Your Place, Or Mine?

2 Years, 24 Weeks.



After 4 years of them having to drive all the way out here to Ocoee from the east part of town, it's nice to have the option of visiting the Grodacks for dinner, now only a half mile away.

It seems like they're either here, or we're there, but it doesn't really matter.  It's always a good time with those guys.

Here's a quick play by play:

• On Friday Tangie had a work function that helped make sock puppets for children.  That afternoon the Grodack girls came over to play for a bit; Corey was going to run some errands.  Duncan swung by after work and we took the kids to the pool until the moms came home.  We ended up having dinner (Indian!) at their place.  Later we would have an interesting night back at our house...(see Community Watch below)

Team Yellow representing Ernst & Young.

Tangie and her creation!

• Sabbath we attended church and then went home for the kids' naps.  Cousin Patrick came over to hang out for the afternoon, and then played with the kids for a bit when they woke up.  Later we hosted some friends and neighbors for a roll your own sushi dinner.  Tangie would surprise me with a cake for a belated birthday celebration!

Looking at the prop Bibles.  Note Maddy wearing her sunglasses.

Riding the horsey, still in her sunglasses.  Such a diva.

She took them off just so she could put on the animal mask!

Lunch at Macaroni Grill.

Hanging out with Cousin Patrick.

Some die hard sushi fanatics.

Susie and Catherine putting their rolls together.  Jeremy making a kimchi roll behind them.

Jennifer torching her salmon!

Corey, Duncan, and Bruce chit chatting.  Probably about football.

Maddy joins the dads eating their sushi.  She loves it!

The kids eating cake.  Maddy wanted to keep using her chopsticks.

• Sunday morning Tangie took the kids to Old Navy and then to the Haircuttery for Maddy and Kohl to get a haircut, while I helped Duncan put some framing up around a couple of windows at their place.  While the kids took naps I took the pressure washer and tried to clean up underneath the front door entrance, where a bunch of mud daubers had been making homes over the past couple of years.  Afterwards we were back at the Grodacks for the Broncos game (they have Direct TV), and dinner with them and Duncan's parents.  I will take this opportunity to thank Corey for volunteering to let us tape and watch the game, as she is not the biggest fan of Peyton Manning.  Such a nice neighbor!

Sunday morning breakfast, Tangie made homemade pumpkin waffles!

Kohl injured his left hand in a fall the previous evening.
I wrapped it up with an ace bandage; he would be better that afternoon.

Getting ready for his.

They layered her back and kept her bangs.

My pressure washing project.

Afterwards, a very dirty & soaking wet, sexy me.
Note that I had to borrow Braelyn's swim goggles.

• On Monday we were back to regular schedule, but helping the Grodacks over the weekend got Tangie and I inspired to resume trying to complete some unfinished decorating and house projects that had been put on the back burner over the past few years.  So we finally got some heavy clay pots to put on top of the front door entrance, which Duncan helped to lift up late Monday night.  Afterwards I would reciprocate by helping him unload some heavy shelves and racks for his garage from Lowe's.  Tit for tat!

Duncan and I putting the pots up.

The pot cluster.

• The rest of the week:

Putting them to work painting an additional pot.

They took their work very seriously.

Maddy accidentally painted Braelyn's hair.

Kohlden ended up painting himself!  Ugh, what a mess.

This week at Costco:  Cheers!

Tea party with Calleigh and Aubree.

A couple dishes this week:

Duet of Broiled Salmon and Tuna with Avocado and Asparagus.

Tilapia on Field Greens.

Community Watch:

• I was finishing up in the kitchen late Friday night; the kids were asleep and Tangie had already gone up to get ready for bed.  Then I heard a police siren, and it was so close I knew it was from inside the subdivision.  About a minute later Tangie called me from upstairs and said that there were police in the backyard!  Not literally in our backyard, but beyond the retention pond immediately behind our property, they had 2 cruisers with their lights flashing and spotlights shining on the woods between the pond and Lake Apopka.  We were like...Lovely! We didn't know if it was a burglar, a suspicious individual, or an alligator that they were searching for.  Looking through binoculars, I cracked the window open as we watched and tried to listen to them for the next 45 minutes.  But it didn't seem like there was anything dangerous happening, as the cops didn't have their weapons drawn; they were just standing in a line looking into the woods.  Finally, an individual in a t-shirt and jeans came out of the woods with a policeman, and then approached another individual standing with the other cops, and they embraced.  Weird!  After the cops left I ventured outside to see if I could get any information and saw that the individual from the woods was being treated by an Orange County FD Medical Vehicle.  I approached the group that had gathered there and saw that the individual was a young man in his early to mid-twenties, with his mother at his side.  He seemed out of it, maybe a little inebriated.  I asked what had happened and they tried to avoid our inquiry, saying that he got lost in the woods.  Seriously, at midnight?!?  As she helped him stumble home, we noticed large splotches of blood on the back of his shirt.  What in the world?...  And then they went back inside their house...three doors down from ours.  Whoa.

I wish they would learn the very last thing!  

Have a great week!