Category: Uncategorized

Its fall. Taylor is on a work trip to Philadelphia for work, and I can’t sleep, so adding another blog post is the obvious best thing to do.

In our neighborhood, one thing we look forward to is the “scary house” that goes all-in for halloween decorations. They are a few blocks away so we haven’t had a chance to trick-or-treat at their house, but the setup is pretty extreme. Have you ever seen anything like this?

The new teacher fake-out

On Wednesday of last week, we got an email/voicemail/letter home from school informing us that Rosie’s teacher would be leaving. This was really sad. She really likes Mr. Robertson, her third grade teacher. He is new to the school, and has made a very big impact.

When I got home from running a few errands, this was how Rosie greeted me:

It was devastating for a third grader to lose her favorite teacher!
Why was he leaving? He was leaving because of a state law that stipulates how many teachers are needed for each class/grade. The letter/voicemail sent to us said that due to a miscalculation on student enrollment for the year, there were too many teachers for the third grade, and Mr. Robertson (the newest) would be re-assigned to another school.

The letter stated that the following day, Rosie would spend 1/2 a day with her current teacher, and then transition to 1/2 a day with her new teacher. Effective Friday, she would be with her new teacher.

This was not ok. Rosie was sobbing about this. Who made the decision to trade teachers 1/2 way through October, and in what universe is this in the student’s best interest?

After Rosie had a minute to calm herself, she said “I have to go make Mr. Robertson a card.” Rosie is a gem; what a sweet kid to have that be her first instinct:

I wrote emails. I was hot; I don’t usually write emails about these kinds of issues, but because of the impact it had on Rosie, I wanted the people in charge to know the fallout from their decisions. In the big picture, I know Rosie would be ok; she has plenty of friends, and her home life is stable. But someone, somewhere had to see the ring video that I captured of this sweet little third grader just devastated to know that her teacher was leaving.

The teacher, principal, School board representative, and the superintendent were copied on this rather hot email. What did the email say? In short, we are with you through all the things that are beyond your control (and I listed a few things like Covid, a lockdown, etc), but this is not beyond your control. And whoever made this decision should see the impact that it has on THIRD GRADERS. For older students, this would not be a big deal. For eight year old kids, this is a bond that is being broken from a new teacher that they have grown to trust; and it disrupts the learning process for her class, and all of the other classes that they are dispersed into.

The other parents were pissed too. With only 1/2 day warning, there wasn’t much time, but the parents of Rosie’s class got an email thread going of 37 people providing the names of who to contact at every level of the school system, and I am left to believe that there was a very high percentage of people that took it upon themselves to reach out to voice their concerns.

That’s when we learned that it would be on the radio. It turns out one of the parents from Rosies class is also a morning anchor on a local radio station. She brought this issue up and it must have received near 20 minutes of airtime about how bonkers this decision is. The school board must have been pretty pissed about this exposure. Here is the bit, as a link to watch it on Facebook:

https://fb.watch/nDnf3K52ql/

When Rosie got back from school the next day, I asked her how her day was. She said “all we did was cry all morning. One kid cried so hard she had to go see the nurse.” Again, this adds fuel to my fire. Who makes these kinds of decisions for third graders?

On Friday at noon, a day-and-a-half after we received the first notice of the teacher leaving, we got a an automated call at around noon saying that, “after carefully reviewing enrollment numbers, it has been determined that they WILL KEEP all third grade teachers.” The voicemail was tone-deaf to say the least.

So, next week I will be attending my first school board meeting to address this issue.

UNC Dominates Syracuse on the gridiron

On Monday, I got a call from my buddy Charlie Hiser asking if I could make it to the football game that weekend. Charlie has been my buddy since sixth grade, and though it is probably for the best that I cannot find any solid pictures from the early years, here is a good early, appropriate picture of Charlie and Taylor from 2007:

Yes, I could make the game! Just like old times, going with Charlie and his set-dad Jerry, we made the 1 hr drive to Chapel Hill, capitalized on Jerry’s long-time donor status with great parking, and were at the game. UNC basically dominated, but Charlie and I got some great laughs in. It was great to catch up with him. He lives in Chapel Hill now, and though it is close, we haven’t gotten to see each other too often. Maybe more games in the future is the best answer? Anyways, here are some pics:

We saw the basketball team coming in before the game:

Here is a completely unrelated video I wanted to share: Rosie reading to her sister the day before her birthday. Nevermind Rosie’s face: it had facepaint from the Greek festival we attended earlier that day:

And Mercy crushing it on her scooter on a Saturday morning:

Yesterday was Mercy’s third birthday. While thinking about the birthday, Taylor got this notification from a video three years ago that I wanted to share. This is Rosie, the day before she became a big sister.

So what do we do for such a special kid’s third birthday? One thing I admire about Taylor is her ability to not give in to pressure, and keep things simple and manageable. This party was no exception.

She often says, “just do one thing”, and the one thing we did was a balloon-twister for the kids, at a local park.

Instead of inviting our own friends, and Rosie’s friends that we have gotten close with over the years, Mercy’s friends were invited, including her friend Maren that we have heard so much about. Basically, Mercy ignored everyone else and played on the slide with her friend:

They also had their cupcakes together

Thank you to everyone that came. Even though Mercy knocked the cupcakes off the counter 10 minutes before we left the house, the cupcakes were smeared, but remained in the containers. The result was a messy, but still edible, cupcake.

The balloon twister was a lot of fun.

A lot of family and longtime-friends were able to make it. Including Matt, who I have seen once since Christmas.

At home, Rosie read Mercy a special story before we went to bed the night before. The book is “Birthday Monsters” by Sandra Boynton:

Then, as is custom in our house, there were balloons to wake up to:

Finally, the big present, and something we got for free from a neighbor down the street, our own bouncy-house.

So, this is a short post this week. Taylor made it all happen and the way she can put these things together with such grace is pretty cool. Thank you Tay for being such an awesome party-planner/mom/wife, as well as a good employee where you work.

Cobe and Rachael got married in Raleigh this weekend. It was a great wedding, and a wonderful weekend all around.

Rachael looked great, and it was special to hear more about their relationship and lives together.

Cobe is Taylor’s younger cousin, and he just passed the bar this past summer. The Bride, Rachael, is crushing it in data analytics wherever she is working these days (somewhere in Raleigh, I am uncertain where).

We got dressed fancy for the occasion- it had been a while since dressing up in a suit. It seemed like before Covid, so it was hard to tell. Were skinny pants still in style? I wasn’t really sure, but old-reliable gray suit got to make another appearance: this was the free suit I got at my own wedding 13 years ago, and still fits. But, it is getting a little worse-for wear, and might not be completely in style anymore.

Back to the wedding though…

We all clean up pretty nice.

From left: Me, Taylor, Mallory and Dereck (Taylors brother), Grandma Becky, Deborah, and Ted (Taylor’s parents).

What really stood out at the wedding?

Everyone’s answer to this is going to be different.

For me, Cobe is just Taylor little cousin, and one of the “kids” at the beach house every summer for family beach week. This means it is in context of going to and from the sand, ensuring food is available for everyone at the house, etc. Cobe is just a polite, somewhat quiet little cousin.

That’s what made the wedding so special. Hearing from their friends, and listening to the stories about his relationships with his family, and his relationship with Rachael added some meat to the story. We got to hear who Cobe really is: a kind, polite, and it seems above all, humble guy who really is thoughtful about the people that surround him.

Ok, Let’s just look at pictures from the wedding.

The shared iCloud album has several hundred (thousand?) images in it, here are a few that seemed special:

Dereck dancing with his grandmother:

Here is the venue: on the 12th floor of a building in downtown Raleigh:

Kiyoe, I hope you are getting all this- you know more about weddings than anyone else reading this blog.

Cutting the cake:

I got to meet a fan of the blog: Taylor’s cousin, who reads every week.

They did some fun dancing at the end. This video kinda had me laughing as Deborah worked her way through the steps in the electric slide:

Then Ted and Deborah sharing a dance:

Other parts of the weekend

Where the heck are Rosie and Mercy?

The bride and groom had a kid-free weekend for us. Taylor is a VIP for putting everything together for the kids to be taken care of while we were out.

First, they spent time with Grandma (above).

Then, they did a sleepover with their older cousins.

Then, the babysitter came and hung out the last several hours until we got home from the Sunday reception, at around 8:30.

While they were well taken care of, there were the “other” parts of the weekend as well.

