A lot going on here these days....

Well, maybe not A LOT by old school standards, but for the pace of life things have gone around here for the past couple of months of constant working, working, working and forgetting what day of the week it is....a lot is going on here these days. - I had yesterday off, which was nice....and I took the kids to the pool. We all came home very tan and tired.

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Yesterday was Mike's birthday! 40! Celebrating to be done this weekend.

And speaking of Mike, this morning he went for a run and found this:

I was sleeping in, and he came in and said, "Look!" I opened one eye and thought for sure we had left one of our torties downstairs all night without taking it up to the aquarium when everybody went to bed. I sleepily asked if we did. He said, "No! Look at him!"

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OMGOSH, that isn't one of ours! Mike said that he was out in the road by our house and he picked him up. We will be releasing him in a safer place later tonight. I'm sure he came from the creek behind our house but I think we might relocate him to the park a little further down the road. Less traffic.

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This is the second wild turtle sighting this week. Megan and I had to stop the car the other day to let a snapping turtle cross the road. I don't remember where I heard it or if I'm making it up at this point, but I consider having a turtle cross your path as lucky. So having two in one week in our lives has to mean something right? Lots of good luck?

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After some internet searching, he is a Eastern Box Turtle. He's beautiful. His shell is such a pretty pattern, and I am in love with this little guy. He has such a personality....I'm surprised he's not more afraid of people. He doesn't bring his head in his shell when you pick him up. In fact, he stretches it out pretty far and tolerates being petted on his head and legs. I wish we could keep him. We sure have enjoyed our time with him today though.

And now.... time to get ready for a night of work. Power Hours....Kohl's....where you can expect great things.....and a busy night in the fitting rooms.

Thinking of you....

No you haven't stumbled upon a cooking blog, Lord knows I am NOT known for my cooking! - and yes I did feel kind of silly taking a close up photo of part of our dinner tonight.... but mmmm, I had to share.

My dad told me before we moved here last summer to make sure we bought home grown tomatoes. Something about the soil out here. My mom said when she was little growing up in Ohio that she remembered stopping at roadside stands and getting a tomato and would eat it right there, on the side of the road. I think I remember her telling me how my grandma carried a salt shaker in the car just for this purpose.

Another one of my favorite things out here is all of the local produce. There are several organized farmers markets, but my favorites are the pick up trucks you see on the side of the road somewhere selling a tiny bit of produce from the back, or the houses along farm roads with signs of what they have for sale. It's the BEST part of being right on the edge of such a rural and farmy area. But I can be in a huge shopping area in 5 minutes, or downtown Cincinnati in 20. It reminds me of growing up in the Chandler area when I was a kid and there were still farms out there.

After doing some back to school shopping today we took the long way home down Kentucky 18. It's a pretty road I like to take when we're not in a hurry to get home. Today it was dotted with people selling homegrown produce. I bought these gorgeous tomatoes, some yellow squash, sweet corn and blackberries. My car smelled so good and earthy the rest of the way home.

The best is, I was over at a neighbors house telling her about my finds, and she said she had a ton of basil growing in her backyard. I got to go out and pick a bunch. We've been eating quite a few plates of tomatoes like this, with mozzarella cheese and a drizzling of italian dressing. The basil was .... awesome.

I entertained the idea of growing a garden sometime, but honestly I like it better this way. Enjoying what other people have grown or made. I have heard that there is a blackberry farm near here I'd like to take the kids to. One of my friends said that she picks enough to make blackberry wine, pies and homemade jam. Mmm.

How I spent my summer. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Remember that movie Groundhog Day? Sometimes my days feel like that. Or it looks like I rarely do laundry. Because Matthew is one of those kids who has a daily routine.

Surprise... Reds hat, another Reds shirt (we had to have two to alternate with the other one.) and the familiar sounds of Star Wars coming from the little movie player. I can't tell you how many times I hear that theme song or the song that plays when Darth Vader shows up. You know the one. I do love the little pile of Lego people next to the movie player.

