And we're back!

Vegas was fun.  A little too much fun.  I was finished by the last day...I need more sleep and better eating now that I'm OLD.

We got home Monday afternoon, and I left Tuesday morning to go get the kids.  Traffic was a bit different traveling on a weekday, so the round trip was about 10 hours.  Yucky.  But it is good to have them back.  Right?  Right.

It took me about 6 full days to miss them.  I am a little embarrassed to write that.  Six days.  I enjoyed talking to them and stuff, but I didn't really miss them from the pit of my stomach until the 6th day.  By day 8, I was planning to cancel our couples running weekend in October, because I'VE BEEN AWAY FROM MY BABIES TO LONG AUGGGHHHHH!  Jeff talked me down off the ledge, and having taken all 3 children to BJ's this morning, I think I'm just about ready for that couples weekend now.  ;)

I start to sweat a little when I turn my calendar page.  September looks scary.  I know I will get into the swing of things, and it will be fine.  But it looks so...overwhelming right now.

Tuesday:
8:50- Andrew to bus
12:45- Lily to bus (1st day of Kindergarten!)
12:50- Sit down and really learn how to spell kindergarten.  And kindergartner.  Seriously.
1:45- Michael speech
3:55- Remember to go meet bus (I have a Kindergartner, so I can't be lazy and let them just walk home)
4:00- Begin filling out the mountains of paperwork that will come home on the first day.

Wednesday:
Add Lily's dance class at 9:30 am.  But no Michael speech.

Thursday:
Wait.  Thursday is wide open.  Phew.

Friday:
Add Lily and Michael's gymnastics at 10:30.
Michael has pre-school orientation at 1:30.
Andrew has soccer practice at 4:30.

Okay.  That doesn't look so bad now that I write it out.  The week after that I have to remember what time Michael gets dropped off and picked up.  Fun fact!  Lily's bus is scheduled to come at 12:44 (a bit optimistic that they'll be that precise, eh?), and Michael's preschool drop off is at 12:45.  But at least we'll have a schedule to follow...I'm a little tired of this loosy-goosy, let's just play Wii for 5 hours straight summer ending we've come upon.  ;)

The anatomy of a week off from children

What a gift this week has been.  I dropped my kids off Sunday, and have been really enjoying the time without them.  Which is horrible.  I feel like I should be huddled in a corner, shaking with grief that they are gone.  But I'm not.  I enjoy talking with each of them on the phone...Andrew several times a day, since he can sneak away with the phone and call me up unassisted.  I definitely look more fondly at children I have encountered throughout the day.  I appreciate more the life they have given me...I am more lonely and bored than anything.  You know...since taking care of them is kind of the only thing I have going on.  ;)  And I can't exactly get together with my friends since they still have their kids with them.

Anyhoo...here's what I did with a few days to myself.

Monday I painted.  All day.  Jeff had taken apart and moved out almost all our furniture on Sunday.  Our little master bedroom just isn't big enough for the furniture we bought for our 3000 square foot house in Louisville.  We are pretty packed in there.  So our bedside tables went in Michael's room, our headboard/footboard/boxsprings went in Andrew's room, and the 2 dressers went in the middle.  Then Monday I painted.  And painted.  And listened to a book on tape.  And painted some more.  Dear Lord.  Painting is boring.  But I finished edging 2 coats and rolling 2 coats.  It looks good.  But my shoulders were NOT happy with me.  Thanks for that, Dad.

Tuesday was my 35th birthday.  I had vowed to do nothing productive.  Shadow and I went for a long walk in a state park in the morning.  I read a book until lunch time.  I went out to lunch and had my favorite sandwich (asparagus, brie, tomato, garlic mayo on a grilled panini).  Then I went shopping at the mall...I walked the whole mall and went into stores I haven't been in...ever since moving here.  I realized that our mall sucks...it's really small and full of crappy teeny-bopper stores and it has 2 Hallmarks.  Really?  I came back home rather quickly and read the rest of the day away.  I'm reading Middlesex.  It's very good.  Jeff came home and we went out to a fancy dinner...a Cajun restaurant in an old Methodist church on the Delware river.  Very cool...very yummy.  Went to bed WAY to full.

