"And DON'T underestimate the importance of BODY LANGUAGE, ha!"

 The title is from Ursula in Disney's "The Little Mermaid"- the old animated one I grew up with- and it doesn't quite fit this post but it's close enough for government work. It's too hot and I'm too sleepy to fight with it for a better one. "GETMO; Good Enough To Move On," as Craig Groeschel says at the Global Leadership Conference.

I got a good look at myself in the mirror the other day and had to just laugh ruefully. This is not how I pictured my middle aged body would look. I do remember telling Dada decades ago that I wanted to be "pleasantly plump" and I guess what I had in mind was Mrs. Weasley from the Harry Potter series, though it was way before there was a Harry Potter. I think I desired that because nobody in my entire family was ever plump and I thought it was cute. We are a family of beans. String ones, generally. 

At any rate, since I don't have boobs, the first thing I see when I look down is my stomach. For someone who wanted to be plump, it's still a bit disconcerting. Not the lack of boobs- I'm fine with that- but the amount of belly. Welcome to middle age. 

Added to that, my right arm has been in a compression sleeve for almost two months and therefore looks like a fish belly. While I KNOW tan is actually sun damage, I have always felt healthier with a tan and I am *insert your favorite synonym for "mad" here* that cancer has ruined yet another summer for me and I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself. My sweet radiation doc begged me to not burn because of the radiation I underwent, and that all looks... nontraditional... because half of my chest is "tan" from the radiation and that's the half I'm supposed to keep protected, under a rash guard, with SPF 50 on the parts that might be exposed. The other half is meh tan for mid-July in a normal year, but I have to keep telling myself that it's not been a normal year. And then my white right arm and hand with tan fingers. Gah. Ridiculous.

My hair is coming back pretty well and it looks like even my eyelashes and eyebrows have decided to show up this time. However, I have started one new med and will be starting a second, and hair thinning/loss is a possible side effect. If this goes to Round Three, I don't plan on ever growing hair back out again. I like it short and fuzzy. Makes me happy and boy, does it streamline your morning routine and your Walmart receipt!

*I forgot to mention all my small incisions still glue covered and healing from last week's hysterectomy. Added to all my other scars, you could draw some funky constellations on my body!

To add insult to injury, every time I go outside I swear I get another bug bite. Mosquitoes I can handle. It's the chiggers! My heavens. It's not just me- the New York Times has an article on them and the comments section is full of misery loves company as well as tips for relief. For those of you who live where there aren't chiggers, and those areas seem to be shrinking due to climate change, count your blessings. I think the only reason poison ivy is worse is because you can spread that around whereas the bites stay put. Chiggers like to get you in the worst possible spots- along bra and underwear lines, armpits, in the folds of back fat, along your groin, not gonna lie- I even have two in my buttcrack. Talk about hitting below the belt! My poor mother did some weeding when she visited and ended up with 24 bites herself. I'm so sorry. They itch for about three weeks and the jury seems to think that it's best to not scratch them open due to histamines and less chance of secondary infection.

So there's no red, white and blue here, just fading black and blue bruises from my IVs, pink from the insect bites, and a depressing lack of tan! In the meant to be comforting words of my radiation doc, "not for forever, just for this summer." *sigh* Whatever you say, Doc.

Morning mist and morning glories

Thing Two still calls mist on the soybeans "beancreep" and loves the spookiness of the fog sneaking through the beans. It has been cold enough to see our breath at the bus stop in the morning, so the added layer of moisture makes for fun photos.

Bus time in our latitude is also roughly sunrise, so yes, I have a new phone that is filling up with sunrise photos!

And, of course, the splendor of morning glories.

 

Another post of Random

 Dada hit yet another auction, this time with Thing Two, and brought home at least three boxes of books. Now we get to sort what we want to keep, will actually use, will never use, what goes to the used bookstore for book credit, and so on!

One of Thing Two's science experiments isn't going as planned. The Dixie cup on the left has three bean seeds. The Dixie cup on the right has 15 bean seeds. The glass jar in the middle holds a few but aren't part of the experiment. 

He's supposed to find out what happens when seeds are overcrowded. I told him to just look at our garden for an example of overcrowding. None of his initial three beans have even come up, three of the 15 showed up, and the ones who don't matter are thriving. Beans.

I was killing some time last week when I saw these lovely colors together and had to take pictures!

Being in a college town, you end up with lots of coffee shops. This is one of our favorites. The week before, Thing Three had beaten Thing Two who proceeded to shellac him this time!

These next two shots were taken at the bus stop first thing in the morning. Well, first thing for some people. Right around 7 AM. Some of us had already been up for hours. It's so dark!

It's rare to see this kid conked out like this. He's always in motion, but he sure had a great nap this weekend!

Tis the season for shepherd's pie!

Have a terrific week!

Coffee conundrum

 The saddest part of this story is that it happened yesterday and I didn't even have the built in excuse of, "oh, that's Monday." 

Yesterday I attempted to make coffee, something I do almost daily (though I confess to drinking my fair share of leftover coffee from the day before. I'm a mom. As long as it's hot, I don't care. That's why I often find my mug in the microwave, which has been beeping patiently at me, reminding me that my coffee is in there!)

First, I needed to reassemble my drip coffee maker with its grinder. No big deal, it's about six pieces in total. I slide the barrel into place that holds the filter and the bottom half of the grinder up top. I reach for my bag of beans from our local coffeeshop (which is excellent, by the way) and dump a spoonful into the barrel. 

"Waitaminute," I muse to myself. "I've done that before." When one attempts to grind coffee beans without a filter, one's kitchen is scented and sprayed with the delightful aroma and unbelievable mess of fine coffee grounds. Been there, done that, much to the kids' delighted mirth. They feel the same way about the story of my Pap Pap making popcorn on the stove but forgetting the lid, something none of us were alive for but a story we all find hilarious because my Pap Pap was just about the most organized and process-oriented man alive.

I dump the beans back out, add the all-important paper filter (I prefer the brown ones. I don't need bleached paper that's just going to turn brown anyway. Seems silly to me. Plus, they're cuter, like brown eggs and black sheep. I digress.) Then I poured the beans back into the exact same but now filter-lined spot. 

"Waitaminute," I sighed to myself. "Those are beans. They need ground first." Removing the beans again and redepositing them into the grinder where they belong, I try to make coffee for the third time. 

I finally get all the pieces assembled and pour in the rest of the beans and the water. I turn the thing on and ponder, "what does it mean when you need coffee in order to simply make coffee?" 

First day of school #8, I think

Okay, we've been here before. I believe this was Carrie's 8th first day of school, and every one of them has run something like this:

"Finding Nemo" clip

She gets so excited that she has a hard time sleeping. Her stomach fills with butterflies and her heart longs to be out of the house and back with her friends. So this is one happy chick:

 

First day of seventh grade already. Wow. We've had her forever.

 

Yes, she made the decorations on her shirt herself.

 

This is what "grin and bear it" looks like from Carrie, what "suck it in" looks like from Damon, and what pure excitement looks like from Liam. This is the first year he's ever been excited about going to school. I blame believe it had something to do with the excellent and fast open house we experienced the night before school began.

 

Grandmama was here to kick off the school year!

 

Look at these cute boys! Liam is brimming over. And then there's Bebeeeee... robe and all. He didn't start on Tuesday. His first day is Wednesday, but his open house was Tuesday. Kindergarten tends to be chaotic.

 

Here it comes! The bus, not the beans.

 

And there he goes. Big kids off to a great start!

 

"Bring me another mai tai!"

 

#begone

 

Just kidding...

 

Tino through the XRay

Care Bear joined the Girl Scouts this school year. They meet once a month after school and also do one fun monthly outing. For November, the girls met up at a local hospital for a tour of the X-ray section and were told to bring one stuffed animal or favorite lovey from home. Of course, steadfast Tino got to go with Carrie. Tino is a rainbowy Beanie Baby whom Carrie has had for years and years. She says she got to see his beans!

When they were finished, the girls were in the cafeteria having cookies and punch. And they were all in the tie dyed Tshirts they'd made at their first meeting. AND they were wearing the soft, blue surgical hats that look like poufy chef hats almost. Tooooo funny to see a whole troop of girls in matching garb, munching away. She had a wonderful time.

She's also very much looking forward to their camping trip in May. That oughta be hilarious!

Taking it easy today. We did church and it's break time now. Dada even got to mow, for what's hopefully the last time of 2011. Triskal is enjoying it completely; rolling around like fresh cut grass is the best thing ever for Newfoundland fuzz. Silly girl.

Happy weekend, and happiest of birthdays to Grandmama! oxoxoxoxoxoo!