Catching up.

Time flies really fast. It's hard to believe that over a week has passed since Julie went to New York. Somehow, I missed detailing my second day with the boys. It must have been the exhaustion. Well, the day was a complete success. I ventured south of the Georgia border and took the boys to St. Augustine where we enjoyed visiting a massive playground, the Ripley's Believe it or Not musuem, old town St. Augustine, and the Fountain of Youth. The boys were great. Jackson was very helpful and Nathan saved his screaming for limited moments. My favorite part of the day was getting our only picture together with the three of us at the Fountain of Youth. At that point, the camera battery went dead. The nice lady who took our picture told me that at least I have some proof of my visit. I like to think of it as a memory for my boys. At the end of the weekend though, we were all glad to see momma!!! So the weekend was a complete success and only small scrapes and bruises had by all. Oh I almost forgot another classic that I unfortunately could not get any pictures of. Nathan having a great conversation with a few peacocks at the FOY. I have no idea what they were saying but they WERE talking to each other. No one can make that much eye contact and yap that long without saying something. Enjoy a few pics from my visit.

Julie's away...the boys will play.

6:35 a.m. - Well this is it. Julie's big weekend away to the Big Apple. It seems to have started innocently enough except for the fact that I had to wake up at 4:30 this morning. Julie didn't wake me but I felt compelled to get up and make her a cup of coffee. Jackson was already awake and watching the tele' in the sunroom. As it turned out, I was too late to in the coffee making duties because Julie's ride arrived right on schedule at 5:00 a.m. and after a short goodbye she was gone. All we heard from her was the "hell yeah baby!!" on the way down the street. So Jackson and I watched Eli Stone on the DVR and began our morning of planning for the weekend. (Sidenote: if you haven't watched Eli Stone yet, treat yourself to it.) So what's on tap for the weekend you ask? I'm still not sure but I am determined to do something other than sit around the house.

11:07 a.m. - My first attempt at getting the boys out of the house fell far short of expectations. I began by researching the Brunswick Stewbilee held in downtown today. Sounded like fun, kids activities, street fair, dog show,and of course the best part the stew tasting competition. I prepared the boys by feeding them breakfast first. Maybe I should say prepared them breakfast. Jackson ate a small portion of his eggs and toast, Nathan greeted his plate of eggs and toast with laughter and spent most of the breakfast time out of his chair. Eventually I gave up trying to make him eat and let him run around. Next, I got a bag with diapers, wipes, and the all important camera and placed it on the counter in the kitchen while getting the boys ready to go. We finally hustled out the door by 9:15 so we could make it down to the park in time to watch the dog show. We caught the last part of it from the car as we were looking for parking. After putting Nathan in the stroller, I realized that I had left bag with the diapers and camera sitting on the kitchen counter. Great planning, poor execution. Walking down to the park, I caught the smell of all of the Brunswick stew cooking. Mmmmm..Mmmmmm...good. I knew I could count on a good lunch down here. What I didn't count on however, was the weather. Overcast and misty turned into dark clouds and rain. Nathan was getting soaked even though I brought umbrellas. Back to the car for plan two. On the way home, I made a short trip to Blockbuster for a PSP game for Jackson. Time to feed the boys lunch and think of a plan two.

7:25 p.m. - What a rebound!! After getting the kids home and fed. I attempted to put Nathan down for a noon time nap. Somewhere around 1:15 p.m. I was rudely awakened from my cat nap with Nathan screaming "outside dada outside!!" Truth be told he never slept and wasn't about to. So I jumped up and checked the weather outside. To my complete surprise it was beautiful! Sunny skies, 74 degrees. Time for Plan 2. I loaded the kids in the car, along with the diaper bag and camera, and headed down the highway to St. Augustine. We got from Exit 38 to Exit 14 before I could take no more. Nathan was screaming the entire time that he wanted to go outside and wanted some apple juice. Time for a U-Turn and Plan 3. Jackson said "Dad, where are we going now??" How about Jekyll Island? Jackson was less than thrilled with the idea. I stopped for gas, drinks, and snacks for the boys and suddenly everyone was in a great mood. Once we got to Jekyll, I drove over to the huge playground and let the boys have at it. Nathan got plenty of "outside" time and Jackson had a ball playing Indiana Jones. I even managed to get a few shots of the boys playing. Nathan and I shared some good father son time on the swing. We had a good conversation. I think it went something like this..."Nathan, are you having a good time?" Followed by Nathan's response..."Dada, weeeeeeeeee!!!" Awesome!!

Once we left and made it home, it was time to fix a fine dinner of Macaroni & Cheese, pineapple, and Chicken Strips for the boys and a bowl of Cream of Wheat for me. As I write this, Nathan is fast asleep in bed, Jackson is in the sunroom writing in his diary and I am watching the end of the Michigan v. Penn State football game. What a day! I survived day one with all parts intact. I can't really say the same for Julie's car however. Nathan kind of had his way with the Cheese Nips I gave him for a snack. Hope Julie's having a good time, she's got some cleaning up to do when she gets back. Haha. Of course I am kidding! Looking forward to what tomorrow brings. I am actually toying with the idea of taking the boys down to St. Augustine tomorrow. We'll see.

Where's Nathan???

Another Saturday morning spent with coffee, maple bacon, and a stack of pancakes for the boys (Jax, Nathan, and Cade -Jackson's friend). My favorite breakfast meal. After the clean up, I figured that I would try to finish up power washing the fence so I could have Julie stain it later on this weekend while I am playing golf. I threw on my power washing uniform complete with my bleached Ireland hat and favorite cutoff Irish sweatshirt and managed to get half of the fence work done. Unfortunately, for me two things happened that prevented me from finishing what I had started. First, Julie had a hair appointment so I had to stop to watch the boys. Second, by the time Julie had returned, the Irish football game was coming on and I had to watch it. Luckily, it also started to rain which made me feel not so guilty about sitting on my butt.

Speaking of watching the boys (here we go again), Jules had left for the hair appointment so I decided to grab a quick shower and then settle down for some football and laundry duty. Jackson and his friend were busy watching Spider Man in the sunroom so I grabbed Nathan and headed off to the bathroom. I jumped in the shower and was enjoying the nice conversation I was having with Nathan who was busy trying to figure out how to put my deodorant on his face. At some point, I realized that this was a one way conversation with me being the only one in it. I called out for little Nater with no response. I suddenly had this bad feeling that he was somewhere that he should not be. I finished the shower in 1.2 seconds, half dried off and ran into the living room. Quietly playing in the sunroom were Jackson and Cade but no Nathan. The Terminater was nowhere to be found...in the house. I ran to the door leading to the garage, opened it and found that the actual garage door had been opened and Nathan was playing around in the garage by himself. Thankfully he had only managed to play around with a few garden tools. I actually scolded him about going outside without me or Julie or Jackson. He looked at me and knew he was in trouble. He held out his arms and when I picked him up he just started bawling. He wept and called for mommy (which really made me feel great). I took him back to the bathroom with me and he held on tight. I kind of felt like and idiot for not warning Jackson that I was about to get in the shower and to be on the lookout for Nathan.

Anyway, Nathan continued to do his sob/fake sob until I was completely dried off and dressed. I sat him down and we had a one on one talk about him not going outside without a parent and that it was dangerous. I then asked him in my fatherly stern voice if he understood me. Nathan calmly grabbed my hand and walked me out the bedroom door towards the kitchen. I said where we going bubba? He said "outside" and laughed. He's darn lucky he's cute.

I just saved a bunch of money...

I just saved a bunch of money over the weekend and I am proud of it. You see it's been awhile since I last had my house powerwashed. It's one of those "house" projects that sort of sneaks up on you over time. You usually don't even think about it until one day you ask "didn't our columns used to be white?" The last time that I noticed this, we hired a guy and his son (real nice folks) to go ahead and take care of the dirty work. Four hundred dollars later and they had done a nice job. Certainly, it made sense to do that again, right? Wrong. Upon consultation with Car 1 (that would be Jules) I discovered that it was going to cost approximately $400.00 more than we currently had to hire the same folks again. Damn! I guess it was up to me.

Since I didn't actually have a powerwasher, I had to borrow my neighbors. "Anything I need to know about this thing?" I asked. "Not really, use a bleach solution on the eaves and then hit 'er with the powerwasher. And one more thing. Watch how close you get to the actual surface." That is real good advice because as it turns it out, if you are not careful, you could actually put a hole right through the surface of whatever you are washing. At least that's what I have heard. (Nathan can now wave at me through the stucco wall from his bedroom. OOPS!!)

