For Whom the School Bell Tolls

The school year started on Monday, as Aidan ventured into the public school system for the first time. It has been an adjustment for not only Aidan, but also for us. Taking him to his private Kindergarten was a breeze, and we got used to leaving our house at 7:50am and having him in his classroom by 8:00am. Those times are gone, and we are now stuck in traffic Hades, as the two mile drive is now a grueling 30 minute round trip. You know, one might complain about that being excessive....that is, until they have go to pick up their children. That 30 minute round trip suddenly becomes a 50 minute test of patience that Job himself would find difficult to endure. I can only assume that Bledsoe Elementary has Steven Hawking designing their traffic route, for the added complexity is absurd.

Aidan on the other hand seems to be adjusting to 1st grade nicely. Other than a couple of warnings he received from his teacher for talking, he is very happy with his new school and loves his teacher and class. He is making new friends, and he is adjusting to his added freedom and responsibilities. The 8 hour days full of new and wondrous learning are taking a bit of a toll, for he is finding it difficult to stay awake once he gets home after school. Here is an example of a before and after picture.

Picture one.......Bright Eyed and Bushy tailed......ready to conquer whatever tasks are set before him.
Picture two.......ZZzzzzzzzz.........a boy who left 100% on the scholarly playing field.
He will do just fine, and Lori and I will learn to adjust to the illogical traffic routes. All in all, it's going to be a great school year.


William

A Simian's Tale

It seems like only a very short time ago that we were celebrating Aidan's first birthday. I can still see him shoveling the cake into his mouth as the rush of sugar cascaded through his veins.Yep, that's just how I remember it. The 5 years since have really flown by, and it is very hard to grasp the fact that our youngest Monkey Christopher has now been in our lives for a full year. Needless to say, he too really enjoyed his birthday celebration, and once again I was also able to capture a bit of the magic on film. So, without any further delays, I now present you with an overview of Saturday's festivities.

Like most of my blogs, I like to fill you with as many details as I can. Keeping that in mind, I do not think it would be fair to talk about Christopher's party, without first mentioning the blood, sweat, and excessive misery that both Lori and I endured in preparing the house for the party. You see, if the ol' adage is true, I've got some serious explaining to do to the Big Man up stairs, for cleanliness (as far as housework goes) has never been one of my strong points. Put a bit differently, cleaning toilets and mopping floors ranks right up there with water boarding and Bamboo under the fingernails. Torture my friend goes by many names, and the sight of a bucket and a mop would make me spill my guts out as soon as the bucket of soapy water hit the floor. NOOOO......PLEASE......NOT THAT!.....I'LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT!!!! Cleaning toilets? Forget about it. If it were left entirely up to me, our toilet bowl would probably look like the bottom of the coffee pot at the local VFW.

Well I'll have you know that all of that changed on Thursday and Friday of this week, and Martha Stewart herself would have been downright proud of the job that I did on our floors and carpets. Lori and I both worked our tails off cleaning the house. She and I finally rolled into bed about 3:45am on Saturday morning, and let me tell you we were whipped. For some that might not sound too awful, but throw a couple of 6:30am waking Monkeys in the mix and you get the picture. Needless to say, we were dog tired Saturday morning, but the house was as clean as it has been in quite some time, and Lori did a stellar job decorating the premises for the Monkey themed party.

Our guest started arriving about 2:15pm., and by 3:00pm we were knee deep in Chick-fil-a nuggets, fruit, chips and dips, and lots of screaming children. A virtual Heaven you might say......if you are into the whole loud, obnoxious, run around the house and yell at the top of your lungs kind of thing. After everyone had their fill of nuggets and pop, it was time to get down to the business at hand......Birthday Cake! Everyone gathered around Christopher's chair to witness the unbridled carnage that was about to unfold. Lori slowly handed Christopher a Birthday cupcake that she and Cricket had masterfully created the night before.Christopher was a bit timid at first. His trepidation was obviously due to the inner conflict he was experiencing in regards to Cannibalism. Once he crossed that threshold it was on, and our smallest Monkeyboy devoured his prey with the finess of a Lion. Here is a three shot sequence that sums up the conquest quite nicely.Hey, it's a Monkey eat Monkey world, and Christopher is now the master of his domain.

