May | 2014 | OUR LIFE IN 3D

Archive for the month “May, 2014”

31 May 2014

School’s Out!

Yes, once upon a time I knew and celebrated Alice Cooper’s song religiously. There was nothing like the feeling of the last day of school.

Now it takes on a whole new meaning.

Dylan’s last day of school was Friday. She didn’t quite understand what it meant. I didn’t know why she wasn’t as excited (for her) as I was. I told her it is a last day to see your friends at school. Its a day of celebration. There won’t be any work to do. No more teacher, dirty looks.I said the day will be loud and it will be noisy and fun. Let a summer full of playgrounds, riding bikes, swimming pool begin!

Sure enough, as I held Dylan’s hand walking into school as a Kindergartener for the last time on Friday, the halls were stripped bare of decorations and accolades. Kids were running a muck in the hallways where I am used to them sitting quietly along the walls in the hall. And the noise level was a good bit ‘enhanced’.

Remember those days?

OK, good, cause that was just my desperate attempt to tell you all about Dylan’s report card one last time. We received that when she came home from her last day of school Friday. Forgive me if you are tired of me bragging on our girl but (proud daddy at work) she received all A’s again! Yayyyyyy!

A quick ‘scan’ down the report card revealed all 4’s. They do a numerical 4 point grading system. We were not disappointed! The second page is my favorite page however. Where the first page suggests the intelligence or willingness of the student to learn to second page rates more the character of the student; something possibly harder to teach.

Our Dyl received all 4’s again in such things as:

Takes on Responsibility

Respects others

Follows Rule and directions

Uses time wisely (oh isn’t that an important one grown-ups?)

Participates in class discussions

Exercises Self-control

Atta girl Dylan! The teacher goes on to write “….She has continuously been a leader and role model in class (!!!). She is exceeding grade-level standards and expectations independently. She has solid foundation to enter the first grade and we expect the transition to be smooth”.

Well that is a good cause to take our little girl out to her favorite pizza place tonight!

And while we always enjoy seeing and reading of her accomplishments she actually brought home a little gem for us. She handed us a few writing journals where they are asked to put forth their thoughts or ideas on paper each day. It looks like most days the writing has a theme but some days they can ‘freelance it‘ if you will. And we found a few gems in there.

So if I have not bored you to death yet, or thinking about hitting that back arrow button, here is a sampling of one such gem we found from our little girl. I hope to offer a few more of these in the upcoming days as 3D tries to regain a pulse. Spelling (this time) will not be edited so I can show you a truer nature of these kindergarten essays:

Journal entry:

“Next time i will look at the bored before i think that i no what to do. I am sorye and i apoligey. That is a nother word for sorye. I bet you alredy no that alredy. I no that to.”

Thanks everyone for dropping by!

Have a GREAT summer vacation!

Posted in Archives and tagged Alice Cooper, now what?, report card, school's out, summer vacation

26 May 2014

9 Comments

To all those that have served: Thanks for this day!

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! I hope you had a chance to relax or have some fun or do what ever you like to do on your free days off from work.

We decided to take the kids out to the beach for the first time this season. I don’t think they had been to the beach since about June of last year.

I really hadn’t been out to the beach in almost a year as well, except for a glorious time or two when I only could spare minute.

Our visit was ideal and instantly reminded me of vacations and beach visits from the past…

It really was a wonderful day. Even Mom remarked on how perfect everything was; the water was crystal clear, the air temp, the wind, the crowds. It made for a nice escape.

Like I said, even given it was a holiday, a 4-day weekend, the beaches were not too crowded.

Of course we did leave our house at 10:15 to avoid the beach swarm to the coast.

But we had our usual good time. The girls were a little slow to embrace the beach, forgetting where they left off at last summer. They quickly found themselves at home in the tidal pool. They made a few friends there. Poor Skylar, she had to lug around her inner tube swimmie all through out the 8 inch deep tidal pool; kinda like her purse. It was too funny!

We arrived as the tide was going out. The vacated sand made for a nice wide, flat beach. There weren’t many waves due to the low tide so you could just wade out and keep going. Eventually I lured Dylan out to go for a swim with her ol’ dad. As you can see, she really didn’t care for that too much…

The girls had a good time playing in the water and ocean again.

I had a great time acting like a kid in the ocean again. It was fun. It was relaxing. A great time for some little pondering with the Big guy. It was a nice escape. And it felt good to be in my old beach chair again.

Here is a brief look at our day on the ‘Isle Of Palms‘. Thanks for taking time out of your hectic Memorial Day to drop by my beach here in 3D.

To all those Veterans, who helped secure our country and way of living so that we could enjoy a purrfect 3 day weekend (and get paid for it) I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Posted in Archives and tagged beach, Happy memorial day, I need a holiday, Jamaica, ocean, the water's warm

19 May 2014

18 Comments

Can I get up now?

