One more week

It was a cozy weekend.
I may or may not have stayed in my jammies all day on Saturday.
And, at 5pm finally took a shower.
And put on clean jammies.
Don't judge.
I read two books, too.
And, did a little more cleaning and purging.
Annnnnnd, played more Candy Crush.
Quit judging.
Now it's Monday.
Ick.
One more week of summer for my people.
It was a long summer.
And a short summer.
One thing's for sure, it was a weird summer.
What with the double death thing and all.
But, it was summer nonetheless.
I never do all the things I want to.
All those grand summertime plans.
Swimming and movies and trips and stuff.
And then Mom Guilt sweeps in for awhile.
Moms, why do we do that to ourselves?
Build up all these magical and perfect plans in our minds.
I think moms may care more about all that stuff than the kids do.
Hope so.
But we had fun doing whatever we were doing. Or not doing.
It's so easy. Relaxing. No schedule. No routine. No bedtime. No homework.
Jordan had a good summer for sure.
She was on the go a lot.
She would show up for a shower and a tank of gas and she was off again.
Lots of youth group trips.
Boyfriend.
Friends.
The parasite sidelined her for awhile, but other than that... go go go.
Coop was a snuggle boy.
How long can a boy wear boxers and not get dressed?
You Tube videos.
Xbox.
Ping pong games on the coffee table.
Putting contests in the den.
Andy Griffith episodes during lunch.
So, we have one more week of summer.
I'm taking off a few days.
We'll do a little more of the same.
I'm a little melancholy.
I love having my people home.
Gonna squeeze the yummy out of the last few days of summer.

boo hoo

It's almost over.

Bye summer. 

I'm sad.

Really sad.

I'm in denial really.

Yes, we bought school supplies.  But they are all still in bags tucked away. Outta' sight, outta' mind.

I wish it could be summer for my kids forever.

Monday's gonna' be rough for the Coopster.

Then comes Tuesday.  Poor Jordan.

She's got big plans with Jane Eyre this weekend.

Talk about denial. 

She denied summer reading allllll summer.    But did manage to knock out two books this week. 

And, on top of all this tragedy, the Olympics end on Sunday.

So, let's recap.  Homework, bedtime, lunchboxes.  And no Olympics. 

Waaaahhhhh.

wanna' play?

My den is very ... lived in ... during the summer.

Cooper kind of takes over with his toys and things. He plays all day. He's ten.  That's his summer job. 

I try not to get too twitchy with all the stuff that's taken over the whole den floor.   It's a little tricky walking through there.  And the poor dog.  Occasionally plows right through. 

But anyway, it is what it is.

And this is what's currently in my den:

Marble run track running from one side of the room to the other.

Wrestling arena complete with back stage area, medical area, stage, ring, announcers table and 599,127 wrestling figures.   Oh a a "money in the bank" suitcase suspended over the ring via huge lego tower

Four golf putters and three golf balls and a little practice putting hole thing

Pair of binoculars

Stackers cup game

Summer reading book that's not seeing much action

Xbox controllers and games

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Guess that's what we'll all be doing this weekend since it's going to be 275 degrees every day.

Peace out.

yeah, it's hot

High today 102.

High tomorrow 103

That's like Equator Hot.

Ridiculous.

Stupid to talk about the heat.  But that's what people do.

Whoa, it's so hot.

People also like to tell others when they have a headache.

Or when they can't sleep.

Why is that?

I thought about that last night at 1:30 when I couldn't sleep.

Dallas last night was good. 

J. R. was conniving as ever.

And his eyebrows should have their own zip code.

And John Ross... whew ... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Ridiculous TV I know....

But, like I said, it's a nice break from shows about gators and sasquatches....

OK, have a good day, people.

Hydrate or die.

summa'

It's a pleasant morning...

But it won't last for long....

This is the lamest of lame posts. 

But I know you don't really want to hear me talk about how my job is going well even though I haven't mastered how to get in the back door of the building.

It's also stupid to admit that I'm excited to watch Dallas tonight.  Yeah....

Monday morning

Proud to say that the Captain and I came in third out of 19 teams at the Trivia Night.  There were lots of President questions.  I answered Grover Cleveland for all of those.  None of those were ever right.  Poor Grover.  He's never the answer to any trivia questions.

The rest of the weekend featured watching tons of US Open golf.  Good stuff.  If you like that kind of stuff.  We do.

