This is What I Get...

...for checking my email BEFORE I have my quiet time.

I end up watching videos of outtakes from interviews with Elmo.

Funny, very funny, yet not quite as spiritually stimulating!

Recap!!

How was everyone's Independence Day? Wonderful, I hope.

Ours was just fantastic, although I don't have any pictures to prove it because I forgot to take my camera to our celebration. I did take pictures on a friend's camera, although she's not so good at getting them OFF of her camera, so it might be two years before anyone actually SEE'S them. (Hee hee!)

We got together with two of my favorite families in the whole wide world, and we had a wonderful time. We ate and laughed and ate some more. Then we cooked out lots of meat (steak for me...YUM!) and ate that, then The Dads proceeded to shoot off some fireworks while The Moms cringed at the thought that one of them was going to blow a finger or two. (THEY were completely unconcerned about that because I'm sure they were being very careful, but it didn't help that we had been sharing blown-off finger stories at dinner.) Then The Moms took the kids up to the top of a hill in the neighborhood and watched some of the surrounding fireworks shows that were being held around town. It was a great view and allowed for full firework enjoyment without scaring the pants off of some of the kids who didn't like the volume of the fireworks show The Dads put on in the backyard!

Also, there was lightning, which was SO COOL (because it was also far away!) and was really like God's fireworks show for all of us.

Then we came home.

Now, before we left the house, we had put the dogs in their kennels as we usually do, but we forgot to put on some "white noise" to block out the sounds of fireworks. Holly is super sensitive to noises like thunder or fireworks and gets very nervous. But when we were at the Sheppard's house and realized that we'd forgotten, we didn't worry too much.

We were a little surprised when we walked in the door and Holly was in the livingroom.

And she was kind of crusty.

Hmmmm...

I go back into the bedroom to find the kennel completely moved across the room, with a hole chewed in the side and blood everywhere. The poor dog had apparently been in a complete panic and had been chewing on the kennel for who knows how long before managing to get herself out of it. I was so sad for her, thinking about her being so scared while we were gone!

She's fine now, although her muzzle is swollen and I'm sure it hurts a bit. She's able to eat and I've got medicine for pain and inflammation that was given to us for her hips a few years ago.

So, while we had a great holiday, Holly's left quite a bit to be desired. I'll have to remember to stock up on Doggie Prozac next year!

It's An Adventure...Right?

Last Thursday, Reilly, Declan, and I all toddled off to karate, happy as clams. It was going to be Declan's first class, and he was really excited to start taking karate. (Side Note: We've been trying to get him to take karate for a year and a half now, trying in vain to convince him that he'd have a great time and that, yes, people would like him. This was his main concern. Not the sparring, not the eventual breaking of boards or doing kata. He was worried that nobody would like him. Go figure. And the thing that finally convinced him to start? His friend Zane was starting classes last week. Let's hear it for peer pressure!)

So, off we go to karate, where we all had great classes and a wonderful time in general.

Then we got home.

And I walked in the door and realized that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

There was no burst of cool air when we entered the livingroom. The air was stale and hot, gross and completely unpleasant. The thermostat read 88 degrees.

88. Degrees. (cue doom music)

Our air conditioner had stopped working, and there was nothing to do about it but WHIIIIINE.

And then we moved in with my mom, who, thankfully, has about eleventy-billion extra bedrooms and has NO problem with hosting her grown daughter, son-in-law, two grandkids, and two dogs. Even though she had returned just the day before from her vacation in Alaska and was, I'm sure, looking forward to a little decompression time before she went back to work.

Psycho Puff, however, was a little peeved about the dogs. She spent three days hissing intermittently and looking ticked.

Although, she sorta looks like that all the time.

Well, cleaning the unit didn't help, although I think that Troy and I lost 10 pounds of body weight through sweating as we performed that little task. On Tuesday, Troy replaced the fan motor and some little capacitor thing that I just can't help refer to as the Flux Capacitor because I'm a dork like that, and the unit is now up and running.

The FUN part about all of this was that we went and stayed at a hotel on Sunday night. My brother was moving in with my mom and it seemed that adding his two cats to the current menagerie would be a little too much, so our pups went to the boarder and we went to the Radisson where fun times were had by all as we spent hours in the swimming pool!

I will say, as I always do when Super Troy the Fix It Man repairs yet another thing that has broken, I am thoroughly impressed with his abilities! It just never gets old! (And saves us a ton of dough.)

And as much as I enjoyed our stay-cation, I'm glad to be back in my own bed!

MONSTAHS!

For me, it wasn't actually a monster under the bed, it was a fear that the Elephant Man was sitting on the commode in my bathroom. Not using it, just sitting there, waiting to pounce. For years, I was afraid that the Elephant Man was in my bathroom at night. My parents took me to the movie, which came out in 1980, and I had nightmares about the Elephant Man for YEARS.

Now, I fully realize that there was nothing scary about that movie at all. In fact, I'm sure it was just sad. But my five-year-old self didn't know that.

I've considered watching the movie as an adult, but I'm a little worried that the nightmares will come back.

Cousins!

OK, those guys are my cousins and are the brothers of My Favorite Cousin, Natalie. She recently posted THIS LINK to an article about them. I'm so proud of them! (Even though I think Preston's a little crazy, what with all that running and biking and swimming and sweating and pain. Exercise...blegh!)

Now, that's a great way to start off a post, isn't it? That's my 13-month-old...ummm...second cousin?...I don't know, she's My Favorite Cousin's kid, so I'm not sure how that makes her related to me. I know that my kids call my cousin Aunt Natalie, but that's mainly because Second Cousin Natalie is a bit of a mouthful.

Anyway, Audrey is fantastically adorable, and I just wish they lived closer to us or we lived closer to them because I don't ever get to see them. Boo, hiss. (I'm so excited! Audrey's going to be a big sister to a little sister in August! Natalie's the cutest pregnant woman on God's green earth! Just go HERE and see!)

Now for some BULLETS!

• Summer is going along just fantastically! I'm finally getting into the groove of balancing housework and things that NEED to be done with running around and being completely irresponsible and playing. I'm sure this is a relief to Troy, who I'm sure was getting tired of running out of underwear because I'd not done laundry in a week or having to wash a glass before he got a drink because there weren't any clean glasses in the cupboard.
• Since we're going on a vacation in August, I've been mowing my mom's lawn to make a little bit of extra money. In addition, I called the guy who owns the empty house next door to see if he wanted to hire me to mow THAT lawn. He actually lived in the house for awhile a few years ago, so we kind of know him, so it wasn't as though I was calling a complete stranger to ask if I could mow the lawn. Because that would be weird. ALTHOUGH, that's not a bad idea...
• Yesterday when I was mowing Bernie's lawn, I looked up to see Deco coming into the backyard, holding a cup. "I thought you might need a drink," he said. And, seeing as how it's eyeball meltingly hot, I certainly did. But, lemme tell you, even if I had just downed a gallon of water right before he walked up, I would have drank (drunk? drinked? drankded?) every drop of that water. Sometimes he is so sweet, it makes me melt.
• Today I got up, worked out with a new exercise video I have, and then went to my mom's house and did her lawn, therefore sweating off probably a million calories in the heat. Then I completely undid all that hard work by going to my friend Julie's house where we had a Greek salad for lunch and homemade bakalava. I think I could have consumed that entire pan of bakalava.
• My mom is coming back from Alaska tomorrow! (OK, so technically she's been in Seattle since Sunday, but she was in Alaska for the seven days prior to that.) And she's bringing my wonderful Aunt Linda with her! Let the wild rumpus START!!
• My brother is getting ready to move back to Tulsa from St. Louis for six months to a year. This is exciting! It's been a looong time since he's lived here!

Good night!

How Can It Be?

How is it that this girl, who started out so tiny and squally and who puked all the way down my back on her first night home from the hospital, and who spent the first three ths of her life crying at the top of her lungs until I thought I was going to lose my mind...

How is it that today, she is 9 years old? I mean, when you're pregnant and when you have a newborn, everyone says "Oh, it'll go by sooooo fast!" but, REALLY?! Nine years?! How can it be? I could go on and on and write a whole bunch of stuff about Reilly, but, honestly, I think it'll just suffice to say that she's fun, she makes me laugh every day, she's silly, she's stubborn, she's developed a great sense of humor, she's got a heart for the Lord, and I love her more than any other girl on the planet.

Happy birthday, Baby Bear!

Oh, and because years ago Reilly decided that she and Supey have the same birthday, I present you with some pictures of the Birthday Cat.

(Because nothing says "happy birthday!" like a cat, wearing camo undies.)