Today I am happy to have my family home together.

cheetos or tostitos? 

We had a new keyboard stashed in the garage that I had forgotten. I feel like I am being watched.

molly spilled grape soda on my keyboard and now i need a new one but my personal tech support guy is camping until sunday. do i try replacing it on my own or wait - imagine a question mark here

Doug and Noah are loading the Jeep so they can spend the next four days at the local Boy Scout camp. My brother just posted a picture of the Boy Scout memorial in DC. What were they thinking when they ok'd this design?!?

Half-Nekkid Thursday 

Tommy hopped out of bed early to watch more than an hour of early coverage. Noah had to be kicked off the PS2 and told to go watch the last 15 minutes of preparations. Sarah grumbled at my request but finally went to watch just the last 5 minutes. Amy was confused to see everyone sitting on the couch instead of scattered all over the house as they usually are in the mornings. Evan became annoyed with his hiccups. Sarah picked up Evan and whispered in his ear about what was happening on the television. Noah excitedly counted down and bounced on the couch. Amy started chanting, "Watch Dora! Dora, Dora, Dora - A rocket! Look at the rocket!" Tommy stared as he rocked and mumbled about previous flights. Uninvited tears escaped from my misty eyes.

Q - What is the difference between being inside our house and being outside? A - Ten degrees (it is ONLY 85 inside the house)

Karate Boys 

It's time to buy school supplies (there is always one item that the stores don't have), new clothes (how did their legs get so much longer this summer?), backpacks and then prepare to write checks for each child's school fees, workbooks, extra activities (art and music are extras?), PTA's, lunches and whatever Knox County decides to cancel supplementing. As a child I always loved new school supplies and clothes. As a parent I love seeing my children clean, combed and ready for a new school year. It is less exciting to see them get off the bus dirty, untucked and bearing a pile of requests for checks as well as mountains of forms to be filled out in triplicate for each child.

Did I stop on the right or the left? I think it was this side. Oops. That was definitely not the side I should have started using.

Two hours alone with Evan while the big children are swimming, so Cathy and Doug are: a. going out for dinner or b. running errands or c. taking a nap or d. staying awake.

Things I shouldn't have to say: Put the GameBoy down and aim. Don't eat the Playmobile food. Peanuts are not for tickling. Get that out of your nose.

Half-Nekkid Thursday 

I hate my body right now, so I'm having trouble coming up with an idea for "Half-Nekkid Thursday". Maybe I will wander past Doug's camera half-nekkid and only his audience will see it. I do have something really good saved for breastfeeding week, August 1-7. Barry might not be able to see it at work though.

Next week Doug and Noah are going to Boy Scout camp for 4 days. I will miss them dearly (and be off my rocker when they return) but after seeing the ticks on Doug after last year's camping trip I have NO desire to camp with them. 

Did you see the faces of the other panelists at Knoxville's town hall meeting about TennCare when Tim Burchett bad-mouthed WalMart?!? If I didn't have such a bad migraine I would have laughed out loud. I wish Bubba was still around to give his thoughts on the meeting.

When Sarah and I argue, it is almost always about clothing. Our biggest tiff this summer was over her choice of footwear for a visit to her great-grandmother's nursing home. I don't care if they are a 4 dollar pair from Old Navy or a hundred dollar pair from a big department store, flip-flops are casual shoes. You don't visit seniors in shoes that they consider beachwear. I prefer the Crocs that have taken permanent residence on Sarah's feet to the flip-flops. No, I don't feel like a hypocrite because I wear Birks all the time. I own half as many shoes as Sarah and the only ones that feel good on my post-partum feet are the Birks. They are made of leather and not plastic (no, I never ran around in jellies). I don't wear them with skirts or dress pants and I would never wear them to a photo op with the president. Yes, I am the meanest mother in the world.

This year's Blogathon is scheduled for August 6th. However, Tommy has a big STAR event that day, so I can't participate in the Blogathon like last year. I guess I could participate if one or two other bloggers want to do a team blog.

For the next two weeks, Tommy is spending his afternoons at the school learning to better use the Plato system to pass the Gateway tests. He used it last year for almost all of his classes so we are pretty familiar with the program. While other high school students change classes, over-weight and uncoordinated Tommy sits in a chair in front of the computer. While other students write papers and do projects, Tommy plays q and a with the computer. IF Tommy successfully makes it through high school, he won't have the note-taking, studying and writing skills needed to attend college but he will know the random, meaningless facts needed to be on a game show. By taking the tests over and over again, Tommy will eventually learn how to answer some of the questions but he won't know how to apply the information or make any use of it. Tommy is quite happy using a computer all day long but it isn't just Autistic students using the Plato software. This is what Knox County does with many of their high school aged special eduction children. Why don't they just let him stay home and log into the school computers from the safety of his own bedroom if this is how he is going to spend his days?

