Happy Anniversary

Happy anniversary to these love birds who are celebrating their 54th anniversary today.  Wishing them many, many more!  

PS: Remember their 50th anniversary luncheon? 

Ballet

Dance resumes this week, and Lauren and Grace are very excited about getting back to the studio. As a bonus, several of their friends are in their class, which is great because they will be going an extra day this year. I have been mentioning the extra day to them to prepare them for the extra time commitment, but this weekend I ran into a former neighbor who shared that her granddaughter attends dance every day of the week -- and on the weekends! That type of commitment makes a twice weekly commitment seem more much manageable.  

Weekend Update

Y'all. Last week was really long for the trio. The girls had five tests on Friday, and we spent about three hours studying Thursday night to prepare. The reality of school finally hit, and they hit a speed bump because their new math teacher uses a few different terms than the "old" math teacher. The result has been that their minds - and apparently the minds of the class at large - have been blown. When I expressed some dismay about their confusion Thursday night, they said Mrs. H told them, "You guys act like you've never had math before!" 

Yes. Well. 

My advice was for them to use the terms interchangeably until they can make the transition to her way.  Both teachers are excellent, btw. They have had math before, but the summer brain drain must have hit class-wide.

George was not without his struggles. His best running buddy had received sutures last weekend and has had to sit out of PE and recess. Obviously, that stinks more for his friend, but George has been pretty bummed about it, too.  

We had scheduled a movie night for Friday, but after the week they had, they opted to have movie night in our bed. I can't say that I blame them.  

The girls had big plans on Saturday. Their tween group attended a church in the city, and they had a morning of fellowship. They then opened/sorted boxes of food and packed up 550 meals for some friends in need. They are so happy to know that 550 meals will be greatly appreciated.  

They spent the afternoon having more study time, and they topped off the afternoon with water balloon games. They stayed for a spaghetti dinner, and when we picked them up at 8pm, they were exhausted.  

In the meantime, George had the place to himself so we invited our sweet neighbor over for some play time. She ended up staying for lunch and for a part of the afternoon.  They literally played with every toy they could find and were verrrrry busy.  

Skip had a couple of yard projects going on during this timeframe. He had ordered a delivery of rock, and he proceeded to fill two flower beds in record time. It was brutal work that we likened to "prison work" - the kind from the old days that was later deemed cruel and inhumane.  The only upside is that he did get to carb load at Milo's. 

After church Sunday, the trio visited with Gran & Poppa, and we grabbed some lunch at Babalu's. Naturally, I had the carnitas, and Skip had a delicious shrimp medley.  

Enumerated Update

We made it through the week!

Our prayers and thoughts are with Texas this weekend as they brace for Hurricane Harvey.

In the meantime, here's where we are:

1) Tweens: After moving into the tween group at church, the girls had their first tween event Wednesday night at church - a Pringle Mingle! They had a great time and felt very big to be doing something outside of the children's program.

2) Satire: Admittedly, the ladies at Man Repeller got me with this one. I have a head cold, and my thinking this week has been further addled by the medicines one takes for such nuisances. Accordingly, I made it all the way to "Googlebook" before saying, "Oh, I get it."


3) Color of the Week: Essie's After School Boy Blazer. I'm not breaking out the Lincoln Park After Dark just yet.

Btw, why is Lincoln Park at Midnight so hard to find?


4) For Sale: The Plaza is for sale again. Swoon.


5) Pick up lines that would work on me. Ha!


Have a wonderful weekend!

First Day of School

First day of school

The first couple of days of school were highly anticipated and ended up being really fun. Grace and Lauren were reunited with their friends and are really excited about changing classes.   

George was also reunited with his friend from preschool (K2-K4), C! I volunteered at school for the first couple of days, and the principal told me she wished she had had her phone with her to take a picture of George at lunch. She said he was having the time of his life with all of his friends. 

Because we had to be at school at 7:15 the first day, I took more thorough photos on the second day of school.   

