Thanks, Spacemom!

Spacemom was gracious enough to share this link to Cake Wrecks on her blog.  Seriously, some of them made me laugh until I cried. 

Just what I need, another distraction in my life.

Unbe-Wii-vable

I totally forgot with all the random boringness at Chateau L….

I got a Wii for my birthday.  Boxing.is.da.bomb.  I randomly select someone from my “list” of those who irritate me.  Feels sooooo good when I see the big KO flash. 

Love it. Now just need time to play more.  Working on that.

Alive

But boring. 

Nothing too terribly exciting going on.  We had family day with the Guard Saturday.  Sparing the details, can you guess what the outcome of this equation is: 50000% humidity+rain+crabby preschooler+grumpy husband equals?  There are many answers and none of them are pretty.  I endured.  There are only a few of the wives I really enjoy being around that I have things in common with.  Olivia enjoyed seeing the soldier boys and ate popcorn, snocones, cupcakes and two green beans.  Yes, two.  The company Commander gave a brief update of what we already knew.  It irritated me because so many of the wives, and some soldiers, were so disrespectful.  My view is this: When Will is in uniform, or at a Guard function, that is his boss.  I would no more mouth off to him than I would his day-to-day boss.  Heck, I wouldn’t mouth off anyway; I’m a grown up and it’s flat our rude.  Anyway, I talked to the Captain for a few minutes after his speech, but not without Olivia tugging on one side and Will poking me in the back to go.  We only stayed for a couple of hours until we got to the point the fun was starting to pour from my ears in the form of a migraine.  She cried.  He groaned.  She cried harder.  He groaned louder.  Me? I was in the passenger seat with my fingers in my ears singing something along the lines of, “la, la, la.”  I must say, one of them took a grown up pill and threw out an apology.  Want to guess which one it was?  Yes, Olivia!  How did you know?  I had to go back in the armory to pick up some things and came back to the car.  She had dried her tears and told me, “I’m sorry mommy.  I didn’t mean to cry so much, I jus’ didn’t wanna go home yet.”   Bestill my heart.  I went around to her side of the car and unbuckled her and gave her the biggest hug.  She followed up with, “I so sorry.”  Well, then I cried.  Hard.  We hugged, gave kisses and she told me, “Not worry.  You still my fwiend.”  Love her!

After a failed nap all the way around, we decided to go pick up………..MY NEW KITCHEN TABLE!  Legs and all!  I busted laughing when I looked at my pick up receipt and there were three line items:

1. Table top.
2. Pedestal.
3. Chairs.

I still, for the life of me, cannot understand why that is optional.  Minimal assembly so we should have been ready to dine by dinner time.  On the way home, I laid out the plan.  Table first.  Then chairs.  Table top? Broken.  Grrrrr.  I ordered it 5 weeks ago and it is on backorder AGAIN until the first of September.  Anyone up for hosting us for dinner?  They wanted me to schlep EVERYTHING back to the store, but I thought back to my detailed receipt.  No, I’ll bring the top back…just order that part number.  We donated our other table/chairs set to the Kidney Foundation so we don’t have one.  My tinsy kitchen looks so big now.  And naked.

So, in a nutshell, that’s what’s been happening around Chateau L.  We have a little special fun planned for this weekend and hopefully lots of pictures to go along with it.

Chillin’

I *heart* the A/C people.

I called this morning at 8 a.m. to tell them air out.  Guy asks if someone can be there all day; they will get to us, but he couldn’t tell me a time.  I took the morning off and Will took the afternoon shift to wait so I could go to work for half a day.  Guy calls at 12:15 says he’s on his way and will be here in 20 minutes.  That crossed over into Will’s shift.  Guy showed up ON TIME.  Fixed burned out circuit board.  Did routine checkup.  We wrote check for $176.00.  He gave some recommendations on newer programmable thermostats that will run more efficiently.  Thanked Will for the glasses of water.  (Bless his heart, he was outside for 3 hours doing checkup on unit).

I had set my freak out threshold pretty high because we all know how expensive an a/c problem can be.  Our unit is only 9 years old so I guess it’s about time for it to start being quirky.  The last problem we had was about 6 or 7 summers ago.  Fire ants ate the rubber contacts/connectors/something or anothers and caused the A/C to short.  Apparently they are drawn to heat and like to be bitches while they’re being drawn.  We now put fire ant killer inside the housing of the unit.  Nary a problem since, aside from this one.

