January | 2014 | OUR LIFE IN 3D

Archive for the month “January, 2014”

29 Jan 2014

A day at the museum, part II

Please forgive me.

Amid all the excitement of winter ice storms and the prospect of proving my running invincibility on Saturday, and the horrible idea that both these things might run together on Saturday, I completely forgot to tell you about our trip to see Big Ed at Edventure in Columbia, SC last weekend.

Yes, it was our annual trip for our girls to meet their cousin at their favorite mid-point and a chance to exchange some Christmas gifts and have a blast running around their favorite Kids Museum, Edventure.

Do you remember Edventure from last year? Home of the 3 story little boy where you can climb all around his insides in that form a 3 story kids playground?

The sad thing this year, Ed was not himself.

It seems he had a terrible stomach ache!

The cousins are doing body slams in Big Ed’s stomach

Yes, the inside of Ed is a learning tool, where he is sculpted like the insides of a little boy. Skylar, unimpressed with his stomach, found his mind quite amazing!

Skylar got inside Big Ed’s head

Kinda spooky, huh?

The girls got to visit a farm too. They seemed to enjoy this a lot as they got to ride some tractors (Skylar was a natural!)

…and they had a chance to learn the finer things about farming and taking care of some farm animals…

Yes, you have to learn how to do this the right way!

The girls took this knowledge and saw how this affects our grocery stores. Again, Skylar always being a good helper decided to help with the check out lines; you know how those things are never staffed enough on Saturdays!

“do you have your Bonus Card with you?”

Next was a trip to the fire house where they saw a real live fireman and got to sit in the drivers seat of his truck.

I can drive fast like you now Daddy!

The girls even found fun sliding down the fireman’s pole…

Lots of fun (and energy) were used when they found the ‘blue room’, home to life-size foam lego blocks.

They would build their stacks, climb on top of them to claim them for their own and then Dad would come along and knock them down!

Having fun with the giant foam Legos

Don’t hate! They actually asked me to do it (after the first time)

But the overwhelming theme on this mid January Saturday was the Polar Freeze!

No, not Frozen.

Like the South Pole kinda polar freeze.

Skylar found a game where she could shoot snowballs at unsuspecting elves…

But Dylan found the South Pole’s version of Santa’s castle,

Complete with its own sled ride down an icy slope…

They even found a wind tunnel that was supposed to replicate an Arctic Storm! (for $2.00)

No, they didn’t seem to enjoy that ride at all did they?

All in all it was a pretty exciting day for everyone! Even Dad.

After driving half way up on this frigid Saturday morning, Daddy’s alternator started acting up. Seizing an opportunity to get it fixed while we killed time in a kid’s museum, I found a local repair shop to replace said alternator and hopefully sparing my family from being stranded on the side of the road somewhere on the ride back……during nap time.

And as anyone who has done this can tell you, few things are exciting as getting a mega-hundred dollar car repair, done out of town, by someone you probably will never see again.

Thanks Aunt Charity for all the car rides out and back to the repair shop!

Everyone had a great time! Our girls played with their cousin. We played games and rode rides. We ran and chased and climbed through big Ed. And my car runs like a clock in this cold now.

Thanks for dropping by 3D! We hope you are planning an exciting and car-friendly weekend this week too.

Posted in Archives and tagged Bid Ed, cooking marshmallow, edventure, Firetruck, Frozen, get off that pole!, I'ld rather be by a fire, its getting hot in here, moo

26 Jan 2014

17 Comments

What’s your mantra?

There was a dark time, back in May, when everything I knew, built, or dreamed of was taken out from under me. I had a meeting with my Oncologist that told me I had cancer. Me! At age 51! Me?

I’m too healthy! I feel too good to have cancer? How could this be?

I didn’t know what it meant at the time but when the doctor tells you you have the C-word it stops you in your tracks.

What would I do? What does it mean? What will happen to my family and those two precious little girls God entrusted to us?

It was probably the darkest two weeks of my life. I had some tests done to find out the extent of the cancer growth.

The day the doctor read me the results of those tests had to be in my Top 5 best days of all-time! I walked out a saved man, to some extent, with the promise of living a good long time.

And as I climbed in my car and turned it on and let the good news marinate in my head a little bit an unexpected song came on the radio that brought me to knees, “Its Not My Time”.

The song was an old familiar one. The lyrics brought sobbing and praising God.

IT’S NOT MY TIME

Looking back at the beginning of this
And how life was
Just you and me and loving all of our friends
Living life like an ocean
Now the current’s only pulling me down
It’s getting harder to breathe
It won’t be too long and I’ll be going under
Can you save me from this

‘Cause it’s not my time
I’m not going
There’s a fear in me
And it’s not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Ooo but I won’t go

I look ahead to all the plans that we made
And the dreams that we had
I’m in a world that tries to take ‘em away
Oh but I’m taking ‘em back
Cause all this time I’ve just been too blind to understand
What should matter to me
My friend this life we live
It’s not what we have
It’s what we believe in

And it’s not my time I’m not going
There’s a fear in me
And it’s not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know

But it’s not my time
I’m not going
There’s a will in me
And now I know that
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Ooo but I won’t go
I won’t go

There might be more than you believe
There might be more than you and me
There might be more than you can see

And I lived and breathed that song all summer long, right up to and through an invasive outpatient cancer treatment last September.

The results of the cancer procedure? Well they are about as good as anyone could ask for! Thank YOU for all your prayers!

So last month a few people that are closest to me urged and encouraged me to start running again. I had fallen off the bus pretty good for the last 2+ years.

Not getting enough reaction from me they dared me to do a 1/2 marathon in February!

What? 13.1 miles…. in the cold! Are you crazy? I am not in any kind of shape to do that! And so one of them led by example and did one for me, showing it can be done.

OK why not? It worked! After all…I do have 4 long weeks to prepare and get up to 13+ miles. Geez!

Well that 1/2 marathon is this coming Saturday at 8:30am (pray for sun and some warm weather!)

You know what? I feel ready to do some damage to it!

I have been running, training, dropping a few pounds and I have my good running form back. And, afraid it will take me all day to run 13 miles, I have put in some time that says I won’t do too bad.

This afternoon I ran a good pace on a treadmill for over 70 minutes, burned nearly 900 calories and ran with that good form the entire run, not dropping to a tired shuffling of feet.

Here are some stats after the first 59 minutes:

So all things being normal I may be able to run this half marathon in under 2 hours. I would be soo happy with that! I may not crack the code and run it in 105 minutes like I did the race in several years ago. But that’s OK. That’s Not My Time…

Just the idea of running a race again, let alone one of great distance, was a distant memory back in May. Especially since I haven’t run a race this long since 2010.

So thanks everyone for your prayers and encouragement along this mind-numbing period. A very special thanks to my closest of close friends that duped me and encouraged me into this challenge. You know who you are! Some very Special Mates (SSM)! Thanks for kicking my butt and daring me to put this C-thing in the rearview mirror.

The song Its Not My Time will continue to be one of my mantras as I go through life. It goes right beside my other one, Hold On Tight. Two songs, two phrases I will never forget and hope to hold on to for a very, very long time.

These two mantras mirror the final words of the famous North Carolina State basketball coach, Jimmy Valvano as he bid farewell at ESPN’s ESPY awards in 1993 after it was found he could not beat his form of cancer. Jimmy started his V Cancer Foundation with the words and the drive and now trademark phrase, “Don’t give up . . . Don’t ever give up.”®

Never give up my friends!

If you have the time take a look at this by Jimmy V.

It can be very motivating!

So do you have a mantra you try to live by?

Care to share it?

Posted in Archives and tagged “Don’t give up . . . Don’t ever give up.”®, cancer sucks, ELO, hold on to your dreams!, its not my time, Jimmy V, whats your mantra?

23 Jan 2014

11 Comments

What’s Your Blues Name?

The Winter storms give you the Blues?

Tired of being stuck inside or all bundled up?

Your kids need a break?

This post has always been one my favorite posts. It silly fun and down home bluesy.

This table tent comes from my favorite local restaurants, Sticky Fingers.

We would match our initials on thenames on the flyer to find our true Blues persona and then procede to call each other our Blues Name the rest of the afternoon

Me?

My Blue’s alter-ego is “Fat Sugar Lee“.

“What Is Your “Blues Name?”

Posted in Archives and tagged Blues, fat sugar lee, More BBQ please, nickname, Stickey Fingers

16 Jan 2014

22 Comments

DYLANism: A Night At The Smithsonian

Last summer, when we visited Ocean City New Jersey, we planned on stopping at the Smithsonians in DC on the way home. Mom thought they might be interesting for the girls. To entice the girls into seeing one or two Smithsonians we actually went out an found a book, Awesome Adventures At The Smithsonian.

Bringing the story to up to date, a few days ago Dylan and I were paging through this wonderful book. We stopped in the Flight section. One thing led to another and we started talking about hot air balloons and zeppelins.

I tried to explain this was the only way people could fly years ago, before there were air planes. Dylan grasped the idea of a hot air balloon but not the scale or magnificence of a zeppelin.

Undaunted I whipped out my cell phone to do search for one. Thinking of the only zeppelin that came to mind, I tried to find a video of the Hindenburg.

