Spring Break....Woo Hoo!!

I had the most delightful blog entry all typed out on Sunday night using my mom's laptop, which has the MOST annoying touch pad mouse EVER. I uploaded the photos below, cut the text to paste it above the photos.... and...lost....everything. I really almost cried. I was SO tired typing it. I was SO frustrated with the dern mouse that kept jumping the cursor up into weird places in the preceding paragraph. I literally have not recovered until now. I'll try to re-create what I can:

The kids are on spring break this week. (yes, they are only 2 and 4, but day care is closed for spring break. Don't get me started.) In a continuing effort to be more fiscally responsible, Corin and I had decided we would not take a trip for spring break this year. Let me re-phrase that... Corin decided and I agreed to quit whining about it. See, for the past three years, starting with a fantastic "babymoon" in Miami while I was pregnant with Pressley, we have been able to take a trip to the beach during the spring. Call me spoiled. I got used to this tradition rather quickly, being part beach bum and all. Corin and I disagree about how good I've been about the not whining. I will tell you though, I had totally given up on the idea of a spring break trip to the beach. To console myself, I decided to take advantage of a standing invitation to go visit my dare-I-say-favorite-aunt-and-uncle who have a beautiful house up on beautiful Lake Hartwell. As an added bonus, my cousin was going to be there with her 3-1/2 month old cute-as-can-be-baby, Michael. Really, one night there was all I needed to get over the whole beach deprivation thing.

But, then, on the way there, my sister called. She and her kids are also on spring break this week. She and her husband had also decided no spring break trip, but the more she thought about a whole week at home with no agenda, the more anxious she became. So, she decided she'd try to cook up a trip. I very sheepishly asked Corin if he thought there was any budget for a short trip with my sister and her kids (just the girls, our mom, and the kids). He said he thought there was a little. With a heavy emphasis on little.

So, we sprang into action. Mountains? Hilton Head? Florida? What to do, what to do? We didn't have much time or money, so our plan was slow to evolve. The conversation continued after we arrived at my aunt and uncle's lake place and after overhearing some of our discussions, they offered to let the whole lot of us stay there for the week. It was a very generous offer, and after satisfying ourselves that they didn't just let that slip out and then wish they could take it back, we accepted. So, Corin left on Sunday afternoon as originally planned (and packed us a bag and ran it over to my mom's house), but the kids and I stayed to welcome mom, Beth and the kids on Sunday night.

It was all such a delightful surprise. Corin and I had a lot of fun with Lynn and Art and Melissa (and baby Michael) over the weekend. It was simply icing on the cake to get to stay for 3 extra days and get some quality time with mom, Beth, Abby and Will. I've included a few pictures below, but there are many more (as usual) under the album tab. Just click April 09.

Sweet baby Michael patiently letting Lynn and I bathe him in the sink.

Pressley in the "hot bath tub" (as she called it)

Evan exploring under the jet ski cover

Both kids headed down to the dock to feed the fish (though we never actually saw any fish)

Happiness is...finding a good handyman

Who knew?

My sweet husband Corin is a lot handier (more handy?) than he will readily admit. When we married, he had me convinced he didn't have a handy bone in his body. But, then we bought the townhouse. Dern it if he didn't turn out to be pretty handy after all. But, in fairness, the man is a partner at a big law firm and has two kids he enjoys spending time with (not to mention a fun wife to make time for), so his time for handiness is very limited. We have had a couple of lingering issues that have been driving me nuts. For example, the giant gaping hole in the sheetrock in Evan's bathroom where he pulled the towel bar (and sheetrock screw) right out of the wall - apparently thinking that the towel bar would make an excellent jungle gym. He was quite surprised when he ended up on his bottom in a heap on the floor. And I was quite unhappy when I saw the hole in the wall the size of my fist.

