How Not To Go Down The Water Slide

Thirsty Thursday

Beating The Heat

It hit 90 degrees in Charlotte today for the first time this year! The kids had milkshakes from Chick-Fil-A and spent all afternoon playing with the hose in the yard. 

Errands, Errands & More Errands

Mike went back to work on Tuesday, having set up his office on Mandy & Joel's diningroom table (which is apparently only used twice a year.)

With Ben & Becca in school for another week and a half Charlie and Amelia have been doing not much at home until the start of summer camp on June 16th. 

I have been making a bunch of phone calls and doing a bunch of errands -- calling a whole host of people from our bank to our cell phone carrier, Charlie's new school, Amelia's new pre-school, the new pediatrician etc. Yesterday Amelia and I ventured out to run some errands; I found my way to the Arboreteum which is the gigantic shopping center that is less than a mile away. We went to the Gap where I bought some work clothes and then to the grocery store where I bought a bus pass for the month of June. The shopping center literally must have 60 or 80 stores (judging from my attempt to count the signs) and includes a grocery store, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, The Children's  Place, The Gap & Gap Kids,  a sporting goods store, UPS store and a ton of restaurants as well. There's also a movie theater and the medical complex across the street is where all of our doctors will be. 

This morning I took Amelia to tour her new pre-school, which she will start the last week of August. It is inside the development, a ten minute walk down the street. They are letting her try a day for free, so I'm going to drop her off for the day next Tuesday. Tuition includes breakfast and lunch, which is a nice bonus! 

This afternoon I took the bus over to my work for a "dry run." Although kind of time consuming it is at least a straight shot so pretty impossible to get lost. (Although thank god for google maps which told me where the bus stop was, what bus to take, what stop to get off, etc. Google where would I be without you??)

I've also been occupied by writing a letter to the IRS explaining why I don't really think we owe them $2,300 and with fielding emails and texts regarding the crazy people who bought our house and supposedly had the shower leak the other day and think that we're going to fix it. (Ha!)

Tomorrow Mike has a phone interview at Wells Fargo in the afternoon so I will make an attempt to vacate with the kids. Unfortunately while school is still in session the pool doesn't open til 4pm but maybe we will head to the playground. 

In other news it has been pushing 90 degrees all week, far from the weather in New England I hear!!

Memorial Day

This morning Mike and I ran a few errands with the kids -- we stopped by the JCC to finish up our membership applicstion, then we bought Mike a suit to interview in and went to Wal-Mart and the grocery store. We are still fairly bad at finding our way around but working on it! For the most part everything we need is within a mile radius of the development but figuring out in which direction is still rather tricky ;-)

This afternoon we went to a Memorial Day party in the cul de sac and got to meet some more of our neighbors while the kids played bean bag toss and basketball in the cul de sac. 

Here are a few pictures:

Beverly Crest Pool & Racquet Club

This afternoon we walked down to the Beverly Crest pool with the younger cousins and got acquainted with the pool and the playground , after which the kids played outside all afternoon. Amelia did her best to keep up with the older kids but she was sacked out by the end of the afternoon. 

Carolina Cousins

(They were attempting to catch fish in plastic buckets at the lake after dinner.)

Ice Cream Break

We've Arrived!!

We made it to Charlotte after an eleven hour drive during which the kids were remarkably good, considering, well, it was an eleven hour drive. 

After a tiring night of unpacking and bathing at least 50% of us, this morning we ran some errands and then spent the afternoon at the JCC pool, after signing up for a family membership which is half the price that the Weymouth Club was. 

Here are some pictures from today. 

The girl cousins shopping at Target this morning:

Charlie passed his swim test at the pool so he got his green band and can go in all parts of the pool including the slide and diving well:

And here are a couple pics of Amelia and Rebecca enjoying themselves pool side:

Water Gun Fight

Valley Green

Yesterday I took the kids for a hike in Valley Green with my friend Jessica. We had intended to hike to the statue of the Indian that we had hiked to as kids but we couldn't quite find it :-) We had fun nonetheless and also enjoyed a nostalgic lunch at my favorite hoagie place afterwards. 

Here are some pictures:

And We're Off!

An Empty House

The movers showed up at 10am this morning and made short work of all our stuff, while Charlie had his last day of school and Aunt Sue came down for the afternoon to have lunch and see the kids one last time before we hit the road. 

Tomorrow we pick up the pets & the rest of our luggage and head out!

Ok *NOW* It Looks Like We're Moving

The packers came this morning and packed everything up and the movers come bright and early tomorrow morning to haul everything out! This is our last night sleeping in this house after ten years and two children... EEK!! 

Long Weekend

This weekend was in a word: busy!! Which may be the understatement of the decade. 

