Kool Fireside Chat

Some people find a fireside to be a wonderful place to relax. We don't build too many fires in our fireplace through the winter, but we do in the summer at the outdoor firepit. Its not quite summertime yet, but the firepit has been used throughout the winter (not by me... not once).

Lizzy had some friends over a few weeks ago for s'mores around the fire and then a movie on the trampoline. Aaah good times in the cold night air. So they each had their own blanket, some from the attic and closets, and a few from the wicker basket. I had about 13 blankets to wash because they all smelled like a bon fire and were dragged through the dirt and woods. NICE!!

About a week later, the trampoline gave way to a huge rip right down the middle. Thankfully no one was hurt. The winter was brutal on that old thing. Now its been dismantled and on its way to the dump. (Did I mention that one set of legs completely broke off a few days after that?) DANGEROUS!

Now that the trampoline is gone we have a wonderful new area of the yard to use. So, Luke decided to move the brick firepit over to the nice, level, cleared spot... a place where there are less spiders and creepy crawlers to worry about because it gets more sunlight during the day. And the neighbor boys did a fine job of clearing all the leaves out. Next thing Luke decided was to purchase a yard wagon that could also be pulled behind his quad. His new toy. He's been gathering firewood from the woods, wouldn't you know. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck...?

I'm really looking forward to this summer. There is still a lot of work to do around here in preparation, which I'm not necessarily looking forward to. This weekend we will be getting a load of mulch, and when I say "a load"... HOLY MACKEREL!!! Hopefully, the neighbor boyz will be by for some more money-making, back-breaking work. Last year its was just Terry, Caleigh, and me along with my parents (who are in the mid 70s but very strong and spry) spreading that stuff throughout. It was a HUGE amount of work!!!

The pool won't be open until mid-June most likely. It doesn't get warm enough here to swim until about then. However, Peppermint begs to differ. She is already taking full baths in the water, She runs out on the cover and as it dips down into the water the rolls around like a bird. The she runs to the perennials and rolls in the grass and dirt to dry off. DOGGIE DOOR FLAP IN PLACE!

Anika is finishing up her first year of college this week and coming home on Tuesday. Let the fighting over the king-size bed begin. She and Lizzy adore each other, but not when it comes to the bed territory. If it weren't for "Messy Jess" aka LIZZY, covering the bed with every piece of electronics and clothing and bags and shoes from her closet, it would be big enough to sleep all four of the girls, so I don't know what they are arguing about. But they will have to fight it out. Anika has landed a great nanny job for the summer which may even bring her to Canada and other places of travel. Woohoo. Also, Jolene is coming in July, so we have some rearranging of bedrooms to do before then.

Finally, the artwork has been hung!! HOORAY!!! Its a major accomplishment. We purchased several pieces at the auction on our cruise to Bermuda last year, but it took forever to get them up on the wall. I was able to get one up in the bathroom once that reno was done.  (Its actually my favorite one). But then we had to paint the family room with an accent wall before hanging the others. I like the one orange wall against the paintings. Its pretty cool. We just need to get the other three walls in the room changed from the light green to a cream-white. That wasn't all though. There were three more paintings that needed to be hung.  We put them up in the kitchen, in place of our wonderful, but 5 years outdated, family pictures. I will say, the kitchen walls REALLY need painting. Once all of that happens I will be happy. Nah. I'm happy anyway. But you know what I mean.

P.S. Lots of prayers are being made for baby Beckham who has had his second successful open heart surgery since his early birth in December. He has a journey ahead of him yet, but its been a beautiful story so far. I'm also praying for a friend who has had a recent and unexpected loss which is very sad, but I believe God will bring joy in the morning. And in addition, another dear friend, Melanie, would love prayer for her father, John, who was just diagnosed this week with stage 4 liver cancer. We believe it can be beat. Nothing is impossible with God!! For all you prayer warriors, please lift these requests to the Lord.

School is Winding Down

School is winding down which means a ton of events are taking place and my kids are going in every direction. It also means I have to catch my breath whenever I have a moment. 

The pool is open and although it was very green and slimy last Sunday when we took the cover off, it was blue after a day, and today its clear and balanced.

AND the chairs... that we left in the pool all winter... they are white.

