Goodbye Elementary School

Six years ago I had all three kids in elementary school (same school as where Hubs teaches so my whole family was under the same roof every day) for one year.

For the past two years I had three kids in three separate schools--high, middle and elem.

This year I have two high schoolers and one starting middle.

Here is our 11th grader:

High school starts at 7:15 am or so and their departure time is 6:45 so it was darkish outside still and I was not coherent enough to take their picture in the house before they left (so my routine is back to getting up at 6:30 am so I can see them before they take off).

Here is our 9th grader:

He was hoping as hard as his 11th grade brother that his brother would get his driver's license this summer because that meant that Middle son gets to be driven to school by his brother for the next two years.  Middle son needs lot of time in the am so he gets up at 5:30 am.

The wheels:

There they go.  This is an old Toyota truck that Hubs used to take to work and used on weekends especially for sneaking back home plants and flowers.  It is a stick shift and we told Oldest if he learned to drive it then he could have it for school and weekends.  He grumbled a year ago when trying to learn to drive it but there is no grumbling now.  We paid the $70 school parking fee and he pays for the gas and he is not complaining now that his other friends tell him how more often they have to fill up their tank with gas.  I am proud of him that he can drive a stick shift--i cannot and Hubs is a horrible teacher at that (I know, so ironic) so I told Oldest maybe he can teach me one day.


Here is Youngest:

Middle School does not start until 9:20 am and so I have 30 mins of quiet time until Youngest gets up and chats with me for over an hour until he gets his bus at 8:40.  he is the only middle school student in our n'hood--the older brothers had other boys to hang with at bus stop up the street.  And so yes, I walk up the street with him and chat and then make myself scarce when we hear the bus arrive. 

Youngest is very excited that he has male teachers for the first time--two for social studies and math and another right now for a computer class.  That late start time means school lets out about 4:00 and he walks in the door at 5:00 (he is almost last picked up in am and almost last dropped off in pm).

I heard from a dad of Oldest's friend we have known for 7 years that he heard his son talking about how I work from home and so keep a major watch on Eldest.  Hubs has always said that when he was a teen all his friends knew his mom (my mother in law) was the strictest on the block and his friends were pretty much scared of her.  I guess Hubs married a wife just like his mom.  It is not bad at all being perceived as the strictest mom, and one who is home at 2:45 when high schoolers get home.....

Well......I Was Out of Town

Hmmmm, last summer I was able to blog from my iPhone but I couldn't do it now when I needed to blog from the road.  I will have to add more Blue Moon Blogging days into early Sept.

Early in June I made plans to visit a new client in St. Louis in August.  I was so excited to go there--we visited as a whole family a few summers ago and it has remained a destination to re-visit.  i HIGHLY recommend it for many wonderful (and free) things to do as a family.

I picked a Friday that had a St. Cardinals baseball game.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I actually thought I could take the whole family and we would have another great time but get to see a baseball game, tour Anheuser-Busch, take the kids to the wacky but great City Museum and more.  Then in July I realized the kids would be back to school.

So I went by myself but I was smarter for this trip and made sure I had some time to not just hop on a plane back back take some time.  And it was gorgeous.  The residents and workers of the city of St. Louis pay a 1% city tax so that visitors can do so many free activities in beautiful Forest Park--site of the 1904 World's Fair....such as museums and the zoo.  Here is just one small part of Forest Park:

After my meeting I drove to Forest park and parked right near that lawn and toured the Art Museum (one of the few structures left from 1904's Fair) and got to gaze at paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin and many more.  Here is the front:

Then it was just a couple of blocks to the St. Louis zoo.  I hadn't been to a zoo in forever and although I am not a fan of places like Sea World or even the Georgia Aquarium, I did enjoy this zoo very much.  And it's free!  There is a flight cage that was built in 1904 for the World's Fair that remains:

Here is a gorilla who sat down quickly in the "Thinker" pose.

It was gorgeous weather and I got to see everything, and I was really surprised to see swimming hippos.  For a minute I thought they were fake--there were three or four of them swimming/walking completely underwater and so gracefully:

Here is the rear view--their "ankles" and toes looked just like a cartoon.

I also drove to St. Charles, MO, where Lewis and Clark began their Journey in 1804 at a certain spot on the Missouri River.  I lucked out with 78 degree weather.  I will definitely be back and maybe another time will do that beer tour and see a game and more.

Flight Back--
--Of course no trip report would be complete without a mention of my TSA experience.  As I've mentioned before, i never have any TSA encounters here at the world's busiest airport because Atlanta has about 16 security lines and only 4 body scanner machines so I pick a line way to the left and about 4 rows from a body scanner.  But for my return, once again St. Louis is like other airports where my gate only had two security lines and one had the body scanner so I stood in the other line and got my stuff on the conveyor belt and just as it was my turn the TSA guy put a rope in front of the "regular" metal detector and started to send people to the Body Scanner.  So once again in my travels I had to say that I did not want to go thru the body scanner.  Fortunately I didn't have to wait too long for a "Female Opt Out" assistance and when the female TSA agent asked if I knew the routine I told her I travel and don't want to get radiation every month and she actually said, "I can't blame you--if I traveled a lot I wouldn't do it either."  She was not physically offensive to me as the one time in Tulsa, OK.

So back safe and sound....till Houston in one week.

There’s Gonna Be Another Female in the House!

A feline female!  This is a big deal……

When I met Hubs 27 years ago I told him that I needed to have books and cats in a home to be happy and he was on board.  We got one cat and then another and then a few years later a dog and then another.  All four of them lived their full, long into geriatric lives, and we haven’t had any pets for 7.5 years.

 We moved to a new home 7 years ago and we no longer had a fenced yard and by this time the boys were old enough to be on three different sports teams that kept us busy many nights and weekends and we also began taking long summer road trips.  So, we have had no pets for a while with the exception of getting a hamster for  Youngest, but this past Easter it was sad when he expired after only 1.5 years.

 Soon it will be a year that I have had a job that wants me and my peers to work at home and I have increasingly been thinking how nice it would be to have a sweet cat curled up nearby.  Two weeks ago a coworker who also volunteers at a shelter, sent out a mass email about a cat she has observed at the shelter for months—a cat who is three years old and overlooked because she is not a kitten and because she didn't approach potential adopters often and who seemed miserable with the 20 or so other female cats in the room.  But my coworker knew she was sweet and wanted to see what she is like out of there and in a home.  She told the shelter folks she wanted to foster it and find it a home.  After just one day the kitty changed to a very, very happy, purring, lap sitting and leg-rubbing cat.  This is the first time I was included in her mass-email – she has occasionally looked for homes for a few cats previously. 

So I think it was fate and timing because this cat’s story spoke to me—about how she lived at the shelter for A YEAR and was MISERABLE but the minute she was put in a happier place she changed.  So I reached out and this past Sunday Youngest and I visited the kitty and she was so sweet and not scared at all and after an hour was rubbing our legs and letting us pet her belly.

 I showed her photos to Hubs and he accepted this (he is a neat freak so having any cat hair or litter box scenarios is not his fave).  I’m not sure why other than maybe I just need a cat every 25 years, but I know around my b-day in June I started saying I wanted a cat -- for the first time in years I was saying this.  The boys had a couple of separate weeks in FL with just Hubs this summer and I just found out they were advocating for me to get a cat.  I have also had some extreme stress/sadness this summer (nothing to do with work or the people I live with) which is why Hubs is being very easy going about this now.

(my coworker has been emailing me a photo a day of her)

So…..she is gonna be mine this Sunday!  And the Boys!  Right now they are fighting over the name.  I made a list of names that end in the “eeee” sound such as Roxy and Harley--those are the top contenders (kitty was named Shirley!!!) so I was thinking new name/similar sound.  I am out of town for a couple of days which is why the adoption day is this Sunday.  I’m sooooo excited.  She will be scared and hoping that a car ride doesn’t mean shelter time again. 

Oh, and she likes guys and feet so she should be happy at our house.

So what is the trend for cat food these days?  Some canned food at night so the diet is not just dry food (which has a lot of corn)??

Blue Moon Blogging - Traveling to South Dakota

Wel,, I had got a new client at work and they are in South Dakota.  In the plains near the NE, not the SW which has the Black Hills.  I left the world's busiest airport in Atlanta and went to one of the smallest!....after changing planes in Minneapolis.

My plane to SD had only about 13 rows but it went well.  I didn't check my bag but they took it to save space and still put it on the baggage claim conveyor.  There was only one "gate" and went you entered the airport you quickly came to the baggage claims area here:

And do you see just to the left is a counter with a red Avis sign above it.  Easiest walk to the rental car counter I have ever had.

Then, the rental cars were parked right next to the airport.  Mine was waiting for me in row #6 here (my plane is in background).  When I returned to the airport the next day I pulled into Row #1.

I practically didn't even need a rental car because my client was so close to the airport.  It was a long way to go for a visit but I will be going back in October.  They were so, so nice and they must have liked me because I was invited to go pheasant hunting next time.  I think they were trying to get my reaction but hey, I go with the flow.  Some people golf with clients--why not hunt for food?

Oh, and at the littlest airport ever, about 30 mins before flight time, two TSA women appear.  They were super nice and certainly there were no big, expensive radiation screening machines.

