Finally Something to Blog About

I think my blogging hiatus might finally be over! Hooray! Two weeks ago we had our family picture taken. It was Edward's idea - thanks to the Leonardtown Volunteer Rescue Squad Auxillary and their fundraiser - but I'll take what I can get! Aside from the goofy background, the photographer did a great job, especially considering that Max wasn't feeling well. He literally threw up an hour after we took this picture! I've been on kid protrait strike ever since I got frustrated in Alaska with trying to get both kids to smile at once. In all fairness, I think Nolen was 2 years old and Max was 1, so it was time to try again! The boys did great and family members will be receiving their complimentary print soon!

First Friday in Leonardtown

On the first Friday of each month, downtown Leonardtown hosts First Friday. The idea is to get people out to support local businesses and the businesses stay open later than usual. There isn't all that much to do downtown...its about the size of downtown Enterprise except there's no Smoochies. There is a small, fancy kitchen store (think Pure Imagination but 1/4 the size), a used book store that is kind of cool, 3 nice restaurants, an awesome pet store, an art gallery that did a wonderful job, the hair salon (where I'm getting my hair cut next week) and a coffee shop.

We took the boys to the pet store first and it was like a free zoo. If I was more of a cynic, I would worry that this pet store is importing illegal animals! They had 2 giant tortises that were 5 years old and about 2 1/2 feet in shell diameter. You could literally reach in and pet their heads (which we all did)! These are the tortises that live between 150 and 200 years! It was weird to hear the kid (must be the owners 10 year old son) tell Nolen that this tortise will live longer than Nolen. They also have about 12 different kinds of snakes, a bunch of cool turtles, frogs, lizards, iguanas, birds, birds and more birds, and fish. We saw a starfish, yellow seahorses (priced at $119 each or $200 a pair), fire shrimp and your typical array of freshwater and saltwater fish.

These painted herons are all over St. Mary's County. It was dark out, so the picture isn't that good.

We told the boys that after our walk we would get desert somewhere. We intended to go to the Doo Dah Deli and get ice cream, but instead we hung out at the coffee shop. Nolen chose a chocolate chip cookie, but Max chose a piece of pie called Vesuvius! Nothing stops that kid! By the end of the night the kids were on a serious sugar high!

There was a 7 piece high school jazz band playing there. They were pretty good but I think the trumpet player was nervous. I can play trumpet better than that (I think). The boys enjoyed the music - of course Nolen thought it was too loud and covered his ears.

Every morning I wake up early to have coffee and check the blogs before the kiddos wake up and I start running around the house like a crazed housewife. But c'mon girls! I need some updates. I have just moved halfway up the eastern seaboard and I need the scoop from ya'll! Lisa, what is up chica? Katie, you're doing ok and you're carrying a watermelon so you're off the hook. Tara...yours isn't quite a watermelon yet, more like a watermelon seed so no excuses. Now, I know I'm not the best blogger either, but ya'll have forced me into blogging today when I have zero news to share. Sheesh! Oh well, here goes!

First of all, I haven't taken many pics of the kids lately because I keep leaving my memory card plugged into the computer in the basement by accident. It is in my camera now though so maybe we'll do something fun and picture worthy today.

We had a semi-relaxing weekend. Ed was in Huntsville on business last week so I wrangled a babysitter for Friday night after he got back. I think he found it funny that it took me two years to get a babysitter for us in AL and just one month here in MD. She is a sweet girl who lives next door and we're friends with her mom. We just ran down the road to the BWB (local little bar with excellent wings, pool tables, jukebox, Keno which is big here). We had a great time. I think we have gone there every weekend for the past 3 weeks. Its a good time.

The boys are good. Nolen is enjoying school even if he says he isn't. Yesterday he read a book to his whole class...a Curious George phonics book. On Friday I am going in to be the "mystery reader". I'm not sure yet what that entails! Still haven't found a school for Max but I haven't been trying very hard either. I was super excited to find out that the Methodist Church (which is close enough for me to walk to) has an awesome preschool and Kindergarten but they are full! Bummer dude.

I'm enjoying the house but it is still keeping me busy. Lisa, I don't know how you get yours done so fast every time! I'm too much of a waffler for that! I'm jumped the gun painting a few rooms last week and yesterday Ed was hanging a curtain rod in our bedroom and he asked me when we are going to paint that room! Ha! Sweet...I'll put it on the list! Its a lot of work but this house was really due for some new paint! Every evening a few of the neighbors congregate outside. I love it - reminds me of living on post. The kids play (although Logan keeps hitting the boys, but he's 3. He's not hurting them, just making them mad and rightfully so.), we let our dogs run around (no complaints yet) and the grown ups chit chat. Its a lot of fun.

