Moving to the Beach!

Ok, not really but a girl can dream right? We had a great time in Wilmington last week. My vacation afterglow and my tan are fading already. I had a moment about 2 hours from home when I realized I forgot my camera! I was heartbroken at first but then determined where there is a will (and a Target) there is a way. Pictures below are from my new "smaller" camera - not as great as the big camera but also nice to not lug around the big camera when I do not need the close ups - or at least that is the line I was selling to Chris as we stood at the Target register.

We were there for 5 days and honestly I was a little nervous that we would run out of things to do. We spent the first 2 nights on the River in downtown Wilmington. So awesome to be on the river walk and see the downtown area. We took a ferry over to the Battleship North Carolina which was really cool to see.

The boys loved the battleship, apparently so do gators! We spotted a couple of them next to the boat. We also spotted a camera floating in the water next to the boat and I realized it is better to forget your camera than to drop it in the ocean!

Another highlight was the Home Run Derby hosted by the Wilmington Sharks - it was All Star Weekend and the Shark Tank was the place to be. This is small town summer ball at it's finest. Where else do you get to mingle with the players in the bleachers before the game? What a blast!



The clear winner for the week was body boarding. The boys had such a great time! We learned after day 1 when their chests were raw that the shirt was the way to go if you are going to spend the day on the board. I think they came out of the water for about 10 min all day. We were smart on day 2 and forced lunch which built in a break.




I think I am relaxing a little as I get older (I said a little Chris, stop laughing!) We had some drama on the water and I handled it pretty well. The boys were out on their boards and all the sudden Chris says, "I think I am going to help Connor out", not sure what he meant by that I watched him head towards Connor in the water. As you know, Chris is not one to rush so as he started moving with purpose towards the water I got a little nervous. The pace continues to pick up and out of the corner of my eye I see Mr. Baywatch the lifeguard running out into the water. I am thinking, "is he heading towards Connor" and at that moment I see Chris picking up the pace yet again. AJ was also out there and the three convene around Connor and start heading in. Poor kid got stuck in a little rip tide. We had just talked about that so Connor was not really scared, he thanked the lifeguard and after a break got right back in.
The old Maria would have been screaming from the beach "SAVE MY LITTLE PRECIOUS! " so you can see that all these years of being a boy Mommy have resulted in at least some level of resilience.



So is summer really coming to an end? I hope not! Football practice is back on for AJ and about to start for Connor. We are hoping to get at least one more weekend of fun in the sun before school starts. In the meantime I will continue to think of ways we can live at the beach and make enough money to live on!

Happy Fathers Day!

I wanted to be the first to wish the Dad's out there a Happy Fathers Day. There may be some debate over me being first since Liz posted her well wishes last Sunday. Of course since last Sunday was Flag Day and not Fathers Day I think I win.

So for Chris, Papa, Grandpa and all of the brothers, brother-in-laws and uncles out there have a great day!

"Good parents give their children Roots and Wings. Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise what's been taught them."-- Jonas Salk

The Second Most Expensive School Project This Year

So here it is, end of the year and Connor has a school project. He has been working on a paper about a squirrel (which Carrie Bradshaw once called a rat in a better outfit) and needed to build a habitat. I of course being of great ideas and creativity decided we could take an old 2 liter bottle and make it into a mini tree.

Step 1, cut a hole in the bottle for squirrely to look out, check.

Step 2, wrap the bottle in brown felt, check.

Step 3, glue pieces of mulch on the felt....this is where the trouble begins.

