The Long and Short of August

Wow, has it been a busy end to the summer! So busy in fact, that I have barely even had time to sit at my computer. Here is a little run down (in no particular chronological order) with some pictures of our “end” to summer.


Football - Preseason Practice

To all those who scoffed at the thought of my sixty pound son playing football, to some of his own friends who thought he was not “big and tough” enough for football, here is a big na-na-na-na-na-na to you! As the mighty 140lb “tough” guys whine at being tackled and weep as they are found on the bottom of the pile-up. My scrappy little son is pounded and bumped from one lineman to another like a little steel pinball only to be squashed (if they can catch him that is) under four giants (which is about 400lbs of 9-11 year old bulk) and he just keeps jumping back up and asking for more. Kudos’ to you my “little” man!!! Daddy’s proud and your mother feels faint and you are holding your own. Way to go!!!

Pre-Season practice gear

The football Jamboree (on a neighboring high school field) with more practice gear (we did not get our uniforms in time for Jamboree, like we needed any more help looking like we were from hick town.) Here is the giant pumpkin patch. I video taped (the defensive coach wanted to check things out afterwards) It was fun to be that up close and personal! The high school field was AstroTurf so that was interesting for them in itself.

Itza Time Fora Spaghetti!

Tcooked his first dinner meal for the family. He was so proud of himself and other than helping him with the pasta water and opening a couple of cans he did it all himself. Right down to the silk tablecloth and napkins, wineglasses (gritted my teeth through that one) and sparkling wine. Here are a couple of pics of the little chef.

Meteor Shower
The children and I made big beds out on the back deck and spent the evening talking about life and the universe. Wow, was that incredible. I saw two meteors that made the whole evening worth while. (I stopped counting somewhere around thirty) but two of them were so low that they looked like a fireball with green, purple and red trailing in a bright haze behind it. I have NEVER seen anything like it in my whole life. It was so cool. We slept out under the stars and woke up early to faces covered in dew seeking hot chocolate and reliving the “amazing-ness” of the previous night. We also saw a few satellites and one that I could not figure out. It was about a hundred times brighter than a satellite but just as high so I knew it could not be a plane. We watched it track all the way through the sky trying to figure out what we were seeing. I couldn't’t explain it. Then a few days later a friend of mine provided the answer. What we had seen was the ISS orbiting overhead. Can you say BONUS! I don’t think the kids and I will forget that for a long time to come.

http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Summer at the beach

We spent many summer days out on Jetty Island this year. We invited family or friends to join us on may occasions and pretty much had some fantastic beach parties. I think the most memorable (for my husband at least) would be the Saturday that we went and a group of about eighteen high school cheerleaders parked about ten feet from us and spent the day playing volleyball in their bikinis and practicing their cheers (with there pompoms) on the beach. I kid you not. Now just for the record I remember high school and I remember the cheerleader squad enough to know that not everyone of them looked like sports illustrated swim suit models in string bikinis. It was wrong. It was just wrong and I am sooooo grateful that I DON’T have girls!!!! (The disgruntled funny picture of T is because I have put sunscreen on him and it has gotten into his hair and he does NOT want his hair to stand up!

Ambulances and Weddings

I was supposed to go to my girlfriends wedding. The same weekend we also had a dramatic and slightly traumatic family situation. My mother had not been feeling well and I stopped by to say hi to her at the end of her work day. She explained that she had fainted at her desk and was feeling terrible. I took her to the doctor and as they were hooking her up in the exam room to an EKG machine she passed out again. They ambulanced her to the hospital (telling me about the possibilities of a stroke or a heartatack and then I had to relay that to my father so he could meet us at the hospital) and started giving her nitroglycerin. Her blood pressure was through the roof and then dropping dangerously low. Now I don’t know how low your blood pressure has to be before you’re at death’s door but when the monitor was reading 66/44 I thought she was close. It is upsetting to see your parent that helpless but I was glad that I could be there for both of them. She spent three days in the hospital and being considerate of her privacy I will just say that I am very happy to say that her heart is ok and that she will be ok.


