Zach's Senior Pictures

These aren't all of them, but they're some of my favorites...

Quasimodo

I want to run some errands, but my mouth is so numb that in my imagination I look like someone from whom children would run.  It's weird.  It truly feels like my face is putty and my lips don't exactly meet, but when I look in the mirror I look more or less normal.  I can't really talk, though (I just told Baylee as she left for her babysitting job, "Bye! Haf fun!  Make goot toithes!"), so I probably should just stay home and blog until it wears off.

Last night Zach was promoted to red belt!!!  We've been waiting for this day for so long and are so excited for and proud of him!  Since there are only 5 belts (white, purple, green, red, black) at this Tang Soo Do school, it takes a huge commitment to get from one belt to the next.  Anyway, here he is!  He wasn't totally loving having his picture taken, but he humored me.

Mike got the news yesterday that sometime in the next few weeks he'll be moving to 2nd shift.  That's going to be another big change, but not a bad one.  It'll be good for him to have a slightly more normal sleep schedule.  (Although, I'm not gonna lie, I've grown fond of having the whole bed to myself.  Does that make me a bad person?)  And we can work around the fact that he'll never be here for family suppers by having our big meal of the day at lunchtime, at least a few times a week.

Alright, time to go look at myself in the mirror some more.   

They Make Me Laugh on a Regular Basis

Rachel was telling Baylee that she loves scary movies and that they don't bother her, so Baylee put her to the test.  They found the trailer for something scary on YouTube and had Rachel watch it.

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Website Recommendation

I've spent the entire morning in my pajamas, with a mug of coffee, reading a great website.  Now it's time to actually accomplish something in my day, but before I do I want to tell you about this site.  It's a "blog hop" for homeschoolers and you can find it here.  Basically it's a hub where anyone with a homeschool blog can contribute to different topics.  I've been going there every August for the last two or three years, because I love something they do annually called the Not Back-to-School Blog Hop.  (As in, we're not sending our kids off to school somewhere else.)   Each week of August has a different focus.  Week one is about curriculum.  Week two is about schoolrooms.  Week three is pictures of your students (ie your kids).  Week four is about a day in the life.  So, for example, I could contribute a day in our life by writing about it on my blog and linking it to this website, and then other people could read about it.  I've never done that, partly because I'm lazy, but mostly because we've never started full school days as early as August before...I don't think.

My favorite week is the one where people write about their days, but I only like them if they meet certain criteria:

1. They have to have older kids.  They can have young ones, too, but at least a few of the kids have to be older elementary to high school.  I'm not knocking those super excited mom-of-a-preschooler types, as I was once one myself, but I'm way past that stage and don't find it interesting anymore.  Unfortunately, those are the moms who contribute the most often.  They've got more enthusiasm than they know what to do with, you see.
2.  They can't take themselves too seriously.  If it's all "I rise at 4:30 and greet the day with a smile," I'm outta there.
3. The blog has to include pictures.  I want to see what they're describing!

Anyway, just in my time this morning I've found quite a few great blogs that I've now bookmarked.  One of them is by a nomadic single mom who's traveling through Australia in an RV and "unschooling" her kids.  See?!  Interesting stuff.

This and That

I can't believe there's only a week and a day left of summer break.  I feel a combination of bummed and anxious.  I'm bummed because for maybe the first time ever I'm just not looking forward to starting.  I think I need about three more weeks of break.  lol  And I'm anxious because I don't even have all the stuff I need yet.  I hope things get here on time...no, I don't...yes, I do.

A couple nights ago I dreamed that I went to some sort of big gathering and was told upon arrival that I had to give a speech.  I was given about 20 minutes to prepare, and I was asked if I could make it about friendship and somehow incorporate kittens and bobby pins.  For real.  Luckily, I woke up while I was still trying to map it out.

Midnight Music

Around midnight I was watching a documentary when I realized that I'd been hearing quiet, "easy listening" music for quite awhile.  I thought Zach might be listening to it on the radio or something, but then I realized it was coming from Drew's room and he was actually playing it himself.  I walked in there to find him sitting on the floor, messing with Garage Band.  He had recorded himself playing one guitar part, then he played that back while playing a 2nd guitar part along with it, live.  And the cool thing is he was just improvising as he went.  It was beautiful.  I could tell he wanted to be alone, so I left and secretly videoed just a little bit from outside his door.

Block Party

We went to our neighborhood's block party today.  It was one of those things where I grumped around for about 24 hours in advance, wishing that I didn't "have" to go.  The truth is I'm just not that social, especially with strangers.  But we went, and it turned out to be fun.  It was nice to talk with the people we do have a relationship with (through Baylee.  Always through Baylee, the butterfly of the family.) and to get to know the ones we don't.

All From Yesterday

Drew was at the fair from 1 to 10pm.  Can you imagine trying to do that?  I think you have to be 15 years old to pull that off.  At around 10 I started wondering when he'd be home, so I called the birthday kid's mom and chatted with her for awhile.  She told me how much fun the boys were all having (there were 4 of them, all buddies from church), then she said, "Drew has thrown up multiple times, but that hasn't stopped him from going on the rides!"  LOL  Oh dear.  Poor, prone-to-motion-sickness Drew.  When he got home I asked him about it, and he said, "Yeah, I threw up three times...but I made it to a garbage can every time!"

Last night Mike called me when he got to work and told me he'd been stopped by the police on his way there...twice!  He got pulled over the first time by a policewoman who told him they were on the lookout for a white Subaru.  (That's what Mike drives.)  Eventually he was allowed to leave, only to be pulled over again by a different policeman less than five minutes later.  Hopefully they got the right guy at some point.

Gibbs has started sleeping by the side of my bed every night.  I like the fact that he's there, because it's comforting, but he can be a bit noisy sometimes.  Like once in awhile he dreams that he's running, and his legs will twitch and churn, and he'll bark in his sleep.  Last night I thought I'd make him more comfortable by putting his bed there, but he wouldn't wake up and move long enough for me to get it situated.  I was like, "Gibbs!  Get up, buddy!  I've got something for you!"  Nothing.  Finally I put it on top of him.

Here's a cute video of Baylee and Rachel, playing outside.  It looks weird because I'm filming it from inside the house, through the window screen.

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People News

Drew gets to spend the whole day at what may be the best birthday party in the history of birthday parties.  It's at the state fair.  Drew and the other boys who are going will be given an unlimited ride pass and some spending money.  Is that awesome or what?!  Drew said he has two goals:

1.  Not to spend any money on the carnival games, because they're a scam.
2.  Not to throw up on the Tilt-a-whirl this time.  (Yes, that happened before.)

Baylee is at her second ever babysitting job right now.  The first one was about a week ago and it went very well, but that one was with two little boys who love her.  This one is with an even littler guy who is known for crying when his parents aren't around.  I'm a little nervous for her, actually.  She's supposed to babysit for him today, tomorrow, and then next week Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Zach has progressed at the bike shop to the point where he's taking bikes apart, cleaning them, changing their tires, and then putting them back together.  His boss (our friend Dan) talked to him about making that extra internship day a paid day now.  I'm proud of Zach.  He's got such a great, willing attitude toward hard work.  

This morning Mike walked in the door, pet the dog, talked to us for a bit, and then fell sound asleep on the floor.  He's also got a great, willing attitude toward hard work and taking care of his family.  Love that guy.

Today on Facebook a friend of mine was talking about what God is doing in her life, and it was a really nice post, but instead of spelling it "Achilles heel" she wrote "ache leis heal."    

Box Day and Stuff

I got my big Sonlight box today!  Woo hoo!  I've used Sonlight 4 different times now...for Zach's kindergarten, first, and second grade years, and for Baylee's 6th grade year...so this will be my 5th time.  In all those other years, though, I never ordered the complete package.  I always ordered the Instructor's Guide and whatever I knew would be difficult or impossible to get elsewhere, and the rest I got from the library and sometimes Amazon.  And that's fine, except it made it so I had to be crazy on top of things.  It's going to be WONDERFUL to just walk to our bookshelf and grab what I need!

Here's everything that came in the mail today.  A couple things were backordered and will be sent soon, so imagine there's also a Bible devotional and a book about Pocahontas in there.

Baylee and Rachel washed their bikes today.

On a completely different note, recently Baylee told us about something that happened when she was camping a few months ago.  She said that one night there were several people, adults and kids, sitting around a campfire, when suddenly Molly, who's around Baylee's age, fell backwards in her lawn chair.  Now that would've been bad enough...I mean, we've all been there, right?...but Molly happened to be sitting right at the top of a little hill.  That means that she didn't just land.  No, she hit the ground and then did two full backwards somersaults down the slope before finally coming to a stop.  Baylee said it was awkward, because everybody was sorta shocked and badly wanted to laugh, but they knew Molly was already mortified and possibly hurt, and they didn't want to make it worse.  In the end Molly was a little sore, but mostly fine.  Baylee wrapped up her story with, "You know what she should've done?  No matter how much she was hurting or how embarrassed she was, she should've immediately jumped up and said, "Ta da!!" 

Tuesday

Yesterday Baylee spent the night at her friend Katie's house, and the boys spent the afternoon at Kian's house on Lake Washington, swimming and fishing.  Mike slept.  That meant it was just me and the dog (and the cat and the fish and the hamster).  I cleaned the house without interruption and/or doubling back to redo something somebody messed up*, and then I watched a show called Alphas.  I recommend it...both the show and the alone time!

The one bad part of the day was that Drew had another allergic reaction to the water, which didn't go away, even with a full, adult dose of Benadryl.  That's happened the last two times, so that's it.  No more Lake Washington for him.  I'm thinking a trip to the allergist should probably happen soon, too. 

I've got a cute picture of Baylee serving food at the Tacoma Mission with Patty.  Baylee's job was to put ketchup on hotdogs.

*It might sound like I'm a freak, and maybe I am to some degree, but here's the thing:  I can live in a really messy house and be perfectly happy, because I'm an all-or-nothing kinda person.  Either it's a mess and I'm not worried about it, or it's really clean and, so help me, everyone is going to keep it that way or they'll hear about it from me.  There's no in between.  Okay, none of that really made me sound any less like a kook, did it?

This ability to turn off my need for order came in very handy my freshman year of college.  I had a roommate I loved, but she was a slob.  Seriously, her stuff was strewn everywhere and she never picked it up.  Case in point:  One time I woke up in the middle of the night feeling thirsty.  I knew I had a Sprite on the floor near my bed, so I reached around for it in the dark until I found it, took a big gulp, and about died when something large and slimy came out of the can and plopped onto my face.  It was a big piece of furry, white mold, which was there because that particular pop wasn't mine; it was my roommate's...from weeks before.

Crazy, But Productive

Today's a good day paperwork-wise!  I just about finished the last bit of what I need to do for the upcoming school year.  The boys are finally enrolled in South Ridge again and I've started the email conversation with their advisor about the classes they'll be taking.  (It's hard to have email discussions with her, simply because of the 3 hour time difference between here and Ohio, where the school is, but we manage.)  Now I just have to hear back from her that all my plans are okay, and we'll be set.

This morning we had Paul and Evelyn over, and then Rachel came over, too.  The four of them built a giant fort out of chairs and blankets, played Mine Craft, ran in and out, and generally made a lot of noise and a big mess.  I think fun was had by all (if you don't count me, Mike, Zach, and Drew).

By the way, this picture of our TV room also shows the fact that it's our storage room.  It's the only storage in the whole house, except for an attic crawl space big enough to fit one Christmas tree box.  Living here has forced us to pare down the things we hang on to.

Mike Plays the Guitar

Today Drew taught Mike how to play an easy blues thingie on his old guitar, then he got his other guitar and played along.  It was neat!

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Misc.

Today we get to breathe!  No appointments!  Woo hoo!

Baylee is with her Grandma Patty for the weekend.  They've got plans to cook, play games, and help out at a homeless shelter by serving supper.

I ordered our Sonlight stuff a few days ago, and yesterday I received an email telling me it's on its way.  It's 28 pounds of awesome children's literature!  I'm honestly so excited that I'm tracking the package.  LOL  I know I've talked about this before, but the way Sonlight works is it teaches children by using great books, and it emphasizes history.  So, for example, this year Baylee will be studying American history, and almost all the books revolve around that.  She gets to read Across Five Aprils, Johnny Tremain, A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Lewis & Clark Expedition, Old Yeller, and lots and lots more.  Also, Sonlight uses music to teach.  Baylee will get another CD of Bible verse songs to learn, and she'll be learning all the main songs about America: "America the Beautiful," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," etc.  I can't wait!

I guess that's about it.  I do have this picture that was taken by a guy named John at a youth group event a week ago or so.   Zach, Baylee, and Rachel are in it, but Drew isn't.  He told me he had to get out of the water, because of his allergy thing.

One of Those Days

This morning was totally FUBAR.  (That's a naughty military term I learned from my brother a long time ago.)  First of all, I got up at 5am to get Zach to a very early ultrasound appointment.  He's had a weird discomfort/pressure in his side for awhile now, and we were getting it checked out.  So 1st strike = unGodly wake up hour.

Then Zach forgot he was supposed to be fasting for this and he ate some breakfast.  I had to call the place to see if we needed to reschedule because of the Cheerios in Zach's gut.  We didn't.

Then we got about a half mile down the road and a dashboard light that looked like an exclamation point inside parentheses came on.  Turns out that just means there's low pressure in a tire, and Mike (who I called) said we could continue.

Finally I got hopelessly lost and we missed the appointment.

I'm usually not this messed up, but today I've outdone myself.  I feel like a cross between wanting to cry and wanting to take a bow.

Tense

This week has been sort of horrid in one way:  It's been stuffed FULL of doctor and dentist appointments.  I don't know what I was thinking, but somehow all the checkups are happening at once.  To make it more blah, they're mostly really early in the morning (I'm talking 7:30AM, people).  On the bright side, Drew and Baylee are free of cavities.  On the not so bright side, Zach does have cavities.  That added two more appointments, each an hour and a half long, for fillings.

Here's a weird fact about me:  I have...I almost want to say a phobia, but it's not quite that.  It's just a strong, almost physical discomfort when it comes to making and going to appointments.  I guess it's because appointments involve several things I hate.

1. Talking on the phone.
2. Driving places.
3. Dealing with strangers.
4. Waiting in waiting rooms.

I'm weird, right?  I know.

I've got some pictures of that backyard campout Baylee went to the other day.  These were taken by our neighbor and the hostess of the event, Kellie.

Oh, and I have this.  Drew made it from a video on YouTube.  He paused the video, took a screenshot, and then kinda cropped it and fixed it up.

original source

Lost

I wrote this because it was itching to get out.  I don't want to be the "weird blogging lady," though, so same deal as usual:  two today, none tomorrow.



This morning I had to take the boys in for a dental checkup, but we have a new dentist, so this was my first time trying to find the place.  I pretty much suck at finding places.  Today was no different, as the whole thing turned out to be a huge mess of driving around in circles.  This time I don't believe it was entirely my fault, though. I went online for directions, and, no lie, Google Maps told me to, "Take the 1st right onto 8th Avenue.  Turn right.  Turn left.  Turn right."  Just like that.  Turn right, turn left, turn right.  I mean, what in the world???

So I called Mike and I got this...

Him:  Remember the building you used to clean?

Me:  Yeah.  Wait, is it the building past the other building?

Him:  No, it's the first building.

Me:  The one with the bad carpet?

Him:  Yeah.  It's right across the street from that.

Is it any wonder I couldn't find the place at all?  Between Google and Mike I was practically Columbus trying to find the New World.  I was in the car, driving back and forth past where the office SHOULD be, and it just wasn't there!  I kinda freaked out, because if there's one thing I hate it's being late.   

When I returned home after all of that was over and the kids had gotten their checkups, I told Mike about it in a very "suffering martyr" kind of way.  "Finally," I moaned, "I just had to rely on the actual address of the place.  There was nothing else I could do!"

Mike just stared at me.  "You know, honey, for most regular people that's the primary way they find things."

Then we both laughed really hard until I cried.


   

I Apologize In Advance

The "Yucky Collection" Story:

When Baylee was little she rode in a car seat.  One day, after she'd been riding in that car seat for years, we discovered it had a little secret compartment that swiveled out and became a cup holder.  I say "we" discovered this, but really I only mean Mike and me, because Baylee already knew it existed.  In fact, she'd been using it to contain what she called her "yucky collection" for ages.  What was in the collection, you ask?  Pieces of dead skin, belly button lint, and sundry bits.

Wait.  You weren't eating, were you?

Drew made this awhile back with an app called Split Pic.  He said it took him 3 hours to get right.  (Good thing we don't waste time around here or anything.)  Drew snapped two different pictures of himself using a camera with a timer feature, then spliced them together.  I think getting the splice just right was what took the most work.

New Week

Is it weird that I always want to straighten our bedroom and make our bed in the morning...right before Mike goes to sleep for the day?  Literally, there are days when I juuuuust put the finishing touches on the quilt, and he takes it all apart and gets in it.  LOL!  But if I didn't make the bed at least once during the day it would never get made, and that would be wrong.  Right?

I finished Merlin last night.  It was heartbreaking.  I sat there with tears streaming down my face, kinda shocked, but at the same time thinking that the story of King Arthur is well known, and the show's creators had to work within it.  That story never has a happy ending.

I'm in a "meh" place with the upcoming school year.  I'm just not ready to buckle down again yet. Not to mention I haven't ordered everything we need.  I do have plans, though, to enroll the boys in South Ridge this week and to order Baylee's Sonlight stuff.  Once all those boxes of supplies and materials start coming, I know I'll perk up.  Getting a Sonlight box full of amazing children's books is truly like Christmas in August.  Oh, and I don't think I mentioned this here, but about a week ago I bought a microscope!  Baylee and I are completely stoked about that, because it's for her.  She has several experiments this year in her Life Science class that require looking at gross things close up.  That's right up her alley.*

*Remind me to tell you about the time when she was about 4 years old and we stumbled across her "yucky collection."  I'm still kinda scarred.

Filed Under: Never Speak of This Again

Last night Baylee and all the young kids on the street were invited to a campout in a neighbor family's backyard.  There must've been 10 kids.  They had a campfire, a barbecue, games, roasted marshmallows, a ghost-story-telling contest, and then they all slept in tents.  In the morning the family made a big breakfast for everyone.  Isn't that the nicest thing ever???  Oh, and they even had shirts made for the kids.  Those people are saints.

Baylee and Rachel's shirts say "Camp Duplo 2013" on them.  (The neighbors who did this let their 4-year-old son name the event.  LOL)  The other girl is Rachel's cousin, who was a last minute addition.

Now Zach, Drew, Baylee, and Rachel are at a Jr/Sr high youth group beach day.  Hopefully they have a great time.  I know Mike and I will, seeing as how we have the house to ourselves for several hours.

Okay, so I have a confession to make.  It's embarrassing and Mike may kill me for talking about it here, but I need to get it out...

Last night both Mike and I watched and believed the documentary, Megalodon:  The Monster Shark that Lives.  It was about a type of shark they thought went extinct a long, long time ago, but recently obtained evidence that it didn't.  The show included occurrences that point toward the existence of a megalodon alive today, including video footage of people on a fishing trip who disappeared after a terrible attack of some kind ("Viewer Discretion Advised").  It was also about a scientist who was trying to lure and tag a megalodon.  By the way, megalodons are like Jaws on steroids.  Or, no, they're like Jaws times 1000.  They're 70 to 100 feet long and can take out whole boats.  All I know is that by the time that show was over, I was fully prepared to never swim in the ocean again.

Afterward I was so hyped up about megalodons that I googled.  That's when I found out the entire show wasn't a documentary; it was a MOCKumentary.  It was completely fake.  Everybody was an actor, up to and including those poor idiots on the fishing vacation, and all the evidence was fictional.  It was just a fun thing the Discovery channel did in order to up the ratings of Shark Week.  In my defense, I did say to Mike at one point during the show, "Dang, that is one good looking scientist."  Yeah.  It all makes sense now.      

Saturday

Yesterday I said that Zach started riding his bike to work.  I'm here to report that he made it just fine there and back.  That's about 18 miles, round trip.  I have to admit it was awesome to not have to make that drive, especially to pick him up, because it's always right during Seattle rush hour traffic.  Actually, he's able to do it on bike, both coming and going, faster than I can in a car.

Sometimes Drew plays his guitar to the point of his fingers bleeding, but yesterday he had something new:  He got a huge blister.  He said it's because there's a part in one of the songs where he has to stretch his hand a bit too far, and so the string is hitting his finger in an unusual place.  By the way, those songs he was given to learn?  The two heavy metal ones?  I listened to them on YouTube and discovered the guitar parts in both of them are no joke.  They're very, very fast.  This is going to be fun and interesting.

I'm reading a book right now called The Wind Singer.  I recommend it!  It's the first book in a trilogy, so yesterday I went on Amazon to see if I could buy the Kindle version of the second one.  The only problem is that the book's name is Slaves of the Mastery and Kindle doesn't have it, but it SURE has a lot of other books with "similar" titles to suggest to me.  Ack!  I should've seen that coming.  Those weren't what I was looking for at all.

Puffer Fish and Perimenopause

A couple days ago Drew did an impersonation of a puffer fish whenever Baylee bugged him too much.  It was pretty funny.

At the risk of alienating pretty much everybody, I want to talk about perimenopause.  I'm starting to wonder if my body is in it now or thinking about being in it or maybe just toying with it.  I don't know.  All I know is that things are a little different lately.  I'm not going to list what's different, but I will say this:  I get PMS cramps like I'm 13 or 14 years old again.  It's not cool, man.  It's just painful and it's making me grouchy. 

After giving it more thought and letting it settle a bit (and in my case getting the opinion of my best girlfriend, Melissa, who knows about these things), both Mike and I are okay with Drew's SofR fall show choices.  Good thing, too, because he got into his first pick.  It's...err...cough...heavy metal.  I guess I'm a little embarrassed about it.  The bright side is that Drew is so excited.   Another real plus is that Zeke, his teacher and the director of this particular show (He was the director of The Who show, too.  We love him.) was very happy to have Drew in this band.  He made Drew feel good and wanted.  He also started right away yesterday working with him on a couple difficult songs, one by Metallica and one by...umm...Megadeth.  Okay, I'm embarrassed again.

Zach decided today that he's going to start riding his bike to work at the bike shop, like a lot of the other employees over there do.  He's a commuter now!  He's got a change of clothes and some lunch in a backpack and everything.  I'm a little scared, to tell you the truth, because he's riding into downtown Seattle where the traffic can be pretty bad.  He'll be okay, right?  I know I gotta cut the apron strings.

Today at the Lake

Last night I watched the an episode of Merlin on Netflix.  It was the one where Arthur's father, Uther, comes back from the dead as a ghost.  Two things:

1.  If anybody out there happens to be a nerd a Merlin lover like me, didn't you think that whole "vengeful spirit" thing was completely out-of-character for Uther? I mean, sure, he wasn't the nicest, most understanding guy in life, but he wouldn't go around trying to kill people...usually.

2.  That dumb little show scared the crud out of me!  I'm terrible with scary stuff.  I handle it in different ways, including fast forwarding, but this time I just turned the sound almost all the way down.  That helped.  It's harder for things to take you by surprise when you're deaf.

We went to Matthew's Beach with friends today, which was fun, as usual.  My friend Beth brought 4 of her 5 kids, plus 2 extras, and I brought all 3 of my kids, plus 1 extra.  It's interesting to see the natural groups the kids form.

These three...

These four...

And these two.  Every time Zach and Robbyn are together they talk with each other nonstop the entire time.  I've actually wondered about it enough times that finally the other day I asked Zach what was up.  He told me that they're "just good friends with a lot in common."  I'm his mom, though.  Would he tell me if he liked a girl?  I'm honestly asking. 

And one more pic for good measure...

PS:  I wrote this fully intending to post it tomorrow.  But then I forgot all about that, used words like "today" instead of "yesterday" and hit send.  I'll leave it.  That means you get two posts today and none tomorrow.

   

Life Stuff

I sometimes visit a website where homeschoolers talk to each other and review different programs and materials.  Right now there's a fight happening on that website that's 12 thread-pages long about whether or not Abeka Academy is any good. (Abeka is the George Washington of curriculum publishers.  It's a founding father.  A charter member.  A pillar of the community.  If it was a person, it would be fine and upstanding, and it would only read from the King James.)  Or maybe the fight is about whether or not you're allowed to openly admit that you don't like it.  Either way, it's mildly entertaining to watch from the sidelines.

Today we're going to the beach again with friends.

Yesterday Baylee dropped her iPod while she was sitting with the neighbor kids on our deck, and the iPod slipped through the cracks and was gone.  She came rushing in, tears flowing, voice high and panicked.  "Mom!!!!  My iPod!!!!  It's under the deck!!!!!!!!!"  I calmed her down, went out, and, yup, it was under there alright.  And there was no getting it out.

 
That is, until Mike got home from the errands he was running.  He rescued it in a jiffy with his drill.

The SofR announced their fall shows yesterday, and Drew made his 1st pick and his backup pick.  Mike and I were both REALLY bummed with his choices, especially his 1st choice, so we tried our hardest to sway him.  He wouldn't budge.  We wanted him to pick the one where they'll be playing all 70s music:  Aerosmith, Led Zep, Boston (Argh.  I feel so sad just thinking about him not playing Boston!  I love Boston!) and the like, but he was adamantly against it.  I'm not even going to tell you what he chose.  I'm that disappointed.

The Guys' Hike to Goat Lake

It went well.  It was beautiful.  It was about 11 or 12 (or maybe 13) miles long.  They were all tired when they got home.

The One in the Middle

Mike had to pick something up at REI and he took Drew along.  While they were out they had sushi as a treat.  (Treat for them, that is.  I've tried to like sushi and I just can't.  It tastes like a bad day at the lake.)

Today Mike has the boys on a long hike (I think he said 11 miles!) in the mountains with some guy friends from church.

Diet Update:  Today is day 2.  So far, so good.  I don't feel hungry unless it's right before a meal, so it's very doable.  I miss my coffee, though.  I did have quite a headache last night (it's still kinda there, actually, on the edge), which is probably from sugar and/or caffeine withdrawal.

Oldest and Youngest

taken by Zach with Baylee's camera

Saturday

The boys came home from camp yesterday.  My first impression:  Wow, they're both so tall and handsome!  I guess we see with fresh eyes after a week apart.  They had a great time.  Best (or worst.  Yeah, probably worst) story so far:  Another kid came up to Drew with a big, fuzzy dead bug in his hand, and said that if Drew ate it he'd give him a two-pound bag of Skittles.  Drew ate it.  He got a two-pound bag of Skittles.  (Why would Drew do such a thing?  I don't know.  Seriously, he's going through a stage.)  Oh, yeah, and Drew, Ethan, and Nick's costume, the Starship Enterprise, won the contest.

Baylee is taking a babysitting class through the Red Cross.  Always before this it would be something that you had to go somewhere to take, but now they're offering an online option.  For $25 she gets a great 4 hour video class that's interactive and includes games, and a final exam.  If she passes she gets a certificate.

I'm starting a new diet.  In fact, it's more than a diet; it's an overhaul.  Part of it is that you eat no refined sugar, white flour, white rice, or white potatoes.  And part of it is that you don't combine carbs with fats very much.  You eat a meal of protein, and either carbs OR fats, but you don't put them together.  The book this diet comes from gives very good, scientific reasons for this, which I won't bore you with.  Anyway, I read up on it, shopped, and planned, and now I just need to do it.  I'm starting tomorrow.

To be honest, I'm nervous to learn something so different and new.  It feels awkward.  And I'm nervous to give up my beloved General Foods International coffee.  LOL  (For real, though.)  If you're interested in whatever progress I make I'll update now and then.

B's Birthday!

She turned 12 a few weeks ago, but put off the celebration until yesterday, because she wanted to have a sleepover without the boys around.  (I'm not sure why it mattered, except maybe that Drew always wants to horn in on whatever movie is being watched.)

Actually, this pic is from a couple days ago.  Rachel's gift to Baylee was a trip to their favorite frozen yogurt joint, Menchie's.

Then yesterday when Rachel spent the night we went to a place called Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

Afterward we came home and they ate junk food, watched movies, and finally, when Mike woke up to go to work, we all had birthday cake.  So essentially Mike had birthday cake for breakfast.  LOL

Happy Birthday to my baby!

Sick

Do you remember how Drew wasn't feeling well right before he went to camp?  I took that picture of him zonked out on the living room floor.  Well, yesterday afternoon I came down with the same thing.  Around 3:00 it suddenly hit me:  I was the kind of exhausted that happens when you've taken two Benadryls.  I felt drippy and achy and terrible, so I sat down in the middle of folding laundry, just for a second, and ended up falling asleep.  Then I did it again after supper.  Finally, feeling pretty awful, I decided to just go to bed at 6:30.  This morning I'm lots better!  It only seems like I took one benadryl.  LOL

(PS:  I hope Drew ended up getting a lot better really quickly.  I told him to call me if he needed to and I'd pick him up, but I never got a call.)

I had plans to talk about some school prep I've been doing, but eh.  I don't feel like it.

Other than that, we're finally going to have a little celebration for Baylee's birthday.  Rachel's coming to spend the night, and they have big plans to eat junk food and watch movies.