Summer in Atlanta

It's now officially summer in Atlanta. It's been summer for over a month, we've just been in denial. The browning of the grass, the fact that our air conditioner is on most of the day and night, and our inability to walk outside without sweating has signalled that it is, in fact, summer.

So, we finally started doing stuff other than swimming. We still do that too, but the sharpies are now put away.

Yesterday, we went to the World of Coke, CNN Center, Centennial Park, and the Georgia Aquarium. It sounds like a lot, but they are all in the same spot.

World of Coke was first. It was, as you may have guessed, all about Coke. We saw lots of memorabilia, saw the polar bear (but couldn't get a picture due to there being several thousand day camp kids in attendance as well), and were able to try 64 varieties of Coke products produced around the world. Some tasted awesome, some just so-so, and some you had to wonder if it was a joke and they actually sold it. One in particular was "Beverly" - which is sold in Italy. It tasted like peppery tonic water, and really was not even the slightest bit good. Todd had one that had a pine nut flavor marketed in South Africa that wasn't bad. The kids loved the taste testing, and loved even more that they each got their own mini-bottle of coke to bring home.

Incidentally, look at the picture with the writing about "79 days". This is about the huge screw-up in the 1980s called "New Coke". It's funny that the at least acknowledged it - but even funnier that (according to Todd) you can actually still find it in some remote locations in the southeast Pacific!

Next up we went looking for food. This brought us to the CNN Center. It's actually pretty big and I hadn't realized it was so close to where we were going. If we thought CNN actually did a good job reporting the news, we might have taken a tour. Just kidding - it probably would have been interesting no matter what.

Next, we went through Centennial Olympic Park built for the 1996 Olympics. It's a nice park right in the middle of the city. Being that it's summer, there were about 200 kids swimming in the fountains. And, yes, the fountains were turned back on this year since we are technically out of the drought.

Our last stop was the Georgia Aquarium. This is the world's largest aquarium. It has whale sharks and beluga whales and everything in between. It will be getting a dolphin exhibit in Winter 2010. Matthew, upon seeing the asian river otters, came up to me and excitedly said, "I want one of THOSE cats!" Sadly, we won't be able to comply with that. But, it was a cute request. Overall, it was pretty impressive (but I think I still like the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga the best).

In other news, you know you have a kid with a loose tooth when you hear the following questions:

"Mom, can I throw a softball at my face?"

"Mom, do we have any pliers?"

Do we even have to say that Julia was the source for both quotes???

Last Swim Meet 2009

The last swim meet was last night. We lost by 1 point. It was 476 to 466. It is nearly unheard of to be that close. It's one fourth place finish. But, it was still a fun meet. It was against another Timber Ridge neighborhood, so there were plenty of familiar faces.

Unless I screwed it up, this should be a video of each of the girls swimming. Allison and Julia are swimming freestyle, and Amanda is swimming breaststroke.

Swim Team

Here is a video of Allison swimming butterfly and a few pictures of starts. I also have a picture of Allison's goggle hair, which is a look sported by most of the kids at some point in every meet.

The black writing on all the kids' arms/legs/backs/etc.? That's sharpie pen/marker. Yes, parents actively write on their kids with sharpies. We even give kids sharpies to write on each other (they like to decorate each other with slogans like, "Eat my bubbles", "Eat my waves", "You swim like a stone", etc.) But, really, why would we do something like this? Well, for one, sharpie doesn't come off easily. This is important because we write the kids' names on their bodies and their events, heat, and lane assignment's on their arms/legs. Again, why? Let me explain....

There are usually over 200 kids at these meets. They all have swimming suits on. They all pretty much look the same, especially when wet and with goggle hair. It's even harder if they have on a cap and goggles. Sometimes, you can tell by their size how old they are, but a lot of times you can't. Do the kids know what they are swimming? Sometimes. Do they keep track of when they are supposed to swim? Not even a little. If they have their names written on their bodies somewhere, it makes it easier to find them. See, the parents at the meets all have a 2-hour job. It could be timing, ribbons, concessions, place judge, scorekeeper, runners, or the one nobody wants: locator. The locator has to wade through a sea of wet kids to find the one that is missing from their assigned lane. See, the locator works with the line-up person. The line-up person gets the kids in the right order and reminds them about what they are swimming (because they tend to forget). The locator is tasked by the line-up person with hunting down wayward children who either haven't shown up or who have wandered off to the concession stand or tennis court or nearby trees. Usually, while you are off looking for them (and you usually don't have any idea what they look like) they show up and line-up. You search and get frantic...only to return to tell the line-up person the bad news and discover them standing in line. Everyone has to do this job at least once during the season, and it's the hardest one. I got to do it the first meet.

