The Fathers In My Life

My Dad!

Did you ever think we would grow up?

And now you are Grandpa!

Thanks for everything you have done for us! Many years ago you sacrificed a career and financial stability to take the plunge and move your family back to MN where you and mom grew up, worked tirelessly to give us all we needed and wanted and gave us a wonderful and safe place in the country to grow up in, and a place I am so proud to call home. Now that I have kids of my own, I understand !

Happy Father's Day!

Sailor/Farmer/Father/Husband - Happy Father's Day!

Military life keeps you from us for long stretches at a time, but you always manage to make sure the kids always know they come first, and give them plenty of "Dad Moments"!

The importance of men, boats, fish, and their dogs

Proper snowman construction

Teaching them to make the finest pizza crust around

"Cool Dad" Job enables children to appreciate big engines and loud noises

Making sure your son caught his first fish while on his first trip "up nort"!

Teaching your son to enjoy the finer things in life, like walleye strips (and a Fitgers?!)

Your ability to squeeze a year's worth of chores into just a few weekends before deployment. Your Subaru thanks you, the new timing belt has made her feel like a new woman!

Your alien fish wishes you a Happy Father's Day and thanks you for releasing her back to spawn more alien monster fish.

Is this a sign of things to come? Your boys are going to keep you on your toes!

Your 2-Headed Dog misses you!

Know that we are sending hugs your way today and every day, but instead of thinking of you over there, we prefer to think of you like this...

... but this year can you please refrain from forgetting about bait that you had stashed in the back of the car? Thanks.

Happy Father's Day!

And a Happy 2nd Father's Day to my brother! You are a great dad, and I know Charlie loves having someone he can commiserate with now!

Happy Father's Day to All!

Love

Erin, Lochlann, Finnegan, "Marley" &"Sprocket"

Random Catch-Up

I have not fallen off the face of the earth, just been really busy! Hubby came home 3 days earlier than expected so that was a nice surprise for the kids. They were on another snow day so they were able to go with me down to the pier to pick him up. It always reminds me of the doors opening after school (on a massive scale) with everyone pouring out when the ship gets in, and it's funny watching the kids say "There he is!" 500-600 times, since they all look alike!

We spent one day just hanging out, went to dinner and did our bi-yearly stock up on socks & underwear for the kids and shoe shopping for mommy & daddy, yay! It sounds boring now that I am typing it, but it was kind of fun since we never do that kind of thing together, usually it's just me. Real "clothes shopping" is a rarity here, we detest malls. I haven't been to a mall in almost 2 years, and even that was just to get hubby's eyeglasses. I usually do my shopping either online at REI or at one of the local outdoor shops. You can tell I am not a clothes horse, I'm happy with a new pair of yoga pants or fleece top, LOL. Hubby couldn't find any shoes he liked that day but I got a new pair of those negative-heel rocker shoes. They are extremely ugly but are way comfortable and after walking in them all day cleaning house I felt like I had a workout! Now the trick is to remember not to walk in them out to the garden and get them all dirty! We also went to 2 local "real yarn stores", where hubby picked out some yarn and is crocheting a hat or something. I spent too much on yarn, but I will eventually use it. I'm still horrible at knitting, but I really like it!

We also went to a Habitat for Humanity store that was next door to the yarn store just to see what we could find. We now have a good source of old recycled windows if we ever get around to building a greenhouse! While we were excited over that, this is what Loch found and was excited about:

According to him "We NEED one of these, mom!" Apparently it's a space transporter of some kind. (He didn't believe me when I told him what it really was)

Not much happening on the seedling front. The Basil, Thyme, mystery seed, Artichoke and some Oriental Greens have sprouted, but most of the others say 15-25 days germination, and it appears they have every intention of sticking to that story!

