Egg drop....soup

Today was quite the eventful day in the Stoeber household. Addy and I have a little tradition of going to The Coach House every week or two for breakfast. Addy is a big fan of grits, bacon, and eggs. Today though, we ate grits and egg at home, and it was quite tasty. We would have had bacon too, but our bacon looked a little old. Addy decided to put some accessories on afterwards.

Oh...and I braided Kristi's hair for her this morning...a talent that I bet not many realize I have.

After that it was off to Heritage Park for a short time on the playground because had said several times over the course of breakfast..."I need to go to the park." Everything is a need with her, not a want - a need.

We ate lunch and tried to get her to take an early nap so that we could go to The Egg Drop in Mauldin. The nap didn't happen, which always spells trouble for later, but we went ahead and headed out to meet MiMi and Poppop for the event. It was packed. When you advertise eggs falling from helicopters I suppose you are sure to get a crowd. Addy had a blast. The afternoon was filled with face painting, candy, bounce houses, a helicopter, music, hot dogs, and funnel cakes. I've never seen Addy eat so much terrible food at once...really I've never seen her eat that much food regardless. The only thing the afternoon was missing was easter eggs. Weird I know, but there was such a mass of people that by the time we could make our way into the field when they opened it up there was nothing left. Most of the people there had the same experience and there were crying kids everywhere. Thankfully Addy isn't familiar with egg hunts, so she had no expectations. We did manage to get an egg or two for Addy from some older kids who had buckets full when they really shouldn't have been on the little kid field.

In this picture Addy is trying to figure out why Mom has bunny ears up behind my head...not telling you how old she is.

It was a fun day, and we finished off with Henry's BBQ. By this time Addy was struggling, so we made it quick, but it was still an all out scream fest meltdown on the ride home. It was an early bedtime tonight.

The Swamp Rabbit is Made for Long Runs...

Today was one of the nicest days weather-wise that I can ever remember. Beautiful sky with cool weather and an even cooler breeze. I decided to celebrate by doing my run on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. When I was in nursing school I used to do most of my running here, as it is easily accessed right next to Greenville Tech. I now mainly run in Simpsonville, so the SRT is like a special treat. I originally planned to only go 7-8 miles, but I decided to run all the way to where the City Lights Fellowship property is. City Lights is a church that will be launched by many from Southside Fellowship, mainly the Resonate community - which is the college/career group that I have played drums for on several occasions. I knew that some of the Resonate staff were already working at the property, so I stopped in, and sure enough a few people were there and I got a quick tour of the place. It is an early 1900's textile mill, and while it needs an immense amount of cleanup and work in general, it is a very cool location and building. It is right across the road from The Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery for those of you familiar with the SRT.

Tonight was Father/Daughter date night at Chik-fil-A. I think my original response to Kristi mentioning it was something like..."I don't really need an event planned by someone else to spend time with my daughter." But, my dad wanted to go, and it seemed like fun, so I tagged along. Addy of course loves Chik-fil-A, and I thought the promotion was a great community idea for Chik-fil-A. They provided conversation starting questions, tableside service, a booklet of future date/conversation ideas, and dessert.

Originally I was going to take Addy to Cleveland Park afterwards, but given the choice between the park and Poppop's house, she decided she'd rather go to Poppop's house. The main attraction is of course - the swing. 

Addy is also always concerned  with seeing Molly whenever we visit Mimi and Poppop's house.

In other news, Kristi took a pretty funny video of Addy singing the other day. Like the description says, she loves to sing, but she usually gets stuck on a line or two.

Lazy Friday

I think we were all tired today after the past few nights of lots of activity. The weather also wasn't that nice, but we went downtown to Cleveland Park for a little while and then took a turn around the Greenville Zoo. We go there alot because my sister buys us a Zoo membership for Addy, but we always have a good time. My favorite animal is the big black pig...he's so gross, but he's so happy. Afterwards I had a good 3 hour nap...trying of course to gear up for a weekend of night shift.

Spring is definitely here...

