Family Cookout

We had a rained out family picnic today, or at least mostly rained out. Neil's cousin Matt (looking hunky in pic # 1 below) and his wife Ne recently had their first baby "A". Sweet baby A, I totally hog her whenever I can. I blame myself for her 3 hour nap today (sorry guys!!). Matt asked me to take a 4 generation photo of them today. Here is one of those as well.

Last, Julia, who loves all babies, pried herself away from Harley the cat today just long enough to hold baby A. We all (except Ne, God bless her) were a little panicky about her head etc. and were sending out cautious commands to Julia. Finally Ne said, "Give the kid a break!" Good call, Ne!! Everyone else's babies seem so much more fragile than our own.

Pretty soon, we'll have another baby to ooo and ahhh over!! A big Happy Birthday shout out to the best SIL, Lindsay!! Any time now, girl!!!

"Never Had One Lesson!" - Ferris Bueller

Ok, so Devin's had more than one trumpet lesson, but you get the idea. His teacher thinks he's doing really well, and we agree. He's truthfully had about 6 lessons now and can make almost a whole octave of notes.

I'm totally impressed because I'd still be trying to get it to make a noise. See what you think. Here's his rendition of "Good King Wenceslas".

The Hillbilly

We've been watching Julia's two front teeth start to spread apart slowly over the last few months and get a little wiggly. She had a dentisit appt. the other day (her first cavity filled) and he said it wouldn't be long now.

Well last night she popped one out! The pictures aren't great, but I wanted to show you our little hillbilly. She HATES it when I call her that, or when I tell her how darn cute it is that she lisps now. I'll try to get some video of her talking. It's too precious.

She won't let us buy her overalls and a straw hat for halloween. No sense of humor!!

Kid Pix

Playing with the prime and photoshop last week. Kids somewhat unwilling, but a few to work with.

Cat, er, Hutch For Sale!

Neil would love it if I tried to sell Max, but no, just selling the hutch. Broken tv leads to new tv, leads to new hutch since new tv won't fit in old hutch. Thought Max was funny in there. The buyer could end up with a cat. By accident, of course!!

York Wild Kingdom

Still playing catch up from Labor Day Weekend. Here are some from YWK. Even Neil admits the Scrambler is starting to make him sick (and he laughs at me claiming I'm getting old). Couple cool shots from the Ferris Wheel though, you can see the beach!

Beach Bonfire

As my parents spent the whole summer in Maine this year they both decided to "get jobs". They felt they wanted to give something back, so they both took volunteer jobs in the area. Dad took his handyman skills and volunteers at the Wildlife Center. Mom took her compassion and insurance knowledge and got two jobs. One at the local food pantry, and one at a urologists office (whole bunches of material here, let me tell you).

At the end of the summer the food pantry threw a big fundraiser at the beach. There was food, music, raffles and a huge bonfire. It was a pretty cool idea.

My sister was all about trying to win the signed Curt Schilling baseball in the raffle. I warned them that THE luckiest person alive, my husband, would be in attendance and ALWAYS wins something. This is something I tend to envy since I am consistently the most UN-lucky person ever. True to form, I won nothing, Heather didn't win the baseball, and Neil won a gift card to the local florist. It's just crazy.

The kids and Auntie Heather had a blast dancing around. Even Mom got Dad up to dance. I was feeling fairly grouchy and didn't want to dance, but it was cool to watch the fire and see the kids having fun.

Kayaking Through Kelly's/Neil's Eyes

My parents retired last year and, like all good baby boomers, adopted an "active" hobby to exercise their bodies and to try and prove they aren't aging (ahem). However it began - it morphed into enough of a hobby that they bought kayaks, a rack for their car and they do actually use them!

Not to be outdone by the "boomers" we gave it a go. I have to admit I understand the jones they get for it. I can't quite imagine doing it in rough waters, or trying to do that body flip move to right yourself when you capsize, but I liked the view, the push of the water and the arm workout.

They went easy on us and took us through the salt marshes near Wells Beach. A cool place. I'd definitely do it again, but next time I'd bring moleskin for my thumbs. (My blisters finally just regenerated new skin).

The trickiest part? The dismount. Sadly, we only captured the "after" of Mom falling in the water. The mud is so gooey there at the launch we almost lost several shoes in the exiting. My Aunt has some good ones of my Uncle becoming one with the ocean.

Perhaps those boomers should think about buying a new knee or two next Christmas?? :)

Kayaking Through Julia's Eyes

As I downloaded more pix from Labor Day weekend in Maine I had forgotten that Julia "borrowed" the camera after we went kayaking. So, I present to you, the kayaking experience through Julia's eyes...

Tina Fey - LOVING you...

http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?v=855613031&pl=853780502.xml&plc=853780502&launchpoint=Cover&cid=fancover&attr=default_headline&config=/config/common/fan/default.xml

I agree this is one of the most spot-on performances by an SNL-er over the years. Decide for yourself. Here's the REAL Palin (below) in her ABC interview:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5793131

Thank Goodness

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/cellphones-cant.html

I knew it was a little too creppy scary to be true (thank goodness!!).

