Supergirl and Clark

Ellie finished swim lessons last week. She did great and now more readily puts her head underwater and "kicks on the top with supergirl arms!" intermittently. Unfortunately for her (and her teacher) Ellie wore her swim vest a too long and became overly comfortable in the 'vertical' position, which her teacher explained makes it more difficult to retrain her body to go horizontal for swimming. This was worsened by the fact that she realized about halfway through lessons that she is tall enough to walk in the shallow end. Her cautiousness naturally leads her to walk around the pool instead of trying to swim across it. We will keep practicing and there's always next summer...

Clark is transitioning from newborn to baby. With every little change, I get nostalgic. I cried a little putting away his newborn clothes that no longer fit. It's as if I look at Ellie and realize he will be 4 practically overnight. He loves to watch Ellie and even his toys now. He still doesn't like the car seat, but he's mellowing a little. He loves his big sister and she loves him. Here they are having some quality "tummy time"

Over the Rainbow Dirge

People often plan the songs they want played at weddings, anniversaries, and parties.
Have you ever thought of what songs you want played at your funeral?
For me, one song I want played is "Somewhere over the rainbow" by hawaiian singer Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoole. It is one of the most haunting (in a good way) songs I have ever heard. The idea of somewhere over the rainbow makes me think of heaven and the hymn "I'll fly away".
Carey has said that she wants the song by Michael W. Smith. "This is your Time.", a song I like as well. She hopes that she can "swim in the sea, drink of the deep." Message in the song: living life to its fullness to the glory of God.
Carey also likes Pierce Pettis', "We will meet again." about meeting our loved ones in heaven.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart."

And the winner is......

We have a tie for our caption contest. Our winners are:

"You're going to put that thermometer where?!"
by Michelle Rutherford

and

"Help! They've captured me and make funny faces at me and make me ride in a CAR SEAT!!!"
by Darcy Walworth

Thanks to all the contributors...they were funny. The winners can let me know what yummy treat they would like!

Red-headed mermaids and MOMs

I suppose every mother has a moment where she realizes that she is officially a MOM. Not just a woman who has birthed a child, but a full-on MOM. The kind who can change a diaper in her sleep, miraculously produce (or improvise) a tissue or wipe, sense that her child is up to trouble and reprimand them while carrying on an indepth conversation with another person....you know...a MOM.

I had one of those moments the night before Ellie's birthday party. She had been spending the week with her Mimi & Papa (Spencer's parents) and I was talking to her on the phone. My mom and I were in the process of making her 'mermaid' cake and I had already frosted the cupcakes for her hair yellow. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Guess what? Mom and Besta are making a mermaid cake for your party tomorrow!
Ellie: OOhhhhhh!!! With red hair???
Me: ......no! with yellow hair!!!!!! (trying to sound very excited about the yellow hair)
Ellie: (in a sad low voice, trying not to cry) but...mom....mermaids have red hair.
Me: .........oh.....silly....mommy was just kidding.....of course she has red hair.

And there it was. I had become a woman who scrapes off yellow icing and makes new red icing.

Here are some pics of the party

(Your Caption Here)

This picture is too funny and we couldn't decide on a caption...so we decided to let you do it. Send us your caption (by way of comment) and the best caption will win something yummy....:-)

Laziness and Electro-shock Therapy

Ellie's 4th birthday is coming up. After discussing some different options, she decided she wanted a mermaid party These occasions always bring out conflicting sides in me. The creative side (by far, the weakest of the sides) wants to do super-fun things like transform the living room with blue balloons and shiny paper, have the kids wear mermaid costumes, etc. The cheaper side (which gets stronger the longer I'm married to Spencer) wants to do all that for no money. And then there's the lazy side. This is the freakishly strong side that beats the other sides into submission. The lazy side entices me with things like: "Have the party at the park so you don't have to clean your house" and " Have hamburgers and hotdogs so Spencer can help in food preparation" and "Have the party near a lake so you don't have to come up with lots of elaborate games to entertain the kids (both young and old)". So.....we're having a party at Maclay Gardens lake/beach where we will be serving hamburgers and hotdogs (and a mermaid cake)...can I blame it on having a 6 week old? ....I can?....Oh good.....

Speaking of the 6 week old...Clark is a cutie and we can even squeeze a smile out after he eats. Most people comment that he's starting to look more like Spencer as he gets older (I agree). He sleeps at night, usually only waking up once or maybe twice, and goes right back to sleep....what more could I ask for right? Well.....greedy human that I am, I wish he liked his car seat. He hates it. It's as if the car seat is testing out electro-shock therapy on him whenever he is forced into it. He much prefers to be held- all the time. Now, this may not be a problem if I loved being at home. I, however, love GOING OUT. I enjoy the park, the mall, going out to eat, friends' houses, even grocery shopping. This week Ellie has been going to VBS every morning which has allowed me some time to run errands(mostly related to her birthday). I was hoping maybe he just needed to "get used to" his car seat and going out. Nope. Is this God's way of lettting me know I need to be OK with being home?

Tips on how Not to Paint a Garage Floor

A week ago I started to paint my garage floor. Not an easy task since my garage is mostly full. 2 main reasons to paint the garage floor.
1. It is easier to clean
2. It looks nicer.
The first thing I did was move all the stuff in the garage including the large book shelves over to one half making sure that anything touching the floor was plastic or something not easily damaged by water. I also threw a tarp over some of the cardboard boxes.

Tip 1. If you want to paint your garage floor do it before you put anything in the garage.
After moving everything I used a friend's (Mark's) pressure washer to clean the floor. The advantage to first using a pressure washer (especially if your floor was as dirty as mine) it allows you to see the oils stains more clearly so you know were to concentrate the acid cleaner. Using less acid is a good thing. After pressure washing and then acid cleaning (almost everywhere needed the acid ) I waited over night for the floor to dry.

My first mistake. When I went to Lowes to get the floor paint I went straight to the paint desk and said I wanted to paint my garage floor.
He handed me the Quikrete brochure. When I saw that the "semi/transparent stain" can make concrete look like real stone I was hooked. I am a sucker for a pretty rock. I chose a light blue color thinking "yeah blue granite garage".

Tip 2. Do not use "semi/transparent stain" on your garage floor. It will not look like natural stone. Most garage floors have too many stains and stuff which show through the semi/transparent stain . It would probably look great on a cement walk near your pool or in a garden but not in a garage.
There were a few different ways to apply the concrete stain, listed in the brochure. The first one I tried was using a paint roller.

Tip 3. Do Not use a Paint roller to apply semi/transparent stain. No matter how hard I tried it make lots of streaks and roller marks. Also the stain is very "thin" and spills and drips easily. Leaving drip spots on the concrete, even after you paint roll over it.
After I finished staining half the garage I had second and third thoughts and almost bought some different solid paint but the cheaper and lazy side of me won out and stuck with what I had.
After letting the stain dry for 24 hours I used 2 coats of the high gloss sealer.
The Brochure says it is optional, but if you are using the stain stuff for a garage the high gloss sealer is a must. I realized after moving everything over to the other side of the garage and pressurewashing where ever there was the blue stain that didn't have a high gloss coat the water soaked right in.
Tip 4. On the other side of the garage I used a half gallon gardening water sprayer (one of the methods recommended in the brochure) which makes a fine mist. It was great for the middle of the floor and definitely created a more even and "prettier" look with the stain. It also easily got on the side walls any time I came close. (I'll have to repaint several spots on my garage wall). To avoid more wall staining I used a roller just along the edges and finished everything else with the sprayer.

After finishing there is sort of line in the middle of the garage where I stopped and started again
I have about a 400 suare ft. garage.
I used about 1.7 gallons of the stain, 1 gallon of the acid (could have used a little more) and about 0.7 gallons of the high gloss sealer.

In the end it turned out OK. hopefully it won't hurt resale value.

friends...then and now

I am amazed at how fast the past 4 years have gone by. Or for that matter, the past 10. It was 10 years ago that I first came to Tallahassee. Today we went to the Kagys' for a rockin picnic/party. Ellie and 9 of her closest friends had a blast in the big blow-up pool & huge slip 'n slide. (Oh to have 3 acres for a super-cool back yard party) I watched her and the other kids and realized that our kids now have their own sub-group and own group dynamic. The "Mondaynight kids". Hard to believe there were 10 kids in the pool and 5 infants under 4 months old just waiting for their chance to jump in. I know it will happen sooner than I want. My, how we are propagating the earth.

When did this happen? Weren't we just back at the BSU hanging out between classes, debating pretty much anything and watching the Flying J's in concert? Back when Sandra, Christopher, Mark and Brian all had a lot more hair and nobody was even close to being married. Now these are the same people who put a roof over our head (literally), remodel our house, bring us groceries when I'm too sick to make it to the store, and take advantage of teachable moments for Ellie when we're not right there. I love our friends. I love that some still call me Careybuck. I love that we call each other in the middle of the night to announce the arrival of babies. I love that we can mercilessly beat each other at games with serious smack-talk and no one remembers later. I love that Brian Janek seriously injured himself (twice!) helping us with our house...and never sued us. :-) This is the body of Christ.

Baby Pictures

Here is a link to several baby pictures of Clark that Julie Alley took. It is on a coolwebsite called Smugmug.

This is the actual Clark picture link:
http://juliealley.smugmug.com/gallery/1466061

To ad or not to ad?

The question is "should I add ads to my blog?". I'm leaning towards "yes". Granted few if anyone will ever read this blog, except maybe future employees and stalkers, but maybe I can make a few cents off them. I've run the numbers and assuming a significant increase in blog traffic, over a 10 year period I might could make enough money to fund my next bubble gum purchase (assuming the price of gum does not increase with inflation). Honestly if anyone is anoyed or offended by ads on my blog please comment and I can always remove them. As for now I'm looking forward to that piece of gum.

Lazy or Paranoid??

Well we did it we are finally in the blogasphere. The main reason we have not been on is because well I am lazy and typing stuff in a computer is what I do at work. The other reason is that this is one more way for other people to watch you. I know that nothing is private anymore and that just about anyone can get just about anything about you on the web, but having a blog just makes it that easier. For instance now potential employers can go and look at my blog and see "Oh well this guy is a right wing conservative and a Christian, we don't need those kinda crazies in our company" Now I've done it for sure, I've typed it in ensureing that Google, NBC, ABC, CBS and many others will never hire me.