The Rest of the Beach Saga

I love sunsets on the beach. And when a storm is rolling in, they are even better. Sometime on Sunday night, a storm rolled in. And made itself known. It shook the house. The power went out, briefly. The rain pounded on the windows. We were all cozy in the house. And still happy. I love the beach when it storms. It is so interesting to just watch from the safety and warmth of the house.


Monday morning, we had to get ready to leave. And I had to watch the storm. The waves were crashing. The sand was flying. The water was headed north instead of east along the shore. The sturdy ocean trees were shaking with the wind. Ducky and I took turns going down to see the ocean. I stayed up on the hill, he went down on the beach. The driftwood logs that had been there the night before were virtually buried by the blowing sand. The gusts were so strong I had to catch myself to keep from getting blown down. We would later learn there were gusts up to 80 mph.

We packed ourselves in the car and opted to head home using the northern route. The southern route has a tendency to flood and we didn't want to experience that. So we headed home and watched the storm rage around us. At one point we went over a bridge and without any protection the car did a little rocking and bouncing. A scene from the movie Twister floated through my head. I had to laugh because this is Ducky's travel kharma at its best. Something always happens when he travels. Freeway shooting, hail in July, wind storm, both headlights going out within a half hour, something.

We made it home safely, with enough time to enjoy the afternoon at home.

Time Well Spent?

Tonight I caught up on three weeks worth of Grey's Anatomy. I love the show. It makes me melancholy. I think that is partly why I mostly stick with home improvement reality television. It doesn't make me think. Or ponder or relate.

Not that my life is anything like Grey's. But still there are themes.

So time well spent? At least I freed up about 4 or 5% on my DVR. I love the show, but now I am melancholy.

Perfection

The boys woke up bright and early, and their room didn't even have a window. When I wandered upstairs after sleeping in, it was the most beautiful day. We had been expecting rain and wind and stormy weather all weekend. It was sunny with blue skies and in the 50's. So we bundled up and headed down to the beach. It is November after all and I wear a hat almost year round on these northern beaches. There is a frostbite story that I will share at a not so future date.

We wander down to the beach and there is the strangest phenomenon. There is virtually no wind. There is always wind. That is why we bundle when it is 52 degrees out. I had to take off my jacket. SweetP had to take off his sweatshirt. It was down right pleasant. Perfect. Wonderful. I had obviously done something really good to deserve weather like this. It was nicer than July and August weather.

So here we all are at the beach, I am the shadow. Look at how happy Velcro is. We stayed down on the beach for almost two hours. SweetE was digging in the damp sand and making sand castles. They were immediately demolished, but he had fun making them. His only dilemma was when he wanted to suck his thumb, and it was all sandy. It took a lot of convincing to prevent him from going back to the house to wash his hands. He did eventually get over it, but there were tears. SweetP was experimenting with digging in the wet sand and then trying to fill the hole with water. Except sand does not do a good job at holding water. He dug trenches and then would wait for a wave to come and fill them. Velcro barked at all the other dogs on the beach. Ducky and I just hung out and helped boys here and there.

We headed back to the house to decide what else we would do. There was no way this day could be ruined. We set off for town, ready to do a couple geocaches and have some lunch. But after such a late night, and such an early morning, my little sweetE could not stay awake. After finishing his hot cocoa, before his lunch came, he laid his head on Ducky's leg and fell asleep. Poor, tired, little guy.

Since he was sleeping, I was voted to go to the next town that had a store larger than John's Market, and pick up a few things. And this is where I made a painful error. I picked up all the stuff on the list and then opted to stop at Starbucks and pick up coffee. I debated trying the gingerbread latte. They made me a sample, they were very accommodating. But in all the debate about what flavor latte I wanted, they missed the part about decaf. And there is the problem. If I drink very much caffeine, I get to enjoy a 48 hour headache that nothing helps.

Not too long after getting home, my head starts to hurt. I assume that it is just the driving and chaos of getting here and not sleeping great all getting to me. But everything is still great because we are at the beach and it is a perfect day. SweetE wakes up and we head back to the beach. Another hour or so of playing in the sand.

I was lucky there was Advil PM in the medicine cabinet.

SweetE's art in the sand. I think it is quite interesting.


SweetP's experiment in the sand after a wave got to it. He thought it was really cool how the wave filled it in and changed it.

The First Night

We stop 15 minutes later in the next town for dinner. SweetE has already drifted off to sleep. I drag him gently out of the car and he is out cold. He wakes up for about 30 seconds when I sit down and then lays his head on the table. So I artfully arrange him on the booth seat with his head on my leg. He never moves. SweetP inhales his dinner and then we head off to enjoy the remnants of rush hour traffic.

At 6:40 we are on the road again. We were supposed to be happily entrenched in the beach house watching a movie at this exact moment. It is starting to rain. But off we go. We are headed to the beach, life is great. The entire family loves the beach. A half an hour later, sweetP drifts off too. These boys had a busy day today. So we drive and chat and drive. And it seems to take forever in the dark. You cannot see the landmarks that make it seem like you are making progress. We keep track of progress by miles to go and what time it is.

