My Mom got a new countertop in her kitchen and we talked her in to letting us do the backsplash ourselves. Charlie dove right in. This one was MUCH easier than the one we did for our backsplash in Houston. The tiles were 2 x 2 tiles on a mesh 1 ft square, very little cutting and it was a really good fit.
I'm sorry honey, I mean...Charlie used his awesome skills. Geometry skills, sawing skills, troweling skills, measuring skills, artistic skills.... and here is the beautiful result....
Well, it gets more beautiful down at the bottom...
I know Mom was really nervous because she has the perfection gene, which did not carry down to me. I limited my participation accordingly...
I did some of this corner...
Ta- Da! after grouting. The counter is really nice solid surface. It's not as speckled looking as it appears in this pic...
He had to go back and work on the plugs. And I'm not sure if the undercounter lights have been put back up yet.
But it looks GOOD, if we do say so ourselves....
So of course being the worry-wart that I am, I keep discussing with Charlie the fact that we need some kind of fence.
"Some body's gonna say something!" I say.
"Oh, they're not hurting anybody." he replies.
"But you would have a fit, if some one's dog was in our yard.", I say.
"Only if they poop in the yard.", he answers back.
"Well, I'm sure they've pooped in somebodies yard!", I retaliate.
To which he scoffs at me and says "They're just fine."
Lately, I can hardly keep them home at all. Yes I have a pen, that we use mostly in the house, but Zoey climbs it like a ladder if I put her in it outside. I haven't tried it on A.J. because she's mostly a follower and not the leader, until about two weeks ago when a friendly stray cat took up residence under our next door neighbor's shed. Mrs. Ne-nache has caused such a ruckus that I can't keep A.J. home if she's caught wind of her. Zoey likes to chase her, but knows the cat would eat her for lunch if she got too close. A.J. wants to grind her bones. Mrs. Ne-nache loves the kids and comes over when she sees them jumping on the trampoline and meows and meows and meows. Now sometimes in the middle of the night, Zoey thinks she sees her and starts barking and barking and just WILL NOT shut up, so most nights Charlie gets up and moves her to the garage.
One night last week at about 1:30 in the morning, Zoey starts in and after about three minutes, Charlie grumbles, rolls out of bed and shuffles half asleep, into the kitchen. All of a sudden I hear "HEY! GET OUT OF HERE!!!" The back door slams and I hear this banging around on the back porch and Charlie's yelling and the dogs are going crazy. When Charlie gets back to the bedroom I mumbled "What was that all about?" and he said "There were TWO HORSES ON OUR BACK PORCH!"
He goes to get Zoey out of the pen and looks out the back door and sees this huge shadow on the back porch and yells, "HEY GET OUT OF HERE!" he said "I thought I was gonna have to go out in my underwear and fight somebody!" and then he turns on the light and sees it's a horse, and the horse is taking it's nose and trying to scoot the big metal pail we keep the dog food in, off of the table it was sitting on and right as he gets the door unlocked the horse knocks it off the table and it hits the porch and explodes dog food all over the porch. He starts shooing it and it backs up and steps in the dogs plastic water bowl and shatters it and slides off the porch. The other horse was out further in the yard and he couldn't scare them off any further that that. He said "By the way, thanks for coming to my aid when you heard the excitement!"
The next morning there were a couple of fresh piles of horse poop out in the back yard and I said "Karma's a bitch, ain't it!?"
Still no fence....
This is a picture I tried to take of John as he got out of the car as he shouted "Don't even think about it!"
You can see how happy he was when I rushed him out so I could take the group "first day" pictures. I'll pause here so you can click on it and see up close and personal the contempt in his eyes. Is that really the face you want to make at the person who holds the fate of what you'll be driving to school everyday for the rest of your high school career? Really?
On the upside, he's had a very good first two weeks. Likes all his teachers (so far). Has done a little bit of homework (so far). And I haven't received any emails from teachers (so far). He's having a very good time. He's even talking. At school. In front of other kids. The first football game was last Friday, we didn't get to see much of the kids marching, but the Grease program is gonna be a LOT of fun this year. And the Eagles won the game in a blowout. And we continue to embarrass him by working in the concession stand with the rest of the "crazy" band parents. (his description, not mine)
This is the busiest boy I know! He's happy to be back in school, at least so far...He has to be at Football Practice at 7:15 in the morning, athletics is first period, he has a day full of Pre-AP classes, then he follows it up with Football Practice after school till 5:00. He's got the strength and size for the offensive line, but does he have the stamina...that's the question!
