That's a Whole Lot of Gruetzmachers

On May 11, my brother and his family flew in from Serbia to come and visit us. I picked them up at the Raleigh airport after their flight was slightly delayed (darn you Icelandic ash cloud!). They came and stayed with us for about ten days and it was a great time. The weather however was not so great. When we were building the deck, the goal was to have it done before they arrived, and we beat that goal with just two days to spare. However, after the Gruetzmachers arrived, the weather turned south and we had a lot of cold/rainy days. Regardless, we had a great time.

The main highlight for Kasia was Aunt Susan. Despite the fact that Kasia spends every day with me, she has somehow turned out to be all girl. She loves painting her nails, playing dress up, and setting up Barbie's dollhouse. Needless to say, these are all things that I tolerate, but far from enjoy. So when Susan showed up and actually WANTED to play these things with her, Kasia was amazed. The Girls Only Club was immediately formed. This was followed up with the Purple Nails Club, and a slew of others.

While the girls were busy with that, we boys had a good time playing some video games and other, more boy things. Alex and Noah proved they are both very adept at the Nintendo, and by the end of the week, Noah was a pro at MarioKart and giving me a run for my money.

Then just as quickly as they arrived, they had to leave. Fortunately, we'll be seeing them in a couple of weeks when we make the long journey up to Chicago for a quick visit.

I Built A Deck (with a lot of help)

I know. Where have I been? Why don't I update this blog anymore? What have I been doing with my time? Well, for Kara's 29th birthday in April, I built her a deck. Technically my father-in-law and I built a deck, but since it's my house, I'm claiming all the credit.

Now I've never really built anything like this before. I think the extent of my wood working skills was watching my dad build my pinewood derby car in Indian Guides. So with that vast amount of experience under my belt, how hard could it be? You dig a few holes. Mix a little concrete. Screw some boards together, and voila, you have a deck.

Now if only the county's building inspector thought it was that easy.

But like I said, first we dug the holes. Many of them actually. 16 to be exact. 30 inches deep. Now, since doing that by hand would mean we would be working on this thing until Christmas, we rented a power auger. I naturally thought that would help things go easier. In theory, it might have, except for the fact that it didn't cut through the clay that is abundant in our yard very easily. It didn't help either that by the third hole, we got the auger stuck in the ground with now way to get it up (that's what she said).

Obviously, we got everything dug and ready to move on to step two. What was step two? I had no clue, but I was ready for it.

We put in some posts. We nailed beams together. We put in joists. Kasia was not having a good time. For two weeks, almost every day, she had to find new and different ways to entertain herself because I was unable to play with her. To make it worse, her best friend was knocked out with a really bad fever for almost the entire time we were working on the deck.

After we put on the deck boards and built the railing, we had something that pretty much resembles a deck. Now we have some really nice patio furniture that makes the deck actually usable. We've actually already entertained some friends and family on it. I'm too scared to have too many people on it at the same time because I'm just not that confident in my woodworking skills. Oh, and for the record, my car never did that great in the pinewood derby either. I'm just saying.

Meet Michelle

The big news for us recently is that we now have a dog. Well, technically, we've always had a dog, but she was always living at Shawn's house. Years ago, Kara had rescued a stray dog and too her in. She and Kara were together for a long time, but when we got married, our apartment wasn't big enough for all of us. But now, Michelle is at our house, living with us full time.

This is all new for me since I've never lived with a dog before. It's not that I never wanted a dog, but my mother (who grew up with a dog) deprived me of one when I was a kid. I'm learning the ins and outs of dog ownership really fast, and I'm loving it. Kasia is also loving it, and poor Michelle is getting the full brunt of Kasia's affection. You see, Michelle is old. She's about 15 and at this stage in her life, just walking around is a chore. She really just wants to sleep a lot, and occasionally go out for a quick stroll. Kasia, at this stage of her life, wants a dog who will play with her. And she is adamant that Michelle will play with her. It doesn't always go over so well. It's just funny to watch Michelle try to sleep only to be startled awake by having Kasia put her in a headlock hug and shouting "OH MICHELLE! YOU'RE SO CUTE!" Then as Michelle gets up to walk away, Kasia thinks it's a game and follows her to keep playing. That poor old dog walks from room to room trying to find some peace, but just can never find it.

Maybe all this "playing" will make her feel young again. That, or it's going to kill her. Only time will tell.

Sleepover at the Beach

On Sunday, Kara had to go out of town for work, so Kasia and I drove down to Salvo, NC to spend some time with Karlie, Bryan and the girls. Kasia has been talking about wanting to go sleepover at someone's house forever, and this seemed like as good a time as any to make her wishes come true.

The last time we went down there, it took a little while before Kasia, Kylie, and Kinzlie started to play well together. That was definitely not the case this time around. They hit it off immediately and ran off playing really well together for the rest of the night. I had brought Kasia's Tinkerbell bed for her to sleep in, but after the girls talked, I was informed that there would be some new sleeping arrangements. Kasia wanted to sleep in Kylie and Kinzlie's bed, and since there was room for everyone, that was fine. But then Kinzlie wanted to sleep in Kasia's Tinkerbell bed, and if Kasia was in the big bed, that was fine too. Well, then Kylie wanted to sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor. So you had all three girls all sleeping in different places than they were originally supposed to.

Of course, as the night went on, Kylie moved in to the bed, Kinzlie moved in with her parents, and I was on the futon. It was a true sleepover, except of course the girls didn't do each other's hair and tell ghost stories.

The next day we went to the beach so the girls could play in the sand, and then spent the rest of the day jumping on the trampoline. I was kind of amazed at how well the girls were around each other, and despite the occasional dispute now and then over a toy, it went really, really well. When we left, the girls kept hugging each other goodbye, and Kasia was so pitiful looking when we walked out the door. By the time we got to the car, all she could say was a quick sobbing, "I miss Kylie and Kinzlie." So we're definitely going to have to go back again soon, and hopefully by then, the infamous Pirate Pool will be blown up and ready to go.

Happy Birthday Kasia

(you may want to turn down the volume before watching)

Kasia is now a four year old! Can you believe it? Four years ago we were bringing this tiny little girl home from the hospital, and now we have this four year old, ice cream eating machine!

We had a small party for her at our house with pizza, cake and ice cream. Kasia's playmates, Devlin and Charlotte came over as did some family. It was a fun and chaotic time.

Kasia is really a lucky girl and was given a ton of new toys to play with. Sometime during her party, she decided to take the pile of gifts and stack them on top of Chatam.

So now our little girl is four and is getting ready to go to pre-school in the fall. She's developing her own personality, getting so big. It's amazing to look at the pictures of her from just last year and see how much she's changed in just a year.

A Visit From Ama and Buppa

 

 

For Kasia’s 4th birthday, my parents were able to come down for the weekend to celebrate with us.  Kasia could not have been more happy.  We have seen them since last summer, so it was quite a treat for us.  Kasia loved that they were coming to play with her.  She loved that they were coming for her birthday.  And she REALLY loved that they were going to be spending the night so that they could have a sleepover.  I’m not sure why, but having sleepovers is really big with Kasia. 

They flew in on Saturday and we immediately threw them in to a birthday party for Kasia.  It was crazy and fun.  We didn’t let them rest at all and immediately started loading them up with pizza, cake and Scotch (Shirley can really down that 18 year old Glenfiddich).  I think they had a pretty good time. 

The rest of their trip was a lot more relaxed.  We watched the Olympics, went out to eat, and played some cards.  Kasia had a wonderful time playing with Ama and having Buppa chase her around the house.  I heard, “You can’t catch me Buppa” so many times that I was waking up at night with those words in my head. 

They flew back out on Tuesday, and it was just in time to miss rain/snow/ice that we received just after their plane took off.  As we were saying goodbye, Kasia seemed to be taking it pretty well.  When we got home however, it was a different story.  It sank in that the sleepover was finished and that Grandma and Grandpa were gone.  That’s when the tears came, and boy did she take it hard.  However, the fun she had while they were here drastically outweighed the pain of them leaving. 

Kasia now can’t wait until the next time when they can have a sleepover.

Look Over There!

Pointing at the camera must be some genetic trait that is passed down from male to male in the Smith family. Here are three generations of Smith men all trying to get Kasia to look at the camera, and then couldn’t get their fingers down in time before the picture was taken. If Chatam has a son, I’m curious if he’ll be a pointer too.