This and That

Life is skipping right along and as I was downloading pictures, I came across a few that made me smile…

Underwear on the head…does it get any funnier than that for an 8 year old?  Nope!

I had a little arm party going…I am liking the gold again…

The boys love to play “World Cupping”  It’s a game they made up where they basically walk  past each other, barely touching the other and they both fall down in mock agony.  It is really funny to watch… Until someone gets a knee to the stomach.

Have you seen this video? 

It may have inspired their game!

The Fantastic Four had a fun time playing like boys should!

We had a box and because Miller loves to play with boxes, I left it for him to play with.  It wasn’t long before Jackson read the fine print and wanted to know where the contents were!

Somebody made his daddy proud by reading the small print!

Thursday evening as we left soccer the most amazing moon was coming up.  As we drove home along the coast, I had to pull over and try to capture it.  The picture does no justice to the beauty, but it still reminds me of the breathtaking beauty around us!

Miller is finally getting the hang of the skateboard.

Jackson is getting better all the time! 

That reminds me I have to go find his knee pads!

What the Heck Wednesday—Ridin’ Island Style

Like all good children of the 70’s, we rode around in the back of trucks.  We also rode in cars with no seatbelts {in the backseat of course} station wagons and even our Grandmother’s Ford Pinto with a dog cage installed.  Anything with questionable safety…been there, done that!  As times have changed people take less risks with safety. 

However here in the Bahamas I think there is sometimes the mentality of, “We aren’t going that fast, so we won’t get hurt.”  Which is why I see this each and every day. {I was actually stopped so it was safe to take the picture} 

On this day a funny thing happened. Pure Coincidence. 

In the evening after I took this photo, a friend of Allen’s asked for his help moving something heavy.  There were about 5 men helping.  They were going from an adjacent neighborhood to our neighborhood.  So they were all riding in the back of a pickup.  No big deal.  Once they got it moved into the house all the guys had to ride back over to the first house to get their cars.  The kids of course want to join their dads in the back of the truck.  I immediately say, “No”.  Allen immediately says, “Come on!”  I was thankful that Miller was already on his bike and riding home as this went down.  Jackson was all in!

It reminds me of this commercial.  I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but I do love it!

#EDSFTG

Sometimes you just have a day and you think, “Every day should feel this good.”  The folks at Vineyard Vines  have it as their slogan, and I have to agree, when you are having one of those days, you just want it to last forever.

Last Saturday was one of those days.  We didn’t have anything going on, so we went to the beach.  After almost 4 years here, we are still looking at each other all the time saying, “Remember when we didn’t have anything going on when we lived other places and we’d go to Home Depot and run a bunch of errands.  This is sooooo much better than that!”

The water was flat, and the boys and Allen were able to snorkel right off the beach and find lots of baby conchs. 

 

EDSFTG

These are the days that you’ll remember!

Soccer Season- Here we go again!

Soccer has returned to our house on a big way.  It never really left because we had World Cup fever this summer and the boys are still talking about it.

As I mentioned the boys are at a new school.  Not just new to them, but new new.  Because grass for the the soccer fields are not completely rooted yet, we have been practicing at a local park.

It isn’t easy to scramble over there in time right after school, eat snacks and do homework in the car,  change in the parking lot and all that jazz, but the location is pretty sweet.

I guess we will suffer through it.

As an aside in case you are jealous, please know that there is a fair amount of litter and in some places the grass is knee high to a giraffe{soccer balls don’t roll on high grass} Oh, and there is an open electrical panel just to the left of this picture.  If a child touched one of the fuses, I’m pretty sure many of us would die {no joke}.  We’re not in Kansas anymore.

But oh what a view!

Y’all it’s the Middle of September

Time has been flying by and all of a sudden I noticed that it is the middle of September {truly it is the 19th!!} and I have no idea how I got here. 

This little blog has really been neglected.  I have lots of reasons why but I bet you don’t care.  So here they are

-I’ve been lazy about taking pictures.  My iPhone wants to die and is quirky about taking pictures these days.  {If you would like to give me a new iPhone lemme know.  M’kay!}

-The new school is great and they have a lot of needs, so I have been subbing some and volunteering too.  It is good, but I have less “me” time.

