A Wedding We'll Never Forget

What a great weekend we had!!  Leah and Amanda finally made it official and tied the knot.  In North Carolina. On the beach.  During a major hurricane.  If you're going to do it, do it big, right?!?!


I won't lie, I was nervous.  I mean, Matthew (we're on a single name basis now, since we've literally felt each other), had killed hundreds of people in Haiti and other islands before we left to drive down.   Florida was telling people to leave the state, it was going to hit at a Cat 4 or 5.  South Carolina was telling people to go 150+ miles inland, and North Carolina were telling people to stock on up on their liquor and water, that we'd miss a majority of it.  Until we didn't.  


First, the wedding photos!   See that backdrop?  Sheets.  See the bunting above it?  Fitted sheets.  It's amazing what you can throw together in a few hours when you have white sheets and ribbons. =)    Adam has the good photos,  check out his FB page!

Not a bad spread.  This is pre-reception

The sheets tied up nicely, to get to the kitchen

Pretty, right?!?!

                                                                              The paparazzi showed up full force.  Obviously I was not a part of the crew, as these are all the non blurry (shush, I know some are still blurry) that I got on my crap-tastic phone.   Deal with it.  Adam and Drew got some goodies in there.   

 

 I'm pretty proud of the dress blowing photo though.   Go me!   The BBQ was fantastic.  Well done!

 

OK, back to the hurricane.   It ended up hitting land in South Carolina.  Not far from where we were.  We were in Ocean Isle, NC.  A cute little island in the southern part of NC.  Very southern part.  About 1/2 hour away from South Carolina.   We got some wind.  A little bit.

Day before the hurricane hit

They probably never broke.  We got a lot of wind outside, but inside was calm. 

Later, the sign said 'Went for a swim' or something like that

I love 'us' even though my camera might not.

So after our wedding run to the beach.  (Why? We're idiots.  I'd have killed my kids if they did it.  Wind, rain, roof tiles and siding flying through the air (none got within 15' of us though).   But we're in our wedding attire and ran to the beach, haha.

Check out those waves!  I mean, damn, this is the Atlantic!   Some were easily 8 feet tall, and they were one after the other after the other. 

I can never get videos to work.  Maybe the image at the beginning will show.  It was windy.

We ended up not losing power until after the wedding, after the nice dinner.  We cleaned up in the dark, played some Cards Against Humanity and went to bed.   Most of us went out to the beach to check out what Matthew delivered.  Lots of Starfish, huge shells, sunglasses, a beach chair, and tons of other things, haha.  

sitting on the beach chair we found

Lost some siding

The roads had obviously been covered with water the day prior.  we got out, but then it became submerged again.  And, (5 days later), most of the state is still under water.  Leah and Amanda had to go to South Carolina to get home.  They say they don't know when the waters will go back to normal, but that on Sunday, the rivers should go back to 'flood stage' (as opposed to super flood stage). 

This city was flooded when we passed it going home.  Apparently, a day later, the entire city was under water, as was the highway.  No one was able to get home the day after we did.

saw a ton of these babies! 



Lots of things

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted here.  What's gone on, what's gone on?  (Aside from Hurricane Matthew's Wedding Excitement.)  I honestly can't remember.  I hate my evenings and as of late, I can't remember a darned thing - so I'll show photos from my cell phone. 
OH!  The Indians swept the Red Sox in the first round of Playoffs.  The third game was a nail biter - but we maintained the lead and won the game.   This is going to be a great  year.  I'm loving it!!

My commute (and Adam's too) suck.  8 miles = 59 minutes.  (it's actually 33 miles, but this was 8 of those 32).   I ended up going a different route (that, about 40% of everyone else took, so it was still a long drive.  Once self driving cars get a little more inexpensive ($40K ish) I will buy one.  That's an extra 2 hours I can get things done while 'driving'. 



Adam tried to play on trick on the boys, asking if they wanted to get ice cream after dinner because Ares had just gotten a new toy and had been asking ALL evening if we could go home to play with it.   Trick on Adam, the boys wanted dessert instead.   Adam was the only one to finish his, the rest of us had eaten so much at BW3 that we couldn't finish.

