Official Start of Summer Ramblings

First day of Summer Break and I wake at 4:30. Wonder why?
So what do I do??? Hop on the internet of course. Now it's 6:12.
As I've laid here, I realize I have to go to the bathroom, but prolong it, once I get up I'm going back to bed.

Also, as I sit here on my couch (ok, lay here) it has dawned on my that I have smelled the following things:

Beer. Yes I did have 2 last night, but I don't have any reason to have smelled one. Oh, (looking over at the coffee table), husband didn't put his can in the recycle bag and it's still sitting on the coffee table. That's why the beer smell.

Beef Stew. Now I know there is no beef stew in the house (I don't think looking at the coffee table will do any good this time). So, I don't know why I'm smelling stew. Maybe I'm hungry.

As I lay here it also dawns on me that I still have a time clock this morning...I have to be at the hospital at 10:00 to do some pre-surgery screening. I didn't have to do this with any procedure before, so I don't know why now....hhmm - oh well. I just need to make sure to eat breakfast so I don't get woozy in front of the kids when they take the blood (they are officially out of school and must go with me).

I am also excited about going to the Piccolo Spoleto art show this afternoon - it's my favorite part of Spoleto. Mom will come here and then we'll all head downtown together. I hope Legare and his stitched up knee are up for it. He's been a trooper so far - no complaints (story coming later).

Ah, what the hell, at the school party on Wednesday, we were all at the County Park end of Folly Beach. This whole school was there - pretty fun. There was an amazing tidal gully (the area left full of water as the tide goes out made by a small sand berm that is exposed during low tide. It was about thigh deep for the kids (told you it was a good gully). This wasn't really a tidal pool.

Anyway - ten minutes before it's officially over, Legare's knee hits something in the pool - oyster shell most probably - I guess it could have been glass - and slices his knee open. So, fun for everyone crowding around to see what happened and getting an eyeful of blood and knee meat.

Legare didn't cry - just looked panicked. He insisted on walking the what seemed now like a football field's length off the beach, up the boardwalk steps and back to the car. Towel as a tourniquet, not even ours, and lots of concerned Mommas. Called the pediatrician who encouraged me to go where was convenient (I was on Folly, he's deep in Mt. Pleasant), that with a rough and tumble boy and a laceration on the knee, it was pretty routine, be good to myself. So we went to the MUSC Children's ER. They were fantastic. Legare was treated like a VIP and he even got to watch Star Wars Episode 2 while the stitching took place. He had 148 titles to choose from ranging from Thomas the Train and Dora, to Star Wars. Pretty spectacular Children's ER, I say! They even gave him a brand new book when it was all over with. Kind of like a trip to the treasure chest after being at the dentist office. Only this was 6 stitches, not getting your teeth cleaned.

He never has cried. Not even when they gave him the lidocaine shots (he did have some numbing cream to help with that but it still hurt him). He's taking the biggest antibiotic capsules you ever did see (his choice, he didn't want the liquid), letting me clean his wound, and even braved long pants at the graduation exercises yesterday (with a gauze bandage over the stitches). All without the first complaint. Legare is my new hero. His wonderful attitude kept me very calm. And we all know that I passed out when Julia messed up her thumb a few baseball seasons ago. Of course I thought that was a broken bone. Blood I can apparently handle, bones, not so much.

I'm guessing the tears will come when he misses out on a few things because of the stitches. He is already talking about how he's going to try to never get stitches again. That's fine by me.

Well, thanks for entertaining the rambling. Off to have breakfast, not enough time now for getting back in bed. Cheers to a good summer!

Body Parts and Clip Art

Conversations we have in the car:

Daughter says, "Mom, I did some clip art today for a brochure in computer class."
I'm in awe and say, "You know about clip art?"

Then, as if I'm kind of behind the times, she says very coolly, "Yeah - it's pretty neat." She then told me about her search word and the pictures it returned. I can't remember what her search word was; probably because of what immediately followed.

Son (jumping in to the conversation with a lot of excitement) says, "We did clip art too. And I typed in 'boob' and got a picture of a pizza."

To which I immediately snap to attention and think to myself, "What did he just say?". And then out loud I quickly ask, with kind of that serious momma tone in my voice, "Legare - what in the world were you doing typing in the word 'boob'? Especially in school? And why would that word return a picture of a pizza?"

To which I get the very incredulous response of, "Mmoomm - I said 'FOOD' not 'Boob'.

I'm thinking "whew" at this point and begin wondering why I thought he said "boob"in the first place. I dismiss it with the thought that his speech must have just been muddled. And then he hits me with this....


"But you know..........Boobs are waaaaay better than pizza!"

And this - from the mouth of the 8 year old! Must be like father, like son.

Christmas Crazies in May

I have been kind of crazy lately...volunteering and being a mom.

My big thing I volunteer to do right now is co-chair running the school store.
It's not been very time consuming until lately. My duties involve doing the finances and ordering school supplies and then dealing with any other fundraiser stuff. My partner deals with the volunteers and stocking the snacks made available.

