Get thee to the City
After a busy weekend, the last thing Mark wanted to do on Monday was to go to the City. But it was beautiful weather! And I knew we would have a great time! Last year's memorial day adventure led us to the tram to R. Island. We loved it.
This year we found something even better. Mark consulted a guide about cool things to do with kids in NYC. We found Battery Park City Park off of the West Side Highway. A sculpture garden! An amazing playground! Great views of the Statue and Ellis Island! Lots of things to see that little boys who love transportation would love...water taxis, boats (even a tall ship or two--my favorite), helicopters. A picnic lunch by a waterfall! Gelato! A long walk! The only negative--no street parking.
It was a wonderful afternoon. Thanks Mark!
Do something good for yourself!
Mark's coworker introduced us to Catalog Choice. It's a website that lets you opt out of receiving catalogs.
Today (the day before recycling day), I took out my stack of catalogs I stashed away and in about 10 minutes, my name was removed from 11 catalogs! I was surprised I even had 2 of the same catalog in my stash that I had been collecting for a month. The reason you need to create a stash is because it's much easier if you have your customer number and source code from the catalog. It was super easier and felt great.
I also can be a time waster with catalogs...I'd rather sit down with a book, a magazine or a kids' book (or the scriptures or conference talks, etc.) So, 2 problems solved at once.
Here's the website: http://www.catalogchoice.org/
Oh one company wasn't listed in their search engine. So, I emailed their customer service and said please remove my name and within a few minutes got an email back saying they would. Yeah!
In no particular order
I lost my calendar. And I felt lost. I think it might have gotten thrown out with the recycling. Long story. But it was horrifying because I had written in everything until the last day of school so I could recycle all the papers I no longer wanted to hang on to. So, if I don't show up to something, it wasn't because I didn't want to be there. I can't remember anything without writing it down.
I did finally get a new calendar. I printed out some blank sheets, but it wasn't working for me. Thank you Target--you still had some 2008 calendars left. So, I am back in business as of today. The calendar also serves as a little journal of what we've done through the week and I've kept all my calendars for the last few years. Ask me what we did any day from 2000 on and I can tell you (after looking it up). Luckily the one I lost I was only using since January.
Mother's Day was fantastic. The kids brought home all sorts of fun cards and projects. I had a nap! I bought some new capris! Thank you Mark and kids for making me feel so special.
We went to see a Jazz Ensemble from a famous music school perform at our school. They asked for a volunteer to improvise with this 5 piece band. Josh was chosen and played piano with the band for about 5 minutes. It was awesome. They ended with "When the Saints Go Marching In." I said, josh, don't you know how to play this on the piano? And he said, yes and the trumpet too. I told the teacher that organizes these evening programs that I am her groupie. I will come to whatever she puts on, they are so well done!
I love May
What a glorious start to a month. First, on the first, we celebrated Samuel's second birthday! He's 2 and a delight in every way.
This week we have a dance recital! We have more of Josh's baseball games! The Yankees are swinging their bats! We have a piano recital (with a specially composed duet for Josh and Caroline...yeah!) We are waiting for some dear friends' babies to be born so we can go shopping for baby gifts! We are going to plant all kinds of white, pink and purple impatients (but I am a little freaked out about the chance of a frost so we will wait until mid-May to do that). We have some more new episodes of Lost to look forward to. We are celebrating our fantastic moms and grandmas. Mark is taking the boys camping. We are going to hang up more pictures! We are going to be outside as much as we can. We are going to get rid of the moss growing in our driveway. I am going to learn how to use a grill!
