How was your summer?

This year, I discovered that you can make your summer zoom by if you purchase a punch pass to the community pool and hang out at the pool several mornings a week. However, during the last two weeks of summer vacation, you may still find that your kids are slipping into the "I'm bored so I'm going to punch my brother" mindset. If that should happen, you should plan mornings at Adventure Landing, Jellybeans, and Monkey Joes. Yes, we did it all this summer. We mini-golfed, we laser-tagged, we roller-skated, and we bouncy-housed. It was not cheap, but friends, it was sooooo worth it.


We topped off our summer vacation with a trip to the beach. Waiting until the last week of summer vacation to take a beach trip is always a little risky - if the weather doesn't cooperate, you may not be taking a beach trip that year. On the other hand, even in Wilmington the beach is practically empty four days before school starts.


Michael told me to take a picture of him and Cole diving into a wave. My camera phone is not quite fast enough:


But I caught them coming out of the wave:


I enjoyed this beach trip much more than I have in years past - probably because I had a lot fewer worries about small children wading too far into the water and drowning. However, there was a small incident where I was joking about sharks and Michael took it very seriously and started telling me all the reasons why it was not very likely that we would see a shark but that if we did, we wouldn't be able to tell if it was a shark or a dolphin until it was right up next to us, and it basically freaked me out. Being eaten by a shark is in my top ten of Terrible Ways to Die.

Bands We've Seen

Michael

• Coheed and Cambria
• Counting Crows
• The Dambuilders
• Dave Matthews Band
• Foo Fighters
• Frodus
• From Autumn to Ashes
• Fuel
• Fugazi (twice)
• The Groovy Ghoulies
• Hopesfall
• Hum (twice)
• Jawbox
• Jump Little Children (twice before I met Erin)
• Kill Devil Hills 
• Live
• Our Lady Peace
• Pearl Jam
• Radiohead
• R.E.M.
• Saves the Day
• Sonic Youth
• Southern Culture on the Skids
• Sunny Day Real Estate
• Thursday
• Yo La Tengo
• 7Mary3

 Erin

• Dixie Chicks (twice)
• Ingrid Michaelson
• Jonatha Brooke
• Nickel Creek
• Over the Rhine
• Reel Big Fish
• Sarah McLachlan (and a bunch of other artists at Lilith Fair that I can't remember specifically)
• Sheryl Crow (twice)
• Squirrel Nut Zippers

Together

• Alkaline Trio
• Bayside
• Better Than Ezra 
• Broken Social Scene
• Cake
• Death Cab for Cutie
• Eisley
• I Was Totally Destroying It
• Jimmy Eat World
• Jump Little Children (Michael has seen them multiple times,  but we've only seen them once together.)
• Nada Surf
• Nickel Creek (I saw them once alone, and apparently we saw them once together, although I don't remember that.)
• Old Crow Medicine Show
• Pedro the Lion
• Pinback
• Say Anything
• Stars
• The Rosebuds
• Weezer

Music Lessons: Benjamin Gibbard

When Michael and I found out a couple years ago that Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel got married, Michael's reaction was "How did he get her?" and mine was "She is soooo lucky."

In case you're my parents and therefore have no idea who I'm talking about, Ben Gibbard is the lead singer of both Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service.  Zooey Deschanel is...the sister of the star of my favorite TV show of all time: Bones.

I have a big crush on Ben Gibbard, and I don't have to apologize for it because he is my husband's celebrity doppleganger.

Those are both pictures of Ben Gibbard. I know, right?

Last year, Ben released a solo album of songs he wrote for Death Cab but never recorded. I'm not going to pretend that this album is as good as anything produced by Death Cab or the Postal Service, but this one song keeps getting stuck in my head:

About the time he started dating Zooey, Ben stopped drinking, took up running, and lost a ton of weight. I like the new look, except...what happened to the glasses??!!

Garden Update

I'm grateful for all the rain we've gotten this year since I've had so little time to spend on my garden. These pictures are all from our spring garden - we got a good harvest of onions that we're still finishing off, and about 30 pounds of potatoes. I bought two blueberry bushes last year, but the birds got to the berries before we could. This year, I covered both bushes with netting, and we ended up getting about a handful of berries a day - enough for me to snack on while working in the backyard. :)

Right now, we've got our usual summer garden chugging along nicely: as many tomatoes as we could possibly want, foot-long cucumbers because I keep not noticing them, jalapenos coming out of our ears, and approximately five cantaloupe that will not ripen fast enough.

That Time My Sister Got Engaged

At one point during Eli's baptism weekend, we were all sitting around the table chitchatting and being our usual goofy selves when I glanced down to the end of the table at my sister Kellie. She had her face buried on her boyfriend Alex's shoulder and her shoulders were heaving up and down as if she were crying.

My first thought was, "Alex! What did you do???!!!"

But then Kellie looked up and announced, "He just proposed."

Right there in a crowded room with our whole family! So then I start bawling, and Miriam starts bawling, and Josh gets up and leaves the table because he doesn't want anyone to see him cry. It was perfect, and so sweet of Kellie and Alex to share their moment with all of us.

That Time Eli Got Baptized

My family came down to Raleigh the first weekend in June to watch Eli get baptized. It was a small gathering of mostly family and a few close friends. Eli was the only person being baptized that day, so he got to pick the opening/closing songs and who gave the prayers. He chose Gramps and Uncle Josh for the prayers.

It was a wonderful weekend of family and good food - Josh and Jaime are welcome to cook at my house anytime. We are so proud of Eli for his decision to get baptized.

Catch Up (not mustard)

My summer class ended last night, and holy cow...

For this last one, I was going to class for 2 1/2 hours Mon-Thurs and doing 2-3 hours of homework each of those days, so basically it was like having a 20-hour per week part time job. Overall, we managed fine and Michael picked up the slack where there was slack to be picked up, but the last week (when all of my assignments were due) I lost it. No housework got done except laundry, and while the laundry did get washed, it never got put away.

When I think about adding in 20 more hours plus lesson planning plus grading...Working friends, how do you do it? I need your experienced insight.

Anyway, as you can tell, this here blog has not been a priority this summer. So where to begin on the updates?

:: My hair is brown again, transitioning back to some shade of red. Some people I know have had the same hairstyle their whole adult lives, and they amaze me. I think I average about six months before I start itching for a change. Sort of related: This post by my brother is funny.

:: I bought a punch pass that can be used at any Raleigh community pool, so between that and swimming lessons, we've been spending 4 out of 7 mornings at the pool every week. I have discovered that I really like the pool at Chavis park. It's shameful how rundown it is, but it's always near empty, it has a water slide and a splash park, and the lifeguards are super relaxed about the rules.




:: I've been keeping up with running even though I hate it. I've started taking the boys to parks that have a sidewalk loop around the playground, and then I just run in circles while the boys play. It's super boring, but at least I don't have to get up at 6:00. We've also spent a lot of time at Pullen before swim lessons.


:: We took a vacation between classes to head home to KY/TN, and apparently this is the one photo I took the whole trip:


Looking back at photos, I realize I never did an "Eli got baptized post." Poor second child...I have three and a half weeks until school starts, and four weeks before my next class. Hopefully I can catch up on a few things around here!