Christmas is Coming Early

I've got an early Christmas present for all of you, my loyal readers. You have to check out this awesome new website  www.allthingsjudd.com

Let me know what you think!

I'm Here

We just got back from a week of camping last night. We had a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving and Robert's birthday.

I mentioned awhile back that I was having difficulty uploading pictures to my blog. Well, I finally got a message last night when I tried to upload again that I've hit my limit for picture storage. Bummer. If I want to continue to use blogger, I have to cough up the cash for more space. Chris has been pressing me to switch to wordpress, but I'm really lazy and don't like change so I've resisted up until now. Still not sure if I'll switch or not, but we'll see.

For now, I think I'll keep writing posts so I don't get even more behind and then add pictures later. After I tackle Mount Laundry that is. Hope everyone had a lovely holiday!

Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing

Hold on to your hats, folks. Chris, I repeat, Chris, the man who has never even commented here (ahem), has written a post for my blog. Maybe his first blog post deserves a first comment from a fellow race fan that I know reads here. wink wink

This post has been reviewed and approved by Kelsey.  Since I'm the one galavanting around while she stays back and cares for the family, I thought I'd try my hand at a blog post.

~Chris

This past weekend I accepted an invitation from one of my co-workers to join him as a corner worker at the last (and first) CVAR race of the season.  Saturday was the last races of the season and Sunday was the first races of the 2013 season.  Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing is a racing circuit in Texas and Oklahoma featuring 4 tracks and 6 weekends.  3 of those weekends happen to be at Texas World Speedway at College Station.  TWS is an oval and circuit track built in 1968.  

Notable events at TWS include:

• Mario Andretti set a world closed course speed record in 1973 which held for 12 years
• A.J. Foyt won more races at TWS than any other driver, including winning in Stock Car and Indy Car on the same day
• Ferrari introduced its new F-50 model at TWS in January 1996

Texas World Speedway Leader board
Non-functional along with everything else

The sad part is that TWS is run down.  I think the grand stands are even condemned.  The track is still used year round, but with bigger tracks with better facilities, TWS just couldn't hold up.  There are rumors of the track being up for sale for land development, but nobody wanting to touch it because of the cleanup costs of tarmac, cement and the 1000's of tires.

CVAR racing is limited to race and street cars built and operated before 1972.  This opens the field up to so many affordable cars.  I spoke to people who said they have an annual investment of less than $1500 (including travel and hotel) and others who paid over $9000 just for a replacement engine.  Many of the production cars were "Race Prepped" which means all interior was removed, headlights removed, glass replaced with a high density plastic and hood hinges were removed to allow the hood to be completely removed.  Others were driven to the track and still had license plates on them.

This Corvette was a blast to watch run.  It wasn't very powerful but had quite a bit of torque combined with lots of wheel play.  Seeing the driver come through the corners twisting the wheel back and forth made me tired just watching.

This is 2 of the 4 Formula Atlantic cars that were there.  Compared to many on the track, they were very fast. They ran Ford Cosworth engines and sounded great.  You can't tell it by this picture, but the rear wing is way behind the car, actually mounted on the back side of the transmission.

Now to my job while I was there.  Corner workers have one main responsibility which is to facilitate communication between Race Control and the drivers.  Since drivers are working hard just to keep their cars on the track, the communication has to be simple and is delivered to the drivers through flags.  There are 6-7 different flag colors that notify the drivers of conditions.  For example, if a driver spun his car on the track, it was my job to immediately put up the yellow flag to warn the other drivers and then radio back to control to let them know who spun and what the situation was.

For the most part, I was paid to get very tired and sore from standing while getting to watch some very fun racing in very old cars by some really cool people.  Not a bad gig.

Wings Over Houston

We attended the Houston airshow, Wings Over Houston, yesterday. It was a first for me and the kids. Truth be told, I've never had much of an interest in going to an airshow. Chris has become friends with some of the guys from a company called Check 6 that does consulting work for Chris' company. They've been working together a lot lately in these training sessions Chris has been traveling all over for. We were invited to come out this weekend and hang out at the Check 6 tent. Most of the employees of this company are ex-pilots and one guy was a former Blue Angel.

I figured, why not? It was free, including parking. Um, yeah, we had VIP parking right behind the tents that were set up along the runway. We came in right behind either a military or government motorcade that was being escorted by police. So yeah, we were close.

