Welcome to the synopsis of the Blanchards in 2015!
January 2015: Taylor got a new car and headed back for her 5th semester at LSU! Todd, Lauryn, Camryn, Patty, Autumn.. all back to work and school as usual. **Note: I am going back to my timeline on Facebook to get some ideas of what to write here, and honestly, January has a lot of "I wish it was summer or still Christmas vacation" posts or "Time to go run" posts, plus some pictures of normal daily events. A regular ol' month, really... Except for the Odell Beckham world record. :)
February 2015: MARDI GRAS SEASON! once again! This time with a freshman in the Fontainebleau's High School Band! Camryn played cymbals, and marched in 4 parades in Mandeville, New Orleans, and Metarie. This was our FIRST uptown parade, and boy was it fun! Looking forward to Krewe of Tucks next year!
March 2015: A busy month! Patty ran the Shamrockin' Run 8K in NOLA. Taylor and Patty ran the Rock N Fly Half Marathon in Pensacola. The whole family plus the Cadles and the Gillmans went to Austin for Katie and David's wedding at the end of the month. OH and Patty turned the big 4-0!!!
April 2015: Taylor and Patty ran the Crescent City Classic. We had a peaceful, fun Easter here at home, with swimming on Spring Break. Taylor was inducted into Psi Chi, the Psychology honor society. We bought a camper! Ready for some outdoor fun in the Sun Lite!
May 2015: Taylor and Patty ran the Huey P. Long Bridge Run. The big girls went to a Paramore concert for Taylor's birthday. Taylor and Autumn had their 20/5 birthday parties. Autumn graduated from Pre-K and registered from Kindergarten. The school year ended for all... AMEN! says all of the teachers! Let the summer BEGIN!!!!
June 2015: We headed to the beach for an extended weekend of fun in the sun. The Bodies moved to Mandeville at the beginning of the month. The Blanchard daughters went to Florida for Girlapalooza, and the Blanchard Mr. and Mrs. and Guinny Boy headed to North Carolina with the camper for a week in the mountains. (We hiked and hiked and hiked some more.) Then we came back home for some relaxing pool time and summer goodness in Mandeville.
July 2015: We enjoyed 4th of July fireworks near the house. (The first time Autumn watched fireworks and actually enjoyed them.) We visited in Houma for Paw Robbie's birthday. Then the whole Blanchard clan headed out for a week+ of camping in Georgia and North Carolina. We enjoyed some of our old NC stomping grounds. We loved the majestic views, the cool rivers, and had a few encounters with snakes.. but no bears!
August 2015: Ah, back to school. Lauryn started junior high (7th grade), Camryn started 10th grade, and Taylor moved on to her Junior year at LSU. Autumn started Kindergarten as well. Camryn joined ROTC; she would soon be moving up in the ranks!
September 2015: A very busy month getting adjusted to new routines, classrooms, work loads, etc. Patty became a Girls on the Run coach at Lake Harbor. Autie truly loves Kindergarten and her teacher. Autumn was named the Kiwanis Club's Terrific Kid of her Class in September, and she started violin lessons at her school weekly. Patty ran the Saints Kickoff 5K in September. (and after the season we have had, I may never run across the field again.. was I bad luck?)
October 2015: Lauryn turned the big 1-3! We watched the Saints and LSU games every week... ah, the trials and tribulations of being a Louisiana football fan! We visited Bourg to celebrate Mrs. Bonnie's birthday. Lauryn started weekly guitar lessons. Dash and Euen Bodie were born on October 27th! They stayed in the hospital for a little over a week. Halloween was a super rainy one- we trick or treated the night before in a nearby neighborhood! Camryn and Taylor went to Voodoo fest for the first time on Halloween.
November 2015: LSU's hopes and football dreams took a downturn with the game vs. Alabama. There was some time freed up on the weekends that was not spent watching football! :) Camryn turned 16 on Nov. 22. We had a great Thanksgiving week off, and decorated for Chrismas in the days before and after Thanksgiving.
December 2015: And so this brings us to December again. Our trees are up (one small in the foyer, a bigger one in the living room), we have some lights outside, stockings are hung. Autumn is anxiously awaiting what her elf, Lucia, will do next. She wakes up at 5:30 almost every morning to see where Lucia has hidden or caused mischief the night before! Autumn had her violin concert on Tuesday, and Lauryn had her Christmas concert at FJHS on Tuesday as well. We are eagerly awaiting Christmas vacation from school!
We hope you have enjoyed this synopsis of our year. We are never bored in this house, that is for sure! We wish you all the best of luck and love in 2016!
Showing posts with label patty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patty. Show all posts
Friday, November 27, 2015
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Blanchard the builders
Can we fix it??? Yes WE CAN!!!!!
As the girls spent their week at the "G's" in Florida (G and Gdaddy- or Grammy and Granddaddy- or Rick and Betsy's) Todd and I had a few days of checking out restaurants, listening to music in NOLA, and watching "House of Cards" late nights here at the house.
So on Wednesday, it was decided that the rest of our "kidless" time would be spent repairing the back fence. Boards were loose and rotting, and it was a matter of time before Guinness truly used the state of things to his advantage and took a stroll out of the yard.
SO, Thursday the work began. The physical work anyway, as Todd sat with pen and paper for hours configuring what we needed, and we made a trip to Lowe's on Wednesday just to get an idea of the supplies there in conjunction with his list.
Thursday we headed to Lowe's and after at least two hours, left with a trailer full of wood, concrete mix, tools, etc. Thursday was all about post hole digging, which we soon found out only Todd could do in the unbelievably hard ground we had to dig in. Friday after the post hole digger broke and we headed back to Lowe's for some more wood, we installed some 2 x 4's and prepared for the long day Saturday.
Saturday was a 14 hour day.. breaks only for lunch and dinner and one beer break. :)
But around 10 o clock PM Saturday, we installed the last board.
Here are the before and after photos:
Here are some day by day photos to show the progress. What a job!
As the girls spent their week at the "G's" in Florida (G and Gdaddy- or Grammy and Granddaddy- or Rick and Betsy's) Todd and I had a few days of checking out restaurants, listening to music in NOLA, and watching "House of Cards" late nights here at the house.
So on Wednesday, it was decided that the rest of our "kidless" time would be spent repairing the back fence. Boards were loose and rotting, and it was a matter of time before Guinness truly used the state of things to his advantage and took a stroll out of the yard.
SO, Thursday the work began. The physical work anyway, as Todd sat with pen and paper for hours configuring what we needed, and we made a trip to Lowe's on Wednesday just to get an idea of the supplies there in conjunction with his list.
Thursday we headed to Lowe's and after at least two hours, left with a trailer full of wood, concrete mix, tools, etc. Thursday was all about post hole digging, which we soon found out only Todd could do in the unbelievably hard ground we had to dig in. Friday after the post hole digger broke and we headed back to Lowe's for some more wood, we installed some 2 x 4's and prepared for the long day Saturday.
Saturday was a 14 hour day.. breaks only for lunch and dinner and one beer break. :)
But around 10 o clock PM Saturday, we installed the last board.
Here are the before and after photos:
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| BEFORE The fence behind the retaining wall was surrounded by years worth of organic material and was rotting. |
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| BEFORE These wood slats had seen better days, the gate wouldn't even open when we first moved in (who doesn't take a trip to explore their own woods???) |
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| AFTER |
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| AFTER |
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| AFTER with awesome new big gate that can fit a canoe through it |
Here are some day by day photos to show the progress. What a job!
I will never look at a fence the same way!
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| Progress after Thursday (Day 1) |
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| Day 1 progress |
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| don't make em like they used to :) |
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| Day 2 |
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| Day 2 |
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| Beginning of Day 3 |
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| Day 3 at beer break o clock :) |
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| Wonder Blammit twins activate! |
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| At least we had an awesome view the whole time :) |
Saturday, June 29, 2013
The ultimate Blanchard casual dining table a.k.a. drinking the beer was definitely easier!
We have been collecting bottle caps for about 4 or 5 years now. We never fully knew what we were going to do with them, just that there was a plethora of ideas for bottle cap art.
The idea of refinishing our table with bottle caps was always an idea, but one we decided to wait to possibly complete when we moved to a house we would be in awhile.
SO yesterday, as we completed our stepping stone art project, I pulled out the collection of bottle caps to find a Guinness cap for Guinness' stepping stone. (the kit for which we have moved 5 times in the last 5 years)
I decided to "Carpe Diem" and finally start on the bottle cap art for our table. Which included at least an hour of sorting out the caps we had. I didn't count, but we definitely have a majority of New Belgium caps. My theory in this is that the various New Belgium brews were our solution to good available beers on a regular basis in the stores. Abita in Georgia was not always fresh, so we quit buying it up there. Highland Ales were our #1 cap when in North Carolina (not sure what happened to that collection of caps.. not all of them made the cut in the move to Georgia evidentally), but again, Highland beer was not even a faithfully fresh beer when purchasing where it could be found in Georgia.
So, New Belgium caps were followed in quantity by Sweetwater caps. (I think that Abita will surely win out in the next bottle cap creation as we can actually get fresh Abita bottled beer now!)
The next step, which took at least 2 hours, was to lay them out on our table to see 1. if we had enough caps to cover the table AND 2. what type of pattern we were going to create. (I will go into detail about the different rows/patterns and how they were chosen in the pictures of the assembly.)
Through input from husband, we decided to move the table into the garage to complete the project. (Inhalation warnings on the epoxy did the trick.) So I took the leaf out of the table (what CAN you do with those pieces of wood? This table had two of em!) and we moved the table into the garage.
And so began, Wednesday night at about 7 PM, the gluing of the caps.
I had purchased three containers of Gorilla Super Glue, with the hopes that would be enough.
After not even half of the first row of caps, I was almost out of Super Glue.
Time for another plan.
I decided that plain ol Elmer's glue would have to do the trick.
We had one bottle in our "art box", and Camryn had a 3/4 full bottle of Modge Podge.
When those were gone, I searched the whole house and found a pink sparkly bottle of Elmer's.
And yes, that was totally used as well and I had to resort to hot glue.
More than once in this project, I realized you must OVERESTIMATE the supplies you need!
Here are the pictures from Wednesday, June 26th... Day 1 of project:
Thursday, June 27th:
I took my time this morning with prepping the area for epoxy resin coating.
It also took almost three cups of coffee to wake me up. (I am a one cup of coffee person.)
I followed the recommendations fully with Painter's tape, duct tape, and foil.
So I read and reread the directions for the Epoxy. However, I wasn't quite prepared with the right size containers. I ended up sacrificing my 2 quart plastic pitcher, which I know will be easily replaceable at the Dollar Store. I also sacrificed a plastic spatula, a big plastic spoon, and a few 32 oz. drink cups.
Low and behold, 64 oz. of this stuff was not enough.. should have known. When I approximated the size, I wasn't thinking that the box is talking about a FLAT surface coating. Oh well.. live and learn.. off to Lowe's I go for more epoxy resin.
6/27/13 1:27 PM: I just finished the full first coat.
Here are a few things I would definitely do differently:
Last coat of the day was at 9:30 PM.
Todd opened the garage door as I was smoothing it out, to put the Jeep back in.
Here's what fell from the garage door onto the goopy table!
1:30 AM, Friday, June 28th.. LAST COAT APPLIED!
Now we wait for it to cure. 48-72 hours.
Friday, June 28
So at some point today around noon, I decided to remove the foil and duct tape and painter's tape.
Lo and behold, the sticky drips discussed above had, of course, seeped into the duct tape and foil, so now the edges of my table look like this:
SO, not what I had planned. The edges are sharp, too, so essentially, as Todd pointed out, the edges need to be smoothed anyway. I will get as much of this tape off as possible (I am slowly working it off of there, much to the demise of the skin on my hands!) and then we will sand and buff the edges.
I am going to finish this post, even though I REALLY wanted the last pictures to be of the table in the house. This project has taught me to expect the unexpected (as if life hasn't taught me that enough! :) and to think things through a little more than originally intended.
All in all, I am happy with the results of the table. Needs a little more work but it was a fun project!
ENDING WORDS: This table was like jumping into the deep end on the first day of swimming lessons. Maybe I SHOULD have started smaller... I don't think I 'drowned' in this leap, but it wasn't Olympic strokes! I figure once it's completely done, it has a lot of stories already built in to the creation, as well as the stories behind the bottle caps and design.
Here are the websites I used to plan the project out.
The idea of refinishing our table with bottle caps was always an idea, but one we decided to wait to possibly complete when we moved to a house we would be in awhile.
SO yesterday, as we completed our stepping stone art project, I pulled out the collection of bottle caps to find a Guinness cap for Guinness' stepping stone. (the kit for which we have moved 5 times in the last 5 years)
I decided to "Carpe Diem" and finally start on the bottle cap art for our table. Which included at least an hour of sorting out the caps we had. I didn't count, but we definitely have a majority of New Belgium caps. My theory in this is that the various New Belgium brews were our solution to good available beers on a regular basis in the stores. Abita in Georgia was not always fresh, so we quit buying it up there. Highland Ales were our #1 cap when in North Carolina (not sure what happened to that collection of caps.. not all of them made the cut in the move to Georgia evidentally), but again, Highland beer was not even a faithfully fresh beer when purchasing where it could be found in Georgia.
So, New Belgium caps were followed in quantity by Sweetwater caps. (I think that Abita will surely win out in the next bottle cap creation as we can actually get fresh Abita bottled beer now!)
The next step, which took at least 2 hours, was to lay them out on our table to see 1. if we had enough caps to cover the table AND 2. what type of pattern we were going to create. (I will go into detail about the different rows/patterns and how they were chosen in the pictures of the assembly.)
Through input from husband, we decided to move the table into the garage to complete the project. (Inhalation warnings on the epoxy did the trick.) So I took the leaf out of the table (what CAN you do with those pieces of wood? This table had two of em!) and we moved the table into the garage.
And so began, Wednesday night at about 7 PM, the gluing of the caps.
I had purchased three containers of Gorilla Super Glue, with the hopes that would be enough.
After not even half of the first row of caps, I was almost out of Super Glue.
Time for another plan.
I decided that plain ol Elmer's glue would have to do the trick.
We had one bottle in our "art box", and Camryn had a 3/4 full bottle of Modge Podge.
When those were gone, I searched the whole house and found a pink sparkly bottle of Elmer's.
And yes, that was totally used as well and I had to resort to hot glue.
More than once in this project, I realized you must OVERESTIMATE the supplies you need!
Here are the pictures from Wednesday, June 26th... Day 1 of project:
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| The naked table, ready for action. This table was purchase in May 2000. The top was basically stripped off due to my lack of knowledge at the time of the damage cleaners can do to wood tabletops. It was used for hundreds of art projects, and therefore went through many cleanings. |
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| Lauryn working on row 1. We used New Belgium for row 1. The white New Belgium caps were from their winter brews. We were a big fan of "2 Below" and "Snowed In". You will see in the finished product just how many red bottle caps we had! |
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| Rows 2 and 3. Row 2 was Sweetwater and Highland. Row 3 was mostly Sierra Nevada with some Lagunitas. We did 4 or 5 Sierra Nevade/Lagunitas with a Victory cap, Harpoon cap, and then "Beer From Around Here" which is Red Brick Brewing in ATL. |
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| Row 4 was a bunch of miscellaneous brews that I categorized as ones we really liked,. To name a few, there are Rogue, Stone, Oberon, Bell's, Terrapin.. and lots more. |
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| Almost done gluing. Well, the whole right side has a good many left that are loose. I added some CDs of top tunes in the Blanchard memory bank. |
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| This was probably 2 glasses of wine and 3 hours deep of gluing. |
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| Camryn graced me with her presence toward the end of the project again. She helped glue down some loose ends. |
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| The LAST cap that I glued down around 10:30 PM. |
I took my time this morning with prepping the area for epoxy resin coating.
It also took almost three cups of coffee to wake me up. (I am a one cup of coffee person.)
I followed the recommendations fully with Painter's tape, duct tape, and foil.
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| Ready to pour!!! |
Low and behold, 64 oz. of this stuff was not enough.. should have known. When I approximated the size, I wasn't thinking that the box is talking about a FLAT surface coating. Oh well.. live and learn.. off to Lowe's I go for more epoxy resin.
6/27/13 1:27 PM: I just finished the full first coat.
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| It seems that the resin is right up to the top of most of the bottle caps. I am thinking one more full coat in 4 hours will be enough to cover all. |
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| Here is part of my mess. |
Here are a few things I would definitely do differently:
- WEAR GLOVES! I am such a dufus on a regular basis when it comes to wearing gloves to do anything. Only if a container warns "Your skin will melt off if you do not use gloves." do I actually put them on. I have washed my hands more times than I can count in the last hours of messing with this stuff.
- THIS STUFF IS STTTIICCKKYY!!!!!!!!!! Oh man, I should have known but really, underestimated the stickiness of this stuff. My blue flip flops are ruined, and I had a coating of stickiness that took forever to get off on my hands and toes.
- DROP CLOTH! Should have put one down.. or something to catch drips. My foil barrier was not enough. Good thing my husband had the intuition to stop me and get me to move this table to the garage. Not sure if I can get the stuff off of the garage floor, but I figure once it is dried, it will just be clear little spots. UPDATE: Just scraped it up.. lord that took forever and was awfully sticky and a lot of muscle power needed.
- Did I say OVERESTIMATE how much you will need? I am headed to the local hardware store to buy more.
8:57 PM
Yes I am attempting to time yet ANOTHER coat... I don't even want to total how much I have spent on resin! :) Todd made a run to Lowes to get yet another gallon of it. Now I have to configure when I will do another pour and if I will stay awake to do the last one or wake up in 5-6 hours to do it. I say go to sleep and wake up and do it.
Last coat of the day was at 9:30 PM.
Todd opened the garage door as I was smoothing it out, to put the Jeep back in.
Here's what fell from the garage door onto the goopy table!
(not the actual gecko.. I was a little too freaked out and surprised to search for the camera!)
I shall not mention the filth flarn filth that exploded out of my lips!
So I managed to scoop him up with the gift card I was using for a spreader.
He scrambled away in the closed garage, so all I can imagine is that he is probably glued to the floor somewhere, in some state of demise... gecko fossil in the garage... that'll be interesting to find.
Now we wait for it to cure. 48-72 hours.
Friday, June 28
So at some point today around noon, I decided to remove the foil and duct tape and painter's tape.
Lo and behold, the sticky drips discussed above had, of course, seeped into the duct tape and foil, so now the edges of my table look like this:
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I am going to finish this post, even though I REALLY wanted the last pictures to be of the table in the house. This project has taught me to expect the unexpected (as if life hasn't taught me that enough! :) and to think things through a little more than originally intended.
All in all, I am happy with the results of the table. Needs a little more work but it was a fun project!
ENDING WORDS: This table was like jumping into the deep end on the first day of swimming lessons. Maybe I SHOULD have started smaller... I don't think I 'drowned' in this leap, but it wasn't Olympic strokes! I figure once it's completely done, it has a lot of stories already built in to the creation, as well as the stories behind the bottle caps and design.
