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home and exhausted

We got in late last night - or rather early this morning. Our flight out of Atlanta was for 9:30 pm so we'd planned on leaving SC late morning and then making our way to the Georgia Aquarium. We stopped at the same lovely Sushi place Megan and i found on the way out to Pop's and found a Borders as well.

We finally made it to the aquarium at about 1, we were told upon entering the parking garage that we could not actually enter until after 4 because of over crowding. We decided to forget the aquarium and headed over to the most convoluted Mall ever. Its upscale and has great shops, but the layout is so crazy. We killed some time, getting Gee some new sandals at Buster Browns, before decided to go ahead to the airport and have dinner there.

With lots of time to kill we explored a few of the restaurants but ended up at a mini-chili's. The Drinks were fine, and by the time we hit the gate Neither Jack nor I minded to much that our plane was delayed by 30 minutes.

The flight was uneventful. Megan and Jack slept, and I read the first 1/3rd of Under the Banner of Heaven, played Lemmings and tried the really bad movie Delta offered, for the first 20 minutes. Jack and I split up at the airport and while I got the bags out to the curb he went and got the car out of long term parking. Our dogsitter (also babysitter) had kindly made our bed so we were able to go straight to bed, after showers and a little unpacking.

Megan slept til 7 and we are both planning a nap today. There is no place like home.

Sharon

I just watched Megan out on the pier feeding the fish with her cousins. The last time I watched her from the window above was when we were here last November. It really hits you, being here that she's not. Today we're getting ready for the memorial. There's cleaning and cooking going on, and lots of talking. Lots of remembering. She was such a wonderful woman, and I count my self lucky to have known her.

I ache for Megan, to never really know either grandma.

Carolina on my mind...

South Carolina is beautiful. I do love California, but after what seems like months on end of blue skys and sun, and really start craving a little green. This area fills that void much like Florida does, when I go there for vacations.

Today we went out on the boat and found Sharon's Cache with Cousin's Cooper and Jack leading the search. After kids and I spent some time swimming and playing on the beach before we all piled back in the boat and headed to find a new spot for the cache (more to come on that front later).

We returned for lunch and then headed into to Seneca to visitThe Learning Safari and Toy store This is a great store with lots of fun and educational toys. Once the kids "I wants" grew to loud we all headed back to the condo's for naps.

Tonight we are all hanging out, having burgers and visiting with Mr Mike ( a wonderful friend of Sharon and Carlos's)

Tomorrow I will attempt to get up very early and pick up Jack whose flight gets in at 5:30am in Atlanta. Its a 3 hour drive so I'll be leaving before dawn. Wish I wasn't still on California time.

so incredbily thirsty

I woke up at 4 local time very very thirsty, i've already drank 2 bottles of water (one a refill from the tap) and a carton of milk, and yet the thirst is still there. that cheap dinner must have had more salt then i've ever had before topped with flying.

UPDATE: The thirst has dissipated but now i'm wired and need to pee. I fell asleep around one local time and was up at 4 - yeah i'm going to be tired today. But i am so wide awake.

I've played some backgammon, some lemmings on the PSP and i'm logged into the gamesmith site waiting on some hearts players to wake up. Megan has stirred a bit but is still sleeping.

We have arrived

Megan and I are on the east coast. We flew into Atlanta tonight and are snug in a hotel near the airport. Tomorrow morning we will make the trip to SC to see Pop's and the rest of the family that is coming in for the reunion.

It was a fairly uneventful trip. Megan enjoyed her first ever viewing of "Sleeping Beauty" followed by half of "Snow White" before the battery gave out on the portable dvd player. Then we played with a magnetic Dress up Dora the explorer which actually kept her happy for over an hour. She even got the guy in the seat next to her to play prince for part of it.

We checked in and ordered dinner not the best but they delivered and it was cheap. Megan is happy sleeping in the bed next to me with a chair on either side to keep her from rolling out. The hotel is a very old Hampton Inn. I've stayed in lots of Hamptons and this is definitely the oldest. For the most part they done a good job keeping it clean and fixing it up, but I had to goto 4 soda machines (on different floors) to get a drink to go with dinner and our tv doesn't turn on. The effort of changing rooms wasn't worth it to me.

Its midnight here and I should sleep but my body say its only 9. I'm trying to catch a card game on gamesmith but no luck so far. I can't host from here and hosts are few and far between.

my favortie new kitchen gadget...

