A Visit from Zackie

Hannah and I had a great time yesterday with Zackie and his mama, Mary Jo.  I can only expand on this by posting this:

Oprah Hatin'

I've been hatin' on Oprah since Friday when I became intrigued with her whole "this gadget is the wave of the future" line.  So I had to watch.  This amazing invention was the Amazon Kindle.  Oprah said you MUST have one.  There is no reason to ever buy another book again, said Oprah.  Think of how many trees you will be saving, said Oprah.  Oprah says that you can select a book and have it downloaded onto your Kindle before your private jet even takes off.  She knows!  She tried it! I hate Oprah and her stupid Jeff Bezos and their stupid Kindle love.

  BUY MORE BOOKS, PEOPLE! 

 FROM BARNES & NOBLE!

 BOOKSTORES!

Except that I kinda love the Kindle and REALLY want one of my very own.

Stupid Oprah.

Her Whole Name

Hannah starts every conversation with "Hello, what's your name?"  Some people play along but many must be uncomfortable talking to children so they act like they do not hear her.  I know this is an act because Hannah can be quite repetitive insistent when she wants a question answered.  It's interesting the way that people play along.  Yesterday an older lady answered that her name was "Grandma".  I could see the confusion on Hannah's face when she thought for a second that maybe this was a long lost Grandma that she was just getting to meet.  Some people make up names and those are our favorites.  Hannah knows that these are kindred spirits and she can talk to them until I have to pull her away.  The people who just look at her strangely she doesn't quite get.  Her ultimate hope is that they will ask her for her name.  Then she will be able to respond:

Hannah Banana Marie Boddeker Snook Possum

She has several other nicknames as well:

Banana Boat

Goose (as in Silly)

George

Lucy Goosey (or just Lucy)

Monster

International Day

Tonight at Natcher Elementary we celebrated diversity with some unique presentations from China, Japan, South Korea and Cambodia.  Cassie was invited to learn the Flower Dance of Cambodia to perform with her friends.  Then we went to the cafeteria to sample cuisine from all over the world, or pizza from Papa John's.  ITALY- duh!

China

South Korea

        

Cambodia

Paul was the videographer.  Sometimes he gets distracted. By his own feet.

He dared me to put this video on the blog. 

Rat Infestation!

We have some serious bedhead issues.  I'm not sure what she does when she is sleeping, but it must involve standing on her head while sticking her finger in a light socket.*

*Don't try this at home!

The Things We Learn From Others

Thanks to:

The person who taught me to love all kinds of music.

The person who taught me about photography, art galleries, and fine dining; and about standing up for myself.

The person who taught me to appreciate blue crab & beer, NPR, and banana pancakes.

The person who planned the most awesome trips effortlessly and taught me to always have a next place to visit.

The person who taught me to wait and things will be better; and they always are.

Biggest Waterbed Ever!

Sometimes you don't even need to be wet to enjoy the pool.

By the way, can you find the teenager in the house?

Another October at Jackson's Orchard

There is nothing better than a beautiful October day at Jackson's Orchard! 

 We met up with cousins Gracie and Ezra (no pictures, but boy, is he CUTE!) and played on the hay bales.

The little girls got to jump on the inflatable jumpy thing.

There was a little bit of crying.  Hannah is a violent hugger, sometimes people get hurt. 

 
As an extra bonus, Holly's dance troupe performed 3 times throughout the day!

Gracie's sweet mama is one of those that always has a snack or a travel game or crayons ready to whip out at a moment's notice.  So, when Hannah started crying about being hungry and all I could give her was a mint, Melissa sprung to the rescue with peanut butter crackers!

You will probably notice the lack of pumpkins from our visit to the pumpkin patch.  Oh well, maybe next time!

Natalie's Fall Book Reviews: In A Nutshell

Books I Will Never, In a Million Years, Want To Read 

(But hopefully someone will because I am trying to run a bookstore, people)

No offense to Mary-Kate, Ashley, Hugh or Rose, of course!

Fall Releases I Can't Wait to Read

(and you should be excited too.  These are Good lookin' books!)

Ballerina Biker

She spent the day in her pink tutu until we peeled it off of her to take a bath.  

A Day in the Life: An Assignment from Mrs. G

You all know Mrs. G right?  She's the very funny one over here.  Well, she has asked us to post a blog about a typical day in the life.  So here is my Monday, October 13th.

It started at 6 am with a little girl calling in the sweetest voice, "Mommy, Mommy!".  Since my alarm was set to go off in 2 minutes anyway, I got up and got us ready to go for the day.  We need to be out of the door and down the street to Grandma Lisa's house by 6:30 if I am to make it to work on time.

