Retirement Travel and a Weird Mix of Other Stuff
Remember that absentee son-in-law I mentioned?
He’s back.
It’s only a brief visit, then away he’ll go again. But at least he’s here now.
I think they were both a teeny bit irritated that I made them stop at a very specific spot on the way to the car.
But I bet I’ll be forgiven now that they’ve seen the result. 🙂
Mothers do know best sometimes.
To see all the pics, you’ll have to visit my Flickr page.
So… guess who was born on December 8? Shannon!
Yep, today is Shannon’s birthday. Today she’s officially 32.
Do you have any idea where I was when Shannon was born? Come on, any guesses?
I did a pretty awesome blog post last year on Shannon’s birthday (if I do say so myself). So awesome, in fact, that I won’t even bother trying to top it this year. If you didn’t already follow the link to last year’s post, FOLLOW IT NOW.
I guess that’s sort of lazy of me. Sorry. But it’s late as I am writing this (Tuesday night). And I need to get up early to go to the store for dinner fixings, a cake, and a new hand mixer.
I made a yellow cake from scratch tonight. But I forgot to flour the pan. I greased it, but it wasn’t until after I’d poured the batter into the cake pan that I realized my error.
Now, were it not for the fact that our 17-plus-year-old hand mixer (it was a wedding gift) was SMOKING as I finished mixing the batter, I would’ve started over. But hand mixers aren’t supposed to smoke. And it’s not supposed to smell like an electrical fire when you’re mixing cake batter either. So I just went ahead and stuck the thing in the oven.
It smelled really, really good as it finished baking. But there’s no hope of the thing coming out of the pan in one piece. I could just put icing on top of the cake, but that is SUCH a waste of valuable frosting space. The sides need frosting, too.
Anyway…
Today is Shannon’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Shannon.
Here’s another picture from last year that’s awesome.
Shannon’s friend, Laura, took this picture of her little girl, Ruby, to e-mail or message to Shannon as a birthday gift. As exciting as the trip was, it must have sucked being away on her birthday.
And wait, here’s one more pic…
This MIGHT be the one I didn’t post last year that is Shannon’s favorite.
As for where I was when Shannon was born, I have no clue. I didn’t birth the girl. I was only 11 when she was born. I was closer to 12 than 11, but still. I was in elementary school!
But that’s okay. Yes, it would’ve been nice to experience those early years with Shannon (and Amy, too). I didn’t even meet them until much later. You know what, though? That doesn’t matter a bit. We’ve all managed to make up for those missing years quite nicely.
Happy birthday, Shannon! I am so glad you are home. And not just because you feed us well either. Because it’s just plain nice having you around.
I know it’s a cliche, but time really does fly.
Eric doesn’t read my blog, so I figured it would be safe to do an Eric through the years pictorial tribute.
Of course, most of the pictures I have are not digital or easy to get to so I’ve got a limited selection to work with.
Eric was even rocking it when he was a baby. We never really know what sort of influence we’ll be, or what impressions we’ll leave, as our kids are growing.
Eric was probably more like 2 and a half in that last shot. I’m glad he grew out of the “looking like a preppy” phase.
Eric’s very short-lived tenure as a Cub Scout. Activities like that and sports didn’t go over so well with the non-custodial parent.
It’s funny as I look through these pictures that I begin to realize I did influence the boy in a way. He’s got a bit of my goofy streak.
Eric in desperate need of a haircut. His hair is so thick, when his summer buzz cuts grew out, it always looked like he was sporting an Afro.
Fishing with Pop (my Dad) in Virginia.
Eric and my parents on his 12th birthday.
Curling with Tim. He was between 12-13 here I think.
Eric (age 14?) visiting with his brother and sister (on his father’s side) at Cherrystone Campground in Virginia, where I dropped him on the way home from my brother’s house.
This is Eric in uniform during his time at the Freestate Challenge Academy, a National Guard-sponsored youth program that rescued Eric (and the rest of us) from his challenging high school days.
Here’s Eric looking all “gangsta” with Hubby and I after Amy’s wedding.
I think my sense of humor definitely wore off on him. He’s a good sport about just about everything.
Here he is with his new, pink pouf at around 19. He needed a pouf and it was the only one we could find at Walmart.
This shot is relatively recent. I lifted it from his (or his girlfriend’s) Facebook page.
Speaking of girlfriend… here Eric is with Kelsey. This one is only about two months old. Ah, to be young and in love. They look so happy together. And she’s a real sweetheart, too.
Happy birthday, son!
Raising you wasn’t always easy (every kid presents a challenge), but I’m proud of the wonderful young man you have become. I love you!
Remember, Amy’s husband is currently deployed. She and her hubby are both of the mindset that the kids shouldn’t miss out on anything just because TJ is away. So they’re still playing sports.
Gaige (age 6) plays football. His team has two-hour practice sessions FOUR nights a week at a field about 30 minutes from where they live. Brianna (age 9) plays soccer. She only practices two nights a week for an hour each night. Her field is only about 5 minutes away, but in the opposite direction. Joey (age 3) is too young for organized sports. So he just makes Amy crazy as she drives back and forth between fields and stands on the sidelines while the kids practice.
On Thursdays, both kids have practice at the same time. I told Amy I’d try to help once in awhile by taking one or the other kid to their respective field. Last night, Shannon came along. We had just the right number of adults. Amy took Gaige to football. I took Brianna to soccer. Shannon stayed at the house with Joey.
I did take my camera along, but it was raining off and on, quite heavy at times, so I left it at the house with Shannon. Which is cool because she caught a couple cute images of Joey.
Of course, I didn’t get any pics of the other kids. Maybe we’ll have better weather next week.
Speaking of next week, Shannon, Amy, and I spent a bit of time trying to determine if last night was our August Thirsty Third Thursday. We were all together, after all, and it was Thursday. But it was only the second Thursday of the month. Yes, we could celebrate early, but we eventually decided that next Thursday should be our August Thirsty Third Thursday.
Why does all of this matter? Because, since Shannon was off traveling the world, our last Thirsty Third Thursday was in September 2009. ELEVEN months ago!
Yes, Amy and I did do some TTTs without Shannon, but it just wasn’t the same. When I told Amy we need to make up for lost time, she said, “Does this mean I can expect you both here every Thursday for the next two months?”
I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
But look, we DID manage to capture a nice pic of the three of us, together for the first time since September 2009.
Definitely an occasion worth celebrating, eh?
At the time of this writing, she’s been gone for 294 days. That’s 9 months, 21 days excluding the end date. If you prefer to think of it in terms of weeks, think 42. Forty-two weeks!
Dang.
Wanna read about her journey? Check out her blog. Or, if you’re a more visual person like yours truly and would rather just SEE where she’s been, check out my snazzy Google tracker map.
Hubby and I have been 100% supportive of her journey since the minute she came to us with her “what do you think of this” speech. She thought for sure at least one of us would’ve given her a reality check. She was wrong.
Anyway…
One of the reasons she was able to just up and go is that she doesn’t own a house. Her timing was quite fortuitous, too. She left right after the lease on her apartment expired. She just changed her mailing address to our place so we could keep an eye on her mail and help take care of things that might need taken care of while she was away.
She’s gotten all sorts of mail over the past 42 weeks. Hubby and I look it over when it arrives to decide if it’s something she needs to know about now, something we should save for later or something we should trash immediately.
Yesterday a piece of mail arrived that Hubby decided she definitely does NOT need to see.
When he showed it to me, I quickly agreed.
What do you think?
I’m still disappointed that I didn’t see the game-winning goal in the US-Algeria World Cup match the other day. But, thanks to new media, the Internet and my favorite CNN reporter, I still get to enjoy the celebrations. Now let’s just hope we’re successful on Saturday when we face Ghana.
Speaking of football… there’s not much happening on the American football scene right now. That’s why I was surprised to get a Facebook “like” recommendation for Ed Reed (Baltimore Raven).
Curiosity piqued, I followed the link to Ed’s Facebook page. I was a mere seven status updates in when I decided Ed’s page wasn’t for me. Why? One little comment he made in response to the news that he’d been named top safety of the 2000s. “Ain’t no nigga like me.”
That comment rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. Because it’s so “hood” sounding? Maybe it was the cockiness? Or perhaps I have not yet fully recovered from my late evening/early morning return from Amy’s house?
Does anyone else find his statement annoying?
I drove out to Amy’s after work yesterday. I hadn’t seen her or the kids since well before our vacation. Plus, she redecorated her kitchen/dining room and I wanted to check it out. (It looks awesome!
I was tickled to see that Gaige’s front tooth had finally come out.
Brianna, who I did not manage to capture a photo of, grew about seventeen inches over the past few weeks. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but she’s definitely getting taller. She’s losing that baby look, too. And, oddly, she doesn’t talk really loud anymore. Yep, she’s finally found her big-girl, inside voice.
Isn’t it odd how little things like that just happen? It was weird at first, but oddly refreshing.
In addition to the new look in her kitchen/dining room, I was delighted to see the super-cute new “do” Amy is now sporting.
This isn’t the best picture of her (I only had my point-and-shoot camera along which just doesn’t do indoor flash pictures well). It’s not the worst, either, which is why I went ahead and posted it here for all the world to see.
Her hubby said he thought the color was too blonde. I told Amy she must have sent him a picture with bad lighting.
Now that I have seen the photos she sent him, I know I was right. It’s not too light at all, it’s perfect. And it looks very natural. I may need to enlist her stylist to give me a new do, too. No color for me, thank-you-very-much. I am still struggling to find just the right cut.
Speaking of struggling… one of my goals for this weekend is to finish sorting and posting pics from our vacation. I am in the process of going through the shots from our time in Benelux with Annelies and Yves. There’re quite a few good ones, in my humble opinion, so stay tuned!