Other happenings....

Earlier in the summer, Cooper put up the Man Cave for a few days.  That has been replaced with a homemade marble run track.  Ramps, paper tracks, tubes.  He's been quite creative.  It's also a fairly decent size and is in the middle of the den floor.  When the ceiling fan is on, it alters the track placement.  Also, a big ol' dog running through the den alters the track placement.   

Jordan's taking Driver's Education this week.

And I'm headed to take a TB test.  More on that tomorrow.  How's that for a tease?

Peace and love.

Seven on seven seven

Today is July 7th.

So here are seven summer on seven seven.

1. The Man Cave has been razed. Coop put up a 2-man tent in its place, but it only lasted a day because he said it got too hot in there. When we put the tent up, Cooper climbed in, said, "There's a bone in here!" and came out holding a leg bone. Yes, some sort of 12" animal leg bone. The tent was used on a camping trip by the youth group earlier in the summer. A few questions on Sunday found the young man who had used our tent and discovered the bone. The interrogation ended when he said, "Did you find the jaw bone too?"

2. My newest toenail polish color obsession is Essie Geranium. It's kind of orange-ish and red-ish and is the color of, well, a geranium. It's divine.

3. Jordan is gone. Again. I really don't think she has been home for more than 24 hours any day this summer. It's just like a little whirlwind. Kind of blows in, then blows out.

4. Cooper has been honing his magic trick skills this summer. He already played with his magic set quite a bit, but has been fueled by the 96 episode Mindfreak marathon earlier in the summer. Some of the tricks are actually pretty good. Some need quite a bit of work. And some, ummmmm.... Last night he had a bandana on the Bloggie Doggie's head and was saying, "I will now turn the dog head into a cat head and then back into a dog head!" Well, it was an effective and very speedy trick. Because I totally missed the cat head part. Voila!

5. Strawberry banana smoothies are where it's at.

6. Netflix has been the most awesomest of awesome things for us this summer. Seriously, how did we live without this?

7. The Captain and Cooper have been watching lots of shows involving alligators, snakes, rats, and Sasquatch. I'm glad the current craze for them is Whose Line Is It Anyway. Cause that's quality television right there.

An Untitled Post

Good news. I survived my trip to the dentist.

It was a bit more involved than he first thought. Of course it was.

So he gassed and drilled and poked and jabbed and carried on in his typical dental fashion.

And I cranked up the nitrous and listened to the extended version of Blondie's "Call Me".

And I wrote a great blog post in my head.

But it was nitrous-induced. And now I can't remember it. Bummer.

And I kept telling him that I thought there was water running down the side of my face.

And he kept telling me there wasn't.

So, today my jaw is still hurting a little bit.

But I'll live.

And today is Friday.

And July 1.

And it's a three-day weekend.

And all that is good.

Except for the July part.

Because that just means the summer is flying along.

No likey.

So I hope you all have a nice long weekend.

May fireworks and hot dogs abound.

Wrong way

So yesterday was yet another exciting day at the Casa de Angie128. And by exciting, I mean I was off work again and spent the day playing Mario Kart, eating Cheez-Its, and introducing Cooper into that fine summer tradition known as Required Summer Reading.

He has to read "Sounder". I don't recall having to read that one. And I'm pretty sure it's a sad animal story - as in Sounder goes to Dog Heaven. No like.

Cooper successfully made it through Chapter 1 - WOOT! Small victories, people.

I am not having many victories in the Mario Kart arena. For some reason, my Kart always gets turned around and I end up going the wrong way around the track.

And it plays out something like this....

The Captain screams "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!"

And I say, "NO I'M NOT!"

And he says, "DON'T YOU SEE THOSE ALL THOSE ARROWS SAYING TURN AROUND?!?!?"

Well, OBVIOUSLY I didn't or I wouldn't have been going the wrong way.

Humph.

No Mario Kart, Man Cave or Summer Reading for me until tonight. I'm headed to that place called Work.

Ciao!

A spicy day

Well, I'm off work again today which makes me happy.

Yesterday, Cooper and I managed to play Wii almost allll day. And we may or may not have stayed in our pajamas all day long.

Oh, and we cleaned out the spice cabinet.

Yes, it was a very big, BIG day.

I am still curious about the fennel I found in my cabinet.

