Shaye's blog

Ok, Kelly Jo...

I went out and bought Breaking Dawn, because I could get 40% off if I got it this weekend, but I'm not reading it!  I refuse to read it because you told me it's the last one!  (Except the girl at Waldenbooks told me about Midnight Sun, so I *might* read it when it comes out.) 

**edited to add:
Ok, so I wasn't going to read it!  But it was just sitting here, so I decided to just crack open the first chapter to see if anything good was going to happen at the very beginning like the birthday party paper cut incident in the earlier book. 

Dang that Stephanie Meyer, I got sucked in!!!  I didn't read it in one sitting though!  I refused to stay up all night!!  (I finished it this morning.) ;)

(By the way, you HAVE to read W's comment on this post.  Hilarious mental images ensue!!)

Lazy Days of Summer...I Wish!

Wow, I'm exhausted.  Every year I look forward to Summer when we can just hang out and not be as scheduled as we are during the school year, and every year we schedule the whole summer and wear ourselves out!  I can't wait for school to start so I can take a rest!

This past week we've been working on preparing for our church's third annual Family Fun Fest--which was held this past Saturday.  It was an all day deal where they started with a pancake breakfast.  Then on our front lawn, they had an antique car show, a farmer's market, one of those big bouncy things and crafts for kids, a dunk tank, and food vendors.  Inside our "Family Life Center" (a.k.a. gym) we had tables with all kinds of vendors selling things like Tupperware, children's books, funny photos, imported purses and jewelry, and the like.  Steve and I were in charge of a silent auction (also held in the gym) that is supposed to benefit our future daycare center.  It was a lot of work, but I think we raised a little over $600.  Then, the next day I was in charge of coffee hour in between church services.  That was a little tricky because I usually go to our contemporary service, which is held at 11:15.  That means that not only have I never done coffee hour before, I've only seen it done once or twice before and never paid any attention.  It isn't brain surgery--you just have to buy about a gazillion cookies and put them on four platters in the church lobby.  Then as soon as first service lets out, you serve punch and coffee to everyone who comes to the Welcome Center--which is everyone--all at once.  Simon was supposed to be helping me, but I let him stay in Steve's office during first service and play Webkinz.  He didn't understand that he was supposed to come out and help as soon as the first service was over, but he was a big help cleaning up  after coffee hour was over.

(As a weight loss related aside-- I wore my pedometer both days of the weekend.  On Saturday, I walked over 12,000 steps around the church dealing with Silent auction stuff.  That was over 4.5 miles.  On Sunday morning I walked an additional 4,000 something steps--over a mile and a half more!   It's no wonder I've already lost around 10 pounds!)

Anyway, we have a couple of days at the beginning of this week to rest a little, but on Thursday, Steve and I are going on a day trip to Chicago to watch a taping of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me".  Then Friday afternoon we have to take my mom to the doctor and Friday night I have Bunco. Saturday night we're going to Symphony on the Prairie, and then the next week starts the arts camps.

Steve is working two different arts camps this summer.  Next week, he and Simon will go to one in the morning that will last one week and end with a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".  For the next two weeks, they'll spend their afternoons at our church for a camp that will end with a production of "Godspell, Jr." at the end.

Simon's birthday is the week after the second arts camp ends.  We've planned to have his birthday party at the local Putt-Putt place.  It was seriously less expensive than we thought it would be, and actually cheaper (and easier) than his last party at home.  He loves the idea, so we're going with it.  His party is going to be the Sunday afternoon after his birthday, and then the very next day is the first day of school!  (I've already downloaded his school supply list and started buying that stuff.  I can't believe it isn't even August yet, and I'm already buying school supplies!)

The whole start of school thing brings brand new challenges, too.  At the end of the school year last year, I volunteered to organize a carpooling program for our school.  Since it's a private school, the kids live all over the place and there is no transportation available.  I started thinking last year about how much gas we waste taking Simon to school every day, when I know there are at least five other families that make the same trip every day and live about five minutes away from us.  I guess I'll get started on that...

Back on the Weight Watchers Wagon

Well, I had a birthday last week. 

