Taking 2012 out in style...snort!

You know, Jeremy & I are a really exciting couple that likes to live on the edge.  Want to know what fabulous plans we have for this New Year's Eve?  After tucking the kids in bed this evening, we tore the laundry room apart so we could start a mini-renovation project.  For the last hour and a half, we've been working on taking the cabinets down and moving them up farther on the wall in order to make room for a shelf below the cabinets.  The cabinets were SUPPOSED to be moved all the way to the ceiling.  However, we discovered that the walls or the cabinet are not quite straight enough to do that.  So, we are calling it "good enough" with moving them up a good 10 inches.  (For the record, the cabinet has been moved and Jeremy is currently working on replacing and tightening all of the screws.)

I just do not want to start another house project right now.  At the same time, I want to get the laundry room done because of two reasons:  1.  it is the only room left on the main floor that hasn't been painted and 2.  because I really really REALLY want to get some kind of a counter installed in there.

For whatever reason, the cabinets in the laundry room (and basement bathroom, for that matter) are of a different (and very ugly) finish from the rest of the cabinets in the house.  So, as part of this project, I will be painting the cabinets (hence the reason I wasn't too scared to move them -- I can caulk and paint over any damage we might inflict).

The worst part about this project is that we can't just tear it apart and leave it that way until it is finished.  I have laundry to do...lots of it.  So, the washing machine will need hooked back up tonight.  And then it will need pulled out again to put the shelf in, and when we put the counter in and when we paint...it is just a vicious cycle.

I'm betting this project will take a good 8 weeks to finish, as I can't see having enough time to finish it all at once (either because I just don't have time to work on the project or because I have to clean up the project to do laundry).

Here is to hoping that 2013 has a more exciting end than 2012.  Happy New Year's everyone...may 2013 be a blessed year for you and the ones you love!

A little pearl from Ross...

We had the B. side of the family in to celebrate Christmas this week.  This morning Ross asked Grandpa for a glass of milk.  Grandpa asked Ross if was supposed to drink out of the little glass cups.  Ross responded, "Yes, except when they are all dirty and then we use the big ones or on holidays when we get to use the Chinese ones."  I think he got the "good china" mixed up with "made in China".

Eh...it has been a while!

I was reminded this weekend that there are actually a handful of people out there who read my blog and are wondering why I haven't been posting.  Sigh...I mean to do it.  I just haven't had time.  Since school has started, I've been helping Jeremy in his office and volunteering at the school, which leaves little time for much else.

Truthfully, I wish I could find the time to keep this updated for me as much as for anyone else.  This is a good safe place for me to record all those things the kids do that you think you won't forget but never seem to remember (you know, when I look at Jeremy at the end of the day and say, "Shoot, what was it that Ross said that was so funny?).

So, for today, I'll leave you with our most recent family photos (taken in November, of course).  This particular photo shoot was a bit trying.  The wind was blowing like crazy and I discovered that, while I had packed my tripod, I had left the widget (for lack of a better word) that actually attaches the camera to the tripod at home in the drawer (and we were in Ohio).  The solution was to set Jeremy's iPhone on top of the tripod and then set the camera on top of the iPhone and then pray like mad that the wind wouldn't blow the entire set-up over.  It worked out pretty well as the cover on Jeremy's iPhone was a kind of grippy and kept the camera from slipping off.  We ended up breaking the tripod however, so no more family photo shoots until I splurge for a new one.  And typing this has just now reminded me of that fact, so I guess we will be missing our obligatory family-in-front-of-the-mantel picture that we take every year on Christmas Eve.  

If you are wondering, the background for the picture is the old barn at my parents house (though come to think of it, why would you be wondering about it?).  I quite like the effect and might have to use it again...

(And just because he makes the best faces, one of Ross!)

Are you happy now, Uncle Thomas?  ;-)

Good gracious, has it been busy!

Has it really been that long since I posted?  I swear I have been writing daily blog posts in my head, though I'm not sure what good that does me.

Last weekend Jeremy & I headed off to NYC.  Many many thanks to my fabulous mother-in-law for watching our kids (who seemed to have just as good of a time as we did).  It was a great weekend, with the exception of a lot of rain on Friday.  We were soaked by the time we got to the hotel on Friday (Jeremy insisted we take the subway, instead of a taxi).

