Clemyjontri and Julia

Good Times at the Park

A kid that cannot make it up 4 stairs to go to bed an night can walk 1.8 miles (round trip) pushing a doll in a stroller and run all over the place for 2-3 hours. A scrape on the leg is quickly shrugged off when the destination is a park.

Five different kids took Abby for a walk - which helped a normally shy girl meet a lot of people.

MS Walk in Baltimore

MS Walk, Run, and Treats

In honor of Grandmother Chris, we participated in an MS Walk in Towson, MD. It was Aunt Debbie's idea. So we are blaming her for the 50 degree mist/rain situation.

Granddad, Aunt Debbie, and the gang assemble before the walk at Goucher College.

In a walk featuring hundreds of people, the two kids managed to wiggle their way to the starting line in front of everybody else. The other lady in the picture raised the most money, so she had the honor of cutting the ribbon.

Julia got fourth place because (a) Granddad, Dad, and Julia did the 1 mile walk vs the three mile walk that most people did, (b) we let our lead slip away to a group pulling a kid in a wagon.

RJ and Aunt Debbie were towards the front until they took a detour. Then the walk turned into a run until they got back on track. To finish the 'race' they had to sneak back into the race and finish.

Half-way through the 1-mile walk, Julia found a pine branch in the middle of the trail. She dragged it, carried it, and used it as an umbrella all the way to the finish line. When Julia told her class about the trip ... she was mostly excited about the medal and the donuts.

Easter in Texas

Easter with Grandma and Grandpa Fritel

RJ's Spring Break was Easter week, which was also the last week the grandparents were in Harlingen Texas. We had an action-packed 4 days. We did everything you would expect on a vacation ... from playing mini-golf on a dilapidated course to going to Easter mass with candles and a mariachi band.

We swam at the pool and played shuffleboard at the grandparent's camp ground.

The shuffleboard court was conspicuously labeled "Do not walk on court."
RJ was reminded about 20 times not to walk on the court - it's tough to focus when you are wearing a cowboy hat from Mexico.

RJ learned a new skill ... and grandpa let him drive the golf cart around campus.

We got a taste of the local culture when we walked/ran in a short race. RJ approached the race as if it was the Olympic finals. For a few weeks, he told everybody about his first place finish in the walking event.

Border crossing into Mexico. Grandpa bought us hats, paintings, a belt, and more. The Mexican economy is largely driven by North Dakota farmers.

The required picture at the entrance to Mexico.

Alfonzo used spray paints to create a cool space scene in about 5-10 minutes.

We visited the light house at South Padre Island. The wind was like a gale on top of the lighthouse, so most pictures were taken inside.

We went on a pirate ship boat tour at South Padre Island.

RJ got in a sword fight.

Sara got water pistoled.

Julia won the treasure hunt because the pirate kept throwing dublooms in her bucket.

Beach time at South Padre Island.
The windy conditions made things difficult for sun bathers, but the surf was awesome. The waves gave RJ all he could handle and Doug got to swim out to the sand bar to catch some head-high waves.

Kids liked watching the turtles at the conservation center directly across from our hotel.

And we got to do a little bit of shopping. Inside the store there were signs everywhere that said "Please do not play with the toys. Thank you. So the kids played with all the toys and ran around the store like wild monkeys.

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for a great vacation.

"New" Refrigerator

Our Sears Kenmore Elite (very expensive refrigerator) died ... again. While running up and down the stairs to get food from the 25 year old fridge in the basement was fun, we decided to forgo the additional exercise and find a refrigerator that keeps food cold.

Sears Makes Good Shelving

The lighted shelving that we purchased from Sears was pretty nice for storing stuff. The main issue is that we thought that it would actually keep food cold.

Just to recap ...

• September 2016: Sears refrigerator plugged in for the first time
• October 13, 2017: Fridge no longer cold, repairman guts it ($$$)
• March 1, 2018: Fridge no longer stays cold

Less expensive, more reliable?

For 88% less money, we purchased a refrigerator from Craig's List. Dimensions and features are similar. It is 5-6 years old. Time will tell if the cheap fridge will outlast the 1 year 1 month lifespan of the expensive Sears model.

Disassembling and hauling a 36 inch, 400 pound fridge is a lot more exciting that you could imagine. Call Doug Johnson's refrigerator moving company if you ever need help.

 

LEFT: Julia 'chills out' during the 'new' fridge installation.

One Day, Two Teeth

Dentist Extracts Julia's Tooth

When Julia was 1, she fell off the back porch and in the process, somehow bumped her front tooth on the cement. The result was that her front tooth was pushed back into her gums. The tooth grew back in and looked normal, but there was an infection behind the tooth. As a result, she went to the dentist today to have it extracted.

When you comb Julia's hair, she screams as if you are pulling her arms out - so we were prepared for the worst. Surprisingly, she went through the tooth extraction like a champ and enjoyed all the extra attention.

RJ and Mom Wiggle out a Tooth

Jealous of all the attention that Julia was getting, RJ decided that it was time for Mom to pull out his second bottom tooth (that was due to come out anyway). After some minor drama, we have two teeth and a big night for the tooth fairy.

Day Off?!?

Day off from Work

I took a day off from work ... but had a few things to do ... which means that Julia accompanied me to my office. We got a lot of work done including (a) arranging a bunch of 'fish' (USB drives), (b) listening to music (One Call Away) with headphones, and (c) drinking water from the green cup.

Note: No need for comments about the hair. Mom was out of town and this was day 3 without a proper ponytail.

Jewelry in Gym

I needed a 10 minute break from work, so I wandered down the hall to the building gym. While contemplating how I was going to restructure the Commerce Edition software, I looked down on the carpet and saw something shiny. I guess somebody took it off while using the weights.

I posted a sign in the gym and alerted the property management company. Hopefully nobody calls me. I plan on leaving my phone off for a couple weeks ... or whatever the statute of limitations is on these sort of things. So don't bother trying to reach me for a while.