Friday, August 27, 2010

Friday Night Leftovers...Our Life in Pictures


We typically feel like summer has gone by too fast, but this year it seems to have moved at warp speed. How am I the Mama of a Kindergartner already?

Open House
Practice Bus Ride

The Three Amigos

Eating the Rainbow
Oh, how we will miss the weekly farmer's market!

Lots of Dress Up

And building

Celebrating 11 years with Salem

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Have you seen my house lately? Sad, but true!

Also true...and look at him STILL talking!

My sweet boy

Arrrgh! It's a pirate raid.

Get the fire extinguisher!

I have no idea...

Farmer's Market
How to enjoy the leftovers:
1. Write out all the random thoughts swimming in your head that don't quite constitute a blog entry of their own.
2. Copy and paste the Leftovers photo onto your post (copy photo, upload to your post).
3. Link back to The Simple Life.
4. Enter your blog name and the permalink to your post into the comments section.
5. Visit all the other leftovers and leave your love over the weekend.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Friday Night Leftovers...the REALLY late version


It's been a crazy busy week- our first full one back from vacation, grandparents visiting, and celebrating my birthday. Woo-hoo! I am reminded how thankful I am for true friends and the love I've been surrounded by during this past week. What a wonderful time it has been! Here are some random, leftover updates:


1. C completely embarrassed me recently when we were having dinner out and a larger man, sitting by himself, had multiple plates of chicken bones around him. As we walked by his table to leave, C announced (innocently), "Wow, that man must like chicken! How many chickens do you think he ate?" To which the man turned and replied "FOUR!" Yikes! C and I had a chat about manners on our way to the car.


2. We recently had the opportunity to hear Joel and Victoria Osteen speak and what a powerful experience it was. I'll make it another post to go into more detail, but what caught me is "what are the weeds in your life?" What do you need to let go of? Great point to ponder.


3. The hubs went all out for my bday celebration...not only are we doing some fishing (you remember, he spilled the beans early on that one), we're also headed down to our favorite beach for a weekend while my parents take C on a trip. Sweet!


4. One of my dearest friends surprised me with a birthday dinner last night...and everything cooked from scratch, clean eating. Wow- I feel loved! We had such a nice time catching up, letting the kids play, etc. that it was one of those evenings where you wanted to linger a little longer around the outdoor fire.


5. We've been asked to join in a wedding in St. Thomas next year! The wedding will be on the island, but as part of a 9 day, island hopping cruise. Sounds good to me! Now I just need a money tree to grow in the backyard, since we're already heading to Aruba for a week.


6. The lake weekend is on....just a few more days to go!


7. I love a good Tyler Perry movie, but even more so than the storyline of overcoming obstacles and brokenness, I love me some MADEA! "Ma to the DEA!" Madea Goes to Jail was on last night and I laughed so hard I thought my sides were going to split. You can see a clip of her here.


8. The sheppy got his sutures out on Saturday; no more cone of shame.


9. The new fish's name is "Nicky-the-Camel" fish. Sometimes it's "Nicky-the-Alligator" fish. As one friend recently pointed out, either way, it sounds like the fish is in the mob. You've heard of made men? We've got a made fish!


10. Looking for a good end-of-summer read? David Baldaci is still fantastic!


11. Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean that you SHOULD. Just because you can wear a bikini, doesn't mean that you should. Google "fat woman in bikini" to see that premise in action. Well, just because you can build a mosque near Ground Zero does not mean that you should. Good luck finding the union workers to build it.


How to enjoy the leftovers:
1. Write out all the random thoughts swimming in your head that don't quite constitute a blog entry of their own.
2. Copy and paste the Leftovers photo onto your post (copy photo, upload to your post).
3. Link back to The Simple Life.
4. Enter your blog name and the permalink to your post into the comments section.
5. Visit all the other leftovers and leave your love over the weekend.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

A Comedy of Errors


Well, if I cannot laugh at how the day went, I'd surely be crying by now...

Last night was the eve of my birthday and I was driving home from a business meeting about 90 miles away. A co-worker and I stopped at a gas station to grab a drink for the road, and as I was leaving, plowed into a concrete post, that was NOT visible from any of my mirrors, as it sat so low to the ground. Bumper is damaged and will need repair since I dented it some and scratched of the paint.

