No, I haven't abandoned this blog!!!

Well, folks, I have probably set a new record in the time lapse between blog entries. Most of my friends and relatives have moved over to Facebook, and to be honest, Facebook is a much easier format for me in terms of uploading and resizing my pictures. It takes me over an hour to do each blog entry here, as my camera creates huge files, and I have to resize all my pictures by hand. However, I realize that there are a lot of folks who still don't use Facebook, so I'll try to post the cream of the crop here and link to my public Facebook albums so you all can see the rest.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Sadie's fourth birthday at Spence's Educational Farm in Chapel Hill. The kids all picked vegetables in the garden, fed the chickens and goats, and rode ponies. The weather was cooperative, and everyone seemed to enjoy the party. Here is a link to Sadie's birthday party pictures:

Birthday pictures

And here are a couple of highlights:

Sadie getting ready to take a pony ride...

Sadie and me walking around the farm. On our left is Charlie, Jen and Molly, and Siobhan and Reilly are on my right.

Redmond and me.

I've also compiled an album with some assorted pictures from September and October.

Random pictures

Here are a couple of highlights.

This picture was actually just taken this weekend. Sadie got a "grow a rubber duckie" gift for her birthday, and it hatched from an egg and grew to be pretty large. She's holding it proudly.

Sadie, on one of her rare "princess" occasions. Actually, she has been dressing up all "girly" more often lately. She is a pretty even mixture of tomboy and girl.

Sadie at the NC Zoo, posing with her head hanging out of a giant "beehive". As you can see, she was getting a little sullen by this point. She's pretty much given up the afternoon nap on weekends, but she probably could still use one, as she often gets cranky around 3 or 4.

Posing with her Mee-Maw at the zoo.


Pretending to be Spiderman on the playground "web".



Redmond and I are kept busy working and chasing the Boo. I find that I'm far busier than I ever dreamed I'd be as a working parent. The days and nights are a complete whirlwind. What keeps me sane is knowing that we can all slow down a little on the weekends and take the time to spend quality family time together. I still wish my house was a little cleaner, but I still tend to choose seeing the world with the family over having a sparkly clean house and no life experiences. One day, Sadie will prefer to hang out with her friends to spending time with her boring old Mom and Dad, so I'm soaking up all this family time while she still likes us. ;-) When she gets older, I'll have all the time in the world to clean the house, though I'll most likely find another excuse to avoid doing it...

Redmond and I are still plugging away at Weight Watchers. I've lost 50 pounds so far, and Redmond's really starting to dig in and lose weight himself. I feel so much better, and I'm actually daring to post pictures of myself these days. I'm hoping to lose about 50-60 more, and then the hard work of maintenance will begin. I know how to lose weight and gain weight, but I've never figured out the trick of how to maintain weight.

We're planning a trip to Bladenboro for Thanksgiving to see my paternal relatives, some of whom I have not seen in over 10 years. I'll try to make sure I post pictures from this trip as soon as I return.

My little princess...

As if...

Sadie sports her brand new Spiderman costume...

Beach Week 2009

We're back! What a relaxing week at the beach... Our group continues to spawn new members. Rachel and Danny have a brand new baby, Walter. Brian and Missy had a baby 8 months ago, Josie. A new family joined us; Sean, Siobhan and their daughter Reilly. We missed James, Emily, Pippa and Rowan this year. How dare they decide that northern Maine is just too far away from NC! ;-)

Before I get so bogged down by routine that I forget, here are a few of the photos from our beach trip this year. I have also linked to the rest of the pictures and videos in our Picasa Web album at the bottom of the entry...

Sadie + blueberry cobbler = a mess.

Sadie saw Alex riding on the back of Josh's kayak and had to do it herself...


Ft. Fisher Aquarium...
Handstand Sadie


I swear, I've never seen a toy more popular than this bucket!


Tree climbing at a Surf City park...

Lila grinning
Sadie being Daddy's girl...





Here is the

Full album of pictures and videos from the beach...

Vermont pictures and film clips!

It's been a long time since I've been able to post any blog entries... I have no excuses- it's something I mean to do almost every day and then I just end up getting bogged down by my daily activities.

We recently had a glorious week in Vermont, visiting my Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Mich, Aunt Diane, Uncle David and cousin Kristy. Sadie was obsessed with swimming, so we swam at least once every day that week. We spent time on the farm, visited the Shelburne Museum and Shelburne Farms, and took ferry rides. Basically, we had about the same schedule we followed last year. Unfortunately, because Uncle David was recovering from an illness and Kristy had surgery that week, we only were able to see the Nichols family once.

Next year, we're hoping to take the camper up and stay in a nearby state park, rather than in a hotel room. We want to make sure we're getting our money's worth!

Next week is our annual beach week on Topsail Island.

A couple of pictures...

Beautiful view of an island in the middle of Lake Champlain...



Sadie, "driving a tractor"...

Redmond, Sadie and Aunt Sylvia enjoy the tractor ride to Shelburne Farms...
Sadie snuggles with Aunt Sylvia...


Sadie continues with the tractor meme...
On a ferry ride...

Sitting peacefully (yes, that's rare!) at the Shelburne Museum...
High in the sky, bungee trampolining!


You can see all our photos on our Facebook photo album.

Here are some videos...

At Shelburne Farms, the chickens are about as free-range as a chicken can be. Sadie kept trying to feed the chickens her picnic lunch...



Sadie got to help milk the cow...


Uncle David and Aunt Diane saved the egg gathering on the Nichols Farm until we arrived... Sadie had a blast finding all the eggs....



Here are a couple of short clips from our visit to Stowe. Sadie tried the bungee trampoline, and went back several times for more!





And here she is pretending to fly her Uncle David's ultralight plane...



One challenge we've been facing lately is that Sadie insists on dressing herself. And she doesn't want to wear anything "pretty". She wants to look "cool". This means she wants to wear Spiderman t-shirts every day, and shorts without "flowers". I have no idea if this is just a phase or not, but my days of winning large Gymboree auctions on Ebay appear to be over, if only temporary. I can no longer just buy clothes for her.

I'll upload the beach pictures next week!

open range hours

Test

Our daughter is growing fins...

We've been wondering when we'd first start to have a real sense of what kind of hobbies and interests our daughter might grow into. We've known for some time that music was something she enjoyed- she's always singing and likes to fiddle with musical instruments, but over the summer, it's become clear that Sadie is strongly drawn to water and swimming. She is in her second round of swimming lessons, and she's already able to swim underwater and jump off the side of the pool without any assistance from us. Last night, she attempted to dive, but is just belly-flopping. I'm guessing that by the end of the summer, she'll be diving and beginning to do swimming strokes above water.

We've been going to our local pool at least 3-4 times a week, and also enjoy swimming in Jordan Lake, despite the fact that a youngster east of Raleigh was infected by some rare kind of flesh-eating bacteria in a lake over there and had to have a foot and his nose removed! Luckily, that's extremely rare and didn't happen in Jordan Lake, so I'm trying just not to think about that.

Redmond has been out of town this week at the national TSA conference with his kids, so I haven't had much time to do blog entries. His state pulled out funding for the kids at the last minute, so they scrambled to do some emergency fund-raising. Through posts on Facebook, we had a good deal of support from friends and family, and we thank everyone who contributed to the cause. Your generosity was incredible.

This Saturday (July 4th), we'll be heading to Vermont to see our family up there, so we should have a plethora of pictures and videos coming up...

Here are some pictures from Sadie's swimming class....




Ring around the Rosie... Gotta love a children's song based on the Bubonic Plague and the cremation of dead bodies... It's even worse than the lullaby about children falling out of trees in their cradles. Good grief...



The parents of one of Redmond's students invited us to a party at their mini-farm. They rescue farm animals in need and raise them on this farm. Sadie had so much fun petting goats and sheep and a very sweet horse. Here is the back of the house.

Another view of the home- it's a lovely farmhouse.









We spent a day at Jordan Lake. Sadie spent most of the time swimming underwater...

I just joined Weight Watchers about 4 weeks ago. This will be my official "before" picture. Good God. I'm only posting it because I am already about 15 pounds lighter (was 14.4 down last week and haven't weighed in this week), so it can only get better from here. I have a *long* way to go, and I'll just have to be patient and keep pushing.
We love the Saturday Farmer's Market in Carrboro, and a couple of weeks ago, we bought a pint of the hugest blackberries we've ever seen. They were as big as my thumb! They were also mega-juicy- you couldn't even touch one without getting "purple finger". Sadie REALLY likes berries, and this was the result. Notice her little boy Thomas pajamas. She still loves Thomas, and carries her little engines around and makes up little soap operas with them...

Ahhh... evenings at Maple View Dairy. The balloon guy comes on Sunday, and Sadie loves to have a hat made for her...





Another lovely view of the farm from the deck...
Look for Vermont pictures in the next week or two!

More random photo albums

So, I decided to be less lazy this time. Instead of linking directly to a Facebook album, I resized my ginormous photos and loaded them in. Too many media sources... I wish there was one button I could push that could replicate my photos across the Internet landscape.

We have a new toy! After years of talking about it, we finally broke down and purchased a pop-up camper. We got a great deal for a 2002 Starcraft, and immediately took it out for the weekend. We met the Boyers in Hanging Rock State Park, and a few other folks came up for the day. The weather was perfect.

Our campsite. You can see our camper in the distance. It is lightweight enough that our minivan had no problem towing it along.
Where are my manners? Sadie shows off her banana.

The back of the camper.
One view of the inside. The camper has a queen bed, a king bed, a stove, a sink, and a dinette/sofa area.
A view of the other side.
We decided to name her "Bettie".
Kids seem to like the camper. Redmond joked that he was going to open a day care facility in this thing. Jen is reading a book to Henry, Molly and Claudia, and Sadie is off in the distance contemplating swinging on a bar.
This is Hidden Falls. I think. The falls are starting to run together now. I guess, literally, they eventually do.
Behind Window Falls.
Molly, Alex, Claudia and Josh, behind Window Falls.
Claudia, Brian and Lila. Unfortunately, the Philpott/Valentine clan were unable to camp due to family illness, so Brian came with Lila for the day.

Sadie on the slippery rocks.
Molly, Josh, Sadie and Redmond. I tried not to panic when Sadie navigated the rocks.
The water was wicked cold.
Hidden Falls.

Henry, Sadie and Lila, off to hike.
Alex, Molly and Sadie.
Last weekend, James and Emily paid a surprise visit to the Triangle area. Sadie was thrilled to have a chance to see Pippa and Rowan again, and we headed over to a friend's house for a potluck.

Alex, Molly and Henry appear to be sword-wielding wizards.
Sadie is a harmonica-playing, sword-wielding Viking. This was right before she fell down the stairs and ended up with a boo-boo on her cheek. Note that she already has one boo-boo on her cheek from running into a tree at preschool. She's a klutz like her Mommy.
Sadie as a monster.
Rowan has grown so much! She was just barely one when we last saw her. She looks just like her older sister!
Missy with Josie. She's six months old now. What a cutie!
Alex the wizard.
Pippa is one of the few toddlers her age I know who will actually pose for the paparazzi. Sadie still looks away.
Hailey, Claudia and Pippa.
So, it's Redmond's Lordy, Lordy birthday. I promised I wouldn't take out a "Lordy, Lordy" ad in the newspaper. We have an annual tradition of having Sadie help Redmond blow out the candles on his cake. This year, there are only two candles to blow out- a 4 and a 0!

Mom and Dad came over to help eat the birthday cake- I mean, to help Redmond celebrate. My Dad has lost a ton of weight this year, btw.
I have no idea what game Sadie is playing here, but it's pretty silly!
Dad and Sadie.
Redmond was working on Sadie's baseball skills at the park on Sunday. She hit the ball 2 out of 5 times. She insisted on wearing a dress, so she looks a wee bit silly. BTW, I have to be a stalker for a second here. We had a picnic at the park, and John and Elizabeth Edwards and their family were a couple of picnic benches away from us. Their kid's baseball team was having a huge cookout. I would have snuck a picture, but a few of the parents knew Redmond from his school and came over to chat, and I would have felt a little desperate and weird. Elizabeth looked tired and sad, but I might just be projecting here. I don't want to politicize this blog, as I have family of all political stripes, but I'll just say that I was once rather fond of Edwards, and I tend to not care much about the personal lives of politicians, but what he did to his dying wife was so beyond the pale that even I was turned off.
Random playground pictures...