A Lot Going On in the Sky Too

Life is zooming by in this house on this earth, but there is a lot happening in the sky too.

When I had a party a couple of New Years Eve's ago to celebrate the Blue Moon I knew that the next Blue Moon month would be in August 2012.  This month we will have another Full Moon on 8/31 (on this half of the world) and this will be the last Blue Moon until three years from now.

I found out from a site called Earth Sky that there is quite a bit of planet activity this month as well.

There will be five planets visible in August.  Small Mercury (my ruling planet as a Gemini) can be seen early tomorrow like this:

Venus and Jupiter will be high in the sky, pointing the way toward the crescent moon and Mercury.  Jupiter will be above Venus.  It may have to be dark still to see Mercury, but being closest to the sun, it is rare to be able to see it.

And a Blue Moon month is rare--about 8 times ahead in the next 19 years.

And blogging a lot is rare too.  But in honor of a Blue Moon month, I am going to challenge myself to blog everyday till the last day of August.

It is 8:25 am on a Tuesday.  I have been going since 6:30 am.  It's the new back to school schedule!  I'm tired and my right under-eye has a constant twitch (I Googled it and it means lack of sleep and stress and it has been there for two weeks)...but I'm so happy to be here with my guys.

My Teenager is Alone Driving Right This Second- How will I Ever Relax??!!

My 16 year old son got his driver's license yesterday.  I called the auto insurance agent and he is sending me an email with all my cost options.


Our 14 year old just called from the nearby skate park to say it is raining and asked for a ride home.  I told him I couldn't and Hubs is up to his elbows in a plumbing house project.


But now we have a third driver!  And the law says he cannot have anyone not a family member in the car with him for 6 months but he is now off on his inaugural drive alone.  He practically ran out the door when I asked if he wanted to go pick up his brother.  In my car.


Our 14 year old will be his passenger going to high school together in less than four weeks.  In a small Toyota older truck.  A stick shift.


Anyway, writing this post right this second is a very nice distraction.  Breathe, breathe, hot flash, breathe.


I'm off to cook their favorite--jambalaya.


In the meantime, if you have been through this new driver mom experience, please tell me how you survived or please tell me something to distract me.  Hubs is no help in this dept.


I have to go look down the driveway now.

Visual Proof

June has been a wonderful month and although reaching a milestone birthday is shocking, there are benefits.

Although I have to say that a few weeks before my birthday, on a Friday I walked to the mailbox and found this, which took the wind out of my sails:

What eased the blow is my 50-something oldest brother-in-law and sister-in-law were visiting and shared some stories.

And then, I made a point of picking up one of these at the dollar store to help remind me to take my vitamins every day:

I still forget though on some days.  I have Estroven (multi-vitamin, Vit. D and calcium with citrate).

I also went to have an annual physical--as usual my blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. is very good, but have gained five pounds and I love the doctor--she justs says, that is due to the hormone changes  My birthday gift is supposed to be joining a gym but I have not yet done that.  I am also supposed to get a mammogram and a colonoscopy.  Neither of which I have scheduled.  I know that a colonoscopy every ten years will discover something prior to cancer if something is there to remove, but I am slow to make appts.

Instead I have been at three cities on the beach in Florida,  still in awe over my surprise party and the sister-in-law love, horseback riding in the Little Tennessee River in north Georgia, meeting my 91-year old grandmother at the airport and driving her three hours to North Carolina, enjoying solitude at home while Hubs and sons are in Florida without me, picking and cooking my own vegetables, working, watching the Food Network, and crying during taped episodes of Extreme Makeover Weight Loss shows.

Around here the 4th of July town fireworks are always on the 3rd--not sure why--and it thundered and poured rain at night so no festivities.  Happy Hump Day 4th of July!

Turning 50 in Florida

Today is my birthday.  For the past 30 minutes, after a too long absence from my blog, I have been writing out my story of how this weekend has been one of the best weekends of my life.  But all around me the boys are starting to get up one by one, and Hubs is packing the cooler and folding the beach towels to get to the beach.  I should get ready too and load up the dishwasher at my brother/sister-in-laws house by the beach, south of the Space Center.

Last week was one of the hardest work weeks ever.  Yet it was sweet.  Every year, the whole year long, I look forward to the week in June where Hubs takes the boys to Florida ahead of me and I get to be in charge of the TV, I barely cook, I run one load in the dishwasher and clothes washer and do what I want in my own house.

It is always heaven.  This year I am at a job that I like but it is also very demanding with announcements every day, processes changing, new clients to figure out, trainings to always take and more.  So I worked day and night to be ready for a week off.  By the way, Hubs took the laptop which has the bathroom redo photos so the photos of the rest of the bathroom will be posted in July.

A couple of months ago when asked what I wanted to do for my big birthday I said, oh nothing much--I just want to be at the beach and do things with my sister-in-laws as well.

