Congratulations! You've made it past the first barrier of long-winded ramblings, and you've come back for more of the summary of my and my family's spring break. You WON'T be disappointed!
Leo, Jack and I hiked in the rain at Clinton Lake on the George Latham hiking trail for about two and one half hours. We all wore our rain gear because it had started raining right at the beginning of the hike, but then the sun came out intermittently for another hour and half or so. Finally the rain set in and didn't stop and we hiked back to the car where we already had all our camping gear packed up dry. It was to be the beginning of about five days straight of rain! I was aware it was to begin raining that day and that's why I chose to take the boys camping on the last night where rain was not in the forecast.
At home we took a hot, sudsy, full bath and cleaned ourselves of the woods and body odor we'd acquired. We only found one tick when in the woods, but were sure to double check for them when in the tub. After the bath we had a nice sandwich and soup lunch (thanks Mare), put in a Bob the Builder: How Skyscrapers are Built DVD to watch, then took a nice long nap.
We put the boys to bed somewhat early that night, Monday night, and Mare and I watched roughly the first part of Fiddler on the Roof. Now, I have to take a detour from Spring Break Wrap-up in order to fill readers in on this movie/musical.
Fiddler on the Roof is a movie/musical from the 1970's. I'm not familiar with any of the actors, but they really did a great job.Fiddler is the story of a poor milkman's family of him and his wife and their five daughters. They live in the early part of the century somewhere near Poland. They are Jewish and their village is a Jewish community, but they must live while being persecuted by the Polish (I think it's the Polish). The girls all give their father fits due to their wish to decide for themselves who they will marry. It's really all about change. I recommend watching it. Be warned, it is close to full three hours long.
The next couple days we spent kind of picking up the house and playing indoors, as it was raining leprechauns and shamrocks. Thursday, though, we took the two oldest to their grandparents in Lawrence. We left them there for the night while Mare and I used our gift certificate to Buffalo Bob's, a barbeque joint in Lawrence. We walked around downtown Lawrence with Henry, ran into Mare's uncle Craig at a coffee shop, I went to a hair salon to have my hair styled, and we shopped for Mare some earrings. At home we enjoyed not having the two kids to worry about, and it was quiet...too quiet.
The grandparents brought them back on Friday and I attended a United Way meeting at noon. Mare helped out her mom and dad with some tax issues and we began to clean up the yard, since it was the first nice day we'd had, really, since spring break began. Thursday while in Lawrence, it was cool and trying to rain on us there as well.
Saturday and Sunday we spent trying to get the yard cleaned up a little. Every little bit helps. It is sure nice being at home with my family. I really enjoyed my spring break. It was tough going back to work on Monday, as I'm sure the students also experienced.
Jack's soccer practices are over and I've joined a group of writers that meet once or twice a month. Tee ball will be starting up for Jack in a couple weeks. Tomorrow is Leo's third birthday already. I just love him so much. I love all my boys so, so much. Henry is rolling over. Jack is figuring things out. We'll have a birthday party for Leo at the park, then attend an Easter egg hunt, then attend the Topeka zoo. Should be a fun, fun weekend.
Love to all. If you read all of this, I'm very impressed.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Spring break has come and gone. Now it's back to the not-so-real world of public education. I could provide a breakdown of almost all that my family and I did over spring break. It would include these things:
Still here? I can only conclude then that you are either a glutton for the form of punishment that is reading these horrid diary entries; or, you have found that you must "clean your plate" literarily speaking, and finish reading each and every word to the bitter end, once you have started, for good or bad. The last scenario is not plausible enough to entertain, and just barely made the final cut of possibilities, and that is this: you actually like to read my writing. However much I'd love to consider this as a viable option concerning my writing, I find it difficult to believe. I just can't imagine anyone reading this willingly who had no relationship with me. However, this is the blog about my family, which my readers realize when they get into it from the get go. So here goes.
My "little" cousin was married to a wonderful gal on Saturday March 17. I'm happy for the both of them. I don't know her real well, but she's made a positive first (and succeeding) impression upon me. He, the groom, is just a great guy who's learned some lessons the hard way and I can't say enough good things about him and her and her two daughters. They make a great family and I'm excited to see them go through life together. They are somewhat like Mare and I in that they just keep things real and are not into posturing for others' benefit. Whatever that means.
I was wonderfully privileged to be asked to perform some songs on my guitar during the seating portion before the wedding, and to play the opening melody of Nothing Else Matters by Metallica for her walk down the aisle. Learning that song was a challenge, and in the end I did not perform it perfectly, but well enough for a group of people I mostly knew who paid no attention to it anyway because they were all focused upon the bride to be walking down the aisle. They treated us to a great barbecue dinner after the wedding, so that was an added bonus heaped upon the other good things about the union.
