I'm still here!

 Hi! You may remember me. I used to be a blogger, haha.

Sorry. Summer sends routine out the window in both good and bad ways. I'd like to think I'm getting more sleep, but I am pretty sure it's only that bedtime anad waketime have shifted further back. The city pool is open, so I've been walking the lazy river... well, duck-walking it actually, as it's less than three feet deep and I'm trying to keep my top half submerged to use the water pressure as compression to do my arm exercises. We went on vacation and are home again, so that's another cause of radio silence. And now there's Christmas in July party prep and a family get together and a summer check-in with students and we went to the drive-in movies and we've had probably a literal boatload of ice cream this summer (for sure a kayak, maybe a dinghy) and we're doing yardwork when we won't melt or sink- we've had some wild weather- and I'm going to PT twice a week and we are still painting the basement around all the other things. If summer is supposed to be a time of rest then I'm pretty sure we're doing it wrong.

But if it's time to squish in as much stuff as possible, then we are probably doing "fair to middling" as the saying goes! 

Thing Three gets his braces off this week and is working albeit grudgingly on his required driving hours. Band camp will start up soon which is one of his favorite weeks.

Thing Two is jobhunting and living off PBJ despite us having all the meats. Dunno what he'd have done as a caveman. We giggle that he is indistinguishable from our plastic skeleton friend- the one currently on the front porch in swim goggles and swim trunks- both in circumference and paleness!

Thing One is plying tourists down South with caffeine and sugar at two different jobs and seems to be doing well despite the following text exchange:

Absolutely revolting start to the morning: smooshed a cockroach on the ground behind my counter and then five minutes later it appeared dragging its half-popped not-yet-corpse body along the edge of my counter.

To be fair, that's how a lot of people feel before coffee on a Monday morning. "I'm not dead yet."

Taking a stomp to the exoskeleton and then dragging all your innards up a vertical cliff is an entirely different ballgame...

I said "feel." "Must...get...to...Monday...morning...staff...meeting...nggghhh..."

Haha

***

Have a terrific Tuesday, everybody!

Oh shoot, I'm out of practice. Thanks to everybody who checked in about my blood clot! Poor Dada earned many gold stars for giving me all 60 Lovenox injections and now I'm back on twice daily Eliquis for the next few months. I have no movement restrictions so I'm going about business as usual, fighting through PT to get back range of motion and all the things. The party line seems to be "keep doing what you're doing and we will ultrasound the area this fall."

Me, shrugging, "okieeeedokieeeee."

AND today is my very last dose of the first year of a medication I'm to take for 3 years, so I'm a third done. Woohoo! My doc is pretty sure it's the main culprit behind my hair thinning, so it's looking like baby bird hair and no eyelashes or eyebrows for two more years. Good thing I didn't open the mascara I bought a year ago when it looked like they were finally making a comeback... it'll be all ready to go for back to school 2028! 

NOW y'all go and seize your week!

Great idea. Throw a party then leave for the beach!

We threw a Chaos Party Father's Day weekend. Thing Three had turned 15, Dada had turned 50, and I was (mostly) done with cancer treatment, so we figured it was a good time to celebrate!. 

That would be a skeleton on the stairs under the streamers.

There was pie.

And people everywhere!

It rained until about noon on Saturday, but cleared out and dried out so we even managed to use the deck! We'd been a little worried because we weren't sure how many to expect and if they'd all fit in the house if everyone came at once...

Cadaver was in charge of making sure everyone got a name tag and signed the guest book. You show up at one of our parties and we will put you to work!

Thing One and I were upstairs and stopped what we were doing to listen for a minute. 

"Are they playing Twister?!"

"Right foot green."

"They ARE playing Twister!!"

 Thank you to everyone who squished a visit to our house in admist all the weddings, showers, grad parties, and Father's Day bashes that weekend! We loved having you!

Next year there will be a Christmas in July/50.5 party so save the weekend of July 24/25, 2026!

Last one, best one, again.

 Someone finished freshman year!

No, that's not him. But the bus driver and other passerby sure got a kick out of it!

There's the gang, hanging out in the 50+ degree weather on the last weekday of May. 

Happy last day(s), first day(s) of summer vacation, last few week(s) depending on where you are in all of that.   

We are trading in the insanity of a school year for the utter nuttiness of summertime. Won't you join us?

Shenaniganery

Allow me to pull a Ducky from NCIS:

This reminds me of a tale from my childhood. When I was young, I attended a summer camp which occurred during a year of the Summer Olympics. Ergo, our counselors set up various games and races for us to participate in. 

One of the counselors was attempting to recall the names of the track and field events:

"Javelin? Discus? Broad? Is that one? Standing Broad Throw?"

You cannot imagine the merriment of her fellow counselors as they burst into laughter and quickly corrected her, "Standing Broad Jump; there's to be no throwing of broads!"

              Here's Cadaver, reporting for launch:

And here he is, all gussied up and ready for action:

 

Tis the season

 No, not THAT season. The season of spooky Shenanigans!

Apparently I can't read. I bought the above legwear thinking they were all socks and we could mix and match them and share the fun... nope, two pairs are tights and only one is socks. Alas. More for me!

Good thing I also got the suspenders, below:

The skeleton fun continues.

Here at the end of all things

Not quite. We are more, "and miles to go before I sleep" than Frodo and Sam making it to Mount Doom, but we are chipping away.

I'm done with my Nerlynx prescription, wahoo! Apparently I can't count, and ended up with one last lonesome pill (my dose was three of them daily) as a stray. I guess it just wanted to ease my Tamoxifen and allergy meds into doing without the Nerlynx, ha. So that's a year done. I've been on Tamoxifen for going on 15 months now, so far, so good. 

I feel like for every kid's assignment we cross off, two more take its place. I know that's not really happening, but I am just about done with the kids doin 75-95% of the work and then having to backtrack through weeks of assignments to find the links or the directions or the passwords, etc. You finished it, right? Is your name on it? Did you hit "submit"? Did you click "turn in"? THIS WAS FROM LAST MONTH! Can we please just be done!?

This was the last week they were to receive new assignments, so as of next Friday at noon we are done one way or another. Please pray that we finish strong. 

(Envision a skeleton crawling pitifully, painfully, despairingly across the desert sands. That'd be me. Except it's been raining for days, even on days the weather channel says it won't be raining. This is the lushest desert you've ever seen.)

Send rum.

Auction preview

Dada found a school they're prepping for demolition so everything must go, right? The kids and I joined him rather grudgingly to check out all the Stuff, but it quickly turned into a fascinating experience.

Anyone know when the STOMP auditions are? Or Blue Man Group, perhaps? We've got a live one...

"Is it bigger than a breadbox?"

Look, aliens, AKA overhead projectors! These reminded me of those yep yep yep aliens from Sesame Street.

Don't tell Lisa that we found of the desks she loves so...

Adorable smiling snowmen curtains! 

I'm having flashbacks of the old ESCO desk. RIP old friend. Dada said it sold for $80.

Just lookit this kid. He's so small he can swing his legs and those big feet without touching the floor, but I know if I blink he'll be draping himself all over that desk and the one beside him just like Jeremy from the Zits comic. 

There were entire walls of lockers to be sold. We found the ones with the kids birth years all in a row together but didn't NEED an entire wall of lockers so they did not sell to us. Overall it was a neat experience and I'm glad Dada didn't have to go by himself after two weeks in North Carolina without us. The kids even checked out the attic and claimed to see a rat skeleton, so of course the trip ranked pretty high with them!

As the saying goes

You've heard the saying, "even a blind pig finds a truffle once in awhile." Well, there is a Thanksgiving hangman game online where the person being hung is a skeleton. (It started out as Halloween hangman...) He offers smart little tidbits such as "tell Vanna you want to buy a vowel" and sarcastic remarks like "you really haven't improved at this since Halloween, have you?" My kids think this game is hilarious. The skelly in question says that blind pig line occassionally when you get a letter right. Here comes the point of this story. Carrie thinks he says, "even a drunk pig gets in trouble once in awhile." !!!!!!!!!!!!!

And my personal observation for 2007: Ohio State fans are all a bunch of nuts! HAHAHHAHA! Glad you beat Michigan, guys. Way to go.

Dao & Sharon, hope your party went well. Can't wait to hear about it and see you.

Happy birthday to Hinrew today! Not telling how old you are =P Hehhee. Love you!

*CHRISTMAS PARTY STILL ON FOR NOV.30- DEC. 2. PLEASE RSVP SO I KNOW WHERE TO PUT EVERYONE! =) THANKS!*

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving if I don't get on here in time to wish it later. Be blessed!