Midlife Natalie

It’s hot.  Like Africa hot.  And for the first time in my life I am having trouble cooling down.  It has to be an age thing.  Yesterday I was at Sea World in San Antonio, Texas.  Because it was a Monday the crowds were manageable, but the heat was not!  I was sweating from pores that had never sweat before.  I walked in every gift shop I passed just to stand in the cool air for a few minutes.  There was no breeze and very little shade.  After drinking numerous bottles of cold water I wanted to throw up because I was so full.  But I was still hot.  A small child sat next to me during the dolphin show, and she had one of those misters with a fan attached to it.  Every time she sprayed it some of the water would land on me.  I kept scooting closer to her and leaning her direction in hopes that the small droplets would cool me off.  I finally forked over $12.99 for my own bottle sprayer fan.  It worked pretty well, but it only cooled my face.  As soon as I turned it off I would immediately heat up again.  I kept wondering if something was wrong with me.  My oldest was with me and she didn’t seem to be nearly as hot as I was.  She glistened slightly.  Really?  I melted, and she glistened.  I sopped up sweat with napkins, and she didn’t even need to wipe her brow.  My brow was completely saturated and dripping sweat into my eyes.  It has to be my age.  Which is 41 years and 356 days.  Maybe 42 is the magic sweat like you’ve never sweat before number.  I don’t know.  All I know is that if the sweating keeps up I’m gonna have to start bathing in anti-perspirant.  It’s my only hope.

Coincidentally my favorite part of our trip was cranking the air conditioning down in the hotel room at night and not having to worry about the electric bill.  I set it to Arctic Blast and then piled the covers on so I could stay warm.  I froze in the mornings when I had to get up to pee then ran back to the bed to snuggle in under the warmth again.  It was heavenly.

After our stop at Graceland we drove for a couple of days to get to my Aunt’s house.  The neighborhood she lives in was completely adorable!  While there we enjoyed the beach, kayaking and canoeing in a small lake, catching a local production of Oklahoma, and driving on some sand dunes on the shores of Lake Michigan.  So much fun!

After a few days we drove up to Mackinac Island for a day visit.  It was beautiful.  We took a carriage ride to hit the highlights on the island and bought fudge for a souvenir.  And despite my good company I was wishing I was there with a few adults.  I would have hiked and biked and spent more than an afternoon exploring there.  The kids were great and had a good time, but they knew there was more fun to be had up the road.

From there we drove down to Port Huron, Michigan and through a bit of Canada to see Niagara Falls.  I could have watched the water pouring over the falls for hours.   It was breathtaking.

We also hit the Soak City waterpark next to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, and the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio before heading back to Texas.  Those were the two highlights for the kids I think.  Twelve states and  3800 miles later, we were home.  Whew, what a trip.

(Since then Will has been to youth camp.  He drove through 4 different states on that trip which brings his current total up to 16 so far.) This morning the kids left with their dad on a trip that will take them through 7 more states if I’ve counted correctly.  All in all it’s been a busy summer exploring America!

Hello.  How are you?  What have you been up to?   Isn’t that what you say when you haven’t seen someone in a while?

I’ve been contemplating blogging again for a couple of weeks now.  I’m not even sure what it is I want to say I just know I feel the need to write.  I guess I’ll just start writing and we’ll see what comes out.

This summer I decided that I wanted to take the kids on a trip.  I contemplated where we should go and thought about Michigan.  My aunt lives in a quaint little town on Lake Michigan.  My family went once when I was 14, and I remember loving it.  For years I had thought about going back, but thinking about it was as far as I got.  While Michigan sounded like a great destination I knew we could only stay in my aunt’s 2 bedroom, 1 bath house for a few days without feeling like we needed to move on, and that was a long way to drive for only a few short days.  I mentioned the idea to my parents just to see what they thought.  They mentioned that the last time they had driven up to see her they made it a full on sight-seeing trip.  That sounded like an awesome plan to me.  I studied maps and tourist magazines and figured out where else we might like to go between here and there.  I didn’t want it to be an every-minute-planned kind of trip, but I definitely picked some places that the kids and I would love to see.

First stop Graceland, home of Elvis Presley.  This was one of those places that I had never really had a hankering to see, but I thought the kids would find it cool.  I actually enjoyed it more than they did.  They saw an outdated house, a bunch of cool cars, and lots of memorabilia.  I saw a house that wasn’t at all what I expected.  Yes, it was outdated, but I couldn’t get over how small the rooms were.  The kitchen, while sporting a TV, a microwave, and a few other surprising-for-1974 gadgets, was tiny.  I thought about how different the wealthy live today.  Huge kitchens, huger living rooms, and more stuff than they know what to do with.  It was interesting to me.  One of my favorite rooms was the TV room in the basement.  It sported 3 TVs set back in the wall.  That way Elvis and his buddies could watch CBS, NBC, and ABC at the same time.  The only problem I see with that is that since remote controls weren’t invented yet someone had to get up to turn up and down the volume depending on what shows they were interested in.

I think I’ll call this part one since I’m tired and really ready to go to bed.  I spent more time transferring my blog content back to this site than I did actually writing tonight.  And I did notice that the pictures that went along with my posts didn’t actually transfer.  Quite frustrating.  I’ll work on that later.

It’s really me.  The blue door is gone for now because I’m taking a break from blogging for a bit.  I took all my posts offline but might put them back someday.  Good luck to all of you, and thanks for all your support.

To those of you who know how much I love blogging don’t bother looking for where else I might be doing it.  I’m not.  I so rarely have time to blog these days, and honestly my heart just isn’t in it.  If I blog again it will be here.

My kids went to Turkish school for two long years. We chose to send them to a private Turkish school as opposed to a public one for several reasons. The public school closest to us had overwhelmingly large class sizes. Like 50 kids in a class. We knew that our kids would be overwhelmed enough without throwing them into something like that. By choosing to attend a private school we were choosing smaller class sizes which we hoped would translate into a better education as well.

Day one of Turkish school was a nightmare. Erica and Will both cried. I cried. I was asking my kids to do something I wasn’t even doing myself. 7 hours in a room full of strangers speaking Turkish. My own Turkish lessons were on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And they only lasted 2 hours each. Those two hours seemed to last forever at first. I couldn’t even imagine how long 7 hours would feel. Every morning that first week started with tears. Then it was the weekend. We played. We had fun. And we pretending like Monday didn’t exist. When Monday rolled around there were more tears. We promised the kids that every Friday they would get a prize…some sort of award for finishing another week of Turkish school. By the end of the week there were no tears. They still weren’t looking forward to school, but they were learning how to get through the days.

It wasn’t long until we were hearing about kids in their classes. The names all ran together in our minds, but the kids had friends. Actual Turkish friends.  And our kids could speak Turkish better than we could.  It was amazing to see the transformation.

They say life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.  I can agree with that somewhat.  My issue is I don’t have time to make other plans.  Life is too busy.  But really…it’s not.  I did absolutely nothing last weekend.  The kids all had weekend plans that left me completely kid free.  And what did I do?  Sleep.  Watch tv.  Rest.  I honestly don’t think I did anything.  On Sunday evening Fleur de lis and I went out to eat, but other than that…nothing.  So why didn’t I blog I wonder.  Maybe because my days are all the same.  Endless redirecting, disciplining, and teaching kindergartners.  And then when I do have a break I am so tired that all I do is sit around.  An overview of the last few weeks…

• went to school
• took 2 kids to the doctor
• went out to eat a couple of times
• watched tv
• slept
• drank one margarita
• did laundry
• looked at my dusty house
• cooked a pot of chicken and dumplings
• drank way too many diet cokes

And that’s pretty much it.

The only funny/interesting thing that happened in the last few weeks happened when I ordered my margarita.  I was asked for ID.  I guess the lack of make-up and the baseball cap I was wearing made this 41 year old look 20 years younger.  HA.

So that’s basically it.  My life is way too humdrum to blog about it seems.  I have all kinds of blog post ideas that aren’t about my daily life, but the mental where with all isn’t there to type them up.  I’m too tired.

Maybe later this weekend I’ll have more to say.

I found this menu pictured on a blog I enjoy reading.  She said she came across it while on vacation this past summer.  It cracked me up so I thought it would be interesting to do a caption contest on it.  Of course you don’t actually win anything other than the satisfaction of a job well done or pride in your cleverness or whatever.  Ok…go.

And I’m still laughing.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

For those of you interested in 100 day projects I’ve included a gallery of things my kids brought in.  Quite creative if I do say so myself!

100 Jolly Ranchers

100 Rubberbands

100 Glitter Stars

100 Pieces

100 Circle Pastas

100 Beans

100 Sunflower Seeds

So my district called a snow day today due to the forecast of ice and snow.  This morning I woke up to no snow but icy roadways.  Good call.  I wouldn’t have enjoyed trying to drive the 36 miles to work.

I’ve been lazy today.  After the busyness of the last few weeks I am enjoying having nothing to do.  So far today I’ve watched a True Hollywood Story on Kate Gosslin, and a couple of episodes of true crime stories.  The current show is Top 20 best and worst celebrity plastic surgery.  BUT I’m not really paying attention.  Just too lazy to get up and get the remote.

It’s cold.  I’ve been cooking nice warm food for 2 days.  Quiche, baked potato casserole, rolls, cheeseburgers.  Today Fleur de lis cooked homemade chicken noodle soup which was delicious.  I hate being cold.  I would rather be hot and sweaty any day.  Hot and sweaty day food is much easier to make than freezing cold day food.  I love to cook though so mostly I don’t mind.  I just hate being cold.  I hate getting in my cold car and waiting for it to warm up.  I hate having to leave my house when it is so cold.  I hope school will be canceled on Friday because I can’t imagine trying to drive over 30 miles to work in what is supposed to be snowy/icy conditions.  I know people do it in places that have wintery weather every winter, but this is Houston.  We don’t do wintery weather well here.

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school.  For those of you who don’t have/haven’t ever had/had many years ago children in elementary school let me explain.  On the 100th day of school we celebrate.  We bring in collections of 100 things.  We make special cupcakes or cookies.  We wear glasses that say 100 with holes in the zeroes for our eyes.  We glue/color/cut various 100 day projects.  I am not really sure what to expect exactly.  When I was in elementary school we didn’t celebrate the 100th day of school.  We didn’t even know when it was the 100th day.  School days were school days.  When I taught school in the early 90’s we didn’t celebrate the 100th day of school.  At least my school didn’t.  I was THE kindergarten department in my small school and nobody ever told me to celebrate 100 days.  A few years later when my own children went to school I think it was beginning to get attention.  I don’t recall my kids ever having a celebration, but I seem to remember hearing something about it.  And now here we are in 2011, and I’m participating in my very first 100th day celebration.  I just ate 100 peanut m&m’s to celebrate.  Not really.  I ate a lot, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t 100.  I hope.

And now I’m going to snuggle up under my covers and go to sleep.  Hopefully there won’t be rolling blackouts and coldness to deal with in the middle of the night.  I hate being cold, but maybe you knew that already.