Meanwhile, Back in Lula...

We've been doing a lot of renovations on the house in Lula. One of the things that we knew needed to be done for a while was the front door frame needing to be replaced. Also, the front porch was what I like to classify as junk, so we decided to have a new one built as well. The house is in one of those subdivisions that some idiot contractor (Tipton Home Builders - Jerry Tipton is the owner - any letters you'd like to send him involving what a sorry person he is for not caring more about putting his name on quality products, or even prayers in hopes that, yes, he will answer to God one day for his actions would be lovely) built as quickly and cheaply as possible. Yes, we do like the house, and the neighborhood is great, but there have been SEVERAL things that we've discovered were done half way that we've had to repair. So, we needed to replace the door frame, and the front porch, and when we tore the cheapo carpet up to lay down hardwood by the front door, we discovered that the problem was more extensive than we realized. So, as is our luck (and a lot of people's luck, I'm realizing) there was a lot more water damage and mold - yes, mold - than we realized. Andy tore down the porch, and then he has some friends who he layed tile for who returned the favor by doing all the work (more advantages of having a husband who can do so many odd jobs - I love that!). They pulled out the door, and pulled down the siding to see how far the damage went, then replaced everything, sealed up the window above the door because it was just another escape for leaking water, and put a new door on with a PVC frame instead of wood. The next day, they replaced the all-wood junky excuse for a front porch with a very nice wood and metal porch. (Money saving tip that I was not aware of: metal electrical conduit looks very similar to wrought iron when painted black and costs much, much less.) We still have a few things to do. The posts on the porch will get some kind of caps, and the door will be painted black to match the shutters, and then, of course, there's the huge mess that we have to clean up. We're also looking around at awnings to put over the door since there's that huge void where the window was, and to prevent future water damage. Here are some pictures I took with my phone during those 2 days.

For all you Twitter Fans

For everybody that keeps asking me why I don't do Facebook or Twitter, here's a great example (video stolen from my sister's blog, by the way)! And, don't even try to say blogging is the same thing. (I hear your wounded pride speaking now!)

Divine Retribution

Anyone who's a parent has been told at least a million times that your kids will pay you back for the things you did to your parents. I guess it's the curse that keeps on cursing, and whether it's a true curse or just a simple combination of normal kid things and genetic tendencies, so far it's been pretty steady around here. Evan acts so much like Andy, Alli is very much like me, and Drew seems to be a good combination of both of us. When I was a kid, my sisters and I were bestest friends, slept together every night, and fought like cats and dogs, and my kids all do the very same things. One thing I've noticed that I've found funny is that when we were really little, we loved to sit in mom's laundry baskets. I don't know what the excitement is -- it's probably similar to the excitement of a big box. But, she was always yelling at us to get out of her laundry baskets, and her laundry baskets never lasted long because we were always sitting in them and breaking them. As a parent, I am super protective of my laundry basket for that reason. I only have one, and when it's not full of laundry (which is most of the time) it sits on a super high shelf that the kids can't reach. Unfortunately, because of that curse, the kids have found that our little tiny storage ottoman works just as well. I am forever telling them to get out of the ottoman. So far it seems to be a bit more sturdy than a laundry basket, but it's one of the favorite places to sit and watch TV for some strange reason!

Evan Strikes Again

First, I feel like I need to point out that he did this to himself, all by himself, and he's actually happy in this picture, although he looks a little upset. Those of you who are very familiar with Evan will find this funny and typical, and those of you who aren't are just getting another glimpse into his strange little psyche. He is his father's child, that's for sure! Aside from the good laugh he got from all of us, he also learned a good lesson about the combination of hair and tape.

Drew, the Softball Star

Ok, I know I said before that Drew was done with softball for the year, but that's ended up being untrue. She plays first base and is one of the best players on her team, so after she sat out of one game, Andy bought a very, very light-weight bat, took her out in the backyard, and decided that she would be fine, and she has been. She had to wrap the cast everytime to protect the other girls from getting hit with it, which made no sense to me since there are flying balls throughout each game, but we complied and she's has done great. She's an amazing ball player, I must say. The team ended up taking 2nd place in the whole county, which was a pretty great accomplishment since last year this very same group of girls didn't win a game! After the last game the parks and leisure people handed out trophies for the first place and runner-up teams, so that was very exciting for everyone. Here are a few pictures of her playing in one of the last games (after she got her cast off and decided the brace was too binding to play ball in!) and one of the whole team with their trophies. Drew is in there in the middle sort of under the trophy. You can see her eyes, and she's not really smiling in that one.

At the very beginning of the game -- you can still see the marks on the field where the dirt has been smoothed.

Getting a player out!

Getting another player out!

Getting ready to hit!

Ready to run to third base!

Crossing home plate!

The whole team!

