Tag: summer fun

Good Vibrations Gratitude Friday #25

Published on by kerrymckimLeave a comment

Today is Friday! You survived the week!

Do you know what this means?  It’s time for some Good Vibrations Gratitude!

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These are the 5 things I am grateful for this week-

  1. A Day at the Farm

    Last Saturday my daughter and I spent the day at a nearby farm in the Berkshires.  It was lots of fun and I like to support area farmers.

  2. Running Water

    On Sunday night I went to give my daughter a bath and there was no water.  I check the internet and there were no posts by the town.  I went outside and my neighbors were in the yard and they knew of a broken water main.  The water was back by the morning and this ordeal made me appreciate our town water supply.

  3. Progress on my Book

    I haven’t been writing my book as fast as I had hoped but that is okay.  I would rather do it well.  I am cognizant that I do not want it just be the blog in book form so I am working on writing new, original content.  The chapter I just finished- it’s good.

  4. EMT’s and all First Responders

    This week one of the Common Councilors, Judy Doesschate publicly blasted some EMT’s who had double parked.  She took pictures of the ambulances and the actual EMT workers and posted them on Facebook.  Needless to say, she got raked through the coals.  Yes, there is traffic but the EMT’s need to have access to their ambulances and be able to rush to an emergency at a moments notice.

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    She should have thanked them for their service instead.  She still hasn’t apologized.  Well, a real apology.  All of her public apologies have been along the vein of “I am sorry everyone got mad.”  Seriously Judy, my three-year-old does a better job at apologizing.

    I am grateful for our EMTs who save lives.

  5. This Moment- Sweet Summertime

    My daughter spent a good portion of the evening playing with her water table.  She was loving it.

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She kept trying to convince to keep adding water.  It was giving me flashback to my childhood.  For awhile, we had a three foot above ground pool that ultimately came down and left a big, round sand pit.  My brother and I would spend all day filling pails with sand, packing it down and then flipping them over to make sand pail buildings.  We would make a big sand pail building town.

Then, inspired by the 1980’s Captain Crunch commercials, my brother would grab the garden house, turn on the water and say “The Soggies are coming!”

I would plead for him to stop by saying “Don’t!  Mom’s gonna get mad.”

But that wouldn’t deter my brother.  He’s lay the hose down and the Soggies (a.k.a. water) would take over and destroy our sand pail town.

And every single time, the “fun” would end with my mother coming out and yelling at my brother.

To be fair, our town often would have water conservation efforts where you were only supposed to use your water on even or odd calendar days based on your address.  (For example, our house number was 53 so we were only supposed to use our outdoor water on odd numbered days.)

What are you grateful for this week?

Late summer fun: Sunflowers and ice cream

Published on by kerrymckim4 Comments

I was supposed to go to Maine the last weekend in August but I needed to take my cat to the vet. I thought something was wrong with him. He wasn’t acting like himself and I was sure something was wrong with him.  After paying my not insignificant vet bill, nothing was physically wrong him.

So now my cat is on prozac.

It’s for the best.

And I missed my trip to Maine and my 20th high school reunion. I thought about trying to swinng it but I was too tired to do 16 hours of driving in a 60 hour period

So I wound up with an unexpected free weekend.  My close friend loves Sunflowers and asked if I would be up for a drive downstate to a sunflower field. I am always ready for an adventure and I love road trips so I happily agreed.

I wish I had a selfie to share but not a single one looked good.  For real.  My daughter wouldn’t look at the camera and I had my hair in my face.

After we looked at the flowers, we went to a farm stand.  It was crowded.  My friend told me that she wasn’t expected it to be crowded because she has seen too many Hallmark movies.  In Hallmark movies there is a ton of space.  Hallmark movies have ruined her.

Though we both agreed that that won’t stop us from watching them this Christmas.

After the farm stand, we decided to drive into New Paltz and get some ice cream.   We went to Hugeunot Creamery.  The ice cream was delicious and the staff was very kind and friendly.  The kids had ice cream cones  with sprinkles. They wound up all over the floor.  Part of me felt bad but part of me figured that it’s bound to happen in an ice cream shoppe.  My friend had a creamsicle float and I had an old fashioned hot fudge sundae.

