Goodbye Summer

Today we officially wrap up Summer 2011 and tie it up with a big bow.

The weather this morning feels cooler, crisper.  Fall is coming- whether we like it or not.

Now you have to bare with me as I recap our not so eventful summer.........

 We finished up our time at preschool.  I will never go back there with a tiny excited child again.  I miss it.

 My two nephews graduated high school, and my sister's home caught on fire during the night and they all survived.  Both things I am so very grateful for.

 Sam got so filthy boy dirty every single day this summer.  Another blessing I am happy for.

 My husband turned even older.  Add that to my thankful list.

 This little frog visit might just have been one of our highlights of the summer months.

 Ally got her braces on.  Again.  Oh- and she went back to being Allyson.  Again.  She was Allyson, then she was Ally, and now she is going by Allyson.  (sigh)

 We did sparklers right in our own yard- just like everyone should. 

 We said goodbye to some of our favorite neighbors, and welcomed new ones.

 Emily had her very first every sleep over!

 We camped in the great outdoors with dear friends.

 Allyson had a sleepover with some of her besties.  And I am still alive- score one for the momma.

 Oh dear heavens- Sam started kindergarten.

 We said goodbye to a part of our family- Lew Lew the Wonder Dog.

 And unexpectedly enough, welcomed a new member shortly after.

 Again with that boy messiness thing.

And we vacationed in Florida but never played in the ocean.

Time keeps on marchin' along- whether we are ready or not.

Somebody help me, 'cause I don't understand

I have always thought legos were a cool toy.  In theory anyway.  Because I never actually played with them.  Not because they are boy toys or girl toys- just not something that got my attention.

Last year, Sam was introduced to legos.  And I was thilled.  And then I was pissed.  Seriously.

I mean here is a toy that costs at least 17 times what it could possibly cost to make it- and it comes unassembled in a box 38 times the size necessary.  And when you give this kind of a toy to a child who is obviously new to legos, who do you think gets to build the damn thing while carefully following the 68 steps and sorting all of the same stinkin' blocks into their 16 piles according to thickness?  That's right, me.

I really thought we were going to just build random houses for small plastic super heros to live in.  I didn't know there were complex plans with 'recipes' that had to be followed step by step.  Where is the fun in that?

Dan always waved off barbies saying he just didn't 'get it'.  Now that there is this boy?  His fingers are too big to help.  It's all crap really.  Like a conspiracy.  I spent the entire morning Christmas day assembling a lego firetruck while Sam slapped my hind end with a whip shouting 'Faster!'.  Is this what they call bonding?

Yesterday Sam brought me the instructions to one of his lego sets and asked if I could help him build it.  I'm not even joking when I say it was a 4 hour process.  Two hours before school.  And two hours after.  I was in tears by the time we finished it.  And by we, I mean me.  Sam's part was to ask how much longer and occassionally help me dig around looking for a thin blue 8 piecer with a hole on the end or the white triangle piece with the stair steps underneath.

It was painful. 

And once I completed said truck?  He just really wanted to drive it around.  See- we have trucks, actual trucks, that would be very capable of driving around.  I don't understand, in the slightest, the purpose of a toy that comes unassembled, makes a grown woman cry while trying to put it together, and then requires such carefullness when playing with it so it won't shatter back into 300 pieces.  I don't 'get it'.

And this morning, when I heard that truck accidentally fall off of the kitchen counter..............instant terror shot through my veins.  Because I knew exactly what was going to happen, he was going to ask me to help fix it.

And I showed him all of his other beautiful trucks that don't come apart, ever, and asked that he just use one of those instead.  Because momma's all legoed out.  And besides- the pain that overwhelms me (other than in my finger tips that have carefully and painstakingly pried and pushed tiny plastic pieces together for hours on end) that comes when he tears apart a 6 hour assembled lego masterpiece is more than I can handle.

Learn to do it yourself oh small blonde one.  Love, momma

The underground railroad for Dogs

 I'm not sure why, but somehow calling this dog OURS feels like we are doing something wrong.

 She was running our neighborhood loose without a collar or tags, no electronic chip tracking thingy, no ads have been run in any of the newspapers that we have checked, no one has answered our ads, we've hung fliers................no one seems to be missing this dog.

