What We've Been Up To Lately

I just sat down for some lunch. I made THE SANDWICH today. But it's slightly varied from the original. Today we used some Three Pepper Mustard I had, Munster Cheese and Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Avocado, Cucumber, Tomato, Purple Onion, and Alfalfa Sprouts. I made them for the boys too. But they only got mustard, cheese, cucumbers & sprouts. But I know when I left the room, they were pulling off the green stuff and replacing them with pretzels. So basically they had pretzel and cheese sandwiches. What a couple of guys!

On the subject of chick food. Sweetie has been out of town, so on Monday night a sweet friend and her two daughters came over for Girl's Movie Night. I found this awesome sandwich recipe online and decided that none of the manly men in my home would be caught dead eating the thing unless I put a big steak in the middle of it, so I made us our chick sandwiches and a very delectable dessert of .... oreos.

First movie (Magic of Ordinary Days) we watched on the couches in the living room (boys were banned to the upstairs). Then for the second movie (Raising Helen), we changed into jammies and laid in my bed. Too much fun, we've decided to make it a tradition.


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We've officially started our new school year this week. The boys are thrilled.


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Calvin has started football. Contact football. It's on a homeschool league, but still. I think we might need to up our health insurance. The past two weeks have been 'Hell Week' practice. Sweetie took him to his first couple of practices so by the time I got to take him, he sort of knew what he was doing. Sort of. The poor kid takes after his very UN-athletic mother. But he loves it and is having SO much fun, except for the 'whole body being so sore he can't climb the stairs' business. And then there is what he looks like in his practice gear. Is it okay for a mother to swoon over her own son. What is it about those shoulder pads? And the big helmet? And that mouth guard that makes his mouth look all big and sticky-outy? He's one handsome kid. Better not be any cheerleaders at these games, is all I've got to say!


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I've re-organized the laundry room for the 10th time since we moved in 2 years ago. I just had to re-do the labels, they weren't all matchy matchy and I couldn't sleep with that going on.

We take our bugs VERY seriously here in the south.

I'm very handy with my label maker, I'm thinking about taking this show on the road, I could help a lot of people out there.


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I really would like to join the local YMCA. I want to have a place to go to every morning. Want to jump on the treadmill and try to do better than the person next to me, unless she's skinnier and training for a marathon. I want to take some yoga classes again. Maybe give a few of those complicated weight machines a try and be strong enough to move the furniture around in my house again. And don't get me started on the very cool pool outside for the whole family to enjoy. They even have a spiral slide that they let the mommies go on. But we don't have that kind of money right now, to justify me joining, at least not right now, not when I have all this at my disposal......

Sweetie bought me this a couple of years ago, when I just knew that I'd use it everyday. ....

It's under a ceiling fan and in front of the TV, it doesn't get any better than this.

Except that I could also stare at this. And who are those cute little boys? Seriously, what a couple of cutie-patootie's, not to mention that handsome guy in the back.

I could also lift these while on the treadmill, doubling the workout and building some serious muscliage (is that a word?)


I could also use these, but who am I kidding? I can't even lift these to vacuum under them, I just keep going around them.

And then in the bedroom, there is this....yes, I have like 15 yoga videos, is that the same as private yoga lessons? I'm thinking so.

Anyway, so now you see, I have absolutely no excuse for not being in better shape, except for maybe this.....

Oh, wait, that looked way too good. I think I need to take a nap. Afterall, my label makin' finger is pretty sore.

House of Plagues

For the past three weeks we've been battling pink eye. I'm starting to think it might be something else. It hasn't hindered the boys from doing anything fun like chores or schoolwork, but it has hindered them from playing with their friends, especially since they gave it to the sweetie pie down the street. (Sorry Suzie)

So I'm up to my eyeballs (hee-hee) in hot compresses, eye drops and kleenexes.

Then Sweetie got his 4 month check up for skin cancer, came home with 4 scrapings, got called back in for surgery on 2 of them. 17 stitches later, I think they got it all. I was out of town when this happened and got a not too pleased phone call from a sweet friend complaining that I didn't tell them out it and now her and her husband are completely worried about Sweetie. I'm glad we have friends that care, especially since Sweetie's wife has become totally callused when it comes to his little surgeries, the poor guy.

This week he got his stitches out and has now developed some sort of oozing rash all around the incisions. Lovely! So for the past three weeks the guy has been dealing with this uncomfortable itchy soreness and a VERY sympathetic wife.

