Well, things are finally starting to get back to normal around here after the last three CRAZY weeks! No shows, no trips, no unexpected accidents or deaths, etc. Warning...I'll probly be sad about my grandmother's death for a while and when I'm sad, it tends to translate into dark (and kinda inappropriate) attempts at humor so iffen that bugs ya...well, check back in a few weeks/months. Otherwise, read on ;-)
Took Ryan to the swimming pool at the club on Saturday morning. "The club" btw refers to the neighborhood association clubhouse in my parents' neighborhood. But since that's the same neighborhood I grew up in and there was only one clubhouse at the time...well, we just call it "the club." And I guess I got spoiled because I thought all planned neighborhoods w/ associations had recreational clubhouses (what are association fees for after all?) but apparently I was wrong as we pay TWO different association fees (neighborhood and city) and live in one of the most planned (and desirable) communities around and WE DON'T HAVE SQUAT! It really bugs me. I basically spent half my life at that clubhouse between swim team practice, Girl Scout meetings, tennis lessons, and just basically hanging out over there on summer afternoons. It was local (easy walking distance) so it was one of the few places that my friends and I could just take off and go to w/o needing a ride or parental supervision. I'm glad my parents still live there so I can use their membershipt to take Ryan...otherwise, there wouldn't be anyplace except a little inflatable pool in our driveway to take him :-(
Anyway...back to my story of Saturday. We couldn't go in the kiddie/wading pool because out of all 3 pools...that's the one they don't heat. BRRR! It was FREEZING! So, we ended up over at the adult pool (which I'm sure the other adults just loved) but there were several parents over there with little ones because it was the only one that was warm enough to entice the kidlets into it and no one seemed to be complaining so I figured we'd go until we got kicked out. Ryan of course didn't want to even play on the steps at first...then he saw somebody do a cannonball into the deep end and decided THAT's where he wanted to play. So, I ended up standing on the edge of the deep end, holding him by the wrists and dunking him in up to his waist (and before anyone freaks out...he was wearing a flotation vest so even if he'd somehow managed to squirm out of the deathgrip I had on his arms, he'd've been fine until I could get to him). We did that for about 30 minutes which turned out to be all my back could take so my dad came and took over and dunked him for another 20 minutes. He loved it. Gonna have to look into some actual swimming lessons real soon, I guess.
I got some of the new merchandise (which I REFUSE to call "show leftovers" LOL) scanned and I've been working on adding them to the website, but I probably won't do an upload until I have everything done. There are just too many links back and forth between matching items and other complications that have to all be completed before I upload anything or visitors are going to get really frustrated, really quickly. So, more scanning on the horizon for me tonight...that's if I get dinner done quickly enough as DH informed me this morning that he'd like an occasional home-cooked meal if I thought I could fit it into my busy schedule (see aforementioned list of bead shows, vacations and death) sometime before he divorces me LOL! So, time to pull out my old stand-by of porkchops & orange rice. This was one of my favorites when I was growing up and I just LOVE that it's so easy to make. We're talking 6 ingredients (and that's only if you count salt and pepper separately), 15 minutes of prep time and then shove it in the oven and walk away to do something else for the next hour while it cooks. Plus, I love that you get main course and side dish all-in-one. Cut up some fruit or dump some salad out of a bag (yeah, we eat bagged salad, so what...wanna make somethin' of it? LOL!) et voila! Bon appetit! Or as I like to say: "Stand back, Rachael Ray!"
The only sad thing is that I really do enjoy cooking (and I think I'm not half bad at it as long as I have a recipe to follow) but I just don't ever have the time to really do it justice. I just don't feel like getting into a big production when I get home from work in the evening (and that's assuming that I actually HAVE all the ingredients on hand and don't have to go to the store) because you know there's all the prep work, then the actual eating, then the cleaning up of the kid/kid's area (which depending on his mood can be a MAJOR undertaking) and then all the dishes and general clean up to be done. And then it's time to go to bed and I hate that feeling of not having accomplished anything except work, cook, clean, sleep, get up and go back to work. Sigh..every working mother's complaint, I suppose.
I'd tell you what I did on Sunday, but it turned out to be absolutely NADA! I didn't feel too great and I took some medicine which knocked me on my butt for the rest of the day. I kept thinking about trying to get up, but it seemed like too much effort. Maybe the last 3 weeks finally caught up with me or something (or maybe it was the 37,000 loads of laundry I had to do?) Anyway, it was a wasted day - dang, I hate when that happens!
I guess that's about it for now, although I'll try to add a new picture later today. Until I get all the website changes done, that's the best I can do so bear with me.
Take care all!
KJ
