Senior Portraits

This year Chrissie was able to do the Senior Portrait sitting with Taryn, and took along Mariah as the assistant. They did only forget a belt for one outfit, but I came to the rescue and delivered it. I think they turned out well, she had about a hundred to choose from. Here is a sample of the photos we are ordering. Keep in mind these are "poor" scans of the proofs.

First Day - Do You Know...

Today was actually the second day of Pre-K, but the first day of Parents Day Out Preschool. On Wednesday's, preschool is slightly different than on Tues/Thurs. So today, we had a more typical first day back to school day.

In an attempt to get my Pre-K teachers a longer break, and to bring the classes together again for music, I went to the wall for them to increase music time. It was tried last year but I came in too late in the bargaining to have any influence. Long story short, the teachers have the longer break now and the classes leave at the same time, but split up to attend one music class with the music teacher and the other class goes with yours truly to an upstairs room where we are supposed to be following the carefully laid out plans of the week. Now, lest anyone think this bothers me....Did you read the words "supposed to"?! This is playtime!!! Yeah, today went swimmingly!

I was unable to familiarize myself with the new CD player beforehand. I know what you're thinking: how hard is it to push play right?! Well, after years of working this job, I know a CD player is not as simple as it looks. So I'm up there with 10 antsy kids and the stupid CD player won't play. I'm checking everything - power, ck; it's on cd (not tape or FM), ck; track 1, ck; not on pause, ck; But it won't spin and it won't play!! I'm pushing play and it starts spinning but then it stops. What a pain! I look at the kids and say, "which one of you does your mom ask to turn stuff like this on for her?" and then it suddenly starts by itself and everyone laughs at my face and we're off to the races! I don't know how or why but yahoo! So then I try to do the next song on the play list but I think I was supposed to switch CD's, or I didn't read her notes right because the song was sooooo not the right one. I'm looking at the kids as the intro music begins and they are looking at me and we're making quizzical faces at each other like "really?! do you REALLY think so?!" and I start laughing when some sort of rap version of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" comes on. I listened to it for a second because I kind of thought it had potential but then I turned it off. And whaddya know, all the kids begged, and I mean, begged for it! "WE WANT THE MUFFIN MAN!!!" Now, normally, I wouldn't have hesitated and let 'em have it...but, I knew the church people were listening in so this was all slightly embarrassing. But, c'mon, the rapping Muffin Man was just too much for me to resist. So I skipped back to it and we let it rip!!!

We jumped to our feet and we rocked it! We danced some and then we brought out our imaginary mixing bowls and we mixed up some muffins!! Then during some funky instrumental portion we tiptoed around because that sound seemed to go with tip-toeing, and then when it got funky again we went marched backwards towards Drury Lane while singing at the tops of our lungs and then we went back to rocking the heck out of the Muffin Man!

But by far, the two funniest things happened after the song. However, that dancing had to have been funny to watch. Thank goodness nobody could see us. First, one of the kids demanded to see the front of the CD case. I was perplexed but I showed it to her. Then she goes, "which one of those guys is the Muffin Man?!" So of course I totally point to the biggest dufus on the cover and with authority say "it's that one" and then there was a riot as all 10 kids rush to see the Muffin Man. The other funny thing happened on the way back to their class. One of the new kids to the school this year took my hand and said to me, "I gotta say, that Muffin Man kinda creeped me out!". Boy did I laugh! I couldn't wait to tell his mom after school about it. I told her I hoped he meant either the song, or the hippie on the CD cover, and not me!

Move In Day

Move In Day was really something else, lemme tell ya.

We went from point A:

To Point A.1


Had a little stop overnight at Point A.2, where we unloaded the whole truck and then reloaded again the next morning and drove 15 minutes to

Point B.... Mercer!


Here are the Mercer Movers - people in orange shirts who unload your car and deliver everything to your room. Boy were they happy to see 3rd floor destinations....


ugh, this scene is still too fresh in my memory...look at Indie's face.
It's almost funny, but not quite yet. Maybe in a couple days it will be.




Several hours later, a couple failed attempts at making the bed risers work, the purchase of a saw and just a little bit of bloodshed, and voila the bed is on the risers, perhaps permanently. The curtains look great, we found a place for almost everything, and Indie's tiny little portion of the dorm looks fab if we do say so ourselves, and we do. The armchair thingy is going to go under the bed when she's not using it, but she has to gets things organized first. The dresser you see is not hers by the way, it belongs to the roomie whose bed you see in the corner. Indie's dresser is stacked under her other roomie's acros the room by their closet nooks which hold about 25 coat hangers, but Indie managed to get about 40 stuffed in hers along with her shoe organizer. The girls were lucky to get one of the coveted large dorms too. Even so, the sink is in a freaky location in the corner right next the bed that Indie naturally passed on. We have issues with people doing their hair and make up in our "space". The bathroom is in the other corner and has the shower and toilet in it and enough room for 2 sinks but doesn't have any. It's kind of an odd set up but it's balanced out with all this space in the middle. I don't know how we would have managed in a tiny room. We were too busy to see how the other half lives, but several of them came by to ogle the green grass on our side. If I understand the building layout correctly, there are 6 of these big rooms. They are technically the "handicapped" rooms but with no elevators, there really is no handicapped access to the 2nd and 3rd floor. So if there is no reason for the room to go to a student needing the extra room space, the first students to register get them. I think the RA's get one on each level too, so that makes them even more coveted for freshman students!

As we were driving away, we stopped to take this photo - Indie's room is on the top floor framed by the magnolias to the left of the door, and her window is the one on the left. She has a beautiful view of the campus across the street.

Friday We Go

Most of Indie's stuff is in the dining room ready to be hauled down to the truck. The rest is in her room ready to be hauled down. She's said good bye to Gib, Taryn, and Mariah since they won't see her again before we take off. Indie is off to a good-bye party with some close friends. I miss her already. And yes, I know I get to drive up with her for 6 hours tomorrow, help her set up her dorm room Saturday morning, and the parents don't get kicked off campus until 6:45 p.m. Saturday evening, but each step of the way my heart just gets heavier. I just wish she was here right now. She tells me I get to see her next month for a parent's thing, and she'll be back in October... but I can see how hard the day to day Indie gap will be to get used to. Maybe if I cry now I won't cry tomorrow?

This Is It

This is it - my last weekend until I return to work. Next week I have preschool work days - which are combined classes & training hours and setting up classrooms. Then we have an open house the following Tuesday and the first day of preschool is on 8/26.

This was it - for Taryn and Gib. The only two days of sleeping in until 6 am ended today. On Monday, Seminary starts and then their day begins at 5 am. Ouch. I really enjoyed having Taryn, Gib and Mariah leave for school all at the same time. Boy was that easy!

This is it - for Indie too. Tomorrow is her last day at Red Lobster. On Friday we take off to get her moved in at Mercer. Except for a couple items on the dorm list everything has been purchased but there is still the packing to do. This week we will be working on that, final appointments, and wrapping up loose ends.

This is it - for Gib sharing a closet and a bathroom with his sisters! Oh Hallelujah! The days are numbered and while I know he will miss Indie alot, he is really looking forward to having her private bathroom and closet. He is willing to give them back to her when she visits though. If she wants them that is....I'm thinking gym sock smell will drive her away. She might prefer his old quiet, clean smelling Tree Fort Room.

This is it!!! Some great news as far as Mariah and I are concerned. I am now one of her Achievement Day Leaders! She only has 7 months left before she goes into Young Women's so we will have to make the most of it! I volunteered to take the first activity night next Tuesday so as not to miss a single opportunity of FUN FUN FUN!

The Calm Before the Storm

Tomorrow is the first day of school. We are NOT READY IN THE SLIGHTEST. In fact, I have absolutely no idea whether or not we will even make the bus, if Gib ever found his backpack, or if lunches have been made (although I think I might've heard Mike making them a few minutes ago). But hey, it's not like we haven't ever done this before. Who needs a dress rehearsal?! We'll just wing it! I've always found the first day is amazingly easy and all the other mornings get progressively harder.

Today was a great day despite the lack of AC in the house. I went out with Indie and Chantel. We did pedi's, lunch and had a really nice time together.

Taryn was interviewed and hired today! And she starts tomorrow. At a Subway right down the street from us. She's not super thrilled but it's a job and if a better offer comes her way she can give them 2 weeks notice. Until then, Mike hopes she gets a discount.

Mariah had her last Girl Scout fling yesterday. They did a fun pool party from 11 to 2 and she got a ton of patches for things she earned throughout the year.

We took our family photo in our Mercer t-shirts this evening. Indie thinks it's cheesy but I like the idea. I think it might become a tradition whenever someone goes off to college. Afterwards we all went bowling for a family night - probably our last one before Indie leaves. Since I got so much harassment at using bumpers, I thought I'd see how I did without them. So for the first time since I scored a 13 in 1986 without bumpers, I took the leap. I was as Indie termed it "consistently inconsistent" and got 2 spares and a gutter ball followed by a spare, a strike and a gutter ball, etc., etc. In the end I scored a 116...I was pretty darn happy about that since it's better than my usual bumper-score!

The scores for the evening for our amazing group of bowlers:
Mike - 166
Indy - 127
Chrissie - 116
Gib - 104
Taryn - 101
Mariah - 78
Grammy gets 4* for being a great spectator

One last blog worthy story: Today Gib and I made a Target run for a couple basic necessities. He was not amused at how I tried to help him decide which brand of boxers to buy. I think it would be fun to listen to our store conversations. Since I shared the Chapstick Conversation, I just have to share the Boxer Conversation. He's going to kill me but I think it's too funny not to. He'll get over it. I didn't embarrass him at Freshman Orientation. I promised not to sign up for anything in the PTO and to lay low and pretend not to know him unless given permission (although I'll probably break that promise!).

The Boxer Conversation

Me: "Feel these and see which ones you like better"
Gib: "No!" looking at me like I'm the most embarrassing insane person around
Me: "C'mon Gib. You're going to have to wear them, don't you think you'd like to know now which one feels better?"
Gib: "I'll just take the ones that look like Christmas" (there was a red plaid pair and a green plaid pair)
Me: "It won't look like Christmas unless you wear them both at the same time!" (LOL)
Gib: Eye roll and involuntary-I-can't-believe-I-just-laughed-at-that-chuckle
Me: "Oooh, look at these. There's a value pack. Those look good, what do you think?"
Gib: "They're womens!" (totally insulted)
Me: Incredulous "Womens?! Gib, it says WOVEN not Women's! Geez, look around you Bud. We're in the men's department. Do you see any female body parts on any of the packages staring us in the face? Nooooo." (we're both cracking up by now)
Me: "Oh, look here's a whole 'nother row. What do you think about these?"
Gib: looking astounded that I am actually opening the flap to feel them "Fine I don't really care"
Me: "What do you mean you don't care? Which ones do you like more? There's an awful lot of green boxers in it though. I think I'd get tired of wearing green boxers all the time. Wouldn't you?"
NO RESPONSE
Me: "Gib, am I driving you crazy right now?!" (my son looking at the ground and pinching the bridge of his nose was my clue)
Gib: (looking extremely pained) "Yesssss. Just grab those and let's go!"
Me: So I did, but as we walked away I just had to say "I guess you don't like how I shop for underwear huh?!"

I let Gib get an Icee to make up for the boxer aisle incident (and because I knew I'd be blogging about it later). Sorry Gib! It's that sick sense of humor - I can't help myself!

Philmont Part 5

Day 9 -- Today we hiked about 4 miles to Miranda where we were gonna stay for 2 days. It wasn't a very tough hike although the hike up to the staff cabin was steep uphill for about half a mile, not fun. When we arrived at the staff cabin we were all pretty tired. In the middle of our porch talk (they basically just tell you the rules and stuff your able to do like black powder rifle shooting) when a guy gets bucked off his horse the staff dude didn't see it though so Blake ran forward to see if the guy was alright and the staff dude said guys stay on the porch when I am talking to you. Blake protested saying hey that guy down there may be hurt can i go help him. I swear i never have seen such a big man run so fast and swear at the same time. The guy was okay by the way he just had the wind knocked out of him. After we got camp set up we learned how to throw tomahawks. I was pretty good at it. After that we went black powder rifle shooting that was really fun. The rest of the day we just hung out. We went to bed early that night because tomorrow was going to be a hard and long day 12 miles total i think but this was without packs I used a drawstring bag that held my platapus,(2 liter container of water) rain gear, pants in case it got really cold, and food like breakfast and lunch. Went to sleep at like 7 so I could wake up at 4:30.

