Life – Fly Through Our Window

67 In Life

Soaking It In

We love it here.

This is my excuse for not being here on the blog more. If you’ve ever been to Baldwin County, AL then you probably get it. Fall is my favorite season at the beach, the crowds are gone, the humidity has subsided, and the water is still warm! We have simply been soaking in our surroundings, and soaking up living together as a family. I find myself often thanking God that we are all together, and that I’m not alone at the brown house like I was last year. I’m so thankful that Justin’s here for dinner, boat rides and Little House before bed… active and involved in the lives of his children. It’s vital for them, and me.

The girls are doing great at school and love to go. Paige {our shy little one} received the Principal’s Award for Leadership in her class for the first 9 weeks of school and very non-nonchalantly told me she had to miss “centers” to receive her award in the principal’s office. Rover is loving his new preschool and talks about his teacher like she’s his best friend… he can’t wait to tell her things, and show her things! They are growing up overnight! Morgan has become a great reader and her front teeth are hanging in there only by a thread.

September was busy, just like the other months! It seems as though the weekends we are here we have company and the other weekends we’ve been on the road, either back to the brown house or to see friends & family. And the weeks in between have been filled with more visitors, homework, field trips, dentist appointments and school functions. Life has been full… in a good way!

Early in September we made our way to Erika & Chance’s to celebrate with Sloane… 2 precious little years of life! Momma Sissy throws a sweet party, Uncle Chance can come up with some super fun games, and Mom and Daddy Boy were there for extra dose of love… including DB taking Rover down the Matchbox aisle at the local Walmart!

We returned to the beach and had the pleasure of having Justin’s mom for a few days. It was such a treat to have her here and share the daily routine with her, which included a field trip to the fire station with 25 little Dalmatians! Paige’s teacher is so kind, patient, and resourceful! Those spotted shirts are being used for the next field trip, but the children are turning each little dot into a spider!

We also worked in a sunset boat cruise with Justin’s mom, and a sunset dinner bay-side.

Another perk of living at the beach is seeing long lost friends that happen to be vacationing here! We have had the pleasure of seeing lots of folks, and unfortunately we’ve missed several opportunities to see others! The week Justin’s mom left we had 8 adults and 12 {very young children} for dinner! It was an Auburn reunion of sorts {or you could say we had the Fiji’s over for dinner}… the Nebrigs, Wingfields, & Wilsons joined us for a wild night of chasing little ones, catching up, and food! It was so much fun! I’m so sad I didn’t get a group picture, or at least one of all the children!

If any of you knew or know Jared Wingfield, you will not be surprised that he came through with the entertainment for the evening… which just so happened to be dry ice. I tend to be a little more particular than letting the children play with dry ice but he proved me wrong and they all were safe and loved it! I do believe they had a little pep talk along the lines of “don’t touch it”!

I love little boys!

{Thanks, Meg for the pictures!}

Last weekend we hit the road again… this time for a little R&R for myself with two of the most wonderful girlfriends a girl could ever hope for. Justin took the kids to the brown house and I headed to PCB with Lindsey & Abby. We had PERFECT weather, and we embraced 2 mottos for the weekend: “every man for himself” {as in we fed no one but ourselves and cleaned up after no one but ourselves}, and “let’s be sure to finish off that chocolate peanut butter cake” {that speaks for itself}!

Saturday night we savored every bite of food poolside at Caliza… and enjoyed the atmosphere as much as the food. Here are my precious friends… I love them! We had the most wonderful time and lots of laughs!

Erika met us there… here’s one of us on the other side of the table.

We decided that these type weekends need to be on the calendar at least every other month! 🙂 Thank you girls for a weekend of restoration & relaxation, and for your help with those notebooks!!!!

As I mentioned, our weeks have been busy with the same things that your weeks are probably busy with… like dentist appointments, myself included.

I took the kids to Daphne last week to see Michael Nebrig {ps- I love that my college friends are now professionals. It was fun to share with the kids that Dr. Nebrig gave Erika and I our dog Eufaby when we were juniors in college, now he’s our dentist}. Everyone got a clear bill of health… except the Rover, he has to have a little filling in a couple weeks.

His office is fabulous and I know he has his sweet & talented wife Krista to thank for that… I’m not sure what Morgan is doing in this picture… interpretive dance?! See that black binder on the coffee table? It’s full of pictures of people with bad teeth who miraculously receive good teeth by going to the dentist. I scared the kids to death showing them what would happen if they didn’t brush their teeth, I’ll spare you.

Speaking of teeth. I’m getting braces today on my bottom teeth. Insert fear, trembling and a new family investment in Advil and wax… and maybe a water pick.

