Time to breathe...

I have been ridiculously busy the last few weeks with school starting, the change of command, lunches, cub scouts, Mikey's homework and travel.  I really feel like a taxi driver, and messenger and slave.  So today it's a total nothing day and I have time to breathe.

Mikey's 7th birthday was yesterday.  He had cupcakes at school, and then had a party at Chuck E Cheese.  Only 4 kids showed, and one was very late.  Just one of the 8 kids from his class came which he told me made him sad.  But he had a fabulous time anyhow. And the kids who were there got more tokens to use so no biggie.  Chuck E Cheese is usually enough to give me a panic attack at the mere thought of it, but it really wasn't bad at all and the hostess was great.  Even Mia had the time of her life.  

I have felt pretty uninspired lately, and thanks to some friends I have discovered www.pinterest.com.  This website is amazing. You can repin things that other people have found and you can save it onto your online noteboards, and by clicking on the picture it will take you back to the original website.  So all those recipes that you find and can never find again - pin it to your noteboard.  See some cute clothes - pin it.  Cute crafts or inspirations for your home decor - pin it!  So far I have used one of the recipes that my husband drooled over - a Chicken and Spinach pasta dish.  Holy crap was it ever amazing. So I'm happy to find ideas of what I can make, do and dream about without knowing what to search for.

And today I was frustrated because I have coupons out the ying yang and if you have read my previous post, I get mad at having to search around to find coupons when I'm at the store.  So using my powers of inspiration, I made my own coupon binder.  I used Jeremy's baseball card protectors and divided them up according to grocery groups - hygiene, dairy, cleaning etc.  Then I spent my afternoon putting them in the card slots.  So now I can be in an aisle, flip to that section and have my coupons right in front of me and all sorted out.  Very simple so I hope it works out right.

A girl I know here at Bragg makes custom sewing work.  I've used her to get a Tinkerbell Crayon Roll for Mia, and Baby blankets and burp cloths for Maggie's baby.  So here in a week or so I plan on ordering custom hair clips for Fall and Halloween for Mia as well as custom binder covers. She is so talented - you can find her under Adalyn's Closet on Facebook.  So between pinterest.com and Adalyn's Closet, I plan of having all my Christmas gifts custom made this year.  I can find ideas on pinterest, and have Adalyn's Closet make it...if I can't. Which I bet I can't do.

Our...ahem...race....

So my family were really looking forward to the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway over Labor Weekend.  We haven't gone too many places since Jeremy got home, and most of my summer was based around Mikey's doctor appointments so we didn't do a whole lot either.

We really wanted a nice vacation, and we got it too.  We ate at Fat Matt's which is a great BBQ restaurant in downtown Atlanta, and we all really enjoyed the World of Coke museum too.  And despite the rain, we loved the pre-race events at the Speedway.  We got to be on the background on Speed, plus got a bunch of free things.  It really was a lot of fun.  Even sitting watching them try to dry the track was hysterical.  

A race really is the best place to people watch and Atlanta has been the best by far.  I've been to many races, but never have I seen so many cowboy boots, ripped t-shirts and mullets.  Even a lot of very short shorts.  Whatever, you expect to see that.  BUT NOT ON GUYS!!!  What the hell Atlanta??  I saw so many guys wearing ripped off jean shorts. It's not attractive on any man.  Even Denny Hamlin wouldn't be sexy in them!  And what was worse was that some were Britanny Spears short...as in the pockets were hanging below the 'hem?' line.  Not cute!!  Seriously not cute!!  I was very tempted to take pictures, but I just couldn't stoop that low - it would have been pretty rude.  And lets face it, I don't really want to remember those delightful mental images.  So with the power of Google, I'll find you some things that closely resemble what blinded me.

Anyway, just before the track was dried, there was a sudden down pour which saturated everything, and the race had to be rescheduled.  It was completely understandable.  I didn't want to sit there with the kids for 3 hours until the track dried, then watch the race, then sit in traffic before getting to the hotel.  That would have been 6 am. And the drivers are only human.  I can't imagine driving at 200 mph as is it, dodging other cars and driving within inches on the wall, with limited vision out my windows.  There's a reason why they are the elite - they are the ones with lightning fast hand-eye coordination. And I heard some people saying they should get rain tires and wipers.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??  That's the dumbest idea ever!  Have you tried driving down the interstate fast in a storm?

