happy dance

This is us doing the new washer/dryer happy dance. Well, maybe it's just me doing the dance. Wow, do these front loaders clean and Man are they quiet! I know you will miss the shrieking sound, karen and Whitney. It just so happened that while I was washing all the table cloths from this past weekend's auction, my dryer broke. To top it off, while I was printing all the lovely document, my printer died. Yep, I don't play the lottery or go to Vegas. Luck be a Lady not my themesong.
But wahoo! i am happy right now even thought the delivery man put them in the wrong order. I like doing laundry backwards but he didn't think that was right so he put them the way he wanted.

The boys will have a sweet fort ready for them to personalize this weekend with the big boxes.

I really am such a dork to be this happy over laundry.

Lilacs!

my lilacs have bloomed! I know, not so exciting to you as a reader but for a northern girl this is springtime. That's what springtime smells like in Ohio--fresh cut grass and lilacs. I tried to find them here years ago and found that they do not grow in the south. Then I found this amazing conainer (overpriced but worth it) with a lilac sprout genetically engineered to grow in this climate. Science is so incredible. I am a happy, happy girl. I sent in two bouquets today to tecahers and administrators at the kids' school. Come over and smell! If only I could summon up this scent whenever I am down.

from Walt Whitman:

"When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed,And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,And thought of him I love.

...In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-washed palings,Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,With every leaf a miracle -and from this bush in the dooryard,With delicate-coloured blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,A sprig with its flower I break"

I left out the part about coffins and such :)

he's awesome...like a hot dog

I am a huge fan of Eddie Izzard. This evening I heard Ben laughing hysterically downstairs. To my horror, he was watching Eddie (he can use some foul language). Luckily it was a censored BBC show so I allowed him to continue. He was cracking up at Eddie's historical comedy. He ran upstairs and said "man I love that guy. You know, he really has to know his historical facts to be so funny. He must be very smart." What he didn't even notice was that HE got the jokes. I told him that Eddie was coming in concert in May. "he plays in a band too?" he said. I explained that it was a comedic performance and he said "well we have to go then." no way, Jose but keep on diggin history.

well, we tried

so this weekend we all worked together to clean up, put away, add to the Goodwill pile and emptied the recycle trashcan 3 times into respective bins. We cleaned the floors and toilets with vinegar (no-toxic), we ate local produce without pesticides, paid the bills electronically, burned soy candles, made sure the washer was full and used 7th generation suds. Then I ran the dishwasher accidentally without soap and had to run it all over again. nice.

my apologies, Buckhead

to everyone who who woke up to see purple and much of my flesh this morning, i apologize-- especially those behind me at GTS when we did our stretching moves. (side note--I don't feel that black-stripes-under-the-eye-man really had room to make fun) Really, those Nike shorts did not appear so small on the hanger. Next time I buy a new pair I will try them on first and make sure they are not underwear in disguise. They looked so innocent at the store. My legs did feel incredibly free however and Nick Nolte enjoyed them when he ran past. Did the rest of you see him? How bizarre! (yikes that's probably what he said when he saw my shorts)

huh!

so, I have this little note on my computer that reads "do one thing each day that scares you" (E.Roosevelt). There are many things I would like to do today that I found "too scary" so eating strange yogurt it is. So scary mind you, that I have had this in my fridge for over two weeks (still unexpired however) and have yet to taste. Unwilling to match wits with a woman who is on my last nerve, I tackled the yogurt. I sniffed...lavendery. I tasted. yum! A bit of that funky honey after taste, but in a good way. The way Greece lingers in your mouth after you visit. Perhaps I will be super adventurous and try the berry jasmine with zinc or vanilla chai today.

I love pollen in the springtime

yechh! It's that time of year again. Time to sweep the pollen, vacuum the pollen, be sneezed on by the pollen bothering the dog and draw in the pollen. Our house is enswamped in the brigadoon-esq Chartreuse powder that falls on us enexpectedly each year only to quickly vanish with a heavy rain. I'll take the highland mist and singing Scotsmen any day over this.

Cooper River Bridge Run

Woo hoo! I love getting up to the sound of rain at 4 am. My father in law and I ran the bridge run today along with 40,000 other crazy people. Never realized the bridge was so steep, but we ran full speed an non-stop up all 2 1/2 miles of it and then on through Charleston to the finish. Can you see me in the picture? I'm the one in the purple Team in Training shirt that says "for Kate." Marc was waiting at the finish with a big smile and a great big hug. He got up early with us to drive us and cheer us on. Love him so.

Kiawah

Spring Break is here! Whew! Nothing to do but be together, play board games, eat seafood and wonder at the beauty of the sea. I have two very happy boys who are content and filled with wonder. We shelled, splashed, hiked, biked and talked to alligators today.

my Antonia

"Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again."--Willa Cather. My Antonia

Recently finished My Antonia again. I love this book so much. So nostalgic and nature filled. It's one of those books that has sentences intended to be read twice. How amorphous a thing our memory is. While our hero longs for his lost youth, a touch of the long prairie grass waving under an expanse of blue skies brings it back for an instance. When he sees Antonia decades later and remembers unspoken love. Antonia is for Jim all that we leave behind and long for but cannot relive. Antonia is the prairie; the long grasses that wave in the wind under a vast blue sky. Antonia is the relatives long gone who taught Jim to survive harsh winters. Antonia is the feeling of first love, the first time you dance in the summertime. I love this book, every dripping word of the scenery of the prairie. Cather writes "Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past." Read it. Borrow my copy.

It's Mo!

Will could not sleep last night becasue of what he had to look forward to today. First thing he said in the morning was "I'm so excited!" Then he said "mommy, can I take my painting to show Mo because he is my inspiration?" That's right, Mo Willems is in town today to read and sig his new book Pigeon wants a Puppy. After school we gathered up our friends Jackson and Kate and headed to the Little Shop of Stories to sit front and center and listen to Mo. He told Willl that he was a true artist and was glad he could be an inspiration. He was sweet and kind to everyone and was very silly with miss Kate. Seriously though, it was as if they saw a rock star. Gotta love it that they were so excited about an author. After the signing we headed to get ice cream? Because that's what you do when it's 50 degrees outside.