Flashback Friday

Grandpa's Little Helper

June 2006

The Good, The Bad, & The Expensive

The Good:

• splashing in the pool with the kids
• Austin finally getting brave enough to jump in and go under water all by himself
• hibiscus blooms
• a cool(er) basement
• lunch with my sisters
• Captain Morgan and vanilla Coke

The Bad:

• hot weather and no AC
• sunburn~ 3 days later my back is still crispy
• landscaping weeds that just don't give up
• neighbor's pool parties @ 1am~ the least they could do is invite me
• rejection~ a total slap in the face

The Expensive:

• dropping $1000+ on a 23 year old AC unit that has an unrepairable leak
• the alternative~ spending $3500+ on a new unit. I do believe we are between a rock and a hard place. It's 84* in my house right now~ I am at their mercy

Wow! What A Week!

And it's only Thursday. So far, we've:

• put down a load of wood chips underneath the back bedroom windows.
• I've taken on the project of reclaiming the landscaping from the weeds. We have not done a thing to either side of the house since moving in 5 years ago. This is going to be THE project of the summer. My plan is to tear everything out, lay down wood chips and defend it from the evil weeds. Then maybe next summer if all goes well, I'll add some perennials and stone borders.
• rented the Rug Doctor and shampooed the living room, hallway, girls' room, and master bedroom. I got the upholstery attachment and did the recliner and car upholstery, floors, and mats. I am now the carpet nazi, guarding my freshly cleaned shag from grubby feet, crumby snacks, and a dog that (for whatever reason) cannot eat at his dish but instead grabs a mouthful, trots thru the dining room, and then drops it to eat off the carpet in the hallway.
• taxied Austin back and forth to Columbia all week for b~ball camp. While he practiced his skillz (which come naturally from his talented mama;P) the girls and I hung with Rona, Katy, and Andrew. We used McD's coupons for free frappes (sooo yummy), laughed and caught up from last week, and generally did crowd control.
• Audrey spent the nite with Katy; Anna joined us last nite for a sleepover with Austin.
• Austin got a summer 'do. He wanted bald, but I don't want him looking like a cancer patient. Seriously, last summer, Tom got to him with his clippers and with him being so scrawny and all, it was almost embarrassing for me to take him in public. So we went with a very short buzz cut.

Yay, for Friday!!!

I Have A Confession

I have been pressured, coerced even, to join this little online network by several friends. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's called facebook. I remained steady in my resolve that I would not ever join because I had my blog and bloggers are cooler than facebookers. Well, a few weeks ago I finally caved, the pressure just a little too great, I buckled and signed up. And you can see what that's done to my blog. Aside from a "not me Monday" post, I have been MIA. It's just too easy to share a thought or two thru facebook without having to sit and contemplate a blog post.

So I promise, I'll try to be a little more faithful to the blog. I do have my priorities after all. So while I'm trying to catch up I might as well post Austin's b~ball stats from his season this spring. I tallied up all the stats several weeks ago and the paper has been floating around in my purse waiting for me to blog about it. I figured for memory's sake I should record the action here.

Here's the run~down:

7 games

100 points~ 14.29 pts./game average

13 missed shots~ 79.4% from the floor

made 50 out of 63 attempts

12 rebounds

his team (the wolverines) won 5 (maybe 6 games) for a 5(6)-1 record

The "maybe" is because I missed that game and didn't get a final score from my sub stat taker

Austin gets in on the action again this Monday with a basketball camp at Columbia Central.

Not Me Monday: Bathroom Secrets

• In an effort to spare my carpet a parade of dirty, sunscreened, sand~boxy children, you would have never, EVER heard me tell them to be discreet and find a bush when they announce that they have to go potty while playing outside.
• This has never backfired on me and I have not ever caught my now 4 year old daughter, stripped down naked, relieving herself out in the open front lawn.
• I have absolutely not been so impressed with my offsprings, umm, bathroom successes that I have not called my husband in to get a look and/or take pictures of the, umm, accomplishments. Said accomplishments would not be so long that they would actually wrap around the toilet and leave me wondering how something so tiny could make something so big.
• I wouldn't even dream of giving my son permission to relieve himself in a KFC cup while stuck in the van during an overly long, drawn out day of errands. I had not made him hold it for so long that he more than halfway filled the 20 oz. cup. He was not so duly impressed that he didn't ask to save it to show his sisters when they woke up. I absolutely did not agree, so I did not have a cup of urine sloshing around in my cup holder for the rest of the trip around town.

What about you? What have you not done this week?