Our Weekend

Most of the time I love the weekends. It is time that I get to spend (usually) with my husband. There are lots of people, events, and other things that try to vie for his time. We have to carefully plan ahead and schedule time together so that he can conveniently tell people that "I already have something scheduled on that day." He had a chance to go have some "man" fun this weekend, but chose to stay and spend time with me. . . . . . that's one of the reasons why I love him, he puts his family first.

For some reason I've always loved bike riding. I'm not really that great at it and so it is nice to have patient companions who will stop and rest with me!

I've been hearing a lot about this new trail that the county has put in. The trail was put in on an old rail road track spur (if I'm getting my terminology correct!)


I didn't realize until I'd taken most of the pictures that the camera we'd taken along had Afghanistan dust ALL over it . . . . the pictures are kind of smeary looking!


This picture is just to prove that I was there!


Here is McKay being . . . . . . . McKay!

The trail wasn't quite finished. This new part will add another 3 miles. It is 13 miles up and 13 miles back. We only did a total of 20 on Saturday.


And what a NICE trail it is. Having been built on a old railway bed, it is mostly flat, and has bridges over swampy areas. There are picnic tables spaced out throughout the trail and even port-a-johns, which are way better that having to use the woods as a rest stop! This picture looks kind of barren for Maryland . . . . It is a beaver pond. The beavers have either eaten or used the trees to build their house . . . .


The day was perfect for riding . . . . mid 70's. WONDERFUL!

Treasure the moment

Since I posted our "blast from the past" picture I wanted to post a picture of us on the day of our 25th!. We both have changed a lot in our outward appearance but basically Lincoln hasn't changed a bit when it came to taking this picture. He made funny faces, put rabbit ears up behind my head and basically caused t.r.o.u.b.l.e while getting this picture. He's quite a guy!

Wow, the last few days have been busy. It has been wonderful and heart wrenching all at the same time. Lincoln and I tried to spend some time together . . . .and did. My favorite thing we did over the weekend was go on a bike ride together. I hope we find more time for that. The heart wrenching event is that our oldest son, Justin totalled our little Mazda Miata. We jokingly called it the traveling coffin, and it came so close to being one this weekend. Thankfully, Justin and the friend that was with him walked away from the accident, but it has been a long three days since it occurred. I honestly thought it was Wednesday when I woke up this morning! All is well . . . . just a few bumps and bruises!!!! It's stuff like this that makes you realize how fragile life is and how important each minute needs to be. As I was heading out to do errands today, Justin told me to "be safe." I know he meant it and I felt it . . . . . be safe . . . . .good advice!

Silver Anniversary

Today is Lincoln and my 25th anniversary. It's really hard to believe that all those years have flown by, but they have. We have been through hard times but I'm happy to say that most of our life together has been good times. I love you sweetie!

Blast from the past!! This was our wedding announcement.

Inquiring Minds

Since I just know you are all bursting to know how homeschooling is going, here's an update!

We have just finished up our second week of homeschooling and it has included:

~ a very cooperative child who gets his work done pronto (who would have thunk it?)
~ excitement about learning (again, WWHTI?)
~ excitement about a science project (WWHTI?)
~ a few tears when he realized this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought
~ getting over not having it easy and getting busy
~ one-on-one time with cyber-teachers who can't complain that McKay is talking, eating, placing them on pause, not putting his name on his work, not handing his work in on time, wearing his pajamas, and not coming to class with a sharp pencil!
~being surprised with tid-bits of information that he's learned. He's even memorized a poem that he recited to me. Holy Cow!
~ two entire weeks of piano practice (he's sounding good!)
~ time spent on merit badges (when the whole "cyber" thing was having technical problems)
~ Friday (today) off with his dad and not having to write an excuse note that sounds worthy of an absence!
~ FREEDOM from liberal teachers!!!! and can you believe this Obama thing??? Stay away from my kids dude ahh, I mean Mr. President!

So far I'm happy and McKay seems happy too. So far so good. (It's a good thing I'M not his English teacher isn't it?)

Oh to be 19 again!

Our neighbor was getting rid of his vehicle, his 20-year old Jeep Cherokee that he has driven 2 miles to work every day for who knows how long. We got a great deal! $100 bucks, (and then some change to get it into safety inspection passing mode). I thought, YES! a perfect vehicle for my 19-year old son. Well, this is what greeted me this morning when I went out for my morning bicycle ride . . . . . he's been having some boy fun hasn't he?It went from passing safety inspection to ?????? This poor vehicle may not even last a month under the drivership of our son! So what do I do?

a. Ignore it, and see if he comes to us about it (fat chance!)
b. Give him a big long speech about respecting your property and treating it well.
c. and if he does come to us
i. give him money to fix it
ii. laugh in his face and tell him "the title is in your name, you fix it"!!!
d. remember that MY vehicle's side view mirror is attached with glue and black electrical tape . . . . (has that tree at the end of my driveway always been there? tee hee)

It looks like he's already tried to fix it once before does it not? (He should have used the black tape like I did! :)