The Decision

It wasn't an easy decision, but I finally decided and have accepted the job offer at Aultcare. I will be learning programming as I help them rewrite all of their claim processing programs to coordinate with their new system. The next step is to pass a background check, reference check, and physical. Those should be accomplished by the middle of next week and then I will be able to start working (once day care is arranged). I'm very excited about the opportunity, but will greatly miss being home with my girls. I think the hardest part was coming to terms with the fact that I couldn't stay home forever! Hopefully, I can get them into the Aultman daycare (discounted rates for employees!) and visit on my lunch break!

The Longest Weekend Ever!

Not only did I have two job offers to make a decision about this weekend, we also had a baby shower, a wedding, and a wedding shower on top of Saturday morning swim lessons. I stressed about planning everything out, but it all worked well. George met me at the YMCA so Sammie could finish her swim lesson and I headed to the baby shower at Lollie's for our friends Phil and Anica. It was a really nice shower with excellent food! I then picked George and the kids up to head to the wedding at Skyland Pines. George's best friend Billy's older brother got married. George is really close to the family. The wedding was supposed to be outside but with severe weather threatening, it was moved indoors. I'm sure the wedding video contains audio of Erin screaming "pee pee in the potty". This magical phrase gets her out of any situation she doesn't want to be in and she's not afraid to use it! (and I'm too scared to ignore it!) The kids had a blast at the reception dancing and running around. It was the first time we have taken both kids to a wedding and it went well. We all went to bed early that night, but it was fun! Sunday the girls and I went to Tracy's shower after church. Sammie loved spending time with her cousins Hailey and Mary and Erin had fun wondering around and watching for lightening outside. She has become obsessed with storm watching! It was nice to see Grandma and Grandpa Clapper too. We're hoping to head to their house soon for some swimming now that their pool is open.

Erin loves water! She was pointing it out to everyone!

This might be th only time I've gotten the point the camera at yourself thing to work out really well!

Car ride home after the wedding and it was only 8:30!

I didn't really get any pics of Sammie at the wedding. She was running around with the new friends she had made.

This is a pic of Tracy opening the gift my mom sent up. Sorry it's so dark.

After church on Sunday, we received some sad news. Billy's grandmother had been very sick and was on life support over the weekend. The family had been feeling torn with the wedding on Saturday. She passed away Sunday morning. We will be attending calling hours Wednesday night and the funeral is Thursday morning. George has been asked to be a pallbearer and feels honored to do so. He would go and visit Billy's grandparents every month or so like they were his own. He took the kids a few times this past semester while I was studying. The family has mentioned how much they appreciated George's visits.

Grandma's New Pool

We were the first ones to swim in grandma's new pool! It was cold, but it was a warm day so the kids had a blast! They're looking forward to spending more time swimming once it warms up!

Too Much Free Time

It official: I have too much time on my hands! I noticed a baby snail in the little fish tank and remembered the warnings about the rate at which snails multiple, so I kept an eye on the tank. I looked over at lunch the other day and caught them in the act! Eww! Now, I've been trying to find the eggs to prevent snail overload! If not, we'll have to open a cafe serving escargot! As I was telling George about the events in the tank (and showing him the pics I took), he rolled his eyes and told me I needed to get a job. Lol! To date, most of the babies are being sucked up by the filter or eaten by the fish. For now, everything is maintaining naturally. Still can't find where she's hiding the eggs though!

This is part of the pre-mating "dance". I didn't want to post a really graphic picture! I thought, for a second, that this could be a great learning experience for Sammie. She started to ask questions, but I chickened out! I'm not quite ready for that discussion yet!

Blue's Fest

There was a free Blue's fest downtown this weekend, so we headed down to check it out. All around the city there are sculptures of animals like the monkey. They were very interesting to see. It's amazing how far downtown has come! It's a shame the ribs burnoff is no longer held downtown. We had some great BBQ and listened to some cool music. We had to leave in a hurry though cause there looked like a huge storm was blowing in. It only rained, but we were glad to make it home before it started raining! We then headed to Phillip and Anica's to hang out. The girls have so much fun with Phillip. Phillip and Anica are so excited about the upcoming arrival of their little girl. (They're counting down: 7 weeks) Erin looked confused about the whole baby in the belly thing and told the baby to come outside. Very cute!

The First Day of Summer

After my second interview at Diebold, which went very well, the girls and I went to Woody's rootbeer stand with yiayia. They have the best rootbeer!! Erin found one of Giovanni's pacifiers in yiayia's purse and decided to give it a try. After nap, we headed to the mall. Our first potty trained outing went very well! I'm so proud of Erin! It's been amazing to see how fast she has grown! After dinner, I let the girls back outside to play and enjoy the longest day of the year. Right as we were heading in, the ice cream truck came down our street. Sammie and I have been trying to catch this truck for a couple of days now! They both enjoyed their ice cream!

Also this week, we were shown how God always provides what you need. We have had two giant holes at the bottom of our driveway that have been getting really bad. We were starting to fear damage to our vehicles. Thursday around lunch there was a knock on the door. A guy had just patched the neighbor's driveway across the street, had some extra, and asked if I wanted him to fill our holes. I called George to tell him the news and the price and he mentioned that he had set a reminder on his phone about calling an asphalt place and that reminder went off seconds before I called! The asphalt guy also quoted me a price to seal the driveway, which will need to happen this summer. The price was a lot lower than we were expected. Once I secure a job, we'll be calling this guy to come seal it.

Perfect Manners

If Aunt Angie has taught Sammie anything, it has been dinner manners! (Sleepovers at Aunt Angie's and Uncle Matt's included a burping contest at dinner!) Erin burped first and thought it was hysterical so Sammie kept the fun going! Never a dull moment!

Potty Training

I've decided to take advantage of Erin's interest in the potty and my extra free time. Late last week she had to go #2 during dinner and told us in time 2 nights in a row, so I figured it was time to go for it! Sunday after her nap she was dry until bedtime and was pants less for about 2 hours without any messes on the floor. Monday got screwed up a little cause I needed to get some stuff from the store in the morning, but after nap she had the same results as Sunday except for when I left and George was cooking dinner. Today was a bit more of a mess. I realized that if she is wearing something absorbent, she will not tell me she has to go, but if she is pants less, she runs to the potty (most of the time). After her nap we went out to get pull up and panties. The pull ups are absorbent so she never says anything, but the panties are different. In the span of a few hours, she went through 7 pairs, but only 2 pairs were complete accidents. The other 5 were only a little wet cause she stopped herself and came to the potty. We've also implemented a potty treat program: 1 M&M's for #1's and 2 M&M's for #2's. Erin loves this program!! lol! She also loves helping clean up her potty. I'm hoping that after a few more days of panties all day, Erin will get the hang of it. Plus she looks so stinking cute in her little panties!!

The Slide

Holy Trinity has a little slide in their playroom that Erin was loving. I looked on craigslist for a used one, but didn't see one. I was planning on garage sale-ing to find one, but stopped by Babyland first. Luckily, they had exactly what I was looking for! The girls tried it out and just had to have it. Erin has loved playing on it. She's able to go up the stairs completely on her own and has discovered holes in the platform where she can drop rocks through. It's amazing how many times toddlers can do the same thing over and over! Sammie's able to slide on it, but gets bored of it pretty quickly, understandably. Turtle has even had his turn going down.

Father's Day

After church at Holy Trinity, we tried out a cafe in North Canton that George had heard about called Cafe 1320. It was a small place in the building behind Variety's. It was really nice. They had a few tables set upside and it was such a nice day that we opted for being outside! We're planning on eating ther again some day for dinner.

Under the Waves

The pics from our under water camera turned out great! Here's a few of the best.

The first turtle is the one Sammie swam with that was the same size as her. I'm not sure if the other pics are of the same turtle or not.

A school of a few hundred fish.
If you look close there are sea urchins in the holes in the rock.

Cheap Platic Fun

Our pool from last year was not properly stored for the winter. As I was trying to pull it out, there were some funky smell coming off of it. George happened to be at the store so I asked him to pick up a new one, cheap but fun. What he brought home was perfect and the kids love it!! Hopefully it survives the summer! Sammie's a little big for it! Erin loves the turtle that came with the pool. It has gone from pool to bath a few times now. She also walks around the house with.

The Lazy Days of Summer

Summer has started. Today was the first day of summer break for Sammie. She was very excited and slept in. I think she was still a little jet lagged! It was also very hot today. We have been trying to avoid turning the AC on, but with my head cold, I couldn't take it! It was in the low 90's and high humidity. We played outside in the morning and hit the sprinkler after lunch. I had them stay in the rest of the day. I was too worried about the heat. Hawaii is warm, but not like this! There are refreshing trade winds that come off of the Pacific that keep the islands comfy. I miss those trade winds!! The girls had fun despite the heat and it's nice to be home to share the joys of summer with them!

Sammie has discovered a great new way to blow bubbles and Erin enjoyed it. I thought it was a pretty clever idea! Lots of bubbles, minimal effort!

Dancing at Summerfest

Sammie danced with the beginning group of the Hellenic Dancers. They were fabulous! I love watching her dance and she really enjoys it too! While we were at the luau, we told her how her Greek dancing was the same as the hula dancers. We're hoping she sticks with it! Erin also enjoys the dancing. She tries to dance along! Plus Nicholas came to see his Sammie dance. They are so cute together!!

Hawaii

Well, we had a great trip! The flights were long, but the girls did an amazing job! We were able to do a lot of interesting things on Oahu, but George and I still prefer the slower, more quiet pace of Kauai. We are looking forward to our next trip and are thinking of heading to the Big Island next time to see the volcano. We took a ton of pics, so I can't share all of them here, but I will highlight our trip:
Friday, May 23: We stayed the night at a Ramada near the airport. They offered a park and fly so we were able to leave our car there. Erin was not interested in sleeping at the hotel and I ended up with only 3 hours of sleep. What a way to start a long trip! There was some good news! We found an amazing pizza place called Capri Pizza! Both of the girls ate the pizza, crust and all. It was so good, we stopped on the way home from the airport to get one for dinner! Too bad its only in Middleburg Heights and North Olmstead!

Saturday, May 24th: Traveling. We had a maintenance delay in Houston of about 40 mins. After arriving in Honolulu, we got our rental car, a 4-door, soft top jeep. The color choice was red or silver and Sammie got to pick! Next stop was to rent our snorkel gear and then we headed to the duplex we rented. The place was great and located in a quiet residential neighborhood. The best part was being right on the beach. Erin said water every time she looked outside! The sound of the waves crashing was so relaxing!! I'm going to have to find a sound clip of waves on the shore so that we can all sleep now that we're home! I think we all missed that sound Sunday night! We also had an excellent view of the sunset from the dining room table.

Sunday, May 25th: We were awake by 3am Hawaii time and sat around waiting for the sun to rise, and then sat on the beach to watch it rise! So beautiful! Erin, however did not like the sand! It took a few days before she would stand in it without screaming. It was too much like dirt for her. She would sit and pick it out of her toes! Next, we headed to Honolulu to attend church at the Greek Orthodox church, St. Constantine and Helen's. It was a beautiful church and the people were so friendly. We were accused more than once of stealing their priest! (Our current priest, Father Nick, came to us from Honolulu) They asked us to send warm wishes to Father Nick and loaded us up with food and icons, typical Greeks! We then went out to eat plate lunches at I Love Country Cafe and headed back home for some grocery shopping.

Monday, May 26th: George struggled to get the top down on the jeep. We eventually got it down, but it took a couple days to discover that it wasn't up right in the first place! After that, it was easy to put down and up! We started the day at the Dole Plantation. They have the world's largest garden maze. We wondered around looking for the 8 hidden stations. but left after finding only half since we were starting to get hungry. It was very 'The Shinning'. We also learned how to properly slice a pineapple. They put a li hing mui powder on the pineapple that was very tasty, so we bought a bag. We later discovered that people put it on everything! I also learned how pineapples grow. I thought it war on trees, but I was wrong! We then wondered around Haleiwa, the small surf town where we stayed. There were a ton of little shops and art galleries. We saw and later bought a reproduction of a painting from a local artist. It's of sunset at the beach with a small beach house and a couple walking along the shore. I told George that the couple is us and it's our motivation to move to Hawaii. We're going to hang the print in our bedroom. This north shore town is famous for shave ice and we stopped to get some before heading home. We went to Matsumoto, which is the most famous shave ice place. There is always a line and we quickly learned why. All of the flavors are home made and they were not expensive. You could also get ice cream and/or azuki beans in the bottom. Azuki beans are beans that have been boiled in sugar. George tried one with both and really enjoyed it.

Tuesday, May 27th: Beach Day! We headed to Waimea Bay first. It was beautiful, and became our favorite. At 7am there is no one there! There weren't a lot of rocks along the shore line, so it was a good place for Sammie to start snorkeling. George went in first to survey the area and found a sea turtle almost instantly. We saw several this morning. Sammie snorkeled beside one that was about her size. What an amazing site to see these beautiful creatures! It's illegal to touch the turtles since they are endangered so we made sure to keep our distance! We took some pics with our underwater camera. Hopefully, they turn out! There is a huge rock here that the locals jump from. One guy was even doing flips off of it. George went up to look around, but didn't jump. After a couple of hours, we had lunch and then went to Three Tables. There were a lot more rocks at this beach, but Sammie and George braved it and snorkeled anyway. They were so distracted by the beautiful fish and coral that they lost track of where they were and came up along some rocks on the shoreline. The waves started pushing them into the rocks so George, being the great dad he is, put himself between Sammie and the rocks to get her out safely, and got pretty beat up in the process! Everyone started looking a little pink at this point so we headed home!

