Hey, Y'all!

Good Morning, Baltimore

 
I've been to BlogHer. I've even met and talked to a few of my blog friends on my own, without the aid of  conference. I know the excitement.  I know how much fun it is to see the people you know only from their written words and pictures come to life right before your eyes.  I knew I'd be ecstatic to see Alissa today.  What I didn't know was how cool it would be to see our kids meet.

 
Um, mom, we're kind of on a conference call here. Could you check back later?

Alissa and I have speculated for quite some time that Dean and Liam would likely be great friends, two peas in a pod, and all such as that.  For two days leading up to our meet-up at the Maryland Science Center, these guys couldn't stop talking about each other.  Dean kept asking, "When we seeing my buddy? Wiam?"  When they first spotted each other, they made a run for it, crashing together in the cutest three-year-old hug ever.  Along with my four-year-old nephew, Adam, they were quite the fun bunch of boys. 

 
Whenever I read blogs, I always think, MAN! I wish I lived near THEM so our kids could play! But it's never been a reality before now.  I have to tell you--I'd happily forego any and all blogging conferences in the future if it meant I could spend that time and money hanging out with some of my blog friends and their families.  I think we sometimes forget how deep these friendships are, how much these people mean to us and how many things they get us through, even if we've never laid eyes on each other in real life. It was extremely cool to see one of these friends from this uber-important aspect of my life interact with my family.  Alissa and I talked about how much fun it would be to get the boys together every year on our annual trip to visit my in-laws in DC.  I hope that's a tradition that will stick.

 
The little guys had a blast in the kids' area of the museum where they caught fish and played in a submarine. They ran wild in the dinosaur hall and ate lunch at the Beaker Cafe.  After lunch, we walked down to a cute splash fountain where they managed to soak themselves.  It was great fun.  Alissa got to meet Marcus and his mom and dad, and we got a good amount of time to talk about Blogs and life in general.  I always feel so rejuvinated when I've seen one of my girlfriends and today was certianly one of those times. I feel as though my social battery has been recharged.  (Too bad I had to break out my "mean mom" voice when my child started acting a fool and tried to jump into the Inner Harbor.)

Super huge thanks to Alissa for making time to meet up with us and for taking us to the very cool museum.  I hope it's the first of many fun times together...for us and the little buddies.

 

 

Florida Vacation: Week 2

The second week of our trip was spent in Stuart, Florida, up near West Palm Beach on Florida's west coast.  Marcus's uncle and his wife have a great house there that they'll live in full-time when his aunt retires in a couple of years.  On the drive down from Ft. Lauderdale, we stopped at a very cool kid's museum:

 
Dean was happy to have something to climb.

Marcus also had a good time:

 
He got really good at making enormous bubbles! At one point, there was even a crowd of kids just standing there watching him.  I thought he should have gotten commission, but the smile on his face was enough.  He needed this break like you wouldn't believe.

 
Building makes you tired!

On our first night in Stuart, we all met up with Marcus's aunt and uncle and their puppy, Lucy, for a great dinner at Pelican Cafe, right on the water.  Dean was on the best behavior we've ever seen from him in a restaurant. He snuck fries to Lucy under the table, talked to everyone, watched the boats pull into the marina, read some books, played with Batman toys and ate nearly every bite of his dinner.  He even tried some of his G-Mama's coconut crusted mahi mahi and liked it! After dinner, we went for a walk on the dock, then played on the playground.  All the playgrounds in Stuart have sand. Dean does not like sand in his sandals.

 
No sand in da shoes anyMORE!

Our week was spent visiting different beaches, exploring Stuart, which is now where I'd like to retire, and fishing from the backyard:

 
What a view!  The only bad thing about this place was that I had a slight heart attack every time Dean left the screened-in porch because I was CERTAIN he and his fearless half-fish self were going to dive head-first into the river.  We made him wear his life vest, which went over about as well as you'd think it would, and just hovered over him like freaks every time he was out back.

