Hooray for Friday!

Seriously.  After today, we actually get to the BG's one normal month of "summer."  I'm sure the 4 weeks will fly by--and, let's not kid ourselves, he's still going to go into school for 4-5 hours each day--but at least there's nothing BIG going on.  Unlike this week, when they've run a youth camp and he's left the house at 6 AM and gotten home in the evening very, very tired.

I don't even have to run a camp to be ready for a nap but I've been working to balance the snoozing with some domestic pursuits.  As you can imagine, the bills associated with moving are not something to be excited about.  We still haven't gotten an electric bill yet so I'm reserving my freakout about that, but the credit card bills have shown their scary faces and I'm now trying to buckle down and make dinner at home to save a few sheckles that way.  I just planned meals/cooked for 4 nights in a row which might be a new record.  But it's fun to have a more open (and nicely updated) kitchen space in which to try new recipes.  I allowed myself to sign into Pinterest yesterday and pretty much decided I should cook all the time.  But then I'd eat all the time.  And then I'd cry all the time that my clothes don't fit!!   ;-)  Everything in moderation, right?

B has been in VBS this week.  There are two Methodist churches very near us but they both did VBS last week which didn't work for us with our visiting Texas family.  Thank goodness my love for culinary adventure allowed me to drive by an unfamiliar church on my way to locate a bagel place a few weeks ago!  The Lutheran church had a big banner for "Sky" VBS, which I knew is what many Methodist churches were doing, so I came home and signed him up online!  He's been super excited to go each morning and we listen to "You, you, you...you can trust God!" on the accompanying CD pretty much all the time when he's home!     Camille likes to bust a move when any music comes on, which makes me realize how silent a life I lead.  I like music just fine but I don't need it and pretty much never turn it on.  I need to be a bit more intentional about exposing them to tunes since we might just have a budding dancer in our midst!  And, we can only hope, a 3rd-generation clarinetist...right, Opa?  HA!

That's my scoop.  Hope all is well with each of you. Happy Friday!

Static-y Fun

Chris recently sent me these pics from a playground playdate we had a month or so ago (hence the long sleeves on C). Her hair just makes me giggle!

Of course, she has every reason to be skeptical when she's hanging out with those W boys who "love her" to death:

Half-smile?

Sweet B had a good time, too!

Lifting

B still continues to memorize anything and everything he can.  Most recently, it's been the videos of the BG's football players in the weight room:


*Apologies for the non-Sheils-approved word to describe one's derriere-- while we don't use that word, it is what the weight training coach in the video says and B's just reciting his lines!  :-) 

And he did have a captive audience!

The Throne

Well, I know what to do if we're ever bored and looking for some entertainment for Miss C:

We'll just put a car seat out on the floor.

With all the switching of kids between cars while family was here, there was often one car seat or another sitting on the living room floor.  She could not get ENOUGH of climbing in there to hang out.  Silly girl.

Best Hand-Me-Down EVER!

If you've been reading this blog across more than one summer, you've likely seen the big blue(ish green) pool.  Given to us by a colleague of the BG, it is now in its 4th summer of providing entertainment, which would be kinda hard to believe if not for evidence.

We pulled it out on Saturday for its inaugural usage at the new house, and apparently Rachel later told her parents that, of all the amazing sights and scenes they'd seen along their travels, the pool/slide was the highlight of her trip so far!

Here's what I saw when I came outside:

The crew:

Alas, the 4.5 year old STILL shivers unceasingly due to his lack of body fat.  He told us he was "just gonna shake for a little bit" and occasionally would halt the slide progress of his cousins to "do some swimming" in the pool to warm up!

Little sister seemed to enjoy the party!

Her Turn

Since CJK goes to bed around 6:30 PM, she's been missing out on the evening cousin fun.  It was perfect timing, then, that a friend just sent me some snaps from a party we attended last week so I could feature her today!

Okay, fine, these guys were there, too:

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

I Blame Them For The Heat

You locals know how it got reaaaaaaaally hot all of a sudden??   I think we can point fingers at our Texas family who arrived Tuesday and brought it with them!!  

Okay, maybe not.  But I hate that they came for Texas-like weather when it barely got out of the 70s for days on end just before.

At least the kids are having lots of cousin time!

The BG's sister and her family are staying at a hotel but Grandma and one "lucky" niece/nephew per night are bunking with us.  Tuesday night was Jackson's turn and the boys had some quality book time with Grandma before bed:

Last night was Rachel's turn.  She's 6 months older than B and they've had big adventures running all over....and maybe sweating a bit!   They were much less glistening last summer but probably not having quite as much fun!!

Playing Favorites

First child gets a soft beanbag:

The second one has to stay in a crate:

(We had to sell the beds to afford the new house!!)

As If We Didn't Eat Enough Already...

Sometimes you just gotta have cake!

Playing Around (And Eating, Obvs)

Our local elementary school (which is a definite bus ride away since we're on the fringes of the enrollment area, but it is in the same cluster that feeds into the BG's high school) has a fabulous big playground area with 3 different playscapes and a climbing wall:

We decided an early-morning (defined as being in between wake-up at 7/7:30 AM and Camille's still-taken morning nap at 9/9:30 AM) adventure yesterday was a good plan.  But we needed sustenance and preferably of the non Dunkin Donut kind, so we trekked out to what appears to be the only local donut shop anywhere around.  (Oh, Texas, how I miss your talents with ever-present fried tastiness!!)

