Smile for the camera

Here we are, just after we entered our first Disney park, Epcot, for the first time on Sunday afternoon, 13 July. We were still well rested and dry! Click on the photo to see it larger.

Nectar - it's not just for hummingbirds anymore

I caught one of our friendly neighborhoods squirrels drinking out of the hummingbird feeder that hangs off the side of our deck:

No wonder the feeder runs empty so often!

It was not only funny watching the resourceful rodent hang upside down, but when the hummingbirds got angry and started dive bombing him, the fun really started. Hummingbirds are NOT patient and tolerant, to be sure.

Another visit from the Tooth Fairy

Now both front teeth are gone and Aidan could not be any prouder.

RIP, Mr. Coffee

Coffee is not a luxury in our house, it is a necessity. I am not talking about a $4 foofoofino, just your basic rich, hot, delicious cup of caffeine each morning. And me without coffee in the morning is not only not pretty, but potentially dangerous.

Our Mr. Coffee coffeemaker, which was only about 2.5 years old, went on the fritz early this week. It huffed and puffed and made lots of noise, but not so much coffee. I cleaned it and tinkered with it to no avail…it was kaput. And what really annoyed me is that the one before this one lasted about the same length of time. We use the coffeemaker every day but we are not harsh people, so why do these things have such a short life? It’s as though they are the pantyhose of kitchen appliances!

I did some reading online and determined that I wanted to try out a percolator instead of another automated drip machine. Of course, the one I wanted that received excellent reviews on Amazon was not to be found here in Hooterville, so I ended up ordering it from Amazon. I was feeling cheap so I chose super saver shipping, knowing that it might be a week and a half before we received it. In the meantime, I used a mini French press that we have had for many years to make our morning coffee. It makes good, thick coffee but let's face it, I am lazy.

Much to my surprise, Amazon notified me that it shipped the percolator the same day I ordered it and it arrived via UPS yesterday, just two days later. Yippee! This morning we enjoyed hot, delicious coffee with a minimum of effort. Using a percolator does take more work than an ADM, but not much more...and, hopefully, it will prove to have greater longevity.

House of the Mouse

It was a good vacation, just tiring. As I said before, it was tough to keep a balance between the needs and wants of both a six year and a 70+ year old. I also felt as though I did not get much time to relax, which is my FAVORITE thing to do while on holiday, because we didn't want to miss anything. At first, five full days at Disney sounds like a lot but then you quickly realize that five full days isn't much at all.

All that said, I don't mean for this space to turn into a Disney saga day after day after day, nor do I want to overload anyone with photos. So I will post a few here and there and then move on with this thing I call my life.

Here is a photo of Aidan with Cinderella, the night we had dinner in her castle:

He was quite taken with her! He could not stop smiling.

And here are two photos from our very first night, which was a character dinner at Chef Mickey's:

Aidan was wide-eyed as Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto and Minnie walked through the dining area, hugging and posing for photos.

The character dinners were well worth the effort and cost, just to see the joy on Aidan's face! And, yes, we adults enjoyed them, too.

And we are back

We are back from Walt Disney World - safe and sound, happy and tired. We had a very good time but wow, we are tired.

WDW is overwhelming - so much to do and so many people around. Our lodge was lovely and spotless, but we learned that if we ever get to do it again, we will stay at a property closer to the main theme parks; we spent a lot of time riding the buses. But it was great to park the car on Sunday afternoon and not get back in it until yesterday morning.

I felt pulled in two directions by trying to keep a six year old and a 70+ year old happy; one made his wants and opinion known way too much and the other kept her wants and opinions to herself. James and I did our best to keep everyone happy, which often came at the expense of our own interests.

Pictures and experiences will appear in this space soon...I have to tackle laundry first and get my head out of vacation mode before I review the photos!

We're off to see the mouse

The much anticipated trip to Walt Disney World is finally here! We leave at o'dark thirty tomorrow morning to drive down to Orlando, and will return to Hooterville on Saturday.

The house is a flurry of laundry washing, grass cutting, bag packing, battery charging and list making. Mom arrived on Thursday and Aidan has done his best to tire her out before the trip even starts! The pet sitter is due in a few minutes to meet Spenser and get the lay of the house.

So plans are proceeding on schedule and in a little more than a week, I hope to have fun stories and photos to share!

Your life should be this good

I snapped these photos of Spenser having a cat nap in the sun room one afternoon last week.




Don't you wish your life was this luxurious?

Before...and after

This was Aidan yesterday:


His left front tooth was hanging by a thread and none of us were brave enough to give it a yank - ick. But he kept poking it with his tongue, making it stick out - double ick.

This is Aidan today:


His tooth came out during the night - "at 3:51, Mommy!" - and he tucked it under his pillow for safekeeping. Of course he questioned why the Tooth Fairy didn't do the tooth-money swap; I told him that the Tooth Fairy had already completed rounds by that time, and would visit him tonight.

