Well, we have survived July! I have so much to catch up on with posts--I thought about putting it all in one post, but I'm sure none of you has time to be reading my blog for half-an-hour! I'm going to try to divide it up and do a little each day this week. (There it is in print, I am accountable now to actually do it.)
Other than all of our activities, life has been pretty typical for us. Here are a few experiences that stick out in my mind:
Midnight Ordeal:
Having kids wake me up in the middle of the night is a regular part of my life, and I am sure I am not alone in this. I have learned that if I get woken up in the early morning hours, all is good and I am an affectionate, loving parent anxious to comfort or nurse my darling child. If, however, I am woken up within the first three hours of falling asleep, Mrs. Hyde emerges and it would be wise for whatever little brat wakes me up to have some sort of protective gear. The other night Anna woke up around midnight, with pains in her legs. She has this often, and Motrin usually takes care of it. But . . . we were out of liquid motion. Let me tell you what I learned: the middle of the night is not the best time to teach a child how to swallow a pill. After much eye-rolling on my part, and tears on Anna's part, she actually managed to get it down. It takes about 30 minutes for the Motrin to kick in, and I needed something to ease her pain in the meantime, so we went to the freezer for an ice-pack. We have about 6 different types of ice-packs, but none were in the freezer. This is because my kids use them for various non-intended purposes and don't put them back in the freezer. What I did find was a baggie with four frozen pancakes--sounds like a great alternative when you're only half awake. So Anna gets up on her bed, and all of the pancakes (and crumbs) fall out of the bag. We get them cleaned up, Anna gets to sleep, I get to sleep, Dan continues to sleep. The next morning we were talking about it and Anna asks me, "Why didn't you just put some ice-cubes in a bag?" Good question.
Breaking Dawn Release Party:
On Friday night, Kaylynn, Ashley, Jeremy(?), and I ventured out to the Barnes and Noble party celebrating the release of Stephenie Meyers new book. It was a little crazy in there (imagine huge numbers of teenage girls, their hopelessly romantic mothers, and a few wandering males-including my son). Ashley and I were probably the last two to get a wristband and were destined to be at the end of a long line of people. We left for a little bit and went to Wendy's for rootbeer floats, and then, due to a tip from another parent, ditched Barnes and Noble, and went to Walmart to get our copies where there were only about 30 people in line, and the book was much cheaper. From there we went to Denny's, where we met up with Christina. I realized that Denny's is really the restaurant for me--it takes me a long time to decide what I want to order, and our waiter gave us plenty of time for that. We also waited a while to get our water cups refilled. Again, I think he had our well-being in mind: it being the middle of the night, I know he just didn't want us to be up peeing all night. I ordered chili-cheese fries, which were actually quite delicious. I went home and tried to figure out how many Weight Watchers points I had sqaundered. It turns out it was off the charts, so I'm going to count that as zero.
Beautifying Dirt:
Yesterday I did some yard work. I will generally avoid this as much as I can because viewing my front yard too much could be hazardous to my relationship with my hubby, because we prioritize the front yard a little differently. (As I write this last sentence, I realize that this comment could itself be hazardous to my relationship with my dear husband, who does read my blog, so I must say that although we have never done our front yard, Dan has redone every room in the house from ceiling to floor (except for part of the kitchen), painted the outside of the house, installed windows, alarm system, cool garage door opener buttones, great closet units, fixed appliances, created a media PC, cool attic ladder and just yesterday was putting up wainscotting in our living room, etc., etc.) Anyways, the front yard could not be ignored any longer, so I engaged in one of my favorite chores which I lovingly call "Beautifying the Dirt." This involves first weeding, then raking up big rocks, then with gloved hands gathering into piles the small rocks and debris, which then either go into the trash or into the side yard. Then to top it all off, a decorative swipe of the rake. It is very rewarding, because when you finish smoothing away a lot of dirt, what you have left is, well, dirt. But it's prettier dirt. It only took me about 3 hours, and I only did half. I also did weed-killing for the first time. I am generally anti-poison, (I don't even like bug sprays--I would almost rather live with the ants), but we have this patch of grass that is invading my beautiful dirt, and I was ready to kill. I also sprayed myself a little bit, but I'm still alive. As for happy yard work news, my pomegranite tree finally has blossoms and fruit!! I also picked several apples from our apple tree and we will hopefully make some applesauce today. Our plum tree bore fruit for the first time in three years, but we kind of ignored it and now we have a lot of prunes on the ground. Anyone want some?
Here's my upcoming post schedule:
Monday: Follow Me Boys: The Adventures of Dan and Jeremy at Scout Camp
Tuesday: Alligator and Baloney Boy Celebrate Birthdays
Wendnesday: Roll Out the Red Carpet: Chris and Tiffani Come to Visit
Thursday: The Dance Festi-Hell (The Place I Might Go for Calling it That)
If I actually keep to this schedule, I should reward myself. Maybe take a bubble bath, catch the latest movie, curl up with a good book. Or better yet, I can reorganize some more dirt.
