Feb 24, 2017 - An evening in my (local) happy place, sans child.
Feb 25, 2017 - The boys, looking much more like each other than usual. L: Kylo, R: Finn
Feb 26, 2017 - A beautiful tree in bloom. It's awfully "springy" for only February!
Feb 27, 2017 - I was literally only out of my chair for 3 minutes. (Why are they so big?)
Feb 28, 2017 - A wonderful (school!) night on the town in Atlanta. First Phantom for Luke.
Mar 1, 2017 - Not where I planned to be today. Luke rolled his foot yesterday, so we're having it checked out. What we thought might be a twisted ankle turned out to be a possibly fractured foot bone! If it's not better by Friday, he'll have to have x-rays.
Jan 31, 2017 - Pretty ceiling while walking between concourses A and B at the Atlanta airport.
Feb 1, 2017 - Not sure the kitties are doing their jobs. We seem to have a mouse infestation!
Feb 2, 2017 - Not a bad start to our 2017 jar of happiness so far.
Feb 3, 2017 - Where did my babies go?! Look how big!
Feb 4, 2017 - Ready for Sunday. We don't watch football, but it's the home team. Go Falcons!
Feb 5, 2017 - We will support the Falcons by nom-ing through the game. Let's eat, um, I mean play! (Guess we didn't eat enough in the second half, since we lost in the first ever overtime play in a Super Bowl.)
Oct 3, 2016 - Look Mommy, I'm a big girl now! I can get on the counter all by myself.
Oct 4, 2016 - Lunch at CNN Center with my manager, who is in town for a meeting.
Oct 5, 2016 - My family is a bit obsessed with tracking Hurricane Matthew today.
Oct 6, 2016 - Luke's idea of a perfect day off: video games, kitten in the lap, pizza for lunch!
Oct 7, 2016 - Happy 12th Birthday, Luke!! You must blow out a candle on your actual day.
Oct 8, 2016 - And it's 12th Birthday Party time! We're hosing my parents and DH's mom as Hurricane Matthew evacuees. All we can do now is hope and pray. Unfortunately, due to the same hurricane, BIL, SIL, and the nieces weren't able to make it.
Naturally, when you go to a Braves game, you run into people you know from your hometown that's 300 miles away! I didn't think to get our picture with them (I'm not into the whole selfie thing), but it was really bizarre to be on a MARTA train and see people you went to church with growing up standing across from you. Hello to the Beardens and the Lipthratts!
We also did not know until we arrived that it was alumni weekend. They were just finishing up the veterans softball game when we arrived. Smoltz, Klesko, Maddux, Eddie Perez, Javy Lopez. It was like old times!
Luke was also very into the game for the first time ever. He was asking all kinds of questions about the intricacies of the rules, he was clapping along with the organ, and he insisted that we stay for the whole game. Who are you and what have you done with my child who is usually ready to play on a phone by the 2nd inning and ready to leave by the 5th? He also ate half a large popcorn, a very large slice of pizza, and and ice cream cone, plus 2.5 large bottles of water. He's going to be taller than I am before the end of the year if he keeps this up! Currently feeling: take me out to the ballgame!
Luke is finally able to stay up until about 10 PM on very rare occasions (woe be unto you if you attempt it more than once or twice a year), so I wanted to actually try and do fireworks for July 4th this year. But we did them on July 2 instead!
Stone Mountain usually does their "July 4th" fireworks for 2-3 days near the Fourth. With the Fourth on a Saturday this year, I figured the days would be Friday and Sunday. I checked the availability for Friday, but they were requiring a two-night stay at double the usual per-night price. We didn't need to stay two nights, and we couldn't afford four-times the cost of what a single night is usually priced. Then I noticed the show dates for 2015: July 2-5. Really?
So I called the hotel to be sure. Yes, indeed! Not only were they also doing the show Thursday night, but a Thursday night stay at the hotel was regular price and did NOT require two nights. Score! Plus, I figured they would be less busy Thursday than Friday.
There were a fair number of people there, but I'm sure nothing like it would have been Friday through Sunday. We arrived a bit before lunch and roamed around.
The picture they took before we went up didn't turn out half bad other than we were all sweating (it wasn't all that hot, but it was about 1000% humidity), so we picked that up. It's better in person; it doesn't scan very well.
Luke decided he wanted to do the SkyHike. I don't think he realizes what a sacrifice this was for my husband. I certainly didn't realize he was so afraid of heights until he got down and was clearly pale and shaken. (I'm guessing he may not have fully realized it, either. Sorry, honey!) I can assure that this is the last time my husband will ever do it. Guess Luke will have to do with next time with Nana until I lose enough weight to feel comfortable up there. (There is a weight limit. I am under it, but not by very much, and I'd rather be a bit further under it for my own peace of mind.)
