August

Such a bitter sweet month, a month where we celebrate knowing that we have 1 more month of Summer vacation, yet feel a little sad knowing that we only have 1 more month of Summer vacation.
We get to celebrate Reagan's Birthday, when is a Birthday not fun to celebrate ? I love the build up to Birthday celebrations, but it also reminds me that my 'baby' is no longer a baby, this year she'll be 7, why does that seem like such a big number ?
We have to buy new school supplies, I love buying school supplies almost as much as the kids, but somehow the fun gets sucked out of it knowing that they are going to be used for such a serious purpose... I always buy extras to keep at home for fun projects though, I'm a sucker for brand new crayons and markers.
This Summer Ben and Reagan both went through growth spurts, bah for having to fork out wads more money for new clothes, but yay for all the big Going Back To School sales to lessen the hurt just a tad.
But the one thing I won't be sorry to be rid of ... the constant arguing. After 7 weeks home together the novelty has worn off, the kids are driving each other crazy, they are nit picking the screaming hurts my brain and makes my ears bleed, instead of sleeping in they are getting up earlier and earlier, each one hoping to reach the TV control, the computer, the last serving of cereal, the last pancake, before the others eyelids even beginning to twitch. Last night Reagan had it all planned out, she was getting up early to make B'fast for Marc and me (How sweet was that ?) but she wanted to make pancakes, there were only 2 left, Ben's favorite B'fast food ? Yep, you guessed it, pancakes. At 7am I heard the telling squeak of her bedroom door and then the running of her footsteps down the stairs, her determination to get the last of the pancakes was quite impressive, she made the Breakfasts and bought them up to the bedroom, a smile spreading from one ear to the other, not only had she gotten to make the Breakfasts that she apparently went to bed dreaming about, but she beat her brother, her celebration didn't last too long, within minutes of her 'win' I heard much bigger footsteps running down the stairs and then the little whoop of "Yes" as big brother plonked himself in the big cozy chair, remote in hand and trying to find the one early morning TV show that he could at least tolerate in order to ensure that it would be one little sister couldn't stand, after all where's the fun in finding a show they could both enjoy ?
So yes, I'll be sad to say "Goodbye" to 'Fly by the seat of your pants' days,but to say "Goodbye constant arguing" makes me almost excited to see that big yellow school bus in just 3 short weeks.
*SNIFF* Who am I kidding ? I hate the kids going back to school, I want Summer to last forever, I want lazy days at the beach, in the pool, reading under the willow, playing cards, going on hikes to last forever and ever, I'll even forfeit the crayons and markers if Summer could last just a little bit longer

A weekend of firsts

I love that for the most part my kids love to try different things that take them out of their comfort zone, I was definitely not that way when I was a child and I have a hard time with it now, so to see my kids embrace new things is like a breath of fresh air.
This weekend a friend of mine hosted a crab feast and what better way to get it going than to go catch the crabs ? (There were back ups just in case) 
I had no clue what to expect therefore neither did Reagan but she had so much fun and has requested that we go back and do some more on her Birthday (I think that can be arranged) The crabs were biting one after another which made the whole experience a whole lot more fun.

Once we'd had enough of the heat it was back to Mindy's house for clean up, food prep, and Karaoke. Marc and Ben met us over there (they didn't crab, they golfed instead) Another of our friends set up the Karaoke system and Ben jumped in as though he'd done it all his life, Reagan was a little mike shy and realised karaoke isn't the same as singing along to the radio, but she had a blast regardless.

Love, love, love weekends like this and talking of firsts I also picked the first of my tomato crop. I was a little late in planting and was beginning to wonder if we'd ever get tomatoes this year but sure enough they've started to come along nicely.

Drastic times call for drastic measures

Living here in MD we are visited here every Summer with a myriad of annoying bugs, after this year I may want to move to Alaska where I only need to worry about mosquitoes. This Summer has been HOT and because of it it has been a bad year for ticks and fleas, blech, blech, blech.
Our biggest problem this year are the fleas, OMG, I have spent more time and money trying to eradicate them from our lives this Summer than any other year and I think they are taking out their revenge on me. I wear socks around the house and they climb to the top of my sock and bite me all around the sock band, looks lovely.
I'm itchy and it's driving me nuts but something has bitten me between 2 toes, it's blistered up, the toe is red and inflamed and it HURTS !!! Last night I couldn't sleep it itched so much, I got up and went into the bathroom to spray some anti itch stuff on it only to find the bottle was empty, I was almost beside myself, I looked in my draw to see what I had and lo and behold I had some Vagisil cream left over from a yeast infection earlier in the year (I know TMI) now if it can work for my girl parts I reckon it can work on my not so delicate parts right ? so I covered my toe and guess what ? Immediate relief, OMG it felt so good. Of course because my toe itched the other bites decided to itch, so I covered myself in Vagisil, went back to bed and had a glorious night sleep.