Say Goodbye to the baby teeth that didn’t want to leave.
So this is the first story of many that will eventually come from all the orthodontic work that both of my children have to look forward too. I have given up hope that I will ever have a new van or a computer because we will have to purchase them both new mouths. To make a very long story short T went to his dentist, got all numbed up and then they could notcontinue so we made a flying trip up to a pediatric dental specialist and the poor kid had to be all numbed up again and had his two bottom baby teeth pulled out. Other than the giant hole he bit into the bottom of his lip he did really well. I was also able to find out that he is simply hysterical on laughing gas. He got all chatty and animated making big gestures with his arms and telling the dental hygienist how his brother was nice to him one time but most of the time he is not (for my older son’s defense, that’s not exactly true) but the web of stories coming from T was an entertainment level comparable to winning a Oscar. The pictures didn't turn out too good but that's ok. I was amazed though that compared to B's baby teeth that looked like little Chiclets T's looked like they came strait out of Dracula's mouth!

The smell of salty air.

We also took a sunset harbor cruise with my parents and the kids. Talk about fun! It was local and only and hour and a half but we had such a great time! Bird watching and local history and we were on the water. We will defiantly be doing that again next year!

Ten Year Anniversary
Well all of our big vacation plans for our ten year anniversary went out the window when Shad’s vacation time was not approved from work. It worked out though because we would have had to miss B’s football jamboree and first games. (Which obviously we didn’t want to do) My parents gave us a really nice gift certificate to a great restaurant on the waterfront and we hope to be able to use it this coming weekend. My husband and I looked at each other and simply laughed. (We HAD made some big plans) but he took my face in his hands and told me how much he loved me and how happy I made him and how he was SO glad that he had married me and that it was the best thing he ever did. So I melted of course and it was all good. I told Shad that it could be broken down like this:

Wendy: I love you hunny
Shad: I love you too baby
Wendy: No I love you more sweetie
Shad: No I love YOU even more baby
Wendy: I love you lots and lots my manly man
Shad: I love you most my little lotus blossom

Read: We will probably just keep making people sick for years and years and years to come.

Year of the Tiger
We are sitting in the living room slightly bored and T brings me this paper with the Chinese “year” you were born in and asks me to read it.

B - was born in the year of the Tiger. Thoughtful and tolerant but unpredictable and daring. Tends to take risks and rush into danger.
T- was born in the year of the Dragon. Impulsive, bossy, energetic and strong. Lacks patience and tolerance.

So T listens, I finish, he sits back on the couch crossing his arms behind his head and sighs a huge sighs and says “That’s B, always rushing in to annoy me.”

I swear, WHERE do they get this stuff? As a side note, I don’t believe in any of that BUT it pretty much nailed the personalities of my children correctly!

Super Ego Boost

I received a rather nice ego boost the other day. I went to Costco to pick up some more prints for my note cards and the nice man at the counter said "Mam, were these pictures taken by a professional photographer? We are afraid that we may have a copy right infringement issue here, can you provide us with a photographers release?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

That just made my day! In fact I think that made my whole year! I showed him identification that matched the business name and everything was ok but I have decided that a few business cards might not be a bad idea. It may have been a small thing but it sure felt good.

If you want to take a look at my currant gallery it's at http://www.xxgwenxx.deviantart.com/

Luner Eclipe

It was a fantastically clear night for the eclipse. I set the alarm (never actually went to bed though) and from 12:40 till 3:30 I sat up and watched the show to a melody of tunes on my Ipod. I had grand ideas of photographing the event but my camera decided that it didn't want to cooperate. If I still had my old Konica with the cable release I might have been able to do something. Oh well. I left the kids in bed this time since we are attempting to get back on our "school" schedule and instead we spent the next day on the Internet looking at all the marvelous pictures. Someday I think I will buy us all a nice telescope.