Day 10 -- We headed toward Baldy at about 5:30 and had breakfast on the trail. We saw at least 2 miners houses on the way they were pretty cool. When we got to the top it was sooo windy omgsh you could lean forward and the wind would keep you up it was pretty awesome. They had made these little rock shelter things that when you sat down behind them the wind stopped it was pretty neat. We took a couple of pictures and then look for a way down. It was basically rock skiing all the way down we ate lunch were it got flatter. We climbed down for awhile until we got to Baldy Town where we got the remainder of our food, those who brought money could buy stuff at the trading post there. Mario bought himself a chocolate bar and said it was his birthday cake, because it actually was his birthday. When we finally got back to mirinda we all became couch potatoes and basically did nothing the rest of the day although some of us played mountain ball again. The rules of the game were basically any rules that makes it impossible to win except if you are the mountain men aka the staff. But it just played for fun not to win.

Me throwing tomahawks!!!!

Hahahahahahaha the Hilton one of the worst red roof inns i have ever used

The Staff Cabin

An Old Miners House on Baldy

Me Shooting a Black Powder Rifle

Bear Bags!!!!

Houston Do We Have a Problem?

I am orbiting the planet, but thought I'd drop in to let y'all know we're alive and kicking!

Indy leaves for college in 11 days. She's been working over 30 hrs a week to save up for her Freshman year. It's sad that we don't see much of her and she's just about to leave! We did get to go shopping together on Saturday for clothes and office supplies. It was a huge mega hour event, and that was just like old times! Our day started off with Indy and Gib in one car and Taryn, Mariah and I in another headed to Office Depot. We all grabbed our own baskets and took off in 5 different directions to get what everyone needed for the upcoming school year. It was pretty wild. After that store, Indy and I took off by ourselves to the mall. Later on, I met up with Taryn for more shopping. Oh, and more big news from our oldest: She chopped her hair alot shorter and changed the spelling of her name. It will take me awhile to get used to typing it correctly: Indie.

Taryn is done with her summer internship at Adventure Science Center. They loved her there and she discovered new talents she didn't know she had in working with kids. Either that, or she listens really well to all those great preschool stories I come home with about behavior management while having fun (aka great threats like "keep it moving or I'll get my cooties all over you"). Now Taryn is out applying for a paying position this time around. We've googled the area surrounding her #1 choice college campus and she's applying to places here that are within a mile of the campus there.

Gib had a great time chaperoning his sister and her friend at his Scout Waterworld weekend. All the older dudes in the troop really love Gib about this time of year. We had a great weekend of fun. Photos to follow soon I'm sure. Gib has grown again. He looked older than alot of the freshman I saw at high school registration. We found out that when we went to pick up his schedule and locker and stuff, that they would be taking the yearbook picture too. Weird huh? So, the bad part was that his hair hasn't grown back in yet from the Philmont Shave, so his sisters suggested a faux-hawk for the yearbook. It actually looked good, and is now the style du jour. It went over especially well at church on Sunday when Gib passed the Sacrament and was ordained a Teacher. The laying on of hands in a steeple formation to protect the 'do was hilarious.

Mariah is out partying with her new middle school bud, Regan. They are at Nashville Shores water park today. It was the movies the other day. I hope they have lunch or some classes together at school. Won't know until the first day of school. Which is Thursday!!!! Mariah and I took in all the Girl Scout donations she collected for the local animal shelter and actually made it out of there without another cat. Can you believe it?! I admit, I was nervous to go in there and was steeling myself not to feel love or pity. But what can you do if you find YOUR cat there but rescue it?! Phew! Our cat wasn't in there!! Mariah got to see the kittens that were there enjoy the catnip mousies and the catnip sticks of dynamite we bought for them. Not wanting to chance things too much, I cut the visitation short.

The AC saga is pitifully still a saga. Despite all my best attempts at reasoning with the company and a rousing debate, in the end, the warranty company insisted on replacing this part that absolutely must be shipped by ground transport. I didn't believe that but the podunk AC company they sent to us confirmed it with the Goodman company. I think it's a conspiracy. The part might arrive tomorrow or Wednesday. We might have AC Thursday or Friday. Maybe. The portable unit we bought at Home Depot has helped alot to keep our bedroom comfortable. The main part of the house is miserable and if I spend too much time there I feel a tummy ache coming on. I am sooo glad I finally thought to get the portable AC unit. I don't know what we'd be doing without it. It's in the 90's this week and humid. August hit with a fury after what had been a mild summer.

Some Like It Hot

If you read facebook, you will know we have not been having a pleasant experience with our home warranty company lately trying to get a speedy solution to air conditioning the downstairs of our home. Luckily for Grammy and the kids, they still have decent living conditions. But the main part of the house and my bedroom is 80 degrees or more. We had a cool front go by so now it is only 76. Whoo-hoo.

I did nice until nice didn't work. Then I refused to accept another 7 day wait. I suggested they find another solution. They seem to think there isn't another option. So I pointed out, perhaps strongly, a few that I came up with on my own: 1) overnight the stupid part - he said at my expense and I said "I don't think so"; 2) put in the new AC unit the repairman you sent over says we need and forget about the stupid part and quit trying to band-aid my 10 yr old AC unit to save a buck. He said "a 10 yr old AC unit is a perfectly good appliance and has many years left in it" and I said, "Really?! How many appliances do you own that are older than 10 yrs? Do you want to talk to the AC man who says differently? Because I think he knows more than you do on the subject" I explained that I realized his job is to put off the premium paying clients as long as possible while repairing as little as possible at the lowest cost to the warranty company but perhaps, considering their BBB rating was currently at a D, they might want to consider that, in this instance, it was actually in their better interest to take the hit and make me happy. Because I WOULD be writing a review, had read many unhappy ones, and knew I could top the best written one by a mile...so, did he want me to write a really good one or the most scathing review out there AND file a complaint with the BBB because I have every intention of doing so if he thinks to make me sit here in 90 degrees plus humidity for 17 or more days. I suggested he consider upgrading our situation to an emergency and thus setting aside his "protocol" and overriding their usual standard m.o. Boy was I mad!!!!

We get to have another conversation today. I don't have much hope that we will get very far. My only chance seems to be that dealing with me is so much more trouble than it is worth for this guy so he'll either get me the part to fix it faster than 7 days or take the offer the AC company gave them on a new unit. Or we were offered a buy out but that is definitely the least attractive option for us because we are left with the bulk of replacing the AC unit out of pocket.

At any rate, I am pretty sure they are done with us and won't be offering another year's renewal! I've probably been blacklisted!

Philmont Part 4

Day 7 -- This was a pretty rough day we had hiked to the commissary about a mile or two from our old campsite and we get our food and we realize that we have about 2 hrs to hike up 2 and a half miles to the devil's washbasin for our service project. You either we get there at the earlier session or we get a three hour layover and then we do our three hour service project and then we hike to our camp after that which means we wouldn't get to camp until really late that night which none of us wanted so basically we ran all the uphill towards the devil's washbasin and we got there with 50 minutes to spare. We ate lunch put up the bear bags (because we were gonna be gone for awhile so we didn't want the vicious mini-bears to rip our packs open and eat all of our food). We went over to the service project area and we realize we are helping to build a new trail and during our instruction we learned the funny names they made up for all the tools (like the named the sledgehammers the rock breakers) so after the service project we were all pretty tired so we walked to camp slowly to Cimarron River Camp. When we got there we set up camp and made dinner today's dinner was the Mexican dinner with the beans and chili and stuff like that so the tents were gonna smell that night. After dinner Mario decided to go swimming in the river and like the responsible parent his dad made sure he didn't do anything stupid while he was down there.

Day 8 -- This was a pretty hard day as well but there were some perks. We met both of the other crews from our troop one on the trail and the other stayed at the same camp as us. We spent a lot of time with the second crew at Head of Dean. it was really cool because from our campsite we had this amazing view of Mt. Baldy.

Sorry this is a really bad picture of it really on the top its like an awesome looking red color.