friday morning catch ups.

I can't believe we are already half way through May. Time is just zooming by.

/1/ Earlier this month, we paid our last preschool tuition for the rest of our lives. That's huge. As people say, it's like getting a pay raise :) So now we have no mortgage and no school tuition...maybe it's time I consider retirement?

/2/ We attended Will's tumbling show at school. Omg, it was an absolute torture sitting through ONE HOUR of watching other kids before Will's class was finally up. Grrr...I was so annoyed (if I had known that his class would be last...), but it was good to see Will up there doing his thing. For the performance, he was designated the line leader, which I am pretty sure was a position earned and not given. He has done wonderfully at this preschool and we will miss it (although not the tuition!).

/3/ I promised a picture of Will at his soccer practice last time.

/4/ We accidentally found out that Mango loves to play with balloons! He's such a silly and playful little guy. We all still love having him around, although he has been into eating cicadas lately and it's messing up his digestive system.

/5/ Anna had her second piano recital! This year she played one song on her own (Ode to Joy) and one duet with her teacher (When the Saints Go Marching In). Last year I was so worried that she would chicken out the last minute and refuse to go up. This year I was less worried because she already had one year under her belt, AND I also promised her a “Beanie Boo” that she was really excited about so I knew she was motivated.

Well…she made one minuscule mistake which probably no one noticed except me, her teacher and herself, but otherwise did a superb job! I am so relieved that the recital is over and I can relax until next year. Truthfully, piano is a daily struggle for us because of Anna’s reluctance to practice. I am well aware that our evenings could be a lot more peaceful if I let piano go, but I am not. In fact, I am about to start Will on it too :)

/6/ My Mother’s Day cake from Wegmans :)

^^”Go big or go home,” hubs said when he placed the order.^^

It was vanilla cake with fruit filling and whipped icing....just what I requested.

^^My Mother's Day 2017 stash from the kids!^^

^^A nice outing to Meadowlark Gardens.^^

/7/ Lastly, my evenings have been overtaken by this new Taiwan show that I am currently hooked on. All the heart eyes for Chen Che, hahaha ;)

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Ode to Joy

by Guest
I've been meaning to post this for 2 years now, right after I bought my current car. But laziness has simply kept me from lifting a finger - same goes for my goal of losing weight or learning to play the guitar. It wasn't until my baby got hurt that I knew I should get off my butt and put these thoughts down. So here it is, a post to my darling car!

But first, a trip down memory lane... My very first car was a used 1988 Honda Accord coupe that my dad picked up for me back in the early 90s for $6k. I learned to drive in that baby. It was a base DX model with a maroon exterior, but it had friggin pop-up headlights! Best of all, it was a 5-speed manual! Sadly, affordable digicams had not been invented yet, so I have no pictures of her other than what's held in some neurons upstairs. Once I finished undergrad back in 1999, it was time to replace her. So what did I get? A brand new 1999 Honda Accord coupe, that's what! Of course, it too had a manual tranny, a beautiful 5-speed. She was a bump up in class because she had a moon roof, all for less than $20k! Luckily, I do have some pictures of her.

^^Never mind the fall foliage, look at that beautiful car!^^

^^No, that's not Mango, that's Pargo! And damn that's a big shifter, I don't remember it being so tall.^^

Anyways, other cars have come and gone in my life but my first two cars are the ones that I'll always cherish. Once the kids came into the picture, I tried to accept the world of 4-door automatics, but every day I drove around town, a little bit of me died. Seriously folks, my life-span has decreased from not having my shifter and clutch!

Several years later, I finally decided that my joy of life was more important than the comfort of my family. Is that being selfish? Not really, if I'm dead, who will be here to drive them around? So I started car shopping! But my oh my have times changed. Trying to find a used manual transmission car in the DC metro area is not that easy. Toss in the fact that car manufacturers have given consumers like me the middle finger, made the pickings even slimmer. There are countless stories online that cover this sad sad predicament, so I'll just link to them here and here and here.

Eventually, after a year of searching Autotrader and Craigslist, I finally found her, a used BMW F32 for $35k with a 6-speed stick! I was hesitant to make the move to the Germans from the bullet proof world of Honda, but one gets desperate after a year of searching. Plus, the whole CPO thing gave me some sort of comfort. Behold...the meaning of life!