Wednesday was chore day.  Weeding much of the morning, laundry, cleaning up the house, shopping and preparing food for book club I hosted last night.  Read some more.  Had my first yearbook meeting.  Had a great time with friends.

Today (Thursday), Jeff took the day off.  He has worked several 14 hour days due to problems at the plant, so he is owed some comp time.  If he ever wakes up (we are supposed to leave in 40 minutes!), we are going to take our bikes to the canal path and ride along the river to our favorite French bakery for breakfast and then back.  That should take about 2-3 hours.  Then we have to pack...because we are leaving for Las Vegas this afternoon.  Woo-hoo!

I definitely miss my kids.  Not in an aching way...this time off has been lovely and precious and just wonderful.  But I have no purpose without them.  I don't know how women used to just be stay at home wives.  They must have had very clean houses.  ;)

Quotables

Andrew and I are reading Harry Potter (the first) at night.  He wouldn't read it for the longest time, because the movie trailers scare the bejeezus out of him, and he assumed the books would be the same.  I literally forced him to sit down and read it with me.  He loves it.  It is really fun.

Thursday night, after finishing our chapter, we went to the internet and looked up one of those quizzes that will tell you which Hogwart's house you would get sorted into.  Andrew got Ravenclaw.  He was THRILLED after reading the description of Ravenclaw.

Friday night, we read a section that made a joke about Hermione's parents both being dentists.  He stopped the reading and said, "Wait.  Both her parents are Muggles?  So how did she know...?  How did she get into...? Can people really...?"  As I saw the hope brimming in his eyes, I had to let him down..."Remember, Andrew...this is just fiction."   He had a brief vision of going to Hogwarts himself someday.  Man, I love these books...they just draw you in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lily is not nervous about starting Kindergarten.  At all.  Yet I persist in trying to make her feel reassured about something that she needs no reassurance with.  She shut me down with her 5 year old wisdom the other day:

Me:  "Isn't it exciting that you will know a few people in your class?  They won't all be strangers on the first day."

Lily: (shrugging as she continues coloring) "It's okay, Mom.  On the second day there won't be any strangers."

What a good attitude.  This girl is going places, I tell you.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last week was tough on Michael.  When we went on the computer to check teachers, there was a lot of fist pumping and hollaring and excited cheering as we found out Andrew and Lily's teachers.  Then for several days following there was more shrieking and excited talk as we found out which friends were in their classes.  We knew nothing about poor Michael's teacher or Michael's school.  He asked me over and over who his teacher was and what supplies he was supposed to bring.  (This is a little preview of how left out he's going to feel when Lily and Andrew go off to college and he has to stay home to complete his senior year.)

Yesterday we got a letter from his pre-school.  I called him over as I opened the envelope and I told him, "Michael!  Your teacher's name is Mrs. H."

And Michael pumped his fist and shouted, "YES!  YEEEEES!  THAT'S WHO I WANTED!!!  ANDREW!  I GOT WHO I WANTED!"


Which is really funny, since we have never been in this school, and there is only one teacher to get.  :)  Just wants to be one of the big kids.

Darn you, Special K

You know what really bugged me the most about the Olympics?

The Special K commercials.  The ones where lots of perfectly healthy looking women act all appalled and scared to step on a scale in Times Square.  And then the scale tells them self-fulfilling words instead of that horrific number.  And they laugh nervously and say things like, "Someday I hope to be my true self", implying that it is their WEIGHT holding them back.  These are not obese people, whose lives are drastically altered by problems stemming from their over-weightness.  These are simply average people who do not look like Victoria Beckham and want to.