Personally, I value the safety measures NASCAR has for the fans, drivers and officials.  They have them for a reason, and I don't ever want to witness the death of a driver. Now, saying that, I do wish that NASCAR had been more proactive, rather than reactive.  It was obvious that Sunday morning that the race wouldn't be run, and they also knew well in advance that they would have to reschedule it for Tuesday. So many people had paid big bucks for tickets, plus hotels, gas, food etc, and most had to work on Tuesday.  There were no refunds.  If you couldn't attend the race on Tuesday you were SOL.  We were relatively lucky compared to others.  We couldn't attend the Tuesday race, but we had free hotel stays, and would spend the money going home on gas anyhow. We just spent a lot on overpriced hot dogs, and the $150 for the tickets.  I heard of others who had spent over $4000 on camping spots, or the people who got tickets for Atlanta because of the parking situation in Kentucky.  They tried to see two races and got no racing in return.

So I'm not mad about the weather, or the decision made to reschedule the race.  But Atlanta made a buttload off money from people who got nothing in return.  I had hoped that we could switch the tickets for tickets to Martinsville or Richmond.  Or get a partial refund.  Something at least. Not the "too bad, so sad" from the speedway. For an organization who is supposed to be about the fans, we sure were treated like crap.

But, the race (which I watched on TV while holding the tickets in my hand) was a really good one and I really wished I could have been there.  I'll still watch racing because we love it.  But I will NOT go back to Atlanta.  Too bad.

I haven't had much to say...

Sometimes I have so much to say. Other times I don't.  So I've been pretty quiet recently.

Anyway, I got thinking yesterday about how much of a hermit I've become.  I've been keeping busy, but yet keeping to myself.  Last week I was overwhelmed with Mikey going back to school and the Change of Command events.  I was constantly surrounded by people...but mostly just seen and not heard.  I'm OK with that.

We've been doing a lot of home improvement since Jeremy got home.  We've replace our fire place mantle to one which has a bigger shelf to fit the DVR player and DVD player on.  We've had curbing done in the front yard and put mulch down so the front yard is looking much prettier.  We've got a new sofa, and dining table, and in the next week or so we should have part one of our new kitchen cabinets installed.

Mikey had a rough first week in school.  The second day I was waiting at the bus stop for him after school and he wasn't on the bus.  He decided that he wanted to be a car rider that day and told his teacher that.  So he was safe at school, but gave me one heck of a fright.  Then a few days later I got a phone call from his teacher just before school let out saying that he was in the bathroom at school just crying.  Jeremy went down to get him and it turned out that he needed to pee and poop at the same time, and accidently pooped on the floor as he was peeing. What do I say about that?  That I was horrified?  That I'm the parent of "that" kid? That I'm so worried about Mikey that it scares me to death?  He didn't say anything about getting teased at school about it. And I remember being the Teacher Assistant of the 3rd grader who did the same thing a few years ago and while I remember it, I didn't think any differently of the child - I just protected him after.

I just don't feel like I am doing enough for him.  I make sure he does his homework.  It's spelling, math and 20 minutes of reading every night, plus I'm supposed to do 50 minutes of vision therapy with him 5 times a week.  We've been so busy that I haven't managed to squeeze that in.   That's a lot of homework every night.  I want to ask the teacher if his vision therapy (which is mostly reading and comprehension questions) can count as his 20 minutes of reading. He's also started Cub Scouts which he is super excited about.

Mia started Pre-K yesterday.  She was so excited and has been asking to go to school for weeks.  It's on post from 1:30 - 4:30 every day.  So I drop her off, go home for a few minutes, pick up Mikey and then hopefully Jeremy can pick her up most nights...otherwise I'll have to head there after getting Mikey. She loved her first day, despite peeing in her pants (I sense a theme here...). She's 3, in a new place and was probably engrossed in what she was doing. It's funny how different Mikey and Mia are at the same age.  He barely talked and was barely potty trained at the same age, but he knew his alphabet.  She craves socializing and loves to learn new things, and I would be failing her if I didn't put her in Pre-K now.  Mikey at the same age just needed me.