Playground Mishaps

Before you see the picture, let's cover a few bases. She's fine. It happened yesterday at school. She was playing Hide-N-Go-Seek-No-Base ( I guess a particularly dangerous form of the game??) It doesn't hurt too much, only two doses of Tylenol so far. They took care of it at the Dr's office so no need for the hospital.

And now, the lengths my child will go to for a little attention-

It's a fractured wrist and the cast stays on a month. Mom's really love getting calls from the school nurse on the 2nd day of school. You grab the phone, see the school on caller ID and have a minor heart attack immediately. It's far too early for anybody to be visiting the nurse because they need a break or just want out of class. I said Hello and prayed it was the secretary or teacher wanting me to help with something- nope. School nurse. Crap. Casey met me at school to look at it. He, I and the school nurse all thought it was okay and not broken. Caroline insisted it hurt pretty bad. I agreed to take her on to the Dr's office while Casey went back to work, if he could pick up Dunk if I got stuck. He called the Dr from his truck they said they could see her in 7 minutes (LOVE small town life!) Off we all went and two hours later we were all home again. The Dr. looked at it for about a minute and guessed it was fractured but decided to wait until he saw the x-rays before making any conclusions. She got mass attention in the radiology dept. because no one else was there. They loved that her shoes matched her dress which matched her backpack. She was polite enough not to say that her mother has issues. But she chose a cast which decidedly did not match anything.

The 3 R's

Let's see-

1) we got up really early

2) we're all really tired

3) by tonight we'll all be really cranky

Well, we'll call that the Cumby version. Everyone did fabulously this morning, we'll see how I do in the A.M. when I face traffic alone. My partner in crime was with me this morning. It occurs to me that life would super fabulous-o if we could be stay-at-home-parents together. Guess that's a long shot.

Here they are all ready to go- Caroline chose the cutest little outfit that we found at Target, of all places. Duncan didn't care one bit about what he wore as long as he got to wear his new Nike Shox and spike his hair - for the ladies (spoken in the voice of the Ladies Man)

Dad is tired- he was painting until the wee hours of the morning. He's wearing grubby clothes so he can return to work after the drop-off.

They wanted to show off their new backpacks and lunch bags. Caroline chose the cutest one EVER! Love those polka dots! Duncan's is hard to see but is covered in camo-colored guitars. His lunch bag matches and then the green bag labeled Dunk is his water bag. He cannot drink from the water fountain with the rest of his class after gym so we pack a cooler bag with cold water in it for him each day.

Act Your Age

Things have not been as they should be this summer. I am not saying that's bad, it's just the way it is. Something is just a bit off. We're way too busy. Always preoccupied. And there's a fantastic payoff for it, don't get me wrong. We'll have a new, bigger house that is completely accessible. Couldn't ask for a nicer blessing.

But we're tired. I have had to attend more family/friend events alone than I have since we were first married. And my poor husband is about run ragged.

The start of school is approaching and I'll be honest I generally look to that time of year with a little excitement. Long leisurely trips to the grocery store alone. Stolen time at Target wandering the aisles. Lunch dates with the love of my life. And a schedule is always good- we all function better when things happen on a regular time table. It's rather nice to know exactly what will happen and when.

This year is different. I don't look forward to the school year at all. I feel as though I have missed so much of this summer, I am just not ready to let it go.

So there may not be many entries in my blog for the next week- we're gonna play as much as possible. There will be plenty of ice cream, movies, games of Clue, and other childhood pleasures. That's a real benefit of being a parent, you know. Acting like a kid again.

True Stars

Remember the cousin gathering last month? Well, while we were there we took the kids to the Imax and this Star Wars Exhibit at the Museum. I think I mentioned having to forcefully remove someone from the wheelchair seating. Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit.

Anywho, at the Imax you must wait in a special line to get to the wheelchair seating. So, Dunk, his Pops and I got into that line to wait. Duncan is not happy. This was not his choice for the day. And after telling him to suck it up and be a man, I confided that this was not my choice for the day either. I gave him a rather public lecture about how it wasn't only about what he wanted or what I wanted but we needed to be flexible and do things that everyone wanted to do, blah, blah, blah.

No, I don't generally lecture my children publicly but I was getting dirty looks from the other people in the wheelchair line because I wasn't making my son happy. The public is fickle- sure they'll cut in line in front of the kid in the wheelchair or steal his seats at the movie without thinking twice but if they suspect that his own mother isn't being nice to him and giving in to his every whim they will turn on you.

So this lady in line next to us starts up a conversation with Dunk. Asking him why he doesn't want to see Star Wars and does he live in Fort Worth? I am a little skeptical. I am thinking this woman may be about to turn me into CPS for making Dunk cry when I told him he was going to the Imax. I am not saying much. Pops is saying even less.

Than she asks where he got his chair. I answer for him and she says she works on the factory where they make them. She notices my Gap madras plaid backpack slung over his handlebars. She begins telling Duncan how great the other Imax film they had seen that week was and that they were also going to see Star Wars later that day. Then she tells him if he will tell her where he lives she'll send him a special backpack made to go on the back of his chair, that looks a little more manly.

I thought it was a nice thing to say, and I never doubted her intention. Sometimes though, it's hard to believe people will be kind when there is simply nothing at all in it for them. But just last week via FedEx the backpack arrived from Terry. Duncan loves it and though it is empty it is already on the back of his chair. So thanks to Terry for being so kind to my son and for reminding his mom that there are people who are kind just because they can be.

Color Me Happy

Yesterday I had a mission. I had no choice but to accept it. Sorry, I had to. Anyhow, my mission was to go chose the paint for the new house. Now because of our previous discussions ya'll know what a challenge this was for me. So many pretty colors, so many enticing names. Ah, what's a girl to do? Oh and add in the fact that Caroline is bound and determined that her room will be a different color and she will pick it. Great.

Okay so my plan was to go buy some small paint samples of Ralph Lauren paint for $3.99 each and try them out before committing to one color. I had good reasoning behind this. When we moved into our current house I went to Lowe's and chose a different color for every room in the house. I bought all that paint without ever seeing it on a wall and I have lived with the great majority of it for 6 years. We don't have to revist the whole ugly ordeal but since I am coming to you live from my hot pink Office, I want to be absolutely sure of the color this time.

So, off we go to Home Depot for said paint samples. I had a pretty good idea what I wanted which was good because I am easily distracted. But the plan goes awry quickly after arrival. Actually, it could be said that the plan went awry when we had to make a 25 minute bathroom stop at a conveinence store half-way there. Um, the things they don't tell you before you're a mom. So, we're at Home Depot. They have the little paint samples.........in some colors. A better description might be that they had the tiny samples in a couple colors. Crap.

Seriously, the sample said it would cover a 2 x 2 section or on darker colors (or freshly textured walls, I suspect) it would cover a 1 x 1 square. Why? I mean that's just enough paint to make me mad. Well, I might like it but I can't see it. I need more. Oh, I don't have more. Crap.

And another paint company offered stickers to test out their paint. They were approx. 6 inches long and maybe 3 inches wide. You were supposed to buy these prepackaged colors and go home and stick them on your wall. Then decided which color you wanted to paint your wall. Here's a hint- if you can tell from a 3 inch x 6 inch sticker what color you want- you don't need the stickers. Are these companies aware of the free paint chips they give away?

Clearly, this wasn't going as planned. So, I began choosing colors I liked. Ya'll would be so proud. I paid almost no attention to the color names. I did really want to like Khaki- but I didn't. And Sisal seemed to sound like the right color but not so much. I had some minor panic attacks over the name of one color we chose to test in Caroline's bathroom. It is a gorgeous shade but doesn't have a gorgeous name. I am over it, though.

I ended up choosing a few colors to buy in quarts. That worked out for most of my choices but two of them required a deeper tint base and had to be purchased in Gallon size. Of course, they were the two I really expected to choose so I went ahead and got them. So instead of a few $3.99 samples, we bought just over $140 worth of paint yesterday. I don't even know how I do it, it's a talent. Or possibly a mental illness.

So the choices? You're dying to know, right? Let's see- these would be Mayfield Common, Thunder Bay, and Cottonwood. Rio Grande in a Glaze and then Sunwashed Blue and Faded Seafoam.

Random House News

The sheet rock is all hung now and they will begin texturing on Thursday. That is if they texture at at all. We're gonna go out and have a consultation. Seems the texture that I wanted on the walls would have been $1.00 per square foot of wall space, which works out to $9.00 a linear foot of wall. Or somewhere in the neighborhood of $7,000. Casey seems to think that is something we can live without. We shall see.

