Month: November 2023

It was a blast. We ate a ton. The dressing was great (it is called “dressing” if it is not stuffed inside the bird, and “stuffing” if it is actually inside the turkey, according to my MIL). The decorations were beautiful. And the Tarheels lost terribly against NC State in Football.

Amelias Birthday was just a few days before thanksgiving (on Tuesday this year), and though we didn’t get any pictures, I wanted to acknowledge how special of a kid she is, and how proud of an uncle I am.

We hosted my side of the family, and there are several weeks worth of postings of things to say, but I will leave it as: we made it through the meal together.

Thanksgiving at the Registers house was great. This year was just entirely different than years past because Mercy was able to entertain herself for a bit. For the past 5+ years, she was trying to kill herself by jumping down stairs, finding sharp objects, finding poisonous objects, throwing shoes, and every other thing you can imagine.

This year, she didn’t. What did I do with this new sense of freedom? I avoided all pictures as you can see, but after that was accomplished, I fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes after the meal. It was delightful.

Rosie and I have a long history of picking trees out together. And if you look in the bottom-left picture above, one of her favorite traditions is topping the tree each year with the star that goes on top. Year after year I would lift her up, sometimes it was stressful and she didn’t quite understand or even want to cooperate. This year, she started talking about it hours in advance- she was so excited for the important duty of putting the star on top.

Mercy spent time focusing on three branches on the bottom, ensuring they had 6 ornaments a piece. It looks ridiculous, but we were sure to leave those ornaments just as they were placed.

I like to think our ornaments and decorations are not a shrine to the North Pole, but lean 70% towards the birth of Jesus, and 30% towards kids crafts, Santa, etc.

There has been a post about Mercy, sharing her story. There has been a post about Rosie, sharing her story.

The 9 people who read my blog have spoken: they want to hear Stormy’s story. So, turn on the the wayback machine, step into the Delorean, warm up the flux capacitor, we are going back in time!

We bought this house in January, 2013. We weren’t married even 3 years yet; our first year of marriage we lived in a basement. The second year we lived in a townhouse. Taylor did not like the townhouse. She probably had merit in those thoughts. The carpeting was terrible.

I am not sure if it was from the new house, or from still being kinda newly married, or just because I am pretty stubborn about things, but we were bickering a bit. Small disagreements. We both wanted things a certain way in our new house, and men and women think a little differently on these things.

And that’s the power a dog can have: We stopped bickering. We focused on the dog a bit more than we focused on our own needs/wants. And there were many.

We both worked. The dog had to go on walks. We didn’t have a fence. The dog had to be let outside during our lunch breaks. There were thunderstorms. The dog had to be let inside.

And there were snowstorms. What do you do with the dog and the work and the snow shoveling then? I remember this day: stormy sat outside on that pile of snow for about 4 hours.

But back to Stormy’s adoption story. Taylor and I talked about a dog. Our friend Anna Lehnen knew all about dogs- I think her parents were breeders? But wither way, we went down to the Staunton pound, “just to look”. The website had a dog named Charlie that looked like a sweet dog, so Taylor and I went down to see him.

Charlie was gone. Of all the critters in that noisy kennel, there was one that was quiet. She stood on her back legs, and watched Taylor walk all around.

So we went home. Without the dog. But Taylor kept saying “I can’t stop thinking about that dog Shira”. You see, that was her pound-name. Shira.

So, we got her. it was October of 2013, and Stormy was 1 year old.

We stayed in that house less than 2 years. It was a great couple years- the federal government said that our income at the time was below the poverty line- but I didn’t feel like much was missing.

But something was missing. We were actually pretty sad during that time, trying for a couple unsuccessful years to get pregnant with Rosie. And Stormy was a delightful addition.

Ted and Deborah (Taylor’s parents) opened their doors for us to live there while Taylor was pregnant, with Stormy, while we looked for our first place in Greensboro.

Stormy made best friends with Jager. They were really an inseparable pair. In fact, to this day, the Register’s house is stormy’s happy place.

They were besties for 5 or 6 years, until Jager passed away. Even today, if Stormy hears the name, her ears perk up. Dogs are the best.

We got our first house in Greensboro.

We had a house; we had a dog; we had a kid. Stormy was living in her 4th place at this time:

• She was a puppy in the kennel. Maybe born there? Adopted by a family with small kids.
• Lived in a house with her first family. They named her Shira. Shame on them. She is obviously a stormy.
• The family surrendered Stormy back to the kennel. Shame on them. Never surrender!

Stormy had a best friend named Jager. And Rosie had a critter named Stormy to make her own.

There are dozens of these pictures.

Dogs are the best. Stormy is the best for what can be seen in this pic:

She loves to be AROUND people, but will always hang off to the side.

