Relay for Life 2010

Team Sherwin-Williams did awesome this year raising over $10,000 for Relay for Life! The campaign wrapped for the year with the walk at the middle school in Richmond. We took the kids to show our support and participate in the fun activities for an excellent cause.

I did a couple of paintings for the silent auction for that night that I'm hoping added a little to the final total!

Before I left with the kids to meet Kris at the walk, I tried to explain to the kids what cancer was and why we wanted to raise money for Relay for Life. I tried to put it in kid terms that they would understand saying that cancer is a disease that makes people very very sick and we want to raise money so that scientists will be able to continue trying to find new medicines that will help the sick people. They had a few questions which I answered and we left to drive down to Richmond.

When we got there, we met Kris in the parking lot and Grace grabbed his hand and said, "Hurry up, Daddy! The disease is about to start!"

Oops...guess something was lost in translation there. We stopped and tried to explain it a little further. Then, as we were crossing the track to go to the Sherwin-Williams tent, Kris warned Sam to not kick over the luminaries that were lining the track. To which Sam responded, "yes, because they are full of diseases."

That's when Kris turned to me and said, "What the hell did you tell them?!"

So, I guess I failed at getting the meaning of the event across to the kids this year. I'll try again next year with them when they are a little older.

The meaning is certainly not lost with the two of us, though, as we walked in remembrance of so many family members and friends who have lost their battle and in honor of so many others who are battling now.

Like I said...fun event for a great cause. If you have a team in your area, please get involved!

Gotta say...

...I'm diggin' the new sunglasses.

attempting to grow stuff...

We decided to put in a garden this year. I'm not sure what has happened to me over the past couple of years, but all of the sudden I need to grow stuff. Maybe I'm trying to direct my need to nurture elsewhere since my no-longer-toddlers seem to need me less and less these days *sigh* and Kris keeps avoiding the subject of a third kid. Last summer we got the dog and this summer we're growing vegetables. Next summer: horses! Okay, maybe not...

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah...the garden...

We started green beans and peppers from seeds in the house a few weeks ago. Sam's green beans sprouted REALLY fast. This shot is from four days after planting:

By the sixth day, they were screaming to be put in the ground:

Thankfully, my landscaper was quick to get the first garden box installed so we could plant these outside:

The first round of outdoor planting included the few beans we started inside, another row and a half of seeds for additional green beans, a summer squash plant, three zucchini mounds, two pre-bought pepper plants and two pre-bought tomato plants.

Grace's starter peppers in the house weren't doing too hot at that point. Since Kris seemed to think that the sun coming through Sam's window could bring dead things to life, we moved the starter peppers from Grace's sill to Sam's. They perked up and seemed to be ready to go in the ground outside after another week or so. Sadly, now a week later, they aren't looking too hot. We may need to replace them with two or three more pre-bought pepper plants in the near future.

After getting the first box set, Kris got to work installing the second box...and cutting the cable wire...but that's off the subject again...

The second box went in and I planted a pre-bought dill plant along with two rows of carrot seeds and two rows of pea seeds. Molly promptly dug up my peas two days later, and Sam and I tried our best to pick them all out of the grass and get them back in the garden. The poor things were already starting to sprout. I wasn't very optimistic that they'd make it, but, after what has felt like an eternity of rain the last few days, I looked out the window today and saw that they are starting to come up! I've never been so excited to see the beginnings of a food that I absolutely hate! The second box still has some room, so I will be planting two cherry tomato plants that our neighbor brought over and maybe a blueberry plant for the boy who LOVES berries. Thinking we definitely need to do that since our potted strawberry plant seems to be turning out to be a giant fail.

We also purchased a cilantro plant that we potted, which has prompted Kris to start making the yummiest salsa ever...seriously, I think we might need to start selling the stuff...so good!

Out front, we've been working on growing flowers from seeds. The kids each had a starter set for some wildflowers that have been busy growing on Sam's windowsill. I think they are just about ready to go in the ground. I also planted a bunch of seeds in the front beds this year. Although, I'm quickly discovering that I'm really more of an instant gratification girl when it comes to flowers...I'm starting to get annoyed that all I still see is bits of green rising out of the mulch. If I start flowers from seeds next year, it will be in the house in February so they are blooming and beautiful by the time they go in the ground in April.

Once this rain stops, I'll get some pictures of our progress around the yard to post. Is anyone else growing anything this year?

Natural Bridge -- March 2010

I need to start playing catch up with this blog! We've been so busy over the past few weeks! I'm actually working on getting my garden in today, but Kris just kicked me out of the yard for a few minutes so he could mow. So, I thought I'd get a post done quickly.

