I found these directions on a bag of ICE! What does this say about consumers these days?

New 'Do!

Well everyone has their summer 'do now. Bella got this one. I actually like it on her quite a lot. People look at my kids and , well, I don't know what they think. Then they talk to them and seem to be amazed at what they can discuss intelligently. Like you shouldn't be this smart unless you come from an Ivy League background.
I know some folks seem to really relax behind the status quo. And there are times when I can really get behind that. I really resist big change. We have been talking about moving to about an hour from where we are now (better schools) but I REALLY do not want to. I have lots of good reasons to stay. There's the drive time to work (40 min. jumps to 2-3 hours, daily), not to mention gas. I really love being close to The Park. Where we are now is only 20 minutes from downtown. All of my friends are here. And I do not make friends easily. Rats...
But, when Rosa was in high school we dyed her hair Napalm Orange. I was SO excited and when we were done, it looked so good. Beautiful with her green eyes.
Once a person has to get out in the job force, once schooling is done and you have get approval and acceptance from someone for their livelihood, coloring your hair Napalm Orange or getting a mohawk are not really options. As humans we do judge each other by how you dress, wear your hair, etc... Human nature, but what a shame.

Memorial Day feast

Tuesday morning. I'm up and getting ready for work.

In the end for our Memorial Day cookout, we stayed at home and invited my mom-in -law and our friend Len over. And Hot Damn if we didn't feast. Rosa fixed her own creation for devilled eggs and they were SO good. Molly fixed the dressing for the slaw and even Bruce liked it! Ysabel fixed the salad and the banana pudding. It was so good! I fixed the grilled chicken and the bbq'd ribs and the potato salad. We all ate like we were starved!

I love to cook for my family, but I espcially love to cook for others. It's such a blessing to have family and friends around the table, laughing and talking and eating.

I hope YOU had a wonderful weekend, as well.

I love Saturdays!

Well, I got up and went to Michele's this morning. I was astounded to see how many folks had already been there!
I am inspired today to clean my bathrooms. Now I have bleach in my nose and I'm rather enjoying it. And while I'm cleaning, I pretend I'm the Little Princess (Burnett) or Laura Ingalls Wilder. (O.k. to laugh. This is actually advice I give my kids.) Unless I have on music or NPR. There's something very satisfying about cleaning down to the corners. This does not happen often, I assure you...
And Bella is quite put out that she is the only one home to help. (grumpgrump) "This is not mine." "Where does this go?" "My stomach hurts." "I'm tired." "Let me tell you about my Webkinz." (Or the horse I found Byer Horses. Or look at thrick I taught my Nintendog.)
Molly is away. She spent the night with Lydia for Lyd's b-day. At the Omni Hotel downtown. With a pool. And they went to see "Prince Caspian". And they are going to the aquarium today. Rosa is out today with one of her friends. A rare occasion. But away playing. Bruce is sleeping after coming in at 7ish. And we are home... Therein lies the rub for Bella.
However, she and I get to make the plans for our picnic on Monday without interference. We will plan it all and everyone else will have to deal. Nyah! Good heavens, I sound contrary. Must be the bleach.
Mmmmmmm... And I have to get my mom today. Wonder what color the sky is in her world today.

The Last Day

YES! Today is the last day of school for our school system! MY last day is June 4 and I'm liberated until the end of July. I love being a 10 month employee! I have masses of work to finish before I go and my office to re-organize. But then I'm FREE! Free to get mom's medicare fixed up Free to take over homeschooling Bella and start with Molly. Free to clean into the corners of my house. And back yard. And garage. And go to the pool! And see Kristen! And Susan! And Camp! WOOT! I love summer break!
Sorry if you feel I'm rubbing this in your face but I am truly excited!
Zoinks! 6:00 am! Gotta go get dressed!

Playing catch up...

Well, I took the day off on Wednesday to take Rosa and Ysabel to the END OF THE YEAR EVENT for Georgia Virtual Academy. It was held at Lake Lanier. I hadn't been there for 25 years... I didn't see much to reccommend it. Especially with the drought. The event was nice. I got to meet Bella's teacher, with whom I will be working as we finish up her school this summer. (Started late, y'know.) She got into playing volleyball and dodgeball with some other kids. Weather was overcast but fine. I really wanted to find some parents in our area to connect with. People are so reticent. I mentioned this while we were talking with Mrs. Peters (the teacher). She said a lot of the parents in our area left public school due to religious reasons. Perhaps that's why they avoid us. Rather liberal on the lifestyle side of things, you see.
I got out of the house this morning at about 7:45 to walk and take pictures at Stone Mountain. Kristen took my kids for the night last night. God Bless her. I know I post a lot of pictures on my blog. I just haven't had time to start another for just pictures. Heck! There are hardly enough hours to do this one! When I loaded them after I got home, I thought, "Yeah. This is what it felt like." It was about 55 degrees when I got out there. REALLY lovely. My mp3 player froze up and would not play, which turned out to be a blessing. We got to Stone Mountain Park so often that I forget how much good hiking is there and how really beautiful it is. If only the camping weren't so blasted expensive ($50.00/night! Zoinks!)

I think I got some pretty nice shots. I was surprised to find trees where the deer had been eating the bark. I got a couple of close reflections of trees in the water that look like they've been Photoshopped (sp?).. You could think that you're up in North GA. except that you can hear the cars on the road thru the park occasionally and people laughing now and again.