Fennel? What on earth is that? Why would I have bought it or used it?

I'm clueless.

I'm also the owner of four jars of oregano and every form of garlic you can imagine: garlic powder, garlic salt, garlic & onion, garlic & herb. The list goes on.

I'm sure today holds a lot more Wii. And some good times with my favorite nine year old. But it sure won't be as spicy.

It's here.

Whatever today is, it has arrived.

I'm headed back to work. Which is kind of stinky. Because I did a good job this weekend of kind of doing nothing. And today will require me to actually wear shoes.

The kids begin their official summer routine of sleeping in, laying around, watching TV, and eating frozen pizza every day. Oh, and volleyball. Yes, it's kind of year-round.

Cooper continues to watch Mindfreak. And for those of you keeping score at home, we are on Episode 65. I will miss about 20 episodes today while I go try to earn a living for these people.

I'm glad the kids get to just hang out and do whatever.

I wish I could hang out and do whatever too.

But, alas, those boss-type people at work kind of expect me to show up every once in awhile.

Anybody seen my shoes?

Summer + Job - Coping Skills = Hard

So last night I was trying to remember what I had blogged about that morning. Just couldn't remember. So I headed over here to the ol' blog and found that I didn't even blog at all. Huh? What on earth? Who knows what I was thinking - or not thinking - yesterday morning.

Guess I've finally blown a fuse in the ol' brain. It can only handle so much before it just shorts out.

Not gonna' lie....life has kind of kicked me hard lately.

Just stuff. Lots of different stuff. Some of it big. And some of it not so big. Some of it important. Some of it not so important. Some of it legitimate. Some of it ridiculous.

But when you add it all up together, it erodes the coping skills.

And apparently the brain.

But summer is here.

Which really doesn't mean much to the ol' Work Outside the Home Mom.

It makes it easier. And harder. At the same time.

No bedtime, no projects, no lunchbox, no routine.

But there are church activities, social events, sports practices, and just regular ol' things happening at home. Which is all pretty hard to manage and be a part of from my office.

Oh, and the guilt. That's always nice. I just loooooove the guilt of not being a part of my kids' summer. Nice.

In summary, summer is hard on the working mom.

Oh well. It will all work out and be just fine. It has every other summer. So I'm sure this one will be no different.

And I will eventually get a grip.

In the meantime, I just found out today is not Friday.

Awesome.

Farewell Summer

For all practical purposes, today is the last day of summer. Blah.

Cooper starts back to school on Monday. Jordan starts Tuesday.

Let's take a little look-back at Summer 2010...

It was HOT. It was very, VERY hot. It was MAGMA hot. In fact, it's STILL HOT. It's been "Send Hate Mail to the Weatherman" Hot. I know. Whiny whiny whiny. But good grief. (I just heard The Weatherman call 97 and 95 degree days next week a "cooling trend". Ri.Dic.U.Lous.)

For Jordan, it was the summer of youth group stuff, sleeping late, volleyball practice, and oodles of dental work.

For Cooper, the summer brought lots of SpongeBob, Phineas & Ferb, fort-building, car-playing, and magic show obsessing.

It was the summer of the smoothie.

And the TV show Bones. (Props to Connie!)

It had its share of tragedy and sadness. But we covered that yesterday and I'm not going back there today.

I did a lot of driving. If there were a Mom badge for Kid Carting, I have earned it. In spades. Connie and I managed to coordinate drop off and pick up schedules for four kids with church stuff, volleyball practices and football practices and other miscellaneous social events. Multiple kids. Multiple locations. Excel spreadsheets and highlighters involved. But we managed. {HIGH FIVE}

It was also the Summer of the Cash Outflow. A new air conditioner. Jordan's oral surgery and braces. Lots of youth group camps. Her trip to Houston. And of course the final whammy with the purchase of school supplies and uniforms. Cha-$$$-Ching.

And now, Summer 2010 is coming to a close. It was (kind of) lazy. It was (definitely) crazy. But it's riding off into the (HOT) sunset....

Goodbye Summer. You served us well. See you next year.

Double check your school supplies this weekend people. School bell rings next week!

Hydrate and have a good weekend. Muuuuuuah!

Guess it's two out of three

Four weeks until school starts.

Say it ain't so!

I'm in total denial about all that.

I like the lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer.

We've had all that.

Lazy. Crazy. Hazy.

Now the crazy cranks up and the lazy ratchets down.

And the hazy just hangs around no matter what's going on.

Blah.

Jordan is full swing in daily volleyball practice.

And Cooper starts football next week. Practice three days a week.

Yes, he's playing football this year.

Tackle football. Tackle.

That's another story for another day.

Anyway, there's a lot of drop off, pick up, drop off, pick up.....

Let's see...what else do we have to cram into these last four weeks....

Jordan has oral surgery next week to get four teeth pulled followed by three appointments for braces. Erg.

Cooper needs to get a cavity filled. Mom guilt.

School supplies. School uniforms. That's another $57,209.

Hey Jordan - how's that summer reading coming?!

Oh blah.....

I just wanna' stick with the lazy.

And forget the crazy.

And the hazy.

Cause the high today is 296 degrees. And The Weatherman actually just used the word "scorcher".

Alrighty people. Wishing you lazy with no crazy.

Peace out.


P.S. Nick starts radiation and chemo today. Daily treatments for seven weeks. Hope you'll continue to pray for him. His CaringBridge page is right here.

Summertime...

....and the house is so lived in....

Current items visible in my kitchen:

• Nerf sword
• Purple frisbee
• Bowl of clementines, grapes, bananas
• Plastic hockey stick
• Two red, white & blue 4th of July bowls
• Nerf gun
• Mouthpiece
• Five tomatoes (thank you J & C!)
• Roll of duct tape
• Lego knight action figure
• Two pints of blackberries
• Sunday's paper
• Crossword puzzle book
• Three lint rollers

I expect the Hoarders TV show people to be calling me any day now....

Daughter boarding. Mom bawling.

OK people. I'll just cut to the chase.

Yes, I cried.

Actually I cried before we even left the house.

I cried when Cooper was hugging Jordan goodbye and said, "I'm hugging the nervous out of you and hugging my love into you." Awwwwwww.....

Then we drove to Little Rock. We got her all checked in (a few extra hoops to jump through and fees to pay since she is an "unaccompanied minor".). We put her on the plane.

I held it together until she walked down the jetway. And she turned around and smiled and waved and said, "Bye! I love you!" And they shut the door.

And then I cried.

Then she was off.....

And I cried some more.

And I made the Captain walk down all the gates so we could watch her plane as it taxied down the runway. Allll the windows. At alllll the gates. We lost view of it right after it took off.

And I cried some more.

But I dried it up before we even made it to the parking lot.

Aren't you proud?

Then we started the drive home.

And I talked about how I'm apparently allergic to childhood physical, emotional, social and mental positive growth development.

It makes my eyes water immensely. And it makes my heart feel all funny.

I started talking about how old the kids are and how old my neice and nephew are and "soon they'll be in college and married and gone and...."

And the Captain started pointing out the pretty rice fields to try to shut me up and make me quit caterwauling take my mind off my unhealthy mommy hang-ups small moment of emotional weepiness.

And I know him well enough to know he was thinking, "Man, I wish I had never asked her out on that second date...."

But he is a sweet Captain. And instead he said, "That's a nice rice field. Hey look! Soybeans!"

On a lighter note, our road trip featured this....big matching set of all kinds of yellow motorcycle stuff.....
(I showed Cooper that picture when I got home and he said, "Oh cool. It's a motorcycle with a trunk attached.")

So back to the "Jordan on a Plane" story....Around the time she was expected to land, I checked the ol' iPhone to see what was going on.

It said her flight had "landed and was taxiing to terminal".

That's when I started saying over and over "Hooray! Hooray! Landed and taxiing! Landed and taxiing! Landed and taxiing".

The Captain kept driving. And really didn't turn his head toward me.

Then I realized I had looked at it wrong and it was her ORIGINATING flight that had landed and taxied.

Awwwww man.

"I must retract the landing and taxiing."

The Captain kept driving. And really didn't turn his head toward me.

He just pointed out a crop-duster plane.

But it wasn't long before she really did land. And taxi.

She actually landed in Houston before we even made it back to Memphis.

She is going to have a great time this weekend.

Her summer fun kind of goes down hill from here. She has daily volleyball practice, oral surgery to remove four teeth, summer reading, and braces to look forward to before school starts. Good thing she has lived it up so far.

So back to work for me today. Been a long week to only have to work three days. But now it's the weekend. HOLLA!

