monkeys

Still hotter than heck and no rain in sight. Kids taxed Momma so she took the night off and I sent them to the tree for the evening. Trees are great babysitters. I would recommend them highly.

Sour Puss

June 23-24

He said:
Garden Tour 2007. Hundreds, yes hundreds, commemorate the 10th annual Historic Abingdon Garden tour by browsing ten area homes featuring waterfalls, koi ponds, kitchen gardens, fragrant herbs and rare varieties of plants. Despite the allure of a braves lounge chair, a confused frog battling a naming war between two headstrong girls, fragrant and multiple varieties of clover, we were not one of the showcase homes. But we were blessed with the honor of being next to one of the homes being showcased. What a responsibility, one I took seriously, nothing screams garden tour like camouflage shorts and wanton shirtlessness (enhanced with the realization that I resemble a greek god -- you remember, the portly, hairy, white as copy-paper god....) The stares from most of the ladies dressed to the nines suggested they felt the same way. Anyway, bike riding (made it to Glenrochie and back which means short legs Emma made it three miles -- impressive) and cookout with Team Mullins rounded out the uneventful, extremely hot weekend. Also, Emma and I snuck popcorn to the bed without Mom knowing to watch some Braves/Tigers baseball which is always a treat, even though for different reasons -- to Emma cause she gets to eat popcorn in the folks' bed and me cause I can watch baseball and snuggle up with one of my three beautiful daughters. Very blessed indeed. Rachel is finishing up her two weeks at Va. Tech science camp and despite roommate issues, she is feeling quite the grown up young lady -- eleven going on twenty. Yesterday, a picnic with members of the Va Tech football team -- thank god Marcus Vick is gone (crosses himself like a true non-catholic) -- and Bernard Harris, the astronaut, spoke today.

Whew.........

There is nothing that prepares you for the perils of parenthood like OJT. Today at the post office we were waiting in line for stamps when Hope, in her now quite clear and loud days away from 3 years old voice, pointed to the man in front of us.... I must preface that it was a very very large man in front of us..... and said, " Hey momma, look at that big.............( this is were I was wishing for a trap door in the floor....) crab on his shirt!" Remember, we were just at Granddaddy Dave's and ate crabs for 2 days... I was still in a sweat when we left.

Hands On Museum

Today with no school and no plans we packed up and headed to the Hands On Museum in Johnson City, TN. It's a great place to go with kids, it's just like it says the kids can do, touch, play with everything in there. Today Emma's favorite part was going in the Grocery Store - kids get to push a buggy around and shop then check out their goods, Emma was checkout girl today. Hope's favorite part was going down the big coal slide, it takes you from the main floor down to the basement at a million miles an hour. After two hours we headed to the mall to eat at the food court, I mean what else could top the day but more chicken nuggets and ice cream?

Arts and Crap....er Craft Night

Mom and Dad REALLY need to quit saying that because the girls call it that too and it's a real hit when they say it in Sunday school at church. Emma was a little under the weather so we cancelled bike riding at the Creeper trail and got out the paints on the back porch. Thank goodness for the bag of goodies from Michael's!! now the girl each have a cross to hang over their bed. ( unfortunately Emma's almost gave her a black eye this morning falling off the shelf.... let's hope that's not bad karma ).

Movie Night

The rain kept us from the creeper trail and inside, so, Movie Night it was. This time in the form of reckless gun play, unnatural animal kingdom alliances, and old fashioned male chauvinism in your typical hound dog coming of age picture. No, not the "Behind the music" story of Justin Timberlake, a common mistake no doubt, (although, shamelessly, I would watch it, then vehemently deny it was being watched for anything other than anthropological reasons.) Man, you know you have lost all street cred (became awfully old, awfully quick) when you spontaneously devote more than a four word summary...bordering on a review...to a kids' movie. Well, anyway, Emma liked the movie, Hope liked the popcorn (and her rocking chair savannah granddad used as a boy her age), and I liked the Sweetwater Savannah beer from little bro Chris (Kudos), and, wait, how did Mom get out of watching the Fox and the Hound? Oh yeah, a well-timed phone call from her buddy Teresa...

David

Alpha Wins Softball Championship!

Alpha's Softball team won last night, not too shabby as this was their second year in the league! They kept us at the edge of our hard stone stadium bleachers by forcing a second game last night, to which they came out the victors! David stayed out of the ER this year per our pact to each other, I thought he went back on his word when I saw 3 of the Alpha guys collide in the field but somehow he was not involved and no ambulances were needed. Whew..... we all had visions of last year.
congratulations guys!

Happy Father's Day Daddio

We all just want to thank big daddio for who he is, we are so proud of him and what he has accomplished in his life and all that he does and provides for us every single day. We know there is no pressure being a husband, a father of "3" girls, a softball player and our provider. You always come home and make us laugh, show us love, make our days so much better by being you - I cannot imagine our house without you, you bring the fun and laughter into our day!

Happy Father's Day.

Love your girls.

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!!! 11 YEARS OLD

Happy Birthday Shortie, we sure did have a great week with you! We hope you have an awesome time at your Virginia Tech Camp this next two weeks and we can't wait to get you back on the 29th!!

We love you more than words can say! ( Go Jack Sparrow, er... Captain!)

love Dad, Cake, Emma and Hopie

Little Swimmers

Still working on swiming lessons -- so there is hardly any room for swimming with all the floaties in the pool. Hope almost has it down, tried bribing Emma with a trip to Claire's to get her face wet... maybe today. Little Christopher only wants his granddaddy.

Tybee Beach, SC

Nothing like surf, sand and your uncle's and Kim and little Christopher!

We kept Hope above water this trip and it was good that there were some tidal pools left when the tide went out - it was a great day for body surfing, for those of us that can really swim.

Got Crabs?

Hope kissed the mudbug... er, crawfish - Emma ran from the crab - and poor Rachel screamed when dad put the crab behind the curtain while she was in the shower! But there is nothing like seeing 2 coolers in the back of granddaddy's truck -- we had quite the crab boil for dinner.
Tomorrow we are going to try the net and catch fish in the lagoon out back, just need to watch out for the alligators!

Sari Girls

The girls have a great nana -- she brought them back Sari's from her last trip to India.
We went to the mall and got stopped so much we could hardly shop at Claire's!!!
thanks, nana hazel!

Vacation

Sunday 10th -- we drove back from Atlanta, we rescued the Tolars by picking up our children, and made it in time for church softball, however, there were not enough players so it was a forfeit, nap anyone....? while it was nap time I went and got Rachel, it's time for her first week with us this summer... another 2 hours in the car, but she is worth it - time flew by as we discussed again 'Pirates of the Caribbean' at length. We each saw it one time and then a second time together and we don't think Dad will let us take off for another 'nine-hour' movie. We can't wait for the DVD. We are already trying to have a marathon movie night so we can watch and watch more pirates.

Why Is There Always a Story ????

On saturday the 9th Dave and I went to Atlanta to go see the Braves play the Cubs, we used to go together at least once a season but I had not been since I was 8 months pregnant with Hope, and this was our first trip together ( sans kids ) and we could not wait to see the game. We conned, er, asked our pastor and his wife to keep the girls so we could go and spend the night, everything was a "go" for our trip. We arrived in Atlanta a little later than we liked but we swung by the hotel to do a quick check in and head to the park for bp. Unfortunatly, the hotel had a problem, they were not able to give anyone a key to their room till the manager got there ???? well an hour and 3 rooms later we were on our way to the ballpark. Braves/Cubs, a saturday night, who knew it would be the 4th largest crowd in Braves history with 53,l000 fans! Ever tried to drive 3 miles in Atlanta and find a parking place??? 1.5 hours later, we made it into the stadium around the 5th inning. Ok, ok we are here, luck has changed, grab some dinner, a beverage and watch the end -- who knew the margarita stand would shut down as I was the next customer.... ok. let's just go watch the game. Dave was on tv for a pop-up, my hands on top of my head made the shot. We checked in the next morning, and with some bribing and drugs Hope finally went to sleep on her first night away from us around 10 pm, and Paige was seen taking her medication.

