Ode to Summer's End and Day 118...

Well, the mobile blog thing was short-lived because I couldn't ever remember what day I was on, and I kept deleting the sent emails without thinking, "Oh, wait! I need to know what my next blogging day is!" Snikes.

Speaking of snikes -- where the heck did my summer go?!?! One day, I'm laying by the pool, watching my kids frolic in the water. The next, I'm getting up early and wearing uncomfortable clothes and trying to remember where I saved my syllabus from last year.

*Sigh.*

I am not ready for this.

Day 118:
1. the sense of relief when I finally get everything in order in my classroom.
2. spending days and days of my summers in junior high and high school, reading TEEN magazine from cover to cover and planning my back-to-school wardrobe. I know -- so nerdish, but it fed my inner-OCD over-achiever to chart out every outfit in my closet on index cards.
3. discovering some of my old journals from high school while cleaning out my classroom and laughing at how excited I used to get about the first day of school. I might possibly have been una nerda.
4. opening new school supplies.
5. no meetings this morning. :-)

Day 116 & 117

I'm telling you- this mobile blogging thing is pure genius!! Just set out on a road trip, but I'm not driving, which means I get pretty antsy. I can't really read to entertain myself because I get carsick. The kids are talking 90 mph, and I would normally be getting pretty dang annoyed right about now, BUT I can pop my earbuds in and blog the miles away while my less technologically-savvy parents drive, eat Fiddle-Faddle, and discuss the merits of upcoming rest areas.

By the way- for those of you who know my parents, I can barely contain my laughter. I am riding in the back seat... well, the middle row of seats, like I'm 12 again, but I swear- Carl is driving and Hazel is riding shotgun. (For those of you who don't know, Carl was my dad's dad; Hazel is my mom's mom.)

Carl is cruising at 60 mph down the interstate, oblivious to the fact that everybody AND their grandmothers have passed us... I'm not sure he realizes that the speed limit has indeed changed to 70 mph on most areas of the interstate.

Hazel is lamenting about leaving her blue dress at home. It has palm trees on it, so I doubt we're really missing anything, but she's downed almost an entire box of Fiddle- Faddle in mourning.

They both have on their game faces and weird sunglasses; however, they are NOT wearing matching outfits, for which I am grateful.

Day 116:
1. Ipods on road trips. Dang, they save my sanity! :-)
2. Getting my first Walkman back in the day. Thought I was some kind of hot stuff when I could listen to my Poison tape on field trips and car rides.
3. My dad is -- as I type -- wearing my Pop's Solar Shades and a sun visor. I laugh every time I look up in the front seat.
4. Driving as opposed to riding.
5. Family vacations. Without them, I'd be short some blogging material.

Day 117: Odes to Funny Vacations
1. Disney with my entire fam when I was in 8th grade. To this day, I can't see a luggage cart without momentarily seeing my Uncle Jimmy skating across the parking lot, scooter-style, with his Dwayne Wayne shades flipped up.
2. The vacations- two that I can recall- where something happened to the car and/or my dad didn't make hotel reservations, so we ended up coming home the same day.
3. The Weeks/Hunt family excursion to Toronto. I have never laughed so hard in my entire life. What happens in Toronto stays in Toronto. :-)
4. Family trip to Sapphire Valley. I never met any boys on vacation because we vacayed at retirement hot spots. On this particular trip, Mary and I went horseback riding. Pretty sure no one else has ever witnessed my mother on a horse.
5. Family trip to Maggie Valley, yet another 70+ resort area. I hit a golf ball out in the middle of a six lane highway playing miniature golf. Then Jay hit me in the head with his golf club on his backswing. Some one should've explained to us that we weren't gearing up for Hole 13 at The Masters, OR Toad shouldn't have made us watch all that golf on Sunday afternoons growing up. Had no idea that teeing off in putt-putt requires 1/50th the strength of teeing off at a regular golf course until I watched my dad turn scarlet as he watched that ball bounce across six lanes of heavy traffic.

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Day 114 & 115

Day 114:
1. Getting a new cookbook.
2. Having a random peace lily grow out of a pot that I thought just had dirt in it.
3. Coordinating party ware.
4. The obsession our dog Zoe used to have with my mom. Freaking hilarious bc Mary didn't return the favor.
5. Scaring Bob, my crazy Manx cat who never really liked me.

Day 115:
1. Hootie, my well-trained Tiger Oscar that I had my sophomore year in college.
2. Great Danes.
3. The satisfaction of having a clean kitchen... which rarely happens.
4. The greater satisfaction of having a clean dining room table... which happens even more rarely.
5. Sam's big gap-tooth smile.

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Day 112 & 113

Really digging this mobile blogging thing. Laying on the couch, watching a movie, blogging away. Fabulous!!

Day 112:
1. My Holiday Barbie collection.
2. Finding out that there's a new Wonder Woman ornament coming out.
3. My NY Yankees ball cap.
4. My crazy striped hat and matching scarf.
5. Early morning on the beach. If only I didn't have to get up early to see it...

Day 113:
1. A good mystery.
2. When a book that I thought would be just ok turns out to be fabulous.
3. Training K to put the toilet paper roll on the right way.
4. Remembering that I have a new (and magnificent) purse stashed away in the closet.
5. A break of cooler, unseasonable weather in the midst of the freakin' hot summer.

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Day 110... And maybe then some...

Ok, I'm way behind. Just looked on the calendar, and I should be on Day 202. I am on Day 110.

Holy cow.

Day 110:
1. Laney's flower lamp
2. Sleeping in my childhood bed. So dang comfortable.
3. The kids' building blocks that are a modern version of the cardboard blocks I used to play with in the nursery when I was little.
4. The stage/boat that was in the nursery when I was little. On one side, it was a platform with steps on either side. Turn it over, and it became a boat. Awesome.
5. The rows and rows of nail polish in every color of the rainbow at beauty supply places.

Day 111:
1. Finding out that the hair gods have not discontinued my favorite hair product.
2. Sam falling asleep in my arms.
3. Kissing my sleeping kids on their foreheads.
4. Sleeping stretched out across the bed.
5. My plastic- excuse me, acrylic - champagne glasses. Bought after New Year's our first year married for .25 per glass. Glitter in the stems; gold stars on the glasses. Make me happy every time I see them in the cabinet. I love festiveness. :-)
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109

1. Laney doing trick riding on Ethan's 4-wheeler. Girlfriend is fearless.
2. Laying on the couch under a blanket.
3. Laney pretending to a zombie or a robot by holding her arms out in front of her and repeating "Dombie" or "Wo-bot." Very convincing.
4. Ethan's never-ending quest to get rid of Laney. Tonight, he decided that she & K could get lost in the jungle, and Laney might get eaten by an anaconda. Nice.
5. Knowing my kids miss me when I'm gone. Ethan cried and cried when we came home from the beach. A little disturbing that he thinks we're going to up and leave him, but comforting that he doesn't always think we're mean, nonetheless.
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108

1. Laney & Sam playing hide-and-seek... in the pack-n-play. There's really nowhere for them to hide... so there's really no seeking going on... but they don't seem to mind...
2. Mobile blogging. Now that Ethan has discovered games on the computer, I don't get to use it very often. :-P
3. Watching the dogs get dive-bombed by our dog-birds in the backyard. The dogs don't deserve it; the birds are just territorial... but they think twice before climbing out of the pen. :-)
4. Pretty green ferns. Especially ones that don't die even though I have killed most of my other plants.
5. Sitting on Granny B's porch.
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106-107

Day 106:
1. Spending time with Linda & David. Great food, great conversation, lots of laughs. They are my favorites. :-)
2. Watching Ethan & Laney make memories.
3. Ethan's theory that my dad's job is playing golf. :-)
4. Watching Sam entertain himself. He just babbles and babbles... and every now and then throws in something that sounds like "Naney" but in a really nasty tone. I'm convinced he practicing telling Laney off for when he gets bigger.
5. Realizing that, although I have no groceries, I have just the right ingredients to make the side dish recipe I just came across.

Day 107:
1. The fact that Max & Ruby (of cartoon fame) seem to live by themselves even though they are, like, 5 and 7.
2. Secretly hoping that Max one day drop-kicks Ruby in the teeth because she is one bossy bunny.
3. The song that Sid the Science Kid sings to his mom on the way to school.
4. The song that Sid the Science Kid sings with his friends when he gets to school. It involves dancing and makes me happy.
5. That PBS has finally joined the current century and made some cool cartoons.
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Holy cow!!

I am a technological genius!!!
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For the love...

Please let this work...
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Days 101-105

Ok, I'm over the pretty little blue symbol for today, so I'm just going to get back into the Days of Grace listing and try to shush the OCD voice in my head that is whispering, "But you put the seal on the other posts. This one isn't going to match..."

Day 101:
1. good running socks
2. Sam having teeth!
3. Laney's VBS picture that, ironically, shows what a devil she is...
4. Laney and Ethan asking repeatedly since yesterday if we can start packing for the beach
5. Ethan asking for a flea collar. Apparently, he's been seeing flea collar commercials on TV and doesn't want to get them. :-) Shows what kind of faith he has in my housecleaning ability...

Day 102:
1. Ethan also wants to get those closet organizing hangers because (and I quote) my closet "is a big mess. We need to clean it up." Yeah, ok, kid. How about you start with your room before you start making a To Do list for me?!
2. Laney's random obsession with lines from TV shows. For two weeks, she called K and me "Mr. Noodle" -- as in Mr. Noodle from "Elmo's World." Her current obsession is "Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!" from our favorite cartoon, "Phineas and Ferb." Drives Ethan beserk.
3. Speaking of "Phineas and Ferb" -- Laney and Ethan named their skim boards "Phineas" and "Ferb." I had to write the names in silver paint pen on the skim boards so no one would call them by the wrong names.
Give you two guesses whose OCD idea that was...
4. Ethan swimming like a fish! After two weeks of swimming lesson hell last summer, I'm glad he's finally gotten over his bizarre love-hate relationship with the water...
5. people watching at the beach. I swear -- there is NOTHING like it. I think they hire people to come down and entertain me when I'm there. No way those freaks are real.

Day 103:
1. days at the beach where all I really have to do is read, eat, and make sure I remember to keep sunscreen on...
2. finally being able to go to the beach and not come back looking like a lobster...
3. the waiter's concerned face at the crab leg buffet when he realizes I've been eating crab legs for two hours straight...
4. beating my old record of 46 with an impressive score of 50 crab legs...
5. Sam's fascination with throwing things out of his pack-n-play

Day 104:
1. Sam's love of biting K. He acts like he's going in for a snuggle and then strikes like a viper. So sweet and chubby that you never expect it... :-)
2. zerberting my kids' bellies...
3. introducing my kids to new things. Took them to the fish hatchery (odd, I know), and they were just amazed. Laney did almost get mobbed by some angry fish... kept trying to feed them one pellet at a time. They don't really appreciate the frugal approach...
4. watching my mom lug her ginormous mustard-yellow purse on a hike. Not sure if she thought there would be a place to shop at the top of the trail or what...
5. Ethan and Laney wearing my tshirts to sleep in. I used to do the same with my dad's, but it just makes me laugh to see which ones they choose.

Day 105:
1. looking forward to the future...
2. witty people...
3. looking for recipes...
4. cooking with my kids. Reminds me of cooking with Hazel and Pearle when I was growing up... always makes me smile... unlike memories of cleaning house with my mom... my kids will probably never have memories of that, considering my status as a non-housecleaning kind of woman...
5. God is good. :-)

I have no idea what I'm doing....

I spoke too soon in one of my last blogs, saying I had all of this time to blog, and then...

Nothing. :-P

As I logged on tonight, I saw a little cell phone on my log in page. Says I can register to mobile blog. So I click on it.

I just got a new phone, a Blackberry, that does all kinds of things that I don't understand yet, and I'm thinking -- "I could update my blog while I'm toodling around! I LOVE multi-tasking!!!"

Well.

That might be possible if I could figure it out. I don't know the difference between MMS and SMS; all I know is that SMS is like a regular text. MMS? IDK. Make Ma Swear? At this point, that's about all I can come up with.

SO -- I choose the email option. Had to set up an email address.

Enter Problem.

I set it up, didn't write it down, and now I can't remember what it is. I'm sure I can find it somewhere in my settings, but really -- I've got people to fight on Sorority Life. I don't have time to switch to Go-Go-Tech-Nerd mode (not that my limited knowledge of technology ever lets me fully get into that role...) and dig through a bazillion pages and settings.

I tried to make posting easier so I could catch up on my Days of Grace and all that, but alas, the technology spirits are against me...

Where Am I Finding All This Time to Blog?

Oh -- that's right! I've totally neglected cleaning my house or doing any laundry. K will be patient with this until probably this afternoon... so less than 1 week into summer vacation, he's going to start asking me what I did today. :-) You should see his face when I smile blissfully and say, "Nothing." :-)

Day 95:
1. Laney almost always says, "Mommy, I love you, too." when she's declaring her love for me. What makes me happy about this is that usually, this is the first line of the conversation. Example: I am sitting here, playing on the computer, when she walks up out of nowhere, hugs my leg, and says, "I love you, too, Mommy." I didn't tell her first, but she always pretends I did because it is Laney's world and we just live in it.
2. The park we love has new bathrooms that don't make me fear that lurkers are going to run off with my children.
3. Going to the farm market down the road and getting the good grits.
4. Finding three maxi dresses that I love AND that fit me the right way.
5. Smelling fresh peaches always reminds me of eating frozen peaches at Hazel's growing up.

Day 96:
1. Sam loves swinging.
2. Laying down for a nap with Laney and realizing that she is not always a ferocious beast.
3. Spending an entire day in my swimsuit without fixing my hair or putting on makeup because my pool peeps don't care.
4. Laney's independent streak. It makes me laugh every time she sets somebody straight with her version of the truth.
5. Laney's ability to say the one thing that will make Ethan flip out. For example, when we got in the MV last week to go somewhere, Ethan said, "I got in first, Laney." Without batting an eye, she said, "No, I did." which sent Ethan's OCD-must-follow-the-rules-and-report-exactly-as-things-happen personality into spontaneous combustion mode. He starts flipping out because he knows she didn't get in the car first but she refuses to back down. I'm sitting in the driver's seat, laughing. This must've been what life was like for my mom.

Day 97:
1. Cherry pie.
2. Winning the sauce award at The Camerons' cookout.
3. Summer reading contests.
4. Watching summer storms from the back porch.
5. Laney's first friend sleeping over (outside of relatives, that is...)

Day 98:
1. A den with warm lamp light.
2. Our sorta-scary leopard blanket.
3. Not having to do too much cleaning before the cleaning lady comes over.
4. Snuffles from the dogs.
5. Finding "the spot" on each dog that makes the back leg thump.

Day 99:
1. laughing so hard I snort.
2. the middle part of pancakes where the butter and syrup have saturated the dough.
3. Napolean Dynamite. Freakin' hilarious.
4. Watching Keith do the laundry while I play on Facebook and concoct the blog.
5. Freshly starched clothes.

Day 100:
1. Waking up to summer light outside the window.
2. Sitting in the rocking chairs on the back porch with K.
3. Sam's I-only-love-my-mommy stage. He's going through it right now, and while it can be exhausting at times, it is also sooooo endearing. I love that kid. :-)
4. The fact that my basil plant hasn't joined its cilantro cousin in The Garden in the Sky.
5. The surprise peace lily (I think) that is growing randomly in a pot I thought was empty. If it is, indeed, a peace lily, then it is the one from my grandfather's funeral, which makes me happy x 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.

Day 93:

1. Kissing my babies goodnight when they smell like sunscreen.
2. Laney's obsession with her "wobber gobbles." Idk if she means "rubber goggles" or "water goggles" but either way, she reminds me of Hamburgler when she says it... which makes me laugh.
3. Sam sitting at my feet, going "anhhhhhhhhhhh" for minutes without stopping. I think he's going to grow up to be a Gregorian monk, which will delight his daddy.
4. Knowing the bookmobile comes tomorrow.
5. Anticipating introducing Laney & Ethan to the wonders of the Bookmobile.

Day 94:
1. Hoping that the bookmobile will have a position open when I retire.
2. Watching Sam's face light up when he sees Ethan.
3. Knowing I don't have to get up for school in the morning.
4. Spending the afternoon chatting with Pat and Jenn. I think we could solve the world's problems.
5. Sam beating Ethan over the head with a foam sword. And all this time, I've been worried that he wouldn't stand up for himself...