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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

A "Grand Caravan" Indeed.

So...my van is in the shop. It's taken a couple of days to take care of something that we anticipated being a 1 day fix. To make a long story short...I had to rent a car to get to work tomorrow. Alls I needed was something to get me to Worcester and back. I contacted a local car rental place in town and asked them to give me "the absolute cheapest" car they could rent me to get back and forth to work tomorrow. I was prepared to take a '73 Pinto...I just needed wheels. The guy at the rental place says "well, I don't have any economy cars left but I've got these 3 minivans sitting here...I can rent you one of those at 'economy' pricing, come on over".
I head over there thinking that I'm going to be rolling to work tomorrow in some sun-faded navy blue 1988 Plymouth Voyager with fake wood panelling.

Nope.

Ladies and Gentlemen...I give you the 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan Crew Flexfuel:



This baby was LOADED!!! They may have thought that they rented me a Minivan but, as far as I was concerned, they rented me a playground...and you better believe that, for 58 bucks, I was taking full advantage of this rig. This beast came complete with:


Retractable side windows.


"Stow-and-Go" seating...aka...DANCEFLOOR!!!


Ample drink holders.


Satellite Radio featuring a KILLER Grateful Dead Station. We caught a great Scarlet>Fire from 31 years earlier at The Spectrum in Philly....score! Also featuring....


"Reverse Gear Back-up Camera"...just to help ensure that you don't run over your family.
We pretty much spent the lion's share of the night hanging out in this rented hoop-dee...we had some snacks:


Watched a movie:


And dug the crazy-cool Star Treky running lights:


It's funny. My nature would usually be to get all cranked up that there's a snafu with vehicles and that I got to pay out of pocket and track down a rental car for the day. Instead, The Lord helped me to have a great attitude and turn something that could have easily been a drag into a Minivan Driveway Vacation Night for the fam. I couldn't think of a better way to blow 60 bucks.
The icing on the cake? The license plate:


Don't Mess With Texas...you got me?!

All this fun....and I haven't even driven it to work, yet.






Monday, August 29, 2011

Goodnight Irene*

*what else was I supposed to name this post, huh?

So...Irene came and went and didn't leave much behind but a couple of downed power lines, a soggy backyard, and a downed tree in the neighbor's yard. It really only got sketchy for a moment or two during some really intense gusts. We didn't sustain any big time damage. The house is fine...the basement is bone dry. We had a small tree that got slightly uprooted...which got reset today. The biggest casualty was the garden. Pretty much everything tall got folded over (tomatoes, peppers, lettuce) and most of the squash had their leaves ripped off. The wind was coming in from the Southeast which is right over our lake and directly into our garden area....which is in a wide open section of our yard and had nowhere to hide. It's getting pretty close to the end of the season anyway....we just missed out on the last batch or two of tomatoes. I spent the better part of this morning ripping out the plants and getting ready to till the soil over to prepare for next year.
We lost power for about 20 hours or so. Power came back on in the early morning hours this morning. The generator was kicking to keep the fridge and chest freezer going...but we relied on candles and flashlights to keep the place illuminated last evening...it was actually great fun. We pulled out a bunch of old toys to help pass the hours.


Gavin and I used Peg Stackers to make "Super Garage" for his matchbox cars.






"Silly Self-Portraits" with Ivy and Mama


In the basement with the lantern during an intense stormy hour.


Creepy-looking silhouette art. That's actually a colored-in outline of Gavin.


"Candle Cakes" helped us light the night.



Nothing to fear. Everything's under control!

Hope you all stayed safe.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Let's Lock It Down

I'll skip the small talk. I love disaster scenarios. My dad LOVES disaster scenarios. We like to be prepared. When the Ice Storm of 2009 missed us by 5 miles, my dad felt cheated. Cut to tonight...
They've been hyping this here hurricane Irene for a week now. I'm skeptical as to how intense this thing is actually going to be...but...I love getting ready for stuff like this. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, right?

We got some stuff together.....

Deck and yard are cleared. Took 12 inches of water out of the pool to account for rainfall.


Candles, lanterns, matches, emergency rain gear. Gavin and I gathered this stuff together, mostly just for the fun of it but...you never know, right?