Once the sugar was sufficiently dispensed, it was time for presents. You would have thought that Christopher would have had enough to eat when he finished his cupcake, but noooooooo....he decided to top off his cake with a heaping portion of tissue paper....YUMMY!Thank goodness that Lori was close by, and with her cat like reflexes she was able to pull the helpless tissue from the little eating machine's mouth.Whew, Smurf mouth prevented, now on to the gifts.

Christopher, with Lori's help, had no problem ripping, tearing, and shredding the wrapping paper, He loved that part. He also loved his many presents, although the sheer numbers probably caused information overload. He did not know which one to play with, so he made like a pollinating bee and went from one to the next at breakneck speed. Here he is unwrapping his Wonder Pets toy.Just think, now I get to not only listen to the Wonder Pets on his DVD, but now I even get to hear that "delightful" Wonder Pets diddy emitting from his newly acquired toy. OH JOY!!!! The one present that really got the attention of not only Christopher and his ever protective Mom, but also all of the boys in attendance, was his Star Wars electric ATV. Here is a picture of Christopher checking out his new wheels.Lookout toes and shins of the world, here I come!

Christopher stayed awake just long enough to try out all of his toys and then quietly drifted off to dreamland. The rest of us visited for a while and then just like that, it was over. Lori and I would like to thank all that attended. A special thanks goes out to NANA and PAWPAW for making the 16 hour drive to be here. Christopher is too young to understand the sacrifice that you made right now, but he will come to appreciate it as he gets older.

I will leave you now with one last picture. Here is Aidan and his little brother Christopher doing what they do best............being Monkeys.
William

Unus Annus Vetus Angelus

Happy First Birthday Little Slugger. The joy and happiness that you bring into all of our lives is immeasurable. We are so very lucky to have such a beautiful, healthy son. We are blessed.

William

Journey To Satiation

We are back, and for the moment, satiated. Rocking good times were had by all, and leaving our friends and the beach grows more difficult with each visit. I guess we will eventually get used to it, but for now, the dread of leaving has been replaced with the eager anticipation of our next opportunity to visit. Like always, it can never get here soon enough. So grab some popcorn and a drink because it's story telling time.

As I stated in my last entry, Lori worked a night shift in the ER on Tuesday night, and unfortunately she only got to lay down for 1 hour during the night. Needless to say, she was pretty whipped the next morning. She finally got home about 9:00am and after making a few last minute preparations, the family unit was on it's way. The miles passed quickly (except for the wreck we were stuck behind for 20 minutes in South Dallas), and Lori and the boys were able to nap a little bit. We finally stopped for lunch in Buffalo, Texas, and everybody enjoyed the hamburgers and the chance to stretch our legs. We got back on the road about 30 minutes later, and made really good time all the way to Galveston. 331 miles in 5 hours in 29 minutes is not too shabby when you are traveling with two small children and a dog.

Once we got to the beach house and unpacked and ate, we headed for the beach. We got to the beach about 7:00pm, and we made the most of the 1 1/2 hours of daylight that remained. Aidan of course was the first to the water. I am quite sure that noise laws were being violated as Aidan's Screams, and Christopher's squeals bellowed through the evening air. Yep, I'm pretty sure that I heard a couple of car alarms going off from the ear piercing decibels being emitted from the young Thornton Clan. After a minute or so, the shrills turned to smiles a amazement, as watery bliss engulfed their bodies. Here is video that I shot about 30 minutes after we arrived.

We finally left the beach about 8:15pm, and went back to the house to get a bite to eat. After eating, we were extremely tired, and an early night was had by all.

We woke up on Thursday morning looking forward to spending the day at the beach, and waiting for our wonderful friends to get into town. Kenny and Hailey had taken off work on Friday, so they and Carley were driving down that evening. We got to the beach around noon, and commenced frolicking for the next 4 hours. Christopher takes after his brother and absolutely loves the beach. He has also copied Aidan's fearlessness, and wants to swim with the big boys. It takes the eyes of a Hawk and the quickness of a Cheetah to keep up with that little Monkey. Here is a picture of him frolicking around in his entirely too big beach clothes.Actually the shirt fit just fine, but the "shorts" would have looked great with a pair of cowboy boots. Oh well, he did not seem to mind. While I was playing chase the Monkey, Aidan and Lori were out riding (as Aidan put it) some "gnarly" waves.We left the beach about 4:00pm, and went back to the beach house to get cleaned up. After cleaning up, we had to drive into town and do some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. For those of you who want to know, I would not wish that experience on my worst enemy. Geeshhhh....talk about some strange ducks........wow. Strange people in mass quantities all under one roof does not appeal to me one stinking bit. It's pretty bad when one is elated to get back into the 90 degree / 80%humidity parking lot. After a quick sprint to the vehicle and loading up the booty, we were on our way back to relaxation central. After getting back to the beach house we cooked and ate dinner. Kenny and Hailey got in a couple of hours later, and after getting the kids to bed, we start catching up with our old friends. Last time we did that, as I wrote on my last Galveston blog, we did not get to bed unitl almost 5:00 am. I wanted to make sure that did not happen again, so we limited ourselves to a few hours, and we all got to bed at a semi-decent hour (1:30am).

