Another Monday Morning

It's Monday morning...thus starts another week of softball, basketball, child_units arguing, baking, being the entertainment committee, and of course...walking.

Hmmm....10:25 and one child_unit has just decided to get out of bed...well, it was peaceful ;)

The first thing I saw on the internet this morning what that comedian George Carlin had died. Yes, he was a foul mouthed comedian, however, he really did have a softer side and loved children. I like to remember his as the Conductor on Shiny Time Station. He could be course and rough, but he could also be gentle. I guess that's acting eh? I'm sure he'll be missed by many people.

We went to CMU on Friday to pick Em up from "Music" camp, apparently it's not "Band" camp anymore, but shhhhhhh, we'll still call it BAND CAMP :p anywho....the concert was amazing (aside from the vocals...couldn't hear them 1/4 of the time, the other 1/4 of time you just couldn't understand what they were singing). My favorite, again this year, had to be the saxophone ensemble. (yes, I LOVED the saxophone quartet...they ROCKED!!) To hear a group of saxophones (43 I think) play Stars and Stripes Forever with only a small percussion group was completely amazing!!!! I can't wait to get the CD so I can listen to them again! The concert band was great too....you'll never be disappointed if you go to one of their 'end of week' concerts!

Ever have one of those days where you needed to vent, but you couldn't because even if you did it really wouldn't matter and it would leave you with the feeling that you needed to vent even more!?!?! I hate it when that happens!

I wish I lived closer to Whitney :(

I should probably just stop writing for now, it seems that I've only managed to complain this morning, I guess I'm just not in the mood to write right now, perhaps I'll try to make up for it later.

Y'all enjoy the breeze today,
Love ya :)

In a baking frame of mind

Here's a question, is making rice crispy treats considered baking? Nah, I didn't think so either, considering there's no actual baking involved. How would you put it then? "I'm cooking rice crispy treats?" or, mixing, making, producing....oh, it's limitless I suppose! I really am in a baking mood though, good thing too since I have to make monster cookies tomorrow, at least 12 dozen!! Right now there's a cherry-rhubarb cobbler in the oven and I have to admit that I didn't make it, D did. Yup, my lil' boy is growing up and learning to bake...woo hooooo, he'll make a great husband to some lucky girl some day....ummm, some day in the distant....really distant future!!!!!!!!! Is it bad to teach them how to bake and not how to cook? I mean, baking is fun, cooking can be tedious. Don't get me wrong, I like to cook, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to bake! Baking seems to make people smile more. I mean, when you see a plate of green beans, rice and pork chops you think..."yummy" (well, they do in our house anyhow), but when you see a beautiful cake or walk in the house to the smell of cookies or banana bread baking, you get this warm feeling of happiness inside! *shrugs* Maybe it's just me?

Alex has yet another sports related injury. He was playing basketball and an older person, who they shouldn't have been scrimmaging against, tripped him and he landed bad on his right hand and dislocated his index finger. He put it back in place all on his own and an X-ray showed that there wasn't anything broken (Thank God!!), but he's still pretty sore. In all of his stubbornness he won't take any kind of pain reliever, not even plain 'ole Tylenol or Motrin. At least I got him to put an ice pack on it last night for a while. I just hope this doesn't affect his football camp that's coming up.

*Cobbler is smelling pretty yummy at this point in time**

Em is at band camp right now and I miss her!! I've actually almost called out to her wanting her to come with me somewhere, but then remembered that she wasn't here :( It's gonna be really hard when she graduates and goes away to college. She's having a good time anyhow from what she's said, she's really excited about the quartet that she's in, she's a bit disappointed about the jazz band though, some other girl begged in after the auditions (or something like that) and is now getting to play half of what Em was supposed to play...I wonder if that girl likes to play basketball...perhaps she could play with Brett on Thursday evening ;)

Whitney is doing wonderfully, the worst of the cuts to her legs looks very, very good now, it still scabs up and comes off, but that's a part of the healing process I suppose. I'm really hoping to get out there soon to ride her, I just wish that it would stop raining during the day. It can rain all night if it wants to, but let us have some nice days! A little bit of a warm up would be nice too...this 50 degree stuff stinks!

Does anybody want a rabbit? I'm tired of fighting with a certain child_unit to feed it, she's the one that wanted it so bad. I'm the one that usually wanders around getting it stuff to eat during the day.

I guess I should go and get a monster cookie supply inventory ready so that I have everything ready for tomorrow.

Y'all smile and say hello to someone new today,
Love ya :)

Summer vacation???

Back in the day when I was just a wee one.....well, ok...when I was younger, I remember that summer vacation was just that....vacation...nothing to do until the fall. BOY oh BOY have things changed! The child_units have been out of school for 7 'weekdays', but where was I today? Yup, pulling into the school parking lot for summer basketball camp...1st session. Em has to work at this camp (she better be getting 'points' for this!!!!!), Dominic has the 9-11 AM session and then we switch off and Christen has the 11-1 session. Of course, Em has to stay there for the older kids and the 1-3 PM session. Yee haw. *note to self, try to remember to make her the PBJ she requested*. Summer vacation is really not quite what it's cracked up to be anymore, at least not for families with kids that enjoy doing everything! Alex leaves Wednesday for a mission trip, Em leaves Sunday for band camp, Ben's going to an awesome concert with his girlfriend (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy) for her birthday. Next weekend is the Big Ticket Festival up north and we have to take Em there right after her concert at band camp...that, by the way, doesn't get finished until 7:30'ish' and then it's probably a 2 hour drive to the Big Ticket Festival. OYE! Hay season is in there somewhere too. A couple of weeks after all this comes the football camps for Alex, Junior Nationals Basketball for Em...and let us not forget that she's playing summer softball too! As if all that isn't enough, ALL the coaches are making it MANDATORY that they have to earn 100 points during the summer to be eligible for the varsity seasons coming up ie; volleyball, football, basketball....it's just ridiculous....they have to earn points by, what else, GOING TO THE SCHOOL to work with the weights and do little mini workout sessions, work car washes, concession stands at the Pirate Festival (which they've made MANDATORY for the parental_units to work at too!!!) oh, the list goes on and on. At least they all got a point for going to the stupid meeting! No, really, I'm not bitter, I would just like to do something myself for summer vacation instead of chauffeuring everyone else. Just some sort of vacation...*sigh*

I would have to say that yesterday was the first time I was scared during a storm! We were driving down the road and you could see sheets of rain going by...I literally mean sheets...going sideways...and then came the hail :| I thought for sure that it was going to smash my windshield...it just kept pelting my poor truck...when we slowed down to turn onto 23, you could see golf ball sized hail laying on the ground. I inspected the damage this morning, there are 2 dents on my hood and one on the roof of my truck *sniffle*. I feel even worse for poor Whitney, she was standing out getting hit by the stupid hail...she really needs to be moved to where she has shelter. Yeah, I know, horses and other animals have been in the elements and survived for years....I don't care though, she's my horse and she's in there here and now, not years ago! Alex got hit in the chest with ONE hail and it hurt, imagine being a bigger target and not being able to go to the basement >:( Oh well...eventually.

Christen is feeling better, that shot she got had her feeling better the next day. It was just strange seeing how her coloring changed Saturday night...I'm just glad it's back to normal now.

D planted a cabbage that he got from school. I think it's some sort of scholarship/contest that goes until Sept. 1st. This thing is getting BIG! We put a screen box around it to keep the rabbits away from it, but now we're going to have to make something different because it's getting too big for the box! I think I'll probably have to work on that sometime later today...that is...between basketball camps, chauffeuring and Christen's softball game tonight. No problem, plentyyyyyyyy of time...this thing is going to go crazy growing with all the heat and rain we've had..not to mention the great care it's getting with fertilizer, I should actually bring some of Whitney's special fertilizer for it ;)

Did you ever wonder why people write blogs? I mean...WHO reads them, WHY would other people care, is it some sort of voyeuristic reason why people read them? Just catching up with people you haven't seen in years? Writing = venting? I know I read them because it's one of the only ways to keep up with friends that are in college *coughSarahcough*. I read another blog (even though it's the saddest thing I've ever read) because it actually gives me spiritual strength. I don't know how people can go through what they do and still have the strong faith that they do. I've said it before, I hope that God never tests me that way. (www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com) God Bless the Smith Family! (if you choose to read that blog, PLEASE start from her first post)

I need to be doing other things right now, so, I will be finishing here.

Y'all do a cartwheel today,
Love Ya :)

My sink runneth over......

So, yeah.....I know I shouldn't be sitting here blogging because literally, my sink runneth over! It looks worse than it really is because there's pots and pans. Yes, I'm sure I'll get them all caught up today since I have to sit home with the sick child_unit (more on that later). Right now I'm baking for a graduation party, so, I'll wait until that's done so the oven will be off and "I" won't bake quite so bad out there. (even though the air-cond. is on *jumping for joy*)

Yesterday, I had to take Christen to the E.R., simply because we don't have any walk-in clinics on the weekends here in hick town! I knew she either had strep throat or tonsillitis, which is pretty much the same thing except for with tonsillitis you get all this yucky white stuff on your tonsils. They did a throat culture which did turn up positive for strep, yuck. The worst part of it all was that I told her that back in the day when I got it all the time, I would get a shot of penicillin, (they didn't have the "pink stuff" back then!) and that she probably wouldn't have to worry about that. WELLLLLLLLL.....the look on her face when the nurse walked in with a needle was probably about as bad as the look on MY face when I saw it! I guess her strep was pretty bad and they were giving her a steroid shot to help take care of it along with the 10 day supply of "the pink stuff". The crying began wayyyyyyyy before the cap even came off of the needle, no, it wasn't me crying. Of course, the nurse told her that it wouldn't hurt (yeah...RIGHT...I've been there!), and after about 5 minutes of prepping Christen to the fact that she'd feel better, we finally got her on here side and prepped for the shot, which, in fact...DID HURT....it burned, then the nurse said, "Oh, she may want to put an ice pack on there when you get home because it'll hurt for a bit yet." Yeah, OK, let's just lie to the child so that the next time she'll believe you even more and it'll take 20 minutes of prep time instead of 5!!!!!!!! *rolling my eyes* The good news is, she's feeling 200% better today, she hasn't grimaced once when swallowing. *YAY* I just hope that nobody else, especially me, catches her germs!

I think that summer has finally arrived. The last couple of days it's been in the 80's. (hence the air conditioner). The only one that doesn't really like it is my horse. The flies have been eating her alive! To update on her, I'm happy to say that most of the cuts and scrapes on her legs are healing VERY well...I'm still concerned about the big one though, I think I may have to take her to the vet so he can have a look at it, it's just not healing very well and it's been 2 weeks today. We'll see how it looks in a day or two.

D is finished with Coach Pitch baseball and Christen's softball is in mid-season. Emily, however, has just started practices for her summer softball league. On top of all that, hay season is just beginning too. I'm not sure if there's too much excitement for that season!

Well, the cheesecake is out of the oven now, I guess I should probably go and get a few things done.

Y'all lay out in the sun and read a book today,
Love Ya :)