Happy Easter Friends

Look at these sweet Easter pictures of the babes...
I bet you can make up a story.
I will give you a clue....Where is Victor? :)

Oh, and We had chocolate bunnies for breakfast. :)
This is not wanting to post so easily.

Let me try again:

So when I click post, it says that it will not want to post right now...

Find the date

My children are going to school in the same schools I went to.
They are bringing home books from the library and every time we read a book we check the dates!
Several times Elena has brought home books that I read!!
I can remember the books AND we check the dates.
Books from 1982 were in the library when I was in the second and third grades.
If you can see the old-timey check out envelope in the back cover--it has dates from 1986--that is when I was in the third grade at Elena's school.
We enjoy reading together, and we get to take a walk down memory lane all at the same time.

Speaking of old-timey check outs...
In my office at the school I work in, there is an old card-catalogue cabinet! ha!
I have no idea why we still have it...
Well, maybe I do know, it serves as a room partition right now.
It is also pleasant to look at, with its tiny drawers..
The students who come to my room love to hide under it, and open the drawers, one after another, --just as a curiosity..."What is this thing?" they say to me.
I try to explain it.

I never thought about when I would be telling "when I was little" stories.
It appears that I have arrived! :)

My sweet thing

That is what Andy and I called her for the first three months she was alive! She is still just as sweet as ever, times eight! This day eight years ago Andy and I were very cozy in a tiny hospital room enjoying her. I think I could have just spent all my time gazing at her sweet face and I did spend many hours doing just that.
This afternoon we enjoyed some reality tv together, she ate the last piece of her birthday cake, and she opened the presents that I picked out for her.
My Sweet Thing!

The soundtrack of my morning

Around here we get up EARLY!! Way early.
5:00 AM early.
Really, I get up first and I am up for about thirty minutes by myself.
In that time I make three lunches and get all of the breakfast stuff out.
Then, I go to wake up Elena and Victor.
While they eat their choice of breakfast..I eat
mine.
Grapefruit.
This has been our routine since the beginning of this school year.
In the beginning it was very quiet when I got up by myself.
It was stressful too.
That is a bit too early to be up, really.
I would sort of feel stressed.
Petting Spot and Prissy would calm me down a bit.
They wake up too, and have to go out, and in, and out, and in.
So we play the doggie game too.
But those tiny heart palpitations did not go away.
They were always sort of {there}--a little bit of nervousness.
The nerves of being in a hurry--all the time!!

Enter Pandora radio

Now, and for the past several months--I get up and put
the radio on the Norah Jones station.
Ay que musica!!
That selection of music relaxes me so much.
It makes my morning sweet!
Pandora mixes up the tunes with some Norah Jones and
some {like} Norah Jones...
Two of my faves are:
Carla Bruni singing the song--you belong to me..the one about no matter where you
roam, and how great it is, just remember "you belong to me"--so sweet!
I really think of my children growing up when I hear that song, even though I think it is about a lover.
the other one is that Hawiian guy singing and humming and playing the ukelele to "over the rainbow" That one just reminds me of Elena being a baby, b/c it was on some commercial then at Christmas time and I would hold her and hum that song.

So, if you have situations that STRESS YOU OUT, and you are
near Pandora radio--play a station that will de-stress you!!
Let the music work for you. ;)
It sure has for me.

Victor

Happy Birthday Victor!
We love you!

a new {like}?

As we speak --or read? or type?  I am watching a new reality show on T!C.
Myrt1e3 Manor.
When I have seen the preview of this show while I run on the treadmill, I have been very excited because I have thought... This is the reality show that expresses my fantasy..to live in a cool trailer/camper park full of friends and have a cute little trailer at the beach etc.
We will see.
I missed the premier episode last week.  SO--here I am, watching the first one.
Have you seen this preview?  What did you think?
Now, you have to remember cable is new to me all over again after a four year hiatus.
Some of the anthropological studies that I have enjoyed are now annoying to me, and some
I find completely appalling--and non-watchable.
The ones on Wed. night--hoarding and odd addictions???
Can't watch it!
Seeing the utter exploitation of the mental illness of society's most vulnerable--I can't watch it.
But--Myt!e M2an0r???
The jury is still out..
I will keep you updated. ;)

Can you see it?

I tried to get a picture of the baby...

NC Zoo

Yay! We escaped home for a little outing this weekend and the baby gorilla at the NC zoo was one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Baby teeth!

Are falling out!
Victor is very excited!

Spot update

Dear Bloggy readers:

The spot is gone!! :)

This is how I did it:
I sprinkled on baking soda, and then I dumped on Vinegar--of course it fizzled, and then
the rug spot was soaked, and then I put a towel on the wet place and then books on top
(for weight) so the wet would dry up.
When I took the towels off--and the books off--the spot was GONE!!
Amazing!!

So if you have a stubborn spot, remember this trick.

After we did this Elena suggested that we use Victor's toy dump truck and haul a
full load of baking soda into the hall for the hall rug--which is actually just
one big stain!!

Smart girl. ;)

Move across the room Mommy

This was one suggestion from my children when I was explaining
Just how obnoxious
a fellow mother was tonight at ball practice...
Oh man!!
Have I ever wished for a
Little Morgan in My pocket!!??--any more than in those thirty minutes..??
(no)
I have not met this mother the whole season.
Tonight was my first opportunity to be
absolutely mortified
that grown people who are
this pretentious
actually
do exist.

She lives in the "dr's house." --her words (as if there is only one doctor here)--
The doctor moved out, actually--so it is no longer any doctor's house..??
This neighborhood (Smallwood) is a considerable step down btw from where they used
to live--in a house twice as big...
Before we left I had the opportunity to listen to how great her gated community in
Ohio was.
How the school system there was in the top 20 in the US....
How she
will not
work for our school system--as a math teacher--unless they honor all of
her requests for specifics on employment--place, style of teaching--on and on..
How the entire faculty at one of our county highschools has a big "sense of entitlement" and she absolutely could not work there..
How all of the teachers here "only come from NCSU or ECU" and if her kid ends up with a teacher from ECU--she will "absolutely demand that he be moved"
have you picked up on the obnoxious parts yet??
Answer:  everything this woman said!!--every damn bit of it...
I was having heart palpitations.
All I could dream of was what Morgan would have said to put this bitch in her place..
Sorry--but that is honestly what I was thinking..

When I was cooking supper, later on, saying my "I should've saids" to myself over twisty breads and cream sauce--I came up with it!  Eureeka!
Right at the point when she said the part about her demands of our superintendent--I think
Morgan would have said, "Well, I hope he told you to go the hell on somewhere b/c no one would want to work with you, you are a demanding, pretentious bitch, and you would be absolutely obnoxious to have to work with!" --
boo yow!! Take that crazy woman--

And I will close with a quote from a good friend of mine:
"People who live in gated communities, tend to be people who need to be gated in."

Dreamy!!

Oh my!!
I was watching HGTV yesterday and these people had a new kitchen and the appliances looked vintage...
Y'all, I am totally dreaming now!!
In a {couple years} when Andy and I get ready to re-do the kitchen...
Well, let's just say my aim will be to get at least one of these pieces. :)
Here is a photo.
I love the blue.
The company that sells this stuff is called
Big Chill

I hope that picture puts itself up here.
I would keep our same cabinets and change the hinges and knobs.
I would change the counter tops {maybe}--I actually like the old
green-speck formica. :)
Having one of those fridges would be so special!
So, on that HGTV show, Melissa, the people had white cabinets, and they painted the rest of the room an eggplant purple color and then the appliances were blue...
It made me think of you! :)
they are pretty pricey..
So I will be saving money for this one.