On the road

We're leaving tomorrow morning to start our journey to Arkansas to spend Christmas with David's parents. Kyle, of course, is thrilled at the idea of staying in a hotel tomorrow night and I think that, for now, has overshadowed the excitement of Christmas. He's been down with a fever/virus thing since Thursday so I'll probably try and get him into the weekend clinic at his doctor's office just to make sure he doesn't have a sinus or ear infection before we leave. I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be just a wee bit crowded today with other parents doing the same thing!

Last night David and I watched "Christmas Vacation" then put out all of Kyle's presents and decided what to wrap and what would be from...well, you know who. I think Kyle is getting a nice variety of presents this year and will have some money from my parents to spend how he wants after the holidays. Tony is getting money (big surprise for a teenage boy) a new Nike hoodie, and Kyle bought him a funny driving calendar. Tony will be flying into Arkansas on December 26 so keep your fingers crossed the Nebraska weather cooperates and his flights are all on time!

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading! For your viewing pleasure - another installment of the Dancing with Kyle series!

Christmas Spirit

Ho! Ho! Ho! Tonight was my Sunday school class Christmas party - it's women only and a lot of fun. The group had been looking for someone to help this holiday season and I suggested someone I know and the love just flowed...I collected $200 plus a grocery store gift card!!!! My friend is going to be so shocked and I know the money and gift card will go a L O N G way in helping her and her two kids this holiday season. It's amazing how a little bit from a lot of people adds up to so much! What a wonderful time of year.

I'm also excited because tomorrow morning when Kyle wakes up he'll be surprised to find 25+ new books in his room. One of the girls in my class gave me two big bags of so-close-to-new books that are just perfect for Kyle right now! Her son has outgrown them and she knew we would love them. I thought about wrapping them up as a Christmas present, but I just don't think I can wait to start reading them with him.

Yippee!

Hmmm....

On Christmas day my half-bath remodeling project will be three months old. The room has been gutted, the flooring removed, the walls smoothed and painted...and now, nothing. A new floor is what comes next, but then we had to buy a new hot water heater ($900 including a water pressure valve because apparently our water pressure coming into the house was really high) now it's Christmas time which comes with its own money expenditures. Oh and we probably need a new dryer - there seems to be some sort of fire hazard with our current one. Sigh. So that leads me to tell you that we are currently schlepping our wet laundry to the laundromat down the street. It's not a terrible ordeal - just kind of bothersome. I mean as far as places to go the laundromat is warm, smells good and is generally pretty clean. Especially now that there's no smoking allowed - I always thought it was weird that these people would spend all this time cleaning their clothes only to smoke them up! Of course despite the buttons on the dryer there really only seems to be one temperature and that's HOT...really, really hot! Which does not necessarily mean that the clothes will even actually get dry...just shrunken! Of course I should admit that since our dryer quit, I've only been to the laundromat once, David has gone at least three times. I really did marry well!

The world

Doesn't the world seem a little smaller now with the internet, MySpace, blogs, etc.? Plus I'm always amazed at how lives touch in a Six Degrees kind of way. I read a blog from a great woman in Omaha (www.omahamama.blogspot.com) - I've never met her, probably never will, but I like her. Her joy is my joy and her sadness is my sadness. I stumbled across Omaha Mama's blog when she commented on another blog I read (www.benandbirdy.blogspot.com) which I read because I've been reading Catherine Newman's stuff (she's the author) for years. Without the web I would have no idea what was going on in the lives of two moms - one in Omaha and the other in Amherst, Massachusetts...and I've learned a lot from both of them. I imagine they could each write a post of their own about how they read somebody's blog that they ended up reading because it was on someone else's blog and so on and so on. I guess it's a kind of a virtual penpal thing!

Christmas Crazy

When I was growing up we had two trees - one in our living room and one in our dining room, both of which were in big windows that faced the street. The one in the dining room had been my grandmother's tree and she LOVED red. The whole tree was decorated in red - red lights, red feather garland, red birds, red decorations. Some of her decorations were the craziest things I had ever seen. I loved that tree - it was garish, but I loved it! The living room tree was the family tree - the one with macaroni ornaments, personalized ornaments, souvenirs, multi-colored lights, etc. It was not a theme tree by any means. That's the kind of tree we have now - it's a giant tree and I don't have nearly enough stuff to fill it up, but almost every piece that goes on it has a story. We have a box with ornaments from various countries that David's mom collected for us when they were on vacation in 2001...a vacation they cut short when Kyle came early! My favorite is the Swedish girl...who I'm sure has a name...because she always reminds me of my friend Heather. We have ornaments from Disney World, one from Topeka, various penguin ones from years and years ago. The bows that go on top, which are missing at the moment because they need to be fixed, were made by my friend Tonya when I couldn't find anything I liked to go on the top of the tree. And of course now we have awesome ornaments that Kyle has made - with many more to come I'm sure.

I also have a small snowman collection which makes me laugh now that we live in Georgia! In fact today when we were watching College Gameday on ESPN I was shivering in empathy with all the fans at Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas-Missouri football game tonight. It was misting, snowing and blowing all at once! It's a lovely day here!

Nope, my tree will never make the cover of "House Beautiful" but it's beautiful to me!

Thanksgiving Fun

Okay - I think my thoughts of Thanksgiving with just the three of us were much worse than the actual day has been. Kyle has invented his own Thanksgiving tradition of wearing nothing but underwear and a t-shirt and watching Cartoon Network for hours on end - plus he's made a giant $100 bill that he believes will purchase him all of the Planet Hero toys at the after-Thanksgiving sales. We ate a delicious Thanksgiving lunch, made chocolate chip cookies, watched football, talked to my parents on the phone for a long time and I read three People magazines cover-to-cover and nobody bothered me!

Tomorrow is the all-important clean the house before we get out the Christmas decorations day so that may or may not go well depending on my level of motivation!

I hope YOU had a great Thanksgiving, too!

Traditions

I crave traditions - something we do each year because we have always done it. I grew up in a nuclear family of four - my mom was one of ten (!) kids so I have 61 first cousins on her side of the family, but we moved to Nebraska from Utah (where they all live) when I was four and any self-respecting Nebraskan knows you do NOT travel across Wyoming to get to Utah during the winter so we never went there for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can only think of a few times when my dad's parents (he was an only child) came to Nebraska for Christmas. Once in awhile we would go to Kansas where a lot of my dad's relatives lived for Thanksgiving, but Christmas was almost always spent with just the four of us. I don't have memories of Aunt So and So's famous cranberry sauce or the post-turkey game of Crazy Eights. I honestly can't imagine it was that exciting for my mom to whip up a Thanksgiving dinner for just the four of us...cooking and cooking and cooking, just to have us finished eating in like 10 minutes! Plus, I was always the odd-girl out after Thanksgiving...I was ready to play and hangout with my friends, but none of them could because they were off at grandma's house or grandma was visiting or whatever.

Now I seem to have created another non-tradition-filled family. It's just the three of us...in Georgia. Who wants to make a turkey dinner for three people? My parents are just getting too old to travel so far anymore and we're planning to see David's family at Christmas. So, what should we do? Personally, I think we should start our own Thanksgiving tradition of a mini vacation. Someplace nearby so we can drive and we aren't just sitting around the house staring at each other for four long days! Pick a place with an indoor pool and some nearby attractions and just go. Let me know if you have any ideas!!!!

Funny Stuff -

Demetri Martin: I like parties, but I don't like piñatas because the pinata promotes violence against flamboyant animals. Hey, there's a donkey with some pizzazz. Let's kick its ass. What I'm trying to say is, don't make the same Halloween costume mistake that I did.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: I went into a deli and got an egg sandwich and a hot chocolate. And then I went outside and I had to get a cab, so I had to put up one of my hands. But I already started eating my sandwich; I took it out of the bag, I was impatient. So my choice was hold up an egg sandwich or hold up a hot chocolate to get a car. So I chose the hot chocolate. And I put it up there and no cab stopped and I realized it was because I looked like I was toasting traffic. Standing on the street, 'Here's to you guys, to everybody heading west, I just wanna say I like what you do... but one of you needs to stop, pick me up.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: I wrapped my Christmas presents early this year, but I used the wrong paper. See, the paper I used said 'Happy Birthday' on it. I didn't want to waste it so I just wrote 'Jesus' on it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: 'Sort of' is such a harmless thing to say. Sort of. It's just a filler. Sort of - it doesn't really mean anything. But after certain things, sort of means everything. Like after 'I love you' or 'You're going to live' or 'It's a boy.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: I got some new pajamas with pockets in 'em. Which is great, because before that, I used to have to hold stuff when I slept. But now I'm like, 'Where's my planner? There it is. "Keep sleeping." All right, perfect.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: I went into a clothing store, and the lady asked me what size I was. I said, 'Actual'. I'm not to scale.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: I like fruit baskets because it gives you the ability to mail someone a piece of fruit without appearing insane. Like, if someone just mailed you an apple you'd be like 'Huh? What the hell is this?', but if it's in a fruit basket you're like 'This is nice!.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: My favorite fruit is grapes. Because with grapes, you always get another chance. 'Cause, you know, if you have a crappy apple or a peach, you're stuck with that crappy piece of fruit. But if you have a crappy grape, no problem - just move on to the next. 'Grapes: The Fruit of Hope.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: My plumbing is all screwed up. Because it turns out, I do not own a garbage disposal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: One of my friends has a stutter and a lot of people think that's a bad thing, but to me that's just like starting certain words with a drum roll. That's not an impediment, that's suspense! What's he going to say? Car?... or Carnival?... Carburetor? Man...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: Canoe + waterfall = I don't go camping anymore.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: I think it's interesting that 'cologne' rhymes with 'alone.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: I wanna make a jigsaw puzzle that's 40,000 pieces. And when you finish it, it says 'go outside.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demetri Martin: Saying 'I'm sorry' is the same as saying 'I apologize.' Except at a funeral.

Oh my gosh!

I was going to blog about the perfectly miserable time I had trying to get Kyle motivated about his homework, but when I logged on to my blog there was finally a place for me to add video!!!! So, without further ado, I present to you Kyle's version of "Dancing with the Stars!"

Super Mario Kyle

Halloween was great! Angela put together Kyle's costume for him...a costume he has been talking about for months and months. Everywhere we went people would say, "Hey, it's Mario" or "Where's Luigi" - almost to the point that Kyle would get embarrassed about it. The funniest was when a girl down the street said "Where's Luigi?" and Kyle said, "Right, like I haven't heard that one before." Sarcasm...hmmm...I wonder where he got that from????? Of course those not "in the know" when it comes to video game culture, pretty much think he was a hobo!

I will say Halloween in Georgia is certainly different than Halloween in Nebraska - I mean I seriously doubt anyone's costume is going to be hidden by a parka and boots in Georgia!

Spook-a-Ree

Kyle had his first cub scout camping event this weekend...except we skipped the crammed in a tent, sleeping on a half-full air mattress, walking to the outhouse in the middle of the night part of the camping! We did, on the other hand, take full advantage of the cool air, BB gun shooting, campfire making, s'more eating part! I loved it...I loved seeing the boys going full on into the fresh air, loved seeing Kyle take his first shots with a BB gun and a bow and arrow. I had a few meltdown moments when Kyle would get into a tangle with another boy over a STICK (for goodness sake, the forest of full of them...what's so special about that one?!?!?) but all in all, I was crazy about the whole day! At one point I found myself watching all those boys gathered around the still unlit campfire (they wanted to light it at like 2:30 in the afternoon) and they were all tired and dirty, but they were quietly talking amongst themselves and there was just this glow around them...a happy moment that no camera would ever catch and I was just thankful to have at least caught a glimpse of the glow.

Thank you all for your concern over the state of David's company and the possibility of another move, but for now, it all seems to be okay. We're going to go forward with our lives in Augusta and know that when the time comes for whatever is next for us, we'll be ready!

Oh heavens...

The company David works for announced today that they have sold off all of their smaller newspapers...Grand Island, Nebraska; Winter Haven, Florida; Shawnee, Oklahoma...and about 15 others. This will make for an interesting day for David at work tomorrow because fewer newspapers means fewer technology issues, etc. Plus, we still have friends in Grand Island who are probably concerned for their jobs. What's funny is I mentally started making a checklist of things I would need to do to put the house on the market. Apparently I anticipate moving to a new town...again! LOL. Oh well.

On a sweeter note - a while back Kyle was doing his usual stall tactics at bedtime, asking for extra kisses, needing drinks, etc. I was heading downstairs when he asked me to sit on the steps. Oh fine. So I sit down and he sits next to me, puts his arm around me and says, "Mom, you've been my mom for a long time now and I just wanted to tell you you're doing a great job!" Sniff!

Anniversary

Today is our anniversary (11 years!) and we celebrated with a romantic dinner of grilled cheese! Actually, our sitter Rosa is coming tomorrow so we can have our date and really, Rosa coming is like a date for Kyle. She indulges his funny desires to spread quilts all over the floor and watch movies David and I hate to watch (such as "Agent Cody Banks") and they always have popcorn and soda.

Honestly, it doesn't feel like 11 years - a lot has happened in these 11 years, but it feels a bit like the blink of an eye. We had a bit of "baggage" that came into the marriage with us, so I have a feeling most of my friends and family had written David's name into their address books in pencil! Ha!

Let's see...1996:

David and I bought our first house together in July 1996 in Grand Island, Nebraska and then got married at the Roger's House B&B in Lincoln on October 19...I started rehearsals for a play the next day in Grand Island...so much for a honeymoon! David's son Tony was 7 at the time and brought me to tears the day after we were married when he said "I can call you mom now." Although I love being is other mother, I miss the days when Tony called me "Loria" And just to put that "blink of an eye" thing in perspective, Tony is now a senior in high school! Anyway, we did get a honeymoon, in January...with David's whole family at Disney World. I remember not wanting to go because Angela was so close to having her baby - thank goodness Larissa arrived on January 1...a day before we left!

Now...2007:

Living in Augusta, Georgia (who could have predicted that?) in a great house with a wildly adorable six year old. I haven't done a play since that one in 1996 and I really miss it. I think it's time to start looking at getting back on the stage now that David's traveling a lot less and I'm starting to feel more comfortable about Augusta. That adorable New Year baby Larissa will be 11 this January and has an equally adorable sister, Zoe.

I'm going to have to think about something exciting from each year between 1996 and now and maybe do another post with highlights of the past 11 years!

Greenville

I tried to add this to the "Greener in Greenville" post but for some reason it wouldn't work...anyway, here you go! Click on the picture and you'll get a much better view!

Greener in Greenville...

This weekend we wandered up to Greenville, South Carolina. It's about two hours north of here and you can see the outline of the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance. It was one of those perfect fall weekends...cool, but not too cool, sunny and low humidity. And it turned out to be the "Fall for Greenville" fall festival...which mostly was a "taste of" kind of thing with lots and lots of booths selling food. Greenville has this amazing river walk with a cantilevered bridge and waterfall that's just gorgeous considering it's right in the middle of downtown. Kyle was in heaven with rocks to climb and water to splash in - plus the added bonus of hotel living! I even enjoyed the small town highway travel and found myself drawn to learn more about Ninety Six, South Carolina - which we passed in Greenwood county. I mean who names a town after a number???? As it turns out it was mistakenly thought to be 96 miles from the the nearest Cherokee Indian settlement...a miscalculation, but the name stuck. I would tell you more about what I learned on wikipedia.com, but you can look it up yourself!

Hope you have a great week!

Conversation

Discussions in my office are at times mundane and other days lively crazy things - a winding stream of thoughts tumbling over and around each other. This being the south, politics and religion are not considered "polite" conversation so every day is a guessing game as to what the general topic might be. Today, interestingly enough, it was famous people with good and bad cosmetic surgery. It's just so funny to see these well-dressed highly-educated men getting all worked up over whether or not Demi Moore has had "work" done. We also meandered into a discussion on blood types and it's weird how many people don't actually know what their blood type is! Doesn't that seem like something you would want to know in advance of an emergency??? I think these conversations can be great equalizers though - they put lawyers and support staff on the same level and we end up learning interesting tidbits that make us all seem a bit more human...less like worker bees.

It's really not much of a secret that I'm a talker (oh hush up!) but I also think I'm a good listener...an active listener. I'm always frustrated by people who don't make those appropriate "I'm listening" noises like "uh huh" and "really"...you know the type. They just stand there staring while you talk and pretty soon you start to feel like you're just one huge run-on sentence...get embarrassed and clam up. I like people who nod along, murmur quiet agreement (and yes, sometimes disagreement) or say "mmm hmm" at the right times. They make it easier to get to the point.

I have this coworker who is a born storyteller. She can weave the greatest tales out of a simple trip to the grocery store. She doesn't get emotional and wave her hands all around (uh...no...that' me) but she has a way of just drawing you into her conversation until pretty soon there's this little crowd gathered around nodding along to some story about frozen waffles like it was some great secret. Now that's a gift!

Monday Musings on Television

I'm watching "Dancing with the Stars" - it's my first time, ever. Lots of my friends and co-workers watch it and my parents won't miss it so I figured "what the heck" and decided to give it a try. So far, it's not too bad - tonight they can either dance the tango or the jive. I love the tango so I'm partial to the couples who choose it for their dance. Anyway, I don't know if I'll watch again, but we'll see. (By the way, I just watched Wayne Newton tango...and boy, does he suck!)

Let's see, what other shows do I love?

Desperate Housewives
Two and a Half Men
House
My Name is Earl
The Office
CSI (the original Las Vegas one)

Plus I love a bunch of shows on HGTV and Flip This House on A&E.

I know there are lots of people who "never" watch television or who SAY they don't watch television, but I've always loved tv. It's not the end all be all of my life and I certainly appreciate the silence when it's off, but it's good company sometimes that's for sure! Uh, but I don't watch the news. I mean I might flip to CNN if something is happening that's of some import, but for the most part I just never watch or read the news. I just read that again and boy, it makes me seem a bit "fluffy" doesn't it? I really stopped watching the news when we moved to Augusta - local news doesn't start until 11:00pm and heck, by that time I've been in bed for an hour! The 6:00 news doesn't fit into our family's evening routine and honestly, I don't care that much about what's happening in Augusta. I just don't think of it as our "home" very often. It's just kind of the place we live.

Oh and I seem to watch a lot of stuff on History and Discovery channels, too - not by choice. They just seem to be David's channels of choice!!!!

Thanks, I needed that!

I went to Nebraska last week and boy, was it great! It had been a year since I had seen my parents and since that time they had sold the home they had lived in for the past 14 years at the lake and moved into town - something I was really happy about. They lost power for multiple days at least three times last winter and all their immediate neighbors move into town for the winter so there wasn't anyone close by. The new place is a nice three bedroom close to all sorts of stuff and hurray, they got rid of the twin beds that had been parked in the guest bedroom forever and bought a lovely new queen size that is just heavenly! I always approach visits with my parents with both a sense of excitement and dread...I get along famously with my mother, but my dad is something else. We are just too alike to do well together over long periods of time. Stubborn, a bit mouthy...my poor mother has spent the last 40 years as a buffer between us! Anyway, this time it was different. I'm not saying I didn't mutter some choice things under my breath, but I was happy to be there and enjoyed their company. Plus, I got to spend lots and lots of time with Angela doing...well...just stuff. We went out to eat, went shopping, observed an interesting open mic night at the used bookstore...just stuff. I came home relaxed and happy!

Actually, I LEFT relaxed and happy, too! The day before I left for Nebraska I spent the day in Atlanta with my friend Carol who was there for a trade show and she invited me to join her for the various events and an awesome evening at The Four Seasons. Oh yes, I could get used to high-quality hotel life! The beds were heavenly and the shower - oh that gorgeous shower...with amazing French bath products. Whoever invented the in-room mini bar...my hat is off to you! Oh and room service...eggs benedict tastes ever-so-much better when it's enjoyed in a fluffy Four Seasons bathrobe,followed by coffee on the terrace! Yep - I'm thinking the Holiday Inn Express is most assuredly going to seem a bit too pedestrian for me now!

David and Kyle survived my absence just fine. The house was probably a little tidier than when I left it and they did a lot of fun stuff...in fact even now Kyle still pipes up with little tidbits about the stuff he and daddy did while I was gone.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the tooth fairy's going rate is $2 per tooth now. Kyle lost his first tooth on Monday night (thanks for waiting until I got home!) and was ecstatic to learn that this little venture was going to make him rich, rich, rich. He was asking me to count all his teeth and multiply it by $2...my little entrepreneuer!

Sewing Saturday

As I type this David is busy sewing patches on Kyle's new Tiger Cub uniform...and yes, you read that correctly, my awesome husband is sewing, and doing a great job at it!

After Kyle tried on his new uniform (the one with the orange) I pulled out David's old Cub Scout uniform for him to try on and it was almost too small for him - and David probably last wore that shirt in 5th grade - and Kyle's only in 1st grade! My head is bouncing with dollar signs for the gallons of milk and mountains of groceries Kyle is going to eat when he's a teenager!

Boring?

My friend Heather's comments to my last post got me thinking ... do we all eventually become "boring?" I mean there are just some people in this world who really are boring from the start. Who live their whole life in one town, surrounded by the same people and get sweaty palms just thinking about going somewhere new. Me? Nope - left the hometown at age 18 and never looked back. Traveled, did crazy things, met interesting people, wasn't afraid to take a chance and have very few regrets. Maybe that's why I'm finally growing comfortable in my own skin and with the day-to-day routine of my life. I had the chance to get out, spread my wings and find out more about the person I'm meant to be.

Until fairly recently I struggled with the urge to point my car in one direction or another and just keep driving. I had to fight an internal battle and remind myself that life really is about mortgages, groceries, a job, the mundane. Maybe this is just the steady line of my life...no real peaks or valleys, just a nice hum. I try not to project into the future too far...okay, I admit I am projecting a bit into the future to June 2008 when we are done, done, done with child support, but that's just because I have a five year plan to stay financially fit and find a job that allows me to be home with Kyle during the precarious middle school years. But always waiting to get to the "when" can be a real roadblock. I have an acquaintance who is living her life waiting for the when - "when we pay off the Toyota," "when the kids are older," "when I win the lottery." She's just not happy being in the here and now - enjoying that steady hum. She wears me out and I leave our lunches feeling less than great.

But hey, I still listen to Justin Timberlake, watch stupid, funny movies and television and love being home with the family instead of out at the bars or visiting some exotic locale...of course I would really love a magazine and catalog night with dear Heather!!!!

Sunday Surprise

Two things that always get me...three-day weekends when we have no particular plans and Sunday afternoons when we have no particular plans. I think the three-day weekend thing is because we have a pretty routine life, not boring, just routine. So, when we have that extra day thrown in the mix and nothing to really fill it, I get punchy, grouchy and well, just a bit mean. I need a purpose to my day - something to look forward to. As for Sunday afternoons, I'm usually okay until 3:00-4:00 rolls around. Then it seems like a long time until bath, stories and bed...and it also seems that Kyle suddenly becomes "starving" - he bugs me like every 10 minutes asking for a snack. Even...after...I...have...given...him...a...snack!

Today was a blessing! The weather (for the first time in months and months) was gorgeous; 75-80 degrees with low humidity, and that's saying a lot in Georgia! We met my friend Carolyn at a new-to-us playground and the boys played like crazy. They ran all over and put on funny little skits for over an hour. Then Carolyn invited us to ride in her new Saturn Vue (quite nice!) while they did a couple errands. The best of which was a stop at Party City - Kyle is a Halloween fanatic and they've started putting out all the costumes, etc. After she dropped us at our car, Kyle and I went to the library where we ran into my friend Jennifer and Kyle's first-grade teacher. After picking out several books (including Kyle's first Junie B. Jones book) we spent time doing some puzzles and looking at videos. Then we had a snack at the library coffee house and talked about odds and ends. It really was a surprising Sunday for me. The day went by quickly and I felt happy and satisfied with the day.

Wednesday

I'm not sure who "mega man" is, but Kyle devoted almost a whole afternoon recently to the creation of his Mega Man outfit He carefully taped together paper, colored and cut the paper "just right" to make this ensemble. I would occasionally be asked to "hold this" but for the most part it made for a relaxing time for me - I just sat in the chair flipping through a magazine and watching him work out of the corner of my eye. Such concentration! I talk to myself (a lot!) when I'm working hard on a project - my office neighbor has actually learned to tune me out and I've learned to preface my conversations with her by using her name so she KNOWS I'm talking to her and not just myself. Kyle concentrates by standing up - he works better when the chairs are pulled away from the table and he can move back and forth easily to see his project at all angles. Of course in the left-brained compartmentalized world of school, this does not work so well. But that's a whole other post!

Change in plans -

Well I was about to post about my new 10-minute organization plan, but just as I sat down to type, Kyle came zipping downstairs to inform us of his loose tooth!!!!! I know it's the perfect time for him to start loosing teeth, but I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't make me sort of sad. Just another step in this whole growing up and away thing. I'm just stunned at how fast it all zips by!

Okay, back to my new season resolution. I figure that since fall is here and I'm on a home improvement bender, I would start doing a little more organizing and list making. Tonight I took the time while Kyle was in the bath to empty out my gift wrap tub and separate out all the various gift bags from the rolls of wrapping paper. I even grouped the gift bags by type or purpose. Woo hoo. Now of course I realize I need ANOTHER tub just for the gift bags...but that's really the fault of Dollar Tree, they have such darn cute bags for a buck that each time I go in there I add to my collection.

My guest room is really in a state of nothingness. I painted the walls a lovely chocolate brown, set up the guest bed, and bought a new comforter and shams, but then I stopped. I need some accent lighting, some sort of window covering other than a mini-blind, sheets to match and I really need things on the walls and organize the closet so it's usable by a...well, a guest. Right now the closet holds luggage and our aerobed. So it's not overwhelmingly full of junk, but I think there is a better location for those items! So I'm off to Bed Bath & Beyond (armed of course with a 20% off coupon!) to try and perk up the room. Which I probably shouldn't do until I actually finish the downstairs bathroom. As most of you know - too much disarray makes me VERY grumpy!

You Read to Me and I'll Read to You!

Kyle split his kindergarten year between two different schools last year because of our move to Columbia County and after the move, the homework situation went downhill. The only homework he ever had was reading and sight words from these incredibly boring black & white "Jack & Jilly" readers that pretty much made ME want to poke MY eyes out. We struggled nightly to get Kyle to move through the stories and practice the sight words. We tried everything we could think of to sweeten the homework pot...to make it less annoying for all of us.

What a difference first grade makes! He has spelling and vocabulary words to work on, math worksheets to do, and has this awesome reader with colorful illustrations and helpful follow-up questions for parents. Kyle always chooses to do the math homework first (weirdo!...okay, I only say that since I'm a math dyslexic) and doesn't even complain that much about having to write the spelling words three times each. BUT what I can't believe is how much more excited he is about reading! They still have the horrid Jack & Jilly readers, but they stay at school to work on during group time. Kyle is truly becoming a reader and it blows me away. He's supposed to read to us for 15 minutes every night and it flies by - he's getting into the cliffhanger and is starting to understand that reading is a way of putting your imagination into words. I find myself getting ready to help him sound out what I would consider a difficult word and he breezes through it...that little stinker knows a lot more words than I ever gave him credit for!

Our friend, Reid, who will be 13 soon, is kind of my inspiration when it comes to reading to Kyle and allowing him to be more artistic. Reid wrote this series of books when Kyle was a baby and the main character was named "Kyle" - they had these great illustrations to go with them and I just remember Reid's pride when I would come over and he would show me a new "Kyle" book. I know boys get such a bum wrap sometimes whether it's because they have "ants in the pants" or are too boisterous - but there are a lot of great boys out there (including my own) and I'm going to try and be more mindful of finding something positive about them all!

Home Improvement...

At some point today, between Walmart, lunch, and an afternoon birthday party for one of Kyle's friends, I plan to start priming the downstairs bathroom. It took a couple days of joint compound, but I finally got the wall where the vanity was fairly smooth. Of course there was the mishap with the shop vac when I started to vacuum up all the drywall dust before realizing that the filter was NOT in the shop vac and I was blowing the drywall dust all over the downstairs. Oops! One small mental breakdown and a two-day break later I'm ready to go! I've decided on the tile and the new vanity...yep, new vanity. As it turns out a pedestal sink won't work - at least not one in our budget. The water valves are too far apart and we would have to get a wider pedestal...more along the lines of a special order.

Pictures later!

UPDATE: I knew updating this house was not going to be easy when within the first two days of renovation last fall I found out that every bit of wallpaper in the house and been pasted directly to the drywall...no primer. And that every wall that didn't have wallpaper had been painted directly onto the drywall...no primer. So it should have been no surprise to me that they had sprayed the ceiling texture directly onto the drywall...no primer. Sigh! Somewhere along the line I decided to go ahead and paint the ceiling so while I was cutting in with the Kilz I put some on the ceiling around the edges...when I went back later to take down the exhaust fan cover I noticed that the ceiling texture was coming off in all the places I had painted! Crazy. So instead of getting the first coat of primer on everything, I ended up scraping off all the texture on the ceiling...which while messy actually makes me happy since I really hate popcorn ceilings! No worries though, I don't expect to suddenly start scraping all the ceilings!!!! One room at a time...that's my motto!

That's me!

My drive to and from work is some of the best "me" time I have. I use it to listen to music or a good audio book (currently, "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac) or sometimes I even enjoy the silence. And yes, I talk on my cell phone. The woman in your rear view mirror at the stoplight...the one gesturing wildly and laughing into her Motorola Razr? That's me. I seriously would not even need my cell phone if talking on it while driving were suddenly illegal in Georgia. I could give up the $50 a month bill at that point. To and from work - nobody is with me in the car! I can swear with impunity, I can talk about things I might not talk with you about on my home phone (where little ears might be listening), and I can just be ME.

All things considered, I'm a good cell phone citizen (if you overlook the whole talking while driving thing.) I don't continue my discussions in the elevator, I rarely talk while shopping and if I do, it's in a quiet voice so the whole world won't know you're having a PMS breakdown and if I'm actually with you, maybe having lunch for example, I might look to make sure it's not Kyle's school calling to say he needs stitches (again!) but I won't actually answer it - because I prefer being with you to being on the phone!

But hey, at least I draw the line at actually applying MAKE-UP while driving!!!

And so it begins...

We have a half bath in our downstairs that has been in a state of disrepair pretty much since we moved in. The toilet was old and huge and the vanity was this behemoth that took up a whole wall and half of it didn't even open because of the giant toilet. A few months ago we took out the toilet and then things came to a standstill. I couldn't take that next big step of dismantling the vanity. I would peruse the internet do-it-yourself sites and get ideas, but stopped short of starting the project full scale. I don't know what came over me today, but I was fed up! I walked in there and just started...now it's a shell of its former self! David was the brute strength and together we got it done! Now there's drywall to patch, prime and paint...and new flooring to install. Not to mention a new pedestal sink, toilet, mirror and light fixture...but we are on our way! I'll keep you posted!

Ouch!

I hurt somebody's feelings. I'm not sure exactly what I said or did, but I hurt her feelings and now I'm getting the snub. I offered my apology, said I hoped we could move past it, but I'm thinking it's not very likely. So, what now? I cried a little, even kind of "mourned" a little about it, because she's someone who's a part of my every day and it's going to change the dynamics of my life...BUT, the worst part was when I had to face the fact that I say the wrong thing... a lot. My former roommate used to introduce me by saying, "This is Lori, she's kind of abrasive." Ummm...he was right. I'm kind of an anomaly - I wear my heart on my sleeve, cry over commercials, and love fiercely, but I'm also a "Chandler" - I make bad jokes and say some not-so-nice things when I'm in a group because I get nervous. So, please know that if I hurt YOUR feelings by saying something that I thought was said in a joking manner, but it stuck with you because it was a crappy thing for me to say, I'm really sorry. I'm going to work on it, I promise!

This happens to you, too...right?

You're digging through the clearance racks...slide, click, slide, click...convinced that all the good stuff has been taken, but looking just the same because you have that coupon for an "additional 15% off" that is burning a whole in your pocketbook! So you look and look and look through all the slightly faded, massively wrinkled clearance racks and then, you see it. A dress. It's cute, it's your size - well obviously it was put here by mistake - but no, it has a clearance tag! $8.40!!! Plus the coupon - cha ching! So you scuttle off to the dressing room with your eyes darting back and forth convinced at any moment someone will snatch it from your hands. Success - you make it to the dressing room, slip out of your clothes, slip into the dress and viola! You spin this way and that, you move left and right...but still...UGH! No wonder this thing was still on the rack - it only looks good ON the rack. There are no shoes cute enough to redeem the bad flow of this dress. Now you can't get it off quick enough. You stick it on the rack with all the other misguided clothes, sigh and move on.

Or is that just me?!?!?!?

David's Birthday

Today is David's birthday so last night we had some friend's over for BBQ, cake and presents. The top present was a video iPod, which I dropped (!) as I was bringing it downstairs. Thank goodness I had wrapped the iPod box, placed it in another box, wrapped that box and finally put it in a bigger box before wrapping that. I think the extra cushioning saved me from buying ANOTHER video iPod!

Kyle is going out with his babysitter Rosa today for a movie and dinner. I think David and I are going to use the time for a movie and dinner, too. I'm sometimes amazed at couples that don't have a babysitter - maybe it's because we don't have any family around to fill in so we've always had to find a good sitter. When we were in Topeka my neighbor Tami would watch Kyle for us when he was a baby and our friend Peggie took care of him sometimes, too. Then we started hiring this cute neighbor girl, Racquel. Of course one of the first things we did when we moved to Augusta was start asking around for a great sitter and Rosa has now been with us for three years!!! I'm grateful for her because I know the monthly dates that David and I have help our relationship a lot.

It's Here!

Our new iMac arrived today! We have had our previous computer since 2002, which in the life of a computer...well, let's just say it should be in a nursing home! I still haven't explored all it's features, I've been too busy organizing all our photos and deciding that iMovie may be my ticket to stardom!

Speaking of organizing photos, I realized during all of this that I still haven't scanned in the photos from when Kyle was a newborn. Apparently we bought our first digital camera at some point into his first year because he seems "older" in all the digital photos. Strangely enough, Kyle and I were looking at some of his early baby photos just last night...the ones where he barely weighs five pounds and people would hold him so gingerly...like he might break. To look at him now you would NEVER know he weighed so little at birth. Two of my favorite photos are of him being held by Reid and Hannah the day we came home from the hospital and the other is a picture of Angela ("Auntie La") feeding him when she came to visit right after he was born. Time just flies by at such a crazy pace - before long I'll be crying over him graduating high school!

He did it!

Kyle has been eyeing the diving board at our pool club all summer long...but most of the time the deep end is crowded with teenagers when we're there and it's just not the place for a novice diver to be. Well today I decided it was just quiet enough at the pool (despite 100+ temperatures!) His face lit up when I asked him if he wanted to try jumping off the diving board. When we got over there he confidently walked out on the board while I was treading water in the middle...then he stopped. He backtracked...he said he wasn't brave enough. He climbed down, then climbed back up...walked out to the end again...and changed his mind, again. Meanwhile I'm treading water and gently encouraging him...and reminding him that school starts on Monday and our days at the pool are numbered. He just couldn't do it. I started to swim to the ladder to get out and all of a sudden he just went for it...it was awesome! The look of pure joy on his face when he popped up out of the water reminded me why we might become parents in the first place. He went again and again and again! He'll probably dream about jumping off the board tonight! It's also a good way for him to build his swimming skills since he has no choice but to swim like crazy to the edge of the pool. Hurray for Kyle the brave!

School is expensive!

We just got home from Kyle's open house...where we shelled out $35 for four weeks of lunches ($1.75 a day) and $60 for the after-shool program ($20 registration and $40 for the first week). Oh and add to that the cost of small toys for the prize box, additional school supplies that were not on the list, and whatever else may come our way and we may have to get second jobs! Kyle got to meet his teacher though (Mrs. Hammond) who seems to be really "gentle" which may or may not be a good thing for Kyle!

Boys!

This is Kyle's "birthday twin" Cory - they were born within a few minutes of each other, of course Kyle was born in Topeka, Kansas and Cory was born in Augusta, Georgia. They're pretty different size-wise - Kyle's a giant next to Cory, but they are certainly spot-on in personality! Cory has a big sister, Cassie, who treats Kyle like a little brother, too. They're like this little "pack" moving around the daycamp each day!

Thriller...

Have you seen this yet? It's this prison in the Philippines doing "Thriller" - I've seen some wedding receptions where obviously the wedding party spent more time learning the choreography for Thriller than they did in choosing their wedding attire, but this one is by far the largest "Thriller" group I have ever seen! YouTube just cracks me up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnk7lh9M3o

Friday

I love Cook's Illustrated. They have these crazy articles with titles like, "Perfecting Glazed Chicken" and "Ultimate Apple Tart" and they deconstruct each recipe so you know how they come up with the "ultimate" I devour (no pun intended) each issue cover to cover and have a crazy collection of them. I don't really ever go back to them and have only added a couple of their dishes to my regular repertorie, but just can't get rid of them!

Kyle starts school on the 13th - 1st grade. That seems really early to me - what ever happened to that Memorial Day, Labor Day school schedule? I think he's ready though. He's been at day camp each day with the same friends he always spends his summers with, but I think he's beginning to realize some kids are just hard to be around. It cracks me up though, when we get there in the morning several boys run up and start chattering to him all at once and he's so "aloof" about it all...kind of like he knows they love him! Funny kid.

Thursday

I was prompted to call my friend Carol yesterday while listening to the 80s station on XM satellite radio. They were playing "Every Rose Has Its Thorns" and I realized it may very well be the worst song ever written! I knew Carol would laugh right along with me! Yesterday also happened to be the anniversary of MTV...August 1, 1981...of course that was when MTV was more than just crap television! Another MTV tidbit - I was reading the wedding announcements in the New York Times not too long ago (yes, it's true...I read the wedding announcements in the Times every Sunday...no sudoku or crossword puzzles for me, thank you very much!) and there was Alan Hunter's wedding story...the first MTV VJ had married some woman in Birmingham, Alabama. And the woman was too young to have even watched Alan on MTV...plus the fact that her parents didn't have cable (some of these wedding stories get very in-depth!)

This blogging thing could be fun. I can post random thoughts about anything at any time!

My first entry!

It's vain to assume that anyone will want to read my occasional musings on life, love, family, and all things southern to a non-southerner, but here goes! It was hard to decide what to actually call the blog - I mean I don't have any specific hobbies, etc. so I just went with my love of my home state and my current position as a southern belle!