Once upon a time there lived a princess. From the day she was born she had her own spirit about her. She was always happy, optimistic and loving. Her facial expressions were usually smiles and grins as she went about here day. She was a happy kid from day one!

Somewhere, early in her development she learned people like to see these things. She saw how happiness exhibited can usually be returned. She found she could surround her own personal world in happiness by just being herself; smiling, happy disposition, never complaining or whining (well hardly ever).

And she gained a large following along the way including a host of many grandmothers, both real, adopted and assumed. She also gained a bit of a blog following over the last 3+ years too with her fun and unique outlooks on life. Want to see what I mean? Click on DYLANisms and go to the early days, for some amusing insights and remarks over the last 3 years.

And as she learned to surround herself in happiness she also learned how to manipulate the situation at a young age, by just being happy and cute. How do you girls just instinctively know how to do this?

Don’t know what I am talking about? Here is one of my favorite and most cherished photos and stories of her. Dylan was less than two years old at the time. She was having a hard time laying down to take naps at this point. We had just transitioned her to her own bed from sleeping in a crib and she seemed to enjoy her new independence. So much so that she would get up and wonder around instead of napping or sleeping at night. This led us to put up a baby gate at the door to her room, so she couldn’t get out when we weren’t watching her.

So one particular afternoon, Dylan just would not lay down for her nap. Once, twice, three times I had to go back and tell her to get back in bed and stop playing with her toys, each time growing a little more stern. She finally got the message on my third request for her to stay in bed and get some sleep.

Or did she?

About 30 minutes later I heard some movement back in her room again. So I got up from what I was doing to go see what she was up to this time. And this was the image that I found waiting for me at her bedroom door:

Can I get up now?

Take a good look at her. Her sunglasses on upside down, her favorite purse tucked on her arm, her favorite toys (Bunny and Bear) there to back her up. This was a well-conceived ploy! I walk up to her room and she says, “Daddy can I get up now?”

I stood there held out my finger to her and told her sternly “Do not Move one muscle!”

And I ran to get my camera. You could not help but smile at her uniqueness, cuteness and creativity to get what she wanted. I took a picture and gave her the OK. I just had to be with her after that.

Fast forward to last week in school. Dylan came home with a certificate where she was honored as “Student of the Month”! We were so happy for her! And so proud. The only thing we wondered, as any proud parent would, was the credibility of this award and why it took until April for her win this? Maybe it was a typo and the certificate was actually for Student of the Year!

Regardless, we were very proud of her and she continues to use her smile and happy, optimistic demeanor to her advantage. You go girl!

Of course, I have long since built up some resistance to her smile and charms! I know how she can work it…..

Yea…right! This princess still rules!

I would love to show you the cute Student of The Month certificate from her school displaying Dylan’s name on it but my computer and I are currently at war. It is slow and belligerent. If any of you are good with fixing computers and think you can help please, PLEASE let me know. Otherwise if you to take a shot at fixing it you can find it out along the curb, in various pieces, up and down the street.

Does anyone have any coupons for new computers?

Maybe I should take Dylan and let her bat her eyes and smile a little bit.

Please, please, pretty please?

Dear God,

Thank you for all the smiles, both big and small that brighten our day! They are the sunshine of our daily lives. They are contagious! Start a smile wave!

And thank you for happy kids that take all the stress and darkness out of our lives by just being themselves! The world can disappear in their presence.

Thank you for the many blessings of our girls as well as what we were each born with. You gave us each what we needed to survive and thrive at our birth. Help us to never lose these blessings but use them to find our own special miracle that you have in store for each of us.

And mostly dear Father, thank You for my two miracles, that have changed my life, as well as all the many miracles you have shown us this week, last week, and all the weeks of the year. Thank you for your mercy and abundant generosity!

Have a great week everyone!

Posted in Archives and tagged be happy, can I get up now?, DYLANisms, happy kid, student of the month

10 May 2014

14 Comments

Ketchup…

Hey gang,

It me! 3D! Coming to you live and in color…again. Gosh, its been over an entire month since we have last talked. Forgive me, for I am such a slacker!

That was some moving and unforgettable Spring Break though! I didn’t hit PUBLISH the entire month of April! Well, not at least on WordPress. I wish I had a good reason other than life took over. There has been some extremely busy weeks; a lot of highs and a lot of lows as well.

Frankly, I just have just been too distracted to write with everything going on. You know if I skip one of my girl’s birthdays some thing is up! Well I skipped telling you about both of them!

Dylan’s came and went at the end of March. By the time I finally had her birthday picks loaded into WordPress it was Skylar’s birthday. If anyone wants to get a glimpse of their birthday’s here is a brief one:

One of Dylan’s birthday wishes was for Daddy to pick her up from school and spend the rest of the day with Daddy at work. She knows that’s where the snacks hide. As you can see, she had an OK time with the Snack Man and even scored a big bag of Pirates Booty for her birthday…along with some crackers and cookies and chips…

She had a great time opening some super generous gifts from all her five grandmothers, family and friends. She always gets some of the best clothes from her grandmothers! Here are a few pics that I recorded:

she looks entirely too old in this outfit for Kindergarten

Skylar’s Birthday came upon us and she made out OK too. Each girl had a very special time and didn’t lack for anything; especially attention.

