Someone please buy this house in a hurry so I don't have to take the dog and baby for rides in the car all month long

I'm certain that in the depths of hell, Lucifer holds a Sharpie in one hand and a roll of packing tape in the other and demands his minions to "declutter" hades whilst children and the world's hairiest dog run amok.

No, we haven't moved yet--we're just getting clearing, clearing, dumping, packing and otherwise staging the house to appear that six people and a dog don't live here.

And it's not even on the market yet. I can't friggin' wait to start showing the house with 4.2 minutes notice to clean up after Jessie and Jingle and get all of us out of the house while strangers criticize the color of the drapes. I am going to be even a more raving lunatic than usual.

Luckily, we haven't been around too much to mess things up too badly with all of the partying going on. There are many events and by the time we actually make it up to Nashville we will be suffering from gout and cirrhosis of the liver. But it sure is fun and is a nice distraction from the endless home repair.

School begins for the rest of the clan, and I'm not even going to pretend that I will be going back to the gym or writing anything other than "Misc. sports memorabilia" on cardboard boxes in hell.

Save me.....

About that announcement...

I packed my first box today.

It was small and only contained a few children’s books, but it was the first physical acknowledgement that we will actually be moving soon.

When, exactly, I don’t know.

There is still a lot of life in Tampa to live--a house to prep and sell, semesters for three children to start and complete. And of course, we actually have to a place in Nashville to move into.

But we are excited. And sad. It’s a wonderful place here with wonderful friends and I’ve called it home for the last 10 years. Three of my children were born here. Suburban Diva surfaced. I launched a pretty fun career. I’ve met lifelong friends and learned life lessons. So while the ultimate decision to move was made easy for us by the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before us, the actual leaving is not going to be.

So one box down, only a couple thousand more to go.

What's new?

I don't really have a whole lot of words of my own today, so I'm going to leave you with some written by others to fill you in on the latest news and happenings in our household.

From The St. Pete Times.

And from The Tennessean.

It was also in USA Today.


That's what's new here.


(P.S. Here's what's new at SuburbanDiva.com including a $100 giveaway from CSNstores.com)

First Day of High School

Maybe in high school they'll teach him how I can turn photos the right way on blogger.

Fashion disclaimer: it's a uniform.

Our ride for the week

Ticking clock

We've returned again from yet another weekend o' fun.

Packing a summer for 6 into the last two weeks of it has been challenging, but somehow we've managed it. Because in less than a week, a high-schooler officially resides here.

This is incomprehensible to me. I'm pretending I know what to do as I scurry off to physicals and football practice, uniform stores and Office Depot. I clean out his room from clothes that don't fit even though they are practically new, and buy yet another new pair (or three) of shoes.

I love that he's here at this high school place and hate it all at once. I love who he is becoming--who he has become and I miss him already. We have had such a wonderful summer saying farewell to Middle School that I just can't imagine it ending yet.

Sunday Dinners

So I've decided to incorporate a new feature on this blog entitled: Sunday Dinners. This may or may not be about dinners and/or on Sundays, but it will be a post about food in some fashion or another. I realize that the pursuit of food is a big part of my life and I don't talk about it nearly enough.

This Sunday's menu was a typical one around here: something new from the latest edition of Bon Appetit, something from last month's issue, an old favorite, and something totally crazy.

I chose a lamb kebob with mint pesto from the August edition, and changed it up just a little since I thought I had coriander seed but didn't, and roasted the vegetables alongside rather than on the skewers. This was absolutely delicious, and that mint pesto held up beautifully against the lamb and really made the dish.

Alongside I served this pasta salad with green olivadafrom July, and an Asian cole slaw from my recipe book of long ago. For dessert, I tried twice to make a German chocolate cake from scratch and apparently succeeded on the second try, but since I don't like coconut, I'll have to take everyone's word for it.

I'd like to say we paired this all with a nice wine, but we ended up going through seven bottles of various and sundry reds--none of which were the same, so perhaps that was the failure of the evening but no one ended up caring in the end for those seven-bottle reasons.

More thoughts on the spill

I've been doing a lot of thinking since Tuesday's discussion on TheMotherhood.com on the oil disaster, and as the first raindrops of Tropical Storm Bonnie start falling outside, I can't help but think of it more.

We're not expected to get much from this storm here in Tampa because the bulk of the wind is headed straight toward the spill and no one knows exactly what that means. Or at least not many are speculating on record.

And that's the sort of thing I learned from Tuesday's call--this is an unmitigated disaster, meaning no one really knows what is going on. While the focus has been on capping it (as it should) and getting billboard money for tourism (ridiculous at this point) much of what is going on remains unexamined.

We spoke to an official from the NWF, Jaime Matyas, who is helping with the efforts to save the wildlife. Remember when I said that while we were on Palm Island we saw much more wildlife in the water than ever? That wasn't my imagination-- the methane in the water is sucking up all of the oxygen making it impossible for sealife to survive in these "dead zones" and pushing many species inland.

