Saturday, July 29, 2006

SATURDAY
I was tempted to sleep in today…I’m running on empty…BUT today was MELON DAY at the Farmer’s Market…and melons are BIG around this house. I’ve been amused at how fanatic some members of this family are over melons. I’ve got a reputation of being pretty hit and miss in picking out good melons. I announced last night that I was going to the market at 7:30 a.m. in order to find the best TX melon for us to enjoy in the next few days…..Early this a.m. as the little ones began to wake up, I decided to take the “youngers” with me.

We’d go to the market, drop by Adrienne’s and drop off a check and pick up some fruit, then go to breakfast. This would let Mike and the “olders” sleep in. I was SHOCKED when Mike got up and prepared to come with us. The sad truth is that he wanted to be 100% sure we got a good melon. We picked out two – a yellow flesh melon and a big ole baby…..here’s Mike with the yellow flesh melon…the other one was MUCH bigger.

We ran into “our family fun” at the Market.
Isn’t she cute? She’s due in just a few weeks. I got to proof a paper she wrote for an advanced communications class – it was on VBAC and was good. I’ve always wanted a home birth – but that was not meant to be…..so I’m having fun living through friends here who are having home births. OH the picture reminds me – I put on my red shirt today and remembered Grams. I’ve been wanting to name a daughter after my grandmothers for years….but Mabel, Wilda or Kathryn weren’t right. I had a dream in the past week and had a little girl named Maryna (Muh – ryn – a). Now I just need a baby girl….Zander informed me today that “Stacia is ENOUGH baby”. He also got very irate when I told him that he was still my baby and Josiah was still my baby. He bristled and said, “Mom!! Josiah is a MAN and I’m NOT a baby”.

Back at home my wonderful husband told me to take a nap. I took the NARHS handbook and class descriptions to bed and fell asleep in a few quick moments. I do really LIKE this Course Description book – it gives samples of how to write course descriptions that allow a child to explore their interests and still earn high school credit. We are strongly considering letting Jamin choose a science other than chemistry next year. :::gasp::: The book had a long list of “lab sciences” and I was surprised at the concept that a lab science didn’t have to be biology or chemistry. :::snort:::

I slept through this:

After my much needed nap Krista called. We’ll be seeing the girls in just one week! Yippee!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of having all my chicks gathered around for a month or two. I called Mom and enjoyed a good chat. Dad is in rehab again and beginning the long journey back from the second hip/leg surgery. He is still not to put more than 30 lbs of weight on his leg…that is slowing down his desire to walk…all in time. THEN I got to talk to my friend Julie. Julie and her family recently moved from AK to CA. I got a laugh out of the fact that she reports they are most always in fog and that the high has been 72*…..she said it was warmer in AK. We talked homeschool – she has adorable twin boys – 5 years old maybe…I think. She had a homeschool question for me and I had an Academy question for her. She and Paul are both Academy graduates and I wanted to see if Civil Air Patrol would work as well as being an Eagle Scout for Jared’s resume. Paul is a big CAP fan.

Unable to put it off any longer, I made an apple crisp and brownies to take to the chapel potluck tomorrow. I’ll also take a big fruit platter and the yellow fleshed melon. I’ll make some pasta to take and reheat for Zander so that he has something to eat….as a special treat and to keep him away from the chapel lemonade I will most likely let him take a Blue Sky soda. He won’t be able to eat the Apple Crisp as I used the Pampered Chef recipe that calls for a cake mix on top. I’m not fond of this recipe but several in my family LOVE it – so taking it to an outing is safe…they can taste it and I won’t have to have it sitting around here for to long. The brownies are “Zander safe”.

I’m starting to worry about how we’ll handle his eating needs on the road….we went to McDonald’s today and I chose pancakes –which I thought would be safe. I asked and they told me they had whole milk. We got to the table and the syrup was full of artificial stuff – of course it would be but I’d forgotten. The milk was low fat and had BHT…the margarine most likely had yellow dye in it. Mike took the milk back and got us juice. We threw out the syrup but had to use the margarine….ugh. Not sure how to handle this on the trip…..

OH – last night we watched two Netflix movies…*The Minnesota Cuke* and *Best of Mark Lowry and Bill Gaither*….both funny. I had thought it was a Mark Lowry comedy tape but oh well – it was still funny and I’m sure we found parts funny that weren’t meant to be funny. Brownies are done – I’m gone.

A frightening sight to greet a groggy Mom in the a.m. I was so thankful he'd not tried to take her OUT of the crib....