A quick trip to Boone

A Grand Move
My wonderful professor at ASU has been generous enough to baby-sit our baby grand piano while I was in school. Her family has since been given a piano. So, we are up to Boone this weekend to load it up and bring it to mom's house.

The children are excited about seeing their friends. Maybe we can make a quick visit to see our dog. We really do miss her!

Driving and Crying
So, I am plundering through the books on CD. So far my favorite has been Good Grief. It was a nice story about a widow's road to recovery and recuperation. There are some very funny parts and a few touching moments. My choice.

I started my newest book this morning when I finished Animal Farm (less than half way into my drive). We'll see how that goes. It is neat to listen to the readers character voices.

Walking Petri Dishes!
I love this phrase and it seems a very fitting description of children once public school is back in session. As a result, I have had a miserable stomach bug all week. Food neither helps nor hurts at this point. Soft serve ice cream DID prove to be nice on the tummy after lunch today.
I had wanted to stay home today, but no sick leave accrued yet and I can not afford leave without pay yet!

Singing in the rain...

Nicholas' new collection!

building the bunk beds...just not bunked YET!

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learning to love books ... at almost 35 years old

Not being an avid reader [ok, I can count the number of books I have read on ONE HAND] I have decided to create a family tradition as well as provide entertainment to and from work.

Both involve books.

Discovering the library
As you may have guessed, I have gone to the library to check out some books on CD. I have to admit that this was my FIRST ever personal leisure visit to a public library. No book reports, not Internet needs, no kids section. An honest to goodness desire to just go check something out for pleasure! Call me crazy.

I walk in, find the appropriate section of the library and scribble frantically creating a “next” list…a “books-on-CD” version of NetFlix. I decided against the Steven King books, political books, and other deep and complex literature. I was looking for light, whimsical, fairy tale, funny, or just a downright a good story! I left from the library with 2 “books” …”cold Mountain” and The Same Sweet Girls”.

The best part and I knew this ahead of time but didn’t realize how good it felt) was that I took my selections to the counter asked for a library card and as simple as a few lines on a form, the books (and a DVD of “Finding Neverland”) were mine to use for the next 3 weeks…FREE!!! I was very surprised with my excitement of discovering this secret treasure…a public library!

Might as well have been Steel Magnolias
I began my car “reading” with The Same Sweet Girls. A story of 6 southern girls read by a Georgian. The accent is wonderful and adds character and believability to the personalities. Each of the girls takes a turn in sharing the story. The plot continues with only minimal overlap between character’s perspective. For example: in one “chapter” Julia talks about a packing for a trip to meet all the girls for an annual gathering, then Leneer picks right up and talks about the drive to the inlet to meet up with her friends.

It has been light hearted and funny…until this morning. I’m on CD #3 and all breaks loose! They all start talking about problems (past and present). Big ones like suicide, handicapped children, teen aged love affairs leading to a Convent and lost pregnancy, physical abuse, and life threatening illness….it goes on an on! So for and hour and 15 minutes on my way in this morning I cried and cried!

I was hesitant about the drive home but just had to find out what stupid selfish snobby thing Aster was going to say, how Bird was going to try to generate some kind of harmony among all, if that jerk of a husband Miles was going to get his... blah blah blah. The sad part is, I have to keep reminding myself that these people are not real. The southern accented narration draws me into their lives. Is that how books really are?

The Chronicles come alive!
Nicholas has wanted to see “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” since hearing about it at church. But I feel that with his sensitive emotions, anxiety and fears, its better that he wait MANY years. Yes, I agree. It is a GREAT story. But the movie is too graphic for him. Heck…it was too graphic for me.

So the other evening we curled up on the couch and I read the first 2 chapters of the Chronicles of Narnia’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. He fell in love. Every once in a while I would look up to find him eagerly staring at me or the book. He has always like to be read to, but this is the first book with NO pictures and he is captivated!

A couple of chapters ago, I snuggled with the children on the couch with the book and 2 small bowls of popcorn. They had blankets and nighttime snugglies with mommy in between. Nicholas said “This is like watching a movie”…[pause then an excited revelation]…”it’s better than a movie!”

Last night Daddy read the book. We skipped tonight to make time for a new book from school. But tomorrow we will find out where Edmund went and see where they are off to with the beavers….in search of Edmund!

