Avoidance

I keep telling myself I'm done.  All presents purchased, wrapped and even (well, today they all will be) delivered to the houses where they will be opened.  But I've been kidding myself.  There is one last present not bought.  One I've been trying to forget about-and I'm not really sure why.  Kate asked for 2 things for Christmas.  A Rapunzel dress (in the bag, I know my girl, she didn't even have to ask for that one!) and a hairdryer.  A hair dryer??  What on earth does a 3 year old need with a hair dryer?  She knows I have one but it only gets pulled about about once every 2 weeks.

Here's my crazy train-of-thought coming out:  A hairdryer?  I don't want her to have a hairdryer.  I don't want her to feel like she needs to blow her hair dry to look nice (and if you know me, you know I don't believe hair dryers are necessary objects....although I sure do get more comments on my hair when I use them...).  What on earth is she going to use the hair dryer for?  I don't want to spend a lot of money on something so strange.  So, there must be toy hair dryers, right?  Because I can't have my 3 year old have something that plugs into the wall - she will electrocute herself!  But is there really such a thing as a toy hair dryer?  Why would the world need a toy hair dryer??

So I'm finally biting the bullet.  It's 3 days before Christmas.  Time to buy that last gift.  So I start my search online.  Why join in the store rush when you can check stock online?  Perfect.  First stop...Target.com.  Only plug-in dryers.  Toysrus.com, same thing.  Ok, ok, I could go to Walmart.com, kmart.com, etc, but if you're a mom you have amazon prime, right?  So I check amazon and their wonderful 2 day shipping site.  Bingo.  I knew somewhere in this messed up world there was a beauty set for a toddler.  My biggest choice now, is Disney Princess or Barbie.  Lord have mercy.

 

 So, here you go, my little girly girl.  I'm going to ride this wave because I'm not sure where it came from and a secret little part of me wants to know how long it will last and what it will develop into.  And you sure are cute when you strip down as soon as you walk in the door and put on your dress up clothes.   If I thought it was hard to get you out the door in the morning before, now you have all this primping to do.

Excuse me, Santa Claus? We're not ready yet.

 It's not that we aren't ready for Christmas.  Believe me.  We've been ready now for weeks.  It's just that we are having too much fun.  More Christmas carols have been sung, sugar has been consumed and the tally of total hours that our twinkle lights have been on are bigger than previous years.

Summer's new favorite phrase - "HO HO HO"

 I have been missing from blog-posting land and I blame it whole-heartedly on Christmas.  I barely have enough time to blog-stalk these days, let alone post.  Why sit in front of my computer when I can sing and dance along to Mariah singing my all-time favorite version of "All I Want for Christmas"??

Kate doing her full volume version of Jingle Bells

We are all decked out here and patiently awaiting Santa.  Eric, our resident house elf has been diligently reporting back to the North Pole each day, and the reports have been good! 

Latest Christmas project: Turning race medals into ornaments.  I've had an obsession with road races for about 10 years now and I have a bunch of finisher's medals to show for it.  Until now, they have been sitting in the back of a drawer collecting dust.  But thanks to dear Rebecca, who my mom and I pushed for Team Hoyt in the Surf n Santa 10 Miler, I've given them new life.  Great idea, Rebecca!!!
 

 

But that still doesn't solve my problem.  I want Christmas go to on for another 3 weeks or so.  Or better yet - until spring.  Because then there won't be any dreary winter blues.  Just twinkle lights, peanut butter balls, and Christmas carols.  Most people probably think I'm crazy.  But I love me some Christmas.

It's Here

"When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness."
- Bob Hope

waiting for Santa

Lost in Halloween...

...and everything that comes with it! I feel like we've been doing a ton, but I keep forgetting to share.

This is what we've been up to.

Visits to pumpkin patches (Yes, plural). Why go just once when they are so much fun?

wearing Halloween colors all day, every day. Well, except while at home-at home we wear our costumes at all hours.

Get amazingly excited on dress-up day at pre-school. This day also marks the day
we get to wear our costumes during meal times, and out of the house. It's a big day in
the Fine family, as you can see by the above picture :)


watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" over and over and over.
Teach Kate to look in her Trick or Treat bag and say "I got a rock."

carve jack-o-lanterns.

be grossed out by pumpkin guts.

give our jack-o-lanterns hair (obviously)

Then we went to our now annual Halloween playdate.

