Hang Ten

A couple weeks ago my dad took the kids to another Build & Grow at Lowe's. This time they built hang gliders. We were all a little curious as to what this would entail seeing as how we didn't want to encourage anyone jumping off roofs to try flying.

No worries though - these little gliders are about 6 inches long. When they all got home, Maddie and my dad went to work finding string and tying it up to make a route for the glider. Their initial goal was to have it fly over the pool, but there wasn't enough angle to make that happen. Instead it went from the post of the deck to the deep end stair rails.

Awhile later I got to go out and test out the glider. They had also set up a great system by tying extra string to the glider so there wasn't much need to go down the stairs - you just pulled it back up with the second string. Unless you were me. Then you kept accidentally letting the string go and would have to go get the glider which resulted in...

Just kidding. I didn't really fall in. But at this point Maddie was in charge of photos and we were goofing around.

The glider is still hanging off our deck. Today seems just windy enough that it could probably take off on it's own.

Beach Bum

Last week Mike was in Florida. Lucky bum. We were here slaving away while he was off on the beach and ocean wiling away the afternoons.

Okay - maybe not quite, but he did manage to have some fun. They were scheduled to go fishing for something bigger than a Large Mouth Bass but due to high winds couldn't make it. Instead they ended up on some boat looking at dolphins.

I know...I can hear the mini-violins playing their sad song.

Mike doesn't claim to be the resident photographer, and he didn't have our best camera with him. He was getting frustrated with only catching the tops of the occasional dolphins that swam by his boat (apparently there were few of those...they were mostly hanging out by the other boats).

He did see some other friends though and was thoroughly impressed by the size of the Pelicans. (How's that for some bird-watching, Sue?)

He called us that night and said Jake would be excited because he got a great picture of a pirate ship. I believe it was more tourist than Somalian though.

He was there Monday through Thursday. He says he worked, but it couldn't have been much. He didn't leave here until around noon on Monday, was on/at the ocean all day Tuesday. He did work on Wednesday, but he was on a plane by 1pm on Thursday.

All that and he still came back as white as he left. That's almost embarrassing.

Work in Progress

I've taken to making a list. I leave it sitting on my desk. I've also entered it into my computer which syncs with my phone. The list is everywhere. I thought I'd try a new experiment and see if this makes helps me get more things accomplished that I'm actually supposed to be accomplishing (read: no novels). I decided it would be far too difficult to jump into this and be hard-nosed about it, so I just have a list, but no date on which to finish everything. But, I like to make lists, so the sooner I get this one accomplished, the sooner I get to make a new list.

The first list worked fairly well. I loved crossing things off and when my list was done - I got to take a little extra time for myself. But I also included things I like to do. My latest list has "make 5 scrapbook pages". This is both fun and really much needed. Our pictures are backing up on files and Mike would really like them organized a little better. Can't do that until they are printed and I can't print them until what I have is scrapbooked.

Anyway - I don't know if I'd call it a total success. Last night I decided to change the background of my computer. This wasn't on the list. But, it had a picture of a snowman and I figured I would throw some good karma out to Mother Nature by making it more springlike....

These are pictures I took a couple years ago of a quilt shop here in Shakopee. Far better than Mr. Snowman and his blustering (but cleverly blurred) windy background!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

This week Mike is in Florida. Jake's initial response was unhappiness - he thought Mike was going to Disney World without us.

Maddie talked to Mike yesterday and asked how his day went. Mike is there as a client and therefore is getting catered to in some things. He was originally scheduled to go fishing in the ocean on Tuesday. Due to choppy waves though, they were taken on a boat around some area where the dolphins played. Mike's group saw a lot of dolphins following the wakes of a lot of boats - except their own. But, he explained to Maddie that it was fun and he still got to see them. She replied, "I thought you were there to work." I think mostly he's been working on keeping his allergies and sinuses under control. He was actually scheduled to work - in an office - today and tomorrow.

In the meantime, we are stranded without our own computer guru and technology professional. Last night I went upstairs to watch our t.v. which is in the middle of having 3 remotes merged into one. Basically, between these three remotes I couldn't get a picture, much less a channel change. I was getting really irritated. But after an initial 15 minutes of pure exasperation I managed to sit down and actually think through things and lo and behold! the t.v. answered back with picture, sound AND changing channels. It was midnight Mike's time and I seriously considered calling to tell him the good news that I had actually accomplished the impossible (for me at least...). However, I tend to begin a lot of conversations at midnight with him and I thought he deserved a break from that.

This afternoon my mom and I realized the internet connection was down for some reason. Well, who knows if it was actually down, but something wasn't right. Mike's answer is always "turn it off and on" so I did that a bunch of times. Then I gave up and decided I just wouldn't have an internet connection until Mike got back. It's surprising how stranded a person can feel without that little connection to the world, and I can't even tell you how many times I thought, "I should email Mike and find out what the problem is with the internet." Needless to say, that didn't happen.

But, somehow all the turning off/on worked. Or maybe it was that my dad reset something and it finally kicked in an hour later. Or maybe Comcast's siesta was over and it was time to get back to work.

This is generally how things work...or don't...when Mike is gone. There is always a t.v. or audio problem and the computer always puts up a fight. Does he set this up on purpose so that while he's away I realize just how invaluable his talents are?

If so...well played, Mike.

May the Force Be with You

Saturday was a VERY big day in our house. Mike and Jake watched Star Wars: Episode IV. This is the first time Jake has ever seen anything Star Wars. We had borrowed the episodes from Rob and Jake was so excited all week to watch them with Mike. Saturday morning when we came down from waking up, Jake already had them laid out on the couch, ready to go.

It did not disappoint. Jake was enthralled. He came upstairs and said, "It. Was. AWESOME!" He loves anything Star Wars.

Sunday afternoon they watched "The Empire Strikes Back". I asked which was his favorite so far and Jake said, "Probably the one from yesterday - because it's the first one I ever saw." Nice to know he's got a sentimental side.

Sunday evening the kids were practicing their handstand efforts from gymnastics. Maddie was having a little trouble getting balanced and Jake said,

"Maddie...use the force."

If you need a reference for how the practice was going...see below:

I know the picture quality isn't the greatest, so I'll try to zoom in so you can get the full effect of how hard Jake was concentrating:

I do believe Yoda would have been proud.

Little Squirt

Thursday Jake stayed home from school because Wednesday night he threw up three times. Two of those being between the hours of 2am and 3am.

Wednesday, after I put the kids to bed, I went to our room to watch t.v. and relax. In running through the channels I hit PBS where they were playing something opera. I thought I should watch it to see if opera interested me at all. A few minutes later behind the singing I heard Maddie yell for me - Jake was sick in his room. Note: Opera drowns out a puking child. This may or may not be useful information.

So, Jake got sick and finished. Two seconds later he apologized to me for not calling out for my help. He said, "Sorry I didn't yell for you. But, I just kept squirting out."

Fast forward to 2am when I heard coughing and got to the bathroom to help him. When he finished we started talking about being sick and talked about fevers. To which he replied, "Yeah...fevers help get rid of sickness. But, then they make your white blood cells stronger, and that helps to get rid of the germs in your body." Now - I'm not totally certain those are the correct facts, and I may have jumbled them in my 2am grogginess but it still made me do a double-take. I wasn't expecting an educational hour at that point.

When I went to check on Jake Thursday morning, he opened one eye and said, "Is it time for me to have some ginger?" This is 7:30am and he's talking about gingerale which he mentioned on the second round at 2-3am. At least we know his mind isn't fuzzy with being sick.

P.S. The jury is still out on opera. I told Mike I was watching it for experimental purposes to see if I liked it and he replied, "You don't."

Spring Signs

This past Saturday we had gorgeous weather. We kicked the kids outside as long as possible and did a little cleaning up around the place.

Some sure signs of spring at the Murphy household:

The leftover/dead leaves from the hostas and lillies are cleared away to make room for the new growth...

The pool filters are pulled out along with the bag for the winter cover...

The hoses get reattached to the house...

Some of our faraway friends and family may be thinking..."of course it's spring...it's almost the middle of April!" But, I think it was less than two weeks ago that we did see some snow here so we take these first beautiful days seriously!