Off To The Island!

We spent a day island hopping and fishing with the photographer. This was the best picture of the day. Sweet Izzy in a sweet suit. Awwwwwww....She's a cutie!

Last week we took a professional photographer out on the boat to see the kids in action, fishing, clamming, etc. I wasn't thrilled with the pictures but they were bloggable. (A new verb, if you didn't know!)

Shawn gives a heartfelt look at the clam leases. Actually, he was getting something out of his pocket. It just looks like he's really emotional. He's not.

Sarah caught the smallest shark we've ever seen. It couldn't have been more than a few days old. Luckily, he ate the bait, not the hook. We happily released him after giving Willie and the girls a good look. Our neighbors and good friends the Smiths accompanied us. Katy is on their boat, Emily joined our boat. Directly after this shot was taken, Mike caught a giant catfish. I made fun of his reel screaming, because we were in a thick mess of catfish all afternoon. I said to him, "Hey Mike, is that Daddy Catfish on there?" Once he got it close to the boat, he looked up and announced, I got GRAND Daddy Catfish! And it was. The thing was huge. Yuck. Too bad it wasn't a redfish!

Izzabee, happily fishing for pin fish. Check out sister's water shoes on her feet. Only about six sizes too big. It was a crappy day, weather wise. In fact, we stopped at an island to let them play at the beach and soon got chased in by a thunderstorm. Izzy and Willie were screaming, I was in a slicker suit (quite a mental image in itself) trying to cover both of them with the slicker suit and a big towel. Water was dripping in sheets off my hood, we were completely drenched. I couldn't get poor Will consoled so I started singing to him, spitting out mouthfuls of saltwater. Incredibly, it worked! He fell asleep face forward over my leg, hanging like a limp doll. Out cold. It was an amazing sight. We brought the kiddie pool for him to play in at the beach, and if it tells you how much water was coming over the side, it was FULL when we got in to the ramp. Shawn seems to be great at taking us all out when the weather turns horrible. Last time there was lightning. Thank heavens we were spared that this time. We did manage to shower and have cups of hot chocolate when we got home. And it was only 85 degrees out. Go figure.

Lazy Evening

When we got home after the funeral, Shawn took the big girls swimming. They loved it! Nothing like being tossed around by Daddy!

Love the diaper going up the slide! He's a boy all right!

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday we had a funeral mass for my Poppa. He was one hundred years old, just think of all the things that have changed in his lifetime! Cars, refrigerators, air conditioning, microwaves! Wow, life without those things would be very different. And life without him will be different. Richard "RJ" McNally had four children, 13 grandchildren, and I think it's about 28 going on 29 great-grandchildren. He was married for 64 wonder-filled years to his sweet Katie, my Nana. They raised their family with love of God, love of family, and a huge helping of humor. My Poppa had a joke or funny story for every occasion. I know he could have given us a big laugh yesterday even at something like a funeral mass. So when my Sarah whispered to me after communion, "Their chips aren't as good as ours!", I smiled, on a day when you really didn't feel like smiling. It's just the kind of thing Poppa would have said. Then I smiled again, this time because that's just what Poppa and Nana would have wanted.

Izzy Swats A Fly!

All right, it's not the best picture in the world. It may not even look completely like her. She may wonder some day what I was thinking putting it on a blog for all to see. What's the purpose? Well, it tells a story. And it goes a little something like this...

Early one spring morning, Isabelle Stephenson was happily playing princesses with her charming brother, Prince William. A certain fly, or what she thought might be one certain fly, precociously landed on her Cinderella carriage. Isabelle was appalled, as flies certainly do not land on a glittering carriage. Isabelle's Momma handed her an amazing thing. It was a beautiful shade of yellow, with a long handle and a hand-shaped end. It was a fly swatter.

"For me to use all by myself?" she asked. "Certainly," said Momma.

Isabelle, all giddy with glee, went on a fly-hunting mission. Ever so stealthily she crept closer to an oblivious fly, WHACK! She missed. The fly flew off, Isabelle in hot pursuit. WHACK! Missed again. Izzy chased him till she was dizzy. SMACK! Aaah, paydirt. This time, the little fly did not take flight. He lay flat as a mackeral, dead. Sweet Isabelle jumped up and down in delight, "I smacked 'im Momma, I smacked 'im." Momma said, "You killed one?" A long silence, then a wee voice, "I killeded him?" "It's the only way you're going to get rid of him, honey!" A long silence, again, then, THWACK! "Momma, I'm gonna get all these flies, right now, and THEN I am going to PLAY PRINCESSES! WITH NO FLIES!"

