Garden City, SC

Since we moved here from Florida, we don't know much about NC and SC beaches. One of Kevin's friends and coworkers very, very graciously offered to let us borrow their new beach house in Garden City, SC for a summer getaway.

It was wonderful! The house was awesome and had everything we needed and plenty of room. It is about two blocks away from the beach.

The golf cart was included in the deal to get all of our stuff back and forth to the beach. The boys loved going for golf cart rides in the evenings and a few golf cart rides in the mornings to pick up doughnuts or bagels. Yes, that's Kevin's surfboard strapped to the top.

The beach house had a pool in the backyard too. Of course, the boys loved this.

This was the "pool" at the beach that Kevin built. Luke wasn't crazy about the waves, but he loved playing in his little sand pool.

Fletcher and Kevin spent alot of time on the boogie boards and learning to body surf.

I spent alot of time doing absolutely nothing but watching the kids and Kevin play.

Luke found this purple shovel in all the toys at the beach house and it was his best friend all week. He dug and dug and dug and dug. He had no desire to play with anything else. Kevin took him out in the waves to play and he really wasn't crazy about them. Maybe next year.

A few attempts were made at building a sandcastle. But someone on the demolition crew didn't allow much building to be done. I won't mention any names...

There were two piers near where we were - one in Garden City and one in Surfside. We walked down the one in Garden City to see all the people fishing off of it.

They buried Kevin up to his knees. Fletcher was so excited to be as tall as Dad.

My souvenir from the trip was this hat from Orvis. Now that I'm old, I have to protect my delicate skin. Just call me Mamaw!

While we were there, we took the kids to see Toy Story 3. I may or may not have cried during the last 10 minutes. Fletcher and Kevin played Magiquest which was very cool. I did a little shopping and read a couple of books. We watched 62 episodes of Phineas and Ferb. We don't get the Disney channel at home so this was a treat for Fletcher (and Kevin too).

Tomorrow you'll get to see our attempted non-professional beach photo shoot. Prepare to be amazed.

Whew!

As my brother-in-law Gavin would say, "Oh my groceries!"

What a crazy week!

Here's the quick recap: We got back from the beach Friday afternoon. Kevin decided we needed to keep playing on Saturday so we took the boys out for some fun. Amidst heaps of dirty laundry and enough sand in my van to start my own beach club, we settled in on Saturday night to watch a movie. It was overcast, but not really raining. We heard some thunder, but not exactly a huge storm. Then there was a loud crash, a flash, and another flash from behind the television. Then everything went dark.

The lightning hit a tree in our backyard and then somehow zapped the house too.
Now we have yellow leaves falling in the backyard. Try explaining that to a two year old. Fletcher asked if it was autumn. It is really bizarre.

Thankfully, the surge protectors protected our $40 craigslist TV, DVD, Tivo and our computer. We spent the rest of the week "discovering" all the other things it blew out. It zapped our cable, modem, our router, our coffeepot, our security system, and it even blew off our irrigation panel in the garage.

So we had to purchase some new things and get different people to come out and repair other things. The one that frustrated me the most was our security system. The CPI tech came out and said per company policy and liability issues the whole thing had to be replaced (main panel, glass breaks, etc) to the tune of $1200!!! (Our homeowners insurance deductible is $2500 so it wouldn't be covered.) The guy goes on to tell me that if we had put in a surge protector for the system, then it would only cost us $125 to replace the surge protector. Our original sales guy never, ever once mentioned purchasing a surge protector for our system because I know we would have put one in. I mean, you'd kinda think that would already be part of the package, right? I guess it's an easy way for them to make money if lightning strikes. Well, Kevin talked to them (he is really good at this kind of stuff) and told them that our contract expires in August of this year (after a three year contract with them). He said we would just sign up with ADT instead and get them to come out and put in a new system for free. They were quick to offer to replace our system with a new 3 year contract. We are paying $125 for a surge protector for this one.

One of our other purchases was a new coffee pot. Technically, coffee potS. Our Krups pot with a built in grinder had died a few months ago so we were using this Gevalia one we received as a free gift through a Southern Living magazine deal. That's the one we lost. At the beach house, they had one of those cool one cup Keurig coffee pots. I LOVED it! So very easy and virtually no clean up except for my coffee mug. I really wanted to get one of those with my 20% off Bed Bath and Beyond coupon. But Kevin drinks too much coffee in the morning for that to be cost effective for us. He'd have to use 3 pods every morning to equal what he drinks (maybe we need an intervention). He likes really strong bold flavored coffee and I like really mild breakfast blend types so we make two different kinds every morning. We bought him a 14 cup fancy schmancy Cuisinart one without a built in grinder (we learned our lesson) and we bought me an $18 Black & Decker one cup wonder. I'm not crazy about having two coffee pots on my counter, but it works.

