New house, old house

Annabelle and I took a tour of a couple of empty houses on post this morning to get an idea of what our choices will be like come this summer. Basically, the big choice is new vs. old. New is . . . well, new of course. But they are also smaller--about 2100 square feet as opposed to 3,000 and up in the older homes. On the other hand, they come equipped with fenced-in backyards (I'm lookin' at YOU, Ginger!). The old homes are amazing--each one has its little quirks and differences, which adds to the charm. Of course, some of them also--don't laugh--have ghosts. Stop laughing!

Here is the new housing we toured:



And here is one of the historical homes:



Feel free to post thoughts or opinions!

Big car, little car

Speaking of cute little things, Annabelle and I found the most amazing coffee shop today. I'll have to get a picture of it later to show you.

Driving through St. Louis, Louis

Greetings from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas! We had an uneventful drive over yesterday. Google Maps tried to send us around St. Louis, but I figured driving through on a Sunday afternoon couldn't be too bad. I was right. As we approached the arch, Annabelle snapped a picture:

Spring break 2010--at the airport

As I type this, Mike is somewhere in the air between Chicago and Munich. In another 14 hours or so, he'll be in Greece. He is going with a small group of friends from school (yeah, all girls):



He texted me from Chicago to say that he was the only one of his group to get upgraded to Economy Plus for the international flight, thus netting himself an extra 5 inches of legroom. If you check out this picture of him standing behind his fellow travelers (the girls plus 2 moms plus the tour leader), you can see why he is the one in most dire need of extra legroom:



Just before the gang went through security, Ashley, Anna, and Mike modeled their spiffy new backpacks that the tour company provided:



I don't know how much I'll be hearing from him this week, but I'll keep you posted.

How to change the sheets

If you want to attract every animal in my house, try putting fresh sheets on the bed. They all come running, eager to "help":

Still here

Sorry I've been so quiet lately. I'm into the last 4 weeks of the semester, when everything seems to come crashing down, so mostly I'm focusing on schoolwork. In fact, yesterday I canceled my weekly Pilates class until the semester is over and skipped out on a coffee I had planned on going to. That freed up some extra time for taking care of stuff on the never-ending to-do list.

The kids' spring break starts this weekend. Mike leaves tomorrow with several of his classmates for a tour of Athens and Rome (and I don't mean the ones in Georgia). I'm jealous, as I adore Rome and have never been to Greece (aside from the 4 hours I spent on Patros between ferry trips back in college). I hope he has fun!

Annabelle and I are driving out to Kansas on Sunday to check out Fort Leavenworth. I figure we'll spend Monday looking around on post and Tuesday checking out the high school. Then we'll drive back here on Wednesday. On Thursday, Annabelle is having her wisdom teeth out and having a procedure (called an "exposure") done that will allow her orthodontist to encourage her reluctant eye tooth to grow in already. Not quite as fun as a trip to Rome and Greece, but she is really looking forward to having all her teeth for her sophomore picture next year.

Rave review

The show was great! I was so proud of Annabelle--she really brought the funny tonight. I wasn't the only one who thought so either. She got a lot of laughs and applause from the audience at large. Here are a few pictures I took at the meet-n-greet after the play:

"We're All in this Together"

Annabelle's time has been consumed this week by the production of High School Musical that her musical theater class is putting on: a 4.5-hour dress rehearsal on Tuesday night and then 5 school shows spread over 3 days. Tonight is the one public performance, and I'm excited about seeing it. Annabelle plays student-pianist "Kelsi," composer of the musical that is the focus of the show.

I went to dress rehearsal and came away impressed as always at what a group of motivated kids (and a VERY motivated teacher) can do. Here are a few pics I snapped Tuesday night:







I also took a brief video clip. They were working out some issues with the microphones, but you can get an idea of the scale of the production:

Go, Noles!

Tonight was the night that FSU released admissions decisions for next fall. Mike is in! I think this is going to be the one. It has been a hard decision for him, because he has seen so many really amazing schools, each with something great to offer. There's a feeling at FSU though that makes it stand out. On both of our visits, things have just clicked. People have gone out of their way to be nice and helpful.



Speaking of Mike and school, this is a good time to share his senior picture, which we got just a couple weeks ago:



I can't believe he's really getting ready to leave for college!

Springing forward

OK, so maybe "springing" isn't an accurate description of what I'm doing. I sure could use the hour I lost this weekend, but I'm so happy to be back in Daylight Savings Time.

I'm getting ready for the final push of the semester with my classes. This is going to mean 2 fairly heavy-duty group projects plus keeping up with the regular readings and such. I registered this morning for fall. I'm just going to take one class (Metadata), as I figure I'll be busy enough just trying to get us settled into our new home in Kansas.

Oh, speaking of school! I got invited to join the honor society Phi Kappa Phi. My dad is also a member, which I guess means he and I are going to be brothers. I'm still trying to figure out if this makes me my own grandpa or not.

Spring fever

I hesitate to say anything, lest I should jinx it, but I think winter might be on its way out. I know we've still got some chilly days ahead of us, but tonight Annabelle and I walked the dog at around 6:30--it was still light out, and I wore sandals. Just a few weeks ago, it would have been pitch black at that hour, and I'd have likely been wearing snow boots.

The warmer weather definitely improves my mood and gives me more energy. I even made it to spinning class twice this week!

Spring fever might also explain why I have found myself so bored and frustrated with my hair the past few days. It just felt old and tired, and I wanted something NEW! So I took myself up to Louisville this afternoon and came home with a wash-and-wear 'do that's several inches shorter and feels several pounds lighter:



I'm ready for spring!

Another swim season gone

We had our swim banquet tonight. Swim season has really been a driving force in our family life for the past 4 years--seems we're always in the middle of the season or gearing up for the next one.

Here's this year's team posing for one last group shot underneath our spiffy new banner:



And Mike acting silly with his spirit scarf:



Mike's still not certain where he'll go to school next year, but one thing he does know--he wants to make a weekend trip back to Kentucky next February to cheer the Eagles on at Regionals!

I have some cool swim photos that the photographer from the post newspaper shared with us, and I'll try to get those uploaded tomorrow.

College pictures

Mike and I spent last week traveling 2049 miles to check out 3 colleges. We got back last night, and I have been settling back into everyday life since then. I need to get back into blogging, but it just seems overwhelming when there's such a backlog of details to report. So I'm just going to jump back in by posting the pictures I took on our tours.

Monday was Auburn:



Tuesday was FSU:



And Wednesday was UCF:



We had a great trip, but I sure missed Annabelle. She and I have been making up for lost time. This afternoon we went shopping and then attended a performance of the University of Louisville symphony orchestra featuring Annabelle's bassoon teacher on the piano, playing a Rachmaninoff concerto. Now we're watching the Oscars. Check out Annabelle's predictions on her blog!