Narcoossee

A few photos of our field trip to Education Day at the Battle of Narcoossee. We've attended this event several different times and have enjoyed it every time. Here are the boys with one of their favorite friends in front of some Confederate soldiers. The other pictures include a close up of the soldiers to see the different uniforms, some hi-tech guns used by Union soldiers (the south may have used them too but they were expensive), and the last photo has nothing to do with the battle but we love to observe nature wherever we go. Sandhill Cranes were everywhere! There were even some on the battlefield where cannon demonstrations were commencing. Those cranes would jump into the air each time the cannon boomed then land and look around as if nothing had happened.

Missed the Mark

On posting those photos, that is. I'm going to use the excuse that I've been using for everything all week- the boys have both been hit with "THE CRUD!!!". They've had sore throats, fevers, coughs and basically feel terrible. Nathan was even up a couple nights in a row, one in which he scared his parents terribly with an awful barking cough and complaints of not being able to breath. After we ruled out an asthma attack (he doesn't even have asthma) and calmed him down, we decided a trip to the ER was not necessary but that not being able to breath thing had us concerned for a while. He was up the following night as well with stomach aches, which means that I've been up for a couple of nights too. Sully was hit with the worst of it a day or two later and feels just as bad as Nathan did, but true to his nature, is much more laid back about it. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week but we'll be skipping our homeschool co-op tomorrow, just to have one more day of recovery.

Going Green

According to this survey, I'm over half way there.

Your Life is 72% Green

You live a very green life, and you're aware of how your actions help the earth. Of course, it's hard to be totally green. But when you make a tradeoff, you know why you're making it.

How Green Is Your Life?

HT to Dawn

I'd also like to offer a book recommendation for Earth Day... Serve God, Save the Planet by Dr. J. Matthew Sleeth. I read this book after winning it from a former blog and was reminded of how much of an impact our personal choices have on the environment. It inspired me to do better than what we've been doing, just a step at a time. The current "step" I'm working on is to remember to take our reusable bags to the grocery store - they usually make it to the parking lot where I conveniently leave them in the car, luckily running out to the car to get them is the exact type of errand for which teenagers are made!!

Not only is it Earth day, but today is also Jelly Bean day!! We'll be celebrating by reading a quick blurb about our "jelly bean president", going on a virtual tour of the Jelly Belly factory and heading to the store for a jelly bean treat- YUM!

Goal of the Week

Have you seen those commercials with kids stuck in mid-jump off a diving board and addressing a mom or dad about getting pictures off the computer or the camera so everyone can enjoy them? No? Well, they are dumb commercials, but that's where I feel like I am with pictures on the blog lately... lately being the last six months or so- that's about half the time I've been blogging in case anyone is keeping count.
I have several posts rolling around in my head and even pictures to go with them but that's as far as they've gotten. To name a few there are pictures of Nathan getting his tiger badge for Cub Scouts, a cool field trip to Education Day at The Battle of Narcoossee, and lumpy teens sleeping all over our floor during Sully's party. There just always seems to be something distracting me from getting things posted in a timely manner- those somethings are important too... little things like school, laundry, kids. But distractions notwithstanding, my goal this week is to find time to post those "late" posts and pictures. Lofty? Perhaps not, but a goal nonetheless.

Also, Happy birthday to two great friends who check in here every now and then- one old and one new... that's saying nothing about their ages!

Let Them Eat Cake

... and pizza, and chips and other junk food because it's a PARTY!!!
Sully has 4 of his best friends over to spend the night tonight to celebrate turning 13. Three of these boys have been his best pals since he was Nathan's age and the fourth is a newer friend who is hanging right in with the other guys.

But back to the cake...
When I said let them eat cake, the "them" I meant were those with 2 feet...

NOT this shamefaced beast.




But that didn't stop him from having a little taste... and before the candles were lit, too!!

The boys have said they are willing to eat the side that hasn't touched dog lips- so we'll light the candles, sing and then cut that part off.

If it's raining...

...we must be camping.

Even the ducks were hiding from the rain... look closely and you can see the babies camping out under Mama Duck.

We had a great time camping last weekend, in the rain, at Disney's Fort Wilderness. Among the activities we hiked, took a ride on both a bus and a boat, roasted marshmallows for s'mores, participated in a sing-a-long (Sully got a birthday song) and a "hidden Mickey" scavenger hunt, saw a geyser and a light parade, watched scouts fishing, played checkers, enjoyed nature, crammed under the pack canopy while enjoying camp food with our friends, played "phantom" in our rain gear, watched a thunderstorm, picked up hail, saw a rainbow and had a great time... even in the rain.

Here are a few (or a lot of) photos of our trip- in chronological order.

We had blue skies for most of the afternoon on Saturday so we dried out from Friday's storms just in time to get drenched again Saturday evening. I think the rain made for a better adventure.

I've been tagged and Awarded!

