Running for Cookies

Proud of Himself
Originally uploaded by BookMamma

Finn & Caleb ran their first official races today at the Cookie Run.

Caleb's was a 5K he ran with our friend Sandy and Finn's was a 1 mile Fun Run. Finn did the whole thing in under 16 minutes without complaining (much). Eli and I were SO proud!

Go to our Flickr site to see all the photos.

The View from Four Feet

Today's photo tour of our house will be presented by Finn, who somehow acquired the camera after I took a snapshot of a moment I'll call "Yogurt Celebration":



He wanted to take a picture of us together first. I thought that was it, but discovered these photos after I downloaded the ones I needed from the camera.



I could have done without the photo of my rear. I'm sure you could too.



Thankfully, Finn's next subject was more interesting...



... but seemed to have forgotten something.



A fascinating shot of the microwave followed.



As well as an artistic depiction of our kitchen floor.



Caleb was asked to pose, which makes me wonder why the camera wasn't confiscated afterward. The shutter seems to be a bit stuck, probably due to the finger that kept jamming it open.



A lovely couch scene...



... followed by some nature shots.


This one was experimenting with light & shadow.



From a dog's-eye view.



A set of geometric shape shots of the dining room table and the stairs -





Concluded by a secret shot of a recently dressed brother.


I hope you've enjoyed this photographic tour of the Hotwheel Hacienda, and it encouraged you to change your perspective every now and then.
As well as be sure to put your camera up higher than usual.

Tales of Birth Control

Story #1
It's 5:30 AM. Sleeping like any normal person would be, I am nagged awake by a strange, but familiar sound. I can't quite place it. And then I hear the muffled laughter. "They're OUTSIDE!" I yelp at Caleb, who bounds out of bed and retrieves both Finn and Eli, who thought it was a great idea to turn on the hose and water the tomato plants... in their pajamas at 5:30 in-the-freakin-AM.

Story #2
I'm switching out the clothes from the washer to the dryer. You've all done that, you know how long it takes. I move the clean dry clothes to a basket for folding, and I notice the silence. I head upstairs, confident things are fine and there's no way they had time to do something too bad. I can't find them anywhere. 

What I DO find is my MAC powder blush dumped into my expensive night cream, the red powder making the bathroom look like a crime scene. My makeup brushes are covered with the blush/cream concoction and floating in the toilet. 

Finn and Eli? Hiding behind my rocking chair in the bedroom, Eli sans clothes and adorned with very red, very moisturized streaks all over his body. Finn had used him for his own personal canvass, using the makeup brushes to create his masterpiece. 

Needless to say, the fun picnic we were planning at the Big Bug Gardens didn't happen that day. 

Story #3

Again, it's early morning, but more like 6:00 AM this time. Caleb is up and getting ready for work and I'm trying to cram in a few more minutes of snooze time before the boys wake up. Little did I know they were ALREADY up. I'm not sure, but this is how I think it went down:

Finn: "Eli, you should let Maybel out of her cage." (ie crate)

Eli: "OKAY!" He does. 

Finn: "Eli, you should let Maybel out to go peepee."

Eli: "OKAY!" He does. 

Finn: "Eli, we should take off all our clothes and swing on the swingset."

Ei: "OKAY!" They do. And this is how I found them. 

Three stories, all true... and ALL in one week. 

Hello Stranger

I know... my blogging habits have been less than prolific these days. Instead of telling you, I'm going to do what a good writer does and SHOW you instead.

Meet Maybelline. We call her Maybel.

We adopted her from a no-kill shelter after she was rescued from Doggie Death Row. She's a sweetie and will make a great pet for someone, but we're not a good fit. We have her on a trial basis and are placing her in foster care due to one of the boy's major dander allergies. I guess we're more of a fish family...

Eli's First Black Eye

... and hopefully his last. He took a tumble off some bleachers at a birthday party and stopped his fall with his head. The result was a HUGE goose egg that took our breath away:



St. Patrick's Day



We got to march in this year's parade with the library! It was a blast and the most well-attended parade I've ever seen in Huntsville. We decorated the bike trailer and even got these Wild & Crazy Guys to march too.