Anyways, time is running short here. We moved to our new house (the current one), putting stormy in yet ANOTHER place to call home.

Stormy was there to greet Mercy when she came home from the hospital too:

Ok, she isn’t 100% awesome. Stormy does have a flaw. This part isn’t in the pics, so you will have to take my word for it.

Stormy loves trash. Loves it. When we were walking in Harrisonburg, she would find any scraps on the side of the road. For some reason, there was always a chicken bone around and Stormy would find it.

I spanked her for getting in the trash in the kitchen. You know what her response was? Nothing. She did it again. For 5 years, then tay finally said “I don’t think it’s working.” Tay was right. It didn’t work. So we just had to get a garbage can that could lock.

There are so many pictures, it is hard to choose which ones tell the story the best. She is a good dog and has been great for the girls.

My only peeve is that she seems to ignore them. She won’t run and greet them, or kiss them (that may be a perk, that stormy doesn’t lick). Maybe this is because we had her before we had kids?

Stormy has a few more gray hairs than she did before. She doesn’t chase the squirrels as often as she once did. She is a great dog and I think the one thing that really absolutely makes her the happiest is a fall afternoon, when the weather is nice, and I am doing yard work. Stormy will just sit nearby, and move to be close enough, but not in the way. She will watch the people pass by on the street, and enjoy every moment “working” with me in the yard. Love her.

When there are lots of kids, they have to have something to do. It is tiring, yes.

One trick most parents can likely agree on: When there are multiple kids, it tends to be easier to parent them. What does that even mean?

It means, kids can entertain themselves; and that’s (almost) exactly what happened this weekend in the mountains with our friends Andy and Laura (and kids). In a perfect world, the other two great families would have been with us as well: The Steinwedells and the Torres’. They were with us in spirit.

Five kids. Though that may sound insane, the kids are all pretty well behaved. We did what any parent would do, and threatened them that there are numerous bears outside eager to meet ill-behaved children. They seemed to respond well to that.

Originally the forecast called for a lot of rain, but it only ended up raining early on Friday.

Kids aren’t just gonna sit around and entertain themselves in an Air BNB, so Taylor found us the MAIN event of the weekend:

Ok, ok- the main event of the weekend was not eating at my favorite, mediocre quality burrito place from college. Yes, it is nostalgic, and yes, it is consistently ranked as a 6 out of 10; but it is a tradition to eat there between one and seven times on a weekend visit.

Taylor did some research and pointed us to the Alpine coaster in banner elk as a fun event.

Did it rain on our parade? Yes. Did we care? nah, it was great.

The carts are more sturdy than I was expecting; there are rules about going with two people on a cart/sled/buggy, and Mercy was on the very bottom range of height/weight/age to ride with someone. Were we afraid that she might be scared? Yes. Did we do it anyways? Again, yes.

There was a calculated risk about whether to film while going down the coaster, and I decided against it. However, here we are on the long haul UP the mountain:

You may be thinking, what did the three year old think about it? Did she have fun? She smiled long enough to get a pic of her, and that is saying a bit. One day she will get older and wonder why we don’t have any good pics of her as a kid, and the answer will be “You always frowned or ran away from a camera.” In the instance, she was buckled in and couldn’t escape her dad’s relentless pursuit of a silly selfie:

The best thing to do with kids while in the mountains? Try the classic dad move: “Let’s go for a hike!”. If you are an avid reader here at theloganfam.com, you may recall our last family hike with friends in the mountains where we got lost for several hours in the woods. This was not that. Everyone needs a story of redemption, and this was mine.

A 2.3 mile hike around the lake. It was about as easy as a hike could be if one wanted to avoid getting lost: keep the body of water on your right, and eventually, you will make it around the loop back to the car.

The kids did great. Honestly, it was a lot of fun. Of course I rushed the kids a bit to ensure that they didn’t get tired in the beginning of the hike, and not have enough energy to finish. I didn’t want to end up carrying anyone on my shoulders.

It was a lot of fun. The Peascoes are great friends, and it is wild to think how we started hanging out with only 2 kids between us.

On the way back from the hike, we sure were thirsty. So we did what any responsible parents would do, and stopped at a brewery for a pint before heading to the cabin for the night. An intense crayon coloring competition ensued:

Do you play games when you go on trips with family? We do; we used to play more games before bedtime routines became exhausting, but now the kids are getting old enough to where we can play games from time to time. So before a few hours of quiet, we went out with a bang by playing apples to apples, jr. Per usual, I lost by a wide margin.

This next part doesn’t apply to the whole group, but I would be remiss if it wasn’t included.