How cute is he?

The weather was perfect. We had food and drinks under the tent and plenty of tables and chairs set up close to the action.

Not long after we got there, a reenactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor started. None of us were expecting the "bombs", especially Robert. The first one hit and he started screaming his poor little head off. Between the bombs, planes and gunshots, it was a little overwhelming. I quickly located the noise reducing headphones we brought and got them on him quick. It was like flipping a light switch. He immediately calmed down and enjoyed the rest of the day.

Here's Clara with her official Check 6 Capri Sun koozie. She is a lover of all things free, so we laughed when we spotted her sitting there with her koozie. I wasn't thrilled to see her drinking some water out of a Bud Light plastic cup. Not sure who gave her that. Hmmm, I hope it was water. She thoroughly enjoyed having free reign to go back and forth for drinks, chips and cookies all afternoon. We eventually had to cut her off.

The kids enjoyed waving to the pilots as they came back in after their shows.

I could get used to this VIP treatment. Seriously, have you ever seen a porta-potty with seasonal decor? And a flushing toilet? I was in heaven. That was the one thing I was dreading with a newly potty trained little one. I think I have a bit of a porta-potty phobia. Not this time though. Chris was like, "You took a picture of the bathroom?" and I was like, "You didn't?"

We went to walk around for a while and Clara needed to use the restroom. You better believe she and I opted to walk through the massive crowd all the way back to our little piece of heaven. She almost peed her pants, but it was worth it. (I think I may have passed on my phobia.)

I have lots more pictures but blogger is not uploading them. I'll try to add more later.

Pumpkin Patch

The church pumpkin patch was last night. The weather again was just perfect. It was a little chilly, but not bad at all with the sun shining bright.

Here's Miss Piggy and Kermie. His costume came in the mail on Thursday and it was too small. I have no idea what they were thinking, but it was labeled size 2-4, but then on the packaging it said for ages 1-2. Oh well. We managed to squeeze him in it and he didn't complain, even though his hat barely velcroed shut. He did want to know where his red Kermit mouth was though. How cute are they!

And how lucky am I that I got one more year of coordinating costumes out of them? I don't know why, but it gives me great pleasure to have them matching for Halloween and I will be sad when they won't humor me.

This was during the trunk or treat portion of the night. Robert had just stuffed half a cookie in his mouth and ended up spitting it into Chris' hand. What a sport!

And then I handed the camera over to Chris. Every time I ask him to take a picture, he just starts snapping before I'm ready. Half the time he just lowers the camera, not looking through the view finder mind you, and starts snapping away. He'll take 20 pictures, and usually the one that has us centered and looking is blurry. This time he caught a perfect picture of me with my "I am not amused" face.

That's better. Clara eventually started shedding pieces of her costume. Her nose was the first to come off and I didn't even know she lost a glove until I found it on a table at church this morning with several other lost and found items from the night before.

Stuffing his face with a cupcake on the way out.

Camping With Friends

Camping is always more fun with friends. And we hadn't been camping with these particular friends since Clara was two I believe. Last weekend we went to Village Creek State Park and Glenn and Becky pulled her parents' pop up camper with our Jeep. Since they were bringing their dog Reggie and there's not a lot of space in the Jeep, Leah rode with us. I felt so bad leaving Kate all by herself, but we just didn't have room for one more. We decided to take a break from our dogs this time and had a friend watch them.

Here's a view from the front seat as we made our first unscheduled stop. Their trailer lights weren't working, so we headed straight for an auto parts store for a quick fix. Then Robert needed to pee but wouldn't go standing up, so I put him in a pull up in case we couldn't get stopped in time. I guess we only had one other bathroom break on the drive there, so not too bad. We pulled in right at dark, so we had a fun time getting two campers all set up in the dark. Oh, and it had dropped into the 50s too, so we had chilly kiddos who needed some pants and sweatshirts and who hadn't had dinner yet.

It got pretty chilly that night, so we got to try out our heater for the first time. Worked like a charm, so we were nice and toasty in no time. Someone else forgot to figure out how to work their heater beforehand, so they were googling it at 1 a.m. trying to get some relief. Not mentioning any names though.

The weather the next day was absolutely beautiful. We went on a hike to a sandy beach that's designated for swimming. It was about a 1.5 mile hike from the trail head so we got some good exercise in that day. We hadn't planned on letting the kids swim since it was such a long way to haul towels and clothes and such. They had a different idea though and they eventually ended up soaked after being told they could wade in the shallow water.

They did great on the long hike, but Robert had had enough about a half mile away from the car. I got to carry him a good distance, myself completely spent from the excursion. We made it back to camp, had some lunch and then I went to get Robert down for a nap.

That booger wasn't tired in the least! He was bouncing off the camper walls for a good 20 minutes. All the while, I kept dozing off. At one point, I woke just in time to see him creeping off the bed. I had to position myself so that I would feel him if he tried to crawl over me to get out. He eventually conked out and got a good nap in.

We just hung out and enjoyed each other's company for the rest of the day. The adults played a board game, the kids played and fought and ate and fought some more. We enjoyed hamburgers for dinner and then smore's on the campfire.

One thing I loved about this park was the two benches perfectly positioned by each campfire.

That night wasn't cold like the night before. It was very pleasant, as was the next morning. Robert sported Buddy Walk shirt number two on Sunday. After packing up, we had planned to ride our bikes to the playground before loading up to leave. There was a fair amount of drama at this point, so the group ride didn't happen and we decided to cut our losses and get on the road.

We're so thankful for fun times with wonderful friends.

Ren Fest 2012

We went to the Renaissance Festival this weekend. Jason, Chris and one of Chris' co-workers went camping for the weekend and joined up with us at the festival on Saturday. We let the kids get costumes this year. It was quite warm, so Clara's stayed on for about 15 minutes once we were inside the gate.

I couldn't believe she went and stood next to this guy for a picture. Ha! He stands by the entrance and has wads of dollar bills sticking out of his costume from all of the pictures he's taken. I wonder how much he rakes in. I also wonder what his day job is.

I made sure and stopped first thing to get a family picture before all of the costumes were shed. Yes, I was a fuddy-duddy and didn't dress up. I just wasn't feeling it. Robert actually kept his on the whole time and Chris had to. He didn't bring a shirt. He was a little warm.

The kids feasted on kettle corn, ice cream and Dr. Pepper and Chris and I enjoyed some apple dumplings. Mmmm. They were both really well behaved and there were no meltdowns. Could it be Robert is finally starting to outgrow the mandatory public meltdown stage?

Can you spot the leprechaun in this next picture?

My cutie-patootie pirate.

Clara was giddy while getting her face painted.

And she wanted to try the bungee trampoline again this year. After several attempts, she finally did a flip.

Between pushing a stroller, getting Robert in and out of stroller, chasing him, taking him for potty breaks, and all of the walking in the heat, I was exhausted after several hours. Apparently they were not. I thought for sure they'd nap in the car, but nope. I couldn't even get Robert to nap when we got home. I eventually put a movie on for them so I could nap. Where does all of their energy come from?

Crosswalk Drama

I had no idea the job of school crossing guard could be so filled with drama. A couple of weeks ago as I was driving Clara to school, I saw the principal and a school district policewoman talking with the crossing guard at the corner house next to the school.

Of course, I had to get the scoop next time we walked. You can't tell from the picture I posted the other day, but there is no sidewalk in front of his house, so the kids have to walk through his yard. He has a sidewalk that runs from his front door to the street and it's lined with hedges on either side all the way to the street and there is a big brick mailbox at the curb also. Well, there is a path through his bushes so people don't have to step into the busy street to get past his house, as well as a well worn path through his grass.

This particular morning, he decided to put up stakes and netting so that the kids couldn't walk across his sidewalk. Instead, the school had to put a second crossing guard at this sidewalk so that traffic could be stopped as the kids stepped into the street and around his mailbox. I saw the policewoman talking with the homeowner as I passed by on my way home. That afternoon the netting was gone.

The school cleared some brush behind this guys house and constructed a small fence and will be putting in a path. Starting today, the kids will walk along the side of his house and behind it to get to school. Clara was a little wary of the changes, so I walked with her the whole way today. Her shoes were soaked from the long trek through the grass beside the school.  The crossing guard made sure to tell Clara not to step in his yard. Apparently, starting Monday he will be calling the police and pressing charges for trespassing if a kid walks through his yard. Can't you just feel the love? Oh, and he told the crossing guard he doesn't like them going behind his house either because his dog barks. Oy. Maybe the school should invest in a helicopter to transport the kids over his kingdom. Or a teleporter maybe. That would solve everything.