Woke up on my birthday thinking "it's a new day." The hubs surprised me with breakfast in bed, but not just any b-in-b...Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a hard roll. For my Jersey friends, you know he rocks. Where did he find Taylor ham? Nan and Pop came down to celebrate with me, as they do every year, and they always bring me some Taylor ham. Start of my day got even better when C ran in with a homemade birthday card and showered me with hugs and kisses.




I took C to camp for the day, and it all went downhill from there...

I didn't have time to get a shower before shuttling him off, so I thought no big deal and I'd get one later, just threw on some denim capris and a tie-dyed t-shirt, hair a little crazy, no makeup, and flip flops. Camp drop-off was fine, I returned home to realize the dog, who recently had surgery, had somehow removed his cone of shame, and now it was missing...and the dog had chewed out some of his stitches.

Spend 20 minutes roaming the backyard looking for the collar, crawled under the nasty deck where he likes to hide, praying a snake, mouse, etc. was not waiting for me, and still could not find the thing. Walk around the yard one more time and find it wedged behind C's playhouse. I swear the GSD has outsmarted me and hid it back there. Called the vet re: what to do about the stitches.

My company extends me the privilege to work from home, but now I'm late signing on, having played search party for the cone of shame. I get connected and had a call with an exec first thing...and just as the call gets interesting, I hear a loud boom and the line goes dead. Thank you, Mr. Utility Workers on my street, for blowing the transformer. Your time estimate of "it's gonna be awhile" was oh so helpful.

Put GSD back in his cone of shame, grab laptop and cell phone and head to parents house to connect. Cannot connect to their wireless network (Ft. Knox anyone?) and realize I need a MAC address to pre-register on their network. Spend almost an hour on the phone with India, being bounced from tech to tech, to determine how to locate a MAC address. In hindsight, Google gave me directions in seconds. Grab my MAC address, go to sign on, and I still cannot register with their network...to which my mom replies, "Oh, oops...I forgot we can only register five devices." Since five were already registered, I decided to bump off my brother's devices, but alas, it would not allow such. So, at least 1.5 hours wasted at the parents' house.

I could not go to a local company office, dressed as I was, so I called the library to confirm they have free wi-fi, and they do. Drive to library, ask if there is a conference space I can use since I need to make calls. Here's how that went (gotta love local government):

Librarian: "Do you have a reservation for the room?"

Me: "No, is it free?"

L: "It's reserved at 1:30pm."

Me: "Ok, so it's 11:30 now and I can be out in 2 hours."

L: "You need to make a reservation."

Me (silent voice in my head): WTF?

So I proceed to fill out a lengthy reservation (party of one), so the librarian can open the room and let me in, then lecture me about leaving everything EXACTLY as I found it. I still cannot get connected, gather up my laptop and belongings, head back to the librarian to ask the secret to connect and she points me in the direction of the secret code. Go back to room, set back up, and librarian returns with another form I must complete when I am finished using the room. Really?! Get connected to the internet, but VPN will still not connect.

By this time I am on a conference call via my hubs' cell (mine died) and trying to connect. A coworker on the call told me another coworker nearby had room in a spare bedroom office, and I could work there. Great! Turn in my forms, pack-up, and head for the car, doing a big safety no-no: keys in pocket, cell phone cradled on ear/shoulder, carrying too much stuff.

I was parked near a tree line and a HUGE, I mean HUGE, guy comes running at me. At this point I drop the phone, put the laptop out as a shield, and yell for him not to take a step closer to me. He says he just wants to talk to me, I yell not to approach me, gather my stuff, and back my way to my vehicle, watching to make sure he does not approach. As I open my car he turns around to say, "I wasn't going to hurt you; I just wanted to give you this."

It was a Watchtower...so here I am the crazy lady in the parking lot yelling for a Jehovah's Witness to back off. I think his approach may need some fine tuning, but I feel awful I've offended him. If you've taken self-defense training for a long time, it kicks in, and I still operate by "my safety first, your feelings second."

Get back on work call, assure everyone I'm ok and head home to see if power is on. Pull up to cross road and just as I do, bells and whistles go off- train is coming through. Sit through train crossing. Stop home, still no power 4 hours later. Head to Chick-Fil-A to grab lunch, line wrapped around building. Head to coworker's house- and thankfully, get connected and set-up. And thankfully, she looks like I do today.

Then the work calls continue and they were their own form of entertainment.