By 6:45 I am on my way to work.  It unfortunately, is not a straight shot.  In order for me to get to work, I must make my way through the Starbucks drive-thru.  On the way I listen to a beautiful version of Rainbow Connection.  You know what?  Kermit sings it well, but it is a great song! Once I am armed for the day with my caffeine and my peaceful music, I can face the Monday Management Meeting here:

I get to work by 7 am and after spending a couple hours with the entire management team, I continue my day of planning, scheduling and selling BOOKS!!!  At 3:30 I am done and go to pick up some snacks for friends that are coming over later.  Then I get to pick up Hannah from her Grandma's house.  We play for a bit and she tells me about her day, then we get ready for our friends to come swim with us!

Libby and Lloyd brought over some new friends and we had a great time!  We can't wait to have them over again!  Rachel and her children were so sweet! After everyone left Hannah conked out immediately with her Pez holders in hand.  Then I took to sewing some Halloween costumes!  Here are Holly's hippie pants.  I just cut up some of my old jeans and added some crazy corduroy.  Sad part- I used to be able to wear these jeans!

Afterwards, I swam some laps and am now planning to hit the sack!  A day in the life!

It Bears Repeating

I know that I have mentioned this before, but Hannah has a very strange attraction to Pez Dispensers.  She now refers to them as Pez Holders instead of "Cup Holders." So that's a step in the right direction.  About once a week we take a package of Pez candy and put one piece in each dispenser.  Fun for hours!

We have a few missing in action.  Santa Claus, Snow White and The Joker (2nd runner up for Creepiest Pez) are nowhere to be found.

Here it is!  The winner for Creepiest Pez ever.  It's a nurse in case you can't see the little white cap.  A very manly looking woman nurse Pez.  Why?

She still sleeps with her bag of Pez.  They go to Grandma Lisa's house everyday and at night she decides which one she will sleep with, which one Boo will sleep with, and which one her baby will sleep with.  At least she is a quick decision maker.

I've read how to end your child's addiction to the bottle, blanket, or pacifier, but no where is Pez addiction mentioned.  Do you think this is in the DSMIV?

Letter of Apology 2.0

Dear Hannah,

I am so sorry.  You have heard this before.  I have vowed to never again cut your hair... and I haven't.  However, the desire is apparently genetic as your Nana reached for the scissors within 10 minutes of being left alone with you.  Everything was going fine until you moved (as two year olds do occasionally) and Nana took out a big chunk.  So, after an emergency trip to the hair salon in Walmart you now have serious BANGS.  I am so sorry.

Love,

Mommy

Dancing Queen!

More of the fancy moves she gets from her Mommy.  I apologize for the white trash Kid Rock that is blaring in the background.  

Conference Time!

Hannah and I made our annual trek to Florida for my conference.  We fly down together and spend a few days with Nana and Papa then I go to my meetings in Orlando while Hannah stays behind and gets spoiled rotten.  The past two years have had their challenges in the flying department, but this year couldn't have gone smoother.  Hannah watched her videos and ate snacks and did a little coloring on the way down.  On the way back she slept before we taxied out and I had to wake her up when we were home.  She left a little pool of drool on my lap!

The conference was once again wonderful.  We stayed at the Shingle Creek Resort and had a beautiful view of the golf course (not that I ever got to go outside!) Along with lots of information that booky types adore, we also had some very interesting speakers:

John Hodgman, also known as "PC" in the Apple commercials.  Oh my!  He was so very funny and dry.  He moved into my secret boyfriend category!  We also had:

Janet Evanovich, who was a little flighty and scattered, but very engaging.  She was quite funny at the bar later!  She hung around to sign books and drink (I'm pretty sure the drink was a fee for her autograph.)

Ted Turner was also there to discuss his life and his new book Call Me Ted.  He was amusing and had lots of stories to tell.  I was surprised to hear what a philanthropist he is.  He was a bit hard of hearing and a little forgetful, so during the Q&A session it especially difficult when a question had two parts.  He had to be reminded of the second part.

Then came this guy.  So interesting (and flamboyant too!)  Gregory Macguire discussed his newest book in the Oz series.  He also talked sweetly about his family and his love of musicals. He sang, he danced, he did a strange puppet show.  Unfortunately his talk was cut a little short by an unexpected fire drill (OK, so I guess I did get to go outside once!).

Raphael Saadiq was our entertainment. I didn't think I would be quite as impressed as I was. He was awesome!!

The trade show with over 200 publishers was pretty scary.  I'm not sure if you have ever been in a huge room filled with 900 bookstore people and rows and rows of free books, but I was afraid for my life.  I managed to get some great new books that are coming out this fall.

All in all, it was nice to hear that our company is in really good shape going into this difficult holiday season.  Nice to see once again how well employees are treated at Barnes & Noble.  I'm proud to work for such a great place.