Count Down to Victory!

The 2009-2010 school year begins August 20th. I am so thankful for this for so many reasons. I know summer isn't officially over YET, but we are winding down and I can smell the scent of fresh crayons in the air. Let me pause to count the blessings of the new school term...

1. LESS DAYCARE COSTS! Don't get me started talking about my internal struggle with someone other than myself raising my child. I think about it daily.
2. A MORE ORGANIZED HOME! Children at home with a 16 year old babysitter = a really messy house.
3. New work hours! Yes ladies and gentleman, I am now working 32 hours a week. Perfect hours for a mommy with school aged children. 9-3. I drop them off at 8 go back home and put on my make-up, drink a cup of tea, watch the morning news...all...alone...in peace and...quiet. Then I'm ready to face the day.
This is such a fabulous arrangement that I will have to think very seriously about keeping these hours even when the recession is over and my boss announces that I am welcome to work 40 hours again. I think I will say, "No thank you."
So, the point being to this is that I will be able to attend all of my children's Monday Morning Assemblies. I will be able to get back to the school library and shelve books and keep in touch with my new found PTA friends.

Okay so these are the top 3 reasons I cannot wait until the school term begins. Yipeeee!

Oh, P.S.- Morgan did not come out of this summer vacation entirely unscathed. She came back from a visit in the countryside with a tick hitching a ride in her ear canal. We had to make a trip to the E.R. The whole ordeal was very disturbing for myself. Morgan took it like a champ. She screamed bloody murder but didn't move a muscle. You would have had to knock me out with a heavy sedative and strapped me down to the bed if you had told me you were going to dig in my ear with a, "small scalpel". What??!! Okay, I have to stop thinking about that right now...

Lights Out!

Bratwurst anyone?

Well, call me crazy, but we are adding one more to our family. Hold your horses everyone! We are just hosting an exchange student from Germany for a semester. We are very excited. She seems to be a very sweet girl with world travel experience already. We've been e-mailing back and forth for a couple of weeks. Her written english is pretty good. We haven't spoken to her yet. She should be here at the beginning of August. Not a whole lotta time to clean out the spare bedroom closet. I will miss having a room just for folding laundry. Maybe this living situation will force me to finish an entire load of laundry in one day. I'll work on that....right after I brush up on my limited German vocabulary. AL-VEETER-ZANE UNT GOOTEN NACHT! (That was the phonetic spelling of "So long and Good Night!)

Does God think it's funny when...?

For all of you parents out there.
You know when your kid says something funny because he confuses the English language? Like when my 3 year old announces he wants to go see Erin with you. Only you don't know an Erin. Then you discover that you think out loud and say that you're going to go "run errands". So, you giggle when you solve the verbal puzzle your 3 year old has given you.
You think it's cute.
You call your mom and tell her the story.
You tell co-workers.
If you're really industrious you immediately write it in his baby book.
If you're like me, you wait a couple of weeks and blog about it.
Anyway, so now you have a reference for what I'm talking about.
The glimpse God gives you of your child and his ever-expanding world.
I wonder if God thought thought it humorous when tonight I made the realization that I am really a full-fledged, PTA member, carpooling, ER visiting, M-O-M.
WHAT??!!
No, I haven't been in a state of denial these past 9 (choke, gag, cough, sputter, inhale, hack) years. I think I've just come to the age of parenthood when I can remember being a 9 year old daughter and what I thought and felt about my mother in the exact same experience I had this evening with my now 9 year old daughter. I am at the age in my parenthood where it scares me because I know my children will remember my every action and reaction and my children now have their own point of view. Yes, this gives me a little chill of responsibility. I have blossoming young daughters. It's time to put my game face on.
My childhood flashback was of my mother doing laundry.
So there I was tonight, opening up the dufflebags from my daughters' first church camp experience. The smell of wet, souring bath towels wafted through the room. I gagged. I remember coming home from church camp and my mother yelling at me from the garage (a stupid place to put a washer and dryer) to unload my dirty laundry immediately. I remember being annoyed with her. I had just spent a week running, swimming, socializing and getting sunburned. Didn't she care that I was tired? I'm being totally serious about this.
Tonight I have an understanding of why my mom gave me so many dirty looks.
Tonight I've added one more reason of why I love my mom.
Tonight I've added one more reason of why I love being a mom.
So, I'll leave you more experienced parents now to giggle about my epiphany. I have to go now and give some dirty looks to my kids.

Really, No pressure at all....

Okay, so I receive an invitation in the mail about my upcoming 15 year High School Class Reunion. I run through a list of emotions in about 6 seconds. This is easy when you are born a girl. Increase that ability X 2 if you also have ADD. Ha!
1. Excitement 2. Anticipation 3. Nostalgia 4. Curiosity 5. Reservation 6. Concern 7. Panic 8. Control 9. Calm 10. Resolve 11. Determination.

Right now I'm at # 10- Resolve. I know I need to make some serious changes in my water in-take and consistency of aerobic exercise. I think I will have to sacrifice some time with the family to jump start this little project of mine..... But good grief! It's been like 105 degrees lately. I don't want my children to find me passed out on the garage floor from heat exhaustion.