Camp St. Christopher

Anna in the salt marsh/mud pit

Last week Anna went to Camp St. Christopher for two nights with her school.  Teachers and volunteers take the Lower El (1-3 grades), Upper El (4-5), and Middle (6-8) on different trips.  The Lower El, Anna's grades, go to Camp St. Christopher for two nights.

Camp St. Christopher is on one of our barrier islands, Seabrook, and is located on 314 acres of beach, maritime forrest, and undisturbed salt marsh.  It is a pretty special place and Anna had a blast!

The kids participate in the Salt Marsh/Mud Pit and how much fun it is to get muddy!  They also learn about our ecosystem, reptiles, sea critters, and have family style meals, and of course campfires!

We really, really appreciate the teachers who volunteer to put this together and the parent volunteers who go (it is so popular with the parents that they have to turn away volunteers).  It is such a great way for the kids to bond and learn about the environment and themselves!  Anna is truly lucky to have such a great experience.

#14495 Smooth as a Babies Bottom

Before (Please ignore the cluttered background)

After - WOW!!!!   (I had to get my car washed so it would be shiny too and look good next to the boat)

The Ol' Aye Patch

The Ol' Aye Patch

Here is a picture of the boat being worked on.  We (Joel) had to fill in a lot where the boat sat on the trailer bunks because they left some nice indentations that are not fast.

We (one of our friends) figured out that the boat trailer is really for a Lippincott Lightning, we have a Nickels, that boat has a narrower bottom then our boat.   This is causing the indentations on the bottom from the bunks, because it is the only spots supporting our boat, so Joe gets to make new bunks to support the bottom all the way across.

Anyway, Joel says that she is going to be very fast when he is done.  So no more excuses Joe, now that we have a smooth and fast bottom, we better be winning the races!

Crabbing at the boat landing

Maddie, Gracie, and Anna checking the trap

We are super lucky and have a boat landing and

dock in our neighborhood.  We also have a lake in

our back yard, but only fish no crabs.

Gracie had been dying to get a crab trap, so this 

weekend Joe and the girls went and got one.  We

had it set all weekend and we caught only a few crabs

but the girls had a blast doing it.

Hello Mr. Crab aren't you happy we decided not to eat you

Joe Versus the Rat - Round #4

Rat can't get back into attic due to slippery pipe shoved in hole and all other holes boarded up.  Rat living on bird seed in garage...................

RAT - 4
JOE - 0

Not In The Business

Last Thursday Anna's teachers Mr. Scott and Miss Karen invited all the families of the kids in the classroom to the school to have a "get to know you" night.  They may have actually called it "Growing the Community" because the goals were for everyone to get acquainted and to help with planting and cleaning up the lower school garden.  Plus, they are big on the idea that the kids in the classroom and school are part of a community.

All the kids had a great time catching toads, lizards, and any other reptile that unwillingly landed in a small persons hands.  Eventually, most of the kids got involved including Gracie who loves anything of that nature.  Well, there was another little girl there, we won't name names, we will call her The Captain.  The Captain decided that Gracie was not allowed to try to catch anything because "she was not in the business".

Poor little Gracie was so upset by this and just determined to show The Captain that she was par for the job.  So Joe and Gracie tried their darnedest to catch some unsuspecting lizards so Gracie could once again be part of the group.

Well, Gracie and Joe didn't catch anything that night, BUT the other day they found a pretty cool snail in the yard.  I took a few fabulous pictures with my camera whose memory card happen to still be in the computer, oops.  It was a small slimy brown snail with a long brown shell.  So I say, "take that Captain!  Guess whose in the business now!"

Goodbye Old Friend.....

For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

-Proverbs 23:18 (King James Bible)

Last week was a sad time for the Pitcavage family.  We had to say goodbye to the Jetta.

The Jetta's transmission was beginning to fail and we decided to get a new car.  It was going to cost a lot of money to fix the transmission (lets just say, easily a couple of years of payments) and we had already put a lot of money into the car this year, so we did the financially responsible thing and went out and spent a lot more money on a new (used) car.  (Which Joe says we stole new the car from the dealer.  When the monthly bill comes in, he may not feel quite the same way, but it is nice we got a good price, good job Joe!)  I am not sure how that works out in our favor, since fixing the car would be a lot cheaper than spending money on a new car.  I guess we are putting money into a car that is not supposed to break as quickly.  Also, our mechanic (who is not paying for our new car) recommended that we pull the trigger and get a new car.  We figured we had to really take into consideration his opinion because he is honest, stands to lose a customer (who seems to be paying him pretty well periodically), and had to email us the quote for the new transmission because he was too scared to tell Joe over the phone, and if you knew him you would know, probably not that much scares him.  So, there we are.

Anyway, Joe said hearing her turbo for the last time was heartbreaking.  It is sad, we have had that car for almost 10 years, for just a couple of months shy of when we got married.  It has taken Joe to Boston to be educated, moved us to SC, gone on trips,  and toted our kids around.  Plus, she is a fun, zippy car to drive (German engineering and turbo) and gets good gas mileage.  I love that car!

Well, considering it is a total high school/college girl car, as Joe pointed out to me when he was trying to make me feel better about driving an uncool "practical" minivan, and he is right, I have only seen one other guy driving a Jetta! (Joe said he was probably just borrowing it from his wife/girlfriend/sister.) We are hoping that someone fixes the car and it gets a second life with one of those girls who can love it as much as we did.

Joe versus the Rat - Round #1 (really there has been 3 rounds)

So, we have a little rat problem.  We have one large rat, not sure of any dependents, living in our attic.  We also have some unidentified, but assuming rats, living under our house.  We haven't tackled the ones under the house yet, (this weekend) but Joe has gone up against the large rat in the attic.

ROUND 1 - Joe let Radar (fierce wild cat) lose in the attic to take care of rat.

RAT - 1
JOE - 0

ROUND 2 - Joe attempts to grab rat as it heads up hole in the ceiling.

RAT - 2
JOE - 0

ROUND 3 - Joe puts rat traps up in the attic.  Apparently, rat so big, cannot get head stuck in trap to eat poison.

RAT - 3
JOE - 0

Joe has patched up the holes in the ceiling and put a pipe in one that Rat should not be able to climb back up.

TO BE CONTINUED.........

10 Years!!!!!

Joe and Mandy in San Francisco - July 2012

On August 16th, Joe and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!  Yay!  (I know that I am using a picture from last year, but as you know, being mom and the picture taker, I never make it into the picture.  Someday, when someone is researching ancestry, my name will be "who is that?".)

Anyway, I am very proud of Joe and I.  I think we are a pretty top notch couple.

Are we perfect?  Is our relationship perfect? No, because who or what is?  But it has to be pretty darn close.  We know how to work together through both stressful and good times, and we make a great team!  We have fun together!

 Also, we are very happy with each other and with our relationship.  A friend said to Joe not to long ago, "Joe, you are my only married friend that is happy".  While, some of that statement may not be true, I am sure that there are other happily married men, what I can say is true is this, that 10 years after our wedding day, we are still in love, committed to each other, and happy.