Things that are Dark

Last night was a little freaky.

Mike and I went for our spray tan appointments. There was a Groupon awhile back and I figured it would be nice to start out looking tan. "Although outdoor tanning allows humans to absorb the sun's natural energy, the sapped star will eventually turn pale and suffer the fate of Earth's original sun, the moon. Save the sun with this Groupon. VersaSpa booths bathe skin in organic bronzing mist & drying gusts to create head-to-toe bronze that doesn't rub off on clothes"  Sounded great, so imagine my dismay when I had to choose Light, Medium or Dark without a color sample, or even a vague idea of what in the world we'd end up with. Apparently, it's kind of up to your skintone. Sheesh. So I ended up choosing "dark" for both of us because the gal at the salon said the others may not look like much at all on our skin tone and I didn't want to waste our only opportunity to avoid blinding everyone. I am thankful that I didn't wake up with a "Ross" moment! Mike is probably more so, since he had to go to work today!

Right at the start of American Idol a pretty intense thunderstorm hit. It was blowing really hard, tons of lightning and thunder, and tornado sirens. Some hail appeared intermittently for the next half hour. Across town, there were sightings of funnel clouds, a possible touchdown and strong downdraft winds. Here's a photo Taryn's friend had on her facebook taken in our old neighborhood.

The news was showing a car that was flipped over onto the roof at the baseball fields. Luckily the woman and child (who was buckled in her car seat) were OK. We however did not take cover. My head was OK, and Mike was upstairs watching the NFL draft with Gib. I was planning to watch Idol before I was distracted by more than swirling winds, flashing lights and torrential downpours.... a brown recluse spider. The potential tornado took a back seat to this little happenstance let me tell you! I bravely sprayed it and Mike was going to take care of it for me. I went away to have my heebie jeebie attack and when he reported back to me, he said it wasn't dead after all, and was halfway across the bathroom heading for the closet. I then had a major heebie jeebie attack with goose bumps on my entire body. And I wasn't even all that worried about the swirling trees in the front yard while the trees in the back were stick still. Whatever. I just saw a deadly spider!!  Later, when I walked through the disaster that is my closet  (getting ready for the trip) I looked at a bin that I took off a high shelf and thought Bingo! I bet it came from there. So of course now I'm freaking out about all the clothes I have all over and in a suitcase. I will have to shake and examine everything. I know I will. I had a hard time sleeping last night.

You should have heard the caterwauling from Pixie. Between the rain and her desire to shred another bunny in the stairwell, she was one upset cat. We locked the cats inside last night to avoid a repeat of the massacre. You know it's bad when Mike has to wash the walls. And this is why the door to the house remains closed. They can go in and out of the stairwell but not come in the home. But now they can't go in and out at all; I've locked the kitty door so that Gib or my mom won't have to get out the Dustpan of Death and take care of a mouse, bird, frog, bunny, lizard, or (please never again) a rat. I wish Pixie would get the hint that all her gifts are returned to the forest and stop bringing them in.

Well, I didn't get as much done last night as I should have. Today will be crazy busy. I know there's intense interest in the progression of our tans, so I will try to stop by an Internet Cafe once in a while. Inquiring Minds and all that.

4, 3, 2, 1....

We cruise in 4 days!  I am amazed that time has flown by so quickly. We booked this trip in January. Last minute preparations are awesome. Last Friday, I went to Kohls for some cute summer clothes and new swimsuit.  I plan to go back on Wednesday, return a few things, and use my $50 Kohls cash for Mike's new summer clothes. Unfortunately, I see he has already pulled out his infamous hat, so I guess that's going. All I can do is try to deflect one's attention from that embarrassment and hope to infuse some style elsewhere. Mike is a good sport about the teasing (mostly), but without my crew to back me up, and egg me on, I will try to behave. After all, this cruise IS a celebration of 25 years of marriage! In that much time, you learn to let the little things go and concentrate on better things.

On Thursday, I'll pack and whittle down my stuff so it all fits into one suitcase. I hope! If not, I'll move Mike's stuff to the side of his suitcase and shove in some of my shoes or something! On Friday, I will freak out and worry all day about what I've forgotten. Saturday we catch the red eye to Miami :)

A photo from Taryn's Senior Year cruise

In memory of that fun trip, I will jump in the first conga line I see!

In other news, we bought a new car. It's a Hyundai Elantra and gets 40 MPG highway. We got a good deal and hope to receive it today or tomorrow. Indy will be "leasing" it from us and we will acquire her moneypit VW Bug. It needs a $1700 AC repair which we decided wasn't worth it. When it's not too blazing hot, we will be teaching Gib and Taryn if she's game, how to drive a stick shift in the VW. And one of us will drive it to work when it's not too hot out there since it gets better gas mileage than that ol' 1997 Mazda!

I will try not to worry when Gib and Mariah drive it around while we are on our cruise. That is, if we don't accidentally take the keys with us.

Eagle Has Landed

Today was the first work day for Gib's Eagle Project.  The guys headed to the Senior Center armed with donuts. I arrived later with the camera. Then I arrived later again with pizza. They got a lot of clearing done to make space for a horseshoe pit. 

The land to the right, going deep into the underbrush is where all the Scouts are working

The Scouts also helped spread mulch

 Enjoying some teasing for almost falling

 This is a favorite "little guy" of ours - he's growing up, but predictably he jumped at the chance to drag an entire tree

Egging on Mike that I can finally get a picture with a shovel

This is where the REAL fun is at 

See?! 

 Where once there was chaos....

 Ever notice how often 3 guys stand around watching 1 guy work?!

 Finishing up for the day - digging out the roots with an axe. 

Might have to take out the tree, but we hope not.

Music Man - Take 1

Mariah just finished her school play - Music Man. They did 4 performances and had a great time. She can't believe it is already over. Seems they just started on it a short time ago. Enjoy the pictures. She did a fabulous job!

Music Man - Take 2

That Was Easy

Well so far this week has been pretty easy. It's weird not having Gib here and Mariah's been almost living at middle school lately.

We had to put a little hustle in sending Gib off to the Youth In Government general assembly yesterday, and reschedule some things since it wasn't on the calendar, but he reports that they did very well, and nobody wanted to speak out against their proposed legislation. Which I hope means it will be passed. Their bill is about requiring all child care center staff in the state to be CPR certified and capable of using an AED. He carpooled up to Nashville with another friend who is running for Governor. Gib said he is doing well, so good luck to the group!

Mariah's opening night went very well. She was excited. Mike and I are attending the performance tonight and looking forward to seeing Music Man. Mike loves his musicals and it's even better when your daughter is in it!

Preschool was a breeze as a T.A. I love the flexibility and random fun I get to have while helping others. On Tuesday I spent most of the day playing with the kids. On Wednesday I helped one-on-one with students in the 3 classes I support, and I brought tadpoles from another teacher's room for visits and torture by 28 children trying to catch them. We had a blast. I love catching tadpoles. The other teachers just shuddered and took a pass on that little activity. The kids loved it though! Thursday brought even more one-on-one work and it was my birthday at preschool! We summer birthday people have to live with never having a bday celebrated during the school year. But at least in this bday I didn't have to add another year to my age.

Speaking of which, that reminds me of a funny conversation with a little guy who was having a hard time with pennies all being pennies even if they are different colors. Trying to explain how copper pennies change color in time went over his head. Showing him the differences in quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies didn't seem to do it either. So I asked him if he wanted to know when the penny was born. Of course! I showed him the year on the darkest, ugliest penny in the pile. It was 1974. I whispered loudly enough to be heard by the teacher that I bet that penny was as old as she was. I yelled, "Hey - what year were you born in?" 1975 was the answer. We did the "WHAT?!" face together and I said, "well that explains why this penny is all old and brown. It's not all shiny and pretty like this penny here that was born in 2011. It practically has wrinkles!" The teacher didn't have to put too much effort into pretending to be slightly offended - that was the best part for me. Oh, and one little girl who I guess was throwing her lot in with her precious teacher asked me, "and what are YOU? a hundred????" I just loved it! She was the same little sweetie who made silly putty beards the day before and put it on her face and said, "I haven't shaved in fourteen months!"

Preschool ends in mid-may - wah! So I plan to enjoy it. Right about this time of year is when we all start realizing we will have to say goodbye to our graduating class and we hug on them a little tighter as these dozen days of preschool will go by way too fast. Some of the kiddos have been with us since they were 1! It's bittersweet letting those little birdies fly away. But then I look back and remember when that little munchkin mentioned above cried for the first hour and then intermittently all day for a couple of years. Even before she was on "my side" of the building I would stop and talk to her while she cried through recess. Last year, I held her in my lap and worked for the better part of the year to get her over her fears. It amazes me still how much changes in the lives of these kids in the first 5 years. At graduation, we compare our preschoolers progress to the caterpillars that are spinning their chrysalis' in our rooms right now and the glorious butterfly release day in May. The kid who couldn't get through the day tear-free now runs into school with a smile on her face (ok wait, that's not quite true - if ever there was a 5 yr old who needs a cup of coffee before school it's her! but give her a few minutes and she wakes up smiling). I love the surprise hugs, seeing her take advantage of every opportunity to insult me, and be the first to hop in my lap for a story or during chapel time. She usually can be counted on to spring me from jail and we always have some BFF time on the playground. She has a gorgeous smile and everyone always comments on it. These things are the silver lining you must remember for every hard day you put in.