A blogger that I have met in real life, Trisha Haas from MomDot.com took these photos around Pensacola Beach a few weeks ago. While the tar balls are frightening, to me that mysterious algae is more troubling. Is it from the dispersants? A by-product of something? Is it helpful or harmful and what happens when a fish eats it?

There are others trying to document the wetlands and mainstream publications trying to document BP's corporate recklessness.

But I think it's our job to document, report, talk, write and help as well.

There isn't an anchor organization that is leading up the clean-up efforts. There are just a lot of individuals and small charities working on a great big problem.

For me, I will be volunteering for the NWF's Coastal Volunteer Surveillance Team. At first I didn't think I was qualified, but I have eyes and I care--the only qualifications that matter.

And I will also be writing and posting and sharing and yelling.

Because the more information we get out there, the better.

(If you missed the talk, you can read the transcript here.)

First Haircut

Some 3 year-olds can look like Dora....




Mine looks like Doris Day.

Let's talk about this mess and what we can do about it

Tomorrow I'm going to be co-hosting a talk over on TheMotherhood.com regarding the oil spill crisis and what we as Gulf coast residents or just plain concerned humans can do.

If you are interested, please join me and many others for this open discussion at The Motherhood at noon, July 20th. It's free and open to all.

http://www.themotherhood.com/talk/show/id/62029

Home again

I'm really not good at blogging while on vacation.

I have the best of intentions--I pack up the laptop with thoughts of writing in hotel rooms after long days of travel, but truth be told the computer rarely makes it out of the car. I think I turned it on once in the last 10 days.

But when was prose going to fit in on a 3500 mile road trip with four kids across fourteen states? Zactly. By the time my head hit interstate sheets, I was fast asleep exhausted from driving for 12 hour stretches.

But I wouldn't have done it any differently. We headed out last Monday and went to Chattanooga for a first stop on the way to Detroit. I was thinking of the Chattanooga Choo Choo or some touristy equivalent, but the boys decided they wanted to see a Lookouts game so we headed there instead.


We finished our trek to Detroit the next day and spent the next couple with my Dad doing Detroit things like lunch downtown at National Coney Island and the Science Center. We ate dinner at Hockeytown before taking in a Tiger game which was grrr-eat! (Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

On to Akron, Ohio so we could be front and center for LeBron's decision and feel the collective pain of the city. (Actually, that was pure coincidence as we visited my sister and her beautiful family.) We had fun visiting the Football Hall of Fame and I started to get the distinct feeling that sports was going to be the dominant theme of this road trip whether I planned it that way or not.


Next we drove out to Long Island for big family doings. Very fun. Then it was back south by way of Washington D.C. and South Carolina. We got drenched at the Washington Monument but it didn't seem to matter.

People say I'm crazy to spend 24/7 in the car for a couple of weeks with my kids.

But I just got to spend 24/7 with my kids for a couple of weeks, and that is crazy good.

Movie night

Simply to enjoy an evening out and not for review purposes, I actually got tickets from a radio station last weekend for a sneak preview of Despicable Me.

So the kids and I braved the rain and crowds for Twilight, and saw this funny movie. It was considerably better than Saturday's trip to Toy Story 3 where 2/3 of the family had to be carried out to the car in fits of sobs. (I was one.)

Here is our review set to go on Whoa Momma next week:


“Mom, that was sooo funny!”
~A. age 6

“That was so beast.”
~M. age 10

At least these two critics were unanimous: Despicable Me is a very funny movie.

Although not in theaters until July 9, we got a sneak peek of the new animated film starring Steve Carrel recently, and it certainly was a big crowd pleaser to the packed theater.

The story is about a fading super villain trying to commit the world’s greatest crime and out-do his younger up-and-coming nemesis. Seeing his opportunity with three young girls (Miranda Cosgrove) selling cookies, Dr. Gru adopts the orphans and finds that he may be outmatched when it comes to parenthood.

The movie earns its PG rating with a few derrière and toilet jokes, but overall it’s pretty harmless. It starts off a little slow, but the laughs come soon enough, especially when we meet Dr. Gru’s “minions,” who look like little yellow Tic-Tacs, but are much funnier.

It’s a bit Addams Family-esque, (Dr. Gru looks like Uncle Fester with a Boris and Natasha accent) but the dark parts are fleeting and replaced with jokes and slapstick stunts. The plot was a touch predictable, but it is a fun story and the 3-D effects and animation are impressive.

That, and Steve Carrel is beast.

Back. Reluctantly.

Well, we are back on the mainland and might I say, I hate the mainland. At least in comparison to islands.

For the last 8 days we floated in the Gulf of Mexico. The big, beautiful, 90+ degree turquoise water held us all day every day of our vacation. The weather was beautiful, the company, even better.



We saw a lot more wildlife this trip than in years past. Occasionally, there would be a dolphin or a manatee siting over the week, but this time we saw several every day. These dolphin (photo by Michelle) were so close we could have touched them right off the beach.



The manatee were out as well, and on the last day one came up and nudged us rather creepily while we were hanging out in the water. I ran up and got some cabbage we took out to feed them and the two big ole walrus's ate it up in a few minutes while we watched. Scrapping the Asian salad we were going to have for dinner was worth the show.

We ate dinner late every night so we could watch sunsets from Shark's Tooth Beach. This is one of my favorite things on the planet. We found hundreds of teeth this trip, and even saw some sting rays in the water. FIsh were abundant and so were the turtles, shore birds and pelicans.

I'm not sure if the oil spill had anything to do with the abundance of wildlife we saw this year or not, but it certainly reminded us all of what we stand to lose from this disaster. This was our 6th trip to the island, and I can't imagine what the 7th will look like if things don't change soon.

So I leave you with what it looks like today--unspoiled except for the visitors like us who get to enjoy it.

Picnic!

As the sun sets on our wonderful magical week at the beach, I wanted to jump back in and tell you where I'll be tomorrow.



Read about the details to the Tampa Better-Than-a-Picnic Picnic here, and be sure to join me for free food and fun while we help with the efforts toward saving our native wildlife from the oil spill.

You don't have to bring a donation, but if you care to contribute, check out SaveOurSeabirds.org wish list for items we will be collecting for their organization.

Hope to see you tomorrow at 11:30 in Ruskin.

My human vending machine

Well, this was a new one.

One week ago, Jesso swallowed a coin. And by "swallowed," I mean she literally ate it. I heard her chewing metal, looked over and asked what she had in her mouth. She swallowed, gulped and struggled to get it down, but then finally after she said, "I have a penny in my belly."

And so, the penny pursuit began.

Of course, the actual ingestion occurred at 5:05 p.m.--just in time for my frantic call to go directly to the nurse's line at All Children's rather than my pediatrician's office so I got the added humiliation of that aspect in addition to being a moron. After determining that she wasn't choking, they told me that we would just "have to let it pass" in three days.

That's grossspeak for going through her leavings searching for a coin the same color as her, er, leavings.

Three days came and went. It was a weekend, so I gave it until Monday before I called back. Then Tuesday because I really didn't want to call. And then Wednesday came, and still no sign, so I took her back.

If after a week of stool samples the home edition doesn't yield any results, then an X-ray is prescribed to see where the foreign object has lodged. So we went to the hospital and got the insurance shake-down before going up to radiology where a team of doctors looked for a penny in Jesso's belly.

After 2 hours of waiting and testing and talking, the X-ray was clear.

Lincoln had left the building.

Sometime over the weekend, it "had passed" and escaped the radar of my plastic fork and gag reflex.

I think we just spent 1000 Washingtons looking for that Lincoln.

Packing light

I have an extensive and quite detailed packing list for our upcoming vacation to the beach. In fact, it's a list that I save on the computer from year to year and sometimes I open it in January just to cheer myself up. It's the only list I have such a powerful feeling for, until this one.

This is the list of things I won't be taking to our beach vacation this year.

1. Diapers. And wipes and swim diapers. Because for the first time in 15 years, all of my children are out of diapers. At the same time. The thought of not packing Pampers makes me almost as happy as my packing list.

2. Clothes. Well, a lot less of them anyway. I usually come home with stacks of clothes that we never wear because we live in our bathing suits. So everyone is getting an outfit in case it rains and their pajamas.

3. My flat-iron. In six years of this particular trip, I've never once used it. My hair is on vacation, too. (I list this as an apology to my friends as well--it's 80's hair time, ladies!)

4. Closed-toed shoes. If ain't a flip-flop, it's not welcome in the suitcase.

5. Negative energy. I'm going to my favorite place with my favorite people and so there's no room for anything but happiness.

I'm ready to go now. Too bad our reservations aren't.

Check-up

You don't know how long you've been tip-toeing until you finally let your heels touch the ground.

You don't know how long you've held your breath until you let it out at last.

You don't know how tense your muscles have grown until you finally allow them to relax.

You don't realize how long and hard you've worried when suddenly you're told you don't have to anymore. And you can believe it.

After a simple EKG, today I walked flat-footed.

I exhaled.

I dropped my shoulders.

I let a big worry go to make room for a whole lot of gratitude.

Happy Summer.

The end is near

Tomorrow is the last day of school and I would know that even if we were not counting it down by the millisecond by these tell-tale signs...

I'm seriously considering breathing tomorrow but only after an afternoon cardiologist appointment.

Text this

Please consider texting "WILDLIFE" to 20222 to donate $10 to help oil-infected wildlife through the NWF. I just did.

Here's more info from the
NWF.

Confirmation Day