Purple Romagna Artichoke

We heard a rumor that hubby's deployment is going to be moved back again, so we (I) decided that the bathroom needs to be remodeled NOW! It's the only room in the house that hasn't been stripped back to the studs and redone, and we have been waiting and waiting and waiting, since his schedule has not allowed it, and financially we were still recovering from the kitchen and the rest of the house (and kitchen in our rental next door!). I don't think the financial recovery is going to happen any time soon, but we are getting on with it despite! It bothers me that if we should have to sell due to a military move we will get talked down in price due to the 1978 bathroom that doesn't jive real well with the "Dwell" theme that's going on in the rest of the house, LOL. So on Saturday morning we went and bought our flooring and new toilet, and I ordered a full size shower unit that will replace the tub. I bought it online and ended up with free shipping and a discount and thus am only spending half of what it cost to special order it through a local big box store. Shipping is bonus, too, since the business is in D.C. it will be here in just 2-3 days. By Saturday afternoon, hubby was demo-ing the bathroom, good riddance, 1978!

Here is is before the demo started

Kids "helping"

Of course by Saturday evening, hubby was ready to rip out the floor and start replacing the sub-floor, and wouldn't you know it, another snow storm! So his plans to set up the saw and all the other stuff he needs outside will have to wait (we don't have a garage!). It started out with freezing rain, then by 2 pm the snow was coming down fast and blowing 40 mph winds.

The snow had just about all melted from last weekend, but here it comes again!

Marley after playing in the snow, I think her nostrils were packed full of it!

It struck me as I was driving down the section of road near our house how much it actually looks like I'm back home again! Very strange for our area.

Yesterday was a blur... late Saturday night Loch woke up sick. A stomach bug or some 24 hour virus, but he was vomiting all night which is really rare for him. So rare I think it scared him quite a bit. No fever, but just vomiting and tiredness. It was all gone by bedtime last night, but I stayed busy scrubbing everything in sight yesterday! Finn told me Loch was eating raw pizza dough Friday night as daddy was making pizzas, so that could be it, or it was just some quick virus. It's over now, thankfully! I went out and bought him a beanbag chair and called it "the sick room" since I wouldn't let him sit on the couch, is that mean? LOL

I expect to be pretty busy this week with the bathroom demo, baking Valentine's Day stuff for the kids' classes, and a trip to IKEA to get bathroom cabinets. I love IKEA, and buy just about everything there, but our IKEA is 3 hours away one direction up in D.C., so that's always a big trip that has to be perfectly planned out so I don't forget anything. I had planned to go this past Saturday, but the storm prevented me. I make the trip by myself so I don't have kids whining while I am trying to make sure I have all my cabinets and pieces, it's actually kind of relaxing spending 6 hours in the car by myself! And my husband LOVES that I go alone, since he never looks forward to any drive more than 20 minutes. I will try and keep updating at least with pics this week!

It started with a crash in the night...

Yes, a huge crash. At about 2 am! My laundry "area" shelves came crashing down... all of them. We have no "laundry room" and no garage, carport or anything that might suffice for any type of storage so these shelves literally contain the weight of our world on them. Needless to say, the next morning instead of starting my seeds we spent the day picking our world back up again. In a way, it was good that this happened since that very night my husband was due to leave on the ship at 7 pm. In military life, we have what is called "a Jody". Some of you may have heard of him, he is the guy who "takes care of" your wife/girlfriend while you are deployed. As crass as that is, it is the unfortunate truth for many servicemembers. Now, I don't have that kind of Jody nor will I. My Jody is the kind who stops by to leave a path of destruction whenever my hubby deploys. You name it, it has happened. Exploded water heater, broken heat pump, broken pipes, unexplained electrical burning smells, sliding glass door shattered, ceiling cave in from a leak, even a fence that blew away in a hurricane! We own a duplex, and live in one side and rent the other out....so you can take all that and multiply is by 2!! So I actually do consider myself lucky that Jody stopped by a day early so my hubby had time to fix my laundry shelves before he left. I have tried numerous times to break it off with Jody, but he won't hear of it. Deployment is coming soon, so I know he'll be back.

There is is, all fixed up again!

Daddy giving hugs as we dropped him off at the USS Truman

How have I lived 39 years and not known the joys of quiche? My kids love eggs so I can pretty much put anything in there and they will most likely taste it. Here's my first quiche, and it qualifies as a garden dinner since I used frozen peppers, little grape tomatoes I had frozen, and fresh chopped leeks. Yum! Now I know what I can do with all those eggs once we get chickens, my kids would eat eggs every day if they had their way. I hear these freeze well, anyone have advice on that? I would love to make these ahead of time for homemade convenience food in the freezer.

