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The other day something awesome happened to me. I received a screener copy of the new romantic comedy, Unleashed, to review on my blog.

I almost never watch movies at home, though I see almost every single cartoon movie that comes out at the theatres. See, I’m one of those people who loves going to the movies.

But I rarely watch them at home because there are NONE that I even want to see. I have pretty much ONE genre of movie that I enjoy: romantic comedies.

Although, actually, I did LOVE Wonder Woman this year. It was very romantic comedy-like even though it was technically an action film.

Okay, well, Wonder Woman aside, it seems like it has been decades, yes, literally decades, since there were any good romantic comedies. These days so many movies are raunchy or just dumb and not funny at all.

I personally don’t see the point in watching a movie that isn’t at least a little funny. I do not need movies to make me feel sad. The news does that. If I want to be sad, I will learn what channel the news is on.

Remember back in the 90s, back when I was in high school? Romantic comedies were a dime a dozen. Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan reigned supreme.

Tom Hanks was sleepless in Seattle. He also had mail, email that is.

Richard Gere picked up a pretty woman.

Hugh Grant lived on Notting Hill.

Julia Roberts was just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

Brides ran away.

We went to my best friend’s wedding.

Cher taught us how to negotiate our grades, proving she wasn’t clueless at all.

There were 10 reason I hate you, which were really 10 reasons I don’t hate you…

We learned how to lose a guy in 13 days, or something like that. Did she manage to lose him, though?

OH!! And Mel Gibson knew exactly what women want. Hilarious!

What happened to those movies?? Bring them back!!

If you agree with me at all, I have good news for you. I stumbled across this movie almost accidentally.

After a stressful week in which I saw Alan maybe a total of 4 hours, I needed to turn off my brain and relax with a happy, funny movie, after I put the kids to bed.

I put Unleashed in my Blu ray player and settled into bed to watch.

Alan was up and walking around getting ready for bed, and he kept yelling back to me, “What’s so funny?”

Y’all!! I laughed HARD at this movie. The cat who becomes a man–a handsome man, y’all–had me ROLLING.

The main character is a single gal who moves to San Francisco with 2 pets. Did you ever see That Darn Cat? (An old, also hilarious film) In That Darn Cat, the man becomes a cat. In Unleashed, her pets become men because of a wish she makes.

Watching men play the part of animals-turned-humans was HILARIOUS.

Oh, and by the way, RUDY is in this movie! Doesn’t it seem like he’s in so many awesome movies? By Rudy, I do mean Sean Astin from the Lord of the Rings, Rudy, Mom’s Night Out, and more. Oh, and did you know that Sean Astin is Patty Duke’s son??

In this movie Sean Astin is the guy you’re rooting for to get the girl, but I won’t ruin any more of the plot for ya. Download this comedy!! You will be so glad you did! It’s available at some theatres and for digital download at Amazon, Google Play and other outlets.

Is it kid friendly? I know you’re wondering. Eh…

That depends on your kids. It does have a little bit of language and adult situations. It’s probably PG, but then there is one scene of her getting ready, wearing a bra and pants, so it definitely depends. I just wanted to give you a heads up on that. There are no violent or sexual scenes, other than kissing, and there isn’t much of that either.

I watched it after my kids went to bed, and was able to thoroughly enjoy it without having to constantly hop up and help small people…

Long live chick-flick comedies! You will laugh so hard at this one!

The post Where have all the romantic comedies gone??? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This was at that big Epcot ball that is the symbol of the resort. It’s a ride that takes you through the ages of technology.

JD was a little disappointed when he met Bay Max. He had it in his head that he was going to get to “put Baymax’s stuff on him.” Translation: JD wanted to dress Bay Max in his red armor, but they told him to please not touch anything. Ha!

For most people, Epcot is all about touring the different countries, but for us it was all about 2 things. #1. Hanging out with our friends and #2. Disney characters!!!!

The best way to meet Disney characters is to schedule a meal with them.

You can splurge while you’re there, or you can buy a meal plan in advance, and then it feels like these expensive meals are free because you’ve already paid for them. (It’s called the Disney Dining plan, and I am all about it.)

In case you’ve never been to Disney World, let me caution you here that if you want to do a “character meal” at one of the restaurants that have characters walking from table to table, you should make reservations. This is very easy to do. Simply download the *My Disney Experience* app. You can make reservations about 6 months prior all the way up until the day before. I made ours 1 or 2 weeks out, and many time slots were already booked up.

At Epcot, we met Pluto, Mickey Mouse, and Chip and Dale at the Garden Grill. This was the most fun!! Each of these four classic characters were talented entertainers, and they posed with us, played with us, and cracked us up. Characters are not always this awesome.

He gave me a kiss on the head. I felt special.

JD wasn’t so sure about Pluto, so he settled for a high-five.

I can’t remember if this was Chip or Dale. They were both a hoot. Daniel must’ve really thought this place was magic. They danced with him and goofed around. Dan just laughed and laughed. We all did.

Now you know we love us some shenanigans!

Pluto, getting a sip of Caleb’s drink. (Don’t worry. Not really.)

Daniel hammed it up.

Mickey!

These next pictures tell a heart-warming story.

See, JD was a touch scared of the characters. But when he saw Mickey Mouse, and this seemed to be the REAL Mickey, he started to feel brave. JD said, “I want to see him!!”

So Mickey gestured to JD for a hug.

And JD happily accepted.

So Mickey suggested that I take a photo of him with JD.

And so we did.

It rained everyday, but that was a BLESSING. This kept the temperatures down to a manageable level.

2 tough dudes, ready to get wet

I think I’d like to be Daniel. What a fun life he has.

JD’s favorite exhibit

Our other favorite thing about Epcot was all the Nemo stuff. Or at least, it was certainly JD’s favorite. While we were waiting our turn for “Turtle Talk with Crush,” he wanted his picture made in this shark mouth so badly that we waited in a slow line behind it, and then we had to drag him out of the thing after the photo was made.

After all the shows, Lightning McQueen, character meetings, swimming, and all that were finished, and we were driving back home, I asked JD, “JD, what was your favorite thing we did at Disney World?”

“Fish. Seeing fish tanks.”

Ha! Well, we could’ve done that at Pet Smart!

Amy said that I should get that poor boy a fish tank.

We hate to give up good fun to go back to the room for naps, so we just let JD take all of his naps in the stroller. Selfish? Maybe, but he seemed perfectly happy.

I wanted to meet Joy and Sadness from Inside Out. I thoroughly enjoyed that movie, but their line was always 40 minutes long, and very few things in life are worth that. This was as close as I got.

We loved it when our bus rides back to our room were practically empty.

And that’s all, folks! After Epcot, we had dinner with our friends at the Grand Floridian, which was beautiful. The boys LOVED the water slide at their pool, but my camera was dead, so I have no photos of that evening. It sure was fun, though.

What are you all doing for fun this summer? How much longer before your kiddos go back? We are only a week out now. I can’t believe it!

Like reading about Disney World? Read more here:

Disney Day 1: Deep Thoughts from the Magic Kingdom 2016

Animal Kingdom with Toddlers

Disney World 2009 with 2 Toddlers

The post Day 2: Partying with Mickey Mouse and Pals at Epcot appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Dan and his best friend, Carter

There’s a word we hear a lot around here: “best friend.”

JD says that Daniel is his best friend. That is mostly because I drill that into all of my children’s heads from the moment they are born.

“Oh, look, he is being so sweet to you. He is your best friend.”

“Your brother will always be your best friend.”

Positive reinforcement style of brain washing is a good thing to do. Trust me.

JD often asks, “Where my best fwiend?”

And now that Daniel has been gone for over a week, poor little JD has started to look elsewhere for a new “best friend.” There aren’t many other small folk around lately. The person he sees most is me, but I’m his mom, so I don’t count. So he has found our neighbor Mr. Tom. After all, Mr. Tom always talks to him and jokes with him. He’s the natural choice.