After dumping our luggage, we wander around a bit.  In spite of the rain, it was nice because foot traffic was light.  We took a long walk to check out the Laduree store for some macarons.  We were supposed to do this when we were in Paris a few years ago, but it just didn't happen.  I was in HEAVEN!  It is beautiful with all the rows of brightly colored cookies!  And I must say, my macarons hold up pretty well compared to theirs (and they don't cost $4 a cookie!).

Look at those (slightly melted because they got too warm) beauties!  

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Fortunately, the weather cleared in the afternoon before we took a round trip ride on the Staten Island Ferry.  It was great (both because of the views and the price -- it is free)!  

 We also did the "Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller Center) tour.  The views were great (that is Central Park behind us).  I'm getting better at snapping self portraits!

I hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art by myself on Saturday, which I enjoyed.  I must say, though, after touring the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay and Versailles, it wasn't very exciting.   I also squeezed in a fabulous run in Central Park.  I usually don't run outside, so I was a bit worried, but there was so much to look at (and so much to dodge), that I did really well.  I'm getting better at monitoring my own pace and I'm guessing I averaged a good 8 minute mile.  It felt like running in a Super Mario game -- so many things to dodge and look at.  I'd like to think I got some bonus coins for making the run without hitting anyone, stepping on any feet or getting lost!

Of course, we also had to do some shopping.  Jeremy loved the Macy's at Harold Square (see dorky photo below).  I, honestly, don't like shopping in those kind of crowds.  Thank you, but I'll stick to smaller markets like Charlotte and Columbus.  I did, however, HAVE to make a trip to Tiffany's and just couldn't leave without a little (actually, kind of big) blue box.  I recently broke one of champagne flutes, so I indulged in a very nice replacement set.

The last night we were there we saw "Rock of  Ages" which was FABULOUS!  I had soooo much fun (in spite of the fact that they charged $8 for a can of beer -- really?).  The music was so much fun (all 80's rock hits) and made me want to dig out some Bon Jovi for my next run!

I also did a lot of knitting (Bryant Park was a great place to sit), eating (the cheesecake was good, but I fell in love with black & whites) and people watching!  I was ready to come home to my babies on Monday, but would go again in a heartbeat (or, maybe in two or three years when Jeremy wants to hit the same conference again)!

New York!

Since moving last year, Jeremy & I have had only a few occasions to spend time together without the kids.  I know "they" (whoever the hell "they" is) say "date night" is important, but it just hasn't been feasible.  This has really started to wear on us and Jeremy, being the great guy that he is, decided to intervene.  On October 1st, Jeremy's continuing education requirements re-set (for lack of a better term) and he now has to complete 40 hours over the course of the next 2 years.  It just so happens that there is a conference in New York in a few weeks that will meet a good chunk of those CE requirements.  So, thanks to my in-laws, I'm going along and we are getting a few days away.

I'm really excited, though a bit nervous, too.  I absolutely LOVE Washington, DC and would, honestly, love to live there.  But I really detested Paris (it was a beautiful city, but the people were appalling).  I'm afraid that NYC might be closer to Paris in my eyes than to DC.  We'll see...I figure I'll either love it or hate it, but I doubt I'll be ambivalent towards it.

So, I'm searching for activities that I will enjoy doing on my own during the 3 days of conference that Jeremy is attending.  So far, this is what is on my (solo) docket:  running in Central Park, picking up macarons at Laduree, and buying something at Tiffany's (I'm not coming home without a blue box, damn it).  I'm not a huge shopper, really -- I can usually handle only 2 or 3 hours before I poop out (unless, of course, I have my good friend Erin along, and then I can go for the day and do major damage to the check book).  So that is one of my tasks for the next week (along with about 3 billion other tasks) -- find some activities that I will be happy to take on solo!

Box tops & labels & scissors, oh my!

I can't remember anymore if I mentioned this or not, but I am the Box Tops coordinator for our school this year.  I really am quite pleased to be doing this.  It lets me channel some of my Type A, compulsive & organizational tendencies into something productive.  It is also, however, proving to be a learning experience...learning how the programs work, learning how to communicate clearly and learning how to have reasonable expectations on what I get back from the parents and students.

