Month: June 2008

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Family

At the Surf City Beach

We went to the beach this weekend. The weather held out for us, the expected thunderstorms didn’t arrive until Sunday, and instead we had 90-degree weather. The water was still cold and it took me a few minutes to get comfortable. The girls just dived right in though.

We played in the water for a while. CE got tumbled by the waves three or four times, but it didn’t bother her too much. Eventually she learned to run away from where the wave crashed so it wouldn’t knock her over. CDF and MD swam together in a calm stretch between breakers.

When we got back out of the water we tried to build some sand castles, but the tide was coming in and we continued to be forced to move before getting anything built. So instead the girls just ran up and down the beach gathering sand and dumping it in the water.

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Family

Blueberry Festival Music



Blueberry Festival Music

Originally uploaded by jmodule

This past weekend was the Blueberry Festival. MD and I stayed longer to wait for the band to start playing. The morning rain showers had delayed everything. But they finally got started and we were able to listen to a few songs. MD liked their rendition of “Carolina Girl.”

You can see more pictures on Flickr

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Around the House Family

Playing Music

It has been a while since I last played music with anyone. So recently I decided to invite my brothers over for a jam session. We got together this past Saturday.

I had to get the Slingerland kit back in tune, but once that was set we got right in sync. The guitar led it off with a number of songs by some 90’s bands (Rage Against the Machine, Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Greenday) and then we moved on to other songs, whatever someone decide to kick off. I just tried to play along, whether I knew the song or not.

I was happy with things turned out, and despite being in the living room, we were about to play at a comfortable volume level without driving everyone out of the house. LP even slept through most of it!

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Around the House Daughters

Accidents and more

Yesterday was a day of calamity for the girls — to put it dramatically. CE usualy is the one getting hurt, Calamity could be her name. But yesterday started off with MD.

I got a call from CDF around 10am. MD had been bitten or stung on the foot while playing in the back yard. She didn’t see what it was, but it left a red welt that was starting to swell. CDF checked the area for a black widow spider, but found nothing, so I think it was most likely a wasp that stung her. It was painful for a while, but CDF put on some cream that helped the stinging go away.

So when I got home that evening everything was going fine, until after supper, as we were getting ready to go outside, CE tripped over her feet and fell into an ottoman. It’s about 18 inches tall with padding on the top. She missed the padding and hit her head on the corner of the wood. I heard her start screaming and by the time I had picked her up a “goose-egg” was already growing on her forehead. She didn’t like having a cold rag on the bump, so we gave her some infant tylonol and let her lay on the couch for a few minutes.

They’re both feeling better today.

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Around the House Family

Ice Cream for Father’s Day

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CDF and the girls gave me an ice cream maker for Father’s Day this year. I had occasionally talked about getting one for a while now, but I had forgotten about it recently and was surprised by the gift.

So Sunday afternoon I went to the grocery store and got what we needed to make mint chocolate chip ice cream! I asked MD if she wanted to go with me and she said she didn’t — but of course she changed her mind as soon as I left. But she and CE got to help me when I got back.

CE really wanted to help, and got upset when she couldn’t stir and taste as much as she wanted (she had also gotten up from her nap in a cranky mood). But they both had a chance to stir and taste the ice cream as I took it out of the mixer and put it in the freezer to set.

It was getting too late to eat the ice cream that night (it was supposed to set for 2 hours), so we rode bikes the A. B. Grill to get ice cream there.

Categories
Daughters

Last Day of VBS

Yesterday was the last day of VBS at Mission Baptist. Parents were invited for the closing ceremonies that started at 6:00 PM. Each child was given a tee-shirt to wear that evening. CE got one too, even though she wasn’t old enough to participate during the week.

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MD and CE Ready for VBS

CDF had been a helper for the older girls (and enjoyed doing it) so she had a shirt too. The people at the church have always been really nice and CDF enjoyed working with them for the week.

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After Church
Categories
Daughters

Yogurt

CE was eating Yogurt last night, and enjoying it a lot. I managed to get a couple of cute pictures while she was eating.

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Daughters

Stories from VBS

This year MD is going to Vacation Bible School at a nearby church again. She has been looking forward to it all spring and she was quite disappointed to learn that it would last less than a whole week.

CE didn’t know much about it, apparently, but when we got to the church on Sunday for the first night she wanted to stay with her sister. CDF volunteered to stay and help so I had to take CE home. She started crying as soon as she realized that we were heading toward the car, and cried all the way home.

I didn’t want to spend the next two hours listening to her cry, so I had to find a way to cheer her up. I decided to try the sprinkler since it was still close to 100 degrees outside and that would be a nice way to cool off some. It worked, she was happy to play in the water, although I ended up turning the pressure down until it was more like a small fountain since she really only wanted to get her feet wet.

During supper she “talked” about going back to find her sister and she was pretty excited to go back to the church. As we walked inside, some ladies said, “Hi, how are you,” and to my surprise CE responded with, “Hi… good.”

We found CDF, had a snack, and CE was finally really happy.

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Around the House Daughters

Floor Work



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Originally uploaded by jmodule

CDF took some pictures while I was working on replacing part of the dining room floor. While I was nailing, MD came in the room with her toy hammer and asked if it would work well. I let her try, and then she wanted to use a real hammer. It was heavy though, and she gave it back pretty quickly.

The picture below is what the floor looked like after I had cut out a 5 foot by 8 foot section and replaced it with 5/8-inch thick plywood.

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Around the House

Bunnies

Since we moved, almost three years ago, we’ve enjoyed seeing the wild rabbits that live around us. This year there haven’t been many about. In comparison, last year we had two or three regulars to the clover patch in our back yard.

So we were quite pleased to see this baby bunny in the front ditch as we went out for a bike ride. It sat very still while I went back to get the camera. It didn’t move until I got closer and it decided to make a run for the woods, making a wide circle around the bikes.

Bunny in the Grass

Interestingly we saw another adult rabbit on the bike ride a few blocks away from our street.