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It is only fitting that my 500th blog post be about one of (maybe I don't even need to use the words ("one of") the most loving, intelligent, caring, Christlike, funny, handsome, just terrific men I know. That would be my father who is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Honestly, those words really aren't anywhere close to how I feel about him. I know most girls think their father is the best but I KNOW mine is!! When I think about my childhood, it is filled with nothing but warm memories and so much of that has to do with my dad. From taking us to ball games & hockey games (whenever we didn't think we could get in he would say "There's always more than one way to skin a cat"), making us breakfast every morning, Friday night suppers (having to sit at the table for 20 minutes!), driving us 45 minutes to school one way, Nova Scotia, and best of all, Christmas (walking through Filene's just to smell the perfume), the memories are endless and wonderful. There has never been a time when I wasn't aware how much he loves me and I can't help but think about how awesome Jesus must be if this is how great of a father I have here on earth. I love you dad!
Today is also an anniversary of sorts for me too. It's been 10 years since I had my bout with the flu. Duncan and I flew up for a big 60th birthday party for my dad and I started vomiting at the party. We had to fly back the next day and it was the worst flight ever which then turned into the worst week of my entire life. I seriously wanted to die. I have never felt so awful. I would rather go through childbirth and the recovery than go through that again. I missed a week of work and my hair was in dreadlocks by the time it was over! I hope to never go there again that is for sure.
Oh, I should also add that with my dad's birthday, of course, begins the playing of Christmas music. Is there anything better? Christmas music has to be somewhere in the top 10 of my favorite things in the world.
Let's see, what have we been up to this past week? Sunday we wrapped things up at Marco Island before heading home in the late morning. The day turned out to be rainy and we were very appreciative that the bad weather held off until then. As I had mentioned in my last post, the hospital was kind enough to pay for each member of the family to do an activity. Besides a massage you could do jet skiing, para-sailing, a dolphin cruise, or get a manicure/pedicure. The jet skiing and para-sailing were obviously out which left the dolphin cruise. I didn't think being on a boat for 2.5 hours would be a good idea with Colby and Duncan didn't want to leave me for that long so that left manicures/pedicures for the girls (we were tempted to take Brady for a mani/pedi but alas, did not!). Considering I didn't have my first pedicure until last year, this was quite a treat....even more so when I saw the bill. It was $115 EACH for the service. Good grief. I guess this is how the rich people live. The girls had a lot of fun with it though. And I dare say, they will not be getting another one for a very, very long time.
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| Happy customers |
Monday morning we had to get back in the swing of things with school after having our "fall break" the previous week. It has been so nice the last few weeks with the lack of complaining, for the most part, from Calleigh on having to do school work. She's motivated to get as much stuff done before lunch so we only have one or two things left in the afternoons. I feel like we've turned a corner although I'm hesitant to put that in print. Meanwhile, Aubree is just going gang busters with her reading. We are on about lesson 56 of her 100 lesson book but that hasn't stopped her from reading numerous other books along the way. I have a big bin of like more than 100 easy/intermediate readers that I got at a yard sale awhile back. Calleigh never read any of those while she was doing the 100 lessons but Aubree just loves them and tells me over and over again "I love to read." Bless you my child.
