Living in Munchkinland

Davis is nine today. My little baby has grown so fast. He is an independent young man now. We have intelligent conversations. He understands subtlety (though he isn't very good at it yet). He is incredibly responsible and cares about doing the right thing. He is still strong willed, but this has been a great year in that we talk about most things rather than butt heads about them. Davis is still obsessed with going fast, whether on foot, on roller blades or ice skates or on his bike. He is also constantly creating and engineering things in his mind. He sings on pitch and has great musicality. He plays the piano and choreographs fantastic dances in his room. He reads biographies like they are going out of style and is engrossed in Anne of Green Gables which I am currently reading aloud. He is still extremely independent and brave. He doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, but he is deeply sensitive. He can still throw a mean tantrum, but his recovery is swift. No...

Our first full day of our cruise was an "At Sea" day. We got up early, took the kids to the kids club and then Michael headed to the gym while I put on my favorite work out video on my iPad, opened our balcony door to the sea breeze, and worked out in the cabin. When I finished my work out, I cleaned up and headed down to the main lobby to see a sushi demonstration. > Michael finally arrived from his workout out and we explored the ship until time to pick up the kids from lunch. We dined in the buffet and then took the kids to the pool where they went down the waterslide many times. Then we cleaned up and went to the Latitude members cocktail reception. Davis was very impressed to be invited to a VIP soiree and even more thrilled to receive a virgin cocktail in a champagne flute. We returned the kids to the kids club and Michael and I went to a martini tasting, where we met friends and tasted some very "meh" cocktails. That evening we all dressed up ...

Yesterday afternoon, Samuel says to me, "Mommy, why do you have blue in your hair?". Blue in my hair? My mind whisked through my day trying to figure out what I had handled that had gotten blue in my hair. Paint? Food? I kneeled down next to Samuel and asked him to show me where the blue was. He reached up and pointed to the good inch and a half of gray hair showing along my part in my hair. Sigh. Note to self: Eight weeks is too long in between hair colorist appointments. Note to others: I am really, really going gray.

We had some professional photos taken on the Jewel. We thought the photographer did a great job and we chose eleven images that we really loved. This one is my favorite.

I spend almost every day with my father and I truly love the person he is today, but I really, really miss my daddy.

Michael and I decided that we would drive to New Orleans the day before our cruise on the NCL Jewel left port. We loaded the car the night before and were on the road by 6:30AM Saturday morning. We stopped in Lake Charles for a picnic lunch by the lake. I had packed a chickpea "tuna" salad with french rolls, puffed chips and grapes. It was very cold and windy so we ate quickly and ran around and then got back in the car. We hit terrible traffic in Louisiana over and over. Luckily, the boys were plugged in to their kindle fires in the backseat and Michael and I had a David Sedaris audio CD we hadn't heard before. Still, it made for a very long day. We got to my parent's vacation condo around 4:15 and realized that the gate opener was broken. We couldn't get our car in! A very nice man opened it for us and we were able to get in! We quickly dumped our luggage and hopped on the street car to go down to the quarter. This was the kids first time on a stree...

When I was in New Orleans for Valentine's Day, my mother and I had the most amazing lunch at the Green Goddess. The best part of this lunch was the appetizer: huge, fluffy sweet potato biscuits. They were served with molasses in one small bowl and sweet pepper jelly in another. We were in heaven. When we got home, my mom and I set forth to re-create this delicious biscuit. We searched the internet for similar recipe and in an afternoon, transformed my mother’s kitchen into a full scale test kitchen. We boiled and mashed sweet potatoes and got to work. After a few failures, we had to regroup. My mom suggested returning to the old fashioned basics. She pulled out a box of Pioneer Biscuit Mix (but you can use Bisquick.) We added one and a half cups of mashed sweet potatoes. We rolled the out the biscuits, rolled them in butter melted in a pan and popped them in the oven. They came out perfect! We were thrilled. The recipe couldn’t be simpler. I bet you could even ...

The times, they are a'changing. I think it might be time to start something new. I have the idea that I want to start a new travel website/blog. I want it to be fancy and pretty. It will be a place to focus all my travel obsession/passion. I will blog our trips there and talk about travel with children. I will post when I find places that I want to travel to and I will post when I find great travel deals. I will talk about the points game too. I want to talk about Generational Travel. I want to talk about traveling with small children, but I also want to talk about how it is to travel with my dad and my grandparents. I haven't been able to find any websites out there that talk about travel with alzheimers and I think it would be helpful to some people. Katie already told me she'd help with my social media. (sure, with all her spare time. ;)) This blog has been my journal for seven years. I have loved keeping a record of my family here. Each year, when I rec...

Wow. I have had no time to blog or catch up since we got home from our cruise other than that brief post about Samuel. I've been thinking lots of bloggy thoughts, though. So here goes the first. We are all doing very well. I came home from our cruise very rested and very happy. The break away from everything was so good for my state of mind and my body. My back feels better, I am feeling a bit more extroverted again and I am way less stressed. This week was very busy, but pleasant and with all the whole family liking each other, it made things easier. We had Davis' family birthday party at ranch happy hour this week and he got the lego gunship he has been wanting forever. He also got new roller blades and we served pumpkin pie at his request. It was a super fun party. Friday evening we went to a very fun and delicious potluck dinner at Cheris and Rob's house. My parents were invited and we got to meet Cheris' dad and step-mom and we all had such a great tim...