ShooFlyPieAndGrits

It's not 101% ready, but Shoofly Mama has moved. Ok, so you knew that already, but so has her blog! Come visit the NEW Shooflypie and Grits! I think you'll like it. It's a work in progress, but it's getting better every day...

~Shoofly Mama

It's true...when I have good news, I want to share. And today, the sweet ladies at Home Ec 101 are sponsoring at GIVE-AWAY! Check it out if you want to see what they have to offer.

~Shoofly Mama

Fort Mill, SC

We gave Topher a new sweater for his birthday. If you know Topher, he LOVES new clothing. He usually puts it right on, and wants to wear it immediately. (Or either he pulls it out of the gift bag, throws it on the floor, says, "Gymboree, Gymboree, Gymbore...where are my TOYS?" It's not that he's not appreciative, but in his defense, clothing are not quite a novelty in this house!) Anyway, poor boy is blessed with my short arms. He put his new sweater on, and it fit everywhere but the arms. He wanted to wear it with the flopping around, and I said, "OK, but in the future we'll need to roll them up." He looked at me and deadpan said, "Mama, we don't live in the future." Um, yah....ok.....

Katie is having some issues with cleaning her room. She can't seem to get the knack of taking the items off the dresser, desk and nightstand, dusting the furniture, and putting the items back on. We were having a discussion about it, and I printed out a checklist to better remind her to take the items OFF the furniture before she dusted. When I walked into her room the other day there was "pencil dust" still on the dresser. I asked if she had dusted the desk, and she replied, "Mama, the pencil eraser must have done that after I dusted!" So now I've got a possessed pencil eraser in Katie's room that I need to find and keep an eye on.

Now, for some of the things I've seen lately:

~Shoofly Mama

Ok, this is late. Real late. Like TWO WEEKS LATE! It's been a crazy busy two weeks, so cut me some slack, would you? I actually started typing it, saved it, and forgot that I hadn't posted it. So, please join me in wishing my little guy a Happy Belated Sixth Birthday. I've added more to it now that I'm just figuring out that I forgot to post it!!

Dear Topher,
Today is your sixth birthday. Six years ago I became your mama, and you became my boy. Thank you for being my boy, even when you get angry and wrinkle your nose at me and say, "I'm not your boy!" I love you so much, and you are such an amazing person. I love how you sit down with 500 pieces of plastic and create huge buildings and robots. I love how you can take a blank piece of paper and a marker and draw me a beautiful picture. I love when I sit next to you and you cuddle so far into me that I can feel your little heart beat.

I love you, my big boy. Happy birthday!!
(this is his pose before he blew the candle out so I could get a good picture!)

~Shoofly Mama

I totally needed a poll to tell me this!

You Are 100% A Child of the 80s

There's hardly a moment of the 80s that you missed out on. Was there ever a better decade? As if!

I can't believe I forgot to tell y'all about this. When we first moved, I was sad. I was down. I was a bit..maybe a lot...depressed. I would load the children in the car and we would go shopping for things for the house, and we found this awesome radio station, New Life 91.9. It seemed that no matther what I was going through that day, they played the song I needed to hear. I looked on their website one day for the name of a song, and I found a link to The Friend Of The Month. Hmmm, thought I. I filled out the form with honest answers, and a few weeks later I got an e-mail. Check it out!!!
August Friend of the Month

(Third photo courtesy of Jaime of Jaime Kesler Photography.)

Because of the "overcrowding" in the school district, my children ride the shuttle bus from their school to the school they SHOULD attend, then grab the neighborhood bus to come home. Well, unfortunately, nobody in the transportation department though, "Hmmm, since they build about 59 homes this year, maybe there will be more children and we should have more busses running that neighborhood." So, yesterday the bus was quite full, and today....they loaded half the children, ran the WHOLE route, went back to the school, picked up the rest, and ran the WHOLE route again.

Now, call me crazy, but that seems a bit odd. First, if so many children moved into the neighborhood over the summer to cause need for a second run, then:
A) Get a second bus and run it directly from the school that our children attend.
B) Split the children up into Run 1 and Run 2 and run half the route each time, not randomly load them and run the entire route each time, or
C) At least make sure that Kindergarteners are NOT put on the second run!

My children got up at 6:15 this morning. They went to school at 7:30. They left school at 2:15, which is a bit early, to catch the shuttle. They should have arrived home at 2:56. I finally hugged them at 3:47pm this afternoon. Thankfully the school was sympathetic when I frantically called wondering where my kindergartener and his "big" second grade sister was. But....seriously! Can someone in Dorchester County come up here and set them straight on how to run a bus system?

Oh, and it didn't help that I had been crying about all of the differences and changes most of the morning. Thankfully, Carl bought me a garage door opener today. Aaaah, a girl and her toys. Oh, and a Lands' End swimsuit on clearance at the softer side of Sears.

My babies have flown the coop. Well, not so much, really. They came back this afternoon, exhausted, but happy with their teachers and having met new friends. They are now enrolled in their new school (third one in as many years for poor Katie), and while this mama does not like change, they seem to like it there. Well, Topher doesn't know any better, but Katie says so far, so good. The morning came too early as I had to wake them and dress Topher, while Katie bounded out of bed and was dressed before I knew it. They both had a little nerves and neither ate a good breakfast, but they were ready to have some glamour shots taken before we hopped in the car:

We drove to the school, and just missed parking in the lot. We parked around back, and came in the door nearest to Topher's class, then backtracked to Katie's room first. Oddly enough, the children sit by the wall in the morning when they arrive until they go into the classroom together at 7:40. This made me sad as I have pictures of Katie by her desk every year. As we were waiting, HOMER, the Charlotte Knights mascot, came running down the hall. This caused the following reaction from my overly anxious baby-girl:

Once we calmed her down and her teacher took over, we walked Topher to his "hall". He was cool as a cucumber, giving us hugs and kisses and taking his spot on the floor. As calm as I was about leaving him for Kindergarten, not being able to go into his room and take pictures was the thing that had me in tears. Here is my little guy pondering his day:

The school had a little "Tears and Tissues Breakfast" for Kindergarten parents, so Carl and I stopped there for some coffee and to meet some other parents. We met another mom in our neighborhood at Meet the Teacher night, and I chatted with her at the pool last evening, and we got to know her better this morning. That was such a blessing, because she is about where we are with being emotionally drained, trying to find a church, and getting the children settled into the new school. Her husband was unable to come along this morning, but I can see us getting together with them soon.

We left and went out for breakfast at a cute little place called Jumpin' Java, and then went shopping for furniture for the family room. Our sofa is literally falling apart, being held together with a piece of board and I think I heard another crack the other day. It's 9 years old and has been through a lot of jumping and playing and bedrest twice, as well as two moves. We bought a great sofa and chair and some end tables and a cocktail ottoman today. YAY!!! Can't wait to get it on Saturday after it gets treated.

The children made it home safely after school on the bus. We wanted to pick them up, but Topher has been waiting patiently for 2 years at the bus stop and begged us to let him ride the bus today. It drops them 3 houses down at the corner. YAY! Not that our old bus stop was far, but can't get much more convenient that this.

I leave you with the scene at our house this afternoon. I can NOT remember the last time this happened...


*for those of you who think I'm not motherly for not missing my child at Kindergarten, I DID cry when he started 4 day preschool last year. He's getting ready to be six in 2 weeks, so I feel like last year was a bigger step for us. Also, the kid towers over just about everyone in his class. HOLY COW!

HGTV House Hunters featuring my friend and realtor Michele Reneau airs THIS SUNDAY, August 17, at 8pm and again at 12am. How amazing that she had the opportunity to film this and that it's FINALLY on. She actually filmed it before my hosue went on the market and got the call earlier this week that it would finally air this week. Set your DVR's and watch this show. Michele is one of Charleston's top selling realtors, and she is way cool, too. Don't forget to watch!!!

So we're in a drought in the SC Upstate. So bad that there is a even on Saturday and odd on Sunday watering and use of hose regiment in place. BUT, we went to Charleston this weekend, and we spend MONEY to get our car washed and cleaned inside and out. And today, it's raining one of those soaking rains. Don't worry, it's not like our "yard", and I use that term loosely, is even mud yet, but the car is beading up nicely.

So, you're welcome Charlotte and surrounding area. I'll do it again sometime.