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25 Jan 2012

FIELD TRIP!!!

Remember those days in school? When the words ‘Field Trip’ sparked such excitement? Field Trips might have been one of my best classes! Today we have a field trip planned. I am taking the kids to the local aquarium downtown this morning (the official South Carolina Aquarium). I was excited!

Sand Dollars sparkling in the surf

Field Trips just weren’t about getting out of class to me. It was a time for discovery. I love finding things, noticing small animals, seeing why things are the way they are. It is one reason I enjoy going to the beach so much. The discovery of new things, shells, crabs, strange living creatures, mollusks living in shells and so on. You never know what you might find?

Today I was happy for my kids. The aquarium is not a huge place but it does have a lot of interactive things for the kids to draw them in. A new exhibit they offered was the saltwater marsh and feeding the rays, as we put a small shrimp in the end of the stick and watch the rays hover up to it and gulp it up.

We're not going to feed the gator

The aquarium has the always enjoyable otter tank with the little cutties swimming around. Lots of snakes and reptiles. Plenty of turtles that populate our area, both inland and in the sea. Exhibits on the tides and evolution of shells. Even an albino Alligator. Very curious! Let the day of discovery begin!

We entered the aquarium and my girls ran right by the Bald Eagle exhibit, right into the river otter display. Once there they found one or two large puddles to play in! Onward into the swamp and marsh displays, where they darted right by the solitary albino gator, finding much more enjoyment pressing the buttons that replicate all the sounds of the swamp (crickets, owls, etc.).

Next was the outdoors tidal display where my girls could feed the rays. This was so cool! Wait! Where are they? They ran back to the kids play tug boat. Dylan was steering it and blowing the horn. My two year old found a turtle she could climb on and slide off. Those rays will just have to go hungry I thought!

Finally, my kids ran through the outdoor tidal display, scattering the wrens and seagulls. Even the fish hid for their life from this kiddie romp!

These two fish feared they might be found

In the next room was our favorite, the two-story deep water fish display. This tank had the barracudas, sharks, puffers, groupers, colorful reef fish and more. Being an avid diver I couldn’t wait for the girls to see this in hope they’ll want to learn to dive with us as early as possible.

Those are her new red shoes on the carpet

I held my two year old up to the glass as the shark swam by but all the excitement behind her caught her attention. It seems toddlers would rather ‘discover’ the joy of climbing on a fake whale, and sliding off the tail, than the discovery of seeing a real mini sperm whale through the glass. The fish, bigger than she was in most instances, were just no match for the smooth plastic slide off a whales bum. I wondered if they knew these fish were even real?

"Hey! Get back here!"

I herded my kids once again and tried to make my way to the restroom. ~ you know how the sound of running water can affect you ~ Instead, they have the idea of running all the way back to the play tug boat and sea turtle. Help!

We finally make it through the doors, outside into the overcast day where their energy and enthusiasm had no end. Because outside…they could chase more seagulls!

Hold still !

Not even a photo op with Mr. Frog could hold their attention.

Not when there was the supersonic ray gun pointed up to the stars where they could shoot down enemy planes landing at our local airport. Discovery!

Their discovery ended when they found out the ‘ray gun’ needed 5 quarters to make it work.

"Skylar, maybe you could shoot this bird instead"

Is it nap time yet?

Posted in Archives and tagged aquarium, fun, ocean, saltwater

21 Jan 2012

13 Comments

Its no accident…

As an extroverted and want-to-be creative dad, I love Saturday and Sunday morning breakfasts. Its then I have the time to make some breakfast for my family. Is it a big deal? I really enjoy it. It takes me back to the Saturday mornings when my dad used to make pancakes for us. I don’t know if you can remember this far back. In the old days you used to make pancakes with some flour, eggs, vegetable, oil, milk and so on. Nowadays you just measure the mix, add the water and stir it together.

Today was pancakes with some blueberries whipped in. That’s the part I dig, making it up each day. I just look in the refrigerator and see what we have to mix with. I figure, if I am taking the time to make the breakfast, why not make it as special as you can for everyone? Its like a motto I used as a manager by famed basketball great Bill Russell, “ The game is scheduled, we are all here, we might as well play to win!”

My resume of pancake breakfasts include, Blueberry pancakes, strawberry pancakes, banana, blueberry- banana (which my neighbors got out of bed for)and so on. The secret ingredient to my pancakes however is the vanilla extract. Every batch starts with enough of a dose of vanilla extract to get you loopy. Well not that much. The vanilla acts like the canvas for the pancakes; the vehicle for the other ingredients to ride on board with. Plus, it fills the house with the good vanilla smell where you don’t ever have to call everyone to the table. It gets you that, “It smells good” compliment every time. Nothing wrong for fishing for complements on a bleary-eyed Saturday morning, is there?

When I was in high school, I had a friend’s mother that would take the entertaining one step further. She would make the syrup fancy. She would take regular syrup (already one of the top five condiments known to mankind) and warm it up. Next, she would add some real butter to it. (Sniff) Can you imagine what that mighta smelled like? Or she could make fruit flavored syrup by adding some extra fruit (see pancake recipes above) to the warming syrup, mash the fruit a bit and let the heat just bleed the flavors out of the fruit. So good! Can you imagine having a stack of steaming pancakes topped with warm maple syrup while you are looking at snow outside?

I enjoy doing all this for my clan and seeing there smiling faces. If the smiles are ample enough I might even clean the dishes too. ~ well hide most of them in the dishwasher. I enjoy the entertaining aspect and its one reason why my IDEAL career would be owning and operating a Bed & Breakfast. I enjoy the entertaining! I enjoy the creative cooking ( I was a Restaurant Manager in a past life). I enjoy meeting new people and getting to know them. ~ Be aware of that last passion, if you ever get an email from me! Combined with my fondness for writing, the emails can get quite ‘chatty’.

And if anyone in my B&B, whether here at home at my fantasy resort, had a preferred breakfast, I’d try to make it too. ..cause I want to try it! Have I told you how I love to eat yet?

Its Dylan’s nap time. Part of the whole ‘nap time’ process is getting her to go to the potty before she lays down, so she doesn’t have to wear her pull-ups while she naps. She usually enjoys doing it so she can prove what a big girl she is. Today however, she stayed sitting in the middle of the hallway. She was kneeling down over one of her dolls, just waiting there.

I urged, “Come on Dylan, its time for your nap!”

She looks up and hands me “Belle”, one of her new Disney Princesses. “Belle” was evidently propped atop one of our little tooth-brushing rinse cups. Dylan looks up, wipes the hair away from her face, smiles and says, “Belle had to go potty too!” It seems Belle was going to take a nap with Dylan…and Dylan didn’t want to get blamed for something, in case Belle had an accident.

Posted in Archives and tagged B&B, breakfast, entertain

19 Jan 2012

15 Comments

Help Wanted:

Had a busy day yesterday! Busy day, good day! Between picking up Legos, wiping runny noses, cleaning up, making lunch(s), playing outside and everything; lots going on! I didn’t end up getting a shower yesterday until, aaaaa, 10:00am ~ today! All because I got the news,” Someone wants to hire me!”

Ironically the Dora song is playing the background, “We did it, we did it, we did it, hurray!” Really it is.

And I just didn’t just get hired once yesterday, two people wanted to hire me! When it rains it pours. Well the first gig doesn’t pay any money. A lady I saw on the professional web site, LinkedIn.com was offering a few internships for writing on her Business Finance web site at About.com. She liked my stuff and took me on! Thank you! You may know by now how I enjoy writing about finance. So I am excited about this.

I got another call at the end of the day. A famous snack food company wanted to hire me for a new position in our area. Super Cool! It is very exciting to be able to put your thumb print down on something you enjoy. But there is a great deal of ironie here; and amusement.
I grew up in a small town in PA. It was a small town but with a few large businesses, including this snack food giant. But you know how small towns go. One family, that owned one of the large businesses in town, also owned a fancy restaurant. The owners were great people; lots of fun! I worked at there restaurant as a bartender during the summers and on weekends thru my first college degree.

The wife of the owner was great lady and always took an interest in me. One summer it was time for her daughter to pack her things and go to college. Of all the people at her disposal she asked me if I wanted to help with the college relocation. I was thrilled! Her daughter was a great girl that was 2 years younger than me in school. You can see where this is going, can’t you?

