so here's the thing.

i just can't quit you, blog. i just can't quit you.

perhaps i should get my facebook time under control. i seem to find time for THAT. if i can facebook, i can eek out a few pictures on here and a little dittie every now and then.

we are alive. we are more than that; we are both employed and fairly certain that in these crappy times, it will not be either of us who loses our job. chips around us are falling, but-- god willing-- we will be okay. never have i have felt so fortunate to be a non-profit employee married to an educator. there's some job security there....

so georgia was moved into a first grade reading group today. i'm very proud and i think she liked it very much. of course, she didn't like it enough that she wanted to tell me about it. i read it in her agenda and had to force her to tell me about it. that sucks all the excitement away from me. but, she did attend a daddy-daughter dance last friday evening and had the best time. she learned the words to 'single ladies' which i find especially awesome for a kindergartner.

juliet turned five last week. being five means no more booster seats at restaurants (this makes her sad), getting your own library card (she loved that!), and having to let the pregnant neighbor borrow your double stroller because your mother is convinced that she will not have any more babies. this caused a meltdown of the largest kind. poor thing. life is rough.

kevin is happily in new york city this week, and i'm here. as luck would have it, his car-- not my car, which is sitting nicely at the airport in charlotte!!-- pretty much broke down this afternoon. i heard a noise, told juliet to look in the sky for a helicopter, but alas it was no helicopter. that became evident when the car started shaking uncontrollably. after i got it home, i smelled something burning and, good friend that i am, had a neighbor come over and drive it around the neighborhood just to prove that i am not a complete moron. as it turns out, i'm not. seems like we have a little issue with the brakes, coming on the heels of having our heat fixed last week at a cost of seven hundred dollars. the timing is impeccable, especially whilst playing single parent for the week.

uh oh. i hear footsteps. never a good sign at eleven pm.

slackin' on pictures

nobody checks this blog anymore, do they? at any rate: here are pictures i'm posting of the pre-season and the actual christmassy stuff. thank you to juliet, who so nicely dropped my ONLY CAMERA on its lens and now it's completely unusable. i appreciate it very much!

the messes i make

are starting to catch up with me. if only i could be more careful.

why is it that i cannot seem to remember which christmas gifts came from santa, versus the ones that i wrapped up and said 'love, momma and daddy?' because i cannot. and my kids are figuring it out already. juliet told me the other day that she didn't love her new mittens, that she was wearing the old gloves instead, and i immediately tried to guilt her by saying that i had picked them out JUSTFORHER in target and she should wear them. she cocked her little head to the side and said: 'didn't santa bring me these?' OOPS.

here's another one. sometime over the last week or so, the 'what did you guys get for christmas?' question came up again from someone, despite the fact that the holidays seem like an eternity ago. they told this person, the dental hygienist i believe, how not only did they get three gifts this year like baby jesus, but that their mother convinced them to leave three of their least favorite toys under the tree for santa to take to kids that have nothing. (so smart i thought i was with this little idea. there wasn't a whole lot of follow-through in my thinking, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time. that is, until juliet emerged with three toys that i wish she'd kept and georgia emerged with three of JULIET'S toys and permission from juliet to get rid of them!). after we left the dentist's office, georgia asked me how bad kids had to be in order to just get the used toys we left. GOOD THINKING, MOMMA.

today i meant to send a very smart-ass reply email to one person and i hit 'reply all' by mistake. OOPS.

i agreed to teach sunday school for the entire month of january, knowing full well that my four year old knows plenty more bible stories than do i. this is evident in each lesson i attempt to teach. SMART MOVE.


all i do is create messes.

it was bound to happen...

...that keeping up a blog would be more trouble than it seems to be worth. i think i'm shutting it down for a while. my job, my family, and my unfinished projects (not to mention my wii fit!) are going to keep me from sitting in front of this computer trying to think of something brilliant to say.

i'm posting pictures on facebook and will post them here from time to time. i have a broken camera (thank you, juliet....)and so that is prohibiting me from doing much in the way of pictures right now.

happy new year (can i still say that??) to all!!

mamas like me.

okay. this is for all the other nagging mamas i know. this is hilarious.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhuAtyFCrw



(why i can't figure out how to post videos, i do not know...but copy and paste the link!)

we now interrupt your facebook time to bring you this important message.

i have got to get my obsession with facebook under control. is there a facebook anonymous yet? because i seem to be completely compelled to find every single person from my past and present. i look at their pictures, their families, their lives-- and i'm just addicted to knowing how they are.

i love that there are people who at one time or another were very, very dear to me......and that time and distance and perhaps a minor squabble or two drew us apart over the years. but my friend facebook has put us back together again, and i love that.

i love that the first boy who really and truly broke my heart, and who i swore (as well he did, i'm sure) that we'd never lay eyes on each other again........i love that he is my facebook friend. i love that he gets to see that i turned out way better than he anticipated i would, which is probably why he dumped me to date one of my best friends in college. i love that i get to create closure never possible in the 90s, because as a rejected reject back in the day-- i had a million things to say to him that were never said. and now, i don't need to. score one for me.

i love that there are people from high school and even junior high who were absolutely the coolest people in the(ir) world, and that they have had their shares of struggles and strife and --gasp!!-- acne like the rest of us have had. their kids aren't as perfect as we all assumed they'd be. and they, amazingly, aren't the style icons they were back in the day, either. there are people who weren't really my real-life friends twenty years ago who have become facebook friends through commonalities. the playing field is even now. i don't know why i love that, but i do. maybe being the dorkus of millbrook high school worked in my favor.

i love that there is a group of people who have reconnected on facebook....a group of people who found acceptance and peace and self-worth, and who learned to live on their own without mom and dad at a special place during the summers when they were in high school and college. there were deep friendships formed between people who had otherwise nothing in common with one another except that their parents all 'suggested' that they come to this place for the summer to work. perhaps every bad thing they ever did was learned at this place, but many, many good life lessons were learned there too. fifteen years later, there are close to a hundred of us who have found each other again on facebook. i love that. we are all okay, except for one or two who are in a better place.

i love that i can upload a picture directly from my cell phone to my facebook. idiot-proof.

i love that 'friend' is a verb widely recognized by people.

i love that my husband and i can fight through facebook and never speak of it in person. i love that we challenge each other to brainy games through facebook so that we can keep our healthy spirit of competition for bragging rights going.

i love that, as a person who typically detests the idea of IM, people pop in to my world at all times of the day and night (for facebook is my homepage now!) just to say hello.

i love that i can share my mood by posting something witty on my status. i had dozens of people looking for my (stupid) dog last week, and it touched me beyond words.

so i'm thinking that i love facebook just a little too much. it really shouldn't count as one's main hobby, but in the plue house it does.

so friend me. http://www.facebook.com/

not a word about today's election from me.

because, at this point, i almost (almost...) don't. care. anymore.

so let's talk about the really important things.

like how cute are my kids on halloween? how much did i spend on costumes, you ask? NOTHING! we borrowed costumes this year. how fantabulous an idea that was. everyone should pick friends with same-sex children born a year or two ahead of them. it really pays off sometimes.

juliet got called pocahontas a lot, and georgia was called the sheriff a few times, but really they were just the cowgirl and the indian.











in other news: fleas. can we talk about fleas? i have had dogs up in my house for many a year now. not once-- not ONCE!-- have i seen a flea. well, i'm infested with them now. this new dog of ours scratches all day, every day, and it's driving me nuts. whose idea was it to get a new dog? first, worms. now fleas. i feel dirty and gross and itchy just thinking about it.

but, look how cute these little dogs are. guess that makes those nasty fleas all worth it. delilah is a NEW DOG since getting a brother. she's not nearly as skittish and jumpy and terrified of the world as she was before. she's even been seen RUNNING around the yard in an almost-playful fashion.




kevin and i actually got to go out the other night alone, meaning that for the small price of a babysitter (which is no joke anymore!), we got to put on our fanciest clothes (you'll see from the picture that there is clearly work to be done on this area....) and go to a grown-ups-only, no value meal kind of dinner. here's a picture of us from the gala, as we high society people like to call it:




and, last but not least, here are pictures from my office fall festival, where we host a few dozen of our area group home residents for an afternoon of, well, fall festival-ing.









and jake of course.





georgia has lost tooth number two, and the tooth fairy actually remembered to come this time. said tooth fairy scored MAJOR points by figuring out a way to affix pixie dust onto a dollar bill. now i suppose that the tooth fairy will have to keep this plan up for many years to come.


