Voyages in Parenthood

Well, we had a nice weekend! Even though it was SO darn hot here! Actually, it was more the humidity than the heat, oh, forget it, it was freakin' hot! Anyway, we went to Connecticut to spend a Saturday evening with Brock's college buddies. One of his friends is turning 50 in a few weeks and his family threw him a party. It was an adult-only party - kids were going to be staying at the hotel with a few baby-sitters. This was unnerving to me on a few levels - first, an adult-only party? Hello, the last time I went to an adult-only party was like forever ago! How do you behave at an adult-only party? Does this mean I have to have intelligent conversations without yelling, "Leda, No!" or "Leda, don't touch that." every other sentence? I am not sure I know how to do that! Second, you want me to leave my child at a strange hotel with strange people?? Are you kidding me? I freaked out about this for about three or four days before hand. That was until I found ...

A few weeks ago, as my boss and I were driving out of town for work, we noticed that the main road into town was going to be shut down during business hours (9-5) late this week. My boss, who, for the two days I spent riding in his car with him, spent most of the time lamenting about all the bridges in the US that could fall at any moment (didn't make me very comfortable), said it must be to fix the bridge that we had just crossed. Turns out, it was better than that! M. Night Shyamalan, yes, The Sixth Sense , The Village , Unbreakable , Signs - that M. Night Shyamalan - was going to be filming scenes for his new movie at the 'G' Lodge, a local restaurant that is a fixture in this town (not yet as famous as the Val Rio - the diner from The Blob , but soon, might be!) Brock and I have never eaten at the Lodge, although I have passed by it hundreds of thousands of times over the 15+ years I have lived in this town and we threaten to go eat there every once in awhile. M. Night ...

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Not as good as The Kite Runner by the same author, but very good! Different, as this is more about women living in Afganistan and their relationships with one another and having to live in a world that is just incomprehesible to me. It was moving. I highly recommend it, as I do The Kite Runner . I do think I liked The Kite Runner better, but this was a great book and I did like it a lot. Any book that can make me cry is always a really good book, in my opinion. I also read The Quickie this past week, the latest by James Patterson, one of my favorite authors. It was good, but I didn't like it as much as I usually like Mr. Patterson's books. I did happen to read it in one evening - it was a quick read (ha, no pun intended!) Definitely a good beach book (even though I wasn't on the beach when I read it!) I have finished all my summer books at this point. Except for Margaret George's Helen of Troy , a book I had begun to read a...

Last week sucked. I spent two days traveling back and forth to North NJ (about a 2-2 and half drive - both ways!), Brock was diagnosed with a fracture to the back of his 9th rib and last night we spent what I hope will be the only time in the ER with Leda. Let me start there - Leda's fine. She was being a typical 2 year old last night after dinner, not listening to a word I said and Brock went to go get her off the steps (that I had told her to get off of) and he put her in a time-out. Which she screamed and cried about - we assumed because she wasn't happy not being allowed to do what she wanted to do (which I think was to play on the steps, which she has been told over and over again not to do - and has had countless time-outs about!) Well, when the two minutes of time-out was over, she was told to come give me an apology and as she was walking over to me, I realized that she was holding her right arm. And, she was really not happy - in pain even. It turns out, how we aren...

It's been a busy and crazy week. We all planned to spend the day at the Pocono Raceway to watch the SCCA races and see some friends we hadn't seen in a really long time (like, B.L. - Before Leda) and introduce Leda to racing. Due to an incident which I will give details about later, Brock decided that a ride in the car for an hour and a half up a mountain and then back again wasn't in the cards for him, so I crazily decided to take the kid on my own. I am exhausted. Leda is exhausted. We had a great time seeing some friends and hanging out with GrandDad Teal and Fay. We watched one race (okay, so we spent most of it - or, let me re-phase, I spent most of it chasing Leda in the grandstands) and had some lunch and got a teddy bear (which, for some reason, had to be given a time-out in the middle of the paddock) and we headed home after about 4 or 5 hours. Mommy even had to grab a cup of coffee for the ride home - I NEVER drink coffee after Noon! We had a great time. Leda got ...

