Fun But Crazy Busy

Another fun, but crazy week has now past us by.

On Saturday, an uncharacteristically cold and rainy day, we went to our friends up at the top of the mountain by the Appalachian Trail for dinner.  Aidan and Catherine play so well together!!  We had a most enjoyable and relaxing evening up there.  Flank Steak, potatoes and fresh green beans with Cheese Cake and fresh Strawberries for desert.  Wonderful!!  We plan to get together with them again on Labor Day weekend. . .our next opportunity.  Crazy busy summer schedules for us both!

I took Aidan to Free Skate before his Mini Mites games last Sunday and we practiced cross overs, backward skating, fast skating and hockey stops.  Aidan really enjoyed himself, and for the first time in a while, has been asking to go to Free Skate again.  He had gottn to the point where he didn't want to go.  So, we might go again this Sunday.  And I think I will talk to a couple of the other parents and see about play dates on the ice.  Why didn't I think of that before?????  duh.

On Monday, Pat had to work two shifts:  7:00 am-3:00 pm and then 11:00 pm-7:00 am.  He needed to nap in between shifts, especially because he had worked 7:00 am - 11:00 pm the day before.  So, I picked up Aidan from Camp and thn took him to the Ice House where we plunked down our BIG MONEY for him to be in Mites this coming fall.  Whew!  At least I had been saving for a while for that one.  I didn't have it all saved, but I did have a little more than half.  I'll start saving for it sooner this year.  Anyway, after that, we went to Subway (Aidan has fallen in love with Subway's Ham and Cheese Sandwiches and eats the entire thing!!) where we got our usuals and then came on home to be quiet (imagine a six year old active boy being quiet during his bath!) and then bed.  Somehow, we didn't awaken Pat--Thanks be to God!

On Tuesday, Pat picked up Aidan from Winwood and then went to Grandma and Grandpas and the men got hair cuts and then we all met for dinner.  Aidan was my little Shagmeister before:

He was so cute with shaggy hair!!  I was hoping it would just be shaped up, but it is much shorter than this again.  Ah well.  He is still my cutikens!

Grandpa looked much better on Tuesday.  He has a follow up doctors appointment today and we're hoping for a good report.

On Wednesday, Aidan had his Mini Mites Skills Class and he excelled.  Itwas obvious that our play-work on the ice on Sunday really made a difference.  He kept talking about Free Skate on the way home, which is why I decided we will likely go on Sunday before his games.

Thursday I had a hair cut and Pat fixed dinner--way to go Daddy!!!!  And now it is Friday.  Aidan has a Talent Show this afternoon so I will skip lunch and head over to watch him this afternoon.  No idea what he will be doing!!  Should be interesting!

In other news, our garden has been producing a lot in spite of the heat.  I am having a bumper crop of tomatoes this year and have been making tons of salsa.  I'm thinking of canning it.  I will be doing some pickles in another week or two and some stewed tomatoes.  Our peppers have been coming on strong too.  And, this year we have such a proliferation of Blackberries!!  Every evening Pat and Aidan have gone out and gotten a bowl full.  Ihave been washing them and saving them up in order to make a Blackberry Cobbler. . .so yummy!!!  And they are even great on plain vanilla ice cream.  Yum!  I loved Aidan's choice of bowls to put them in last night:

And, in my spare time, I decided it was time to clean out closets and dressers.  My housekeeper is on vacation for the next two weeks, so it's really the perfect time to tear things apart and not have to worry about having it all back in place before she comes to clean.  So, this week I emptied Aidan's closet (completely this time) and his dresser. . .into the Family Room where I couldn't ignore it.  Whew!  I went through a lot of it last night and started putting some things away.  However, I still have large pile of clothes that Aidan will need to try on, hopefully tonight.  I have three piles:  keep, donate and toss.  It's that simple.  And I'm sticking to that. . .especially now that I have gotten all of the early on things out that h wore when we picked him up at the Baby Home; his first PJ's; his first shoes. . .and I came across the slippers my sister sent him that he just loved!!!  I had to wipe away a tear when I saw them. . .especially when I saw them next to his curren slippers!

My baby is really growing up. 

Anyway, I'm hoping to do my closet next. . .

Next Friday is the first day of the Tax Free Weekend here in Virginia.  I love taking advantage of that in order to get us all new shoes, Aidan's school supplies and school clothes.  And this year I will gethim anew backpack: it's time to move up to a larger one.