The reception was on Sunday, so on Saturday, we did a lunch at the Raleigh Times:

Then, on to watch some Saturday afternoon football games as App State played Eastern Carolina University. We went to Woodys:

The next day ( we went to bed early) Taylor and I did a quick run of 3 miles around downtown:

We stayed at the Downtown Marriot while the Latin Festival was going on:

One thing we learned about the Marriot is that they do offer complimentary toothpaste if you forgot yours. A 0.17 oz container:

The quiet weekend away from kids was 100%; highly recommend.

Dara and Ken, thanks for the awesome weekend. Cobe and Rachael, congrats! Enjoy your honeymoon in Italy! Kenna, woohoo! You made it to the blog!

We got to go to Ocean Isle Beach for Labor Day weekend, the Folk Festival was back in Greensboro, and we got a new roof.

This is the view of Ocean Isle Beach when crossing the bridge onto the island. There is only 1 way onto the island, and this is it. The girls got to leave school a bit early to beat the traffic, and we made it in time for dinner and the Friday afternoon music in the park. This time around, our family was to tired on Friday afternoon, we could barely put one foot in front of the other, so there wasn’t much dancing, but we still had a good time.

This time around, Rosie was really into something:

If you are viewing this from a phone, you might not be able to tell with great clarity, but that is Rosie on a boogie board. She did this for almost 7 hours on Saturday, and the same on Sunday. The waves were awesome, and Rosie was fearless. There were groups to the left and the right of slightly older kids, but Rosie still wanted her Dad out there to “tell her which waves to get.” I was happy to oblige, and give her that big push on the board to catch the perfect wave in. It was all smiles.

Mercy was almost all smiles this weekend.

I love this picture. Rosie is so happy and proud for an audience to watch her on the boogie board.

Though there interests are different, one place where the smiles are shared (almost every time), is the golf cart:

One evening I got to spend a little 1:1 time with Rosie and hop over to the ice cream place. It is hard to get that time with her now because when she gets home, Mercy always escalates and screams and demands attention, and Rosie is so busy with dance and friends, it seems like there are less moments with her. So, I jumped at the chance to take her for ice cream, and we saw this:

It wasn’t just 1 deer. We counted 9 of them:

Not too far away, we saw this little fox. It looked a few pounds bigger than a cat:

Finally, after a long, long drive home, when it seemed there were way too many potty breaks, and way too many “Are we there yet”, we got home. You know what these kids did when we pulled in the driveway?

They stayed in the car and played together. Whatever. They were smiling and laughing. Often these moments are the same: Rosie will be trying SO HARD to play with her little sister by getting her to do something, and Mercy will “play” by absolutely messing with her sister, and refusing to do what she says; Mercy smiles while doing the opposite. A bit mischievous, but I see what’s going on here.

---

Folky

The Folk Festival came to town this weekend. It has been in Greensboro for several years now. This is something we tried to figure out but couldn’t: how many years HAS this event been happening? 5? 7? We didn’t really know.

But, we got the chance to go downtown on Saturday night and meet up with our friends the Cores and the Lynams. Now that I look at it, I don’t think we got any good pictures of us together. Maybe I am running out of excitement to catch these moments for the blog as they happen?

It seemed like a good turnout.

We ran into Amelia and Matt.

Rosie got to meet up with a friend, Hunter, who is also our neighbor. It was fun, but there isn’t much to share about this. The music was ho-hum, but a fun atmosphere, and unfortunately, I didn’t get any of it on video.

---

A new roof

Our house is almost 70 years old. We have been in this house about 4 years, and one of the things that has been in need of work is the roof. We have these trees that allow mildew up there, and it was just showing its age. I was afraid it would spring a leak with any passing storm, and by then, the price would have ballooned quite a bit.

Like most things, pictures don’t do it justice. We tried twice to see if there was any hail damage, but our homeowners insurance denied it both times. The roof was around 20 years old, surely there was SOME hail damage during that time, right? I am not sure exactly how insurance makes their determinations about that kind of thing, but they didn’t see it that way.

Ugh, that image above looks terrible.

But, knowing that it had to be done because we plan on being in this house for a while, we researched a couple of roofing companies. The range of pricing was wild. However, we went with the company that had been around for a long time. They were a bit more expensive, but they said that if they found any damaged wood underneath, they would replace it was part of the price. Since I overanalyze everything and was confident they would find utter ruin, that spoke nicely to my concerns.

The weather was brutal on those workers, but they got it done in 1 day.

