Fun on the Deck while Dad's at work

No matter how much weight you might have lost through diet and exercise, that doesn't mean you can dance on a glass table, wearing your birthday suit, in the dead of winter.

Weight Watchers Treat

I haven't mentioned it in the blog, but my Weight Watchers experience has been extremely positive. I've lost 20 pounds, and I have 5 more to go. It's getting harder now. I don't know if it's the holidays and the constant temptations that come with the season or if I've just run out of stamina. Needless to say, I'm not sticking to the program as diligently in November and December, and I need some motivation if I'm going to reach my goal anytime soon.

New inspiration came this week from a fellow WW member. At Wednesday's meeting, she shared a recipe for these chocolate haystacks that are only one point each! They are made from Fiber One cereal and chocolate chips. I thought they were delicious, but Mark disagreed. He thought they looked horrible and tasted worse.

Tis the Season

715am Thursday morning . . . on the way to the bus stop . . . 24 degrees outside . . .

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this year, but topping the list has to be the birth of our first nephew/cousin, Jackson. Dave and Emily generously offered to fly here to join us for Jack's first Thanksgiving, and it has been an awesome visit. Jackson is adorable (of course) and mild-mannered, and the kids can't get enough of him. My mom hosted our Thanksgiving meal this year giving me something else for which I am thankful!

Jamestown with the 5th Grade

On Friday, Bailey's class had a field trip to Jamestown, and I was a chaperone. It turned out to be a fun trip. The weather was cold and windy, but at least it wasn't raining. I had never been to Jamestown before, so I learned a lot. Did you know as recently as 40 years ago, it was thought that the site of the original settlement had eroded into the James River? Dr. Bill Kelso convinced folks that an archaeological dig would contradict that notion, and since then, over a million artifacts have been discovered.

We also made it to the Virginia Historical Society for a tour. What a great place! We had a terrific docent who really kept the kids engaged. Apparently you can visit the place for free on Sundays - I'd like to make a field trip for us one day.

61 Pancakes

In many ways, having lots of kids is just easier. Everyone always has a playmate. If they get tired of the one they are playing with, they just move on to someone else. If you need a favor or a chore accomplished, someone in a good mood is probably available.

It's the meals that will get you. Feeding a family of 10 has very little down time. You finish one meal, you really need to be starting (or at least planning) the next one. This morning, I fixed 61 pancakes (thank you, Uncle Chris, for my awesome electric griddle - not a burned pancake in the bunch!). It was 11:15 before the mess was cleaned up. And it was 12:00 when I started making lunch.

Blogger houseguests

When your favorite bloggers leave their children with you for the weekend, you feel the pressure to uphold that blogger tradition. We didn't go anywhere without the camera. Soccer games, lunch at Martin's, pyramid-building in the frigid, fall weather, and lots of playing back at home.

Somehow building pyramids in the sand is so much easier than trying to do it when you're cold and all bundled up. But we eventually succeeded.

Cal, Will and the Little People® spent several quality hours playing together. Meanwhile, the girls modeled all the clothes in the house in their elaborate game of make-believe. (Cal reported that he was recruited to play Luke, the security guard, but he refused.)

Halloween 2007

Halloween brought extra excitement this year as we were a part of AJ's friend Kate's first trick-or-treating experience. Kate doesn't live in a neighborhood ideal for going door-to-door, so we were happy to take her around our neighborhood.
Cal had his first opportunity to go out with his friends instead of his family. He proudly returned with six pounds of candy!

Women's soccer

UVA women's soccer played Virginia Tech, and we just had to see it. On the plus side, the weather was beautiful, it was $1 concessions night, many of Bailey's teammates met us there, and we were able to see some awesome soccer. On the negative side, the game didn't start until 8pm which meant home by 10:30pm. On a school night! Needless to say, we had a great time.

Syd's birthday

Friends, Lindsay Lohan movies, a cosmetologist and pink feather boas - could a 9-year-old's birthday party get any better than this? I don't think so.

Sydney invited two friends and generously included AJ in all activities. After pizza, cake and ice cream, the evening's events began. While the girls watched movies, our favorite hair stylist/babysitter, Rachel, adorned them one by one with a glamorous hairdo. We took tons of photos, and the girls had a great time.

Game Day

Game Day twenty years ago:

Restock t-shirts - check.
Restock sweatshirts - check.
Restock hats - check.
Restock sweatpants - check.
Restock face tattoos and decals - check.

Game Day today:
Cooler for Calvin
Cooler for Bailey
Cooler for Sydney
Cooler for Bailey's team.
Cooler for Sydney's team.
Snacks for Bailey's team.
Chair for Tara.
Chair for Me
Chair for Sydney
Chair for AJ.

Field Trip

Sydney's class had a field trip to Ivy Creek Natural Area today. It was a beautiful day for it. It was nice and cool in among the trees. Our guide answered our questions and pointed out the things we should notice as good hikers. The creek was almost nonexistent thanks to this awful drought we're experiencing. We did come across a nasty yellow jackets' nest, and one child was stung. He was extremely brave and stoic, however. The kids then went on to fun and lunch at the park, but I skipped out on that part.