Here are the websites I used to plan the project out.
- Instructables info
- College Candy's entry (which mirrors Instructables)
- Windfarm Blog entry on their experience with bottle cap table tops
- Info on pouring and sanding resin table top
Here are some that I have used SINCE to help with understanding epoxy resin and also, how to possibly sand and buff out the edges.
- Sanding and Buffing Resin
- Epoxy Chemistry
- Epoxy Cure Times: Scroll down to the cure times. This epoxy was a 1:1 mixture.
- Sanding Resin
Monday, February 18, 2013
Locomotive Half Marathon in Kennesaw 2-17-2013
Me and Tay about to embark on our first half marathon together.
- 10 mile run the weekend before- check.
- Carbed up all week on bagels and bread and pasta- check.
- Cold weather running gear purchased and accounted for-check.
- Numbers retrieved and free pasta buffet consumed- check.
- Went to bed early the night before- check.
- Woke up early to a breakfast of coffee, bagel (me), HN Cheerios (Tay)- check.
So off we go, and WOW! Was it cold! 22 degrees cold. The dj dude at the race said it felt like 15 degrees. The tips of our toes and the tips of our fingers were throbbing from the cold within a few minutes of getting out of the cold. We walked briskly to warm up. Then we had to pee one last time.. and all of the body heat accumulated in our layers escaped!
But no time to complain! Head to the start, they say! And we did, and within seconds of the gun starting the race, we were off for 13.1 miles around Kennesaw.
As promised, I began the race with this awesome selection:
I can say, now, that this song has never had any staying power on my playlists. Sad, right? (callie, I know you are shaking your head! :) BUT! I will say I am converted. I could actually HEAR the song I played at the start this time.. many other races I did had very loud DJs at the start, etc. and I could never hear that first song. But timing was awesome... as I pressed play, Eye of the Tiger started, and the gun sounded the beginning of the race! In fact, it was hilarious... the dude running a few yards in front of me was fist pumping like he was listening to the same song!
At mile 1, the mile markers were set up side by side.
Mile 1/Mile 11
I wondered if we could choose, like in Pedro, which one the "Ace" would be. :)
The streets were very quiet, no real interesting outfits or shirts or roadkill or things to report. :)
I did get to see the building for this place, which I did not know existed until Sunday: Cryolife
And wow.. look at their locations.. Kennesaw and the United Kingdom.
The building is GINORMOUS.. and we passed it twice.. Todd said there are probably people cryogenically frozen in there, waiting to be awakened and cured...
The whole thought of what went on behind those huge glass walls kept my brain occupied for a few miles, at least.
The whole thought of what went on behind those huge glass walls kept my brain occupied for a few miles, at least.
Somewhere around mile 6 or 7, we headed down a road that led to the Vulcan facilities in K-Saw. The huge massive amounts of rock kept my mind busy for awhile. And THEN.. there was the chiropractor set up down this same dusty road in the middle of seemingly nowhere, with a table and all, with a sign that said 'Active Adjustment".. something like that. I am thinking, "Who is going to stop?" but then on our way back up the street (from the U turn a mile down) I realized that there was a porta potty set up nearby! Anyone the stopped to use the bathroom might get an adjustment from this person! HA! If I would have stopped and laid on that table, I don't know if I would have gotten back up!
And on we went...
Somewhere around mile 8, I think, this song played, and I realized how happy I was that I left it on my playlist.
As I looked over at my almost 18 year old running her first marathon, I couldn't have been happier all of the miles that we trekked in almost perfect cadence. Our only words were me asking if she was good and her giving me the thumbs up... no talking necessary.. footfalls together were our only language.
(geez that's cheezy.. sorry.. true though!)
So we ran through the finish line and got our medals.. and wth.. all of the vendors were out of food! I was looking forward to WHATEVER anyone had to offer.. this was my only gripe about the race.. there honestly was no one there with food. Sweet Tomatoes had left some multigrain chips, which I ate two bags of. Muscle Milk was there giving out samples.. (bleck.. too sweet.. give me some good ol 2% milk, please)... the best thing about there not being anyone else WAS Frannie's Gluten Free Muffins. I swear I ate 2 packs back to back of these yummy delicacies! Lemon Zest and Zucchini.... thank you, ladies, for an awesome post race meal AND for sticking it out till the end!
(My theory is that the 5Kers ate all of the food!)
Here we are at the finish!
Awesome experience all in all for our first half together! Yes we rested and ate our butts off that day! Yes we were very thankful for having the day off Monday! and YES! I am looking forward to our next!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
My prediction of 2013 for the Blanchards
So every year for the last 4 I have done this prediction for the year to come, which I print out and put in a folder that goes in our Christmas box. I don't read it again until I am taking out Christmas decorations the following November. It has been funny to look back on the year through the eyes of early-January Patty.
So I was thinking last night that I needed to compose one of these predictions, which I can't even imagine the complexity for 2013... and here's why:
I will start with graduations. Within the next 4 1/2 months, we will have two graduations in the house. Taylor will graduate from North Cobb High School on May 24th. What a milestone... I can't even imagine the emotional rollercoaster it will be.. I don't even want to think about it right now or I will start crying :)
So with that graduation comes the preparation for college. And then some of the summer spent at a college campus. But before we can even get to college, let's not forget the Spring, with Wind Symphony excitement, and a band trip to Washington DC in May, as well as AP tests for college credit, and all kind of other stuff I know I am not even thinking about right now.
Next is my graduation...the road to finish up for graduation will be hard and work-filled.. 4 months to get-r-done. I don't even want to type more than that as I get anxious thinking about it. :)
The biggest obstacles to tackle in the next 4 months will be our pending move to Louisiana, hopefully to the North Shore. We toured Mandeville and really like the area. The two high schools that are in the area have great state reports, so we are planning on heading there. Of course, finding a house is the biggest step. It is looking like we might attempt to buy a house, which will be an interesting feat.
Within the next handful of months, Taylor and I are running a 15K in January, and then hopefully the Publix Half Marathon on 3/17. So somewhere in the chaos, we will be training for those... a good thing because otherwise I might be liable to shut myself up with a computer and pound out the hours for grad school!
I will say that I hope that this cold I have had for the last 3 weeks is the last one I have for a long time, as I ain't got time for the sickness! Let's hope for lots of hand washing and hand sanitizer in the next 4 months to keep the germs at bay so that we can get through it all happy, and enough wine in our possession to momentarily be able to forget about it all :)
In closing, I leave you with this:
"Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form."
~Andre Maurois
So I was thinking last night that I needed to compose one of these predictions, which I can't even imagine the complexity for 2013... and here's why:
I will start with graduations. Within the next 4 1/2 months, we will have two graduations in the house. Taylor will graduate from North Cobb High School on May 24th. What a milestone... I can't even imagine the emotional rollercoaster it will be.. I don't even want to think about it right now or I will start crying :)
So with that graduation comes the preparation for college. And then some of the summer spent at a college campus. But before we can even get to college, let's not forget the Spring, with Wind Symphony excitement, and a band trip to Washington DC in May, as well as AP tests for college credit, and all kind of other stuff I know I am not even thinking about right now.
Next is my graduation...the road to finish up for graduation will be hard and work-filled.. 4 months to get-r-done. I don't even want to type more than that as I get anxious thinking about it. :)
The biggest obstacles to tackle in the next 4 months will be our pending move to Louisiana, hopefully to the North Shore. We toured Mandeville and really like the area. The two high schools that are in the area have great state reports, so we are planning on heading there. Of course, finding a house is the biggest step. It is looking like we might attempt to buy a house, which will be an interesting feat.
Within the next handful of months, Taylor and I are running a 15K in January, and then hopefully the Publix Half Marathon on 3/17. So somewhere in the chaos, we will be training for those... a good thing because otherwise I might be liable to shut myself up with a computer and pound out the hours for grad school!
I will say that I hope that this cold I have had for the last 3 weeks is the last one I have for a long time, as I ain't got time for the sickness! Let's hope for lots of hand washing and hand sanitizer in the next 4 months to keep the germs at bay so that we can get through it all happy, and enough wine in our possession to momentarily be able to forget about it all :)
In closing, I leave you with this:
"Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy person has no time to form."
~Andre Maurois
Friday, November 23, 2012
Synopsis of 2012, to date, for the Blanchard Family
So as I place Christmas cards in envelopes, I feel like I am cheating all of you out there on an update to our family. Instead of typing this and enclosing it in each card, I figure hey! Use the power of the blog and just send the address to the blog, right?
Todd: Todd has changed jobs a few times this year, but has seemingly found a happy place working for Northrop-Grumman doing work for the Center for Disease Control. We are thinking that this job, being mostly remote work, will be able to transfer with him when we move back to Louisiana in Summer 2013. (Which is possibly NEW to some of you reading this!) Him and Guinness have been enjoying some quality time during the days, Todd working hard and Guinny Boy laying at his feet.
Patty: I started working this August at Kennesaw Charter Science and Math Academy as the technology teacher as well as the technology specialist for the school. I am also still in grad school; I extended my graduation date until May 2013 in order to take 2 more classes toward my certification toward Online Teaching. I also ran my first half marathon in October (here's a link to the blog post about that experience). Taylor and I ran a few races together so far this year, including the Peachtree Road Race in ATL, the biggest 10K in the country. We are signed up for a 15K in January as well.
Taylor: Taylor is halfway through her Senior year in high school, and just got accepted to LSU as well as LSU's Honor College! She made awesome scores in her SAT in the Spring and then recently in the Fall. She is one of the Clarinet Section leaders in North Cobb High School's Marching Band. Here is a link to the only video so far on YouTube of their show this year. She also just found out she made first chair clarinet in the school's most prestigious musical ensemble, the Wind Symphony. Here is a video of the Wind Symphony from last year playing Rising Sun by Allen Vizzutti, playing with Allen Vizzutti at Kennesaw State. In 6 months, she'll be graduating from high school and gearing up for her freshman year at LSU. Keep reading the blog for updates! (Note: The marching band made grand champs at the festival in Asheville, NC. The North Cobb football team is in round 3 of the playoffs... we are looking forward to another win this Friday!)
Camryn: Camryn is in 7th grade at Awtrey Middle. She is in her second year of band as a percussionist. She particularly likes melodics- bells, marimba, etc. When she is not at school, a lot of her time is spent creating all kinds of artwork. Check the blog for updates... I will upload some pictures of her Halloween mask creation as well as the clan of dragons she has been sculpting.
Lauryn: Lauryn is in 4th grade at Kennesaw Charter, decision she made the week before school started. She is doing great, making awesome grades.. she is really into her music class at school, which led to inquiring about band for next year, so she is planning to play the saxophone next year.
Autumn: Our little toddler truly makes everyday interesting! She is happy at her little preschool where she spends Mommy and Daddy's working hours, and her make-believe skills have matured extensively! She's a very loveable creature that we can't get enough of. Check the blog for some videos of her doing cute toddler stuff.
We took a great family trip Labor Day weekend to Cherokee, North Carolina to one of our favorite cabins, Water Rock Retreat. We have been super busy the last few years, what with a growing baby, three growing girls, and me in grad school. I know I am definitely looking forward to graduating in May and having a bit of time to not worry about assignments and deadlines with school, although that always turns into other kinds of deadlines.
So keep checking back here for more videos, pictures, and blog entries to update everyone on our lives.
We hope everyone has an awesome Christmas season and a fun and joyous new year!
Update as written by Patty on November 23, 2012
Todd: Todd has changed jobs a few times this year, but has seemingly found a happy place working for Northrop-Grumman doing work for the Center for Disease Control. We are thinking that this job, being mostly remote work, will be able to transfer with him when we move back to Louisiana in Summer 2013. (Which is possibly NEW to some of you reading this!) Him and Guinness have been enjoying some quality time during the days, Todd working hard and Guinny Boy laying at his feet.
Patty: I started working this August at Kennesaw Charter Science and Math Academy as the technology teacher as well as the technology specialist for the school. I am also still in grad school; I extended my graduation date until May 2013 in order to take 2 more classes toward my certification toward Online Teaching. I also ran my first half marathon in October (here's a link to the blog post about that experience). Taylor and I ran a few races together so far this year, including the Peachtree Road Race in ATL, the biggest 10K in the country. We are signed up for a 15K in January as well.
Taylor: Taylor is halfway through her Senior year in high school, and just got accepted to LSU as well as LSU's Honor College! She made awesome scores in her SAT in the Spring and then recently in the Fall. She is one of the Clarinet Section leaders in North Cobb High School's Marching Band. Here is a link to the only video so far on YouTube of their show this year. She also just found out she made first chair clarinet in the school's most prestigious musical ensemble, the Wind Symphony. Here is a video of the Wind Symphony from last year playing Rising Sun by Allen Vizzutti, playing with Allen Vizzutti at Kennesaw State. In 6 months, she'll be graduating from high school and gearing up for her freshman year at LSU. Keep reading the blog for updates! (Note: The marching band made grand champs at the festival in Asheville, NC. The North Cobb football team is in round 3 of the playoffs... we are looking forward to another win this Friday!)
Camryn: Camryn is in 7th grade at Awtrey Middle. She is in her second year of band as a percussionist. She particularly likes melodics- bells, marimba, etc. When she is not at school, a lot of her time is spent creating all kinds of artwork. Check the blog for updates... I will upload some pictures of her Halloween mask creation as well as the clan of dragons she has been sculpting.
Lauryn: Lauryn is in 4th grade at Kennesaw Charter, decision she made the week before school started. She is doing great, making awesome grades.. she is really into her music class at school, which led to inquiring about band for next year, so she is planning to play the saxophone next year.
Autumn: Our little toddler truly makes everyday interesting! She is happy at her little preschool where she spends Mommy and Daddy's working hours, and her make-believe skills have matured extensively! She's a very loveable creature that we can't get enough of. Check the blog for some videos of her doing cute toddler stuff.
We took a great family trip Labor Day weekend to Cherokee, North Carolina to one of our favorite cabins, Water Rock Retreat. We have been super busy the last few years, what with a growing baby, three growing girls, and me in grad school. I know I am definitely looking forward to graduating in May and having a bit of time to not worry about assignments and deadlines with school, although that always turns into other kinds of deadlines.
So keep checking back here for more videos, pictures, and blog entries to update everyone on our lives.
We hope everyone has an awesome Christmas season and a fun and joyous new year!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Rantings
If you know me, you know I am not one to get disturbed by much, really and truly. WELL, I can honestly say this sincerely bothers me: the "Digital Copy" 'commercial' at the beginning of Disney movies lately. Yeah, great idea... till the little 8 year old (ish) looking boy says "I can even download them on my iPOD and watch them ANYWHERE!:
"at the beach"- whoa, partner! at the BEACH??? really? unless you live on the beach and it's that boring because you see it all the time, well I can't even imagine saying that! why in the heck would you be watching a movie on the BEACH????
"hanging out with friends"... yeah that's the part right there..are we really influencing the kids of today that it is so dreadfully boring to just sit around and have a conversation that we have to all be watching movies on our mobile devices in order to not be bored to tears???? Yeah, so the scene is of 4 friends around a table, all staring at their handhelds, watching..whatever.
You know me, all for the technology but dang it, not like this. Every time we watch a movie with that commercial on it, I ALWAYS make a boisterous disagreement with the thing, very sarcastic, etc. And if you know me, well, yeah, that fits.
I am truly a digital immigrant who hopes to forever be as close to a digital native as I can be, but with these thoughts I am thinking maybe that will never be... but then again, my kids are digital natives and I want them to always value face-to-face conversation over staring at a screen.. maybe not ALL of the time, because I truly believe some conversations can better progress through digital means... There is a balance.
Father's Day 2012
Taylor and Lauryn, bringin home the bacon, fryin it up in a pan
(Camryn was busy creating decorations and her biscuits were baking.)
On to the rest of the day:
I hate that I have no pictures from yesterday, because we all had a fun time, even with the tremendous crowds. We decided to FINALLY take the girls to White Water, which they were extremely excited about. Camryn, Taylor, and Lauryn planned their attack on the slides, and all agreed they would ride "Cliffhanger", which was the first slide of the day and Todd went with them.
Autie and I were standing there when they each came down, and I can't believe I didn't hear Lauryn scream! I don't think she had time to!
While the big girls and Todd were waiting in line, Autie and I checked out all of the kiddee areas.
This was cute.. a lot of water spraying everywhere which Autumn is not too crazy about. She was ok with it once I was carrying her and splashing through it. We headed over to the next kid-friendly area.
This part was a lot more fun.. although she wanted nothing to do with the house part in the center with all of the water falling unexpectedly. (She has never been one for liking water poured over her head, and now she only likes it if SHE is the one doing it.) There were three regular looking water slides that moved real slow in this part, and she loved em all, when sitting on our lap.
So we headed, Autie and I, to the next upgrade of kid areas called the Treehouse. This spot had some kid slides that moved a little faster, which she would have LOVED I have no doubt if it weren't for the fact that the entire structure had water shooting out, spraying, or falling out of some part of it at all times. This is the part with a huge 500-gallon bucket that fills up and spills every couple of minutes. This bucket was a love-hate part of the day for Autie. She could sit and watch it from a distance where it didn't splash on her all day, I think, but don't get her anywhere near the fall out! Therefore, we never could get to any of these slides, no matter how fast we'd try to run through all of the water as Autumn was kicking and flailing her limbs to get away from the splashing water and the freakiness. :)
So Daddy took over with Autie for a bit.. well a GOOD LONG bit as it took FOREVER to get through the line to ride The Tornado with the big girls.
Well worth the wait.. all four of us on a raft. Doesn't look like much but the first drop out of the chute and up the side of this thing... I am sure the people waiting in line were laughing at the insane look of fear on my face as the centripetal forces took over the raft and therefore, all of our bodies. Fun stuff...
The girls rode Run Away River together
while Autie played for awhile with Me and Todd and then took a MUCH NEEDED power nap.
Then the girls and dad rode Dragon Tail
while me and Autie discovered her love of the Lazy River, where the water pushes you along.
I traveled the whole loop squatted down so she could "swim", and she was happy as can be the whole 6 or 7 lengths we traveled during various parts of the rest of the day.
The Dad/girl foursome rode Black River Falls= more Lazy River fun for Autie plus ice cream time.
As it began to grow late, we decided to try Bahama Bob with Autie, as all of us fit in one raft, and she was BASICALLY tall enough to ride. (Doctor appointment had said Thursday she was 35+" and the limit for the ride was 36".)
So you ride in a raft side by side, which Autie sat on Todd, and barrel down this white slide, which looked calm enough from the outside. And it really was, but it went a bit faster than I was expecting and Autie had a look on her face like, well, like she might not trust us again the next time we try to get in anything in water that is different!
The girls had plans of riding more, but it was 7 and the park was closing. The chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot was calling our names; It was a fun day, and our toes were tired!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
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