Before the party on saturday, while I was running round to various stores to get supplies, I picked up a little "Bar Cutting board" basically its a cutting board that is around 6 inches by 4 and dishwasher safe. We have 2 big wooden boards in our kitchen and a pile of large cutting boards. I have one that fits across the sink, another one for just meat. But this little bullet sized one could go anywhere and made it so easy to prepare a ton of food in one small kitchen, because I didn't need a whole lot of room.

My last best find, was my spice rack. I needed a spice rack to hold more than just 12 little bottles. Jack and I had tons of spices. I tried plastic containers that are really drawers with sticky labels on top to try and keep it all straight but I still ended up searching for spices I knew we had but just couldn't find. I found in a magazine the idea of use an Over the door shoe rack on our pantry door. The one I found was clear plastic pockets so not only does it hold all our spices but you can easily see what is in each pocket. It is really the best idea since sliced bread!

ashes ashes...

I picked up Sadie's ashes yesterday. It was something i'd been putting off for over a week. I just didn't want to go back to the vets office, but now some how i feel more at peace and wish I'd done it last week. She was a dog that got the short end of many sticks. Her first owners abused and then abandoned her, she had more illness than any being should have to endure. And she never really latched on to us until we had Megan and then she was all about protecting Megan and loving Megan until she went blind.

Our previous dogs that died we were given a ceramic paw print and the ashes. And for Sadie they didn't do the paw print. When I asked where it was they said You should have ordered it. Well I said I would have had you asked, but this is my 3rd dog and the last 2 it just came with. ... too late now - gotta let it go. I do have her paw print in the veggie garden, from when we put the path out there. We put down everyones print including Megan who was just a few months old.

Busy bees

I can't believe I haven't blog since July 3rd. So much has gone on but I just haven't had the energy to sit down and type it all out.

July 4th was a nice quiet day. We went to the pool, we had a bbq and we all climbed into the jacquizzi to watch our neighbors set off illegal fireworks. I ended up having to sleep with Megan that night for the first time since she was a baby because the fireworks freaked her out a bit, but by the next night I was being kicked out and sent to my own room.

Megan has finished swim class and graduated from Level 1 which means next summer she'll be in Level 2 and she only going to be 4! she really is a great swimmer. I've discovered a gymnastics day camp program through the Little Gym in Newark so she gets to do that a couple of days a week and I get about 6 hours to myself during the week. Its a great trade off and actually comes out cheaper than preschool. She gets an art project, and 2 hours in the gym with some free play and some structured games. She also gets a snack. Each day when I pick her up she is pooped and sleeps well that night so overall a great success.

I spent most of last week getting ready for Jack's birthday party on Saturday. I decided to cater the whole thing myself and had some great successes. I made Tequila Lime Chicken and Portabellas for vegetarians. A Pasta Salad, a asian slaw, and a green salad, all with different veggies from the garden. Home made bread rolls, some home roasted nuts and For dessert we had 2 kinds of cupcakes, a box mix white and a from scratch chocolate ganache that were super yummy.

Now i'm getting ready for our trip on Sunday to South Carolina for a reunion on Jack's side of the family, and when we return I'll be getting ready for my dad to visit. by Mid-august we'll be able to take a breather, get in some beach time and wait till school starts in September.

What do you want to be?

I asked Megan this morning what do you want to be when you grow up.

"A Doctor?"
"uhm No"

"A Mommy?"
"No"

"A teacher?"
"No"

"Then what do you want to be?"

...

"Myself!"

Of course - silly mommy

busy busy busy

You ever have one of those days, where you do so much that when your head hits the pillow you pass out. I had that today. Only I passed out the second my head hit Megan's pillow - and she wasn't so thrilled with it.

We started the day easily enough. Megan and Jack went to get bagels and I watched CBS Sunday morning. Jack got home and exercised, and I ate breakfast and won a few games of hearts, an online card game. Then I exercised and then we started demolishing our second bath - took out the fiberglass surround and the tiles too. A quick trip to our favorite hardware store we figured out we're going to install a new surround instead of tiling. We're also going to go ahead and repaint - which takes place tomorrow. We'll install the new surround next weekend.

The Oso Megan and I went to the dog Park while Jack TSP'd the walls since they had been painted with high gloss. Once he called because he was done (fumes et al) we came home and then ran over to the pool for a quick swim before I ran to the supermarket. Came home cooked dinner, then gave Oso a bath in the back yard with very cold water- He hated that but appreciated blow dryer and towel after.

Spent some time in the garden next weeding and watering, then Jack gave Megan a bath while I played with the sprinklers in the back - making sure they were all working.

After reading to Megan we cuddled and well I fell asleep. And well she protested a bit but I awoke and assured her I wasn't staying.