So I had it all set up, two garden sprayers full of 1)a bleach solution and 2) a Simple Green solution for the doors and windows. Off I went at 0900 on Saturday morning. I actually thought that it was going to be fun. I had messed around with the powerwasher on Friday night and there was something masculine about slamming water into the side of my house at 3000 mph and watching dirt fly off without any brushing. So here is how it went. I sprayed the bleach solution on the eaves around the house usually with me on my ladder and then hammered away with the water. Awesome. Dirty to white. I felt like yelling "dirty house? Clean it up with Orbit!!" I was making Tim Allen proud. Dirt and water flying everywhere. I was soaking wet but didn't care. I don't think I stopped for a full three hours. When I finally took a break, I realized that my favorite navy blue Ireland hat now looked strangely different. Uhhhh, or should I say DUHHHHH, a bleach solution is used to make things white. So much for my favorite hat. It has several large spots on it now and a cool sort of whitish mist look. No big deal.

I continued at a feverish pace only stopping to refill the fluids (gas, bleach, and Simple Green) and finished 90 percent of the house on Saturday. I finally stopped six hours into the job to watch the Irish football game (victory!) I am happy to report that the only real issues I had were a few extremely hard to reach areas, the occasional swallowing of some bleach dripping from the roofline, a few ladder issues, and the occasional tangling with a spider or two. I did happen to blast a huge spider about 60 feet in the air. That was cool!

Saturday night I collapsed with more aching muscles than I could recall I had. So my doctor ordered up an 800 mg Motrin. Ahhhhh, relief. Bright and early Sunday morning, I finished up the dirty work on the remainder of the house. I was really in awe of the difference that it made. I was so impressed, I decided to start on the fence. About an hour into that job, I had a sort of what the hell were you thinking moment. Too late. Keep going. So I did. I managed to finish the entire inside of the fence and was elated before realizing that I needed to do the outside of the fence as well. Crap, that was for another day.

So Sunday evening, Jules does the walk around and congratulates me on a job well done. "Thanks", I said. It was alot of work and admittedly, I wish I could have afforded to have someone else do the job. But at the end of the day, I felt alot more satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment at having done the work myself. Now, when does the real weekend start??

I got it babe.

So Nathan turned two a few days ago and I have finally had a chance to write something about it thanks in part to his brother Jackson who felt the need to wake me up at 4:00 am this morning to tell me that HE couldn't sleep. Thanks buddy. So I am now awake early on a Thursday morning trying to type away before I have to get my sick wife out of bed and make breakfast for Jackson.

Nathan had a great birthday party. Actually his whole day was pretty good. Jules had some friends drop in from North Carolina on their way to Orlando. Nathan was in a great mood and played with the kids and laughed and carried on like a birthday boy should.

So on to the party. Everyone arrived and Nathan was still asleep. After waking, it took him awhile to figure out why everyone was here. In fact he probably never figured out while everyone was there. To him, it must have seemed that all of those people were there to stuff their faces full of ice cream, cake, taco dip and anything else we could. Good enough for him. But instead of eating his cake (except for about two bites) he decided on the other birthday treat...olives. Don't ask me, he's Julie's son!! HaHa.

All went well until dad was entrusted to watch out for Nathan. "I got it babe". Several minutes later, I "watched" Nathan jump up on the couch and then flip over the couch face first onto the floor. I initially thought he broke his neck. I actually wanted to throw up. Thankfully, all he managed was to get a nice black eye and a major headache. My little trooper. The whole incident reminded me of when I was entrusted to watch Jackson after Christmas dinner at the in-laws house. He was probably a little over a year old. I told Jules that "I got it babe". I wanted her to have some down time to relax with her parents and sister. A few minutes later, while "watching" Jackson, I observed him playing with a nice Christmas ornament. I didn't realize that a one year old could squeeze a glass ornament hard enough to break it. I also was surprised that a Christmas ornament, when shattering, sounds very similar to a shotgun blast that everyone else could immediately hear. Thankfully, Jackson wasn't hurt. "What was that dear?" I was asked. "Uhhhh. Nothing dear. Don't worry, I got it babe."

Now I know why I am not ever asked to work the nursery at church.

As a footnote, just as I finished this post, the aforementioned non-sleeper came in to tell me that he is ready for me to fix his breakfast. He also let me know that he never went back to sleep and almost woke me back up to fix his breakfast early. He has been watching television and playing with his Playstation since 4:00 a.m. He should be really ready to go at school today. Time to start locking the doors.