If life had a soundtrack this summer.... it is Star Wars. And the kid follows me around telling me about it. You know, how Luke is really Darth's son? But how Darth started out as Anakin Skywalker, or how Obi Wan Kenobi's name is really Ben? The boys are constantly playing with the Star Wars Legos. When did things get so Star Wars crazy around here? At least when daddy is home he does the best Chewbacca sound. If you want to get every body's attention just do that! Or do that little hand thing that Darth Vader does to choke people with the force.

Can it really BE 65 degrees on a summer day? I mean for real. I feel like I'm going to wake up. Last week I was complaining about being a little too hot. Thank you whoever sent this weather. Can we please have this for a few more weeks?

Another thing that has become so routine is what is actually going on right now. At noon on Wednesdays the tornado sirens go off for testing. As soon as I hear it start I just yell out of habit, "It's Wednesday Trevor!" Sure enough he comes down the stairs at the same time saying, "Is it Wednesday?" He hates those things. Everybody else ignores them. I just hope there's never a real tornado on a Wednesday at noon because I'll be upstairs doing life as normal.

more summer....

Look who had their windows open today! It was GORGEOUS today. Well deserved after having a few hot days last week.

I realized one day when I was watching the photo slide show on my screensaver that I have a lot of pictures of my kids playing outside, but with my across the street neighbor's house in the background. Now their house is nice and all... but it's not my house... our house. So I thought while the kids were out front playing with some sidewalk chalk after dinner I would walk across the street and get a picture of them out in the front. This is before the driveway became covered with pictures, crime scene outlines of bodies and hopscotch.

Matthew drew an army guy, but when he was done put this red line through him. Is this some sort of anti-war protest or something? I just noticed he's about to touch a jellyfish.

Trevor stayed with us for awhile, in fact in one picture you can see the turtle that I drew for him. He ended up going behind our street to a friend's house. It was such a nice evening. One of my neighbors was going on a walk with her little girl (who loves Megan) and her baby boy. She ended up sitting out front with us for awhile. I remember when I was a kid in Phoenix and immediately after dinner my parents would pull folding chairs out of the garage and sit out front. It seemed like people used to do that more often. I brought some chairs out of the garage and we sat and talked for a long time.

Which reminds me of one thing I have to save up for. I think I am one of the only people in the state who does not own one of those circular fire pit things. On chilly nights like tonight I can smell them... and I know people are outside gathered around them on their driveway or backyard deck making smores and having a drink. I'm going to keep my eye out for one.

Another summer day down. We're just doing our best to get through them with as little boredom as possible. Days like today are perfect though.

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I also want to say thank you to people who have called or emailed me after hearing the news about the Yemenia plane that went down yesterday. I've had several people stop by my house today too. People know Mike is in Yemen and heard about it, and checked up on us. Thank you! It warms the heart to know that people think about us. He's fine but my thoughts are with the people left behind.

Little random life update....

That's me.

We went to the pool again today and stayed from 2:00 until 6:30. Why is it the sunburn doesn't start to show until like 15 minutes before you are ready to leave?

The kids were hoping to stay until the pool closed at 8, and at first it seemed like a very good idea since they were all happy and I knew it was good for making them tired to sleep well tonight. I was lying on my little deck chair with my eyes closed at one point thinking about how wonderful this was. This is one of the first times I could remember that my kids were old enough that I didn't have to watch every minute of them at the pool. They can all swim now, and I let the lifeguards do the watching. I did get in and play with Matthew a lot, but the few moments that I was relaxing I knew we'd end up at the pool many more times this summer.

All three kids found people their age that they played with too. It was nice.

Until we got home. Then realized how badly burnt we all were. I used a ton of sunblock on all of us but man we are all red and moving very slow. I don't know if sunblock goes bad, but I wonder since this was packed and melting in a moving box last summer if it broke down or what. So after needing to go to walgreens tonight to get some aloe spray I also stocked up on brand new sunblock, face stick stuff for noses and ears and aloe spray. We're good to go.

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I got this email from Mike tonight:

I walked at least 15 miles today and have blisters on my feet and very sore ankles. I saw the Eiffel Tower, the River Seine, Champs Elysees, went to the Louvre, saw Notre Dame and a concert in the park, The Sorbonne, The Pantheon and ate a Royale with cheese. I took about 200 photos and will share with you.

He's in Paris for a couple of days before going back to work. It's how the flights ended up to make sure he could get back to work in time. Sometimes the flights just work out this way since he takes two different airlines to get back. Now, under normal circumstances I'd be somewhat jealous about having a couple of days in Paris without me, but remember that he's on his way to work - in Yemen. - Yeah... it's not necessarily a Paris vacay. Plus he's doing it like Globe Trekker.... on the cheap, hence the walking, cheap hotel and no food budget to speak of. LOL! I can't wait to see pictures!

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One more random thingie for the night.... after 9:00 at night the fireflies come out like crazy. They only seem to stay out for about an hour after that. So tonight on my way home from walgreens the fields near my house and along Frogtown were literally twinkling with thousands of fireflies. It has to be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Next month when the fireflies are gone it is time for the frogs! You can't see them, but you can hear them. Which to me... makes me happy too. Because FROGS RULE!

random....

Sometimes going to the airport plain old sucks. That was a fast two weeks. - Yesterday was Mike's birthday, so we at least got to celebrate that together. We went to Bruesters for ice cream after dinner.

I was thinking a little bit earlier today how weird I feel. For awhile I was anxiously anticipating my mom coming out for a visit, and knowing Mike would be home during that too. I counted down the days on my calendar. While they were here it felt good to have some company. I don't really feel lonely..... I have people I see everyday, I'm happy, healthy, well adjusted.... but tonight I was just feeling kind of let down that it's over. Kind of like a kid when you go to bed on Christmas night. You know you have to wait for it to come again next year, and you don't know what to do with those remnants of feelings that you still have. I had put so much thought into what we'd do, and just the pure excitement of it. Both visits were fun but still didn't accomplish all that I wanted to. Which is OK, but I guess that just proves that there isn't enough time... and what little you have goes by so quickly. So for some reason tonight I went out and sat on my front steps and watched the fireflies... and felt kind of alone for the first time in awhile. Man, sometimes life just gets so crazy.
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While Mike was home, Trevor had talked him into buying a package of water balloons. Coming home from the airport with a quiet and somber car made me think today was the perfect day to fill some of them up.

Megan was sneaky and stood behind me most of the time. She was one of the first ones to get hit and I had made a rule that no balloons were to be thrown too close to the balloon filler (me!). If you want balloons filled, throw them away from me! I still managed to get pretty wet from filling. I had planned on getting in on the balloon fight, but the kids went through the balloons as fast as I could fill them. It was the knot tying that slowed me down. Next time I think I'll fill some without them knowing it and then have about 200 of them already filled in the garage.




(below) right before Matthew got nailed in the head. I love the "in flight" balloon.

Poor Trevor never catches much of a break. I was trying to get him to get more balloons and keep them in his shirt. Megan came up right beside him and got him. (And the balloon filler and her camera. Bad Megan.)

Swimming....

There is something about that first smell of chlorine during summer. Not having your own pool makes you appreciate that smell so much. It hits you when you go swimming for the first time. - All of the kids have been invited over to friends houses already this summer to go swimming, but today all of us went to the little public pool that is about 1/4 mile from our house. It's up a hill and tucked away behind a line of huge trees, so I never paid it much attention. Today Megan and I drove by on our way home from dropping off books at the library and noticed nobody was there. A storm was supposed to hit later in the evening, which is the only thing I can imagine must have scared most people away. But we had this pool to ourselves today. We were only outnumbered by lifeguards. Which thankfully makes for some pretty awesome pool photos without a bunch of unknown people in the background!

Matthew was not mad or emotional, but for some reason I love this picture of him. It must be the colors with the bright orange and yellow that he is wearing and the pretty blue and green in the background. He does look pretty serious though....

But not in this one. Here's my normal happy Matthew.

Mike and Megan went off the diving board several times. Trevor took a little prodding. He had gone off diving boards before in Phoenix, but he was cautious today. The lifeguards were even playing with him and telling him he wasn't allowed to back off of the board, that he had to just run right off the end if he wanted to get off. It didn't work. It took a few tries, but finally he went off.

Finally committing to jumping off... he's at a run.....

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