Yesterday was a busy day. Early in the day, we all headed over to my cousin Tommy's son's 4th birthday! Michael had a bouncy Castle with slide and a water slide for his birthday. Leda only went down the water slide once - she was a little shocked by the cold pool of water at the bottom! She liked the bouncy castle better! Oh, and the cake! A surprise for us, my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Tish were in town from Florida, so we got to spend a little time talking with them. Since they don't have anything better to do this evening, they are coming over for dinner! We came home and all took naps and then around 5 we left Leda with Caitlyn (the babysitter) and headed to Bethlehem, PA, to see Big&Rich at Musikfest . Three years ago, when we were down the beach that July, we had CMT on and I saw Big&Rich's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy video. I liked the music a lot, so I bought the CD. That was it, I loved them! Leda listened to that CD a lot when I was pregnant! I've alway...

I know that there are people out there that think we are crazy thinking of moving Leda to a big girl bed when she seems perfectly happy to stay in a crib. Well, apparently Ikea also believes this! We got the new catalog last week and I quickly looked up the Kura bed that I linked to a few posts ago (I can only link to the post, not the picture of the bed because it is gone from the website now!). They have a new color - dark blue. I'm excited, so I figure I will call the store and find out if they have it in yet. The store doesn't have it in stock and has no idea when they will receive it. So, we figured, what the heck, let's order the bed via the phone sales number and go to the store to pick up the mattress and the canopy, since we know they have them. Nope, the phone sales lady tells me that the bed is an item that is not available via the web or phone sales, must go to the store to get it. I tell her my store doesn't have it and hasn't a clue when it's comin...

I looked so forward to that vacation in early July when we went to Portland. For months, I looked forward to it! Then, I got sick during that vacation. I enjoyed 1 and a half days of that vacation. So, I took an extra day for a long weekend in the Thousand Islands last week. We were originally going to go up Thursday night after work and come home Sunday. We went up Wednesday night after work instead. I could have used more - like a whole week! In any case, we did go to the Thousand Islands, and other than it being REALLY hot the first two days, we had a BEAUTIFUL weekend. Brock and Leda and I took off immediately after I finished work on Wed, but got stuck in traffic trying to get out of town! We ended up arriving at the house around 10:30 or so - not too bad with only two stops on the way up. Leda did not go to sleep at all the whole ride. We hooked up the portable DVD for her to watch and boy did she. We finally told her no more DVD about 9 or so, but she still didn't go to slee...

I have finished all of the Harry Potter series. Feel free to spoil the ending for me at any time! Actually, book 6 is probably my second favorite of the series (#1 favorite being book 3). Book 7 was good, but I really didn't want it to end. I read it fast and furious (as much as I could) until the last quarter of the book, then I slowed down a lot - I realized I just didn't want the book to end, because then it would be over. I'm not sure if I liked the ending. I think it's mostly because it is final - there will be no more Potter. I was a bit disappointed and, frankly, shocked, at one of the events in Book 7. I have to say, I think I had the exact same reaction to this event as I did when Sirius was killed. And, that is about all I will say about that. Not that I am going all Forest Gump on you all, just don't want to spoil the book for anyone who hasn't finished it yet. (and yes, I realize, I am probably the last person in the world who hadn't read the dar...

The Thousand Islands, that is! Spent an extended weekend in the islands visiting with Grandpa and Nana and the Lilly clan in from Denver. Much time spent reading, swimming, jetskiing, go-carting, celebrating birthdays (Brock's, Scott's and Bobby's) and enjoying family and friends (our Canadian friends, Dan and Deb, came over to visit us for an evening). Lots of pictures, very little time. I am off to Baltimore area for work for the next couple of days, so, depending on connectivity to internet, update may have to wait until later in the week!

