comes up; then standing and casting a fishing rod for hours on end, just what every teenager wants to do right?  That particular Saturday it rained the entire trip.  Now to my Dad this wasn't a problem as long as you have your rain gear, but to me as a 14 or 15 year old it was a major problem.  I kept asking if we could leave and was told time after time "Just one more cast".  Apparently when we got home I laid down and kissed the floor I was so happy to be home. 

The best and most dangerous of the boating stories is when we all ventured into the world of non-motorized craft.  Ed got the bug for whitewater and it spread in my family.  We didn't do anything over the top but enjoyed(and still enjoy) some Class II whitewater via canoe.  One Saturday on the Greenbrier River in WV we were having a great trip until the 100 yr flood waters came.  Ed and I were in one canoe and my Dad and his partner(my mom was smart enough to stay home) were on opposite sides of the river from each other.  The water started rising fast and Dad tried to ferry across the river solo to get Derek but in the course of doing so flipped his canoe.  The water kept rising and Ed and I tried to follow my Dad down river.  He must have swam at least a mile or more holding on to his borrowed canoe before we were able to reach him.  If he had stayed in the water any longer he would have been in some rather serious rapids and taken some tough hits.

So I tell you all this to share the experience of my children going on their first boat ride with G-Dad.  I know you are shocked we were brave enough to do it but it was uneventful; unless you count Ed's Atlanta Braves hat flying off in the wind to expose his "I work from home full time hair" :) as an incident.  We went slow at first but we did test out the speed and both the kids were scared at first but then began to love it.  C did ask at one point "Mommy can I have the iPad so I can watch a movie?"  Are you serious kid????  We have some work to do on C's love of the outdoors apparently.

After all the boating was said and done we had some cutie pie cousins over to my parents house to play.  They had a blast and somehow held their own parade complete with flutes, marching band and an American Flag.

The impromtu parade.....



with little brother pulling up the rear.  They had dropped Baby D by this point.





The crew ...


All said and done I wouldn't trade my childhood boating memories for anything my friends.  I hope you enjoy and laugh over similar stories in your family as much as we have.  I love you Dad!

Peaceful Easy Feeling

This blog post is quite overdue; after a peaceful mostly relaxing weekend this week has been quite full. 

Friday night I had a great time going out with a few ladies from my street.  It is really good to get to know our neighbors better because we had such a great neighborhood in Atlanta we are hoping for the same here.  What we did forget is that takes time and effort to build.  I know this sounds obvious; but making friends is work! 

Ed let B and I sleep in a bit on Saturday while he and C watched TV then we took probably our last trip to the pool for the season.  I don't know if I ever mentioned that our neighborhood pool is at the "Elks Club" and now Ed is a Elk.  Yep you read that right....most folks join for the pool as we did.  It has been a blast and finally C is getting used to the water and actually loves it.  By the time we left Saturday they both were sliding down the slide to Ed catching them in the water.  It was lots of fun to watch.

B enjoying his first "Push Up" shortly after this photo the whole thing fell out of the container onto the groud.  Not a good scene!

C's favorite food: Mexican!

Monday night we kept the fun rolling with a trip to see our local baseball team "The Salem Red Sox".  Some friends of ours had a box seat for the evening so we had fun adding to the numbers there and obviously enjoying some cotton candy....note the blue tongues.

In parting news....we have babies!!!  Baby koi that is.  The funny thing about this koi pond is #1 I would have never asked for a koi pond; who wants another danger in your yard with two little ones and #2 I don't really like fish and #3 the second week we lived in our house Abbie dog made this her swimming pool and we were all convinced the fish were dead.  So these fish have 3 strikes against them and yet they have reproduced.  We have gone from having 3 koi to now having 12!!!!  This picture isn't the greatest but it does give you an idea of our other pets' habitat!

Musings on Princes and Princesses

So my friends we are preparing for our first trip to Disney.  It isn't something we were really seeking out but I happened to win a silent auction stay for 2 nights at the Hitlon Bonnet Creek in Orlando for a steal of $100 last fall and it is going to expire in Oct if we don't get on with using it.  Remember last fall we lived within driving distance of Orlando and a quick trip down there for any reason for 2 nights seemed possible but all that changed this past Janurary. Secondly,  C is head over heals about princesses right now  so we have little excuse(thank you SkyMiles from China) not to take our 2011 family vacation at Magic Kingdom. 

Now Ed and I dig the beach; he actually gets antsy if he doesn't hit a beach at least once a year.  We have our own theory that Ed's draw to water is due to some distant lineage of sailing blood in Ed's Spanish ancestors combined with the Phillipine island culture.  So we were planning to hit a beach somewhere anyway once I got through the busy August season at work.  2 days at Disney and 3 days at the beach, including a day to celebrate my birthday(honestly now I don't really need any more of those); we are excited.

We have been prepping our princess: reading all the classic Disney stories we can, talking about who may or may not be at Magic Kingdom and she has been doing a bit more princess dress up than usual.  Now the downside of this comes for B.  She wants to play dress up and part of that fun includes dressing up Brother as a princess.  He has been complying with this "torture".

Now we aren't honestly concerned about this; but would prefer if he has some other sort of more masculine heros or at least dress up clothes.  He sometimes goes around the house wearing beads(provided by an older influence) and he wants his toe nails painted when I do C's.  Does anyone else with very close sister/brothers have similar issues?  Can anyone tell me don't worry about this just paint the kids toes and he'll come out fine??

