The Taj Mahal of Utility Rooms....and hurricanes.

Have I mentioned that I have the frickin' Taj Mahal of utility rooms?   As I mentioned my new dryer was delivered on Friday.   To get the thing in and connected, we had to take out the washer and also the utility sink.   Once the room was emptied...I started thinking that this would be an ideal time to paint.  I mean really, once everything was put back, I suspect it would be another 15 years before everything was out again.   So I had a spare can of khaki green paint laying around.  I had bought it when we were re'doing my parent's kitchen.   I slapped that paint on the walls and I LOVE it!  All I want to do is stand in my tiny utility room and stare.

In other news, we've been dodging raindrops today in anticipation of Isaac.  Woke up this morning and it seemed to be coming right at us.  We broke into action filling up our cars and putting up and/or closing our shutters.   We also went over the closed the shutters at my dad's house.   The plan is for us to go over there tomorrow, and probably sleep there.   He has a nasty habit of wanting to go out in the hurricane to "fix" things.   We'll be over there to help keep that from happening.  Luckily, he has cable and not satellite, so we will have TV all storm long. 

 

So, we're hoping for the best.  T had the age-old hurricane prep dinner of ice cream.  Gotta eat it all up before it melts.   We'll be taking some vanilla over to my dads, along with some jamaican rum.   I'm thinking I'll be partaking of a spiked milk shake.  Haven't had one of those since my days in G'ville and the Chelsea street pub. 

 

Stay dry everyone!

 

First day of Second Grade!

 How in the world did I forget to post about the first day of school???  T decided to wear her skirt, a new addition to the uniform.   Luckily, its actually a skort which is a good thing for modesty's sake.

T has taken to doing cartwheels...in all places all the time.   She will be walking here or there, doesn't really matter where, and break into a few cartwheels.   The skort means that her plaid bottoms don't end up around her ears.

T is very happy with her teacher, and the students in her class. 

In other news, my dryer died.   I can't complain.  My dad bought the thing 15 years ago from the jewish thrift store.   It was about 10 to 15 years old then.  Paid about 50 bucks for it.   It didn't work.   50 bucks later and a new belt, and the thing has been working great for the last 15 years...until the other day.  It was a maytag!   So, today I went out to Se@ars and bought a new one.    Kenmore Elite.   Very new fangled.   I also got one of those pedastal drawers to raise the thing about 15 inches, which is HUGE for anyone with a bad back.   The thing gets delivered tomorrow.     I'm very interested to see if this one, which cost SUBSTANTIALLY more money than 120 bucks, will last 25 to 30 years.   I'm hoping for 8  :(

 

Here's T in her new classroom.  We were there bright and early, so there weren't too many kids in class.   Typical with that age, the boys and girls were sitting separately by their own choice.   Too bad that doesn't last through jr high.

 

 

Olympic Fever

Not much to report, other than I've caught olympic fever, and I'm dragging ass all day b/c I've been up all damned night watching the games.  

We're going to start some serious sleep training next week in anticipation for school starting.   We've gotten very lazy over the summer staying up late and sleeping in.  Oh how its going to hurt getting her to school by 8 a.m.

Breaking Blog News!!!!

Oh my word....I just learned that the modern dance portion is not modern dance at all.....IT'S BATON!!!!

Now I'm going to have to stress over whether she'll drop the thing or not.  

How do these Olympic moms do it???

Costume Craze

Well, T's end of year camp show is Friday nite.  I received a list of what she is to wear.  There are apparently FOUR segments to this year's show, each with a different costume. 

First, there is modeling.  They are instructed to wear anything representative of any country, preferably their country of origin or descent.  We dove into the basket of chinese clothes I had purchased while in china, and came out with a gorgeous chinese silk dress in a turquoise color.

Next, is modern dance.   The girls are to wear shorts, tshirt and black close-toed shoes. Preferably in neon colors.  Seriously?  Neon colors??  Clearly, the camp counselors didn't live through the first neon craze of circa 1984.  I vowed never to purchase anything neon again.   Yet...there I was a target on my lunch hour, scouring the kids department for neon.   Much to my surpise, there it was.   Neon pink shorts, with neon orange patent belt, with a neon green cute  cropped T.   I must say, a skinny little 7  yr old looks soooo much cuter in neon than a pudgy college girl.

Third, is the flamenco.  Close readers of this blog may recall that my little chinese gringa girl stole the show and was named the "Spanish Rose" for her flamenco skills at the age of 5.  The girls are to wear a black tank top, leggings of any color, and a coin belt.   I got T black leggings and had no idea what a coin belt was.   Its a scarf that wraps around the hips, with lots of coins hanging off it.  Belly dancers wear it.  So does Shakira.   I plugged "coin belt" into the amazon search engine and there it was for less than 10 bucks.   SCORE!!!!  T chose pink.  It was delivered the next day. 

Lastly, there is cheerleading.  T won the prize for the best cheerleader last year.   I doubt she will win again this year, as she is in a show with the older girls, aged 7 - 13.  The costume is her camp tshirt and shorts.  

So, there you are.   T is so excited she can't stand it.  I must admit so am I.  I'll try and get video.  Only problem is, its hard to watch the show when filming.