She was a silent killer, creep, creep, SMACK! Dead. Creep, slide, creep, SMACK! Dead. Step, step, WHACK! Dead. It was no contest. They were dropping like, well, like flies. When the melee was over, the great room looked like the scene of a bad horror movie, little black bodies lay everywhere. They met their less than graceful end with the powerful suction of the Dustbuster, which she also enjoyed.

Then, ever so quietly, she sat down with her princesses once again, and put them all to sleep in the castle. She carefully tucked them in, and said in her best Momma's voice, "Don't worry, those flies aren't going to land on you evah, evah again."

And they didn't. From that day on, the Stephenson household never saw another fly. They were too afraid to cross the threshold, afraid that Fast Fingers Izzy might be laying in wait, yellow flyswatter ready, to do battle again--and win. As for the princesses, well, only one lost their crowned head to Prince William, who pulled it off rather purposefully. The rest lived, like the Stephensons of course, happily ever after.

THE END

Field Day 2008

Katy and Izzy play tag in the yard, waiting for tug of war to begin.

Even the teachers have to get in on the action, the classes chant their names until they give in. Here, Sarah's teacher, Miss DeAnne, gives the long jump (her least favorite) a shot.

Izzy and Katy enjoys sno-cones after a hot day in the sun. They are a tradition around here, every event, festival, whatever, it always has sno-cones. I ate Izzy's really, it gave her brain freeze. Mmmm...strawberry.

Izzy tries to blend in with the third graders. Sarah's friends Emily and Taylor to her left, Sean to her right.

Obstacle Course, Balloon Toss, and Long Jump

Sarah, Ariel, and Savannah complete the obstacle course in times under 20 seconds!

Katy gives the balance beam a careful going over. The assistant is due to the fact that last year, the first grade teacher Susie Hodges, who used to be a ballerina, was being silly on the beam when her class asked her to do it. She fell off while I was snapping pictures, and hurt her ankle quite badly, wearing a cast for a couple months and rehab for six months. She got on it this year with four assistants. Lots of the kids were worried about it, too, since they still remember vividly that day!

Sarah does the long jump, woohoo! Talk about catching some air!

Katy in the balloon toss, amazingly, this one did not break when it hit the ground. She did quite well, actually, all that softball practice paying off at field day! Who'da thunk it!?

Tug of War!

Sarah's third grade class lines up to take their shot at beating the high schoolers. Although PreK, Kindergarten, and 1st grade were all allowed to win, the deal stopped with second grade. Both classes lost, of course, but it was still fun watching them!

Sarah pulls with all fifty-two pounds she's got, but it wasn't enough. She's even got her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth in exertion!

Katy's second grade class gets whipped by the big bad high schoolers.

At least she's having fun! It doesn't look like she's pulling that hard, though!

Silly Stephensons

Yesterday I couldn't find Izzy or William. I raced around like a maniac calling them, when I heard some giggling coming from the dining room table. I peeked underneath the tablecloth and...

Peekaboo! There they were, "reading" Nancy Drew books together. Nevermind that William's is upside down! They were very silly in their newfound fort!

I love the look on William's face in this picture, he's been getting lots of teeth in and has been quite cranky. In fact, I took him yesterday to the pediatrician because he has been so off-key in the last two weeks. He is frequently listless, lays like a rag doll on my shoulder, runs a fever every now and then, and isn't sleeping at all like usual. (This 5 am thing has to stop!) The doctor said no ear infection so that's good, and nothing else appears physically wrong, but she thought he might have had as many as 6 teeth erupt in the last two weeks. She said that would make anyone cranky. Including me.

Izzy asked me to "roll out the red carpet" for her princesses this morning. (The red carpet is also known as our Christmas tablecloth.) So while she ate her oatmeal, the princesses attended a "big ole ball" as Izzy said. Man, we have been in Cedar Key too long when she says big ole ball. Last night at dinner she was talking about the pool that I just put up again in the backyard and she said in her best southern twang, "Oh man, that pool is gettin' full and it's gonna be ready in no time! I'm gonna need my vest, uh huh!" We had a good laugh, she is always coming up with these crazy sayings. She's our little princess, for sure!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you have all done your duty and called your Momma today and told her how wonderful she is! I got to talk to mine, (Ok, so she called me before I got to call her) she was checking on me (as usual), this time about how I was feeling after my crazy weekend. (I'm feeling fine, thank you!) I know how much I depend on my Momma, and I hope yours is just as amazing as she is! I got some wonderful presents from my girls, handmade cards, little styrofoam cup "vases" with paper flowers, a "You hit the beach of fame" (yes, that's what it said!) poster from Sarah, with crabs, sand dollars, palm trees and banded tulips (my favorite shell that we found in Indian Rocks Beach and she has never forgotten, evidently!) She also made a "vase" with little rocks holding up pipe cleaner stems and her picture on top. Inside the vase are little strips of paper that she typed up, each of them a memory or special time that she remembers with me. It was very sweet. They include things like "I like when you say let's play catch", "Remember when Daddy was out fishing and the hickory nuts were falling on the roof? You protected me" (Actually I was scared out of my wits since I thought someone was breaking into the house! Darn hickory nuts...) "I like when we go to Wal-Mart, just the two of us" and "Do you remember how you say I am all yours? Well, I like that!" It's a good reminder that the special times are not necessarily those that cost money or require going to a special place to stick in the minds of our little ones. They remember far more than we do, and it is ALL important.
One special note, my Poppa died during the night on Sunday the 4th at the wonderful age of 100. We were blessed to have him in our lives and know that he and Nana are together in a most wonderful place. His funeral is May 23rd, so if you are of the inclination, a little prayer for him or quiet moment in his memory would be most appreciated. He was a wonderful Poppa, and I remember him dearly. Happy Mother's Day to you too, sweet Nana. Thank you for giving me my sweet Momma! We'll miss you both.
Now, if you haven't yet, what are you waiting for? GO CALL YOUR MOMMA!

Sea World Field Trip

Man, what was I thinking? Now I know why we go to theme parks in either November or February. It really is the best time, especially for Momma. I chaperoned the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade field trip to Sea World on Friday. We left the parking lot at 7 am, and after all the stops, arrived at 11 am. Four hours on the big yellow bus. Woohoo. We had a great day, with the exception of Momma getting heatstroke. Yup, that's right. I had a headache (thanks to a very noisy bus) and it didn't get any better. So I ate little, drank not enough evidently, and all around felt like barfnagel (thanks for that one, dad!) for most of the afternoon and the ride home. I really wanted to be sick at the Turkey Lake turnpike stop, where the kids ate Burger King and Sbarro pizza. It was enough to make anyone, much less a heatstroke victim, sick sick sick. Once the bus got moving again, the air cooled down as it got dark, and I took three ibuprofen, I felt infinitely better. Thank heavens. I was never so happy to see my giant shower with jets when I got home at 11:15 that night! :) I figure at least the girls had fun, and are still at the point where they WANT me to go on field trips with them. Pretty soon, I won't be so lucky... Sweet Nanny (my Momma) watched William and Izzy all day, and cleaned the downstairs bathrooms, and cleaned Izzy's room to immaculate condition, and never whined about any of it! Something about coming home to a clean bathroom is just heaven to me! It was great to have a day with my big girls after the week without them in DC, I think it really meant a lot to them.

Sarah, Savannah, Emily, and Katy say hello to Shamu

Mr. Penguin at the Penguin Encounter give the girls a friendly, but not TOO friendly, hug under Momma's supervision! :)

Sarah jumps higher than a kite on the trampoline thing, you pay extra for it but it was sheer entertainment on my part! Wow, there is an evil little someone in me somewhere, enjoying the sheer terror/sheer delight on my kids' faces!

Katy was first up, and she LOVED it! I was surprised, to say the least, as a slightly rough ride in the boat gets her whining like a banshee!
After this, she wanted to do the rock climbing, too! But we had to be on our way to catch the Shamu--Believe show, which they thoroughly enjoyed. They sat in the SOAK ZONE, second row, and didn't get a bit wet. They were not happy about that, but they had an excellent view of Shamu and the others swimming underwater and doing their tricks. It was very cool.

Savannah goes high above the treetops

A parade on stilts gets really exciting when they started doing flips

Sarah and Katy aboard the Shamu Express, they were too short to ride Kraken, so Momma rode it with Patrick. Let me just say, I'm glad I love roller coasters, it was GREAT! Upside down about five times and WHEW what a head rush! Patrick loved it too, as his mom won't ride roller coasters so this was his big chance!

Here's Patrick climbing the rock wall

Naked Boy

William knocked over a cup of water and soaked his outfit, so I took it off. His diaper was wet too, so I took that off. I set him off the couch, went to the island to get a diaper, and when I came back, this is what I saw. So I grabbed my camera.


Here's naked boy looking for birds, looking all kinds of cute!

Ooohing and aahing at the outside world. Luckily, this window opens to our backyard which is pretty private! I planned our windows to stop where they did, but I did it for kids falling out type of thing. Little did I know that it would work to prevent William from becoming an exhibitionist at a very young age!

After I took a couple pictures, Izzy took the camera and started shooting. This was her first picture that actually included an entire person! Pretty good if I do say so myself!

This was taken by Izzy when I was getting ready to put a diaper back on William. Yup, I'm naked, I'm naked, biting this turtle, love the turtle, I'm naked...