The last of the guests have left. Steve is off spending some father/son time with Alex. Ashley and I are vegetating in front of the tv waiting for Victoria, Sophia, and Josiah to get home from visiting their father and stepmother in North Carolina for the weekend. I missed them, but I am sure they had an awesome time.

We had an awesome time this weekend here at the Steve and Janie abode. It all started Saturday when Nicole, Rob and Tammy arrived. We discussed whether Tammy ever had a mullet. Nicole decided Steve and I needed a "Hollywood" couple name, you know, like Brangelina or Bennifer. She wants you all to vote on whether it should be "Janeve" or "Stanie". Rob, Nicole and Tammy all thought it should be the later. I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time.

Oooh avocado

We made a lot of guacamole. We ate a lot of guacamole too. Seriously, can you ever eat too much guac?

Sunday, we got up early and headed off to church. After church, we broke out the rest of the homemade pizza I had made the night before and waited for Marlen, Rick, my parents, and Steve's brothers to show up. Mr. Bill did the grilling for us.

Mr bill manning the grill

I don't think we should allow him to do it anymore....

Mr bill burned the burgers

The boys spent most of the day playing "Guitar Hero" and making homemade weapons...

Guitar hero

Alex and his homemade ax

Guitar heroes

The adults did our usual stuff, ate, talked and played a little poker...

Rick chocolate mint torte

Sisters

Tammy eating deviled eggs

Nicole and rob

Janeve or Stanie?

Uncle robby

Of course, the kids also enjoyed the pool for one of the last times of the season....

Take a picture of my splash

Cannonball

Kari soaking her splinter

Ashley jumping

Ashley hiding

And last but not least, one of the cutest little boys ever...

Wanna play polly pockets

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Only a weekend stands between me and the first day of school. I would say where did the summer go, but honestly, it felt twice as long as usual. We did all of our fun stuff at the beginning and pretty much nothing in August. Next year, it will be even longer with the kids getting out of school three weeks earlier than the county schools.

Today is a busy day. Victoria has a hair appointment at 11:45 with Gareth the cute British stylist. So I have to be up and presentable. I could use a trim myself, but I'm not going back to school, so I'll just wait for now. Instead I think I'll go back to the store and get some more of that blueberry muffin top cereal. We're almost out already. Seriously, that was good stuff.

Yesterday she worked with my mom. My mom took Victoria and my niece to the mall directly after paying them where she proceeded to spend the money she had earned. She's a bargain hunter though. She ended up with the Hollister hoodie she had been spying for awhile, a belt, and some jewelry. She even remembered to pay me back the money she owed me for highlighting kit. She's a good kid.

Tonight my small group cleans the church then we have an orientation at the new school. It would've been nice if our last non-school day was leisurely and carefree, but it wasn't meant to be.

The first week of school won't be too crazy. No games yet for Alex and Victoria. After that, they will have games on Mondays and Tuesdays and practice on Tuesday and Thursday. Then we have our church children's programs on Wednesday night. Steve and I are both working with it. Steve heads up game time for Awana. I worked with the middle school last year. I assume I'll do the same as I haven't heard from my brother in law as to whether he needs me or not. He's the children's ministry pastor or something like that. Heh. I don't think I got that title right. Rob, feel free to correct me if I didn't!  

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As you can see, we got in to see Good Charlotte last night. Steve even got us ridiculously close to the front. So close I could smell the shampoo (or lack thereof) of the girl standing in front of me. It exceeded all my expectations. I just wanted to get in the doors and hear them. I wasn't expecting to stand about 5 feet from Benji and Joel. I'm so lucky that Steve indulges my crazy ideas. I'm too tired to recap beyond that. I have some pictures and short video snippets that I took, but I'm too lazy to go get on my computer and post them.

Today we went over to Virginia for some back to school shoe shopping. Now all the kids have bright shiny new shoes and I am thoroughly exhausted. So it's off to bed for me.

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I finished the book last night, such a relief, like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Still it exhausted me. Don't let that deter you from reading it. You won't regret reading it.

Another day of sports practices down at the school, cleaning, laundry, cooking, the usual. A mom's life. Monotony puncuated by silly little things.

Today it was a rousing game of "Smack My Hand With a Brush" in the backseat of the car. Yes, Josiah and Ashley came up with this wonderfully fun game. Up until this point, they had been laughing and playing in the backseat of the van. I had no clue as to what was going on til Josiah decided he had enough. Then the tattling commenced.

"Ashley hit my hand with a bru-ush!" he whined in that wonderful sing-song tone they use when they are tattling.

"You hit my hand and made a mark!" Ashley shot back.

"Well, you made my hand bleed!" Not sure how much truth there was to that one since I'm thinking some weeping and wailing would have started at the point of blood being drawn. I quickly put a stop to this game.

It seems there's a lot of petty fighting going on with the youngest three lately. I think we are all ready for school to start. Put on those new bookbags, meet some new people, change of scenery.

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I had to take a break. This book weighs very heavy on me. I know it's fiction, but still it weighs heavy on my heart. I've found myself crying many times in the last 24 hours. I have to step away from it every so often. I need time to think and breathe. I think I'll grab one of Sophie's Judy Blume books for some light reading after this.

