221 To 460

This morning the twins and I went to Romp and Roll for a playdate with our playgroup. We got there late because we had to drop payroll off with Ward and I wanted to walk through the house they are building. When we got to Romp and Roll most of the Moms and children we had come to meet were leaving so we hung out playing on the floor and sucking on Koosh Balls until noon. I hadn't been out for a while to take any pictures, I have taken some here or there so that I will have something to post but I hadn't really been out on a photography mission in a few weeks so I figured that after lunch I would do the unspeakable and let them nap in the car while I drove around taking shots from my window. It turned out to be the most peaceful afternoon I have had in quite some time.

My father was a Greeting Cards Salesman when I was growing up. Here in the small towns of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina and for a time South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, there used to be quite a few small grocers and family owned convenient stores and my dad sold them Greeting cards. He had fixtures and boxes upon boxes of cards in his back seat and trunk and he spent every day for almost twenty years driving the back roads finding these places and servicing them on approximately six week rotations. My little brother was never put in daycare but was taken along with my dad almost every day and watched by my grandfather the rest of the time. On days when my dad was investigating new accounts and my grandfather was busy he would pull my sister or I out of school to sit in the car and watch Ricky. Older stores were used to my tag along brother but it wasn't professional to have Ricky tag along into new accounts.

New accounts were acquired in this way: My dad would put $5 in the tank (which was not a lot it seems, even back then) and would wander back roads and side streets aimlessly looking for stores that seemed like they would be persuaded by his sales pitch. I loved going along with my dad (especially on overnighters) because I got to have lunch out with him, read all afternoon and sleep when I wanted. But more than any of that I loved the scenic routes we encountered along the way.

When my mom moved out my brother moved with her and my dad no longer needed my babysitting services so I was not invited as often and so I almost completely stopped going. Between the fall of 1998 and the summer of 1999 he hit a rough time and spent a combined total of 3 months in the hospital due to various illnesses and accidents. By the time he was fully recovered most of his accounts had decided they no longer wanted to stock greeting cards. He got a job as an Inventory Specialist with RGIS and moved to Maryland in early 2000.

Since that time I have seldom travelled back roads and side streets but with my new blog that terrain is what I am seeking. I came home the back way, or the long way really, today from Romp and Roll. I did a big circle around Bedford County, taking a few dozen pictures and listening to Brian Hall, which is perfect for this type of excursion as he sings about South Boston, the road to the farm and closing factories. Driving through the countryside was overwhelmingly touching and beautiful. I doubt that the people around even notice all the beauty that surrounds them because they encounter it everyday. Several people almost stopped and one actually stoppped their vehicle to watch what I was doing while I was parked on the side of the road snapping photos.

I was saddened when the billboards picked up and the road I was on merged with the highway 460. I wished it would have gone on a little longer but the kids were stirring and the belly grumbling, so we headed home.

Why I Wish Gas Didn't Cost as Much as a Venti Latte

Yesterday, after we picked up our photos at Olan Mills (where they didn't even try to sell me shots I hadn't ordered) I decided that there wasn't enough time between our appointment at the portrait studio and our 1 pm playdate to go home. I had brought along the Nikon for the playdate so I decided to go on a little journey, to Appomattox which is only a little further than where our playdate was scheduled in Concord. I made it into a mini road trip. The babies got there nap.

Even if none of the shots I took were any good, and after viewing Timothy's photo site I really doubt they are, it was a lot of fun. To listen to music (I was far enough out to actually get the one and only decent radio station around here) and enjoy the open road. I thought about Jack Kerouac and how after reading that book all I wanted to do was go somewhere. That cross country trip to Mesa that we always discuss but never take.

I ventured down roads I had never even noticed and found ramshackled homes and out houses. When I was in high school me and a friend would take mini road trips whenever we got the chance. Back when gas was the price of a small Hardees cup of coffee.

I was a little wreckless in my fun, pulling over on the side of the highway to get a shot of Moore's Country Store and almost stopping to catch the people watching Highway 460. The radio played R.E.M., I rolled the windows down. I turned around to shoot another Super Mega Church and The Lee Grant Motel and Free Museum. It was more adventure than I had partaken in for quite some time. It was an engaging afternoon.

I was a little sad when it was time for the playdate.

-june

Just How Crazy Am I?

This crazy.

Yesterday I railroaded my husband into going to Barnes and Noble with me. For what?
For this:



Like I always say, it's never too early to begin planning your next vacation. I have already wishlisted a few other 2009 books at amazon.com.

We are thinking that it will be easier to just make California and Disney our trip (and less expensice too). So we are REALLY hoping that everyone from Arizona will come.

-june

Dizz Knee Land

This was incredibly difficult to find.



...in 11 months or so.

-june

An Evening in Paradise

AKA: WE'RE BAAACCCKKK!!

