Madison Baseball Opening Day

Opening Day for baseball in Madison is a big deal.  This year, it was a beautiful Spring day with perfect weather to hang out at the ball park.  They had 4 inflateables, plenty of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and a feeling of excitement as the games got underway.  Caeden’s team had their first game, but Lael was not all that excited to watch – all she could focus on was the inflateable slide, obstacle course and jumping thing.  I took her over right before Caeden’s game started to play, so of course Caeden started in with “That’s not fair!”  If I had a nickel for every time one of them said that – I would be so rich!

Snow in March

A snowy day in March?  Aren’t we living in Alabama now?  The weather report called for snow today and the kids were way excited, they just knew that meant another day out of school.  When we woke up this morning, it was really coming down.  I figured Madison would cancel as well.  But, they didn’t – school was still on.  It came down really hard for a while, got a couple of inches, but then started melting rapidly as the morning went on. 

Dentist Trip

All three kids had dentist appointments today. Hurray for no cavities! Caeden needs to have 3 teeth pulled, Lael has 3 that are loose (which she is ecstatic about because she has lost NONE, and Caeden has already lost 3!) and Chace needs braces soon. We have known this for a long time, so no surprise there. I made an appointment to have Caeden’s teeth pulled and another one to have the impressions and X-rays done for Chace’s braces. Whew!

This dentist office is amazing though. They just moved into a new office and it is the coolest. There are two sections in the waiting room, one boring one with chairs, magazines and the tv’s. The other half is like a McDonald’s playplace, complete with slides and tubes and full of happy kids. There is also a tv there playing cartoons, and some sort of game system built into the wall. I’ve never been to a doctor/dentist appointment and heard the kids say “Aaaww Mom, already? I’m not ready!” when they call their names to go back. That happened today – they wanted to stay and play!

My Birthday and More Swine Flu!

My birthday arrived amidst a flurry of emails, phone calls and news conferences about the swine flu. It seems like that is what everyone is talking about! We learned today that we have probable cases now in West Madison, Madison, Horizon and Heritage Elementary Schools. That is all the elementary schools except for Columbia (ours) and Rainbow. This is the latest from the city about our schools:

In today’s meeting at the Emergency Management Agency, the state and local public health officers determined that Madison City elementary schools (all of them to include Rainbow and Columbia) will be closed 14 days. This decision, made by the health officers, was in agreement with the Center for Disease Center’s Interim Guidelines for K-12 School Dismissal. However, it was agreed that the situation for our elementary schools may be reassessed Saturday, May 9.

14 days!?!? what?!?!? It’s not summer yet, I’m not ready!! I still have several more weeks left of peace and quiet before my home is invaded every single day by snack munching, juice guzzling, dirt tracking, noise making lil gremlins!

On a side note – I am 35 today! I am on the downslope to old – closer to 40 than 30 now!!

Swine Flu Hits Madison

I cannot believe it! We are just a tiny speck on the map, and now we are all over the national news!!! Our school superintendent sent something out the other day about how Madison/Huntsville is at risk because of all the residents who travel nationally and internationally due to their job assignments. I was like huh? Madison, the swine flu? really? Tis true, 2 probable cases at Heritage Elementary, that is not the twins’ school, but still really, really close. Madison is not a large city, and the kids from all the elementary schools intermingle at soccer, baseball, swimming, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, church, etc……..so, if one school has probable cases, chances are other schools will have them soon. They have closed Heritage for 7 days, and all the other elementary schools until Monday. But, that will change if other cases pop up.

Day after Party

Last night was the Going Away party for the Elfick’s. It went really well, wonderful turn-out, we had 30 adults and 18 children. That is a true testament to the Elfick’s, great people who have a host of wonderful friends. They will definitely be missed! Everyone is starting to save $$ for a trip to Australia. I posted some pictures on my Facebook page – but I will share a couple here in another post with details about the party. But, first I wanted to share the destruction of Lael’s bedroom. I expected messy, I figured there would be plenty of toys to pick up after that many children are here to play. But, this room gives a whole new meaning to messy! Caeden’s room came through mostly ok, just a few toys here and there. On an unrelated note – it snowed here today! Nothing really sticking to the ground, but real snow!

Madison Street Festival

Caeden’s Cub Scout Troop was supposed to be in the Parade at the Madison Street Festival. So, the boys had to be there early to get in line.  Chris, Todd and the boys went on early, and Aimee, Lael and I drove over a bit later.  When we got there, we found a good spot to watch the parade go by and waited.  Todd called to tell us when to start looking for them.  Finally, we see the Cub Scouts.  They are easy to spot in their uniforms with the flags.  Dylan was pushing some sort of wooden car thing, with another kid riding in it.  Todd and Chace were all the way on the other side from where we were, so I didn’t get any good pictures of him at all    Oh well, there is always next year.

The parade goes on by, so we decide to walk around and check out the booths.  It seems like every clown,, beauty queen and all the booths are giving out balloons, so Lael has several, in different colors.  She spots a booth down the road a bit that has blue balloons and insists she needs a blue balloon.  Sure, no problem.  We walk up to it and I realize that it is a Democratic party booth and the blue balloons are emblazoned with some Democrat’s name who is running for Congress.  Aimee starts laughing, since she knows our family’s political stance, (Republican) in stark contrast to her own Democratic leanings.  Lael is just excited about a blue balloon.  I am not about to make the child cry by telling her that she cannot have a blue balloon for political reasons!!!  But then the guy asks her if she wants a sticker.  She is a child!  Of course she wants a sticker!!!  Now, Aimee is really laughing – it is sticker with a donkey, which Lael thinks is cool.  Whatever!

