The Beginning, the Middle, and the End

The end of February through early April

2009-04-08T17:18:00.032-04:00

Here goes the synopsis of the last two months, mainly in pictures. In no particular order.

Since it's sort of a quicky post, I thought this photo of probably the best dinner the kids ate this year (in their opinion) would be appropriate.

McDonalds.

Gross.

We were running short on time before Devon's spring choir concert so this was our only dinner option.

Devon is in the second row from the top, sort of on the left side. Looking directly at me.

Dead center almost, again looking straight at me. It was a great concert-all Disney music.

Isabella attended several fabulous birthday parties (here's another she had great time at)

She has lots of spring birthday friends.

Last weekend, she went to a "dress up as your favorite princess party" and wow, did she have a good time. Cinderella (the real one) showed up at this party, complete with balloon tricks, make-up, and tattoos.

Cinderella even gave all the girls manicures.

Apparently they also had a photographer at the party, since Isabella only wanted to pose with her head tilted once I picked her up.

Clearly this photo is an "on the way to the party" photo....see, no tilted head.

Lauren invited Isabella to attend her daddy/daughter girl scout dance a few Saturdays ago. I think it was one the best nights of Isabella's life. It was fun to shop for a spring dress and shoes and she also got her own

wrist corsage.

Such a lovely couple!

Isabella really loves to dance.

Paul, not so much.

Isabella also started soccer in March, although all the games except one have been rained out.
Devon found the first ladybug of the season.

The games consist of 30 minutes of practice and then a 3 on 3 30 minute game.

Here she is in her Hurricanes uniform, cleats and shin guards...lucky number 7.

Devon earned his orange belt in March!!!! He is already practicing to move up to a green belt-maybe at the end of summer or beginning of fall. We are all so proud of how hard he has worked in karate.

Isabella went on the dreaded 4 year old checkup last month.

4 shots coming right up! It was worse for me then her....as soon as it was over she laughed and was ready to go to Chuck E Cheese.

Her she is on one of the rides, proudly sporting 2 band aids on EACH arm. Eek!

Good news is no more shots until 11.

Hurray!

Devon was off school the day we went to the doctor, so he got to enjoy the pizza and games without any shots. Lucky guy!

We had a surprise snow storm in March. So much fun when you don't get snow on a regular basis. School was cancelled, of course, so the kids enjoyed playing in it 2 days in a row.

This picture is from the 2nd day, so you can see we got a significant amount (at least for GA).
Devon and Isabella played for hours in the snow. Then Devon went off with neighborhood friends and played in all their snow as well. This is our second snowfall since moving here two years ago.

I found this photo in my February file...Isabella found the baby in our Mardi Gras King Cake. She has to buy the cake next year!

And she's done a little baking recently with her Easy-bake Oven, including a delicious brownie. It was supposed to be a gift for our neighbor, but she ate it instead.

Well, that's all I can remember (the downside of posting every 11 weeks!). Keep your fingers crossed that I'll have something exciting to write about next week....and that I get my lazy self motivated to post about it before May!

Another year older

2009-02-09T21:33:00.034-05:00

It seems like I blinked and Isabella went from this....

to this.......

Happy birthday Isabella!

We started the morning with our traditional birthday cookie cake.

Everyone loves having cookies and m & m's for breakfast.

Especially on a Tuesday.

You can look at her face and know she has been counting down to this birthday since about 8 months ago.

I have never seen someone so enthusiastic about becoming 4.

So, of course, I had to buy this ribbon when I saw it at Party City, for her to wear to school.

After school, Mama took us out for lunch to celebrate. Isabella chose her favorite Chinese restaurant, Chopsticks in Peachtree City.

Egg drop soup...our favorite

Flowers came that afternoon from Grandad in Texas

And look great in her bedroom next the the other arrangement Mama gave her that morning.

After enjoying a delicious dinner from Steak and Shake (her choice...I offered to cook but she wanted a milkshake for dinner...we insisted on the hamburger and fries), it was time to move on to what she had been waiting for all day...birthday cake and presents.

This is the first year I didn't make her birthday cake myself, but don't forget that I DID make all those cupcakes for school, so I guess that counts.

She saw this cake in the store and begged me to buy it, only because she feel in love with the tiara and wand.

Even though I didn't make it myself, it was a great cake nonetheless.

It looks like she is thinking about what to wish for when she blows out the candle.

However, clearly she was just figuring out which part of the cake she should start playing with first.

Cutting the first piece of cake

Presents!!!!!

Little Pet Shops from Grams-

Leapster Games

(Princess one from Grandad and JoAnn)

Easy-Bake Oven from Mama

Little Pony play land

It was so late by the time we finished opening presents that she didn't get a chance to play with anything.

Paul suggested she take the day off from school the following day to play.

So she did. :-)

More Valentines gifts

2009-02-09T10:00:00.002-05:00

We have had many days of warm weather sprinkled in with cold this month, as you can tell by what we are wearing in my February posts.

These are from the first weekend of the month.

I guess she would do better with her eyes open.

Day 8: Magnetic kissing birds

Day 9: Guess How Much I Love You mug.

Little Nutbrown hare...I love you!

Day 10: Strawberry magnets.

When I saw these on the counter, I thought they were real.

February 10th was a big day for us, so I need a separate post to cover the rest of the day.

However, I do want to include pictures of our cupcake bake-off extravaganza.

48 cupcakes mixed, baked, and frosted in one afternoon, for Isabella to take to school the following day for her birthday.

We got started right after her Monday afternoon ballet lesson

(which is why she is still wearing her dance clothes)

She is the best egg cracker in the house (good thing because we use the entire dozen)

Unfortunately, I was so OVER cupcakes by the time we finished later in the evening that I forgot to take pictures of the final product.

Oh, well....they were beautiful and tasty too. You'll just have to believe me on that!

Playdate

2009-02-07T09:37:00.000-05:00

Day 5 of Valentines: It's a bottle opener-cute.

The following day, Isabella and I met our friends for a play date starting

with lunch at Chick-fil-A.

Here's everyone playing underneath the table

(mommys sit at a separate table)

After lunch we headed over to the park.

No one remembered to bring bread for the ducks, so the kids weren't quite sure what to do down by the lake.

Hugs for everyone, until we play together again.

Day 6: A heart-shaped measuring tape.

Day 7: Magnetic X and O

Imagine It! Childrens Museum

2009-02-04T16:11:00.028-05:00

Isabella's preschool went on a field trip today. Of course, I was there to chaperone!

Here are a whole lot of photos from the Children's Museum.

Fishing pond

The art wall...she started writing her name backwards and then ran out of room.

Moon sand....she visited this section twice so I guess she really liked it.

We also have moonsand at home but it's not the same as having tons of it to play with.

The tap dancing area

Even more fun when you where a costume

Some of the teenagers from her school were so inspired they put on shoes and joined in

A tap ensemble

Lunch time. I think that's a Frito sticking out of her mouth.

There was about a 15 minute theatrical performance too. Singing, dancing, costume changes.

Here she is with her class, waiting for the show to start.

Still sitting in the back with her class.

They are "raising the castle roof" here.

Raise the roof! Raise the roof!

Moments later, notice Isabella has moved to the front of the large group and is sitting dead center, with another school class.

Her teacher told me she always likes to sit in front.

I guess so.

This is in the grocery/food play section. She is unloading a conveyor truck.

Cashier.

That will be $20 please.

Shopper girl

I don't understand what was happening in this section. Some sort of physics demonstration.

More of the same.

Moonsand again.

We stayed until about 1:30pm, a little longer than the field trip but since we drove, it didn't matter.

And somewhere along I-75, she fell asleep.

3 hours later, her she is.

Still sound asleep.

A sure sign of a completely fun day.

Our weekend outings

2009-02-04T01:00:00.004-05:00

Every weekend in January, we've made good on our resolution to drive into Atlanta, trying a new restaurant with the kids and looking around neighborhoods we haven't been to yet. Well, usually Paul has been to them but the rest of us get a fresh look at our new hometown. Unfortunately, until last Saturday I forgot to bring a camera with us to document all the great places we've explored so far, which is why I haven't blogged about it before now. I know most of you are just here for the pictures right?

Truth be told, I'm on the hunt for a new neighborhood to settle down in, not necessarily now but sometime in the next year or so. A neighborhood closer to Atlanta, with more diversity in people, places, foods, etc., but still a safe enough distance from downtown to appease Paul and his imaginative views (which seem to be somewhat accurate sadly) of nefarious activity inside the perimeter.

So far, Marietta and Alpharetta are at the top of my list, primarily due to the above mentioned criteria as well as the fact that they are within decent driving distance to the zoo, museums, shopping malls, restaurants and other retail establishments that make a city feel closer to the home we left behind in Houston. I'm not saying I'm a city girl but I know after living two years out in the middle of nowhere land that I just wouldn't make it long in the country, even with the fastest Internet connection to facilitate my online shopping needs. Amazon is great but every once in awhile I NEED an Indian buffet lunch and a trip to an indoor mall.

Anyway, last Saturday I finally remembered to grab the camera on the way out the door, on our way to lunch, once again, in Marietta.

We went for a casual meal at a highly rated restaurant called Blue Moon Pizza.

The pictures speak for themselves. Great pizza (did I mention we've been eating a lot of pizza lately?) plus the waitstaff were extremely forthcoming, even when I cornered one waitress in the bathroom for the rundown on Marietta housing, schools, and shopping. She gave me the goods, plus a great tip about Forever 21 that I didn't get a chance to follow up on. Next time.

Isabella recently discovered black olives and ate 2 pieces of pizza herself along with the olives on all the slices in the picture above.

Devon seems to be anti-black olives this week, so he wasn't complaining one bit.

No trip in town would be a success without a stop at Trader Joe's. A true bonus of living in Georgia, since they aren't in TX yet. They have kid sized shopping carts which Isabella loved. Devon was just happy they have clean bathrooms (too many glasses of Root Beer at the restaurant). In Isabella's cart are her snack choices of dried snap peas and pistachios plus a bag of dried cheese tortellini.

How do you like her red mary janes? She might already have more style sense then me!

But not more shopping stamina. We frequently exercise the mantra shop til you drop and she does...but usually way before me.

Well, she dropped (power-napped in her own words) on the hour drive home.

I managed to stay awake. Ha.

One more thing...the photo of my Valentine's day 3 present. Isabella got a cute frog puzzle but I forgot to take pictures. I got a heart-shaped set of measuring spoons, with sayings like a pinch of patience, a dash of kindness, a spoonful of laughter, and a heap of love on the handle.

Paul wrote inside my card that together he and I make a great combo meal. Awwww.

Sally's Trip to Texas

2009-02-03T19:32:00.027-05:00

Sally went to Texas today. Houston specifically. With Paul. Who's Sally you ask? Well, she's Isabella's webkinz. That's a small stuffed animal to those of you without little people in the house.

Anyway, I don't know how the idea came about but Isabella asked Paul to take Sally on a trip and since he's in meetings all day, it seemed like the perfect time. Since 6am this morning he's been sending these photos from his Blackberry to my phone....some are grainy so I'll caption just in case you're confused.

Yes, this is going to be a silly post for Isabella but I'm gonna do it anyway.

Here Sally reviews the emergency landing procedures...looks like she's seated in an exit row.

Making conversation before take-off this morning. Next stop-Houston, TX.

Uh oh, looks like she might have run into a little bit of trouble with HPD.

Too many Bloody Marys on the plane ride over Sally?

Sally finally made it to the office....caught her hanging out at the water cooler beneath a map of the great state of TEXAS.

I can't believe she got to go on this trip and I'm stuck here with these kids.

Ah, corporate meeting which means lots of snacks. Shipley donuts...Paul and I reminisce about eating these. Hot from the store....an entire donut melts in your mouth in one bite.

Apparently Paul forgot Sally over here by the donuts then retrieved her later. I wonder why no one said anything to him about carrying a stuffed dog and photographing her all over the office. I'm sure they think he's lost it.

Potty break. Yeah, the kids were pretty hysterical about this one too.

Here we have Sally reflecting on the city life, probably wishing she were back home. I like the "seedy hotel" lighting. It's not but it sure looks that way.

A shower before a night out on the town. Love that shower cap girl.

Finally a steak dinner at Saltgrass. Well deserved.

15 hours in the life of Sally, on the road with the best dad ever.

Today Houston, tomorrow Memphis. I'm not sure if Paul will be photographing Sally on Wednesday but if so, I'll make an addition to this post down the road.

Good night!

Valentine's Day 2

2009-02-03T06:21:00.014-05:00

We didn't get home from the Superbowl party until around 11pm on Sunday night.

Which is why at 10:30am Monday morning, Isabella was still sound asleep in her bed. We recently switched from a morning to afternoon ballet class and once again I was so glad I did that.

