Category Archives: Family

A Member of the Club

Adventure, Family, Fun, ,

We harvested honey this weekend (more about that later this week) at Emily’s grandparents’ house.  I keep 4 hives at their place and they have a perfect setup in their garage for our honey extraction.  Emily and the kids and I were joined by Emily’s parents and her grandparents to make the extraction a family affair.  We started around 9 in the morning and finished by 6 in the evening.  So, we had an all day affair.

The kids were super well behaved in spite of the work and the heat (we finally had a hot day among all the rainy days) and the apparent boredom.  Under Emily’s grandparents’ house is a crawlspace in which an adult can almost stand upright.  The kids discovered that and found that it made a perfect hide-out.  The best part is that their hide-out was naturally air-conditioned.  The coolness was a great escape for them and they loved playing under there.

In time, they decided that their club needed to be a little more exclusive than it was when the started it (an hour earlier).  Isaac and Abigail were, of course, members and they decided to invite their great-grandmother to be the first non-founding member.  She happily obliged and helped them move in a table and chairs and met with them in their first members’ meeting…yes, Emily’s 82 year old grandmother crawled under the house and sat around a tiny table with the kids.  She is definitely a member of the club!

Though her birth certificate says she is 82, she certainly doesn’t look or act like it.  Both of Emily’s grandparents are built that way.  It’s so much fun to hang out with them and watch as nothing slows them down!  That’s a club I want to be in!

An evening…shot

Adventure, Family, Fun, ,

The kids have been involved in an archery instruction program at their grandparents’ church all summer.  Last night was the final night of the program for the summer (but it restarts in September).  The church uses the Centershot curriculum which is pretty neat.  The kids love to shoot and have improved imensely.

Isaac has advanced into using heavier bows and shooting the full length of the range.  He hits mostly in the colored part of the target and really, most are very near the center.  Abigail, who is smaller of course, shoots at a softer and closer target and has improved in her ability to stick the arrows.  They love shooting and will definitely continue in the fall.  I think that we also plan to buy them bows so we can shoot during the off-season (whenever that is)

Since last night was the end for this round, we went to see how everything works and the instructors let us shoot as well.  I shot first and did ok.  It’s been a long time since I shot a bow (25 years?) so I was pretty pleased.  Emily shot next (her first time ever) and shot ok.  We went again and Emily shot much better than me the second round.  In fact, she shot the only bullseye of the evening at the range.  That’s pretty typical of us which is pretty funny.  I am a pretty good shot with a rifle and pistol but she is even better.  But hey, I am thrilled.  If the times ever get tough, I am sending her out to hunt and gather!

Anyhow, I think we have found a new family hobby as all of us enjoy shooting and there are plenty of opportunities  to practice.  A few weeks ago, Abigail said she wanted to hunt with me.  Last night, she recognized what hunting was…”Dad, why can’t we just leave the animals alone?”  It was a good opportunity to talk about the source of our food.  Still, I think we’ll be a target shooting family more than a hunting family initially…

All I want…

Family

Abigail has had a loose tooth for several months.  Her top left tooth has been “wiggly” since the beginning of June but she could never work up the courage to work it so it would come out.  I have been wiggling it every day for the last week or so hoping to challenge its flexion.  Finally, last night I was able to get a finger around the top of the tooth so I yanked it.

She had a look of horror on her face as I held the offending tooth before her eyes.  She didn’t really realize I had pulled it until she saw it.  As soon as she saw it, she licked a little in her mouth as she tasted the tiny bit of blood that resulted.  Of course, it stopped almost immediately but her gagging continued for a few more minutes.  She is fairly dramatic about tastes and smells so this was par for the course.  It was sort of funny I guess and, thankfully for her parents, we know she will never be a good vampire.

(still in shock after waking up this morning)

Once her drama ended, she really got into discovering which words no longer came out the same way without her tooth (Click here to hear her talking).  She was overjoyed!  She bounced around singing and talking and having a great time sounding funny.  Immediately Abigail starting singing, “All I want for Christmas is my one front tooth.”  It was so much fun to see her excitement after she realized that losing teeth isn’t so bad, and maybe even fun!

So, do you ever help your kids’ teeth along?

Speaking of Dig…

Family, Thoughts,

(I am the luckiest guy alive!)

I really dig my wife.  Today is our 15 year anniversary.  I like to look back at the old pictures of our wedding day and remember what it was like to weigh 150 pounds (I was a skinny thing) and have hair, and look young.  Sometimes I like to look back at pictures and reminisce, but really, I prefer our life right now.  We’ve had our ups and downs, but we count many more ups in our favor.  We’re mature in our relationship and especially lately, we’ve grown closer than we ever have been before.  So today, on our 15th anniversary, I’d like to say I love my wife so very much and I would indeed marry her all over again!

Local Art

Family

There is a great artists’ community in Charleston.  A week or two ago, the city celebrated Festivall where “a city becomes a work of art”.  It really is a tremendous display and a ton of fun.

Although we love to see local/original art, we can’t always afford to buy pieces we see.  We found a new source though, that suits my needs and interests perfectly.  We have started framing art by the kids and of the kids.

This father’s day, Emily and the kids had one of Abigail’s pieces framed.  It’s one of my favorite pieces of art in the house.  We hung it in the bedroom so I could see it every day.  I’ll always hang drawings with bees!

While at Festivall this year, we ran across a caricature artist and had him draw the kids.  I am not sure that they exactly look like my kids, but they look like kids I have seen somewhere.  Anyhow, we still like them a lot too.  The most important part of those drawings is that the kids each sat still for 15 minutes while the artist did his work.  I think that time might be in record territory!

Do you hang “local art” in your place?