So, Happy Friday and I'm still trying to not be whiny about the weather. . .unsuccessfully.

Hot Times

Because it is still July, I've been trying not to whine about how hot it has been.  I mean, really hot.  Like on Wednesday it registered 105* with a 112* heat index!  Whew!  I really beleive the temperatures have been affecting all of our humors. . .negatively.  We are, not a one of us, tolerant of anything right now.  So, I'm going to continue my quest to try and not whine about it. . .afterall, none of us can do anything about the weather, right??  So, if you see me with a fake smile, just fake smile me back.  I'll understand.  Somewhere deep down inside.

In spite of the heat and nasty storms, this summer has been going pretty quickly.  I can't believe there are only 5 more weeks until Aidan goes back to school.  On the good side of that, my daycare expense goes down drastically in 5 weeks!!!!  : )  (real smile)

Aidan has been have a lot of fun at the Winwood Summer Camp.  He's been to several waterparks and pools, the Dinasaur Playground, Pump It Up, An Ice Cream Parlor Tour and Tasting (yum!), had Slime Pit Relays, and gone bowling.  Just this week they learned the latest dance moves and sang Karaoke, went to Claude Moore Water Park, had Readers Theatre, An Acting Workshop with Curtains Up and today they will create a commercial.  Wow!  Next week they will have a Toilet Paper Fashion Show (  ; 0  ), go to Burke Lake Park--I went there when I was a kid!, learn magic tricks from a magician, go the movies at Cobb, and then have a Talent Show! 

And they still have several other water parks to visit (Algonkian Volcano Island and Splash Down to name a couple), plus they will also be going to Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum in August. 

I want to go to Camp!

On days that the kids don't have a field trip, the teachers have been awesome having the rising first graders read to the rising kindergartners.  And they have continued to work on the children's sight words.  Aidan has a journal that he works on by writing two sentences and drawing a picture showing what he has been doing each week.  It really helps him continue to work on sounding out words and to relate the picture to the words.  He doesn't spell everything correctly, but he is doing awesome with this!  And I can understand everything he has written!

Aidan is continuing to grow like a weed, too.  I haven't measured or weighed him lately, but I know he has grown.  I will only be buying him size 7 for school this year.  I think we'll skip over size 6 since the one remaining nice pair of jeans he has are on the verge of being floods.  I will measure and weigh him just before school starts.

We have also been letting Aidan's hair grow.  However, it is time to get a trim and then we can get it trimmed again before school.  He looks really cute with shaggy hair.  But, that shaggy hair needs a little bit of shaping right now!

Here is a picture of me with my two sisters and my mom earlier this summer.  Mom should have had her sunglasses on too!

So, that's about it from me.  I will continue to try to keep the w(h)ine in the glass and not in my voice.  : )

I'm A Bad Person

Really I am.

On July 6th, while we headed home early from the beach, my sister had back surgery. A discectomy. She went home that evening and according to my brother in law, she slept a lot the first couple days home. Knowing that day 2 after surgery is usually the worst, I planned to call her on Monday. Little did I know what kind of week I was going to have!

After spending the weekend getting ourselves organized and food in the house plus helping Pat's mom get everything done she needed and visiting Pat's dad in the hospital and taking Aidan to hockey, we were exhausted and ready for another vacation. But, as luck would have it, we had to go back to work.

Now, I know not many people I know work in the Insurance Industry--at least they don't admit it--but suffice it to say, Power Companies are not the only business that gets busy following large and catestrophic storms. Within the first two weeks, we had over 2,000 claims: food spoilage, wind damage, trees down, you name it. When a small company like mine has a large storm of this nature--derecho's, blizzards, nor'easters, hurricanes and even earthquakes--it's all hands on deck. Last week I not only had work to catch up from being out, work to be done that was new and I was helping out with claims: taking calls and notes for the initial contact, talking to people about coverage and telling them when/if a check had been mailed out. It's what we do. Because it was so busy, I was even taking calls during my lunch break. I didn't have a chance to look at my phone much and definitely not my email. Pretty much the only time I talked to Pat was when he would text me to call him and then I usually had to wait until lunch time because I was so busy.

 In the evening on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Pat went to take his mom to see his dad at the hospital. I went to pick up Aidan and then tried to have a little fun with him, dinner and then we were off to bed, falling asleep almost as soon as well laid down. Pat didn't get home until 10:00 or later each of those nights. His dad did go home on Wednesday, so that was some relief.

On Thursday, Pat picked up Aidan and went to Shepherdstown to pick up his sister, Becky. They came to the house and got there about the time I got home from work and then we all set out to my in-laws to check on them, do things needing to be done and have dinner. I could see that Pat was tired and becoming easily agitated and so I was really worried about him. He was stressed and not getting enough rest.

Friday, we went to my in-laws again but this time picked up Becky and went to dinner and then to the Friday Night Live in Herndon. When we got back from that, I, not so nicely, informed my in-laws Pat wouldn't be there the next day. I feel really bad about how I did that, too. In all honesty, I was really thinking of my husband and trying to think of a way to get him to relax for a bit. I could have done that a better way, I know.

We did relax on Saturday. I had a moratorium of no family business outside of the three of us and I think it worked. We really had a nice quiet day and it seemed Pat was going to be better able to help his parents the next day because of the rest he had gotten.

Sunday we were back over at the in-laws after church and Pat did some things for them and then we all had lunch before taking Aidan to hockey. My sister-in-law and her husband came over after hockey so Pat could try to help them with something and I got us all dinner before which Pat was called in to work.

And then it was Monday again. And I hadn't called my sister even once the entire week.

There is no escaping it. I am a bad person.

Mid-July Already????

Well. Where is this month going???

We've been back from the beach for an entire week. I really didn't have a spare moment until today to sit down and update you all on what we've been up to. But, here it is.

As I mentioned previously, we left for the beach on the 30th of June. We had no idea the storm that had come through the night before--a Derecho!--had been so bad. We knew there were some power outages and a huge tree on the court house lawn in Leesburg came down, but we had power and the Starbucks in Leesburg had power so how bad could it really be?? Well, when we were unable to buy some of that cheap gas--$3.16 a gallon!!--in Fredericksburg due to power outages and our friends were delayed on leaving their house in Mineral due to power outages and we finally found a gas station with power. . .and a very long line. . .in Bowling Green we started thinking maybe this was a little bit more than just a garden variety storm.

Okay, okay so we saw some trees and limbs and other debris along the road as well, but it still didn't really click for some reason. Then the text messages started saying how to find shelter and cooling centers and that this or that intersection had police direction traffic so be cautious. And then the phone calls started. . .we began to be a bit more concerned that our vacation would be cut short. In fact, we had just barely made it to North Carolina when we found out vacations may, in fact, be cancelled!

 But we continued on. . . And found GRAVE DIGGER!!!! We had planned on stopping here so Aidan could see Grave Diggers home and he seemed to enjoy himself except that he didn't want to meet the driver! He did have fun posing by the Monster Trucks and going for a ride in one though!!

Once at the beach, we tried to relax and everything started to be calmer. Except that the phone calls from Pat's work kept intruding and making us feel as though we should go home.

Pat and the other older guys went deep sea fishing on Monday and caught some awesome Amberjack and Cobia--which we grilled up for dinner on Tuesday and it was soooooo yummy!!! But, when he got back, we found out that vacations had indeed been cancelled for Pat's work AND his dad was in the hospital due to some breathing troubles. So, we spent the rest of Monday planning to come home on Tuesday.

 Oh, and Ice Cream on the beach is so awesome. . .but so messy!!!

But, on Tuesday, Pat's boss told him to stay at the beach and it sounded like things were improving for his dad. So we decided to reevaluate things on Wednesday. . . Wednesday was the Fourth of July and we just played all day on the beach had shrimp and more of the Amberjack for dinner and then watched the fireworks on the beach. A perfect day. LOVE watching fireworks on the beach!! The shot them off the pier and out over the water. It's beautiful and safe! And to top it off, we had a call saying Pat's dad was going home from the hospital!! Perfect!!!!

On Thursday we decided to get up early and head down through Buxton and catch the ferry over to Ocracoke so we could see one of Blackbeard's hideouts. We saw one of his houses a few years ago down in Beaufort which is near Morehead City so we were excited to see some more about Edward Teach. Aidan could hardly sit still. He was so excited to see everything. We went to every store we could that had something to do with pirates. . .which, I'm pretty sure, was just about every store!!