A few weeks ago, on a beautiful 80° day in March (!), Kris was struck with motivation to hike the Natural Bridge State Park. (Otherwise read as: Kris heard that our friends who just moved here from Cleveland had already hiked it and couldn't believe we hadn't after having lived her for well over two years.) The place was gorgeous. I really could go on and on, but I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

For more of the scenery, click here. Hope to be able to post a little more later today!

a pricey little hobby...

We love to antique. We antique at shops, shows and even on-line through CraigsList. The Kentucky antique scene is incredible! I inherited the trait from my mom and, over the years, have successfully converted Kris into an antique-lover, as well. I dread taking my kids into Meijer or Target for fear of how they might behave, but, almost monthly, we take them to a big antique show near our house and never worry about them breaking anything as they are now friends with all the dealers and have come to respect the furniture and collectibles. Well, either that, or nothing looks as shiny and new as it does at Meijer and Target so they just aren't that interested! :)

Our friend, Amanda, asked me to write this post. I am referring to her as Amanda as that is her professional business name, but really she has come to be affectionately known as Mandy, Midge and even Marge at our house. :) Her Sister, Sister post this week that she put together with Ashlie was all about their favorite piece of furniture. Each of them featured a different antique in their homes and I completely agree with her that antique pieces, while slightly pricier, hold more character and are more durable and well-built than much of the furniture sold at mainstream stores today. I guess I just feel more at ease bringing these pieces into my home knowing that they have already endured years of wear and tear somewhere else and survived, so they should be able to last through many more years of wear and tear in my own home.

After Mandy...ahem...Amanda sent me a message that she had posted about furniture, I spent way too long wandering around the house trying to decide what really is my favorite piece. Even though we have many pieces that hold sentimental value, it came down to a toss up between two pieces that Kris and I picked out together in recent years. And I finally decided on this one, because the other of the two was the giant desk we share, and posting it would have meant having to clean it off, and, well, I just didn't have it in me at the moment. (I know Mandy is cringing right now, as she is self-employed as a successful home organizer!) Anyway, here it is:

We acquired this china cabinet from a local shop soon after we moved to Kentucky and I was so excited to find a piece of furniture that could both protect and display my collection of antique china and crystal. It was a bonus that it blended so well with the table and chairs that were my grandparents' years ago. I love this piece and that we picked it out together and love that it just adds to the atmosphere of my current favorite room in the house.

I may have to do additional posts on this subject because we have so many pieces that have a story behind them that I hold dear. Thanks, Mandy, for making me stop and take a look at the furniture we've collected over the years.

Sunday morning

We're still dozing while Sam is watching "SuperWhy" at the end of our bed.

Sam, reading the screen: "R, N, P"

TV: "R, N, P"

Sam, proudly: "I was right!"

Me: "Good job, buddy."

Sam: "I am always right in life."

Me, to Kris: "He is sooo your son."

Kris: "That's my boy."

:)

Happy Birthday, Kris!!

Since I made it all the way to Kris' birthday without posting the bulk of the holiday photos, I figured I'd grab one from that bunch to include in this post. He'll probably argue that this counts as a "joint" post just as he will argue that his birthday gets overlooked or combined with Christmas because of its close proximity to the birthday of the Son of the Big Guy. Don't know that we'll ever break him of it, but do hope he enjoys the yummy cake we will share in a little while. So happy to have had him around for 36 years. :) Happy Birthday, Hon!

she strikes again...

Major milestone in our house: Gordon had his first bath. And it only took 7 years.

Why, you ask, did we find it necessary to bathe the cat at this point? Because I came up the stairs at midnight to hear him frantically meowing from behind the closed kids' bathroom door. And I opened it up to find this:
Yup. That's sunscreen. And there was no doubt in my mind that Grace was the kid who was now teaching Gordon about proper skin care in the sun. She must have seen him snoozing in the sun on Sam's carpet in the late afternoon. And since she'd already taught him the proper use for mascara, she probably figured it was time to move on to skin care.
Poor Gordon. I'm hoping he can avoid this one in the future. Because he was definitely not a happy camper with the bath or the blow dry that followed. And Kris and I weren't so pleased to have to take this on at 1 AM, either.

Grace, Grace, Grace...

8 years

Well, the plan was to pull some pics back from the days when we used film in our cameras, but, Kris, you know how the last week has been. So, to reminisce a little about our marriage as far back as the beginning of the digital photo age, a few pics:

Maybe next year, I'll dig out the older ones.

