Who would have thought it possible?

Today we were driving on the interstate and saw a group of several couples riding motorcycles together. It had been raining and these folks were luckily dressed for the weather. Riding in the rain isn't fun, but it really bites when you don't have on the appropriate gear. Been there, done that. Not anymore, but I digress.

Anyway... we see this particular couple pull up next to us and the woman on the back of the motorcycle is actually CROCHETING! I never would have thought it possible to crochet while riding on the back of a motorcycle, but then again, I can't imagine anyone WANTING to either, particularly when it's raining. Shouldn't you be holding on or something like that? And God help this woman's husband should he have to hit the brakes and her crochet needle ends up in his back. Ouch!

A Budding Artist

The end of school always brings about the hauling home of used school supplies and mounds of papers the kids have turned in during the course of the school year. We're still going through some of this stuff, trying to decide what's salvageable for the upcoming school year and what simply needs to be trashed.

My youngest son was in 2nd grade this year and he brought home a nice surprise. He had drawn and colored an art project that somehow made it to our district representative in the VA House of Delegates, where it had been displayed on the wall outside this man's office. I had no idea our students' artwork was being displayed there, and I don't think my son knew about it either.

Anyway... the district rep sent a letter along with a picture of him standing next to my son's artwork. Both of those items, as well as the original artwork, were sent home with my son. The letter basically thanked the little man for "allowing" his artwork to be displayed in the General Assembly Building, and how it really brightened things up and impressed everyone who saw it. Of course this all made the little man very proud, which of course made me very proud.

I'll share with you M's artwork. He explained that it's a picture of him and one of his best friends at school, standing in front of an apple tree with quite an interesting trunk.
I love how he included his glasses and his missing tooth... What detail!
And see the birds and bird eggs in the nest in the tree? I guess one bird has a worm it's going to share with his winged pal.
Yep, I think I might just have a budding artist on my hands.

Birthday "Bash-ing"

I'm not sure what reminded me of the incident I'm about to share with you, but it was on my mind, so...

When our kids were turning 8 & 5, I had a birthday party for them (Their birthdays are a day apart) at one of those indoor play places. My husband was deployed at the time, therefore he was not in attendance. Several of my military girlfriends and their kids came and helped make it easier for me and a lot of fun for the boys.

During the middle of the party, when all the kids were running around like wild animals, and climbing through those tunnels, my oldest son comes walking up to me, holding his hand to his eye and crying.

I thought to myself, "Oh no, he's had a run-in with one of the other kids at the party."

He took his hand away from his eye so that I could see and I was literally shocked because his eye had already started to turn purple and swell. He had taken a hard hit from someone, no doubt.

I asked what had happened, and he told me some kid he didn't know had hit him. I wasn't sure what was going on, but other kids from our group of party invitees confirmed his story. It seems some bigger kid was trying to bully the younger ones and my son attempted to diffuse the situation by getting his friends out of harm's way and then walking away. The bigger kid then shoved my son down, pressed his knee into his chest and punched him in the eye!

We got my son some ice for his eye, and one of my girlfriends brought back a manager with her so they could try to find out what had transpired. We relayed the story to her and she wanted to know where to find the guilty party so that they could have a little chat with him. Of course I hadn't seen this happen, so I didn't know what the kid looked like, but all of the kids in our group said they could pick him out.

Turns out the bully was hiding out in the tunnels, I suppose hoping no one would rat him out. He finally came walking over to us, accompanied by his mother, who proceeded to try to talk for her son. She said she thought the incident must have been an accident because this kind of thing had never happened before. She figured that her son must have accidentally kicked my son in the face as he came down the slide. Hmmm... I'm thinking this kid definitely KNEW what he was doing. If he shoved my son down and pressed his knee into his chest to hold him there while he then proceeded to punch him, I think he'd probably done this kind of thing before.

I just looked at the lady and told her my son had a very different version of what had occurred, and that this was his birthday party, therefore we weren't going to let this ruin our fun. The lady had her son apologize to my son and the two of them stood there looking at one another, not knowing what to do next. I told my son that he should shake this boy's hand, and he looked at me as if I'd lost my mind, but he did it.

Later my son asked me why I'd suggested he shake this bully's hand. I told him it was the right thing to do and I felt sorry for the boy. He obviously had some issues we didn't understand and if his actions were any indication as to what kind of person he was, he very likely didn't have many friends and must be one sad kid.

We actually ended up saying a little prayer for the kid that night and it turned out to be a great lesson for my boys. First of all, one should learn to duck a little faster, right? :) Okay, that was only PART of the lesson, but it's good, sound advice just the same.

My son ended up with his first big shiner, and of course we had to email pictures to Daddy. Every day or two we'd send a new picture, showing the next stage of the black eye. Cool stuff!


The big guy even had a black eye for his soccer pictures, which made him look like a real bruiser!
So instead of referring to his 8th birthday party as the "BIRTHDAY BASH," we call it the "BIRTHDAY BASH-ING."

A pile of poo... just for you!

Although we love dogs at our house, we are not dog owners. As much as we move around and as little as we seem to be at home, we have made a conscious decision not to get a dog at this time. One of these days, when we're more settled and the boys are more responsible (I have every hope both will happen - SOMEDAY!), we'll get a dog.

Now that you know we DON'T have a dog, you also know THIS had to come from someone else's dog.
Now, if I had a dog, and lived in close proximity to other families, as we currently do, I believe I would not allow this to happen. This has occurred more than once since we've lived here. I guess we'll chalk it up to having some extra fertilizer for the grass.

Nothing says "WELCOME TO OUR HOME" like a big pile of poo in your front yard.

Back to nature... but only for a while

This week was our boys' first week of summer vacation. We had some business to attend to in regard to our move, but I managed to sneak in a couple of fun things. You already know about taking them to see the new Indiana Jones movie. The other fun thing we did involved a hike and picnic at a local state park, only 20 minutes or so from our house. This park is someplace both boys have visited before, but I'd never been, and they wanted to go back, therefore we did just that.


It was a perfect day - sunny, not terribly hot, with a nice breeze blowing. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day weather-wise.

We saw these beautiful tiger lilies that reminded me of my grandparents' yard when I was little.

The boys had an awesome time exploring! They found a big mushroom and my oldest son pointed out the various stages of decomposition in trees. I was very impressed with his attention to detail.

We saw birds, turtles, tadpoles, frogs, dragonflies, butterflies and squirrels, all the critters one would expect to see during an outing such as this.
Then we just happened to see this... Yep, we just had to see a snake! The boys thought it was cool, but frankly, I could have done without that part of our outing.

Indiana Jones is OLD!

Yesterday I took my boys to see the new Indiana Jones movie. They've been watching the trilogy of movies made several years ago and were all about seeing the newest flick.

No sooner had Harrison Ford's character entered the storyline in this movie when my youngest pipes up and says, "Indiana Jones is OLD!"

I explained that the movies he'd been watching at home were not recently made films, so naturally Harrison Ford would be a little older.

Here's Harrison Ford just a few years ago...
And here he is now... I still think he's pretty hot.

No wonder shipping & handling is expensive!

I recently ordered the cutest baby onesie (For those of you with no knowledge of what a "onesie" is, it's a tiny bodysuit of sorts, a t-shirt for babies that snaps in the crotch). I'd seen it in a catalog and thought it was absolutely precious and so appropriate for the couple who will be on the receiving end in a few months.

Anyway, I received this package in the mail last week and was puzzled when I saw the size of the box. I had only ordered the single teeny tiny onesie and yet this box was so large. Did the company send me the wrong order? Did they send me some freebies? Of course neither was the case. They simply used a box large enough for 10 or more onesies to fit inside and filled it full of packing materials. Check it out...

How wasteful is that? The amount of packing materials used for this single item is ridiculous! Why even use a box to send a piece of clothing? It's not like the onesie is fragile. For heaven's sake, wouldn't an envelope have worked just fine? No wonder shipping and handling is so expensive!

So this is what it's come to?

My oldest son is going to be 12 in September and I can't believe how quickly the years have passed. I guess all parents feel that way when thinking about their children and how they seem to grow up entirely too soon.

A few nights ago I was "tucking" in the big guy and went to kiss him on the cheek, but I happened to graze his lips in the process because of the way he and I both turned our heads. He looked at me, eyes somewhat rolling, as if to say, "Ah, Mom!" You know the look! I laughed and asked if my kissing him on the lips bothered him, and he informed me it did, in fact, bother him. I told him I would refrain from doing that again, but I still reserved the right to kiss him on the cheek or forehead. I am, after all, still his mother, aren't I? Heaven forbid I should show my kid a little motherly affection every now and again!

Last Monday I was at the boys' school for my little man's end-of-the-year party and he asked me to have lunch with him, so I stuck around after the party ended (It was a morning event). I had about 30 minutes to kill, so I decided to find my big guy in the cafeteria and perhaps hang out with him during his lunchtime. When I found him, I asked if he'd like to sit with me during lunch or would he rather me just wait for his brother. At first he looked like I had potentially ruined his day by even speaking to him in the cafeteria, and then he looked EVER so relieved to know that I was giving him an option of whether to hang out with me or not. I suppose you can guess what happened next....

My big guy totally blew me off! He said, "Oh, that's okay, you can just have lunch with M."

So this is what it's come to? It's now uncool to be seen with one's mother in school. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but I was really hoping for later... MUCH later. I guess I should be happy the little man still wants me hangin' around. Sooner or later he'll dump me too, so I should make the most of it while I still can.

We had the BEST teacher ever!

Yesterday was the last day of school for my boys, as I mentioned in the previous post. When they got home in the afternoon, my oldest bounded through the door, happily and loudly declaring he's now a 6th grader. My youngest seemed quiet and subdued, unhappy even, so I asked him what was wrong. His head was downcast and I couldn't hear him as he mumbled his reply, so I asked him to repeat what he'd said.

My little man looked up at me, tears spilling down his cheeks, and with a quivering voice he said, "I'm going to miss Mrs. G (his teacher)."

You have to understand something here. While my little man is definitely the more sensitive of my boys, he's NEVER cried over a teacher. It was such a precious moment! He was genuinely sad to know he would no longer have this woman as his teacher, and of course, the fact that we're moving and won't be at the same school next year, only intensifies his feelings. He won't even be seeing her in passing.

I pulled my little man close, and we sat hugging one another on the stairway as we both cried. Lord knows it doesn't take much for me to cry, so you can imagine the kind of reaction I had to my son's tears.

I told him he was very blessed to have had Mrs. G as his teacher. Surely she has to be a special person to have had this kind of impact on him. Most kids are just happy beyond measure to be out of school and on summer break, and some are even celebrating leaving their teachers.

We sat and held each other for a long time. He finally looked up at me and said, "I feel better now."

I immediately jumped online and emailed Mrs. G, sending a blind copy of my email to our principal and vice-principal because I wanted each of them to know what an impact Mrs. G had had on my son. She needs to know how much she's loved and appreciated and that we're grateful to her for the positive, caring learning experience our son has had this year. Every child should have a teacher like Mrs. G!

Welcome, summertime!

Today is the last day of school for my boys and I'm so happy. We've lived here for two years and have been very impressed with the school. The boys have had great teachers and I think their school experience has been very positive and they've learned a great deal. They've also made some nice friends whom they will greatly miss when we move later this summer.

That being said, I'm relieved beyond words that the school year is over. It's been SO BUSY with homework (namely my older son's math), volunteering, school events (plays, concerts, parties...) and all the extracurricular activities (sports, Scouts and kids' choir). It's all great stuff and I'm glad the kids are so involved in lots of different things, but I personally need a break from the action, time to just do nothing or perhaps be together as a family doing something we've chosen to do out of sheer spontaneity. I can't remember the last day trip we took "just because." There's seemingly never any time to do those things, which makes me crazy at times.

Summertime is truly welcomed this year, probably more than it's ever been welcomed before. Granted, we're moving at some point, and that will make for some heavy-duty stress and busy days later on, as we get closer to the actual move date. For now, however, I just feel as if a weight is being lifted. My responsibilities and obligations are disappearing. No one is expecting me to volunteer for this or take pictures of that. I don't have multiple places to be in a single day. Yep, summertime is lookin' good!

Don't BUG me!

I guess it's time to call the exterminator because we're starting to find bugs in the house. I know they're trying to escape the heat. So am I, but I just can't bring myself to share my personal space with a bunch of crawling critters. Yesterday I discovered ants in the entryway and my little guy found a tiny praying mantis in our pantry! Need proof? Here you go...
I realize all living things serve a purpose and insects and the like are God's creatures too, but they can be God's creatures and serve their purposes OUTSIDE! I've seen "A Bug's Life," and yes, it was cute and all, but like I said... insects need to stay OUTSIDE! How much clearer do I need to be? Now stop BUGGING me!

I beg you... just tell me what you want!

