North Carolina Weekend

We're in the mountains with friends this weekend. I forgot to take photos most of today, but here's a couple of shots from this evening.







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$60 and 2 Hours

What can you do with $60 and 2 hours? Here's what I did on Saturday afternoon. I made 9 one-dish meals for my family.

That's just over 13 minutes per meal (take that Rachel Ray!) and less than $7 per meal (and it would have been less if I hadn't bought happy, organic chicken).

I did three different chicken dishes: maple-thyme with sweet potatoes and vidalia onion, lemon/garlic with green beans and potatoes, and Dijon-rosemary with zucchini, carrots and potatoes. They are all prepped and frozen, ready to go straight in the oven after work.

I've also been stocking away other things, like homemade bread, a batch of Aarti's Sloppy Bombay Joes, my pulled pork, a few smoked pork tenderloins that my parents gave us and a fair amount of Trader Joes frozen delights. I find it especially helpful to have the protein taken care of so I only have to worry about playing with our CSA veggies (or doing nothing at all!) on a school night. All part of my plan to get ahead of the game before I start my new job. I certainly won't stay ahead, but this should help some!

Arkansas Trip - Waffles!

I think that Carter's favorite things about visiting my parents house are:

1. There is a grown-up already awake when he gets up
2. That grown-up can be counted on to make REAL waffles, from scratch
3. He gets to help work the waffle making machinery

This is a vast improvement over fending for himself to get frozen waffles at our house (which he often EATS frozen -- by his choice/at his insistence).

Here are the waffle-makers at work!

Arkansas Trip - Riverfront Park

On Sunday, while Mom worked and the men played golf, Carter and I took a trip to Little Rock. After lunch with Mimi, we met up with Jyll and Caleb to play. We went to the playground on the riverfront, which is now one of my favorite playgrounds of all time. It has lots of tunnels built into the ground, and lots of places for kids to climb. It's a bit difficult to keep up with your kid, since you can't always predict where he'll pop up, but otherwise, it's a great play area.

Arkansas Trip - Magic Springs

We spent last Saturday at Magic Springs. Carter enjoyed the amusement park as much as he did last fall, and this time he even loved the pirate ship. This time, the water park was also open. We'd been promising to take Carter to a water park when he became a better swimmer. While he's not 100% there yet, he's had HUGE improvements over the last month, so we were so happy to get to take him. He had a good time, but the cooler weather and his lack of body fat made for a chilly time!

Arkansas Trip - Day on the Lake

We had a terrific long weekend in Arkansas with my parents. Here are some shots from our first full day, spent on the lake in Hot Springs Village. It was surprisingly cool and windy, which would have been nicer, had we not planned entirely for activities designed to keep us cool.

Kayaking in the morning 

Thomas armed with water squirters

On the boat in the afternoon

T attempting to water ski

And... failing.

Okay, Kimbros

We don't have enough kids to call your raise. But we do think this constitutes another raise to you...

After 5 at our House

This picture shows you a little glimpse into a typical late afternoon at the Fowlkes abode.

Thomas, doing his One Hundred Push-ups daily workout.

Carter, naked. (Naked is his favorite state this summer, though he prefers to be naked with friends).

Thomas and Carter, horsing around together.

Me, I'm in the kitchen, cooking dinner. At least, until I'm summoned to capture the hilarity. But just before that, Carter and I were doing some yoga together, too.

Also, Thomas would like it to be stated, for the record, that he'd already done over 60 push-ups before this was taken (60 Carter-free push-ups).

Déjà vu

Seems like I've already done this... oh, right. That's because I have, a mere 6 months ago.

What am I doing? I'm packing up my office and winding down my job. At the end of next month, I'll be starting a new job with Boys & Girls Clubs of America in their national office which is located in... wait for it... Atlanta! I'll be getting dressed and going into an office every day. It's kind of blowing my mind. I will still be traveling some, but being based in a local office should be (fingers-crossed) a very nice development.

What will I be doing at BGCA? I'll be developing and implementing their outcome measurement strategy. And going into an office, and drinking coffee, and interacting with live human beings. Weird.

What am I doing in the meantime? I'll be taking some MUCH needed time off. Organizing, cooking, re-familarizing myself with my husband and son and our day-to-day household operations. I'll be doing yoga, replenishing my everyday office wardrobe, reading books, and generally lazing about (she says, knowing full well that she's really bad at that).

If you have any suggestions for TV/movies I should watch during the next few weeks as I attempt to "laze about" please let me know!

Carter's First Bike Wreck

The good news is everyone is OK. DO NOT WORRY.

After school, Carter wanted to go to the playground "by the house" so we hopped on the bike with trail-a-bike and took the back road and had a great bit of pretend play at the playground. Mostly it involed us going to get ice cream, and Carter was the ice cream man in his shop.
"I know what you want, dada, because I'm the ice cream man." Who knew all I needed was an ice cream man to tell what I really want....

Apparently, however, what I wanted was strawberry cake and I ate it all in one bite and didn't share. After getting a second, smaller cake for Carter from the ice cream man (because "my mouth is small so I can't eat a big cake") we drove it home "CAREFULLY" in our car below.

At various points in the adventure there was a pizza man, an ice cream truck, some boxes, a house, and a car shop where I received several free cars (all new cars, of course). Suffice it to say, we had a great adventure and even managed to get in some good swinging as well.

Finally we headed home on the bike and all was well (though the hills are really hard with an extra 70ish pound trailing behind-Carter plus the all steel trail-a-bike). We pushed up the final hill and pull into the driveway. Just as we turn, one of the cars stopped at the light by our house says hi and we realize it is a friend of ours who has a daughter that is a good friend of Carter's. Well, I looked over my left shoulder to say hi, having just unclipped my right foot from the pedal. Suffice it to say my weight went left, so did the bike, trail-a-bike, me, and Carter, while my left foot stayed safely and uselessly clipped into the pedal. All, right in our driveway, right in front of our friend and all the other traffic at the stop light. Carter hopped right up, helmet on, not a scrape to be seen. I hobbled up, helmet on, feeling more stupid than usual, but no scrapes either. Thankfully, our friend will likely tell his wife what happened, who will tell her good friend Elizabeth, so I won't have to break the news to her!

Carter didn't even seem to realize anything strange had happened, so I am confident he won't mind getting back on the bike with me!