As If I Need Another LONG Post...

I am tired this morning.  I was up til after midnight working on these...

 Funny.  It doesn't look like three and a half hours of work, but it was.  I had to finish them myself because poor Andrew had to go to bed. I deserved it, too.  I've put him on hold all week.  I'm having a horrible time with that.  It falls in line with me needing to paying better attention.  For the moment, anyway, Andrew is thrilled.  He only wanted four posters and wanted only one of them to be big.  I had five pieces of poster board so I was confused.  I told him we could work on more over the weekend.  And we're going to make him a tee to wear next week for the voting.  Did I mention he is running against half of the seventh grade for Student Council VP?  Lordy.

We hit the Grandville Mall last weekend kinda sorta for Caleb's birthday.  In July.  It's how we roll.  We've been planning to eat at a place called The Sports Center Cafe.  The situation was hilarious!  We stopped at the light, ready to turn left and I mentioned to all to keep an eye out for this restaurant and CR pointed and said that it was right next to us, on the corner.  I looked and looked but saw nothing.  It was a rinky dink little hole in the wall in a small strip mall.  We were cracking up!  We turned the corner and pulled into the side lot and the place has a drive-thru window...like the kind you don't have to drive through!  Like at an ice cream store.  We decided to give it a chance anyway.  It was small but the menu was huge and it was a fun little place with really good food.  And like seven plasmas and a big screen.  A pleasing place I would visit again.  And I even got a punch card. ☺

After, we hit the mall.  I split from the boys and did a little retail therapy.  However, after doing so, I really need therapy!  Caleb ordered a hat from Lids that had to be special ordered.  Keith was less than thrilled that Caleb spent thirty three dollars on it.  Caleb was psyched, however, and it was his money and he's very good with it so I didn't care.  I got the call from the Muskegon Lids that the hat was in and since the bigs were with their dad last weekend, I stopped by to pick it up.  Um...I'm old.  I say that very rarely.  Let's just say I am not a fan of the flat billed trucker hat.  Not a fan at all.  Knowing how ridiculous my son was going to look in it, I decided to show him just how ridiculous it is.

 I figured if I was going to actually take a picture of myself in it, I may as well play up the dork factor.

I think I mentioned that since the varsity played in Hart and were most likely going to win, Kyle had his birthday sleepover last Friday night.  Sigh.  I love sleepovers.  They are so easy.  Going to bed is another issue.  Needless to say, I spent the night on the couch.  Not as comfy as my bed, especially when I was going to have it all to myself, but the alternative was to have a friend go home in the middle of the night.  I take for granted that everyone can handle sleepovers because my kids can.  Poor dolly.  Ah well.  It all worked out in the end.  CB fell asleep within minutes of me grabbing my pillow and blanket.  Sweet thing.

 The day after the sleepover wasn't as good.  Kyle and I spent the day in Muskegon picking up Halloween and poster supplies.  Kyle is going to be a Root Beer can and Andrew is going to be Lady Gaga.  Caleb wanted to be a couch potato but decided against it.  He hasn't come up with anything else as of yet.  He texted me and said if he can't come up with anything else he'll just be a potato.  A POTATO?!?!  Really?

Anywho, we spent way too much time out and about, ended up fighting with me screaming and him crying and then he fell asleep.  Once home, Kyle woke up ready to party, but his momma had other plans.  I was exhausted, he was exhausted and we were both hungry.  Kyle had eaten lunch.  I had not.  I made myself a little dinner and loaded him up with leftover pizza and chips and we vegged out on the couch from about five o'clock on.  Until we both fell asleep.  Wonderful.

Also recently, we celebrated a surprise birthday for my friend N8.  I think he was really surprised.  Love these cheeks.  I think it's because they look like my hubby's.  And that is funny because these two are built so different. ☺

 So y'all know my obsession with a new washer and dryer.  No, I don't need them.  But I need them.  For my sanity.  Now that I have the money I want to hold onto it.  It's a lot of money.  But really I just want to make sure I make an educated purchase so I am taking my time.  Well...Sunday night my fridge broke.  It isn't dead, but I really wish it was so that by now, Thursday, I'd have my food in a new one. In my kitchen. Instead, the food is in my sister's fridge. In her garage.  Ugh.  The darn thing runs and actually cycles through it's...cycle...but my otter pops go from liquid to solid ice and back to liquid again.  Then ice.  I think the problem is the condenser or that the cycle clock thingy simply sticks at the defrost mode and needs to be fixed.  Either way, we have a repairman coming out Saturday {overtime plus driving from Grand Haven scares me a bit} but if we can fix it for under two hundred dollars and the fridge will last us another year or more, we're golden and I can buy my washer and dryer.  Can you imagine how sad I was to think that money would be gone?  I might have even cried.  Or maybe just pouted.

During my Muskegon shopping trip last weekend I did pick up these lookers.  I think they are snazzy.  Maybe it's because they actually fit over my calves.  Bonus!  Keith likes them, too, but thought he had already bought me a pair.  He did.  For Christmas two years ago.  But I returned them because they didn't fit over my calves.  And the new owners of those boots also received a major bonus of gift cards to Victoria's Secret, Maurices and Charlotte Russe.  But that's another story and, yes, I'm still bitter.  {my fault.  not K's}  But aren't these cute?

Okay, so just to put it out there, Caleb broke his collar bone at practice Tuesday night.  He has what the doc calls an Angulate Fracture.  Basically, his break was right through the bone and the bones are hanging out, not straight. {not hanging out literally.  just hanging around}  He's wearing what he calls a sleeveless coat but it's a brace that kind of resembles a butterfly to me.  Maybe not really, but kind of.  It's to hold his shoulder back so the bone will have a chance to heal properly.  When he broke his other one when he was younger, he was in a sling.  I suppose with him being older and growing and all that he needs this extra help.  Either way, it sucks for him!  He's out the rest of the season and is totally worried about basketball tryouts next month.  He goes back to the doc in two weeks.  Pray for good news for him. 

I joined a bible study at our new church and I think I'm going to really enjoy it.  The discussion the other night was about feeling valueless.  Ha.  God speaks in amazing ways to people.  That was the same night Caleb broke his bone.  I feel so incredibly helpless and useless to him.  This is when being a mom isn't so great.  I want to do something, anything for him and I cannot.  At least not to take away the pain.  And I feel bad, too, because he's at any age where he needs privacy with certain things and I felt horrible for him that I had to help him dry off after his shower last night.  Poor buddy.  It's bad enough feeling useless with little ones.  They are so needy and helpless themselves so when you cannot do anything for their pain, it's indescribable.  However, I'm learning that it doesn't get easier as the kids grow up.  I think it's tons worse that my teenager, who is fairly self-sufficient {☺} needs to be needy because he has no choice.  That's a tough pill to swallow for both of us I imagine.

I can ramble, can't I?  Plenty are already aware of this, but Monday night I added about thirty or so more people to that list.  I was asked to speak at the church congregational meeting that night and was terrified!  I'm not a public speaker by any means and I had to dig out the big girl panties again and I despise big girl panties!  I like my comfort zone well cushioned, thank you very much.  I prepared.  I talked to myself for two days.  I stressed.  I stressed some more.  I wrote down what I planned to say so I wouldn't forget anything.  I changed my mind.  I was a mess.  I was caught in the act once, which is something I'm never proud of.

Kyle: Mom, who are you talking to?

Me:  Remember?  I'm speaking tonight at the church meeting and I'm thinking about what I'm going to say in my head.

Kyle: Well, I can hear you!

I went home that day and rewrote everything.  I tried to condense parts because I was asked to say a few things and I couldn't say just a few things.  I read what I wrote to K and he tried adding stuff for me, which I love because he really has a way with words, but he was talking too fast and I couldn't keep up with my writing!  I decided to keep what I had.  Well, it all went out the window after I was introduced.  I think I got the first sentence out from the paper and it went from there.  Where, I don't really know because I'm not even sure what I said.  But it was long.  And I know everyone there was hoping to get out early to watch either the Tigers or the Lions.  Or both!  I was on a roll.  Until I finally said that although I could go on and on I wouldn't.  An elderly man behind me said, "Tell us how you really feel!"  Okay, okay...point taken!  the worst part is that whenever I speak in public my nerves get the best of me and my mouth dries out and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.  Well, I had a doozy of a time that night because the longer I talked, the dryer everything in my mouth got.  Toward the end, the left side of my top lip was rolled up inside my mouth and stuck to my teeth and the more I talked, the more my lip rolled til half my lip was gone and I was talking out the right side of my mouth.  Still talking, I was totally thinking about Jim Carrey in The Mask...Somebody Stop Me!!! {and I wish someone had!}  I was all teeth.  Ridiculous!  Afterward, pastor said, "WOW" and I replied, "I know! I can go on and on, huh?"  He said it was all good and that I spoke from my heart.  I did, so I guess it went okay.  At the end of the night, the vote passed, which was the idea, so YAY!  I'm sure, however, it had nothing to do with me.

Yup...this pretty much sums it up...