The one where the paparazzi goes stalking and remembers having a life.

The kids went to a movie premiere today...a friend of theirs made a short film along with his drama class at school and premiered it at a local theater.  Afterwards, they went out to lunch with a bunch of their friends.


I went to the pet store to buy pet food.


What's wrong with this picture?


When did I become the boring old person who goes to the pet store for a good time, while my kids are out living it up at movie premieres and having lunch with their friends?


Sigh.


I'm having a pity party today.  I don't like being 46 and overweight with gray hair and wrinkles. I don't like not having friends to hang out with, and never going out.  I don't like being the designated driver (I mean that literally...being the one designated to drive the "fun" ones around) I want to have fun!!


Sigh.


Oh well.


Besides the "premiere" and lunch out that my children enjoyed, and the previously mentioned jaunt to the pet store, today was spent...

completely inside.  Another rainy afternoon here.

Gus lounged around watching the rain...

C was caught in the act with the dog on his bed!!  Not allowed!  Plus...LOOK at that room!

P was caught in the act snuggling with Jack.  And by the way?  Look at THAT room too!

And do you notice how Lucy manages to sneak into every photo?

Jack loves to burrow.  Under anything...blankets, arms, pillows...

Mr. Wonderful was caught in the act reading a magazine and hiding from the paparazzi.

Then I caught C doing this.

Instead of working on his Honors English project. 

Even though school starts in two weeks.

Unfortunately, I cannot report on a good portion of the day - oh maybe from about 2-4.  It seems that the old lady who lives here with the fun, popular people took a nap.

Sigh.

What makes this mama happy...

I am happy to have another rumbly, grumbly thunderstorm rolling through this evening.  There is just something so satisfying about being all cozy inside the house while the rain is pelting the windows and the thunder is booming outside.

Plus, I got to go outside and snap some photos of the threatening looking clouds as they roiled and churned across the sky.

Which was maybe not the smartest thing I have ever done since I also kept seeing the lightning which accompanied the big booms of thunder.

I snapped the pictures really, really, really fast.

I was Speedy Gonzalez with the camera.

And aren't those clouds cool looking?

I am so happy to have C home for a couple of days before he heads back to camp for one more week.  Just enough time for me to do the monstrous pile of laundry that he brought home.  And buy more junk food for him.

And yell at him about losing his retainer. Again.

Because that's what mamas do.

I am so happy that the first thing my sweet boy wants to do when he gets home, after giving his old mama a big hug, is to tell me all about his week and the campers and the counselors and the food (naturally!) and the other LIT's and about every single little thing he can remember!  I love that he still wants to share things with me.

I am also happy that Jack is feeling better today, and is feeling very affectionate.  He has been following me around all day and staying very close to me, purring all the while.  I think his little trip to the vet and his surgery may have freaked him out just a wee little bit.  I am certainly enjoying all the cuddling...

although it does make it difficult to accomplish anything!

I'm happy that Gus is being nice to Jack again.  Yesterday, when Jack came home (apparently smelling like the evil veterinarian) Gus wouldn't have anything to do with him.  Today, he seems to have forgiven Jack for smelling and being stinky.  Or else Jack smells better today.

I am happy that I don't have to wake up early tomorrow.

I am happy that I get to finish reading my book....

because it is so good, and I love this author.

Tonight I will finish reading this silly, funny, crazy book with a sweet kitty curled up next to me purring while listening to the booms of thunder and the sound of the rain, knowing that both my babies are home with me and that I get to sleep late tomorrow morning.

THAT, my friends, make this mama very happy.

Anticipation...

Good Morning Sun!

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

Sometimes there's just nothing better than a rainy, stormy afternoon and evening...

The skies are dark and intimidating...

and the wind is gusty and blustery ...

while off in the distance big rumbling booms of thunder...

get closer and closer...

It's a great time to curl up with a good book...

and enjoy the blustery, booming, pelting sounds of a summer thunderstorm.

Scary stuff. Really, really scary stuff.

I think everyone has something that they are afraid of.  Something that they are truly terrified of.  Something that the mere thought of makes them break out into a cold sweat, and their heart starts pounding in atavistic fear.


For me, this fear is bears and sharks.


There was a bear attack at a campground in Montana in the early morning hours yesterday.  In the middle of the night, people were sleeping peacefully in their tents when a bear attacked three people in three separate tents.  One man was killed, and two others were severely injured.

How horrible!

When I was about 14 and was babysitting, I watched a show on television about bear attacks.  It scared the you-know-what out of me.  I've never gotten over it.

This is my nightmare - being attacked by a bear.    

Bad bear!  

Bears freak me out.

Sharks also freak me out.  I am also pathologically afraid of sharks.  

