7 Quick Takes

1.

I think it's possible that I have not fully given my heart to this new town 100%. Oh, I like it here, and I've thrown myself into making friendships and building relationships and all that jazz.

What I haven't done is let go of buttons # 1 and 2 on the pre-set radio stations in my van. Since moving here I have made the local station #3 and have changed the others when needed to use my ipod Monster, but I won't reset #'s 1 and 2 from my favorite Georgia stations. Never mind that when I go home I fly, so my van has not touched Georgia soil in over a year.

I just can't seem to let those two buttons go.

2.

After weeks of increasing pain in one of my back teeth, I finally saw the dentist last week. Cavity? Nope. Abscess? Negative. Stress? Yep.

"Do you clench your teeth?" he asked.
"Um, yes."
"Stop," he offered ever so helpfully.

Actually, he did offer me some muscle relaxers if the problem is that I clench them in my sleep, but no, that's not the problem.

I clench them all the time.

As I sit here typing, my teeth are clenched. As soon as I notice, I unclench them, but it's only a matter of minutes - maybe seconds? - before they are clenched again.

So, sure, I'll just stop clenching them.

3.

As I was cutting up watermelon tonight, Lauren was circling and begging like a poorly-trained puppy. I gave her a bite, and she said, "Mmmmmm, I just can't trust watermelon!"

What?

"Watermelon is soooo good, I just can't trust it."

Do you mean you can't "resist" it?

"Oh yeah, I can't resist it."

4.

Four more days of school!

5.

My boys got their very first genuine buzz-cuts today. I love it. They look adorable, and I will not have to comb their hair for weeks.

Joshua was less than thrilled when I told them I was taking them to get their hair buzzed really short. I proffered that it would keep them cool in the summer heat.

He said, "Do you shave your head in the summer to keep cool?"

Touche, my boy.

After I convinced him that there was no way I was going to let him have dreadlocks or a mohawk, he agreed that the buzz-cut was probably a good idea.

"But when I'm an adult," he said, "I'm gonna have dreadlocks . . . AND I'm gonna buy an axe."

Because, you know, that's what adulthood is all about.

6.

The kids are all upstairs with David watching G.I. Joe (the old cartoons, not the new inappropriate-for-children movie) as I am typing this. I am hearing all manner of fussing and crying and yelling at the moment. I love it when daddy's on duty.

7.

We had a fantastic time at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh last weekend.

They had dozens of "life-size" dinosaur skeletons. (This is Lauren's "fighting a t-rex" pose.)



A canoe in the Native American section:



The kids were able to use chisels and brushes and dig for dinosaur bones in a model quarry.







There was also a section where you could watch through the glass as employees they worked on the bones and other fossils. The kids loved watching this, and Joshua said, "Mom, I can't wait 'till I grow up so I can be a paleontologist."

It's what he's always wanted to be.

Check out Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.