Kids Planting

The kids and I did some planting today. Boy did we get dirty. I ran some new soaker hoses around the landscape and had to bury one under a sidewalk. That sure was some wet fun! We had mud up and down the sidewalks, on the tools, and ourselves. We dug some nice, deep holes to put the plants in. We put a lot of rich soil around the plants and then watered them well.




Doing a little clean up

What a lot of fun!

Car in shop: Thank the Lord

Took the car in to replace the ac belt, which I had cut back in the winter. There was a grind noise and I didn't want to spend 1k to fix the ac. So, cut the belt. Yes, I'm thrifty. Now, the kids and I are getting a little sweaty in the morning during our routine. I made an appointment to get the belt replace and just bear with the noise until the ac broke.

We'll, on the way over the temp pegged out on the high side. I've never seen the car get past halfway. I had to spot twice at different gas stations for the 20 mile trip. I was just waiting for a hose to burst. I was nervous with kids in the car. It's one thing for me to have an issue on the side of the freeway, but not with kids. Not that I couldn't handle it, but more vulnerable then I wanted to be. We got to the station and had to wait out the diagnoses. Know it was going to take more than an hour, we trekked the half mile to Monroe Mall. They had ac and sodas! :). It is a small mall. I wasn't very hopeful that I'd be able to keep the kids interest until I got the call on the car being fixed. At the very end of the mall, like blinking past RI on a drive, we ran into a huge inflate bounce area. Kids are in!

Kris meet us at noon. Yes, still at the mall - ugh. We got a bite to eat at CFA. The report at the time was that the car was pushing fluid out. Perhaps a head gasket issue. That should be like 1.5k. Oh yes. That is better than the ac replacement. Well, after lunch. Kris offered to take the kids. Jenni had a gymnastic to get to at 3. However, Austin opted to stay! Cool. Me and the boy suffering time together! :)

We find out the temp issue was just a thermostat! YES, way cheaper. On top of that they had the belt on and found the tension pulley was making the grinding. So I said order it. Great they said. It will be here at 4. Ugh, more time! But if this is it, I don't have to get a new car. That is what I was planning to do. I've been looking for the past month. Not looking to pump out 10k on another case of issues. So, if the mechanic is right, I'm out a few bucks, long run cheaper than the plans I had.

So, I was pushed to have father an son time and we did have a great time. At one point he had drained out his DS, we both played, and started using my crackberry to play brickout. I think that is what it is called. I was able to use the mute on the bluetooth ear piece and let him play! We talked about everything and even watched the ESP/POR football game. Austin thought men hugging after talking their shirts off was weird. Sports I said. :)Awesome!!!

The Lord does work in mysterious ways!!!

Pool Day

Off to the pool we went for the 2nd day in a row. What a great reception we got from those at the pool. The Shaw’s are well liked! Yesterday we did have a great, but hot day. Each of us got a little too much sun and had to apply a liberal about of after sun lotion to each other. I personally like applying to my wife. She is so beautiful, sophisticated, and loving to all! What a great woman – a great digression. :)

Today, we meet nearly the same folks, with a few more. We meet Bob who wore a Steeler’s shirt. I had to make a comment, “Great shirt!” We had a few words about the team and the upcoming season. Both of us think the love the sport is being lost. Then I met Cathy’s husband Ed. David Schultz stopped in too with Carter. Fun. Terry was there too with her husband. As the day wore on, the Culput’s popped in. Cool. Dom and I chatted and toss the ball a few. What a fun guy, family. The Strobes, Sabinske’s , and Cole’s stopped in shortly before we left. Another great day at the pool!

Headed home and mom has ordered Pizza. This is helping me lick my wounds!

Bike to the Shop

Yes, a sad day for me. I was unable to put the sweat equity into the repairs my girl needed. Oh, what a helpless feeling. I had to shop for a technician I could trust. Carolina Cycle Solutions was it. I made an appointment to have her picked up today at 3. It couldn’t say anything. I just rolled her out like any other time I was going to ride. But today, I didn’t warm her up. I wait for them to pick it up. It was tough to watch them load her up into the enclosed trailer. It was like watching your child take the bus to school for the first time, having to entrust a strange to get them there safely. Yes, it was odd to watch her loaded up from a 3rd party perspective. I just watched on. My worrisome sheltered from other by my dark shades and bold chest. The door closed and off she was. I sit here waiting for a call that the trip was fine. But as the school bus, no will come. I’m to trust it was all good. Whoa is me :(

Party at the Tate's

Kris and I had a great evening at the Tate's. Food, wine, cheese and great company! What more do you need?!?

Jenni's Dance Recital - Yippy!

After a jam packed weekend full of baseball, sleepover, rehearsals, pool time, and bevies with neighbors, we jumped up and start it our Sunday with a spring in our step. Jenni's recital was today around noonish. Well, I was a bit slow out of the gate, but got rolling as the sun burned on. We all geared up for the all day dance recital, Jenni's first! It was great. She looked so great, all dressed up for a cheer dance session. Jenni attends Miller Street Studio’s. I must say, I was impressed with the day. Everyone, tots to young adults were great on stage. What a fun, fun time. After the session, Jenni was met flowers from mom! It was very memorable. Austin was proud of her too! We all rejoiced in her moment. You were great Jenni!









Later, we snag some dinner at Anger Ale's. We've never been there before. Now, we just beat the storm home so we can batten down the hatches!!!

Knights Baseball / Sleep over

Austin and I are at the Knight's Stadium watching a great game and getting physic'd about the cub scouts sleepover tonight in the infield!!!

What a great day!



The Knights won, 9-5 over the Yankee's!


Email to Kris at 0500est.

Wow, what a night. I don't think we went to sleep until 1 or so. We went down around midnight, but movie UP was still playing. Camping was not so bad. Not as tough as that trip to Uharrie National forest. The tent appears bigger than what we had, but just as simple. We had our tent up in no time. It was great to spring up like we did and start having fun. I think we played catch for an hour.

At first we just laid everything out, airbed, then bags. We didn't find the batteries, so no inflated air bed. :)

Being boys, me at heart, we were commando. Austin in a bag and me on top. However, as the night grew on, the chill set in. I scummed and dove into the bag as well. I was reminded how tall I was and struggled to make ends meet with me head.

This morning is nice. Chill in the air and birds singing. There is dew everywhere, but it beats rain. The morning cloths are damp to touch. You have to put something on. All said and done, we are great! Austin is still asleep. I'll have to wake him. As I started this, only a handful were up. Now like ants, disturbed by the rain. Folks are coming about and struggling to feel civil; restroom breaks, lines, groggy, and a little chatter about so and so here and there. :)

I love you Kris!

Kentucy Reunion!

We had a great whirlwind of a weekend. My brother and I planned a memorial day surprise from our mom. It worked! She was shocked twice, once by my brother and his family showing up Friday and then us showing up Saturday morning.


The Plan

Surprise Mom on Memorial Day

My brother and I concocted a plan to surprise our mother for Memorial Day. My brother was to start out from Houston on Thursday with his family and we had a few options; drive or fly. Thanks to some last minute esavers we got to fly, $168/person roundtrip. This was a much better than the 16 hour roundtrip drive, more family time! So the plan was set until my brother’s wife called with a subtle hint, “Did you call and see if they had plans?” Well, they never really go anywhere anyhow, but I reluctantly agreed to call. To my surprise I learned that they planned to go to DC for the Memorial Day. Nice. There was a twist I wasn’t counting on. So I made a few quick calls. After some catering to their situation, I convince them that perhaps it wasn’t a good choice on such road crowded weekend.


Friday

I called Friday morning to make sure everyone was ‘OK’ in KY and that they were home chillin’. All was good and my brother was about a few hours out. All good. My brother called us later that day and said that they totally surprised them. Mom was just staring at them through the door trying to get it unlocked. Mom said it felt like an hour. In reality, it did still take her 30 seconds to unlock the door as she was jumping for joy. Too cool! So part one of the plan was in effect.


Saturday

The Flight

We geared up for an early flight, leaving at 6:30est. This would be Jenni’s first flight. This should be good. As reminded every 10 minutes from Austin, this was his 3rd flight. A little excited I would say. Kris and I had everything plan. Ok, Kris had everything planned. We had the mp3 players, L-Max, and the DS for entertainment. Kris ROCKS! I even played with my Zune. I rarely used mp3’s, which is odd since I use to listen to music all the time.


Getting ready

Everyone was strapped in and ready to go. We were #1 for takeoff. Guess who falls asleep from takeoff through half the flight? Jenni. Man, how awesome is home life to be bored on your first flight? LOL. The trip was a huge success. Kris and Jenni were in one row and Austin and I were across from them. It was a CJR plane. A little small for me, but it got the job done. :)

As we landed, my brother was ready to pick us up. He made up a story for mom that he had to run to the bank and get some transactions done. How cool, callable…whatever worked. When we arrived at mom’s we went up stairs and rounded the corner, my brother leading. As he sees my mom he states he found and picked some strays on the side of the road. My mom is a sucker for cats. So as she bent down to look around the corner, there we were all ready to spring on her in surprise. It was awesome. I got to witness the same bouncing/dance that my brother did when he and his family showed up unannounced. :O Way cool!!!


Yippy!

