Vacation!

Tomorrow morning we leave for vacation. Woohoo! My big plans for the week are to do a whole lot of nothing... oh, and become fluent in German. Maybe relaxing and becoming fluent in German are mutually exclusive? Good thing, because even though I'm not starting at the beginning, I know I won't be fluent in a week. There isn't any program that is that good!

The boys are going to do "boy things" - paint ball (with protective gear), archery, ATVs, swimming, running around the woods, sling shots, and campfires.

My root canal is done, but it hurts. Bad. It hurts worse than before I started this damn thing. My friend said it is normal and should only last a few days but I don't know if I can stand a few more days of eating nothing but soup. Based on the fact that the last time I tried to eat I cried like a baby, I guess I don't have a choice.

Anyway... we are packed and ready to go. Just waiting on tomorrow morning to get here. Sheesh!

Happy Birthday!

Today Ethan is 12. He is having a birthday lunch with some of the neighborhood kids and then a birthday dinner with family. We plan to spend most of the day at the pool and getting a haircut.

Vacation - finally

We leave for vacation on Saturday. I had to go shopping yesterday because all of my clothes are too big. A nice problem to have, I suppose. I got some capris (jeans and off whiteish-beigeish), a pair of shorts and a few t-shirts. Combined with the few things that I can still wear and not look like a clown, I should be set. Of course I went to the thrift store, so all of it cost less than 1 pair of capris at Target. Go me!

Harry who?

Christian and Ethan are boating with a friend. Alex hates anything and everything to do with the water, so he was quite happy to stay home. He stayed up until 5am reading and has been reading pretty much ever since he woke up - only taking a break to check emails to see what his friends had to say about the book. I of course skipped right to the epilogue so am in no hurry to actually read the thing. I am sure it will end up on vacation with us.

We were supposed to go to River Days today but that would have interrupted reading time. Fine with me. I finished my dining room chairs and spent some quality time with Doctor Who.

And now we get busy...
Monday the boating friend is spending the night,Tuesday and Thursday I get to go to the dentist again, Wednesday is Ethan's birthday and Friday my mom is coming up so that we can leave for vacation on Saturday. Somehow between now and Friday I have to get my lists done. Luckily, all three boys are old enough to pack themselves (with a list provided by me) and help me get other stuff together.

We come back from vacation on the 4th and Andre and Valeria come in on the 13th. They will be here for two weeks, and we have so much we want to show them I doubt we will be home much.

In other news, there is a 50/50 chance I will break out in a poison ivy rash after traipsing through the woods at the nature center following the damn wild turkeys. That will be the icing on the cake this week, dontcha think?

THE book

We are home and the book has been partially read by three of us. It will be finished by morning.

We got to the store 1 1/2 hours early and were ninth in line. By the time they started handing them out there were well over 200 people in line.

I will not post any spoilers, I promise!

Tornado 2.0

It has passed us completely. I got a hold of Marty (he is fine) and my elderly neighbor (also fine) but not the friend that lives in Sanford, though. Sanford got hit pretty hard and most people are without electricity.

The golf ball sized hail was cool, but I could totally do without the siren. Once I figure out how to get pictures off of my phone, I will post them.

The boys took flashlights into the bathroom and Ethan made a trail of post-it notes with arrows for anyone to find us. He also wanted to take a cooler of food into the bathroom with us "just in case."

We still have the warning until 6:45 but the weather guy just said Midland should be fine "for now." This was more than enough excitement for me, so we are going swimming.

We now return you to our normal, boring blogging routine.

Tornado

So we are in the middle of a tornado. It missed us but ran right past where Marty is.I of course can't get a hold of him. I have the boys in the bathroom (we don't have a basement and it is the center of our house) and I was checking the weather channel. I stopped in here to blog before I turn the computer off so my mom would know what is going on. (Yelling "Oh crap! The siren again! Gotta go!" probably wasn't a good idea.)

I have lived in Michigan for 6 years and have never heard the sirens - other than on testing days - so I don't know what to do... but I am pretty sure blogging isn't it.

Teeth, again

My tooth broke yesterday. Yes, broke. How lovely. I tried to call the dentist and of course, he wasn't in. I called a friend who is a dental... something. She wears scrubs and talks about teeth all the time but I have no idea what she does all day. Anyway, she assured me that I won't die before Monday morning and that I could come to her office if I can't get a hold of anyone. I ended up getting an appointment with a different dentist - mine is on vacation, again - and after less than 10 minutes it is all better now. Before the dentist came in his assistant told me of a bunch of really cool things to do in and around Saint Ignace (where we will be vacationing in less than two weeks) so it was like a two-for-one kind of visit. Or something like that.