Tonight we’re chillin’.  And, Terry, I had a bag packed before I left for work just in case.

Good Morning

Today’s high forecast at 98* with sooo much humidity.

Air conditioning unit? Not working.

This really sucks.

Wordless Wednesday

New Wheels

Fabul-O has a new pink ride.

My little Geardo in the making…Safety first

Bye, Mommy…I’ll be back!

There’s no turning back now

 

Riding off into the sunset.  Okay, riding off down the street, but she did it like a pro.

Today

Today is my birthday.  I gracefully gain a year and look back over the past year to see how I’ve grown and changed.  Some good, some not so good, but lessons learned all along the way.

Five years ago today my grandmother passed away.  My mom’s sister called me at 7 a.m. and told me and asked would I please call my mom and tell her.  I did as I was asked to do and, as numb as I was, started my day. 

My day in 2003 started at the DMV to get my driver’s license renewed.  For the past five years I have had hives in my picture.  Yesterday I had my license renewed and the hives are gone and I swear the lady zoomed in and magnified me because now all you see is a big ‘ol head.  But there are no more hives.  You take the good, you take the bad.  Can’t wait to see what I look like in 2016 when I turn 43!  I’ve only had one good license picture in my entire life.  That was back when you renewed every four years.  Then it went to five.  Now it’s at 8.  The lady before me…wow, it was like she was on the cover of Glamour or something.  I must perfect a smile.  Oh, and in NC if you lose your license or need a replacement, you don’t get to go in for a new picture, you re-order it online and you get the same digital picture you got the first go round.

This morning I started my day by referreeing a tooth brushing match with Olivia and Will.  My mom made it all better when I came in and there was a cupcake with chocolate icing on my desk.  Picture?  None. I inhaled it before I even turned my computer on.  These are cupcakes Olivia helped my mom bake while she stayed with them this past weekend.  Thanks, mom.  I needed that.

Tuesday, July 15 @ 9 a.m. *UPDATED*

That’s Will’s appointment date and time with the spine specialist to have his MRI read.  I’ve slapped those films up against the living room window a dozen times, but since I have no clue what I’m looking at I put them back in their spot so they don’t get lost. *sigh*

I’m a worrier by nature.  It’s what I do.  I worry and I figure out a solution so I can worry some more.  When it’s things I have control over, I’m as happy as can be.  When it’s something I have absolutley no control over, it drives me freaking bananas.  This I have no control over.  Not only do I not have control over the situation, but I have nothing to take the edge off his worry.  I’m pumping blue skies and sunshine just as hard as I can and to “prove” I have no doubt of the good outcome, I haven’t scoffed at one thing my geardo has picked up for his deployment.  The husband who doesn’t share his innermost thoughts and feelings shared with me this weekend.  I thought I was imagining him getting clammed up when certain subjects came around.  I wasn’t imagining anything; what I thought I was seeing was dead on.  It’s an empty look that has no place being on his face.  I’m the worrier…not him.  Nothing I could say can erase that edge of doubt and scrub away the what-if.   

I’m surrounded by people who love us and I’ve gotten a lot of emails of prayer and support. So, if you have it in you, please include us in your thoughts and prayers.  The power of prayer is a wonderful thing.  Good ju-ju, well-wishes and fairy dust are all welcomed, too.

*UPDATE*

For now there will be no surgery.  He is scheduled for six weeks of rehab and we’ll see how it goes.  It’s muscle damage, which takes much more to make it right.  Soooo, we’ll see where we are at the end of six weeks.  His doctor also wants him to talk with the rehab doctor about working out and exercises he can do on his own to help him.  He has drill next weekend and I’m scared about what the Guard will do with him.   Hopefully he’ll be able to take his reports with him to see the doctor who treated him in MS while on AT.  Right now we don’t want to be on the wrong list with the Guard; I’m afraid this may put us there. 

Thanks for all the prayers, emails and well-wishes.  They are much appreciated. 

