Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Uh Oh...

2011-11-22T20:38:00.001-05:00

...my happy place has arrived. *sigh* So if I run ten miles can I justify eating twenty of these in one sitting?

I will melt your ice cold heart.

2011-11-14T21:53:00.002-05:00

Speedy...it's all relative.

2011-11-07T10:39:00.006-05:00

I ran my second half marathon on Saturday in beautiful Savannah, Georgia. By some miracle of all miracles, the course was flat, the weather was perfect, and I ran a 1:59:58 half marathon. That may not seem like much, but for me, that's well beyond what I ever expected I'd be able to do. I held my pace for two hours...and managed to just *barely* beat the clock. I felt so amazing while I was running - I definitely had a high and I was running along the edge and giving everyone high-fives; yes, I'm that dork.

My parents flew out from Texas to join us on the trip - they really just wanted to visit Savannah and the race was a convenient excuse. The condo I booked was very close to the finish line, so everyone came down to wait for my finish. They were somewhat surprised as they expected me five to ten minutes later than I actually got there.

No hands!

Harper and Grandpa. The kids absolutely loved spending time with their grandparents.

'Twas a bit chilly that morning!

Go curvy girl! I always feel kinda self-conscious at these events because I don't have a typical runner's build/physique/whatever. I'm short, I'm solid, and I have flab when I wear my fuel belt.

A little old man tied the thermal blanket around my neck, so I had to leave it like that.

Three out of four looking at the camera ain't bad.

With my mom.

Gotta stretch out those muscles!

The next half marathon is on Thanksgiving Day here in Atlanta. It will be very laid-back, though, because I'm running with two other women from my neighborhood (aka the Westview/West End Vertically-Challenged Ladies' Running Society.) After that, a break from racing until the holidays are over.

Birthday girl.

2011-11-03T22:48:00.003-04:00

This is what Juston does when he has too much time on his hands and a really uber cheesy song.

In truth, though, Harper is one super awesome kid and we are so glad that she's in our family. She and Frankie are great friends who love to play together and she's rougher and tougher than just about any other two year old I know! She's extra sassy and knows what she wants; don't even try to put a pair of shoes on that girl unless she's given her approval. She's a diva, yes, but no princess. We love our Harps!

Pups in Atlantaland

2011-10-14T16:39:00.003-04:00

We got a new baby this week. :)

Butterball (for the time being) is a French Bulldog. She's pretty dang adorable if I do say so myself. Bridget is not so sure about the whole puppy thing (I'm not even 100% sure I'm sold on the whole puppy thing), but I suppose we'll all adapt to our new family member. She definitely wins the 'best ears' contest.

Time Flies.

2011-08-31T14:01:00.002-04:00

Wait...at one time this tiny boy lived in my house? I cannot believe how fast he is growing up. The sap-factor of my blog just increased, didn't it?

New Digs

2011-08-21T22:27:00.005-04:00

We're completely re-arranging our house and as part of this shifting of furniture, we acquired these little 'coffee tables.' I think the kids like them, perhaps a little *too* much.

New hair; I just couldn't hang with the blondes anymore, so I defected back to the red team:

(p.s. This is the best photo I got. Don't worry, I won't subject you to many more images of myself in the near future!)

Because I can.

2011-08-18T16:23:00.005-04:00

I decided to copy and paste my journal from today onto my blog - for accountability's sake. That, and because I can since it's my blog. I apologize in advance; you don't have to read this. It's more for me than for you (and I mean that in the nicest way possible.) Did I mention that I'm full-on ignoring my kids right now?

------------

So here I am again, staring at a blank page. I suppose I shall will my thoughts here. I spent a few minutes this morning reading through some journal entries of mine from 2004. Last night, we were babysitting a one-year-old and he somehow unearthed my old journal from the bookshelf, so when I went to clean it up this morning, I flipped through it for a minute and had a realization: I’m a really good writer. I’m not trying to say I’m better than anyone else – it’s more a matter of being able to clearly relay my thoughts on paper in an engaging way. Why did I quit? What happened? It’s been over seven years since I wrote those journal entries detailing the process of applying for graduate school, getting rejected and accepted, working with men that displayed body-disordered thinking, musing over my personal reaction to fad diets, my relationship with religion and its trappings and transcendental moments. While I’ve definitely had experiences in the last several years that have changed me from that person, I don’t want to lose that person completely. That person was a writer, a writer that had hours each day to do nothing (administrative assistant for an office with bosses that spent most of their time at another office) and – this is the big part – no kids. Love the kids, but they really are destroyers of time. My life has turned into a whirlwind of events that I can only summarize in Facebook status updates. Nothing seems important enough to really detail; it’s all insignificant. The three part-time jobs, the poopy bottoms, the peed-in bed sheets, the dog vomit, the bug bites, the open wounds and bloody mess. It’s like my life has evolved into a tangle of bodily fluids mixed with lots of driving (LOTS of driving) and trying to explain big words to someone who simply cannot fathom the meaning. In fact, I learned a lot of big words in grad school, words I’d never even heard before were thrown around as if they were common vernacular. When’s the last time I used the word ‘hubris’? ‘Oeuvre’? Yeah. Can’t remember. ‘Rubric’ does come up a lot since I’m a teacher, but I’m not even sure what it really means anymore.

Right now I can’t run and it’s killing me. I like running because I get to spend glorious hours alone and I can compose manifestos about body image and gendered politics in my head. Once someone cat-called me from a car (me? Seriously? Overweight, sweaty, white girl? Um, dude has bad taste) and it sent me into a spin of thoughts. As I carry my 150-pound, very dense body mile after mile, I have reason to thumb my nose at all societal outlets that tell me that I’m not good enough because I’m teetering close to obesity on high-for-weight charts. And then I go home and eat a piece of cake. Not really. The problem is that by the time I get home, I’ve lost sight of the revelations due to exhaustion, having to pee, needing to nurse a screaming toddler (she finally self-weaned about a week ago,) and then they are gone, or at least the eloquence behind them has dissolved into a mush of simple words that don’t sound impressive any more.

I need to feed the habit. I need to write. I need to find somewhere to get ideas and get inspired. I suppose that life is the best place to get inspired – certainly I can take offense to something in a television ad if I try hard enough. I don’t think anyone will read what I write, and that’s not the point. The point is to capture myself at a point in time. To remember that I actually thought valid thoughts and that I seem to have this overarching sense that they are important, at least in their current context. But how? Where’s the time? Where’s the energy? Why do I have to grade so many essays? Why are there so many dirty towels to wash? Another milk bomb? Can’t you people wash out your stinky milk cups so that I don’t have to encounter gelled chocolate milk on a regular basis? This is my challenge – to make the time and to make it count.

I got nothin.'

2011-06-25T22:09:00.005-04:00

So here we are....I'm face to face with this blog again. I try not to think about it very often, hence, it gets ignored about 98% of the time. The other 2% of the time, I think about it in passing or use the links on my sidebar to see what other people are up to these days. I've read less blogs lately because I'm busy and because I get crazy jealous of other peoples' fabulous vacations. How is it that everyone else in their late 20s/early 30s can afford to go to foreign countries, beach houses, Disney World, resorts, on cruises, etc., etc., etc.? They must be making the big bucks or they have rich relatives that like to pay for them to go on big trips, because it's totally not how we roll. Anyway. Onward...
I'm teaching an 'overload' load again this semester, which means that I'm working the load of a full-time person but only getting paid as a part-timer (aka I get a flat rate for each class I teach.) It's the joy of working for a state institution during a recession - enrollment is up but funds are down. I only complain on the surface, though, because deep down, I'm very grateful for my job and the fat paychecks I'll be getting this summer (well, fatter than I'm used to getting due to the extra work.) Good thing because I've discovered the joy of running gear and let me tell ya, that stuff isn't cheap!
Bridget is getting fat. I got reprimanded at the vet because she's gained two pounds in the past six months. When you only weigh around 20 pounds, 10% of your body weight is pretty significant. I feel like a bad parent and she's now on a diet. I've also taken her out for a couple of jaunts around the block and she protests with panting and snorting.
The kids are on the express train to crazy town. I can't believe that we have less than two months until Frankie starts the kindergarten. Crazy! The other day I had my first 'oh crap, my kids is actually growing up - it's happening' moment. I'm sure it won't be my last. Harper is into everything and onto everything. She's now speaking in simple sentences. She's also had her first ER visit; she fell face first onto a tile floor after climbing onto a stool at Frankie's swimming lessons and got a concussion. Hanging out in the ER in your bathing suit because a toddler has vomited all over your cover up is not the best way to spend an evening, just an FYI. Of course she is fine and was right back to doing the chicken dance and eating markers within a couple of days.
Last week Juston's older sister and nephew came to visit for a week. It was fun to have some company out our direction for a bit and we had a good time seeing the one or two interesting sights in Atlanta.
I've harvested a single cucumber and one carrot from my garden. Grow little veggies, grow!

Normally I try to include 'unique' content on my blog, but since I really need to get back to the grading, I'm just going to dump a couple of pictures from Facebook on here. It's just easier to send pictures from the phone directly to Facebook. Sorry, blogspot.

The pool is open!

We went to World of Coke and sampled coke products from around the world. Cheers!

Brandon, who is 14, had never been to an aquarium, so we took him to the world's largest. There were a boatload of daycare kids there, but we still had fun dodging children and viewing fish.

We took our out of town company to sample the world's largest peach cobbler. It was 11'x5' - it was big - but big doesn't necessarily mean 'good.' However, the peaches we bought there were ah-mazing.

Happy June. Perhaps I shall return in July with an update from our vacation - we actually are going to the beach, so I'll try to talk it up big and make other people jealous. That's the goal, anyway. I'm also missing any photos from our weekend trip to Chattanooga over Memorial Day. Maybe I'll get around to that sometime. Back to work!

Found Item

2011-06-07T13:39:00.003-04:00

Proof that someone in the Atlanta library system has a decent sense of humor. Juvenile easy reader, check!

(FYI, the vampire meets a nice goth lady at the end of the book and everyone is happy, happy, happy!)

"Feeling very protestatious"

2011-05-23T22:12:00.002-04:00

I got some pretty good face time in this news bit. I almost missed my giant head early on, but it's there!

Women Hold Nurse-In To Fight Breastfeeding Restrictions

The Graduate

2011-05-18T22:35:00.007-04:00

- minus Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft. And a whole lot less Simon & Garfunkle.

Today was Frankie's Pre-K graduation. I'm not exactly sure what the standards are for Pre-K graduation, but I'm assuming he knows enough letters and numbers for it to have been considered a successful year. Contrary to popular belief, I did not cry, although I did get a little teary while the kids were singing. We've been really happy with Epworth Day School and I feel as though Frankie's had a really wonderful experience there; the only problem is that it isn't in our neighborhood, so almost all of his classmates (save one other, who will be home schooled) will attend a different elementary school. I am, however, thrilled that he's signed up for Kindezi, and I know he'll thrive there. (Did I mention that *every* child at Kindezi is performing above grade level in reading and math? It seems as though 6:1 is working. But I digress...)

Tip 'o the hat to ya!

F and his teachers. One of the bonuses of being the first 'graduating' class is that the kids picked out their own cap & gown colors. Blue isn't one of his favorites, so I'm kind of surprised he chose blue, but hey, when you are four, you are allowed to change your mind time and again!

Once again, this is the best we could get. Oh well.

Videos...for family that could not attend (aka everyone but us.)

Lots more words.

2011-05-05T16:23:00.007-04:00

I figured I'd better update at least one more time before I have to dive head-first into a cesspool of undergrad essays, many of which are borderline indecipherable and others that are written on Tyler Perry films, which is almost as bad. But I digress...

First of all, you are probably not curious about the running, but I will tell you about it anyway. It was *so* hard; I crossed the finish line, walked over to where Jason - who had finished the marathon almost an hour earlier - was waiting for me, and said "I am never doing that again", apparently with a huge scowl on my face. Jason is my brother-in-law, who told me he'd pay me $100 for completing a marathon (he's a high roller.) After a particularly good eight-mile run in December, I signed up for the marathon and the regrets started the next day. I made it through the 18 weeks of training, only got badly sunburned once, only missed two runs (both of them five miles), and developed some seriously awesome calves. I wasn't nervous until about mile 14 of the actual race, when it started to get really hot really fast in Nashville. By mile 16, I was getting weary. By mile 18, I was cursing myself, swearing I'd never, ever run again. I somehow made it to mile 23, where I got a second wind and I managed to finish pretty strong in spite of my multi-mile struggle. I started out with a 4:30 pace group, but the pace leader started out way too fast (sorry, but 9:30 min miles are unsustainable for 4.5 hours when you should be running 10:18's) and by the end, I was passing other folks who started out with the pace group who couldn't keep up, either. I finished in 4 hours 53 minutes - I'm not proud of my time at all (in fact, I'm a little embarassed that it took so long.) Sadly, I'm now trying to figure out if I can train to do it in 4:30 next year. I have no aspirations of qualifying for Boston, I just want to reach my initial goal! In other news, Nashville is a pretty cool place, even if it is the home of Ke$ha.

Juston closed on the Willard house today, which means we now only own two houses! It's a huge stress off of our family to finally have sold the house, and we didn't lose too much money on it. Now the focus is to finish our current house; we are still toying around with the idea of moving but nothing is set in stone, and after some of the events of this spring I'm kind of happy just to stay put. I'm working on Frankie's paperwork for kindergarten registration, Harper is enrolled in preschool, I've got my 3 jobs, Juston is still at Cartoon Network - things are nothing if not consistent and fairly comfortable. Oh, and I'm a blonde now. :)

Blogger is being stupid right now and won't let me upload any pictures, so images of cute kids - consider them forthcoming.

Almost there...

2011-05-03T15:43:00.002-04:00

...and you can tell that I was really happy to be finished!

Shrocky

2011-05-03T15:16:00.002-04:00

Our newest family member. That makes us humans - 4, animals - 3. If we aren't careful, they might take over. P.S. the fish was named by a 4-year-old, hence the name that isn't even a real word.

peekaboo

2011-04-23T23:38:00.002-04:00

mas huevos!

2011-04-23T23:19:00.008-04:00

It's been a long time. I admit it. I've been busy, sometimes, anyway. I thought about stopping, but I can't shut the blog down - that would be like giving up on an ongoing project that is on the train to nowhere or something like that.
So what's new? Things have been down, they've been up, we've been digging in the dirt, getting all spring-ed-out. I'm still set to run the marathon and still would be considered for the fat girl category in that Salt Lake marathon. I went running with a friend this morning and she, who is terribly thin, thought it was very offensive that they would even separate out those categories. Next week we will see if 26.2 miles kills the fat girl. If it does not, I can write my manifesto on the topic - which I composed over about eight miles of speed drills a few weeks ago. Until then - run, fatty, run! :)

What have we been up to? We've been to the park, zoo, museum, doing renovating at our house, working in the garden (growing peas, tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers this year), working, working and more working (tons of freelance lately, picked up a fourth class this semester, and an extra day at drop-in - I have no idea why), and playing at the house. F got bunkbeds because, you know, he's a big kid now. He loves to climb up into his bed and listen to audiobooks (thanks, library!) He's had some adventures in dressing himself, with the wardrobe staple of choice being sweatpants because, as he says, his legs might sweat. *sigh* We toured the newly remodeled Atlanta Mormon temple and F's comment was "I don't like this because I'm a kid! When I'm a grownup, I will like it, but it's boring and I'm a kid!" Yup, he gets it. We also got our kindergarten enrollment packet, which is kind of surreal. Both kids in school next year - huzzah! Dedicated work time for mommy.

This year we had the 'annual' egg hunt, which is basically a great egg pick-up, where the eggs are littered about in the park and kids go crazy. I estimate that we had about 1000 eggs and roughly 50 kids, so a decent turnout, although I will admit I was hoping to improve on last year's numbers. Maybe next year! Overall it was a success and I'm pretty sure that everyone had a good time.

Meh.

2011-02-28T22:35:00.003-05:00

I've just not had the desire to blog lately, and it seems as though most everyone else out there has felt the same sentiments as I find that most of my friends and family have given up on this medium as well. Trust me, I still have lots of useless questions to throw out into the universe, like, what am I going to do when I grow up? Should I be offended that, if I were to run the Salt Lake marathon, I could qualify for the fat girl category? Why won't Frankie sleep at night? And I still have lots of strong opinions, but I'm learning that they aren't as important as I maybe once thought they were. Plus I'm too tired to care as much as I once cared.

We are still trying to sell the flip house. We are still both working at the same jobs. Frankie is still in Pre-K and doing well. Harper is still growing like crazy. Life is consistent, which isn't a bad thing. That doesn't mean that things won't change drastically in the near future, but if they stay the same, I can't say I'd be upset, either. That's all for now. I've got stinky dishes to clean up before I go to bed.

Frankie's got the fever...

2011-02-10T20:04:00.002-05:00

...Bieber fever!

Everybody wants a...

2011-01-23T21:42:00.003-05:00

...banana.

...in the bathroom.

...to share with a dog.

...with whom you will then share a bed.

Grandma Bait

2011-01-23T21:37:00.003-05:00

Here are some videos for grandparents and those with a blood or by marriage relation to me and my children. I would give myself too much credit if I were to think that other people are interested enough in our mundane lives to actually watch videos of my children. But here they are for your viewing pleasure - my children dancing, once again, and Harper saying 'doggie' over and over followed by blowing a kiss. Adorable to the mother, tolerated by the rest.

Ruffles

2011-01-18T20:12:00.000-05:00

Yep.

More Ice Capades

2011-01-16T23:14:00.005-05:00

We're no longer iced-in, but I figured you wanted to watch more videos of my kids riding in the laundry basket last Monday. :)

We forced Bridget to take a ride. She hates us.

Update.

2011-01-12T09:31:00.003-05:00

We're still here. We ventured out on the roads yesterday to the grocery store, which was in a pretty sad state of low stock. Things seem to be improving today, although schools are still closed and we're going a little crazy. Juston finally went to work, even though he's not sure if it's open or not; he's ready to get back to normal. And since you've all been dying to know, the gym is finally open and supposedly the babysitting will be open this afternoon, so I won't have to miss another training run this week. Hooray! The college has bumped the semester start date to next Tuesday, which is lame since I had a beautiful syllabus and schedule all designed up that now I have to butcher. Oh well. Go snow!

Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, Snowtopia, Snowed in.

2011-01-10T21:26:00.012-05:00

It snowed here last night. A LOT. In many parts of the world, the governments are prepared for snow and have plows, salt, etc., in order to keep things moving along. Not in Atlanta. The entire city has been crippled for over twenty-four hours. School was cancelled today and is closed tomorrow. Juston's work shut down, so he got a grownup snow day. We watched one of our neighbors spin his tires while trying to back out of the driveway. The freeways are giant sheets of ice. Needless to say, we went nowhere today. We did, however, involve ourselves in some cold-weather mayhem.

We forced Bridget to wear a sweater. And then Juston thought a bib would be a nice addition (edit: i can't believe i put "edition". smh.) to the ensemble. I'm pretty sure she hates us.

Here's a bad, low-light photo of the early stages of the snow at around 11 PM Sunday night.

Snow on the trampoline!

My face is half-frozen. This is my "I missed my first day of marathon training because of this stupid snow" expression.

Harper just wanted a wagon ride. I eventually gave in and pulled her along the road, which was basically a bunch of ice. (That, and she whined and gave me some stink eye until I caved in.)

The rosemary never dies!

We used a laundry basket as a sled. We make do!

Since we are low on milk and bread, we might have to pull the wagon to the grocery store tomorrow; it's only about half a mile away. Juston's work has already issued an announcement for employees to call in at 10 AM and find out the final status for tomorrow, so it looks like he at least gets another sleep in due to the weather. (Maybe he'll get the priviledge of staying home to finish insulating the floors.) And that's day #2 of marathon training shot since I'm not about to run on solid ice and I can't drive to get to the gym (not that it's open anyway.) Oh well! Might as well stay home and eat cookies. :)

New Year's Noms!

2011-01-04T21:46:00.000-05:00

Too much information Tuesday.

2011-01-04T20:59:00.009-05:00

Well, it's January. That forsaken month is upon us when it's cold and there's really not much of interest in the immediate future. Back to work, back to paying bills, back to trying to sell a house, back to scrubbing toilets. On the bright side, Frankie starts back to preschool in the morning. I decided that, to commemorate the start of the second half of the school year, today would be a 'kid day', where we did stuff that was pretty much designed for their entertainment, although I did sneak some laundry and a trip to the bank in there. For starters, we spent about an hour and a half at the zoo.

Harper really wanted to be in her 'ride' today. Every time I took her out of the stroller, she cried.

Frankie spent a good portion of the morning with his binoculars glued to his face.

"In all the world, my nest is best!"

He 'cheeseburger'd' for me.

This is the calm before the storm; she was scared once the train started and wailed a bit, especially in the tunnel.

I even splurged and let the kids ride on the carousel. Well, at least one of them had a good time, right? (There are no photos of Harper as I had to ride with her to keep her from having a meltdown.)

There is no photographic proof of our shamefully non-nutritive lunch.

After lunch, I took the kids outside for a walk/ride since it was such a nice day. It went fine for awhile until Frankie started to have a breakdown roughly half a mile away from home. It was a long walk back.

Harper gets the best deal of the bunch - no work involved!

Thanks, Santa, for the orange bike (Frankie was very adament about getting an 'orange' bike.) No thanks, City of Atlanta, for the terribly dilapidated century-old brick sidewalks in our neighborhood. They would be charming if they weren't in disrepair; as it is, they are terribly frustrating to a four-year-old trying to learn to ride a bicycle.

Speedster!

When we got home, Harper put on the binoculars and plopped herself into the green chair; obviously, she was quite pleased with herself.

We did some cape time; Frankie spent some of his on the floor, lamenting life.

Somebody get this boy some thumguards. We're seriously at our wits end with the thumb sucking; I'm mentally prepping for years and years of braces.

Happy January!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T14:34:00.002-05:00

For those of you who didn't get a card....you missed the extreme cuteness. Be careful - the kids are so cute your face might explode!

Live it out.

2010-12-04T22:26:00.005-05:00

I wrote this post almost three weeks ago. It seems like a good time to make a random post since I'm so behind on photos. My camera is chock-full of 'em, but since I'm in Utah and lacking a proper camera cord, it will be a few days (probably early next week) before you get any good pictures. So enjoy the reads.

*********

This morning, I had a lot of time to think during my morning run. I got to reflecting on the past year and took a turn away from my usual cynicism and started to think about the good things that happened in 2010. It's a little late for Thanksgiving, and a little early for the new year, but what the heck - if I don't write it up now, it probably won't happen. 2010 sucked in many ways, so this is my way of trying to dredge up my 'inner optimist.' Also, we don't tend to do Christmas cards, so this is a mini-rundown of my year for those who care. If you don't care, no worries. I don't blame ya. :)

- We survived six weeks of a child in a 3/4 body cast. If our family can survive that, we might be able to survive just about anything.
- Juston kept his job. It may not be ideal, but it's work and we've been able to pay all of our bills. Thanks, Juston, for making sure that we can eat and that I can blast the A/C when it's 100 degrees outside.
- I got the opportunity to work on a big exhibit for TCM, as well as some smaller projects for TNT Latin America. I love that I get to freelance. I'm also maxed out part-time at my teaching job. Full-time would be ideal, but right now I'll take what I can get.
- The Kindezi school opened in August. The ribbon cutting ceremony was this morning, and the 6 students to 1 teacher ratio is WORKING. I've had the opportunity to volunteer there once a week and it's been fantastic to see the school in action. I'm very optimistic for our children's future there.
- Harper turned one. She charmed her way into many hearts and she has the most endearing growl.
- Frankie got a haircut. He looks like such a big boy now and on his fourth birthday, he asked me to ask him "What happened to my little boy?" He's also mastered "Little Big Planet" this year, which he plays with Juston several nights a week (but only after Harper goes to bed, of course.)
- Juston flipped a house, which is a huge accomplishment. He worked really hard on it and it's going to make someone a really lovely home. We're just waiting for that perfect buyer now...
- I ran my first half marathon in November.
- I have the most amazing snuggle pug.

Yep. Things are good - I tend to exaggerate the difficulties in my mind. When I step back a bit and take a look at things, I get some perspective slapped into me and it helps me to appreciate what I've got in my life.

Happy Black Friday

2010-11-26T22:13:00.005-05:00

May all your retail dreams come true! And may there be pie for days to come.

Yes! Festivus! (AKA I have a Christmas growing from my head.)

I can't believe it.

2010-11-26T22:01:00.005-05:00

On my 31st birthday, I made the mental commitment to run the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. At that point, I was only running 5-6 miles at a time, but I felt pretty confident that if I started that day, I could be ready in less than two months. And, surprisingly, I was able to pull it off.

Before:

After:

Sorry, I didn't feel like getting into full makeup before running, as did one girl that was in my start corral. I mean, why?

Unfortunately, I forgot to attach my timing chip to my shoe, so I don't have an 'official' race time, but I did set my stopwatch and got an unofficial time of 2:13:25, so just under my target finish time of 2:15. I ran with the 2:15 pace group, which is a 10:18 mile. The fact that I managed to keep that pace the whole time was the miracle as I've never run this far before. I've also lost close to 15 pounds since the summer, so I'm going to keep it up. I suppose it's time to look for the next race. My brother-in-law is hounding me to run the Salt Lake Marathon in April, but he's crazy, and I also swore around mile 10 that I'd never run a full marathon. :)

P.S. Anyone have any chafing tips because whooo boy. Big girls really aren't supposed to run!

Piggies

2010-11-23T23:16:00.002-05:00

Harper's 'piggy ponies.' :)

Jumping the Gun

2010-11-23T22:35:00.004-05:00

Harper couldn't wait for Christmas - the time to dance is NOW.

They are both essentially the same thing - you only need to watch about 12 seconds of this video; I'm too lazy to edit and I don't have any low-end editing software on this computer anyway. Go PC!

Obviously, Grandma, your Chipmunk toy is a huge hit. And Juston made a very astute observation about our family last night - we seem to dance an awful lot.

2010-11-16T21:32:00.005-05:00

So my mom told me to update my blog. Actually, there's been a ton of stuff going on - I've just been very busy and blogging is now pretty low on the food chain. Like many others, I seem to have fallen off the bandwagon, even though I do enjoy the writing part of the blog.
So...Harper turned one and I didn't cry. Frankie got a haircut and Juston didn't cry. We didn't sell the house and I did cry, but it's back on the market and we have a very interested potential buyer, so maybe second time is the charm. I'm crossing everything that I can cross and sending some vibes to the big man upstairs so that we can put the house in our past by the end of 2010. We went to two concerts within eight days of each other (Metric & La Roux, both very different, but both awesome.) I bought running tights, which is a scary thing. Does this mean I'm getting serious about it? Anyway, here's the delayed photos that, if you're my friend on Facebook, you probably saw a few weeks ago.

I won tickets to a live, intimate performance with Emily Haines and the guitarist from Metric.

I made Harper the most intensive birthday cake I've ever made. I don't do pretty.

Birthday party for the tot.

Superman at the church par-tay.

Supergirl at the carnival.

Pugfest!

Trick-or-treating with buddy Dries.

Haircut!

And that about does it for now. When I get around to extracting photos from Juston's laptop, I'll have some more Halloween pictures. And now I've got to grade papers.

Sunday night roller derby!

