Farley is in Trouble

As I write this post, I'm so mad at Farley that he has been banished outside to the puppy pen. This is a fenced in area just outside our door that was created for rabbits, so it doesn't contain him very well, as he can just jump right over it whenever he wants. I hope he stays in it today.

The reason for my anger...socks. This dog loves to eat socks, especially little boy socks. They must be just the right size and smell for a tasty treat. We have tried everything to get him to stop, but to no avail. Today, I noticed he disappeared while I was reading books before naptime. I got up to check on him and he slunk around the corner with a guilty look on his face and went right to bed. I know something is wrong when he voluntarily goes to bed. The boys had taken off their shoes and socks in the laundry room and stuffed their socks in their shoes, as I instructed them to do. I guess they weren't stuffed far enough because all four socks were missing when I went to investigate. Grrrrr...

Some days I think life would be easier without a dog, but then we have days like yesterday when he runs so beautifully and makes all of us laugh. After all, he is God's creation to be a companion to us. I guess the Lord wants me to learn patience and grace from him as well.

I turned my head for a second...

This is what happens when you turn your head for a second in my house.

Well, maybe it was just a bit longer than a second. Here is what happened. It rained all weekend (over 2 inches total). It finally stopped around 10:00 and I decided to take Farley outside around 11. The plan was to let him do his business and then head back inside. Well, no sooner had I stepped out the door when I had two "helpers" outside with me.

So I went to Plan "B" - which was to walk along the road to the creek and see how full it was. That way, our feet would stay dry, but we would still get to experience the great outdoors for a few moments. Just as we passed some big puddles in our yard, a neighbor walked by with her dog. I stopped to talk with her. About 30 seconds later I looked around to see Andrew stomping in this great big puddle and stirring it with the plastic hoe that he had retrieved from the carport. Scott was not far behind, after he grabbed his shovel.

With the damage already done and the pants already dirty, I let them continue to play until lunchtime. We came inside and took baths. The tub was a dull shade of brown when we finished bathing - yuck!

Championship weekend

Derrick and have had had a wonderful and tiring week helping with the NCAA Gymnastics Championships, hosted by UGA. One of our favorite spring pasttimes is our work with gymnastics and this was the culmination of a great year.

When someone asked me how long I have been working the home meets earlier this week, I found it hard to believe that this is the end of my 8th season. My, how time flies. It all started when I first moved to Athens and my roommate worked for the Athletic Association and was "meet director" for the gymnastics meets (along with several other sports). She casually asked me one day if I would like to help. I worked my first meet even before I started dating Derrick. We started dating that spring and by season #2, I asked her if she could find him a job as well.

It is funny. In our "real life" jobs, Derrick is the one who has had the same, steady job the whole time I have known him and I'm the one who has jumped around. But in this situation, it is just the opposite. I have recruited and trained the college girls who show the gymnast scores for each home meet for eight years now. Derrick, on the other hand, started out in the food room, making sure each worker only ate once. He did that for two seasons before Christie "promoted" him to tunnel guard. He managed to have one season there before he was "promoted" once again to table scorer. Last year he switched once again and his only responsibility was to start the warm up clock before each event...meaning, he had to push a green button 8 times over the course of three hours - so taxing on the finger. :) This year he served as a scorer and clock starter.

Not only was this an exciting week of gymnastics, but the bonus was that UGA won the Championships and two Georgia gymnasts won the individual competition.

We are glad that life will slow down a little this week and the boys will be glad that we are home again. We could not have done this without help from Nana. She came Thursday and Friday to keep the boys while we were away, so we only had to have a babysitter on Saturday.

Visiting Hannah

This weekend, Derrick and I headed to NC to visit a college roommate and meet her new baby, Hannah. We had a delightful time. Below is a picture of the quilt that I finished last week, just in time to take to her.


Here is a picture of Hannah enjoying a snooze on the quilt. It was so funny. I probably took about 20 pictures of her, all the time tickling her, moving her and generally trying to wake her up so you could see her beautiful blue eyes. This was the closest I got to "awake." Just after this yawn, she was off to sleep again.

One special treat of the weekend was that we were able to attend a "U2charist." Sara's husband put together a band to perform U2 songs in a worship setting. The band gives permission for groups to do this, as long as 100% of the offering is given to a program that helps eliminate world hunger and poverty. It is a great opportunity for a church to highlight a mission program that they already support, in a different kind of setting. I never realized that the music of U2 was so spiritual, but I had a great time listening to the music and the message. Below is a picture of Sara and Hannah enjoying the music. Since she was asleep all morning, she was a awake most of the show, but seemed to enjoy the music. I guess she has inherited her father's love for music.

Throughout the weekend, I had such a good time holding her, changing diapers, etc. I kept telling Derrick, "I'd really like another one of these." That's a really good thing because we are already well on our way to making that happen. In early October, we'll have another of our own.

Touch a Truck

Last weekend, amid Andrew's ailments, we did manage to have a bit of fun at the Oconee County "Touch a Truck". The weather was rainy and overcast, so we weren't sure it would happen, but we took a chance and were rewarded with great big trucks and light crowds. Here are some pictures:
Here is Scott operating a telephone truck.

...riding on a motorcycle...


...and trying out a giant excavator...
You'll notice that Andrew is absent from many of the pictures. He preferred to stay in Daddy's arms most of the time. But, he did enjoy getting in the cab of a tractor.

Teething Troubles

I know I've been a little slow at updating my blog this week. In all of my free time (which is not much) I've been working on a big project for a friend. Unfortunately for you, this friend is also a reader of my blog, so you'll have to wait until next week to see the results.

It has also been a tough week for us, and especially for Andrew. In case you haven't ever experienced it, a teething child with an ear infection due to the extra fluid in his sinuses is really no fun to be around. As a matter of fact, last Thursday morning, I called Derrick to ask if I could "take the rest of the day off." That's not quite so easy in this line of work, so my second solution was just to put the boys down for naps. I don't know what I will do when Scott gives up his nap, but we are not pushing him in that direction.

We did not diagnose the ear infection until Saturday morning, after having set the alarm every three hours during the night on Friday to administer medicine to keep Andrew's fever down. Many of you may recall that he had a febrile seizure in September when his fever spiked. It was easily the scariest moment of my life and neither Derrick or I wanted to relive that moment again. We went to the doctor on Saturday and he found a bad infection in the right ear.

But, there is always a light at the end of every tunnel and Andrew had a "breakthrough" moment today...literally. I looked in his mouth and saw three teeth buds poking through. We are rejoicing around here. Not only is this a moment when you think "all that hard work has been worth it," but he is about a year late getting all of his teeth and I was beginning to think that they would never come in. He bites his tongue several times a week during meals because there is so much space between his teeth and they are so sharp.

I'll be sure to post a picture next week when you can see the teeth clearly.

Six Aerial Lifts

In our weekly routine, Thursday is the day for Community Bible Study. I load three boys in the mini-van and head to our host church in downtown Athens. It can make for a hectic morning, especially with downtown parking being at a premium. I have learned that the best way to solve the parking problem is to leave early and park in the small lot that the church owns across the street. Normally, I'm a "park far away and walk" kind of person. I save those close spots for people who really need them, but in this situation, I consider myself one of those who "needs" it.

Well, this year the best part about this parking lot is that they are building a new bank building next door. When we began the year in September, they were razing the old building. The boys loved seeing the wrecking ball and other destruction equipment. In October, they set up a tower crane and had a semi-permanent yard crane in the yard, constantly moving steel beams from one side of the site to another. Scott loved the fire spray coming from the welders' tools and the big, protective masks they wore. By February, we were able to witness the brick layers and the machines they brought with them to the site - concrete mixers, fork lifts, and pallets of brick. Each week when we arrive, the first thing we do is assess the progress of the week. Then, I allow the boys to stand by the fence and watch while I get all of our bags and gear out of the car.

Yesterday was perhaps the most exciting moment of the year for them. There were six aerial lifts working at the same time to install windows in the building. They were stationed all around the building and the men were working hard. Scott's eyes lit up when we pulled into the parking lot and it was all I could do to get them into the church.

I'm really sad because we only have one more week of bible study left for the year. We don't get downtown that often, so it will probably be a while before we get to drive by and assess the progress of the building. On the other hand, I'm glad we are ending before they finish the outside and start working only on the interior. I was already thinking about how I was going to explain to the boys where the workers were and why they couldn't watch the work. (Sad for more than just this reason...it is a great opportunity to study God's word and fellowship with other adults.)

W is for "wax" and "world"

Even though I haven't reported on our school for a while, we are still plugging away on the alphabet. This week is brought to us by the letter "W". Today we made wax pictures. It was so easy and so much fun. We took crayons and sharpened them in a pencil sharpener onto wax paper. Then, we put another piece of wax paper on top and ironed them together to melt the wax.



In this bottom picture, I love the way it looks like Farley is also admiring the artwork. In fact, the squirrels in our yard were driving him crazy this morning. He kept running from the front window to the back window (that overlooks the deck) barking and having a fit. They, of course, just sat and looked at him, taunting him even more. Finally, I opend the front door and he had a good chase.

While we have had fun this year learning to recognize letters, Scott is far from mastering the letters and their sounds. Derrick and I have decided that we are going to homeschool him again next year and begin the alphabet again, this time focusing on the sounds that letters make, as well as recognizing the big and little letters. That is a typical Pre-K curriculum anyway. I'll get a different set of lesson plans, and advance the math and science a bit. Of course, the biggest goal is for Scott and Andrew to do lots of playing and exploring, as that is how they learn best.

