Ups and... Downs

Will that ever stop being funny?  

Lest anyone think all I've done is work the last two months, this is my catch up/ photo dump/ clinging onto the (mostly) happy moments post.

MAY: 

My son wanted a Minecraft party for his birthday.  Two-ish (?) days beforehand I realized the noble folks there have not yet sold out to corporate America.  Meaning there are no pre-packaged Minecrafty items available at major retailers.  And it was too late for Etsy.  Oh, fffuuuu.... 

I am NOT a crafty person.  Pintrest makes me itchy.  But bless their enormous pixels, Minecraft is all squares.  Surely I can manage that?

Butcher paper & a square brush, left over construction paper, and Rice Krispie/corn flake treats with cocoa & green food dye #37 for the Win!

I think he had a good time. (This was for his family party; the fiasco of his first official "friends" party is here.  The Girl's party will be in a couple weeks.  What's with the summer birthdays?)

JUNE:

We went to the annual Ds Walk/fundraiser but gave friends & family almost no notice so it was just the four of us.  The Girl was highly annoyed.  Possibly with her mother's pathological inability to plan ahead.  Also because we didn't let her stay on the slide all day.  Mean parents. 

But not to worry, we went to a street fair later that month and she was much happier.  This girl loves her selfies!  [The boy ditched us for his cousins]

JULY 4th:

Aunt Mary came to town, which was awesome.  We went to the sculpture park, which was grand.  One of my food experiments turned out beautifully (not pictured: the several that didn't and my kitchen, after).  And for the first time, my sound sensitive girl sat thru the fireworks and loved them, clapping and laughing and having a marvelous time.  I even posted something on facebook the next day about how much she'd grown up.

But as soon as I pressed enter I had that weird, unsettled feeling.  Could it really be that easy? 

Oh, fffuuuu.... 

Double ear infection. 

Fireworks are apparently even better when you can't hear the explosions.  

Whoops.

JULY, cont'd:

If you're new here, my husband works for an airline and we fly for free, but standby as "non revenue generating passengers".  No empty seats, no flight.  Thru trial and much error, we've figured out the basics - early morning flights are good, flying in the summer is bad, holidays are worse.  Trying to get somewhere by a certain time?  The gods will laugh.  

I need to remember that last bit.  Two weeks ago Matt and I went to Denver for the NDSC convention.  We got to the airport at 4:30 in the morning, as we should, and Matt got his 5am flight, no problem.  The twit was already in Denver napping before I had lunch.  I passed up the 5:30 to Chicago, hoping for the 6:30 direct to Denver because no way everyone shows up on time for a 6:30am flight.  HA!  Wrong!  So I took the 9:00 to Chicago but all the directs from there looked bad too so I ended up going thru Akron.  Akron, in case you're a bit fuzzy on American geography, is not in between Missouri and Colorado.  Eleven hours after leaving, a nearby mom pointed out the Mississippi to her kids as we flew over it. Eleven hours... to end up back where I started.  Yay!  

It could've been worse though - I missed Friday's events but arrived in time for dinner and didn't have to go thru Seattle or Portugal... or, horror, buy a ticket.  

Win???  

Don't hold me to those times - I think I went thru 3 times zones twice and it got a little fuzzy after Ohio.

Coming home I did everything wrong - late afternoon flight, out of a major hub, on a Sunday, during the summer.   Seventy shades of wrong.  The ticket agent on the first flight I tried openly mocked me.  The gal on the next flight out agreed to list me but I was #16 and the flight was full.  I started staking out the best corners of the airport to camp in.  But, lo, one person didn't show up and, in sweet but slightly co-dependent and defeatist fashion, none of the couples ahead of me in line wanted to separate.  Families may be the glue that holds society together, they may make all the other bullshit worth it but... ruthless isolationism for the win!  

One more reason why Matt and I don't fly together.  (That, and a wee bit of paranoia about orphaning my children.)

I can't let this end on an anti-family note, so here's a bonus picture of the kids at Ted Drewe's

Doesn't it seem like the summer should've involved more than one post?  School starts in ten days. 

Oh, fffuuuu....  

BOOM

Speaking of first world problems and lack of sleep... it's well past 9 o'clock right now.  I worked late, granted, but I should be going to bed right now, maybe even after 22 minutes of the Daily Show, but instead I'm going to post some exceeding blurry pictures from the Fourth, go running, and try to figure out who is getting how much of my paycheck on Friday.  Probably while I have the TV on, so I might get sucked into an hour long show instead of Jon's 22 minutes of sanity & light.  Assuming I get up in time, I might get about 5 hours of sleep.  Which I can manage for a day or two but then what?  The ONLY soft part of my day is bedtime - surely there is a magic formula that I can use to balance my various "me activities" & house stuff (including the neverending ohmygoodnessWHEREdoesitcomefrom? laundry) with just enough sleep so I don't get whiny and grouchy?  First world problems indeed - At least I'm not washing the laundry by hand in the creek, right? 

Anywhoodle - we had a blast on Monday.  SO MUCH FOOD.  So much food all weekend - mango salad with cilantro lime dressing (a new favorite), gazpacho, grilled salmon, fajitas, cherries, strawberry & blueberry pancakes (so patriotic!), BBQ on Monday and pasta with homemade pesto...  guacamole, hummus, more guacamole... We had 7 grown ups over for dinner on Monday and enough food for 20.  Nevermind all the yummy leftovers from various other meals.  I'm halfway tempted to make a comment about how we celebrated America's independence by gross American excess but this is the bright stuff of life - friends, family, celebrations.  Love it! 

[This also by way of explanation for why I'm going running tonight, regardless of the time - let's all hope my knees don't collapse under the weight of all those avocados]

And y'all might love it along with me if I knew how to take a picture at night.  My neighborhood has not yet fallen victim to the evil that is Big Brother preventing us from shooting our eyes out and setting our neighbors' roofs on fire.  MULTIPLE neighbors appear to spend serious coin on professional level displays so we lined up our chairs, sprayed on the bug spray and dreamed of the day we could keep up with the Joneses.  Though we tried - oh, we tried! 

What are you planning on landing there?

Cuteness!



Not pointing out the obvious here.
Because I'm not 14 anymore.
*giggle* 





Terrible!  But I am documenting the sparklers for posterity,  
 in case Big Brother wins. 

Edited to add:  Am obviously (hopefully obviously) joking about Big Brother on this, the most patriotic of holidays.  What the various sides chose to go Big Brother over is a neverending mystery - marriage or motorcycle helmets?  Which is more restrictive and intrusive and has less effect on others?  What people do in the privacy of their own bedroom, or the goofballs who want to feel the breeze in their hair and end up in a coma in the hospital on the state's dime after trying unsuccessfully to swerve around a semi truck at 85mph?  And then sue the semi truck?  Nope - No opinions here.  Happy 4th of July! 

Also:  I got 6 hours of sleep. Bonus hour!

Happy Fifth of July!

Is that title unpatriotic?  I don't mean it to be but we were busy celebrating our country's freedom yesterday with ribs, pecan pie, and - as it will forever now be known - "blowing sh!t up".  Our dear friend just left and my kids will be in mourning for the next several weeks.  Because mommy doesn't generally play them cartoons on her iphone like this:

Auntie M is under there somewhere.

On Friday we sent the kids off to camp/school and went to the movies. Heartless, I know.  I'd defend myself with talk of the limited outdoor activities in 98 degrees (!) but, really, I was seriously coveting some movie popcorn.  [Super 8, if anyone cares.  I didn't know what we were seeing & wouldn't have cared if we watched 90 minutes of previews, given how infrequently I get to go these days... but definite two thumbs up.]

On Saturday we took the kids to Dave and Busters.  There was grumbling (from me) - I thought it would be a slightly bigger but equally grimy version of C.Cheese but it was surprisingly nice - my girl loved the lights and noise, the slightly upscale bar food was yummy, and I got in a few rounds of battleship - when not stopping my girl from tripping their electrical breakers.  Also, bonus, we won so many tickets we left with a new ice cream maker, amongst other trinkets.  [No one needs to do the math on what that ice cream maker runs normally.  We were victorious!]

On Sunday we went to an airshow.  The local DS group had mentioned a special needs airshow in conjunction with the big one downtown - all the planes were going to repeat their tricks at the small airport they were using as a base, and we could go with the promise of shade and smaller crowds.  Since I already confessed my kid-free Friday, I don't mind telling you that I jumped on this not because of my daughter, but because of MY non-diagnosed issues with crowds and heat.  Judge if you must!  I could try to convince you we went to increase my son's disability/diversity awareness levels and/or meet similar families... but sadly, no.  I was lured by an umbrella. 

Photo by Auntie M & her trusty iphone.  Doesn't she take fabulous pictures?   

Couple of random observations - in 2009 my girl used to cry at soccer practices/games when anyone yelled or clapped too enthusiastically.  Her tolerance had skyrocketed for the 2010 season and she even really seemed to love the casino sounds at Dave & Busters, but she did not like the planes - or the free ear plugs.  So that was fun.  The planes were of little interest for her when not making her cry with their dastardly racket, which I expected - but I did not expect they would hold equally little interest for my son.  Whose dad lives, eats, and breathes jet fuel.  They set up one of those $1.99 sprinklers for the kids and he ran through that with his girlfriend, whose family also came with us, declaring it the "Best Day Ever".  Dude - I just drove almost 50 miles for you to watch planes in uncrowded shaded comfort.  LOOK UP.  

Exactly!  UP!  [All photos taken by M.]



Up!

Yes, we get it... UP!  Stinker.

Gratuitous cute photo from the car ride home.

Also, at a couple of these events I've told him that we're going to see people that might look a little different and it's OK to ask questions but don't point [or say anything that might make their parents hate me ....what that might be I haven't clearly defined]. I shouldn't fret - he doesn't notice. Granted he was running around with the 2nd cutest girl ever but he hasn't noticed at other events, when not distracted. I've worried about him growing up in the whitest suburb in Middle America (potential sibling issues not being front & center yet) - but I think we're doing OK.
[*Furious knocking on wood*]

On Monday we made 16x more food than necessary and... blew sh!t up. 
Photos forthcoming!  Laundry and my DVR are calling. 

Part VII

Last day - at the Botanical Gardens:

Part VI

Apparently I was too busy whoo-hooing on the 4th to take any pictures but here are two from the show on the 3rd.  They were even more entranced the next day.

Post Party on the 4th.  First time the little guy has actually requested bedtime. 

Anyone have a picture of Pete's shirt?

You know it's a good party when someone ends up blue

Part V

Mom comes through again! 
Incriminating photos....here:

Meaningful metaphor of life:

Cute, though not blackmail material, & hence not as fun

Part IV

Mo' finest:

Happy 12th! Holiday weekend, Part Trois

The City Museum. 

Tragically we do NOT have pictures of the giant hamster wheel, nor of Pete getting stuck in the tubes.  Nor, come to think about it, do we have pix from Friday's game - particularly the 'brella-hats.  Submissions are welcome.