Then it was back in Atlanta and on the train there was a young lady with these shoes. 

Last time I traveled it was in May and I bought new flat shoes knowing I'd do a lot of airport-walking.  I made it home with blood dripping down my heels from those suckers.  I still have scars.  Those platforms would have been better I guess.

At the Atlanta airport before you get to the baggage claim area where you exit for the parking lots, you ride up a long escalator and at the top of it, all the people that wait for arriving passengers stand in a line.  There can be hundreds of people there.  When I got to this area, like the guy in this photo in the orange shirt, I was shocked and peeved to see a government worker (TSA) at this podium, with his hands around his phone or ipod, with his head down.

Like I said, to his left are hundreds of people off the street, not scanned.  Shouldn't he be more on the ball?  I was so shocked I had to stop and take his picture.

I think my 11th grade son summed up my travels to SD in a positive way.  He doesn't say very long sentences, but he said, "Your job gives you the opportunity to see parts of the country you would never see."

A Lot Going On in the Sky Too

Life is zooming by in this house on this earth, but there is a lot happening in the sky too.

When I had a party a couple of New Years Eve's ago to celebrate the Blue Moon I knew that the next Blue Moon month would be in August 2012.  This month we will have another Full Moon on 8/31 (on this half of the world) and this will be the last Blue Moon until three years from now.

I found out from a site called Earth Sky that there is quite a bit of planet activity this month as well.

There will be five planets visible in August.  Small Mercury (my ruling planet as a Gemini) can be seen early tomorrow like this:

Venus and Jupiter will be high in the sky, pointing the way toward the crescent moon and Mercury.  Jupiter will be above Venus.  It may have to be dark still to see Mercury, but being closest to the sun, it is rare to be able to see it.

And a Blue Moon month is rare--about 8 times ahead in the next 19 years.

And blogging a lot is rare too.  But in honor of a Blue Moon month, I am going to challenge myself to blog everyday till the last day of August.

It is 8:25 am on a Tuesday.  I have been going since 6:30 am.  It's the new back to school schedule!  I'm tired and my right under-eye has a constant twitch (I Googled it and it means lack of sleep and stress and it has been there for two weeks)...but I'm so happy to be here with my guys.

My Teenager is Alone Driving Right This Second- How will I Ever Relax??!!

My 16 year old son got his driver's license yesterday.  I called the auto insurance agent and he is sending me an email with all my cost options.


Our 14 year old just called from the nearby skate park to say it is raining and asked for a ride home.  I told him I couldn't and Hubs is up to his elbows in a plumbing house project.


But now we have a third driver!  And the law says he cannot have anyone not a family member in the car with him for 6 months but he is now off on his inaugural drive alone.  He practically ran out the door when I asked if he wanted to go pick up his brother.  In my car.


Our 14 year old will be his passenger going to high school together in less than four weeks.  In a small Toyota older truck.  A stick shift.


Anyway, writing this post right this second is a very nice distraction.  Breathe, breathe, hot flash, breathe.


I'm off to cook their favorite--jambalaya.


In the meantime, if you have been through this new driver mom experience, please tell me how you survived or please tell me something to distract me.  Hubs is no help in this dept.


I have to go look down the driveway now.

Visual Proof

June has been a wonderful month and although reaching a milestone birthday is shocking, there are benefits.

Although I have to say that a few weeks before my birthday, on a Friday I walked to the mailbox and found this, which took the wind out of my sails:

What eased the blow is my 50-something oldest brother-in-law and sister-in-law were visiting and shared some stories.

And then, I made a point of picking up one of these at the dollar store to help remind me to take my vitamins every day:

I still forget though on some days.  I have Estroven (multi-vitamin, Vit. D and calcium with citrate).

I also went to have an annual physical--as usual my blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. is very good, but have gained five pounds and I love the doctor--she justs says, that is due to the hormone changes  My birthday gift is supposed to be joining a gym but I have not yet done that.  I am also supposed to get a mammogram and a colonoscopy.  Neither of which I have scheduled.  I know that a colonoscopy every ten years will discover something prior to cancer if something is there to remove, but I am slow to make appts.

Instead I have been at three cities on the beach in Florida,  still in awe over my surprise party and the sister-in-law love, horseback riding in the Little Tennessee River in north Georgia, meeting my 91-year old grandmother at the airport and driving her three hours to North Carolina, enjoying solitude at home while Hubs and sons are in Florida without me, picking and cooking my own vegetables, working, watching the Food Network, and crying during taped episodes of Extreme Makeover Weight Loss shows.

Around here the 4th of July town fireworks are always on the 3rd--not sure why--and it thundered and poured rain at night so no festivities.  Happy Hump Day 4th of July!