I literally yelled at the tv every time it came on.  We should not be scared to step on a scale in front of people.  Will there really be a big surprise?  We all know what a person around 100 pounds looks like...140 pounds...190 pounds...  Except we don't.  Because everyone's build and height is different.  So basically, the number is meaningless to anyone other than ourselves.

And if you aren't happy about your weight, sometimes you can't do anything about it.  Eating Special K will never get me to weigh 120 pounds.  Never.  Unless I eat one flake a day.  It certainly won't help perfectly average people fulfill their lives and make them happier.  This commercial just serves to perpetuate the belief that we should be embarrassed and ashamed to have less than perfect bodies.  Even if we aren't that far off the mark.

I hate stuff like this.  HATE.  How am I supposed to raise my daughter to love her body?  We never talk about weight in this house.  I go to the gym to get stronger.  I run to make my heart healthy.  I need new clothes because my body has so many new muscles and is trimmer because of it.  I am trying to make this Lily's motivation...her gauge of her body image.  I tell anyone and everyone my weight (160) and pants size (12).  I always did.  I feel a glimmer of success when I sign her up for gymnastics and she tells her brother, "Do you know why I'm taking gym?  To get stronger."

But then...media...celebrities...people everywhere talking about how much they hate their bodies and how they look.  Ugh.  I feel like I'm fighting an unfair fight.  I over hear the kids playing, and the bad guy always says, "You are stupid Mario.  And fat."  It hurts my ears.  Why is fat so awful?  Who made it so for them?  I even asked them one time why they think it is so bad to be fat.  Does being fat make you mean?  Unhelpful?  Does it make you not have fun?  They couldn't give me an answer...it just is in their list of "bad things".  And it is now on our forbidden word list...  which also makes me sad.  Some people are fat.  That shouldn't be a negative or a positive in their minds.  Losing battle.

I know what I need to do...what I can do.  I can emulate my own mother, who raised 3 girls that don't measure their worth based on physical attributes.  I can tell her I love her no matter what.  I can tell her she is the most beautiful girl in the world despite her protests.  I can be satisfied with my own physical appearance.

It's just all so scary...

Almost every day in August?

Ha ha...heh...ha...

So blogging every day isn't realistic.  :)

This week has been a flurry of activity and zombie-like brain-numbing boredom.  Fluctuating between the two, I mean.

All of sudden, after getting teacher assignments last week, I realized that we are running out of time.  My list of things I want to do with the kids is long and unaccomplished.  I still want to do the Franklin Institute, the Tyler Arboretum tree houses, Smith's play place, put-put golfing...-sigh-  There are playdates I've been meaning to make and somehow time got away from me.

So Monday we went to the castle park and then to the pool all afternoon.  Pleasantly busy.

Tuesday, I had 9 children running around my house for a playdate.  One of Lily's friends from pre-school is going to a private kindergarten with one of Lily's friends from dance...and they don't know each other!  So it was a kind of match-making playdate for the moms and the girls.  That entailed frantic cleaning in the beforehand (baby!  newly walking!  choking hazards!  PANIC!) and less frantic clean up after.  Then a trip to the lawyer to pick up finalized papers for our wills and a trip to the gym to lift weights.  Boring.

Wednesday, we went to the grocery and Andrew and Lily got in trouble.  They were acting like untrained monkeys.  Lordy.  We came home and twiddled our thumbs and did homework and drove each other crazy until swim testing came at 5:30.  Boring boring day.

Today is GORGEOUS.  We went to a park for a few hours, and then to the library for another hour.  We are eating lunch and then will spend the rest of the afternoon outdoors...until Jeff comes home and we go to the Grange Fair.  Where we will wander through 4-H projects and admire lots of animals and ride crazy rides and eat delicious food.

Sunday, I am driving half-way to Ohio and handing my children over to my in-laws.  Yes, they are wonderful.  Yes, you should be jealous.  Then I will have 4...count them FOUR...days alone in my house.  Then Jeff and I go to Vegas with college friends.  Huzzah!  Good times coming!

See how boring this post is?  This is why I should NOT blog every day in August.  Maybe almost every day is just perfect.

Mr. Positivity

I've mentioned before that Michael is Mr. Positive.  It's one of the things I love the most about him.

Today we went to this park, and since it had been more than a year since we last went, Michael had no memory of going.  He was awe-struck.  And while I sat on a bench in the shade, I could occasionally hear him from far away.

"This.  Is.  AWESOME!"

Occasionally he would come running over to me and excitedly tell me things like, "Mom, I just went up 84 stories.  It was AWESOME!"


He's just so darn enthusiastic about life.  It does get a little weird sometimes though.  Like when we went into the park bathroom, with its lidless stainless steel toilet bowl that freezes your butt year round, and he said, "Mom!  Look at this silver toilet!  Isn't it AMAZING?"

He just makes you glad to be alive, this one.

Why don't you butter me up a bit more?

We got a post card in the mail Friday.

A hand-written note that reads:

Dear Andrew,

I hope you're excited to start 3rd grade.  I'm so thrilled to have you in my class this year!  We'll have a great time learning and growing together in Rm __.  If you can, please stop in to say hello and to take a peek at your new classroom on Thurs. Aug 30th from 3-3:45.  I can't wait to meet you!!

Mrs. W.
PS.  You'll find a supply list on our class webpage.


Such a simple thing.  But I am already impressed.  She took the time to hand write a note to each of her students?  Even if they all say exactly the same thing...I'm impressed.  Buttering up the parents even before the kids walk through the door.  Making Andrew grin and feel special before he sets eyes on his new class.  Sending a reminder about supply lists and open houses and opening the line of communication early.

I think it's going to be a very good year...

Time to move to Massachusetts?

Last night, the kids were telling Jeff about playing the game Life on the Wii.  One of their favorite parts is getting married and having kids.  They like to name all of their imaginary family members.

Lily was married to Ben and they had one little boy named Bobby.

Andrew was married to Amy and they had 2 girls, Madison and Sophia, and 1 boy, Jake.

Michael was married to Jonah and had 5 kids with names like Baby Tiny Bobo and Baby Tiny Kookoo.

And you heard that correctly...Michael and Jonah.  I'm pretty sure the kids think the name Jonah is a girl's name, despite the Bible story.  The men in our picture Bible have long hair, so?

The kids left the dinner table to go and play.  Jeff and I lingered to discuss our weird children.  I was laughing with Jeff that if Michael is going to marry Jonah, we'd better figure out a way to not invite my dad.  Jeff mentioned that they must have a very kind surrogate to have had 5 kids.  I mentioned that I hoped Michael spouse had some naming veto power, unlike Jonah apparently.

And then Michael ran through the room with a pink cowgirl hat on, riding a unicorn.

We looked at each other and said that perhaps we really should start preparing my father.

And then Michael started making shooting noises, body slammed the unicorn to the ground, and fought Andrew for the brown horse head instead.

Maybe we'll just have to wait and see like everyone else if it is Michael and Jonah or Michael and Joanie someday.  I really don't care which...but I really really hope my grandchild isn't named Baby Tiny Doo-doo.

Run, Forrest, RUN!

Oops.  Lost a day already.  Dang it.

Okay, so I've run out of things to write about.  The children are much worse muses now that they are older.  Today...Michael and Lily's final day of Go Fish camp was rained/thundered out, and they've been basically trashing the house since.  Not too exciting.  No fodder for me to write about.

No one out in the general public has annoyed me.

I have no funny anecdotes...or even not so funny anecdotes.

So when life gets boring, I guess I should just write about something else that is boring.



Running.


