brimming over

Addressing household issues

I stopped by our pharmacy the other day to fill a prescription and took a few minutes to browse while I waited.  Over the last few years, the pharmacy has shifted to being largely a gift shop/prescription pharmacy with very little over-the-counter drug store stuff available.

I usually see lots of really cute stuff but almost never buy anything extra (just the refills, please!).  After all, we don't need many more knick knacks as appealing as all the cute holiday things are to me. 

But this time, I just couldn't resist buying these great magnets that speak so directly to the problems in my home.

For that eternal supper time question:

My new philosophy for handling sibling arguments:

I had a really hard time choosing which ones to get.  Other favorites were:

"No" is a complete sentence.

I don't care who started it.

Do I look like a maid?

I brought them home and stuck them on the fridge without comment.  One by one, the kids spotted them and literally laughed out loud.  They thought they were hilarious!  Hopefully they'll remind us all to be slightly more tolerant of family life?  Maybe?  I can hope, right?

I can't find them online right now but they're made by Our Name is Mud.  If I find a better link later, I'll be sure to update.
  

Our Easter

A few photos of some rather uncooperative children.

 
  
  
  

Is this a kissing book (movie)?

 

The Princess Bride.  A classic tale of love, adventure, revenge, piracy, villainy...all with a happy ending.  And humor.  Ah, the humor!  This is a movie of layers that you must peel back like the layers of an onion.  Each layer reveals something new and hilarious.

We have longed to share The Princess Bride with the kids for years.  They know many of the best lines because Craig and I quote them all the time.  But we hesitated to watch it with them because it seemed to have "adult themes" and there are a few curse words. 

We finally decided that the boys were probably old enough to watch it.  And since it's really hard to exclude Amy Grace from anything that the rest of us are doing, we figured most of it would go over her head.  Plus, she has a tendency to get bored and wander off during movies so we didn't think she'd see much of it. 

I don't know if we're just numb from our family exposure to Star Trek: The Next Generation re-runs or not but I'm not sure what we thought the big deal was.  :)  All three kids were glued to the screen the entire movie!  And they especially loved seeing the scenes with the great and oft-quoted lines.

I have to say, I think this is one of the most fun things about the kids getting older: the opportunity to share with them fun movies, music, experiences, etc.  As they each form an individual sense of humor that is unique, we get glimpses of the adults they will one day be.

Winter Vacation 2010! part 2

Part 2 of our winter vacation was a short trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC.  The claim to fame of the GWL is their indoor water park.  Awesome! 

By a stroke of bad luck, the two best roads from Chattanooga to Charlotte are currently closed due to rock slides that happened in the fall.  That meant our trip from one city to the other either meant going all the way back to Atlanta (yuck!) or heading up to Knoxville and going over the mountains.  We chose the (slightly) more scenic route.  Despite the freezing weather, the roads were no longer (very) icy and we had a fairly easy drive and arrived just in time for the kids to get a little bit of water park action on Sunday night.

We had a cool themed room called a "Kid Cabin" that included a small room for the kids with a bunk bed and a single bed.  The cabin area had log cabin printed wallpaper complete with friendly critters, a window, and a small tv for the kids.  They really enjoyed having their own space.  We had a larger area with a queen size bed, a sitting area, a balcony, and a bigger tv.  Unfortunately, the theming was where all the money went because the beds were horribly uncomfortable and the pillows were like rocks!  Ugh. 

And those little details became a lot more important when I suddenly came down with what we now suspect was the flu.  Bummer.  I started feeling sick at bedtime Sunday night and never even left the room on Monday.  I did get to spend a little time at the water park on Tuesday before we left.

Craig and the kids spent all day Monday having a blast at the water park, though!  They went on all the slides, played in the wave pool, raced on the mat racers, and generally had a terrific time.  When I asked what their favorite thing was, both boys said the giant dumping bucket that periodically filled up with water and dumped hundreds on gallons down on everything, and Amy Grace said it was the big green slide that you raft down in a multi-person raft. 

All-in-all, we loved the GWL and would love to go back some day!  Visiting a water park while it was 32 degrees outdoors was a lot of fun and we highly recommend it!

Hanging out at the lobby fire place.

Wave pool

Boys on the mat racers.

Amy Grace and Daddy liked the mat racers, too!

The boys on the big green slide with a homeschool friend (and his dad) they met.

Wahoo!!

My little frog hopping across the pond.

Goodbye, Great Wolf Lodge!

 
  

Winter Vacation 2010! part 1

Because Craig had a very busy summer and fall at work getting a big project up and running, we struggled to find a stretch of open time for a family vacation and ended up never taking one at all.  Bummer. 

But the upside turned out to be that we took a winter vacation to make up for it!  And in doing so, we were able to do two things we've wanted to do for quite a while: 1) visit Emily and David in Chattanooga and 2) visit the Great Wolf Lodge in Corcord, NC. 

Our departure was a bit delayed due to the frigid weather (everywhere!) and snow (in northern Georgia and Chattanooga) but we arrived at the Geyer's last Friday evening about the time David got home from work.  Lucky Emily had a snow day, so no work! 

They have the loveliest home and made us feel so welcome!  It's hard to believe they are newlyweds and have only lived in this house for a year and a half.  It's just the perfect size, with plenty of space, and decorated beautifully.  Emily has always been great about taking photos and I had fun looking at all the framed pictures she has in the house.  Amazingly, they had beds for all of us and we were thrilled not to be schlepping sleeping bags and pillows on our trip! 

They also have the cutest dog-a bichon frise named Harley.  We all fell in love with him and enjoyed playing with him all weekend.  He's so fun and playful!  Harley and his little girlfriend may have puppies soon and there is a scheme afoot for one of his offspring to become ours.  :)

Unbelievably, I didn't manage to take any pictures of the house or Harley.  And very few of Emily and David.  Drat.

We had such a terrific time!  My list of Chattanooga highlights:

• eating dinner at the Geyer's favorite Mexican "joint".  They have the most divine flour tortilla chips!!  I wish I could eat them all the time.
• staying up most of the night chatting with Emily about everything under the sun.  It was so good to catch up and share like old times.
• wondering why there was no water in the upstairs sink (or tub) at 4 a.m. but not waking the men to get their opinion.  In the morning we figured out the pipes were frozen.  David and Craig worked on getting the water flowing again and Emily made us pancakes!
• visiting the aquarium (in detail) and seeing all the water creatures.  We were all fascinated, and Emily and David were very patient with us!  Not among my favorite things was dealing with grouchy Wesley and Amy Grace in the gift shops.  Boo.
• seeing Ruby Falls again-especially since David's passes made it free!  Craig, Emily, and the boys kept up a running sarcastic descriptive narrative throughout the tour in an effort to humorize the cheesiness of the cave.  Fortunately, the falls themselves are awe-inspiring and overcome the tacky-folksy tourist trap build-up that precedes them.
• playing Rock Band for the first time.  Emily and David were convinced we'd know most of the songs but there were lots that were totally foreign to us, too.  They really pick some obscure music for those games.  The boys really caught on quickly-pretty soon Parker was killing the drums and Wesley was rockin' the guitar.  Unfortunately, that left me, Craig, and Emily to screech out the lyrics.  Um, not good.  LOL!

Scenes from the aquarium...

It's hard to tell in the picture but these fish were hilarious.  It was like Craig was the Fish Whisperer and they couldn't resist his call.  As a group, they followed his every move!

It reminded me of the crazy school of fish in Finding Nemo:

 

Oddly, no pictures of Ruby Falls.  Emily blogged about our visit here and has a couple at the falls and the house. 

We had a wonderful time in Chattanooga and with the Geyers and cannot wait to visit again!  Hopefully we'll get a chance to go when it is warmer and more outdoor entertainment options are open to us.  Thank you, Emily and David!  We love you!

Part 2 of Winter Vacation 2010 to come! 

Christmas 2009

Merry (late!) Christmas!  We had a wonderful, blessed Christmas and I hope all of you had the same.

 
Santa showed up with a DSi for each of the kids!  And my parents surprised us all with a Wii (which officially takes us off the list of the last 100 families on Earth without one).  The kids have looked like this since Friday...

Of course there were lots of other favorites as well.

Parker looking cool in his Bear Bryant hat.  (Note the white ceramic Christmas tree on the right that matches the green one in my last post.  My grandmother made them both.)

"Look boys!" 

"IT'S G-FORCE!!!!" 

Wesley, still involved with the DSi, but I'm playing with my new lens.  :)

Heading out to play Nerf Dart Tag.

And how does Lucy feel about it all?

 
  
  

Christmas wonder

 
  

A boy's view of the world

Parker just came to me with his camera and asked me to upload his pictures to the computer. 

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of his pictures.  They give a little insight into his world, what he thinks is important, and our family life in general. 

Plus some of them are pretty good, I think.  :)

Remember I said we had a garden?  Proof...

We're still getting a bountiful crop from those pepper plants! 

Is there any wonder I'm always hearing screams coming from downstairs?

Craig breakfasting in his regular spot.

School stuff...

Headed to Fall Festival at church...a wizard and a spy.

 

There you have it: a boy's life in pictures.   

 

A friendly rivalry

In our house, fall means a lot of things...back to school, pumpkin foods, Halloween, crazy weather.  But most of all, fall means college football!

And college football means University of Alabama football!  Roll Tide! (that's for Craig and the boys.)

College football rivalries can be pretty fierce in the SEC.  And we are out of our element since we live in a part of Georgia that is liberally populated with about 30% Auburn fans, 30% Georgia fans, and 20% Georgia Tech fans.  The remaining 20% are split widely among teams as varied as Maryland, Virginia Tech, Ole Miss, Miami, and more.

We have developed a very friendly, and mostly civil, rivalry with our very close friends who are Tennessee fans.  It's particularly interesting since I'm a UT traitor, having given up the fight when I realized it was just too difficult being married to a man who eats/sleeps/dreams Alabama football.

A few years back, our friends' teenage son covered Craig's Alabama car tag and decals with UT stuff when they beat Bama.  And that started the ongoing battle.  There were a few bleak years when the Vols won several in a row.  Then Bama won and we hung an Alabama flag in a tree in their yard (where it remained for several days while they were out of town before they came home and removed it!). And so the rivalry progressed.

Now this year, it should have been easy victory.  Alabama is ranked in the top 5.  Tennessee has been struggling.  But this is a game that never goes as expected.  The Tide won, but just by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins.  Or should we say by a certain player's chin.  Terrence Cody saved the day by blocking a last minute UT field goal (his second block of the day!). 

Craig and Parker worked on this masterpiece and delivered it to our friends on Halloween.

Tonight our doorbell rang and we found this awaiting us on the front porch.

(It says "VOLS" for anyone having difficulty reading the word.)

If I must watch endless hours of college football, at least this makes it fun.  :) 
 
  

Trick-or-Treat!

Bleak, rainy, and cold.  That just never happens on our South Georgia Halloweens!  Weird. 

As usual, we were still preparing at the very last minute.  But highly unusual, we still had no idea this morning (yikes!) exactly what everyone would dress as for Halloween! 

Try as we might, Amy Grace and I could not convince those stubborn, stick-in-the-mud boys to help us decide on costumes.  I had pretty much decided that Amy Grace would dress up to Trick-or-Treat and the boys would just have to deal with not getting any candy.  Too bad.

Then this morning, Parker had an idea that Wesley was totally on board with doing.  Amy Grace wasn't completely sure but eventually came around to join in the plan with gusto.

So I present...a trio from Mount Olympus...

Parker as Poseidon, god of the sea:

Amy Grace as Athena, goddess of wisdom and victory:

And Wesley as Zeus, lord of the universe:

And this is what you get for Halloween when homeschoolers study the ancient world.  :)

We trick-or-treated with our friends and had a sort of "block party" beforehand for everyone to fill up on munchies.  The cold rainy mist only dampened spirts a little bit!  Here's a picture of all the costumed kids from the little ones on up to the teens...

Hope you had a great boo day, too!