Freedom

Wanna know what's awesome??
Doing something you really, REALLY want to do.

Wanna know what's not awesome?
Doing something only because it's expected of you.

I didn't realize it 10 months ago, but this has been destined to be the year of me stretching my wings in a way *I* want to rather than doing the same old, same old out of a sense of obligation.

OHMYGOSH It feels SO good. This isn't to say I haven't had challenges or struggles, because I have. The point is that the challenges are making me a happier, BETTER person instead of a resentful, bitter person.

In other news, Seussical Jr opens in three weeks (*cue screams*), I think I might have developed adult-onset allergies (BOOOO!!) and the air finally smelled like Fall tonight.

Suuuuuuummmeerrrrrrtiiiiiiiiiimmmeee.......

(Imagine me singing that in my best Lena Horne voice. Sounds, amazing, doesn't it?)

--- The girls have been out of school one whole week and we are in FULL-ON summer mode. Lazy mornings, good books, cold drinks, late dinners, getting in some body of water as often as possible. I feel bad that Jaws has to go to work. Oh well. Someone has to bring home the bacon (although I will happily fry it up in the pan. It's BLT weather, baby!).

--- Speaking of babies, Madeline is headed to Girls Camp next week for the first time. GIRLS CAMP PEOPLE!! I feel old. My other baby brought down the house and slammed the door on Fifth grade by bringing home STRAIGHT A's on her final report card. BOO-to-the-YAH. After all the struggles we've had this year I feel gloriously vindicated.

--- I just looked at the temp on Weather Bug. It's 101 degrees today. On June 1st. Breaking records all over the place. Luckily the humidity is only 28%, making it feel like "only" 104 degrees. I shudder to think of what the weather will feel like on Friday when it's supposed to be hotter and humid-er. (Or MORE HUMID for you grammar nuts.)

--- My brother and his family are moving to Alabama this weekend. Boo! Why does he need a "career"? I need my nieces and nephews around to amuse me!! Luckily, I like the state of Alabama, redneck-married-cousinss-jokes aside. It's a pretty state, it's not landlocked, and you can buy fireworks year round.

--- I have read nine books since school ended for me on the 13th. Deeply, deeply satisfying. I love reading. It's so entertaining! I have also cleaned out my pantry, closet, playroom and dresser drawers. Also satisfying, but not nearly as entertaining. (Although re-reading notebooks and journals from high school is ALWAYS entertaining. I had forgotten how much bad poetry I wrote at one point. Did I throw it away? No way, Jose!)

I think I'll go eat some watermelon before I take the girls to church tonight. Then I might eat some ice cream. Because it's summer and all.

Blagh

Have you heard about the cold weather blanketing the south? Yeah baby, t's cold outside! As thrilled as I was when we heard Sunday afternoon that school was being cancelled because of potential ice, I didn't believe it would come to much. Imagine my surprise when I woke up Monday morning and there was ice *everywhere*. We had honest-to-goodness icicles hanging from our roof! I meant to take pictures, but I took a nap instead.

Baby, it's cold outside...

No, really it is. 39 degrees with a windchill of 29. In the middle of the day. (And I know some of you live in other parts of the country where that's nothing. I don't wanna hear about it. Do you see me razzing you when you're sweltering at 85 degress and no humidity? No.) We usually don't see temps like this until January or so. The house is cold. I suppose I could go turn up the heater, but I need to start cooking dinner in the next hour or so, and the oven would heat up the house a bit. But I'm too cold to think of doing anything but crawling under the covers and taking a nap.

I haven't mentioned it here yet, but the chickens finally started laying eggs about three weeks ago. Happy day! I took pictures of the first eggs, but then they were accidentally deleted (along with 300 other pictures) when I let the girls use my camera. You'll just have to believe me when I say the yolks are a vibrant yellow, and they make the prettiest scrambled eggs, not to mention they taste yummy.

This is our last week of school before the holiday break. I am very, very happy about this. I'm especially happy with the way the break falls- a full week off before Christmas and a week and a half off after Christmas. This gives me time to get everything done I need to before Christmas, and time to recover after.

Sometimes I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. I suppose that's a feeling common to most women. I keep telling myself that I'll get it all together here soon. I'll let you know if that happens. ;)

Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me

I recognize that my life is pretty good.

My clothes are clean.
It's 92* outside at the end of September, but I have A/C to keep my (somewhat) cool.
I've eaten three meals plus snacks today.
I have two working cars to drive.
My husband has a great job.
My children are healthy,
My cats are neutered so I don't have to worry about unwanted pets.
I have libraries and the internet to keep me entertained for hours.


But some days my inner critic just won't shut up, and all I can think about is the mistakes I've made and the anxiety I feel, and that inner critic won't stop yelling, "Hey Jennifer!!! You SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!" Today is one of those days. I feel like cussing. (But I won't because my mom reads this blog. And it would just give the inner critic more ammunition.)

It needs to rain. And get colder. Is 33 too early to have a mid-life crisis??

Wave Upon Wave

So I mentioned that I had been overwhelmed with nostalgia of late, and I though I'd elaborate a little. Why else do I have this blog, right?

First, the snow last week. Living in Pennsylvania was my first experience with a "snow day". We just didn't have them in Florida! I can remember watching the weather report and hope, hope, hoping that we wouldn't have any school the next day because of snow. Most of the time we would wake up and see the trees and grass still bare and brown. But every so often we would look out the window to a world of magical whiteness. The thrill never wore off the three years we lived there. I remember once it started snowing in the late evening, and school was cancelled that night. I stayed awake as long as I could, looking out my window and watching the snow fall in the beam of the street lamp. The beauty took my breath away.



Fast forward twenty years and I'm experiencing de ja vu. We found out Thursday afternoon that school would be cancelled the next day. Of course, everyone started saying that we had just jinxed ourselves out of any snow. It certainly looked that way Friday morning when we woke up to hard, cold rain. As the girls expressed their disappointment, I could help but feel disappointed too.

Then about 2:30, the flakes started to fall. They were big, fluffy, heavy flakes that I knew would stick. I know I was just as excited to pull together an outfit suitable for snow as the girls were. James got home around 3:15, after the base announced it was shutting down for the weekend due to conditions. We spent the next three hours getting our fill of snow.







That night, after we were all warm and dry again, I turned on the back porch light and watched the flakes fall until they stopped. I was eleven years old again.

SNOWMAGEDDON

I realize that watching other people's videos can be kind of a drag, but I promise you these are FUNNY! (As a bonus, they are only 30 seconds to a minute long.)

SNOWPOCALYPSE IS HERE!!!

I apologize in advance for my Darth Vader-like breathing. I have a cold and can't breathe through my nose!

Today

1. The zit on the side of my nose hurts so much that it's giving me a headache.

2. It's completely wrong that I have to maintain both anti-wrinkle and anti-acne skin care regimens.

3. File under "It Could Only Happen In The South": I was given a compliment on my Vera Bradley handbag while shopping for rainboots at the Tractor Supply Company.

4. All week the weather has been cold and windy and getting colder and windier. It was supposed to be leading up to last night when a combination of weather patterns would lead to a WINTERY MIX of snow, sleet and ice, thereby necessitating the cancelling of school.

Instead what happened was for the first time in over a week the temperature DID NOT drop waaaaay below freezing. What it did instead was say *just above* freezing and have the wind blow so much that the wind chill was 17 degrees all day. Ergo, no snow day. Not cool Mother Nature, not cool. Or should I say: NOT COOL ENOUGH!!!

5. Next week is Pajama Day at preschool AKA My Favorite Day of the Year AKA The Day I Missed Last Year Because I Had Pneumonia. What I sleep in will not work for Pajama Day. I went shopping at three stores today for new pajamas. Evidently fat people are forced to sleep au naturale because there were NO pajamas available for anyone over a size 14. And since I can find no new pajamas, I am forced to keep the muumuu I stole from my mother over Christmas.

All the news that's fit to print

ACHTUNG! Bullet Point Numero Three contains some salty language, but it's totally in context. But I figured I'd give y'all heads up if you want to skip it, but I'm warning you- you're missing out on a polarious story if you do.

