Summertime...and the livin' is...easy?

I remember just a few weeks ago I sang the praises of summer...all of the things I love about summer.  I remember how eagerly I anticipated the slower pace of life, how I soaked up the sun's warmth like a lizard on a rock...well.  Fast forward to today, June 22, I believe day 2 of the official start of summer, and I am trying to organize my storage building, sweating like a glass of ice water on my mom's good dining room table, and wishing I had had the foresight to gather some cardboard boxes and trash bags before I plunged into the murk that is known as Kendrick excess.  I hauled hoes, pool noodles, plastic jack-o-lanterns, and a badminton net out of cinderblock purgatory, with two phones, a pair of scissors, and the extra set of house keys stuffed in my pockets.  My shorts were too tight and in between fussing at myself for not losing any weight yet and cursing my husband's penchant for saving every lawn tool, broken or not, that we have ever owned, I answered calls and tried to take care of prayer requests for the email prayer chain and set out the slip-n-slide for my kids and two of their friends.  I safety-pinned a make-shift bathing suit on a 5-year-old, prayed with Will and Emma because they could not play on the slip-n-slide without becoming physically abusive, and replaced Wii remote batteries for Jack and our friend, Jesse.  At about 4:30, Justin stuck his head in said cinderblock purgatory and asked how it was going.  Then he said it felt like it was 110 degrees in there and asked if I had any water to drink.  I said no because I had told myself I would quit at 5:00 and I was almost there and I didn't want to take the time to get a drink.  He went and got me some water and asked me not to have a heat stroke.

Ahhhh...summer.

Weekend Excitement

So, I was folding clothes in the laundry/guest bedroom and one of the kids runs in and says, "You are NOT going to believe this!" and then runs back out.  The other two kids and I follow him (it was Will) outside and there, sprawled across the driveway, is one of the oak trees.  Completely toppled over.
Apparently a disease had infected the root system of the tree and they had rotted underneath the tree.  To look at the tree, you could never tell - it looked perfectly healthy.  My friend Suzanne and I were talking about it on Sunday and she said, "Oh that's a sermon illustration waiting to be used."  Only pastor's wives have these types of conversations.

Anyway, we're just thankful that no one was hurt; Jack had been practicing learning how to ride his bike without training wheels in this very spot about 30 minutes before it happened.  The other exciting part was that this tree's root system was bound up with another oak's, just a couple of feet away.  We were afraid that this still-standing tree might be ready to come down without any warning as well, so today we watched as they de-limbed and chopped up the trunk of the second oak tree.  Now the area beside the house which used to be so shady and nice to park under is a barren wasteland.  Well, at least we're all safe.  The kids climbed all over the bobcat and the bucket truck tonight.  Then all of the folks in the Mt. Calvary exercise class came across the parking lot to get a gander at the tree.  It is something to see.  One elderly lady in our church told Justin she remembered those trees being big when she was a little girl.  I guess if there's disease in the soil, there's no point in planting a replacement tree.  I feel like something green needs to go in it's place, but I guess it will have to be something green in a pot, which can't quite take the place of two 60-foot tall majestic oaks.

Confessions of a Selfish Mother

Yesterday, I used a merchandise credit at Belk's to buy myself some flip flops. While my kids ran up and down the escalators in the center of the store, I leisurely tried on different styles, standing on one foot and then the other, to find just the right shoes I wanted.

The reason this is a confession of a selfish mom is because a) I didn't really need flip-flops. In fact, I had perfectly good ones on my feet when I walked into the store. They were just showing their age a bit. The other reason b) is that the merchandise credit that I used to buy the flip-flops was from returning some shirts that my mother-in-law had bought for the boys. Yes, I am stealing money from my children to buy myself frivolous footwear.

They were totally worth it.  In fact, they are on my feet right now and it makes me happy just to look down at them.

1st Official Monday of Summer 2010

The first official school-free weekday of summer is...wet.  Very wet.  Thunderstorms.

That picture has nothing to do with today.  I just like it.  And that's where we were at the beginning of last summer - Wilmington!  We are too swamped to even leave Sparkle City.  Everyone left for Memorial Day Weekend and Jack said the only fun thing to do today is play with a paper clip.  Pretty sad.

We went to Blockbuster (I know, we're the only people that still use Blockbuster) and rented the 1st Harry Potter movie, The Sandlot, and The Adventures of Super Mario Brothers III.  All of my favorites.  I just got finished playing Monopoly-The Clone Wars edition because Jack thought he might lose and wanted to shut it down before I turned the corner on all of my mortgaged properties.

We got the house.  Yippee!  I thought I would be on cloud nine when it all ended, but the whole process was so long and emotional that I am just thankful to not invest time and thought into it.  At least not until the closing, which is July 30.  Even though we have a contract on the house, I will not truly believe it is ours until we hold the keys and all of our stuff is sitting in boxes in all of the various rooms.  Remember my great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaddy is Thomas, the disciple who doubted.  We have a lot in common.

Why I Hate Honors Day

Honors Day...that ancient grade-school tradition wherein we applaud the academically-, artistically-, and athletically-gifted cream of the crop of children, and expect the middle of the pack children to sit still, applaud when appropriate, and try not to fidget. 

