Gardening Results

It's been a few months since we started the garden. In the beginning, we planted in the window to get some sprouts started. I transferred them to the box and some died, some flourished for a little while then died, and some just flourished. The zucchini has taken over the box. The carrots never even tried, and what we thought were carrots are actually jalapeño peppers that I don't remember planting. Meanwhile, the basil is still doing great, our one tomato plant is sprouting flowers, and I've harvested a few green beans. Pruning the dead/dying leaves is a little annoying, but we're still learning. Next time we do this, I'm putting down plastic to prevent grass from growing through the soil, and hopefully I can plant in the actual ground. We will probably move to a new house first.

Cole: 7 months!

Cole is 7 months old!

He can push up onto his knees now and tries to crawl, but will scoot on his belly across the floor (or off the bed elsewhere). He still cries a lot, but also laughs and squeals. He isn't sitting up very long unassisted, nor does he have any teeth yet. He hates baby food right now so we're still breastfeeding and sometimes supplementing with formula. He's starting to reach for us and can entertain himself for short periods. Classical piano music soothes him when he can't relax, so I usually put that on Spotify and he calms down. He gets upset when he hears other babies crying and is learning how to play Peek-a-Boo. His smile is the best.

VBS stands for Vacuous Bull Shit

So, VBS was this week. Jac signed up as my assistant since he's in the youth, which he was happy about since he had access to the teacher's lounge and the "good food". My first night doing crafts was Monday... sand projects. You know, where you take a tiny funnel and put colorful sand in a tiny container? It sucked. I had two groups come in. The first was 4th-5th graders, including my Leah. They weren't terrible, only 6 of them. They shared, they made jokes about boneless pizza, they were well-behaved. Jac felt a little sad that he couldn't be in the group with them, but I let him do the sand project, too. My next group was 1st-3rd grade and, let me tell you, I could hear O Fortuna as they scrambled down the hall to my classroom. I had all the jars set up neatly and these little monstrosities of stranger spawn started screaming and grabbing for their own sand, "THIS ONE IS MINE!" "QUICK, GRAB THAT ONE BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES!" Like, um, you brats is gonna share. It was rough.

Tuesday was a little better, far less messy. No paint, no glitter, no markers. I had the kids color some wind chimes with crayons. I wonder if it's universal child language to always be discontent and need MORE things? I give one sand container, they want two. I give one wind chime, they want two. What is that? They were supposed to bring home flyers for their parents/guardians/etc. tonight and one kid was annoyed that he had to hold his wind chime AND a flyer. Another kid was chewing bubble gum and blew a bubble that popped all over her face and got in her eyelashes. This is why I'm not a public school teacher. I would probably put vodka in my water bottle or chloroform in their markers.

Wednesday, I was going to have the kids make some owl headphone holders, which looked better as bookmarks. The bigger kids made them easily, but the smaller kids were having trouble peeling the felt adhesives apart. So, they made butterflies instead. I have that one kid who just irks the hell outta me and of course, tonight she helps herself to the sand and makes a huge mess. She doesn't listen and is highly dramatic. But, there was pecan pie in the lounge, so I rewarded my patience.

Thursday was the last day! And I will hand them my death certificate if they try to rope me into teaching next year. Jac was an awesome helper this week. He helped make sure the kids had crayons, helped peel stickers, and helped me clean up. I'm proud of him. Leah and Elias performed their end-of-the-week songs and the boys won the canned goods competition (they had more), so the boys' leader (the pastor) threw a pie topped with glitter at the girl leader. Glitter galore. This felt like a really long week. Like, it felt like a month. I've never dealt with so many children that aren't mine in a long time. We have no plans on Friday but to stay in our pajamas and do absolutely nothing. No library, no groceries, but maybe doughnuts. I'm exhausted. Good news, though: Cole was suuuuuuuper good yesterday. Maybe he sensed I needed less crazy for the day, who knows? But he barely cried and he entertained himself in two-hour intervals throughout the day in his playpen, away from me. He actually played with toys and creeped around happily. It was so nice. Please oh please let this be a new thing.

Granny

Today is my Granny's 82nd birthday. We drove out to Meridian yesterday and went to her church, then had lunch at Olive Garden. I even ordered a tiramisu. We couldn't stay and visit after lunch because I had to get back to a meeting at our own church to discuss VBS. I've been volunteered as tribute to oversee the crafts for 1st-5th grade and tonight is my first night. I'm a little anxious.

Glutton for punishment

A few months ago, a lady from our church had a Yorkshire Terrier free to good home. I asked about him and she was ready to give him to us, but her husband wanted to give him another shot. I told her thanks for letting me know and we ended up getting May. Well, she texted me a few days ago asking if I would still be interested. Zac didn't say we couldn't get him, sooooo, I picked him up. We kept him for a few days and got to know him, but I decided to pass him to Mom since she's been wanting a pet ever since Dad died. Since he's 10 years old, neutered, and housebroken, she really doesn't have to spend time training him. He isn't super active and is really just the sweetest little dog. I feel guilty having him for a few days just to move him to a new home again, but I think it's best right now. However, I told her if it doesn't work out and she can't keep him, I will happily take him back. His name is Chewy, short for Chewbacca.