The swim meets are actually pretty fun. Our last meet is Wednesday, and then we will really be getting lazy.

House selling update in one word:

Nothing.

Happy Father's Day !!!

Top 43 Things about My Dad....by Julia Linskey

1. Loves to tickle his children almost to death.
2. Has to bring his children to softball practice.
3. Has to run to keep in shape.
4. Needs lots of computer time.
5. Has to help make breakfast.
6. Must (in theory) mow the lawn.
7. Needs to help neighbors cut down trees.
8. Needs to turn off the sprinkler.
9. Has to go to work.
10. Needs lots of TV time.
11. Needs to play lots of Wii.
12. Has to have quality time alone.
13. Likes sleeping.
14. Doesn't like cleaning up poop.
15. Doesn't like it when Matthew draws on the walls.
16. Likes to spank Matthew.
17. Finds new ways to entertain his children.
18. Doesn't like it when Bucky throws up on his couch.
19. Doesn't like it when Bucky leaves hickory nuts on his couch.
20. Doesn't like it when Bucky sleeps on his couch.
21. He got us a weird dog, but we love him most of time.
22. He doesn't let us get killed.
23. He climbs on the roof so mom won't fall off it and kill herself.
24. He likes to drink coke, even if Matthew always steals the can.
25. Makes sure we don't play Nintendo too long.
26. Likes to eat stuff that we think is icky.
27. Likes to eat stuff that Bucky thinks is icky.
28. He works in his workshop. A lot.
29. He falls asleep sitting up.
30. Teaches Matthew how to go to the bathroom in the woods.
31. Teaches Matthew how not to go to the bathroom in the front yard.
32. He makes us watch the boring news. So we sort of learn more.
33. He likes the Navy. Sometimes.
34. He likes to eat nasty tasting nuts and tries to get other people to eat them too.
35. He can't wait until vacation.
36. He loves the beach. Not.
37. He loves the woods, but not ticks.
38. He likes hiking.
39. He hates cats.
40. He likes to watch football while drinking Fat Squirrel.
41. He drinks lots of milk.
42. He loves mom. Sometimes.
43. He loves us. Even Bucky too.

Our lovable Bucky

Many of you have heard the tales of Bucky. He is not always the most normal dog, but then again he's in our family so how is that even possible.

At the pool today, Matthew saw the lifeguard walking over towards Bucky. He wasn't going to see him, just pick something up by him. Matthew took that opportunity to inform the lifeguard that:

"That's my dog Bucky. He's very weird."

Above is a picture of the boy and his very weird dog.

Update on Hailey

Back in September, one of our neighbors started treating their daughter for an aggressive brain tumor. She's still fighting it, and here's a link to the update on her story.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/news-article.aspx?storyid=139704&catid=5



(Incidentally, the doctor speaking about the tumor on the video is the same doctor Matthew saw at Scottish Rite when he had a skull fracture 2 years ago - Dr. Hudgens was fantastic).

Allison turns 8!

Yes, the rumors are true: Allison has turned 8. And, she still sucks her thumb (but we're working on it and making progress for once). Does anyone know how to wire a capacitor into the roof of a mouth? Just a thought...

So, she turned 8. She got some presents, is having a sleepover in a few weeks, and she requested a blue and orange cake. Don't ask, I didn't. Above are a few pictures of the birthday girl. Also, we included a picture of our baby cardinals (notice how the mother is not happy with our proximity - but we were behind a screen) and Allison's sleep toys being put to bed. 8 is still a cool age....

***In other news, Allison wrote a letter to Amanda. Allison and Amanda don't always get along. So, here's what she wrote:
Dear Amanda,

I know how we don't get along.