The first week of school we have SO many papers that I have to sign, enrollment, health, bus riders, on and on. When we got to the Athletics paperwork and they said "Athletics is a Dangerous Activity which could result in concussions, broken bones, pulled muscles (blah, blah blah) up to and including death..." I passed the papers to Charlie and said "I can't do it." So Tuesday Melee' unloads papers for me to sign, one set from each of his teachers. Each one outlining the teachers expectations, grading policies, etc. and by the time I got done reading them I had a stomach ache! Then he tells me that the coaches have told them they HAVE to take a shower after athletics. I know he was nervous, but I was equally nervous. There is a down side to being able to put yourself in somebody else's shoes.
We were running a little late because she was the last of the Mohicans to be dropped off.
A quick pic and we exited the building. Nope, I didn't go to the "Cry Party" in the cafeteria. I didn't even cry. She had a great first day! On the second day she came home and I asked her how her day was and she said "Good. I'm a good nacho."
And I said "A good what?"
"Our names are on a nacho and our nachos are on a platter and if we get in trouble we have to move our nacho to the yellow platter and if we get in trouble again, we have to move it to the red platter."
By the third day she said "I don't like school, it's just work."
"Well you like going to recess and playing with friends."
"No I don't like recess, cause I get all sweaty and all my friends just like to run around and scream and I don't like to run that much."
So much for the school year. The party's over.
We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us.
How can you leave a face like that! Oh sure, it looks like a cute teddy bear coloring page, but it's a slippery slope that leads to Geometry!
He had a really, really, really neverlasting good day. The second day he said he wanted a tray for lunch and he had a horrible day because all his friends ride the bus. The third day he said he had a terrible day!
"Four bad things happened. Number four, all my friends get to ride the bus, and I don't."
"You can't ride the bus, we've already talked about that."
"Three, I spilled my water."
"Your water bottle?"
"No, one of the little ones."
"Did you have a lot of papers on your desk?"
"No."
"Well, good, you didn't make a big mess."
"No, it was a BIG mess. Three, I got a time out."
"But you said you had all your stars at the end of the day."
"It was on the playground. I picked up some rocks. I forgot the rule."
"And what was four?"
"I fell down and my knee got blood."
I cried on day four because he wanted to walk to his room by himself. I said "Okay, I'll stay here till you go down your hall." So he would go a little way, then turn around and look for me, then walk a little further and turn around and try to find me through the crowd of people, then walked down to his hall and turned around one more time before he headed down to his class.
The next day, I said, "Do you want to walk to class by yourself again?" and he said, "No, I want you to walk with me."
I still got it....
Charlie says, "It's like having them all out of diapers."
"Uh, no. It's nothing like that."
Tomorrow is the big day. He's excited. So I've got that going for me.
Headed for bed, so I can toss and turn and not get much sleep.
More news tomorrow.
REALLY?
HE PICKS CLINTON PORTIS AS MY FIRST PICK (I ALWAYS PICK MY QUARTERBACK FIRST) AND THEN HE TAKES TOM BRADY! I GET HOSED ON THE TONY ROMO PICK AND END UP WITH MATT RYAN. TO WHICH I HAD TO SAY, "WHO THE HELL IS MATT RYAN?" I HAVEN'T EVEN LOOKED AT THE REST OF MY TEAM. I THINK I HEARD HIM SAY HE DID ME A BIG FAVOR BY PICKING THE RAVENS FOR MY DEFENSE. I DON'T THINK THERE IS ONE PLAYER ON MY ENTIRE TEAM THAT I HAVE ANY INTEREST IN WATCHING.
But I'm not bitter.
I forgot to show you around Carlsbad Caverns!
It's all fun and games until the smell of bat poo hits you!
Are we really going down THERE!!
Evidently we are...
Peace, Love and Rocks.
Too cool for the Caverns...
Do they have earthquakes in New Mexico?
Okay. Where's the elevator?
The shame of it is he's been on his best behavior lately. Heck, he's been displaying behavior that is normally reserved for his grandmother. I keep wondering what he's fixing to ask me for. That's awful of me, I know. But in the last twenty four hours he's washed my car, cleaned the inside, vacuumed it, and spot cleaned the carpets. This morning he got up at 7:30 in the A.M. to start getting himself ready to get up for Band Camp. (He usually doesn't make his morning appearance until noon.) Then this afternoon, he vacuumed the living room, Ace's room, his room, Melee's room and Peaches room. Nobody asked.
