Your Monthly Post

You know what bites? School starts in less than two weeks. Sad panda, indeed.

Usually by this time I've moved into school mode, buying supplies and getting lesson plans for my class ready. Not this year! It's weird not to be worrying about any of that stuff, since I'm not going back to preschool. I'm sad, but not all that sad.

Summer with the this little boys has been fun. For a small town, we have a great library system and a kick-a children/youth librarian. Miss Erin put together some great summer programs plus a storytime, so we took full advantage of going to the library at least twice a week. This last program was Egyptian themed, so we had two pharaohs in the house!

I'm not kidding when I say they wore those ALL DAY!

The Bebeh Boy continues to delight us. He really is the smiliest baby I've ever met. He's even smiled in the middle of crying! It's like he can't help himself. He's rolling over and trying to sit up and we just love him to bits and pieces. It also makes me very glad I'm done having babies, because babies are a lot of work.

Madeline went to youth conference in Macon a few weeks ago and had a ball. Evidently her number was given out several times over to various "new friends". Oh, it's good to be young! She printed out several copies of this picture to send to Jed so he could pass them out around the MTC.

Isabella has been busy earning money and seeing movies and crafting. She also keeps talking me into taking her out to breakfast when Madeline is gone. 

I've been crafting too. 

Doctor Who felt people! (Including this badass River Song of my own design!)

Sherlock Felt People! (again, my own design!)

I made several different characters to send to Jed. He loved them, as I knew he would. 

James' sequestration finally started and it suuuuuuuuuuucks. Every Monday of since the beginning of July till the end of September with no pay! Sweet. I don't know which is worse: having a *severely* reduced paycheck or having him around on Mondays disturbing our routine. It's a toss-up really. 

And now I leave you with a picture of the cutest bebeh evah.

They say all good things must end, someday...

For all intents and purposes, summer vacation is over. *sad face*

The girls came home today after being in Tifton for almost two weeks. I'm pretty sure they were gone more than they were here this summer. We checked the mail and found postcards from the school with their teacher assignments on it. If that's not a sign that summer is over, then I don't know what is.

Technically school doesn't start for them until the 12th, but there's already a shift in the winds. Earlier bedtimes (for me especially!), sorting of school supplies, back-to-school haircuts and picking out back-to-school clothes; all rituals that tell you that the long lazy days are over.

I'm pretty sure this is the fastest summer on record. It was busy, but not in a really-great-we-had-so-much-fun way. We've had TWO car accidents to contend with (did I forget to mention here that a window in my van was broken the same week James wrecked his car?), which meant a lot of hurry-up-and-wait-ing all summer long. We purchased two vehicles to replace James' car (it's a long story). It seems ridiculous that we now own four vehicles for two drivers. (Two and a half of those vehicles work, but that's another long story.) People keep telling me that having four cars around is a good thing because Madeline will be driving in just three years.

Three years?!!??

It seems like a long way off *now*, but if this summer is any indication on the passage of time, then it will be here before I know it.

P.S.- Could this post HAVE anymore parenthesis?? I think not.

Suuuuuuummmeerrrrrrtiiiiiiiiiimmmeee.......

(Imagine me singing that in my best Lena Horne voice. Sounds, amazing, doesn't it?)

--- The girls have been out of school one whole week and we are in FULL-ON summer mode. Lazy mornings, good books, cold drinks, late dinners, getting in some body of water as often as possible. I feel bad that Jaws has to go to work. Oh well. Someone has to bring home the bacon (although I will happily fry it up in the pan. It's BLT weather, baby!).

--- Speaking of babies, Madeline is headed to Girls Camp next week for the first time. GIRLS CAMP PEOPLE!! I feel old. My other baby brought down the house and slammed the door on Fifth grade by bringing home STRAIGHT A's on her final report card. BOO-to-the-YAH. After all the struggles we've had this year I feel gloriously vindicated.

--- I just looked at the temp on Weather Bug. It's 101 degrees today. On June 1st. Breaking records all over the place. Luckily the humidity is only 28%, making it feel like "only" 104 degrees. I shudder to think of what the weather will feel like on Friday when it's supposed to be hotter and humid-er. (Or MORE HUMID for you grammar nuts.)