Top that off with work, work, and more work - and that's where we've been.
Hope YOU are doing well and seeing some glimpse of Spring in your neighborhood!

School Daze

So... this horrible thing happened today - Public School Rezoning Disaster.

(I know... again with the chipmunk.)

The PSRD pretty much means we aren't doing public school and are headed to private. And why work, school, and church in one city and live in another? So putting the house up for sale is looking likely. I hate selling a house. 

Good times. 

I was pretty upset, and cranked out the following correspondence to my city councilman. I thought I behaved pretty well under the circumstances... I had to keep cutting out mean things in my email to him, but in the end I think I still managed to get the point across. 

Somehow, I don't think my questions were answered. I'm hoping he just didn't want to blow smoke up my butt by making answers up. What do you think? 

-----Original Message-----
From: BookMamma
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 7:48 PM
To: The Councilman
Subject: school rezoning

Hi Councilman -

I'm sure you've heard quite a bit from your district about the school rezoning. I hope you will consider posting something on the district website to help us understand the change.

I'm pretty upset and my family hasn't even started elementary school!  

I can't imagine how other families must feel who will have to move their kids. My oldest son will start Kindergarten in 2010 and my youngest in 2011. We moved to Little City from the county when I was pregnant in 2004, primarily because of the fantastic school system. We were excited to find a house on because we knew Fantastic Elementary was coming. I was even more excited when I discovered how wonderful the teachers and technology were, and their principal is wonderful. When I heard a few months ago rezoning was going to take place, I wasn't really worried - we live less than a mile away from Fantstic Elementary, and I couldn't envision us being rezoned.

Please help me understand the logic behind the change announced today.

Explain to me why I shouldn't be upset from being moved to one of the newest, best schools with the best teachers in the city to one of the oldest schools. The experience I have had with the teachers at Sucktastic Elementary has not been great, but I am sure there are some good ones there. Their building is old, the technology bare.

Explain to me why we shouldn't put our house up for sale and move to Bigger City, where my husband and I both work, and where my kids will most likely now go to private school. (We are fortunate that we can afford private school tuition - by the skin of our teeth. I was planning on quitting work to be home for my kids after they started school. Now that a private school tuition is in our future there's no way.)

I truly want to understand. I know a rezoning doesn't mean instant upgrade for everyone. But why was our district chopped up so badly? We don't include the highest or the lowest income in Little City. Was Little City's middle class just the easiest to break up? And how will this affect our home value?

We will be attending the Town Hall meeting on the 12th at the high school. I appreciate your work as liaison to the schools and helping host this meeting.

Very Sincerely,
The BookMamma
From Your District


-----Original Message-----
From: The Councilman
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 9:44 PM
To:The Councilman
Subject: school rezoning

BookMamma,

First, thanks for contacting me. I hope you've contacted Dr Superintendent and the School Board as well. You've asked some great questions. Additionally, I've posted some basic info on the District website but want to wait and hear what Dr Superintendent says tomorrow night and then listen to residents at the Town Hall meeting before posting more.

I'll admit, I'm not happy with the proposed changes but realize that growth in our city has caused these changes. Has our District unfairly suffered the brunt of the changes? - it appears so but I'm willing to listen and ask that you do the same.

I will share with you that my daughter, now a sixth grader at Fantastic Elementary, attended 1st grade at Mediocre Elementary when we were rezoned to Fantastic Elementary. I helped build the play ground at Heritage with her and my oldest daughter; now a freshman in college. When Fantastic Elementary needed help with the playground - I was there with my daughter once again. So, yes I've invested a little of myself in both schools over the years.

One positive that I've found in the proposed changes is that the size of the classes are smaller at Sucktastic Elementary; not the individual class size but the grade class size. For instance, at Fantastic Elementary they have five 6th grade classes at an average of 30 students each; that's 150 6th graders. At Sucktastic Elementary they have two 6th grade classes of approx 30 each. Class size (student to teacher ratio) is dictated by State Board of Education. Of course this is based solely on the physical size of Sucktastic as compared to Fantastic and that has it's positives. I'll share that we have friends whose children attend Sucktastic...they absolutely love it for it's small size and are not happy about being rezoned to Mediocre Elementary. 

In the end I wonder if we'll make anyone happy.

Thanks again for contacting me and I hope to hear from you again on other issues that affect our city. Please introduce yourself to me should the opportunity arise at the meeting tomorrow night.

The Councilman
from Your District

My Infidelity

Dear Publix -

What we had... what we HAVE... is special. You had me at "Can I deliver that cake to your party?", and ever since then we have had a pure and monogamous relationship. But now things are different somehow... (dare I say it?) strained.

I know what the problem is. Every relationship has it at some point and time, some worse than others. Money issues. 

I shudder to play into the current paranoia, but in This Present Economy everyone's trying to find a few ways to trim the fat. Unfortunately, the HH's bacon is supplied by one in the non-profit sector - fundraising of all things! - and one in the finance sector. Not only that, but the finance gig happens to be one that is continuously mentioned on MSNBC, CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. Did I say continuously? I meant they seem to cover nothing else. 

So I slipped up. It wasn't my fault really. 

I was minding my own business: running errands, returning library books, pumping gas, etc. - when the seductive whispers began. 

Double coupons... the velvet voice said. 

"So?? I already have that!  You got nothing, Scissors," I replied. 

Double race car carts... IN FRONT!  the voice slyly retorts. 

"Um... I have that too. Except not in front," I lamely shoot back. 

Size matters - I have a LARGER organic selection... the whisper was like a caress. 

"Mmmm... So? I'm OK with an average size." My resolve was weakening.

And then Kroger went to work sowing more seeds of doubt, listing all of your weak points:

Publix doesn't have your favorite soup. 

(Campbell's low-sodium vegetable made with beef stock)

Remember the day when that pharmacist was mean to you?

And then the axe fell - the final sultry poison barb.

Come on, baby... they are so much more EXPENSIVE! 

I was devastated and ashamed, my dear Publix, because I knew that Kroger was right.  We had grown apart and let money divide us. You couldn't compete with the way I lusted after loading my coupons straight onto the KrogerPlus card online. No more clipping for me. And the satisfaction I felt at the check out line at Kroger left you feeling small and insignificant. 

At first I thought I could get away with just a few visits on the side, but I know now I'm hooked. 

So... do what you can to win me back, Publix. 

Until then, I think it's best that we just be friends. 

Where Did January & February Go?

I've been a bad blogger lately, and I blame work. By the time I finally get home I'm exhausted and want the free time I have to spend with the Family. The end is in sight, however! After next weekend I'll get a little respite from the deluge of authors visiting the library. 

Until then, I'm taking the easy way out & doing a photo post. 

The weather has been warm the past few weeks, and we took advantage by visiting the playground for a picnic. Of course, proper playground attire is Halloween costumes - didn't you know that? Finn went as a Knight in Shining Armor. 

Finn's First Dentist Visit - it went well, thanks to the promise of "prizes". He got one for getting his teeth cleaned and one for getting X-rays done. Fortunately, he picked out a toy for his brother. The whole ordeal produced a few tears, but they were mainly power struggles and not true fear. 

Happy Valentine's Day! We spent a lazy Saturday at home. Not terribly romantic but extremely restful! (At the risk of sounding sappy, every day is Valentine's Day at the Hotwheel Hacienda!)

Finn likes to "rock out" on the way to school each morning. Here he is playing air guitar to Dire Straits' 'Money for Nothing'. He has his Papa's taste in music. 

Also - I'm officially addicted to SwapMamas. If you haven't already, head over and check it out! I have some books & toys up to swap and am getting ready to post some clothes.