Summer, days 18 and 19

I'm posting for yesterday and today, in anticipation of tomorrow's usual baseball-crazed evening. I've even already purchased a rotisserie chicken for quick meal possibilities, which is a vast improvement over previous weeks when I dug something out of the freezer or threw together sandwiches or whatever. I'll probably just get into a good groove and then baseball season will be over. If it's ever over. Greyson told me yesterday that we can't schedule any vacations after his regular season is done because of playoffs, and my response was "tough noogies". The van, my mom, the kids and I will be on our way north the end of July whether or not games are still being played. Heck, one of his coaches (and that coach's son) missed at least 4 games while they were on vacation a few weeks ago, and Greyson hasn't missed a game yet. I think by then we'll have fulfilled our commitment to all things baseball.

Hmmm, I had an entirely different theme for this post. How, exactly, did I get onto the baseball theme again?? Maybe my new goal should be to write an entire post and not mention that sport even once. I do like a challenge.

So what I was GOING to write about was Greyson coming home today from camp and telling me the following with much excitement in his voice: "Mom, I made a rocket today and shot it off!" (a pause) "And it flew really high!" (another pause, as he's walking into the living room after dropping all his stuff in a pile on the mudroom floor) "And it went over the street and hit a car right on the windshield and then it landed on the road and got run over by the car!" (by now he's standing in front of me holding said rocket) "So I named it Road Kill Rocket, and no one else's went that far or got run over!" So I responded with what was really the only logical response, "Wow, that must have been so cool!"

The proud boy and his rocket, post run-over and with a few shards of nose cone.

Summer, days 14-17

While it's been lovely to have rain showers contained to mostly evenings and overnight so that we can enjoy the outdoors as much as possible this summer, they have been wreaking havoc on our sleep schedules. While Reece can sleep through Dan doing the dishes at any hour, the slightest hint of a storm sends him scrambling for our bed. And half the time neither of us notices until we've been woken up by a foot to the face or nearly rolling out of bed from lack of space, so then our sleep is essentially interrupted twice, with the second one enough to render us totally awake because then we have to move the child back to his bed. All this is to say that I've been too tired to blog the last few days. But I have been taking pictures (a bit).

Last Thursday will from now on be known as the day I tested the gas tank capacity of the van. Most of the driving I do is very short distances, so I go long periods of time between fill-ups. I realized earlier in the week that I was on 1/4 tank and stored that in the back of my brain until Thursday morning, when upon arrival at work I noticed the low gas light was on. So I checked my DTE (distance to empty), which said 14 miles. PLENTY of time left before panic. On the way home, I planned my route which involved picking up Reece, hitting the gas station closest to us, then heading home so the boys and I could walk to Wendy's for dinner (that's how I justify allowing the fast food - walking to and from it). However, the BP near us (not my first choice, thanks to the situation in the Gulf, but by then I was on 7 DTE) was COMPLETELY out of gas. I've never seen that happen before! So I did a few more calculations, realized I could probably make it to the Get Go and use my cents off per gallon to save a chunk of money, then called Greyson and told him to hang on at home a bit longer and Reece and I would bring food home. Here's where we were by the time I hit the gas station:

The good news was, I saved $0.60 per gallon, so putting 18.9 gallons did not quite break the bank.

Friday, Dan and I went to the Melting Pot for a special MP/Great Lakes Brewing Co. dinner with some friends, and we had a great time. The kids also enjoyed having a babysitter who was willing to play pretty much anything they wanted. Saturday and Sunday were baseball, again. Greyson had practice Sat. morning at 9, then Reece had a game at 12 and Greyson had a game Sunday at 1. I spent most of my time this weekend organizing the garage now that I've put up the peg boards and some Rubbermaid FastTrack items:

Notice the bike trailer in the far right of the 2nd photo. I bought it at our community garage sale last weekend, and after Reece got over his initial fear of it, he said he LOVES it and keeps asking me when we can take a bike ride. On Saturday, we biked to his t-ball game and then to his friend Cameron's house so he could have a playdate (total distance, after I got back home, was 5.5 miles). I am quickly learning where the hills are around us, and I feel every one even more when pulling 40+ lbs behind me. All I can say is, I'd better be seeing the benefits of this increased exercise soon!

