Monday, August 29, 2011

Egads, has School Started yet?

I see several online friends and my southern network have all started back to school. We still have a couple of weeks to go but I have already purchased the back to school supplies weeks ago. You see I'm one of those moms who can't wait for school to start.

Someone I was chatting with was telling me the other day that when his child started kindergarten last year his wife told him the moms were in two camps. One camp was crying, their baby was starting kindergarten, the other half was saying "bye" and planning a get together at a local bar (the bar does breakfast too) I'm in the latter camp.

While I do wax nostaligic that the boys are growing up, I'll be glad to see the backside of summer vacation. The fighting, the bickering, the constant motion, the constant mess and chaos. Yeah, can't say I'll miss it over much.

Emma the dog is back with us. She's been with us about a week now and will be going home this week. The boys - Hubby included have had a good time with her. She's a good dog in general. The only gripe I have about her is her sloppy drinking habits. She'll fill her mouth up at the water bowl and dribble it all over the kitchen leaving the floor a constant mess. Yuck. Other than sneaking onto our beds occasionally she's really a very good dog. Hubby has had fun teaching her hunting skills and the kids have been throwing balls non stop. I think Emma has run more in the last week than in the last year.

Currently Hubby and I are in the process of painting the garage. The house we had done by contractors but we are cheap and decided to to do the garagw ourselves (not so tall) I've been scraping for a couple of days and have the bulk done. Hubby replaced some rotten siding we are close to throwing the paint on which should go quickly. Hubby and the neighbor tell me I'm over picky with the scraping, but my opinion is I'm only gonna do this once, not again in a year or two.

Well off to tuck the little one into bed, the big one will follow shortly and I'll enjoy a little peace before bed.



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Sonny Boy Tackles

Yeah, the coach is in the way, but at least the phone was turned in the right direction!




Sonny Boy is the kid in the reddish T-shirt doubling as a temporary practice jersey.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Random Pictures From the Summer

With Summer coming to a close I thought I might drown you with images of the summer. It's been busy!



Sonny Boy enjoyed his second season of baseball and says he wants to play again next year.

In June we had some wind damage that knocked over our partially rotten fence and made that tree in the background horizontal. We also had a large elm split and that had to be removed as well.



Sonny Boy's legs finally got long enough to reach the foot pegs on the motorcycle so he got his first ride from Dad. Without tags or insurance it doesn't come out of storage much.




A trip to Six Flags in early July netted a long fun day.





Yeah, I know the big Ol' tennis shoes don't look good with capri pants but hey I was going for comfort over fashion here.



Igor rode tons of rides and this was his favorite...



though it doesn't look like it here!




He was game a few more times with his brother later though!



The camping trip with one of the cousins to Flambeau River, Wisconsin




The very recent camping trip to Razorback Lake, WI (you know the Arkie in me loved that!)


A BIG storm moving away from Razorback Lake, if you look REALLY close the speck behind the reads almost against the dark shoreline is Sonny Boy and I in a canoe. Thankfully we were never in this storm, but I believe it did some damage further east.


Eating ice cream on the beach!


Sonny Boy in pursuit of crayfish (or crawdads as southern people say)


Conked out after a hard day of play in the camper



Early mornining fog on Razorback Lake, it got kinda nippy at night.



Summer has been good. Really busy but all good things come to an end. Registered Sonny Boy for 2nd grade today, first football practice is tonight, and the nights have that chill that says summer is drawing to a close. Alas the real craziness starts with a ball practice or Cub scout thing almost every night of the week. I think something has got to give.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Three hours is too Long

I will leave in aproximately three hours to pick up Hubby from the airport. He has been gone to training for work for the last four weeks. In those four weeks I have taken two camping trips, spent countless hours hearing "Mom, Watch this!" as a 4 yo bobs under water at the local pool. Worried over painters ripping me off, - not my stuff, just not doing the work well. I've mowed the lawn a few times, started trying to revive my contractor trampled flower beds, taken the kids to the dentist, had Igor's glasses adjusted and repaired twice, made countless stressful trips to the grocery, baked a birthday cake, paid bills. You get the picture - kept the house running and the kids entertained. Not by a long shot am I claiming to have done even one of these items perfectly. Nor am I claiming that any or all of these things are things I wouldn't normally do if Hubby were coming home on a nightly basis.

But you know what gets my goat? Know what really pisses me off? I'm the bad guy. No matter what I do, no matter what I cook, no matter how many hours I spend sunbaked and chlorine caked at the edge of the pool I'm still the bad guy. I'm the one who asks " Did you wash your hands? Who peed on the toilet seat?" or issues the following edicts " No more TV, video games or DS. No we cannot go to the pool today because I told you ten times to do XYZ before you did it." Today I had a child EXPLODE because I told him to put on a clean shirt so we could leave the house to run ONE errand. The kid didn't even know what the errand was, we could have been going to the toy store for all he knew, but he had to turn off the damn TV. That's when the TV suddenly got turned off for him for a week. Hubby will come home and the kids will all be happy to see him and suddenly find their halos for a few days. Hubby will be loathe to be mean since he's been gone for a month and I'll still be the witch of a mother that hands out the chores and the punishments and makes the kids go to bed on time.

Really, I get that single parents do this crap day in and day out and I give them all the kudos in the world. Don't get me wrong, it's hard. But I tell you this Hubby traveling for weeks on end crap is like being a single parent without any of the perks. If your single at least you might have the luxury of being child free every other weekend to revive, you don't have to compromise on what color to paint the house ( I did ) or scheme and plan the family vacation with anybody else in mind.

Honest to God as I sit here at this computer THE MINUTE Hubby climbs in the van I am no longer on duty. I refuse to do any kid crap for a full 48 hours. If the kids beat the crap out of each other, fine, if they play in street that's good too. I refuse to be the witch, I refuse to tell them to go to bed, I refuse to say " Quit running in the house" Because I'm not mean, I'm not the witch, and Hubby can put on his big boy pants and make sure the little brats behave.

I can't even have a margarita cause I gotta drive to the dang airport - this is torture!

P.S. Just got a text, they are de-boarding his plane so only God knows when he's gonna get home.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The little Swimmer

He's come a long way from the toddler who was so terrified of a bath that the first one I gave him traumatized both of us.




I apologize for the bad quality, I'm just learning how to do this stuff!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Blogging for Books - Plain Wisdom

Previously I have reviewed books for a program called "Blogging for Books". This post is a continuation of that program and my second review. Please go to this LINK and vote for my review. It can win me prizes! On to the Review.

PLAIN WISDOM
Cindy Woodsmall & Miriam Flaud


First I would like to say this isn’t my typical genre of book to read. I don’t normally read anything very spiritual or even that much non-fiction so I am not familiar with the typical format on this kind of book so it’s possible that I am way off on my review of this book. Honestly I read the book a while back and have had a hard time really forming an opinion of the book.

Plain Wisdom is a sweet little book with each chapter having a section written by Mrs. Woodsmall and Mrs. Flaud that details how God worked in their everyday lives guided by certain principals in the Bible. In general I found the book to be well written, but it lacked continuity throughout the chapters and I felt as if I was reading a string of stories that were only slightly related to the previous chapters. I expected a book that would chronicle the differences in Mrs. Woodsmall’s modern Christian life in contrast with Mrs. Flaud’s Amish beliefs. Instead I found a book that showed that no matter how far apart Christian practices are, there are still the same guiding principals underneath all the artifice given in differing denominations.

Overall I found the book only mediocre.


I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review and it in no way colors my opinion of this material.