It’s Sunday, and I Should Be Cleaning but I Just Found Some Spray Paint and It Needs to Be Used

There has been a lot of upheaval in the house in the past two weeks. Consequently I have found lots and lots of paperwork that is A) worthless, 2) expired, and/or iii) in need of shredding. And y’all know what that means, right? It means I get to ignore it for a few days until I can come up with a plan that does not involve a lightsaber or conflagration. The HOA frowns on both. Until then, I need to start cleaning and reorganizing so I can rearrange furniture and free up space in the garage.

Some people keep their dining set in their garage, right?

Anyway, as I was cleaning up craft stuff in the garage, I came across a can of gold spray paint. Originally I had bought it to paint some wine bottles and decorate them in a country glam style for Christmas. And then I remembered my future SIL redid her guest bedroom and just needs some gold glam in it, so I’ll be using it on something today. Because a can of paint is a great reason to not do the bathrooms today, don’t you know.

So today I plan on writing (check), cleaning (a bit), shopping (for food), cooking, (for two), and painting (for fun). School starts tomorrow for Little One, so it’s important that I have a flexible schedule today in case she needs me during an absolute meltdown. And in case she needs to go through several wardrobe changes in preparation for the all-important First Day™.

*first meltdown has occurred*

Now that that’s over, we can continue to have a normal day.

Ish. 😀

Soldiering On

Yesterday, we took Son to his parental units’ alma mater. He has chosen to follow in his dad’s and his late uncle’s footsteps: joining the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. Already he has made new friends and reconnected with old ones. He has learned many traditions and aspires to be the quintessential Aggie. I have no doubts about his abilities and his aptitude. Anyone who enjoys calculus and argues physics will succeed in his chosen field. And being a member of the Corps cuts down on your laundry chores, so there’s that.

As an Aggie, I’m totally psyched to have one of my kids share in my scholastic experiences. As a mom, I’m terrified. Oh, I’m not afraid of something happening to him or of him doing some boneheaded stunt. That’s bound to happen anyway. But I do fear him growing apart from his family. I know the time will come when he makes his way in the world. I’m just hoping that happens after he graduates and goes into the military. At least I get to see him some weekends, so the loss isn’t so acute.

But today is a dark day compared to yesterday. Today, Hubby leaves for his new position in Washington, D.C. I keep telling myself it won’t be as bad as Iraq or Egypt, since we will be at least in the same country and only one time zone difference. Even after experiencing deployments before, this still leaves a hole in my heart, knowing he won’t be walking through the door to the bark of the dogs, or enjoy his video game (don’t worry, he took the console and games with him), or watch a B movie after a long day at work. My family of five is down to two for now, and it feels so lonely in this house without them.

But that’s what we do. We go on and adapt and hold down the fort until our loved ones return. I can only hope and pray that they will adapt faster than I will, because I can’t be there to help them through it. Already I am counting the days until Christmas when we can be together again, fighting over the the last of the doughnuts and waiting for dinner to be served while watching Christmas movies. Until then, I can only be there in spirit, and through Skype 🙂

Relax, There’s Vodka For That

This is the last week of school, y’all.

I am not looking forward to the summer like most people are. Son is graduating and getting ready for college. And that means my anxiety is growing as the apron strings get cut once again. For someone who has big plans for an empty nest, I sure have issues when the chicks decide to leave it. I admit it was difficult to get used to Eldest’s departure for the military. Now with Son’s impending departure for college, I am left behind with one chick, and she isn’t the most amiable towards my melodramatic angst.

I think her exact words were, “Get over it.”

Sigh….. It will be difficult but I am sure I will get over it eventually. It’s not like I am constantly checking up on Eldest. So what if I know her work schedule and know when she should be in her barracks? I’m her mom, so I can’t be charged with stalking, right? This parenting thing is hard, learn-as-you-go and sometimes thankless, but they never tell you that all you go through is a piece of cake compared to them leaving you. At least Son will be able to come home for some weekends and holidays so the break will be slow, like ripping a bandage or twisting thumbscrews.

I did mention my melodramatic angst, right?

I know my parents are laughing at me. Come to think of it, so is my sister. And most of my friends. I know this isn’t as bad as I make it out to be, and it definitely isn’t the end of the world. It’s a new beginning, and I just hope and pray that each one is ready to face the world alone. My apron strings are being cut and Hubby tells me they can’t be sewed back on.