Christian extremists disrupt Hindu Senate invocation

The Senate invited the guest Hindu chaplain to offer the opening invocation. Before he could even start, someone decided to pray to the Lord about the "abomination" of another faith praying in the Senate chamber. How very, very sad.

h/t to The Very Left Reverend

The $9 table and chairs

Who knew it took so much work to make something look so old and worn?


The table was given to us and the chairs were my great-grandma's wedding set - she married in 1915 and it was a used set.

Total cost of the project-
$5.76 - 6 cans gloss black spray paint from Walmart
$1.30 - 6 cans of gloss white spray paint from Home Depot (I was over charged for some of the paint, and by the time I got the Michigan scan bonus thingy, my total was $1.30. I also bought 2 other things, but for the sake of conversation I will say I paid $1.30 for the paint.)
$1.99 - Upholstery fabric from Salvation Army. I got enough to cover the 6 chairs and make a "cord cover" for the light. Once I learn to sew, I will get right on that.

Don't mind the junk in the background. That is my pile of stuff to hang up or otherwise do something with.

Still miserable...

Yesterday started as a bad day and ended up as an ok day. I woke up with a horrible tooth ache and a long to-do list. We went to the gym, and then as I was waiting to hear how my grandma did in surgery I went to get my hair cut. When I got home, Marty and the boys had finished most of the things on my list, and a few extras. Ethan had made lunch for me while I was gone, so after we ate we set out to paint the chairs. The boys sanded them and Marty painted them. All I did was recover the seats.

They made dinner, and wouldn't let me do much of anything all day. Not a bad day, but hopefully one we don't have to repeat anytime soon. Of course, this tooth still hurts, so maybe...

My grandma did great during surgery and they are sending her home today. ("Home" is a nursing home, so I don't know if they would have been so quick to release her if she weren't going to a place filled with doctors and nurses.)

The boys are going with a friend to see Harry Potter (yes, again) and then hang out at the friends house. It is raining pretty hard here, so I think I will just stay home with a good book and some Advil.

Grandma

My grandma was rushed to the hospital last night. She has blood clots in her lungs and will undergo a procedure to try to place some sort of screen in the way to block them in case they break free.

Prayers/good thoughts would be much appreciated.

I am a miserable bitch

Yeah... tell you something you don't know, right?

I am having a root canal. My dentist does it over the course of 4-5 appointments. Not sure if that is normal, because this is my first (and last, I promise) one.

So my third appointment was Monday and my cheek was swollen and I was in serious pain until this morning. The appointment today was bad. Really, really bad.

It turns out that contrary to what my 1st grade teacher repeatedly told me, I have a small mouth. A very. small. mouth. Not only does that make it hard to work, it makes it hard to judge the depth of he needs to go.

So now I am home with antibiotics and lost of soup. The boys are insisting that I do nothing but sit on the couch and watch TV. This is one time they will get no resistance from me.


Oh, by the way... we saw Harry Potter yesterday and loved it. I can't wait to go back and see it again.

I'm going to bed.

Michael Moore

Let me preface this by saying I am heavily medicated and that I have not seen any of Michael Moore's movies (other than Canadian Bacon, which was damn funny!) and have no desire to. So, as you can expect, this is fair and balanced, baby... fair and balanced.

Am I the only one who finds it curious that Michael Moore built his career on bashing government, but yet wants to hand full control of our health system to the very same people? and I swear, if he calls universal health care "free" one more time, I will scream. Ask any of the people receiving "free" health care how much they pay in taxes.

While I don't doubt that our system is broken (God knows it is) I don't think Michael Moore has the answer. I will give him credit for raising the issue, though. Maybe some good will come from sicko.

Moore means less: How radical documentary maker Michael Moore lost the plot

What do you feed your kids?

Yeah, we are back to trying to figure this lunch thing out again.

I have picky kids. It would be easier to list what they will eat instead of what they won't. They are that way because of their father and damn it if I am not the one who has to deal with it!

I am tired of making lunch and one or two kids not eating any of it. I asked each kid to name 10 or so things off the top of their head that they will eat.

Alex
apples
mac & cheese
ramen
tuna
french bread or regular pizza
hot dogs
hamburgers
french fries
shrimp
quesadillas
grapefruit
green apples

Ethan
peanut noodles
pb&j roll ups
fruit - any
vegetables - any
salad
chicken nuggets
chicken pot pie
shrimp
fresh catfish
fish sticks

Christian
chicken salads
french bread pizza
pb&j roll ups
shrimp
rice
pasta - pesto or alfredo
quesadilla
grilled cheese
eggs
potatoes
bean burritos w/cheese & lettuce

Clearly, you can see where the problem lies. Here's a hint... its name isn't Ethan. That boy will eat pretty much anything. It is also pretty obvious that nutrition is at the top of their lists...

So now I am begging for ideas. Got any?

What are some of the things your kids will eat for lunch?