We did an incentive at our fall festival, which included the students completing collection sheets (sheets designed to have a specific number of labels glued to them) and returning them to me at the festival.  My first lesson learned (and I'm saying this because maybe some other new coordinator will stumble across this and find it helpful) -- collection sheets aren't worth the trouble.  I'd say less than 10% of the sheets are submittable as they stand.  I got expired box tops, Campbell's labels, box top logos that weren't actual box tops (like the little advertisements on the side/top/front of the package that say "this product earns you box tops") and only a handful actually had the correct number glued to them (which is important because you have to submit the box tops in bundles of 50).  I'm not trying to sound ungrateful (or overly pick, but in all honesty, I am a rather picky person) -- it was just a learning experience.  In our case, it would have saved us a lot of volunteer time to have the box tops loose.

I've been working my way through my pile-o-box tops during Saturday football games.  And tonight I spent a good chunk of time learning about the Campbell's Labels for Education program.  This might sound crazy, but it feels good to have a project to do (that isn't for me).  I miss working at times and, as I told one of the PTO moms this week, I am at the point where I either need to find a part-time job or volunteer.  Volunteering is what I would rather do (and the kids feel the same way -- they freak out anytime the idea of me going back to work comes up).

Speaking of work, today marks the 5 year anniversary of me leaving the work force.  I really can't believe it has been that long.  I miss it (a little) every day, but still feel like I am doing the right thing for me.  I guess I think I'd miss what I'm doing now more, if things were reversed.

The mother of all blisters...

...or so I thought.

Yesterday I hit the gym for my favorite class -- TurboKick.  The instructor was a fill in and (as I was warned) was quite intense.  I mean, this woman had me sweating in a way that I thought only a good hard run could get me sweating.  She did FOUR turbos (short intense tracks designed to get your heart rate up really high really fast).  I'm used to doing two.  By the fourth one, I was pretty much in muscle failure.

Jump?  You joke, right?

Punch?  Do you mean wave my arms around like limp noodles?

Kick?  Hun, these toes just are not leaving the ground anytime soon!

About 45 minutes into the class, my big toes really started bugging me.  By the time we finished, I was sure I had two of the biggest blisters ever on both of them, as well as the ball of my foot.  When I got home and removed my shoes from my oh-so-sore feet, I was surprised to find no signs of blistering.  And then I realized that I had actually bruised the soles of my feet.  After icing them, they felt a little better.

Man, those were my good running shoes.  Now I'm thinking they belong on the curb.

Today, because I am a maniac, I hit the gym twice.  Once this morning for yoga (necessary, because I was so stinking sore from Turbo) and then back again for a "bellies and bottoms" class and then an hour on the treadmill.  I had intended to run, but ended up walking slowly -- slower than I ever usually walk, simply because my feet hurt so bad by the end of the class.  I know I should take a day off and let my feet recover and heal, but I am heading to Ohio this weekend and taking 4 days off anyway (because, lets face it, no matter what I plan on doing, I rarely actually run when I am there).  I really do need to do a nice long run tomorrow, but I am dreading how my feet are going to feel.

You know the crazy thing, though?  I actually really enjoyed having that woman beat the heck out of me in gym!

Pure craziness!

Last week was a doozy of a week.  I am continually amazed at the inertia our life has taken on since moving here.  We are just plain busy anymore.

With Lucy in school every morning now, I have started spending more time in Jeremy's office learning about insurance.  I'm dedicating one of my mornings (at least) to office stuff.  Last week I spent two mornings at the school working on the Box Tops for Education program, as I am the school coordinator this year.  I am really enjoying being involved, and I am really loving getting know the other parents, teachers and school staff better.  However, between the office and school, I used up 3 of my 5 mornings.  And then I also took on the project of painting the bathroom at Jeremy's office, so I lost another morning to that (plus Thursday night and a lot of the weekend).  (Note:  Michelle does not like painting public bathrooms.  Jeremy will be hiring that out next time.)  That left me with one morning to clean, do household bills and run errands.  And Jeremy worked 13 days straight up to yesterday.  We are all just tired.