I am still running.  Can you believe it?  I've hit a huge milestone (for me) this summer.  I am now measuring my runs in miles instead of minutes.  I was always scared to measure by miles, because I just wasn't running far enough. It's just downright depressing to come in from a 25 minute run, gasping and sweating and cramping and generally feeling like crap, and announce to your husband, "Jeff!  pant...pant... I...gasp...just ran...phew...gasp... 0.16 miles.  ROCK'IN!"  So I chose to herald my minutes.  Who knows if I ran to the next town or just down to the mailbox?  I went out and ran myself exhausted for 20 minutes.  Yay, me.

Well, I started noticing that I was going further and faster than last summer.  When I ran on a paved path with the mileage marked, I realized that I was running a 10 minute mile (not my norm...but I am down to around an 11 minute mile on average).  I started to get really bored running in circles...because I was able to double my tiny neighborhood loop.

So I did the "big" loop from our house.  The one that measures about 3.1 miles (a 5K).  The one Jeff's been doing as his easy run for the whole summer.  I digress.  I ran it 4 minutes faster than my 5K last October.  Woo-hoo!

It doesn't feel too bad to say I am out running 3 miles.  So I've switched from tracking minutes to miles.

I still suck at this.  I still feel like I should have special shoes and a funny shirt on to distract from my running. I hate how boring it is.  I hate that I get random gut cramps and how I lack to fortitude to really push myself to run through it.  I hate that I have been doing this for 15 months and I am just now running 3 miles somewhat reliably.  Who is this terrible at this?

But I love how I feel when I'm all done with a run.  All sweaty and sore and like I've gotten a really really good work-out.  I like that I sometimes now have periods of the run where I am not thinking how much I hate it or how much pain I'm in, and instead watch red-tailed hawks being chased by little song birds and sunrises and feel strong and capable.  I now leave for every run hoping against hope for those brief moments to appear magically in the run.  And when I have a terrible run (like this morning), I let myself walk for a few moments without feeling like a failure...because I know that my next run could be better, or my last run WAS better.

I'm going to kick my 5K's butt in October.  And I'm thinking of trying a 10K next year.  Better get a pair of REALLY magic shoes.

A preview of next year...

This week Andrew is in basketball camp from 9-3.  He loves it.

Lily and Michael are going to "Let's Go Fishing" camp at a local nature center from 10-12.  They love it.

I have 2 hours of free time.  I love it.

Problems/issues:
-- The hour between Andrew's drop off and Lily and Michael's drop off.  Annoying.  We've gone to Dunkin Donuts every morning so far.  Andrew doesn't have camp Friday, so tomorrow will be the last day.  And since I am too embarrassed to visit the same D&D every day, we've visited 3 different ones so far.  I'll be trying a 4th tomorrow.  That's how many Dunkin' Donuts there are in my immediate area.  Crazy.

-- The location of the fishing camp is a bit far away from everything.  It takes about 20 minutes to get back home, so about 30 minutes to get to stores I am familiar with.  This takes my productive/fun alone time down to just an hour.  An hour is just a mean little tease.

-- 4 days a week this fall, I will have 2 1/2 hours of free time.  Well, probably 2, when you take drop off/pick up into account.  So this week's lack of productivity makes me realize just how little I will probably get done in my free time next year.  Especially since I want to volunteer a lot more at the elementary school and I've agreed to do the yearbook for the PTO.

Tomorrow is the last day of free time for the week.  I may just go read a book :)

Lucky 13

I wish I had the attention span to remember how to use our old clunker of a scanner so I could show you a wedding photo.  The most striking of our photos are the ones with my bridesmaids.  Both my sisters and Jeff's.  Andrea was...14?  She looks like such a baby and THAT makes me feel like I've been married for a long time.  Also?  Jeff's hair was still brown (oh!  A dig!  Will we survive the lucky 13th year?)

We didn't get a digital camera until just before Andrew was born, a gift from far-away grandparents who wanted daily...no, hourly updates on their first grand-baby.  So I will present to you some photos from back in 2003...when we had been married only 4 years.

Here we are on our "baby-moon" to Las Vegas.  Our last childless trip.  I am about 8 months pregnant.  I don't know what Jeff's excuse was... :)  Let it be noted that he has lost about 80 pounds since 2003.

Here is one of my all time favorite photos of us.  Andrew is clearly a newborn.  Jeff looks like he has just been hit by a bus.  I am wearing Hugh Hefner-esk pj's that I have no memory of even owning.  We look SPENT.  And we had only ONE CHILD.  We didn't have to entertain a toddler or prepare food for anyone but ourselves and we could rest while the baby slept like 20 hours a day.  When I was suffering after having Michael...suffering with the newborn phase all while keeping an 18 month safe and entertaining a school-less, nap-less 4 year old...this picture used to make me LAUGH.

I also love this photo because we are sitting on our old faux corduroy, duct taped together couch that we inherited from my parents (that they inherited from my grandparents when THEY got married).  And we still had the throws from college, instead of the Lightning McQueen and unicorn ones we have now.  And the curtains!  Sheets?  No, I'm sure we paid for those bad boys. Yikes.  Better to just not have curtains, in my opinion (she says, looking at her curtain-less windows).

Finally, here is us this summer.  The closest we have to a 13 year shot.  Doesn't Jeff look hot?  Mom, don't answer that.  But seriously...he is aging well, right?  I am happy to be where we are, I've got to say.  We are in a really good, happy place.  He makes me laugh, is a good confidant, continues to be patient with me, and I just love spending time with him.  We have changed, but we are changing together somehow...13 years ago I would never have believed our mutual hobby would be weight lifting and running.  WTH?  And I try my hardest not to think about just how fast this is going.  Already at 13 years of marriage.  Slow down, life.  I am enjoying my life with this man too much to have it speed away.

A good...no, GREAT...big brother

So we went online this morning to find the teachers for Lily and Andrew.  Much to my amazement, the site was not shut down.  In years past, so many people go online the morning of the teacher assignments, that the site overloads and shuts down for a while.  But we got right in.

Andrew got the teacher he wanted, for the first time ever.  At the end of the school year, the kids get to visit a classroom in the next grade.  Andrew always falls in love with that teacher, and has never actually gotten them.  But this year he got her.  He is excited.  We went to her web site and looked through the fun things they will be doing this year.

Lily has a teacher so new to the school that her name isn't even listed on the school's web site.  After I told her the name, she looked at me uncertainly...waiting for me to reassure her that the teacher was fabulous.  I smiled and told her that I was certain her teacher was fabulous, but I couldn't look her up on the website just yet.  Andrew heard the name and immediately recognized it.  After a moment, he said, "OH!  Mrs. M---!  I had her as a sub last year.  Lily, she is AWESOME.  You are so lucky.  You are going to have a great year!"  And he hugged her and reassured her and made her feel so excited.

Is Lily ever going to know how lucky she is?  Who has ever heard of such a NICE older brother?

OMG!!! Teacher assignments!!!

Every year it goes something like this at our house.

Me, "Andrew!  Today we can go online and find out who your teacher is this year!"

Andrew, "YES!  Ican'twaitIcan'tIcan'twaitwaitwait!"

Me, "Okay.  Let's log in."

Pause

Me, "Dangit.  I forget my password."

Pause while I look through paperwork.  Andrew eagerly skips from foot to foot.

Me, "Okay.  Got it.  Let's see...oh.  Site is overloaded from everyone trying to get on.  Let's wait a few minutes."

Andrew and I wait impatiently.

Me, "YES.  I got in.  Okay, you have Mrs. Soandso!  So you know her?"

Andrew, "Nope."

Me, "Okay then.  Is there anyone you want to call to see if they are in your class?"

Andrew, "Maybe B?"

We call B.  Not in his class.

Andrew shrugs and says okay.  I shrug and admit we need to wait and see what this teacher is like.