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/lunar.html

Let’s see, what else happened this month, Oh, both kids broke their glasses, the dishwasher pooped out, I still haven’t stained the deck, I spent many hours in the sun and I am still lily white. The kids spent the entire summer healthy without so much as a cold. My health is not any better but I am tired of talking about it. Let’s just say that in the last three weeks I have lost over 30 percent of my hair but so what. We had several nice BBQ’s at our house and at friends. August was a social month. It seems we were flitting around and busy almost every evening. ( I guess practice five nights a week, two hours a night will do that.) My girlfriend and I are going to a concert in a couple of days that is sure to be a great evening. The kids are getting on each others nerves and are excited to head back to school next week. We have a meet the teacher night tomorrow for T. I am SO ready for them to go back!!!! I swear I have heard “mom” over a million times this summer. “mom… mom…. Mom…. Mom…. mom guess what mom” WHAT! I AM STANDING RIGHT BESIDE YOU!!!!!! This is my first year with both kids in school full time. I have a list with about seventy things on it just waiting….

A Few New Photos

New Spring Peas
Taken on my back deck




Land Vs. Sky
Shot in Vantage WA




Solitude
Shot somewhere outside of George WA on our way back from Idaho


Note:
I have had several emails inquiring about purchasing prints.
I have not utilized that capability on my deviant art account but I may get around to it one day. I just haven't decided whether I want to stay there or switch to another platform. www.xxGWENxx.deviantart.com

For serious inquiries please email GwenScottDesigns@gmail.com and I would be happy to assist you.

Good Grief

Oh someone help me, it's football season for little munchkins

shoulder pads
thigh pads
knee pads
butt pads
cleats
special socks
plastic cups to protect the teeth
plastic cups to protect other regions
sweat bands
under shirts
outer shirts
girdle pants
shorts
helmets
face masks
The list just goes on and on and on and on and on

Stay tuned, this could be mighty interesting

Note to self: Buy stock in "Under Armour"

1883 - Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone

Yesterday, as the kids and I were patiently killing a little time in between dental appointments we happened onto a small dusty little thrift store. Buried deep in the back shelves of old encyclopedia volumes and national geographic I found, to my absolute delight, a copy of Poems of Passion by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. I am giddy, just giddy I tell you. It's in decent condition for it's age. Just holding it, knowing that it is one hundred and twenty four years old, adds a special tingle to my already giddy happiness. It is by no means one of her rarer books but I love it right down to its teal cloth cover decorated in gilded flowers worn down with age.

I can just imagine what some of the prim and proper society of the day thought of her "forward thinking" female perspective on love and relationships and all of her "New Thought." She was "against" booze and "for" trying to talk to her dead husband but it's hard to hold that against her :) Here is the link to a website if your interested in browsing through some of her poems or literary works. You'll have to excuse me; I feel the need for a good pot of flowering tea and a cozy corner....

http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/

Communism

When my blood flows calm as a purling river
When my heart is asleep and my brain has sway,

It is then that I vow we must part forever,
That I will forget you, and put you away
Out of my life, as a dream is banished
Out of the mind when the dreamer awakes;
That I know it will be when the spell has vanished,
Better for both of our sakes.

When the court of the mind is ruled by Reason,
I know it is wiser for us to part;
But Love is a spy who is plotting treason,
In league with that warm, red rebel, the Heart.
They whisper to me that the King is cruel,
that his reign is wicked, his law a sin,
And every word they utter is fuel
to the flame that smolders within.

And on nights like this, when my blood runs riot
With the fever of youth and its made desires,
When my brain in vain bids my heart be quiet,
When my breast seems the center of lava-fires,
Oh, then is the time when most I miss you,
And I swear by the stars and my soul and say
That I will have you, and hold you, and kiss you,
Though the whole world stand in the way.

And like Communists, as mad, as disloyal.
My fierce emotions roam out of the lair;
They hate King Reason for being royal-
They would fire his castle, and burn him there.
O Love! they would clasp you, and crush you and kill you,
In the insurrection of uncontrol.
Across the miles, does this wild war thrill you
That is raging in my soul?

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox