I  have a 12 year old on the sofa upstairs crying his eyes out he feels so miserable … and I don’t have anything else I can do for him.  I hate feeling so helpless as a mom, but really, the flu just plain sucks … and there is nothing else we can do about it!!  His fever has been minimal – as a matter of fact, it has been well below normal for the last 12 hours after a little mini-spike yesterday.  His head, back, neck and face hurt ???????  All the the flus are running rampant in our schools, so I shouldn’t be surprised that we have been hit, I was just hoping we could avoid it!

We have been having a great summer … well, by my standards we are.  Last summer was spent recuperating from my “Stroke of Luck” and while the kids had more to do than should be humanly possible, I didn’t spend much time with them.  Between the beachdays, play-dates, sleepovers, water park festivals, etc. they were spoiled while I went to physical therapy, regulated my medicines and tried to get back to my normal self.  Anyone who has tried to speed-heal through something knows that is a bit of a joke!

ANYWAY, this summer has been very different from last – and I have been around to enjoy it!  So, I will try to put together a little picture montage of the last few weeks…

   LAST DAY OF SCHOOL … they were really mad at me, but for the life of me I cannot remember why!!

THEN the 4th of July arrived … community bike parade and festivities GALORE!  Fireworks from the floor of my daughter’s bathroom (yes, all 5 of us were huddled in her bathroom to watch the fireworks from the direction of the ocean)

No, it is not beer pong … just more 4th games.

AND THEN….

THE BIG 10th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION … new bike, new camera and a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood – lots of fun and many traditions maintained!!

MORE 10th BIRTHDAY!!  I would show you more pictures of the great time had by all, but that would involve pictures of kids other than my own, and I am not sure I want to step over that line!!

BUT … have to talk about the frozen pineapple flowers that I made as a pre-lunch snack … HOW MARTHA AM I????  I did my daughter proud – I think she was even a little surprised that I pulled it off!! 

Once we survived the birthday and the party, it was time for beachboy to go to lacrosse camp … and then dad and mom went to the Naval Academy to watch him play some games.  It was AWESOME, he had such a great time – and I actually think he learned a thing or two!!  While playing 8 to 10 hours a day of lacrosse does not necessarily make me a happy camper, it is the next closest thing to heaven for this 11 year old defenseman!  He was exhausted, banged and bruised and was shocked that “my feet actually grew in the middle of the week” when he explained why his feet were hurting so badly!  He didn’t realize that cleats were not meant to be worn for 12 hours a day!!  What an awesome experience for him – and while we certainly missed him, it was well worth it!!

Throw in a TON of Swimming  

some VBS 

GIRLS LAX DAY CAMP    …

We have been busy, busy, busy!!  Life is good right now – and I am grateful everyday for what I do have.  That doesn’t mean all is perfect all the time, but it is certainly good!!  Hope you are having a great summer, too!!

       HE’S A DORK!!!

… but it certainly feels like it!  The old blog had some dustbunnies and cobwebs (hmmm, my house looks like that too, I think I detect a theme!!) when  I returned.  Neglect is not a pretty thing, but the last couple of weeks I have been focusing on birthdays (upcoming 10 year old beachgirl birthday, wow!!), holidays and getting everyone to three different camps within a 30 minute timeframe.  I need a vacation!!!!

All is as ok as it can be, my procrastination “issue” has cropped up again with regards to some house stuff and even worse, with finances!!  I don’t know about you, but when I don’t have enough money in the bank account to pay ALL the bills, it is really tough finding the time to pay ANY of the bills.  Not a very good system and  I certainly don’t recommend it because, guess what, the bills won’t go away … AND there will be even less money in the bank account!!  I think I need therapy.

Swim season is going beautifully – the kids had a huge meet last night and beachgirl had the best meet of her entire little swimming career!  Beachboy had (yawn, hum) another great meet – I think he might be “athlete of the week” in next week’s paper – his technique looks fabulous, he makes it all look so effortless (yes, I am a little jealous of my own son!!)  The most exciting part of the evening … beachdude (the 6 year old) swam in his first swim meet last night!!!  SOOOOO exciting for him and for us – he has been such a good sport over the last couple of years going to all of the meets and cheering on his brother and sister … and now he is part of the action!!  He did very well, and probably won a couple of events, but it was so much fun watching him!!

Enough gushing for now … going to enjoy an 85 degree day!!

So, I am sure it is not a big deal at all, well at least I really don’t think that it is a big deal … ok, it better not be a big deal because I will be really really mad.  If you remember from the really icky picture of the tick earlier in the week, the missy over there had a tick embedded in her head about a week and a half ago.  We got it out, but I have been watching the spot fairly closely since it happened.  There has been no red or hot spot around the spot where the tick was, but it also hasn’t gone back to normal yet.  It keeps scabbing over (the chlorine in the pool keeps softening the scab so it comes off) and just hasn’t gone away yet.  Tonight, after wearing a headband for a majority of the day, she asked me to look at it because it was bugging her.  Still not red, but now there is a LUMP … A LUMP I TELL YOU … where at one time there was a tick!!!  I am not a happy camper and we will be heading to the doctor first thing in the morning just to make sure all is OK.  Wish us luck!!

I am now higher than where I started … enough said.

I have wasted an ENTIRE DAY trying to have an argument with one of my clients while having an email account that is working sporadically at best!!  Yes, calling this woman would be my best bet, but at this moment I simply cannot call her because if I start screaming at her stupidity and lack of respect … I might not stop and that would really freak out the kids!!

I am tired of people who assume they can do my job better than I can when they have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what it is I do.  “Just hire someone to take care of it” … yeah, I would love to do just that … but the BUDGET doesn’t allow me to do that!  I am a property manager for a very small property that has extremely ridiculous insurance rates because we are so close to the beach, so my owners pay a lot of money annually, but they only get limited services because 3/4 of their payments go toward the insurance payment.  Husbands usually come to our meetings so they “get it” … it is their wives who don’t come to the meetings and think they have all of the answers and don’t understand why I don’t just adopt their solutions because they are so smart and they KNOW all the answers.

AND THEN … they tell me that I obviously don’t have a “passion” for running this property because I actually have the nerve to tell them “NO” to some ridiculous request.  OHHHHHH, I am not a happy camper right now.

OK, vent over…

Pool day, pool day … dear old cold and freezing pool day!

I am completely avoiding the scale this morning, I am scared, I have no good excuses for this past week … after such a great start with my challenge I have completely failed.  I love eating and I love my family that loves eating.  So, I will get on the scale a bit later in the day!

our daughter came to me this afternoon and asked me to look at the “bump” on her head.  YUP, it was a TICK – OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!!!!!!!  I don’t like ticks, I don’t do ticks, I have not had to get a tick off of my kids in 11 years … and no, I did not handle it well.

AND, I think I scared the poor child half to death!  I was working on removing it when I felt her getting hotter and hotter, she started to get limp and POOF, she passed out!  Not once, but TWICE … and the second time I had a really hard time getting her to come around!  Now then, after having a baby who had seizures and then went unconscious, I actually handled the passing out fairly well until I couldn’t get her to rouse.  Sure enough, she finally came around … fortunately before I called 911 … but MAN, she was green and white and limp and scared the be-jeezus out of me.

AND, I STILL HAD TO GET THAT DRATTED TICK OUT OF HER HEAD!!  It hadn’t started getting blood yet, but it was really embedded!  I ended up putting a drop of dishsoap on it and it backed right back out …

and I burned it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When Hubbie and I were married, I had a 2 year old niece and an infant niece who belonged to the brother and sister-in-law who have become my absolute favorite people in the whole wide world.  I would even consider moving to NJ just so that we could live closer to them.  We all have just SOOOO much fun together, we laugh, we drink, we eat and we just sit and chat for hours and hours on end. 

That 2 year old niece GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL last week and we spent the weekend celebrating with her, her friends and some of the family.  We had such a great time – loved catching up with everyone, but mostly just had a great great weekend.  My sister-in-law and I actually had tears in our eyes when we left because it is just that hard to say goodbye!  She really touched my heart when she looked at me and said “you are the sister I never had, thank you for being part of my family”!!  The feeling is absolutely mutual … I just thought I was the only one who felt that way!

CONGRATS to my niece – I am so proud of you and the amazing woman you are becoming.  I envy you the journey you are about to have, remember to always hold fun in one hand and love in the other.