Because the wedding rehearsal was on Friday night, I buzzed down to Humboldt with the two oldest boys in tow and we all three stayed the night with my mom. She was alone for the evening as dad was away. Mom and her two grandsons had fun walking to the golf course pond and all the ensuing hi jinx that goes along with it. My sister arrived late, late, that night from Oklahoma. We rose early on Saturday for breakfast together, and I drove myself and the oldest boy back to O-town for his soccer practice for an hour. He helped wash the car and Mare got her hair trimmed and we loaded up all of us to go back to Humboldt for the wedding. Sis left back for Oklahoma about an hour after the wedding and we drove back to O-town not long after.
Sunday I spent the morning finding and packing things to take the two oldest camping. We finally arrived around 1:00 at our usual haunt for camping in Kansas: Woodridge Campground at Clinton Lake. We immediately hiked down the trail about a mile or more to the lake shore where we tried fishing. Daddy couldn't secure any bait for the fish, so we were forced to try Whales crackers, the knockoff brand of Goldfish crackers. It's all I had and besides it was so oppressively windy, the fish didn't bite (the wind? the bait?) and we only tried it for about 40 minutes. They thought it was cool nonetheless.
We hiked back and the boys played while I set up the tent and scoured the empty campground (Sunday night, remember?) for firewood left behind at other camp spots. I gathered a bunch after a bunch of trips, and lit it just before sundown. Up until then I had kept the boys out of the tent, but since they'd eaten all they wished to eat at the picnic table, I let them in to change into jammies and to read bed time stories. I lit and hung the candle lantern in the tent and got back out to sit by the fire and do some writing. I kept my ear on the weather radio as it was kind of windy up in the campground among the trees, too, and the sun had not shown its face yet and rain was in the air, but unexpected until Monday afternoon. We had the campground to ourselves, though there were some vehicles parked there and their occupants loaded up backpacks to hike down the trail a ways to camp in the woods.
I packed up as soon as we got around in the morning to have everything in the car in case it rained. We were able to enjoy another big fire in the morning with the leftover fire wood from the night before. So, we sat around it for awhile until it did start to sprinkle and rain. At that point we donned our rain gear and set off for our second hike. We started down the opposite trailhead. We walked a long way and then made our way back after a couple hours of hiking. We dove in the car and made our way home where it was warm and dry.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Life in la-la land, or, Spring Break 2012!
- stay the night with my mom
- attend my cousin's wedding
- camp out for one night
- fishing
- hiking
- reading
- resting
- writing
- date in Lawrence
- hair cut
- soccer practice
- writers' group
- yard clean up
Still here? I can only conclude then that you are either a glutton for the form of punishment that is reading these horrid diary entries; or, you have found that you must "clean your plate" literarily speaking, and finish reading each and every word to the bitter end, once you have started, for good or bad. The last scenario is not plausible enough to entertain, and just barely made the final cut of possibilities, and that is this: you actually like to read my writing. However much I'd love to consider this as a viable option concerning my writing, I find it difficult to believe. I just can't imagine anyone reading this willingly who had no relationship with me. However, this is the blog about my family, which my readers realize when they get into it from the get go. So here goes.
My "little" cousin was married to a wonderful gal on Saturday March 17. I'm happy for the both of them. I don't know her real well, but she's made a positive first (and succeeding) impression upon me. He, the groom, is just a great guy who's learned some lessons the hard way and I can't say enough good things about him and her and her two daughters. They make a great family and I'm excited to see them go through life together. They are somewhat like Mare and I in that they just keep things real and are not into posturing for others' benefit. Whatever that means.
I was wonderfully privileged to be asked to perform some songs on my guitar during the seating portion before the wedding, and to play the opening melody of Nothing Else Matters by Metallica for her walk down the aisle. Learning that song was a challenge, and in the end I did not perform it perfectly, but well enough for a group of people I mostly knew who paid no attention to it anyway because they were all focused upon the bride to be walking down the aisle. They treated us to a great barbecue dinner after the wedding, so that was an added bonus heaped upon the other good things about the union.
Because the wedding rehearsal was on Friday night, I buzzed down to Humboldt with the two oldest boys in tow and we all three stayed the night with my mom. She was alone for the evening as dad was away. Mom and her two grandsons had fun walking to the golf course pond and all the ensuing hi jinx that goes along with it. My sister arrived late, late, that night from Oklahoma. We rose early on Saturday for breakfast together, and I drove myself and the oldest boy back to O-town for his soccer practice for an hour. He helped wash the car and Mare got her hair trimmed and we loaded up all of us to go back to Humboldt for the wedding. Sis left back for Oklahoma about an hour after the wedding and we drove back to O-town not long after.
