Friesencold

I had a great time in Tampa this past weekend visiting my friend Shannon, who I was roommates with in college. She and her family moved to Tampa just after we moved away from Orlando three years ago, so we hadn’t gotten to see each other in a really long time (at least 5 years!).

We talked and talked. We sat in her backyard and talked, took a walk and talked, went to the pool and talked, ate at Tijuana Flats and talked, ate slices of Publix cake and talked, stayed up late one night and talked, and went to bed early another night and read. We also spent lots of time just hanging out at Shannon’s house with her two cuties, Chase and Siena. Because Shannon has little kids, like I do, it felt sort of like being at home. It made me miss my kids for sure. But I didn’t have to wash any dishes, brush any kids’ teeth, or break up any fussing. That was nice.

I also had the time while I was away to read an entire book, Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it because it’s her fiction work, which I haven’t been crazy about in the past. But this time, I loved the fiction because so much of what you could hear Anne Lamott saying in her non-fiction books like Traveling Mercies and Grace (Eventually) came through in the dialogue among the characters in Imperfect Birds. It was also the first book I’ve read in an online format and I enjoyed that a lot more than I expected to, too. I will definitely read another book on the iPad. I loved being able to bookmark quotes I liked as I went along, although now I have to figure out how to print them….or maybe I’ll just take my sweet time and copy them all down in my Goody Book where I write out all my favorite quotes from writers such as Anne Lamott, Elizabeth Berg, Marisa de los Santos, and of course Alexander McCall Smith.

TJ took great care of the kids while I was gone over the weekend. They went to Bauer’s swim lesson on Friday morning. The lessons take place at Centennial Beach, shown below, which is an old rock quarry.

See Bauer? He’s wearing blue goggles and floating on his back.

Bauer is in a class with only 3 other kids which is great, and usually at least one of the other children doesn’t show up, so it’s even smaller. Unlike Bauer’s bladder! If only he can make it through his 30-minute lesson without having to take a break to go potty, I’d be a happy camper. I made him go pee two times this morning before his lesson and he still only made it till 10:26. I didn’t even give him a smoothie this morning, but uh-oh, it must have been all the cantaloupe he ate! At least he doesn’t go in the water.

TJ took the kids for more water fun on Saturday afternoon at a friend’s house. Their mom, my friend Jaime, was out of town as well, so the dads got together and let the kids play outside in the sprinklers.

On Sunday, TJ helped Bauer make quicksand for the letter Q. There were great step-by-step instructions in the back of Tomie DePaola’s The Quicksand Book. Bauer made a brick sink!

Totally unrelated to the letter Q, they also made a Boogle House in the backyard. This was inspired by the book Why I Built the Boogle House by Helen Palmer.

All weekend, TJ was texting me little videos and pictures of what was going on with the boys. That was a fun and easy way to see them while I was away.

And now I’m going away from the computer.