Happy Anniversary! I can't even believe it's been eight years already! Love you!

60 years

Two of the fun celebrations we took part in while in Michigan centered around the number 60.

On Thursday night, we (the adults...got sitters for the little ones) headed out to a surprise 60th anniversary dinner for my grandparents.

the guests of honor

Technically, they don't hit 60 years until August 20, but we figured why not kick off the celebration early. My grandma is all about extending holidays, so she didn't mind one bit. It was so nice to be able to celebrate while both of their kids and most of their grandkids were home and able to be present at the dinner. They were completely surprised when they walked into the restaurant and saw all the friends and family sitting at the table waiting for them.

Some of the attendees...If you're wondering about the matching shirts, it's because we had family photos taken just before heading out to dinner and we had color-coded the families. Click here to see some of the shots. Kris and I boycotted matching beyond the shoot :)
As a fun gift for Grandma and Grandpa, we put together a Lotto ticket tree. Dad cut the end of a small branch off one of his trees and made a little stand for it. I tied all the tickets on and we agreed that it looked cute. As I was carrying it into the restaurant, though, I had one guy in the parking lot say, "Hey! Nice tomato plant!" and another guy inside say, "Look! It's Charlie Brown's Christmas tree!" Whatever...at least they had some winning tickets off of it :) I'm not bitter, but I'm also not posting a close-up of the tree :)

The other 60 celebration that we attended was a surprise 60th birthday party for our good family friend, Dan, who just so happens to have also become my younger sister's father-in-law in recent years. The party was at Dan and Sue's farm where Sue continues to raise a plethora of furry babies even after her own babies have grown up. It's so much fun to visit and see the mini horses, donkey, goats, cats and dogs...makes me dream of having a barn of my own!

The kids were thrilled to find two baby goats upon first inspection of the barn. After watching Sue and Dan's oldest grandson easily pick up the babies, Sam decided he should give it a try and showed up next to me saying, "Look at me, Mom! Look what I caught!"


The younger kids needed a little more help, so they were handed the goats so they could have a turn.


Grace also made great friends with Lydia, the dog. See? This kid needs a dog!

All of the kids spent most of time at the party running in the orchard, mainly because they are all city kids, and they were all amazed at the amount of green space to play in at both my parents' house and at the farm. A little while before we were going to leave, though, Sam stumbled upon a mountain of dirt that Dan had put out for his grandsons to get good and dirty in.


Needless to say, Sam spent the rest of the time at the farm right there. Once the rest of the kids spotted him there, they flocked to it, too. Not that it wasn't a hit already, but once Papa started tossing money into it for them to "find" they were so excited, they didn't know what to do with themselves!

Prying them away that evening proved to be a chore. They were all stripped down to their undies on the side of the road before entering the car and they all were marched straight to the shower when we arrived back at Mom and Dad's. And they all went out like lights as soon as they went to bed. Hmmmm, I may need to start my search for a farm around here where I could take them to explore on a regular basis...may solve my bedtime issues with Grace...

More to come on the trip, soon...yes, there are still many events to post on!

karma?

So, I'm a little worried about the cute, young couple that is moving into the neighborhood. Mainly because they are sparrows and they just tried to build their new home in my porch. Kris noticed the substantial beginnings of their little love nest earlier today and decided he better nip that in the bud before they officially set up shop and started attacking our heads every time we tried to walk past their precious next-generation-to-be to get to our front door. He knocked the meager pile of twigs and grass to the porch floor and swept it off the edge, while strategically ducking so he didn't get his head pecked by a rather angry feathered duo.

Immediately after Kris finished the job, we left to run some errands. Upon our return, we were surprised to see that they hadn't tried to rebuild in the same spot. But, we did notice an ever so slight amount of stray debris sticking out of our dryer vent halfway up the side of the house. We really couldn't definitively say whether it was there before or not. So, now I'm freaking out that this sparrow couple might be making their home right inside of our home.

I had never realized that birds could really get into dryer vents until I noticed one go into our neighbor's vent a couple of weeks ago. Now, I'm wondering if this is karma for not informing the neighbor of the new family that has moved into her home. It's not like I haven't tried, though. The day I saw it, I walked over there to try and tell her. For some reason, the crazy old bat will never answer her door for me. Okay, maybe she thinks the same thing about me. Maybe she's really freaking annoyed that I have to walk over to her house once every other week because one of my kids has decided it would be funny to throw a toy over the fence and into her backyard. Maybe she's actually a little terrified of us after my husband peeked over her fence with a set of binoculars in search of the sitter's house key which Sam decided he needed to chuck over the back fence. But still...I'm a little annoyed that she has never answered the door for us and we've always had to ask her next door neighbor to retrieve our lost items for us...which he always willingly does as he yells in her open window to let her know he's running into her yard to get a toy...to which she alway responds, "okay." It drives me absolutely up a wall that she has been home on almost every occasion but has still not answered the door for us!

