We are so adventurous sometimes

Gary picked up this latte in a can at the Vandalia grocery store on our snowy drive home just now. He handed it to me and I'm in charge of following the instructions so here it goes.

1. Turn can upside down, remove seal, and push heat activation button 1.5 cm. (1.5 cm?! I couldn't get it to depress at all, so I handed it to Gary and I steered while he showed it who was 1.5 cm boss)
2. Shake for 20 seconds after it begins to steam. (It never began to steam but I still shook it for a minute and it got so hot I had to set it down)
3. Turn can back upright and let it sit for 3 minutes. (The temperature indicator registered "perfect" at the end of 3 mins. Looking promising!)
4. Pop the top opening and enjoy your delectable latte. (Except Gary found it to only be delectable if you like the bitter lemon aftertaste. And then we noticed the label said nothing about the flavor or taste, it just promoted the idea of a "hot" beverage)

He said the other option available in the hot can was mushroom soup. I am so glad he wasn't that adventurous!

And if you prefer your glasses

to not only frame your eyes but also your ears...

At the eye doctor this morning

Jack is being so helpful today in helping Grant pick out his new frames.

Merry Christmas Eve

Cookie time!

It's 7:30 am, 23 degrees, with 25 mph winds

and this boy is wearing shorts and a hoodie. ?!!! And is happy as a clam. ??!

Did you know this? If you look up the word "stubborn," it says: See Grant Gill.

Is this girl gorgeous or what?

My date at the Madrigal Dinner tonight

Lost Tooth

Hey, we finally got a tree!

Have a Lice Day!

 

Ok, so this week I have a better attitude.  Maybe it has something to do with actually getting some sleep and reconnecting with my scarcely home hubby and having a Sunday of not that much to do.  And getting past the pms?

Yes, I feel much better.

So, what I forgot to throw in about my whinings of last week was that we were on constant look out for little critters that we did not want in our house. 

I got a call from school that Caroline was in the nurse’s office which I took to mean that she was sick.  Except the secretary hesitantly said, “Well, not really.  We have something of a mice outbreak.”  And I felt sick to my stomach immediately because, yes, I hate mice.  I despise mice.  I imagined one running up Caroline’s leg right there in class, yikes.  I thought I was gonna throw up right into my phone.  But then I realized, no, the secretary had said lice outbreak.  Oh, well, that’s a relief!  Until I realized she had said lice outbreak.   

We’d dodged that bullet through all those years of preschool for all the kids but I’d heard enough to know the horror stories of getting rid of lice.  Oh Lord!

Well, it probably helped that there were a total of seven girls sent home from her class so for C, it was kinda more like getting to be in a special club of 4th grade girls than the shameful branding stigma I had in mind.  “What kind of treatment did you use?  We bagged up our stuffed animals, too!  Cool!  Let’s all wear ponytails everyday now!  We should be school nurses when we grow up!”     

So it really wasn’t that huge of a traumatic deal other than so time consuming to go through her hair after the special (expensive!) shampoo.  I washed and dried all the bedding in hot-hot and sent the stuffed animals into confinement for a month as recommended. So far we have gone over every strand of hair five times and did the follow-up special shampoo.  She didn’t have actual creepy crawlies, but we did find a few nits, which are the eggs.  And those were creepy enough. 

I even sat in the nurse’s chair for a check since C and I are in the same bathroom, hair brushes all together in the same drawer.   Nothing was found on me, luckily.  The nurse asked if I wear hairspray because they don’t really like “product.”  Thank you for once, flyaway slick hair, because yes, I hair spray nearly daily. 

A funny in the whole not-really-funny event was when we left school that day of the outbreak and headed straight to Walgreen’s, Caroline told me she’d been told to look for the brand Raid. I think she meant

      (haha!)

 

Well, that Raid-Rid should take care of it and I hope that’s the last mice-lice outbreak for us ever again.

Crab Season Opens Today

 

[This was written last week but then I couldn’t get an Internet connection for me to publish my complaints.  And if I would have known while I was typing that I had no Internet, I also would have added complaints about that along with complaints of having no TV due to yet continued receiver problems which put Verizon and Dish Network right up there with Delta on my : ( crab list.]

 

So, yes, today crab session is in session…

Today would have been the day I was packing for a few days in sunny California, except I’m not.  And to make the cancelled trip even more bittery, as I sit here today in dreary Illinois, I still have to pay for the flights that I am not going to be on to sunny California.  Southwest was reasonable on giving me credit on a future flight; Delta was not.  Nothing.  Boooo, and don’t you think I will ever forget it, Delta.

[The trip was going to be me joining Gary for his work in San Diego/LA , that is until his program manager last Friday cancelled his Monday trip so there went my mini-vacay.  : (   I’m making it all about me, I know, but technically it’s allowed during a crab session. It was gonna be my mom-get-away.]

