Max was sick earlier this week, and now Brian is too. They both have some gastrointestinal explosiveness disorder that means Jen was up and down most of the night with them, we need to do laundry and we’ll be fueling both kids with Pepto©, kaopectate™, Sprite© and dry toast all weekend.\
I just got home from an early-morning grocery store run to stock up on those things, plus caffeine to keep me awake.\
We were going to have so much fun this weekend… Now I’m off to do the dishes and start some laundry.
Category: family
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Not What I Planned for This Weekend
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Don’t dislike Palin because she is a woman; dislike Palin because she is WRONG
Just so you know, I disagree with Palin about everything. Here is someone else’s take: Jesus was a Community Organizer, and Pontias Pilate was a Governor.
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Wastin’ my time and energy
We live a half of a mile from the school, and yet I spent an hour each day dropping Max off and picking him up. UGH. If it weren’t a thousand degrees outside I would just walk to get him. Hmm. Maybe I will just suck it up.\
ETA- Virginia, kids, and old age has turned me into a sissy, I admit. Back in Arizona, before Virginia, kids, and old age, I would walk 4 times as much in much hotter heat. Sigh.\
I decided to walk to get Max and it took just as long as driving and is a helluva lot further than a half of a mile. But by walking to drop off/pick up Max, Brian and I don’t need other walking time. So, I just gained an extra hour in my day! YAY! Except, now I have to find something else to occupy Brian for an hour. Drat. Next year, when he starts school full time again, I am going on a cruise. For a whole week. Maybe even two. -
Raspberries the world
My parents live in southern Miss. I was telling a friend that I am not worried about them though. I went on to say that around their town, you can see roofs with blue tarps from where they still haven’t been fixed since Katrina. And then I was like, “And why am I not scared again?” Kevin was like, “Yea, why aren’t you scared? They are pretty much right in Gustav’s path.” Gee, thanks a lot, Kev.\
Hanna is heading straight for us. Is this what the whole Fall is going to be like?\
Our landlord is going through bankruptcy and is desperately trying to short sell the house we are currently renting so the bank won’t foreclose. This means that we will probably be moving again. Booo. Remind me next time we rent to check the credit of the homeowner, ok? The worst part (as of right now, when I am not packing/unpacking again) is the uncertainty and the unclear time line. How long does a foreclosure take, if it comes to that? How does his bankruptcy affect ownership of the house? If he’s asking less than the market price, what is the liklihood of it selling quickly, to someone who actually wants to live here? (If it sold to someone who wanted to rent it out, we’d stay.)\
So, Palin, huh? Yea, no thanks.\
In happier news, Max was placed in the advanced class of his grade. We didn’t have to wait for testing because I had the standardized test results from last Spring. YAY! He is really excited about school. There are all sorts of clubs he can join too. Savannah has 5 magnet elementary schools, so I was worried that the neighborhood elementary schools would suffer. So far, so good though. I’ll be keeping my fingers and toes crossed that the school actually will be as awesome as it seems. When I told a friend of mine that this school seems better than the one we left in No Va, she was shocked. Cuz yea, No Va schools have a great rep and Ga schools not so much. But we’ll see! -
Ga to Va, and back again
The kids used to have Babba Day, where they would get to spend the day with Babba (Kevin’s mom). This time they got Babba Bonanza, where they got to spend more than a week with her. She flew down on Friday, spent the weekend with us, she then drove the boys and me back to Va, we spent the week there, she drove us back to Ga, and then she flew home. How awesome! Here’s how our time was spent.\
Friday: Picked Babba up at the airport. Her plane was delayed so we truncated our plans. We were still able to take a quickie tour of downtown, the cute squares and historic buildings; stop at Leopold’s for ice cream; and took the boys to the beach. Babba and the boys had a blast playing in the water. Every time I tried to take a pic though, Babba would throw sand at me! So, no pics of her from that event. Sad. We came home to the hot lasagna I made earlier. YAY for great timing.\
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Saturday: Dolphin tour and dinner at a seafood place that had a great view of the water. I had crab, two types of shrimp, and scallops. YUM! (Erm, Kevin had an allergic reaction to the fresh scallops. Not so fun.)\
Sunday: Church and fabulous homemade enchiladas and tortilla soup. Wooo. Babba sat next to an outgoing woman that I’ve decided should become my new BFF.\
Monday: Drove up to Va. Long day. Babba drove since I have a notorious light foot and we wanted the drive to only take one day. She asked me to stay awake for the entire drive and entertain her while she was driving, which was the least I could do. But, staying awake the whole trip??? Waaah.\
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Tuesday: Babba treated us to lunch at a Japanese Steakhouse, the boys’ favorite type of restaurant. Then I did a bit of shopping- both at stores, the internet, and Babba’s closet- yay! I scored the most beautiful pink flats from Babba. And some white flats, and (faux) snake skin flats, and black flats, and beige flats, and another pair of pink shoes, and…\
Wednesday: Took the boys to the LDS Temple’s Visitor Center, a greasy diner for lunch, this amazing park (we had an awesome train ride there too!), and a butterfly house.\
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At some point in the week I exclaimed, “Don’t make me go back!” Babba had been treating us really well- turkey dinners, fresh peach muffins, trips to new playgrounds. And I’d been sleeping on some magical, pillow-topped bed that allowed me to wake without pains in my legs and back.\
Thursday: I don’t remember much of Thursday. Oops. I know Grandpa played frisbee golf with the boys in the yard after dinner. It’s now Brian’s favorite game. ETA- I think the boys decorated t-shirts with Aunt Heather. Oh, we also went to the library to score some cheap books for sale (I found The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide for \$1!!) and then let the boys play at an indoor playground. (No sunscreen means no outside play.)\
Friday: The boys played with our old neighbors, Daisy and Mico, and then checked out a new playground with Babba, while I did laundry and took a nap. It was like everyone’s-favorite-activity day!!\
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Saturday: Drove back home. Babba made excellent time, woot. Kevin made an excellent dinner. Woot, woot.\
Sunday: Babba flew home. Brian cried. -
Dolphin Tour!
My mom came down this weekend and we went on a dolphin tour (Captain Mike’s Dolphin Tour to be exact)! I don’t have time to tell the whole story now, but it was great. It was the perfect length – the boys were just starting to get antsy at the end of it and we saw lots of dolphins. The rest of the photos are here. I haven’t gone through all of them (we took a ton – I took 235 with the big camera, Max took almost fifty and Brian took a dozen or so), so I’ll probably add some more to the set this week.
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Tybee Island Photo Safari
I took the boys to Tybee Island today, nominally, to go a photo safari. I had my lovely Nikon D80. Max was sporting the Powershot and Brian had the backup Samsung. Of course, I knew we wouldn’t be taking pictures for long after they saw the water. I got a bunch of shots in, though, since I wasn’t going to near the water.\
Here are a couple of my other favorites from the set:
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Passing the Commute
I have a commute now. It’s not long or even unpleasant. I get to see some nice scenery, and it’s only about fifteen minutes. I’ve realized that now I have thirty minutes a day to listen to something I wouldn’t listen to other than the radio or music (which I listen to all day anyway).\
Before I get to the list, I have to say, I love iTunesU. It’s such a great resource for interesting stuff from public broadcasting and universities all over the country, and all for free.\
So, here are a few of the things in the queue for the iPod to listen to for the drive:- The Bugle – Hilarious “audio newspaper for a visual world” podcast from John Oliver (from The Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman. I look forward to this every week.
- Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams – I’ve heard about this from all corners of the web, so it’s in the queue, and free from iTunesU.
- Funny People: George Carlin – I just found this one while wandering around… it’s on the list.
- This American Life
- TED Talks – TED is amazing, and they’re putting all the talks online for free.\
Seriously, spend some time wandering around iTunesU and see the amazing amount of content. It’s a ton of fun to wander around and see what’s there and grab stuff.\
Obviously, now I need a longer commute.
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The rental house
So, I am totally obsessed with this rental house we’re in. Like, cataloging both its faults and its features. It’s for sale, (for more than I think it should be, but I don’t know anything about the Savannah market.) and it would be both cheaper and easier if we just bought this house instead of some other house in the same basic neighborhood. My list so far:\
Good:\
The sun doesn’t BEAM into the house through the windows, so we can actually have our blinds up all of the time. (We could never do this in Va, due to how the house was oriented. People thought I was a vampire, I am sure.)\
The backyard is really shady and level.\
Large family room.\
Large bedrooms, including master big enough for K’s office.\
Pantry (this somewhat makes up for the smallish kitchen).\
Door to backyard from master. This is great when the kids get dirty, we just shuffle ten feet to my shower. (The door to the backyard from the mudroom didn’t turn out to be so useful- yet.)\
Situated so that we don’t have to see our neighbors if we don’t want to.\
Shed.\
Attic.\
Skylights in master bath and hall bath.\
Bad:\
Side of the house with the driveway is on a “busy” neighborhood street.\
No sidewalks, but this might be true everywhere.\
Kitchen is kind of small.\
Wallpaper/painted walls not to my liking.\
Peel and stick tile in 2 bathrooms and mudroom.\
House trim needs to be repainted.\
Sky-lights in the family room make it really hot and too-bright in certain spots.\
Probably the biggest negative is that there isn’t any wow factor. For some reason, this just doesn’t feel like my house. I guess I should make the decision based on financial criteria rather than emotional, but I don’t think I can. I LOVED my house in Va within 3 seconds of opening the front door. I want that experience and passion again. On the other hand, being detached emotionally frees me up for other things- like cooking- instead of decorating, painting, etc! -
Life in Ga
Kevin is working way too much. He’s up everyday before the alarm and is even out of the house before I wake up.\
I am not sure if it is because we are new here, because we are renting, or maybe just due to it being summer, but I feel like I am on vacation with no to do list. Wheeee. The boys and I just goof around all day until it’s time for me to make dinner. And I actually have been cooking, even breakfast! (The boys got used to having a hot breakfast after a week at Babb’s house and a week in a hotel. Boo. No more cold, continental ones for them. Ha.) Last night I made enchiladas and tortilla soup for the first time and they turned out fabulously!! Sadly, Kevin worked really late and missed the first presentation.\
The house is nice, but the kitchen is a bit small. Everything is a mess, but a functioning one. I am not even bothering to unpack everything. There are still boxes everywhere and I don’t really plan to change that, since we don’t have any visitors coming soon :(. The boys are sharing a room, one room is a play room that no one uses- but it’s pretty, one room is full of food storage, and that leaves the master for us and K’s not-yet-set-up office.\
The boys seem to be happy but miss Kevin. Max has been alternating between playing on the computer and reading Harry Potter. Brian flits from toy to toy. He likes to run and scoot around the circle of the house (living room to dining room to kitchen to family room to entry way to living room, etc). We also play in the sprinklers a lot and then he hops in the shower to get his feet clean. We don’t have tv yet, so in the wee morning when I am not ready to be awake and in the afternoon before Brian crashes for a nap, we watch the same 4 videos. The other day I splurged and bought Flushed Away, so make that 5 videos.\
That’s pretty much our life so far!