I know we can get together.

I think it will work if we just try.

Then, we can have more fun.

Love,

Allison

More lessons for impaired moms...

Back to Matthew, but also still on me.

Lesson #435: Don't assume the refrigerator is broken if it's not running as it should AND there is a 5-year old boy living in the house.

Before you empty the entire refrigerator in a frenzy, before you start disconnecting hoses and taking things apart, before you wonder just what circle of hell selling a house has brought you to, and before you lose whatever sanity you may have had left trying to figure out why it worked FINE yesterday and all-of-a-sudden it's just not working today simply ask yourself the following questions:
1) "What is a 5-year old boy's favorite thing to play with?"
Answer: "Anything with buttons and knobs. And, everything else in the world."
2) "Has said boy played with the refrigerator in this way before?"
Answer: "Why, yes he HAS turned off the refrigerator before!"

This time, however, he turned one knob to the lowest setting so it looked on, and the other one to "off". See, the light still goes on when you open a refrigerator and it's been turned off instead of unplugged. I forgot that. And, in my haste (insanity) I only looked at the first knob that made it appear to be on. Then, and anyone who's been talking to me in the last two months will know this, I really am going nuts and I just assumed the worst and went straight past "let's think about this a second" to "can I really throw a frozen pizza like a frisbee from one freezer in the kitchen to one in the garage without it breaking?" (Incidentally, no you can't). But, we did set a record for emptying a refrigerator. And, it gave me an excuse to clean yet another thing. Sigh....

So, after emptying the fridge and while cleaning it out the logical part of my brain finally broke free of the crazy restraints and I looked at the other knob and realized my error. It's purring like a kitten now. I did have to resist the urge to hang the boy from the hummingbird feeder, but I doubt he even realizes what he did. And, if he does, he probably doesn't care at all. Another lesson learned.

For those not keeping score, in the last 4 days I've assaulted a lawn mower AND vacuum cleaner, shut the dog's tail in the car door, unintentionally rained death on innocent woodland inhabitants, set the gas grill on fire, and was seconds from dismantling a refrigerator that was just turned off. I wonder what the next few days have in store for me. Stay tuned, it'll probably be good.

Mom's nuts ...and other ramblings

Okay, we have another lesson. This time, it comes from mom. Yes, you read that right.

Lesson #434: Do not be lazy and decide to "incinerate" all the leftover gunk in the grill by turning it on full-blast when said grill has the equivalent of a gallon of grease coating its inside. Propane+"gunk"+grease+crazy-from-trying-to-sell-house-mom=FIRE. Fire bad.

This was pretty much my thought process leading up to the fire:
Hmmmm...gunk on grill. Gunk icky. Fire burn gunk. Hmmmmm...that weird! Why grill smoke? Ohh - grill on fire. Fire bad. Uhh-ohh.....

The hose was too far away (plus, the sprinkler is welded to the end of it - we think from Bucky chewing on it in one of his more bored moments). Picture me wrestling with a sprinkler trying to put out a flaming gas grill. A kodak moment if there ever was one. But, no, I didn't do that. I just turned off the burners, turned off the propane tank, got a few buckets of water from the sink and doused some of the heat before quickly disconnecting the half-full tank and moving it away from the heat. Bucky, ever the helpful dog, was nice enough to lick all the gunk off the tank for me (ummmmmmm-good!) I put out the rest of the flames, disassmbled the grill, cleaned it, put it back together, and successfully cooked my chicken 2 hours later than I'd originally planned to cook it.

My mental status has been quite questionable lately. I shut the car door on Bucky's tail a few days ago (well, in my defense, he watched it shut on his tail while I was trying to get him to move). He has since been quite hesitant to go in the car (which could be good for his weight loss plan because the car floor usually accounts for about about 30% of his daily caloric intake courtesy of my children who can't eat without making a mess). I also ran over a snake cutting the grass and have managed to recieve several interesting burns, bruises, and other injuries from cleaning way too much. How? Well, did you know that kicking a lawn mower hurts (or burns, depending on where you aim) and really DOESN'T make it start any faster? The same can be said of a vacuum cleaner that starts eating a piece of clothing shoved under a bed instead of being put in the hamper. I may be turning to mental epidurals soon (if I actually kept alcohol in the house, this would be a lot easier). On the bright side, my house is really clean. And, my yard is in great shape (especially with all the natural snake carcass fertilizer).

