It's Day of the Groundhog

Meet Chuck. He's the woodchuck that lives somewhere in our neighborhood. He likes to come into our backyard and eat the dandelions and frolic in the grass that desperately needs to be mowed (it grows, literally, about an inch a day up here).

I'd heard that woodchucks and groundhogs are different names for the same beast and Chuck does look a bit like Punxatawney Phil.

So if the dandelions, high grass, green leaves, flowers and my flaring allergies weren't enough to tell me that it's spring up here in A-Squared than Chuck's presence just confirms it. I mean, if it were still winter, wouldn't he be asleep??

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Happy Quatro de Mayo

We just got back from a pre-Cinco de Mayo party at Steve and Christy's. Some of their friends from Atlanta were in town and it was so nice to be able to sit outside (no mosquitos), grill out (no humidity) and watch the kids run around until almost 9 p.m. (no early sunset up here).

Zack bought some packing tape today so I guess it's official: I need to get to work on this place. I feel OK about it, partly because I'm excited to get into the new house, get back into the groove down there. I will miss so much about being here but I think we take the best parts with us, you know? Plus, I look forward to bringing the kids back up here when they are a bit older and seeing how much they remember.

Here's a photo of the house...inspection went well, we've got a mortgage rate locked so I'm hopeful all is a go for a June 6 closing.

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Home Sweet Home

I have this "trapped between worlds" feeling that I get when life is in transition. Like last year when we were ready to move up here, the house sold and packed up, all of us living out of suitcases yet still living in Memphis. It was like slamming the brakes on a tremendous amount of forward momentum.

Now I feel sorta the same way. I need to be packing but Zack has been in Memphis this week so you can imagine how much "work" I feel like doing after my day of "work." I'm really trying to enjoy our last few weeks up here, to let the kids play as much with their friends and continue in their A2 routine for as long as possible. I do feel for them that we are uprooting them from a settled life and plunking them back down in a routine they may not remember, the baby in particular.

Plus I have that feeling because we finally had a house offer go to the point of acceptance! We are very excited and, I must admit, a bit anxious. It has been nice being renters for a year, not worrying about major house maintenance or feeling the pressure to constantly improve. I think I've been to Lowe's twice since we've been here, if that puts it into perspective for you.

We are moving out of Midtown after a lot of thought and a lot of discussion. We both love the area (Zack does more than I do but he's open for something new) but it was hard to find the right house in our price range. If we were willing to spend a lot more or a lot less we would have been OK. So we made the decision to focus our efforts in East Memphis or Germantown, both areas in which you can get a lot of house for the money. The house we have the contract on is very close to where my parents used to live on both of their tours of Memphis...just east of Kirby, north of Poplar. It's a lot more space than we had on South Watkins and gives us room to grow, as they say. (That being said, we don't plan on adding to the family; just watching the ones we have "grow!") Other than sweat equity, it really doesn't need fixing up...just updating. But it is well cared for and the couple selling it are downsizing after 24 years in it and raising three boys. The commute will be different for both of us but I think all of the positives outweigh the negatives. And who knows: That dream job of Zack's may pop up in the next few years.

I had my parent/teacher conference today with IEM's teacher. I was about to cry by the end, she was so genuine in her affection for IEM, describing how much he loves to learn, what he's good at, how he's a friend to so many and how much they are going to miss him next year. He has grown and thrived so much in the Montessori environment. After the few bumps in the road, he has really found his groove there and loves going to school. I hope it continues.

Well, this may be the last post for some time. We are planning on leaving A2 by the end of May so I do need to get cracking at night on those boxes and this cleaning. Donated a bunch of infant/toddler toys to the ladies at the Y's ChildWatch. Donating another bag of kids' clothes to Purple Heart tomorrow. Need to start putting up the heavy winter stuff. Zack took a bunch of clothes and coats with him to Memphis so that's a little less to ship. We'll get it all done.

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Finis

Sniff.

I can't believe the official portion of the KWF is officially over and done.

