Back to School 2010 Edition

So it's the first day of school...again! It's feeling a lot shorter in between the school years so I'm gonna need to make sure I'm present every day. Otherwise I might miss the day that Layla grows three inches (because I swear it happens overnight) or the day that Gage has to shave more than just his chin and sideburns (because I still don't know when the kid started getting facial hair).


Somebody looks thrilled to be getting up at 6am again.




And somebody is thrilled to wear new clothes.

Football for Dummies

So apparently Gage is going to stick with this football thing (after spending over $400 so far he damn well better!) and this means I need to learn a little more about the game. This is what I know for sure.

Touchdowns...I know what they are and how many points they get you.

Field goals...again, I know what they are and what they're worth.

Tackles...seen 'em.

QB...yep, I know who that is.

That's it folks. Gage is an Outside Linebacker. Not exactly sure what that means, what he does, or who does what to him, if anything.

I need intensive training so that I don't sound like a dumb ass when I cheer...hopefully not at the wrong time or for the wrong team.

My collarbone hurts

So, if you want to know what it's like to ride with a new driver today is your lucky day.

It's not like I thought it would be...at all. It is terrifying and exciting at the same time. Terrifying would be when he brakes so hard that my seat belt locks and tries to break my collarbone. Exciting would be when he doesn't yell at me but instead takes my advice and doesn't stop in the middle of an intersection.

Do you have any idea how hard it is not to slam your feet into the dash and jam your hands into the ceiling when you think he's not going to stop in time? It's embarrassing. Other people laugh at those kinds of things.

Now let's get to the part where he learns to drive a stick. Just one quick story...

Backing out of the driveway, no problem. Our driveway is a hill so he throws it in neutral and glides down. At the bottom he puts it in first and tries to go. Too much gas + not enough clutch = crazy loud screeching tires on our brand new streets. It also means the neighbor across the street yells to him that he's going to leave marks on the street which leads to Gage getting out of the car. He absolutely refused to try again even though the neighbor was totally kidding and laughing like crazy. I asked him 20 times to get back in and try again but considering that I was laughing so hard he probably couldn't understand me it didn't persuade him.

So there are "good" times, "scary" times, "pee your pants" times, and "Nick will be riding with you today" times.

Do Grown Up's Wear Hot Pink?

So I went on a mission this morning to find new running shoes thinking I might have trouble deciding on just one pair.

Oh poor naive me.

Unless you want pink or purple prominently displayed all over the shoe, any kind of florescent craziness or clear rubber soles or basically anything Layla would love...out of luck!

Oh and the clear rubber soles that were beyond hideous were $160 and I may have laughed out loud at the poor Foot Locker girl.

I came home with a very cute pair of Nike's...for Layla.

Amazon kinda sorta didn't disappoint if you think looking through pages and pages of some of the strangest shoes I've ever seen is fun. Eventually (like an hour later) I found a pair of New Balance that weren't too dumb.

Shopping used to be fun. Getting old sucks.

Milestone

So it's another milestone day here. Gage got his permit today. Now I have the perfect tool to make sure his grades stay up. No study = no drivey.

Ahh...bribery! A parent's best friend.

Powerless

So it stormed again this past weekend. No big surprise...we are in Minnesota. I don't mind storms. We just go to the basement and hang out for a bit until it passes. No biggie. Until the power goes out.

At first I'm all, Ooh, we get to light candles and hunker down for a little while.

After an hour I'm all, What the hell! Why don't they have it fixed yet?!?

After three hours I'm all, How in the hell am I supposed to sleep without the white noise of my fan?!? And oh yeah, it's hotter than hell in here.

Couldn't sleep. Someone said the power would be back at 1:30 a.m. That someone was drunk on margaritas and fell asleep in a chair by the bonfire. NOT a reliable source.

When I woke up at I have no idea what time...still no power. Do you know what there is to do when there's no power. Abso-frickin-lutely nothing. So we went to a water park.

Thank God for water parks and Thank God for the Xcel repair truck that was on our street when we got back.

P.S. I heart air-conditioning

REDO!!!

So Layla had to have a boring and not very girlie room with green walls and ugly trim for years. Here is the best before shot I could find.



After three days of cleaning, prepping, and painting she now has the room she wanted!







I hope she loves it as much as she says she does because I'm not doing that again for a LONG time!