What Reece did while I worked in the garage (in 90+ degree heat, no less). He also applied his expert watering technique to the van, which was parked in the driveway, and now I'm kicking myself that I didn't give him a sponge and a bucket of sudsy water. Of course, only the bottom half of the van got washed, but even that is an improvement.

Summer, days 12 and 13, because I'll probably forget tomorrow

I'm already starting to hate the numbering system I thought I so cleverly started at the beginning of the summer posts. I can't remember if I've been posting for the day before or today or a couple days ago and have to go back to the calendar EVERY time I start a new post. So if I screw up, please just ignore it. I'm sure it will all just even out in the end.

Last evening's event: watching Wipeout and eating homemade strawberry ice cream (it's still around from two weeks ago, which is quite amazing around this house) IN the basement (usually no food is allowed there - we have very determined mice who will eat through plaster to get to a morsel of goodness).

My evening tonight was spent watching Greyson's baseball game. Started at 6:20, ended at 9:05. Good thing we're at the longest day of the year time. It was a good game, and Greyson did well, except for hitting a foul ball that managed to fly up and over the back fence and hit a little girl (who is one of Reece's good friends from school) on the shoulder. Poor Greyson was almost as distraught as she was! And his team won (they are now undefeated after 7 games, which means definitely playoffs - kill me now). Also, one of the parents passed around cheese, crackers, and sausage as well as wine, so it wasn't too horrible. But I cannot muster up excitement for 10-year old baseball for 2 1/2 hours; it's just not in me.

Sorry about the low quality on these - took them with my iPhone and tried to crop and enlarge them. Does the new iPhone have zoom? Because if so, I might just have to get it.

Summer, day 11

I finally calculated that our summer will be a total of 73 days, which seems like a lot more than saying 10 weeks. I start my new job Aug. 23rd, Greyson starts 5th grade on the 24th, and Reece starts his kindergarten ease-in on the 26th, so I'm considering the 22nd to be our family's official last day of summer. Luckily, fall around here is usually warm and sunny and lovely, so we get more time after school starts to still cook-out and do other outdoor activities before the hunkering down phase begins.

But I'm not even going to mention that again until at least October - now it's all about hot and humid and sun and outdoors. I took no pictures yesterday, so you'll have to make do with ones from Sunday. These show some of the things I got done while the kids were blasting each other with water:

With Nat's help, I got the swingset assembled, although it still needs to be anchored into the ground before anyone over the age of 2 swings on it, and we can't put the slide on yet because our grass is still not ready for child useage. I'm now noticing that our backyard looks like a tribute to the Little Tikes/Step 2 companies, but I must say that ALL of the items shown here were obtained used. 

I finally got all the rosebushes removed from one area of the north part of the house (really, who would think to plant them there?!) and put in 5 hostas (thanks, Aunt Colleen, for the suggestion!). Eventually I'll put a few more shade-loving plants in there as well, and I'm up for suggestions. Definitely would like some color in there, like reds and/or blues.

Summer, days 8, 9 and 10

Hello! Yes, we're still here, but I'm behind two days in my posting. Partly because I was busy, and partly because I was so busy that I forgot to take photos! Oh, I have a few, but they do not do justice to the weekend.

Friday evening we went to our local pool for family night (kids have to be accompanied by a parent), but I didn't take any pictures, or even bring my camera or phone along, because I knew I'd be wet a majority of the time. We probably need a 3rd parent just to serve as photojournalist (oh, and cook, maid, and laundress launderer laundry-doing person). Saturday morning, Dan left for Pittsburgh with his good friend, Joe, to watch the Indians play the Pirates and spend the night with some of Joe's family, so I handled the baseball coordination (or lack thereof). Greyson had a game at 9 at the high school, Reece had t-ball pictures at 11 at the field up the street from us, and then Reece had a game at 12 at the library field. Plus, our neighborhood was having its annual garage sales and I needed to go to the farmer's market. SO, Reece and I dropped off Greyson at 8:45, where I was thrilled to discover he was playing his best friend's team and I asked his friend's mom if she could bring Greyson home if I couldn't get back in time. Then, we went to the farmer's market, got what we needed, drove home to put it in the fridge, stopped at one of the garage sales to find some books for Reece to read while we watched part of Greyson's game, went back to G's game to watch for about 45 minutes, drove back near home for pictures, stopped at another garage sale where I bought a bike trailer for Reece to ride in so we can go on longer bike rides, coordinated with G's friend's mom for him to go to their house after the game and eat lunch, drove to Reece's game to sit in the HOT sun for an hour and convince Reece to keep playing after each inning was done (Mom, is the game over YET??), then picked Greyson up and headed home to feed Reece and me and get things ready for my nephews to come over to stay the night. OK, everyone can take a breath now.

I must say here that I volunteered to have my nephews over, because I knew (and this proved to be true) that it would actually make my life easier. The boys are so much more active and creative when they are together than when they are apart (at least my boys are). Our town was also having a summer solstice festival just up the street from us, so I planned for us to walk up there to have dinner and do some activities. After I convinced the boys that it wasn't too far to walk, it all went very smoothly, and they had hot dogs and egg rolls and ice cream and got balloon animals, made swirly-colored paper, and watched a magician and a magic show.

So now, the few photos I did take from the weekend. I wish I had taken some video of at least one of the three squirt gun fights they had in the course of 24 hours, because they clearly had a blast. I'm sure there will be a next time.

Reece chose a bee, and Greyson's is a "cartoon wand".

Both Elliott and Isaac chose snakes. Isaac thought to store his around his neck totally on his own.

A few other things they did when they weren't shooting water at each other.

Summer, day 7

Thursdays Dan works late, so the boys and I do a variety of things for dinner those nights. Last night, we walked to the newly-opened middle eastern restaurant up the street and then crossed the street to Walgreens to get a dessert for each. Reece chose a Toll House ice cream cookie sandwich and was surprisingly clean after eating it. But if how messy you are after eating something is any indication of how much you enjoyed it, Greyson fell in love with his drumstick:

Summer, Day 6 - Recap of SF trip

I started this post this morning and am just now, at 11:30pm, finishing it. Turns out it takes a long time to upload lots of photos!

I just cannot stress enough how much fun we had in SF. It is, of course, an interesting city to visit, but having a personal tour guide who you also know very well definitely took the whole experience up a notch. We didn't have to focus very much on how to get where we were going, nor did we have to consult very many public transportation schedules. In addition, we got very good at spotting open parking places (There's one! Hurry, get it before that little old lady does!). We even got to meet Nick's bosses at a BBQ they threw for him since he will be leaving there soon.

The only area we didn't visit that I would have liked to was the Mission District, but we saw the old Presidio (drove all around it, in fact, not entirely by choice, but that's half the fun), saw the Golden Gate Bridge from at least four different vantage points and levels of fog, saw a real mummy at the Palace of the Legion of Honor (say that five times, fast), ate great Chinese, Thai, pizza, and Mexican/Indian fusion (sounds weird, was terrific), and even got to the beach and Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square (ate ice cream at the original store) and Alcatraz and saw huge redwoods. Oh, and we attended a Giants game. So here are some pictures:

At the Giants game the evening we arrived. That huge Coke bottle in the background is a series of slides for kids to go down. The field abuts the water, so they have a splash count for balls that go over the wall and into the bay. Kayakers park themselves out there to retrieve the balls.

Nick and me at Muir Woods, the closest redwoods to SF.

Itty bitty Dan, really big tree.

Nick at the Tennessee Valley Beach. We walked 1.5 miles from the parking area to get here, and it was hilly!

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from on top of Twin Peaks (perhaps the highest point in the city - I'm not sure).

Fresh fish arriving at a Chinese market.

Nick and me at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. We saw lots of plants and structures but didn't actually have tea.

A requisite picture, as anyone who knows Dan will understand. I'm surprised he didn't have a Grateful Dead T-shirt on that day.

Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf. You didn't want to be downwind if at all possible.

Dan getting creamed in Pong by a 10-year old (son of friends of ours), at the cool Musee Mecanique.

The Rock.

Me inside one of the cells. They used to close visitors in to let them really feel what it was like, but the doors have gotten so rusted that someone got stuck, so they stopped that.

View of the G.G. Bridge from The Rock. (Did I mention how beautiful the weather was nearly the whole time we were there? My nose stayed slightly red the whole time, even with sunscreen applications.)

Summer, Day 5 - Gardening

This is actually yesterday's post. I should have had plenty of time last night to write this, since we had no after camp/work activities, but somehow we were still busy and I didn't even get a few things accomplished that I wanted to (like hanging the pegboard in the garage).

