Sharing the gorgeous

I love my time with Thing Three at the bus stop. Sometimes it's foggy and we can both see and feel the approaching mist. Sometimes it's windy and we sneak glances for the bus over our shoulders if the wind is in our face. And some mornings are just gorgeous, even when he groans as I take out my phone to shoot "yet another sunrise." Perhaps I need an intervention. Until then, I'll share. 

I especially love it when there is a sunrise ahead and the moon quietly setting behind! 

 

Kid goin' places

Thing Three kicked off his first week of high school still recovering from some rotten virus that has him coughing and hacking like he's trying to rid himself of his lungs. Whilst talking with our pediatrician's admin I asked if bronchitis was going around. She sighed, chuckled ruefully and replied, "All. The. Things. are going around. We even had pneumonia cases in the hospital this weekend." 

Fabulous.

So he is the masked and hooded crusader to kick off freshman year, I guess. It was around 50 degrees at the bus stop at 7 AM and I may need to remind Mother Nature that it is still AUGUST. Ahem.

I object.

Could we please borrow about three degrees from Texas for another month or so?

Happy trails to everyone beginning a new school year!

 

Award winning

 I hereby declare, in an officially fancy-looking font, that Thing Three is certifiably the World's Worst Umbrella Holder. He is legit, folks. 

I should back up. Last week, I went for a walk in the rain all by my onesies, as Captain Jack Sparrow says. I don't mind rain. I have boots and I have, in theory and in name, a raincoat, and even a rain hat. 

Well, I forgot the hat but I did have my hood. I schlepped along pretty contentedly, skirting puddles and obvious mud-sucking areas. My good-for-nothing bangs snuck out from underneath my hood and began to drip water down into my face and along the sides of my hood. I stopped to shake like a dog a few times as my "raincoat" isn't truly waterproof, at least not anymore, and I'd rather get the wet off before it soaks in. 

I did about three miles and laughed at myself in the mirror when I got home. For the first time in a long time, I was wearing colorful eye shadow and some of that had run along with the not waterproof colorful mascara. All in all, I looked like a sad water color painting, haha.

I texted all that to my bestie, who asked where my bumbershoot was. I told her that I hated umbrellas because they always either turned inside out or busted, and I'd rather just be in my hood and/or rain hat and hope for the best. She laughed and agreed.

This morning it wasn't truly rainy, but very wet and drippy and heading towards foggy after a night of rain and temps in the low 40's. I figured it'd be a good day to wait at the bus stop under one of our big umbrellas. Damonater, dancing with delight, announced he'd love to hold the umbrella. However, he had difficulties getting it open, so he returned it to me. Voila, I found the button and WHOOSH. Inside out. First thing. Not even out in the wind. There's me standing there, holding what looks like an enormous flower beginning to open, huge drips of water from our oak trees plummeting down around us, this fool laughing beside me. *siiiiiiiiiiiigh*

After some good-natured piratey, black scribble griping, I got the darn thing set to rights and it actually stayed put. He took over from there but I sure didn't stay any drier. I try to watch down the street for the bus and he holds it so it blocks the horizon. He straightens it uprightish and tilts it back so it catches wind from the passing cars. It's still dark out there at 7 AM and this kid is cackling, "I LOVE umbrellas! They're so fun!"

"Child. It's purpose is to keep us dry. Hold it over us!"

*more waggling around* Bear in mind the child is 12. Twelve!

"Ahem. I can't see if the bus is coming. Hold it UP."

*more spinning and giggles*

"You are officially The World's Worst Umbrella Holder Ever."

"Yeah. I'm a doofus." *more chortling*

Oh my stars. One of us is going to end up at the funny farm for sure. At least there I'll be dry...

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!

Boys, bugs, mums, and other assorted musings

No matter how big he gets, this kid is irresistible when he's sleeping. The camera loves him and somehow he is even more kissable when he's snuggled into a big chair. 

I often wonder how he's going to fit at, say, 17...

We had some insect adventures at the bus stop this morning. There was a two hour delay due to fog. Some of you are rolling your eyes, but I swear we've already covered this ground; we live out in the boonies and bus drivers probably can't see the kids, not to mention any deer, in fog you could saw through with a butter knife. It lays especially thick on the fields, some of which are being harvested. At any rate, it's rather pleasant to eeeeeease into a Monday...

