As Promised

Time to write a bit, after another long break......  The main theme of this post will be "critter pictures", but will be sure include some recent news.

Great Falls National Park (June 2013)  Steve's Post - Birds on the Potomac River

New Hampshire (August 2013) - Starting with Aunt Margaret and Uncle Jack's kitty Dusty, then a gorgeous dragonfly picture.  Thank you, Steve!!

Lake Ganoga (September 2013) - Humingbirds, as seen and photographed (amazing pictures!!) by Steve from Uncle Dick and Aunt Ginny's deck.

Our Kitchen Cabinet  (Today)  After making my lunch @ 7 a.m., I went looking for a dish towel and discovered Tiger!

Latest Happenings

• Brock's 11th Birthday - We celebrated with Dirt !  .... yummy pudding mix, cool whip, crushed oreo cookies, and gummy worms.  I think your favorite gift was a replacement set of Sony earbuds (bright yellow).  We are still working on plans for birthday dinner at Uncle Bucks in Plymouth.  A kids "event" i.e., trip to Dorney Park is scheduled later this month.
• Sasha and LARP - Sasha, you have taken an interest in LARPing with friends Jarod and Matt.  When first mentioned to me, I thought it must be something completely inappropriate (like "twerking", for example, which we recently learned about from Miley Cyrus).  Turns out it's not X-rated - you can read more here  -->  Live Action Role-Playing   However, it is very important to carefully make weapons (such as bows out of PVC pipe), so as not to accidentally cut one's hand & end up in the Emergency Room getting stitches.  
• Teachers' Strike - Today was Day 11 of our local school district's 2013 strike.  Very bad news for all involved.  Brock is spending a couple mornings every week at his friend Stephen's house, which provides a break in routine.  Sasha has spent some time with his friend Robby.  We hope it is over soon, though seems unlikely as the parties are not negotiating.
• Allowances - Toward the end of the summer, you noticed that your allowances have not been paid in many weeks.  It's true.  I am delinquent, which happens quite regularly with allowance remittances.  I keep thinking about paying up, but not doing so 'cause it seems like a discount should be applied after many fun and somewhat expensive summer activities (like vacations, trips to Camelbeach & Knoebel's, Brock getting locked into the pool building at Nay Aug Park, etc.).  All month, I've had an "Allowance" sticky note up to remind that I must do something.  Ah yes, but what?!?  Brock, I think you are angling to get PS3 game Grand Theft Auto 5 instead of back-allowance...  but all the bleeding in that game is distressing.....  I'll let you know as soon as I decide what to do.  

Critter Finale - As you know, one of my childhood memories involves going with Grandad and Aunt Julie to get fresh chicken for dinner.  We lived in the Dominican Republic then, and trips to the chicken farm were quite memorable.  The "promise" referenced above is to write about this wonderful experience.  As I recollect, it went like this....  Scan the flock of chickens & pick out the one you want.  Then: 1) the chicken is caught, 2) head is cut off using a sharp knife, 3) the headless chicken sometimes escapes and runs around the chicken pen (fascinating to young girls!), 4) it's then placed upside down into a cone until blood drains out, gutted, boiled in water for several minutes, plucked by hand and finally wrapped in paper to bring home.  Very dramatic, for sure.  There are numerous YouTube videos about the process that I can't bring myself to insert here.  So, you'll have to make do with Mike the Headless Chicken.... Brock, thanks for telling me about him; you can see a picture and read more about Mike here:  Lucky Mike   

Summer Solstice

Yesterday was the longest day of 2013.....  appreciated for extra sunshine (no special rites were performed, unless cleaning up kitty litter upon return from vacation has significance).  What have you boys been up to?  Here's a recap: 

Birthday - In mid April, one of Sasha's friends turned 16.  As a surprise, you Sasha and another friend got a lovely gift.  The items below were well-received and probably enjoyed best by young sister Katie.

Visits to Wyncote - A weekend visit to Wyncote in early April provided Sasha an opportunity to kick off spring fishing with Mark.  Steve, Brock and I had time with Lucy touring the Eastern State Penitentiary, followed by playground fun.  On Sunday morning, we made it to church at St. Dunstan's with Grammie and Grandad.  In a return trip over Memorial Day weekend, we helped Grandad celebrate his 76th birthday.

Airsoft and Fishing!  Sasha, you are an active member of the Exeter Airsoft group.  Hours in the outdoors and fun with friends!  As to fishing.....  well, this is absolutely one of your favorite times of year.  Steve has also taken an interest in fishing, and now has 2 poles and multiple implements in his tackle box.  Frances Slocum park has been a good location for trying out new equipment, and catching fish plus the occasional turtle.  Brock, you and I have enjoyed playground time, walks, and "sparky" scooter rides including a fast, frightening ride down the steep hill toward turtle pond (brakes were not so great in steepest stretch, but worked OK toward the bottom).

Tiger - A few weeks ago, Tiger had his annual bath & "slenderizing" treatment i.e., extra fluff is shaved away for the summer.  His flabby paunch is quite noticeable and of no concern to Tiger - petting anywhere including his belly is wonderful.  Sasha has provided this list of his alternate names for Tiger:  Tigrero, Tigroog, Toiger, Fatty, Fat Cat, Chunks of Love, and Love Chunks.  Here is Tiger (pre-treatment) enjoying a moment with Steve's sneakers:

Additions to the Family - Over the winter, our latest batch of tropical fish suffered a premature demise due to hypothermia (secondary cause:  lack of attention to temperature in the fish tank).  Sasha immediately announced that we would introduce lake critters to the tank when spring came along.  So after a recent fishing trip to Frances Slocum, he brought home Flappy the Crappy, and 2 large snails - Dung and Pooh (as in "who flung....").  Next, Dung and Pooh had babies known as the Poohlets.  A couple weeks later after a fantastic job cleaning algae off the fish tank, Dung and Pooh went home to the turtle pond.  Here's a picture taken shortly after arrival:

Crappy seemed to be doing fine, until today that is.....  His favorite food - wax worms.  We has also gorged himself on guppies, but unfortunately didn't keep it all in his tummy (fish parts make a return trip into the tank, only to be cannibalized by other guppies).  This afternoon he passed on to the fish heaven, and will be missed.


Vacation in Washington DC - We got home yesterday from a few days in the Washington DC area.  My favorite was visiting with my cousin Annie, who lives near Bethesda.  Steve's was probably the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport.  I'm not certain that you boys had a favorite, though Sasha you seemed to enjoy talking about fishing with Andrew from "Augie's Adventures" who was trying to photograph Capital Hill at sunset from a park near Reagan National Airport.  And Brock you seemed to especially like climbing on rocks at Great Falls National Park overlooking the Potomac River.


Steve's Mom - Sadly, Steve's mother died on June 7th after being hospitalized in Philadelphia.  It has been a difficult time for Steve and his brothers, as you can imagine.  It is quite an accomplishment for a Mom to raise four boys mostly on her own, and certainly it was not easy for her.  I am genuinely interested in older people, and would have liked to know her better.  Be sure to appreciate your family members - every one of them is important.

Vacation in Delaware

In July we went on a beach vacation to Delaware vacation, where we stayed in Lewes.

To begin with.....  two really good things about our trip were the car, a large (red) mini van whose model I have already forgotten (Dodge Caravan?), and the house.  The car was perfect because there was plenty of room; Brock sat in the middle row & Sasha in the back.  There was minimal squabbling!!  The house was lovely, comfortable and spacious.  Its location was interesting, as the development is situated right behind a Home Depot store.

So, favorite things we did:

• Fishing!  I took you Sasha to a fishing pier one evening; it was beautiful and breezy, but not many fish around.  Much better, you and Steve spent a morning fishing out on Delaware Bay.  The fishing was great!  Here's a great post from 'NCFE'  -->  Gone Fission   The pictures below are wonderful - what a lot of disgusting fish bait (those squid are looking right at us!!).

• Brock, I think your favorite was probably swimming in the pool at our condo complex.  I enjoyed soaking up the sun, and we had a good time playing with boogie boards.  
• Walked around downtown Lewes one evening.  It's a quaint, historic town & I loved the harbor area.  Look up and you'll see a picture of the Lewes Canal at the top of 'Carroll Boys'.  

And rounding out our week, we also:

• Spent time at Cape Henlopen State Park, where the fishing pier was located.  It has an ocean beach, which we enjoyed while Brock swam (waves were a bit strong & breaking very close to shore).  We also went to Fort Miles, which was a significant military site during World War II.  There are some massive artillery guns on display.  Read more here-->  Fort Miles   And see pictures below.
• Went to Rehoboth Beach, where we had time at the beach and walked around to stores & boardwalk.  Stopped into Candy Kitchen, Fisher's Popcorn and T-shirt stores.
• Spent a bit too much time on Rt 1, which is an 8-lane highway along a massive commercial strip.

Sincere thanks to our photographer Steve!!  Vacations are very special, and I'm already looking forward to next year !

June 2012 Vacation

Well, my vacation week is ending today.  I decided to look for a short YouTube clip that would reflect how I feel - and found one sub-titled "Yet more nursing".  It's very appealing, and listen carefully @ 1.22 seconds....



Our original plans included a trip to Webster, but unfortunately Edie had to work.  In the end this vacation ended up being largely a "stay-cation".  So, here are some highlights from our past week going from youngest to oldest.