Verdict:  satisfactory on the whole.  Strangely not very sweet and not as melt-in-your-mouthy as I would like, but decent Long John (RIP Crystal City Bakery) and very tasty apple fritter.   Everyone enjoyed the breakfast treats...although it looks here like Mr. B didn't appreciate Miss C getting more bites:

There was some game-playing:

And "I think I'm a big kid" behavior:

And basically just a beautiful morning adventure:

This fun came on the heels of a tasty dinner adventure Saturday night with our long-lost ex-neighbors who came to hang out.   Baby Girl W should be arriving in the next couple of weeks.  (Don't worry-- Mama Jen was only showcasing, not drinking, the "Essay" wine that Dr. Chris brought to pay homage to my nerdiness!):

Gotta love a guy who runs around catching fireflies with the boys (instead of, you know, treating high-risk pregnancies/delivering babies like he normally does):

Hooray for food, family, friends, and fun!

Shock

I know many of you Baylor Bears likely spent last night as I did: heart-wrenchingly sad about the tragedy in our dear friend's family.   With her big hair and even bigger zest for life, Ro became one of my first friends at Baylor where we lived on the same hall freshman year.

Her older sister, brother-in-law, and 7-month old great-niece were in a serious car wreck yesterday.  Her brother-in-law passed away; her sister has a fractured back, and the precious baby was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Dallas where she is on life support.    The family is praying for a miracle.  I join them in that, and also in praying for the very close-knit family itself that has to deal now with unimaginable devastation.

Be safe out there on the roads.  So scary.

Attic Treasures

We bought our house from an investment partnership (1/2 realtor, 1/2 construction guy) which had bought the house as an estate sale from whom we assume were longtime owners.  Those people left all kinds of junk in the attic including a desk that I have absolutely no idea how they got up the stairs.  Is it like building a ship in a bottle??!

When the crew was over on Saturday night, the BG brought down some loot that we hoped would be a perfect fit for Annie Kate: an extensive collection of ladies shoes exactly her size!  Turns out, however, that the style wasn't quite right!  :-)  We know the lady really liked the lovely lavender ones AKHG is modeling-- she also had them in white, tan, and navy!

You'll also notice the Christmas decoration....that we probably won't be putting in the yard!!

Laundry And A Bug

So here's the deal with the laundry question:  I mentioned in a post last Friday that there were some issues with the old washer and dryer that are here.  The main problem with the washer is that the liquid fabric softener (which I, along with only a handful of you, use!) doesn't get released from its little cup.  We've tried taking it off the agitator and cleaning it out in case it was a clogging issue but still no luck.

I realize, in the grand scheme of things, this is not a big deal.  In fact, our original washer at the old house didn't even have a dispenser so I spent several years keeping an ear out for when the rinse cycle started so I could add it in.  Why didn't I just switch to dryer sheets?  Not sure about that one.  I do use them occasionally, but I'm thinking Sheils must use liquid softener so it just seemed like what one should do.

Well, I was chatting the other night with some friends and was asked about my laundry issues.  When I told them, they each seemed utterly shocked that I even use fabric softener, liquid or otherwise.  Something about it being laden with chemicals, too much of a bother, and that it's actually bad for towel absorbency.

Color me stunned.

I am happy to learn, however, that at least the responsive part of my loyal readership tends toward using softeners of some kind.  HOORAY-- maybe I'm not such a strange duck after all....at least on this topic!  :-)

In completely unrelated news, this girl loves her some bug glasses:

I Know It's A Shock

But it's POLL TIME!!!!!   

It's been so long that I had to remember how even to add a poll to this ole blog.  Hope you'll join in the discussion and let me know whether my own laundry habits are as bizarre as I've recently discovered they may be!!  

Visitor Central

For as lazy as we often are on weekends, we sure were overachievers (of FUN) this past one!!   We saw Grammie and Opa Friday, Saturday, and Sunday-- twice at our place and once at "theirs," a hotel near Geoff's film set.

The little miss loves snuggling with her Grammie:

 But who invited this crazy guy?

Betwixt all the Moore visiting, we got to have dinner with some out-of-towners.  Well, 2/3 of them live away: Anne's brother, Greg, actually lives not even 10 minutes from our new house!   We were so excited that Anne & Adam came to town for the weekend so we could introduce them to the new abode.

I made the "cheesiest thing ever" (according to Greg) which is this amazing baked-in-a-bread-bowl dip that I learned from Lindsay whom I think got it from Rachel...?   Anyway, the others rudely devoured it while I was slaving over our shrimp/feta/basil orzo main dish but they kindly left me with the bottom of the bowl.  I didn't complain!!

A&A brought some celebratory champagne from a fine Finger Lakes winery so we could pretend that we were back in the old Corning stomping grounds!

We're pretty pleased with our new stomping grounds, though...and so happy to share it with fabulous friends!

It'll Happen Eventually, Right?

Unpacking, that is.

We pretty quickly got to a place where we had unpacked the necessities to get by.  Unfortunately, that still leaves a ton of boxes around the house but not a ton of incentive to deal with them.  Not one thing is hanging on a wall, either.  It's gonna take some time.

Speaking of time-- I spent cumulatively more than 3 hours on the phone with Comcast during the past week to try to fix a little technical issue with accessing our voicemail through the internet.  It took 5 different calls.  How do people do these kinds of tasks when working at a job that doesn't allow personal phone calls?  And it's not like this was even something important, like the bajillion calls that are often required for sorting out medical/insurance issues.   Ugh.   I guess I'm just happy that I can take care of such details but, really, being on the phone that long is exhausting stuff!

Our "new" abode was built in 1965 but just completely redone by an investment partnership so it's as close to living in a newly-built space as we likely will ever get.  Pretty much everything has just been replaced, including all the kitchen appliances.  We've discovered, however, that brand new doesn't necessarily mean better/bigger than the appliances in our last house.  We replaced both the range and the dishwasher there and, while they were nothing particularly fancy, they each had more room than these new ones.  The washer and dryer here are decidedly NOT new and I've already discovered annoying malfunctions with each one that portend some appliance purchases in the not far-off future.  Which is not fabulous news given the current state of our credit card bill!  ;-)

BTW, in this part of the country, people tend to leave fridges, washers, and dryers-- unlike in Texas where I know you often take those appliances with you. Of course, we now wish we'd reported on our house listing forms that we were taking the W&D (which we also replaced) with us--as well as the fridge since it would have made a great second one for the basement--but, alas, hindsight is 20/20 and all those other platitudes.

I've been struggling with the whole "this furniture doesn't go in THIS space" issue but have mostly come to terms with the current layout.  When the little miss stops drooling so much, we'll likely move the upstairs red living room furniture downstairs to replace the sad, drooping couch that we bought in 2001 with wedding gift cards.  Then we can get furniture that better fits this new space.  More immediately, we need a big table for the quasi-dining room (not a separate room but the back part of the living room) but our kitchen table sitting there temporarily isn't as offensive as I had feared!

Really, we're just thrilled to be here.  The BG came home yesterday for a couple of hours before an evening event and that never would've happened before.  I know he's happy to sleep "in" until 5:15 instead of getting up at 4:50 AM....and even happier that school is over in a week and he won't have to set an alarm at all!!   It's such a light and bright space and is so welcome after our more dungeon-like last dwelling, as wonderful a home as it was for 8.5 years.  Onward and upward, right?!

This girl seems pretty happy about it all:

Hope the weekend brings you as big a grin!

Breakfast With B

Who wants to go brush their teeth now??!!

What a Class

Can you imagine having THIS bunch in school?

  (PS: I think if you click on the pic, it's not so blurry.)

I'm still trying to figure out who's winning Most Likely to Succeed, Class Clown, Prettiest Eyes, Biggest Slacker, and Best Dressed!

First Cut

What is that, way out yonder?

 One REALLY happy boy!!!

(okay, maybe two!)

Familiar

I spent the weekend undercover.



I got called "emilymoore" (one word, rolls right off the tongue) so many times during wedding events for this happy couple that I began to look around for my bass clarinet and hall pass. I actually love that there will always be people who refuse to use my "new" name (nevermind that it's been almost 11 years) because it makes up for the continuous realization that there is an ever-growing assortment of my friends who never knew that girl.  As over-the-top worried about insignificant things as she was (was?  ha!), she had it pretty together!!  I occasionally get bummed that people who have met me since what, let's be honest, might have been my peak think I'm just a big lump who sits at home and relives the old days through a blog.  Wait......!!!!  :-)

I arrived in Corning just about an hour before the wedding early Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a blissful 24 hours with no dependents to worry about.  I didn't want to deal with my camera so I have exactly 0 good pictures from the weekend.  Thank goodness I can steal some from FB pages:

(If you look immediately in front of the guy in the gray suit on the lower left, you'll see me leaning WAY out into the aisle.  Emily and T sure know how to fill a church!)

Leaving the church!  Check out those Corning hills in the background!

Anne did a fabulous job with her MOH duties.  The poise and projection she showed during her toast clearly came from her days on the high school stage in the 1996 performance of Neil Simon's Rumors!

 A blurry Emily-sandwich picture the morning after.  Emils's bridal coif still looks gorgeous, and Anne is modeling one of her dresses brought to her by T's family in Ghana!

 emilymoore approves of this weekend!!   Best wishes to the newlyweds-- hope you still keep a room for us at your Inn!!!

PS:  BIG SHOUT-OUT to blog stalker Amy Wheaton White!  HEY THERE!!!   :-)  My time with you and Sarah on the bus ranks up there as a highlight of the weekend-- too bad loyal blog reader Marie missed out on all the fun!!  

Why, Yes, I AM Going To Wear Them!

Big D sent us Dust Mop Slippers!


(alas, I have NO idea where my left toes are. I don't really have a crazy giant right foot!!)

Happy Friday!