Happy Birthday to the best husband in the world.

Today is Matt's 40th birthday. Wow, can I say that I never thought that I would be 40? Not that I am yet, but my better half is now 40 so I must be close, right? Give me 6 months and I will be crying my eyes out about how I can't be this old and blah, blah, blah more junk like that. But today is Matt's day and I have to say that 12 years ago on his birthday when we first got "together" (the quotes are because this is a PG blog) I never thought that we would be where we are now. We've been married for over 10 years, and have two of the most wonderful kids on the face of the earth.

Life with Matt is never dull. He is always thinking of new and interesting things to do, and places to go. I have never in my life ever met anyone who is so fearless. His buddies in the Army call him the Kashi Guy, and then they laugh but honestly he is the Kashi Guy, he does everything, he knows a little bit about a lot of things, and damn he's a ton of fun to be around. Personally I think of him as the Dos Equis Guy, and when at the end of the Dos Equis commercial when they say "He lives vicariously through himself." that's pretty accurate.

The little shy geeky girl in me is constantly amazed that this cool, handsome guy choose to be with me. I am not adventurous, I am not hyper cool. I am the total library girl who was more comfortable with books than with doing things. He picked me out of the multitude of women who continue to drool over him and that was my lucky day. Every day with Matt is my lucky day.

Bad Signs

I am not a big fan of the Florida school system, but I was always taught that teachers have the hardest job. I was also taught that teachers deserve respect.....hummm. I got a note home yesterday that Connor has a 31% chance of passing 2nd grade! Nice so, basically he has a 69% chance of failing. How do they know this, oh, they gave him a test and he did very poorly on this test so, he's going to fail. Never mind that they aren't teaching him at this school, what it seems like is all they do is test. Then yesterday, they gave him another test and because he didn't follow directions and bubble in all of the answers like the teacher asked, she marked all of his answers wrong, even though his answers were right, he didn't follow directions so they were all wrong and she gave him an "F", along with a "nice" note that says that he didn't follow directions.

I know that I am biased when it comes to my kids. I love them and I think that they are wonderful, so when I get told that my child is stupid, it sets off every single psycho mama bear instinct I have, and I want to rip this teacher a new a$$hole. Connor is an out-of-the-box kind of kid. He looks at things differently, and sees things differently. He's the type of kid who will make a game out of throwing away a piece of paper. He is very creative and adventurous and this school is trying to make him into a drone. I also know that Connor has a short attention span, if he doesn't find something interesting, he doesn't want to do it, and that's bad, but forcing this poor little boy to sit all day in class without recess, and then telling him to take tests all day, and when he doesn't do well basically tell him he's stupid, is a recipe for disaster.

Add to this, when I drive around the area, I see signs like the ones here. This is the school system that is telling me my kid is dumb. This is the type of people the Florida School system churns out.

New Orleans

We've been in Florida for almost two months and we are bored. HA! How many times can we go to the beach? So, Matt and I started looking at a map and were checking how far things were from where we are in Florida. Just for future reference, Fort Walton Beach is in the middle of nowhere! In looking at the map we started talking about where to go and what to do, and we had talked about New Orleans. It has always been sort of a running joke with me and Matt about Mardi Gras and the whole bead issue. As in, he can have beads to give away but I wasn't "allowed" to get beads. Which is fine with me because normally you get beads by flashing guys with beads, since Matt is the only man who will ever see my boobs I was destine to never receive any beads anyhoo.

We wake up on Saturday morning (9/26/09) and Matt asks me if I want to go to New Orleans, and I say sure, let's go. So we pack up an overnight bag, grab the kids and are on the road by 10am. It's a 4 hour drive from Fort Walton Beach to New Orleans, it's a boring 4 hours too, I kept looking out the window at the swamps we were driving by trying to see an alligator.....I don't think I saw any, saw something but we went by to fast to be sure it wasn't just a stick in the mud. We drove through, Florida, into Alabama, then into Mississippi, and finally into Louisiana. We crossed Lake Pontchartrain, a very, very long bridge and we got into the outskirts of New Orleans. I think Matt put it best, "It looks gamey." There were so many water damaged houses, and half finished repairs, it looked very depressed. I would have loved to see the area before hurricane Katrina to have a basis of comparison.

