Scenes from the Mall

I almost never go to the mall. There's really nothing there I want. However, they just re-modeled the Cool Springs Mall and added a play area for small children so I wanted to check it out. Several of my friends and I decided to meet there yesterday.

The play area is small but nice and the posted signs clearly say it's for children who are less than 42" tall. At first, it seemed like a lot of fun. Then some 5-8 year olds invaded the play area. About 10 of them escorted by several adults. One kid in particular was at least 8 years old and climbing and jumping around. He knocked down Daniel so I went over to talk to him. I asked where his mother was and told him he was too big to be playing there.

Before I knew it his dad was in my face saying loudly "If you have a problem with my son, you have a problem with me". The man had a rough voice and and how did I say this - his appearance did not fit the profile of the usual Franklin mall patron (did I mention we live in a fairly upscale area?). He might have been a visitor from the Hickory Hollow Mall. Clearly I did not have a hope of an intelligent conversation here, so I just said in response "this play area is for children less than 42" tall". He said to me- "It was an accident! He tripped!" Daniel was crying hysterically the whole time. I pulled a trick from Eva's book (Ms. Nutty the Mailbox Killer) and just repeated myself again, twice while staring him down. Finally he made his son take a "time out" but then let him play some more after a few minutes. Finally as the group of 5-8 year olds and the adults were leaving, they stopped to read the sign and one of my friends heard them say "it really is for kids less than 42" tall!

We enjoyed the play area after they left, and had a nice lunch while each of our kids took turns misbehaving. Carson took his shirt off twice, Ethan threw a fit because Carson got a soda and he didn't, and still-traumatized Daniel didn't eat anything at all. We can't wait to go back!

Ms. Nutty is Back

I had a guy come do a termite inspection and give me a quote the other day. I have a healthy fear of termites, our house is 6 years old so the builder's pre-treat is probably wearing off, and I just didn't want Dave to have to crawl under the house. We don't have them and now I have a ballpark amount on what it would take for us to get under a termite contract when we are ready.

The nice guy who did the quote was driving a junker of a car, a 20 year old Ford Taurus with no bumpers. His battery died sometime during our meeting, so I agreed to pull the van around for a jump. Of course to do this, I have to park in front of our neighbors' driveway and their 16 cars. Just as I pull into position to help the guy, Eva (the mailbox killer) is outside and in my face- "you can't park here, I have to leave RIGHT NOW". I explained what I was doing and she just repeated her statement. So I have to back up, let her leave and then help the poor guy. He was just as confused by her behavior as our landscaper was when she was all in his face. She has the oddest sense of property rights behavior I have ever seen....

Mother's Day Commentary

I am just now getting a chance to explain the pictures below. We went to Indianapolis for Mother's Day weekend to see John, Tara and the girls. It was horrible weather but we had a lot of fun. We painted pottery, the boys saw MI 3, the girls saw Cinderella at the local high school and we just hung out. Daniel is fascinated with all of his girl cousins and spent much of the time just giggling and trying to imitate them. Special thanks to Claire for showing him how to climb out of a crib.

I received some wonderful Mother's Day gifts. Daniel bought me the last Watermark cd, Dave bought me a Transpod for my Shuffle, and I bought myself a Vera Bradley purse. I could not help it if there was a whole Vera Bradley store across the street from their neighborhood and besides, their sales tax is lower than ours.

This week has been a blur of work and other commitments. Tomorrow night is Carson's birthday party where Spiderman is rumored to be making an appearance (a reward for potty training). Daniel is off of "school" from May 24- June 5, so we will be enjoying some time off.

On a side tv note, did anyone catch the last episode of "The Office"? Who knew Jim had it in him to confess all and go after Pam? Our conclusion is Roy is going to beat him up!

Happy Mother's Day! 

Cinderella Play at the local high school 

Hanging out with cousins 

Our little Titans Fan 

Soccer practice already! 

The Two Boys 

Updates

Yes I know I haven't posted a lot lately and there are some good reasons for it, some of which you will know soon if you don't already. Here are some updates:

We finished Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Can't say it was life changing for us since we were already following the program, but it helped us take care of a few "to dos" and tighten up the budget.

Yesterday was my last Moms Together meeting of the school year at church and the speaker was... Dave Ramsey. His talk was a lot more personal and gave even more specific information about how to teach kids about money. His number one point was kids will follow what you do. So get your act together. Great, that pretty much applies to everything, not just money.

We got to see Dave's dad this week, as he was driving a mini van up from Florida to Dave's brother in Indianapolis. It was a nice short visit and we hadn't seen him since Christmas.

Daniel is doing great. He loves balls, cars, and the great outdoors. His new word this week is "hat" (he loves wearing daddy's baseball hats).

We're # 1

Our favorite personal finance magazine, Kiplingers, recently rated Nashville as the #1 smart place to live. We think it's pretty smart too.

The Great Outdoors

We've gotten a lot done outside lately, but there is still so much to do!

I did get my garden planted and hopefully we will have some veggies in a few months. I even planted some flowers yesterday.

Dave is digging the boundary lines and leveling the dirt where we hope to put a playset. He is almost ready to spread the mulch. He helped a friend assemble a playset last month, so he will hopefully return the favor in the next few weeks after we buy ours.

I managed to hire some contractors to replace our "gable effacing"- the trim at the top of our house that blew off in the big windstorm last month. The good news is they came out pretty fast and it looks good. The bad news is they put the siding up OVER a bird's nest after I pointed it out to them and assumed they would remove it. So now I have baby birds screaming from behind the siding and a momma bird going nuts. I didn't notice until the day after it happened. I am livid. I called to complain and they wouldn't call me back. Today I have asked Dave to call them. Yes, we are officially bird killers at this point. I am so sad but there is nothing I can do since I don't have a 30 foot ladder to get up there myself and let them out.

Next up: We are going to replace or renovate the deck! No, there will not be a hot tub installation involved (not in the budget).