So anyways, being the OCD person that I am, the laundry shelving incident lit a fire under me to start reorganizing the house and throwing stuff away. I am definitely not a hoarder, but there are always things taking up space that need to be tossed. Hmmm, for example, the 5 black floor length evening dresses in a size 3 from a prior life that are still hanging in my closet? Yeah, them's not 'gonna fit and nowhere to wear them, LOL. Time to face facts, I am a mommy and chase 2 boys around in my standard uniform of yoga pants and a t-shirt everyday, and they are definitely not a size 3... so out they go! I started my early Spring cleaning by completely emptying out all my cupboards and in an OCD fashion started wiping everything down and putting stuff back in. This took me a whole day and a morning... for what? It looks exactly the same as before. I am not a magician, not sure what I thought I was to gain from this, but at least it's one less thing swimming around my head.

Now here's where things get even crazier...

Yes, that's a gazillion pots I washed by hand. I had all my stuff in the shed since last spring so I felt the need to get all the dirt out before I start filling them with dirt again????? Someone please tell me A&E is going to do a show for the opposite of hoarders, and then please sign me up!

As nutso as the gazillion pots look, they all condense down into this neat little stack!

A makeshift clothesline to dry my trays. I think the neighbors were watching this one.

Which brings us to the seed starting! Finally, tomorrow it's going down. I am starting them in the kitchen this time on top of a large cabinet my husband built. It was actually a stand for our 100 gal aquarium, but I got rid of that and now it is our storage area for homebrewing supplies, bottles and keg stuff. This is in keeping with my belief that every item in my house must serve at least 2 purposes in order to be able to stay! There was already a shelf above that worked perfectly for hanging my lights from. So all is ready. I have made my list of seeds to start tomorrow, mostly herbs for now, and will start the messy task tomorrow morning. I just realized that hubby has been gone for several days now and time is flying by since I have been keeping so busy. This time is a breeze, only a couple of weeks, and I hope that the summer garden craziness will make the long upcoming deployment fly by.

By the way, unless you live in New Orleans, you need to show your loyalty to me by rooting for the Vikings tomorrow. Go Vikes!! :) :)

One More Hour To Go...

First, let's get this morning's harvest out of the way:

Now, on to more fun stuff!

I had a few minutes, so here are some pics taken today. With Hurricane Bill churning up the surf for us, I took the kids out for a hike through the refuge out to the beach, in hopes of tiring them out! See, Daddy comes home tonight and the kids have been driving me crazy for the past 2 days asking every hour when are we picking him up! Tiring them out didn't work, but at least we were able to pass the morning hours quickly. We made it home just in time since the rest of the afternoon brought torrential downpours, severe lightning, and street flooding. It was hot this morning, and the kids managed to hike about 1 1/2 miles total. My kids are either awesome hikers or I am a terrible mother, lol! We brought plenty of water and a picnic lunch (all carried by me, I might add!) and saw plenty of wildlife along the hike to make it interesting. Although the beaches are all closed to swimmers now due to Bill churning the waters from afar, the surfers are out in full strength and we are looking forward to some good surf fishing tomorrow if it's not pouring. Daddy's car is already packed and ready, so I am sure for the next few days I will not be posting unless something earth-shattering-gotta-tell-everyone happens! We are looking forward to spending some time having fun before he leaves AGAIN in September, lol!

Gotta run now, kids are bouncing off the walls and Daddy's flight lands in 45 minutes, yay! A month is a long time to wait when you have kids, lol!

Back from our "Staycation"...

We actually started our staycation 2 days before Daddy was set to return from sea. It was a bit like the movie 'Office Space' where he announces that he doesn't really like working and "I don't think I'm going to go anymore"... Truthfully, I was over the single mom thing and couldn't wait for the reinforcement troops to sail in (literally) and give me a break! We have a state parks pass so I figured we would use it at our local state park and go to the beach. This was pretty cool since it's on the Chesapeake Bay and the kids can see Daddy's aircraft carrier, the USS Truman, go by bigger than life about 3 hours before he gets to the piers and we go to pick him up. In past years, this has become pretty routine, non-exciting stuff for me but now that the kids are a little older it is so fun to see them get excited and see things through their eyes. Of course, in their eyes the pirates Daddy is out hunting down are of the Blackbeard "aargh!" variety and the Carrier is just like "Top Gun", lol... I envy them and their un-jaded view of the world...oh, to be 5 again!

Anyway, me-the mom who hates to sit on the beach- actually bought a bunch of sand toys, umbrella, and a beach chair and headed out. Here's Finn at the State Park excited upon seeing the first of the small boats going by belonging to Daddy's battle group.

This is a pretty bad picture, but if you look in the left center of the horizon, you can see a Navy Destroyer, this was just one of the several smaller ships that precede the carrier coming in. (Lame, I didn't get a picture of the carrier - bad mom!)

Not sure what's going on here.

So it turns out the beach isn't so bad after all...I forgot how much cooler it is at the shore, and an umbrella helped! Now if the kids could just be older so I can trust them around the water I could actually read a book! I took one with me and laid it in the sand next to my chair to give myself "the illusion" of relaxing, but in reality was watching my kids in the surf like a hawk.

After Daddy got home, we had a great outdoor lunch at a restaurant on the water and gorged on crabcakes and grilled tuna sandwiches, Daddy also got his homecoming/late Father's Day gifts of a new Leatherman Skeletool and some tactical looking flashlight. My husband is a "geardo" so he was overjoyed, showing the kids "Look, this light is for night vision, etc, etc". You would think he would get tired of it all, but he loves his job and gets downright giddy when faced with a new tactical "toy"! After lunch, it was back to the beach where we remained off and on for the next 5 days, lol! Sailor/Husband also got some new surf fishing gear, so even after a day at the beach, we would head back out after dinner to fish. All this jived pretty well with the garden, since due to the "Minnesota Summer" we have been having my first tomatoes aren't even ripe yet, so my garden is kind of on autopilot right now until the fruits start to ripen, giving me some extra time. Even if we could afford a big vacation this year, we have no time since Sailor/Husband is leaving again in 2 weeks!

This pic shows what it's been like this summer so far: the Ziploc bag of my husband's toiletries never gets unpacked since he's always on his way out! It's like he's a visitor to his own home...I am waiting for him to start knocking on the door instead of opening it with his key, lol!

Finn with Daddy

Finn and Loch digging for crabs

We headed to the beach on base to await fireworks for the 4th of July. Finn is digging to China, of couse.

Not sure what waves Finnegan plans on surfing here, but he's got "the board carry" down pat!

Here's Marley obsessing over her frisbee. She has become quite the disc dog since she came to live with us, but has never played in the wind on the beach in the sand...it was all a bit much for her and I thought she might have a nervous breakdown out there!

We are actually headed out crabbing today - then it's back to the garden! I find that I usually avoid the beach like the plague during tourist season, but am slowly rediscovering the good things about living here that I often take for granted. Plus, it tires the kids out! I am, however, getting really tired of sweeping sand up from everywhere, and the inside of the car looks like a sand dune! Oh, and before I go...here's a mental smell for you...my husband left a plastic bucket in the Outback with some rotting squid bait in it...I got in the car the next day, and....ugh! Yep, Daddy's back, alright!

Children...

I would just love to know what Loch's kindergarten teacher thinks of our family...here's a great moment caught on tape! Loch came home with a picture he drew in class of the homebrewing process, so I had him explain the drawing to me on video to capture the moment for daddy. He drew in great detail the primary & secondary fermenters, spigot, hops, capping, etc! While I am mortified, my husband is probably busy showing the clip to everyone on board his ship and beaming with pride in his son's detailed tutorial...

And this evening, I was able to put a child to work retrieving some creamer that was all the way at the back of the shelf - take a good long look, it's not often I can refer to a 4 year old as helpful!

That's all for tonight, I intended to take some pics of the garden, but it was a bit overcast this afternoon so it will have to wait for tomorrow. And yay!- more severe t-storm crawlers on the tv right now, for like the 7th day in a row! My plants need SUN, not more rain and hail!