But there is always Velcro™!! 😀

What. A. Week.

I swear, every time I sat down to write something would take me away. I may not have much to say but I still want to type it out.

First, our trip to Eldest’s graduation was full of surprises. I had no idea that cold could possibly get colder, or that wind could get any windier. It was so cold and windy, the graduates were given outerwear and we had to wait for their leaders to collect their coats prior to commencement and at the end. Afterwards we enjoyed our crowded stay inside the NEX as we watched sn*w falling. Once we could make our way to the vehicle, our new sailor expressed her wishes for the day. My taste for coffee was challenged when we took her to Starbucks. She was dying for a fix, and I was dying for actual coffee which I didn’t find thus I had to settle for hot chocolate. Then my geography knowledge was challenged when I found myself willing to drive to Wisconsin. No, we didn’t stop for any cheese. But we did stop to take a picture with the sign. After that, we made our way to a mall where she could have another Starbucks fix and wander around, whereupon my shopping gene was challenged and kept under strict control. The following day we were fortunate enough to spend a few hours at the airport with her as well, before our flights departed, ours for home, and hers for her duty station. And through all of this, she is ecstatic to have her phone back.

Second, ever had to make a diorama? Remember the fun you had making a three dimensional scene? Me neither. Little One had to make a stage set to SCALE for her tech theater class. When I say to scale, I mean everything had to be measured and built from scratch. No cheating at the hobby shop. Her assignment was to detail a living room in a 1970’s mansion. Break out the velvet sofas and gold brocade walls, right? Good thing I had all that stuff in my craft room. No, not actual gaudy wallpaper but gold paint and velvet I had in spades. Then came the hard part: making furniture. If I never see another piece of cardboard it will be too soon. Unless it’s a box from the Lolita website. Then it’s ok.

Third, nothing like trying to organize Thanksgiving get-together while still in the middle of home improvements. Luckily all that will be over by next week. Especially if I can convince my sister Reno Queen to change out a couple of light fixtures. If she has time, that is. Otherwise I will deal with unsightly holes in the ceiling and candlelight, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

But the highlight of the week belongs to Son, who was named a National Merit Commended Scholar, earning him a scholarship due to his incredibly high score on the PSAT/ NMSQT. The first of many accolades to come for the brainiac, I’m sure. If only he would get his driver’s license….

So, that’s this week’s wrap-up from gloomy South Texas. We are headed for a massive amount of rain,which means I need to get in gear and do all the grocery shopping before that happens. I’m not fool enough to go out during a rainstorm. Flash flooding always, ALWAYS wins. Also, I don’t particularly care for the wet-cat-through-hedge look.

Have a great Friday 🙂

I’m Not Old Enough For This

I am a bit freaked out today. Today marks a turning point in my life, and as much as I wished to be ready for it, I don’t think I am. No, nothing bad has happened. Everyone is in good health and accounted for. Also, I have my vehicle back so I am once again mobile, as in mom taxi. No, I am simply overwhelmed by the fact that today is my Eldest’s 19th birthday.

WHAT HAPPENED????

It was just a while ago that she was catching lizards and geckos outside. Wait, that was literally two or three days ago. But I still remember her coming to me and asking for a pony tail, and picking out her “on”*. I still remember her asking for her sippy cup. I remember going Easter egg hunting and finding ladybugs to catch instead. I remember her crawling into bed with us when she heard thunder. Now she runs outside to take photographs of rain clouds and lightning. It wasn’t too long ago that she was asking for my help in shopping. Now she drives herself and gets whatever she needs.

*sobbing uncontrollably*

I’m not old enough for this. She was the first to make me a mother, and the first to make her way into the world. Her path to adulthood has not been without mistakes, but she has learned from those pitfalls and in that she has shown a maturity that is beyond her years. My baby is growing up, and all I can do is kick her out of the nest encourage her to fly.

I’m not old enough for this. But I do have to accept it. I take comfort in the fact that I will always be her momma. She may think I am a fuddy duddy and don’t know what I’m talking about right now, but just wait. She will face up to my wisdom soon enough 😉

*An “on” is a pony tail holder or hair clip. When they were little, I would hold one up to the girls and ask, “Do you want this on?” They understood “on” to be the name of the item. And they do call them by that to this day 🙂

Busy Living

Yes, yes… I realize I have been away from blogging at all of the sites I admin for a while. The end of the school year is upon us, and so is the usual military turnover. I hate that time of year. You make friends, you forge new ties, only to have distance try to render them asunder. Right now my kids are getting ready to enjoy the summer weeks before starting major life-defining years: one’s senior year, the other’s freshman year.

I am not ready for the drama. And there will be PLENTY of drama. Little One in high school guarantees it.

I am also not ready to be a band parent. When my sister was in the high school band, parents were encouraged to support not just the kids but also the band. Now it is mandatory to support the band. I will pay less in HOA dues per year than I will as a supportive band booster, and the only return I will get is a T-shirt. Don’t get me wrong: I support all of my kids’ endeavors. I just don’t appreciate being told I MUST be a member of an exclusive club to show it. Ok, rant over.

Anyway, the past week I have been trying to get the house streamlined and planning on moving Son to the upstairs bonus room. This is a major, MAJOR event. It’s almost reminiscent of the Brady Bunch episode where Greg and Marsha were fighting over the attic room. Not that the kids are fighting over it, but more like the undertaking of moving three rooms into two. Why? Because the bonus room is used as both a game room and a craft room, and in moving Son up I will have to forfeit my craft area for a while.

Unless I leave the game room up there with Son, and only move the craft stuff downstairs….

Hm…….

IDEA!!!

But I seriously doubt it will come to pass, because someone who shall remain nameless, namely Hubby, will want his own office space. It’s ok. I guess I can box up the stuff I don’t use and wait until the kids begin to leave the nest. Once they do, they become gusts in their own home, and I get the space I need for my crap. It’s a win-win, as far as I’m concerned 😀

What I Learned at Awards Night

Last evening Little One’s school held their annual Honors Night. Usually this means giving out the best-students-in-this-class awards, athletic awards, organization awards, perfect attendance, and honor roll. I will not disparage any award given, but I do question why perfect attendance is so over-rated. Any kid that misses a day has to make up the classes anyway. And those who come to school ill because they don’t want a miss a day tend to spread disease so others get to miss school. Seems like a viscous cycle to me.

Anyway, as tedious as these things are, we always manage to entertain ourselves the Simon and Garfunkel way. How’s that, you may ask? Well, here are the lyrics to their song, America:

Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said “Be careful his bow tie is really a camera”

That’s correct: we make a game trying to guess who people are and what they do. It’s fun and keeps us busy during the breaks. But playing that game makes us pretty aware of what other people are doing. So here’s a list of things I learned not to do in large crowded areas.

1. Don’t take a selfie if you are sitting in front of my husband. He is very good at photobombing, and he is even better at embarrassing you.
2. If you and your friends are going to cheer for an honoree, make sure you synchronize yourselves. Otherwise it sounds completely garbled and the honoree will think you hate them, causing a major drama to unfold after the ceremony.
3. If you and your friends are going to boo someone as a joke, be prepared for a certain mom to come speak to you about it. Also, be prepared to have that certain mom make sure to embarrass you in front of the rest of your group by pointing out your ridiculous underwear sticking out of your dropped pants.
4. When going up to accept an award, do not jockey for position. It makes you look like a photo hound at best, and a rude kid at worst.
5. When taking photos of your awards student, please be considerate of the rest of humanity in that auditorium and do not place your late model iPad15™ in front of others. Get up and go up to the stage to take the photo.

So, that is some of the fun stuff I learned last evening. I also learned that some gal was going out with some guy who thought another gal was crushing on him, but since he wasn’t sure, he decided to stay with the first gal because it was good for his school standing and he didn’t want to risk losing the street cred in case the other gal wasn’t really crushing on him.

Man, am I glad I’m not in school 😀

Ulta-matum

Last Thursday evening, my daughters finally had time on their hands to allow their mother to take them to a beauty store, Ulta Beauty™. Little One is now turning 14, and wanted to get some make-up. I figured we would go in, get her the stuff and come out in 30 minutes.

Boy, was I wrong.

We walk in, and immediately feel the familiar disorientation. So I do what any normal mom would do: walk around aimlessly until something familiar comes into view. YAY!! LIPSTICK!!! Not only do they have almost every brand of make-up known to Womankind, they had sections for every type of make-up as well. But I was there for my kid, not me. Fine….FINE!! We go in search of the Bare Escentuals™ line, since she prefers the expensive stuff mineral make-up, and find her a kit that she likes (she is my picky child). And slyly she adds, “Mom, it doesn’t come with lip gloss…” Well, what kind of a mom would I be if I didn’t get her lip gloss? A SMART ONE!!! But she had Eldest on her side on this and I was weakened by my want need of new lip colors, so I relented. And thank goodness that Ulta™ had their lip, eye and nail colors on sale for 50% off, because that meant that I could get some lipsticks by Lipstick Queen™, which I am not ashamed to say I have been coveting for about five years now.

I understand this is not about me, but work with me here.

We saunter over to the haircare section to get some hairclips, and spy the sale bins. This place is not for the weak-minded. They had nail colors and eye quads and since they were reasonably priced I piled some in the bag decided to get some for the girls so they could experiment with them. Rounding the next corner we see the facial washes and treatments and both girls pipe up that they are out of their stuff. It was almost synchronized. But you must have a clean canvas in order to paint a masterpiece, right? Sigh…

By now what started as just four “need” items has grown to far, far more. Besides the kit, there are mascaras, eyeliner, seven bottles of nail polish, lip glosses, lipsticks, facial washes, hairclips, hair treatments, and numerous eye shadow quads. In a haze, I tell the girls that this is enough for now, because Ulta isn’t going away any time soon. So I go up to the cashier, a lovely young lady who asks me if I wish to sign up for their rewards card. My first instinct is to say no, since I seldom do that anywhere. But then I take stock of everything on the counter and tell her yes, please. With an understanding glance, she signs me up, rings up my purchases and gives me a few unexpected discounts, and tells me to enjoy my evening. I carry their behemoth-sized bag out to the car while the girls chatter along happily. Inwardly I am cringing at the bill, but the girls are happy and bonding together, something that seldom happens. And that makes up for it, no pun intended.

And that was my experience at Ulta™. Suffice it to say, Hubby took it in stride, not even batting an eye. It helped that I threw my kid under the bus told him that Little One needed a lot of new stuff. Hey, if I am going down for this, I’m taking them with me. They are enablers of the highest caliber 😉

Better Than Biting Nails

One of my kids’ friends won a scholarship to flight school. She aspires to be a pilot in the USAF. She is a very dedicated young woman and I have no doubt she will achieve her dreams. Tomorrow she will be doing her first solo flight, and has asked us to go watch.

She is just shy of 17 years of age.

And I am just shy of having a full blown panic attack.

It’s not that I doubt her abilities as a pilot. It’s just that ZOMGSHEISFLYINGSOLO!!! I am not sure I can handle that. And she’s not even my kid!! Usually when I am this nervous I tend to eat sweets, but that would means making a cake and having to explain to the kids why it’s gone. So today I shall be crafting my little black heart out, keeping my mind off tomorrow as much as possible. So, I’m going to the garage to find a book to murder to alter.

I’ve been dying to make this for my craft area, or for Little One to pilfer, and found the perfect book for it a few days ago, an old illustrated German book. This project looks like it can’t be messed up. If I do mess it up, I can always use the pages for something else, right?

Sharp blades and scissors always calm me down, so it’s worth a try 😉

Time to Work on Little One’s Room

I’m sure y’all remember the amazing transformation I did to Eldest’s room. If you don’t, go ahead and click on the link. I’ll wait.

*waits a few minutes for the awesomeness to sink in*

Amazing, isn’t it? Well, she has done a great job of keeping things pretty organized. So far. But now it’s time to do something special for Little One. And that will NOT be a picnic.

My youngest daughter has very specific tastes. Very…. interesting tastes. Anyone who smiles while watching Rear Window or The Birds has interesting tastes. That’s what I call it, anyway. What can I say? She’s a chip off the old block(head). Thankfully, her room is painted, and she wants to keep the furniture and drapes. So not a lot to do, really. But one of the things she wants in her room is a reading nook: her own chair, her own chandelier (I did say chip off the old block, and meant ME, you know), vanity area, etc. She’s growing up, and wants to make sure WE know it.

Like this, only waaaaay cheaper.

I don’t think I’m ready for that.

But she is. She is just a bit…. stubborn when it comes to getting rid of certain things. So today we will be rearranging her things and moving stuff around. The screaming will be epic. But I am sure she has ear plugs for that 🙂