javajanie

At Least We Didn't Break Down Right?

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:44:09 -0400

Two nights ago I was in New York City. Now I'm in Tampa. And we drove to both places. I'm too lazy to figure out how many miles I've traveled this weekend, but I can assure you it was a lot.

Steve had planned on taking the entire family to Tampa for his business trip, but then they told him they didn't need him to go. So he planned an impromptu trip to NYC to see "Phantom of the Opera". The girls are currently obsessed with it, and the boys like it too. What's not to like about a phantom right? Sure there's kissing and love, but there is a murderous phantom. He made the reservations, bought the tickets, went to work on Friday where they told him Tampa was back on. Heh.

So 4 hours up to NYC on Friday. I never imagined my kids would be excited to get dressed up and go to the theatre. American Girl store, dinner and the theatre crammed in. Saturday morning, Toys R Us and some random souvenir shops to find Phantom stuff for Victoria. Saturday afternoon, 4 hours back to Maryland. Then frenzied clothes washing, house cleaning, and pool prepping. Sunday, back on the road and in Tampa by 11pm. Craziness. We even crammed in dinner at Cracker Barrel.

Tomorrow it's Ashley's 10th birthday. We'll spend most of the day at the beach on the gorgeous white sand. I'll have to track down a cake at some point.

I'll leave it up to Steve to post the pictures from New York City. I'm tired and it's way past my bedtime.

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Weekend Recap

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:35:38 -0400

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.

Oooh avocado

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.

Mr bill manning the grill

I don't think we should allow him to do it anymore....

Mr bill burned the burgers

The boys spent most of the day playing "Guitar Hero" and making homemade weapons...

Guitar hero

Alex and his homemade ax

Guitar heroes

The adults did our usual stuff, ate, talked and played a little poker...

Rick chocolate mint torte

Sisters

Tammy eating deviled eggs

Nicole and rob

Janeve or Stanie?

Uncle robby

Of course, the kids also enjoyed the pool for one of the last times of the season....

Take a picture of my splash

Cannonball

Kari soaking her splinter

Ashley jumping

Ashley hiding

And last but not least, one of the cutest little boys ever...

Wanna play polly pockets

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Art Show Thursday

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:37:14 -0400

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.

Daytonabw

This was taken in August 2005 at Daytona Beach. We had stopped off on our way home from Walt Disney World. Alex and Ashley had never seen the Atlantic Ocean. Actually, I think it may have been Ashley's first time ever seeing the ocean. Just a random picture that happened to turn out better than I expected. I took it with my trusty HP Photosmart 3.1 megapixels. I have a copy framed in my fireplace room.

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I Would Like to Thank Whoever Invented Air Conditioning

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:57:09 -0400

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.

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Random Pictures From This Summer

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:40:46 -0400

Alex vs wild

Alex discovered Man Vs. Wild this summer and spent a lot of time making lean-tos in the backyard.

Victoria vbs

Seriously, did I really give birth to her? She went from 6lbs 12oz to a full grown young lady in 12 short years!

Rearview mirror

Yup, this is actually all hanging from my rearview mirror.

Josiah goggles

Because everyone should wear goggles when they are watching tv and eating popcorn!

Not a good idea

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, not so much.

Ashley birthday

Ashley's 9th birthday party in June.

Steve sunglasses

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.

Soph and schnitzel

Sophia and one of our chinchillas, Schnitzel. They really do make great pets.

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Is It Bedtime Yet?

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:27:25 -0400

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.

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I think the heat is getting to me

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:27:51 -0400

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!"

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Frog Photo Shoot Outakes

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:28:23 -0400

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.

Frog on my face

Right after that lovely shot of me looking at the frog on my thumb, he jumped on my face.

Frog on Victoria

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.

Preteen angst

She actually liked the way this picture turned out. It's all "emo".

Sophia

Sophia was watching us take pictures our miniscule model.

The usual

The frog wasn't interesting enough to tear him away from his video game.

Because my mother is silly

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.

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Lord of the Flies

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:30:39 -0400

Fly

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.

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Cornish Pasties and English Squirrels

nobody@vox.com(java janie) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:53:01 -0400

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.

Day 3 Steve Fountain

Day 3 Janie Lion

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.

Day 3 Janie meets an English Squirrel

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.

Day 3 Westminster Abbey

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.

Day 3 Steve and Janie Trafalgar Square

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.

Day 3 Big Ben and Parliament

A perfect end to a perfect day.

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