Peter Pan!


and Tink!

loving the bounce house


have you ever seen a tiger, a pig, peter pan, Tinkerbell, Spiderman and 2 Firefighters all sharing
a meal peacefully before? Must be those chicken nuggets. Or the promise of cupcakes if they
clean their plates.

And finally, create and eat/drink as many pumpkin-y and halloween-y goodies as possible. On our list this month so far we have: pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting, pumpkin beer, apple cider, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin and witch hat sandwiches, mummy juice boxes, mummy pizzas, and mummy hot dogs! We got a little greedy and ate most of these before we could take pictures, but I have some mummy ones to share. Everything we made was so easy and the kids LOVED it!

made with googly eyes and white electrical tape

made on whole wheat bread with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese cut into strips and olives for eyes! toast the bread, assemble mummy and broil for 2 minutes.

It's safe to say that this family doesn't like Halloween. WE LOVE IT. It rivals Christmas. Seriously. Stay tuned for more costumed pictures from tonight. We are going for tricks or treats. Watch out, Ditchley Road!!!

Time flies when you're having fun..

October 17th, 1998 was the night of the Homecoming Dance in the Norfolk Academy Refectory.

**note: this is not the homecoming dance, or the NA Refectory! This is a picture from Jr Prom at Nauticus. If it had been the Homecoming Dance I would have most likely been in an oversized t-shirt tucked into jean shorts. Caught in a snapshot dancing to "Summer Nights" from Grease. Ooohhhhh, high school.

October 17th, 2011 I have 2 beautiful girls and have been married to my wonderful husband for 6 years! We will be enjoying a most romantic dinner at home, accompanied by an emotionally charged 3 year old and a 15 month old who would rather feed the dog than herself! Life is good :)

Blog Stalking.

I love Kellie Hampton. It's like she speaks my language! :)

http://www.kellehampton.com/2011/10/bringing-fall-hallmark.html

Enjoy.

a new season

My favorite seasons are as follows: Summer, Fall, Spring, then Winter. Maybe I'd feel differently if I wasn't born and raised by the beach, but in my mind you really can't beat summer. Bright sun, hot sand, pools and beaches. Riding bikes on the boardwalk, NO-AD Sunscreen and long days.
Fall is a close second. Pulling out my jeans makes me happier than it should. I get so excited for that first crisp fall day.

To me, fall means fire pits, Pumpkin Spice lattes, and camping at Big Meadows. Harvest beers are cracked open as the cheers of football games are in the background.

Up until this year I have struggled with the transition from summer to fall. While I get so excited about the great things about fall, I crave more summer. I have the best time wearing jeans one day, but when I wake up the next morning I'm so sad because I can't put my bathing suit on and go to the beach. I have to wait another 8 (if I'm lucky!) months! In the grand scheme of things it may seem like a small thing, but it's something I have struggled with for as long as I can remember. Until now.

It's funny how your life changes with kids. Every single aspect of your life. Because this year, fall is more exciting. For my family, it means less mosquito bites. It means pulling out Kate's old clothes to see what fits Summer. It means daily decision changes on what we will be for Halloween this year. It means trips to the pumpkin patch and apple orchards. And it means the sun goes down earlier. Have I ever been excited about that? NEVER! But I am right now! When it's dark outside, it's bedtime in the Fine house. And at this stage in our lives, bedtime is awesome.


Bedtime means adult conversations,finally finishing LOST on Netflix (we are losers, I know..), and cracking open that sammy octoberfest while sitting outside in front of our fire pit (and let's be honest...discussing conspiracy theories about LOST-again, losers...we know.).

I will still mourn summer. This year the girls learned to love the ocean, so trips to the beach meant less running around making sure they didn't eat sand or rub it in their eyes.
It instead meant building drip castles and jumping over waves. It meant seeing the sunrise on the boardwalk as I took Kate for a run when she woke up at 5:30am and couldn't get back to sleep (which I will, in some sort of odd way, miss).

It was the summer that Kate graduated from a float, to water wings to swimming on her own,
and that Summer starting walking! But it will come again. And we will be ready for it. Tutu bathing suits and all.

10 and done.

I competed in the Rock N Roll Half Marathon today. It was my 10th time. It's always Labor Day weekend. I came home from college to compete, I ran it when I was pregnant and then 3 months and 6 weeks (the relay, not the half!) after giving birth to my girls. So, I think you can safely say it has been a staple in my life. It's aaaaaaalways hot. Like, you are sticky just thinking about going outside hot. I have asked myself for a few years now why I still do it, because all I do is complain. I say I'm never going to do it again. But then I sign up for the next year. I think a lot of it is because of my family.

