And It's Not Even Shark Week Yet

We "vacationed" to see Dan/Daddy's family for a few days last week.  It's always great to see family, but it's even better when they live at the beach.
It's not so great when it POURS rain almost the entire time you're there.
It's also not so great when your child gets strep throat while you're there.

We made a visit to Urgent Care with the boy's temperature at 102.7, and the physician wouldn't even let us leave the office until they were able to start bringing the fever down.
We've actually made lots of visits to Urgent Care with the boy while in Florida.  It's become a tradition.
At least 3 times for strep... more when he was younger.
Twice for hives.
Once to the ER with a sea catfish barb embedded in his thumb.
Do we know how to vacation, or what?

The boy is convinced the ocean hates him, even though he loves it.  He told me he thinks his death will be by sea life... which makes the rest of my story a little freaky.

The sun came out for the last 2 days we were there, and I let my sick kid go to the beach. 
The water was beautiful.

I was taking off my flip flops and putting my stuff down on a towel when I heard the boy calling me.

Apparently, Dan/Daddy had dived right into the ocean, and a lady in the water close by was yelling,
"Sir, there's a big fish near you!"

Dan/Daddy called back to her, "That would be a shark."

She was on the shore in about 1.3 seconds.
Dan/Daddy started making his way to the sand (but not nearly as fast as the lady).
The boy yelled to me,
"Come watch Daddy get eaten!"

Maybe we watch a little too much Animal Planet.
Perhaps it was the heat and sun.
He was running a very high temperature the day before.
Please don't think he was being cruel... he loves his dad. 
I just think he has his mother's sense of humor.

73 Days

Hey there!   Remember me? 

I was driving home a few days ago, and I was thinking about the old blog here.  I was considering shutting it down.  I wasn't sure if anyone really "blogged" anymore, and I wasn't sure if I was just writing for myself. (Which really isn't a bad thing.)
Then, out of the blue, my friend "L" mentioned she was waiting on me to post.  Really?

So to the 5 of you who visit here,  I'm sorry.  To myself (who finds this therapeutic),  I'm sorry.
A lot of things have happened since April 2nd.  "A lot" is an understatement.  73 days worth of stuff has happened.
Hold on tight... here we go.

In the past 2 and a half months...

1.  We ate, slept, and breathed soccer.  The boy and his school team placed 3rd in the playoffs, and the rec season ended with a pool party.

 

Now my car is mud-free.

 

2.  We celebrated Mother's Day.

 

3.  The school year ended.  Hallelujah.  We trudged through those last few weeks like zombies.  The kids had standardized testing, Yearbook Signing Day, Field Day, Awards Day, and 2 field trips to Nashville.

 

One of the field trips was to present a project, and the other was to tour the capitol building and the Legislative Plaza.  During the tour, a certain student saw a photo of the famous Tennessean, Ida B. Wells.  He asked if it was Paula Deen.  I won't tell you who that student was, but I will tell you our family obviously watch way more Food Network than the History Channel.

 

4.  Winter/Spring finally left us, and Summer arrived.  In case you don't know me, I was sad to see the cooler temps go.  Now we are mowing the grass and weed-eating the weeds.

And my neighbor found a baby snake.

Good times.

 

5.  We put in a pool.  I wish.  Our house is a rental, and I don't think the homeowners would approve.  Instead, we bought a kiddie pool.  It's fun to goof off in, and it beats the heat.  We also get a kick out of holding our puppy in the water and watching her doggie-paddle.

 

6.  We ended the AWANA year at our church.  The boy earned his book award, and the leaders had about 392 water balloons thrown at us.  I will not post the pictures of me, sopping wet and begging for mercy.

 

7.  We've slept past 5:30 am on as many days as possible.

 

8.  We've been to the movies, invited friends to the movies, watched movies at home, and planned the movies we want to see in the next 60 days.  We like movies.

 

9.  We went strawberry picking, put strawberries in the freezer, and ate enough strawberries to give ourselves hives.

 

10.  We just finished Vacation Bible School at church for the youth, and (late last night) the boy finished a week at soccer camp.  My car was mud-free for .8 seconds.  Now he's considering playing on one of the travel soccer teams.  I love having mud in my car.

 

I think I'm going to need a summer break to recover from summer break.  And now I'm tired from all that catching up.  Maybe I won't neglect things around here again.  Maybe. 

 

Stay cool, friends.

Springing A Break

The first day of the boy's Spring Break looked like this:

That's my non-glamorous back yard.  All covered in snow.

Day 2 of Spring Break looked like this:

 

That's my non-glamorous doggie frolicking on the snow-covered deck.  And those are my legs in my snowman pajamas, striped socks, and orange Crocs... very glamorous.

 

Now it's Day 4 of Spring Break, and this is what we're doing:

 

 

We've had our fair share of Old Man Winter.  The sun shone for a few hours, and the temperature rose to 57 degrees, and we thought it was July.

Teeth, Bottoms, and T.M.I.

If you are the squeamish type, now is the time to stop reading.

 I warned you.

I only posted once in January, and it was to proclaim my new improved attitude about being less overwhelmed.  Less overwhelmed with the bad and more overwhelmed with the good. 

Well.  There's a saying that goes... "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."
I think He spent the last few weeks chuckling to Himself over me.

First of all, Dan/Daddy had some dental surgery.  It was a scheduled procedure, but that didn't make it any easier. He was given some medicine to help him relax beforehand, so sitting with him in the waiting area was very entertaining.  He flipped through a decorating magazine and declared to me his future home would not have any lower cabinets in the kitchen.  When I tried to explain how his plan wouldn't be practical, he dozed off.  When the nurse came to put him in a wheelchair, he told her he didn't need it... then he promptly fell over.  The surgery involved a gum tissue graft, and - for the record - it is not pretty to look at. This surgery was also the first of 3 more to come, so the good times will continue.

Four days after Dan/Daddy's procedure, our cat had emergency surgery.  In case you are squeamish and STILL reading, I'll just say the surgery was in a very "private" area.  Because of the nature of the "injury" and the bacteria, the vet had to leave the wound open to heal.  Yep.  OPEN. Not only was the wound open, but it needed to be cleaned out twice a day. Not only cleaned, but scrubbed.  Dan/Daddy held her down, and I did the scrubbing.  It is as unpleasant as you are imagining.
It was also as expensive as you are imagining.

On the day after the cat's emergency surgery, I left our new puppy home alone... in her crate.  She's been doing fine with her potty training, and she loves her crate.  When I got home, she was not in her crate anymore.  She had unzipped the door and was hiding under a chair.  In the short time I was gone, she had gone "potty" in the house 6 times.  She left little presents in the den, in the dining room, and under the beds.  I spent all afternoon cleaning up tinkle and poopies.  We now refer to January 29th as Poop-A-Palooza around here.

That night, while the boy was playing with Miss Poops-a-Lot, she nipped him on the ear with those razor puppy teeth.  His ear bled like a faucet... all over the den floor.

I think it was while scrubbing the blood from the carpet that I considered jumping off the roof.  Or maybe it was while scrubbing the puppy poopies?  Or was it the cat's hind end?

Now we are 6 days into February, and Dan/Daddy is recovering well.  He loves showing off his gross graft.
The cat is much better also, and we have been released from scrubbing duty by the vet.
The puppy hasn't broken out of her kennel since Poop-a-Palooza, and the boy's ear healed just fine.
I am, however, sporting a gash over my right eyebrow from those same puppy teeth.

I was glad to see January go, but I have high hopes for the rest of this month. 
Even if things around here don't improve,  my Girl Scout cookies are on the way.  I can do anything with a Thin Mint by my side.  Except maybe scrubbing the cat's behind.

