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
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/
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/
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!
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.
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.
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….
posted by Gwendolyn @ 9:00 AM
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