Props, Projects, Miles, & Fun

(The above date is WRONG, I posted March 1 and for some reason I can't change the date, grr.)

I know it’s a bit late, but I wanted to give props to my hubby for Valentine’s Day. We had dinner at Carraba’s and he gave me a bouquet of beautiful tulips! We had a very nice evening!

A week ago Friday, was Kai’s colonial fair. He did his project on ‘The Colonial Blacksmith’. He even made a diorama out of clay! He did a great job.

I also took a picture of our neighbor, Naomi. She rides home from school with us every day, goes to our church, and we’ve known her since she was about 6 weeks old. She’s practically a second daughter! Her project was on ‘Colonial Cooking’. She did a great job, too.

Last weekend, Dean went to North Carolina for the Black Mountain Ultra-Marathon. He ran 40 miles, 20 straight up and 20 back down! While he was out of town, the kids and I rented a Wii game and had fun playing for a while. Then we watched Monk together. That was nice. You know, I have some great kids.

Here's a cute picture that Andrea sent me. It was taken at her wedding last August by one of Jerry's uncles. I thought it turned out so great of the cousins!Today, my friend Brandy and I took Alyssa, Roan, and Naomi to Saluda River for a photo hike. Brandy just got a new camera and we wanted to break it in. That was fun. Here are a few pics I took today:

We got home just in time to go to FamJam, then after that, Brandy and I went to a movie, 'Step Up 2: The Street', followed by dessert at Macaroni Grill. This was a nice day!

Roan Quote: “Daddy, I don’t like my name anymore. I want a different one. How about Bob?”

“Live creatively friends…make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.” ~ Galatians

Zero to Boston

This past weekend we went to Myrtle Beach. Dean was running the Myrtle Beach Marathon and making his third attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon. We all went with him. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach. It was a two room suite with a balcony overlooking the beach that we never could have gotten in the summer time but in the winter it was only about $70 a night! The two rooms were necessary because it was extremely important that Dean get a good night sleep since he had to get up at 4:30 in the morning! The race started at 6:30. At about mile 18, the course passed our hotel where the kids and I were waiting outside to cheer him on. The kids made posters for him.

After he passed, we hightailed it to the finish line. In order to qualify for Boston, he had to finish by 3:15:59 and his time was approx. 3:15:07! He did it! Yay, Dean!!! He immediately pulled out a Boston cap from his bag and had people start signing it. Everybody is very proud of him and all the hard work he put into accomplishing his goal. Congratulations, Dean! We love you! (As you may already know, Dean has a blog called ZeroToBoston detailing his journey. Check it out for an entertaining and enlightening glimpse into the runner's subculture.)

The finish line was right next door to Broadway at the Beach, so afterwards we went over there and had lunch at Johnny Rockets, then walked along the boardwalk to the aquarium. On the way we stopped to feed the catfish:Kinda creepy, huh? Also, I spent the whole weekend trying to get decent pictures of the seagulls. This is a lot harder than one might think! Here's one:I'll be putting another on my photo blog along with a couple other pics from the weekend within the next day or two.

We had fun at the aquarium. We've been before, but it's been a while. We especially love the Shark tunneland of course the kids love touching the stingrays:If you are a fan of SpongeBob you may recognize this character:LOL! The kids pretended he was Cyclops from "Sponge Bob - The Movie". Here are a couple more pics: After the aquarium, we went back to the hotel so Dean could rest a bit. After all, he had just run a marathon! Later, he took the kids to the indoor pool for a while, then we went to dinner at Carraba's.

The next morning, Kai and I woke up at 6:30am to go watch the sunrise. Of course, I took my camera. Two of those pics will be posted on my photo blog. When we went back to the room, I went back to bed! Dean took the kids to the indoor pool one more time, then we all went for a last walk on the beach before checking out.

Before leaving town, we drove up to Calabash where Dean's Nana used to live. It's also kind of a tradition to visit the huge Christmas store whenever we're in the area. We always buy an ornament when we're there. This time we found some ornaments that we fell in love with. They were handpainted wooden ornaments. We couldn't decide which one we wanted. There was the snowman with the beautiful snowflake pattern as well as other snowmen. There were beautiful angels, even a couple different Mary & Joseph with baby Jesus. But this is the one we HAD to have. This was IT. This is the one we bought:

LOL! We just had to have the cow with the quilt on its' back! We love it!

Next we went to lunch at a seafood restaurant that Nana used to take us to, then we finally drove home. We had a wonderful family weekend!

Rats!

I was all set to do an anniversary post, even had it on the calendar, but I missed it! Oh well. Two days ago was the 2nd anniversary of my blog! I have totally love it! I have tried for years to keep a journal, really since I was a kid, but it never lasted. But, this works for me. So, in celebration I will post again my very first post. Here it is Ladies and Gents:

Monday, February 13, 2006

What did I get???

So I go grocery shopping at Walmart, walk out of the store with my cart overflowing, bags hanging over the edge, stuff under the cart, over $160 of stuff. Of course, the alarm goes off. I dig my receipt out while the man walks over. He takes my receipt and pen in hand looks at me and asks, "What did you get?" Blank stare. Huh? He asks again. "What did you get?" I look back at my overflowing cart and said, (slightly dumbfounded) "What do you mean what did I get? I got a lot of stuff." (gesturing towards the cart) Then in an effort to end this quickly I just grabbed the largest ticket item which happened to be at the bottom of the receipt and suggested maybe that was it. He said yes (like he knew)and marked it on his sheet. Kinda reminds me of the time my husband and I went to the North Carolina State Fair. It was a rainy night but we had free tickets, so we went anyway. Well, as expected, most of the rides were shut down. Mostly the only things open were the indoor displays. But we decided to see if any rides might be open and we happened upon a "Fun" house. A guy was out front, so we asked if the ride was open, he said yes, we gave him our tickets and entered the ride. Once inside, we realized nothing was moving or doing anything and all the lights were on. Confused, we basically just walked through a trailer. When we came out, we told the man. No jest, he said "I know, we can't turn it on because of the rain." Dean and I looked at each other, definately dumbfounded, and asked the man if we can have our tickets back. He says no (!!!) the ticket box is locked and he doesn't have a key."But," he says, "I'll let you go through again!" NO LIE. While I'm at it, I might as well add the time a saleswoman asked my birthdate while showing my ID. I answered, " 5-10-69." She asked, "1969?"

Tidbits

I've not much to write about, just normal life, so here are a few miscellaneous items of interest just for fun.



I love his accent! So cute.

Culture Quote: After analyzing 41 studies conducted since 1963, University of Michigan researchers L. Rowell Huesmann and Brad Bushman concluded that violent media—including television, film and video games—poses a significant public health threat. Huesmann summarized their findings by saying, "Media violence increases the risk significantly that the viewer or game player will behave more violently both in the short and long run. ... Exposure to violent electronic media has a larger effect than all but one other well-known threat to public health. The only effect slightly larger than the effect of media violence on aggression is that of cigarette smoking on lung cancer." [Reuters, 11/28; medpagetoday.com, 11/29/07]

Roan Quote: We took the kids to CiCi's Pizza. We don't often give them money for the video games but this time we gave each kid a dollar in quarters. After a while we told them it was time to go and Roan said, "But, I'm not done wasting my quarters!"

Roan at Play

Han Solo: If you want to be a Jedi, give me one of your light sabers.

Anakin: No!

Han Solo: Then you can’t be a Jedi.

Anakin: Ok, here.

Han Solo: Now you can be a Jedi.

Anakin: Now I don’t have a blue light saber!

Han Solo: (irritated) Just go get another one!

Artist in Residence

Alyssa did such a great job on her latest project that I just have to show you. She had to choose two things from a list of projects. Since she love art she chose the two crafty options. The first thing she had to make was a homemade catapult. We found instructions on the internet and this she did a great job, but what I want to show you is her 2nd project. She had to make models of the three main styles of Roman/Greek columns. Here is an illustration of the three types:

Here are her creations which she made all by herself with only a little guidance from me:

Didn't she do great?

Culture Quote: "'My books are about killing God.' So said Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass, the movie version of which is soon to be released. One expects that religious parents will keep their children away from the film. 'But why?' the question arises from liberals. 'What are you afraid of?' My children losing God, especially before they have a firm hold on Him, that's what. At some point they will question the existence of God. I did. It's normal to do so. I want more than anything else I want for my children, even their own happiness in this life, for them to believe in God, who is their salvation. If you believe in God, and that the loss of God is the worst thing that can happen to a person, then you would sooner give your child a rattlesnake to play with than expose him or her at an early age to the work of a man who openly says he wishes to destroy God in the minds of his audience." —beliefnet.com contributor Rod Dreher [beliefnet.com, 11/2/07]