We drive and drive and at almost 9 pm on the nose we pull in to the carport. The engine turns off and two sleepy boys ask, "Are we there?" We climb out, head in and settle in. Two boys are ready for round two. Two parents are ready for bed. So we watch a movie. The boys cuddled in and talked their way through the movie. They had already seen it, I hadn't. Our boys set a new record, they stayed up past midnight. We finally got them settled in and asleep. We went to bed with rain outside and happy hearts.

And you know what happens when boys are excited about something. They get up early.

Getting Out the Door

There is a reason I don't travel much. If you recall, it was a mere month ago that I headed to Reno for the blessed wedding. Of which there is only 2 photos of me and I have my sunglasses on in both. Otherwise I look cute popping up in the second row. Apparently no one told the photographer that short people go in front, or at least not behind tall people. But, I digress.

So it has been a whole month since I went anywhere farther than 10 miles away. You would think that I shouldn't have any problems getting ready to head out again. I had just barely almost gotten caught up from missing a weekend of chores, homework and mundane life. And this time I had to pack for more than just little, old me.

I had grand plans to get the last four loads of laundry done and all the packing done before my sweetP got out of school. But there were a few snags. SweetE needed to have his preschool photos redone. That was a painful hour. He was all happy and bouncy and cute until the moment we got in the room where the equipment was set up. Then his head went down, his lip went out and his thumb went in. And that is where he intended to leave them. I was bribing him with hot cocoa with whipped cream. And dirt or worms. Anything to make him smile, laugh, be himself. (I'm kidding about the dirt and worms.) I crouched down below him and held his thumb. And we coaxed and cajoled and hemmed and hawed and tried and he is a very stubborn little boy. We finally got something better than the first shot, but not the cute personality that I see every day. That personality reappeared the moment we left the room. The instant we walked out the door. He bounced, he smiled, he laughed. I had to laugh with him.

My girlfriend had planned to pick him up and take him to the soccer house to play with her little boys, but we were running behind. So I agreed to drop him there and head home to get stuff done. But, I had to be home in an hour to watch my neighbors kids. So I ran to the grocery store to get food for the trip and back to the soccer house to pick him up. One load of laundry has been done by this point. I realize I never said goodbye before I left and am praying that he has not realized this and hasn't been crying the entire time. My girlfriend is a backup mom, but this is the kid that cries a river if you don't wave to him at the window after a hug, a kiss and a bye-bye before you go out the door.

He is waiting by the window, but no tears. So off we go home, pull in to the garage, get the groceries in the kitchen and ding dong. It's the neighbors. Once a month I watch my neighbors kids while she volunteers in her other kids classrooms and once a month she watches sweetE while I go to sweetP's class. It was her week to volunteer. No problem.

Somehow, I still manage to get two loads of laundry in and the groceries put away. I get the box of food packed and not much else. Here comes sweetP. We are supposed to be leaving in a half hour. No problem. As soon as that last load of wash gets out, we will be ready to go. Original departure time 3 pm. Whizzes right past. 4 pm, whoosh. 5 pm, zoom. 5:15, I am ready to go. Ducky is doing the OCD lock up routine. It takes 20 minutes. The rest of us are in the car, waiting. 5:40, we hit the road.

Hello, rush hour!

By request:
Pink Salad aka Cranberry Salad aka Yumminess
1 bag fresh or frozen cranberries
1 can pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple (I like the tidbits)
1 bag small marshmallows
1 scant cup sugar
1/2 - 1 pint whipping cream

chop up cranberries into small bits
add pineapple, marshmallows and sugar
let sit in refrigerator overnight

whip the whipping cream
fold into cranberry mix (I like it less creamy so I usually only use about a 1/2 pint)

I think it is better if it sits for a few hours in the refrigerator before you serve it. It sweetens the whipped cream a bit. But it can be served immediately. Also, very tasty as left overs.

Beach Bums

Spent the weekend at the beach. I'll tell you all about it later. Right now, I have to figure out what I am teaching tomorrow and we have swim lessons and dinner to get through yet.

Time Change Woes

I loathe when the clocks change. It messes with my routine. I used to like "fall back." But once you have kids, it is just a pain. The clocks changed a week ago. The boys internal clocks have not. This morning I was greeted with little shuffling feet at 5:30. This meant that I had a scant 6 hours of sleep. For some that would be plenty. But I love sleep, crave sleep, need sleep and 6 hours wasn't going to cut it. Once the boys are up, even if they crawl back in bed with me and eventually fall asleep, I am awake. If I get too awake, going back to sleep never works.

So my sweetP came in at 5:30, laid down until 6. Then started clearing his throat, over and over again. Ducky had long since gone to work. So I sent him in to get a drink. Then he went down stairs. But he came back, eating.

Me, "Honey, what are you eating?"
SweetP, "Bologna."
Me, "Okay."

Hey it doesn't leave crumbs in bed, but bologna at six in the morning. Ugh. I was just too tired to care. So the sweetP goes back to sleep about 6:30. Just in time for another set of shuffling footsteps to come in. SweetE has it down. I lift the covers and he scoots right in. And then plays with my hair. And drops it in my face. And that drives me nuts. It tickles.

I love that I still get to cuddle with them in the morning. I know they won't be that little for too much longer. But 5:30 does me in for the whole day. I had them trained almost perfectly and then "fall back." I vote we abolish time changes. Then I'll train the boys not to come in before 6:30 again. And then life will be perfect again.