georgia transferred over to her kindergarten after-school program, and she's much happier. perhaps a reason for her irritability over her two-week school break was the fact that she was hanging out with three and four year olds all day long. i remember well what that feels like, and we moved her on up to the after-school program at benton heights.


juliet learned to whistle and almost all-the-way tie her shoelaces. big stuff now. she's reading, too. kevin and i have to be really careful what we spell in front of the kids now......they both are halfway to figuring us out.

it's nine pm.

and, like a good mid-30s parent-- i'm totally ready for bed. kids are down, my husband has Assumed the Position (sprawled out on bed, laptop keys clicking away, and pardon the interruption on in the background), and i've got two furry beasts at my feet just waiting for someone to love on them. i'm resisting-- quite well!!-- the urge to catch up on worky stuff tonight. because there is a blog which needs updating badly and by golly, i don't really have time to do this stuff while i'm (supposed to be) working any more!

school's out for two weeks. that means that poor little georgia plue is forced to return to daycare. it's killing her and most likely, the other children in her class aren't too thrilled with her day-long return, either. there's somethin' about this little kindergarten attitude i don't quite like. no matter how hard i've tried to squelch this thing, my adoring and loving and easy-to-please child has become So Blasted Dramatic. And Grouchy. i don't like it; not one little bit. her hands are permanently made into fists, and she has a scowl. and, i have to say, she's a tad bit resistant to constructive criticism on adjusting said attitude. what's up with that? have i reached the end of the road with my ability to completely manipulate everything my children think? *sigh*

but soon enough, kindergarten will be back in session. and all will be right with the world, unless someone interrupts georgia (a big no-no) or, heaven forbid, someone perhaps puts food on her plate that touches something else.

the beauty of having georgia become increasingly difficult to manage (read: manipulate) is that her (much wiser) little sister is eating it up. she takes every opportunity to kiss up, brown nose, and generally try to be the It Child for the duration of the dramatic episode. this generally works in her favor and the smaller episodes juliet has always been prone to have are quickly disappearing.

no pictures tonight, you say? why no. my picture-taking habits have completely slacked off this fall, for anyone who is expecting a house of plues calendar this year for christmas. the pickins are slim! i'll get better soon. there's pumpkin patch opportunities coming quickly!

and, with that, i'm off to join the husband.

happy birthday, georgia plue!

my first baby girl turned six on tuesday, and this is an off-birthday-party year. georgia got a brand-new bike since she's outgrown the old one. juliet bought her a barbie with a convertible and they have really gotten into the whole barbie-pretend thing. she asked for a lamp for her bed so she could read at night after juliet fell asleep. and, the birthday fairy that my children still believes comes to visit on the night of their birthday brought her something her own mama would never approve of: glittery nail polish. if she was doubting before, she's a believer now!

oh yeah!

i forgot. in case we didn't have enough on the old plate, we have a new addition.

meet samson.

did you miss me?

i'm around. i spent a large amount of time today in uploading pictures from the camera, because they have been held captive inside it for quite a while...

we have adjusted well to the new routine. kevin is going in to work later than he did last year, which means the new EARLY morning routine is a little more bearable. georgia loves her some kindergarten and hasn't had any trouble adjusting to the new schedule. juliet has gotten over the disappointment at being separated (for the first time ever) from her big sister, and is already counting down to her own school experience next fall.


the school year started for kevin too, as of last week. i'm ever-so-slowly trying to come out of my work funk and get excited about the changes i'm capable of making at the arc. so all is well.

at oak island for a full 36 hours ....


















jules and delilah, my 'special' dog


in chocowinity visiting the grandparents


celebrating georgia's birthday just a little bit early, with uncle jake

toofless wonder

could i possibly have another reason to get emotional this week?

and, by the way, picture day is TOMORROW. perfect timing!

kindergarten: take two

not so bad after all! again, minimal tears from me and there was more than a hint of "would you please leave now" from my child.



the teacher is mrs. brown. we know we are going to love her. the first day went very well and georgia came home with a superstar stamp as well as a story of The Difficult Child in the classroom. that's my girl: the tattletale. she clearly gets it honest!



