Stop the world.....

I wanna get off!

UGH! I can not believe that it's August 30th. I can not believe that the summer is down to 7 days. Where did it go??????

I'm absolutely terrified of this school year. I know that sounds weird but I have 3 reasons.

1. My oldest son is going to be a Junior in high school. That means we need to start thinking about college. He has a roster this year that scares the crap out of me. I know he can do it but I know how much pressure he puts on himself too. I'm scared!

2. My other son is going into 8th grade. That means this is it. His last year in the easy going relaxed friend filled grade school. I remember clearly when he was starting preschool and I asked him if he was excited and he said no, I'll just stay home with you so you don't miss me.

3. My daughter will be starting 7th grade. That's huge for a girl. Big changes are coming up for her both physically and mentally. And that really scares me. Even her uniform for school is changing. She's going to the "older" girls uniform of a skirt and blouse. She tried on her new skirt and then proceeded to show me how to "roll" it up so it gets shorter. That scared me even more!

I need a time machine! I need to go back, I need the world to stop, or at least slow down.

I need a valium and a glass of wine!

I need a do over!

I got a lot done this summer that I wanted to but I didn't do any where near enough! I think I figured it out. Work. Work got in the way of me having a life. Life was so much more relaxed and enjoyable when I didn't work. That's it, it's all work's fault!

Since I can't quit work, I guess I better make the best out of this last week.

Here's to this week.......

Thoughts from my happy place......

Even though I slept lousy, it really wasn't that bad of a day. Greg had soccer practice and Toria wanted to hang out with her girlfriends since they were all going to be at the field anyway with their siblings that had practice. Her coach is on vacation so no practice for her.

That left Jerry and I to hang out together. I love hanging out with all my kids, I adore them and I do not play favorites, but I have to say, I love just hanging out with Jerry. I love it cause he's a talker. We can just sit somewhere and talk and talk and talk. Sometimes I can even get him to act goofy! I love that, I love that I have that with him. Jerry is my kid that is the most like me. I know things about him without him even telling me because I know what I would be thinking or feeling or doing. We had such a good time tonight just sitting there talking while we were waiting for the kids to get done. That alone made it a good one!

We stopped in Target to grab a few things tonight and Jerry pointed out these dishes to me. They were deep purple! They....were...gorgeous! They were the most beautiful color of purple ever and if I hadn't just bought two new sets of red dishes, I would have gotten them. My kitchen is red but my bedroom has purple in it. Jerry thinks I should get one place setting just for myself and then sit in bed and pamper myself. That boy just gets me and he might just be on to something!

I'm really in the mood to "find" something this weekend! I think I'm going to do some yard sale hopping if I can find a few. The weather is going to be great and maybe I'll get lucky and find something cool! Maybe even something purple! Nothing like finding something purple for you happy place!

It's officially Friday! Oh how I love Friday! And I'm determined that this is going to be one good weekend to make up for last weekend. I'm hitting the library tomorrow. I got the notice that Criminal Minds Season 4 is in for me and I need something to watch next week at work. I love that show and really miss that I haven't been able to watch it so this is going to be a good week for me to catch up on that.

I think we'll make some smores on the deck once all the kids are home from where ever they are going. This is one of those things that have been on the to do list all summer and needs to be done! Can't wait!

I'm determined to enjoy these last two weeks of summer!

Therapeutic........

just typing that word caused me stress. It doesn't look right so then I have to look it up in 3 different places just to make sure I have the right word and spelling.

Yes, I need therapy!

So, my friend Diane tells me that blogging about everyday things would be.......THERAPEUTIC!

Might just be worth a shot.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend since last weekend was a complete disaster. Ok, not a complete disaster since I was with the family and we did have a nice time at the water park.

But it never fails that when I plan something in my head......it never happens. This is what I refer to in my life as........drumroll......Lori's Law. I know, original.

Lori's Law happens a lot and I can pretty much predict that it's going to happen. Whenever I get my hopes up, that's my prediction meter.

We planned on going to the mountains for a nice family weekend. My sister in law offered her mountain home "any time, just say the word". So we said the word and evidently, we had the wrong word. What isn't fair is that she said the word before we did and I think that's not fair cause she owns the house and makes up the "word". Turns out she and her husband, who live at the shore, needed a weekend away in the mountains and guess which weekend they picked?

I know it's their house and I know they were being nice offering it but does it ever fail that when we pick a weekend, organize it all, arrange days off, the whole thing gets screwed up?? Maybe it was partly our fault for not asking sooner but we had work vacation schedules to deal with AND they never go up there so we figured, because they said it, that we could just pick any weekend and go.

