T.H.I.R.T.Y...T.H.R.E.E...D.A.Y.S..!.!.!

can it really be real?

only 33 more days?

only 12 more chapters?

only 6 more assignments?

if I were an emotional kind of person, I think I'd cry about now!

oh, wait.... I AM an emotional kind of person, darn the luck!

jeez, only 33 more days
and tomorrow -- Mike has an 2nd interview about a job at a good and reputable company!
the tide's about to turn, for sure

let me stop now, so I can pinch myself. only 33 more days!

pinch myself and get back to my homework.
(thank goodness for air conditioning at the library)
sigh. 33 more days.

He Swims Like a Fish!

My guys!

Having missed most opportunities to go to the beach all summer (mostly due to rain, and more rain), we tried to go to Asbury Park to the beach today. We redirected to Point Pleasant, only to find there was NO parking unless you wanted teen boys to park your car and keep the keys "safe" for $18. So, we ended up at Bellmar Beach, a little north of Point Pleasant where we found the most convenient of parking meter spots, right on the boardwalk entrance area. You gotta pay $7 for each adult for a "Beach Badge", so we got our Beach Badges and ran thru the sand until we could throw down the chairs and then immediately headed to the water on the colorful beach. You should have seen the umbrellas that went on as far as the eye could see, it was like oversized and random polka-dots in the sand.

And it was all so beautiful! and the water was perfect, and the waves were just the right tolerance and our little guy...swam like a fish! We're gonna have to get an underwater camera for the next time.

He's always been a water baby, since the very first time we got him we found that out. He loved his baths at 6 months old, would even lay back in them and "chill out" on his own. I would find my peaceful quiet time in the garden tub with hot hot bubble bath water, but if he found a way into the bedroom, then off came the clothes and he'd want to take a bath also!

Now he needs to learn how to tread water and to breathe while swimming, but he's got everything else down, and he's so proud of himself. Even in the very salty ocean water, he would put his head in the water and swim away. Today, he spent almost 90 minutes in the water, just swimming and jumping around, and swimming more and more. He was so excited to be there, it made the long trip to find the parking spot worth the wait.

When the waves were coming in, he'd look for the perfect moment and then dive in and let the wave push him in closer to shore and then he'd jump up and spit out the water and come back for more. As for us, Mike enjoyed the opportunity to swim in deeper water, and I had forgotten about how buoyant salt water can make you and every part of you. Let's just say that I may need a newer bathing suit, one that doesn't allow the girls to go on mini-vacations without permission!

Going home was a faster trip, since we didn't have to drive around looking for parking. Next time, we'll be leaving at the crack of dawn instead of around noon. We are fortunate Chris likes to travel, as he is observant and asks questions about what he sees along the way. Almost home, he stopped talking, which was our first clue that must have fallen asleep!

In the words of our dear buddy SpongeBob: It was "the best day ev-er!"
It was definitely a great day!

Abusive grandma in the park

We took Christopher to the neighborhood park yesterday so he could ride his bike for awhile and we could also play trakball. This park is large and beautiful, well kept and popular with the community. It takes up about one city block, with ancient trees sprinkled around and in the middle of the park, with a huge children's play structure at one end.


It also has the police sub-station located about a half block in on one side of the park, very convenient for safety. Unfortunately, we had to call the police on a woman yesterday, as we witnessed her beating her 3-ish grandson and was unable to put him into her car. It's always a tough call to know when to cross the line and make a call to the police, but this woman made it easy.

I first noticed them when Christopher and I were playing ball in the park, and she and the kid were exiting the area. The kid was having a screaming temper tantrum, obviously unhappy with the Grandma's decision to make him leave with her. He was screaming at his top volume, pointing at the park, and trying to run back to play. She pulled and dragged him, tried to carry him to her SUV that was waiting on the side of the park. It happened to be about 2 car lengths in front of our van, where Mike was still sitting and talking to a friend on the phone. All this time, the kid continued to scream and cry. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except we felt sorry for the woman for the bratty kid.