2010-10-24T23:20:00.004-04:00

This is why I love having 2k square feet of hardwood floors....

Harper cried every time I took her off of that danged zebra. Even though she can't propel herself forward yet, she still has this overwhelming desire to keep up with Frankie. Soon, child.

Struttin'

2010-10-24T23:00:00.005-04:00

This week at Frankie's preschool, they had a costume strut. Not sure why they didn't wait until next week, but whatever, it was fun. I volunteered to help set the place up, so I arrived about an hour before it started and helped one of the other moms decorate a room in the school's basement. We had a lovely selection of Dollar Tree niceties, and we actually did a pretty good job with our limited resources (when relying on donations, you can never really expect much!) The kids didn't care and had an awesome time. Frankie came up to me and said, "Mom this is so cool!" and he ran around and danced and danced to my carefully selected playlist of Halloween music (apparently I'm the only person I know that has a Halloween playlist - figures, right?)

Harper got to come along and help decorate. Thanks to Aunt Laura for sharing the 'dem bones' pajamas, which double-up as a costume for events like this. Don't worry, this isn't her *actual* Halloween costume - it's not ready yet.

Frankie as....Superman! Go figure that one of the smallest four-year-olds you'll ever meet would want to be the 'man of steel' for Halloween.

Zero points for originality, but ten points for cuteness! (He's flexing here, if you can't tell.) Check out his washboard abs.

The Pre-K class getting ready to march. The little girl in the mermaid costume (next to the pirate next to Frankie) has a mad crush on Frankie; it's hilarious.

So strong!

Just for fun, right?

2010-10-20T14:48:00.004-04:00

I was tagged by Sun recently, and since I feel like ignoring my kids right now, I'm going to blog just for fun. The rules are to answer 8 questions, pick 8 friends, and ask them 8 new questions. I'll start with part 1 and see how much time I have left!

So here are your questions ladies.
1. What is your favorite day of the week and why?
2. Who is your guilty pleasure musician?
3. What is your favorite thing to cook? (I need ideas!)
4. What do you tell people your favorite movie is? And what is your actual favorite movie?
5. What made today great?
6. Would you, under any circumstance, eat another person? (Go with it. It's Halloween time.)
7. What is your favorite outdoors activity?
8. What is your favorite fairy tale?

***time passes***

So I ended up having to leave right after I posted the questions. It's now 11:08 PM and I need to get to bed since I'm subbing at Frankie's preschool tomorrow and I need to be somewhat functional so that I don't unintentionally miseducate any toddlers. But here's a stab at some answers:

1. I like Mondays because they are pretty much the only day of the week that I don't have any set plans. Plus with the way my job is set up, I work my tail off on Sunday night, so I usually unwind a bit on Monday.

2. Guilty pleasure musician? Depends on who you ask...all of them? I do totally dig Peter, Paul, and Mary, but that's laced with nostalgia for family road trips as a child.

3. My favorite thing to cook is probably mashed potatoes because I *love* mashed potatoes. Boring, yes. Delicious, most definitely. :) Just make sure that you make them with cream cheese...drooling begins.... I also enjoy cooking stuff in my slow cooker - made some excellent vegetarian chili tonight. Now if you are asking what is the most *fun* to cook, you'll have to move from cooking to baking because sampling along the way is so much better when baking.

4. I tell people my favorite movie is "The Night of the Hunter", and it actually is my favorite movie. It blows me away every time. My favorite 'guilty pleasure' movie is "Josie and the Pussycats."

5. Today was great because....drumroll...someone FINALLY signed a lease for our rental house! Wahoo! Next month won't be so economically tight, thank goodness.

6. If I were in the movie "Soylent Green" and it was without my knowledge, I probably would.

7. Um, define 'outdoors' - I'm going to stretch it here and say that I most enjoy lounging on the beach with a book. That happens outdoors, right? I do enjoy taking my kids on walks with the wagon, but that's not very 'aggressive outdoors' either!

8. I don't know as that I have a favorite fairy tale anymore, so I'm going to give my favorite childhood fantasy indulgence a go here and let the world know that I was a rabid reader of L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz" books as a kid. Read all of 'em at least 3 or 4 times.

Big girl, you are beautiful.

2010-10-17T23:04:00.003-04:00

This almost makes me tear up. Bye bye baby, hello toddler.

She got the hang of it really fast; this is one of the earlier videos I have, but the others are much longer and contain superfluous information, like me singing something that sounds like 'The Ride of the Valkyries.' Thanks to 'swimming pool Grandma' for the little shopping cart for Miss Baby's birthday. And I can't call her that anymore - she doesn't look like a baby at all. It makes me sad, knowing that I won't have a baby in my house anymore (or ever again), but I am excited to see who she's going to become. It's really bittersweet. Her upcoming birthday = big, sobbing, watching baby smash a cake, nostalgic mommy mess.

Farm!

2010-10-17T22:55:00.004-04:00

We went to a farm. Although, I'm not really sure you can call them 'farms' these days - they are more like tourist traps with a couple of patches of vegetables growing here and there to make it feel authentic, plus the fact that you have to drive to the middle of nowhere to get to one of them. Anyway, we went to a 'farm' yesterday to visit the 'pumpkin patch.' The pumpkin patch was basically an area of pumpkin plants with pumpkins (probably bought in bulk at the farmer's market up the freeway) placed throughout it; I didn't see one on the vine. I figured I'll just pick one up at Kroger. But Frankie did have an excellent time, which generally makes such excursions worthwhile.

Harper on a mini tractor!

Frankie on the cow train!

Harper meets chooks!

Harper meets goats!

Frankie goes down the giant slide! Over and over for at least 20 minutes!

Harper and I took a hayride!

Great Pumpkin!

Pig Races! (This photo doesn't show how much Frankie got into this activity. Gotta love using future bacon as sporting equipment for children's entertainment!)

Ignore last week's optimism. The cynic is IN!

2010-10-10T21:18:00.005-04:00

No apparent theme for this post - just rambling and a bunch of pictures, once again, of the kidlets. And let me tell you, this house thing keeps getting more and more frustrating; now we're having to replace a part of the roof because the buyer isn't happy with the patch where the tree hit shingles. Closing is pushed back to October 22nd. Let's pray that everything falls into place! This has been quite the test of my patience and ability to deal with high levels of stress when it involves a lot of money. We still don't have any tenants in the rental, either, but that should change this week. I've got another woman who wants to rent the house, and if she doesn't sign a lease this week, the other family still wants it. Whoever gets me the money first, right? I'm also having serious doubts about this running thing. I'm not running outside because it's dark in the mornings and dark in the evenings and the gym has babysitting, so I'm logging 99% of my miles on a treadmill (to be fair, I do set inclines and do speed drills.) I really hope that I can get in a few long runs outside, but I'm nervous that this is really going to bite me in the butt when it comes time to do the race in six weeks. I still haven't signed up yet, so there's always time to back out. :) Then again, I bought some skinny jeans yesterday (yes, I know - fat girl in skinny pants!) and the ladies working in the store convinced me that I needed to go *down* a size, so maybe there are other benefits to all of this running. I swore I would never wear skinny jeans; I guess that change can and does happen sometimes. Please don't make fun of me if you see me wearing them in public.

And....on to the pictures!

One stinkin' cute kiddo, if I do say so myself. His personality is far bigger than he is.

Yes, this is an attractive photo of me on my 31st birthday. I opened my present first thing in the AM, and Juston got me what I asked for via e-mail. Good job, Juston! It's a Brooklyn Industries bag - they are my favorite bags, and this one is essentially a 'way more awesome than a diaper bag' diaper bag, without actually being a diaper bag. And check that bulging calf muscle *snigger.*

Crazy boy.

I was trying to get Harper to model this sweater so I could list it on ebay. She wasn't very happy about it, and since it fit her so well, we're probably going to keep it anyway. Next time I have her model for ebay, I'll remember to put pants on her as well.

Rindlesbach girls - we like to eat!

Mercier Orchards

2010-10-10T21:10:00.005-04:00

Last weekend we went with our friends Dan and Annie to an apple orchard in north Georgia. It was a gorgeous day and we all had an excellent time, although I was feeling that barbecue that we had in Ellijay for a couple of days afterwards.

Frankie on a tractor! I swear he sat on it for at least fifteen minutes and was a tractor hog.

And again, another self-portrait with the beast.

On the tractor ride around the orchard. We didn't actually pick any apples, but we did want to go and have a look at the schmucks who paid extra to pick their own apples. We bought the pre-picked apples, they were cheaper! (I'm just being obnoxious. It would've been fun to pick our own apples. Maybe next year.)

Frankie in front of an orchard. He was in another 'I don't want my picture taken, woman!' mood that day.)

My apple pie turned out pretty good, even if it didn't win any points for aesthetic appeal. It was my first pie with a lattice crust and let me tell you, don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon!

Yay!

2010-10-05T10:37:00.003-04:00

Here's the press release for the big project I've been working on for the past couple of months. I did some of the research and wrote 99% of the copy for the exhibit. I'm pretty excited!

Also, I'm very intrigued by Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir. Has anyone who reads this (and I only have one or two people in mind that might be able to answer) participated in it? http://www.youtube.com/user/EricWhitacresVrtlChr

Uncanny.

2010-10-04T22:11:00.005-04:00

Her hair did that of its own accord; I only wish she would've cooperated better so that you could see both sides of her head and how well it perfectly mirrors Mr. Kewpie's hair.

Back on track!

2010-10-04T21:55:00.012-04:00

Life is back on, folks! The big job is done and the invoice submitted (hooray! cue cheering!) This means that soon I'll be able to replace my laptop, which has been broken for several months. (Anyone need a 2008 macbook for parts?) Repair begins tomorrow on the Willard house, with a new closing date of October 15th. (more cheering!) We are meeting our future tenants on Thursday to get a deposit and sign a lease (cheering commences Thursday!) And...it's FALL. Today we all wore sweaters when we left the house this morning, and it didn't even break 70 degrees. Oh boy, life is so good right now. I may not feel the same way tomorrow, but we genuinely had a good day today, with Harper managing to take a nap (she's been on a nap strike for a week) and Frankie's whining was to a minimum. I also went splurge-y and got some new running shoes, but I think I'm gonna take them back and replace them with another pair of my beloved Brooks Adreneline GTS shoes (extra wide for square feet!) Tried and true, right? And you care because....I dunno, I'm just in a good mood tonight, so I'm rambling. On to pictures!

Nice weather = obligatory trip to do some sort of outdoor activity. Today, it was the park. When we first got to the park, there were no kids there. When we left an hour later, it was a toddler and preschooler wonderland. I don't think that these pictures really need much explanation; I'm just glad that I happened to have my camera in my bag when I thought I'd forgotten it. Kismet.

(P.S. Frankie picked out his own shirt. It's like seven sizes too big, but that kid is borderline obsessed with Superman, to the point that he told his preschool teachers that he wants to be Superman when he grows up. I hope that this doesn't set him up for a lifetime full of unmet expectations that can only be undone by years of intensive therapy.)

And I forgot one more reason that life is only getting better....I can eat them this year! TAKE THAT, gestational diabetes! <3

Nature. Hates Us.

2010-09-28T12:02:00.003-04:00

So we were all set to close on the house on Thursday. Buyer under contract, buyer happy, good inspection, good appraisal, house about to be in the past. And then - BAM - a tree falls on the house. Luckily it wasn't as bad as it could've been - when we first found out, Juston and I had visions of giant holes in the roof and rainwater pouring in and ruining everything. There was no interior damage, thank goodness. And the buyers are still on board, pending repairs. Now we just have to light a fire under the collective butts of everyone at the insurance company so we can get things moving and finally get this whole process behind us. I'm ready to have an uneventful fall!

I'll try to get over there today and take a few pictures of it. Tree on house. Awesome, right?

Bacon

2010-09-22T21:34:00.005-04:00

I must admit, every time I make bacon (which is like once every 2-3 months), I post about it on Facebook. Why? Because bacon is amazing. And because people seem to be very passionate about bacon. I get more comments and validations when I mention bacon than when I mention any other topic. Plus, it makes me feel better; seriously, my kids are both having trouble going to sleep tonight, but for some reason, the blt I had for dinner makes it okay somehow. Bacon is delicious.

(Yes, I really did just blog about bacon. I've hit a new all-time low.)

Dragon*con 2010

2010-09-12T23:23:00.006-04:00

So here's the annual generic post about the Dragon*con parade. We put on our nerdiest shirts and schlepped the kids downtown to stand with thousands of other people to watch cosplay in action. It was awesome, as usual, but call me shocked that there were no Na'vi people for me to heckle. The entire parade seemed smaller this year; perhaps the economy is hitting people in the 'convention funds?' Anyway, here's an abbreviated greatest hits of what we saw this year:

To the MARTA train! It's experiencing delays! Why are we not surprised!

This is documentation of Harper's first experience with chain mail. Yes. The kind of hairy guy next to us was wearing chain mail. Ya get that sometimes.

Fans for Christ! Because there's no better time to proclaim your religion than when you are dressed up like Harry Potter.

Frankie was in full-on turd mode and spent about half of the parade like this; luckily he realized it was fun and started acting like a four-year-old at a superhero parade should act. (And there's our new friend again with the chain mail.)

Kevin Sorbo!

I wish I knew a clever quote from BACK TO THE FUTURE to insert here, but I got nothin'.

This was my favorite, and most appropriate, storm trooper sighting.

Heading back to the train, no better time for some self-portraiture!

Twinsies.

2010-09-12T23:18:00.002-04:00

She totally looks like her big brother.

I'm a sellout :)

2010-09-10T12:17:00.003-04:00

So we cloth diaper. I'm not doing it to win 'green points' for the environment or anything. I do it because I'm cheap. I hate buying diapers. I don't mind a little poop. I don't advertise much about this choice online because I really don't think cloth diapers are all that much better than disposables; it's not for everyone, but it works for us. And now I want to win some diapers, so I'm blogging about it. We use mostly BumGenius all-in-one diapers because they are easy and Harper doesn't leak when she wears them. I am happy to field questions about this topic, but it's pretty amazing how many people are now cloth diapering; it's not hard to find people that do it anymore. You can read about the contest at http://clothdiapers.blogspot.com. Have a nice day!

Better than trampolines!

2010-09-01T18:35:00.002-04:00

This is what happens when momma has to work and dad takes the kids to an outdoor festival.

Once Again....

2010-08-31T21:02:00.005-04:00

I'm hiding out at Barnes & Noble. I'm supposed to be working. I needed to get out of the house and away from the kids to get some real work done, but a knitting club is sitting here in the cafe, right across from me, and they are discussing Dragon*Con and their 'nerd cred' sci-fi costumes. It's so distracting that I can't focus on writing copy. One guy is knitting a sweater and getting a little *too* excited about his Thundercats costume for the Dragon*Con parade. Seriously. I can't *wait* for the parade on Saturday. It will lift my somewhat harried spirits for sure. And I may have to throw stuff at people in Na'vi costumes. Avatar just wasn't that good. If you spend $300,000,000 on a movie, it better look good, but honestly, I just kinda hoped the planet would blow up already when the film hit around the two hour mark. All of the visual effects in the world can't save a crapfest of a script. But I digress...
Anyway, that's beside the point. I wanted to let you all know that OUR OLD HOUSE IN EAST POINT is, once again, for rent. Bad tenants told me today they are moving out this week. So we are on the hunt for new tenants that will be as awesome as tenants as we are as landlords, which is pretty awesome. Pass the word along if you read this blog and know of anyone looking for a house. Not as though any of my readers have a large friend-base of rental-hunters in the Atlanta area, but I figure it can't hurt to cast the net as far and wide as possible. Thank you.

Blerg.

2010-08-30T08:16:00.002-04:00

So I'm drowning in work again. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but my house turns into a stinking cesspool and I don't have time for more fun diversions, like blogging. The pictures of my kids, I know they help to get some of you through the day, right? Anyway, here's some fun reading in the meantime that articulates so eloquently why I have such a beef with "Eat Pray Love." Didn't know I had a beef with it? Yeah, I try not to talk about it too much, but the whiny lady who has entitlement issues genre isn't exactly my favorite. Anyway, off to finish breakfast and get to work!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

2010-08-17T21:51:00.001-04:00

Frankie imitates the dancing banana. I think this video explains a lot about us.

626 Willard

2010-08-17T20:25:00.001-04:00

Ready for a buyer!

Superfriends

2010-08-17T15:05:00.002-04:00

Frankster and "Michael Jackson" x2. Super heroes out to save the day!

Pre-K Hulabaloo

2010-08-15T20:15:00.005-04:00

So I decided, last minute, that I wasn't happy with hippie central and that I wanted to switch Frankie to a different preschool. Yeah. It was a bit impulsive and gave me a sleepless night or two (combine this with the fact that we were starting the process to evict our tenants and a crazy amount of work and you have the recipe for fried brain. Luckily we did not have to evict after all, so that simplified things a bit. Anyway, I digress...)
Let's just say that the $700 jump in tuition from one year to the next and a few other things that went down last year left me with a less than savory taste in my mouth. I'd considered switching him since last May, but I'd already signed him up - I didn't know about the little indiscretions when I signed him up - and put down almost $500, so it seemed we were locked in. I decided to just look into it one afternoon about two weeks ago and found a new school opening up in a Methodist Church in Candler Park, Epworth Day School. They actually had some openings in Pre-K, so I went for a tour the next morning. The school is really small, only having four classes, and since they added Pre-K only a few months ago, it wasn't (and still isn't) full. They also started on August 10th, as opposed to after Labor Day, like most preschools. This is a bonus; see statement about massive amounts of freelance work above. It's still three days a week, unlike many Pre-K programs in the area that are 5 days/week. And sadly, even with losing the $500 to his old school, we're still going to come out paying *less*. Luckily the old school let me off without paying any tuition (yes, they also added in an extra payment, due in August, when there wasn't even any school in August) and we moved him right over. It's one of those things that was almost too happy to be just a coincidence; can we call it a 'prompting?' Perhaps. But I'm very glad it all worked out and so far Frankie is doing well.

Don't take my first day of school picture, woman!

Happily, he does like the slide (his old preschool didn't have one.)

Giant holey backpack, batman! He tends to drag it on the ground, and it was free. I can't bring myself to buy him a new one so he can drag it on the ground and put holes in it. He's the only kid without a shiny new backpack, but he's four, what does he care?

In his classroom with some new friends; yes, the kid next to him has a full mowhawk. We live in-town, ya get that.

Fingers crossed for a good year!

Kindezi School Press!

2010-08-14T15:31:00.003-04:00

The principal of The Kindezi School was interviewed by WABE, our local NPR affiliate here in Atlanta. Many of you know that I've been on the founding board of the school for the past year and a half or so, and it finally opened its doors this past week for its inaugural year. For those of you who are interested, here is a link to the interview. It's been a lot of work, but I'm so proud of everyone who has put in the time and effort to make this school a reality. One more year until Frankie starts kindergarten at Kindezi!

July in review.

2010-08-03T22:01:00.007-04:00

I didn't post for most of July, obviously. The motivation is lacking, but I'm pressing forward, right?

I ran a 10k. I should not share the pictures with the world, as no one wants to see a sweaty fat lady, but this is what my hair looked like after being plastered in sweat from running outside in July in Atlanta:

Frankie got some new clothes from snow grandma and grandpa that were highly appropriate for July 4th. He did not want to show them off for the camera. Sadly, I have no other photos from the 4th, but we didn't do anything, so I guess there's nothing to see!

I went out to lunch with a couple of women I met as part of an online group. The group formed for women due within the first two weeks of November back very early in my pregnancy with Harper, so our babies are roughly the same age. I actually highly recommend an online support group now to women who have parenting questions, etc. - it's been pretty great. One of these women is from Dallas and the other is from Louisiana, and we have members from other parts of the US, Canada, and the UK. I don't think we'll ever all get together; three at once was a pretty amazing feat (and happily it happened in my stomping ground so I didn't have to do anything but show up!)

We went to Texas for a week. It was epic.

Harper got a giant flower headband to squeeze her brain. It was a gift; don't worry, I'd never buy something like that of my own choice.

We went to the lake house and Frankie caught a fish. He wouldn't touch it.

Frankie also drove the boat - with a little assistance from Grandpa.

We went to the water park with Grandma and cousins.

Juston dipper Harper's head in a tub of butter. I guess it looked like it would fit and he wanted to find out for certain.

My sister and I posed for this photograph. I'm a little bummed that I did not get one with my other siblings; it's not often that all five of us are in the same place at the same time.

We spent a little time in the C terminal at DFW International Airport. Sadly, we did not fly internationally; we ended up back in Atlanta.

After returning home, it was T minus 2 days until the end of the semester, so I read essays furiously. Since then we've lazed about and prepped for birthdays. We're also moving forward with the Willard House (remember that from back in January or so?) and hopefully it will be on the market soon.

What a Mess.

2010-08-03T21:42:00.006-04:00

Yogurt. It's the official food of women. Harper concurs, and she wears it well.

You can see her GIANT front tooth in the above photo. She now has six chompers. Someone throw that girl a steak!

Making a birthday cake, having samples along the way.

I promise I have more to blog about than my kids and food, but let's face it, they are both fairly central themes in my life. :)

Absence

2010-07-25T21:55:00.002-04:00

I have no idea if anyone still reads my blog. I didn't realize that it had been so long since I last posted! I've got lots of fun excuses (Frankie had strep throat, end of the semester madness and loads of work, we got Netflix streaming and I can't stop watching movies - best reason EVER to have a PS3, trip to visit Texas, etc.) and I also have lots of pictures. I'm currently watching some DVDs for a freelance job and kind of need to pay attention; after this project, I think I'll know more about film history than anyone else you know. It's true. But I will be back and I will blog.

Awww, family.

2010-06-30T14:55:00.002-04:00

Gotta love 'em.

Thank you to the somewhat inept photo studio lady at Sears for capturing this precious moment. :)

Three-plus hours of TV and it's not even 10 AM.

2010-06-29T09:24:00.007-04:00

So as it turns out, not just the blog is vomiting today. Sick kid, chance to stay home and get caught up on everything, right? So here's some stuff-age, but really, I don't have pictures of anything but mundane activities, so they'll have to satiate the rabid grandmas everywhere (or at least in two places) that are hankering for some cute kids.

My life looks a lot like this - Harper jumpy jumping and Frankie eating. The kid is a bottomless pit, with a special affinity for the PB&J.

I got myself an ultra-fancy Beco Butterfly baby carrier last week. I've wanted one since I had Harper, and since we probably won't have any more kids, I decided to splurge and spend the big bucks (luckily these hold resale value really well, so I was able to convince Juston that I needed it.) The thing is amazing and very comfortable and since it holds kids up to 45 pounds, Frankie was my guinea pig. (He only weighs 32 pounds, but whatever.)

This is the reason I'm considering adding a hose attachment to our kitchen sink. Self-feeding rears its messy face!

Instead, there's a nightly bath at our house, where Harper gets all new-baby-smell fresh each night. Last night, Frankie joined in on the action, complete with bath ducks for all. Can you say 'blackmail'?

Other news...um, I'm still working three jobs (one freelance writing exhibits for Turner, one drop-in childcare - can't beat free half price on my days off and since I only work one day a week, that leaves most of 'em!, one teaching) and that keeps me pretty busy. The 5k in the heat wasn't too bad, I even got a decent time considering I hadn't run outside in weeks. The race this weekend is going to be so crowded (upwards of 55,000 people) that I won't be able to do more than a steady jog even if I wanted to go faster. My dog is a fleabag and our house is a wreck. We're not doing anything for the 4th of July, but our trip to Dallas is soon! And I'm considering chopping the hair off; this 'long hair' stuff is for the birds, I tell ya! That's life, what can I say?

Blerg

2010-06-24T17:15:00.004-04:00

That's the sound of blog vomit.

It's been busy around here, again, as usual. I haven't seemed to have my camera handy lately, either. I've been working my little heart out; it's the 'three part-time jobs' time of year when I go into summer overdrive and think that I can do it all! I'm also having an identity crisis as I realize that my kids are gonna go and grow up on me and then what am I going to do with my life? Do I go back out and try my hand in the corporate world or do I keep on 'winging it' with the kids and the part-time work and the community stuff? These are all rhetorical questions, by the way.

In other news, there's really no other news. Harper has two teeth, which means that I've slept so awesomely, if your definition of awesome is being woken up about four times a night and waking up at 6:30 AM after about six total hours of sleep, maybe less. It's a good thing I have the cutest baby ever; cuteness is a survival tactic when mom is in crazy no-sleep mode. Frankie is unusually precocious and active, but we're finding ways to siphon off the energy with swimming pools and trampolines and child labor-like activities. (It's too bad we can't find a way to siphon it off into some sort of money-making endeavor!) Juston continues to toil away at the Willard House. Oh, and it got robbed! Yeah, we should've seen that one coming a mile away. Luckily the damage was minimal and some pawn shop is now in the possession of a really nice tool belt and air compressor. Kindezi stuff is in full-on mode with teachers starting next month. I'm also training for a 10k. I can run the distance, no problem, but I'm afraid that if you factor in running outside when it's a billion degrees with 100% humidity, there's a chance that I might pass out and get trampled by the 54,999 other runners (okay, more like a few hundred as I'll be behind most of them with my solid 10 minute mile. I just can't compete with those "I can run 6 miles in 25 minutes" show offs.) But hey, nice strong legs!

One day, the future will arrive. And with it, pictures. And possibly a vacation to somewhere. Or not.

Delicious!

2010-06-11T12:08:00.002-04:00

Actually, I figured out what the internet *really* needs and it looks like this:

It's almost as if we're living the National Geographic Channel right here in the West End.

(P.S. My videos are in HD and I'm too lazy to change their size to fit in this window, so to get the full effect, you can click on it and watch the video over at YouTube.)

Kidlets.

2010-06-10T22:13:00.003-04:00

After propping her up, I was able to step away and snap this picture of Harper in a sitting position, which she held for a good thirty seconds on her own. She can get on her hands and knees and rock back and forth, but she'll be darned if she's going to sit up on her own.

Earlier, Frankie told me he didn't like the baby. When I asked him why, he said he wanted to hold her. Huh? The reasonings of an almost four-year-old child, I suppose. So I let him. What started out as this:

quickly devolved into this as Frankie realized he didn't have a prayer holding something that is half of his own body weight:

For the record, Harper weighed 15 lbs 11 oz as of last week. Frankie weighs 32 pounds as of his sedation dentistry today. Yep, Frankie went in for sedation and had six, count 'em, six cavities filled. He was only supposed to have three filled, but since he was already under, they did some extras that they found while poking around in there. We now have to hold him down and floss his teeth nightly, which we've been doing for six weeks. It's not pretty. I'm also going to swear off anything gummy for that kid as apparently they aggravate cavities and he has two more forming. What is up with his mouth? He must have decay forming in his spit.

Other than highly-involved dental procedures, our lives are pretty boring. Since there's no preschool, I spend my spare time entertaining a preschool-age child who is highly social and needs almost constant interaction (usually while carrying a big baby in a sling.) When I'm not doing that, I'm grading papers - or feeling Harper's gums for errant teeth that have decided to poke through the surface (for the record, we're still at one, and that was as of yesterday.) Juston spends his time watching movie trailers while rendering video clips at work, yippee. Things are holding steady, but it's getting kinda dull. Ideas of how to 'shake things up' are duly appreciated. Ideas on how to get a full night's sleep are also greatly appreciated as I haven't had one of those in several months.

Oh, and did anyone notice that the baby has HAIR? Frankie was totally bald until well past age one, so this is an unexpected surprise. I think it's also high time that we dressed Bridget in another costume and took some pictures; that's what the internet *really* needs.

um, creative...

2010-06-10T12:20:00.004-04:00

Frankie 'performs' for his last day of Creative Movement. He loves his dance class, which is essentially pre-pre-ballet for three and four year olds. In this clip, he twirls, sashays, and bifs it. Next fall when he takes the class again, I will definitely make him a cape because who wouldn't look better sashaying with a cape?

(Please ignore the part at the beginning when Harper tries to eat the camera. Eating anything she can get in her mouth is her new favorite pastime.)

Other happenings.

2010-05-27T21:50:00.008-04:00

We've been up to some stuff lately. I've even taken some pictures. But I've been lazy and it's taken me awhile to upload them.

Abram came over last week and we went to Fernbank, aka the 'dinosaur museum.'

We went on a 'nature hike' at the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, which is only about three miles away from our house. We were the only people there, and we hiked to a creek that had a couple of tires in it. Apparently there is a waterfall in there, but we only got about halfway up that trail before Frankie was ready to turn around and go home. Next time. Luckily it's nice and shady, so it shouldn't be too hot in the summer, but it's the mosquitos that are gonna get ya.

Since preschool is out, we were able to go to kid's gym one time before they shut down for the summer. It was Harper's first time, and she had a nice nap in the mei tai.

The renovation is producing lots and lots of animals! Meet Bandit, the dog that has adopted the house as his new place of residence.

We found a couple of kittens in the sheetrock. Estimated age is four or five weeks old.

We found a new home for them with a woman who had nine other cats - IN HER CAR. She had just picked up a load of cats from a shelter that were due for euthanasia, and two of them were mommy cats that were still producing milk. One of the mommas adopted our kittens right away. They will be taken care of and prepped for adoption. I'm actually pretty impressed that it worked out so well for them.

Kitty in the city.

Pictures of my kids eating.

2010-05-27T21:40:00.005-04:00

The title pretty much says it all. Yes, our life has gotten *this* exciting. Is this post the embodiment of all that is wrong with 'mommy blogs'? Does anyone else really care that my kids eat? Okay, maybe Grandma cares, but honestly, I'm not that big of a narcissist that I think anyone else would care. But here I am, posting these pictures anyway. I think it's more guilt about having not posted anything in almost two weeks that is driving me to document the most mundane of daily activities. Without further justification, here are the photographs:

In true 'second child' fashion, we let Harper feed herself. I've got other things to do besides try to feed a seven-month-old baby. I present her with two spoons full of baby mush and she takes turns with them; I refill the one that is not currently in her hands. It results in bigger messes, but we're preparing her early to be an independent woman.

School's out...

2010-05-16T21:35:00.006-04:00

...and mom's a-cryin'. Well, not yet - give me a couple of weeks, though. Last Thursday was Frankie's last day of preschool for the year and we all went to his teacher's house for a picnic. She has an awesome backyard will a HUGE garden and lots of...

CHICKENS!

(P.S. That's not Frankie; he wouldn't let me take his picture with them thar birds.)

I spent a good deal of time picking Ms. Dera's brain about 'urban chickens' as we're considering it ourselves, once we move the ramp. With that being said - half-pipe for sale! Cheap! In fact, if you can haul it away, it's yours!

Someone else placed a 'baby doll' next to Harper for snuggles and she was happy to oblige, even though her real goal was to see how much of its head would fit into her mouth.

A very tired group of Cardinal I's with their teachers. We will miss you all! (And I will miss you, dear school days, more than anyone.)

And I guess I should post-script this by saying that I survived last semester of the three classes. Now I have a whole whopping week to prep for summer term!

2010-05-13T15:16:00.003-04:00

Going mushy in the brain. It's starting to leak out of my ears, I tell you! At least I'm on the downside of the 450 or so essays I've had to grade and moving on to the 'math part' of my job (big fan of Microsoft Excel, thank you for doing the simple calculations for me and saving me hours of time.) Back to your regularly scheduled blog soon.

My Beast.

2010-05-02T22:33:00.009-04:00

She's six months old. I can't believe it. When did she get so big? Tear.

Let it be noted that she was not a fan of mushed up avocado; she gagged a lot and made some pretty amazing faces. Not exactly the way I'd choose to celebrate my half-birthday either.

Welcome to solids! Let the deluge of 'eating infant' pictures begin. Oh wait! Here's more now!

(It's watermelon this time. She was interested for about a minute and then just wanted to eat the feeder's handle.)

Hat Fancy

2010-05-02T22:08:00.006-04:00

Our awesome neighbors the McBees had a Kentucky Derby party yesterday, so of course, we had to have hats. I told Frankie we were going to a 'hat party,' and he really got into it. I found some ugly fake flowers in my 'stuff' (aka the crap under my house) and decided that we needed to use them to adorn our rather plain and boring hats. Frankie *insisted* that he have all three white flowers on his hat and he did not take his hat off for the entire almost four hours that we were at the party. Never mind that no other kid there was wearing a hat, much less one covered in fake foliage. It looked especially classy when he was pushing around a digger and collecting mud.

Harper's hat was a bit more subdued. (This one is "posed by Frankie", aka holding hands.)

Sadly, our horses did not win the high-stakes $1 betting. I guess we just aren't cut out for a life of gambling.

Amicawhat?

2010-04-26T20:44:00.005-04:00

Juston's parents came out to spend the week with us last week. I absentmindedly didn't take any pictures, except when we took them to Amicalola Falls on Friday. You'll recall that we went there with Frankie in the cast. There are pros and cons to having your child in a body cast when you're at a waterfall. For one, he's less likely to run off and try to climb the fence that is supposed to keep people from falling 786 feet to a watery grave. But I digress.

Little waterfalls all along the footpath.

And thar it is!

Frankie was not impressed by this baby water snake. For all of the talk we get out of him, he's surprisingly disgusted by worms, bugs, snakes, and salamanders.

Not sure what this face is supposed to mean.

Lots more stairs.

Picture of a picture.

Lookout below!

The obligatory bad self-portrait.

Dead wood.

After taking the little 'hike' to the waterfall and back, we stopped at the playground by the visitor's center for a little swinging. Harper was definitely a fan.

Jumpy Jump Jump

2010-04-26T20:33:00.008-04:00

Yep. Grandma got us a trampoline. Jumpy jump jump fun!

The BUMSMACKER! This kid may end up a pro wrestler yet.

All of your Mormon friends are supposed to have trampolines. I guess we're trying to keep up with the Larsens. *snort*-

2010-04-26T20:33:00.001-04:00

Buy my old diapers! :)

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/bab/1711890818.html

I did not teach him this.

2010-04-19T22:01:00.001-04:00

But Harper sure thinks its funny.

(Peter, we're going to get you back for this. Probably with "I Sit Down When I Pee." Watch out, Dries.)

Once more, with feeling.

2010-04-15T12:14:00.006-04:00

I'm trying again...

Skinny butt sits in the Bumbo and eats a popsicle; highs in the 80s every day this week have prompted the eating of frozen treats.

Harper in the high chair; I had to pull it out of storage because I was tired of eating with her on my lap, being all grabby. Haven't gone to solids yet as I'm trying to avoid the, uh, more involved poops, but we're heading that direction as Harper can't keep her hands out of my food.

Frankie started swimming lessons at the Y last week. Here's to being a little more drown-proof!

Last week we had a double birthday celebration/babysitting with Abe & Jay, who are now 4 and 6. This ice cream and Wall-E moment was preceded by a raucous Michael Jackson dance-a-thon in the kitchen.

We went to the 'dinosaur museum' for about 45 minutes on Monday. Frankie's chief obsession there is the fishing ponds in the kids discovery rooms. If I'd let him, we'd be there weekly for hours of fishing fun. *yawn*

So when mom gets bored while son is fishing, she stages an impromptu photo shoot with the baby. I took a ton of pictures, but this one makes the blog because it appears as though I only have one chin. I love optical illusions.

2010-04-13T22:57:00.001-04:00

My computer hates me. Blogger hates me. You'll have to wait more to see the pictures I've lovingly selected. Sorry, mom.

Wormies

2010-04-07T15:33:00.002-04:00

A spring break serenade for you.

More Remodelation

2010-04-06T22:07:00.006-04:00

We're still remodeling our house, bit by bit. When we moved in a year and a half ago, we still had several 'mostly cosmetic' projects that we assumed we'd take care of once we got settled. Now I'm pretty sure that we'll be finished remodeling on the day we move out. Our big project for this year was refinishing the living room fireplace mantel and fitting it for gas logs. This is a very expensive project, mostly due to the antique tile that we decided to use. However, it looks fantastic. :)

This does *not* look fantastic. This beauty was what we originally had defacing the wall of our living room.

We installed the mantel on the wall when we moved in...and that's as far as we got. Here's a shot of the new fire box going in, brick by old brick (the bricks were salvaged from another chimney flue that we ripped out of the house. There were originally five fireplaces in this house; the fifth one had been sheetrocked into a wall and would've been in Frankie's room.)

Tubs of antique tile. We decided to go with a green, purple, and gold color scheme.

