List of "Lasts"

Even though most people don't want to admit it, summer break as we know it is rapidly winding down. Lately we've been experiencing "the last" of several things that have ruled our lives for the past several weeks.


~The last bean picking (Hallelujah.) finally arrived. No more 6:00 a.m. garden experiences, no more stemming, cleaning, picking, stemming, cleaning, picking...


~And speaking of garden issues - the last corn day came and went as well. Out of the last six days of my life, three of them were spent putting up corn, which in our world means hours of husking, cleaning, cooking, chilling, and cutting off dozens and dozens of ears of corn - 728 ears of corn to be exact. My hands and wrists are SORE; seriously, the kind of sore you experience after missing 6 months in the gym and starting over again. And may I say once again how much I am not a gardening, farming kind of person? Don't get me wrong, I am completely indebted to my mother-in-law for managing the garden and purchasing the corn that stocks us for an entire year, but wow, it's A LOT of work.


~Last night the T-ball season came to an end, much to the chagrin of my 5 YO. He had a great experience, a fabulous coach, and fun kids on his team. I'm sad to see this end.

~Today is my last day of babysitting. Nearly two years ago I told a couple of friends I would help watch their kids off and on to help them out in a bind. That spiraled into full-time babysitting last year and part-time this year. As great as this has been for the boys to have friends over all the time, the time has come for me to have more time to get my own work done.

~Vacation time is nearing! This brings on a plethera of LAST meals I have to cook, LAST loads of laundry, LAST trips to the store, and LAST minute details that I need to go take care of!

Wrong

I discovered today that my two year old wasn't punishing me for being gone four for days. Instead, he was gearing up for a high fever.

Of course, he couldn't have decided to share this infomortion when we were home all alone. No, he waited for his aunt and four small cousins to be over for the entire day so he could wake up from his nap burning hot and spread all those nasty little germs to the entire family.

Too bad this was the day he and his 2 YO cousin chose to start sharing. Cups, beds, snacks....

YUCK.

The washer is running, PBS is on the TV, the dishwasher needs unloading, I have stacks of “stuff” to look through, and I am babysitting two extra kids. I have officially reentered the REAL WORLD!

Not to mention, my 2 YO is punishing me for being gone this past weekend. He is attached to me like superglue and wants to make sure that I will never, ever, ever, leave again for four days at a time.

Still not feelin' guilty for a girls' weekend out. Not gonna go there. I'm convinced it is perfectly healthy - for me, for the boys, and for my husband. Speaking of my husband, he is an angel for being such a good sport about it all.

I just wish my body would reenter the real world with me. It is TIRED. It needs four days to recover from the weekend. Someone has programmed the 'slow motion' button and it is STUCK.

That's okay - it's only ten days until vacation!

Weekend Pics

Four very tired friends.

Our chef for the weekend.



Our chef letting his hair down.

My first geocaching experience (at the request of K's husband, who is a geocaching addict. He thought it would be cool to place a travel bug in Illinois). We couldn't find the cache .1 miles from M & V's house. So we jumped in the van and followed the GPS to cache #2.

Poison ivy anyone?

It's amazing what you'll do for someone you love.

After much searching, she still came up empty-handed.

Here we are creating the ever-famous 3 layer strawberry cake, which is quite a task for such an undomestic group of women. We would much rather be shopping, sitting in the hot tub, laying out in the pool, or just hanging out....all of which we did quite well during the weekend.

K & V enjoying the culture of Allerton Park.

R & L scoffing at the culture they were forced to endure.

I'm Outta Here!

A lotta shopping...

A lotta pool time...

A lotta good restaurants...

A lotta girl chat...

A lotta relaxing...

Very little sleep...

I can't wait!

Do you hear that?

That's the sound of my 5 year old vaccuuming. The entire house. Because he wants to.

Oh, I know this will be short lived. And I know he doesn't cover the area quite like I do.

But, bottom line is there has to be less dirt on the floor than there was two hours ago. And there are vaccuum marks that make the floors look really clean.

And I'm sitting on the computer instead of cleaning.

Do you see that?

That's me smiling.

More of the Same

Summer is moving right along, and life is still relatively boring. Some days boring drives me crazy, but right now I am okay with it. It means in the last two weeks no one has been to the ER, no one has been sick, no schedules have been overwhelmingly busy, everyone is pretty happy, and I'm feeling fairly rested.

But boring means I have nothing to write about.

The most exciting thing in my weekend was the local city fireworks. This is a small town event. And when I say small, I mean REALLY small. Instead of hiring individuals trained in setting off big-time fireworks, they have the volunteer fire department do it. I guess they figure if they can't have the people trained in lighting fireworks, they can at least have the people trained in putting out the fires that may occur.

I typically love fireworks. I look forward to the 4th every year -- until now. I learned this weekend that the big fireworks show loses all its glory when my own husband is shooting them off. Five minutes in, they had one explode right on the ground. I felt like my heart stopped beating for an eternity, and I had to force myself to stay in my seat. The show continued, which I knew was a good sign, and the ambulance stayed put. Deep breath.

About ten minutes later I saw several dark forms sprinting toward the fire trucks. Sure enough, two trucks headed out with lights and sirens. There's another reason not to have the firefighters light the fireworks - they are needed when people who are not at the show start fires with their own fireworks. So then I wonder, "Is my husband now out on a call? Or is he stuck here trying to run the entire show with half a crew?" Oh, so relaxing.

The show finally came to an end, and then I notice a fire burning on the ground where they had been launching fireworks. Again, I see dark shadows of people all quickly backing away from the fireworks that are on fire, truck lights soon appear out of nowhere, and the fire disappears almost instantly.

Finally. It's over. Happy Independence Day, America. You just took ten years off my life.

Like I said, boring is good.

Every Woman's Dream

I remember dreaming about what my grown up life would be like. The perfect man, the perfect kids, the perfect job, the perfect house in the perfect location. For some reason I don't remember this scene being part of it.


But I'm sure every woman must at some point dream about her husband and his father dragging pitchforks of fire through the wheat field that is the "yard", while the children stand at the front window watching them and shouting at the top of their lungs, "You gonna burn, daddy? You burnin', daddy? Are you gonna catch on fire??"