Butterflies

I have all kinds of weird traits running around inside me. Sometimes I'm laid back about things, sometimes I'm way too detailed. Occasionally I'm overly perfectionistic, somedays I wish I was more perfectionistic. Today I'm nervous. Several things are running around my brain that I'm having trouble letting go of.

~I'm nervous that my son was misdiagnosed at the allergy doctor. Looking back, I realized that the doctor actually never looked at his puffy red back at all. Maybe that's normal, but the nurse had nearly the whole form filled out when she realized that she was an entire row off when analyzing all the little bumps and red spots on his back. She and the pre-med student observer studied it for awhile to make sure they were reading it correctly. That did not make me feel confident at all.

~I'm nervous that my children will be horrible this evening. Our dinner guests from England are sophisticated world-travelers with NO children of their own. Thankfully, she is an elementary teacher, but still...

~I'm nervous about teaching a high school class with no previous curriculum. If I had had the summer to prepare, I would be okay, but seven days is cramping my style.

~I'm nervous about going to the lake this weekend with six young children. When we planned this weekend, I thought it would be terribly hot. Now it is supposed to be 73. And rainy. When we planned this weekend, I was not teaching anything this year. Now all weekend long I will be thinking of everything I should be doing instead.

~Now I'm nervous there won't be enough hours in my day to get everything prepared for tonight. Thus ends my list for today.

Playing Catch-Up

Life seems to be moving one step forward, two steps back. It's a bit overwhelming at the moment. Here's what I've been up to...

~I found out last week that I am returning to the classroom. The good news: one class, very part-time, only girls (Bible class), block schedule. The bad news: have to rewrite the curriculum, seven days until school starts.

~Last Friday my father's close friend passed away. I cannot remember a time when this man was not part of our lives. He and my dad went to high school together. They stood up for each other at their weddings. They worked together at the same company for nearly 35 years. Our family camped with his family practically every other weekend from April to October every year. He worked last Friday morning, went to lunch, drove back, and got out of his truck to walk back into the plant. He never made it. They found him on the ground in the parking lot. My husband was on the crew who responded to the call. He performed CPR on him, but it was too late. This morning we attended the funeral and said one final goodbye to a long-time family friend.

~Saturday was my 15 year class reunion. A part of me was dreading this event since I was in charge. I was a little nervous that too much time had passed and we would all stare at each other with nothing to say. Thankfully, I was wrong. We had a great evening together catching up and reminiscing years gone by.

~Monday I spent half the day at the doctor watching my 5 YO go through allergy testing. The verdict: allergic to cats, mulberry tree pollen, johnson grass, and a ton of mold spores. "Mold spores?", my non-allergy self innocently asked. "Tell me more about that." The doctor smiled that sympathetic smile and said, "Those are pretty much everywhere...crops, hay, grass, leaves...". Now I have to add one more thing to my to-do list: research allergies. That sounds like a party waiting to happen.

~Tomorrow we are having guests for dinner. Last November we had an amazing week in England. Amazing mostly because this wonderful couple took tons of time out of their busy lives to be our personal tour guides. Now they are in the states for six weeks and we get to see them again! I'm not sure we can reciprocate on the tour guide thing here in the wild and crazy midwest....maybe we can take them to see the world's largest ball of string.

More dying brain cells...

Thirteen weeks ago I made a hair appointment. Yes, 13 weeks ago. I timed it all out, scheduled the haircut in the middle, and scheduled the coveted color date six weeks later with the girl with magic hands. See, my 15 year class reunion is Saturday, and since there's nothing I can do to look 22 anymore, I can at least have cute hair, right?

So I wrote my appointment on my calendar. Wednesday at 10:30. It's been there for weeks - 13 weeks to be exact. I've been looking forward to it for days - it's like a pampering session from heaven (other than the wax part, that hurts like...well, it hurts).

Yesterday, Tuesday, I walk in the door at 2:30 and play my messages. "Rhonda...is everything okay? I'm just calling because I have you down this morning for an appointment at 10:30 and wanted to check in with you since you are not here..."

WHAT?!?! I check my calendar - Wednesday. I check my appointment card - Tuesday. I want to scream. I want to cry.

Then it's my turn to leave a message. I grovel on and on..."I'm sooooo sorry. I had it written down for Wednesday...blah, blah, blah...I'm soooo sorry...call me so we can reschedule."

I felt way too guilty to even mention my reunion on Saturday. So much for the cute hair, I was just hoping she could get me in sometime in the next month.

This morning she called. Her first words: "Can you be here at 8:30 on Friday?"

I LOVE her. Guess who'll be getting a big 'ol tip.

Vacation Through the Camera Lens

Day 1: Visiting the family

The 5 Yo ran away from the dog, the 2 YO could have been the dog's lunch.


Da 2: The Brookfield Zoo

This polar bear had an amazing talent of stopping mere humans dead in their tracks to waste minutes upon minutes of their lives while he played with toys and swam.

Day 3: Shedd's Aquarium

Where my son begged all day long to see "the su-su-suber-super guy, I mean the scuba diver, in the big fish tank!!"

Next Stop: Giordano's Pizza and a concert in Millennium Park.

Day 4: The guys took the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry and the Sears Tower while the girls went shopping on Michigan Avenue. They dropped us off 2 miles north of where the van would be, thinking we would meander down Michigan Ave. as we shopped. At 4:30 p.m. we were one block from where we were dropped off. Oops, bad planning.

Day 5, 6, and 7: Mike and Vicki's house. The kids swam and played, the adults hung out like old times.

Day 7: Decatur Children's Museum

Day 8: And finally, a stop at the T-Rex Cafe in Kansas City on the way home.

The Day After...

This pretty much sums up how we are feeling around here.

You know vacation was successful when you need an entire day to recover from it.

Off the road again...

I'm back home. It feels as if I have been gone forever. I even had to click on "older posts" just to catch up reading my friends' blogs from when I was gone. Good grief, that's a lot of happenings happening while I was away.

I have some vacation pics to post that I know everyone is dying to see, but for now I'll just leave you with the proof that my kids obviously do not get out enough.

The very first evening we stopped to stay at a hotel half way through Missouri. The boys were standing outside the hotel room door waiting in great anticipation for daddy to unlock the door so they could enter. The five year old was jumping up and down. The two year old stared in amazement at the door and asked in awe, "Mommy, is this Illinois?"

If only I had known a hotel room would bring so much excitement. Then we entered the room and the 5 YO began the investigation. Soon we hear, "Mom, look at this! Look! There's a skateboard in the closet!"

Here was saddened to learn that it was merely the ironing board and he would be doing no skating upon it. Then after noticing the microwave and fridge, he demanded to know where the stove was. We explained that hotel rooms typically do not have stoves. The next morning however, he woke up early to exclaim, "There is to a stove! It's right here between the two beds!"

Disappointment again reigned when he learned there would be no cooking happening in the safe deposit box.

And speaking of hotels, I am now a firm believer that every child should live in an apartment at some point in his early life. My children have NO concept that people are staying above, below, and on either side of hotel rooms. That, and somehow they have decided that hotel room = 3 ring circus.

Which brings me back full circle to exactly why my kids do not get out enough.

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!