It wasn't a milestone, but I'm getting pretty close to a milestone--close enough to squirm just a little bit.  I've decided that I've spent the first half of my life eating crap and being lazy, so now I get to spent the next half eating healthy foods and getting in shape.  A friend of mine told me recently that it's much harder to get in shape after 40.  I figure I've got a couple of years, so I'd better get on the ball!

I did so well on Weight Watchers last year.  I started in mid-August, and stayed on it really well for several months.  Then I got into all of the drama with my mom and stopped eating completely.  I was still losing weight, but not in a healthy way.  Then I got so busy that the whole thing went off the tracks and we started eating an absurd amount of ready meals and take-away.  As of my birthday, I'd gained back everything that I'd lost.  (Yeah, I know. I tried to blame the dryer for shrinking my clothes, but we all know I'm kidding myself.)

So, as of the day after my birthday, I'm back on Weight Watchers.  Ok, I'm not technically back on Weight Watchers.  I'm on my ersatz version of Weight Watchers using the spreadsheet that I have set up to calculate points.  I was never willing to go to cheesy meetings, and I used their online plan long enough to know how it works.  I also know that I never really felt particularly supported by their web site.  I got the occasional generic message telling me that my three pound weight loss for the week was unhealthy, but nothing other than that really.  I don't think I ever used their recipes, and once I figured out that my Living Cookbook software could figure out nutrition information, I didn't need their recipes anyway.  (I'm kicking myself because I JUST NOW figured out that my Living Cookbook software can also figure out points per serving if you tell it to.  I think I knew that back when I bought it in 2005, but I had no interest in Weight Watchers points,back then, so I never turned it on.  I turned it on the other day, and it is so handy!!)  So I guess I'm back to acting like I'm on Weight Watchers, without paying them for the privilege.

Steve decided to join me this time, too.  He gains weight when I stop cooking, and he told me that he's pretty close to his highest weight, too.  He also found out not too long ago that he has elevated cholesterol, and that if he can't control it with diet he's going to have to go on meds.  My poor husband is behind the genetic 8-ball anyway.  His dad had quadruple bypass surgery when Simon was a baby, and has had to have a few other procedures since then to keep his arteries/veins open.  His dad also has type II diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a bevy of other issues that he could have avoided if he had taken better care of himself when he was younger.  Steve's mom has had cancer, several strokes, and now has Alzheimer's.  (I don't know if any of that scares Steve, but it scares me.)

Of course, my side of the family isn't a lot better.  I'm not sure about my dad, but my mom has type II diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and has several strokes--with this last one landing her in the nursing home.  I know that my cholesterol levels aren't too high, my blood pressure is usually pretty good, and my blood sugars are normal right now, too.  But I also know that carrying around extra weight, coupled with an unhealthy diet and inactive lifestyle, are all just asking for trouble as I get older.

So here I am, on my fourth day of my new healthy life.  I've done really well so far, and I've actually dropped six pounds!  I ate two birthday cupcakes, but that isn't really cheating on Weight Watchers as long as you still get in your healthy food and don't go above your points.  I've had to dip into my weekly points, but I figure that's what they're there for.  I want to be healthy, I don't want to torture myself or make this so hard that I won't continue it long term.  I might have been better off with only one birthday cupcake, but compared to what I would have had before this week, I'm doing really well!  This morning I even took Simon and the dog out for a walk around the neighborhood.  I didn't think to put on my pedometer before I left, but I exhausted both Simon and Linus.  Tomorrow morning I'll grab my pedometer!

Going Forth on the Third

Yesterday evening, we drove to a neighboring town for their Independence Day Eve festivities.  Their community band had a patriotic concert followed by fireworks.  The guy who is in charge of their community band asked Steve to play the French horn, so Simon and I enjoyed a picnic dinner while he played.  Then we all watched the fireworks.

Community Band Patriotic Concert

While we listened, Simon played with his new lightening bug friend...

A Boy and His Firefly

Patriotic Bug

Then, of course, were the fireworks...

