21 posts tagged “summer”
The last of the guests have left. Steve is off spending some father/son time with Alex. Ashley and I are vegetating in front of the tv waiting for Victoria, Sophia, and Josiah to get home from visiting their father and stepmother in North Carolina for the weekend. I missed them, but I am sure they had an awesome time.
We had an awesome time this weekend here at the Steve and Janie abode. It all started Saturday when Nicole, Rob and Tammy arrived. We discussed whether Tammy ever had a mullet. Nicole decided Steve and I needed a "Hollywood" couple name, you know, like Brangelina or Bennifer. She wants you all to vote on whether it should be "Janeve" or "Stanie". Rob, Nicole and Tammy all thought it should be the later. I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time.
We made a lot of guacamole. We ate a lot of guacamole too. Seriously, can you ever eat too much guac?
Sunday, we got up early and headed off to church. After church, we broke out the rest of the homemade pizza I had made the night before and waited for Marlen, Rick, my parents, and Steve's brothers to show up. Mr. Bill did the grilling for us.
I don't think we should allow him to do it anymore....
The boys spent most of the day playing "Guitar Hero" and making homemade weapons...
The adults did our usual stuff, ate, talked and played a little poker...
Of course, the kids also enjoyed the pool for one of the last times of the season....
And last but not least, one of the cutest little boys ever...
I can't draw like my husband, but I do love to take pictures. He's better at taking pictures than I am too. Every once in awhile I snap a good one. So I am going to share one of my favorites.
Otherwise, I'd be in a melted pile on the floor. Sadly, the AC can only get the house cooled to 80 degrees right now, but considering I just saw a squirrel spontaneously combust on my deck in the 100 degree heat and humidity outside, 80 degrees is fine with me. Not sure how much longer my circa 1977 air conditioner unit can take this. Hopefully, we'll get a reprieve soon.
Also, if you have a headache don't eat 2 freezee pops really fast. Yes, it is hot, but getting brain freeze when you already have a headache hurts, really bad. I'm just saying.
I was a good wife and cleaned out our pool filter today. It's a tough job, but Steve has been working hard and just hasn't had time to do it. My motivation had nothing to do with the fact that being stuck inside with 5 kids that are unable to get their energy out due to not being able to swim. I enjoy the constant bickering over which PS2 game to play, which tv show to watch or the screaming because someone will not give back someone else's "blendy pens". So I braved the heat, had sweat dripping down the front of my chest for the first time since those horrible sweats I had after giving birth, and got the job done. Sometimes I am quite surprised at myself. The pool filter hasn't exploded or spit water everywhere, so I think I did it right.
So there are my random thoughts on this hot afternoon. As you were.
Alex discovered Man Vs. Wild this summer and spent a lot of time making lean-tos in the backyard.
Seriously, did I really give birth to her? She went from 6lbs 12oz to a full grown young lady in 12 short years!
Yup, this is actually all hanging from my rearview mirror.
Because everyone should wear goggles when they are watching tv and eating popcorn!
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, not so much.
Ashley's 9th birthday party in June.
Steve and his cool glasses. He bought them when he was in Arizona and wanted my opinion so he took this picture. Obviously, he didn't know I was going to stick it on the internet.
Sophia and one of our chinchillas, Schnitzel. They really do make great pets.
Or at least time to snuggle up with my honey and watch an episode or two of Scrubs? Seriously, this has been one long day.
First, we get up early again, as Alex has soccer practice today. Steve dropped him off on his way to work. I gathered up all my paperwork and the remaining kids and headed out to the kids' schools to withdrawal them and get their records. I was happy to find out that they mail them to their new school, so I don't have to go back, pick them up and deliver them to the school as I originally thought.
After that, we headed down toward the school. I figured we would walk around the Farmer's Market a bit since we had some time before I had to pick up Alex. It was ridiculously hot. So the kids and I picked out some yummy fruits, fawned over the adorable ducklings for a minute or two and decided we would rather sit in the parking lot of the school in our air conditioned van than walk around in what felt to be 100 temps.
I picked up Alex and Victoria noticed two of her new volleyball teammates. They had been practicing even though there wasn't a scheduled practice today. Victoria went off to talk to them, exchanging phone numbers so next time she won't miss out. I tracked down the principal, since the secretary was nowhere to be found, and gave him the kids' registration papers and the registration fees.
Then I came back here and started scouring the internet for online worksheets to help the kids get up to where they need to be. They are a little behind in some areas. Our public schools don't teach roman numerals (which Steve is a whiz at) or parts of speech and how to diagram sentences (which I love to do!). So the principal just asked us to catch them up on that.
