Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Help, I want out !

Oh my God, but last week sucked !! A killer heatwave had my husband working 16 hour days, had my dogs stuck inside driving me bananas, had the kids stuck inside making me an official fruit cake, Nick worked straight through, (on a construction site) but when he got home, all he could do was collapse, Jen drove him to and from work ( 3 hours round trip , twice a day) and her car's air conditioner was on the fritz, and did I mention the HEAT ?!! God, it was HOT !

Through out all of last week, I kept all the shades drawn to keep the temps inside as cool as possible; I didn't go out until after Roy got home for the day with my car. (after dark ) I was starting to feel like some weird kind of mole rat/vampire kind of person.

Thankfully, Sunday morning the sun rose, and the day was gloriously cool and comfortable! I woke up, got dressed, and spent four and a half hours walking my dogs and readjusting my eyes to sunlight, and my lungs to fresh air. I even spent most of the evening out on the deck, just marveling that the earth hadn't been scorched beyond recognition. I've concluded that I live a strange kind of life. It doesn't take much to throw my little routine all out of whack. Not having wheels is a big part of it, and I've been without my car long enough to start feeling like a hostage in my home. To be truthful, I'm not a terribly spontaneous kind of person, and being stuck at home really wouldn't be so bad - if I didn't live with a bunch of lunatics.

The kids have only been on summer vacation for about a month, and I'm ready to send them back to school. ( in body bags, if necessary.) With the kids out of school, Nick and Jen living with us, it seems like I can't get five minutes to myself. I'm used to having eight hours a day to sort through things I need to get done and feel like a sane person before I had to deal with other people. Now it seems like I spend my whole day working around people who seem to think that I am running some kind of bed and breakfast. I clean up after them, I cook for them, and they pretty much do what they want. It seems like it takes twice as long to get things done. When do I get MY vacation?

Well, strange as this seems, the kids have actually gone to bed before midnight this evening. (That hasn't happened very often over the last month) I think I'm going to take a nice long bath and go to bed early my self. Wish me luck . . .

Saturday, June 27, 2009

It's late (again)

Okay, I'm up late. (again) I decided to stay up and watch "Gran Torino" with Clint Eastwood. Well, not with Clint Eastwood, he isn't really at my house, I don't even know him. What I mean is, starring Clint Eastwood - You know, In "Gran Torino" ? Oh Hell. It was a good movie. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one getting old.



Anyway, I need to go to bed, but I wanted to post photos of the pumpkins that I've painted over the past few weeks, before I forgot. (because me and Clint are getting old, you know?)

This is my "Nightmare Before Christmas" pumpkin. It's Jake's favorite movie. So, after I painted it, he stole it from me !! He took it up to his bedroom and I haven't seen it since. (he knows that I'm too scared to go up to his bed room - he probably has a lot of my stuff up there.)

I painted this pumpkin to use in our Yard Haunt this year. I'll probably put it with Jack and Mary (our crypt keepers) or something.

I made this skeleton pumpkin because we have a lot of Hispanics in our neighborhood, and they are very big on celebrating Dias De Los Muertos (day of the dead) with skeleton themes.
Okay, now I'm tired and I need to go to bed.
I hope everyone has (or is having) a fabulous weekend !!!
Night - Night everyone.
Love,
Susan


Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Tomorrow is another day.

Yawn ! I'm exhausted. I was up late last night baking cookies (Chocolate chip with M&M's, and some really tasty chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips and coconut flakes.) then, I was up early this morning to deal with the telephone repairman. They ended up spending all day to fix the phone and I didn't get a nap, or any of the other things done that I wanted to accomplish. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

At least the phone is finally fixed. I hope. Our phone lines have been a mess ever since we moved into this house. Whenever it rains, our phones go out. After four years, they finally decided to send out someone to lay a new line, so I've got my fingers crossed that it works.

Speaking of repairs, the new van that Roy bought for work, conked out on him after only two days. So my motorized independence was short lived. It only needed a water pump, but he's just been too busy to put one in. He finally got some one else to do the work and I'm hoping to have my car back by the end of the week. (pray for me, please?)

