Sweatin' it Out in Texas

Good grief it's HOT in the state of Texas.  I like being warm.  Handle heat just about better than anyone I know.  MUCH prefer it to freezing to death (which starts somewhere just under 70 degrees for me).  But THIS is ridiculous!!!!!!  Welcome to day 63 of consecutive days with temps over 100 degrees.  Grrrrr.  It's miserable here.  And sticky.  And gross.  And hard to breathe with all this stinkin' humidity.  I am MISSING living in the desert more than you can imagine these days.  Chris and I were talking and found it funny how even the desert wasn't as grueseomely hot as it is here and had nowhere NEAR the humidity.  I'm getting NOTHING done in my yard or around the house.  I have to wait until 8:30 every night to go out and try to pull a few weeds.  Then I have to pull FAST because I only have a few minutes of daylight left.  So many things are just being left undone out there because it's just SOOOOOO hot!!!!!!!  Unfortunately, things are nearly as hot INSIDE as well right now.  The A/C unit that cools the upstairs has, at last, done it's swan song and was pronounced dead late last week.  The other two units are doubly taxed now trying to pick up some of the slack. It's 95 degrees upstairs.  The A/C unit that cools the master bedroom and that end of the house has been straining and is having to be babied along while we sweat this out.  It's frozen over a couple of times with the increased work load.  Sending my bedroom up to a nice 85 degrees.   We've been sleeping all over the downstairs, with kids on couches and floors and guest beds.  They ordered us a new A/C unit and it should be here today or tomorrow.  Hopefully it can be installed as soon as it reaches the technician's hands?!  I thought summer was miserable BEFORE the A/C went out...but I have now had my perspective shifted.  The lack of A/C inside is greatly influencing some things in the house as well.  For example, I am in NO hurry whatsoever to go upstairs and put the kid's laundry away.  Nor have I had the heart to send them up into the extreme heat to do it.  So my laundry room is piling up.  There are blankets and pillows and all manner of other things all over my family room all day.  It looks like a bomb went off downstairs.  Night time gets tricky because I am used to being up past all my children and able to move around the kitchen and make noise without disturbing anyone.  But with all my crew passed out right there in the family room, that is difficult.  This week has certainly been an interesting journey and I have developed a new thanks and grattitude for the miracle of air conditioning and will never take that blessing for granted again!

What else?  My diet is coming right along.  It's been one week and I am down about 5 pounds right now.  Today is the first day of week 2.  Here's to motivation and staying the course!  And pants that might fit one day again!  And being able to breathe again in your fat pants!  Woo hoo!  It's the little things in life, right?

On another note, I gave Max his first driving lesson this weekend.  I thought if he had a chance to get behind the wheel and take it for a spin, it might be motivational for him and he MIGHT pay more attention to his grades and get focused.  Probably not.  But it was worth a shot.  So I bravely stepped up to the plate and proceeded to do with Max, what my own father did with me when it was time to teach ME how to drive.  I took him over to the local cemetary.  I know that might sound strange, but it's where I learned and in my old age, I realize the wisdom in this choice of venue for lessons.  Especially the early ones.  The cemetary has nice little roads all through it.  With corners to practice turning and intersections to practice stopping at.  There is little to no traffic (unless there is a funeral going on) and ours has some hills, etc.  And, like my Dad always reminded me...you can't hurt anyone over there.  They are all already dead!  And so, we went for our first little driving session.  It went quite well, and a few jerky stops and starts later he was getting the hang of it.  Hopefully it was enough to motivate the week before us?  I don't plan to throw out too many of those bones though.  My nerves cannot take it!  I'm made to drive...not ride quietly alongside.  It was a true test of my nerves and will.  I can handle the little stuff...like cemetary 101...but I plan to let the driving school handle all the rest!!!!

That's about all the news here in the great state of Texas today.  Kids are off to school and I am off to the dry cleaner and the library!  I know, exciting stuff.  Don't be jealous of my glamorous life!  Have a great day!

Back to School

Well, it's that time of year again.  The first day of school has come!  And gone. As in, we survived!  Yesterday was the first day back for our kiddos.  I was worried about how it would all go.  Max was still doing homework at 10:30 p..m. the night before (my little procrastinator).  Clara was lamenting about what a bummer it was that NONE of her friends was going to be in her class.  And Ben was uptight  because he did not have every single thing he needed for football practice, WHICH hadn't even started yet.  But everyone was up, bright and early, eyes all sparkly (or maybe just really watery from constantly yawning because it's been forever since they have seen the 6 a.m. hour?  And everyone was out the door right on time and successfully delivered to their appropriate school campuses.  Once the kids were all situated, that left me with some MUCH welcome quiet!  I made a Goodwill run and emptied all the bags of clothes from the back of my car, stopped at the gym and worked out for about an hour and a half, came home for a quick snack, showered, tackled 4 loads of laundry, scrubbed my bathroom top to bottom, steamed the floors, vacuumed the downstairs, did the dishes, grabbed some lunch, pulled some weeds, then took off to start picking up kids.  I will have NO children on buses in the afternoon this year.  I decided to pull Clara off the bus with the two nasty little girls down the street. I just want to run over them every time I see them out in the street.  NASTY little ones they are.  I made that decision last year...and it works fine for us.  Ben will be doing football practice and will be staying at school until 4:30 each day.  This is not a problem at all, as Max's school bell schedule has changed (due to budget cuts) and his swim practice will now run a half hour AFTER school, leaving him finished at ....4:30!!!!!  What's even better about this is that Max actually has swim practice in the parking lot of Ben's school!  The fates have at least smiled at me on this one!  SOOOOOO...I'll be picking the boys up between 4:30 and posssibly 4:45 for Ben as he cleans up, then whisking them home, lickety split, only to immediately leave with Clara in order to get her to her Jui Jitsu practice.  Leave her, shoot home to pick up Max, who has now had just a few quick minutes to have a snack and change clothes, take Max to Jui Jitsu, pick up Clara and bring her home, and pray Chris can grab Max on his way home from the office at 7 o'clock!  Whew!  From 2:45 on, life is going to be some kind of crazy around these parts!  I'm tired and overwhelmed just thinking about it.  Which is why I have to switch back into Nike mode and you know...Just Do It.  Less thinking...more doing!  But yesterday...we didn't even attempty Jui Jitsu practice or anything else.  I knew everyone would be tired and that there would be a couple of things that would need to be taken care of and so I thought a low key afternoon would be best.  However...there would be NONE of that.  Apparently football practice started right then, the first day of school, no here's what you should know as a parent, no "Head's up, we're starting", no notice at all.  And in order to practice, you have to have had your sports physical.  WHICH of course, we didn't have yet.  Grrrr.  And so.  I made a call to the pediatrician who informed us that they couldn't have one in their office until after August 30th due to insurance policy....which is completely too late for both boys.  So we loaded back into the car, 15 minutes after we got home and headed to urgent care up the street where THEY performed their physicals for them.  Both boys...DONE!  Got back home around 5:15, where I had exactly 25 minutes until I had to get BACK in the car and go back to Ben's school for a meeting about football.  Sigh.  By the time I got back home at 7 0'clock last night, I was ready to drop.  I had some dinner, finished some laundry, baked some cookies for the kid's lunches (NOT because I'm domestic, but only because we didn't have anything else I could throw in there), and was tucked deep in my bed by 10 p.m.  I slept like the dead and rose bright and early, ready to start this new and wonderful day!  I have to admit the alarm seemed to go off a bit early and I found myself praying for just 5 more minutes.  The excitement of the first day had definitely worn off...it's drudgery from this point on!  But alas...up at at em....be the Nike and all...Just Do It!

Speaking of DOING...I have lots to do today.  Ben needs a mouthguard and a water JUG for practice.  It's still 106 degrees here at 4 p.m. when my boy is out on that football field and he NEEDS some serious liquids.   He also needs two MORE spiral notebooks.  Notebooks that failed to be mentioned on the student supply list.  Clara needs 4 book covers and a pack of dividers.  Book covers and dividers which ALSO happened NOT to be on the school supply list.   GRrrrrrrr.  This kind of stuff just makes me CRAZY!!!!!!!  In addition, my printer is nearly out of ink, my pool is turning green and needs some shock, and my puppies are nearly out of treats.  So I have some shopping to take care of today.  No rest for the weary, right.  And in my spare time, I need to do a deep clean on the rooms upstairs...blinds, baseboards, corners, etc.  Well...alright now.  Looks like a full program then today!  Best be getting to it!

Happy Birthday, Clara!

It's crazy hard to believe that my baby girl is NINE now!  Wow!  Where did these years go?!  She is definitely not a baby anymore.  The baby is all gone now and left behind in it's place is a lovely, lovely, sweet and beautiful young lady.  She's bright, funny, thoughtful, articulate, spontaneous, CRAZY social, creative, artistic, silly and altogether delightful.  How blessed are we to have had this amazing creature as our very own for nine whole years???!!!!!

My sweet, amazing creature is WILDLY fond of a good party and good times with friends, so of course, we ended up celebrating over two whole days!  Clara doesn't have a birthday.  She has birthDAYS!    We started celebrating just after lunch on  Friday when three of her favorite Texas friends arrived at the house ready for an afternoon of fun.  We loaded up the car and headed off to Main Event, one of Clara's favorite places, for some bowling.  After they spent a good hour and a half knocking down pins and cheering each other on like crazy, we all headed back to the house again where Miss Clara opened some wonderful presents.

Clara and her friend Hannah

A bake set for her American Girl dolls!!!!

A new t-shirt that's scratch and sniff!

A bead set with over 4000 beads.  (There was a point in my life where I seriously would have freaked out over a gift with this many pieces!)

She LOVED the bead set!

"Make a Wish!"  After opening gifts, there were flower cupcakes!  Yummy!

Cooper has had a haircut, just in time for all the celebrating.  He looks like a different doggie!

Do you have any idea how much I adore this little face?

"Why are you taking so many pictures of me, crazy lady?"

Oh yeah...back to the party....Clara had such a great time celebrating with her friends and playing with all of her new toys.  But the best of the celebrating was still, yet to come.  I found her bright and early the next morning WIDE awake and ready to start the day.  Her "official" birthday.  She could not WAIT to tear into the stack of gifts that she knew I had hidden away for her.

She was SO ready to tear into these!!!!

First up is a new underwear and t-shirt set for her American Girl Dolls!  Hooray for undies!

Followed by a watch for her American Girl Doll.  We are very accessory conscience around here ya know!

Up next was the Ukelele Set for the girl of the year American Girl Doll, Kanani.  Total Score!!!!!   THANK YOU Aunt Donna!!!!

Then there were books from Mimi and Pee Paw Dave!  More Kanani!  Hooray!!!

Then Kanani Pajamas from Mimi and Peepaw Dave!   Clara had to model those right away! 

Then, last, but not least, Kanani herself!  Clara was in HEAVEN!

Later that evening, Gigi and Pee Paw and Uncle Todd all came over for dinner and cake and Ice cream.  Our brains and hearts are still at the beach...so Clara chose a beach cake!

Can you believe this is my BABY girl sitting here with nine candles on that cake???!!!

Before we knew it, wishes had been made and she was blowing out her candles, another year officially marked and celebrated.  Next year will be double digits.  Heaven help me!!!!

Summer Wrap Up

Well, summer is officially, QUICKLY, coming to an end for the Roberts family.  We are back from California and getting back to "normal" life.  Normal life in Texas currently consists of feeling like we live in an oven, changing clothes often because we sweat through a set every time we step outside, leaving puddles of sweat everywhere we go, grumbling about the large amounts of laundry created due to excessive sweating, and wishing the state of Texas weren't setting new heat records almost daily!  Welcome home, huh?  In addition to settling back into the heat, the boys have both been thrust hard core and head first into the school grind.  Even though school does not start until next Monday, they are both working through hefty summer assignments.  Max has had several chapters of a world history textbook to tackle, reading the Life of Pi and reading and journaling Oedipus the King.  Lucky him.  Ben has had two novels for English class to read and journal and also a novel for his history class.  It's coming down to the wire now and it's a LOT of work to get done.  Unfortunately, summer assignments are a real drawback to being in the gifted and advanced placement classes.  Oh well.  Ya got to get yourself in there and get started at SOME point, right?

Clara on the other hand does NOT have summer assignments and is actually excited about school starting.  We get to go to school on Friday to find out which teacher she has, meet the teacher, and find out which friends she will be in class with.  She is ready to be back in the classroom, being stimulated and entertained the better part of each day.  And I think I am ready for that too!  She's really excited about 4th grade and Monday cannot get here fast enough for her!

But before summer goes away totally, I thought I'd throw a few more pictures from summer vacation on here for you to enjoy!

My boy celebrated his 15th birthday in Oceanside, CA!  Happy Birthday Max!!!

Just a few days after Max's birthday, Clara's BFF, Claire and her family came to camp with us!  

Clara was in HEAVEN!!!!  Nothing is better than smores with your BFF by the campfire!

When BFF's come to town then everyone needs matching t-shirts!  Happy Campers right here!!!

Time to head down to the beach and catch some waves!

My Ben decided to behave himself and smile NICELY for his mom!

THAT lasted for about 3.2 seconds and then he was back to his "normal" self!

Summer vacation with your BFF could only be better if you were at DISNEYLAND with your BFF!!!!!

First ride of the day at Disneyland...the Carousel!

Of course, as your souveneir from Disney, you've GOT to have ears!

The girls got to meet Princess Aurora and had quite the chat!

Mommy and Clara ready to take Dumbo for a spin!

This one got a case of "Goofy" while we were at Disney!  Geez!  What is UP with my weird kids this summer and their inablilty to just look at a camera and SMILE???!!!

Happy End of Summer!!!!

We finished up the summer with a Luau in the RV park!  Kahlua pig and all manner of yumminess!