Life as We Know It

We are rapidly closing in on the 4-month mark of our time in Georgia. We've been here a third of a year already??! Time flies, as it always does, but we have been enjoying the lovely, mild fall weather here. Once the heat decided to dissipate (finally!) in mid-September, the weather we imagined enjoying when we decided to take this job settled in over the area. I guess that's why I still can't wrap my mind around the reality of the holidays being right before us--it's still gorgeous here! No need to bundle up or layer Cuddle Duds under my clothes this fall; in fact, just a few nights ago, I took a book out onto the deck to read after the kids went to bed. In capri pants. After dark. In NOVEMBER. This truly has been a luxury for us after the last 4 or so brutal IA/NE winters.

Cliff has now had his first concerts with both the wind symphony (his concert band) and his jazz band. For the un-indoctrinated, the GC Jazz Band is a pretty big deal around here. They are extremely popular in the community, so being married to the director gives me a modest amount of status in this small town. For example, the ladies who run the children's story hour at the public library crowed all over the place when they found out that Nathan and I were connected to the jazz band director. I have to admit, it's kind of fun to drop Cliff's name in situations like that. Mostly because I'm proud of him--the concert went over very well. The best part for me....I had a baby-sitter and got to go listen child-free. :)

As for the kids....they are continuing to grow and learn new things all the time now. Laura is busy learning her ballet routine for the Nutcracker in a few weeks, and she's made a major cartwheel breakthrough thanks to her gymnastics classes. She still enjoys school, although the amount of homework this year (after none at all in kindergarten) has been a new challenge for all of us to deal with. She is getting good grades and seems happily adjusted, though.

And then there's the little monkey I spend my days with. He is so very, very active. I marvel all the time at how different boys and girls are. Just the simple act of coloring a picture is often interspersed with several bouts of running around, climbing, dancing and singing between strokes of the crayon. But he is happy and loves to learn and create.


Lite Brite fun:

The baby-sitter we had for the jazz concert scored big points with the kids for bringing over cookie dough and frosting tubes for a baking and decorating party:

Notice the cookie on top. We have trained Laura well in her sports affiliations:


"Miss Anne & Miss Sue gave me a blue sucker after story hour. Yum!":

We've been spending a lot more time working on some preschool concepts at home. Nathan is learning to trace lines and letters, and we are beginning to work on letter sounds (first up-the letter P!). He also loves when I find him worksheets online to do. Last week, he worked very hard on his color-by-number turkey. I've never seen him color with so much precision!

Oh yeah.....and then there's me! I'm relishing my days playing with and teaching my little man. I have made a few friends here that seem to have the potential to be good friendships. Although I dearly miss my water fitness (and all of the people associated with it at the Y), I am truly enjoying the freedom in my schedule to do things when it works best for my family. For the next few weeks, I am also doing some light office work (4 hours/week) to help the music department out while they hire a new full-time administrative assistant. All in all, life is pretty darned good.
And after 11 months of growing my über-short hair out, it is finally getting long enough to enjoy. I just went and bought my first straightening iron last week:

Gina