Doth the lady protest too much?

So after 10 months on the Library's list I finally get a copy of the book, The Help. I am so excited! I got it on Friday and it is Sunday and I am on Chapter 22.

Since I am no longer in a book club I have been living vicariously through my sister and friends and what they are reading. The problem is by the time they give me a few title and I get them from the library, no ones talking about them anymore, but me. But this book still seems to be causing a buzz.

Maybe it is one of those books, like The Kite Runner or The Boy in the Striped Pajamas that tend to touch people on a deeper level. There are books that we read for book club, books we take to the beach, classic we feel we must read but I think the importance of any book is discussing it with others. I don't know how many times when I was in a book club, right after my first son was born, I struggled to get through a book by the third Thursday of the month. Sometimes I did, sometimes I did not. It was always when it was a struggle that I found discussion at book club not less important, but enticing. I would leave saying, now I have to finish this book!

One book in particular comes to mind, Memoirs of a Giesha. I struggled with that book, it felt like Senior English Lit all over again, Yuck! Then I got to book club and someone mentioned it was written by a man. Why hadn't I noticed that? Is he totally gay? How does he get such accurate details of the clothes, of make-up, of women. Then there was the night we discussed The Kite Runner. That book totally changed my life at the time. I quit a job I hated with a boss from hell because of it, and one woman said she found if trite. WHAT!

I love to read and I am devouring The Help like so many great book that I have fallen upon lately, but what I am really dying for, is the discussion. Anyone?

Landscaping adventures..

When we last left the landscaping lommox they were knee deep in do; honey do this, honey do that....

I took before and after pictures of the landscaping, and then my husband lost out camera. So not only do I not have pictures of the landscaping to show you I have also lost the pictures of recent events and the children's antics. Hopefully I have downloaded a majority of said pictures and not all are lost.

Since the landscaping project we have also hosted a guest from Colorado, my husband completed a 9 hour mountain bike race, my 7 year-old had the two best baseball games of his career, and we attended a family wedding. It's been really busy.

The kind of busy that wears you out, but send you to bed feeling full. It is nice to have good friends visit, especially when they live so far away. It is nice to see family that we see only once or twice a year. It is nice to spend the day completely and remember that we are so truly blessed.

Summer has officially started. Even though I know that tomorrow will be the true test because the guest will be gone, the activities done, and the day is uncharted I look forward to meeting it head on. Raise the main sail boys, we're off!

Summers Here!

Ah, Summer. It means something different to everyone. My seven-year-old was in tears because it means "he will never see his friends again". My four-year-old doesn't quite get it and is still telling people he has school on Monday and Tuesday. My husband gets to have a semi-normal work schedule which means we see him before 8:30 at night. What does it mean for me? More work.

Normally I would go into a humorous rant about how living with three boys can drive a woman to drink. But I am really looking forward to this summer. Before you check the blog to make sure it is the Queen of Complaining, I'm still here. But I have really missed having my seven-year-old around.

Three days into Summer vacation look for a blog about how I can't wait for school to start so I've shipped them off to the Military Academy because I know this won't last long. It's like a new romance, we are in the lust stage. The part of the relationship where you dream of all possible; long walks on the beach, stolen moments of peace, and confiding in one another.

I am dreaming of a summer filled with trips to the library for more books, science experiments, lots of crafts, baking cookies, and whole afternoons at the pool. I am dreaming of two brothers giggling and playing with each other under the tree for hours. I am dreaming of a new night time ritual where I wave my hand and say goodnight and they disappear upstairs.

A girl can dream! Can't I?

Memorial Day, not Labor Day!

How do I get myself into these things. After living in this house 6 years without landscaping my husband has decided it's time to remedy the situation. Now?

If it is not apparent from the a fore mentioned time frame, it has only taken 6 years to bother him, now I'm finally over it. But here we are on the eve of Memorial Day weekend planning the great landscape. I'm now thinking I should be planning to just escape.

Have I also mentioned in past blogs how well my husband and I work together? (Note to Microsoft: insert sarcasm font here) And for my "Windows 7" commercial I think Cameron Diaz should play me.

Considering neither of us know what the fern we're doing and my husband is now having a tight ass fit and doesn't want to - splurge - his words on mulch or annuals I don't think this is going to turn out any better than what we have right now.

Perhaps I can figure out how to put up a picture or two of the before, during, and after. If there are no after pictures, one of us didn't make it. Stay Tuned!

Why bother with beauty?

So after almost a year, it was time for a hair cut. I'm not always antsy, depending on how bad last years haircut was, I may wait another 6-12 months. But I was antsy, I have some length so in case they screwed up I could still manage my standard ponytail. My hair was so dry and split at the ends it didn't even feel like hair anymore. It felt like I was tying up a straw bale.

I know women who have had the same haircut for years, go to the same place, the same person. What a gig! Where do I sign-up? I bop around more than a 16 year-old volleyball player without her bra. Finding someone who does a good job is hard enough. Finding one who is still there a year later is impossible.

I've decided that I am going to get a Cosmetologist licence. Why not? Where else could I get paid and tipped to screw up. No where. But yet we do all the time with hairdressers. Please, can we do away with the Kate Gosselin thing - IT'S AWFUL!!!! No one looks good with their hair cut short in the back and long in the front, you look like my four-year-old cut it. My real pet peeve, cutting bangs, that fall in your eyes. Really?

Maybe my expectations are too high. I would just like to pull my hair up when I am working out, or playing with the boys, but be able to let my hair down when I go to the store and not feel like a 40 something wrinkled pasty white mess. Is that too much to ask?

Control Freak + Aniexty Disorder = Bad Parenting

My husband and I were married almost ten years before we had children. Many of those years I was not ready, all of those years my husband was not ready. I once told a very good friend of ours that I thought it was illegal for us to reproduce because we were too much alike-crazy. Knowing us both very well they laughed until beer shot out of their nose and agreed a little too wholeheartedly.

Well, we did it anyway - twice. And there are times when I go to bed thinking, my poor children. My husband is a total control freak and I have suffered with an anxiety disorder ever since I can remember.

Case in point, this weekend. I'm PMS'ing and my husband, oh hell we're both on the rag. Is that too offensive? Sorry, deal with it! Consequently nothing the children have done is right. I tell them to get out of the kitchen and he tells them to go help mom. I send them outside to play and he yells at them to get in the house and clean up.

By now you may be giggling, or calling child protective services. But anywho you are probably assuming that we are, in general, in two separate places when these miscommunication happen. Wrong!

Today while sitting next to my husband I told the kids they could put their suit on and go play in the hose. Which the 7 year-old did immediately. Laughing, giggling, soaking himself not only with water but pure joy. At which time my husband stands up and yells, "We are wasting water, turn off the hose. The ground is over saturated you can fill up a bucket that's enough water."

I asked him to back off, and not very kindly. My mother would have been appalled at the language I chose. Then asked him if his own childhood was really that bad that we had to ruin theirs completely. He shut-up, for awhile. My poor kids!!