Happy Birthday, Daddy! We Love You!

(Warning: this post may be a bit disjointed. I'm tired and I don't feel like making it flow properly, so take it as it is! At least you got a warning! hehe) I have recovered from my near-death experience on Thursday night, if anyone was wondering! Only to end up with a fever and the aches on Friday afternoon. A call to the doctor had me picking up another round of antibiotics, just in case the bug I have intended to do more harm, and since I am still recovering from pneumonia, that was/is a distinct possibility. I'm really getting tired of feeling crappy all the time! Saturday morning I got to sleep a bit late (8:30am is considered late now - sigh!) and after Brock and I got cleaned up (read, took showers), we loaded Leda into the car and Brock got into the truck and off our little caravan when to Ikea. It's like church for us! The Holy Grail of furniture and other domestic goodies stores. Mecca! We were going to buy Leda a big girl bed. We walked the whole store, final...

Because no matter what, I will ALWAYS get stuck at the top - EVERY SINGLE TIME! I am TERRIFIED of heights. I love to look out from the observatory deck of tall buildings, but I don't look down and I don't get too close to the glass windows - that's just asking for me to pass out! I don't do open decks (the CN Tower in Toronto - viewed the views from INSIDE the darn thing, you think you are gonna get me to go outside where death is looming??? No freakin' way!), I don't climb ladders, my knees get weak just watching other people do things like lean right up against a window 100 stories up. Empire State building - yes, I went outside, but I didn't look down much and I didn't lean over the sides (of course, there's lots of safety measures to keep one from jumping off, which works JUST fine for me!) And, besides, my mother went out onto the observatory deck of the Empire State building and she's worse than I am about heights! I don't do Ferris Whe...

Don't sleep much! ;-) What a weekend we had! Summary: The Police in Hershey on Friday night, sitting on the Jersey Beach Saturday and Sunday! Friday afternoon, Brock and I headed over to pick Leda up from daycare around 3:30 or so and got to Dave and Annie's at 4pm, where Leda would be spending the evening with Danny and the babysitters while us parental units went to the Police concert. We hit the road by 4:15, leaving a screaming Leda to plan our demise when she grows up enough to put the plan into place! The ride to Hershey should have taken about an hour and a half, but we did hit just a bit of traffic about 10 miles from the venue - rush hour traffic and all. We were parked in the lot by about 6pm and proceeded to load up our cups for the short walk to the location that the rest of our group (there were 12 of us who made the concert) were already ensconced and in full tailgating mode! We hung out, enjoyed the beautiful weather (80s with low humidity and a nice breeze, BEAU...

(yes, I changed colors again - dude, it's July, it's hot, green is out!) Last night we went to the Malvern Fair (haven't been in YEARS! Actually, make that DECADES!) with the Durhams and met up with the Baurs (Maureen, John and their little three year old Sydney) and Karen to hang out and let the kids ride some rides. Leda LOVES to ride the rides! She didn't get to ride the roller coaster though, because Mommy didn't want to ride it and apparently neither did Daddy, but Leda REALLY wanted to ride it! I'm just not ready to let her get on rides like that by herself. (by roller coaster, I mean one of those kiddie rides, but still!) But Brock did take Leda on the Big Slide several times and she LOVED that! And we had to pay twice for the moon bounce, as we couldn't get her to get out after the first time! We ate pizza and french fries and watched all the teenagers mill about! Then, as we were leaving, Leda got to play the "duck" game - you know, you pa...

