Sun Idiot

I took the plunge today and put my cute new swimsuit on and took the girls and myself swimming. They said I looked cute, and I felt cute. So I pranced myself out in front of everyone and entered the water. I sat in the shallow end for a long time while they went off to deeper waters. We were there for 3 hours and 2 and a half hours after we got there, I decided to actually get in the water instead of just sitting there in 3 inches of it. I figured if I was going to get splashed by every kid who passed by me I might as well get in all the way. I had such a fun time! I felt refreshed and clean and full of chlorine. We left the pool, ate supper, went to church, came home and then it hit. Holy Sunburn! My legs, which haven't seen the light of day for many years are feeling like I stepped on the porch of hell. Red and painful. Why oh why did I think that sitting in the cool water made me exempt from getting burned? What an idiot. I have about 4 bottles of lotion on them which immediately soaked in to my skin. I'm going to be a hurting unit for a few days, but don't feel sorry for me. I'm an idiot and my stupidity will just have to pay the price for awhile. I am sooo looking forward to the 90 degree, high humidity weather we have coming. Not! Idiot.

Oh...and here's a helpful hint. Don't shave your legs mere moments before you go swimming. The razor burn is unsightly and just adds to the sunburn pain. Idiot.

I think somebody is trying to tell me something

After taking my girls to the swimming pool a few times, I have come to the conclusion that I might want to get in the water. So I went in search of a new swimsuit.
I have a swimsuit, in fact I have two, but one is such a horrible color on me and the other is two pieces. Not a bikini! When I'm in the water, the bottom part gets so baggy that I feel it's going to fall off, and the top part floats up, so my stomach hangs out. Ick.
I found several suits that were cute, but not on me. Except one. It's a one piece, with some cute ruffles here and there that seem to cover up some ruffly parts on me. I also bought some swim shorts to go over it because I have thighs that don't need to be seen by others. Although, this state, being the land of cheese and beer, my thighs are not as bad as some I have seen.
Anyway, I've had the suit since Thursday and here's where somebody is trying to tell me something. It's rained and has been cooler ever since, and it's supposed to be that way all week. I will not be in my new swimsuit. I've taken that as a cue to get off my butt and try to firm up. HA!
The s'mores I ate yesterday, I'm sure did not do the job of my firming up.
C'mon sun, and heat. Come back to my town. I want to wear my new suit, darn it, no matter how white and round I look. I want to go sit by the beer and cheese filled, tattoo marked women and feel cute. I am now going to go for a walk to get this firming process moving.

Observations

It was hot today, so I took the girls to the swimming pool. I sat and watched my kids swim and when I lost sight of them, I observed other things.

1) Teenage girls have no idea what a one piece swimsuit is. Tiny bikini's everywhere. Even on the not so tiny.
2) Teenage girls who have full make-up on and perfect hair will not get wet.
3) Teenage boys will try to get the above mentioned wet, much to the delight of the teenage girls.
4) If the teenage girls do get wet, they will run to the dressing room to dry off and re-do their hair and makeup.
5) When my girls are teenagers they will not be allowed to go to the pool.
6) Old men walking around alone with a video camera is a creepy sight.
7) Snacks cost waaaay too much.
8) Style of music is changed every hour. I was thrilled to have gotten there at the end of head banging, heavy metal hour.
9) Stepping in hot gum sucks.
10) Getting in for $1 instead of $3.50 because I wasn't going to swim is cool. It has crossed my to mind to try getting in for $1 when I actually am going to swim.

Summer Wrap-Up

Summer is not officially over, but since school has started back up, it's over for us. Even though it was 90 degrees today and will be in the high 80's all week. Here's a look back at some of the things that went on around here.

Pearl the cat sat around on a cat pillow.

Phoebe glammed up Abby in green. Makeup and all.

Phoebe and Abby played on the Wii on the rainy days of summer. (which was most of June and July) Record scores in golf.

Phoebe and Abby had a lemonade and cookie stand and gave the money to the FVHA.

Abby caught a butterfly at a park and let it out in our backyard. Haven't seen it since. Do they migrate back to their original home? Hope not....that would have been a long flight.

A trip to a little amusement park on one of the hottest days brought out Spongebob ice cream..
..and sno-cones!
and rides that if they would have spun around a few more times....I would not have been smiling. Bleh!

We wrapped up August with an outdoor wedding. On the second hottest day of the summer!

Too much rain, millions of mosquitoes, lots of heat and humidity, one day at the beach.
I'm kind of glad it's over.

Catch Up

All summer we did a whole lot of not much.
There was tons of rain, followed by heat too hot to be outside.
Then came August.
We got some swimming in at the beach.
We visited a little amusement park where tickets for rides cost a quarter.
We found our 1000th geocache.
2 weeks ago a friend and former neighbor died. He was 39. Left a wife and 2 young girls. That wasn't cool. We went to his funeral which is 4 hours away from our house. We did manage to make a mini vacation of it for the girls. We stayed in a hotel and they got to swim at the pool and they thought staying in a hotel was neat.
Last weekend was a mega geocaching event 1 hour away from us. The girls stayed at grandma's house and Perry and I had a lot of fun geocaching with his nephew and his girlfriend. We stayed overnight, and cached a little on Saturday morning, but had to miss the rest of the weekends events because we had to attend my nieces wedding on Saturday afternoon.
She got married in a park, with the dinner and reception outside at the park too. It was so hot and mosquito-y and we were tired and kinda crabby, but we managed to have a nice time. The wedding was beautiful. The large pig they served...not so beautiful. Something about the cherries for eyes and the apple in it's mouth. :o( It was delicious though.
School starts next Wednesday and what do I go and do?
I plan a rummage sale. I was up til the wee hours of the morning gathering things and pricing them. We started setting up all week, and today we had the garage packed so we opened for business a day early. The sale will go on tomorrow and Saturday until dark. Then I have to clean it all up. It better all sell!
Monday is some school function. Tuesday, the mothers want to get the 4 girls in the 3rd grade together. Wednesday school starts. At least I have all their school supplies. Well most of them anyway.
So all summer we do nothing, and we pack a ton of stuff in the last 3 weeks of summer vacation.
I'm looking forward to my mornings of quiet. I need a nap.

Cookies and Lemonade

Last night I dragged my children out from behind their DSi's and made them go for a walk with me. You think I was pulling teeth the way they grumbled and protested. But as the walk went on, their moods got lighter and they were actually having fun. We passed a driveway that had the words lemonade and cookies, 50 cents written on it. Since it was so late, the sale was over.
I asked them if they wanted to sell cookies and lemonade and they quickly jumped on that bandwagon and began making plans. The rest of the way home they chatted about the signs they would make. Phoebe came up with the idea that they could give the money to the animal shelter and Abby agreed. Melted my heart.
Once home, they made up the signs and were so excited for the next day to get here. Abby even went to bed earlier than normal so daytime came sooner.
This morning we went to get the needed supplies and got started on our task.
We baked 48 cookies and mixed up 2 gallons of lemonade.
They set up shop at 11:30 a.m. and waited for their first customer. Our neighbor across the street was the first to come. Finally more and more people showed up and they kept busy until we shut down at 4:00 p.m. 22 customers total. They charged 25 cents for a glass of lemonade and 25 cents for 2 cookies. Their goal was to make $10.00.
They brought in $28.00! I believe everybody gave more than they owed, and told them to keep the change. There are some big-hearted people in this world.
They are thrilled to be able to use their $28 for the animal shelter, which we will deliver tomorrow. Instead of handing over the money, we will buy food or supplies that the shelter uses.
I am very proud of my girls. All I did was sit on the porch with my book. They did the rest.


Great job girls!

Our Summer...continued

This is what a lot of our summer has been. Could be worse...could be snow.

This is It

This is the last weekend of summer vacation. Phoebe starts school on Tuesday. She's ready, and excited. We had a fun filled summer which included Phoebe learning how to ride a two wheeler, and the girls became better swimmers and were not afraid to go under water.

We hit a few zoos, and took long rides around the state.

We started geocaching which resulted in Perry getting poison ivy. He is suffering with it now and has been for over a week. No fun for all involved.

With the start of school, the girls are losing a few good friends. Phoebes best friend from school is going to be home schooled this year.

The two girls down the street that have lived here for over a year, but just started hanging with our girls since the 4th of July, are moving back to their hometown about 4 hours away. They have been stuffing in as much together time as they can before they leave on Monday.

A wonderful ladies bible study yesterday resulted in confessing our sins to our Great God, with many a tear shed, but oh what a cleansing. This brought us so much closer to God and each other. Love them.

It's raining it's pouring, I'm sure somewhere an old man is snoring. It's supposed to be a cool blustery day tomorrow only around 60 degrees. What a way to end the summer.

School week weather brings the low 70's, which I believe is perfect for going back.

I've been lacking in having anything to post about, but still enjoy making my rounds to other blogs.

I've been keeping up with my Shredding. I try to do it every other day with some other kind of exercise on the off days. I'm on level 2 and in no way am I ready to hit level 3 anytime soon. I'm not shredding any pounds, but I am shredding inches, and that's what matter to me. I'm feeling not so blobby. The rolls around my middle are shrinking.

My sister has been laying in a hospital bed since Monday with viral pneumonia. With an immune system that is little to none, this is extra dangerous for her. Her attitude is great and she has the right mind to beat this.

That's about all I've got for now. Summer vacation has been good to us, and Phoebe says it was very nice, but it went kind of quick.

I'm sure postings of 1st days of school will be coming soon. Have a wonderful weekend.

Fun in the Sun

Yesterday was a gorgeous warm day, so I left my house to fend for itself, and the girls and I took to the beach. Actually it's the neighboring cities pool, but instead of a cement pool, they have a man made lake surrounded by sand. We sat there for 5 hours. Well, I sat, the girls played. I did get in the water a little, but I'm more of a land lover. Here they are catching tadpoles.
more tadpole catching
sandcastle making #1 (some little kid destroyed it before I could get a picture)
digging holes
I wanted to leave at 5:00, but they decided that they didn't swim at all and needed to get in the water. So they swam and I sat until 6:00. They still didn't want to leave, but my poor cat was starving (ya right) so I finally got them out of the water by 6:10. We had a great time, and my tan has been started.


Oh, here's that dumb church picture we had taken. OK, maybe not so dumb, but it's not what I wanted. Yawn...borrring! (picture taken of a picture)