Another example: the gate latches in our teeny, tiny yard worked for about 12 days after we moved into our house. We've been here 5-1/2 years. Every once in a while (more often than I'd like), when we are leaving the house - usually in a huge hurry - our back gate would be standing wide open. This would always prompt Corin to pull over and park the car, get out and tinker with it until it remained closed long enough for him to get back into the car. Often, on a windy day, by the time he was back in and had the car in drive, the gate would blow open again. Very frustrating.

So, we've been in the market for a handyman. I thought we had found one. I got a recommendation from a neighbor, but the guy made two appointments with me and never came. Then, I saw a van at another neighbor's house with a handyman company name and number on it. It occurred to me that I had seen this van a number of times before. If the neighbor continued using him repeatedly, I figured that was as good as an actual recommendation, so I wrote down the number off the van. Then I didn't call. Lucky for me, though, one of the many times a day when I was backing out of the garage, the guy was at his van. He came over, gave me a very reasonable estimate, and came back the next three days in a row to fix stuff. (The sheetrock involved a multi-step process that required return visits.) In addition, he fixed a door jamb that was out of alignment, which prevented the door from closing all the way and he put new shelf brackets on a bookshelf out in my garage that we use for storage. Note to self: If there are two paint cans holding up a shelf and that shelf is holding a 24-pack of bottled water... best not to try to yank one of the paint cans out from under the shelf before removing the items on top. But, doing this in front of the handyman is what resulted in having new brackets for said shelf, so I guess sometimes stupidity pays off.

Anyway, now I find myself going from room to room in the house admiring the new sheetrock (and newly re-hung towel bar), the no-longer-rusting-faucet in the half bath, etc. The fact that all three projects, plus the two extras cost much less than I would have expected is a bonus that just makes me, well... very happy. I feel like I have my house back. I am already making a mental list of the things he will do the next time he comes. Happy, happy, happy...It doesn't take much.

It ain't easy being green (but may be easier than I thought)

**Note to my super-green friends (you know who you are...Shay...): Please don't judge me by the fact that I didn't do this earlier. Just be proud of me that I'm coming along, no matter how late I am to the party.**

I don't know if Evan is actually learning to read or write in pre-k, but I do know he is learning the importance of being ecologically responsible. It is something I know in my head, but I haven't exerted much energy to prove I know it is important. Evan has been on me for quite some time to get a recycle box. He constantly asks if the piece of trash he is holding up is recyclable. I certainly don't discourage it. Each time, I say something like "I'm so glad you are learning about that." or "I don't think we can recycle that." or "Yes, you are right, it is important to recycle. But, I haven't been good about encouraging it either. So, today, when I sat down to make a whole bunch of phone calls, I finally remembered to call the City of Atlanta Public Works and request our recycling bin. I had tried to do this a couple of months ago (following Evan's urging), but after being on hold for twenty minutes, I gave up. Today, I was successful. We should receive our official recycling bin shortly.

I even took it one step further. After I had lunch with a friend, I ran by the Publix to do some power shopping. The woman in front of me in line had her cart all loaded up with her re-usable canvas bags. So, I took the plunge. I bought several. I have to confess that my motivation was not entirely pure. I have enviously eyed the flat bottoms and large capacity on those bags before thinking, "I bet when your groceries are in one of those, your milk doesn't fall over the first time you make a turn on the way home and dribble stubborn stickiness on the rest of the stuff in that bag..." I also find myself very annoyed when the grocery bagger puts one item in a bag. Admittedly, not entirely for "green" reasons, but because that is just one more bag I have to juggle on my way in the door with my car keys and two kids underfoot. Now the trick will just be for me to remember to take these bags back to the store (and inside) for future shopping excursions.

I hope that someday Evan will read this entry and be proud of himself for being the catalyst for my responsible behavior. BTW - I do know that Evan is learning to read and write and even do math in pre-k. But, come on. You know me. I can't resist a little hyperbole from time to time...

Watch out! I'm feelin' verbose

Usually, I try to use a little restraint when I write this blog and try not to get too chatty. But, today, I'm feeling like I'm going to embrace the chattiness. So, if you are checking in with me on your way out the door, you may want to wait or else you are gonna be late. If you stick with me, I promise to throw in some cute photos and amusing video footage to make it worth your while. (Please resist the urge to skip ahead. That will just hurt my feelings.)

Friday night was the much-anticipated skating party to celebrate Will and Abby's birthdays. I had told the kids about it over a week before it happened, which is against my self-imposed rule. Anyone who has little ones knows that it is not smart to give them too much lead time for an event because they will proceed to drive you absolutely nuts with the "When are we going to Will and Abby's party?" "Is the party today?" "Can we go to the party now?" "Can we? Can we? Can we?" So, I am usually pretty good about saving this information until the appropriate time. My parents have been guilty of leaking information early a number of times and have been thoroughly chastised for it in the past, so they've gotten better. But, this time was my fault. Even worse, I think I leaked the party news as a part of a bribe or a threat of some kind. Rookie mistake. Everyone with kids also knows that you don't threaten something you can't or won't really take away because then you lose your street cred. And, really, what kind of mother takes away the cousins' birthday party for not eating veggies or cutting in front of your sister to wash your hands or whatever the transgression of the moment may have been? Luckily, I think on this occasion, they did not call my bluff, because I have no recollection of beating myself up over this dumb mistake.

Anywho...as I was saying... Friday night was the birthday party. It brought flooding back vivid memories of my own skating days over at Playland or something or other. I loved the skating when I was in elementary school. I recall specifically that the Brownie troop would pile in the "back-back" of someone's station wagon (back before they would call DFACS on somebody's mom for letting you ride without a seat belt) and we would head over to Dresden to the skating rink. I remember that the last street we turned onto before we got to Dresden was called Brag(g) Street. We thought this was very funny with our elementary school sense of humor and, the rule was that the whole time you were on Brag(g) Street, you had to - what else? - brag. Our poor mothers... Luckily for them, it was a short street as I recall. So, back to the skating party... It brought back vivid memories of my skating days, but sadly, did not bring back any memory of the technique involved in staying on one's feet once wheels are affixed to the bottom. Let's just put it this way: I don't know if I was ever good at skating when I was 10, but I am definitely not good at it now. I had no intention of putting on skates until Corin put the idea in my head. But, armed with romantic notions of couple's skate, I warmed to the idea and gave in (without much coaxing). It was a bad idea.

But, the kids had a blast. Pressley tried the skating for about 30 seconds and decided quickly that she was D-O-N-E. Evan was a little more of a go-getter. He kept his skates on most of the time and ventured out onto the rink repeatedly (even though he clearly felt much more secure on the carpet). He is so funny. He had asked me the day before the party if we could buy him some skates that day. He didn't say it, but I know him well enough to follow his reasoning. I know that this is a child that doesn't really want to try anything new in front of other people until he has confirmed in the privacy of his own home/yard that he won't suck at it. He gets that from one of his aunts, I think, but don't worry Beth, I won't name any names....

Evans tears it up...

Pressley and my sweet Granny

Abby and cousin Jonathan

Evan and Daddy play video games

Pressley with her Krispy Kreme Donut (Will doesn't like cake, so for the second year in a row, he has had a donut pyramid with a candle on top in lieu of a cake.)

On Saturday, we got up and drove to Knoxville to visit with Gran and Grandaddy. I may have mentioned that they came down a few weeks back for Corin's birthday, but between prior dinner plans on Saturday night and church commitments on Sunday morning, we didn't even get to talk to them until brunch on Sunday. So, we took the kids up there to visit. Gran and Grandaddy had bought two new treats for the kids: A very cool 3-D book and a real ceramic tea-set. They enjoyed the book and really got a lot of mileage out of the tea set - at least until Pressley inevitably broke one of the plates on Sunday afternoon. It didn't keep her down long, though. That tea set was way too much fun to be put off by a little broken ceramic...


