When I got home Friday, Owen informed me he had a swimming party to attend on Saturday and he didn't own a swim suit. Apparently he told me about the party a month ago and that's where his responsibility began and ended. After some discussion about why it was my responsibility to remember his party invite, off to Target we went Olivia, Owen and I in search of a swim suit that would satisfy all three of us. If you don't know....and why would you.....Owen's wardrobe, if left to his own shopping, would resemble that of a 60 year old man's. Case in point when Owen recently picked out a new pair of tennis shoes, and his uncle Randy saw them, he wanted all purchasing info for himself. It was the period on the sentence of Owen liking old man stuff. Now on this family shopping trip, Olivia and I were attempting to point him in the direction of youthful fun things, while Owen was in search of old man resort wear. Some of his general dislikes include:v neck t-shirts, three button t-shirts and plain t-shirts. Button down shirts as a rule seem to be a total affront to his life as well as the colors red and yellow. Since August 2010, and I'm not even lying, this was the third time he's been shopping, so we tried to take full advantage and make him try on tons of stuff. In the course of an hour he batted down most of what we found with the fully explained phrase, "I just don't like it," and so, after 20 "try ons" we left with the most youthful old man suit we could agree on. AFTER we got home from Target he told me he needed a gift for the person. My response (which shouldn't be recorded here) included my asking him why in the cat hair didn't he tell me about gifting when we were actually in the store! "Oops," he said and off we went back to get a gift card. Grrrrrr. When Saturday arrived, I stupidly assumed he knew what to take with him to the par tay. I was wrong. He did have the gift card on his person but he hadn't signed it. The cute little envelope for the gift card as well as drying off equipment were still at our house. Who goes to a swimming party without a beach towel? My son, that's who.
Since then, vacationing at home's what I've been doing, if that means scrubbing bathrooms and cleaning my 16 year old son's room. As I recall in past years on vacation, not once did I clean a b room, so I'm thinking vacationing isn't what I'm doing. On Monday Owen and I took on the task of excavating all dust, dirt and baseballs from his room. It was one of those move everything and dust every square inch of baseboards and walls. After moving the dresser by his bed, I was amazed to discover that's where he's chosen to keep ALL clean socks. Apparently drawers just aren't an efficient way of storing one's clothing. Instead, let's put them ON TOP of the dresser so they'll fall behind it and then only be discovered when a major clean up is ordered by Mom and when she moves the dresser (that he was hoping would stay in place) she discovers 800 pairs of clean socks that she washed and folded herself. My head didn't come close to exploding even for a sec.
In all the many years I've had these kids when I've offered to help clean their rooms, they've run screaming into the night as if I was coming at them with a weapon. I think, they think, I don't know where their rooms are, or the condition they're in. It seems all four of them hate cleanliness. Dust and dog hair are embraced like long lost friends.
But this was Owen's day to be in misery and surely he was. His room was like a mine field of things to step on because he likes to live on the edge by leaving multi pairs of shoes in the middle of the path to the bathroom so he can play the game, trip and fall and snap my dainty little ankle. Also, there's no need for a trash can when you have a floor on which to throw trash. As the two of us worked together to reclaim the room from it's unkempt status, I noticed he seemed to be looking for something. Finally he had to admit his wallet had been missing for over a week, and after the dismantling of his room, it wasn't found. John, Owen and I then searched other areas such as, couches, cars, bat bags, backpacks, to no avail. He even called two businesses thinking he'd left it somewhere else. No where to be found and driver's permit gone for life. He must be related to a man who forgets to take clothes on trips. Well, fast forward to last evening when I dropped him off at a friend's house and as he was getting out of the car John and I said, "Check on your wallet and call us if you find it." Three hours later, Owen texts me, he forgot to call earlier (shocking). His wallet was at his friend's house, and they never called to inform him of it. Absentmindedness seems to be an affliction of the boy. BUT, I'm happy to report his room's clean and his wallet's probably missing again since it's been 16 hours in his possession.
In other household news, last week when John saw the kitten we were babysitting he announced, "That's not a kitten, that's a teenager." I found it amusing. Much to Caitlin's chagrin little black and white kitty may be staying forever. Each morning as Caitlin's leaving for work, little kitty quickly slips out the carport door and must be chased down and put back in the house. This IS NOT an endearing quality and therefore is causing much animosity betwixt the two. Also, if it's possible, little kitty has "one up'd" Addy. The other night, he was under a stool as Addy was laying nearby his hiding place. Kitty would stick his paw out and grab Addy's foot over and over until Addy was TOTALLY freaked and removed herself from the offending situation. Since that occurrence, Addy's been subdued about our newest resident. I suspect she and Caitlin are having clandestine meetings regarding what to do about kitty. So far names for the cat include Gary and Fred. Caitlin's choice, Cannan, is because...and I quote, "He's the Canaanite to my Jew." No final decisions have been made.
This entire week Emma and Olivia are dog sitting 5 dogs, plus Addy....who's only involved as a sleep over guest.
See for yourself.
Six dogs barking in unison can really pierce the ears. Olivia told me last night that Ellie, the small one at the top left in the pic, will sit on the couch and begin to bark which causes ALL other dogs to take off barking and running through the house. Yet Ellie never leaves her perch. Hmmm. After observing this over the course of several days, Olivia suspects Ellie of creating the scenario to make all other dogs search for the thing she barked at when there was never a thing at all....while remaining in her comfy spot silently snickering at all the goof balls. Ellie's been found out by Olivia.
Yesterday, Emma's made her debut on the ULM website and since then I've looked at it about 20 times. If you didn't know....and once again why would you, Emma was chosen to be one of the students featured in the My ULM campaign on the website. If you go to ulm.edu, you'll see my lovely daughter scrolling by. Her interview was delightful to read and I thought she did a FABULOUS job. Check it out for yourself.
Which brings me to today. It's taken most of the day to write this post and reread and rewrite and now I'm sick of it and ready to be done whether there are mistakes or not. Two things I've yet to address are the family member who had major surgery yesterday but will remain nameless. I'm sooooo happy and relieved to know he's on the mend. Thanksgiving will be here soon and he needs to be ready to travel to Louisiana! God bless his healing and future health.
The other thing I haven't addressed is the weather and the hotness of it. If you don't know, it's hot as Hades outside!!
We need less degrees and bad.
People should know if you are someplace where it's cooler? I don't want to hear about it because it annoys me.
It's casserole cooking season outside.
That means it's too hot!!
And that's the end of the week so far. If anything good comes up....and I doubt it.....I'll get back to you.
Later dudes....
1 comment:
That is a SIGNATURE Ellie move. And if Grace is involved we have watched jer bark and Grace goes running and Ellie steals her bone. Little B she is. :)
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