The beginning of the end

Family

The tooth fairy visited our house.  If you are a kid and still stay up trying to catch her, please do not read beyond this point.  This is your official spoiler alert.

So, Isaac lost his 9th tooth yesterday.  He is 9 and thinks it is just amazing to average one tooth a year.  Anyhow, he was chomping a chocolate muffin when it just popped out.  The cool thing about it is that it is one of his back teeth so he doesn’t have the toothless look.  He’s starting to care about his appearance.  I thought I taught him better. Anyhow, he retrieved the tooth from a mouthful of spit and half chewed Otis Spunkmeyer chololate muffin.  We told him to rinse it off and put it in his tooth fairy pillow (that’s actually a pouch that he hangs on his door knob…we have a smart tooth fairy).  He got a goofy smirk on his face and said, “Dad, I know you put that money in there at night”.  My heart dropped.  I knew the time was coming.  In fact, it might have come a long time ago I suppose but it sort of crushed me a little to hear him admit that he knew I was the tooth fairy.

I still didn’t admit anything to him but I sort of feel obligated to tell him everything so that he doesn’t go to school and talk about Santa, the tooth fairy and other supernatural creatures only to get teased.  Still, it breaks my heart a little to see my son (who is going into the 4th grade) lose a little of the innocence of childhood.  Like I said, I htink he has known for awhile but to make it official is pretty tough for me.

A co-worker of mine says that his kids (who are much older) still receive visits from Santa, et al. as long as they play along.  I think we’ll arrange that deal so that Abigail will still have the magic and my illusion of innocence will be maintained.  At least he doesn’t care where babies come from yet…

It’s about the time

Family

We got up early as we always do on the day we leave the beach. It’s a long drive home and we always leave early to beat the chaos around the traffic that comes when one leaves later. So it’s a tradition to leave early and that doesn’t bother me. The funny thing that I always hate about leaving the beach, however, is putting my watch back on. I hadn’t worn my watch from the time I entered the house.

The thing about time is that it matters so much of the time. We couldn’t arrive at the house until 3 pm and we had to be out before 11 am. We had to be home in time to get back for work and we had to pay all the bills on time that had stacked up in our absence. But while we are at the beach, time does not matter at all. We eat when we’re hungry, we sleep when we’re tired and we play all of the time. Time doesn’t matter at the beach and that’s why I love it so much. All the rest of my life is scheduled (or so it seems) so the time away renews me.

I always ponder the return to time and it sort of rattles my head. Time flees so fast the rest of the year. I love our stay at the beach each year where time seems to stand still. I get a chance to totally enjoy my kids and wife and we soak it up, indeed. The times without time are the only times that really matter.

A regular hootenanny

Family, Fun,

Emily is the counselor at a year round school in Charleston.  In WV there are only a handful of year round schools so her schedule is pretty unique.  Basically, she is on for 9 weeks, off for 3 weeks, all year round.  That fact pretty well guarantees that we take vacation in the middle of June.

The funny thing is that Emily’s birthday is also always in June.  It never seems to vary.  So, once again, we celebrated Emily’s birthday at the beach.  It’s a little strange to celebrate a special holiday away from home.  All of the best gag gifts have to be hauled in for the event.  We seem to have a tendency to play jokes and horse around a good bit…in case that surprises anyone, we are a bunch of goofballs.

Anyhow, my Mom and brother also have birthdays in June so we decided to have a regular hootenanny at the beach this year.  Mom brought a bunch of luau stuff and we dressed up and then danced (really loudly and obnoxiously) to bluegrass music that my sister-in-law had brought.  It was an absolute blast.  Some had liquid courage to help with dance moves but everyone had a blast.  Folks walking past from the beach certainly gave us funny looks but we put our best West Virginia on and hooped it up at the ho-down!

Somehow the porch on our house survived the dance and we finally settled down when the cops came…just kidding.  We finally settled down when the sugar highs and liquid courage ran out.  We wandered back in and crashed for the night.  I am pretty sure that we honored Emily’s birthday appropriately.  She’s pretty old though so I don’t know if she’ll remember!


(Note the touchless hug)

The color of idiot

Family, Fun,

Did you ever wonder what the color of idiot looks like?  Read on friends and I will show you…but a little back story first.

We made it to Tybee Island near Savannah on Saturday. Our house is nice and right on the beach so have spent a lot of time in and near the ocean.  Dolphins come by each morning eating the small fish that seem to be everywhere.  They tend to jump in the air which makes no sense to me.  I have taken to calling them suicide fish.  Pelicans and seagulls fly over all the time and the silly jumping fish are just advertising their location.  I guess it’s their business but really my fish friends…life is worth living.

At low tide we found that there are hundreds and thousands of sand dollars in the shallow water.  Isaac started collecting them planning to sell them on ebay for a dollar a piece.  You should have seen the dollar signs in his eyes.   Since they are living creatures, I made him return them to the ocean of course.

We also found sea stars all over the place.  I seemed to be able to find them every step I took.  No one else had the sensitivity in their feet I suppose.  I always knew I had rosebud feet.  It’s kind of silly I suppose but I sort of feel bad for these creatures that must be under foot all of the time.  I carry every creature I find back out into deeper water.  I know it probably doesn’t make a bit of difference in the grand scheme of things.  It just bugs me when silly redneck idiots gather handfuls of sea stars and sand dollars to watch them bake on the beach.  I don’t really have a solution that involves me saving these low-tide creatures while not going to jail so I silently do my part by carrying every one I find to deeper water.

So, back to the original question…the color of idiot.  When I arrived at Tybee Island, my skin color was this:

By Sunday at noon, my skin color was this:

Can you pick the color of idiot?