This house was...interesting.  We had read all about it online, even seen some pictures before selecting this one to rent. (My MIL had ultimate responsibility for choosing the house, but we got to chime in.) We knew it had an above-ground pool, which probably would be ok for us to wade in with Dean. When we arrived, we saw a pool that looked a bit like an oil drum and had no way for you to get into it. No ladder, steps, not even a sturdy rope.  We quickly abandoned the idea of swimming.  The house also had a trampoline. I"m not the biggest fan of them and Marcus HATES them, so we weren't ecstatic when Dean wanted to jump.  Fortunately, this one had a big white circle right in the middle, so we could have Dean stand in the circle to jump. He immediately requested that Marcus and I jump with him, which we did a couple of times and which turned all of our feet, legs and the butts of our pants BLACK. (it came out with some Oxy Clean)  One night he beeeegggggeeedddd to jump, so I got up there with him. First jump? FIVE SPRINGS flew off into the yard. The sucker was dry-rotted. And that, friends, was the end of trampoline time.

The inside of the house was, how you say?, DATED.

 
This four-foot-tall lamp and her sisters, the driftwood lamps, complete with creepy fake birds perched on them, were among my favorite decorations.  There was also a gramophone (not just a record player, a GRAMOPHONE), a vintage sewing machine, bamboo furniture and this gem:

 
That is a 1968 Fridgidaire Flair Range. (The stove pulls out of the drawer below.)  My great-grandma had one just like it. It. Is. A. MAZING! Yes, it still works, though you need an advanced degree in engineering to figure out which knob does what. 

I think my favorite part of our Stuart trip were our visits to Indian Riverside Park.  They have a kids' museum, which we never actually made it into, a spash park, a small beach and a great pier.  There are tons of gazeboes for shade and clean restrooms.  Dean enjoyed splashing around in the water park and we spotted several dolphins off the pier.

 

There were also some IN YOUR FACE nature moments, like the afternoon this manatee showed up right behind the house:

 
Marucs and I had a similar experience on our honeymoon in the Keys, so we knew they liked hose water.  Dean was so excited he squealed.  It was pretty dang cool.

Florida also has its fair share of lizard-like creatures, including this little guy:

 
That's Gary the Gekko and he's about the size of my finger.  He spent most of the week on a chair on the patio, unless Dean chased him into hiding.

It was a fantastic, relaxing week in an absolutely adorable town. I'd go back in a heartbeat. (Like, now, please.)

Next time, I'll tell you about Thurston and Gladys (not their real names....at least I don't think so), the people who own the yacht parked outside the house!

Florida Vacation: Week 1

First of all, let me acknowledge the fact that having 2 weeks to go on a trip is pretty amazing. This was a trip to visit family as well as a much-needed vacation. My in-laws invited us to join them in Florida while Marcus's brother, his wife and their boys were visiting the Czech Republic, my sister in law's home.  Her parents have not seen the boys in over a year and her sister had not yet met their youngest son.  We missed them, but it was fun to have my in-laws to ourselves, allowing them some one-on-one time with Dean.

We started our trip in the Ft. Lauderdale area, where lots of Marcus's mom's side of the family lives.  We had a rental house that backed up to a canal off the ocean and had a phenomenal pool.

 
Vacation rocks!

Having the pool at the house was great.  Marcus's Uncle Billy is in the hospital right now, so his mom and dad spent a lot of time visiting him.  Hospitals are not the greatest place for toddlers, so Dean and I usually stayed home when they visited.  The pool proved to be a ton of fun. Dean, I think, is part fish. One day we spent six hours in the pool.  SIX HOURS. Do you have any idea how pruney you get after SIX HOURS in a pool? PROOOOOONEEEEEY!  The smile on his face, however, when he learned to jump off the side and put his face in the water? Was worth every wrinkle.

We spent a great day at Zoo Miami. If you are ever in south Florida, go to this zoo!