Reign In The Elves, I'm Trying To Be Thankful

Ready or not, the holiday season is upon us.
I was in a store last week, and the Christmas carols were blaring. I am a lover of all things Christmas, and I never feel like it gets here too fast. But OHMYWORD. Can we just put the brakes on a little?
One of my neighbors has a tree up and lights on her house. Meanwhile, at our porch, there's a drippy pumpkin.

I've been enjoying reading all the Facebook posts and blogs about what people are thankful for.
We have a chalkboard wall in the kitchen, and every November, we list our 30 Day of Thankful.

We all take turns writing, and it's fun to look down the wall and see who's thankful for what.
So far, we are thankful for:
1. food

2. grace

3. churchy answers... This is the boy's.  He wrote it in response to me telling him to stop giving me "churchy answers" when I ask him what he studied in Sunday School or Youth Group.  I say,
"What did y'all talk about?" 
He says,
"God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit."
He's a bit of a smarty pants, and I have no idea where he gets it from.

4. Elijah... That's mine.  I had to remind myself to be thankful for the smarty pants.

5. soccer

6. Democracy

7. technology

8. Jack Bauer... We're still deep in the throes of "24," and the world needs a Jack Bauer.  Or two.

9. lacrosse

10. family

11. Baba & Papa

12. Nana & Pops

13. Alabama football... Despite that sad sad loss to Texas A&M.

14. Krispy Kreme... Amen.

15.

I don't even know where to start on this.  On my turn - the next day - I added

16.

I'm going to need lots of it, apparently.

The November Post Where I Force You To Look At Beach Pictures

Fall is zooming on by.  I read a blog earlier today, and the blogger said she hates the word "busy."  I agree.  Everyone is busy, so I don't feel like it's fair to complain about it. 
My new word is "chaotic."  Life - for us - in the last 4 weeks has been "chaotic."  Full to the brim with running here and there and doing this and that. 
I have to scroll through my camera to actually remember what's happened.


We went to the beach with Dan/Daddy's parents for the boy's Fall Break.  The weather couldn't have been more beautiful.
The boy and I were photo-bombed...

I stepped on this...

 And I took lots of pictures of this face.  Even if it bugged him.

We took a weekend trip to see my brother, sis-in-law, and nephew... who treated us to the most exciting 4 year-old soccer game I have ever seen.
In the words of my nephew, he was "on FIRE."

 

 

In our "spare time," the boy finished a huge research project for one of his classes...

 

He presented his project wearing a swimsuit, goggles, and flippers.  Good thing we hadn't packed up the swimwear and accessories yet.

 

 

I would like to think life is going to slow down a little, but I realize I'm only lying to myself.  In case you haven't noticed, it's almost the middle of November. 

Old Married Minds Think Alike

Dan/Daddy and I celebrated our anniversary a few weekends ago.  I am a slacking blogger, so the updates are old.  Like us.
We've been married for 19 years.  If you would like to assume we were 13 and 16 years old when we got hitched, then who am I to stop you?

Dan's grandmother (Nonie) sent us an anniversary card with a photo in it.  Nonie has a uncanny ability to do 3 things:
1.  Take an unflattering photo of me.  Like in my pjs with no makeup and a pimple.
2.  Carry around an unflattering photo of me and show it to all her friends and family.
or
3.  Resurrect an old photo to remind me of skinny days gone by.

Here is the picture she found.  Dan/Daddy and me... 1991ish?

 

 

1.  Yes... I am skinny. 

2.  Yes... Dan/Daddy has hair.  Loads of it. 

3.  After we got married, I threw away all the tank tops.  You're welcome.
Yes... We look 13 and 16.

I think he's got that death grip on my arm to keep me from blowing away.  I hope my mother-in-law got rid of that cinnamon broom.

 

So for our 19th anniversary, we got a good laugh from the old picture.  Then we got fancy and went out to eat.  (I know why I'm not as skinny anymore.)

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up buying each other the EXACT same anniversary card.  Either the card choices in our stores are pretty pathetic, or we really are old married people.



3 Weeks And 1 Day And Sad Hearts

If I had a nickel for every time I started a blog post in my head, I would have a lot of nickles.
Sometimes it feels like nothing is happening and sometimes everything happens at once.

