Over The Summer

When we went to the beach this year, one of our children decided that the camera should take a little dip in the Atlantic, too. We haven't replaced it yet, because shortly after that the three of us (Kaity, Jeff and me) got some them thar new-fangled smart phones - which take much better pictures than our actual camera did, frankly. Anyway, for some reason (laziness? forgetfulness?) I find myself not uploading pictures to the laptop as often as I used to, and therefore not posting things on the blog. I can't promise that will get any better, since we have embarked on some serious school schedule craziness! But I will post today, and that's a start.

Over the summer ...

Kaity got a lovely new dress.

Lauryn turned three and got more adorable.

Selah became feral. 

Joe watched UHF for the first time and loved it. Seriously loved it. "A Twinkie-weiner sandwich!" It's Weird Al's best movie.

I Like The Brown

Here is our house ...looking pretty much the same as when we moved in. We knew the house needed paint and we discussed for a long time what colors we'd use. Jeff, of course, wanted brown. We actually began the project last fall, but monsoon season hit, then the cold weather, then pollen season ... yadayadayada. But we finally started back up and now we're done enough that I'm ready to post about it!

The dogs that the previous homeowners had really did a number on the front door (not to mention the inside damage!).

That combined with the moisture rotting out the wood made for an ugly entryway.

After Jeff pressure-washed the siding and shutters, I clambered up the ladder and got to work!

Prepping the stairs required lots of sanding - but we had lots of help, too!

Peekaboo!

You know my favorite adage: "There is no job so difficult that it can't be made more difficult with the help of a toddler." This job was no exception. Once I'd gotten two beautiful coats of paint on the front door, Little Miss here decided to sand it again when our backs were turned. Grr. I told myself it needed three coats anyway.

Kaity helped, too.

Anyway, here it is! I'll remind you of the BEFORE ...

And AFTER:

Complete with our little brown kitty, Hershey, to match the house.

Naturally there are things we'd still like to do, such as refinishing the outside lighting and replacing the garage doors (the left side is broken).

I fought against the red front door for a while, having had one at our old house, and it just seems cliche. Ultimately, though, we decided that red just suits me and brown suits Jeff and we may as well go with it!

And here's a bonus picture of Hershey, showing you how much she likes the transformation!

Teacher, Leave Them Kids Alone

For years now, Jeff and I have been discussing the idea that he'd return to college and get his bachelor's degree. His company offers tuition reimbursement and it just seemed crazy not to take advantage of it. But the timing hasn't been right - until now. In researching places for Kaity to take her dual enrollment classes, I decided to see if we could get a two-for-one deal.

Not really, of course.

Basically, I was so impressed with the friendly, super-helpful staff at Piedmont College that I started looking into it for Jeff, too. One thing led to another and now I'm married to a college student! And I'm the mother of a college student. And I'm totally jealous because *I* want to go back to college, too! Ah, well. I'll be 62 all too soon and I can take all the free classes I want then.

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago when we went to the college to get Jeff registered for classes.

 This is what it looks like when your child is starting college:

But this is what it feels like:

We celebrated Kaity's class registration today with lunch at Ted's Most Best. Good pizza, y'all!

*Disclaimer: Please ignore the "weird look" on Kaity's face. I did not warn her that I was taking a picture. She was (justifiably) irritated with her little brother at the time.

Later in the afternoon, Jeff met us on campus to get their books and to bring Selah to me, who had been at soccer camp during the morning. The building on the left there is the campus bookstore.

Father and daughter, starting college together! 

I'm extremely proud of them both!

Birthdays and Ballerinas

In my excitement concerning beach pictures, I never did post about the rest of May's events. Selah's ballet recital was held the day before my birthday. My parents came up to see it and I made a big dinner of roast, mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, etc. My mom requested that the kids play piano for them since they weren't having a formal recital this year. It was a fun family day making memories.

Selah, after the recital with my gorgeous friend and her teacher, Mrs. Lynne! She danced beautifully and did so well up on the stage.

I hate that the only pictures I grabbed were blurry!

Thankfully, I have her official dance portraits, taken at the studio by Amy Puckett:

Following the ballet recital, we headed home and ate an early dinner, then went downstairs to the schoolroom for a piano recital. Kaity designed a beautiful program for the event. Each pianist played 2 selections, and they performed a duet.

Joe, playing "Festive March" and "Light and Blue".

A duet they developed themselves of "The Imperial March" from Star Wars.

Kaity playing "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera and "Gypsy Dance".

Then Jeff and Kaity played an impromptu duet of Chopsticks, just for fun.

German Chocolate Cake for dessert - my favorite birthday cake!

On the Friday after my birthday, I was unshowered, wearing no makeup and old clothes, packing stuff for our vacation, when I saw a car drive into our cul-de-sac. I thought, "That looks like Amber's car ... it IS Amber's car!"

My sweet friends Amber and Kim had conspired with my husband to take me out on a girls' night! I took fifteen minutes to throw myself together and we headed out the door to Athens. It was a really fun evening in which we spent my birthday money, ate dinner at my favorite restaurant and of course went to a bookstore for coffee. It was a delightful surprise!

Of Castles and Kites

You can't be at the beach and not build sandcastles! One good thing about the rain we had is that the sand was perfect for construction material. Another benefit was all the good shells.

Joe and Kaity built this masterpiece ...

Selah and I made this lovely lady ...

Then the next day we had to make a boy to even things out.

Posing with our creation!

We saw this fishing trawler quite a bit during our stay:

At one point when he was pretty close to the shore, Lauryn snuggled up to me and said, "I'm scared - it's pirates!"

My response was, "It's probably just some local fisherman out for a pleasure cruise ... at night. Through eel-infested waters." Proving once again that there's a movie quote for every occasion.

"Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height ..."

I came out to watch the kite flying and Kaity said, "Selah was flying her Elsa kite but she let it go." A totally unintentional pun that made us laugh way too much.

Family Pictures

You haven't lived until you've tried to take a decent picture of four children. It's crazy. But we decided to give it a shot anyway! As always, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them and scroll through.