It's really kind of anti-climatic to find out the oldest's teacher assignment.  I don't know squat about the next grade up.  Now Lily's assignment should be interesting...except there are all new Kindergarten teachers since Andrew was there.

But we don't learn.  Because...

TOMORROW IS TEACHER ASSIGNMENT DAY!!!  I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT I CAN'T WAIT!

A reading fool

Up until about a week ago, I've been in a reading frenzy.  I think it was the two grad classes I took back in April and May...I wasn't allowing myself to read so that I would finish.  Once the classes were done, I think I read 7 books in 3 weeks or something crazy like that.

At the beginning of the year, I was reading a bunch of free books I found for my Kindle.  They were...well, there was a reason they were free.  After my classes were finished in June, I read many many books in a row about death or dying or murderers.  It was...thought provoking in a depressing sort of way.  I've been struggling through a few books lately.  I gave up on The Elegance of a Hedgehog, because I am too dumb to read it.  My vocabulary is not good enough.  It literally hurt my brain to finish a page of that book.  So much to my disappointment (in myself), I allowed myself to admit defeat and raise the white flag on it.  Now I'm reading The Gift of Rain, by Tan Twan Eng.  It is very well written, but it is not sucking me into the story yet.  That could be the fault of the Olympics, though. :P

Books I've read so far in 2012...

The Land of Later On
Divergent
Peony in Love###
The List
Noah's Compass
Life of Pi
Seven Exes are Eight Too Many
The Memory of Running***
Forbidden Mind ###
Practical Magic
Gossamer ###
Life As We Knew It
The Dead & The Gone
The Double Bind ***
One Day
This World We Live In
Fall of Giants ***
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
The Island of Ted ###
50 Shades of Grey ###
Jasper Jones
Midwives
The Hour I First Believed ***
People of the Book ***
The Girls from Ames
Sister ***
Talk Before Sleep
Olive Kitteridge
Secrets of Eden
The Year of Magical Thinking
Bitterblue ***
Becoming Sister Wives
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
The Thirteenth Tale ***


***= I particularly enjoyed
###= I particularly hated


My favorite so far this year has to be People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.  Very original, very interesting, very well written.  No, wait...I love Fall of Giants too.  I can't wait for the sequel out this fall.  Oh!  No, The Thirteenth Tale was very good also...a ghost story of sorts.  Very fun.

And you can see why my floors aren't very clean ;)

Any suggestions on great books you've read lately?  And if you are thinking the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy, please just move along and don't hit the comment button.  I am happy you enjoyed it and encourage reading in any form.  But we clearly have different tastes in books :)

The closest Jeff comes to criticism

After my photo representation of a day in the life of his children, Jeff came as close to a criticism as he would.

Last night after the kids were in bed he said, "So.  Do you think next summer we should put the kids in more camps.  You know, keep them busy?"

I found myself protesting...there have been plenty of busy weeks this summer.  It's just that all our vacations were in the beginning of summer.  And they are in 2 weeks of camp this summer...just spread out.  And last week we managed several social outings that wouldn't be possible if they were enrolled in camp.  And they LIKE being able to wear pajamas until 10 am and watch tv and bum around a pool in the afternoons.

He quickly backed down and shrugged his shoulders and said okay okay.

But a few hours later, I realized my folly.

Put all 3 in camp.  All summer.  And I would... be childless for hours a day all summer long.  And it would have been JEFF'S suggestion, not my idea at all.

What an idiot I am.

A day in the life of Andrew, Lily, and Michael

Yesterday I decided to document a day in the life of each kid.  Originally I envisioned this as 3 separate posts...but my kids were together so much it would have been quite repetitive.  So.  I picked a day where we had no planned activities.  Every hour I took a picture of what they were doing.  The results were...boring.  But I spent all day taking pictures, damnit, so you are going to have to look at them!

6:45 am

They've already been awake for almost an hour.

