These boots are made for walking....and walking...and walking

Friday Emma had a field trip. It was was walking trip, from the school to the library, library to a park, park to a statue, then back to the school. Approximately a 6 mile walk. We left the school without incident, walking to the library. The teacher's cell phone rang when we were about 2 blocks from the library, and the principle tells us we have to return. The school is going into a "soft lockdown".

I should mention that on the way over to the school, I had heard over the radio that this man who had escaped police custody the night before was on the loose and had stolen a car. Schools in the northwest suburbs had locked down. But that was still pretty far from us.

Anyway, we get almost all the way back to the school and the teacher's phone started ringing. She answers it, talks for a minute, then looks at us and says "I don't know how to tell you this, but it's over. If you're up for it, we can go back. " We all look at each other and shrug. So back we go.

Of course, now we're running about 45 minuted behind, so we're walking really fast. But we made it to everything. Then on the way back, we went a different way which left us no choice but to climb this REALLLLLLY steep hill right near the end. And by this time all the kids are whining and complaining. But as soon as the teacher yells, "Kids, run up the hill! We'll meet you at the playground" the kids start screaming and running up this hill. About half way up they starts slowing down and by the end they're pratically crawling. We adults are still at the bottom, just gazing up. Then we climb. About two thirds up, I look at this woman next to me and say, "I feel like a contestant on the biggest loser". Which gave us all a laugh. And the energy to keep going.

Turns out the escapee was heading our direction and in fact was stopped in a town pretty close to us.

It was a lot of fun, learned alot about the native americans in this area and boy, did I sleep well that night!

Picture this

In the news: A couple of people are walking near the Chicago River when they see an alligator sunning itself on a rock. Yep, that's right. An alligator. Initial estimates had it at anywhere from 2-4 feet, but once caught, it looked more like 12".

My favorite explanation?

It was one of those mythical sewer 'gators that escaped.

Wow, good customer service for a change

So, I had some phone trouble a few weeks ago. The lines were so static filled I couldn’t hear anything. My internet kept going in and out. I called the phone company, they came out and of course, it turns out to be an interior problem so I will have to pay for the repair. As I am signing yet more of my life away, the repair guy tells me to call after I receive my bill and they will spread the payments out over three months. I get my bill and call them fully expecting a hassle. I explain to the person on the other end of the line, he looks at my account, not only spreads out the payments, but knocks off 2 weeks of internet charges for my inconvenience. Without me even asking.

Seriously, how cool is that?

Gotta love your neighbors

My house overlooks a playround/park area. 99% of the time I love it. The other 1% usually involves swearing teenagers after curfew on the basketball court. But I like being able to keep an eye on my kids when they’re outside without really having to work at it.

There is this girl that I have been watching for awhile now – we’ll call her Ellen. Ellen is a bully, plain and simple. I see her picking on the other kids, pushing them, screaming at them, calling them names, etc. For some reason she targeted Shannon one day, calling her names and teasing her. Shannon came in very hurt, but didn’t want me to handle it. The kicker is, Shannon doesn’t even know her. They don’t even go to the same school. But Ellen lives next to one of Shannon’s friends.

Anyway, from that point on, I noticed Shannon steering clear of her at all costs, even going around the block to avoid her. So I sat her down and had a little talk about how she’s giving Ellen all this power, blah blah blah and wouldn’t she just let me talk to her mom. And Shannon said no, it would just make it worse, she could deal with it on her own. Ok, fine.

The other day Shannon came in and said that Ellen just threw a rock at Emma’s head. And not a small one. Fortunately, she missed. I threw down the dishtowel and headed for the door telling her I had had enough.

Shannon stopped me, saying she wanted to go talk to Ellen’s mom. I agreed and said I would come with her. And again, she said no. She wanted to handle it. I told her I thought it was a bad idea, but she could try. And off they went.

After a few minutes, I decided I couldn’t not go. So I started over there. A woman comes storming past me, screaming at the top of her lungs, “You f*ing threw a rock at a little girl?!?” And I just closed my eyes and thought “crap”. I saw Shannon walking towards me with Emma, her friend and her friend’s mom Daisy. Then I see the parent of another girl, “Lizzy” walking over. Lizzy is also at the park playing with Ellen. I see her face go from happy to confused to angry in about a millisecond. Double crap.

I turn around and walk over to the playground, listening to this lunatic scream at Ellen. “I am getting so sick and tired of being called over to the playground all the time!” “I find it hard to believe that it is always Ellen’s fault!” (Mind you, I have never had a parent come and complain about my kids). She then starts to yell at Lizzy, who starts crying and I say, “Wait. Shannon did Lizzy throw rocks at you?” Shannon, now crying, shook her head no. And this crazy woman starts screaming about how now the story has changed and my daughter’s a liar and her daughter never does anything. And I lost it. Taking a deep breath, I calmly (on the outside anyway) said that I had observed her teasing and picking on numerous children, my own included, and she starts yelling at me for confronting her at the playground instead of coming to her door. By this time Lizzy was sobbing and her mom had taken her home. I tried to explain that I actually was on the way to her house when I saw her on the playground, but she had already turned her anger back on her daughter, telling her that if she didn’t go straight home and stay there she would spank her right there in the playground in front of everyone. Then she stormed off.

