Pictures Just for Fun

In the mad rush of life...or perhaps pure laziness...I don't post pictures as often as I'd like. My internet (thank you AT&T) has been getting slower by the week and uploading takes for...ev...er. Seriously not kidding. At times it reminds me of the good ol' days of AOL when dial-up was the coolest thing ever. So as I sit here watching a movie, I figure why not do a picture upload.

Dressing up - princess style - is the big thing these days.

Finger painting. I have to pass the time  for seven hours while the kids are at school.

Nate the Great Pancake day at school with Abby.

Grandma got new kittens. This is Simon.

This is Dusty.

And MJ - Marvin Junior (after Grandma's cat, Marvin).

Josh's 40th birthday. Lemon Bars instead of cake.

Luke and Leia.

Blood Moon Eclipse

 

We got to experience an amazing thing last night. A rare event happened in the night sky. The moon went into full eclipse and last night it was a blood moon. The moon was a beautiful red and then “disappeared” for awhile. I decided to let the kiddos stay up and watch. Oh sure, they had to get up early the next day, but sometimes these things are worth it. They loved sitting outside in our lawn chairs with blankets and taking turns with the binoculars. It was spectacular to watch. What a fantastic memory to share with my wee ones. And where was Josh, you ask? Inside. He was highly unimpressed. Strange.

Growing Responsibilities

This summer has been wet. Rain, rain, rain. The drought is officially over. With rain, came grass. So much grass. I don’t think I’ve ever had to mow so many times. Oddly enough, I ended up doing something a bit out of the ordinary. A couple of kids asked me at the beginning of summer if I wanted my lawn mowed. With the house on the market, it gets a bit crazy with the upkeep and so I decided to help a couple of young entrepreneurs with their summer job and let them mow my front yard quite a few times over the summer vacation. Good kids. They did a great job. I even made them cookies and boy did they love that. That being said, our backyard was too complicated with the pool and the trampoline and everything inbetween, that I kept up the back on my own. Alex kept asking why he couldn’t mow and in the end, I had no reason. He’s old enough. Heck, I was out on the riding mower mowing acreage by his age. Why not? He actually got a kick our of the responsibility. Next summer I’m going to pay him some allowance to mow a bit more often. At least I think I’m going to pay him.

In Honor of Grandma

Evie and I broke out something I swore I’d never find a use for when I got it. My mother-in-law gave me a little teapot set some time ago and I never thought much of it. I’m not a tea-drinker. Never have been. But she was an avid tea-addict, not to put too fine a point on it. One of the things that she loved to do with her grandchildren, was enjoy a good old-fashioned tea party. The kids loved it. When she passed away, that tradition was sure to be lost. But Evie decided she wanted to have a tea party one day and I went ahead and obliged. But I didn’t just pretend. No, no, no. We went full throttle. It was fun, truth be told. I broke out all sorts of goodies to enjoy and we had “tea”. It was actually chocolate milk. I hope Cindy was looking down from Heaven and joining us. Evie never got to really have a proper tea party with Grandma. I sure do miss having her around with the kids.

Luke & Evie

Every morning, Evie starts out her day by opening up the sunroom and and calling for her good buddy, Luke. Each day, she goes out there to just enjoy his company and he loves her for it. I sneak out there everyday and peek around the door to see them lying together. It’s super cute and just adore it. What a great relationship they have together. I hope she enjoys looking back at this one day and seeing how special they were together. On that note, I seriously do love cats. Maybe we need more. Hmm…

Introducing Video Games

In our house, we don't exactly have a lot of video games being played. The kids got Kindles a few years ago from their grandparents (Josh's side) and, for the most part, that was the extent of their video gaming experience. As the years go on, I become more aware of how many kids these days spend hours on end playing game systems. It came down to the fact that we were actually the only people I knew that did not have a game system to play on. Well, we owned a Playstation 2 that has some issues with actually working, and have some very old systems that all have their issues (no working controllers and the like). But nothing was hooked up and available for anyone to play on. We'd go visit my nieces and they'd break out their Wii and start playing on it. My kids would try to play but basically just stood there clueless as could be. Then Alex started going over to friends' houses and all of his friends would be these complete experts on Xboxes. Alex would get his butt kicked trying to play because...once again...he was clueless. My point?

I started feeling a little bad.

Oh I know that video games are a privilege - not a right. But I really did feel like I was keeping my kids in the dark. So my brother-in-law gave us his old Xbox and Playstation2 the last time we visited. Do you know who was the first one to play (with much excitement, nonetheless)? Josh. Alex is trying to learn the controls and doing alright at it. He's super pumped to play Halo "just like his friends". I don't have the heart to tell him that his friends are probably playing Halo 5 on much nicer systems than we have. I grew up being super awesome with video games, and heck! I miss the Playstation2 at times. So I guess it's time to introduce video games to my sheltered children. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's been in the house for a couple of weeks now and Alex has only played once. (He's been grounded...naturally.) Abby has zero interest in the "boy" games, so it looks like we need to go game shopping. And Evie? Evie is happy if she has a control in her hand (unhooked of course). I really want to break out my old Ratchett and Clank games for PSP2. But I'm scared that once I start, I'll get so addicted that I'll never get anything accomplished again. And the last thing I need, is a reason to waste  kill time.

State Fair 2015

We actually decided to give the State Fair a try again this year. The State Fair was always a favorite time for my dad. He loved (and I do mean LOVED) getting all the freebies he could get his hands on. Once upon a time, he would come home with so many bags of stuff that it was nearly impossible to hold by day’s end. It would take him endless hours to go through it all. I remember him coming out of his room with handfuls of treasures (pencils, pens and the like). It’s always been a great time filled with wonderful memories. In 2013, we had our last State Fair with Dad. If I’d only  known, I’d have taken more pictures and more video. I look back at that day and wish I could live it again. Where is my dang time machine?

Fast forward to 2014 – we didn’t go. I just couldn’t bear the idea of going without Dad. It broke my heart to even try and think of it. The kids wanted to go but I couldn’t do it. I would have spent the entirety of the day crying. This year, however, the kids asked yet again. Mom said she was ready to go and I said I was too. I lied. I wasn’t ready. But sometimes, you just have to force yourself to move on. So we went. Yes, we had fun. I did, really. But Dad’s lack of presence was hard to miss. Every time I went into a building, my heart hurt a little. But I pushed past it. Alex had a lot of memories resurface. I think he was okay though. I’m glad to say that I forced myself to go. But we ended up skipping a few places that only Dad liked. The Fish and Game building was near impossible to visit, as it was his favorite. It’s been two years, and I still cry at times like this.

The State Fair…memories and more memories. Wish I could share them all with you, but then I’d be writing a book. As for this year, the kids had a blast. It was our first year without the wagon or stroller. Evie held her own just fine and no one got lost. The kids even got to make their own hula hoops at the energy expo building out of Flecks pipe. We ended with a nice traditional meal at McDonalds and a long drive home with sleepy kids. Miraculously, Evie stayed awake the whole time. Not sure how that happened. It was a good day. A hard day…but a good one.

Hot Cocoa Thief

Evie has a new dirty little habit. The funny thing about it, is that it’s all my fault. I had to give up my evening hot cocoa thanks to Barrett’s esophagus. So, now if I want to enjoy that luxury, I must drink it in the morning. I don’t drink it every morning, but perhaps three days a week (if I’m lucky). Evie became curious. She wanted to know what it was and it was only a matter of time before she wanted to try it. Trying it once was all it took. The girl is hooked. After I drink the top half of the mug, she sits by me and waits for her ‘cool’ sips. Then, I happily give her the last inch to drink all on her own. That little stinker can’t get enough cocoa and it’s as cute as can be when she drinks the those final dregs of slurpy cocoa sludge at the bottom. Don’t you think she’s cute with her cocoa-stache? 

Big Foot

Nine. That’s how old this kid will be in a few short months. He’s so big and I’m really not sure how I feel about this, but we can share the same shoes now. I decided to do a comparison shot and had him put one foot next to mine. It’s almost impossible to tell which foot belongs to who. I can’t believe how big this kid is getting. At this rate, he’ll outgrow me in height by middle school. He’s got less than a foot to go and he’ll match me, inch for inch. Crazy, isn’t it? To think he came into this world just 9 pounds.