She's Gonna Be a Super Model

With the weather getting a little (just a little) cooler, I checked the kids wardrobes and decided to do a little shopping at Children's Place (my favorite). I got some great things on sale (of course) for the kids and came home to try them on.

Much to my surprise, I found that the 18 month pants I bought for Fi were too small. Yup, that's right. Too small. I still can't believe it. I did buy her a 24 month jean skirt (with the red top) and that fits just fine (room to grow). Then, I checked the 18 month shirts we got for her in the clearance section last year and they're a little tight. They'll work for right now, but I don't think they'll make it past winter (Ann, they're headed your way when we're done). Luckily, I figured she'd need 24 month shirts so that's what I bought.






We also had to buy her new shoes this week. Kristi sent us a TON of the cutest darn shoes (there were black leather Mary Janes and little glitter ballet shoes) but Sofia's feet are just too darn big and wide, and they didn't fit. (Kristi, I hope you don't mind but I'm sending them to Sylvia. I figured it would be OK.) Sofia's new shoes are a size 7. Just to put it in perspective, Will only just got into a size 9. Oh boy!

We knew from the dr's appointments that she's tall for her age but still . . . Brent says this means she's heading to the WNBA. I say she's gonna be a super model. :)

So, for everyone thinking of buying clothes for the kids (no one should attempt shoes), Fi needs 24 months and Will's in 3T. And, a special note for the Grandma's, we're totally fine with jammies and sweatshirts/jackets/hoodies - I know you Grandmas like to make sure the kids are warm. :)

The Big Game

Today was the Michigan/Michigan State football game. Those who know us know just what a big deal this game is - Brent went to State and I went to U of M; Brent always tells people we have a mixed marriage. :) In the past, we were unable to watch the game together as we were just too into our teams and the games. While we realize this is and was childish, it was just better that way.

So, this year we're in SC and we have to watch the game together. Until this morning when we realized that the game was on the Big-10 Network, which we don't get. So, we "watched" the game on the computer. This really sucked for me - as much as I love football (and I really, really do - I think the early years in TX are responsible for this obsession), I can't picture it without actually watching it.

As we watch the computer update, we're playing with the kids and watching the score. I get excited by the early lead and then calm down quickly when State scores a touchdown. Luckily, the kids decided that we should get out of the house for awhile. After a quick trip to B&N, we come back to see the game late in the 4th quarter with State up on Michigan by 2 touchdowns. Not so good for me.

As the kids eat their chocolate cupcake (always a treat from B&N), I watch the score change - Michigan scored a touchdown. So, my team is now down 7 with 2+ minutes to go -- not too shabby but I'm not hoping yet. Then, the computer updates and somehow U of M has the ball again and is marching down the field. And, after another update, the score is somehow tied with like 2 seconds left. Awesome - overtime!

Based on the short amount of time the computer spent updating, Michigan blew their chance (we found out later there was an interception) and State scored to end the game. Bummer. Luckily, Brent is a gracious winner. He's still working on being a better loser (he admits this, so it's Ok if I write it).

We started a tradition after our first rivalry game together - the winner had to buy the loser something to make them feel better. I got a nice dinner and two pairs of shoes that year. :) This year, however, since I just got back from a lovely cruise, I figured that was my consolation prize.

The other part of the "prize" is that, as much as I LOVE Michigan football (there's nothing like watching a game in the Big House and I hope to experience that with both kids someday), I actually wanted them to lose every game this year. Seriously, I did. I HATE Rich Rod - I think he's a huge jerk who treats his players badly and blames them for everything that goes wrong yet never gives them credit when things go well. I figured if we had another bad year then U of M would be forced to fire him. I'm still hoping for that outcome. I now think it hinges on the U of M/OSU game and whether or not Rich Rod makes a bowl game (the alumni will not stand for another bowl-less year - it's totally embarrassing). So, fingers crossed and Go Blue!

Broken Glasses

Last night, Sofia broke my glasses. Yup - broke my glasses. Not the lenses, but the frames.

