DFW to ATL

We are getting to be regulars on this route. Just look at Leo here, my seasoned traveler. 

Sierra Mist is his drink of choice on the airplane. 

On this trip it was just Leo and me. We LOVE visiting our old friends in Atlanta, especially our besties, John and Ms. Claire. Here is a sweet moment when Leo greeted John as he was getting off the school bus.

Claire and I took the boys to Chattanooga for a little overnight excursion. They had SO much fun at the Children's Museum.

We played for three hours and would have stayed longer except we were hungry. So we went to Blue Plate, a restaurant we had all been to before and liked in Chattanooga. John snapped this photo of the mommies. (Yes, we needed beers after a morning at the museum with those two.) 

Here are our two almost-six-year-olds running around by the river; Isn't Chattanooga pretty?

Friday night I got to catch up with some of my favorite Atlanta girl friends: Carrey (one day over due when this was taken!), Maress, Chantal, Me, Monica, Claire and Amy. It was so fun to chat and laugh with these ladies.

On Saturday Leo and John were so brave and tough as they climbed Stone Mountain! 

Our last night, John reading Leo a bedtime story :) 

This trip was our last time to stay at John's house in our old neighborhood. They are moving at the end of April to another house in the area. "How will we know where their new house is?" Leo asked. "Hopefully they will give us the address," I told him. I think we are good enough friends for that!

The Question Game + A Questionable Art Project

Leo started asking me questions today and I didn't turn the camera on until it got funny. So we had to go back and redo some of the prior questions. He says it's a game he made up where I have to answer his questions with ten seconds or else…I forgot what happens but he seemed to be keeping score. 

Listen for my favorite question about which type of bread I prefer. That one is a keeper. 

It cuts off at the end because I ran out of storage. But consider yourself lucky. The game started to take a strange turn. 

And speaking of strange things...

Leo had "free art" at school today and he drew a picture of me IN THE SHOWER. I am grateful he--although very talented for a five year old--is not an advanced artist. I'm happy to just be a blob in this case.  If you can't read the words (that Leo had his teacher write for him), here you go:

Mommy is in the shower
Mommy saw a mummy and said, "Ah! A Mummy!"
Mummy said, "Ah! A Mommy!"

Yep, he's a questionable kid alright.

Kissin' Cousins

Leo has been curious about marriage lately. He often has questions like, "Why did you and daddy get married?" and "Can I marry John?" He and Gus play this game called "getting married" where they hold hands, spin around and chant, "We're getting married! We're getting married!" 

So I wanted to document this conversation we had in the car yesterday: 

Leo: Why can't I marry Gus? (He has asked if he could marry Gus before and I told him that was not allowed.) 

Me: Because you can't marry people in your own family. You can't marry your brother. You can't marry cousins either so you can't marry Ellie. 

Leo: But why? 

Me: (Not wanting to get into the whole "birth defects" topic…) Because it's against the law. 

Leo: What would happen if Gus and I did get married? 

Me: Well, you would go down to the courthouse to get your marriage license and they would say that you can't get married because you two are brothers. 

Gus: I can't marry Charlie either! 

I LOVE how Gus put together that if Leo and Ellie can't get married then he and Charlie can't either.

I'm sure Ellie will have many boys fighting for her hand, including her six boy cousins (as weird as that sounds)! 

Here are some pictures of the happy brothers (not happy couple): 

 First, Gus being cute (and only a small nuisance) at Market Street:

This morning I thought they looked older (especially Gus).

But not old enough to get married, thank goodness! 

Sweet Tea Scorecard

I can't help but compare the two states in which I've lived. Obviously Texas has Georgia beat on important matters like Mexican food and state pride. But the other day at one of these said Mexican restaurants, I had this conversation with my waiter:

Me: Could I have sweet tea, please?

Waiter: We only have unsweet tea. But we have Splenda and sugar you can add to it.

Me: Ugh, I miss Georgia!

Waiter: Did you say Georgia? That's where I'm from! I hate how there's no sweet tea in Texas too!

Finally, someone who understood. We went on to discuss the virtues of offering both sweet and unsweet to patrons.

See, this happens everywhere I go in Texas. Rarely does a restaurant offer sweet tea. I think this is their reasoning:

"Should we have sweet and unsweet?"
"Nah, let's just make one batch and let the people who like sweet just make their own. Who are we to know how much sugar they want in their tea?"

Now that makes sense. I can understand how this type of conversation could transpire and end in a MYOST (Make Your Own Sweet Tea) situation. But let me tell you why that is NOT ok:

Have you ever tried to sweeten your own tea? Okay, you probably have. But have you ever sweetened it to the point of good tasting sweet tea? Georgia sweet tea? Probably not.

Because when I try to sweeten my own tea, there is no amount of sugar, Splenda, Equal or the pink stuff that equals good sweet tea. If I were to put the right amount in my tea then I would be so horrified I couldn't drink it. Why do Texas restaurants put us in that position?

In Georgia, at serve-yourself restaurants they have two tea dispensers in the beverage center and they are both labeled "Sweet Tea." That makes me giggle but I don't mind because I heart sweet tea and think the other stuff just tastes like brown water. In Texas, they have the same two dispensers, both labeled "Unsweet Tea." Now that just ain't right.

I explained my theory to the waiter at the Mexican restaurant and he said that's what his dad says too--that people don't want to sweeten it themselves for fear they will know how much is actually in there.
So clearly I'm not alone here.

Texas, you have the best queso, the best rodeos, the best ice cream, the best college, the best trucks (if you're into that sort of thing), the best state fair, the best lack of a state income tax. But when it comes to sweet tea I give you a ZERO.

Thank goodness I still have Chick Fil-a, a Georgia based establishment, when I need a sweet tea fix.

LOL = Lots of Love

It's Valentine's Day and that means lots of parties, candy and projects! Since Leo loves art, he insisted on hand-making all his Valentines.

First, there were the Valentines for the senior citizens in a nursing home. I'm so glad I only signed up to contribute two! But I am proud of Leo for overachieving on these. His Valentines included a counting game, a maze, a recipe and "The love bunny."

In case it's hard to read, it says "You know the Easter Bunny, here is the love bunny."

The day before Valentine's Day, Gus' Bears Class had their party. Here is Gus about to dig into his own Valentines while cute Camille looks on.

They did a craft, exchanged Valentines and decorated cookies.

Gus may have decorated his face more than the cookie!

Leo's next big project was to make all 15 Valentines for his wolf class. This was definitely an exercise in patience for me. And I can't say I always had a lot of it. Once, when he had only done one Valentine in, like, an hour, I may have raised my voice as I said, "YOU committed to doing 15 Valentines for your friends! I would have bought them at the store and you could have just signed your name. But you said you wanted to make each one yourself. So you better get to work!!"

These too included a recipe. Leo wrote it once (which took ten long minutes) and I made copies.

If you look at the finished Valentine in the picture below, you can see that there is a little
bag attached with a rolled up piece of paper. The paper is the recipe and the bag contains Hershey's Kisses (so they can get started on making those Chocolate Surprises)!

Valentine's Day morning!

Leo's Wolf Class party. They drank strawberry milkshakes and ate wafers dipped in strawberry and icing. Then they exchanged Valentines, played a spoon and candy hearts racing game and played Bingo.

Gus even got to join in the fun!

Somehow, between all his busy projects, Leo managed to make me a bajillion Valentines. He actually brought me this one as I was typing this blog. He insisted that I include it in my Vday recap. 

I guess Valentine's Day is really all about the kids now. Good thing Frank isn't one for grand romantic gestures or I would feel like I was missing out. 

And the final rose goes to...

The other day I posted this on Facebook: 

"Had to decide between two fence guys. Now stressing about how to let one down easy. I could never be The Bachelorette."

I actually felt a little sick, thinking of how I was going to tell one fence guy that we decided not to go with him. I mean, he came over, chatted, gave us an estimate…there was a real connection there, just like on the Bachelor/Bachelorette (minus the hot tub). How do these Bachelors and Bachelorettes do this 24 times? 

I was so stressed about it, in fact, that I canceled the third fence guy (who was actually a fence girl) because then I knew I would have to let TWO people down! Sure, it's good to have three estimates to choose from (not sure why but three seems to be the typical number when it comes to estimates) but I couldn't bear to form a relationship with another "fencer" and then have to break up with them. 

So I called the fence girl and totally lied: "I know we have an appointment in 45 minutes but is it okay if I cancel? I'm just not going to be able to be there at that time." She said, "Sure, but it's actually a window of time so I could come on the later end if that works better for you." 

Ahhh! They always have a comeback, don't they? That's what scares me about the break up. I'm afraid I won't be able to do it. It's like on Friends when Chandler and Ross said, "I wanna quit the gym! I wanna quit the bank!" 

I wanna quit the fence guys (and girl)!  

So I went on to act like I was totally frazzled, even going as far as saying, "I'm just totally frazzled. Can I call you back to reschedule?" 

I knew I wasn't going to ever call again. I'm so cruel. Such a heartbreaker. So when she said, "Yes, but call soon so we can get you on the books and get you taken care of," I just wanted to cry. 

But I didn't cry because I was too busy being fake frazzled. 

Right after that, the first fence guy called (and threw me off because I didnt recognize the number). 

"Hey, just checking to see if you had any questions about the estimate I sent…" he started. 

Of course I was all, "It looked great! I'll talk to my husband and let you know…" even though I knew we were leaning towards the second fence guy. 

So Friday we gave the final rose to the second fence guy, who was elated, obviously. I mean our fence project is a total catch. And I just broke up with the other fence guy over email. 

"Thanks so much for coming out to give us the estimate on the fence. We thought your estimate looked good but we did end up going with another fence company. Sorry but wanted to let you know!" 

Is that lame of me? Should I have called? Should I have visited him in person? Now my fear is that he is going to ask why. And when I give him reasons like "the second fence guy was going to throw in a fancy gate for free" he will say, "I could have done that too" and I'll have no comeback. 

I'll probably just email back, "I wanna quit the fence!" 

So if you see a fence guy, riding around in the back of a limo, crying, that's because of me.