-With the boys gone all day, we just aren’t doing much fun stuff these days.

{Soccer started this week so there will be even less fun stuff going on around here.}

There is really only so much I can say about being too lazy busy to keep up the blog, but I love having a record of our daily lives so I’ll try to do better.

So here goes nothing…

Right before school started, our friend John came for a visit.  He wasn’t actually here to visit us, but to do work, however we were so glad to see him.  He came over and taught the boys a thing or two.

In case you don’t know John personally, he happens to be pretty good on that fiddle.

The boys were starting school the day after John’s performance here, so we decided to skip this one, but we got to spend some good quality time with an old friend.

He even let them play his fiddle.  {public service announcement- turn down the sound on your computer before watching these clips!}

 

The day after his show he got to come hang out with us and Allen and Michele showed him how to paddleboard.  He did great. 

Later that afternoon he wanted to see a long beach to possibly run on.  I told him that the sand here is not very packed making it too soft too run on.  We took him to our favorite beach for a walk though and ended up finding 12 conch shells {with varying degrees of decay stank clinging to them.}  As we were walking back towards the car {with flies trailing us because the shells smelled so bad} we saw a huge storm rolling towards us.  John got in his run after all.  With the rest of us running right behind him.  None of us will forget how we all ran down the beach {carrying at least 2 stanky conch shells a piece} and then we get to the road and we had to wait about 30 seconds for the cars to clear enough for us to cross.  Hurry, run, RUN, R-U-N!  Now stop and stand in the rain.

The best part about being with old friends is having something that was a total mess turning into  a memory that we’ll laugh about for years to come!

Ok I will stop for now, but I will try to be back 3 times a week to  keep the old blog going.

Independence Day- Bahamas Style

We spent Bahamian Independence Day with some of our favorite Bahamian friends….s well as friends from Switzerland and Chile.  Unfortunately Allen had to work and then go to the official events, so he didn’t get to come with us.

We headed out of our neighborhood.  These boys do not look like they are having fun, but they really were.

And so were we…

As soon as we got to the beach, the boys did their thing….

And so did we…

Later in the day the clouds were amazing.

Not too long after this we saw a water spout off shore.  {A water spout is a tornado over the water.}  Fortunately for us we could see it from a safe distance.

The lovely clouds turned into a lovely sunset.

One day I hope that they will look at these pictures and see what an amazing life they have lived here.

The sunset made an amazing day even more special.

This special friend of mine is moving away soon.  When we come back from S.C. they will be gone.  It was a bittersweet day since we knew our time was limited.  However, that is a post for another day.

To end our amazing day we all piled back in the boat with tired, hungry, salty bodies and headed back home.  And went through a thunderstorm.

As they say storms can’t last forever.  However I hope our memories of this amazing day will last forever!

Friday Night Art

The art teacher for the boys school is such a fun talented artist. When I heard that she was doing Art classes for adults on Friday nights, I was all in.  Her classes for children are amazing too!

The first class I went to we worked on Madalas.  I had never done one before and it was a total blast!  It is kind of like fancy doodling.  {I’ve probably spent more time in my life doodling than studying, so I was giddy about this project}

Mine was kind of crooked, but it was just so fun I didn’t mind.I think I could spend lots of time doing these!  I’m kind of itching to do one with colors too!

We also did some drawing that I didn’t love as much as the mandalas, but were still lots of fun.  The continuous contour drawing you never take your pencil up off of the paper…for the entire drawing.  That was tough, but a fun exercise too.

I took a few weeks off as I waited for Allen to get home from California since getting a babysitter every Friday night is pricey.  When I went back they were doing linocut prints.

We us special tools to cut into linoleum essentially creating a stamp.  Then you ink the stamp with special paints and rollers and press it to make the print.

Can you guess which one is mine?

Mine turned out well and I just got it back from the framer.

Last time we worked on making a paper mache mask.  I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I think it will be really fun when it’s done.

In the meantime I’ve been doing a little painting.  While I love painting, I’m just not that in love with the products I make.  Here is one I recently did.

I ended up painting over it because the perspective and it being off center bugged me….This was the third crab I have painted on this same canvas.  We will just have to see if the fourth crab is the one!

Boys Room a Little Makeover

In the last few years I have had to really rethink my decorating.  We have a really nice house, but the furniture choices are not my own.  The owners did a fine job, it’s just not my personal taste. 

One room in particular that I have struggled with is the boys room.  The furniture is very large and it only fits in there the way it is currently.  {If Miller’s bed was not there the tall dresser could come out of the closet and go back in that nook.}  There is not an inch to spare.

When we decided to put both boys in there we knew it would make it tighter, but we love having them in the room together.

Jackson’s side is mostly the same.  See how the curtain is?  Because there isn’t space beside the bedside table.  It is tight!

Jackson likes to sleep ON his quilt and had worn out some of the patches on it.  I spent a morning making new patches from some fabric from my Pink Dogwood days and it turned out really cute.

When we leave and he has to go back to a twin bed, he will be pretty sad!

On the shelves, we have added a few more trophies…

I recently hung Jackson’s art from the art show.  The colors look great in here.  Below is the  art from last year’s art show.  I just painted the frame navy blue, and it looks so much better.

We finally got around to hanging this giant school map.  We have had it for a while, but figuring out a safe way to hang it was holding us up.  Our walls are cement and drilling into cement was too much damage to patch up when we leave….

I really wanted to put it over Miller’s bed in the nook, but Allen {probably rightly so} thought Miller might pull it down on his head.  Safety Dad aka  Allen hung it in a really safe way.  The boys love it.

Here is Miller’s nook.  We have twin beds in storage, so I didn’t want to buy a headboard, but not having  a headboard was really bugging me.  So I figured out that I could mount a tension rod at the top and put up one of the curtains from Jackson's old room.

It covers up the unevenly mounted power and cable outlets.  It makes it cozy too!

We fixed up an little side table with a lamp for him.  He was over the moon to have his art work and calendar from My Deep Blue View for him to look at.

It has been so good for me to have these lovely limitations.  I know that if I was living in our own home, things would be different, but making this house work for us and just letting go of the things I do not like has been such a good experience.

Since I’ve lived here, I have always said, “It is what it is and it ain’t what it ain’t.”  The other day I saw a sign and I’m going to have to make my own version very soon… it said “It is what it is, but it will be what you make of it.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself!

St. Jude’s Trike A Thon Bahamas

The St. Jude’s Trike A Thon has a really special place in my heart.  First of all St. Jude’s is an amazing organization.  In the 50 years it has been open the research and treatments that they have developed have taken the cure rate for childhood cancers from 20% to 80%.  Just think about that.  Now imagine when I was born the chance for me to live, had I been diagnosed with cancer, would have been about 25%.  Now it is 80%  That is impressive!

The Trike A Thon has been happening here in the Bahamas for 4 years.  Remember the first year?  {I still chuckle about that!}  Each year the children are even more excited about it and look forward to it all year long. 

Thursday the boys woke up and told me it was Trike A Thon Eve!  How cute is that!

Last year the boys’ school was able to raise over $10,000 for St. Jude’s by teaching the children the importance of charity and giving.  I love that!  Hopefully this year they can harness the excitement to do even more for St. Jude’s.

I don’t have any pictures of Miller doing the Trike A Thon because he was off like a shot.  The announcer kept saying, “Look at that kid on the scooter, he’s beating all the kids on bikes!”  Yep that was my baby!  He did slow down at the finish line because they were playing one of his favorite songs and he had to bust a move.  Typical Miller!  After the race lap he did pause for some face painting.  Can’t say I loved it!

But I do love him, even when he wants to be a zombie skeleton!

Jackson was thrilled to be able to participate this year again.  He loves the Trike A Thon!

If you would like to help us in our efforts to raise money for St. Jude’s, this year there is a website where you can go and make a secure donation!  If you can’t donate right now that’s ok, but do the next best thing and spread the word…

Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.