The last week has been good.

The boys and I have been busily working on lessons. We are 40(ish) days away from completing our school year so we are preparing for tests that I'm hoping sure that Russell will pass with flying colors. At this point I am pretty sure Max could pass first grade also. That boy has shocked me this year with all he has learned. I began the year thinking he would dabble a bit with the preschool material I had, but he flew through that, laughed his way through the kindergarten material, and now proudly displays his first grade work beside Russell's. In the last few weeks Russell began reading and finished Hatchet and Stuart Little, and is a few chapters into The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

R.C. has been working his tail off at school. He has about 6 weeks left of classes so the pressure is on! He is beyond busy writing his thesis paper, making art, getting ready for several shows, applying to job after job, and trying to spend a little time with the boys.

At Christmas time you may remember reading about "Christmas with the PawSox". We received tickets to a game in the spring for attending this event, and so on Tuesday afternoon we took the boys out to the ball game (I love free tickets!). It was a beautiful day for a ball game...but they lost...12 - 0!! Ouch! Before you begin writing about the boys being at a ball game instead of sitting at the table doing worksheets, you must know that it was field trip day for public school kids also. The general admission seats were FULL of school kids and teachers watching the game also. There were very few people there other than kids and teachers. You will also notice that the green and red seats are practically empty! Afternoon games are not too popular I guess.

Russell has been taking a Tae Kwon Do class and is doing very well. His instructor asked him to participate in the "Healthy Kids Day" at the YMCA this Saturday and show some "moves" to the community. Russell is pretty excited to participate and break some boards (Yes...break boards! My scrawny little Russell will break boards!) for all to see.

Max has finally learned to love his veggies. In the last week he realized that broccoli, asparagus, and beets (he has no problem with all other veggies) taste great. Beets are served A LOT in this household (mmmmm!! Delish!!) so it's a relief that Maxwell can do this with a smile now, instead of a frown...

This morning I packed a bag of snacks, school books and sand toys, said good bye to R.C., put the boys in the car and headed to the beach. It was a BEAUTIFUL day so we spent it playing in the sand, splashing in the water, and doing school work, pantless, on a beach towel. We spent hours in the sun, while giving R.C. a chance to do school work in a quiet house instead of a quiet studio.

As soon as we got to the beach we spotted some swans. They were down the beach quite a bit, so we put all our stuff down and took a walk to see them. We watched them swim around and then decided to go back to the spot we had staked out. To our surprise, 2 of the 6 swans followed us to our spot. They stayed by us the entire time and even followed us when we took another walk...and back again. The boys were loud and splashing and trying to skip rocks, and the swans swam close by watching the excitement. 

 

A flock of ducks landed near where the boys were playing. Max chased them away, and, what you can't see is, one of the swans was swimming just out of frame, and didn't budge as all the ducks flew away in fear of Maxwell.

The boys are pantless due to the fact that I have yet to get spring/summer clothes out of storage, and rolling their pants just wasn't cutting it. So, after soaking their pants, we took them off and let them dry in the sun so they would be dry for the ride home and the errands we had to do before going home. Both boys still think running around in their underpants is cool, and I think there are few things better than watching your kids running and laughing on the beach in their little undies.

We spent some time in the big grassy field playing soccer and picking daffodils before heading home to see R.C. and distract him from his work....oops.

Have I ever mentioned how awesome homeschooling is?! No, not just because we can do our school lessons on the beach...but that is a huge perk! It's a lot of work too, trust me!

R.C. is in NYC for several days again. We dropped him off at the bus station Thursday and will see him again on Sunday morning.

So, while he has been away, the boys and I have been busy. We had no lessons on Friday so we spent the morning and early afternoon at the park, took a walk along the bay, and picked some flowers. We have played hours of board games and had light saber battles with friends outside. Today needs to be a cleaning day...but maybe another park day.

Due to all the flooding that has happened in RI in the last few days, the bay that we walked along was much higher than normal. As we were walking we could see how high the water had risen by the line of debris that had collected in the grass. Much of RI is still underwater, but up on our hill we were unaffected. We just can't get to our favorite grocery store which is NOTHING compared to how many people had to evacuate their homes and leave all their belongings behind.

So. I've got a hater!

It has come to my attention that someone out there, maybe more than one, thinks I am a hypocrite. That's the word this person used. I was bombarded with comments on my blog the other afternoon (20+ comments in one day!) from an "anonymous" person. The problem is that they think I am a hypocrite for saying ,"I don't like the boys to have sugar filled drinks" and yet I have several (yes, this person pointed out each and every one) postings in which the boys are pictured with ice cream cones, doughnuts, hot chocolate, etc.. This person feels I am too busy pretending I am concerned with sugar intake and not concerned enough about the happiness of my children. I was also told that I need to stop putting down others who choose to give their kids pop, cookies, etc..

Sigh.


I don't even know how to begin to approach this.

I never set out to upset people with my opinions about food. I never meant to put others down for their food choices. I never meant to insult anyone who makes their kids a pitcher of Kool-aid. I really don't care if you give your kid 2 cups of sugar as a bed time snack, or if you consider french fries as vegetables. This is my blog and I am telling how I run my home and how I feel about things. I am sorry if anyone (and apparently some do) reads this blog and feels I am "preaching too much about something I don't practice myself" and "putting on a show to make people believe that you eat healthy all the time".
 

I feed my family nutritious food, even when other people are not around. I do not do it for show or to make myself sound good on this blog. I do it because childhood obesity, diabetes, and other health issues concern me. I want my family to live long lives. I do however let my kids have treats. I don't think of myself as a hypocrite when it comes to food. I do feed my family healthy foods and I give them treats from time to time. Moderation is key! Along the way I may try to convince others that it does not take extra time or money to buy and cook fresh foods instead of "convenience foods" that are loaded with extra stuff that our bodies don't need. If that is taken as preaching, then I will stop preaching.

As far as the comment about me not being "concerned enough about the happiness of my children"....I've got nothing to say other than you obviously don't know me, my husband, or my children.

"Anonymous" really made me not want to blog. I'm sure that was the purpose, and for the last few days, he/she succeeded.

*All comments from this person have been deleted because they were rude and nasty*

When we moved here we downsized all our belongings. We sold or donated a good portion of what we owned. Furniture, clothing, dishes, books, toys, etc.. Nothing was safe. We got rid of things that we loved, but knew that those things were not necessary for us to survive. Throughout the last 2 years I have thought about one or two items and wondered why I got rid of them. Like wise, some of the items that we moved here I wonder why I wasted good space in bringing them with us.

There are two particular items that I never understood why I kept. Two items that cost next to nothing and had been around for YEARS, never used or touched, and yet I took the time to put them in a box and move them over 1,000 miles. Why?

I remember purchasing these 2 things in Greenville when Russell was first born. Thinking about it now, it seems all the more strange knowing that I not only moved these things once, but I moved them from our first apartment to our second apartment. Then I moved them from our second apartment to our house. Then I moved them from our house to this place. 3 moves. That's a lot of moves for 2 little Kool Aid packets.

Yeah, that's what I said. Kool Aid. I have no idea what made me purchase these 2 packets of Kool Aid 7 years ago, but I did. Neither R.C. or myself are Kool Aid drinkers and I don't like the boys to have sugar filled drinks (gasp!) so I had never made it for them...and they never asked for it.

Until today.

This afternoon the boys went outside to play with a friend right after lunch. Before I knew it, it was 3:00 and they were still outside running wild with their buddy. As I stood in my teeny tiny kitchen listening to 3 boys playing in the back parking lot, I had to smile. That's when I opened the cupboard to see 2 little Kool Aid packets staring at me. I thought I would be a good mom today and make a pitcher of ice cold Kool Aid for when they came back inside. I felt this was a pretty big moment for myself. This was the first time in 7 years (actually probably much longer since we rarely got Kool Aid growing up either. But I am certain it has been at least 7 years so that's what I'm going with.) that I had made Kool Aid.

Max was the first to come in. He was just taking a break from playing for a second to take care of some "business", but I was so excited I offered him a glass of bright red liquid right away. I poured him a glass and he took a small drink and then put the glass down. I asked him if he liked it and he responded with an "ehhh". Next up was Russell. He came in for the same "business" and I offered him a drink also. He refused! What!?

Sure for a second I was broken hearted thinking that I was failing as an all American mother, but soon I brushed those feelings aside and relized that all these years they have not been missing out on anything since they didn't really care for the stuff anyways. Then I felt some what proud realizing that they (mainly Russell since Max did at least try it) made a smart healthy choice even when unhealthy foods were offered, all on their own.

All that to say...our move (if and when) will be 2 Kool Aid packets lighter. One packet was made today, and the other went in the garbage. Downsizing feels great!

*Just so you know how old these packets were...they expired in 2006! Yes, I still made the one...how does that stuff go bad? All it is is fake flavoring and other additives.
*I mean no disrespect to Kool Aid drinkers out there! Really!!

Today is a clear, sunny day with temperatures in the mid 70's and in my book that means you go to the beach.

This afternoon, after some errands and some baseball in the park, I took the boys to the beach to enjoy the beautiful weather. As soon as I parked the car and turned it off Russell threw his door open, took a deep breath and yelled (in a wonderful pirate voice), "Ahhhhh, I sure have missed that salty sea air!" We walked up and down the beach searching for seashells and sea glass, petting dogs that were enjoying a day out also, and chatting with some friends who we happened to run into. Soon the boys legs could walk no further so we headed back to the car and drove home with the windows down while singing Beach Boys songs as loud as we could.

 (We were completely over dressed for the beach today! I assumed that even though it was warm, it would probably be a bit cool on the beach. Usually I am right when it comes to things like this. Not today though.)

Spring is definitly here. We have seen several flowers in bloom around the neighborhood (well...not in our neighborhood, but in other neighborhoods), and the heat has been off for a week now. We may have a few days here and there where it gets cool again, but spring is in the air.

RC update: RC was in NYC 3 days and 2 nights this week and is now busily working in the studio. He's keeping more than busy trying to get through these last few months of school. 

I wish I had some great things to blog about, but the past week has been very uneventful. VERY.

Here is what we do everyday:

 Looks exciting, doesn't it? 

Russell has been working on adjectives the last few weeks. On Thursday he was given a worksheet to complete in which he had to use an adjective to describe his home, family, favorite food, town, etc. I had to cringe, and agree, when he wrote "trashy" to describe his town. Take that Providence. That's the best I can do for interesting stories from the week. 

The biggest thing that happened last week was an eye doctor appointment for myself. I hate the eye doctor. Not a specific eye doctor, just the news that the eye doctor gives me. I have always had a fear of going for a routine checkup and finding out that I have 2 weeks left to see before I go blind. This time I heard the dreaded, "That's the best we're going to be able to do for you." Although he did give me a new type of contact to try and I was shocked at how much better I can see with them, and scared at how poorly I was seeing before and not realizing it.

Last week the boys started their spring programs at the YMCA.

Russell chose to take a martial arts class. I did not go to his class with him so I do not have stories to share from that, other than I hear he should wear some pants that don't fall down next time. (RC and Max watched the class and passed that message along)

Max wanted to take swimming lessons for his activity. I signed him up for a class in which I would get in the water with him, per his request. We attended the first lesson and the teacher was impressed with Max's "swimming" ability and promoted him to the next class level. This means that I no longer have to get in the water! Russell and I took him to this class on Friday morning and he was a bit nervous, but once he met his teacher he was showing all his swim moves and had a great time. The only time he got upset was when they told him class was over and he could go get his towel. He truely is a fish.

Russell has been obsesed with Super Mario Brothers since our Wisconsin trip. Uncle John played Mario with the boys one evening (and well into the night) and it was definitly a huge highlight for the boys. Since being home, Russell is thinking one thing...Mario! He is constatly humming the Mario theme song, jumping to "collect gold coins" and wondering if John beat level 3 yet. One thing he has done is build a Mario set out of Legos.

 

 

This is his King Kupa's (sp??)Castle he created. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It really is pretty cool, complete with little hammer throwing guys, jewels, and a flower coming out of a pipe. Today is castle demolition day though. Max is itching to get his hands on the Legos and make something he likes.

There is just too much to share about our trip.  I keep putting it off thinking it will get done on it's own...so far, no luck with that...so I guess it's up to me.

The boys were little angels on the planes. They loved the attention they received from the flight attendants. The men attendants were giving them high fives each time they passed, and the women made sure they had ample drinks (juice) to make it through the flight. On our last flight home I sat next to a pilot who was heading to Canada. We talked about kids and he told me all I ever wanted/needed to know about flying. He could not say enough good things about the boys and praised their good behavior over and over. He said that he can fly his kids for free, but every time he does the flight attendants get after him because his kids are causing such a ruckus. Once again, thank you boys!!

