"Mommy, It helps if you shake your leg!"

Ok... so that is not exactly what you expect to hear on a typical Sunday evening. But, that was Graham's advice to me as I attempted to play Guitar Hero with his Daddy and him on Sunday. The boys have had a great time with this new video game and it has become a great motivator for Graham to do the things he is supposed to do... because he knows he'll lose his 15 minutes of video time at night if his behavior is not what it should be.

Graham has practiced quite a few of the classic songs from the 80's by all the bands Zane and I remember hearing on the radio during our childhood. I'm just waiting to see the face of the next adult who he tells "I've been practicing 'Talk Dirty to Me' at home!" Can you see it now?!?!?

Here are a few pictures of the latest "Jam Session" at 151 HS Dr. Karis can't quite reach things on the guitar yet, so she gets to stand on the stage (aka the coffee table) and be Hannah Montana singing along with the band. So far, I'm just a roadie who has an occassional chance to appear with the band and "tune up" the guitar. Enjoy the pictures.... and remember- it does help if you shake your leg!!

Confluence.... Where Coffee and Live Collide

It is open!!!!!!!! Finally, after months of hard work at the Confluence building, the coffee house is now open. The volunteers worked hours painting, scraping, laying carpet, pulling wires, falling through the ceiling, laying tile, building cabinets/countertops, hauling trash, mowing, etc.... The names who contributed are many, but the glory belongs to God for the wonderful transformation that has occurred in this building.

Click here to see some "Before" pictures: http://blog.confluencecoffee.com/2008/06/before-pictures/

The photos below are from the Friends and Family Open House event last Thursday evening. It was wonderful fun to see lots of familiar faces that we've painted with and shared the excitement of the process with. The official opening was yesterday, Wednesday, and we made a trip out once again to enjoy the yummy treats and see some friends. Graham highly recommends the Superman icecream and the lemonade smoothies. My favorite is the Caramel Mocha Coffee Freezer- super awesome and if you ask nicely, they'll even take out all the calories for you. : ) Zane is a huge fan of the Cookies and Cream Freezer- basically a milkshake with a funny name. Karis is in love with the Strawberry Cheesecake icecream and the strawberry smoothies. There is cheesecake and a good selection of other sweet treats to choose from.

If you are out in Winston and have a hankering for some great coffee and a cool place to relax for a little while, stop in and see the folks at Confluence. The gas is soooooo much cheaper on that side of town that it is really worth a trip once a week just to fill up! The Sheetz had gas for $3.68 and the new Wal-Mart had it for $3.66... not finding it that cheap in K-ville these days.

Here are photos of the Friends and Family night last week. I think that you will see how much work and love has been poured into this space in hopes of making a wonderful location for people in the North Davidson community. May God be glorified in what has been and will be done here!

Everyone has a Twin...

Ever heard that? Ever experienced that? Well on our trip to the beach, we did.

Let me set the scene for you...

We are at the ferry station waiting in line for the next boat to pull up so we can roll on. We've walked around, visited the bathroom (which every potty-training child must do each time one is within 100 yards!) and were back in the van waiting for the boat. I'm fiddling with something in the front seat when Graham yells out, "Hey! What is Grammy doing here?!?" That would seem like a really odd question given that Zane's mom Linda lives in Virginia and we were in Southport, but she had been at the beach the day before visiting with Natalie, John and Nathan at Myrtle. I thought it would be a stretch, but not impossible, for her to be there. I looked up and about that time, Zane and my mom, Nana, said "Wow! That does look like her!"

It was eerie how much this lady favored Linda. She had on an outfit that I could see Linda wearing (I think she even has a similiar shirt), she had on matching earrings- Linda's collection of earrings would have any little princess drooling!, and her haircut was almost identical. She had on glasses like Linda and her coloring was similiar.

Here are a few of the many pictures we took as we acted like spys on the boat. Everyone else was taking pictures of the birds, other boats and the scenery- not us. We were clicking pictures of this random lady! For those of you who know Linda, I think that you'll see it right away. For those of you who haven't met Linda, we are looking for a picture with her glasses on so you can see how much alike they do look.

So, I guess it is true... we all have a twin out there somewhere. If I meet yours, I promise to put my spy skills to work and bring back the proof! If you meet mine, tell her "Hi!" and that I hope she is as blessed as I am!

