Southern grocery stores

So many people say everywhere is the same now...stores are chains and all sell the same stuff,  the era of Wal-mart.  In many ways I would have to agree.  Down here there are the same stores at the mall, lots of the same chain restaurants, Targets, Wal-marts, etc.  Some of the grocery store chains are in many different areas of the country as well.  However, one thing I've noticed are some of the different food selections at the grocery store.  One thing- the flour section.  I know random, huh?  Growing up my mom always got the same kind of flour.  I even remember when they stopped making a certain kind of flour it was a very sad occurance.  Brand loyalty to the extreme.  What a random thing to have such brand loyalty to huh?  But the flour section here is huge- much bigger than the selections in Ohio- must be a Southern baking thing.  Another thing, they actually have Muscodine grapes at the grocery store here.  I can remember going to pick them growing up and loving to eat them.  Needless to say, I haven't had them in awhile.  At the grocery store today I saw them, they actually sell Muscodine grapes here in the grocery store.  To me those things that make each place different are fun and interesting... Flour and grapes :)

Our fan

Today we installed a ceiling fan in our living room.  And by "we" I mean Dave did most of the work and I assisted.  Our living room has a great high ceiling with exposed beams, but without a ceiling fan, man was it hot.  The AC was running all the time.  What made it a bit more difficult was that there was no light fixture there.  However, with the help of a swag unit (I know, really...) we were able to run the wire along the edge of the beam, down the side of the fireplace and plug it right into an outlet.  That will also mean that we can take the fan along with us when we eventually move.  YAY!

Cute pics of my other one...he's getting so big too!





Dave's preschool

As most of you know, my wonderful husband Dave is watching the kids while looking for work down here in Columbus...Dave really enjoys cooking, especially large chunks of meat.  I appreciate that he has encorporated meat and cooking into learning activities for Dean during the day.  I think they both had a blast.  We are really enjoying our backyard for grilling (as you might guess from the pictures), even though it's been pretty hot lately.  I promise to post pictures of the house soon, but as you can see in the background of one of these pictures there are still boxes (and I at least want to get all boxes put away before posting pictures).  Funny thing is our old daycare would take pictures like this to document learning.  They would post them online with little sentences like this...

In the area of language Dean is now able to follow 1 step directions and is developing the fine motor skill of twisting small objects. 

Dean is demonstrating the early math skill of measuring a given amount.

And of course who could end the post without a good ole baby picture...



Or two :)

My first week at work

So I have officially finished my first week at work. 
Cool things about work
1)  I make significantly more money than I did at my old job
2) While I have 3 schools instead of 2 I have about the same number of students and maybe a few less 3) My office rocks.  I had pretty much given up on ever having as cool of an office as I had at CE (view of our small pond and courtyard).  My office now, is on a row of offices with all the other psychologists.  The building is gorgeous and only two years old.  I share with one other person.  I have my own desk, my own bookcase, and the test library has every test I could ever want to give to a child. 
4) The other psychs I work with seem really great.  I've had lunch with several different groups of people this week who are all really nice (there are about 16 of us).  Once school starts most people have 1 office day a week (to actually get some paperwork done at work).
5) The central office where I work is called MCPEC.  One of the awesome people I work with stated "We call ourselves the McPeccers".  Sweet. 
Uncool things about work: 
1) Going to have to dress significantly nicer than in Lakota.  Doesn't look like people here are really into casual Fridays.  Or realizing "hey it's summer, wear whatever you want to".  Not So Much.  Because my office is at central office people take it up a notch. 
2) Seem to be lots of random rules.  For instance, you can snack in your office, but not eat lunch in it.  You cannot exit the side door.  You have to sign in and out.  You have to turn in a weekly and a monthly log.
Overall, far more cool things than uncool things. 

Snakes on a plane

So here's the story of my last few minutes in Oxford.  I ran by the bank to get the ridiculous amount of money orders our rental company made us get rather than a good old check (more on our new place to come).  I was in the US Bank and a middle aged guy from College Corner walked in.  He had on a cut off shirt, some old jeans and looked to have been working pretty hard all day long.  The one thing that made me stare:  he was wearing a "snakes on a plane" t-shirt (with the sleeves cut off).  For those of you who don't know the Snakes on a Plane were a flag football team the psychology deptartment had about 4ish years ago.  The shirt is kelly green with a giant snake on a football field (the team was around the time of the movie and a play on words).  There were probably about 15-20 shirts made-- ever, since the design was created just for our team...

I asked the guy where he got the shirt (he didn't remember).  Thinking about it now I'm guessing someone donated their shirt to the family resource center (I think it was Jim from the name of the back of the shirt).  So even though we have left Oxford, our time as a fantasy team lives on, with the guy in College Corner. :)

Moving....

So I'm leaving on Thursday night to sign the lease on Friday in GA.  Hence the lack of posting about our new place.  We found a place.  It's a 3 bedroom/2 bath house with a fireplace in the living room and a fenced in backyard.  Everyone cheer for Dean and Watson!  But I have about 1 minute before packing most resume again.  Thanks so our awesome friends for helping with the packing last night :)

Cute things Dean has said lately:

Dean:  We're going to Georgia? 
Me:  Yep, we're moving to Georgia.
Dean:  Is Don coming to Georgia?
Me: No buddy.  (how sad)

Dean:  What's that? (in reference to our neighbor's blazer)
Me:  A car.
Dean:  That's not a car.
Me:  Well, that's really a SUV.
Dean:  An SOB? 
Me:  Dying laughing....

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee

So we're here.  We looked at some places on Saturday (no pictures of those places b/c most were too scary to pull out the camera for) and rode around all over town.  We found an area that we'd like to live in (really nice and not scary :) and have driven by the outside of some available houses in our price range.  The real estate place opens on Monday and we're going to go by then to see the interior.  So far so good!  We have already found a good BBQ restaurant (Country BBQ).  Pictures of the BBQ sandwich, pork ribs, and banana pudding (in a mason jar).  It was awesome.

There is also a great park right by the neighborhood we want to live in. Pictures attached. I was afraid we wouldn't find anything we liked as much as Oxford Community Park, but it is really pretty and we had a blast!

 This is Joanna's favorite way to hold her head (she does it all the time).

 The bridge to the playground

The non flat terrain :)