I had my first session about the parts of speech with the 3 youngest kids. I figured even though Ashley is the one that needs it, it wouldn't hurt Sophia to review or Josiah to start learning. We actually had a good time and Ashley can't wait to learn about verbs tomorrow. It almost makes me think I should've homeschooled, but then I realize when the novelty of being homeschooled had worn off, it could have been a disaster.
Now dinner is almost done and it's only a little after 4. It feels like it should be 10 o'clock with all that we have jammed into one day. Steve isn't even home from work yet. Crazy.
I know we have discussed this before, how unathletic I am, how much I hate exercise, how I don't care to really play any sports. Yes, I am a girly girl. I like shopping and fashion. I like to cook and create food for my family. I like to entertain. I like to read. I like traveling and the theatre.
That said, for some reason, I got it in my head that it would be fun to take our bikes (well, the kids' bikes and one I borrowed from Mrs. P, because she is nice like that) and go to one of the state parks and ride a trail or two. Sophia had gone away to a friend's house and it was just Victoria, Josiah and I. We loaded up the bikes and headed off to a park just up the road.
Now, in my head I was imagining paved bike trails, smooth and flat. We would ride leisurely through the park, maybe stopping occasionally to look at some wildlife or a plant we had never seen before. Instead we drove 2 miles down a dirt road to a deserted lake. We chose the "Lake Trail". It started uphill. So, um, we walked our bikes up the hill. Once we got to the top, we all jumped on and started off. Up over tree roots, down steep gravelly hills, back up the hills (I only walked the bike at the beginning, go me!), through poison ivy, over little footbridges with nothing to keep you from going over into the swampy water, it was an experience. Not only that, but it was hot, in the high 90s and humid type hot. And this lake trail was 2.5 miles long. We won't even go into the "cute" shoes I decided to wear for this bike ride.
You know what though, we did it. I finished the trail, felt good that I had accomplished something so out of my nature. I am alive to tell about it. I don't have poison ivy. I didn't end up in the swampy water. I didn't flip over the front of the handle bars as I thought I might several times. I think I did rather well. Afterwards, we came back to the house and jumped in the pool. Ahhh, sweet relief.
I asked the kids if they wanted to take a bike ride today before I take Mrs. P.'s bike back and they said, "Yes, but around the neighborhood!"
Because my husband loves me, he brings me any sort of cute creepy crawly type thing when he happens upon it in the garden. First he hunted me down to bring me a baby praying mantis. Sadly, no pictures of that. Then he found the baby tree frog. He knows how much I love these things that he interrupted my shower because he knew I would be sad if I missed out. So here are the pictures that didn't make Steve's blog.
Right after that lovely shot of me looking at the frog on my thumb, he jumped on my face.
Then we put him on Victoria. She wasn't too thrilled. She used to love catching creepy crawly things, but I suppose she is growing up.
She actually liked the way this picture turned out. It's all "emo".
Sophia was watching us take pictures our miniscule model.
The frog wasn't interesting enough to tear him away from his video game.
My mother loves to buy silly things for the kids. This is her latest purchase, a family of porpoises for the pool.
Ok, I'm off to go hang out with the family at my in laws. I'm making crab cakes! Mmmmmm.
Ok, I'm going to go insane. There is one thing I hate about summer, ok, well, there are other things, but this just so happens to be the one thing that is driving me up a wall right now. I won't get into the other things I hate about summer like sweating, being hot, frizzy hair.
So yeah, summer comes and so do the flies. Usually their presence in my home is caused by careless children thinking they can run in and out of the house without shutting the sliding glass door. I think the flies wait right outside that door for their opportunity to fly in. Before Steve and I left for England, I had successfully eradicated all flies from my home, or so I thought.
We get home from England and there are 2 flies hanging around in my kitchen. How in the world the flies got in, I don't know. I suspected that maybe the rabbit's bedding got wet and one of the little buggers I killed before we left decided to lay some eggs. I clean the rabbit's cage. No sign of any maggots.
I still have flies. As fast as I can kill them, it seems 2 or 3 more appear at a time. The only thing I can suspect at this time is someone hid a dead body somewhere in my house. I've hunted high and low for the source of these pests and just can't figure out where they are coming from. As I type, I can hear one at my window. Time to grab the fly swatter and do some more searching around before I end up in the loony bin from all the buzzing.
Day 3 started a little late since we had gotten in a bit later than we expected the night before. We missed breakfast at the hotel so we picked up a little snack at the Victoria train station. We tried some Cornish Pasties. I had tradition steak pasty and Steve tried a chicken and vegetable. I was instantly hooked, but since we don't have any pasty stands around here, I'll have to learn to make them.
From the train station, we walked over to Buckingham Palace with our Cornish Pasties in hand. I must confess, apart from the fancy gates, Buckingham Palace was rather plain.
