Memorial Day Weekend

The three day Memorial Day weekend flew by for us!  We were super busy and had TONS of fun, but when Monday night rolled around and we had to get ready to head back to work, I really wondered where the last three days had gone. 

Friday Shane got off work pretty early so we just spent the day around the house doing some cleaning up and organizing and lounging in the pool.  That evening, we headed up to Peninsula Town Center in Hampton just to walk around.  It was our first time going to that ‘shopping mall’ since it opened in March.  It was pretty nice!  All of the stores are outside so it like walking around a little village.  

Saturday morning, Shane and Trevor got up before I did so that they could make breakfast like they normally do every Saturday.  After breakfast, Shane and Trevor got dressed and ready to go to Babygarten while I headed up to Hampton to do some shopping at BJs.  Saturday afternoon Trevor took a long nap so I was able to get a lot of housecleaning done and then head outside to work on cleaning the pool before he woke up.  We went to the Saturday evening mass as a family and then had dinner with Andrea and Chris before heading back to Portsmouth for the night. 

Sunday morning I got up and went into work for a few hours while the boys hung out at home and waited for my parents to come into town.  They arrived at around 1 and then Cliff came over after having been out to sea for a month.  We all enjoyed swimming in the pool for the afternoon and cooked out on the grill.  We had gotten enough sun(burn) by about 6 and came in the house just in time for the skies to open up with a wicked storm that lasted all of 30 minutes.  Too bad it didn’t cool the temperature off so much.  

Monday we played it pretty low key and the three of us hung out at the house most of the day.  After lunch we headed out and spent the afternoon in the pool and later on in the afternoon Andrea and Chris came by to cool off with us.  After they headed home for the day and Trevor was in bed for the night, I settled in to watch Sex in the City…..no, I don’t mean that I went to the theater to watch the second movie.  nor do I mean that I re-watched my DVD collection (however, if someone has the seasons on DVD and would like to let me borrow them, please let me know)  I watched the first movie….for the first time.  I know that I am like two years late, and even more years late to be watching the show…but I loved the movie—boy, I was missing out!

Anyway, we had a great Memorial Day weekend….it was so nice to be able to relax and enjoy being together with family and good friends.  We definitely are thankful to all service members—past, present and future, that make it possible for us to enjoy weekends like this at all. 

 

**Post to be updated once I get pictures from my dad…I forgot to take pictures boo me**

Daddy Daycare

While I was in Mechanicsville for the Sullivan Conference, Shane took two leave days to watch Trevor.  They had a blast while I was gone!  One of the things they did while I was away was take a trip to the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. 

First “Business Trip”

Last week I went on my first business trip for my job.  Every year, the Office of Christian Formation for the Diocese of Richmond hosts the Sullivan Conference.  For the conference, they usually bring in a speaker to talk about some sort of catechesis, as well as have breakout sessions, opportunities for prayer and fellowship and visits from different vendors for our textbooks and other materials.  This year, the Office of Christian Formation teamed up with the Office of Worship to plan the conference.  The theme was “Mass as Catechesis” and focused on the changes that are going to be taking place with the new translation of the Roman Missal.

The keynote speaker for the conference was Fr. Paul Turner who is a pastor of a parish in the Diocese of Kansas City—St. Joseph and has done much study and writing on the revision of the missal.  His four presentations were wonderful, and shed so much light on the new translations that will be going into effect sometime in the next two years. 

Attending the conference was such a great experience for me.  It was so nice to be surrounded by many others who have chosen to dedicate their lives to passing on the faith, whether it be in the educational field as I have, or in the area of worship.  I was able to bring back many ideas and new resources to improve my programs for the upcoming year. 

The conference lasted for two days, and in addition to Fr. Turner’s presentations, included mass celebrated by our bishop, morning prayer celebrated by our bishop emeritus, breakout sessions presented by many of the diocesan leaders and a stand-up comedy act by one of the priests.  It was a really good time!

The conference as not all roses and sunshine though—one of our prayer writers fell while she was there and ended up in the hospital.  She is at home back in Norfolk, and is recovering well, but please keep her in your prayers. 

Splish Splash!

Last Thursday-Saturday is was HOT HOT HOT! Here we were in the 90s on a couple of those days.  We had finally gotten the electrician out to hook the motor up to the pool so we were able to get in each of the days for some nice afternoon swimming to cool off!

Trevor LOVED the water and was so happy to float around the pool with us in his ‘baby boat.’

(I promise Shane had just let go of the raft to wipe off his face—Trevor doesn’t get to float around on his own in the pool :) )

Let’s Go Swimming!!

Well, maybe not yet—but in a few weeks!

When Shane and I were looking for the house, one of the things that we were most upset leaving at our rental townhome was the pool that was in the complex.  So, when we looked for homes, they had to have a backyard where we could put an above-ground pool in. 

So, we bought a house with an obnoxiously large yard (which I have mowed….fun.)  Today though, that yard got a little smaller—the pool was finally installed. And BOY, was it something to watch!

In a little under three hours, our yard went from this:

To this: 

And Trevor supervised the whole thing from the back door:

Blowing Kisses

Trevor on occasion will blow kisses and I finally caught a picture of it. 

 

So there you have it—a kiss from Trevor!

A Family Tuesday

Shane had watch last night from 1:45am until 8 this morning, so once he was off of work he was able to come home and spend the day with us.  Of course, he had a bunch of stuff to do before he could actually leave, so he left work around 9 and met us at home just in time to go to Trevor’s one year check up.  I know that Trevor’s birthday was almost a month ago, the doctors office was booked solid and this was the soonest they could get us in.  The appointment went great!  Trevor is doing everything that he should be for is age, and even more!  He weighs 23lbs and 4oz and is 31 inches tall.  50th percentile for both, so he is average for his age.  He had to get a few shots, but only cried for a few moments until we all fussed over him, and then once he realized he had everyone’s attention, he was done. 

After we left the doctor’s, we headed over to the mall to pick up some summer sandals for Trevor.  He has cute little white sneakers that still fit, but I think he looks kinda funny with shorts on with his socks coming up so high when he wears shoes.  In two months, Trevor has gone up a half size in shoes, and we were told that we need to make sure to come back in about 3 months to get him fitted again.  Once we had his sandals, we headed over to Lowes to pick out the new carpet for the house—finally!—That took a little longer than expected—who knew that carpet installation required a novel’s worth of paperwork?  Once we finished at Lowes, we grabbed some lunch and headed home so that Trevor could take a much-needed nap. 

While Trevor was sleeping, Shane and our friend Carl went over to the pool place to pick up our pool!  It is currently sitting in our garage in a bunch of boxes (how an 18’ round above ground pool, pump, filter, and all of the chemicals and accessories fits in there I have no idea)  Tomorrow morning I am going back to the city hall to get the building permit (???) for the pool so that we can hopefully get it installed next week.  Joy.

We have since been spending the evening playing here at home with some of the new toys that Trevor got for his birthday.  We didn’t give him everything right up front so that he wouldn’t get bored with everything at once and that has been working out great for us. 

Here are some pictures from our day:

getting ready to stand up

taking a break to snuggle with daddy

now its time to snuggle with mommy