The highlight of the week, however, was parent's night out at our gym. We got together with several other really great couples and had an absolute blast.  Plus, I found a new favorite beer on our outing-- a locally brewed concoction called "Son of a Peach".  I am impatiently counting down the weeks until the next PNO!

And I don't think I've mentioned it, but I've been wanting to run a 1/2 marathon this fall.  I got back into running this summer and was doing really well, until about 6 weeks ago.  I somehow got off my routine, boogered my knee up and essentially had to start back over on my pace and mileage.  I think I'm back on track now.  I haven't actually signed up for a race yet.  I should, as it would give me a definite goal and would force me to take the training up a notch.  I've been trying to balance my workouts very carefully to keep from injuring myself again -- only running every other day, mixing up my runs with long paced runs, interval runs and shorter intense runs.  I've also been trying to get to yoga at least two days a week, as it helps keep me out of the physical therapist's office for my mucked up shoulder.  My 1 mile pace today was 8:56!

So, anyway, that is why I didn't post last week...or take any pictures...or sit down.

The Rest of the Birthday Celebration

So, we spent yesterday and a bit of today celebrating Lucy's birthday.  To make up for the fact that we were having her big dinner and cake today, I took her Krispy Kreme for a treat after school yesterday.

She chose a cotton candy donut.  You can't tell in the picture, but the blue sugar was sparkly, which is why it was chosen.  There were no pink donuts, else I am pretty sure she would have picked one of those.

Lucy did get to help with a little of the cake baking.  She even was kind enough to flip a large portion of the dry ingredients out onto the counter and all over the cookbook.  I may be shaking cocoa powder out of the book for months.

And lookie what Daddy brought for Lucy!

Can you believe that, until yesterday, Lucy had NO dress up clothes?  How can such a girly-girl live without at least one princessy skirt?  And look at those poor little dress up shoes -- Lucy's extra wide feet don't really fit in them.

And finally, what I was looking forward to all day -- CAKE!  I did a yummy chocolate cake with raspberry chambord frosting.  The cake was good, but the frosting was DIVINE!  The swirls are supposed to look like roses.  They mostly look like swirls.  At least icing the cake like this gives you enough frosting per slice to make your pants tight.  After all, frosting is what a cake is all about.  (And bonus trivia -- how many sticks of butter do you think it took to frost that cake?  The answer would be 6 -- a pound and a half of butter!  Just call me Paula.)

And that is the end of the birthday celebrating around here for a while.

Four!

Today is The Girl's (her nickname around here -- Jeremy has always called her "the girl") fourth birthday!  I snapped a few photos before she left for school this morning and she was an accommodating subject.  The Girl loves having her picture taken!

We'll be doing the celebrating tomorrow evening, as Jeremy has to work late tonight.  Lucy & I are going to spend the afternoon baking the cake (though I will decorate it tomorrow morning without her help). 

(This one is my favorite.)

Charleston!

Would you believe me if I told you that it has been two years since we were last to the beach?  One of the draws to Southeast for us was the proximity to the coast, yet we've been so busy with moving, settling into the house and buying a business that getting to the beach has just slipped through the cracks.  The beach is our happy place -- both Jeremy & I agree that we would rather go to the beach for a vacation than just about anywhere else.  This weekend we decided to make a quick trip to Charleston to finally scratch our beach itch!

We ended up staying in a hotel in Charleston and driving out to the beach.  On Saturday we hit Kiawah Island and on Sunday we hit Folly Beach.  Both were really nice, but Kiawah was by far my favorite.  The beach there is the nicest I've seen since we were in Grand Cayman.  It was wide, flat, shallow (the kids could walk out forever without getting into deep water), clean (not a lot of shells, seaweed or other ocean debris to get stuck in your flip flops) and the sand was glittery and gorgeous!  Plus, the beach wasn't too busy (Folly was CRAZY busy).

I took a TON of pictures when we first got there only to discover I had left the memory card in the computer at home (idiot!).  Luckily, I found a spare card in the bottom of the camera bag (good thing I don't clean that sucker out very often).  I also had an awful time with condensation on the lens from being in the cool air conditioned van and hitting the extremely humid air of the beach.  I was so frustrated by the time I solved my camera problems, so I didn't get very many good beach photos!