Well today it hit us that we do in fact have some other dress up options for B but we will be buying him some sort of pirate get-up as soon as we can find it.  So we went back through the Halloween costumes and found C's costume from last year.   Ladies and Gentlemen introducing Prince Octopus, accompanied by Princess Fairy(Ma B she is still wearing this!).

The headgear didn't last too long but the cape of arms did....and he quickly realized he could torture his sister with at least 1 of the 8 arms....



On other news; we finally unpacked the last remaining group of boxes this weekend in the basement.  This missing Armour All tire shine, bike fork(Ed's stuff) and hot glue gun had gotten too much for some of us to bear....read Ed.  So we found some fun stuff we had been missing including our Play-Doh Cake Maker set which entertained the two little muchkins for at least an hour yesterday.  On the downside it did make a huge mess but that is why I am falling in love with my really old lineoleum flooring in our kitchen...who cares what happens to that stuff!!! Actually is it a love hate relationship, lets not lie.

The other home excitement this week is that our backyard fencing project is complete.  It is very comforting to be outside and know that no one can escape.  It doesn't look half-bad either.

All we need now is some cooler weather(which we have been getting..lovely!) to kill the mosquitoes so we can go outside without 3 layers of OFF. 

A Day in the Life of......me

This blog up to this point has been about good things...fun times, memorable experiences, and story telling.  Well my friends it is time to get real.  The past 3 days have been pretty difficult around here; not in any way I honestly should be complaining about.  We have shelter, food, jobs everything we need.  Sometimes life just makes you want to collapse in exhaustion despite your blessings.

Lets get real with a little timeline of today: 

5:45 AM alarm goes off, I immediately reset it to 6:15 because B was awake every 30 minutes screaming in pain until 3am. It was the 2nd night of the past 3 we went through that.  

6:10am I actually get out of bed because I recall I have a meeting at 7:30 to be on and be a coherent participant in.  Shower(scrub the poison ivy for the 4th time...slowly getting better), makeup, dress and try to sneak down the stairs before waking anyone up.  We are out of ground coffee so I resign to drinking Folgers at work to try and be on time and grab a frozen breakfast sandwich out of the freezer of which I eat half frozen 1 hour later.  Oh yeah, I didn't pack my lunch the night before because Ed and I were exhausted and it was all we could do to get dinner made, cleaned up and the kids lunches packed the prior evening before we collapsed to be awoken every 30 minutes.  In an effort not to blow $8 on lunch I threw some very old rice into the Tupperware with the night before leftover pork chop.  Throw all this into my briefcase and in the car by 7:05AM.

7:30 contentious meeting.

8am exhausting meeting where I learn my supplier who is already behind to scheduled shipments is pushing out 2 more containers 2 weeks(not good).

8:50 call nurse at Drs office get appointment for 1:50 for screaming child referenced above. 

9am meeting to discuss tax implications of moving inventory from China to Hong Kong and back to China....confusing but looking hopeful. 

9:30am meeting with corporate auditors, walk #1 from back of plant to front of plant. 

11am impromptu mtg w/ supplier I forgot was visiting today, corralled key players for impromptu discussion with said supplier

12pm impromptu lunch(forgoing the old rice and pork chops) with supplier shoving them on top of car seats, leftover goldfish, french fries, etc that are in my extremely dirty kid-mobile of an SUV.  Walk #2 from back of plant to front of plant

1:05 pm a little late to my scheduled review with an employee of which I cut short by 1.5 hours to take B to the Dr

1:20 pm leave office to take B to Dr.  Walk #3 from back of plant to front of plant

1:30 pm pick up sleeping child from school. Head to Dr and WAIT for 45 mins with very fussy kid in exam room.  B is diagnosed with Thrush which explains his behavior for the past 4 days.  We knew it couldn't just be teething.  Drive through CVS drop off prescription, drive through McDonalds to get B a milkshake(thought he might actually drink that, instead he ends up wearing it while in the car) and myself a McCafe to get through the rest of the day. Back to CVS to pick up meds

3:25 drop B back off at school(he isnt contagious) and give him dose of his meds.

3:35 start 3pm mtg from blackberry while walking back to my office. Have good conversation with helpful colleague

4 pm walk #4 from back of plant to front of plant to meet corporate auditor who doesn't show to mtg

4:30 pm contentious mtg on an unresolved issue that I must resolve.  What a way to end the day !

5:10 walk #5 from back of plant to front of plant.  Leaving earlier than usual to get kiddos...seemed like the teachers weren't so happy I brought Mr Sicky back to them at 3:30.  Feeling guilty.

5:15 call Ed on way home to beg for pizza for dinner

5:40 arrive home to awesome husband pulling in driveway with pizza.  Happy kids, happy wife, tired wife.

What does tomorrow bring? I'm not sure I have the energy to ask right now but that is my life folks.  The beauty and ugliness of "having it all" right there for you to see. 

Here's a little fun pic to leave you with from over the weekend.  We got to hang out with some old friends at Smith Mountain Lake Sunday(B was starting to exhibit signs of sickness Sunday but we weren't willing to forfeit the fun). 

Safety first on the dock..there was at most 3'' of water in there

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!!