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| Having a cup of tea while doing math. She kept taking sips of mine (which is not decaf) so I got her one for herself, decaf. |
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| Science experiment...testing to see what kinds of things soak up water best. |
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| Making hasty pudding. For music we've been doing "Yankee Doodle" which has the words "And there was saw the men and boys as thick as hasty pudding." |
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| I loved it, the girls liked it, and Brady wouldn't touch it, of course. |
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| Serve it with a little maple syrup and it's delicious. Actually tastes a lot like cream of wheat to be honest. |
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| Getting decked out in Patriotic gear to march around our island while singing along with the Yankee Doodle CD. |
On Wednesday we took a field trip to the Central Florida Zoo which I realized we haven't been to in years for whatever reason. They have various home school classes (many of which are in the afternoons which doesn't work for us) including "ZooKeeper 101" which was a 1.5 hour class on how to be a zookeeper. It was $25 for non-passholders and $20 for passholders which I thought was reasonable. It's certainly easier doing these kind of trips now that Colby doesn't nurse during the day anymore but nonetheless, I thought it would be a good idea for grandma to come along in case I needed an extra hand. They did a great job with the class. A zookeeper talked up front for a little bit, they showed us some animals, and then they had various stations for the kids to go to for hands on stuff. We also ran into our friends Katherine and Lizzie from our gymnastics class so that was a neat surprise. We only got to go into the zoo for a very short time but the kids were clamoring for more so I think we will be getting an annual pass again in the very near future. I timed it and it's about a 37 minute trip there so it's not that bad.
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| Looking at animal x-rays |
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| Doing an obstacle course. |
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| Something that zoos do to entertain the animals is put hay and various spices in bags so that the animals can play with them and enjoy the smell. |
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| A variation of a wart hog playing with the bag |
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| One of the stations had six kinds of food and you had to guess which went with what animal. Aubree got 4 out of 6 correct and they said she was the only one who guessed that the coconut went with a parrot. |
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| Genius! Never seen this before. |
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| This was obviously the highlight of the day for Brady. Getting to ride the train. |
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Friday we were back on our yard sale circuit and we had a little funny incident. Duncan has been working diligently on our back yard with the pergola, furniture, fire pit, putting in new trees/plants, etc. So this week he was suddenly very interested in what I might find at a yard sale like some planters or whatever. At one sale, not too far from here, I found this nice wooden bench for $15 and texted him the picture. He said to get it and he'd find a place for it. But alas, I discovered it wouldn't fit in the van so I told the guy my husband would pick it up that afternoon. Fast forward and Duncan is off to go get the bench. I didn't have the street number of the house so I just explained that it was on the right just before you went around a curve. A few minutes later, I get this call from Duncan and he's partially out of breath and he says "What side did you say it was on?" I said "On the right." He says, "Well, that explains it. Gotta go." So it turns out, he was at the house on the LEFT just before the curve. They had a nice bench in their yard and he had gone and tried picking it up but was having a hard time moving it. Once he heard it was the one on the right, he turned around and saw the correct house with the guy in the driveway watching him. Just a little awkward!
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This week has been a big rough for poor little Colby. He got the cough that Calleigh had last week and couple that with some teething (his teeth on either side of his two top front teeth are about to pop out), it's hasn't been too fun for him. He ran a fever from Sunday - Wednesday and was coughing so badly that he threw up a number of times including a few times in his crib which I discovered when I got him out later. I hid this throwing up stuff from Calleigh lest she NEVER ever cough again. Fortunately, he has still managed to sleep well at night despite these conditions.
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| Pretty happy about the fire pit Daddy is making. |
Before closing, just a funny bit from Calleigh. She will often ask us when she can get her own iPod (we tell her they will no longer be making iPods when she can get one) or iPhone. I've never given her a definitive answer since I don't have one other than "no time soon." So she tried a new angle this time.
Calleigh: "Well, how old were you when you got a phone?"
Me: "I was 22."
Calleigh:"How old was Daddy when he got one?"
Me:"I think he was probably 20."
Calleigh (jumping on it): "So can I get one when I'm 20 then?!!"
She was all smug like she pulled a fast one on me!
A few more pictures...
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| Brady discovered he can reach to get water out of the fridge so now he's constantly getting water whether he's thirsty or not. |
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| Daddy's iPhone 6+ has arrived! |
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| We had my cousin Stephen over for supper last night. Brady had gone two days without a nap and he almost fell out of his chair at the dinner table because his eyes kept closing. We finally moved him over to the couch. |
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| Got our patio furniture and five new trees. |
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| Taught my girl how to play Chinese Checkers tonight. She loves to play games. |
Enjoy your Sunday.