We made our way over to Big Ben while walking through St. James Park. Of course, I was ridiculously excited to see an English squirrel. In true English fashion, this English squirrel was much friendlier than our rude American squirrels. The squirrels in my backyard won't even give me the time of day.
Steve and I started walking toward Big Ben and happened to pass Westminster Abbey. Right about that time, we also were caught in a torrential downpour. So we took the only cover we could, inside the Abbey. I wasn't planning on actually going inside the Abbey as this was the "Reader's Digest Condensed" Tour of London, but with no sign of the rain letting up, we paid the fee and went it. I'm so glad we did. The history in that one building is just amazing. Not only are Kings and Queens buried there, but poets and writers (Chaucer, Dickens, Browning, Tennyson), scientists (Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Lord Kelvin), musicians, (Handel) and even David Livingston, the famous missionary. For someone who loves history like I do, it was quite a treat.
After the Abbey, we walked to Trafalgar Square, buying an umbrella on the way. Sadly Trafalgar Square was full of big screens, a stage and bleachers for the Tour De France that coming weekend. I'm still confused as to why it was starting in England and how they planned to bike across the English Channel.
As Steve said in his blog, we went to the National Gallery but were disappointed. Not only could we not take pictures (We found that out after taking one and having a guard run over and ask us to delete the picture immediately, although she was very nice about it.), half the museum was closed due to some strike resulting in a shortage of staff. (Guess they didn't want to risk not having anyone to keep us horrid tourist from taking pictures.) I did get to see Monet's "The Water Lily Pond", one of my all time favorite paintings. I really wanted to see Canaletto's paintings, but that was one of the areas that was closed. We ended up going next door to the National Portrait Gallery. Much better, but it wasn't open late like the National Gallery was.
By this time, we were quite hungry. So we headed up to Leicester Square where the premiere of Harry Potter had been just a few nights before. Steve bought us tickets to go see a show, then we searched for a place to grab a quick bite to eat.
After the show, we walked around London, taking pictures. I'm so glad we were able to see so many of the sights at night. They are beautiful in the day, but absolutely breathtaking at night.
A perfect end to a perfect day.
Steve pretty much hogged posted all the pictures from Day 1. After being exhausted and disappointed on our first day in England, we went back to the hotel early. We snacked on some goodies that I picked up at the local grocery store in Bexleyheath. We did not bring back any tuna and mayonnaise paste. They also had beef and onion paste and several other flavors I can't recall. I took a nice long bath and settled in for a good night's sleep. I needed to rest up. We had to jam 4 days worth of stuff that I wanted to do into 3 now.
Tuesday morning we got up and took full advantage of the free breakfast we had at the hotel. (Hooray again for Marriott points!) I was too chicken to try the beans on toast and didn't see the marmite hiding behind the bowl of margerine. I stuck to more "american" things.
We drove up to Warwick Castle, north of London in Warwickshire. We passed several thatched roof cottages but sadly, I didn't get any pictures. I meant to bring my Strong Bad figurine and get a picture of him by a thatched roof cottage, because I am dorky like that. Just another reason we have to go back.
The castle was just amazing. I'm glad Steve made the decision to go. Personally, I couldn't decide whether to go to Stratford Upon Avon or Warwick Castle, so I asked him to make a command decision. Although, I have a feeling I would say the same thing if he had chosen Stratford. England is just so amazing all around. I can't imagine being disappointed at much of anything!
After the castle, we drove up to the little village where Esther and Damien live to join them for dinner at the Joiner's Arms. We met at their house. Right after Esther answered the door I asked to take a picture of her cat, as she had a black nose and chin similar to a cat I had as a child. She was a good sport and obliged. We chatted a little after that, then headed over to the Joiner's Arms. The food was ridiculously good. It completely exceeded my expectations, which were pretty high thanks to Hannah. I had a chicken liver parfait (not gross like it sounds, absolutely spectacular) and Scottish Salmon with peas, asparagus, and leeks in a lovely cream sauce. Ridiculously good. Steve had some sort of roast chicken. My food was so good, I didn't ask Steve for any of his, and I didn't even think to offer any of mine to him.
We went back to the Essiequard abode after dinner. We had a wonderful time talking and meeting their 3 children. They were also very good sports about answering all of our questions about the differences between England and America. After hearing that Esther thought Renee Zellweger did an awful British accent in her two "Bridget Jones" movies, I decided that perhaps there was no hope of me walking around talking in an accent and being mistaken for a real Brit. We stayed til sometime around 1am. The conversation was so enjoyable that we could have stayed much longer, but we had a 2 hour drive to get back to our hotel in Bexleyheath.
So that's my day 2 rundown. I'll post my day 3 once I get a chance to get the pictures I want from Steve's computer!
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