Color Movies & Working Women

Week #2 of preschool kicked off today. The boys really did well last week the two days they were in school. When I drop the boys off in the mornings it is a bit difficult -- both for them and for me. Since school just started most of the kids are going through some separation anxiety once they are dropped off by their parents. So when I open the door to take Gus & Owen in, it is pretty stressful for the boys to face a roomful of kids crying. But the teachers are great and get the roomful of toddlers settled down pretty quickly.

C.E. and Jane are in town for the week to spend some time with us. The boys are happy to see their Pappy & "Ju-J," as they are calling her now. We don't have many major projects lined up this visit -- some touch-up painting & tinkering here & there -- so we should send Pappy back to Kentucky in one piece without the typical aches & pains that usually accompany him after a visit. No grubbing hoes this trip.

So while the grandparents were in town Amy & I took full advantage of their offer to have a date night away from the kids. The last time Amy & I went out for a movie together that didn't involve Curious George was M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" -- three years ago! We happily ordered up a giant popcorn & drink for a matinee showing of the third installment of the Jason Bourne trilogy "The Bourne Ultimatum." The movie was exactly what you would expect -- cool, smart action hero thriller flick with lots of action. Really it was exactly what we wanted for two uninterrupted hours. Amy & I followed that up with dinner at an Italian restaurant we had not been to before while GJ & Pappy took the boys out for a dinner of their own. Date night was a much appreciated getaway. (Did you know they show movies in color now??)

Finally, Amy starts back to work part-time with IBM today. She was supposed to receive her PC in the mail last week. But when the delivery came on Friday, the box was empty so she had to refuse the shipment. Her computer is lost somewhere in DHL land. Now she and her manager are trying to sort out replacement PC's, police reports that need to be filed, etc. Fun stuff. Amy & I talk about the different kinds of stresses that we are all exposed to -- work stress in dealing with all the issues that each of us has there and home stress in dealing with issues with kids. Nothing like jumping right back in to the work stresses on her first day back in two and a half years. Amy is a trooper though -- she has her priorities in the right place and will work through the hurdles.

Cheers!