It also feels like Summer will never die.
If Labor Day is the unofficial end of Summer, then old man Heat didn't get the memo.  Neither did his friend, Humidity.  It's so hot I can't even complain about the heat.  The weather chic promises a "weekend cooldown."  Unless it snows, I will not cool off.

In the last 3 weeks and 1 day since a blog posting, here's some of what has happened:

1.  I've noticed a man that lives in our neighborhood is always on his porch.  In a creepy way.  Every time I drive down the street, I see him... staring.  Any time of day or night,  he's there.  Now I tell myself, "Don't look, don't look."  But, I do.  And he's looking back.  It's starting to give me the heebie jeebies.

2. We went to my parents' over the holiday weekend so the men folk could hunt doves. The women folk hunted bargains.  It was boiling hot, so Dan/Daddy whacked off the boy's long pants into the shortest pair of camo short shorts I have ever seen.  The boy said the doves flew away because they were blinded by the whiteness of his legs.  Remind me to never let Dan/Daddy alter my clothes.

3.  I started a new walking regimen.  I walked for "health" before, but I have a new partner.  She's a retired Marine.  Yeah... I don't know what I was thinking.  She said she wanted to walk for her health, but I suspect she's taken me on as a project.
On Day 3 of our walking, she suggested we add crunches.  I suggested she was smoking something.
I gave her permission to ditch me, but she hasn't.  I may not live till Halloween.

4.  My email was hacked.  More than once.  A few of my friends were receiving links to something that I obviously did not send.  The name was mine, but the email belonged to Benito Somebody.  Really, Benito?  You have nothing better to do?

5. The boy developed (another) mystery rash.  (Way before the hunting trip.)  This one started on his hands and arms and spread to his feet. 
I took him to the doctor, sent pics of his arm to an ER Nurse friend, chased down a PA and another nurse at church, and made Dan/Daddy ask a surgeon friend of ours.  I have no shame.
The diagnosis?  No one knows what it is.  Something he touched or brushed against caused a reaction.  The doc prescribed steroid cream, and now everyone we know in the medical field is avoiding me.

6.  College football has returned and all feels right with the world again.  Turn up the TV, and bring out the food.  Something containing cheese, please?

7.  On a very very very very sad note... Our puppy was killed.  I have been avoiding blogging about it partly because my heart is still breaking.  I can't go into details without crying into the keyboard, but it was a traumatic accident.  Dan/Daddy and the boy were there, but she didn't make it to the vet.
We have muddled through the last week, and we try to remember the sweet times with her.
If you don't mind, say a prayer for my little man... he's taking it in great stride, but I know it was hard to see and even harder to get over.
So sorry to end on a sad note.
I hope and pray wherever you are... you have a blessed weekend.
If it's cooler wherever you are... get ready.  I am moving in.

Gold Medal In Nothing

Around here, we are all about the Olympics.  The TV is on 24/7 and the Games are holding our attention.
I have been amazed at every single event I've watched.
Maybe it's my complete lack of athletic ability combined with my zero amount of motivation, but I am A M A Z E D.
Most of these competitors are just kids, too.
Amazing, y'all.  Amazing.

I've decided my only gold medal would be in procrastination.  Or overeating.  Or not running marathons.

Anywho... with only one week left in this blur of a summer, here are some pics of our fast and furious visit to see our families.

First we headed to sunny Florida to see Dan/Daddy's family.  We went from the beach to the pool to the restaurants, and then we did it all over again.
PS... At some point in the last few months, my 13 year-old passed me in height.  What is happening here?

From Florida we drove up to South Carolina to spend a few days with my family.

The schedule at my parents' included fishing, napping, shopping, some delayed 4th of July fireworks, and a rowdy soccer game.

Since we've been home, we've:

1.  had a mini house guest (more on that later),

2.  survived Vacation Bible School, and

3.  started to get ready for 7th grade.

Phew.

I'm off to watch some swimming.

