a tomato named oscar

When I planted last summer's garden, I had a couple extra tomato plants. Lily asked if she could have one and if I had something in which to plant it. I found her an unused pot in the shed and helped her plant it. There were some marigold flowers in a styrofoam cup on the window sill that she had started from seed in Sunday School for a mother's day gift. Because they hadn't found a permanent home yet, she asked Jen if she could plant them, and we added them to her container.

We placed her container garden just off the side porch where it was easy to grab some tasty cherry tomatoes as they ripened. She tended her garden faithfully throughout the summer and enjoyed harvesting her very own tomatoes and seeing her flowers bloom.

Enter the 2017 garden season and, once again, a few tomato plants remained unplanted. I was busy and didn't think much about Lily's garden, but she spied the extra plants and asked, "where's my pot"?

I dug it back out of the shed and we potted one up together. Having no marigolds this year, she surveyed her pot and decided it would do, but she missed the flowers. Later that week, I popped into the nursery on my way home for a pack of marigolds. She was quite pleased that I bought her flowers and we added them to the pot.

After a few weeks, the little tomato really started to grow and she decided that since she had not yet convinced us to let her have a pet parakeet, a pet tomato would have to do!

And so, he became... Oscar!

With Lily's care, Oscar the tomato is thriving in his potted home among his marigold neighbors. I'm not sure, but I think Oscar may be on track to yield the first ripe cherry tomato of the season.  Great job Lily... and Oscar!  Here, boy... sit... stay... bloom... good tomato!

Oscar, the tomato

nine years

Nine years.

That's how long it has been since Lily became a part of our family.

Ten years.

That's how long a "green card" is valid.

When we brought Lily home, the normal process was that children became official citizens when they were processed through the first airport on American soil.  Except when only one of two parents traveled with the child (as was our case).  Nope... then the US government required re-adoption in the local court to become a citizen, followed by filing for a certificate to officially recognize the citizenship.

More forms.

More documents.

More fees.

More bureaucracy.

Within a few months, we had re-adopted Lily through our county court, and she became an official US citizen.

Or was she?

Not in the eyes of Homeland Security.  To them, because she lacked one piece of paper, she was still a legal alien in country on a green card.

But, being exhausted from the overwhelming loads of forms, documents, fees, and bureaucracy, we said, "we'll file for that certificate soon..."

Soon turned into eight and a half years.  Not on purpose.  It just kinda flew by... and by... and by... and...

Crap!  Green card expires in a year and a half!

Since Jen did nearly all the paper chasing for the adoption process, I assumed she would also take the lead on this one, too.  However, for the past three years, her load has been increasing because of attending school.  Last winter, I decided this needed done soon and I needed to tackle it (partly fueled by an upcoming DOUBLING of the filing fee, compliments of the US Government).  I got the forms, read the guides and compiled the necessary paperwork (with help from Jen to locate some of them).  I stressed over it a while (the bureaucratic instructions for submission were not very clear) and was finally satisfied that I completed it correctly.  I had Jen give it a once-over and out in registered mail it went one December day.  I received confirmation of receipt and then we waited... and waited... and waited...

The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly.

Finally, a few weeks ago I received a letter stating that Lily and I were required to be at the USCIS office in Cleveland on June 20th for a citizenship interview.

Fortunately, I had that week off.

Unfortunately, I had plans for the week.

Thankfully, it was not the week of our beach vacation.  I was able to rearrange my week and did not have to cancel plans.

I'm not a big fan of larger cities.  I have always avoided Cleveland.  But, I figured since we had to be there anyway, we may as well make a day of it. We paid parking for the day, and spent the day seeing some local landmarks, eating lunch from a food truck on Public Square, taking a cruise on the Goodtime III... oh yeah, and visiting the USCIC office!

I was glad I got to share this day with Lily and I had a lot of fun spending the day with Homeland Security's newest officially recognized US citizen!

Not sure why Cleveland has a giant "FREE" stamp, but we do!

Beautiful girl and a beautiful skyline

Love this pic... and not just because I have hair again!

Officially a US citizen!

Food truck lunch on Public Square

When dairy farmers graffiti the city?

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

A side story involving Ben...

When I was filling out the forms to apply for the certificate, Lily and I had a conversation about green cards and her status with Homeland Security as a legal "alien".  Ben was taking all this in and when there was a pause in the conversation, he looked at Lily and (very seriously) asked, "Did you know E.T.?"

a room of her own

This old house that I call home was originally built as a three bedroom up.  Along the way, someone placed a two-story addition on the back, adding a family room down and a fourth bedroom up.  The downfall to this idea is that the hallway only accessed the original three bedrooms, making the third bedroom a walk-thru to get to the fourth.  My original intent was to use bedrooms three and four as a master suite, with the walk-thru being a sitting room/home office.

But... that was when there were two kids.

Along came FOUR kids and the plans had to change.

