A Wedding, a Bit of Confusion and the Summer is Over

I suppose the summer is drawing to a close. The public schools have started back and I am just beginning to see a tinge of red in a few leaves on the Bradford Pear tree that waves to our bedroom window each day.

We rounded out our very busy summer with an annual New Hampshire visit. This year we journeyed in August so that our trip would coincide with my sister-in-law's wedding.

Stacey Elizabeth Holland married Christopher Joseph on Saturday, August 2, 2008 on Bear Island in Meredith, NH. What a beautiful bride and a beautiful wedding!

But, I must admit that the ceremony's procedure created a bit of temporary confusion in our four-year-old's mind - Let me explain....

Setting: The lake side home of Barney and Bettyanne Holland, bright flowers adorn every walkway and the weather is pleasantly warm and sunny. Sunshine filters through the pines and the water sparkles.

Scene: Standing on a prominent rock, about 3-feet over the guests are the groom and his best man. The wedding music plays as the wedding party walks down a path. First, toddler Henry is lead by his daddy and brings flowers to the mother of the bride and of the groom. Next appear the two lovely flower girls, Elora Holland and her cousin Erin. They are followed by two young ring bearers, 7-year-old Corbin and 4-year-old Jacob.

The boys took their job of carrying the rings very seriously. Corby told them that if they dropped the rings, Aunt Stacey would not be able to get married. We were so happy that all of our children could participate in their aunt's wedding!

Next appears the matron of honor holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers. (Yes, I was the matron of honor but I still can't get over the word matron. It just sounds so....well, you can imagine!.) Last, the radiant bride is escorted by her father and the wedding begins.

The rock we were standing on was very large, probably more than 100 square feet of surface area, so there was plenty of room to stand on, but I must admit that during the ceremony I was mostly concentrating on not falling. The rock was pretty uneven and you know I just had to wear those cute little bronze heels instead of hiking boots which would have given me a lot more traction!

Despite my balancing act, I still got a little emotional when Stacey echoed "Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay." Even now the words move me.

Back to the wedding:

The ceremony is complete and the bride and groom kiss. He escorts her down the rock.

Here is the tricky part.

The best man (Chris' friend Dave) turns and takes the matron of honor's arm (that's me) and he escorts her down the rock and follows the bride and groom. The guests are excited, but as the wedding party departs they quiet. Just at that moment the four-year-old exclaims, rather loud for all to hear -

"Did Mommy just marry another man?!?"

Poor Jacob! Could he have really thought I was getting married too! Needless to say, there were many helpful and somewhat snickering family members to help clear-up his confusion.

Despite my failed attempt to acquire a second husband (darn-it), we really enjoyed our little vacation. It was a great way to close a busy summer of swim-team and home repairs. Now it's on to soccer and school.

A Very Busy Summer So Far

It's been well over a month since my last post, but we have been very busy and we remain extremely so!

In early May we spent a wonderful week meeting and visiting with my father's side of the family in Destin, Florida. The beach was beautiful and the kids loved playing in the ocean, but none of that compared to the precious time we were able to spend with family from all over the country. Who would have guessed that so many people who had never met would have so much in common and be so much alike! In the end we all went our separate ways, but I hope our reunion becomes a regular event because we miss everyone dearly.

As soon as we returned home we jumped back into Corbin's baseball season with a game the day after our drive. Uncle V. arrived a few days later for a week long stay and Elora's dance recital. The recital went very well and I was impressed by many of the dancers' abilities. This is our first year participating in the evening performance, so there were even adult dancers in some of the classes.

After our company departed for Pennsylvania, with dance class wrapped-up and baseball coming to a close we moved into the summer swim team season. This year we have two swimmers, but unfortunately the practice daily at two different times! Needless to say, I typically spend all of my weekday mornings at the pool.

While the kids focus on their sports and activities, Corby and I are working hard to fix-up our rental house in order to sell it.

