Smells Like Popsicles

Italy 2022

My dad wanted to take Mallory on a big trip this year and because she happened to be eating pasta when he called and asked her about where she wanted to go, Italy it was. Here is the story, as told by my dad. Enjoy.

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Mallory, Stella, and I (Mike) were delivered to the airport by Stella’s mother, Tansy, in her fancy Land Rover. (My first time ever in a Rover!)

The flight to JFK Airport took about two-and-a-half hours. Thanks to Mallory, grampa didn’t lead the group to the wrong gate. Mal figured out we had …

Carson, Mallory

“Those” Questions

I still call home almost every morning before the kids leave for school. Partly to make sure Rick hasn’t overslept and not gotten them up, but mostly to wish them all a good day and remind them of what is going on after school that day.

Mallory, who is seven weeks deep in her French class, always answers the phone with a perfect “Bonjour! Comment ça va?”, and I always have to dig waaaaaaay back to high school French to remember “Tres bien, et tu?”. Sometimes I slip and say “bueno” and get scolded for responding in Spanish when we …

Carson, grandpa, Mallory, travel

Grandpa Time

We are up north with my dad for a week – boating, paddleboarding, fishing, and euchreing the days away. Carson has become obsessed with making lanyards, and Mallory has decided that baiting a fishing hook and taking off the fish she catches isn’t very gross (but please stay away from me with that stuff!).

The weather has been OUT.STANDING this week. The forecasts warned of rain the middle of the week but the closest we got was a couple rumbles of thunder yesterday afternoon but it never actually rained.

Carson’s hair is getting that late-summer-whiteness, and Mallory seems to still be growing …

Carson

Conversations with Carson ~ April 2018

Carson: People should go to college to get more skill so they can go pro.
Mom: But Carson – what should people do if they aren’t playing a sport, should they still go to college?
C: Yeah but then you can’t go pro like in like science.
Mom: Yes they can – it’s called a job.
C: Oh, so are you a pro?
———-
C: What do you even do in college?
Mom: Study. Learn stuff
C: Why do you even need to learn stuff. Learning and football don’t go together.
————-
C: Mom get in bed. Remember how we always look at amazon? I know what we can buy.
—————
From …

Mallory, mcb

Mallory – February 2018

11. My baby turned 11 in November.
Mallory is halfway through 6th grade. We just got her first semester grades. Most of them were pretty good – with the exception of one class.
A in gym
A in spanish
A in choir
A in media
A in math (which she claims is her least favorite subject)
A- in English
B+ in Ancient Civilizations
C+ in science
Grades aside – it’s been sort of a rough year for her – her class this year is doing a personalized learning program and it’s required a lot of her, and us. The kids are totally responsible for keeping up on their assignments and …

Uncategorized

1,564

1,564. That’s how many posts are on this blog. I’m guessing about 1,550 of them are from 2006-2012, and then nothing the past five-ish years. My February 1 goal is to post here at least once a week.
I’m home today because Carson had a doctor’s appointment today so I just took the whole day off. I’m comfy on the couch with the dogs snoozing at my feet and I’ve played around on here for all morning.
So I’m going to work on posts 1565 and 1566 to give an update on each kid.
Hold please.

Mallory

things you find on your phone

When you have a few minutes and you start going through the photo gallery on your phone and find gems like this…priceless.
This will go in the “Save for June of 2024” album.

Carson

Telling Time

Back when Rick was all football all the time (pretty sure I haven’t mentioned here that Rick isn’t doing anything with football anymore – just softball, baseball & field hockey, but that’s a story for another day), he used to tell time in the fall by who our opponent was that week. I remember being at open house for Mallory’s class one year and needing to pick a conference slot. We were looking at the dates & times and Rick asked when it was and I said the week before Thanksgiving. He responded “When is that? Wait, that’s Ohio State …

Mallory

You had one job

Mallory, oh Mallory! You can’t just smile for a picture.
(granted these were just test shots but COME ON!)

family, grandpa, Mallory

And then the summer was over

Here I sit on my deck, under my infrared heater and cafe lights, with Jimmy Buffett softly playing in the background and the sound of the high school football game in the distance. Rick & Carson are at the game, Mallory is still at camp (two more sleeps!) and I am enjoying a brief “silent retreat” :-)
We had a crazy busy summer (and spring!) full of baseball and softball. I counted up the games – 123 games played by the kids on their combined six teams (two travel, two spring Little League, one summer Little League and one summer All-Star) …

All About Mallory & Carson