Margit's profilethe MizesPhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
October 11 We're still alive and not divorced!Some of the people working for us on the house have asked me how Pat and I manage all this and still be together and very much in love. One said that with half of the time we now spent with people working his wife would have left him.
Well I don't know about that couple, but we're still hanging in there and the work is finally in a new stage. The kitchen now has a new wooden ceiling which will be white-washed shortly.
There were some problems with the airducts upstairs, but fortunately we have people working who really think with us and "out of the box" so that problem was solved to everyones satisfaction. The hard pine-wood flooring looks great in the masterbedroom and bathrooms. It looked so nice that Pat ordered more for the guestbedroom and the upstairs landing. The same flooring will go in the kitchen and utility room. And yes, ofcourse, sometime next year the whole downstairs will be done as well!! After that we will really stop!!! Otherwise Pat might be living in the house on his own!!
Yerik is doing great and. as we all thought, Pat is doing great as Dad. They really bonded. I spent a lot less time with Yerik than I would like to, but when I'm off, he's at school and I work 4nights out of the 7. Dinner time is real Dad-Son time and apparently they have some great conversations and try to better the world together.
Ever heard of Ultimate Frisbee? Well I hadn't, but I sure do now!! Yerik is in Jordan High's team. They practice 3x a week and have games/tournaments on weekends. They even won from Chapel Hill High, a school from which they had never won before.Yerik also plays "pickup games" at Forest Hill Park, just down the road, and there he meets all sort of people amongst them quite some Duke students and even faculty. He enjoys interacting with different people and these games provide a great opportunity for that.
His first reportcards were great! He had all A's and 2B's! This taking into account that he had to process the whole American way of doing things, new classes, new school system, new kids etc, but he did it and Pat and I are very proud of him.
Pat wanted to do a small roadtrip as soon as the weather cooled of a bit and the date was set for Oct. 6 with a temperature of mid 80's it was a lot better than the mid 90's we had had for most of the previous three months. Destination...Wilmington!!
Yerik had never seen a sea/ocean in his life! Pat and I were both raised near the sea (North Sea and Mediterranean for me) and ocean (Atlantic Ocean for Pat). The two of them had put a whole program together, so when I cam home that Saturday morning at 05.15 I woke them up after having made coffee. We left before 7 o'clock with me crashing in the back, I didn't wake up until we arrived at Wilmington in a Hardee's parking lot!
After a typical American breakfast we went to the Aquarium, another thing Yerik had never seen. He loved it, but I think the Ocean was even better. He didn't swim, but did get his feet wet! From there we went to see the USS North Carolina, a battleship, now museum, anchored in Wilmington. Having lived in Amsterdam and Barcelona I had seen and been on too many battleships in my life for another one, so I bailed out. Guess what I did?
The ones who answer "shopping" don't know me and the life I currently have, the answer is... I crashed once again on the backseat and slept for another two hours!! I woke up when I heard the car door open. It was great, I was happy and the men were happy! Yerik, ofcourse, had never been on a battleship either and, I think, was very impressed by it and enjoyed every minute of the two hours he spent there.
From there we went to see UNCW ( University of North Carolina in Wilmington). Unfortunately it appeared to be Fall Break and even the student center was deserted, but Yerik got an idea of what the campus was like. To get there it took us an hour, but for all who know Pat that will not surprise them! And guys you know what? I kept my mouth shut and just took in the scenery of the streets we passed and passed again. Just by the time I felt I really started to get a bond with a huge metal framed mermaid that we had passed for the 3rd time Pat found his way and we finally ended up on campus.
At four pm we decided it was time to go back to Durham and set the dogs free! Yerik slept most of the way and by the time we got near our exit on the Durham Freeway Pat and I had decided to top the day off with dinner at Tyler's at the American Tobacco Campus.
We were all tired when we came home and one after another trodded off to bed after a wonderful day.
Pat will start planning his next road trip for the beginning of November when he and Yerik will go to Washington DC for Veterans Day weekend. Unfortunately I have to work all of those days, but it's a good opporunity for Yerik to go to the nation's capital. Knowing Pat, he will be stuffed with history and art!
This weekend they will go to the State Capital, Raleigh, for the State Fair. They will leave early Sunday morning, so they'll be back for an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament Yerik has at 3pm. He will have to play three games! Wonder where I'll be? Right, in bed asleep in the morning and working at night! Someone has to keep watch over Durham!!
So, I think with this everyone is up to date again with what is going on in the Mizes household. Also check out the new photos of the house and roadtrip.
Margit TrackbacksThe trackback URL for this entry is: http://themizes.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C7320C0F536DC36E!745.trak Weblogs that reference this entry
|
|
|