I have difficulty shopping for gifts for the men in my life, and by men, I mean my husband, step-dad and father-in-law. Do you have the same problem? Christmas is hard enough, but the month of June is particularly painful because of the fact that it's Father's Day AND it's my husband's birthday. My dad's birthday was in June too, so for many years I was searching for two gifts (or one big gift) each for my husband and my dad, and one gift each for my step-dad and father-in-law (Thankfully my husband helps with his dad's gift). Frankly, I think that's cruel and unusual punishment, don't you?

So what is it about men that makes them so hard to buy for? My husband rarely asks for anything, so when his mom and my mom call to ask what to get him for his birthday, I'm truly at a loss most of the time. If he's mentioned a potential gift item at all, I feel obligated to pass it along to our moms so I can make gift giving a little easier for them. Then I got nuthin'!

I just love it when you ask the men in your life what they'd like to have for their special day and they tell you, "Oh, anything is fine" or "You don't have to get me anything." Okay, ANYTHING is fine? Really? So you'd be happy receiving a new toilet plunger or perhaps a jelly of the month club membership? How about a William Hung CD? Are ya sure ANYTHING will do? And do you really think I could just not get a gift for my dad for Father's Day? I mean, would that really go over well? I don't think so. (Did you note the sarcasm?)

Throw me a bone, people, and just tell me what you'd like to have already! Time's a-wastin' and you're on my last nerve.

Do we have to go outside?

The last week or so of school is always filled with fun events like field day, which our school held on Friday of last week. This event was held mostly outside, with a few activities being conducted in the gymnasium. I helped monitor an outdoor activity and thought I would roast in the process. The temperature has really heated up in the eastern part of the U.S. Here in northern Virginia, it's gotten downright unbearable for me.

Yesterday my youngest son's class had their end of the year party and they had it outside as well. I didn't even have to do anything but take pictures and I was sweating buckets and utterly miserable. There were these aggravating little flying critters (Someone said they were termites!) buzzing all around and I just wanted to flee inside the entire time.

I have become such a wimp where heat is concerned. When I was a kid when didn't have central air conditioning in our home for the longest time. We opened our windows and used fans to blow around all that hot air. My brother and I would stand in front of the fan and make noises so we could hear our voices change. It didn't take much to entertain us, did it? We must have been hot then, but I don't really remember thinking so at the time. We finally got a window air conditioning unit. Remember those HUGE beastly contraptions? Those things weighed a ton! Anyway... we'd play outside and come in and just stand in front of that air conditioner and it was sheer heaven. And then we moved into a house that had central air conditioning and I guess that was the beginning of my love affair with air conditioning.

My older son's class is having their end of the year party on Thursday and I volunteered to help monitor an OUTDOOR activity. Why? Why did I do that? It's nearly 100 degrees here this week! I might seriously melt right down into my shoes. Why do the kids have to go outside? Can't we conduct the golf ball on a spoon relay inside somewhere? Please? Do we have to go outside?

Returned Mail

In my mailbox last week was a Christmas card, one that we'd sent to friends, who had, unbeknownst to us, moved and were no longer receiving mail at their former address. Now, I knew these folks had moved because the last Christmas card I sent just 7 months or so ago was also returned, and our friends' new address was actually on a sticker on the envelope, so I was able to re-send the card to them at their new address.

Are you thoroughly confused? Two returned Christmas cards addressed to the same people? Had I sent two cards without realizing it? Why would I get one back at this late date? I, too, was confused for about 10 seconds. I stared at the envelope in my hands, scratching my head and thinking, "What's up with that?" and furthermore thinking I had lost my mind, which is a likely scenario.

Then I looked at the postmark. The card was mailed during December 2006! Yep, we're just now getting returned mail from 18 months ago. See, I can now tell our friends, "Your card got LOST in the mail - REALLY!"

Remembering Dad

Today is the 1-year anniversary of my dad's passing. Memories of this time last year are a mix of happy and sad ones. I was happy to have been able to spend time with Dad before he passed away. I'm grateful he was spared any further pain. I'm also comforted knowing he's with God now and that we'll see each other again one day.

I have some sad memories as well, but rather than dwell on those, I'm choosing to reflect upon the good times. The month of June will always bring back memories of Dad because it was the month of his birth and of course Father's Day falls in June as well.

Here are a few pictures taken during the last few years of Dad's life. These were good days, full of warm, happy moments. That's how I want to see and remember Dad today.

Here Dad and I are having a conversation after having a meal at my grandmother's house. We were in the process of moving from California to Delaware in 2002 and had stopped in Kentucky to visit a few days.

Dad allowed the boys to "shoot" him with their bubble guns until they were absolutely worn out. I'm sure he had to go home and take a shower to get all the sticky, slimy bubble residue off of him. He was always a good sport where the boys were concerned.

Here Dad poses with the boys in 2004 during one of our trips to visit family in Kentucky.

I love and miss Dad very much, but thankfully, God's love, peace and comfort really do help with healing, and make it possible for me to look past the pain of loss and focus on the joy of the relationship Dad and I shared. I truly believe there's something positive in every situation. I hope whatever you're feeling and experiencing today, you're able to see the good in your situation and sense God's hand in it.

Electricity is AWESOME!

We experienced a power outage yesterday due to a severe thunderstorm that zipped through our area. It rained like crazy and the wind whipped so hard that tree branches were flying around the yard. My poor potted geraniums on the front porch look pitiful today as a result. There were also tornado warnings in our area, but of course I didn't know that at the time because we didn't have power here at home. The power went out around 3pm, right about the time I'd gotten a shower and couldn't blow-dry my hair. I hate it when that happens!

The boys are dismissed from school at approximately 3:40 and normally get off the bus at around 4pm every afternoon. I decided to walk down to the bus stop with an umbrella because it was still spitting rain a little. I could have driven down to the bus stop, but my vehicle was in the garage and I could only open the garage door manually due to the fact that it runs on electricity, which we didn't have at the time. I hate it when that happens too. I seem to be totally inept at opening the garage door manually and it makes me feel so very competent.

I walked to the bus stop and stood around for the longest time as traffic zoomed past and people stared at me as if I had two heads. They probably knew what I didn't know, which was the fact that our school system was holding the kids at school until the tornado warnings were no longer in effect. In the meantime, I'm waiting for my kids (who don't get home until 5pm) outside, all the while completely unaware that tornados have supposedly been sighted. A neighbor happened to come out of his house and upon talking to him for a mere 10 seconds, I was brought up to speed on the current situation. DUH... Again... I had no power at home and therefore couldn't check the weather on TV or on the internet. I suppose I could have sat in my truck in the garage to listen to the radio. I finally found an old boom box (Yeah, we still have one of those gigantic pieces of electronic equipment) and put some batteries in it so I could listen to the weather reports.

I thought about picking up the kids at school, but then remembered the garage door having to be opened manually and changed my mind. I figured it was a madhouse at the school and parents driving to the school might just make things even more chaotic. Plus it occurred to me that I might arrive at the school only to discover my kids' bus had already left. I called the school just to check on the status of the buses and was told one had already left and the others should be leaving soon. So I stayed put.

The boys were in high spirits when they came home. Chaos and severe weather seems to bring that out in my kids. It's like they were on a sugar high or something. I started thinking about those teachers, administrators and bus drivers who were faced with putting up with those kids quite a bit longer than normal and I could envision them all going home and hitting the bottle.

Homework was done quickly because daylight was slipping away due to the fact that it was 5pm and another storm was rolling in. Thankfully we have a gas stove and I was able to cook dinner with no problem. The phones were working too, although we obviously were unable to use our portable phones, which I had to explain to my children. They didn't know we couldn't use them because they are powered by electricity, to which my oldest son said, "Stinkin' portables!" The way he said it was so funny. Trust me, you had to be there.

The boys decided to watch a DVD on their portable player, which we can run on batteries. Luckily it was charged up. The little man asks if we can pop a bag of popcorn. Hmmm... let's see... No, we can't do that because the microwave runs off of electricity! He was NOT happy.

I was beginning to think about the possibility of being without power for the remainder of the night and I was concerned about our refrigerater/freezer items. We have a generator for emergencies, but do you think I know anything about how to use it? I DO NOT! By the way, I haven't mentioned it yet, but my husband is out of town this week, which is nearly always the case when we experience inclement weather. It's like Murphy's Law for us. We can be assured of being apart when these things happen. So I called my husband to get directions on how to use the generator in case I need it. He tells me to check the gas gauge. I do, and I discover it's almost empty. Imagine that! I need to go get gas and the gas pumps up the street probably aren't working because they... you guessed it... run off of electricity!

While my husband and I were talking, the electricity suddenly came back on. Hallelujah! The boys shouted for joy and I breathed a sigh of relief. I still went to get gas for the generator, just in case the power went out again, which, by the way, it did not. We slept with flashlights beside our beds too, but didn't need them. I know being without electricity for a measly 5 hours is NOT a big deal. We were safe and dry and everything was fine. But I'll have to say I missed the electricity more than I dreamed possible. We truly take it for granted! Everything I went to do yesterday, be it turning on a light, drying my wet hair or using the microwave, required the use of electricity. I'll just go on the record and say, and you can quote me here, electricity is AWESOME!

Git -r- Done!

Okay, so I know this phrase has sort of lived its life and has begun to fade (Don't tell Larry the Cable Guy), but it rather fits our current situation around here, and I'm just redneck enough to still enjoy a good ol' "Git -r- Done!" every now and again.

I googled "Git -r- Done!" and found several definitions (some of which I can't repeat here) on Urban Dictionary. This one best suits my personal use of the phrase...

"'Git-er-done' is a statement of boisterous completion or encouraging another person to get something done, completed or finished."

We're moving soon, if my husband EVER gets his orders from the military. I'm not frustrated or stressed or worried or anything remotely like that. Just because I've never lived abroad and know NOTHING about an overseas move is no big deal. And of course I don't know the language of the country to which we are about to move, but I'm not concerned. Nearly every time we've moved to a new duty station we've known someone else stationed there, but not this time. We'll know NO ONE. I'm okay with that though, because I have NO CONTROL over this situation. My stressing out and worrying over things I can't change won't help one bit. Chocolate and alcohol might help temporarily, but stressing and worrying won't.

So I've decided to concern myself with only things I can control. My husband and I are organizing our house, little by little, to prepare for this move. That makes me feel as if I'm doing something productive and it keeps me from dwelling on things that can potentially make me crazy. We have the floor plan of the house in which we'll be residing at our new location, so that's helpful in determining the amount of space we'll have. We can start dividing our household goods into different categories... long-term storage, goods to be shipped ahead of time, goods to be shipped later and personal items to pack for the trip. The stuff that doesn't fall into any of these categories is either being donated, sold or trashed. I'm rather enjoying this purging of stuff and have considered it to be a definite upside to moving frequently. "Clean House" would love us right about now and the whole purging process is feeding the obsessive-compulsive side of me.

So, yes, I've been in git -r- done mode lately. I have bags on my front porch today, ready to be picked up by a charity traveling through our area. See?
So I'm taking charge over that which I have control. How about you? What do you need to take charge over today? You know what I'm gonna say... GIT -R- DONE!

Cramping My Style

My 8-year-old son has been home from school for two days now due to a sore throat and a very low-grade fever. This is the same kid who had strep about 3-4 weeks ago, took his round of antibiotics and was good to go again. This time I don't believe it's strep because his fever is so low, and much of the time it's totally normal. He's eating and sleeping well and he's not lethargic. He's just complaining that his throat hurts a little.

My son isn't the type of kid to "play hooky" from school either. Sometimes I'll tease him in the early mornings when he's just waking up and I'll ask him if he wants to stay home with me and he'll give me "THE LOOK" and tell me he has to go to school.

I've tried to get him an appointment with a doctor at the clinic, however, they are totally booked and won't allow me to schedule an appointment for tomorrow because they don't schedule appointments in advance. Alrighty then! So I'll have to get up and start calling as early as 6am tomorrow to see if I can possibly get him in to be seen. They say I can take him to the ER if I think it's warranted. Well, it's not an emergency, so I'm not going to go that route. In the meantime, the little man can't go to school with any kind of fever, and of course I don't want to send him if he's not feeling well.

I was wondering if something had happened at school to make the little man unwilling to go. I don't know of anything and he says everything is fine. I told him if he doesn't feel up to going to school, he must really feel poorly, and that means he surely can't feel well enough to play Wii games or go outside. Of course I was trying to call his bluff, thinking perhaps he was milking the situation a bit, but he hasn't budged. I guess he really does have a sore throat. It's a mystery until we can get him to a doctor.

Now I'll just admit to you that this situation isn't exactly what I had in mind for this week. There are less than 2 weeks until school is out for summer break and that means I have very little "freedom" remaining. My window of opportunity for any type of social life is slipping away minute by minute. I have places I wanna go and people I wanna see before I have my children at home all day every day for several weeks. I have a gift card I need to redeem at a day spa, for heaven's sake! This is seriously cramping my style! Come on, little man, work with me. GO BACK TO SCHOOL!