Friday morning came in a flash, and we were all up by 6:30am. Christopher made sure of that with his rousing impression of a Pterodactyl. Lord that boy can be loud! Anyway, getting woken up that early is not a bad thing because that meant that Hailey would start cooking her absolutely delicious, world famous, mouth watering breakfast casserole. YUMMY! After feasting on entirely too much casserole, Ken and I made the journey back towards town for our Shrimp run. One of my favorite things about Galveston is the ability to get fresh (i'm talking right off the boat) Shrimp. We purchased 5lbs of Large Shrimp with Saturday's cookout/feast never far from our minds. After we got back to the beach house, everybody prepared for a day in the sun.

We got to the beach about 2:00pm, and it was a great day to be there. It was a bit overcast, and not too hot. The water was perfect, and Ken and Aidan set out to tame some waves. Christopher meanwhile, sat in the sand and contemplated life's little secrets.Well, maybe that's stretching it a bit....he was probably plotting his escape from the ever watchful eyes of his mother. Either way, he was cute as a button, and really enjoying himself. Here he is, involved in a pretty serious shark attack.We stayed at the beach for almost 4 hours, and by the time we left, everyone was quite tired. We drove the 3 minutes back to beach house, and started getting the grill ready for the forthcoming burger and hotdog extravaganza. After stuffing our faces and getting the kids to sleep, we had a wonderful surprise when another of our good friends showed up to visit. We weren't expecting to see Kirk until Saturday, so his early arrival was just icing on the cake. Kirk is another one of those special friends that you can't help but to feel comfortable around. We all sat and visited until the early morning hours, and then called it a night.

Saturday morning started off with a few showers, but it had all cleared up by noon. While we were waiting for the weather to pass through, we got a phone call from an old friend that we have not seen in years. She lives with her husband and 3 kids about 2 hours away from the beach. Sara and Alan decided to meet us at the beach, and they brought their 10 year old daughter Morgan, and their 7 year old son Nolan with them. Aidan and Carley now had some new playmates to visit with, and I was ecstatic that I was going to get to see my old friend Sara. I have been great friends with Sara for almost 23 years, and she is like a sister to me. All though we still speak to each other on the phone, it's been far too long since we have been face to face.

We all meet out at the beach about 2:00pm and once again the weather was great. After some big hugs were exchanged and the kids were introduced to each other, we all started visiting properly. While Sara and Hailey were visiting,daddy was being challenged by is 5 year old son in soccer.Morgan joined forces with Aidan, at which time I called in Kirk for my backup. Nothing like being old. Here is a shot of Carley trying out the boogie board.After all of the playing, it was snack time.We stayed at the beach until almost 6:00pm, and then made our way back to the beach house to begin preparing the feast. T-bones - New York Strips - Boiled shrimp and my favorite Bacon Wrapped Cream Cheese Jalapeño Shrimp. MMMmmmmmmMMMmmmmmm!!!!!! Everything turned out perfect, and everyone ate like there was no tomorrow. After dinner it was surprise time for Aidan and Christopher. Hailey made cup cakes for their forthcoming birthdays, and she and Kenny also had presents for the boys. So, everyone further stuffed their faces with delicious cakes, and Aidan tore into his Pokemon presents. After the festivities and the sugar, Aidan an Nolan got a bit goofy.The kids drifted off to dreamland, and all of the "grown ups" filed downstairs. We played darts, drank a few cold beverages, and just reminisced about old times. It was really great to have so many good friends in one place again. I would not trade my friendship with those guys and girls for anything in the world. They are all quality people, and we are so lucky to have each one in our lives. The night ended about 2:00am, with the last day of the visit looming just over the horizon.