I had the GPS set to the French Quarter of New Orleans so we got off the 10 freeway on Canal Street and then drove down through downtown New Orleans to Bourbon Street. I think most adults have heard stories about Mardi Gras and know that the French Quarter is all about partying. Let me tell you Bourbon Street isn't very kid friendly, with Larry Flynn's Hustler bar, and every imaginable sex shop dealing their wares right out on the street. I was worried that we had made a horrible mistake. So we drove down Bourbon street, and then got off of Bourbon street and on to Royal Street. We were looking for a hotel, so I was calling places as we were driving by to see what their rate for the night was and if they had any rooms available. I had read about the Andrew Jackson Hotel online before we had left and it sounded nice, and so when we drove by it, I called and they had a room at a reasonable rate ($119 per night, some of the other places I called wanted $250 a night).

Now parking in the French Quarter is non-existent. We were able to stop long enough to unload me and the kids with the luggage and then Matt had to go off and find public parking a few blocks away.



After getting settled in our room, and Matt had made his way back to the hotel, we set off to explore. In the entry way of the hotel they had all of those many, many flyer's telling all about the many, many things to do in New Orleans. Madeline LOVES to grab one of each of those things every time we go somewhere new. I was looking at them along with her and I found one that talked about a Haunted History Tour of the French Quarter. It started at 6pm and went to 8pm. Perfect, not too late but late enough that it would be dark by the time we were done. It was to meet in front of the Rev. Zombies Voodoo shop. We were off, we walked down Royal and then we went up to Bourbon. I should have known better, from our drive in, but it's Bourbon street, you have to go to Bourbon street.....right? Well, we walked the entire length of Bourbon street, and let's just say the kids are fine, but I am mentally scared for life. The "shillers" on the street were crazy. One guy told Matt, "If he's (Connor)got a fake ID he can come in too." He was trying to get them into a strip club. Another "club" had a girl in a very small bikini in the door way and directly behind her was a photo of two girls getting "busy". Very explicit.

On the good side of that, there were musicians playing music in the streets, and it was good music, very festive. There were magicians, and all sorts of different performers. The atmosphere was very much like carnival. Needless to say, I had one kid and Matt had the other one by the hand at all times. It was hot and muggy and at one point started to pour, and of course we were on Bourbon street....where to go, where to go.....we found a gift shop/voodoo shop and went in and looked around while we waited for the rain to stop. Just like in Florida it never rains for very long.

We were getting hungry so we were looking for a place to eat and saw an Oyster Bar, it looked good so we went in, just in time because it was starting to rain again. I ordered a Muffaletta sandwich, and Matt had crab corn bisque. My sandwich was HUGE. There was no way I was going to be able to get my mouth around the whole sandwich, so I took it apart and ate it piece by piece. Oh man, it was sooo good. Ham, prosciutto, and salami topped with an olive salad. Yummy has a new name and it's Muffaletta.


After dinner it was time to meet up with the Haunted History Tour. We had a really good guide, his name was Midian and was very informative. He took us to a lot of different haunted houses and businesses. While we were going we noticed that we were close to our hotel, so I leaned over and asked Matt if I should ask about our hotel, he said sure, so when Midian was done with the Corn Stalk Hotel (apparently where Elvis stayed while filming King Creole) I asked him about the Andrew Jackson, he asked if we were staying there, and I said yep, and then he goes into these stories about how it was haunted by small boys from when I was a boys school and guests can hear children playing in the courtyard when there aren't any children staying at the hotel. Then he tells us about how one couple had a few photos left on a disposable camera and when they went to have them developed they were shocked to see three photos taken of them in the hotel while they were sleeping, and they were taken from the ceiling!!! The kids eyes got huge at that one. He also told us about guests who had the covers pulled off of them in the middle of the night. Okay, so we are staying in a haunted hotel. That was on my life's to-do list, so I can check that off.

The Haunted History Tour was very good. It took us all around the French Quarter and showed us things that weren't Mardi Gras and was filled with history. We saw Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, the oldest building in New Orleans, originally built in 1770. Then we saw the most haunted house in New Orleans, the Lalaurie House. This place was the sight of some gruesome experiments done on the slaves, and murders. Presently, the house is owned by Nicholas Cage. Apparently, he will have dinner in the house but will not sleep there. The stories churned my stomach, and I was a little worried it was a bit much for the kids. But the kids seemed to be fine, listening and not freaking out. After the tour ended back at St Louis Cathedral, we went and had gelato for dessert. I had a mojito gelato that was super yummy.