My Newest Endeavor

I’ve always wanted to learn to knit.  My aunt tried to teach me and I made the nicest knot one has ever laid their eyes on.  Bust.  I wanted to learn to crochet.  Bust.  I wanted to learn to sew.  I have quite a bit of money invested in that one so I will learn.  There are many of my fellow blogger friends who knit caps for babies and I want to, but I don’t know how to knit.  That is until I came across the Knifty Knitter.  I.Love.It.  and it is soooo very simple to use.  I promise you if it’s something I can read the instructions and do, anyone can!

My first projects….

 

 In my opinion, this hat was a bit snug, so Bitty Baby will enjoy it and the afghan was a mini-project I did just because.

There was one more hat I made over the weekend, but it’s on its way to a little fella who made his debut about eight weeks early while he and his momma are visiting in NC.  

Differences

Olivia knows she was born in China and mommy and daddy flew on an airplane and she came home to North Carolina, but she’s never really been interested in the details.

The class she is in at school now is geared for four-year-olds.  One day I’ll explain more in detail why she’s there (technically she’s not supposed to be because her birthday is in January).  Several months back, before she moved up to the great class, she came home and told me they drew faces in school that day.  She told me she has brown hair and it’s not long and it’s not short.  Then it came to eyes.  She told me she has Chinese eyes.  Not brown eyes.  Not almond-shaped eyes, but Chinese eyes.  I questioned her to find out who told her she had “Chinese” eyes.  Miss A, her teacher.   After questioning some of the staff, I find out, the black children were not told they had African American eyes, but brown eyes.  (BTW, this is part of the reason she’s not in that class anymore) 

Since she’s becoming more and more aware of things, I thought today we’d talk about things that make us different.  I asked her to tell me something about me that was different than her.  (hoping this time she didn’t tell me I had a big tummy)

Her reply:

You vanilla* and I love vanilla.

End of lesson one.

*She has this thing about things that are white being “vanilla” – salt, parmesan cheese, cupcakes, vanilla icing.  Vanilla vs. Whitey.  I took Vanilla and decided to leave well enough alone.

Home Sweet Home

What a fun weekend!  Friday evening, Will and I set off for the wedding of one of the Soldiers in his unit.  There were a grand total of FOUR people from the unit who showed (one.two.three.four).  I think it may have hurt this guy’s feelings and I certainly know it hurt mine for him.  He is one of the active duty guys so no one from the armory that he works with day in and day out went.  It wasn’t that far from us, but we chose to make it a long weekend to relax and have some fun so we stayed.

We got into town about 8:30 Friday night and checked into our hotel.  We got freshened up and our friends M&T, who live in town, drove over to pick us up to take us out for the evening.  What.A.Blast.  Back in “the day” M & I used to line dance, so we went dancing.  I had on my jeans and boots and we danced like I haven’t danced in a long, long time.  If my awkwardness and missed steps didn’t show everyone I haven’t danced in a long time, my huffing, puffing and wheezing clued them in.  I thought I was going to lose consciousness (that’s what being out of shape does to you).  We enjoyed a lot of  mega amounts ofsome frosty pitchers and some J-E-L-L-O.  Will sucks at pool.  He always has, but even more when he’s had a few to drink. No, I don’t play any better.  Me? I played darts.  Yup. Just as scary as it sounds.  I have no idea what game I chose to play (electronic darts), but I know it was longer than my attention span allowed for.  Oh, yeah.  No points when your darts stick into the wall or carpet.  Somehow it doesn’t calculate the points for near misses of passers by either.  (shrug)  I enjoyed meeting M&Ts friends and we had a fantabuloso time.   We got back to the hotel at 3:30 a.m.  I needed a shower something terrible and after weighing the odds of if I could really drown myself in the shower after an evening of liquid pleasure, I decided to risk it.  I couldn’t wake up smelling like the bar we had been at.  No sooner had I turned the shower on I heard Will snoring.  He didn’t even brush his teeth.  I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve used the words “passed out” to describe him, but he was.  I had a nice hot shower and brushed my teeth 4 times before I settled in.  Last time I looked at the clock was 4:08.  The next time I saw it was 7:35.  Crap. Couldn’t go back to sleep.  I had nothing to do but sleep and enjoy the dark and cool of the room nestled in between the covers.  Noooo.  Cap’n Snores Alot kept that from happening. So, I was up.  I learned a new craft, more on that later, so I worked on the piece I was working on and decided it was time to get him up and feed him.  After all, it was 10:00 a.m.  I was hungry.  He dragged his glassy-eyed self into the shower and we went down for breakfast.  He ate about half his waffle and said he needed to go back to bed.  So much for sight seeing and we went back up.  He woke up again about 1:00 feeling much better and looking a little less pale.  Of course he was hungry so we went across the street and had lunch and came back and got gussied up for the wedding.  He looks so handsome all dressed up.  I don’t think anyone took a picture of us, though. I can’t remember if we did or not, I haven’t checked the camera. 

