Always- Sometimes- Never (for Katie)

ALWAYS:
I always have laundry on the chair in my bedroom.
I always hit the snooze button TWICE.
I always wish I'd gotten up just ten minutes earlier.
I always wonder if I laugh too loudly.
I always find myself amazed at the power of friendship.
I always enjoy a great baseball game.
I always worry that I'm going to wake up in ten years and wonder how time has passed so quickly.

SOMETIMES:
I sometimes regret not spending more time outside.
I sometimes crave SPAM. Yes, nasty, salty, fatty, mysterious SPAM. And then half way through my SPAM sandwich, I ALWAYS wonder why I craved it... and then I throw it away.
I sometimes allow Katie to be a bad influence, and she makes me giggle in meetings. Serious, serious, preschool meetings.
I sometimes run a shirt through the wash a second time just so I can put it in the dryer again instead of ironing out the wrinkles it acquired sitting in same dryer for 24 hours.
I sometimes wish I were more thoughtful with my words.
I sometimes wonder if I will ever be able to sneak down the stairs late at night without waking Walter - my ankles pop pop popping wake him every time.

I NEVER:
I never manage my time well. (Katie... I didn't change this one. It rings too true.)
I never expected to like boot camp so much.
I never grew up to be a Major League Baseball player or a fighter pilot, and this still stuns me sometimes.
I never tire of Van Morrison, Reeses Peanutbutter Cups, or The Office.
I never want to go to bed early. I hate that.
I never thought I'd be blessed to have so many friends.

Another milestone...

Nora started Kindergarten. Since then, she's learned to use the word "embarrassing" as in, "If I have to take a blue lunch box, it will be SO EMBARRASSING, MOM!!!" She's learned to roll her eyes. Yeah. NICE. She's learned to play the "I hate you/You're my best friend" game with other kindergarten girls. She's even learned to have anxiety over the possibility of one day getting a "U" on an assignment (see my eye roll?). And then, this weekend, she learned to ride a bike. No more training wheels. Just like swimming in that sea of children at her "big kid" school, she's on her own on a bicycle. Time flies, people. It flies.

Finally - Amsterdam

So, some of you may know that I pulled a fast one this fall. Somehow I managed a trip to Amsterdam. My amazing mother agreed to watch the kids. My dear husband didn't say no. And my most amazing of friends (Sharon, duh) handled all of the most important details. And suddenly, I found myself on vacation in the middle of the school year sans kids. Without husband. Just the two of us and no schedule. It was the greatest and laziest of adventures.

Looking out our hotel window. We stayed in the heart of the city called The Centrum. We walked everywhere except to and from the airport and to and from Rotterdam. We walked miles and miles.... well, kilometers and kilometers. We wandered, really. Just wandered.

The black and white building marked a turn for us from the most perfect street containing a bakery and cheese shop (oh, and a minimart that sold very good apples - Sharon LOVES apples- and was run by a Lebanese immigrant who actually stepped between Sharon and I as we "argued" over a Black Eyed Peas song one night).

Bicycles. Really. Every person in Amsterdam has one. And most look to be 50 years old. And many are equipped with child seats. And most seem to be left unlocked. And at the train station, there is a three story bike parking ramp packed with THOUSANDS of bicycles. How do they find theirs? It seemed impossible to us.

These elephants dotted the city. They are to raise funds and awareness for the plight of the African elephant. They were lovely and became a common sight for us.


Some people (Katie) are disappointed that we didn't "DO" anything. We did! We visited the Rijksmuseum and viewed Rembrants and discussed the fact that every still life by any Dutch artist contained exactly the same strange spikey-stemmed glass. We visited the Anne Frank house, and no one who has read the diary should miss this. Honestly. It was heart-rending. We took a canal cruise and... ummm... dozed a little in the sun while we toured the city.

We took the train to Rotterdam to spend the day with my cousin Gloria. She's an incredibly adventurous and fabulous student spending a semester in Middleburg in the southwest of The Netherlands. We went to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and saw all sorts of amazing art (including a not so amazing bright orange metal filing cabinet-type thingy that is not, no matter what anyone tells me, ever going to be art to me). Below is a photo of the courtyard of the museum. There was a group of boys playing soccer inside the cylinder.

Me and Gloria!

Me and Sharon on the train!

Renee's! The cannoli were fabulous. The sandwiches were amazing. The chocolate hedgehogs were delightful. The almond pastry was delicious. The fried cake thingy, not so much. We were here every day. And across the street, a cheese shop that had the yummiest gouda-stuffed-dried apricots.

We had a lot of coffee. A lot. Really. Hours and hours worth of coffee. And see the cream? YEAH, baby. Coffee was our companion as we people-watched. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, you can spend hours sitting, sipping, and staring.

Despite the fact that for weeks ahead of time I'd watched dreary and wet weather reports of Holland. We had excellent weather. No rain after 9 a.m. Not once. And we had sun several days. We loved it. Especially those of us who had a cool new blue coat, Susan!

I'd like to tell you that we tore up the town. I'd like to tell you that we closed bars that never close. But pretty much we were in bed by 9 or 10. I know, Katie. We are disappointments to you.

Vondelpark was lovely. And believe it or not, watching European marathon runners' fashion choices is pretty entertaining.

St. Nicholas Cathedral from the canal cruise. See. Another sunny day! I loved Amsterdam. I loved Rotterdam. I loved riding through the countryside. I loved wandering the streets. I loved The Centrum. Jordaan. The Pijp. The Flowermarket. The museums. The Red Light District. The coffee. The bicycles. The architecture. But most of all, I loved spending a week with my dearest friend. No, thank you.

Pumpkin Extraordinaire!!!

Well, Mom lucked out. While I was away, she had the privilege of being responsible for helping Nora create a pumpkin for the annual pumpkin decorating contest at the school. The pumpkins cannot be cut or punctured in any way, and they must depict a character from a book. But Nora, apparently, needed no inspiration and very little help. She decided to create the Ferocious Beast from the Maggie and the Ferocious Beast books. There were some pretty fancy pumpkins around when I went to see hers in the exhibit. I was amazed at how many six year olds can draw perfect circles, paint Dr. Suess faces, and sew pumpkin clothing. Uh huh. Then I saw Nora's. It was very much the work of a six year old. And it was perfect.

Nora's Birthday!

For Nora's birthday, she invited Anna and Kate to a fun day fluff. First I took the girls to Lil Divas and had their hair and make-up done. They posed for photos. Love Nora's finger on the chin. In fact, all three were perfectly comfortable on the runway. Nice.
Then we went to Build a Bear! This was a bigger hit, actually. Nora got a pink bear. Kate got a horse. And Anna got a Longhorn (that she referred to as a buffalo just to make her mommy crazy.) All three girls had the Hannah Montana theme song put in their animals. Believe me. This gets old fast.

Then we came back to the house for cake and ice cream and presents!