Between the oozing eyes and the oozing rash, I'm booking myself into a hotel.

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged. I love being tagged. It makes me feel loved. :o)

So I'm suppose to update someone that I haven't seen in 15 years with what's been going on in my life. Is that right? And I only get a list of 10. But I say, since when do I follow the rules????

15 years ago it was 1993. I had just celebrated my 2 year wedding anniversary to Sweetie. And I think we had just started to try to get pregnant. We were living in an apartment. I was working??? I don't even remember what job I was working at that point. (that shows you all the different jobs I've had) Anyway, here goes...

1. Left my job as a preschool teacher and thought I'd go for the Pink Cadillac selling Mary Kay. That dream failed. Soon after I found myself working at the mall as a receptionist at a Hair Salon. Then worked at Nordstrom. Then worked at our local Trash Company, in the office, thank you very much. Was a nanny for my neice where I worked very hard at taking naps, laying out by the pool, watching movies and going on shopping trips. Soon after became a stay at home mom, because Sweetie realized I wasn't REALLY going to be one of those 'working' kind of wives where I actually HELP him bring in some money. He's so blessed to have me.

2. Moved out of our apartment and into a fifth-wheel trailer on Sweetie's sister's property. It was a VERY swanky trailer and we had lots of fun there. Saved up to buy our first house. Lived with my parents for the first three months of 1996, brought Calvin home from the hospital there and went through 3 months of escrow and some serious cleaning of our first home. Lived in that cute house for 10 years, until GOD moved us here to North Carolina.

3. After trying for a couple of years, had our first son in 1996 and our second in 1998. Thought I'd try doing daycare from our house, found out I no longer liked other peoples kids and especially if they were going to wipe any gross thing on my precious baby Calvin or worse teach him any bad manners, after all, he was the perfect child! When Calvin was 2 1/2 and Dave was like 6 months, I nearly lost my mind and made Sweetie go get 'fixed' so I wouldn't be caught having any more kids. I now regret that decision and wish we had a quiver full. Sweetie's not hearing of it as he's a little sensitive of the whole 'un-fixed' scenario.

4. Became a homeschooling mom when Calvin started Kindergarten. But only did it part-time as they went to a little school that would teach them in a classroom atmosphere for 2 days and then I had them 3 days. After a couple years of that, I gave up and decided to do it all on my own, have been doing it ever since. But every year, still try to figure a way to pay for Private Christian School.

5. Have had countless dogs and after a few days, weeks, months, gave them away again. Still have Winston after 4 years. Thank you very much.

6. Have been on countless weird or popular diets and have successfully gained 30 pounds since having my children. Whatever weight I gained having them, I lost right away. I can't blame my weight gain on them, only on my love of all things sugary.

7. My husband had worked for the same Electrical Contractor for 15 years and in 2000when his boss retired we bought the company. I went from being just a simple stay-at-home-homeschooling mom to 'oh-my-gosh-here's-some-stress-juggling-all-this-office-stuff'-stay-at-home-homeschooling mom. It's definately been challenging at times, but also a blessing too. God knew that I would need something else to do with my mind other than just stare at my little boy preciousness-es.

8. Was in an accident in 2000 (yes, it was my fault). Messed up my back and now am friends with my Chiropractor whom I visit once a week.

9. Have embraced the 21st century with all things electronic. I have an ipod that is full of praise music, 80's classics, focus on the family radio broadcasts (thanks Daddy), the soundtrack from High School Musical, the Rocky theme songs (because it ALWAYS gets me running on the treadmill), and some new stuff that I'll mention later. I know how to text from my cell phone and I'm learning all the cute lingo. Have a DVR on our TV so we can record cool shows like HGTV's House Hunters, America's Funniest Videos, House, Army Wives, any and all Hallmark Movies, Ed Young, and Dirty Jobs (for the boys). I learned how to email and send links and send pictures and to email to a group (this was a big job for me). Learned how to navigate the internet and found all my favorite stores, did you know that they send things right to your house??? And then learned how to blog, this is still a challenge.

10. I still love pizza (but it now can give me indigestion), ice cream (fav flavor will always be Rocky Road), now love coffee (with 1/2 & 1/2 and 2 tsp. sugar), have discovered some GENIUS over at Keebler invented Chocolate Teddy Grahams (did you know they're whole grain?), rice krispy treats make me feel like a kid again (the homemade kind), still embracing the Waffle Wednesday that my mom started (see #6 above), am branching out with mexican food and not just ordering a quesadilla anymore , have discovered I love greens, and bisquits (the yummy southern kind), still find myself getting addicted to Diet Coke (have to wean myself off once a year), still love Twinkies but I no longer buy them in secret and eat them really fast on the way home, AND a couple of years ago I dicovered that I love beer.

Check it out, I came up with 10 and can't come up with anymore.

Okay, now I tag.....whomever, I think everyone of my readers who has a blog already did it or got tagged. And the other people that read my blog are my family and they seem to be comment challenged at times. :o) (jk)

Pancakes at Night, Poptarts & My Sister (updated)

So my sister and her fun family were just here. They stayed for 5 days. It was TOO MUCH FUN! But absolutely NONE of it is documented. I've said before that I'm horrible at taking pictures, I just don't remember to do it. Oh, yes, I'll take a picture of a bush in my front yard, but fun stuff like, my sister bowling with high white socks pulled up and long shorts....NOPE, you'll just have to use your imagination, but it still won't be good enough, because she embraced her geekiness and was quite proud of herself. To make matters worse, she won our little bowling game and said it was due to 'the socks'....what a goober. But I love her.


(updated) Yippee, Kiyiyay! I found a picture on Calvin's camera. Check her out, totally 'Rockin the Socks'! She's going to totally kill me for posting this picture of her backside, but, heh, what are little sisters good for, anyway?


We kept them busy. With drives around the whole county and neighboring counties. With visits to some old friends from WAY too many years ago. Dinner at our favorite little Italian restaurant, frozen custard at our favorite local joint. Movies on the couches at night.

A trip to the Farmer's Market, where we thought we might melt into the pavement. Drinks at Sonic. Chicken Bisquits at Bojangles. Church. Open Houses and Model Homes. Cooking together in the kitchen. Making homemade salsa, greens, steak, and blueberry dumplings for dinner.

Shopping at the mall, Jay was VERY thankful he had to work that day and miss the whole thing. Marcie, Lance & I were feeling a little old as we waited on a bench for the Mallory to get done in her stores.

Bowling, girls vs. the boys. The girls won and apparently it was due to 'the socks'. Then we started driving downtown to the Krispy Kreme and then passed the IHop and decided we all really just wanted pancakes, so we turned around and all enjoyed what we decided was 'The Best Late Night Snack'. Yummy!

On their last day here we dragged them down the river in kayaks. This was too fun as my sweet brother in law thought for sure that we were going to die, Mallary had to be saved by Jay several times and by the end got the 'most improved' award, Marcie looked like a pro, Calvin didn't fall out of his kayak this time, Dave was doing circles around the rest of us, and I was trying to ram everyone but can't steer worth a darn.

We had a great time. We miss them already. We love them. They can come back anytime. And like any great house guest they brought host gifts for us. My (er, I mean OUR) own box of See's candy and a box of poptarts for the boys. My sister thinks it's her responsibility to introduce my children to all foods 'not good for you'....like the time she gave them tater tots, and made them little smokies in crescents, and now....POPTARTS. Yes, I served them the next morning. Yes, I let them have two. Yes, I snuck a bite. Yes, Jay & I ate the rest of them.

And here's the latest 'bush in my front yard' picture. The Mrytle Trees (I have NO idea what these trees are really called or how they are spelled), but they're blooming this year, didn't get enough rain last year, so I hadn't seen these yet. I'm in love.

The House, As Promised

Please forgive me, I'm not a great photographer. In fact I didn't even remember to take pictures until the very last day, right as my Dad was coming to pick me up.

I wanted to get action shots. Action shots of my mom and sister painting, not shots of me painting, because I didn't do any of it. Action shots of my dad doing little odd jobs, not shots of me, because I only did even jobs. Action shots of the tree trimmers and the amount of cutting they did on the trees. At one point on Friday we had painting going on, guys installing a ceiling fan, a fence guy putting up a new fence, the tree trimmers buzzin away, my dad fixing odd wires that were hanging out of walls and me trying to look busy, but really just talking on the phone to my Sweetie. I was very busy and important to all the goings on, after all, someone has to sign the checks and make the lunch run.

I know that I said I'd do 'before' shots, but I'm too lazy to go digging through my picture boxes to find the 'before' shots. And I would just get distracted by all the cute little boy pictures I'd find along the way, so who cares. But at least I got these and you can see our cute little house and all the work everyone did.