Plus, I am having no interest in gearing up for the upcoming holidays.  I think when it’s so non-wintry, it makes me feel like it’s not really coming up.  Here’s the kids on Saturday and yep, it’s been 70 degrees ish in December which was lovely but so not Christmas-y.

I will say we have an elf that appeared on a shelf for the first time and he’s been having some fun around here.  His name is Buddy, but I think of him as Little Rebel.  Day 2 he was found eating a sticky sucker in Gary’s chair and left not only the wrapper lying there but had left the remote in the chair (!).  It’s funny how the kids notice him doing the bad things that they don’t seem to see when they’re the ones doing them. Buddy/Rebel hasn’t met the Barbie Girls living in the basement yet, but I have a feeling they’re all soon gonna get wind of a new boy in the house and they might be hanging out together soon. 

I suspect there may be trouble beyond playing in the Qtips.

I am glad goofy stuff gets me out of my bad mood. 

So, what else? 

 

Well, this past weekend I staked out some future rooms out in the back yard using the little orange flags to represent the walls and that’s about it for progress on the new addition.  But at least it’s still in the talks.  It brought to light that our projected great room was not quite great enough, too narrow, and my kitchen sink window was exactly where it ought to be for maximum pasture view.  This shows the corner of the kitchen, the dining room, and the screen porch.  Remove the gas barrel and fence and that’s our new backyard.  Well, add the pool in and there you have it. 

Did you hear? “Break ground this spring or we’re moving out” is the new motto.  That kinda gets a fire going under ya and that’s just what we needed.

Here's to being a kid

And getting your mom to park way far out of the way just so you can skip through the tunnel.

New phone, you got a C. Try to do better, please.

A test

My new phone does not post like my old one! grrr

Seeing if today it will post not only the title and pic but also this text and allow me to comment.

My First Picture

Sunrise, the Song

How could I forget the name of this song with the first two words being sunrise, sunrise?  Yeah, that’s me. 

But I’ll never ever forgot the oooooooh oooooooh oooooooh oooooooh part.  Loved this song since 2004.

 

Aye Ya

So much time passes and it does so quickly and I just can’t even believe it is mid-November.  Of 2012. Twelve! 

Most days I want to post here and I don’t get the chance and today I am making the chance and now what do I even say?

My life is just a big fat whirlwind and sometimes I feel like it just decided to sit on me.  Today that’s what I feel.  I need some air, please. You big fat whirlwind.

Busy with four schools, heavily supporting my local boy scouting organization, taking care of my family’s food and clothing and shelter and transportation needs, being a friend, being a neighbor, being a daughter, being a wife, being a mom.  Ugh, talk about full-time job. 

With no vacation. 

Well, here I am declaring a minute to myself and doing what I want to do.

Here’s some pictures that make me smile and maybe you, too.  None are really recent, but taken sometime between summer and now.

These first three are from Julia while she was here for a visit.

Great picture of everyone.  Ross, really proud of you, btw.

And proud of this one, too, in all he manages and how well he does it.

This was the picture I took in three haircuts ago.  Thanks, Norah.  Loved that cut.  Now I’ve got to play the Norah song that’s in my head but I can’t think of what it’s called. 

And Grant being supremely happy being supremely dirty.   How can that not make you smile?

Fact of Life

Scary but true, we are currently at a rate of using more than a gallon of milk a day. And that pound and a half box of cereal?  Just hoping it will last at least two days.

I think we can confirm Grant's having a growth spurt.

Happy Halloween, Pardner

He couldn't *not* use this opportunity to wear his cross-draw holster out in public.

Happy Halloween, Pardner

He couldn't *not* use this opportunity to wear his cross-draw holster out in public.

Happy Halloween from the Queen of DeNile

No, Mom, I'm not going to get cold.

Happy Halloween from Bikiniwood Drive

Everything Gets Crazy

when Ross is over.

Would You Believe This...

wasn't the ugliest sweater (no offense Grandma B, in fact, we say thanks!)?  Grant said the ugliest was actually a sweater with a Santa on it. That musta been one rough looking Santa.

Either the Kids Have Been Exposed

...to too much Project Runway, or it's Crazy Sock Day.

FUNd Run

Yesterday was Caroline's school fundraiser.  Nothing to sell, just a straight-forward donation to the PTO, rewarding the kids for being "on the move for their school."  She ran just over 3 miles and it was a hot one!  I had sweat running down my back just standing there as a helper and yes, that would be the extent of my running. 

My Explanation

 

So, I thought that now we have somewhat decent Internet, I’d be posting all kinds of funny stories and memories and picture series, and yeah… I haven’t.  A few shots and a couple of lines typed on my phone and that’s been it lately.