Trip to the Aquarium

Our first two days at the beach were wonderful. Lots of sun and calm water. We let the kids play without worrying too much that they would drift off to Africa in a rip tide. We spent a lot of time on the beach those two days, and most of us needed a break from the sun. So, we drove into Southport and caught the ferry over to Ft. Fisher. I had done this with my students on our tour of the coast this March, but no one else in the Tuck family had been on the ferry before. We were lucky that we didn't have to wait too long for the ferry- sometimes you have to wait two or three trips worth of cars in order to get a place. The ride was wonderful and the kids loved being out on the water for a little while.

We grabbed a quick lunch once back on land and then headed to the aquarium. (If you ask Karis about this trip, she will refer to this as our visit to "Nemo".) The highlight of the visit was the diver talk in the two story tank. They have a scuba diver in the tank who has a mic in his mask. He does a show talking about the fish in the tank while they are swimming around with him... including 3 types of sharks. We had an uneventful return trip- had to sit inside this time because it was just too hot out on the deck. We got home in time for everyone to take a late nap and all was good. : )

Beach Week 2008

We have returned from paradise... or at least as close as we can get this side of the Pearly Gates! The Flynt girls and our families all spent a glorious week at Oak Island and had a fantastic time. This was our first full week together. We've done shorter trips before, but not a full week of "togetherness". It was awesome to see all 5 of the kids play together and to spend some time with Meredith and Micah. We live only three streets away, but we don't see nearly enough of each other.

Our week began last Saturday as we loaded up everything you could possibly need for a week at the beach and then some into Nana's van and headed southeast. We had to make a stop at Radio Shack for batteries, at Nana's house for a water bottle and then a short trip back home to get my cell phone, which actually ended up being on silent in the bottom of my purse! Ever have one of those crazy starts to a vacation that you begin to think if you will ever actually leave town??? Our trip was long- as you can imagine that traveling with 2 kids for 4 hours would be, but we survived. I even got to put my Girl Scout/Social Studies teacher skills to work as I had to read the atlas to get us around several traffic tie ups along the way. We pulled into Lowes Food at 4:30 to pick up our Lowes Food to Go order (If you haven't tried this luxury, it is worth it for those special times when you either don't have the time to shop for yourself or the sanity to do it with small children in tow.) Did I mention that we left at 10:25 Saturday morning? BUT, we made it in one piece.

I'll post things about our trip as the week goes on, but I did upload the slideshow of the highlight pictures. I'll try to get to other highlights soon!

Off to do my homework... my workshop for school assigned 50+ pages of reading for tonight to be discussed tomorrow. There are only 7 people total in the class, so I guess it would be pretty obvious if I don't at least skim pretty well.

Zane's Random Thoughts

Got a few thoughts bouncing around inside my head and I wanted to get them out. So, here they are.

1. Why do some people have to be so negative about things all the time?

I have been conducting training classes at work all week. We've got between 25 and 30 people doing the same job, but no one does it the same way. There's no standard procedure for that individual tasks that they do on a weekly basis. That's not very good when you're trying to train a new employee, or if you have someone who changes teams (which we had this week).

So, my department has spent the better part of the last 6-8 weeks meeting with representatives from each team to find out how people on their team do things and getting suggestions on how to make things better, run smoother, or save time. We took their suggestions and drew up what we called "Best Practices" and we unveiled them to the staff this week.

My class on Monday was great. They had a few questions, but nothing that I couldn't answer (or find out the answer). But my classes on Tuesday and Wednesday couldn't have been more opposite. The negativity and resistance to any kind of change in procedure or process was blatantly obvious. If it wasn't smirks and dirty looks glaring back at me, it was questions being asked with a tone of voice that didn't hide the fact that they weren't happy. After going over one of the biggest changes (which I thought would have received the most positive feedback), I was asked, "You mean now I have to walk from this room to that room?" Ummmm, yeah. You have to walk your lazy butt from one room to another to make copies. Is that too much to ask? Maybe it was.

I realize that some people don't handle change that well. I'm one of them. I don't like change. Not to the point that I fear it, but I do like my routines a lot. But I also know that when things change (especially at my job), I don't push back and resist. I suck it up and do it because it's my job and that's what I need to do. I also don't backbite and badmouth the person who asked me to make the change. But that's me. Maybe I'm just a different breed of cat.

2. Journey - Can You Tell the Difference?

I bought my first CD in who-knows-how long the other night. It's the new CD by Journey, called "Revolution". It's a 3-disc set with one disc of new material, one disc of their classic hits re-recorded with their new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, and a third disc - a DVD of Journey in concert. I'll be honest - I haven't even listened to the new stuff yet. I put in the "classics" CD and was amazed. If I didn't know that Journey had a new lead singer, I'd have sworn that it was Steve Perry singing. This new guy sounds just like him! The songs sound great. They're touring this summer with Heart and Cheap Trick. Might be a good show.