We were headed out to dinner the other night, and JD asked, “Is Mr. Tom going to be there? He’s my other best fwiend.”

Not to worry. Mr. Tom was there. You know we are too lazy to make friends with people who do not live next door to us. Hanging out with neighbors just makes good sense. Thankfully, our neighbors happen to be awesome people.

Remember Emma?

Since Emma’s husband is out of state for military training, I got to go up and stand with Emma and Matthias for the baby dedication. Don’t you think I look a lot like Richard?? Okay, well, maybe not, but I was there for support anyway.

We got to see Emma this past weekend. That’s right. She is back from Malaysia. Her parents are traveling with her now, and they are all doing just swell. It was so fun to visit with them again!

This is our current Chief of Shenanigans.

Sometimes, when I go to bed, I find surprises on my pillow. I don’t know why he doesn’t call me his best friend. Clearly, I am it. But he has informed me that Daddy is my best friend, and that sounds correct.

Daniel, at his class bike-a-thon

He likes to make faces for the photos.

He’s been at camp for a week, and the camp is always posting photos of the kids at camp, and they never ever never never post more than the back of Caleb’s head. Maybe this is why.

Daniel and his “favyite giryull in my cwass.”

Joshua’s team’s last huddle. Caleb occasionally got to play with this older league as well, as sometimes they were short players.

Joshua and his coach

Okay now this next one truly is shenanigans. There’s really no other word for it.

We put the little kids in our pitiful little backyard while the adults stood around and talked outside the fence. When Alan went in to check on the kids. He found this:

Yes, that’s JD. Those are his shorts on his head.

Yep.

Alan took Joshua and Caleb to work with him one day to tour the robotics department.

Aqua robots

My boys actually went to a graduate course with Alan and sat and listened to Alan’s classmates make their thesis presentations.

Believe it or not, Alan said they were perfect gentlemen.

Caleb enjoyed going to class with his dad so much, he asked to go again the next week. Joshua looked a little…..less…interested.

I know. Alan is the man. He also took ALL FOUR boys on a bike ride by the bay:

And another week he took the oldest three to a minor league baseball game, the San Jose Giants.

Then Alan and Daniel headed down South for the funeral.

I think he was pretty happy to take a trip with Dad.

Super excited about all the ice cream

But eventually even Daniel hit his limit.

And now I’ve saved my favorite part for last. Here’s a little preview of the new house I’m so excited about! We are downsizing by around 300 square feet, which also means going from 5 bedrooms to 3, buuuuuuuuuuut that’s okay because everything else about this place is fabulousness! Hard floors! Big backyard! Closer to family! Big living room! Nice kitchen! And the outside is pretty too. Okay. Remember our old backyard looked like this:

See how tiny?

And this is our new backyard:

just a little peek into the backyard

More backyard! Covered patio! Nice slip and slide hill…Just so long as they don’t um…slide right into the house…

And the front!!!

Ah. So pretty. And notice the front yard crepe myrtle tree by the driveway. Love those.  OH!!  And look. Green grass.

So we have the ball rolling on buying this new house. Meanwhile, we’re cleaning up and packing out of this beloved old house. It’s just been the three of us this week, Alan, JD, and me. The other night we ate out on the wharf, and there was an otter that hung out by our window, eating and diving, and eating and diving. It was heavenly.

Alan has let JD tag along with him on his many, many errands:

Is that JD playing with some sort of missile??? i have no idea, really.

Bye-bye, big California trees! (That was a Band-aid on his chin.There was a nasty fall on some concrete steps.)

And Friday, Alan graduated. He now officially has a master’s degree in Systems Engineering. We’re proud of you, honey. Now, let the shenanigans begin. Well, as you can see, they sort of already have.

JD said, “I was sad in that picture. I wanted to go eat cake.”

12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.  Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

The post Let the Summer Shenanigans Begin! (With a Sneak Peek at Our New House) appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

There are 3 things everyone should do the week they are moving:

1. Throw away as much junk as possible.
2. Sell and giveaway as much junk as possible.
3. Cry and hug people.

So that’s what we’ve been doing.

We’re officially under contract on a house I’m excited about too. Wahooo!!!  It has ZERO carpet in the living and dining areas. The master bathtub is gigantic, and so is the fenced backyard, so let me tell ya. I am happy.

Am I sad to leave? Nope! There ARE lots of people I loved here, and I will miss you all. I’ve been feeling melancholy about that for sure. I LOVED my friends at CC and my neighbors and our sweet, sweet church family. I will miss all of you.

The thing is that I will unfortunately always associate Monterey with 2 things:

1. Homeschooling and how I felt like such a failure at it

and

2. The ocean and the delightful whales, otters, and seals that I loved so much

Well, okay, also #3…

3. My little health crisis (psoriatic arthritis-ugh!), which was mostly due to the stress of #1 and not visiting #2 as much as I should have.

There are so many if-onlys. But the positive is that we persevered. The past cannot be changed, but the future certainly can.

And so that is my best take-away from this little detour we called grad school:

Do not neglect fun. Do what you enjoy.

Having fun is far more important than I ever realized. The life that I am setting up for myself at our new house will look much different than what I was doing here.

Next year the boys are going to go to school, where they will be taught by people who (hopefully) enjoy teaching. Our house will be so close to Dan and Caleb’s school that we can walk there. And I am going to make more time for being out in nature with the boys because that is what I love to do. I will also have more time to write because that is my calling.

God created this big, beautiful world. It is a healing thing to take time to enjoy it. Our creator also bestowed us each with different gifts and talents, perspectives, and leanings. He does not wish for us to be idle, but he doesn’t want us to spend all our time fulfilling other people’s callings. We each have our own calling. We all have work we are capable of enjoying.

We are most happy when we are doing what we enjoy and teaching our children to do the same.

But we should not work ALL the time. I’ve always been good about taking vacations, but the past two years it was very rare for me to do anything fun DURING the week. I was not a “fun mom.” I was so busy trying to wear all my hats. I forgot the importance of ever just having fun.

That was a mistake. From now on, I am making more time for fun, even begging, borrowing, and stealing time for fun. This summer you won’t see posts on lesson planning or self-improvement. You are going to see posts on Disney World, baking, getting my Southern accent back, and shenanigans, shenanigans, shenanigans.

And as for those people who may be disappointed in me for not home-schooling anymore? Oh well. I only hope that they know that there is more than one way to skin a cat, and our family needs to skin our cat in a way that doesn’t make me feel like poking my own eye-balls out.

All I know is it’s time for our family to start having a little more fun again. Wait. That’s not quite right. The boys have been having fun all along.

It’s time for me to start having fun again.

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”  Psalm 30:5

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift.   1 Timothy 4:13-14

From now on I’m going to focus more on the gifts I do possess and forget about the ones I’m lacking. Those things will be stealing my joy no longer.

Let’s all have a little more fun!!

The post Life Lessons I Learned from Our Years in Monterey appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

JD bonded with another dirt-loving two-and-a-half-year old at one of Daniel’s games. Don’t you love those moments when you come across another bird with your same feathers?

The vast majority of these photos were taken by our family photographer, Aunt Janet.  Thank you, yet again, Janet!!

Baseball season has been time-consuming but joyous this year. Joshua joined a team late in the season that was short on players because after seeing his brothers enjoy playing so much, he wanted in on this action too! That puts Joshua in the “Mustang” league, which is an exciting game to watch. At this level, the players get to pitch, get out in three strikes, and even steal bases.

Caleb and his buddy, Aiden, are having a ball in their league as well. Alan is their coach, and Caleb and Aiden have some mad serious baseball skills. In fact, we were so confident in these two that we let them also play for Joshua’s team last week, as their team needed a couple of back-ups, and Caleb and Aiden held their own. They may be the youngest players on the team, but you’d never know it. Both boys scored one point for Joshua’s team, and the funny part was that Caleb even struck out and still scored a run. How? Well, when the catcher dropped the ball, Caleb stole first base! I didn’t know you can do that either, but I saw it with my own eyes.

Daniel is in a tee-ball league. I may not fully understand all the baseball rules, but by golly I’ve got tee-ball down pat, and so does Dan. I love to watch him catch the ball and throw it to first base. (See those cleats? Those were Joshua’s when he played tee-ball!)

Nonna and Aunt Janet got to see Caleb and Daniel’s games.

It was super cold!

By the way, my nails have been quite the hit.

I may not play ball, but I do support it. 🙂

Okay. I just realized I had promised 17 Mile Drive and Seal Pups in this post. Next time! Really really!

The post Game Day Photos appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This week is our Spring Break. Wahoo! That’s something to celebrate! I have about 5 billion goals to accomplish and all of 5 days to do it in. Mostly, we are prepping for the big move. It’s three months out, but hey, that’s like three weeks in Mom years.

I could tell you what’s been going on around here, but I thought it’d be more fun to show you, so today’s blog is a photoblog:

My Raynaud’s syndrome has been acting up lately. 

 What happens is that the blood vessels constrict when you’re cold, cutting off blood supply to the extremities. First, the finger tips go purple and then they go white and extremely numb. I suppose I should start wearing gloves. This would happen to you too if you were freezing in Alaska or something, but this happens to me if I’m even in a building with too much air-conditioning. My cold threshold is crazy low. No worries. We’re moving back to the land of sweat and mosquitoes. 

The other day I put Daniel down for a nap. He’s five now, and he rarely ever naps, but sometimes he gets so sleepy and grumpy that I deem it a must. This was a must-nap day. However, once he was upstairs all quiet and alone, he got down and had a BALL playing in the hallway with cars and who knows what else.

As I came up the stairs, I heard that classic boy-running-to-bed to pretend to be asleep sound. Because apparently he thinks I’m deaf.

Now that Caleb and Joshua are too tall to fit into any of their costumes, they have taken to putting these size 8 superhero costumes on JD and Daniel. Who needs pets when you have little brothers?

This is a Velociraptor.

Woody and Buzz.

Because finding gluten-free pizza was one of the happiest things that happened this week. It is a big deal.

Don’t tell Daniel these are weeds. I think he is the sweetest thing in the world, always bringing his momma flowers.

One of my neighbors gave the boys a bag full of snacks, from the “Easter Bunny.”

Dan painted this at Cubbies this week. He even said, “I put blue on this side, and red on this side, and put it together to make purple in the middle!”

Daniel made this “shapes” bird-house at home-school this week. We do preschool at home two days and regular preschool three days.

Dan took his new Star Wars ships everywhere the last couple of days.

Actually, he’s already broken one ship. He explained, “Mom, that’s because he was shot in battle. Mom, that’s why he’s broken. He’s supposed to be.”

People are always giving us stuff! Our homeschool umbrella school director gave this set to Daniel, and he LOVES it.

But someone really should follow Dan around all day with a vacuum cleaner.

Guess what I did yesterday…..

Oh, yeah, I took my birthday money shopping. It was GRAND. (No, I did not buy a cooler. I keep that in there to hide the large amounts of Easter chocolate that I’m saving for some special people.

And guess what I found near the stores??? SONIC!!! I didn’t know these existed in California.

That afternoon I also took Caleb to a Star Wars-themed birthday party. She themed it out so well, y’all. They got to fight Darth Vader, hop on a tree-stump obstacle course, shoot a Star Wars ship with Nerf guns, and last but not least, they threw pine-cones at these clone troopers:

I totally wanted to play this party game. The kids were not able to pop them all, so the adults DID get a shot at it. It was fun!

close-up

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend as well. We have basically zero plans for Spring Break, other than to catch up on all the work we have to do, but that’s okay. Even work can be fun when you tackle it with the right attitude, with a little happy music playing, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAsG__XjU8Q

(Enchanted move clean-up scene: You gotta watch it.)