Fun day at the dentist

How do you spell fun? Ask Matthew, and he'll say it's D-E-N-T-I-S-T (if he could spell, that is). They have prizes. Plus, they tickle you.

While not everyone would agree with him, we did have a family fun extravaganza at our dentist yesterday. Well, except for Todd, who has to go to military dentists. Mom had a few fillings replaced (fun!), and the kids all had cleanings. First up, Matthew. He giggled through a lot of it, tried to press every button he could everywhere, and was thoroughly impressed with the garbage can that you stepped on and it sprang open. He has no cavities and no other dental work required. Sadly, that was the only one we could say that about.

Allison sucks her thumb. Because of this, and if we don't do anything to reverse what it does to her mouth, she is starting to look like a beaver. She needs to get some kind of contraption put in her mouth that either cuts off her thumb, gives her a shock-collar jolt of electricity very time she tries to suck her thumb, or something that just makes it impossible to do it at all. I can see dollar signs floating in the air already...OH, and she had 2 little cavities . Those are the first for any of them ever.

So, on to Amanda. Amanda, it turns out, is missing a wisdom tooth. Yeah! We save money (eventually). Ohh, but she's also missing a molar (she has the premolar, but nothing under it). Hmmmm....that's not great, but okay we can deal with it. OHHH, and another her permanent molars may be pushing the permanent one next to it out. That is not good. But, she has no cavities. That is good news. She will be having an Oral surgeon consult if the molar doesn't self-adjust. Ohh, and she will have to be careful of the baby molar forever.....Cha-ching.....

And then there's Julia. Julia has no cavities and everything else is good. Ohh, wait, she has impacted canines. This means there is no room for them to come down - so they are sort of just hanging out up above all the other teeth waiting to do something bad. So, that is a definite consult to ortho AND an oral surgeon. Apparently, you have to move teeth out of the way, and then (and I'm not making this up) put chains on the canines and slowly pull them down. Huh? Yeah, that's what I said. Cha-ching, cha-ching.


Sighh.....I guess it could be a lot worse. It was probably our most interesting day at the dentist, but hopefully we won't have any more surprises in the future!

Sad Timber Ridge News

Friday night, one of the first grade teachers at our elementary school lost her fiance in a horrible car accident. They were set to be married on July 4th. Keep these families in your thoughts and prayers. http://www.ajc.com/cobb/content/metro/cobb/stories/2009/05/24/chapman_teacher_death.html


Happy Memorial Day to all our vets and soldiers (and their families) sacrificing to serve and protect our freedoms and way of life.

Yet another lesson

It's been a few months since we had a lesson. It's, of course, something about Matthew. It's always about Matthew. Even with Strep throat, he's keeping us on our toes.

Lesson #433: Don't buy blankets with tassels when you have a boy (who has access to scissors) who doesn't care for tassels.

We have (had) a blue blanket that had some stringy "tassels" (for lack of a better term) on the ends. Matthew doesn't seem to like them. We don't know why. If we asked why, he'd probably say, "I don't know." or just respond with something totally unrelated in order to get us to stop asking him about it (example: "Look, my pants have pooh on them. Winnie the Pooh.") So, Todd goes upstairs for something and comes upon a scene of destruction. Matthew was sitting with the blanket. He had a nice little pair of red scissors. He was meticulously trimming off the tassels and putting them in a pile. He brought the pile downstairs to show me, as if I would give him some kind of "detasseling" award. He was actually quite proud of himself. Sigh....

In other news, we have a new way of getting Matthew to take medicine. For those of you who haven't ever had the pleasure of watching us try and give Matthew medicine, it's sort of like trying to feed olives to Todd or peanut butter to Kelly. There's crying, kicking and screaming, objects are thrown, and it usually ends with us pinning him on the ground and just shooting it down his throat (and he will still usually manage to spit it back out to cover both of us and the walls 10 feet behind us). So, we did the old way once. And, that was enough. So, the next dose we sat him down and told him he would take it. No compromise. He wanted orange juice. No problem. I said we'd give him chocolate when he was done. We've tried this before, but this time it worked. So, he has a little 5 ml "syringe" that he uses to take the medicine. It takes about 10 minutes, with him sipping juice in between each 1/4-1/2 ml dose he gives himself. It's a good thing he almost never gets sick enough to need medicine.

Amanda the Cadette

Amanda "bridged over" to be a Cadette Girl Scout Thursday (if she chooses to continue in Girl Scouts). She also received her bronze award (the highest Junior Girl Scout award) for their work with Seamless Garments (a home that helps single moms).

Also, she wanted to thank Yumina for the great birthday presents!!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone :)

Happy Mother's Day...from Allison

Happy Mother's Day.
You are the best mother.
I really love you.
You make me smile.
If you weren't here I wouldn't be born.

Love,
Allison


(Awwww......you know it's cute!)

Happy Mother's Day...from Matthew

Matthew filled in the following answers in his Mother's Day card:

My Mom is the most wonderful mom in the world. Her name is Kelly. She's pretty as a flower. She is 10 years old. She has blue eyes and yellow hair. Her favorite food is salad. In the good old days when she was little, she used to play with the monkey toy. I think Mom is funny when she makes faces. But I know she's really angry when she says bad words. I wouldn't trade my Mom for toys. I love my mom because I like to kiss her.

Hmmm, I am much younger this year than last year. This is a trend. First 19, now 10! I don't remember any monkey toys, so maybe he meant Kevin and Brian? I do like to make faces, and occasionally a bad word does slip out (incidentally, "stupid" is a bad word). He does like to kiss me, but right after he does that he says "Euwww...girl germs" and I say "boy germs". The picture he drew is remarkably close...sigh.

ANOTHER new cousin!!!

Welcome to the world little Miss Anna Sierra Linskey, born at 2:17 pm weighing a healthy 7 lbs 11 oz., 20 inches in length. She's got blonde hair and blue eyes.

For those not keeping score, the cousin count is now at 10 (6 girls: Cassie, Alex, Lexi, Ella, Alaina, and Anna; 4 boys: Zach, Ryan, Chase, and Michael).

Congratulations Erin, Amanda, and big sister Alex !!!

http://www.gritman.org/stork/mybaby.asp?stork=4589

ALMOST a teenager....

Yes, it's true, we almost have a teenager. This is odd, because according to the facebook quiz I took I myself am only 19...

Amanda turned 12 years old today. We celebrated by having to flee our house twice for three different families to come in and see if they wanted to maybe buy it. Amanda did not agree that it would be a fantastic birthday present for someone to offer to buy our house on her birthday. There was nothing at all in it for her (unless they threw in some Wii or Nintendo games, which we confirmed would be highly unlikely). Amanda was quite annoyed that these crazy people would spoil her festivities. Said festivities basically included counting her birthday money and playing Nintendo in the 'bat cave' (aka - her room). But, she did get lunch at Chili's out of the deal (and since we almost never go out to eat, it was a really treat!) Going to Home Depot for pine straw** after Chili's, however, was not as much fun.

She was quite happy with all her presents and cards, but even more happy that she will have her own sleepover next Friday (again, with only 3 girls). We really learned our lesson last year. Todd is planning to flee the sleepover, using the excuse that he will go "camping" with our kids and Drew and his kids in North Carolina. Maybe I'll try and trade places...

**Note: Pine straw is literally that - pine straw. It's the needles that fall off of pine trees that someone gathers and bundles into bales like straw and sells to home fix it stores for people to buy. This is very big in the south for landscapes instead of mulch. so don't laugh until you shovel mulch in 100 degree heat and 100% humidity and then watch one torrential downpour wash it all away.

Allison's Special Day

Allison received her First Communion today. She was one of the first kids (out of 230 kids- in three First Communion services) to do it. It was the largest group EVER at St. Ann's! She has been excited about this day for some time. The priest, Father Tom, actually made it really fun for the kids by doing a "quiz" along the lines of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" during the homily. He'd go around asking the kids some religious questions, some quite hard and some fun, but all good. It was a big hit and drove home the fact that this is a day you prepare for rather than just show up for.

We got quite a few pictures, including a few of "the boy". We even got him to wear a tie. The best part of his day was when he tried to "high-5"the priest during Communion. Wait, I was just corrected: Todd said he was trying to just grab a wafer. He has this idea that it must be some great tasting stuff and it's crazy that he can't get any of it. He doesn't want a blessing - he wants the Communion wafer. Sigh....

So, that was our day. Tomorrow Amanda gets one step closer to being a teenager...I KNOW I'm not ready for that. It's good I have another year.

Why do I hear laughing????

Julia hits double digits!!!

Yet another milestone was reached in the Linskey household: Julia has turned 10. I can't figure this out, and neither can Matthew. Matthew said I am 4 years old, so it is just impossible that she (being my daughter) is 10. It also makes it impossible for him to be my son, but he just kissed me, screamed "Euuwww! Girl germs!", and went on his merry way. But, it just doesn't seem like it has been 10 years.

We didn't really have a party (if you want to know why, read the blog entry from about a year ago). She instead had a "get together" and invited a few (3) friends to sleepover after her softball game. They had pizza, watched movies, and just hung out. Although I promised we'd have pictures of her from softball, we didn't get any last night. Today's game was rained out. Apparently, you can't play softball if the field is underwater...or if that happens and there's also lightning.

Thanks for all the cards and gifts. Ohh, and Grandma Irma, you'll like this comment: "Does Grandma Irma just spend ALL her money on US?"

Softball pictures

Here are a few softball pictues of Allison. We'll get some of Julia's game hopefully this Friday or Saturday.

Julia...the blondest of them all

So, we have a girl who is quite the blonde. She comes up with some of the funniest things to say sometimes. Should you doubt her blondeness, here are a few examples:

Example 1:
------------
Mom: (While watching a Subway "$5 footlong" commercial) "Ohh, I just saw that they have $5 footlong subs at Kroger."

Julia: "Really? How much are they?"

Example 2:
------------
Grandpa Terry: "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?"

Julia: "Who's Grant?"

Example 3:
------------
Julia singing: "And all that liberty gold...only shooting stars break the mo-u-oold"
(to the tune of Smashmouth's song "Allstar" - the lyric is actually "...and all that glitters is gold..."



She'll end up being a rocket scientist or something, just wait.

Spring Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of the kids (the ones that they try to guilt you into buying by saying "Your child is only this age once.")

Scanners are a good thing...

Our house is still for sale. It hasn't been quite 3 weeks. We've had about a dozen couples through it, which is good traffic especially for this market. But, no official offers yet. A few have our house number 1 on their list....but they have to sell their homes first. Sigh....

The early bird gets a ...double monkey?

Huh?





Okay, that's a mix of two of Matthew's latest sayings. Let me explain

First, at school, the teachers asked the children to complete the phrase, "The early bird gets the ...."
Matthew's answer:
"Chocolate & vanilla ice cream."
The birds like our house.

Second, we have another incident inspired by Wii. So, Matthew likes Wii sports. A lot. He will play them all and it's funny to watch him. He really gets into it and tries SO hard. One day, he was playing Wii sports and had just finished playing a round of Wii golf when Todd walked in. Todd asked what he was up to, and Matthew responded matter-of-factly the progress of his game:


"Yeah, I got a double-monkey."

It sounds better than bogey I think...

Not to make you think that the girls do nothing, we have a picture courtesy of our very own Bucky dog and Princess Grumpy Pants (PGP - aka Allison). She was being grumpy about something and decided to rest in her closet. And promptly fell asleep. Not one to be left out of any situation involving laziness, Bucky immediately joined in.

WOW!!!

Check out this video - it's amazing!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY


Maybe we could get her to sing about the Fair Tax....

Fair Tax

After yesterday's protests, I realized that rather than be against something why not be FOR something:

www.fairtax.org

Read about it and make your own informed decision. There are two books on it you can check out from the library for free, and the website above if you're not into reading books.

Spring Break 2009

It's Spring Break!!! Yeah! Well, actually, it started a week ago. So, what did we do? We put our house on the market, and promptly ran away.

Well, not really, but we did take a quick trip to Florida. For those shaking your heads in disgust at this, we only live about 6 hours away from Florida so it's not like it's hard to get to!

Our first day, we drove to Jacksonville. It took a little longer than usual for two reasons. First, the powers-that-be (which these days means "total idiots" no matter where you live) decided that the Saturday of Spring Break for most of metro Atlanta (and many locales north that travel through Atlanta) would be an AWESOME day to close half the lanes of traffic on the major interstates for road construction. Add to that impatient drivers, stupid-driver accidents, and the occasional cigarette-ignited brush fire and you have a recipe for multiple-hour delays in sunny weather! Well, we just avoided that whole mess and didn't even get on the freeway until Macon. That is south of Atlanta for those who are not up on their Georgia geography or think that the whole state is comprised of Atlanta and Hazzard County (the latter being a fictional place - sorry to disappoint). The second reason was that our detour route was flooded out. Apparently, a few days earlier, the southern non-drought stricken part of the state got 10 inches of rain in a day (literally). So, most of the creeks had turned into class 5 rapids. But, we got to our destination and showed Amanda the hospital she was born in and where we used to live. Well, we think it was where we used to live because we got a little lost. It turns out that when you lived somewhere 12 years ago it's amazing how you forget where everything is (especially when you've moved 5 times since then).

Our next day, we took a short trip to St. Augustine (the oldest city in America) and to Kennedy Space Center. We didn't see any astronauts, but we did see a lot of cool stuff (specifically, rockets and turtles). We learned that Matthew needs closed captioning. He raised his hand when they asked if anyone needed this...and, on another note, if you DID need closed captioning how would you know to raise your hand when somebody SPOKE this??? And, even more confusing was the fact that it had closed captioning ANYWAY even though nobody really said they needed it. It could be that the meant to say "closed captioning" in another language because we were literally in the minority. We heard French, German, Russian, Yiddish, and Bostonian. Yes, Bostonian. We have this theory that all the tour guides are from some nearby retirement community that is exclusively comprised of people from the Northeast, or of people with a speech disorder that causes them to add an "r" where this isn't one and to not pronounce an "r" where there is (i.e. "We will wartch the shuttle." and "We will paak by the caas.") The space program only uses a small part of the land, so we were also able to see lots of animals (like running turtles, an alligator, lots of birds, and buzzards!) It's a fun trip, and you could easily spend the whole day there. Plus, we got to see a shuttle on the launch pad - so cool......

We spent the next day with Great Grandpa Russell and Great Grandma Ruth. Matthew only tried to steal the golf cart twice and did get to drive it once with dad's help. He only almost threw his sisters off the cart and gave a new meaning to the phrase "lead foot." He also rode on the back of Grandma's mamasan bike (think Japan bike with a basket in the back) and watered a few of the plants in the front yard in his own "unique" way. He fell asleep 10 minutes after we left. It was the first time the kids had met these great grandparents, and we suspect the great grandparents may still be recovering. We also saw an odd sign that I think you'd only see in either central Florida or maybe anywhere in Louisiana (see picture).

We were able to hang out with Aunt Rosie and Uncle Keith. We swam in their pool and enjoyed the blackout that kept us from watching Michigan State get their butts kicked. Rosie was thwarted in her attempt to watch "Dancing with the Stars" - which seriously upset Keith (ha!) We also had fun with little Maggie, the killer dachsund. What a cool little dog (no offense to our Bucky, but she was so cute and able to jump onto your lap without permanently injuring any vital body parts).

Our drive back consisted of lots of wind, lots of orange trees, and a stop at Gatorland. We stopped there once many years ago, and it really hasn't changed even a little bit. They still had a "gator feeding" time complete with Bubba and Cooter wearing half-buttoned oversized overalls and acting as though they had the combined IQ of a kumquat. We thought about going to a few of the big Orlando theme parks, but figured that we had better ways to burn through $500. Seriously, there's not much economic trouble in Florida despite what we see on the news....

We got back and have finished all the laundry and settled into the fun routine of having to be ready to vacate our house at a moment's notice (and maybe vacate and have the people not show up). So fun, but that is real estate in hell (which means trying to sell anywhere right now). The kids go back to school Monday so the regular routine starts again all too soon.

So, that's what we've been up to for the last few weeks. We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter (or, Passover). Keep your fingers crossed that we can sell our house with no problems (and no crazy people, other than Kelly, involved).

More pictures of Alaina

Here are a few more pictures of our new niece Alaina (and her older brother Chase and older sister Ella).

What do parents discuss at a teacher conference?

So, Matthew has his preschool teacher conference today (yes, they really do have conferences for preschool). I told him that his teacher and I were going to talk about him today.
I asked him,
"Matthew, what do you think we will talk about in your conference?"
Matthew responds,
"Hamsters."
I said,
"I think we will talk about whether you behave. If you are a good boy or a bad boy, and we'll talk about what you are learning."
He said,
"No, you talk about hamsters."

Hmmmmm, I wonder if this should worry me.....

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

We have a new cousin!!!

Welcome to the world Miss Alaina Marion Ball :)

8lbs 9 oz

21.5 inches long

described as "a carbon copy of older sister Ella"

Alaina and mom Tarra are reportedly doing well and are healthy and happy.





Matthew was so happy to learn of his new cousin. He was, however, quite disappointed (to the point of tears) when he learned she was not at our house for him to meet in person.

Camping....with 14 second grade girls

Yes, you read that correctly. What did I do this weekend? I and three other brave moms took 14 (yes, fourteen, outnumbering us by more than 3-to-1) girls camping. Did we have the fantastic 70-degree sunny weather that we had last weekend? Uhhh, not quite. We did get a lot of drizzle, wind, and rain. It didn't snow, nobody was stepped on by a horse (that happened to a girl in Julia's friend's cabin), and nobody fell down a flight of stairs (that happened in Amanda's cabin). A girl in Julia's cabin did actually have to leave early to get stitches when she fell running on slippery wood, and that story was spread in detail to everyone (getting more devastating with each telling). We had smores, did crafts, did a scavenger hunt, got wet a few times, and had a pretty good time. We were supposed to do canoeing, but the weather was not good enough. Some kids did archery and horseback riding. Some kids just got really muddy (but I think that was intended in many cases). There is even a pool there! Okay, it's only open in the summer but how cool is that? Some kids wondered if they could bring their families back. So, that's a good sign that they liked it I think. They didn't even seem to be concerned when I answered that probably only the girls in the family could come!!! Who needs boys, right?

Meanwhile, Matthew and dad had what was probably their first male-only weekend ever. Dad took Matthew out for a fun lunch and then took him to a candy store. They also did a bunch of stuff around the house. They had fun I think....

Cookies and snow

It finally snowed again in Georgia! I can hear all you up north laughing at us (and secretly hating us for not having to deal with it more often!) But, for all the hype on the news, it was pretty uneventful. We still have a tiny bit on the ground, but the roads are fine. I think it's the parents here who are disappointed more than the kids that school won't be cancelled (I didn't expect it to be - but there were some I spoke with who were convinced that this meant a 3-day weekend!) I don't have pictures because our camera finally died. It lasted 7 years. That's an amazing amount of time for something to remain functional, let alone intact, in our house.

So, the snow was the big story. The other story is THE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES ARE FINALLY HERE! Yeah! And, we have almost all of them already delivered. I have a few orders still in my kitchen waiting to be picked up, but our girls' boxes are all delivered or soon to be delivered. I picked up 79 cases of cookies with Matthew on Saturday morning in the pouring rain. As we were quickly loading the cases, he just had this incredulous look on his face watching the cases stack up all around him. He said, "Wow mom! This is a lot of cookies." Then, he said, "This is TOO many cookies mom. You'll get a tummy ache." Awwwww....he's worried about me getting fat too! Although, I have a feeling that what he really meant was that I could not possibly eat them all by myself and would have to SHARE them with someone like (for example) a 5-year old little boy. And, yes, he still considers himself a "little" boy.

Hope everyone had a great weekend :)