We had a good week seeing family and babysitting my niece and nephew. I spent 3 days at my sister's house making messes and chaos with 4 kids, and it was great. The boys loved spending time with Grace and making faces at Mitchell. Mitchell is cuter than I could have imagined and I was so happy to get to visit and help out. 

Russell helped by reading stories to everyone.

Gracie holding her baby brother.

Crazy Max holding Mitchell for the 1st time. He wanted to hold him ALL THE TIME!

Sweet Grace helping give Mitchell his pacifier. Actually she would gently put it in his mouth, then pull it out and listen to him wail. What a nice big sister! (She really is though)

They are a pretty cute bunch of kids!

Miscellaneous pictures:

We had a great week visiting with the family. We were all anxious to get back to R.C. though. We arrived at the Providence airport around 10:30 pm and my fantastic husband had a cup of coffee waiting. (Yes, I realized the time, but sometimes you just need coffee...like every second of every day.) 

Thanks for a great trip everyone!

We made it safely to Wisconsin and have been having a great time. Mitchell is the cutest little baby, and Gracie is a perfect big sister. The boys and I (mainly I) have been watching them the last 3 days while their mom and dad work and go to school. It's been a lot of fun! More on our trip later.

I had this post done a few weeks ago, but never hit publish...oops. So, until I can upload pictures from our trip and tell about that....

A few weekends ago the boys went to a birthday party for one of their friends. This was a birthday party to beat all other birthday parties. It was held in the kids gym at the YMCA, there were snacks galore, pizza, cake, and a cape making station. It was super hero themed, so the boys went dressed in their best Spiderman costumes and had a great afternoon running wild and eating pizza and cake with their friends and 20+ other crazy kids. There were so many kids running around dressed as super heroes, but the real super heroes were our friends, the mom and dad, who put this shindig on for their little guy.

We took a half day off from lessons yesterday. I had errands to run and the boys were just needing a break, so after reading lessons, we got our shoes on and headed out the door. We went to the mall and wandered (purchasing nothing), then walked around Target picking up toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.. We were out walking around in public for about 2+ hours.

It wasn't until I was putting my bags of toothpaste and mouthwash into the back of the car when I realized something just wasn't right with my outfit. I bent down to pick up the reciept that I had just dropped and I saw this:

 

That's right, I was wearing one red shoe, and one pink shoe. They are the same shoe, just different colors, so they feel identical on my feet. I found this shoe and it is very comfortable, VERY affordable, and comes in all different colors. Maybe I should pay more attention to what I look like before I leave the house, instead of being so concerned with making sure the boys go to the bathroom and wash their hands. I guess it could have been worse, I could have had a red shoe and a turquoise shoe on. At least these 2 are both in the red family. Upon thinking about this, I can't even remember which shoe I meant to put on. Was I trying to wear red shoes, or was I trying to wear pink shoes? I don't know. 

Today the boys and I sat down with construction paper, scissors, glitter and glue. We were all ready to make Valentine's Day cards. I thought I had a great idea when I pulled out 2 small boxes of the, always classic, "Sweethearts" candy hearts. You know what I'm talking about...the small hearts that are pastel colors with sweet Valentine messages, printed in red, in the center of the heart. Or, at least, that is what they are supposed to look like.

I thought we could get a few Valentine sayings from the candies and enjoy an afternoon treat at the same time. Well, that didn't work out as planned. First of all, Russell's box had 5 pieces in it, and Max's was filled to the top. Luckily Max was more than happy to fill Russell's box to the half way point so they had an equal amount. Secondly, all the words were printed off center so we had no clue what 80% of the hearts said; not too helpful when we were counting on these candies for words to write on our cards. Finally, the only hearts that printed clearly said, "TEXT ME" and "TWEET ME". These are not sweet words that I want to hear from my valentine, and the boys had no clue what they meant. Does the cyber world really need to get involved in everything?

What happened to "LOVE ME", "BE MINE", "YOU'RE SWEET" and "HUGS AND KISSES"? Were people really writing the Sweetheart company asking them to include "TWEET ME" on a candy heart? I doubt it. Maybe I'm annoyed by this because I don't really know or understand what twitter is, but come on!

Our card making afternoon lasted about 15 minutes. Russell was only interested in cutting up the paper and drawing cartoon characters that make you think of anything but Valentine's Day, and Max wrote his name over and over on a couple of hearts and then wanted to make glue mountains and cover them in glitter.

Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today (who me?!) but I threw in the towel on card making after these 15 minutes. It was one of those days when we fight to make it through our lessons, I found a stash of dirty clothes under the bookshelf that no one would claim, and I feel like I want to let the dishes pile up because all I want to do it grab a warm blanket from the radiator and watch a mindless movie. Maybe we will try card making tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Today was not a fantastic day. Today was not even a good day. Today is not one I would want to do over. It's days like this when I need more pictures like this:

What is that? It's Max squishing his nose into mine (what we call a "snuggle kiss") while he takes a blurry picture of it. Bad days are few, but they happen, and they pass. Maybe tomorrow will be a snuggle kiss day, not today, and I'm ok with that.

I had accepted the fact that my sister was going to have a baby very soon and I would not be able to see her, or the new baby, for several months. With hopes of a move coming, we have been saving every penny possible and tightening up our belts in all areas of life/spending (as if we could do this more?!). So, needless to say, buying 3 plane tickets was out of the question (I say 3 because RC has too much going on to make a trip, so it would be just me and the boys.) The thought of this made me sad and angry since I so badly wanted to see the baby and help out my sister in the first part of being a mother of 2. I was bummed to say the least.

But not anymore!

Just a few days ago I got a call from my other sister with news that she could score 3 plane tickets to anywhere in the U.S., but they had to be booked the next day. How could this be? Free tickets? THREE free tickets?

Well, it's true. It just so happens that my sister has a friend, who has a father in law, who works and racks up points to be redeemed for airfare. The father-in-law was not going to use the tickets he has acquired so he offered them to my sister's friend (his daughter-in-law). My sister's friend was not going to use them so she offered them to my sister. My sister thought about coming here with my mom and dad, but then had the wonderful idea to offer the tickets to me so that I could come and see the new baby. I called my sister's friend to get all the details and give her our info and she booked the flight and had our flight info for me within hours of me hearing of this deal. What a great chain of events! I am so thankful for people not being able to travel so that these tickets would funnel down to me, and so very thankful for kind people who would not just say "eh, forget about these tickets, I'm not going to use them, so no one is going to use them."

So, myself, Russell, and Max will be making a trip to chilly Wisconsin to see our new nephew/cousin (and family!) in the next few weeks. It will be a quick trip, but one we are so very thankful for.

And finally.....

 

 A cute little baby boy, Mitchell, was born February 2nd!!

This week we have been taking a Twister break during our lessons and yesterday I thought I would capture a bit of our twisted fun on film.

Last weekend we made another trip to NYC. It's so hard to say no when the school offers bus tickets for super cheap and there is still so much to see and do in the Big Apple.

Once again, I turn to bullets...

• Max did NOT want to wake up! He was angry up until we walked out the door, then we was happy and excited...but boy was that 20 minutes of getting dressed and eating breakfast while crying ever long!
• We bundled up with extra layers because it was a very cold day. When we got in the car to go to the bus it was a balmy 8 degrees and the high during the day was 25 degrees. Due to the cold, and the difficult time we had waking everyone up, I was a bit concerned with how attitudes would be, but no one complained of being too cold the entire day. We talked about being cold, but no one whined or complained...nice!
• We began our trip with the bus getting a flat tire and we had to pull off the interstate several times during the trip. We lost time due to this, but some how we managed to make all that time up, and then some. We got off the bus an entire hour earlier than we had expected!
• There were some students sitting behind Russell and I on the bus who were trying to be cool and get a rise out of the kids by yelling "beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, etc...."(those "beeps" are all the colorful 4 letter words you can think of.) over and over and louder and louder. They were obviously doing it on purpose. I turned and gave them one look that was supposed to strike fear into their little freshman-in-college souls, but it didn't work. My next move was going to be to shove a bar of soap into their mouths, but due to the fact that I didn't have a bar of soap in my purse (let alone several) I was stumped as to what to do next. That's when I saw my kind, gentle husband raise out of his seat, stare with full force and the hooligans, and (to make a long story short) told them to quiet down.
• Our first stop was MoMA. Years ago we got the boys the book "Seen Art" which is all about MoMA and the different works of art that can be found there. It's a great book if you have little kids...or if you don't, you could still read it (I won't tell). We spent several hours walking the halls of the museum and seeing everything we could. Both boys loved the special exhibit, which was Tim Burton drawings, painting, clay figures and short movies. Russell also LOVED finding a painting by Salvador Dali that is in said book. He found it and walked as quickly as he could to it and just stared and smiled. Max was taken with Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with Ball painting. 
• We took a break half way through the museum to head outside for a hotdog on the sidewalk.
• Next up was a walk down to The World Trade Center Site. It was strange to be there and think about what happened on 9/11 and the chaos that filled the streets that day. Actually being there and seeing the exact spot these events took place made it seem all the more scary and strange. 
• Wall street was next. We saw the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall on Wall Street, where George Washington was sworn in as President in 1789. 
• We found beautiful "old New York" where buildings were only 2 stories high, streets were narrow, and there was an old pub on each corner. It was quiet too. If felt as if we had just walked into another country and another time.
• From there we walked to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty a little closer than we had before. We were disappointed because it seemed about the same distance as before and we were all super cold, so we booked it back to the warmth of the subway as we made our way to Chinatown. In Battery Park we found a turkey, a live turkey, but the boys didn't think it was real because it didn't have its "gobble", "beard", "whatever that red hanging thing is on a turkey". In Battery Park I had to smile and laugh because it was the first time we had ever been approached by someone with a ,"psssst...psssst! You need a Rolex?" I love it! People really do that, it's not just in the movies.
• Whoops! We forgot to get off the train at Chinatown so we decided to skip it.
• We walked the streets until we came to KATZ Deli, where we were meeting a friend for supper. We enjoyed a DELICIOUS (words cannot describe how good this sandwich was!!!) pastrami on rye with mustard and some house made pickles. This deli is a favorite of one of my favorite chefs, authors, travel channel face, Anthony Bourdain, so it was great to be sitting in a deli where he had been and still (so he says) loves to go when he is in NYC...along with almost every other celeb, politician, true New Yorkers, etc.. This is also the famous deli where "When Harry Met Sally" was filmed. We had a great supper chatting with our friend and admiring all the famous people pictures on the walls. The boys were not interested in the sandwiches (too bad! more for us!) so we took them to get a slice of pizza and they were happy.
• We walked the streets of the East Village on our way back to the bus pick up location. 
• Max saw a live rat crawling on some steps and thought that was the coolest thing ever.

Once again we walked the entire day, except for a few subway rides, and the boys never once complained. Max gets the "trooper" award for this trip. That little guy is a great walker, but due to the cold and the distance we were going, R.C. and I both offered him a lift a few times, but he declined each time with a, "you don't have to." Although we did pick him up a few times just to show our appreciation for his great attitude and willingness to walk even though he was tired. Russell is 7 now so he is expected to be a good walker and he does not disappoint. I've said it before, and I will say it once again (although I'm sure it won't be my last), I love the excitement these boys get from museums and they are great kids who know how to behave so I never fear taking them to places where things could be fragile. I'd take them anywhere!

*Stay tuned for super exciting news in the next few days! The boys and I are taking a trip and we will see a new family member soon...well, soon as in a few weeks, but sooner than we thought we would get to...

Often times you will hear someone preface a story with, "to make a long story short". It's a great way to tell, and listen to, a story. You don't want to listen to all the boring details of a story when it could be summarized into a few short sentences, and you can save yourself some breath by summarizing your own stories you are telling. "To make a long story short" is a well known phrase used by all at some point or another.

Today we met up with some friends to play at the gym. The kids were running wild (for 3+ hours!!) and I had a chance to sit and chat with a friend while we watched our kids slowly lose all the energy they had built up from a day of lessons. Soon I found my eldest child standing in front of my friend telling her he had a story to share. She was all ears and he began his story. After about a minute of talking he paused and said, "to make a long story even longer...." and he proceeded with his story telling. She glanced at me and I shook my head knowing all too well that he was not joking. It was true. He could have summed up what he was trying to tell in a few short sentences, but instead, Russell decided (in true Russell fashion) he would tell every little detail, plus a few he decided to throw in just for kicks. His story that could have been told in a minute or less soon took 5 minutes to finish.

*I realized, as I was writing this, that I should take my own advice and cut to the chase on most of my stories. Whoops! I'll try, I promise.