Looks like I've survived another one . . .

Weekend, that is. Although things haven't worked out quite as planned.  The rains have returned and as much as try to enjoy it, (I used to love rainy days)  it's becoming harder and harder.  I'm finding that as I get older, anything more than a shower results in headaches and respitory issues.  (maybe I've developed an allergy to mold?)  All I know is that I started feeling sluggish yesterday, and spent most of last night struggling with body aches and coughing fits.  Today, with a stready down pour, has been worse.  I've lost my motivation and I just want to crawl back into bed.

So, not much to report here.  I feel I've been in such a daze, if anything did happen, I probably missed it entirely.  I think I'll just park myself on the couch with a blanket and wait for the sun.

I have to say . . .

I feel totally exhausted !   Didn't get enough sleep last night - I was up late with a bunch of fry brained teens watching Ferris Beuhler's Day Off.  Don't ask me why.  It's just one of those oldies that seem to suck you in.

You know, I think I have probably reached that mid-way point of Summer when I am ready for the kids to go back to school.  Things are just getting a little too weird.  My youngest daughter seems to have made the complete transformation into a "nocturnal creature,"  and now I can't find 5 minutes to myself.  Of course, the kids are just hitting their stride.  They never seem to run out of things to do, places to go, and ways to make me nuts.  I think the worst part of this summer is that the weather has just been so awful.  Either it's extreme heat, or it's pouring down rain.  My summer escapes of sneaking off to walk the dogs have been few and far between.   Being stuck inside with so many people is becoming claustrophobic.

I've spent most of my day gathering food supplies for the month of July.  Grocery day is always a work out.  A couple of days prior, Jenn and I work out a dinner menu for the month (which may, or may not, be adhered to)  and a shopping list.  I've finally gotten a little smarter and started saving some of our favorite meal plans on the computer so we don't have to rack our brains every month trying to come up with 30 different meals.    Then, on the specified day, it's off to the stores.  (We put it off this month until we were almost out of everything.)   Load hundreds of dollars of food stuffs off the shelf and into the cart.  Unload it at the check out.  We do as much shopping as possible at discount stores like Aldi's, so it's bag it all up and load it back into the carts. (This week, we had THREE carts full at Aldi's!)  Load it into the car, trying to find room for it all in Jenn's car isn't easy.  Unload it into the house - if we're lucky, we have help on that.  And finally, try to find a place to store it.  Then, we're off to a bigger store (someplace like Walmart or Hy-Vee) to get the remaining items that Aldi's might not stock, and do the whole thing all over again !!  All that food shopping and I didn't get a chance to eat anything until 10:30PM !!  By then, I was too exhausted to do cook anything, so I settled for a leftover salad and some cheese crescent rolls.

So yeah, I'm feeling like a zombie right now.  I think I'll shuffle off to bed.

Good night.

Just when I think . . .

That my life couldn't possibly get any stranger than it already is, my husband goes and does something that totally bewilders me.  And really, it's not just any one thing.  I've noticed that  lately, my hubby has developed a sizable portfolio of  rather odd and quirky behaviors.  I'd heard that men get a little flaky after they reach "a certain age;" but honestly, I didn't think I'd live long enough to ever find out exactly what that meant.  (If you know anything about my husband, then you know why I've never held any expectations for an excessively long life.)   What concerns, yea, even terrifies me, is that this may be just the beginning - the tip of the iceberg.  (I've seen enough horror movies to know that these things always start off small, and seemingly benign . . .)  In fact, I'm not exactly sure when it all started, all I know is that I find myself looking at him and thinking  'What the hell . . .'   multiple times a day.   No, I'm not going to go into all the specifics and details.  I'm not up for that tonight.  *SIGH*

Tomorrow, I need to get myself motivated to spend the day at the college.  Yep, I'm going back to school.  I give up - time to move on to Plan B.  I've sent out about a million resumes, and because of all my optical experience, I've been called in to interview for most of them.  However,  it seems that my lack of computer skills and insurance experience is holding me back from actually getting the jobs.  So, I'm going to take some courses on computers and insurance coding.   Honestly,  I just can't imagine anything more boring.   I'm a little concerned that if the technical aspect of optics has become so much more important than the optical and personal aspects - I may not even be interested in returning to it.  Just in case,  I'm also going to try and squeeze in an art class.  *BIG SIGH*  I don't know, right now, I'm feeling a little lost and uncertain about the whole thing - but I have to do something.

Anyway, I need to get myself off to bed.
Good night.

And the word for the day is . . . .

Sweltering !  It's one of those days.  The sun's heat is slowly melting everything down to it's basic elements.  When I stepped out the door this morning, I could literally smell the petroleum  rising up from the streets; reminding me how plastic and man-made the world is. 
And to make matters worse, I woke up this morning with my brain doing a million miles an hour.  That little neurotic self  that cowers in the back of my brain is hyped up on . . . . something.  She's managed to push her way to the front of my head and is frantically making lists of impossible tasks that simply must be completed yesterday!  I almost fell for her insanity.  (she's so good at reeling me in.)  Instead, I've opted to breathe deeply, smile, and stand my ground.  I simply refuse.  I don't even want to look at the lists - I'm in no mood for it today.  I'm feeling very fragile, I could be easily pushed over the edge.  I'm going to stay inside where it's cool and do things that calm and soothe me.  I'll let you know how that works out.

How the Foley's do Father's Day. (in pictures, of course!)

It's been a very busy weekend here, at the Foley house.  As I posted yesterday, it was my birthday; Today, we celebrated Father's day.  (Roy's 20th, and Nick's first.)    Knowing how much Roy and Nick enjoy fishing and just hanging out at the local lakes, we decided to get both of them their Kansas fishing license for Father's day. 

We had originally planned to spend the day at the lake as a family, but today was one of those really hot and humid Kansas days.  Also, Jake had gone camping with his girl friend, Chrissy's  family and wasn't due back until later this afternoon.  Instead, we all spent our morning sleeping late, and generally, being lazy. 

Around 4PM, after Jake had come home and showered, Roy decided that it was cool enough to load up in the minivan and make a trip to  one of K.C.'s bigger and older cemeteries so that I could get some practice with my new camera.  While my husband and kids are used to these morbid little adventures, Jenn has a slight aversion to hanging out with dead people. So while we were gone, Nick and Jenn decided to take Baby Brooklyn to get supplies and prepare for our evening cook out/ fishing trip at the Lake.

We went to Forest Hills Cemetery in Kansas City, MO.  It's an huge,  beautiful, old cemetery in an older, mostly run down area of town.

This is the Abbey at Forest Hills.  It is absolutely HUGE.  This photo only shows about 1/3 of it.

Below, are some of the ornate headstones, family plot markers, and statuary.

There were also many, many mausoleums that are just breath-taking in design.  (I'll post those photos on my "Screams from the basement" blog because I'll be using them as inspiration to design a mausoleum with a flying crank ghost for my home haunt.)

But the coolest part of the whole afternoon was when we found an abandoned public mausoleum in the oldest part of the cemetery.  It had been built into a hill and had apparently become flooded or damaged at some point.  The old brass doors had been removed and replaced with a roll up door so that the coffins could be relocated.  It was still obvious that the outside of the mausoleum had been lovely.  As I started to photograph it the kids began to investigate.

Before I could snap the first picture, they discovered that the roll up door was, either intentionally, or accidentally,  left unlocked.  Of course, not knowing what might be inside, they had to peek.  As soon as they started to roll the door open, they felt an un-natural ICY cold blast of air.  They got so excited, I thought they would pee themselves!  As we walked inside it became obvious that all the coffins and bodies had been removed.   Still, it was very creepy.

 

It was a very cool, but also very creepy adventure.  Jenn would probably have NOT enjoyed it, but the kids and I were very impressed.

We got back home around 6:45 PM, and Nick and Jenn had almost everything ready to go.

They had steaks marinating and all the side dishes and dessert almost done. We loaded up and headed to the lake.  It was still sticky but not as hot.  Almost everyone had gone home for the day and we pretty much had the run of the place.  Nick, Jenn and the kids did some fishing - didn't catch anything :( .  We got the food laid out while Roy cooked the steaks.

We stayed until the park closed.

All in all, it was a lovely day and a great weekend !

All things considered . . .

It's been a pretty good day.  In spite of the fact that I am officially another year older.  God, that sucks, but I guess it was inevitable.  Time only rolls in one direction, and that's forward.  Probably just as well.  Still, I keep thinking about that saying . . . "youth is wasted on the young."   It seems that right now, at this point in my life, I'm surrounded by young, vibrant people.  Yes, I am very envious of their youth, but I also know that they only have about half a brain.  (and for some of them, that's a generous estimate.)  All I can do is shake my head and wonder: What was God thinkin'?  There seems to be something wrong with this system.  But then, I'm not as old as God - so what the hell do I know?

In any event, I have to say, the concept of birthday gift giving is an excellent idea. I got some good loot. I got a humongous, giant Jack in the Pulpit (that's a plant)  from my oldest son.  My husband took me out to dinner and on a mini shopping spree.  I got to pick out a lot of silly things that I wouldn't normally buy for myself. I got some new movies, a new bra - which always makes a girl feel younger, or perkier, or something, a couple of tops, and a Beta fish that we have aptly named Fluffy.  
But best of all, my family gave me a new digital camera!  It's lovely!  So be warned, I'm going to be taking all kinds of photos and posting them on my blogs.  Photos of work in progress for my 'Screams from the Basement' blog, family photos for my 'Lunatics on the Loose' blog, Photos of my art work for my 'Gallery' blog, and of course, Halloween night 2010 photos for my 'Howling Hollow Asylum' blog.  And I'm sure I'll be photographing all sorts of silly things for this blog.  Oh yes, I'm going to be a photo taking freak for a while - I'm very excited. 

(Oh, here's a photo of my new plant!)

Okay, I've got to get myself to bed now.  My birthday is officially over, and tomorrow is Father's Day - Big plans for that.

This has to be . . .

One of our wettest springs/summers in a long while.   I'm tired of being in the house, I feel like my brain is in a fog.  I'm pretty sure that Pete feels the same way, although for different reasons.  (mostly because he's a big baby!)  

However,  concerning dogs . . . I do have some good news.  It seems that both Pete and Phoenix have decided that they are just sick and tired of being  shuffled from room to room in order to avoid the inevitable doggie brawls that they have become famous for.   Over the past week or so, we have had several instances where Pete and Phoenix have (accidentally) found themselves in the same room - without incidence.  Although, they are still avoiding each other, they seemed to have called a conditional truce.   We are slowly working  on reintroducing them - during times when things are somewhat calm around the house - which of course, isn't very often.

It actually got me to thinking;  When the kids were little, I used to have afternoons set aside for "quiet time."   Usually, during the hottest part of the day, we would all come inside or just take some time out for quiet activities; reading a book, watching a movie with a little snack, and sometimes, when I was very lucky, it would turn into nap time.  I'm thinking of doing that again.  Hmmmm . . . do you think it would work with teenagers?   Probably not.  *sigh*