Weekend Update for June 18 - 20 - I made this long because there is more hours of light today.

Happy Summer Solstice!  What are you doing today to celebrate summer?  I am working.  How exciting is that?

This was a pretty busy weekend. We celebrated Father's Day, Daughter left for Church Camp, we were shopping all day...it was pretty busy.

Friday, I left work and went to the hospital.  My very close friend's father passed away suddenly and I needed to be with her.  She just lost her mother three months ago, so this is probably enough to put anyone over the edge.  My heart is with her and her family right now.

In the evening, we had the closing program for Vacation Bible School.  We had the closing program which the MC kept adding to and it ended up being over and hour and a half.  Ridiculous!  It should have been 40 minutes, in and out and then everyone could have fun.  But sometimes people like being in the limelight and thinks everyone won't mind "just one more song." 

On a good note, the students raised over $700 for the missionary.  This year the mission chosen was called the Warrior Backpack Program.  The local school system started this last year and each week packed a backpack of food for children to take home.  It wasn't for low-income students, or anything like that, it is to insure that all kids get at least a few good, healthy meals on the weekends because sometimes the only healthy food that a child gets is from the school during breakfast and lunch.  Just this $700 can make over 2,500 meals!  That is half of what they did last year.  Way to go kids!

We had a cookout following the program and a dunking booth which the kids really enjoyed.  Then some of us cleaned up and got outta there!

Saturday, Daughter and I got up and piddle around for a bit.  She was leaving for camp on Sunday, and we still needed to get her a one-piece swimsuit and the essentials.  Plus she was still doing laundry and had not started packing.

So we picked up BFF and went shopping.  Shopping with Daughter is honestly not always fun.  She likes to look and look, until it comes to swimsuits.  See, she's top heavy and hates the suits with support.  She's only 15, but she is twice as big as me in this department and it's something I have never had to worry about.

Anyway, we ended up at Dick's Sporting Goods and found one that was not only expensive, but not stylish.  She's all about fashion, you know.  I think it's cute, but I'm just Mom.

I also found this shirt for Son that is black with an orange and blue basketball on the front made of little pieces of basketball material.  It says something like I don't have to tell you how good I am.  Just watch and learn.  This is in black all through the emblem on his shirt.  I thought it was kinda cool.  He basically work it the rest of the weekend.

We finished up the shopping, got food and went to Costco.  There I got my Dad and Foxy's presents.  My Dad is a huge American history buff, so I found a book on Abraham Lincoln's last 12 months in office.  He already started reading it.

For Foxy, the kids (Son) wanted to get him some DVDs.  So I picked these.

We watched Shutter Island yesterday. Son wanted to because we heard it was really scary and he didn't want to have nightmares.  So we watched it at 3:30 in the afternoon.  It was really a good, play with the mind suspenseful movie.  There was only one scene that kinda freaked the guys out.  I apparently was getting a load of laundry done, so I didn't see it.  Son keeps come running in to me, tagging me and shouting "Tag, your it!"  If you have seen the movie, this will make sense to you.   We haven't seen the other two, but Foxy has talked about The Book of Eli since seeing previews for it.  He was happy with the selections.

Anyway, we gave the gifts to our Dads on Saturday evening when we went out to eat.  We went to Smokey Bones.  It was yummy, and a lot of food.  We celebrated Father's Day a day early because of Daughter leaving.  It worked out well.  Everyone was happy.

Well, mostly.  Daughter gets really nervous when she goes away from home for extended periods of time.  So Saturday evening and Sunday morning she was a little weepy.  BFF did everything he could to keep her upbeat and not crying.  He didn't want that.  He will miss her, but she needs to go.  She needs this time away.  She loves camp.  she has basically grown up there.  There is just her and Dancer.  They were making all kinds of plans and will have a great time. I will miss her this week, but it helps her grow up a little.

Sunday we had a great church service, ran to get lunch and then finish Daughter's packing.  Then I took her over to Dancer's house.  Dancer's mom was taking them to camp.  I am picking them up.

Then, I came home, did some light cleaning and piddled around the house the rest of the night.  It was nice to be home and not running.

As usual, it was a very busy, crazy weekend.  I don't see it getting any better in the foreseeable future, either.  Have a great Summer Solstice!

Friday Follow over 40...

Welcome to the 3rd edition of the  
Follow Friday 40 and Over!!
BUT FIRST, HAPPY 45TH ANNIVERSARY TO MY PARENTS!  Awesome!


Are you a blogger over 40? Yeah, welcome to the club!

Please join in the fun and get to know your fellow bloggers!!

While you are here, make sure you check out the
Over 40 Blogger List!!
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Please hop on over there to join in on another fun way to meet new bloggers and to make new friends. :)

The RULES to join in are very simple!

1. Grab the button
2. Add your link to the list
3. Visit as many other blogs as you can
4. Follow the ones you like (and comment on their blog to say that you are following)

This list is new each week. The links do not carry over. Please link up each week for new participants to find your blogs. It will be visible all week to visit the blogs listed.

HAVE FUN!

