Fleeting Summer Moments

 
It's been a good summer, filled with a whole host of fun activities (swim team, craft club, boys' club, boot camp, cupcake selling, lemonade stands, church camps, high adventures, etc),  but now those summer activities have ended. Our vacation is over.  The school supplies are bought.  Their new shoes and backpacks are tucked away in their closets.

Although there are still a couple of weeks before school begins again,  I can hear the kids' conversations turning more and more school oriented. 

"I wonder who my teacher will be." 
"I hope so-and-so is in my class." 
"I wonder if we'll get to eat the early lunch." 
"What outfit should I wear on the first day?"

No one mentions anything about homework or having to wake up early.  Right now it's all about the fun and social aspects of school. 

As we get closer and closer to the advent of the new school year though,  I am struck with the fact that I have very conflicted feelings about sending the kids out the door to school this year.  On the one hand, I can't wait to get back into a  routine again that involves kids falling asleep before 10:30pm and me accomplishing tasks without getting interrupted 63 times a minute.  But on the other hand, there's no two ways around the fact that I'm really going to miss them when they're at school all day! 

Sure, they keep me up late at night, make gigantic messes, and squabble like no one's business. 

But they also randomly write me sweet notes for no reason, play together for hours on end, try to surprise me with breakfast in bed on an almost weekly basis, and fill our home with a lot of laughter. 

All that with the knowledge that at the end of next summer we'll be dropping off Spencer for his first year of college and I know all too well that happy carefree moments like these are fleeting....

and I intend to embrace every one of them that I can. 

A Wedding and a Cupcake Sale

It took....

2 whole days,

and 9+ pounds of butter,

around 26 cups of sugar,

more than 3 dozen eggs,

10 limes,

nearly 14 pounds of powdered sugar,

6 cans of garbanzo beans,

3 cups of Greek yogurt,

and a few other ingredients,

so that Cami could bake cupcakes for her very first wedding reception!!! 

  
She made 10 dozen for the wedding (key lime, greek yogurt strawberry, german chocolate, coconut, and chocolate-peanut butter) and another 3 dozen for a separate order (funfetti, greek yogurt lemon, and key lime) due the same afternoon.

 They turned out beautifully and they were the perfect addition to the wedding dessert table.  She also kept the cupcake stands stocked through the night. 

She had employed three of her siblings to help her bake (paying them $3 each), employed her Dad as her go-to man for last-minute ingredient runs (volunteer position), and her mother as cupcake topper maker (a job I happily volunteered for, so I could have a good excuse to pull out my rubber stamps and other crafting supplies). 

I may be a little biased, but I think Cami has done a fantastic job of running her own business this summer and I couldn't be prouder of my baker-girl! 

This has been an amazing experience for Cami this summer, getting paid to do something she loves.   Thank you for all of your support!

For those who have yet to experience the glory of Cami's cupcakes, or for those those of you who may be interested in trying some of Cami's cupcakes, but haven't wanted to commit to buying a dozen of the same flavor, this is the perfect time to announce:

 CAMI'S HUGE LABOR DAY WEEKEND CUPCAKE SALE

On Saturday, September 1st starting at 12:00noon, she will have a dozen different flavors available and will be selling her cupcakes individually for the first time.  No delivery will be available that day and pick-up will start at 12:00noon.  Pre-orders are encouraged, although you can always call that day to see what's available. 

PRICES (Checks or cash are accepted)
$2.50 each for 1-6 cupcakes (no box included)
$2.25 each for 7-11 cupcakes
$2.00 each for 12+ cupcakes

PICK-UP
After 12:00noon on Saturday September 1st. 

CHOOSE FROM THESE FLAVORS:
Andes Mint
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Cookies and Cream
German Chocolate
Greek Yogurt Strawberry
Funfetti with swirled frosting
Key Lime
Lemon
White Cake with white chocolate icing
Carrot with cream cheese icing
Red Velvet with cream cheese icing
Snickerdoodle

PRE-ORDER
email Cami at cupcakesbycami@yahoo.com (indicate desired flavors and approximate pick-up time)

SAME DAY ORDERS
Call our home number about 20 minutes before desired pick-up to see what's still available.  We will have your orders ready to go.

FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR
For the upcoming 2012-2013 school year, cupcakes will only be available for order on Saturdays.   Prices will increase to $20 per dozen, $5 off the second dozen of the same flavor.  72-hour minimum notice. 

The Marina

A long string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, the Outer Banks are well known for  their sand dunes and hundreds of miles of gorgeous beaches.  The scenery is literally breathtaking and it's easy to see why it's such a popular tourist destination.   It was our first trip there and despite the mishaps and bad weather along the way, I daresay that it's become my favorite of all the Atlantic beaches we've ever been to. Not that I have anything against the Delaware and Virginia beaches that we usually go to, but with the clearer water, lighter beach traffic, and awesome city names like Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, and Nags Head we are sold! 
 
Our last day in North Carolina, our friends took us to Oregon Inlet Marina, where we'd hoped to see the fishing boats arriving with their day's catch.  Unfortunately, the water had been too rough that day for the boats to go out, so we didn't actually get to see much in the way of fish.  We did, however, get to enjoy a walk on the marina, looking at the boats, laughing at some of their names, and enjoying the sights while we spent the last couple of hours with our friends before parting ways.

There may not have been much fishing going on, but we did get to see a couple of boats coming and going from the marina.  Glen mentioned that they were very similar to the fishing boats that he and Spencer went out on during their trip to Florida in June. 

Age proved to be no obstacle to Ellie and Gianna's friendship during the trip.  They may be two years apart in age, but they laughed and played and had a great time together. 

Albeit with a healthy dose of silliness... 


The marina wasn't sandy like the beaches, but Adam did find this very cool shell covered with barnacles.  We guessed that it was either an oyster or clam and opted to  throw it back in the water before leaving instead of adding it to their collection. 

We took advantage of having our friends there and had them take a family picture for us.  Unfortunately in order to get the best view of the boats in the background meant that we were staring right into the sun and true to form my eyes were closed in every single picture. 

Here is one final group shot with everyone (except the Moms and one of their kids who randomly decided not join the picture)....

After leaving the marina, we made one more stop at a beach before officially parting ways.  It was in Pea Island State Park and it was a much less crowded, more rustic beach than the others we'd been to.  It was stunningly beautiful and we loved the dunes and  empty expanses of sand.  

There were far more seashells there than the other beaches and each one of the kids ended up with a big handful to take home with them. 

It was too pretty there not to pose for pictures, so Cami had me take her a new Facebook profile pic. 

After that we said, "Goodbye," then stopped for a little treat at Sweet Frog (our first time)....

YUM!

and then drove up to Williamsburg for Part 2 of our vacation.  

Top Ten Reasons Why I Love Blogging

Most of you have only come to know this blog in the last several months since Spencer was diagnosed and successfully beat leukemia.  But did you know that I've been blogging on a very regular basis (at least a few posts each week) for over five years now?  Blogging had become such a part of my life, that when Spencer got sick that it just seemed natural that I would make the blog my way to keep people up-to-date with his journey.  It did its job keeping people informed and kept me sane in the process, but now that Spencer is better and life is as normal as life ever is in our house, I sometimes question why I continue to take the time to blog about the mundane moments of our lives when I could be doing other more productive things....like sleeping. 

Well in true Lara form, I've decided to gather all my reasons here into a blog post, mostly as a way to remind myself why blogging continues to be an important part of who I am and how I express myself. 

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10-  It keeps our faraway family up-to-date on our day-to-day happenings.

9-  Although I've got a whole lot to learn still, I love capturing moments in our lives using photography.

8- It's free and doesn't make a mess. 

7- It gives me a built in place to brag about our family.

6-  I express myself a whole lot better in writing than I do verbally. 

5-  Although it tends to come off as a little quirky or goofy, I love thinking of new and creative ways to present what is admittedly mostly boring/every day  material about our family. 

4-   I love how it preserves the stories and the photos from our lives, however mundane they may be,  into an accessible place for the kids to look back on.   

3- It helps me feel connected to family and friends who read the blog. 

2-It gave me an easy way to keep people informed about Spencer and his battle against leukemia and it helped keep me sane in the process. 

And last but not least....

1- I am adamantly opposed to insomnia and will not stop blogging until I have successfully cured each and every one of my friends and family who suffer from it.       

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And although this is supposed to be putting you to sleep right now, I hardly know how to blog without throwing in a few pictures....so here is a little glimpse of our vacation. 

First I'll show off how healthy/tan/filled-out/hairy Spencer is looking these days. 

He still doesn't like posing for pictures, but he didn't complain when I snapped some shots of him burying his friend Ryan up to his neck in sand. 


Here's a shot of my Hunny of almost 19-years,  who prides himself on being an awesome boogier!  

Ellie joined in the digging fun and Adam continued to search for seashells and sea creatures...

Ellie really, really, really wanted to be buried too....


but with storm clouds like this approaching, we decided it wasn't such a great idea....

Every day we were in the Outer Banks had passing rainstorms that came and went through the day...

Luckily our friends' beach house rental wasn't too far away, so an afternoon of Disney DVD's and popsicles seem to make up at least a little bit for getting rained out of the beach...

Don't worry....more insomnia cures vacation blogposts coming soon....

Rough Start....Getting Better

After getting a few pitying comments after the last post about how horrible our vacation must be, I decided that for posterity's sake, as much as for worried friends and relatives,  that I needed to do a little explaining.    We had had a minor household emergency arise the day before our scheduled departure, which led to a very long, hard day with high stress and little sleep.  When we finally got in the car to drive to the Outer Banks, NC, we were excited to put the stress behind us and enjoy the beachside campsite we'd reserved  for that night.  

But because of heavy traffic for most of the drive, we didn't get to our campsite until after dark, only to find that someone else had set up their tent in the spot we'd reserved.  We moved over to a less desirable spot and discovered that we'd forgotten our flashlights, which made setting up our tent in the dark all the more challenging. 

Finally the tent was up and we crashed. 

And a couple hours later our tent crashed.

  The wind blows pretty steadily there in the Outer Banks normally, but the combination of the gusting wind and heavy rain that night proved to be the undoing of our tent.   We ended up abandoning it in the middle of the night and trying to salvage the rest of our night's sleep in the van (not very successfully I might add).  Our 15+ year old tent ended up meeting its demise that night and was left in the campground trash, along with several other tents who had apparently also met their fate up against that wind. 

Since then we've been through two dud motels, spotty internet, bucketloads of rain, and two surly teenagers. 

BUT....

now we've found a much nicer place to sleep (for less money than the dud motels), the internet works great, a couple of kids are happily posing for my picture ideas, the sun is shining...

and it's looking to be a great vacation! 

 Lots more pictures to come....

No Words Needed

Summer Vacation 2012, Day One: 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Contest Winner(s)

Anyone who carefully read the rules to  yesterday's contest  knows that the contest was scheduled to last for several more decades, but as is allowed by a loophole in  its well-written rules, I've decided to end the contest 99 years and 364 days early and reveal the winners tonight.  I knew the suspense would be too much for all of  you and frankly I was a little concerned that I might have spent the gazillion dollars by then anyway.  Without further ado, here are the 10 truths and a lie! 

1.  Helped one of the kids open their own bank account.   True--after taking Cami to the bank to cash several weeks' worth of  checks for babysitting and cupcakes, we decided it was definitely  time for Cami to stop keeping her money in a jar....especially since we didn't have any jars big enough for her stash of cash.  :)

2.  Just got our passports in the mail.  True!  The Make-a-Wish people said we should be hearing about Spencer's wish plans soon!  {Please ignore my 11pm hair}

3.  Made disgusting popsicles.  True!  I got brave and decided to come up with my own coconut popsicle recipe, thinking that there was no way I could mess up too badly where sugar is involved.  Unfortunately my optimism proved to be misplaced and these popsicles ended up sickeningly sweet  with a very odd texture.  {the kids never even finished theirs if that tells you something}

4.  Got a busy, new calling at church. True!  I am very humbled and excited to be the new young women's president in our ward.  We have awesome young women and I'm excited to be working with some wonderful ladies! 

