McCall, For A Few Hours

Michael had to make a quick trip to McCall for work.  He had to do less than an hour's worth of work.  We decided to make a quick trip and take the kids along.

We managed to cram several McCall staples into a couple of short hours.

We have to take the traditional picture on the bear statue. I will continue to make my children do this until they have kids of their own.

We also checked on the civilian corps memorial.  Grace and Sam tried to steal "Bob's" ax.

Libby fell in love with "Bob".  We named him Bob, so that Libby would have a name for her boyfriend.

                                              

Sam is practicing his future creeper skills. The joys of having siblings.

Libby objects to the notion that Ethan likes her boyfriend.  This is not something she can foresee happening.

We, of course, stopped at Ice Cream Alley.  I made the strategic mistake of letting the kids all order single scoops, instead of kid cones.  Michael ate the rest of Grace's.  Sam "saved" his.  I cleaned it out of the cooler the next day.  Soured ice cream is very appetizing first thing in the morning.

We even stopped for cinnamon rolls at The Pancake House. In the interest of not puking, we ordered them to go, and saved them for breakfast the next morning.  These things are huge.  We ordered three, and even half of one, per person, is too much.  Too much buttery, cinnamonny, sugary goodness.

Hard Summer

Summer vacation finally has arrived.  The family has been looking forward to long, lazy days, sleeping in, and a break from the stress of the school year.

Instead I signed up all my kids for swim team.  It’s been rough as they swim hourly starting at 7:30 in the morning, every weekday morning, for the next two months.  We have slowly been adjusting to the schedule but this morning we found out Sam has been cut from the swim team (I swear he could swim better last year) and Grace is on the verge of being cut, partly due to how she is dealing with her anxiety.  In full disclosure I also cried when they told me this, in full sight of a lot of my swim and homeschool friends.  Crying in public always makes me feel awesome.  Grace and Sam have also shed a lot of tears, mostly in private, but not exclusively, and we are only on day four.  I’m almost hoping they cut Grace, so we can just move on, to be honest.

I have a couple garden plots in the community garden next to the pool I planned on working on this summer while the kids swam.  Now I’m not sure how long I’m going to be there each day, or if I’m going to just be sending the big kids on their own.  My plot has also been getting completely over-watered, so my plants are sad and in some cases dead.  It’s all starting to feel a bit hopeless, especially when looking at the neighbors' thriving plots.  My mind chooses to ignore the plots that have been planted but have gone completely to weed already.

Ethan, meanwhile, was hoping to find some sort of employment this summer, so he filled out an application for Sonic.  He was surprised and pleased to get a call setting up an interview (he did say he was under sixteen on the application).  At the appointed time, he brushed his hair, got dressed up and headed down for the interview.  He returned home fifteen minutes later.  He was informed he was too young and was not granted an interview.  He was understandably frustrated, as Sonic had that information before they even called for an interview.

To add to his misery Ethan also found out he has a mouthful of cavities, so he has been spending part of his summer in the dentist chair.

We are only on day four of the summer and we are on the verge of giving up.  Everything seems to be falling apart and our stress levels are intense.  Libby wants to quit swim team as an act of solidarity with her siblings, although it will achieve nothing.  Ethan hates swim team but doesn’t want to quit (no, I don’t understand either).  I’m out more money than I like to admit for Grace and Sam’s registration fees, which I am too tired to fight to get back, not to mention swimsuits, goggles, and swim caps.  Ethan can’t find a job, and Libby is feeding off everyone’s stress.  I really hope we get better at having a nice summer break this year, or we are aren’t even going to be able to get out of bed by the time school rolls around again.

**Also, I am writing this in a word processor and hoping to eventually post it to my blog, because our internet has completely died and I really don’t have the energy to call our internet providers.  Crying at random people is an experience I can only do once a day.