Well, I had no idea what a plan that was in the works.  I knew that as typical my birthday is a day apart from Father's Day so I knew that some of the big family was going to be gathered and some gold guy plans were being made as well as surfing.  As for us women, I had no idea what was going on but 3 weeks ago, the sister-in-law whose house I am at now, came to Atlanta (with Hubs' bro) on their way to NC.  That is when she started to weaver her story that was going to grow and grow and be used successfully to surprise the sandals off of me this weekend.

But all I knew three weeks ago is I was told that most of the sister in laws could make it but not all (there are 6 of us plus a mother in law) but that I was to think of an item that I loved and buy 6 of them (under $10  each) and we were going to share our favorite things such as a small lotion or fave nail polish, etc.

Readers, I was blown away by the celebration that awaited me....a few days before actually turning 50.  The plan worked--turns out that my sister-in-law was a hidden actress and it was a great plan to have me drive 8 hours, great with with a glass of wine and that evening there was laughing and crying.  It was incredible.  I promise....more to come!

Talking in the New Bathroom

Now that it is summer, Hubs and I are still spending an hour at night talking about our day or The Boys.  Lately we talk about how the time is flying and how in two short years we will have a high school grad.  And how if we thought in the past only as far as getting through high school, how it won't stop--we will be thinking now and talking about how will our Oldest get through the next stage--learning to be on his own.

I realized last night that I need to have a chaise lounge or chair or at least a bench in our bathroom because Hubs gets this second wind after watching TV at night and me doing other things, we then start chatting away in the bathroom and I end up standing by my sink while he showers and I just keep standing there and I told him last night we needed a chair for me.

And then I realized that  I never shared photos of the bathroom redo.

The first and biggest impact is the entry.  We have a large bedroom and the doorway to the bathroom was ridiculously narrow.  To the right of the doorway was our closet, which was large and had a built in, narrow shelf area.  You can see in this photo if you look at the ceiling that is where the wall used to be.  you can also see the crazy, ugly gold-striped wall paper.

On the floor of the bathroom there used to be carpeting up till the sink area and then it was an off-white smallish tile.  Our bathroom of 6 years (for us) was a sight of crazy twists and turns and placement to everyone who ever saw it.  Here is the entry now:

The wallpaper was glued to drywall and so every wall came down and was replaced by new drywall.  The French doors into the bathroom were painted a brownish paint by Hubs.  He was tired of using stain on some other doors and the door trims.  So, no more skinny entry up to the double sink.

On the right side of the entry is still the closet but is smaller now but still a large walk-in and it is Hubs' closet.  One of my sister-in-laws was aghast to hear his closet is bigger than mine but it is all good because he shares.  Hubs is very proud of the closet doors that he stained and his idea to use pocket doors now.  Here's his:

I am most amazed at the sink area.  I didn't take a before photo.  Trust me, it was hideous.  The double sinks and counter were yellowish and the counter was some old, manmade material.  The vanity was solid wood and so Hubs took it to the garage and stained it much darker.  Then we looked into a granite top and decided a less expensive and faster solution was marble tile and trim.  The sinks were simple and just $35 from Home Depot.  The mirror stayed put but wood, decorative trim was found at Home Deport and Hubs painted it various metallic shades.

Here is our new sink and you can see the frame around the mirror:

Believe me, the sink top in 4 x 4 squares of marble took our handyman only a couple of hours to do and the materials were under $100.  The edges themselves cost another $100:

Below is the 28 yr old vanity transformed with some sanding, stain and new hardware, sitting on top of 16 x 16 tiles.

My side of the sink is on the left and now that we have a wide entry leading to the sink area, this is where I need a chair or soft bench.  To the right of the vanity is the shower where Hubs gets talkative and I am left standing by the sink engaging in conversation.  Next up is the shower and bathtub.

What 16 Year Old Guys Do for their Birthday

So now we are in the first week of summer and Oldest turns 16 this weekend.  He has a group of friends who've hung out since 4th grade.  He also has a wider group of friends as he is pretty versatile with people and I asked if he wanted to have a big group over (guys and girls) but he didn't want that.  A close friend had his 16th in April and the parents drove a total of 6 boys to TN to raft the Ocoee river--that was so fun for them.  Our son has received a golf bag, clubs and shoes from us and 5 boys will be coming over for food and then they will play 18 holes and have three golf carts.  You have to have a license for those.  After that they will sleep over.

Our son doesn't have his license yet and won't until another month.  You have to wait 12 months from when you get your permit.  Don't even get me started on the driving.  There should have been more of it this past school year for practice.  I am still not cool in the car.  Just the other day we went out to eat after Youngest's 5th grade promotion and Hubs was up front and I was in the back....a wreck.  To be fair, if Hubs wasn't with him--let's say Oldest was alone--I doubt he'd get home unscathed.

(We had a fun impromptu night last night: we dropped the 3 of them off at a driving range--they actually wanted to do this together--and Hubs and I went to a Mexican restaurant.  Then we picked them up and all went to Sonic for 1/2 price shakes.  This is Oldest with his new clubs).

So this week he is in driver's ed.  If anyone has visions of how it is offered at high school for free you'd be wrong around here.  It is $345 for 4 days of classroom work and then next week or so will be drive time.  That is at the high school--or you can certainly sign up at a private place which would have more weekly offerings.

Yesterday he misplaced his wallet which has his Learner's Permit in it.  It was in the garage all day and Hubs (who is home due to summer so I have no boundaries from anyone during the day when I am working) asked him 5 times to put it somewhere safe.  Well, it couldn't be found.  The whole house was in an uproar.  Finally I suggested he goes to the big trash bin outside and put on some rubber gloves and I pointed out which plastic trash bag was the day before's kitchen trash.  And at the very bottom was his wallet.  He was impressed that my suggestion proved correct.  So yeah, he threw it in the trash.  Sometimes there is a dish in the pantry, that kind of stuff.

He is also looking for a part time job.  He applied at some grocery stores and some golf ranges.  he thinks we are crazy when we suggest a myriad of places as we drive through town.  He applied at a Smoothie place where he knows a girl.  That mgr asked him to come back with a resume (!!)  So I had to help him with that.  We suggested that today he stop in to ask again.  He thinks we are nuts but maybe a little part of him knows we may have a clue (?)  And now he is wondering what he will do if two places at once call him and want him to work.  What will he do!

(youngest--he is a mini-Oldest))
Despite the stressful school year and the stressful first week of summer vacay, I treasure my Oldest, who has a keen eye for people and nuances.  I tell him we are learning with him every step of the way.

Middle's Milestone

My Middle Son finished 8th grade this week.  There was no fanfare for this at school--although for the students a few weeks ago there was an 8th Grade after school Social with dancing in the gym. 

He is growing the most around here physically.  Several months ago in the winter I looked in the kitchen and I Seriously got startled wondering who was that man at our kitchen sink.  For a second I thought we had a stranger in the kitchen or it was some neighbor's contractor that Hubs typically had asked to come to our house to look and and quote on something:

Our Middle son didn't do any sports this past fall, and in the spring he told us he was going to do cross country--which is more like an after school club as they only had a couple of meets.  I think it is a way of course for something extra-curricular in addition to wanting the kids to be interested in cross country the following year in high school fall.

When he told us at dinner that he was going to stay after school two days a week for this and asked for rides home those days Hubs said, "What is her name?"  (heeheehee)  When I would pick him up it did seem as if he was the only boy--there were about 22 girls and 4 boys.

A few weeks ago he told me there would be an end-of-season banquet after school and could I sign up to bring a dish.  I said sure.  That day was hectic as usual and I had to stop work a couple hours early and take Oldest to a doc appt, but first had to drop off the food I made to the middle school, and then go to doc appt and then go back to middle school to get Middle son after his banquet.  All the while I was impatient and grumbling inside about how I needed to have been doing work stuff and why did I have to sign up to make food when I should have just sent him to school with a bag of chips.

When we got to the Middle School, I thought I would go in and Middle would be done, so Oldest stayed in the car.  I went into the cafeteria and saw those 22 girls and 4 boys and a couple of high school volunteers, two middle school teachers, a high school teacher and about 2 or 3 parents.  I saw that the teachers and high schoolers were presenting each student with a paper certificate to each kid and said a blurb about them.  At first I was impatient but then calmed down and was humbled by what was going on in this cafeteria.

What I saw in front of me were really good, kind kids and thoughtful, caring teachers.  Because you know I bitch about teachers and the curriculum a lot. One teacher then began to hand out extra-special gifts (gift cards to restaurants) to some kids who had reached milestones.  She then began to say she had an acknowledgement for someone who was the only 8th grade boy to sign up for cross country (I knew then this was my son), who never complained when she asked him to do something, and helped out with things she wanted him to do with the 6th graders even it was not cool and seemed young for him.  She said he has a quiet demeanor and to not forget that a leader does not have to be someone who draws attention by being loud--that you can be quiet and lead by example.

I texted Hubs to tell him that our son was getting a recognition award.  I was beaming.  And then a male teacher told the students to give a round of applause to their parents, as the students would not be in this room celebrating the end of cross country season if it wasn't for the parents.  He also reminded them to stay involved in these types of extra-curricular activities as their success and path to college is always not about their report card.  I think he gave some good advice.

I was so glad that I made it there, unintended to see the end of his social banquet,--such a good reminder of the students and teachers who stay behind after school for each other, and it made my heart swell that other people think of my son as highly as I do.  Even if he is often under the radar.