Another one bites the dust

A friend of mine (you know who you are) recently said she 'laughs in the face of disaster.' Well this is me laughing hahahahahahaha. Our vacuum has bit the dust. I'm pretty sure for the final time. Now I'm sure you are saying to yourself "THIS is a disaster??""Isn't she being a bit dramatic??". Well, anyone who lives with any children, let alone 4 boys!! knows that the lack of a vacuum borders on disaster. Add to that an old but small apartment that is fully carpeted and I'd say that tips the scales into the disaster field.

Do we have a funeral? That is the question. This vacuum that we've been using has been in my family far longer than I. It has made the family rounds and was given to me finally by my father. Very generously. I'm serious - it was nice of him. It was a great vacuum too. It could probably suck up a small child, it could blow up air mattresses and the cord could get sucked back into the machine for storage - like it was made that way. Way cool. It did weigh about 25 lbs but I still made the boys haul it around when they made messes on the floor. Sigh. Here's a picture.

May it rest in peace. The vacuum end came off and won't reconnect to the hose. I'm going to have to confess to my father...
SO, then Anthony brought home this vacuum -
Certainly doesn't look any younger does it? It does have a stand up attachment that weighs about 10lbs and won't push forward, forcing you to vacuum backwards. No folks, I can not make this stuff up. So out of total desperation, I was forced to vacuum the ENTIRE apartment with the hose function. Ahhhh. I don't know when we'll be able to buy a new one - so I guess I'm stuck vacuuming this way, or backwards.
A sad funeral is definitely in order.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Does anyone know how to find Mr. Roger's episodes online? I've looked and looked, but admittedly I am NOT the best Internet searcher. I think Big C Man (his new self-title) would really enjoy it.
So my house smells like smoke. And my garage. And my car. And my clothes. And my sons. No this is not a flashback to last summer. Last night I became one of 'those people'. You know the type. They put a fire pit on their driveway and they sit out around it all night, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, etc. Those people that I snicker at and think 'well at least I have more class than that. I mean, I would at least put it in the backyard...'. Now the fire pit was not MINE, but my neighbors, but they invited us over to cook hot dogs and marshmallows. So the fire pit was set up on our joint driveway and we sat around on chairs while the boys waved flaming marshmallows and burnt hot dogs around on long pointed sticks that are red hot... it's a miracle that no eyes were poked out or hair set on fire! But I have to admit that I had a good time. It's another learning experience for me. God has certainly been teaching me not to be so judgemental. On the down side, I didn't realize that when you set a fire pit outside of your house like that, everything fills up with smoke. I took a shower before bed last night and another this morning and I could STILL smell the smoke when I was drying my hair. Yuck! After last summer's drama, you can imagine how sensitive I am to that. Will I join them again...hmm, probably. But not for a while...anyone else wanna try it? :)

The End of the Adventure

Friday was the last day of our Great Beach Adventure. We drove down to Tampa to visit my sister and her husband and had a super AWESOME time! They took us to a tapas restaurant in St. Petersburg called Ceviche. We sat outside and ordered a bunch of different tapas dishes and shared them. Emmanuel loved the squid and I even tried some salmon ceviche my sister ordered - I was always a bit speculative about ceviche. We had a big pitcher of sangria and it was sooo yummy. Then we walked down the pier to the aquarium. This is what we found when we got down there.

The awesome Uncle Robby even paid big bucks so they could feed fish to the pelicans. That was the greatest!

The aquarium was pretty little but the boys enjoyed it and even got to hold some starfish! Exciting! This is us chillin at Auntie Wedgo and Uncle Robby's house.

And Emmanuel asking Uncle Robby question number 502 out of at least 1000. For supper we went to another really good restaurant in Ybor City. It was so fun and Mical and I had another pitcher of Sangria :) and shared Ropa Vieja, which is apparently the same as Hilachas which was my favorite Guatemalan dish when I was little. YUMMY!! We even picked up some handmade cigars - regular for the boys (big boys - not little boys ;) ) and chocolate for Mical and I. Unfortuntely, Becky's a ditz and hadn't planned ahead to close up the condo and stay with M and R so we had to drive back that night. I think, if the boys had their way, Mical and Robby would have at least 2 new roomates! They say when they grow up they're going to live in Florida. :)

Saturday morning we started the LONG trip home. It took FOREVER. The traffic was horrendous. This is us sitting, stopped, in the middle of Georgia. I should point out that there was no construction, no accident, no apparent reason whatsoever for the traffic jam.

Can you feel the pain, people? 4 little boys, stopped traffic, middle of nowhere...

The upside of it though was that we got to stop at my aunt and uncles house in Charlotte and the boys got to get out and run around. I wish we had taken picture there. I really like being at their house and we all had a much needed rest. This did mean that we didn't get home until 4am on Sunday morning, but was definitely worth it.

The boys still talk about the beach daily. We had such a wonderful trip. Thanks Terry and Ellen!!!

Last Day at the Beach

Today was our last day at the beach. Yesterday and today were absolutely beautiful days, although the wind started to pick up this afternoon and made it a little chilly for swimming on the beach. We've been making an effort to lather on the SPF 50 and everyone seems to be doing better. It's dangerous because it is so beautiful and cool on the beach that you could sit out there all day. It's not until that evening that you realize how sunburned you are. I should be used to it since it's like that in Guatemala but I guess I've spent too many years in the midwest - where you can sit out for DAYS and barely get any sun.

Anyway, Anthony found an authentic little French bakery this morning, complete with old french chef yelling from the back. It was his little slice of heaven today! He brought back coffee, a yummy baguette that tasted like pan frances!, a croissant and chocolate eclairs. Super delicious! We plan to stop there tomorrow morning, too! Then we made an effort to be up and on the beach earlier and the boys had a great time body boarding.

Emmanuel has no fear, like my mom always says.
Pepe's work well to keep the baby from eating the sand. He was issued a new hat to keep the bald head from being sunburned and each boy was issued sunglasses, to be worn at all times. You'll note from the pictures that little boys ALWAYS comply with the rules...

Then we built a family sand castle. Papa made the castle and Mama made the walls and then the boys filled the rest in and tried to make a moat. Still couldn't get the water to stay in the moat. :(

There is no crying in sand castle making!

Another attempt at water for the moat.
This afternoon Anthony wanted to go to the Flagler Intl Food Festival here in New Smyrna Beach. Someone told us that at 4pm every day you could walk down to the end of Flagler and see the dolphins so here we are looking for them. When we got down to the water, they had just lifted the drawbridge so some boats could come through. That was very exciting!

Baby didn't think it was nearly as exciting.

We did see a few dolphins out in the water but could only get a picture of this pelican that landed right by us.

And Anthony enjoying some food at the festival. :)

Tomorrow we're off to Tampa and St. Petersburg to visit with Aunt Wedgo and Uncle Robby. Should be LOTS of fun. They are taking us to some great looking restaurants and an aquarium. The boys are most excited about the salamanders in their backyard though. What can you do- BOYS!

Day 2

Day two of our great adventure opened with thunderstorms and rain. No worries, though. As my sister pointed out, we needed a sunburn break and a thunderstorm is always fun. Still, the boys were chomping at the bit by 10am and could hardly sit still. Jensy was super happy to just sit and eat crackers. Now that he has started getting his top middle teeth, the world is open to so many new things to enjoy! :)

We decided we'd take a trip to the movie theater in Daytona Beach and see Monsters vs. Aliens - in 3D no less! We got lost (yes, I should have at least written down the address) so we had to wait for the next showing but it was fun anyway. Here we are after supper enjoying freezepops on the balcony, watching the sun set.And the boys watching Sharkboy and Lavagirl with their new 3D glasses. Very exciting to finally be able to watch it in 3D! Anthony's lathering on the aloe right now and then they're supposed to be sleeping. Back to the beach in the morning. :)

The Great Beach Adventure

So the owners of the inn that Anthony works for gave us the best gift ever. Ok, I know I already wrote a post about the best gift ever, but this is sort of the best gift ever ever. They gave us a week at their beach condo in Florida. We, after much waffling, made the fabulous decision to take them up on it and left home at about 10pm on Saturday night. I thought it would be so much easier to drive through the night, and since Anthony stays up 1/2 the night most of the time anyway, I thought I'd get some sleep and he'd drive away. Imagine my surprise when he pulled in to a wayside rest at 1am and was done driving. Well, being a Rutt after all, I simply couldn't just sit there when there was road to conquer! So I took over and drove most of the night. I did have to stop a couple of times to rest and he finally took over at about 8. The drive took us about 16 hours and I'm glad we did it that way. The boys were sooo good and it was nice to get here in the afternoon.

The condo is beautiful! It is right on the beach and we can sit on our deck and enjoy the ocean. There is also a pool and lots of sand toys. This is seriously the way to live!

Of course the boys were up bright and early this morning, ready to head for the sand. We finally got our act together around 10ish - afterall, we're on vacation. We lathered everyone up with 50spf sunscreen and headed downstairs. Anthony found some bodyboards in the storage area and some sand toys. Here are some pictures of our first day.

Yup, this is the life. And yes, all of that skin that you see is now bright red.

Decorating the sand castle with seashells, 'teeth', 'bones' and anything else they can find.
Sweet baby FINALLY taking a nap. Even after sunscreen, an umbrella and a towel, that cheek and arm are still sunburned! Actually, all of the boys ended up sunburned. Obviously, we'll have to lather it a bit thicker tomorrow.
The sand just kept soaking up the water for their moat. :(

Jensy's first time in the ocean. He didn't even cry when the wave almost swept him away. He did shake a bit though. And finally, a wine glass the size of which even my mother could appreciate. :) And yes, there's white in there, Mom!
Be back with more tomorrow. :)

Soccer

Well soccer season has started again. It is so much fun to watch them play but so stressful to make it through the weeks. It's worth it though. Christian played soccer with our YMCA, which mostly consisted of him running in circles around the gym, talking or making other sounds the entire time. Pretty hilarious. Now Wyatt and Emmanuel are playing with the city parks and rec. Wyatt is in the under 8 group which means they are still not keeping score (technically) and basically playing without a goalie, but they are starting to learn positions, passing, etc. It is way fun. His coach is a dad of one of his teammates and seems really cool but does make them work. Anthony is coaching Emmanuel's team, along with the dad of Emmanuel's best friend. It is their first time at coaching and it's going to be FUN. I can tell already! :) In the under 6 group the kids mostly just run around and try to kick the ball, with a few that still insist on trying to use their hands on occasion. Here are a couple of pictures from Saturday's practice. It was freezing outside and I was a total sissy and sat in the car. Then there's a picture of Emmanuel 'running'. He thought I needed to take a picture of him and kept running back and forth until I got one he liked. I'll post some real soccer pictures soon.

My New Handbag

So I have to brag a little about how awesome my sister is! Actually, all of my sisters are pretty awesome, but this post is about Sarah. I will first say that she just had a baby. Like a month ago! Her second son - a super cute guy! So even with a 2 year old and a new baby she STILL managed to whip up this beautiful little bag for me. I can't believe it. Isn't it the cutest EVER?!Please note the cool lining and the beautiful buttons. I love it!