They worked hard for that money. It was tough to work from home that day, so I spent most of the day at the coffee shop. Unfortunately, Taylor had trainings all day, and had to endure the sound of hammers, and a barking dog all day.

The finished product looked great though. One less thing to worry about.

Rosie started another school year, and she is pumped. It doesn’t take much to get her excited though.

In addition to being excited about a new school year, mom and dad are excited for the fall and a little bit more routine mixed in with everything.

We started the walk to school “parent train” again; a group of 3-4 families meet at the corner and cycle through taking the kids the last 1/4 mile to the front door of the school. Honestly, this is the best. I never thought walking to school would be a highlight, but I really enjoy this time in the mornings.

Mercy doesn’t smile much- but she was smiling just BEFORE this picture was taken.

Speaking of Mercy…

Sleep regression is terrible. A few weeks ago, Taylor was out with some friends and a storm rolled in over our house. This would normally be no big deal, but the storm came in right at about Mercy’s bedtime, and it was a little unusual. Instead of the storm lasting about 15 minutes and passing by, the storm just stalled, and sat right over our house, for about 90 minutes.

Every time I said “it’s going to stop real soon”, I proved to be a liar. It didn’t stop, and Mercy got scared. I got frustrated- bedtime ended up being close to a 2 hour routine that night.

Ever since then, Mercy has been freaking out at bedtime. Instead of going nicely to her bed, she insists that the door stay open. She has a million reasons NOT to stay in her bed (I need water, I need a hug, I need to go potty). She screams and screams, and if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she will scream and scream unless you stay in the room with her. And she will just come out of her room and scream and wake the whole house up. Rosie is struggling too, because her sleep is interrupted throughout the night.

Taylor and I are exhausted. This has been terrible. Yet, not enough time has passed to where this will be a long-term habit, but we do not want it to go on much longer. What should be done?

Personally, after 90 minutes, my patience is usually around 0. If she cannot fall asleep after 90 minutes, I am tempted to give her a sleep aid of some kind, but that isn’t the best solution.

What does the internet say we should do?

• Read before bed.
• Create a nighttime routine
• Give her a blankie to keep her “safe”
• Spend time in her room to normalize it.
• Talk calmly and gentle to her about bedtime.

Done and done- now what? None of this addresses her issue- a calm kid, until bed time.

We went to the beach last weekend, partially with the hope that a change of scenery would help. It did- sort of. But, we talked it over, and decided one of the main issues is that she keeps coming out of her room. She would still be sleeping in a crib (not her current big-kid bed), except she kept getting out of it. At the same time, she is begging for the door to stay open. The challenge is that her room is right beside the living room, so if her door is open, the family is “held hostage” by this action, knowing that the slightest sneeze could put us into a 30 minute spiral.

So I had an idea: We need to keep her in her room, and she needs to learn to comfort herself when she is worked up like that. Our house (and doors and doorknobs) are close to 70 years old, so the normal child proof doorknobs won’t work. But this did: a simple, lock from the outside for children.

We tried it last night, and per usual, she freaked out at bedtime. For 15 minutes I did what the internet said: speak calmly, put her back in her bed, and do not match her level of screaming or stress. Then, I just locked it, and something amazing happened: she fell asleep.

This may seem insignificant depending on when the last time was you were around small kids, but this was huge for us. After dragging trough life like a living dream for 2 weeks, we may be getting to the other side.

The expensive parts

Life is expensive sometimes, and we are entering into one of those seasons. We have several trees in the front yard, and because of them, our roof is showing its age and needs to be replaced. We have been working with insurance about it, but they will not budge, so we need to pay out-of-pocket for it, and paying for a roof is like paying for new tires: it is expensive, and you don’t have much to show for it. After that expense, everything still functions just like it did before.

In addition to the roof, we have slowly been putting the pieces together for the outdoor garage, and how the electricity out there is not working properly. And electrician pointed out that there are two lines feeding the garage, and one of them was cut; the other line was 90% cut, and created some “arcing”, which is similar to “sparking”, where the current turns on and off repeatedly.

This had the impact of frying everything out there: Tv, stereo, AC unit. And, the only way to fix it is by re-trenching a new line out there, which is also thousands of dollars.

But that’s not all. Before going the beach last weekend, the car needed to be inspected and have the oil changed.

“You need new tires and axles.” Axles? Since when do cars go through axles? When getting the car back, all sorts of other lights were on on the dash; what the heck is a VBA system in a car? Ours has an issue now, it seems. Luckily, the mechanic will fix all the lights. Unfortunately, it was after my father in law had to drive the car and saw a colorful dash filled with errors.

Ugh. Life is expensive, but we will make it through. I think Taylor and I are both getting close to looking into a new car the next time our bill is a couple thousand dollars.

This is a picture of Taylor on her birthday back in 2012- throwback to our days in Virginia when we jumped over to a vineyard with some friends for a birthday.

This week was busy: Family birthday dinner with her family last weekend (Also to celebrate sister-in-law Mallory’s birthday too), birthday with friends at a local brewery on Thursday, then Logan family birthday dinner last night.

Unfortunately there were no family pictures with Taylor’s family last weekend to share. But the cousins sure are a lot of fun when they play together:

Similarly, there were no great group-shots of Taylor’s birthday dinner with Friends on Thursday.

But I did get this shot of Mercy and John (Houston’s middle child) playing on the free video games; both of them like the motorcycle game.

This moment seemed special, so for full context, I took a video as well. This stuff is gonna be worth while when these kiddos get bigger:

Then, what was really special was to do a family dinner at mom’s house last night. The summer was busy, and there has been a lot of transition, but this kind of thing is worth fighting for; the family got together for dinner, and it was great. These cousins are so special together. Lila is getting so big. Amelia and Mercy are really clicking as friends these days.

Mercy even smiled.

Everywhere I go I am surrounded by girls. As we were out back catching up on summer trips and whatnot, my mom noticed it was quiet. She went inside to find this: all the girls doing each others hair. Everywhere I go I am surrounded by girls, but this is really special. In 4 short years, Lila will go to college. With that in mind, each of these moments is really special.

---

The real birthday gem this year

There are two things to point out here:

1. Our first year of marriage, Taylor kept a blog on blogspot. It was a great blog: witty, funny, charming. It was like a “public journal” (Taylor’s words describing it) just looking at some of the funny things about being married. In many ways, her boldness in keeping a blog is what inspired me to do this blog. Anyways, if you care to take a look, here is the link: http://cellardwellin.blogspot.com
2. It is hard to get an excellent, thoughtful gift for Taylor. She has set the bar so high. She is thoughtful at buying gifts for anyone. She will see something four months ahead of someone’s birthday while she is out of town somewhere, buy it, take it home, and remember to wrap it on her friend’s special day. Again, it is one of the things I love about Taylor.
   When I have to get a gift though, it doesn’t have the same level of “thoughtfulness”. This year though, I feel like I nailed it.
   That blog I listed above? I got it printed and turned into a book.

Over a 2 year period, the blog had so much content that printing it resulted in a. 3 volume set. However, we are excited to have this beauty to look on as a coffee table book for years to come.

There wasn’t a trip this week. Summer is winding down, and only a few more weeks until school starts up again. A few days ago, Rosie was not so excited about the idea; after going back-to-school shopping and picking out some pretty slick shoes, now she is pumped again.

It has just been a normal week. We got together with friends to celebrate their newest kid being born, Millie. Her story is a great one, and if you get a chance, ask Houston about it.

This group- Charles, Chad, Houston and I were roommates back in our App State days. The picture from below is from 2007.

Time with these friends is just special; we all are turning out ok. And, after a little bit of polish, we got a picture of all of our kiddos, including the newest edition:

Shortly afterwards, it descended into chaos with uncle Charles.

Why uncle? These guys have been around my life for at least 20 years; Houston for 30+ years (and we aren’t too old). So Rosie only knows them as “uncle”, and they only know me as “uncle pooks”.

---

The other things

Rosie seems to have an abundance of friends everywhere, and they are sweet. They laugh. And they are getting a little older, and not having the same types of arguments as they did in kindergarten about sharing; you know what I mean, the kinds of arguments where parents have to intervene. Now, it is a little more hands off, and fun to watch the smiles.

Rosie did a dance camp last week. All the kids seem to know their moves, but the timing isn’t there. Isn’t there usually someone around snapping their fingers on tempo to keep the dancers in sync? I dunno, they have a “snapper” role like that in the dance scenes in movies.

