Picture of the Week - 2/28/2019

Well...  BC4C 2019 is now behind us and...  phew!  What an amazing week!

We had SO much fun.  We drank so many adult beverages.  We ate so much food.  We laughed so hard.  We spent SO much time sitting around doing nothing.  We listened to SO much good music.  We saw SO many good friends.  We said SO many O-H-I-Os!

We are refreshed and recharged and (after a good night's sleep or two) will be ready to get after it again!

Major props and sincere thanks to my mom and dad for taking such good care of the boys (both 2 legged and 4 legged) while we were gone.  They are a handful for sure, but we came home to a clean house and dinner!  Love you Berber and Pappy!

And while cruises are ALL fun, this particular cruise also has a great cause.  The whole point of the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer mission is to raise money for cancer research.  We WILL beat cancer!  And this year over 3.2 million dollars were raised.  3.2 MILLION!  That's amazing and wonderful and such a cool thing to be such a small part of!

Our hearts are SO full!

(Now back to reality...  Bob's got his lacrosse team out at a practice right now prepping for their first game on Saturday.  Quinn and Spencer have a game on Saturday too.  Bring it on!)

Picture of the Week - 2/21/2019

Bob and I were chatting the other day - about who knows what - and it dawned on us that we never got a picture of all 4 boys together in their wrestling uniforms.  How in the world did we forget to do that???

So I decided to make them all change one evening this week so I could grab this picture.  LOL  They are really such good sports.  Like seriously, none of them wanted to be taking that picture.  They didn't fuss about it - although there was MUCH discussion about whether or not to smile* - and they all just went along with crazy ole mom.  I love my testosterone family!

And I'm really going to miss them this week!!!  But I'm also crazy excited to go on our 7th Buckeye Cruise for Cancer.  We leave tomorrow and board the Independence of the Seas on Saturday.  We are going to Nassau and Grand Cayman, but honestly it wouldn't matter where we were going, I'd still want to go!  I can't wait to get caught up with friends and spend some quality time with Bob and generally just have a blast.  

Berber and Pappy are holding down the fort while we are gone.  I'm sure they will have a great time hanging with the crew.

Cheers!  Have a great week everyone!

*Zane's "tough guy" face is not good...  he looks like he's either sick or angry - so we ended up laughing a LOT during this attempt to look intimidating.  Quinn's the only one who really pulled it off.  LOL

Picture of the Week - 3/1/2018

Did you miss me last week?

So I had TOTALLY planned to send an email out last Thursday from our cruise.  I even had the draft all set up so all I had to do was attach a picture and hit send.  I didn't even THINK about it until Friday night.  LOL  THAT'S how relaxed and disconnected we were last week.  And it was awesome!

A big thank you to my parents for watching the boys for us every year so we can go on the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer.  This was our 6th one (crazy to think Beck was 4 months old the first time we went!) and they are more fun every year.  This year's cruise raised 3 million dollars for cancer research.  It's a GREAT cause and a GREAT vacation!  And we may already be looking forward to February 23rd, 2019...

Here is a fun picture from our trip.  We had a lot of laugh with Greg and Chrissy and it's so fun to catch up with them every year!

We did miss a ton of stuff - including more HS lacrosse games for Spencer - one Freshman and one JV - both wins.  We also missed his participation at the Georgia Freshman State wrestling tournament, where he came in 3rd.  I think Spencer has played in 5 high school games and tonight is the first one I get to see - if it doesn't get rained out.  

This weekend kicks off games for Zane and Quinn too - and it's thankfully going to be a nice, sunny weekend!  Spencer has a game on Saturday too!  Then I'm off to a week of customer visits starting with travel on Sunday evening and wrapping up on Thursday.  I sure hope it's warmer in St. Louis and Boston than I think it's going to be...

Have a great week everyone!

Picture of the Week - 3/2/2017

Bob and I have returned from our week at sea on the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer.  

We. Had. A. Blast!