A sampling of our food stores. I'm not privy to show the entirety of the stocks but, let's just say. We'll alright for quite a while, should the need arise.


The Pickle Contingency is in full effect.


We are a little light on the Diet Coke ratio. If need be, I could squeeze this out to a 5 day supply but, after that I may need to resort to looting.

Now...should things get nasty, I mean Defcon 4 nasty...if things look ferociously bleak and I need to pull out the big guns to get through this thing....we've got it covered:

If you have no idea what this is, I'm not even going to bother telling you. If you DO know what this is, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Hope all of you are safe and secure through this storm. Get prepared. Stay close. Be safe.




Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Day My Son Moved Out

"Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' along
You'll forget about me after I've been gone."
- Boston; Foreplay/Longtime



My son moved out this week.

My 4 year old son.....left the nest. He's out on his own. All alone on the vast sea of "independence".


O.K.....i'm over-exaggerating. The reality is though, that Gavin no longer sleeps with the rest of us in the "family bedroom", but has moved into his own room.

I hate it. I hate everything about it. But I need to accept it. Here's the story:

We co-sleep and bed share. Gavin slept in our king bed with us until a few months before Ivy was born then he moved to a twin bed right next to ours. That's how it has been since the Spring of '09. We all sleep in the same room. Some folks think that we are mental, despite the fact that there are millions of families in other countries who bed share...mainly because they don't have the room to separate everyone...and also because it's awesome. It's so much fun to wake up all together in the same room and jump and hug and wrestle and snuggle first thing in the morning. It's so reassuring as parents to be able to look over and see your boy sleeping so soundly, just a few feet away. That's how The Leo Family rolled.

Until last Saturday.

Chrissy's family was up to visit from New Jersey. We set them up with a futon mattress in Gavin's "room" (even though both kids sleep with us, they both have their own rooms which are decorated for them and house their clothes, closets, toys, books, etc.)
Well...Chrissy's family left, but the futon mattress stayed in there for a few days. This past Saturday night, Gavin asked his mama if he could sleep in there. She said "yes", figuring that if he got scared or whatever, he could jump into his old bed in our room. Chrissy gave the O.K.

The kid slept like a log. All night.

Next day, same thing. And the day after that. And the day after that....and so on and so on....which brings us to tonight.

Tonight we took the futon mattress back downstairs...took his twin bed from our room, and put it into his room. It's official. Our boy sleeps in his own room. I know that it's one of the many things that I'll have to "let go of" as a parent. I know this...but I still hate it.

here's what our room looked like after moving his mattress (and yes, I'm posting this picture for subtle, self-serving, saddened effect):


It's like looking at a ghost. Alright, I'm exaggerating...but just let me be, will ya?

I guess it's like anything else...I love the independence and confidence that he is developing. I love seeing the brave, confidant leader emerge in him. I truly believe that God has something great in store for him....He's been blessed with so much already. But Lord...not TOO fast, please.

He's still my little boy. He still cries when his balloon pops. He still thinks that lollipops grow in his ears. He still thinks that a nickel is worth more than a dime because it's bigger. He still needs a goodnight story and prayer before he can settle into bed, He still believes that a hug makes a boo-boo feel better (which may actually be right)...he's still so small....

It's the dichotomy of life, I guess....you spend so much time preparing them for the next level...and then, when that day comes, you want to do everything in your power to prevent that page from turning. It can't be stopped. It can only be bathed in prayer and set forth with training.
"He'll do fine", The Lord keeps telling me....and I believe it. He's getting so big.

But wait for the next thundery night. He'll be booking across the hall into out bedroom to be comforted from the storm. There's a part of me that wants him to be able to ride something like that out on his own.....but there's a bigger part of me that would spend a weeks pay if I could guarantee the sky would open up tonight and he'd run to me.

"Time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rolling".



So big.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Not So Quiet Riot

"Well I'm an Axe Grinder...Piledriver,
Mother says that I never, never mind her."
-Kevin DuBrow, Quiet Riot (and yes, I had to look up his name.)

