I will miss these days

I am sitting here at the computer, surfing the net. Autumn is next to me watching a Disney movie and Gray is in the next room playing with something. The cutest part is that he is "talking" to his action figures. It is so wonderful to hear his voice as his imagination takes him to his "places". I know that it won't last for long. I treasure all of the little things that he does; his soft hand resting on my arm, his excitement over our new kitten, even his huge, adult teeth that are too big for his face when he smiles. Like the old saying, "if we could only keep them little for a while longer." Having two teenagers in the house, I really know to treasure these "sweet" days.

Summer Series Shows

My fave. tv (old) series is Rockford Files. I love James Garner in that role. Rockford is so cool, living in a run-down trailer on the beach, fighting gangsters, and driving that fast car. (He is also great in The Notebook and The Gift. Although, I hate seeing him as being so old in real life. To me, he will always be 40's.) For Christmas the last couple of years, David has given me a R.F. DVD. The greatest thing is that now i can watch all of the seasons on Netflix. So that is what I did everyday at the start of the summer while cleaning. I soon ran out of R.F. so I switched to another series from my childhood... Quincy. If you haven't seen Quincy, you must. Quincy is older and not quite as cool as Rockford but he also solves crime...(think pre CSI). The really neat part of Quincy is seeing how much technology has changed. My degree is in Criminal Justice with a lot of classes in forensics so I love seeing the old crime-fighting tech.

For those who don't know Quincy, he lived on a boat in a marina. In between solving mysteries,lovely ladies would frequently visit him there. (My daughter thought it kind of gross bec. his character is rather older.) The show always spotlighted some kind of "issue", like alcholism, second hand smoking, Vietnam vets. It was usually Quincy against the "system". Sometimes the show ended with things getting better and sometimes not.

Now, I am on Magnum PI. Tom Selleck is so cute in this show. Magnum came on in the mid to late 80's. I really wasn't into TV much then, mostly dating, so I didn't watch it. Magnum, who was in his 40's on the show, was too old for me. But my sister loved him then. Magnum is a private investigator who drives a sports car and live in a mansion on Hawaii (My dream land). I am just starting on Magnum. It isn't as interesting as the others so I don't watch as much. The neat thing is that my daughter is "into" the 80's so I can show her the styles.

Only two more weeks to go until school starts. I better get to watching the flix.

Back from camping

We went camping on Wed. and got back yesterday. Autumn had a friend go with her so they had a grand time and Gray had a friend with him and they had fun. One night my sister and her husband came up and we cooked cobbler in the dutch oven which is sooo good. It is a small world bec. we saw quite a few people we knew there. Also, we met some people from Clay that know some people we know. CAmping next to us were some people that we know "their house" in Mt. Olive. We always talk about "that is "the RV" we want when we retire" as we pass by their house. We also knew mutual people. The last night we talked to the campers next to us. He was a police officer from ILL heading for Gulf Shores. He and David talked shop and we told them about places at the gulf to see.

Today David is leaving for GA for a week. The kids and I were going to go for a few days but the kids did not really want to go. They like to do things around here. I guess it is a good thing bec. I really need to clean up the camper and the house before school starts. Zac needs to find a job and they have dentist appt. this week. It is also reg. at Minor.

Oh, great news.... David made LT. We have been waiting on news from that for the last few months.

Zac's 16th B'day

It is unbelievable that 16 years ago we had Zac. My, it seems like yesterday. He did not want us to do anything for his b'day. I really wanted to give him a party but he insisted that he just wanted money. (go figure??) We got up and let him pick lunch (Cesear's). Then he opened the presents. One was a bag of beef jerky and his other favorite goodies. I wrapped his other presents in Thomas the Tank Engine paper bec. that was his favorite character when he was a little boy. Then, I had to go to a workshop.

Camping tomorrow..

Race Day

Last night I spent 4 hours watching cars go round and round and round and ...

I like racing ok but....

No, really we had fun. Some friends came over (they are big fans of racing). They hosted the race at their house last year so we decided it was our turn this year. They have a daughter that is Zac's age. They have grown up together and we just can't figure out why they don't date but, as Zac says, "Mom, she is like my sister."

They brought over their famous sausage-cheese dip and nachos. I made a Cappachino cream cheese pie and a Chocolate Tres Leche Cake. The cake was yummy but terribly ugly so before they got here I told the kids to get forks and pig out on it bec. it was going to the dogs. The pie looked good but I wasn't sure how it was going to taste so I sent david to WM to get a Key Lime pie and a cheesecake. Needless to say, by bedtime I was stuffed.

Oh, the cat's name is Tom, Bob, Harry, Bogey, or LuLu (if a girl). We don't know yet.

Happy 4th of July

David is getting the burgers ready for the grill. I have the chicken marinating. There is going to be good eatin' here today.

I have been hostess to my mother for the last two nights. I took her home this morning so that the health-aide could check her out. It is a task loading up her oxygen maker and I am really tired. In a little while I am going to pick her up to come back and eat with us.

Happy 4th of July to all.

The cake just came out of the oven and the house smells very good.

Girl's Day Out

Today Autumn and I had lunch with a teacher that used to work with me. She brought her baby and he is adorable. He was so good while we ate and talked. It took us a long time to get caught up and I was surprised that he could sit in his high chair for that long. Meredith is being a great mom and it really shows.

Autumn and I went to the mall and bought Zac a few b'day presents and then we had our treat... Starbucks. I can't believe I have my 13 yr. old hooked on expensive coffee drinks. She got the Double Chocolatey Chip (frozen drink) and I got my fave.. White Choc. Mocha. No wonder people go broke when they have a Starbucks on their corner. It is a good thing that I have to drive 25 min. to the nearest one. I would be taking out second mortgages if Starbucks was close to my house.

19th Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday was our 19th ann. It is crazy but it really does seem like we haven't been married that long. Zac is nearly 16 so, yes, we really our now middle-aged. Yuck!

We slept really late bec. David was off. We got up and David and Zac went to Curves to finish weed-eating. Zac's first job--grass cutter for the local Curves. Then they went to my mom's to weed eat there. (That is a whole "nuther" story.) Before Zac got all dirty, he stopped by Little Cesear's to get an application. They told him that they were hiring. Of all things, a sign holder. Well, when they got home I said, "no" to that one. $5 an hire is not worth gettting hit my an 18 wheeler on the side of 78 hi-way.

"Everything is Chinese"
After they got showers, we went to Chinese for lunch. She is really from Korea but to us country folks, everything foreign is "chinese". Suwah will tell you that it isn't real "chinese" but an American version. Her sister-in-law (was also my nieghbor) made me some "real" Korean food and it was delish. Suwah was our neighbor before we moved (which is still my mom's neighbor) so Zac asked her for a job. Unfortunately, she said business was slow bec. of the economy but if it picked up, she might need him. Hey, her husband did our bath remodel, maybe he needs a worker??


"Retiring Secretary"
After lunch we went to the ele. school to give the secretary a retirement present. We HATE that she is retiring bec. she always took care of our kids at school. Sample phone call from Mrs. East: "Dave, Autumn has left her field trip money at home. I am going to run her home to get it." Where else can you get that? The new secretary made a joke that she has a binder of instructions and there is a section marked "personal" and it has instuctions from Mrs. East to take care of our kids. But, that is the kind of school it is. Everyone knows everyone here.


"DATE NIGHT"
After we unpacked the groceries, we dropped Gray's friend off at his house next door and we headed to our "date". We went to Petrucelli's on 280 (our fave Italian "Eye-tal-yun"). The hostess asked us if we wanted to sit inside or outside. I told her it was our ann. so quiet would be nice. She said that she had a room by ourselves. Well, I thought, "That might be too quiet". So, we sit in our usual area. We sit there about long enough for the waiter to get our order (we already knew what we wanted). Then, we just looked at each other. We decided we did not want to sit in that area. Don't get me wrong bec. we love kids but just not last night. There was this baby next to us that kept running off and then they would go pick him and he would cry and cry. David jokingly told the hostess that we didn't have ours tonight and we didn't want someones else's either. We moved to another part of the resturant in a very romantic table (by the big EXIT sign). Really, it was very nice bec. it was only adults in the room.

After we talked for a long time, we left and went to Barnes and Noble so that I could spend a gift card that I found in my billfold. Forgot all about it. I looked for an hour and could only find a $6 book to buy. It is a pocket ref. titled. "A to Z: where everything is in the Bible." Autumn has gotton into reading the Bible and I was telling her how I find it interesting to read about things I wanted to know about instead of starting at the beginning like a chap. book. I think she will find this ref. usual. To finish my evening, I got a "White Choc. Mocha" coffee". DELICIOUS!! We got home about 10.


"NEW KITTY"
The other excitement of the day was gettting a wild cat. A stray had come up to my mother's house the other day and I feed it bec. it looked hungry. Of course, it stayed. My mother does not like cats and wanted it taken off. I told her if it didn't leave on it's on, I would bring it to my house. Now, you have to know that I have 3 big dogs that do not like cats but I figure the thing stands a better chance at my house that dropped off in some woods. As soon as it gets here, it runs into the woods!! David, Zac, and Autumn are crawling through briers and brambles to get this cat while i am standing there swatting knats holding a bowl of milk. Later, Autumn gets the cat and we get some kitty food from Walmart. She gets feed on the front porch (not before Autumn ties a bow on it's neck). And, it runs away to the biggest tree. Last night coming home, we saw a fox (coyote) something bigger than a dog running across the woods and I am hoping it didn't get the kitty. Our neighbor has had two kitten killed by a coyote from the woods. Autumn called us several times during our ann. dinner crying about that cat. I told her that it was wild and it had lived in the woods by itself. it knew how to take care of itself. We did a good thing by feeding it but if it wanted to still be wild, we couldn't change that. I haven't looked for it this morning but I am sure that the search will take up most of Autumn's day. So, we may now have Blackie, Dixie, Chewie, and Lola (or Lucy or Fancy or ...) Autumn keeps naming it over and over.


"NOSE SURGERY TODAY"
Lastly, for today... my dr. appt. to see about my "mole". ugly, gross, witchy-looking thing on my nose. David kept saying last night, "I hope everything goes well tomorrow." I finally said that I am not going to worry about, there is nothing I can do. It is what it is and we will find out later. Then we started joking about the giant scar on David's face from his skin cancer a couple of years ago. He was sitting in the dr. chair and the dr. says, "Mr. Thompson, it is a little bigger than we thought. We will have to remove more." She asked it like a question. And David's thought was.. "What choice do I have?" You just would have to see the huge scar from his left eye all the way back into his hair line. For the longest he told people he got into a bar fight and got hit with a broken beer bottle. I think he is expecting me to come home with half a nose today. "Oh, Mrs. Thompson, it is bigger than we thought. We will have to remove a little more of your nose."