Illustration and Yorktown Visit Pictures

A friend just told me, after finding out that Richie DID the illustration below, that she had thought I posted it because we were really "into" 18th-century dinner scene illustrations. That is a logical conclusion, since I've given no explanation. I think Richie did a great job on this project that was way out of his art comfort zone!

Happy Memorial Day!

Why I'm Spoiled Rotten Today.

I got to:

1. Get up and do yoga with Ali MacGraw and her soft-spoken yogi who tells you at the end, "For love is what's left when you let go of everything you don't need." The girls didn't get up until I was finished.
   
2. Cuddle with Vivian and play groundhog nest.
   
3. Make bacon and pancakes for my family.
4. Color George Washington with Mazie and Vivian. (Richie printed out one for everyone.)
   
5. Check to see which seeds have sprouted. These seeds have sprouted astonishingly early and, in some cases, against all odds, as the seeds are several years old. This Memorial Day, I see: Anaheim pepper, black beauty eggplant, Louisiana red tomato, Pritchard tomato, teeny tiny oregano (vulgaris), Cardinal tomato, Carantan leek, Thymus vulgaris, Sweet basil, Musselwhite bell pepper, Burpee Big Boy Hybrid tomato, Michilli Cabbage, Roma tomato, Brandywine tomato, sorrel, Muskmelon, french green lentil, and castillo lentil. Now to figure out what to do with the sprouts!
6. Take Mazie and Vivian to the pool for its opening day. It's cloudy with fits of rain today, so the intrepid swimmers only stayed in for about ten minutes.
7. Play the game of Uno that WOULD NOT END with M and V. V forfeited about ten minutes after I started drawing and playing for her because her activity had degenerated to the point that it was necessary to do so.
8. Make rockin' sandwiches that involved garden greens and melted mozzarella.
9. Later on I'll go to a cookout and see some of my favorite folks.

Yay, Memorial day. While I have been living it up, Richie has been doing this very cool, but very involved illustration. This is a sneak peek.

Best for your Memorial Day!

Vivian and Mazie

This morning, Mazie and Vivi were eating breakfast and we were listening to the radio. A local add came on saying something about, "If you're interested in technology on the radio...blah blah blah." The ad passed, Vivian finished her bite, and then said, "I'm interested in technology on the radio." And she sounded really serious, as though that ad guy had been addressing her in particular. That was cute enough to crack up Mazie...and me, of course.

Vivian waited another minute and said, "I know what technology is. It's when people dig in the ground to find out what happened a long time ago." Sweeeet baby.

Mazie has learned enough that she rarely makes these cute juxtapositions. The thing about her that is so fun right now is just listening to her go. If she has a mind to, she'll talk about every detail of her day. She is very aware of what other kids say and how they act...what they like, if they're acting "off" from their normal behavior. She's sensitive to getting bossed around, and tends to avoid bossy people. She likes Ian, Grayson, and Jackson - anyone else who's consistently nice to her.

Mazie likes doing math in her head instead of on her fingers, but she's better at getting the right answer if she uses fingers. It's fun to hear her describe how she comes up with the answers she gets in her head. For instance, I quizzed her on 7 + 7. She told me 14 because she remembered it. Next I asked her 8 + 8. She thought at length and said, "Okay," at intervals. Finally she said, "16!" When I asked her how she decided on 16, she said she imagined two columns of seven and she added one to each one and then she reasoned she had to add 2 to the previous answer because she could "see" them. Next I asked her 9 + 9 and she quickly said, "12!" She finally worked that one out on her fingers to get the right answer. It's hit-and-miss right now, but I think she's dying to memorize sums to make it quicker for her. I'll have to get on that...without overburdening her.

Off to the bus stop.

I love jogging in the woods (from a few days ago; waited on photos)

I love to call what I do jogging because that word connotes moving around, even jiggling, but more up-and-down than forward. And that's how I roll. Our apartment is less than a mile from 5 (or so) miles of woods trails.

I was pure ebullience this afternoon. I had a difficult jog, less easy than I'd like it to be, but I absolutely have to rave about the following aspects of jogging in the woods:

1. Green sunshine. Filtering through leaves. It's so bright and so lacy.
2. Smells of leaves and flowers and dirt.
3. Skittering animals. All the animals do the wave as I jog past - squirrels, birds, deer, unseen slitheries in the leaves.
4. Very Few People. I like people, but I crave running in solitude. The others I meet seem to share my tastes.
5. The single-file path has hills and turns and little ledges. I get that zooming feeling fairly frequently without having to go fast.

God meets me in the woods. The end.

Day-to-day

It's the first hot + overcast day of the year. Before today, if there was cloud cover, it was cool cloud cover. I'm just hoping the humidity doesn't decide to consolidate and rain down on the clothes I have hung on the clothes line. In other news of the neighborhood, the pool area (just behind our apartment) has been buzzing with activity for a week solid. The dedicated maintenance personnel are scurrying to de-debris, chemically zap, and filter the pool before Memorial Day weekend. Mazie and Vivian have taken note of each stage:

"Mommy, they're using the leaf blower!"
"Mommy, I can see the water!"
"Mommy, what's in the water?"
"Mommy, the pool is bright green!"

And, today, "Mommy, I think we can swim now!" Yes, and then we can put you in quarantine for decontamination protocol. The truth is, I'm pretty excited, too. Looking forward to donning my wetsuit to brave the - gasp - 70 degree water. I never thought I'd be so "sensitive to the cold." But it seems that as years fly by, I am on a steady path towards more closely resembling my mother in every detail, including cold intolerance.

I'm blogging about nothing to avoid writing about the fact that we are MOVING IN FIVE WEEKS. Good grief, how the time flies. I guess I'm lucky to have waited until the passage of time has approached light speed to begin medical school. At this rate, I won't notice I'm in it until I'm half done. Today's preparatory activities include but are not limited to (and I am, officially, a "doer"):

• Trying to find e-mail about preschool programs in Decatur (Fail.)
• Putting Vivian on wait list for Fernbank pre-K (Pending. Can only do in person.)
• Researching moving truck rental rates (check.)
• Scheduling check ups for immunizations for Mazie, Vivian, and....me! (THREE Checks.)
• Delivery of brownies and thank-you note to kind dentist who treated my dry socket pro bono (Check.)
• Purchase of stamps (pending.)
• Sorting of the birds' nest of hand-me-down electronics in the top drawer of Richie's desk (check.)
  
• In hopes of finding the charger for the camera (fail. It's at work with Richie) that I need to use to...
• Transfer peoples' wedding videos onto DVD. (pending) (Y'all probably thought I forgot. But not ONE day has passed that I have completely forgotten that I promised some footage...and I secretly believe karmic bliss waits on the other side of completing this task.)
• Find and print physical evaluation form for check-up. (check. Discovery: my doctor will be asked to respond in writing to the question, "Do you know of any physical or psychological reason why this student would not be able to withstand the rigors of medical school education?" The next seven years of my life apparently hinge on this.)
  
• Purchase plastic bags for sorting small things. (pending)
  
• Hang dry two loads of laundry. (in progress.)

I just want to give a shout out to my season. I love running in hot weather, dressing for hot weather, being hot. I love that I'm less ravenous in summer and that my shoulders can stop creeping up near my ears and relax into the warm atmosphere down by the rest of my torso. I love being able to dry laundry on the line where the sun is free free free. I love that my oregano is finally coming into its own.

Finally, I'd like to explain the Hunter drawing I posted. Mazie was listening to a CD that has a song about camoflouge. This is the picture she drew while listening. The deer is saying, "Run."