Life's been good to me so far

This is really a great weekend.

Ananda and Aaron had their last soccer games of the season on Friday night. Annie had blue hair for team spirit (they're "Blue Thunder"). Grant got off early so he could go, as he's never been able to before due to work hours. Annie's team tied and Aaron's won, they both got AYSO participation trophies, and THEN - this really awesome old British ref who is Isaac's good friend and recently had a heart attack on the field, showed up and is doing really well. That heart attack deal was a scary night, but there happened to be an EMT on the sidelines and he got to the ER very quickly (and Frank, my brother in law was on shift there that night by odd coincidence), but he's recovered well and Isaac's been asking EVERY time we go out there where Roy is and when he's coming back. I teared up a bit when he told Isaac he's been sick, to see Isaac (and a few other kids) staring up at him grinning - volunteering in kids' sports is this guy's life.

How we met Roy:
We were at the Nike store for AYSO signups, and Isaac went into the spiel he makes ALL adults in his vicinity listen to - he shouts this at passing strangers in the grocery store, neighbors trying to get into their cars, there is no stopping him. It goes:
"Hey, I'm Isaac! I'm 4 years old! My birthday is February 20! I got my appendix out!"
That's the baseline spiel, Roy the ref encouraged him and so they chatted the whole time I filled out paperwork. Weeks passed before soccer started, during which time Isaac told that or much more to about a million other random victims, and then we were at soccer practice for the first time. The third adult he began to accost was Roy, who interrupted him as he opened his mouth to fill in (with a British accent) - "Your name's Isaac! You're 4 years old and you got your appendix out." Isaac's eyes got really big and he took a couple of steps backward looking really freaked out, and I about died laughing. He was bound to hit someone up twice sometime.

So anyway, yeah, soccer was good. Our...uh...friend family? Family of friends? Grant is friends with the husband, I'm friends with the wife, Aaron is friends and teammate with one son and Elise loves their twin infants, so whatever. They were there is the point ;)
Annie before the game:


And Aaron:


Then the next day it was Saturday and I got to sleeeeeep iiiin with all of them and not wake anybody up who didn't want to be and all that jazz, it was sweet, that's not just daily life for us anymore. I paid for Annie's recital costumes at Dance Empire, they're awesome - the lyrical costume is just beautiful, it's this flowy, fairy looking thing in blues and purples, and then the musical theater is hilarious. It's a sparkly gold leotard with a fringe skirt, with a sparkly gold top hat and gloves (this to sing and dance songs from Mama Mia in).
Annie before dance Saturday morning, after much hairspray had rubbed off on her pillow:

I feel like I'm getting flashes of what it will be like when she's 14 O_o

The other kids and I picked up Grant for his lunchbreak at the subshop, and then we picked her back up and came home and did some rapid cooking and blitz cleaning. We got the dishwasher un- and re-loaded, the laundry moved through, Elise changed, floor swept, me changed, pasta puttanesca with fresh parmesean ready in a pot and a big plate of chocolate chip scones baked, in, like, an hour and a half.

We took all the food up to a Christmas party at my friend Michelle's house. She is a pagan, birth activist, doula, yoga teacher mother of 6, and her and her husband co-own and run a dance supply store. Not that you need to know that, just saying - she hosts most of the get togethers for the natural parenting group I'm a part of and this was great...we were only there for 2 hours, but it was time enough for Annie to make a new friend and do crafts, Isaac to find an adult to hold hostage and make teach him things, Elise and Jake to get comfortable enough to run around on their own - oooh and there was a play kitchen, which Jake loved, and it made me happy because my Nana and Pa got him a play kitchen for Christmas and he's going to be extra excited about that, now, after having fun with one all last night - I got to talk to a lot of people I hadn't seen in awhile, and my friend Kristin showed up at the end - WITH HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT MARSHMALLOWS, can you imagine? Om nom nom. Aaron ate a lot and sat out on the front porch with all the cats that refuse to leave Michelle's yard, I think he was in heaven.

Then when I got back,nanny was here. I changed again, into a red and black pencil skirt, long sleeved clingy black shirt, Steve Madden heels (!! who am I fooling? I shaved my legs for the first time in 3 months, as well), and put on makeup, and then Grant got home and we went out to Christmas at the Winery. Which was nice, but not all we'd hoped it would be. The best part was fresh, Homestead-local LYCHEE SORBET. *shivers of ecstasy* There were chunks, people, chunks! I also found Florida Keys mango honey in their showroom store, oh my.

We ended up spending most of our date time crooning and moaning over turtle cheesecake, cheese soup, and pasta dishes at Atlanta Bread before seeing There's Nothing Like the Holidays at Flagship.

Which made me laugh out loud over and over, and just ACHE for Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family :/ Ever since Ma died there is no Matriarch bringing everyone together every year, so it's only happened a handful of times.

When G and I got back home, nanny had all the kids in the front yard wrapped in blankets skywatching. Jake and A and A were asleep within 15 minutes of me nursing him and reading to them, and then Isaac and Elise fell asleep while I nursed her. Which means G and I actually got to go to bed by ourselves, something that happens approximately bi-annually. Curled up together under the blankets, he mustered the strength to mutter, "I wish I wasn't so tired so I could take advantage of this situation", and I grunted my agreement before blacking out peacefully in his arms.


Today I got up early and did a bunch of floor excercise before taking a long fast walk with Ananda for nearly an hour, before breakfast, to make up for all that yum last night...I've lost 6 pounds in the last couple of weeks and am really psyched about how much easier it's getting to NOT stuff my face constantly. I will always love food (A LOT), but I don't have to have thirds and can stay out of the fridge between meals provided I'm doing a lot of prayer and study (to keep from feeling like I need "something more" to fill me up, that is...)

Called up my talented friend Kristin, with 2 propositions. 1. Did she want 900 AOL cds Grant has finally decided he can part with? (NO). 2. Would she like to be commissioned to do our kitchen's mosaic backsplash with recycled materials of her choosing, and help from Annie? (YES) She's coming later this week with her sketchbook to check out our measurements and talk colors and ideas, and meanwhile she's eagerly looking around for things to smash with a hammer and stick to our sheetrock.

Then I spent two solid hours turning 8 Mr Clean Magic Erasers into tattered bits, one by one, to get all the pencil, crayon, fingerprints, footprints, food splatters and who knows what off the walls all over the house. I am sure my arms will be sore tomorrow, all the better to match my bruised up legs that were injured slipping and falling outside Publix (FLIP FLOPS FTW!)

We all sat out on the deck and watched the rain, after I was finished and we had admired our cleared expanses of paint.

Speaking of food ;) I am making BRIE MACARONI AND CHEESE tonight. And gingerbread for cookies to hang on the tree.

Grant is out right now with his sister and her fiancee (yes, she is still married...it's "a long story") at Santa's, taking long exposure pictures and possibly getting on The Slingshot. He'll get back for about an hour before I hit it to my sister's for late night "Girl Night", which we are both raising an eyebrow at as it's a brand new concept...but very eagerly so. We've got The Phantom of the Opera, tea and chocolate on the agenda (Frank is on shift at the fire department and Brian sleeps now).


I have some extra random pictures, like CATS, and Christmas hoohaw - ( +9 )

G is amazing. She showed up yesterday with a whole plan; she had the kids make "field journals" out of printing paper and yarn, which they took on a long exploratory walk that involved collecting bits of plants and doing tracings and drawings and writing about what they had seen - she told them this week is plants, next week is clouds, week after is rocks. Isaac and Jake are just as into it as A and A. She also made grilled cheese for lunch, and made popsicles with them all individually customized (lemon juice, applesauce, watermelon chunks and yogurt are some of the ingredients they used). She was telling us how her fridge at home is covered in Isaac art. I would say this is definitely working out. I'm so glad I held out for someone with a lot of experience and enthusiasm for kids.

