eternally chaotic

We had a great time this past weekend spending some time cooling off at the Duluth Town Center Fountain.  The Sun was blisteringly hot and the air might as well have been dripping water, but the water coming from the fountain was refreshing and cool.  We grabbed some Chick-Fil-A along the way, ate on the curb, and headed in.  Once they all got used to the water they had a great time.  Isaac didn’t need any warming up and was racing in circles as fast as he could swallow his chicken and fries.  Piper was on his tail but needed her hand held for the first few minutes – that was until she got wet and started play.  Violet needed a bit more prodding and she wasn’t having anything to do with me taking her through.  Carol grabbed them all took them on a few laps to get them all good and soaked – that’s all it took to get Violet all revved up as well.

Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday dear Isaac,
happy birthday to you!

It might a few months late getting online but that makes it no less of an event.  In November, for the first and last time, Isaac turned seven.  We planned a dinner out with family and friends as well as a party at the house so we could celebrate properly with cake and presents.  We gave Isaac the choice of where he wanted to have his birthday dinner and thankfully he chose the Olive Garden – a fantastic and much yummier choice over the more usual kiddie venues such as Chucky Cheese or Monkey Joes.  We will still eventually go to one of the others but instead of being the focus of a birthday party, we can just go and have a great time playing games or jumping around.

Dinner was fantastic.  With such a large group I didn’t know what to expect but the OG had everything organized.  They even put us in a sectioned off part of the restaurant near another large family party so we could be as loud as we wanted.  After dinner we all headed back to the house to serenade the birthday boy and eat cake.

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A special treat this weekend.  Stone Mountain Park was hosting the 10th annual Indian Festival and Pow-Wow.  An interesting assortment of Indian cultures and traditions.  Right inside the gate we walked into a show getting ready to start called “East vs. West”.  Two Indians, one from the eastern tribes and one from the western Sioux tribes, compared and contrasted the lifestyles and traditions of their ancestors.  Seems the eastern Indians were more civilized, happy to barter and trade to make life easier, while the western ones, the Sioux in particular, raided and pillaged to get what they wanted, or to advance their lifestyle.  I am sure this is a gross over exaggeration about the differences but it was neat to hear what they had to say and see the difference in the everyday tools used by each.

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With a high level of excitement and glee, Jacob and Isaac, got to go shopping.  They each received a gift card from their Grandma Donna.  We gave them the option of saving it for later, surprisingly an option they have taken in the past, or using it now.  They opted for the latter so we headed out toy shopping.  With a figure in their head, limiting how much they could spend, they rummaged through the toys at Walmart for thirty minutes.  The decision was complex of course.  The selection had to be just right.  Had to feel perfect.  Jacob went patiently from one item to the next, meticulously inspecting its value, Nerf Swords, to G.I. Joe, to H.A.L.O to Lego.  He finally settled on a pair of Lego sets that complimented each other.  Isaac on the other hand created a moderate sized collection of his choices in the middle of an isle (wish I would have taken a picture) and mulled over the ultimate choice.  Back and forth went the decision with the price climbing in to the hundreds of dollars and then back down into teens.  With twenty-five dollars to spend it was a hard choice: does he get one larger toy that is “cool” or get a few smaller ones that offer more opportunity for play.  At the end, with the clock ticking, he panicked and left his gathered assortment of mix matched items and narrowed his focus between Lego and a selection of Star Wars characters.  Opting for the Star Wars route after some counseling from his clock watching oppressors.

Thank you Grandma Donna.  Jacob and Isaac had a great time getting to shop for their gifts.

Today marked the first day Jacob and Isaac rode the bus into school.  For various reasons it has worked out better in the past to drop them off on my way into work – reasons such as getting to sleep later…and…well sleeping later.  They have however been coming home on the bus for quite a while now and without fear of being run over by the very vehicle that drops them off and is supposed to keep them safe.  Working with the Gwinnett County School System worked out pretty well once the issue was escalated to someone that actually gave a damn…I mean cared.  We found out that there was a bus stop diagonally across the street from our house that the bus should have been stopping at for both pick-up and drop-off.  For whatever reason the stop had been removed from the paperwork that both the particular school and driver use.  So in defense of the driver, she wasn’t even aware there was a stop near us and was just doing her job.

I am glad this is taken care of.  With one car and four of our six going in different directions, all between 7:30 and 8:30, our mornings are hectic to say the least.  My one complaint is that I think the situation could have been resolved much quicker than it was.  It took nearly three weeks of working (or lack thereof) with the local transportation superintendent to realize that he didn’t care about what we needed or had to say – safety related or not – we were just another pair of complaining parent.  Realizing this and believing that we were being ignored we wrote a letter to the county commissioner at the recommendation of Carol’s dad and friend Heidi.  They both work for school systems and had some good advice on how to get the appropriate level of attention.  Once the letter was complete, proof read a dozen times, we stopped before sending it and called another person up the management chain for the transportation department.  She listened to what we had to say, asked for a copy of the letter we were going to mail (I mentioned it to her), and a few phone calls and two days later the problem was resolved.  Thanks Patty !!!

It has been raining for the past week in Atlanta.  Literally.  Mainly just on and off sprinkling followed by a short downpour followed by mugginess, wash, rinse, repeat.  Over the weekend however heavy rain came down continuously causing flooding in most of the area.  We woke up this morning to hear about school and road closures around the whole Atlanta area.  Gwinnett County schools of course were only on delay which later changed to a closure as well.  The flooding has been pretty severe closing surface streets and interstate junctions like “Spaghetti Junction” causing significant traffic problems all around town.  The news said a few schools were flooded as well but we didn’t hear about any in our area that were affected other than just being shutdown – likely due to transportation issues more so than flooding.

Looks like the kids will get to stay home and play for another day.  Isaac was concerned though that school was “closed forever”…oddly that upset him (maybe we should check his temperature).  I don’t think we will hear the same complaint from Jacob he has been at home sick for the past few days missing much of school last week and was non to excited to go back today.  Piper still gets to go to pre-school which stays open regardless and Violet is already at school when she wakes up.

Our school system, Berkeley Lake Elementary, offers a program that lets the students earn a pass to Six Flags Over Georgia if they participate in a reading program that spans the school year.  Since both boys did well last school year and read some or all of a book, about 20 minutes a night, each night of the week, they received a pass to the park.  Before school started again for the 2009-2010 year we took them and had a blast.  They rode nearly all of the rides in the kiddie park and went crazy when we headed to the water slides.  Carol didn’t come into the water but the boys and I did.  Isaac and I went straight to the top to take the longest and fastest slide down.  The lines were short, the water was cool and the day was warm – a perfect combination for roller coasters and water slides.  We convinced Jacob to ride  “Thunder River” with promises that it was “slow” and you were “likely” to not get “very” wet.  He was nervous but rode anyway and had a blast, despite he and Carol getting hit by every waterfall, tidal wave and water gun on the ride.  Isaac surprised us both when he asked to ride one of the bigger swing rides that lift high off the ground and spin you in circles – he rode with his hands up most of the time.

School started this week and with it so did the early morning routine.  Up at 6:15 – well at least the alarm clock is awake at that time and the snooze button gets a good workout – the boys get dressed, eat and watch Quest on and off while waiting on the bus.  That is how it is supposed to go at least.

This week, again the first week of school, there has been some confusion about what exactly defines a “Bus Stop”.  According to the school transportation folks it is a place where the bus stops in the morning and in the afternoon to pickup and drop off precious packages.  It is an exact, literal spot that you should be able to walk to and point at.  Someplace where you can stand and wait for the bus to come.

Our bus driver didn’t get that memo.  (more…)