5.  Bid farewell to my sister who's been staying with us ever since Spencer got sick.  True!  After being our right-hand woman for 8-months, Heather decided it was time to let Cami have her room back.  We miss her already! :( 

6.  Spence is at the beach with a friend this week. True!  Apparently they haven't been able to do a whole lot of beach going yet because of the rainy weather, but he's excited about his first ever vacation without parents. 

7.  In the process of making homemade fruit roll-ups (with 100% fruit).  True!  Although never a huge part of our diet anyway, I've been trying to cut down on preservatives and artificial dyes and flavorings even more lately.   I've tried blueberry roll ups and mango-apricot roll ups and the kids love them both!  

8. Haven't bought any bread for the entire summer. True!  Going along with #7,  I challenged myself to go for the entire summer without buying bread for our family.  I've been experimenting with grinding my own wheat  and discovering the perfect homemade recipe.  I'm almost there and the kids are begging me to keep up the bread baking during the school year as well.   We shall see...

9.  Cami got an order for 10 dozen cupcakes for an upcoming wedding.  True!  And she is super excited about it! 

10.  Finally finished organizing the kids' room.   False!  We've made significant strides forward and most of their room is done, but their closet remains quite the challenging foe.  Someday I hope to enjoy organizing and house projects as much as I love cooking and blogging, but in the meantime I continue to chip away at it each day for as long as my attention span will allow before getting grumpy about it.   {I'll post more pictures when I'm done, but for now here's a little teaser picture of their new art/homework station. }

11.  Want to go on vacation later this week and still haven't finalized our plans.  True!  All summer we've been hesitant making vacation plans not knowing when Spencer's Make-a-Wish trip might come through.  Since it's only a few more weeks until school starts and we still haven't heard anything about the trip's timing, we finally decided that we needed to do something before the summer totally got away from us.  We've been a little wishy washy about making our final plans and now we've had a minor wrench thrown in which is looking to complicate things even further.  (don't worry it's nothing serious)  In the meantime, we're still taking suggestions for vacation ideas that are not-too-far-from home (less than 8-hours away), not too expensive, and fun for the whole family.  Feel free to shower us with ideas. 

AND THE WINNERS ARE.....

My beautiful sister, Kristina

My Mom and Dad

JP

...who apparently knew only too well that me finishing a house project in less than 2-years would practically qualify as miracle status.  The gazillion dollars will be split evenly between the three of them and if they send me their bank account information, I will direct deposit it into their bank accounts as soon as I pay Glen the gazillion dollars I owe him first. 

Ten Truths and a Lie

Which one of the following statements is a lie? Since I'm offering a gazillion dollars to the person(s) who guesses correctly, you may want to read the official rules outlined below to make sure your entry is legal. 

1.  Helped one of the kids open their own bank account.

2.  Just got our passports in the mail. 

3.  Made disgusting popsicles.

4.  Got a busy, new calling at church. 

5.  Bid farewell to my sister who's been staying with us ever since Spencer got sick.

6.  Spence is at the beach with a friend this week.

7.  In the process of making homemade fruit roll-ups (with 100% fruit)

8. Haven't bought any bread for the entire summer. 

9.  Cami got an order for 10 dozen cupcakes for an upcoming wedding.

10.  Finally finished organizing the kids' room. 

11.  Want to go on vacation later this week and still haven't finalized our plans.

Official Rules (please read carefully before entering)

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. VALID ONLY ON THE EARTH AND ITS KNOWN SATELLITES ONLY. ENTRY IN THIS CONTEST CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES.
The "Guess Lara's Lie" (the “Contest”) is designed to encourage eligible U.S. blog readers (“Entrant(s)” or “You”) to use their  gray matter to guess what on earth Lara might lie about. Lara (the Judge) will choose the winning entry at random, and the prize will be awarded in accordance (more or less) with these Official Rules (the “Rules”).

