Mel's Box of Chocolates

Eleven years ago today, on what some may remember as the hottest day on earth, I walked down a pier and in front of family, friends, {and strangers watching from the boats on the bay} promised for richer or poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and health and sealed it with an "I DO".   We exchanged the rings, mine a solid gold band and his a platinum ring with two gold stripes in the middle and were pronounced Mr & Mrs.   For 10 1/2 years those rings never came off.  Well except for the occasional cleaning, working on cars, or baking bread {rings + dough = sticky mess}.  In the winter hubby's would get loose as his fingers would shrink, but he would always realize it and find it right away.  But, when he started shrinking too the ring became even more loose, leading to more slipping off and a couple close calls of finding the ring.  I'm sure you can see where I'm going. This past February, his ring slipped off and was nowhere to b...

Today was gonna be the day.   The day I sat down and wrote some blog posts.  I have a notebook full of ideas, pictures to include, stories to tell.  I could probably make you smile or laugh, nothing to cry about though.   But, then I stepped outside. I smelled fresh cut lawn, heard the birds singing, felt the cool breeze blow on my skin and all my good blogging intentions flew out the window. So now I'm packing the picnic basket.  The kids and I are hopping on our bikes and going off to explore.  We'll have a picnic, maybe play a game of mini-golf, perhaps take a walk on the beach.  Wherever our bikes take us, we will go.   It's a gorgeous day outside and we can't let it go to waste, not even for blogging! SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

when the carwash man comes to tell you that he won't make any promises that he can get your car completely clean because "ma'am you have a beach in the back of your truck." Ummm. Yeah. So we do seem to bring quite a bit of sand home from the beach when we go.  But, what do you expect.  We live at the beach.  We like sand!  SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

Try to ignore the bug splattered windshield as I took these with my phone as we were driving to North Carolina!   SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

It started out simple enough. I just wanted a nice picture of Dave and I on the beach for the 4th of July. On the first snap, Popeye made an appearance. Then the children began encroaching on our space. So I decided to roll with the flow and turn our couple picture into a nice family picture on the beach. That's when it all broke loose. It started with Dave. Of course you can see that Dylan wasn't far behind with his rabbit ears. BOYS!! Then when the kiddos found out daddy was being silly, they had to get in on the action too. Dave was proud of himself and thought it was hilarious. You can see that I was NOT amused! {well maybe just a little} Then daddy made the announcement that it was now time to get serious.   Umm. Yeah. So I guess I was the only one who, you know, took his announcement SERIOUSLY!  {Look at my purty smile} Take million and two and you can see that Dyl has a hard time stopping the goofiness once it has began. Example #2 of Dyl...

I can't believe that it is the middle of July already! We have been busy here at the beach trying to fill the minutes of summer with fun.   In the 34 days since school let out... Zoe participated in her biggest dance recital yet   She also performed a dance and got to accompany Ms. Rehoboth Beach on stage during her evening wear competition for Miss Delaware.   Dylan earned his first tennis medal after playing his best matches ever.   The kids and I took a trip to North Carolina with grandpa where we ate watermelons and dove in the pool. We decided to participate in our own Deadliest Catch and have been spending many of Dave's days off on the boat crabbing.  We've gone fishing {You should see all of those big ones that got away!} on the boat. Took Max on his first surf fishing trip too {even bigger ones got away!} Of course we've hung out at the beach. eating our popcorn One night we took the Bethany Beach trolley into town, ...

Dylan is my computer, video game, lego playing boy and when it comes to sports he doesn't show that much interest.  That hasn't stopped us from searching for one he may enjoy though.  We've tried karate, soccer, swimming, and our latest is tennis.   Over the winter he attended a Quickstart Tennis clinic where the instruction involved using Nerf type balls to teach the tennis techniques and be able to make contact.  They follow pretty much the same tennis rules except for a shorter court and an easier scoring system.  Dylan really seemed to pick up on it easily and looked forward to tennis lessons each week. Then in the spring he was invited to play on a USTA quickstart team where he played doubles and singles matches.  He had a blast!  Here are some pictures of his team and the medal ceremony. So this summer he is attending a tennis camp for a week and then will start back on the league in the summer.  Of course Grandma Cindy is thr...

The other day my mom and I took the kiddos to see Toy Story 3.  I had heard great things about the movie and well, Toy Story was a Pixar fave of mine {love Mr. Potato Head and the T-Rex} so I was pretty excited to see it myself.  I wasn't disappointed either.  There were some hilarious one-liners and quite a few scenes that made me laugh aloud.  Definitely a fantastic family movie! But, really I'm not here to write a review. Rather I'm writing to share the interesting conversation I had with Dylan and Zoe that was brought about from the movie. First a little background info. Today is cleaning day. I thought why not take a lesson from Andy's mom so I asked the kids if while they were cleaning they wanted to sort their toys into trash, attic, and giveaway piles.  Of course they weren't having any of that.  Dylan's response was, "But mom we're not going to college...not yet anyways."  Now Zoe has been saying for quite awhile how she is alwa...

So I'm a little behind on sharing pictures from this month on the blog.  Since summer vacation began we've been running around like mad which has been awesome, but has definitely put a crimp on my blogging time.    I'm going way back with these pictures to the beginning of the month when Zoe had her dance recital.  This year was a big {and very looong if you ask her daddy or brother} recital as she participated in a ballet, jazz, and tap performance.  I'm always a proud momma when I watch her dance.  She has come so far in her 4 years of dancing.  She loves the stage!!   Every dancer deserves a bit ol' cup of cotton candy ice cream, right??!! I just noticed that these pictures are actually perfect timing as her costumes are very 4th of July-ish...yeah, I totally meant to do that! SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

Mama Kat is a favorite of mine and every week she hosts Writer's Workshop where she gives you some prompts, you choose one to write about, and then link up to share.  She has some terrific prompts and I frequently say how I'm going to participate this week, but then I never quite get there.  I even have some in my drafts that never made it to the blog {I'm not giving up on them though hopefully they will be making a published appearance soon}. This week though I'm doing it. I chose my prompt , wrote the draft, and I'm hitting publish. The prompt I chose: 10 Things That Put a Smile on My Face When I'm Not Happy {yes, I chose the list one...anybody can publish a list, right?}  My kids hugs!  Both of them show affection often and will surprise me with hugs, kisses, and cuddles. A motorcycle ride with my husband.  There is something so freeing riding on the back of a bike with your hair blowing in the wind. Sharing conversations over a delicious dinn...