We had the "graduation" ceremony and party yesterday afternoon..although Zack stated (and I concur) that when they had to turn in their Wallace House keys, the Fellows felt like it was more of an "eviction" than a "commencement."

It has been a very busy two weeks here in A2 and beyond. We went home to Memphis over Easter weekend. It was the kids' first airplane trip and all went incredibly smoothly. When we got back to Detroit, safe and sound and without delay, I commented immediately to Zack that it was totally worth the money to not have spent four days in the car. We looked at a lot of houses, then relooked at some, then put an offer in on one. I thought that it was going to go through and it would have but at the last second some put in a higher bid so they rejected ours. I was more bummed than I thought I was going to be. Now we have two other houses (one in East Memphis, one just over the border in Germantown) that have the same number of rooms and the same asking price. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, as do all houses. So we're going to put together bids and then submit one. Again, it's been very busy these past two weeks...and also a bit stressful. I hate househunting.

Back here in A2, things are beginning to really wind down. I start packing next week. (I'd start this week but we've got too much going on...pizza night here for 20+ people, Zack's gone Saturday night and we've got a KWF unofficial function Sunday).

This past Sunday, we had our last brunch at Wallace House. Then we all went and painted The Rock. The Rock is, well, a big boulder that sits in the intersection of Washtenaw Avenue and Hill Street. It's an A2 tradition to paint it to commemorate whatever. So we decided to paint it white and then put a black "-30-" on it which is the traditional wire service symbol for "End of Story." You can imagine how much fun the kids had. We'll let the photo of IEM speak for itself.

So anyway last night was graduation. There were speeches, there were tears and there was a lot of laughter. Christy spearheaded making a movie about our class which was hilarious. Then there was a dinner, followed by a DJ and dancing at Wallace House. Then there was Richard Lister on the dancefloor. I don't think a room full of journalists could accurately depict those dance moves. Zack and I packed it in at 1-something; I think the party went on 'til almost 4.

I know that you don't know any of these people but if you want to see a slideshow of the year, go to my friend Taos' website...it should load automatically.

www.taosturner.com

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Runny noses

We've been plagued with the late winter/early spring bad cold. First EPM, then IEM, then EPM again, now me. Guess we'll wait and see when Zack gets it.

We've also been plagued with the weepies about having to leave here. Well, at least I've been afflicted. I don't remember being this sad when I was about to graduate from college...a much bigger transition for certain

So I don't really have that much to post. We are all flying down to Memphis this weekend to househunt. I hope we find something; the market is pretty slim right now.

Then only one more week of official Fellowshipping until the graduation on April 17th. Most everyone is staying in A2 at least through May but I know that it won't be the same once the Wallace House keys are officially turned in.

This weekend is interview weekend up at Wallace House. It seems like just yesterday that Zack flew up here and we all came down with the stomach bug.

The photos are from the other day. I love the one of EPM and IEM holding hands. They do that all of the time, completely unprompted. The other is of IEM and his little friend in our neighborhood.

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I'm Number 779!!!!

Out of more than 3 million NCAA brackets entered on espn.com!!!!

I have 14 of the Sweet 16 and am leading the Wallace House pool.

The secrets to my success? Don't pay one bit of attention to the college basketball season and don't listen to Zack (haha). Also, filling out a bracket at midnight helps, too. Hey, I might win $10,000 through espn.com so stay tuned!

A quick update...EPM fell two weekends ago and bit a huge chomp into her tongue that requrired an emergency room visit (her inaugural one). It's healing OK but she then caught a febrile virus and was sick all last week.

On Thursday, I flew down to The Ham to surprise my mom on her 60th birthday. I really do believe that she was surprised and we had a great weekend. There was a lunch for her on Friday and I got to spend the day out with her and my sister on Saturday before flying back to Detroit early yesterday.

We are busy planning our trip down to Memphis in a few weeks. Looks like all of us are going to fly down for four days so that Zack will be with me when we househunt. Hope that more comes on the market because it looks pretty grim right now.

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It's almost 'that' time

Yes, time for us to think about leaving A-Squared. I get sad just even thinking about thinking about it so I'm going to stop.

And, yes, the blog is still active (thanks for the concerned emails). Last week was just a bit "off" due to Zack being on spring break, both of us trying to live back in this timezone and the kids being the kids. Much more normal week this week.

I hate to think about leaving (here I go again) but I did start thinking the other day about all the amazing stuff we've crammed in to this short time. I think the best lesson of all is to live more and live better...it's OK to tell myself that the laundry can wait another few hours and to head to the park. Or that the kids won't hate me someday for feeding them reheated leftovers for the third time so that we can go on a long hike as a family. Of course, I wish that I could do everything and still come home to a pristine house, made beds everyday and a playroom that looked like something out of Pottery Barn Kids but oh well.

So in case you think that this year has been nothing but trips to Trader Joe's and the Y, think again...

We've been to Michigan hockey and football games. We've hiked through The Arb. We've seen snow in October and now into March but we also saw 50+ degree days in January. We've picked apples at least twice and pumpkins once. We've frequented the Farmers Market and eaten quarts of freshly picked raspberries. We've picked pears off of our neighbors' tree and eaten them, raw and cooked.

We saw Jeremy and Amy and little Z on the way up to A2. We've visited Lake Champlain, Walloon Lake, Torch Lake and Lake Michigan. We've been to Petoskey, Boyne Valley, Torch Lake, Traverse City. We've driven to Toronto and ridden the subways and gone up the CN Tower. I went to Chicago with my girlfriends from high school. Breen and Jeanie came up to see us, as did Mimi and Pop. We went to Birmingham and Memphis over Christmas break.

Zack and I have been to Buenos Aires and its environs. We've been to Amsterdam, Istanbul and Ankara. We've eaten more beef than I care to mention and also more celery root (a favorite side dish in Turkey).

We've seen The Royal Shakespeare Company (twice for me), heard the entire score of Handel's "Messiah," seen John Prine live (as well as several other awesome acts at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival), sat front row for the Joshua Bell concert. And how could we forget the Michigan Men's Glee Club.

We've been to more parks in Ann Arbor, including our beloved Maryfield Wildwood Park just at the end of our block. We've been sledding in Vets Park, in the woods by our park and in our backyard. The kids went to their first official Halloween party and IEM was completely into trick-or-treating. We camped out with Jason and Jenny and kids when the power went out. We've watched a hawk in our backyard and smelled skunk outside. IEM found a mouse (deceased) in the basement and brought it upstairs for Mimi. Sawyer has window fights with the cat next door.

EPM learned to walk up here and to jabber and to talk. IEM graduated from his first two-wheeler to his second, turned four, started Montessori and walked across the street to the neighbor's house, only allowing me to watch from the curb. They've made their first border-crossing. They've both made friends here...EPM in her Childwatch program at the Y, IEM at school, in the neighborhood and through Wallace House. Both kids love to swim...IEM swims underwater now with his goggles and the little one is almost fearless.

We've worked out more, eaten better food and failed at eliminating dessert. We've had more great meals at Wallace House than I can count: Italian, Turkish, English, Caribbean, Cuban, Korean, Japanese.

We've met Mike Wallace. And lots of other people. I hear that we're going to meet Alec Baldwin in a few weeks. (Have you watched "30 Rock?" I'm telling you, I was almost crying at last evening's episode. We don't watch it regularly but when we catch it, it is almost always funny.)

I have laughed harder than I have in years...so hard that you hurt and you want to cry. There are some truly hysterical people in Zack's program. We've gone bowling, gone drinking, gone eating. I hope we've both made some lifelong friends in the program and in our neighborhood.

And Zack, I'm sure, could write an entire blog on what he's learned this year.

And lastly one thing that I've known for the past four something years but I've reinforced: When the kids are napping, get some rest. EPM's snoozing and IEM is a playdate so I'm outta here.

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