Woke up at 6:30 a.m.  Took shower, got kids ready, and we dropped them off over at Mimi’s.  Drove 215 miles to drop Devon’s car off.  Had lunch in Dahlonega, GA (cute little downtown!).

Then we drove all the way down to where the Appalachian Trail officially ends at Springer Mountain.   It’s where most people start the trail, though.  But the tricky part was driving the narrow, winding 6.5 mile dirt road up to the drop-off area.  It took about 45 minutes.  6 miles… 45 minutes… it was crazy.  And Devon even made a comment, “What do people do if someone’s coming down??”  But luckily we didn’t meet anyone on the way up.

At the top, we got out and hiked up to the start of the trail which was just under a mile… mostly steep uphill.  My legs have not hiked in a while and need to get out more. 

Here’s a few pics from that:

Devon's hiking shadow with the trail head marker.

Then Devon took off for his hike on the trail.

I drove down the mountain.

The trip down the mountain on the road was harrowing.  The sun came out and so the shadows all over the road made it hard to see the big rocks and huge dips… my poor little Corolla and sometimes, I would come around a corner and the sun would be at an angle that would blind me and I couldn’t see anything.  AND on the way down THREE pick-up trucks were coming up.  What the heck?  Why are people coming up the mountain at 4pm?  Anyhow, twice I had to hug the edge of the road where there’s no rail and a straight drop-off as the truck squeezed by.  The third time, I was on the inside (whew).   About midway down the mountain, my phone rang and about scared the bejeebers out of me since I was so deep in concentration on trying not to slide off the  mountain.

I saw that it was Karey calling and… bless her heart… she tends to be the harbinger of bad news so I knew I needed to answer it (call me for happy stuff more often girl!!).  Anyhow, I stopped the car… on the tiny road on the side of the mountain… and talked to her and then by brother.  That’s when I found out that my mom is in the hospital again.   I called the hospital and the nurse said she’s got pneumonia but her oxygen was much better and they probably won’t have to intubate.

By the time I got off of the $%^&*##@ mountain road, I had to peel my fingers off the steering wheel.  Then it seemed to take forever to get back to 85.  Part of that is because I had to pee and I drove over 60 miles without seeing a single gas station, fast food or restaurant or anything.  It was crazy. When I finally found a corner gas station… the pumps didn’t work and there were bars on the windows… and the people all looked at me like I was a martian…  and the bathroom had no toilet paper, paper towels or soap (eeek).  I didn’t care… I was desperate.   I was just very grateful that, thanks to the kids, I always keep wipes and sanitizer on me these days.:)

Anyhow, after i got on 85, I made pretty good time until I hit Gastonia where the traffic came screeching to a halt and it took half an hour to go two miles.  Blarg.  I was so close to home… but so far away.  I didn’t make it to Mimi’s until 10:30pm and got the kids.

I just got a text from Devon… he’s still alive and doing well.  Now I just need to hear from my  brother.  He was going to visit my mom this morning.    Crazy day.

Watching the kids try to play Duck Duck Goose…. With just two people. The person who’s “it” pats the other person on the head continually saying duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, and then eventually screams GOOSE! And they run around crazily for a random amount of time until the goose person says, “Ok, my turn.”.

The conversation below occurred on the drive home from tai kwon do today.   As soon as we got home, I had to run upstairs and type it out because it cracked me up and I think they’ll get a kick out of it when they get older.

Me:  He’s going to college and he’s moved out now (I was talking about a friend’s son).
Mason:   Why’d he move out?
Me:  A lot of times when people go to college, they move out… but if you guys went to somewhere close by, like UNCC, you could live with us awhile longer if you wanted.
Mason:  I’m never moving out.
Me:  Never?
Mason:  Never!
Me:  What happens if you get married and have kids… you wouldn’t all fit in our house.
Mason:  But when I’m 50, you’ll be dead…
Me:  Hey!  I plan on being alive then!  Sure, I’ll be 80 something… but..
Kate:  I’m moving out.
Me:  You are?
Kate:  Yeah, I’m moving to China.
Me:  Wow… China.. that’s a long ways away.
Kate: Yeah (nonchalantly).
Mason (excited): You’ll have to learn Chinese!  I’ll call you and we can talk!
Kate: Ok!
Me:   We could video chat too.
Mason:  But Kate…  it takes like… TWO HUNDRED DAYS to get there. Why don’t you move to Indiana… or Texas!
Kate:  No!  I want to move to China!
Mason:  But… but we’ll never ever see you again.
Me:  It does take about 24 hours by plane… we’d probably only get to see you every six months or so.
Kate:  Oh……… well, I’ll move to Indyindia.
Me:   Indiana?
K:  Yeah!

It’s been a long time since I posted… so over the next few days, I’ll be adding some old posts.  Hope it’s not too confusing.   In the meantime, I wanted to write about today.

I had a good parenting day.   It’s kind of like a good hair day… with kids.  And like good hair days… they don’t happen often but when they do… woohoo!!   I went to Mason’s Valentine’s Day party at his school.  I LOVED seeing his face light up when he walked into the room from recess and saw me… he didn’t know I was coming.  But even when I volunteer every week in his class, it never fails that when he first sees me… his face breaks into a huge smile.   It melts my heart every single time.

Anyhow, during the party, I got to help him with his crafts (making a heart envelop for the valentines).  Then I got to help him pass out valentines.  Boy did that bring back memories.  And then he held my hand as we left school for the day.  When we got home, we all exchanged valentine’s and looked at all of the ones Mason got from his classmates.

I always ask for the same thing every year… a card and a box of chocolates.  I love the ritual that we have.  I take a bite off of the corner, then Devon tries it and then the kids try it.  They have their own candy as well… but we all share the chocolate box.  I hope this tradition goes on for years.   Devon gave me a really nice card.  Actually two… a sweet one and a funny one that involved vibrating popcorn and a song that will never leave my head. 

"Let's all go to the mooovies... Let's all go to the mooovies..."

Then tonight the kids and I played some games.  Mason is addicted to Trouble.  But we also played Connect 4 and Operation.  And we watched Up again.  I tried so hard not to watch the sequence in the beginning, but even from the other room, I still cried, just thinking about it.  I’m such a sap with that one.

Later, after the kids were put to bed, Mason came into my room and gave me a big hug and said, “Thanks for coming to my class party today.”   It was so incredibly sweet. And that’s why I wanted to update the blog… I wanted to make sure I have that little moment written down so that when I’m having my bad parenting days, I can remember that.

I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year.  I hate skipping it but I just can’t start another book with so many that are unfinished.  So my goal for this month is to take an hour each day and work on finishing last year’s book.  I did the 50,000 words, but the story was nowhere near complete.  I need to go back and edit and finish.  One hour a day… that will be 30 hours dedicated to it by the end of the month… I want a finished product!

Last night’s Halloween was a lot of fun.  One of our neighbors joined us with her son.  Him and Ian used to go to school together.   Mason was crazed.  Seriously, he was running so fast, he would miss houses, he’d go into the street while a car was coming.  We almost needed to leash him… lol.   Kate did great this year too.  It’s the first year we didn’t have to walk the kids up to the door.  No toddlers…was kind of sad too.

Here are some pics from it.  Devon did our pumpkins this year.  He did a really good job of them.

Kate had wanted to be a princess-ballerina-mermaid-duck-fairy… but I talked her into doing the mermaid-duck part next year… whew. So, she’s a princess-fairy-ballerina this year

I made the hat from a page I found on Pinterest.  That’s a cool site… I’ve found all kinds of nifty things to make on there.

Mason decided he wanted to be a Jedi again this year… but he said, “Mom, I want to be a blue Jedi.” So, he kind of ended up as a Tae Kwon Do Jedi… but the blue light sabre was all he really cared about. This is his “angry Jedi” face.

Happy Jedi

Trying to take the kid’s picture together was really hard… they had already had sugar at this time and were being really silly.

Another Attempt:

Attempt #3

Here’s the group right before we headed out.

The boys checking out the smooshed witch.

Mason and Ian in front of the globe… we have a pic like this from the last three years or so.

Kate and Cami

The kids were playing with their flashlights on the floor.  You get one guess on who was carrying which flashlight… lol.

The other day, I was doing some yard work and Kate decided this was her “perfect bed.”

She’s such a sweety.

I saved the piles until Mason got home so he could join in the fun.  This was his automatic reaction.

Kate got in on the jumping too.

Then Mason decided to try out the “perfect bed.”

He decided it needed to be a bit more fluffy.

When fluffing it didn’t work, he pulled these chairs out of the garage and set them up by himself.   He cracks me up.

Here’s a pic of Karey’s little guy Karsen.  He absolutely loves Elmo… so this costume is perfect for him.

Yesterday, Kate, Mason and I went to my friend Dani’s son’s birthday party.  The kids had  a blast.  There was a bounce house and face painting and balloons and carnival games.  Here’s a pic of Kate with her kitty on her cheek.  She refused to let it be washed off during bath last night so she could wear it to school today.

I’m looking forward to trick or treating tonight.  We always go with Lori and Russ and their kids.  This will make 5 years we’ve done this, I think.  I’ve got to finish Kate’s princess hat though and fish out Mason’s light sabre.   Plus, I need to buy some candy for the folks that show up before we leave for ToTing.  I had bought some earlier this week… but, of course, it didn’t survive. 

Happy Halloween all!!

Yesterday, the kids and I went over to the other Lori’s during the football game.  We had pizza and the kids played a lot.  I’ve been trying to go somewhere every game day so that I don’t have to deal with trying to keep the kids quiet during the game for Devon or his grumpy mood when they lose (although they won yesterday…. yay!!).  It was nice hanging at Lori’s because I actually got to watch the game AND she’s got a monster size TV… it felt like I was actually there.  Not to mention the much-needed girl talk.   Very pleasant afternoon.

Today was the first day that I dropped Kate off in carpool lane instead of walking her inside.  It was a little more emotional than I thought it would be.  No more clinging to my shirt and hiding behind me for the first few minutes.  Most days though, as long as there weren’t very many adults in the room, she got started playing fairly quickly and didn’t even notice my “I’ll be back in a few hours.  Love you!”

Today she was so excited to be dropped off and the smile on her face as she walked up the sidewalk… I’m tearing up again.  How can my baby grow up so quickly?

Ok…. ok… I need to get myself together.  I’ve made a list of hopefully do-able tasks today.

• Dishes (done… yay!)
• Reserve table for NoDa for Oct (done… yay!)
• 2 loads of laundry
• Clear off the table (it became a catch-all again)
• Sweep dining area
• Post three things on Etsy
• Make a banner for Etsy/Website
• Post on Sweetfire Creations FB page
• Do PUUC and PPP postings on FB
• Contact Dilworth Coffee Concord about setting up in Oct.

If I get all of that done… then anything else will be icing on the cake.  That sounds ok, right? Cross your fingers for me.

And awaaaaaaaay she goes…

Aaaagh.  I have so many projects I want to do right now and I can’t seem to focus on anything.

• Do a drawing series  (need white cardstock and then I’ll need to make prints and make them available for purchase)
• Finish lightbox  (still can’t find exacto will have to buy another when I go for cardstock)
• Take pictures of 7 jewelry pieces and drawings (need the light box)
• Make 6 hooks to finish off some necklaces
• Change my website – having Etsy do all of my store business but I need to take some pictures and do some banner work first
• Go check on my pendants at Miss Monkey’s shop (trying out a new display stand that I’m not sure if it will work or not)
• Make more inventory for the October NoDa sale.
• Contact a customer about a custom piece
• Put together 60 gift boxes for a wedding
• Plan a bridal shower
• Put together materials and information for classes and parties (origami, jewelry making, etc)
• List classes on the website
• Work on a book that I wanted to have done before November
• Study for and schedule the Praxis test

Along with all that… I still have all the household cleaning and chores, being the kid taxi, meal cooker, being their referee when both are home, entertaining them… and with Mason, that’s a full-time job… he does not play well alone and if I leave him to his own devices, he will destroy the house in a matter of minutes.

And one of my problems is a pessimistic attitude because I had planned to go back to teaching in January and I’m wondering if all this work on my jewelry/art website will be worth it because most likely when I go back to work full-time, I will no longer have time for it.   So, prioritizing… which has never been my strength… has been a challenge because I get all defeatist.  In the two minutes of time to work on the above items, I end up going to play a stupid Facebook game or reading a book… some form of burying my head in the sand.

Garrrrrrrr.

Ok… done venting.  I’m off to separate the warring children again.

How did almost a month pass by so quickly?  Man, time is zooming!   Things that happened since my last post.

Mason’s first day of school

He was cold and still a little groggy… he’s never really had to wake up for anything.  Normally he naturally wakes up before the rest of us and his preschool didn’t happen until 9:30am.

There’s the smile!

Sitting at his table.

Being shown where to put his lunch box.

I actually managed to make it out of the front of the building before I started crying.  It was tough though and then all the way back to the house I was snorking and sobbing.

So far, he still enjoys it although he sometimes says it’s boring.  Really Mason?  If he thinks kindergarten is boring… just wait.

Late August, my sister, Sheena, had her second child.  His name is RJ and he’s cute as can be!  Here’s a pic of the happy family:

Mason lost his first tooth this last Saturday (9/17).  He had been really excited but unfortunately, Devon and I hadn’t had the discussion about the tooth fairy beforehand and so Mason and Kate got to hear how stupid the tooth fairy is from their dad while I was simultaneously telling him to put the tooth under his pillow.  That along with a few other things made the day fairly frustrating… and I’m still angry and bitter about parts of it… grrrr.

On the good side, by that night, Mason was back to excited about the tooth fairy and I set a special “tooth fairy box” next to his bed.  I decided it would be better than under the pillow since Mason is a SUPER light sleeper.  The next morning he found a dollar and a note from the tooth fairy.  He added it to the dollar his Mimi gave him and wanted to go buy yet another BeyBlade with them.  He’s a BeyBlade and Pokemon fiend.

I know the tooth fairy is silly… but I think a little silliness and magic in the world is good for everyone.

Also on Saturday… Kerrie, Devon’s sister, had a baby shower.  That was a fun time and she got lots of loot.  Everyone’s excited to meet the new arrival. I’m excited because now I’ll have a new nephew (see above) and a new niece (see below) in less than two months. Woot!

So… time just zoomed by again… I need to scoot so I can get some stuff done before Mason ascends.