Friday night (after being stuck in work until 6pm) I did laundry and began to halfway organize things to pack. 

Saturday morning Grammy and Grampy came over for one last (extremely helpful) visit before the move. While Mike and his dad put in a new garbage disposal, Grammy kept the kids occupied while I packed up most of the clothes that are coming to Charlotte with us instead of storage, and managed to get a bunch of other things organized as well. 

After his parents left, Mike took his box of magic cards (which yes I almost threw out but that's because they were in a binder and I didn't SEE them) to a hobby & game store and sold them for $575 which was a great start to our yardsale weekend. 

He got home shortly before Dave, Deb, Andrew, Phil & Sue arrived. The cousins babysat Charlie & Amelia while Phil, Sue, Tom, Sharon, Mike & I went to the Midwest Grille for dinner, which is probably still my favorite restaurant in Boston.

We didn't get to bed until just about midnight (after drinking large quantities of sangria) and were up and dressed bright and early this morning getting ready for our yard sale. I had put an ad on craigslist Friday night advertising it from 9am to 2pm, but people started showing up earlier than that, so that Mike and I even had trouble getting everything outside because there were some items of furniture that required 2 people to carry out and there were so many people that I couldn't get away. 

The first 2 hours of the yardsale were extremely busy and then it slowed down. We wound up donating a bunch of stuff to good will and leaving a bunch curbside afterwards, but the trash pickers made short work of that. Between the yardsale, the pre-yard sale (letting my co-workers have first dibs at a bunch of stuff) and a few items we sold on craigslist who's profits did NOT go to the ferret vet bill we made about $560, a great start to a week that will involve gas money, food, tolls, hotel rooms, packing supplies, car maintenance stuff, paying the Comcast balance when we turn in the cable boxes... So really if the money lasts till Thursday I'll be impressed ;-)

After the yard sale Mike went out to donate a bunch of the stuff we didn't sell and to buy packing supplies to pack the TVs because if the packers do it they will charge $150 per tv and we have 3 TVs so that is just crazy.

After he got home we took the kids for dinner and ice cream as a reward for being halfway good during a long day in which they pretty much had to entertain themselves, after they got bored of the yard sale. 

When we got home we took a break for one nano second before we got back to packing and organizing, then put the kids to bed. Mike packed up the computer, video game systems, and un-mounted the tv in our bedroom while I organized all the take-with-us-to-Charlotte stuff into one spot, did a last load of laundry, packed up the ferret play pen and gathered all the kids' electronics to be charged and packed into my backpack for easy access during the car ride. 

Now it is 11pm and Mike & I are both fairly catatonic. Tomorrow the packers will be here at 8, Charlie has to get off to school, Mike has a doctors appointment, car service, and has to drop the modem and cable boxes off at comcast. I have to pick up the kids medical records and grab something at Iparty for Charlie to pass out at school on Tuesday, his last day. And we have to actually get the TVs packed. 

How bad could it be after the last two days, right? 

A Day Of Lasts

Today was a day of lasts -- my last day working at Hancock Park and Mike's last day in the office at the Volpe Center (and last time commuting into Boston). It was  also Amelia's last day at Merry Deb nursery school -- this morning she said to me, "Mom, today is my last day at Merry Deb and then what happens...?" I was like "Umm I'm pretty sure we've gone over this before but let me refresh your memory..." 

It was also Charlie's last day of Taekwon do and last night was his last night of homework for the year because he won a no homework pass at school today which he will use for Monday night's homework. 

Tomorrow's yardsale has been rescheduled to Sunday since it's supposed to rain, so tomorrow we will be packing up what we're taking to Charlotte, instead, and Mike's parents are coming down for one last visit and to help Mike put the new garbage disposal in. 

Tomorrow night we are going out with Phil & Sue and Tom & Sharon, which will somehow manage to be fun and sad at the same time. 

So I guess today was a happy day of lasts and tomorrow will be a sad day of lasts :-(

LegoLand

We spent the evening at LegoLand in Somerville, courtesy of Phil. The company that he works for did some of the electrical work, so Phil was able to get tickets for us all to get in this evening, which was "Contractor Appreciation Night" or something. LegoLand does not actually open to the public until next week, as it was literally just built. 

The kids had a great time -- the theme park is for kids aged 3 to 9 and they both enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Trying to round them up to get from one exhibit to the next was like herding cats --? Is that how the expression goes ? The park features all things Lego including 2 amusement park rides and a 4D movie , which it was very fun to watch Amelia's reaction to -- she kept trying to reach out and grab things off the screen and pretty much shrieked non stop through the whole thing. 

As you can imagine both kids went to bed solidly past their bedtime, but it was well worth it. 

Here are some pictures of the kids:

And of the amazing Lego Boston:

Showing The Bunny Her Bunny

OMG It's Both My Children!

I came across this picture while cleaning out the filing cabinet in the office this morning. I have no idea how old Mike is in this picture -- 7? But the resemblance to both the kids -- particularly Amelia, who I always thought looked like I don't know? Someone else? Is uncanny:

Charlie's 8 Year Check Up

Charlie had his 8 year well visit this morning, scheduled strategically just before we leave for Charlotte. 

At 55 1/2 inches tall and 78 lbs he continues to be off the charts for height, but his pediatrician noted that his weight gain has slowed down. (As in 95th percentile for weight instead of off the charts.) She said this was probably fine -- we have noticed a marked decrease in his appetite over the past 6 months or so, and I mentioned this, but she said as long as he was still eating a healthy variety of foods that she thought it was ok.

My main concerns were his decreased appetite and the fact that he often complains of stomach aches at night; when the doctor asked him to point to where his stomach bothers him he actually pointed very high up, not to his stomach at all but really more like where it would hurt if he had reflux , which would make sense since he says it bothers him specifically when he's lying down. So we're instructed to try Tums and see if that makes a difference. 

Otherwise his check up was uneventfull except for Amelia being her usual pain-in-the-butt self: "Charlie, tell the doctor all you eat is chocolate!" 

I requested all the kids' medical records, vaccination forms and school/camp readiness forms & those will be ready for pick up by the end of the week. Add it to the list of things to do...

Last Sunday At The Lake

Today we went up to New Hampshire for the last time before we move, and possibly the last time ever, if Grammy and Grampy manage to sell the house like they're hoping. 

We walked down the street and said goodbye to Uncle Gordon and Aunt Joyce, and Charlie and Mike attempted to fish but only caught one fish and had a few nibbles -- the fish were pretty quiet today. 

Grammy and I played a game of Tok with the kids, and of course we had a delicious dinner.

Fortunately we were spared having to say our goodbyes, because Grammy and Grampy agreed to come down next Saturday to help us with the yard sale and to put in a new garbage disposal for us (ours bit the dust last week, perfect timing. ) 

Here are a couple pics of the kids fishing:

Mother's Day

Amelia made me this cute card:

(Apparently no one has told her about the whole 'writing from left to right' thing yet)

And Charlie made me this... Trivet? Tile? I was afraid to ask him what exactly it was :-)

Charlie also thoughtfully woke me up at 5:15am this morning because he thought it would be considerate to ask if he could go downstairs to play on the computer. I told him that it was much more considerate to let his mother sleep :-P

Thanks kids!!

Psychic

Friday night after work I went with a co-worker to a locally famous "tea room" for a psychic reading, since she wanted to go and I figured since I was about to embark on a major life event I might as well go too. (Also I walk by the place at least once a week and always think to myself 'who the hell goes in there?' Although since it's been in business for over 40 years a lot of people must. ) 

The experience in and of itself was fascinating, as we went in and were literally handed leather bound "menus" of all the services the tea room offered -- Palm reading ? Taro card reading? Tea leaf reading? Past life regression? Spirit mediums? They had it all! We both chose a half hour Tarot card reading, mostly because we had no idea what else to pick. 

Let's just say I hope that my psychic is NOT actually psychic because although she knew that I am moving, have 2 kids and came up with the name of Mike's boss, she also adamantly claimed that I'll be having a third child. (Noooo!!!)

My friend had less success with her psychic, who apparently talked a lot about her love life. ("She could have been talking about every guy I've ever dated!" she complained. 

Lunch Date With Aunt Sue

Sue came over this afternoon and we took the kids to Johnny Rockets for lunch (Amelia's request) and then to Emack & Bolio's for ice cream (Charlie's request. )

Here is Amelia thoroughly enjoying her chocolate ice cream cone:

More Birthday Celebrations

Yesterday afternoon we headed over to Phil & Sue 'a house where we had a completely delicious dinner of Chinese takeout, wine and an Oreo ice cream cake for Charlie's birthday. 

Here are a couple pics of Sue & Cjharlie with his cake...

Charlie's 8th Birthday

Today was birthday #8! I took the day off from work to celebrate the day with Charlie; we opened a few presents in the morning and then in the afternoon Grammy & Grampy and Uncle Phil and Uncle Tom came over for lunch and cake. We had a nice visit with them and Mike's Dad helped him replace the leaky faucet in the downstairs bathroom, our one assignment from the home inspection. 

Here are a few pictures of the festivities:

Going Away Party

My co-workers & friends threw a going away party for my last night at an upscale adults only bowling alley/ bar in Dedham. I would have more pictures except that the designated picture taker dropped and broke her phone halfway through the night.... We had a fun time though!!

Here is a pic of some of us!