The past week has been interesting! Coming back from vacation always is interesting, but coming back from a vacation AND a major illness is on a level all it's own! The antibiotics that the doctor prescribed me have kicked whatever virus-or-bacteria-that-ruined-my-vacation's butt, but I was informed that it could take up to a month to fully recover from a bout of pneumonia. What sucks is, that means I have to suffer through the most annoying of all symptoms, the coughing. What helps is, the doctor prescribed me good cough medicine for nighttime and some good stuff to get me through the day! And, I got refills! The only other "symptoms" I have from the pneumonia is walking around the house, up and down stairs, exerting myself just a little bit gets me tired! Walking out to the mail box and back gets me winded. I feel like I have a three-pack-a-day habit, and I haven't had a cigarette in over three years! In any case, I appear to be getting better. Which is good, si...

Read Part I Read Part II Read Part III (You will be happy to note, that this is the last installment in the Yates' 2007 Family Vacation Saga!) So after the ER visit on Monday night, we head back to the house and pack me into bed and I am looking forward to maybe feeling better in the next day or so. I end up waking up on Tuesday morning at something like 5AM coughing like crazy until about 8AM. I cough so bad, I end up throwing up. And, I feel feverish and yucky and for someone who loves the beach, this SUCKS! Brock and Leda spend the day with the kids and the rest of the family. I spend most of the morning sleeping on and off. In the afternoon, I feel good enough to move to the couch so I can at least join the rest of the family, and they are all getting ready to move on out! The boys are going crabbing, the girls are going shopping. I am staying home! Leda went with Aunt Claire and Aunt Joan and Sarah shopping and apparently had an awesome time. She came home with some goodies - ...

Read Part I Read Part II The Wedding of the Century had happened Friday night but the festivities continue on Saturday with a Champagne Brunch on the Sternwheeler Colombia Gorge and later, a barbecue at the home of the Bride and Groom. The view from the room was beautiful, but I woke up Saturday morning feeling BAD! The coughing is keeping me awake, it's getting worse (it gags me it is so bad and coughing fits last for a half hour or more). I have the chills and I am in a terry cloth robe under all the covers on the bed. I decided, since the only place I would have to sleep would be the car since we had to check out of the hotel, to "Cowboy Up", get dressed, throw some makeup on and go to the champagne brunch, which, by the way, would have the last bit of alcohol I would have until, well, still haven't had any! We got to the boat dock and got a quick tour of the reception building that has a small cafe and a gift shop. Daniel's company really did a great job putti...

Read Part I So, we wake up on Friday morning (at the ungodly hour of 6:30? Does this child not know that we are on the other side of the country, on vacation, and need to sleep another two or three hours??) and we head down around 8:30 to meet Grandpa and Nana for breakfast. We got lucky, Uncle Daniel joined us for breakfast! (He had to stay at the hotel Thursday night - you know, can't see the bride the day of the wedding, before the wedding, etc?) After breakfast, we headed back up to our room, packed up again and loaded up the bellboy's cart to check out and head on up to our next hotel near the Cascade Locks on the Columbia river, where the wedding was going to be held on Thunder Island with the reception held in the Pavilion. We stayed at the Skamania Lodge on the Washington State side of the Columbia. Let me tell you, this place is beautiful. It's near the Bridge of the Gods (we actually had to cross the Bridge of the Gods to get to WA state) and the sites are just b...

(To ensure that there is no "century"* in this story, I am splitting it into parts) (*private inside family joke) The good news: I lost 10 lbs while on vacation The bad news: I had to endure pneumonia the entire time (well, most of the time)! Oh it's a long sorted story, ready? We were so efficient in packing our bags and stuff that by Wednesday evening, we had nothing better to do than to head off to Brock's favorite Japanese Steak House, Liki, for dinner. First, we stopped over at the good next door neighbor ER Doc and asked him to take a look at me, as I had started coughing on Monday and it was getting to be annoying. Good ER Doc took a look and said I may just have a little virus, the cough was really the only symptom, no noise in my chest and my throat looked fine. He prescribed me a cough medicine with codeine to be filled before we left and some other scripts to fill IF, while on vacation, I got worse. Off to the Airport we went at 4:45am in the morning - unbe...