Other news...I was monitored for Jazzercise last week. I was warned that the girl doing the monitor is tough and has been known to be unreasonable so after some good preparation for class, I made sure not to stress about the actual teaching of the class. It went really well! It was one of the most fun classes I have ever taught. Tara (a very loud, funny girl) was in my class and didn't know I was being monitored. She was hilarious! There is a new song where we keep doing 8 abductions and 8 knee lifts over and over but for some reason, if I don't count every single set, I completely lose it. Well, my whole class knows this and its almost a joke. Tara counted EVERY single set at a volume that topped my mic! I was nearly laughing! And she had everyone else in the class pumped up too! It was so much fun! BTW - 11 girls in class that day! Yay!

Well, girls, I guess that's about all for now. I'm off to visit barewalls.com and fathead.com to look for some decor! Have great days and blog darn it!

My Little Picasso

There is a good reason I haven't been blogging much lately...I've been busy painting! On Monday I painted the living room and on Friday I painted the dining room. Both rooms look MUCH better. It wasn't just that the colors needed changing, but the walls themselves needed to be spackled, cleaned and touched up. It feels so much better in here now. We still have some touch up work to do, but the big part is done. Hooray! Poor Max gets ignored on painting days so yesterday I let him help me. I ended up having to scrub paint off of the floor when we were done but he had a blast!

Notice the nice shade of apricot in the before pictures.

And here is the finished product! I really like the color...I got it from the clearance paint area for $10 and it came out more taupe than I had anticipated but I like it a lot.

And here is the living room. I took this picture in a hurry so I didn't clean up stuff first. The entire room used to be the color of the wall by the closet. It wasn't terrible but it had too much orange or yellow in it for me. I also went on a Target shopping spree this week. I got a bunch of stuff on clearance, like these black picture frames (whole set $10), a new clock that Max chose ($8), and a small end table with two lamps ($20!).

Countin' Fair Day!!!

The County Fair has come to town! To celebrate, Nolen had the day off from school and we made a family pilgramage down the road to the fairgrounds! In November, I took the boys to the National Peanut Festival in Dothan and they had a ball! We rode an awesome farris wheel, ate fair food and saw some animals, so the boys were really excited about the fair this year - and so was I. Well, unfortunately, I've found one category where Alabama has Maryland beat! The Fair. I was so ready to be impressed by a quality production, however, even the pig races were disappointing. The fair rides (which I'm never a huge fan of anyway) were the most disappointing. The faris wheel was half the size of the one we rode last year, and it cost $5 per person to ride it! No thanks. We ended up not riding anything - and I have to say that I have two amazing boys! They were disappointed but they weren't upset and there were no signs of tears or fits! I love those kids! A little cotton candy and another look at the animals suited them just fine.

Max and Daddy watching the 4-H cows being judged.

Look Ma! A chicken!

My cute boys!

Nolen's Night Out!

Last night was really exciting for me AND Nolen (and Max too). Open house at Leonardtown Elementary was a blast! Since Nolen still says that he, "doesn't like Kindergarten because its too long," I decided to try to make open house extraordinary for him. He was my star last night! First, I let him choose where we went to eat for dinner. He had McDonald's, pizza or hamburger joint to choose from and of course, he chose pizza. We went to Arizona Pizza Co. which is just down the road from our house. It was really pretty inside and the pizza was good too. I think there was a tie for the highlight between the TV at our table (Nolen informed me he wanted to watch a cooking show, I'm not sure why) and the fire in the brick oven that cooked our pizza. He had so much fun that he literally couldn't sit still while he was eating.


After dinner we headed to the school. The staff did an amazing job with the open house. While the kids watched a movie in the cafeteria, the parents attended a short, introductory PTA meeting. The woman who spoke (the president of PTA) is so great that I want to volunteer for every program and I want her to be my friend. Ha! I get so excited about school stuff anyway because I loved school so much, but LES really impressed me. I can't wait to get involved and meet some other parents and staff around the school. I hope Edward stays here for the next six years, because the kids and I are about to become attached!

The school building is brand new this year. Each kid has a locker instead of a coat hook, and the classrooms and bright and airy. Nolen and Max always end up playing with the blocks, games, pretend money and pretend clocks when we go school. There is also a rug where they have circle time, a reading corner, a listening center, and a few classroom computers.

I love Nolen's teacher. She is young, sweet, motivated and recognizes that my child is a genius! Just kidding. But she did make a point to tell me last night that Nolen is reading (which I knew) and that she has several readers and is looking forward to forming small reading groups so that she can assess each child's reading level.

As a bonus, let me pass along some intell that Nolen shared with me at dinner last night. He says that "4" doesn't have a middle number, but "5" does. "3" is the middle of "5". But, he also told me that half of "4" is "2". He went on to tell me about "9" and "10" as well. I told him, that any number that has as he calls it a "middle number", is called "odd", and numbers that can be split in half are called "even". How cute is that? I think he got my math brain! OK, are you sick of hearing about my kid yet? hehe