I usually keep this blog reserved for the simpler things...the goings on of the Leo family and what The Lord is teaching us. I usually keep it light and airy. Tonight, I feel like adding my 2 cents to some socio-political issues happening in our world right now.
Specifically: Rioting.
Riots are nothing new. if you Wikipedia "list of riots", you'll get info on hundreds of riots that have occurred both home and abroad, ranging from a hundred or so people to several thousand. Most are usually fueled by a quick political decision or as an immediate protest to an action performed by a governing body. And don't forget the nonsensical chaos ignited in a given region by the loss (or win) of a local sports team, most recently in Vancouver, after their Stanley Cup loss, although New England/Boston is certainly guilty in this vain as well.

Like I said, it's nothing new....and maybe it's just the increased media coverage and outlets available in our culture but, doesn't it seem like these things are popping up all over the place? And I'm not just talking about in countries tired of living under decades of political oppression and tyranny, but in self-proclaimed "modern" democratic cultures. All you need to do is look to Vancouver and London.
I feel like this world has a hair-trigger. I feel that, at any moment, something unpredictable could happen that would quickly incite chaos into a currently calm culture. I don't live in fear. At the same time, I don't have a great confidence in the restraint of the masses in the wake of a quick change to the status-quo.
Look at Katrina. It took only hours before chaos ensued and property/family protection was left in the hands of the individual home/business owner. In less than a 12 hour period, the main means of protection was not a 911 call but a shotgun in the hands of a landowner pointed at the temples of a would-be looter. When a culture deteriorates and chaos reigns, there are usually only a few who are motivated by the actual issue...the masses just want to break shit. Vancouver was no exception. Not that the die-hard Canucks fans were justified, but let's face it. Most of those out there were not pissed that their team lost a hockey game...they were out there because there was a free pass on chaos and they were going to take full advantage of that opportunity to create mayhem for mayhem's sake.
Imagine if President Obama was shot tonight. What would Boston or Worcester or Hartford look like tomorrow? I work 2 blocks off main St. and 2 blocks out of the Piedmont District in Worcester. I'd be killed on my way in to work tomorrow. It would be reminiscent of those white guys getting pulled out of cars and stomped during the L.A. riots....not because of who they were or what they stood for but because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would be wonton chaos throughout most (if not all) urban/suburban areas tomorrow if Obama was shot tonight.

So what about it? What do we do? I'm all for raising awareness to the issues at hand. I'm all for educating the current culture to lift them beyond their animal instincts in the wake of a quick travesty or unjust ruling. I'm also all for being armed. Armed to the teeth. I'm in no way a doomsday survivalist nutcase but I do believe in protecting that what is important and irreplaceable....family.
The thought of a family member falling victim to the foolish aggression of an assailant...break in....robbery....riot, or otherwise makes me crazy. I believe fully in prayer and The Divine's hand hovering over all, and protecting us. I also feel as though a degree of that protection has been instilled and handed over to us as people. To stand educated, against the social upheaval of the idiotic. The bottom line is that...if push ever came to shove...I'm ready. My family is ready. Trained, armed, and ready. Most Americans sit and read of this stuff and always imagine it happening somewhere else to someone else. Those are exactly the people in New Orleans who watched their homes and businesses get ransacked while those who were educated and prepared stood their ground, drew a bead on the foreheads of their oppressors, fended off the stupidity of the masses, and are safe, healthy, and open for business today.

"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are safe."
-Luke 11:21 (NKJV)

Monday, August 15, 2011

Gavinisms: Chapter 3

It's been quite a while since I've posted a "Gavinism". It's not that he hasn't said anything "quote-worthy" as much as it's just the opposite. He's got such a kooky little way of communicating, he's got so much good material that it's hard to choose... and he certainly isn't bashful when it comes to making small talk with anyone within earshot. I joke that we are the only family who goes to yard sales where the yard sale hosts know the names of our kids by the time we're done shopping. Gavin always seems to gravitate to them and offer some random facts....what we had for dinner last night, how he took a spill on his bike, how his cousins came to visit last month...any topic is fair game....and Ivy is following suit and turning into quite the Chatty Cathy herself. I'm thankful that my kids like to talk to adults. It seems to me like there's a pretty good cross section of kids today who are not comfortable communicating with adults. Anyhow, back to today's Gavinism. I'll bring you in mid-conversation...we were talking about stealing...which led to the subject of greed:

Gavin: "What's Greed?"
Me: "It's like when you want something so bad, or if you have a little of something and all you want is more, more, more."
Gavin: "Oh. Then I greed fish and chips, 'cuz I can't get enough of that stuff."

Spoken like a true New Englander. That's my boy.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

"She Got The Way To Move Me, Cherry Baby"

Canned some Cherry Jam tonight. Here's proof:


Low Sugar on the left...regular on the right. The Low Sugar stuff uses mostly apple juice concentrate as a sweetener, and just a little sugar to take the edge off the sour. The "regular" stuff...well...all bets are off....no diabetics please. I added little nip of Grand Marnier to both recipes, just to sweeten the deal.


This little gem is a value at twice the price. Ladies and gentlemen....I give you....the Cherry Pitter. Money In The Bank.


This evenings take from the garden. I know that this has nothing at all to do with canning cherries but...in the interest of science and what not. I wanted to post what we are still hauling in. I've been looking back on last years blogs to see how the harvesting season matches up. My guess is that we are about 2 weeks behind last year....which makes for a nice, long harvest...now, back to the cherries.


"Hot Pack" jam getting ready for processing.


Chrissy stepped in and photographed me in a Dr. Frankenstein moment.


Cooling. Chrissy in the background reading her No Greater Joy magazine.

Final Tally:
60 oz. of Low-Sugar Cherry Jam
28 oz. of Regular Sweet Cherry Jam

not a bad days work.


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Mega-Tent Reprise

We don't watch t.v. here. I mean...we have one....we just keep it packed up in the garage...there's a select few events that would prompt us to bring it out on occasion: watching the ball drop on New Year's Eve, watching the Bruins win the Stanley Cup, keeping an eye on the recent tornado warnings in our area, perhaps an upcoming Pats Monday Night Football game...that's about it. It's refreshing to live in a home where t.v has little to know place in our family culture. Anyway...from time to time, we will play a DVD for the kids. Last night was one of those nights.
The selection is usually pretty slim, we allow shows that Chrissy and I have screened and approve of which, to this point, has come to include Little House on the Prairie, old school Winnie The Pooh, and PBS Curious George episodes. Last night we opted for the last choice. We have one of those little portable DVD players that has come in handy for helping eat up the last couple hours of our frequent road trips to New Jersey to visit Chrissy's family.
Chrissy took some time for herself and headed out to Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee and to spend some time planning lessons for the upcoming school year. The rest of us decided that since it was raining out, and it's been months since any one's watched a show that it was about time. Now...since T.V. is such a rare treat around here, we decided that the event needed a little more fanfare than just plugging in and watching...so...we decided to resurrect.....

MegaTent!!!
Now, you may recall this architectural beauty from a blog dating back to February: http://findtheblueheron.blogspot.com/2011/02/randon-acts-of-cabin-fever.html
We opted for the Summertime version, complete with open-wall-air-circulation technology.

We had a blast popping some popcorn and watching the antics of that crazy monkey while all huddled inside MegaTent...


Ask the kids...they'll tell you that maybe mama needs to go out more :^)

Saturday, August 6, 2011

A Twister??!! A TWISTER!!!!

The irony is absolutely delicious. The short version is....Chrissy won a trivia contest at our local library...the question was...."Who wrote 'The Wizard of Oz?'" Chrissy responded correctly with "Frank L. Baum" and won us 4 tickets to our local minor league baseball team's Friday night game. The name of the team? The Worcester Tornadoes. See the irony? Tornado? Dorothy and Toto? Tornado? House uprooting and landing on the wicked witch an' what-not? The irony's not lost on me. Anyway....It was our family's first time to the ballpark all together and we had a stellar time. Here's what it looked like:


The Leo Family Unit at the ballpark. We commissioned a cool stranger to take our picture. I love how, when you ask someone to take your families picture, you explain to them how to use your camera like they've never seen a device like that before. Oh really???? You press the big silver button? Who knew? Are you sure this thing doesn't steal your soul??!!Anyway....


The boy chomping on something blue. Nothing like managing a sugar high while confining your child to 2 square feet of bleacher seating. But hey....that's what baseball's all about...no?


