My little budding artist has been busy at his easel lately.

And our coffee maker has been busy too ;) It sure does make a beautiful cappuccino. Nothing like Rome's, but it will do for now...








When I ask Corbin to make funny faces, he does not disappoint.

I finally found attractive, hardy,low-maintenace plants for the front porch: Japanese Holly trees (the skinny kind that are like pencils reaching up to the sky). In other domestic news- I have been cooking all three meals for the past three weeks (with the exception of two nights when I ordered pizza). I've tried lots of new recipes and am feeling good about the economy of it. I'm not a fan of leftovers, so I've been experimenting with portions and reducing recipes too. But one meal that we ate on for three days was so delicious that I didn't mind having it multiple times. My chicken tortilla soup (inspired by my buddy Brook). Yummy.

Oh, hello blog.
Nice to see you.
I have been intentionally ignoring you because I want to do a little more living and a lot less "computering"
That said, it's about time I oblige some family members with an update and photos.

Life is good. Really good.
I was reminded of that tonight as I was in the check-out line at Store X. I went in to buy a few baby shower supplies for Rachel's upcoming shower and noticed one of Corbin's former teachers from his daycare when he was a wee tike. He went there for about a year on a part-time basis and this one particular lady was very kind to him and always chatted with me in the mornings. Said lady was the cashier for me this evening and so, naturally, I asked if she is stilling working at the child development center. To which she replies yes, but that she's working a second job in the evenings for health benefits because the daycare doesn't offer health insurance. Whoah! That blew me away. Seriously?! Not only are they working long hours in a small space with a lot of small,needy people, but they're doing it with NO benefits?! I thanked my lucky stars right then. It is easy to bemoan the little things going wrong or the mundane crap we deal with, but at the end of each day I am SO thankful for a warm home, good food, safety, and health insurance. LIfe is tough. It really is hard for so many people to just survive it. I have a comfortable and lucky existence. Just felt like writing that down. It will be a good reminder on a day when I want to whine.

Corbin has been a love and delight as usual. He has been spending his afternoons playing hide-n-seek with me, riding bikes, painting, building sewer facilities with legos, and cooking in the kitchen with me. Turns out all I have to do is put a little flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl for him to whisk. Yes, he loves a whisk. And he's happy ;)

I have been meaning to write down all the cute things Corbin says for a while now.
And , of course, because I have waited too long, I am having a hard time remembering them all.

Today he was singing "fumpity, fump, fump. Fumpity, fump fump. Wook at Frosty go" with the biggest grin on his face in the backseat of the truck. I could have bottled that up and put it in my soul for re-call on a bad day.

He calls his school the O'Meal School. It's O'Neal and no matter how many times I correct him, he will still call it that.

Two days ago we were on Airport Road heading to O'Meal and he randomly said, "I can't see the new Harris Teeter from here, but you always say it's close to school. When something is close it's supposed to be where you can see it." I just thought this was incredibly observant on his part.

I have been quick to lose my temper lately in the mornings because we are perpetually late and no verbiage (c'mon. your friends at school are waiting.... we're late for an important date.... hurry,hurry....) will make Corbo speed up. So, today when I sighed out loud and told him to "hurry up!" He looked at me and said, "Mama, just be happy."
WOW. That really touched me. He's right. Just be happy. How does it fix anything to be grumpy and flustered. Seriously, I learn more from Corbin than anybody else these days.
So, I put a smile on my face and said, "you're right, buddy-ro. I am happy."

He is chock full of Corbinisms and one of my favorites lately is his request for "leg pants" each morning when I'm getting him ready for school. He will say, "Mama, I need a fancy shirt and leg pants." It's so cute. What other kind of pants is there?
I love him.

Documentaries. I'm in the business of watching documentaries on Netflix's instant queue now that we've eliminated cable from our lives (don't miss it. not even a little).
Anyway, two of the most recent that I really enjoyed were "How Beer Saved the World," and "Twenty (Pearl Jam)"