I only had to hose them off. No bleach. No scrubbing. Woot Woot!!!

Meanwhile, in between all the outdoor projects, I've been killing the tips of my fingers with the glue gun and with the constant bending of card stock paper to make flower petals. This has been a rewarding project. I found it on pinterest. I'm making the flower balls for Anika's graduation party which we are having here at the house. I had to add a little touch of decoration, because its the only bit of decoration I'm planning to do. Its on to cleaning, setting up and cooking the food. Oh wait! I don't know how to cook. Only Terry does!!! (If you don't know that joke, just go back a few posts).

Sunday was the Teeny Awards which similar to the Tony's only its for local high school students who perform theater here on Long Island. There were nominations for all the categories and the red carpet with interviews and performances during the ceremony. Jennah performed with a vocal jazz group called Music Master's Fellowship under the direction of Lauren Kinhan. It was an excellent and glorious experience. I am so happy and proud of them.

This is the group being interviewed for LI News Channel. Dang. I picked the blurry picture. (Too late. Not going to change it now. I have cleaning to do).

Here they are on stage performing Moonglow.

Beau (Anika's beau) was nominated for two and awards and won two awards. Best set design (he was the only nominee, but that only meant he was the only student to do the entire set design out of all the participating schools) and also for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. I was very proud of him.

Our PTO Year End BBQ was on Friday. It was a competitive Kickball game, then Talent Show, then Food. I wasn't going to play kickball. I was only going to take pictures, but they easily lured me in. LOL. I pitched the ball. Good times. We won, of course. Teachers/Parents/Seniors vs about 1000 7-11th grade Students. haha

Photo bomb

Caleigh and Jaden

 This is me taunting the other team with the moonwalk.

For the talent show the kids did a great job. Jennah and India sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Glee version)

Caleigh played  a piano solo I taught her. She was the only one to do something different than singing. Go Caleigh!!

Jennah and Lizzy did a beautiful duet, but I can't remember the name of it. Lovely sisters.

Lizzy is back to normal, BTW, in case you wondered about her.

The annual field day was on Tuesday of last week. Caleigh was disappointed that the red team came in second place.

She's competitive. Don't know where she gets it from.

Took some portfolio shots of India for a TV show audition she was going to.

So when she's famous, remember where you came to know of her. Right here folks (except for you locals... )

Beyond the events listed and photo journaled--you do know that I take all these pics so I can remember what really happened over the past several daze?!

My parents are coming on Wednesday and staying for the summer.

Anika is graduating on the 24th and her party is on the 22nd. Other family members are coming for graduation. I have a feeling its all going to be a blur. I'm doing fine, but every day there is something else and I have this tendency to try and avoid things.. like cleaning. But dagnabbit if over the weekend I didn't get behind the stupid backyard fence (I had to climb over) into the woods to weed out every bit of that blasted mile-a-minute weed. And I was already terribly sore from the kickball game. So after the weeding, I was not only sore, but also itchy, tick-phobia-ridden and scratched up everywhere. The invasive weed is easily to pull but very prickly!

So that's all. That's my life lately. Now I have some major cleaning to do upstairs where my parents will be staying. Luke stayed there for an entire year without ever dusting once. YIKES!!! Oops. I guess I should never expose my kids that way in a public genre. I'll be expecting a private email of rebuke shortly.

Lots of Stuff...

I slept well last night! Hooray. I guess getting up early is one way to be sure my eyes will close easier in the evening. Of course, there are never guarantees of that. What happens if I get up early and still can't sleep well that night? The next day won't be pretty. But yesterday morning, it was a risk I was willing to take. 

Well, I normally get up about 7:15, so getting up an hour earlier is not a big deal, but after a bit of coffee I was actually out the door. That part is different. I headed down to Long Beach.

I was there to watch the big time triathlon race, and cheer on my friend Joe. The first heat started about 6:30. I'm not sure of the exact distances, but the swim was I think one mile, the bicycling was 27.5 miles and the run was 6 miles.

There were about 5 or 6 heats, so the roads could handle it and whatnot. The swimming was crazy. I was told that you sometimes get kicked in the head and hit by a flying arm and its hard to see where you're going. It was the coolest thing to watch hundreds and hundreds of arms and feet flying through the water. If I ever decided to participate in one of these races (out of some streak of insanity) I would just do the swimming leg of the race. You can split up the three legs of the race with a team if you want. But its been a very very long time since I swam a mile. I'd need to do a lot of conditioning. Does anyone want to pay me to start training and conditioning?

After the mile long swim, down to the last buoy and back, the swimmers came out of the water shedding their wet suits, swim caps and googles as they ran to their bikes. The bikes were parked along the parking lot of Long Beach, about 1,000 deep. Once they got to their bike they dried off, grabbed their helmets and shoes, hydrated for a second and sped off through the next starting gait.

Joe was our guy!!! #945. He had been training all summer for the race. He's disciplined like that. The clique puts Joe on a pedestal! HAHA. We gave him an especially good birthday spanking  through "the machine" last week, just to get him ready for the bike leg of the race. I think his bum tingled for daze.

Here Joe was coming around the corner to the finish line!! YAY!!! As said he rehearsed the lines in his head for Mice and Men (he'll be performing as George when it opens next week) throughout the biking and running portion. It helped him keep his mind off the cramps and pain of the race. Joe is an amazing actor btw and not only is he lead role in a show opening next week, he actually had rehearsal to go to after the race was over. WHAT???!!! Sicko.

But seriously, Yay Joe. He finished the whole race in under 3 hours!!! Its very impressive. I gave him an early trophy for his birthday last week. It was of a white fist. I think he's remembering it here during his victory pose!

Marathoners amaze me. I was proud of each and every person out there who participated. Especially the triathletes who did the whole thing from start to finish. Joe was the only one I knew personally, who entered the race.

Mr. Shark was happy to have been there, as well.

After the race I got ready to go out with a dear friend of 22 years, to help celebrate her 50th birthday with some other girls. Woot! Woot! I met 6 new girls who were CRAZY!! And I mean that in a fun way. We took a limo to the winery and out to dinner (we are so fancy) and I learned a lot of things about limo rides that I never knew about. Oh the hilarity of it all.

The restaurant was on the water. It was good thing that we had the outside dining area to ourselves. I'm just sayin'. Good times!

My friend, Karen is the second one from the right. I think she had a great night.

A day earlier...

I helped Terry take pictures at one of the amazing houses he built, because a renter is coming in and the owner just wanted a quick view of the rooms before the tenants moved in. I think the owner will especially like this picture I took at one of the wet bars.

This master bedroom suite is what I'd want in my house with the view of the meadow, or I'd even take a view of the ocean or the bay. I'm not picky.

And then there's the master bath. The tub looks like a deviled egg without the yellow, doesn't it? I betcha Lady Gaga has a tub like this. I'd be satisfied with a tub like that.

Earlier in the day (I'm going backwards chronologically--kinda) was a bit of "me and Caleigh" time at the Harbor Fest. She really didn't WANT to go to the Harbor Fest. She WANTED to go play tennis. But I really didn't WANT to go play tennis. Ay yi yi. I wanted to hear Brian play with the Community Band. They are truly very good. She didn't really remember Brian so all she did was complain that she needed ice cream and a bottle of water and it was too hot and her ankle hurt and she wanted to play tennis.

The complaining didn't make the outing all that much fun or memorable. Thank you Caleigh.

She did like this part. She was checking out the coast guard rescue boat. We could go on it and look all around. This is her in the "cockpit" and I was outside shooting through the windshield.

The festival happens every year on the Long Wharf in Sag Harbor. There are tours and boat races and lots of tents and merchants and food.

Someone offered to take our picture and wanted me to take theirs. Me thinks the lady would have done better with the iPhone camera. The sun was soooo bright too.

After visiting the SoFo tent (Suffolk Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center) which happens to be right up the street from our house, Caleigh immediately wanted to go there. If she wasn't going to get to play tennis that day, she at least wanted to do that. Because apparently the Harbor Fest didn't really count as anything fun.

We didn't go to the museum. Instead went to the house with the hardboiled-eggwhite tub. She actually liked that. We brought water bottles and snacks and popcorn. She brought tennis racquets just in case.

OK. That about sums up my weekend. The pool is slowly, but surely closing down for the winter. The diving board and ladder and handrail are out and considering a descent into the bowels of the basement. The volleyball net is down. BOOOOO!! I took a swim last night with some of the party girls. We asked the limo to stop at my house. It may have been the last swim for the summer... but maybe not. One never knows around here. There could be yet, one more backyard party to host.

Who's Going to Close the Pool?

It's full of acorns and turning green again. No one even steps foot out back at this point, because the weather has turned Fall-ish and they are all doing they're homework. (Everyone has lots of homework to start off their school year).

A big storm came through last night. Our gutters have been full since last winter, so... well... it's a mess. Everything is a mess all around the house. Mud just splatters up from the ground where the gutters hang, which is over the doors and windows. And instead of it being a work day on the home front this weekend, its another volunteer day at the school's greenhouse. The following weekend is a mandatory post-orientation for Jolene, somewhere beyond the city. I don't know how or when the pool is going to be dealt with. BURDEN!

This past Monday morning I was clued to an audition for a Cole Porter musical, which was happening Monday evening. It didn't take me long to decided that I should go. I didn't exactly have long to decide! I spent the day getting "some" work done but trying to prepare something to sing for the audition. They asked for a Cole Porter, which I didn't exactly have in my back pocket. Very few showed for the audition, but we still had fun. I think I did well... I guess. Anyway, when hearing that rehearsals would be M-F, 6-9 for 4 weeks, I woke up the next day on a mission. I had to get things done at home and be prepared and make sure the house was in order, so no one would ever have a reason to "forbid me" from doing another show. I vacuumed like a crazy woman (I finally got the vacuum part I needed which I suppose inspired me) and hunted down all the spider webs and dusted, etc. I even MOPPED!!! It was a serious cleaning day for me. Laundry, changing sheets, scrubbing bath tubs, scrubbing the kitchen, cleaning window sills and windows and fans that have been running non-stop all summer!!! NO ONE EVEN NOTICED!!! They were all busy doing homework. I had dinner in the crock pot so I could go to at least one of Jennah's volleyball games before my rehearsals kicked in.

So someone tell me... how I can swing doing the pool closing and cleaning out the gutters too. You may ask, "Where's Terry? Where are the kids in all of this?" Kids are doing homework (haha--but not Nate). Nate did mow the lawn... but he's also still working at the restaurant and MAINLY PLAYING!!! Terry has been bringing in the jobs--WOOT WOOT. It's been a very, very good month with lots of blessings on each bid that's gone out, each one coming back with a "YES". So that, and him taking two Saturdays to donate time for the school greenhouse construction... this Saturday-time is a big sacrifice. It's our own crucial time for getting the outdoor work done... but I can't fix that. We make these sacrifices because we feel it is part of our duty within the community.

One good thing for me is the postponement of the show. It was going to happen in 4 weeks--hardly any time at all to "make it happen"--but its been decided to move the performance dates to January 6-9 & 13-16. The roles will be cast later, after a second audition in October (and yes, I have been called back). Things just had to be changed midstream so more interest could be drummed up. I've been on my drum.

As for today... I'm going to see how many acorns I can net out of the pool. More will fall before the day is done, but we'll be one step closer... every step helps, right? Even if it goes unnoticed.

Caleigh's Pet Frog... or is it toad?

His name is Gespacho.

He lives in our pool and garden, and he's always around... every single day. Caleigh plays with him every day. She puts him in buckets. She takes him out and makes him hop into the pool. She pets him. She swims with him. He hasn't run away yet.

There is much food available for him at the pool. I was hoping he would snatch that fly while I was watching. I guess he wasn't hungry.

(Updated) Pool Rules

~written by Caleigh for Elizabeth's 6th grade graduation party and transcribed exactly as written

1. NO pretend drounding



2. no tugging


3. NO tripping



4. NO playing dead


5. NO hitting

(save screaming for when your really heart)
________________________________
No one said anything about NO trying to throw the fully-dressed 6th grade teacher in the pool and in the tussle falling off the steps into a heap on the bluestone patio, only to hear some rumbling thunder nearby and quickly getting everyone out of the pool just in time for a huge rogue lightening bolt to strike a mere 200 yards away.

Did you like that nice long sentence?