No Wonder We're Stupid

http://www.koreus.com/video/telephone-portable-mais-popcorn.html

Half of me really wants to believe this is urban legend. I'm so trying this soon...

Ghost Hunters - So Close, and Yet, So Far...

http://video.scifi.com/player/?id=603202

So, Devin and I are avid GH fans. (Ghost Hunters, not General Hospital.) Love the show, love the guys, happy happy. Well, they were right around the corner from us at Pettibone's. Darn it!!! How fun would it have been just to go see the big black SUV's parked outside??

Just for fun, here is my sister with Steve. LOVE Steve. AND he's a Red Sox fan. I think they should marry.

So, go watch GH tomorrow at 9:00pm on the SciFi Channel.

Burned Out - Week 1

Ok, so we barely completed a week of school and I'm totally burned out. Julia has had roughly 2 hours of homework a night. My schedule has run something like this:

Get up

Take kids to school

Drink 1/2 cup coffee, put on de-od (sometimes, just for the cats)

Start working

Keep working

Get off conference calls, go pee

At 2:00 eat lunch, shower

Pick kids up

Do homework for next 2 hours (with the 2 most whiny frustrated kids EVER)

Bring kids to karate/trumpet lessons whatever day it is

Make dinner

Prep for next day

Get kids to bed

Repeat

I'm the grumpiest person alive right now, I can hardly stand myself. Oh, did I mention Neil's got a business trip to Chicago next week? Yeah.

On a brighter note, and purely because it makes me happy, I was "burning and dodging" last night and I think I've got it. Now, I need lots more practice, but I was so psyched that I could do it. Yipee!! I do have one version where Devin looks like a white eyes zombie, but at least I get the concept.

Wiggly Bridge

Over Labor Day weekend we were in Maine (see prior posts). One of our new hobbies with the kids gets us out walking and seeing things we almost never see. For example, I have spent just about every summer of my 38 years of life in York. So, does it seem possible I've never been to the Wiggly Bridge??

We took a family trip there (I still owe you $25 for the parking ticket, Mom!) and walked the walkway, bridge and island. (Only at DEFCON 3 this day for mosquitos.)

Love this whole communing with nature thing, but would have preferred fewer loud geese, slugs, and hungry mosquitos and more sandpipers and chipmunks!!

Camp Tadma Moments

Yes, yes, still downloading my 4,000 pix from this summer. Here are a few from the night we picked Devin up from camp. My favorite is the one of him with Marie, the camp nurse, who lovingly coined the nickname "Twiz" (I chopped it down from Twizzler Boy.) and her son. Love her Scooby Doo scrubs!!

Then some of the counselors (Big John and Moose doing the "Let Me See Your Chicken" dance).

An aside, for all you camp folk on my reader list...why do the counselors always have crazy nicknames? Like Moose and Big John and Soap? Just wondering....

Second to last, but definitely not least, Devin with his site leaders, Chloe and Andy. Chloe must have grown up with a whole mess of brothers. Why else would you want to spend weeks on end with a camp full of smelly little boys? There's a special place in heaven for them, for sure!

When we got home that night Auntie Heather had left a plate of "Bat-Man" brownies and a chalk message for the little camper. Welcome Home!!

Some Low Brow Humor

Devin's teacher told him to look up a Seasame Street video on YouTube yesterday. We watched it and somehow linked myself into watching this one. HYSTERICAL. If you're a fan of the show, it just fits, soooo well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APZ-hyFi2rQ&NR=1

I'm done channeling my inner 10 year old boy now...off to bed I go.

In the words of my buddy Temperance Brennan, "I concur, vehemently!!"

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,413525,00.html

Navigating the slippery slope of the election and McCain killed what was a shoe-in vote from me with his choice of running mate. The article above (thanks to Lisa and Bec for links) speaks volumes. I took the "which candidate is yours" quiz again now that the field has been narrowed, and I'm almost at a dead heat.

Do they have a "neither" box on the ballot??

The OBX Kid Series

On picture night the fairly patient kids dealt with one last group shot and then we told them to go ahead and be silly.

A few things to note as you review this seies of photos.

First, you need to watch the Hanna children on the far right. As Deb put it, you tell them to stay still all night and they can't. But you tell them to go crazy and they freeze like statues. I didn't even realize it until we looked at them in slide show mode. MOST amusing.

Second, yes, that's my daughter mooning the camera. Like father, like daughter.

Third, I'm fairly certain Emma's doing the Beaver Dance, but hard to say.

Last, but certainly not least, please note the obviously premeditated interaction between Jack and Devin. Jack delivers the shot, and Devin reacts. This was all fake, but very well acted for the camera, wouldn't you agree?

Hot OBX Babes and a Very Motley Crew

Here were some of the attempts at group shots on family picture night. I'm not putting any of the "good ones" (aka X-Mas card spoilers) on the blog, but here are some that make me happy. Love that the ones of all the adults were kid-taken. Thus, we had no feet in some of them.

But really, check out the three hot OBX babes. This is the G-rated version. This is, after all, a family show. Marc's version (or was it Neil's?) was decidedly more PG-13.

Last are a few of the kids jumping off the dunes. Fairly certain it's not allowed, but gosh it looked fun. Please note Jack's very frog-like stance in the group shot. Love it!!