Sunday Wrap Up

Closing out a good week here. I really enjoyed my week off, I can't say that enough. Paid vacation is a great concept. I can still get a pay check even though I didn't do any work related to my job. (I did lots of other work at home instead.) I think it's their way of hoping I will come back tomorrow, sort of like an incentive to show up - so I can take another week off in a couple months.

Yesterday morning, very early, Adrian and I set up the yard sale. I had spent all week sorting and pricing assorted items from around the house. He did the heavy lifting the night before. We set the start time at 7 am. Even though I knew people would show up before then, we didn't start putting everything out until 6:30 am. And the early birds don't seem to care that they are in the way or trying to negotiate prices before the sale has officially started. If it wasn't for the lust of cash, I would have told them to shove off. We indicated on our signs and Craig's List posting that we had furniture and baby stuff (don't worry the really good stuff is tucked away for quality hand-me-downs). It turns out people don't love baby stuff as much as I had hoped. The 12 month sized clothes got picked through pretty well, but that was about it. The heavy items we were really aiming to get rid of were not an issue. A nice lady took the glider and full size bed (well, she gave us cash and came back later with her brother's truck). She had promised her daughter "new" furniture if she cleaned up her room. And another lady bought the filing cabinet, for which she also returned with a truck to take it away. The only people smart enough to come with appropriate transportation were the guys who bought the TV. Phew! Clothes can always be donated, baby stuff passed on, and other items put back in the house.

Nicholas and I sorted all the toys in the family room and designated "upstairs play room" or "downstairs". (After reviewing the pattern later, baby toys and musical instruments went upstairs, while spy gear, cars, and costumes stayed downstairs. Meaning he kept all his stuff that he likes a lot downstairs.) While Travis ate lunch I took the shelves up to his room and put the toys in order. Then they played and loved the new room until dinner time.

Adrian had left for a tournament in Richmond after the yard sale. The boys and I went to McD's for dinner and play place time. This morning we had scrambled eggs, toast, and assorted fruit for breakfast. Later we ran errands to the fabric store and Harris Teeter. See how much fun we have without Adrian? Not really. We just keep ourselves occupied because we're lonely and have to find something to do until he returns.

Below are outtakes from today:

Corn on the cob eating is shirt-optional for children at our house.




Then Nicholas took over the camera. He's still learning how to look at the viewer to see what's being captured. And the coordination to push the button without losing the desired image. I think it's so much fun to see what he thinks is a good idea for a photo. And it's usually something meaningful to him in some way. It makes you want to ask why - like he's a true artist.


Dinner time


There's about 12 more like this one. Various scenes from Max & Ruby.


I think he meant to take a picture of his puzzle and got his feet and the lens cap too.


And his Iron Man wall decals. They can be peeled off and put back over and over.

Weekly Winners (May 31)

It's been a busy but very good week here. A lot was accomplished. It's amazing what can be done at home when you take time off from your real job.

If you want to look at more lovely photos, you can jump over to Sarcastic Mom where she hosts Weekly Winners.



As an ode to Lotus, here's a bathtime photo of my younger son.


We got a new pet this week, too. Isn't he cute? And he doesn't make any messes or noises.


Syracuse won their 2nd National Championship in a row (11 total if you're tracking at home).


Travis's room before the yard sale. (Yes!!! The TV, filing cabinet, and bed all sold!)


Travis's room after the yard sale. I repainted the shelves I built like 6 years ago. The art table and chairs for the corner are en route, says the UPS tracking number.

I had to bribe the boys with McDonald's for dinner to get them to actually leave the room.

Reclamation and First Tries

I reclaimed my dining room from Nicholas. We used to share it for crafting and art. His supplies began to outnumber mine and he wasn't much for organization or putting things away. I kicked him out. More to come on his new studio and play room later. It's not quite done yet.
I finally stained the TV stand we bought 9 years ago. I really enjoy staining furniture. It takes such patience and concentration that I can totally get lost in it. And I love the results. I always end up thinking to myself, "Why didn't I do this years ago?" But now here it sits, repurposed as my craft storage cabinet.

And since gaining room to sew again I tried to make something I can wear, as opposed to the various pillows and stuffed animals - except that adorable kids' snuggie last month - which she wears in the car over her carseat straps, an idea the patent owners never considered.

I tried to mimic a skirt I already own and like a lot. I did spend half a day looking at the fabric and scared to death to start cutting it. (I ate barbecue chips and chocolate ice cream to deal with the emotions.) It took a couple of tries - I love my seam ripper so so much. And I found a new best friend called bias tape. Total life saver. It's not perfect, the side with the zipper is a little bumpy. For my first attempt at clothing, I'm pleased. And I will try it again, maybe following a different skirt in my closet.




(The totally awesome late 1960s bath tile really makes the colors pop!)

Crazy Sports Fans

Syracuse beat Cornell in OT for the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship. The boys (Adrian included) are thrilled. And based on the required accessories for game viewing today, I can't even imagine what they will wear when they actually are in college attending a game. Ten bucks you will see them on the jumbo tron and/or the ESPN highlight reel.

Top 10 Reasons Our New Dog Rocks

1. He's soft and fluffy
2. Very, very quiet
3. Doesn't have bodily functions
4. Food and water not required
5. Kids can wrestle him without being bitten
6. Doesn't have to go outside for any reason
7. No motion sickness on car rides
8. Baths are not necessary
9. No slobbery licking
10. No crotch sniffing
    

Weekly Winners (May 24)

More Weekly Winners photo galleries can be found at Sarcastic Mom.
Please leave her some kind words, her photos are beautiful as usual.

For the Love of Music

This little one has a love for music, more specifically rock and roll. During my first tremester and part of the second we still had season tickets to Walnut Creek Amphitheater. We went to every concert offered regardless of the genre. He was exposed to live music from an early age, so to speak. As an infant we'd play live recordings of The Grateful Dead for him. It soothed him and we were able to enjoy a peaceful dinner. Even now he'll ask to listen to them. He also really likes Jack Johnson and Dan Zanes. Our local rock radio station, 96 Rock is his favorite. He quotes their tagline all the time, "everything that rocks is on 96 Rock." The other night during the American Idol finale he really warmed my heart. "Look mom. Adam is with The KISS."

My Gardening Skillz, Or Not

Ask me if I care my neighbor's roses climb over the fence. Cuz I don't, they're real pretty in an unintentional overgrown way.


The shrub that someone, cough - Adrian - cough, mowed over is growing back strong. And I was bored and planted a million poppy and California wildflower seeds around it. Just to see what would happen.


Travis was sent home with a cup of tomato sprouts. So far so good. I will split and transplant this weekend hopefully. I wonder if the good kids got to take home cocoa tree sprouts.


Thanks to Pixel (under the makeshift headstone) my rhododendrons are in minimal bloom. They haven't bloomed in about 6 years. Great fertilizer.


And another bored moment of random seeds. These might result in sunflowers if we're lucky.


Gerber daisies are in the second round of blooms. And another cup of Travis's - grass, this time. Nicholas insisted on that one piece of little fence for his flower garden.

Doh..time for American Idol. Go Adam Lambert! We just love a good rocker. Laters.

Like the Energizer Bunny

I had to carb up last night. I borrowed a recipe from one of Erica's friends. Since I'm not on the CSA bandwagon - I made do with store bought ingredients.
Thin Spaghetti (I picked the whole grain with added healthy stuff)
Saute 1 small white onion, diced; 2 medium cloves garlic, minced
Add Chickpeas - not quite the whole can
Add 1 can Diced Tomatoes (canned, Italian seasoned)
Red pepper flakes, salt, pepper
Toss in spinach to wilt in the hot veggies
Mix it all together and sprinkle with shredded parmesan

It was very yummy. Even Adrian liked it. Travis ate around the chickpeas and tomato chunks. And Nicholas avoided it completely.

This morning I got up a little after 5 am, surfed the web a bit, drank some OJ, put on my best running outfit, and made a waffle with cottage cheese and strawberry jam. My ride, Julie, knocked on the door right at 6 am. Rain was predicted for the whole day pretty much but it wasn't chilly. Hey, at least that meant no hot sun beating down on you. We got our timing chips and bibs and got back in the car to avoid the sprinkles until guntime. We watched the half-marathon start. Man, there was a lot of people for that race. The people who I like to call crazy. I crammed some shot block chews in my mouth (thanks Morgan). The course starts on a paved road leading into Umstead Park. It turns to gravel, then packed gravel into the park where you loop back. The course veers off on to the regular greenway in the area. All pretty scenic and outdoorsy. A nice change from the road races through metro areas.

I had Julie, her husband Dave, and Theresa around me to start - and a whole bunch of strangers. Julie and I were together for about the first mile and then she slipped ahead. I train alone, so racing alone is no big deal to me. I like being in my own head - a lot of weird things go on up there. Sometimes I can remember what I've thought about and it's funny, usually it's just boring thoughts. Going into mile 4 there was a woman just over my shoulder. You know that annoying blind spot where you can't see them but you sure can hear them. Eventually she fell just behind me and stayed there for a bit. The packed gravel of the bridle (not bridal) path has the sound effect of running on Wii Fit. It's kind of funny so I pretended that's what I was doing - except every now and then runners fall down on Wii Fit. And that didn't happen. I wish it had just for entertainment's sake. Going into mile 5 the woman decided to get in front of me. Fine by me. But then, hah, I got around her when she found out there was still mile 6 left. Still trucking along at just about the same pace througout. I got to the very last turn where the race guide lets you know only .3 of a mile left and sincerely apologizes for the hill. WTF? Who puts a hill in the last .3 of a race. Dear lord. I perservered almost purely by the fact that spectators had parked themselves on the hill to motivate you. Then that woman came behind me and said "let's finish this". We picked up speed - probably still looked a snail's pace to onlookers - and crossed together. We commended each other for a good race. Julie and her husband were waiting with a cup of water for me. Too kind. We waited for Theresa. And then the clouds opened up. She had to finish her last 5-10 mins in the pouring rain, poor thing. She did finish and that's what counts.

Adrian and the boys got there after I was done and since it was raining so hard they stayed in the car. Luckily I was able to spot them easily in the parking lot. We said our good byes and congratulations, and all passed on the after-party because of the rain. I got in the car (scraped my leg on a prickly bush - my only injury of the day, go figure) and asked for Gatorade. My obliging husband took us to the nearest gas station where I snapped this post-race picture. Nice, huh? All sweaty and rained on.



A quick summary of the rest of the day:
Dropped Adrian off at the airport so he could go to a conference in Indianapolis.
Put Travis down for a nap, took a shower. Ate lunch - leftovers of that awesome pasta dish.
Took the boys to a birthday party for a girl in Nicholas's class. Theme: Wizard of Oz. Very cute. Yellow brick road leading up to the green sparkly wrapped front door. The table cloth was blue gingham. Hot potato was played to the soundtrack from the movie. Party pictures were taken in a cardboard box with balloons to simulate the hot air balloon. After the boys were sufficiently loaded up on pizza, candy, cake, and ice cream we came home.
Put Travis down for a nap, Nicholas down for a movie, and I took a nap. Rest, sweet rest.

Now the boys are tucked away in bed. And I am on my way.

How Does Amazon Do That?

I was updating my Amazon Wish List for my birthday. My favorite author, Laurie Notaro, had a new book available on pre-release. I added it to my list. And the magic of Amazon had some suggestions based on other people who had selected the same book. Needing more ideas to place on my list, I figured why not just pick one of these I know nothing about. I added David Sedaris's Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. It said it was a National Bestseller. My odds should be good that it's funny and well written.

To my surprise I was given both books for my birthday. I decided to start with the unknown author, you know living on the edge.

Within the first chapter he talks about going to the emergency room at Rex Hospital. Then in another chapter his childhood dentist's office is in a converted brick house by Colony Shopping Center. Not much further in the book he's giving money to hippie panhandlers outside the gas station at North Hills Mall.

Wow! All of these places are less than a mile from my house (besides the hospital which is several miles away, but is where I birthed both of my sons). His stories are about his life in this area in the 60s and 70s. It's so neat to read about this area. And of course his life. He is hysterical.

It must be part of Amazon's plot to take over the world and they are secretly monitoring our every purchase. They knew that I like funny authors and that I live in Raleigh. So clearly it put two and two together to suggest a funny author from Raleigh. (Adrian thinks they have good programmers who can develop algorithms. But that just sounds too nerdy.)

I Hope I Didn't Start Something

I had Nicholas with me running errands. We didn't go to our regular grocery store. We went to the one near Home Depot just to get a few things. This place has a lotto vending machine for the scratch-off tickets. He's never seen them or heard of them before but the pretty colors and lights attracted him. Probably the same effect it has on the poor half-drunk shoppers late at night. Anyway, I thought why not, we might get lucky and what's the harm. I put a crisp dollar in. He pushed the button for the one he wanted (3 chances to get three matching fruits in a row). Once we were in the car, out of public eye, I showed him how to scratch off with the edge of a coin. Sad to say, he's not much of a lucky charm. We won nothing. Oh well, only a dollar lost to introduce him to gambling. His response, "we'll just have to keep trying." For those of you filling out my Mother of the Year application, be sure to include this fine story. Okay? Thanks.

Mom's Day

Adrian has caught on to the concept of taking Nicholas with him for gift shopping. And Adrian can never ever sit on a gift more than a few hours. He just can't contain himself and wait for whatever the occasion is. So I opened my gift last night, see if you can spot Nicholas's contributions.

• A pink gift bag with matching pink bow
• Margot's Word Brain for Nintendo DS
• Transformers Autobots for Nintendo DS
  
• Granola Bites - chocolate flavor
• Jello Pudding Snacks - chocolate vanilla flavor
  
• Target gift card
• Elmo Mother's Day Card with "Elmo Loves You" sound effect
• Mother's Day Card with NKOTB "Hangin' Tough" sound effect

We shared the pudding last night and some granola bites this morning, since that was the intent of the gift - to share. I can't wait to play Transformers on my DS. And I know Erica is so jealous she does not have the same Mother's Day card.

This morning I had to practice my 10K which is next Sunday. We still cannot find my watch. I had it last Thursday when I ran. It's in this house somewhere. At the time, I probably thought I was putting it somewhere clever. I just can't remember where that somewhere is.

I managed to make it more than an hour without collapsing on the side of the road. I love my neighborhood. I go through some intersections that are just a hubbub of activity. And then I can go for blocks of total quiet and solitude. There are the creepy landscapers and tree guys that I am just certain are looking at me. And I remind myself of everything I've learned from CSI, Criminal Minds, etc. and that I will be safe.

I made it home and consumed lots of Gatorade and water. After a shower, Adrian cooked my favorite breakfast. Scrambled eggs and American cheese waffle sandwich. Yum.

Since then I've played wiffle ball, watched some FoodNetwork, and taken a couple a catnaps on the couch. Shortly I'll be going out for my regular Sunday errands.

Funniest Paula Deen Moment

I was given the chance today to watch some FoodNetwork. Woohoo. Nicholas and I watched an episode of Paula Deen with her son Bobby. It was amusing to watch their interaction. Then Bobby needed to separate some eggs for a custard or something. Paula was about on the floor laughing. And snot is very funny to a 4 year old. Nicholas and I loved his egg separator. It was like the one below, but green and a slightly different nose. You get the idea. Yolks stay in, whites come out the nostrils.




*Thanks to www.stupid.com for the picture.

It Always Happens to Me

I must have bad karma, like I stood up a lot of guys on dates or something. I'm not sure what makes these things happen to me. All the time. I almost come to expect it now. I am not one to raise my voice, plead for my money back. I just accept it and wait for it to happen again.

Like the time I finally got around to going to my running club. On the day that no one else decides to go. I end up looking like a loser standing around waiting to run. With no one.

Or that time I went to the dentist to get my permanent crown put on. Except it hadn't been delivered yet. And they forgot to tell me that when they reminded me of my appointment the day before. So I sat and read a magazine, waiting for nothing. I accepted their apologies as if rearranging the whole take the kids to school routine was no biggie.

Today I managed to get a haircut scheduled before my favorite girl goes on vacation. She's almost never free in the evenings. Score, I thought. I checked-in. Found the most recent issue of People - the one with the world's most beautiful people. Her previous appointment checked out, late of course. I waited to be called. Granted, I will give the benefit of the doubt to avoid looking like a witch. Maybe she had to go to the bathroom really bad or needs to clean up her station. I continue to read. Done with my magazine and 30 minutes past my time, I ask one of the girls if I can book another time. My hands are shaking. I don't do confrontation. I try to be polite and act like it's no big deal I sat in their comfy chair reading a magazine. On my way home in the pouring rain and tornado warnings, my girl calls my cell phone. She claims the previous girl was named Joleena which looked so similar to my name, Joanna, and thought she was done for the day. Hmmm. Close. Starts the same, ends the same. Possible mistake. She promised a big discount when she gets back from vacation. I'll forgive her this one, since she is my favorite. And ponytails are in season, so I'll just do that for a couple weeks, right?

Totally Worth $9.99

We picked up a pool last night at Target. Adrian couldn't find the attachment for the air compressor, so we had to go old school with the bike pump. We shared the job - Adrian, Nicholas, and I. Travis got up from his nap and slipped into his swim trunks. He was confused at first about why this thing that seemed like a bathtub was outside. He adjusted quickly once Nicholas dumped a cup of water on his head. And then it was on. They splashed, threw cups of water everywhere. Even if the pool doesn't survive very long, it was worth the fun.

What a Week

It has been a good week, I suppose. It definitely could have been better. Sunday started off well. I went to a spa and tried to burn the rest of a gift card on a pedicure. I fell asleep during it. Then I heard noises and thought the kids were coming in. Yeah, a little disoriented. It was great to get away and be pampered for a little while though.

Monday was back to the daily grind of work. It's no fun these days. I used to really like my job. Not since all the changes this year, I'm not feeling the love. Thanks to changing to hourly and no overtime budget - I can say "Peace! I'm out!" when I hit 40 hours. (My manager refers to it as "turning into a pumpkin")

I did get in some before-work runs on Tuesday and Thursday. I think it's been about 8 or 9 years since I got up to exercise before going to work. It was such a neat experience being out early and taking note of everything. Everyone was asleep as I snuck out under the cover of darkness. Birds were chirping eerily loud. The neighborhood was totally dead. After about 30 minutes the sun was up, people who looked like they literally rolled out of bed were walking their dogs, one man was turning on his sprinklers in his boxers(!), and a few cars were making their way out to the world.

It's finally Friday and we can let off some steam. The boys and I went outside to splash in the little puddles left from the evening rainshower.


They love their rainboots!


Nicholas can levitate. Cool, huh?


Travis and his hand-me-down Wellipets. He's at least the 4th owner.


The more attractive part of the front bed.


My banana plant. The little flowers really smell like bananas.