We were all sitting in the chair reading a story and something Will did upset her - I'm still not sure what it was. She started to slide down, under the big book we were reading (Sesame Street Word Book), and in her attempt to escape, she got her hands/arm under one side of my frames and yanked. I was able to keep reading, since I don't need my glasses for that. I told Brent that it was a good thing our TV was so large now - I could see most of it later that night.

I was actually able to Krazy Glue the frames back together, but I don't trust them to last too long. So, I wore them briefly in the morning then popped in the contacts - thank goodness I have them as I can't find my old pair of glasses (I even went through all my purses to see if they were in there).

In a way, this is a good thing. Brent and I have been delaying looking for a new eye doctor (after Steven's eye issues early in life, I don't trust Lens Crafters or anyone other than a "real" eye dr - I can't spell opthimologist) and this will definitely force me to pick one in network, get an appointment, and new frames. Plus I really was starting to dislike these frames anyway.

This is a random story, but I thought I should share. :) Jerry, it's a good Xmas poetry story for Fi.

Terrific Thursday

Today was an absolutely wonderful day - I'd say great but I've used that adjective much too much in my soccer posting.

First, we had an extremely hectic morning due to the fact that I slept until 8:10, the kids were still asleep, and we needed to leave the house by 8:40 at the latest in order to make it to school on time. I don't usually set an alarm as the kids are usually up around 7 or 7:30 - no need. I guess I better from now on. So, I roused an extremely sleepy Will and got him started. We woke Fi up while we were getting him dressed. I gave her a bottle and him a bowl of cereal and then we headed for the car. We made it - and I'm still amazed!

Fi and I had a nice morning - it's a lot of fun to watch her be an only child, even for a little while. She plays with almost everything and just runs around. It's good fun.

The weather was so beautiful (low 70's and sunny with a little breeze) that I decided we should picnic downtown. We picked Will up at school and parked the car at church (I figured I shouldn't have to pay for parking for an hour or so when we pay enough for school). We walked to Main Street so that I could pick up a fancy sandwich for me, and then we headed to Falls Park (the main picture on the blog). We found a nice spot in front of the falls and the bridge - I took a great picture on my phone but can't figure out how to transfer it to the computer; if I do, you'll see it as it's really a nice picture. We had a lovely lunch - even Will said "This is a nice picnic." and Fi managed to stay on the blanket the entire time instead of making me chase her away from the river. We saved some bread from our lunch and ventured closer to the river to feed the ducks. I held Fi (I knew I'd have a wet baby if I let her down) and Will hand fed the three pushy ducks - they had no fear of us, which freaked me out a bit. But, the kids had a good time.

We went home and had a rest. Then, we got ready for soccer. As I've already described it, you'll see that we had a great day. I hope we can do it again soon.

Soccer Update

Because of preparing for the cruise last week, I wasn't able to give you a soccer update. So, you'll get two weeks worth of updates in one today.

Last week, we were late for the fun - poor Brent had to work late to make up for taking a vacation day Friday. So, we missed warm-up (which isn't that bad since he normally doesn't want to do it anyway) but Will ran right to the fence for running. He did a great job. Then, they worked on stopping and passing - great job again. Finally, they dribbled the ball into the net. He was unfortunately last in line, but waited without getting into too much trouble. He finally got to shoot his goal and was very excited.

Today was another great soccer day - I'm not sure if it's going so well because we've been doing sports with the same people with almost the same routine for almost 12 weeks or if soccer's just been easier to grasp.





He actually warmed up the whole time today - it was hilarious! Arm circles are tough when you're 3. He really loved doing rocket ship blast offs (crouching down and then jumping up) - he even kept doing them when the rest of the kids stopped.

From there, he ran to the fence and waited for the rest of the running to start. He did all the high fives and was excited when he came back to me for a water break.

They broke into small groups then for stopping and passing. As you can see from the first picture, although he managed to stop and pass the ball, he chatted the entire time. He was going on and on to the coach about who knows what. It was funny and she was a good sport about it.

From there, they kids lined up and took turns dribbling the ball (little kicks, as the coach tells the kids) into the net. He did a good job. (I'll be saying this a lot, but it's true.) Since the kids did well with this exercise, the coach decided to throw the balls into the field, have the kids pick one, and dribble it into the net. It was going well, except once the kids got the balls into the net, she started blocking the net (it's really small) so they couldn't get to it. She was only trying to put the balls back into the field, but still.

I'm not sure if they got tired or ran out of things for today, but after the last water break, they all sat in a circle and played duck, duck, goose. It was the first time (as far as I know) that Will played it and he was just laughing watching the kids run around the circle - we all were, since most of the kids didn't understand that they were to sit down in the open spot once they found it.

While we were laughing at this, Fi decided to do some cleaning up. She was going around grabbing all the soccer balls and started putting them into the net.

I kept telling her to kick the ball and to not use her hands - not so much. It was really funny.

We had a great time today (the rest of our day will be in the next posting) - next week is our last day of soccer. I'm sure that will be great too.

Book Reviews

As I mentioned, we did some reading on the cruise. And, I haven't done a book review in awhile, so I thought I'd let everyone know what I've been reading and what I think (cuz my opinion is so super important!). :)

The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd -- solid 4 out of 5
I've been so into Brit-lit (good term, right?) that I thought I should branch out and learn a little bit about Ireland. This book starts with the Celts and goes all the way through the reign of Henry VIII. It was wonderfully fascinating and made me want to go to Ireland straight away. I really recommend this book.

The Rebels of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd - maybe 3 out of 5
For as much as I loved the first book, I just couldn't get as much into this one. It ended up having the same theme for every decade (the first book skips hundreds of years at a time) and I just got tired and bored with the characters. I read it to finish the "saga" as they're billed. Too bad.

I did some re-reading -- the Twilight saga (I know, yet again for the 18th billion time . . . Brent tried to read them and couldn't get into them at all - it just must be me), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Shogun. All good reads, obviously, as I was coming back for more.

For the cruise, I reread Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner as I had the follow-up book, Certain Girls, packed up.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner - 4 out of 5
Definite chick-lit but very good. The book is told by the mother and the daughter at the same time, so you get their differing points of view and teenage angst. I'm glad I reread Good in Bed as I didn't remember as much about the characters - it was helpful as this book went along.

As Sure as the Sun by Anna McPartlin -- 3 out of 5
This was a story within a story, which I really like, but the endings were all a little too pat for my taste (even with as much as I like a happy ending). Good chick-lit book - thanks for letting me borrow it, Ann!

I'm starting into a mystery sci-fi kind of series next, starting with Black. I'll let you know how it goes and if it's worth a read.

Great Girls Weekend

Let me just say that we had a wonderful, fabulous time on our cruise to the Bahamas! I can't wait for the next time!

As you know, I had an early start on Friday. This unfortunately meant that Brent and the kids had an early start as well - we dragged the poor things out of bed a little before 6 am. I hoped they would stay asleep, but that hope was dashed as Fi raised her head off my shoulder, and with the cutest grin, said "Hi." Aah! Will chatted all the way to the airport as well. Good luck, Brent!




I arrived on time in Miami (I had good flights with no issues or crazy people) and found Ann waiting for me. We had a quick lunch at the airport (since the boat paperwork said we weren't to show up before 2) and then headed to the boat. Once aboard, we wandered around for awhile, FINALLY got a drink (it's like we were invisible at the bar for awhile - it was ridiculous!), and watched the boat sail away.

We headed to dinner, wondering who our table-mates might be (we had signed up for a 6-10 person table). We were a little amazed when we got there to see a 4 seater table. We (and the wait staff) realized later it should have been a 6 seater when another couple came up looking for our table number and there was no where for them to sit. The couple we sat with were an odd match; the guy was very chatty and the woman was not, at all. We didn't see them again for the rest of the trip. (Wonder what that says about us. . . .)





