Monthly Archives: July 2012

Every one is doing something new!

It has been a big week here at the Dressler household.  I haven’t written in my blog in over a week and I have realized that there is a lot going on that needs to be told.  Here is what is each person is up to:

Miller – He is now going from lying down to sitting up.  My mom came into his room after his nap Thursday and he was sitting up.  This is a big first!  This means two things:

1.  I have to lower the crib so that he won’t fall out

2. He is harder to put to sleep.  Tonight he was quiet in his bed for almost 15 minutes before he began to cry.  I went in his room and he was sitting up at the end of his crib.  This means that he was playing for 15 minutes and then started to cry.  We will see how this goes.

Miller is almost crawling as well.  He can get on all fours and inch his way forward.  I give him a few days before he is really moving.  Time to put the baby gate back up….

Wilson – Is almost swimming.  We went to the pool twice this weekend and he was doing awesome.  He will walk around the shallow water, dive under the water and kick his feet and arms.  Then he will stand up, take a few steps and do it again. He was just swimming circles around the baby pool the other day.  I looked at him and thought, “I am so proud of his independence, his athleticism, and his sense of humor.  What a great kid!”  He plays by himself a lot at the pool and is totally entertained.  On Sunday he kept swimming back and forth to me and Tom.  He is really getting it.  I bet he will be swimming before the summer is over.  He isn’t afraid of the water at all.

Faith – Her swimming is getting better and better.  She is a little fish.  This weekend she started moving her arms like she is doing the freestyle stroke.  She can even come up for a breath and keep going.  Tom has taught her to jump in, swim under water, take a breath, and keep swimming.  She can go twenty feet or so by herself.  We may have a swim-teamer in the family.  She is motivated to do better without any coaxing by us.  She also loves to yell “cannonball!!” and jump in.

Becca – I went to meet our home school group for next year.  We are going to be a part of the Indian Land, SC, Classical Conversations group.  My friend Laini is running it.  I am a little afraid of how I will do, but glad that I am going to do it.  I know that I made the right decision for this year since we will be in Roanoke for the entire fall and part of the winter.

Tom – Tom has officially rented us a three bedroom apartment in Roanoke beginning September 1.  He has been traveling 3 hours  to Roanoke, VA, four days a week since November.  Beginning in September, the kids and I will be going to Roanoke every other week or more so that Tom doesn’t have to drive constantly and so that our family can be together.  The kids miss their dad and I miss having a partner to help raise them.  The stress is too much for our family.  I think it is going to be fun and exciting to live part time in another town and do different things.  Tom was also recommended for a promotion, which I am very proud of him for.  He has been there 8 months and has already been recommended for a promotion and nominated for “Consultant of the Year”.  Pretty good!!

Happy Birthday Tom!

Tom’s 49th birthday was yesterday. The kids and I made him a teddy bear cake with Cherrios on it. The kids have been waiting to use the cake pan and I didn’t have any sprinkles so Cherrios worked in a pinch. I actually made a gluten free cake with all natural icing and it tasted really good! I bought it all at the Healthy Home Market. The icing was delicious! We had fun making the cake together and the kids helped Tom blow out the candles. (I have been taking all my pictures with my iphone so you will have to excuse the photo quality) Tom and I were going to go out for his birthday but since he hadn’t been home in almost two weeks Tom decided that he would rather have a movie night at home with the kids. They watched a movie and I went to bed at 8:30. (That is the difference in a working/traveling dad and a stay at home mom.)

20120731-154546.jpg

20120731-154616.jpg

20120731-154639.jpg

Time with Faith

I just spent 30 minutes playing Barbies with Faith before bed time.  It was fun and I am glad that I took the time to be with her.  I realized that sometimes I am so busy with the other kids or cleaning the house that I forget to spend quality time with her.  Looking at it from her view point it seems sad that her mom, the most important person in her life, doesn’t always take the time to spend 30 minutes with her.  Tonight I did.  We played Beauty and the Beast with the Barbies, the castle, and even a candlestick and a clock.  I had a good laugh because she took the big barbie horse and said, “Belle’s dad can ride this….oh wait, he is so short that he would probably ride this one” and held up the My Little Pony.  It was hilarious!  I literally laughed out loud.  I would not have been able to laugh with her like that had I not spent the time with her.  This was a great reminder to slow down and focus on what is really important in life.  It isn’t laundry, dirty dishes or email….it is just taking 30 minutes out of my day to spend some quality, quiet time with my daughter.

The Asheville Triathlon

Tom was up at 5:30 this morning and was off to compete in his race. I stayed back at the Youngs’ house until the kids were up and so I could sleep just a little more (it was another sleepless night). Tom was scheduled to get into the pool at 6:45 am. Luckily the kids were all up by 7:00 and so I got to to the race with Miller by 8:00 am. I was so excited for Tom. As I pulled up I saw some bikers coming down the hill and it really made me proud to know that he was somewhere doing the same thing. I got Miller into the stroller and headed for the finish line. By the looks of things, I figured he was out on the run and it wouldn’t be long before he came running up to the finish line. I waited about 15 minutes and saw him coming. I was excited and proud to see him finishing something that he set out to do months ago. It was my idea to sign up for the Greensboro Triathlon, but when it got cancelled I lost interest. Tom decided that he would continue to train and find another triathlon to compete in, and he did. Nice job, Honey!

Tom finished in the middle of the pack. There were 300 racers and he finished about 155 and was 9th in his age bracket. Not too shabby! He is hoping to run in the Surf City race at the beach on September 8th. I think we are going to plan a family vacation around it.

Here is a video of Tom crossing the finish line (hopefully) and then a picture of him and Miller having a snack together. Go Tom!

We had a fabulous and fun filled weekend together. It was great to get out of town, have fun, and relax. We already have a few other weekends planned!

20120722-205637.jpg

Saturday’s fun

Saturday in Asheville was an adventure. Tom took the kids to scout out the bike course for the triathlon while I took a nap with Miller (it was a rough night). I am so glad that I didn’t sign up for this triathlon. I swear it looked like it was uphill both ways. Tom is great at riding up the hills and usually does so towing both kids in the bike trailer. I am sure that he will be fine. We will see tomorrow.

While Tom and the kids were at the playground he talked to a mom that gave him a tip about a pig farm at Warren Wilson College just outside of Asheville. After my nap we all loaded up in the car and drove out there. It was really fun. What a neat school. They are a sustainable school and teach sustainable living. There was a garden, a blacksmith shop, heavy farm equipment and farm animals. We found the pigs in their pens and they were HUGE. I swear the pigs were five feet long and four feet tall. I guess I knew that pigs were big but it had been a long time since I had seen one. The kids looked at them and even took some pictures with them. There was one cute piglet, some cows and two Clidesdale horses.

After the animals we took a walk down the path to the river. It was an easy walk for the kids and we were able to have fun and laugh with them. Faith has a really great sense of humor and is beginning to make jokes that are pretty funny. We walked through the Bamboo Forest and Faith yelled “snake!”. She was only kidding and pointed to a piece of bamboo that looked like a snake. It was very funny and we all had a good laugh.

After our adventures we went to Bobby and Sidney Youngs’ house to spend the night. They have two kids the same ages as Faith and Wilson. The kids see each other once or twice a year, but it was like they saw each other all the time. The boys immediately put on their Spiderman costumes (luckily Wilson brought his) and the girls were princesses. They all played without incident or complaint until 9:00 pm. Here is a picture of the four of them. So cute!

 

20120722-205614.jpg

They all decided to get in the tub together. It almost over flowed!

 

20120731-220532.jpg

Faith, Jesse, Wilson, and Robin

 

Family Trip to Asheville

Yesterday afternoon we all met in Asheville, NC for the weekend. Tom is racing in the Asheville Triathlon on Sunday morning so we decided to make a weekend out of it. I drove up with the kids from Charlotte and Tom drove down from Roanoke. We met at the Western NC Nature Center in Asheville. The center had black bears, wolves, otters, foxes, bobcats, cougars, raccoons and birds. I have to say that the enclosures for the animals were large and the animals were the healthiest I think I have ever seen in a zoo setting. I was impressed. We could also see the animals very close up. Of course, with small children we still didn’t stay very long. As with any small nature center, we were in and out within an hour, but it was worth the trip.

Coincidentally, it was my good friend, Sidney Youngs’ birthday yesterday. Tom gave me the ok to go out with her, Bobby, and other friends last night. It seems that I have made many of Sidney’s birthday celebrations over the last six years. Last night we ate at Salsas and hopped around town. Asheville is so full of culture and hippies. I love it. Sidney is a great friend and I am glad that I was able to share another birthday with her. She turned 36.

This is the first time that the kids have ever stayed in a hotel. Faith keeps calling the room “the apartment” and I feel sorry for the people that are next to us and under us. We had to make the rule very quickly of “no jumping off the bed”. There is a great outdoor pool here. We swam in it yesterday and will go there again today.

Sunday morning is the big race! Tom has been training for months and is very excited. I am proud of the progress he has made and am excited to see how he does. I did a triathlon ten years ago and my goal was just to finish. His goal is to place as high in the rankings as possible. He has already gone to the course to scope it out. We will be up at 6:00am tomorrow morning to go help him set up and cheer him on. Go Tom!

20120727-190956.jpg

20120727-191011.jpg

20120727-191047.jpg

It is only noon….

Today is Tuesday which means we stay at home all day, or at least most of it. So far we have eaten breakfast, played in Faith’s room, colored, painted (twice), taken baths, done “school”, eaten lunch and read books…and it is only noon! We still have three more hours before we go to the pool. Will I have the energy to go to the pool by the time 4:00 arrives? Only time will tell. Luckily, Faith and Wilson are having “quiet time” in her room. As long as they stay downstairs they can play together. Most of the time they play Barbies or house in Faith’s room and rarely is there any complaint or injury.

Here is a photo of bath time.

20120717-124853.jpg

20120717-124910.jpg