Sick again :(

This has been ridiculous. Every single time I have a break from running around with the kids so I'll be home and can manage to get things done around the house, I get sick again. This time it coincided with the 2 days this week that Mark was home. Ugh! I went through almost a box of Kleenex and I did go through an entire bag of throat drops and 6 servings of jello and as many popsicles. My throat is raw and my nose dripping or stuffy (it alternates). Yesterday I was running a low-grade fever which thankfully seems to be gone today but I'm still feeling horrible.

I have 2wks until the start of school so I'm really hoping to be feeling better quickly so I can get us ready on time. I've got almost all the materials ready to go so I just need to go through everything to make sure we have what we need and I'm familiar with the material before assigning it and discussing it with the boys. I will definitely be making it a point to post more on what the the boys are doing on the school blog since this will be a much different year than previous years with me designing the curriculum.

Is this month almost over?

Thankfully the answer is yes and I couldn't be happier. The last half of this month has seen Mark gone more than he's been home. I'm sick of single-parenting. I'm sick of not having him around to just talk to. I miss him and things just feel off when he's gone like this. I don't understand why when I'm talking to people and comment about him being gone, they always say the same thing "Sometimes it's good for them to be gone." WTF?! Seriously?! That's how you feel about your spouse? I'm sorry but I just don't get it. I WANT to be with my husband. Even if he's working from home and I can't disturb him, I like knowing he's in the house. Even if he's at work, at least I know he's coming home in a few hours and is in the same time zone! Even when he's not working and we are both just involved with our separate things in separate parts of the house, at least he's home! I can get up and go talk to him. We can sit down and have lunch or dinner or whatever. I can pop in and say hi just because I feel like it. And I LIKE that! I miss him when he's gone. I can't for the life of me imagine being happy that he's traveling. And I do NOT understand why people always seemed shocked when I tell that it's not a good thing and I miss him and would rather have him home. Yes, I'm happy and thankful that he has a job but I hate the travel and really wish it weren't as bad as it's been and I'll be even more thankful when it's August and his schedule settles down to where he's home more than he's gone again.

For the record, here was his schedule for this month:
1-9 Here
10-12 All of us gone for wedding
13-15 SLC
16-17 Here
18-23 Dropping Christopher off in SC and then back to SLC
24-26 Here
27-29 SLC
30 Here
31-1 Picking Chris up in SC (they actually will get home about 1:30a on the 2nd)

So if you are counting, that is 15 nights he has spent at home and 16 on the road. Admittedly a couple of those were spent with us at the wedding but considering we spent 22hrs in the car that weekend, it was hardly relaxing in any way. Thankfully he talked to his boss and they are going to work on getting him back to every other week and since the kids don't have anything else scheduled that require him getting on a plane again, maybe I'll actually get to see him again and remember who that man I married is. What a wonderful thought.

104:68 Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand by Carrie Vaughn

Kitty and Ben are planning their wedding when the bright idea hits...Let's get married in Vegas. Of course, nothing can ever be that simple with Kitty. This time she manages to get involved with a strip magician who may or may not be the real deal and a cult of lycanthropes involved in...something.

Again, this is bubblegum but it's really fun bubblegum. A quick read that's perfect for when you just want to immerse yourself in something else without using your brain much. I finished it in under 24hrs but hey, I enjoyed my time reading it.

Page count: 282p/21,063p ytd

104:67 Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey

The start of her newest series taking place in the world of Terre d'Ange 100 years after the events in the last trilogy. Moirin of the Maghuin Dhonn is on the path of destiny tho what that destiny is, she does not know. She is a child not only of her mother's people but also of the gods of Terre d'Ange, Naamah and Anael and there is much she has to learn about herself and the other half of her heritage. Her destiny will take her from her home in Alba to the City of Elua and all the way to the land of the Ch'in where she must help her new mentor, Master Lo, to free the princess of the dragon that inhabits her...all while trying to stop a war against her father, the Son of God.

I enjoyed this one a lot. The characters are still complex enough to be interesting, things moved very quickly, and it was fun watching her try to figure out her destiny. She seems to have fulfilled part of it but still has a long way to go. I like that again, we are in another part of the world that mirrors our own but isn't quite right which allows for the magic to flow nicely. It's also nice that while reading the previous books helps, it's not mandatory as those characters are mere footnotes in this one.

Page count: 645p/20,781p ytd

Matthew's 11th Birthday Party....Done!

We had Matthew's birthday at the park on Sunday. Just a small thing but most of the people we invited were able to make it and help us celebrate the fact that in 11 years, I haven't killed him yet. Seriously, he's not nearly as cute as he thinks he is.


He had a great time with good food, fun cakes, even better presents, and great friends and family in attendance.

After the park, the majority of us headed over to Malibu as the birthday boy wanted to do some racing. Only he and one of his friends were big enough to do the go-carts so I left Mark in charge of the two of them and headed over to the Castle with the rest.

The opted to do some bumper boats instead, getting extremely wet in the process.


Then it was off for some mini-golf. Nico has a wicked swing when he wasn't trying to play pool with the golf balls. Jonathan managed to hit his into the pond so I gave up mine so he could keep playing. He had his girlfriend, Eleven, in attendance so had to continue to show off. LOL

I had the three youngest to keep track off while Eleven and Zinnia's parents had Zinnia and Mia (the little sister of Josh who was off racing with Matthew) on another course. After the kids had had enough golf (or is that more along the lines of after I had had enough riding herd on them through the golf course?!), we took them inside and plunked many, many tokens into their game machines. The boys came back from racing and were given a golf game and then they too joined in the care and feeding of the machines. After all that, dinner out was mandatory. At least no one asked us if we wanted cake... LOL

I get the coolest packages! **Warning...gross photo inside**

Today was the day when everything decided to show up. I got in the curriculum I ordered for Christopher from Oak Meadow (English, History, and Art), all of the birthday presents I ordered for Matthew showed up, my new custom swimsuit, and the agendas I ordered (there was an error in that order but they are reshipping so all should be good there).

Then as I was leaving to take Jonathan to speech, my postwoman stopped by and as I was grabbing the mail from her she told me I had a huge box as well. She handed it to me and I was thrilled to see that it was the Biology class I had ordered (not so thrilled to see this big box marked fragile with the tape ripped and corners crushed *grrrrrr*).

I finally had a chance to check it out for damage and this is some of what I found:


******WARNING****** This is a picture of biology lab supplies.......








I remember we only dissected a frog in my high school biology class. Maybe I don't remember the rest or maybe that's just the whole lack of funding at the state level for public school thing but in this we have a frog, sheep brain, sheep kidney, sheep pluck (?), spider, jellyfish, and a few other aquatic lifeforms (they are in an unlabeled jar and I didn't want to open it yet but there appeared to be a fish and a seastar at least).

Really, who else gets cool packages like this all in one day?!

104:66 Beowulf: A Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

I had to get the Norton Critical Edition of Beowulf simply because it had Tolkien's essay : "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" included in it. I finished the poem itself ages ago but it took forever for me to get through all the essays at the end. I found the poem to be beautiful and am not sure why the second you mention it everyone starts cringing like it's the hardest read in the world. I've read a lot of things that were much harder to plow through (Rise and Fall of the Third Reich comes immediately to mind). I enjoyed the language and immersing myself in the richness of it. It was always hard to pull myself away and I found myself wanting to read just a little more. I can only imagine how incredible it would have been in the original language, being orated with all the alliteration in place.

Truly a fascinating piece of historic literature and I recommend everyone read it.

Page count: 247p/20,136p ytd

104:65 Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey

The last of the trilogy following the tale of Imriel and Sidonie. Terre d'Ange has been placed under a powerful spell by Carthage and Sidonie believes herself in love with the Carthage Warlord. Only Imriel of all those in the city the night the spell was cast knows what has happened because his mother sent someone to protect him. Now he must find his mother and get her help in order to save the minds of the woman and the land he loves before civil war tears it apart.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters have to deal with teh actions from previous novels but not to the same dreary angst as in previous books. Each hard fought battle progresses smoothly to the next in a much more believable way than some of the previous books as well. You weren't left feeling like "hey, this should be done and over now, why are there still 300 pages left in the book" only to get hit with a "let's go on another adventure over here just because I said so". Each part in this is vital to the end game. Each stop makes sense. You never feel like it's ended only to find out, no it hasn't. In all, a good end to the series.

Page count: 653p/19,889p ytd

Carry on my wayward son

Well, after continuing to get shunted straight to voicemail when we called I finally emailed the camp mother and asked her to ask Chris to turn his phone back on last night. She emailed me this morning to let me know he had lost his phone and she thought I knew that as he had said he was going to call us. Apparently when he asked an RA if he could use their phone to call me, they told him to use his own and somehow it was not made clear to them that he had lost it. So at least I finally knew the story of why we hadn't heard from him. She did make sure to tell me that he is eating well and they are keeping an eye for him to make sure he eats snacks and such. She was hypoglycemic herself at that age so knows the signs.

His highness finally deigned to spare me a few minutes from his busy schedule and called me this afternoon. I heard great details about his bug bites but had to drag out of him that he was having a good time. Go figure. LOL While I was on the phone with him, his roommate found his phone in the grass outside. It's still working so all is well there. My biggest concern was that he was having a good time and taking care of himself and it sounds like that is the case so I'm much more at ease. I will try to restrain myself from bugging him too often and will try my hardest to get his brothers to back off a little as well. It's hard tho as Jonathan is really missing him, especially with Matthew at camp in the afternoons too.

So 100 texts a day isn't too much, right?!

No sleep for the weary

I have no idea what happened last night but Nico was totally restless and spent hours thrashing in my bed. I got kicked in the face 3xs and kicked and hit about the head and shoulders every few minutes. Not easy trying to get any sleep when he's doing that. To top it off, Matthew didn't take his melatonin at 10p like I told him to and was in my room every hour or so telling me how he couldn't sleep. Assuming that since I had told him to take his melatonin that he had (and also half asleep which is all I could seem to manage thanks to Nico) I kept giving him other suggestions on things to help him fall asleep. At 3am I told him I was out of suggestions and I wasn't getting any sleep either which was bad as I was the one who had to drive that day. I went on to tell him that if his melatonin hadn't worked, I really didn't know what else to try and he should just go lay down. That's when he told me he hadn't actually taken it. I seriously almost throttled him at that point. I'm certain that would have been justifiable homicide.

He took his meds and I didn't hear from him again. I moved Nico to the couch and while I had to sit with him a few minutes to get him to settled, he stayed there. So I was able to get about 2½hrs of uninterrupted sleep before my alarm went off. I haven't felt this crappy in ages and it totally sucks. It's early bedtimes for all of them tonight and the first one that hits me or tells me they can't sleep is being sent outside to sleep with the racoons!

Maybe Swiper took him?

Well, according to Nico, he had to sleep in my room tonight because Swiper the fox (Dora character for those not in the know) was going to come and kill him dead forever. While I explained that if Swiper did come and swipe him, that would not mean he was dead but just that Swiper had taken him and we would tell him "Swiper, no swiping" and he would be returned. This settled him but he is still convinced that Swiper couldn't get him if he fell asleep in my arms and then slept on my bed. We finally convinced him that Swiper wasn't around but, well, he still ended up falling asleep in my arms. LOL

At this point tho, I'm wondering if Swiper isn't in SC and hasn't taken Christopher. There has still been no word from him and his cell phone is going straight to voicemail which means it's either turned off on purpose or has run out of power. I've sent a message to the administrator asking to get a message to him to turn it back on. But still, you'd think the child would notice and could at least be bothered to send me a couple of words via text message like "I'm having fun. Tell my brothers to go away and leave me alone". Sure wish I had one of those beautiful Howler letters from HP. I'd love to send him one right about now.

