Sick Day

Last week Nina go the stomach bug again.  She had been sick, then she seemed like she was better, then she’d get sick again, and that’s how it went for about three or four days.  On Tuesday, Nina was home again sick from school, and Lyla woke up that morning complaining that her stomach was hurting badly.  She seemed to be acting sick to Mark and I, so we let her stay home from school also.  It only took a little bit of time to figure out that Lyla was faking – she basically stayed home for the TV shows (which they’re allowed to have while they’re sick) and the chance to snack all day.  Cayenne enjoyed the free snuggle time with both girls home, and thankfully Nina was feeling much better the next day!!

Thawing Out and Mobile Uploads

Just before we got the warm spell a few days ago, Cayenne and I stopped off at the pond that she runs by each day, and I let her off leash to explore around.  Unfortunately, for her, she was separated from the geese by a frozen portion of the pond, but the spring thaw is coming and the chase will resume!

Random observation – the two groups of birds below were on the same side of the ice about 25 feet apart.  Apparently, the “birds of a feather flock together” expression is not just an expression after all!  Birds from the two groups didn’t mix at all in the time we were there.

Here are some pictures that were snapped with my camera phone.

The other night I got styled by Lyla!  She was very proud of her work – just not so sure this is my best look! 

This was the last big snowfall that we had.  The kids had been playing outside for nearly three hours, and when they came in they were dirty and cold.  They requested a bubble bath and hot chocolate to drink while in the bath – rough life!!!

Our friends from the gym invited us over for a little St. Patrick’s Day party – we had a great time!

  

Cayenne has been busy.  She managed to destruct the nearly indestructible Kong toy.  This red toy is one of her favorites.  We wedge treats in it, and she has to work the treats out of it.  Apparently, she needs the black Kong toy – the Kong Extreme for power chewers.  Sounds impressive!

When she doesn’t get her run, she’s a destructor of indestructible toys.  After she gets her run, she’s a sweet and cuddly puppy.  Hence, she runs a lot!!!

When she’s not running, she loves to lay in the sunshine.  Nina had been under the weather with the stomach bug, so the three of us laid in the sunshine together.  So happy that spring is finally here!!!

Birthday Weekend

This past weekend was full of birthday celebrating!  On Friday afternoon, we had a little birthday activity for Lyla.  We had invited three of her good friends from her class over to design t-shirts and come with us out to dinner for an early birthday celebration.  Unfortunately, one of the little friends came down with the stomach flu and couldn’t come, but Lyla still had a great time!  We designed shirts then went to one of our favorite local pizza places for dinner and cake.

It’s hard to believe our baby girl is seven years old!!!  Time has truly flown!

Speaking of time flying, while Lyla was turning 7 on Sunday, Bo was turning 30!  So, on Saturday night, we all left the kids at home and met up at Matchbox to celebrate the big birthday!

The celebrating continued on Sunday morning when Lyla got up excited to celebrate on her actual birthday. 

   

One gift that she had been asking for for months was a Janimal.  She was so excited when she opened it that she ran around the house screaming with excitement.

   

After celebrating at our house, we met the family again over at the Williams house for a wonderful lunch celebration of Lyla, Bo, my, and Mark’s birthday.  It’s a busy 4 family birthdays in 10 days in March!

Sweet birthday buddies…

Ice Skating

Last night we decided to take the girls out for burgers and ice skating at Reston Town Center.  They have wanted to ice skate this winter, and we hadn’t gone yet, so we took a pretty safe wager that since there was a bit of snow in the forecast for this morning, there was a good chance school would be closed or delayed.  Regardless, the girls thought it was really cool to be out past their bed time on a “school night.”   The rink wasn’t crowded at all, and we had a blast!

This was Lyla’s first time ever on ice skates, and she did awesome.  She started out holding our hand while she got the hang of it, but before long, she was cruising around the rink on her own! 

Nina, who had gone once before, quickly remembered the feel of skating, and was flying around the rink.  Occasionally, she would skate up to one of us and hold hands for a few times around, but then it was back to doing her own thing.  We did stay out late, and school was canceled today, but the girls still woke up early!  It was a great night though.

  

More Snow…

Sign me up for spring.  Whenever it’s coming, I’m ready!  I do have to admit that yesterday’s snow was very pretty though.  Big fluffy flakes were flying, and the snow was light and powdery.  After it slowed down, we all wanted to get outside in a big way.  Mark was happy to shovel the driveway, the kids wanted to play in the snow and sled, and Cayenne just needed to get some energy out.  She got a good run playing tennis ball chase with the girls and trying to catch the snow that Mark would throw into the air with the shovel. 

Thankfully the sun was out and the temps warmed up today to the point we just needed a light jacket on outside.  What a bizarre two days!

Snow Again

I know it’s only the middle of February, but I’m rooting for spring to arrive.  Wishful thinking, I know, but it’s been very cold with more snow arriving yesterday, so I think it will be awhile before I get my wish for spring.   The kids were off school on Monday for Presidents Day, so we went indoor swimming.  It was too cold to play outside, but the inside of a pool felt great!

We got most of the snow yesterday evening, so by today the sun was out and it was a pretty good day for sledding.  The girls met up with some friends, and we went to their favorite sledding hill for some fun.

   

School is closed again tomorrow, so I’m sure we’ll be back out there again!

Valentines Day 2014

A few weeks ago, Nina missed an event she had waited and waited for.  In AWANA, the girls in grades 3-5 can qualify to attend a Lock-In by memorizing a certain number of verses and completing a certain number of sections in their book.  An hour before the lock-in, Nina got sick, resulting in her not being able to attend the lock-in that night. She was devastated.  She had just thrown up all over the car and knew she was not feeling well, but she sobbed for us to let her go anyway.  Obviously we didn’t, but knowing how much it upset her, I told her that we’d come up with something fun to do with friends to make up for it. 

Well, last Friday was “make-up” for missing the lock-in.  She invited seven friends over, and Lyla got to invite two, and we had eleven girls here for a Valentine’s party.  It was wild and loud, but the girls all had a great time, and Nina appreciated the fact that this special time with friends didn’t get canceled!

The girls got to continue with some mild celebrating the next morning – donuts, of course, and a few small things, then we all enjoyed a fancy dinner cooked by Mark at home that evening.  It was a nice way to spend Valentines Day!

In Loving Memory

Life through PB’s perspective is how I remember a large portion of my childhood.  Rarely in front of the camera, but always behind it, PB always said that photos were the ways to trigger memories.  We see a picture of a time or place and those memories come back to us. 

From my earliest memories, PB was synonymous with his camera. Whether it was taking photos of his travels all over the world, nature, or his family, he recorded his memories and ours with each click of his camera. 

 

He often said that “God gave him a special ability” to understand how light, color, and their relationship to each other work.  His photos of nature were stunning.  They were National Geographic worthy, but he never had the desire to put them on display in that way.  He had a deep appreciation for God’s creation and found a sense of joy in capturing it with his camera.  God HAD given PB a special understanding of how things worked, and if you happened to mention words like “pixel,”  “spectrum,” or “simulator” in his presence, you had better get comfortable in your seat because PB’s eyelids would close, and he would take whatever length of time necessary to impart some of his knowledge to you – like it or not!

 

God also gave PB a special ability when it came to his dedication to family.  So many of my memories as a child were when we were down at his house on the Patuxent River in Southern Maryland.  PB’s property that adjoined his mothers (my great grandmother’s) property was the setting for so many vivid memories of our family.  I remember swimming in the river, playing on the beach and the pier, learning to fish, learning to crab, learning to water ski, and my favorite – learning to drive PB’s boat.  I remember countless hours of boat rides on the Miss Ann – rides all around the river, in the bay, the coolers with fish, the baskets with crabs, and always stories of things that maybe didn’t go just right.  PB had a boat house and a boat ramp on the property, and he and my dad spent hours in the boat house – getting the boats ready/repaired and tuned up after hours on the water.  PB could fix almost anything and usually did – electric shock or hypothermia be dammed!  I remember all the summers that Shenley and I would play outside – swinging on the hammock, eating watermelon by the water, making “salad” out of weeds, “soup” out of sea nettles, tying chicken necks to line along the pier, and helping our mom tend to the enormous garden.

 

I remember riding in the back of PB’s light blue pick up truck, and Shenley and I in the open truck bed – no seat belts and no cares in the world.  I remember hearing the ice cream man down the road past their property, and Shenley and I chasing him barefoot – always barefoot – down the baking hot road.  If it wasn’t chasing the ice cream man, it was riding in the back of PB’s pick up to the Highs convenience store where PB always got us at least the double scoop ice cream cone.

He was dedicated to my grandmother, lovingly dedicated to his own mother, and he cared for Grandma Bette with patience and love until the day he died. He helped out my parents when they were starting out, became a father-figure to my dad, and made it possible for Shen and I to get a great private school education when we were young.  In all the years of being around him, I struggle to remember a time when he was angry. 

 

He was generous in every sense of the word. He was the type of grandfather who came to our music recitals, gave us real live chicks in our Easter baskets, always greeted us with bags of candy, and reimbursed us for our good report card grades with his very generous $ to grade scale.

His house was like a museum filled with his collections from his travels around the world.  Every inch of his home, literally, housed some sort of rare collectible, and he could tell you exactly what it was, what country he got it from, and some other interesting feature about it.  He made thermal hash, loved sweets, battled squirrels and raccoons wit for wit (to keep them off his bird feeders), was a champion skeet shooter in his younger years, and a true lover of nature.

 

He truly lived an incredible life.  He survived disease as a child, cancer as an elderly person, was a World War II veteran, and spent his career working for the Army on complex simulators and developing night and thermal vision technologies.  He found enjoyment in retirement – travelling with Grandma Bette between their homes in Maryland, Maggie Valley, NC, and Dunedin, FL.  When Grandma Bette’s health forced them to stay put in Maryland, he cared for her every day and still found ways to occupy his mind with his photography, converting to digital and cataloging thousands of slides and photos from the past, teaching himself to play the piano, and never complaining.  I got to watch my mom show him that same dedication as she cared for him and was a constant presence in the recent years as he battled cancer and times of loneliness as Bette’s mental health declined.

 

He loved Jesus and modeled God’s love to his family.  For all his piano playing, I think he only ever played hymns.  I asked him one time what his favorite hymn was, and he said it was Face to Face.  You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTkWah6kbWw  The lyrics say:

Face to face with Christ my Savior,

Face to face, what will it be,

When with rapture I behold Him,

Jesus Christ, who died for me?

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

Only faintly now I see Him,

With the darkening veil between,

But a blessed day is coming,

When His glory shall be seen.

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

What rejoicing in His presence,

When are banished grief and pain;

When the crooked ways are straightened,

And the dark things shall be plain!

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

Face to face! Oh, blissful moment!

Face to face to see and know;

Face to face with my Redeemer,

Jesus Christ, who loves me so.

 

(Refrain)

Face to face shall I behold Him,

Far beyond the starry sky;

Face to face in all His glory

I shall see Him by and by!

 

What a peace to know the lyrics of this hymn are true for PB.  Finally he is face to face with his Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who loves him so.