The post Fun Times Photoblog appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

JD is now a veteran flyer. He took his very first turn on an ipad on this trip. It kept him occupied for all of like ten minutes.

Yes, he insisted on riding the airplane barefoot. He is a boy after my own heart. I will never fully understand you shoe people. 😉 But that’s okay. You can wear your shoes, and we can wiggle our toes freely, and we can all get along just fine.

The boys are now at Alan’s parents’ house. Thank you Nonna and DaddyO! They are playing hard, swimming in Nonna’s great big kiddie pool, watching movies, and having a great summer.

I did leave them each a worksheet to do. One a day. I feel like if they can just do a few math problems and read each WEEKday, my job won’t be too hard when we start school back in the fall. There was a bit of carrying on and agony about this the first couple of days, but they have now accepted it and moved on.

Meanwhile, I’m at the beach with my mom!

I’ve been to beaches all over America and the Caribbean, and this one is still my favorite. I love everything about it, and this weekend has been especially perfect.

It felt like God was smiling down on us.

We’ve had it so good. Mom and I played in these waves for an hour today and an hour yesterday. We swam in the swimming pool. We took walks. We shopped at the outlet mall. We even went thrift store shopping. It has been a ball!

I keep hearing kids yell, “Mom!!” on the beach, and I always instinctively turn around, but what do you know. They aren’t calling for me. I have no responsibilities whatsoever!

It’s so fun, but of course, I miss the boys, and I can’t wait to bring them with me next time.

Mom pointed out this note card on the wall of the condo. We’ve been frequenting this condo forever, but we haven’t gotten to come since 2012. We found this notice, complete with a note from Alan at the bottom of it, from our stay in 2012.

It’s something any parent could understand.

Apparently, we had to buy a few replacement slats that year. That FYI at the bottom is obviously Alan’s handwriting. I wonder if we will have to replace any slats this year. Come on, boys, let’s see how slick you can be, and look out the window without messing up the blinds! I really got a chuckle out of this problem that we apparently dealt with 3 years ago.

And yet, I have almost no memory of that problem whatsoever.

This has been such a refreshing time, just having fun in Destin with my mom. I’m just tickled pink and thankful! Mom needed a vacation just as badly as I did.

By the way, I will always feel like I am truly a Southerner, no matter where I live. But Alan and I can’t seem to convince Southerners that don’t know us of that.

We were on the airplane, and we had a conversation that went like this:

Alabama man on the plane, talking to Alan: Why would you go to Florida, if you live in California?

Alan: Well, we have family here, and …

Me: Oh! Well, Destin is hot!

Lady behind me: Oh, but with the breeze, it’s nice.

(Oops. That’s not what I meant.)

Me: Well, I mean, we’ve been freezing our butts off in California, so we’re looking forward to the hot.

************

Fast forward to Cracker Barrel.

Alan and I ate there on Saturday. While we were there, we purchased a painting that I liked and had it shipped to our house, so we had to give them our address, which made them think we were from California. We tried to explain.

“We’re not really from California, but we live there now.”

We paid and went on our way, and as I was walking away, I heard the cashier tell another worker, “They’re from California. They’re real sweet, though.”

I didn’t turn around and say anything. I’m surprisingly good at biting my tongue.

So here’s what I wanted to say, because I’m not even good at thinking of things to say later. Most people can at least think of what to say later:

“No, really, we’re one of you!! We are so Alabama!”

Or something like that. Not that there’s anything wrong with being from California because California is lovely. It’s just that we’re not, but we are living there, so….. we really do live a confusing life with all this moving!

But Destin is really where it’s at. We love this place.

I am in such an ideal phase right now. I’ve had a relaxing and fun vacation with my mom.

That train wreck of a first year of home schooling is nothing but history. We aren’t giving birth OR moving this year, and these calm waters of summer sure feel like Heaven itself.

4I I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!  Psalm 34:4-8

The post “No, really I’m from here!” One perfect trip South appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.