Highs and Lows

High:

Chatting with our new across the street neighbors about their misadventures with the previous owners of their house has definitely been a high for me.  Let’s just say that talk of leather chaps and fringe was brought to light.  Hilarious and not at all surprising.  The previous owners were boisterous and quite entertaining.

Tony and Violet are very nice and quite funny.  I am enjoying getting to know them and hope we become friends.  Violet has a knack for remembering names.  I wonder if that was something taught to her in medical school.  Like one of those Capstone courses.  “Mnemonic Devices 101”.  It always helps me when I repeat someone’s name back immediately upon learning it.

Low:

My name had been appearing less and less frequently on the schedule at a local gym where I had been subbing weekly as a Zumba instructor.  I finally got my answer as to why after my third inquiry.  The aerobics coordinator was told by the board (the club has a board of predominately geriatric, bitter people) that I was not a good fit.  I can totally picture some of the women who took issue with me.  From the first day when I asked the class to form a circle for a song, I was kind of black balled.  One of the older ladies from class came up to me afterward to firmly state that “We don’t like to do anything different in class.  We don’t like circles.”  From that moment on, I was judged.  Apparently none of the frequent positive feedback I received made it to the board.

It’s a blow to the ego but I think not working there has been a blessing.  I’d rather not teach a bunch of catty women who don’t want to work out too hard and don’t like change.

High:

This summer has brought us many opportunities to spend time with our friends at  a slow, low-stress pace.  We’ve enjoyed many days in the pool and look forward to many more.  We are very thankful to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Low:

We’re going to Alabama for a long weekend.  J’s grandparents are not doing well.  Their health is rapidly failing.  This will probably be the last time that we will see them.  I’m going to support J and his family who will all be there.  It will be a sad trip, I’m afraid…

High:

After 6 months of turmoil, homelessness, stress and struggle, Steph finally moved into her new-to-her house on Saturday!  It’s not the house that I told you about way back in February.  The contract fell through when the owners decided the appraisal value was too low for their taste.  I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason.  She and the boys weren’t meant to be in that first house.

I could not be happier for Steph.  Her crazy mixed up family (us included) turned out in droves to help her move her belongings and fix up the new place.  It was an awesome testament to the support system she has.

The new place is just three block from our door and it’s as cute as can be.  Steph has really fixed the 1976 home up nicely with new floors, skip-troweled ceilings, new baseboards, wallpaper removal, new fixtures, new paint and new furniture.  She can finally relax in her own home again.

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Star Wars Pancakes

The boys and I made pancakes last week using the Star Wars pancake molds I told you about.  I cannot stress the importance of cooking spray enough in this process.  This was my first attempt at using molds and the first couple of pancakes did not turn out so well…

It was smooth sailing once I discovered the magic releasing power of spray oil.  As you can see, Yoda had to be green.

The pancakes were huge!  I gave each of the boys two which they could not finish.  Wildman insisted on topping his with Cool Whip.  I ended up eating the boys’ leftovers as my breakfast 🙂  Yum!

Now that I know the secret of how to make Star Wars pancakes it will be fun have them for breakfast every once in a while.  They’re just tedious enough that I won’t make a habit of using them every time we make pancakes.

The Monkey Crawl and Other Skills

Swim lessons officially began on Monday.

(Cutie Pie is the one in the middle in the blue rash guard)

This is the first year that I have not had to enter the water with a child as part of a Mom and Tot class!  Woo hoo!  Hooray for swimming skills and not having to don a bathing suit in public.  Instead I get to slowly melt in the heat while I watch my children from the pool deck.  At least there is an awning.

Both of our boys are good swimmers already so swim lessons aren’t about learning to actually tread water and survive a watery encounter.  I guess it comes with the territory when you live in Florida.  It’s pretty much a necessity that children learn to swim competently at a young age when there is so much water around.  I am thankful that our three-year-old can dive down to the bottom of the deep end to retrieve dive rings and pull himself out of the water from the side of the pool.

This year, swim lessons this year are more about fine tuning our boys’ skills.  I’d like them to learn the different strokes (not Diff’rent Strokes) and I would like Cutie Pie to learn to float on his back.

Of course, getting to jump off the starting blocks is another perk…