^^I missed you so much!^^

^^My left foot now has a purpose!^^

And what goes best with a shifter? A proper handbrake! Seriously folks, I throw up in my mouth each time I see what's happening these days with those parking buttons.

^^Look ma, no buttons! Oh wait...^^

I completely forgot to snap a picture of the moon roof, but it's there. The kids don't seem to mind the two doors too much. It's nice and cozy compared to the cavernous minivan. Honestly, these simple little things are all I need in a car. I know the market isn't really there in the US and the car makers are in business to make money. So I'll keep trucking along in my little baby until she costs too much to run. By then, maybe I can just sit on my old fat ass and let the autonomous cars do all the work.

I guess that's all for now. Maybe after I get a heart-attack or lose my hearing, I'll chime in again on my weight and guitar.

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Art Friday, No. 6

I will have a new catch ups post later this week, but I just found this Art Friday post in the draft folder that never got published. Obviously, it's not Friday yet, but here's to a happy Monday and a great week :) The weather is looking amazing!



(by Anna : age 7)

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wednesday morning catch ups.

Picking up from where we left off...

/1/The week after Easter Sunday, Luke was in Atlanta for work for a couple of days. As usual, the kids slept with me on my bed, with Mango keeping watch.

This time, in addition to two kids, I had a dog to take care of too. I ended up leaving work a little early each day so I can come home first to let Mango out (and to clean up the mess) before doing school pick-ups. It all went fine :)

/2/ Anna's elementary school hosted a STEM Night and it really was a lot fun...not to mention a perfect way to kill some time while solo parenting. There were about 20 STEM activities for the kids to participate in. In addition to giving Anna an opportunity to hang out with her friends, my favorite part of the evening was this photo opportunity right when you walked in:

^^I know I am biased, but Will is so cute :) Oh, he's also all registered for Kinder!^^

/3/ Anna finally lost a top tooth and the Tooth Fairy visited!

/4/ Will started U5 soccer with Luke as the assistant coach. They are the Orange Crush, haha. I haven't been to a practice yet, but when do I will take a picture of him on the field :) Right now it isn't a huge time commitment because practice is only once a week. However, if we continue in the fall with U6, it will be practice on a weekday and a game on the weekend. Will loves soccer, but we will see if he likes playing in a league enough to continue.

/5/ We have been going to several birthday parties, and this one at the bowling alley was my favorite. One, it was a new experience since we have never gone bowling as a family, and two, Wegman's cake. Seriously, soooo good. I am counting down to Mother's Day because I am getting myself a cake from there!

/6/ Both kids just happened to tie dye shirts at school.

/7/ Luke's sister's family was in town for a visit and they stayed with us for two nights. Remember these babies? They are almost 10 months old now. Unfortunately we didn't get to hang out too much because they visited on a Monday and Tuesday and we still had school and work obligations. Still, it was nice to see the babies and we will be meeting again at the end of June.

/8/ The kids are back in the water and this time we signed them up for semi-private lessons. The plan (at least my plan) is for them to be comfortable in the water again in time for summer. This year they will have swim daily at camp, so hopefully lots of time to practice. The lessons is every Tuesday afternoon at 4:30pm, which means we are officially one of those families that I said I wouldn't want to become with kids activities after school. But with the potential of soccer (#4) in the future, we might as well start, right?

/9/ We renewed our Meadowlark Gardens membership. This time we had to get the more expensive option ("family" instead of "individual") because Anna is no longer free. So now we need to visit 4 times to get our money's worth. One down, three more to go.


/10/ Not even two weeks after Anna lost her first top tooth, she lost another one! Actually, Luke pulled it out. The tooth was hanging so loose that Anna was having trouble eating, so Luke made an executive decision to pull it out using a dental floss. It was traumatic, but I think the anticipation of it was worse than the actual process. Later Anna did say that she was happy that the tooth is finally out. I thought we would get a break with loose teeth, but now another one is wiggling...

/11/ It seems like I have been including the movies we watched in these catch ups posts, so the movie for this post is Homeward Bound. Kids loved it and now I remembered why I loved that movie too!

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