When I was in college, at the top of the mountain was a dangerous, rusty old fire tower on the ridge of the mountain overlooking campus. It also happened to be almost directly behind the house we were staying in. My initial instinct to take the kids on a “small hike to go see the fire tower” would have been wrong: we definitely would have gotten lost.

Back in college, it would take a four wheel drive car to get up there. The view was amazing. And since the three year old was melting down and needed a nap, I thought it was a great opportunity to go find the fire tower near our cabin for the weekend. Surely it would be easy to find on a foggy morning on a rough gravel road, right?

No. It wasn’t.

In fact, driving an AWD Acura MDX up that road was right up there with the not-smart things I have done. There was a point I had to turn around. Here is a clip, and of course, videos never do this kind of thing justice:

I got there. And it was disappointing. Unfortunately a fun, adventurous destination had become another 5G radio tower. The rusty old tower was gone. All the fun things are gone.

Thanks to all of the eight people that read this blog. If you are reading this, chances are you know me and/or my mom who is celebrating her birthday. Or you like reading up on Halloween and this caught your attention. So, welcome. And now you get to hear about my mom’s birthday.

She had one. And it was fun.

We got the family together and watched my niece’s presentation of Shrek for her school play.

Here she is along with the gingerbread man. Honestly, Amelia has personality bursting at the seams, and acting could totally be a thing for her.

But that’s not all! Cici’s birthday continued with dinner at the newest taco place in town, Southbound.

Getting together with the family is just fun. Sad to think the days are numbered now that the biggest one of the group – I am referring to the age of the children here- is in High School; those days are going to fly by, and she will be off to college.

But that’s not all! The birthday continued with a concert with Maverick City Music. If you haven’t heard of them, they were awesome. They do some powerful worship music.

Here we are before the show celebrating the poor lighting for selfies. Our seats were only three rows away from the worst seats in the place.

The venue was engineered for pretty awesome sound. Notice my technical words “pretty awesome”, and you will just have to understand that means the acoustics, even in the worst seats, were superb.

It was a powerful night of worship. It was good for the soul. These are the songs I have listened to over the past couple years, many on repeat, when things feel crummy, and seeing the show in person was a special moment.

The whole place was on their feet dancing, lifting their hands up, and just praising. Maybe more concerts like this should be on the agenda?

Ok, just one more about the show. Here is a short clip from one of the songs I have enjoyed over the past year:

Broadway

Well, it is a traveling broadway? But it starts with the letter “B” so let’s go with it.

Rosie, the apple of my eye, “Rosie Posie” as she is known, got to join Taylor and I and take advantage of our season tickets to the local venue to see the Broadway presentation of Aladdin.

It was dope. Aladdin was one of the few VHS tapes I owned as a kid; it was a Disney movie, without a princess, so of course I was into it. The best part of the movie? Robin Williams as the Genie. The best part of the play? Some other un-named guy playing the genie. I mean, he really stole the show.

We saw the lamp before the show.

Rosie and her friends totally 1-upped us when it came to taking a good picture though.

The show was a blast. And so was our fancy dinner before the show where we sugared up the kids before telling them to be quiet and sit still for a performance:

You probably guessed right: It was just me and a whole lot of girls for this evening as well.

Boo!

Not “Boo, you suck!” But “Boo” as in, Happy Halloween! Last post covered some halloween, like the fall-harvest festival at our church. If you didn’t read it, you honestly didn’t miss much.

But it did not include Halloween. And the kids in costumes that lit up Facebook: well, this is about 8 days too late to the party.

Every year for a few years now, Mallory, Everly, and Deborah come over for trick or treating. Guess what? Yes, I am the only dude in this situation as well.

Mercy is happier than she looks. Everly cracks me up every time. They love each other so much. And Rosie was almost shaking she was so excited to go get the candy.

Ok ok, this pic of Taylor just cracks me up. And if you zoom in on Mercy’s face.

Our neighborhood is bonkers for halloween. They close off the road, and the kids just do the rest. Rosie is old enough to run around with her friends almost unattended. Mercy didn’t really know to say “trick or treat” like she was supposed to (she did for 1 house).

So, we just strolled. Saw lots of friends, the weather was a bit chilly (coming from a guy who HATES the cold).

A few days later, Rosie didn’t have school for a teacher workday, so the daddy-daughter breakfast date at Tex and Shirley’s was special. Yes, the nostalgia that my wife loves to hate, that I went there with my dad when I was a kid, makes it pretty cool too. Back then, it was a different location, but I don’t want to sound like an old man going down memory lane…

We got to go on a hike around Greensboro on day last weekend. We made it 1 mile in about an hour, complete with a stop for a snack:

Again, Mercy is happier than she looks in this pic.

And, this just made me giggle, and I want to share it with no context: