Romper Room (aka Jennifer & Kevin's house)

Tonight, Andrew and I had great fun visiting Kevin, Jennifer, Danny, Ben, Heidi and Sophie. It was really, really nice having the kiddos all together. The boys ran wild and Andrew was particularly thrilled with Clark the dog. Danny and Ben were hilarious and sweet. Sophie was a doll baby - so pleasant and precious.
For the bloggers who don't know, Heidi, Jennifer and I all taught together in WV and became thick as thieves in grad school at WVU. Now, we formerly single, career-obsessed gals happily share the newest chapters in our lives: being moms.

The cow says MOO

Andrew and I had a great time at the beautiful Wise farm yesterday. He experienced his first tractor ride and got up close and personal with the cows (also a first)!

WV Time

Andrew and I drove up to WV on Thursday and are really enjoying the time here. He was fabulous for 95% of the 8-hour drive (7 hours actual driving and 1 cumulative of stopping). We've spent our time so far in Morgantown and plan to head to Harrisville, Charleston and then home in the next few days. Here are some pics so far.

Mom and I traveled to Greensburg, PA last night for an old childhood friend's wedding reception. Here I am with her - my BFF Lori.

MB and LS

Girls' night out at the Boathouse Bistro

Novichenks' Bar with AB, JC and RB- Love the crazy unknown guy in the middle

JC, MK, and AB

This is the "child" of some of our best friends - 17 years old and an AMAZING guitarist I really enjoyed going to hear

Andrew was being his usual silly self with LS and MB

Columbia Museum of Art

Andrew and I met up with three other moms/boys this morning at the museum of art and had a WONDERFUL time! These ladies and their kids are great. I was really impressed with the museum's collection and a special treat was its Monet. The boys seemed to really enjoy the sights, as well as the sounds of their own voices in the acoustical heaven. Our raucous crew was only kicked out of one exhibit (glass sculptures, gofigure), so it was a successful outing, I'd say.

Join the Club!?!

Ah, the moms' clubs.... endure life alone with a two-foot little man for long enough and you are bound to eventually want to spend some time among adults just like you. So, you check out the local moms' groups. Seems easy, right? It should just be a matter of,

"Hey, where are your meetings? Can I come?"

HA! No such luck.

After some digging, I located a NE Columbia group. The head momma was very good about returning my emails, and I gave her all the pertinent info about myself and my kiddo (no worries - she didn't ask for my SSN). After a week of going back and forth, as I anxiously awaited the coveted moms' group calendar that would be my ticket to rare, fleeting moments among adults, I got this weird, one-sentence email that read,

"I am sorry to inform you that you are located in the Columbia North area, not Columbia NE."

Done. No club for me. Guess I live on the wrong side of the tracks. And they say segregation is dead? From my small amount of time in the South, I have learned and can promise you that it indeed exists on many levels (ah - the subject of a future post).

OK, fine. I looked things up again, found the NORTH head momma's email and sent along the same profile schpeel. This email was returned to me because her mailbox was full. Aargh. Just somebody let me join your club, woudja?

I was astonished that these moms' groups found themselves so elite. In fact, I was just talking to a friend who lived in Morgantown all her life and just recently moved to another town. She tried to get in on one of the Morgantown moms' clubs and they wouldn't let her play, either, because of her new town (20 minutes away, mind you). Oh, the humanity!

This story does have a happy ending... just two days ago, I discovered the ingenious site Meetup.com, which includes pleasant, welcoming folks planning things for any type of club you could wish for, pretty much anywhere in the US. The calendar is very organized and diverse. In fact, Andrew and I are off to our first "meetup" this morning - the Columbia Museum of Art. Hope we're cool enough. I'll keep you "posted."

Potpourri

Ever had a hodge-podge of photos that you didn't really have the time or energy to organize into a succinct blog post? Yeah, me too. Here are various pics from the past few days - A being read to, A hanging with his dad at Friday's football game and getting to play the drums, the BHS band, Grandma D feeding A one of his LAST bottles (we have hung on to babydom a little too long in that category), A on the front steps of our house, our new grill (WOO HOO) and our new dishwasher (an extremely loud WOOOO HOOO! MK gets an hour of her life back each day!).

Our First Out-of-Town Visitors

Grandma Diana and her friend came to town to celebrate her 60th birthday with us. It was yesterday, so unfortunately, the Mountaineers failed to give her the birthday present she wanted, but that's beside the point, I suppose.

Andrew enjoyed exploring the yard with her.

They brought us home-grown WV tomatoes - YUM!

He scored a couple of pumpkins from the garden, as well.