Seriously - such a fun vacation.  As much as I love my crazy, chaotic life and my loud, lovey boys, it's really good to be a carefree grown-up every now and then.  :)  BIG thanks to my parents for taking care of the boys while we were gone.  BIG BIG thanks!  

We are tired and need a weekend to detox and re-enter real life.  I've brought home a nasty head/chest cold, which the airplane ride home did not help, so I may start my reintroduction to reality with a visit to my doctor tomorrow morning.  Boo!

This year the cruise raised 2.5 MILLION dollars for cancer research.  Trust me when I say that we are a teeny, tiny part of that, but it's SUCH a good cause.  When the leaders of the James Cancer Research center talk about all the things they have been able to do with the support from the BC4C, it's astonishingly awesome.  I'm proud to be a small part of something doing so much good for so many people.  

Have a great week everyone!

Picture of the Week - 2/23/2017

Two unrelated, but cool pictures today.

The first is actually from last week.  Spencer got the "honey badger" award one night at lacrosse practice.  He's been good about going to practices and helping where he can - left-handed.  I'm sure his teammates appreciate him being there with them.  I know it's been frustrating for him to not be able to participate.  I think he misses it more than he's let on.  He's doing great though - and progressing through recovery like a champ.  He's started to wean off the brace and they are beginning to incorporate more strength training exercises at physical therapy.  I think he'll be able to participate in most of the summer football conditioning stuff, which is a great reward for the work he's putting in now.

The second picture is one my mom sent me from her day at the Elementary school.  She's been working with Zane's class on making a class quilt!  I hope those kids realize how lucky they are!!  Today she stayed and had lunch with Zane, which I'm positive he loved.  I'm so thankful that she gets to do stuff like that with the kids.  So fun!

Tomorrow Bob and I take off for our Buckeye Cruise for Cancer.  I'm working my way through "to do" lists and preparations to try to make things a bit easier for my parents.  This weekend the big boys are off for a church retreat and then Spencer leaves on Wednesday morning for his 8th grade field trip to Savannah.  It's a bit of a crazy week!  A crazy FUN week!

Cheers!

Picture of the Week - 3/3/2016

So...  it's 8:37 and I haven't done the POTW yet.  Some weeks this feels more like a chore than others.  It's feeling very chore-like today.

So I shall keep this newsy...

We are still dealing with a wrecked house.  For a while it didn't really bother me.  I don't normally mind a little clutter and mess.  I'm not one of those people who can't relax with dirty dishes on the counter or toys on the floor.  But this has even gotten to me.  

The ripped up floor leaves bits of subfloor and pieces of torn up hard woods all over the place.  The boys and dogs track this stuff all over the place.  The dogs eat it.  The boys refuse to leave shoes on and I worry about splinters.  It's yuck.

And it's SO dusty.  I can't get things clean and don't really want to put too much effort into it because it's just going to get trashed again.

We had picked out new floor before we went on our trip.  We thought when we got home they would be about ready to start.  Well...  to make a long story a less long, the original replacement we picked is back-ordered and we have had MUCH DRAMA trying to find another one.  So we finally picked a new one this week and we're hoping they can start on the floor next week.  I sure hope I like it.  The new is really different than the current.  

Tuesday night we were surprised when the restoration company told us there would be painters showing up on Wednesday to fix the drywall and do the painting.  Not much notice...  So we have had painters in and out for the last 2 days.  They finished the walls, but the trim/baseboards/quarter-round will have to wait until after the floor is done.  So now we have nicely painted grey walls, but DUST everywhere.  And nothing on the walls.  And most of the furniture is moved and none of the rugs are down.  It's like worse than when we first moved in because it's dirty and we are trying to live in it.  Yuck!

I gripe and complain, but really it could be much worse.  The insurance company isn't fighting about any of this.  So when it's over, it will be awesome.  It's just getting to that point.

