Paging Mother Nature

Check out the monstrosity that was left on my doorstep.

This ugly thing is almost three inches thick and WE'RE NOT EVEN IN IT! It's the Cleveland Area phone book! Why, oh why would I need to have this in my house? If I desperately needed a number in Cleveland I would call Directory Assistance or look it up on-line. This phone book offends me in some many ways!

We get about four phone books a year, which is way too many, but this is the first time we've gotten the Cleveland one. Who decided that we needed this? The amount of paper in it fills me with horror. Everyone in town got one of these? Can you even fathom how many trees were killed to make these complete useless books? Never mind that I've gotten along fine my whole life without ever needing one of these numbers, but where in the hell do they expect people to store something like this. It's deeper than most every drawer we own and shelf space is at a premium around here. I can't imagine that anyone is going to keep this phone book longer than a week. The sad part is most of them will end up in the trash, in a land fill. Mine is lucky enough to be heading straight to the paper recycling bin. Hopefully in it's next incarnation it will come back as something more useful. Like toilet paper.

Friends Indeed

This one is for Weaver who knows what it's like to be a mom in a yucky situation and doesn't mind lending a helping hand. Circa 1994, here's Brewer, Weaver and Brookie all jammed on our tiny love seat.

And true to her nature, here's Stella joining them because nobody was allowed to have fun without her being right in the middle. In this case she got right on top!

I wish the lighting was a little better, but you can get the gist of the situation! Thanks so much you guys! I owe you big!

Fundraising Hell

Nance once told me that all my problems were a direct result of allowing my children to be involved in things. You were right! You were right!

We are currently hip-deep in order forms for three separate fundraisers all happening right now. We have the Girl Scout Nut Sale which this year has made the jump to include magazines. (Anyone need a renewal?) Then there's the Boy Scout Popcorn sale which is just always such an easy sell. (That should be dripping with excessive sarcasm.) The only good thing going for popcorn this year is that they brought back the tin of un-popped corn and added a straight up $25 donation option for those who want to support Scouts but hate popcorn. Finally, the music department at school is having a sale of boxed chocolates, snacks and strangely enough, kitchen gadgets. Oh and did I mention that both the girl and boy are a part of this one, so it's actually like we have four fundraisers going on. It's too much! TOO MUCH!

Jumping for Joy

Good news from Dr. Feet today! While the bone is not 100% healed, x-rays show that the break is well aligned and I am officially off crutches!

No more crutches!

No more crutches!

I am still stuck in the hideous boot for another two weeks, but that's nothing, no big deal at all. And now I can drive! Next week I'm going to start back to work but just for half-days. It's a long day on your feet subbing and I don't want to mess things up by going too fast now. I'm also going to pass on jobs in those buildings with stairs probably for another month just to be on the safe side. Can you tell that I'm happy about all of this? This painting just about sums up how I feel!!!

Singing River Weekend

Our weekend out to Singing River was a big success. The weather was a little cool, but it stayed sunny all day and crazy starry at night. We had 12 girls out with us this time. Our afternoon lunch down by the river was every one's favorite part without a doubt. The girls built a fire and cooked out hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores on the beach. Then after lunch...well...you can see where the girls ended up! Only a few fell in but they all had a big wet time finding clam shells and sinking ankle-deep into the clay on the opposite bank. It's been fairly dry, so the river was very low and slow, perfect for kicking around in. And going into the river wasn't an unplanned thing; these girls brought towels, extra clothes and shoes just for this! And yes, Weaver, they went up to Olive's Grave, but not at midnight, sorry to say. My foot and I had to stay behind for most of the hiking, which didn't make me, my darling co-leader or my girls very happy. But there's always next time!

Puppy Love

Since I am actually out of anything to say here's some cute pictures of Marco for a change, instead of cats.

Marco at 10 weeks old. Look at that belly!

Marco 10 minutes ago, sleeping under the same curtain. He might be a little bit bigger and three years older, but he's still just a puppy.

And this isn't easy to see, but that's Mamacat and Marco sharing a nap in the same patch of sunshine, but just barely. This is as close to friendly as I've ever seen them.

The foot is feeling good. The girl and I are going camping tomorrow out to Singing River. I'm planning on doing lots of sitting and having girls fetch everything for me! Hurray for camping on crutches!

Put one foot in front of the other....

The news from Dr. Feet yesterday was pretty good. While I am still to stay off my foot as much as possible, I am now allowed from time to time to put some weight on my heel. I can also try practicing with only one crutch, which so far had gone terribly, but I won't give up. He said to gradually start using my boo-boo foot more and more, up to tolerance. No problem! But I'm not going to rush this. Technically, I still have another two full weeks off my feet. The last thing I want to do is get too hasty, hurt myself and have to start all over. So I'm sticking with the crutches, but I think I'll do a lot less crawling. Just being able to put my foot down for balance is such a relief!

The days are long around here with the kids gone to school, but I'm finding ways to keep busy still. I sit here at the computer a lot! Thanks to the Weaver, I have a bunch of new blogs to read all of which have been fantastic. And of course, there's always Marco and the cats to keep me entertained.

Marco: "Are we going for a walk yet?!?!?"

Jack: " Please construct a model of me out of Legos next."

Meg: "Did I just hear a chipmunk in the basement?"

Mamacat: "No way you're taking my picture."