Watching the Olympics that were DVR'd the night before

Michael Phelps is swimming great!

Oh my gosh!  He's approaching the finish!  He's going to win!

Nooooooooooooooo!

7:45 am

Playing some sort of airplane game

8:45am

Leaving to go to the park

9:45am

Having fun at the park!

They made up a game that they weren't allowed to step on the blue ground covering.

10:45 am

STILL at the park!  But Andrew is now playing alone.

And working hard to prevent his mother from reading her book.

Lily has made a new friend and is playing some elaborate game.

Someone kept tagging along, though.

11:45 am

Home again!  Lunch is over and they are enjoying creamsicles in the back yard.

12:45 pm

Homework time!

1:45 pm

Andrew is doing some quiet reading

While Mike and Lily pretend to be...alligators?  I think?  Something like that.

2:45pm

Sitting around preparing to start whining and fighting.  

They were all in their rooms shortly after this picture was taken.

3:45pm

After some "reset" time in their rooms, Michael has started playing Heroica...a Lego game...

...while Andrew and Lily read Garfield.

4:45pm

UNO Attack!

and immediately after that picture was taken, the UNO attack dissolved into a building frenzy.

5:45pm

As traditional in this house, during dinner prep time, my children run like crazy fiends around the house, screaming and being as annoying as possible.  This is usually when Jeff comes home.  Quite frankly, I'm lucky he comes home at all.

Michael was NOT running yesterday.  He was playing Heroica again.  Gold star.

6:45 pm

Playing one last board game before tv time and bed time.

Amazingly, none of my photo times hit during tv time.  We had a HUGE thunderstorm around 4pm, and the kids watched quite a bit of Transformers...a huge hit we rented from the library.  Also, I had banned computer games yesterday, because we played WAY too much on Tuesday.  I have a hard time with computer and tv.  I'm not good at being moderate.  Either they play on the computer ALL DAY or I have to ban it ALL DAY.  I'm just not a fan of fighting them to stop once they've started.

Olympic Fever

Last week, my friend Elizabeth came over and was talking about how excited they were about the Olympics.  And they were going to make a cake and everything to celebrate the opening ceremonies.

So I did what I do...I stole her idea.

We also tried to think of an English dinner to have...so we had fish and chips.  And sweet corn.  Not English, but the farm next to our neighborhood has really good corn right now...so that's that.

Andrew has been staying up until 9 trying to watch all he can and then he watches the taped show the following morning.  He begged to go to McDonald's to get one of their promotional "you win if the Americans win this event" things.  He thought he had a really good chance (his ticket was for Men's 200 Butterfly)...and then collapsed and groaned when Phelps lost by .05 seconds or whatever.

Lily is convinced that she looks just like those gymnasts when she is in gymnastics.  My daughter, who cannot even jump on the trampoline without falling, watches the twists and spins and perfect landings and confidently says, "Oh!  That's what I do in gymnastics!"  It will be a sad day when reality hits her.  ;)

Michael is uninterested.  He is not much of a sports guy.  But I did catch him trying out a floor routine after we watched the women's team win gold.  He got embarrassed when I caught him.

Jeff is really really into it.  He is frustrated that he is forced to go to work during the Olympic weeks and that he is too tired to stay up and watch every night.  Also?  Fencing is not being televised much...and isn't even appearing in our On Demand feature.  Judo is.  Judo.  Which I watched because I didn't know what it is.  And I'm pretty sure that the name was originally, "Wrestling like 7 year old boys", but that was too long to write on the programs.

I actually really like the Olympics too.  Even though I don't generally enjoy team sports, I am amazed and awed by these athletes.  It is exciting to cheer them on and watch them perform incredible physical feats.  I could do with a little less of "Parent Watch 2012", however.  How am I supposed to stay hydrated if I am constantly crying?  Also?  Running has gone much better this week...how exactly can I complain after watching these people.  When the running events start, I'm sure depressed and defeat will settle in.  :)