And you know why?  Here’s just some sample excerpts taken between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. this morning so you see, it’s stuff like this:

Mom, I need a costume this week like a colonial farmer would wear in 1810. 

Mom, when were overalls even invented? 

No, Mom, it needs to be something else.

Mom, we *need* to have french fries with our chicken patties for supper.

Mom, we’re out of bread. 

Mom, my wrist hurts and I can’t do cartwheels!

Mom, can you wrap my wrist? 

Mom, watch me!!

Mom, I have to play (tuba) at the girl’s basketball game afterschool and I don’t know what time but can you pick me up?

Mom, I need to make a thing out of popsicle sticks by Thursday.  I dunno, maybe buy a 1,000?

Mom, that’s not my toothbrush!

Mom, is baton tonight?

Mom, can you drive me to school?

Mom, there’s a phone message for Dad.

Mom, you just got a text.

Mom, can you please help me open this?

Mom, how do we know how much data usage we have left?

Mom, why can’t we have DirectTV so we can have AMC?

Mom, where’s my ‘Move’ t-shirt?

Mom, can we have music on?

Mom, we still need to get Rumor Has It!

Mom, are you coming to the Fun Run today?

Mom, what do you think the cats should eat for lunch?

Mom, I need a new sweatshirt that has no words or designs on it and is exactly the same color as the one I had before and, no, it can’t be anything even slightly different so, yes, you need to go to every store in our town today and find one that I will accept. 

(Not exactly verbatim but the general message.)

And that must be where my time goes!

Fall Field Trip

Great day for a nature walk with Caroline's class at the Watershed.

Not so great of a day for Gary trying to get to Norfolk, VA.  Last I heard from him, he missed his flight, took another, and was eating lunch in Detroit.

Wearing My Cam Shirt

Am I looking a little too festive for such a cloudy day?

Good Thing I Drive a Van

Or else there might not be a Tuba Dude.

Back Among the Connected

Wow, my last post here from the pc was 9/2 (prior to yesterday’s).  We had contracted the Google redirect virus and it was so bad, we couldn’t do anything on our computer.  And we could never get an Internet connection anyway, so life at this Gill house had been computer-less for a month.  Which is hard to pull off in 2012 and when almost every part of your day involves referencing something on the web.  Especially with the kids in school and all their things that require Internet access.

Luckily, we could still email and check in on the world a bit from our phones, but that doesn’t cover everything you need.  So I am pleased, happy, thrilled, make that ecstatic, to announce we now have a healthy computer (thank you, Gary, for all those late night hours) and not only that, but we have WIFI!!!!!!!!!! 

It’s been over two years that we left our great in-town  set-up to come out to two unsuccessful ventures of country Internet:  Criket (which was as annoying as the real life ones, so bad) and then the AT&T aircard (which was slightly better but still not good).  Now we have a Verizon hot spot and it seems to rock!  Yay!

His First Scout Meeting Ever

Other than as tagging along as a little brother.  He's pretty excited. 

Saturday Evening Excitement

Saturday night, I was chauffeur for this cutie couple going to Homecoming, Katherine and Jack.  

They met up at the library park (sounds romantically familiar!) for pictures and then went out to eat for a special meal of their choosing (at Fazoli’s ?!) with the group of friends you see here. 

 

Then they went for Cold Stone ice cream, then on to the dance.  I don’t think Jack realized how envious other boys might have been of him.  Aren’t these girls cute?!  And yes, he was the only boy in their group. 

 

I loved seeing all the dresses and hairdos and shoes.  Crazy shoes!  These girls are all Freshmen and they were smart to wear ones they could walk in.  You could kinda tell the year in school by how crazy tall the shoes and how crazy short the dress.  Let’s just say Seniors were looking pretty extreme. 

I learned the one dresses are called high-low dresses.  The fabrics were just gorgeous in real life.  So fun!  Caroline desperately wanted to tag along and Jack firmly said NO!!  Girl would have loved seeing all the fashion.

It was over at 11pm but Jack was home by 10:30. Not because they weren’t having a great time, but because he wanted to “beat the crowd.” When is my boy not going to be such a sensible thinker?

When did my boy get so handsome?  Well, actually, I know. From Day 1.

Saturday Afternoon Excitement

A shoe shining lesson from father to the son going to his first dance tonight

Saturday Morning Excitement

A slice of our life:  fun times for Gary and Diane yard saling together then coming home to hours of enjoyment at a cost of, wait for it,.... 50 cents   : )

Miss C

Batoning in the Homecoming parade tonight

Out Running Around with the Girl

Out Running Around with the Girl

Tonight's HS Football Game

Half-time show celebrity #2- Jackson in band

Tonight's HS Football Game

Half-time show celebrity #1 = Caroline dancing