I Hate Going to the Post Office

I went to the post office the other day. Twice. In one day.  The first time they told me my package would be $35 to mail because although it did not weigh that much, the size of the box hung over the edge of their little scale thing and so the price rose from 9 dollars and something to 35. $35 to mail a stinking package!! *breathe* The whole point for me to mail it in the first place was so I could save myself some valuable suitcase space when we fly to Texas this weekend. (I was mailing puffy flower girl dresses). I could have flown them in their own suitcase for cheaper than that.

So I said, no thank you, and left in search of a smaller box.

I did find a smaller box. I had to squash down the puffiness of the dresses, but they fit. Then I returned to the post office. Unfortunately it was around lunch time. You know what that means. The post office staff all but disappears leaving one and a half people behind to work the office during a time when, rightly so, a lot of people go to the post office. Why so many people at lunch you say? Cause it's their lunch break and that's when they have time to go. Evidently, every other place of business in the universe understands this and does their best to accommodate a larger crowd. The post office, who as we all know is run by great business minds, *heavy sarcasm implied*, does the opposite and cuts it's staff at lunch. After all, they gotta eat too, right?

And then there is the oh, so friendly faces you are greeted by after you have waited in line for 20 minutes and watched 5 people go through the old man's line while the lady with the 'tude on her face gets through ONE person.

Customer service anyone???

And they wonder why they aren't making any money.

So I mailed my package. $9.40. Exact same thing in the box, but a $25.60 difference.  ???

**Update;  To the credit of the USPS, my very important package did arrive and on time.  A very sincere thank you.

Us

I like this picture

Play Dough and Princesses

I've mentioned before how much my kids like play dough.  I know some parents are a little scared of it because if it gets dropped on the carpet and then stepped on, it's there for good.  And yes, that's happened to us.  In fact, we just replaced play dough riddled carpet in our basement.  And until I can get a suitable mat to put under their little art table that goes in the basement, they will not be playing with play dough down there any time soon. 
But, I still love play dough.  It entertains them for a really long time and I am always amazed at the creations they come up with.  For example, my middle child created various Disney characters this afternoon.  Just check out this detail! 

This is Jasmine from Aladdin, laying on the magic carpet.

My 4 year old had to get in on the action.  She made a sleeping mask.

This is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, complete with her spinning wheel. 

This is the girl from the new Disney movie, Brave.  This movie isn't even out yet,  but the girls have seen enough commercials that they know a little about what she looks like.

This is Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Lumiere, the candlestick (the red thing is a couch.)


This is Rapunzel, from Tangled.  Notice the briad in her hair complete with flowers (as seen in the movie).  The thing to the right is a bridge.


This is Tiana from Princess and the Frog.  Since she spends much of the movie as a frog, she is sitting in the water amongst the lily pads.

And just to wrap things up, this is the leaning tower of play dough (similar to the leaning tower of Pisa). 

Here and There

It's hard not to let the kids stay up a little bit later now that it stays light later.

I mopped yesterday.

I don't believe in homework (or leprechauns)

I love croissants.


I would love to have a croissant in France.

Is it bad that sometimes during my boot camp class when the teacher says during an exercise, "you should be feeling this in your quads" and I feel it in my calves??

I am sad that I have to sign up my youngest kid for kindergarten in a couple of weeks.

Now that we have "the cloud" I get dings on my iPad every time my husband has set a reminder for himself on his phone. I've already gotten 5 dings today and it's not even 10:30 AM. He's a busy guy.

I am wondering if I should get Rosetta Stone to relearn French (4 years in H.S.) or Spanish so I can talk to the painters when they come to our house.

I spring cleaned my kids drawers today. All long sleeves were replaced with short.

I wish we had a beach home to go to for spring break.

I HATE the word staycation.

Yeah for Spring!

Ahhhh, Florida

If you read my previous post, you know we just got back from a trip to Florida.  There's just something about being in the sunshine state.  To me, it seems to run at a much slower pace than we do here in the outskirts of the ATL.  It's quieter.  It's peaceful.  I don't know if I feel that way because I associate it with a less complicated, less stressful time of life, being that I grew up there and as a kid was mostly oblivious to the stinkiness and crud that life so often throws at us grown ups.  It may be that I feel that way because nowadays, when we go to FL it's for vacation or at least a time to get away from the everyday grind.  Whatever the reason, it's nice. 

My parents (who live in FL and are who we stay with while there) live in a town that although is not all that small number wise, it still has a small town feel to it and it's far enough aways from bigger cities that it's not really all that affected by them.  Some days, I long for that small town, lazy, slower pace feel.  I wish my husband didn't have to commute to work everyday.  My dad's office is maybe 10 minutes from my parents' house.  That would be nice. 

The town they live in is in a great location too.  45 minutes from Disney, an hour from the beach.  Nice. 

I do love where we live though.  Because we are so close to the city, we are afforded a lot of amenities that people in a small town are not.  I love the season change we experience here.  I love that we are so close to the mountains as well. 

My parents talk from time to time about moving up this way, but then where would we go on vacation (for free)??  Where would we go to relax and get away from it all (for free)??  Right now, we have our own little vacation home in central Florida (my parents' house).  It's nice to know it's there. 




My parents town is known for it's many lakes.  One of our favorite things to do when we visit is to go feed the ducks and swans (and evidently pelicans).




Being that it was not a beautiful, sun shiny day, the poor ducks had not been fed all that much so they were very excited to see us. 




This is a picture of another one of my favorite places in their small town.  It's these beautiful gardens on the edge of one of the lakes that are just very peaceful.  They even have classical music quietly playing in the background.  The kids want to know if we can make our backyard look like this.  (This picture does not do it justice).



A Fun Day at the MK

A gloomy yet magical looking castle

This past weekend, we surprised the kids with a trip to the Magic Kingdom and it was fabulous. The only non fab part was that we only got to go to the MK and only for one day.

All along, they knew we were going to Florida to visit my parents. They also knew we were going to "Disney." I put that in quotes because my kids' idea of going to Disney and other people's is different. We go to FL at least twice a year to visit my parents.  Every time we go, we make a trip over to Disney.  My parents live only about 45 minutes away so why not.  But when we go so often, we don't actually go inside any of the parks.  We do the outside of the parks stuff that is either free or relatively inexpensive.  Most of the time this includes riding the monorail resort line (it makes stops at 3 different Magic Kingdom hotels) looking around at some of the intricately themed and beautifully decorated hotels and spending some time looking around at Downtown Disney. Sometimes we visit the Boardwalk that is near Epcot and rent a surrey bike (more like a bike cart that has benches that can hold a whole family) and ride it around.  Sometimes we sit on the beach at one of the hotels and just let the kids play in the sand.  I could go on and on.  There is actually quite a bit to do without spending much money.  So that's what we usually do when we say to our kids that we are "going to Disney."  That is what they thought we were going to do.  It's what we always do.  And while they get excited about it and always beg to go whenever we are in FL it ain't no Magic Kingdom. 

So to surprise them and say we are going to Disney would have gotten us a, "ya, we knew that."  When we told them though that we were going to Magic Kingdom (we waited until we were actually inside Disney property) they didn't really believe us.  It took a few seconds of "mom, are we really going to Magic Kingdom?"  and "can we ride the rides?"  and "are you serious?" for it to actually sink in and for them to get excited. 

It was a really fun day.  The weather could have cooperated a little better but wasn't really all that bad.  I was a little nervous because the forecast was for 60% chance of rain and I was like, NOOOOOOO!!!!  But it wasn't that bad.  It sprinkled on and off pretty much all day, but it only sprinkled and really not all that often.  And the cloud cover kept the temps down. 

We got to do almost everything we wanted to do.  It was actually a pretty productive day.  And since our kids are a little older than the last time we went, no one needed a nap break in the middle of the day and everyone walked of their own volition!  There was no maneuvering of a stroller through crowds.  No one had a meltdown 1/2 way through the day. I was especially proud of our 4 year old.  We got there about 9:30 and left around 10:30.  My husband had his pedometer with him and clocked 21,000 steps that day.  21,000!!!  That means our 4 year old with her much smaller legs probably took twice as many steps as her daddy.  And she did great.  A couple of times she told me her feet were hot or her toes were burning (I think that meant they were tired or sore) from all the walking, but she didn't really complain about it. 

Anyway, without getting into a lot of details that you probably don't really care about, it was a really good day.  And yes, it was magical.  I love Disney World.



Just before entering the Magic Kingdom




I took this cool pic of the castle as it changed colors while sneaking out behind the carousel while we were waiting to meet Princess Tiana.




We were not planning to stop to watch the Electrical Parade but when we walked out of the Country Bear Jamboree, it was like someone saved us a seat.  There was a wide open, front row spot right in front of where we walked out and just as the parade was starting.  So we figured, why not.



First Date

Everybody say Awwwwwww!!!

Friday night was the Valentine's father/daughter dance at the local Baptist church. Fortunately, my husband had not one, not two but three dates.  My girls were SO excited.  The mother/daughter part was when I took them all shopping for a new dress.  This is something I don't usually enjoy with all three at one time but this excursion was relatively painless.  They all found a mom approved dress on the first try.  And they matched!!  And Paul already had a tie the exact same color!!  We were 3 for 3 for 3! There were some tears the next day though from my middle child when I told her she could not wear that dress to church and that she had to save it for the dance which was a week away at that point.  Actually there were a lot of tears.  But she got over it and then was all the more excited for the dance. 

I heard that it was loads of dancing, jumping, sweaty fun.  I wish I could have been there to take pictures but mommy's were not allowed and with good reason.  I would not have wanted to take away from Paul's time with his girls.  I think they all had a real good time.  I am glad Paul was able to spend this special time with them and they with him.  We are a very fortunate family all around.

They all got corsages from dad.