--- My brother and his family are moving to Alabama this weekend. Boo! Why does he need a "career"? I need my nieces and nephews around to amuse me!! Luckily, I like the state of Alabama, redneck-married-cousinss-jokes aside. It's a pretty state, it's not landlocked, and you can buy fireworks year round.

--- I have read nine books since school ended for me on the 13th. Deeply, deeply satisfying. I love reading. It's so entertaining! I have also cleaned out my pantry, closet, playroom and dresser drawers. Also satisfying, but not nearly as entertaining. (Although re-reading notebooks and journals from high school is ALWAYS entertaining. I had forgotten how much bad poetry I wrote at one point. Did I throw it away? No way, Jose!)

I think I'll go eat some watermelon before I take the girls to church tonight. Then I might eat some ice cream. Because it's summer and all.

All the news that's fit to print

ACHTUNG! Bullet Point Numero Three contains some salty language, but it's totally in context. But I figured I'd give y'all heads up if you want to skip it, but I'm warning you- you're missing out on a polarious story if you do.

1. Next week is our last week of total freedom. BOO! The preschool teachers are back on the 10th (with the kids coming back on the 17th) and the girls start back on the 14th. All the school supplies have been purchased and sorted into backpacks, and we're already thinking of First Day of School outfits.

2. Despite the fact that I've been out in the sun regularly all summer, somehow I still managed to get a sunburn yesterday. What's up with that, Mother Nature?

3. Bella has become (somewhat) enamored of the word 'bitch'. It started a few weeks ago when we were listening to DH in the car, and she said that Molly's line to Bellatrix )"Not my daughter, you bitch!!") was her favorite part of the story, and then she proceeded to scream out said line. (It was seriously polarious.)

So James and I explained that it wasn't a nice word to say and that she shouldn't go around saying it, but we tried to explain why Molly Weasley would have used that word in the context of the story. She thought about it for a moment and said, "Oh, okay. But I thought Molly had just combined the words "Bellatrix" and "witch" and then called her a 'bitch'. I thought it was pretty funny." To which James and I had to give her props for such clever thinking.

4. This Pop Candy post had me LOL-ing all over the place, and now I kinda-sorta want to go to a Gwar concert, just to say that I have.

5. For the third month in a row, our power bill has stayed below $200! YAY!!! That has never happened the whole time we have lived in Albany, and that's also *with* the Georgia Power rate hike that happened earlier in the year. We've been careful with the electricity, but not overly so. The only thing we can chalk it up to is our new roof, so YAY for that. We have just one more month to get through before the rates drop after the summer, and typically our August bill is lower than May, June or July's so I'm feeling optimistic.

Did you miss me or something??

Golly! A girl can't even have multiple car repairs, a broken tooth and eight relatives visiting for three days without people missing her! ;)

I've responded to everyone who left a note on my last post, so check those comments. Remember, though, that YOU are supposed to elaborate on the five things I gave you on your OWN blog! It's part of the fun, so don't be a party pooper!

Speaking of party poopers, here's a conversation from this past weekend:

Isabella: "Why do we have to leave now? We're having so much fun!"

James: "I know. I'm just a big party pooper."

Isabella: "Why do you have to be like that?"

Madeline: "It's because of his dietary habits."

Ba dum dum! She'll be here all week, folks!

Summer breeze, makes me feel fine...

A wise person once said that being part of a blogging community was kind of like being in a sorority (of the very best kind! :P)- during the school year we're all busy, but we check in on a regular basis. When the summer hits, we all scatter our seperate ways, occasionally letting everyone know about fun vacations, good books, etc. I like that.

Anyway, I'm teaching the girls to cook this summer. Heaven grant me patience, please! They can already do basics like scrambled eggs and grilled cheese, but it's time I did my duty as a mother and *really* let them loose in the kitchen and master some baking skills. They made brownies today (each with their own batch, from a mix, but still!). The brownies are baking right now, so we'll see how they turn out. The fact that we went through four extra eggs and had to throw out a egg/water/oil mixture because of a spill will NOT deter me this early in the game!

And lastly, I finished reading an AWESOME book over the weekend, called Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. You can read my full review over on Goodreads. If you have any desire of being a writer, working in the publishing industry, are a librarian or just love children's books, then this book is a MUST READ. I will probably purchase my own copy just so I can underline that particularly witty and hilarious lines and passages in Nordstrom's letters. I predict most of the book will be marked.