3. Guitar Hero or Rock Band?

Graham and I got a PS2 for Christmas and we both have enjoyed playing it. He loves to play games like Meet the Robinsons, Larry-Boy and the Case of the Bad Apple, and The Incredibles. Mostly, I love the sports games. I took my Virginia Tech Hokies through the college football season undefeated and beat those couch-burners from West Virginia in the national championship. I've got the Pittsburgh Steelers at 17-0 and one game away from the Super Bowl (Roethlisberger threw for 60 TD's - including being injured for the last 2.5 games of the regular season. And Heath Miller catches EVERYTHING thrown his way!)

But I want one of the music games, and I can't decide whether to get Guitar Hero or Rock Band. So, any input on which one is better is appreciated. I looked at the songlists for the new GH game featuring Aerosmith and for RB. Both have good songlists, but I think Rock Band has more songs that I know/like. I'd love to see an 80's version like GH did. So, which one should I get?

That's all the randomness for tonight. Peace out, homeys!!!

"Does Katie Live on the Moon?"

Today, the kids and I made the journey to Apex to visit my college roomie Katie. The trip was a little longer than I had anticipated and the kids of course kept asking, "Are we there yet???" Finally, Graham said, "Mom, does Katie live on the moon??" We finally arrived to the lovely outskirts of Apex and unloaded the family truckster for our visit.

I haven't seen Katie since her precious little ones were born last August. Many of you who visit the BLOG will remember praying for Jacob and Clay when they were born VERY early last August. Jacob was only here with Clay for a few days before he returned to his angel position in heaven, but Clay has been working hard on gaining weight and learning how to do all the baby things since then.

We had a great visit and it was wonderful to see Clay so happy and alert. I wore a red shirt with a crazy print on it (imagine that! Me with a crazy print on my shirt?!) and he couldn't focus on much else when I was holding him. I think that for our next visit, I should wear a solid color! Katie made a delicious lunch for us. Graham hasn't stopped raving about the grilled cheese that "Granny Sandy" (Katie's mom) made for him. He told me tonight at dinner that I needed to get her recipe! Karis had a "bread samich"- you know bread with bread on it. : ) The three Meredith girls had chicken pie (homemade, of course!), deviled eggs, cucumbers with dill sauce and some delicious bamboo pickles. I'm in love with those. I'll post something about them later- I need to do some more research on where to find them. You know I had the wheels turning in my mind about my little bamboo grove in our Japanese garden at school... wonder if anyone would miss a few stalks now and then?

After lunch, we chatted and visited Clay's room. Katie and Michael had installed a screen door on the nursery doorway. What an excellent idea to keep the cat out and the room "open"!! I loved it. It gave the room a cool atmosphere... almost like you had stepped out onto a screened-in porch.

We had some awesome brownies with homemade cream cheese icing for desert, and Graham ate two of them. When Katie gave him the second one, he said "I wish you were my mom!" I chuckled a good one at that. I guess God-mothers are allowed to spoil their special ones from time to time. : )

We stayed until Karis was entering the "NO" phase - the one that says "it is really past my naptime and if you don't get me to my lovey and boppy soon, melt down is about to begin." As we were packing up to leave, we turned off the tv and I was APPALLED to see tiny handprints all over Michael's HUGE tv screen. Our tv is in the cubby above the fireplace and the kids can't reach it. Having one on their level is a new thing. Karis took full advantage of that when I wasn't looking. I'm sure glad we had a great visit because I don't think we'll ever be able to return!!! Michael, if you are reading this, I am SOOOOOOO sorry!!! Feel free to bring Clay over anytime for him to drool in my laptop or slobber on our digital camera!

We had a wonderful time and as we got in the car, Graham said to Katie, "When I grow up, I'm going to hire you to be my personal chef." (Remember that he only had a PB&J, a grilled cheese and 2 brownies... imagine what he would do if he ate her "REAL" cooking?!?!)

Thank goodness the kids fell asleep on the way home. I had to navigate back through Raleigh/RTP traffic at 4:45 and I wasn't looking forward to fighting four lanes of traffic AND two cranky kids. Thank you Lord. I recognize your hand in my day and I am thrilled with you help!!! : )

It was an excellent day and reminded me that we need to make more time for visits like that rather than filling our days with so many other things. My laundry was still here waiting for me when I got home... and I would have missed out on a wonderful opportunity to catch up with a friend if I had stayed home to finish it.

