Wet and wild weekend

This weekend we were blessed with a visit from My sister and her family.  Everyone was super excited and there was much squealing and lots of hugs and kisses.  It did however continue to rain, and rain, and rain.  That did not stop the kids.  Rain or shine they were determined to play outside.  They played outside multiple times through heavy down pours and light mist.  Mud pies were made,  holes were dug and we even caught a toad in the back yard!  The kids were thrilled to have discovered out first official critter here in South Carolina.  They continued to have a blast up until I had done the 3rd load of wet laundry, at which time I called it quits. Despite constant begging and pleading to go out, they managed to find things, which were dry, to do.

Sunday morning we woke to Nintendo DS songs and the TV on cartoons but, no rain.  It was beautiful.  The sky was blue and there were only a few clouds in the sky.  We also had this little guy who apparently hid in between the screen door and the sliding door to escape the wet weather.

Sunday afternoon we ventured out into the now dry, ok less wet.  We made a stop at 2 parks here in the Lexington area.  They were a blast for the kids and the grown ups.   We went on several short hikes.  On one such hike we ran across this little guy, a King snake.  It was quite a site, thank goodness they are not poisonous!

The most interesting (ok most annoying) discovery we made this weekend  was the  yellow coating on everything.  Everywhere we looked we saw yellow covering cars, sidewalks, mailboxes, if it was a surface outside it was coated.  When our neighbors sprinklers went off and a yellow stream poured down the gutter we began to really wonder.  It was so yellow it almost appeared as paint.  

It wasn't long before we discovered the source of this yellow powder.  It's pollen. Definitely didn't have this in El Paso.  Today it was dry and they aren't forecasting rain until, well, tomorrow.....maybe we should get the boat out of storage.

Hello!

Here is a picture of the kids at Lake Murry.  We went out last weekend exploring our new city.  This was one of our stops for stretching our legs, taking a walk and of course skipping stones.

April showers...

It has been raining here since Wednesday.  Nothing new to those of you who were raised in the Midwest.  It's spring after all.  Well, it is new to my kids for sure.  The first two days of rain the kids were so excited to see the rain.  It is understandable considering we hadn't had rain in over 10 weeks in El Paso when we left.  The kids played in the rain, they danced in the rain, they rode their bikes in the rain.  Nothing was going to stop them from playing outside.  Even Ginger is perplexed by the rain as she keeps looking up to see where it is coming from.  (I wonder if dogs can drowned that way?)  I am sure the neighbors thought we were nuts.  We were indeed the only people on the street to be seen.  This morning the rainy weather was apparently getting old as Mark enquired, "Is it still raining?"  When I told him it was raining and it was forecasted to rain until Sunday Emma jumped in and asked, "Why is it raining so much?" 

"Well Emma it is spring and it rains so things will grow." I responded.

"Momma, will it ever stop?"  she asked 

"Yes, it will stop and then all of the flowers, grass and trees will start growing.  Have you ever heard the saying April showers Bring May flowers'?  Well this is the April showers they are talking about." I answered.

"OH. That's what that means!"  she said as if someone had just turned on a light bulb.  Then she continued "But, it's not April mom."

  

Ginger has a death wish

Ginger, Ginger, Ginger.  Where to begin.  Hmm.  Ginger has an inferiority complex.  She loves to challenge other dogs, especially those who are smaller.  She likes to be the boss.  We have struggled with her from the beginning.  At least most of the time she acknowledges us as the Alpha dogs or pack leaders.  Since the move Ginger has begun to go a little Power crazy.  The first day here she not only figured out how to open the gate and escape but, she attacked  our new neighbors much smaller dog.  Nothing says welcome to the neighborhood quite like your neighbor telling you your dog attacked theirs while you were out.  Not only were we embarrassed but we felt extremely guilty.  Ginger has since then become infamous in our new town. To give you an example just today while taking Emma into her first day of school a new classmate came up to Emma and said, "I know you.  You have a big dog that attacked my friends dog."  Boy was Emma ever surprised.  Not to mention Emma's mom.  Then yesterday the kids and I decided to go for a short bike ride.  We thought it would be a good idea to take Ginger with us.  Not only is she power crazy but she also has A LOT of energy.  While running your dog is not recommended for all dogs, in Ginger's case it is almost a necessity.  It wasn't the most fun I have ever had.  Not only did I have 3 kids on bikes, in a subdivision that has no sidewalks, but I also had a dog.  Every time Ginger saw another dog she decided to try to take off after it.  Never fear I was smart enough to stop everyone and wait until the dog left or was lead away before starting back on our way.  At one corner I was not so lucky.  Ginger pulled me off of the bike and started to drag me across the street before I was able to get the leash released from my wrist.  Now I had Ginger trying to dominate this little Yorkie in the middle of the street while Emma is crying off to the side and the poor woman, who's Yorkie Ginger was trying to eat, screaming at her dog.  After pulling Ginger off and making it home I was pissed!    I was so ready to kill her or at least give her to the pound.  But none of that compares with what happened today.  Today, I had finally decided to block the sweater I finished on the trip here.  The kids were at school.  John was at work.  It was perfect.  I vacuumed the rug. I laid out the sweater and after measuring and remeasuring, pinned the sweater to the rug to keep it in shape while it dried.  My first clue should have been that Ginger was very interested in what I was doing.  But NO! I am clueless.  I blocked off the area where the sweater was so no one would be able to disturb my  master piece as it was drying.  It stayed perfectly blocked for about 8 hours before I heard Ginger wrestling with something.  You guessed it my sweater!!  Pins were everywhere.  The sweater was covered in dog hair.   And Ginger sat there with my newly finished sweater hanging from her mouth.  I consider myself pretty forgiving, but she had just reached my tolerance level.  Out she went.  I didn't even feel guilty that it was raining.  No one but no one messes with my knitting.  Now I have a slightly damp wool sweater which already smelled like wet sheep, but now also smells like wet dog and is covered in dog hair.  I am not a happy person.

The adventures of Drama Princess.

We are finally settling into things here. We have been to the grocery, Target, and Wal-mart. We have registered for school (aways a scary moment for mommy). We are even making some new friends. The street here is full of kids, mostly girls. We do however have a creek just down the street which is all the kids seam to care about these days. "Mom, can we play in the creek?" seams to be the morning battle cry. Well, right after the "I'm hungry!" whine. The boys have been enjoying damming up the creek, making a bridge over the creek and clearing the path to the creek. Mark typically leads the troops down, always in deep discussion with Jack about the things they need to do that day. Emma, as is her life story, always trailing behind her older brothers.

When we last left Drama Princess she had trailed off after her evil brothers towards the creek. When suddenly Emma came moping in doing her pretend cry and sighing heavily.
"Something wrong?" I enquired not knowing where this could lead.
"I, I, I just don't want to talk about it. It is too painful." she says dramatically as she throws herself onto the couch.
Uh-Oh. I sense it is time for another adventure of DRAMA PRINCESS!!
"Ok let me know when you are ready." I say hoping she will move on and knowing she wont.
"Okay, I guess I'll tell you. We were all down at the creek fixing the bridge. Mark and Jack were there and so were Grace's little brothers. I was collecting sticks for the bridge, when all of a sudden I looked a round and noticed that I was the only girl. I was playing with only boys! And it all became so, so very painful for me." she said, as she flips her hair back. Then another big sigh. "Mom, do you have any idea what it is like to have only brothers. I have no girls. Just boys. I have two older brothers and no sisters!" And her head sinks heavily into her hands. Awwww.
Now many of you know that I have 3 sisters but only one brother. Therefore I could not sympathize with her. Emma and I do not always see eye to eye, to say the least. And I do not enjoy her drama princess antics. This makes it very hard for me to understand where she is coming from. Needless to say I don't always have the answer she is looking for (she doesn't seem to care for my usual "suck it up" answer)
"That must be hard." And as I said this I thought of all her brothers do to cater to her.
Biting my tongue to keep any sarcasm out of my voice I said, "Would you like to go play with Grace and Grace?" (neighbor girls down the street)
"Oh momma, that would be wonderful!" she says beaming and wiping off her pretend tears "You are the best momma in the whole wide world! I knew you would understand!"
I was so shocked. Of course my response was, "I know." and off we went to visit Grace and Grace. Thus ends another adventure of Drama Princess.

Sea of boxes.

The past few days have been a blur. We have been knee deep in boxes and white packing paper. The house we are renting is shorter on storage than our El Paso house. Deciding what to keep out and what to store in the garage has been foremost in my mind. Thursday and Friday went relatively smoothly, as far as I can remember. I only remember breaking three, no four, dishes as I unpacked and then repacked much of the kitchen. As we started unpacking, it became quite clear that we could not store everything we wanted in the house. The job then changed to opening boxes, determining what was in said box, and then either unpacking or repacking like items. Then, the next thing I knew I was waking up to do it all over again.
While having someone pack for you is nice on the packing side, it is far from nice on the unpacking side. About 1/2 of the boxes were the contents of one drawer or another dumped into a box. The packing women packed all of the file folders from the filing cabinet upside down in a box. It was a great time unpacking that. As a matter of fact, I still have the contents of the bottom of the box to sort through and re-file. goodie. There are still boxes which I have stacked in a closet, in the living room, in the family room and I am currently using one as a bedside table, very classy. I have multiple items missing. The poles to my laundry hamper, for example, are no where to be found, yet. Why I ask you would you not pack like items together? Mark's quilt is still MIA, and I have the distinct feeling it has been used as cushioning material for something which remains packed.
The kids have enjoyed "finding" their toys again and using the boxes for an assortment of imaginative play. John has the boxes organized in the garage according to size, very efficient. I fear the sea of brown will never end. I am hesitant to unpack it all. Not only because there is no place to put it, but because I know we are only here a short time. In all honesty, I am sure as soon as we get the last box unpacked we will have to move again.

One Word!

Exhausted!