Miss Mannie ready to strut her stuff
Maggie post tap dance
my darling littlest girlfriend, Grace


ONE WITH THE WAVES
That's what I was today. We hit the beach with some friends and the waves were unbelievable AND the water wasn't unbearably cold. So that meant I was up for boogie-boarding. I haven't laughed so much in ages. Even my friend's son said "you are going in?" Ha -- I showed 'em. Well, I showed 'em what a Mom of four looks like boogie-boarding during her once-a-year attempt.

Anyway, I was trying to post 'a month in review' of photos but blogger is being picky about uploading so for now I give you my three of my favorite girlies. So, more pictures soon.

Random thoughts for Monday..........

1) The OLYMPICS are coming; the OLYMPICS are coming! I have loved the Olympics as far back as I can remember. Swimming, track & field, gymnastics - love it all. I'll even try to watch some men's Water Polo b/c I saw them at the local pool two weeks ago. Easy on the eyes, they are.

2) Still watching So You Think You Can Dance --- incredibly disappointed that Will is gone. He is an amazing talent and will go places so I can't really complain. My top three ---- Joshua, Twitch, and Katee. Anyone else think they made Katee look like Amy Winehouse for that wicked-cool door dance last week?

3) It's the end of July and that means FOOTBALL starts today. WOOT! And that means we are one step closer to the NFL season as well. I loves me some football.

4) Now that we are into our lazy days of summer, I have been getting little procrastinated chores completed. Two bags of old papers/mail/junk-to-sort, done! Sorting the multiple kid bookshelves, done! Cleaning off my dresser....well, almost done!

The boy has got an addictive personality. When he latches onto something that he loves; he runs with it. Skateboarding, football, baseball, and now FISHING. He is down right obsessed with everything fishing. It started with a couple of small fishing adventures. And then he saw Collin check the local fishing report so he would know what kind of fish were hitting.

Now, Sean checks the fish report daily. Sometimes several times b/c he knows that they have morning, 1/2 day, and afternoon charters. I have even gotten him a journal to record the fish count b/c he was using every post-it note we owned to record it. And I have to listen to his journal notations daily. He sort of sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher to me but I've got the 'uh-huh', 'cool' responses down.

And with the beauty that the internet is he has discovered fishing videos on YouTube. It is quite hilarious. When he isn't outside running around like a maniac or playing sports, he is begging me to watch fishing videos. Huh? He is certainly channeling his red-neck roots if he is watching this, right?

On the bright side, he is learning a ton about fish/bait/technique and his penmanship is getting a little daily practice.

He has always loved the ocean and loved reading all non-fiction stuff on it. If he doesn't grow up to have a career in marine biology or oceanography I will be shocked. Gotta run -I have to go and watch a video on Flounder gigging now.

WHAT TIME IS IT?

And the answer is.......FOOTBALL!
This week Sean is doing a mini football camp of drills and skills to prepare him for the start of football practice (next week). What a blast he is having. And so are we. The coaches started with the chant 'Football - IS HERE'; 'Football - IS HERE' and that just roped me in. I really enjoy watching the boys learn; hustle; and sometimes trip over their own feet.

Some of the coaches are ex-NFL players and a few are current college players. Today they had three of the USC starters there to help. They had a short autograph session at the end of session. Sean was beaming with his Joe McKnight signature on his brand new shiny Nike cleats. He got another signature on the back of his shirt, #56 Alex Parsons; he's HUGE and intimidating, and a local boy who used to play in our league.

Such a cool experience. A casual, low-key camp that is helping foster his love of the game. He really loves the game. Help me remember this when my lean, 66-lb. boy is being squished by the 90-lb. little dudes.

For the record, we caught him trying to sleep in his cleats when we tucked him in bed.

Took me a while to put this together but the kids think it is cool and I hope you do too.....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

For the record--- I tried to waterski, but that was a no go; we didn't catch any fish except for the one sick one we happened upon while it was trying to beach itself; we all slept in one tent (including the dog) and used the small one for changing, clothes and food storage; in the picture of Sean by the tree, he isn't going to the bathroom - he is collecting one of his 328 pine cones.

There are loads of things that are disposable these days. It's all about cleanliness and recycling and convenience.

I'm here to say that I used both cloth and disposable diapers over the years and while cloth was great on the baby's skin and saved some money; disposable is certainly easier (especially when you are out and about --- carrying wet/soiled cloth diapers around just isn't fun). Now that our family is beyond the diapering stage, I have one wish for something disposable. DISPOSABLE clothing!!!!! And I'm not talking about this or this.

My friend, Amy, has been telling me about this for years. Most of her children are older than mine and while I knew I always had tons of laundry, I had little kids and that meant little clothes. They are still relatively little, but FERPETESAKE --WHY do they wear so many clothes? in a day? a week? Seriously, I folded 12 pairs of underwear in one load of Amanda's clothes (and I often will pull clothes from random hampers to make a full load so her clothes are done maybe more than once a week.) I'm glad she is changing her underwear and all, but cut me some slack Peanut.

So, you can probably guess what spawned this post. It's the never-ending clothes shuffle......who's outgrowing what/school sales are starting/pull a box of saved stuff from the garage/organize/blah, blah, blah. ACK! It makes my head explode. We have been blessed with amazing hand-me-downs from friends and family over the years so that has helped keep the cost down, but I really think disposable would be easier.

It would save me lots of water and duct tape for my head.

So my AWESOME friend, Nicole, decided that she would have my kids over to swim while I hit Costco.....ALONE! Did you read that; I said ALONE. :)

I got a cart and enjoyed my hotdog and Mocha Freeze in peace. Grabbed some new pjs; glue sticks for school; new beach towel; and then I conquered the list. Holy guacamole. I had ONE cart completely maxed out without one square inch available. It was piled high and I carried the Oxi-Clean at the end b/c there was no room and the cart was too heavy anyway. I knew it was bad; people were staring. And they weren't staring b/c my kids were behaving badly b/c I was ALONE, remember.

The cashier even said 'I hope you have a black membership card b/c if you don't you are losing money.' I was quite smug when I handed her my card, coupons, and rebate check. I exited with two carts b/c the packing folks aren't as efficient as I am. AND I lucked out by running into a friend with her kids in tow; she sent her 8th grade son with me to load my car. Sweet.

I have decided on two things: 1) next trip I will get the barge instead of the cart and 2) a bunch of flowers; milk; and gatorade are the best trade off for shopping sans kids!

EXHALE..........
we've been out of school for about a month now and just today I finally feel like I can take a deep breathe and exhale. We literally have been on GO! since the day after school let out. The camping trip to Bass Lake was awesome (slideshow to come, I promise) and now that dance recital is done/baseball is done/VBS is done/swimming ends tomorrow/and Sound of Music rehearsals are done the rest of summer seems exceptionally slow-paced and mellow. So what if we have football starting soon, I don't have to go if I don't want to. So what if we have SofMusic shows to do, it's not every show nor every weekend. Tutoring sessions drop-off & pick-up...Meh, no biggie.

I declare the rest of the summer to be filled with beach days; visits with friends; and lots of relaxation. Which definitely includes watching So You Think You Can Dance.

And, ice cream, preferrably Breyer's Chocolate Crackle!

Egads! (isn't that a great cartoon expression?) Well, I sorta feel like I'm living at a cartoon/zany/fast-paced speed. Let's see in the last three weeks --- we've had two dance recitals; out of town guests (waving to the Poynots; we MISS you!); numerous baseball games; several play rehearsals; tutoring for Mag; swim lessons; 4th of July; more swim lessons; Vacation Bible School; and WAY TOO MUCH food on-the-go. I'll admit I love fast food (mostly) but the thought of eating drive-thru or in my car makes me want to gag. I honestly would rather starve.

Of course, I have tons of pictures. But no time to upload them and share the joy so you'll have to use your imagination until I can get back to you. Here's a picture from our camping trip to Bass Lake; it will have to hold you over......

SUMMER IS.............
swim lessons and
lots of time at the pool
THE BEACH
several bottle of sunscreen
Vacation Bible School
summer book club at the library
long days of playing outside until you can't see the ball anymore
awesome fresh fruit and endless watermelon



Angels baseball games
Smores
the Circus
Ice Cream! and Popsicles!
never-ending beach towel laundry
sand overflowing the lint-catch in the dryer
What does summer mean to you?