Mercy has been a lot of fun the past several weeks too. We may be getting past the hardest time. Her personality is shining; she is learning to play by herself, and she is even smiling a bit more:

Also, at the pool, next year is gonna be great; what I mean is, Taylor and I might get back closer to the “kids can swim and they need less life-saving attention.” Mercy is on the right track, at 2, to really start swimming:

Remodel?

I’m a bit hesitant to write this as time is running short before the kids wake up, and I want to do it justice.

Our house is great. It was built in the mid 50’s, which means it is around 70 years old. Taylor wants to redo our kitchen. Again, I want to be as delicate as I can with each of these words; let’s take a step back and look at the big picture.

What I wrote about last week in our anniversary post was how the thing I love most about Taylor is how she is nice to people; this is very true. Taylor and I host well together, and it is something we enjoy. We both work towards something (A meal, good conversations, cleaning), and work as a team during those times.

An extension of that is to have a great place to host. Currently, (I think) our kitchen is fine; good lighting, large enough, good appliances, etc. It isn’t the original kitchen from the 1950s.

Taylor wants an island to make the kitchen better for hosting; and in order to add an island, a load-bearing wall needs to come down, the dining room would need to be removed, and who knows what else.

Without getting too far in the details, we both think on this differently, and that’s (mostly) fine.

What will it take to get you excited about a kitchen?

-Taylor

Since our house is 70 years old, what is the smartest way to approach it? My response was As soon as all of the other needs of the house are addressed, and we have enough in savings in case a car dies, the AC dies, the water heater goes, or anything else needs fixing. What is that amount? I don’t know. However, we have a few cracks in the plaster in the house. What causes those? Are they a big issue? Something that can be ignored? I am not a house-guy, I have no idea.

What we both agree on is that a new roof is the first need. So, this week, after a few unsuccessful attempts to claim hail damage through insurance, we are taking the steps to get a new roof.

Stay tuned.

In case you were wondering if this is a “life is perfect, marriage is so awesome all the time” post, it’s not. Yesterday was our anniversary, and neither of us woke up madly in love with each other. But we know how to connect, and talk through things. I’m just being real here.

There are 2,852 images of us together in our Amazon photos account. These are four images that are the highlights. However, there are plenty of lowlights between the images as well, and I am going to point out some of the big ones here.

We met the summer after 10th grade. Taylor was outgoing, and one of the things I liked most about her was the way she was nice to people, and had the unique ability to rally people to play a game, go to a party, etc. She still has this trait, and it’s attractive.

After this image, there was college, other boyfriends/girlfriends, etc. She moved to Elon to do Intervarsity, and after I graduated college, I moved to the Dominican Republic to teach English. This all took place over about 8 years. 8 years in the friend zone.

One Thanksgiving phone call, she said she liked me. And that was all it took.

Shortly after, I moved to where she was- in Harrisonburg, VA- with only $600 to my name. No car, no phone, and only a summer internship to go on. There was absolutely no backup plan. And no finances to rely on as a parachute.

We got married at Grace Community Church. A small part of our wedding video went viral- but I won’t go into that here.

After the wedding, we lived in Virginia for the next 3 years or so.

Taylor is so cute, and she has no idea she could do much, much better than me.

Virginia was great. We got our first house, and had lots of fun with friends. But there were definitely some low lights during that time.

I was fired from my job. I was let go of another job. This was terrifying, and I still think we both carry some PTSD from how that impacted us.

We had trouble getting pregnant with Rosie during those years. It was sad, y’all. Again, I won’t go into the details here, but the images posted are by far the highlights; but there were plenty of low-lights to tell the story between the images.

Taylor VERY shortly after having a c-section. She might kill me for posting this image up here.

We finally got to meet Rosie. At this point, we moved to NC several months before. Taylor was pregnant when we moved, and her parents let us move in for a few months while we looked for our next house.

Rosie was born, and we were house-poor. It was great though- because we really prayed and waited to meet this little girl. Again, how we got pregnant with Rosie is a long story I won’t go into now.

I was selling print advertising at the time. To this day, I can’t tell if it was because the Greensboro economy is terrible, or if I was just really bad at it, but I did not hit my “numbers” and was let go. Another lowlight.

This time, I went to see a career coach. After a barrage of personality tests, skills and interests tests, etc, she said “sales is a terrible idea for you. You should probably do IT”. So I did. And haven’t looked back: it has been very rewarding for me.

