VBS

VBS is done. The last hurdle between us and the beach is past.

Excepting of course the insane day of packing tomorrow. Especially since the seat belt in the middle row of the Chevy somehow got wrapped around the recline handle and is completely jammed and stuck. If the dealer can't fix it, that annoying little problem is going to really mess up our travel plans. Ugh.

Back to VBS. Last year the president of Augsburg Fortress left a comment on the blog after some random comments I made about the quality of the VBS songs. In case she stops by again, here is my opinion on the Baobab Blast:

Thanks for the guitar-friendly keys. That helped a lot - and I really got better and better at my B-minor this year. The only issue then became that a few of the songs were written a little low for the voice ranges of kids. But mostly, not bad at all. Overall, there were not as many duds as I thought there were last year. That said, none of the songs really jumped out at me as WOW! Very much straight down the middle. I would say this: The theme song last year was quite complicated in spots - and that's okay - we have a whole week to learn it - it's GOOD to have that song be a little bit more involved and require some more work. At first I was annoyed by how difficult "Discovery Canyon" was to put together, but it was worth the work. This year's theme song was, on the other extreme, too easy. We had it learned the first day and had nowhere to go with it. Make the big theme song the toughest, most musical thing. I heard from somewhere that a lot of other people were whining that the music wasn't authentic African. Whatever. I like the effort to provide a mix of styles. Keep up the good work, Augsburg Fortress. Not bad at all.

Anyway, back to our lives. Tomorrow is the insane day of packing for a week at the beach with 4 kids 6 and under. The real insanity starts Sunday at...around 3am when we all get up to pull an all-day drive to HHI. No hotel this year, no stops inbetween. A straight shot all the way down there. Hopefully they sleep the first couple hours, then breakfast in the car. Gonna stop at a random park in Fletcher, NC for an extended picnic lunch, hope it's not raining and not ungodly hot, let the kids run around, then finish the deal. God help us we must be out of our MINDS!

Check back Monday morning to hear how the adventure went. After that, check back for beach pics!

Hope everyone's summer is going well. God bless!

Matt

10 Years

It is June 16th. 10 years ago tonight, I sat playing poker with a bunch of my buddies enjoying my last night as a single person. Tomorrow is Steph and my 10th anniversary. A lot has happened in that time. A lot a lot.

I like to joke that no one reads this thing, so I'll just talk to Steph here.

Hon, it's been quite an adventure so far. It's been in some ways exactly what we signed up for. It's been in some ways completely unexpected. And it's been in all ways all I could have hoped for.

Even though I call you "Mommy" now more than anything else, you are still the person I married, and I still think of you as the one true love of my life. The four small people who run around at our feet on a daily basis may be interrupting our attempts to realize that, but it's still there.

I am proud of us. A lot of couples have come and gone in the last 10 years, but we're still going strong, and couldn't possibly think of any other way to live. We may drive each other crazy sometimes but at the end of the day, there's love. And that love that we share is the starting point and the ending point and the journey in between. Everything else is...nothing.

We're living with the mistakes we've made when we were young and stupid. They've made our new reality. But even though it creates stress and forces us to let some things go - I like our new economic life - it's honest. It's real. It's ours. And the sacrifices we've made to get to this point make our life richer, not poorer. Thank you for walking that road with me - even if our anniversary dinner is likely to be cooked in the microwave.

Neither of us are the same person we were 10 years ago. But the people we are today are made up of the same 'stuff' as that starry-eyed young couple who pledged their life and love to one another back in 2000. Time has changed us, but the thing that makes us special is still within us - and THAT is what we agreed to all that time ago.

I love you. I love that our life is insane. I love that we have no money. I love that our life is so unglamorous. Do I take you for granted sometimes? Sure. The way I take air, or water, or the second finger on my right hand, or anything else for granted. You're so much a part of me it's easy for me to forget you're there. And I am sorry for that. I pledge now to do a better job in the next 10 years of realizing that you're there. I pledge to continue loving you as much as I do now, and finding new ways to make that love grow and grow and grow. I pledge to continue being honest even when being honest really sucks for both of us. I pledge to finish my sentences quicker. I pledge to admit sooner when I'm upset about something and to admit a LOT sooner when I'm wrong and acting like a dumb teenager.

I could go on all night, but that's not what Matt in 2010 does. Matt in 2010 has to go do the laundry and some dishes. And some romantics out there might scoff at that, but we both know that sometimes the sweetest love letter is a small gesture. So I need to go do some laundry.

I love you - Thanks for sticking it out with me. Here's to a LOT more years.

Matt

More pics - From Mari's Camera

Here are some pics from Mari's camera. She likes to get silly with it, but when she tries, she can take really good pics.

More pics - From Faith's Camera

Faith and Mari both have little digital cameras that they are getting pretty good at. It's always interesting to see things through the kids' eyes. Here are some pics that Faith took during the weekend:


Crossing the bridge into Indiana



Here we are!



Not too crowded at the RV park...



Kinda artsy.



Thirsty Hannah.

More pics

Pics

Discussing the finer points of smores.



Smores for all



Dinner time!



Good thing we brought that wagon...



Hannah and Robby looking a little distrustful.

Indiana Weekend

Just had a great weekend trip in the trailer.

We had planned a while back to go out last weekend to celebrate the beginning of summer, and as the time rolled around we also decided to send out an invite to anyone who wanted to come join us for as long as they could stand. At first, the response was slow but with a little prodding we managed to get several different people to join us at various times through the weekend. And we are pleased to say, no major disasters and everyone seemed to really have a good time - here's hoping for more such events in the future!

We arrived late Friday morning at Follow the River. This was our second trip here - and we are loving it more and more. It's just the right distance for a weekend away from home, it's an easy drive towing the trailer, it's big and open...which isn't always what you want, but it was perfect for us this time around. We know which spaces are nice and wide and shaded, so we requested one of our favorites. It was not at all busy there, but not deserted either.

After hooking up and eating lunch, I took the big girls to Coyote Creek Farm to buy some buffalo meat - the buffalo weren't out so we didn't get to see any, but we loaded up on future meals. It's a beautiful drive, but still only about 10 minutes from the RV park. A great discovery from last time.

Our first guests arrived late Friday afternoon - we had a great time hanging out, letting the kids play at the great playground (another plus for this RV park, by the way), eating fajitas, and then making smores by the campfire. We hope that they had as good a time as we did, and that they will join us again.

Saturday morning we took it easy, made a quick convenience store run for some odds and ends, walked around the park, and waited for our second guests. They arrived before lunch, we had a standard picnic lunch of sandwiches and whatnot, then the big girls and our friends got to go swimming in the pool - again, score one for Follow the River - great clean pool...which is not always the case at RV parks. Our guests stayed for a long long time and we all had a great time - thanks for coming guys!

Lastly, P & G came out for the evening - I made chili and we rode bikes around the park, around the great little hike/bike path, had another fire and more smores...had cake to celebrate P's birthday - just a great time.

We love taking the trailer out - we love RVing. Whenever you go out in that thing, it's a multitude of disasters waiting to happen...so when things come off well, you appreciate it that much more. And we hope we've laid the groundwork for a lot of good future trips and future visits from friends and family. I'll try to upload some pics here soon.

Hilton Head is less than 2 weeks away!

Matt

Summer Spiraling Towards Us

Here I sit, it's the last day for students. In about 4 hours I can walk away from this place - well, I have to come back on Tuesday for a workday. But another school year has come and gone.

I have to say, it's been one of my best. I've really grown a lot as a teacher this year and am actually looking forward to continuing to improve next year. Hopefully next year someone will notice...

At any rate.

Summer is right there waiting for us. Can't wait. Stay tuned to see our continuing family adventures:

* How often will we use our Coney passes this summer? I might start a contest to guess.

* Will the family survive a 4am departure and nonstop 12-hour drive from Cincinnati to Hilton Head? And how much sand will Robby eat while we're there?

* Will Faith and Mari like Primanti Brothers?

* Can the lovely Lake Superior Picnic of 2006 be recreated?

* Will I finally run out of good music for the family videos?

See you all in summer. Love life!

MS





Just FYI, the youtube channel has been reorganized, making the playlists more easy to find. Enjoy the movies when you get a chance.

A good season

Two weeks with no illnesses.

Summer is all but here. Things are looking good. Steph is done with her first year at her new job, and she really enjoyed it a lot. I have a week left, Faith has a week and a half left, Mari has a couple days left. Then the season of travel will begin again. For those wondering, this summer will contain no epic road trips as in 03, 07, or 09. But several little trips will help us enjoy the freedom of being teachers.

We're taking trailer out for a weekend jaunt to southern Indiana in a couple weeks. Just to get it out and celebrate the coming of summer. Then our week at Hilton Head in late June. Soon after that dad and I will be taking the big girls to Pittsburgh for a few days. And then the big trip this summer will be up to Mackinaw for a week and a half. Nothing exotic, but after last summer, it will do us good to not be schlepping across the country again. Next epic road trip looks to be in place for 2012.

Looking forward to more time to post. Don't forget to check out the videos:

Matt

Here Goes Nothing

Okay, the big news (that's really not all that big, to tell you the truth) is that the family videos are once again finding a home on youtube and in larger numbers than ever before. One and all are invited to check out the growing library of trip videos dating back to the original epic 2003 Road Trip.

All the fun can be found at:

www.youtube.com/user/specfam

Some disclaimers/notes/advice:

Because of the somewhat chaotic upload process, the main page is a bit haphazard. If you're looking for something specific chronologically, I suggest you click on "Playlists" and then choose a year. The playlists are very well organized. For example - Cliff and Gina - want to see our picnic from 4th of July last year? Click on "Playlists" then "2009" and scroll down to "2009 Road Trip - Day 2 - Playground, Picnic, Fireworks" and there you have it!

You will find that some of the videos are muted. I am painstakingly taking care of these – if one is muted that you particularly wanted to see (and hear), please let me know and I will make fixing that one a priority.

If your connection is good, the quality of these vids is such that you ought to be able to watch them full-screen. I encourage you to do so.

Some people have experienced 'jumpy', video from the specfam page. If this happens, try this: Once the video is playing, right-click on it, and then choose "Watch on YouTube". You might have to allow popups. This seems to work better for some.

Remember that these movies are primarily created for our own family to remember special moments. Many of them also have a certain amount of interest and appeal to the average Joe who wants to see what we’ve done. But I will be the first to tell you that there are some videos which taken out of context may be hideously boring to the average viewer…or at best just really confusing. There’s no way to know before you watch. So if you’re picking one at random and it doesn’t do much for you, I encourage you to try some more before you write the whole thing off. And of course, if there’s something you want the backstory on, please feel free to ask me for details. There’s usually a good story behind each bizarre thing I’ve done.

Lastly, please let me know what you think – these things are a passion for me, and very few people have had the chance to see them. Being able to share them with friends is why I’m going to all this trouble. I don’t ask many people to sit through the whole thing in one sitting – but this way you can check it all out a bit at a time, at your convenience. So leave a comment, email me, whatever. Let me know you stopped by. It will mean a lot.

Again, thanks for your time – and enjoy!

Matt