The definition of family

On my mom's side of the family, the definition of family has always stretched way beyond the links of genetics. We called my cousins' other grandparents Grandpa and Grandma, and we visited my uncle's sister's family in Topeka on our way out west one summer just like we stopped to see my mom's cousin in Denver and great-aunt in Kansas. I was thinking about this yesterday when we went to the 50th wedding anniversary celebration for Dan's aunt and uncle. As we walked into the hall - a little late because we had to print out his parents' boarding passes for their return trip and couldn't do that until 24 hours before their flight - I was amazed at how many people I recognized and knew to talk to, and only some of them were in any way actually related to Dan.


Because we lived near Dan's extended family while we were in college and now live back here again, we've been more involved in their lives than the rest of Dan's immediate family. And thanks to the precedent set during my childhood, I find it completely natural to be included in the lives of relatives of relatives. I'm especially glad that my kids have this opportunity as well, so maybe it will continue to be passed on. It has sparked interesting discussions about how people are related, and now when we don't know, we'll say "that's your 8th cousin 12th removed", which cracks up the kids.

About the photos:
TOP - Greyson and Dan's parents
MIDDLE - The dessert table, which held the attention of the kids even longer than Super Mario Brothers. It had three kids of streudel, rugelach, and a Cleveland cassata cake (sponge cake with a layer of fresh strawberries in a custard cream and topped with whipped cream).
BOTTOM - The other item of fascination for the kids - everyone got a box of four Malley's chocolates at their place as a favor, like at a wedding. Greyson wanted to know when we can go to the next wedding.

 

Still making progress

The days are just flying by here, so I'm taking a little time from my lesson planning to post pictures of the renovations as of today. We're in a holding pattern until Friday, when the HVAC person comes to put in the heating/cooling stack from the basement up to the 2nd floor bedroom. The kids have loved having a hole in the floor of the mudporch, where one can stand looking down at the other who is in the basement looking up. Reece even thought he could crawl down through the hole - luckily I caught him before any part of him got stuck.

The windows should be arriving Monday, and then the changes will be more dramatic again for a while. Everything will get trimmed, the siding will be finished, all the electrical can be connected and then the interior finishing can begin. I, of course, already know where I want to put everything the minute I get the OK. Except that we don't even have most of the items that are going into the new rooms, because where the heck would we put them while we wait?? Have I mentioned my bike is in the living room? We are also going to paint the rooms ourselves to save a little money, so who knows when that will happen. Might have to lure Nat and Tara over on false pretenses and then not let them leave until a wall is painted.

Garage door is almond color, and the cedar siding will be stained "mountain ash".

Inside the mudroom, looking out the back door and at the door going into the house (facing north, for those who have been here). There will be a window to the left of the outer door, and below that will be a space heater.

Facing the door into the garage from the mudroom. Being able to enter the house from the garage without getting wet might be the single most exciting part of this whole project.

In the 2nd floor addition, facing north. The door on the left is the existing one into the house from the previous open porch.

Another view inside the 2nd floor room. The master bath is on the other side of the window and will just be boarded over until we redo that bathroom. A fan is being installed in the bathroom since there won't be any other ventilation.

The closet in the 2nd floor room.

And the boys, hanging out in the basement surrounded by folded clean clothes. We fear the Nintendo DS was becoming permanently affixed to Reece's hands so have since instituted a "no Nintendo during the week" rule.

A moratorium on unsubstantiated forwards

Ooh, this is my 51st post! Might have to have a party when I hit 100. I wonder how virtual cake tastes?

So I'm using this post to put out a notice to anyone and everyone, even though this probably doesn't pertain to anyone who reads my blog...

ATTENTION!!! I am no longer accepting any forwarded emails that are not either verified by the sender to be true (snopes.com or another similar site will do) or have the ORIGINAL source/author included in the email. No more "my sister told me about this...", or "I was in Kroger/Lowes/etc. and saw...", and especially no more "If you believe in America/are patriotic/are Christian..." do such and such. And I'd really rather not receive any forwarded jokes, videos, or funny photos unless they are of someone I know. I currently have over 2700 messages in my inbox because I can't even keep up with organizing and deleting the ones I get that I want to read! And let's not get started on all the piles of papers that are sitting on any and every flat surface in our house that need my attention far more than anything virtual that isn't even taking up physical space.

Can you tell I'm feeling a bit frustrated and possibly overwhelmed? Mostly, it's just that I received yet another of these today and must have hit my forwarded emails tolerance threshold. Also, it's become more obvious that we have too much stuff, since it is now piled nearly to the ceiling in the basement and my bike is in the living room and we have no fewer than 6 recyclable grocery bags that I trip over constantly but never remember to take with me TO the grocery store. Oh, and I'm teaching a graduate level course for the first time ever and there were no notes or slides to go from, so I'm making all the lessons from scratch. For a topic that is not actually my strongest area of epidemiology. And I'm supposed to be getting all the rest of my work done and keep ahead of the bills and remember to buy the correct sized lightbulbs (I think we have 8 different lightbulb types in this house) and find pants that fit Greyson in both the waist and length and grocery shop for only "whole foods" that are from local sources and plan healthy, balanced meals and lunches that can be packed.  GAAAA!

OK, I feel much better now. On the plus side, the weather has been gorgeous, work is progressing nicely on the house, I'm actually saving money on groceries by mostly shopping at the farmer's market (and, seriously, the food tastes better), and Reece hasn't thrown a tantrum in probably 2 months. And what's really keeping me going is that Dan and I are going to Hawaii in October. I can safely say that here because 1) I'm not saying WHEN in October, and 2) my mom will be here with the boys to both supervise the construction and beat off anyone who tries to steal anything. Nobody messes with Mom.

Thank you for your time - I promise the 52nd post will include many pictures and many fewer words.

Back with pictures

Where were we? Oh, yes, I was silly enough to do some cleaning and then couldn't find the connection cord. Turns out, all it took was me saying to Dan, "I had it here and was putting it in a safe place..." and then I turned and saw it!

So here is where we were on the 31st:

 

And then on the 3rd:

And as of today:

 

I think they'll be putting the doors on tomorrow so that we can discourage little critters from entering the mudroom area. We haven't picked out a garage door yet, but I'd like to have one with windows. Anyone have any experience with those and care to share wisdom?

In other news, Greyson told me yesterday that he got to hear President Obama's speech at school. I asked him what the president said, and his reply was "He said even though we have parents and teachers around to help us, it is our responsibility to work hard and do what we need to do and he would do what he needed to as president." I didn't get to hear the speech, but it sounds like the message was received by at least one schoolchild.

Reece has been saying recently that he doesn't like school. Further questioning leads me to believe that he's just readjusting to having lost most of his closest friends to kindergarten and having new friends in the classroom. He went from being one of the youngest to one of the oldest in less than a month, and I think that has thrown him as well. Even when we're with family or friends and their kids, Reece tends to be the youngest or almost the youngest, so he's definitely not used to being one of the "big kids".

Quick update without pictures

Yes, things are progressing on the house, but I have managed to misplace the cord that connects my camera to my computer, so I can't download the pictures. You see, we cleaned recently and now I can't find things. You'll just have to visualize it until I unearth the cord or find some other way to get the pictures copied over (concentrating really hard on the camera doesn't seem to be working).

Both the first and second floors of the addition are framed and roofed, but there are no doors or windows yet. Also, the sides of the garage are framed, but it is open at the top. Dan already parked his car in there, supposedly to make sure it would fit, but really just because he could, I think. The trusses for the garage are coming on Tuesday, so the roof for that will go on then. The electrician is also supposed to start next week. Unfortunately, the windows are delayed two weeks, so things might not be moving at as fast a clip as they have been up until now. Oh, and I have to write another large check, but the bank that gave us the HELOC only sent credit cards, so I had to specifically request checks that will arrive in "7-10 business days". I guess they thought we'd be able to buy everything we needed at Lowes or IKEA and just build it ourselves. Clearly they have not met us.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

It seems every day the progress on the house is very obvious. I know in later weeks this won't be the case, but at least for now, I'll be posting pictures pretty frequently. And then you'll be stuck with photos of electrical outlets and door knobs.

 

 

Back to school

Yesterday was the first day of the 2009-2010 school year for the boys. For Reece, it just means that his classroom has been rearranged a bit, they are no longer in "camp" mode, and he is now one of the BIG kids. For Greyson, it was the start of fourth grade and his last year at his school. (Our town has an upper elementary for all 5th and 6th graders in the district.) As I thought about this, I realized that five years ago at this time, we had just moved here and Greyson started kindergarten. We were asked to fill out a form about him for his teacher's information, and on it we had to check off any major events that had taken place in his life in the past year. The poor child had three - a new sibling, moving, and starting a new school! In contrast, the odds are very good that Reece will only have one of those next year.

Just to give you an idea of how much Greyson has changed since that first day catching the bus to kindergarten, here are a picture from five years ago and one from yesterday:

The next five years are going to go equally as fast, aren't they?

Renovations progress

Four days ago, we had this:


And now, we have this:It's more exciting than I thought to see the plans coming to life. And now I must go and write probably the biggest check I've ever written, and it will just cover all the concrete work. Framing starts Wednesday. Which means tonight we can park both vehicles in the driveway instead of on the street. Who knew that would make me so happy.

Last vacation in summer, part 2

The boys and I are back home now, and Greyson is the only one who has some of his summer vacation left (his school starts on the 25th). I start teaching a course on the 25th as well, so I've been working pretty frantically to get that together as well as the other work I have to do. However, I think some of the relaxation of the vacation has stayed with me, because I'm feeling more zen about things than I normally would be.

Starting from where the last post ended, on Thursday my mom had to spend all day at the Baby Pantry, so the boys and I drove out to my cousin Lil's house in the morning and went lighthouse hopping with her and her two girls, Emily and Ava. We climbed the "new" Presque Isle lighthouse first, which I recommend since it is much higher than the "old" one. I only realized when we got to the top that my camera battery had died, so I have no pictures of that day. Lil took plenty and is sending them to me, so when I receive them I'll post the best.

Reece made it up about 1/3 of the way before having a mini freakout, which I call impressive (his uncle Nat still won't go up, and he's 37), and we managed to convince him to go all the way up. He didn't want to spend very much time up there, but we did walk all the way around and stop to admire the view from four sides as well as fly tiny airplanes from the top down to the ground. We were amazed that none got caught in any trees or on the roof of the buildings. We then drove to the "old" lighthouse, which is supposed to be haunted, and the kids got to work old fog horns and put themselves into shackles. We completed that trip with pizza and ice cream cones, then went back to Lil's where Greyson and Emily took the paddleboat out to the drop-off to fish and Reece and Ava swam and caught minnows.

Friday we headed back to Black Lake to hang out with Uncle Dan, Jackie, Jill and Susie. Anyone who could read played Whoonu, we had steaks for supper, then went out fishing where we caught nothing but had to hightail it back to beat a wicked storm. That thing lasted most of the night, but by morning it had moved on, leaving a lot of tannic acid spilling into the shallow water in runoff. It was necessary to go back out to fish in order to have tall tales to tell when we returned, so we rode the boat to Uncle Tim's and Uncle Dave's to pick up my cousin Mike, his daughter Jenna, and his nephew Joe. Reece and I were the most successful, with Reece catching the biggest perch (and only keeper). Jackie even drove up on the jet ski and attempted to fish off it (to no avail). Then we went back for lunch and went swimming/snorkeling for most of the afternoon. A great ending to an overall very relaxing vacation. We even stopped by my cousin Dave's outside Detroit on our way home Sunday to have a break and visit with him and his family, so we managed to see a fair percentage of relatives this trip.

And here are the photos:

Playing Whoonu

Reece the owl checking out the loft

Greyson driving at ludicrous speed to beat the storm

Reece driving all by himself (and not watching where he's going)

The rest of our summer vacation, part 1

The boys and I are smack dab in the middle of our Michigan trip, which is becoming an annual event, and I thought I'd better post some photos of what we've done so far because 1) we've been very busy, and 2) I have a new camera that holds a kajillion pictures and takes awesome video (at least compared to my last one), so I have tons to choose from already.

We left home last Thursday afternoon and stopped near Detroit at my cousin Jill's house. While there, the boys found her box of toys and while Reece had me apply kids' make-up to his face, Greyson used the Pickle Pult to shoot at all of us. I didn't get any action shots of the weapon, but if you have a chance, you have got to go to the website and check out the other "pults". At least one of these is going to end up in a stocking this year!

We arrived at my mom's the next day (after stopping at the A&W restaurant in Standish, where the boys got to order their own food using the telephone at the table) and just hung out and explored all of Grandma's toys (and ate ice cream on the deck). Saturday, we ran errands so that we could repack for our time at a rental cabin on Black Lake that began later that day. Sunday the boys spend lots of time in the water while Grandma observed and I drove back to Alpena for a close friend's baby shower, and then we had dinner at my uncles' cabins not too far away. It's always fun to see who will show up there, and this time it was my uncles Tim and Dave (who own the cabins), my cousin Greg (which confused my kids because he is close in age to my uncle Dave), and my dad's cousin Bill, who I had probably seen once or twice before in my life but owns the cabin next door.

Monday was spent in the water - I think the kids went in four separate times and we went for a canoe ride - and playing with the 3-year old girl whose family was renting the cabin next door. That evening, we had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows for S'mores. Tuesday was overcast and cooler, so we drove to Mackinaw City and toured the fort and bought fudge. Today we returned to my mom's, stopping to swim at Ocqueoc Falls on the way (sorry, no photos of us at the falls as I had to be in the water with both boys the whole time). Part 2 will be posted after we return to Ohio.