They're On To Me

Tonight after dinner, T said that he thinks Mommy was a vampire because I have sharp teeth. 

Hub agreed, and said that Mommy is into vampires.  I suppose my little obsession is no longer a secret...

I should probably go upstairs and read some more Twilight.

Weather With You

Today was yet another wacky weather day.

It started out nastily hot and humid, but fortunately for me, J and T were at camp.  While they were gone, S and I took a quick run to the library, to the grocery store for a half gallon of milk, then back home to hang out until pickup.

After camp, we all headed to the lake.  It was still nastily hot and humid, but at least we could go in the water.  A was there with I, K met us after her lifeguarding class, and J and T had swimming lessons, so it was a nice afternoon all around.

Just as I was about to pack up, some rumbling thunder caused the lifeguards to call everyone out of the water.  As we walked home, a breeze picked up, the humidity broke, and the temperature cooled significantly.  It certainly felt like something was coming.

The something took another hour, but it did come.  So did thunderstorm and tornado warnings.  Along with a lot of rain.  Fortunately, no tornado or hail.  [It's rather unusual for this many thunderstorms in July.  I hope it's clear for J's birthday party next Saturday]

It's still rumbling now, here and there.  It sounds like the rain has passed, but I hope that it takes the humidity with it.  Don't know if this means anything, but the crickets are going crazy.

Little Blessings

A couple of things happened yesterday for which I am grateful, and I wanted to acknowledge them.

First, filed under "Perfect Timing That I Could Not Have Planned If I Tried" -

Last week J attended science camp at his elementary school, but this week he is attending camp with T at the local parochial school.  The timing of the locations was perfect because, due to sewers being installed, the road heading to the elementary school is closed further up, and I don't know how I would have gotten there aside from taking a ridiculously long detour.  This would have been especially inconvenient since both J and T's camps ran from 9-12 at two different locations.  This week they're at camp together, so I only have to make one dropoff and one pickup, and there are no detours.  Had the weeks and locations been switched, I would have spent much more time in transit.  I am very grateful that I do not have to worry about that.

Second, filed under "Just What I Needed Exactly When I Needed It" -

Mondays are my yoga nights.  Last week I missed yoga because the Hubster had to work late (quarter close, blech) and my parents were unable to help out as my mom was sick.  I did some sun salutations at home, but let's be honest - without an instructor to guide and push me, I didn't work as hard or practice for as long as I would have had I attended class.

Last night's class was comprised of mostly twisting postures, designed to stretch out the spinal column.  Amazingly, my back and shoulders have been so tight and this class was the perfect antidote to my tension.  I was very grateful to E for designing my perfect class last night.

And then when I got home, I asked the Hubster if I could watch "New Moon" (he was half asleep watching "Tommy Boy").  He said sure, and went up to bed.  Aaahhh, me and Jacob and Edward.  Swoon!

Wrong Choice

On my weekly shopping run, I decided to stop and pick up a bottle of wine. 

I had recently read (and cut out) an newspaper item that listed good, better, and best choices for different varieties of wine.  But of course, I couldn't remember what the "best" choices were for Chardonnay - was it Mondavi or Kendall Jackson?  I went with the Mondavi (CK Mondavi, not Robert Mondavi), which was so the wrong choice.

I should have known that things weren't going to go so smoothly when I cut the foil off what was a screwtopped bottle.  (at least I have a VacuVin sealer)  I grabbed a glass, and poured myself some wine.  I wasn't too thrilled with the wine's smell; there was a strong alcohol smell instead of fruit.  Unfortunately, that strong alcohol smell translated into a strong alcohol taste as well.

Although it wasn't the greatest, the wine still did what it was supposed to do - I felt sufficiently relaxed and happy after drinking it.  And motivated me to make a note in my iPhone listing the good, better, and best Chardonnay choices.

That said, I'm still going to dump it out as soon as I can buy a bottle of Kendall Jackson.

In Case You're Wondering, I'm Still Cranky

For two reasons:

1. My monthly bill arrived.  And I'm crampy.
2. It's been so freakin' humid that I'm ready to melt

That damned humidity arrived early this year.  Usually it's not until August when the "three Hs" take up residence here in the northeast. 

I can't stand humidity.  And we've had a buttload of it lately.  I ended up not taking the kids to the lake after lunch today as punishment (T took forever to eat his lunch, making it not worth going since S needed to take a nap), and it turned out to be a blessing and not a curse.  Instead, we went after S's nap and had dinner there, and a friend told me that it was so humid that she ended up leaving after less than an hour.

Did I mention that it's That Time of the month?  Yeah, that added little bonus of cramps, bloating, fatigue, irritability, and everything else that goes with the monthly joy of being female makes enduring humid weather (and its effect on certain little people with whom I share a home) that much more of a challenge.

What do I do to survive?  Air conditioning.  Television.  And time outs for Mommy.

Fret not, dear readers.  I should be back to (relatively) normal by Monday.  Or tomorrow, if I remember to pick up a bottle of Chardonnay during my weekly grocery run.

Cranky Cop

My kids are driving me crazy.  I put them to bed a good half an hour ago, and since then this herd of elephants has taken over the second floor. 

I'm at a loss.  When they just don't want to go to bed, I don't mind if they read.  But that would be too easy.  No, instead they have to incite chaos.  T likes to take items from the hamper and line them up outside the bathroom door while I wash my face.  Or dump them down the stairs.  Sometimes J will suggest things for T to do, and T is only too happy to comply.

I threaten them with all sorts of things.  I dangle carrots (buying lunch or ice cream at the lake instead of bringing snacks from home), but they don't seem to care.  They still misbehave.  Apparently a cheeseburger from the canteen isn't worth going straight to bed.  Even tomorrow night's watermelon bingo event isn't enough to get them to lay down.  I was really looking forward to going to that stupid bingo tomorrow night.

I guess the upside is that I haven't yet spent a penny at the canteen this summer.

Click, Clack, Mmmm?

Been busy typing tonight.  There's a topic I've been meaning to write about for quite some time, and I decided that tonight was the night to put pen to paper fingers to keyboard.  It's not finished by any means, but I think it's a good start. 

In case you're wondering, I have decided what I want to do as a professional.  (can you guess?)  I want to write.  For money.  And I am pretty confident that I can do it.  I can see myself writing articles for publication in parenting magazines, and I have a couple of ideas that I want to flesh out, possibly as nonfiction books.  Of course, such writing will require more discipline, time, experience, and finesse than I currently possess, but I am not worried that all of those things and more will come.

So I suppose that I need to add "take writing courses" to my list of things to do.  I'm actually getting excited typing this.  It makes it feel real, that it will happen.