60 Year Anniversary

I love seeing these two together.

After six decades of marriage, they still seem to like each other an awful lot.

I find it both inspiring and reassuring that they've been married nearly twice as long as I've been alive.

Happy Anniversary, Bears!

Last weekend in Chattanooga

My last trip out of town before the new baby arrives was a quick jaunt to Chattanooga, TN to meet up with Todd's family. While we were in town, we stopped by the Creative Discovery Museum, splashed in front of the Aquarium, and found an alternative form of transportation to the hotel.

It's hard to tell in the last picture, but poor Micah was wearing only the change of pants I had in the diaper bag.  I didn't have a shirt for him, and thought he'd be fine in just his shorts on the ride back.  But he was totally freaked out the whole time.  Poor guy.

Sometimes I get this stuff right

Sunday afternoon, it was sunny and hot - a perfect day for a creek stomp. So we greased up the kids, loaded up, and headed down to the Indian Creek Greenway to wade in a spot Todd and I found last summer.

Of course, when we got there, we discovered that what was a nice, shallow, wadeable spot in June is much further under water in the Spring. And so we headed back up the creek until we finally found a less accessible but shallower place where we could hand all the kids down.

The water was icy cold, the current in some areas was downright dangerous, and the footing was treacherous - which meant, of course, that the kids ended up having a blast.

The highlight for me was when I found the molted shell of a crawdad. Daniel and Micah decided what the thing needed was a proper funeral, complete with a tomb. As Todd was mournfully singing Taps, and Josh and I stood at attention, Daniel carefully arranged stones around the floating shell...and in the process found the very much alive owner. Fortunately, I'd brought a bucket for just that sort of thing, and the crawdad was ultimately scooped up for the kids to marvel over. That plan worked great until Micah decided the critter needed another rock to hide under, and dropped a small boulder into the bucket, directly on top of the crawdad. The crawdad survived, narrowly, and we quickly set him free before one of the kids managed to kill him with kindness.

Shortly afterward, Micah dropped a large rock he was attempting to chuck on my foot. Then Alex decided he was tired of not drowning or bashing his head open on a rock, and doubled his efforts to accomplish one or both. Presented with these difficulties, the womenfolk decided it was time head home (the menfolk would likely have stayed until sundown, I think). There was much wailing and many protests (from ALL the boys), and since Sunday, Micah has asked to "go swim in the water" every morning.

I've promised him we will definitely go back.

Content

Today, there were cousins to play with.

There were homemade cookies to be eaten. With gusto.

There was a bathtub chock-full of little boys.

And a beautiful sunset on the way home.

Today was a good day.

Outtakes

"All I want for Christmas is a picture of your families. And a picture of the three boys together."

"I'll swallow your soul!"

 

Sorry, Mom. Looks like we're going to have to buy you a newly-hatched baby dodo. They're easier to come by.

Silver Lining

Due to the FUBAR situation surrounding the sale of my sister's house, she and her family have been staying with us for the past week and a half. Way back at the start of the month, they had the moving truck half-loaded when they found out (less than 24 hours before the scheduled closing) that the buyer's loan hadn't made it through underwriting. Then they were told it would be approved at any second, so instead of unpacking, they simply moved all the boxes back inside. And then they waited.

It's been twenty-five days now, and the situation has done nothing but unravel. You see, it turns out the buyer's loan officer is his girlfriend, and she's been lying her ass off the entire time (for instance, the loan never actually went to underwriting), and...well....FUBAR. But the silver lining is that they've been staying with us, and it's been pretty awesome.

For one, Micah has playmates in the mornings and evenings, and he is LOVING it. Every day on the way home, he's talking about "Dandul an Awex, Mommy!" He's started imitating everything Daniel does, and has been surprisingly sweet to Alex. And he's picked up Daniel's habit of saying, "Okay!"

Two, my sister is a really good cook. There is no quicker way to the heart of a working mom (or dad) than to have a fantastic dinner ready when she (or he) gets home in the evening. In fact, Todd and I have even been accused of sabotaging the house sale in order to keep E and Josh with us, just for E's cooking. All I can say is, there's not a single shred of evidence to support such charges. I made sure of that.
Three, we kind of like those guys. And it's nice to see them a lot.

At the moment, they're unpacking everything to stage the house again and put it back on the market. Which, if there's anything more demoralizing than unpacking all your boxes right back to the exact same place, I can't think of it offhand. They're almost done, and I expect they'll head back to their house sometime next week, now that it's livable again. But when they do, we're really really REALLY going to miss them.