1. Next week is our last week of total freedom. BOO! The preschool teachers are back on the 10th (with the kids coming back on the 17th) and the girls start back on the 14th. All the school supplies have been purchased and sorted into backpacks, and we're already thinking of First Day of School outfits.

2. Despite the fact that I've been out in the sun regularly all summer, somehow I still managed to get a sunburn yesterday. What's up with that, Mother Nature?

3. Bella has become (somewhat) enamored of the word 'bitch'. It started a few weeks ago when we were listening to DH in the car, and she said that Molly's line to Bellatrix )"Not my daughter, you bitch!!") was her favorite part of the story, and then she proceeded to scream out said line. (It was seriously polarious.)

So James and I explained that it wasn't a nice word to say and that she shouldn't go around saying it, but we tried to explain why Molly Weasley would have used that word in the context of the story. She thought about it for a moment and said, "Oh, okay. But I thought Molly had just combined the words "Bellatrix" and "witch" and then called her a 'bitch'. I thought it was pretty funny." To which James and I had to give her props for such clever thinking.

4. This Pop Candy post had me LOL-ing all over the place, and now I kinda-sorta want to go to a Gwar concert, just to say that I have.

5. For the third month in a row, our power bill has stayed below $200! YAY!!! That has never happened the whole time we have lived in Albany, and that's also *with* the Georgia Power rate hike that happened earlier in the year. We've been careful with the electricity, but not overly so. The only thing we can chalk it up to is our new roof, so YAY for that. We have just one more month to get through before the rates drop after the summer, and typically our August bill is lower than May, June or July's so I'm feeling optimistic.

I've been missed...

...or so I've been told.

Life is plodding along here in south GA. It's a never ending cylce of work, school, cook, clean, sleep, church, meetings, sleep, school, lather, rinse, repeat.

I continue to rue the day I ever chose CHALLENGE as my word for 2009. It's only March and I think I'm pretty much ready for 2009 to be over and done with, if for no other reason than so I can choose a new word (something like LUCKY or FABULOUS). ;)

The weather continues to be weird around her. Gorgeous one moment, ugly and yucky the next. It's very bipolar, this weather.

I've also started four different books (American Lion, The Westing Game, A Murder is Announced and My Booky Wook) but sadly have finished none of them yet. That should tell you all you need to know about my mental state these days. ;)

On the other hand, there are things to look forward to.

- My friend Adriana is coming to visit in TWENTY days!
- Our beach trip in June
- A visit from Melanie and her crew
- The release of the sixth Harry Potter movie on July 17th

I did get my garden planted the other day. We had plans for expanding this year, but things have conspired against us. So we're making do with three tomato plants, one jalapeno plant, one cabbage, two basil, two cilantro, and one each of thyme and rosemary. We still have a little space left, so I might put in a bell pepper plant, even though they were a dismal failure last year.

And with that, I'm off to finish a fifth book (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw).

Answer: Gone With the Wind

Question: What happened to your trampoline, fence and a quarter of your roof shingles?

About 4 AM Wednesday morning, we had a pretty crazy line of storms move through the area, with winds in excess of 60 MPH. The noise (and corresponding power surge) was enough to wake us up, scare us half to death, wake the girls up and head to our bedroom closet. It was all over and done with in less than ten minutes, at which point we went back to bed and tried (in vain) to go back to sleep before the alarm went off at 5 AM. A brief survey of the joint before the girls and I left for school showed me that our back patio furniture and basketball goal were all blown over. Since Wednesday is also our trash day, there were quite a few blown over garbage cans and a lot of litter blowing around, as well as a bunch of shingles in the front yard, but that seemed to be the extent of it.

I pulled into the driveway about 1:30 that afternoon. I had planned on staying at school that day to work on some things, but I'd been fighting off a cold/flu bug and just wanted to get home out of the cold and wind.

Our neighbor from across the street (actually they are catty-corner from) us came running over as I was getting out of the van as asked if I was missing something. Thinking some of our patio cushions might have made it over that way, I asked what she had found. Her reply?

Our trampoline.

This is the view from where the trampoline ended up, looking back at our house, where the trampoline had come from. It missed our house, our next-door neighbor's house and cars, the catty-corner neighbor's house, vehicles and shed.


But it totally took out two of their fences.




On the other hand, our fence was barely nicked.




See those plastic steps in the above picture? Those were the steps the girls used to get up and down the trampoline. Didn't move an inch. And see that window in the house? That's the window to the girls' bedroom. The trampoline was right outside of that window.

Yeah.

So after getting over the trampoline shock, calling James, then calling our insurance agent ( who is 1) asuper nice guy and 2) a preschool parent, so YAY for personal connections!) who said he would be over in 20 minutes, and then calling several friends who happen to be IN THE BUSINESS I started trying to get things cleaned up a bit. Which is when I noticed this:





Remember our really weird neighbors? That would be THEIR tree crushing our fence. (In my defense, I didn't notice this right away because it was hidden by our shed.) I added it to the list of things to show the insurance agent when he got there.

(Since then, James has gone over a few times to talk to the people about the tree removel, but so far they have refused to answer the door, even though their cars are their, lights are on and James can hear the TV! So we're just going to take care of the part on the fence and our side of the property and they can deal with the rest!)

To make a long story short (too late!) we need a completely new roof, since there was too much damage.





The insurance adjuster will be out on Tuesday to look at everything, but our agent says he should have checks in hand ready to give us to start all of the repair processes. Please keeps us in your prayers that the adjuster is able to do all of this!!

All in all, it could have been *MUCH WORSE* and we're grateful that it isn't. When you consider how far the trampoline went, and how much it missed, well, we are very , very lucky.

Another Christmas, Come and Gone

I think if you asked any of us how Christmas was this year we'd all say it was just perfect. (Okay, the girls might say that they wanted a few more gifts or to spend more time at Nana and Papa's house playing with their cousins, but who wouldn't??) We got to spend time with some of the people we love the most, we ate a lot of good food and laughed and laughed and laughed. Who could ask for more than that??

Unlike years past, I didn't take a lot of pictures of everything. Just trying to be more "in the moment", I guess. But here are a few I did take Christmas morning.






We spent Friday cleaning up all of the Christmas decorations and get the house cleaned from top tp bottom, and boy did it feel good! Usually we leave everything up until New Year's Day, but I think we were ready for some order back into our lives! We also re-oreganized the playroom to make a little more room for my overflowing preschool supplies. More shleving means more stuff up off of the floor, which means more room for playing, so the girls were happy to pitch in and help.

James had to go back to work today (although he'll have a half day on Wednesday and Thursday off). Bella invited her best friend over to play, so I've been listening to all three girls run around screaming in only the way that nine and ten year old girls can all after noon. After the crazy heat wave of last week, the weather cooled off a bit today, but it's supposed to get warm again later in the week.

All in all, we're trying to savor this week before school starts again on the 6th!! I know it will be here much too soon.

Making a list, checking it twice

1. *sigh* Still haven't mailed out my Christmas cards. They've been sitting on the table, ready to go, since Monday night. They just need stamps. We don't have a conveniently located post office, so it's always an ordeal to get to one.

2. Bella has a birthday party this morning, but I still need to go buy a present for it. Methinks a quick trip into Target is in order before the party, because I don't have a card OR cash that I could just give instead.

3. One of the perks of being a preschool teacher?? Christmas gifts!! My class was *very* generous to me yesterday. I've got some new Christmas ornaments and decorations, some yummy gourmet food items, an adorable monogrammed change purse, and several gift cards burning a hole in my pocket!

4. I am done with my Christmas shopping, except for a present for Frodo. What do you get the kid who has everything? I'm not sure, but I'm hoping to find it today. Perhaps at the Goodwill store. ;)

5. Hey, Weather Man, can't you do something about these unseasonably warm days we've been having all week?? I'm not asking for snow and ice, but it would be nice to have a little nip in the air!

Housekeeping

1. I finally bit the bullett and added one of those blog roll gadgets on my sidebar. I resisted for a long time because I hate it when my blog looks all crowded and junky. I like nice, clean lines. But with 27 blogs to keep up with, I was spending way too much time clicking on your links to see if you had updated! ;)

2. What's up with this crazy weather? Last week we had freeze warnings, this week I had to turn on the A/C, and the rain and wind have been out of control!

3. And YAY!!! Friday Night Lights will be airing on NBC on January 16th!! I am SO EXCITED for the return of this show. I've avoided most of the spoilers for the episodes that have already aired on DirectTV, but from what I've heard, this season is nothing short of amazing.

While you're waiting for January 16th, you should really check out the first two seasons. Here- let me tempt you with a few of my most favorite scenes from the first season!

Random Thoughts

1. It's cold here. And windy. I actually had to turn on the heater in the house this afternoon.

2. I'm really, really tired.

3. In lieu of a real post, you get RPFJHD. (Random Pictures from Jennifer's Hard Drive)

So Far, So Good

1. Madeline seems to be doing fine- no more throwing up after the bus incident, no fever, sore throat, upset stomach, etc. So I think we can rule out stomach virus. We started back on the antibiotic last night, so we'll see if anything happens with that. *FINGERS CROSSED*

2. The weather? GORGEOUS

3. We've entered into the most fun, but also the most stressful, time period of the preschool year. It starts a few days before Halloween and ends somewhere around January 20th. With the holidays approaching, there's a ton of fun activities to do. But I think some parents forget that little children DO NOT need to be out a every party/fair/church activity/get together until late at night, nor do they need to eat absolutely every piece of candy/cake/pie/goody given to them.

In the past week in Albany we've had Halloween, huge Fall Festivals, church revivals, football games and the fair. And this is only the beginning! I'd love to send a note home to some of the preschool parents saying "DO NOT EXPECT A GOOD BEHAVIOR REPORT ABOUT YOUR LITTLE DARLING IF THEY'VE BEEN HOPPED UP ON SUGAR AND OPERATINGON FIVE HOURS OF SLEEP! SHOW SOME COMMON SENSE, PEOPLE!!!!". ;)

4. The girls are off to Tifton tonight for Caitlin's birthday. James is going to pick them up after work tomorrow, while I go to a wedding. Mmmm...wedding cake!

5. I'm VERY EXCITED to be out of school Monday and Friday.

*Insert Witty Title Here*

1. School starts in three weeks. Boo! BOO!!!!!!1!11111!!!1!

2. It's SO DANG HOT here today. I feel sticky and gross every time I go outside, so I try not to go outside.

3. One year ago was the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Nothing has been the same since then. *sigh*

4. Pot meet Kettle. I can never, ever say anything about Rich and his crazy cat lady tendencies again.

Meet Violet:





In a fit of what-the-heck-was-I-thinking, Violet became the newest member of the family last week. She was scared out of her mind the first two days we had her, and then decided to make herself comfortable. She's decided the place she is *most* comfortable sleeping is snuggled up in the small of my back as I sleep. Or in the crook of my neck. Or directly on my chest.

Poppy and Tigerlily still don't know quite what to make of this new interloper, so they basically ignore her. She, however, likes to follow them around and do whatever they are doing, which they find annoying.

We went with Violet for her name for two reasons- 1) we wanted to keep with the flower theme we have going on (we've also had a Daffodil, but she met an early demise) and 2) she reminded us of Violet from The Incredibles, with her shy manner and dark hair. I also like to think that if she could speak, she'd be somewhat snarky and sarcastic, just like her namesake.

And yes, we are sure she is a girl- no mix ups this time! She already has nipples. :P

I Like Tuesdays

Tuesday is a good day of the week. There's no expectation of a Tuesday like there is with the other days of the week. It just is what it is, know what I mean?

I'm off today, but subbing the rest of the week. I should be doing laundry or vaccumming or doing something other than what I'm doing, which is surfing the net in my jammies at *looks at the clock* 9:20 am. But I've got the windows and the backdoor open, and I'm enjoying the momentarily cooler weather and listening to the birds sing. I never realized how loud the birds around the house are until one day I was on the phone with customer service at my cable company, and the lady on the other end asked me how many birds I living in my house.

I really should think about what were going to have for dinner tonight. Suggestions?