Then I had to go and ruin it by demanding he practice his clarinet.
School is a few short weeks away and the illusion of a carefree summer is quickly melting away.
Despite the fact that Transformers 2 was rated PG-13, I was hoping I could still let Ace see it. I was afraid there would be too much violence maybe some language but I really wasn't expecting this...
of course I'm not a 13 year old boy so maybe I misread the target audience. Then a few minutes later we get to see this one...
with a camera shot up her dress, we get to see her underwear and a creepy metal tail come out from somewhere, and then her tongue shoots out of her mouth and tries to strangle Sam as we figure out that the hot college girl trying to seduce him, is actually a Decepticon.
Good clean kid stuff.
Of course in the first five minutes we've already ruled it out for Ace because in the first action sequence a couple of the new Autobots are cussing at each other.
Overall it was a disappointment. I just can't give it a fair assesment because I thought they could have done it in a way, that I wasn't embarrased to watch it in front of my seventh grader.
Harry Potter, don't let me down!
Summer is sailing quickly by.
I haven't had one blow-up with the kids.
It's only taken me 15 years to get used to them.
100 degree weather is no good for me.
Sleeping late every day is really good for me.
John and I have been reading books for two weeks.
I have a crush on a fictional Vampire.
I still haven't seen Transformers.
Mostly because I don't want to take the Little's to see Ice Age #6?.
More of my plants are dying in the flower bed.
Disneyland. I'm not over it.
Day two at Disney started with a trip to the Indiana Jones ride. At the end of day one, we agreed that that particular ride was the number one thing we wanted to do that we were unable to get to. Despite the fact that I had read all about Fast Passes, we really didn't figure out how to work the passes until it was too late in the day. By the time we got to the Indiana Jones ride the wait time was 2 hours or you could get a Fast Pass and come back and cut to the front of the line between 11:30 p.m. and midnight...
Ace could hardly wait! It was all he could talk about. The line was short and the next thing we knew we were exploring the temple and getting in line to take our ride. It was exciting and bumpy and Charlie tried his best to take a picture of us as we bumped and turned through the tunnels. This is our favorite picture of the entire vacation. The eye says it all...
Despite the look of terror, he loved it! Later as Peach and I were waiting in the Princess line, Charlie texted me that he and J and A were riding the Tower of Terror and E and M were gone to do something else. I looked at the text and put my phone back in my pocket. About 15 minutes later I realized what I had read and I called him back and said, "Did you just say ACE rode the Tower of Terror?" "Yea! He LOVED it!"
(The Tower of Terror is the "Elevator" that goes to the top floor and plummets back down to the bottom.) When we met up with the boys it's all he could talk about, "Momma, you HAVE to ride the Tower of Terror!" "Well, I don't know if the Tower of Terror is for Momma." "You'll like it!" "Well, I don't think I would like it." And he went on and on for the rest of the day. Later as we got close to that side of the park they decided to go get some Fast Passes for it and Charlie, John and Ace were pushing for Melee' and I to ride it so I said, "You can get me a pass, but I'm not guaranteeing that I'll ride it." But the three Tigger's persisted and the two Eeyore's were talked into riding.
We were standing in line with an older couple who were riding with their son who had some type of disability, she said "Oh, we rode this at Disney World and he just loved it!" and I saw some other kid in a wheelchair who was being pushed into line and I thought. Well, surely I can ride this ride if it's not too scary for kids with disabilities! And if that old broad and her husband can ride it, so can I! So we get in the "elevator" and I'm sitting next to Charlie, but separated by an isle, Ace is sitting on the other side of me and I'm trying to think about how I can hold on to him, but not crush him if I hold on too tight. Ace held on to my arm, I held onto the handle with one hand and clutched Charlie's hand to my chest with his arm outstretched over the isle. The "elevator" goes up and drops a little and then back up and down just a touch and then all the way to the top where you can see outside and then all of a sudden, you're plummeting to your most certain death. I screamed so hard that my throat hurt, we went up and down like that three times, each time I screamed like a girl and when it came to it's final stop I said "Oh, God, please let that be the last time!" and Ace said, "I think it's over Momma." and Charlie said, "You can let go of my hand now." (I think I left fingernail marks.) As I shakily unbuckled my seat belt, Ace hopped in front of me and said, "See Momma. I told you it wasn't scary." I could have punched that boy. John said "That was YOU screaming? I was looking around for a teenage girl!"
Thankfully for Melee' and I, there is no picture to show you of the Tower of Terror.