Thanks to Jen over at My 3 boys and I- for the tag and the award! I've been a blogging sloth lately but I've started a couple of posts that should be up soon.

1. The rules are posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago:

Wow! I have to think... so much has happened in 10 short years. I was 26, had a year left in school (BA Sociology), I was dating my husband- who was not yet my husband, Sully turned 3 and had the chicken pox for his third birthday and we had to postpone his party. We lived in a garage apartment behind a friend with a son Sully's age and it was a great set-up. In addition to school, I worked as a waitress on the weekends at a small but nice restaurant- my friend, from whom I rented the apartment, also worked at that restaurant. I remember that year fondly- we had a lot of fun.

Five things on my to-do list today:

Since it's late in the day some of these have already been done-
1. wait for my milk delivery... today was not one of our driving days and it was so nice to have someone bring my order here!
2. laundry... there's ALWAYS laundry.
3. figure out what's for dinner and cook. (not done yet so I'd better hurry up and finish this blog)
4. one thing we aren't doing today is school- it's spring break and while we don't always follow the public school schedule, today was a cleaning day... the boys helped by wiping baseboards in the kitchen while I dusted the dining room.
5. meet a friend who is picking up produce from our co-op for me so I don't have to drive all the way down the county... another nice thing.

Snacks that I enjoy:

Boy, do I like snacks. I'm trying to have healthier snacks as of late though, which consist of fruit, boiled eggs, yogurt and such. I REALLY like cookies, and cake, and puddings of all sorts- custards are my favorite.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1.Make sure my family was set up for life

2. Buy a house in the country and a small flat in the city... oh, yeah and maybe a beach cottage- nothing too fancy though.

3. Set up college funds and inheritance for my boys

4. Travel

5. Donate everything else- a billion dollars is a lot of money, ya know!

Three of my bad habits:

Only 3???

I procrastinate, I over-commit, I complain... I could go on but then you might not like me anymore so I'll stop there.

Five places I have lived:

1. Hampton, VA
2. Richmond, VA
3. Sacramento, CA
4. Newport News, VA
5. Florida

Five jobs that I have had:

1. Waitress
2. Hairstylist
3. Worked in Retail
4. Job Coach (working with disabled adults who needed help to gain and maintain employment)
5. "World of Work" Coordinator (working with middle school students with specified learning disabilities who may or may not be college bound to expose them to different jobs)

Five people I want to know more about (A nice way to say TAG!)….

I have a hard time tagging people... so if you read this and have a blog and want to do this meme... then "tag"!!

What Does a Teenager Look Like?

Why, like this, of course!



Doesn't he look like he's already up to mischief?
Happy 13th Birthday to a bright and caring young man. You have made my life better by just being in it. And despite all the warnings of what teenagers are like and those faint memories of the trouble I caused... I'm looking forward to your teen years and to seeing the fine man you are on your way to becoming. Just don't grow up too fast!

Updates and Computer Issues

I've been having a terrible time getting picture on the blog lately and it now seems to be acting up when I type. I may just be choosing to post at a time when many bloggers are blogging so I'll make some attempts during the day when all good bloggers are at work or busy doing things I should be doing. I have photos of Nathan's tiger ceremony with scouts that I'm not even going to try tonight but look for them in an upcoming post.

Easter Past and New Traditions

Dragging Easter out as far as I possibly can but here's the post I started last week...
I'm going to attempt to post a couple of photos of the boys coloring eggs as well as diving into Easter baskets. I wasn't having much luck getting these up right after Easter so hopefully today will be better.


Here are the shirtless boys, fascinated with the shrink-wrap eggs. (We thought dyeing done, sans shirts, would prevent any ruined clothing.)

Our Easter tradition in years past was to spend the weekend in Boca like we did last year and we'd discussed going down this year, even if we were unable to spend it with Granny. With Kevin's new schedule and the hectic pace of life lately, we decided to Easter in town and attend a sunrise service at the beach. While we had a nice, albeit quiet, Easter Sunday, I don't think that we've found our new tradition. If you'll notice the extreme lack of sunshine pouring through our windows, you'll see one reason we've opted against the sunrise service next year.
The boys' baskets, as always were filled to the brim.


Sully enjoying Easter morning...






Nathan enjoying Easter morning...







Duke, who was overly interested in the goings on, enjoying Easter morning...




He tried from both sides of the table.



Maybe it's that I'm resisting change and missing Easters past but this year seemed melancholic. I not only missed our recent Easter's but I waxed nostalgic for the Easters of my childhood.
A basket full of treats, a new Easter dress complete with gloves, dogwood flowers and daffodils from our yard and walking to church.
We attended the church on the corner whose steps, when I was small, seemed to reach the sky. After ascending, we were greeted by a bare cross waiting for flowers. After the last parishioner had come in, the cross looked something like this one. These are the types of memories I hope to pass on to my children. Traditions. Ours are changing, as life is changing, which is appropriate but for this year at least, I had a hard time letting go, moving forward and enjoying the ride.