I Could Write a Book

     Today is the first day of school. It’s also the first time I’m sitting in silence since May 14th. It’s a weird feeling and the quietness is making me extremely sleepy. I know I’m way sleep-deprived. Which mom isn’t ?

     I guess I’m glad school has started back. I can honestly say that this summer flew by quicker than any I can remember. And yes, I think I can remember most of them. I’m not sure how I’m going to feel doing all the homework and the crazy afternoons. I’m not going to like those. I spoke to dh again about homeschooling. I still entertain that idea. He will never go for it. He never has. Too concerned about "socialization". Ack. Personally, there are times when I’d like to just keep my kids in a bubble. 

     Instead of sitting here blogging, I should be cleaning up the tornado house. Hmm, maybe not. I think it’s important for my children to see my thoughts. To know how their mom was really feeling. I’m concerned for Juliana. She is so afraid of her teacher and of having homework. She keeps telling me, "I do not know how to do homework."  Poor baby. And then there’s Tob. He got the strictest teacher in 5th grade and he is so worried about his handwriting. She takes off for handwriting. He is so worried about it that last night he was actually crying about it and asked me to hire someone to help teach him how to write better. Last but not least is Gray. Gray. What can I say ? He is going to sail through 2nd grade. He got an awesome, loving teacher and I’m sure he will have a wonderful year. Sometimes when I’m worrying about #1 and #3 I forget that I should worry about #2 (Gray).

     So, those are my thoughts right now. I need to go put on some coffee and music and start tackling the mess. 

Ps: I’ll add the first day photos later. 

My children, friends and husband thinks I’m a good mom. I do not think I am a good mom. An "ok"one yes. A "good" one - no.  Could I do more ? I could do tons more. When ? I do not know. I am so tired today that I could just about drop over right now but here I sit blogging away. LOL. Why blogging ? Because tomorrow is the first day of school and I did it.

Did what ? I got everything ready for tomorrow. I visited with my sister and niece, talked with my mother, talked with friends, took the kids to lunch and dinner, bought shoes, school uniforms, supplies, and typed up 2 book reports due in the morning. Nothing like a quiet day. I even bought groceries and toilet paper. Groceries and toilet paper.  Somebody ought to make a song about them. It’s the two things we are always out of here in the house. I bet it is the same in your house. When you run out of something in your house I bet it is either groceries or toilet paper. Having 3 bathrooms here really helps though. "Hey G, go check your bathroom and see if there is any toilet paper in there. It’s needed in the big bathroom." Don’t tell me you’ve never yelled that. I know you have.

Speaking of the house - it looks like a tornado has come through. I have finally gotten to the point where I warn people , "sure you can come in but know the house is a wreck" and then I let them on in. Yes, I hate it on the inside but I’m pretty sure their house isn’t perfect all the time either. Please tell me it isn’t so.

My throat is still killing me. I’ve got some viral something or other. Glands all swollen out. Throat red as heck. Oh, well. When you’re a mother you don’t stop. You can’t stop. Well, maybe to buy some groceries and toilet paper. hehe. 

So, I’m off to bed to try and sleep. I hate freaking getting up early in the morning but you know after the kiddies are on the bus I’m going to have PEACE AND QUIET around here. Ah, motherhood bliss. Peace and quiet. Along with groceries and toilet paper. (And dangit - it should be spelled toliet peper- cause that’s how my fingers keep typing it).

Peace out and butterfly kisses. 

     This has been the summer of the "Dr of the Day." Tobin has been keeping me very busy in the doctors’ offices.

     Today he got his cast off of his arm. They removed the cast and xrayed it and said that his bone was healed. The Dr made him go through a routine of movements and when none caused him any pain the Dr declared, "no more casts." Woohoo. We were really expecting to get a soft cast for another week or two. The first thing he did when he got home was jump in the swimming pool.

     Tomorrow we are off to see the "dentist specialist person". I have no idea what you even call her. She’s the one who is going to do the root canal on Tob’s tooth. His tooth has obviously died and is causing him a lot of pain. I took him to an emergency dental appointment yesterday morning and our regular dentist confirmed that he was indeed going to have to get a root canal. Tob is not happy about it. He keeps asking me if they could just pull the tooth and put in a "gold" one. Uh, son, I don’t think that’s going to happen in this family. Lol. Still a cute thought, but nope, not going to happen.

     Gray still has his rash and if it doesn’t clear by tomorrow I’m taking him in to the pediatrician. Juliana is still having pottying issues and I’m about to lose my mind over that one. I’ve got a headache that could kill a horse and I’m concerned because I keep getting this head pain in the exact same spot. All I keep wondering is "do I have a brain tumor like my grandfather did?" That’s a happy thought, eh ? 

     Tonight was the longest board meeting ever. Not that I have anything else in my life to do. UGH. Yes, that was sarcastic. Between hitting the different doctors’ offices I’m trying to hit the shoe store, school uniform store and the school supply store. I also need to hit the Jr League meeting store since I’ve got a lot of shitake to do before Monday morning. And oh yes, the luggage is still sitting in the foyer. Rest of the house is clean. The luggage just needs unpacking and laundered. Any takers ? Didn’t think so. 

Peace out and lots of butterfly kisses.

Wow ! Summer for us is essentially gone. Gone ? Yes, gone. My children start school in 3 days. Where did this summer go ?

I’m going to give a condensed version since I have 1 million things to accomplish in the next 3 days.

May 22nd - the kids finish with school. We spent those first 2 weeks mainly at Francos, on the water slides, lounging by the pool their and then coming home to the pool here. Those were 2 nice and lazy weeks.

June 7th - I get everything prepared for the children and myself to spend the week in the woods at Cub Scout Camp. I was dreading this week and it ended up being the best week for Cub Scouts and for the year-to-date(that date) it was the best week ever. I worked "water front". That meant that I spent an entire week on the beach, by the canoes, on the rope swings, water slides and zip lines. It was sunny the entire week. The water front group had a fabulous time together. It was just awesome. I really enjoyed being completely outside the entire week. The kids had a blast, too. This was Tobin’s last year as a Cub Scout at Camp. He will go to Boy Scout Camp next year.

June 15th - I spent this week getting everything of Tobin’s bought and packed to go to Camp Laney. He and I left on Thursday of this week and spent a couple of days in Birmingham, AL and then drove on up to Mentone, AL. That was such an exciting and nerve-wracking day. I was dropping off my "first baby" for his 1st away camp. 2 weeks of away camp. He wrote me one letter that was 2 sentences long. LOL. Just like a 10 year old boy. He had a blast at Camp Laney. He turned into a "fisherman". He went fishing everyday in his free time. He told me he caught something everyday, too. Since coming home he has seemed quiter and a little bit more mature. A shame he can’t go to camp quarterly. Yeah, yeah. Bad mommy.

I was only home for 1 1/2 weeks before I had to turn around and go pick him up. I took J and Gray with me and we also left a couple days early so that we could go to Huntsville and visit my friend there. I was so happy that she was able to meet my two little ones. We had a nice time with Tiff and her family and J was super excited that she and R got to sleep together.

That brings us to — July 3rd: We pick Tobin up from camp. He was smiling from ear-to-ear. Oh, he broke his arm while at camp. 1 night before I was going to pick him up. They put his arm in a hard splint and wrapped it in an ace bandage for him. He wasn’t in pain when we picked him up. Instead of driving home (9 hours) we drove to Fairhope and spent the 4th of July weekend at the Grand Resort. I love it there and we had a lovely weekend. Dh drove up and met us there. He actually beat us there by about 10 minutes. We drove home the night of the 5th and that was a nerve-wracking drive. The traffic was bumper-to-bumper. Everyone coming home from their holiday weekend getaways. Dh’s truck kept overheating because we couldn’t drive fast, etc. It took us 7 hours to get home from there and it’s supposed to take maybe 3.

July 6th week: Whew. I finally have a normal week. Throw in a nephew’s birthday party and shopping for the Alaska trip and it was a pretty normal week. Oh, wait. No, it wasn’t. I was dealing with Tobin’s broken arm this week. Having it set and casted. Twice. Overall, it was an okay week. I was happy to see some of my extended family that week. OH Crap - how did I forget about that weekend ?? That was the Jr League Board Retreat weekend. LOL. I wasn’t home again. 4 weekends in a row at this point. Not home. I can’t say I thought this weekend was nearly as good as the last two. I felt that the members weren’t nearly as committed. They all just wanted to leave. I feel that that the board is very divided. Very. I think I’ve truly made up my mind to go "sustainer" and not run for president.

July 12th. Sunday afternoon and I am home from the board retreat. I slept on the couch for an hour or two thatafternoon. My busyness is catching up with me. We are leaving on Wednesday headed to Alaska for almost 3 weeks. I was busy the entire time finishing packing, getting the animals taken care of and buying the last minute stuff.

That brings me to August 2nd - yippee yeah, I’m finally back home from the Alaska trip. Where’s the report on Alaska ? That will be a post all by itself. We had an absolutely wonderful time. Beautiful, beautiful country. I loved seeing all the animals, mountains, icebergs, etc. Will I be moving there ? Heck no. LOL. Would I move to Seattle if I could ? Heck yes.

So, there’s my summer in a nutshell. I wasn’t home hardly at all and what time I was home - I did not have a computer. Mine fried. This is the first thing I’m typing on my new laptop. 

It’s good to be home. There’s truly no place like it.