Basketball

Seth has been playing basketball for a couple of weeks now and is really enjoying it. I took a couple of pictures and videos the other day. I didn't have the right camera for large indoor shots so the picture isn't the greatest but here is a taste of what he has been doing.

Awesome game today for Seth! A 162! His highest game ever.

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Thanksgiving

Well, blog, long time no see. So much for my resolution to try and keep you up. We'll just pretend there hasn't been this many month gap!

A few pictures from Thanksgiving......

Tried and tried to get Seth to take a decent picture. His latest thing is to put his hand out like he is asking for a handout. The only way I managed to get this picture without him making a weird face was to snap the picture at the count of two. Still, he had already started with the hand gesture. Sometimes..that boy!!!......

Lacey took my camera and played around with taking Thanksgiving table pictures. They were OK, but these two were both very interesting. Here, in color:
Nearly the same picture in black and white:

Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

I haven't made a post for so long on the blog that I thought I would use the picture of these scrumptious cookies to test and see if I still remember how to post. :-)

These cookies were super easy to make and they are really good. And healthy right? I mean they have peanut butter, that makes them a protein right? At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it!
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Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail.

Bye Stone Mountain

We have played miniature golf:Stood on the top of Stone Mountain (this is our hotel from that view):
Rode "The Duck". Seth and Lacey both got a chance at driving it:

Lacey hiked high...
and low...
And, was the last one out of the park earning her a thumbs up from the employees.
And, Georgia just couldn't be complete without a Shih Tzu in a bikini.

We have done all we could do here at Stone Mountain. We still missed quite a bit like the petting farm, glass blowing studio (dang), arcade and a few other things, but we've had a great time!

It's a Whole New World!

Lacey just got contacts and I'm reliving the wonder that I had with my first time seeing the world. So far, she has noticed the texture on the walls, the holes on the air vents, the sparkle in the paint on the car, the stitching on the leather of the car seats, the pebble texture of the concrete, bark dust and so on.

You never know what you are missing, contacts are amazing!

A good day!

Bright and early this morning, Seth was out throwing his shotput. He came in sixth place and had some serious competition. Then we wandered around, checked out Healthy Athletes, played some games in Olympic Village, ate some food and enjoyed the sun. Finally, it was time for the 100m walk. Seth walked with 8 other athletes, two of which are his friends from his team. The moms and I almost missed the race because we didn't realize they were lined up! But, we made it and Seth came in 3rd for a bronze!

The weather has been awesome and we are having a good time. Time for the victory dance soon, just resting up until then.

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Smile!

Lacey's pizookie. They were out of vanilla ice cream (I know, how can you be out of vanilla ice cream!), so Cory the waiter decided to make up for it with a smile.
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Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

It's here!

The floor is in! They finished laying it yesterday but didn't get the mopboards and other finishing pieces done. Today, those should be done, and best of all.....the bubble room goes away! At first, when I had Erik send me pictures, I was a little worried and wasn't sure I like the floor. But, after I got home and saw it in person, it is beautiful. I think we did good.

Gold Medalist!

Track Regionals were this weekend. Seth had a really good day and the weather even cooperated for the most part. Morning was cold and cloudy as seen in this picture. Afternoon attempted a light mist but was followed by sun. It was not a day to put away the sweatshirt, but 100 times more pleasant than last year with the wind and monsoon rain. This is Seth lined up to do his 50m Dash.

Running the 50m and just overtaking his opponent.
The results -- a gold medal! This is awesome as the 50m dash would have been the last event I thought Seth would even medal in, much less win. I guess he wanted to prove to mom that he could run really fast.
The days results. Gold in 50m Dash, Silver in Shotput, Silver in 4x100m relay, and 4th in 100m Walk. The Gold medal means we are Ft. Lewis bound!!

Finally - We Found a Floor!

I thought it would never happen, but we have finally settled on a floor. After approximately 20 different samples coming home and being scrutinized, we have a winner. It is called Crimson Merbau. Never heard of it? Neither had I. I thought it was just a fancy name for something known like Oak, Maple, Pine, something normal. But no, after Googling and Wikipedia-ing (sure it's a word!), I learned it is a wood from Southeast Asia which is endangered and nearly extinct. See the Wikipedia explanation below. Not to fear, we are not using the real thing, this is laminate so I won't have to feel guilty about having an endangered species.