After dinner, we were exhausted. But, it was only 8:15 and we really didn't think we should head to bed just yet. So, we went to play Disco name that tune (we only got 6/20 - not so good) and watch a very crazy battle of the sexes, which the men ended up winning after an extremely funny game of balloon breaking. With all that, we managed to make it until 10 when we felt it was acceptable to crash.

And, crash we did! Poor Ann woke up in the middle of the night feeling claustrophobic (no wonder in our little cabin with no lights at all) but we still managed to sleep until 11:30. Awesome!

So, we had lunch (breakfast was done at 11:30) and headed over to Coco Cay for our couples massage. It felt so good - although the masseur told me afterwards that my muscles were still very tense and I should have a hot stone massage. Hmmm . . what did I just pay for if I was still tense? I was so relaxed that I really didn't care. We had a drink on the beach and enjoyed the beautiful day. We also laughed at our reading materials - In Touch for me (Sex and the City 2 issue) and Pottery Barn for Ann. Figures, right? :)

We had a little time before dinner so we played Bingo. I haven't played in years and was shocked at the price (seriously, I know we were trapped on that boat, but still!) and how smart the idea of folding down the numbers was. We played 4 games with 6 cards each time - I really hate the 4 corners game. The Bingo gods were not with us and we did not win. It was still fun though.

We got dolled up after that for "formal" night and waited to see who would be eating with us and what table we'd be at. We did get a 6 seater that night and about 45 minutes into our meal, another couple sat down, introduced themselves, and proceeded to ignore us. I guess we're just winners at dinner! :)

After dinner, I did karaoke to Sin Wagon by the Dixie Chicks (I love karaoke!); we saw the juggling show and the newlywed game (very funny); and we stayed up for the party under the stars at the pool where we danced for quite a while (I so love to dance). It was after 1 and we were off to bed! I woke up in the middle of the night, sea sick. I thought I would make it through this cruise without anything, but not so much. Ann, being the prepared traveler and good mom that she is, worried over me and gave me some drugs.

We got up Sunday at 10:30 with the help of a wake-up call. Man, sleep is such a good thing! We were still too late for breakfast, so we grabbed lunch and headed out to Nassau for our tour. There isn't really much on Nassau except a couple of forts and the Atlantis resort. But, now we can say we've seen it. There was a couple in our tour group that really just should have stayed in their room. Aside from their constant touching and kissing, they were interesting because he was wearing a dive shirt as a t-shirt with tightly belted jean shorts. Not a good look for anyone. And, we really had to laugh later when we caught them at dinner that night and he had a black dive shirt for formal wear (picture below). Too funny!

After our tour, we went shopping in the straw market and got straw purses for our girls - Fi got one with a pink flower and Sylvia got one with a pink butterfly. I also picked up a wooden flute for Will.

Back on the boat, we played another round of Bingo before dinner. Again, no luck although Ann was close a couple of times. We ate our last dinner alone and then headed off to see the Boogie Wonderland show. We really couldn't stay up much later than that as we had to be up bright and early for me to catch my flight.

We laughed as we packed up our luggage - we both overpacked (me way more than Ann did) and you could tell whose was whose based not only on the luggage (Ann's was smaller) but on the toiletries (I probably had 4 times the amount she did). We should have taken a picture of it. Ann, Brent would travel with you anytime as he's all about the carry-on luggage. :)

I had an uneventful flight back, except for multiple delays on the flight from Atlanta to Greenville. I was supposed to land in Greenville at 1:40 and didn't get in until 4. Unfortunately, Brent had to leave almost immediately for Tennessee for work. It was a very abrupt end to my vacation.

Despite that, I had a wonderful time reconnecting with Ann. We talked about anything and everything, laughed, read books, relaxed, and just had a thoroughly enjoyable time. It was hard to say good-bye, even though I'll see her in Nov and Dec. I hope we do it again and look forward to a next time.