Friendly Confines

Though Tut looked alluring at the Field Museum and Leonardo was doing his best work at Science and Industry, and Navy Pier exuded energy, we went on to Mecca, oops I mean Wrigley Field. And miracle of miracles CUBS WIN!!

Now it's back to the baseball that predominates my regular life.

A place where all that natural competiveness and agression can do some good. Catch that ball and fire it to second!

The Sun Did Not Shine

It was too wet to play. Ok, actually it was only that way from 2pm on. The morning was nice but humid and hot. The afternoon though, Whew! It really blew. The neighbors' trees (3 in all) came down and we lost alot of shingles from the house and garage. Power was out for awhile too. E and L were at Girl Scout Day Camp. They had to move the girls to shelter. Of course dh was supposed to pick them up, and because he is a technophobe (Luddite actually) I couldn't reach him. He does have a cell phone, but doesn't turn it on. I've told him that makes it a paper weight, but I digress. At any rate that, and the fact that his car died, made him rather unpleasant last night. He has taken this coming week off. I hope his mood improves because I really don't need a week of grumpiness. I got on the roofs this morning and reshingled the bad spots so hopefully that will help. We aren't going anywhere but I'd like to take the kids to the community pool or the reservoir or something. Hopefully we're done with high winds.

Savoring the Moments

Friday I went to a professional conference. I left dh a schedule of where he needed to be with whom and when. It took a whole page of notebook paper. He was busy from 7-7. He seemed shocked. Bwahahaha! Welcome to my world.

Hail and baseball are a poor combination. At what point do we adults lose the thrill of "raining ice cubes" and refrain from dancing among the stinging pellets?

DS's comments after spending three days counseling at Cub Scout camp. "Geesh, those little kids really wear you out." Again, welcome to my world.

As a point of future reference, do not put my 5yo anywhere near a microphone. Especially in church. He will cradle it and sing into it like he's on American Idol.

Do not let oldest DD comment aloud on 5yo ds. "Thank you, thank you very much! He'll be here all week!"

Do not have a mother who finds them both amusing, it will only encourage them.

Huh?

"Such a mature girl."
"He is such a help, especially with the little boys."
"Definitely full of drive."

Who are these people and what have they done with my chilren? Where are the pods? E and S are helping with Girl Scout daycamp and Cub Scout daycamp respectively. C is just attending. Why can't they show these qualities at home? Because they know I HAVE to keep them, no matter what, that's why. They told me so.

Feels Good

It feels like we will finally be starting summer here this week. The kids have been playing baseball but frankly, we are one of those sort of hyper families that likes to have bunches going on. The really fun stuff starts this week. This week E is counseling at Girl Scout camp, Bible school is this week, we continue swim lessons, C will go to Cub Scout Day camp, S helps set up day camp today and tomorrow and we continue baseball (if it finally quits raining). Next week L goes to daycamp along with E. The week after that dh is taking off. I've scheduled a bunch of physicals the kids will need in the fall, so 3 MD appointments that week. It you wait until Aug there are no appointments to be had. That weekend before the 4th is our town festival so lots going on: parades, carnival games, water games, rodeo, demolition derby, etc. The week after that L goes to church camp and S goes to Boy Scout camp. Then I'll help them rush to get 4-H projects done. The following week is the fair and C and S go to church camp. That leaves two weeks until school starts and S and E will have summer band those two weeks. I'm sure we'll do other stuff too. We've gotta fit in some lightning bug catching, camping, trips to the pool, zoo, children's museum, etc., and I just got an e-mail that my class reunion will be going on in Aug. I'll have to decide if I want to go to that, we'll see. The only reason to go would be to see the about 10 people I liked in high school, LOL!

Better days here.

Jody, thank you for the kind comments.

kmom,Jody, and Chris, et. al. Congrats on *largerfamilies

*Congrats to *mabear on #12

*Rain today puts us at 4 games on Saturday. Of course now that the field is under water the sun is shining.

*While it was raining I was persuaded to play Go Fish (or Gold Fish as they call it). This was made even more tedium inducing by playing with a 5yo who doesn't know his numbers, a 7yo who insists on calling the 5yo moron, and a 2yo trying to climb on my head. The following game of Crazy Eights seemed enthralling by comparison.

One Of Those Days

Do you ever feel you have your own thunderstorm lurking over your family? Yesterday I did.
L and F were to begin swimming lessons. L loves the water, jumps off the diving board, etc. but for some reason she decided she did not want to go. I got her in the car screaming all the way. She had a Linda Blair worthy fit by the pool. No amount of calm was going to reach her. I took her out, with many eyes staring at me. She did not calm down. If anything she became more loud and unreasonable. Now, if it had just been her I would have left but F was still in the water. It was quite a show. And I admit right here, this is childish, but I hate the other parents staring at me with that "what an imcompetant mother" look in their eyes. It was a very long 45 minutes. Mel pointing and chanting "naughty, naughty" didn't help either. Dh came home in the early afternoon to report his car is stalling and he needs replacement fillings in two teeth. He was not what I would call cheery. The backdrop for all this was 12yo and his snarky attitude. I can only conclude he finds himself wry or dry witted. I mostly found him annoying. At least the 14 yo is pleasant. Of course you only see her for 15 minutes a day as the rest of her time is spent shut up in her room. I'm beginning to suspect vampirism. At 9pm I delcared it bedtime for all. I just couldn't be nice anymore. They needed to remove themselves or it was going to get UGLY.

Great Big Brownie Smile

Today was the end of the year Brownie meeting.

Singing in a Brownie Circle


Rare photo of me taken by E


Yesterday included three baseball games. Why do they try to make up rain outs? Picked up S from Boy Scout camping trip. Eeeew! They swam in the river and their clothes stunk! Along with the usual taking care of the yard and the pool and feeding the troops that was about it for the weekend. I've gotta win a sweepstakes to Paris or something!

Hot Fun in the Summertime

A real back seat driver


A day in the pool has almost gotten rid of all the marker tattoos so she no longer looks like a Maori tribesman. And it's more fun than a bath.