I Go to Cweveland.....You Miss Me

This is the phrase that then five year old Matt told my grandfather when we arrived from Cleveland for our first Christmas visit back home (Mesa, AZ).  Since then it has been a running joke in our family.  Whenever someone would return from Cleveland this little phrase had to be repeated at least a dozen times.  Well, after two years of not visiting Cleveland it was time to go back.  You see we still own our lovely little house in Cleveland and have been fortunate enough to rent it, but it was time for our renters to move on.  We have also been blessed to find another renter, but with the transition and no property manager we found it necessary for either Doug or I to make a trip back to Cleveland to make sure everything was in order.  

Since we are on count down to Doug's deployment and he can't leave the area, I was the sad second choice.   So off to Cleveland I went.  A four hour layover in Dallas and I was back in Cleveland.  I must admit there were thing that I did miss and reminders of what I didn't.  I was able to take care of the house with some frustration but that was to be expected with this house (nothing has ever been an easy fix there).  Then I got to run around taking pictures of some of my favorite places that I have missed.

This is Little Italy.....I love this place.  The food, the atmosphere, and the people make this one of my must stops.

This is the South Euclid-Lyndhurst Library.

It's a mansion that was bought in the 1950's and converted into a library.

It is by far the most amazing place that I have checked out books.



Lastly, is St. Anne's Church on Cedar Road.  When I would pass this church throughout the different seasons, I was always amazed that it didn't matter what the weather was like this building was always in it's glory.

There were so many other places that I would have loved to visit again, but time constraints being as they were I had to pick the ones that I didn't have pictures of and didn't want to miss.

A Cautionary Tale

I feel it is my civic responsibility to warn you all of the dangers of playing with your kids.  A couple of weeks ago the boys and I were having a Nerf gun fight.  We had made forts with chairs and blankets.  We reinforced our defences with laundry baskets.  We had even taken on different roles.  As the old saying goes "it's all fun until someone gets hurt".  Guess who that someone was?  Me of course.  While running for cover under heavy fire I ran my toe into the wall or chair or maybe the bookcase, I really am not sure.  

All I do know for sure is that it hurt and I thought that I could just move it back into place because it was just disjointed.  No such luck.  After calling Doug to come home fast (luckily it was the end of the day) and him trying to set it a couple of times, we were off to the hospital ER.  Although, I wasn't in great pain it was uncomfortable to wait for 5 hours until the orthopedic PA resident could numb me up and set my toe.  (I must admit I saw a sight that I never want to experience again.  It was Doug getting a needle ready for the procedure.  Way too clinical, way too creepy.)  It wasn't a needle, I was drawing up medication into a syringe - with a needle.  I must admit they have scared me but good when they told me to take very good care of myself or I would have to undergo surgery to have a pin put in my toe.  I don't have time for surgery so for now my foot stays up when I'm sitting and that is most of the time.

So beware all you parents that believe playing with your children will help you.  This is not the case.  Ask me, I know.



I added the Band Aid so it wouldn't be too gross.



Back to School

Ok....so it's almost been a month since my kids started school.  But start they did just days after returning from our epic vacation.  I was a smart mom and bought all our school supplies before the end of July, so we were set up that way.  Everyone had a new backpack and lunch box.  Crayons, pencils, notebooks, binders, folders, pens, markers, colored pencils, erasers, and scissors were all labeled and ready. 

This year I have three boys attending three different schools.  Matt attends Luna Middle School as a sixth grader.  His first week he hated it.  He figured that he was never going to figure out how to get to all his classes with just five minute passing time, that his locker would never open on the first try, and that his back was going to break under the weight of all the books.  The second week looked up as the pass time between classes seemed to be long enough but the locker was still giving him trouble.  Finally, by the third week of school he decided he could stay as thing were definitely looking up. 



Nate is the big man on campus as a 5th grader at Langley Elementary.  We decided to keep him in this school although it is further away and I have to drive him this year.  We weighed the convenience of having him go to the neighborhood school with Danny against him having to attend yet another new school.  He has friends from last year, has joined the school choir, and is running for student council.

Dan is a third grader at Galm Elementary and is very excited to have gotten the nice teacher, Mrs. Ripps.  He has a group of friends that he enjoys being with and are the examples to the rest of the class as to how they should be doing things.  He also continues to attend speech once a week and has a teacher assistant that is in the class three days a week to help him and a few other students with their work. 

It is really nice to be able to attend most of the same schools in the same school district for two years in a row.  I don't think I will ever take that for granted again.

Epic Vacation Part IX: Four Corners

Our last major stop on our way home was the Four Corners.   This is the area where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah all touch.  As a family we have decided that is destination spot.  Not that is has fancy hotels or spas, the shopping consists of booths run by the Navajo people, and it really isn't that scenic.  It's just darn cool to say you have been in four places at once.  That and it is a drive..... a long, long drive.  Especially, if you are with Doug who wants to test out the four wheeling capability of a 2003 Nissan Xterra and the patience of his family.  Luckily, I slept most of the time. Hey, the 4 corners is literally in the middle of nowhere - it's not on the way to or from anything!  Besides, there were some amazing dirt roads, what do you expect??

We  stopped in Farmington, NM and Amarillo, TX on our way home.  There was plenty more we could have seen or done but to be honest we were too darn pooped to do much more.

Epic Vacation Part VIII: Bryce Canyon National Park

Tuesday we headed out to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We really enjoyed being about ten degrees cooler than Zion's and that we got there a little earlier to start our hike.  After our first stop at the visitor center to pick up the boys Junior Ranger Program booklets, we choose a hike that was on the moderate level.  (After much begging from me.)  We headed out on the Queen's Gardens/Navajo Trail Hike.  This one is quite deceiving.  At first you have a nice, easy desent into the canyon, where you get to see scenes like this:

You walk around the bottom of the canyon enjoying the sight and sounds.  Then you reach the time to climb back out of the canyon.  Of course we don't head back the way we came, as that would be too easy, but choose a much more difficult route.

Now I don't know if it was this hike or if it was because of the epic hike the day before but we were ready for some good sitting time. 

We listened to a great park ranger as he explained the geology of the area using bad impersonations of rock stars and songs.  The boys loved it.  Then we took a ride in the car getting out at all the lookout points.

Finally, we decided that it was time to get the boys their Junior Ranger badges and head back to the hotel.