Easter Egg-stravaganza!

A week later I suppose I need to post our Easter blog. We had so much going on this week that I never got around to sharing what a good time we had this year. Having an almost 5-year-old ad a 2 1/2-year-old makes Easter extra fun! The weeks leading up to Easter are always filled with Egg Hunts and parties ... unfortunately we had yucky weather for many days before Easter. But that didn't keep us from having loads of fun indoors!


Kendall's school egg hunt was held indoors due to rain. But we still had breakfast with the Easter Bunny. Tanner was astounded when he first saw that big bunny sitting in a chair. And every time the bunny had to "take a break," Tanner announced to everyone at our table that the bunny had to go potty.


We also attended the Holly Springs Easter Egg Hunt this year. Luckily, the weather was good for that day. It started off chilly but turned out rather warm in the afternoon. Because they separate the kids by age level, Kendall stayed with her friend Daniel to hunt with the big kids while Daniel's sister Zoe came with Tanner and me. The two little ones weren't so sure about this egg hunt thing ... Tanner picked up his first egg and said, "I done! Look at my igg, Mommy!" I had to show him that all the other kids had more than one egg before he would keep going. After the hunt, the kids had a chance to pet some animals; their favorite was the baby lamb. And the Easter Bunny arrived in a firetruck, so Tanner was really excited to sit in the truck and wear the gear.


Another gorgeous day brought us to Learning Express to pet some more animals. I was a little miffed when we got there because I was told there would be baby ducks and bunnies for the kids to hold. There were some there, but you had to pay to have professional pictures made with the little animals to hold them. But the kids still got to see some piglets, so we left content.


Finally, Easter Eve arrived. Before bed I told the kids to find their Easter baskets and sit them out for the bunny to fill. Naturally, we can't have anything without a mishap, so we had to look for Tanner's basket. It was nowhere to be found ... how does a little blue bunny disappear??? We looked high and low, in and out, right and left, here and there ... finally, after realizing that this bunny wasn't in the house anywhere, I asked Tanner if he threw it in his dirty clothes hamper. Guess what ...



So dirty blue bunny joined pink bunny on the table and the kids retired for the evening. I spent an hour stuffing eggs and putting all the goodies in their baskets, and they were very excited to find their full baskets in the morning. Of course, they wanted te eat everything right then ... restraint, please. (I was actually having a hard time restraining myself from those Reese's eggs!) The kids played with their new stuff while I cooked up some baked beans in the crock pot, and then we dressed in our Easter finest and headed to Powder Springs.


Easter day was gorgeous, and we had two more egg hunts at MeMaw and PePaw's house, along with two more Easter baskets stuffed with goodies and an Easter present from MeMe and PaPa. Everyone couldn't get enough pictures of Tanner's fauxhawk, and Kendall was my beautiful angel in her Easter dress. Hailey had to come along in her matching dress, of course! All in all, a wonderful Easter season. I even got a new family picture out of it!

These dreams ...

I woke up this morning with the strangest feeling. It's not the first time I have felt this way upon waking ... and I'm certain it won't be the last. My heart was pounding, my eyes were wet, and my fists were clenched.

Nightmare, you ask?

No, I had a dream about my dad.

And not just a regular dream, you know like it's just a regular day and I see him. I have those all the time -- the dreams where it's like he never died.

No, this dream was different. He was a ghost. And I knew he was a ghost. My mom and I were at a mall of some kind, on the top floor, looking down over the rail at some kind of play or something. My mom was to my left, around the corner of the rail. And he was just standing next to her, between us. I kept trying not to look at him because I knew he wasn't "real." But I just couldn't help it ... it was like in the movie Ghost the first time Demi Moore touches Patrick Swayze's ghost. And it was really strange because the first time I reached out for him, I didn't feel anything; my hand slipped right through. But then Mom told me to try again. This time my hand rested on his right forearm.

And I just cried. And cried. Because I could feel his rough skin and the scruffy hair on his arm. He never said a word to me. He just stood there while I held my hand on his arm.

And then I woke up. And for a moment I thought, "He's still alive." You know when you have those dreams that are so real that you're not sure if they really happened or not? Well, this was one of those dreams. He felt so real -- it was like I still felt the heat of his arm on my hand when I woke up.

So maybe he was here ... and he just wanted to remind me.

Rules are made to be broken, right?

I've spent the last 12 hours fuming about these HOA rules. I've always been a proponent of HOAs; I do feel the need to have regulations on some things. I mean someone has to keep people from jacking their cars up on cinder blocks in the yard right? But since our neighborhood took over the HOA responsibilities a few months ago, I've felt nothing but pains. I feel bad for the men and women who actually have to make these decisions and enforce the rules; I bet they didn't know what they were getting themselves into when they started this. And I have always been big on following the rules -- hence, why I because a teacher.

Anyway, for a few weeks I've heard grumblings (at play group, at the playground, in the culdesac) about some of the "changes" and "enforcements" that were coming our way. The HOA had a meeting last week (at 7 PM, which is why I didn't attend) and many things were discussed. Yesterday I received a sheet of paper from our block captain (She's just the messenger!) reiterating the rules that appear to be broken the most often.
You can imagine what it said. "Do this ... or that ... or you will receive a letter ... and fines to follow." They always say the same thing. What were the big points? Let me see if I can sum them up --

1) Keep your garage doors closed. Basically, we can only open our garage doors to enter or exit or garages. (This one, I think, is a bit extreme. It even went so far as to say that no one's garage doors should be open for 2, 5 or 10 hours out of the day.)
2) Pick up your dog's poo. And keep her on a leash when she's not in your yard. (OK, no problem.) If your dog poos in the common areas, clean it up or you will get a fine. (Yeah, I'd love to this one enforced. How do they know who's dog poos in the common areas??)
3) Keep your yard spic n span. (Naturally, this one we DO NOT have a problem with. My hubby is a yard man, after all.)
4) No parking on the grass. (Duhh -- I mean, really?? I thought people only did this where we used to live in Paulding County.)
5) Trash cans should be placed by the road after 5 PM the night before pickup and returned to their out-of-sight positions as soon as pickup occurs. (I have no problem with this one, but really? A set time?)

And now for the doozy.

6) Commercial vehicles must be parked out of sight (in the garage or whatever). They have even gone so far as to strike a "deal" with the church on the corner (1/2 a mile away) to allow people who have commercial vehicles to park them there. Now, I can see why no one wants a big UHAUL or FedEx truck parked on the road outside their house. And I also understand that "commercial" vehicle is a very broad statement. But, this means that Tim would have to park his service truck at the church. And that means getting up 15 minutes earlier (4:30), waking the kids when he cranks the red truck to pull it out of the garage, parking his red truck at the church all day (and sometimes nights), then doing the reverse in the afternoons. And then, when he gets those middle of the night calls, he'd have to wake everyone up at night. Call me selfish, I don't care, but I just don't think his truck is that big a deal. Tim keeps that work truck cleaner than most people keep their cars. And he'd have to remove everything from the truck if he had to leave it at the church overnight -- ladders, tools, etc. So, as you can see, I'm irked. I know that they can't make exceptions ... but, argh. And I'm sure that other people in the neighborhood across the street are feeling the same way. Hopefully, they will come up with a definition for "commercial" vehicle and solve some of these problems. Otherwise we'll be getting fines out our rear ends because we don't have anywhere else to put the truck.

Oh well ... maybe just another reason to move ... ;)

Growing Up

I've been revelling in the beauty of my little angel boy the last few days or so. That's why I haven't written. (Truthfully, he's been sick, which leads to days filled with "Mommy, hold me" and "I want (fill in the blank)," followed by screaming if the need isn't filled right then.) But throughout all this sickness, I've realized something grand about my little butter bean -- he's not a baby anymore. He's a little boy now. Almost three years old, in fact. And where has the time gone?

I don't remember much before my children were born. I think God does this purposely so we don't eat our young -- if we don't remember life before the kids, we won't want to go back there. (I'm only kidding -- why would I ever go back to life before my kids???) But I still remember moments of Tanner's babyhood. Holding him to my shoulder while on the phone, bouncing him around, and then realizing he was snoring in my ear. Carrying him everywhere because he just liked to be close. Speeding through all of our car rides (many times with earplugs) because he HARED riding in the car; now he begs to go bye-bye. Crying the first time he finally counted to 11. Crying again the first time he sang his ABC's, even though he still leaves out "T-U-V."

I've done a lot of crying with Tanner mostly because he's my last baby, and the firsts are also the lasts in this house.

So last week, filled with snot and boogers, I also enjoyed another first/last. We changed Tanner to his toddler bed. I've been putting this off for a while; most of you know about the struggles we've had with Kendall sleeping in her own bed, and now that we have her there, I was afraid of what Tanner might do if he could get out of his bed on his own. But he amazed me (again) and has yet to get out of the bed on his own. He waits for me to come and get him every time. I guess we're lucky to have a good sleeper. Though he pitched a fit at first ("Put the side back on, Mommy."), I think he likes his big boy bed quite well now; we even took the side off his crib at Mom's house.

Now I realize he's no longer a baby -- but he did give me some well-needed baby time last week when he fell asleep in my arms twice and I got to rock him in the recliner. And during those sweet moments, my rough and tumble little boy was my baby butter bean again.