On the way back, we stopped at a Samuel’s Sweet Shop in Rhinebeck which is owned by Paul Rudd and Jeffrey Morgan.  The kids had lollipops (though my daughter could only handle a few licks after eating ice cream) and I had a pretzel covered in Reese’s Pieces.  My friend got chocolate covered oreos.

It was a great day.  I am so glad my friend asked us to spend the day with her and it was fun to discover places in New York where I had never been.  I can’t wait for some Fall adventures with my friends.

Do you like to go on day trips?  Where do you like to go?

End of summer fun: Valley Cats game

Published on by kerrymckim2 Comments

Last week we had another first.

Our first baseball game without Bryon.

Bryon was an avid sports fan.  If we were travelling, he would see what the local teams were for whatever sport was in season and if they were playing that night.  When else would I see the Colorado Avalanche play?  Or the Toronto FC soccer team play against the Capital City FC soccer team?

Bryon had the same enthusiasm locally as well.  No summer was complete without going to some Valley Cats games.  Usually we went when the Lowell Spinners were in town (the Single-A affiliate for the Boston Red Sox).

We took our daughter on her first Fourth of July in 2015.  I tried to get a good family selfie but I failed.

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I spent almost all of the summer of 2016 in an ICU room.  And I have avoided baseball games this summer.  Because going to baseball games was a thing that I did with Bryon.  He loved going.  I also realized that his baseball buddy, Julie, who worked the Brown’s Beer stand may not know that he died.  Julie loved him. And I didn’t want to tell her.  Luckily I didn’t have to go to the beer stand that night.

I had no plans to go this year, but the MS Society was there that night.  And it ended up being a Friends themed night so that was cool too.  I like Friends but I still maintain that How I Met Your Mother was a much better show than Friends though.

There were hot dogs.  Ketchup was my daughters.  I think ketchup is disgusting.   Mustard and relish is my jam.  I am full of controversial statements today.  I won’t even discuss hot dog rolls today.

My bestie Kimmy Gibbler was there.

Our good friend was there.  (She doesn’t have a nickname…yet.)

We also had a to see a friend who was working.  You haven’t met him yet, but you met his girlfriend.

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It did end up being a fun night.  My daughter loved it.  Granted, she didn’t really have any concept of the actual game, but there were friends, hot dogs and ice cream.  Life doesn’t get much better than that.

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Little moments

Published on by kerrymckim3 Comments

This weekend I did the first of my long runs for my half marathon training.  My training cycle has gotten off to a slow but steady start.  I have joined a new gym called Metabolic Meltdown and I do those workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and I run on Tuesday, Thursdays and Sundays.  I was having trouble motivating myself by just running and I need more strength so I hope this plan works.  So far I have been enjoying it.

So on Sunday I took my daughter to the local university and did the 3 mile loop around campus, plus one extra mile.  

It was the longest four mile run I have ever done.

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First of all, since I have slacked off on my training, I gained weight and I was pushing a stroller with my almost 3 year old.

It was hot.

My daughter kept dropping things and I kept having to stop and pick them up.

I didn’t want my daughter to fall asleep on the run so I kept her entertained by singing Old MacDonald since we watch OutDaughtered all the time.  OutDaughtered is the show about two year old Quintuplets.  My daughter refers to the show as “Babies.”  All I hear is “I want to watch Babies!”  Anyway, there is an episode where they are singing, or supposed to be singing, Old MacDonald in a recital.  So my daughter and I sang Old MacDonald and my daughter kept choosing “chicken” so this Old MacDonald had a farm full of chickens.  Old MacDonald can thank for me sneaking in one cow and one cat.   

My daughter saw one of the Albany city busses and kept saying ice cream truck.  I told her it was a city bus, but she wouldn’t believe me.  I told her she would disappointed if we went over and tried to order ice cream.

But I made it through the run.  I think when I reach the six mile mark on my long runs that I will need to get a babysitter.  I can’t be pushing the stroller for 8 miles.  I will go nuts.

I was really wanting to get an iced coffee but I decided to stop and let my daughter run around the fountains.  She was so happy which made me happy.  Life is about the little moments.