We interrupt this show.......

We had an earthquake today.  I have only been in Md for almost 4 years and we have had 2 earthquakes.  It is 2 too many for me.
The first one was a long while ago, it was early in the morning like 5:30, mild and quick.  It basically was over before we figured out it was an earthquake.  The kids were asleep and didn't feel a thing.

Today, E had an orthodontist appointment (this was before all the boys' dental appointment which is all in the same place).  E is sitting in the chair.  We feel a little tremble and the hygenist looked at me and asked me if I felt the movement.  Then we looked at each other and said that was an earthquake.  We all went outside.  The kids were really shaken up.  E said his knees were shaking. 

We waited outside for a little while and then went back inside to carry on with our appointments.

The husband works in Baltimore and definitely felt it in his building.  They all evacuated.  Very scary.

When I got home the boys came into the house first.  They came running to the door and told me we had some things fall.  I had a mirror just sitting on the mantle above the fireplace.  It slid off, hit the floor and shattered.  I cleaned up all the glass and have vacuumed.  Glass was everywhere.  Every once in a while I look and see a glimmer on the floor. 

I am glad that is over.  Now if we can just get a miss this weekend of the winds and rain we could get.

First Stop

The alarm went off really early on Wednesday morning.  We got up and were on our way a after 5 am.  The boys did really well in the car.  Tee kept us laughing in the car.  It was only a short time before he was asking if we were almost there. 

We decided that instead of trying to make it all the way to Florida we would stop in Savannah.  We would stay the night and tool around a little.  I really like Savannah, it is such an old town with lots of history.  I have been there a few times a very long time ago.

On the 9 hour journey, a thought popped into my head.  I really love the Food Network channel.  How fun would it be if we could eat at Paula Dean's restaurant, Lady and Sons.  With my handy dandy droid I started researching.  I looked over the menu  and then saw that reservations are made each morning at 9:30.  So you wait in line at 9:30 and then are given a reservation time.  They do have a buffet available for people who don't have reservations.

After we checked into our hotel, we took a bus down to the River area and walked around a bit.  It definitely is the party area as there are many bars along the river. 

We then made our way to find Paula's restaurant.  We finally found it and saw the hostess to see if by chance we could make it in.  She looked at us and said she couldn't seat 5 together.  We could split up and both my husband and I were thinking, sounds good the kids can sit on their own.  But that didn't fly with the hostess.  I was TOTALLY BUMMED.  Maybe I need to plan ahead and send Paula a note prior to our next vacation down south.  

On Thursday, we took the boys to the Savannah Railroad Museum, which lucky for us was right behind our hotel.  Yes, sure it is vacation but who says you can't learn a little on vacation.  We took a self guided tour but we also had a guided tour of the Executive cars.  Usually the President of the Railroad was the one who would ride in this car.  They have restored them.  We learned some interesting facts:  ice was put in the bottom of the train and that is how the car was cooled 

The boys also were able to work the hand car (we are unsure what the name is).  Tee and I got to ride along but I could tell that it was much harder than I thought it would be.  The guide had to help the boys.  The men who worked these back in the day sometimes had to go 50 miles a day. 

After the nice morning, we tredge on in our road trip of 2011.

Minnesota visitors

We were so happy when the husband's sister said that they wanted to visit us.  The boys have developed a relationship with all of their cousins but they have one that they communicate with often.  They text each other on their itouches and occasionally they will skype.  It is nice because we are so far away and we don't get to see them often.

They had close to a 17 hour drive done over two days.  The boys were texting the entire trip so we knew where they were until they arrived at our house.

The first day they were here we all spent the day hanging out at the pool.  It was a HOT day so it was nice to be able to stay cool. 

It was nice the husband was able to take a few days off to spend with us. We decided it would be nice to take a trip to Annapolis. We decided to take a sailing trip on the Chesapeake. It was a nice afternoon.



A nice passerby took a picture of all of us in Annapolis!



The husband and E.



Tee and Mom chilling.

Jay and Ry

Nath and my boys.

Cooling off with drinks.

Quite the crew.

the family

He finally got brave enough to move from the safe area.

Future sailor!

 The next day we decided to visit the Aquarium.  Baltimore does have a nice Aquarium.  And we even got snuck into a dolphins show.  We only caught the end but it was good.

Yes, more pictures.

 And the kids spent a lot of time outside in the pool.  My sister in law got a lot of neat pictures of the kids but I only got a few.

The boys (except Tee) all went to a minor league baseball game.  They all had a really good time.  A few of the boys got game balls and one got a soft ball that was thrown into the stands. 

We were so glad they were able to visit.  The boys were so sad when they left.  Jay was finding all reasons why they should come back or why we should meet up with them somewhere.  We hope to be able to see them again sometime soon.

Home again, Home again, jiggity jig

It is hard to believe that there is only one week left before school starts.  The summer has been fun and August flew by.  The boys have said that summer has gone by so quickly.  I guess that is a good thing right.  They are not ready for school to start yet. 

We were so happy to have the husband's sister and her family visit the beginning of the month for a week.  The boys LOVED playing with their cousins.  They so looked forward to their visit and it did not disappoint.  We had some fun outings but mostly hung out and played in the pool.

Once they left, I switched gears to get ready for our vacation.  We visited 3 states, which included lots of driving, visiting a good friend, a wedding, beach time, some cool sight seeing, more beach time and much more.    We were gone 10 days and we had a blast. 

I have lots of pictures that I have to go through with lots of stories.  More postings soon.

Another summer week

Nothing like spending a few weeks on a 1000 piece puzzle only to get to the very end and realize you have lost a piece. The boys and I spent so much time doing this really hard puzzle. We had fun and are looking forward to the next one that I purchased.


Well, this week started off with Tee getting into a fight at a birthday party. This really caught me off guard. The kids were playing in the yard. She had a big water slide, there was a playground and a little playhouse. It ended up that the birthday boy and his cousin were throwing toys at Tee. He ended up trying to fight the cousin.

I did make Tee apologize and explained that the best thing to do is to walk away. The birthday boy came over the next day to say he was sorry for throwing things at him.

The boys had fun at golf camp but I wasn’t extremely happy with the camp. I am not sure that they were really taught much. I feel like there was a lot of messing around vs. instruction. The boys seem to like the golf pro but I personally don’t think he has much personality. I am going to try to find a different golf program for them next year.

We did go up to the gym pool this week also. It is a big pool with a zero entry area and a few big slides. I kept trying to get the boys to go down the slide and they did not want to. I then realized that Tee could go down the slide. I asked him and he jumped on the offer. He spent a lot of our time there going down the slide and loved it. Then the boys finally started going down the slide.

It has been so incredibly hot here. I feel like a hermit. We have everyone one of our blinds closed and all fans going. Friday made me realize that we needed to close up a little bit because it got way too hot in the house.

We are fortunate enough to have the pool and we have definitely used it this weekend. We have all been emerged in the water the entire time.

This week is a quiet week. We are done with camps so I will have to make sure to find things to do to keep us busy.

Randomness

The husband got tickets to the O’s baseball game today so he took the boys and I get some time alone. The boys were excited. They get to sit behind home plate.


The boys finished vacation bible school on Friday. They had a nice time but I noticed it didn’t seem as great as it was last year. There was a different leader this year and I think it made a big difference.

Our afternoons are typically spent outside in the pool. It is effective in wearing the kids out. We have had lots of friends over too.

Tee has such an imagination. He is constantly telling me stories and they don’t make much sense. For example, what if our house filled with water. Yes, crazy situations. Yesterday we were outside and Tee got stung by a wasp in his head of all places. He eventually calmed down. Later on, he said Mom, I hit the fence by accident and a daddy or mommy wasp came out and saw that I did it and stung me. It is funny how his mind works.

We have decided to have the boys tutored this summer. She comes one time a week and works with them individually. I don’t know specifics but I do know that during the summer kids lose so much of what they learned in school. It has worked out really well. The tutor is a teacher and she has worked on both fluency and math facts.

The boys and I went to see the Cars2 movie one rainy Friday afternoon. They enjoyed it!

E is an avid reader. He started reading this series called Warriors. The books are 300 pages (small print) plus. There are several series and he was read through the first 3, each series had 6 books.

My garden has done really well this year. I have a bunch of zucchini and cucumbers. I have made a batch of zucchini bread and plan to make many more. Green beans have also come in well. I do enjoy having the extra vegetables during the summer.

Next week, the older boys have golf camp. It is just a few hours for 3 days. They did this same camp last year and had fun. Tee is done for camps for the summer.

Low key

Last weekend, it was 3 cookouts in 3 days and 2 of those were at our house.  We went to a friend's house on Saturday evening.  I ended up making a cake batter and baked in ice cream cones.  Then I frosted them.  I got the idea out of a Rachel Ray magazine.  They turned out really cute, but transportation was an issue.

On Sunday, we had a party for the boys' baseball team.  The boys typically only see each other on the field so it was nice to socialize a little off the field.  We had over 40 people here, that is a lot of people.  The party turned out really nice, even though a storm moved in during the middle of it.  I am talking a wind blowing storm.  Our lounge chairs ended up at the bottom of the pool kind of storm.  We were all stuffed into the basement but the kids managed to find things to do.  After it settled down, the boys went swimming again and the party didn't end until 8:45. 