Gran and Grandaddy had a prior engagement on Saturday evening, so we went out to eat at a seafood restaurant near our hotel that Corin remembered fondly from the days when he used to work for his mom. And then we went back to the hotel and let the kids swim in the swimming pool - despite the fact that this activity kept them up way past their bedtime. We were amazed by the fact that Evan can still swim as well as he could the last day of last summer. There was absolutely no hesitation and no re-learning involved. He literally dove in and swam around like he'd just done it yesterday.


Then, on Sunday, we went back over to Gran and Grandaddy's apartment. The temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees overnight, so after brunch we had to really struggle to think what we could do with the kids indoors. We hatched this plan: we would drive around UT campus to show the kids the sights from their book "Hello Smokey!", then we'd let them play on their favorite playground (Briefly. Did I mention how cold it was?), then we'd take them to the Knoxville Museum of Art which, according to the web, has a children's exploratory gallery. On the tour of UT, Evan says, "Um, Daddy... Can we stop driving around and looking at things and just go straight to the park?" I thought it was a lot funnier than Corin did. But, he's a good daddy, so he headed on over to the park. The kids enjoyed the park despite the cold and we found the exploratory gallery, while small, was very cool.

The kids at Fort Kid in Knoxville

Exploratory Gallery at Knoxville Museum

Is that enough detail on our weekend? I did leave out a few things, like what we wore, etc. You can maybe pick up on that from the attached photos. Even more photos available at the Jan-Mar link under albums. And, as promised, the video of Corin skating just before he fell out of the frame. There is no video of me because I'm smart enough to keep the camera close when I am doing something that I haven't done in 25 years. It is a little dark, but you will be able to get the idea.

Another busy weekend

Saturday was Evan's first soccer game of the spring season, so we started our day at the soccer field. Then, we went to Touch-a-Truck at Decatur High School. We went to Touch-a-Truck last year and the kids had a blast. I didn't find out until Saturday morning that the event was happening this weekend. When I looked up the information, the web said that the event was from 10-1. Since the soccer game was at 12:30, we hurried to get ready so we could make it to see the trucks before soccer. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up in the parking lot to find one lonely cement mixer. I think I was a lot more disappointed than the kids. We got out and stood in line to "drive" the cement truck and overheard someone saying that there was some kind of mix-up and the rest of the trucks would be arriving at noon. So, after we thoroughly examined the cement mixer, we went back home, ate lunch, went to soccer, and then returned to high school parking lot. This time was much more like I remembered from last year: 2 police cars, one police motorcycle, 3 fire trucks, said cement mixer, a back hoe, an electric car, a street sweeper, and the list goes on. The kids had a a great time again. As far as I know, no one actually busted an ear drum despite the fact that universally, kids seem to enjoy blaring sirens more than anything else, so it is quite the noisy place to be.

There are a couple of photos below, but many more in the album "Soccer and Touch-a-Truck." A brief caveat: Evan was really not into having his picture made yesterday. Many, many times, he stuck his hand between himself and the camera and uttered a surly "NO mommy." So there may be fewer photos of him than of Pressley. Pressley still happily CHEEEEEEEESEs for me whenever I like. Lesson learned yesterday and note to self: Do NOT manipulate Evan into having his picture made when he is not in the mood. Further note to self: If you must manipulate Evan into having his picture made when he is not in the mood, DO NOT cry HA! HA! after you have snapped said photo. Makes him angry.... And he holds a grudge.

I know eventually I'll laugh about this (and some parts are funny even now)

I have been fighting off a cold for a few days. So last night, I took some Nighttime-sniffling-sneezing-coughing-aching-stuffy-head-fever-SO-YOU-CAN-REST-medicine before I went to bed. The night before, they worked like a charm. Last night, I laid in bed - WIDE AWAKE - until 1:30. At 1:30, I finally got up and got on the computer to research some of the questions that had been occupying my busy brain. How to make the cutest Little Mermaid birthday cake ever...Where to find cute Little Mermaid invitations...(Yes, her birthday is still six weeks away)...Rules of the pool for pool parties...(E has said he wants a pool party - 10 weeks away)...and other random musings. I stayed on-line until 3 a.m. at which point I finally decided to go back to bed. Not because I felt sleepy, but because I knew I'd be exhausted today.

About five minutes after I'd climbed into bed, the hallway light went on. I laid silent, wondering which kid was about to appear and climb into bed with us, making it even more difficult for me to fall asleep. No footsteps. No one appeared. I propped up on my elbows and peered down the hall. "Evan, is that you?" The light went out and nothing... Corin woke up about this time and asked what I had heard. "It is not what I heard, but what I saw. Someone flipped on the hallway light. Should I go check?" Corin said he'd go check. He went down the hall, first to Evan's room and then to Pressley's. He returned and reported that I must have been imagining things. They were both sound asleep under their covers.

I insisted that I had not imagined the light. I was tired, but not crazy (yet).

So, my sweet husband knew he'd have to go downstairs. He got about halfway down the hall and turned back. "Do you have anything heavy?" I answered no. He stooped to grab something and headed back out. I asked what he had found. "Pressley's guitar." OK. Let's stop a second. You have to get the mental picture. This is no ordinary guitar. It is the hot pink and purple Dream Dazzler's guitar that P got for Christmas. I doubt that he could have done much physical damage to an intruder with it, but he sure could have annoyed them right out of the house.

So I lay in the dark and listened. First note I heard out of the guitar and I was poised to call 911. I heard some doors squeaking and then, finally, Corin came back upstairs. He checked this kids rooms again (including bathrooms and closets this time) and came back to bed. He reported that nothing was disturbed downstairs but one of the french doors leading into our side yard was unlocked. Bad move, Corin. When I asked if he had checked the office (and closet), he had to admit he hadn't, so it was back down the hall for him. Obviously, he found nothing and he went right back to sleep.

I, on the other hand, laid awake for another hour straining to hear any little creaking floorboard. All the while obsessing about the fact that Elizabeth Smart and Jon Benet Ramsey had been taken from their beds while they slept under the same roof with their parents. I was inclined to go sleep with one of the kids, but I knew I couldn't pick one kid over the other, so I'd have to wake Corin up to send him to sleep with one of them too. I decided I'd be better off just listening for movement in the hallway. Who knew this would be the method that would finally allow me to drift off to sleep for the next 3-4 hours.

Oh, add the fact that the kids had school pictures today, so I had to get them up, have them coordinating with each other, tame two heads of crazy hair, AND pack them extra outfits for after the pictures because it is St. Patrick's Day (and they're Irish for goodness sakes) and their picture outfits were not green...I've had better days.

A birthday kind of day

One down; one to go.

We had two birthday parties to go to today. This morning, we thought we were going to have Evan's first soccer game of the season. Instead, we got to go to our friend Gavin's 3rd birthday party when Evan's soccer game was canceled. We started out at Leapin' Lizards and ended up at Deborah and Jeremy's house for pizza and cupcakes. Deborah let the kids decorate their own cupcakes and they took it very seriously. The party was lots of fun. The kids enjoyed jumping on this rainy Saturday morning and when do they not enjoy pizza and cupcakes??

Hopefully the kids (at least Pressley) are finally napping so they'll have some energy for Maya's birthday party this afternoon - also at Leapin' Lizards....

The birthday boy

Pressley with her cupcake

Evan and his cupcake

We tried to get a photo of the kids of all the law school friends, but Chris and Melody's baby was determined to crawl away, Evan and Pressley were determined to fight, and Gavin and Reesa - well - they were just so darn far away! (Plus, these photos were all taken with my camera phone, so I apologize - as usual - for the quality...or lack thereof. I used to be so good at remembering to take the real camera to these events. Sigh...)