A Mother's Tears

I haven't posted for a few days because I wasn't sure that I could actually post without losing control of my emotions. To clarify, this past Sunday we took Ben to college. Sure, no big deal, he'll be home again (God willing). However, to a mother, this is one of the hardest things to do.....letting go. I can still picture him newly born, laying on my belly, that bottom lip pouting out, needing me......ME, his mother, he needed ME, now, it's not that way, he doesn't need me anymore. Ok, honestly, I know, he hasn't really "needed" me for a long time now, but at least here was here, at home, not needing me *sigh* yeah, I'm blubbering. Mother's perogative! Just for the record, emotions are not in check yet I guess. I just want him to miss me too. Dang, I need a hug!!!!!!!!!

Alex is playing his first football game of the season this evening. He earned the position of starting Quarterback!! I'm very proud!

I guess I really don't feel much like blogging anymore right now, perhaps I'll try more tomorrow.

Y'all enjoy the rain,
Love Ya :)
*sniffles*

Blessed are those in pain, for they shall receive Anaproxen..

What can I say about yesterday...hmmmm...to sum it up into one word...PAIN!! For most people I would only have to say that I was in the dentist's chair for 3.5 hours yesterday, most people would understand immediately that that announcement in itself would produce pain. After years of putting things off, I finally got all of my dental work done in one sitting, 7 fillings and a crown. I ate mashed potatoes twice yesterday. The first time was quite interesting because my top lip was still pretty numb and you're not quite sure if you got all the gravy off the spoon or not, but I was not to be deterred because on the other end of those potatoes was my blessed Anaproxen! It was pretty tough to get to sleep when all you can feel is your whole mouth throbbing :( It was even harder to watch everyone else eat pizza and spaghetti and garlic toast and salad....*sigh* while I ate mashed potatoes again. I really just sat there and wondered if I would ever be able to enjoy a beautifully grilled steak again....and what then does Emily cook herself for breakfast this morning!?!?! STEAK and potatoes and an egg. *sobbing*

I think today is going to be a WalMart day, we seriously need groceries! Thank God summer is almost over with, at least the grocery bill won't be as big. Not to mention that Ben will be gone too.

Alex has his first football scrimmage tomorrow, I'm not quite sure where it is and not quite sure that I'm going to go if it's a great distance away. It's really just too annoying to take the two youngest child_units, they whine and complain that they're bored and hungry the minute we leave the driveway, no, no fun at all.

Well, in less than a month Tom and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. Wow, 20 years, that really flew by! I'm hoping that we can go up by Traverse City for a couple of days, it'll be harder once school starts and all of the athletics begin, but, we'll see.

I think I'm going to get going and walk now, I didn't get to yesterday so I think I'll walk a little extra today to make up for it.

Y'all DON'T forget to FLOSS!!!
Love Ya :)

Splendid Nature

Last night was incredible!! I stood out on the porch and stared up into the starlit sky in hopes of seeing just one meteor. Oh what joy the splendor of God's creations!! I ended up dragging Tom and Ben outside to see what I saw. Tom saw a meteor right away, one w/ a long tail that burst into a display of fireworks when it hit the atmosphere, Ben on the other hand ended up laying on the porch with me just staring up into the sky for a while. He finally did get to see a few fly by, but none were as incredible as the ones that Tom and I had both witnessed. I stayed out on the porch for a while. Two of my cats thought it was incredible that I had brought a blanket out there just for "them" to lay on...hmmmm....and then one of them decided it was more incredible to sleep on my belly while I watched up into the sky. I would have stayed out there longer, however, I didn't like sharing my blanket w/ mosquitos. :

Wow, I'm not even sure what today is going to consist of yet, except for my (mostly daily) walk. I think I may have to go out and borrow Jon's copy of 300....yes, of course I'm only going to be watching it for the abs...sheesh, did you think I was really that interested in Spartan history!?!?! hehehehehe....not to mention that "The Phantom" is in this movie too!!! (Gerard Butler for those of you who don't know who the Phantom (of the Opera) is) I also discovered, quite by surprise, that Gerard Butler was in the movie "Timeline", I quite enjoyed that movie too! I'm trying to read the book now.

Well, I think it's time to go and take my walk for the day.

Y'all should take in a little history w/ me today too ;)
Love Ya :)

Denim and Deals

Well, today was actually a very fun and relaxing day. It started with the smell of pancakes. Emily was up at 6:30 this morning and decided to make breakfast for every, which has been occuring quite a bit this summer!! My neice Molly came to spend the night with us last night instead of sleeping in tents at the campground w/ her parental_units and her 5 brothers, wise choice I would say! It was sort of a family reunion at my mother-in-law's house yesterday...yes, fun. Anyway, after breakfast and a shower, we headed on our way to the big city of Saginaw, upon our arrival we promptly hit Toys R Us, JoAnns, Dicks, Meijer and then we headed off to Bay City. It was fun at Meijer, I didn't realize until checkout if you use your Meijer credit card, you got an additional 20% off your entire purchase, which included the clearance stuff we had chosen! Oh yes, good deals today!! Woo Hoooo. We ate lunch at Fazole's in Bay City, the guy that worked there didn't like to smile much, ok, not at all. When he came to our table to ask if we would like anymore bread sticks, I told him yes, but ONLY if he smiles when he brought them back....yes, he did smile. The girls thought that he was cuter that way :)

I baked a blueberry pie for said family reunion and after the first slice was taken, it was gone in no less than 2 minutes....no joke!!