After the fireworks, we decided to go to the midnight parade in another neighboring town.  I don't think we'll do that again.  We didn't get home until after 2:00 am, so we were too tired to go to a better parade that was held at noon today.  The midnight parade seemed to be all politicians and businesses, with some muscle cars, a couple of bands, and some emergency response vehicles thrown in for good measure.  The parade that we missed usually has more bands, more floats, antique cars, the Shriners on their tiny motorcycles doing drills, stunt dogs, clowns, a local church's lawn chair drill team that is usually really funny, and lots of other fun things to see. Besides that, the clientèle at the afternoon parade is a lot less scary. 

Last night, we were surrounded by a whole lot of scantily clad, drunk people who insisted on smoking around us; and, worse yet, around their children--which I have no patience for.  Here's some valuable fashion advice that I gleaned from my experience last night.  Muffin tops are out.  I'm not sure if and when they were ever "in", but there were a lot of girls who would have benefited from taking a glance in a mirror, or  having a friend good enough to suggest that it might not be the best look to wear out in public.  My fashion advice for men would be this--if you're going to insist on wearing a "wife beater" shirt with the sides cut out, perhaps making sure that your fat rolls don't protrude out the sides might be prudent.

Right now, we're getting ready to go to a larger fireworks display that starts at 10:00.  (Don't even get me started on this whole Eastern Daylight Saving Time thing.)  We figured out that we can sit in the parking lot of our church and be able to see them really well without having to fight the crowds.  Hopefully, some other people from our church will have the same idea, and we'll have fun people to sit with. 

We've decided to take advantage of the whole "Forth of July Weekend" idea, so we're going to have a cookout tomorrow afternoon, and light some legal fireworks for Simon tomorrow night .  Hopefully the rain will clear out, and we'll have better weather for all of it!

Rainy Independence Day Eve

I feel the need to post today--if only to take back the bad things I said about my scheming, conniving animals yesterday.  While, sure, they woke me up at what would be the crack of dawn, it was because of them that I got more done yesterday than I have in ages!

After I posted yesterday morning, I hit the ground running!  I started some laundry, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, wiped down the kitchen, dusted the living and dining rooms, then the boys helped me weed half of the garden.  (That garden part took us two hours, so you can imagine how bad it had gotten.)

After it got too hot to work in the garden, I transplanted five herb plants and started some basil and spinach seeds in containers in front of my patio; and then came in and made a huge meal of gyros with hummous and a Greek salad!  The gyro meat alone was an undertaking because I took my George Foreman rotisserie out onto the patio to cook it so it wouldn't heat up the house.  Then I made tzatziki from homemade yogurt, made hummous in my food processor, and then whipped up a salad dressing and prepped veggies to make a Greek salad to go with it.  (And then I forgot to take pictures of the finished food for my food blog.  I hate it when that happens!)  In addition to all of that, I also went through a bunch of recipes and planned out some holiday-appropriate meals for the next few days--including a picnic for tonight. (Assuming it stops raining this afternoon like they say it should.)

Steve checked his email yesterday afternoon, and had a message from the guy who organizes the community band for the small town where he teaches.  The guy wanted to know if Steve would be willing to come over and play French horn with them when they play their patriotic concert in the park tonight.  I guess everyone brings picnic dinners, and after the concert they have fireworks.  Of course, the word that stuck out to me was *picnic*. I love nothing more than to whip up some gourmet, Martha Stewart/Barefoot Contessa picnic grub! 

While I was doing all of that cooking yesterday, my beloved husband went out on my behalf asking for donations for the silent auction that I was duped into organizing for our church's daycare; and then he stopped and picked up a bunch of groceries for me.  (He's such a nice boy!)  I was too tired to do much with the groceries last night, so today I need to clean out the fridge and prep the produce.  My goal is to have plenty of healthy snacks like fresh fruit, veggies, cheese sticks, yogurt cups, etc.  ready to grab when we're hungry.  Right now I just have a bunch of stuff in plastic produce bags that need to be cleaned and turned into appealing snacks.  I'm pretty sure I also have some past-their-prime leftovers in there that need to be dispatched.

Ok, I realize that I'm now rambling, so I'll just post these two pictures for your viewing pleasure--

Freshly Planted (albeit soggy) Patio Boxes

Disassembled bench that will soon be painted to go in front of planted boxes

So if I don't talk to you tomorrow, have a happy and safe 4th!  (And if you live in my vicinity and want to come over for a cookout or something, just holler!)