From Wikipedia: The tree has a variety of common names including ipil, merbau and kwila. The bark and leaves of the ipil are used in traditional medicines. The tree's timber, called merbau or kwila, is a very durable and termite-resistant wood, making it a highly valued material for flooring and other uses. The wood can also be used to extract a dye. Merbau can contain a "gold" fleck that runs through the grain, considered to be attractive by some. Due to extensive logging of the tree, it is endangered in many places in Southeast Asia, and almost extinct in some. Extensive amounts were purchased for the venue of the 2008 Summer Olympics in China, which is the largest importer of the wood. The wood is used for flooring in U.S. and European markets where it is commonly sold under different names. Both licensed and unlicensed mills harvest the wood.

The gold fleck, or golden tones along with the hint of cherry tones (the crimson), is what made it a good fit for us. So hard to tell with a small sample but at this point, anything other than plywood will be luxurious.

Gross Alert

OK, so this is gross, but we must document this tooth. Lacey went through enough pain that it just cannot go without a few sympathetic groans. This is the tooth that the dentist extracted today. Mind you, this is a baby tooth! When you awe a dentist with your gnarly corkscrew tooth, you know you have done something. The dentist was actually quite proud that he was able to get this out without major surgery. He literally had to "unscrew" it out of her mouth.

That big rogue root was actually wrapped around the tooth beside it. Good thing we had it pulled because there was no way that the permanent tooth was going to be able to push this one out. As if this is not proof enough, Lacey has a little problem with her roots dissolving, this is why almost every one of her teeth have had to be extracted. We saved the best for last, this is her last baby tooth.

Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa love....

Capitol project

Seth has been wanting a 3D puzzle ever since he saw one of the Colosseum. We decided to start smaller than that and he liked the Capitol Building. Of course, I had to do the building as it is pretty tedious, but Seth directed me to the correct numbered pieces. Here's the finished project:

Decisions, decisions

Just for reference, here are a couple of pictures of our old floor. I liked it, but it was always just a tad on the light side. We have so many cupboards and wood showing in the kitchen that we have to be careful not to get a busy pattern and were cautioned to stay away from the oak colors and patterns as they can make our kitchen look wall to wall wood.

With that in mind......here are some extremely small samples that we are supposed to choose from.

I'm really leaning toward sample #3 which is a light cherry. I think it will warm the place up. So hard to tell with such a small piece, what if it is too dark?? Aaagh.

The same group with one more sample that I don't like the color tone, too brown. It looks dirty to me.

Soccer

The only soccer picture I have so far, it is during practice before a game. Lacey is the tallest on the team.

Lacey and Banker

Lacey and her buddy - Banker.

Joe's Crab Shack

Joe's Crab Shack was the place Lacey picked for her birthday dinner. Last Friday we went and had a great time. Erik started the evening off with a Shark Bite. When they bring this to your table, the shark is holding a vial of grenadine. They announce to all around - "Watch out! Everybody out of the water! Shark attack!", then they pour the grenadine into the drink. = )

In the dessert menu, it tells you to take your picture through the porthole. Lacey obliged:
Seth did not, but I caught him anyway.
After dinner, what better thing to do than use Mom's sharpie and draw mussel animals. The manager and waitress loved this.
Dessert - holy cow! Six layered chocolate delight.

Game Face

Lacey had her first soccer game this weekend. She has face crayons with the exact same color as her team shirt so her and her teammates decided to add "eye black" or in this case "eye teal".

It must have worked, they won! There was some discrepancy whether the score was 5-1 or 4-0 (I never did hear for sure from the scorekeeper), but at any rate, they won by four goals. I missed the first 20 minutes of the game but they appear to have a really great team, good team spirit and respectful of each other. Big change from last year and it looks like it is going to be a fun team to be a part of.

New Light on Life

On the way home from Palm Springs last week, I made it 2,300 miles without incident and then, near Albany, OR, I got hit with a piece of flying debris (a chunk of tire about the size of a dinner plate). Incredibly, this was almost $1,000 worth of damage. A new headlight and the repair to the bumper.

Same bumper and new headlight! Also, minus all the bugs I gathered from Palm Springs.

Drying Out

The view of our lovely plywood floor. The contractor has taken out all of our flooring and we are now in the drying process over the weekend.

Two dryers and one dehumidifier. Besides being extremely loud, with all three running it also heats up this room to about 80 degrees. Needless to say, we are thankful for the pocket doors so we can close this room off and have it be somewhat bearable in other parts of the house.
Here's a better view of what is drying out. You can see how the nailheads are dark and have moisture around them. Even though the insulation below the house is not wet, I think the subfloor right here in front of the sink and dishwasher will need to be replaced. We'll see how well the dehumidifier does. It dumps a surprising amount of water every 20 minutes or so.
A plywood floor, a Sharpie and two kids: