EX's

Yesterday could be summed up in 2 EX words: Exhausting and Exfoliating.  When I wasn't running all over between the 3 teachers classrooms that I support, I was washing, scrubbing, rinsing, and opening dozens of jars of glue and paint. Then I filled them all again. My hands were in water for about 4 hrs straight. I exfoliated all the skin off my index fingers. Today I have my signature contribution to do: scrubbing classroom chairs with Mr. Clean to make them all sparkly and looking new again. I'll be wearing gloves for this, and I will be filling bleach bottles and bleaching out trash cans too so hopefully my hands will be happier tonight if I keep gloves on. I was exhausted last night. Actually, I barely made it to night. When I sat down at the computer for 15 minutes after dinner I could barely move afterwards. Oh my aching back, feet and hands! Epsom salt to the rescue and then I went to bed at 8:30 pm. After a good night's sleep only the first 4 steps out of bed were painful.Gotta get those preschool legs back under me fast! Kids at open house tomorrow. I will get to play with the Pre-K kids before we go to their classrooms: step 1 of convincing them that I am fun! Many are new to the school and the younger ones who graduate to the big league don't know me very well.

Tonight is the first youth group meeting at church. I am in charge of the dinner program for that and decided to try a team approach this year. My goal is to get enough to sign up for the year to rotate dinners every 8-10 weeks or so. We serve 15-20. I already had it on my radar to bring in cereal since it hadn't been done before and I knew I'd be exhausted from starting preschool, so I hooked up with a family who likes to make dinner for breakfast. Tonight we'll have 5 or 6 boxes of the best cereal ever made, bananas, sausage rolls, milk, and OJ. Our cereal contribution is Lucky Charms, Cocoa Pebbles and Capt Crunch Peanut Butter. When I get home from preschool work day I will make the sausage rolls.  I don't know if all the other adults are as excited about Team Names as I am, so I will take the liberty of naming them myself :)  Oh great idea: I'm gonna put out a sign each week:  This Dinner Brought to You by: TEAM McBREAKFAST!  Send me recipes for yummy breakfast for dinner ideas please!

Sounds Excellent - yes?!

All In

The college girls have started classes this week so the kids are all in school once more.  Thinking good thoughts and praying every day for them.

Indie will have another rough workload this semester but is looking forward to an easy sprint to the finish line. She gave a presentation to 900 people yesterday as Chief Judge of the honor council.  She said it's just a bit more daunting when you are in an auditorium with a stage and a fancy podium. Her heart flipped a few times - but she didn't say anything about her stomach - I'm sure she did great!  She's been working on a book to give to the new Chief Judge next semester that is basically A Year In A Glance full of who, what, where, when, why and most importantly HOW to do all that.  I think it is an amazing contribution, especially knowing how much more difficult her job was without a manual!  She hoped to also start cross referencing case files for the use of future honor council cases brought before them but there won't be time. Instead she'll pass along that idea to the next judge who will likely continue the tradition of implementing a project to contribute to the future success of the honor council. She is studying for the GRE which will be on 9/22, and will begin applying to grad schools, but is considering the grad program at Mercer now as well, so maybe not a move to San Diego, Kansas or Wisconsin? I would be happy about that.

Taryn worked like crazy at the front desk for the past few weeks and as she likes to say, "made bank"!  All the freshmen are moved in, followed by the upper class men last weekend. She has a new roomie, a freshman girl, and I'm hoping they get along really well together. Taryn will be heading to the job fair in a few weeks hoping to land an internship. It's not the first time Taryn experimented with gravity and motion but it is the first time she almost ended up in a cast from it. When all the returning kids get together who knows what they'll come up with from their ever lovin' engineer-twisted minds. This time it was to see how many people this one dude could hold piggy back. Taryn jumped from a table to the top and fell off, hitting a chair with her shin on the way down. It seems I remember a similar scene with a human pyramid. Taryn really needs to work on her body-catapulting skills.  Or not.  I have no say in the matter!  Now that she's a humble Tigger and back on solid ground, she'll be nose-to-the-white-board and working hard to get that nasty Calc 3 out of the way!

Gib is studying with PrepNow tutoring for the ACT test a couple weeks from now. He recently scored a 31 on the math section so I am crossing fingers, toes, and everything and praying for a scholarship worthy score. In fact, I bribed him for one. We'll see! In October he will take the SAT as a follow up to his scores from his 10th grade test I made him take when Mariah took it, and he doesn't know it yet, but in November he'll take a Spanish SAT subject test.  Since he's in his 5th year of Spanish it just makes sense to showcase his foreign language skills as well as the Math, English & Writing capabilities. After the ACT on 9/8, he will begin his college admissions essays.  The goal is to be ready to submit them by October 1.  I have been spending alot of time trolling for top scholarship awarding liberal arts colleges with enrollment less than 5,000 and a sophomore return rate of greater than 80%. On the secondary preferences list is location no farther than a 5 hr drive, majors in the area of Business, possibly Human Resources Management or Industrial Engineering, or History, with a possible secondary education B.S. degree.  Mercer is actually a strong possibility since it has all 3 degrees. Mercer hits No. 9 in the U.S. News Best Universities (South Region) so it's a serious contender for alot of reasons, but scholarship potential is chief amongst them.  I told Gib he could use some leadership in a school club for his resume, so he is now VP of Ultimate Frisbee. Amazing. Good work Gibby!! That reminds me, there's a college in Wisconsin that has Ultimate Frisbee on the webpage as the unofficial school sport and they have the world record for longest game of Ultimate at 72 hrs. Will it make the list? We'll see about that as well.  And on the Eagle front, we are just waiting for the date for his Board of Review.

Mariah is enjoying her fashion consumer science class the most out of her extremely arduous class schedule. They have been covering personal appearance, fitness, and health. No surprise, when they had to identify all products that touch their skin and estimate the cost, (from shampoo to lotion, make up to nail polish) she hit mid-range of the number (15) but was the second most expensive kid in her class. Why oh Why oh Why! Mostly it was because of some special products we have to buy for her eczema. Nobody wants eczema anywhere, but especially not the face. So when Mike grumbled upon hearing this news, we pointed out he has only himself and his gene pool to blame. Mariah likes to talk about what they do in Theatre too - I got a text one day saying she had to chew like a cow. I sent back a reply that at least it was chewing and not what Indie had to do in her little skit in Kenya!! Chorus is going OK, and she hates PE. She even considered JROTC to get out of it, but I really think a semester in PE would be the better choice here. Algebra II, Spanish II and English (all honors classes) I don't hear much about - I wonder why?  She is pondering which of the 7 clubs she likes to join. I think it will be Art on Fridays at the middle school where the kids can get their fix from a very cool teacher they all love. She is also thinking Photography Club and possibly a community service club. I wanted her to look into the Rifle & Skeet Shooting Club but she didn't like the practice time of 3:30 to dark once a week from Oct-Feb. I'm a little bummed because 1) nobody would mess with her and 2) Fashion design majors who are mathematical genius and belong to the gun club aren't exactly thick on the trees. The things I could do with that to work with when it comes time to find a college!! I may still work on that one.  It has such potential.

I'm almost all IN for preschool. Next week is the week. This week we are cleaning everything and setting up classrooms. In fact, I have to leave now.

Not All In - poker was cancelled this week for Mike. Sad days.  Gib had some high hopes of a big payout to support his Sonic habit. Mike had high hopes to support all of our habits. Oh well, maybe next month.

Let's Try That Again...NOT

Guess I should have watched what I blogged about yesterday. Payback time came in the form of a rough stormy night, followed by a rough morning.  For about 4 hours we had 70 mph winds, rain, and lots of lightning (over 100 strikes a minute according to the news). We missed out on the 1" hail. I'm pretty sure I heard a tree go down but it isn't near the edge where I can see it. However, the 2" of rain was needed and it wasn't raining when the kids left for school, so I was glad about that.