Peace out my people.

Friday Post - Long Holiday Weekend Edition

1. Nick's surgery went well yesterday. As his mom said, "Round 1 went to Nick. Cancer took a beating." He still has a long road ahead. But good steps were made yesterday. Thanks for praying for him.

2. The Adventure-Having Daughter and Captain come home home tonight. And yes, she leaves AGAIN next week on another trip. She's a vagabond.

3. Cooper and I have had an exceptional week. Camp Cozy Bed has been a most excellent place. And one night, we may or may not have been in bed at 5:45. Maybe. We've watched our share of America's Funniest Home Videos and have laughed our heads off.

4. I'm off today. And we get Monday as the holiday since it falls on a Sunday. Soooo, I'm off work until Tuesday. Say amen people.

5. I had the consultation yesterday for Jordan's braces. Let's just say we can fix her teeth for the same amount we paid for the new air conditioner. Plus, she has a "challenging mouth" and will have to have 4 teeth pulled AND have jaw surgery. There is some major misalignment of her top and bottom jaws -- some sort of measurement thing which should measure 1.0. Hers measures 7.8. The pulling of the teeth and the putting on of the braces will happen this summer; the jaw surgery won't happen until next summer. The DDS also teaches at the dental college here in town and said she would most definitely be a case study for the dental students. So....blah to all that. Stay tuned. And send money.

6. I'm getting my hair cut today. You're welcome.

7. I'm off work until Tuesday. What? I've already said that? Oh sorry. I'm just slightly excited.

8. I continue to remain ever thankful for our freedom and independence.

9. May hot dogs and fireworks abound for you this weekend.

10. And, finally what's Indendence Day without THIS??!!

It's all an adventure

So Jordan was home long enough over the weekend to...

....sleep 24 consecutive hours.

....unpack her bag.

....wash her clothes.

....repack her bag.

....leave again yesterday morning at 7:30am.

This time she took the Captain with her. He's a chaperone for this youth group trip. They will be spending the week at Adventure Camp. They will be whitewater rafting, horseback riding, paint balling, ropes course climbing... The Captain loves all that adventurey stuff. As if chaperoning a group of 50 teenagers isn't adventure enough.

So, it's me and Cooper for the week.

Our big plans include watching Funny Home Videos and eating cheese dip for dinner. Every night. That's adventure enough for me.

And we will be spending lots of time in the place we call Camp Cozy Bed. Which is pretty much self explanatory.

Have an adventuresome day people!

Cue the crickets

Jordan left early Saturday morning with the youth group to go to camp. (It's not "campy camp in the woods camp"; it's on a college campus in Arkansas. So there is no huge level of "roughing it" involved.)

Incoming messages from her have been scarce to none. That, my people, is a good thing. That means she is having a great time. That means there is no drama or homesickness or unhappiness.

The Captain got a Father's Day call on Sunday morning.

And I have seen the occasional, and sometimes cryptic, Tweet from her....

"I'm here!"

"We got a senior dorm!"

"I love my youth group!"

"Undies wants to know how to use an eyelash curler."

"Great devo tonight"

"Whoa! That was amazing!"

and my personal favorite...

"I'm in love"

(Which could mean anything from loving the milkshakes in the cafeteria, the shampoo she borrowed from her room mate, or some boy she has discovered at the campus bookstore.)

I did get one text that said a few people had thrown up. And one that said they were Skyping with Nick. And one that a friend had been baptized.

Other than that, we haven't heard much from her. And I'm ok with that.

Yesterday I sent up a flare...

"Hello. This is your mother. Just making sure you are still alive. I love you. Peace out. "

Soon, my phone buzzed...

"Love you too!"

:)

H-O-T

Dear Weatherman:

It's. Hot.

Surely it gets a little old saying that over and over again.

Temperature 97. Heat index 538.

The Triple H.

Hazy. Hot. Humid.

Blah blah blah.

Need a few more words to use to describe the heat?

Thought I would help you out a little.

It's baking, blazing, blistering, boiling, broiling, burning, feverish, fiery, flaming, heated, humid, like an oven, on fire, ovenlike, parching, piping, roasting, scalding, scorching, searing, sizzling, smoking, steaming, stuffy, sultry, summery, sweltering, sweltry, tropic, tropical, very warm.

You're welcome.
Angie