I decided on Monday, July 4th, that we needed to get rid of some of our leftovers.  So we invited a few friends over for swimming and food.  It was a nice evening and definitely not 40 people here.

We had nothing last week but the week went by fairly quickly.  Rain came in on Friday and I decided to take the boys to see the Cars 2 movie.  They all really enjoyed it.

This past weekend was really low key.  We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool.  Saturday evening we spent with our neighbors, swimming and hanging out. 

Yes, I don't know what we would do without our pool.  It does provide us a lot of entertainment.  The boys had friends over on Sunday and they played out there for a good few hours.  And we spend time out there just about everyday. 

This week, all the boys have vacation bible school at our church.  Today at pickup Jay says wow that was short.  Well, compared to their all day scout camp I am the 3 hours felt like no time at all.  They had a great time. 

How to get things done.

In April, we decided to make a change.  I don't particularly like change.  I like to keep things the same for the most part.  But my husband finally convinced me that we needed to switch cable companies. 

The cable company decided to change to digital and every TV needed a box.  We figured it out after the fact.  Yes, we had received a letter but it didn't make much sense to us as our TVs are digital.  So we get all the boxes and put them on our TVs.  We had trouble with the one in our bedroom.  We, my husband, made several phone calls that made him incredibly frustrated.  As a side note, I am usually the one who handles these types of phone calls, but he took this one on.

He was transferred to an area that was closed on one particular day, on one call the rep was yawning on the phone and no one really offered much help.  We wanted someone to come fix the the problem, but there was a question on whether we would be charged.  After many calls, my husband finally escalated it to a manager who said it would not be a problem to get someone out the next week.

After thinking about it for a few hours, we he, decided that it was to move to fios.  In addition to this situation, we had problems with our phone.  During conversation, people would say that I was coming in and out. 

Our transition was great.  As soon as fios was installed, we returned and disconnected the other cable company. 

I ended up receiving an invoice in May with a credit balance.  I thought that I would be receiving a check.  I wasn't shocked when I received an invoice again the next month with a small credit balance.  I decided to make a phone call.

I spent the next 2 plus hours on the phone.  The first time I called, I was transferred and on hold for over 30 minutes.  I called back and although the rep was very nice and held with me for the next 30 plus minutes he ended up disconnecting me.  During the conversation, he told me I had to be taken care of by this other area.  It appeared they must have been having problem with the phones.  Yes, they are a cable, Internet and phone company.  My third call back is when I decided that I would no longer be nice.  I immediately asked for a manager.  I went over the situation and explained that I was done with the company.  It needed to be handled, I was not going to be transferred and did not need to speak with anyone else.

The next week I did end up getting 3 phone calls from corporate.  Why do they need to talk to me?  I returned my equipment and canceled my service.  They had a total fail of closing out the account. 

Well, just yesterday I ended up getting an invoice for an amount due.  I was beyond angry.  They are charging me for Internet and Cable that I have not had.  I decided that I was going to send a letter to corporate outlining the situation.

I did a little research trying to find an email address to corporate.  I found this website that an executive carpet bomb.  Not sure why it is called this.  But people determine format of the email (@whatever) then take the executive and make a list of all emails.  

Oh yes I did.  I wrote a letter and thought about it a little and re-wrote some of it.  I copied every single email address and hit send.  Out of the 100 emails, I had less than 30 not deliverable. 

Today I had a message on my machine from corp (maybe the same person who called me several weeks ago).  She stated that she had closed my account and is expediting the shut off outside our house.  I have a credit balance of $138 that will be sent to me once the shut off is completed.

It makes me sad but that is how you get it done.

Instinct

Many people have told me that Tee is every one's friend.  The Moms tell me the girls in his preschool class all talk about him.  In May I had a conference with the preschool teachers, they mentioned that he gets along with everyone.  They also said that everyone fights to sit next to him.  As a parent, that makes me feel really good.

I did probe a little more into the kids fighting to sit next to him.  Tee said that he wanted to sit next to two certain friends but a boy named C wanted to sit next to him all the time.  This was very frustrating to him.  This boy was also on his T-ball team and he never had any interaction with him.  This is just not like Tee. 

The boy's Mom emailed me last week to see if Tee could come over for a play date.  I have not asked him yet but I know his answer will be NO.  I just don't know what to say.

I mentioned this to one of my friends who has older children.  She told me to trust his instincts.  You can't and should not force friendships.  She did this with her daughter when she was young and then found out that the other girl was not very nice.

I don't want to ignore the email although I have so far.  I also don't want to say that my child wants nothing to do with hers.  We have been very busy as of late but we obviously won't be busy all summer.  I was thinking that I would have them come here for a little swimming so I can see the interaction.  I need to figure this out quickly because I really need to say something soon.