The picket fence needed to be replaced, this is just a couple sections to show you.


The Living Room, sweetie and his brother put in this fireplace years ago, when Calvin was two and I was pregnant with Dave.


My Kitchen, my DREAM kitchen. We finished it in 2005. It's purty.


The Dining Room, Sweetie added about 4 feet to the front of it and gave it bigger windows. That's my grandmother's table and chairs, we weren't able to move it with us.


The Laundry Room, which was finished after we had moved, hence the different look to it. I would not have chosen the color of paint or flooring, but it works.


The hallway leading to the bathroom & bedrooms. This hallway is narrow. We used to have a Golden Retriever who would wake us up in the morning by walking down the hall with his tail wagging and hitting each side wall with it as he went along.


THE Bathroom, the ONE and ONLY bathroom. We knew no different. This was remodeled around 2003. We parked our camping trailer in the back yard. The midnight trip to go pee was NOT FUN!


Seriously wish I could get out the old photo of when we bought this house. This was the NASTIEST room. This is a PG rated blog, so I won't tell any details, but seriously yucky things in here. But we cleaned it, cleaned it, fumigated it, painted it, re-carpeted it and prayed hard over it....then moved my three month old first born into it. This was the nursery. Then the boys room. Then it became the Master Bedroom as I decided to give the boys the big room.


This is the bedroom at the back of the house, it's the master bedroom. It was the boys bedroom for the last couple of years, but for showing purposes we made it into the master bedroom with a little seating area. This little room has four big windows in it. For being such a little house, it has GREAT windows!


The little seating area in the master bedroom.


This is the office. When we bought the house, it was our concrete patio, but after we bought our business Sweetie added this office onto the patio. I had personally painted this room twice trying to make it look better. Well, my mama and sister now agree with my husbands decision to NEVER let me play with paint brushes again. We staged this room to be a den/guestroom.

The daybed we set up in the den.


These are THE ROCKS. This is one of the reasons Sweetie wanted to buy this house. The boys were trying to climb these things before they could walk. Sweetie and his brother hung Tarzan ropes off of them. Lots of fun was had here. And no, never saw any snakes. Really.


This is the new back patio that we had put in. We loved having everyone over for BBQ's. We are standing at the slider door off the den and looking over to 'the rocks'.


This is the flower terrace that Sweetie put in, plus the flower boxes. It all really adds to the charm of this side of the house, plus helps with all that melting Southern California sunshine.


The whole property is speckled with these oak trees. But this one was always my favorite. It's just perfect.

And that's our little house. Yes, it was sad. On one day I was working, okay I was watching the others work and a lady came by to see the house. I was able to take her all over the house and property and give her all the history. She and her husband and kids fell in love with it. They were like a mirror image of Sweetie and I when we fell in love with it. The way they appreciated the trees and rocks and oldness of the house. Even though they had three kids they were ready to 'make it work'. When she left, though,I could feel it happening, the sadness. And then after everyone left the house that day I walked around in a stupor for awhile. Then I just sat down in the back bedroom and bawled my eyeballs out.

It's not that I'm going to miss the house or the purty kitchen. It's the memories that were made there. They are precious. Sweetie told me it wasn't even just the good memories, even the bad memories of hard times, were good. That whole house is such a story of God and his provisions and blessings. Our marriage, our boys, our families and friends, our church and ministries, it's all there. Our life has changed so completely for us. Even if God brought us back, and we don't see him doing that, things wouldn't be the same. The boys are different, relationships are different. God blessed us there and now he has us here and he's blessing us some more. He is so good. I'm thankful for my trip. Thankful for the comfort from God that I didn't even realize I needed. For His reassurance. I'm thankful too for all the help that my family gave to me, I seriously could not have done all that without them. You are my heroes! Love you all.

Thankful

Got this from Carol. But mine doesn't start with 'H'. Sorry.

1. Being home.

2. Reading in bed with the boys.

3. Being home.

4. Hugs from my Sweetie.

5. Being home.

6. Feeding my doggie cookies last night.

7. Being home.

8. Taking the boys to the lake today for a picnic.

9. Being home.

10. My jet-lagged nap yesterday.

What are you thankful for?

Fourth of July

I can't believe I forgot to update you on our wonderful weekend of fun. How have you managed without knowing what we've been up to?? I'm so sorry.

First it was a birthday party for a sweet little girl, she chose bowling and we love her for it. It was three families and we divided up into mixed teams and had such a blast. My sweetie won for the night, though he was still down because his score wasn't what it used to be 20 years ago. Then he tweaked his back with one of his bowls. But dang, if he didn't look cute in his bowling shoes.

The next morning was the Fourth, we started the day with playing tennis as a family. This is something that we've started doing quite frequently. We're all pretty bad at it, but we have fun. But that morning, Sweetie tweaked his back trying to hit one of my serves. I'm that good!

After that we got dressed in our finest Red, White & Blue and joined some friends for our town's Fourth of July parade. Where the people (and sometimes pets) are the parade. It was very 'Mayberry' and cute. I gave my camera to a friend, and that's why we have photos. I'm very bad at remembering to take photos.

The start of the parade.


A couple girls we kidnapped on the way.


A cutie-patootie friend in her wagon.


The cutie-patootie's mom and me.


Calvin pulling the cutie-patootie.


Another cutie-patootie and his bud.
Dave LOVES it when I call him cutie-patootie.

But I think this was my favorite part of the parade.
Don't you know what Winston is going to be doing next year.

As you can imagine Sweetie was WAY hip on doing this, but by the end of the parade I looked up and he had found a flag and stuck it in his hat. He's so cool.


Dave doing his 'nice' face.


The boys got their fingerprints and pictures taken by the police. It's for safety reasons, but I told them it was their mug shots and they were being 'booked'.


After the parade we went to a family BBQ. The kids rode 'four-wheelers' and Dave hugged a tree. Literally, crashed his bike and became VERY familiar with a tree. He's okay, but he now has some scratches that match his black eye from when Dad threw a baseball at him. (just kidding, Dad, we know you weren't aiming for the eye) Anyway the BBQ was fun and the chicken was incredible (thanks Dan) and the Mountain of Desserts was.....oh my goodness.....yummy....all of them....several times......yummy......

On Saturday we tried to re-coop. We layed around, rubbed 'Ben-Gay' on Sweetie's back, put salve on Dave's body and I served them all waffles while they laid in my bed watching their 'manly' shows. Later that evening we went to some friends house for a big party with friends and set off all sorts of fireworks. They were a whole lot illegal but oh my goodness too cool!

Sunday, after church, we crashed.....and put more bengay on Sweetie's back and salve on Dave's wounds.

Monday morning, Sweetie was ready to play tennis again. The poor thing thinks he's still twenty. I'm making him hang up the rackets for this week. But dang, if he isn't cute in his tennis shorts.

Heading Home

I'm leaving tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn to go home. I call it home because I have a home there. I call it home because it's where our families are. I call it home because it was for 33 years.

We are selling our house there and I'm going to go 'stage' it for the sale. It won't cost me a thing as I'm stealing furniture and items from my parents house. Aren't they great???

I'm going to sleep there, for several reasons: because I can, because I haven't since 2 years ago, because it will probably be my last chance, because I miss it, because it's our first home, because it's where I brought my babies home to, because it has my dream kitchen (I may just throw my sleeping bag down in front of the fridge), and because I can.

I'll only be there for three days. If anyone wants to come see me, please do, I would love to see you. I'll post before and after pictures next week. What fun!

I'm off to pack my tiny suitcase, water my drooping plants, throw some laundry in the washer and drag some very sleepy boys out of bed by their toes. It should be fun, wanna join me?

Thankful on Thursday

I actually wrote this yesterday, but Thankful on Wednesday doesn't sound right. So I waited and posted it today, expecially since I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and I'm Mrs. Grumpy-Pants today, and today's Thankful List really only says,
1. That I get to go back to bed tonight.

THE GOOD LIST

1. The first sip of coffee in the morning.

2. The view outside my quiet time chair window.

3. Reading some more with Dave.

4. A stay at home week with a little bit of nesting.

5. Walking on the treadmill while watching Rachel Ray.

6. My new slippers from Kohl's that I got for $4.00.

7. Sippin' on a diet coke while the boys had ice cream cones.

8. The boys conquered another chapter in their Math book and got an A- and B+ on their tests. Yippee!

9. My sweetie coming home and surprising me by taking me out on a date.

10. Yummy dinner at Outback and watching the movie 'Hancock', just kicking back and relaxing with my Sweetie.


Hope you're having a good day!