After watching that flick last night, Matt concurred with my suspicion that the music today's teens listen to is crap with a capital C. We were without a doubt super lucky to have been teenagers in the late nineties. The alternative grunge scene produced some excellent bands. I distinctly remember getting into the "zone" before track races by pumping the likes of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana through my Walkman. And I can never forget blasting such music upstairs in my family's house with my sister while we finished homework.
Such awesome talent poured out of the Northwest in the nineties. Outside of that scene, I'd like to say that I was addicted to Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers (both bands that produced a few albums that I could STILL to this day play from start to finish and thoroughly enjoy).
A few weeks ago in one of my classes, I asked the question of my students: "What type of music do you listen to? Who are the most influential musicians in your life currently?" An overwhelming response was Wiz Khalifa (spell? who the hell knows), Lil Wayne, and a host of other rappers. It baffled me. WHY are affluent white kids in rural south-central NC in a golf resort town listening to gangster rap? It's comical, right? I mean, are these really the best artists they could find for their impressionable ears? How could they possibly relate to the lyrics? Do they even understand the lyrics? I googled some. What follows is a sampling of some of Wiz's more enlightening bits:
Girls fall in love with what they hear. Boys fall in love with what they see. That's why girls wear make up; and boys lie.
Ballin's not a hobby, it's my occupation.
If you don't smoke, I don't know why.
Most of his lyrics are complete mysteries to me. They're replete with expletives and idiotic rhymes.
Am I old? Is this just what naturally happens- adults claim that "their" music was real. Theirs was true. Theirs was comprehensible. I don't know. But one thing is true- for me, the stuff my students are jamming to is rotten.
When my parents would talk about the Rolling Stones, The Who, Creedance Clearwater Revival, John Cougar Mellencamp, Neil Young, U2, I could totally dig it. I recognized and enjoyed the talent. So, I hardly think it's a clash of the generations that I speak about now. About half my students asked me, "What's Pearl Jam?" when I listed some of my favorite bands. YIKES!

Saturday, how I love thee.
Corbin slept in (til 7:30!) and we all felt so rested.
I did laundry,lots of laundry. We ate breakfast together. I swam and lifted weights at the fitness center, went to the grocery store, made fajitas for lunch, and then we all took a nap. So lovely.
We woke up and rode bikes in the neighborhood together, did more laundry, and then had crab cakes and salad for dinner. I failed miserably at my first attempt at homemade fudge. It's actually homemade sludge. Didn't set. What happened?! Corbin was spooning it out of the pan though and loved it. So, who cares...
We ended the evening with a dance party. Check it:

Sweet Caroline(a)!
I fall in love with this state each year right around October and the love affair grows intensely through November and December. When July rolls around, I will inevitably be singing a different tune (i.e. WHY is it so stinking humid?!)
Thanksgiving break was pretty awesome. Corbin had a streak of five of the BEST behaved days I can remember in preschool history. He was such a love. He sat at the table with all of the adults, chatted us up, ate his turkey and pie, and was just really sweet. When Matt's relatives gathered around the pool table for the traditional poker game, Corbin just ran around the room entertaining himself and chasing David and Kate's cats. It was so fun to be able to play and have my eye on him at the same time. I'm a terrible poker player, by the way.
Sue and I took Corbin to the indoor pool two mornings in a row so that she could do some exercising while being gentle on her swollen knee and Corbin pretended to be a scuba diver. He's getting a little more comfortable in the water, but has yet to attempt swimming on his own. I'm not going to rush it as this is one of only a few scenarios where he is clingy. I adore the closeness when he's squeezing my neck.
We had an amazing feast. Everybody chipped in. I made a homemade pumpkin pie from scratch (gluten free too!) and it was pretty yummy. I contributed a gigantic salad too. Highlights of the weekend include two fabulous runs through beautiful Governors Club soaking in the sun, unusually warm temps, and the breeze blowing all the dried leaves around; a UNC football game; finishing the book club book (which blew my mind and I told Matt, "I'm still not quite sure I understand everything I just read..."); and a fun movie called "Crazy, Stupid, Love." We had a drama-free weekend with lots of quality family time. Oh, how could I forget the s'mores on Friday evening? That was certainly amongst the highlights. Roasted marshmallows that are golden perfection upon a graham cracker with oozing Hershey's chocolate....pure genius.
The video clip is a little diddy from the UNC marching band. The band happens to be my and Corbin's favorite part of the football game pageantry. He also enjoys the "pom pom girls." He made a few interesting social observations on Saturday, but my favorite was: "Mom, the pom pom girls' bellies show because their shirts are small." ha ha