If the Tooth Fairy remembers, that is!

Home sweet home

This is a photo of the house that I grew up in Strongsville, Ohio. My brother Mike and sister-in-law Tammie took this photo just a week or so ago when they detoured off the Ohio Turnpike on their way back to Michigan from Philadelphia. While the town of Strongsville has dramatically changed, according to Mike, our old neighborhood looks much the same as it did when we were children.

My parents lived there for many years, certainly long enough to pay off a thirty year mortgage. It's the house I was brought home to from the hospital - my room was in the front right corner. From the outside, it looks pretty much as I remember it.

By today's standards, it is a very modest house. It had three bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms and a galley-style kitchen. Although it had a full basement with half of it turned out in the common style of the 1970s as a "rec" room, there was no guest room, no bonus room, no play room. Yet I never thought of the house as being small. The family that lived next door to us for all those years raised six children in a house with the same overall footprint as ours and, again, no one ever thought of the houses as being small. They were the average size.

It was a good neighborhood in which to grow up. Just about every house had children and we all played together, sometimes well and sometimes not. We pretended our bikes were horses, we built forts, we climbed (and fell out of) trees. We caught lightning bugs and put them in jars, we played elaborate games of hide and seek, we tagged after the big kids until they chased us away. And if I got in trouble at the Knoblauch's house, then I was definitely in trouble at home.

But it wasn't all good; as an adult I have learned that the man across the street beat his children and his wife, that the man on the other side from the family with six children "ran around", that the family around the corner had a child that ended up in drug rehab. I don't know if my parents were aware of all this or not, that perhaps they simply kept a lot of information from me. Either way, I don't much care...I can honestly say that I had an idyllic childhood that was mostly free of anxiety and fear.

I have many good memories of the house in Strongsville. But I think I am glad that I don't live nearby and therefore can't see the changes another family has made or to see the overall changes in the neighborhood. In my mind, it will always be just the way I remember it.

Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in the US, when we celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776, declaring our independence from England. I always try to read the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day, to marvel at the foresight of the writers, the beauty of the language, to appreciate the sheer audacity of a bunch of upstart colonists to thumb their noses at the (then) greatest power on earth.

But while I celebrate that declaration and all that has taken place in the last 232 years, I also have my usual struggle with my country. It is great to celebrate that momentous day, but Independence Day has slowly distilled down into yet another day of inevitable store sales, but more troubling into a day of chest thumping superiority. There is no question in my mind that the United States has one of the best government systems on earth, that usually as a nation we strive to do the right thing and that we are, for the most part, hard working good people. But we do many things wrong and don't always learn from those mistakes, we try to throw around our weight as a superpower much too often and we simply don't take the time or brainpower to think about what we are doing.

And in recent years, anyone who dares to question our motives, suggests that things could be done differently or better, or even hints that other nations might have a better method, has been branded a traitor. Free speech and all that, as long as I agree with your free speech. Thomas Jefferson may not have actually said "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" but I still like the statement. It is only through dissent and questioning and searching for a better way that we seek to do better and achieve what is best for all of us.

Am I a proud American? I don't know. I am thankful most days to have been born in a country of freedom, of privilege, of opportunity. But I am conflicted about what I see, what I hear and the direction in which I think we are headed. We have to got to reevaluate our priorities, stop thinking that we are entitled to all that is big and luxurious, and learn to play a role in the world, not try to set the rules for the world. We need to examine all that has taken place over the past 232 years and determine what lessons need to be learned for the next 232 years. We need to remember what got us here, good and bad, and figure out how to go forward in a more thoughtful, intelligent manner.

So happy Independence Day, I think.

Halfway there!

Today officially marks the halfway point in Aidan's school summer vacation - yippee! It's not that I don't enjoy his company or want his fun times to end, but I am so SO looking forward to having time to myself again and having a bit more routine in our lives. And, no, I haven't shared this bit of calendar news with Aidan...

Speaking of The Boy, he was acting silly the other day and showing off his abs:

Not quite a six-pack...perhaps more like a milk carton?

It's the first day of July, and it's only 83!

Seriously, those of you who live in cooler climates have no idea how wonderful it is, here on the first day of July, to have outside temperatures of only 83 degrees Fahrenheit! It is 3:15 pm, almost the hottest part of the day, and it is only 83 - almost inconceivable in Georgia in summer.

When Aidan and I were outside just after lunch, I was sitting in the shade not in some futile attempt to escape drowning in my own sweat but simply my usual "Sun rays - bad!" method of protection. It was really quite pleasant outside. Well, except for the ferocious people eating mosquitoes - some things are inevitable.

And get this: I spelled "Fahrenheit" correctly the first time! Hoody-hoo!