Sleep on!

Here is what I found on Monday morning from Paul for my 2nd day of Valentine's Gift.

I love love love this mug....it is gigantic and full of great Shakespeare quotes.

Oh, and the best part is that I received the mug full of coffee, while I lazily lounged in bed Monday morning. Because Paul volunteered to get up at 6am to help Devon get ready for school. SO it's like I got two gifts in one.

Yes!

When Isabella finally woke up around 11am, she was on the hunt for her gift, a heart-shaped strawberry lip gloss ring.

A girl can never have enough lip gloss, right?

We made chili for dinner and in an effort to get Isabella to eat it (instead of just eating the shredded cheese, rice, sour cream and Fritos I usually serve with chili), I asked her to help me cook it.

Ikea plastic knives are pretty handy for chopping garlic and onion.

I did the initial chop, she made them diced.

She was really chopping....and got to experience a good onion cry.

The chili came out a little mild but Isabella finally ate it so I'm not complaining.

I toned down all the spices (even Paul said he liked chili spicier. He doesn't particularly like spicy stuff & even asked Devon to pass the hot sauce after a few bites). That's what I get for following a Cook's Illustrated chili recipe when all I've ever made is Texas style chili (that means like a cup of chili powder along with 1/2 cup of cumin).

It was good but different than what we usually have.

On a different note, I've finally started to use my new Kindle, despite all the hard copy novels piled around my house. For a book lover, a Kindle is a dangerous item to have.

Because it's on-demand books. Let me explain.

The first chapter of any book available in the Kindle format is free. So, you can shop the Amazon store right from the Kindle ( you don't even need to be by a computer...it has something built in to connect directly), request a sample of a book (which arrives moments later), read it and then press a button to buy it.

The book arrives immediately.

Plus, Amazon is nice enough to keep all my credit card info on file so I don't need to do anything more than press a button and my purchase is complete.

It's like having a Barnes and Noble bookstore following me everywhere I go.

Are you seeing how this could be a problem now?

To pace myself, I have about 10 samples I am reading and I'll pick ONE to buy and read before buying another.

This is my first strategy to keep myself in check. Whether it will work remains to be seen.

Any suggestions on what I should read next?

Misc. January photos

2009-02-03T05:05:00.014-05:00

I just uploaded photos going back as far as Inauguration Day so I'm going to try and piece together a few things from the last couple weeks.

We've been eating a lot of pizza lately and decided to make some homemade dough one Saturday afternoon.

The pizzas (one batch of dough made 3) disappeared as fast as I could get them sliced and on the table...even the one we made with jalapenos!

Speaking of which, sometime over the last few months Devon decided he likes spicy foods and has daringly been dousing everything with hot sauce and pepper flakes.

Of course, Isabella has also started to try hotter than normal fare. My cooking repertoire is about to expand!

Finally, Inauguration Day....even the kids were excited.

The 14 Days of Valentines

2009-02-02T05:25:00.006-05:00

For those of you unfamiliar with this holiday (which means most of the world, since my husband invented it when we got married), here's how it works.

Instead of Valentine's Day being one romantic day of flowers, chocolates, and heartfelt sentiments, in my house it is a full-blown 2 week celebration beginning on February 1st.

Each day, I receive a card (with something witty or romantic handwritten inside) and a gift.

Initially it was mostly inexpensive gifts. The kind of stuff you see on the Valentines aisle in the drug store or Wal mart. With an occasional Willow Tree figurine or Yankee candle throw in. Anything around my house that has flowers or hearts was probably a past 14 days of Valentines day gift. In fact, just on my desk I see a silver heart shaped paperweight, a heart inside a snow globe, and a cupcake heart encrusted photo holder.

You get the idea, right?

Oh, and chocolate. I can't forget the chocolate.

Every year I tell Paul he doesn't have to do it.

I'm perfectly fine celebrating only Valentine's Day with everyone else.

And every year he instead gets more creative, elaborate, and encompassing-including Isabella last year in the gift extravaganza; dooming all future boyfriends who won't be able to match Daddy's special February holiday.

Now you know, so on to the gift for Day 1.

February 1st

A beautiful card and small box of the largest truffles I have ever seen.

I'm really glad there are only four in the box because I'm going to eat them all.

Probably today.

Isabella has to "find" her gift although Paul always leaves a good hint where to look.

On this day she found a tube of bubbles (with a heart blower stick) under her pillow.

She apparently was thrilled to find them.

Sorry to Paul for cutting off his head in this picture. But since he rarely smiles for photos, I have to post it here anyway.

We made an afternoon trip to the park so she could try them out.

From the park we went over a friend's house to watch the Superbowl. The kids had so many other kids to play with that I barely saw either of them the entire evening (yea!!!!).

She decided to squeeze into a baby walker when I wasn't watching.

Maybe she's having trouble coming to terms with turning 4 next week.

Oh no, that's me.

25 Random Things About Me

2009-01-26T08:26:00.006-05:00

I completed this meme on Facebook after Christine tagged me last night (that rapscallion!); but since some of you don't Facebook, I'm taking the opportunity to post here too.

1. I am unable to write anything in cursive except my signature.

2. Online shopping is the only hobby I have kept up with since having kids. Shopping is probably the number one reason for my meager savings account. I have no credit card debt but Suze Orman would still not approve.

3. Although I haven't eaten seafood since I was a child, I dislike any and all of it, including foods, drinks, condiments, etc. that are remotely fishy or ocean-like (seaweed...ew). It all tastes like cat food to me.

4. I'm a sucker for accents. Any accent.

5. I don't like to share a drink with anyone. Yuck.

6. I intend to read a book before bedtime but usually opt to watching bad cable TV instead. I secretly wish I had the guts to cancel the cable and have a "no TV" house but my family would probably pack up and leave. I watch marathon blocks of Family Guy with the enthusiasm of a 20 year old frat boy. Sometimes we ask Devon to say Cool Whip and then become hysterical when he says it just like Stewie (which incidentally is the correct way to pronounce the /w/).

7. After being "in the news" for several weeks I was shocked to discover that newspapers and television news report only about 50% of what really happened...the rest is all made up. Sometimes even more. FICTION! Yet I still tune in to WSB action news and subscribe to the Atlanta Journal newspaper daily. I don't know why.

8. I am a celebrity fanatic and spend way to much time perusing tabloid TV and gossip websites .

9. I love music videos and would watch them 24/7. Sometimes I wish I really could.

10. I love to bake but hate to cook. Someday I will hire a chef. But only after I hire a house cleaner. Maybe if my husband gets transferred to Mexico, where we will be able to afford both.

11. I'm a published poet. Just one poem but it's in a book you can buy at Barnes and Noble.

12. I traveled when I was younger, with plans to see the world someday. Now the mere thought of leaving the United States for any length of time overwhelms me. Except for Mexico, which seems like an extension of Texas to me.

13. Despite working in a profession that required me to interact with people the entire time, my perfect day has always involved being completely alone.

14. I have two tattoos and consistently vacillate between wishing they didn't exist and planning to get five more. Even though I live way way way out in the country suburbs, we have a local tattoo shop and coming soon, an adult "novelty" store. Local church officials claim they will stand outside the doors and videotape any patron of the establishment, then post to YouTube. Welcome to Georgia.

15. My household shuts down at 4pm so I can watch Oprah.

16. I gave birth to a 10lb baby naturally. Enough said.

17. I talk about buying a new car constantly but probably won't do it until my 10 year old vehicle gives out or costs too much to repair. I fear minivans and have promised myself never to buy one, even though I drove a rental minivan when we moved here and enjoyed every minute of it.

18. I am ridiculously guarded with my personal information yet 9 out of 10 people will confess their deep dark secrets, dreams, and desires within moments of meeting me. I tend to attract difficult people although I'm not sure if that is relative.

19. I have a longstanding unrelenting crush on Brad Pitt and probably always will. My husband doesn't approve.

20. I love rap music. I get lost in the rhythm of the language just like I do with Jane Austen or Shakespeare.

21. I am a terrible speller and make numerous mistakes when spellcheck is not an option. I'm sure this has something to do with the fact I was in a different school every year, sometimes twice a year, until tenth grade. I secretly believe it might also be genetic, especially since I'm left handed too.

22. Rollerskating is the only sport I excel at. In the early 80's I wrote letters to members of the band Duran Duran (I was in middle school) and pretended I was older and about to move to NYC. Where I would roller skate on the weekends in Central Park. Because that's what I thought cool girls did in NYC. I led a sheltered life. Until I got to high school.

23. I have a lot of embarrassingly cheesy music on my iPOD. 70% of it was downloaded from somewhere besides ITUNES which means I didn't pay for it.

24. Writing anything is an almost painful process for me and I get completely rude (in my head) when I meet someone who claims to get joy and happiness from the writing process. I struggle to be succinct (that was really a hard one to spell).

25. I dance like Elaine from Seinfield. No, worse. Luckily my husband doesn't like to dance.

January begins

2009-01-19T15:36:00.029-05:00

This is how we spent New Year's Eve, hanging out at home and playing Guitar Hero. The commercials are true-this video game really will bring out your inner rock star (see photo below).

Wow, how we are halfway through January, I just don't know.

As opposed to the last few months of the year, January has been remarkably unhectic and leisurely, such a nice way to start 2009.

My birthday was uneventful, except for my annual trip to the mall, which is why I didn't really post anything about it.

I ate, I shopped, I ate some more.

I shopped at Sephora where I spent birthday cash on a good supply of anti-aging products.

It's time. And they smell good.

The weather has finally caught up with the season and it has been quite cold, for Atlanta, over the last few weeks. No snow but we've even used the fireplace for more than just a place to pose for photos.

We still use it for pictures.

We even got to fire up the outdoor fireplace.

And made some s'mores too!

Here are a few shots of Ivy, since she let me photograph her this week.

Ever wonder how I get it all done? By utilizing my kid work force of course!

We all got back on school schedule last week.

Devon works hard on his spelling list.

Isabella working hard on playing in the next room.

On Sunday we took a trip to Hapeville, GA to eat lunch at the first ever Chick-fil-a restaurant.

Yes.

We lead an exciting life.

The town of Hapeville is exceptionally cute, with a revitalized downtown that has exactly everything I would put in a downtown if I were to design one. A local bakery, a real pharmacy (not CVS or Rite Aid), a purple coffee shop...you get the picture.

But the most exciting part for Isabella was the dwarf door at Chick-fil-A.

"Just my size, mommy. Just my size."

Just the weekly recipes

2009-01-12T21:03:00.005-05:00

Paul is in town all week, so I cook. :-)

Tuesday: Chicken Enchiladas

Wednesday: Lentil soup and salad
dessert: spice cake

Thursday: Beef stew (my mom's recipe)

Friday: Chicken Milanese with salad

Saturday: Homemade Pepperoni Pizza
dessert: gelatin blocks

Sunday: Turkey meatloaf

Shopping Alert!!!!

2008-12-30T16:00:00.021-05:00

6pm.com is having an amazing kids (girl styles only) backpack sale today until 6pm PST.

Perfect timing since the zipper on Isabella's Hello Kitty backpack gave out right before the Christmas holidays and she has to have a new one when school starts up again next month.

She couldn't decide between two different backpacks, so I got them both.

Yeah, flat rate shipping gets me every time. That and being marked down to $10 each!

Neither of these backpacks are what I would of picked for her but that's why I let her pick this time.

Trust me when I say I've learned the hard way and it involves shoes, airborn .

That's all I'm gonna say here.

Good thing she goes to a preschool at a high school.

She'll fit right in.

What's cooking this week

2008-12-30T07:27:00.004-05:00

Because I have a guarantee of at least 3 adults and 4 kids for dinner every night this week, I'm going to put myself out there again and commit to a weekly menu.

I never posted after my first (and last) weekly menu since it took at least 3 weeks to work through it (due to unforeseen traveling circumstances that occur rather frequently around here). However, I am certain all will be made this week, so here it is.

Monday: Spaghetti with meat sauce. It was delicious but I didn't follow a recipe for this one except in my head. Sorry!

Tuesday: Ragin' Cajun jambalaya...my last bag from Texas! Since Nick is a fan, I'm happily sharing with him tonight! I'm also making his favorite dessert-Texas Sheet Cake. Yum.

Wednesday: New Years Eve: We always do appetizers to eat all night, so as of now we are having bacon-wrapped stuffed dates, spanakopita, baked brie, spinach dip, buffalo chicken tenders (from the store for the kids), hummus and assorted sweets yet to determined.

And Vueve du Vernay champagne, which is conveniently sold at my local Publix. Yea Publix!

Thursday: Pulled pork sandwiches (kids can do the pulling this time!), collard greens, fresh black-eyed peas and rice.

Not what I would usually serve along side these sandwiches, but it's New Year's Day so I'm offering up some traditional southern dishes for my house full of southerners.

Friday: I'll be in Atlanta from mid-morning until the wee hours with Paul, so everyone left home fends for themselves. We have reservations at Fleming's then finish our night here at the chocolate buffet. Yes, it really exists-we ate there last year!

Saturday: Bean soup and cornbread. Trust me when I say this tastes way better than it sounds! Delicious. :-)

December 29th

2008-12-29T10:26:00.010-05:00

A long, long, long distance dedication for you.

I don't know why this song makes me think of you today, but it does.

Happy Birthday-

Love and peace to you,

wherever you may be.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T08:54:00.032-05:00

All kids got cameras for Christmas.

Good thing since this is the only photo of me taken during the holidays, my usual "squeeze in and stretch the camera as far away as possible" shot.

Despite my usual bah humbugness, we managed to have a delightful Christmas filled with family, food, and fun along with way too much Guitar Hero all around.

I'll start with Christmas Eve.

Christmas cookies for Santa. She rolled the dough out by hand (even though it was premade from Pillsbury) and use new cookie cutters.

Devon was too cool to make cookies for Santa this year.

It was a great debate over how much milk to leave out with the cookies.

She finally settled on half a glass.

Jumping ahead a little, Santa left behind only half of one cookie on Christmas morning.

And Paul caught Isabella taking a bite.

She just wanted to eat the same cookie that Santa ate.

Awwwww.

Ok, back to Christmas eve.

The kids in their new Christmas pajamas.

It was about 75 and 100% humidity (I may have even turned on the A/C that night) so they didn't end up sleeping in these.

Outside in the yard, spreading Reindeer food.

Inside, a traditional read of The Night Before Christmas.

Christmas Morning!

A flurry of excitement and fun for all.

Custom afghans from Grams

Paul holding one of his Christmas presents from me.

He looks so thrilled...and yes, that is a Tiffany's box.

Men.

Guitar Hero!

One of the few moments adults in the house didn't overtake the kids and grab the guitars.

Once the presents had been opened, we headed outside.

Isabella and her Barbie taking a spin around the neighborhood. Barbie has her own bike attached to the handlebars.

A few minutes of riding and Isabella insisted I stop holding on to the bike.

There she goes....

Devon trying out his new skateboard thing. It only has two wheels so it's not quite a skateboard but I don't remember exactly what it's called.

Underneath all that hair is Nicky! He arrived late on Christmas day.

Still tall and skinny.

With a lot of hair.

The last few weeks

2008-12-22T08:21:00.022-05:00

It has been a busy few weeks, filled with parties, concerts, friends, family, and shopping.
We all need a lot of coffee lately. Here are just a few photos we took along the way.

Devon enjoying a break from shopping with Uncle Paul

A visit with the Santa who stopped by Isabella's Christmas party at school.

With her friend Katherine

Before Devon's holiday concert

Devon is somewhere in the middle, towards the top. Smiling.

Clara mouse

Chinese princess

Cast photo from the Friday night dress rehearsal. Isabella is smack dab

in the center of the photo, front row.

Enjoying a little cake in between performances on Saturday

Our favorite self-portrait style photo

Having a florist in the family comes in handy during Nutcracker weekend.

Three performances, three bouquets of flowers.

Learning how to arrange flowers

Play date at Abigail's house.

Abigail and Isabella

Lauren and Isabella playing beauty shop.

Enjoying a little Zaxby's-yum!

Devon reading the Sunday paper. Such an intellectual.

:-)

Keeping Warm

2008-11-21T08:59:00.012-05:00

Between fleece, thermal blankets and footy pajamas, we are doing our best to keep warm during this week of unseasonably cold temperatures here in Atlanta.

In the Gentle Reminder section of Martha Stewart Living magazine this month, Martha suggests turning the thermostat down to 55 at night ; in order to conserve energy and lower your heating bill.

We tried one night and even with the above mentioned accompaniments, it was just a little to cold for our sensitive southern dispositions. It felt like camping in the Chisos Mountain Basin at Big Bend all over again. So cold that you have to wear your clothes to bed, in multiple layers, as well as a hat and yes, it's still freezing.

Thank goodness we didn't end up in Detroit a few years ago instead of Atlanta-none of us would have made it through the first winter.

Braids

2008-11-20T19:47:00.010-05:00

A real milestone, consider the fact that Isabella has long protested any type of headband, barrette, or pony tail holder that I try to cajole her into wearing, even for just 5 minutes. She is all about loving her naturally curly hair.

Remember the little girl in the Peanuts cartoon who was always talking about her naturally curly hair? That's who Isabella reminds me of these days. Having grown up with a similar hair fate, I wanted to be sure she was proud to be different amongst the sea of straight hair children she would encounter. Maybe I made her a little too confident?

Anyway, after a weekend viewing of The Wizard of Oz, Isabella had a change of heart regarding braids.

Even though for the past 10 months I've begged every Monday morning to put her hair up before ballet practice and she always resisted; she actually asked me to braid her hair before we went this week.

So we were late, because braiding curly hair, right out of bed, even into two braids, is not a quick task.

But it was worth it.

Check out the leg warmers...you know you want a pair. They are apparently making a comeback since these were really easy to find at Target. Retro....something I was wearing in junior high is retro.

Wow, I'm getting old.

The cutest pilgrim ever

2008-11-19T23:31:00.003-05:00

Isabella's preschool put on a production of the first Thanksgiving on Tuesday morning.

Here comes Isabella at the helm of The Mayflower.

OK, I'm a little partial but she was pretty darn cute!

The entire thing lasted about 4 minutes.

This is where the Pilgrims made friends with the Indians.

After the show, parents and kids went to an adjacent classroom to enjoy a

potluck Thanksgiving feast.

Yum.

The kid table was the place to be.

I had to add this photo, Isabella as one of the class scarecrows. I saw it while we were waiting for the play to begin.

Isabella said she has on a mad face but can't remember why.

Even mad face is cute. At least we think so in our house. It's good to know I'm not the only one that sees mad face, now that I think about it. :-)

We've had some colder weather this week,

which is why Isabella and Paul are wearing heavy jackets.

It finally feels like winter is on the way!

Weekend Wrap Up

2008-11-19T19:37:00.012-05:00

Saturday morning started with Devon's first White Oak Elementary choir concert. It was a preview concert, in preparation for the real holiday concert in December, so they only sang four songs. I like those kinds of concerts.

Devon is on the far right, second row from the top. He's easy to pick out because of his stage smile frozen on his face the entire time he was on stage. Looks like that theater class is paying off. The choir sounded fantastic and we can't wait to see him perform at the formal concert sometime next month.

We then headed over to ballet for The Nutcracker practice, which has gone from 1 to 2 hours since Isabella is performing two parts. By the time we rolled in the driveway at home around 4pm, Paul decided to take the kids out (his new Saturday afternoon routine) so I ended up with about 3 hours all to myself. Heaven!

On Sunday we ventured to the other side of Atlanta to see the stage show of The Wiggles. It was a lot of fun and really laid back, kind of like their TV show. About 10 minutes into the show they all descended on the audience and we were just this close to Murray and Jeff, who both came up the steps past our seats. Since we had free tickets, we were not on the floor, but if you have a Wiggles fanatic, that seems to be the place to be.

Those Wiggles were all over the place, reading homemade signs, shaking hands, and just being really friendly.

We ended up getting a lot of Wiggles booty from the show. Although the tickets were free, between the shirt, hat, Wiggles light stick, popcorn, Capt. Feathersword hat and sword, tote bag, and cotton candy, they made some money off of us.

Before the show we stopped off at The Varsity, since it's impossible for anyone in this family to drive by that place without stopping. Onion ring, anyone?

What a girl

2008-11-14T19:02:00.013-05:00

The only bad thing about Isabella wearing this outfit today was that no less than 7 people, all in midtown Atlanta, commented on what an adorable boy she was.

At Trader Joe's (sorry Christine!) one of the cashiers exclaimed, "Look at the mini Corbin Bleu" when we walked in. Uggh. So much for cuffed up jeans and skecher with hearts and lights right.

She's playing the part of a pilgrim in her preschool Thanksgiving play on Tuesday. The school supplies the hat and it is suggested that she wear something black and white to look more pilgrim-like.

After the awful experience earlier this year (which no one ever spoke about to me again, not even the child's parent, who always seems to be picking up her son at the same time I show up for Isabella), I am considering sending her in the Obama shirt....it's long enough to belt and wear as a dress.

I volunteered to bring bread for the Thanksgiving feast that occurs after the play and I'm planning on giving this Cook's Illustrated recipe for Make Ahead Rich and Tender American Dinner Rolls a try rather than bring something from the grocery store. Isn't that one of the benefits of being a stay-at-home mom? Not having to pop into Wal-mart at the last minute for school-related snacks, lunches, and party favors.

Plus, they are make ahead dinner rolls, so if I'm happy with the results I'll be making them ahead for my own Thanksgiving dinner in 2 weeks.

It's my first try at homemade dinner rolls...wish me luck!

I'm not surprised

2008-11-13T14:21:00.008-05:00

But I am a little embarrassed.

I have duly noted this evaluation and will henceforth work to improve my rating to at least college level over the next few months.

Consider yourself warned.

Too much caffeine

2008-11-12T21:14:00.023-05:00

I stopped by Starbucks today for a coffee pick-me-up after staying up a little later than usual last night. Isabella had a school field trip to one of the PTC fire stations and then Jumping Jelly Beans, so my routine was a little more relaxed, hence the stop by Starbucks. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, after dropping her off at the fire station, I had an hour to kill so I headed over to Walmart to pick up a few things.

Funny thing about shopping alone when you aren't used to it. At least in my case, it gives me the strange but intense desire to talk to strangers. It just feels odd to be quiet after the random non-stop mom babble that occurs when shopping with kids.

But apparently it feels odder to other shoppers when a stranger starts up random conversations on the laundry detergent. Well, sorry, but I couldn't help myself.

Even the cashier wasn't down for my discussion about her name-I thought it was beautiful and old fashioned and told her so, along with the fact that it was my grandmother's name (Rose) and she looked at me like I fell off the crazy truck. On her behalf she didn't sound as if English was her first language, so maybe something got lost in translation.

With 20 minutes remaining, I drove across the street to Starbucks. I usually stick with a tall coffee-the smallest, least expensive drink they offer other than juice boxes. Well, with a few minutes to spare, I asked for a French press drink and they were happy to oblige. They even let me pick out the beans (Sumatran) and although I had already drank coffee at home, I ordered a grande since they were going through the trouble of brewing it special for me.

About 10 minutes and $1.85 later, my drink was presented in a lovely coffee pot with a cup on the side. Since I wasn't able to stick around to drink the whole thing, the friendly barista poured me a Venti for the road, in such a gigantic cup that it almost toppled over when I turned to drive out of the parking lot. 2 hours later and I was on a caffeine high.

All I can say is wow! To use the word energetic is to do injustice to the energy still rocking my system, even now, at 9pm, a time I am usually barely awake, if even awake at all. Is this how other people manage to multi-task like crazy while I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water? I'm on the fence about quitting coffee completely-it's coming soon and I thought I might taper off but really, why waste all this productive time? It's like finding extra hours in my day. Two, three...maybe even more.

For example, tonight, after homework, theater class, and cooking dinner for the kids (referred to as my second shift), I straightened my hair.

I didn't care about having straight hair-I just wanted to try out my new flat iron. It takes a really long time to straighten hair by the way.

Isabella asked me to do hers.

So I did.

Crazy.

I have tangible evidence of something I have always suspected. She has really long hair.

When it's straight.

She did a lot of super model hair flipping, which is usual when you go from corkscrew curls to long hair in a matter of minutes.

About 10 minutes after I took these photos, we took a shower and curls have magically reappeared. So, what I'm saying is that I got so much done with my caffeine overload today that I had EXTRA time to waste an hour of my day straightening hair, full well knowing it was going to get washed out before bedtime.

I know caffeine in moderation is OK but what I had today can't be good for me. Maybe I'll investigate this further on WebMD. Because the Internet has all the answers.

If only.

Concert wrap-up

2008-11-11T22:25:00.010-05:00

So excited to see Uncle David! Two radio stations had booths set up, so she actually was dancing to Rhianna.

Trying out his bunk on the tour bus....cozy.

Hanging with the crew in the entertainment quarters of the bus, followed by an extensive tour backstage. Both kids got local crew shirts from the stage manager to wear as night shirt along with several shirts from the band and Oxfam.

By the way, if you don't buy fair trade already, you should! At least coffee.

Ok, I'm off my soap box.

A shot of the family enjoying a little pre-show dinner. This was the first time in the last few years I got to sit by myself in the booth seat.

I liked it.

Yes, they are literally as close in the photo as they were during the entire dinner.

Photo by Isabella (of course)

Ear plugs ready...time for the show. We ended up staying for the entire opening act, which Devon seemed to really enjoy. During the opening act (after already buying the kids ice cream), David brought over some concert booty-candy ring pops, cookies, hershey kisses, bubble gum, and bottled water, prompting Isabella to spontaneously shout, "You are the best Uncle ever!"

When Coldplay came on, she nearly lost her mind, shouting and screaming, getting caught up in the moment. It was funny to watch and sort of made me envision her as a teenager...then I left that scary thought behind and enjoyed the first four songs of the show before heading for the parking garage.

Isabella is still singing in the shower....a Coldplay fan at 3.

She just told me she wants to be a rockstar now.

Yeah, me too.

Random thoughts in no particular order

2008-11-11T12:45:00.015-05:00

Well, sort of.

After yet another week of operating at less than 50% capacity, I think (knock on wood) that I am once again back to my normal self. Unlike some others I know who blog through and about sickness (you know who you are), I haven't been able to muster up the energy to write much in the last week. So explains my crazy lapse in blog entries. I just read in Wired that blogging is dead anyway...so be glad I am still hanging out here, posting photos, instead of moving on to 30 word entries on Twitter. :-)

After regrettably canceling my concert plans last week (due to above mentioned fatigue), after gleefully blogging about them first (and then removing the entry, since it didn't happen), I am in luck today because I have been invited again to see the 2ND show tonight.

On the downside, Paul is in Memphis, so it will be me and the kids in downtown Atlanta. Looks like he will miss the fun again (he was gone last week on the night of the 1st show). I'll blog all about the experience some time........soon. And have lots of photos to post then too.

In more arts news...we might have Wiggles tickets! Isabella was soooooooooo into the Wiggles about 2 years ago (I have the DVD's, CD's and every song they sing memorized if you need proof) and then they sort of faded out of rotation. But for some reason they are back in favor in our house AND in town this weekend. More on this later....

Isabella's catch phrase this week is, "I just can't take this too much longer". Usually spoken from the backseat of my car. When we are a long way away from whatever it is that she wants...food, bathroom, music, home, etc. Funny-mostly. Since I'm writing this blog partially to document the kids, I thought I would randomly throw that in before she moves on to something else and I completely forget that she even said it.

Oh, in Devon news, he got his first A on a DOL test last week (that's a grammar quiz that he has barely managed to get C's on for the entire year). That baby is proudly displayed on the front of our fridge.

We are off to Atlanta....wish me luck!

Almost 24 hours later

2008-11-05T19:46:00.003-05:00

And I'm still giddy...

every time I hear someone say President-elect Barack Obama,

all I can do is smile.

Trip to town

2008-11-05T13:51:00.008-05:00

Last night we went into Atlanta to have a quick dinner with my brother at Fuego. I think we tried every item on the tapas menu...some of it twice. Yum.

The kids were checking out pictures of their cousins on David's blackberry.

Lorraine enjoying a glass of Sangria

Lucky for us, we had the whole patio to ourselves. So the kids could be as loud and active as they wanted.

And they were.

A New Day

2008-11-05T07:02:00.021-05:00

I went to bed smiling (at 1:30am) and woke up still smiling this morning. Feeling much different than my neighbors across the street, whose house was already dark and whose McCain/Palin sign was already removed when I peeked out the bathroom window around 11:30pm last night.

I wonder what the rest of my fellow Georgians are thinking this morning?

Tuesday morning at 6:30AM, I took my place in line at our small town community center and waited for my chance to vote. I have voted in many elections, but this time was different.

At lunchtime yesterday, I listened to my mother-in-law tell about a woman she talked with at the local Sharpsburg Curves, a woman confessing how scared she was that the US might elect a black president. Yes, she said scared.

I suppose I can guess what she is feeling this morning.

Etched in my mind forever is the moment, last night, watching Charles Gibson report matter-of-fact that the polls had just closed on the west coast (at 11pm) and then, as if dramatically revealing what's behind curtain #3 a few seconds later, everything changed.

Suddenly he reported with complete certainty that Obama won, and there it was.

President-elect Barack Obama.

My mother-in-law said she never thought this would happen in her lifetime and I realized not once have I ever had that same thought. Not once. Of course, I don't have years of social injustice behind me, thank God. My children will never be forced to endure anything close to what she has seen in her 60+ years. My beautiful daughter, with her mix of black, Chinese, and European descent, will never know the fear magnified by history she will one day learn about but not have to live through ever again.

History that will include what happened on November 4, 2008.

It is a good day indeed.

With tears of joy, something I probably haven't had since the morning Isabella was born, I saw change.

I have hope.

I felt proud to be an American again.

That acceptance speech-magic. I hope you saw it too.

Some balance for what has been out of reach for so long. It won't change race relations...I agree with all who say the same. But those scared folks who have always believed in their right to take away another person's freedom to think/vote/exist because of the color of their skin, maybe they should be afraid.

Because it looks like America is moving on and leaving them behind.

By the way, I have never, ever voted for a Democrat in my entire 37 years of life.

Until yesterday. When I voted for a whole bunch of them.

In fact, last night was the first time I have even stayed up past 10pm to watch election results. What's happened to me?

Well, I didn't vote for Obama because of race. Yeah, I considered that at the beginning, but only for a second.

Then, like so many other Americans, I thought about the issues; how they impacted me, my family, my community; and that's when I knew I couldn't vote for the other guys.

And to the Republican party who thinks that Sarah Palin is the new face of the party I say, really? Do you think that silly, stupid, and sexy are the best you can do to represent the women of this country? She doesn't represent me. And neither do you.

It's a new day....

My karate kids

2008-11-03T07:00:00.007-05:00

Both Devon and Isabella competed this weekend at the BooSpectacular Karate Tournament in Newnan. Isabella placed 2ND in her division (3-6 years old) for both her Kata and her sparing.

That's Isabella doing her Kata.

Here's Isabella sparring with a green belt. She just received a penalty for hitting too hard.

We're working on that.

Devon also kicked some karate butt, coming home with a 2ND and 4Th place win (sparing and Kata respectively). He was moving so fast that all the photos of Devon sparring are blurry-that's why I only have shots of him during the awards session.

Way to go, Devon and Isabella!

In case you were wondering, they both practice Shotokon -style fighting technique.

Trick or Treat?

2008-11-02T16:02:00.009-05:00

Devon dressed as a ninja: Isabella as a candy corn vampiress witch (check out her glow-in-the-dark teeth).

This was the first Halloween I can remember that we weren't feeling warm and sweaty all evening. I bet whoever is dressed up in this mummy costume was glad about the unseasonably cool weather too!

The fun started at the local Publix, where a bunch of the employees created a not-too-scary haunted house for the kids. Both Devon and Isabella had fun and got a jumpstart on their candy collecting.

We returned home to eat a delicious dinner of Chinese take-out. Thank you Lorraine for coming up with the brilliant idea to order in rather than cook.

Then everyone hit the road (except my mother-in-law, who handed out candy), hoping that full stomachs would keep kids out of candy bags while we were trick or treating. I think we made it about 10 minutes when they started begging to eat some of the candy from their bags.

Neither wanted to hear us say we needed to check the candy first, even after we explained how back in the day some parents even took Halloween candy to hospitals to x-ray it for razor blades.

Ah, the joyful memories of childhood.

Happy Birthday Paul!

2008-11-02T15:37:00.006-05:00

Halloween is a busy day in our house! After taking the kids around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat, we returned to celebrate Paul's birthday with funny cards, chocolate cake and presents.

This is one of two fabulous birthday cakes we had that night. Paul came home from the office with a homemade 3 layer German chocolate cake. I don't know about you, but I think too much cake CAN sometimes be a good thing.

Medical Fun

2008-10-31T15:56:00.009-04:00

Knowing how I handle blood work, you can guess how the IV went yesterday for my surgery.

I didn't pass out but let me just say I had a lot of fearful tears shed by the time the nurse (with a syringe of Valium in her pocket) came in to do it. Surprisingly I did better than I have in the past and even declined the Valium chaser, which she gave me anyway a few minutes later.

The best conversation I had all day was with the anesthesiologist, who arrived immediately after the IV was in and said, "It's never fun to get poked but at least I'll be sending a martini through it in a few minutes."

What's not to like with a doctor who throws around metaphors like that? And she was true to her word. I felt much better by the time I hit the operating room thirty minutes later.

Anyway, everything went well...stay tuned for more details in my seemingly never ending quest for baby #2.

If advertisements were truthful

2008-10-31T15:13:00.004-04:00

From Holy Taco. This one really hit home for me.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T12:28:00.012-04:00

Pumpkin carving time over the weekend

Isabella inspecting Devon's jack-o-lantern

Devon's pumpkin without flash......scary! He did it all by himself.

Isabella's witch (she and I both worked on this one)

And to scare away our neighborhood Republicans, the Obama pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!

Weekly Menu

2008-10-19T07:15:00.004-04:00

We snagged one last caterpillar from our parsley plant (the rest snuck off to coccoon without us), and this one is now safely tucked into Isabella's bug catcher, becoming a liquid goo inside his chrysylis before surprising us with his beautiful butterfly self towards the end of this week.

In an effort to diversify my dinner recipe repertoire as well as stick with a grocery list/budget, I present my new blog feature, weekly menu. Hmmm, I need to jazz that title up a bit, but for now it will do.

Anyway, as I was writing this menu out I realized what a great tool it could be to not only stay on budget but also keep track of what I cooked recently, allowing me to get a little creative, not always relying on the same old 10 things I usually make for dinner. We'll see if that really happens.

Since what I am feeding my family will now be public knowledge (for the handful of you that visit my site each week), I hope to feel a little more creative, no longer relying on my lazy-day standbys of grilled cheese, raman noodle soup, or frozen pizza. I've made a promise to myself to try cooking something new every week, so please don't judge me if some family favorites show up repeatedly. It doesn't do any good to cook it if they won't eat it, right?

Traditionally, most blog menus I've seen are pretty standard Sunday -Saturday, but I have a little trouble sticking with that format. So, instead I'll list everything I plan on serving for the week and then cook as time permits. Know that as soon as Paul says he is out of town for a day, 2 days, or more, I'll be tempted to cater to my kids' grill cheese requests and save the heavy duty cooking for when I have another adult around to enjoy it.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Penna Pasta with Italian Sunday Gravy

Buttermilk Brined Pork Chops

Talerine Casserole

Chili Cheese Enchiladas

Chickpeas with Spinach

Pancakes from this Instant Pancake Mix recipe

Classic Macaroni and Cheese - Cooks Illustrated

Rainy day baking

2008-10-17T11:31:00.015-04:00

It's a rainy Friday morning and we are making granola! We also made a loaf of banana bread, but the granola was an impulse that turned out wonderful...I love it when that happens!

Paul recently become a fan of granola cereal, after trying this one over the summer. Since it never goes on sale and I'm currently out of coupons, I thought I'd have a try at making my own version. Does that make me a hippie now, baking my own granola? I don't know. :-)

We already had all the ingredients for the granola recipe in the pantry and after putting it all on the counter, it took less than 10 minutes to assemble.

Fast and easy...what's not to like?

I used this recipe for guidance but ended up making a few changes along the way. Since the original recipe has eight flavor variations, I figured it wouldn't make much of a difference to the final product and it didn't.

Rainy Day Granola Recipe

2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup milled flax seed

2 TBSP brown sugar

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/3 cup honey

3 TBSP canola oil

1 TBSP water

1/3 cup slivered almonds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 sweetened coconut flakes

1 tsp almond extract

1/ 2 cup golden raisins

Heat oven to 275 degrees. Coat large cookie sheet with canola oil.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients EXCEPT the raisins. Spread mixture on greased cookie sheet and (with wet hands) squeeze cereal to form clumps.

Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle raisins over granola and stir. Bake another 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool.

Store granola in air-tight container for up to two weeks.

I think our recipe tastes similar to homemade oatmeal cookies...the good ones with lots of stuff added so that you kind of forget that you are eating oatmeal. As stated in the original recipe, the key is getting the granola to brown, imparting the nutty, sweet flavor that transforms the oats into something really delicious. I have so many ideas on substitutions and flavor combos that I know I'll be using this recipe on a regular basis. Oh, yeah, the recipe is low-fat, in case you care about that sort of thing.

Yum!

Infomercial FUn

2008-10-15T13:36:00.014-04:00

While setting up the table for Isabella to fingerpaint this afternoon, I spilled some water.

"Mommy, you need to get some of those Sham Wow things," she said.

Guess it's time to cut back on family TV time.

She then proceeded to do the ShamWow demo with a bowl of water and the kitchen sponge.

And had more fun than with that than the finger paints.

Of course.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, turn up your speakers and head over to the ShamWow site right now.

You'll say WOW everytime~

Fayette County Fair

2008-10-13T07:23:00.030-04:00

We enjoyed another trip to the Kiwanis fair over the weekend, this time in Fayetteville. It was a much smaller event compared to the Kiwanis fair in Coweta county-maybe because Coweta has their own fair grounds?

No animals, no livestock demos or craft stuff this time but since we've already been to the fair once this year, no big deal.

Both kids had fun riding questionably safe-looking rides, run by not-so-traditional carnie folk. In fact, I didn't really see any carnie folk...everyone was wearing a uniform shirt with some company logo on it and, for the most part, looked like average folks. Too bad, that is almost my favorite part of these sorts of places. I did had a few interesting conversations with some of the ride operators but that's a story I'll save for later.

Devon was his usual awesome self, accompanying Isabella on rides, even through this fun house where she decided halfway in (and on the second level) that she couldn't do it anymore. So Devon carried her the rest of the way, including down a moving flight of stairs. Twice.

For the record, she had a better time the second go round.

Paul and Isabella spent a lot of time talking about a haunted house she wanted to go in, then didn't want to go in, then wanted to go in, then changed her mind again. She and I actually went on the haunted house ride last year and it was loud but not scary, however, she didn't remember.

In the end, she couldn't muster the courage to go this time.

Devon just finished a cheeseburger, chips, candy apple, and soda before getting on this ride. We were waiting for something to happen, but it never did.

The man who runs this airplane ride claims he raised his children (and had them on the ride when they were barely days old...hmmmm) by operating it at various carnivals around the country for the last 30 years. Isabella had this ride all to herself.

It wasn't very crowded on Saturday-maybe because of the weather, which bounced from windy and hot to almost ready to rain every 1o minutes. Or perhaps because they didn't advertise it anywhere...it was nearly impossible to find the location online. If Devon wasn't performing with his musical theater group we would have never known when to go.

Devon and Isabella riding on the train (they were the only two on the ride)

This was the best ride at the fair....bumper boats. Fun times!
Devon was too big to ride this one.

Here is Devon in action, signing a rousing rendition of Surfin USA!

Time for his solo.......nice of the guy next to him to hold the microphone. Oh, they did the solo together...so I guess it's not really a solo anymore. But it usually is.

I searched high and low for the toddler car ride that was at the Coweta Fair, but this was the closest I could come to it. Check out the bumper stickers...yup, she's riding in the Busch Beer car. Classy!

Paul and Isabella had some luck with the midway games. Look at them with their winnings. Yea, more junk for me to pick up. Thanks guys!

Isabella won her penguin on this fishing game.

Devon loved riding on the Himalayan...this was my favorite ride when I was younger. I don't remember it only going backwards though...but it only went backwards.

Yikes.

The best spot to see all the action (and the storm clouds). Don't worry, it was sunny five minutes later.

Best of all, we were all so stuffed from the junk we ate at the fair that I didn't have to cook dinner.

How did I not know this?

2008-10-11T09:26:00.011-04:00

OK, so I am a private person.

Really private.

Painfully private. I'm not kidding.

Yes, I know it seems a bit of a paradox now that I am blogging, but I rarely share anything personal here unless it's somewhat superficial. Sad but true.

Anyway, it has been a long time since I googled myself. Don't act like you haven't done this before! I have a few google doppelgangers out in the world and someday I'll add them on Facebook or something silly like that but honestly, I haven't really been searching for people online in a long time, including myself.

But Paul and I were having a conversation this morning about the way people stumble on to certain blogs (mine specifically) and he decided to type in key words to see if we could get anything from my site to pop up.

Then he tried my name and another name (from a local Houston incident involving a former client of mine that I don't talk about anymore) and that is when the fun began. If you are not in my immediate family, you probably don't know what I'm about to say, unless you are the type of person that googles people you know (and well, bravo, I like the way you think) so here it is:

CLAUDINE PHILLIPS CLARA HARRIS

Remember her? If not, the same old stuff is out there that's always on the Internet, old newspaper reports and TV transcripts. Sad story. One of my several 15 minutes of fame. I've had my fair share of run-ins and/or workings with famous (or infamous) people, including a few murderers...wow, that is troubling. Life in the big city I guess.

But that isn't the point of this entry. Paul found something really exciting, at least to me. Someone wrote a book about what happened and I AM IN IT! Luckily you can read an excerpt on the Internet..check out page 243!

How did I not know about this-the book was published over 3 years ago.

http://books.google.com/books?id=BrZi0eUFV_UC&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=claudine+phillips+clara+harris&source=web&ots=1diGPlMMBw&sig=P9NM9nG4NbShR7cgdBCPTllelxE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result

For the record, I was wearing makeup. It's called the natural look....jack ass.

A book!

This is so much better than even the Made for TV movie where Sela Ward played Bobbi Bacha and someone wearing daisy duke shorts, tight shirts, and cowboy boots played a woman (she did have really curly hair) vaguely resembling me, although for the record, I haven't owned cowboy boots since I was in 3rd grade.

So there you go, friends who didn't know. One deep dark secret from my closet exposed. Don't expect to find many more of those on my blog.

I'm trying to work the rest of them into the novel I'll finish one day, if I don't start a graduate school program soon.

Oh, I just searched through the book online and you should really start with page 47. Listen to this gem of a sentence-

"Slender and intelligent, Claudine Phillips is a favorite with the owners of the detective agency".

I am heading over to Amazon to buy myself a copy right now.

Isabella's White Belt Test

2008-10-11T01:40:00.011-04:00

A few photos from Isabella's very quick white belt test tonight.

In case you have never been to a karate belt test, the lowest rank students go first and you can't get any lower rank than beginner little dragon!

Once you receive your belt, the sensai dismisses you from the dojo.

Although they didn't come out great (bad lighting, moving kids), I have to include a few blurry action shots taken during her test. She's the one with the puffy hair.

Test complete, Isabella received her white belt.

Most important rule of karate...never wash your belt.

43 Things

2008-10-11T01:12:00.006-04:00

I'm not sure how I found this site t0day, but I'm hooked already. Something about make a list, any list, makes me happy.

:-)

So far all I have IS my list, and not in order of importance yet.

Maybe you want to make one yourself?

http://www.43things.com/person/chailey99

Random Photos

2008-10-10T17:09:00.006-04:00

A few photos I didn't get a chance to post along the way.

Devon performing at the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce Event a few weeks ago.

Before the event, playing outside

At the park, feeding the ducks

While I was cooking dinner, they were having a tea party in the hallway.

It's finally Friday

2008-10-10T09:42:00.008-04:00

And I have just as much to do as ever. Coweta County schools have a teacher in-service day today, which means we all enjoyed sleeping in this morning, except for Paul, who was up at 5am to catch a flight to North Carolina for his annual performance review.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he gets back on time this afternoon to make it to Isabella's karate belt test. If all goes well, she'll become a white belt tonight!

Yes, Isabella is finger-painting tomatoes. Too bad I can't get her to eat any.

I'm still fighting with my allergies, almost overcoming a bout of laryngitis that's stuck with me over the last few days. At least I'm not tissue dependent anymore. Isabella made it to school yesterday and was (according to her teacher) surrounding by a classroom full of coughing, hacking, runny nosed friends, so I guess we are not the only ones. Maybe the all-day rain we had on Wednesday will help clear away some of the allergens.

Here is how much we got that day, according to Devon's amazing homemade rain gage.

Speaking of Devon, we are off to the doctor this morning for his check-up. He hasn't been to a doctor since we moved here except for a quick physical for school purposes, since he NEVER, EVER gets sick. I hope the doctor is nice and the staff efficient. I can't stand hanging out in a germy pediatrician waiting room. Ick.

Our caterpillar eggs from a couple of weeks ago have turned into full grown caterpillars. I guess we need to catch a few ASAP as these guys look like they are ready to make the trip over to the pine trees for a little cocooning.

Devon is performing a benefit show for the local Humane society, tomorrow at the Fayette County Fair. It is at the same time as Isabella's Nutcracker ballet rehearsal, so I guess Paul and I are going to have to split up in order to get everyone to the right place on time. Pictures and details soon!

Cook's Illustrated - Basic Vinaigrette Recipe

2008-10-08T08:46:00.002-04:00

For those of you that want the original recipe for the vinaigrette, here it is.

You just can't go wrong with a Cook's Illustrated recipe!

Cook's Illustrated - Basic Vinaigrette Recipe: "Basic Vinaigrette
2/2005
Makes about 1 cup
3/4cup extra-virgin olive oil
3tablespoons red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
2teaspoons minced shallot or red onion
2teaspoons Dijon mustard (optional)
1 1/2teaspoons minced fresh tarragon , dill, basil, or oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1clove garlic , minced
1/2teaspoon table salt
1/4teaspoon ground black pepper

Shake all of the ingredients together in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. The dressing can be refrigerated for up to 7 days; bring to room temperature, then shake vigorously to recombine before using.

What a difference 6 months makes

2008-10-07T10:51:00.023-04:00

Our family is racking up the insurance co-pays over the last few days, with three out of four doctor visits completed. Only one more to go, for Devon, on Friday.

First up was me, with a return trip to the endocrinologist in Atlanta for more blood tests (fasting) and hormone shots (the longest needle I have ever seen in my life). Good news...no fainting episode this time, possibly due to the amount of heckling I received from the staff as I was waiting to get my blood drawn. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a shot in your rear end doesn't hurt (doesn't hurt much) until about 1 hour later. Then, ouch. Ouch. For the entire weekend that is all I said, ouch.

Doctor appointment #2 was really a dentist, for Isabella, who went for her teeth cleaning Monday.

Her last visit (also her very first trip to the dentist), was a nightmare. It took almost 15 minutes for her to allow the dental hygienist to just count her teeth. Despite her total unwillingness to cooperate, she did eventually get her teeth cleaned, standing up because she refused to get in the scary reclining chair. By the time the dentist came in to check her teeth, Isabella was so worked up she cried during the entire 3 minute exam (while both the dentist and I pinned her down on my lap). Awful!

At the end of the visit, they tried to take a photo to commemorate the experience. Isabella's photo has about half her body in it because she made a run for the door after I stepped aside for them to take her picture. Yeah, it was that bad.

But that was then and this is now.

Yesterday...completely different story!!!!!!!!!!!!

Model patient!!!!

So brave!!!! Hallelujah!

Here she is waiting for her teeth cleaning. They provide sunglasses so the giant light doesn't bother her eyes. Things sure have changed since I was a kid. This place is really fun.

Here she is getting her teeth cleaned with grape toothpaste. Yum.

Check out those shiny, healthy, perfect teeth!

They have a TV in the ceiling, playing movies. Which explains why she has headphones on. No matter what I do, this photo won't stay the right way so just turn your head sideways.

Anyway, we were in and out in 45 minutes. It was a great experience and hopefully all visits to the dentist will be just as fun as this one was!

If you are looking for a pediatric dentist, this is the place to go...Peachtree Pediatric Dentisty. They are amazing!

Today Isabella had appointment with an opthamologist, Dr. Greenberg. She's having the same issues with her eyes that Paul had (has) and after meeting with the doctor, he did recommend surgery, the same surgery Paul had last year.

Unfortunately, Paul had complications with his surgery that are still ongoing and the doctor would like those resolved before doing the surgery on Isabella.

The idea of her having surgery is terrifying, even if it will be minor. The good news is that it doesn't have to be right now. We have some discretion as to when we schedule it if we chose to do it at all. She did great, even when they gave her "rain drops" to dilate her eyes. Check out the cool glasses she got on after her appointment.

Happy Birthday Devon!

2008-10-07T10:35:00.011-04:00

We started the day with birthday cupcakes and ended it with a family birthday dinner. We have a 10 year old in the house now!

Here are a few photos from Devon's birthday dinner last night.

My camera flash wasn't working correctly so the photos are a little dark. I took about 35 photos but these are the only ones that came out.

After a dinner of Devon's favorites (steak, potatoes, and carrots and peas) we brought out the Oreo birthday cake and sang before getting to the good stuff...the birthday presents.

He opened cards first (such good manners-he read them out loud) and then presents.

He got $20 in cash, a bunch of Pokemon cards and paraphernalia, plus two video games for his DS. Oh, and a few books as well. Not bad.

As soon as the presents were opened, Devon and Isabella disappeared to his bedroom to inspect the loot, only coming out twice-once to talk to Sean and about an hour later, to talk to Nick.