I get his frustration and I'm glad the school is working with him and came up with a pretty easy solution, but these kids aren't the only people walking through his yard. I see high school track runners running this route all the time. It's frustrating and I do understand his frustration. That neighborhood has been there a long time and the school is only a few years old. We just don't live in a pedestrian friendly area. At all. I really wish we lived somewhere where walking is encouraged. This has become very important to me as Clara is getting older, but it just seems like an uphill battle here. I want her to have some independence in a few years. I want her to be able to safely walk to school or the store or a friends' house, so that is definitely something we will be considering before we buy our next house.

The crossing guard also told me that the other day a truck was tailgating another parent who had just dropped their kid off at this corner to walk the rest of the way to school. Apparently a block down the road, on our walking route, the two men got out of their respective vehicles and got into a fist fight. I believe the other one was also a parent of kids at the school. Nice. She said she's also been cursed at by a driver while walking kids across. Because that 30 second wait for grade school children to cross the street safely just messes up one's entire day. What is wrong with people???

Beauty and the Beast

Clara and I enjoyed a night out at the theater last night. We saw Beauty and the Beast down at the Hobby Center. It was cute, but couldn't compete with The Lion King in my opinion. Clara said she liked Beauty and the Beast better though. I'm sure it had nothing to do with dressing like a princess for the occasion.

I surprised her with her dress right before we left. As you can imagine, it was a hit. I considered getting her a Belle costume, but liked the idea of this dress since it's Belle-ish and can be worn again. Plus, I found it at an amazing price that I couldn't pass up :)

We went to Zio's for dinner and Clara drew pictures of all of the characters on the tablecloth. At the top, it says "Belle (me)".

It was raining, so I wanted to be sure and get there early. Clara was pretty antsy as we waited for them to open the doors. She really enjoyed the show. It dragged in parts so she got a little squirmy at times, but she hung in there and almost made it to the end. She ended up falling asleep about 10 minutes before it ended, so I woke her up at the end when the Beast turns back into a human. I couldn't let her miss the climax.

After the show came the brutal half hour or so of slowly moving along with the crowd to the parking garage, walking up the stairs to the 5th floor and then sitting in the car until we could drive out of the garage. Throw in a very sleepy (and whiney) little beauty and another half hour driving home and I was glad to crawl into my bed. (After putting Robert back to bed three times and completing Sunday school preparations, that is.)

Walking to School

I started walking Clara to school a few weeks ago. We're all loving it (most of the time). We have to leave the house by 7:00 which is a feat sometimes, but we're pretty good about getting out the door in time. She sometimes rides her scooter and I've ridden my bike with Robert in the bike trailer too. It's a bit of a pain because there are no sidewalks once you're out of our subdivision and no shoulder, as you can see. We take a short detour to stay off the main road in the bottom picture since it's a rough ride for Robert through people's yards and over curbs and driveways.

People amaze me. It's crazy how fast they'll drive past a woman with a stroller and a young child. The best one was yesterday. As a car barreled toward us, (not slowing down or moving over a bit of course), I see the driver using both hands to put her hair in a ponytail.

We walk Clara to the crossing guard where I take her scooter and helmet, and then she walks the rest of the way on her own. The house on the corner here is right next to the school, so she gets a little independence (even if it is just a small taste).

Conversation

I've spent the last half hour or so cleaning off my kitchen counter. Anyone who's been over to my house is probably familiar with this counter. I'm sure some of you just cringe when you see it but are too nice to point out to me that I have a huge pile of garbage just sitting on my counter.

Clearing off that counter always earns a spot on my to-do list but somehow never gets to-done. So I set my timer for 30 minutes this morning and went to work. What's on this counter, you ask? Well, there are a plethora of screws and other assorted hardware, batteries (old or new, I can't be sure), Clara's artwork, paid bill stubs, insurance EOBs, expense check stubs, expired coupons, thank you notes, random pictures, Clara school stuff, old to-do lists and junk mail, just to name a few.

I came across this gem of a conversation that I wrote down probably six months ago because I thought it was so cute at the time. Rather than throw it away or move it to some other pile, I am recording it here, hence the reason for this post.


Robert: "I go shopping."

