Summer came and went too fast. Our big trip to the island was postponed due to an unexpected family emergency. July disappeared before our eyes, but we still managed to plant some little seeds for zucchini, cucumbers, carrots and sunflowers. The zucchini plants grew HUGE only to be eaten by the local bunny population, the carrots and sunflowers were non-existent, but we are happy to report we had a crop of 13 lovely cucumbers this summer. It is better than nothing, and boy, were they tasty! I think we broke even with the cost of seeds :)
Daddy Hawksbill celebrated his 40th birthday so we had to have an Indiana Jones cake....it was between that and Hello Kitty, so we went for the manly cake ... it was tasty...no, of course, I did not make it myself...that would take effort.
I was bummed that we missed out on camping so on the spur-of-the-moment one weekend in September we decided to go to Lakeport...it was only for two days, but it made up for how sad I was about not having a vacation this summer. I found at least 30 petosky stones for my garden, and the kids had a blast, even though it was a bit colder than we had hoped...but the whole summer seemed cool except one week in July perhaps....I was just glad to get away from home for a couple of days and enjoy the water and the rock hunting...
Gwen enjoyed riding her bike around this summer. She's still 4-wheeling it, but, may I add, she is still totally potty trained--which will bring me to one funny story for today, but I will bring that one up later...My youngest sister, K, was married in Vegas so Hawksbill and I for the first time ever left our kids with relatives overnight and went out of town. Vegas was fun, we lost our limit of $100, but unless I am going to see some type of show, I don't think I need to go there again. Maybe because we had only 1.5 days there and it seemed like we spent more time on the plane than anything else, but I think we just get bored too easily with gambling (I think that is probably a good thing). The quarter poker games were fun, but that was all we really did other than the delightful wedding. I am not posting a photo of K since I didn't ask, but I will post a picture of Hawksbill and me and some cool tree thingy inside the hotel where we stayed....
Next came work work and more work. I held a conference at work -- and even though I reminded these lovely people for 1 full year that I have never planned anything -- not even a potluck, I somehow still managed to plan, organize and hold the entire conference by myself. No really. I am not bragging--I am stating a fact and you can ask Hawksbill and my boss. I had no help. It was crazy...I am glad it was small, but at least I know what NOT to do next time (although I hope I never have to do this again). Mistake number 1 was having a 3 day conference at 3 different locations, but that is all I will say. It was my number one thing that made me the most nervous for the last 3 months of my life, and I am glad it is finished. The people who needed to be made happy appeared to be happy, and that is all that matters.
The day after my conference was over was Halloween....
As you can see, Simon and Gwen went as Cinderella andJengo Phet or something like that...he gets mad when I screw up the Star Wars character names...he was a bounty hunter...I think I can spell that. We ended up taking the kids to my sister, A's, house to trick-o-treat with her kids and they all had fun. The candy is pretty much gone, but you know, I had to make sure all the snickers bars were safe...so I think I ate them all....
Then came November. Man, this week has been one heck of a week. On Sunday, my mother called to tell me my Godfather, S, had passed away but she didn't have any details. I saw him at my parents' 50th anniversary last year, and we are pictured below:
S will be missed. Before this picture, I don't think I had even seen him since my wedding almost 14 years earlier, and he was very young. Just a shock to his family. He never married, had no children, but played Santa Claus during the holidays...he will be missed. Today was his funeral mass (and my little sister's wedding reception) so it was a busy day today.
In addition to this loss, my brother, B, lost his Father-in-law suddenly on Wednesday to an asthma attack; my mother lost her cousin; my mother-in-law lost a close friend; and my sister's neighbor lost her mother. This has been the most shocking week in a long time...too many people passing so quickly. I am thankful the rest of us here are healthy and doing well. I really would rather not go to any more funerals anytime soon.
Homeschooling has been progressing for Simon and Gwen--mostly Simon still, since Gwen is only 4 and is mostly interested in drawing pictures and changing her clothes over and over again and pretending she is some princess in distress who has to ninja kick herself out of a dungeon, if that makes any sense...Hawksbill has been doing most of the work, but I am helping with Math, Science and Arts and Crafts...Simon does most of his work with me on his own, and for that I feel guilty, but now that most of the chaos (at least I hope) is over this year, I can spend more time reading and looking things up with him. He is still obsessed with planets, starting to get into dinosaurs, history, definitely more interested in Geography than I ever was...so, I am looking forward to learning with him.
My one little, I guess funny-to-me story, happened in the restroom at my sister's wedding reception today. A friend who is 8 months pregnant was talking to another friend who is apparently having trouble potting training her son. I made the mistake of butting into the conversation with, "Oh, I have a book...." to which the frustrated mom looked at me and said, "If you say m & m's and sticker charts, I am going to punch you!" to which my pregnant friend said, "No, really--it is ok, she had lots of trouble potty training her kids"
I pointed to Gwen, who, although is 4 years old, looks like she is 6, and said, "see her, she's only been potty trained for about 6 months now." Now the flustered mom looked at me and said, "Oh, thank God--I CAN talk to you--if I hear one more story about how someone potty trained their kid in 2 weeks, or they were only 2 years old, etc. so forth, I was going to shoot myself. " So we all stood in the ladies room talking about trying to potty train stubborn 3.5 year old children, to which I told her my kids hit 4 before they were trained, so don't feel bad and we all had a good old time...except maybe my 8 month pregnant friend who has yet to experience this joy. I hope we didn't scare her...but it was fun discussing how certain we were our kids would be wearing Depends and how we hate when other moms come up and say, "Have you tried candy?" when you just want to scream, "IF IT WERE THAT EASY, IT WOULD BE DONE BY NOW!!!..." So, needless to say, I have a new found friend in the potty training hell world that I will be passing a book to soon via my sister. M&M's and sticker charts my a$$ :) No offense to anyone who was successful with sticker charts and M&M's but it was nice to share my pain with someone going through the same thing we dealt with for what seemed like forever--nice to know other people have "willful" children. Of course, this mom had the best story of trying to pay her kid for using the potty, except he decided to EAT the money she gave him which resulted in a trip to the ER. Oh, these darn kids.
So here we are. It is November 7th already, and the holidays are just a couple week away. I could care less. I am too freaking tired from the last 4-5 months of my crazy life to even think about Turkey or Christmas presents. The only thing I want this winter is a healthy, happy family, and to be thankful for what we have. We still have jobs even though we are in Detroit that has the highest (or close to the highest) unemployment rate in the nation, we have a roof over our heads, we have food, and we have our health. So, thank you if there is anyone out there watching over us. I am so thankful for my family right now, now if I could just get back into a normal routine...I think I might feel normal again. And I want to say goodbye to all of our losses this week. May you all rest in peace and feel no pain....you will all be missed.
