The Crab Chronicles

Tennis and Movie Day

Yesterday was the nicest non-vacation day I've had in a long time. We slept late, did almost nothing around the house [except unpacking] and all of us just chilled out all day. Well, except Michael. He played in a tennis tournament all afternoon.

We are fortunate that our neighborhood pool and tennis center is just down the street from the house. They always have activities there on holiday weekends. The tennis folks had a round robin tournament for the kids on Saturday but of course we missed that. So I asked Mike's ALTA tennis coach if Mike might play in the adult tournament and he met us at the courts and introduced us to the organizers. They agreed to let Mike play even though he's only 13. He played for 3 hours, with some rest periods, and had a blast. The adults playing were all at a high level of skill and Michael was tickled to be able to play people who played real, serious tennis. Kids his age usually don't have the high skill level these adults do, of course. These folks have been playing for years. Mike told me several times how much fun it was. I sat in the enclosed shelter and watched, and chatted with some of the folks. Very pleasant.

We were supposed to get rain, and we did get some, but it held off until the end of the tournament. Today it looks like more rain. I hope we're not going to have a miserably rainy summer...

At one point last night I was on the computer and Alesia stuck her head in my room and asked "Is that thunder or you, Mom?!" I don't belch that low, kiddo...

The kids and I went to see the late afternoon matinee of Prince of Persia. Excellent, fun movie. I was surprised how much I liked it. The plot was a bit complicated but I got it. The star, Jake Gylenhaal, "has cute muscles!" according to my daughter. I pointed out that his hair looked greasy throughout the movie but she was indignant - "It was ancient times and he didn't have shampoo!"

We picked up sandwiches for dinner.

Today it's back to the real world. We have to buy groceries and pay bills. I have to try and find someone to fix the air conditioner upstairs, which isn't working too well. I also have the ongoing problem of the lawn mower, plus some issues related to Alesia's summer school. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted.

Here are two "balcony shots" of my kids. Quite a difference, huh?!

This is 2007, right after Mike came home. I love this photo.

 

Here's a funny shot from '08 -

   

Last year -

 

And finally, this year...

 

I thought this was not too bad, until I realized it appears Michael has a tree growing out of his head...

Vacation Photos

Here are some shots of the lovely vacation...

This is the living room of the condo, when we first got there and it was still neat...

 

Mike in front of the kitchen wearing his best look - combined Walmart sale cap and highway patrol glasses...

 

Here are the kids on the balcony. Every year I try to take one of them on the balcony. I need to do a photo essay of just those photos...
   

The thing with TWO HEADS! Run for your lives!
 

One day we rented bikes. This is the best shot I could get. Hilton Head has tons of bike paths. The kids had a blast.

   

Here's the condo and some beach shots...
 

   

This is a dead jellyfish. Mike wanted to poke it with a stick. I nixed that idea.
   

This is the pool, where Mike spent a lot of time. This is the Where's Waldo shot. Can you find Mike's head?!

 

We didn't eat out much but here's a shot at a great place, Steamers. You can eat great seafood and watch tennis...

   

Here's Mike in front of Palmetto Bay, a lovely place to have lunch.

   

Here are the kids in The Black Marlin, looking hostile despite having eaten a terrific lunch...
 

Final shot was taken yesterday just after sunrise. The tiny grey blip there is a fishing boat.

 

I'm Back

I am back! Did ya miss me?!?

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, anxious to get everything packed up and loved out. I packed the kitchen and cooked breakfast and we sat down to eat at 8 a.m. and were on the road by 8:30.

I forgot to take plastic ziploc bags. I wanted to bring home the green bean salad that my kids love. So I made a bag out of tinfoil and then put the salad in it, then in a small plastic bag. I am so clever sometimes I astonish myself.

Driving home was not too bad. Traffic was fine until we hit the outskirts of Atlanta.

My kids sit in the backseat and watch movies on the portable DVD player. Thanks, God, or whoever invented that.

I am reading the BEST BOOK - South of Broad, by Pat Conroy. I am a huge Conroy fan. I was amazed this didn't get great reviews. It's his best book yet.

I will post photos later, when I have unpacked and gotten some semblance of order back at the house. here's one though -

 

Our housesitter did a super job and she's a sweet young lady. If you're in the northeast part of Atlanta and looking for a great housesitter, email me and I'll give you her info. We got back and the house was spotless, Coco was doing great, and the gardens are all thriving. Can't ask for much more than that.

Part of the day was spent driving through rural South Carolina. It's fascinating. In Hampton, there's one restaurant and guess what it's called?! The Restaurant. Yep, plain and simple. In another small town there's a place called WINGZ & THANGZ. Yep, here we say "thangs." We don't usually get creative with the spelling of "wings" but that's just an added bonus. In a real accent, "wing" and "rang" are actually a close to perfect rhyme....

Back to the real world...

Relaxing

I am not a big one for "long walks on the beach" but I do like to go down and walk a bit in the sand every day I am here, at some point. I also just like to sit and read with the sound of the waves nearby.

I like to pray when I am looking at the ocean.  I feel closer to God when I see the waves and hear the sound of the wind, and see the birds wheeling overhead. I feel closer to him there than in any church I've ever been in. I think that's because God is solely responsible for the ocean and man builds churches. Not that churches and temples aren't good places to worship, just my own personal bias in favor of nature.

The only big negative about Hilton Head is that there are a lot of people here, even now just before the regular summer season. For the most part folks are nice, though. They don't interfere with my praying.

The kids always get along nicely on vacation. I think they realize they only have each other and they do well, 90% of the time. Alesia is getting over a sore throat and not feeling terrific, so I have spent more time than usual playing in the pool with Michael.

Yesterday, I gave them $20 out of the "fun money" stash and let them walk down the road to a shopping center. They were gone about an hour and a half and had a super time. They bought jewelry and a small snow globe and pen. I was surprised how much they were able to buy. I wouldn't have chosen any of it but they had a ball. They've never just blown money on souvenirs. Of course the "fun money" came from piggy banks and change jars, so it didn't come out of our regular budget.

Michael's left arm is quite tanned now, and his legs. His feet are white. I told him he needed to fix that and he spent an hour yesterday sunbathing. I have never seen him be so still while awake!

Alesia is still very pale, but she's working on it. This is the first summer I have seen them so concerned about "tanning." They get the Sunscreen Lecture frequently though.

We haven't done much while here but relax, swim, and watch movies at night. The weather has been cloudy and threatened rain, but no rain to speak of during the day, so far. As for our plans the rest of the week, I am going to let the kids rent bikes, and we may take an excursion and see dolphins and/or play mini golf, but that's it.

Michael said this morning that he wanted to stay here and be a bum. I told him I don't want him to be a bum anywhere. He has great empathy for homeless people, because he and his birthmom were homeless for years, due to her drinking. I told him his grandfather spent a great deal of his time raising money and working diligently for the Salvation Army. Maybe one day Michael can help them out, too. That would make his grandfather very proud.

I don't know anything else. We are having fun, enjoying the beach and relaxing. Hope y'all are relaxing too...

At the Beach

Greetings from beautiful Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We got here Saturday and have been doing very little for the past two days, beyond unloading the car and buying some groceries.

We have a lovely condo, beachfront. It was recently renovated and it's gorgeous - nautical themee, Pottery Barn furniture, granite countertops in the kitchen, etc. Best of all we can sit on the balcony and watch the ocean and see the pool.

We came in Saturday and everyone just vegetated for the rest of the day. I had brought spaghetti for dinner so we didn't have to rush to the grocery store. The trip was easy until we hit I-95 and then we had horrible thunderstorms and drenching rain for about 20 minutes. I HATE driving in that stuff. The kids had watched two movies and were listening to the rain hammer the car like gunfire. Mother and I just prayed as I drove. Everything was peaceful on the island though.

We went to Publix and Walmart yesterday morning. Alesia had to have a new bathing suit. Yesterday afternoon was spent by the pool and/or on the beach. Gorgeous weather - low 80's.

The kids and I had dinner out last night, and there were lobsters on special. Michael had his first taste of lobster. He said he liked it until he saw me demolish the shell with the nutcracker. Then he stopped eating. I am ruthless....

I am actually reading two books. It's rare I have time to read.

We plan to rent bicycles later in the week, and maybe see a movie if it's raining this afternoon. Otherwise - just relaxing. The kids are trying to tan as quickly as possible. I'll post pictures when we get home.

If you've never been here, Hilton Head is a great vacation spot. Email me and I can tell you where to get a good deal on a beachfront condo... ;-)

Bamboo Killer and Ninja Girl

I don't really have time to type out a whole post, so I will share an email to my brother -

I meant to tell you the other day about Michael and the bamboo. We've had so much rain we keep getting bamboo trees shooting up in the backyard, and some of them are 2-3 feet tall. The other day I told Mike to walk out back and kick them over. He went to the garage and got that machete he and Alesia found sometime back. He goes out back and starts jumping around and hacking like kung fu bamboo killer. It was SO funny! Mother and I sat at the kitchen table watching him and laughing.

Night before last I was making a batch of brownies, trying to hurry. Mike was in the kitchen helping. He likes to help cook and we encourage it. We always tell him "Uncle Bruce is a good cook! You should learn to cook like Uncle Bruce!" Well, I had put the chocolate, sugar, flour, everything in the brownie batter and I let him stir. He is so strong I didn't need to use a mixer. I was over at the sink, not watching him, and he said "Uh, Mom, I accidentally dropped a booger in the brownies!" Now, he had been sniffing a lot and he hates using Kleenex, so I was alarmed.

"Can you get it out?!" I asked calmly.
"Nope," he replied.
"C'mon Michael, get a spoon and try to dig it out." - I was thinking of the time you dropped bubblegum in the mashed potatoes.
"Nope. Can't get it," he replied seriously.
I stood there trying to think what to do. Finally, I glared at him. "Just stir it in then! I am going to HOPE that YOU get the SNOT BROWNIE!" I wasn't shouting but I was tempted.
Then he started laughing.
I know somewhere Dad was laughing. 

He loved putting one over on me.

Mother had to tell Alesia something the other day and couldn't think of her name. So she called her Ninja Girl. She said Alesia brightened right up, clearly delighted. Good nickname for her.

I told the kids we don't have any extra money, so we broke out my piggy bank, and Mother's, and put together the coins. We must have 25 lbs. of coins. We went to Kroger and got them converted to cash to spend at the beach - $97. The kids are all "Can we rent bicycles?" can we do this, that, etc. blah blah. I told them the coins are IT. That's the "fun money." They will have to figure out how to budget it. I think it will be a good exercise. They have no idea how expensive things are. Just to go to a matinee - without getting anything to eat or drink - around $30.

We are trying out a housesitter, a young college student who is supposed to take care of Coco and the gardens, mainly. I hope she does a good job. She seems reasonably intelligent. She said she doesn't know how to cook. I got some Stouffers lasagna and put it in the freezer, and left her some homemade spaghetti sauce and some Kroger mac & cheese. We're also leaving chips, Oreos, and Cokes - at her request. Yikes.

To make everything more fun today, Michael had to pay an emergency visit to the orthodontist after school, and Alesia has a sore throat so I got the doctor to call in a prescription, since it's been getting worse progressively. And we had two huge downpours of rain today - 1.5 inches, the one this morning. 

Mike told me tonight he's looking forward to the trip in the car. He likes sitting in the car watching movies - not a bad deal. Remember sitting in the car with Dad smoking, for hours?! Ah the good old days...

hope you're well...

YS

NOTE: I WILL BE WITHOUT A COMPUTER FROM MAY 22-29. I may get to post an update sometime but don't count on it.

Gardening in Atlanta

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would buy a house and gradually start loving gardening, I would have said they were insane. I was the kid who pledged to NEVER ever grow a blade of grass or have anything whatsoever to do with "yard work." My parents loved to garden, and my brother and I hated it. Of course, we were kids. We didn't have any sense yet.

Now the thought of living somewhere and not being able to stick my hands in dirt every day is too depressing for words.

Being unemployed has given me daily feelings of frustration and impotence. I want to work. The gardens are my therapy. Now I get it. Now I understand how lovely and de-stressing gardening can be. Every morning when I drop off Michael from school, I come home and try to water, weed, prune, fertilize - just whatever needs doing. I am a messy and haphazard gardener. I don't care. I usually come in dripping sweat and have to sit down for a while with a huge cup of ice water, but that's OK.

I have been meaning for a while to take photos of my gardens to share with you readers, and I finally got around to it. Now I've used up the camera batteries and I can pull them out with a clear conscience.

This is my back patio, from the side. You can see all the pots of flowers and the tomato garden patch. Most of my flowers were grown from seed; a few were grown from tiny seedlings I found on sale.

   

 

I grew these from tiny things. I love the burst of color. I grew something new [for me] - sweet peas. Those pots are below. I am trying to get them to climb this fence.

 

Here's the patio from the back door. Yes, it's messy. If "comp'ny" were coming over I'd clean up.

 

See the black metal chairs? I put my seedling flats there, for maximum sun. Below is a closer view. I need to give away some of these - my gardens are full! Hallelujah.

   

These are two views of the tomato garden. It also has a few other things - zucchini, a pepper plant, parsley. Mostly tomatoes, though.

 

 

Mulch rocks. Far less weeding for me. Yay.

This is a closeup of my FIRST tomatoes! Yay! They come from a tiny half-dead plant I bought at Walmart, believe it or not. The tag said Russian tomatoes so I thought OK, let's give 'em a try. Note the bamboo tomato cage my brother and son made me. The different leaves on the lower right at Easter lilies - they come up every year, despite my trying to transplant them elsewhere! Tough little roots.

 

Behind the tomato bed and in the back of the house is a space where you can get in under the house. My brother cut some of the bamboo in the backyard and stuck the saplings down there to age. I was walking past there this morning and spied a little bird, resting on the bamboo. She didn't fly when I took her photo. I hope she wasn't in distress.

 

Here's a closeup. Anyone know what kind of bird this is? Her breast was sort of orange.

 

Continuing on around the side of the house, this is my newest garden.

 

Now, no-one but a gardener could understand my sheer delight in the big fat yellow squash blossoms. Let's take a closer look, hmm...?!?

 

Continuing to the front, this is my carefully planted half-moon bed. There are lantana plants that haven't come back yet but once they do, this will look much more lush.

 

Below is our front patio, which I decided to do in red geraniums and white Gerbera daisies. The Gerberas don't like me. They wither and die, despite everything I do. Oh well. The geraniums look nice. We lost our birdbath to ice. Still pondering what to do there...

 

Quite a change from the scene below, huh?!

 

This is my melon patch. I have cantaloupes and watermelons galore in there. I pulled out the stupid volunteer pumpkins - they are too greedy! They go everywhere and look scary. They remind me of something evil, something that would EAT YOU! Bwahhahahaha!

 

Finally, I leave you with this.

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves. - Gandhi

I also like this, from May Sarton:

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

Surfer Dude

My children are taking final exams and I don't know who's more nervous, me or them. Michael got into the car after school and 1 minute later screamed and clutched his head in horror - "I don't know which exams I am having tomorrow!" he said, in full Drama King mode.

He later figured it out - after he spent two hours working on math. 

I wish I had something interesting to say today but there's just not much to report. I did some gardening. I took Mother to get a haircut. I made a batch of brownies. Whoopee-doo....

I wrote a much longer blog - hysterically funny and yet profound - and the dadgum computer ate it. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures tomorrow...

Since we are getting ready to head to the beach, I will leave you with a funny photo from a couple of years ago, one I like to call Surfer Dude...

 

Adorable Pet Stuff

Every once in a while I come across a website I really like. Coco, our 10 lb. Yorkie-Poo Furbaby, looks adorable in sweaters and little outfits [see below, from a few years back]. I found a website called Max and Mittens that has adorable outfits for doggies, plus collars, leashes - all sorts of cute dog and kitty products and treats. You may notice that many of their products feature Yorkie models! I particularly love the tee shirt that says YES I'M ON FACEBOOK    - too cute!

 

End of the Year

There's very little news to report but I wanted to share a couple of things. As the school year comes to a close, there's drama everywhere.

Michael passed his CRCT! In fact, he did better than a lot of kids. I don't have the actual results yet but his ESL teacher shared with him the good news. ESL students take a test every year to determine if they need to continue to take ESL English or can transition to regular English. Michael scored very high on his test and next year he can take regular 7th grade English. That is awesome news. Alesia is still taking ESL English. Even though she was 13 when adopted and Michael was 10, those 3 years made a big difference. She still has a slight accent and he has none. She loves to read, but analyzing a work of literature is still tough for her.

Alesia passed all her graduation tests [including English] but one. She has to take a summer school class for Social Studies, so she can re-take the test and hopefully pass. I don't know why she cannot seem to retain History facts. She retains Math and Science pretty well. She thinks History is a huge bore, which doesn't help. She has a terrific history teacher, too. 

Alesia came home and informed me she had to write a 2 page paper about soccer for her PE class. Plus she has finals to study for. Plus she has to pick up forms at school so she can get her driver's license this summer.

Michael came home and reported one of his teachers is having a small party for the kids tomorrow and everyone can bring snacks. I just love how they wait until the day before and suddenly I have to deliver snacks! I made a yellow box mix cake and put chocolate frosting on it. Michael also chose to take in a bag of Salt & Vinegar potato chips - he ran in Kroger and chose those. I had nothing to do with it.

The fact he went in Kroger alone and bought cake frosting, milk, and chips, is a huge thing. He hates shopping alone. We had a big discussion about it beforehand. 

The next few days will be hectic as we prepare to go out of town. To add to the fun, right before bed Michael showed me how his gums are overgrown over his braces in the back - very weird looking. So I have to try and schedule an orthodontist appointment between now and Saturday and Michael has final exams the next few days! Final exams in middle school.

The fun just never stops around here...