And yet, here we are over a week later, and although I technically have called off the search and rescue mission............it seems like we took someone elses dog and are calling her ours.

How much dog hair do we have to accumulate in our house before I can stop feeling like a dog thief?

Our family camping trip that was a long time ago.........finally

I never did post any pictures from our family camping trip the end of July.  And since this sorry little blog is the closest thing to a scrap book for my children- I must now include these.

 It was a nice weekend, one that I will treasure as it was nice to spend time with my family and enjoy their company, humor and wit.

 Here is my brother..........eating corn.

 And here is my brother and his wife.............eating corn.

 Here is my sister.........not eating corn.

 And here is my corn.  Dang that was some good corn.  It was on this trip that I discovered a hispanic seasoning called Tajin (I have no idea how it is pronounced......but it is tasty).  If you have a desire for adventure, wander into a mexican grocery and try to find yourself a bottle.  Of course, don't ask anyone unless you speak ACTUAL spanish, because they won't understand you. 
Apparently, speaking slowly in english is not spanish.

Tajin is lime and chili pepper- says it is good for fruits and vegetables.  My preference?  CORN!

Here is Sam roasting a marshmallow..........which is what we ate in addition to corn.  His Aunts, sisters and cousins were playing yahtzee and he took it upon himself to make them all s'mores.  He would slap a marshmallow on the stick, roast it for like 3.5 seconds and pop that cold marshmallow onto a cracker with chocolate and deliver it to them.  And they would argue over who had got to eat it.  Because NOTHING is better than an ice cold s'more.  Well, other than a nice toasty warm melting s'more.  But those were no where to be found.

He never did get to eat his own s'more that night- he said the 'bingo' people said he had to feed them first and 'man they are some hungry people who just LOVE his smores'. 

I will forever refer to my family as 'the bingo people'.

A Public Service Announcement

We will now demonstrate how to not get stuck in our scary stairs and have to live there forever for the rest of your life:

First- relax.  There is no need for panic.

 You will be unable to pull your big giant noggin straight back through- it will not fit.

 You will need to turn your head to the side and gently pull it back out.

This concludes our announcement.

You're welcome.

A strange feeling

Dan's dad has been in the hospital since last Saturday.  At first, they thought it was pneumonia.  Then they thought it wasn't. 

And then they thought it was a staph infection, and then it only grew in one of their cultures, so then they thought it wasn't.  Which is good and bad- because although he doesn't have the actual Staph infection, it is there somewhere between the needle, his blood and the petry dish. 

Then they worried that the cancer was ravaging his bones.  But after a bone scan, they found it wasn't.

So then they worried about the tumors in his lungs, but after a CT scan, they decided they weren't the issue.

And today?  They still don't have a clue.  But they are sending more blood to other hospitals and calling an infectious disease doctor. 

He's running a low fever off and on.  His oxygen levels drop very low when he tries to move.  And he feels cruddy.

And I'm afraid.  I suppose it hit me yesterday that his body might not be able to fight hard enough for long enough- and what if this stupid disease wins?  What if it takes away the only grandfather that my children will ever remember?  What if this is the year that grief will settle back into our family?  What if Lew passing was just a way for the Lord to help my children begin to understand death, because He knew that Dan's dad was going to be next?  What if I never get to play cards and tease this man again?  What if he never asks me if I like seafood again in my life?  What if....................his end is almost here?

I have to push this from my mind.  I can't handle it today.  Thanks for letting me dump it all out here.

Sweets and Flowers

 Over the weekend, my beautiful Daisy turned into a Brownie.

 It's this fancy girlscout thing where they 'bridge' up to the next level of scouts.  Why on earth she became a girlscout brownie instead of a cookie is beyond me.

Either way- its a girlscout conspiracy to generate more revenue by making families buy multiple vests/sashes over the course of their lives.  See- Daisys wear the blue one, the one which I have already painstakingly sewn on 247 individual patches.  Brownies wear the brown one.  But being a former girlscout myself, I am trickier than they are.  Forgoing my original plan to just give her Allyson's brownie vest, I decided to go ahead and fork over the cold hard cash for the new vest and 23 patches that it required.  But instead of hours with needle and thread?  Hot Glue Gun.  Worked beautifully.

And Emily didn't even know the difference.