 
You can get super-close to the animals  and they have a nice variety of specimens.  You can even feed a giraffe! (Or he can lick you! Right in the face!)

 

Oh, HEY, y'all!

There were a couple of nights when we had extended family over to eat with us, which was fun.  I got to meet the cousins I've heard about for years but never met and we got to show off Mr. Dean. 

The nicest thing about having 2 weeks for vacation was the "permission" to have a buffer day if we needed it.  Dean sprouted an ear infection 2 days before we left, which sent us running to the pediatrician for antibiotics.  She threw in a steroid for good measure.  His ears had started feeling better by the time we left, but a couple of days into the trip, the antibiotics started to upset his stomach. That same morning, I sprouted what may have been bronchitis. In a nutshell, we both felt pretty crummy.  Instead of hitting the zoo that day, we stayed in, watched a movie, played with a treasure chest full of toy soldiers, ate yogurt, took medicine and snuggled.

Once we started to feel like ourselves again, we were back in business, hitting Ft. Lauderdale beach, a cute outdoor cafe and swimming swimming swimming until our first week was over.

Up next--Week 2 in Stuart!

 

Wordlessish Wednesday: Vacation Teaser

Here are some vacation pictures to hold you over until I can get it together and finish the three (count em, THREE) vacation posts I'm working on writing.  I keep going back and editing because, really--who cares that we ate pizza?  Here are a few of my favorite moments from our trip to Florida:

 
Hmmm...looks pokey.

By the way, if you ever need to know how to get cactucs needles out of tiny fingers--use scotch tape. Pulls right out. Not that THAT happened to us.  Ahem.

 
Fishing in the pond with cousin Belle.

 
At the zoo with G-Mama

 
"Breakfast Dessert," AKA  eating all the popsicles before we leave.

 I promise to sit myself down and finish pecking out some real posts about our trip because it was pretty awesome.  Happy Hump Day, y'all.

 

Obligatory Vacation Slideshow

Only it's not a slideshow.  I came home to a broken computer cord.  Broken as in one of the wires is snapped in half. (DEAN!?!?!??)  We went to Best Buy yesterday to buy a new one, but they wanted $100, so we laughed and laughed, then bought Toy Story 2 and came home.  Marcus bought a replacement one for his laptop online for about $15 INCLUDING SHIPPING. So anywho, I'm at the mercy of Marcus's sharing of his laptop until my new cord arrives.

I did manage to upload a few vacation pictures.  Here they be. More to come.

Dean and his cousin Adam loved playing in the sand at the beach.  They also loved rubbing it directly onto my scalp.  I'll still be washing sand out of my hair when I'm 60.

The views from the pontoon boat were unbeatable.

Dean says sailing wears him out.

The few moments I was able to grab for myself usually involved this hammock and my book.  I like relaxin'.

The weather spoiled us.  We went from the high 90's here in Alabama to highs in the low 80's in the mountains. My body temperature, she is very confused.

It was fun to see the boys play together and great to spend some time with the family.  Marcus started back to work today and Dean went back to school.  I cleaned like a mad woman before collapsing on my couch with some tasty Indian food to catch up on True Blood. (I'm still a week behind--no spoilers, please!)  I'm actually really happy to be getting back into our regular routine.  Though we all enjoyed our summer off, we do better when we each have our own things going on.  The coming weeks hold visits to and from family, the beginning of football season (YAAAAAY!) a work trip to Atlanta for me and a week of sub work for me on a new show at the Shakespeare Festival.  Waiting til the literal last minute of summer was a weird way to end our break, but I'm glad we had last week to recharge our batteries before diving back in head-first.

 

Been Fishin'

We just returned from a week at the lake in Virginia. I thought we'd have some internet access there, but alas, it was not so.  I returned home to find my computer power cord broken (Cue freak-out), so I'm writing from Marcus's computer.  A trip to Best Buy is in order today so that I may get onto my own laptop, upload pictures and tell you stories about the beach, the boat, the cabin and the hammock that Dean knocked me out of at least twice a day. Hope everyone's had a great week. I can't wait to catch up on my blog reading.