I also got busted photographing these “teeth” while having my consultation with my new orthodontist. I played it off ok. I’m hoping for a sweet Auburn colored retainer when the torture is over with… in 6 months, he says. Today is October 5th we’ll see if they’re off April 5th.

This brings me to this past weekend…

Our dear friends, the Stanfords, came for the weekend to visit. We were graced with the most perfect weather which meant lots of boat time, island time, and even a morning at the trails!

When they left we were all so very sad. Many tears were shed and the kids begged for them to come back. We’re hoping to make it happen again before it gets too chilly!

A few more random things before I scoot…

Paige is learning to tie her shoes in kindergarten… so I bought her a pair of shoes with laces, thinking she’d be so excited. No, she was completely devastated because she didn’t know how to tie them. I worked with her for 30 minutes to an hour, but she was so hysterical that she couldn’t do it she told me she’d never wear them. I tried really hard to explain that it would take her time to learn, that she wasn’t expected to get it the first day. Isn’t it funny when you think things will be fun and exciting and then they are received so polar opposite? I had her wear them to school today, but as you can imagine she wasn’t thrilled. Anyone know why these chucks have 2 tongues? Are you supposed to fold one down?

Last night I set the little Rover up on the deck for a trim, and then I used my scissors to turn him into a big boy.

Then I wanted to glue the hair back on his head! 🙂

Ok, gotta scoot… I’d hate to be late to the orthodontist! We have a big weekend coming up. We’re going by boat to Fairhope/Point Clear to meet Erika, Chance, & Sloane! Should be an adventure to say the least! We keep reminding ourselves that we won’t always have these opportunities so we’re taking full advantage!

October 5, 2011

48 In Life/ tshirts

Good-Bye Rain, Hello Sun & Honey Bee Tees

It has been an absolutely beautiful week with lots of sunshine and cooler temps. The kids have had a blast on their bikes and Rover and I have put lots of miles on the stroller this week.

The Rover’s absolute favorite thing to do these days is line up all his Matchbox cars on the porch table. It has a rippled glass top so it’s extra loud, a bonus feature according to him. He drives cars on that table all day long. He goes back and forth between lining them up and organizing them by color. He’s very passionate about these cars and when he grows up, he’s “going to be a race car man”.

The girls are goofy and like to teach him random things… for instance when he does something that requires that he say, “Excuse me,” the girls have taught him that it is proper to say, “Excuse me, pack mule!” I mean, honestly, where on earth do they come up with these things!?

We opted for dinner “to go” on the boat on Wednesday night and found ourselves marveling in the beauty of this place. We know it’s a temporary home for our family and we are trying to take full advantage of what it has to offer. We find ourselves continually thankful for the opportunity to live among the Herons, Osprey, and Otters! Yes, Otters… we watched one eat a fish one morning this week on the bulkhead!

Here’s our little pack mule… calling daddy on the alligator tail.

We parked, ate our dinner and watched the sun go down…

And as the sun faded away Morgan and Justin drove us safely home.

To wrap up this week we’re headed to Sister’s to celebrate Sloane’s 2nd Birthday and it’s hard to say who’s more excited about Sloane’s birthday, Sloane or Rover. We’re all pumped because Mom & Daddy Boy will be there. We hope Daddy Boy will arrive safely because he bought an old Jeep Grand Wagoneer and flew to Miami to pick it up, and is driving it 11 hours to Erika’s house. Only Daddy Boy could plan up something as crazy as that. Let’s hope he doesn’t roll in on a tow truck. Speaking of tow trucks…

Honey Bee Tees has just been restocked for fall and in the mix are a few new designs… one of which is none other than an old tow truck! Lindsey snapped a picture of Grady {pictured below} acting squirrely in his new tow truck tee! The simple little tow truck is printed on a “rust” colored shirt.

Also new:

Long-sleeved Tee Pees
Long-Sleeved Off to the Bay
Long-Sleeved Happy Camper
Long-Sleeved Owl-o-ween {& short-sleeved too!}
Short-Sleeved Footballs {in NAVY, WHITE, or GREY}
and new… Busy Bags in small & large!

Grady is the middle child of our dear friends, Lindsey & Steven. Lindsey has been so kind to hold down the fort for me back at Honey Bee Tees headquarters, after my friend Tami entered retirement earlier this month. Lindsey and Steven, and their three children came to visit for a few days back in July and I never got a chance to post about our weekend with them. This is a picture of me and Lindsey on the dock before dinner one night. If you email or have questions about your orders, Lindsey will be in charge in my absence, handling the emails, orders, and shipment of your tees a few days a week… and that’s in addition to managing a household of 5 and homeschooling her children! She’s super organized and already has my inbox whipped into shape! She’s also a precious friend to me and I’m so thankful for her friendship and her help.