The night went by without incident. The only strange thing that I could see was that I was freezing. Matt was laughing at me because it was crazy hot outside, but I was freezing cold. I had to get an extra blanket out of the closet and the instant I got that extra blanket, I fell asleep.


The next morning, we got up and went down to Cafe' Du Monde' It is a famous cafe' at the French Market. It has been open 24 hours a day 7 days a week since the early 1860's. We had cafe' au lait with beignets. Oh, so good. The coffee was so good and the beignets were fresh and hot and covered in powdered sugar. The kids were happy because they were basically getting a donut for breakfast. We walked around a little bit more and I have to say that the atmosphere of the French Quarter from Saturday night to Sunday morning changed dramatically. There was no traffic and hardly anyone was out and about. While we were trying to find Connor an alligator head (that's what he wanted for his souvenir) we saw street cleaners and sidewalk washers. Wow, I have to say how nice it was to smell the sidewalk washer's cleaning solution rather than the icky sewer smell that continually wafted up as we were walking around. New Orleans smelled of sewage and old beer, mixed with an undertone of puke. Of course you have to understand that over the years a ton of people have come through and the smell I would think is to be expected.

We left about 24 hours after getting there. It was a fun trip and memorable. I am glad that we went.

"for your age..."

I have slowly started making friends with the wives of Matt's army buddies. The women are very nice and friendly and I feel right at home talking with them. The only thing is that I am a good 15 years older than them. I am the old lady!!! Waaaahhhh. I don't want to be the old lady, I am still cool and hip and I have young kids...okay so maybe they aren't as little as they once were, but I don't want to be seen as the old person.

One day I was swimming with one of the wives, she is 9+ months pregnant and is the epitome of the beautiful pregnant woman. She looks like I only dreamed of looking when I was pregnant, she glows and is all baby belly, nothing extra unlike me when I was pregnant....any way. We were talking about recovering our body after having kids and I made the off handed remark that I needed to lose about 10lbs. Her response to me was, and I will quote her here; "You look great (now if she had stopped there I would be okay)FOR YOUR AGE"!!!!! Waaahhhhh! I look great for an almost 40 year old, boohoo, waaaahhh. I want to cry. What an absolute slam to my ego. I honestly don't sit around worrying about growing older, if I have wrinkles it's because I earned them by laughing so damn much at my kids, and if I have gray hair, I fully blame my husband. I just never, ever though of myself as old as I must seem to these young beautiful wives.

My only consolation is the knowledge that in time they too will eventually "look great for their age." bwaahahahahaha

Procrastination

Who me? Procrastinate? But of course! HA! Okay, maybe I have an excuse, we moved from Alabama to Florida right after we came back from DC, and I didn't have time to finish writing my blog. It kills me that I half way wrote about our trip and then didn't finish. I haven't forgotten about the trip to Washington DC, but the trip has been moved to the back of my head after spending almost a month in the sun down here in Florida.

I have to say I absolutely love Florida. If I could have my house and my stuff right here, I would be happy to stay. We are living in Fort Walton Beach, FL. It is a tourist destination, and there are a bunch of touristy things for sale, and the restaurants are geared towards the tourists. But despite that it really feels like a small town. The apartment complex that we are living in has the most friendly people working here. The General Manager is super friendly and nice and helpful. It feels like a small town where everyone knows each other, and they have all been together for years, but then they are also willing to include this strange outsider from California in the discussions.



Now the beach is unbelievable! Honestly, I am not a big beach person. I don't go out to lay in the sun and get skin cancer. I like to be clean and covered in sunscreen, but the beach here is the nicest, cleanest most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The only thing that comes close is Hawaii. Hawaii has the beautiful beaches and warm water too, but here it is so close and accessible. The beach is almost boring it is so clean and the water is so clear. Matt will go snorkeling and he will be looking for something to look at and he won't find anything. The only thing to find is these little fish that love to nibble on my toes. Apparently I have yummy toes, either that or I need a pedicure really badly.