• Tiger - Had lots of company!!  It's nice that Tiger enjoys attention from everyone.  Sterling was one of his more frequent visitors this week.  As a general update - Tiger is now very happy with his kitty bed, placed in the upstairs hallway.  
• Brock - Especially enjoyed overnight at Great Wolf Lodge, the Pocono water park resort.  Got to see the newest "Madagascar" movie.  You also had fun with friends Ben at Hickory Run Park, and Matthew at Frances Slocum Park.  Became somewhat ill after going on rides with Ben at the Forty Fort 125th Anniversary carnival.  Spent quite a bit of car time with your DVD player, watching Hogan's Heroes exclusively.  When home, played the Play Station 3 game The Elder Scrolls, Skyrim.
• Sasha -  Liked Great Wolf Lodge, in particular pizza which he had for dinner and then breakfast the next morning.  Spent some happy hours tying flies, as evidenced by the computer table & surrounding rug (assorted wires, threads, feathers, and other fluffy items are piling up, and the keyboard needs compressed-air cleaning).  Sasha, you spent time with friends Steven and Gage, and went fishing to favorite spots - Harvey's Creek, as well as Fishing Creek and Bowman's Creek with Dad.
• Mom -  Did not think about Prudential, or at least not much.  I enjoyed the two of you, appreciate very much that you got along well most of the week, started my summer tan, got to bake a little (blueberry pie, brownies), but thankfully did not spend too much time in the kitchen.  You have both been getting over nasty chest colds, and I hope we are almost done with coughing spells and albuterol treatments.
• Steve -  Went to the doctor for an infected insect bite on his back ('Roids, man!).  Installed new anti-virus software on our computer and helped fix cable TV problems.  Tolerated Brock eating chicken wings at Uncle Buck's BBQ Pit in Plymouth.  Showed us around the 4H camp at Hickory Run Park where he worked during high school, took lovely pictures of the park and all of us (his specialty), and took apart water guns upon our return to make sure lake water did not ruin them.

And guess what, we have another vacation coming up next month!  Am looking forward to fun at the beach in Delaware.

Why I'm Doing This

This blog by Christine Elizabeth is intended to be a journal for my sons, who are now ages 14 and 9. I don't spend as much time with you as I'd like, and so now.... I have a cool place to write "stuff" I'd like to share with you. 

Beginning On..... November 11, 2011 otherwise known as 11-11-11. A fortuitous date (you can look that up in a dictionary), a Friday, and also Veteran's Day. You can read more about it here:   NPR Story

How the "CarrollBoysWyoming" blog came into existence:   You might be interested to know how this blog was created. Yesterday I said to my friend Steve that I wanted to start a journal for my sons and wanted it to be on-line (mentioned backing it up to a flash drive). His eyes lit up - well, figuratively speaking, not like a zombie or Superman - and told me it could be a blog and I wouldn't even have to pay $10/year for a URL. So, Steve sat at the computer with the monitor tilted up (as he is Tall) where he set up hotmail and blogspot accounts, almost messed it up, fixed it up, said "Aarghh" a few times and 20 minutes later it was done. AMAZING!! He is very good at all things "computer" and now in addition to being our Helpdesk for when the printer doesn't work or the screen is accidentally minimized to 10% so we'd need a magnifying glass to use it, Steve can be my blog administration and writing advisor.

Disney Vacation exactly 1 year ago:   On this date in November 2010, we were on vacation at Disney World in Florida.  I had a wonderful time.  Do you remember?  Port Orleans Riverside which included fishing, Animal Kingdom (Kali River Rapids!), Blizard Beach, and taking the ferry to Downtown Disney.  At Epcot, we went on Test Trak, Spaceship Earth, and I was dizzy for an hour after spinning on the Mission Space ride. We had a hibachi lunch in Japan.....  afterwards at the Mitsukoshi shop, Sasha picked out an oyster so I could have a pearl (had it set in a pendant).  And Brock picked out a beyblade set (tops), a favorite toy.  

Summer memory and a great song:   In June this year, we went to see the movie "Cars 2".... also, Brock you happen to be watching the Cars 2 DVD while I'm writing today.  This evokes nice memories of summer 2011, on our way home from New Hampshire.  Sasha, hope you like the guitar shots in this video featuring Brad Paisley & Robbie Williams - Collision Of Worlds:

You already know lots about me. For example, you probably realize I am a "No Drama Mama" as in I prefer life to be on the predictable, calmer side without too many surprises. But did you know that I like to write and am reasonably good at it? This is a legacy of reading a lot as a kid, but also practicing a lot in school and at work. It will be interesting to see what I do with this journal.

So I'll conclude this first entry with a quote about beginnings from Harry Emerson Fosdick. If you're interested, you can read about Mr. Fosdick here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Emerson_Fosdick

"He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determines the end."