Paul is our next family birthday, on Halloween. I think we are buying Halloween costumes this weekend, although with Halloween 3 weeks away it still might be too soon. Isabella has gone from a princess to a vampiress to her current pick, cheerleader. Yes, I hope she stays with that one so we can get cheerleader out of her system now.

She is now working on costume ideas for Paul and me. So far we have plug and socket and doctor and nurse. Yikes!

Devon has gone from Pokemon somebody to grim reaper (always trying to be like Nick) to his current pick, ninja.

We'll see what we look like on Halloween!

How to make the best salad ever

2008-09-29T14:38:00.030-04:00

We have had so many fresh vegetables and herbs this summer, thanks in part to my own gardening as well as a local farm I visit as much as possible during the growing season.

I know it is more expensive but organic just tastes better most times, so I try to buy it, especially for vegetables we are eating raw. Incidentally, I found the farm last summer after reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life, the book that inspired me to attempt vegetables this year.

Even though we are well into October, I STILL have tomatoes everyday...this is just what I picked this morning. Call me if you want some!

I haven't been a big salad dressing fan since I was a teenager, when the dressing was the best part of a salad (because it was sugary and red and completely covering the lettuce). Although I definitely have a sweet tooth, I no longer enjoy high fructose corn syrup poured on top of my greens. I save those calories for something really good....like chocolate.

Maybe you feel the same.

Sometime during the spring I came across a recipe for a really easy vinaigrette that sounded so simple I had to try it. Since then I've tweaked the original recipe a bit and come up with the perfect way we like to eat salad.

Everything you need is probably already in your pantry or refrigerator and the whole thing can be assembled in less than five minutes. See.........

Try it and let me know what you think!

Basic Honey Vinaigrette

3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 TBSP Red Wine Vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp Honey

1/2 tsp fresh or dry herbs

salt and pepper to taste

In a glass measuring cup or bowl, mix vinegar, mustard, honey, herbs, and salt and pepper. Once combined, add olive oil and stir vigorously until combined. Use right away or keep tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 7 days and say goodbye to pre-made salad dressing forever!

Be sure to add salt and pepper (just a few pinches or grinds) to your salad greens before you toss with the vinaigrette. Seasoning before adding the dressing gives the salad just the right balance.

Experiment with flavors and make it your own! It's very forgiving as long as you keep the 3:1 ratio of oil to acid. Oh, and don't leave out the mustard (you could probably use less although I barely detect the flavor of mustard in the salad)...it emulsifies the dressing to make it creamy.

It's Saturday night

2008-09-28T10:39:00.014-04:00

And my kitchen is closed!

Paul suggested a trip to the local pizza place, Vinnie R's, and after spending the afternoon being so lazy, watching DVDs and eating popcorn, it sounded like the perfect thing to do.

It was a big surprise when we moved here from Houston to find that Atlanta has pretty authentic east coast style pizza. It tastes even better considering the years and years of Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa Johns deliveries we have suffered through (well, maybe not suffered, but you know what I mean).

It's good stuff!

Look how happy we all look, and that is way before the pizza arrived.

Now, check out this pizza...you wish you were here, don't you?

Yea, it was really good.

Isabella ate three pieces....same as me (um, I workout now, so it's OK). Devon only ate two. He is trying to keep his on-stage figure I guess. You know how drama kings are these days.

Dramatic.

After dinner Isabella randomly said, "Mommy, if anyone tried to hurt you I would stab they (her multi-purpose pronoun) with a really sharp knife."

Good to know.

The previous night at dinner, Isabella was going around the table telling everyone how much she loved them.

"I love you, Devon. I love you, Daddy. Mommy, I love you more."

Soooooooooo, the knife comment is kind of keeping with her current theme of the week.

Well, all I have to say is, I earned it.

For those of you who are not BLOGGER savy

2008-09-26T09:44:00.006-04:00

Many of you email me about particular items on this blog; however, it is easier to just leave a comment while you are here.

This is what you do:

At the bottom of the entry, click on the word comments.

You'll be taken to a new page with a box on the right for you to type your thoughts.

Leave your name under Choose an Identity, then hit the orange Publish Your Comment box.

Then I get an email notifying me that you've left something for me to read.

Yea, I love mail!

:-) Happy Friday

By the way, if you click on any of the photos embedded in the blog, they will open up to a larger size.

National Punctuation Day

2008-09-24T15:53:00.004-04:00

Today is National Punctuation Day! Yes! Yes! Yes! A topic near and dear to my heart.

Everyone rush over to the website and brush up on the basics. Why? Because it matters, that's why!

Remember this cake I bought from Publix a few months ago for Paul's office party?

If you don't see anything wrong, well....I'm sure you can google apostrophe use to help you figure it out. Paul took the cake to work and...(sigh)...no one noticed there either.

Speaking of cakes, if you need a laugh today, this blog is hilarious.

Coweta County Fair

2008-09-24T10:52:00.027-04:00

We've been enjoying the most amazing weather since last week, cool mornings and evenings, highs in the low 80's. Sunshine. Low humidity. Breeze blowing most of the time.

Weather that makes you glad to be outside.

I actually had to grab a hoodie on the way out the door this morning. I love it!

Over the weekend we enjoyed a visit to the annual Kiwanis fair at the county fair grounds. Last year we went and had so much fun. It was the first time we had ever taken the kids to a fair (um, we do Houston Rodeo in March in TX which is 1000 times better but I digress) and we have been looking forward to a return visit ever since.

Isabella was so excited to get cotton candy that she bought at the first stand we found. Paul and her ate almost the entire bag together.

She was kind of stingy about sharing it-I'm not really sure if she knew he was sneaking it from the bag. It looks like he is trying to convince her to give him some, doesn't it?

There was a petting zoo, with a camel, a small zebra, and some goats...I think even a peacock and kangaroo (he was napping when we went in). Isabella decided she didn't like the animals licking her hand to get the food, so she took photos and I feed them.

Anytime you see a photo of me (without her-like my blogpage photo), she took it.

She's my official photographer!

Here is Devon riding on a helicopter (for toddlers), because Isabella refused to get in after he was already on it.

He is such a good big brother.

He did get to ride several rides that I won't go on anymore that were my favorites as a kid....rides that swirl you around or shake you up and down and then drop, or just plain drop.

Like this one.

I think Devon enjoyed his free fall ride.

That's him on the end in the blue shirt, looking terrified (he really loved it despite that look on his face).

The bumper cars were the only ride Isabella remembered from last year, so when we finally found it, she hopped in a car with Paul. Here she is planning her sneak attack on Devon.

Devon is supposed to perform in October at the Kiwanis Fair in Fayette county, which means we get to do the fair all over again next month.

Yippee!

Who wants to play the GAS GAME????

2008-09-24T10:28:00.006-04:00

Since the day before Ike hit Houston, gas has been crazy in Georgia. Gas went up from around $3.59 to $4.39 overnight. I thought that was the worst of it, but not so.

The good news is that gas prices have slowly been dropping, closer to $4.00 around my neighborhood.

On Monday morning, the local tv reporters cautioned people against "topping" of the tank just because they find gas somewhere (the city of Atlanta has apparently been experiencing a shortage ahead of us out here in the country). I thought, "I have at least 1/2 a tank of gas and maybe the price will be coming down, so I won't top my tank off and add to this hysteria". Ha Ha Ha.

I dropped Isabella off at school (which is 18 miles from my house), ran a few errands, and my gas guzzler showed less than a 1/4 of a tank remaining. So, just to be safe, I started looking for a gas station.

I found plenty of gas stations, but none of them had any gas. That's right, no gas. And I guess there is no protocol for gas stations to demonstrate they are out of gas, which just adds to the drama as your tank creeps closer and closer to E. It's like a game...can you find gas before your time (tank) runs out????

Some stations with digital price boards read 0.00 but at other stations the prices are still up, but you can see plastic grocery bags on the pumps, indicating they are out. At another station I drove to, they had signs posted on the pumps but no bags. Thanks a lot.

When I finally found a station with gas, the handwritten sign said Regular only. Hmmm, can I put regular gas in my car? I always just push the cheapest unleaded button and try not to look at the display screen as my car eats up yet another $60 out of my bank account.

Luckily, an older woman drove up in a Lexus and asked me if all they had was regular...when I said yes she rolled her eyes (I guess she only uses premium gas) but still put it in her car, so I figured I was safe.

This picture shows the line wrapping out into the street for gas, a common sight when drivers see somewhere that is selling fuel.

Another butterfly

2008-09-17T19:12:00.015-04:00

Two down, one more to go.

This butterfly appeared on Tuesday morning, just in time to go to preschool for show and tell. The class released him in a field behind the school, where Isabella said he flew away "because all the kids were chasing him". We have one more caterpillar still sleeping that I suspect will be arriving any day now.

Our backyard is just full of exciting live things. On the way to pick tomatoes I spotted this guy hanging out on the side of our house.

Lastly, a photo of squirrel, known in our house as Isabella's husband. First he was her boyfriend, then her husband.

Yeah, her husband. That's him on the fence post.

We have had a busy week as usual but I managed to visit with some friends on Tuesday, the only thing that makes Georgia reasonably tolerable to me these days. I feel fortunate to have met so many fantastic girls, despite being so far from civilized society!

I started my morning holding a beautiful one-week old snugglebug baby (but didn't take any photos darn it...next time!) Oh my goodness, what a way to start the day!

When I picked Isabella up from school we headed over to meet a few friends at Chick-fil-A for lunch and the kids really seemed to like it. They sat at their own table while the moms enjoyed lunch relatively relaxed except for an occasional run-away that needed to be corralled back to the table.

Next stop, the park, where Isabella turned into some sort of angry monster child (see photo).

While the rest of the kids were running around and having fun, she spent almost the entire time screaming, crying, yelling, and just being unsociable.

When we talked about it last night, she summed it up by saying, "I had an attitude." I agree completely.

She came home from preschool today and took a three hour nap, so I think sleep deprivation (she stayed up late on Monday night to play with daddy who is once again out of town until tomorrow) was to blame. And she has returned to her complete angel self today.

Devon has 1 rehearsal, 2 theater performances and 2 birthday parties next weekend....ugh! On the way to class tonight I joked with him, saying too bad he wasn't a girl because then he could sing "Popular" from Wicked in one of his performances (he knows all the words and loves the song). When I picked him up from class tonight he said his teacher announced that one of the girls in the class was going to be singing that song on Saturday.

It really sucks to be him today.

He'll be performing his Beach Boys medley again at both shows on Saturday, and probably singing along (from the sidelines) while someone else gets to sing "Popular".

My doctor's office called this afternoon and said hurray! my insurance covers the drug they are going to inject in my stomach in 2 weeks, to prepare me for my October surgery. OK, I don't know for sure that is where it is going to be injected because the nurse wouldn't tell me (recalling my Monday incident) but that is my guess.

So mark your calendars for about 3 weeks from now for the post on that office visit...oh, the hilarity that will ensue.

It must be a Southern thing

2008-09-15T15:59:00.013-04:00

For the first time in my 30+ years of suffering from associative trypanophobia, I actually fainted during a blood test this morning (which I guess makes me vaso-vagal according to the chart).

Yup, fainted, as in completely lights out, at least until someone brought in the smelling salts.

I started out sitting in a chair and woke up on a cold hard floor, draped in wet towels, feet up in the air, surrounded by two doctors, three nurses, and the phlebotomist.

Embarrassing? Um, just a little.

This is sort of funny though because USUALLY I give the technician a heads-up about my phobia, as I have noticed through many lab visits that even the most irritable phlebotomist will do two things once I alert them of my sensitive nature:

First, they ask if I need to lie down (hell no, that will make it all seem "real" and
"serious" and then I will faint).

Second, and most importantly, they complete the blood draw really, really quickly.

Today I made a joke about the 12 vials waiting to be filled, five of which thankfully were moved to the "next time" pile once the technician realized I wasn't fasting today. It was my subtle way of giving the her a head's up on my condition. I guess it was a little too subtle.

Here's the rest of what I remember:

Blue rubber band thingy on my arm (hey, the room is starting to look fuzzy), squeezing the icky stress ball (how many germy hands are on this a day?), prick in my arm (I think I actually said I wasn't feeling right while she was telling me to relax my arm) and then....a flurry of activity, sort of muffled, like I was hiding in a closet and couldn't see anything that was happening.

Thank goodness or I would have seen ME, flashing my microfiber turquoise blue underwear to the world(because someone has my legs propped up facing the OPEN door to the main hallway). Note to self: I will definitely be wearing cute Victoria Secret underwear for all future blood lettings.

The best/worst part of this story is that I'll have follow-ups to post, as I need to go back for fasting blood work and then again for a series of shots in two weeks (shots that I pick up from the drugstore myself and bring to the nurse in the office to administer-believe me, we went over this several times until I was sure she said SHE would give me the shots).