The fact of the matter is that those gifted and talented children have usually been praised and reminded of their academic superiority throughout the year...do we need to have a day dedicated to them?  And what are we telling the other 95% of their classmates by singling out this little bit of their population for recognition?  I don't see how Honors Day helps anyone.

Don't mind me, I'm just grumpy.  We still are in house negotiation issues.  I thought we would know today whether we could buy the house that we finally decided we liked the best of all the billions we say, but the sellers are still thinking about it.   Thinking is overrated, I say!  Just sell us the house at a decent price and be glad you are done with it.  But I can't talk to them, everything has to go through our realtor who talks to the sellers' realtor who talks to them.  Justin said it's a little like playing the gossip game in school.  Who knows what the message looks like after it has gone through so many hands? 

Once I abolish Honors Day, my next goal will be to get rid of realtors.  They once were a necessary evil, but with the advent of the internet, they need to go sell used cars or be telemarketers.  I hope none of you are realtors.  Or used car salesmen.  Or telemarketers.  I probably should stop now.

An Ode to Summer

I love to be hot.  In contrast to my husband, who hates hot, I soak up warmth like a cold-blooded lizard on a rock.  I can feel the sun beating down on me right now, just thinking about it.
I also love having my kids with me during the summer.  Remind me I said that mid-July.
I love going to the beach, and now that our kids aren't terrified of the ocean (big scary waves! take cover in the dunes!), they are fun to be with at the beach.  We make dribble castles, look for shells, make life difficult for ghost crabs, and swim in the ocean.  Yippee!

I love swimming in the pool, I love wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops every day, I even like vacation Bible school.  Kinda.
I love going on trips! I love camping in the mountains near a loud, rushing river.  I love hearing the crickets and as summer wears on, the cicadas.  Jack hates them and always asks me to close the windows when I open them at night to hear the night bugs.  Which reminds me, I love lightning bugs.  And grilling out.  And baseball.  And fireworks.  And home-grown veggies.  I just don't like canning them.

This summer if all goes as planned, we will be moving to a new house.  I do not like moving.  But it's exciting to buy a new house!  I will try to fan the excitement flame when I'm packing bed linens and dishes into cardboard boxes while my kids whine about being bored.  I will put them to work if they whine.  I will put them to work if they don't whine.  I love them, but they're soft.  They need to work! And read.  And keep up with their math facts.

Fifteen years ago today...

I said, "I do" to my sweet hubbie!  When I met him in college, I thought he was goofy and not cool enough for a hot mama like myself (I am laughing at myself right now for ever thinking that someone was not "cool enough" for me, but I have to tell the truth).

The first time I ever saw him, I was handing him a check for players' tickets to the Auburn - Georgia game at Georgia.  As I was writing his name on my check - and this again is the truth - I thought, "That's a nice name.  Justin Kendrick."  It seemed balanced, pleasant to the ear.  Little did I know...

My sister and I rode in the trunk (I guess all of the seats were taken.  Or maybe he was really particular about who rode inside his car.) of his Grand Am up to ... oh I can't remember now, but it was the Panhellenic HQ where the powers that be would announce important things. Cater Hall, maybe? Justin and his roommate Ed ended up chauffeuring various Chi Omegas around because we never wanted to give up our parking spots close to the dorm.  That particular night the announcement was the finalists for Top 20 Miss Auburn.  I was probably the only finalist riding in the open trunk of some random boy's car while he listened to Snoop Dogg's classic rendition of Gin & Juice ("With my mind on my money and my money on my mind...everybody sing it now!).  I remember we had to hold the trunk top up or it would come crashing down on our heads every time he hit a bump.

Justin and Ed would come over to the dorm and play Nertz, an interactive speed solitaire where everyone has their own deck of cards and chaos reigned.  He farted one time and it stunk up the room so bad we went down to the lobby and played there.  That's probably when I fell in love with him.

To be fair, he has told me in later years that the first time we kissed, my breath smelled so bad he had to keep himself from gagging.  Well, he didn't say that part about gagging, but he did say it was pretty horrible.  I do have horrible breath.  That's why I chew so much gum.  Maybe I should start brushing my teeth.

He was friends with Sam before he was friends with me, and Sam said they would run together at night at the track and he would ask about me.  Her roommate had a huge crush on him and she would come too and practice tumbling passes while they ran (she was trying out for cheerleading).  In fact, she was one of two good friends who had crushes on him.  There was some tension in the dorm, girls!  He only had eyes for me, though.  Of course, I didn't know that then.

Our first date we went to see Schindler's List.  Maybe that's why, fifteen years later, I only want to watch rom-coms now (romantic comedies...rom-coms...isn't that a word?).

He cooked me catfish almondine with green beans on one of our dates.  I should remind him that he can cook!  He said later that he was on the phone with his mom walking him through it the whole time (the dinner prep, not the date).

I think he fell in love with me when he saw my bookshelf (literally, my bookshelf.  That's not a euphemism.  Get your mind out of the gutter).  Weighty theological tomes...this girl must be a keeper!

Happy Wedding Anniversary, Sweetie!