Sunday morning was overcast, and we knew there would be a good chance of rain. Sara, Alan, and the kids left around noon, and the rest of us prepared for a final trip to the beach. We got there about 1:00pm and hoped that our good fortune would last. While Lori spent some quality time with Christopher,Kirk started setting up his fishing gear. Mystic suddenly took an interest in what Kirk was doing when she noticed the bait fish flopping around on the hooks. Well, she took and interest all right, and the next thing you know she was chomping down on the lowest fish.....yeah, the one with the hook in it. Thankfully the hook only grazed her bottom lip and just cut it a little bit. It could of been much worse. Here is a picture of the carnage.A short time later, the Heavens broke loose and put a big damper on our last's day's beach time. Bummer. We packed everyone and everything up and headed back to the beach house.

After we got back, everyone showered, and started the long depressing job of packing. Wow, where did those 4 days go? A blur I tell you. I started loading up the CX-9 about 5:30 and we were packed and not wanting to leave by 6:00pm. We said our sorrowful goodbyes and took a few last pictures.We then set out on our journey home and 5 1/2 hours later we pulled into our driveway.

We are very thankful that we've had the opportunity to visit the beach and our friends twice this summer. It sure was fun, and a big thanks goes out to the Canons for inviting us. As of May this year, Kenny and I have been friends for 20 years. We have both had our share of trials and tribulations during that time, and have relied on our friendship for guidance many times. I could not ask for a better person to call my buddy. We are all proud to know him and his family and to be able to share such special times with such fantastic people.

I will leave you with one more note. Click on the picture, step back, and take it all in slowly.



KING OF THE BEACH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

William

Anticipatory Euphoria

Well, it's another really quiet night here at the Thornton household. The boys are in bed and Lori is working a call night in the ER at the hospital. Me, well I am making the best of the situation by smiling from ear to ear. What you ask? Why would I be smiling with Lori gone and me solely responsible for the two monkeys upstairs? I have a one word answer for you.......ready.......BEACH! Yep, that's right, at this time tomorrow we will once again be at the beach, breathing in that warm salty air, and visiting with our wonderful friends.

We are so very lucky to have wonderful friends like the Canons. Once again they have invited us down to their beach house, and once again, it took all of 1/2 a second to respond with a resounding yes. As I have stated in past blogs, we love the beach. Combine our love for the beach with our desire to visit with our wonderful friends, and I cannot think of a better time.

The family unit has done quite a bit of traveling in the last week. Last Friday, we started a 3 day 1100 mile trip. On Friday we drove to Senatobia, Mississippi to visit dad's grave. After spending the night in Olive Branch, Mississippi we got up real early Saturday morning and drove to Jonesboro, Arkansas. We left Jonesboro, Arkansas late Saturday evening, and finally stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas late Saturday night. We got up Sunday morning and drove home. Aidan and Christopher did remarkable well on our trip considering the long hours that were spent in the car. We are all crossing our fingers in hopes that this trip will be as smooth. After everything is said and done, we will have put about 2200 miles on the CX-9 over a 10 day period. It sure is a good thing Lori's vehicle is so stinking comfortable.

Well, I guess it's time for me to finish the laundry, pack the suitcase, pack the ice chest and the snacks, and then pack the vehicle. Hopefully Lori will have a decent night, and if we are really lucky, she will get a little rest. Either way, she will have about 6 hours of road time to catch some ZZZZzzzz's.

As always, I will have plenty of pictures to share when we return.

William

Eager Expectancy

Well August arrived in a flash, and with it's arrival comes a new season of Little League Baseball. Anticipation is ripe at the Thornton household, as we are all very curious to see how Aidan handles his first season of live pitch baseball. Aidan's first practice is tomorrow afternoon, so I suspect that anticipation will not be the only thing that is ripe after we spend 2+ hours in the hot August sun. Oh Joy!

Speaking of hot, it's been real hot here recently....extremely hot....I'm talking Africa hot. There was a time in my life where the heat, no matter how hot, rarely bothered me. I guess spending years of your life unloading sweltering 130+ degree tire trailers at Western Auto will do that to you. Well now that I am getting older (fatter), and I have not been in a trailer in the past 17 years, my ability to acclimate has greatly diminished. Last week, while doing my daily exercise, I actually looked like I had sprung a leak. Remember this: If you can hear a squishing sound with every step you take, it's probably a good clue that it's too stinking hot to be exercising outside.

Right now we are all keeping our fingers crossed that the cool front (ha ha) that is currently keeping the temperatures in the mid 90's will stay for a little while. We, along with the yard and the flowers, could all use a reprieve.

William