Yesterday was Coulson's last day of preschool and today everyone got together for an end-of-the-year picnic. He had a great time playing at the park with all his friends. As he told his father, "I had more funner at the picnic that you even know!"
I'm kinda of sad as this year ends because it means he's finished with three-year-old preschool. Which means next year he'll be in four-year-old preschool, which is the same as Pre-K. Which means after that he'll be in kindergarten. So really I'm sad that this year is over because in one and a half years he'll be in kindergarten. And after that, it's only twelve short years before he's leaving me for college. My little boy is growing up so fast!
Something went very wrong in our mini-vermicomposter experiment. All the worms died. I took a good whiff of the container which sent me straight to the sink, calling upon every muscle and mental will in my body to keep myself from losing my breakfast. It was beyond nasty.
Nonetheless, I am not deterred from my plans to start vermicomposting when we move at the end of June. But now we are looking into purchasing a real vermicomposting bin instead of just making our own out of scrap wood.
R.I.P worms. So sorry.
But I've found him and I'm going to keep him!
Last night I got back from my third annual Girls' Weekend with my best friends from high school. (If you're a detail person with a good memory, you may be asking yourself, didn't she just have a girls' weekend in the fall? Well, yes, we had to move up girls' weekend since one of my friends is sporting a very cute baby bump right now, thus making a fall weekend impractical.) We had a great weekend (I'm lazy so I'll let this link stand in for my own blog entry on the weekend) in and around Beaufort, SC (pronounced Bewfort) enjoying peaceful, sunny beaches, chick flicks, yummy food and even a dolphin watch boat tour.
I was gone for 4 days and 3 nights. My parents watched the boys for one day while Casey was recovering from a night shift, and Casey's dad visited for one night and half a day, but then Casey was on his own. And he did a great job! Not only were the boys still alive, but they were clean, happy and well fed. Casey did the laundry, he even folded it and put it away! He went grocery shopping (with coupons!), washed and vaccuumed the car, cleaned the bedrooms, washed all the dishes and even had a vase full of flowers waiting for me when I got home. (The vase was one that he and Coulson painted for my Mother's day gift, so extra points there!) I even noticed that my fridge was clean, but I haven't confirmed if that was his work or my mother's. He's so good at this dad thing, I think I should take off for the weekend more often!
Casey - Thanks for a wonderful job. I love you!
Casey wants me to write a blog rant about how we couldn't watch our Thursday night comedy line-up tonight (the only night we watch TV) because the local NBC affliliate interrupted our regularly scheduled progamming to bring us repetitive on-going commentary on a tornado warning in a city almost one and a half hours to the north of us, with the storm moving north, yes, farther away from us. And they continued this coverage for over an hour and a half. possibly longer, we stopped checking. Thankfully (and for my blog-rant, ironically) I don't think there ever was a tornado. I wonder if deep down inside the meterologists get disappointed when the big storm doesn't actually show up, or, if just the "energy in the air" from the storm and from the attention of continuous coverage is enough to get there adrenaline pumping. But I shouldn't rant too much - I just saw on their website that there's a tornado watch in my area until 1am. Not as exciting as a tornado warning, but I don't want to upset the Powers That Be with my arrogance again (yes, a link to that post again!).
Next week on the PBS show NOVA, they will show the documentary A Walk to Beautiful. It airs here in NC on Tuesday night at 8pm. I almost went to a private screening of the movie here in Charlotte back in the fall, but Casey had to work at the last minute and we didn't really know any babysitters in the area yet, so I am excited that I will be able to see it on TV. There are rumors that it might be considered for an Academy Award.
A Walk to Beautiful highlights a women's hospital in Ethiopia that specializes in repairing fistulas, an injury incurred during a prolonged (several days) and difficult labor. Here in the US, women don't suffer from fistulas because of access to medical care during the childbirth, but in the developing world, unfortunately, they are common. Fistulas don't heal, they can only be fixed with surgery. Women with fistulas are shamed and treated as outcasts in their society. The hospital is pretty amazing in how it transforms these women's lives.
I am aware of this hospital and the film through a group I'm part of here in Charlotte called Women of Vision. Women of Vision is connected with World Vision (through which I sponsor an adorable little girl from Rwanda named Valerie ;-). The Charlotte chapter of Women of Vision has been supporting this hospital since 2002 and was instrumental in getting the director of the hospital on the Oprah show many years ago, thus bringing her ministry to national attention.
So, if you're up for what will probably be an emotional evening, tune in on Tuesday night.
Last week, out of the blue, my husband casually remarks to me, "You know, you might have had the flu." Grrrrrr!
Thanks a lot for the diagnosis. If I had known back then (about 2 months ago), I might have treated myself to a babysitter, or made him stay home from work (perhaps the reason he didn't tell me at the time) instead of desperately trying to find a way to keep my kids fed and safe before collapsing. I spent a lot of time just lying on the kitchen floor because I didn't have enough energy to finish making lunch. (To his credit, I do think Casey took care of breakfast and dinner most of the time that week.)
If you're a North Carolinian, don't forget to vote! And Indiana people, too, but I don't think any of my readers live in Indiana. (What do you call a person from Indiana? Indianans? Indianians? Indianites? I should ask my brothers because they all attended college in Indiana. Once I referred to people from Charlotte as Charlottans, pronounced like charlatans. I thought it was pretty funny, but Casey just matter-of-factly informed me they are Charlotteans. Ok, update: with a quick google search I found instances of both Indianans and Indianians, with Indianians seeming to be more correct.)
As I was doing my research for the primary tomorrow, I found a candidate for US Congress who was able to articulate my own ideas on immigration reform. Illegal immigration is a very complicated issue that can't be reduced to bullet points like "tighten the boarders" and "enforce the laws." It's a delicate cycle of supply and demand and we are all part of the cycle. Everyone's upset about the increasing gas prices - how will we react when our food and construction prices skyrocket if we shut out the foundational workers who make those things affordable/cheap. On the other hand, it's not right for people to be exploited with low wages and often poor working conditions. This candidate expresses the issue so well, and I often feel so clumsy when I'm expressing my own opinions on hot topics, especially when I seem to be on the opposite side of the fence from the most vocal critics, so I thought I'd include a link and let it speak for me. Unfortunately, I don't think he's the front runner in the race, but I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
