Pool Kids

Here the kids are at our 2nd home these days, the pool. Patrick can only stand about 45 minutes there, whereas the girls prefer 4-5 hours... so the sitter comes in handy. Easier for me to play with the girls when I am not holding Patrick too. I can avoid grocery shopping, cooking, and dishes if we eat every meal there too...

Such a Sweetheart

Oh, everyone knows who Anna is now, always kicking and screaming at swim lesson time, too cold to get in she thought... most days I would find a way to win and when I did she would then fight getting out of the water when it was time for the next group lesson...

In Action

For Grandma Marjie, who wanted to see an action shot. I suppose I could load a video, hmm.

Delicious!

Patrick will chew on anything and everything these days. This is a Robeez.

Another Victory

I was snooping, I mean, touring houses on the home tour today and noticed a laundry room with white cabinetry and it was made by the cabinet mafia here. I learned that in the last year they have given in to "market demands" and came up with a paint process that lasted better so now they guarantee it. I am guessing that I was part of that market because I was sort of a pain in the butt about it all. In fact, when they strong-armed me into picking something else they made a mistake when changing the order. Then when it was delivered with the doors in the wrong cut, they had to redo them all so I'm sure they really regretted that. Sean thought I was nuts for having nightmares that this would happen, and yes, I was that anxious about it. He will not let me redo the kitchen now, but I will rest easy tonight knowing that due in part to my whining, the good people of Kansas can now enjoy a white kitchen. And if anyone needs inspiration I have a file of clippings from magazines showing different white kitchens... (I know, I need professional help in many ways).

Giving Hope

Seriously, if they can reverse this process just think of all the man candy at the country club pool....

ps this is Matt Damon!!

Attention Kansas Spec Home Builders

This is one of the most commented on kitchens in the design community-- from the set of Something's Gotta Give. The whole house is gorgeous but the kitchen has been copied far and wide. White cabinets, black granite, glass doors, stainless appliances. When I told our builder we wanted a white kitchen, he was perplexed. He asked if I had seen any white kitchens while looking at existing homes in the area and I informed him that is why I was building my own (would he like my money??). Eventually the cabinet mafia pressured me into ditching that plan, telling me that they would not provide a warrantee with painted cabinets, and I succumbed to natural cherry in the shaker style. But my dream lives on.

Someone finally explained to me that these male home builders are merely trying to duplicate their momma's oak kitchen from 1983. I am happy to report that many new homes are at least breaking free from the oak...

Planet Earth Nightmares

Okay, if you haven't seen the Planet Earth DVD series by the BBC, then stop what you are doing right now and either run out and get it or add it to your Netflix queue. Then you too can know what areas of the world to avoid, namely that reef in the ocean with the snakes. At first there is just one snake and then the camera starts panning out, and out, and out... it's like that nightmare where you are trapped underwater combined with the nightmare of a snake chasing you... with 1079 of his friends, huge friends I might add. Yes, yes, lots of beautiful things to see underwater but now that they have this DVD series there is no reason to go see them yourself. Spare yourself the expense, the time off work, and the risk of running into a swarm of sea snakes...

All Looking at the Camera??

Yes, Anna is getting rather large for the stroller and she rarely stays in it for long. Megan, on the other hand, begs to get in it and last time I attempted to walk with all 3 kids they all ended up in there together at the end, which was also the uphill part. Muscles cramping just remembering this...

Hold Still

The only way I can get Patrick to slow down enough to get his photo these days is to let him chew on the lens cap.

In Lighter Kansas News

Yes, someone out there still watches The Bachelor/ette and it is my duty as a good friend to watch it with her so we can discuss. It is the only reality TV I watch, and it is embarrassingly addictive. Maybe it's that they showcase 25 (supposedly) desireable women who then fight for the chance to get married, have kids, and watch TV because they are too tired to go out dancing anymore. It's the show that makes you feel good about your life.

Well, the current series is a Bachelorette and some of the guys really bonded, to the point where they were having a party and were kind of ignoring DeAnna, rather than fawning over her. Oh, there were tears. And laughter, but that was coming from me. Anyway, in case you doubt the good that reality TV can bring, this show brought together Ron, a barber from Kansas, and Sean, a karate instructor from Kentucky. Did you already piece this one together?? Yes, thank you Ron for removing one mullet from this world. He just casually asked this guy if he would like to "modernize" his hair and after a few predictable comments from the less witty guys in the house, the "party in the back", was gone.

Unfortunately Sean was also gone from the show before the hometown dates because I for one would have loved to see DeAnna's face when he showed her around his house of vanity. He has a 5 bedroom McMansion and it appeared that one room had his stairmaster, one had a tanning booth, one had a mini sauna (yes, just sitting in the middle of some empty bedroom), and one was his closet full of "brand name clothing". Oh, living large in Kentucky. I am very thankful that it wasn't in Kansas. No, the Kansas barber man was the hero this time, representin' well, thank you very much.

Back to Normal?

Sean had sent out some photos from the tornado to some friends out of town and one wrote back a few days later and asked if everything was back to normal now. Uh, did you look at the photos??? I can't imagine it will be back to normal for a long time. Even those of us who had zero damage are now paranoid about every storm that blows through. Yes, I even turn on live TV now to see what warnings are up, even at 2am. I haven't watched live TV since TIVO was born, can't stand to sit through a commercial. In fact, I may be the only person who hasn't watched the last 5 episodes of Grey's Anatomy, I'll get to it someday... Anyway, I suspect I am not the only hyper-alert person around town, seems to be the popular topic. Also, the tornado roughly went from our house up to the club, so the whole drive up there is a harsh reminder. Oh and we do feel so guilty just driving by, going off to have fun, but they are at the heavy duty clean up phase now and I don't have a chain saw, so I wouldn't be much help. I did throw away a ton of the girls' junk though, pretended that a little tornado hit their closet...

Nice Peeps

I forgot to mention earlier that we really appreciated all the phone calls we got after the tornado hit, people just checking in who thought we might need a place to stay. It really says something about the kind of city we live in. A wide variety of friends, all of whom apologized profusely for bothering us so late at night. It just occurred to me now that most people don't get phone calls at odd hours pretty much every night like we do... if it's not the CT tech from the Army hospital, then it's a telerad guy needing someone to jump on and help out. So to get a call from someone wanting to help us, well, that is welcome indeed.

We also got several text messages, including one from someone who just showed up as a number, meaning I have no idea who it was, but they were glad to hear we were okay. 2 from Kitra so it wasn't her... can anyone help me out here? I know, I could just call the number...

Honk If You See Toto

Glad to see a sense of humor emerging after a few days, that was on a sign made out of a slab of roofing at the entrance of the disaster zone. I finally made it all the way through there today and am shocked by how it keeps getting worse and worse. I think the big trees in the older section (or rather, the missing big trees) make it seem more extreme over there. Also noticed that some friends from preschool had enough damage to be labeled not fit for occupancy. Oh, this is the famous Eddie that Anna still begs us to name Patrick after. Anyway, the SOLD sign has been on their house for ages which leads me to believe that they closed already and have been renting back from the new owners. Which makes me wonder how that phone call went on Thursday morning!

Like most everyone, I didn't think we'd actually get a tornado here. While we did go to the safe room rather quickly, we had time to grab things if needed, but only took pillows and blankets, couldn't think of anything else we'd need. There we were in our summer pajamas, barefoot. After hearing how the evacuees in Miller Ranch were hustled up the hill in the rain to go to hotels, I can only imagine how that would have gone for us. Getting out of a pile of broken house with bare feet would have been interesting indeed and perhaps my purse would have been helpful?! At least I have a reason to continue hanging on to my Doc Martins from college, they can hang in the safe room, a momento of 90's college fashion (or is that lack of fashion?).

Curious to see how many people rebuild and how many just buy existing homes as so many have been sitting on the market for ages. I did see some builders down at the site yesterday, no doubt it is a small blessing for them as things have been a little slow on the building front this year. The silver lining. Bush might be a disaster of his own right, but even he can't "stimulate the economy" like a natural disaster.... Thanks for the check though, ha!

Happy Father's Day!

Kind of hard to follow up after tornado coverage, but today is a big day in the golfing community that can't be ignored. Teeing off first is my Dad who taught me that if you work extra hard in the beginning then you can retire early and enjoy it. I worked for his lawn care business for what seems like an endless number of summers and I had flashbacks to that yesterday when I did a couple hours of token work down at the disaster site. I remembered that the first time you rake each year you are really sore for days, so I opted to pick up the piles of debris instead.

Next up is Sean's Dad who is like my Dad in many ways, except he is exactly one year younger. They both are very outgoing and never fail to get interesting stories from strangers they meet far and wide. Also, a love of beer is shared by these two. Getting hit with two father's day gifts and then 3 weeks later finding birthday gifts for these two has been a challenge. They are getting better at dropping hints now that they know we are off the residency budget, and I do appreciate the guidance!

The most recent addition to the tour is Sean of course. Just to illustrate one way the kids take after him is that last night I caught Anna playing her Leapster video game thing in her bed with the sound off at 10:30pm. She is usually asleep by 8:30pm so this was a bit of a shock. She also loves bacon and tortilla chips, so she is definitely a Daddy's girl. Sean spends hours upon hours reading Harry Potter to the girls too, so they are all obsessed with that. Sean draws the line at playing Harry Potter with them though as that tends to evolve into Cinderella and Harry getting married. He does use the competition between Slithern and Gryffindor (don't know how to spell those, sorry) to motivate the girls to do things and earn points. Sean has also taken Megan out golfing with him already, letting her putt on the green, so he is passing on his frustration with the game to her. I hear they both enjoy the beverage cart though.

Sean is headed out to pick up his Father's Day gift at the golf shop (the list of clubs you need is apparently endless, much like camera equipment!) and then we hope to hit the country club this afternoon for some pool and dinner. We'll see how the weather turns out. I find that every dark cloud makes me a little nervous these days. Hope everyone has a great Father's Day and takes time to appreciate that the only things that matter are the people you cram in the safe room with you (sorry, no room for golf clubs).

A couple more from Miller Ranch

If you click on the photos they go full size and you can see the details.

I need a drink

I just took a walk down to Miller Ranch to check on some friends and saw this after we crested the hill. I am in shock. I also saw the path as it skirted around the north edge of our neighbhorhood, so it was even closer than I thought. It is unbelievable that everyone is safe after seeing the damage.

Okay, some more, this is unreal

More photos from your local reporter

50 Year Tornado Free Streak Ends

Hard to tell what was here, but True Value Hardware is gone, our oil change shop is barely standing, and Little Apple Honda is looking pretty bad. The used car lot seemed okay but the new car lot is having a huge sale. All the windows are blown out of the building (hard to see in the photo) and twisted metal hanging from power lines, etc. Yes, I was in the rubber neck lane this morning, had to see this for myself. I can't get photos of Miller Ranch but could see from the corner of Miller Parkway and Amherst that it is as bad as the news reports say. If not for all the oak cabinetry in the homes we looked at there, we would have been living there (it is 1/2 mile from us). I heard from a friend that at least one house was leveled. I could see the tops of a couple homes gone and I heard that photos from one house were found way on the other side of town. If our house had been hit, all of Kansas would have been covered with teeny tiny Polly Pockets.

In our immediate neighborhood garage doors were blown off and windows shattered but we are totally 100% fine, even my plants. We could hear the "train" go by from the safe room, but didn't dare try to see what was going on. Needless to say, the girls will probably never believe my reassurances anymore... been telling them ever since the Wizard of Oz play that tornados don't come to Manhattan because of all the hills. I had researched online and there was no record of any touch downs in at least 50 years. I guess no one is safe anymore, even Michigan has been having a lot lately. At least a tornado is fast and we didn't have to sleep all night in the safe room. I will post a photo of that next...

Easter Eggs

Why, this is an odd title for a blog post in June. Almost as odd as finding Easter eggs in your fridge in June. I do clean the fridge out on a regular basis and I did a big clean before our last trip, yet Sean found them when we got back on Saturday. I was totally shocked to find that in 3 months I hadn't even peeked in that carton of eggs, figured I was rotating them pretty good. Anyway, I'm making egg salad for lunch if anyone wants some.

Timer or Patrick?

Seriously folks, this freaked me out when I saw it.

1st Grandson

Grandpa Timer and Patrick had many photos taken over the week so I had to put a few on here. And as soon as I get this baby photo of Grandpa Timer scanned and emailed to me I will upload that also (consider this your tasking reminder FIL). It is shocking how much Patrick looks like him.

Swimming Portion of our Trip

We hit pools all over Virginia, from the James River Country Club to the indoor resort pool at Wintergreen. Somehow Grandma Sharon even found perfectly coordinating googles for the girls at the little shop there so the girls were delighted. They don't really know how to swim yet but they love diving under water to pick up stuff (before other kids swipe it).

Patricks

We were checking all the vacation blocks, let me tell you. We even met up with our college friend Kathleen one day when the stars aligned and we managed to both get to Colonial Williamsburg at the same time. She also has a Patrick and he is just a couple months older than our Patrick.

Many apologies to Monica as we did not make it up to DC to meet Sean. I am thinking that a direct flight by myself is in order one weekend. Patrick is a biter so I am thinking he is going to be weaned sooner rather than later, thus freeing up my schedule.

VA Trip, part deuce

The next portion in our multi-faceted vacation was the theme park event, Busch Gardens. Sean somehow tricked Megan into going on a real roller coaster (a tame one at least) and he got to see her scream with true fear. She enjoyed the carnival style rides better, as did I. Of course going on the flying swings brought back memories of a certain sister getting sick on them at the county fair- and spraying the crowd as she went past. In retrospect I feel a teeny bit bad for not going up and claiming her after the ride was over.

Home again, home again, like a fat pig

Jiggity, jig. A week of great eating and now we're home kicking off pool season, fantastic. We started off the VA trip by checking off some family milestone celebrations for Leo, as the last bird to graduate from high school. I didn't see the countdown to college calendar but I am positive that at least 2 in that house have them. We paid the price for missing Caroline's and Bridget's high school graduations, where they actually gave speeches, and were treated to 2.5 hours of Leo's graduation instead. I will insert some photos to this later so you can see how exciting it was. As Anna said to Jackie, "this is boring and you know it". We captured some key moments on video so we could share them with Bridget in Iraq. Hey, don't say there aren't perks to being deployed.

Glad to not be kickin' it in Kansas

I'll post some sort of trip report later, just checking in after a call from super watch dog neighbor Jen that a tornado free streak might be coming to an end in Manhattan. I don't think my basil plant is going to survive. The Weather Channel confirmed this and even mentioned Manhattan by name, so it must be serious (although those weather people get excited easily).

I have been assuring the girls (and my mom) since we moved here that Manhattan is in some sort of safety zone due to the hills, so let's hope my theory holds or else we will be picking up an RV to live in on the way home from the airport on Saturday. Anyway, we are happy to be sleeping in beds in VA and not camping in the safe room in Kansas.

In other news, Patrick is waving now, he officially has a party trick.