Six Months

Ummm...
Where to start?...

Six months.
The light bulb post.
I don't think I proved my point with my hubby.
There's currently 2 bulbs in our family room out.
They've been out for months.
There's 5 more still working.
So I suppose he thinks we're good for a few more months.

Six months.
A couple of hard decisions.
Three birthdays...the boys.
One anniversary...19 years!
(We bought our very first bedroom set.
A queen size bed even.
I feel so grown-up.)
New jobs for Ryan and me.
(Ryan is marketing Carlos O' Kellys.
I'm teaching preschool part time.)
The busiest, strangest summer on record.
(Two trips to the Chicago area,
a trip to Phoenix,
two trips to Oklahoma,
two trips to Kansas City,
a trip to Minnesota,
and we just threw in a trip to Texas over Labor Day weekend.
All by car.
I'm choosing not to add up the gas bill for all that.
And days upon days of rain.
So only one trip to the pool.)
A high school student.
(What?
I'm not old enough for this.
Certainly I'm still in my 20's, right?)

Six months.
They all look so big.
Life.
It keeps moving.

Summer

So much time has gone by that I hardly know where to begin.

Nearly every day I say to myself:
I'm going to blog today.
Just one picture.
Just one sentence.

Then another day goes by.
And I've done nothing.
Well, actually... I've done tons.
Just no blogging.

So here's an attempt to catch-up on our summer.

There's been lots of sports.

There's been a good-bye.

Ezra's best friend.

Whose mom is one of my best friends.

There's been a visit from Lara.

And her brother.

And her best friend.

There's been a wedding.

With a gorgeous venue.

A gorgeous bride (my cousin).

And an adorable, but petrified, little boy.

There's been a vacation.

With maybe some teenage drama.

Maybe some irritated parents.

Maybe some whiny kids.

Maybe a lot of sweat.

But, in the end, a whole lot of fun.

There's been time on the farm.

Grandpa bought Jake work boots.

And he now drives a tractor.

How did that happen?

There's been a new baby cousin.

Zeeke Nevada.

Just born yesterday.
Jake refused to hold him.
So did Jobe.

There's been scraping and painting.

We finally gave up.

And hired some help.

I'm loving the new look!

I'll show you the finished product soon.

There's been imitating a giraffe.

And.

Apparently.

There's been plenty of holding our wee-wee.

In public places.

At the zoo.

At the Alamo.

Nice.

At least he appears to be embarrassed by it.

And at least he didn't do it at the wedding.

Ha!

So, there's our summer.

Kinda'.

I'm exhausted.

And we still have school supplies to buy.

Which is more exhausting than anything else we've done.

Bleh!

Not looking forward to school this year.

One week from today.

My baby starts school.

There will be weeping.

Life at the Entz's

This summer has been...
I don't even know the word for it...
Unusual.

Just under one month until our exchange student gets here.
There is sooo much to do.
I'm beginning to panic.
I'm good at that.
I made a list of everything to do before August 12.
Just stuff that needs to be done in the house.
20 things.
This doesn't include all the appointments, clinics, daily stuff.
The daily stuff really gets in the way.
Plus, we are leaving for a vacation/wedding in a little over two weeks.
We'll be gone for 9 or 10 days.
We'll get back 3 days before Lara comes.
So the house needs to be nearly ready before we leave.

I finally finished planting flowers Saturday.
We never got a garden in.
I HATE that.

Oh, and Ryan decided to buy a "new" car.
We took his car to get some work done.
It was going to cost $900.
He'd just been waiting for a reason to find a new ride.
This was it.
So suddenly this past weekend we were car hunting.
You have no idea how much I despise car shopping.
I think I wasn't always nice.
Sorry, babe!
But I am happy for him.
He's been living with sporadic air conditioning for a couple of years now.
And he drives 35 miles one way to work.
That's not fun.
Not here in Kansas anyway.
He, of course, took pictures.

Old car, new car comparison.
Pretty fancy looking ride, huh?
He got a good deal on it.
He's funny about it.
Wants to drive it any chance he gets.
Brookie loves it.
She went for a ride with him Saturday night.
They took it down Main St.
Rolled down their windows.
And looked at their reflection in the store windows.
They thought it looked pretty tough.
Brookie said everyone was looking at them.
Because their car was so cool.
I love that she was so excited for her daddy.

Now I'm off to clean my house.
I was sick yesterday, remember?
Amazing how quickly things go down hill.
Then I have more painting to do.
Been doing a lot of painting.
Baseboards.
Lots and lots of baseboards.
In the garage.
Where I sweat.
A lot.
Pray for my sanity.

Just Letting You Know...

I'm still here.

I thought there would be more time to blog this summer.
Oh, silly, silly me.
We have been going like mad.
I haven't taken pictures in days.
This is only the fourth time I've been on the computer.
Not today.
In nearly a week.
That's just crazy.

We have VBS this week.
It starts at 8:30.
In a town 20 minutes away.
I'm teaching.
Also picking up two of the kids' friends.
And dropping off Jobe at Grandma's.
Which means we are leaving the house before 7:30.
In the morning.
Insane.
Isn't summer supposed to be for sleeping in?

We had a soccer tourney last weekend.
One this weekend.
Then we are done with soccer.
Until August.
Not counting soccer clinics.

I still don't have a garden in.
******************************
Ok.
All that above the line was written on Thursday.
I got interrupted.
Haven't been on the computer since.

The second soccer tourney is over.
It was HOT.
No shade.
Close to 100 degrees.
But still fun.
A trip to DQ at the end helped cool us off.
A little.

A soccer clinic begins today.
At our house.
Which means I should be cleaning right now.
Twelve 10 and 11 year old girls in our backyard.
Pretty sure someone will need to use the restroom.
That means they will need to come inside.
Wish we had a port-a-potty.
Or they were boys.
We have plenty of trees.
I'm thinking the girls won't go for that.

Still haven't taken any pictures.
Except a few with my phone.
Still don't have a garden in.
Beginning to wonder if that will happen.
I will really miss it if I don't.
Still don't have all my flowers planted.
Some of them have died.
I can't seem to keep up with the house.
Or the laundry.
I did a couple loads Friday.
They are still waiting to be folded.

I have never experienced a summer like this.

We have so much to do.
We also have some exciting news.
But I'm waiting to share that.
I will soon hopefully.

Take a guess.
Bet you won't get it.
Family and a couple of and friends already know.
Shhh.
You guys can't say anything.

Dreaming

Longing for the day we can go from this.
To this.