pictures follow. i will say that today seemed to be more difficult. juliet and i took her in this morning, and the routine was different because french toast sticks were on the menu for breakfast and she wasn't about to let that go! but waiting in a cafeteria line for the first time proved to be nerve-wracking for all of us. we found a teacher who assured her that she'd be escorted to class, and we were all set. juliet pouted the whole way home because she wasn't offerend any french toast sticks. win some, lose some!

kindergarten 1.0

...because this is only the teaser day. kindergarten kids get brought in for one day out of the first week of school and then are forced to go back to their old routines for the rest of the week. so today was georgia's day. she was ready to go, uniformed up, and excited beyond belief despite the crying kid who was pried from his mother's clutches and ran screaming from the poor teacher assistant like some kind of wildebeast. i shed a couple of tears but it was less painful than i thought. i was way more sad sitting at work wondering what she was doing at different moments in the day. perhaps i should be upset that her bus ride back to daycare was two hours long, but it was a good opportunity for a nap! georgia was simply too tired this evening to tell us all about her day. we coerced a few small snippets from her in the end, but we really know nothing except about the kid who screamed (all day long) and the boy with the bleedynose on the school bus. oh, and that she should have chosen taco salad for lunch and not the chicken sandwich.

next monday will be the real test. this one was easy to pass. here are a couple of pictures. little bit was most out of sorts this morning, having to arrive at daycare much earlier than usual and not getting to hang with the big sister until the end of the day!





daycare graduation





first day. first dawn. too early for this!!!

it's tomorrow.

and we are super-excited, and slightly weepy. okay- georgia is super-excited. i'm slightly weepy.

today was daycare graduation at the baptist church. at the risk of offending all of my eight readers: i was totally out of my element and hope it wasn't obvious to those sitting near us. it was a wonderful morning though, and there was a slideshow of the daycare kids who were moving on to kindergarten plus a little awards ceremony. very sweet. will download pictures tomorrow from work. the minute the first song was sung -- a peppy little number, so NOT what we are used to in our church!!-- juliet whispers to me: this is WAY more fun than our church. i whispered back: church is not supposed to be fun. it's church. then i felt a little guilty as i clapped and sang loudly and more off-key than usual to the rest of the song.

then we went to lunch to celebrate this milestone, to a friend's pool so that mama could have an excuse NOT to be home doing laundry, and now it's time to settle in.

my big girl. sniff, sniff.

t minus eight days (i think...)

until i have a kid in school. real school, not daycare. kindergarten awaits us! we have had so many changes lately-- not a surprise to anyone who knows us!-- and have had to evaluate the WHERE in kindergarten placement. we solved the WHEN problem last year and decided to keep georgia in daycare one more year due to her early september birthday. i think it was a smart move and we initially decided to put georgia at the elementary school where kevin was the principal last year (before moving up to the middle school). it's a longer drive than her home school but kevin felt strongly about it, and it was done.

then, this new job thingy has happened and i feel a bit isolated in the support system i have with the kids, outside of kevin of course-- whose school is twenty minutes from here and it isn't always easy to break away!! long story short, we made a quick decision over the weekend to send georgia (and then, juliet) to the elementary school here in town. it will make my life easier, and we all know it's usually all about me anyway. :) since she has to be in an after-school program anyway, the school bus can drop her off at the daycare where juliet is, and then i'll have them both at the same place every afternoon. that's a huge relief.

the problem is: it's a year-round school, which means that it starts next week! i have so many things to get ready. uniforms, for one. i'm loving that this school has a strict dress code. backpack, school supply lists.

it's going to be a busy week. the tears-- they are a-comin'!!! soon!

you can go home again!

we're back! we just had the best week ever. the timing was perfect: i accepted a new position at work and then immediately took off on vacation with no access to cell phone at all!

kanuga is such a wonderful place. there are beach people and then there are mountain people, and i just think i am a mountain person. it's cooler, prettier scenery, and where we were (hendersonville, nc) was a family's ideal vacation spot. no cooking. no cleaning or chores whatsoever. six hours of uninterrupted, quality children's programs each day. no tv (and when you have a dvr at home, you REALLY don't miss anything!!), no alarm clocks, no telephones. a beautiful waterfront that doesn't make you feel like you are swimming in a lake. meeting other families from all over the country and by the end of the week, you've made lifetime friends. at this place, you can really get away and feel gone.

there is not much else to say! i have a bajillion pictures and they are on my facebook too, but here are a few to enjoy.