Classes start at the University tomorrow, which means Marcus goes back to work full-time.  Given the fact that we took a vacation up until the very day before he goes back, I think we can say we were successful in squeezing out every little bit of summer left in us.  Now if someone could please bring on the cooler weather and the college football, I'd be much obliged.

Guess where I've been?

Visiting the fam in DC!  We're home and happy to be here, but we had an awesome time.  It was our first time meeting this guy:

That's our new nephew, Lukas.  He was born February 23, making him just over 3 months old.  He is GINORMOUS. That's a 9 month size outfit he's wearing there. I have never seen sweeter baby fat rolls than on this guy.  His belly is perfectly round and great for blowing raspberries.  He is quite the smiler and loved it when I'd sing to him.  It was fun to be around a little baby again, but it did make me a little sad because Dean looks like an absolute giant person compared to Lukas.  (Even though Lukas is only about 10 pounds lighter than Dean.) 

Here's one of his face:

Totally cute.

We squeezed every drop of fun and activity we could get into our ten-day visit. I'd say we spent about  70% of our time outside.  We visited a really cool farm/zoo, complete with petting area where you  could feed a pig and give a lamb a bottle.  Dean spent 30 minutes chasing this rooster, screaming "Cocka-DOO!" Poor rooster.

We also visited the National Zoo, which was not as great as last time we were there. The elephant house is closed and it was so hot that a lot of the animals were not out where we could look at them.  We did get a free, um, biology lesson from some lions who chose the exact moment Dean looked at them to consumate their love.  Marcus and I tend to have an aphrodisiac-like effect on animals, as we have seen some sort of creatures copulating every single time we have ever been to a zoo or aquarium together.  The most memorable were the turtles.  That is not a good thing.

We spent a lot of time in the wading pool and sandbox where, naturally, Dean took off his pants. (Hence the lack of photo.)  The best was the day there was an open house next door for the neighbor who's trying to sell his house. Sidenote:  My MIL and I totally went to the open house, mostly so we could see the inside, which we'd heard hadn't been updated since the 70s.  I have one word:  GROOVY.  Anyway, a nice young couple was touring the backyard when suddenly they turned to their right just in time to see Dean streak by.  (Spoiler:  They didn't buy the house.)

Marcus's mom and dad re-did their basement a couple of years ago in time for Adam's first birthday party.  It is a toy mecca. There is an awesome play kitchen, a tent, tons of Little People toys, a workbench with tools and tons more stuff.  Dean and Adam had a blast down there.  There is a fantastic park with a nature center, playground and pond just down the road from the house, so we took many, many walks over there.  Know what we learned?  Dean is fearless.  He shimmied up one of those rope climbing things like it was nothing and went down the tallest curly slide.  He's so fast and so dextrous that he's hard to keep up with.  I'm so glad he's not scared to try things--he had a blast on everything from the swinging bridge to the monkey bars, with my hand never a few feet away, of course.

On Friday night, we took advantage of the park's free concert series and saw a fun Rockabilly group.  All three boys had a great time dancing and eating all the snacks we brought and the adults enjoyed listening to songs that didn't center around things on a bus going round and round. 

Marcus and I always try to squeeze in a date when we visit either set of grandparents. We usually go shopping, see a movie or go fishing.  This time, we had lunch at PF Chang's, which was hands-down the best Chinese food I've ever had in my life.  I had almond-cashew chicken and it was divine.  Marcus got crispy Sechuan beef that was sooooo spicy, but soooo delicious.  After our giant meal, we drove to the outlet mall and found a few deals.

One of my favorite things we did was visit Costco. (I know. I'm easy.)  Dean took a liking to a pineapple, which he carried with him for the entirety of our shopping trip.  I ate my way through the store, sampling smoked salmon, salsa, coffee, egg rolls and cereal bars.  Then we had lunch at the snack bar.  A hot dog and a drink is only $1.55. You can't beat that with a stick.