I leave you with a glimpse of your day... Clay wasn't in our group shot because he had already gone to bed for his nap. The one of him is from about a week ago, so you still get to see his adorable smile. Hope the rest of you had a wonderful day! Sleep well!

More Than Meets The Eye!

Tonight, Graham and Karis were watching an episode of "Blue's Clues" on Noggin tonight about dressing up. In the last year or so, Graham had gotten away from watching shows like this to watching shows on Disney Channel or shows about superheroes. But, lately, as Karis has begun watching these shows, he will watch them with her.

So, tonight, as they are watching this, he has this idea to dress up like they are on the show. He goes upstairs and soon comes back down with his bathing suit on and matching flip-flops. He says he's dressed like a guy ready for the beach!! Then he heads back upstairs, changes into another costume and asks me to make a mask for him (out of a cut-off leg from an old pair of sweatpants, no less). So, I cut out some eyeholes and a hole for his nose, and he puts on the "mask". I asked him who he was.....well, let's let Graham tell you who he is.



He had to make sure that he had the right color top and bottom (red and blue) to be Optimus Prime. Too funny!!

Big Girl Bed

We have put it off long enough... Karis has finally moved into the "big girl" bed! We spent most of the morning yesterday and about 2 hours this afternoon reorganizing Karis' room from the drawers to the furniture. We built up the excitement about her getting a big girl bed in hopes that she would be comfortable with the removal of her "bars".

Zane found that it was MUCH easier to convert the crib to a toddler bed than it was to change it from Graham's toddler bed back into a crib when Karis came along. I had braced myself for an afternoon of calming his nerves and dealing with frustration, but we were blessed with a quick and easy change over! Thank the LORD!!!! : )

Once things were in place, Karis of course needed to try it out. She invited Graham to join her and he read a few books to her.

Actually going to bed when the time arrived, was a little different. She DID NOT want to sleep in that bed. Daddy came up to chat for a while to help ease the stress. Karis and I ended up rocking for a while before she was ready to go to sleep, but she is quiet so far. We hope that she will stay happy through the night. More on that tomorrow!!!

The DASH

We have been working on our BLOG for about the past week off and on once the kids went to sleep. We toyed with a variety of different templates (several of those were a BEAR to deal with) and finally got things just about how we wanted them. No matter what we do, we can't get rid of that DANG DASH up there. Hours have been spent working within the blogger template as well as scouring the html/css code to see if we can get rid of it. NO LUCK!

Last night as I was rebuilding the site (we deleted it and started over from scratch in an effort to ditch the dash!), I recalled a sermon Joey gave about a month ago about making the DASH between our date of birth and date of death count. I have received the email story about the DASH several times in addition to hearing the sermon on it, and I began to think that perhaps that DASH was there on our page to remind us of that message. No matter what we did, we couldn't get rid of it. It was there to stay.

Each time I pull up the page to look over what we have done, that DASH is staring me in the face. Each time someone visits our page, that DASH will be there looking at them as well. When I look at the page now, I am reminded that each day I have choices to make on how I live my life. When they engrave my headstone at the end of my life, I want there to be a giant, fat, crazy-big DASH on there so that all who pass it will know that I squeezed every last drop out of life and that I did my best to love others with the grace and love that God has shown to me.

So what is the DASH for on our page?? Trust me, it wasn't designed by us to be there, but I think that perhaps God had a plan for it's stubborn presence in our title. After loathing it for almost a week now, I have come to embrace it and use it to remind me of my choices in life.

We hope that you will see that DASH and think of how you are filling that space between your birth and death. We hope that each of you are living your lives to the fullest and that most importantly, your life is filled with the love of God.

Who knows, we may start at trend of DASHes in blog titles ... I doubt it, but since we can't get rid of ours, we've decided to love it!

Keepin' Up With the Jones...

I'm not usually one who is concerned with what everyone else is doing... usually because I know I don't have the means to keep up with the latest and newest and bestest (as Graham used to say). But lately, lots of our friends have joined the blog community and we have enjoyed keeping up with them through this online community. As we make the trekk to Virginia less and less with the kids getting older and more involved on the weekends, this will also give them a window into the NC Tuck's lives. As many of you know, I am a huge fan of scrapbooking and this may be the scrapbooking of the 21st Century- my kids may one day read back through the archives of our website to remember things about their childhood. Who knows???!!!

So, I guess that we are joining the "Jones" in the BLOG world. I hope that those of you who stop by will find some humor in the crazy lives we lead. May our craziness bless you in some way each time you peep in!