Once Again....

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.

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!

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

626 Willard

Ready for a buyer!

Superfriends

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

Pre-K Hulabaloo

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

...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!

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.