Washington DC

So, after sitting around Alabama going crazy, I started looking at maps and seeing how far things were, and I discovered that DJ and Justin lived only 7.5 hours away from Huntsville, and then it was only 5.5 hours from Winston-Salem, NC to Washington DC. I started plotting my escape, uhm I mean adventure. First thing was to see if DJ was wanting to see DC as much as I was, she was so excited that she wanted to go right then, sweet! Let the planning commence. I spent the next week looking at maps, learning the Metro system stops, finding hotels and trying to see what we could do in two days. There's so much to see and do in DC, and since this was my fourth trip to the Nations Capitol I wanted it to be a good trip for DJ and the kids. I found a super cheap hotel in Alexandria which is on the outskirts of DC, booked it for two nights and then packed up the kids and started driving to North Carolina. We left Monday morning (7/20/09) we have traveled Hwy 40 so much that I feel like I know it very well, so the trip was nice and uneventful.

We got to Winston-Salem about 6ish, and DJ took us to the hospital where Justin works as a first year resident. There was a very cool playground on the roof and we were able to look at downtown Winston-Salem and the kids were able to play and work off some energy after being stuck in the car for 7.5 hours. DJ and Justin took us out to pizza for dinner and I had the yummiest chicken pesto pizza, and the kids had their boring pepperoni and olive pizza.

Tuesday morning we didn't wake up quite as early as we wanted but oh well, we got on the road and made it to Alexandria, VA in record time.....me speed? You bet'cha. We got to the hotel about 3pm and immediately went to the Metro station and took the Metro to L'Efant Plaza, got off and walked right into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Great news the Smithsonian museums were staying open until 7:30pm! Awesome! It was about 4ish by then so we decided to walk across the mall to the National Gallery since it was going to close at 5pm. I personally love the National Gallery. It is my favorite museum in DC and I could spend a week in there and still not see everything. We wandered around a little, and then went down stairs to try and find the gift shop, I had a mission, I wanted to replace some Monet cards that I had gotten the last time I was in DC with Matt in 2005. On our way to the gift shop we stumbled onto a room that I had never seen it was full of ancient statues! I as stunned and amazed and oh so very happy. Connor found his favorite Auguste Rodin's The Thinker.

It was about 5pm and we were asked to leave by very nice friendly ubiquitous guards.

We then walked through the National Gallery Sculpture Garden which I had never seen before and was very impressed. There was a sculpture of a house that was an optical illusion that was just super cool.

Homesick

I have been homesick before. When I was only 16 and living in Germany I got incredibly homesick around Thanksgiving and I sucked it up and my time in Germany was wonderful. I have only fantastic memories of that experience. But now I am literally HOMEsick. I miss my HOME. I miss our house with our wonderful concrete floors that keep the house so nice and cool during the 100 degree summers, I miss the bare white walls that we never painted because we couldn't agree (actually Matt likes the white and I hate it but that's another post), I miss the deer eating all of my plants, I miss the absolute quiet on a summer evening only broken up by the sound of crickets and birds. I even miss the rattlesnakes and scorpions that I always end up having to kill if Matt's not around because while Connor is a spider killer he hasn't quite mastered the art of killing a fast moving scorpion and there's no way I am letting them close enough to kill a rattlesnake. Madeline runs screaming like the true drama queen that she is at the mere mention of a creepy crawly.....

I miss having MY stuff around me, having MY stove to cook on, having MY washer and dryer to to laundry in, and having MY bed to sleep in, I miss being able to let the kids go outside and play and not having to worry about who is around because there wasn't anyone around. I miss letting Madeline ride her bike up and down the driveway, I miss hearing Connor play with his cars in his bedroom at night before he fell asleep.

If I had MY house here in AL this experience would be much different. If we had rented a house instead of an apartment maybe this would be better too. I don't know, all I know is while sitting here in this cigarette smelling apartment listening to the neighbors talk while they are out on their patios drinking and smoking, is that I miss California and I miss my HOME.

I was told once that HOME is where all of your stuff is, and I thought I would be fine with just the bare essentials of my HOME. What do you know she was right HOME is where my family and my stuff is, and so I am here in AL only half of a home. Granted the important part of HOME is here, my husband and kids are here, but man I miss my STUFF!