The Beginning of a Silent Treatment

I don't know what will happen if/when Kaelyn sees this.  I'll let you know.  

The $300 Tooth

Remember all that dental work Logan needed done last year?  This tooth he just lost cost $300.  And no, the tooth fairy did NOT reimburse me!

Back to School - for One

Back to school and driving herself!  Yay!!!!!!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1.

We have been chugging along and settling back into our routine.  Rory has had a writing class for our new co-op these past couple weeks, and it's been nice learning more about the people we'll be spending time with next year.  We have a lot in common and that always helps.

2.

KJ and I are not eating like pigs anymore.  I can't speak for him, but I have a new take on my weight.  I put too much into it.  I'm an extreme all or nothing person.  If I am eating well, then absolutely no sugar.  If I'm not eating well, I don't even TRY to make healthy choices.  I've quit all that.  I have bigger priorities right now.  I'm going to continue working out at the gym (without going overboard) and making healthy choices.  If per chance I should have a cookie or two, I'm not going to blow the rest of the day and have MacDonald's for dinner.  I'm going to just make a healthy dinner choice and stop making my unhealthy choices such a big deal.  I guess it's something more of an 80/20 thing which I seem to be seeing everywhere now.  80/20 this.  80/20 that.  It's working for me for now, and I like not being so focused on how thin I'm not.

3.

KJ and I have found The Office on Netflix.  We have all the seasons.  We watch it every night.  It's like a train wreck.  We watch it with half of our faces covered.  When Kaelyn watches it with us, she covers half her face too.

4.

As far as the eating healthier goes, we're trying more whole foods.  This endeavor is sometimes harder with Kevin than the kids.  All I have to do is put a little chocolate in whatever I make using whole wheat and such.  KJ doesn't like chocolate, so it doesn't work with him.  Still trying to figure something out for him.

5.

I'm looking for a math curriculum...again.  I'm.so.sick.of.looking.for.math.curriculum.  I was originally looking for Rory, but I think Logan needs a switch too even though I've already bought his for next year.  I need something colorful.  They need something colorful.  Maybe we don't need math at all?  I haven't explored that route.  Just kidding, of course!

6.

I think I hit my wall with Thirty-One.  I'm just not that in to it anymore.  I'm waiting for God to show me the way, and I think He has and I'm just not listening.  I think I might need a part-time evening job.

7.

We have another groundhog.  Folks, have you seen the movie Over the Hedge?  I'm about to turn into the crazy HOA lady.  KJ saw this groundhog reaching through the side of the cage and pulling the watermelon out instead of walking in and getting trapped.  AND...stand down on your fear of Japanese Hornets.  Kevin killed one and took a picture of it.  He posted it and asked what it was.  Apparently, it's a cicada killer.  They can sting humans, but obviously are mainly out for cicadas, and when they sting humans, it's not that bad.  Whoever answered KJ said that Japanese Hornets aren't in the US.  I remember saying the same thing, but since I'm only his wife and not a stranger on the internet, I must be wrong.

I miss my seester.  :(

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Warriors

Well, we finally decided to take Logan for his birthday outing a month later.  Kevin and I try to take the kids out alone for a birthday treat.  Rory wanted to go walking around an outside mall for her birthday this year.  Logan wanted a movie.

We went to a matinee that still cost $9 a ticket.  Luckily I had a leftover free movie ticket to use.  The movie was right in the middle of the lunch hour, so we headed to Bob Evans first.  They have a kid friendly menu of which Logan requested pancakes in the shape of a face.  

We saw Despicable Me 2.  It was cute and funny like the first.  There was a birthday party in the theater, and I'm sorry but the kids were not a nice bunch.  Their comments had me thinking more than once of walking out.  The only reason why I didn't was because Logan was completely oblivious to what they were saying.  He was just so excited to be at the movies.

After the movies we got some frozen yogurt treats.  This is one of Logan's favorites.  He gets a little yogurt and a mound of gummy something.  It can be worms, bears, sour patch kids...as long as it's chewy and sugar he's happy.  

We finished the outing with a trip to the Dollar Store to get some coloring books.  Ours were all used up, and we had no boy ones.  We solved that and headed to pick up his sisters.

We headed to the store to get some concrete to fill in the porch where the groundhog dug up because we now think Japanese Hornets are trying to nest under the porch.  Yes, Japanese Hornets.  Look them up.  They're supposed to only be in Asia and just making their way to England, but apparently they've landed in Maryland.  These things sure look like them even though we're praying they're not.

There were three of them, but Kevin killed one finally.  He was hitting them with a shovel and they would just fly off.  Apparently they invade honeybee nests and take them over.  Their venom has been known to kill many people and feels like "a hot nail" being driven into you.  Their stinger is 4mm long and has no barb, so they can sting repeatedly.  This is no good.  Did I mention that adults can be more than 4cm long?  Kevin is convinced this is what they are.

So the concrete is filled in.  Rory and I took turns watching out for them as Kevin did the job.  We had his back.  Whenever Kevin talks about them, they get bigger and bigger.  He likens it to a fish catching story.  The size of the fish gets bigger each time the story is told.  I'm giving you exact measurements from data, just so you know.

Sunday was church, gym, Carmel for me, and dinner. We've really just been hanging out this afternoon.  We set up a table and chairs in the basement that we got from Ikea last week for CHEAP.  It's their art area.  They have all the supplies for whatever they want and do not need to call me for anything.  I have a cheap rug under them, so paint and play-doh don't get on the nice carpet.  They are free to be there and do whatever they want.  They have been warned that supplies are limited, and just because they use something all up does not mean it will be immediately replenished.  They've been down there all weekend.  It's working out great.  Now I just have to make it someone's chore to clean the art area every day.

It's been nice just lounging this afternoon.  Kevin and I feel like it's the calm before the storm.  School starts in two week, and even though we're only going twice a week, there's a lot of prepping.  Pray for us if you find some time.  

The table isn't against any of the walls, so that's nice.  Those doors are to my Thirty-One closet (Yes, it has it's own closet) and my clothes closet.  We don't use the big door.  That's why we can semi-block it.

In case you're thinking that my kids are little art angels making beautiful project with all these supplies at their fingertips...here's some reality to keep it honest.

Rodents

So KJ still has the cages out since he caught the last groundhog.  On Tuesday he caught another groundhog.  On Wednesday he caught an opossum.  It's like that little caterpillar book, but not as cute or edible.  He's still setting the traps even though we live out in the country, and there is bound to be something in there everyday.  I told him we need to stop since the groundhogs are gone.

I'm worried about the groundhog grapevine.  What if other groundhogs are telling other rodents that we are serving up free cantaloups?  The ones who have eaten and escaped?  Then we'll get all these rodents coming for free food, and there will be Kevin and the kids driving all these rodents, that poop in the cage mind you, to their new homes.  

The next step is filling underneath the porch with concrete.  With the nice weather, it's not something I would rather be doing, but I'll take advantage of the no sweat clause any day.  Have I told you I hate sweating?  Well, I do!  

I have no pics of rodents for you.  You can thank me now.  I'll keep you in the loop.  Other than that, getting back into regular routine of school and gym.  Feels nice.  Ciao!

Weekend Tidbits

For the most part, we chilled this weekend.  It was really nice.  We only had a couple things we needed to do, but the bulk of the days were ours.  I got some housework done, bread made, pool played.  We did have a few things happen though, like Rory serving her first Mass.

I want to talk about the vein in my forehead.  Holy vein, Batman!  It looks like something crawling on my head.  Note to self: do not take left angled pictures...vein does not like them.

Now about our situation this weekend.  Maybe you remember me talking about that one weekend KJ fixed the porch because the bricks had fallen apart.  The brick was doing that because we had a groundhog making a home under our porch.  When KJ fixed the bricks, he dug under the flower bed.  When KJ blocked that, he dug around the other side of the porch, so he blocked that.  

Well, the brick started to fall back into under the porch again here recently.  Yesterday morning KJ found that the groundhog had dug AGAIN in the flower bed to get under the porch, so he went to the store and got two traps, a large and a small.  He filled the large one and put it out this morning after seeing the groundhog out and eating breakfast.  

KJ found the trap empty a couple of times.  The groundhog had come in, taken the canteloupe, and the latch hadn't dropped...twice.  This did not make KJ happy.  He went and got the other trap and set them both out.  We went to Sunday dinner at his parents and came home to a caught groundhog.  Yay!

KJ and his brother drove it away and let it loose.  Kevin didn't get any pictures of that.  :(  Do groundhogs have a homing sense?  I think this groundhog has a family, so the plan is to catch them all and bring them to the same spot.  I'm curious to see if we catch anything besides a groundhog because we have lots of critters in these parts.  I'll keep you up to date.  KJ is SO EXCITED to have caught this thing.  Hopefully we can get some concrete to fill in under the porch before the weather changes.  

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

Pretty

Nikki requested a rainbow cake for her birthday, so I made her one.  My seester and her family celebrated with us, and while there was going to be an ice cream cake, Dale wouldn't be able to eat it because of his nut allergies.  So the rainbow cake worked out because he could eat it.  It was a pain, and you had to be good at math.  Two things I don't like already.  I learned some lessons in case I never ever make a rainbow cake again.  It does look pretty!

Happy

Funny

This is an inflatable alien that Rory won at the fair.  She named him ALE-Y.  (Pronounced like alien without the en)  She decided to dress HIM up one day.  No wonder why he popped.  He lost his dignity.

I don't think this one needs explaining.

Real

Gotta love town carnivals.  Ri and I were screaming at Logan and Dayce to unhook Drake.  They finally got it and the lady running the ride hoisted him over the fence to Maria, not waiting to walk him out.  They quickly closed the ride down, and we saw someone working on it later.  Crazy.  

Radioactive

My apologies...

My seester left this morning.  *sniff*  KJ and I went down to my parents last night to say goodbye.  *sniff*sniff*  I didn't blog because I was wallowing in my pity party, just me and my peanut butter-chocolate Haagen-Dazs.  So...I guess I'll explain the pic on the last blog of the back of my head and my seester with a rather surprised expression on her face.

My seester called me one day and told me that I had to read this book Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed by Glennon Melton.  She was excited about it because there was a chapter about a guy she went to high school with, long story.  She would read me excerpts from the book and begged me to get it from my library.  It had a long hold on it, so I told her I might buy it.  if I did, she would buy it from me when she got here.  We had a plan.

I ended up buying the book because I was on the hold list forever.  Right when I got the shipping notice for the book, I got the notice that it was on hold for me at the library.  Ugh.  I read it all the way through. It was good.  I looked the author up on Facebook and noticed that she was doing book signings and one of them was in Baltimore.

So KJ and I went.  Kevin was the 4th guy there, but he didn't have a baby like the rest.  We sat in the front row.  Glennon gave a talk and then we all lined up to get our books signed.  They gave us a yellow sticky note to write what we wanted our dedication to say, but I couldn't think of anything.  I got to the front of the line and told her the whole story about my seester and how she knew her sister's husband.  It's complicated, but her sister was there and texted her husband that his old schoolmate's little sis was there.  Got all that?  

Fast forward to a MONTH later.  Some background first...I can't even hold the secret of what I get my seester for Christmas, and I held this secret for SO LONG.  AND I was so excited about it!  It was really hard.  When she finally got here, I had to wait longer because KJ had to work and couldn't come see her the first day we went to see her.  I couldn't tell her all about it without him there.

It was a big deal!  Everyone gathered around and my seester had no clue what was going on.  I handed her the book and told her to look in it.  She couldn't believe I got it signed for her.  After all that, I didn't take a picture of what she wrote.  It was something like "My Maria,  You are loved.  You are strong.  You are enough.  Just do the next right thing.  Love, Glennon."  

It was one of the better things I've ever done in my life.  I know it meant so much to her, and I still get high when I think about it.  When Maria first told me about this book she said, "She has a little sister who is three years younger than her.  She says that she doesn't know how she breathed for those three years without her, and that's how I feel about you."  Maria and I are three years apart.  *sniff*  I already miss her so much.

I'm so animated!

I miss you, Ri.

First Day of August Daybook

Outside my window...
It's dark and warm.  At least it's not hot even though it looks like there's heat lightning.

I am thankful for...
Safe travels and family.  I feel like I've been running everywhere, and I'm just glad I keep getting wherever there may be in one piece.  (not to be taken for granted)

I am thinking about...
All sorts of things.  I went to a talk at my church tonight about discerning God's will in your life.  I felt like I had a spotlight on me most of the night.

In the schoolroom...
Rory is kicking out her reading program still and climbing levels.  We're waiting to get into the swing of things until next week when my sister and her family leave.

From the kitchen...
(cue crickets)  I've been out of town physically and mentally.  I feel like things will come together NEXT WEEK.  

I am creating...
Stillness.  This has to do with the talk tonight.  I am a planner.  Normally I would be creating a plan.  I've been told to, "Be still, and know that I am God."  So that's what I'm going to do.

I am working on...
Myself.  That's a new one.  ;)  I'm past the first step at least if I'm admitting it now.  

I am reading...
The Bible.  (back to basics)

I am praying...
steadfastly for some dear ones.

I am hearing...
Kevin come home.  He ran to get some french fries for me because I am not eating well.  NEXT WEEK!  NEXT WEEK!

Around the house...
Can I get those crickets back again?  NEXT WEEK.  Folks, I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what next week's blogs look like.  I hope I keep my word.

One of my favorite things...
my seester.  I get one month a year, and I am soaking.it.up.  

A few plans for the rest of the week...
Well, it's Thursday night so...nothing tomorrow and my parent's house on Saturday (the last day I'll see my seester.

A picture...

There's a story....later.  In the meantime...check out Mufasa from the back.  Yikes!