Chipwrecked!

Yesterday, we went to a 10:30am church service. We left church at 12:40pm because the kids needed to eat lunch and have a nap. There was at least one have hour left of the service. One woman behind us felt the spirit a few times and would shriek. I assured Sidney that she was fine and she was happy. Eventually, she seemed to fall asleep. Later in the service, another woman shrieked with joy and Sidney immediately turned around to see if it was the same woman behind us. He asked me, "who was that?" I told him that it was someone else who was okay and happy. He seemed to accept that explanation.

After napping and lunch, we went over to Darryl Tookes' house. Darryl is Alexandria and Quintin's uncle; Darryl's wife is named Venus and she made all of the desserts. He has a huge annual gathering on New Year's Day. He lives nearby in a pretty big house. Cleo had a blast playing with Alexandria. Quintin was around but not running around with Cleo and Alexandria. Sidney ate food first with me and Roger and then joined in the fun and games. There were some other kids there who were our kids' ages and it was fun for them. Roger and I had a nice time too. Sidney and Roger ate the following: steamed white rice, corn, black eyed peas, baked chicken, corn bread muffin and a wheat roll. Sidney had 3 little cupcakes for dessert: key lime, pineapple and chocolate. He didn't love the cake part of the pineapple one but ate the frosting. He had a few bites of the cake part of my red velvet cupcake. The caterer is a close family friend of Leslie and Quintin (Alexandria and Quintin's parents) and she remembered I was a vegetarian. She made vegetarian black eyed peas and some corn. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness. In addition to the black eyed peas and corn, I had some steamed white rice. I found some sweet chili sauce and put it on the rice; it was really good. I added some hot sauce too. For dessert, I had half of a red velvet cupcake and half of a small chocolate cupcake. I had two cups of the homemade banana pudding. In that past few years, I discovered that I LOVE homemade banana pudding. I will eat the banana pudding at Golden Corral but it's not as good as homemade. The pudding was so amazingly good yesterday. Cleo had one roll and 5 peppermints for dinner.

We left Darryl's house around 6:45pm and headed to Derrick and Kim's house. They live close to Darryl's house. We stayed there until around 9pm. Cleo and Sidney enjoyed playing with Kennedy a lot. We watched an episode of Unsung on TV One about Big Daddy Kane. He was one of my favorite rappers back in the day - Derrick liked him a lot too.

Today, we took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. Prior to the movie, we had lunch at Sbarro's - again. The kids like pizza and it's so much healthier than McDonald's or Chik Fil A. I got a 7 layer burrito from Taco Bell. Roger got a slice of pepperoni pizza and the kids ate all of his pepperoni. If we had gotten them a pepperoni slice to share they would not have eaten it - the pepperoni was attractive because it was not theirs.

We saw a 12:15pm showing of Chipwrecked. We brought in Goobers, Skittles in a plastic Santa shape (one for each kid), fruity candy canes (one for each of them) and water in the kids' thermos-type sippy cups. At the theater we got Cherry flavored Sprite and a medium popcorn. The theater we went to has these big Coca Cola machines that allow you to make your own soda concoctions. Sidney and Cleo enjoyed carrying their own tickets and handing them to the usher to tear in half.

Cleo was great during the movie and just sat in her seat and watched the movie. She enjoyed the movie. Sidney would not sit still - he sat in my lap for most of the movie. He claimed he had to poop or that he did poop so we got up twice. When we got to the bathroom he said he didn't have to poop and the 2nd time I discovered that he had not pooped. He was very bored during the movie. There was a lot less singing and action in this one. He really liked the 2nd one. He was not ready for an in-theater movie experience. We will see if he's more ready next year. We only take Cleo once a year around this time to see a movie in the theater.

Cleo and Sidney return to daycare tomorrow. I will provide an update regarding the transition to their new classes which will start this month.

I have been called for jury duty. I have to call after 5pm tomorrow to find out if I have to go in on Jan. 4. I am fine if I have to appear and go in. I am busy at work but ready to fulfill my civic duty. In New York, I was picked twice for a jury. I think Georgia is not as open to having attorneys on a jury. We shall see.

I went to the gym 3 days in a row. I am not going today. I will go again on Saturday and Sunday of next week. This week, I will do some routines at home on Comcast On Demand - I will exercise after the kids go to sleep. I cannot go to the gym in the morning because I have to help get the kids ready and I can't go at night because the gym's parking lot is sort of sketchy and very dark.

Have a great week!