Roadtrip Sans Snapshots

I woke up this morning to a day of nothing - no schedule, no imperatives, just Mount Laundry. Darby and Roxy made French toast for everyone. Simply a great way to start the day. Scott has now decided that he does not want to spend the day at home, so we are off on a road trip. I like these days when Scott spends it with us, and I love finding small towns, so we are off. The camera was dead, unfortunately, so I will give you the highlights.

-We headed to Rome, GA, which is maybe 45 minutes from our house. It is the closest I have ever been to anything European. There is a private college there called Berry College and we checked it out. We told Darby that she had to decide in the car if she wanted to attend there because she was going to be tested upon arrival because you have to figure out early if you want to get in. The place is so gorgeous - it has some comparisons to the Biltmore Estate. It is a school the size of OC, but looks nothing similar and it feel like many thousands more students attend it. Berry College sits on 30,000 acres with multiple hiking trails, a mountain, a historic mill built by the students in 1931, a wildlife preserve, lakes, and just turn after turn of beautiful buildings and herds of deer and swans and everything you would dream of seeing outside your window. The girls wanted to do the ropes courses and the sky ropes courses, but we were pretty sure that drop-ins were disqualified. We hiked and explored and we are looking into retreats at the retreat center, which is located on top of the mountain. Insert ooh and aah - it was good.

-We continues on to Cave Spring, GA. This place was pretty tiny, but had a decently thriving downtown with lots of gift shops and antique places. There are old codgers sitting in rocking chairs in front of the businesses - and they are for real, wearing their overalls and truckers hats that they have owned since the days of Smokey and the Bandit. We ate at the cafe, which was good, and we were completely not locals but they were friendly anyway. Cave Spring is known for their cave and their spring, so we checker that out too. The cave was not open, which was a bummer since we told Roxy they served Bat sandwiches there. The cave is 65 degrees all year and we wish that it was open. They have a spring where you can get free water, and we saw many people filling up jugs. We fed the ducks and the trout that live downstream and just poked around the town, soaking up the culture.

-Darby was our book on tape. That girl loves to read. After we vetoed Calvin and Hobbes, she read to us Phantom Tollbooth. When she got quiet, I started reading my book out loud, A Little History of the World. Darby was immediately addicted because it fills in so many blanks, so many details that she has not yet learned. I love this book because it covers Western Civilization stuff that I cannot remember and it does it on a 10 year old level (of course my 10 year old has not been able to establish her level yet.)

-Roxy was perfectly Roxy, sans stuffed animal. I don't know how it happened, but she managed to leave the house without Asia, Lady, or anybody. She continually begged for us to buy her an animal, but no dice for the Rock Star. Roxy's jaw dropped when we stopped at a grocery store for a snack and she found a table with four chairs set up for a valentine party, and all four chairs had life size stuffed animals sitting in them. Someone at Kroger understands Roxy's secret fantasies...

My List of Random Things (Again)

Here's my 25 Random Things list. I am posting it on my blog because it took me quite a chunk of time to think of this many things. After typing them up on Facebook and selecting people to tag, the list blinked out and I had to do it again! There are no more original thoughts in my head today, so here's my list:


1. My name is always misspelled and mispronounced. It came from a little girl at the school where my Dad was the principal, so they borrowed it.
2. I named my children with the simplest spelling of their names. See #1.
3. I love rock and alternative country music. Think Ryan Adams and Old 97's.
4. I have a big head - hats don't fit me well. Must be that big brain of mine...
5. I have a few favorite movies - The Princess Bride, The Muppet Movie, and Moonstruck.
6. My forehead has a goofy shape, just like Eddie Munster. In junior high the annoying boys would call me Eddie. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names remain in memory.
7. I started reading at an early age, probably to compete for attention my brother was getting.
8. I love, love, love the color blue. I'm an indigo girl - without the alternative lifestyle, of course.
9. I tend to exaggerate, and it irritates Scott. I'm trying to control it...
10. The glass looks half empty to me, which means I am probably a pessimist.
11. My first car was a 1967 Chevelle, and we painted it indigo. Six people could sit comfortably in the back seat.
12. I am a believer in birth order philosophies. I am the baby sister and I married the oldest brother, which means I did good.
13. I love puzzles and games. Boggle, Sudoku, Scrabble, jigsaw puzzles, cards, dominoes, Blockus, trivia games. Love, love, love.
14. I would like to make cakes like they make on Ace of Cakes. Just need some skills...
15. I'm a Pepper and I am making my girls Peppers, too.
16. I have a crooked pinky finger on my left hand. It never fails to gross out my sister.
17. I use the word "technically" too often. When you hear your six-year-old use it in conversation, you know that it is time to change.
18. If I could go back in time, I would do college again. I would dump all the self-conscious stuff and take more chances, take different classes, love my life a little better.
19. I love loud music and people watching. Concerts are fun for me. Can't wait for the Boss this spring...
20. I have dang big feet and I am not proud of them. I've been lumbering around on them since 6th grade. And I saved my first pair of size ten shoes - burgundy penny loafers with tassels.
21. I have a Gilmore Girls addiction. Love it, watch it too often, and even went to the set in Hollywood. I would live in Stars Hollow if it was a possibility.
22. I am sad about the number of people I have known and lost touch with - moving is the pits.
23. My athletic ability is staggeringly bad. People feel the need to correct me at the gym.
24. Every time I read the Bible I learn something new. I should read much, much more.
25. I am very proud of my beautiful unique daughters and I am blessed to have a fine husband - he has a forgive and forget thing that is wonderful!

