Goodbye June

Wow our first full summer month almost gone....no fair! We had a pretty busy and eventful weekend. Friday night I stayed in Las Colinas because Ash had a tennis mixer in the area and her coach was giving her a ride up. After sitting outside for 2 hours watching her play, I was ready to get back in my air conditioned car and head home.

Saturday we spent the morning washing, folding and packing Ash's clothes for tennis camp. At 2pm, I whisked her off to Sweet and Sassy to have her hair french braided and her toes pedicured. She was in heaven! After church, I suggested dinner in Irving at Cadillac Ranch. I'd eaten there several times for work functions and knew the family would love it. What a great meal! Besides my little guy not feeling so good, everyone seemed to enjoy the all Texas grown and raised foods served at CR. When we got home, I took E's temp and it was 101.7 - guess maybe dinner after church was not the best idea for him. One dose of Motrin and a good night's sleep and he seemed fine on Sunday.

We loaded up the car and took Ash to UNT for 4 nights and 5 days of tennis camp w/ one of her friends from school. Imagine everyone's surprise when they found out they had private rooms w/ a shared bathroom in between them. Ash was thrilled. Her friend was not as happy as she was looking forward to staying up late and talking. I guess last night after drills, they pulled C's mattress into Ash's room on the floor. Now they have a room for snacking and a room for sleeping. Pretty smart! This was a whole different kid than I dropped off for this same camp last year. She was confident, excited, tall (well she's always tall) and in charge. She loved being able to tell her friend where the cafeteria was and how far the walk was from the dorm to the tennis courts. Ash was also excited to tell us that she was put in the 2nd highest level group after evaluation last night. Only the 16-18 year olds were in a higher group than her. She was thrilled. I did not get a 1am call this year to hear how she couldn't sleep so I think this camp will be a huge success!!

After getting her settled, we went to my parents for some swimming and pork chops (good combo- right?!). We had a good time but got home too late for me to work on my free digital scrapbook. I won it at the CM class I attended last week but only have until tomorrow night to enter the code. It doesn't help that I didn't even have Storybook loaded on my new machine until yesterday morning and still do not have all the free stuff loaded to build the book. Ugh. Oh yeah and the pics are still on my camera's memory card. I'm guessing I might not get this one done in time. :-(

Time

Have you ever actually sat and watched the clock tick slowly? That is actually what I am doing while I type this post. This has been the ever lovin' longest day in a very long time. See - I've pretty much caught up at work so I have nothing to do............

Oh, ten minute distraction while I helped my boss format a Word document. SCORE - now I only have to watch the clock for the next 32 minutes.......

Here is the twisted dilema in my job - I am grumpy when I'm busy because I don't like the way they give me work assignments BUT those days go by so quickly. I am happy when I'm not busy because it means they are leaving me alone for the most part but those days go by sooo slowly. Where is my happy medium?

Ok, while I typed that paragraph another two minutes went by. Unfortunately, I'm too bored to continue blogging.

Me

Outside my window... The sun is warming up to a balmy 100 degrees.

I am thinking... about how much I'd love to be at home getting something worthwhile done.

I am thankful for... Diet Coke and Tylenol.

From the kitchen... Mom made a recipe I found on line for dinner last night and the leftovers are calling my name from the fridge in the fileroom!

I am wearing... my usual outfit of black pants and a dress top w/ black sandals.

I am creating... nothing which is a major source of frustration.

I am going... to sit here at work and try not to lose my mind while reminding myself that I'm just lucky to have a job.

I am reading... nothing - another sourse of frustration.

I am hoping... my family and friends are all happy and healthy.

I am hearing... the printer in the fileroom running at breakneck pace while my boss is killing trees.

Around the house... there is much to be done but alas...I never see the darn place long enough to do anything.

One of my favorite things... my kids - a source of great happiness in my life.

A few plans for the rest of the week... go to a CM class on Wednesday nigth with friends!! Shuffle the kids to tennis and other various places. Get Ash ready for UNT Tennis Camp next week. Try not to quit my job.

Summertime

It is hard to believe that June is almost gone. Another summer is just going to fly right by before I know it. Between work, the kids activities, housework, and more work - there doesn't seem to be much time left in a day. I got a brand spanking new computer a 3 weeks ago today (thanks again M.E.) and I've barely had time to get to know it yet. Sure, I've done some work on it and I've loaded up my music and pictures but I haven't really gotten to 'play' yet. It's frustrating.

I love summer because it stays light later and I usually feel like I have more time to get things accomplished. So far this summer - that has not been the case. Even though there is nothing on TV that I watch in the summer, I still cannot find much free time in the evenings. Getting E on a bedtime routine might help but hell the kid is 4 1/2 and he's never had one yet so how would I start that now.

With tennis, swimming at Mom's and camps - the kids schedules do not usually get me home in the evenings until after 8pm. By the time everyone showers, pj's and winds down - it is after 9p. When I settle down to get E to settle down - it is hard for me to kick it back into gear and get anything accomplished so my evening generally ends at 9pm or never really begins. Our weekend free time is now usually spent in my parent's pool. I'm not complaining too much about that though as that is good family time and I just love swimming - but my house is sorely neglected because I'm never there. My new computer barely knows me. The old computer is still begging for me to remove all that old data so it can run games for the kids.

I guess this is just what summers are going to be like until the kids are grown. Then I will probably sit around all day whining that I have too much time on my hands and nothing to do. Poor me.

Another weekend gone

Another busy weekend come and gone.....Friday at work I had just about had it so when my dad and brother mentioned they were going golfing and asked me to tag along - I jumped at the chance. 18 holes, 5 Malibu and Diet Cokes later and life was good. Just to be clear - I did not actually golf. Wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea that I might have actually exercised. No, I just drove my brother around in a golf cart and drank. I had a really great time hanging out w/ the two of them. It was just like when we were kids and Dad would take us golfing. I hadn't driven a golf cart in years so it was a blast to do so.

Saturday morning we had to be up early to get to Target and get a birthday present for E's best friend. Aug's bday party was at his house in the backyard. There was a bounce house and 95 degree weather - not the best combo. There was also probably 20 kids running amok. Not my idea of a good time but the kids sure seemed to have a ball. Afterwards we got E's summer haircut, it's pretty short but should be easy to maintain after pool time. Then we rushed home to meet my friend Sunny who was delivering Scentsy goodies to me. She gets the Warmer of the Month kit and did not want the July warmer or scent so I bought them from her. The warmer was the "Play Ball" which is a baseball - perfect for E's room (the one room in the house w/o a warmer at that point). The scent is Bubblegum which actually reminds me of summer and Hubba Bubba! After she left, another friend, Pat, showed up to bring me an air purification system to test for a week. I met Pat at my Joy of Connecting meetings and have wanted to try this thing out for months. I have another friend who got one and it practically cured her daughter's asthma and her husband's snoring. It works with some sort of electric current which zaps all the mold, mildew, dust mites, germs, etc. from your house and converts it to hydrogen peroxide. It leaves everything smelling clean and sanitized too. Considering our house is close to 30 years old and we all suffer from allergies - I thought we'd try it out. After Pat left, it was off to church followed by dinner at Mom and Dad's and swimming for all.

Sunday, the kids and I awoke to no Daddy in the house as he'd already left for an early round of golf w/ my Dad, brother and nephew. At 11am, my dad called and asked if the kids wanted to join them on the back 9. Well, imagine my excitement when they said yes! I rushed them up to the Club and then rushed home to get myself cleaned up for some "me" time. I hit the road running - Lane Bryant, Aveda, Kohls and Walmart - all in a 3 hour period - all by myself - no one with me - alone - shopping - getting the things I needed/wanted! It was glorious. Then it was back to the house to unload my finds and into my bathing suit to head back to Mom and Dad's for more dinner and swimming. We provided the steaks and corn on the cob for the Father's Day meal. Mom made potatoes and salad. It was yummy and we had a blast in the pool. There was even time when we got home for me to finish up endorsements for dad and still get to bed at a decent time.

All in all, not too bad for one weekend!

6 Weeks to Go!

Only six more weeks til this:

And I cannot freaking wait!!!!!!!

I swear

noon cannot get here fast enough today. My boss is heading out of town and this had been a week from hell with him. It started first thing Monday morning when he snapped my head off after I informed him that a document he asked me to print was not for mated and would be a printing nightmare due to all the data attached. I did not say I couldn't do it but was just asking how he wanted the data to look. It is never a good thing to start your week with a verbal tongue lashing from your boss or coworker. Most of my weeks start this way though. I'm trying to keep a good attitude about things but it is just hard sometimes to find the positive in this job. I know the two guys I work with are under alot of stress but I really do not see the reason for always taking it out on me. One just doesn't talk to me when he's upset. The other snaps at me about every little thing when he's in a 'mood'. Sometimes I swear they both PMS more than any woman on this planet.

