Cookout at the Kalinas. Sunday was so beautiful! Sunny and 65 degrees. Deb and Bill invited us over for some grilling and games in the woods.

Bill, Sam, and Asa

Halloween in Ellicott City, MD at Tammy and Jeff's house. We have to commute to Trick-or-Treat; our three neighbors don't participate in this pagan ritual holiday.

Jake is Michael Jackson, Nick is Peter Criss, and Asa is a hobo.

Asa, Sam, and Jake

I am just testing my video upload capabilities. Sam in the middle is Asa's best friend. On this day, the boys were making a movie and wore facepaint. You know, classic good guys against the bad guys.

enjoying summer break

Asa's Sunny from the Codorus Creek.

Asa and his best friend, Sam, are taking swimming lessons at our pool. Unfortunately, this week of his classes has been cold and rainy.

Jake and Asa eating Cheese Curls at the pool.

asa takes swimming lessons during the coldest, rainiest week of June

Asa with his best friend, Sam. Asa is loving his swim lessons. Not even the mid-60 degree, 100% cloudy weather doesn't keep him from wanting to go to his lesson! He goes every night this week at 7pm. This whole week we will have well below normal temperatures.

Trout Fishing in the Codorus Creek

Friends of Sandra learned of Asa's great fondness of fly fishing and offered to come teach him a thing or two about fly fishing. Jody is a certified fly fishing instructor, and visited us for the day (along with his wife Rachel, and two little girls) to fish with Asa and John. It was obvious that Jody loved teaching as much as Asa loved learning. Both of them would have stayed at the creek fishing all day long if we let them.

Here is a good-sized Brown Trout that Jody caught. Our whole family was shocked that we even really had trout that size in our creek! Asa caught a Brook Trout. The boys put them back in the stream so they could have a chance to catch them again another day.

Cream also had a good day catching things. He caught this young starling. He came slowly sauntering up the road with this in his jaws. He walked past all of us and up the porch to the front door; we could see the bird was very much alive, flapping its wings every once in a while. After some discussion amongst the humans, we decided that we should put an end to this Wild Kingdom moment; after all, he gets fed two healthy servings of cat food every day - he doesn't need additional sustenance. After forcing Cream to let go of the bird, he was clearly mad at us for quite a while afterwards.

The Bob Potts Heritage Rail Trail Marathon

On May 31st, we had a nice treat with a marathon that ran right by our house. Not 10 feet from our front door passed the (26.2 mile) marathon. Jake, Asa, and I cheered on the passing runners, while John and his band (3 Dollar Suit) played music for the runners and their supporters at Serenity Station cafe, just two miles up the trail. A water stop and a port-a-potty were stationed right at our house; which was just fine with us. Asa tried out the potty to make sure it was properly functional. It was.

That's our house on the very right. You can see how close it is to us. We loved it!

This is Maggie. She came running up the trail along with the other marathoners. She wasn't with any of the runners, so I guess she just decided that it looked like something she wanted to be a part of. She pulled over at our house for a breather and some enthusiastic petting. It didn't take long for Asa to declare her as "our new dog!" Sadly, her owner came to collect her about 15 minutes later.

It was a beautiful day in every way; and we are looking forward to next year's run.

Asa Officially Learns to Ride A Bike

Pretty sure this is the bike that Jake learned to ride on. He's outgrown it.

Asa pretty much rode on his first try. John thinks it's because Asa was already an expert on his scooter; the bike was just a minor adjustment.

Jake is ready to move up to a full-sized bike.

Chickens in the garden.

Dip in the Creek

Today was beautiful. After school, Asa wanted to go down to the creek with his cup of corn for bait and see if the fish were biting. His choice of pole today was the one he made himself: a short stick with a piece of string tied around it and a hook attached on the end. He puts a few kernals of corn on the hook and throws it in. No serious bites today. Jake and I sat at the edge of the water enjoying the weather. Before we knew it, Jake had wandered into the water. Toes first, then feet; then calves. Once his rolled up pants were wet, he just got all the way in. Asa had to join him when he saw how much fun Jake was having. What a great way to begin the weekend!

getting back into the groove

It just sort of happened without me really realizing it. The posts just stopped coming. I haven't really been taking too many pictures either. I came across the blog on accident, and it made me sad that the last post was so long ago; and it motivated me to start it up again. I guess that we just got really busy with the new school year and updating the blog can sometimes feel like a luxury I don't have time for. I want put this in the middle of my priority list. Let's get started...

I will try to briefly catch you up on what our family has been up to since the Presidential Election.

Asa is playing Lacrosse in the U9 group in our school district. This is his first year at it. He'd barely even thrown with a stick until his first practice. He is one of the youngest players, and the most inexperienced. He loves playing and even though he is in the very beginning stages of learning, he doesn't get flustered at all when he doesn't catch the ball, and at all his "beginner throws". I am very proud of him. The only part Asa doesn't like is the running during practice. Coach has the team running lots of laps throughout practice. His team practices twice a week for an hour and a half, and has at least one weekend day game. John throws with him at home when he gets a chance; and John says Asa's doing really well for a beginner. He needs to learn to be more aggressive during play. He has a hard time with it; it's just not in his nature, and all his life, John and I have kept him from behaving that way at all. I wondered if it's a good thing or not to never let him be physically aggressive. But for now, that is the only thing he is lacking. John is trying to teach him that it really is okay to behave that way while playing Lacrosse.

Asa with his best friend, Sam, at the Fairie Festival

Jake has been very active with school activities. He has been featured in our school district as an "Artist of the Week", appearing on our local school channel and in the district newsletter, and has a display case at his school filled with some of his artwork. He is in the school band playing Alto Saxophone, he was in the school county Honors Choir, participated in the York County Envirothon, and will be recognized this evening in a ceremony at the high school for his academic excellence and participation in Envirothon and the Honors Choir and as a DARE (school drug resistance program) essay winner.

Jake at the Fairie Festival

John is still with UnderArmour, commuting an hour each way to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. He finally has admitted that his Geo Prism has reached the end of its life and agreed to buy a new car. He is really happy with his new Nissan Versa and is glad he finally took the plunge. He is pretty busy with his band, 3-Dollar Suit. They play out at least once a month, and weekly practice is a great outlet for him and his two band mates. Each of the other musicians happen to be the dads of two of Asa's classmates. Give John a call if you need a band for your next event.

I am still working as a part-time librarian at the Arthur Hufnagel library in Glen Rock. I love working there! Surrounded by so many interesting books; no end to discovering great new things to read; satisfying my OCD-tendencies through re-shelving and scrutinizing each section to make sure the books are in the correct order! I am still busy volunteering at the boys' school and with the PTO. But right now, I am the most busy with my springtime gardening. I tilled and planted our vegetable garden; moving established plants from one bed to another; John and I cut down numerous Yew bushes that had turned into trees; lots of planting in containers and garden beds; and trying to reclaim the rest of the large yard removing scrub and overgrowth to make way for a grassy yard. All while desperately trying to avoid poison ivy. I have not done so well with that attempt so far.

This summer our family plans to hop into our new Versa and ride south to visit with Grammy and Granddad in North Carolina for a couple of weeks. I (and maybe the rest of the crew) will go to my hometown of Rock Island, IL to attend my 25-year high school reunion. Jake and Asa have never been there, and I'd like to show them where I grew up. We will also spend many days at the pool, and hope that we can find some camps for the boys. Asa wants to take a camp to hone his bow and arrow skills and to go to a Lacrosse camp. Both fellas will go to Art Camp at their favorite shop, The Studio and Art Bar.

Jake and Asa with our Nubian wether, Yankee

I think that's everything for now. The next post won't be so long-winded!