I have a bizarre, and wonderful family. We all run. We travel for races. I've gone to Richmond, D.C., Wilmington, Charleston, Nashville, Phoenix and even SoCal for races. But my family turns Labor Day weekend into something more than the last hurrah of the summer. We don't have time to go to the beach! Instead we wait for family to get in town. We head to the race expo and stock up on free samples of Snickers Marathon bars and tiny sips of MGD 64. We browse through the $10 running clothes and contemplate putting our name and address down for a chance to win a free meal at P.F. Changs. Then we have a wonderful, loud pre-race dinner together. The next morning, we wake up at a ridiculous hour and head to the start line. We always pick out that one person in a crazy outfit that we don't want to beat us (or at least I do that..) And we run. And run, and run and run (or walk, as some of my family does). Then, we all gather at my parents pool, cool off ourselves and rest and enjoy being done and enjoy being together. And it's one of my favorite times of the year. So why stop, right??

Last year, I had just given birth (literally, 6 weeks before) and I did the relay. It was amazing. To have to go out there and only do 6 miles on a day that I normally have to run 13.2? It. Was. Wonderful. I said I'd never do the 13.2 in Virginia Beach again with Rock N Roll. But then, I signed up for 2011. I put a caveat on it though. This is my last RNR. I told as many people as I could, in the hopes that would make me stick to my guns.

So...today came. But today was different. Today was in the 70s. And today we got a 10 minute head start! And today, I achieved something I never thought I'd do during this particular race. SUB 2 HOURS!!!!!! Granted we were 22 seconds shy of the 2 hour mark, but that is still sub 2! I am so stoked to have a personal best on this race. And you know what? I'm done. Granted, there is that competitive part of me that wants to keep going, sign up AGAIN for next year just to see what I can do. But I'm done. I won't say for good. I'm sure I'll run it again. But not next year. Next year I am going to volunteer. I'm going to be one of those people on the course in the bright blue VOLUNTEER shirt handing out water on the course, or giving out bananas at the end of the race. I've always wanted to do that but I'm so consumed with running the race, that I never volunteer. And you know what? Nothing about the weekend will really change, except I'll have more energy the afternoon after the race. And my family will still be there. And I'm sure I'll even still go to the expo. For the free beer, of course.

Here is a picture of our race today. My friend Michelle and I competed for Team Hoyt. More on that later. It's an awesome charity.

New traditions

We have an awesome tradition in our family...Sunday mornings are reserved for pancakes. Sometimes we have us housefull of family and friends and sometimes it's just our little family. We have done this for about 4 years now and it's the highlight of our week! We've added a new tradition in our new house - a family walk after pancakes. This morning was our first so we thought we'd start it off with a bang. The entire family (dog included) headed to Lee Beach! It's a little stretch of beach on the bay, used mostly as a launching pad for SUPers and kayakers, but sometimes used as a late night partying ground for teenagers. So, it's a little dirty, a little jellyfish-y, but it's paradise in the eyes of a 3 year old, 1 year old and a yellow lab!

Benjamin Moore, I love you!

So...We bought a new house. An elderly couple's house. Who hadn't done anything to it in 30 years (the words of their children). Boy, they weren't kidding. We knew what we were getting into, we had been inside the house a handful of times before the deal was closed, but I don't know that we fully understood what it means to buy a "fixer upper". We do now.

I have had many people asking for pictures of what we've done. They will come. However every time I have a minute to take a picture when it's daylight out and there is some natural light in the house, I look around and see unpacked boxes and the tornado of toys my children have thrown around. It seems like every time I get a chance to unpack and organize I find myself picking up toys and running out of time for the rest. Oh well, such is moving, right? So I figured in the meantime, I would show some before pictures.

These next 2 pictures don't do this room justice. The walls were stained and the rug pad was stuck on the floors. Yuck.

Was it livable? Absolutely. Just not liveable for...us? The house used to be heated by oil. Which means that the oil heat had left brown spots EVERYWHERE. Walls, doors, fireplaces. I wish I had a picture of it, but then again, I don't think I want to look at those brown spots again. So, step #1 was priming with KILZ, in order to keep the stain underneath the paint. But then we realized that it's an old house. Which means that oil based paint has been used. Which means it needs oil based KILZ instead of regular old KILZ. Have you ever been stuck priming a closet with oil based primer? If you have, I feel for you. If you haven't, don't ever do it.

