Friday, June 22, 2007

Karaoke

On Wednesday night, my boss (Dave) invited me as well as a few others to join him and his wife at a local Buffalo Wild Wings for some fun and Karaoke. One of the other people to come was Joe - I always think of Joe as Dave's boss; sometimes he is, sometimes he isn't. :) Anyway, Joe was the only one of us who was planning to actually get up and sing, so I took along my digital camera to get it on video. He also brought his sons, and two of them got up there to sing as well. So, I am posting the videos here so that I can share it with some of our fellow coworkers... Enjoy. :)

You will hear the hecklers (Dave and John) in the back ground...

This one is of Joe doing The River by Garth Brooks:





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This is of Joe and Carter doing Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison:




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And here is Alex doing Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi:




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I would say a whole lot of nice things about Joe, but.. I want him to be able to fit his head in the door when he comes to work. :) Besides, he already knows he is good.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Our trip to North Carolina

The kids and I went on a trip to Holden Beach, NC at the beginning of June. There were a total of 6 adults and 6 kids that went on the trip - My aunts: Betty and Maggie; my Mom; my cousin Andy, his wife Missy, and their kids Mason and Grant; my cousin Jonathan; Allie, Ceara, Conor, and me. We rented two mini vans for the trip.


We left on Saturday, June 2nd, at 3AM. Or.. we tried to. I had stayed up all night, knowing that I would not be able to wake up and be functional at 2AM, so I figured I would take the first shift of sleep. I was at my mom's house with the kids asleep in the back of the van to pick her up at about 2:45AM. For someone who normally runs behind schedule, I was doing very well. :) My mom, who had to get up at 4am for work every day, and is always on time or early, had just woken up when I arrived! I found this to be a quite funny role reversal. Mom had just retired from her job - her last day was May 31.


It did not take her long to get ready, though. She had already had all of her things packed and by the door. Getting everything into the van was a bit of a challenge since the kids had made beds in there and put away all but one of the seats in the back. We managed to find a place for everything and we went to meet the other van at grandma's house (next door to my mom's) so that we could travel to Lebanon to pick Maggie up.

On the way there, we got a phone call from the other van and Missy had forgotten her purse, so they had to turn around and go back to get it. We went on to Maggie's house since she was riding with us, so that we could get her things put into our van while we waited.

I think we were on the road from Lebanon at about 4:30AM. I went to sleep (or tried to) in the back of the van in the only seat remaining. I woke up often to the sound of mom and Maggie laughing at whatever story they were telling. I remember hearing some of the stories and laughing too, but I was 1/2 asleep and don't really remember any of what was being said. The seat was EXTREMELY uncomfortable to try to sleep in. I tossed and turned.. at one point I looked over at the kids and Ceara was awake as well, and she offered to switch me places. She was having problems sleeping on the floor. So.. we switched. Then I had a metal hook that the seats hooked to digging into my hip. So, needless to say, I did not sleep well. We stopped somewhere along the lines to get breakfast and use the bathrooms and switch drivers.

Conor asked every 20 minutes if we were almost there.. lol He did pretty well for the long trip, though. By the end of the drive, we were all anxious to be there.

We arrived at the beach house at 5PM. It was raining a bit and the kids asked if they could go in the water even though it was raining, so we all went down to the beach and waded into the ocean a bit. The kids actually got in, but not too far. The tide was very strong. We did not stay down there too long because we had to unpack the vans.

We all got our room assignments and took our luggage to our rooms. Mom, Conor, and I shared a bedroom with our own bathroom - and an exit to the upper deck on the ocean side. The view was awesome.

Our first night there, we ordered pizza. No one felt like going to the grocery after that long drive, so we just got delivery.



Here is Ceara - she got her hair cut and layered before we left on vacation - it looks very good . :) It was very windy most of the days, but it felt really good. Being that close to the ocean, there was a salty haze on everything - the windows the most noticable. My sunglasses got a salty haze on them very often as did my camera. So.. some of the pictures appear a bit hazy. Also, with my being injured (see info below) the kids took most of the pictures. I did hobble down to the beach towards the end of the week and take a couple of movies (below) and some pictures as well. :) I have some funny stories to post about our trip, but thought I should go ahead and post the pictures for now. And yeah.. incorrect dates on the pics!





Conor and Mason playing in the sand along the shoreline.



Maggie took a chair down from the deck and tried to talk me into sitting in it in the water.. I refused because it was not exactly steady and I didn't even want to try to get out of the ocean with my knee in the condition that it was in. I am glad I didn't.. you will see from the videos below how it worked out for Maggie when the waves came in.... :)



Digging more holes in the sand.



The kids playing miniature golf. (Ceara, Conor, and Jonathan above)



Ceara, Jonathan, and Allie.


Posing on the Alligator. From front to back: Conor, Mason, Jonathan, Ceara, Allie.
I wish I could remember what they were saying!


Here is the view of the houses from the pier. Mom, Allie, Ceara, Jonathan, and Conor walked to it one day.


Jonathan, Ceara, Mom, and Conor on the pier. Allie was the photographer... :)




Conor and Mason blowing bubbles on the deck.


Grant and Conor watching the bubbles flying off the deck towards the ocean.

Ceara and Allie posing for a picture. Hey.. the expression and the hand signs are the "IN" thing to do! :)


On the way home, the injured person (me) got to sit on the back bench seat, while the kids made a bed on the remaining floor space. We slept as much as we could. Above, Ceara is reading Conor one of his favorite books - "I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words"


And Allie had her nose in her own book most of the trip.


Some of the pictures that were taken did not turn out at all - I don't know if it was the salt messing with my camera, or what, but they were either total blue haze with the faint outline of people in them, or they were completely white pictures. Just strange.


We rented bikes as well, and the kids went for bike rides often. I couldn't go.. but.. they did. :)

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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Meeting new people..

I took the kids with me to go visit Teri (my brother's mom) on Friday night. It was Conor's first time meeting her, and boy did he ever entertain her. Terri has a dog named Satch - Conor immediately started playing with her. Then he walked up to Terri and said, "Hey, what is your name again? I remember Bitch's name, but I don't remember yours."

Teri and I looked at each other surprised, and I said, "Did he say what I think he just said?"

She laughed and said, "Yeah, I think he did!" We were all laughing at this point.

She turned to him and said, "My name is Teri. Teri - I'm glad you didn't think that was my name."

I was laughing and said, "The dog's name is Satch. Snatch." I put as much stress on the word as I could. Then I realized that I said it wrong the second time and shook my head and said, "SATCH. Now he has me confused!"

He was unfazed by it and went on, "Teri, I'm thirsty."

She went to get him something to drink, and he asked, "Do you have any cookies?"

We went on visiting and talking when Conor walked up to her and said, "I have two things to tell you. You have spiders on your porch and can I look in your refrigerator?"

This cracked her up even further.

He is definitely not shy!

Anyway, he scored a Popsicle from the fridge.

By the time we left, he told her he would like to come back sometime but could she have some kids there for him to play with too?

He is definitely a never ending source of amusement.

A man can do anything he wants....

While getting ready for work this morning, I asked Conor to go get something from his room. His response was, "I'm a man and I can do anything I want. You go get it. And I'm gonna wear my man-shoes today." (those would be his hiking boots.)

I started laughing at how seriously he said all of this. "No, you are a little boy, and you will do what I tell you to do."

"Nuh-uh, I'm a MAN! I can do anything I want!"

"Who has deluded you into thinking that a man can do anything he wants, anyway?"

"Mr. Crabs is a man and..."

"Mr. Crabs is a CRAB!" (all this time I am totally cracking up laughing!) "And you are wearing your sandals."

"But.. I'm a man..."