Second day of school

Grace and Lauren choose to reuse their backpacks from last year

After two full weeks, they now have the routine down. The girls are incredibly excited about being fifth graders because, at their little elementary school, this makes them seniors. George is thrilled about everything first grade related... his classroom, the BIG playground, PE, etc. 

2017-2018 is going to be GREAT! 

Meet the Teacher

We are normally super early on the purchase of school supplies. However, this year we ran way behind because 1) our school was a little late getting out the supply lists and 2) we were traveling when it was received. We also missed the tax free holiday weekend, meaning that when we finally shopped, everything was picked over. We were outraged and made all kinds of vows to never be late again. (Kidding.)

We had decided to go early one morning to gather supplies, and I shared our plans with everyone, individually, the night before. Here are their responses.



School Supplies, Grace from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

School Supplies, George from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

School Supplies, Lauren from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

So we got the school supplies, and Lauren helped me sort, label and pack everything.  Soon enough it was time for Meet the Teacher night, and we took all of our supplies to school, got teacher assignments and met our teachers. Gracie got Mrs. L, Lauren's favorite teacher that she has had for the last two years, and Lauren was assigned a teacher that is new to their school. The fifth grade classes will be rotating, though, so they will each have three different teachers. George was assigned our beloved Mrs. Q.

Gracie looks very nervous here to have landed "Lauren's" teacher. While Lauren was blinking back tears, Gracie was nervously trying to figure out a way to spare Lauren's feelings. Lauren's tears were brief, and Lauren promises to give Mrs. K a fair chance (she likes her already). Also, they understand changing classes a little better now.  

We think it's going to be a great year. 

Lauren's Vacation Report: Outer Banks, NC

Lauren wrote another vacation report after our trip to Outer Banks, North Carolina, and she is letting me share it with you. (I should mention that I am very tardy in posting this because I wanted to find a couple of photos to accompany her words. My apologies, Lauren.)  

Hi guys! I'm writing another report on my vacation. My Dad's side of the family and I are in... Outer Banks, North Carolina! (Big thanks to Sumit, the Guptas, and SAGA)

On Friday, we drove  halfway, well a little over halfway, and we stopped in Lumberton, North Carolina. We had dinner at Ruby Tuesday and then went to bed.

On Saturday, we drove the rest of the way to OBX and reunited with family. If you don't know their names let me tell you, but if you do, this will be a good review. Okay so my younger cousins are Reagan, Harper, and Connor, and my adult cousins are Lori, David, and Sumit. My uncle is named Bill and my aunt is named Kathy. My family friends are Charlie, Pam, Johnny, Zane, Shewta, Omit, Iyan, and Annika. After we had arrived, we swam in the pool for a little while, went to the beach, had dinner, and went to bed.

On Sunday, we had breakfast and went to the pool to swim for a while, and then went to the beach, and then my Dad and Sumit did the paddle board! After we played at the beach for a while, we went back to the house that my family and I are staying in this very nice house by SAGA, which is called The Ocean Star. We had Sumit and his girlfriend, Tayna, over for dinner. We had some BBQ and with coleslaw on the side, (Thanks to Mrs. Pam and Aunt Kathy!) watched this American Ninja Warriors show, and went to bed.

On Monday, we got up and had some breakfast. Then we swam in the pool for a while and then we went to the beach that afternoon, then we ate dinner, which was tacos, (Thanks Mom and Dad!) watched Star Wars, (the second one) and went to bed.

On Tuesday, we had a rainy morning, so we, (Dad, Mom, George, Gracie and I) went for a drive. We drove north and learned some interesting facts about the Wright brothers and their invention, the airplane. Afterwards, we decided we wanted to go out for lunch, so we went to this restaurant called Pizzazz and had some pizza and french fries. Then we went to this fun beach store called Super Wings to buy some souvenirs. My parents bought me a float and this really cozy sweatshirt! Thank you Momma and Daddy!! Last of all, we went to to a sunglasses store for Mom and Dad to buy some new sunglasses. Daddy decided to use his old sunglasses (mom's currently) and Mom bought a new pair. We drove home and Uncle Bill, Aunt Kathy, Mrs. Pam, Mr. Johnny, Zane, Dad, Mr. Charlie, Gracie, and I went to the b each while everyone else stayed at the pool. Guess what I saw... A CRAB!!!! It was so ugly! No offense Mr. Crab. After the crab drama, Daddy and I played football in the sand. Let me give you a tip from Uncle Bill, the water is VERY COLD!! We went back to the pool for a quick swim. We got out and took quick showers in time for dinner which is... Hamburgers and hotdogs! (Thanks Uncle Bill, Daddy and everyone else!) Yummy! After dinner, we had Sumit over to visit and we all watched Scooby Doo and went to bed.

On Wednesday, we ate breakfast and we were planning on going to this water park, so we all got in our swimsuits and applied sunscreen and then we drove to the water-park. When we got there, we were in shock. The park was SO BIG!! We met up with Sumit since he had bought us all tickets (Thanks Sumit!) and got them scanned, so we were able to go in. We were looking for seats (it was VERY crowded) and then we saw this nice cabana, so we decided to sit in there. Okay-, first, we went in the wave pool. That was really cool! Then, we did this fun obstacle course. After that, some of us went on this very big water slide. I went on it and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!! Well, except for the part when we slid down so far and went all the way back up. We did the lazy river and all sorts of other fun stuff. We took a break to have lunch in the cabana, (Thank you for ordering my food momma!) and we let our food settle for a few minutes and then we went back into the wave pool to swim a little bit. The rest of the family decided to go home and Dad, Mom, my siblings, and I stayed and swam for a little bit longer. Two hours later [ed. five hours later], we picked up McDonalds and ate some dinner in the car, basically like a car picnic. After dinner, we drove home, showered, and went to bed.

On Thursday, we got up and had some breakfast. Then we decided we wanted to go to the beach, so everyone changed into their swimsuits, applied sunscreen, and walked to the beach. The water was really cold, so we built some sand castles instead. Aunt Kathy showed me how to make the sand castle perfect, which was really useful, thank you Aunt Kathy! We made some mountains, moats with creatures (made out of sand) in it, and all sorts of stuff. Around lunchtime, we went back to the house and ate some lunch and swam in the pool for a while. Around 4:30, we started showering because the Guptas were coming over for dinner. When the Guptas arrived, we had dinner and had a bunch of fun and then we went to bed.

On Friday, it was VERY hot outside, so we watched the movie 'The Boss Baby' that morning. Then later that morning, we decided we wanted to go to the pool, so we changed into swimsuits, applied sunscreen, and swam in the pool for a while. At noon, we were hungry and it was getting ever more hot outside, so we went inside, changed, and ate some lunch. After lunch, we watched two movies 'Cars 2' and 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2'. When we finished watching, George, Grace, and I took showers, and then went down to dinner. We had some hamburgers. (thanks Uncle Bill and Daddy and the side dish cooks) After dinner, we watched a little bit of AquaMarine, said goodbye to everyone, and went to bed.

On Saturday, it was time to leave. I LOVED this trip and was so happy to see my family again. Well Grace, George, Dad, Mom and I headed for the road.

Thanks to: Family, the Guptas, and SAGA

Solar Eclipse 2017

When the duo visited the planetarium back in May on one of their school field trips, they were told all about the total solar eclipse on 08-21-2017. They saw a film that explained the path of totality and saw that our city would be within the 90% path. They were pretty excited.  

As time grew close, their school made the decision to view the eclipse indoors on screens. We respect and support the decision completely, as it would be challenging to monitor a large group's viewing experience to ensure safety for all. However, all students were given the option of an excused check out to view the eclipse on their own.  

Our town hosted a big event, but in the end we opted to stay home so that we could get a glimpse of the eclipse but also watch the footage. Our neighbors were home and out also so it ended up being really fun.  

I took a photo of the cool shadows several minutes after totality, but I still managed to get a few.  

During the eclipse I was mostly making sure William George did not stare at the sun without glasses. I definitely remember a big showdown with him in the car when he was two years old and kept looking at the sun. We all were telling him to stop staring at it, and he finally got really frustrated and yelled, "I'm not looking at the sun! Sun's looking at ME!"  Given his history, I was focused on making sure he didn't damage his vision, and therefore, took minimal photos. Below is my one shot when the eclipse was almost over.  

The trio's school made this event really fun. They aren't allowed to have parties so I definitely wouldn't say it was a party, but, yeah... you know. (Wink-wink.)  

George shared his schoolwork from earlier that day with us. He made an eclipse model, and he read his eclipse book to us.  

I talked with one of our local librarians this morning (they hosted the city-wide event), and they had a wonderful turn out. She knows they had at least 700 people present because they gave out that many pairs of glasses before running out. If you are local and in our library, be sure to voice your appreciation. While we ultimately didn't attend, it was such a great local option, and I'm glad the event was well attended.  

Were you in the viewing path? Did you watch? Did you watch via screen?  

Weekend Update

So it's Monday, and I hear something funny is happening with the moon today? Did you happen to hear that?

Before we begin our 2017 Solar Eclipse party, here's a brief look at our weekend.

First, the trio were really tired from their first full week of school. Therefore, we took it really easy Friday night. We had a rare taco Friday which was awesome until George looked at me and said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking???"

"I don't know. What are you thinking?" I asked.

"CHEESE DIP!!!!!!"

Sadly, I had to tell him we were out of queso, and he suggested I prioritize a trip to Costco, pronto.

By the way, can I give a little aside here. So my dad's family has some Native American ancestry, with both my paternal grandparents ancestry being pretty noticeable in their physical appearances. I don't remember the amount, but I seem to recall hearing either 1/32 or 1/16 being discussed.

We recently learned that one of our neighbors of eleven years has some more significant heritage, and they were recently out of town. Their daughter explained that they were at a pow-wow. A bonafide pow-wow! We thought it was the coolest thing ever, and we are definitely going to learn more the next time we see her. Sure, it's not unusual for people in our area to have Native American ancestry, but how many people can say they have been to a pow-wow?

By the way, I realize "pronto" shouldn't segue into pow-wow (I know "pronto" is Italian/Spanish.), but that's just how my caffeine fueled mind is working this morning with those two p-words.

We had a little more structure Saturday. While Skip had a tennis match, the trio and I secured eclipse glasses, and I took the opportunity to compare the eclipse-glasses craziness to Y2K preparations. Do you remember that? The Y2K end-of-the world, will-our-cars-even-work, what-will-happen-to-the-power-grid insanity? Skip proudly served on the Y2K compliance team at our employer at the time. It was very similar to the eclipse glasses craziness, except it lasted six months instead of a week. The girls thought it was pretty comical.

After some lunch, we had a family date night, consisting of grabbing some pizza and visiting Target. (We also took some photos prior to the start of the evening, and a treat from Target was everyone's thank-you for cooperating with me so that we can use my photos instead of hiring a photographer, which we are glad to do, when needed. However, it's kind of nice to recoup the expense of camera equipment by saving money on photographers. :)

We had an awesome church service on Sunday. The girls had moved up from children's church to the tween program last Sunday, but we had a hectic time so we recreated photos to capture that moment. They are so excited to start the program and enjoy some tween privileges.

How was your weekend?

Enumerated Update

It has been a long couple of weeks. We have our routine up and running, and we are settling in. A few people have asked me what it's like to have all three children in school, and I truthfully don't know.

I have had commitments every day and have not had any time to really know. Next week will be more quiet, and I will post updates on all things back-to-school related.

1) Swift Justice: I have to tell you... I wouldn't call myself a fan of Taylor Swift's music, but I am a fan of her performance on the witness stand.

2) Fall: We have weeks and weeks of 90 degree weather left, but I am starting to get antsy for fall. I dreaded the end of summer vacation but now that the trio are back in school I am resigned to it and demand some fall-like temperatures.  Who's with me?

3) Phone Prone: This has been circulating everywhere, but in case you missed it here it is again. Find out what happens when one CEO decides to respond to every e-mail with "call me". I started texting when the kids were little and having a phone conversation was challenging and complicated by background noise, but I definitely agree that the phone is much more efficient.

4) SATC: The geniuses at ManRepeller recently recreated the iconic SATC costumes in an updated photo shoot.  I love these so much!

5) Amelia Island: We visited Amelia Island at the beginning of summer, and so many people told us how much they LOVE the island. Two things we especially loved are 1) the wildlife and 2) the fact that it isn't busy over Memorial Day. As it turns out, Southern Living loves it, too!

Happy weekend!

Imogene Austin, March 10, 1930 - August 13, 2017

We lost this lovely lady at the young age of 87 this past Sunday. She was my favorite, and she was one of my children's favorites, too. When I was two, I spent a week with her while my mom had surgery, and the big joke was my vocabulary expanded while staying with her. She inadvertently taught me my first swear word, and I used it correctly back at home when I got frustrated with a toy. She got me out of trouble by negotiating a deal in which I promised to never say the word again. It became a longstanding joke.  

Our Aunt Imogene had many talents but excelled at being a maker - sewing, knitting, crocheting, etc. She literally could make anything, and our home is proud to showcase many of her works. She had a spark in her eye, a quick laugh and broke from convention in ways that were endearing (she drove a motorcycle in the 1970's). 

She will be greatly missed.   

Weekend Update

Y'all.

This morning I walked into the kitchen to find this on the calendar:

Lauren had removed last week's page to reveal the page we had all been dreading. We are really trying to muster some excitement, but mostly we want to stamp around the house complaining about the end of a great summer. We are getting there. We're trying. It's going to come together. I can feel the beginning of a big pep talk beginning to formulate in my mind, and from there, will sell it to everyone else.

Because really, it's going to be an awesome year. (See, you really can talk yourself into it.)

Before we get geared up for back-to-school this week, we had a fantastic final weekend of summer. The trio had a spend the night party with Grammie (+Lexie), and they had an awesome time. Skip and I had a great date night, and then took everyone out for breakfast Saturday morning. Other highlights included the trio spending some time with Gran & Poppa. As for us, we ran a lot of errands, read and carved out some time to finally watch "The Circle".

Although the book was fantastic, the movie received horrible reviews, but I think if you've read the book, the abridged nature of the movie is forgivable since you already know the backstory. The book is significantly better. As far as the plot deviation, we were very surprised to see that Dave Eggers also co-wrote the screenplay because it was quite a departure from the book.

Other than that, we worked on some home projects, continued to get ready for the imminent start of school and just generally had a good time during our final easy days.

Enumerated Update

Photo by Norbet Fritz

How has your week been?

We have spent the last full week of summer cleaning, reorganizing and rearranging the upstairs bedrooms.  This type of project doesn't make for riveting blog material, but was necessary, time-consuming and exhausting.

Other than that, here's where we are:

1) Back to school organization: Some genius back-to-school organization ideas were shared on A Bowl Full of Lemons.

2) Fasting: I'm going to confess that I have never really understand the Biblical/spiritual aspect of fasting. Whenever I am trying to understand something Biblically, I usually look for some type of scientific/medical explanation (and vice versa). For example, all of those guidelines in Deuteronomy about planting our crops in certain rows makes sense to me when I think of crop rotation. (Now is a good time to mention that I am neither a Biblical scholar nor an agricultural specialist.)

As it turns out, fasting has a ton of medical benefits. Specifically:

“PKA is the key gene that needs to shut down in order for these stem cells to switch into regenerative mode. It gives the OK for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system,” explained Longo, noting the potential of clinical applications that mimic the effects of prolonged fasting to rejuvenate the immune system. “And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting. Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system.”

A whole new immune system? Yes to that.

3) The new blog: I agree wholeheartedly that Instagram is poised to complement (replace?) blogs in a way that other forms of social media are not. Instagram is "light" blogging, and the photo-centric nature of it appeals to bloggers (IMHO) far more than Facebook.

4)  National Geographic Photo Contest Winners: I'm completely overwhelmed by these images. (First place winner from the "cities" category is shown above.)

5) Unplugging: We adore Aziz Ansari. In full disclosure, we never watched Park & Rec. However, Skip got me to watch all of his stand up specials, and I recently watched Master of None, which was exceptionally good. Ansari is smart, funny, insightful, and we like his humor.

And I especially appreciate his likening the Internet to "reading wrestling rumors". So much truth there. 

(Language advisory on this one but funny nonetheless.)

Have a great weekend!

LensRentals

My camera stopped working in May at a very inopportune time. Specifically, it stopped firing during Grace and Lauren's dance recital performances. Fortunately, I had taken tons of photos during the dress rehearsal so all was not lost. Plus, I was able to resuscitate the camera later by removing the SD card and was able to get a few more shots later on in the month. However, soon enough the camera died completely, and I am planning to send it in for repair because, although it's 8+ years old, there has to be some more life remaining.

In the meantime, I had been saving money for, like, five years (seriously) for a replacement, and for the last two years Skip has been encouraging me to go ahead and pull the trigger on the purchase because my favorite subjects are getting older by the day. I continued to hesitate for two reasons... first, I knew I wanted to upgrade, and I was very reluctant to hand over the money. Second, I wasn't sure what to buy and was terrified of making a mistake.

"Terrified" might be a strong word, but I get very concerned about making major purchases. Skip once told me that my face turned beet red at the Apple store while purchasing an iPad for myself, and I'm sure my blood pressure was elevated.  In short, I never get "new car" fever, and I never have money burning a whole in my pocket. Instead, I get "new car" panic attacks.

Any rate. After narrowing the options down to two (a new Nikon D810 or a used D5 - both choices would be roughly the same cost with obvious pros/cons), I was still stumped, and therefore, took a couple of years to overthink the whole thing. What if these cameras were too complicated? What if I painfully parted with my savings and regretted the purchase? Best to stick with what I know until the existing camera dies...which it finally did.

I narrowed down the choices and was leaning toward the D810 due to its impressive 36mp and the warranty that would be available with a new purchase. Since I was still nervous about being able to use the camera, I looked into rentals and had the very best experience with LensRentals.com out of Memphis, Tennessee.

First, I went online and ordered the camera. I figured the rental price was a small insurance policy against buying the wrong camera, and speaking of insurance, I decided to avail myself of their added coverage since we would be taking the rental on vacation to Amelia Island. I knew this company had a sense of humor when I saw all of the eventualities that would be covered under their policy.

Good to know bear attacks are covered, but as a former insurance person, I couldn't help but wonder if other types of animal attacks would be excluded. Bear = yes; mountain lion = no?

Second, I waited patiently for the camera to arrive, which it did exactly two days later, and was wrapped carefully. Also, the box was playfully designed with "Open the Fun!" exclamations on the box, making it harder to be intimidated by the camera. I was very impressed with the condition of the camera, which was brand spanking new.

Third, the camera performed perfectly on our trip. Although there was definitely a lot of user error (as with anything new), the D810 was intuitive and not completely overwhelming. LensRentals has an option to purchase any equipment rented from them, but because the camera I received was new, they were unable to match the pricing from my go-to option, B and H Photo, and they actually encouraged me to work with B and H in this instance in order to have the warranty. In short, they were awesome, and I was very sad to package and return their camera on our last full day of vacay.

Also, they had some more jokes with their furnished packaging supplies:

It is hard to turn red-faced and have panic attacks when you are amused.

If I had any remaining concerns about the purchase, I was completely convinced when I loaded these pics at home. Thirty-six megapixels of beauty!

I will definitely keep LensRentals in mind the next time I want to try out additional equipment.

PS: I should also mention that I had the usual great experience with B and H as well. They are awesome.

*This post is not sponsored by LensRentals nor B and H Photo.