Leaving to Beavers

We're about to spend 3 weeks with Grandma & Grandpa Beaver, and Uncle John Beaver... and Aunt Sarah Beaver.... so I thought I would get my nails done appropriately...

A Good Start

The Ladies (Essie and Gert) met the Gentlemen (Bert and Ernie) the Sunday before the 4th of July, at church.

Here's a pic from the fellowship area after church...



That's Gert and Ernie sharing some fruit snacks and chatting. They hit it off pretty well. Essie and Bert had their faces to me so I couldn't take the "stealth picture" but they also were getting along really well.

Of course there will be bumps along the way, but so far.... so good. So very, very good.

PARENThood

I recently managed to watch all of the series Parenthood, and REALLY enjoyed it. Can't wait for it to come back on this fall. However there was one episode that really troubled me. One of the very first shows, a set of parents become suspicious about their teenage daughter's activities. The uncle suggests they break into her computer to see what's up. They head upstairs and first the parents are uneasy about "breaking into her room" and then don't know the password to her computer, and have no idea about her facebook status.

I was kind of miffed by all this. First of all, I will never and have never had any second thoughts about entering my children's rooms. First of all, they aren't THEIR rooms, they're MY rooms and I'm letting them use them. Second, there will be no computers with passwords I don't know. And third, if you wanna be on facebook, you have to friend me, and I WILL know your password. (My favorite punishment for Essie right now is to change her fb password - quite a deterrent I must say) I just can't imagine parents of a 15-year-old being that out of touch with their kids.

What are your thoughts?

To Be Honest... It Was Quite A Day

So it was the big day... meet the boys.

We decided to meet at the pizza place at 12:30. He texted me when they left his house, and so I headed out. I was about halfway to the pizza place when a cat ran out in front of my car. I swerved to miss it, and in the process smashed into the curb and busted my tire!! ACK!!! I was right next to the high school parking lot so I pulled in there. I had just taken out the phone to call Mr. B, when he called to say they were waiting for me. Of course when I told him what happened, he rounded the boys up and headed to save me. Grabbing the jack and spare tire, I started to raise the car up. Of course, this is in the MIDDLE of the day in Atlanta on black asphalt... I might have started to glisten... just a smidge. He finally pulled up and got out. And my hopes of looking fresh and pretty for the boys were... gone :) At first they were a little shy, but then (and this was no coincidence) a Vokswagon Bug drove by. The ladies and I had taught Mr. B the punch-buggy game a long time ago, and he had passed it onto the boys. So the minute it goes by, I reach out and punch Mr. B and yell PUNCH BUGGY. Well that resulted in chasing each other around the car, which made the boys laugh and totally broke the ice. Within minutes Ernie (his youngest) was telling me secrets about how to win a lego wii game, and Bert (his oldest) was telling me how he wants his dad to take him to a Lakers game!

We finally got to lunch and had a lot of fun. Ernie shared more secrets, and Bert asked me TONS of questions about the ladies. We laughed a lot and had SO much fun. It really went better than I could have even imagined. I felt bad a couple times because Bert has cerebral palsy, and he has a VERY soft voice and is sometimes a little hard to understand... but I know that as I get to know him more, I'll be able to understand more.

So then... there was the car to deal with. After dropping the boys off, we ran to a couple tire shops and they quoted us prices between $130 and $150 for a new tire. We were thinking maybe we should just go to Costco when we went past Big 10 Tires. I asked Mr. B if we should try there, and at first he said no, but then decided to just try it. He ran in quick, and came out just a quickly. Getting into the car, he said he was reminded by the guy in the store who was asking a customer if they wanted road hazard warranty. Mr. B recently purchased tires from Costco and that was something they give with all tires, and he remembered that my dad had bought me new tires about a year ago from Costco! And you won't believe this - I ACTUALLY HAD THE PAPERWORK IN MY GLOVEBOX!!!!! So off to Costco we went. The looked at the tire, said they could give me a $77 credit towards the new tire for the old one, and all together it would be.... drum roll...... $43. Total. Installed on the rim. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO.... quite a day. Hot.. sticky... dumb cat.... but for a day that could have turned out REALLY badly... it was one of the best days... EVER!!!!!!!

ps - Just talked to Mr. B - apparently the boys can't stop talking about the punch buggy race around the car. :)

The Truth Is... I'm a Little Nervous

Tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow I meet Mr. B's boys. I've known about them for a long time, but for obvious, I think, reasons, we needed to wait until his divorce was final before we all met each other. I was VERY nervous earlier this week, but apparently they are very excited to meet me, so that is calming the fears quite a bit. But there is still nervousness... I realize it's putting the kart before the horse a little to already be planning to get married when I haven't met his kids yet, but I know in my heart we're going to get along pretty well. Fortunately I've been in their shoes (my parents divorced when I was young) and I've had the world's greatest bonus-mom model in my Julie, so I think we'll do ok. Not to say there won't be challenges along the way, but I think we'll be ok.

But the most exciting part about tomorrow to me is FINALLY getting to see this one last side of Mr. B that I've not seen in person before. I KNOW he's such a great dad, and I can't wait to witness it.