Just Us: Carmen, Coleton and Charlotte

The days have gone quickly by and we are just hanging on to the flow. The early morning skies are beautiful and the end of the day sunsets are quiet and blue.

I feel like so much has happened in these days and yet, they have marched on relatively unnoticed. Is it our age? That days slip quickly into weeks and months...or is it that we aren't paying attention to the march of time?

Either way, we are still finding fun things to do, most recently, we went to the opera--we saw Carmen. Only in North Carolina will you see people going to the opera in shorts! People came in glitter and glam and others came in sandals and socks. But it was fun. We loved the music, the casting, however, left something to be desired. Carmen is the story of a lusty, free spirited gypsy and a strong military officer who fall passionately in love, but face obstacles and doubt at every turn. Our North Carolina Carmen was a middle aged, middle school teacher and her Don Jose was a short pudgy white haired local doctor. Their love scenes were limited to grasping each other's shoulders and looking into each other's eyes. The other thing that seemed off was that the songs were sung in French. Now, the last time I looked, bull fights and Seville were in Spain. So, here you have the story of two lovers in Spain, doing the dialogue in English and the music in French. Hmmmm. But, like I said, the music of Carmen is beautiful and haunting. We had a really good time. After the opera, we tried a new place in downtown Wilmington for drinks and people watching.

Our next big event was Coleton's 5th birthday! We got him something called Osmo and I absolutely love it. It's an Apple product that is basically a computer and a drawing pad. It comes with special markers and a goofy character called Mo who tells stories on the computer screen and asks the children to help him illustrate the details (a bed and lamp for his new bedroom or a space ship for his out of this world adventure!!) After they draw the object he requested, they hit the "OK" button on the screen and Mo bends down and "picks up" the drawing done by the child. The drawing becomes part of the story. It's amazing.

Coleton and Anthony are fun and beautiful children. Their "brother fights" remind me of David and Tony Jr when they were small, but they always manage to work past their fights and play together. They love Dixie and she is all about crawling all over them and barking at squirrels in their backyard.

David and Brenda are quietly moving into month 9 and I know Brenda will be happy to be finished being pregnant. Being pregnant in Florida in the summer has to be hard. Personally, I just can't wait for the baby!!

And, speaking of baby--we got a new surprise when we were in Charlotte. As we were leaving, Coleton came up to me and said, "Momo, we have a present for you." He proceeded to pull out a sonogram of Tony and Marie's new baby!! Number 3 is due in February. I continue to hope that "Smalls" in Tampa and "Charlotte" will be little pink bundles of femininity.

And so, we have Katie's wedding in September, Smalls, due in September, Charlotte due in February, Sarah's wedding (Fritz's daughter) in August and a whole lot of other stuff on the horizon. We continue to monitor our collective health issues and are taking care to ensure that we are around for all of the fun stuff life is sending us.

8 Grandchildren.....OH BOY....I mean, OH GIRL!!!

What did the North Carolinian say to the lusty gypsy? "So, Carmen, yaint, from cheer, air ya?"

Dixie loves to go, "bye bye in the car." We put her in the back seat this time...instead of me!

Dixie with her new haircut and scarf!

Daddy, always the object of her affection!!

Mr 5 and Papa!

There was some discussion on how the balloon got stuck on the ceiling...Coleton said Anthony let it go of the string and Anthony said that Coleton put it up there. Coleton got a bow and arrow for his birthday, I'm guessing the balloon will be on the ground soon.