I'm an American, aquarium drinker....

Greetings from the 'hoochie! The kids and I tagged along as tourists to Chattanooga with Evan who had some sort of Geography conference this week. Hotel sleeping went great thanks to the pack n play, and we saw all the sights including: The Aquarium, Lookout Mountain, Sea Monsters on the IMAX, and the fabulous children's museum. Chattanooga is a lovely town, and one of our favorite parts was riding the free electric shuttle everywhere we needed to go. The shuttles have been free and electric since '93. Goooo Chattanooga!

Wouldn't know the difference between a real blonde and a fake

This Easter we were visiting inlaws in the Crossroads of America. As I was busy spiffing up the boys, I took out a little Velcro tie number for Eli. Ollie is very concerned about looking fancy. He is one to wear slick dress-up shoes and button-down shirts every day of the year. He must tuck in his shirts. Evan and I are "slightly" more casual than that and have each had periods of our lives in which we didn't ever brush our hair let alone tuck. In fact, when they made tucking a rule at the school in which I taught last year, our motto was, F#ck the tuck. But, as far as rebellions go, it could be worse than an aspiring Alex P. Keaton. So anyway, I didn't have a tie for Ollie and he stood there gawking at me distraughtly as I prepared to fasten a tie onto my 1 1/2 year old. So, I relented and at least tried it on him to prove that I could be reasonable. It came to his nipples and certainly would never do for church. So, Superhero Uncle Ethan swooped in and fashioned him a tie from one of his. He tucked the fat part of the tie into his button down and wrapped it around several times. Ollie was SOOO proud. He puffed up and wanted to wear the thing all day. He would have worn it home to the 'boro if he could have. The usually shy kid walked around a new church waving and saying Hi to everyone that passed us. Elijah on the other hand, Ollie's polar opposite, jerked the Velcro number that I had brought for him to wear, stuck out his lips and tore the tie off as quickly as I had put it on. Ah, well, you cant' please everyone. And for goodness sakes, we will be tie shopping, soon I guess.

If not for you, winter would have no spring, couldn't hear the robins sing,

After a long, hard, annoying, nothing going right, rainy day, there isn't anything better than coming home to a back massage aka stand on mama's back session from these rugrats.

Ohhhhh, and today starts SPRING BREAK! YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Don't the clouds look lonesome shining across the sea

In Oklahoma, we went to see this movie. I don't know that I have ever seen a 3D film, but it was very realistic. The movie is well done, peaceful, and with a good message.

Also, Eli, with some help counted to 10 tonight. So smart these younglings are (said in a yoda voice.)

And, in other news, Ollie has the flu bug, and has been down for the count for the past week. Wish him well! I need my chatter box four year old back!

He was on the baseball team, he was in the marching band

The strangest sensation crept over me today as I hurriedly left dinner dishes on the table to russle the kid in the car with baseball glove in hand. I have hit motherhood, and a whole new stage at that. Good-bye spit up, baby rattles, and diapers. Hello camp chair on the side-lines. I was struck for some reason when my husband mentioned that practice was from 5:30 to 7:00. Good God, he's 4. It's T-ball! 1 1/2 hours- Realllllly!??? I was rushed and stressed and felt like a busy, working, t-ball mom! Ack! In my mind somewhere instead, I am this peaceful, zen like world traveling, music and dancing loving, sunbathing mom. How did THIS side come out of me? Where did this mom come from? Is it inevitable? Have I been thrown into a 15 year stint as a mom taxi? I am thrilled for him, and anticipate jubilation at his first good catch or home run.
Once, my brother "hit the ball over the fence." That day has gone down in our own family history and I am pretty sure he still has that little league baseball. My dad coached my T-ball team, though I didn't play often, because, well, I suck at hand-eye-coordination and I "throw like a girl." None the less, I expect that Ollie will enjoy the benefits of being around other 4 year olds, hearing a cheering crowd, basking in the spring time sun, and just try and get him out of his new baseball socks - no way! So if you see a mom sitting on the sidelines, knitting, reading, or with a far away look in her eyes, it's probably me, but I am pretending in my mind to be in a South American country on holiday.

'N' every bit of dust in the Oklahoma plains,

The family made a road trip to Oklahoma this week, and we are spending a long weekend with the grandparents. The night in the hotel room on the way here left us all frazzled as Eli did not find the accommodations to his liking and proceeded to scream and play off and on for at least 2 hours straight (sorry hotel neighbors!). At 1:30 or so, I finally put his butt back in the car and drove around some town in Arkansas for a half hour or so trying to woo him back to sleep. Needless to say, we were all yawning on the remaining leg of the trip. It makes me re-think our upcoming trip to Chattanooga. Are you allowed to get infants their very own room in a hotel?

Way over yonder in the minor key

We went to a rockin' show at the historic Ryman theater last night. Wilco is one of my favs, and we had a great time.

Elijah the bean

Is doing really well sleeping. I never thought I'd see the day. He has made it almost a week with sleeping through the night! What a triumph. Confession time: I owe it all to the baby doll. We started putting baby to bed, too, and voila-sleep. I suspect that when he wakes up instead of feeling alone and then panicking, he just gives baby a little snuggle, and back to sleep! Yay for babies!

He is also talking up a storm. He is really good at, "want that?," "mine," "what doin?" and "elmo." What the heck are we going to do with a 4th strong opinion?

Free-Recycled-Composter

Beautiful, perfect day!

Come one, come all martins!
The eclipse from the other night.

Free -Recycled-Composting! What great words to put together! The sunshine today was truly a blessing, and we took full advantage of it. We started the day with a walk to the park, played some b-ball, and went down the slide a couple of times. (Eli said, "one-two, freee" before going down to my huge surprise!) We then came home and finally erected a compost bin! I have been bugging E about this for a while, and was even sneaking rouge pile behind the shed. We called a local store and asked them to sell us some pallets, they said, "no, but you can have them for free." Sooo, I picked them up, and now we have reduced our household waste by approximately 20% and will have some good fertilizer for our herbs and flowers come summer. Yay!