I'm not sure, but I think I'll be leaving in a few minutes to take Molly back to the campground, so, I think I'm going to stop typing and get ready to go.

Y'all go and get an ice cream...RIGHT NOW!!!
Love Ya :)

I've Got the Blues...

Well, it's August again. The one thing that happens every August, typically the first week here in Michigan, is Blueberries. Yup, it's jam season on top of that. I've not been doing very well with jam season this year. The eldests' grad party put a BIG damper on the Strawberry season, I didn't get to go and even pick one berry, NOT ONE!! Needless to say, not too many people here were happy with that because Strawberry jam is the most coveted jam here in this household, well, ok, next to Raspberry. I've decided not to make any grape jelly at all, ever again! So, it's on to Blueberry. Tom, Steve and I picked quite a few when we went on opening day, I do believe we picked about 50 lbs. and that's not counting the ones that Steve picked for himself! Some people we know went to pick the day after we did and didn't get more than about 4 lbs. of berries. I guess we were lucky to have gone the first day! It's unbelieveable the amount of berries that the Amish people pick. One family we talked to while picking said that they were going to be taking around 200 lbs. of berries....YES, 200 lbs. It was amazing to see all of their buckets and coolers up by the counter when we left, whew, I sure wouldn't want to be taking care of all of those!!!!!!!!!

It's been a fairly hot summer here, and very, very dry. A lot of the crops around here and really all around the state are in very bad shape right now. The corn doesn't look like it's gonna be a good crop at all...how sad. I guess the price of Tostitos will be going up, heh. Oh my, can you imagine the price of popcorn at the theatres if that crop is at all affected by this dry weather! We'll be paying $50 for a lg. tub of buttered corn instead of the normal $20!! (joke)

It's hard to believe that there are less than 3 weeks before school starts. I'm very glad that they finally changed it back to starting after Labor Day. Not sure why, but I just am. Alex has started football practice, they actually started Monday. He's been quite sore these past few days, I really can't believe how hard they work them the first 2 weeks, then hardly work them at all after that. Hmmmm.

My oldest child_unit will be leaving a week from Sunday for college :( It really only makes me more sad that he's leaving because I know how badly he wants to be gone from here. I'm not quite sure why he feels so strongly that he's got it so bad here, he has no real responsibilities at all!!!! I'm sure his friends can attest to that! I know the biggest fury has been "thank you notes" from his grad party. I have to be sure that he actually gets them finished before he leaves. *sigh* I don't think he realizes just how much I'm gonna miss him not being here, and if he does realize, does he even care? I remember leaving my ma, I really did care and was concerned about her when I moved out. I still do care. Where did I go wrong? I guess I can only pray for him and hope that someday............................................well, I'll just leave it at that. It makes me sad.

I really feel like I need to bake now, it has a calming affect on me. Gee, what could I bake...hmmmmm, I know....Blueberry pie, hehehe...got lots of them!!! (blueberries that is).

Em has decided not to play volleyball this fall, for this I am very glad. There are a lot of reasons she decided not to play, but only one imparticular made her ultimate decision. It was the right choice! It seems, though, that the Girls Varsity basketball coach has quit and gone back to AE. That sucks! He had assured her that she would be playing on Varsity this year. (She's only a sophmore this year) I'm not sure why he quit, he had been working w/ the girls a lot this summer to get them ready. Oh well, I'm sure they'll get someone to take his place, they always do. I just wish that they could get the Fritz's back to coach, I've heard that they're phenomenal coaches, a little loud, but good. I've also heard that they don't get along well w/ the athletic director at the school...hmmmm, dilemma...who goes, the awesome coaches or the mediocre athletic director? *pondering* I guess we don't have to worry about this till November.

The two youngest child_units are as abnoxious as ever. They are bored out of their minds of course. D plays a lot of Xbox and the such and C reads a LOT. Speaking of reading, all of the people in this household that care have read the final installment of Harry Potter. Yes, the ending was somewhat of a letdown. But, on the whole, it was a very good read. I was VERY confused about the wands towards the end, but Ben helped to explain it all to me. I do have to admit to shedding a few tears through the book, and of course, laughed a few times w/ George and Fred. Shall my grief for Dobby ever be consoled? I, like Hermione, rallied for the freedom of house elves!! My Hero! (Dobby that is)

Oh, Sarah....have you read "The Kite Runner" or "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini? If you haven't, you can borrow mine when you come home, they're both incredible books! YOU'LL BE HOME SOON!! WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Did I mention that I have to do laundry today too? I did some yesterday, and then a few days before that. It wouldn't seem like such a big deal, but when you have to go to the laundramat, it IS a big deal, especially when it's been so hot....I can't just stay in the luxury of my air-conditioned home to do this menial task. Oh well, I'll live as I have lived before.....live to do MORE laundry in a couple more days! Yay.

Well, I just realized that I've been sitting HERE too long and the blueberries out THERE are NOT getting done.

Y'all enjoy a nice glass of lemonade in today's heat,
Love Ya :)