My poor mother in shock and awe for another 2 hours. We have not meet as a family in years, 8 or so I think. Sure, Dan and I individually visited every few years when we could afford the time and mom visited too. But, now! All under one roof; Dan, his wife and son Damon (10) and Kris, Austin, Jenni and I. This is the first time Dan has seen our children. And, the first our kids have seen all of them. Wow!


Love Family Time!

We spent the day visiting and chatting up a storm. The kids had plenty of Grandma this and Grandma that stories. Oh, and the Grandma watch this stuff. Mom had a few scooters in the garage (don’t ask). Damon had his bike. So the kids rode up and down the street, each showing off their cool tricks. :)

As the day blossomed on, Dan thought it would be great to visit the Churchill downs. So we packed up and took a trip there. It was cool. Mom took Dan and I to Turf Paradise in Phoenix a lot when we were kids. So we were use to the horse races and what it was all about. But Churchill downs was different. It was the start of a major tradition, an event as symbolic the superbowl. Churchill downs derby is the superbowl of horse racing. Our guided tour was awesome and we meet a few horse and the jockey that had just won the derby the week before. I was most amazed about how small the jockey’s were. I don’t recall any of them actually stretching the elastic around their waist. Amazing.

Later that night my brother and I decided to tackle a stove selector switch on my mom’s stove. The stove top worked, not the over.


Notice the energy boost?!?

We spent a few hours messing here and there and got it fix to our liking. However, it was late, 9:00. I needed to get my family to the nearby hotel for a few winks to start it all over again on Sunday. I told everyone I planned to come back when everyone was tuck in nicely. Well, when I hit the pillow, I was out till 5 the next morning. Needless to say, I didn’t make it back. I understand the next morning, my brother had pressed on and wired up the selector switch. He had my mom flip the breaker downstairs, Whamo! The house lights dimmed and I was told the selector switch flew off the stove front. LOL I’m not sure how my brother wired it back up, but it was an older model 1965 or so. Therefore, I’m sure it packed a punch as the 220 was flipped on. ;>O I wish I could have seen it. I do know the next morning; I found a piece of it on the kitchen floor, about 5 feet away from the stove. So the story has support. We had so much laughter and fun!


Sunday

We had a great night sleep and good breakfast at a Denny’s. We meet up at mom’s and started the chatting and playing again. And we had a few water balloon fights and a cool water balloon game mom had. It was a twist on hot potato. But in this game, you got wet when the time ran out.


The boys


Jenni taking pictures


The girls



As the day spring on, Dan and his family had to start packing for the trip back. They had a long drive ahead. Dan insists that it’s all good! We said our goodbyes and vowed to continue this new tradition. It was so wonderful to see him and his family! We spent the rest of the day just being with mom. It was great.


Helping Damon

All helping


I did give a buddy of mine a call. He lives about 30 minutes away. Jason is a great friend, starting from high school. We both joined the military and stayed in contact and visited over the years. He is still a reservist and has a tour to Iraq coming up, again. More on Jason, http://shawzer.blogspot.com/search?q=iraq I gave him a call and he told me his mother was in town as well. Odd, I’ll have to take advantage of that! Jason, his wife Tami and son Justin (10) were about to receive the Shaw’s. We stopped by later that night and just had a ball. The kids all played together. So well that Kris felt comfortable enough to relax and have a drink with us. She is so awesome! It was great to see everyone. Jason just doesn’t age. His mom looked great too! They were treating us to dinner. I stated we didn’t want to impose, but they insisted. Jason and I relished in the thought of making impromptu plans like this for family and friends. It is something I’ve tried to do over the years. Since I don’t have the foresight to predict the future, I make time today for all I can. It was good to hear Jason feel the same. Let’s live for today and loosely plan tomorrow, take advantage of the now and ignore procrastinations yearning call. I’m glad we did, as that night was filled with lots of memories and great times! Thank you Brown’s!

p.s. Kris had to drive us home.


Monday

Wow, Monday was here too fast. We had one more event, a surprise birthday for Jason. I found out about it from his wife on Sunday. So I was even on the out. But first, we spent the day with mom and played around all day. It was so much fun to watch the kids playing and interacting with mom, their grandma. It was so special. We must do this more.

Our flight left at 6, so we need to be at the airport at 4. Jason’s surprise party was at 1:30. We weren’t going to make it till 1:40 or so. We just had so much to do with mom. But when we got to the party it was fun. Good to see some new friends of Jason’s and all those that support him. It was great. We spent an hour there and had to head to the airport. We had on last dinner at the airport with mom and had to get to the gate. Other than that hour delay, it was a smooth flight. We flew through some clouds that caused a little bump here and there, but nothing alarming. Well, not alarming to me. Mom and the kids did fine too. We were tired and really couldn’t wait to get into our beds. We had to sleep in a little on Tuesday to get our bodies aligned again. We exhausted them with the long days and nights, but it was well worth it!


More pic's