Summertime and the living is.....just as hectic as ever

I don't know why people think summer is a slow time...we're just as busy as ever!  I will admit, I like being busy.  I'm so much more productive when I have a lot to do - it makes my natural laziness take a back seat.   Our standing appointments still take place even though the world thinks everyone should be on vacation.... and now we have to juggle different routines for the girls for each week, trying to keep track of where they are and where they need to be each day.  And Aubrey starts her Bat Mitzvah prep sessions in June to add a new appointment to the family schedule.  Ron's working on figuring out when and if Aubrey can go up north at all this summer, and she wants to see my Dad in addition to Ron's Mom, so that throws another variable into the equation.  Plus, she's 12 now, do I let her fly alone?



We are still going to the Food Bank once a month this summer - I'm trying to talk Ron into coming, too, and since Aubrey doesn't have religious school over the summer, she can come as well.  I doubt we'll be going anywhere this summer, so I'm trying to come up with interesting things for us to do on the week-ends.... providing I even get to see the girls on the week-end.... they make their own plans and then fill us in so it's hit or miss.  I had hoped that we could use a Groupon I bought a while ago this afternoon for a family outing, but Aubrey already had plans. Maybe next week-end.

We've been working with Aubrey to try to get us to [1] include us in the planning phase and [2] coordinate driving between us and friends' parents.  I'm sure they would agree that it would be nice to not always have to drive both ways for an activity!  And, as a bonus (for me at least), if we're included in at least coordinating the driving, we know who else is going to be participating. .... we've had a couple of instances of the people Aubrey winds up hanging out with not being who we thought she was going to be with.  This does not please me.

Devon also plans her own social life.  She was playing with a friend in the neighborhood the other night when they stopped by to announce that they had been invited to a BBQ at another neighbor's house - could Devon go?  Since her friend Jordan's mother was going, and I had an idea of who the sponsoring neighbor was, we said yes.  At 9:30, I was just about to text Jordan's mother when the phone rang.  It was the hosting neighbor, who had been doing a head count matching kids to adults and finally realized she had an extra child - Devon.  She didn't know Devon was there with Jordan.  Apparently, her reaction was "Devon!  Does your mother know you're here? (yes) Do you know your phone number? (yes)  I'm calling her!"  Which is nice - I find it humorously fascinating the my daughters know so many people in our development (and vice versa). I've met most of the people I know here through either the girls or the dog - everyone knows Bella!

I think the thing I'm most looking forward to this summer is that I only have to pack lunches for half the summer - the weeks the girls are at a friends' house for "camp" she's providing lunch - yea!  I really hate packing lunch (and snack, too).  Of course, instead each night we have to pack a change of clothes, and a bathing suit and for Devon, at least, workbooks.  The part the girls are looking forward to the most is that this friend fosters kittens and right now has quite a few, including one very little one (about 4 weeks old).  Devon is quite enamored with this tiny creature.  The girls will get to help take care of, and play with, the kittens while they're there.  They also raise geckos and lizards and have a bearded dragon and 3 grown cats and 2 dogs.  Oh, and 2 tortoises (smallish ones).  Better them than me!  And I thought I had a menagerie!

Aubrey actually co-owns one of the leopard geckos that lives there (her name is Jade) and about every 2 days comes up with another plan for a way to get the gecko here....and is always foiled, poor thing!  Today's plan was for Aubrey and her friend to build a shed in the backyard to house the geckos.....it would need to be air conditioned, of course.  And she was surprised when I said no, for some reason.  Go figure.  At least she's dropped the topic of chickens. . . for now.

I'm also looking forward to not having to wake up to an alarm on Sundays for 2 months...today being the exception.  I had 9:00 services at Temple, followed by a 9:30 meeting followed by an 11:30 meeting followed by picking up some clothes for Aubrey at a woman's house, who course wanted to show me her home based business stuff (she sells horse toys...not toys for horses but toys that are horses) and all of her daughter's equestrian ribbons and awards.  Aubrey would love it and will, of course, go back with me next time to return the clothes that don't fit.  She donates them to an abused childrens' shelter.  Good cause.  So my day of meetings finally ended at 2.  Ron and the girls called to see if I was ever coming home.  It felt like no, but I did make it eventually.  Home loud home.  Lots of screaming and arguing and just ... loudness.  So much for peace and quiet.....why did I go home again?  And then I miss the girls when they're not here .... maybe I am insane.....

Anyhow, back to all my meetings....they were all at the temple....mostly in the newly renovated Roth Social Hall.  Ron wanted to know if they finally got the window treatments in ... and was disappointed when I told him yes, but they got blinds, not curtains.  He was looking forward to seeing what he called the "drapes of Roth" .... yes, I groaned, too.

It's bedtime now.  Aubrey got home late - almost half an hour later she was supposed to be home. What do you do when it's the parents' fault, not hers, that she's home past curfew?  I told her from now on I would pick her up.  It's not like I can consequence the mother of her friend.  And she walked in and was very playful with Devon....until Devon walked out of her room leaving the light on and refused to go back to turn it off.  Aubrey having to get up to turn it off meant the slamming of the door and Devon being called a jerk. She said she's tired, so hopefully she'll fall asleep easily tonight and get some good rest.  Many nights she's up until past one.  I know because I hear the footsteps on the stairs and and the opening and closing of doors. God knows what's doing - she says coming downstairs to get a drink, going back upstairs, coming downstairs to use the bathroom (she really hates the one upstairs)... all I know is it's a LOT of ups and downs.  And she's not lightfooted.  When the girls go up and down together it's like there's a herd of elephants running though the house.  Don't believe me, ask my father.  Their room in his house is directly above his.

I wish you could see Devon right now.  She's asleep on the couch.  One leg straight up against the back of the couch, a giant pink dolphin stuffed animal lying across her chest.  She's been known to sleep in some very weird positions, so I guess this is pretty close to normal for her.

I'm actually the only one awake in the house right now.  It's eerily quiet.  No snoring, no meowing, no barking.  The only sound is the keyboard and the fan blowing air on me.  Yes, I am scared to touch the thermostat because it makes Ron crazy when it gets changed a degree or two.  He never assumes it's me that has changed it - always thinks it's one of the girls playing with it and he has a cow (what does that mean, anyhow?), so it's not worth the drama of lowering it one degree.  Plus I love the feeling of air movement, I need it...and would put the fan on high and pile on blankets in the winter to get it.  Some nights, I sleep with my head at the foot of the bed just to feel the air circulating.  The fan is broken in our room and only has one speed, medium to slow, so you really need to be right underneath it to feel it.  I had a small fan for a while, but gave it to Aubrey to use - her room gets brutally hot.  And she's a little like me - it can be 90 degrees in her room, with the air conditioner on and 2 fans blowing, but she has to sleep with a quilt on.  Finally something she gets from me and it's my need for a quilt to sleep.  Why can't I have shared a more productive trait?!

Well, my back is feeling much better.  I pulled a muscle in it last week-end and was hunched over all week. Aubrey said I walked like a granny and videotaped it because she was just hysterically laughing at me. And once again I wonder what happened to my compassionate sweet child from long ago.  My knee, unfortunately, is not any better.  I'll have a day when it only hurts little bit followed by a day like Friday when I wore two braces on it just to keep it working.  I told Ron and Aubrey it felt like it was going to start working like a bird's knee - bending the wrong way.  This totally grossed out my child for some reason . . .

but did not make her any more sympathetic.  Part of me is glad they don't understand how bad it is (I'm actually starting to consider having the damn surgery) but part of me wishes they could appreciate how limiting it is.  They get mad when I say I won't take them to the zoo or to miniature golf or the mall.  Although Devon is a little more empathetic than Aubrey is, and will occasionally make a comment about maybe we should drive to the pool instead of walking there or some such thing.   But she also wants me to walk so she can see my FitBit light up.  I've hit 10,000 steps in one day since I got it, but these aren't my best walking days these days.  I did hit over 5,000 today - walking from meeting to meeting no doubt.

Anyhow, I'll take the ups with the downs and hope my knee decides to behave.  I know it won't heal  but all I'm asking for is no pain, no giving out.  It happened once before, so it could happen again, right?  And then I'll be able to go on outings and day trips with the girls over the summer so they'll actually feel like they had a vacation....if they can fit me in their busy schedules, that is.