We’ve had our share of woe’s as well as celebrations this past month t0o which rocked my focus.

For example, our mortgage company paid out county taxes 2% too high for our property taxes which is going to raise our mortgage $500 per month!

Ouch!

So I had to work with my county to get a rebate (they were not going to tell me!) and then send that rebate back to the mortgage company to bring the payment back down.

While my health continues to be quite good (Yay!!!!) My doctors could care less. They just want their money.

My insurance company was denying a payment to one outfit. To my insurance company, they felt three procedures done to me were not necessary.

What??

Each month I would get a bill for $1750. I would then consult the insurance company (everyone knows what a treat that is) on what the issue was. Well a few weeks ago the doctor’s invoice came in red ink saying my account was being turned over to collections.

Excuse me a second, parents turn your kids away but,

WTF?

My credit was going to be put at risk due to a tardy insurance company?

Just the day before the receipt of the scarlet letter I received one of those ‘Explanations of Benefits’ page from my insurance company stating only $1650 were valid charges, that I owed something closer to $700.

So I had to take that statement and present it to the doctor and told them its $700 or nothing.

They took it! With luck now, with luck….ALL my doctor’s bills are paid off from the itty bitty procedure way back in September. (knock wood)

Ohhhhh, also on that same day I received the letter of collections from my doctors I hit my wife.

Woe! Woe! Woe! With my car!

NO wait! I hit her car with my car. We had just finished lunch at a local restaurant. We were at a stop light. I thought she went. I hit the gas. I reached down to turn up Jimmy Buffet (it was a gorgeous day and my sunroof was already cranked), I looked up and she was still stopped!

Apparently the guy in front of her didn’t move to fast. I saw the hood of my car just scrunch up in front of me before I could stop, as the bumper of my car went beneath the spare tire on the back of her CRV.

The cops were there in not time but didn’t write a ticket since the accident was ‘in house’. Her car was relatively fine. The worse part was that our girls were in her car. So that scared me. I was able to drive the car home and then to a local body shop. ~~which was closed for the day, as was the rental car place beside it….after I drove my debilitated vehicle up there with no back up on a Saturday.

One thousand dollar deductible met with the Lexus! Cha-Ching!

But I did score a cute little toy from the rental car place on behalf of my ‘good-guy’ auto insurance company (shhhh..State Farm) to be able to take Dylan to school….complete with a CD player where we can listen to Princess Ana sing ~~our~~ her favorite song from Dylan’s favorite Frozen CD.

They told me air conditioning was extra!

I felt a little like Fred Flintstone when it came time to stop this vehicle! But it is a fun little Fiat and we are enjoying the break. Dylan is enjoying sitting up front because the apparent back seat is for ornamental purposes only. You can’t really sit back there. That Godzilla commercial is lying!

And that ruthless, Bad Bart, monopoly of a cable provider, who I can’t really (com) say their name here (cast) wants to gouge me with higher rates now that my first year ‘honeymoon period’ is over at our new house. So I have been spending hours on hold with there ‘world-class’ customer service department trying to come to an understanding with them.

So folks, if this blog disappears again, well, we sacrificed the Internet with this company of crooks in order to prove a point.

I can’t sacrifice the cable as we just got a new, bigger, bolder, louder TV! Yes, going back to the beginning of this long ~~ketchup~~ catching up, there has been some rocky lows and some super highs! God is good!

And He works in mysterious ways!

Last week we had a guest Pastor at my church. He did a great job and (sorry to say for our incumbent) a hard act to follow. And he is now semi retired with preaching being his part time job.

He spends most of his time as an ambassador for Feed The Hungry, a charitable Christian organization that tries to feed the malnourished in the Caribbean. He talked to us at Sunday school and then touched on it again in our service. Right now, Feed The Hungry is trying to feed the people of Haiti, which is still trying to survive from those earthquakes years ago.

We had our two girls listen good as he talked about how the children have to ~~suffer~~ live in these areas. Yes, many of us throw out more food in a day than these kids can eat in a week.

Dylan listened intently and we talked to her later about her thoughts on the Pastor’s presentation. We talked it over and decided we could contribute enough money to buy a new water pump in a village some where in Haiti (no new financial tragedies with standing). Dylan wanted to help write the check. Yes, God is good. He does things! He stirs in all of us when we open our hearts to the possibilities. Dylan and Skylar are our prime examples.

And let me give a special shout out to all you Mothers out there!

Happy Mother’s Day .

…to the hardest working people out there! You are the Best! Thank you for all you do. You are loved, needed, invaluable and always a musing! We love ya!

Have a great day!