So the sun was fully up and shining away by the time the Damonater struts down the driveway at 10 AM. Birds are twittering away, the squirrels are in full... uh, squirrel, and the bugs are zooming every which way. We had an overly friendly bee checking us out thoroughly. I've always tried to teach the kids to not swat at them, but to stay calm and remind the bee that they're not a flower. It must be confusing to find bright, colorful things that smell like... kids. Oh, never mind. You're not a flower. Got it. Moving on.

This bee was not easily convinced. We had been swatting a pesky mosquito which we both missed when I heard a buzzy drone in my left ear. Damon exclaimed, "bee!" so I ducked a bit and she headed around to my right ear. I felt like I was living that scene from "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" where they talk about, "I'm on the east side, I'm on the west side" that you can see here in case you need a fun distraction. I had nothing to do with either the original movie nor the video clip. Anyway, this bee was not to be deterred from her examination of us. Once she'd repeatedly zoomed around both my east and west sides, she headed for Damon.

He hunched his head down into his shoulders, clasped his hands tight and screwed his eyes shut. Right now I'm curious- is that the universal sign for "potentially stinging winged insect of undetermined malicious intent"? I think it must be. She gave him a complete thrice-over before landing on his forehead right where his bangs meet skin. She only stayed a few milliseconds but it was long enough for me to spin it saying, "awwww, she gave you a bee-kiss!" Off she zoomed, probably to go play amongst our crazy, leggy mums. 

The bee crisis averted, we then did succeed in pulverizing the mosquito that finally landed on Damon's shin. As the bus approached, an Asian beetle/ladybug imposter crashed our party and landed on Damon's backpack. I told him he had a hitchhiker who looked pretty confused about being on a backpack, and off she went with him onto the bus.

I can only imagine the adventures she will have today.

I keep forgetting to get the fall bin out of the attic so the kids can finish decorating, but we did get a good start:

For those of you who live where the weather is a bit more predictable in October than Ohio's weather is, I thought I'd enlighten you on why it is important to wear layers:

I snapped a picture of that after doing a double take when I looked at the weekend weather last week. Yes, those are snowflakes, sun, and rain all on Saturday, with a high of 83. Once again, Mother Nature said, "hold my beer." And while we didn't see the snowflakes, thank goodness, it did reach the lower 80's. In October.

I blame karate. Yesterday was the start of the fall dress code, which means full gis must be worn instead of just the pants, belts, and whatever karate-related T shirts you own. Naturally the first half of this week is going to be in the 80's. In October. 

Following the layering rule, this is what I strolled to the bus stop in today:

Yes, that would be a sundress under a corduroy jacket. Good thing we didn't pack them all up already, right, Mommee? I wanted something long and loose over my ACE bandages which are compressing my top half enough that I still look pregnant on my bottom half. The nail polish is Avon's Mudslide, just perfect for fall, and the boots were on clearance at Charlotte Russe several years ago. They make me feel really tall. I'm back in my bunny slippers now, but it was nice to clump down the driveway in the boots. Just gotta remember to watch out for those slippery acorns.

Enjoy... what is this, officially? Indian summer? Anyone?

In Mawch...

See those two frizzering kids on the extreme left? They actually have daylight at the bus stop now!

I liked how the trees looked outlined on one side. 

The wind is still blowing pretty good and Damon found a spot of black ice on the driveway en route to the bus stop. It kinda went like this: 

Normally we wait until we can see the bus head down the street for our intersection. That way we are out of the elements. Today, however, perhaps because it was sunny, Damon insists on waiting outside. Damon, Bosley and I all headed out of the garage. Damon lags behind, grinning wickedly as he begins to argue that we should wait in the garage. I stare at him, then turn my back and continue out. He eventually catches up, after commenting on the trees, the snow, the ice, every little thing, and then scurries to where I am where he proceeds to wipe right out and lands on his bum. He looks up at me with a twinkle in his eye and announces delightedly, "black ice!"

Whose kid IS this!? He then proceeds to dance his way down the rest of the driveway, shuffling, sliding, doing his very best with every move to make me crazier. I'm happy to report that he didn't wipe out again as he crossed the street, which has happened before, or at the turn where he boards the steps of the bus, which has also happened previously. 

Bos and I made it back down the driveway in our respective pieces, and he couldn't wait to go play out back. Enjoy the sunshine and happy weekend, everyone!

Oops, I did it again...