Where Is Your Report Card?

I have been asking this question for a few weeks. The report cards never came home. I would not have been shocked to discover that Darby had misplaced hers (aka stuffed it in her black hole of a desk), but there was no way on earth that Roxy would have let it slip by. That girls is on top of things. It turns out that they spring them on you at the January conference. So, if you are disappointed by something or simply surprised, your teacher gets to read it all over your face.

I'm not such a big fan of this predatory method. What fun is it to look at your kid's report card when the kid is not there for you to praise and/or interrogate? I have the unfortunate plight of also not knowing what grades the kids will get, because Roxy only gets smilies on every single paper, and Darby gets grades but not all of them are recorded. I kind of felt ambushed at the conference, which made me feel guarded and less present than normal.

On the good side, Darby has a beautiful report card, full of lots of detail (only six letters on the entire thing, and nothing else.) And Roxy has shown herself to be quite a student who is coming into her own. She loves to please her teacher and she is learning real writing skills, something that will make her daddy burst with pride. I am so glad to have academic-type students. Go nerds!

Open Headwound - An Appetizer

As a mom and as a weighty human being, I am conscious of my diet and the diet of my family. The force-feeding of vegetables, the limiting of sugar, the overindulgence of Dr. Pepper - all of these are foremost in my mind. I want to do better, I know a lot of nutritional facts, and I watch Food Network. So, I attempt to make good choices for the family and I make careful and conscious decisions about treats. For example, I buy some sweets but only those things that my children will eat at my discretion. If I like, I don't buy it. I get Dr. Pepper and that's pretty much it.

For a healthy alternative, I decided it was time to try ground turkey. Can you believe I have never tried it before? I've done turkey bacon and turkey sausage, but I have never attempted to use ground turkey as a raw material for our meal. Tonight was the night -round one with ground turkey - and we had to go to Chic-Fil-A.

I could not stand to look at it. My ground turkey came in a package similar to sausage - plastic casing with big staples on the end. It completely weirded me out. No resemblance to ground beef. It resembled the head wounds and skin diseases that I saw recently on the Internet. Trust me, you do not want to research skin diseases. The next time you see a skin bump, don't bother trying to identify it using online slide shows from reputable web sites. You will not be able to peel the images from your brain.

My sweet husband understood my horror this evening and did not question the queasy feeling I experienced. Thanks babe - I did not want to serve a head wound for dinner.

Anybody Want a Thin Mint?

I have a very unfortunate personality trait that makes me loathe sales. I don't play the selling game very well. The uncomfortable feeling of asking someone to purchase something for your child's fundraiser, the knowledge that you will not sell enough, the feeling of dread when you have to pass out and collect the cash/check: I do not like it Sam I Am.

I was managing my dreadful feelings pretty well until I got a message today saying that cookie sales sheets were due tomorrow. AAAACK! I thought I had more time. Upon further research, I discovered that this was not a new deadline, it was the one I acknowledged months ago. Way to go, Mom...

My brilliant idea (now) is to make Roxy look extra-cute and sell prepurchased boxes come March. I'm thinking that this is the only way to stay out of the Brownie doghouse. Roxy is cute enough to sell ice cubes to eskimoes...

Thinkin' 'Bout Babies

Have you noticed how people with babies have so many pictures for their blogs? It makes me miss my babies, who aged out of that period years ago. I had no blog for my babies. But let me tell you, they were really special. One of these days I will get all my videos converted so I can see the footage of babydom. But for now, here is what I treasure: Darby at 1 year.

History Lessons for Dar

I find myself telling Darby, my oldest, lots of stories about what things were like when I was young. That is such an old woman thing to do, but I can't seem to help myself, which is also just like an old woman, too. I am in awe at how the eighties are popping up everywhere, particularly clothing and shoes, music, pop culture, etc. And Darby does not even know that it is all 80s material - she thinks it is unique. The skinny jeans on boys with skinny ties, the blousy tunics with leggings, the retro tennis shoes, the music. I tried on a jacket at Macy's recently and immediately a Michael Jackson song popped in my head because of the zippers, the asymmetrical details, and the military cut.

Darby also knows nothing about the music. She has a friend that rides her bus and he entertains her with songs that she calls "these funny little parodies", but it is really songs by Weird Al Yankovic. How did I let her get to the age of 10 with no Weird Al knowledge? She knows the words to "I'm Fat", but does not know that it is a parody of Michael Jackson, whom she also does not know. I found a single Weird Al song in our music library, "Canadian Idiot," and she does not quite get that song because she has never seen Strange Brew. My clever girl has a lot to learn - and I have a lot of culture lessons to conduct...