Another Crazy Weekend

Last week, around Tuesday Andy convinced me to take a sick day on Friday. Actually, I had been talking about it because it's almost the end of the year and I still have 9 days or so left that will just disappear, so I've been giving myself several 3-day weekends lately. So, Andy helped solidify it this week by suggesting that we go to Atlanta and spend Thursday night with my sisters, and then go to Six Flags with them and their hubbies on Friday. I was so excited about it. A day off at Six Flags was exactly what I needed. So, we headed that way Thursday and went to dinner with Steph and Jose and Erin (Lee was out of town). As we were getting ready for bed we were talking about morning plans and picking Lee up from the airport, and Erin was telling us that we needed to just pick him up on the way, so we got up bright and early and I showered while Andy packed up our overnight bag and we headed out. As we pulled into the airport to get Lee, I noticed that he wasn't out there yet, and there are all these signs that say things like, "No Stopping," and "Active Loading and Unloading Only," so I said something to the effect of, "I guess we should get out and pretend like we're actively unloading," which Andy and Erin were more than happy to do. So, we jumped out and Erin popped the trunk, and Andy started digging around in there, and I thought, "Boy, they're taking this fake unloading thing seriously." Then, I happened to look down and notice a strange suitcase, and said, "Whose suitcase is that?" I got nothing but a sly smile from Erin and Andy, and was then handed boarding passes for a flight to.............NEW YORK CITY! It was a total surprise (I'm pretty oblivious and naive and gullible, which comes in handy at times like these), and we immediately flew to Laguardia Airport (which is pitiful compared to Hartsfield-Jackson, I must say), and by 11:00 a.m. we were in New York City hailing a cab. It was absolutely amazing. We stayed right in the middle of Times Square on the corner of 47th and Broadway. The hotel was equally amazing. It's called The W, or just W. Here's a picture of it in the day and at night. You can see the big W waaaaay up at the top. On the far right of the next picture, you can see the W. This is how in-the-middle-of-everything we were. When you first walked in, the entrance was surrounded with glass walls filled with water, so there was water above us and all around us. We had to take the elevator to the 7th floor to check in, and the lobby was gorgeous. Even the elevators were cool. Our room was on the 49th floor and was so pretty and modern, and we had an amazing view of the city. The first day, I felt like I was walking around in a surreal fog. We walked up and down Broadway and 5th Avenue and took a million pictures, and we found this tiny little pizza place that had the most amazing pizza. We ended up going back for more later. The next morning we got up and went to see the Statue of Liberty, which was also sort of surreal. I have to admit, though, the immense amount of foreign people became overwhelming by the time we got off the last ferry back in NYC. They have a poor sense of personal space. Anyways, after that we walked over to Ground Zero, which is no longer a monument or a tourist attraction, but a huge construction zone, so we weren't that impressed. But, after that we headed to China Town and saw a gazillion knock-off hand bags and sunglasses. Three blocks from there was Little Italy, which we just loved. We ate outside at a little restaurant there and people-watched for a while. Then we headed down the street and tried on some more sunglasses and bought some gelato. I don't know if it was authentic gelato, or just really good ice cream, but it was delicious. After that we headed to Soho and shopped quite a bit, but bought very little. Then, that night, Andy got us tickets to see Wicked on Broadway. It was so good - definitely the highlight of the trip. It was such a good play - very funny. I read about half the book before life got in the way, and the book wasn't near as funny. After that we went to dinner at 11:something and were seated around midnight. We ate dinner, walked around and took a million more pictures, and then headed to bed. We got up the next morning, grabbed a cab, and headed back to the airport where we were so anxious to see the kids. It was a whirlwind of a trip, but SO neat and fun. Most of the pictures are of me because Andy wanted the trip to be all about me. He was so interested in doing everything I wanted to do and made it such a great weekend. He is precious and amazing and I just love him so much!

Day at the Zoo

Today, IBM was having a family event at the zoo in Atlanta (for those of you who may wonder why that's relevant to us, my dad works for IBM). The kids had never been to the zoo before, so we were all really excited about it. Unfortunately, Andy is on call today, which means that if something happens he has to be able to drop everything and leave, so he couldn't go with us, which was quite disappointing (in fact, it's almost 11:00 p.m. and he's at work right now), but that's life sometimes. We still had such a great time. Of course, mom and dad were there, and Steph and Jose and Erin and Lee all came, too.

At the very beginning they had a big, stinky bunch of flamingos, which were pretty neat.

Of course, we saw lots of very cool animals:Drew in front of an orangutan, Dad and Evan in front of a gorilla, Alli in front of a meercat, Me and Drew in front of a zebra, Evan in front of a rhinocerous, and lots more. IBM also had all the free snow cones and popcorn we could eat, which was nice. After we saw all the animals, we went and rode the train. Here's me, Alli, and Evan sitting on the train:And here is a really awesome picture that Jose took with my camera after the train ride. Dad, Evan, and Drew are watching the train go by, and Jose knows way more about my camera than I do, so he did something with the shutter and made it look like the world's fastest train was going by. Pretty cool.After the train the kids rode the carousel with Erin and Dad.Apparently, Drew was getting a little motion sick. The rest of us are a bunch of motion sick wusses (except for Jose who was taking pictures for me), so we watched them ride.

Here's another awesome picture Jose took. This is what the carousel really looks like:

This is what Jose was able to do with fancy camera work (I have no clue who that lady is):
After that, we decided to try to make one more trip to the snowcone/popcorn place, but they made an announcement that severe weather was coming and all outdoor activity had been cancelled, so we started making our way back to the car. Just as Erin was cramming Drew's casted arm into her purse for protection (it was the best we could do in a pinch), the bottom completely fell out and it starting POURING rain. It was pretty funny because everyone started screaming and running, and we were all absolutely soaked.

I'm not sure why Drew looks so miserable in that picture. After the rain died down (it still hasn't really stopped) a really great rainbow came out, which I stopped the car just to take a picture of. The picture doesn't do it justice.