I actually like the job itself. There are days that it is brainless (which I need sometimes) and days that are challenging. I have learned alot about the business in the past four years but I've also stressed more on a job than ever before in my life. I thought working for the government was tough - dealing every day with other people's problems. But my coworkers were wonderful and I made some really good friends at work. Then all the years I was a contractor - besides a few bad days - 99% of the people I worked with on all the jobs were great, friendly and fun to work with.

I know many of friends are un or under employed right now so I cannot complain too much that I have a fairly good paying job to come to every day. However, there are lots of days where unemployment actually sounds like a blessing that calls to me in the night. I'll survive.....but sometimes I just like to gripe.

She shoots....she scores

Summer is in full bloom and time is already getting away from me. Last Friday was the last day of school for Ash. She's now an official 7th grader - frightening!!!! She spent her first weekend of summer break in a tennis tournament in Southlake. She won her match on Saturday and won 2 of her 3 matches on Sunday to win 2nd place and finally "CHAMPED UP". This means she had the points and a trip to the final round of a tournament to move up to the next level. It is great that she finally achieved this monumental goal. The downside is that she will not have the time at this level to earn the 100 points she'll need to stay when she turns 13 in Sept. She knew this going in but just wanted to be able to say that she did it. Now she can continue playing at her current level of tournaments starting in Sept. but in the higher age bracket. She will have to earn another 64 points at that level and get to a finals in order to "champ up" again.

Last week, the kids both went to Vacation Bible School with my mom. She ran one of the nursery groups so that E could go. You have to be a kindergartener to go to VBS unless a family member is a volunteer. Ash was a Junior Volunteer this year and got to help out with the little kid classes for various activities. They had a blast. Saturday was the church festival and Ash volunteered to work a booth to earn community service hours to put on her NJHS application in the fall. Little did she know that it would be 100 degrees and 100% humidity that day. I felt so bad for her while she roasted in her little booth helping little kids play carnival games. She did it with a smile though and proudly earned her Community Service certificate!

I spent that day at a Scrapbook event in Downtown Dallas for the Police Officers of Dallas. The day of cropping was also a day of fundraising for this worthy charity. I went by myself because my usual group of crop buddies were busy with other things that day. I had a great time since it was hosted by Tammy - the ladybug retreat gal. I did have to take a break in the middle of the day to drive back toward home to go to church and see the kids sing their VBS songs at Mass. Then it was back to Dallas for more cropping. I got 11 pages done in E's book, attended a few really neat craft classes and won a necklace in the raffle at the end of the evening (I wanted the Cricut Jukebox or the cool Tote bag but the necklace is pretty cool).

Also last Friday, I was finally able to pull off an A Phi Dinner Club - 0ur first since Christmas. 6 of my wonderful sisters met me at Uncle Julio's in Grapevine where we sweated on the patio while watching one heck of a lightening storm. We finished eating around 8 and talked until after 10 - I'm sure the folks at the restaurant thought we were never going to leave. It was so great to see everyone and sort of get the excitment rolling about CampAPhi this year!

Friday

Happy Friday. Hoping to have a good weekend filled with tennis, birthday parties, more tennis and possibly more tennis. But tonight we get to kick things off with an adults only evening in the VIP tent at the Club. Dad bought us all passes to the VIP tent for the Long Drive Competition tonight. Food and drinks are free in the tent!! Then tomorrow, Ash has a ZATs tourney in Southlake (thank goodness it is close to home). She doesn't play til 1:30 which is nice. Then E has a friend's bday party at 4p in Colleyville. If Ash wins her first match, she doesn't play again til Sunday morning at 8am (yes that is 8 in the A freakin M - not my favorite time to be awake on the weekend). If she keeps winning (and hopefully she does) she will play 3 matches thru the day on Sunday. We are really hoping she can make it to finals this time as it will give her a chance to "Champ" up before she ages up to the 13/14 bracket in September.

On a side note, I've lost 7 lbs this week. Yep, started Slim Fast for breakfast, Smart Ones for lunch and a normal dinner on Monday. I think I was retaining alot of water which explains most of the loss. The sad part is that I'd let myself get so far over my 'personal high weight' that this loss doesn't even get me back to what should be my starting point. That is okay though - at least I'm making an effort.

