Happy Birthday, Caleb!!!

Caleb's Big Night In...

Caleb is turning 12 on April 28th! It's a big day and he's a great kid. He wanted to have some buddies over for an overnight party but not too big.

He chose to have Ben (Benny, to Caleb!) and Max.  They had fun, they played in the creek, they built forts, they ate pizza, chicken, cheese balls, candy and cookies.  They giggled and made many a bodily noise.  They made a mess.

They're good kids and I'm happy to have them over!   Lets look at the aftermath, should we?

So, a little back story before this last pic.

Ben(ny), had brought over an iPad which apparently, the 3 stooges got out at some point.  Noboby could give me a straight answer of when they last saw it, or IF they saw it at all!!  Not one of the three. 

We looked all over for the thing. Couldn't find it but I told the moms that I would have their boys returned to them around noon'ish.  We had to go.

So,  we're trying to get out the front door, which is where their muddy/wet shoes and socks are from playing in the creek.  I told Caleb that he had to help the boys carry their stuff as we're late and we NEED TO GET GOING!!!

I finally get the stooges into the van and we head out.   Ben(ny) is not happy about losing his iPad because he is correct in assuming that his parents will not be impressed either.

I get them both delivered only to return home to discover Ben(ny's) shoes and socks on the front stoop!!!  WHAT?!?!?  All freakin' 4 of us walked right by them?????

Then, I start texting with Ben(ny's) mom about the shoes and socks along with the iPad.  She said thtat they were going to call the iPad to help us locate it.  No dice.  We were spread out thru the house and no one heard a peep.

After several attempts and many minutes,  she just said that Ben(ny) and his (jets) dad were headed up here to grab his shoes and socks.

So, there's this...

We return home from church and Caleb's birthday brunch and getting his own phone, to find one of Ben(ny's) socks in our driveway!  LOL!!  You cannot make this stuff up!

Happy Resurrection Sunday, 2019!

A bit of a weird Easter, or rather, Resurrection, Sunday for our family this year. It seems that my lovely bride has booked a couple of concert seats for her and the larger American boy in Omaha for the powerful and attractive Ben Rector (note: i've not seen the guy, nor heard of him...).

It seems that the concert was on the last date of the tour in Omaha, which makes sense when you learn that young Ben was born and raised in Oklahoma province of Tulsa, where, by chance, we once lived back in the early to mid '90's.

The smaller Chinese boy and myself were going to tag along to Omaha but not to the concert.  We were going to drop the other two off on a street corner and head off to the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum which is on the W. Park Hwy just NW off of I-80.

Turns out that they weren't open during the hours that would be fortuitous to us so Caleb and I decided to stay home.

That meant that we would/could be present at my sister's house around 1pm when my mom, my sister and her kids, and my sister in law with my nephew would be present.  

We got a breakfast pizza to fit the "brunch" theme and headed on over.  Here's some pics!

First is a pile'O pics of the kiddos coloring eggs.

The 1st 14 year old after helping hiding eggs...

The 2nd 14 year old (note:  I have no idea how old Shadow is, but he still moves far better than I do!) after watching the hiding of eggs.

Investigating their loot!

And so it was.  We talked a lot, laughed a lot, ate too much and went home.  Happy Easter!

This Guy!

Robby and his little buddy Harper!

And the same guy with his "best friend"!   He loves to go for coffee and since they were out and about for a concert and had some time to kill, may just as well get some coffee, right?

Fire in the Creek

I had no plans heading into the weekend, other than to NOT go to work.  It looks like that is going to hold true, thank God.

I knew that we had to buy groceries as we were about out of every single one of the common items that we usually have on hand; bread, milk, eggs, and so on.

I got a call from my Momma saying she needed help with her printer,  so Caleb and I headed over there to help on our way to the grocery store.  For our good deed, we were gifted a container of homemade cinnamon rolls!!  Those are gone as of 11am this morning!  :-)

But she also had a big grocery bag of what looked like garbage but not the stuff you just toss.  I asked her if she wanted me to take that home and burn it.  It turns out that is exactly what it was waiting for but she forgot a week or so ago when I was there.

So now we have some more stuff to burn...  the weather was fantastic with just the slightest breeze and occasional stronger gust...  PERFECT for burning!

The day is taking shape!

We hauled all of our own burn stuff down to the creek along with grandma's bag of burnables.  Off we go!

The weather was so perfect that I decided to see if some of last years dead foliage would burn.  It did!

Caleb asked if he could burn some other areas as well.  Why not!?  We cleaned up a bunch of twigs and bigger sticks over in the neighbors yard while we were at it.

My little helper!  

Having problems...

I liked teaching him about how to light the fire based on the wind direction but to also keep an eye on all fronts of where previous burns were lit.  He did good.

So what was the larger American boy doing during all of this?  He was shoveling the clay and river rock up by our front door and dumping it over the rip wrap in the creek.  He was not very keen on the fact that there were fires burning on both sides of him.

I had fun with this one.  I cleaned up a BUNCH of newer branches that had either fallen over winter or washed in by the previous months flooding.

I roasted the middle and ring finger knuckles tending to the fire in picture above!  

Until next Spring...

Moments Like This!

Hard NOT to love this, even tho it's blurry like most of the pics out of my phone these days!  Lesley got home from work and settled in on the love seat next to her Daddy.  The hound joined the party and she was soon sleeping!  She being Lesley, not the hound!

Spike! The Haircut Boooooiiiiiiiiii

Nothing to say, other than, "he's cute!".

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 9 - Maine, Stop Along The Road

We're probably about 5 - 5.5 hours into driving on this fine day, and then there was this tasty little overlook along the side of the road.  A fine time to get out and stretch the legs!

I got this capture from Google.com/maps. That's the little lookout that we pulled into along hwy 1 & hwy 3 (they're merged at this point) sort of betwixt Prospect and Bucksport ME.  The outcropping of rocks were pretty amazing on the opposite side of the highway but apparently,  the 3 of us with phones/cameras were bright enough to take pictures of that!

That is the Penobscot Narrows Bridge over the river of the same name.

These next couple of shots are just turning to my right a bit more to give you an idea of what we were "overlooking".

I absolutely love nearly everything I've experienced in my two visits to Maine.  I could move here quite easily.

And then there's these hooligans!

I'm left wondering about that grin...  I think he was doing Fortnight dances on the rock and stopped when mom started taking his picture.

And that was that...   back into the car and onward to Bar Harbor.

Our Neighbor Rules!!!

Our neighbor sent us these pics today. The boys were being served their breakfast like Kings and she captured their moment!

Caleb and his "tower of sausage".

Rob  "Anthony Micheal Hall" Schmitz obviously caught by surprise!

National Hound-Doggy Day

A boy and his hound snuggling!  They laid on the couch for a couple of hours that morning with neither one too excited to move along.

Chives are up! Chive on...

We need to do something drastic with this garden, but first, we need to move the chives that are mistreated but come back happily every year!