Blast From the Past

Long ago, in a land far, far away....................

Ok, so anyway. Back in August of August 2001, I went to the Bahamas. It was a great vacation, despite the company I was with. I still managed to have a great time because I was in the tropics and it's no secret that I LOVE the tropics.

One of the good things that came out of the vacation was learning how to make drip castles. I had never heard of such thing, but they turned out to be pretty cool.

I camped my butt on the beach for I don't know how many hours making this masterpiece.

It took FOR-E-VER but it turned out great and I was quite proud!!

Beware the Wrath.....

For those who follow our lives, you know that we have had a problem in our new subdivision with the HOA. No surprise. They manage to offend at least one person, regardless of where you live. Or so I have heard.

So when we received our nifty letter from the HOA regarding my husband's work truck and trailer, we complained, and bitched, and whined. But we obeyed, nonetheless.

Then, we started to notice on our walks through the subdivision that there were many other work trailers, etc. that hadn't moved since we moved into the subdivision. And we were offended. We don't take lightly to double standards, or poorly enforced rules which seem to only be applicable to a select few.

So I stewed for a little while. And then I did what I'm known for. I wrote a letter. I have written many letters to the editor in my days. When something gets me fired up, I feel compelled to write about it. (uh, hence having a blog?) Below is my letter to the HOA......with some minor changes to preserve privacy.

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June 4, 2009


[name of head dude]

[address of HOA]

Re: Covenants and violations thereto

Mr. Head-Dude:

We are in receipt of your letter dated May 12, 2009, which was sent to the homeowner of the house we are renting, located at [our house, no you can't have the address], which specifically addressed the work trailer parked at our residence. Your letter set forth that the trailer was a violation of the Association’s CCRs.

We took a walk through the entire subdivision with our child this week, and noted numerous other residences which are in violation of the Covenants. To wit:

(this next part was actually in a table, but apparently blogger doesn't like tables)

[address]

subject property: boat
violation: Paragraph 15

[address]

subject property: trailer
violation: Paragraph 15

[address]

subject property:boat
violation: Paragraph 15

[address]

subject property: trailer
violation: Paragraph 15

[address]

subject property: Sign in yard advertising business
violation: Paragraph 13

[address]

subject property: trailer
violation: Paragraph 15

Five out of the six violations listed above fall within the same applicatory paragraph to which you cite our violation. None of the boats or trailers are:

parked in a garage, or next to the home behind the front plane behind a 6 foot cedar fence. At no time shall it be permitted to be in view, when at the property.

The majority of the aforementioned violations have been present since we moved into [fancy name] Subdivision in April 2009. As your letter stated, the CCRs are for the benefit of all owners who live within the community. Therefore, we would request that the CCRs be applied to ALL owners who live within the community. Please advise as to your intentions to enforce these violations.

We would also like to know if the [fancy name] Subdivision holds meetings regarding the CCRs and/or violations thereof. If so, we would like a schedule of said meetings and the opportunity to attend, as members of the [fancy name] Subdivision.

We look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,



US

Yes, but is he learning anything?

There are two super important things we would like to teach our child. Education and arts. We read on a daily basis. And he loves it. I can't even count how many books he has and he's getting to the point where he is quite interactive with story time, i.e., no more monkeys jumping on the bed! He LOVES that one. And the wheels on the bus book. He has so much fun with those because we are quite animated with our reading.

Fortunately, since we started him at such a young age, he's quite relaxed with reading. I don't feel as though I have to pin him down just to read. And when we are done with one book, he says "ta da!" (the end) and runs off to get another book from the basket.
As an avid reader, seeing his excitement and interest really pleases me, and I'm always happy to sit down and go through his collection of books with him.

Music is also important. We always have music on in the house. I prefer it over the TV, hands down. 99% of the time, it's country music. But he'll dance to anything. And he gets quite into the dancing!

For those who don't know, Eric is a really good guitar player. I bought him this very nice guitar our first Christmas together. It was a pretty penny, but well worth the investment.

Right now, he's learning how to play "Chicken Fried" and "Whatever It Is" by The Zac Brown Band. Carter loves just sitting and watching Eric play. He's completely zoned in.

And occasionally, he will gets curious enough to go up to Eric and Eric will let him play along. It's quite entertaining to watch the two.

Hero

A boy and his uncle.

Game Night - Game 1

Tonight was the first game of the softball season. My brother, Dana, two cousins, Matt and Brian, and uncle, Rod, all play on the same softball team. It's made up of all the kids who used to play little league together, battled against each other in high school, and now continue to play for the love of the game.....oh, and the old guys who started up the league 30 years ago. It's fantastic. I love the passion.

Of course, I took my camera along. I actually had no intention of taking any shots other than my child. But once I started on the players, I was hooked. I set the camera to action and snapped away. I had a great time!! I'm hoping to continue all season without annoying anyone by standing in their way for my best shots.


My brother got walked right off the bat, which was a good thing because he's nursing a hurt ankle and needed to test out what he could do without further injury.

Several people brought popcorn as snacks....which was a BIG mistake, because my child? LOVES popcorn. Here he is sharing with his Grandma Barb.

My cousin, Matt, plays first base and has since he was a wee child.

My other cousin, Brian, plays third base.

Get down and get ready!!

My brother plays center field and has a cannon for an arm.

He actually had a couple amazing catches tonight....but I was distracted. There was a three week old baby and my uterus was bossing me around, telling me to oogle and ooooh and aaahhhhh with the baby. So I did. And I missed some great plays. But that's ok. There will be other great plays all season.....but that baby will only be 3 weeks old once....still sporting the little white spots on his face. Sheesh man!!


The pitcher is Mike. He's amazing. He throws harder than I ever did and he is one of the original guys from the original league.....back B.K., as my parents would call it (before kids).

Matt up to bat.

My uncle, Rod (Matt and Brian's dad) up to bat. I wasn't able to get any shots of Brian up to bat, but that's my assignment next game. I was too chicken to venture over to the other side of the field......you know, in THEIR territory. But I will next week. Promise.

Carter was quite the busy kid. ALL over the place.

And then he found the drinking fountain and it was alllll downhill from there. Anyone who would pick him up and help him drink was his new best friend. I think he gained about 7 pounds of water weight by the time the game was over.

Dana up to bat.

I almost got the money shot. If I had clicked one more time, I probably would have gotten contact, but at least I have the ball IN the picture with him swinging!

The Aces won the game 8-0. Stay tuned next week!

What is Art to One......

...may not be art to another.

But it's art to him. Every time we have snack.