Happy Me

Forty-five years ago today, I was born here in Charlottesville.

I never imagined the first half of my life would turn out so great.

Why just this morning, we finally got our shower unclogged. The plumber "only" charged us $147.50.

Chapel Hill

All of us went to Chapel Hill for the big game on Saturday. Our good friend Bill was kind enough to host the six of us. And what a wonderful host he was! Ice cream sundaes to welcome us at 10pm Friday night, French Toast and bacon first thing Saturday morning...we were all spoiled!

Once we parked at the UNC campus, we hooked up with some good friends from home, Tim and Andrea, and the kids had great fun at Tar Heel Town. Cal and Bailey particularly liked this blow up game where they each had to try to shoot a ball in a hoop. The complication was that they were harnessed together on either ends
of a rope creating a kind of tug-of-war. We created a small scene as we posed in front of the giant UNC tee making scowling faces.

Tim provided a special treat when he took us to the Rams' Club for a unique view of the field and plenty of M&M's, chips, pretzels and soda before the game started. Needless to say, we stood out like sore thumbs wearing our navy and orange in a room full of Carolina blue. One of us maintained our life-long 44-plus-year streak of never setting foot inside the Rams' Club.

The day was a huge success, especially when UVA held off UNC to win 22-20. The only casualty was my diet - the worst 24 hours of the past three weeks! We had to come straight home after the game, to be here in time for Calvin's football game on Sunday.









For the record, we don't know how to fix the wacky spacing of the photos relative to the text. It must have something to do with the Blogger software.

Eighty Thousand Miles

For the first time in my life, for the first time in our lives, we are the proud owners of a vehicle with 80,000 original miles. The Excursion passed this historic milestone this afternoon on my way home from work. I was headed north on McIntire Road near the intersection with Nelson Drive.

Our minivan came close. It had just passed 79,300 when we sold it earlier this year.

Ellen's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Ellen!

We wish we could have been with you, of course. Hope it was a wonderful day!

Ellen was here on Father's Day, and we had a little photo opportunity after our lovely dinner with Grammie and Granddad.

I'd like to take a moment to plug one of my favorite online shopping sites for shoes - Zappos.com. I've used them several times, and I'm always amazed by their selection and speed of delivery. I ordered Ellen's gift yesterday morning, and sure enough, she received it today! (I'm not proud of my procrastination problem, but Zappos keeps rewarding me for it!)

License Plates

As you may know, we have for many years given each child a turn at being on the license plates of both my truck and Tara's van. Way back before we were married, Tara had MY TARA and then 6-24-95 (our wedding date).

After Cal was born, I had CAL'S DAD and she had 4-18-96. We used to get a lot of honks and waves from strangers on the way to and from Oriole Park when we were in the truck with that plate.

For Bailey, I had 8-07-97 and Tara had BAILY SU (seven letters is the max allowed).

Up until recently, the van had SYD BEAN (based on her nicknames, Syd Bean and Beaners), and I had SYD'S DAD.

Now, the van has AJ'S TURN and finally today, we changed the truck to AJ ATLST (AJ at last).

Over the years we have saved all the old plates. In the old house we used to have them all mounted on the wall in the garage. One day soon we hope to get them all up on the wall here, too.

Today's Mail

This postcard came in today's mail.
These people sure are speedy.

(If the text is orange, it's me -- even if it says "Posted by Tara.")

No More Excuses

Yep, time is up for me. I've decided that publicly beginning my diet here in this blog can only humiliate me into trying harder. I've been slowly putting on weight each year. Currently, I weigh more than I ever have with the exception of being pregnant or having just had a baby. This is my lovely "before" shot that Mark took tonight. (Because I do still retain an ounce of pride, I opted to reject the many other fat photos that Mark took, along with his original post containing the lyrics to the country classic, One Hot Mama.)

Today, I went to Weight Watchers®. They suggest I set my first goal to lose 10% of my weight. If I reach that, I will set a new goal. Tomorrow will be the first day toward losing 14lbs!

Soccer for Bailey

Tuesday means soccer practice for Bailey. Sydney will play soccer this fall, too, but her soccer hasn't started yet. Bailey is lucky to have the same coach for the second season. She feels slightly unlucky about her August birthday - it means that most of her former teammates/classmates were able to move up to U12 without her. Overall, though, she's just happy to be out there kicking the ball around. First game: September 8th.

Meanwhile, Sydney and AJ try their best to keep themselves occupied while we wait for Bailey to finish.

Youth Triathlon

After deliberating much too long, We've decided to jump into the world of blogging. Mark and I will both use this space to share thoughts and pictures from our family life.

I begin each day checking in here and here, and these spectacular daily logs have inspired me. If I find that I can keep up, I may even attempt the Project 365 challenge!

Today seemed like as good a day as any - 3 out of 4 kids participated in a youth triathlon. At 8am, Bailey and Sydney swam 100 meters, biked 2 miles and ran 1/2 a mile. Because Calvin is now in the 11-and-up bracket, he did twice that! They all finished smoothly with no injuries, and Bailey even placed first among the six 10-year-old girls who competed. I'd like to say that AJ cheered them all on, but I'm not even sure where she was the whole time. I suspect she was near the food table.