Realizing that Martha Stewart would recommend a glue gun for this project I plug her in and wait. Connor went out to the yard to get the best pieces of mulch gathered and we were ready to go. I am squeezing the glue onto the mulch and Connor is putting them on the bottle. We are going at a pretty good speed - as you know everything in my world is quick..quick..quick. I hand Connor a piece and step in to make it perfect (because we all know how important it is to have a fourth grade squirrel habitat be absolutely perfect) and the piece I just loaded up with glue pops off and lands glue side down on my wrist. I go to brush it off and it hits the thumb and ring finger on the way down. This is now a problem, in brushing it off my wrist all of the skin went with it. I instantly knew this was not something neosporin would solve. We all jumped in the car to go to the urgent care center and sure enough - 2nd degree burn. Who knew hot glue guns got that hot? I never heard Martha give that kind of warning. Like the lady who sued McDonalds for hot coffee I am wondering if I have a case against Martha - 2 counts. Count 1, the pressure to build perfect things in a 30 min time slot. Count 2, failure to warn that you should wear protective gear when working with the hot glue gun.

So total cost of this project - bottle, free - had it saved for just such an occasion. Mulch, free from the yard. Felt, $1.29 at Michaels. Urgent care, $77, prescription $8, dressing for the burn $22 - total $108.29

Sadly, this total is not even close to the most expensive project of the year. The Science Fair guitar, which while an amazing show of workmanship, was lacking the actual science to place in the science fair - this one totaled $200 but did return 100 points extra credit. Life lesson, never let two 13 year old boys run unsupervised on a science fair project. We were lucky that they did not blow up the house, the guitar was fairly tame, just loud.


So the school year is almost over, time to reflect.
Squirrel habitat, $108, creating real life guitar heroes, $200 the blessing of being AJ and Connor's mom - priceless!

Happy Birthday AJ!

Is it possible that this little baby boy is now the big guy that has out-grown me? AJ turned 14 today and I just cannot believe what a cool teenager he has turned out to be. AJ at 1 is the same as AJ at 14- easy going, laid back, fun loving with a lot to say!

He starts High School in the Fall and I am amazed at how quickly this time has gone by. I am so proud of him!

The Heat Win Again!

What a way to ring in #14! AJ had a tournament this weekend 2 hours away. They struggled yesterday with a tie and a loss (we know Bobo, like kissing your sister!) They had to win 3 today and did it! By the time he gets home he will be 14, I cannot believe it.

I was going to blog today about the 2nd most expensive school project we did this year. Chris has the picture on his phone and I need to change my dressing so we will have to hold that one for tomorrow - what a cliffhanger!

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day we are of course thinking of Andy and Layton (and the Mom's Aunt Linda and LuLu) and praying that they stay safe out there. While some kids look up to famous people or imaginary characters I know my boys look up to these guys. Connor said on the way home from Church today that he was thinking about Andy, Layton, Papa and Grandpa D and how awesome it was that they fought for our freedom, then he said "Mom, I might want to do that someday" It is pretty awesome having real life heroes for your kids.

So Andy and Layton, if you see this just know we are praying for you and hoping for a fast return, if "home" happens to be back here you know you always have a warm meal waiting for you (not to mention an X-box 360 tournament and a good game of horse!) We love you guys and thank you!

Supporting the Local Economy

So I have been on a kick that I would support our local restaurants and shops. With overall spending down and consumer confidence weak my theory is that the chain restaurants and big box stores would be fine and it was the Mom and Pop shops that would suffer. We have found a good Italian restaurant, a good Mexican restaurant (ok not AZ good but NC good), and as Dad blogged about last year even a good Japanese restaurant that greets you with a hearty "how y'all doin?!" The one move I had not made was coffee.
We do have a new local coffee shop so this week I decided to give it a try. I was leery as soon as I parked. There were only 2 cars in the spaces surrounding the shop, the one I parked next to had a license plate holder said "World's Greatest Maw." I walked in and was greeted warmly, she was super nice, told me my skirt was purdy and took my order. The South will not be rushed so about 10 min later I had my coffee. It tasted a bit like a cup of coffee that was cooked in the microwave for 23 min with a burnt marshmallow added for fun. Yuck!
What I really would like is for our furniture to come from NC again so I would not feel bad about my buying my coffee from Seattle. Is that too much to ask?