We thunk wrong again! So now we are stuck with 3 kids who are totally thrilled to be going to the water park and we are not about to tell these kids that we just aren't going. Now, the other sister in law lives up there and has plenty of room, but she has these 2 dogs that they don't train so these 2 dogs attack you, constantly. I mean if you sit on the couch, they jump up on you and start humping your head. And not much gets done to stop this except the "Simmy, get down" yell. Or my favorite....Dewey, stop doing that!....from across the room. Um, I really don't think they are listening. I always wonder if I let my kids do that to them when they come to visit, would it be ok for me to just yell from the kitchen??

Needless to say, the husband does not like to stay at that sisters house. And besides, we wanted to be alone, just the 5 of us, at the house so it was like we were on vacation.

Our only other option is.......his father's house in the mountains. Yes, they all have houses in the mountains and down the shore. And we still can't get the hell away for a weekend! His father's house is a combo of a museum and a monastery. There are holy pictures, plaques, statues and tons of other things all over the house. The big 16x20 framed poster that has Jesus and then in rainbow letters under it "Jesus, I love thee" is my favorite. Hey, I'm catholic, I get being religious and faithful but this is just going over board and completely hypocritical. These religious people will not spend one minute of their precious time with their children or grandchildren. They never visit, not even for birthdays, they never come to things when invited, they would just rather be up the mountains, each sitting on separate floors watching TV. And most of the time, on the first floor, the TV has mass on. Might as well be dead, then you'd be even closer to Jesus in my opinion!

Needless to say, we were very uncomfortable and unwelcome. We had to stay in our bedrooms the whole time because my FIL and stepMIL both were using the "living rooms" in the house. Living rooms....ha! Those rooms haven't seen any "living" since the old man bought the place in the 90s.

We opted to spend the entire day Saturday at the water park. We left there at 6:30 to come back to the lake at the development to have a "family cookout". When we got there, they had already been there for 40 mins. We sat down to eat, talked for about 15 minutes and then all of a sudden, the cleaning up started. Evidently, it was a 2 hour limit on the "family fun cookout" and we missed the most of it. That's when the husband turned to me and said "how about we go back to the house, pack up and sleep in our own beds tonight!" I've never loved that man more in my entire life.

When my husband told his father that we were just going to head home and do things at home the next day, he replied "Oh good". Okie dokie then. And the next morning at breakfast is when we decided that we would never be going back to his father's house to stay again. I seriously have to look into a few hotels up there and treat the family to a real vacation!

So, I'm REALLY looking forward to the next two weekends.....and we have nothing planned. I just want to relax, sit on the couch with my feet up, lay in my bed, sit on my deck, leave the dishes till the morning, not make the beds, watch the tv, play a game with my kids, park where ever I want without being told I'm doing it wrong, not have to live out of a suitcase and travel bag, and be totally FRIGGIN HAPPY!!!!

It's called LIVING people, try it!

Damn, Diane was right!

Reading:

Just finished: Fragile by Lisa Unger -loved it!

Just started: Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Listening to:

KYW/CBS3 news for the weather & news

Thinking about:

Playing the lottery!

Getting the school supplies done this weekend

What to have for dinner since it's soccer tonight

I don't know which I love more.....

finishing a book, or going home to start a new one????

I just finished a really good book! Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo was really good! I love a good thriller/suspense story and this book did not disappoint! I can't believe I didn't get my hands on this book sooner but I'm so glad I finally did! I love the characters and the setting of this book which is partly in Amish Country. I love that the characters aren't perfect and I love that they have skeletons in their closets. I think it's safe to say there wasn't much about this book that I didn't love.

And the best part about this book.............

it has a sequel....it's part of a series, which is my most favorite thing!

I love when a story keeps going and the characters that you like get to stay alive and keep doing what they do!

I can't wait to go home, crawl into bed and start the next book, Pray for Silence!

What did I do.....

Do you ever ask yourself that question??? What did I do?? For some reason, one that I totally can not understand, there is this big black cloud following me!

Crap just keeps happening and it needs to STOP! NOW! I'm putting my foot down. This is it. We are getting close to the weekend and I'll be damned if this cloud is going to occupy space in my weekend! BE GONE!

There, that should do it!

Times like this call for some serious relaxing and reading!

I just finished Broken by Karin Slaughter. Let me just say, I love this series and I love these characters. I loved the book but I just wish the ending was a little different. But, it does leave me hope that there will be more to this series.......lots more!

Now that Broken is finished, I can get back to Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo. This book is goooodddd! I mean really gooodddd! I can not wait to dive into it more on the weekend!

Tuesday was my library pick up trip! I had about 4 books waiting for me that I had reserved. Yeah, I need to add 4 more books to my TBR pile like I need this damn black cloud following me. But hey, I got 'em and I'm gonna enjoy them!

The one thing I hate is, I keep hearing great reviews about the new Diane Chamberlain book, The Lies We Told and I have that in my pile now. But I want to read Sworn to Silence and the next one by Linda Castillo, Pray for Silence first.

Does anyone else do this with the piles.....all the shifting around? I probably wouldn't have to do that so much if I would just get off the computer and READ.

There just isn't enough time in the day for just the things I want to do. If I could only figure out a way to read while driving the kids around, that would be perfect.

Now I know why people have chauffeurs and nannies!

Thursday Thoughts.......

I love Thursdays! Thursday is my Friday at work so I don't mind coming to work much on Thursday nights!

The weekend is right there, at the edge of the night, almost like you can see it coming when that sun comes up on the morning! I just love walking out of here on Friday mornings, everything just seems so much better!

Thursday nights at work tend to be a little quieter too. People don't like to call in much for fear that they'll hear that their doctor wants them to come in first thing in the morning. That could seriously mess up a weekend! So unless people are really having a problem, they tend to try and hold off on calling their doctor! Works for me!

Thursday night is a good night to curl up in my chair and read some of my book, hopefully without nodding off! I can't wait to do that tonight! I'm about 3/4 of the way through Broken by Karin Slaughter and I'm taking my time with it. I love this series! I love these characters and I want to savor this book. I just don't want the story to end! But I'm pretty sure I'm going to finish it over the weekend, which is okay because my next book on the night stand is Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo and I really want to read that one too. I have quite a few in my pile that I'm dying to read but I want to take my time and enjoy them all.

Usually on Friday nights, the kids have plans which involves us driving to or picking up from. Honestly, I don't mind, I enjoy hearing them in the car with their friends talking or having a little time with them to talk about things. That's when I usually hear what's going on with this friend and that friend. But once all the driving is done, it's time to curl up on the big comfy chair on the deck with the tiki lights lit and do some reading. It's my little slice of heaven out there. Usually during the night, the kids will make their way out there, one at a time, and sit with me and talk. I love those moments!

That's why I love Thursdays, they give me so much to look forward to and then they turn into Fridays. So TGIT and TGIF!

Hope you enjoy your weekend as much as I know I will!

A ridiculously good day...

And seriously, it's ridiculous to have a good day like I did, to come to the end of your day and think, damn that was good.

And what would a day consist of that made you feel that way? Well, first it would consist of coming home from work at 6AM, going right to sleep and not waking up till 2PM. I think I needed some sleep. It's been a little stressful these last few weeks and I just needed to unwind. Worked like a charm!

Then I got up and it was gorgeous out! Open the windows and doors gorgeous! NO A/C on in the house! My daughter cleaned out her closet and drawers, without being told to. Okay, there are about 8 bags of clothes in the hallway but that's okay because I might have found someone to give them all too. I hate just getting rid of stuff that looks brand new. I always hear about someone who could need them AFTER I get rid of them. So I'm working on a few people. Otherwise, we are unloading a huge load when we go to the Goodwill Store.

I had a great time just sitting around and talking with my son Greg for a little while and that made me so happy! He's been going through a lot of things these last few weeks and didn't really have a great beginning of summer. One of his best friend's mom died very suddenly and it shook all the kids up some. He's worried about his friend and I'm really proud of the way he's been there for Jimmy, really giving him a shoulder to cry on so to speak! So we had a nice little talk this morning that consisted of actually words, more so than grunts and groans! Loved it!

Then I finally got moving and cleaned up a lot of things in the house that just really needed to be cleaned. I got Victoria to give me a hand with a lot of it so now she really feels like she earned all that cash I have been giving her when she goes to the mall or movies. I didn't want her to feel like a free loader for her entire adolescence. She made a small dent in her debt to me! Greg was outside with friends instead of being in my basement playing video games with everyone, which freed up the rooms for me to get some laundry done and some cleaning up of crap done! Yes, those piles in the hallway are gone! Nothing to trip over now when I'm carrying baskets of laundry up and down. Why did I not think of this sooner!!

My oldest son is on his way home from his trip to Disney World! I can't not wait to see this child!! I've already explained to him that I'm going to be cleaning out the garage and basement, then renovating it into a little apartment for him because I had a really hard time with him being gone for 10 days. College is just going to send me over the edge. I'll be walking the streets with my shopping cart, looking for thrown away change and mumbling weird things while petting my cats. Good thing college is two years away, it'll give me more time to get more cats!

Then on top of it all, I remembered that I didn't watch this week's episode of The Bachelorette, which means I can watch it in work tonight! Oh let me tell you, in the wee hours of the morning, The Bachelorette is riveting TV that keeps you from losing your mind! Sometimes at 3AM, you just feel like pulling your eyelashes out, that's how bored you can get.

And then the cherry on my sundae....I found out that my favorite goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers just signed a 2 year contract! Oh yeah, I love my Fly Guys and it makes me so stinkin' happy that Leighton is staying on.

Now, to go kick back, enjoy my roll and salad and read my book!

That, my friends, is a really damn good day, with a perfect ending!