Monica and Michael

I know, I know this is a classic saying my Grandmother used to always say to me..."when life seems to be crazy and out of control...always make sure to make time to stop and smell the roses."  Well this week we did just that.
 
You see we were empty nesters this week. My parents took Mack and Marissa to Myrtle Beach for the week.  Can you already see me doing my happy dance?!  Yes that's right no kiddos and no big kiddos (sorry Mom and Dad) in the house all week!  It was like being on a second honeymoon!
 
I took off a couple of days at the beginning of the week. Let's see we went out to dinner Sunday, slept late on Monday, ordered chinese for dinner, slept late on Tuesday, met up with some friends for wine tasting at a new wine bar that just opened up, slept late on Wednesday, I talked to my best friend on the phone for an hour...wow there are so many things I hadn't told her in my emails....it was nice to catch up with her....treated ourselves to a dozen steamed crabs and steamed shrimp...yummo...and today yep you guessed it...we slept late....and tonight we are heading to DE to have dinner with friends and then go to the Cowtown Rodeo.  Oh and I forgot to mention we watched TV without interruption! HAHA...Oh and I didn't have 20 kids running through the backyard and looking for juice boxes every other minute! Yeah we are enjoying our freedom and the quietness. In a guilty kind of way it is nice to have a break from the everyday routine.
 
The family comes home late Sunday night.  I have talked to the kids almost every day...love the pics they have been sending on the cell phone...and I can't wait to see the video from their vacation and hear all the stories of all the fun they had this week.  Of course no phone conversation can end without the kids asking me to put the phone up to Peanut's ear so they can say hi to the dog! Freaks her out every time! And I think they miss her just as much as they miss us.  It has been a very rejuvinating week for us. But I am ready for the kids to come home.  I have missed them like crazy.  And when they come home we are gonna head to Ocean City next week for a couple of days of fun in the sun, just the four of us.
 
So I really think my Grandmother was on to something when she gave me this advice.  I'm glad Michael and I had this time to stop and do some things we normally don't make the time to do. I highly reccomend it!
 
Monica

Yes it is true I finally took the time to update the gallery.
 
Pictures from Easter, graduations, baseball and summer so far are added. Enjoy!
 
Monica

We went back to the river today....did not forget the camera this time.......and sure enough 5 minutes after we got there Marissa had her first fish.........she ended up with three for the day.....Mack pulled in three himself......Daddy got six......Pop Pop (Monica's Dad) came along with us today poor guy could not get a fish on his hook all day........that is until he asked Marissa to hold his fishing rod for him.....she immediately started reeling it in....He said "don't pull it in".....and she replied "but I got one" and sure enough she did. 
 
Guess she will be getting that rod of her own for her birthday.
 
Notice the look on Mack's face in the background.......don't think he likes lil sister showing him up
  
 

Mack got a new fishing reel for Christmas and has been dying to try it out.....So yesterday I went out and got my fishing license and we headed down to Mariner Point Park......Marissa has never been fishing before but she asked if she could join us.....At first she wanted her own rod but I convinced her to share with me until she got the hang of it..........we put Marissa's chair right up next to mine on the pier.....Monica had warned me before we left that I would be in trouble if she fell in.......I baited my hook, cast it out and showed Marissa how to hold it...and feel the vibrations on the line for the fish...and then I turned to help Mack get his new Rod and Reel set up.......I don't think Marissa's worm was wet more than 2 secounds when She anounced "I got one"......"not that fast honey it takes some time".....and I went back to Macks rod......when Mack stopped me "Dad , look at her line I think she is right".......Sure enough see had caught her first fish a four inch sunny.......she posed with it but would not touch it....I didn't bring a camera but tried to take a pic with my phone only I forgot to hit save.....Monica would later scream at me for this mistake......after we threw him back Marissa looked at me and said "Dad this is not so hard I am ready for my own rod"
It was a good day we stayed out there for several hours......Marissa caught 3 for the day....her pace slowed some but she wants to go back.......Mack caught 6 including a nice size bass....which I also forgot to save the pic of......Oh and I caught 5 fish  myself........they made me stay till we were out of bait

Okay I really stink at this blogging thingy.  There have been so many great moments over the passed few months I want to tell you about.

Marissa completed her jazz classes with a recital in early May. "High School Musical" was the theme.  She did great and did not miss a step.  A very proud moment for us.  We greeted her with a bouquet of flowers when she came off stage.

Both Mack and Marissa were graduates this spring.  Marissa graduated from pre-school in May and Mack graduated from elementary school in June.  Marissa's ceremony was very sweet.  She even wore a graduation cap!  The class sang 10 songs and then each child was presented with a certificate of graduation.  Then they had a small reception in the church hall.

