Family Visits

Living in NC while the rest of our family lives in Ohio has never been easy. And ever since Claire and Benjamin came along, grandparents have made every effort to get to see us as often as possible.

My dad came down in April for a long weekend and brought SueAnne (or "Papa Dude" and "OOYan" in Benspeak) with him. We had a great visit - hiked (sort of) Pilot Mountain, had a picnic, went out to eat and walked through the Reynolda gardens which were full of spring flowers. They were even able to watch Claire's soccer game on Saturday morning in which she finally agreed to play but only while holding the coach's hand... baby steps, right?
Here's dad giving Claire a guitar lesson and "making up" a silly song.

My mom and Dave came down for the Mother's Day weekend, and while it was good to see them, we spent the majority of the time dealing with a chunk-blowing Benjamin. It was a vomitous weekend, and I think Mom and Dave got out just in time. They missed out on the entire family getting sick, a trip to the ER and several, several days of the stomach virus. Sorry we didn't get any pictures of that weekend. Though, that's probably a good thing.

Grandma and Uncle Jeff came down yesterday. Grandma is here to spend some time with the kids while Shawn is in Concord getting sunburned, hopefully avoiding fights with rednecks, and doing his best to avoid sticking out like a sore Northerner thumb at the Coca Cola 600.

Grandma and Jeff bought Ben a plastic golf bag and clubs, so we decided to try it out in the back yard.

Didn't you know that macaroni necklaces are the new "in" accessory for male golfers?

Uncle Jeff teaching Ben the fundamentals of golf.

Look at that form. "Fore!"

"Um, no, Uncle Jeff, this is how you hit it. I"ll show you."

Ben refused to relinquish his golf club even during a ride on the swing.

Grandma, daddy and Ben who is doing his best to squirm out of Shawn's hands so he can go get his golf club.


Today we decided to break out the sprinkler for the first time this summer. Ben's not so sure about this freezing cold water business.

Best buds.

Claire, the swimsuit model.

"Right, I'll just get a drink outside this time."

"Blog"

Being interested in the etymology of words comes with being an English major, I guess. Or, maybe not. I'm sure my brothers would just argue it as proof of my being a class "A" nerd, geek or bookworm. I'll just blame it on my dad, seeing as how Bible students are required to research the true meaning of words in attempt to fully understand the writings in the Bible. Yep, blame it on the parents. Hey, if that's the worst I can blame on them, they must have done pretty well. I shudder to think what my kids will blame on me.

But, back to my point... the etymology of words, or rather one word in particular - "blog." It has become an everyday word in our language, or at least it is for the under 25 crowd, and I'm finally catching up to those young 'uns. Apparently, everyone is doing it. Typing away, describing, detailing, photographing their lives all for a cyberspace audience. In my case, I hope it is not for a creepy, voyeuristic type cyberspace audience, but more of the cozy, nice grandma, nana, papa and friend type audience.

What I can't figure out is where in the world they (whoever they are) came up with the word "blog." OK, I get the "log" portion of the word - the whole describing, detailing aspect. But what about the "b"? What does it stand for? I'm sure it something totally obvious about which I will be utterly humiliated when it is pointed out to me. But, right now, I just can't figure it out. Does the B stand for boring (that's telling, eh?), benign, baby, budding, brainless, etc.???

So, anyway, whatever the word actually means, I have decided to start a blog and become a "blogger" (a boring logger?).

Hopefully, I'll mostly be keeping track of all the crazy things my kids do and say. I know the grandparents will appreciate this at the very least. And hopefully my audience, whoever you are, won't find it too...boring.

Here are some pics from Easter:

A recent "photo shoot"

Yes, that's snot under his nose, but it's still a cute picture!