Lily ended up in the walk-thru, with eventual plans to modify the floor plan to include hallway access to all four bedrooms. This was a fairly sizable undertaking, because the room needed to be completely gutted, reframed, rewired, and drywalled.  When the boys room was gutted and remodeled, their layout changed slightly, which included one new wall with a closet for Lily's room phantom-framed about 18 inches behind her existing wall.

Standing in Lily's doorway, just prior to demo... the closed doorway beyond is the fourth bedroom.

These DIY projects always take longer than I anticipate and hope, and this was no exception.  Two and a half years ago, I moved Lily "temporarily" into the family room downstairs.  I took a few days off work that summer and the boys and I got a good start.

My demo crew, summer 2014

Graffiti fun... then let the demo begin!

Pieces of a room

Reframing the room and rerouting the hallway

Inside the room, looking to the hallway

The boys and I got enough done that week to get the new hallway functional.  Not done, but functional.  From there, things moved slowly.  I wired the new area myself, which was my first somewhat significant electrical project.  I pulled the proper permits and passed my inspections.  Then came insulation and drywall hanging.  I also did the drywall finishing, which was another slow process.  

The trouble with DIY projects and four  kids is that a lot of life happens that slows progress down.  Trying to balance working to support a family, spending time with that family before they grow up, and trying to get a major DIY project done is not easy.  

Inspections passed, getting ready for drywall

At about the one year mark, I put Lily's room project on hold to rebuild a porch with a poorly designed and leaking roof that began quickly deteriorating and needed to be addressed.  Though I contracted the majority of this project, I still did the design work, all the interior demo, and the stripping and salvaging of the original siding for reuse on the new project.  By the time I worked closely with the contractors to wrap this project up, months had been spent... months NOT working on Lily's room!

Before and after

I'm not proud of it, but quickly a year turned into two.  As the two year mark approached, I knew I had better git er done!  But, the aforementioned porch had weathered a year and needed to have the exterior buttoned up and all the wood acid washed and stained... another project that took several weeks of working around a job, four kids, and the weather.

When the porch was sealed from the elements, I stepped up efforts on Lily's room.  When asked what she wanted this past year for Christmas, she responded, "my new room!"  Uh-oh... yep it had been too long since she had moved into her "temporary" family room accommodations.  I did everything I could to make the deadline, but a few weeks before Christmas, I could tell I wasn't going to make it.  BUT... Lily's birthday was mid-January, and I was pretty sure I could make that.

With the exception of trimming the window, I got it all done and moved her belongings into her room the eve of her 12th birthday.  She spent the night with her grandparents and it was ready when she arrived home on her birthday.  

As usual, it took too long, but the home is now truly a four bedroom and Lily no longer lives in a walk-thru bedroom... she has a room of her own!

The "phantom" closet discovered

Happy Birthday, Lily!

Vacation 2016

I've always been a believer in family vacations and I've tried to make one happen nearly every summer during most of my married life.  This week was a bit different because I was taking the kids without Jen, but I didn't want to let that stop me.  Although I love me some OBX, I felt like something different and closer to home this year.  Growing up, my family took numerous vacations to Mohican State Park and I have always wanted to take my kids there.  I decided on that for this year's destination.  I asked my parents to join us and they were in.  My brother and sister-in-law were able to join us for the first few days and they left their pop-up camper and my niece and nephew for the week.

Planning and packing for five is a lot of work, but I got it all in (and on) the van and headed out early Sunday afternoon.  I don't care what the image, I love the minivan!

Packed and ready

Count 'em... 2 racks, 5 bikes!

We arrived and just as I was backing onto my site, I got a pleasant surprise!  Walking down the road in front of me was Dennis... one of the fourteen Algonquin brothers from last summer's Canada trip.  He didn't recognize me in the van, but I stepped out and yelled, "Evinrude" (his trail name from our trip)... to which he spun around and said, "only thirteen other people know me by that name... how are you, Anchorman?"  He wasn't camping, but was out for a walk in the campground on a Sunday afternoon.  I met his family and introduced him to mine.  What a cool chance encounter that was!

Mohican is a popular destination, so I committed to this vacation plan back in December.  Even though I thought I was making my reservations early, it proved almost not early enough, as a majority of the river sites were unavailable.  A river site was a MUST!  The cost is the same as a non-river site and sleeping in a tent near a babbling stream has always been a bit of a "bucket list" thing.  We decided on sites 152 and 153 as our best options.  They were the last two sites on a cul-de-sac and I remembered them from years earlier as being at a shallow portion of the river.  When we arrived, they were just as I remembered them.  153 (mine) was not very big and not well situated for tenting, but with both sites together, they were nearly perfect.  The river was shallow and babbling, with an almost beach area at river's edge.  Going to sleep and waking up in my tent just mere feet from the babbling river was incredible!  And, the cul-de-sac was perfect with Benny for some supervised bike riding.  More on that later...

Site 153... our home for the week!

Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door!

The river was perfect for afternoon recreation.  Our site had very easy access in and out of the river, and it ranged from about ankle to waist deep (for Ben) near our campsite... perfect for everyone to enjoy.  Ben splashed and tossed stones.  Dylan did some fishing.  Zachary and my nephew worked on improvements to our local rapid.  Lily and my niece splashed, built some rapids and skipped some stones.  I did some of all of the above... and relaxed in a river chair.

Ben tossed stones to his heart's content!

Improvements to our local rapid

Midway through the week, Zachary suggested that we move the EZ-Up canopy into the shallows of the river and sit in the shade.  Normally, I am very fussy with my camping gear, but the EZ-Up is pretty well worn, so I couldn't resist... carefully, we transferred it into the water and were the envy of the river for the afternoon!  Now that's living!

Ahhh... a nice shady spot "on" the river!

And, we also tubed on the river!  Tubing was one of my favorite memories of our vacations at Mohican. Over the years, my Dad had acquired a handful of inner tubes... mostly from my truck-driving uncle.  He patched them up and we always took them with us for river floats.  Back in the day, we all took turns pumping them up with a hand-operated bicycle pump and we would float from the uppermost cabin area down the river to our campsite.  My Dad still had these tubes!  I asked him if they would still be usable and he dug them out to check.  Since they had been stored out of the weather, he did some fresh patching and they were still good to go... 30-40 years after using them as a kid!  And, an addition to the modernization of the park... they now have an air compressor station so we didn't have to hand-pump them all... winning!

The same inner tubes I used some 30-40 years ago during our summer trips! 

Seems like we're always waiting on Dylan...

Seven kids tubing... no wait... I'm the designated adult!

I kept Benny tethered to me for safety... he loved tubing!

Dylan stuck on a rock... again!

These girls both loved tubing!

Typical of Benny, he met a few dogs during the week...

Visiting with Oliver and his human.

There were games and campfires...

And, of course, there where Hot Wheels cars...

20 cars packed... all 20 returned home!

Midweek, I instituted a mandatory late morning hike for a change of pace...

Cousins

A rain shower was an opportunity to cool off with some catch football...

Oops... somebody slipped and fell in some rain-soaked sidewalk chalk!

The pool was pretty chilly.  We used it a bit, but mostly preferred splashing in the river...

I'm not even sure what to say about these...

I love this shot... it is one of Zachary's common expressions

Enjoying the splash pad

And, what is camping without camp chores?  My deal was... I cook, kids do dishes (there weren't many).  I love to parent by Rock-Paper-Scissors (RPS).  It is very impartial, completely removes me from decisions, and it is nearly impossible to cheat.  So, my parenting formula for the week's dishes was Dylan and Zachary compete RPS best two out of three, loser washes dishes.  The winner of that round then went RPS best two out of three with Lily, loser dries.

For the wash... rock, paper, scissors... SHOOT!

For the dry... rock, paper, scissors... SHOOT!

But... of all the fun we had, Benny's favorite thing to do, by far, was BIKING!  Every morning when I would ask him what he wanted to do today... go to the pool, play in the river, go tubing... his answer was always, "go biking!"   I took him on many rides around the campground to hone his skills.  The roads were paved and flat and traffic was slow, so it was perfect for him.  I always rode beside him to help him learn about riding on the right edge of the road, and to protect him from wobbling into traffic.  Over the week, his skills did improve... which is a big accomplishment considering his disabilities.

riding his "dirt bike"

The older kids enjoyed bikes, too

Benny had more than his share of scraped knees and elbows during the week.  I think I did a pretty good job of cleaning, bandaging and kissing boo-boo's...

This camping trip brought to you by Neosporin (or, in this case, Dollar General brand)

But, there was one that Dad couldn't fix!  On our last evening in camp, Benny was sitting near the road on his bike with helmet on... patiently waiting for me to give him the green light to ride the loop.  The other kids were just riding close to camp and I was heating water for dishes.  I told the kids to keep an eye on him and let him ride the loop.  After a little while, I took my chair over and sat in the grass in the center of the loop.  I had only been there a few minutes, when Ben was involved in a crash right behind my chair.  Dylan witnessed it and said that Benny stopped in the grass and was sitting still on his bike.  Another kid that was camped nearby crashed into him at a fairly high speed.  The crash was so hard that it partly twisted his handlebars.  Unfortunately, though, Ben's pinky ended up between the two handlebars and (I assume) the other kid's bar end sliced the tip of his pinky through the nail and nearly to the bone.  I started my usual clean up, and then quickly surmised that this one would need a trip to the ER.  We were a little over an hour from our local children's hospital, so that is where we headed.  My sister-in-law (a nurse) helped me wrap it and control the bleeding.  I took Dylan with me to keep an eye on him during the drive and took off for the hospital.  Jen met us there.  X-rays showed no bone damage, but he needed four stitches to put his fingertip back together.  Once he was patched up, I drove back to camp and Jen took him back home.  Not a good way to end a vacation, but the injury could have been a lot worse... and at least it happened the evening before we were leaving.

It's pretty ironic that Benny is pretty accident prone, but his very first trip to the ER was earned by sitting still on his bicycle!  Poor kid!

Ha!  The shirt says "Push The Limits"... that's Ben!  (Back home and bandaged up)

And, finally... some obligatory family photos...