Well I helped, we had a great time, and made some plans for weekends in the future as the homesickness would inevitably set in. But that is about where it ends as I lived up to being a bit of a punk in my youth and didn’t believe my luck could be that good. I enjoyed those experiences and still consider the family one of my favorite employers.

Moving back to the future now, guess what family has bought this snack giant? Uh-ha! I was dropping names in the interview and knowing some things about my new employer that my interviewer didn’t even know (my parents still live in that town). It was a great conversation, but he quickly spun the direction of the interview saying, “I better watch what I say I guess” knowing my family’s connection. So I am very excited to be working for my hometown brand, for a great family in a sense, and more importantly, with some very nice people locally. Thanks!

All that being said, I need a favor from one of you! Sadly, very sadly, I need to find some child care for the girls. (Sniff, sniff). If any of you feel qualified or interested, we are looking for a great child care provider in our home, with some experience working with and teaching toddlers. Some skills that will set you apart fromf the group would be being able to write, take pictures, and post to the Internet.

Whaddya think? Email me. I have been very fortunate to be able to touch base with lots of great people in this blogging. All of you are qualified! …and certainly better writers than me!

I also wanted to thank everyone who has chimed in and offered ideas, experiences, and advice on my previous two post in fitness. I took some notes! In the population of the handful of readers here in 3D, I find we have a broad range of fitness levels from the beginners to the best in the country. I enjoy learning from all of you!

Since this post today is a quickie, and following in the fitness theme, I wanted to leave you with a funny from a Big Bang celebrity, since there was not a whole lot of humor today. You can see she’s really not acting too much!

I have sooo many jokes or comments I would like to add to this video but you still don’t know me that well so I will let you make up your own. Plus its late! ~ the actual time is not quite 10:00am Thurs. If you look above in the post… I really need a shower

Posted in Archives and tagged big bang theory, Legos, Linkedin.com, writing

16 Jan 2012

11 Comments

I Think I Just Saw a Monster!

Sunday started out a day with high hopes and great expectations!

Then I got outta bed…to find our oldest has a stuffy nose and didn’t feel very well. I think all the parents reading this can agree that few things are sadder than a child that is sick, they don’t understand why, and we are helpless to make them feel better other than dosing them with some meds and juice.

Oh, wait! Can I stop for a moment and make a 30 second rant on kids medicine? First, you can’t find anything for kids under two and if you do you still hold your breath about overdosing them. Second, who can read the blasted directions?! Its like you need a microscope to find the dosing directions with the super-small fonts. So you just pray you are doing this right. I don’t mind a little chemical experimentation myself when I am sick (wouldn’t be the first time) but I am not about to do this with the kids when they can’t really tell me what is wrong.

OK, on we go. So it looks like a lazy day in front of the TV with some movies, popcorn, and a floor full of fruit and other munchies while our oldest tries to feel better. Good-bye Ravens! Good-bye Green Bay! I figure I’ll have to catch the highlights later tonight. My fav teams keep on losing any way! Bye-bye Saints! Bye-bye Tebow!

So it is a cozy day, with everyone snuggling on the sofa, staying warm, stationary and fed with snacks. Not losing any weight today! We start off with the house favorite, Monsters, Inc. and that cute girl running around the film hollering, “Boo!”. This was the first movie we showed Dylan way back, as it was one we saw sans kids before; and liked it. Dylan has always liked this one. At first she was so afraid of monsters after viewing the movie for the first time. ~ not a smart move for a Dad of a 2 year old…with monsters hopping out of the closets at night. But we turned it around and now she loves ~~being a~~ playing monsters. Its one kid’s movie we watch over and over again.

Another one of our favorites is one from my youth, the Jungle Book. One reason for the Jungle Book is I think it has the coolest songs, a lot different format than other Disney movies. Do you remember “Bear Necessities” and King Louie, and the “King of Swing“?

Its funny, our smallest loves this song. Whenever she sees a monkey or gorilla she says, “oo-oo-oo”, like King Louie in the movie. She sounds just like King Louie in her own little baby way. And I follow up by tapping her on the chest and singing, “I want to be like you-oo-oo!”. She smiles and its nice to see I can still amuse someone with my singing.

I think another great kids movie with some cool songs is the “Princess and the Frog” flick. I guess the New Orleans jazz songs just make more of an impact then the other Disney cookie-cutter Princess movie songs.

Dylan says here favorite is Mulan and the song at the end called, “Be True to Your Heart”. We some how have evolved into a dance party at the end when this one comes on, with some silly kids dancing. ~Try it next time…no one is watching…and its tons of fun.

Our 2 year old woke up, half way through her nap, crying. It turns out her bottle might have been leaking a bit while she was sleeping and now she has this enviable dread-lock look going on with her hair. She is oblivious as to how hip she really looks as I plop her in the tub with some more renditions from the Jungle Book.

I see I am running on here and you really don’t want to bore you with a play by play of our do-nothing day.

So you know, Dylan is feeling better. It appeared to be only allergies. Do you know how I can tell she’s feeling better? If you can picture, she’s kneeling atop the breakfast bar watching me make dinner with a little snoot running out of her one nostril. I am smacking some hamburger patties together (I’ll leave the catchy phrase for you to insert) in hopes of making some sliders for dinner. Dylan is mistaking my enthusiasm of whacking the burgers from hand to hand, but craving some attention, and says, “Daddy, I’m gonna bust you up!” My little monster. Who taught her that Drayton?

What has been your favorite kids movie?

Do you have a fav line that you ran around the house saying like “Boo”?

Let me know. We need a smile…..and some new movie ideas for their birthdays.

Posted in Archives

14 Jan 2012

10 Comments

What Am I Doing Wrong?

This morning is my gym day. It was a good day! I am largely reduced to making it to the gym once a week now, with everything going on. So big gains are hard to expect. I hope to do some maintenance there and work on my running. I have been stuck in a rut though these past few months.

Back in October I broke a toe. So I couldn’t run for 2 months. Then came December and the holidays. Between the lack of running, being locked up in the house all week, and the fat we consume over the holidays I have put on 10 pounds! I never put on weight.

Today, however it was different. I hit the weights and felt strong. I ran for the full 45 minutes without stopping. The calorie counter said I burned over 625 calories on the treadmill, although the weight scales still said I weighed the same. ~ at least it wasn’t MORE (again) this week!

So I came home and we did what we always do, go to our closest restaurant for a Saturday lunch. The manager at this Texas Roadhouse has basically adopted our girls. It started years ago when Dylan wouldn’t talk to her. The manager said, I’m going to make you talk to me yet!” And so she ran back to her office took a picture of Dylan and then came back out producing a paper placemat with Dylan’s picture on it. They have been inseparable ever since.

When we come in every Saturday the manager gets to a point where she can stop what she is doing and corrals, now, both our kids. She’ll put one on her hip and holds the other by the hand and off she goes. The manager takes these two to do table visits, make corrections on the computer, into the kitchen and behind the bar, where another fan of the kids awaits. Dylan come out from the bar with a styrofoam cup full of cherries or oranges. They come out of the kitchen with bowls of marshmallows. And then she walks the kids to our car when we leave and buckles them in their seats. She is priceless!

Today was different though. Today Tammy came out with two large Christmas bags! She had been saving them but just too busy to ever bring them out over the busy holidays. Our youngest got a little cart to push with a tea set on it plus a life-size doll. Literally. It is as tall as she is! Dylan, being in her Disney Princess phase, got a Cinderella doll that dances in the bath and Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, sitting on a horse. It was awesome! And way too much!

Is it any wonder these two think the world belongs to them? When managers at restaurants spoil them too? You should see the treatment at Carrabbras, where all the staff know them too.

So we had a great time at lunch. While my legs were tightening up a little from the earlier run, I still had a great meal, the usual smothered chicken, loaded sweet potato, house salad plus the macaroni and cheese that our kids didn’t eat. (Along with some rolls with the yummy honey butter spread on them)

We came home, plopped the kids down for their naps and I took a nap, not before popping three pieces of chocolate, from the left over Christmas candy, in my mouth. I was pleased I ran better today but still frustrated that I hadn’t lost any weight. What am I doing wrong?

Posted in Archives and tagged family, gym, run