These two love each other so much!

 

 

Science Sunday!

Science Sunday!

 

More Science Sunday

Chrissy and I made a Halloween countdown

just an average evening before bed.  Seriously, these boys

When he's not an asshole, he's an awesome helper.  We've had a VERY rough few days as of late.  If he's not getting his way, he will throw tanrums.  I don't give in, which then makes my life miserable.  (always in the 2 hours between me getting them, and Adam getting home from work.  Sometimes after he gets home).   He likes to brag that he can get 3 bags in each hand.  He did at my mom's house too. 



I'm starting to LOVE his new smile.   His teeth are starting to grow in a little nicer,
and he's past that kid smile (you know, the one I've not outgrown yet?). 

Ares' new trick move

They learned this in practice, so happy to see him actually execute during a game.  And a pass to a teammate to follow!

12 Years!!! Happy Anniversary!

Adam and I had a crazy weekend, but the best part was when we dropped the boys off at Aunt Cindy's, drove to Cleveland and had an adult evening!  We parked the car near playhouse square, and walked a few blocks to East 4th to the Chocolate bar. 
Due to the prior evening's Bachelorette party (Leah/Amanda), I had a cookies and cream milkshake to drink.  Adam had some great chocolate martini concoction.   Our dinner was ok.   Adam had a pasta with a white wine chocolate sauce, corn medley and I had blackened shrimp and a med rare sirloin, that I shared with adam.  (corn medley and potatoes for me as a side).  Our desserts were great though. He got some kind of chocolate brownie _____ and I got a strawberry sundae with a gross amount of home made whipped cream (which, I don't like) and an awesome amount of WHITE chocolate (my favorite) shavings.   This restaurant is a drinks and dessert type of place.  I wouldn't go for dinner again, unless I was with a group.   It was fun though!  
I found a woman's phone, credit card and cash in the bathroom stall there.  I text messaged a few people in her contacts to have them call someone with her, and then managed to deliver her phone to her at the restaurant.  go me.  

 After dinner, we got a drink at the pub next to the playhouse.   We got to sit and relax for about 40 minutes, before we went in to see Jersey Boys. 
What a fantastic musical.    We had a lot of fun, the songs and music and performance was great, and it was a perfect way to spend our anniversary.  We walked the streets, held hands, even watched the Indians' fireworks display after a terrible loss.   (The "magic number" is 1, so I'm confident we'll get there).

Happy 12th anniversary babydoll!   I love you!

GOOOOAAALL!!!!!



Ares had a rough morning, in that he didnt' want to participate in ANYTHING, but once the game started (because he didn't even do anything for pre-game warmup) he got into it.  He started, and had an AWESOME assist for the first goal.  It was beautiful.  He played well most of the game, and they were winning by so much, the coach required them to pass 4 times before they were allowed to shoot a goal.  Good for them.  He had an awesome 'bend it like Beckham' goal in the second half.   These boys are getting to be pretty good.  Hopefully they can keep up this hard work and still have fun!!

They held hands, it was too cute!!!!

still holding hands!

Ares Starts Well! A Turning Point?!

So far, it's been a good 2.75 days at school.  We've started running in the mornings (a mile, as that's 1-all I can do, and 2-all we have time for).  He's gotten some graded papers home, nearly every one of them perfect (one, he missed one thing).  We need to work on spelling, but he wrote 5 straight sentences today, and the teacher messaged me to tell me he's doing well!   

First Day of Soccer - Atlas

Atlas had his first practice EVER for soccer.  It was a riot!  This kid!  Spent all his life watching his brother, and now it's his turn to play.  All he wanted to do was dribble and kick into the goal.  He's hilarious, he still runs like a little baby, but handles the ball pretty well for just turning 3, haha.   He had so much fun and Ares was a great help for getting him excited to play. 

