Argh Matey!

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This week our big event was celebrating Calleigh's best friend (as she constantly reminds me), Braelyn's, 6th birthday.  Last year she had her party at Sea World which ended up being a crummy, rainy day but this year she couldn't have had nicer weather for a great backyard celebration.  Allen and Tangie did an outstanding job with a Pirate theme and the kids all had tons of fun.  We were a bit of poor sports by not dressing the part (although I did not have anything on hand) but we did somewhat remedy that with some bandannas and an eye patch upon arrival.  This theme would stick around for a few days with the girls having sword fights (during which time Brady would run away in "fear" screaming every time.  This got OLD fast.) and such in the back yard.

Kids lining up for instructions at the beginning of the party.

There were all kinds of game including doing the crab which Calleigh was not very good at!

They had to try and pop everyone else's balloon.

Meanwhile, Aubree and Brady were content to just watch the games.

Another awesome cake by Jennifer.  Maybe her best yet?

Enjoying the cake.  Notice what hand Brady is using.  Yes!!

Calleigh swings for the pinata.

The backyard.

And from a different angle.  

Digging for treasure.

The theme continued at home.

While we were partying, Duncan was busy peddling in the Tour de Cure (a diabetes fundraiser) bike ride in east Orlando.  The ride was 100 miles which he has never actually riden before so I was anxious to get his text messages along the way to see how things were going.  Thankfully they had little rest stops with food and water along the route and Duncan points out that when you are riding in packs of people, it's much easier, due to the blocking of the wind, then when you are riding alone.  It took him about 6 1/2 hours, including the rest stops, and I was so proud of him for finishing.  I'm sure I wouldn't be able to walk for a week (not that I would ever even come CLOSE to riding that many miles) if I did that but it barely phased him.  The event wasn't without some drama, however.  The hospital president and his son were a little ahead of Duncan and as Duncan was around the eight mile mark, he heard shouts of "Wreck, wreck."  Duncan arrived on the scene to find the president lying on the side of the road, unconscious, his helmet all ripped up.  Apparently his front tire had clipped the back tire of his son's bike which had caused a crash.  Duncan waited with him while he came to and the ambulance came and he ended up having surgery for a broken clavicle in addition to having a concussion.  I'm certain that if he hadn't had on a helmet he would have been in serious, serious trouble.  And yes, the ambulance was instructed to take him to Florida Hospital!

This week we were back to having a fairly uneventful one as far as going places.  Tuesday morning we went to Publix and were in line at the register behind a mom and her little girl.  Calleigh's first question is always "How old are you?" and then "What's your name?"  The girl replied with something we couldn't understand and I heard the mother say to her "In English, not Japenese."  So I whispered to Calleigh, "She is Japenese." And Calleigh asks her in an incredulous voice, "Your name is Japenese?"  I guess we need to brush up on learning our countries.

Wednesday we went to the library (although not for story time) and then on to CVS.  I had a $5 off $30 coupon that expired that day and they were having a great deal on Pledge where I could actually make money.  Of course, they didn't have any.  There was also a deal, although not nearly as good, on Shout stain remover (which I go through like water) and you could either do the furniture polish or Shout deal but not both.  What were the odds that I would be at another CVS that day?  Very slim so I did the Shout deal and tried to get out of there as quickly as possible before Brady pulled anything more off the shelves.  Your two options with him are to either let him sit in the cart and scream or let him walk and chase him all over the store while he grabs stuff off shelves.  I cannot wait until he matures and there is a third option.  When is that coming??

Well, what do you know but Duncan gets home at a very reasonable hour and says, "Let's go somewhere."  Off we went, first to Walgreen's to get a passport photo for Duncan.  You may recall that we discovered his passport expired while we were in Nova Scotia last year so I figured it was time to get on that before time runs out.  Then it was on to Costco which so happens to have a CVS next to it.  Of course, I had to go to check and see if they had the Pledge just for kicks.  And yup, they had like eight bottles of it.  Oh, I was so ticked off.  For just a tiny moment I considered using my other CVS loyalty card so I could do the deal on that card (I had received a second one with a different number because the hospital has a deal with CVS where you get some percentage off all the generic drugs.  I never used it though) but then that thought quickly passed.  It wouldn't be right (you're only supposed to have one loyalty card per household).  I did, however, get some gum that was really cheap.  I had stacked like six packs of the gum on my phone as I went to look for the Pledge, had changed my mind about the gum and went to put it back, and then changed my mind again.  I bought four packs and got back in the car only to look at my phone and realized that hiding between my coupon envelope and the phone was a fifth pack of gum that I had never paid for.  Obviously it was accidental but you get that little moment of panic like "I just stole something!"  Duncan quickly drove around the block and I ran back inside to put it back.  Phew!  Then, strangely enough, Duncan had a meeting on Thursday with a couple of CVS folks because of a partnership the hospital is doing with them.  CVS is headquartered in Rhode Island which isn't far from where I grew up in Massachusetts and so wouldn't you know but one of the ladies with CVS lives in my very tiny town of Norfolk and the other lady was from the next town over. Small world!

