This morning I was talking with a friend on the phone.  She was giving me a play by play on a cooking show she was watching on TV.  Here’s how the conversation went.

Her:  He’s putting bacon fat in this pot.  What kind of pot is that?  I’ve never seen a pot like that in my life.  I want one.

Me:  I don’t know.  I am not watching TV.

Her:  Now he’s putting onion, celery, and garlic in the bacon grease.  That’s the Holy Trinity!  

Me:  The Holy Trinity?  Hahahaha.  

Her:  No seriously.  Don’t be laughing at the Holy Trinity.  That’s sacrilegious. 

Me:  Oh ok then.  I’m gonna go now.  I need a shower.

Her:  And now he’s putting fatback in the pan.  Do you hear that sizzling?  It smells so good!

Me:  No, I’m not watching TV.  Ok, going now…

Her:  Now he’s adding cabbage.  YUM! 

Me:  Bye

Her:  Bye

At this point I get in the shower.  I barely have time to get wet and my phone chimes.  Then it chimes again.  I wash my hair.  It chimes again.  After 5 chimes I finally step out of the shower to see who and what’s so important.

By text…

Her:  He’s putting ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE in the cabbage!!!  SCORE!

Her:  AAANNNNDDDDDD…He’s making brisket in a pressure cooker.  Oh mon Dieu!

Her:  W/ garlic, carrots, mushrooms, celery, baby turnips, red potatoes in beef broth.  Slap yo mama!!

Her:  Next up…Granpa’s cornbread in a cast iron skillet.

Her:  TURN ON CH 8…he’s plating!

Me: (trying to catch my breath from laughing so hard at “He’s plating!”) I’m in the shower!  I finally got out to find out what was so exciting that my phone was blowing up.  Now there’s a puddle of water on the floor.

Her:  Yeah, it’s making me puddle, too! 

Me:  I was just thinking the same thing!  Hahahahaha

Me:  You might need a cigarette after that climax!

Her:  Chil’ talk about good!

Her:  Fo’ sure!

Me:  All this food/sex talk is kinda turning me on.  Now I need a cold shower.

Her:  I need a pressure cooker.

Me:  You’re killing me. 

I am not a fan of suspense.  I am not a fan of the waiting and wondering and thrill of it.  I don’t want to watch movies that keep me hanging on until the last minute.  They make my stomach hurt.  I am fine watching a movie like that if I already know the outcome.  I can relax and enjoy the scenery, appreciate the dialog, and concentrate on the characters if I know what will happen.  Most people don’t get this.  If I’m watching a movie that has already been seen by someone with me I ask for the outcome before/while watching the movie.  Most of the time I am told that I have to just watch it to find out.  I would rather turn it off than actually watch it at that point.  I have a hard time understanding why people won’t just tell me what happens.  Why they think I have to wait and see for it to be enjoyable is beyond me.  I tell them it makes me uncomfortable and am still denied the outcome.  I have been known to be with friends who are watching a movie and when things get suspenseful I will move to a place where I cannot see the TV.  I would rather not watch it than feel that sick, uncomfortable feeling.  Why is this so hard to understand?  It isn’t ruining the movie for me.  It’s making it an enjoyable experience.  Many years ago I was watching Silence of the Lambs with my wasband.  He hadn’t seen the movie either.  When it got to parts that my stomach couldn’t take I stood in the hallway and asked for a play by play.  He knew me well enough to know that I would not be sitting back down on the couch and graciously told me what was happening.  I eventually returned to the couch but made numerous trips to the hall during the movie.  Because of my discomfort and the unwillingness of others to play along I rarely watch suspenseful movies.  I’m sure I’ve missed out on quite a few good films this way, but I can’t help it.  It’s just who I am.

I was thinking about my long absence from blogging today.  There were so many times that I was tempted to write here.  At night while I was falling asleep I would compose blog posts in my head.  Some life event would get me thinking and I always think better by writing things down.  I never actually sat down and wrote what went through my head though.  I’m not sure why.  Laziness maybe.  I still suffer from that laziness.  I don’t know how prolific a blogger I’ll be now that I’m back.  We’ll see I guess.

Speaking of laziness this is my last week of summer laziness before school stuff starts.  I will be in workshops for the next two weeks then back to school for inservice.  The kids don’t actually start until the 22 of August, but sadly I must return to a regular schedule August 1.  I am hesitantly excited about this school year.  My principal decided it was time that I graduated from Kindergarten so this coming school year I’ve been promoted to 5th grade.  Going from teaching the babies to the big kids will be a huge adjustment.  I will be teaching Language Arts and Social Studies to two different classes of 5th graders.  I will have papers to grade and projects to plan.  I love both subjects which is a huge plus, but I haven’t taught either of them in so long that I feel a tad lost as far as where to start.  Thankfully the teacher I am replacing is now our assistant principal/curriculum facilitator so she will be available to help if necessary.  I don’t doubt my ability to do a good job I just want to make sure to use the resources available to help me.

And now, because it is late…not because I’m lazy, I’m going to go to sleep.

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!