Big Weekend Begins

And I worked today. The new caller called and tried to send me to some random school for the whole day, so I lied and said I had to pick my kids up at school and it was too far away. So she sent me to another one for the morning instead, equally far, but at least I like the school. It's the same one where I did the half day stint last Friday afternoon.

(Incidentally, the upstairs bedroom is creaking, so if this post is suddenly cut short, please release this information to the proper authorities. Maybe it is the wind or a dog or cat, but just in case, thought I'd mention it)

Anyway, back to the day. I was floating for meetings again and I found that most of my day was spent in a classroom with a para whom I know very well, so it was a good day. I also sat through two shows of the 'space bubble' or whatever they call it, star dome, I don't remember. It's an inflatable planetarium with a funny guy doing a running monologue with a brief overview of all the planets, several stars and constellations, and finally an overview of the night sky. Very fun.

Brian is recovered from his mystery ailment and has returned to school. I was mistaken about the progress reports, however, they will be issued, I believe, NEXT Tuesday. So, stay tuned. Otherwise, here is the weekend: tonight: flexible, except for Megan, who of course has swimming. Saturday: Brian has baseball and then there's a big swim meet at the Y for the whole team, where they split them into two and have them race each other to evaluate them all for spots on the dual meet teams. I'm pretty sure we'll be Girls A and Boys B, but at this point, it doesn't mean much which dual team Megan is on. It's all about the big meets at this point in her swimming life.

On Sunday, we are participating in the bike ride to raise funds for pediatric brain cancer research, held down at Sandy Hook. We did this last year and it was very fun. E is supposed to be doing it with us, but she only cost an extra $5 and as she seems less than thrilled, I will certainly offer her the right to back out. We have to borrow her a bike, if she is going to do it.

Meanwhile, Megan is supposed to acolyte at church at the same time, and I am trying to find someone to switch with her. It's one of those Murphy's Law things - nobody will be able to switch with her, but last time she came to church to work her PAID job in the nursery, they pulled her out of the nursery and put her on the altar, and gave a younger girl the nursery job instead. Maybe .. it is ..GOD'S WILL?!?! Anyway, she won't be going. If I have to call them and just flat out say, she can't go - that is what I will have to do.

But now my laptop battery is dying, a sure signal that I must get up and be productive. In other news, the dog stinks, our mutual funds are in the gutter, and college is two years away. Today I considered moving to one of those states, like Florida or North Carolina, where the tuition is so much lower for in-state residents. I'm sure I could get a little residence there for a year or so ahead of time, just so she could go to college there for less money. Or do you actually have to attend school while you allegedly live there? Hmm. Why does it matter, anyway? Phht.

Saturday

In half an hour we will leave for the exchange student orientation at the home of the local rep, so this should be interesting. E is excited to meet the other students and I am curious to see what the other families are like. One is a single man, and the other is a couple without children of their own. Their student is only here for a half-year, so there will only be two students remaining after the end of January.

My ear is healing slowly, at least it isn't itching as much, and I am continuing to worry about the spot on my face. I hope to get a good report, as the dermatologist predicted, but I happened to notice a spot of brown in the middle of the excavation site. I checked my invoice, and it reads "shave exc" which I guess means shave excision, so he just scooped it out. I'm not sure if he left some because he wasn't concerned about it being anything, or if he left part of one thing and removed all of the other, because he did say they were a couple of different things in one place. But as usual, I will panic myself until I hear from him.

I suppose it's good that I didn't hear yesterday, but if he wasn't concerned, he may not have put a rush on it. And if I hear good news, ::knock wood:: I can find something else to worry about.

Yesterday Megan and E went to Six Flags with an old friend and classmate of Megan's. They had a good time, but they didn't get to go on a few of the coasters because they were either closed or had ridiculously long lines. Maybe they can go back for FrightFest at some point. I'm sure E will start to make her own friends and schedule some of her own activities once school starts anyway.

Brian is also getting anxious for school to start. He is running out of things to do this summer and hasn't really been being terribly social lately. I just hope that he can focus better on the schoolwork this year; if he doesn't, I intend to get a complete evaluation done, so I can have some professional guidance as to which areas might need special attention. He'll be doing swim team this year, and also playing baseball, and that coach schedules and changes practices as if nobody else has any other obligations. It can be really difficult. I'm a little concerned about overscheduling Brian, but we've tried the other route already, scheduling almost nothing, and that was not successful.

Brian's group at church also enters the first of the two-year progam that turned me off when Megan participated. Add to that that they are restructing the classes and have made a good friend of mine one of the leaders of Brian's group, which admittedly I find a little awkward.
What I didn't like with Megan was the focus on fundraising for the 'pilgrimage' to England, which just comes at such busy times, and I didn't send Megan, so I may also not send Brian. This tends to be an unpopular decision, and his group has been better structured and run throughout the years, so it promises to put me in an uncomfortable position for sure. I have to determine if participating in the group brings a benefit to him of some sort; otherwise I would stop sending him to the classes, and just take him to church and let him keep doing his volunteer jobs. Then next year, he'll have to take part in the grueling confirmation class, which is separate, but together with that same group.

In other news, Kevin has been back to work for one full week now. He is already talking about trips to Orlando, Norway, Finland, and who knows where else. We're trying to figure out how we are going to work the Christmas holidays with visitors from out of town and Megan's presumed training trip, which hasn't been announced yet. In fact, they still haven't even posted the schedule of winter meets, which makes it difficult to plan anything for the rest of the year.

Poolside Post

It's Memorial day weekend! It is summer!!! Currently playing: The Wall (Pink Floyd)

I am sitting out by the pool. I had a headache all day, but I watered my shrubs and it went away significantly, so I had a glass of wine and it is totally gone now. Here is the thing: I went to church, and thought how nice it would be to sit where the sun was coming in the window. So I sat there, and it ended up being too sunny, and the sun made me squint, and by the end of church I had a terrible headache! (plus, I don't think it is 'The Wall' after all, but it is definitely Pink Floyd)

So my funny bloggable story is that when I woke up, I thought, Ok, this exchange student thing is really getting to me, I am going to try to put it out of my mind for the time being. Maybe I'll get some sort of message at church as to whether or not I am meant to do this. So off we go, because Megan was wearing the white robe on the altar today. As I sat down and waited for the service to begin, as I always do, I browsed through the bulletin. Below the listing of all the sick and prayers needed, and birthdays and anniversaries, was a new entry. Guess what it was called? Are you sitting? It was called...THE MESSAGE!!!! =:-O!

So I read it. Well, basically, it said that you can't worship two gods at once, because you will end up hating one. what does that mean? I can't have an exchange student, because I will end up hating either her or my own kids? Anyway, I tried to pay attention to the sermon in between the vibrations of my phone when Kevin would send me a text. It seems that the two gods are God and Money. You can't have them both. However, what I took from this is that it is perfect to want to be like Christ. But I suppose what he was saying is that it is the same thing to want to want to be like Christ. So, like, if you have lots of money, but wish you didn't really have it, because Christ says the rich will be the last and they can't really get into heaven any more easily than they can fit through the eye of a needle, then you are actually OK and it is the same thing.

I was watching this lawyer and his wife, who rarely come to church now that their kids are grown, but who live in a multimillion dollar home in the next town over from us, and I swear that I saw them heave a dual sigh of relief when the priest said that it was just the same to want to want to be like Christ. Anyway, I told Kevin and he said that was good. He wants to give more money to the YMCA. I said, so go ahead. So, we're in.

But, sadly, I was unable to take away any relevance to my exchange student ponderings. I guess on that front I will just have to wait and see what happens over the next couple of weeks. I did find out that the woman who is too busy to call us back works until 4pm and make $126,000 a year. I definitely answered the wrong calling in my college days.

So that was my epiphany for the day. Yesterday we did go to the beach for the opening of Surfrider. It was a little chilly, not too bad. It is, after all, the beach. As long as there are no biting flies and no hypodermic needles on the beach, how bad can it be, right? And there were already two captured kittens! It was so sad. One of them, the one lying inthe litterbox, has yellow coming out of its eyes. I wanted to take it home and cure it. But, no. Four cats is enough and Puff the Beach Cat is the most expensive free kitten I have ever heard of, once we got rid of all the ailments she came with.

Well, Kevin informs me his creation is complete. He bought some unidentifiable hunks at Costco today, and just cooked them on the grill. They looked to me more like something you'd put in the oven, but as long as I didn't have to cook 'em, who really cares. I'll post more on that if I remember, and if I survive.

In other news, Megan is babysitting next door and Brian has been running around pretty much all weekend with random local boys. We had to drag him from the beach yesterday, and he wasn't trailing Megan, so that can only be a good omen for the year to come. Megan has a whole gang to run around with; and he is 'too young' to be included. So thankfully, he is finding himself some other buddies. And anyway, I dropped off her application to work in the extended school year program for the special ed kids, so hopefully she will get that and will work three days a week anyway, as a volunteer. They need 100 hours by their senior year, for the National Honor Society. Oh, yeah. And our phone is broken. It's been broken since Wednesday night. Ridiculous. (Disclaimer: post not proofread)

Currently playing: Burning For You (Blue Oyster Cult) :-)

Bishop Megan and "Big Poppa"

Confirmation! And finally, a nice day. Not much to say right now, as we must get to Brian's baseball game before it starts, which is in ten minutes. More updates later on! The Bishop let Megan wear his hat because our rector chose her final essay as the best of the group to capture the essence of the past eight months of preparation. The Bishop noted in his speech that he had told his wife that he wasn't happy with his sermon, and when she asked why not, he replied that he had read these two pages by one of the girls in the group, and he felt that instead of him, she should have been up there preaching. Haha! So that was funny.

Then, before he confirmed her, he looked to our rector and asked, "is this the one I am supposed to ordain?" Outside, afterwards, he put his Bishop's hat on her.

Following this touching moment, Megan came out into the group during "The Peace" and squeezed Brian's hand with a vengeance and growled at him, because he had put up the right hand instead of the left during a prayer.

After a bit, the confirmation ended, and the Doll left for 'real' church.

More later.

Rite 13 Day

Today is Brian's big day. He has to stand up in church, with a whole bunch of girls, while the church recognizes his transition into "manhood". All of the other boys (well, all three) did this several weeks ago, and I hope it's done differently. Dean, our priest, made everyone stand with their hands on the shoulders of the person next to/in front of/near to them, while he went through eternities of readings. My shoulders were killing me by the end of it, and the Rite 13 (this is the name of their class) kids were in a circle in the aisle. But it's already nearly 8, I am the only one up, along with cats, and I have no idea what any of us are wearing.

Then we have to go for a pizza party tonight, so I have to get cookies for that. At least it's nit a nice day, all of this would be eating into our yard time. Yesterday, after running Brian to the soup kitchen and Megan to various random locales, we went to the garden center and picked up mulch and a "sand cherry" shrub to replace the half a tree. We also left our name so that the landscape designer can call us about redoing the shrubs in front of the house. We presently have Sigmund the Sea Monster devouring the front of the house, and he needs to be ripped out. I've spent so much energy on the back of the house that I have failed to mention this.

Kevin wants them all out as soon as possible, I wanted to finish up the back yard first. But this guy can also help with the movement of the evergreens, that will take over the yard if they're not moved around a little. When I bought them, I wanted quick privacy, and we will get that in a year or two. But in five or ten, we will have problems. And we need to install a shed, but in light of our disagreeable neighbor, we have to make sure we go through the town and get permits, and have the thing bolted to the ground, which means we need to put it in exactly within the confines of the zoning laws. With our house on this odd corner, that can get tricky.

So, that's about it for today. I hear the first person arising - and it's Kevin, of course. I will head off to the showers, after:

In other news, Megan's report card arrived and she got TWO A's, not just one (math and biology). That's it, time for a tutor. (joke) The rest were A+'s. She has nine absences in one class! That's because she was sick one day, missed seven for swimming, and made me pick her up at the end of the day once, for a stomachache. Really, she needed to come home and use the bathroom. Anyway, as they're honors classes, they will be more heavily weighted when her average is computed, so if she keeps it up, she should still be attractive to colleges. I forget if I mentioned the little boy at school who had been taken off in an ambulance. I asked on Friday and was told he'd been transferred to Robert Wood Johnson, a little north of here, so that can't be a great thing. I guess I'll ask again when I go in tomorrow. I hope it's nothing serious, but obviously it's nothing minor or they would have kept him where he was taken in the first place. Finally, Brian's rec baseball team lost AGAIN. I left at the end of the fifth, thinking it was the top of the sixth and the game was over, and apparently they staged a rally. But they did lose, 9-7, when two of their heavy hitters failed to get on base. At least Brian had a hit; even though when he scored, it was from a walk. He was left on base the other time.

Sorry, didn't mean for this post to get long. I guess I can't stop myself. (disclaimer: post not proofread)

Spring Break

Again, a while! I've been working on the ads for the banquet book for the swim team banquet, which this year occurs just one week after the return of the Nationals and Zones swimmers, meaning I must turn the book around in record-time, as normally there is about a month in between. Also, I have never personally attended the event, doing so this year will set me back a bit as well.

So, Megan got the second cut for Nationals at Junior Olympics, but not without the usual drama. Of course, she will not do it in the morning, so we must wait until evening for the Big Drop in Time. We got there with all relatives and friends in tow, and sat through an hour plus of warm-ups and then a good half hour of Other People's Races (boring, long ones.) before the 500's even started. The boys went, and then the first heat of girls.

Megan was at the block, and just as they announced her name, Olympic style, the place erupted in a deafening roar. It took several moments for all of us to realize that this was not a horde of her newly acquired fans, but that the fire alarms were going off. White lights and buzzers were everywhere. After a bit of hesitation, everyone began to file out of the building, where we stood for about twenty minutes. They think someone pulled a fire alarm in the gym. We were glad we had Brian at the seats with us. He might have been a prime suspect.

Once back inside, the same eight girls went back to the blocks, and they started the race like nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. For a while, Megan was slowing down relative to her pace from the morning, but then she picked it up at the end, I guess swam the race the way her coach likes for her to do. So she took off nearly two more seconds, and has a comfortable position to swim in the morning event down in Florida, rather than the afternoon time trials.

Otherwise, school is wrapped up. I worked two of the four days last week, and spent the others working on the banquet book. Megan had to be in church Thursday night for the Washing of the Feet, which was an eternally long service, as they tend to be in our church of pomp and circumstance. She was supposed to be there last night, but the priest excused her for swim practice. She has to go tonight, and again tomorrow morning. Then we have our annual brunch with the Doll, at 3pm. I will consider that our dinner.

Yesterday, I took Megan out shopping. This Nationals trip is going to cost us a fortune! I had to buy her new clothes for summer anyway, and I had a coupon for 40% off from American Eagle, but I had to spend $250. I figured that was not a bad deal, so I amassed $270 worth of merchandise, and only had to pay $160 with the discount. Then another $125 in sundries from Harmon's. Most of that - sunblock!

So that is that. We have no major spring break plans due to swim practices every day and homework that the kids must complete so they can miss a week of school. I'd like to get to Philadelphia for a day, maybe Tuesday morning, if I can swing it. Wednesday practice will be early, to be followed by a traditional pre-meet pasta party and distribution of meet merchandise; on Thursday I must escort the Doll to her long-awaited colonoscopy. So it looks like it will have to be Tuesday.

In other news, Rusty broke an heirloom lamp last night, by knocking it off of the piano when we had all gone up for bed. He shows no remorse. Baseball has begun for Brian, and the Old Fat Men's Softball League is kicking off as I write this post. Moles are beginning to take over the yard, and the other morning after a rainstorm, Brian and I emerged from the front door to find the walkway and doorstep covered in slimy worms! Being the original city girl, I had no idea that these worms were now stranded. Therefore, the driveway is now littered with worm carcasses. Even the birds don't want them.

Merry Mayhem

Well, the cold sore is gone, it lasted about six days but it was never visible like usual, only I could feel it. I'll just keep using the cream if I get another one, without risking the dizziness and mood swings of that other drug.

Molly still needs her lampshade, and Puff is no longer in heat, so she is being very cute and friendly (to me)and making me feel bad about having to take her in for her spay surgery. I have to make that appointment next week, when Molly goes for her bath. Hopefully she can stay out of heat long enough to get it done the first week in January.

So I just came out of a three day work stint, after three days of the swim meet up at Rutgers. The weather was questionable, so we split the weekend between home and a hotel, which was a good thing. Megan swam pretty well, she got a best time every time she swam, if even by .01. Then she had to come back for finals in a few events. So that was exciting.

For some reason, her high school coach was unaware of a meet they were supposed to have on Tuesday. So they ended up rescheduling it for Wednesday, which meant that I had to reschedule her confirmation make-up (for what she missed for the other meet) for Thursday, which means she has to miss her Y practice, which she also has to miss on Friday for another high school meet!!! It's major mayhem and I can't even stand it. So she won't swim with her real team for nearly a week by the time she gets back in for Saturday practice.

Of course, right after that, the Y takes her away for the four day training trip to another state, in the middle of our family holiday.

