Friday, June 25, 2010

Thus ends the week . . .

Holy Cow!  What a week!  We got through it fairly unscathed, although a bit lacking in the sleep department.
Getting up at 4am to drive 2 1/2 hours was a little taxing.  But, it was well worth it.  Judah shot a 51, not his best, but good enough to place second.  The entire golf course was so wet, I almost got my sandal stuck in the fairway.  I thought for sure I was going under.  Thoughts of Carver in 'Lorna Doone' ran through my head.    Aaah!  We squished with every step, and the bunkers were completely filled with water.  It was wild.  But the weather was wonderful, if you can believe that.  Warm, sunny and barely a breeze.    Perfect.

And I really thought we'd finally have a truly restful Sabbath, but apparently not.  Due to the rain, (I know!  I wonder if there is any moisture left in the atmosphere throughout the world at all) some events got postponed to the weekend.  So, Noah will be doing some lifeguard training tomorrow morning, India will be working registration for the state Hershey Track meet, and then, Gary and Judah will be playing in an adult/child golf tourney on Sunday and Noah works in the afternoon - provided it doesn't rain of course.   So much for a peaceful weekend!  Hey - a girl can dream, can't she?

Just to let you know, we've officially become a cat factory.  We started out with one, but one is never enough, so we got two.  Over the years they've multiplied, ran away, and died and so now we have 9.  Yeah, I know.   :o None of them come into the house, thank God, even though they are all so tame and pathetically spoiled rotten, they might as well.  The one mom we have left has to get fixed here quick or we'll grow broke trying to feed her expanding clan.  She didn't teach her kids to find their own supper very well.   And she didn't do such a great job potty training them either, so not only is half of our yard floating, the kitties use the back half for their litter box.  Swell.

Summer has officially begun.  It's 88 degrees with 99% humidity.  Skies are clear, but the air thicker than a Scooby Doo episode where they carve the fog with a knife.  We live where the temperature is exactly the same in the sun as it is in the shade.  Want a sauna?  Don't have a steam room?  Just step outside.  

Anybody here that new song,  'Healing Begins' by Tenth Avenue North?  Really great song.  Check it out on grooveshark.com.   I don't really know what grooveshark is, but my kids assure me this is 'the' place for all your fine music needs.  Take their word for it, not mine.  :)

This is from the 'Ezzy Invents' segment:  What can you do with a used cd, the top of a water bottle, a balloon and some super glue?  Make a hover craft.   How about an old pen case,  a rubber band and some duct tape?  A wicked  weapon thing.  (Think Amazon blow dart.  Without the poison.  I hope.)  Or how about a used lip gloss tube, a spring, and a popcorn kernel?  A nifty pea shooter.  Did you know you can take a paper towel tube and put a toliet paper tube over it - fling it with some wild wrist action and it can fly across the room, causing a welt and a colorful bruise?  Me either.   I know.  Sometimes I'm scared to walk around the corner.  Thanks to Ezra and Judah, our house is an armory. Talk about your weapons of mass destruction.   Terrorists - enter at your own risk.  :)

Hey, I hope you all have a blessed weekend.  Me, I'm just going to put on my bullet proof vest and pray!
Stay cool and dry everyone!
jill and all

 

Sunday, June 20, 2010

And so it continues . . .


So how much aloe vera does it take to sooth a severe sunburn?  A couple tubs.  And I say this without the least bit of whining I can muster, for to get a sunburn one must have sun.  And after 10 months with clouds, rain and snow, we will not be caught complaining!  UV rays - bring 'em on!  This is what happens when you spend three glorious days watching a swim meet. You get a little loopy.   And along with the sun burn, we had a bit of dehydration, an almost fainting spell, and 2 state qualifying times.  And lots and lots of money raised for fellow swimmer, Jayme Skaggs who has cancer.  So, it's all good.  Actually - much more than good.  Fantastic!

Gary and Judah played golf this morning and were thrilled it wasn't raining.  We've played one in the drizzle and had one tournament cancelled because of it.  Even though the rain will stop a golf game, it didn't stop the swim meet two weeks ago.  I guess the officials figured you're already wet when you swim, so what does it matter if it's pouring like cats and dogs?  It's just the fans who suffer, right?

We finally are able to drive on our road without getting stuck and without sliding in the mud into the ditch.  So we are extremely grateful.  We don't have to don our mud boots and walk the mile and a half just to get to our car that is parked on the highway anymore.  And I think the mail man can actually start delivering the mail to our house, and maybe the FedEx guy won't have to leave our packages at the gas station 6 miles away.  See how happy we are the monsoon season seems to be abating?

Much of our yard is still a lake and it's a little funny watching my son mow and seeing water spewing out instead of grass.  Which of course, means the mosquitoes are big enough to saddle.  Welcome to spring in the upper midwest.

Along with mosquitoes are other critters as well.  Noah's foot is the size of a football, thanks to an insect that decided to have a bit of him for lunch.  Let's pray the activated charcoal does it's thing.  And now he'll always need to strap a hepi-pin to himself just in case.  Small thing.   You can't take chances when it's something like that.  And that's why I hate spiders, bees and wasps, thank you very much.

Let's run down the week, shall we??  Tomorrow Noah lifeguards - 9am to noon and 4pm to 9.  Let's hope the swelling goes down by then.  Ezra begins a 3 day swim camp starting at 8am.  It will go all day until 8pm.  Long days. But with a world class olympic coach doing the teaching, it should be worth it.   India teaches dance camp in the mornings this week, and will help out with the swim camp.   Then the little boys have track and field two days, Judah has a golf tourney 2 hours away, and a weekly golf camp on Wednesday.  And this is a slow week.

So, I don't think I need to explain why the blog is named as it is.  I guess it could have been called, 'Confessions of a Crazy Crew', 'Brainless in Bath', or 'Time Management for Dummies'.  Either way, suffice it to say, we are a little over-scheduled.  But what do you do with four children who are involved in 8 different things all at different times?  Makes life interesting, I will say that.  

So, here's the beginning of yet another chronicle in the life of a typical 'soccer mom', except that none of our children play soccer anymore.  Thank God.  But the fall season will soon be upon us and the middle boy has been hinting.  Oh brother . . .