Props

Big props to my homegirl! Ash made 5th chair clarinet in the 7th & 8th grade Wind Ensemble band for next year. There are going to be three bands next year due to the size of students participating. The Wind Ensemble is the equivalent of the A team. There were only 8 chosen from the clarinet group and she was one of them. Go Ashy!

Big props to my baby boy for throwing several world class fits yesterday that were actually making us consider he might be possessed by something evil??!! I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this kid though and even when he throws a fit in my presence - he still brings me joy (sometimes a slight headache but mostly joy).

Big props to my dear friends M & T for delivering the brand spanking new computer to my doorstep last night that M built himself. He told me what parts to order from Newegg a few weeks ago and when they came in - I put all the boxes in his wife's car. She called yesterday afternoon to let me know he was done and ready to bring it over. The whole family dropped in last night and he got my new machine up and running. Unfortunately it was so late by the time I got my head spinning psycho child to sleep that I did not get a chance to play with my new toy but I am grinning from ear to ear today as I think about what is waiting for me at home. I've always loved technology but in the past few years I've let it overwhelm me. I'm trying to be more adventurous so I was okay w/ M installing Vista instead of XP. We'll see how this goes!

Big props to me for getting off my big fat rear and starting to do something about my health. I actually took the kids for a walk around the park on Monday night and plan to repeat the process tonight (possibly followed by water aerobics in my parent's pool). I started drinking SlimFast for breakfast (much easier than trying to prepare breakfast in the morning) and am cutting portions/making healthier choices at other meals. No goals excepts that I'd like to be able to paint my own toenails w/o twisting myself into a painful yoga position to get around my gut! If the walking also helps me climb the stairs at Lake Bridgeport in August - then all the better!!!

Final big props to DH for painting the 1/2 bath last night in the scorching heat. The new tan paint color looks fabulous against the new black countertop, white cabinets and silver accessories!! Cannot wait for him to get the new framed mirror up tonight, all the tape off and the pics back on the walls!! It is making me happy just to think about it.

Well the weekend was just what we needed! Despite dropping way too much money in Shreveport, my DH was not too upset with my lack of luck on Friday night and Saturday morning. After a great "free" buffet at Sam's Town, we hopped in the car and headed to Natchitoches, LA and our favorite B&B (okay, it's the only B&B we've ever stayed in but it is still our favorite!). We even stopped for a couple of daquiries for the drive (you've got to a love a state where they can sell you an alcoholic beverage from a stand on the side of the road). We dropped off our bags and promptly hit the streets with camera in hand (pics to come later). I just love the sites and smells of this small but wonderful Louisiana town. The shops in downtown are just fabulous and we quickly bought our fair share of nick knacks for the house, kids, my mom, etc. I even scored a wonderful new red purse!! Then half way down the road, we stopped into our favorite little oyster bar for a cold beverage. Imagine our surprise when half way thru the first drink, DH looks up and sees his 2nd cousin, Neil, walking towards the door. See, Neil lives in Natchitoches and every time we visit we really do intend to call him up but it never happens. Neil's a cool guy so he took it with a grain of salt (and a couple glasses of scotch). We had a nice visit with him but was disappointed that our longer than intended stay at the bar meant the rest of the little stores had closed for the day. Oh well! We headed back to our room at the Rusca House, showered and headed to dinner on the lake. On our way out, we heard the beginnings of a band playing at a wedding reception at the B&B right behind ours. After a great dinner at Mariners, we came back and sat on the back porch and listened to the band play til 10p. Then we watched the bride and groom drive by in a horse drawn carriage - so romantic. We were going to watch "Rear Window" after we settled in for the evening but were both so tired, we barely saw the opening credits.

Sunday morning was an early one as the B&B serves breakfast at 8:30. We met 3 nice couples that morning and said our good-byes after a great meal. We drove around town after packing the truck to look at houses in the area. Long term dream but we'd love to settle down in this little town when the kids are grown. Eventually, we said goodbye and headed back to Shreveport where I managed to lose more money in the span on one hour. Not my lucky weekend in the casino for sure. DH won a whopping $5 so we called it quits and headed back to Dallas. Stopped in Terrell for some shoe shopping and then picked up the kiddos from my parents. My dad had kept them pretty busy with two movies (UP and Night at the Museum 2) and pool time. They seemed to miss us and were pretty happy with their gifts. Then it was laundry time and the end of a fabulous weekend.