People warned us that renters will trash your house but we were not prepared for some of the strange and destructive things they did to our property. Were these people crazy? I think they were trying to re-mulch our flower beds with cigarette butts and cat litter! Gross!!

We have spent every spare hour painting over nail polish marks on the walls and ripping-up pet stained and smelly carpet. We did get quotes from handymen and painters, but needless to say, nothing saves money like doing it yourself....yay.

On top of all of this, Corby committed himself way back, early in the spring, to a Shakespeare on the Mountain theater production, and because his performances start next weekend, practices are almost every night.

This all stand to reason why the PB&J Chronicles have been a little quiet, but I hope to squeeze in some blogging time this summer so keep checking for updates!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

We are all trying to get back into our normal routine this morning after spending last week in Florida, camping and visiting Disney World. We all had a wonderful vacation; thank-you to Grandma and Grandpa Holland for the perfect Christmas gift!

Eight of us shared a campsite in the Disney park at their Fort Wilderness and we visited 3 of their 4 theme parks: Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. The weather was beautiful, the crowds were light, the lines were short and the food was delicious (just ask my bathroom scale!).

Now I am beginning the difficult task of getting everything back into functioning order here at home. The kids have resumed their schoolwork this morning and there is swim practice and theater later this afternoon. There was very little downtime during our holiday break and this morning I have had to hit the ground running despite feeling a little groggy and hungover from the excess of fun and relaxation.

Here are some pictures from our visit. Enjoy!

Corby and the kids ride to the swimming pool with Grandma

We were surprised by how much Henry loved the Disney Characters

Grandpa and Elora riding the bus back to camp for the little boys' naptime.The boys wait for the Epcot fireworks showI think the little boys ended up riding this over 10 times.All the kids loved Thunder Mountain Railroad, although Jacob did not want to ride it again because it was too wild. (click this photo for a better look at Jacob's expression!)

My Family Spent The Night in Reagan Int'l And All I Got Was This Lousy Blanket!

Well folks, we are finally home!

As always, our yearly vacation to New Hampshire was a wonderful retreat. Despite very little swimming weather, we still managed to have fun canoeing, kayaking, hiking, jet skiing and (of course) cooking s'mores by the campfire.

But our time spent in transit was far from pleasant, and kicked hard against the border of misery.

On our flight out we connected in Charlotte, NC. Although the first flight from Nashville was easy, the connection flight trapped everyone helplessly on-board only to alert us minutes before departing that we would be taxiing back to the runway for maintenance. Seems that one of the engines wouldn't start and it would be 45 minutes to install a new starter. I balked at the idea of waiting a extra 45 minutes in a plane with four children. How horrible!!! I was more than a little steamed when we arrived, but was able begin our vacation in fairly good spirits.

Little did I know that this was just a small, dainty appetizer of discomfort preceding the gut wrenching experience of our returning flight home.

Yesterday, we boarded our return flight in Boston aimed at our connection in Washington D.C. at Reagan International. I should have guessed bad things were ahead when the flight attendant rudely commented that my baby was disturbing too many passengers. I must admit that our 18-month-old only has 2 volume settings, quiet and spine-tingling, shrill scream, but honestly, what did she suggest I do? So I asked her "What do you suggest I do?", I think that this response took the young, obviously childless, woman back and her smug look melted into defenseless puzzlement. A few moments later we had an ample supply of airplane snacks and thus, he was much quieter.

Nearer to Reagan, we were informed that lightening had struck the building and their communications were out. No alarm, the pilot planned to just circle the airport patiently until....

We ran out of fuel.

(Or at least we nearly did.) We had to leave Washington to fly to our back-up landing location for a refill. I still don't understand why, but our designated back-up was in New York at Laguardia Airport. This was going from bad to worse! This airport is notorious for delays.

Refueled and ready to fly, we quickly proceeded to the tarmac to begin our three hour wait for take-off. The pilot informed us that the weather had prevented a slew of flights from taking off and landing. I imagine our plane was of little overall significance, but it sure felt significant to us and to every other traveler within earshot of the screaming, whining, jumping, arguing and crying of our four tired, hungry and trapped children!

