I was so proud of Matt earlier this year when he made a tough and wise decision to sell his Ducati to tuck the proceeds away in case the massive medical bills actually panned out to be things we were going to have to face.
We had done the fundraising and had been saving for about two years ourselves and thus were prepared, but when the infection struck and we were looking at a second surgery, M sold his bike. Now that we've made it through the proverbial "woods" and Tricare actually pulled through on the second surgery, we owe nothing. And my man was able to re-gift a motorcycle to himself. I'm glad because he deserves it. 14+ deployments to combat zones should be sufficient for a little self indulgence. He found a steal of a deal from a guy in Fayetteville. So, today we enjoyed a Harley ride together. I was shocked when Matt started talking about buying a used Harley (as he had fully indoctrinated me to the Ducati allegiance) ;)
Today was a gorgeous February day- blue sky, puffy white clouds, bright sunshine, and a slight wind.



Today ranks as one of the best Sundays in recent history.
Corbin woke up at about 6:20 and I got up with him. We ate breakfast, drank coffee (he has chocolate milk in a mug), and then we tackled some laundry. I played Legos with him, and started slow cooking a chicken tortilla soup for lunch. Then when Matt woke up, we all three went outside to play with Corbin's high-bouncing bouncy ball. He thinks it's hilarious to chase after it into the cul de sac. We watered all our container plants outside, and Matt purged all sorts of junk from the garage. I LOVED it! His truck bed is full of junk to be hauled off. Josh and Sue came to our house for lunch. We ate on the placemats that I sewed with my new-found sewing skills. Ha ha. Okay, they aren't skills quite yet. I have fun though! I made a pillow today too with scraps. Next I am going to make curtains for the dining room. Josh and Sue were kind enough to watch Corbin for 45 minutes while we rode the motorcycle.
After the ride, I worked on lesson plans while everybody chatted and played Legos. After the grandparents left, the three of us went for a nice jaunt around the neighborhood. Matt and Corbo rode bikes and I walked. We traveled on the golf cart path along the golf course. SO nice not to contend with traffic. We stopped by Lisa and Todd's to see their adorable new baby. Corbin did a great job riding tonight. He still won't attempt it without training wheels though. He says, "when I'm an adult, I will get rid of my training wheels."
One totally cute thing C said tonight at the dinner table: "Mama, I have a song in my brain."
Me: "What song?"
Corbin: (in perfect tune) "Life is a highway....I wanna ride it all night long."
Then I said, "Oh. Mannnnn. How do we get it out of your brain?"
Corbin: "I don't know cause I have skin over my brain."
So cute and silly. I love him very much!!!

Typical day

Inspired by Jennifer Kirby's blog post, I am going to attempt recalling our play-by-play today.

6:55 a.m. Matt's obnoxious alarm (a fire horn or something ridiculous) jolts me awake.
We hold hands for a minute. I rub his arm. He looks like he's asleep again.

7:00 a.m. we both get up and get going.

7:05 I walk over to Corbin's side of the house. He is stalking the hall headed to his bathroom warning me that he needs privacy. ha ha

7:08 I talk C into removing his heavy pull up (too much agua last night) and discarding it into the trash

7:10 Matt heads out the door for work. I take my thyroid meds. Look at the clock. Have to wait thirty minutes before I can eat

7:15 Corbin, Chili Cat, and his blue blanket wait at the breakfast table for orange juice, toast, strawberries, and cereal (his usual)

7:40 I have some yogurt, fruit, coffee, and toast

7:55 Chase C around the house with various articles of clothing. He is pretending to be Darth Vader and is in NO hurry to go to preschool.

8:05 We're in the garage with my school bag, one lunch box, one backpack, one stuffed animal, one show-and-tell toy, and one purse in tow. I can't find the keys. Go back into the house. Find them in the bathroom (?). We load up and head to O'Neal.

8:25 Walk out of C's classroom and head to the upper school where I make photocopies, chat with colleagues, answer emails, text with my mother-in-law, make flash cards, and download an instructional video for the kids to make papel picado.

10:15 My first class starts. I forget to drink any water in the 45 minutes I teach. Feel parched.
Run to the water fountain between classes with a dixie cup.

12:45 classes end and I scarf down an orange, an apple, a power bar, and a small twix (bad girl)
Fire off a few emails, grade some quizzes and at 1:15 I'm walking over to pick up Corbin

1:30 we finally get buckled in our seats (we stop to look at flowers, rocks, mulch, and sand on the way to the car)

2:00 we're home. We read two stories, and I rub C's back til he falls asleep in my bed. At 2:30 Matt comes home (NOT typical!) and finds me dozing off in the bed next to Corbin.

I get up, go to the UPS store for an errand and the grocery store.
4:00 I'm back, I put all the groceries away. C is STILL sleeping!!!
Matt is doing Computer Science homework and I decide to squeeze in a run before dinner.
I slog through thirty minutes in the neighborhood (it was a sluggish thyroid day), but I'm SO happy to be stroller free.
5:05 our son is just having a little party in our bed under all the covers. So cute. I call him a sleepy head and then take a shower. First one of the day. I'm a dirty bird.

5:45 Matt proclaims he will go on a jog in the hood before dinner. He falls asleep instead.
C and I eat veggie burgers and sweet potato fries while Matt naps. It's be a loooong two weeks at work for him

7:00 Corbin and I are having a dance party to some Gwen Stefani and we decide to eat ice cream. He's as much a fan of Ben and Jerry ;) Matt wakes from his nap. We give him his birthday present because Corbin spoiled the surprise and told him.
It's a framed photo of a beautiful sunset, sailboats, and Caribbean water from our recent trip. We hang out for a bit.

8:00 Corbin and I are chasing each other around the house while Matt finishes his school work. Corbin is totally wired given the huge nap he took earlier. He has been sick and congested for about two weeks. We decided awhile ago he can nap whenever he darn well pleases.

8:20 Bath water starts. Corbin quickly builds some "boats" from Legos and drops them into the tub.

9:00 (about 1.5 hours later than usual!) C goes to bed after stories, songs, and prayers. His prayer tonight- "Dear God, thank you for my whole house and Chili, Mommy, Daddy, and Mema and Granddaddy. Keep giving us blessings. Amen."
Short and sweet.

10:40- I normally would be headed to bed, but because C went down so late, I'm now having wind-down time. Glass of red wine, some cheese and crackers and computer

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: