Day 5 Summer June 16

Well I got the kids out of the house by 10 to get to McK's dental appointment. The chain across her front teeth snapped on Tuesday and within a couple hours she had a gap between two of her teeth. Oops. Definitely needed to be taken care of. While there I ran into an old student and her family. It's nice to know that I have made an impact! Sometimes it really feels more like I beat my head against a wall!

After the dentist the girls and I headed to Tradition. The girls don't have much for summer clothes. In fact they both wore long jeans to the dentist. Crazy! When we got in the car after the dentist appt. the car said it was 113! Ha Ha. It wasn't that hot of course, but it was still super warm. Over 90 and incredibly humid. We made it to two stores before the girls started to beg for lunch: Old Navy and TJ Maxx. Becca finaly found some shorts! She is hard to fit. She is very narrow with a tiny waist but has a bigger butt and thighs than a slim. So most things are too big in the waist or too tight in the thighs. Definitely a Mayo. McKenzie is in a junior size 5 now. And both girls found some T-shirts. I'll try to remember to take some pictures to post.

We ate lunch at Wicked Burger. It was delicious (and yes I stayed away from the girl's soda) but their a/c was out and we ended up eating outside. It was shady and they had fans going, but I was still soaked in sweat by the time we were done so we headed home. The girls and I ended up watching "The Blind Side." We all enjoyed it and none of us cried. I kept hearing from everyone who saw it to be prepared to cry. What is wrong with us? We must be hard-hearted or something!

Day 4 Summer June 15

Day 4 and I must admit that I was, dare I say it? Bored. Yep, it's true. I didn't feel much like cleaning or housework and I don't have many projects going, so I didn't do much at all! Mike and I did take the dog for a walk. We did it before the sun was up and it was still pretty warm. The humidity has been terrible. The temp may only say 90 but the heat index is around 105. Nasty stuff. What I wouldn't give for a pool!!!

I ran out of Pepsi Sunday and forgot to buy some at the store so I figured maybe it was a sign that I should try giving it up. I had a can of Pepsi with lunch on Monday but none Tuesday, so by Tuesday night I had a pretty killer headache. And there wasn't anything on TV so I mostly laid in bed and read a book. Fun stuff huh? I should be caught up on sleep!

Oh, I did paint the patched wall in the master bath. We tore part of the wall out behind the shower over spring break to fix a leak. I had patched it, but never gotten around to painting it, so I did take care of that. Now I need to paint the baseboard and replace it. I really should paint all of the woodwork. All the trim in the house is a flat builder's white. The house is six years old now and the baseboards are looking pretty sad and beat up and they could all use a coat of fresh paint (as well as the doors) but that just sounds like a LOT of work, so I keep putting it off. I need to just do it!

Day 3 Summer June 14

Started the day very early, at 4 am! Yuck. I let the dog out and she ended up terrorizing a monarch butterfly on the back porch. Nothing quite like a barking dog at 4 am to make your neighbors love you. I fell back to sleep around 5:30, but had to get up to go to work anyway. Double yuck. I spent 8 to 12:30 at school doing some instuctional planning for next year with other teachers. They fed us breakfast and lunch and I will get paid, so not too bad overall.

Got home and rallied the troops to do a little cleaning. Got most of the laundry done and Kenzie helped with the kitchen and Becca helped here and there. My house needs to be deep-cleaned from top to bottom and I need to do a LOT of organizing (closets, drawers, shelves, etc), so it's hard to not go crazy and just tear evrything apart, but I'm trying to keep my cool. :)

I got Kenzie signed up for a Fine Arts camp at the Elliott Museum for the next two weeks. The classes are in Stuart (about 35 minute drive) from 1:30 to 5:00, so Becca and I will need to find stuff to keep us busy. It's too far to come back home, but I'm sure we'll find things to do. And Kenzie will really love the opportunity to learn and hang out with other kids with similar interests.

Around 3 a kid showed up at my door to apologize. A few nights ago we were woken up around 3 am by a policeman letting us know that our car had been spray painted in the middle of the night. (FUC U written on the back window of Mike's car) Several cars and houses were spray painted. The paint came off pretty easy with WD40. We got a call a couple days later that the person had been caught but I didn't ask for particulars but we figured it was just a few teenagers pulling a prank. It turned out to be a black kid, probably about 13 or 14. His aunt was taking him around the neighborhood to apologize and to offer to clean up any damages. Apparently he just moved in a couple streets over. I have a lot of respect for that aunt driving that kid around in the heat of the day to take responsibility for his actions. Good for her! I hope the kid appreciates her. In my line of work I see a lot of apathetic parents.

Becca had a neighbor boy over for the afternoon (too hot to play outside--heat index 104!). They played Wii for a couple hours. She kicked his butt in the Family Feud but he did better with the Summer Games or whatever it is called. We'll have to set up some more play dates especially for Kenzie who hibernated in her room all day. Becca is much better at picking up the phone and calling friends. Kenzie texts a bit, but doesn't spend much time on the phone.

For dinner we had Chicken and Green Beans with Spicy Orange Sauce (America's Test Kitchen again)and strawberries and mangos with whipped cream. Super Yum and fairly healthy (except for the whole whipped cream thing). I've lost two pounds this week. Only about 50 to go! Ha Ha. Then Becca and I watched The Bachelorette. Not sure why I keep watching. It's an illness I guess! I just love it! Even while knowing that The Biggest Loser and Survivor have better matchmaking rates. Right now my money is on Roberto or Kurt.

Day 2 Summer June 13

Got up early again to take the dog for a walk. It's not fun getting up early in the summer, but if we don't get a walk in by 8 am, it just ain't gonna happen!

Let's see, oh yeah, I was going to make pancakes because we had some strawberries to use up and then Mike suggested waffles. YUM, I thought. Uh oh, no pancake mix. Now for the most part, I do not use mixes; I prefer to make things from scratch. But I find that the pancake mix where you just add water is every bit as good as from scratch. Unfortunately, I was out of mix. So I dig out my fave cookbook, America's Test Kitchen, and peruse the ingredients. Uh oh, no milk. Seriously?? If you read yesterday's post you will recall that I was too smelly to go to the grocery store. Oops. So I ended up making oatmeal-cranberry cookies. Yeah, I'm not quite sure how I came up with that either, but the family was happy. Except Becca who picked the dried cranberries out of hers. Oh well. . .

We did finally make it to Sam's Club later in the day. And we made it out for about $100 which is really good for us. We got steaks, snacks, fruit, etc. So for dinner we had rib-eyes, grilled mushrooms, corn-on-the-cob and fresh sliced mango. Delish!

It was also my mom's birthday!! And Michelle's high school graduation! It's rough being so far away during all these celebrations. I just feel so disconnected from our families. At first it seemed like it might be temporary, but we haven't lived within a day's drive in over 7 years now. At least when we lived in Utah we could drive up. It took a full day but it was possible. Now we are 3700 miles away and we are limited to once yearly visits. This year we fly out on July 8 and we come back on July 26.

DAY 1 Summer!

Got up early and took the dog for a walk with Mike and Kenzie. It was already HOT!

Becca was over at Kiera's house on a sleepover. Mike and Kenzie and I took Sophie to the Farmer's Market in Fort Pierce. Picked up some bread and veggies. It was hot there too, even though it's right on the water.

We decided we were too sweaty and gross to stop at Sam's Club so we went home.

Took Becca to a pool party at a schoolmate's house at 12 and then ran to the post office to mail some paperbackswap books and my mom's birthday gifts (and dad's father's day card). Mike and I went to BerryFresh Cafe for lunch and then picked up Becca at pool party.

What I wouldn't give for a pool right now!! The Heat index is over 100 everyday and it's just miserable to be out in it. Canada sounds good right now.

Becca got a little gift in the mail today! A couple weeks ago I mentioned on Pei Wei's Facebook page that my daughter had gotten a A+ on an assignment where she had to write about her favorite restaurant. One of Pei Wei's marketing people contacted me for our address and he sent Becca $30 in gift cards and a coupon for free lettuce wraps! See, it does pay to do your homework!

Spent the evening reading and went to bed early! Exciting start to vacation! Okay, maybe not. But it feels good anyway!

Installing a Husband

A friend sent me the following email. I thought that it was hilarious, so I forwarded it to Mike. His response to it follows.

INSTALLING A HUSBAND

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate.



DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.


Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck!



Mike's response:

System Check.



Husband 1.0 - running

Romance 9.5 – not optimally configured, check settings

Personal Attention 6.5 – not optimally configured, check settings

NBA 5.0 – not installed

NFL 3.0 – unobtrusive background program

Golf Clubs 4.1 - unobtrusive background program
Conversation 8.0 – An outdated version was detected

Housecleaning 2.6 - Version 1.3 detected

Nagging 5.3 – runs concurrently with Housecleaning 1.3

Tears 6.2 - runs concurrently with Housecleaning 1.3

Guilt 3.0 – a critical error was detected, hit continue to close program

Jewelry 2.0 – application missing

Flowers 3.5 – overwritten by Sam’s Club Arrangement 1.0
Grumpy Silence 2.5 – runs concurrently with Nagging 5.3

Happy Hour 7.0 – runs sporadically

Beer 6.1 – operates in safe mode
Mother-In-Law 1.0 – virus not detected

Cooking 3.0 – optimally configured

Hot Lingerie 7.7 - An outdated version was detected

Where does the time go?

I can't believe I haven't posted since October. Crazy! The days just seem to fly by!

In November I went through a big cleaning fit, so I can honestly say I was too busy to post much and really, who wants to read about how we cleaned out our closet or how we organized the garage? I did spend one entire week overhauling McKenzie's room. We pulled out everything, YES, everything, and shampooed her carpet and painted the walls a soft apple green. then we got rid of three-quarters of her stuff and put the rest back in! It's much easier for her to keep tidy and she has been spending a lot more time in there since. Practicing for the teenager years, I guess.

December saw the usual flurry of holiday shopping, decorating, baking, planning, wrapping, etc. My parents were able to come from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve and we spent a few days with them in Cape Coral, Florida, at a very nice resort. It was nice to get away. I wish we did it more on regular weekends, but getting behind on chores and laundry always freaks me out. I feel like if I let it get out of control I will never be able to rein it in again!

I have no idea where January went! Becca got a Wii for Christmas and she has been playing with that a lot. Kenzie spent a lot of time texting on her new cell phone and Mike was busy working on a grant. But what the heck did I do?? I used the Wii Fit for the first two weeks of January and then stopped. I have felt like a deflated balloon for about 3 or 4 weeks. Just no energy. I thought I was fighting something off, but maybe it's something else? Iron deficiency or something? Not sure. In November and December I was getting so much done on the weekends. The house was clean, I was getting errands done, rearranged the dining room and living room, etc. But I can't think of any accomplishments since Jan. 1!! Oh well, life is a rollercoaster right? With its ups and downs. . .

I'll try to keep up with my blog a little better. Although we don't have much new to report these days! Life is just a constant circle of school, work and chores! But if we have any signficant deviations, I'll let you know!