Animals and Swimming

We went with the church group to McClain Lodge and went on a safari tour, feeding animals, similar to Global Wildlife. The kids had so much fun, but OMG it was fucking hot. I had put Cole in the harness, but not even five minutes later, I had to just hold him because I was sweating profusely. We went to their petting zoo on our way back to the main building and THERE WERE BABY PIGS I almost died, they were so cute, but too far away to snatch up and put in my diaper bag. I managed to find delicious coffee: their signature tasted of buttered pecan and caramel. I grabbed some cookies for the kiddos and we headed to Mrs. Rita's for some pool time. Cole slept the ENTIRE time! We had pizza and hung out, but got sunburned a bit. It was a lot of fun. We went to the library after getting back to town and the AC was broken in the library *hysterical laughter*, so we headed home. Zac actually developed a heat rash from holding Cole. He didn't swim, so he wasn't able to cool off much. Oh well. Lesson learned!

Father's Day

Happy papa day to this amazing dude. He's such a fun and sweet dad to our kids. I don't know what I'd do without him. We spent the day with Mike and Ashley, enjoying grilled burgers and quality time, just being lazy for Sunday. It was a nice day.

On another note, this is my first Father's Day without my dad here. I wasn't sure how the day would feel, but it did get sad toward the end. I always made him a card, even as an adult. He loved getting homemade cards and it was even more special when the kids would draw him pictures. I miss him terribly.

C-Spire

Today's C-Spire was Mario Kart Double Dash. When Zac and I started dating, he was in high school and worked evenings at Pizza Hut. Almost every night after work, he would come to my house with a stuffed crust pizza and we would spend a few hours playing on the Gamecube that we bought together. Double Dash was one of our favorite games, next to Animal Crossing. We would sometimes stay up all night trying to unlock new cars or racers. Recently, we set the Gamecube up in our bedroom and played a few rounds. We're still pretty good together.

Kyle came to spend the night this weekend, so he joined us at the tournament today. He was able to experience Zac's amazing homemade burritos for dinner last night along with the breakfast croissants this morning which are based after Dunkin' Donuts' discontinued (locally) chipotle and brown sugar bacon breakfast sandwich. Kyle, Zac and I didn't make it to the final tournament, much to our disappointment. But, if we've learned anything from watching Chopped, the arrogant competitors are always chopped. However, our big kids made it to the final round and ALMOST won. They were so close. It was a lot of fun. Kyle promised he'd come next month along with Sean.

 

Milky Way

So, a while back, our cat, Fig, died. It was August at the time. We grieved and felt we'd wait a while before getting another cat. Well, that October, my elder sister, Karen, found some abandoned kittens and tempted us with them. I was hesitant, they were very small and sick and needed a little extra care, but the kids were sad and kept asking for a new cat and the pressure was on, so I caved. I had talked to Zac about maybe getting two from the same litter so they'd have each other and would cause less mischief, though we found out the hard way we signed up for double the hair, double the litter box, double the mischief. We picked both of them up and brought them home. Autumn came and went, I lost my sister, Dad's health started failing, then I got pregnant with Cole. Spring allergies hit, but they didn't let up. It turned out I was allergic to Maple, our fluffy orange cat. I couldn't bring myself to remove one cat while we kept the other. I've seen how pets become depressed and go through grief. I know some people do that, but they were together since birth and separating them felt wrong. What would Smokey do without his brother? I tried to deal with the hair fluffs all over everything, but after a year of constant allergies and living in a Benadryl-induced fog, I just couldn't do it any longer. I was already miserable, very pregnant, then lost my dad, and felt overwhelmed. We weren't going to put them in a shelter. That was out of the question, so we found them a home. The kids were okay and that was it. It was hard for all of us. I never wanted to do like my parents and obtain pets only to remove them once the attachment set in. I felt guilty for a long time over it. But, I wasn't opposed to getting a cat again later on, when the timing was right. I found myself browsing through adoption sites to look at cats and kittens. Anyway, last week I brought the kids with me to pick up Jac's and Leah's eyeglasses and there was a pet store next door. I told them if they behaved, we'd go look and see what they had. Kittens. They had kittens. Five, to be exact, and they were small and fuzzy. I asked about the adoption policy and it was much simpler than PetSmart, so I told her I'd call back Monday (today) after we were back from our trip. I told the kids to pick one of the kittens (they wanted a brown female tabby) and if that one was available after we got back, I'd take it as a sign from a higher power that it was meant to be. They gave me all their birthday and Christmas money and tried to keep their hopes realistic. I called this morning, the shop girl said there were two available, so I told the kids to get dressed and let's go look. The little brown tabby they picked out was still there. I left the kids in the car, made the purchase and their money combined was just enough for all her starter items (sign number 2). Then, she got a free vet visit for her second round of vaccines, her results from fecal and blood work were all normal, clean ears, trimmed nails, fresh bath, no extra charge (sign number 3). We named her Milky Way, but call her May (and also May-May, Kit Kat, and Elias calls her Runny because she runs a LOT). She's absolutely the sweetest and most playful kitten, sleeping in our laps and purring. I promised the kids, allergies or not, we're keeping her until the end.