So last night, I was taking BFF home with Daughter and Miss Varsity Cheerleader and the brakes went out on the caddy.  Foxy worked all day Tuesday on Daughter's car, so now his car is down.  Good thing he is off until June 18th!    Hopefully he will be able to fix this cheaply an quickly.  Hopefully!

DID you watch So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) last night?  What amazing things.  When Pasha took his shirt off...let's just say my daughter and I were wiping drool off our chins.  And Jose with Twitch, Comfort and Dominic.  I bow to them.  They are all so awesome!  Kent Boyd (from Ohio) was perfection with Travis Wall's dance and let me tell you...Wade Robson's  (and his wife's) choreography for the opening number, I literally bow down to.  I can not get enough of this show.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

Today I only work until noon because this company has summer hours from the Monday after Memorial Day to the Friday before Labor day.  I seem to feel rushed today, but my 12:05 pm I am gone!

Daughter and I are getting hairs cut today and Son is having the percussion tryouts.  Wish him luck (though he doesn't need it!).

Tomorrow we are going the Banana Split Festival and who knows what else.  Have a great weekend, I will try and post something about mine on Monday!  Love to all!

Wacky Wednesday

Welcome to all the new readers I have!  I hope you enjoy yourself while here.

I would make this a wordless Wednesday thing, but I think this may need some explaining.  So this is my Wacky Wednesday blog.  My family is wacky, so I like to write about them.

My daughter, is ending her freshman year.  When she was in fifth grade, she chose to play percussion, specifically the bells (aka the xylophone).  The class was standing in the hallway, waiting for the band teacher to come get them, so the SRO, Officer K, was standing with the kids, trying to guess what they played by the shape of their cases.  When he got to Daughter, she apparently had nothing in her hand.  He asked her what she played and she made motions like she was drumming.  He asked if she played the snare drum.  She shook her head.  Someone said she played the bells.  He was like, "Oh, the dingy thing."  The band teacher came up and said, "Yeah, that's our Dingy."  And a nickname was born. 

Now, Daughter loves her nickname.  Her BFF calls her Dingy most of the time.  Her friends call her Dingy.  She takes care of the guys in percussion during concert band.  She wants to have her license plate say this.  But for now, a friend gave her this to put on her car window.  She is so proud of it.  That's my girl!

Monday's Weekend Update

Happy Monday...or not.  It rained here all weekend, well, mostly yesterday, but we haven't seen the sun since like, Thursday.  Luckily, we do not have the flooding some of you are going through.  But of course we the fog lifted this morning, there was the sun.  Just as most of us are going back to work.  But, it was a good weekend anyway.

Friday evening, I went with Foxy, Daughter, BFF, Gpa, Gma, and Miss Deb to see the movie Letters To God and out for pizza before hand.  What an amazing movie.  It was truly inspirational.  I hope that each of you see it or rent it when it comes to DVD.  There were 30 to 40 of us in the theater, watching and by the end of this movie no one moved, except Gpa.  When the credits rolled, we sat there.

The reason Gpa got up and left was this movie showed a little boy going through cancer and treatments.  Since my dad just went through that about 10 months ago, it was just too soon for him to watch it.  But he really liked the movie too.

Saturday was kind of busy.  Daughter and I went and got the oil changed in the Edge.  While we were there this is what was at the Ford dealership.  It made me ask myself and Daughter a few questions...

Why were there bicycles at the car dealership?  Did they get good amounts on their trade-ins?  Were they being serviced?  My husband's question was, Who had their license taken away and had to ride to work?

Then I made Daughter drive.  She did great!  We stopped at the grocery on the way home and here is were she parked.

See that red Edge waaay, out there?  She slipped it into a space where no other cars were around.  She did fine, but she is nervous about trying to park by people.  She did well, though.  I am proud of her.  She is getting better all the time.

Later that evening, we all went to church for the annual Mother-Daughter Banquet.  This year's theme was My Childhood Doll.  Here are a few pictures from that.  The lady who thought up the theme and did most of the co-ordination and decorating is simply amazing.  Actually, so is her mother.  Her mother made all the dolls (over 100) and all the cradles and probably all the booklets.  That family is amazing.

Isn't this centerpiece adorable?  They gave 13 away as door prizes, along with other dolls.  Mainly two Raggedy Ann's that our special speaker made.

This is what each table looked like.  What a beautiful setting.

This was our program.  The colors were purple, yellow and green.  So pretty.

The meal was made by several in our church and the men of the church served us.  It was such a fun evening.  Mom's name was drawn for a doorprize and picked a cute little Amish doll to take home.  She loves books on the Amish life, so this was perfect for her.

And finally, a picture of me and Daughter.  She is so beautiful and tall.

Sunday we went to church, came home, went to eat and I took Daughter to meet up with friends to make posters for Marching Band Drill Team Tryouts.  Then Son, BFF, and I went to get Son a new pair of tennis shoes.  His feet are still growing!  He is now 5'9" and in a size 10.5 shoe.  He said, "They look like clown shoes!"  

Handsome, ain't he?

So how did your weekend go?

At this rate, she will take a year to get her license, Madonna and Thank you, America!

This is my baby!