I hiked for about 2 1/2 hours. Then my stomach reminded me that I'd had 2 slices of bread for breakfast. Aha. And I had not brought water. Again. And my chores were nagging at my brain. Ah. The burden of being a responsible person. "Alright! I'm coming!!!", she hollers to the dishes...
TTFN!

sheepish...

Turns out, it's all about the pms...

Aha. Aha ha ha... (Pass the Midol, please...)

Crazy...

Holy Heck on a Stick! 8 more daze of school left and I'm barely keeping my head above water. I would dearly love to disappear right in to Yellowstone Park RIGHT NOW! I always forget what a hectic time of year this is. BLARG! O.k. Thanks for listening. I had a very productive piss and moan session with Kristen and Rosa today and I got most of the pus out. But then I had to get some work done tonight, because I'm taking off tomorrow for a school event (LOVE that word!) for Ysabel and some of the pus came back. And that's just work which is actually causing me the least stress right now becuase it's temporary...

I had this dream where I get into my van and it's clean(!) and there's this little camping shovel in the front floorboard. I drive up into the N. Ga. mountains and find a nice, big Live Oak (What's that doing there?). So, I get out, grab my shovel and start to dig around the roots. Some indeterminate amount of time passes and I prop my shovel on my shoulder, feeling tired but that I'd accomplished a job well done... As I look around, I find I've dug out a complete copy of Mr. Tumnus' house under this tree. Cozy arm chair, small but tidy kitchen (with everything I need, including groceries), a fire place with a fire, a couple of nice paintings, several bookshelves with books. On the table next to my arm chair is a steaming pot of tea and a nice mug. Oh and there's a little bedroom with a soft bed off somewhere. What do you think that means?

Should've known...

On Wednesday, Molly and I met Ysabel and Rosa in Decatur to attend a book signing at our favorite book store. Rick Riordan writes mysteries for adults, but he started a series for kids about a boy who's dad is Poseidon. Needless to say this causes some complications in his life. Really good adventures. His 4th book in the series came out on Tuesday.

Little Shop of Stories was a MADHOUSE. And I forgot to ask Rosa to bring our books to sign and by the time I got there there was well over 100 people in line to get theirs signed. And he was almost an hour late. Well you can see the crowd. I got a couple of shots of the author, too.

Jerry Spinelli (Holes)was supposed to be there at 5:30 for a meet and greet with local teachers and librarians. But after a day at work (And I forgot to wear flats. Poor planning.) and I was hungry, I was ready to GO.

Silly me for not comprehending the rock-starness of these guys. I was so excited to let Mr. Riordan know how much we enjoy his books. So was everyone else apparantly. Ah well. At least we were out of the house. And we got to check out LSOS's new location. Our second favorite bookstore, Wordsmith, had moved as well. Both places are great locations.

I'm about to start rambling, as I am very exhausted. Mother's Day is this weekend. That means I get to clean house VERY well tomorrow. On Sunday, I'll go to church, then get my mom. Rosa and I willcook dinner for her and my mom-in-law. I was hoping I'd get out to play with Susan, but it's Mother's Day and I have work to do. Suck monkeys.

For those of you who read Leigh's (aka Rosa) blog, yes I know many of the pictures are the same. Well, all I can say is a good picture is a good picture. We had so much fun! The day started cold and damp so I rented a cape. Molly got the bat puppet she wanted. We saw a new show called Barely Balanced Danger Acrobatics that was seriously breath-taking. I showed the pictures to Bruce when we got home and he was amazed and rather put out that he had made the decision to stay up til 6 a.m. on Saturday. Since we got there before they opened, we caught the pre-show where the pirates steal the queen's jewels as ransom to get their ship back from King Henry. (For those who take all of this very seriously, the history is on a rather mushed up timeline. Get over it. It's FUN!) We ended up running into the pirates and the kings court over and over. At one of the fights, all four of the girls got invited to fight in the Battle Chess tournament on the pirates side. Refuse? No way! We love pirates! We saw the Flying Debris show and Blackenshear the Magician. The girls sat thru the Ded Bob show, but Rosa and I have seen it so many times we can recite it. We caught some of the Washing Well Wenches show and the Joust. Ysabel met Da Vinci. Cool! If we hadn't the girls with us Rosa and I would have participated in the Pub Sing at the end of the day. We did try mead for the first time. They have to serve a less alcohol version of it, as we live in Georgia and fun is relatively frowned upon. Rosa said it warmed her quite well. I was very happy with my Gypsy Caravan tea. Mmmmmmmmm............
Everyone fel asleep relatively early last night. Well, we were at the festival at 9:30 and left at ablut 6:30. And it's not a small place... If you're ever in GA any wknd from the end of April thru the first bit of June, you shold check this festival out. Very groovy.
How was your weekend?

Molly Day!

Happy Birthday Molly!

Typical spring in Atlanta. Beautiful weather during the week and rain on the weekends. We are supposed to be going the the Ga. Rennaissance Festival this weekend for Molly's 10th B-day. Weather Channel predicting rain. Taking friends, ofcourse. And Mol wants a couple of their bat puppets for presents.

We love the Renn Fest. We've been going every year since Rosa was 2.

I was listening to the lyrics to "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al. And all this time I thought I was cool. But, No!