Then we got a call that Pat's dad was back in the hospital. That decided it for us. We made the decision to finish out our day at Ocracoke and then head home on Friday.

So, off to lunch we went at Howards Pub. The most awesome food. . .I had a crab cake sandwich which was soooo good! Pat had a hamburger that he said was one of the best he has ever had. Even Aidan didn't fuss about his food! Then we went to one last store--Teach's Hole that also had a Edward Teach museum attached. Really interesting stuff about Blackbead and the Queen Anne's Revenge! But, Aidan liked the store best--all the coloring books, flags, hooks, water guns, and tattoos!!! Oh, and shirts, too!!! We got it all! We took the ferry ride back to Buxton and then went to the Hatteras Light House. All, in all, we saw three Lighthouses. . .Bodie, Ocracoke and Hatteras. Pretty cool! We were close to seeing the Currituck light as well, but it was a little too far north.

Friday we packed up and came home. Note to self: come home early every year because the traffic is minimal to none! What might have taken 10 to 11 hours on Saturday due to the traffic, took us 6 1/2 even with getting gas, potty breaks and dinner. And, when we got home and saw Pat's dad, we were again very glad we came home early. His lung infection was pretty bad. He has since been released--on Wednesday--and seems to be doing pretty good at this point. But, Pat is pretty tired. His sister Becky is in town until Sunday so, I made the decision that she will take care of things today so we can have a family day. We're going to go to the library and either the pool--if it's sunny, or a movie--if it rains. We'll see!

In other news, I got a message yesterday that it's time to sign Aidan up for fall/winter hockey. He is moving up a level so his ice time will double: practice on either Wednesday or Friday evening and then he will have games on Sunday morning. And the price doubles too!! : ) He is also signed up for flag football--one contact sport is enough! I don't know when the practices will be, but I think the games will be Saturday mornings. Then he will have his hockey skills class on Saturday afternoon. Whew!!! Already fall is shaping up to be very busy! But, we'll be having some fun!!!

And, with that, I guess I will upload some pictures and probably change the header picture since Pat doesn't like the hanging slobber that Mosby has. . .

So, what have you been up to???

Lotsa typos...

Blotting via kindle fire--birthday present from Pat and Aidan ...will fix typos when we get home. Hope you all had a great fourth!!!

Beach Trip 2012 Part 1

This trip almost didn't happen; its almost been cancelled twice; and it may still end early. We'll see! It started to go bad Friday night while we were still home..... The car was all packed andcall we had to do was pack the toiletries before we left in the morning. Aidan was bundled off yo bed and Pat and I were headed thatcwsy as well. When off in the distance we could see dome flashes in the suky. Pat stood at the bedroom window watching while I brushed my teeth. I finished and joined him in time to hear the telltale sound of the wind rushing down the mountain on the other side of the park. We later heard it was likely anywhere from 60-90 miles per hour. It was huge. When itbhit the house, the house shook. The storm broke in earnest and kept on coming fir about 20 minutes. The lights flickered and went out once for about s minute but then came back kn for good. In the morning, we got up and on our way by 6:30. Our first clue something was up was only a could blocks away at the main intersection in town-- the lights were out and the police were directing traffic. Starbucks had power so we continued down the road unconcerned. However, the further we went down the road the clearer it became that this storm had been one of significance. Then our friends called who were going with us to say they might not be down that day because they had lost power and were running the generatorto save the meat in their freezers. Oh man! We decidedto call Pats parents to check on them. They were fine and since there were no calls from Virginia Power we continued on down the road. Later in the day, we heard from another friend, also with Virginia Power who said his vacation had been cancelled. Still nothing on Pats phone so we continued on iuf way. After getting checked in, we found out our friends had made array ngements for someone to take care of the generator and they were kn the way. We settled and began to enjoy ourselves. Sunday we played on the beach all day and then Monday the three big boys went deep sea fishing--which really upset Aidan but we did fun things with him too. But...trouble had been brewing. First I got a call from Pat when the _were on the way back to the house to say his dad was in the hospital. Then when he did arrive, we discovered that work had finally called--yhd Governor has declared a State of Emergency and all essential employees needed to go to work. Needless to say, we spent a stressful dinner wondering what we were going to do. But when we got back, Pats boss told us yo stay here because the power was getting back on... But we still may go home early to help Pats mom. We'll see. To be continued...where will we spend the rest of the week???