I saw Jaws when I was 10 years old, and I've never been the same. (What was my mother thinking?!)

That is a scary, scary movie.

When I go to the beach, I won't go in past my knees.  Tim laughs at me, but you know what?  I've never been attacked by a shark.

So there.

Actually, if I'm being honest, I'm scared of a lot of things.

I'm afraid of bears, sharks, alligators, snakes, stingrays, crabs, bugs, lightning, electricity, and cancer.

But sharks and bears really horrify me.

Sharks and bears are scary, creepy, intimidating, carnivorous, man-eating monsters that inspire terror in me.

I have heard of other people who are similarly afraid of  other things...

Elevators.

Bridges.

Spiders.

Even airplanes.

Yawn.  Nope, those don't bother me at all.  But something about bears and sharks just make me want to scream in primal panic. 

What are you afraid of?

The one where the cat has a vasectomy, the dog freaks out, and I want to go back to bed

We have been spending quite a lot of time at the veterinarian's office lately.  Lucy's ear (it's on the right in the picture...see how swollen it is?) looked very swollen and wouldn't lie down, so Tim took her in the other day.  She has a hematoma on her ear and is now taking 3 pills twice per day, plus ear drops in the ear.  The pills are fine - she'll eat anything.  Literally.  The ear drops?  Not so much.  She totally freaks out, and we are not having much fun with these ear drops.  It's very stressful, and I feel so badly for poor Lucy because her ear hurts her so much!  She is also very bummed that there will be no more swimming for at least a couple of months.  This means that whenever the kids go out to the pool she stands inside and stares forlornly and whines pathetically.  Poor baby.

Jack, the kitty pictured above, is now 6 months old and went in today for a bit of surgery.  Yep, it's the old snip-snip.  And yes, those two (Lucy and Jack) love each other and sleep together like that all the time.  We're looking forward to this little procedure calming our maniacal kitty a bit.  Perhaps he will be so mellow after his procedure that he will end up like this...

Actually, for those of you who remember Obi...doesn't that picture remind you of him?  Hee Hee....

But, I digress.

My zen-like feeling of peace and tranquility yesterday has dissipated into  headachy, scatterbrained, exhaustion.  Ugh.  Last night I tossed and turned all night long.  Every time I would start to drift off, I would snap awake thinking of some other earth shattering problem...like having to get new tennis shoes for the kids, and researching schools, and needing to schedule dentist appointments, and buying the special kind of kitty litter after Jack's surgery, and making sure C finishes his summer project for Honors English...Yeah.  Really important stuff like that.  I couldn't turn my brain off, and it was driving me crazy.

Hence, today I feel like a zombie.

Plus, yesterday I had the brilliant idea to trim a piece of my hair that was just slightly longer than the rest.  Then it was a bit shorter, so I tried to even it up...and...well, I made a bit of a mess of my hair.  And now it won't do anything.  It's gross.  So apparently I also need to schedule a haircut so that someone can yell at me for chopping at my hair and messing it all up.

Why did I do it?  I don't know....it seemed like a good idea at the time!

Anyway, yesterday morning I was feeling peaceful and calm and rested.  Today I am feeling frazzled, sleepy, headachy, and ugly.

Bah.  I think I'm going to go back to bed now.

Kumbaya and a bag of Fritos

C left today to be an LIT (leader-in-training, sort of like a counselor assistant) at camp.  He has been really looking forward to it, and was practically bouncing off the walls this morning.  Which, in case you were wondering, did rather detract from my zen-like feeling of peace this morning!

He had his bags packed and loaded in the car by 10:30.

Including the all important bag of junk food.  Ahem.  I mean "snacks".

At noon, I drove him over to his friend's house.  The friend is also LIT-ing at this session of camp, and his mother and I worked out a carpool so that we don't both have to drive.

Yes, the boy was SO happy that he even posed, willingly, for the paparazzi.  He even deigned to smile.

We got to the other boy's house and loaded all C's stuff into the back of their car.  "F's" bag is on the left.  C's stuff is on the right.

Goodness, I sure hope C hasn't forgotten anything!

Yep.  That was sarcasm.

Happy camping, boys!

My daughter and I will be bachelorette-ing it.  I don't know how we'll manage without C...but we'll give it a try.  We plan to watch So You Think You Can Dance, and lots of chick flicks, and eat chocolate.  P is going to blast her girly music as loud as she wants.  We will take bubble baths, because he won't be here to use up all the hot water!  The sports section of the paper will never get opened.  And C will probably be able to hear us screaming if we see a bug - even all the way over at Camp Weed!

He has asked me to send him a care package, and I said that I would.  I asked what he'd like me to send.  Can you guess what he wants?

C'mon...think like a teenage boy....

He wants more food.

Aw...I'm gonna miss my boy!