Hopefully without fainting.

It's alive

2008-09-13T20:24:00.004-04:00

We had a butterfly "born" today! Paul spotted it flying around in the bug cage while Isabella and I were outside swimming.

We still have two more caterpillars cocooning, so if all works out, we'll get to do this again next week.

After briefly admiring the butterfly, Isabella took the cage outside and let him go.

We'll be at Publix tomorrow buying new parsley plants to put in the ground, hopefully to catch another round of caterpillars before the weather changes.

Welcome to the world baby girl!

2008-09-10T18:24:00.009-04:00

Sweet baby Ava....I love you already and we haven't even met yet.

You're a lucky girl with an amazing dad and mom (just between you and me the rest of the family is a bit of a mixed bag, but we'll talk about that later).

That being said, hopefully your parents will send lots of photos ASAP so I can replace this clip art with your smiling, swaddled-up self.

(ok, they sent one...I guess that's a start!)

XOXOXO Aunt Claudine

Wake Me Up When September Ends

2008-09-09T18:43:00.009-04:00

My mom sent me this photo Monday of a paver she commissioned at the Clear Lake library entrance way. I'm pretty sure my sister never stepped foot in this library as it was kind of new when I left Texas and it has already been four + years since she died. The library was relocated from a smaller building so I suppose she might have visited the older location. Anyway, it's nice to know the brick is there and that maybe people walk over the bricks, and do as I do, looking at names, wondering who goes with each one, thinking of them without ever knowing them.

It's days like today, days I don't want to write about in detail because it will make me look like a not-so-hot mess, that I really miss my sister. Days like this that I watch me wrestling with this and wish..... (vague enough for you yet?).

She would notice. Even if I tried to hide it. Which I would.

And she would have surprisingly insightful, encouraging words to say, without pushing me face to face with this thing (cause that definitely wasn't her style).

And she would be a sister. Which she wasn't very good at most of the time.

I started thinking about Leslie when I heard this song today....skip to the end if this is getting too sappy for you.

And I was riding by,

riding along side,

for awhile, til you lost me,

And I was riding,

alongside,

til you lost

til you lost me

in the rearview.

til you lost me," I said.

Exactly.

I suppose she still knows what's going on here.

I just can't hear her anymore.

Celebrating International Literacy Day

2008-09-08T11:17:00.004-04:00

According to the International Reading Association, "more than 780 million of the world’s adults (nearly two-thirds of whom are women) do not know how to read or write."

In case you missed it, the AJC published this article highlighting the issue of functional literacy pertaining to Atlanta, timely considering the train wreck that is the Clayton County school system.

http://www.ajc.com/print/content/printedition/2008/09/08/ellisoned.html

Time to stock up on Lysol

2008-09-08T07:27:00.013-04:00

I was so busy with the first few weeks of school that it was a complete surprise when we received our first visit (and probably not the last) from the friendly neighborhood cold virus.

Isabella is the first one down for the count, with her lightweight immune system & limited exposure to germs as a result of not being in school/daycare up until this point in her life. Sidenote to this story-Paul is on antibiotics for the beginning stages of bronchitis (his faithful fall/winter friend) but hopefully that is under control for now and besides, he wouldn't agree to be sick anyway...at least until he is hospitalized, if past experience is any indication. He is out of town until Thursday night (and in Houston again, so unfair!!!) so I'll get back to the real story now.

This bout of sickness reminds me of the semester I completed student teaching, when I was all sorts of sick and Paul coined the phrase "ooga boogga disease" to explain my ever-present illness that year (incidentally, I was surrounded by 120 ninth graders, at least half of who also had ooga boogga that fall, leaving visitors to my classroom wondering whether I was teaching or manning a whooping cough wing in a children's hospital).

Yes, that was the year I bonded with students over deep conversations about Romeo and Juliet, The House on Mango Street, and the virtues of Kleenex and how much we missed them when we ran out. But our most heated discussions occurred when I had to defend my refusal to share my cough drops (considered a drug on my drug-free high school campus) and therefore risk losing my soon-to-be attained teaching license. I will admit to frequently fantasizing about sprinkling cough drops under the desks in between passing periods, just to have some relief from the cacophony of hacking and dry heaving, the result of unusually cold weather flip-flopping with warm weather for the first three months of school that year; but I bet that this is a pretty common teacher fantasy, now that I think about it.

Anyway, I took Isabella to the doctor on Saturday (an opportunity to try out an after-hours Pediatric clinic in Fayetteville in the process) and was relieved to find out that no, she doesn't have meningitis (she does go to school at a child development center in a high school, AND she did complain of headache and pain in her spine with a really high fever) or West Nile virus (I counted several mosquito bites on her leg and one confirmed case in Atlanta now)....WEBMd....why can't you give me the best case scenario instead of sending me out into the world sounding like a complete blithering idiot??? Turns out, all those symptoms can be classified as general aches that go with a cold. Hmmm. Who knew medicine could be so simple.

The nurse swabbed for strep-wow, to say Isabella was ticked at me for letting that happen is the understatement of the year. She spent the rest of the time in the exam room, crying and whining loudly in retaliation and finally stopped once we got back into the car, whispering gleefully that she managed to get out of the office without any needles in her arm.

Diagnosis-viral infection-generally lasts about a week.

I could tell the doctor thought since I was a crazy worst-case diagnosis mom that I would also be a screaming and scratching the doctor's eyes out when she didn't offer antibiotics mom. The doctor would say something like, "Give her Tylenol for pain" and then pause, stepping a little closer to the door, but I didn't want that pink stuff anyway. I was filled with relief that she didn't tell me to take Isabella directly to the hospital for an MRI and spinal tap, which is what I envisioned on the ride over. Yes, really.

Anyway, my Friday, Saturday, Sunday (and today since her fever was 102 last I checked) have consisted of catering to my sickypoo daughter and keeping her hydrated and happy. She has spent a lot of time sleeping (which is very unusual for her) and NOT eating (again, a sure sign she is sick) but is really a good sick patient, cracking jokes about how she is an oven cooking up the virus to make him leave. Yeah, so what if I turned this into a mini-science lesson? She's a willing student, even when doing double-duty as a weapon-of-mass virus destruction.

So, instead of posting much(I have nothing to report except that she is in PJ's and sleeping and Devon is at school, with an unbeatable immune system having never, EVER been sick himself), I'll be catching up on my reading (two books are gone from that stack next to my bed already-thanks Wendy for recommending Sammy's Hill last year...I finally got around to reading it and I can't wait to read the sequel!) Since today is day four, I am keeping my fingers crossed that she is well enough tomorrow for school and karate.

And that I don't end up sick too...

You broke it and it can't be fixed

2008-09-04T10:05:00.017-04:00

Something I took for granted living in Houston was the incredible, beautiful diversity that was commonplace, part of the fabric of the city, like the 100% humidity that brings outsiders to their knees, the confusing street names that sound nothing like they are spelled, and the constant construction on interstate 45. Sure, people exist in TX who might not like someone else because they are "whatever-insert color, creed, religion, etc" but it never seemed out of hand.

Georgia-I so wanted to love you when I got here nearly two years ago. I was ready for a change of scenery (be careful what you wish for, right?). I was ready for the Georgia I read about in Faulkner & O'Connor stories....southern accents, front porches, dogwood trees.

We moved to the suburbs, south of Atlanta & I thought ok, we lived in a suburb south of Houston, should be sort of the same. Boy was I naive. In hindsight, maybe even stupid.

No one's burned a cross in our front yard, but divisive reminders play peek-a-boo frequently enough to know what's out there. And generally I'm prepared to decipher these messages when they appear, but I wasn't prepared for what happened yesterday.

One thing is for sure, we are not in Kansas anymore.

First, a little back story.

We moved over the summer, to a smaller neighborhood, about 6 miles from our old house but seriously half a world away from the "country" (my euphemism for our old confederate flag- waving terrain). We picked this house specifically to get to a more diverse neighborhood because 1)we didn't have much in common with 95% of the neighbors in our old place and 2) I didn't want Isabella growing up thinking she is some kind of brown freak in a world of blond hair and blue eyes.

I was ecstatic and enthusiastic to meet my new neighbors here, some who are black, Puerto Rican, Ecuadorean, Indian, Japanese-even a family of dwarfs (that's probably not PC- it feels weird to call them dwarfs-I need to check on this). The point is, not as many "country" folks here. Without moving into Atlanta, where Paul is afraid I'll have to shoo away crackheads off the front porch every time he goes out of town (yea, he really said that when I rallied to move into the city-but he works in Atlanta so I'll take his word on that), this is the closest I can find to a Houston-style neighborhood.

But that's the good part of the story.

What do I do, once we are settled in? As Paul put it so elegantly yesterday as I was retelling the drama that was Wednesday to him over the phone, I chose to bus Isabella off to the same neighborhood in the "country" I just moved her out of.

So the real meat to this story is this. Yesterday, I pick up Isabella from preschool. My daughter, whose biggest issue is that she can't make friends fast enough in her class because of the large ratio of kids to the small amount of time she is actually there (about 7 1/2 hours a week). New friends are all she talks about.

She gets in the car and I immediately inquire as to who her new friends are today.

"Mommy, Jacob says I'm black and he doesn't want to play with me".

WTF?????????

"What?"

She says the same thing again.

I don't know what to say.

I say nothing.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"I don't know. But he can't play with me because I'm black."

Silence. I am speechless.

Do I turn the car around (we are still in the school driveway)? I can't even think of what to do. I'm not ready for this conversation. Not now, NO NO NO NO NO. Maybe I'll be ready for it when she is 10, 12, 15-later....I AM NOT ready for this at three years old.

I drive home (it takes awhile, we live about 25 minutes away), I think. I cry. I am pissed. I try to keep the conversation rolling so she doesn't think something is wrong.

We eat lunch and then I have no other choice but to give her the most watered down, simplified talk I can stomach about this. Along the lines of,

"People are all the same on the inside but look different on the outside. Some people are pale, some are brown (people call this black), etc..."

I use flowers, animals as examples. Her response.

"Mommy, do you think you can put some barrettes in my hair tomorrow so Jacob won't think I am black."

So, to all of you reading this who don't think twice about emailing or telling a joke at the expense of another religion/race/gender or who frequently categorize a person or use some ridiculously outdated moniker like Oriental (it's furniture or food, not people) or who make sweeping generalization about someone because of how they look (Barack is ok but we can't have a BLACK president-no way), know that I'm going to call you on it.

And know that each reference you make, each tiny innuendo, as harmless as YOU think it is, MATTERS and doesn't magically disappear once you say it-it gets absorbed into our collective consciousness and spit back out somewhere, into someone's face, someone like my three year old daughter who now, thanks to an ignorant four year old boy, deep down inside her gentle spirit, is wondering why being black means other kids won't play with you.

Racism, I know where you live. I'm watching you and your devoted satellites. You just keep being you, but know that I'm tired of making excuses for what you mean when you do "that", why you said what you did, or why I shouldn't say anything back to ignorant ol' you.

In the past I might have said that I can weather any storm and we can fight fair-as fair as I can expect from you. I"LL be the rational one. Pity you.

But look what you've done now.

I'm not that person anymore.

You've been here longer than I, so YOU know what I'm about to say. Yeah, that's right. I'll be the first person in the room to pull the race card from my deck and throw it on the table when it comes to Isabella or anyone else in my home.

If that what it takes to get you to back the fuck up, that's what I'll do.

So, come on and scratch on my door.

I'm ready for you.

Science is cool (skip this post if you don't think so)

2008-09-03T23:59:00.005-04:00

As of this afternoon, the swallowtail caterpillars have eaten our entire parsley plant. As in, down to the ground, with eleven fat green caterpillars left on the nubs (we counted).

Yesterday it was apparent that some caterpillars had gone missing, making their way to the nearby tree to do what they do on the way to butterfly transformation. We found one caterpillar attached to a pine cone that must have been knocked from the tree and brought it inside to conduct a little experiment (lucky guy).

Isabella has about a zillion bug containers, filled mostly with insects she finds dead in the yard. Someday I'll get a picture of her with her, um, collection.

Anyway, we put found caterpillar inside an empty bug collecting cage and tonight when we checked, he was attached to the top of the cage and slowly turning crusty leaf brown. Yes, we have a cocoon.

Of course that inspired us to grab another caterpillar today and he appears to be attaching to a stick in his box, considering moving on to the next stage.

I can't wait to see if they actually hatch from the cocoons. Isabella and Devon are already talking about the day we release them into the wild. Anyone wanting to do the same can find all the information you need on this butterfly page.