Camping - Labor Day

 

 We had a ton of fun camping this year.  We got out of the expensive primitive cabins and did the tent thing.   The boys got along great.  They play so well together. Atlas thinks he's 10, Ares acts like he's 5, it all works out in the end.

The kids played very well, aside from the morning of the last day - while we were packing up.  Ares and Eve were at each other's throats.  The argument?  Who ate more of the other families food.  Like really, who the heck cares?  (BTW, Eve definitely ate more of our food than Ares did theirs).  However, we packed plenty of food, plenty of snacks KNOWING that they'll be sharing, we never ran out of a single thing, (aside from Plums, but I actually told Eve 'no', because I knew we had limited amount, and she wasn't sure if she even liked them).   It was the most ridiculous argument ever.  If we were hurting for food, or only bought a tiny amount because it was expensive, sure, but man, this was ridiculous.   But funny.   See the photos below. 

 

 

But as you can see, it all got better not too long later.  Good thing, as they are in the same classroom and sit next to each other.  (Not sure I like that). 

On Monday, we packed up and headed home.  We went out to eat at Fun Buffet.  Atlas got a whole plate of food, ate a piece of TINY watermelon, and then promptly fell asleep.   Ah well.    Adam and I bottled our wine after the boys were in bed (Atlas around 6:30, Ares around 7:30). 

Ares' First Day of 2nd Grade

He wasn't really all that excited this year, but I was!  He humored me by taking the photos I asked for, but then politely, afterwards, asked if we didn't do it again until next year.  I told him that I get to take some on the last day of school, but I'll only take half the amount I did yesterday.  


He's in class with Mikayla, Eve and Kylie (S).  It's awesome that there's so many parents that we already know in the class.  Awesome that they get to eat lunch together and play at recess together. -OR- at least have someone there to play with if they wanted.  I'm pretty sure Ares played with some boys from his class last year.  They sat him next to Eve for the first day, but I'm not sure that was a good idea.  My guess is that lasts less than 1 week.  We'll see, and I'm perfectly OK with that.  






Ares had a rough day at school.  Rough enough that I got a call home from the teacher after class, about him not wanting to do one of the activities, and then crying quite hard at the end of the day when his project wasn't completed because he ran out of time.  His lack of ability to make decisions, and his perception of 'perfect' are killing him.   (Eyes should be circle if he liked addition better, but triangular if he likes subtraction better.  First it was 1) I don't like Math at all, I don't want eyes, then it was 2)I like subtraction better, but triangle eyes don't look right.   Turns out, there was a lot wrong with his perception (I'm not as smart as other people, I don't like to learn as much, I hate Math, blah blah blah).   He was MUCH better this morning when he woke up before school. We got a quick note from the teacher saying that he's had a better morning.  


The teacher does this www.classDojo website for behavior and notes to the parents/teacher.  It's amazing.  I get updates to the minute.  Great job class, for your bathroom behavior!  Ares, way to get a point for 'persistency'. I asked a question, and had an answer during the kids' lunch period.  I think I'm really going to like this teacher.  I'm sorry for her to have such a rough first day with Ares. 

We're Struggling

I haven't posted much recently, because we're having a rough go at 2nd grade.  It took ONE day (no, less than 1 day) before I get an email from the teacher.  Ares won't participate, listen, follow directions, do work, or anything.  It has gotten better, then worse, then better, and worse.  


There's a new webpage, called classdojo.com that the teachers uses to update parents with +1 for good behavior and -1 for poor behaviors.  He's gotten a few +1 no -1 last week, because she wasn't taking points away, but on day 3 of this week, we've already gotten a -1 for not doing classwork.  He got a +1 yesterday for 'Safety'.   I'll try and post photos of our pre school fun & excitement.  Where we were all happy, as opposed to my day 1 after school where I was so upset (correction - WE were so upset) that we could barely even contain ourselves.   Soccer has been just as bad (aside from Tuesday, it was a good soccer day).


Atlas' first day of preschool was fantastic.  He's loving it, and doing great. He's been beyond happy, and as combative as Ares has been, Atlas is just the opposite.  


More to come, when I am not exhausted and busy with work.