Random Silliness. By the way. The Tornadoes hats we are all rocking came free with vouchers that we got with our tickets. Pretty cool little benny for us....granted...they were cheap little lids probably made by a 6 year old with no shoes who earns a cup of rice a day for 16 hours of hard labor in some remote Indonesian village sweatshop but......it was still a nice touch.



Chrissy giving "knuckles" to the Worcester Tornadoes mascot "Twister". The irony gets even deeper considering the biggest disaster ever to hit Worcester was a deadly tornado in 1953 that killed over 90 people. Add to that the recent tornado that left hundreds homeless just miles from Worcester....Not to bring this blog to a downer but...just for a second, let me throw this out there....isn't it kind of weird that sports teams name their franchises after natural disasters that kill thousands of people worldwide every year? Like the "Tornadoes" or the "Hurricanes" or the "Avalanche". Why don't they just name sports teams after devastating diseases like the "Minnesota Lung Cancers" or the "Denver Strokes". I dunno...maybe I'm old fashioned. Anyway...this photo of Chrissy and Twister begins a 3-4 inning stalking of this pudgy canine. Gavin was a little sketched out by him at first, but managed to get close enough to let Twister sign his hat:




Ivy also got close to Twister. The result?



Freak Out City.
We cornered Twister several innings later up above the third base line as Gavin was locked in on now getting him to sign mama's hat, too. He's warming up to this chubby mutt by now:



Ivy?




Not so much.
Gavin stalked this glorified muppet for a while longer...determined to get mine and Ivy's cap signed. On his third approach to the fuzzy mongrel, Ivy had a breakthrough:



Success!! She even managed to give him a solid high-five. Over the course of the next inning and a half, Gavin managed to get all of our hats signed by Twister. All in all, it was a fantastic night.
The home team spanked the visitors by a final score of 11-2 and treated us to some great post game fireworks:



Why is it that pictures of fireworks always come out crappy? I dunno. I'm probably doing something wrong...anyway. All in all....a just-about-perfect night at the ballpark with the fam. If you have a minor league or independent team in your area....you should do yourself a favor and check them out....especially if you have kids. These places are so crazy family friendly and a family of 4 can easily have a great time for under 50 bucks....unless you are a Wizard of Oz genius like my wife....in which case it's on the house.

Root Root Root for the home team! Cheers!!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Ivy's Birthday Take 2

Ivy turned 2 years old yesterday. It's unreal. I feel like she was born last week. It's amazing how 2 years feels like an eternity when you are a teenager but feels like a long weekend once you become a parent. We had planned an outdoor birthday party with a "Fish and Ocean" theme. I was kind of bummed when I looked at the days forecast and saw 50% chance of thundershowers moving through the area RIGHT during her party but, as we watched the Doppler on weather.com, every storm stayed to the North or South of us. We ended up having a wonderful time with family and friends. In addition to our local friends, Chrissy's mom, twin sis and her two boys came up for the occasion. It was a marvelous time....here's proof:


Ivy in her party dress. Her necklace has 2 pearls on it. Every year, for her birthday, we add 1 pearl to her necklace. Our hope is that she has a nice pearl necklace that she can wear on her wedding day.


Ivy's cake. You may notice that she swiped her finger through her name for a taste before we were able to snap a picture of it but hey...that's what you do when you're 2, right?


Ivy and her "Memom" checking out her cake. Despite the miles in between, my mother-in-law makes such a great effort to stay connected with her grand kids...a true blessing.


Ivy and her other grand mom...my mom. Ivy took a shine to her even as an infant.


The kids playing Ka-Ka Koo-Koo in the back yard.


No, Ivy...I don't want a drink of your iced tea but thanks for offering.


Ivy and "Beba" doing the hambone.


The kids playing a "fishing" game.


Our friends, the Waite's...looking quite "Hallmark Card-ish".


Cousin George looking VERY focused on the "feed the fish" game.


"Ivy bean" getting ready for cake and singing


Knee-deep in some wrapping paper destruction


Now that there is a deck full of wonderful people.


beautiful family...beautiful sunset.

We were blessed with a really great night. it's so awesome to be blessed with such an amazing family, extended family, and Godly friends.
Ivy got lots of nice clothes which, as would be expected, she wanted to try on....all at the same time. Here she is doing her best little bag-lady impression: