Father's Day

Thank you so very much to our dads, Lolo, Grandpa, and Great-Grandpa for everything that they do for our families each and every day. They serve as inspiring and wonderful role models for us all. Grace and I most especially thank Mike for being the awesome daddy that he is.

To celebrate our guy on his day, we started off with cards and then presents. I was afraid Grace would blow our secret about Daddy's "special secret surprise" because 2 year olds aren't the best keeper of secrets, but she did surprisingly well. She had one moment on the phone where she almost spilled the beans, but thankfully, her daddy didn't quite catch it.

Naps and sleeping in general are very important to Mike so we gave him the ultimate pillow to maximize his rest time.
After church, we went to Casa Marina, a beautiful restaurant/hotel by the beach, for their amazing Sunday brunch. I ate so much that my belly literally expanded to the point of pain. It was so worth it. I'm sure I'll pay for the calorie bomb, but I'll worry about that later.
This guy didn't worry about calories as Grace happily fed him all sorts of treats- in this instance, bacon. I also peeled cocktail shrimp and handfed it to him, too. He was loving life being lovingly fed by his two girls.
After long naps for all of us, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. And a trip to the beach can't be complete without stopping by for a cool treat, Rita's Italian Ice, afterwards.

End of an Era: an Ode to Catherine

Hello everyone - Mike here. Today was a bittersweet day for the Augustines. With the addition of Max into our stable, Catherine had been up for sale and finally had a buyer today. As you can see above, even Grace, who's known Catherine her entire life, was sad to see her go. Fortunately, she went to another caring family. They were a young couple who had a son that was born 5 days before Grace! He was excited to have Catherine in their family when we dropped her off. For those of you who can't fathom such emotional attachment to a car, think of a pet that's been in the family for 10 years - same thing for us. For me personally, she's been with me since my last semester at Va Tech, and throughout my time in the Navy. Cicely and I drove off from our wedding in that car. In 30 years, I'll be telling my grandkids stuff like, "I never should've sold that Camaro."

A few pics from her time as an Augustine car:


With a few NFL cheerleaders in 2002...


On a car cruise to St Augustine in 2004


While at Supply Corps School, in Athens, GA, in 2005



On a trip back home to Blacksburg...and of course where there's a covered bridge, there's a photo op.


On a road trip with some random attractive Asian girl I figured may be fun to hang around with....


We decided to hang around with each other for a bit longer...


Transferring title paperwork to her new family.

The Tri-Delta Dolls Meet Again

It has been five long months since the last time we had a book club meeting so it was an especially wonderful treat to have the lovely ladies over tonight to talk about our latest selection, "The 5 Love Languages."

We were supposed to meet at a cozy restaurant, but with Grace's cough making a reappearance because of this smoky weather and Mike on duty, I bribed Liezel and Lorelie with some Kentucky Fried Chicken and biscuits to come over to my place instead. They brought dessert, wine, and conversation. It was a fabulous way to spend a Friday night.

Grace enjoyed being an honorary member for a while until I decided it was time for her to go to bed (so the real members could actually discuss the book). She put up quite a fight, which I'm sure concerned Liezel and Lorelie, but I've seen the battle before and I knew the best way to win was to just ignore her screams and blatant refusals to get into bed. Sure enough, she had calmed down enough a few minutes later for us to finish our book club talk.

Some other news- stove is finally fixed! I celebrated by not cooking a single thing today.

Another random tidbit- I sadly didn't make it to Zumba this morning because I was waiting on the technician to fix the stove, but I did manage to get a good work out in nonetheless. As I was working hard to my DVD, sweat running down my face, Grace runs to me with such concern in her sweet little face and said, "Mama, are you okay? Why are you crying? Don't cry, it's going to be okay! I'm going to make you feel all better!"

All is Well

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I'm back on track now. Don't worry, all is well. I save my blogging for the end of the night and I've been so tired that I'd rather just enjoy the last few hours of the day relaxing with my hubby.

I don't know why I've been so tired either since Grace and I have been sticking close to home. There are wildfires burning nearby and the smoke and ash in the air the past few days have put all outdoor activities on hold. Rainy days aren't a particular favorite of mine, but I've been praying for lots of them to help with this unfortunate situation.

Here are a few random thoughts and pictures to catch you up on what we've been up to...

I saw this image and nearly cried. My baby looks so grown here! Why, oh, why does she have to grow up so fast?

And whenever I start feeling like my baby is getting all grown on me, I like to sneak in while she's sleeping and just stare at her as if that will help slow down time.

My stove is STILL broken. I thought having a reprieve from cooking would be a welcome thing. And it was. For about two days. The good news is we're definitely getting lots of usage out of our grill and discovering new places to eat out around town.

About the only place we have been able to go to is the gym. When I picked Grace up the last time we went, the two ladies who watch the kids were gushing over how sweet Grace was. Apparently, she had gathered up a few of the one year old babies and was serving them tea. The girl is not one to miss out on a tea party, even at the gym! When I asked her what she did while I was exercising, she said, "I was giving tea to my sweetie sister babies." Lately anyone remotely younger than her is a sweet sister baby, regardless of their actual gender.

During naptime today, I heard airplane noises coming out of her room. When I went to investigate, I found a non-sleeping Grace who had found an old part to her crib and was waving it around in the air like it was an airplane.

After dinner tonight, Grace reminded her daddy that she needed a sweet treat and, of course, her daddy obliged.

Tired

Grace totally capitalized on Mike's surprise homecoming yesterday by staying up way past her bedtime. Like it was ten thirty at night and the girl was still wide awake.

But the child never sleeps in no matter how late she stays up the night before. In fact, often times she'll actually wake up earlier than her normal time. It just doesn't seem fair, especially to a mama who is not a morning person, but that's the way she is.

We made it to church this morning and halfway through the Mass, I could tell that her late night and early wake up time was finally catching up to her. She started getting cranky and I sensed a meltdown in the near future. Just when I was starting to feel sorry for myself (Why do I always have to deal with meltdowns when I'm solo?), I turned around and made eye contact with a mama who was dealing with similar issues. Except she had triplets- two girls and a boy. It immediately put my situation in perspective.

After a quick lunch, I put a very sleepy Grace to bed and didn't hear a single complaint about it being much earlier than her naptime. I was going to try and be productive around the house, but I decided that a nap for me would be just as productive. Especially since I promised Grace an afternoon at the pool. I need energy for that kind of endeavor!

True to my word, we hit the pool the moment we woke up from our naps. The pool thing turned out to be a fantastic idea. The weather was perfect, she made a couple of friends, and it tuckered her out enough that I was able to put her to bed a whole hour early.

The thing is though, the pool also exhausted me and since I know my girl will be climbing into my bed bright and early tomorrow morning telling me to "Wake up, Mama! I'm hungry. Can I have some pancakes?" I better get myself to bed, too.

Get Glad

When I dropped Mike off at the ship before sunrise Wednesday morning, I was under the impression that I wouldn't see him again until he got off work Monday. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found out he would be home in time for dinner Saturday before heading back to his own ship for duty Sunday.

I was ecstatic. But the news also threw me into a state of frenzied activity. I was just planning on eating cereal for dinner and microwaving some mac and cheese for Grace since our stove is still broken. I couldn't feed my man cold cereal and microwaved mac and cheese after coming home from an underway. What kind of a welcome would that be? So I made a quick grocery run for a meal that I could grill.

Once that was done, I had to put the house back in order. I kind of relaxed my rules of housekeeping while Mike was gone and Grace took full advantage of it. Toys were everywhere. When I started to stress about getting it all cleaned up in time, I asked Grace to help me. She thought it would be super helpful to dump out toys that I had just put away.

Before I could even get upset, she calmly said, "Mama, don't get mad. Get glad!"

As always, the girl knows exactly what to say to get herself out of trouble.

We picked Mike up from the ship, grilled our dinner, and then went out for some Italian ice for dessert. It was all so unexpectedly wonderful. Much better than the Cranberry Almond Crunch and microwaveable mac and cheese I had planned.

Grace is dying to take a ballet class, but I can't find one that will take a two year old around here. She asks me several times a day, "Can I go ballet?" Here she is doing some ballet while we were grilling dinner.


Even doing her moves while sitting in her baby bathtub that she found in the garage.

Pizza Night

We waited half the day for the technician to show up to fix our stove. He showed up, he left, and my stove is still not working. I'm off the hook with cooking until the part he needs shows up and he can come back and install it, which won't be until Wednesday at the earliest.

So it was pizza night for us girls. We didn't even bother eating at the dining table. We just spread our grub on the coffee table and watched TV while we ate. We definitely missed Mike though because at the end of dinner, we still had most of our pizza. That would have never happened if daddy was home. Mike loves him some pizza.

The weather is supposed to be gorgeous this weekend and Grace and I plan on enjoying every second of it. Zoo? Gardens? Beach? Pool? Park? More shopping? Shoot, we might even do all of the above! Time flies when you're having a good time and the faster we can get through the weekend, the sooner we can see Mike.

If you ever wonder why my floor lamp stands crooked, this is the reason why. My little monkey thinks it's her tree to climb.