Dance Class Nostalgia

Dance class is going really well for Lila, she loves it. As for me, I am so incredibly thankful that we have a studio right down the street (literally, we could walk there if we wanted to) and that they offer a class during the day on one of her non-school days! 

I texted this picture to Jane Ellis this week to tell her that everything about sitting in the studio reminds me of her. The sights, the smells, the words, everything. We spent a lot of time in one of these, and her more than me. 

Nostalgia prompted me to ask my Mom to find a picture of JE & I doing "Put Your Little Foot" when we were younger. She couldn't find a picture of both of us, but she did find my solo shot. I'm guessing 1982 or 1983? 

I showed it to Lila and asked her if she knew who it was? She guessed me. On the 6th try. I guess I don't look much like that any more.

Bummer.

Visitors & Birthdays

It was a beautiful Fall weekend in St. Louis.  A little cooler than normal, but perfectly sunny and crisp. Mimi & Paka made the trip up to STL and we were all very happy to see them! 

Scott had to work on Saturday, so we hung out and Mary & I got a little shopping in - I love when she comes as it is about the only time I go shopping without a kid with me:) Scott worked the early shift, so he got home in time for a pasta dinner to get ready for his big race on Sunday. 

He and Kevin ran the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon and both did very well! We are so proud of both of them and their hard work to get ready for this race. 

Last night we celebrated October birthdays at home, since Mary, Scott, and Kevin's birthdays are all this month. Of course I made the Better Than Anything cake. I only do it once a year, because it's that good. And that rich. And has about a billion calories, I'm sure. 

Today is Scott's actual birthday, so we'll have another small celebration with just our family tonight. We're so thankful for him and hope this next year is best yet! Happy Birthday! 

CoMo 2014

It's been such a crazy week that I'm just now getting around to posting about last weekend. And a fun one it was! 

We've had hotel rooms reserved in Columbia since last year for this year's Missouri-Georgia football game. And tickets for about 3 months. As the date for the big game drew closer, we decided it would be so much more fun if we invited the Pooleys to come with us. We had not seen them in a sweet forever and are so thankful they decided to make the trip! (Even though they had to endure quite the trip on Friday to get to St. Louis!) 

Early Saturday morning, we took off for Columbia. We only had 4 tickets, so Ryan & Scott took Quinn & Nate to the game while Lila, Sullivan, Audra and I went to the Heidelberg and walked around campus. Heidelberg is one of my happiest places on earth, so I was very happy to share it with them. (Truth: It was one of my "go to this place in your head" when I was having contractions with both kids.) Lots of memories there and now I have a new one!

I think it's safe to say they were fast friends:)

It was very hard for us to get Ryan or Scott to send a quality picture, but they finally nailed it towards the end of the game. (We won't talk about the game, it was disastrous if you're a Missouri fan).

While the boys and big kids were having a good time watching Georgia win, the rest of us walked around campus and I reminisced a whole bunch (Apologies to those that had to listen to me!). I love this picture of Lila on the columns with Jesse Hall in the background. Future 3rd Generation Tiger?? It would make me so happy!

We walked through Speaker's Circle where I told them all about how people would pontificate on different subjects right here back in the day. Lila insisted we all sit down with her, and we all obliged after I took this picture.

This picture of Sullivan, Lila & Beetle Bailey cracks me up. I love the way she is looking at him.

After we met back up with the rest of our crew and enjoyed a swim at the hotel pool (and a visit from Robyn, Myra & Reid Baker - thanks so much for coming to see us!), we headed back downtown for pizza at Shakespeare's.

Good food, great time. I can't believe how grown up these two are...seems like yesterday when Nate seemed huge at 4 months old when Quinn was born.

Thank you Pooleys for coming to see us! We can't wait to see you again very soon!

Surroundings

This week has been another dose of perfect weather. Warm during the day, but cool enough for the windows to be open at night. We are just trying to soak it up before those 50 degree temperatures arrive this weekend. 

I took a minute yesterday to fully appreciate that Lila and I could walk down to the school to pick-up Nate. With the exception of I think 2 days this school year, we have walked Nate to school every morning (it was raining). If I'm not working, we will walk to go get him in the afternoons. If I do work, and Lila is at school, then I have to drive because the pickup times are insanely close together. 

When we walk, we see the same people at the same place nearly every day. It's a small town feel that I love. We really do love where we live, even though it takes some commitment and sacrifices sometimes (mainly in the form of adequate driveways and square footage). But it's the perks like being able to walk to nearly everything and the sense of true community that wins out for us.

We had a block party last night and the kids really enjoyed the closed street to ride their bikes. 3 of our elderly neighbors have lived here their entire lives. They enjoy watching our kids play together in the street so much. And I love to be part of this little piece of history.

Last night before we walked down to the party, I looked outside and saw Lila lying in the grass with her hands behind her head, just staring up at the sky. I know this picture is blurry because of the screen, but I wanted to capture this without disturbing her. It was like a blast of fresh air for me and a reminder to slow down and enjoy the surroundings.

Tiny Dancer

It's been said that parents sometimes like to live vicariously through their children. I'm totally guilty of that. With Nate, that's swimming for me. And with Lila, it's dance. I've known that she was going to at least try dance since Miss Mary, the ultrasound tech, told us she was a girl. The long awaited day for this to happen was this past Tuesday. 

Luckily, there is a great studio, right here in Maplewood, just a few blocks from our house. The teacher is someone that Jane Ellis knew, so I felt totally comfortable with my decision to try this studio. 

A week before the first class, I got an email that she needed to have a black leotard, pink tights, tap shoes, and ballet shoes before the first class. (full disclosure, she did say it was OK if they didn't have everything by the first class, but no way was I letting that happen). So Lila and I headed to a local dance store to procure these items. The store ladies were fabulous and even taught Lila a few little steps. She loved it! 

Dance day was finally here! We got her all dressed up...

and then she wanted to pose with a Steak N Shake car. Of course.

Waiting for her class! She did so good and the teacher told me that she was a great listener. So proud!

She can't wait to go back and I'm so glad she liked it!

Go Cardinals!

Although I've always loved the Cardinals, in the past couple of years, I have stepped up my game as a fan. I think it can be attributed to being at home with children while your spouse works at night. I can't say for sure, but I like to have something to distract me from the refereeing some time around, say 6:15 PM. Coincidence that there is usually a ballgame on at that time? I think not. 

Anyway, I can say that I have watched 98% of the games this year, and the 2% that I missed were for a very good reason. And they usually involved me obsessively checking Twitter for updates. Maybe. I can't say for sure. 

The Cardinals clinched the NL Central Division on Sunday. And every time I watch Al Hrabosky in these goggles, I crack up. It was the highlight of the champagne celebration in the clubhouse. 

The playoffs start tonight against the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw. All I can say is let's try not to act like fools, Cardinals. Please, for me.

Go Cardinals!

A Broken Theme

Last week definitely had a "broken" theme! Most of this will be all kinds of boring to my 3 readers, but in the interest of documenting what is our life, here is the longest post ever. 

The first break occurred on a Friday, and it was my van. Thankfully Scott was in it when it decided to break down instead of me and the kids being stuck somewhere. After he ran that morning, he got back in the car, started it, then put it in to gear and stepped on the accelerator. Nothing happened. Sort of necessary for something to happen. 

So he had himself and the car towed to our local mechanic, who proceeded to tell us that he couldn't fix it. So we had it towed to the dealership, where it sat for the rest of the weekend. 

On Monday, I heard Scott take a call from the dealership while I was working at my desk. And then I heard him say, "HOLY COW!" Well, well...that can't be good.  

Mice. Mice, people. Mice had crawled up in the car and chewed the wires into shreds. Definitely a holy cow moment. So while we were blown away, it was an easy fix and was not the internal computer, which we feared it would be since it's only 3,000 miles out of warranty.  

The kicker is that we had seen no mice. And we have 2 inside cats (even if they are worthless most of the time - the one time we had a mouse in the house, KP did find it). So Scott promptly put down traps in the driveway. And we promptly caught us some mice. Imagine that. 

So. In the middle of all the car business, my dryer quit. This is the dryer that we got shortly after moving to St. Louis and shortly after that, Scott's shop vac rammed into it and cracked the door. We've been using it with the cracked (taped up, yes, classy) door for going on 7 years. Because Scott just didn't want to spend the money on a new door, because that's not really all that fun. I totally got that and truthfully I didn't even really notice - as long as it drys, I'm all good. 

Well, about 2 weeks before the dryer quit, Scott finally replaced the door. How's that for some good timing. 

During the dryer crisis, Scott was in the middle of his work week, so we just made due with drying stuff outside on the drying rack and making a quick trip to the Peach's every now and then. After he got off his week, he tried to diagnose the problem, and turns out it was in the electrical or computer of the dryer. Not super fixable for a cost less than just buying a new one. So we are now the owners of a brand new dryer. I am a happy girl! 

After all this nonsense, we were glad we had a trip to the cabin planned for the weekend. Nate's friend Olivia and her family went with us and it was so much fun. The weather was just perfect!

I only got a couple of pictures because I'm very afraid that my camera or my phone will get wet. But I snapped these on Friday afternoon when we went down to the creek. 

Lila and I canoed together and she declared "this is the first time Mom has canoed by herself!" I had to break it to her that it wasn't, it was just the first time she had seen me:)

We had all kinds of excitement with cows chasing us and finding rattlesnakes. Yes, rattlesnakes. As in plural. I was so thankful my parents decided to come over on Saturday night so my Dad could deal with that. It's always something!

Thanks for reading the longest post ever!