Memorial Day Weekend 2008

Man, what a weekend! I don’t even know where to begin. I think b/c so much happened I will break it up by day and then bulletize all of my thoughts relating to that day/event.

Thursday…
-Star flew in town
-I went to the dentist because I had to get prepped for a crown. It was supposed to be sore, but it didn’t really get that sore. Took a few Advil when I felt some soreness coming on, but it wasn’t all that bad. Have a temporary in my mouth now…will have to go back for the real thing in 2 weeks…
-Met up with Star at my house that evening…she met the kids. Kids were a little skeptical of her at first because she was in ‘their house’. By Monday, they were cool with her.
-Star used ingredients that we had in our house to make the best glazed chicken EVER. Made me wonder why I couldn’t do the same…but I quickly got over that when I realized it’s because I HAVE TWO 16 MONTH OLDS!!!
-TJ is afraid of his shadow. He starts crying at the sight of it. I decided that he needed to see that it was harmless so I kneeled down so I could pat his shadow and say “Hi Terrence!!!”. So now when he sees his shadow and I say “Hi Terrence!” he kneels down and pats his shadow, too!!! Killing two birds with one stone…he will hopefully get over the fear of his shadow AND it might be a good segway into realizing that is name is really Terrence, Jr. and not T.J.

Friday…
-Day at Disney!!
-My friend/soror who works there let us in so we got a FREE day at Disney!
-We were true Industrial Engineers (Star was an honorary IE for the day). We used FastPass to the best of its ability so that we utilized every minute of the day. Got there around 2pm, left around 11pm. Never waited for than 10 minutes in a line.
-Rode Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride – very relaxing, got spit on by the camel. Star realized on our LAST time around that she could control the up/down motion of our magic carpet to avoid the camel. That was about 3 sprays too late…
-Rode Pirates of Caribbean – fun. Harmless. I refused to switch seats with Star so she ended up on an outer seat and, thus, got a little wet. Sorry Star!
-Got rained on a little bit…took cover in a merchandise store…bought ponchos.
-Rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – so much fun. We kind of forgot that Star had hip surgery 10-ish years ago. Kind of a little jerky for her…especially because she's like 4’11 and 10 pounds so the bar did not hold her down in the seat adequately. I literally held her down in the car while we twisted/turned. I am such a good friend.
-Rode Barnstormer (the roller coaster for any kid over 35” tall) – We are still trying to figure out how a kid that is 35” tall can survive this “roller coaster”. We were more scared than the 4 year olds that got off the ride.
-Rode the train around Magic Kingdom – harmless. Saw some disgusting mildew-y water…
-Rode Buzz Lightyear – I don’t know how Star beat me so bad. I want a rematch.
-Went to the candy store on MainStreet where I got a candy apple (which probably wasn’t smart with my temporary crown! But I got through it.) Star bought her favorite Disney candy bar…was so satisfied that we took a picture of her with the cast member that worked in the candy store. She was so adorable and so nice!
-Rode the bus to the BoardWalk so we could catch the ferry boat to the Studios. Saw some bad kids, listened to a “not-so-disney” cast member who was our ferry boat guide. Still trying to figure out how she made it through auditions to get this position.
-Saw Fantasmic! The BEST Disney show ever. It hasn’t changed since it started 10-ish years ago and after seeing it about 20 times, it is still as good as it was the first time I saw it! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!
-Went home…it rained REALLY bad on the way home. Gotta love Rain-X. Star and I had great conversation as always!!

Saturday …
-Stayed at home with the kids while Terry went to Jacksonville to visit some friends. Went to the mall and got back JUST as the ‘cloud of death’ completely opened up. It stormed really bad, but it was fine since we were safely inside with the kids. Sooo glad we passed up going to Target or else we would have been in trouble!!

Sunday…
-Went to church. The kids stayed in the church nursery for the first time. Olivia was completely unphased. Found a friend and toys immediately. TJ was not so happy. When we went back after service he was less than amused and started crying as soon as he saw me. Good indication of how daycare will be if they ever go…
-Went to a BBQ at some friends’ house. BBQ was GREAT. They did have a new dog, which I was not amused with…I was appreciative that they put it away and gave me details about what they did to ensure that the place was clean enough for me and the kids. They also had an adequate supply of handsoap and Germ-X to satisfy me. The kids were great.
-Made some REALLY good brownies w/ Walnuts.
-Went to Wal-mart to pick up a few things in preparation for the beach. I really dislike Wal-mart. Target is definitely my store of choice. Mainly because when they see that there are 20 people in each of the 3 registers that are open (out of 30), they seem to care less. Unlike Target…Target will call more cashiers/open more registers if they see more than like 4 people in line. Such a stark contrast.

Monday…
-Went to the beach! It was the kids’ first trip. They were so adorable. You could tell they were REALLY confused at what they saw..seeing as how the sight of the ocean is equally as amazing to an adult! They were in their little swimsuits/trunks with their pail and shovels. Olivia did not want to leave the water. TJ was also interested in the waves, mostly because it made for good mud to go in his pail. It was such a beautiful day! Can’t believe it took us 16 months to go to the beach that is literally 20 minutes from our doorstep…
-Took Star to the airport for her 8:00 flight.

Thanks to Sarah I have a cool slideshow of our Disney and Beach trips...

My weekend in Atlanta...

I went to my line sister's wedding this weekend in Atlanta and had a nice time. I was able to see 11 of my 18 living line sisters which was really nice. 10 showed up at the wedding and another drove over to see me because this is the closest we've been to each other since she was in my wedding in 2004. Anyway, the wedding was absolutely beautiful.

I think, however, that this weekend was most likely the last time I will voluntarily visit the city of Atlanta. Let's begin with the Dillards and Ann Taylor employees who were the most non-helpful employees ever. I have had GREAT experiences with the local employees of Ann Taylor and Dillards so I was just really ticked off at the way they blew me off when I asked for help. I might just have to call corporate on them;) Secondly, the Atlanta traffic. Need I say more. They are repaving 85 South so there is AT LEAST a 50+ minute delay. Thank goodness for Magellan (my navigational system). I just turned off at a random exit and let it "recalculate my route". When I got to where it said I was 2.6 miles away and it was 35 minutes until the wedding I thought I was good! I was SO WRONG. It took me 25 minutes to go 2.6 miles on Peachtree St. downtown. NEVER AGAIN. I've already told Terry that "we" will not be taking any coaching jobs in Atlanta. But "we" have already established that "we" will not be leaving Florida again so that should already be taken care of.

Anyway, I'm back in town now and it was wonderful to see Terry, TJ and Olivia...and my parents, of course! The smile the kids gave me when they saw me after 3 days was PRICELESS. I'm sure to them I was gone for years, not days.

That's really all for now. I'll post pictures when I download them off of my camera...

Brush Fires

Happy Mother's Day! It has been an eventful Mother's Day to say the least. It started out like any other Mother's Day/Sunday...waking up with the kids, feeding them breakfast, going to church, etc. The kids, as always, were a bundle of energy. We didn't do anything extra special for Mother's Day...I opted not to go out to dinner because I didn't want to deal with my energetic children in the midst of the Mother's Day crowds in the restaurants. I chose to go home and "relax" (yeah right!).

Well about mid-afternoon we started seeing news about the interstate being closed that is a few miles from our house. Basically they were not allowing traffic to go south starting at our exit. We didn't make a big deal out of it because there have been so many brush fires lately in Florida because it's so dry. Well a few hours later, Terry came out of our bedroom telling me that he saw flames!!!!! They were not in our backyard, but they were close enough to worry. Needless to say we did not wait for anyone to tell us that we needed to evacute. The last thing we needed was to have two crying children in traffic in the middle of the night running from a brush fire. We called 911 to see if they had the brush fire under control and they said they did...however we just watched the local news where they said that the fire fighters in our city were not able to pull in additional resources because there are so many brush fires in our area right now. They said policeman were pulling out water hoses in the name of 'helping them out'. (What?! Really?! Water Hoses?!...riiiight, THAT makes me feel a lot better!) I am GLAD we didn't listen to the 911 dispatcher!

Anyway, we are at my parents house, which is where we spend the better part of the week anyway since my Mom watches my kids while I am at work. Since we live out of suitcases it wasn't that difficult to pack, which is a good thing. I grabbed a few photo albums, but that's about it. It's funny how at the beginning of every hurricane season, I think about what I would grab if we had to evacuate. B.T. (before twins) I imagined that I'd grab as much as I could that would fit into my car in the name of 'saving important' items from hurricane damage. Well, that scenario came to life this evening and the only things I really cared about was getting Terry, TJ and Olivia out of harm's way. I grabbed a few of their baby albums, but I honestly could have grabbed so much more. There is a good chance that I could wake up tomorrow morning without a house (well, we still do own a condo in Melbourne....) and there is nothing in that house right now that I regret not grabbing. Funny how that works. I'll keep you posted. Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Out and About

This is going to be a quick one. The Parks family is out and about today. Currently we are in Terry's office and the twins have officially opened EVERY drawer and pulled off every piece of paper that is on his desk. The only time that it was halfway quiet in here was when I was feeding them. Except for now...they are off to run around the gym floor with Terry. The PERFECT play area for toddlers, by the way, is a basketball court!!!!


So this morning, Terry fed the kids their breakfast (TJ still eats rice cereal and Olivia eats oatmeal for breakfast...and then we feed them a waffle or something so they have some bread). Anyway, in the past we have let them feed themselves at dinner because we always give them a bath right after dinner. However, this morning was the first time that we let them feed themselves their cereal. BIG MESS! I have to admit it was pretty cute though. Olivia had a face FULL of oatmeal. TJ was a little less messy. That's pretty much how eating goes for them though...Olivia is definitely a messier eater and TJ is a little more careful.


Needless to say we had to go straight to the bathtub after breakfast. We are about to leave so I guess I'll go. Until next time...

3 subjects for this one…"So excited" / "Who knew?!" / "Back to reality"

Subject #1…SO EXCITED
So first I'm really excited that The Color Purple is coming to Atlanta!!!!!!! I have loved the movie for years and years…read the book in high school…used to watch it with my roommate in college so much that we used to pause and analyze each scene...watched Oprah when she announced that she was producing it on Broadway…my sister bought me the coffee table book of all of the scenes of the play …and most importantly I named my baby girl Olivia just like Celie's child in the movie. Anyway, I was paging through a AAA magazine this weekend (which I usually throw away) and saw that it was coming to the southeast as part of it's national tour. After further research I found out that it was coming to Atlanta!! Once I get my vacation approved I am going to book tix so Terry and I can go see it. We will drop the kids off at his parent's house and head on to Atlanta for the show. I think this might be date #3 since December 2006. It will be my official anniversary/birthday gift. I am SO EXCITED needless to say.

Okay, new subject…Who knew?!
I got to work this morning and saw an e-mail from a very familiar name, but I just couldn't place it. Turns out it was a girl who used to be in a mentoring program for underprivileged middle-school aged girls that I led in 2000 while at Auburn. My favorite memory of this was when I was taking this particular girl home one day and a Michael Jackson song came on…a song from his "BAD" album (I believe it was Dirty Diana). Of course I got really excited and started singing the song and she asked me "what is this song"? Talk about a pregnant pause. I almost had to stop the car b/c I was in complete shock. Then I realized that that song probably came out in 1988-ish and that she was probably born around that time. That was the first time that I actually felt old. Anyway, this girl found me on a professional network that my coworker had me sign up for a year ago and e-mailed me! I have to share the e-mail:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Jamesha i don't know if u remember me or not but i know u from Auburn.. I participated in Delta Academy in 2000-2001. But i have been wanting to know how u were doing. And to tell u thanks for your guidance and attention. I really appreciated it and just to let u know that u were a positive influence on my life and for that i thank u.
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Subject #3…Back to reality...
TJ has been a running fever off and on this week. I took him to the doctor and we have determined that he probably has some of the same thing that Terry has (flu-like) in addition to bad allergies…not to mention he has 4 teeth coming in. Bless his heart. It is amazing how Olivia is not phased by ANYTHING. I'm glad TJ is being a gentlemen and handling being sick for the both of them, but I really do feel for him.