Guys and Dolls

Last night I took the girls to see Theatre Albany's production of Guys and Dolls. It was actually the dress rehersal, and we got to go for free. The music teacher at Bella's school was the Musical Director for the show. We ran into him at Sam's Club last Saturday and he invited us to the performance. How awesome is it to know people who know people??!!?? Benefit of small town living, indeed!

The show started at eight and the curtain didn't come down until almost 10:30, so they are probably pretty tired today. Oh well. They can just sleep through whatever movie is being shown in class today, because heaven knows they probably aren't doing anything with 2 1/2 days of school left! ;)

The Clines came with us, but Jaws stayed home to enjoy a much-needed "All By Himself Guy Time". I keep trying to think of thing for the Clines to do here in town so they won't move to North Carolina. ;)

I had seen the show before, but the girls hadn't. It was fun to listen to their reactions, and even MORE fun to hear them make suggestions/compare it to the two shows they have been involved in. (They're seasoned vets, you know. ;D) The best part was when it was time for intermission and Bella asked me what we were supposed to do during intermission. At first I was confused, but then I realized that she had never been in an *audience* during intermission- she had only ever been in the cast! Hee!

Old Friends

Usually when we head out on vacation we either go north to Atlanta (and The Cannegieters) or south towards Jacksonville (where we have lots of friends and THE BEACH!) This time, Jacksonville won out, but don't worry Lora and Jeff- we're headed your way SOON!! We stayed with my oldest friend in the world, DeeAnn and her family. We have known each other since we were three years old, and she's like a sister to me. I didn't get any pictures of her or her husband Marty, but that's because I was too busy taking pictures of her cute kids!





And if DeeAnn is my oldest friend, the Kiki is probably my second oldest friend! Her mom was my first Primary teacher, and then my Young Women president. Kiki invited us all over on Sunday for an egg hunt (her family recently moved into DeeAnn's neighborhood. How convenient!). We ended up staying until close to midnight! All nine kids happily played and watched movies while we visited and laughed and gossiped.






On Monday we had dinner with The Jarvis' and The Howles. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Katheryn and Erin are cool enough to become friends with an old girlfriend of their husbands. Yes, in my misspent youth I dated both Nathan and Jason (although not at the same time ;D). I adored them both (and still do) and my teenage years would not have been as much fun without them in my life.

Our visit was the first time I've met Katheryn (I met Erin about 14 years ago, when she and Jason first started dating). They are both as awesome as I hoped, and we might even all go camping together this summer! (I hope this works out!) I must also give props to my awesome husband who is cool enough to be friends with my ex-boyfriends! YAY James!






I have to give credit to Katheryn for this shot- she insisted me and the guys take a picture together! How funny is that??!!?


I love that we have so many friends who care about us enough to make time to see us and feed us and keep in contact!

Old Friends

Usually when we head out on vacation we either go north to Atlanta (and The Cannegieters) or south towards Jacksonville (where we have lots of friends and THE BEACH!) This time, Jacksonville won out, but don't worry Lora and Jeff- we're headed your way SOON!! We stayed with my oldest friend in the world, DeeAnn and her family. We have known each other since we were three years old, and she's like a sister to me. I didn't get any pictures of her or her husband Marty, but that's because I was too busy taking pictures of her cute kids!





And if DeeAnn is my oldest friend, the Kiki is probably my second oldest friend! Her mom was my first Primary teacher, and then my Young Women president. Kiki invited us all over on Sunday for an egg hunt (her family recently moved into DeeAnn's neighborhood. How convenient!). We ended up staying until close to midnight! All nine kids happily played and watched movies while we visited and laughed and gossiped.






On Monday we had dinner with The Jarvis' and The Howles. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Katheryn and Erin are cool enough to become friends with an old girlfriend of their husbands. Yes, in my misspent youth I dated both Nathan and Jason (although not at the same time ;D). I adored them both (and still do) and my teenage years would not have been as much fun without them in my life.

Our visit was the first time I've met Katheryn (I met Erin about 14 years ago, when she and Jason first started dating). They are both as awesome as I hoped, and we might even all go camping together this summer! (I hope this works out!) I must also give props to my awesome husband who is cool enough to be friends with my ex-boyfriends! YAY James!






I have to give credit to Katheryn for this shot- she insisted me and the guys take a picture together! How funny is that??!!?


I love that we have so many friends who care about us enough to make time to see us and feed us and keep in contact!

Double Digits, again

Isabella turned 10 last week. *sigh*

One of the drawbacks to 1) only having two kiddos and 2) having those two kiddos so close together is that not long after marvelling that "the first one" has hit a certain milestone is having "the last one" hit that same milestone soon after. Don't mind me, I'll just be over in the corner mournfully singing Sunrise, Sunset.

We only do BIG parties for three special birthdays- when they turn 8, 12, and 16. But last year we started inviting a few friends over for dinner and to spend the night. So the ear-busting squealing and shrieking you heard last Friday night was coming from our house.

The weather was nice enough that we ate pizza and cake outside on the patio.


I'm not sure why Bella was wearing her green OZ sunglasses, but it's her birthday, so I guess she can wear what she wants.


Nana and Jed came over to drop cousin Catie off. Jed's choice in sunglass wear was just as odd as Bella's.


Once the mosquitos descended, we came back inside to open presents.






Nana and Jed had to leave after we opened the presents (because heaven forbid Mom drive at night, or worse, let JED drive!). The preteen girls tried there best to keep him, but he finally escaped. I' pretty sure he wanted to to stick around. The girls settled in for the night to watch movies and eat me out of house and home. They all left (except Catie, who was spending the weekend with us) by 11:00 the next morning, and I've spent all week trying to get the house back in order.

The End

March-ing along

There was a time when March seemed like the least busiest, least exciting, longest lasting month of the year. It's really not that way anymore. Winter is gone, spring is here and time is rapidly moving forward.

Last night we finished our last OZ related activity. The owners of the local skating rink had seen one of the shows, and they were so impressed that they contacted the drama teacher and said they wanted to invite the entire cast for a night of free skating! How nice is that??!!? It's definitely one of the perks of living in a small-ish town.

Even though it was a massive undertaking, we are all kind of sad that the show is over. We made a lot of new friends, and it was an experience that definitely brought us closer together as a family.

After the last show, we had the cast party. Parents were invited, and I think James and I expected...well, I'm not sure what we expected. All I know is that I DID NOT take the drama teacher seriously when she said the party usually went late. The party didn't start until almost 9:00pm, and I figured the kids would be pretty tired, having come off two performances that day.

Boy, was I WRONG!!

The party ended around 12:30. AM. By the time we got home, showered, ready for bed, etc, it was pushing 2AM. All I can say is that I CANNOT stay up that late on a regular basis anymore. ;)

It was worth it though, because we had a BLAST. There was great food and a DJ (who played mostly music for the kids, but it was still fun to get out there and dance).

Why is the Macarena such a long song?




It seriously goes on and on and on FOR-EV-ERRRRRRR.


That blur of hair is Bella dancing with a friend. LOL




I'm pretty sure they played "Party in the USA" at least two times.




Is it any wonder we slept until almost noon the next day?? ;)

Road Trip 2009

About a month ago we decided to change our summer vacation plans. Given that our last three trips to the beach and/or campouts have all included heavy downpours, we decided that we just didn't want to chance it. Instead, we decided to get our geek on and go on a mini-road trip, with our main destination being the U.S. Space and Rocket Museum in Huntsville, Alabama.

We left bright and early Sunday morning. Since there is really no direct way from Albany to Huntsville, we ended up on backroads for the first third of our trip. Our first major stop was to stretch our legs on the Georgia side of Lake Eufala.




(The kids were inspired to act out a scene from Titanic.)

The view of the lake itself was lovely, however the experience was marred a bit by the copious amounts of feces everywhere. Birds, dogs, and who-knows-what- other-creatures use this area as their own personal litter box. Technically, this area is known as the Walter F. George Resevoir, but to us it will always be known as POO POINT.

We crossed over the lake into Alabama, and there was much rejoicing in the van! The kids began remarking how different Alabama was from Georgia and how neat it was to be there. Jed's major observation was that "Alabama was a lot hotter than Georgia". Who knew he was so sensitive to the ambient temperature?

Not too far into Alabama I saw this sign:


Call me crazy, but when you see a sign that directing you to a 'BIRD DOG STATUE' I'm sorry- you HAVE TO STOP! This is what we found:





Smack dab in the middle of town, in the middle of the road, no less! It turns out that Union Springs, Alabama is the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the United States! Who knew??!??!? They really love their bird dogs, as evidenced by the Bird Dog motif being everywhere, even the benches lining Main Street:


We felt we really needed to pay homage to this great town, and to Bird Dogs around the world, so we posed for a picture in a fitting manner:


So to those of you who have travelled extensively- Europe? Boring! Hawaii? Total cliche! South America? Whatever! *We've* been to the Bird Dog Field Trial Capital of the United States! Take that, suckas!

Back in the car, we started driving again, eventually arriving in Birmingham around 1:00 pm. As we were leaving Birmingham, I remembered that our church has a temple there, so we decided to find it. After a quick call to my mom for directions, we realized we were only a few exits away. Lucky!




I realize it's no Bird Dog Statue, but then again, what is??

Our final destination for the evening was Huntsville. We were staying with a family friend who also would be our "behind the scenes" tour guide the next day at the Space Center. We arrived by 4:00 and we glad to be able to stretch our legs for more than five minutes. Jeff and Cindy live on 20 acres outside of Huntsville, so there was *plenty* of room to roam.

Our hosts were FANTASTIC! Their home was lovely and they fed us until we were ready to pop. After dinner, we went back outside and I was SO HAPPY to see FIREFLIES!!





The girls had never seen them before (it's too hot down here), and even Jed got into it. It seemed like there were thousands of them flying around. The kids were walking around, but I just sat in the grass and after while the fireflies would just land on me. It was very cool.

By this time it was getting late, and we had a busy day to look forward to on Monday. So it was off to bed for us...