*** It took three days, but we have internet again.  I had a nice talk with Grace's swim coach about how her anxiety was being compounded by a couple older girls who were trying to help, but really making the whole situation worse.  The next day at swim practice Grace was left completely alone (which she needs when she is stressed), and she swam well enough to stay on the team, at least for now.  Also, her coach is a lovely person who deals with anxiety herself.  And I didn't cry.  So that's all good news.  Sam was able to switch to swim lessons, for no extra charge. Ethan still does not have a job but it pretty resigned to waiting until he is older.  The next week of summer vacation may be manageable after all.  And thank you to my wonderful and kind husband who spent time on the phone with technical support and arranged to have a technician come out and fix our internet.

Mother's Day!

My favorite part of Mother's Day are these little fill in the blank forms I invariably receive.  My kids seem to think I cook food and I sleep.  Some of the items are sweetness personified: "I love my mom because of everything," while other things make me laugh madly: "Her favorite game to play with me is the silent game." I don't actually play this game more than twice a year, but I love that he declares it is my favorite, mostly because it feels so true.

Sam loves my tamales, cooking, cooking again, and the fact that I don't snore. I'm so glad to see what is important to him!

Grace's is pretty legible and I'm amused that cooking came up again.  I hope I don't show my love through food and consequently am setting my kids up for future eating disorders.

Also, my girls pooled their money and bought me a pound of chocolate from The Chocolat Bar which has phenomenal chocolates.  It is also stupid expensive. I feel almost guilty to receive such an expensive gift from them, but also pretty flattered.  What wonderful children I am raising!  Who are showing their love through food. Oh crap...we all need therapy.

Grace's Birthday

She requested a Milky Way cake.  The recipes online were scary.  Who needs to melt 10 candy bars into a cake?  Isn't cake delightful enough?  Would it change the texture?  I couldn't bring myself to even try, so no candy bars ended up melted for this cake.  I frosted a chocolate cake with caramel icing and added chocolate and cut up candy bars.  It was plenty sweet and Grace loved it!

She also requested a long board.  She didn't think she would get one.  I managed to find a killer deal on one at Fred Meyer.  Her joy was complete.

She also got a lot of candy.  After counting the gummy bears and tootsie rolls individually (along with other assorted treats) she found herself in proud ownership of 218 candy pieces.  She is very spoiled by her aunts and uncles.  The candy did not last as long as a mother would hope, but about as long as could be expected.

She also got tons of clothes (and money; lots of money).

This has been a great year for Grace.  She continues to love gymnastics, and spends more time doing cartwheels and handstands than she does on her feet.  She also climbs every pole, tree, and playground structure she meets.  I've learned to accept it but she frequently gives other parents mild heart attacks.  She hasn't injured herself seriously (if you don't count her concussion, which was mild) but she always looks like she has been mauled by a rabid raccoon that was also wielding a small baseball bat riddled with bent, rusty nails.  Bruises and scrapes on every inch of exposed skin is starting to become the norm.  She pretty resilient though, and as long as she isn't breaking bones and needing stitches, I think she's doing just fine.

Michael's Birthday!

See the pictures?  Imagine drifts of presents and oodles of pampering.  It's a pretty vision, isn't it? Too bad it didn't happen.  Between Grace's birthday and Michael's birthday sharing with Mother's Day, he got horribly neglected.  I'm sorry.  I still love him.  For presents he got two bags of chips with cash taped to them.  Yes, I am a horrible person.  He did want cash though, so that's something.

I didn't even make him a cake, but that's only because he requested churros.  I can make funnel cakes and elephant ears without breaking a sweat, meaning we never buy these items at the fair.  I was willing to try my hand at churros.  The dough isn't even that hard to make, especially as I rolled it out into snakes instead of piping it.  Then I started frying it, and continued frying it, and an hour later was still frying some.  Holy cow!  Without a dedicated deep fryer these things take forever to make.  The lovely people at the fair can have my six dollars for a big red Solo cup full of churros.  It is completely worth the money. This is not a game I ever want to play again.  Michael enjoyed them, though.

Then we went for a family bike ride.  We started out with blue skies and a benevolent sun and ended up in a torrential downpour with hail pelting us from above.  By the time we got home, we all had puddles of water in our shoes and were soaked to the skin.  We had to ring out our clothes on the back porch, as it looked like we had gone swimming fully clothed.  We believe in creating memorable birthdays, one way or another.