Ross did something while we were at Kiawah that made me want to dig a big old hole to bury myself in.  Our beach blanket was pretty far up the beach from the water and he started squirming & yelling about having to go to the bathroom.  I told him to go get his dad, who was at the water's edge.  I watched (in horror) and he ran towards Jeremy, but stopped at the pond that Reid had dug, pulled out his, um, business parts and peed in the pond.  I sat on the blanket trying not to laugh hysterically while I (futilely) yelled at him to cease and desist.  Want to know what Jeremy did?  He turned around, saw what was going on and then walked out into the water with a look that clearly said, "that's not my child".

We hit the historic area of Charleston on Sunday afternoon.  It was beautiful, but the kids didn't do very well with it.  They were exhausted from all the beach play, so we didn't really get to see much.  Ross was in such a foul and grumpy mood that we didn't try to do any of the houses or museums, but stuck to the outdoor parks, took a trolley ride and ate plenty of junk food.

I was excited to find macarons in a bakery there, but disgusted to find that, after paying $2 a piece for those suckers, that they were gross -- "not worth the calories gross".  I was pleased on Monday morning to find a second bakery that specialised in macarons, which were very good.  I had wanted to try the macarons in the first place so that I could see what the texture should be like.  I was pleased to discover my macarons held up fairly well texture wise and the flavor of mine is actually better than what I had at even the good bakery.

Ross wowed me with another one of his Rossisms on the way out of Charleston.  We got about half way back to the van, when Jeremy decided to deposit the kids & I on a park bench while he went and retrieved it.  The kids were totally done at this point, so I sat down with them and enjoyed the Jelly Belly's we had picked up.  As we were sitting there talking, this is the conversation I had with him:

Me:  You know, it is really nice of your daddy to go get the van for us.  He is hot, tired and his feet hurt,too.
Ross:  I'm doing him a favor, too.
Me:  Really, Ross, what is that?
Ross:  He's getting to walk to van without listening to our whining, so we did a favor for each other.

Hmmm...really?  REALLY?  Only you, Ross, could be so darn aggravating and cute at the same time!

(The kids enjoying their jelly beans while Ross gives Dad a helping hand.)

(I'm not sure what brought it on, but Jeremy snapped a picture of me, which rarely happens.  I like it because my hair looks good even though it was windblown and humidified beyond belief.)

On a whole, it was a good weekend...hopefully y'all had an enjoyable holiday as well!

The girl who loves to talk...

...apparently she has a speech problem.  Actually, I knew she had a speech problem, but it was confirmed today when I took her in for a speech screening with the schools.  I'm not overly worried about it.  Reid has been receiving speech services since he was two and it has been very good for him.  I'll be glad to get her going in a program, though, as I think it will really help her with communicating with her peers at school.

In my untrained opinion, I believe her problem is that her vocabulary (and desire to talk) have grown at a faster pace than her physical ability to form words.  The kids has so much to say, so many words to say it with and she is NOT going to slow down to work on saying "remember" instead of "fremember".

Lucy's true colors (literally) came out today at the screening.  They had given her a pile of blocks, each a different color, and asked her to stack them all up (which she did just fine).  Then they asked her to give them one block, which she did (taking the block from the top).  Then they asked her for three blocks, which she did -- she gave them the top two, took the next and laid it to the side, and then handed them the next block.  I could hardly keep a straight face, as the block she had squirreled away was the pink one.  She did the same thing when she came to the purple one.  That child is just so predictable!

Lucy's Turn

Today marked the start of a new phase of life for us.  Lucy is going to school FIVE days a week this year.  I'm having very conflicted feelings over this.  The boys never went to preschool more than 3 days a week, however Lucy had a lot of separation anxiety issues last year and we decided it would be better if she had a more structured and predictable schedule.  Last year we were quite frequently greeted in the morning with the question, "do I stay home or go to school today?"  The answer was often followed with a fit on her part.  So, part of me isn't ready to let her go.  The other part of me is the part that was mentally doing a happy jig all the way home from school this morning.  