During my break time, I decided to catch Alex and Victoria up on their parts of speech. Nothing like a lesson in simple subject and simple predicates with a little diagramming thrown in. I'm amazed at how fast it is all coming back to me now. I really do love this stuff. I find that I am a good teacher, but I get frustrated when they don't get it right away. I've always just gotten it, and I don't understand when they don't get it right away and start to just give up on me. Luckily, the lightbulbs came on quickly and we finished 2 lessons. I think they'll be good for school by time I'm done with them.

I went back to the thrift store today and bought more books. I think I'll be making a habit of stopping by every week or so. Today's haul included a favorite childhood book of mine, Nobody's Cat. I remember taking it out of our school library many times. At $.25, I couldn't pass up buying it and sharing one of my childhood memories with the kids. Although, I only remember that the poor cat was a stray. I don't remember a happy ending. He could've been hit by a car or something. Guess I'll find out when I read it to the younger kids tonight. I don't think the 12 year olds will want to sit and listen to this one.

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I had some time to kill this morning while Victoria and Alex were at their sports practices. I try to stay in the area while they are practicing since it's an hour roundtrip from the school to our house. There was a thrift shop up the street. I decided to go in and peruse the aisles. As soon as I walked in I noticed a wall of books. I began looking hoping something would pop out at me. The only order on the chaotic shelves was paperback, hardback, and children's. I began picking up books, no prices inside. Hmmm.

Then The Poisonwood Bible jumped out at me. Esther and her husband, Damien, recommended this book to Steve and I when we visited with them in July. I have picked it up several times at Borders and other bookstores, but couldn't bring myself to pay $14.00 for a book. I'm cheap, what can I say? I held onto the book, as I wasn't sure that I would be willing to pay whatever they were asking.

As I made my way down the wall, I spied a tattered sign, edges curled and yellowing..

Books

Hardback    $1.00

Paperback     $.50

Childrens       $.25

I decided I need to look a little closer at the shelves. That was a deal that couldn't be passed up. I told Sophia, Ashley and Josiah they could pick out 2 books a piece, one frivilous, one a harder read. I found a hardback copy of Stephen King's It and a text book on Grammar and Composition. I decided to stop there, since the both novels I had chosen were pretty thick and should keep me busy for quite some time.

I ended up paying $3.41 for my entire haul, not bad at all. I'll definitely be making it a regular habit to stop in and look at the books once school starts for the kids.

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Yesterday, I went out to make sure the pool skimmer was all cleaned out. I have 2 weeks left before school starts back up and if the pool gets yucky, the kids have no way to get their energy out. That means they are inside fighting over every little thing or wrestling with each other for the fun of it til either I find out or someone gets hurt.

As I was using my bare hands to remove the leaves, this is what I happen upon in the skimmer....

Lumpy spider

where I was putting my hands, my bare hands. Upon closer examination, this was no "lumpy spider". This was a mama spider carrying what seemed like hundreds of babies on her back. So I kept a close eye on her and sent Josiah in to grab the camera so I could share the yuckiness with you all. Then I killed it (I know, I shouldn't have, but the ick factor overwhelmed me) and the baby spiders went scattering. I went scattering too and spent the afternoon itching just thinking about them.

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Otherwise, I'd be in a melted pile on the floor. Sadly, the AC can only get the house cooled to 80 degrees right now, but considering I just saw a squirrel spontaneously combust on my deck in the 100 degree heat and humidity outside, 80 degrees is fine with me. Not sure how much longer my circa 1977 air conditioner unit can take this. Hopefully, we'll get a reprieve soon.

Also, if you have a headache don't eat 2 freezee pops really fast. Yes, it is hot, but getting brain freeze when you already have a headache hurts, really bad. I'm just saying.

I was a good wife and cleaned out our pool filter today. It's a tough job, but Steve has been working hard and just hasn't had time to do it. My motivation had nothing to do with the fact that being stuck inside with 5 kids that are unable to get their energy out due to not being able to swim. I enjoy the constant bickering over which PS2 game to play, which tv show to watch or the screaming because someone will not give back someone else's "blendy pens". So I braved the heat, had sweat dripping down the front of my chest for the first time since those horrible sweats I had after giving birth, and got the job done. Sometimes I am quite surprised at myself. The pool filter hasn't exploded or spit water everywhere, so I think I did it right.

So there are my random thoughts on this hot afternoon. As you were.

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Alex vs wild

Alex discovered Man Vs. Wild this summer and spent a lot of time making lean-tos in the backyard.

Victoria vbs

Seriously, did I really give birth to her? She went from 6lbs 12oz to a full grown young lady in 12 short years!

Rearview mirror

Yup, this is actually all hanging from my rearview mirror.

Josiah goggles

Because everyone should wear goggles when they are watching tv and eating popcorn!

Not a good idea

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, not so much.

Ashley birthday

Ashley's 9th birthday party in June.

Steve sunglasses

Steve and his cool glasses. He bought them when he was in Arizona and wanted my opinion so he took this picture. Obviously, he didn't know I was going to stick it on the internet.

Soph and schnitzel

Sophia and one of our chinchillas, Schnitzel. They really do make great pets.

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