baby, you can drive my car

I am going to blog backward since who knows how much time I will have and yesterday NEEDS to be blogged about.

After lunch yay yay (LTD) went out to the garage to gather some things and PDL followed immediately after her.  I went out with L to gather him up since he was just in his socks and it was almost nap time.  I put L in P's radio flyer car just to see his reaction which I was sure was going to be no no no no no! up! up! up! but instead he grabbed the handle and took off running down the driveway.  hilarious.

P drove L all the way down to the lake so that she could look at the ducks - we saw in P's words, baby ducks, a mamu duck, and a yay yay duck.  He even turned the car toward the lake so L could see the ducks.  He was also intent that she listen to the radio as she was riding so he stopped every 30 seconds to turn it back on.

Be sure to stay tuned for the video shot by LTD ( yay yay) while she was walking backward toward the lake...

yep, thats yay yay....falling off a ledge and almost into the lake.  P thought it was hysterical.  It was.  :)

Silent House

This past weekend, little l, LDL, LTD, and I went up and over to Pensacola Beach, FL. That beach is definitely a home a way from home (even though I've had a million plus "homes" in the last decade). LTD went to high school at Gulf Breeze High and her side of the family has lived there since. We've been vacationing there every August to celebrate our grandmother's birthday. It's always a time of great joy, high drama, and general shenanigans associated with a fun loving family that enjoys each others company.  The view from that condo is spectacular and every time we get out of the car, after 7 hours, we sigh and say "It was worth it".

This visit was a little different and was for two primary reasons. The first was to visit the wonderful J&M Treesh family and celebrate the baptism of their youngest. The second reason we were there was to visit and check in on our grandmother, who is in a giant battle with Alzheimer's. I remember her so young and vivacious. She was always happy, well groomed and bragging on one of her 13 grandchildren. Purple is her favorite color; the color of royalty. She's a queen and a child of God. I'm trying hard to use the present tense here when describing purple grandmother, but the truth of the matter is she is not the woman I remember. Alzheimer's is a terribly mean disease. So LDL and I go to pay a visit, introduce a great-granddaughter (who shares a name with purple grandmother), breathe in the salt air, and do our best to love our own mom in every way we know how.

Truthfully, it's still too difficult for me to really talk about the drastic change in my grandmother. I love her. I miss her. This new person makes me nervous. And yet, somehow, despite being completely uncomfortable, I managed to convince myself she knew exactly who I was, where I had been, and all the stories we've shared. But when the day was done, she looked at me and said "Are you the lady who does my hair?".

Guess what's for dinner?

Silent House - The Dixie Chicks

Everyday that will pass you by
Every name that you won't recall
Everything that you made by hand
Everything that you know by heart

And I will try to connect
All the pieces you left
I will carry it on
And let you forget
And I'll remember the years
When your mind was clear
How the laughter and life
Filled up this silent house

More upbeat stories to come! A scavenger hunt for a lost phone; multiple trips to the Plant City Strawberry Festival; making p a tee-ball set from a tennis ball and tights; swimming in February; passionate conversations about politics; Fawning over The Ellen Show; D family happy hours; learning, adventuring, and loving. Be kind to one another.

Long Time Gone

This post may not be a whole lot of fun, but it has been a long time coming.  Every time I sit down to write someone (P man) wakes up, or the internet is working, or the internet is working but I can't access my computer with my pictures on it.  Forgive me.  It's true, living at 1127 definitely has its perks, but it also has its fair share of trouble too.  I mean, what do you expect when there are 5 adults, 2 kids, & 2 dogs all living under the same roof?  Not to mention the bazillion people in and out and around of the house all day every day.  Throw in a toddler who won't sleep, dogs who are sick sick sick with the rest of the crazy that surrounds us and you can imagine that life is a little hectic here.  In a good kind of way.  Most of the time.

Milestones of our family that I may or may not have already told you all about:

P man: no longer uses a pacifier, and demands to sleep in a big boy bed.  I have two major goals to accomplish with him before this summer, potty training and riding his balance bike.  I haven't concluded yet which adventure will be easier to accomplish - depends on the day.

MLL:  almost 6 months old.  I probably won't be writing again until she actually is 6 months old, so I'm updating you now :)  She's a happy, easy going baby who rarely cries and is always smiling.  She especially smiles at her brother and when no one is looking he can be caught making funny faces in her direction.  Though he really hates it when she grabs a hold of his hair (who can resist!?) Speaking of P's hair - I have yet to go ANYWHERE since that kid was 9 months old without someone commenting on his hair.  And as far as I can tell, everyone had white blonde hair like his when they were young.  Thats the word on the street anyway.

We spend most of our days in the back yard or taking a very slow stroll around the lake close to my parents house.  Sometimes we only make it around the creek but it takes P an hour to do that and its mostly nice to get out in the sunshine.  We are also still swimming at least 3 times a week so I am thinking of putting the kids in swimming lessons (amend my goals to potty training, bike riding, and swimming).

Everyone is still busy adjusting and making friends.  We'll be church hopping soon to find a church home (suggestions??), I'm going to a Bible study, an occasional girls group, date nights, exploring parks with different friends and trying to be somewhat helpful in maintaining the house hold. Its a full time job.  P still loves to bake so we try to do that on occasion but he is less than helpful now that he has discovered that cookie dough tastes delicious.

I'm starting to get a bit anxious living in transition mode since most of my things are still packed away in storage.  BML saved some of my sanity by setting up a small little office space just for me that is far enough away from the action that it takes someone at least 3 minutes for someone to find me - so that's some good quiet time :)  I think we'll start to move our stuff into different storage with more access soon since it is on average 77 degrees here each day and I still have Annapolis winter clothe hanging in my closet.

Aunt T, LTD, MLL, and I are headed up to Pensacola Beach / Gulf Breeze this weekend for our cousins baptism and to see family.  We're looking forward to the time together, but we all will miss the boys!  Especially P...we'll miss everyone, but especially P. :)

I'm attaching some pictures of everyone from LTD's computer - is anyone out there on instagram?  we just started - i put pictures on there fairly often and would love to see some of yours!  Leave your name in the comments (ha, like anyone ever comments :) ) or search for us!


p.s.  how awesome is CMD for doing IMPROV!!??  I about wet my pants just thinking about it.  i could never do what he is doing....we're pretty proud!

p.s.  attaching pictures is frustrating me.  i will try again later.  maybe.