We are doing our level best here at Phillips-Turner Central to eat fresh, organic food that comes from nearby this summer. The boys and I have been pretty good about getting to the Saturday morning farmer's market near us (their motivation lies in the pastries and crepes that are sold there) for the past few years. This year, we also decided to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), thanks in large part to Tara mentioning them to me when I still had time to sign up. (The previous two years I missed the sign-up window.) So, every Friday we pick up our allotment and figure out what to make with it all. Part of the idea is to be introduced to new produce, so I've had to do some searching for recipes online and even had to look up what the heck the item was that I received. To give you an idea of what we get in a week, here's what came in our bag last week:
                       -     1 whole roasting chicken, giblets included (approx 5 lbs)

-          1 bunch green onions

-          1 bunch red beets with tops

-          1 bunch white radishes (French breakfast style)

-          1 bunch garlic scapes (2 scapes per bunch)

-          1 bunch spinach

-          1 head soil grown romaine lettuce

-          1 dozen free range organic brown eggs

-          1 quart strawberries

I bought three extra quarts of strawberries when I picked up our portion and then managed to leave most of them, rinsed, on the counter for two days without doing anything with them other than letting everyone chow at will. So by Sunday, I had about half left and they were quite mushy, so I made them into homemade ice cream. See how I take something very healthy and make it not so?? Yesterday for dinner I made sauteed tilapia with beets and beet greens, which was much better than I expected. Neither of the boys liked it, and Dan said it wasn't something that he'd like to have frequently (the beets part, not the tilapia - that was awesome), but it was tasty and we felt very healthy eating it. Well, except for the bacon that was part of the beets recipe. I see a theme emerging.

The final way we're focusing on healthy, local eating is by having a small garden. Reece and I are the gardeners, and we've planted cherry/grape/pear tomato plants, sweet peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, and a chocolate mint plant in our new backyard (which also now has grass - see photos below). I went out today to tie the tomato plants to their stakes, and I noticed THREE itty bitty tomatoes growing! I'm surprised at how excited I am about this. All the plants are doing very well right now, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I don't, however, expect to bring many of the little tomatoes into the house, because I expect that they'll mostly be eaten right off the bushes. Reece and I have a weakness.

The garden from afar, and GRASS! Oh, and the swingset that has yet to be fully assembled. That was also on my list for last night.

The garden close-up, and the little tomatoes even closer-up.

Summer, day 4

Reece's school started "camp" today, which means they go on field trips and have special visitors and theme weeks and, as he informed me today, no line leader or weather or calendar time. The theme this week is art, and I'm not sure if that is why he came home today with five pieces of artwork or not. He's not usually that prolific, but I just can never tell what's going on in that little noggin of his. Here is one of the pieces, which he told me is a drawing of Grandma Phillips driving home from our house, passing a blueberry tree:

Now, I know blueberries grow in Michigan, but if she's passing a plant that grows blueberries this size and isn't telling me, she's in BIG trouble. Also, this is the first time I've seen Reece forget to include one of the E's in his name. I guess if you have three of them, you can afford to drop one now and then.

Summer, day 3

Today was the day of birthday parties. Greyson had one at our local pool, and Reece's was at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Greyson prefers to go to parties on his own now, so I have no photos from the fun he had (and he definitely had a lot, because he was the only boy there). However, I accompanied Reece to his and we got to do a scavenger hunt together, identifying both live and stuffed animals:

Summer, day 2

OK, I'm already a day behind. Whatever. Yesterday was baseball, baseball, baseball, and a block party. I did manage to fit in a nap (for me), but that may have been the only time I was actually indoors.

Greyson is on a "minors" team, the Portland Seadogs. The kids pitch, which makes for very interesting games. Thankfully, there are some rules that prevent games from going on forever, but yesterday's still lasted 2 1/2 hours - in the heat & sun. And I would like to say that, had I had any say in the color of the uniforms, white would have been my LAST choice.

Reece's games, by comparison, only last for 1 hour, everyone gets to hit and run the bases, and the kids are hysterical. One of Reece's teammates left the field right in the middle of the game, walked over to his dad on the sidelines and handed him his hat and glove, and proclaimed he had to go to the bathroom. At any given time, only half of each team is remotely paying attention to the game. And EVERY player who was assigned to 3rd base had to be reminded not to stand right on the base, every inning. At least Reece's uniform is a dark color.