This evening, Daughter finally had her second driving lesson.  Here is how it went...

Cast of Characters:
    Daughter - herself, the timid 15.5 yr old
    BFF - Daughter's best friend who is dying to get behind the wheel of anything
    Mom - Me

BFF, grabbing Daughter's shoulders:  When are you going to drive?  I want to see you drive.

Daughter:  Not now.

BFF:  Why not?

Daughter:  I don't want to.

BFF:  Seriously?  I have been waiting a long time to see you behind the wheel.

Daughter, looking at me for support:  Fine, let's go if it will shut you up and get you off my back.

Mom:  Really?  Okay, we will just go down to the end of the street and drive around the cul-de-sac.  Then we will see how it goes from there.

I grab my keys and my wallet, Daughter grabs her wallet and BFF jumps in the back seat, all smiles.

Mom:  Do you want to back the Edge down the driveway?

Daughter:  No!

Mom:  Okay, I'll do it.
     So I back down the car and face it toward the cul-de-sac.  There is one car parked on the street.  I put the Edge in park, and Daughter and I exchange places.

Mom:  Now, put your foot on the brake.  No, your other leg.  Do not use your left leg.  Okay, now keep your foot on the brake until you have the car in Drive.  That's it.  Now, barely give the car some gas.

As Daughter does this, she doesn't turn the wheel and ends up going over the curb into the front yard. 

Mom:  Okay, turn the wheel.  Now stop.  Stop!

The Edge comes to a halt.

BFF is laughing hysterically in the backseat.  Mom is giggling.

Mom:  Look at where your feet are.  (Her left foot is on the brake.)

Daughter puts the car in Park and says:  I think we should trade places now. 

Mom:  No, you are doing fine.  Turn the wheel.  Keep your foot on the brake until you put the car in Drive.  Then let your foot off the brake.

Slowly, Daughter does this.  The car just sits there. 

Mom:  Okay, now give it a little gas.  Good.

The car moves forward and to the left, back on to the road.  Daughter drives the car down the street, past the parked car and slowly she manuevers the Edge around the circle. 

Mom:  You are doing great!  Now, wave at Neighbor as we go past. 

Daughter honks the horn and waves at Neighbor.  He looks up from what he is doing, back down, and then back up again.  He stares at us all the back down the road to our house.  LOL.

When we arrive back down at our driveway, I ask Daughter if she would like to drive through the neighborhood.  She promptly says no, puts the car in park and tells me I need to put the car in the driveway (she would have had to back it up to get it in the driveway without hitting the mail box or the wagon on the other side of the road). 

BFF:  Can I drive around the neighborhood?

Mom:  No, but you can pull it into the driveway.

BFF:  That's not fun.

Mom:  That's all you get until you get a license.

Thus ended the second driving lesson of Daughter.
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I have to say something about tv last night.  First, a HUGE thank you to America for finally voting Kate Gosselin off of DWTS.  That was as painful as childbirth, but without the result of a baby.  She was not my favorite and I just was not a fan.

and GLEE!.  The Power of Madonna was pretty cool.  I really liked the storyline.  I liked the songs.  Daughter really liked the song with the Cheerios, Kurt and Mercedes.  She said that one was done with Madonna and Justin Timberlake.  She said it was new and she liked it! 

But LOVED GLEE!  I am glad that Rachael and Emma chose not to go through with the sex.  It does say something interesting about our society, doesn't it?  What is your take on it?

Post-It and Picture It Tuesday

Today is Picture Day and Stick-It

here at cfoxes!  So let's get to it.

Daughter and BFF enjoying a Starbucks break.

Again, Daughter, BFF & Son at our new fave restaurant, Noodles & Co.

Have a great day...

Friday Five - Gleeful

On Tuesday, the spring season of Glee begins.  I have always liked shows that mix song, dance and acting.  I loved the tv show, Fame.  I like variety shows, but they are not the same as shows like this.  I could go on and on about the good things of Glee.  But I will just do my Friday 5 as the top things I like about it.

1.  The songs that have been used have been great!  The harmony...the kids voices are amazing!

2.  The story lines are not cheezy.  When Quinn found out she was pregnant, she wasn't happy.  She cried her eyes out.  That is what most normal teens would do.

3.  I love that Jane Lynch (Sue, the Cheerios coach) is so spiteful and mean.  She is perfect in this roll!

4.  Mr. Schuester is adorable!

5.  I can watch this with my daughter and not cringe!

Speaking of my daughter, she had been having, uh..., female problems, so I took her to my OB-GYN yesterday.  I tried hard to really explain how things worked and what to expect.  She is not big on surprises like that.

Well everything went fine and we found out a few new things about her, but the dr. didn't do a full exam (thank the Lord).  So as she was getting dressed, I helped her snap her bra back together, and then she put her other things back on.  When she was pulling down her shirts, I looked at her weird.  She asked what?  I asked her how many shirts did she have on.  She said two.  "Are you sure?" I asked.

"Why?"  She asked.  I told her that it looked like three.  She started to laugh and told me that the undershirt is a tank top with extra support for your boobs.  So it looks like you have more on.  I am happy that she is having the more than less thing going on.