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.

oh. my. goodness.

isn't summer great? you and the kids get to sleep till 8 or 8:30. you make a delicious, hot breakfast every morning that the kids devour. you put on bathing suits and hop on over to the pool, where you spend the rest of the day basking in the sun and tossing pennies into the baby pool. you get a great tan, meet up with the other pool moms with nothing to do, and talk about recipes and tennis camps for your children. and that's just the weekdays. weekends are for family trips to educational places where the children sit in their booster seats and play 'i spy' while you have deep and meaningful conversations with your husbands.

i hope you're enjoying it.

because in plueworld, it's a zoo. there's a daddy who works just as hard when kids aren't in the building as he does when they're there. something about scheduling and getting them into the classes they want. pi-shaw. there's a mama who's looking at a possible large change in job status....at the same time she starts graduate school, too. there are two little girls who need swimming lessons in the worst way and are finally getting them this week. the same two little girls are tired and cranky and don't stay in their beds at night, despite the fact that they PROMISED they would if only their parents put the bunk beds back together. there's a freezer full of food but a family not getting to it until close to seven pm, and by then it's almost too late, so children eat nuked chicken nuggets and mama feels guilty later. there is a growing list of people who are due a visit from the plues, but few to none of them will receive it because it cannot be fit in. there's a dog who hasn't been groomed since christmas. there's a project list SOMEWHERE. and dust bunnies EVERYWHERE.

but we stop everything and go to the pool every saturday to feel normal. and this saturday, it'll be even better because g and j will put their faces in the water. big deal around here.

and, soon soon soon, we have a week OFF. a week at my favorite place in the world (http://www.kanuga.org/) --perhaps because i'm not well-travelled, and perhaps because it's just so peaceful and stress-free-- where we will take the time to reconnect with one another, push the pause button on our lives, and remember why it is that we work so hard during all the other times of the year. because we have to, and because we kind of like it.

free at last.

oh yeah...doing the happy dance. it's done. a few months off with no ballet! i'm gearing up to be Best (Rebel) Ballet Parent next year, but for now i'll relish the fact that i survived the year and NOW i just might know what i've gotten myself into.

i have reminded a few old-timer ballet parents that they should have taken me under their wing if i was expected to play by all the rules, but since i was the rogue who made it up as she went along, noone really thought i'd do any better than i did. so--success, all around.

to the mom who thought she was doing me a favor by reminding me that my youngest child's bob was not all the way in a bun, according to regulation: "_________." (insert phrase that i don't want my children to think i say out loud).

to the person out there in computerland who has two girls, sizes five and four, who want to be cotton candy girls with hot pink costumes for halloween this year: call me. let's talk. if i never have to look at these costumes again, it'll be too soon. they are yours.

to the person who invented cheap plastic trophies: you rock because my kids think that their 'i survived year one' trophies are the cat's meow, and getting called on stage to get one is like the best thing ever.

lots of pictures, and i'm even going to try my hand at uploading a video of rehearsal. actually the pictures are from rehearsal too-- no cameras allowed. rules, you know.