Day 2 and I'm wondering if I still have a 14yr old

I'm beginning to suspect he's been abducted by aliens or something because the only contact we've had today was when Jonathan called him during his lunch time and he only talked for a minute or two and then got off. Matthew then called him to brag about being on Facebook and Christopher hung up on him after a minute saying he had to go and would call back later tonight. I've texted a few times. Nothing. Did the promised phone call happen? Nope. *sigh* I'm taking everyone's word that he's probably just so busy with classes and having a good time otherwise that we just aren't important. And you know, if that's the case, I'm okay with him blowing us off. I just want to know that that's the case. LOL

As for how things are going here, doing a lot of cleaning mostly. Did more work on the boys room and just about have the inside of my truck picked up. Managed to get to the bank and get gas while over the hill dropping Matthew off and then got water and groceries while the kids were at KSW tonight. I seriously contemplated leaving Nico at the grocery store after the way he'd been behaving there and considering how bad it's gotten tonight, I'm regretting the decision to bring him home. He's been sent to sleep in his room by himself because frankly, no one wants to be around him right now. I put myself on timeout as he got me just furious and he's been beating on Matthew and Jonathan no matter what they do to try to appease him. I'm hoping he'll learn that his bad behavior will cost him what he seems to want most which is attention from mom and brothers.

*sigh* It's so hard because when he wants to be, he is such a joy but right now we are going through another really hard phase where he is just refusing to listen EVER and everything has to be his way RIGHT NOW or a full tantrum again ensues. There is very little reasoning with him tho we keep trying and I just find myself praying daily that this phase passes very quickly before what little patience I have is exhausted.

Some days there just isn't enough chocolate in the world to deal with that child of mine. Today was one of those.

Day 1 and he arrived safely

After the problems getting on the plane last night, I'm happy to say the rest of the journeys went without a hitch. The caught their connection and arrived around at their destination around 9am local time, rented a car, and went to brunch at the Waffle House. Mark tells me that the campus is beautiful and when he left Christopher was already engaged in a game of Munchkin Cthulu. I told him he should have packed Zombie Fluxx. LOL But seriously, I don't think there could have been a better introduction for him to these kids. I got into a texting arguement with him because his dad told me he needed to eat and he told me he had. Yeah, a donought. That's really going to do wonders for your blood sugar on one meal and no sleep. I told him to go eat a protein bar. LOL I tried texting him as I knew he was heading to bed to see how the rest of his day had gone and got a "Fine, talk to you tomorrow" in response. Gee thanks for the insight and sharing! LOL So I did the mom thing and nagged from 3000 miles away to get him to take a shower, change his underwear, and brush his teeth. Hopefully he'll get internet set-up soon and since he now has permission to join FB, I can get some updates from him that way. Sheesh!

As for those of us staying home, it was the start of the massive, massive cleaning I want to get done around here. We started with cleaning up the recycling outside and picking up all the trash that always seems to get scattered every where (I really have no idea how they do that when taking the trash out). I cleaned the fridge out yesterday and got the freezer compartment done today. I want to do the big freezer tomorrow since I want to hit Costco on Tuesday. I got the boys and a timer and we started in on their room. No, it's not even close to being done even after spending a couple of hours in there but we got the sheets on their beds, went through the dressers and straightened/organized them, put away all the discs left lying around, sorted out the Wii stuff and found a better home for it, and cleared off the shelving unit under the TV including the floor in front of it. Tomorrow I'm hoping to start in on the game corner. We haven't done a ton of decluttering yet but that definitely needs to get done as well. There is just too much crap in there as always.

With Christopher and Mark both gone, we are all pitching in to cover the chores. I trained Matthew on how to put all the dishes away this morning and he in turn trained Jonathan on how to sort the recycling. I get the lovely tasks of taking out the trash and dealing with the cat boxes. Blech! I don't think I'm letting Christopher go on another big camp like this ever again if I'm going to get stuck with those chores again. LOL

And he's off!

Well, they haven't left the airport yet (stupid airline f***ed up and wouldn't let Mark check-in but hopefully they will be leaving on the next plane) BUT....

Christopher is on his way to Woffard College on the other side of the country for his writing program. I talked to one of the staff today and apparently the RAs and TAs and all the other staff members are buzzing around, totally hyped up. I also found out that there are only 32 students total so it's very small which should mean lots of personalized attention which should be fabulous for all the students. I'm also really hoping that this will mean that Christopher is able to make some friends there.

Part of me is so happy and excited for him, for this great opportunity that he has to pursue a dream. Part of me is missing him and worried that his eccentricities will alienate him and he'll be lonely and we won't be there for him. He's such a great kid but has some of the most annoying personality traits that it tends to turn others off. I so wish he wasn't going to be 3000 miles away where there is absolutely nothing I can do for him should he need me. I know this is part of letting them grow up and gain independence but man, this part sucks.

Please think lots of good thoughts for him. That he has a great time and that the other kids are understanding and nice to him.

104:64 Kushiel's Justice by Jacqueline Carey

Imriel has grown up and made the decision to forego his love in order to fulfill the wishes of his cousin Ysandre, Queen of Terre d'Ange, and wed Durstan's niece Dorelei who will produce the heir of Talorcon in Alba. The land does not welcome him and his love haunts him. He allows himself to be bound with spells to forget his love and be able to make a life with his wife. It works for a time and he is able to find a happiness of sorts with her and their child-to-be. Then the land truly rejects him as his gods are upset with him for abandoning their basic precept and all that is left is Kushiel's Justice.

A good installment. Again, some of the journey stuff was a bit long. I understand that she doesn't want the journey's to look too easy and she wanted him to be humble at the end but at the same time, some of the details just dragged it on unnecessarily. I find this to be pretty true with her books. It's funny, they are books in which the basic precept is to love as thou wilt but those scenes take up a lot less space than journeys but a whole lot. I still enjoy them but wish at times that they would speed things up a bit.

Page count: 703p/19,236p ytd

I played hookey

Well, not totally and it's not like I didn't tell Mark I was hitting B&N and Costco after dropping Matthew off at camp today but hey, I got a few kid-free hours in a bookstore! A huge air-conditioned building filled with beautiful books and a Starbucks. Seriously, I think that's my idea of heaven right there. I found a couple of books I was looking for, picked up a few new authors to try out, and grabbed a few things for Matthew's book bag for his upcoming birthday. I know, I know, it's not like I need more books but I had a GC burning a whole in my pocket. Of course, I spent about 4xs that amount but hey, at least it's on books that I will read at some point.

Unfortunately while I was enjoying my solo adult time, Mark was on a phone conference with Nico and Jonathan trying to kill each other at home. *sigh* They were fine last week but they had Christopher home too so I guess that made a huge difference. I don't know what it is about those two but they can NOT be in the same room together without Jonathan whining and then crying after Nico starts beating on him. He just won't budge an inch to Nico and of course, that doesn't go over with him real well. So no more excursions without kids for me unless there are older ones at home to keep the peace or Mark doesn't actually have to work.

I meant to...

I meant to do a lot of things this week. I meant to do a lot of things last week and the week before that too. I was really hoping to get some things done this summer but unfortunately, like last summer, that doesn't seem to be happening. The last two weeks I was plagued with the migraine. This week with being in the car constantly after driving to San Diego and back within just over 48hrs and Nico insisting on being in my bed where he does nothing but batter me all night....well, I hit the wall of exhaustion today. I managed to get the checkbook balanced yesterday but today, I could barely stay awake all day. I spent whatever time I wasn't driving some child somewhere laying on my bed with my book and a snack. I'm still tired.

Nico unfortunately despite telling me all day that he was tired including taking a power nap has been a nightmare. He wants to cuddle with me but apparently we have very different ideas of cuddling. Mine includes curling up together quietly. His means clambering all over me, sticking knees in my shin bones, elbows in upper arms, and head butting me in the face. He did this all through dinner (ever try eating when someone is doing that to you?) and then while we all tried to watch HP2. I gave him his melatonin. I laid down with him on the couch so he could watch the movie but hopefully settle a bit. I dozed and was woken multiple times by more jabs from elbows and knees and more of his hard head to my face. I finally yelled at him to get away from me (I had tried asking him nicely the entire time to please stop so by this time I was D-O-N-E with asking nicely) and he starts crying. In the middle of all this, Mark gets home early as a surprise for me and walks in on this scene. I get Nico's teeth brushed and tell him to go to bed. Big surprise, he wants to sleep with me. Not a freaking chance buster. I need a freaking decent night's sleep and I'm done being near you for a bit. Cue hysterics again. Mark (husband of the year nominee extraordinaire) steps in and tries talking to him. No dice. He then takes the screaming monster out for a drive so he'll hopefully fall asleep and I don't have to listen to him for a bit. Right after getting off a plane from SLC where he's been the last three days. The other three children have mysteriously vanished into their room. I think they have decided that out of sight is good right now. I'm thinking they are right as I'm heading to bed to try and have a better day tomorrow and maybe, just maybe get to some of the things I mean to do.

104:63 Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey

This starts the second trilogy in the universe, this time being told by Melisande's son and Phedre's foster son, Imriel. I found it a little hard to get into hearing his voice at first and I missed Phedre and Joscelin being such a big part of the story but I soon grew interested in the new characters. Typical of her writing, there are large parts of the story that while necessary for character development could have moved much quicker and did not need to take the 100s of pages that they do. There really weren't big changes in his character from year to year as a teenager except more of the same that had already been there. She also tends to pack multiple stories into one book which makes for long reads and you think you are getting to the end of things only to see that there are still 300 pages left so obviously something else is going to happen.

In all, I enjoyed going back to the alternate universe of Terre d'Ange. It looks like the political stuff is going to heat up in the next book which should be good and it sounds like the forbidden romance will be heating up as well.

Page count: 943p/

Fun, if crazy, Trip

We spent 22hrs in the car to spend 34hrs in San Diego but we had a great time and the boys did really well. The wedding was beautiful (no pics tho since I forgot my camera) and Nico was nice enough to sleep through the ceremony so we didn't have to worry about his behavior. Lena and Hannah were there so all the kids ran around at the reception. Christopher hadn't been feeling good (actually threw up on Thursday) so we left early to take them back to the hotel and let them have some down time while we packed everything back up for departure on Sunday morning. We were lucky in that we never had horrible traffic and Nico didn't ask to use the potty every 5min. In fact he was great in holding it for our regularly scheduled stops (about every 2hrs) and we only had one accident the entire time we were gone. Mark and I kept up with our 30 Day Shred in the hotel room and we managed to take the kids swimming before the wedding on Saturday. It was a whirlwind of a trip but I'm so glad we went.

The rest of this week is going to be insane with today and tomorrow being the worst. Here's my schedule for those two days:

8:45-9:15a Drop Jonathan off at engineering camp
11:45a-2p Pick-up Jonathan, have picnic lunch somewhere, drop Matthew off at College for Kids
4p-7p Drop off Christopher and Jonathan at KSW, pick-up Matthew from College for Kids, drop him off at KSW, do grocery shopping and other errands until it's time to pick up all three from KSW, go home

From there I get to make dinner and get everyone ready for bed before I collapse. Some time in there I need to eat, workout, and get stuff done around the house. Mark gets back on Wednesday and I think on Wedn and Thurs his dad can pick up Matthew so at least I don't have that part of the schedule to worry about. I'm crossing my fingers that's the case and am very happy that my a/c is working so I can at least do all this in comfort.

Good-bye Tony and Hello Jillian

So it took 6wks to get through the 2nd 4wks of the Advanced 10 Minute Trainer but we have and I'm definitely ready for a break from Tony. My impressions of the Advanced....Meh. It didn't add the Total Body 2 and Upper Body in that much so really, it wasn't all that different than the first 4wks except there was more emphasis on Cardio and Core Cardio. Trust me, after 8wks of basically listening to the same routines every day, I have them memorized and not in a complementary way. I guess I probably should have switched over to the trainer track and maybe that would have helped but then again, maybe not. I still would have had that commentary running through my head. It's like listening to American Pie but hearing the Saga Begins in your head the entire time. It's headache making.

So after 10wks of Tony, we are bidding him farewell for a bit and moving on over to work out with our new buddy Jillian Michaels and her 30 Day Shred. 20 minute workout every time and you do level 1 for 10 days, then level 2 for 10 days, and then level 3 for 10 days. So today we started with level 1. I used the 5lb weights. For the last circuit I switched to 3lbs because my arms were going to fall off, literally. During some of the cardio stuff, my legs became dead weight. I'm sitting here afterward and my arms hurt from the movement of my fingers typing. But it was a good workout, really. Even better was listening to my husband cursing her out the entire time (yes, we are still working out together and he agreed to my suggestion to do this workout next, he is awesome!). We are leaving for a wedding and will be on the road almost as much as long as we'll be gone but we are taking our workout stuff with us, including the weights and we'll be sticking with it on the road. I'm still dealing with a low level headache that keeps trying to push to a migraine but so far hasn't. And yes, all this means I made it through the entire workout without a dizzy spell so that was definitely a good thing.

Heading out

Seems like I've barely been home this week with running the kids around everywhere and now we are really leaving town to head down south for Mark's cousin's wedding (say that 5xs fast). It's a whirlwind trip as we leave today after zoo class to drive down for the wedding on Saturday and then leave as early as we can get moving on Sunday for the return trip since Mark heads out to SLC at 6am on Monday morning. This trip starts the rest of he** month for us as Mark will be gone more than he will be home for the rest of the month while the kids camps schedules will be leaving me driving all over like a crazy person (for the record had I known that Mark wasn't going to be around, I would have scheduled things differently) so I will barely be home myself. While the both of us will hardly be home, we also need to plan a birthday party and I need to do a bunch of research and ordering of school curriculum so we can start on time in August and I can hopefully get Christopher into the college class he wants.

But basically, if you don't hear from me by mid-August send out the search parties. Anytime before that tho, and it's too be expected.

***Side Note***
Absolutely useless blithering here but I just got in the phone covers for me and Jonathan and they are wonderful. My phone is now a deep dark purple and Jonathan's is green leaves with a chimpanzee. Now to find a small Tinkerbell window decal to put on the cover and I will be super happy!

104:62 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick

This one seems to make a lot of classics lists and I can see why, above and beyond being the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner that is. This book creates a very dull and bleak look at human existence in the future after a war has basically killed off the planet. Dick creates the almost hive-like state of Mercerism and brings us the organ which allows you to dial in what mood you want to experience. For those who remember the movie, yes Deckard is there as are the replicants but they do not cut as compassionate a figure in the book. There are no tender scenes between Roy and Priss nor do we get that inside glimpse into the emotional Roy at the end. Rather we explore further into Deckard's mind and follow his journey of self-discovery.

Page count: 244p/17,590p ytd

Loved this article

Yep, sharing it everywhere I can because you know, it really sums up a lot of my feelings towards parenting.

Everything I know about parenting I learned from Mythbusters

With 4 boys, these lessons really do tend to shape so much of how things go around here and I'm totally okay with that...well, except for the idea of them using C4 in their experiments. Let's just stick to Mentos and Diet Coke, shall we?!

The End

Well, after spending the weekend wondering why Mona hadn't contacted me about coming out for 4th of July and figuring we just needed a break I got my answer today. Jason is living with his mom again, going back to the public school down there and either he lied to her about us or she knows that she backstabbed us and made us into liars and was too embarrassed to deal with it. Either way, it doesn't matter because I'm done. She lied to us and between her and big Jason, they made sure that little Jason knew he would eventually get what he wanted and he did. He knew he didn't have to change because he knew he could manipulate the two of them to eventually let him go back to his mom's doing exactly what he was doing before. All their talk of being done letting him manipulate them was just talk. Funny how they kept telling us how we had to be careful of him because he lies and manipulates but then they fall for it every time. And now she's willing to end our friendship and watch her kid end up dead or in jail rather than grow a backbone. It's just so much easier to bury him than tell his dad "no, I'm not taking him back because I've tried and I can't control him". So much easier to visit him in jail than call CPS and ask for help because you can't handle your kid.

So I'm done. I won't be there for her to complain to about this. I've given advice for years to help avoid it coming to this. We took him in and put our whole family through hell for 3mos for nothing. If she called me tomorrow and told me he was dead or in jail the only words I would have for her are told you so. I'm done letting this family hurt and use me and mine.

What's this doing in my house?!

There are strange things appearing in my house today. Purple tinkerbell swimsuits, sequined jeans, pink shirts. They are odd and have not ever been seen in my house before now except for an occasional visit on the body of someone else. This time tho, I'm finding them strewn about as my nieces are staying the night. They've been visiting with Mark's parents for the last week and will be here for another week and begged with Papa (FIL) to see their cousins today. That went from a fun visit to 6 children all begging to go swimming to 5 children begging for a sleepover (Christopher couldn't care either way since he crashes so early). I simply shrugged and said it was fine with me and the grandparents relented.

So far tonight there have been Karate vs KSW demonstrations, lectures on how Nico is not going to kill anyone because he only eats souls and turns them into zombie minions, various little tickle fights (I win those and when they resort to poking I sic Nico on them to lick them *evil laugh*), and watching Red Dwarf with dinner. The almost 11yr old decided she wants a rainbow chip R2D2 cake and caused peals of laughter when she looked at me and said "I'm not your typical girl!" I got to explain that the cake pan she wanted was purchased for another atypical girl many years ago who is happy to make it for another one. The look on her face was priceless.

So it's after 10:30p and they are finally all in bed. I'm doubtful they are asleep but we don't have to be anywhere tomorrow morning. I think they are watching Lilo and Stitch. So long as Nico doesn't start imitating his "cousin", it will all be fine.


and the Nico quote of the day "I love you up and down and pretty please". What could be sweeter than that?

Happy 4th!

Wishing everyone a wonderful 4th of July as we celebrate our nation's independence! Our celebration this year will include watching 3 boys march with KSW at the Main St. Parade and then heading to the beach for the rest of the day to play in the surf, chill with friends and family, and finally to blow stuff up. What could be better?! I'll post pics tomorrow!

104:61 The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Finished the actual book part over a month ago but wanted to read all the appendixes before claiming it as being done. Some of those were well worth the read, others weren't. Yes, if you are wanting to learn how to design your own language I'm sure they are of some use or if you are one of those total purist nuts (hi Mom!) I'm sure it feels really important but from a normal readers perspective, I really didn't feel that those added anything. The backstory stuff was good and well received as was the bits and pieces of what happened after Frodo left so I'm glad I read that.

Page count: 520p/17,346p ytd

Migraines suck

It started off as feeling very ill while working out on Monday and I've been feeling icky all week and it's finally decided to go full-on migraine today. I've taken Excedrin which so far has not worked and done all the other things that one should do for a migraine and have yet to get relief. Really hoping that another couple of doses of Excedrin will knock it out for good as I do not want to be dealing with this all weekend too.

Any favorite methods for getting rid of migraines are happily accepted at this point, so long as they do not include the words "lavender" anywhere in them. Lavender gives me headaches rather than taking them away or being soothing.

The cookie dough sale has begun!

Christopher has officially started his cookie dough fundraiser to help raise $$$ for his big writing camp later this month. While we could afford to do the whole thing, it's not cheap and we felt it would be good for him to find a way to help raise some of the money. We brought several ideas forward and this was the one he liked best (I liked a push-up-a-thon personally *evil grin*) but the deal was, we will do a little to support it in things like sending out emails and Mark taking stuff to work but he will have to do the majority of the selling. So tonight he brought his stuff to game night and even tho there were only 2 other families there, he managed to sell 3 tubs. So now, only 297 more to go and his entire camp will be paid for. LOL

So if anyone near me is reading this and wants some wonderful Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, let me know and we'll hook you up. And if you aren't nearby and just want to contribute, well, that's okay too. We'll gladly take anything at this point. ;)

104:60 Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

The first in the Alpha & Omega series which follows Charles and his new mate, Anna. I like that it's set in the same world as Mercy with some overlapping characters but delving further into the werewolf culture she has created and is filling in backstory on the Marrok. I look forward to seeing where she takes it from here.

Page count: 294p/ 16,826p ytd

Some things don't mix

And sometimes you have to learn that lesson the hard way. Today's lesson was that front loading washing machines with their low water usage do not work well to properly finish cleaning tie-dye clothes. Yesterday I admit I screwed up when soaking them in hot water and synthropol while rinsing other pieces but today, I did the cold water rinse and put them on a rag before transferring them to the washer and while the white areas are not the super blue from yesterday, they are very dingy which is not the look we are trying to achieve here. *sigh* Maybe someday I'll have a big enough house that I can have a separate washing machine for doing tie-dye but in the meantime, I'll have to prevail upon my step-mom's wonderful nature to do the rinse for me. Such a bummer because some of the items would have been absolutely spectacular if they didn't have a bluish cast.

**ETA**
Well, I did a third batch with a double cold rinse and they came out great. So it can be done but I wouldn't recommend it for more than a few items...at least not if you want to still be on speaking terms with your hands.