And on top of this, we still have not resolved the issue of the 30 hour fast. I googled some other area churches and other churches' requirements for confirmation. Most will give a selection and require that most be met. Others will include a choice of several retreats, and some do just one class. Most seem to mention community service, of which our church does none. They added on a quick day at the soup kitchen, to which I plan to send Megan before the county swim meet.

If the church is going to deny her confirmation because we don't want her to fast for 30 hours two weeks before her Y state championship, at which she is trying to make national cuts, then we have to seriously consider whether or not we belong in that church at all. I'll offer for her to do the sleepover and skip breakfast and lunch on Saturday, which is a lot for her anyway. Plus the soup kitchen, which is half of the other day, the one she can't make.

In the end, she is putting forth the greatest effort possible, and we are trying to be flexible. Since I feel that is the church staff that has set these requirements, and not actually God per se, if they do insist that she must do this fast without any compromise, I'm afraid I will have such a bad feeling that I will have to consider searching for another church. They are offering no "home schooling" type of makeup for the fast, no alternative other than these two dates, one of which conflicts with the country meet.

I've been getting emails from them begging the congregation to please return their pledge cards, and apparently finances are tight. Although I can never repay the kindness of the pastor when Brian had his brain surgery, I'm afraid that this just isn't the kind of church I would want to be a part of, and wonder if that is perhaps some of the reason behind the difficulty in getting pledges back. Strength in pastoral services doesn't always balance out the atmosphere within the church; and that's what you have to deal with day to day.

So now I am off to try to tie up loose ends of shopping today and loose ends of cleaning tomorrow before the onlsaught of our holiday guests (at which time we may not see Puff again for days). A particularly strenuous litterbox changing activity has left me feeling a little shaky, so I sat down to let that wear off before I shower and hit the mobs. I hope the mobs are still asleep.

Oh, and maybe I'll put up some Christmas lights outside. Or maybe not. It is almost time to take them down already.

My Head Hurts

No sub calls today. I had the day off.

I decided to start it off with a swim. That actually went pretty well, I had a lane all to myself for the whole 25 minutes that it takes me to swim a measly 40 laps these days. On the way out, I noticed that they had a "giving tree" set up at the Y. I studied the remaining tags and chose two little girls. One only wanted Bratz dolls, but the other was very specific: a monopoly game, a hooded sweatshirt, and Nike sneakers. Woah! Anyway, my credit card was reset to $0 as of today, so why not.

(Sure, it's only ONE credit card that's at $0, the others are probably considerably more, but I hope to have them all paid down by the time I stop getting paychecks again in June!)

But by now my head was really hurting. Some online Bratz shopping hadn't helped what the 40 laps had somehow started. Maybe it was the leaky goggles. I had to take some advil and lie down for an hour. I watched How Clean is Your House and You Are What You Eat. Who in the world signs up for those shows? All I would need would be for my mold and dust to be filmed for national television. And then to have to keep the house clean until the "surprise visit" from the British ladies who helped clean it in the first place.

Eventually I managed to drag myself up and shower. I went out into the snow and searched high and low for Nike sneakers and a hoodie sweatshirt, which I finally did find. The little girls should be very happy.

Afterwards, I faced the true source of my headache: church. They are requiring that Megan must satisfy one requirement for her confirmation in April. She must either attend a retreat on the day of her high school regional championship meet, or she must fast for 30 hours over President's weekend. This is in addition to the four hour meetings once a month + homework. I can feel the holy spirit fading from her person as I type this. If you may not worship any God but the true God, then I am afraid we will have to count her out. Her god? Her swim team coach.

Although, that is not entirelly true, because she will not even be swimming for him on the day of the retreat. Will God really close her out of heaven because she went to the conference meet? That doesn't really seem fair, when she is usually very nice to everyone, and she even serves at church when she can be there. Does her very salvation ride on her refusing herself food during the peak training period for her championship swim season? How scary is that?! Whatever happened to "God is Good! All the Time!"

And did God say she had to do these things? Was it through His wishes that the schedules were made up for these events? Don't the homeless people have to be fed every day? Why, then, is it that she must be there on February 9th?

In fact, she is at swimming now. She should be back soon, but one never knows. It's her day off from swimming, so she was able to go to the high school practice. The first meet is tomorrow, but the parents can't attend. They're holding it under top security. Ah, the folly.