I'm not alone in my state of holy-cow-it's-already-three-weeks-into-January-ness, so there's comfort in knowing I'm not alone in the state of my unbegunst (hahaha, now THAT should be a new word!) resolutions or the fact that I completely spaced it last week when I should have taken a mid-month photo of the boys at the bus stop.

Oops.

It just dawned on me this morning that it hadn't even crossed my mind to do it, not just that I'd forgotten to upload it or blog it. Never even took it. I guess getting back into our school groove took more out of us than I thought. It's still too dark to get any of Carrie while she's out there, a fact which was brought home to me this morning. One of the bus riders had sketched a smiley face on the window and was backlighting it with some sort of electronic device so that I could see it. It made me giggle as I walked back into the house before discovering that the boys A) weren't dressed, B) weren't yet eating, and C) very likely to not be alive long enough for me to take their picture at the bus stop...

So to use one of Dada's favorite Steven King/ Roland Deschain-isms, "I cry your pardon." I'll try harder to be awake in the morning mid month so I can get that picture! I suppose the next one will be a Valentine!

Mid-late month...

I forgot all about taking my mid-month picture of the boys at the bus stop, so I apologize for being a little late. These were taken Monday morning, about a week behind.

As you can see, cute urchins and no snow. Frosty, but no snow. Yippie!

Then, because they are boys, they raced to the end of the driveway and someone got plowed into and knocked over and I'll let the pictures be worth a thousand words:

But everyone made it onto the bus and nobody killed anyone else and the sun was shining and I had coffee. Not a terrible Monday, all things considered.

This one's called "Eight AM February Light on Oak in Ohio", haha!

Irony

I suppose if you're new to this blog in 2016 you wouldn't yet be aware that I am a Procrastinator. That's why this post will be funny. I actually took pictures of the kids ahead of time. 

I know, right!?

Actually, I can't even claim to be that organized. The weather has been exceedingly cooperative and I'm sure it can't last, so I wanted to commemorate our lovely snow-less situation for posterity.

These were taken January 7, 2016 at around 8 AM:

I will attempt to continue taking photos midmonth for comparing and contrasting purposes, but there was no sense in letting that gorgeous morning light go to waste while I could feel my fingers.

It remains too dark to get any shots of Carrie at just after 7 AM, but we'll get there eventually. Of course, she might die a thousand deaths if I take the camera to the bus stop and take pictures in front of her associates on the bus. God forbid any two of the 20 kids be awake or not already absorbed in whatever screen they're watching...

Have a wonderful weekend! Tomorrow is our 17th anniversary (poor Dada has put up with me for a long time) and I'm delighted that it should also be snow-free. We had enough snow, freezing rain, ice, and sleet on our wedding day to last for the rest of my life! Cheers to my sweet hubby!

Another one for the ages

Vintage Carrie (who has only been awake and functioning for half an hour today) at the bus stop, chattering nonstop about how her class was discussing reincarnation:

"I'm a squirrel." Changing her voice, "I'm a flower." Changing her voice again, "I'm a cow. I give milk and am scarred in India."

My brain decodes. "Sacred. Not scarred, from boo-boos. Sacred is holy, worshipped. Also not scared- frightened, afraid."

The bus takes her away.

Oy vey.

Not Nostalgic

I'm going to take advantage of the few moments of peace I'm experiencing while Damon is rocking, rocking, rocking in the big chair and get this down while it's fresh.

Next week is the last week of school. I believe today is day 8 of the countdown. Carrie's teacher retires this year. I think this is the third teacher she's knocked into retirement, hehe!

I was struck this morning by the sight of Carrie and Liam meandering off to the bus. These will be the last two weeks they'll walk to the bus stop together until her senior year, provided we're in the same place then. Next year Carrie starts middle school, and they'll be on different schedules orbits for years. I'm fairly sure her bus for junior high will come at the ridiculous time of minutes-after-7-AM... which I'm sure will be the cause of much hilarious blogging to come. I've been proclaiming that she'll have to sleep on the couch, in her school clothes, with her backpack hung on the front doorknob, and a PopTart in the mailbox on her way to the bus in order to make it on time. Maybe.

Anyway, it made me sad this morning to think about the comraderie ending. I have no idea what they talk about on the way to the bus, and I don't need to know. It's kind of fun to stay back and watch them be siblings, to have that bond that nobody else has, even as much as they complain about each other. I'm sure that's part of the whole sibling thing, too. Some days they stop to pet the dogs who are out. Some days they leave slightly ahead and behind of each other and tear along the sidewalk in fear of we-might-just-miss-it-this-time. Some days bring the sharing of an umbrella or the steadying of each other so nobody wipes out on the ice. Other days finds them searching for those rolypoly bugs, ladybugs, and praying mantis (mantises? manti?) characters peeking out of the lilies at the bus stop.  