We had been looking at various items at Costco but only ended up with a few mundane food items.  Since were there and it was supper time, we decided to take them up on their deal of a $9.95 pizza and their outdoor seating.  It turns out that they had no highchairs and their picnic tables aren't the best as the bench is really far from the table.  Not a good set up for Brady. I let him sit next to Aubree on the bench though while we waited for the pizza to cool off and then I would have him sit right on the table.  Well, as Aubree reaches for a slice of steaming hot pizza and I yell, "NOOO", she moves just enough that she jars Brady loose who looks like he's about to topple to the floor.  I grab Brady as fast as I can and in doing so, my fingernail jabs into his face somewhere and he starts bawling. There was no blood and I couldn't see anything on his face so I thought maybe I hit something else.  But then a few minutes later Duncan (who had been putting things in the car and getting drinks during the incident) says "What happened to Brady's eye?"  Sure enough, right under his right eye on the same side as where he got his stitches, was a big nasty looking gash.  Sorry little dude.  A few minutes later Aubree is running around, playing between the picnic tables, and we hear a wail coming from her.  She has somehow fallen to the ground and is screaming in pain and holding her head funny.  Please don't let it be her teeth, I think!  Thankfully she just has a scrape on her chin and her knees and that's it.  By this time, Duncan and I were like, "Let's get out of here."  We gather the kids and as we do so, Brady starts running and as he goes by Calleigh who is facing the other way, she starts skipping around coming about a 1/2 inch from knocking Brady down flat on his back.  We could not get out of there fast enough.  So much for a nice mid-week interlude.

Thursday would normally have been a Costco run but that was taken care of so we were off to the playground instead.  We went to the peacock playground and very fortunately ran into a 6-year old boy, his 16-month old sister, and mom.  Things are so much nicer when there is at least one other kid there that the girls can play with.  They had a great time with him and the mom and I had a nice chat about homeschooling.

I had to explain what this was.  $0.50 for a local call, in case you were wondering.

Friday was, of course, yard sales.  I had so many in the GPS that I figured we wouldn't have time to hit all of them which we didn't.  I will happily take this problem.  I was very excited about one of my finds.  We were at some random sale and I was looking through a box of books, I came across a bunch of children's books with "An Adventist Girl" in the title.  It said they were for ages six and up and I knew they would be perfect for when Calleigh's starts reading.  I got 16 books for $8 so I was thrilled.  I asked the lady if someone was an Adventist (I did not get the impression that they were) and she said her neighbor had given them to her.  The other neat thing about them was that they were all decked out in Bruins gear (the mom, dad, and son) so  I was happy to buy stuff from them!

Last night Ron and Elaine came by to drop off some stuff for our yard sale tomorrow.  The weather looks like it might not be the greatest but we're hoping the rain holds off until the afternoon.  It will be late night tonight getting everything together and an early morning putting it out.  The girls will be selling lemonade, cookies, cupcakes, and muffins and they will be really disappointed if the sale is rained out.  Adventurers is raising money to purchase a wheelchair (not sure for whom) and I made the suggestion to Calleigh that maybe we should use the money we get from the sale to give for the wheelchair.  She thought that was a great idea so I was pleased. If you are in our area and you read this before tomorrow morning, please come and buy some goodies!

Today I taught Aubree's and Brady's Sabbath School.  I have mostly been just helping out with running the music and reading the story every other week but I'm also available if the teacher is gone.  I had no idea but the teacher's, Patti, husband had a stroke a year ago in which he had fallen and struck his head (she had found him.  How awful.)  He had been doing fairly well since then although he will probably never work again and has a problem doing certain things like adding numbers.  Well, about two weeks ago he randomly fell again and hit his head, again, and now is in rehab in Tampa (closest place that took her insurance).  She wanted to go down there to visit him which seems like a good idea.  I feel so bad for them especially because he is only 51.

No, I have not died my hair dark brown.  That is the other helper reading the story.

I had forgotten to mention last week how much we're enjoying Daylight Savings Time.  After a brief adjustment period (which worked out exceptionally well for the first few days especially because Brady went to bed at the new time but was waking up at his old time which was now an hour later) we have embraced it whole heartedly.  I know for some it may be a pain because their kids are now trying to go to bed during the daylight but for us, it's awesome.  The kids go back outside to play after supper and stay out there until it's almost completely dark which is a little before eight.  Oh, how I love having a backyard.

A few other pictures...

Looking for gators last Sabbath afternoon.

Enjoying the community playground.

What you can't see is that because they all decided to walk, I'm pushing Brady's car with Calleigh's scooter on it and Aubree's tricycle.  Thanks guys!

Helping me make meatballs.  I can't do anything in the kitchen without him wanting to help me.  Future chef maybe?