Smidgeon

Well, it's been quite a busy couple of months as you may have noticed from dearth of posts. While I'm sure you don't want all the assorted and sundry and ummm...mundane details of what's been going on in my life (I'll spare you the medical issues/procedures, job drama, etc.) I thought I might share just a few tidbits with you.

April 11th - a new family moved into the hood. Specifically, into the second fern down on my front porch. And then another mama came by and made a deposit.

April 13th - first poison ivy pox of the season. On my chinny chin chin. Followed by a week of round-the-clock Benedryl.

April 28th - on our daily walkies with Lu Dog in the lovely spring weather, we got to know one of our wonderful neighbors, Ms. Gisele. She has the most amazing garden and spends hours and hours every day working on it.
And then she sends plants home for our yard. And I mostly promptly kill them. The boys are smitten with her and always take her all kinds of treasures to show her. She is equally smitten with them.

April 30th - Second snake of the season. A black rat snake.

Sometime later - Third snake of the season. Another worm snake. And look who's all brave holding it!!

May 1+ - Alan and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary in Charleston, SC again. LOVE that place. We stayed here, and it was so garden-y and charming and historical. My picture taking self was in hog heaven. And, I got this great little dress in the Market area. Well, I thought it was great until this lady on a tour with us asked me if I was pregnant while I was wearing it.

We did lots of tours this time: the haunted jail tour, the Civil War Walking Tour, the Gullah tour, a carriage ride tour, and a harbor cruise. And we even made time to fit in a little smoochin'. It being our anniversary and all.

May 3rd - The first baby birds were born.

May 10th - For the first time in the ten years we've lived in this house, we saw a wild turkey in the backyard. Actually, that week, we saw 4-5 wild turkeys in the horse pasture beside our house. And I'm not even referring to Matthew or Michael or Alan.
May 13th - My baby birds are growing. Out of all those eggs, there only seemed to be two babies that hatched.

May 15th - My bestie Amy and I hosted a shower for our other bestie Andrea at our favorite restaurant. Andrea looked fabulous - so tiny! - and she got so many charming gifts. Great girlie gab time. Such sweet memories as we shared in her excitement of this first little one for Isaac and her.

May 18th - My sweet Matthew turned eight. EIGHT STINKIN' YEARS OLD! How did this happen??? How is he that old already??

May 22nd - We celebrated Matthew's birthday at Tweetsie Railroad this year with two of his best friends, Natalie and Ryan. Matthew chose to celebrate his birthday this way this year rather than having a birthday party. And Natalie's mom (who is a new good friend of mine!) and her younger brother (who is Michael's age) came with us, which made the trip even more fun.

May 23rd - Michael had his last preschool program at Pine Grove. Our family had it's last preschool program EVER. E*V*E*R!!!! So hard to believe. The past five years of preschool for the munchkins have just flown. I lllooovveee "Pine Grove Weekday School" and will miss having that school be such an integral part of our lives. We've really been blessed. May 27th - Michael officially graduated from preschool. Alan and I put together the annual slideshow of preschool daily life and events that was shown that night. All year long, I've been going to school events and taking pictures. Which means, after editing and whittling them down, I had about 25 pictures for each of 10+ events. And then, the week of graduation, I got handed approximately (not exaggerating here) about 1200 pictures to go through and pick from and add to the show. All while trying to keep the show to no more than ten minutes. Maybe you didn't catch that...1200+ pictures to go through. IN ONE WEEK. Whew! It was a tiring and stressful week, but Alan (he did the music) and I were really pleased with the results.

May 28th - We left for a long weekend to the Outer Banks. Soooo much fun - especially since it was our first camping trip of the season and Lucy's first camping trip ever. She was Awesome Dog - camping with her was much easier than anticipated, and as it turns out, she is quite the snuggler at night. I dragged the boys around to all these lighthouses, when it turns out all they wanted to do was dig in the sand on the beach. Clearly, my wildlife felt harrassed.

Again, it was picture-taking heaven. I had such a great trying out a new lens and practicing different techniques. I know I will always have much to learn about photography, but finding time to just get out and practice is not as easy as it sounds. The bonus of time this weekend was so refreshing.

June 3rd - Michael and I volunteered at Matthew's school for the World's Most Hottest Field Day Ever. Oh my word. I am so not a hot weather girl. And somehow, I ended up on the blacktop heading up the Basketball Relay while Matthew's friend Natalie's mom got to hand out Chilly Willy's under a tent. No worries - I just wiped my sweaty head on her shirt.

June 9th - After 3-4 weeks of a rapid decline in health and multiple vet visits, I took my precious kitty Su to the vet to be put to sleep. I'm sure that this was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The three weeks preceding this final vet visit were soooo stressful as we tried different things to get her to live a normal life, but it just wasn't happening.

I got my little Susie girl in August 1997 right after Alan and I started dating. I tell him that I loved her before I loved him (mostly I told him that when he would complain - COMPLAIN - about being allergic to her). The day that I had to do it, Alan ended up taking off of work, which was such a blessing. I was just devasted. Since then, I've been better, but still sad. And looking at her pictures still makes me cry. Gracious. I'm crying right now. She was truly my little Queen of the Kitties.

June 10th - Matthew's last day of school and my last day of work for the summer. We made it! We celebrated with Natalie and her mom and brother by getting some yummo ice cream and going to the park. Matthew finished the year with a glowing report card. So proud of my little man - he has grown in amazing ways this year.

June 13th - I got to spend some time with my girl Melissa in Statesville. In theory we met to catch up and take pictures again, but in reality, after braving some amazing thunderstorms to get there, we just spent some time with our coffee before doing a little swimsuit shopping. Note to self: Statesville does not believe in selling swimsuits. In any store. Must be a town of skinny dippers.

June 14th - My fabric obsession seems to be emerging and growing. Remember this awesome fabric for my dining chairs?? Well, I went back to get more for drapes for the dining room (is this room ever going to get finished???), and saw the above fabric and had to have some (btw, it look much better in person than in this picture). For pillows, yes? For the living room? I mean, for when I re-do the living room, silly. Because clearly this fabric above doesn't match now. Y'all, I am a crazy fabric fool. A FOOL!

June 16th - Our pool days take off in earnest as we have swim lessons this week. The boys are getting to be good swimmers. Matthew already swims way better than his mother, although that isn't saying much. Joining the pool is an expensive treat for our summer, but it's worth every penny to see how much stronger my little swimmers have become.

June 17th - Well, this fabric has truly revolutionized my life. In maybe not the best way, budget-wise. This is the week that I spent taking down the kitchen wallpaper, sanding, spackling, more sanding, and finally painting this awesome color from Home Depot's new Martha Stewart colors: "Artesian Well". I lllove it. However, I did not use the MS paint. Instead, I tried the new Behr Paint and Primer in One from H.D. And this paint my friends? Is the only paint I will ever use again. It truly is LIFE CHANGING as my adorable neighbor put it. Of course, now my kitchen doesn't match my dining room, so the dining room is undergoing a de-wallpaper, de-popcorn ceiling transformation of its own over this past week and into the upcoming week. Perhaps I'm now experiencing paint fume brain issues.

June 17th (again) - The boys and I visited the "Mostly Local Market" in Lewisville. Another new love!!! Lots of local produce and meats and breads and CAKE POPS. Yummo. Feels so summery to go visit and purchase there, but it is actually a year-round shop. We'll so keep going back.

June 18th - Sweet dinner with my bestie Amy girl and a visit to our favorite shoppe. And some sweet kitty cuddles time with her babies...I bribed them with kitty treats. Amy is doing an OB/GYN rotation this month for P.A. school. I am counting on her to deliver Andrea's baby if I'm not there to catch him. Not so sure Andrea is counting on that.
June 19th - Speaking of which (or is it "whom"???), I went to visit Andrea and Isaac in Raleigh the next day. Precious, precious couple!! I was so hoping that I could coax/rub/push Little Julio out, but no such luck. I even offered him some of my wonderful french toast from this awesome cafe. Instead, I just had to eat the whole dish myself. Andrea and I got our toes done and had some nice relax, catch-up time. Y'all, the girl is still so little. How does she do this?? At that time, she only had about two weeks left. Julio's just a little basketball under that cute maternity top.

June 26th - And then all the Crazy Busy culminated today with Michael's Pirate birthday party. I tried to make it pretty low key, so we ended up having a scavenger hunt of sorts at our home and then chilled with some ice cream and cake and lemonade. Michael's friends were so generous in their gift giving. And the cool creek water in the backyard was all the little guests needed to be entertained, which is fortunate since did I mention that I DO NOT DEAL WELL WITH HEAT???

It's been a crazy, wild spring, but a good one for the most part. Not sure I will ever let my life calm down. I always seem to find something new to put on my agenda.

BUT, that said, please stay tuned for bloggage [cue fingers raised in scout oath position]:

On my honor, I will do my best

To do my duty to my blog and loyal blog readers and to obey the Blogspot Law;

To entertain other people at all times;

To keep myself relatively punctual, brutally honest, and unfailingly verbose.