Living in Munchkinland

One day while perusing Southwest Airline's website, I saw some fares to New Orleans for very few points. I checked the calendar and saw that we had the weekend empty and so I quickly booked them, acknowledging that it might not work, but we could always cancel with no penalty. I checked with mom and dad and they said yes we could all go and stay in their condo! I checked with Martha and Clark, and they said they could keep the kids. Hooooray vacation! I had a cyst removed on my leg the day before we left, so I hobbled onto the airplane, but I made it! I love New Orleans, but for Michael, it is his power spot. We ate and ate and listened to music, and I limped around, and we enjoyed the cooler weather and rain and we ate some more. I love traveling with my mom and dad. We have so much fun together. Michael is so great with my dad and my mom and I are just the very best of friends. On this trip, we hit the Spotted Cat for jazz swing, Revolution for an amazing fancy dinner

I had the best time at our family movie night last night. It must have been a magic combination of cooler weather, earlier sunset, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, wonderful, interesting friends, cosmopolitans, and fabulous kids, but last night was my favorite evening with our outdoor movie screen yet. Martha and Clark came over early and Clark fished with the kids for hours in the pond in our backyard. The kids got out every weapon and riding toy we had and roamed freely over the ranch. I got a chance to spend some time with almost everybody. As I wrote on Facebook last night, "It's nights like these that make me love where I live. Big open sky and yard, kids running around free, wonderful friends and family, popcorn, outdoor movie night with Pee Wee, dancing on my lawn chair, heckling the screen, kids swinging on the swing set watching the movie, hearing my friends' laughter. I love my life."

We've been busy. Homework, soccer, work, homework, horseback riding, homework, work, cub scouts, homework, chess, eye doctor appointments, new glasses (for me), tests, spanish classes, work, more homework, a CASA fundraiser, movie date with the kids, lots of time with my dad, homework, a plethora of brand new baby cows on the ranch, lots of letters from my two best friends, homeroom mom, a baby shower, a soccer game. You know- a week in September. Michael has been transitioning to working nights so we were short on sleep, but we kept cheerful. Everybody is doing something to help them grow, to learn and to have fun. And we've had rain! Life is good.

This weekend has been a great one full of my favorite things. 1. Dutchman Winery . I love this place. It is beautiful, the wine is good, they have a playground the food at the Trattoria is excellent. I spent Friday afternoon there and really enjoyed it. 2. Bocce Ball. I played bocce ball with my mom and nephew and the kids at Casa Pacifica in the cool, fall air and felt it was perfection. 3. My husband. He is home! He came home Saturday afternoon and I was giddy with his presence. I love that man. 4. Friends. I had a lovely family dinner at Railyard on Friday evening with our friends and it was so good to see everybody after a scattered summer. 5. San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Church. I have the very best church filled with open, intelligent, warm, kind people. I love it there. 6. My nephew. I have gotten to spend time with my nephew Kaden lately and he is so smart and funny and kind. My boys love to play with him and they all get along so well! I took the thr

We are back in the swing of things around here. The lazy, indolent days of summer are finally over and every day is very busy. Michael's schedule will change next week and we are happy, because out of the last 15 days, he has only been home for 1 of them. The rest of the time he has been in California. I miss him so much and will be so glad to have him home tomorrow. The boys have been adjusting to the responsibilities and routines of school and have begun lessons. We had cub scout round up on Monday night and the boys were so happy to be scouting again and to see their friends. I wore my new den leader shirt and secretly thought how glad I was that Michael's schedule has changed again and he will, after all, be able to be leader himself and let me off the hook! I also took both boys to chess club on Wednesday night at the activity center. Davis has become really interested in chess since we got him a chess set in Mexico. He has read a book on it and practiced with his

I spent last week in Puerto Morelos with Michael, the boys and my parents. It was absolutely wonderful. Mom and dad had rented a great house called Casa Manalou off of VRBO. Michael had elite status with Avis so we got a nice minivan and we used our United miles to fly to Cancun. The house had two stories and a great roof top patio, a swimming pool overlooking the ocean and a hammock. The weather was hot and humid and we had a big thunderstorm almost every afternoon. The time of year was wrong for a clean beach. There was lots of seaweed, but we are used to that and we still enjoyed white sand and relatively clear, blue water. We went out to eat a lot and ate many different ceviches and drank many different margaritas. My mom taught me how to properly order a margarita- just tequila, cointreau and lime juice, no sweet, on the rocks with salt. We drove into Playa Del Carmen one day and grocery shopped at the Walmart and had lunch out. Another day we found a bar on the beach