Where, Oh Where, Has My Summer Gone?

Where, oh where, could it be??

Our "school" year officially starts on Tuesday and all I can think is: "What the hell happened to summer??" I'm not ready for it to be over! We've only had about 10 days where it's been warm enough to warrant turning on the a/c! (I can just hear my friends in the south saying SHUT-UP!) The first tomato in my garden hasn't even ripened yet! We've only been camping twice! (And a quick glance at our calendar shows me that we probably aren't going again this year). My to-do list is longer now than it was 3 months ago!

Ugh...

So here I sit, watching all of my grand plans to get my life in order this summer fly out the window. Oh sure, I've made little baby steps in the organizational arena, but not the giant leaps I had hoped for.

My house is still in shambles.

If the house was on fire and the only way out was through the window in the playroom - we'd all die.

I still have no idea what happened to the box of baby photos from when Mike "cleaned" the garage 4 months ago.

And to top it all off, my computer when PTHGUHT last weekend and I've only just gotten it working correctly again. Well, sort of. I still can't upload any photos from my camera.

This is when I wished I was a computer geek, and not just a sci-fi geek! Rodney McKay - where are you when I need you?!?


It may take me all weekend to catch up with my blogger buddies, but I promise you, I will!

SGA - RIP

Well, I was wondering what to do for my 100th post, and I guess Sci-Fi Channel and MGM made the decision for me. They cancelled Stargate-Atlantis. It may not seem like a big deal to the rest of the people out there in Blogger-land, but it was a huge deal in our little world. You see, my son and I eat, sleep, and breathe sci-fi. I started him on Star Wars and Star Trek:NG before he was even out of diapers.

And then there's my husband. Who tells everyone who'll listen that he's only a sci-fi fan out of necessity. An "adapt or die" kind of thing. That is, until SGA. This was the very first sci-fi show that he loved. That he watched religiously. That he had me record for him if he had to work so that he wouldn't miss an episode.



When I got online tonight and read the bad news, I was devastated. So was Cody. Who then ran and told Mike. Who then ran in to ask me because he was certain that Cody must have been wrong. You think we yell at the TV when we're watching a show, you should see us yell at the computer when we read they've cancelled one of our favorite shows! They are at least finishing out the season and planning some TV movies, but it's not enough.

OK, off to mourn.

I leave you with one of my favorite clips from season 1:

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday

Notice a similarity between the middle panel of the comic and the picture of my son?? Yep, we are "those" people. You know the ones. We yell at the characters on TV, in the movies (OK, we just whisper loudly at them at the theater ;) and in my son's case, characters in his computer games.

Why - you ask? I don't know. Maybe on the off chance they can hear us ;D Hey, you never know! The yelling and screaming that Mike and I did during Michael Phelps' relay race could have been what spurned him and his teammates to win gold and earn him that record breaking gold medal! It could happen! *snort*

(For the record, we did it again last night while watching the Dr. Who episode "Blink". I dare you to watch it without screaming "Don't blink!" to the people on TV!)

So, are you an "interactive" viewer, or are you one of those people who sits idly by while that poor ditsy blonde girl goes into the darkened basement where the serial killer is hiding - and you don't even try to warn her??

We've had a very strange summer. After getting a few days in the 90's in May, we quickly cooled back down and have spent most of the summer in the 70's and 80's. Not that I'm complaining! After spending the last 10 summers in Texas, California and Arizona this weather has been heaven.

It does present a unique problem, though. Namely, when your river is supplied with water from a melting snow-pack, it's too cold to swim in when it's only 75 degrees out. I mean, you can swim in it, but not without certain things shriveling. And when you have a teenage boy, they become a bit, um, wary of letting those things shrivel.

So this week when the temperature shot up to 100 degrees, we made plans to play at the river. We headed to nearby Oxbow Park (along with everyone else in town) and actually found a rather quiet spot for a picnic dinner and some water fun.





The river's pretty low (Oregon's having a drought, too) and Cody walked almost the whole way across the river before deciding to head back.



Mike and Cody hunting for crawdads.




Mike sampling the wild blackberries.


My guys!


As we were heading back to the car, we spotted this little buck peeking at us.


Tomorrow we're off for a little day trip to Ape Caves near Mount St. Helen's. Stay tuned...

Party Time!

Cody had a definite picture in his head about what he wanted for his party this year: a water fight (kids against dads) and Guitar Hero.

After everyone arrived, the kids were chomping at the bit to get wet! They set up base by the water spigot on the side of the house, while Mike and James took the spigot (and hose) at the back corner of the house.

They tried a few daring raids against the dads, only to be repelled.


Cody tried using a shield, but found it did little good...


...especially when dad has a bucket!


The guys defending their position!




The kids finally figured out that the best time to get the guys were when they were reloading.


Apparently hand-to-hand combat is sometimes necessary in a water fight!


They couldn't even keep from shooting each other while I took a picture!


After an hour and a half of water fun, the kids (that includes the big "kids" ;) came in and changed into dry clothes. We ate some lunch, then the kids headed into the family room to rock out to Guitar Hero while the adults headed to the living room for some laughs of our own.

We finally talked the kids into breaking for presents and cake.




I'd had grand plans for his cake this year, an elaborate Death Star theme. Due to my being on crutches (still), we had to settle for a store-bought cake that we then wrangled my friend Jana into decorating. Here she is, looking at Cody's new video game for inspiration.