Next week we will move out - and invade my parents house for a few days.  Thank goodness they are willing to put up with us!  I will be traveling (again) for work, so Bob and my parents will have all the normal duties for a bit - with the added bonus of having to figure out how to get the boys all to school and back.  Good times...  We are hoping that by the end of next week things will start getting back to normal.  Depends a little bit on how the post-work clean up goes.  Also - I'm nervous about the floor.  I sure hope I like it!!!

Here are a few pictures of the process.  One of the painting process yesterday.  Another of the dining room packed with almost all of the contents of the rest of the first floor.  

And finally a picture of Willow looking a little fore lorn in the middle of our mostly empty living room.  

 

And the last picture...  well it's hard to believe that it was just a week ago when we wrapped up our cruise trip.  I miss it already!  Can't wait for next year.  Happy early birthdays Drs Big.  :)

In non-depressing house news...  Spring lacrosse season gets underway in earnest this weekend.  Quinn and Spence both have games on Saturday and Spence has another on Sunday.  After some weird weather - which seriously included SNOW and pouring rain at the SAME time today - it is supposed to be a pretty nice weekend.  I'm excited about watching some good lacrosse action!!

Picture of the Week - 2/18/2016

Does anyone else get totally stressed prepping for a vacation?  I sure hope I'm not alone in this! 

I have lists and reminders everywhere.  Work and packing and sports and boys and groceries and laundry.  Oh yeah, and our house is a torn up mess and there are a variety of people needing a variety of appointments in order to get to a plan where our house eventually looks a bit less like a construction zone.  There's a lot going on, yo!

But there are still some little moments - even in the midst of utter chaos - where it's kind of awesome to be me!  A kind word from a co-worker.  Watching my oldest take one more last, lonely lap around the fields after practice just because that's how he likes to end while all the other kids are hopping into the cars and driving away.  Yep.  I'll take this crazy chaos.  I love this crazy chaos. 

Here's a picture of the Little Boys first lacrosse practice of the season.  It's Beckett's first "official" practice ever.  Last year we couldn't keep him off the field, so this year we signed him up as part of the Little Shooters team.  He's a full year younger than the next youngest kid on the team.  And he hung right in there with the rest of them.  Love that child! 

Saturday morning Bob and I are taking off before dawn to head on the annual Buckeye Cruise trip.  The boys will be with my parents (in the disaster house) for the week.  I'm not worried about any of them - other than maybe how my mom will feel sleeping with Ozzie curled up behind her legs.  LOL  There's no snow in the forecast and very little chance that our cruise will get delayed due to fog like it did last year.  It's going to be a great week - so forgive me if the POTW is late next week.  We've got some serious R & R to take care of and may not have a chance to write.

Have a great week everyone.  We'll raise a bucket of beer to you at some point over the next week!

Picture of the Week - 2/26/2015

Hi everyone!

This has been one of the strangest (and most fun) weeks ever.  I know most of you are also on Facebook, so you probably know all about our foggy adventures on the cruise.  If you do, skip the next paragraph!

For anyone not on Facebook, let me catch you up...  We left last Thursday for our annual no-kids, much-beer, Buckeye Cruise for Cancer.  This is a charter cruise full of Ohio State fans and all the money raised goes to the Urban and Shelley cancer fund and the James Cancer Hospital.  It's a really great cause and these people are doing some AMAZING things to help understand and treat cancer.  This year we raised 2 million dollars.  All while on vacation.  Pretty awesome - right!

Anyway, this is our 3rd cruise and they are all super fun.  We spent Friday at sea.  Saturday we went to an all-inclusive resort in Cozumel.  If you are ever on a cruise stop in Cozumel, check out Papitos...  very nice place and the food/drinks MORE than met our expectations.  (That's code for we all, but mostly Bob, got over-served by way of a 24" margarita and some other appropriately beachy beverages.)  Sunday was another at-sea day, which are my favorite kind of relaxing days!  The next morning, Monday, we were to get back to Tampa and head home. 

When we woke up on Monday morning, we were greeted by thick fog and announcement from the captain that our arrival in Tampa would be delayed because the port was closed due to poor visibility.  This happened a couple of years ago too when we were delayed about 45 minutes while the fog cleared.  So we decided to head up for some buffet breakfast and wait it out.  Our next announcement started to paint a picture that was not at all the same as the other fog delay we had been through.  They gave us all free wifi and started talking about what restaurants and public areas would be open throughout the day.  Odd...  but we were still blissfully unaware of our real situation.

As the sun came up it became clear (well actually the opposite of clear) how thick the fog was.  You could not see ANYTHING.  The visibility was probably less than 100 feet.  We took advantage of the free (albeit very spotty) wifi and found out, to our GREAT surprise that we were no where near Tampa.  We were all the way down by Key West.  Odd... We found out that once we started moving again we still had 4-5 hours of travel time.  Hmmmm....

Bob and I had driven to Tampa so we were actually in much better shape than most of the people on board.  There was quite a lot of scrambling to rearrange travel plans.  Many people lost flights and spent $$$ on new ones. 

Around 10:30 it became clear that the fog wasn't going anywhere and neither were we.  We bought a bucket of beers and settled in.  Sometime after lunch we got an announcement that the weather service was saying that the fog was going to be in place until 1 AM so we were going to stay where we were until that time, with plans to arrive in Tampa early the next morning.  We bought another bucket of beer.

We had dinner that night and enjoyed our extra downtime.  The ship, surrounded by the thickest fog I've ever seen, was very creepy.  I kept waiting for the Black Pearl to appear.  But the Royal Caribbean crew and our fellow Buckeye passengers could not have handled the situation better.  It really is an experience we will never forget.  We survived the Great Fog on the BC4C 2015.  And yes, there WILL be T-shirts made to prove it!!

We went to bed that night prepared to get up and off the ship the next morning. 

The next morning we woke up to thick fog and an announcement from the captain in what can only be described as a weirdly Groundhog's Day moment.  Our fellow passengers scrambled once again with flight arrangements.  Royal Caribbean was SO helpful.  They set up direct lines to all the major airlines and did whatever they could to help.  We...  bought another bucket of beer. 

There were many announcements throughout the day.  There was discussion of taking us to Miami as the fog was SO persistent.  There were many assurances that there was plenty of food and "supplies".  We relaxed and had fun. 

Around lunchtime the captain announced that we had moved to the top of the priority list of all the vessels waiting to get to port.  The coast guard was going to let us start moving up the channel.  It was a little scary because you really couldn't see anything at all.  We had 2 or 3 little coast guard pilot boats leading us through the water and making sure we didn't run into anyone else.  There were boats of all variety scattered about the ocean.  Freaky!  We enjoyed the trip in our favorite spot, the Solarium, with a bucket of beer.

We made it to port around 7 PM on Tuesday.  So our vacation was extended by a couple of days and I can't even pretend to say it wasn't pretty cool.  We were able to relax and enjoy because my parents are THE BOMB!!!  They were so helpful to us in so many ways.  I never once worried that the boys were OK even though I know Berber and Pappy were exhausted.  They also helped us  make phone calls and rearrange appointments that we were missing.  I am so thankful for them!  They are awesome!!!  And Zane has not stopped talking about Berber since we got home.  The boys had a blast getting to spend some special time with them too.

So I'm not sure how we will ever top the BC4C 2015.  It may just go down in history as one of the most memorable vacations we will ever have.  But you know what...  I think we'll try to make some more Buckeye Cruise memories in 2016!  (PS - Join us!!!  It's the most fun vacation you will ever go on!  If you are interested, let me know and I will make sure you know when they release destination and booking information for next year.  It will sell out again.)

Here's a little picture of the fog from the ship.  Fog is actually really hard to photograph...  lol

PS - We didn't drink buckets of beer the whole trip.  Sometimes we had Cosmos and sometimes we had pina coladas and other times we had wine.  :)

Picture of the Week - 2/19/2015

Greetings from (chilly) Tampa!

