Voyages in Parenthood

...just isn't what it used to be! But it was fun, nonetheless! If you called and we weren't home, it was because Leda and I took Brock to his favorite restaurant in town - Liki. Our first and only Japanese Steak House. It is actually a very nice restaurant and we are ecstatic that it is doing so well - it only means it will be around for some time to come! This is Leda's third time at Liki. We didn't get the edamame (soy beans) the last time we were there because apparently edamame is only something I like when pregnant. I couldn't get enough of them when I was pregnant. It was probably the only thing I craved when I was pregnant (besides Coronas! ;-) Anyway, not that I can't stand them now, I just don't have the desire for them I did then. Well, apparently there is some truth to the kid liking something that you ate a lot of in pregnancy, because we couldn't get them out fast enough for her. She gobbled them up! She wasn't falling for Daddy's o...

Yep, Leda's Daddy is Fifty today! He doesn't look a day over 29! Love you, honey! Happy Birthday! Love, Me, Leda, Duff and Dela!

Only thing I am going to say about this right now is I am waiting to see what happens with the second test. I am disappointed, but not IN Floyd, FOR him. The US media covers the Tour only on the last day and only when an American wins. Yesterday, the US media covered a "non-negative" result (not a POSITIVE - a test is only positive after they test the second sample and IT is positive) got more coverage than the WHOLE THREE WEEKS of the Tour! That's just wrong. That's it. All I am saying until more is known. Just in case you were wondering.

Went to the Dixie Chicks concert last night and they kick butt (this is a family blog, after all!) AWESOME! They RULE! So seeing them again! And, if you get the chance, go see them. Good music, lots of energy. Great time!

Fun video from our weekend in the Poconos ...Paige and Leda playing with bubbles!

You won't find me here ...I don't have the nerve to attempt to do what these mother's here have done. But it sure does make me feel a little better about what having a child has done to my body and what I HAVEN'T done to it since having that child! It's a great site. Real women with real bodies. Check it out.

I just can't think of a good title for this post. Tried, just couldn't do it. Well, let's see, what a weekend. We headed to the Poconos on Saturday to spend some time with the Durhams (yes, that would make it FOUR weekends in a row!) and the Gabbs and Shiers. The Gabbs and Shiers were sans kids as the four of them were heading to the NASCAR race on Sunday. The Durhams and Yates were with children, as they were NOT going to the race. It rained like crazy on the way up to the Poconos. The Durhams had headed over to the track to watch practice, so when we got up there, there was no one at the house. We hung out, had a little lunch and waited for them to get back, which they did pretty soon after we had arrived, as there was no practice on Saturday due to the torrential downpours! We were watching a little coverage on the TV and they had tires floating around in the pits! Anyway, off to do a little shopping for dinner, the kids played with each other, the Gabbs and Shiers arriv...

...you should never count a man down. Wow. Pretty much the only thing I could say for about 10 minutes after watching the most exciting Tour de France stage ever. Not even a Lance Armstrong stage win compared to this. Floyd Landis, who yesterday fell over 8 minutes out of the overall lead (and, let me tell ya, folks, in this race, that's like three years out of first place, especially with only three more stages to go, and the last one usually doesn't count - it's the Champagne stage) came back today and won the stage. Not only did he win the stage, he is only 30 seconds off the lead. 30 seconds! He's in third, but the two guys in 1st and 2nd he beat by over a minute 30 in the previous individual time trial. It's all coming down to Saturday's time trial. Landis beats those guys by 31 seconds or more, he's in yellow in Paris on Sunday. Yes, I watched the race today. I only watched the last 20 minutes (I took an early lunch!)...I had been keeping track of what...

Floyd Landis lost the yellow today...hit a wall (not literally). Lost 8 minutes! Probably no way to come back and win the mallot jaune now. Darn it! It's been a really funny, weird Tour this year. All over the place. I don't know who to root for, just about anyone can win this thing (except maybe Floyd at this point - that SO sucks!) Like anyone of you care! ;-)

We had ourselves a wicked little storm last night. It has created chaos in our little hamlet. Power outages all over the place. We lost power for a brief time, but lost only the phone and internet for any length of time (all of today!) We had headed over to our good friends Annie and Dave's house for dinner. They have an almost two year old boy, Danny, who Leda just had a blast playing with last night. Anyway, we got there and just past 7PM, the sky turned almost pitch black in a matter of minutes and the wind started and the rains came and the thunder and lightening were just wicked and then there was some pea-sized hail. It was pretty awesome. It rained so hard and the wind blew so hard, that they had water pouring in through the SEALED areas around their front door! It was pretty weird. Anyway, just as we were getting ready to have dinner while the storm ravaged around us, the lights went out...good thing we were doing steaks on the grill and they have a gas stove! We had dinner...

Dancing video at other site... go see it! Yes, some pictures might not be appearing, but the video is okay. Flickr is having an outage, apparently!