The finished product: Cody: Rated "T" for Teen :D



After gorging themselves on cake and ice cream, they headed back to the X-Box for more video games. All total - 7 hours of fun!

Field Trip Fun

One of the great things about being laid up is that I have time to blog about some of the things that we've done lately that I hadn't gotten around to blogging about yet. Gotta look on the bright side, right?


We have a HUGE list of places in Oregon and Washington (we're right on the border) that we want to go to, but have only made it to a handful of them since moving back. One place that we finally made it to is Philip Foster Farm. Philip Foster was one of Oregon's earliest settlers, arriving with his family by ship via Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1843. He purchased the 600+ acre farm and put in a store, cabins, gristmill and more to serve those families coming over on the Oregon Trail. The farm has an 1880's farm house, replica 1840's store (complete with era toys, candy, and the like), working blacksmith shop, and an 1860's barn. They're also in the midst of building a log cabin, and I must say, I wouldn't want to be a pioneer!

The farm is staffed by volunteers, many of them homeschoolers. The gang's first stop was the rope making area, where they all tried their hand at it.

Then they headed into the barn...

where we all got to see old farm tools, household items, and early modes of transportation.

This is the garden and the store. I was hoping we'd find some cool toys to bring home, but as it turns out, we already had most of them!

The kids' favorite place was the large Lincoln logs. Bubba set out building a bunker. Natch.

The finished project.

A group of little kids where struggling to build a house. After bubba and the rest of the "big kids" got done building their projects, the little ones asked for help building their house. This meant that our kids would have to dismantle their projects, but they didn't mind.

There wasn't enough logs of the correct size to make a larger house, but they made do.

They finally got the roof on and then all of them piled inside.

We'll definitely be back!

Frivolous Meme Fun

OK, I first saw this meme over at Stace's blog, who got it from Teresa's blog, who got it from, well I don't know where ;D I thought it was cute, I'm bored, so here ya' go!

There is only one rule: you Google your first name with the word "needs" behind it and post the results. Here are a few of the things "Carri(e) Ann" supposedly needs (I had to add the "e" to the end, as nothing came up without it):


1. Carri Ann needs to find a normal friend. What??? And give up my wacky ones? Never! Besides, a normal person wouldn't know what to do with me.

2. Carri Ann needs to wear a track suit. Really? Does anybody need to wear a track suit? I think not.


3. Carri Ann needs to focus. Yes, I do. I swear I'm a bit ADD as I start one thing, then get distracted and move on to something else, ad infinitum.

4. Carri Ann needs a new wardrobe. Hmmm, I don't know if I need one, but if someone wanted to buy me one I'd take it!

5. Carri Ann needs to go! Yes she does. On vacation.


6. Carri Ann needs a burger stat and maybe she won't be so hateful. Hmm, I don't know that I'm hateful, but I could always go for a veggie burger and fries from Burgerville.



7. Carri Ann needs prayer for finances, peace and strength. Is there anyone who doesn't need this??

8. Carri Ann needs some midol, and she needs to share with Len. Gee, I didn't think my PMS was that bad this month, but apparently I'm wrong! And poor Len needs some, too.



Come on, try it. See what you "need".

Update from Gimpyland

First, I'd like to thank everybody for their concern and well-wishes! And thanks Kerry for the e-card that you sent. It made my day ;D

Now for the update:

Well, my foot is still swollen and I'm still on crutches. Which wouldn't be so bad if I had any coordination or balance. But I don't. Which leaves me looking like a pinball bouncing off the walls as I go down the hall. Quit laughing! And explains why I have yet to venture outside on the dang things. Until tomorrow, anyway, as Cody and I both have Dr.'s appointments. I'm just hoping I can get home with no more injuries than I'm going in with.

Which leads me to my other problem. I AM BORED OUT OF MY FREAKIN' MIND!!! Oh sure, lying around watching movies sounds fun unless that's about all you're capable of doing, and then it gets really boring, really fast. Since Thursday I have watched the entire 9th season of Stargate SG-1, at least 6 movies, and countless TV shows. I've also read 3 books and 2 magazines, signed Cody up for an internet class, and ordered stuff from Rainbow Resource Catalog, Cafe Press and Amazon. Being laid up + the internet + a credit card = trouble ;D

In the midst of my incapacity I'm also trying to plan Cody's 13th birthday party, which is on Saturday. Thank goodness that I can order stuff off of the internet, as I hadn't made it out for any gifts yet. On the plus side, trying to figure out how to prep for a party when I can't be upright for more than 10 minutes without my foot swelling is keeping my mind off of the fact that my baby will be a teenager this weekend. Ack!

On the plus side, my guys have done all the laundry (and *without* dressing for a fish orgy - so bonus!), the dishes, gone grocery shopping, the bank, and helped with every meal. So it's not all bad ;D

WARNING!

When one of these...



falls on one of these...




you get to use a pair of these...



Yep, that's right, I dropped my laptop on my foot. And now I'm gimpy. After 2 1/2 hours in the urgent care and 3 x-rays later, the best the doctor could give me was "I don't think it's broken, but we have an x-ray specialist coming in and I'm going to have him look at your x-rays just to be sure. We'll call you if we change our minds." Gee, thanks.

And of course there's *tons* of things that I need to get done, and am now incapable of doing myself. Like housework. My guys are great when it comes to waiting on me, but the look of shock and horror on their faces when I pointed out that they would now be responsible for things like the laundry was priceless ;D