Night-night-I-love-you-bye-bye

My girls spend every other weekend at their dad's house and have done this for about 6 years now. Every night that they are at my house, he calls to talk to them. Every night they're at his house, I call to talk to them. And for several years, every phone call I had with my eldest ended not just with "bye bye," but with "Night-night-I-love-you-bye-bye!" She would rattle it off as if it were one huge word sometimes.

Well a little less than a year into this schedule of the girls spending weekends at their dad's, I happened to take a trip. The girls were spending the couple days I was gone with some close friends. It was a treat for them, while I was getting to have a fun weekend myself. Nothing like a sleepover with your bestest friends.

Anyway, I had gone to Las Vegas (no, not into gambling) to see Greg Page in concert. (Not familiar with him? Check out the linkie on the side.) He was the original Yellow Wiggle, but was doing some solo singing with the TCB Band for two nights in Vegas. I went out to see the shows and for the chance to meet him. If you've read much of my blog you've already gotten some glimpses of that weekend, and doubtless more will come at one time or another.

Anyway, one morning...the morning of the evening of his first show (sorry, I can't word that any simpler!)...my friends and I saw him. Ok, yes we were trying to see him, but that's beside the point, ha ha.

I asked him if he'd mind saying hello to my oldest who was then only four and a BIG Wiggles fan. And he was her favorite...wearing her favorite color and...well...he rocks. Anyway, he was very gracious and said he would. So I called her up and got her on the phone and Greg took the phone and had a little conversation.

Now understand, Megan was a great conversationalist from the time she was tiny, but like many children she was VERY difficult to understand on the phone...especially with someone who is unfamiliar with her. But he hung in there and did his best to understand and talk to her for a few minutes.

Finally after he said goodbye to her and hung up the phone, he started laughing as he handed the phone back to me. He hadn't been able to understand much of what she said, but her "closing" was quite clear. He laughed and said, "She said, 'night-night-I-love-you-bye-bye!'"...which was funny at 9 in the morning.

Frogs Freak Me Out!

Ok, so we weathered the tropical storm the night before last. Apparently a small critter took refuge in our garage...and who can blame him? That's a lot of rain...even if you ARE an amphibian.
This photo was taken out in the garage. The clothes you see at the sides of the photo are on the rack where I hang my laundry when I pull it out of the dryer. In the background you see the drawers of my dresser stacked (I'm storing it in the garage until I can sell it...I think). But look at that nasty creature perched on the drawer's edge!

I couldn't live with the thought of it touching me...or worse yet, hiding out in my garage for a sneak attack. So I went to the kitchen and got a grocery bag...plastic. My girls were asleep and I didn't want them to wake up to my screams, so I was trying to remain calm.

Not easy.

I walked out to the garage with the bag puffed open, opening down and I slowly lowered it somewhat over the frog. As I predicted the frog hopped into the bag...at which point I DROPPED the bag.

Try not to focus on the fact that I dropped the bag, but focus on my success at NOT screaming!

The frog was still inside the bag so I reached down, scared silly, and closed the bag and lifted it. So far, so good. (And I'm being generous with the term "good" here.) I carried it into the house, across the living room to the front door, opened the door, (all the while the frog is jumping every which way inside the bag...guess it was freaked, too)... and I managed to get the bag opened AWAY FROM ME and after a bit of shaking (the bag, NOT me, lol)...I got the frog out.

I am SO glad I saw the frog before it jumped on me. The screams would have been heard round the world.

Tropical Storms, Mornings, and Kindergarteners

Tropical Storm Fay amounted to little more than a day off school and a thorough watering of every lawn in Florida. I'm glad; don't get me wrong. I don't enjoy hurricanes. NO ONE wants to watch the weather report THAT many times. Sheesh. I hadn't watched the weather in a few years and last night I watched it so many times I lost count.

And did I mention the interruption to my sleep? Ask my children if I like to be woke up before it's officially morning. Ask my mom and siblings if I've EVER liked to be woke up before it's officially morning.

Nevermind. Don't ask them. I'll just tell you. I do NOT like to be woke up before it's officially morning. Which, contrary to popular opinion is not before 9:30...and I'm being generous. 10:00 or 11:00 is even better.

But for the sake of safety I kept setting my alarm, sleeping, hearing the alarm and thinking "It CAN'T be morning...oh wait, it's the storm...go check the news." Then back to bed and ... lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.

In the end, for us, it amounted to lots and lots of rain but little wind. Trees kept their limbs and everything. And I'm glad for that...and the straight 5 hours I got between 5:30am and 10:30am. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...finally. :)

So thank you, Fay, for not gathering your strength and your speed and wiping us out. We're all very thankful.

More appropriately, thank you, God, for watching over us and sparing us the destruction that nature far too often visits upon people all over this world.

*I don't mean to make light. So for those of you who may read this and have gone through serious hurricane damage, please...don't be offended. I know it can be very serious. I weathered Hurricane Charlie in a bathtub under a mattress a few years ago and quite fortunately my condo was untouched. Many people lost their homes...or at minimum their roofs, and I don't take that lightly at all.

And now, I'm off to seek some sleep. Tomorrow will be the second first day of kindergarten this year. The first one was really exhausting. I'm thinking the second first one will not be much more merciful. On the lighter side of that, I DID hear one of my new students talking about "back in the day" in reference to her preschool class, lol. It's gonna be a good one!

Hurricane anyone?

Tonight I'll keep it short and sweet. Well, short anyway.

We have the glorious Tropical-Storm-Wanna-Be-A-Hurricane Fay heading our way tonight...somewhere around 2am. My girls are spending the night at their dad's because he lives further inland.

I survived the first day of kindergarten this morning and it's the best "first day" I've had in years. I'm encouraged that maybe I can actually handle it this year. YAY! My last few years, for anyone who hasn't heard, have been ... what's the word?.....CHALLENGING. Yes that's it, they were challenging.

This year already feels different. I'm encouraged.

And that's all for this evening from Hurricane Alley.....

Well, what would YOU have done?

About four and a half years ago, I took a little trip to Chicago. And boy was it an adventure! Of course it was...because I was with Kristen again. Somehow she and I don't have "normal" trips. They're always adventures with the oddest things happening and we always laugh ourselves silly. And this was no different.

I'll save some of our mischief for another day because there are photos to find before I share it. Some of you will remember it, but for some it will be new so I'll tell the tale another day.

But for today I want to focus on the whole reason I was in Chicago. Kristen's 3rd of 4 daughters was being baptised in this big Catholic church there. Now I'm not Catholic and other than a wedding or two haven't been to a Catholic church so it was a new experience for me. The baptism was on a Sunday afternoon when there was no one in the church except for a few groups of people there for their babies' baptisms.

I basically knew no one but Kristen and her hubby before going that weekend, though I'd met a few of the others that morning. Our group waited and eventually they called for Kristen's daughter's baptism and the group went forward to stand up for the baptism. I wasn't an "official" member of the party so I was standing on the fringe. So when the baby began crying, Kristen finally gave the signal for me to go grab a bottle for her. So I quietly headed back to the rows where the diaper bag and all our coats, etc., were sitting. It was several rows over.

A couple things to note here. The church was huge. The floors were hard wood (except maybe up the aisles??) And the place was more or less empty of people. All that set us up for some LOVELY acoustics. Translation: You'd better be quiet or EVERYONE will hear and there will be a TREMENDOUS echo.

So I quietly head toward the diaper bag and the coveted baby bottle. I make it over most inconspicuously. But then as I went to pick up the bottle, I'm not sure what happened but it fell with a LOUD *THUMP*. Now,what would YOU have done? Hmmm...? I suppose most normal folk would have thrown an apologetic look toward the folks over at the baptism (because, after all, they're ALL looking at you with the racket you just caused.)

But what did I do? I'll tell you what I did: I HIT THE DECK! I didn't want everyone to see me. lol I was too embarrassed. Of course, then I had the predicament of deciding what to do now that I was down on the floor. Do I just...stand up? Didn't sound too smart. Of course, dropping to the floor wasn't a stroke of genius. Do I look for an exit? That wouldn't do much good. After all, Kristen is waiting for the bottle with a very unhappy baby. So I did the only thing I could do. I stayed low and snuck to the back of the church until I thought everyone would have returned their attention to the priest and I QUIETLY stood up and quickly made my way back to the group, delivering the bottle.

Of course, everyone in our group KNEW it had been me...as I could tell by the smiles of some who saw me returning up the aisle. But apparently I'd kept the priest guessing. Later, Kristen told me that when they all heard the loud *THUMP*, they all turned to look, and seeing nothing, the priest said something like, "Guess we've got a ghost today." hee hee hee...errrr, I mean, "BOO."

Funny little kid comment...

Today the girls each chose an item we found at a jewelry clearance sale. Alli chose a set of bangles and Meg chose a pair of clip-on earrings.

We left the store and were all riding along quietly, a lull in conversation, when suddenly Megan exclaimed, "FIRST of all, these things hurt like the DICKENS!" Just...out of the blue. ROFL! It was SO funny. (You might have had to have been there, but I laughed like a hyena.)

I love that girl. She cracks me up!

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

Gotta join in on the Friday Foto Finish Fiesta. And my submission this week is (OBVIOUSLY) the photo to the left. It is about four-and-a-half years ago. Meg was in Kindergarten and she's starting 5th grade this Monday. Unbelievable. And that would make Alli about three.

I've always loved this picture and had never stopped to think of why. When I chose it this evening, I thought about it...and I guess one reason would be that it's just that it looks so cute to see two tiny sisters just ... ya know...hangin' out...havin' a yogurt drink...chillin' in their ultra-cool helmets. It's like their in their own little world. And another reason is just because they're mine. :D