Embracing the South

As part of my self-prescribed attitude adjustment recently, I have been closely examining some of my more bitter attributes. For starters, WHY did Matt's dream job have to be in the pine-covered, sandy-soiled, flat, hot, humid region of North Carolina? Wouldn't it be so much cooler and more conveniently suited to my lifestyle for us to live in Portland, Oregon or Boulder, CO or San Diego, CA? Heck, I'd jump for joy at placement in Western NC! After all, didn't I totally delight in moving away from the south after college? Wasn't I the one who vowed never to eat at another Shoney's or Cracker Barrel again?! Don't I hate the fact that runners and cyclists are spectacles rather than the usuals in small, southern towns?! These were my thoughts that fueled my pessimistic outlook the first year we were here. When reality set in that we'd be here at least for a decade (gasp!), I had to adjust my temperament. Since having a taste of life outside the southern states, it was very hard to swallow that we'd be moving back. So, for the past two years I have been making mental note to fully embrace the here and now. As one of my aunts so eloquently reminded me, "your life is now." Okay, so, she borrowed the line from John Cougar Mellencamp lyrics, but it resonates with me. I'm not in some awesomely scenic town resting at the foot of amazing mountains with a wonderfully cool climate. BUT, I am in a place where we can hop in the car, drive over rolling hills with fall foliage and flat,open cotton fields that slowly transform to marshy land speckled with palm trees, pelicans, and sporadic Spanish moss. And that is precisely what we did this weekend. Our mini adventure to SC was a welcome get away. It only takes us approximately 3 hours to get to Charleston, SC where a step back in time is beautiful. We arrived Friday evening at around 5 pm to the City Marina on the Charleston Harbor. Our little 37 foot sailboat awaited us all warm and cozy on a blustery fall day. The sky was purple with wispy, thin white clouds streaking through the brilliant color. The water was still and glistening. A long sidewalk paralleled the harbor all the way to the famous Charleston Battery; I instantly spotted locals running and I wanted to experience the route for myself (and I did Saturday evening at dusk). Corbin was VERY excited. He was jumping up and down shouting, "let's buy one of these boats!!!" Matt laughed so hard (though it really is in our long-term plan to purchase a sail boat). Corbin's excitement was contagious. We met up with Ali, the rep from Charleston Sailing School, and she walked us over to the "Mega Dock" where our boat was tied up for the night. We boarded the vessel named "Sinful" and claimed our beds. Josh and Sue got the back cabin and Corbin got the aft cabin. Matt and I would sleep on the kitchen table-turned-bed each night. It was surprisingly comfortable. That evening we headed over to the Marina Variety Store and Restaurant (the name does not do its food much justice). We feasted on seafood while Corbin had his usual chicken tenders and then headed back to the boat to put little man down for the evening. That is when we commenced with talking, catching up, and drinking ;) Between Josh, Sue, Matt, and I, a 5th of vodka was consumed over the course of 2 hours. True sailors, I'm told, would have downed rum. We had already broken a few superstitious rules before even untying our lines and heading out. We'd have it no other way. Josh peeled a banana for a snack and Matt warned him- "don't let Ali or Will see you eat a banana. It's bad luck on a sail boat according to them." Weird. I never thought about the sailing subculture, but it definitely exists. For instance, sailors/ sailing enthusiasts just can't bring themselves to say bathroom. Nope. It's the "head." I chuckled each time I heard somebody say it. Kind of silly. Anyway, there are so many terms to learn and such lingo that I'll be in school for years to master it all. Jibs, jibes, cutters, rigs, cats, monohulls, spinnakers, schooners, tacking, jibing, starboard, port side, wenches, and a slew of other things which I did not retain. I re-learned how to tie a few knots that I had forgotten since my climbing days. The clove hitch, half hitch, bowline, figure 8 on a bite, etc... That part was fun because a lot of it came back to me quickly. Matt really impressed me. He learned how to sail officially about two weeks ago. He went to the sailing course for 8 days. That was enough to give him confidence to take the family out for a sail on a boat we rented. Can you imagine?! I would be freaking out. He was very patient with us as we floundered around. There wasn't much wind this weekend, but we did actually set our sails and moved at a top speed of 4 knots per hour (that's crawlingly slow). In other words, it was perfect for our first family adventure. Charleston is so lovely. We marveled at the antebellum mansions along the coastline, and the sweet charm of many of the shops and restaurants. Shoot, the ladies working the gas station/quick mart were SOOOO friendly. They loved Corbin and they all cheered when he walked in Friday night to find a wayward $5 bill on the floor. They thought it was great! Corbin was so excited and said, "Hey, Daddy, I found a money." We let him keep it because nobody else was in the store at the time and the ladies were just hooting and hollering about how cute C is. Anyway, the service in the restaurants was always so typically deep South- "How y'all doin? What can I git ya sweetie? How bout some more coffee? Will the little guy want some milk? He's so cute. What are y'all up to this weekend?" Now, that part of the south, I can definitely embrace. And this gorgeous fall weather? I can handle that too! :-)
It was a relaxing weekend of quality family time that we really needed.
OH, and I can't forget that we had the BEST sushi that I have ever eaten in my life. I don't even remember the name of the restaurant, but it was amazing.