Mack's ceremony was a tear jerker.  He was acknowledged for being a library helper, flag helper, for being a member of the Chorus and Advanced Band.  He received certificates for all these honors.  Unfortunately no perfect attendance this year.  I was doing okay until at the end the class started singing.  Well anytime children sing I tear up anyway, but this was even more special.  You see not only did they sing but they presented the Mom's with a yellow carnation.  Wrapped around the carnation was a hand written note to both Michael and I thanking us for all our help throughout the 5th grade and all of elementary school and so forth.  Well I was no good for about 15 minutes and then I regained my composure and headed outside for the reception.  It was a very proud moment.

Oh and we have baby birds! One of our hanging plants on our porch has a nest in it.  The eggs have hatched and we have 4 baby birds.  They chirp all the time and the kids love watching the Mom feed them.  They can't fly yet.  But we will miss their fuzzy little heads when they do fly away!

I turned 40 on June 15 and do not feel a day older than when I turned 30.  40 is the new 20 right?!  We missed traveling to Texas in June too for our usual toobin on the river with our Texas friends.  Michael's festival schedule has been crazy.  There was no way to get away in June.  So I am looking forward to 4th of July for the long weekend.

Now that summer is upon us both kids will be doing one week of summer camp.  Mack's camp is an adventure camp.  He will learning to rock climb and canoe.  It is a full day camp for one wek.  He is really looking forward to it.  Marissa has done a week of camp at church already and will be starting gymnastics classes next week.  This will go for 6 weeks, once a week.  She loves gymnastics.  Hopefully these activities will give my Mom a bit of a break!

We will head to Ocean City, MD for our vacation.  We wish we could go back to Playa this summer. 

Almost forgot, yeah for Mack for doing so good in the Playoffs!  Not bad to finish 3rd out of around 25 teams.  It was fun to watch Michael coach Mack and the boys.
 
And Peanut is getting big. She has really long legs and weighs about 15lbs. now. She is fast.  She has gotten out the door twice without her leash and made a break for it.  We will be getting her micro chipped soon and maybe a fence is in our future since we do live near a fairly busy road.


Anyway, thanks for listening to my ramble.  I do have lots of pics to upload to our gallery one of these days!! Everyone keep on blogging as I do read everyone's entries at least once a week!
  
 Happy summer everyone.

Monica
 

We made it to the final four.......but our luck ran out and the White Sox ended the boys season with 10- 2 beating.......I tried to remind them of what a good season it was and how much fun we had but their chins stayed firmly planted to their chest......then Coach Wayne said "lets go get some ice cream and snowballs" and all was right again and their smiles returned to their faces and the loss was quickly forgotten.......it was a lot of fun this year and I am going to miss it

Tonight we played the the Dodgers in round two of the Playoffs......The Dodgers are one of the better teams in the league, well lets put it this way they have not lost all season.......oh and our team we had a respectable .500 record.......we were the under dogs in round one and we were going to be again tonight........During warmups a couple guys let some of our players know they thought we sucked and did not belong playing tonight.......well thats why you play the games.....our game plan was to be agressive on the bases and try and force them to make mistakes.......and  thats what we did ........with a 13 to 9 victory the Bad News Blue Jays are going to the 3rd round of the  playoffs tomorrow night.
 

Tonight was the first game of our playoffs....the team we were playing beat us by one run in the regular season ......lose in the playoffs and the season is over......we have had an up and down season.....but none of that matters in the playoffs.......its was a tough hard fought game the score went back and forth.....we were the visiting team in the last inning we were only up by 2 runs 13 to 11......our pitcher struck out the side......the boys stormed the field like we had just won the World Series ........So we are still alive for round two on Monday night

Well I went and had my hair cut the other day......and took a close look in the car mirror afterwards and noticed the new gray streaks that I had not seen before......my gray had been limited to a few patches on my beard but just near my chin......but now I have notice its began to spread like crab grass .......and goofy looking  skunk strips in my hair...Monica gives me the it looks distinguished line.

But she is having her own issues......she will join me in  the 40's on the 15th......and she is not to happy about losing the youth of her 30's.......she tried to tell me that 40 is the new 20......but I then made the mistake of joking that it would not be so hard to decide between a 40 year old or two 20 year olds.......she did not see the humor........this year we will have been married 18 years and together as a couple for 21.... over half  of Monica's life......that pretty cool........looking back at pictures is alot of fun we were such kids when we started dating Monica was 19 and I was 20

The gray is not such a big deal......what really gets me is the pain  that you never had to deal with before........in your 40's you wake up in pain because you "slept wrong" ......I got a sore shoulder a couple of months ago from lifting some wine barrels and it was like 3 weeks before I could lift my arm without wincing.......yesterday I think I pulled a muscle in my hip bowling on a Wii video game......

There is not much we can do about it so.......we just keep laughing at ouselves