handsful

Another blog about the comings and goings of our crazy household…I really enjoy writing posts, and looking back at the history of “us”.

I don’t necessarily do them for the enjoyment of anyone else. Cause, truth be told, I have no idea if anyone other than a few very consistent people (thanks!) who comment actually read any of this. I kinda wish there was an app that alerted me when someone clicked over and read the blog….kinda sounds like something the government would do, though. Watching our every move…another subject, eh?

Course, I’m guilty of reading other peoples blogs and never commenting…I guess I should get better about that. It’s nice when you realize that others really ARE stopping by :)

Enough whining…

A little over a week ago, Randy made the last-minute decision to get us tickets for an Atlanta Braves baseball game. It’s been years since our last game. I think maybe 6, so Abbey would have been 10?

So, we hit the road that Friday afternoon…leaving too late, it turned out, and then having to back-track to get the forgotten camera. Ugh. Which made us miss the whole 1st and 2nd innings. Oh well, we were in our seats for the rest!

Our biggest “wants” for that night? To see Chipper play. To see Kimbrel pitch. And, of course, for them to win.

Chipper….first check. He retires this year, and Randy said should easily be a first-year Hall of Fame player. Some players wait years for that honor.

Notice Marley is missing? She had a previously planned trip to PA with her friend Kylie and her family. This was really the only weekend we could make a game, and she understood. We really missed having her there.

The wave, of course.

What I get these days when I ask the boys to pose for pics…goofballs.

Dinner…Dylan has portion control issues.

Hot dog and this ballgame treat…oh yeah.

Chipper again. He’s such a rock star.

Speaking of rock stars. The crowd went CA-RAZY when Kimbrel (second check) started running across the field. All the screens turned into fire! His stats are extremely good and this is only his second season in baseball. If you care nothing for baseball, I’m boring you to tears. Sorry…

I’ll skip to the end. They won (3rd check) and did a bit of celebrating.

They always have Friday night fireworks, so we moved farther up (a lot of seats opened up) and the kids started trying to get noticed for the jumbo screen.

It worked!

The fireworks were awesome…

If I could crop out the annoyed guy on the right, I would…but we look happy!

Showing off the signature Braves “Tomahawk Chop”

Me and my sweetie.

Forgive me while I post a bunch of pictures of my kids in random poses.

Smooch!

Payton’s been captured!

Not sure they had leap frog in mind when they made this statue…

We had such a great time at the game, and it was over WAY too soon. Rather than drive home that night (which would have gotten us home about 3am), we crashed at a nearby hotel and drove back the next day.

Hoping to watch the Braves in the post-season this year!

I’m just a tad behind in blogging our lives happenings, so I’m gonna cram the rest of our wonderful Asheville weekend into this one, little bloggy post. K?

After zip-lining, we stopped by a local place for ice cream (yum), and then checked into the inn. A quick change of clothes, and we were out the door for dinner.

We both love walking around downtown areas, especially busy cities. I’ve never wanted to LIVE in a big city, but I love to visit. So, we chose a restaurant right in the middle of things and ate outside in the gorgeous weather.

Dinner over (and really, really good), we decided to wander around. Asheville, if you’ve never been there, has a very distinct vibe. Very college, very diverse, very…hippie. Honestly, it is. And, they readily admit it and are dang proud of the fact.

We heard music, and headed that way. We came upon a HUGE crowd, all crammed into one, small brick amphitheater. The only instruments were drums…all kinds. And, if you didn’t happen to have a drum, you danced around the drums. There were no planned songs, or anything resembling planning of any sort. They just had a beat and everyone went along with it. Around the area were other people holding signs with scripture verses on them. I saw one guy walking while carrying a large white cross. The whole thing had a very “Moses on the mount, Israelites having a party” feel to it. Very strange. We learned later that this happens EVERY Friday night.

There’s a live band every night at the GPI, so we had a late night drink while we listened. A Sam Cooke song made us get up and dance :)

We had to get up early Saturday morning…I know, on vacation, we had to get up early?! But, it was for good reason. We had a couples massage appointment :) An hour long massage, followed by hanging out around the indoor and outdoor pool, saunas, hot tubs, etc. Four hours later, we emerged feeling very relaxed and very thankful for the experience!

Taken after our spa morning.

This was taken outside the spa, looking up at the inn behind us.

Walking up to the inn.

In fact, we were so relaxed, we spent the next couple of hours napping. Can’t remember the last time I took a NAP.

Deciding we should do something other than sleep our day away, we went back downtown for a treat and a little shopping. Chocolate chip pecan pie (oh, yes I did) and red velvet cupcake.

