91 degrees

nothing says pumpkin patch weather like a saturday afternoon with a high of 91 degrees.

yet, we went, since a few months ago we'd committed to the outing that SAS had arranged for its employees and families.  who in their right mind would have ever anticipated an october day that was hotter than most of the summer was?  (apparently not the pumpkin patch owners, who had quite an elaborate hot cider tent set up that wasn't doing much business.)

truth be told, chris and i were sort of dreading it.  we had just sat through an hour-long soccer game in the blazing sun with sweat running down our backs, and the idea of eating a picnic lunch on some dirty wooden table way out in durham before traipsing through a wilted corn maze was understandably not high up on our bucket list.  but that's when our children will snap us out of our funk -- just when we've convinced ourselves that something is going to be terrible, they get those smiles on their faces and those sparkles in their eyes and you realize how blessed you are to have kids at this age where such outings are cool and exciting.

well, maybe not cool.  did i mention it was 91 degrees?

stopping for a breather in the middle of a hot and dusty corn maze

just kidding around (pun intended)

the kids beelined it to the "exotic and weird" pumpkin area -- hence our dark green (almost black) and bumpy one

farewell, super

a good friend of mine saw the tears in my eyes a few weeks ago as i mentioned the looming necessity of saying goodbye to super.  "you know," she said, "when we did it a few years ago, i swear it was the most grown-up thing i've ever had to do.  more than buying a house or a car or even having a baby.  having to decide the when and the how of something so monumental as ending a life -- and then doing it -- really rocked me to my core."

yes.  just, yes.

we finally said goodbye to our beloved super last friday morning. she joined us in asheville almost seven years ago, on susanna's six-month birthday, and was a huge part of our family ever since. we waited much longer than we should have to say goodbye (funny how i can't bring myself to use any other phrase), but we just couldn't take that final step.  with every trek up or down the stairs with her 55-pound body in my arms, i would hold her just a little tighter, soaking up her warmth and feeling her heart beat through her fur, knowing that i wouldn't have the luxury of doing so for much longer. 

i went back through my archives and found an email i sent the blue ridge boxer rescue group shortly after adopting her, giving them an update on her transition into our family.  it brought such a smile to my face that i had to share it here. 

yesterday marked one month since we've had super here with us.  we cannot believe it's only been a month!  it feels like she's been a part of our family for forever.  she is just such the perfect pet for us.  she's playful, loving, happy, protective, wonderful with the kids -- we couldn't ask for more.

she has some funny quirks ... for some reason, she LOVES to retrieve one shoe from a pair in our closet, walk around with it, and then drop it in some random spot in the house.  every evening before we go to bed, we have to canvass the main floor, retrieving lost shoes to reunite with their partners.  she doesn't chew on them or play with them; she just likes the shoes to be separated from each other, i guess.

also, wherever we are, she HAS to be in the midst of the action.  if i'm lying on the floor with liam (our two year-old), playing with cars or blocks, before i know it, super has wedged herself between us.  if i come upstairs in the middle of the night to feed our baby, within a minute, super has awoken from her sleep and followed me up, just to make sure everything is okay.

oh -- and my favorite -- she doesn't just wag her tail.  she shakes her whole butt!  what a cute and welcome sight each time we come home.  we always had to put our old dog in the crate or laundry room when we were gone, since she wreaked havoc in the kitchen and near trash cans if we weren't around.  super just hangs out and causes no problems, so we let her have free reign of the house.  so, as soon as we walk in from the garage, she's there to greet us, shaking her little behind as happy as can be.

thank you, and to everyone with BRBR, for all that you do.  you saved super's life.  what a gift! 

2-year old liam, bending down to give super a kiss

tiny susanna couldn't even sit up yet, but she loved to be near her pooch

farewell, our sweet supe-doop.  we love you infinity times infinity.

hiatus

tonight i logged in here for the first time since august 28.  i hadn't realized i'd taken a month-long hiatus, but i guess i have.  i've felt pangs of guilt from time to time when liam or susanna have brought up a story they read in one of the old blog books, as it's hit me smack in the face that i've been neglecting this outlet that i've loved for so long.  because not only have i not been posting here, but i'm also woefully behind in printing the 2012 blog book.  i think i'm up to mid-june at this point (you'd be surprised at how long it takes to alter layouts and upload pictures -- especially when you have no system for organizing your 1,500 digital photos that you've taken on your iphone in the past year) and and i'm honestly not sure i'm going to finish 2012 before the real-life 2013 ends. 

all of this, sadly, closely parallels the rest of my life.  i am barely treading water at this point.  work is crazy.  liam's new school is crazy.  my volunteer commitments are crazy.  tennis is crazy.  i recently discovered the timer feature in my car which keeps track of the time i'm driving, cumulatively from one trip to the next.  after i saw in one week the amount of time i spend in my SUV, i can say that driving is crazy.

and on top of all of this craziness that is just our life in general, we are dealing with this:

and that's the craziest thing of all.  how do we decide when it's time to let super go?  do we wait until she's having accidents on a daily basis?  until we physically cannot continue to carry her 55-pound body up and down the stairs?  until the kids are ready to say goodbye?  if that's the case, i don't know that we'll ever make that fateful trip to the vet.  liam's a wreck, pleading with us on a daily basis to wait just a little bit longer, while he dissolves into tears.  and if i'm honest, i'm not quite ready to be in this house day-in and day-out without my little brown sidekick.  so i give into liam easily, unable to take that final step.

maybe it's a good thing i've been away from here for a while.  september hasn't been sunshine and rainbows, friends.  but october is right around the corner, bringing with it, i hope, brighter days, even if they're shorter.  until then, i'll leave you with this image of our three children, enjoying a fun weekend afternoon -- ironically, surrounded by chalk sunshine and rainbows. 

which is a perfect reminder that amidst the craziness, there's beauty all around us, if we just open our eyes to see it.

the mighty fine nine

liam is now nine.  he celebrated the last single-digit birthday he'll ever have on the 14th, and it's taken me this long to process it.  i've wondered how i should describe him in my annual birthday post, and while pondering, took a look back at what i've written in the past.  (his eighth birthday is here.  his seventh, here.  his sixth, here.  his fifth, here.  his fourth, here -- which is my favorite, because it includes a video of that sweet, chubby-cheeked little boy of ours blowing out his candles.)

and what i realized, after reading and remembering, is that he really hasn't changed that much in the last year.  those first few years of life move at lightning speed, with every day bringing new accomplishments and developments and achievements.  but from eight to nine, i think he's just been refining.  improving more in the areas of his interest (sports and math and reading) and learning to tolerate better those that are not (art and tying of shoes and eating vegetables.)  to be honest, aside from the move to his new school, what i wrote a year ago still, for the most part, applies today.  so what was i to really say?  and then, a brief event happened just yesterday between him and me and i immediately thought, you know, all i have to do is share this story.  it just summed him up perfectly, in a two-minute timeframe.

he and i had gotten home after school and he was eager to show me several of his pieces of work he had brought home.  (among my favorite: a worksheet about being perfect, as part of a lesson in language arts about how everyone makes mistakes.  one of the last questions was, "do you know anyone who is perfect?  if so, what makes them perfect?"  and his answer: "Jesus.  because He is the only person who has never sinned.")

after we went through his paperwork, i realized it was time to walk to the bus stop to pick up susanna.  "wait!" he said.  "i think i'll get a clipboard and bring some of my math homework to work on, since we don't know exactly when she'll be getting there."  after he had also grabbed a pencil, we started walking up the cul-de-sac.

and then, out of the blue, he says, "i'm so glad you're my mommy." i smiled, touched at the spontaneity of his statement.  "and i'm REALLY glad you met daddy.  because i think you both are awesome ... "he paused, laughing.  "and because if you hadn't met, well, there wouldn't be me!" 

and what a different world that would be -- a world without our sweet son, who is so well described by this story, in a myriad of sort of random ways that all tie together to make him, well, him.  he's thoughtful, and loving, and kind.  he loves and knows God and Jesus.   he's responsible and hard-working and smart.  and he's funny and goofy too.

he's our liam, and we are so proud to call him ours.  he's divine ... and he's nine!