We arrived at Washington at a 7:50pm, seven hours after initially boarding the plane. For a few brief minutes when we entered the airport, I had hope that there might be a remaining flight out that we could catch, unfortunately the departure screen revealed nothing. We were stuck, along with hundreds of other travelers.

Because the kids had not had anything to eat since noon and because every vendor was beginning to close, we hastily found a restaurant and ate. Every US Airways ticket counter radiated lines of stranded businessmen, grandmothers, college students and families. Everyone was desperate to get where they were going. And, to top it all off, there would be no vouchers because all of this was attributed to weather.

We avoided the lines and called the 800 number, our flight would leave at 8:40 am and we would sleep at the airport until then.

Few people know that a magical thing happens in the middle of the night at an airport. When the clock strikes midnight a khaki-colored fairy driving an electrically powered cart visits the marooned travelers that are tucked into every chair and quiet corner. This fairy bestows blue bundled gifts that are unfolded to reveal the warmth and softness of polyester fleece. The piles of stranded sleepers become uniformed in their appearance of rolling mounds of new fallen snow.

Cuddly, bright blue polyester snow.

Beautiful.

We made our morning flight and soon were home. We have 5 blue blankets to show from our journey, plus the miserable memories of heinous travel.

*sigh*

To end on a positive note, here are some pictures of the kids at the lake. (Click to enlarge)

DVD Players in Cars May Be Leading Kids in the Wrong Direction

A few years ago a mommy friend of mine, lets call her Janice, purchased a brand-new Toyota Sienna. Complete with an "I'm a Soccer Mom" magnet, this gold colored van had the most luxurious trim package with leather seats, electric remote-controlled everything, and a DVD player for the kids in the backseat.

Standing in the parking lot after girl scouts, I would watch Janice as she would buckle in her four kids, carelessly flick on a video and peacefully pull away in the impenetrable silence of mesmerized children. Perhaps I was a bit envious as I drove home amongst the bickering and incessant whining that accompanies four children crammed into a 1990 MPV (probably the smallest minivan ever!).

Unfortunately our quaint little MPV met its ill-fated demise last fall and we decided to take the $380 per-month plunge into a new van. We went in knowing that we could only afford the very cheapest, most basic trim, and since the DVD combo was a $3000 add on only available in the highest trim, I resigned myself to more driving under the influence of frustration and aggravation due to travel-tired kids.

(Actually, I secretly enjoy our drives together, and traveling affords us more time to talk, play games, and sing together. It really isn't that bad.)

Video entertainment using VCRs was first installed in minivans in the late 90's and factory installed DVD players were released in 2002. Because of this, many kids are growing-up without experiencing the "Are we there yet?" blues, and most parents probably think that is a good thing,

unless...

On Friday one of my daughter's teenage swim coaches confided in me that she was nervous about getting her driver's license. She relayed countless horror stories experienced by many of her friends about getting dramatically lost (for example, trying to drive to the mall and ending up in TN). She said that she wasn't too worried though because she never had a DVD player in her parents' car. I asked her if that made a difference and she said "yeah" (as if!).

It seems that a whole generation of driving teenagers are emerging without any sense of direction. The car was always just an extension of the living room, a magical portal that somehow got them from here to there.

On heightened awareness of my kids' directional capabilities, I let them tell me which turns to make to get us home from Huntsville, and with the exception of our three-year-old who still doesn't know left from right, they knew the way perfectly.

(He actually knew the way home too, I just had to look in the rear-view mirror to tell which right his little finger was pointing toward.)

I guess those parents who are now appreciating peaceful driving thanks to a screen in the backseat are really only exchanging it for the peace of knowing that your teenage kids will be able to navigate their own car a few years later.

Perhaps it is just as well, the directionless children who are used to watching Sponge Bob while driving to the grocery store will have no problem watching a GPS direct them to that same grocery store when they are old enough to drive.

**I found the photo above online, none of the children are my kids or kids we know.