Visitors from the East?

I was getting ready for church this morning and something caught my eye through the bathroom window.  I looked again, and it was two deer helping themselves to the acorns in our back yard.  (Or was it the bird seed on the ground?)  I ran into the kitchen to alert the kids, and they all scrambled to the window.  Christian yelled, "There are THREE!" and sure enough, another one ambled into the yard.  We watched them for a long time (and were late to church, ack) just awed.  I got a great picture through the bathroom window, even though I was shooting right into the sun.  Next time we have a sighting, I'll shoot through the bedroom window, which has no screen.

Am I being a nut for getting so excited about a few deer?  I feel like the proverbial city girl in the country for the first time.   Bear with me!

Doe, A Deer

I was taking Boudreaux out back for a "business trip".  I looked back into the woods to see my first backyard deer!  He (or she) took one look at us and pranced away into the thicket (is that what it's called?  I remember that word from Bambi).  Boudreaux of course was quite interested in following our deer friend, and took off running and sniffing in the brush, tugging at the leash.  (We gotta get a fence ... soon!)  It was so cool to see a deer up close and personal-like (and not on the front bumper or in the windshield).  I know they are really pests, and can do some damage to your flora, but I'm a back to nature type gal and love to see nature in my back yard. 

Several years ago, in our old house, before a huge subdivision was built around us, I looked out our back window to see a fawn ... a real Bambi with spots on his back and everything.  I watched him for several minutes, while he walked up our driveway, across the street and between the two houses across the street.  I was spellbound.

Has Fall Finally Fallen?

I love North Carolina ... we have four distinct seasons, although sometimes they don't fall at the right times.  Usually the really cold winter doesn't set in until after January.  But this week it seems that the fall weather is here, at last!  The socks are out, and where are those darn winter jackets?  The walk to the bus stop can be a little crisp these days.

David has absconded with the camera for a business trip (more spotted owls?) so the virtual tour of the new house I was planning will have to wait.  But it is in very good shape now!  We even "christened" the house with a sleepover (Quentin's) on Friday night.  We had 13 teenage boys in the basement, and to their credit, we never heard a sound!  They were very good, well behaved and respectable.  I was so proud!

Lisa went to a birthday party on Saturday at a house by the lake.  I have to stop getting my curiosity piqued by "for sale" signs, which has been my habit over the past year or so.  We are NOT in the market for a new house, even if it's on the water and marked down.  We weren't actively looking for a house, but knew that if one "fell in our laps" (which this one practically did) we would look into it.  So whenever I saw a sign, I found myself driving down streets and checking them out.  I found one within walking distance of the kids' school.  Wow that would have been awesome!  But here we are, and I am perfectly content!

Not much on the schedule for this week, other than playgroup here Wednesday.  Of course the big Halloween thing next Monday.  Lisa is an LSU cheerleader, and Christian an LSU football player.  Colin's decided he's too old for trick-or-treat and I think this is Quentin's last year.  Melanie will be a clown or a dinosaur, both costumes I have from years past.  Poor youngest child always gets the leftovers!

Off to speech!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Okay, okay ... I'm back.  Let's see, recapping the past week and a few days ... Mom arrived Thursday night.  Friday morning I had to take Melanie to Charlotte Rehab for Dr. Matthews' Cleft Palate clinic.  It was an ordeal of about 3-1/2 hours.  We sat in a small room while different specialists came in one at a time to look at Melanie.  Speech ... audiology ... surgeon ... orthodontist ... dentist ... ENT.  Melanie did NOT appreciate Dr. Matthews looking at her mouth, and she promptly fell asleep after he left.  (Luckily the room had a bed).  While we were waiting, the clock was ticking; we were planning to leave for Atlanta after the clinic for the WPA annual reunion.  We finished around 3:30, and after getting the oil changed, getting home to pack, got on the road around 6. 

Driving through the rain, we arrived in Atlanta around 11.  For the umpteenth time we have requested adjoining rooms and after being reassured, "Yes, no problem", we have gotten rooms that are not adjoining.  "I'm sorry there are just NO MORE rooms left in the hotel!" 

(Reminds me of an old joke from my childhood.  If the President of the United States were to show up, would you have a room for him?  Why, yes, of course.  Well, I know for certain that he is NOT coming tonight, so you can just give me HIS room!) 

After calmly expressing his displeasure at the front desk, David got them to give us a nice corner suite with ... <gasp!> adjoining rooms!  Amazing how they just seem to appear from thin air.

WPA picnic on Saturday was amazing.  We missed last year because we were in Kazakhstan.  It was so cool to see the faces that I know only from websites.  All the kids were happy and running around, not a meltdown in sight.  I have pictures on my camera ... but the camera is ... MIA.  **NOTE:  Got this email from David this afternoon .. mystery solved! 

Just read the blog....FYI -- camera was removed from your purse by Miss Melanie, which was promptly removed from Melanie by Dad and placed in the cupboard over the kitchen desk....

...Me

Mom took care of the dog and the older boys (who chose to stay home).  When we got home, she forced me to unpack boxes and hang pictures (*thank you MOM!) so I feel somewhat more settled than I was last week.  But there is still much to be done.  I haven't found my "rhythm" yet ... I'm still looking for missing stuff (like our stainless!!  It's just NOT HERE!  I finally broke down and bought another set .. naturally it will turn up now and we will have service for 40!)

This morning we have a guy coming to clean and cap the chimney, since we have a large extended family of birds living in there.  Boudreaux is perplexed.  Apparently there is a plethora of wildlife living in our back yard too .. I have seen evidence of deer and small woodland animals.  Very cool.

Oops ... left Boudreaux outside on his chain.  He acts so humiliated that he has to be on a chain, but the other night I took him outside without a leash and he took off into the woods after ... who knows?  And me in my pajamas and no shoes.  But we squeaked his squeaky ball and eventually he came back.  Scared the pattooty out of me though.

Jet Lag ..er, I mean Moving Lag

But man does it feel like jet lag.  Can't get enough sleep, always tired, feel like I'm underwater.  Ugh.  There is still so much to be done; I know some people who have the house unpacked and settled in 5 days.  Well, that just ain't me.  I just am not wired that way.  It will get done.  After all, after 8 years in the other house, I managed to get things put away.

Today was weird ... I had a conference with Colin's teachers this afternoon.  Earlier this morning I had to go to the public library to print something off on the computer for the conference.  (Our printer is still in the garage!)  Lisa and Christian browsed through the kids' books while I did my thing (Melanie was at preschool), and then we set off to get into the car.  I looked behind me to see a lady (library employee) following us.  I smiled as if to say, "Yes?  Can I help you?" thinking I had accidently brought out a book without checking it out?  She said, "Is that your daughter?  Are you together?  Are you sure?" and other "third degree" questions.  Well, um ... yeah, I think I know my daughter when I see her.  Let's see, let me check if I got the wrong kid here, who is happily skipping after me and climbing into her car seat.

I know what she was thinking: that I was in the process of kidnapping this child from the public library.  But it seems to me that if that were the case, Lisa would be screaming in fear, and I would be running faster, or have her in a burlap sack or something.

I mean, I know that people want to err on the side of caution.  I just thought it was sad that since Lisa doesn't "match" us, that someone would assume the worst.  The rest of the morning, in Target and Lowe's I felt like someone was watching me.  Then I freaked out when, on the way to Colin's school, I ran into a random drivers' license check road block.  Man ... was I creeped out.  But then I thought what a good laugh the police would have down at the station house when I showed them Lisa's adoption papers.  (Of course that didn't happen.  It was just odd that I would run into the first road block I've seen in my life on the same day someone ran after me thinking I had kidnapped my daughter!) 

 

Hello!

David thought hooking my computer up tonight might cheer me up.  Bless his heart!  It has been a bear of a couple of days.  Moving a mile down the road has been harder than a move 300 miles away.  We said, "Oh, don't worry about that pile, we'll move it later" about 100 times, so naturally, we needed another moving van for the stuff we said "Don't worry about that" about.  Poor David was up until 4 a.m. Thursday night finishing up.  Thursday night I had the car backed up to the front door, and all the kids carting stuff out the front door and into the car.  We had to have made about 16 trips to the new house.  It was unbelievable!!!  At one point in my life, I could fit all that I owned into a Chevette.  What has happened???  Where did all this stuff come from???  Crikey!!

Nevertheless, it is all behind us now, and we are LOVING our new house.  It is huge ... the Everready House .. it keeps going ... and going ...  I am loving it already (even if the kitchen needs to be gutted .. there's time for that later).  We are all exhausted and emotionally drained.  But we're happy.

More later.