Okay, all my kids are finally home for the evening, safe and sound, so I think I'll go put myself to bed. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll have a few photos to post tomorrow of some pumpkins that I painted for Halloween. One of them, I am going to use for the yard haunt; the others, I'll probably sell. Except Jake has already claimed one and won't give it back - Little thief !

Oh yeah, I was going to bed . . . I'm just rambling anyway. Good night all.

Love,
Susan

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Zombie Moms of the Midwest

Mondays . . .Bah! Humbug ! Today has been such a struggle. I feel like a zombie. My brain is just in a fog. Maybe, I'm just recovering from my weekend - it was fairly eventful. With my Birthday on Friday, and Father's Day on Sunday, and let's not forget, "Go Skate day" sandwiched in between, there was an awful lot happening. Saturday was go, go, go - whether I wanted to or not.
Sunday, is usually a day of rest and relaxation around my house. We got Roy a new BBQ grill for Father's day, and he did do some grilling, in spite of the extreme heat we have been having; but it seems it was over shadowed by the total chaos happening inside the house. It started out with Roy having some work that needed to be done for the land lord while Nick and Jen went to church.
When they got home, Heather wanted to trade beds with Nick and Jennifer so that they could have a larger bed, and she could have more space in her room. Then, Heather talked me into helping her clean her room, which I later found out is because my creative little daughter has plans for redecorating, which later turned into another shopping trip for new bed linens.
I have no idea what has gotten into my husband lately. In between grilling pork steaks, he spent his day tuning up and installing a window air conditioner for Jake's attic bedroom, and installing a new shower liner for my upstairs bathroom. That's more home repair than he usually does in a whole year!
The only person laying around on the couch was Jake. And that, in it's self is weird, but the poor kid can't do much with his sprained ankle, and the pain pills kept him pretty drowsy. He's feeling better today, but he has a huge, ugly, black and purple bruise right under the ankle joint.

Anyway, I woke this morning to find that our heatwave still continues. I got my house work done and spent the rest of the day numbing my brain on the computer and trying to stay cool. I can't get outside with my dogs because the "comfort" index says that it is like 105 degrees out there, with 80% humidity ! (it feels like a sauna !) We'd all have heat stroke before we got halfway around the track. It normally doesn't get this hot in Kansas until mid-July.

I think I'm just going to put myself to bed and hope that tomorrow I can snap out of it. I don't like feeling this way.
Good night.

Love,
Susan

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Just another crazy Saturday

Oh my gosh ! What a day ! I spent a whole week agonizing over yesterday (and turning 47 years old) yet I managed to survive it. I figured that today I would sleep in and try to recover a bit from all the birthday cake and anxiety. Silly Me! I should have known better.

As it just so happens, today is "Go Skate Day." I don't know how official it is, but for weeks, all the Skate board shops have been proclaiming it all over town, and telling their customers (mostly teenagers) that it's a day when all skateboarders should unite and get out on their skate boards to show the world that they are not all a bunch of delinquents. Of course, to a teenager, that roughly translates to free reign over all previously forbidden concrete areas in town. For the past couple of weeks, my son, my grandson, and several of their friends had been planning to get together and skate all over Olathe. So, obviously, they were up and out skating before I was even awake.

Around Noon, I felt a tug on my toe and woke to find my son's right ankle laying on the pillow beside my head. (thankfully, it was still attached to his leg ) He said,
"Mom, does my ankle look okay to you?"
After a quick glance and a few pokes, I said,
"Ummm, yeah. What did you do?"
"I fell off my board and it really hurts."
I told him to go ice it down for a while, and I grudgingly got out of bed to start my day. Forty-five minutes later, I was sitting in the kitchen talking with Nick, when Jake came hobbling down the stairs. His ankle no longer resembled the ankle I had seen on my pillow. It had swollen up like a balloon and and was grotesquely distorted. Before I could even start my day, I decided that he needed to have it x-rayed and looked at by someone more qualified than myself. As I threw on some clothes and brushed my hair, I kept thinking about Spring break 2007 - when he fell off his board and ended up with a spiral leg fracture above his left ankle. He spent almost 10 weeks in a full leg cast and on crutches - that was a nightmare!

The emergency room was unusually quiet for a Saturday afternoon and we got right in to see a doctor. After x-rays and an examination, the doctor concluded that it wasn't broken, but seriously sprained. He went on to explain that a sprain like this can actually take longer than a fracture to heal and that for the most part, it needs to be treated in much the same way. As the nurse wrapped his ankle in a splint, and gave him a pain pill, I could see, from the look in my son's eyes, that he had no intentions of spending his summer in a cast, or on crutches. As soon as we got home, he stripped away the bandages, removed the fiberglass splint, and re-wrapped the ankle with just the ace bandages. He's in enough pain that he can't bare much weight on it, so he's using one crutch to get around. So far, he's been cooperative about keeping it elevated and allowing me to ice it down once an hour, but I can see that if he's going to put up a fight if he's stuck on the couch for more than a week. This could turn out to be a LONG summer.

As soon as I got Jake settled in at home, Heather reminded me that I had promised to take her shopping this afternoon. So as soon as Roy got home, we were off. Shopping turned out to be a lot of fun for both of us. We had a great time together trying on clothes and just doing girl stuff - it was nice. Lately, Heather has been too busy with her friends for us to spend much time together. We grabbed a bite to eat and got home just as Roy was finishing up with walking the dogs.

Lately, Roy has been really great about helping out with the dogs. I don't know what I did, but my right hip has been really painful for the past week or so. Jasmin has been teasing me that now that I'm an old woman of 47, I probably need a hip replacement. (ha,ha)

I didn't even have time to take off my shoes or sit down, before Roy informed me that we were out of dog food. UGH! At the last minute, he offered to drive me to the store so that we could spend a little time together. That also turned out nicely. After we got the dog food, we ended up goofing around at Walmart for a couple of hours and just having some fun together. (without a houseful of kids and dogs)

For the most part, it's been a pretty good day. Although, I'm concerned about Jake's ankle. I'm taking him to see the orthopedic doctor on Monday, or as soon as they can schedule him. I'm really hoping, for the sake of every one's sanity, that it isn't as bad as it seemed this morning. The last thing I need right now, is another stubborn and contrite attitude in my house. Right now, I'm just exhausted and ready for bed.

Good night,
Love, Susan

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Happy Birthday to me . . .

Today is my 47th birthday. (Oh God, somebody shoot me, please) I just can't believe that I've managed to survive this long! Last night, as I sat on the couch, opposite my youngest son, I realised that he is starting to look more and more like a . . .man ! How the hell did this happen !?! For the past few months, every time I catch a glimpse of my daughter, my baby, I wonder to my self, "Who the hell IS this gorgeous young woman?" My first born child will be 31 years old next month ! My oldest son, is expecting my FOURTH grandchild this fall ! In moments like those I simply can't deny . . . yes, I am truly getting old. It's the only logical conclusion I can come to. How the hell did this happen !?! More importantly, how could this happen to ME !?! All these years . . . I thought I was in complete control of everything. This sucks.

However, I gotta admit, I got some good stuff this year. . . Like my INTERNET back - Yay !!! This makes me so VERY happy. I missed it SO much. Consequently, I've spent the past four hours trying to catch up on two months worth of blog posts and emails. I'm not even close to being done, In fact, I've only made it through Kate's blog. ( it took all my self control not to comment on every single post) But rest assured, I'll get to everyone eventually. It just feels so good just to be back. And best of all, since it's my birthday, I get first crack at the computer. (tee-hee) I guess I might as well take every advantage of this curse that I can.

No, I'm not the least bit pleased about getting older, but my youngest child gave me something that helps to put it all in perspective. She made me a lovely card, and on the inside, she wrote the following:

I know that you're upset about growing older . . . But, think about it this way - You're one year closer to getting rid of your kids, and one year closer to God, and the ones you love who have passed away: like Aunt Bea, and Honey bear. But no matter how old you get, you will be loved by . . . your children, your husband, and your blog friends (had to add them in . . .) Anyway, you get my point . . .

See? Out of the mouths of babes. I guess it's all just a matter of perspective - Right?

Okay, I have a ton of emails to open and respond to, lots of blogs to read, and a house full of kids hopped up on pizza and birthday cake.

Love you all,
Susan