Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

This is just a Happy Anniversary post going out to my lovely parents, BB and Poppy who were married 38 years ago today. They just got back Sunday from a TWO week adventure in Alaska including a 9-day cruise! They went with Memaw and Pawpaw (my dad's parents) and apparently had an amazing time. So glad you got to go- Love you- thanks for falling in love so I could be here!

Just imagine...

....how cute these pictures we took after church would have been had I not left my camera in a bag of wet towels after going to Oak Mtn. Beach last Friday......sigh.

A perfect day

Today was a wonderful, dreamy day. It started with the amazing weather! Finally some nice, arid, breezy weather!

We had a great morning of "school" and swung by the Church for reconciliation and then onto a spontaneous trip to the McWane Center for lunch and two hours of playtime in an almost empty science center. Then the little ones had nice, long naps, Marky and I did some exciting history lessons and then I had time (and energy amazingly) to make spaghetti for dinner.*

Our side porch has a seating area with a swing, glider and two rockers, but behind the rockers has been a big empty space. I finally realized I should put our dinette set that was out on the "open" deck (and never used- bugs, heat) under the porch. Tonight we for the first time ate outside- and by the first time, I mean, we never ate outside at our old house- so that's at least 6 years since we've eaten outside as a family . It was awesome- the table is right under one of the new ceiling fans so it was perfect- not one bug and plenty of breeze.
And as an added bonus, we had a beautiful hummingbird at our hummingbird feeder all night.

Then we had our usual after dinner scuffle. Basically what happens every night is Marc simply gets on his hands and knees and then three kids try to take him to the ground.

Or ride on his back horsey style. :)


Tucker's still learning sitting-on-someone's-shoulders etiquette. You don't squeeze faces or hair.

Oh, Daddy, it's all in fun!

After a nice walk with the double stroller- everyone was bathed and put to bed. What a great day- and now blogged for memory.

* It goes without saying that today was an exceptional day, not an "average" day. :)

21st century children

Marky: "Mommy, you should have seen Tucker- he was so cute just now he could have been your screen-saver."

This and That

What to say? We had a relaxing weekend here at the house. We finally watched "Captains Courageous" a movie starring Spencer Tracy based off the book by Rudyard Kipling. Marky read the book this past week- it's really good- about a spoiled rich kid that gets stuck on a fishing boat and learns real responsiblity and respect for people. When I asked Marky about the book (I haven't read it) he said, "well, the boy starts out being rude and sour-faced, but turns out like a nice teenager with a tall, straight back." When your child says "sour-faced" you know they were really reading. It's not P.C. mind you, i.e. "I know this ocean like my wife knows her kitchen", but for little boys a great lesson. Marky has really taken off with reading books, this summer he read 40 Magic Tree House books (by himself) and The Hobbit (with Daddy at night). We started the Chronicles of Narnia series- I won't let him see the movie until we've read it so he was eager.

Sunday afternoon we had a picnic at a park with our 7-couple Bible Study group. It was a lot of fun. However, b/c of car trouble Marc had to go drop off the big kids and then come get me and Tucker. When we arrived, I asked where Julia was and I was told she was in the river and had taken off her dress. Yes, I walked down and she was wading knee deep in big white bloomers and a giant pink hairbow. She was supervised, don't you worry- but it was funny.

School is up and running...sort of. You see I'm not exactly, fully, totally organized, but we are getting there. My biggest trouble is pacing myself- figuring out how fast to go to make it last exactly one school year. I either go too fast or too slow.

You may wonder what I do with this guy during school. Don't think for a moment that he's totally unsupervised and standing on chairs to turn the lights on and off, that's silly.

And we certainly keep a level of decorum at all times. Appropriate clothes (costumes, mama's good pajamas) are a must. And you can bring your galactic firearms, but they have to stay under your chair.

Diverting a minute...

We have this beautiful vine-covered arbor on one side of the house that needs constant maintenance. At least once a week Marc trims it up and cuts off the overgrown vines. We had left the green clippings on the ground Sunday and yesterday afternoon I finally went out to rake them up. I couldn't get over how dead the clippings were- they were SO brown and dry and unrecognizable as the pretty vine they came from. And all I could think while I raked was, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing." I mean, I know that I need Christ, but really- that's what I was made to do and apart from Him I have no beauty, no purpose. I was going over the catechism with Marky yesterday about how God made him to be happy with God in heaven. We were made to be happy IN GOD not happy living according to our whims. Then, last night, I read this:

Sin passes itself off as an expansion, an emacipation; at the moment of yielding to it, every sinner is inclined to believe this. The very opposite is true. By sinning I emancipate myself only from my own proper nature, my own happy destiny, choosing a falsification of myself, following a road without a goal, or rather, one whose goal I am not seeking: my own perdition. Fr. Antonin Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P.

Those little vinelings may have thought, "look- I'm free- I can go wherever now- I'm not stuck", but all their lifeblood, so to speak, was gone. They were never created to live apart from the vine. Their "freedom" is their death. Lord, let us remain and bear fruit.

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5

Orlando Trip Aug 2010

We were so blessed this weekend to get to make a LAST minute trip to Orlando to see my precious sister and brother-in-law and their sweet children, Landin and Noah. Because of Noah's illness, we haven't been able to be around him (germs and all), but we couldn't wait any longer and made the trip and had a blast. Julia and Landin are like sisters- they adore each other. And Marky and Noah are only 6-months apart and enjoy so many of the same things. Here is Noah showing Marky all the many lego sets he has built during his many hospital stays and incubation periods.

Noah even let Tucker look at his legos...for a minute. :) We called Tucker the master of disaster.

The kids played so well together, and really enjoyed the Mouse Trap game we brought.

The boys, of course, worked on Legos (which Marky never gets to do b/c they are too small to have in a house with a baby). He was so excited.

The big treat was the big sleepover at night. We put air mattresses in both Noah and Landin's room and let the kids sleep in there. The boys went straight to sleep. The silly girls talked all night and then around 10:00 we found them in the bath tub with each others toothbrushes. They were just too excited to sleep.

After wearing ourselves out at a Star Wars convention and Disney on Saturday (see post below- AWESOME), we spent Sunday going to church and hanging by the pool.

Tucker found this little pathway and walked back and forth.

My sweety-pie.

The main point of the trip was to feel like a family again and to have real, normal family memories. And I think the mission was accomplished. The boys enjoyed beating up punching bag Uncle Marc/Daddy.

After we left I asked Marky if he was okay and if he understood why Noah looked different than the last time he had seen them and why he didn't feel well. I said, "did that scare you to see him sick?" and he said, "Not at all, a true cousin always loves."

Amen.

Star Wars Convention 2010

Alright- I can cross "Star Wars Convention" off my to-do list. Amazingly, when we were in Orlando this weekend to visit Noah, his white counts were high enough for him to get out and attend the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back.

We had front row seats a in a huge auditorium where we could watch John Stewart interview George Lucas- which was hilarious (or so I'm told- we had to leave in the middle b/c the boys were bored!)
They had over 100 R2s running around being hilarious.

LOTS of costumes and ships and memorabilia- just what you would expect.

We started by just getting the boys guns to play with.

But by the end they had their costumes- Captain Rex and Jango Fett.

The costumes were truly amazing- and I had this weird feeling that if someone were to attack the convention center- all these light sabers would be drawn and we would be safe. :)

There were creative costumes too- like Darth Predator, and Darth R2.

Here's Boba Fett shaking Noah's hand.










And Marky's favorite- General Grievous.

It's not wise to upset a wookie. So we were nice and took a picture with one and this "Hahn Solo" (not exactly).






Later that night we went to Hollywood Studios where they had a special Star Wars late-night party. It was awesome! They inserted Star Wars into lots of things- like this Indiana Jones play where they changed it to Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Jedi of Doom. It was really well done and amazingly, we were put on the front of the VIP section to sit so we could experience it all.

We sat with C-list celebrities like Jeremy Bulloch (the orginal Boba Fett), Matt Lanter (voice of Anakin in Clone Wars, in the new Twilight Spoof), Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ashoka in Clone Wars also Jan Brady), Dee Bradley Baker (voice of lots of stuff in Clone Wars) and MY FAVORITE CELEBRITY MEETING....Warwick Davis (the original Ewok) and WILLOW!!!! Marc kept saying "I need milk for the baby". He was there with his beautiful wife and kids and was so dignified with a beautiful accent.