I'm baaaack! and I couldn't be happier!

Quick Update

We very much enjoyed another college girl coming into town last weekend. Indie joined us for Easter Weekend. We got to have another egg hunt and everything! Pics and video are on facebook. I don't have time to put them on the blog just now. Anyways, it was so nice to see Indie again, and Aussie too. He got to go outside this time! We herded up Pixie and Diego and put them wherever he wasn't everytime Aussie came downstairs. Chino has established that he has more fluff and a bigger hiss and he doesn't go insane the way the other cats do. Grammy's cat Ellie just hides from Aussie. Resistance is futile but she does her best.

Taryn joined us the previous week during her Spring Break. We had a nice visit. Mariah and I took her back, spent the night and had a much better drive coming home than we did going there. An extra 2 hrs was put on the road trip to cover 12 miles, and then when we reached St. Louis, barriers across the freeway with a faulty detour sent us into a bad part of town, looking for a way out. It was a little tense for awhile there. Taryn's excellent navigation skills and our sense of direction got us out before we ran out of gas. We had just enough gas to reach Kirkwood where Tim's family lives and refueled and rewarded ourselves with Sonic drinks to get us the rest of the way to Rolla. Mariah and I planned to go up the Gateway Arch on our way home, but she decided just looking at it from the park was good enough. That reminds me, I have pics to put up of that too.

Taryn will be home in May for her eye surgery and then return to MS&T for summer classes. We hope she can get an RA job during the summer which will pay for her room & board. Amazingly enough, it looks like Indie and Taryn will be home during the same week in May! That will be awesome!

Indie is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and is still debating whether or not it's an oncoming train or the finish line of a tough year. She is putting in 80 hr weeks between classes, internship, honor council, and service scholars. Her advisor said to get used to it because grad school won't be any different. She'll be home for a week or so in May and then off to Kenya again. She is really looking forward to it, especially because they will be returning to the same village.

Gib has all the ducks in a row now to begin work days on his Eagle project. He will begin on 4/21 with the first day of weed wacking and bush clearing of the site. This upcoming weekend he goes to Nashville for Youth Government. He did well on the ACT tests he took in February/March. If he holds his grades together he will have over a 3.5 gpa, which helps place him in the top quarter of applying college freshmen.

Mariah is in dress rehearsals for Music Man. Opening night is tomorrow. She has been at school about 10-14 hrs a day for the past couple of weeks. That, plus volleyball on Tuesdays/Saturday's, and church youth group on Wednesday nights keeps her on the go. She was excited when a new spanish teacher took over at her middle school. She just may save the year as far as the kids are concerned.

Yesterday was my first day back at preschool as a Teacher Assistant and it was so nice to spend time in all three PreK classes. The looks of excitement when I went in to their rooms and joined them in play from the kids reminded me of when my kids saw grandparents arrive for a visit. I got tons of spontaneous hugs and lots of playtime in at work - puzzles, blocks, silly putty, jail, slides, and where's the egg (aka the shell game), and still managed to do a little work as well.

Gardening has been a big chore for me this year. Mom is walking with a cane right now and can't do the manual labor. I spent most of spring break out in the yard. We had gorgeous weather so it was nice to be outdoors. The backyard is now weeded, fertilized, and manured. This weekend is the garden show at the expo, so after we buy a carload of new plants, find places for them in the yard, then I will finish with a new layer of pine straw all over. Mom did get round up on the driveway garden area so hopefully I won't have to weed it and can just pine straw the area. It's got a million tree weeds sprouting there. Ugh.

We were close to sending in a host application for a spanish speaking foreign exchange student live with us for a month this summer, but after thinking it over, I decided we needed a break from the fast lane, and to wait for a better time. Gib will be gone for half of it, and it looks like the only kid who might be here during some of that time is Indie. I thought maybe Mike and I should have a practice run on being empty nesters. And now that it's April, we only have a couple weeks until our 25th anniversary cruise! I'm looking forward to a vacation, and I know Mike needs a break too! School will be out before we know it and the lazy days of summer are calling our name!