Happy Halloween

Wow, October was crazy busy, and it ended with a bang and way too much candy.

Our PTO Boosters fundraiser wrapped up with us bringing in several thousand over our goal of $16,500. That was very exciting for our little school of 498 families! And I gained two good friends and walking partners out of all those joint hours of working together. Now we've moved on to our Box Tops campaign, which isn't nearly as involved and time intensive. I get to continue my guest appearances on WDTS (the kids morning TV show at school), so maybe I'll maintain my celebrity status even though my reign as volunteer of the month has come to an end.

Granna Di and Pappa John got to see all kinds of shows when they were in town last week: me throwing a fit about our principal, Hawthorne center stage as Nemo in the 4th grade play, and Ainsley playing soccer in her last game of the year. I'm thinking my performance was the most animated!

Ains is the one in the pink sweater, of course.

Look at that speed!

HF is the one inside the giant fish cutout!

So handsome!

Then we celebrated Halloween with lots of parties, trick-or-treating, and way too much candy. I've already polished off all the Reese's and put a significant dent in the Twix. Not a good start to the season of fattening holiday food. Ack!

The weather man and the Indian princess. Sounds like a good children's book.

Post trick-or-treating treats and candy trading.
(Why do they bother. Mommy is the one who ends up eating it!)

 

Now, baby, it's cold outside. Time to start the holiday shopping and plan the holiday traveling. It all sounds so normal and un-"[d]ramatic" (to quote Ainsley). When I was visiting with an ex-colleague at a birthday party last night he said, "We sure do miss you, but you seem very happy without us." He's so right. Life is good.

Prrrrr.

Glitter!

I've been spending an insane number of hours working on the kids' school's fall fundraiser. There are many days, like yesterday, when I spend six hours straight working on signs and flyers and counting money and going to the bank just so they can make faces at me when I bring them bags of coins. Then once homework is done and the kids are in the shower, I'm back at it. Figuring out which classrooms we need to do targeted marketing in and what awareness strategies we haven't considered, writing listserv messages, and posting to the PTO Facebook page. There are days I love it and days that really just suck all the energy out of me. I do it because I think that as an at-home mom it's kind of my responsibility to step up and take on the big stuff at school. But also, I get a big kick out of all the glitter. This past week, there has been lots of glitter. The really tiny gold kind that gets on everything. It's in my hair, my car, my purse, my kitchen drawers, the cat's bed, the bathroom towels... And I love it! It's happy and sparkly and pretty. It's leftover from me making stars for a poster. It drives Carter crazy, so I clean up what I think is necessary and leave a little laying around that I don't think he'll notice too much.

Then there's the figurative glitter, which is just as fun. Last week had lots of glitter: I was awarded volunteer of the month, Hawthorne's class clapped for me every time I visited, I actually knew how to work all the math problems that kids needed help with in the computer lab, lots of the cute little bitty kids said, "Hey, PTO, I saw you on the morning announcements. When are you going to draw my name for a prize?" whenever they passed me on the sidewalk, I kicked ass in my exercise classes and on my Saturday morning walk, and my mammogram follow-up came back clear this time. No biopsy! Sparkly glitter everywhere. I love it!

Go Ninjas!

Ainsley joined her first sports team this year. She's a Ninja with her friend Lauren, and the shirts are purple, so she's totally pumped. She had never played soccer in her life, but you never would have known that by watching her last Saturday. She did the usual following-the-ball-in-a-mass with the other 21 girls, but at some point she broke away from the pack, dribbled 10 yards, and scored. It was so exciting! She then turned and ran down the field with her fist in the air. I think she played the entire game with a smile on her face. At least until the last few minutes when she came over to get a drink and said she thought she was going to throw up. She headed right back out though. We're so proud of her. Of course I'm the noisy mom on the sidelines cheering while the other moms are chasing their youngest child around or sitting in the shade sipping coffee. But it's way more fun to cheer, and yelling "Go Ninjas!" just makes me laugh.

Our star soccer player!

Wakulla River manatee sighting!

A few weeks ago Carter and I packed up and headed to the Wakulla River while the kids were at school. It was my turn to be the paddleboard passenger!

We had a wonderful time. Me probably more so than Carter because I didn't have to paddle against the wind one direction and the crazy current the other direction. Relaxing on the river was fun, but the highlight of the trip was the manatees. We saw a whole family of them, and got a super up-close look at the baby when he came to check us out. He made me so nervous. (I don't know why. It's not like he's scary!) But he was kind enough not to tump us over into the freezing water as he swam under the paddle board. (The river is spring fed so it's clear and ice cold.)

The kids were seriously jealous. 

Ready to roll.

Mom and baby.

Ack!

That blob is the baby's head right next to the paddleboard.

Enjoying the ride.

Last trip of the season.

We hit the beach last weekend for the last trip of the season. Good timing. The weather was perfect, the water was beautiful, and the Longhorns' performance kept spirits high. We even saw dolphins for the first time in the Gulf since the oil spill. That was a special treat.

We have a routine for our quick trips to 30A. Lunch on the top floor of Bud and Alley's so we can enjoy the views in Seaside, lounging on the beach until late evening, dinner at the Mexican restaurant that makes Guacamole at the table, chocolate treats at the candy store, sleep and repeat with different restaurants the next day. And of course I manage to squeeze in a little shopping somewhere. Having such an extraordinary place to visit only two and a half hours away is one of the great perks of living in Florida. We can have breakfast under the moss covered oaks in the rolling hills of Tallahassee and have powdered sand between our toes just as the day starts heating up. So spoiled.

View from the deck at Bud and Alley's.

Enjoying the last rays of the day.

Hunting for jellyfish. Those two piles of sand are probably buried jellyfish!

Jellyfish. Double click the picture to see it up close.
 They were pretty harmless. (Though, I didn't test that out.)

Hot guy on the beach.

Waiting for waves.

The simple life.

Good grief life seems busy, but then I remember that I have a very simple life, and my version of busy includes a couple episodes of CSI: New York every day.

It does seem like we're flying through the weeks though. I'm spending lots of time coordinating PTO fundraising efforts and helping in the kids' classrooms. Then after school Ainsley has piano and dance and Hawthorne has tennis and art. On our free days, we usually try to meet up with friends to play and catch up. Then, of course, there's homework and dinner and board games, reading, and bedtime. It's busy, but it's not complicated. I'm thankful for that.

I quit my job almost two years ago so that we could live the simple life—which to me meant I wouldn't have to rush around like a crazy woman trying to have it all. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I chose this over the perks of having two incomes. I still miss the shopping and the extra vacations! But, I love that I spent my morning photocopying fliers with a friend and brainstorming promotion strategies with my great fundraising team. And I love that I saw both of my kids during their school day, and Hawthorne got to tell me about his great reading test while he was still basking in the glow of his success. I know these are moments I wouldn't trade for the Boden dress I've been lusting for for weeks.

But I feel like I'm failing a little in this life we've carved out. I feel like as an at-home mom I should have better abs, the house should be decorated for Halloween, the backyard should be beautifully landscaped, my kids clothes shouldn't be so wrinkled, and the fall vegetables should be sprouting in the garden. "Let me get through this fundraising campaign," I tell myself, "and then I'll turn into Martha Stewart/gym rat." But I know better. Because I'm not going to change my personality! However, though the holiday decorating may be out, I'm thinking there's still hope for a landscaped back yard and a new coat of paint in the study. And I do have the reputation as the mom who brings the best Friday treats. (Strawberries with homemade whipped cream last week!) And really that's what I want—to hear "Hi Ainsley's mom, hi Hawthorne's mom," as I walk through the halls of their school and feel like I belong. And I still have four more years of that to go! Oh my gosh—only four more years!

Hawthorne and Ainsley's first day of school this year.
Looks like Florida doesn't it! That's their school, not our yard!

This is a little Martha Stewarty. Corn cakes with black bean salsa.
I'll  post the recipe soon. It's a vegetarian dish that even my dad would eat!

Old tricks.

We're two weeks into the new school year, and Hawthorne is already up to his old tricks. I met with his teacher yesterday to assure her that he's not the space cadet that he appears to be, but she probably knows that assertion is really just wishful thinking. That boy's head is in the clouds—both in the figurative sense and in the way in which he's always thinking about the damn weather instead of what he's supposed to be thinking about. In his very short time in 4th grade he has already lost two library books, forgotten his homework at school twice, forgotten to do the homework he actually brought home, failed to turn in forms, and misplaced the check for his planner. His teacher—who is an awesome fit for him btw—laughs that all these things I find unbelievably annoying are just signs of genius. That makes me feel only slightly better. Mainly because I'm glad she's not annoyed. I think his excellent performance on the FCAT last year has earned him a few get-out-of-jail free cards at school. His serious classroom demeanor and the recognition he received for his perfect FCAT score at last week's awards ceremony has convinced his teacher that he's just an absent minded intellectual. I think that could work for us. He's also in the gifted and talented program now, and I'm a firm believer in the power of labels. Once a child is labeled the smart kid, the trouble maker, the class clown... he takes on that role in his mind and the mind of others. And I'm not just making that up— ask the criminologists about labeling theory. Labeled a felon, always a felon. I'm of course going for labeled the smart guy, always the smart guy. He seems to embrace this, though there are a couple other labels he wouldn't mind embracing. He loves being known as the fast kid and the one with a good arm. If people started calling him the weather man, he'd probably think that was the greatest compliment ever. Whatever his label, that's my boy.

Cool guy.

Sport.

Fashionista.

Class clown.