Good Morning Starshine, the Earth says Hello!

So the animals have taken to tag-teaming me awake at 6:30 every morning.  Daisy marches on my face while Linus whines to go outside.  If, after all that, I'm STILL not awake, Mike starts knocking things over in the living room to make Linus bark.  Diabolical, the whole lot of 'em!

So now it's early morning, and I'm wide awake.  I can't find the earbuds to my iPod, so if I jump on the treadmill it will be in silence.  Steve and Simon are still sound asleep, so if I do anything in the kitchen I'll wake them up.  (WHO designs a house with the bedrooms immediately adjacent to the kitchen?  Mike Brady???)  I guess I could do laundry, but our big sorter/hamper is in our room where Steve is still sleeping.  I'm thinking about making some hot tea and sitting out on the patio for a while. 

We've slipped into the lazy, hazy days of summer.  Yesterday I mowed the lawn, did some weeding, got some planters ready to put herbs in, and started taking apart the bench that lives on my patio so I can give it a fresh coat of paint.  It's been so rainy around here, it was nice to have a sunny day that wasn't terribly hot or humid.  They're saying that today we should get up to 86 and have more humidity.  Boo.

So far we have absolutely no plans for the 4th.  We need to come up with something that we traditionally do each year.  For a while there, we went to the parade in the neighboring town where I grew up with my sister's family, but they divorced a few years ago, and he got the parade in the settlement.  My whole life, I've lived close enough to see at least one fireworks display from my yard.  That ended when we moved here.  Our new church is kind of close to where they used to set off the major fireworks display in town, we might try going there to avoid the crowds in the shopping center where they set them off.

Wow, this took a negative turn, didn't it?   Maybe I should come back and post later when I'm less cranky.  ;)

They train bunnies, don't they?

I've been thinking about it, and I think I need to get Jerry Lewis to hold a telethon to raise money for research to train bunnies to eat crabgrass and not to eat the leaves of my soybean plants.

Crabgrass I've got in abundance in my garden.  Not so much with the soybeans thanks to Flopsy, Mopsy and George who live under my shed.  My sister pointed out that I'm a friend to the fuzzy bunnies.  Heck, I've got the best fed bunnies on the block! 

Deep in my heart I know it's my own fault.  I don't spray the back yard because I know the bunnies like to eat the clover.  Now, because I haven't sprayed the yard, the bunnies are enjoying the expanded buffet that we seem to be offering.  And, as a bonus, the crabgrass that I've allowed to remain amongst the clover is having its way with the rest of my garden.  I thought I'd start posting pictures of my garden on my food blog every Sunday. (There's no better motivation to get your garden weeded and back into shape than to say that you're going to post weekly pictures.) Unfortunately, I turned into a blog-slacker--which means I also turned into a garden slacker.   I'd run right out and weed it this morning, except it's been raining so it's too muddy. 

I tried brushing the dog, and putting dog hair all around the plants to keep the bunnies away.  I have no idea if it'll work or not, but some of the edamame leaves are starting to come back.  Someone pointed out that the Victory Garden guy frequently sprays his own urine on his garden to keep animals away.  I just don't think I want to go there.

The Tale of Discombobulated Girl!

I know I said that I'd come back after VBS and post, but then I forgot.  Actually, I had agreed to write daily newsletters for VBS, and those took me a couple of hours every day so I was burnt out on writing by the end of the first day of VBS.  (Imagine how I felt about it by the end of the week.)

VBS has now been over for five days, and I'm just starting to recuperate, but I realized that I'm just generally discombobulated by having the boys around all the time.  I got used to having several hours home alone each day to get things done around the house, and now that I'm not home alone, my routines are all messed up.  I need to figure out a new routine if we're ever going to have clean dishes or laundry this summer.  (Or if I'm going to get blog posts written for that matter.)

So let's see, what's happened since I last posted...

We did get our house mostly cleaned for our friends' visit.  They got here Friday night, and we left the kids with the lovely and talented Kate and ran over to the informal mixer for our twenty-year class reunion.  (Did I mention that Kelly was also a prodigal and graduated high school before she turned ten? Yes, let's just not trouble ourselves with any math past that, ok? lol)

So we got to the restaurant, and recognized only about half of our former classmates.  We were secretly consulting with each other and sneaking peeks at name tags to figure out who was who.   We stuck pretty close to the people we hung out with in school, and a few of us ventured out to mingle a little.  (Mingling was dangerous.  There were several guys there who were extremely drunk, and when asked a question like "Weren't we in the same Algebra class?" they heard "Hey baby, come here often?"   I'm not used to being hit on, so it was a very strange experience.)  Steve and Kelly's husband Todd pretty much stayed at the table playing trivia and laughing at the rest of us.  On the way there, Kelly's husband was coming up with his fake persona so he could pretend to have gone to HHS.  I don't think he actually did it though.  One guy's wife put on a name tag of a girl who wasn't there, and then they laughed at everyone who came up and said she hadn't changed a bit.  My goof-ball husband really flummoxed one drunk girl from my class.  She walked up to him, and started trying to figure out if she remembered him.  Steve told her "I don't look the same as I did back then, I used to be named Stephanie."  She looked very serious, and said "Really?", so Steve said no.  I told him later that we had a girl named Stephanie  in our class that he favors, so it was more believable than he knew.

Saturday morning we went on a tour of our old school.  They've remodeled most of the building, so the only two places that were recognizable were the gym and the auditorium.  I was very strange not to even be able to figure out where things used to be in comparison.  We were all asking if we were in the former math hall, only to be told that we were in the former courtyard.  It isn't my school anymore.

After that, we got ready and had a cookout at my house.  The original plan was to invite lots of people from the Friday night mixer, but then we decided to just stick with the original invitees.  We still wound up with thirteen people, which was a good number.  We spent most of our time sitting under the trees in my side yard chatting and looking through old yearbooks.  It was a nice, relaxing afternoon.

After everyone but Kelly's family left, we picked up a pizza and drank sangria and played a few 80s trivia games.  I miss having game nights!!  We had a good time, but I swear I made Kool-aid strength sangria so my trivia game was off.  (I am a drunken trivia champion, but only mediocre at sober trivia.)  ;)

The next morning, Steve went to church, Kelly's family headed home, and Simon and I took naps.  We aren't used to all the excitement and staying up late, so we slept for a couple of hours.  The big plan for Father's Day was to let Steve just take it easy, and then he wanted to watch The Tony Awards that night.  Of course a few minutes before the Tony's were supposed to start, a storm blew in and knocked our power out.  We had no power from a little before 8:00 that night, until a little after 3:00 the next morning.  I know that it came back on at around 3:00 the next morning because someone in my neighborhood has the loudest generator that has ever been created!  We had to leave the windows open, and it was like trying to sleep next to a lawn mower.  Steve drove around looking for utility trucks, and came home and reported that the generator was on the next block!  I bet the noise was unbearable for the neighbors who live right by the generator people.  I would've been less irritated if they were running the stupid thing because they had a medical need or something; but we know who lives there, and we're pretty sure the whole neighborhood was kept up because they wanted to watch TV and keep their ice cubes from defrosting.

That brings us to Monday and the beginning of VBS week.  We had VBS every morning, and I wound up spending every afternoon writing the next day's newsletter.  I don't know why vacation Bible school is always so exhausting, but we're always glad when it's over.

So you'd think that after a whole week of having to get up early to go to VBS would find us sleeping in on Saturday, right?  Of course not.  We had volunteered to help Steve's niece and nephew-in-law paint and hang curtains and wallpaper in their nursery before their baby is born.  (He's due today.)  The nursery turned out to be adorable, but it was a VERY long day.  We spent 14 hours over there working, so Sunday morning I let Simon sleep in.  It turns out that he really wanted to go to church because they had an offering reward for the VBS after first service.  It seems that the group who brought the most offering (the girls) were going to create a "human sundae" by covering one of the VBS staff members with ice cream and toppings.  I figured that Simon wouldn't be too upset about missing it because the boys lost.  I completely forgot that the losers were allowed to bring their squirt guns to help clean off the poor human sundae.  Simon had his Super Soaker out and ready to go.  (Mom fell asleep on the job this time.  Sorry Simon.)

We figured we'd mostly take it easy this week.  Steve has been working on his teaching portfolio because it has to be turned in by the end of the week.  We vegitated a little bit on Monday, but we had to take my mom to the doctor on Tuesday, and today I'm cleaning and getting ready to have my mom, my sister, and my sister's fiancé over for my mom's birthday tomorrow.

Somehow I don't remember summers ever being this busy!  My birthday is coming up fast.  (I think I'll be turning something in the late 20s range this year since the two and five candles that Steve bought thirteen years ago are melted pretty far down by now.)  Steve came up with a great gift for me this year.  He's taking me up to Chicago to watch a taping of "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me".   (We're looking for someone to watch Simon while we're gone, so if you're one of my family members or friends close-by who reads this and wants to volunteer to keep Sy for the day, give us a call!)

I guess I should go finish the dishes or do some laundry or something.  Bleh.

Tales of Mystery, Intrigue, Reunions and Power Outages...

...just not until I get home from Vacation Bible School this afternoon.  (How's that for a teaser?!)

I'm still alive and have lots to tell you about, but it's VBS week at church so things are still crazy.  I'll try to come back and post all about it later on today!

Multi-Holiday Weekend!

You know how much I love holidays, and this weekend is chock full o' them!  Today is a pseudo-holiday because one of my bestest friends and her family are driving up to spend part of the weekend with us!  Tonight is the informal mixer for our twenty year class reunion, so we've hired a sitter and we're we're all going to see what kind of trouble we can get into.

(I know you're asking yourself "How can Shaye be turning 29 next month after graduating 20 years ago?"  Well, lets just say I was a child prodigy and not bother ourselves with complicated math problems that should best be left alone.) ;)

For the past week, Steve, Simon and I have occupied ourselves with cleaning up the International House of Crack.  We have a few finishing touches to attend to before our friends arrive, but so far I feel like a new woman living in a clean house again!  I seriously think we should have people over more often!  I want to clean the floors, finish washing blankets, and I need to run to the grocery before they arrive--but none of the other projects that I want to get done are vital.  (A wise woman once told me "I'm a superficial cleaner.  I clean the areas that people see, but if you venture beyond the closed doors you're on your own."  This same wise woman's VERY wise husband informed me that only boring women keep immaculate houses.  Have I mentioned that I love this couple?)

Before you get the wrong impression that we're total slobs around here, I should say that we're a fairly tidy bunch.  Tidy, but you could have written your name in the dust in a few places around the house before this week.  Not any more, baby!  Steve even took every single book and knick-knack out of the built-ins on either side of the fireplace and dusted all of it!  This house is *almost* up to my Grandmother's standards, and that is saying a LOT!

Part of the reason for our cleaning frenzy (besides the fact that it needed it and our friends' visit) is because we're hosting a big cook-out tomorrow afternoon (Flag Day!) for the folks from our graduating class who aren't planning to go on the scheduled golf outing Saturday afternoon.  The big reunion event at the country club is tomorrow night, but we're not going to that either.  We thought it would be more fun to invite the folks we really want to see over here Saturday afternoon, and avoid the whole drunken dancing scene that our tenth reunion turned into.  Plus, there are no family-friendly activities planned, so we thought inviting our friends and their families would be fun. 

Saturday morning, we're going to go over to our old school to see all of the changes they've made to it.  (It has been completely remodeled, so it should be interesting to see if any of it is recognizable.)  After that, we'll probably run to the grocery and the fruit market, and then home to set up for the cookout!  I'm not sure how many people we'll wind up with.  We're providing hamburgers and hot dogs, and asking everyone to bring a 2-ltr and a covered dish.  (When I say "covered dish", I mean that in the loosest way.  People could bring a bag of chips or a package of cookies and it would be fine with me.)  We already have five families coming, and we plan to invite other people when we see them Friday night.

Ok, I've been sitting here and not finishing the things I need to finish long enough.  Until later, sweet diversion...  ;)