Fall has always meant the acquisition of one of my favorite things in the world- school supplies. There is just no other feeling like the first day of school with a brand new backpack full of new crayons, paper, scissors, and other items to accomplish scholarly tasks. This love for school supplies lead to a little hoarding problem of office supplies (which I tend to buy more than I actually ever use) and add to that equation teaching little ones and you have a full fledged addiction to teaching supplies.

Recently I noticed a little store across from my favorite bookstore (which I’m also addicted to). I asked my sister what on earth a constructive plaything was and she told me that they have great party supplies and good prices. So I stopped in there yesterday just to look for some additional counters for our math lessons. First of all the store is huge- the building must have been a former grocery store. My head almost exploded from trying to take in all of the educational supplies, tons of montessori stuff, and great party gear at really nice prices. Somehow I managed to get out of there only spending $5 but their catalogs are in my possession and will be utilized very soon. We also have another great store which my neighbor recommended to me, beautiful inventory but their prices weren’t nearly as tempting. I also fell head over heels for this local christian eduation and teaching supply store and have made regular visits since they carry our handwriting curriculum.

Now if only I had an unlimited budget there would be no limit to the fabulous educational items in our reach. Until then my educational spending will have to be kept under control but its so fun to look and see what’s out there.

I try to be an environmentally responsible citizen. We recycle, try not to use dangerous chemicals, and want to help rather than harm our world. There’s one realm where this responsibility is severely lacking though- cars. I’m a Texan girl at heart and I love driving an SUV. I was quite the diva driving around campus in my multi toned deep grey/silver blazer in college and I won’t even start to tell you how impressed guys were when I’d wield the stick my my first Jeep Cherokee with its manual shift. Thankfully EDad is much more globally conscious (and family conscious) than I am and was more than happy to get a minivan when the time came to replace his beloved VW.

We found his minivan online in one of those for sale by owner sites and were tickled when we went to meet the owner in a local Atlanta mall because it turns out the van was originally purchased in Texas. Not only was it from a dealership which was located around the corner from my sister’s house- but it also had the front dashboard inspection and registration stickers, making me feel like we had a little taste of Texas in Georgia. The van has been registered in Georgia for years now but we never removed the old Texas stickers- always hoping and dreaming that someday we’d wind up back in Texas. Well that dream has now come true and we’re in Texas. Just this morning EDad told me how funny it was that we were still driving around with our Georgia plates (kind of hard to get everything switched over when we don’t exactly have a permanent address yet) and this 2003 inspection sticker from Texas, thank goodness its never caused any issues.

Today would be the day he mentioned it because later that exact same afternoon we were pulled over by a huge SUV (just like the one in the above picture) after leaving a local mall. We had just pulled onto the parkway so I couldn’t imagine that EDad was speeding but things became clear when the police officer asked us if we knew how outdated our inspection stickers were. For the first time ever I was able to laugh in a traffic stop situation, because we definitelly knew better than to be driving around with tags that were 3 years out of date! Thankfully the officer understood that we are new to the area and the car is registered just not in Texas. We’ll be removing the old stickers post haste just to be sure we don’t have any other law breaking moments.

This evening EBoy told us how glad he was the police officer didn’t take us and throw us into jail. EBoy stated that because we weren’t being bullies (in EBoy’s mind bullies are the most evil, vile creatures on earth and nothing is worse than to be a bully) and we weren’t stealing anything the officer let us go free. He then told us how important it is to be listen to police and to not break any laws. I’m so glad I’ve got my own little lawyer to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Things are going along well with the building of our house. I’ve learned a few interesting things when it comes to building

• During building don’t be afraid to double and triple check everything to make sure its done according to the blueprints, don’t just assume that the builder knows what’s going on because a lot can be lost in translation between your design center selections and the actual work getting done
• If your building site has contractors that like to leave food and trash all around you can demand to have a cleaning service maintain the site, nothing would be worse than having garbage in your kitchen island AFTER the countertops are installed over them
• Don’t agree to close until every item is addressed and corrected- our poor neighbors are still dealing with major repairs over a month after closing and moving into their new home
• Get as many extra lights as you can- we neglected getting extra can lights in the main living area and wish we would have thought to include more.

The above picture is our kitchen- and yes there is *still* garbage in the kitchen island! They keep promising to get it handled, but at least the other food items have been removed regularly from the house. This isn’t a great picture but I was trying to show the view from the upstairs, we have iron railings with stained wood banisters (covered in plastic while they are painting) which turned out beautifully:

We are hoping for some good news soon on the selling of the Atlanta house. Until then I’m continuing in faith that the absolute best is about to happen. I’m really amazed at how much I’m enjoying apartment life. I guess it helps to be sitting next to a golf course with plenty of green space for running and exploring outside.

EBaby couldn’t resist striking a pose:

EBoy and CousinA modeling their Sunday best on Saturday:

EBaby leads me to the kitchen for a snack, I hand him a freshly washed plum and he happily totters away. He returns with a huge grin while he devours theplum for the following conversation:

Me: So is that plum really good?

EB(happily): Apple?

M: No it’s a plum

EB(more determined): Apple!

M: Plums are very yummy

EB(conceding): Plumple!

I’m glad he found a name that works for him, now I’ve got to figure out how we can grow and market our own plumples for everyone.