Wishful thinking

2008-09-03T23:53:00.002-04:00

The Great Outdoors

2008-09-03T23:17:00.010-04:00

Looking for fairies under the mushroom caps....sadly, they had already moved on from our yard by the time we checked Sunday morning.

These mushrooms were another gift from the rains last week and really gross (Isabella and I cleared the yard of them before Paul mowed).

Anyone like to fly a kite (Que up the music from Mary Poppins please).

It was the perfect kite flying day on Labor Day....rainy, dreary, and windy on and off. No pool party or BBQ but we did manage to get outside and play a little, family style.

That tiny person is Devon, flying a spiderman kite.

Isabella flying her Hello Kitty kite. And that's Paul getting ready to pry it away from her so he can fly it too. Ok, we both stole the kid's kites for a little while (they ran off to the swings) and argued over whose kite flew higher (for the record, it was mine).

Last stop...Dairy Queen. Yum.

Three Day Weekend

2008-09-03T22:50:00.014-04:00

Let me get the nature pictures out of the way. This guy wouldn't leave us alone as we were eating breakfast outside on Saturday morning.

My hibiscus plant is blooming like crazy, thanks to the rains last week and a big dose of acid fertilizer. Too bad the blooms only last 24 hours.

Devon had his performance debut at the Peachtree City Kids Festival on Saturday. Standing room only.

Here is Devon pre-performance, looking a little nervous but don't let him fool you...he is a true Drama King in training.

Devon performed all three numbers like a pro, despite the fact that it was seriously hot and humid and they had several technical difficulties.

His next performance is September 20th!

Few words, more photos

2008-09-03T07:31:00.020-04:00

From Thursday last week, one of several butterfly sightings in our yard last week.

This one was ready for a swim I guess..on the diving
board.

Isabella and Paul, enjoying a little sandbox fun in the backyard.

Here I am enjoying a kid-free fun

with Paul at a local psuedo-mexican restaurant. I ordered something called a Texas Margarita...sadly it's not even close.

While Isabella was at school on Thursday, I spent the morning at Barnes and Noble and saw this butterfly cookie in the cafe.

It was beautiful and expensive ($3.00 for one cookie) but tasted icky according to Isabella. She loved the surprise of the cookie so it was worth it and she did lick the frosting off the entire ride home from school.

She made this heart with the Letter I in the center, along with a flamingo (still in her pink phase).

My favorite part of picking her up (besides getting to see her) is checking out all the fun stuff she brings home. If only I had space to keep it all!

Taxi anyone?

2008-08-27T14:42:00.012-04:00

Well, if moms have a "hell week" like college freshman do, this one is mine. I have logged 180 miles since Monday (most of it in the rain, without A/C) and still have a theater rehearsal to taxi Devon to this evening.

On Monday, Isabella went to ballet and found she had been cast as one of the mice in The Nutcracker. Her performances will be the second week of December and starting next Saturday, she'll have an extra Nutcracker ballet lesson every Saturday until the performance.

Devon had Spanish lessons after school Monday, still working on basics like colors and numbers, and then a 2 hour rehearsal for his musical theater class at a local Starbucks (he'll be drinking espresso shots before he's 10).

The best part of the day was in between when I dropped him off at 5:30pm and picked him up at 7:30pm, with Isabella at home with grandma, I met Paul at Taco Mac for a drink and some wings....and no kids-45 minutes of HEAVEN. It has been months since just the two of us went out together.

Tuesday was an exciting day for all of us. Paul had a surprise 4 hour trip to Memphis (and still managed to make it home in time for dinner despite the crazy flight glitches that day); Devon and Isabella both had karate lessons-and I managed to sneak a photo of them with sensai.

But the main event was Isabella's first day of preschool. It went well and no one cried (to be honest I was the only one close to tears) and when I picked her up she said she loved everything about school. Wow.

I spent the 2 1/2 hours she was in school having a surreal retail experiences, mainly walking around Target with no one to dialogue with while I pushed the shopping cart. It was ok but I really missed Isabella! We celebrated her successful day by going out to eat for lunch at Red Robin-her request, mama's treat.

Today it was a little easier to leave her at school but I think it will be an adjustment for the next couple of weeks before I can get used to the quiet. She came home today singing about the "days of the week" (sunday monday, tuesday wednesday-to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine) and talking about Snow White and her glass coffin ("so the prince could see her mommy...."that's my little gothic girl) and talking happily about one of the teenagers that helps in her school named Kathy. The childcare center teacher told me that Isabella is doing very well and she wished all her students were as "easy" as she was. Nice.

Ivy

2008-08-22T16:52:00.005-04:00

Since I became a mom a few years back, I kind of have ignored my cat (well, cats, but now I'm down to just one). Anyway, after spending a year and a half living downstairs in the basement, Ivy got to move back in with us once we moved here (only because we no longer have a basement).

So, with that in mind, I thought I better post about her every once in awhile. Unfortunately, she doesn't do much except eat and sleep but I suppose it's as exciting as my caterpillar posts.

In the garden

2008-08-22T14:33:00.020-04:00

During an impromptu bug crawl this afternoon, Isabella found three caterpillars on a flat-leaf parsley plant in the yard (specifically grown to attract these fellows!). Eventually the caterpillars will chew this entire plant to the ground, then crawl off and do whatever it is they do to turn into beautiful Black Swallowtail butterflies.

All I need to do is get a shot of a black swallowtail butterfly in our yard so you can see the "after" photo.

We had one golden tomato today, the first from two yellow tomato plants I purchased this year.

Hopefully more will come soon!

I found out today that Devon will be in his first performance for musical theater one week from Saturday (August 30th) at the Peachtree City Shake-Rag Kidz Festival, performing the song "Surfing USA" by The Beach Boys. He has three rehearsals next week, each two hours long, to prepare him, which is a good thing because all he keeps saying is that he doesn't know how to sing. He is really nervous but hopefully with the rehearsals will feel more confident by the time he gets on stage. Here's a few photos of Devon...trying to avoid talking about his immense stage fright by running into my tomato plants.

Attention friends and family...

2008-08-21T14:06:00.007-04:00

When you come to visit us, we now have a decorated, furnished guest room for you to stay in! I'm still searching for a queen-sized headboard, but other than that....done.

We also have the futon upstairs in Devon's room if you happen to want to bunk with him instead.

The weather has been a little overcast today which was perfect since if it was sunny I probably would have delayed setting up the bed frame, washing the sheets, and hanging the curtains to play in the pool instead.

Isabella helped me this morning with her own tools and then decided it would be more fun to play dress up and check on me in between. She took this photo of some unsual insect that looks like a cross between a bee and a wasp on the butterfly bush in our backyard. It's probably some sort of moth but I'm not sure.

Here she is in her current outfit, little mermaid pj's (so she could try out the new sheets on the guest room bed). I'm about to take a coffee break to get an afternoon jolt before starting my second shift! :-)

Full speed ahead

2008-08-20T22:13:00.024-04:00

Where has this week gone? I blinked & somehow the weekend turned into Wednesday night. Devon started Spanish class after school on Monday-he's working on basics like numbers, colors, and common words. He signed up for choir lessons starting in September so from that point on he'll be involved in after-school activities every Mon-Thursday afternoon until school ends in May.
Isabella has her very first ballet audition on Saturday morning for the Peach Tree City Ballet production of The Nutcracker. Although she is missing her teacher Ms. Brenda (out with an ankle injury), she loves her replacement Ms. Tiffany and seems to be learning a lot with her instruction. After just two classes with Ms. Tiffany, Isabella is already demonstrating at home the proper way to do (and say) pointe, plie, arabesque, tendu, and echappe. Not bad! She says she wants to be a ballet teacher now but I think she just likes telling people what to do. :-) Wonder where she gets that from?

My car A/C stopped working last Friday so it has been a burning inferno driving these kids around every morning and afternoon in the heat of summer. Since I just spent a huge amount fixing my A/c in April, I am not quite ready to plunk down another large sum now to fix it AGAIN, although I might change my mind as the days progress. Here's Devon on the way to karate class on Tuesday-he doesn't look hot at all.

Today Isabella and I did a little back-to-school shopping for her, specifically looking for new shoes and some summer clothes. We had fun and managed to find a few tops at Old Navy as well as a seriously marked down summer sandal at Kohls....5.99 frin 29.99. I am still searching for sneakers but I couldn't pass that bargain up. Wow!

While Devon was at his theater arts class this afternoon I finally found a bedframe for the mattress/boxspring in the guestroom at Mattress King. I dragged it out to the car all by myself (the lone sales person was preoccupied with family phone drama and didn't seem enthusiastic to help so I didn't ask), while Isabella walked right next to me in the parking lot, since I was "full of arms, mommy" (had my arms full, right?). Too cute.

Tomorrow is a busy day with lots of photo opportunities. We have karate again and then it's off to Isabella's pre-school open house at 6:30pm.
Paul comes home from Memphis tomorrow night and hopefully we will get back on our walking schedule Friday morning!

My hibiscus finally bloomed. I had to post the photo because the bloom only lasts one day. Enjoy!

The Weekend!

2008-08-16T12:00:00.026-04:00

We've settled into a Saturday morning routine-usually Paul does all the yardwork while the rest of us sit around watching cartoons in our pj's (hahah-I wish).

Isabella loves helping outside, moving plants so they don't get cut by the lawn mower, picking up pine cones, and even composting.

She also is the family tomato picker.

We are in the process of setting up our guest bedroom so we spent some time on Saturday mattress shopping. The kids loved jumping on mattresses while we tried to negotiate better deals with sales people who apparently don't do that sort of thing here. Paul and I fondly remembered the day the crazy guy from Hilton Furniture hopped in the backseat of our car and asked us to name our price for the couch set we were looking at a few minutes earlier in the store. Ah, Houston, I miss you in so many ways.

We had lunch at Red Robin-it was our first visit there and everyone enjoyed it. Isabella claims it is her new favorite restaurant (they have tv's in the floor playing cartoon network AND they give out balloons when you walk in the door) but I don't think anything can take the place of her beloved Chik-fil-A (or as she calls it, "Chick A Lay").

This was the weekend of broken stuff. Saturday morning we had water gushing of the toilet base in our bathroom when it was flushed. Then it wouldn't flush at all and if it did, water came out of the tub or sink in the OTHER bathroom. So gross. Let me tell you something I learned from this experience-plumbers don't usually work on Saturday.

Ours showed up at 8:30pm Saturday night to do something outside (I have no idea what-Paul stayed up until after midnight with him). It is temporarily fixed now....but another plumber with a special camera and extra-strength equipment is coming sometime this week.

Despite our plumbing hardships, I was still able to whip up a southern-style dinner on Saturday night...fried chicken, green beans from Two Doves Farm, and cornbread. Yum.

We did some shopping on Sunday and had family game night that evening, playing two rounds of Scooby Doo concentration. The prize for each match was one m & m from the candy bowl so everyone got candy, even though we played in teams (boys against girls) and girls won BOTH matches.

I don't recommend M & M's before bedtime as both kids were completely wired until about 10pm. It was fun though!

Random static

2008-08-15T16:11:00.023-04:00

On Sunday Isabella turned 3 1/2. I am long past the days of counting her age in hours, days, weeks, and months but somehow it seems fitting that I document this milestone in writing. Where did the last 3 years go?

This week has been a flurry of excitement with school starting for Devon-getting back on schedule after a long lazy summer has been both sad (we all sure miss sleeping in) and exciting (new school, friends, and after-school activities to name a few things).

This is what Devon looked like when the bus dropped him off after the first day of school!

Here's Devon and Isabella posing for a photo before karate last week,

when she was still three and he was still a senior white belt.

Must have been on Thursday.

They go to karate two days a week, every week.

At different times.

I spend a lot of time in my car, driving. More on that later.

Anyway, now Devon is a yellow belt...yea Devon! Sadly, my camera settings were all wrong when I took photos at the belt test last Friday so this is the best I can do, a photo of Sensai tying on Devon's yellow belt. He also got a certificate, suitable for hanging and maybe scanning someday to add to this blog.

Our flowers and tomato plants are loving the weather right now. Hot. Sunny. A little rain now and then.

We don't have bushels of veggies yet, but the gardening assistant (Isabella) still manages to find cherry, green zebra, and black knight tomatoes daily as well as the most enormous yellow tomato I have ever seen. We both watched and waited for it to turn from green to red but yellow is how it ended up. I didn't think about taking a picture until I cut it but it was at least 5 inches round, so there you have it.

It was delicious-even Paul said so!

Check out this amaryllis blooming by my mailbox-guess the Miracle Grow really works. I'm the only one in the neighborhood with a bloom. Now if only my hydrangea and hibiscus plants would start blooming, I'd be a happy girl.

I mean a happier girl.

I thought I'd add a picture of me too,

for good measure.

XOXO