Spring Break #2

Well, Spring Break is officially over in our household. Yesterday (Monday) contained all of the typical adjustments...crying children in the morning at a loss for what to do and an exhausted husband at the end of the day. But, for me, it was nice to be back in a routine, although I certainly missed Derrick (especially when our potty-training two year old went potty on the floor of the bathroom, instead of in the toilet.)

We had a great end to the break this past weekend, by spending some time with our good friends, the Tarrants. Joseph is 17 days older than Scott and Bethany is 2 months younger than Andrew. We enjoyed Joseph's dinosaur birthday party and visiting with the whole family after the party ended. Here are some highlights:

Julia's Mom planned a fantastic party. She made dinosaur eggs out of salt and coffee and gave the kids explorer glasses and hats and a little hammer and chisel to excavate the eggs and find out what was inside (a plastic dinosaur). Scott LOVED it. Here he is working hard. In the second picture, he is digging through the sand box, with the other kids, looking for dinosaur bones.

Andrew did not get into the theme of the party, but he loved playing in the sandbox when the digging for bones part was over. He found all of the sandbox toys and moved them into the sandbox to play. Typical for Andrew...he did all of this independently, without asking permission or for help. It was so funny to watch him plan what he wanted to do and see him implement it.


The other highlight of the day was making the volcano "errupt" with baking soda and vinegar. I felt like I was at a middle school science fair.


After the party, we had a wonderful time to catch up and reconnect with the family. Here is a picture that Derrick took of Andrew and Bethany checking each other out. I love the fact that they are each holding their "lovies" - for Andrew, Cici and Bethany has Duck-Duck.


And, finally, for our family, no trip to a house with a creek is complete without a mucking adventure. We even brought a bathing suit for Scott so he could sit down in the water. All of the kids had a great time exploring the creek.

Spring Break!

Derrick is on spring break this week and we have had so much fun. It is like having Saturday every day! He spent time earlier in the week finishing "my" wall outside and playing with the boys in the yard. Yesterday, we drove to Amicalola Falls, in North Georgia, to hike and enjoy the beautiful weather. We took Farley and both boys.

Andrew rode in the carrier, while Scott was on his own two legs. I was so impressed with his hiking ability, especially half-way up, when we realized that the approach trail that we chose was rated "moderate to extreme." He was such a trooper and did a great job carrying himself to the top and down again. Below is a picture of us enjoying the falls. The breeze from the water felt great.

The reason we chose the more difficult trail for the ascent was to avoid the 600 or so steps that most people climb to get to the top. We decided it wasn't good for Farley's back. On the way down, we avoided most of the steps, but ended up on about 175 of them. Farley was so scared because they were metal and you could see through them. Here Derrick is carrying him down some of the stairs (yes, Andrew is still on his back). Eventually he decided that it was OK to go down by himself.

The Cutting Room Floor

One of the hardest parts of putting together this blog is deciding which photos to include. With all of our activity in March, I have 289 pictures in my file. Granted, this is unusually high and many are duplicates - we often take 5 pictures just to get one that works. I know that none of my readers really want to see that many pictures, but just like any editor, I always end up cutting out some of my favorites. Here are some from March. I apologize that they are in such a random order.

Here is a picture of Scott's birthday cake, surrounded by the hats that the firemen gave us.


Another exciting event this month was the christening of the twins this past Sunday. Here is a picture of Geoffrey and Jill and all three of their children.

I love the smile that is on Scott's face in this picture. It was taken at the Easter Egg Hunt with the helicopter drop. Both boys loved jumping on the Moon Walk.

Here we are back on Easter Sunday. Scott loves to climb trees and especially loved this one in front of Geoffrey and Jill's house. He is really eager to try their magnolia, but we said it was too dirty and dangerous to do in church clothes. Maybe next time...

This picture was taken at the beginning of the month, when the boys and I went to see a production of Frog and Toad at the Classic Center Theater. It was such a special morning because we stopped by to get ice cream on the way home. I was surprised when the lady handed Andrew one that was almost as big as his face, but he ate every bite.

This is a picture I got from my Mom's camera. I think it is one of the only pictures that I am in from the month. Since I'm the designated "photo lady" of the family, I'm often the one on the other side of the lens. But, the real reason I love this picture is the look of pure joy on Andrew's face.


In the middle of the month, my Mom and I jointly celebrated our birthdays with a fondue dinner. It was quite an adventure, but well worth the effort of cooking our own food at the table. The best part of the meal was I did not have to clean up that big mess.


Now that I've posted these, my next big task for the week is going through all 300 pictures to figure out which ones will go in our photo album. We're making a trip to Sam's this afternoon, so I'd better get started.