1. ELIGIBILITY: To be eligible to enter the Contest, an Entrant must: (a) be a citizen of earth or a permanent alien from a planet with dual citizenship (i.e. must be able to show proof of legal permanent residence, for example, a “picture of you arriving on earth in your spaceship”); (b) be aged at least 6 hours old.  Octogenarians and above are not eligible to participate based on their overdeveloped sense of lie detection. 

2. SPONSOR: The Contest is sponsored by Glen and Lara Inc., a Virginia corporation.  Funds will only be released to the winner after all other debts are paid first (i.e. the gazillion dollars Lara owes Glen)

3. CONTEST PERIOD: The Contest begins on August 6, 2012 at 11:38:00 P.M. Eastern Time  Zone in the United States and ends on August 6, 2112 at 11:38:59 P.M. ET (“Contest Period”). All dates and times are subject to change without previous notice.

4. HOW TO ENTER: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. To enter the Contest, visit the Contest website located at wawasmusings.blogspot.com (“Contest Site”) during the Contest Period and leave a comment indicating your official entry.  Humorous comments and multiplicity of entries are welcome. 

Entries received without a completed comment form or for those entrants under 3-months-of age, without a parent’s or legal guardian’s signature,  will be disqualified.

LIMIT ELEVEN (11) ENTRIES PER ENTRANT. Subsequent entries will be disqualified unless they are filled with compliments about my appearance and/or my superior skills.  Any mention of my plethora of gray hairs, the non-funniness of my late night humor, or my actual age will result in immediate disqualification from this and all future contests. 

Breaking Olympic News!

Team USA took home another gold medal earlier this week when long-time Virginia resident, Lara G., set a new world record in the uber competitive Olympic sport of school supply shopping for five kids.  

Lara has spent the last decade or so dabbling in the sport, but upped her training regimen significantly two years ago when she volunteered to school supply shop for her school's PTA fundraiser. 

"Two years in a row of shopping for hundreds of kids was hard work, but it was just the preparation I needed to get me here on the medal stand today.  Before this year I never thought it was possible that I could complete school supply shopping for five kids in two hours at one store...but I did it!  And here I am today...my family is so proud." 

"It means so much," Lara said. "All the hard work, the intense training in crowded Walmart aisles, jockeying for the last glue stick... If you push through the hard days, then you can get through anything."

When asked what her secret was, Lara replied, "Leave the kids at home, wait until everything's on sale, then go in the days BEFORE the tax-free weekend.  In past years I've made the mistake of trying to save a few bucks by going during the tax-free weekend, but invariably the over-crowded aisles and picked-over shelves make me lose my focus. " 

It was the first-ever Olympic medal  for the beaming star, but she hopes it won't be the last. 

Go Team USA! 

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For detailed accounts of Lara's intense training regimen that got her where she is today, click here, here, or here. 

Today...

Today:  

• I had a little powwow with some of my little nursery buddies.  I felt totally in my element as they asked me questions, gave me high fives, and asked for my assistance on things.  I had forgotten how much I loved and missed them! 

• We threw out the menu, waited in lines snaking out the door, and ate at Chick-fil-a for dinner.  It was very cool to see such a show of solidarity for Christian values and free speech.  

• I met someone at Chick-fil-a who recognized me from this blog.  Her daughter is a classmate of Spencer's and apparently followed along with Spencer's updates via this blog.  It's only the second time it's happened (last time it was through the Recipe Shoebox) and it made my day!

• I laughed as I remembered how my girly girl Ellie randomly announced the other day that she wanted to learn how to ice skate, so she could play hockey like the Caps' players. 

• I made some more progress on organizing the kids' room.  It's still got a long ways to go, but it's more organized than it's been in a long time and I hope to be done before the kids start school!  Maybe I'll post a picture here soon...