Categories
Family

July Fourth Celebration

Yesterday we celebrated the Fourth of July by going to a festival at North Side Baptist Church on North College Road. It was quite busy, but we went because they were advertising that they had 7 bouncy play sets (or whatever they are called).

MDF bounced in a couple to start with, then she wanted to try one with an obstacle course. There were two, but one was overrun with big kids, while the other one had a long line waiting. Still we decided to wait in line. As we waited and watched, I decided we had made a good choice, as it looked fun.

But when we were the next to go, MDF started hopping around and I realized she had to go to the bathroom. I asked if she could wait until after we went on the bouncy obstacle course, but she couldn’t. So we got out of line and went to the bathrooms. When she was done she wanted to get back in line, but we knew that we’d have to start at the back again — and we didn’t go to just stand in lines the whole time.

Categories
Friends

Jenny and Mike’s Wedding

This weekend we went to Cary for Jenny Bonner’s wedding — one of CDF’s childhood friends. It was held at the Matthew’s House in Cary, NC, at 6:00PM. The family had reserved a block of rooms at a hotel nearby, so we decided to stay in Cary rather than drive back that night.

Continue reading “Jenny and Mike’s Wedding”
Categories
Daughters

Phones

Yesterday MDF decided she wanted to call someone. So she called my Mother (Meemaw) and talked for a while. Later on, when CDF and the girls were shopping I think, Kristen and Anna Cate called and left a message that Anna Cate wanted to talk to MDF and to give them a call back. Then in the evening Galina called the cell phone to talk to MDF — apparently my Mother had said something about it.

So already, only three years old, MDF is getting well accustomed to talking on the phone. I can only imagine what it will be like when they’re both teenagers.

Categories
Family

First VBS

Last night wrapped up Vacation Bible School for MDF. It was the first time she has gone to one — the first time for us as a family to attend one. It was held at the Missionary Baptist Church on Walker Street that is about two blocks away from us. So we were able to walk to it two nights (the other two were rainy).

MDF enjoyed going. Mackenzie Harrell and Lauren from next door were there too, so she with familiar people and had no trouble going. The people there (staff, pastor, etc) were very friendly as well.

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Performing a Song at VBS
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Singing Along With Everyone
Categories
Work

Tall Ship in Wilmington

Last week a tall ship (i.e. two masts with sails), the Prince William, from the UK docked in Wilmington on it’s way to Virginia to participate in the Tall Ships Challenge Atlantic Coast Series 2007 which goes from Norfolk to Newport, Rhode Island. I walked down to see it on Thursday and took a few pictures.

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The Prince William Docked along
Water Street in Wimington

The Prince William is a training ship that recruits teens during the summer months to learn how to sail. Though one works, you actually have to pay to sail with them, somewhere from $500 to $1000.

Another ship had docked nearby as well, and looked impressive enough for me to want to take pictures of it as well. It was a research ship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I suppose it was getting ready to check out Atlantic hurricanes (the season having started the end of last week).

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NOAA Research Ship Docked Near Coast Guard
Categories
Around the House

Memorial Day

We celebrated this Memorial day at home. CDF and I took the girls to the park in the morning, and then MDF played in a small pool at the neighbors house later in the day.

At the park MDF played on the slides a little, but spent most of the time running around and swinging. CEF sat in a swing for a long time too. Unfortunately on the way back to the car, MDF tripped in the parking lot and scraped her knee (but when we got home, since she had to rest her leg for a while, she got to watch the first volume of Lord of the Rings with me).

Categories
Rambling Thoughts

Power of Negative Thinking

I consider myself an optimist so when someone say’s to “think positively” I’m usually agreeable to the idea. But then today I read an article, Dear Oprah, please stop promoting The Secret written by John Gravois for Slate Magazine. In it he puts forth a rather convincing argument that people are so busy thinking about the best-case scenario, that they forget to plan for problems.

His only two examples of professions that are trained to think negatively are doctors and computer workers. While I’ve never thought about myself as a negative thinker, “Murphy’s law” is invoked regularly at work, so negative thinking might have slipped in unawares. When I write programs I do have to plan for everything that might go wrong and come up with solutions to handle the events gracefully.

So what is the power of negative thinking, and how could it help improve our lives?

Categories
Around the House

Bath Time

Lately I’ve been giving MDF and CEF a bath together. I don’t remember when I started doing it that way — but it’s been a month or so. CEF just loves to be in the tub. She gets really excited whenever I start the water running.

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CEF loves having a bath

MDF enjoys having CEF in the tub with her. They don’t play together much yet, but MDF will give CEF toys. CEF just kicks her feet in the water and tries to grab whatever is going by her.

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MDF enjoys being
silly in the tub too

MDF is pretty good about having her hair washed — though she does put up a fuss about it sometimes. She liked when I put her hair in a “pony tail” and then showed her the picture.

Categories
Daughters

CEF is Scooting Now

CEF has started scooting around on the floor. She uses both elbows and one knee to get around. She is not very fast — until you turn your head and then she has gotten into something before you can look back again.

The other day she was on the living room floor, on her stomach, and I called her to come to me. I didn’t really expect her too, but she started scooting to me and made it to my shoes, where she then go distracted by the laces. Then this morning she was at the beginning of the hallway and had started fretting when I disappeared into the bathroom. So I tried calling her to come to me again. She made it about a third of the way down the hall and then she rolled on her back and started cooing at the ceiling.

Categories
Around the House

Candles

Last night at about 8:15 our electricity went out. It was just starting to get dark so I had enough light to find and light some candles before it got completely dark. MDF enjoyed getting the candles lit and had lots of questions about why the electricity went out.

The first thing MDF when the lights went out was that the computer had turned them off — since it shut off at the same time. But I told her it was something else, such as a car hitting a telephone pole and breaking the power-line.

Then we talked about the water still working — because gravity pushes it down from the water tower.

“I’m glad gravity didn’t go out,” she said seriously.

I laughed and told her it would never go out (as far as I know), so we would have water as long as the water tower was full (though it does take electricity to get water up there).