Today was a beautiful day...warm but cloudy with a breeze. You can't ask for much more than that. After a morning run and lunch, Lucy and I took a quick trip to Heritage Park to walk around. The park is literally in my backyard, and while dogs aren't allowed in the actual park (which is so dumb), there are some big fields out front she can run around in.

Afterwards I came home and begrudgingly started on some yard work. I've already sprayed the weeds so all I had to do today was plant some flowers we picked out for around the mailbox and a few for the back yard perennial garden. The purple Lantana was a winner for the mailbox this year.

One of my favorite parts of spring is seeing the trees, flowers, and bushes we've already planted come back to life. The Crape Myrtle in the front is perhaps our prettiest tree each year. It is a Hopi Crape Myrtle...so technically it's more like a shrub, but I trim it so it looks like a tree.

I ended the evening by picking up Addy and heading home to cook for my mom and dad. Kristi had Bible study, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to have them over. Addy and I had a good time playing outside while the rice was boiling. Tonight Addy and I were talking about being happy, and I told her that sometimes it's OK to not feel happy, but at those times you still have to be joyful and content. She asked; "But why Daddy?" That was a really hard answer to communicate to a 2 year old. I think I mumbled something about God's love and His many blessings. I'll have to work on my answers to complicated kid questions I guess.

Mimi and Poppop came over and we all had a good time eating Honey Cayenne Chicken, broccoli, and fried rice. We even finished off the evening with some ice cream. After some time playing, it was time for everyone to call it a night...if only every night was this relaxing.

Vale of the Cross

This weekend I went to visit my sister in Valle Crucis, NC. This is right next to Boone, and is one of my favorite places to go. Going to her house is kind of like vacation. Not only is their house in a beautiful location, it is back off of the road in the woods and they have a hot tub. Kristi went to a women's conference, and Karen wanted to watch Addy...so off I went. This first picture was taken out the front door of my sister's house with my Sigma Lens.

Lucy came along for the trip...she gets a little nervous about the cats at my sister's house, but she enjoys it for the most part...especially the hiking. Friday I just ate dinner with Jenny, Pat, and their friend Brad. I guess I should have taken a picture, but I never got the camera out. Saturday they actually left for Greenville and Lucy and I drove up to Sloan Mountain, TN (or right next to it) and hiked a few balds at Carver's Gap. I'm not sure how many miles we went, but I would guess around 5 total. Lucy's legs are short so she gets tired climbing over large boulders. All of these pictures were taken with my Sigma Lens.

This next picture is probably the most epic of Lucy I have ever taken...and probably one of my favorite pictures that I have ever seen.

Since Lucy got pretty worn out, I decided to take her home and go out by myself for the afternoon. On our way back I stopped at a restaurant I had picked out that looked like a place for locals. The BBQ was delicious, and there were some very mountain looking folks inside.

I drove up to a trail off of the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike in the afternoon. It wasn't that great of a trail, and it wasn't much of a hike, but it was still nice to walk around - even though I had to dodge a good bit of horse poop from all the horseback riders.

That night I went to visit some good friends who live in Blowing Rock, a few miles away. Caleb and I have been friends for several years, and he holds the distinct honor of having put the largest dent I have in my acoustic guitar with a gobstopper...you'd have to ask me in person how that happened. The following pictures are all from my Canon 50mm.

I finished up the last morning by heading out to the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the sunrise. My pictures didn't turn out that well, but it was really cold so I wasn't very motivated.

What better way to follow up than by eating here?

I made the mistake of eating at a table that I guess locals usually eat at, so some local old mountain guy came and sat with me. He said he'd been eating at that table every morning for the past 7 years. He was very nice and told me if I ever wanted to move up there he knows of land that is going up for sale...I told him I know where to find him.

All in all it was a great weekend...very relaxing and I had alot of time to think about my life. I told Kristi I just don't really enjoy typical things like shopping and movies, so I think getting out of suburbia is good for me. Who knows, maybe we will move there one day.

Here's a few more pictures of stuff at my sister's house in closing...

I've been so productive I might collapse...