They were between 10 and 15 feet ( m) off the ground at all times during this course, and it took them over 30 minutes to get all the way through. We also did the train (I always forget how boring the train ride is; Duck Boats are better, but they are not included with the day pass). The we grabbed some dinner and picked out a spot on the lawn to wait. Luke spent about half his time playing with some of the other kids (ranging in age from about 6-12) and doing this (of course):
The laser show was fun, as usual. They've added a few new things since we were last there. And the fireworks were quite good, though a little thin in a couple of spots. Our room package came with park tickets good for two days, so we intended to get up early and do stuff hopefully before the crowds started rolling in.
What we didn't know is that there was a storm rolling in. A HUGE ONE! It was actually raining when we took this picture above, but it was mostly covered by trees, so we stayed relatively dry. (The building behind him looks hazy because of the rain.) We hoped it might blow through, but after 90 minutes of raining and checking the forecast, we realized there was no chance of getting in any outdoor activities. It actually rained out the fireworks both Friday and Saturday nights. I'm so glad we decided to go Thursday!
My parents joined us Friday evening, and we did sparklers (these are actually called Morning Glories) on Saturday, July 4, in between rain storms.
Not a bad way to spend our 17th wedding anniversary!
Hope you had a happy 4th! Currently feeling: patriotic
So we could see Marvel Universe Live! (I wish they'd had a better sign for you to take a picture with.)
We had great seats, five rows from the floor!
And we enjoyed Dippin' Dots before the show. Luke had had them before, but it had been so long he didn't really remember.
I realized I forgot my camera not long after we left the house, but I didn't bother to go back for it because I had figured (like most shows) they would not allow photography or video. Well, turns out, they do! Darn it. So I only have a couple of rather crummy cell phone photos to show for it.
I can't say it was the best show from an adult perspective. It definitely gives me a new appreciation for the quality of the two stunt shows at Disney. Again, this wasn't bad, and given that they are working "in the round" (as opposed to the audience facing just one side of the stage at Disney) complicates matters. The kids all loved it, though, including Luke, which is all that matters.
Thanks, everyone, for checking on us! Things have indeed been absolutely CRAZY here with the snow. It came in sooner and much heavier than any of the predictions had indicated. Let's not discuss the debacle that was the school system waiting until the last minute to decide to close early. The only reason we even found out is because his teacher called me at work using her personal cell phone!
I know all of my northern friends are rolling their eyes right now, but in the two hours between when the snow started falling and my husband came to pick me up, the (major!) road next to my office was so slushy that the public transit bus in front of us (and thus we) almost didn't make it up the hill! (And the hill really isn't that steep.) We watched it spin its wheels and slide backwards with only one car between it and us. Thankfully, that one city block was by far the worst part of our drive.
DH left his office around 1:40. It took him 30 minutes to drive 3 city blocks to pick me up. That made it 2:10. From there, using the Google maps traffic overlay and some knowledge of the area roads, we were able to take back roads and stick to the mainly yellow and red paths (as opposed to crimson/black ones).
In doing so, we managed to make the 14.6 mile journey to Luke's daycare in a mere 2 hours and 40 minutes. We picked him up at 4:20, which ironically is about the time we usually get him.
The roads closer to our house were not as busy or as icy, so we went out to eat for our last hurrah before being trapped at our house for at least a day (maybe more). Red Lobster was closed, but the Maddio's Pizza next to it was open, so we ate there.
(That's about 1.5 inches/3-4 cm)
We got back home around 5:30 without incident, until we tried to pull into our carport. The carport is on the back of the house, so you drive past it, turn around, and then pull in. We got stuck on point one of our three point turn; the wheels did nothing but spin when we put it in reverse. Joy.
We unleashed Luke on the snow while DH shoveled the driveway in front of the carport and around the tires. After that, we were able to back it up and successfully park in the carport.
By then, I was freezing (had given Luke my gloves), so I came in, but Luke stayed out to have a snowball fight with Daddy. They were out until well after dark, so forgive our sad baby snowman pictures. Each snowman segment is about softball size.
We are so grateful that we left when we did and it "only" took us about 3 hours to get home. Some friends took 6-8 hours, some are still on the road trying to get home (at 9:30-ish PM), and some have already had to pull off to stay at a hotel or a friend's house. One friend only made it because some residents whose homes bordered the road she was on were spreading sand by hand and helping to push cars up the hills. Thank you to all of the special angels out there today! And everyone, please stay safe!! Currently feeling: grateful to be home safe!
take me out to the ballgame!
made it to the top! (via cable car, but he did walk down)
patriotic
surprised to see prices like this again in my lifetime
bouncing from one thing to the next
hungry for Mexican
grateful to be home safe!