It’s been a while (again) since I’ve done a bullet Sunday and this particular Sunday is a perfect time for one since I just have a bunch of random stuff on my mind.

• Hot - It was blazin’ hot this weekend. Record temperatures yesterday at 101 degrees. I have missed the warm sunny weather. But 101 is a bit much. It was cooler today, thankfully. But way too muggy. Way. Too. Muggy.
• Unlimited text messages - Years ago when we first got cell phones, I never understood the big deal about text messaging. Jack has to carry a pager for work so I’ve always been able to go online and send him a page if I couldn’t reach him by phone. And even that I rarely ever did unless it was important. As such we had never purchased any sort of text message plan with our cell phones (had pay per use) and did just fine without it. (Unless you count enduring the whining from oldest boy child who thinks having a cell phone isn’t enough. All the cool kids can text too and he couldn’t.. wah wah wah.) Then my brother decided to send me a crap-load of text messages a couple months ago so I bought a 200/month text message plan to cover that. Then Kayla moved to California and she has unlimited texting on with her mother’s plan so we decided to try it out so she could communicate with us too whenever she wanted. It’s come in great for that. She could give us updates from her new job, during her walks to work, etc. And at home? We text each other to say good night. My son goes upstairs to bed and texts me downstairs with, “Night mom. Love you”. Pathetic. (But I’ll admit I’ve sent a few text messages too just because I could… and it can come in handy.)



• Pools - We thought it was finally time we got a big pool. Not just the average kiddie pool, but one of those ‘easy-up’ pools that claim to set up in minutes. They were on sale, youngest boy-child is old enough now, so why not? Sounds reasonable. Right? I mean, look at the picture that was on the box. It looks so easy, and fun, and inviting. Perfect for a hot summer day. WRONG. Easy set up… my ass. So on the hottest day of the summer so far we’ve tried setting it up, found out our yard wasn’t near as level as it looked, had to rent a pump to drain the damn thing (because at the rate it drained with the parts included, it MIGHT have been drained by Tuesday, if we were lucky), dug a huge circle of grass out of our yard, then dug some more dirt, and some more dirt, and some more dirt and still can’t get it level because of the hard rocky terrain our backyard is apparently made of. By the time of this writing, we still have no pool set up and have to spend more money to rent a tiller and a ground pounder. Oh and Jack’s sunburned, heat-exhausted, dehydrated blistered, and every muscle in his body is sore and aching. The kids and I have a few blisters and sore muscles too, but Jack is trashed…
• Funnel clouds - You would think the last time we had any sort of tornadoes or funnel clouds or anything weird in our area, I’d trust my dogs’ instincts. Tonight the temperature dropped quite a bit and we were treated to a lightening show and some thunder. The dogs were outside and Kendra started getting panicky. She was heavy panting and begging to come inside. She started scratching at the back door and then the window. At first I ignored her. It’s normal for her to do that if she’s outside alone and I didn’t want the dogs in the house at that moment. But then I remembered that Randy was out with her so it was unusual for her to be acting like that if he’s with her. Then the wind picked up quite a bit… Then I got this in my email and her behavior suddenly made sense:
  

  Nowcast as of 9:41 PM PDT on June 29, 2008

  Now
  At 930 PM PDT National Weather Service dopplar radar indicated scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms over portions of the southwest Washington interior moving north. However…this area remains under the influence of a very unstable airmass. Spotter reports have indicated strong gust winds in the area as well as the possiblity of a funnel cloud over east Vancouver. Funnel cloud formations are not uncommon with unstable conditions. The area of strongest winds are moving north and weakening. However…unstable conditions will continue overnight.

• Bugs - Friday night we found three of these freaky and HUGE bugs in our backyard. They were like a cross between a wasp and a dragonfly. I’d never seen anything like it before and both Jack and I were freakin’. After a search on the internet, it appears they might have been ichneumon wasps, which are apparently harmless. They sure didn’t look harmless. We haven’t seen any more since… and I hope we don’t again.
• Tired - It was basically another busy and crazy weekend despite our plans for it to be a relaxing and quiet one before our big Fourth of July bash. I wonder if we’ll ever see a lazy weekend again?

So it’s been a crazy week. Just lots of crap going on. I think I have figured out the source of my getting random zits now and then… STRESS. I really WILL need to look into the best acne treatment if this keeps up, lol!

Lets see… the clutch went out on our car. I tried to get that dealt with and failed.
Our oldest graduated from high school and moved to California the next day.
We helped a friend move.
Work, while not particularly busy, had some minor stresses happening.
School ended for the kids.
Kids went completely insane.
Kids drove mom completely insane.
Mom’s already counting the days till school starts again.

I’m mostly kidding on the last two there. I’m glad they are home and we get to spend some time together. But I really wish they’d stop trashing the house, tracking water/dirt through it, and bouncing off the walls. (Please????)

And not all of the stresses this week were *bad* stresses either. I mean… watching my stepdaughter graduate and start her life was an awesome thing. Since I’m a worry wart though, it still wasn’t completely stress free.

This deserves it’s own entry.

As we were backing out of the parking lot at Costco today, we heard someone beeping their horn incessantly. It sounded close so Jack stopped. He was already backing out very slowly as we always do, but couldn’t figure out where the beeping was coming from. Finally we realized it was the car that was in the spot directly behind us. Apparently he felt the need to whip out of the parking lot as fast as he could and try to beat us and since we were already there, he’d just beep at us till we stopped so he could go.

Apparently either we didn’t stop fast enough for him, or he didn’t. Either way he left his car half in the parking lot and got out of his car to inspect some phantom damage we supposedly did when we ‘hit’ his car. The only problem with that is we didn’t hit him. Nor even come close.

This guy kept inspecting his bumper very dramatically (which was a good five feet from our van) and by then some other people had stopped to gawk at what was going on. Fortunately for us, an older couple had been putting their purchases in their car right next to us and they said we didn’t hit him. We didn’t even touch this guy’s car. Melissa was sitting the back of the van and she said we never came close.

My thoughts turned to a bit of paranoia… What if this guy was one of those freaks who purposely sets himself up to get hit so he can sic the sleazy ambulance-chaser lawyer he likely has on retainer on us, then take off in his private jet charter paid for by innocent unsuspecting people? There are people out there like that… and this is exactly what it seemed like.

I was relieved but still annoyed when instead he waved it off and made a production of saying, “don’t worry about it” repeatedly like he was letting us off the hook. I really wanted to just saying WhatEVAH to him but I kept my mouth shut and quietly got back in the car.

Definitely a strange incident, though.

Tomorrow is Father’s day and also Kayla’s graduation party, and also Katherine’s birthday party. (Why not combine everything into one? Besides, Kayla leaves for California/Disneyland on Tuesday morning so it’s this weekend or never…) As such today was the only day to get caught up on laundry, get the house straightened up, fix the window the air conditioner goes into, etc. etc. etc. We got most of that done, but mostly we shopped.

First stop was Lowes for new plexi-glass (for the air conditioner window), some drill bit thing Jack couldn’t live without, some weed & grass killer for the gravel area on the side of our house, some weed n’ feed for the grass, and a spreader (old one broke). We came home after that and set about our chores only to discover we didn’t have the weed & grass killer. We looked high and low and we just didn’t have it. Melissa wanted to go to the store anyway to pick up a birthday gift for one of her friends so back out shopping we went.

We decided to get gas and the cheapest in town is at Costco ($4.15/gallon… OWIE). Since we were already at Costco we ran in to pick up “a few things”. While there we decided to pick up some lunch and I splurged and got a very berry sundae. UGH. Waaaaay too much ice cream. I may need some Phentermine after that.

The “few things” ended up being $600 worth of groceries. Our cart was overflowing. But our pantry and cupboards are full. That’s always a good feeling. Plus while there we found the perfect birthday gift for Casey. After a quick stop at R&D’s to stash the birthday present for the next month, it was back to Lowe’s (itt urns out we weren’t ever charged for the weed & grass killer and it got left on the counter) then to Fred Meyer’s for some stuff Costco doesn’t carry.

I’m still not caught up on the laundry (am I ever???) because of all this shopping and I’m beat. But at least I got some sort of a workout today. After eating that sundae, this is a good thing.

Stressful times are back. So it seems… “These are the days of our lives.” …

Seems there’s some sort of drama going on everywhere in our lives right now. We’re not directly involved in all of it, but it just seems to be everywhere. It’s enough to make one wanna pack up their luggage (I wouldn’t mind a set of this Johnston and Murphy luggage) and take off for a week or two till it blows over.

I don’t mean to make light of it. But at this point I kinda have no choice. We’re starting our summer with a bang it seems and if I don’t find some light at the end of the tunnel, I’ll go insane. Every time things calm down around here it seems something else starts up that causes some sort of stress. It’s pretty damn frustrating.

Jack and I have been talking about it here and there, bouncing ideas off each other and trying to decide the best way to handle some of it. I, being a worry wart, tend to feel the stresses a bit more than he does. I get so jealous of how easily he can take things sometimes. When I was sharing some of my worries and fears with him, he started telling me how much I meant to him. Among other things, he said,

“If you were just a brain in a jar, I’d put you in a backpack and carry you with me everywhere I went”.

Is that just the sweetest thing? Or what?

Dear family,

You know me well. As such you know that I can’t and won’t function in a messy house. I’ve been saying that all your lives and I’ve explained it to you one billion times. Maybe two billion.

You say you want clean clothes? No problem. Simply put your dirty laundry in the laundry basket, NOT on the bedroom floor, bathroom counter, or behind the bathroom door. Don’t stuff your stinky socks between the couch cushions, under the dining room table, or under the shoe shelf.

You want your laundry folded too? You know that based on the design of this house, the best place for me to fold your laundry is on the kitchen counter. Unfortunately the kitchen counter is currently cluttered with school papers and various odds and ends from your school backpacks, empty cereal boxes, an empty apple sauce container, and an empty milk jug. Sorry. Until your crap stuff is cleared off the counter, you’ll have to fetch your clothes (the ones I found in the laundry basket) from the other laundry basket (of clean clothes).

You wanted me to make dinner? I would, except the sink is full of dirty dishes you all left behind from your various meals and snacks over the last two days. It’s pretty clear who’s turn it is to dishes, yet still they sit. Since we don’t have clean dishes, there’s nothing for you to eat off of so I can’t serve dinner. Sorry.

What was that? You were watching TV? Oh I’m sorry! The blinds are dusty and the floor needs vacuumed. I didn’t mean to get into your way.

Love,
Mom

That’s what she keeps saying, and it just trips me out.

Our little girl… who’s the oldest little girl in our family, will be graduating from high school Friday. Then, shortly thereafter she’ll be taking the long trip to Southern California for an internship at Disneyland.

I’m a Disney lover. Always have been. It’s the happiest place on earth, right? It was to me when I got to visit when I was 11 years old, and it was to my mother who lived only miles and got to hang out with the real Mouseketeers when she was a child. (She thought that was no big deal at the time…)

So I’ve been mildly obsessed with all things Disney lately. Even looking into some Disney fine art as possibly part of a graduation present for her new place. So much to choose from at SandersArtStudio.com! I so want this: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes or this: Morning Blossoms Tinker Bell. They have a little bit of everything, even abstract Disney art.

I also ended up watching this video of Trevor Carlton showing the making of a “Pie-Eyed Mickey” and thought it was pretty darn cool. If I lived near SLC, Utah I’d be totally checking out the Disney Fine Art Live Performance Event.

By the end of this month our girl will be LIVING all things Disney. I’m so happy and excited for her. And a little jealous, too.