The beams are up in the great room after much debate and consulting the electrician, the framer and the air conditioning company. First, everyone forgot about them. Then we called the framer back out to add them. The he didn't think they would all fit. I wanted them all to fit. Electrician says they can fit but we need to move some can lights and call air conditioner man to move ducts. Call air conditioner man and he comes out. Says yes, we can move ducts. Boys begin to crawl up to the attic and I panic and say forget it. Framer says "forget it, like leave them out?" I answer Yes. He points out that we have already bought at least one of the beams because it has been notched out to be attached to the wall. I say I don't care. Casey requests a private consultation with me. I point out to him that I really don't care what we paid for the beam because we are about to spend a lot of money to have people change work they have already done (and we've paid them to do!) and then it may end up looking like a jumbled up mess because of it. Because I married a completely reasonable and diplomatic man, he is able to convince me that instead of 4 beams we could add only 2. Then nothing will need to be moved and we will actually save a little money. Hmmmm, how bout that! I agree with him because honestly, he deserves for me to agree with him at least sometimes.

The brick will possibly be here Thursday, it was supposed to be here yesterday but it seems that never works out right. The rock guy will start on Monday, I think.

Casey will start painting on Monday as well. Then the cabinets will arrive and the trim will be added and we'll be well on our way to being finished.

I'll try for pictures today. I haven't taken any out there in a little while. My pretty, pretty door will be picked up on Thursday and pictures will definitely be in order for that! Not much to say, hope everyone else is having a more exciting week than us. All of our allergies are going C-R-A-Z-Y and that's no fun and the countdown for back to school has begun and that's no fun either.

Is That the Way Love Goes?

Our whole family loves music. And we truly like pretty much all varieties. I don't consider Rap music at all, and no I don't like it. Other than that, we like it all and we listen to it all. All four of us have Ipods and though they are all loaded with different music there are certainly common threads. Third Day, for example, can be found on all four. Jimmy Buffet can as well. Everyone of us has some Willie on there, though I am sure we didn't all chose the same songs.

We all lean towards Southern Rock. Duncan loves Western Swing and Casey tends to like all the Texas artists. I have a thing for 80's Country and Kelly Willis. Caroline is into the Disney artists of right now- High School Musical kids, Aly & AJ, that type of stuff.

Music plays a prominent role in our lives. In fact, the first thing Casey bought for Duncan was a portable CD player to play in his crib at the hospital. He bought those Baby Learning Cd's with Mozart, Bach, Chopin and etc. And late at night, he would take those out and play John Conlee or Merle Haggard to Duncan while he slept. And you people thought we might not be real rednecks. I am not sure what type of "programming" that it is but I think it took.

Anyway, our kids have heard the likes of Mozart mixed right in with Patsy Cline or Elton John or Waylon Jennings. I guess it never occurred to us that it all didn't go together.

So, when Caroline was 2 I signed her up for Kindermusic classes at a local church. I was pregnant and thought this would be a fun bonding experience for us. And it was fun. She loved it. And I was really enjoying going with her but then life got in the way, as it always seems to. I needed to rest as much as possible as my blood pressure was getting out of hand. Casey decided he could go to the last couple of classes with her. This would be interesting.

Not that I thought he wasn't capable. I knew he was capable. He's capable of running a very successful business and he is a great Dad. But c'mon, Casey in Kindermusic. You gotta admit, it's a little bit funny.

So, I get her all ready to go to the last class and off they go. When they return Caroline is just as pleased as ever. Casey has a strange look on his face. What happened? I can tell he doesn't really want to tell me. Seems the teacher asked all the children to go around the circle one at a time and name their favorite song and then the whole group would sing it. So they began this with children picking songs like Jesus Loves Me, The Wheels on the Bus, etc. Which is exactly what you would expect from 2 year olds, right? Not mine. She chose something a little different. When asked her favorite song, what did Caroline say? She said "Merle Haggard". What she meant was a duet between Merle Haggard and Jewel singing "That's the Way Love Goes". And for the record, it was Caroline's favorite song at the time.

I probably didn't help her out much by singing Please Come to Boston to her every night for the first couple years of her life. She could mouth the words with me by the time she was 18 months old. What can I say? I guess my children are just musically gifted.

Not Much

I haven't posted much this week. I just don't really have that much to say which is............odd. I always have something to say. Maybe I just haven't adjusted to having people who actually listen (well, read).

The house is coming along just fine. A few minor crisis but everything is working out. Budget looks good which really helps everything else look good. We're not far from finishing now, we'll pick floors and appliances soon. So any recommendations on dishwashers, washers and dryers, refrigerators, cook tops, etc let me know. Especially if you have one you hate!

I'll try to get some pictures this afternoon, they are putting in the wood beams today and I am anxious to see them. They are also supposed to start sheet rocking but they were supposed to do that 2 days ago, so we'll see.

See? Not much to say. Hope you are having a good week and maybe inspiration will strike me with a great post tomorrow!