But lo and behold, we are done. Moved in and settled down. I am sure we couldn't have done it without our AMAZING general contractor. Rich Whitney of Whitney Construction is the man. Walls were knocked out, a garage was reopened, and a brand-spanking new kitchen was installed. If you ever need anything done, call him. It took a small army to get us to the point where we could move in. In the beginning, we were really brave (a little too brave) and thought we would do all the painting ourselves. 3 weeks later and we had hired professionals to finish the rest of the house. Of the many new things I have learned during this past month, 2 things really stick out in my mind (these are very important. Read them over and over again until they sink in)

#1. If you hear the word "oil-based" connected with a paint job you are going to do, HIRE SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR YOU. It will be so worth the money.
#2. Paint can transform. You'll see what I'm talking about in the after pictures.

Throughout the process, I kept a tally (idea courtesy of my wonderful sister, who, if I'm being honest, gives me most of my good ideas). It kinda puts things into perspective.

Days of work: 30
Number of naps my children took at other people's houses: I stopped counting at 26
Latex KILZ primer used before we realized we needed Oil-Based KILZ primer: 4 gallons
Oil-Based KILZ primer used: 14 gallons
Paint: 13 gallons, 2 quarts
Caulk: 8 tubes
Trips to Starbucks: 12
Taste Unlimited sandwiches consumed: 17

I'm sure that's more, but all I can think of right now! Here's a huge shout out to my entire family who primed, painted caulked and so much more. Taste Unlimited sandwiches are not nearly enough to repay you for the time you put in and the love you showed by helping us out! You helped make our house into a home!

And, I promise, the after pictures will come soon.

Growing.

Ok, here I am, hopefully for good. This month has been....interesting, to say the least. We've been fully engulfed in a move and in a complete home renovation. Tomorrow we say goodbye to our "other house", as we've been calling it for a week or two now. I've been excited to move to our new house and my mind has been fully occupied with stressful decisions like which cabinet knobs to pick out and 'is this yellow paint color too lemony or is it more buttery? and if it's buttery, is it too buttery?' (who would have thought that decisions like that are hard?!?!) My mom even asked me this week if I was sad to leave our house and my response was a quick 'no!'. I think it was just too far away, even at T-4 days. Because yesterday, when Mike and I walked in and retrieved the final few boxes and began the finishing touches on cleaning it hit me.

We aren't just moving to a really cool new house (much more on that later..). We are leaving a very significant period in our lives behind us. It wasn't all good. Each smoke alarm battery seemed to only die in the dead of the night. Carpenter bees stalked us until Mike went outside one day with a big spatula to "take care of the problem" (my, how I wish I had a picture and video of that!). Fireworks every Wednesday and Sunday night in the summertime disturbed babies sleeping and prompted our dear guard dog to think we were being attacked each time they went off! Sometimes homeless people would walk by and say odd things...one day a man told Mike he would make a good chair. Then, there was a lady who would walk by with a golf club trailing behind her, but some days it would be a vacuum instead. But that is the stuff we will forget about in a month or two.

This "other" house was so much more than a house to us. It was our very first home after we were married. It's 4 bedrooms were way too big for the family we wanted but weren't anywhere near ready to start growing. The first thing we did was build a fence so Buxton would have a yard to run in. It's where we told my parents they were going to be grandparents for the very first time, where we welcomed home our sweet Kate and Summer and worried so much how Buxton would adjust to the newest addition to our family. It's where we painted the living room a color called "something blue" ...
...because Mike convinced me that it would look great on the walls. It's where playdates and dress up happened daily.




It's where we were when our nation elected it's first African American president.
It's where tacky Christmas sweater parties took place.

It's where first steps were taken and first words were spoken. It's where so many memories were made. It was a really happy home. We will do all we can to best ourselves in house #2. Continue the same traditions. Build new ones. Enjoy life. Worry less about the little things and focus more on the big picture.

So......goodbye first house.

My, how I loved you. I'm not sure I realized how much until just yesterday. May your new owners care for you and love you, and build happy memories every day. And...hello new house. We are 100% yours. I promise I will get all my boxes and crap out of the garage ASAP.