So we went to the Outer Banks for the week and stayed in a pretty nice house with one exception, no high speed Internet access.

So all of our great stories and photos had to wait to be posted when we got back, which was yesterday. But if you recall we brought a U-hauls worth of our house with us so we have spent the better part of the last 30 hours unpacking and doing laundry (9 loads today, poor W/D).

So where shall we begin...

ah, with Paradise.

So late into the week we decided that we would like to partake in some miniature golf. We like those mammoth courses with the dinosaurs or caves, or at the very least gigantic windmills. So Thursday afternoon we loaded the small children, the 90 year old great-grandmother, the brother and his girlfriend and the grandfather into the Canyoneer and headed for some great fun at Professor's Hacker's Lost Treasure in Nags Head some 15 miles from our Beach House in Duck. On our way we passed a smaller, less impressive looking miniature golf establishment with hardly anyone playing golf. We didn't think anything of it until we saw the long line just waiting to buy tickets at the Professor's. We asked how late they were open and decided to come back later in the evening.

So later on that evening Ward and I made the decision to leave our six month old children for the first time EVER with my younger grandmother and go play miniature golf. This time the 90 year old grandmother stayed home because it was 9:30 at night and we took the sister and her husband instead. At first we decided to not take the car seats out but after driving a very uncomfortable 15 miles with four adults in the third row (of whom I was one) we decided to take one car seat out.

Anyways, the Professor's was much busier this time with a line that wrapped around the building so we decided to go somewhere else. Our choices, Hancock, the newest movie starring Mr. July, or Paradise Golf up the road. For some reason, and I think that reason had something to do with wanting to spend time together and the driver not taking our request to see a movie serious we went to Paradise Golf. At two dollars cheaper a game and no line in sight we should have known something was up from the very beginning.

So we pay our $7 a person and go out to play. We'll play all three courses and get our money's worth.

But by the third hole we had changed out minds about playing all three courses.

On the first hole we noticed a small number of insects, on the second hole we noticed a larger number of bugs which we think were a combination between ants, termites and cockroaches and on the third hole we had to chase after a beetle that took off with Lucy's ball. Paradise, we determined, was infested.

Playing 18 holes of any miniature golf course with my father, Mr. Competitive, is a struggle on any day but when you are distracted on every hole by a different army of invading insects it is a struggle but also reminiscent of the twilight zone.

We played 18 holes. Not because we were having great fun but because we had paid for 18 holes. I somehow came in second, probably because I was trying really hard to not focus on all of the bugs and the bites and hurry up with the game, getting PAR sped up my turn considerably.

So we decided unanimously without even conferring to leave after the first course. I had wanted all week to visit a Pier even though Ward had complained incessantly about the idea of hanging out with the smell of fish guts and fisherman but I just kept bringing it back up anyway. The previous night we had walked to a pier that turned out to be a Naval Research Pier, No Admittance. So after Bug Land we decided to drive along the ocean and find the first pier we came to, that pier was the Avalon Pier across from Awful Arthur's Seafood Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills. I got out anxiously awaiting my walk of Adrenaline.

You see I enjoy piers because the idea of them is so damn scary. I mean were talking a few dozen posts in the ocean holding up a sinking formation that sways badly the farther out you walk. Seriously. These places are scary. But when no roller coasters are in sight and hang gliding is just too expensive I like to visit the Pier.

So this place was just as bad as Paradise Golf even without the bugs. It was very dark, which I think is the best time to visit a Pier. Before I even exited the car I could smell salt water and seafood, oh yeah. But then again I was the one who really wanted to come.

So we walked by some fourteen year old girls smoking (which only added to the savory smell we were already enjoying) and talking on their cell phones and we past a game of pool going on with a group of drunk, shirtless Rednecks. The look on Ward's face; priceless. So we each paid our dollar sightseeing fee and got our stamp that was good until 5 am the next morning. We walked out, each at our own leisurely pace (could that be a hint of fear I was detecting in some?), and took in all the sights. No, not really any of the ocean, it was 11pm. But we took in the cleaning portion of the pier that smelled of, you guessed it, fish guts. We walked slowly past all of the staring fisherman whose turf we had invaded. We walked very carefully over the obviously sinking portion of the pier and made it all the way out where there was 'Caution' marked all over the end of the pier. For a greater adrenaline rush, I walked out there. This is the best part of the pier in my opinion, the part where it sways gently and you can discuss in that 'If I won the lottery tone' what would happen if the pier collapsed.

After viewing the look of boredom, irritation, and fear on my companions faces I asked each of them if they wanted their dollar bill back. No one took me up on my offer. Could it be that the Pier wasn't so bad or did they just feel bad for me that I was enjoying this at all?

We didn't stay much longer though we stopped and gawked at some rowdy teenagers on our way out contemplating whether we were ever that loud and obnoxious (and in our own way we probably were). We headed home from there and all I could think for the rest of the night was we left our children at home for this?

-june

**UPDATE** If you click on the picture you can see my bitchin' score. I came in second and beat Mr. Competitive.

And you call that VACATION?

What do you get when you take one game loving husband, three children under 14 months, a woman who loves her clothes, a grandmother who is a pack rat, a Guitar hero fan, trophies for the competitive grandfather, and a family who loves to eat to the beach?

One of these.

-june

We Miss You, Haley and Jaidyn, Brandon and Ella-Bo-Bella!

For over a week we had family with us. On Thursday before last my Dad and Grandmother came in for my younger brother's graduation from high school. My Grandmother, at 90 years old, was a huge help with the babies. Wanting to hold them and feed them as often as we would let her. My Dad didn't do much holding but is almost at the point of being able to tell them apart.

On Saturday before last we left at 5:13 am (only 13 minutes behind schedule) to embark on a 5-day adventure through Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia with my brother-in-law and his family. We met them around noon in Philadelphia and immediately Jon's girls wanted to hold the twins, and they did, until they left this Sunday to go home.

The older girls were great with the babies. Taking it upon themselves to change them and feed them and they wanted to hold them ALL the time. In fact, by the time they left I was looking forward to seeing my children again. The younger children were as sweet as they could be. At Union Station in DC I found my 5 year old niece Ella and her 7 year old brother Brandon singing lullabies to Bailey to lull her asleep in her stroller. It was the sweetest thing. Brandon and Ella also wanted to hold the babies. It was a sight to see Ella holding Cooper.

On Sunday, Ward and I were both home and we spent a good part of the day hanging with the babies and taking them to the pool for the first time with Lucy and Ricky.

On Monday, everyone went back to work. And Coop and Bailey have not been very happy about being left alone here with their mom who has only two arms. Not very happy at all! I have resorted to just giving in. Spending the day with them, holding them both as long as I can. I know this won't always be the case, that my children will far too quickly grow and sooner rather than later want to get down on the floor and crawl away from me and that trend will continue for the next 18 years when the week after graduating from high school they will leave the nest forever (yeah right, I know).

Last night Ward told me that I had some splaining to do about why the house was in shambles. And this morning he told me that adults our age only need 6.5 hours of sleep a night or we get lazy. I think a day home alone with the twins after twelve days of help might serve him well.

I wish we had our nieces and nephews closer. Nearing the end of this trip we started planning our next visit. This time on the coast closest to them. Five to seven days (give or take a few days) in Disneyland. I am thinking of making some bright ridiculous shirts with everyone's names on them and the dates of our trip. Yes, I really am!

I already miss our extended family. They were a lot of help and they spoiled us. At the same time having them here solidified a growing urge in my mind.

I want those eleven children.

-june

$4.04

I'm Baaacck!

I know, I know you all really truly missed me. The trip went over surprisingly well, the babies handled the drive to Philadelphia amazingly well (we left at 5 a.m. though). The most we paid for gas was $4.04 a gallon and we got $50 in Exxon gift gas cards from one of the hotels we stayed at. There are a few stories to tell, none all that great but there are also loads and loads of laundry to do so I should probably see to that before I write to indepth a blog.

I will try and post pictures of the twins soon. They had there first pool experience yesterday and that was alot of fun. They both seemed to enjoy the water and it didn't seem so hot in the pool. We also took them on their first hike this past weekend, to the top of Sharp Top at the Peaks of Otter. I carried Bailey in a carrier and Ward carried Coop. It took me an hour and 13 minutes to reach the top, not my best time ever but I felt pretty good about it because I had a lot of naysayers saying I wouldn't be able to carry her to the top and I did. We also visited Appomattox, Gettysburg, Independence Hall, The National Achives, the Capital, and tons of monuments and memorials so it was a pretty educational trip all in all.

I had every intention of blogging a few times on our trip but every day was pretty jam packed and I am more tired now than I was before we left on our trip as I figured might happen.

In other news I started running today for the first time. It was very hot and I didn't get very far but beginning is half the battle for me. Thanks for running with me Lucy.

-june

Lynchburg Has A Lot To Offer

We were online looking for some local attractions to visit when our out of town family comes to visit in a few weeks. We stumbled across this fascinating website. If you've got time to peruse the whole site that would be great, if not we recommend you check out some of the highlights:

"Mags" the Headless Cat

Evington's Lost Locomotive (wreck site of the "Gorilla Train")

The Dreaming Creek "Troll" (The Mysterious Dark Vortex of Windsor Hills)

Pinehurst Mulleted Naturists Retreat

The Hiccup Man (He's Had Hiccups For Sixty-Four Years. Find Him A Cure And Win $500!)

Now we know that not all of you are from towns so cool as this. Try not to be toooo jealous. Before we found all of this great stuff we were just planning on doing some hiking on the Blue Ridge Trail and visiting the National D-Day Memorial. Do you think that the Mulleted Nudists will be appropriate for children?

june's School of Suggestions for Vehicle Manipulation

I want to be a good parent.

Being a good parent involves setting good examples for children to follow. Good examples like being patient with stupid people and their stupid actions.

I have a problem with this and that problem is best magnified by my severe road rage.

I don’t recall when it got so bad but other people (Ward and Tater) point out that I have a tendency to talk, often and not kindly, to people sharing the road with me. I contribute it to the fact that I am just rather unlucky, always following behind the person who doesn’t know where they are going or how to drive. And I also claim that I only talk to other drivers when other people are in the car with me, and this is true, when I am alone I make fun of these drivers in my head only.

Now, let me add that I do not scream and cuss at other drivers, that would be immature. I tell them where they should go (like into another lane) and give them advice (you had better not hit me). I am only trying to help see. Ward likes to point out that they can’t hear me so I should refrain but I have been doing it so long.

I am not saying that I am the best driver ever. That I certainly am not. I am the only person who I know who has been in a terrible accident. I am scared of being in an accident ever again. But I try to lean more towards being neither an offensive driver nor a defensive driver. I think being a daredevil driver or being too afraid behind the wheel can cause too many problems. I try to be the best driver I can be with the exception of my conversating with other drivers. What I truly wish is very selfish; I wish I could be the only driver on the road.

For several years between going to school and seeing a R.E. in another town, I was driving 800 miles or more a week. Maybe it’s from all that driving but I just feel that so often people drive too fast or too slow, either making me think they are irresponsible for driving too fast or getting on my nerves for help making me late. They put their turn signals on way too early or brake and turn at the last moment causing my groceries to end up in my lap.

The problem is I love to drive. When we go out, especially on road trips, I like to be behind the wheel for several reasons. The time goes by faster, I enjoy it, and I am a tad bit controlling and this way I get to control when and where we stop. I hate asking someone to stop so I can use the restroom.

Anyways, now that there are children in my vehicle whenever I go anywhere I need to tune down the Dr. Phil talk to other drivers. But it’s a bad habit to break. And I have so much advice to offer.

I am thinking of starting a driver safety course. Here is the video that I will be using in my 4:30 minute course.




I do condone driving while playing a musical instument. I'm sure it's safe.






-june

Perhaps We Will Make It Yet

The Canyoneer is loaded with remarkably enough room left to stow six people, this is the first time that the vehicles massive size has actually come in handy. In seven weeks we are going on a Pennsylvania/Washington D.C. trip to tag along with Ward's family when they visit the East Coast. This trip is sort of prepping us for that longer possibly more hectic trip (the number of crazy people should be a little less though). And then a month after that we are going to the beach for a week and as long as we can get there in one piece it will be our least hectic trip yet. But I can't help thinking that we are crazy for planning so much in the twins first six months of life. We haven't really gone anywhere for the last two years as we've been recuperating from the cost of building a house and all those expensive treatments. At least when the children look back they will see that their family went places, at least when they were young. My family never travelled much.

The summer after my mother left my father took my brother, sister and I to Disney World. We drove down in an unairconditioned car under the hot August sun. The trip was almost cancelled several times due to finances but my father would not cancel it. We had been promised a trip to Disney for so long (and my dad loves to travel) that he felt we needed to go. What was originally going to be a three day trip at Disney had to be cut to one day. So a fourteen hour drive each way for one day at Disney. It was my birthday, the gates to the Magic Kingdom opened one minute after I turned 13 (according to my dad's memory that I was born at 8:59 a.m.). It was a wonderful day filled with fun and great memories (even the hot trip down was oddly fun, we had to get on the road really early each day to avoid driving during the hottest part of the day) in what was a difficult time in my life. It wasn't lost on me even at 13 the sacrifices my dad had made to see that we had our trip to Disney. The five of us never went on a family trip together unless you count my aunt's wedding when my little brother was four weeks old and I don't.

Even with all the headache that this short trip to Maryland is causing I hope that we continue to take trips together as a family for a very long time to come. Next year we're planning a trip to Disney, we figured we would go ahead and get that one out of the way so we can tell the kids when they are older and actually want to go to Disney "But you've already been."

I have to pack the old lappy so that all the wonderful details of this fine weekend can be recorded accurately and frequently so I will leave you with this clip for now.

If you don't love the Violent Femmes, you should. This is one of my favorite cuts by them. Remember that tape I made as a geeky teenager for the music hater? This was the first cut on that tape.




As always, Enjoy!

-june

ps- I love 'American Music' but I think my all time favorite Violent Femmes song is 'I Held Her In My Arms'.