So needless to say, after a week of dealing with the cable guy and the CPI guy plus unpacking, doing laundry from our trip, going through a pile of mail and sorting a bunch of emails, I couldn't find the motivation to sit down and blog in the evenings. I would collapse in my bed instead.

This week will be better. I promise! Thanks for hanging in there.

Offline

Some part of our house or yard was struck by lightning Saturday night. It knocked out our cable, security, phones, irrigation, coffee pot, etc. As of Sunday night we still didn't have internet access. (I'm typing this on Kevin's Blackberry.) So if you don't see any new posts this week, now you'll know why. Hopefully, we will be back online soon so I can share our pics and stories from our beach vacation last week.

Music

Ok so in the 80's (here we go again) it seemed like there were probably 25 or so popular musicians and bands from all different genres. Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, The Police, U2, George Strait, AC/DC, The GoGos, Prince, Stryper and a few more. It was easy to keep up.

Now? Not so much. With the invention of the internet (thanks, Al Gore), Napster, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook and iTunes, there are new bands and musicians popping up all the time. Some of the really cool and hip blogs that I visit also have music. I should look into that for this blog. I hear the songs and think, "Hmmmm....I wonder who is singing that?" Then when I look on their nifty little song thingy, I see a name I don't even recognize. People like Amos Lee or Brooks Fraser or Patty Griffin or Priscilla Ahn or Uncle Kracker. I can't keep up. It makes me feel out of the loop. But I love the fact that all these people are getting to live their dreams of being a rock star. But there are so many rock stars, I'm not sure anyone will be as famous as Michael Jackson.

Is there a point to this post? Because if there is I hope I hurry up and make it. I think this summer sun is doing something to my brain.

Allow me to take you back to my Louisiana roots. Hold your questions until the end of the video.

No, it isn't a Cajun Milli Vanilli. Yes, that really is the white boy singing.
Luke loves this song. I think the beat draws him in.

Don't Mess With Me

Even though I have boys, I thought I would have one of those peaceful, gun-free homes.

Well, now that we own a cap gun, an AirSoft gun, a bow and arrow, and a slingshot, I've given up on that idea. I'm embracing life with boys.

This is what Kevin came home with last week.

So back off. I have a pretty good aim!

If You Give a Mom A Muffin

If You Give a Mom a Muffin

If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
So she'll pour herself some.
The coffee will get spilled by her three year old.
She'll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do some laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper for tonight.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With a Pound of
Hamburger.)
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.
She will look for the checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two year old.
While she is changing the two year old the phone will ring. (Of course!)
Her five year old will answer it and hang up.

She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come over for coffee on
Friday.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
She will pour herself some.
And chances are,
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Written by Kathy Fictorie

Based on If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Luke's Favorite DVD

One day Fletcher is going to ask Luke, "What was that dumb video you always wanted to watch in the car?" Luke won't remember the name. So here are the details for both of you.

We have a DVD player in our new van. We had one in the Pilot too. We only use it on longer trips to watch movies. Luke has one video he loves. Just one. And he asks to watch it every single time we go on a trip. But one viewing is not enough. He asks to watch it over and over again. It's called "I Love Big Machines." Does it have a plot? No. Does it have characters? Not really. Is it funny? Not exactly. So what is it?


Yep. That's it. Just a bunch of big machines doing some work with a few cheesy songs thrown in including the theme song, My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean and Boom Boom Ain't It Great to Be Crazy. But that was only one minute. This thing lasts for an entire hour.

Fletcher seriously cannot stand it when Luke asks to watch it. Now you know why. He pleads, "Not again. Please, Mom. Not again. We've already watched this one a hundred times." Then he moves into Jedi mind trick mode, "Luke, don't you want to watch Toy Story. It is so funny." But in Luke's world, a long trip in the car = at least one viewing of this video.

I'm sure by the time the boys are older we will have worn out the DVD. Hopefully, Luke will be able to find a copy of it on ebay to give to Fletcher's kids for Christmas.