Well the video played on and the disaster was apparent. The news reel announcer started talking of all the people that were killed so I thought to find another example of a zeppelin, the Goodyear Blimp instead.

Much better choice!

So last night after dinner Dylan asked to see the video of the Badyear Blimp.

I said no, “No Dylan it is is the Goodyear Blimp.”

She cries, “No daddy I want to see the video of the Badyear Blimp!”

Puzzled, I thought for a second but then put ‘video’ and ‘Bad Year’ together to realize what Dylan meant.

She meant the video of the Hindenburg! She really was quite fascinated by this Badyear Blimp.

Earlier that same week Dylan and I were paging through the same Smithsonian book. Dylan wanted to stop and learn about the dresses of the First Ladies of the US. This section showed dresses worn by various First Ladies throughout history, showing not only the style but the personalities of these First Ladies.

The next page showed a Job Description of the First Ladies. I told Dylan the First Ladies have to help the President, welcome very important guests to the White House, support some causes and connect with people.

So Dylan asks, “What is a First Lady?”

I told her the First Lady is married to the President of our United States. Its a very important position!

“Oh!”

Next came a little quiz to test the comprehension of the reader to the book.

1. Would you want the job of the First Lady?

Dylan = “Yes”

2. What do you think would be some of the fun things about being the First Lady?

Dylan= Get to drive a car and get to eat Marshmallows by yourself!

3. What do you think would be the worst part about being the First Lady?

Dylan= Being Married!

So there you have it! Dylan longs to grow up because she can drive a car, eat marshmallows whenever she wants and stay away from boys!

Good Ideas Dylan! Good Ideas.

Want another marshmallow?

I took Dylan to school this week to find the teacher asked her class to write a very important New Year Resolution for this year. Their declarations were hanging outside the class in the hall.

Mom, you are going like this….

That’s right, this year Dylan pledges to ‘make her bed‘ as her New Year Resolution! Is she a cool kid or what? Mommy and daddy had absolutely no input on her choice what so ever.

And so far….she has kept her promise in the morning before school, making her bed everyday.

Have another Marshmallow Dylan!

If you want to find other amazing DYLANisms check out my link in the margin for some of the incredible insights that have left the girl’s mouth over the last 4 years.

I hope all your New Years Resolutions are still on track too!

Thanks for looking in 3D!

*******************************************************************

Stop the presses, Stop the presses, Stop the presses ~ This just in!

This came in the mail today:

Atta girl Dylan! Hmmmm? Writing skills develop. ..maybe a future Guest Post in 3D?

Here’s my Happy Friday Song to kickoff your weekend…

Wiggle and shake around like you just don’t care!

Make this come true!

Posted in DYLANism's and tagged First Lady, Smithsonian, Thats a lot of hot air

11 Jan 2014

21 Comments

Invitation

Last night as I viewed how my Stats in 3D have slid into the ‘nothings-going-on-here’ cavern again, I noticed all of the sudden my views take off.

Every now-and-again, somewhere around the world somebody(s) gets a hankering for Shel Silverstein and his wonderful poems. Last night a few searches were done and 3D received 10 hits for some of his poems, including Snowball, which was viewed 6 times along.Snowball was actually founds via search 161 times last year alone. Another one of my personal favorites, Hug Of War, was viewed 4 times last night.

Back when I created this blog I put a smithering of our family favorites from Shel’s book, “Where The Sidewalk Ends” in the top header entitled, Bedtime Stories as we always read some of these poems to the kids as they went to bed. As you can see, these are not the typical children’s’ stories.

They are fun!

If you have an propensity for the silly or imaginative readings these poems can be a lot of fun as you act out the character in the poems.

But as a parent these poems, or this book, has greater value. Our kids loved hearing these stories at night and then want to try to read them their self . It created genuine interest in books and reading for our girls. Now, every night at bedtime they demand to hear another story.

The benefits of enjoying books and reading?

Dylan brought home her 2nd report card this week. She received all ‘A’s again. Her teacher’s comments included how “Dylan is advanced to the next grade level in all her academic studies. She is a great listener and contributes well in class discussions.”

As a parent you gotta feel proud of that and can’t help go back to when we read ‘Acrobats‘ over and over until the girls could read it by heart.

I’ll swing
By my ankles,
She’ll cling
To your knees
As you hang
By your nose
From a high-up
Trapeze.
Just one thing, please,
As we float through the breeze–
Don’t sneeze.

This year, while shopping for Christmas presents for the girls, Santa spied another Shel Silverstein book for them, A Light In The Attic.

And I hope to start reading and learning this book with the girls real soon. But first they feel compelled to finish reading another good children’s book, The Children’s Bible.

If you have some young children I invite you to explore the world of Shel Silverstein and open up their world of imagination and fondness for reading and books.