A general idea of the mosaic pattern before installation.

The surround installed and the tile affixed. It's starting to look pretty good!

The final step was sanding, applying putty, and staining/finishing the mantel. The final *final* step will happen in the fall when we insert some gas logs as we had a line run for them. Unfortunately they aren't a hot item in the spring and summer, so we'll pick up a set in the fall.

Lest you think we're more talented than we are, we hired out a restoration company to do this for us as if we'd left it up to us, this fireplace would probably not be nearly this pretty today.

Bunny FooFoos

2010-04-04T21:18:00.005-04:00

Frankie 2007:

Harper 2010:

Can ya tell that I stopped caring about color correction somewhere in the last three years?

Egg Hunt 2010

2010-04-04T20:33:00.007-04:00

This is the second year I've orchestrated a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt (although we call it a 'spring egg hunt' because the co-sponsor is agnostic.) This year we hid - and I use the term loosely - about 700 eggs in the neighborhood park. It was really more of an 'egg scatter and pick up,' but none of the kids seemed to care. The weather was perfect and we easily doubled the amount of kids from last year; guess what, advertising works! One pickup truck pulled up blasting rap music and had about ten kids in the truck bed, which seemed highly appropriate. :) Here's to another successful event pulled off and hopefully many more egg hunts to come, or at least until we move, which won't be anytime soon. (Unless someone wants to offer one of us a six-figure job somewhere, then we might be swayed.)

Abe and Frankie at the starting line, ready to hunt!

The park actually looked like this! There were enough people that I had to do crowd control (you can see me on the right-hand side of the photo); I was trying to organize kids into age groups and was only marginally successful. Next year I need to borrow a bullhorn.

Frankie, Harper, and I huntin' eggs.

He was too busy gorging himself on candy to get his picture taken.

Some of the boys checking out their haul.

Somehow this one managed a good 45-minute nap during the middle of all of the chaos!

No trip to the park is complete without a stop at the swings to 'touch the treetops,' as Frankie says.

2010-03-31T23:30:00.004-04:00

My little beast turned five months old yesterday. And if you are curious, she still is not sleeping more than a few hours at night with any consistency. *yawn*

Aunt Katie crocheted her this headband. Harper looks cute wearing it, even though she was emphatically not loving the photo shoot.

My big brother is the best! (However, she should probably be concerned. He loves to be pushed on the swings at the playground, why wouldn't Harper want to be pushed - hard - in her baby swing?)

And I am too tired and behind on grading to give you anything else.

Seriously, I mean it...

2010-03-31T23:25:00.003-04:00

Guess who didn't want his picture taken at Kangazoom....

And guess who didn't want his picture taken while gardening....

When I turned my back, he literally tried to drown all of the seeds that we planted. He was convinced that they were 'thirsty.' Maybe a gardening miracle will happen anyway.

Pug dogs in the springtime

2010-03-31T23:20:00.004-04:00

They molt. Like crazy. Like after her shower, there was enough hair that there might as well have been a dead rat in my drain. It's like a little pile of Bridget-love!

Hippies in the Springtime

2010-03-24T17:09:00.002-04:00

Frankie's preschool + spring = all of the earthy, granola-y goodness you've come to expect. This presentation was a big deal, with parents enacting 'Mother Earth', 'Father Sun', 'Sister Rain', and 'Brother Wind', all nourishing a seed. Each child was given a peat pot, a seed was planted in it, and then it was presented to each entity while a song was sung that described the process. Afterwards was a 'potluck', complete with hummus and sunflower seeds. I don't think Frankie will even touch hummus, honestly. Apparently a kid in his class has a hummus allergy, but how do you find out these things? Do you even know a three-year-old that eats hummus?

Anyway, I digress. Here's the video:

For what it's worth, we really do like Frankie's preschool and he's thriving there. He loves to work in the 'garden' at home and is very interested in planting vegetables this year. Stuff like this is just so foreign from my childhood experience that it makes me scratch my non-hippie head sometimes.

Belly Laughs

2010-03-15T17:17:00.004-04:00

Sometimes big brothers beat you up (there was an incident today, but he was upset far longer than she was over it.) And sometimes they make you laugh. I've tried and tried to get her to laugh like this, but no one makes her laugh quite as much as her big bro. She always gives him the biggest smiles, too. Sometimes momma feels a little shafted (I do feed her in the middle of the night and all), but it makes me happy that they have such affection for each other. My kids are pretty awesome. :)

The Kindezi School

2010-03-11T15:43:00.003-05:00

Most of you know that I'm on the founding board of a charter school called The Kindezi School. Today, the school was officially approved by the Georgia Board of Education, meaning that it will open next fall. It's unique model proposes six students to one teacher, a ratio that is virtually unheard of in public schools. Our kids will attend the school and I'm really excited at the prospect that such a small ratio offers; they will have an individualized learning plan and be taught in small groups. Their strengths will be challenged and their weakness aggressively addressed. I'm very excited and I am optimistic for the future. :)

Oh yes, we did.

2010-03-10T21:19:00.002-05:00

This one is for Grandma Chrys. We like to call it 'pink vomit' or 'pink cupcake.' You pick. :)

Nom nom nom....

Floating Head

2010-03-10T21:17:00.001-05:00

Yet another one of Frankie's masterpieces.

The View From (down) Here

2010-03-04T22:11:00.006-05:00

Frankie's photography. He's using a candy-red Polaroid iZone camera on the lowest setting. Basically, it's a glorified piece of plastic with a lens, but he loves it. There will be no 'headshots' of the adults because something about the height and angle from which he takes pictures magnifies all of the extra chins.

Frankie set up this photograph and took a picture of it while I was distracted doing other things; he was so proud of himself.

2010-03-04T22:00:00.006-05:00

This is the "Harper's been up about every 1.5 hours at night for the past few weeks and I'm behind on grading and should be doing that instead and I was on my feet all day with the kids and the dog's been eating toilet paper and it actually snowed *again* this week and student recruitment is really ramping up for Kindezi and I'm pretty involved with that and I'm planning another neighborhood egg hunt and I'm too tired to think straight" post. Just look at the pictures, smile, and nod. One day, when I get more than three consecutive hours of sleep, my blog quality may or may not improve and maybe I'll be able to take photographs that are actually in focus.

P.S. Miss Baby is now 4 months old, weighs 12 lbs 9 oz with a wet diaper, is a baldy balderton, a drooling monster, and talks up a storm. I still can't believe we have her in our family - in a good way, of course. :)

I tried, right?

2010-03-03T22:33:00.003-05:00

I attempted to take a pictures of both kids together. Sure, they are both looking sort of at the camera and no one is screaming, but it's not exactly deserving of a spot on Grandma's fridge. (So it made it on the blog instead.) Maybe the good folks at Sears will have better luck when I get around to taking them there.

Misuse of goods.

2010-02-22T21:41:00.006-05:00

Not baby wearing - dog wearing!

Bridget - not so much a fan of this arrangement.

P.S. I'm a lady of few words lately. I find this even when talking to people; there's just not a lot to say at the moment. The drama has died down and we're just living from day to day.

Wiped.

2010-02-21T23:24:00.004-05:00

She has this uncanny ability to sleep anywhere, which she will undoubtedly lose by the time she turns two and it reverses as she decides she will no longer sleep at all. So sleep, baby, sleep!

Photogenic Frankie

2010-02-16T22:28:00.001-05:00

Juston took these pictures a few weeks back. It took me this long to get on his computer so that I could share them with the world!

What is up with this winter?

2010-02-14T21:52:00.007-05:00

So all of you folks in the midwest are going to think we are wimps, but it snowed again. And when it snows, everything shuts down. Traffic on Friday night (when it was actually snowing) was so bad that it took me almost an hour to go 4 miles and Juston and I ended up dropping Frankie off at a friends' house up in town and going to the movies (Wolfman! Yes!) so as to not have to drive home. By the time we left midtown, there was no one on the roads and the snow was still coming down hard. We got probably three inches, which is pretty significant. And then, Saturday morning, we went outside to play. :)

The house on Grady Place:

Well, Frankie finally got to wear the giant coat I got him last year on extreme clearance.

Making snowballs.

Check my flow.

Bridget, expressing her feelings and firmly planted next to the back door.

Yeah. This hat is a great hat, but not such a good look for me.

Ice skating in the driveway.

Ice from a bucket in the front yard. Yep. It was cold! Juston also wants me to point out his nice PartyLite hoodie. He does freelance camera work for them and sometimes gets free stuff. Can't knock free, especially when it's lined and warm.

They cancelled church 24 hours prior to church, which was a bit too early as all of the roads were cleared by Saturday around noon. So we got a guilt-free day off. And the best part is, it's supposed to snow again tomorrow, which means another day at home. Hooray. I'm developing some serious cabin fever; now that the cast is off, I'm ready to go!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T17:10:00.001-05:00

Harper loves you.

The Harpinator

2010-02-13T10:49:00.002-05:00

Ridin' in the car.

Hangin' on the floor.

Sittin' in the saucer.

Extraction

2010-02-11T21:20:00.004-05:00

Waiting in the doctor's office for our xray results.

Good news, the cast is coming off! Onto the table...

Covering ears because the saw is loud...

And here we go!

Cracking it open - like a nut.

I wonder what's in there....

Legs!