Then Mike left to go to work.  I accidentally left the headlights on the VW so it was dead this morning. Ugh - old cars!! I totally forgot they didn't turn themselves off.  I don't know why I forgot - there are only 2 cars and NO children that can manage this amazing feat.  Guess I was distracted. So being thankful for an extra vehicle, Mike headed for the Swag Van. I opened my mom's window to let Ellie have some fresh COOL air (yay!) and I heard the unmistakable sound of ANOTHER dead battery. Really?  Really??!!?

I don't know if somebody left a door open on it again, or if the last time that happened ruined the battery. All I can say is I really hope we don't have to go buy two car batteries. August is a financial kick in the teeth.  I think I wrote at least a dozen checks all to the high school.

Just as I was checking the weather to see if the drive-in movies would be rained out tonight, Mike came back home. He's under the weather and it's anyone's guess what will happen tonight now.

Can I have another Friday Do-Over please?  It's my last one before I go back to work.

Swimming Along

First week of school started out rough, you know, barely keeping your head above water, up the creek without a paddle, etc. Yesterday I took up meds for the kids to have at the nurse's office and picked up Mariah for her allergy shot - it took us FOREVER to get out of the parking lot, swimming upstream with nowhere to go!  Now it's Thursday and I was going to say we're Swimming Along, but instead decided the Just Keep Swimming refrain is more appropriate since someone, who shall remain nameless, stayed up late talking on the phone and didn't get up until it was time to leave! Mike had to take the other someone to school so SHE wouldn't be late. 

Life in a fish bowl seems pretty peaceful. It's harder on us humans. I missed Fishie 1.0 so last month I got Fishie 2.0 . He's growing into his name - Tye Dye Fishie Guy (I still call him Fishie for short). I didn't realize how huge Fishie 1.0 was until we had to start over. I like Tye Dye's dual coloring (hence the name) and he cooperated for his photo shoot so I could show you. Sadly, the iPhone was having problems with glare. This is the best I could do today. And, good news: Fishie is now trained to come up to the front of the bowl and wave his little fins at me for food. I figured out that he was too small to eat the pellets, so I started crushing them, and then I bought flakes. He is much happier and active now that he isn't starving to death. There's a lot more fin waving going on. He likes living in that cup I put in for decoration with the benefit of giving Fishie someplace safe to rest, and now he burrows under it to sleep. 

And lastly, if you haven't bailed yet, due to all the bad puns, here's a neat video from Waterworld, with photos I took and scenes from the water proof video camera one of the leaders had that went everywhere! You'll see all of us - Gib skiing, Tebow tubing and canoeing, Mike and I are in there, and an all too brief snippit of Indie trying to net a fish.... There's no dialogue though which Indie will be glad about. And let me just say that the Scout who helped her is responsible for the one that got away.  Look sharp because it's a fast-paced video!

And now I have to go do my thing before taking Grammy to the airport so she can visit friends & family on the West Coast.  I know she will enjoy her time in Sunny San Diego - swimming in the pool, dipping her toes in the ocean - do it for me, Grammy - because this blog just can't get corny enough! 

Ugh - Monday

Today felt rather brutal - like wading through mud all day. It was the first full day of school and none of us felt ready to jump into the routine. This was compounded by anti-histamine which was caused by.....

1. watching one of my coworker's kids as a thank you for all the free furniture (HEAVY) furniture she's given us. I'm collecting for future new apartment/houses needs the kids may have. In the past couple months, we have hauled in a 6 or 7' tall hardwood TV Armoire (took 5 people to move it); a drop leaf table, a wardrobe armoire, a microwave, and the latest a leather Barcalounger loveseat recliner. I think I will have to lay low with the guys for a while who definitely are done hearing me say let's go get a ......
2. today's difficult Monday came straight from the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished file. 5 minutes into a Feather Hunt, one of the kids stirred up a chiggar nest. We kicked off shoes, we hosed, we hosed some more, we sprayed shoes with Sawyers to kill 'em, we sprayed ourselves with bug spray, and there was always more and they were climbing up legs and arms.  What they like to do is climb up you until they find a likely spot to burrow in your skin. I often get chiggar bites behind my knees. I ended up putting one kid in our shower because he was covered. We girls didn't think we had as much and that the garden hose took care of it. Wrong!!! I heard today that the boy doesn't have any but the rest of us do. I HATE chiggar bites! We'll be scratching for a month.
3. last night, I was going crazy itching. So at midnight I couldn't stand it anymore and got up to get some benedryl. As I popped two in my mouth, I thought maybe I should try just one... and then decided I just didn't feel like spitting one out mid swallow. 
4. Almost 24 hrs later and I still feel grogged. It wasn't pretty this morning just trying to just get out of bed. Then I had to hurry and make lunches. I had no sooner than sat down seriously considering whether or not I had time to go back to bed before a work thing I had this morning, when I was texted by Mariah that she didn't know she needed PE clothes today.

So that's how Ugh Monday came about. Just about when I thought it was about over, I remembered I signed up to give blood. I remembered because Gib needed Monday studying fortification for his ACT tutoring session (a big Ugh for him), and as I was leaving to make a quick Happy Hour Dr. Pepper run for him, I glanced at the calender which clearly told me to go to the mall at 4:30. I seriously considered skipping it, but the Red Cross is begging for donors right now, and the mall is exactly 1 mile from my front door to the parking lot so it's not like it is difficult to go there. I love living right on the edge of the city but feeling so secluded at the house.  So I went, and it was the easiest blood donation ever. No people, no waiting, just in and out.

I say it's high time that a good deed is rewarded and I would be happy to take it in the form of the $3,000 gift card from the donation drive. My chances are doubled because Mike donated at his work today too! In the meantime, I rewarded myself with Chinese Take Out for dinner. That took a little Ugh out of the day.

Now I'm finally going to go sleep off that benedryl.....

Firsts and Lasts

Today begins high school for Mariah.  It is also the first day of Gib's Senior year. I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around it, and how it will feel next year when we only have one at home and in high school.  A year goes by quicker than you expect.

At least they are trying to break it to us gently with a half day (ish) and then the weekend, followed by a dreaded Monday and full week of the real thing. Mariah "got" to stay for Freshman Orientation after the half-day. I'm on my way to pick her up now. I did receive a couple texts (heh heh) and she is having fun.

Gib's senior pictures came back great! This weekend I will go to the website and figure out how to order them and choose the yearbook one - which will be the one in the "tux".  The other one will go on the wall with Indie and Taryn's senior pictures.  Until then, your curiousity will have to be satisfied with the proofs:

We are blessed with wonderful kids who ALL just so happen to be good lookin' too!  I love 'em!

A Year in a Week

The last little while has been a little overwhelming. For a short amount of time everyone was home and it was wonderful.  But it feels like soooo much has happened in a few days!!!

Indie joined us at waterworld and stayed here for a couple weeks afterwards. She got to entertain and be entertained by Tebow. During that time she had the usual round of appointments while she was in town. One were were unhappy about was that she needs dental surgery. But, she found out she doesn't need to have it until December. She has to have skin grafted from the roof of her mouth to the gum line on one of her bottom teeth. Yuck! Turns out the recovery is alot more than anticipated - like weeks without brushing your teeth (horrors!) and liquid diet as well. So the doctor determined that Christmas break would be the best time. The silver lining here is that Smoothie King is now on our corner.

Indie was doing pretty good kicking back, getting tanned, and relaxing after very stressful weeks trying to line up possible graduate schools and professors who matched her area of interest. The final part of her summer vacation was a cruise with her friend Kristy. As you may know, they had a bad car accident on the way, just 40 miles outside of Macon. A semi threw a wall of standing water onto and over their vehicle at the same time they hit the puddle going about 55 or 60. It wasn't raining anymore but the roads were wet. The car hydroplaned and Kristy almost steered them out but they hit more water and started spinning. Right into the guardrail on Indie's side of the car, ruptured the gas tank, and then again on the rear of the vehicle. The police and witnesses said they were quite fortunate: the car didn't burst into flames (they had just filled up the tank) and they didn't get T-boned by another semi or car; and they didn't flip over the median although it was a near thing. Indie saw a chiropractor the next morning before they drove to Florida (crazy right?!). He was able to help her a little bit and determined that she has neck and mid-spinal injuries and 3 rotated vertabra at the base of her spine. Indie says Kristy has some pain but not nearly as bad.  Indie admitted hers was a 9 on a 10 point scale so I know it's terrible as she has a decent pain tolerance level.  The trip to Florida was harrowing. 2 huge thunderstorms and alot of PTSD. They pulled off the interstate twice and waited it out with several other motorists. I get upset when I think about what she will have to face with back pain until she heals all while finishing her senior year and preparing for grad school. Somewhere in there she thought about getting a job since the ends weren't quite meeting, but I don't know if that can happen now.  And poor Kristy is out of a car.  I do wish she had owned a volvo instead of a ford focus without side curtain airbags because their injuries would probably be less and the replacement value of the car would be more for Kristy.

That means the plans to go skydiving are postponed as well.  Mike is disappointed but we will try again in the Fall or next Spring.  Speaking of Mike, I will just briefly say that he is busy, busy, busy at work and dreads the word "meetings" now with a passion.  It's awfully hard to have a full day of meetings and still get a full day of work done.

Tomorrow Taryn returns to Rolla. She took care of Kitty Coleman while she was here. There was a little overlap with Aussie and it took a couple days but they became buds... buds who chase and growl at each other, but buds nonetheless. Kitty Coleman went home today. And Taryn leaves tomorrow. It's awfully hard on this mom to see all my upstairs babies leave!!!  It's just not enough to see her for 1 week!!!!

In the space of a few days, Taryn also went to a few appointments. It's hard to live away from home and still see the dentist, the eye dr, get hair cuts, etc.  One was a follow up on her eye surgery. She has been pronounced Perfect! It was a complete success. Praying it stays that way. Another was a new hair style with red highlights. She looks cute and happy.  Other than that we just fed her the favorites, got ready for another semester, and rested.  Mike and Taryn will leave super early to arrive in Rolla in the afternoon and set her up in the dorm room. Then Mike will return home. I admit, I'm a little nervous about another road trip after the girls having an accident on theirs. Taryn is still trying to work out the challenges of ADHD with college. She's putting 200% and it breaks my heart that she still has to overcome more. The patch is a great improvement, but Taryn wishes it came in a stronger dose. She is also working with a ADHD Coach and I will be praying every single day that together they find the right combo of techniques to help study and long term memory equal success in testing. Please remember her in your prayers. It also looks like Taryn may end up heading a student support group for ADHD students.  Turns out the counselor at college isn't quit on par with the challenges of a college student with this disability. I think if Taryn has the time it would be an excellent thing for her to do.  I'm a big believer in what goes around comes around. Helping others is just the right thing to do all the time and despite my other belief that no good deed goes unpunished, I believe you should still do it.   We're pulling for you Taryn!!!!

Gib and Mariah got their schedules for high school and everyone is pretty happy.  Mariah turned her double major into a triple - and has "fluff classes" this year instead of science and social studies.  Gib is insanely jealous that we didn't think of that for him. She has theatre, her fashion design class, and chorus; plus PE, algebra II honors, english honors, and spanish II honors. I don't anticipate Mariah will be overburdened with homework but she is nervous about losing study hall. Gib just scoffs even when I point out those other classes will require homework time, have projects, and tests too.  We were happy to get a locker for Mariah close to the Senior parking lot even though she didn't get a top locker. Gib points out once again how unfair it is that Mariah gets a ride to school and parks in the senior lot as a freshman. Mariah points out that the price is his friends calling her Gib Junior. While we were at school to get her locker, text books, turn in papers, etc., I was an awesome parent and pretended Mariah wasn't my child whenever she talked to her friends. Taryn says I've mellowed waaaay too much.

Mariah had a great time in France although it was difficult not speaking French and I think two weeks would have been just right. But what memories and such a neat opportunity to see France in a way that most tourists don't get to! She loves that she had that chance. I hope you have had a chance to see her album on facebook. And once again, Taryn reminded me that I mellowed waaaay to much - Mariah goes to France, Gib to Hawaii, and Indie all over the world! She forgets that I let her blow stuff up at Explosives Camp. Love those kids of ours.

Somehow life doesn't feel all that mellow to me.