Living in Munchkinland

We celebrated Memorial Day weekend in Port A. We drove down Friday after lunch. Friday was Samuel's last day of school and had early release at noon. I picked him up and then drove up to Davis' school and checked him out early. We drove home and while Sam ate lunch, I packed up the car. We were on the road by 1:30. We hit some rain for a while, but eventually out ran it and had a very uneventful trip down to the beach. Samuel listened to Ramona the Pest on his kindle fire and Davis listened to Hank the Cowdog. Michael worked and then we listened to a couple of Ted talks. We arrived at the condo around 5PM. We took our stuff upstairs and unpacked the coolers and then hopped back in the car to drive to Shell's in town. We were seated right away and we had a wonderful dinner there. That restaurant is truly the best thing in Port A. After dinner we relaxed for a while at the condo and then put the kids down for bed. Rob and Cheris and Graham and Violet arrived sho

We had two big graduation ceremonies this week. On Monday, Davis moved up from Wolf Cub to Bear Cub at Cub Scouts. He was very proud. Davis will move on with his group as a bear next year, but Michael will step down as Davis' den leader and will begin as den leader for Sam's tiger group in the fall. On Wednesday, we had an even more auspicious graduation day. Samuel graduated from Montessori! He was so proud. He had a cap with tassle and received a diploma. They had cake and presents and he came home with a graduation balloon and lots of gifts. I sent my camera to school for them to take pictures (parents aren't invited), but the battery was dead. I am sure he was absolutely precious, though. Sam's last day of school is tomorrow and is only a half day. Then we pack up and head for the beach for memorial day weekend. Yay, summer!

Last night Michael and I put on our comfie clothes, grabbed a beverage and headed for our lounge to watch a little Vampire Diaries. As Michael made his way to the couch he started yelling obscenities. I jumped up, saw the floor and started yelling them too. Our beautiful parquet floor had buckled. Michael ran out to the garage on the opposite side of the wall and realized our water heater was busted. It wasn't surprising really, considering it was 21 years old, which is really super duper old. We immediately called Uncle Larry. Everyone should have and Uncle Larry. He is the BEST. He came over and told us what our problem was and how to fix it. This morning he showed up and helped Michael get the old heater out. Michael went off and bought a new one at Lowes and then he and Uncle Larry installed it. It's not quite installed, but as soon as Michael can take another break from work, he will finish it and we will have hot water again. Oh but the floor. Our poor floor.

On Sunday I co-led the service at our Unitarian Universalist Church. The topic was the heart sutra. I worked on this reflection more than I've ever worked on one. It went through many revisions. Here is the one I read on Sunday. I ended it with an acapella version of Que Sera, Sera. I was raised with buddhist principles. My mother, especially, embraced buddhism and introduced these ideas to me at early age. I learned that god is infinite love, that we are all one, that meditation calms the mind. That’s about all I was ready to hear. When I was in college at NYU, the Dalai Lama came to do a lecture series at the Beacon theater. My parents bought us all tickets and flew up to attend the lecture with me. In the lecture, his holiness started teaching us about attachment. Attachment to self or belongings. He said that we should try not to form attachments, that we would be happier and on a better path if we were not constantly trying to strive for possesions or attachmen

I did it! I finished all my major commitments for the year. The fundraiser was on Saturday and despite a few hiccups, came off pretty well. This was such a huge project for me, taking up the whole year in planning and unmeasurable hours of work, but when the day came, it seemed to fly by. The day was hot, but we were in shade and it was breezy. My friend Norma helped watched the kids while we were both working, Michael was an awesome face painter, the kids had a great time and I won some fun packages. I think it was a success. I don't know the totals yet, but we did the best we could, and that's all I can say. My Uncle Larry came by and so did my friend BG and it meant so much to me to see them there. This was my fifth year working on this fundraiser and my last. Sam graduates from Montessori on Friday. He feels very bittersweet about it. The future is a very scary thing to him right now. It was a little sad for me too to realize that this might be the last time

I've got some really great kids. All that stress I had about parenting them is gone. They are going through a fantastic phase. They are so sweet, both of them. Sam has taken to hugging me every time he comes in or out of the house and it is so sweet. He just wants to make everyone happy and loved. He is such a treasure. Davis is rocking my world in a good way these days too. He's so much fun at this age. He's reading with me in the evening and we have such great conversations and he's super helpful. They worked hard on my mother's day all week. Yesterday morning they brought me breakfast in bed along with a pile of cards and drawings and gifts. I LOVED it. I got letters from them telling me what they love about me (I don't yell, I play with them, I let them play outside, I help clean their room, I'm a really good cook.) I got drawings and pictures and Michael gifted me with a lovely card and tickets to a dance concert in June. *Happiness*. I

I wonder how many of my blog posts are titled busy. Well it is true and I am. We have the montessori fundraiser coming up next weekend (May 18th on the courthouse square at the Texas Natural Swingfest. If you live in town, please come and suport us) and I am the chair and even though it is my last year and I totally have "senior-itis" and want to slack off, I can't, and so I am working my ass off on it. (I'm too busy to make short sentences.) And I am putting together a service on the heart sutra with our minister for the UU church service and I keep thinking I'm done and I keep realizing I'm not. That's true for the montessori fundraiser too. Michael and I have been working on some hard parenting/married issues and coming through stronger, but it's still emotionally exhausting. I am so lucky to have him and we have really been communicating and talking and I feel closer to him than ever. I've been working my real job and being social as we