I stood there kind of dazed, trying to figure out exactly what had just happened. And why Lizzy got sucked into the middle of it. Turns out my child didn’t go to Ellen’s mom. She went to Daisy, told her what happened and had her go talk with Ellen’s mom. And When Daisy asked her who Ellen was with, she said “Lizzy” and she assumed Lizzy had been throwing rocks as well. So, Shannon and I had a little conversation about how it would have perhaps been wiser to not involve Daisy, just to have let me handle it. And Shannon is crying hysterically because now she thinks Lizzy will hate her. I thought it best to just let everything cool down, and the next evening I went over and talked with Lizzy’s mom. She said Lizzy had been crying all evening because she was afraid Shannon thought she was throwing rocks at her. So that all was smoothed over. And the girls are at their Dad’s for a few days now, so hopefully everything will have blown over by the time they get back.

But wouldn’t you know? I looked outside last night and saw Ellen and Lizzy throwing apples at one of the neighbor’s pools.

Yet another update (no disturbing dental stories!)

Summer continues to speed by at our house. And no, I’m not complaining about the cooler weather. I LOVE IT!!!!!

Shannon’s softball team finished up in second place for the season, with her salvaging a couple of games right at the end, so apparently she’s quite the talent. Or so the coaches keep telling me. Which, of course, immediately switches on my “sportsmom” switch, which is dangerously similar to my “stagemom” switch, and I instantly start thinking about trying to get her into a traveling team, etc. When I bring it up to Shannon, she just looks at me and says, “no”. Fine. Spoil my fun.

The saga of my tooth continues, but suffice it to say, it’s icky enough I’m not even going to share.

I started filling out my new planner (I’ve discovered that planners that run August – July work much better for me), and wouldn’t you know it, every festival, etc that I want to take the girls to they are scheduled to be with their father. And I can’t really justify switching any more weekends with him because I just asked him to basically give up the month of October so the girls could be a part of this Haunted House contest thingy with one of our neighbors. It runs the last three weeks of the month. No answer yet, but he’s been pretty good this summer about changes, so I’m really hoping he’ll do it.

I’ve discovered a new author. In the summer I really enjoy reading mindless fun books like Sophie Kinsella, Sue Grafton and Lauren Weisberger write. And I just found out that Madeleine Wickham is in fact the same person as Sophie Kinsella! Yippee!

And, I got a new neighbor! I’m so excited! She’s a single mom, about my age, has a 14 year old son, a 10 year old son (who my daughter has a crush on-can’t say I blame her, he’s adorable) and a 4 year old daughter. Plus, she’s as chatty as I am!

And, for those of you that have known me awhile, it’s time for the Margarita party this weekend! Woo hoo! The Fairie Queen does a great party with more flavors of margaritas than you can imagine.

So, pretty much, other than the whole oral surgeon thing, this summer rocks!

My new best friend (insert sarcasm here)

Major ick warning.

Went back to the oral surgeon to have this bone, or as I like to call it, my little shark tooth, removed. First the surgeon tries to pull it out. Doesn't come out. So then he says they will have to file it down. I expect a giant emery board or something, but I really can't see anything. He says "I don't want you to be startled at this loud noise." Ok, must be a sander-type thingy. Imagine my shock at the unbelievably loud snap. I must have jumped a foot. He was using some sort of bone cutting thing.

A short time later I was shark tooth free. And someday my mouth will not hurt anymore.

And no matter how cute the surgeon is, I really don't want to see him again. Ever.

Summertime and the livin' is hectic

Haven’t been around much, and even when I have been, I really haven’t felt like writing anything. Not for lack of stories. Always have those. It just seems to take more brain power than I have left late at night.

But here’s my summer in a nutshell:

Got a HUGE new patio, unfortunately the patio guys dug a larger hole than the patio, so I now have a moat (which would be nice if I was a princess living in a castle, but I’m not and I don’t). In the process of putting in the new patio, they apparently dug up and killed a mole. How would I know this, you ask? After all, I work all day. BECAUSE THEY LEFT IT FOR ME, along with their lunch discards!!!! Nice.

Got a new roof. They somehow broke my grill. Also left lunch clean up for me. They also got caught stealing from my neighbor, which was nice.

Got my kitchen rewired for the new dishwasher and built in microwave. They only left dirt and wires.

We also have new lighting outside and a new cctv security system. I have to wonder, where is all this money coming from? Not that I’m complaining, just curious.

In between cleaning up the messes left by workmen, I am busy shuttling Shannon to softball games or practice. She loves it and is pretty good. Everyone else on her team has been playing for 3-4 years and she’s easily as good or better than most of her team. Apparently she’s a natural when it comes to pitching, so she pitches pretty often. It doesn’t surprise me. She doesn’t believe in failure. Period.

My children have also suddenly forgotten how to pick up after themselves. They will eat something, drop the wrapper wherever they happen to be and walk away. What is that about? I have told them if they don’t knock it off, I will make them eat in the kitchen, standing over the garbage.

I had a tooth break, it wasn’t salvageable, so I had it pulled by this oral surgeon who was so unbelievably good looking I almost forgot the pain. But because it’s me and nothing can ever go smoothly, my sinus cavity was perforated in the process, so now that has to heal. And I have to go back next week because I now have a jagged piece of bone sticking out. Sorry. TMI. Emma was a wonderful caretaker for me. If she doesn’t become a vet she should be a doctor or nurse, cause she is a natural.

Emma also taught one of her friends (a year older than her) to ride a bike. It gave her such a sense of accomplishment, it was great.

So, that, along with three (I know, I’m an idiot) sunburns and lots of time at the pool sums up the summer so far.


Hope everyone's summer is great!!!