 

We are on board the Brilliance of the Seas and waiting to get this year's Buckeye Cruise for Cancer started!  Catch ya next week!!

 

Go Bucks!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture of the Week - 2/27/2014

How is it almost March?  And why is it still so cold???

 

I'm sure most of you know by now that Bob and I went away last weekend without the boys.  I owe my parents a HUGE thank you for agreeing to manage our crazy clan while we were gone.  They did a fantastic job and not only did we return to 4 happy, healthy boys, but the laundry was completely done AND put away.  Now that is a special kind of babysitter!  Thank you!  Thank you!  A million times, thank you!

 

For anyone who might have missed it, we were away on our second Buckeye Cruise for Cancer.  To say that we had a nice time would be a significant understatement.  It was awesome.  So much fun!  For any Buckeye fans out there, you really must consider going on the bc4c at some point.  It is like nothing else.  If you happen to also like to cruise, you may be spoiled forever.  We are already looking forward to next year's cruise and they haven't even announced the destination.  It really doesn't matter.  It's all about laughing and relaxing and raising money for a great cause - while surrounded by a bunch of other people who want to do exactly the same thing.  It's a 2300 person family at sea!  Join us next year!  After raising 1.5 million dollars for cancer research this year, I'm pretty sure we can top 2 million next year.

 

Here's a cool little video that is making the rounds on social media.  It's less than 2 minutes, but gives you an idea of the crazy fun that happens on board.  We didn't do all of these events...  we were too busy heckling the dueling piano guys and drinking Carmen-tinis.  http://vimeo.com/sharedvision/review/87606837/90855e8fcb

 

We are back to real life this week.  That was a hard vacation to see end, but it sure was nice to get hugs from all my little dudes when we got back!

 

 

Picture of the Week - 2/20/2014

We are getting ready to board the ship. Those grins on our faces may be permanent for the next few days!

Huge shout out to my parents for making this kid-free vacation possible. 

Go Bucks!

 

 

Picture of the Week - 2/28/2013

So long February!  I am ready for spring!!!

 

This past week has been WAY outside our normal routine!  This time last week we were on our way to board a cruise ship with a bunch of fellow Buckeye's and a couple of good friends.  (Hi Bigs!)  I admit that I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pretty excited to be on the proverbial doorstep of a rare adventure. 

 

We really had a great time!  There were parts of the Buckeye Cruise that seemed surreal.  There was an alumni band and alumni cheerleaders.  Brutus was there.  And a couple dozen former football players who I was unexpectedly star struck to see walking around.  All of this in the middle of the Caribbean.  Odd...  but a really good time. 

 

And even though we have only been home for a couple of days, it seems like it was SO long ago!  Welcome back to reality. 

 

It was awesome to see the boys and my parents again.  We definitely aren't used to be away for so long.  Even my work-related trips aren't usually more than a couple of days.  They all did great!  Thanks Berber and Pappy!!!  Now we know you can handle them all for a few days.  Bawhahahaha  :) 

 

Easily the worst part of the return to reality (aside from having to be somewhat coherent at work) is lacrosse practice.  It's COLD.  Luckily my dad has stepped in so we don't have to drag the little guys out of the house too much.  I am definitely ready for some warmer weather.  The trees have started blooming, it's light on my way to work in the morning, and the daffodils are out of the ground.  Won't be long now!!

I will just have to stare at this picture and remember drinking CocoLocos on Coco Cay until we can get the last of the winter weather behind us!  Have a great weekend everyone.  We only have 2 more practices and 3 games before we get a day off from lacrosse.  Phew!

 

Picture of the Week - 2/21/2013

Greetings from Florida!

Bob and I are ready to board the Jewel of the Seas with the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer!

We had an awesome trip down here yesterday. It's pretty awesome to be reminded how much fun traveling can be without all the effort required to travel with kids.  (It's also pretty awesome to be reminded why I married that crazy guy to begin with!)

Hope you all have a great weekend. We will be busy having fun with 2200 new Buckeye friends.