One word-HOT

Annual summer expedition to Badlands. The camera freak in me took tons of pics so trying to only share a few. Trying. The kiddos didn't do so bad taking pics of mom with their other half:)

as long as we sharing swim suits

The crash

Sooo the saga of the sod and the washer were both resolved today so the four of us just had a fun, no chores day (chores meaning our grown up ones). So we spend the day mountain biking, it was quite interesting to say the least.
The first interesting story is hubby is tired of writing BIG checks to Lowes, Menards and sod farms so what does he decide to do? Hmmm write a big check to Scheels for bikes for the boys and all I got was a lousy helmet. I have been sitting on the fence about getting my own bike so today we looked and of course I found one that was cool (meaning color and design of course-not actual function:). But hubby wants to look online for a used one. Hmmmm hate waiting.

The second story was Q-man's spectacular crash-not that he would think so. He is on the short side so the bike is a wee big and the brakes a little hard to squeeze. He also has a thing about not using his hand brake at home and just putting his feet down or riding in the grass to slow down. Ummmmm these are not good things out on a narrow trail, going down a hill. So I am behind him bumping and thrashing along through tall grass, being the greenhorn I am, when we hit the hill that goes DOWN. I say loudly, "Use your brake buddy"-you know in that not alarmed mom voice on the outside but thinking-ahhh this could get ugly-on the inside. He says "I can't" as he starts to gain SPEED. So I skip the nice mom voice and yell-"Q-BRAKE", next I just yell "BRAKE" about 3 times. He attempts to put feet down, no luck, so he heads off the trail to slow down. This a great strategy on a city groomed lawn but not so much on heavy underbrush, logs and ravines. As he goes off the path I see the bike weave wildly and his helmet bobbing up and down and it comes- the veering off the trail at high speed and landing (really crashing) into the ravine. I wait-if there is no crying I think I will just casually go down, but no there is wailing so I jump off and run down. I am concerned but seeing he is not hurt try not to laugh at the humor of it, him lying in the grass all tangled up in branches and bike (You know what this is like, you see a spectacualr fall and you try to say something without laughing). He is more p.o'd then hurt and after some consoling and a good lecture on THAT is why you use the brake he hits the trail-this time on his wheels.

Ahhhhh

Grass, green, green, moist glorious grass

Almost over...

I can't believe I am writing this, Q-man has 3 games left of his coach-pitch baseball and I am actually a little....SAD. He really loved it and improved so much-at hitting anyway-he still jumps to the side when a ball comes at him. He pretty much hit the ball and made it to a base everytime, no small accomplishment at this age. He even got to go across the home plate the last game. The crowd loves him-he is seriously the most smiliest kid on his team.

The surprise part was my oldest hitting the ball with one of the dads at a practice and that kid could hit-I mean hit it hard and far-without ever having any practice besides my pathetic attempts in the backyard-of course catching is not his thing either. He wants to PLAY next year-the hard part is he will be 10 and not sure if that is to old. In my mind NOT-late bloomers need a chance, but know how those things get competitive by that age. He signed up for a summer camp and said he will practice to get caught up, it's a long ways off so we will see.

Overall my first assumptions were wrong (hmmm I never make assumptions:) and I openly admit that it has been very fun with great conversations and great games and I loved making the DVD, can't wait to hand it out and batter up next year!

Small in the scheme of things....

There are two thing occurring at my house this summer that are small in the scheme of life but very annoying in the scheme of my daily life. As of today my washer has not worked for a month. Hubby went with a repair guy he had used before-not Sears-he was boycotting them. The part took forever and then the guy threw his back out. Sooooo I have been going to the laundry mat and now resorting to taking one load at a time of what we need (like underwear) down to the empty apartment we rent out and bringing it back heavy and wet to dry. Uggggggggg
The second annoyance is our yard. We were also planning on putting sod down a month ago. But with the lovely DAILY or NIGHTLY thunderstorm we keep getting here we are getting nowhere! We finally have the sprinker done after that huge week of rain in early June and were supposed to have grass TODAY but now the topsoil can't deliver the dirt-it is to WET. I am all for getting rid of this drought we are in but looking out at my everglades mud like yard is driving me crazy. I was so pumped to sit on my grass tomorrow night with a wine or beer and just revel in the green, coolness of it.

Hmmmmm oh well-patience is a virtue and I am REALLY trying

Kool Aid sales

I am tired, wiped out from camping and just want to sit on the back patio and sun myself-ahem I mean get some vitamin D and Q comes in and says can I do a Kool Aid stand. Well it is 3 on a Wednesday and we are pretty much the only ones home but I don't argue and we set one up. He decides to charge 25 cents or 10-the customer can pick and he plans to give his last two cups for free.

We wait

and

Wait.

Finally older brother comes home to play with a friend. I call them over secretly and tell them to scrounge up some change and buy some kool aid from his little brother.

They do, they even tip him.

Now if he just doesn't drink all the produce he should be good to go.

Back from camping!

Phew, we survived our first camping trip of the summer. Shane left for Atlanta on Sunday so the boys and I took the opportunity to head up to Horse Thief Lake and camp from Sunday until today. Besides some of the rain and thunderstorms we enountered it was a great time. Just some random thoughts and pictures (I didn't take too many pictures this time, just wanted to enjoy the time) listed below:

Things I loved about this camping trip:

The smell of the campfire and eating way to many marshmallows and smores

Watching the boys reel in some nice fish-they were pumped

Sleeping and waking up to sunlight coming in through the pop camper window

The smell of the trees

The late night discussion of God and Jesus and other BIG questions

There was not one ounce of fighting, whining, back talk-it was a GIFT-we should become cave people-roughing it does wonders!

These things I did not like so much:

The smell of campfire in clothes, bedding and hair-takes a week to get that stuff out

Not squeezing in work out time for all those smores-among other not healthy eating the whole trip

The rain and thunder we had pretty much each day but who cares-it's just water

The slight mishap with the camper bouncing off the hitch-ONLY 3 block from home-I almost made it-hubby will be soooo pleased:)

Overall a great trip and now to unpacking, which you can tell I am totally putting off by blogging first!

Sorry about the last pic, I think I have posted it before but can't get it off there.

The comeback of the mullet

Being the lover of a wide variety of music that I am-leaning towards even weird at times (ask my oldest and dearest friends) my kids are exposed to lots of different artists. The one music type that I am not fond of or never seemed to be was BIG 80's rock. You know the kind I am talking about, the jean jacket, metal head type with girls who had big hair-really tall in front, like they had walked into a building and forgot they had hair on the back of their head (Don't act like you didn't have it, if you didn't you had a close friend who did).

So the story goes like this two significant events occur, 1)We get this game called Guitar Hero-the boys love it and guess what, it has some big 80's songs. 2) A-man gets an MP3 player for Christmas and we help him download songs. Guess what songs he likes to download??? You guessed it BIG 80's hair bands! His favorite being AC/DC. So now when we are in the car and lets say BonJovi, Metallica, Def Lepard *gasp* comes on he shouts enthusiastically "Turn it up man, this song rocks" straight out of a Time life CD commercial. I wouldn't be to worried but was discussing getting a hair cut with him for the summer and this is what he says, "Naw, I am going to let it grow down my neck, you know like this." Pause and get the visual for yourself and then says "but I want it cut straight by my ears".


Ummm yeah, not in my life time buddy:)

The good, bad and the ugly

The good so far of Summer Vacation
-Crazy Horse Volks March
-Time to work out
-Taking my time with EVERYTHING
-Trying new recipes
-Very little (but still some) sibling squabbling and moods, but so far pleasantly surprised
-Dry enough today for the sprinker man to come



The bad of Summer Vacation so far
-Homework
-Rain, rain, rain
-No pool or lake time yet-waiting for an actual 70+ degree day


The ugly of Summer Vacation
-Rain that put back sprinkler system and sod
-My washer that has not been working for 2 going on 3 weeks

In my honest opinion, the lists are looking good!

A Day Well Spent

Not many words needed, just enjoy the pics. Oldest son and I went on the Crazy Horse Volkmarch. We walked (and walked), talked, laughed had lunch and had a great day.