Have you ever wanted to just to to a person when on customer service? well I found the answer. a website that lists the toll free numbers and key punches necessary to talk to a real person when dealing with companies. Find it here. It has credit card companies, banks car rentals you name it they probably have it. There is also a print version and a downloadable version so you can have it on the go.
Enjoy
Seeing our christmas fun
SO I have posted a few pictures of our tree decorating for your enjoyment. I (because I am kinda geeky) have also created a time-lapse movie of the tree decorating as well.
There are also some pictures of Arden in her dance class. It is called creative movement so it not like they are learning super fancy stuff. But she loves it, I we love it too, she is having fun and is free to play. I’ll have some pix from McKelvey’s dance class up soon.
In that same album of pictures there is McKelvey on Santa’s lap, Liam being held by Miss North Carolina, and McKelvey’s music concert at school where they sang animal songs. If you are at all interested I could post a movie from that.
Beginning the Christmas Fun
SO the previous weekend was the Lexington/Rockbridge Christmas parade. For the first time we knew someone walking in the parade. McKelvey was walking with the girls scouts as a brownie. According to the local paper there were 170 people in the parade, including baton twirlers and classic cars. Liam didn’t go because he was sick with a 102 fever(he’s fine now) and we set up our tree. We pulled out the advent calendar(bought last year on sale) and the kids finally got to play with the ‘Jesus Playset’ what you might call a nativity scene.
This weekend we started to watch the requisite christmas movies since McKelvey was feeling sick. Luckily everyone is cheered up by the “Heat-miser/Cold-miser” song.
the best laid plans …
Once you buy a home it seems you generate a list of projects. Our old house(the one in the picture above) had a big list. Our new house does as well. We’ve gotten the floors redone,we’ve painted the walls, and stripped paint. One thing on my list was to kill the ivy growing on the big tree in our front yard (In the back of this picture). The ivy on the tree isn’t good for the tree, it retains moisture where the branches meet the trunk which encourages disease. And that isn’t good when the tree can fall on your house. So I have been working on trimming the ivy back. I have finally cut through the trunk of the ivy, so it is now dying. It was really darn thick.
More to come later
Colonial Halloween
Well it has been a long time since my last post. So I have a lot of new pictures as well, so while they are loading up over the incredibly slow dial-up, I fill you in.
My birthday has come and gone. We had a great day, At Stonewall Jackson’s house(yes the confederate general) there was an apple festival. WE had fun seeing cider being made, there were crafts and games. Bobbing for apples when they are hanging on a string. It was hilarious to watch and impossible to do (without a little shoulder action). On the walk home we played in some leaves(since I hadn’t done any raking by that time).
Also Mom and Dad came down and we met them at Williamsburg. The kids had a pretty good time, although there were the obligatory times we wanted to throttle them. I mean can’t you just try a new food for once? McKelvey loved being in a rented costume. “I just want to live in olden days forever,” she said.
We also went to Historic Jamestown. They had a re-creation of Powatan village as well as the James Fort. pretty neat. They had ‘interpreters’ to explain everything from the houses to how they made the moccasins. They even had a deer hide you can scrape the fur off to get leather. Let me tell you that was really gross. It really made me look at my shoes in a whole new light. We got to go on reconstructed ships of the period, which seemed to be a little bigger than Vicenni’s on the Princess Bride. I don’t even want to think about having to hang out below decks for a couple months as a passenger on one of those suckers.
I’ll post more soon, (or at least in less of a delay) in the meantime, go back up your computer.
Rockets, Rockets and Brownies
Two weekends ago the weather was nice and we went out with the kids’ new stomp rocket. A stomp rocket is a little tube for the rocket with a bit of foam at the end(example here), and you jump on a this sort of a bladder. The air being pushed out of the bladder pushes the rocket up in the air. The explanation loses some of the fun of it. The kids had a blast shooting it up into the air. They would jump on or have us lift them up to jump down on it. WE got in on as well. IT was great running and chasing after them. Liam enjoyed the spectacle as well. He is very inquisitive now, sitting up and looking at everything.
Last Friday I got to go with McKelvey on her class trip to the Virginia Safari Park. As always it was great. This trip was different, since we had a guide talking to us about the animals and we rode on the wagon. We got to feed the bison, camels, kangaroos, as well as the potbellied pigs. Click here for McKelvey’s imitation of feeding the bison.
Then this past saturday, we went to The Udvar-Hazy Air and Space center. It is part of the Smithsonian. It’s in a old aircraft hangar and it houses a ton(or many tons) of historic aircraft and spacecraft. They had planes from the beginning of flight, as well as an SR71 Blackbird and a Concorde. Some of the cooler stuff is a retired Spaceshuttle (another pic here) and the Enola Gay (which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima). Another plane that brought up fond memories of youth was the Corsair which just made me think of the Black Sheep squadron TV show.
Also last week, McKelvey officially became a Brownie, She is tickled pink and is having fun with it. Since this is pseudo Girls Scouts, we might be hitting you up with sales of cookies and things.
I’ll have more next week.
Which comes first?
I just read in Time magazine that the Arctic ice maybe totally melted by 2030. I never thought that my mortgage would last longer that the Arctic. Weird.
Walking & Pictures
So last Saturday we went out for a walk as a family. Going through Lexington is a small stream called Woods Creek. It goes past the Elementary school and then on through the back of W&L’s campus. It is very beautiful. The kids were not to keen on the whole idea, until we found some acorns. However, after talking up what fairies would do with an acorn cap, they were into the walk.
So Woods Creek goes right behind the Lenfest Center and winds under the road that goes behind the main campus. On the way home we walked through campus. Liam had fun too. All in all it was a great leisurely day with the family, the kind of thing that makes me warm and fuzzy.
[posted with ecto]
Snippets of life
So Arden was using the bathroom the other day and she wanted me to give her some company as three-year olds are wont to do. She called ‘Dad’ so I called ‘Arden’ back, and when I got there I said:
“Arden!”
“Arden!” she replied.
“Am I Arden?”
“Yeah, you’re Beard Arden, and I’m Daddy.” Pause. “Hi, son!” she called.
I just broke out laughing.
The next day, Arden was sitting on my lap while we sharing my cereal (with banana – Arden’s favorite part) I was beginning an Armistead Maupin novel.
Arden asks, ” Do boys wear dresses?”
Look at the book. Hm. “Sometimes, but not usually. Do you want some more banana?”
“Sure!”
From the Mouths of babes…
Ann and I started exercising. We have worked out a schedule that we each have two mornings a week to go work out. This means that I finally got some running shoes/sneakers to work out in. THis is the first pair of gym shoes I’ve bought in years. During the school year I always wear my Doc Marten boots or my Doc Marten shoes. During the summer(or Weekends) wear sandals weather permitting.
McKelvey’s take on this was:
“Daddy when I look down just at your feet you don’t look like my dad.”