Receive reminder call from doc that son has 8:15am appt. tomorrow...not on my calendar, totally forgot.

Spent years swimming competetively and now, at 35, have my very first case of athlete's foot, courtesy of our Florida vacation? Nice. Thanks.

If I could ever get pregnant again, I'm now "advanced maternal age."

Finally get home, shower, get ready for birthday dinner- which was great. More to post from vacation, birthday, etc.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Friday Night Leftovers



1. My husband is a terrible secret keeper- he just can't do it. True to form, he burst out with telling me my birthday present two nights ago. *Sigh*...so close!

2. Birthday present totally rocks- going on a fishing trip (yes, that's what I wanted for my birthday).

3. I need a laundry fairy to come help with all of this post-vacation unpacking!

4. "Everybody's talking 'bout a day up at the lake..." Dan Zanes had it right and we are looking forward to a weekend at the lake, with friends that are really more like family to us. The countdown is on...two weeks to go! Mitchell- I'm bringing Cranium because there was nothing like seeing Rudy act out "tornado" and I see some late night fishing in our future.

5. I love that I live in the same neighborhood I've lived in since the 6th grade. Neighbors I've known for 25 years stopped by today to make sure our dog is home and ok, since a GSD was found roaming. There's something to be said for those community connections.

6. Re: the lost dog, there is NO WAY the hubs will go for another sheppy around here.

7. When asked my age, my son says that I am 25...and therefore, he is my hero.

8. My grandparents never miss my birthday; they are arriving from NJ this weekend and Nana will bake my birthday cake. Spoiled lately?

9. It's almost market day and after being on vacation, I cannot wait for the farmer's market and all of that fresh, unprocessed, chemical-free food.

10. When C and his buddy were playing around in the pool and C dunked him, we asked why in the world he did that. To which he replied, "I baptized him! You know, like John baptized Jesus!" We had to ask C to not baptize his friends in the pool.

How to enjoy the leftovers:
1. Write out all the random thoughts swimming in your head that don't quite constitute a blog entry of their own.
2. Copy and paste the Leftovers photo onto your post (copy photo, upload to your post).
3. Link back to The Simple Life.
4. Enter your blog name and the permalink to your post into the comments section.
5. Visit all the other leftovers and leave your love over the weekend.

Vacation Adventures: Day 2

Sunday morning we awoke to gloriously sunny skies and bid Savannah adieu. Parting is such sweet sorrow, but we have time scheduled in Savannah this fall, so that made up for not having enough time to traipse around the city this go 'round.



On the road again, we found a peach stand at exit 49 and there is nothing like the sticky, sweet, dribbly goodness of fresh Georgia peaches, just off the trees!


We finally made it to Florida!


Are we there yet? YES!


What impressed the kids immediately...


Telling the kids we ARE vacationing together, here, at this resort...


Aaargh!


Resort (notice the rainbow)


Dinner, waiting for the magician to perform


We visit Orlando annually, but this was our first stay at Marriott's Harbour Lake and we would definitely return. While Marriott's Cypress Harbour is still my favorite (right across the street from Harbour Lake), the pirate ship, slides, water play areas, and pirate theming at all pools was a huge draw for C. After a week packed full of theme parks and friends, when asked what the best part of the trip was, C responded, "the pirate ship." And that was our one requirement for a resort this year. After visiting Myrtle Beach last year and staying at a Starwood resort with a pirate ship, C was hooked. We were surprised he asked to return to Myrtle Beach, since we usually go to OBX or HHI for beach time. Digging deeper, it turns out he really doesn't care that it's MB, he just wanted a pirate ship and Harbour Lake delivered. The staff was friendly and helpful and the Key West theming/architecture was a nice touch. This is definitely a resort we'd recommend for those with younger kids.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Vacation Adventures: Day 1

Our wanderlust is insatiable and we get pure joy out of surprising our little guy with travel, and he has been surprised many, many times over the past five years. We struck again with a 10 day adventure in Florida, complete with our best friends. The boys had no idea they were vacationing together, which made it all sweeter. Here are some highlights, more to come...



The boys goofing around as we got on the road...C had no idea where we were going and B insisted we were going camping at the beach. Little did they know!


Opening gifts from Nonna and Poppy

How can you not stop?

Best buddies


Pedro


2010



2009
What a difference a year makes! I need to dig out this same photo from 2007 and 2008.


Savannah welcomed us with a beautiful sunset