Speaking of food (Oh, come on, you knew it was coming), we ate our fill of favorites like breakfast gravy, French toast, flank steak, pork shoulder with sauerkraut, tacos and chicken with dressing.  I even made meatloaf for everyone one night.  Dean survived for nearly 2 days on 1/2 a scrambled egg, a mango and some craisins, which are his new favorite thing ever. 

One of my favorite things to do in DC is visit Airport Park at Reagan Int'l Airport.  It's situated right at the end of the jetway, so the planes head right for you, then take off right over your head. It's way cool.  The boys had a blast playing in the dirt, clapping for the planes and having a picnic with their Nana.

We also celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday and retirement!  She's been counting the days to retirement for about 3 years now, so it was fun to be there for her last official day on the clock.  We celebrated her birthday at home with a yummy cake from Wegman's.  Dean discovered blue icing and him am in luv.

It was a super fun trip, packed full of fresh air, calorie-burning outdoor activities, laughs and sweaty little boys.  It's nice to be home, but Dean certainly misses his partner in crime.

Myspacebarisbroken

Ok, it really just had a big chunker of something lodged underneath it, so I removed the big chunker, but now it will only space if I hit it with my right thumb and I'm used to spacing with my left thumb so this  post may have we    ird spacingissu es. Ok?   Ok.

We are getting ready for a trip to DC to visit the rest of the Lanes.  I've been purging closets like mad, trying to find all our summer clothes that I packed up last year, locating the summer clothes I was too chubby to wear last year that NOW FIT (booyah!) and boxing up things Dean has outgrown so we can take them to our new baby nephew, Lukas, who at 2 1/2 months old, already weighs almost 15 pounds.  I'm also making a Yard Sale pile for the sale I intend to have when we get back.  I have a lot of clothes to get rid of, along with some general household crap we just don't use any more.  There is an enormous bag of paperback books in our guestroom closet, which I'd normally take to the trade-in used book store for NEW paperbacks, but our tiny town doesn't have one. (Can you believe that???)  So I figure we'll sell them for a quarter each and use the money for one new hardcover best-seller.  Kidding.  We'll save it until the library book sale at the end of the summer.  Or we'll go to Dairy Queen for a dippy cone.  Dean has also outgrown his little baby toys, like mobiles and crib soothers and the like, so we'll sell those, too.  Anything we don't sell will either be donated to the church Mother's Day Out program that Dean attends or taken to the big thrift store to be sent to  Hannah House.

Some of our neighbors had yard sales over the weekend, but we've kind of stopped going to them in our neighborhood, lest we learn a little more than we want to know about our  neighbors.  Last summer, we went to a sale down the street where they were selling underwear.  USED underwear.  Like, there were holes and blown elastic. Let me share a little commandment from the Book ofJen with you: THOU SHALT NOT PUT THY NASTY USED DRAWERS ON A TABLE IN THY GARAGE AND TRY TO GET PEOPLE TO GIVE THEE MONEY FOR THEM!

Traveling with a little one is always an adventure, especially when it comes to packing.  Dean's little suitcase is full of outfits.  When I went to zip it up, I realized there wasn't a single set of pj's, a single blanket or a swimsuit.  Packing FAIL.  Fortunately, we'll be taking several other suitcases, so I'm sure we can squeeze them in someplace. 

Did I tell you Marcus's truck died?  I did, I think.  This led to severe paranoia about our surviving car's well-being, which led us to rent a mini-van for the trek to our nation's capitol.  We thought about flying, but it's way to expensive, plus Dean gets airsick,which is just gross.  So we're driving.  I have to admit, I LOVE driving long distances with my husband.  So far, Dean's a good little traveller, so I'm hoping this will be a pretty easy trip.  It's about 13 hours, but we're leaving before dawn in the hopes that we can get a couple of hours under our belts before Dean wakes up ready for breakfast.  We've got some fun stops planned along the way, including Pigeon Forge, TN, and we'll take our time over 2 days to get to DC. 

My mother-in-law reitred last week.  Of course, she went to work today, which kind of negates retirement, but now she's done.  It'll be nice to have her around all day while we visit.  The one down-side of the trip is that they are having their master bathroom remodeled and it's not going well.  That means we'll all be sharing 1 bathroom. ONE BATHROOM.  I'm very happy Dean is not yet potty trained.

We'll report back here with cute pictures of Dean and his cousins.  I'm looking so forward to seeing my sweet nephew Adam and meeting the new guy, Lukas.  Baby snuggles shall be had.

The End of Summer

I hesitated to use that title, as it's the title of the saddest song I've ever heard from one of my favorite musicals, BABY.  But today is a little bittersweet, so I'm going with it. Pardon my dramatics.

This summer has been nothing short of perfect.  When I look back on these past few months, I imagine this summer will always stand out as one of my favorites.  For the first time in years, neither Marcus nor I worked full-time. (YAY, University job that allows us 3 months off.  BOO, that means we have to work extra-hard next year to be sure Marcus gets enough work credits to get tenure.)  I used to think the perfect summer would be spent sleeping late each day, doing whatever I wanted, staying up late with friends and travelling.  Needless to say, a little 19 month old fireball is all you need to throw that little fantasy offline!

We have not slept-in one single morning this summer.  Instead, we've gotten up with Dean (and often with or before the sun), gone downstairs and made breakfast.  We discovered a new recipe for French Toast and gave our coffee pot quite the workout.  Dean discovered that he likes sausage and bacon.

Our days have been anything but routine.  Sometimes we go to the library, sometimes the park, most days our back deck to play in the water, and sometimes on grand adventures to exotic places like the Bass Pro Shop.

We've done our fair share of travelling:  Oxford, Mississippi;  Montgomery, Alabama; Sunset Beach, North Carolina; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Washington DC.  Dean experienced the beach and the ocean for the very first time.  We visited our families, and these were good, long trips to visit our families, not the quick in-and-out weekends we've gotten used to having with them.  Dean caught his very first (and second through fifth) fish. We got to see friends from several different phases of our lives and Marcus and I even had a couple of date nights. 

On the home front, we've battled eczema with a vengeance.  And it shows no signs of stopping.  Seriously, you should see my baby's shins.  If anyone has a miracle cure, I'm all-ears because we have tried EVERYTHING.   We rejoiced last week when our dishwasher, which has been out of service for three months, miraculously started working again after a power outage. (Note to self:  If dishwasher breaks, flip the breaker!)  We have eaten and cooked and snacked like champs.  I have Shredded.  We had our first visit from friends with a kid, which was an absolute blast!

I write all this to say that we've had a lot of quality time together this summer.  It's been all about what we WANTED to do, not what we HAD to do. We've played with Dean and laughed together and watched movies and read books.  It means so much to have had the luxury of time, because here in the "real world," we are rarely granted that luxury.

Tomorrow marks the end of our summer.  Dean heads to Mother's Day Out in the morning (Jen breathes into paper sack)and I go into the office for the first time since May to get crackin' on my syllabus and lecture-writing.  Marcus says he refuses to work this week, since we don't go back to school until the 31st, and that while I'm at work, he'll be fishing.  Ok, then.  Perhaps once my paperwork is well underway, I'll take a moment while Dean's at school to actually do a scrapbook.  If anything is scrapbook-worthy, it's this summer.

Edited to add:  Dean had a great first day!  He walked right in, went up to another kid nand took his pacifier. :)  I bent down to try and say goodbye to him, but he was far to busy playing with a toy phone.  He made a craft project with rubber stamps and ate almost all of his lunch.  An excellent first day!

 

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday: Vacation, Part the Third