Itch

So I'm sitting here FINALLY adding comments to my most favorite blogs when I feel an itch. I'm a random scratcher. Mostly of my arms and upper back. I'll catch myself in church getting all twisty just trying to scratch. Not very classy, but then I'm not a very classy girl. Anyway, this itch was real and it was on my upper arm, so I scratch and feel a bump, that I thought was one of those pimply things that us humans sometimes get on our arms, so I scratch it off, just before I flick it to the ground I look at it, because, let's face it that's what we do, isn't it??? Anyway, it was NOT a pimply thing......it was a TICK! So of course now I'm itchy all over. I realize it's tick season, just picked one off a friend the other day, but seriously people, haven't even been outside yet today....does that mean they are inside???? Anyone wanna come for a stay at the tick motel????

Projects Around the House

If you're a blogger like I am, I'm wondering, do you go around your day and think in blog story mode? Where everything you do, goes through the 'would this be a good post' filter? That's what I do. I cannot help myself. But I need to start carrying a notebook with me or one of those handy dandy voice recorders....because I can never remember anything when I come to sit at my computer. So today I'll just give you an update of projects that we've done around the place lately. I know, quite exciting. :o)

First, this is what my sweetie's did for me for Mother's Day. We had to do something to keep the rain washing the rocks and debris into the lawn. Very professional looking, yes? They did this while I was out shopping with a friend one Saturday.




Also, this is what Sweetie hung for me this past weekend. After much frustration with my shortage of kitchen cabinets, we came up with this genius idea. And after getting 'go for it' advice from my bro-in-law and 'just wait' advice from my sister, I, of course, went with the former and bought the thing. We love it. I love it. I think it makes me look like a real chef and I've started talking and explaining while cooking. Next blog post just might be a video of me cooking meatloaf for dinner.



This is the other project. Yes, it's a magnifying mirror. I realize these are something that grandma's have in their bathrooms. I realize that it's suppose to be used for putting on your makeup. But I needed it because Sweetie was getting embarrassed of me in the car plucking my whiskers while waiting in traffic. I seriously think I'm part man with all the whiskers I've got going on. Taking up donations for my laser hair removal treatment, please send checks as the boys keep stealing my cash.





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On a completely different note. Calvin made it through his Jr. High Camp. And so did I. I sent him a card everyday. Took him cookies mid-way through the week. Didn't cry, but maybe just a little bit. Had to keep the Dave completely entertained and distracted. At one point we called Dad at work and gave him an ultimatum....either build us a pool or get us a membership at the local YMCA so we can cool off! So after that.....we are thoroughly enjoying our $20 Slip-N-Slide. Dad said it was that or start digging a hole he'd fill it up later with the hose.

Dave and I started each morning with reading in bed. He's totally addicted to the Hardy Boys books and is on book 8. So I started to read again. Christian fiction. I love to read, it's completely relaxing but I'd gotten out of the habit. So we'd lay in bed after Sweetie left for work and read away. Ah, summer vacation. The kid is very competitive. Every 5 minutes he'd ask me what page I was on. He's a pain.


This is his 'faux-hawk', he's channeling David Cook from American Idol


Calvin enjoyed camp. Got a little homesick, but overall had a great time. He made friends, spent all his money at the snack shack, lost his voice, brushed his teeth once, wore the same outfit for most of the week, got 48 bug bites, was grossed out by the bathroom and even took pictures for me of the filth, was named camp photographer and annoyed everyone with taking too many pictures, missed his mama, was nice to the girls, caught a fish, won the rowing contest in his own canoe, said he didn't learn anything new, was peer pressured into jumping off the high dive, slept in the girls cabin (for the record, it became a boys cabin for this camp, but in the past it's been a girls cabin), and sent his family ONE postcard that said, 'thanks for dumping me at this place'. He'll be dumped there again next year.


A self-portrait in front of his cabin at camp.

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We do year round school here, only because the teacher is a bit lazy, we take too many breaks and need to make it up at some point. So we're back into schooling this week. As you can imagine, with the rest of the world on summer vacation, and one of them just getting back from camp, it's going really well. Even giving them my berry cobbler for breakfast on Monday morning didn't change their sour faces. So I'm nazi mom this week, cracking the whip and trying to get the school back into shape. Please send money for private Christian school.

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I'm off to wash the dog. There is a strange foul odor that seems to be seeping from his pores. I don't even want to think about what it's from. I was thinking about staking him in the yard and taking the power washer to him, but with him weighing so little, I'm thinking it would blow him to the neighbor's yard. My bathtub will have to do.

Hope y'all are having a good week.