"No, you are a little boy and you better go do what I told you to do or I'm gonna smack your little butt." :)

Argument over, I won. LOL! I was totally laughing about this all the way to work. I told my 2 bosses about it (men) and they BOTH said, "Yeah! That's right! I like his way of thinking!" *Katie rolls her eyes*

Anyway... Conor does have a tendency to talk like an adult.. other people have noticed it as well. The other day Jeff was saying something to him (I don't remember what) but Conor was doing something - putting on his shoes I think - and he turned to Jeff and said, "Dad, you are really aggravating me, I am trying to do something. Could you just quit talking to me?" I laughed at that too. :)

And yeah, I know.. I still need to post vacation pictures.. but I didn't want to forget about this and not post it. :)

Friday, June 15, 2007

Technical difficulties...

OK, I realize the videos are not working, but I cannot fix them until I go home. :( I uploaded them last night, but did not "publish" them until today at work and they did not publish right. So.. check back tomorrow or late tonight and I will try to get them working once I get home.

*Update* The videos should work now, if anyone has problems please let me know. :)

Thursday, June 14, 2007

A day on the farm....

The Wednesday before we went to NC, Jeff took Conor to Young's Jersey Dairy for a day of fun. The date of these pictures is May 30th, 2007.. despite what it says on the picture. Again, I have not figured out how to change the date stamp on the pictures... I haven't really put a lot of time into figuring it out.. but there wasn't anything on the camera that said "date" - so, I gave up at that point! :)

Here are the pictures from their day, below this post are a couple of little movies that were taken too. :)




There are a variety of things to do at the farm - sitting on big tractors is obviously a big attraction for little kids! I think he could drive it.. ;)
Feeding and petting farm animals is always fun!

Does he look like he is, uhhh, picking his seat to you?? That is what it looks like to me...

Miniature golf - as you will see by the below video, he doesn't quite let the ball quit rolling before hitting it again. It is very comical to watch him.

A wink and a victory? He was playing against Dad and Grand Dad.. so.. he may have beat them! lol Could have gotten a hole in one... (or.. he may be throwing a temper tantrum as well.. can't be sure...)


Just look at that form!
And end the day by having blue ice cream! I'm guessing that the flavor of this ice cream is cotton candy...

A fun day for all three generations I believe... :) See below videos for more!

Feeding the animals...


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Putt-Putt


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Diagnosis

So, my knee might possibly heal on its own. YAY! I have to wait 4-6 weeks, though, to find out. The doctor says I have a "football player's injury" and I hyper-extended my knee. So, I guess I was tackled by the ocean. lol Anyway, he says he thinks I just "scuffed" the cartilage and it will not require surgery. If it has not healed in 4-6 weeks, though, I will then have to have an MRI and possible surgery.

He did give me a smaller brace - not the full leg thing - so it is a LOT better for me to be able to walk on. Although I am supposed to use my crutches, too... but, they are a hindrance and I don't like them, so I just walk carefully.

Yes, I will be careful. I do not want permanent damage to my knee. And those crutches could possibly cause me to have other injuries if I am forced to use them. :)

I was gonna put pictures up last night, but.. I did not have access to my camera because it was being used again. So.. that is MORE pictures I need to download and put on here. It's gonna take me forever to catch up now! :)

Monday, June 11, 2007

Way Behind

Ok, so I know I am way behind on updates on this thing! The kids and I were on vacation last week - we went to North Carolina to the beach - and I have stuff since before then to post as well!

I will try to get to that soon, but just to update some people - the trip to NC was .. eventful and boring for me. We arrived on Saturday night at about 5PM, and on Sunday morning around 9am-ish we were swimming in the ocean and my knee got injured by a rip tide. They were quite strong that day - and it kinda tried to bend my knee in the wrong direction. I felt it pop twice and that was about it for my walking abilities the remainder of the trip. I am getting ready to leave now to go see an Orthopedic Specialist and get an MRI (I think today, or maybe schedule one...) and see what damage was done. I went to the ER in NC and have had a "knee immobilizer" on my leg (full leg cast-type thing, but removable for sleeping) and have had (not always used cuz they suck!) crutches. I hobble along without the crutches better than if I had to use them! So - eventful with the accident, and boring afterwards when I had to sit all the time and not go to the beach! I did get to read two books, but even got tired of reading after those two.

So, I will do more updates when I get a chance. This was just a quick one to let you know a little... :)