Me: "For what?"

Robert: "Waka waka! Fozzy Bear say 'waka waka."

(Striking a superhero pose), "Take 2! Get started!"



I know, totally random, but I was laughing so hard at the time. You probably had to be there. Yay me; now I get to throw away a sticky note!

More Camping

We went camping at Huntsville State Park again this past weekend. JDog joined in on the fun this time. It was nice being able to pass off the job of Chris' helper monkey to him :) He got to help him hook up the camper, back it into the site, and set it up. Oh, and he made the mistake of asking Chris if he needed any help before we left on Friday. Chris handed him the manual and told him to figure out how to sanitize the water hook up paraphernalia. And then the kids took turns asking him to play and walk and ride bikes. We got good use out of him.

We got some kinks worked out and had water in the camper this time. The potty wasn't as stinky either. We managed to bring everything that we needed and the entire weekend went off without a hitch. Well, except for Robert on the second night. He was beyond tired and when it was time to put him down, he went ballistic. I was attempting to wipe him down with a baby wipe and he started clawing at his chest trying to "get the soap off". It was scary. He has scratches all over his chest from that little freak out. We left him in just a pull up and Chris finally got him calmed down and he fell asleep in his arms.

We got him into bed and he woke not long after, screaming. We figured out he was probably having a night terror because he was completely out of it and could not tell us what was wrong. Screaming fits of rage and night time at a state park do not mix, so Chris got him into the car to drive around. He got pulled over, Robert still screaming like mad. Of course, Chris didn't have his wallet on him, so no i.d. All he had was a screaming, half naked toddler strapped in his car. The officer found two of Robert's cars sitting on the back bumper, so it was obvious Chris had been driving veeeerrrry slowly through the park. Chris explained what was going on and he asked Chris to roll down Robert's window. He said something to Robert and Robert screamed in his face. The guy was like, "Alrighty then, carry on." Ha! He eventually came out of it and Chris brought him back, awake and calm. He went right back to sleep and slept the rest of the night. So, note to self, Robert needs naps when we're camping. If not a nap, then at least a normal bedtime.

He woke happy and ready to go the next morning. Here they are the first morning with their hot cocoa.

We went down one of the trails in search of a letterbox. Clara brought her walking stick and Chris found one for Robert. He was such a little toot that morning. He wanted to do the exact opposite of whatever we wanted. You want me to go down the trail? Nope, I want to get back in the car. What's that, it's time to go you say? Heck no, I'm staying and heading back down this trail. The stick helped convince him to walk with us for all of about 5 minutes. A game of hide and seek in which Clara ran ahead a ways and hid behind trees worked for a few minutes too.

Our first letterbox!

Letterboxing is like geocaching. You follow directions to find a hidden box. Unlike geocaching though, there is a notepad and stamp in the treasure box. You have a family stamp that you stamp on the notepad and write a little note and then you add the stamp from the letterbox to your journal. We were a little disappointed to find that someone hadn't put it back in it's container. It was just in a ziploc bag next to it and the notepad was soaking wet, so we couldn't add our stamp.

Just a little further down the trail we found our second one. We'll definitely be finding more letterboxes.

That night the kids had fun running around in their headlamps and we enjoyed smores by the fire that JDog built.

This picture doesn't do Robert's dirty face justice.

Clara searched high and low for a friend and she was excited when Carly, who is also in 1st grade and had no other older kids with her, showed up at the campsite next to us on Saturday. Carly was a little, um, pushy, but they had lots of fun scootering around together all day. Sunday morning she started shouting down the road, begging me, "Can I pleeeeeeeeeeeeeze keep Zoe? Puleeeeeeeze? Why not? Puleeeeeeze?" After telling her nicely about five times why she couldn't have my dog, I resorted to ignoring the child.

A cold front came through and we woke to temperatures in the 60's on Sunday. We noticed that the leaves had started falling on Saturday afternoon. Seriously, we didn't see any leaves dropping that morning, but by afternoon, the sky was filled with them falling in the breeze. Autumn officially started on September 8th in Huntsville if you're wondering.

So we now have another successful camping trip under our belts. It's hard to venture back to reality when you enjoy such a relaxed, slow paced time out of doors. It's amazing how a mere two days feels like you've been gone a week. Next month we'll be venturing out of our comfort zone and to a new park.