Three things

Our lillies finally bloomed, which is pretty cool. Also, pretty cool is the Fleur-de-lis (flower of the lilly), is a "supposedly" haunted B and B in Dover, England frequented back in the day by some of the Krays which K and I stayed in 2001-ish.

Two -- thanks again TV. It was only on for background noise, but now Emma now has a new saying which I found out when she asked, "what does 'cut the cheese' mean?" Great, thanks again.

Three -- Rachel won her softball game about a million to two.

This doesn't count cause I said three things but apparently K shrunk Hope today.

Awards Galore and Reggie?!?

Congrats to our not-so-little Rachel as she has graduated from Elementary school and her Safety Patrol duty and we couldn't be any more proud. Well, we could if it wasn't tempered with the realization that this means we are officially old. Thanks to "Meemaw and Grandaddy" who drove up from Roanoke to attend and take the photos above. Anyway, she also received her Presidential Physical Fitness Award where she was one of only two that received the award in the whole school (also pictured above.) And ... Woman of the Year award, Cleanest Teeth Award, and Most Likely to Prematurely Deny this is Her Father at the Mall award. So, great job!!

Sometimes you long for the Waltonesque way of life. The Windsor house is draped in darkness, save for one light in an upstairs window. "Night M's, night Shorty and Hope," you long to hear.... All right. No big deal. I can accept the fact no home is the Walton's. Heck, I'll accept the occasional cry of Monsters plaguing my little ones dreams. But, what do I get, I get monsters all right, I get, "Dad, I have a monster wedgie" (except wedgie sounds decidedly like Reggie.) Exasperated after hearing why I sprinted upstairs in the middle of the night, I congratulated her and asked if she wanted me to phone this into the local news. Bad idea. Now Big sis is taunting her. So now I make several additional trips up to reassure her that, no, I won't call the news, and, yes, I know, she no longer has a reggie. Sheesh, Can't you see I am trying to watch Borat while K is reading her book and pretending not to be listening to the movie despite her adamant protestations of this disturbing beyond-low-brow brand of humor? Heck, our last hometown of Salem, Va is featured prominently in the flick.

Papa

Congrats Grammy! One Year!!!!!

We just wanted to tell our CT Grammy how proud we are of her that she hasn't had a cigarette for one year! We know how hard you have worked and how hard a year you have had, we love you and we are so proud!

Lots of love and kisses from all the Shocker Clan. Here's to the next year!

More Slip and Slide

Let's just not share with our conservation friends the fact that we do slip and slide every weekend for about an hour each day..... we lured our neighbors into it today and Rachel got to break herself in for the season.

Too bad we don't have sound so you could hear papa shock knock the wind out of himself when he and Rachel were racing each other to the bottom. I have to remind him daily of our pact NOT to go to the ER this year! It was the perfect day though, we got the slide just right so even Hope went from the top to the bottom all by herself... she has NO fear!

A Night at the Creeper Trail

Who needs the 'museum' when we have the Creeper Trail! Our after dinner activites usually lead us to the Creeper Trail where we work off our dinner and get some exercise riding our bikes. Who knew, we bought bike two years ago and we still use them.
The Creeper Trail goes on for over 20 miles on an old railroad bed.
After we had our exercise and before our milkshakes, Papa Shock took the girls outside to do some sparklers. Check out how Rachel did an R!!

Creeper Trail Riding

Papa Shock at the Ballfield

Gone are the days of playing baseball for the Mudcats in Roanoke all summer and here are the days of church softball and work team softball that are 8 game seasons not including playoffs. Papa Shock is on two teams and all I ask this year is no emergency room visit's. Last night was the final regular season game for the Alpha team, not my best photo shoot - I will do better this sunday for the Sinking Spring game. All in attendance appreciated the girls shouting " GO DADDY!" and singing "take me out to the ballgame" for an hour.

Alpha won by slaughter rule. Go Shock!