It's amazing what you can get accomplished when you are up at 3AM. I usually try to go back to sleep for 30-45 minutes when I wake up that early, but after that I just give up and start doing things. Today I got a 9 mile run in, ran errands, did lots of homework, mowed the lawn, trimmed bushes, and pulled weeds. After that Lucy and I went to Lake Conestee Nature Park in Mauldin and walked around for a while.

 

It was a little hot for Lucy, and I think she is a little out of shape, so it was slow moving at times. On the way to and from the park, there is a few farms with livestock, so I took time to stop and take some pictures. 

 Once we got back home it was time to cook for the night. Addy was terrible tonight because she didn't nap today, but we did have a good time running around outside while Kristi continued pulling weeds where I had left off. Even Oliver got in on the action and came outside for a little bit. He typically isn't allowed outside. He used to go in the back yard whenever he wanted, but then there was an incident where he jumped the fence and didn't come back for a while...so now we don't really let him out. I just can't stand the thought of losing a pet...

I live for my days off...

After a long, long weekend of work I'm back into a few days of regular schedule. I've had worse weekends at the hospital, but I've also had better. I think I am starting to finally feel normal again, and I started weaning myself off of Delsym today. Kristi thinks I should stay on it so I don't keep her awake all night coughing, but I think I'm over most of it now.

Tonight my in-laws took me to Miyabi's, which is my favorite. Technically it was for my birthday since I was pretty busy with work on my real birthday weekend. Yes, the low-light picture was hand held. Out of 7-8 of them it's one of the few I held still enough to not be blurry. I had mynifty-fifty as wide open as I could.

Poor Addy...

Addy had some friends visit today, which is always fun for her. I also love how every now and then she wants to come sit on my lap and I have to tell her to go play with her friends...it makes me feel very important. Her rash has just gotten worse but hopefully after today it will start getting better. It really is quite pitiful, but she stays pretty cheerful most of the time.

I'm always behind on school work...

Today was quite a busy day, which means I am way behind on school work. First off, Addy has a pretty bad rash from an antibiotic she's been on. We're trying to play it off like it's kind of cool to have spots all over you, but I think she's starting to think it's not really all that cool.

I had lunch with a good friend and then had to drive to Easley to do a few things at Baptist Easley Hospital. I took my camera and took back roads home hoping to find some horses or something to photograph, but really the only good photo I got was through the front windshield while I was driving.

After that I met my dad at home to discuss and measure out possibilities for play sets in the back yard...our back yard isn't very level so it doesn't lend itself to play sets. By the time all that was over it was pretty much time to cook, eat, and put Addy to bed.

Right now I'm just wishing it weren't so hard for me to fall asleep all the time. There's no chance of sleeping in tomorrow, but maybe I can grab a nap before I have to go to work.

There's only so much time...

The first night off is always a rough one. I woke up a little earlier than I usually would today so that I'll hopefully sleep well tonight. I was in charge of Addy tonight because Kristi has Bible Study, so I tried to think of something fun and free to do...and it hit me that none of us have been to the dog park in a long time. Sure, it's a long drive downtown, but Lucy needs the exercise and Addy loves puppy dogs with all of her heart. Needless to say we had an absolute blast...Addy especially. We also had the playground all to ourselves afterwards, which was fun because Lucy would play on the equipment with Addy...I never did get her to go down the slide though.

Today I had one of those moments where I saw something clearly that I don't like about myself. I have had times like this before in high school, or college, or most recently probably when I moved back from Columbia. I think now I feel like I have been defined by working night shifts the past few months. Sure it makes me feel crappy alot of the time, but I've let it dig into my personality, my running, my diet, my free time...pretty much everything. I do not want to be defined by night shift. I may work nights for several more years, but I can't let the physical toll dictate what type of person I am. I think this is what I have been trying to work out of subconsciously by running more, taking Lucy for more walks, and doing fun things with Addy. I was thinking about what I used to do during school while I waited tables. I think that no matter how busy I was, I always made time for exercise, usually ate a healthy diet, I always found fun things to do with the family and with Lucy, and I would find nights that I could cook really unique, delicious food with something good to drink. I am going to try to get back to these habits, because no matter how bad I feel from staying up all night, I can't let those feelings steal the small joys that I have enjoyed in my life the past few years. We'll see how it goes!