Aw, man!

The boys had faced a tough team yesterday and ended up losing by two runs.  Despite playing out in intense heat every other night, the boys (and I) are quite bummed.  And then I had to listen to John deconstruct the whole game over and over again.  But this is how he deals with things like that--he just has to talk it out of his system.  He totally enjoyed coaching these teams this year, and he is really looking forward to coaching again next year. 

(Right now Keith is showing off his newest Lego creations--which take up the whole of his bedroom floor and make it impossible to even walk in there.  I gave him a bin large enough to store them all [and may even NOT make the creations fall apart], but he refuses to use it.)

I was bummed to discover this morning that I needed to clean the refrigerator--again.  I just cleaned it two weeks ago when it had got to Condition: Too Scary To Open.  But my sun tea jar has a spigot on it.  And SOMEONE had pushed the milk jug right ONTO the spigot--and a whole gallon of tea was sloshed into the crisper drawers and had pooled into a Tea Lake at the bottom of the fridge.  *sigh*  And NOW I need to mop the kitchen floor as it's nearly impossible to clean out a whole gallon of sweet tea from the bottom of the fridge without leaving a mess on the floor.  (At least the floor already needed to be done and wasn't just mopped two days ago.)

And so now I'm cleaning out the TOP of the refrigerator--which is full of "collectable" school papers/art projects from the kids from this last school year.  This has now become a huge pile on my dining room table, which I have no desire to tackle now that I'm all worn out from cleaning out the refrigerator and am testy about being forced to mop my kitchen floor.  ONE house-cleaning task a day is usually all my patience will take. 

So, my patience is taking a bloggy break here and trying to catch up on the last several months' posts from all of YOU, and wow--a lot has happened that I've completely missed.  Sorry about that.  I don't even feel right commenting on anyone else's blogs since I've been absent for so long.

So!  In other news, Izzy finally lost her first tooth a few weeks ago! But she was so scared about the whole process and didn't "work" the tooth and waited so long, it's more accurate for me to say that she was robbed of the tooth--by her horrible, mean mother.  The adult tooth was more than half-way grown in, and it got to the point where John and I felt we couldn't just "let it go" any longer, so after much begging and pleading and cajoling, I finally had to manhandle the poor child and just yank the tooth out.  I did it to Mary and swore I'd never do it again, but here I am!  Doing it again!  And then she and Keith finally got some sorely needed fillings done on Friday, and when I asked her to open her mouth to show me, doesn't she have ANOTHER adult tooth growing in right behind a baby tooth I had just checked ("just in case") and seemed hardly loose?   (And why didn't the dentist say anything?)  Poor Izzy.  She's still tramatized by the last one, and now it's starting up all over again.  I'll give her some time...but I have a feeling Mean Mama may have to make her presence known again.

Well, I guess I'd better get that kitchen floor mopped.  And may as well do the bathroom floors while I'm at it.  And of course laundry needs to be washed/folded/put away, and I'd better make sure the critter cages get cleaned.  But first, maybe I should go make some phone calls that need to be made.  Hmmm....

Steam

Keith and John's team had their first tournament game last night.  With their record, they were tied and seeded for first place, so last night our team played the last place team.  This team actually gave them a little trouble the first time they played them.  But last night...our boys beat them 24-0.  Ouch.  Next game on Saturday....

The heat/mugginess is really doing me in this summer.  I am not kicking the kids outside as often as I should because *I* am getting overcome by the heat.  I was huffing and puffing just walking around in it the other day.  I feel sorry for those boys playing baseball in this.  Yich.

Bedtime has been non-existant this summer.  With late-running games and practices (of the baseball and swimming kind) we are out almost every night and then come home with wired/hungry kids.  Everyone is exhausted (and the heat isn't helping).  Everyone needs naps (and refuses to take them). 

Really, is it any surprise that the kids and I are spending most of our summer holed up with books and legos in the air conditioning?

Disappearing Act

So, I had this temp job with some very nice people (just wish it had paid more), and was on the computer all day doing brain-numbing, eye-crossing things that made me reject any other computer usage.  And THEN there is the fact that my baby laptop does not hold a charge for more than five minutes now, and the PC downstairs is just waaaaaaaaaay messed up and confused and doesn't even turn on properly.  The only computer left in the house is John's laptop--and I'm strictly forbidden to use it (Shhhh!  I'm being disobedient RIGHT NOW!)

Those are my excuses.  Lame, I know.

Anyway, I'm back for the moment.  And here is a quick list of stuff you've missed.

• All three kids did super with their report cards.  And now I have a second-grader, fourth-grader, and SIXTH-GRADER in my house.  Hold me!
• About a month after we lost our beloved dog, Mary's matronly guinea pig Hazel left for the great pet heavens.  She was such a great pet.  We replaced her with another tiny baby guinea pig who has been christened Cinnamon (and whom we now suspect is a boy).  Cinn-o-MAN is such a doll.  He coos and coos and coos.  Something that old codger Hazel never did.  And now he's already all big and grown.  *sigh*
• John coached Keith's baseball team this year.  And an icky, nasty beginning of season it was with the torrential downpours we were receiving every day.  Games got postponed and moved so much that the season went on after school ended--and the end of year tournament got totally skipped.  They had a losing season (about a third of the team had never played baseball previously), but John thoroughly enjoyed coaching, and the kids still all had a good time.
• John must have impressed as he was voted to coach/manage the travel tournament team, and Keith also got voted to play.  So baseball season is STILL not done.  They have played five games, and they are now 4-0-1.  The actual tournament starts Tuesday....
• Mary decided not to play softball this year, but we told her she had to do SOMETHING.  We talked her into joining a swim club.  She's been going for about three months now.  She swims and gets coaching three times a week.  There is NO whining about going to swim practice (Well, except now that they moved one of her nights to Fridays at 6:30.  Really, swim club?  REALLY?).  And she is just happy as a lark.  She is already improving greatly and will probably move up a level by the fall.
• Izzy has been wanting a pet, so we finally promised her one as a "good report card" reward.  We coached her into something STURDY that would not need a lot of maintenance or more cage cleaning.  So!  We now have a pet turtle in the house!  Skippy may not be cuddly, but he is cute--and very, very low maintenance.
• We took our annual trip back to Indiana over the week of the fourth, but due to the travel team practices/games John and Keith had to come back early.  That left the girls and me hanging out with my father, step-mother, and grandmother (and great aunt!) for the rest of the week.  I took the girls to all of my old favorite haunts, and we had a great time.  The girls didn't want to come back!
 

The rest of our summer will be mostly boring as we are poor-ish and are trying to keep costs down.  But, we will enjoy it to the best of our abilities.  Hello, sprinkler!