What's New?

Mariah: Has been a BORED only child for much of the month. She has been mostly glued to the computer due to lack of excitement elsewhere. Bless her heart. She finished her volleyball camp and last week she did the Red Cross babysitter training and First Aid/CPR Certification. She is now golden for babysitting! This photo was taken before we headed home on the last day of the Red Cross camp. When I arrived to pick her up, all the girls were getting wrapped up. It was fun to watch. Apparently, they all wanted to go home that way! Mariah wanted to fool her dad when she got home, so we devised a great "believeable" story about how she came to become injured while doing CPR training. We laughed all the way home practicing it. It went something along the lines of when her name was called to get her CPR card, she tripped over the CPR dummy and she fell, hurting her arm. The instructor felt like it was a great chance for the entire class to practice splinting since they had just learned it the day before! So she used Mariah as an example and it was so embarrassing! (Pouty face accomplished with much practice and pulled off with an academy award performance!) The punch line was that amazingly enough, ALL the girls tripped over the CPR dummy and they had to be splinted up too.

Taryn: Is still at her college summer program. Here she is the day she arrived. Facebook is about the only way to know what's going on, or texting if you happen to be on her GOOD SIDE. But if you call her because she hasn't called you, and you would like to know how she is, any little tidbit about her life she cares to share, etc., she will tell you to ask Gib because she just got done texting him all day. Uh-huh. I called and woke her up 11:30 p.m. because it had been too long since I had any contact with my Little T and I didn't know about the texting l-o-v-e between sibs and none for me! Well, she is doing well, is happy, having fun and getting good grades, ask Gib if you want to know more, thank you very much. Guess I will know more in a couple weeks when she comes home. That is, if I get a chance to ask before her WISDOM TEETH COME OUT! We have a couple of days to catch up on all that happened during Hit the Ground Running. Indie will be picking her up at MS & T since the rest of us will be at Waterworld. We are bummed the girls won't be with us for the annual family/Scouting lake trip, but what can you do? I wish I had some photos.... TARYN!!! I hope you have taken some!!

Gib: See above. Taryn probably knows more than I do. He just got home all super tanned from his kayak trip, and will be leaving again on Wednesday for Waterworld with Mike. When he isn't texting Taryn he runs into the room shooting you with his new iTouch game app that has some kind of machine gun on it. He thinks it is especially funny to aim it at Chino or me. We are ignoring it with regal looks of displeasure. (it is funny though and sometimes I laugh which only makes it worse). Indie took him to the Ortho today and he got one of his permanent retainers put on and we'll be going back after Waterworld for the other one. He recently got his hair done as a "model" by my friend's daughter who was hired on at a very posh salon right out of cosmetology school. Basically, that means it was free (but I tipped her the price of what I usually pay her for a cut)while she is learning her craft at the hands of the salon owner. About $200 bucks worth of services - I'm telling you this place is POSH! He hates the photo, but you can see his cool new Transitions glasses which do the shades thing for outdoors and are regular glasses indoors.

So, when I want to know what REALLY happens on exciting adventures like EFY or his kayaking trip, I just wait for other people to put up fb photos, or blog about it. Looks like it won't be long now and the Scouts will tell me what happened on their trip! Here's the teaser I got just today:

Scouts and adults returned from the Pamlico Seabase high adventure sea kayaking trip Sunday afternoon. Captains of the armada of kayaks with names such as SS Minnow, Titanic, Cornelia Marie (which I think is Spanish for "Corny Mario"), Flying Dutchman, Time Bandit, Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria rowed approximately 40 miles in 4 days up the Pamlico Sound from Harker's Island to Cedar Island near the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

I wonder which kayak was Gib's? Let's guess shall we?! I'm going for.... Titanic. Although I'm kinda tempted to go with Pinta knowing Gib's fondness for play on words and Pinta is close to Pinto, and thus Pinto Beans. Always good for a laugh. Hmmmm, I might rethink my vote.

Indie: Remember my Punch Buggy blog?
Well, let's just say I'm totally PSYCHIC!! She is now learning to drive a stick and we are punching each other alot when we pull into our driveway. And that's all I can say about that right now. Inquiring minds will have to wait for Indie to tell them more.

Indie has also been petsitting for the past 3 weeks or so. In that time she has pretty much earned what she would have working part time for the summer, so we are thinking this is probably the best way to go next summer as well. Trying to line something up for what remains of her time after a mission trip is difficult and she will be going on another one next year. I think word of mouth will spread about the wonderful college student who kept dogs, cats, birds, and even a grandma fed and happy; plus she kept plants & flowers alive throughout a massive heat wave. Her last job had a pool where apparently the entire neighborhood had a pass to come hang out if they felt like it. Indy met several people who liked her, and a petsitter is alot less expensive than a kennel and their pets will be alot happier.


Me & Mike: Have been taking the kids through our revolving door. But I have to say, Indy has been doing almost as much of this as we have with Gib. For some reason pretty much if Gib needs to be taken somewhere, or picked up it's about 50/50 that Indy will be his ride.

We also have been fixing the place up. Our current project is painting the damaged cinderblock walls in the garage with Dry-Loc paint to prevent any water from seeping through again. I think it will take 2 if not 3 coats. Ugh. All by hand too. Double Ugh. The basement company has been here and gone and the house is all "piered up" and we won't be sliding down the hill anytime soon now. Now we are awaiting plans for Phase 2 of the fix to redirect the water from the topside. Which means basically ripping out the old deck and making sure the grade around the house directs water away and not toward the foundation. It looks like there will be a beautiful new arbor, a window to the backyard for mom, and a new stone coated concrete patio instead of a wood deck. The preliminary plans look great and nicely tie in the limestone walls and landscaping work we have now.

I have been finishing painting Gib's room. I don't have a picture of that yet. I should have taken one before he came home and messed it up but I didn't! It's very awesome though! Mariah and Grammy helped me paint it. Mike hung up the new curtains and helped me put stuff back together, and Ricky put in a new bathroom light fixture - twice! The first one didn't work. Bummer. I decided to buy another matching shower curtain and turn it into a window treatment for the bathroom; I shop, Grammy sews. How perfect!

So that was the month of July. Now we are off to Waterworld. The guys have to get ready to go. Mike has already gone shopping with his Kitchen Co-Chef and Mariah and they have food for I guess about 75 people for 3 days, plus Sunday b-fast and light lunch. This year Mariah and I will be "camping" at the Lodge just us two girls. We've always stayed in a cabin, so it will be weird but I think we will manage to have great fun just the two of us! We are used to having 4 or 5 teenagers. There will be so much more bathroom time in the morning that's all I can say!!

Time for me to go to bed. I have to make a bazillion sales calls for CWC tomorrow. Sadly, it turns out I'm good at it and now I guess it'll be my job forever. I get to go into work 3 hrs earlier than scheduled just for this purpose too. Oh well, "I get paid in clothes, I get paid in clothes..." and psst....35% off the entire store this Saturday at your nearest Coldwater Creek!