We found a church we liked. We wanted Rosie to be a big sister. There were some pregnancies that didn’t work out. There was an adoption where the mom changed her mind. We prayed a lot during that time. There were some lowlights for sure.

Mercy Ren was born in the same hospital I was. It was during Covid, so no guests were allowed. But Rosie was a big sister.

Guys, I love Taylor. I really do. But life is messy. There are plenty of hard things. So far, what I have learned is that waiting has been a theme: wait 9 years to date tay, 3 years to have Rosie, 5 years to have Mercy; 9 years to find the right career path.

We have prayed through lot’s of junk over the years. There is no other way. And l am no Prince Charming- I am grumpy without enough sleep, and need to do better about that.

At this point, I have known Taylor 23 years: this is WELL over 1/2 my life. And I know I could never marry better than her. She is a saint. She is a much better mom than I ever could have imagined. She works hard. She reads her Bible. And, just like when we were 16, she is nice to people, and I love that about her.

Though our 13th anniversary was on a Monday this year, Friday night will be date night- and both of us will wake up a little more “madly in love” than we were on Monday.

Last year we started a family tradition: A long weekend trip with just our small family. It worked out great, so we did it again this year; this time, not the beach, but the mountains. During the hottest week on record.

Question: What the heck are you supposed to do in Asheville?

Answer: Text a friend with kids who lives there, and do almost everything they recommend.

First stop on Thursday evening: A couple breweries near downtown. Burial Beer is amazing. And, the two car-cabs to climb on were a hit for Mercy.

Because it was over 90 degrees and humid and I was pushing a stroller, and Rosie didn’t feel like walking, we started with the brewery that was the LOWEST elevation and decided to go from there.

At the top of the hill- as high as we wanted to go anyways- we did get to stop at my favorite destination: the Wicked Weed Brewery.

It was funny how Rosie has really been into the song “Eye of the tiger” recently, you know, the song famous from the Rocky movies.

So, this is my blog, and I wanted to post a real-life picture of me at the top of Baltimore blvd after pushing a stroller with both Rosie and Mercy, with very low pressure in the tires:

There was an epic battle that went into a few rounds of overtime trying to get the youngest daughter to sleep. She had a strong amount of fight in her, but after almost 2 hours, everyone slept just ok.

---

The Biltmore

Not gonna lie, ya’ll, it was HOT. But, this was my big ask for the trip.

I take it you have seen pics of this place before. It is where the movie Richie Rich was filmed; you know, the Disney movie about a kid who is richer than Gates and Bezos combined.

Anyways, what struck me the most was how BIG it was. Sure, this doesn’t look too big from the image- but that main door? It’s about 20 feet wide. So the SCALE is just MASSIVE.

We had a lot of fun seeing the gardens; it really was amazing. In the shade, it wasn’t too bad. Eye of the tiger, baby…

---

There’s more

There were plenty more places to see downtown, but no-no; this workhorse needed a break. I seriously didn’t feel right after pushing our bob stroller around, and carting up and down those stairs that day.

We did a quick recharge in the hotel room, and even though many people have talked about going to this place, we had never actually been to the Sierra Nevada Brewery before. It didn’t disappoint.

Now that the kids were fully recharged, they were ready to: get stuck on the elevator.

Even before ordering my first drink, Taylor and I took the elevator upstairs on the two-floor world headquarters and brewery. Rosie was pushing the stroller simply because she wanted to- and learned a valuable lesson: elevator doors close if you aren’t exiting the elevator carriage. And so it did; with Mercy and Rosie inside.

They ended up going back downstairs. I sprinted down the stairs 3 steps at a time. And found a very calm, cool and collected Rosie standing with the stroller and her little sister- eyes big like she had seen a ghost- but not crying. There was hugging. And we all learned a lesson that day.

The rest of the brewery was amazing. I didn’t get enough pics to really do it just. It took a lot of re-hydrating to get back to normal after the Biltmore that morning.

Asheville has a drum circle. What does that even mean? Taylor kept talking about wanting to do- and sure, I had heard of it, but what the heck was it?

Well, we found it. All I can say is, remember to take showers and use shampoo on a regular basis:

We stayed with Nick and Lindsey the third night. They have been in the area about 5 years and live in West Asheville (it was her recommendations from the weekend that we followed). It was tons of fun seeing them. They were good friends of ours in College, and she is Taylor’s best friend since middle-school days. It is pretty solid to see Rosie make fast-friends with their daughter now as they behaved more like teenagers than little kids- in a good way- just chit-chatting and telling stories.

Oh wait, there was one more brewery: Highlands Brewery. Not as epic as Sierra Nevada, but pretty high on the list. They had an outdoor place for kids, beach volleyball, frisbee golf, and lots of other cool stuff. This post is getting pretty long, so time to wrap it up.

Once again, I was a little too wrapped up to get any good pics. Mercy was potty training, so this was a common thread throughout the weekend. Taylor, you are amazing in the patience you had for it.

Lindsey was a great host. I bonded with their younger one as we talked about Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Now I want to buy that game).

The next morning, our family was really dragging on some low energy tanks, we did a quick walk and had some breakfast from a bakery down the street from their house.

The kids were awesome together. It was sad to leave, but our potty-training mission would likely be more successful if we took it back to Greensboro.

And, as soon as we got back to Greensboro, this happened:

Rosie accidentally locked Mercy in her room. These doorknobs are about 60 years old, so they don’t play nicely. The windows were locked, so the only option was to take apart the doorknob. She was rescued before a single tear was shed.

Now, only 1 more month of summer…

How about you guys? What are you doing this summer? What are your favorite things to do in Asheville? Leave a comment below; you don’t have to enter a website, even though it asks for one.

Rosie went to her first overnight camp a few weeks ago. Some people have asked, “Is she nervous?”, or “How are you feeling about it?” or “Do you think she is ready?”

For Rosie, the answer is a resounding, “She was born for this.” What I mean by that is that she is going to crush it. She is the kind of kid that gets excited about crafts, loves to try new things, loves to make new friends, and thrives by being around other people.

Contrast that with my demeanor at 8 going to summer camp: Not super outgoing, thought crafts were lame, didn’t enjoy group sports, and didn’t exactly love being away from my room for a week.

She went to camp willow springs, which is about 2 hours away. This is a camp for kids Rosie’s age, and they have a sister camp, camp willow RUN, for teenagers. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think Evan was a counselor there.

Rosie went with her best friend, Meryl.

The camp seemed great. Taylor went for drop off, and I went for pickup. It was about 2 hours away, and the process was super quick: Drive 2 hours, get your kids, drive two hours back.

The ride back was pretty great. Normally excited kids talking and singing really loudly in the back seat have a short lifespan in our car.

not this time.

Her and Meryl sang their camp songs and told stories for about 30 minutes, lowered their volume (on their own choosing) and talked for about 30 minutes, complained for about 15 minutes, and then slept. It was great.

Mercy really missed her big sis. When we went to pick up Mercy from school that Friday, Rosie jumped out of the car so excited to see her little sis. Mercy, in true fashion, walked right past her. Rosie’s head sunk (she still smiled though), as she walked back to the car.

A few seconds later, Mercy grabs Rosie’s arm and pulls her close. We may never understand that child.

---

Country Concert

What was your favorite concert? What band would you pay top-dollar to see, past or present? These are the questions we asked lots of people over the week just getting excited to go to a concert.

Taylor found out about this show from our babysitter, River, and luckily our friends Andy and Laura were free that Thursday night.

It has been a few years since my last concert- maybe the Avett Brothers, NYE 2019? And this was my very first country concert.

Thomas Rhett at the Greensboro Coliseum was a lot of fun- better than I expected. Taylor had a blast. And thanks Zippy for babysitting and making the night happen.

This group in front of us- about 8 late teens if I had to guess, included two people who were going a bit WILD in the first part of the show. I am talking hair swinging, head banging, jumping up and down for each song.

They crashed and burned early though and were sitting by the second half of the show, much to my delight.

This was the little tribute I recorded for Rosie, a familiar song for her:

---

This and that.

We also went to see Taylor’s cousin, Cobe for his engagement party. It was a lot of fun, and we got to see all of the work the Haney’s did to their new house.

We stayed the night with Taylor’s other cousin, Brooke, in Raleigh. The cousins had a blast- Rosie has a rocking life with family and friends around every corner.

Anyways, sometimes people ask what I write about on this blog? And the answer is simple: I look at the pictures from the past week, and write about the things we have pictures for,

Unfortunately I don’t have many pics from the engagement party, or pics from the night with Brooke, so I couldn’t write much about them. Maybe next time?