Wedding was nice.   We had conflicting directions from the girls at the hotel.  The ceremony was at Rutledge Chapelon the campus of USC.  Everyone kept saying, “It’s at the horseshoe.”  Perfect.  So tell me where the horseshoe is and how to get there.  Finally I plugged the visitor center into Roxy (my GPS) and she got us to campus.  The last tidbit the hotel girl gave was, “it’s the orange colored building.”  Thanks, Einstein.  Every.freaking.building.was.orange.  We looked out of place and this guy with this booming voice said, “What are you looking for?  I used to go here.”  We told him and he said, “I have no idea.  Somewhere here in the horseshoe.”  Thanks.  We made it with time to spare.  Sadly, it took us 24 minutes to go 1.1 mile, park and walk.  20 minutes later, we were heading back to the car to go to the reception.  Good DJ and the food was phenomenal.  I must say, I’ve never been to a reception with such a wide variety and I certainly enjoyed it.

That evening, Will and I had dinner, just the two of us, for my birthday.  We had dinner at Ruth’s Chris. Oh, yummy.  Yummy.  Yummy.  We ate until we simply couldn’t eat anymore.  They brought me the most delicious chocolate mousse whipped mile high cake thingy with a chocolate crust, chocolate whipped cream, chocolate sauce and chocolate cookie as my birthday treat.  Heaven on a plate.  We also had the fresh berries with sweet cream, which was a delightful complement to the richness and darkness of the chocolate.   If I had to venture a guess, I bet we ate/drank approximately 50,000 calories this weekend.  I gained four pounds.  Yes, the four I lost last week are now back and shoved into my jeans. 

We got home yesterday and enjoyed a quiet evening.  Me and my new project and Will and his heating pad for his back.  We pick up Olivia and PomPom this afternoon and it will be back to business as usual.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

Flags flying against the Carolina blue sky on the 4th of July.

I’m a Babe

My “stumbled upon you” stats prove it.

(Tossing hair aside, slightly primping) Obviously, at some point, I’ve given the impression I’m a war babe on my blog…  Suh-weet.  Know how long it’s been since someone has called me a babe*?!?

Yesterday

Search	Views
war babe	2

 

*I know they didn’t actually call me one, but somewhere my blog exudes babe vibes…

Comfort Food

It’s no secret I’m a stress eater. Come to think of it, I’m a nonstress eater too. I guess it all boils down to I lurve me some food.

Of of my favorite feel-good foods is soup; homemade vegetable soup. When Will was deployed the first time, I would make a pot on Sunday and eat it for a few days. People quit asking me what I was having for supper. It was either: soup, Big Macs or burritos from Taco Bell. I ate TB so much, they got to know my voice at the drive thru near my house so I had to start going to another one across town.

I digress…

I made a pot this past Sunday and we’ve eaten off it for a few meals so I thought I’d share my recipe. This is one of those throw it together recipes….

Veggie Soup

V8 juice (64 oz unless I’m making a small pot and then I use the 32 oz bottle)

water

Big can of crushed tomatoes in puree

2 (16 oz. each) bags of mixed veggies – the blend of your choice. I use corn, carrots, green beans, peas

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1. Get your big ‘ol soup pot
2. Pour in V8
3. Add about 1 c. water to rinse out the V8 bottle – you can use more or less
4. Can of tomatoes/puree
5. Vegetables
6. Salt and pepper to your taste…I love fresh cracked pepper and it puts a tinsy kick in it
7. Stir it, cover it and cook it until the veggies are done to your liking

That’s it. Mucho simple. If you make the smaller batch, adjust your veggies, etc. accordingly.

Serve with warm and gooey grilled cheese sandwiches. Yummo

As an aside, it is healthy and falls well within the Weight Watchers world when you’re needing to eat but are low on points. I also use V8 as my chili starter; spicy V8.

Lazy L Farm Squash Casserole

My mom’s garden runneth over with squash and cucumbers.  We haven’t had any, just tons of blooms that I’m begging to turn into a veggie so we can claim gardening success.  Every day my mom comes into the office with at least a 5 gallon bucket of them for us to take what we want.  Thank goodness she can’t grow brownies.

We had dinner with my parents Friday night and my dad made a yummy squash casserole and while it was delicious, I knew I couldn’t, in good conscience, make it his way at our house because he uses full fat flavor ingredients.  I’ll have to find his recipe and post it because it rocked.  Then I’ll modify it to make it fit into our should be healthy lifestyle.

This is my version – so totally off the cuff.  I need to learn not to start making things unless I have the ingredients I want.

2-3 lbs squash (I’m purely guessing.  I have no idea.  I cleaned out the veggie basket)

1 small onion

1 can reduced fat cream of celery soup (Will says he’s allergic to mushrooms)

2 Tb. low fat sour cream

1 wedge Laughing Cow Light cheese

1/2 sleeve reduced fat Club crackers

shredded cheese

Melted butter (I used Parkay spray)

Mrs. Dash

salt

pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350^
2. Slice squash and onion seasoning with salt and pepper.  Steam until almost done.
3. Drain well and mix in 2/3 can cream of celery soup (I used the whole thing, but thought it was a bit runny)
4. Add in cheese wedge and mix until melted
5. Add sour cream and mix well
6. Crush about 7 crackers finely and mix well
7. Pour into baking dish and cover with shredded cheese and crushed cracker crumbs (however many you like, I like lots of crunchy topping)  Spray cracker crumbs with butter spray or melted butter and sprinkle Mrs. Dash over the top
8. Bake about 30 minutes until nice and bubbly and crackers are brown.
9. Let stand about 5-10 min before serving to thicken up a bit. 

It was pretty good.  Next time I’ll double check to make sure I have some stuffing mix on hand.  I normally use Pepperidge Farm because I like the flavor.  But, in a pinch and with more squash than one could possibly know what to do with, it turned out okay. 

Sorry no picture.

Farmin’ In The ‘Hood

That’s right, folks.  These are the pictures that have been held hostage forever on my Dell-icious PC. 

Chateau L has been dubbed The Lazy L Farm.  We decided to have a small garden this year.  When I say small, I mean small.  3 squash plants, 3 cucumber plants and a couple of melon plants along with our tomatoes.  We hung two tomato plants and planted the rest.  The hanging ones have done well. 

It has been a great learning tool for Olivia and we have enjoyed sharing in her excitement.

Here are some pictures from the beginning.

Assembling tiller.

Helping Daddy hang tomato plants

Helping Mommy water tomatoes

Dig holes for seeds

Plant seeds

Watering our seeds

Progress pics to follow soon….

Distant

I’ve gotten several emails from folks over the past few weeks asking if things are okay with us as I’ve appeared to be distant.  I have been, to some degree.

I’ve toyed with the idea of blogging about it and, at the risk of it sounding all doom and gloom, I have decided that I’m going to.  So, here it goes…

Alot of you know about my breast cancer scare, which still isn’t resolved.  I’ll be undergoing more follow up and testing soon.  I’m optimistic, but it’s still a tad bit scary.   I’ve registered to do the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in October, but have hesitated to begin fund raising until some other things get resolved and I wouldn’t want to let anyone down who sponsored me. 

What else is there to get resolved?  Today Will is having an MRI on his back.  He was injured on AT and his back still isn’t better.  He is under an LOD (line of duty investigation) with the Guard.  He has seen a spine specialist and right now it looks like one of two things will be our outcome:

1. Physical therapy.
2. Back surgery.

If he has to have back surgery, which we are praying with all our might he won’t, there are so many things that will change over the course of our year.  If I hear, “Oh, that means he won’t have to go to Iraq” one more time, I’m going to start poking eyes out.  Seriously.  This is how we see it from our points of view:

1. He is scheduled for leadership school in order to get promoted.  Right now, because he is under a line of duty investigation with the Guard, that is on hold.  Without this school, he can’t get promoted.  His unit is trying to flip-flop schools with another Soldier in hopes of him being able to attend the later one.  The concern: It’s after they are scheduled to mobilize, what if they decide not to let him attend?
2. More importantly, the team he has trained with and worked with for the past year and a half will be assigned a new Bradley commander.  One they probably don’t know, haven’t worked with and don’t know the quirks of.  Combat training is a little different than your average day-to-day life working with someone.  These are your battle buddies.  They get your back, you get theirs.  You become you own little family and you know how each other works and reacts.  Will’s gunner had some personal issues earlier this year and he was assigned a new gunner.  It was a tough transition for his team.  This hurts his heart because he feels as if he’s let his team down.
3. He does get to heal and will still be deployed, possibly assigned to another unit with Soldiers he doesn’t know.  There’s not a whole lot of room for a learning curve under those circumstances.
4. Depending on how bad it is, his military career could come to an end.  “But he’s just a reservist.”  True, but that doesn’t make it any easier to watch the thing you love and want to continue with come to an end.  The past 14 years have flown past both our eyes and we are both saddened by that possibility.  Truly and deeply saddened. 

I have all but given up my volunteer work.  The are some other personal issues I can’t blog about, but they are pretty serious and affect my family in a lot of ways.  For the past 3-1/2 years, I have looked out for other people.  I have made sure that anyone who has contacted me with a need got what they needed or I found them help.  Do you know, last year I shipped 219 care packages to Iraq and Afghanistan?  Many of those included goodies for units made up of 39 – 150 individuals.  I sent over 2000 letters, cards and well-wishes.  I sent baby presents for wives at home who had babies while their husbands were deployed and they had nothing.  I made homemade cookies and other goodies to send over.  I don’t say that for any reason other than it breaks my heart that this year I’ve not been able to do that.  I think everything has caught up with me and the issues I’m facing in my personal life have caused me to feel a bit removed and the uncertainty of the deployment, which is still on the horizon, doesn’t help.  I feel like I’ve lost my zen and I can’t get it back.  I’m working a tremendous amount of hours and trying to keep my homelife as stable as I can.  Sadly, relationships with friends have also been affected.  I don’t like to burden others with my problems and things that are going on.  It’s just not me and sometimes I think they see it as me bailing on them or ignoring and it’s certainly not the case.   Sometimes I need a little ”me” time and I get it whenever and however I can and many times it doesn’t involve getting together with friends.  There are friends who are facing deployments we want to see so badly, but simply can’t find the time before one or both of them deploys.  There are friends in the next city over I can’t get together for dinner with.  It’s hard letting people down.  It’s hard feeling like I’m not living up to what they’ve come to know me for. 

We all go through cycles of questioning ourselves and how we can do things differently and better.  I’m no different.  I always strive to be the best person I can be and I don’t want to let anyone down.  The time has come where I’ve had to step back from a lot of tasks and projects and, honestly, I feel like I’ve failed.  I know that if I don’t take time to regroup and get myself back on track, I won’t be doing anyone any good.  I know that in my mind, but my heart won’t get on board with it.  It makes me think, what if everyone took the time away?  Who will be there to pick up the pieces?  But I’ve found myself in need of someone to help me pick up the pieces.

Part of the reason I’ve hesitated blogging about the things going on is because there are a lot of bloggy buddies who have had some pretty serious goings on of their own, many of which are way more significant than mine.  I know it’s all relative to the lives we lead.  I haven’t commented much on their blogs about what they are going through and facing mainly because I don’t know if what I have to say is the “right” thing.  To those who read here and have had personal strife in your lives, I’ve read about them and I’ve prayed for you.  I’ve also found that saying nothing can be worse than saying the wrong thing, so I forever find myself in a catch-22.

There is a lot of good going on in my life, which I try to post about, but there are some struggles, too.  I’ll keep everyone updated on what’s happening.  

This coming weekend we are attending the wedding of a guy in Will’s unit.   It just happens to be the weekend before my birthday (I gracefully gain a year on the 15th) so we are going to make it a weekend all about me us. (yes, I’m still maintaining my sense of humor)

Recap

Well, it was a long weekend with some progress on the homefront (i.e. “that” closet).  I didn’t get as much other stuff done as I had hoped, but that’s life at Chateau L. 

Friday, we attended a parade in Waxhaw, NC.  Olivia isn’t fond of parades.  I think it’s a crowd issue more than anything else.  She got up to see “soldier boys” and the Patriot Guard Riders participated in honor of Sgt. Jonathan Roberts allowing him to ride in the parade.  She has gotten to love the roar of the motor cycles as we’ve attended several functions with the PGR.  We were sitting at the end of the parade route, which proved to be a small blessing to us since she was absolutely miserable so we hiked the short walk back to the car.  Where we parked, was where a float had emptied its riders and she was thrilled, “Look, mommy.  A parade, a parade.”  Will and I just looked at each other.  Where was this enthusiasm when it was a manned float in the parade?!  The other thing that made her tickled to be there was the train that passed us by.  Go figure.  So, we loaded up in the car and headed home.  That evening we went to my parent’s house and had dinner, picked veggies from their garden and took Olivia to the rodeo.  She loves horses, cowboys, cowboy-girls, etc. so we thought it would be the perfect event before the fireworks show.  Whatever.  She could have cared less.  That is until we were leaving!  Then she pointed out every animal and rider.  Then it was off to the fireworks.  The town my parents live in is little.  No stop light little, but every single townsperson was there to watch the show.  We chose to stay a few blocks back and watch from afar.  This is the first fireworks show we’ve attended since Will returned home from Iraq as it’s the first time he’s felt comfortable going.  Olivia enjoyed the first few minutes and then she was done with it.  We went home.  So, we got a taste of everything fun and were home by a decent hour.  Can’t complain about that.

Saturday we cleaned and did lots of laundry.  How is it possible three people can have so many dirty clothes?  It’s not like we aren’t doing at least one load a day or every other day as it is.  Thank goodness we’re in sandal season so there’s no scrounging to match socks. 

Sunday Will had to work so Olivia and I chilled around the house and played.  She informed me she didn’t have enough toys to play with and we needed to go buy more.  Umm, think again, sister.  She also told me her box of 500 crayons was “old” and she needed new ones.  That’s not happening, either.  She managed to pull out every single toy she owned and had a fit when it came time to put them up.  After a little encouragement from me, her room was spotless and I had her move on to the living room.  If she would just master clothes folding.  Heh.

All in all it was a good weekend.  I certainly enjoyed the days away from the office and no real schedule to follow.  There are pictures and they will be posted soon, but probably not by your definition of soon.

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

“That” Closet

You know the one.  The one that has everything imaginable in it.  Or so you think it does, but you don’t really know for sure because it’s overrun.   The stuff it houses is the stuff you stare at in the grocery store and wonder, “do we need more trash bags?”  and buy them to be on the safe side.  Well, I just finished cleaning mine. 

I won’t need to purchase the following items for at least 6-8 months:

• Sponges.  The cute blue ones I am able to use with my nonstick cookware.  There are 37 of them in “that” closet plus my active stash under the kitchen sink.  Could possibly last a year, but I’m pretty finicky about my sponges and not letting them hang out but so long.
• Ziploc bags.  Ziploc brand has proven to be the best when shipping care packages to Iraq and Afghanistan.  I don’t need any.  For a long time.
• Popcorn.  Thank goodness it has a long shelf life. 
• Freezer pops.  The ones that could also be labeled as toddler crack since they are so loaded with sugar.
• Lysol wipes.  That is unless I decide to disinfect the state of North Carolina 5 times. 

These items I’m well stocked on for at least a year:

• Paper plates and napkins.  My most heartfelt apologies to those I’ve been helping their stock options with Dixie.  I won’t be buying for a while.
• Paper towels. 
• Trash bags.  Kitchen and the black yard bags.

18-24 months, or possibly longer:

• Plastic cutlery.  It appears every time we have a gathering at Chateau L, I’ve felt the need to run out and buy a box of 500 knives, forks or spoons.  Seriously.  Do you know how long is it going to take me to go through 900 plastic knives?!

What did Will have to say about this?  “Why did you buy so much?”  Yeah, that went over well. 

Happy 5th!