I'm sure Carrie won't be thinking of much except how ungodly early it is on her trek next year. I wonder if Liam will notice his sister is not even with him. There will be new, smaller kids to take her seat on the bus. Our beloved Mr. Mike stopped driving the bus at the end of the fall semester, so we've been mourning his absence. It must be time.

And darn it if I'm not sitting here in tears.

Things that shouldn't need to be said but apparently DO need to be said...

I know some of you are anxiously awaiting news of Liam's first day of school. Sorry about the delay. He has 5 days under his belt now, but the first one definitely counted as memorable. He got on the bus in the morning just fine, like a big boy, with no looking back or trembly lips or tears.

The school doesn't call at all, which is always a good sign. ;)

The bus is late getting home. Our neighbor, Suzanne, and I wonder aloud if it's because they have new kindergarteners who need lined up and double- and triple-checked to make sure they end up on the correct bus, etc. Finally, finally, the bus pulls up and deposits our kids. Suzanne and I ask Carrie what took the bus so long.

"Oh, Liam got off at the Y." (Where he had preschool and soccer.)

"He got off at the Y???"

"Yep. And the Y person said, "waitaminute, we have one extra. And Mr. Mike said, "hey, isn't that your brother?" and I said, "yeah, that my brother!" So they got him back on the bus and we came home."

At this point, Suzanne is literally bent in half, laughing. And I shake my head and smile and say, "of COURSE it would be my kid who would make the bus late on the first day of school!"

"So, Liam. Why did you get off at the Y?"

"I dunno."

Hooooooooooooooo boy. "Liam, you get on the bus here and you get off at school. Only at school. Then you get on at school and get off the bus again here at the same stop where you get on. Only those two places. School and here."

"Okay."

He claims he had a good first day.

...................

Yesterday, which was like day 12 or something for her, Carrie comes home with her Tshirt on inside out, which incidentally was NOT how she left the house. I ask her, "why is your Tshirt on inside out?"

"I turned it inside out."

"When did you turn it inside out? It was not like that when you left this morning."

"At either the first or second bathroom break. I don't remember."

"WHY did you turn it inside out?"

"I dunno."

"No, you have to have a reason, or it would have stayed right side out."

"I just WANTED to. That's my reason."

Trying to stay calm, "Carrie, your clothes need to remain on your body right side out. Unless the school announces it is Inside Out Day, you keep your clothes on your body right side out. Okay?"

"Okay."

...........

Like I said, things that you'd think wouldn't need to be said sometimes need to be said.....!

Instead of breaking into song...

Care Bear has been inventing poems on the spot. We went to Maumee Bay on Friday for the last beach trip before school started, and she announced from the back seat:

I love the Mama.
I love the trees.
I love the train tracks.
And I love the cheese!

So now, of course, at random times Dada and I blurt out, "I love cheese!" =)

Today they're still in their jammies eating their blueberry flavored frosted Mini Wheats and doing their usual morning arguments about anything and everything. They slept for 12 hours! I couldn't believe it. And Care Bear is getting another molar on her top right side. I didn't realize there were 6 year molars...

The plan is to get groceries, hit the library, and hopefully Dada will make it home for an afternoon at the zoo before we have preview night tonight. Care Bear (my head calls her "Dee", because that's what Liam's always called her) meets her teacher & takes in all of her school supplies & sees her room this evening. Fun times! School starts Wednesday. She'll be a big first grader, riding the bus to and from school on Mr. Mike's bus and staying allllll day. Yippie!

Tons more to tell y'all, but I have an immense load of laundry to hang & have gotta get this crew moving or we'll never be ready. Have a wonderful week! =)

Built on the rock

You know the song about "the wise man built his house upon the rock... and the house on the rock stood firm"? That was running through my head this morning at the bus stop. Apparently it doesn't also hold true for petite children. Care Bear climbed up on top of one of the two big rocks in the landscaping. The wind (which is gusting pretty well still) grabbed her by the hood and literally lifted her off the rock. I laughed and laughed and laughed. She goes, "WOAH! It blew me right off!" I gotta get a camcorder to catch all these shenanigans at the bus stop... award winning material, I tell ya...