Next up, dinner. And, this one was planned ahead of time. Randy had made reservations at the best restaurant at the inn. The kind of place where they put your cloth napkin on your lap. The dinner was incredible, but we talked the most about the little cheesy bread puffs on the bread plate. They melted in your mouth! I’d go back for just those.

These were taken before dinner, just at sunset.

Cameras never capture how truly beautiful a mountain sunset is.

Not ready for the evening to end, we listened to that night’s live band while having a drink and dessert (chocolate mousse!)

Random weekend pictures to follow…

Original leather chairs that have been there since the inn opened in 1913. Edison (one of many famous visitors) could have sat in THIS chair!

Our door. We stayed in the original part of the inn. Not sure when, but there were two additions built and they are newer and more modern. We wanted the experience of staying in the old part. We roll like that. Plus, the other rooms in the “club” section were TWICE as much. Ah, no.

The main lobby has two HUGE fireplaces on each side of the room. I mean huge…the andirons are almost as tall as Randy.

The other fireplace :)

In the side of (and in the same shaft as the fireplace) is an elevator. There is always someone operating the elevator, 24hrs/day. It has the iron gates that they open and shut as you board and exit. And, it’s one of the last working elevators that opens on 3 sides (front, and each side depending on which side your hallway/room is). Very cool.

Re-creating the set-up photo we took the morning after our wedding. Posing with the “do not disturb” tag!

And, then, all too soon…it was the day we had to leave. The breakfast buffet was great (but the White Swan is Guangzhou, China still remains top dog), and we did a little more shopping for the kids and my parents. On the drive home, we stopped by Black Mountain, NC and looked at antiques. We found a lovely, old (100 years or so) wooden dough trencher bowl. My eye went directly to it and knew I loved it immediately. A little bargaining later, and it was ours. A remembrance of our 20th anniversary.

We’re already talking about our 25th. Our dream would be to take our family back to China. I guess we’ll see if that’s God’s plan for us as well.

To celebrate our 20th anniversary, Randy planned a trip for just the two of us.

Repeat that last part…just the TWO of us. Yes, we were due for this.

Last Friday, we got in the car and headed west. Randy made reservations at the Grove Pa*k Inn in Asheville – 2 days/2 nights. It. was. amazing.

We left that morning, and stopped for lunch. On the way, we scheduled a zipline tour in downtown. I’ve been ziplining once, and even though I’m deathly afraid of heights, I love ziplines.

It was just the two of us, with 2 guides. Very cool! Another guy followed us the whole time and took pictures.

On your mark…

Go! We started out on lines very close to the ground, so they could teach us technique. Then, each line got longer and higher…

I mentioned my fear of heights, right? Well, there were 3 suspension bridges that we had to cross. The first one wasn’t too bad, but my fear definitely kicked in. The 2nd one? I froze in the middle, but Randy and the guide talked me through it and I made it over. NOT fun.

This was taken in the middle of the first bridge.

This is me holding on to my line for DEAR LIFE.

By contrast, Randy went over all 3 with NO hands.

And, loved every second of it.

The last line was a double, and because it was just the two of us, we got to do it twice.

Despite the darn bridges, we had a fabulous time! What a nice way to start our weekend together…

We can feel Fall weather starting to make it’s entrance around here, so our days are seriously numbered on boating. In fact, this might have been the last outing.

These were taken a week ago, Saturday. I made the hard choice to stay home (too much school planning left to do) and Payton chose sleeping in over boating. But, the girls got some seriously good pics of their time on the lake.

Abbey is a master on the knee board, she gets better every summer.

Love the expression here. Can’t see it?

There, is that better? :)

No matter how good you are, sometimes you’re just destined to crash.

Most of the kids kinda have a “game face” when they’re out on the water. Not Marley. She’s always smiling.

Marley and Lainey playing “rock, paper, scissors” while kneeboarding. Guess they were bored. Get it? Knee – bored?

Now, it’s Lainey and Dylan’s turn

They kept bumping into each other. They’re not good at steering yet!

EJ’s turn to wakeboard. He’s improved quite a bit this summer, despite the fact we didn’t go out as much as we would have liked. Marley caught this shot of him just beginning to stand up.

He cuts to the right and goes outside the wake. Then, turns back in sharply, hoping for a good jump.

Nice! Wonder if he stuck the landing?

Oops.

It’s all about trying and trying again when you fall. He looks so tall here…

Taking a swimming break.

It looks like they’re crawling on the water!

No, Dylan, Abbey’s gloves don’t fit you. Yet.

Someone might need a haircut?

What a handsome captain!

