Playdate and Bullets

Yes, I kept my promise and uploaded the photos for the review of our playdate with Miss Briana. I'm sure some of you are absolutely floored that I followed through. Anyhow, we had a blast on Friday. Although Eriks and Briana
didn't play together a whole lot at the indoor sandbox/playground, they had way more fun at lunch. Oh, and BTW, when I pulled into my parking spot at the playplace it was 18 degrees outside. It was nice and warm on the inside, that is until they decided to turn on the air conditioning. Yup, 18 degrees and the a/c was on. Briana is just an absolutely adorable little girl and I'm so glad that I got to meet her in person. Plus the adult company from Lisa was fab.

Eriks digging in the sand. There were only a few big shovels in the place and he pretty much followed this kid around until he gave up his shovel.

Below are photos I took of Briana. Let me tell you, that kid doesn't sit still for a minute. Reminds me of a 5 yr old I know. Wonder who that could be.

This is my favorite photo of Briana. It came out great. I'm thinking Lisa might want a copy of it.

While out and about on Saturday we found this great little winery with some great names for their wines. How can you not love a winery that gives their wines names like The Skinny Bit.ch, The Cranky Bas.tard, Divalicious Peach Chardonnay and What a Great Pear to name a few. In all honesty it is really tasty wine. We only bought one bottle but we will definitely be back for more.

So here are the bullets:

• I have been having a really hard time dealing with the new taekwondo school. I REALLY don't like the way they do most things. I do like the fact that they don't give out belts like candy. They actually make their students work for them. However, I do mind that my son is going to have to go through testing on Sat and it's going to cost me $55 and he isn't getting a new belt. What this means is that when he does get the next rank of blue belt it will have cost me $110 for him to get there. I'm already paying nearly $200 a month in tuition for both Lane and Eriks. At our old school they had 1 testing and it cost $50 for testing and the belt. IMO, I feel like the school is doing everything possible to make money for their own pockets. I could see charging me $30 for testing on Saturday and another $30 in 6 weeks when he tests for his next belt for a total of $60. Also, one of the instructors is a complete jack---. He is so quick to jump on the kids when they're doing something wrong but rarely takes notice of when they do things right and give them the praise they deserve. They spend way too much time on conditioning and very little time doing the imporatant stuff with the kids like forms and teaching them correct kicks and other moves when they spar. I also am having a hard time adjusting to the fact that they care little about knowing the students and their families. It's very much a "Hi" and "Goodbye" atmosphere. Way different from what we had before. I'm trying so hard not to be critical and go into this with an open mind but...

• I love living in At.lanta but I am having such a hard time adjusting. I'm trying to figure out how I'm supposed to make friends, get involved in things, etc. I love my family but we all know that we need company and people we can talk to outside of that. So I'm a little down right now because I had friends that I saw all the time and now, I'm at square one again.

• I love my sister but I'd really like to slap her right now. There have been some recent developments in our family and she's being a real big itch about them. What happened wasn't expected and it's going to take a lot of adjustment for everyone in my immediate family, but the attitude she's taken is very immature and she's acting like a teenager. Life's not fair. It's something I tell Eriks all the time. Ask me how much I enjoy uprooting my life every 3 yrs. I hate it but I deal and move on. There are reasons G.od presents us with situations that we're not always very comfortable with.

• Eriks is rockin' in gymnastics. His teacher told us last week that he should probably stay in her class for a few more weeks to get used to the gym but he's honestly too advanced to be in her class. Watching him I thought she would say the same thing. The kids in his current class are true beginners and have a lot to learn compared to him. It's unfair that my kid can watch something a few times and have it down pat after a few tries. Makes me sick but also very happy too.

• I have not turned on the TV today for obvious reasons. I'm hoping for this country's sake positive stuff comes out of his presidency but I'm not holding my breath. I've thought that this whole inauguration has been over the top to begin with. Yes, I know with the amount of people there they need to beef up security but I think $159 mill for an inauguration is way too much. Especially after hearing the $40 some mill spent on Bush's last inauguration had people up in arms. No one has said a thing about the amount being spent on today's festivities.

Hope everyone is staying warm. We've had 3 days of on and off snow flurries. I wish there was some accumulation but nada. I'm actually ready for the temps to return back to the 50's and maybe low 60's.