And I can't believe how much I have gotten done today...the laundry is in processing, I ran an errand (with my husband sans kids, which was a treat), the kitchen is clean and I'm even getting my blog updated.  AND I still have enough time to finish all my other cleaning tasks before I have to go get her in an hour.  

Oh, and the skirt she is wearing is the final one of the three that I have been working on.  This one is my favorite!  (Though, did have to convince Lucy this morning that it is not close enough to Halloween to wear the candy corn dress yet.)

My little sweat shop!

Over the last several years I have totally fallen in love with several sellers on Etsy for dresses & skirts for Lucy.  I've been really happy with everything that I have purchased, but last spring decided that I wanted to take a stab at making them myself.  The items I've purchased are totally worth every penny, but I can make the same things for 1/2 to 1/3 of what I buy them for and I can make EXACTLY what I want without limitations in fabric choices.

These were my first two items that I made last spring:

I've spent the last month or so scouring online fabric sellers for just the right fabrics to put together a back to school wardrobe for Lucy.  I'm pretty sure I will have spent more time fabric shopping and planning than on actual sewing. though at least most of that time was done on my iPad while Jeremy rubbed my feet and NCIS was playing.  I had a really hard time pairing down my list, but started off with fabric for three outfits -- I may be putting another fabric order in yet, though!

This is the first (and simplest outfit):

The appliqued t-shirt was a last minute addition and I'm really glad I tried it.  The stitching around the outside of the applique didn't turn out very well (I've never sewn on knits before and didn't realize it would be such a pain in the #*!).  The skirt was very simple and I think that if I make anymore items for this fall, they will be this kind of skirt -- they don't take much fabric and they are really easy!

This is the second outfit:

Hopefully you will have caught on that this dress is supposed to look like a piece of candy corn.  And, in actuality, it ended up a bit shorter than I had intended, so I think I will have to call it a top and pair it with some leggings.  I wish I had used a matching bias tape on the bodice, instead of the contrasting yellow, and  the sash could be a touch longer.  I also was reminded with this project about how much I detest gathering fabric!

The third outfit is still spread out all over my basement.  I really need to finish it, though, because the basement needs cleaned badly and the project is in the way.  Maybe I can finish it tomorrow!  

And just because she is cute, a picture from this morning of my little girly-girl!

Yahoo!!!!

I know I probably shouldn't be so excited that school started yesterday, but I am -- I really, REALLY, am!  We had reached the point in the summer where the kids had spent entirely too much time together and just needed to be apart.  And we had reached that point probably 3 weeks ago.  I swear all the three of them have done since August 1st is torment each other and bicker over everything.

I will admit to being a bit sentimental over Ross going to kindergarten, but I am not too upset about it.  He gets into trouble quickly when bored, so getting him back in the classroom is really the best thing for him.  I was a bit disgruntled to learn that he only has three days of school this week, due to our school having a staggered start for kindergartners (which I actually think is a very good idea).  It isn't so much that I want him out of the house that badly, as the fact that I had promised Lucy a girls week (since her school starts next Monday).  

Lucy & I did have a nice day out shopping for school clothes for her yesterday.  When we got home, however, she seemed lost -- she didn't seem to know what to do without the boys around.  The poor thing has never been on her own for very long!

Here are a few shots of my (very handsome) little guys on their first day of school:

How did they get so big?

Oh, and as a side note, it is apparent that Reid really does need to continue in speech therapy this year to work on enunciation.  On Sunday evening he loudly (and proudly) announced that he had eaten two boogers for dinner.  After we all started giggling (and I hung my head in shame), he corrected himself -- he had actually eaten two burgers.

I ♥ my home!

And when I say I love my home, I don't mean my house (though I love that, too).  I mean I love my new city, my new place to be.  We've been in our new home for just over a year now and I am really really happy here.  A lot of my happiness comes from all the great people we've met since we moved here.

I don't make new friends easily.  I was terribly worried when we moved here because I was moving away from my dear friend "E" and was worried I wouldn't click with anyone.  E was the first friend-you-can-call-tears-at-any-hour friend I had had since high school.  And I do miss E a lot (always will -- she is a gem), but I've also made a lot of really great friends here.  I feel a lot like I've come home, even though I moved some place totally new to me.  This place feels like the place God intended for me, which is a really great place to be.

I'm relishing having a great group of women around me and don't for a minute take that for granted.  So, maybe I should say that "I ♥ my peeps", as that is more accurately what I've been thinking about this evening.

Hiking and crying and whining, oh my!

On Sunday, we headed out for an unplanned hiking expedition.  We went back to the same spot that we visited last August.  Ironically, when I got home and started digging through pictures I realized that Jeremy & I are wearing the exact same clothes we wore on our last trip to this location, so all our pictures look very similar!

The trip started out rather well.  There were two directions to hike from our van -- a long one leading to several sets of falls, including the biggest ones and a short one leading to a smaller set of falls, which included a nice little area to swim in.  We decided to start out on the long hike, so that we could end the trip with swimming.  This part of the hike went well...there were no major incidents, no crying and no whining to speak of, really.  Lucy was a rockstar of a little hiker -- she did so well and walked most of the way.  

 Someone was nice enough to snap a picture of all of us in front of "High Falls".

Then we headed down the path to the smaller falls with the swimming area and that is where things went terribly astray.  Lucy pretty much refused to get in the water because it was too cold (but she did stand on a rock with her feet in the water and pee everywhere so that all the spectators around could see -- I swear I've taught my children not to pee in the pool).

The boys had fund splashing around and would have gladly stayed all afternoon, if we would have let them.  However, shortly after we arrived dark rain clouds started gathering over head and we decided that we should head back to the van -- I had no desire to hike through the mud to get back home!  Ross had an absolute melt down over this.  He yelled, screamed and pulled us in the wrong direction the entire trip back to the van.  He has been belligerent about the incident ever since, insisting that his behavior was our fault because:  1) we made him get out of the water and 2) it didn't even end up raining and it was our fault for mis-predicting the weather.  Needless to say, I was quite grumpy by the time I got in the van.

This was my attempt at a group picture...looks like they were cooperating, doesn't it?

On the way home, we stopped and tried out a local German eatery in Hendersonville.  It was pretty good, fairly authentic from what I can tell, and was a fun place to stop.  We got a German beer sampler for Jeremy & I to share, which helped immensely with resetting our patience with Ross.  All in all, it was a good day, though it is too bad that Ross's rowdy antics had to spoil part of the afternoon.

Nooooooooooo!!!!

When Jeremy was deployed, I got quite attached to watching old NCIS re-runs on USA.  Wednesday nights were actually something I looked forward to, because it was NCIS marathon night and I could watch NCIS for something like 4 or 5 hours straight (maybe longer, but I usually turned the TV off to talk to Jeremy at 11:00).  When he got home, we started watching the series together from the beginning (using Netflix to get the DVDs).  When we moved here, we dropped Netflix (because of their crazy price increase) and started using the DVR (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE, by the way).

Last night we finally got caught up.  And I am so sad about it!  Now we have to wait until September just like everyone else to see what happens.  Plus, we have nothing else to watch if we want to crash on the couch after the kids go to bed.  And, seriously, did they have to kill of Ducky?!?!?!?

I'm really tempted to start over at the beginning....again.  Jeremy wants to watch NCIS:  LA.  But, uh, really, Chris O'Donnell just can't compete with Mark Harmon!

Swirlies!

On Sunday evening, Grandma & Grandpa M. treated the kids to a trip to the dairy bar in McClure.  The kids were all told that they needed to use the facilities and wash their hands before we left for our excursion.  I went in to check on them, because the task was taking so long, and Lucy got quite flippant and defiant with me.  I calmly told her that I could stay at the house with her if she didn't want to do what she was told.  At that point, Ross finished washing his hands, took off for the door and yelled over his shoulder, "I'll tell them we can leave without you and that you want a swirly."  A swirly?  I think he meant twist, which has become my cone flavor of choice lately.  Thanks for the offer, Ross, but I'll pass on that swirly.

And it was a very deja vu-ish (so not a word, but I think you know what I mean) feeling getting a treat at the dairy bar...reminded me of some very long gone summers.