[	Tags	|	corn roast, may, mother's day, soccer	]
[	Current Mood	|	cheerful	]

As usual, no major events to report, but a smattering of little things:

Mother's Day was great. Alyssa decided that my cards would be hand made this year, and made one for herself and one for Greg to give me. Along with some sweet Mother's Day sentiments, Alyssa's card thoughtfully contained a pre-scripted response for me to recite to her (Thank you Sweetie! You're the best daughter ever and you can have all the deserts you want!). The card she made for Greg to give to me had a slit in it so that Greg could put a dollar bill in. She had also picked out a box of Godiva chocolates to give to me, no doubt knowing that Mommy would of course share them with her.

The weather here has been gorgeous, in the 70's and occasional low 80's, so I finally got around to completing the mulching project. The flowers I platned are miracurously still alive. Now to attempt to get some grass growing in the many bare patches in the front. We're actullay above the norm for rainfall so far, so hopefully I'll be able to water the new grass long enough to get it going.

Alyssa has been doing increasingly well at soccer, even scoring a goal in the last scrimmage. She's playing in a tournament this Saturday, and she'll be going to soccer camp in August. She's lost interest in basketball, which is no surprise given her height disadvantage. Soccer looks to be something she'll stick with.

I still haven't found an activity for myself. I've been trying to come up to speed on my area of focus as fast as possible, and it's been like standing in front of a fire hose. I think I'm getting the hang of it finally and things are starting to settle down. There are still some odd hours as our group is spread across multiple time zones, but I'm finally learning to sift the real emergencies from the rest, so there aren't so many evening and weekend hours. I think I'll attempt the kung fu classes I've been eyeing.

We've secured our plane tickets for a trip to Rochester over Labor Day weekend for the Conway Corn Roast. We'll be up from the Wednesday before through the Tuesday after, so hopefully we'll get to see friends as well as family and get our fix of some of the restaurants we miss (Philip's, here we come!).

[	Tags	|	40, gardening, soccer	]
[	Current Mood	|	sore	]

Going day after day through mostly the same routine, it's eay to let time slip by and forget to post.

We're in the thick of spring here, with temps swinging from the high 60's through the low 80's, mostly in the 70's. We've been getting a decent amount of rain which has thankfully been easing the drought, but unfortunately it appears to be timed to hit on the weekends. Yesterday was finally dry enough to get some yard work in, so I went nuts on the front flower bed. I pulled out all the abhorrent pine straw that seems to be so popular down here- I can't figure that out since it makes an ideal home for black widows and fire ants. I got some plants to fill in the big bare spot that was formerly occupied by plants that died off during the drought. I picked out just a few plants to start with; some green leafy things that like part sun and some begonias for some color. I discovered that digging holes in hard-packed clay isn't exactly a picnic. I also discovered that I have no clue as to what "make a water basin" in the directions means. I further discovered that, after many hours of putting a small flower bed in order, resulting in many sore muscles and an aching back, that I detest gardening and for the life of me can't fathom why some people enjoy this sort of thing. Today: the mulch. Oy.

The big 4-0 came and went quietly, just a quiet dinner out with the family, some flowers and a new Blu-Ray player from my honey. Someone at work noted that, out of 73 employees at our office, there are 4 women, all with April birthdays. There was a subsequent e-mail thread that went on all morning of people trying to calculate the odds of that happening.

I have now joined that popular statistical group from the past political seasons: the Soccer Mom. Alyssa has joined a soccer league and seems to have quite a talent for it. She's made some great stops as goalie and has a heck of a kick. The only downside is dragging ourselves out of bed at 6am on Saturdays for a few of the games.

Other notes: Hubby and I are still enjoying our respective work, we finally put in new carpeting downstairs, and we're slowly building friendships with our neighbors. I'm heading out to see Forbidden Kingdom with some friends today, since Greg volunteered to stay home with Alyssa.

I guess, in short, life is busy but good.

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Current Mood

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cheerful

]

We got a special treat Thursday- the Garth Fagan Dance Company came to Raleigh to perform! I got to see a couple of my favorite pieces plus some new stuff. I wasn't sure how enthusiastic the audience around these parts would be, but the dancers got plenty of cheers and a rousing standing ovation, just like at home.

In other good stuff, we've come into our first Spring down here. Everything's blooming like crazy, it's absolutely gorgeous, and we're starting to see temps in the 60's and 70's. I hear tell it'll be like this through May. I think I could get used to this! :-)