Keeping up

Well, folks, the temperature says we are definitely in the dog days of summer (yeah, right, it's only in the 90's!). I'm wondering who is sneaking in and deleting my blogs! When I log on and see that my last entry was the first day of summer I wonder just what happened to all of the wonderful stories that are missing.

For instance, on last Sunday, June 6th, we (Mike the kids and I) plus Shannon & her two kids, Lorenzo, Reanna (in town for a brief visit from Columbia University in New York) & Tia met at Levitt Pavilion for a free outdoors concert to hear The Arlington Jones Trio. The weather couldn't have been more pleasant once the sun went down. I made "stuffed strawberries" for the occasion. They attracted a visitor (a tiny Asian woman who introduced herself as Audry) who was so impressed she came back for more. Arlington Jones (that is his real given name, and he only lives in Arlington but is not from Arlington, TX) showed out! He plays the piano with such enthusiasm and zeal that it truly is an amazing sight to behold.


On Monday, 6/7, Mike, the kids & I were all home together. We made some progress in catching up dishes and converting the "workout room" (i.e., room right off of the garage that houses a couple of raggedy pieces of workout equipment that nobody uses and where lots of stuff is stored and dumped when cars/rooms are "cleaned") to my craft room. Mike and Aaron moved the big shelf with bins of craft stuff from my office to the craft room where it belongs.


Tuesday, 6/8, Mike got up and dressed and left the house saying he'd be back in a little while. He mentioned the night before that he needed to gas up his car before heading back to work on Wednesday, so I thought that is where he had gone. The kids and I were all excited thinking that Mike would pull his usual "surprise" and be back in about half an hour with a full tank of gas in his car and a box of Shipley's donuts. One hour passed, then two hours...Around noon I went ahead and fixed lunch. We were all in kind of a foul mood, because we had all been looking forward to the soft, dough-y, sugar glazed pastries and we hadn't heard a word from Mr. Mike. I had to go out and run some errands-ACA, credit union, Aldi grocery store, library, etc. When I returned, Mike & PaPa (my dad) pulled into the driveway right after me with a GO-KART in the bed of PaPa's pick up truck. Okay, blog viewers, that all caps "go-kart" is not because I was so excited about the new toy, but more like WHAT THE HECK ARE WE DOING WITH ONE MORE APPARATUS THAT REQUIRES A PLACE TO STORE AND GAS TO RUN? I tried very hard not to be livid. Try as they might, the boys couldn't even get the thing cranked; then PaPa broke the spark plug. To my knowledge the go-kart is parked in my backyard and hasn't cranked since. Deliver me, Lord!

Wednesday, 6/9, I took Alisa to get her hair done. We scrounged up $1.07 worth of change out of the car and the bottom of my purse to share a bag of "Chicago Mix" popcorn from the Popcorn Stop in the same shopping center where we get our hair done. Xavier spent the night with the kids. I fixed them dinner and then went out with Lani, just the two of us. We ended up at Habaneros (also in the same shopping center as The Popcorn Stop and The Cutting Room). Lani & I agreed that the food was okay, but it probably wouldn't make it to the top of our most favorite Mexican restaurants anytime soon. Their habanero salsa was tasty (as it should be since it's their namesake), and so was the tomatillo salsa, but their "traditional" one tasted like tomato paste.

Thursday, 6/10 I fixed funnel cakes for the kids-read all about that in my other blog. We enjoyed another concert at the Levitt. This time it was Cedric Watson and Bijou Creole (old school creole from a talented new master). This group, too, was awesome. I wish I had endless amounts of money to donate to the Levitt Pavilion to keep the free concerts coming and to support the artists who perform there. In time...Alisa missed the concert and spent the night with Xavier instead.

Friday, 6/11, I watched Xavier and Sasha for Tia who had to clean the church and meet some friends for lunch. Leyla stayed behind with her PaPa. Xavier and Alisa did a pretty good job of keeping to themselves (mainly to avoid having to deal with Sasha). Sasha was a big help to me in the kitchen. We scrubbed the coolers and put them outside to dry. We cleared some stuff off of the kitchen table. We gathered Missy's bath stuff and ran some water in the big Rubbermaid tub outdoors so the sun could warm it. Aaron entertained Sasha a bit with a game of checkers and "Barney's Fishing Game." Sasha helped me bathe Missy, and then I bathed Sasha and washed her hair before returning her to Tia's house in time for her parents to pick her up.

Saturday, 6/12, Mike's alarm woke me up at 3:15 a.m., and he was still snoring in bed next to me. He mumbled something about switching shifts with a coworker and not having to go in until the afternoon. So, I prayed that he wasn't just dreaming or talking in his sleep and turned off the alarm and crawled back in bed. I decided I would fix pork chops and grits for "breakfast" and send Mike packing off to work with a full stomach. As it turned out, we remembered we needed to vote and Tia called to see if one of the kids could come over and "sit" at the house so Grandmom wouldn't be alone when she woke up. Mom and Dad were going over to Grandmom's trailer to finish hanging mirrors and making minor repairs in preparation of selling the home. I threw the chops in the oven and rice in the rice cooker (figured it'd be better to have the rice already done than to have to stand & stir grits for 20 minutes since we were running out of time) and told Alisa to keep an eye on them. We stopped by the junior high to vote and empty several bags of recycling from the back of my car, then cruised by PaPa & Tia's to deliver Aaron before returning home. The thin-cut pork chops were tasty but well-done by the time I got home and took them out of the oven. Thank goodness Alisa had at least turned the oven off! I put broccoli on the stove to steam and chatted briefly with Lani who had stopped by to pick up a coupon. We ate, and Mike headed off to work. I left Alisa getting ready for her friend's b-day party and went to Kohl's to get a gift. The little t-shirts I found were on sale to begin with. When I got to the checkout they were even more discounted because of "early bird specials" AND I had a save an additional 15% coupon, too. Talk about a great deal!! I was too excited. As much as I hate shopping, it's experiences like this that make me think shopping under the right circumstances may not be so bad after all. I even remembered to get gift receipts. I dropped Alisa off at the party for 3:00 then my mom and I ran some errands until almost 5 p.m. Mike worked late, and Aaron & I about finished rearranging the craft room into the wee hours of the night.

How could I have possibly NOT blogged about all of that? I sure thought about it enough. Probably everytime I was about to blog, I encountered someone on my computer checking their facebooks or watching Kate Plus Eight! Anyway, I'm almost caught up. Gotta go and get some stuff done so I'll have more productivity to include this week! Until next time....