The Bucket

So last night Ben starts complaining that his stomach hurt & asked for "the bucket". Being the fine (& exhausted) mom that I am, I brought him the bucket, gave him a kiss & then I left him in the living room with Michael while I went to bed to get some "preemptive sleep" in case Ben & I had to spend an all-nighter with "the bucket". I seriously crashed. Woke up at 7am relieved that Ben hadn't needed me. Then I hear him come in & tell Michael that "the bucket" needs to be washed out. Turns out my boy had been sick all night while his momma slept. Thankfully, Michael took good care of my little guy, but I've sure had a case of the Mommy Guilts all day.

He's still feeling pretty poorly, but I'm happy to say he hasn't had need of "the bucket" for about 12 hours now. Looks like it was just a 24 hour bug, but I'm keeping him home tomorrow, seeing as he's still only living on popsicles & Jell-o.

I'll be happy when he's back to his old self & antagonizing Jordan.

Who, by the way, has been wearing one of these around the house...just in case.


hmmm... maybe he's antagonizing her without even trying.

No. 9

The painting is done. A little more sorting through the stuff I boxed up & the room will be ready for Michael to move his office into. *whew*

Ben is enjoying a current obsession with the Beatles (and no, we haven't bought Rock Band yet). Per Michael's suggestion, Ben just played Revolution No. 9. I don't think I had ever heard it before.

Seriously. What. Crap.

Why?!

I can't tell if it's another gray hair or just paint...

I've been painting Megan's room/Michael's office since Monday. The big, bright flowers I painted on her walls 10 years ago did NOT want to go down without a fight. 2 coats of primer (3 in some places!) & then I ran out of paint with about 2.5 walls of the 2nd coat to go. I ran out this morning to buy another gallon. It's going to look really nice but I'm just ready to be DONE! It's time to get started. I'm hoping to knock this baby out in 2 more hours. Wish me luck...

A test.

You know when you're watching TV & your favorite show gets interrupted by that loud beeping noise and a message from the Emergency Broadcasting System comes on & tells you that "This is a test of the Emergency Broadcasting System...blah blah blah"?! When I was growing up in Chicago they would repeatedly say "This is only a test. This is only a test."

My maiden name is Ownley. For years, I thought they were saying "Mrs. Ownley, a test. Mrs. Ownley, a test." I thought my mom needed to come take a test.

I guess I wasn't the sharpest crayon in the box, now was I?

That is all.

Game Day!

Heading to Gainesville this afternoon for the big game!!! And to take custody of my Gator Girl for the weekend. Woot! Woot!

Bullets

Knock! Knock! Hellooooo?! Anyone still there? Not that I would blame you for giving up on me, I've been a horrible blogger lately. I have over 1,000 unread subscriptions in my Google Reader. I'm catching up on you though & will be leaving comments again soon.

So, what in my life is so exciting that I can't find the time to blog? Nothing really. It's just that once you miss a few days, it's hard to know where to start catching up... so here are the bullet points to get me back on track.

• This guy is adjusting to middle school really well. Once we finally got the school supplies all straightened out, that is. He broke his new zip-up pencil bag on the 1st day of school (his school has a no backpack/no locker policy, so he carries a big binder w/ all of his supplies). After stressing out & running to six (6!!!) different stores looking for a replacement, to no avail~I finally found him one. In the school supply bin. In our garage. DUH?!

• He has also recovered from the humiliation of having to wear the "red jacket of shame" for a dress code violation the first week of school. His mother sent him to school wearing green khaki shorts instead of tan khaki shorts. *gasp* I know the dress code is the dress code, but he had on his white polo shirt, tucked in with a belt & was obviously in the "spirit" of the the dress code. I think that perhaps the best way of handling this would have been to tell him not to wear those shorts again. But, I seemed more bothered by it than he was, so I let it go & went shopping. Again. To find tan shorts that don't look "uniformy". Size 14. I found 1 pair. In the whole mall. So he's still wearing his tan "uniformy" shorts until I can find more. Perhaps the dress code should read tan bottoms rather than khaki. Whatev.

• My Gator Girl has been keeping busy up at school. Here she is at the UF/Duke soccer game. She caught a ball autographed by the UF team. A few of those players are girls she played against growing up & 2 of them are former teammates of Jordan's. Kinda weird.

• She's also got a blog. It's better than mine. She actually updates it regularly. And she's adorable & smart & talented. You should check it out.

• We're going up for the UF/FSU soccer game Friday & bringing her home with us for the weekend. I'm so excited!!!

• This girl is staying busy with soccer. Shocking, I know. Her team came in 2nd in the Disney Labor Day tournament. They played 5 hard games in 3 days & ended up losing in PKs. Heartbreaker. PKs suck.
  

• She's got her "official visit" at FSU scheduled for next month. We've been up there so many times, but this time it's "official". All of the 2010 recruits will be there & they'll get to stay with girls from the team. She knows most of recruits already, so it should be a really good time for her. A lot of her friends who are committed to other colleges have started going on their "officials" already. Last weekend, some friends of hers had their visits to LSU, where they got to meet Matthew McCanaughey on the sidelines of the football game. Jordan's visit doesn't coincide with a FSU football game, but perhaps she'll run into one of these fine FSU alumni while she's on campus....

• Of course, she has NO idea who Bandit or Flo are, so she wouldn't be impressed even if she did see them.

• Michael is anxious to move into his new home office. We are painting Monday. It breaks my heart, but it is time. Even if Megan were to ever move back into that room, she has outgrown the purple flowered paint. *sigh*

• Here are some before & afters of one of the projects I've been working on during my unintentional blogging break. For the past 10 years, my laundry "closet" has been one of the banes of my existence. I hated her with such a passion!!! But now, I think I'm in love. Even though she is just a closet & not an actual room.

• My other big project has been editing pictures from that Labor Day Tournament. Last year, I was the only parent taking pictures, so anything I took was welcomed super enthusiastically. T his year, there is a new girl on the team whose father is professional photographer. Ummm... yeah. I love to take pictures at the games & I love to share them with the other parents, but now I feel a little pressure to make sure they're good. After editing, I ended up with 1147 pictures. I think I deleted at least 3000. Here's some collages of some of my favorites...

(Hey Mom...you can click on them to make them bigger)



Well, I think that about wraps it up. Time to get the boy at school. Come to think of it, the 2.5 hours I spend in the car driving back & forth from that school may be part of the reason my blogging has been lacking lately. Hmmm... I'll be back soon. Promise.

Today's the Day!

Happy 41st Anniversary Mom & Dad! I love you!