running out of room for the candles -- but at least i had the correct number this time (see his fourth birthday post)

the plan had been to take his four best friends (most of whom he's known for half his life) to the carolina railhawks (professional soccer) game ... but it was a wash-out.  we switched gears and went bowling instead.  five boys is really the perfect number

always the serious athlete, when we took him to adventure landing, he actually brought his golf glove to play putt-putt

after losing in a go-kart race to susanna and me, the boys were still all smiles. (this is why i love being the blogger in the family -- chris would like to think they won, but he ain't the one at the computer)

crazy how full-circle life can be ... on his first birthday, we served dirt cake with gummy worms at his party.  and now, eight years later, we took him to celebrate at a local restaurant -- and their birthday dessert was none other than dirt cake

wondrous weekend #6: DC

for my final installment of the wondrous weekend series (which, let's face it, has amounted to almost all of the summer blog entries -- when a weary girl goes on summer vacation, it's not just from working), i bring you our photos from a quick trip up to DC.  from over a month ago.

ever since their successful trip last year down to atlanta to see their beloved dodgers play the braves, the mann men (chris, chris's dad, and liam) have been chomping at the bit to do it again.  so this summer's plan was a boys' trip up to see them square off against the nationals.  the tickets were purchased, the hotel was booked ... and then, one day prior to departure, chris's dad found out he had to stay home for a funeral.

and while we were all super sad that granddad couldn't make the trip, this opened the door for two certain girls to get in on the fun.  packing took susanna and me all of a minute -- because what else would we need besides toothbrushes and a few american girl dolls as companions?

with baseball being the all-day affair that it is (don't get me started), we really only had time to do one tourist attraction.  we chose the newseum -- and i daresay it's the best museum we have ever taken the kids to.  this was taken on their deck right after we looked at a huge chunk of the berlin wall

there were so many hands-on activities for the kids to try.  here's one of our children looking like a normal person, and our other child hamming it up for the entire fourth floor to see on the gigantic screen

at the "be a newscaster!" exhibit, liam had a plethora of background and subject options.  we were shocked he chose to be a sportscaster at a baseball game

dining in style with caroline and kit at the american girl place 

hanging out with a lifesize version of the girl of the year, saige.  (who names these dolls?!)  susanna actually began compiling her christmas list after we got home (!) and has requested the $150 hot air balloon from santa.  somehow i can hear him chuckling all the way from the north pole

hanging with the enemy -- chris's fraternity brother and groomsman, bill, who has season tickets to the nationals and scored their seats.  as someone with extensive baseball experience, i can say with authority that the dodgers' jersey is so much more attractive.  (sorry, bill.)  and really, isn't that the most important thing?

two elated fans as the dodgers secured another victory -- a 3-1 win in the 10th inning.  just add one more W to the longest road-game winning streak that baseball has seen in like a hundred years. (note: i guarantee you something in this statement is wrong, and will surely be corrected by liam when he sees this)

the MVP of RPS

for their last big hoorah of the summer, both kids are attending an all-day local camp called camp new life.  they arrive at 8:45 in the morning and leave at 5:00, and in the hours in between, they go fishing, play miniature golf, make leather crafts, do archery, swim, play games, and do a bunch of other things that leave them absolutely exhausted and sort of comatose on the ride home.  on the days i've driven our carpool for pick-up, all four of the children sit in the back seats and mumble two-word responses as their eyelids get heavy.  so it's not often until dinnertime, when they have a bit of extra nourishment in their bellies, that they perk up and regale us of stories from their long day.

yesterday, liam was the one who excitedly shared what had happened to susanna at lunch.  apparently while the entire camp eats, one member of each of the eight cabins is selected to participate in a huge rock-paper-scissors contest.  each representative casts their move against another cabin's representative in a sort of smallish version of the NCAA basketball tournament, "RPS'ing" (that's their shorthand name for rock-paper-scissors) until they arrive at one overall winner of the day.

yesterday was susanna's day.  our reserved, quiet chickadee got up in front of several hundred people (reluctantly, apparently, but she did it nonetheless) and, one by one, decimated her opposition.  she took no prisoners; she didn't apologize for her prowess.  she just defeated 'em all.  liam was so excited for her that he jumped up from his table and ran to the front to give her a hug and a kiss.  probably not the reaction desired by someone who shuns the spotlight, but hey, if she's going to be this talented, she's gonna have to learn how to deal with the fame.

i loved the story, and just chalked it up to susanna having a little bit of luck on her side.  chris, on the other hand, delved deeper.  "so, what was your strategy?" he asked.  "you must have had a way of choosing what to do each time.  how did you outwit all of your competition?"

