Posts Tagged ‘Family’

Chillin at home

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Sunday morning jam session

Sunday morning jam session

I wanted to add some pics to our site. Not much to say really. Paul has been playing his guitar a lot lately, which has made Anna want to play too. It makes Tyler sad he destroyed his drum set.

Paul, dogs and Barton (L corner of the couch)

Paul, dogs and Barton (L corner of the couch)

The cats have really relaxed quite a bit in the last few months so there are some cute pictures of that too.

Lizardhead (Tyler's Webkinz) on Paulhead

Lizardhead (Tyler's Webkinz) on Paulhead

I love this pic of Anna

I love this pic of Anna

Goal update: I am doing well at “active recovery.” Better than we are doing at completing unfinished projects, that is for sure. :) Taxes are done, Anna and I had some girl time (pic here too),

veggies suck but I learned that you get a TON of spinach for only a few calories so that is what is helping me get that goal checked off. Journaling is sketchy, but I have the rest of the week to get 1 more entry.

Tyler and Bluesy bonding

Tyler and Bluesy bonding

Still on a book slump, but I started Purpose Driven Life this week so perhaps it will be a hit. Everyone else in the world seems to love it according to the critics. Paul’s mom suggested that perhaps because I am on a slump I should write my own book (see bucket list to the right).

Great book I just finished reading

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

I want to start to keep you updated on good books I am reading/have read.

Glass Castle by Jeannette Wells is excellent! It is a memoir so although I found it in the non-fiction section, it may very well fall in the category of Million Little Pieces (autobiographical fiction). It was recommended to me by my boss, Lisa Pennington. It is about her family growing up in various places, although her “formative years” were in WVa. It makes crazy look like Beaver Cleaver’s family. But as you will read on the reviews, you can tell as you read the story that she loves her parents and knows they did their best—even at their worst.

Great theme for me as I work on my step-mother skills, which some days seems like all out of a Cinderella fairy tale. Is there a fairy tale where the step mother is NOT wicked? THAT is the book I need to read.

Merry Christmas–FL style!

Sunday, December 28th, 2008
Susan and her mom shelling at Lover's Key Beach (Elli's shadow)

Susan and her mom shelling at Lover's Key Beach (Elli's shadow)

Paul and I returned from Christmas with my family in Ft Myers, FL (they have a condo down there). Elli and Michael (and of course Zoe the Zygote) were there too. We arrived on the 25th in the evening and just got back tonight (Sunday) about an hour ago. Here was the basic schedule:

Wake @ 7:30am; exercise til about 10-ish; big breakfast; pool time (80 degrees and no clouds); dinner (we rotated which couple cooked); games; bed about 9pm. That’s right folks–I almost got my 12 hours/night of sleep!

Other activities that were interspersed were shopping (Paul bought Life is Good pj pants and a ball for Maggie), reading (yep–Paul too!!), shelling (girls only–the picture shown) and napping (ok, mostly me there). It was very relaxing.

We are both off tomorrow, and we have the kids so we are planning some activites: pool, movie and getting the kids their library cards!! I promise we will blog about their birthdays and celebrating Christmas–there is so much to tell and so many pix, its hard to narrow it down to a blog.

Kids say the darndest things…

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

I thought it would be fun to keep track of these things in order to embarrass the kids when they are older. Perhaps on their first date even. Well, Tyler at least–Paul will not let Anna date until, well, ever!

Stephanie (Paul’s mom) was trying to get Anna to massage her feet. Anna replied, “Granny, I don’t DO old people!”

Anna is working on things in order–smaller, youngest, newer than this, etc. She is struggling w the fact that I am older than Paul even though he is taller than I am. The other day she was comparing Paul and me and finally got it… sort of. “Susan,” she declared proudly, “is the lowest and the oldest!”

EDIT: A ongoing list of these is going to be kept here.

“free time”

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Lots of people are questioning what we will do with all of our FREE TIME now that the wedding is over. First of all, our sisters and Lauren planned everything so it really was not that time consuming. Second, there are thank you notes to write. Plus all those things that got put off during “wedding planning” (i.e. doing errands Biz, Elli and Lauren told us to do).

Seriously–where does time go? I think THAT is what we should spend $700 billion on–the time management bailout. Its like frickin’ quick sand. I am trying to learn that the harder you fight against quick sand (losing time) the quicker you sink (Murphy’s law takes over). But alas, I cannot help setting goals. And of course dragging Paul along with me. Here is what we are working on now:

  1. Replacing our flooring. We plan to install laminate floors before the end of the year. We have saved money from combining our homes–every time we sold furniture, bedding, pots, pans, etc. that we had extra, we put it into savings. We will be getting the estimate from Graham soon, but we think we have enough saved.
  2. Myrtle Beach Marathon and Metric Century Ride. Sat, Feb 14 we will run a marathon (Paul’s first), then Sun, Feb 15 we will ride a metric century bike ride (63 miles). Yes this is our idea of a romantic Valentine’s weekend. Last year I cried on ski slopes and tore skin off my ear, this year I will whine for 26.2 miles. Paul is such a wonderful guy, huh?
  3. Paint the bathroom. Carolina blue of course.
  4. Set up our family website. CHECK!