Then again, maybe this is just because Kris evicted a young bird family out of his grill last year and has nothing to do with the annoying neighbor. We're watching the vent for further signs of inhabitance. I'll post if there are any developments (since I know you're all on the edge of your seats over this!).

we're like Indiana Jones...but instead of the holy grail, we found this

Kris forced me to do something I thought I'd never do the other day. Yes, we cleared out the three Andrews Moving Company boxes out of the corner of our bedroom! I feel so vindicated, so alive, so free!

We opened them up on Saturday morning and started sorting through them. I could have sworn that I had opened all of them up at some point after the move. I was sure that I knew what was in each of them and had decided to shove them into the corner until I could find rightful homes for all of the important treasures that were held inside.

As we started to go through them, there really was more crap than treasures, but we did find a few things worthy of keeping. One was my address book, which was exciting enough for me to shriek at the sight of it. It has been missing since we moved a year and a half ago, so to the few people who only exist in my address list and not on my electronic Christmas card list for some reason: you WILL NOT be ignored a third year in a row! Get ready...a cheesy family Christmas card will arrive to your mailbox this year!

Among the other keepables was this:

This is the list of names that we were considering when we were pregnant with Sam. (No, I have no idea what I was thinking with some of these...so as not to offend anyone, I'll leave it up to your imagination as to which ones actually make me throw up in my mouth a little now.) Actually, the first 14 are names I was considering...the last two were Kris' picks. In case you can't read the list above, I'll type it out for you to see:

Cole
Samuel
Will
Thomas
Zachery
Andrew
Asher
Ashton
Curtis/Kurtis
Emmett/Emmit
Grant
Jack
Jonathan
Nicholas
The Terminator
Fudgecicle

Now everyone has a glimpse into the man I deal with everyday. Oh, and Kris wanted me to add that we still claim ownership to any names that are not crossed out on the original list, so if any of our friends or family were considering naming their next kid "The Terminator", back off...we're saving it for any future offspring, should any decide to show up.

a kid at heart...

Happy 35th, Kris! Hon, you don't look a day past...um...2? (That is, if 2-year-olds sit at the table with a bottle of wine and a beer in front of them.) Love you! :)

new Tuesday morning routine

So a few weeks ago, I posted a picture of Sam waiting by his window for the garbage truck at the crack of dawn on a Tuesday morning. Since then, he's having a hard time awakening himself to see it. We have had some close calls on missing it (and trust me, Tuesday is not a good day if we miss it), so Kris and I (okay, mostly Kris, but I do play a major role) have conditioned ourselves for the great Tuesday morning race.

We are usually somewhat awake by the time we hear the truck, as the alarm has usually gone off once, or sometimes twice, by then. As soon as we hear it, I whisper shout an alarming "Garbage truck!"...I'm not sure what makes me do it and why on earth I feel so panicked at that moment. Maybe it's because I've experienced one too many mornings of crying and wailing and defiant refusals to go potty, get dressed, put shoes on and walk out the door...all because they won't let go of the fact that they missed it and continue to stand poised at the window waiting for the big event.

And, yes, I say "they" because Grace has joined in on the action. One morning, she heard it first and sat screaming in her bed, "Hurry, Mommy! The garbage truck!" Why she couldn't get herself out of bed at that moment like she does fifteen times every night before she goes to sleep is beyond me.

Anyway, as soon as the terrified words leave my lips, Kris, who has a direct line from his side of the bed to our bedroom door to the hall, springs up from bed and sprints around the corner to the kids' rooms. I hear the blinds go up then one child plucked from his bed and from a deep sleep and plopped in front of the window as he whimpers for a second before realizing what is going on. Next, I hear the other plucked from her bed and raced into her brothers' room where she is set next to him to view the weekly wonder. Then calmly, Kris gathers pillows and blankets and makes the little beds on the floor in front of the window where the kids will lightly snooze for a half hour while waiting for the recycling truck to come into view.

After all is said and done, everyone is snuggled back into position for their last stretch of rest for the night/early morning and the whole thing took, oh, about 60 seconds. But, trust me, it could be the most important 60 seconds of the week.

lucky number seven

Erin & Kris
August 11, 2001

Happy anniversary, Hon. I love you.