While they did their exploring walk and field journals, I took Elise in a stroller and did excercise walking. While she stayed with the boys, reading books and having lunch, I took Ananda and Elise out and we signed her up for ballet, bought her stuff, and had lunch out at Starbucks. And Elise is so incredible, she hung out with Annie at the ballet place, sat by us at the store watching while the ladies helped Annie, and ate and drank and laughed at the table with us (no high chair) at Starbucks. It would have been a totally different trip with the boys in tow.

Ananda is now at a level and age in dance that her ballet shoes have a split sole, and need custom elastics sewn on to fit her feet O_o She's doing one ballet and one musical theater class this year, which she's really interested in - and it's taught by her favorite ballet teacher at DE.

Last night was her first soccer practice, and I was able to sign Aaron up while we were there and get both of their uniforms. It was hilarious and a little bit awesome that she was WAY confident and thought she was pretty great, in her bermuda jean shorts with rips all over them and Star Wars tshirt. A little bit pudgy, her short hair - I was just waiting for the "What school do you go to?" "I'm homeschooled" conversation, hahaha. I had that Weezer song caught in my head the whole time, I've got a twelve sided die...I've got a dungeon master's guide.... The coach loved her though, and she did a lot of work on the banner the team made together, and is all about their team name being "Blue Thunder" (they have blue and black uniforms).

I am not amused by how their practices start at 7:30 pm. What the hell, don't other kids go to bed like an hour later than that? We usually eat dinner between 8 and 9, with Grant. As it is AWANA is 7-8:30. I wish there were activities for homeschooled kids in the afternoon. Although, the weather is just perfect at the time this is.

So. All this sounds like a lot but I am really pleased with how conveniently their schedules are working out:

-Ananda and Aaron's soccer teams are practicing at the same place and times, so we can go together and they just separate
-their fields are at a very family friendly place with plenty of free space for younger siblings to run around
-the practices are on nights that don't conflict with any other things we normally do
-her 2 dance classes are one right after the other, and on Saturday afternoon when we are normally driving up to Miami anyway to have lunch with Grant

It all falls in, in doable ways. I briefly entertained the idea of Isaac playing soccer just because that would be so damn cute, but decided it probably wouldn't work when I told him, "You know, you could probably play soccer, too" and his response was to back away in a panic, shake his head a lot and ask "WHY?!" in a terrified voice. It would be hard anyway, his time would be different and it would make it too much.

---

So yeah, hurricanes, wth.

Ike is headed straight for us, like the projected track basically drops it off in Homestead on Tuesday night. Here is the 5 day cone so you can see for yourselves - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/085513.shtml?5day#contents And it's most likely going to be a strong 3 - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/085513.shtml?table#contents which makes me think it will actually be a 4 because the projected wind speeds always go up as time passes.

I don't know, man. I'm not in the mood to deal with this. It's really stressing me out a little. The last time we got a 3, we lost a small tree and our old trampoline flew over the house and cracked the old van's windshield, and there were power lines and branches down all over for, like, weeks. Also, a couple of days without power. That is for those of you who don't really understand the strength scale to get an idea. I don't want to deal with shutters, or bringing every possible thing inside the house, or losing my flowerbeds, or not having a refrigerator/AC, or any of it, and I have to admit it makes me nervous in the larger bodily harm sense, too. Even though I know this house withstood Andrew, and it has a brand new roof, and high quality shutters installed, I've never atually been in it myself for a big storm. There are always tornadoes in hurricanes and it's the luck of the draw whether or not you get any of them, and if you do, well...that's really bad. I have a lot of little kids to try to keep track of. UGH.

We're having a fence put in right now! A fence I'd like to be there next month >:O


Ok, enough doom and destruction...G will be here in about 35 minutes and I haven't really cleaned enough, Elise is still naked and Jake is still asleep.