Then, I heard Mike out of the van and yelling at the woman that if she hit the kid one more time he was going to hit her. To which she yelled at him where he could kiss her. You get the idea. She went on to tell him to quit watching her...all the while she was trying unsuccessfully to put this kid in his car seat and he was still screaming and crying at the top of his lungs, flailing about and kicking and hitting, making it harder for her. We figure she was about in her 60's and seemed to be in good shape, so she should have had no problem getting this child into his seat, even with the difficult situation, after a few minutes. However, 15 minutes later, and several neighbors now standing around observing, the situation continued to escalate.

Then we saw her hitting the boy's head on the top of the door frame over and over again, as she tried to put him in his seat. Probably not intentionally, but it didn't matter. After the first time, if that was accidental, there was no excuse for any repeated times. You can put your hand on top of his head to keep from having it make contact. If he didn't have a headache from all the screaming and previous hitting, he surely had one now! I'm sorry, kids have tantrums, they must be dealt with, but this was ridiculous. Because the kid didn't stop screaming from the first and second round of hitting, he obviously must be used to that kind of punishment and it didn't change his behavior.

It finally looked like she had gotten him into his seat, as she closed up the door and got into her seat. We pulled up beside her and I was going to tell her to take a chill pill before she hurt someone, and of course she ignored us.

We decided to call the police when we saw that the kid was NOT in his seat, and yet she was positioned in and ready to leave. Perhaps she was just trying to cool off, but she had already beaten him and yanked him around and was over the limit of being rational. If she wasn't feeling guilty, she could have done any number of other things to calm him down instead of continuing the violent approach.

We gave the police her vehicle tag number, description, and location yet when they arrived a couple of minutes later they drove on past us all. She took this opportunity to drive off with the kid not buckled in. When the police rounded the block again, we told them she drove off right in front of them, and they said they were looking in the park for a woman with a screaming kid, not in a car. Hmmm.....problem with dispatch translation? The calls are all recorded, so they could easily go back and see how the female dispatcher did not pass on the relevant info. Will they do this, and fix it so it doesn't happen again in another call?

The verdict: they will put this info on file, in case it comes up again. Because the woman drove off, there is nothing they can do? They have her tag number, they could have looked her up. Chances are, if she lived in the area, she'd be just a block or two away. They could knock on her door and warn her about the repercussions of child abuse and the effects of foster care, should the child be taken from her for abuse. Instead, they "put it on file", how convenient and lazy.

One can only hope that this ignorant woman, and the parents of her grandchild, will step up to the plate and become GOOD parents and caretakers. A child that is so out of control for such a long time obviously has issues, and probably issues that stem from his home environment or lack thereof, but is one that does NOT deserve to have his head repeatedly banged up against a car.

Traveling Man

Someone recently listed the number of states they've been in or through, which made me think about how many Christopher has been to in his short life thus far, in order of visits. I hope he will eventually make it to all 50 (plus DC)!

1. California
2. Virginia
3. West Virginia
4. Maryland
5. Washington, DC
6. Arizona
7. New Mexico
8. Colorado
9. Texas
10. Oklahoma
11. Arkansas
12. Tennessee
13. North Carolina
14. Delaware
15. New Jersey
16. New York
17. Pennsylvania
18. Ohio
19. Indiana

Mike has quite a few more than that, I can't keep up with his world traveling from Navy days!
for me, I can only add these others to the list (29 down, 22 to go!):

Illinois
Kentucky
Missouri
Utah
Nevada
Kansas
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida
Hawaii

So, Chris still has all of these above, plus the following still to go:

Northeast:
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut

South:
Alabama
Mississippi
Lousiana

Central and Northwest:
Michigan
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming
Montana
Idaho
Oregon
Washington
Alaska

There's a fungus among us! and Drunken Bumble Bees, too!

when walking Maya this morning, Christopher and I happened upon some unusual nature sightings. first, the bumble bees! check out this tree, it's dropping little yellow blossoms everywhere

here are the blossoms on the ground, they just pile up!

now, all the dark spots....those are BUMBLE BEES! they are hovering about a half inch over the blossoms, then they dive back in. I think they are actually high from all the pollen!

some were even stepped on or run over, they just probably couldn't move fast enough


diving in for more...


and across the street: beautiful fungus that looked more like wild flowers or roses




and another one across the sidewalk, more of a yellow color:


even the simple, small toadstools were hanging out today:

Awesome Road Trip

It's been TEN years since I last visited my Grandmother in person. That alone is enough to make me want to cry, because it's not like I didn't try over the years to get out there. Seems that everytime I planned a trip, something happened. I even had to forfeit purchased airline tickets one time.

Anyhoo....come hell or high water (which, ironically, I think both came to me around this trip!), we were going to head out to Indiana to visit Grandma, and also get to see the rest of the relatives out there. Mike stayed behind to take care of the animals and to continue his job search, so I loaded up the van and headed out on a Friday with just Christopher and I. Ten days and 1,720 miles later, we returned to NJ, safe and sound. But, what an adventure! Here are some of the highlights and a few pictures.

The best traveling companion...he spent a little time watching movies, but mostly he "enjoyed the ride" and watched out the windows and listened to music.

We hit storms for over half the way out.

Drove thru several mountain tunnels.

found some backroads

spectacular sunsets


drove through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and finally...reached Indiana!


on the lookout for a farmer's stand, we found a "self-serve" on your honor stand
we got corn, zuchinni and cucumbers


and finally, found who we were looking for all these years!

and then others came home, so we got to spend a lot of time laughing and playing with them also!
Uncle Bruce with their dog Tessie, a mighty fine dog, and the best traveler, Chris

Grandma Nickless

Aunt Suzie, the best 2nd grade teacher ever!


Aunt Jan, fantastic nurse!


cousin Mia

also arrived in time for Chris to attend the vacation bible camp for a couple hours for 3 nights. he loved it!

most of the participants for the camp

beautiful cousins: Deena, Crystal & Shandi

Aunt Jan & Grandma

three generations, wish it were four...next time!

Uncle Danny & Chris, eating an excellent dinner!

Jan, Bruce, Grandma, Aunt Suzie, good times!

ahh, the prankster leaned forward!

with cousin Monty's new puppy

relief from the hot and humid summer
young cousins Seth, Sam, Cheyenne, and Chris

my favorite, the mis-matched flip flops

okay, this is a maple tree in the middle of my cousin's (parents) property. it is HUGE! and magnificant! I hope no one ever cuts it down.

it's so big, I couldn't get it all in
Aunt Jan, Jessie, Mia, Maddox, Chris, Shandi, Dawson
if Melanie and Grandma were here, it would be a 5-generation pic! (Hint, hint...)


Kris' girlfriend, cousins Melanie & her son Kris, Aunt Jan, Christopher

Aunt Jan's kitty: Spanky


and here is one of his favorite places to "observe" the home activities

got some rain while there, and one night there was an incredible thunder and lightning storm that woke me up around 4 am. then, I heard hail, which did actually leave some pings on my car. couldn't resist, and went outside in the pouring rain to take a pic. this one is bigger than a quarter. some were bigger than that!

it started to melt right away, but you get the idea

relaxing before bedtime at Aunt Jan & Uncle Danny's house

singing at Grandma's after Sabbath on Saturday. my aunt and cousins go there every Saturday, which is a beautiful thing. once they started to sing, I remembered I had my music player, and recorded a few of their songs. Chris asked me to play them over and over on the way home, did I mention they did a beautiful job!


me, Crystal, Jan, Hali, Shandi-mommy-to-be, Samantha
Chris, Grandma, Mia
we visited Grandma at the nursing home every day while we were out there. one of her neighbors just fell in love with the little guy and kept telling him how handsome and cute he was! love her smile!

Sam, Mia and Chris, coloring while the others were singing

on the way home!

got to stop and see my very first and wonderful roommate, Sherry and her family, both on the way out and then on the way back. that part was also fantastic!


on the way home, we were able to stop at Dad's for a visit
unfortunately, the batteries in the camera died and all we had was the camera on the cell phone. he took us to the Chocolate Factory in Hershey Park, and that was a lot of fun. Chris loved the animated tour, especially the sets of singing cows. if you go there, you gotta check out the factory.


home again (the white house in the background, the window upstairs is Chris' room)


there's going to be a big Nickless family reunion out in Indiana next July, and we plan to make it, so we'll be doing this trip again. but, this time, it will be WITH Mike! I was so glad to get to see friends and family, and meet new family, but I was also glad to get back to my hubby and critters. I don't know where our "home" is, except that it is always, always with him and Christopher, Maya and the little piggies.
It's good to be home!