Wednesday, May 28th: We started the morning early with a trip to the swap meet at Aloha stadium. It's held every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday from 6am-3pm. We were there shortly after 6am, before most of the vendors. We didn't take island time into account! We walked around and by the time we made it around the stadium, the swap meet was in full swing and we got some great deals on souvenirs! We then headed to the Chinatown area of Honolulu. There is a huge population of Asians in this area. It's only a few blocks, but it is packed with markets, restaurants, flower shops, and herbal shops. It was interesting to see. We went into several markets, including a fresh meat one where we saw these giant frogs. Frog legs anyone? We ate at a dim sum restaurant, which means that there a lot of little dishes already prepared and you chose from these dishes off of a cart. They tally your bill by the number of dishes you take. Very efficient! Yes I did eat some chicken and mushroom dumplings and learned to use chopsticks to do it too! We also saw two Buddhist temples and they were spectacular! True to our vacation style, we happened to pass the famous statue of King Kamehameha, so we quickly pulled over, possibly cutting a few people off, to take a quick pic and I mean quick! (We were illegally parked!) Next stop was Ala Moana shopping center, a huge open air mall. They had several upscale stores including Tiffany's, Chanel, Armani, Jimmy Choo, Coach, Louis Vuitton, and many more. We went into a Nieman Marcus and I tried on a pair of Christian Louboutin heels. All of his shoes have red soles and are supposed to be the most comfortable heels. For $530 they better be. I have wanted his shoes for a long time now and it was exciting to finally be able to try on a pair, so exciting that I forgot to get a pic! We took the kids to Build-A-Bear and Sammie picked out a souvenir Hawaiian t-shirt for one of her many build-a-bears! The mall had several fountains filled with giant fish. Our last stop for the day was Waikiki beach. We just wanted to see it. It's way too crowded for us to spend any time there! We also stopped in an ABC Store. These stores carry a little bit of everything including alcohol, souvenirs, and food. I needed to get a hat to protect my already burnt head. George and Sammie pointed out that I never pack a hat and burn my head every vacation. Curses to my thin hair!!

Thursday, May 29th: We headed to Waimea again this morning and all took turns jumping off of the rock. We also got to see some more sea turtles. A smaller one was close enough to the shore that Erin could see it. Then we went across the street to the waterfall and were able to swim in the pool under the fall, which was more of a trickle due to lack of rain! When we first arrived there was a peacock the same height as Erin, who happened to be eating a snack. She was excited to see the big bird and it thought Erin was going to feed it. We had to scare it off several times. We ended the evening at Germaine's Luau. Sammie loved seeing all of the dancers and we were all impressed with the "fire guy". Sammie saw him after the show and had to have a pic with him! Erin danced along with the beat of the drums until she passed out in my arms!

Friday, May 30th: Another beach day. This one also started at Waimea, but the water was more rough today, so we didn't spend as much time there. None of us jumped off the rock since the water was rough. Next was lunch followed by snorkeling at Shark's Cove. Awesome snorkeling but a lot of rocks! It was my turn getting beat up on rocks to get Sammie out! We saw a huge variety of fish and there were sea urchins in all the cracks in the rocks! There were also a bunch of small pools to wade in and look at fish. We got Erin some goggles and tried to get her to stick her face in. She got close, but never went through with it. When we got home, we let Sammie play on the beach in front of our house, since it would be her last opportunity. We got shave ice for the final time and started to pack. Erin hopped up on shave ice:

Saturday, May 31st: Our last day on the island. We didn't want to do the beach since we had to check out by 11am but didn't fly out to 8:45pm, so we headed to Honolulu to return our snorkel gear and to visit the aquarium. It was a neat little aquarium and is the 3rd oldest in the U.S. Next stop was Genki Sushi for lunch. The food comes around the restaurant on a conveyor and you grab what you want. The plates are color coded to determine the price. Sammie and George had a lot of fun deciding what to get and then waiting for it to come around. I had lunch at a Jack in the Box. They had surprisingly good burgers! It's a good thing there aren't any in the area!Our final Oahu experience was a hike up Diamond head. They stated that it would take 1.5-2 hours to make the trek. We did it in a little under an hour, with both of the kids! It was hard work, but the view from the top was amazing! We asked a man at the bottom to take our pic not realizing that he was slow. Once we realized, we let him take the pic anyway and then went back to the jeep to wait for him to leave so we could ask someone else. We didn't want to hurt his feelings!

The pic taken by our special friend:Sunday, June 1st: We landed in Cleveland around 2pm. It was 4pm when we got home. We unpacked and ate dinner and everyone went to bed early! Everyone was sad to leave the island.