Finally, the boys return and we head over to the Inflatable Fun Zone!  Oh boy, they have 6 or 7 inflatable things, sounds like too much fun right?  I head over to the table to get tickets.  I was not prepared for $1 per ticket.  1 ticket earns you one time down the slide, or one time through the obstacle course, or even better two tickets for the biggest and best maze like obstacle course inflatable!  I thought it was a racket, but what can you say?

After that, we head back out to the street to see what else there is.  My stomach is rumbling, Aimee and I decide on gyros.  YUM!  I don’t think I’ve had one like that before.  She gave me the choice of chicken or lamb, I didn’t have a clue, so I got a taste of each.  Lamb was delicous, chicken was a bit dry, so-so.  Lamb it was – and it was humongous, and sooooooo delicious!

The whole morning was great – the street festival was nice, the kids had a blast!

Soccer Cheering Team, Birthday and BBQ

Heather and her family are already here, so today Mom and Dad decided to drive up also.  The twins had a soccer game this morning at 9:45.  Mom and Dad hopped on their motorcycle and took off from Birmingham early enough to make it in time for the game.  It was awesome, the twins had their own cheering section!!

It is also Dad’s birthday next week so after the game Mom, Heather and I went to the grocery store to get the yummies to make his fave cake – Red Velvet.  We also decided to get some BBQ for lunch.  I thought we would try a BBQ place here in Madison that apparently tons of people LOVE.  On the weekends, the drive-thru is absolutely covered up.  I have seen 12-15 cars in line there on a regular basis.  So, I figured it must be good right?  Well, apparently people here in North Alabama don’t know what BBQ is supposed to taste like.  There are so many different variations of BBQ is it unreal!  This is what one of my faveorite magazines, Southern Living, had to say about BBQ and the South:

As long as there’s been a South, we’ve loved barbecue, the one food that defines us most as a region. It suits our Southern sense of comfort, society, and the passage of time–friends and family gathering around glowing embers, drifting smoke scenting the air and seasoning the meats of animals that grazed the grass of our prairies and rooted the mast of our forests.

That might be a bit over the top, I mean I love meat, I could never be a vegetarian, but I don’t really want to think about these animals roaming around the woods behind my house and then eating them for dinner. 

Anyway, back to the topic – BBQ at this place was weird, different and not good.  When she gave us the container, it didn’t look like the 2 lb. that we had ordered.  She confirmed that is was.  We decided that would not be enough, so we got another container.  Then we asked where the sauce was, she said it’s mixed in the BBQ.  REALLY?!?!? Where???  There was certainly no sauce there that I could see.  So, we got the meat home, and I dump it into a pan to doctor it up with some ‘real’ BBQ sauce.  The stuff that they claim to be sauce was a clear, vinegar base type that just was not good IMHO.  The actual meat was not that great either.  So we have striked that particular place off our list.  There is one great place here, but it’s not in Madison – it’s out in Limestone county, feels like the country, but in reality only about 15-20 minutes away.  It is called Greenbriar Restaurant. This is the real deal, Southern BBQ like I am used to. They also have the best hush puppies I’ve ever eaten.  They bring a basket to the table when they bring your tea, and they just keep filling the basket up when it gets empty.

We always have to find a BBQ restaurant wherever we are.  It took a long time in upstate NY, but we finally did.  It was called Everglades.  Which is very strange considering after we left NY, we were practically living in the Everglades.  In FL, we did find a place, but I cannot remember the name of it.  I don’t think we were in Charlotte long enough to settle on one.  In Tuscaloosa it was Archibald’s, yep – most people erroneously believe it is Dreamland (which is good!), but Archibald’s is better.  Ifound a funny review somebody did about Archibald’s here.  In Birmingham, it has always been Full Moon.

No new taxes

sounds like a good thing huh? well, no not really. Voters in Madison country voted down a proposed 1/2 cent sales tax increase. A 1/2 cent! I mean would you really even notice the increase when you buy your groceries???? I didn’t realize when they first started about the tax increase that everyone in the entire county would be voting. I thought it was just supposed to be Madison city – but no it would have affected everyone in the county, which means Huntsville city school system, as well as Madison county. We (Madison city) needed the additional revenue, of course, to build a new high school, but Huntsville and the county needed it much worse, from what I have read.

I don’t understand why the public would refuse to support our schools. These are our children we are talking about, our future! We must give them all the support we can to give them a fighting chance as they grow and learn. Madison city is one of the top systems in the state and even nation – but we still lag behind in community support. The following is an excerpt from the Madison city superintendent, Dr. Dee Fowler:

The districts that our children and schools are competing against, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, and Hoover have abundantly more local money than our district. They are able to offer additional programs, technology, lower class sizes, hire teachers above the state allocated number, and have state of the art buildings. These perks give them an advantage over our children. For example, the number of teachers over the state allocation allows them to offer additional classes and lower pupil teacher ratios. Hoover has a student population of 12,041 and 244 teachers over allocation. Mountain Brook has a student population of 4,303 and they have 142 teachers over allocation. Homewood has 3,341 kids and 113 additional teachers. Vestavia Hills has 5,833 students and 167 additional teachers. Madison City has 8,095 students and can only afford 44 extra teachers.

That is a just a glimpse of the extras that those systems have that our system lacks. Those children have a distinct advantage over ours. If you want to read more about the differences between ours and theirs read this
article at al.com