Signs of Spring

Just as I was having a "What in the world will I blog about today?" moment, subject matter dropped into my lap! Usually, I'd be grateful, but this news was more than a bit alarming. Yes, my friends, I can definitively announce that Spring is here! While that would normally be a joyous news, Spring does have some associated negatives. Pollen is a major one! Everything in our area is coated with a THICK layer of pollen. It is gross and will do doubt trigger sinus infections galore! I know it's bad because I don't usually suffer from allergy symptoms and even I'm popping Claritin like candy. Oh, and they're saying the pollen counts will be even higher this weekend. How that's possible, I just don't know!

Another negative that can be attributed to Spring...Insects! Bugs are starting to reappear. Yuck! It's sad when you're applying insect repellent in February. I had high hopes that our record-breaking frigid temps throughout December and January would result in fewer bugs. Wrong!

However, as annoying as allergies and bugs can be, I've saved the absolute WORST for last...My paranoia is at an all time high thanks to an email warning circulating through the neighborhood. Apparently, one of my nature-loving neighbors encountered my arch-nemesis this week. Well, at least one of them, a 5-foot long Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake!!! Oh joy!!! My neighbor even took a picture of it as proof for any doubters that might question his tale. Thankfully, this particular enemy was spotted on the far side of my community well away from my house. Of course, snakes do roam, and unfortunately, my nature-loving neighbor didn't feel compelled to go all Marie Antoinette on this creature. Dang it!

So, it's back to paved surfaces for me. Yet another Spring, Summer, and Fall without stepping foot in the grass. Crazy? Yes, but at least I now there's reason to be paranoid. They are indeed out to get me, and they're calling in the BIG guys for reinforcement!

Testosterone Dreams

While visiting his grandsons was surely an added bonus, the real reason behind Grandfather's visit was Race Week 2011! Grandfather and Uncle Travis made the trek down to Daytona for The Bud Shootout on February 12th, and by all accounts, it was quite a show. Sounds like we may permanently incorporate that event into our Race Week itinerary. With 30 teams competing at record-breaking speeds for 75 laps, you're almost guaranteed BIG excitement with lots of wrecks which is all part of the fun as long as nobody gets hurt.

The following weekend was more of a family affair when Anh, the boys, Grandma, and I joined Grandfather for his second trip to Daytona International Speedway for Saturday's Nationwide Series race. While only Jaxon and Grandfather had tickets to the main event, we all enjoyed the pre-race exhibits outside the Speedway. The boys were even able to get up close and personal with the cars. Some of the excitement has worn off for Jax since his first year attending the race, but he was thrilled to ride some simulators and enjoyed all of the other hands-on attractions. Oh, and of course the actual race was a huge hit. Baylor was simply amazed by the entire scene especially the free samples and trinkets that every booth seemed to be passing out to the fans.

Last year, the event seemed down-sized compared to past years, and we attributed that to the questionable economy. Companies were probably hesitant to spend the advertising dollars when ticket sales were down. This year, corporate sponsors were out in full force. Hopefully, that's a sign the nation is on the mend. However, I suspect that attendance was up due to a more sentimental reason. This year's 53rd running of The Daytona 500 marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of racing legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. at the Speedway. Earnhardt's passing changed NASCAR and racing forever. Plus, the racetrack has been repaved which is a rare event and adds to the overall excitement.

Thankfully, the boys were unaware of the solemn anniversary. As a matter of fact, the crowd seemed jubilant and ready to party. I mean, it is the Super Bowl of NASCAR after all! Getting back to the pre-race fun, we tried our hand at changing the tires in record time. Let's just say, Baylor and I have lots of room for improvement before any of the pit crews will be interested in recruiting us!The boys' favorite exhibit was hosted by the U.S. Army. Guns, guns, and more guns! Should I be worried?I think so! Just a little bit!There were definitely more child-friendly exhibits like the Budweiser Clydesdale horses. Although, they just didn't prove to be as exciting for the boys as the machine guns and rifles. Go figure! Buck, the horse, did seem to take a liking to Jaxon and Baylor though. There was mutual fascination coming from both sides of the bars, a settling feeling for mom after the excitement of watching my children play with real weapons.It wouldn't be a day ending in -Y, if Jaxon didn't point out a dream car. That particular day it was a gleaming yellow Corvette. I see trouble on the horizon. My gut tells me it'll hit right around Jaxon's 16th birthday. Lord, help me! I'm pretty sure I've figured out what he's saving his money for!The monster truck was more Baylor's speed. It only makes sense. Both possess a talent for destruction on a grand scale!Finally, it was time to part ways with Grandfather and Jaxon. Grandfather's excitement for the race never fails! It's cute actually. It doesn't matter whether it's his first, second, or third time at The Speedway. He's ready to hear the engines roar! For the record, this is Grandfather's 4th trip to The 500, but who's counting? Ha!

Grandfather and Jax made their way into the grandstand while Anh, Grandma, and I distracted Baylor so he wouldn't realize he was missing out on the real excitement. Don't feel too bad for our little guy. He's still a bit young to really enjoy hours of racing. He'd never be able to sit still for that long. Regardless, next year, Baylor will enjoy his first race with Grandfather. Who knows, maybe we'll even spring for 4 tickets so all the guys can go together. Grandma and I would certainly enjoy the break!Of course, the real excitement was reserved for the big boys on Sunday. Grandfather and Anh made the final trek back to Daytona for the grand finale. On Sunday, NASCAR pulls out all the stops for The 500. The Speedway is a strange mix of celebrities, die-hard life-long NASCAR fans, curious first-timers, and those that are just along for the ride with one of the above. It's quite a sight! Not that I've seen it first-hand, but some of the pictures and stories I've heard are hilarious to say the least. Fashion sense is out the window at NASCAR events. The trashier the better!This year, country superstar Brad Paisley entertained the crowd as the opening act, and the grand marshals for the race were the stars of this summer's blockbuster Transformers 3. Shhhh! Don't tell Jax! He'd be devastated to have missed out on the fun.In honor of Dale Earnhardt, there was a Lap 3 moment of silence because Earnhardt drove the Number 3 car.Records were shattered on that picture perfect afternoon in Daytona which made for one exciting day. On the freshly paved track (NASCAR didn't want a repeat of last year!), there were 74 lead changes which broke the previous record of 60, and a record 16 cautions at The 500 due to a few dramatic wrecks. One of those wrecks stripped Anh's and the nation's favorite driver, Dale Jr., of his chance at victory. It wasn't the ending so many had hoped for, but that doesn't mean it wasn't thrilling. Twenty-year old Trevor Bayne captured the checkered flag breaking yet another record. He is the youngest driver to win The 500. This year was clearly one for the record books!
As Dale Earnhardt once said, "You win some, lose some, and wreck some." Looking forward to Race Week 2012!

Haunted

Do you believe Spirits are among us? I do. Anh does too, and as I learned this past week, Grandfather believes as well. My first clue was Grandfather's refusal to watch the scary movie Paranormal Activity 2 with us. We had already been warned by Kelly (aka Aunt Kelly) not to watch the movie because the house in the movie resembles ours. For the record, there are some similarities, but it wasn't the duplicate I was expecting after Kelly's warning. Clearly, Kelly also believes!

After watching the movie, Anh and I discussed all the strange occurrences from our first house in Kansas. We have previously debated the possibility that it was inhabited by a Spirit, and the movie lead us to confirm that we were lucky our Spirit didn't seem to be out for evil just a bit of fun. Anh and I never felt uncomfortable in our old house, but I did sense something's presence right after we moved in. The second floor was our master suite, and after shutting all the lights off downstairs at the end of the night, I would have an eery feeling as I climbed the stairs to my bedroom that someone was watching me. As a result, I always insisted that I go up first. If something was after us, it would get Anh first leaving me with a chance at escape. Makes sense, right? Ha!

On occasion, I'd awaken during the night to the sound of a baby crying. Three of the four walls in our bedroom were lined with windows, so it was easy to assume the noise was from outside. Once I mentioned the strange noises to my friend Diane, and she blamed it on frisky stray cats during mating season. Diane was a cat person so I trusted that her theory was based on fact regardless of how crazy it sounded. By our third year in the house, the Spirit became more mischievous. Anh was a resident at the time and had to take in-house call at the hospital which meant I was alone every 4th or 5th night for five years. Strange things would sometimes occur when I was home alone.

Once, I was startled in the middle of the night by the sound of voices coming from downstairs. I remember being terrified as I headed down the stairs to investigate. The phone was in my hand with the numbers 9 & 1 already dialed. I would only have to press 1 again for help. As my foot hit the bottom stair, the voices still sounded distant. I determined the sound was coming from the basement. Great! As I listened from the other side of the closed basement door, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when I realized it was the treadmill TV that had somehow powered on by itself. Creepy, yes. At least, I wasn't dealing with a burglar though! From that point on, Anh and I unplugged the TV after we used it.

As if that strange event wasn't enough, about a month later I was again startled from a dead sleep. That time, it was the smoke detector in our bedroom. Of course, Anh was on call. Even with the alarm blaring at a deafening decibel, I wasn't really all that scared because I didn't see or smell smoke. I climbed out of bed to check the house and found absolutely nothing. With the alarm still going off at full blast, I ripped it from the wall and removed the batteries. Problem solved! In the morning, I filled Anh in on my crazy night and asked him to check the alarm. When he reinstalled the batteries, everything seemed to be functioning fine.

That is until 4 or 5 days later when Anh was on call again at the hospital. The same thing happened AGAIN! The alarm started blaring in the middle of the night. This time my heart was racing not because I feared a fire, but because I was now convinced that my house was haunted and the Spirit wasn't playing nice anymore. I climbed out of bed, marched over to the alarm, ripped it off the wall, and removed the batteries. This time, I didn't wait until morning. I called Anh right away and told him the smoke detector was definitely fried. I'm sure he thought I was crazy when the smoke detector was perfectly fine again after he reinstalled the batteries the following day. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the alarm went off for a 3rd time the very next night when Anh was at home asleep next to me. I truly believe Anh was dismissing my stories as crazy, and the Spirit wanted to change his mind.

From that day forward, Anh and I were both pretty convinced that we were co-habituating with something from another dimension. Still, we didn't feel scared. I think the Spirit just wanted to make it's presence known because the middle of the night antics came to an abrupt end. In fact, nothing strange happened again for quite some time. It wasn't until we left town for our New Orleans wedding that the Spirit decided to play games again. When we returned home a week later ready to start our married life, we discovered something was wrong with the front door. It wouldn't open. I called our friends, Doug & Halie, who were kind enough to check in on our dogs and plants and gather our mail while we were away. They said they had used the back door and didn't have any explanation for why the front door would be jammed.

Anh called a locksmith to come over and assess the situation, and the locksmith said the problem was obvious. The old skeleton key lock had been activated. The locksmith asked for the key, and we explained that we didn't have one. When we asked whether this was a scenario that happens regularly, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "No!" while shaking his head. Great! At least it was an easy fix. The locksmith took the door off it's hinges and removed the old lock completely leaving only the modern deadbolt that we actually used. Our theory was the Spirit wanted to protect the house. It was probably confused to find Doug and Halie coming and going from the house with us missing. Just a theory, obviously.

So, Anh and I have long believed in Spirits based on years of strange unexplained antics. Nothing sinister ever happened, but there really was no other way to explain the strange events. Something was there, and it simply wanted us to know that. Despite the crazy and occasionally startling episodes, we loved that house. I think there was a shared respect that allowed us all to feel comfortable there. We all loved that house, Spirit included. Ha!

Bringing this story back around full circle, I can say it's a good thing that our Spirit was on it's best behavior when Grandfather visited. Otherwise, he might have sworn off visiting us! Plus, I can say with absolute certainty that we have not experienced any paranormal activity since we lived in that house. So, it was beyond strange to have Grandfather ask me, "Is there a ghost in my bedroom?" Logically, I asked, "Why would you ask me that?" We had just watched Paranormal Activity 2 and discussed all the crazy Kansas stories, but Grandfather hadn't been present for any of it nor was he in the room when we were talking about it. The timing of his question seemed eery to say the least!

Grandfather explained that during the night he was awakened when the wooden blinds started shaking or rattling. It happened multiple times and was too strong to be caused by air blowing from a ceiling vent or slight breeze within the house. Grandfather shared that he had checked the window a few times, but couldn't find an explanation. Luckily, I knew the cause. Our friendly Spirit has not resurfaced. Our in-ground sprinkler system is to blame. One of the sprinkler heads needs to be adjusted because when the system is activated twice a week, it hits the guest room window with enough force to cause the window to rattle. How do I know this you might ask? Well, because Aunt Kelly once stayed with us for a week and was also scared in the middle of the night by our creepy rattling blinds. At that time, I investigated and solved the mystery. So, you see, it's a good thing Grandfather doesn't watch scary movies, and I don't just blame every strange thing that happens in life on ghosts!

Putting Around

Hosting Grandfather last week lead to some mid-week fun at World Golf Village. Rain put a damper on our planned activities on a few of the days which motivated us to get out an enjoy a particularly sunny afternoon on the 18-hole putting course. So much better than the Putt-Putt we had growing up!Grandfather tried to offer the boys a few pointers. Of course, Jaxon who takes golf very seriously was receptive to the input. Baylor, however, apparently believes he is performing on the pro-level at the ripe old age of two and wasn't interested in Grandfather's constructive criticism or advice. So as with most activities, we just let Baylor do his own thing.At least he grasps the basic concept of the game. That's all I can say!Jaxon once again demonstrated that he has some natural talent when it comes to golf. He shocked us all with a hole-in-one on hole 2, and came very close to a repeat shot on the back 9. Good thing we weren't keeping score. Jaxon would have smoked us!Ultimately, we all had fun and isn't that the point of any game? Try telling that to Jaxon! He's just so competitive. He simply can't help it. It's just his nature.While the boys share many similarities in appearance, mannerisms, and personality, Baylor doesn't seem to have his brother's competitive spirit. He's all about fun. The perfect example would be the enthusiastic "Woo hoo!" exclaimed by Baylor after he'd complete each hole. It didn't matter if he shot a 3 or an 88! Baylor was just happy to being playing the game. Ha!Oh and discovering you could remove the flags from the hole only added to the fun. Geez Louise! Dodging Baylor & the flag added a whole new dimension to the game!Of course, after spending a week & a half with Grandfather, I can definitively say that ALL of the boys' quirks and personality run in the genes!!!

Teetotaling Terrific

Today, we had reason to celebrate. We enjoyed a terrific day complete with terrific weather and news. With Jaxon and Anh off for Presidents' Day, we headed North across the Florida-Georgia border to meet with our friend, Dr. B, for a final opinion on Jaxon's underbite. Dr. B put our minds at ease as he sorted through the various options we received from other professionals and then offered us his recommended course of action which is to wait approximately another year and then fit Jaxon with braces that should improve Jax's bite drastically. If (and Dr. B stressed it was definitely an if) Jaxon still isn't happy with his bite, surgery would only be an option around the time Jax turns 18 or 19. Unlike the other professionals that indicated surgery is likely unavoidable, Dr. B believes it's a small possibility, and I don't think he was just telling me what I wanted to hear as the worried mom.

Dr. B's positive report was the perfect start to our day. To celebrate, we made a beeline for St. Mary's small on size but huge on charm historic downtown. We explored the area once before and knew there were plenty of options for lunch. This time around, we selected The Mad Hatter's Tea Shop. Dr. B's office recommended the restaurant for it's fabulous salads and cake. Once the boys heard the word "cake" all other options were out the window!The restaurant did not disappoint. Anh and I enjoyed savory crepes and hot tea while the boys gobbled up fish-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches and sipped on pink lemonade.Oh, and of course CAKE...HUGE slices of chocolate cake!Knowing that a sugar rush was imminent, we walked along the waterfront admiring all the sailboats and pretty scenery. Aside from a little wind, you could not have asked for better weather. Thank you, Mother Nature! I guess that silly groundhog got it right this year! We definitely seem to be enjoying an early Spring.Unfortunately, the timing of the orthodontist appointment prevented (once again) from taking the ferry to Cumberland Island. Well, the fact that Baylor STILL isn't potty-trained also played a role in the decision to remain on the mainland. I'm still not interested in carrying around a lovely "package" all day since all trash must be carried out by the visitors that produce it. One day we'll make it on that boat, I swear!The sugar rush was kicking in. So after a few pictures for mom, the boys made a mad dash for the playground. Woo Hoo!!!Baylor watched with extreme concentration as Jaxon made his way across the monkey bars or at least attempted to.Then, Baylor gave it his best effort. He didn't like it when dad let go. Clearly, Baylor isn't confident in his arm strength. Can't say I blame him. That's quite a drop for someone his size!What they lack in swinging abilities, the boys make up for with their climbing skills. They really are little monkeys!You absolutely must compare this tunnel picture with the one from our last visit (follow the link above). My oh my, our little guy has grown! Eventually, Anh and I were successful in prying the boys away from the playground and back towards the waterfront. The sun was dipping in the sky, and we only had an small window to avoid rush hour traffic on the way home. While we were fortunate to have the holiday off, I was fairly confident that the break was not extended to all in our area and being caught in a traffic jam would not be the ideal ending for our lovely day.A more pictures for mom, and we were back in the car heading home to "normal." Of course, normal isn't necessarily negative. On the contrary, "normal" and "boring" are often welcomed adjectives around here because it means we got a break from the CRAZY world that seems to swirl around us 95% of the time.I'm going to hope for many more normal, boring, terrific days in the future!