Webinar lesson in practice
It is only day 2 of my new job and I am overwhelmed. I am so glad I started work in the middle of the week. Today I went to a “webinar” class…never done that before. It wasn’t any less than a seminar, but I guess since it was broadcast over the internet it gets a new name!

I learned about paragraph sizes, subheads, and the importance of links and bullets in the copy. He had examples of good and poorly designed pages. The main topic was focused on writing for the web, so it was mostly copy specific, but some design elements were highlighted. I have tried to use his suggestions in this entry. Short choppy paragraphs, bold subheads that mean something and a entry title that’s catchy and descriptive.

How’d I do?

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crazy times

This week is full of firsts. Tomorrow is my first day of work at Clemson and Nicholas’ first day of first grade. Robins started preschool this week and LOVES it! Nicholas started the Y this week and LOVES it as well. Mon and today were full-day programs. When I picked him up yesterday he said “Mom I am tuckered out!”. He begged me to let him lie down when he got home and I wouldn’t let him. No naps at 6 pm! So he was off to bed by 7:45…and it could have been much earlier.

We have had a wonderful and eventful summer as a family this year. It has been a blessing that I could be off with the children. We spent most days at the pool…for at least 2 or 3 hours. The result of which is that Nicholas can swim…EVEN IN THE DEEP END! He loves the pool. Robin in VERY close as well. He thinks she can swim and tried to very hard. She lacks the ability to come up for air. She has NO FEAR and NO HESITAITON at all!!! She can be rather dangerous at times when she is going to “swim to get that toy” and no one is near.

I took the children to Florida to visit family there. Rob could not go as he did not have leave yet from his new job. In contrast to last year, Robin LOVED the waves. Instead of crying the whole time we were there, she begged me to go way out in to the water and jump waves. Nicholas had a wonderful time on the boogie board! He really got the hang of it and did quite well. He hollered and cheered the first time he rode a wave all the way in. It was nice to spend some time with Terri and Jamie and their children. Nicholas just LOVES Austin!!! We checked out the Disney ship also while we were there. Nicholas will be enjoying a 3 night cruise with his cousins in the spring. He could not comprehend how in the world you could swim on a boat…seeing as how the only boats he’s ever seen is Phil and Ken’s John boat, and great Uncle John’s ski boat. When we pulled up they were all celebrating before they sailed. There was great Disney music and a loud DJ. We couldn’t see much but we heard him introduce the characters and we heard them all speak. The children on the ship were yelling and screaming. We could see the HUGE 2-story bright yellow slide into Mickey’s pool. Nicholas got SO excited!!! Robin too. Now she keep saying “I can go on the Disney ship when I turn 6!!”

Nicholas’ 1st grade teacher is engaged to his after school counselor at the YMCA. He thinks that is really neat. He is excited about starting school. He is a bit nervous, but today he said “Mommy, this is just like starting Hardin Park. I didn’t know anyone there either, but then someone came up to me and said ‘What’s your name’ and we started to play. I know that will happen here.” He’s really doing rather well.

My brother came over Sunday to give the children new bunk beds! It was so nice to see him. The children always enjoy playing with him. The love the beds….they’re so colorful with lots of extras! HOWEVER, Robin still wants to sleep in the closet. I finally figure out last night that she is afraid of the thunder and lightning. If she can see the blinds, she will see lightning. So last night I made a make-shift “tent” over her bed so she couldn’t see the windows. Uses we’ll be asking for the pink castle decoration that covers the bed like a tent!

Rob is enjoying his coworkers at his new job. They are pranksters and are happily inducting him into their community. Paper shreds, phone taped up, all sorts of stuff. They think they’re getting one over on him…but they don’t know who they are messing with. Today he kidnapped a fan and left a ransom note. The note says to meet in the mail room on Wednesday at some particular time to get the fan back. BUT….he is setting up another person to be there at that time too so that each will think the other is the thief! Whew!

I’ve been reading The Chronicles of Narnia to Nicholas and he LOVES it. It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have to study and write papers! The house is still a bit in shambles, but who cares! I have been wanting to read that series. Last night we settled down to read and I gave the children popcorn to munch as I read [if I read I could not eat the popcorn]. Nicholas got so excited and said “This is just like watching a movie….maybe better!” That’s exciting. We read about 2 chapters each night. Who knows what book we will pick up next!

Sorry. No pictures still. I can never remember to put them on my jump drive to bring them to the computer at the office. Maybe I can get some on here when I get to Clemson. Until then…GO TIGERS!

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