Go USA.

California Cousins

When we lived in the High Desert of California, one of the first friends I made was a gal whose Southern accent caught my ear from across the playground.
We immediately bonded over a shared love of sweet tea, polite strangers, and "Steel Magnolias."
When you live where the Army sends you, you look for ways to connect with people.  Sarah and I definitely connected.  Our kids connected, and our husbands even became friends.

One weekend when Dan/Daddy's parents were visiting,  Sarah mentioned her hometown in Florida.
Once we all started playing the "Do You Know So-And-So Game," things took a crazy turn.

You see, it turns out Dan/Daddy and my friend, Sarah,  were actually related.
Distantly... but it was enough for Sarah and me.
Sarah's grandfather and Dan/Daddy's great-grandfather were brothers.
"It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all..."
(You're welcome.)
I may have the relationship mixed up.  I may have it totally wrong.  In truth, Sarah and I don't really care how she and Dan/Daddy are kin.  I think we both totally forget that it's him she's really related to... and not me.

In 2008, we left California for North Carolina, and Sarah and her family moved to Australia.  Then they moved to Maryland, and we headed to Tennessee.
Ahhh.... Army life.
A few weeks ago, Sarah called me to tell me they were moving to Georgia, and asked if they could stop and see us along the way.
We had ourselves a reunion.  We had 4 years to catch up on, and we made the most of our time.
We laughed and talked and laughed and laughed.  And then laughed a little more.  Our kids had the chance to get to know each other all over again.  They also endured the grown-ups keeping them up way too late.

The boy with his "cousins"

Dan/Daddy and Nate...

"Cousin Sarah" and me...

When I am being honest, I have to admit how much I hated that hot hot desert of California.  I was convinced that we'd been sent to hell on earth.  Once I got my head out of the sand, I found some amazing people. Those years gave me great friendships and wonderful memories.  I even found a long-lost relative I never knew I had.

Fancy

One of Dan/Daddy's duties as a Chaplain is performing weddings.  He had one recently in Nashville, so the boy and I went along.

We are not known for turning down yummy food, dancing, and a chance to hit Music City.

As much as they fuss and complain, I do enjoy seeing my guys all dressed up.  "Fancy," as the boy likes to call it. 
This was the boy's first time "officially" wearing a tie...
Unless a Harry Potter Gryffindor tie at Halloween counts as wearing a tie.
It was also his first time to dance with his mom... 
Unless me beating him at Just Dance on the Wii counts as dancing with your mom.

We are definitely "casual" folks, but a little bit of "fancy" never hurts.

Love and Dessert

We're coming down from a birthday party high. Birthday partieS.
Plural. As in multiple celebrations.
It's what we do around here. We live like Nomads, and we have family scattered all around, so we like to S-T-R-E-T-C-H a birthday to it's fullest.

Last weekend, Dan/Daddy's parents and Nonie came to visit, and we celebrated the boy's birthday with them. We went out for Hibachi and had a giant cookie cake...







Taking Dan/Daddy's Nonie to a Japanese steakhouse is enough entertainment to last all year.


The night before his REAL birth DAY, we celebrated with just the 3 of us, and the boy had his first lobster... all to himself. He wouldn't even share a bite with the woman who brought him into this world. That's gratitude for you.




This weekend, all my family came to spend the Easter weekend with us. We celebrated the boys' birthday AGAIN... this time with cake.
I love that little blond head of my nephew popping into the picture to help with the candles.



In putting this post together, I was thinking about 2 things...

1. We are truly blessed. We have close relationships with our families. I know so many people who have strained relationships with family members, and I should never take mine for granted. We actually want to spend time together, and the boy is surrounded by people who love him. Blessed.

2. We like dessert. I just did a fast mental checklist of the sugar we've consumed in one week's time, and it is embarrassing. I didn't even count the mountain of Easter candy sitting in the kitchen. I keep saying to myself,
"How many times do you turn 13?"
I can justify almost anything.


Love and dessert. I will take seconds of either one.