Between getting Field Day shirts and their orders, and coordinating with teachers about what to have on their supply lists and then getting the info right with the supplier - I'M STARTING TO GO CRAZY!

Not that it's hard, what I've been doing, but that the t-shirts ran into a snag that required some serious foot work towards the end, and the school supplies is just downright tedious. If one thing gets left off, the students will suffer. And I'm trying to price a profit too.

In the middle of these two things, #2 child had a massive production last week. In a nut shell, a mini Epcot Center is set up in the school gym, each student is assigned a country with another student (we were Holland this year - Sister was Egypt when she was in 2nd grade), and perform a 1 1/2 hour long production about each country, showcasing what they learned about each one during the year. There were 16 countries and it is a pretty amazing little show.

But I said I would help chaperon two of the three performances for the little Kindergartens that come to watch the show during the week. And then I also fit in purchasing and preparing two representative foods from our country. We didn't have fun food like Greece - who did mini gyros, or Russia, who provided Beef Stroganoff, or even Italy, who served lasagna. We served Archway's Almond Windmill cookies and Gouda cheese. Only, Gouda was so expensive I just decorated with the Gouda packages that were imported from Holland had windmill's on them, and I faked the cheese to it and served Monterrey Jack (it was much cheaper). No one seemed to care.

Well, I'm finished with "Around the World", but now I have a year end parent's council meeting tomorrow with a presentation of profits from the store, and I must pack for my daughters two night camping trip to the Barrier Island camp at Camp St. Christopher that I gleefully, and with crossed fingers, signed up to chaperon. The crossed fingers were because EVERY parent signed up to chaperon this trip and I desperately wanted to be one of the six chosen.

Luckily this hot weather we've had of late is cooling down, as we will be sleeping "Summer Camp style" in non-climate controlled cabins on the beach. We should have a ton of fun, I just didn't bank on it being smack in the midst of this other stuff.

But - life is good! We had a fantastic Mother's Day party here at the house. My mother, his mother and father, and all of our siblings and their families were here (Daddy was out of town - we missed him being here!). We even had my precious neighbor Nancy (who is Julia's Godmother). It rained and stormed all day - so no swimming in the pool - but the men kept us outfitted in drinks like Amaretto sours, champagne, strawberry daiquiris, wine, beer - basically whatever our heart's desired.

Since we were supposed to be in the pool, we had all kinds of yummy "hand/finger food", jalepeno poppers, taquitos, many flavors of wings, and other dips and snacks. Ice cream sandwiches were for dessert. It wasn't fancy - but dang. . .all of it hit the spot and led to a truly relaxing and very laugh filled day! I'll do Mother's Day like that again any time.

The Latest Ailment

Well - I've been 40 for a few weeks - let me recap the ailments.
I talked earlier about sweating more at night. I have also noticed that I need to take things further away from my face sometimes to focus...not too far yet though - no readers needed. And then Sunday, walking up the beach boardwalk to my friend's house, I caught my second toe in a crack between the dock planks. I think I was gripping with my feet because I was pulling a load like a pack mule. Anyway, this severely pinched/smashed/pulled my second toe - feeling like I may see blood when I looked down. But luckily - no. However this mash did cause throbbing while trying to sleep Sunday night and I now have the prettiest, deep purple, toenail circling bruise you ever did see.

Then today - while I was laying back over the shampoo bowl while getting my hair done, my stylist (also a cousin and God mother to one of my children) showed some alarm at the amount of hair coming out of my head laying in the bottom of the bowl. In the short stint over the bowl she had to clear my hair from the drain 3 or more times to let the water out. Then while combing me out it, seriously, looked like handfuls of hair came out with each comb through.

(Thought you should be aware that I only have shoulder length hair - no Crystal Gale here).

Of course, me being the crier that I am, began to cry during the combing and getting opinions of the other stylists in her salon. I was a bit scared, and a bit in disbelief. What in the f*!% is happening to me now? (not that there was anything really going on before).

So, I had her give me all of the hair that she had been wrangling and we put it into a bag (well a plastic bag similar to a hair net - I was at a salon you know)...'cause don't you know I'll be headed to the doctor soon to check the levels of thyroid, stress, hormones, genetics that may be causing this.

In the meantime, my stylist suggested that I begin saving hair after each shower and blow dry to compare...it could be levels of all those things mentioned above, or it could just be "Summer Shed" (my term not hers). So we'll see! I'll keep you posted.

3 hours of GREAT

THE Concert was last night. You remember, Taylor Swift.
And I'm sure you've all read reviews, so I won't get lengthy here, but I wanted to put my "Two Snaps up in a Circle" for the girl.

I haven't seen lots of concerts - 10 maybe. I'll rank her in the top 3 to 5. She was a true performer, involved the crowd - sounded great, made about 20 (it seemed anyway) outfit changes, walked the length of the crowd - IN the crowd - touching and hugging her fans. Great theatrics, great staging. GREAT. GREAT. GREAT! She was in Three words "FAB. U. LUS.". Seriously. The 19 year old delivered!

I say I would even go to see her again if given the opportunity! Count me a fan.