surprisingly, susanna had an answer.  "well, i had been watching it for the past couple days, and kept noticing how boys almost always choose 'rock'.  so whenever i was against a boy, i knew i should go with 'paper'."  she grinned.  "it worked every time."

chris laughed out loud.  "this is crazy!"  he said.  "i swear this exact same thing played once on 'the simpsons'!"  and sure enough, within a minute he had located the exact clip on youtube.

i'm not really quite sure what to think about all of this.  as someone who has never seen an episode, i'm impressed as to how true-to-life this animated show turns out to be.  i'm also impressed that susanna's powers of observation confirmed something that apparently is quite accurate.  but mostly, i'm impressed that my husband could dig deep into the vaults of his memory and recall a 19-second segment of a show that aired in -- get this -- april of 1993.  that's more than twenty years, people!

i guess that the next time i really need to get deep into the mind of my seven- and eight-year olds, i need look no further than a funny-looking fox cartoon.  enjoy ...

wondrous weekend #5: lake gaston

you'd think that summer, without any kind of professional work , would give me time aplenty to keep this blog updated.  but i honestly think i have less free time than i do during the school year.  most evenings i'm falling into bed in a tired heap, after driving my charges all over tarnation, playing tennis, swimming at the pool, managing playdates, etc.  i love our carefree, fun-filled days of summer ... but had sort of forgotten how exhausting they can be.

so here are pictures from our trip to lake gaston from two weeks ago.  we got an invitation to join good friends at their lake house -- and what a treat!  the kids had never been to a lake house before, or boated like lake people do.  it was an absolutely phenomenal day, from start to finish.

liam and his BFF preston

kid-sized kayaks!  super fun.  must look into for the beach ...

the little sisters, campbell and susanna

for a summary of how liam felt about the day, one needs to look no further than the sheer exhilaration on his face in this photo

don't let this picture fool you.  susanna was TERRIFIED when we first started on the tube -- clutching the handles in a death grip, crying, screaming at me that she wanted nothing to do with it.  and then, a minute later, she turned to me and said it was the most fun thing she'd ever done in her life.  she proceeded to go back out two more times.  rest assured i will tuck this experience in my back pocket, so when the next time occurs that she's reticent to try something new, i'll only need to say, "remember tubing at lake gaston?"

kneeboarding was a surprising hit for liam.  it only took him a few tries before figuring out how to get up (and stay up)

and a good time was had by all

wondrous weekend #4: topsail

we spent the entire week of the 4th down at our beloved topsail.  i went down for a few days by myself with the kids (and was thrilled to live through two solid days of downpours) before chris drove down on tuesday. and then on wednesday, the basses joined us.  bill, lainey, web, and marshall were a welcome addition ... if left to our own devices, we manns would have just down the same ol', same ol', boogey-boarding in the ocean and beachcombing.  leave it to the basses to drum up all sorts of new activities -- only a few of which are highlighted below.

 why yes, there was a holiday to celebrate

 awaiting the famous july 3rd fireworks (and contrary to the image, i do actually have two legs)

 we had fireworks of our very own as well

we did do some of the normal things, like riding the waves ...

... and kayaking (notice the chivalrous web taking susanna out for a spin)

 ... and putt putt

... and even paddleboarding (which isn't exactly a typical pastime of ours, but since we rented one last year, we sort of feel like experts at this point)

but then we added some new activities into our mix, like wading in the water at the boat slip and collecting teeny tiny fishies in buckets and then pouring them into yogurt containers to take care of for a few days.  susanna is here feeding bread to her fish, named "cheerly" (your guess is as good as mine)

the boys also tried catching stuff by casting a net, but that didn't work so well.  so they adopted an alternate method.  the steps are as follows:  

1.  hook chicken gizzards onto a string that's tied to a wooden handle, and drop it into the water

2. watch in awe as a crab almost immediately latches onto that delectable chicken meat, and then scoop up that unlucky crab in a net

3.  drop it into a bucket to await its fate with other unlucky fellows (we stopped at six or seven, i think)

4.  steam 'em up and then spend an hour picking maybe a cup's worth of crabmeat.  (we wound up making delicious crab and brie stuffed mushrooms as that evening's appetizer.  what they say is true -- it tastes even more amazing if you've caught it yourself)

while the crabs and fishies were unlucky, another member of the animal kingdom was enjoying a little luxury.  super, whose back legs are so bad now that there was no way she could navigate the hardwood stairs, enjoyed riding on our outdoor elevator like the queen that she is.  vacation is not just for people, you know

wondrous weekend #3: bald head island

our annual venture to bald head island with chris's parents proved to be as fun as ever. it's just such a different type of beach experience than any other ... a ferry to get there (or two, if you're like us and plugged in the wrong address in your GPS), forests, wildlife, and those all-important golf carts to get ourselves around.  

just a tad windblown on the second ferry over

contrary to family humor, "old baldy" actually refers to the lighthouse on the island, and not our children's grandfathers

this is not liam posing with a funny expression -- it's truly his reaction to finding some special shell.  i use the word "special" lightly ... what he deems collection-worthy tends to make me scratch my head.  throughout our time down at the beach, he'd run up to me, breathless, proud to show off his findings.  and 99% of the time i'd wonder what in the ham sandwich he was finding so appealing.  yet, we now have a huge plastic bag full of such treasures back home, awaiting an attractive container to display them in all their glory

treats for the kids = luna pops.  treats for the adults = beers.  and everyone was happy

our rental cottage this year was so nestled in the woods that we kept referring to it as a treehouse

humans are outnumbered by animals on BHI, methinks.  seeing three deer right outside our front door on our last morning was really cool.  coming across a snake on a run, not so much

wondrous weekend #2: charlotte

out of all the weekend trips we have planned this summer, this shaped up to potentially be the least fun. i mean, we were headed to charlotte for an outdoor soccer tournament in JUNE. it was sure to be hot, we were traveling with mostly people we've only known for a short period of time whose only true common link is eight-year old athletics, and only one member in our immediate family played a role in the purpose of the trip.

and yet, we had an incredibly awesome time.  from petting exotic animals to the hotel pool and everything in between, it truly was a fantastic weekend.  this team of boys -- who live all over the local map (seriously, we're talking chapel hill, durham, garner, clayton, apex, cary, wake forest, raleigh ...) and their parents and siblings have become like a second family to us over the past year.  we are truly blessed!

and the cherry on top of an already delicious sundae?  liam and his teammates being crowned the tournament champions!  (proud momma here)  woot woot!

in interest of fairness, i thought i'd start with a picture of the Trooper of the Weekend, susanna.  she shares this award with one of her besties eliza, younger sister of one of liam's teammates.  throughout the games, we'd periodically tear our eyes away from the field and do a quick search for the girls, who could always be found running in the grass nearby and flailing their arms as they pretended to be fairies of some sort

much to our dismay, liam wound up playing goalie for two halves.  chris and i hate it when he offers to do this, knowing how terribly hard he is on himself.  luckily he only allowed one goal to be scored under his watch, which happened to be a high shot and one he never could have stopped -- and yet, he still beat himself up over it.  we much prefer him playing any other spot on the field

following saturday's games, we took a drive to the lazy 5 ranch in mooresville on the recommendation of friends.  we spent an hour or so driving through this enormous park where all sorts of animals walked right up to us in search of a friendly snack

after hanging out in the way back for much of the drive, susanna finally warmed up to a llama

who would've thunk that a soccer tournament weekend would give us our first opportunity to feed giraffes?  but by far the biggest hit were the ostriches ... chris says he has never laughed so hard as when the first one followed me halfway into the car ... i had no idea what to do and i was terrified he was going to peck my eyes out, and was almost on top of chris in the driver's seat

know who else were champions?  we just so happened to win the trivia contest at dinner saturday night.  i think i contributed one right answer (which was related to wine, natch)

the hammers, from left: coach jordan, jonah, tony, liam, sam, max, carter, bryson, braeden

and just two seconds later.  boys will be boys

following the medal "ceremony", we drove to davidson for the kids' first visit.  they were disappointed to find all the buildings locked, but we enjoyed walking around and seeing all of his old haunts, including his fraternity house ...

... and baseball stadium ...

... and random sculptures

no davidson visit is complete without a milkshake from the soda shop.  they kept the kids quiet for a good ten minutes of our drive home

the sweet taste of victory!