The first day of summer

I know the calendar says differently, but today was our official first day of summer. Greyson is done with school until August, and camp starts Monday. And since in previous years I've felt like summer just flew by and this one appears to be ready to set an all-time record for speed due to all our activities, I've decided to attempt to post one picture each day the whole summer. Hopefully, that will at least force me to stop each evening and think about what we've done that day (and, you know, smell the roses).

So here's today's photo op, courtesy of Reece's school picnic:

And on a totally separate topic, Happy 34th Birthday to my cousin, Jill! Wait, wasn't it just yesterday when you were 6 and I was 12 and I had to bribe you to sit still long enough for me to braid your hair??

It's June all over over here

We seem to have exploded into June, or maybe June has exploded all over us. Dan and I took this little trip to San Francisco (more about that later) at what turned out to be a bit of an inopportune time at home, and now it's suddenly almost June 10th and the last day of school and baseball and camp are starting and I'm trying to wrap up one job and start another and SHEESH I need a vacation. Or at least to go back to the one I was on.

So to back up a minute, we have moved through Greyson's elementary school years (at least at his current school) pretty clueless, it turns out. In our district, the kids are at the lower elementary schools in their neighborhoods from kindergarten through 4th grade, and then for 5th and 6th they are all combined at an upper elementary school. Which means that this year was his last at his current school and, of course, that means tons of end-of-year activities for his grade. So Dan and I managed to schedule our trip to leave on the day that Greyson was to perform as Sitting Bull in the 4th grade Living Museum. On the same night that Reece had T-ball practice in a completely different area of our town. That Friday was the annual Ice Cream Social and International Festival at Greyson's school, a not-to-be-missed event. And then, that Saturday both boys had their first baseball games of the season, again at different corners of the city but at least at different times. Plus Reece had a birthday party to attend on Sunday. Thank goodness my mom was the one we left in charge and she's quite organized and can follow directions well! We also did manage to, completely by accident, schedule our return so that both Dan and I could make it to Greyson's 4th grade clap-out today, so all was not totally lost. But now we both have to get back to work full-force tomorrow and even though Greyson has a half-day of school, he will probably be stuck at aftercare until close to 6pm. At least 5 years from now, when Reece goes through all this, we'll be fully prepared. And at the end of Greyson's lower elementary years, I can say that the most important thing I've learned is not to take any trips at the week before school starts or during the two weeks leading up to the last day of school.

Walking over the bridge during clap-out (after Dan "embarrassed" him by yelling out "Way to go, Greyson!").

And now here we are, nearly the middle of June and up to our elbows in baseball/T-ball, picnics, parties, and Indians games. Here's an example of the upcoming weekend:

Friday:     5ish - Dan picks up the weekly allotment from our CSA and gets it home and into the fridge
               6-7:15 - Reece's school picnic (have to bring food)
Saturday: 8-12 - Dan works at the clinic (he's also on call)
               9-11ish (please God not another 3 hour game!) - Greyson's baseball game
               12-1 - Reece's t-ball game
               1-4 - Lynette and Greyson go to Indians game to use one of our 5 season tickets days
               6 - ? - Block party (bring food)
Sunday:   12-? - Church picnic (bring food)
               2-4 - Reece's friend's birthday party (nowhere near the picnic, of course)

I know, SUCH a rough life. And it's not that we don't enjoy all of it, it's just that my calendar is beginning to protest all the attention I've given it recently. I think it actually glares at me when I try to schedule overlapping events, but if I don't keep everyone's schedule in the same place, we end up at the wrong field at the wrong time with the wrong kid, and then I die from the whining.

On a more uplifting note, our trip was AWESOME. I wish everyone could have Nick as their tour guide in SF, because he is patient, flexible, up for any type of food or activity AND knows how to drive those hills without gasping. Have you ever heard Bill Cosby's take on Driving in San Francisco? If not, you really should, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you actually experience the hills for yourself. Let me just say, I will now feel a lot safer strapped into a rollercoaster thanks to the SF hills. But I've rambled on enough for this post so will put up some photos and accompanying descriptions from the trip in another day or so. Pictures of Greyson as Sitting Bull will also be forthcoming.

Nick and me standing in front of Lombard Street, looking like tourists.