Sunday I spent the morning finding and packing things to take the two oldest camping. We finally arrived around 1:00 at our usual haunt for camping in Kansas: Woodridge Campground at Clinton Lake. We immediately hiked down the trail about a mile or more to the lake shore where we tried fishing. Daddy couldn't secure any bait for the fish, so we were forced to try Whales crackers, the knockoff brand of Goldfish crackers. It's all I had and besides it was so oppressively windy, the fish didn't bite (the wind? the bait?) and we only tried it for about 40 minutes. They thought it was cool nonetheless.
We hiked back and the boys played while I set up the tent and scoured the empty campground (Sunday night, remember?) for firewood left behind at other camp spots. I gathered a bunch after a bunch of trips, and lit it just before sundown. Up until then I had kept the boys out of the tent, but since they'd eaten all they wished to eat at the picnic table, I let them in to change into jammies and to read bed time stories. I lit and hung the candle lantern in the tent and got back out to sit by the fire and do some writing. I kept my ear on the weather radio as it was kind of windy up in the campground among the trees, too, and the sun had not shown its face yet and rain was in the air, but unexpected until Monday afternoon. We had the campground to ourselves, though there were some vehicles parked there and their occupants loaded up backpacks to hike down the trail a ways to camp in the woods.
I packed up as soon as we got around in the morning to have everything in the car in case it rained. We were able to enjoy another big fire in the morning with the leftover fire wood from the night before. So, we sat around it for awhile until it did start to sprinkle and rain. At that point we donned our rain gear and set off for our second hike. We started down the opposite trailhead. We walked a long way and then made our way back after a couple hours of hiking. We dove in the car and made our way home where it was warm and dry.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Life in la-la land, or, Spring Break 2012!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Happy Birthday to you Allison Clarice!
Today is March 5, 2012. I'd like to wish my big sister Clarie a happy birthday, and I'll show my respect for her by omitting any revelation concerning age. What is age anyway? If I were to judge by her wisdom, she's about 120. If I were to judge her age by the love in her heart and her zest for life, she'd be less than 10 years old.
She's helped me out my entire life, even back when I didn't want her to as a child. For example, she's the one who taught me in my first ever high school dance as a freshman not to dance with my tongue hanging out. That was valuable advice I've implemented ever since. That same dance she taught me that the senior girls think it's cute when the freshman boys dance instead of stand at the sidelines. Again, advice I put to use immediately and applied to other dances since leaving behind the title of freshman.
I'm sure she could teach me how to fish if I so desired. No one else could. She could teach me how to slalom ski behind a boat, if I were a good pupil. She could teach me how to have fun in any situation and how to find the positive in all things. She could teach me accounting and management and child rearing. She could teach me to train for a 5k run. She could teach me to look glamorous at any given moment. She could probably teach me to be a good son, if I'd listen.
I can't imagine being a part of one of those families where the siblings are estranged. A situation that does, in fact, occur within my grandparents' generation of sibling relationships. There were times I'm sure it would have been much easier to be like Peter and deny me. But, unlike Peter, she always claimed me. I'm not sure I turned out the way she'd hoped or predicted, but she's turned out exactly as I knew she would. She's a caring, loving mother; devoted wife; successful business owner; a charitable and empathetic Christian; a good daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, etc.
Clarie, I love you. You've been a better sister to me than I've been a brother to you. Happy birthday, sis.
She's helped me out my entire life, even back when I didn't want her to as a child. For example, she's the one who taught me in my first ever high school dance as a freshman not to dance with my tongue hanging out. That was valuable advice I've implemented ever since. That same dance she taught me that the senior girls think it's cute when the freshman boys dance instead of stand at the sidelines. Again, advice I put to use immediately and applied to other dances since leaving behind the title of freshman.
I'm sure she could teach me how to fish if I so desired. No one else could. She could teach me how to slalom ski behind a boat, if I were a good pupil. She could teach me how to have fun in any situation and how to find the positive in all things. She could teach me accounting and management and child rearing. She could teach me to train for a 5k run. She could teach me to look glamorous at any given moment. She could probably teach me to be a good son, if I'd listen.
I can't imagine being a part of one of those families where the siblings are estranged. A situation that does, in fact, occur within my grandparents' generation of sibling relationships. There were times I'm sure it would have been much easier to be like Peter and deny me. But, unlike Peter, she always claimed me. I'm not sure I turned out the way she'd hoped or predicted, but she's turned out exactly as I knew she would. She's a caring, loving mother; devoted wife; successful business owner; a charitable and empathetic Christian; a good daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, etc.
Clarie, I love you. You've been a better sister to me than I've been a brother to you. Happy birthday, sis.
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