Boating makes her smile. Have I mentioned that?

Marley is our newest wake boarder. This used to be an Ethan-only sport, but she decided this year she’d give it a try. She’s already mastered getting up (a big hurdle when it comes to wake boarding), and now is learning to balance and steer.

She can even make it out of the wake already.

Marley is either showing them that she made it out of the wake, or she’s contemplating a career in real estate…just LOOK at these homes?!?!

You be the judge.

Lake Norman, we do love you!

Those are the grades I’m juggling this year in our homeschool.

I’ll be honest, this year’s planning has been ROUGH. We chose a curriculum that we’ve never used before, and I think it’ll end up being great. But, the work it took to get it ready was very much underestimated. Tons of copies, collating, making binders with a zillion labeled tabs…

And, that was only for history, literature, and bible. Heh.

I did end up getting it all done, and we jumped in this past Tuesday. Later than we usually do, but as I’ve mentioned…planning took a while.

The bigs are taking world history, world literature, church history/bible, worldview, chemistry (Abbey), physical science (trips), Mandarin, composition, and vocabulary. The littles are LOVING school…they have Kumon workbooks that teach math, reading, counting money, time, etc. We’ll also be doing Sing, Spell, Read, and Write for phonics and a couple of online programs (love reading eggs!).

Here are a few pics of our first day…

The trips joined Abbey in learning Mandarin this year.

Abbey, let me take your picture…

Thanks

Marley is workin’ hard!

I get the feeling the kids didn’t want me taking their pictures??

Back to the littles, they always like pictures. These were actually taken on our 2nd day. Someone is learning how to write his numbers :)

1 – 100!

Our 12th year homeschooling has now begun. Our oldest is 2 years away from graduating. Gulp. And, our youngest is in the…well, youngest grade. Quite a spread! Only by God’s grace and daily provision will this year be successful…I’ve just gotta always remember that.

No, not for me! I could use one…but, this time I’m talking about our yard.

Since we moved here 5 months ago, we’ve gotten quite a bit done in the house. We’re mostly unpacked (storage rooms and garage an on-going project…), and the walls are slowly getting decorated.

The landscape, though? Completely neglected. It all looked nice when we moved here, but we quickly realized that they had slightly over-planted.

See? Layers upon layers of bushes and plants…that looked good when they were first planted. With not much thought into how they’d look AFTER they grew in. Combine that with the fact we’ve had zero time to do any weeding or maintenance…

A beautiful Japanese Maple that’s totally out of control. Blocks the entire porch area.

Down the side of the house

And, around the back. We have ideas for expanding the deck (it’s to the left of this photo) across the back of the house, this area is really a blank slate. One day…

Here’s a closer look…

and even closer…

We realized this wasn’t going to fix itself (ahem), so I visited our downtown garden center. It’s been there FOREVER, so I figured they might have a good reference for a local landscaper who needs work. Boy, did they ever. A husband and wife team spent about 5 days here.

Here are the results.

Wow, huh? Amazing how much better it looks…more open, spacious. Love it.

The Japanese Maple is now a smaller version of the original. I had no clue how to prune it. It would have looked like a hacked up tree in my hands! Larry said it had never been pruned before. I’m still not a huge fan of where it’s planted, but it does look so much better.

The bushes have a white look to them because that area was loaded with BEES and he had to treat it before he could work on it.

He also trimmed all the front trees, and mulched around them.

Around the side

and, the back. We planted a small gardenia there so far, I’m excited to plan the rest.

Having all of this done feels SO good. I’m thankful we found great landscapers who knew exactly what to do with our overgrown mess! I think the facelift was a success.

1992. Married 6 months. In our first home…a single-wide trailer that we were renting. With us and two big dogs, we were kinda squeezed in there, but happy as could be.

1996. First child, Abbey, was born after a couple of years of infertility.

1998. Second, third, and fourth children were born. Marley, Payton, and Ethan. Fertility treatments kicked in nicely this go round. Yes, I’m still holding on to the baby weight here and we both look exhausted.

2002. 10th Anniversary trip to San Francisco.

2006. Living in Florida…we followed Randy’s job to Florida from NC in 2004. Assuming we’d be there a couple of years, tops.

2008. Lainey joined our family. Still in Florida.

2010. And, then Dylan. We moved back to NC this same year, and rented a home on the water. Our home in Florida was still on the market.

2012. Back in NC, in our new home, our FL home finally sold. Feeling very blessed!!

It’s been an incredible 20 years, and in some ways it’s flown by. But, when I think of all that we’ve been through together…wow. It’s been a crazy, fun ride. Can’t wait to see what’s next…