(This post is probably going to totally ruin any thought any of you might have had that I am cool. Oh well! Such is life!) Leda is a dancer. She loves the music. This is a kid who doesn't watch tv, but man, if you turn the weatherscan channel on, you know the one, the one that plays funky elevator music while displaying the current conditions in your area? Yeah, that one. Turn it on and my child immediately drops everything she is doing and starts dancing. Yes, dancing. She even turns to look at the tv, like she was just checking to make sure it was the channel she thought it was, yep, that's that funky music channel, turn it up, Mom! I have video, but Google will take a day or two to load it, so check the other site later in the week! Brock was off working this weekend, so Leda and I, we spent most of Saturday watching and dancing to the weatherscan channel. And, testing out if the music channels on the tv get the same reaction...not as much, but she likes them, too. And, the ...

I do like bike racing. Yes, I got interested because of Lance. But I am still paying attention this year. Maybe not as much as I did in the past two years or so (I SO love OLN! I used to spend most of my day at work over the past many years hitting refresh on the website so I could see what was happening! At least the past couple of years I have been able to ignore it (yeah, right) at work and go home and watch the replay in the evening!) I am really disappointed for Bobby Julich. It sucks to be out the way he had to withdraw. I am equally excited for Floyd Landis...practically a home-town boy, having come from Lancaster, PA, not an hour and a half from here. I am hoping he can pull it out and win it! I'm rooting for him and George Hincapie - two guys who helped Lance in recent years deserve a chance at the title. It is disappointing, though, that Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso got themselves thrown out of the tour for doping. I would root for USA, but these two really gave Lance a run...

One of the most important tidbits from our vacation - how could I forget?? I did 100% better this year on our vacation! I.read.a.book! Did you get that? A Book. One Book. It's not exactly on par with my 9 books in one week, but it sure beat last year when I took 5 but only read NONE! Heck, ONE BOOK didn't even get cracked open last year. This year...I actually FINISHED one whole book. I did crack open the second book. But only got about 4 chapters in. I finished it on Saturday and Sunday at home, so technically, it doesn't count. In fact, the book I read this past weekend at home would be the THIRD book in the past three weeks that I have read. Yes, I said THIRD book. That means, I have found time in my Leda-laden life to read books - finally! And, I recommend two of the three... The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - what a great book. Very disturbing story, but a really good book. Offers a little insight into the world of Afghanistan. Sideways by Rex Pickett - Yes, the book...

Some things I forgot to mention in my post about our week on vacation. 1. Leda developed a fixation on one of Paige's doll babies. This was one of those dolls with the rubbery head and the stuffed body...you know, the ones with the head that looks real, but the body that is like a stuffed animal..except for the hands and/or feet, which are of the same substance of the head. (that description took all the fun out of doll babies, I do believe). Anyway, Leda wanted that doll baby in the worst way whenever she saw it. And it wasn't just because Paige was playing with it either. Paige was playing with other doll babies, I just assumed that Leda was mimicking her. Whatever the reason, I went out to the 5 and Dime (and no, nothing costs a five or a dime - or even 15 cents...everything is much more than that!) and bought Leda a doll similar to the one Paige had. Except it was smaller. And not exactly like the one Paige had. Leda carried it around, but if she saw Paige's doll...well...

Is up on the other site ...two videos for your Leda enjoyment!

(fair warning: it's long! I tried to shorten it, but just can't - we did SO much we wanted to tell you about!!) What a week we had. I am always so disappointed when our week down the shore (or any time, for that matter) ends. I hate leaving the beach! But we had a great week. Albeit, some of us didn’t get as much sleep as we would have liked (a few reasons…room we had was bright – not a huge bummer, but aided waking up early, well, and the street light outside our window! – and Leda sleeping in the same room makes for a very sleepy Mama!) It’s interesting to note that what they say about going on vacation with your kids…it really isn’t much of a vacation! ;-) But who cares? We were at the BEACH! The house we were renting was our friends the Durham’s, who accompanied us for the week. Our rent – some work around the house! We headed down on Friday night (since there wasn’t anyone in the house the week prior to us, we could go down Friday night instead of Sat morning) which was gr...

Yep, we are home. Mean man of the house made us come home 12 hours early, just so he could beat traffic (and, can I tell ya, we ended up stuck in traffic for a half hour about a half hour from home...HA! Should have stayed down the shore!) (I HATE leaving the shore. It sucks. I wanna go back!) Anyway, we had a great week. Lots of sun, lots of sea, lots of sand. Lots of fun! Lots of pictures and some video to share over the next couple of days. Now, going to go to bed. Leda is asleep in her own bed, in her own room, so Mama is going to have a GOOD nights sleep tonight! (Leda slept in our room all week...oh, that's a story ALL of its own!) Check back over the weekend. I WILL update! Wow, it was SO nice not using a computer for a WHOLE 7 days! Seriously...didn't even take it out of the bag!