Headquarters is also in the process of being relocated to the almost finished, newly remodeled garoffice. Our detached three-car garage back at the brown house has been overhauled, heated and cooled, and painted. New lights and insulated doors with windows have all been installed and before too long Honey Bee Tees will fill it up! I served as the general contractor those 4 weeks I was home this summer. Just as soon as a few more things are in we’ll officially “relocate”! I snapped a quick picture before I headed back to the beach to show the progress. The three lights along the back wall will be above a kitchenette, behind the double doors to the right is a sitting room/playroom for kids and a full bathroom is behind the white floor fan. I’m so thankful we had this space and I’m even more thankful that Lindsey allowed me to sell everything that was in my garage at her yard sale.

Back to the t-shirts… this fall I’ve decided to switch manufacturers for the long-sleeved tees and this has brought a slight price increase with the long-sleeved tees but these {by Monag} are premium shirts, super soft and fit more true to size than the ones I used last year. So, if you were ordering up on long-sleeved tees last year, there’s no need to do that anymore!

Here are the busy bags. They really are great to fill with crayons, notepads, stickers, little books, snacks, treats, Matchbox cars… anything to keep children occupied! We take one on our walk with us and before we go I fill it with little things to keep Rover occupied while we walk… he loves it! They’re simple little cotton drawstring bags and they come in two sizes! They would also be cute as a gift with a Honey Bee Tee tucked inside. They come in large {8×10″} or small {4×6″}.

He was a little under the weather this morning on our walk {w/ a mouth full of graham cracker} but graciously held up his bag so I could snap a picture!

Ok, I think that’s it… hope you all have wonderful weekends!

September 9, 2011

36 In Life

Relentless Lee and Fish

I’m extremely happy to report that it has stopped raining at our house. After 4 long days {& nights} of nothing but torrential rain, strong wind and thunderstorms, I believe, according to what Justin tells me, Tropical Storm Lee has finally moved on. We hunkered down, battened down the hatches Friday, and rode it out with our sofa pulled up to the sliding glass door for a front row seat at what proved to be a show like we’ve never seen before.

I took this Friday and texted it to my friend Abby, explaining that this weekend probably wasn’t going to be the best to come for a visit, and I was right. It went from bad to worse and the water was so high it completely covered our dock by Sunday morning. Thankfully, it would go up and down a little with the tide, but not much. We busied ourselves inside with books, homemade kites, PBSkids.org, drawings and coffee… all while keeping an eye on our “backyard”.

Thankfully, the lightening didn’t strike the child in the stroller, just popped the balloon. Sometimes I have to ask for a little clarification.

The water in the bay came clear up to the top of the bulkhead {seawall} and crashed over it… do you remember when I showed you how shallow the water is near the dock in this picture?

It’s amazing what 4 days of straight rain can do…

This is where Justin was standing in ankle-deep water earlier this summer…

Thankfully, we never lost power, just sleep. With little to block the wind ripping off the bay it sounded like a train was blowing through our house for the last three nights. We are thankful to be on the other side of it now and hope it just provides rain to those to who need it and nothing worse.

Last weekend was a different story, weather wise. We had so many beautiful days in a row and many sunrises that looked like this…

Rover’s Ray Bans are $5 from Target, my children aren’t to be trusted with name brand shades yet, we just call them his “Ray Bans”!

Justin had an opportunity to go deep sea fishing last week for a few days with a group of guys from his office. He had a great time and came home with the motherload of Yellow Fin Tuna, Black Fin Tuna, and Amber Jack. The kids and I met him at the marina as the boat was pulling in last Saturday, and it was an exciting and new experience for us all.

This is one of him on the boat with a BIG {70+ lb} Amber Jack. They were fishing near oil rigs off the LA shore. And he managed to keep all hooks out of his hand this go. The treble hook in his hand {in the last post} had to be “surgically” removed. All three hooks were past the barb and then one hook got accidentally “lost” when it was snipped off premature of pushing the point with the barb through… a little more “digging” with a scalpel and an x-ray and they found the missing hook. Somehow there was a miscommunication and Justin thought the stitches would dissolve. They were graciously cut out by a friend 2 weeks later than they should have been, and now we are still “retrieving” stitches from his hand. I will spare you photographs post-hook removal!

When we got to the marina the kids hopped on the boat before the guys could even get off. It was a very cool operation to watch unfold. And a very sweet, very large boat with enough room for the entire crew, plus eleven guys to stay comfortably at sea from a Thursday to a Saturday.

I stood right here by the “wheelbarrows” where the fish were being thrown and found myself wiping fish blood and juice off my arms, legs, and camera before I decided to move.

The deck hands unload the fish, stage it for photographs and then clean it all and bag it…

They would toss scraps/carcasses into the water behind the cleaning table, and the salt water catfish would go absolutely nuts. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen or heard before… they were ravenous.