Someone turned the batteries in my mouse backwards but nobody will admit to being the prankster. I guess Evan did it.

Midnight at the Harry Potter party and Sarah is nowhere to be found. Why? Because she spent the entire night walking around with a boy from school. 

worth staying up late

"The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout" There is nothing in that song about spiders being in the bathtub!

The blogosphere is so empty on the weekends that you can actually hear the echo.

We're getting ready to join the Harry Potter chaos. Send me caffeine and valium.

Today is a big day. First, it is Cow Appreciation Day. Do you think I could get a free entree by breastfeeding in the restaurant? I know I feel like a cow. Second, it is Ice Cream Cone Day but I think you'll have to celebrate that one on your own since no businesses are celebrating. Third, many bookstores are having Harry Potter parties tonight to keep people entertained until the book goes on sale one minute after midnight. Fourth, Fresh Market stores are helping raise funds for Juvenile Diabetes by selling hot dogs and root beer floats today, tomorrow and Sunday. Fifth is the release of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today. I really want to see it. Sixth and most importantly, we are going to pick Sarah up from Girl Scout Camp today. Pick a reason or make up your own and celebrate the day!

Even though today is National Nude Day, I don't have anything new for Half Naked Thursday. Instead I'll just point you toward 3 of my favorites from the past. If networks can post re-runs in the summer, so can I. The most-fun-to-take HNT A bunch-of-toes HNT The most-embarrassing HNT

Welcome to Knoxville 

Friday after we pick Sarah up from Girl Scout camp we could have root beer floats before settling in at the bookstore to wait for the midnight release of the new Harry Potter book OR we can get some sleep and buy the book sometime Saturday.

Dear Amy, I know I told you that box is the kitty potty but the kitty really doesn't need that roll of tissue you smashed in there. Love, Mom Dear Molly, The rawhide chew toys, pig ears and corn starch shaped bones are for you to eat. The toilet tissue is for the two-legged creatures in the house. Love, Mom I need to visit Sam's for toilet tissue today.

When Tommy was a baby, I played Steely Dan during fussy times and eventually he would calm to the familiar songs. Sarah's music of choice was Aerosmith. For Noah it was the Beatles and Amy preferred Eric Clapton. Evan is 6 weeks old now and should already have his music but Doug is voting for Pink Floyd and I am thinking something like Chicago. It has to be something that we can all listen to at all hours of the day and night, over and over and over again.

and it's raining and Sarah is away at camp again and I have a mountain of laundry to finish and Doug is stressed and . . . 

Why do men have nipples?

Doug has turned on his camera. Wouldn't you like to watch him doing a home repair project?

Let ME drive! 

Not the car seat again. 

"And they're only going to change this place by Killing everybody in the human race And they would kill me for a cigarette But I don't even wanna die just yet There has to be an invisible sun It gives its heat to everyone There has to be an invisible sun It gives us hope when the whole day's done"

When a friend or co-worker experiences a tragedy, my heart breaks for them and I know that nothing I say or do will make things better. Saying nothing is interpreted as ignoring their pain but my words can seem hollow and meaningless to the person who is suffering. I am not a Londoner. I don't know anyone in London and it is extremely unlikely that I will ever have the money to even visit London. I won't try guessing if this was done by a large hate group or London's version of Eric Rudolph. Even if an explanation is someday given, I will never really understand why they did this. I don't know the best way to respond despite the variety of existing and soon-to-be created funds, flags, ribbons, magnets, petitions, chain letters and other shows of support. I do know that I am supposed to live my life as though those who do evil have no control over me. I would be a liar if I said I feel no fear. There are bad people everywhere and even if my family tries to live like Anthony Edwards on Northern Exposure, there is no guarantee of safety from man or nature. Some days I just feel sad and overwhelmed by the problems in this world, country, state, city and my own home.

Half-Naked Thursday

The Babies R Us signs are gone. The employee that we interrogated (she confessed that many of the employees are seeking new jobs) said that the new owners are remodeling and getting rid of the toys. I expect Toys R Us to be gone by the end of the year. Zainy Brainy left two years ago. I hope Smart Toys isn't going anywhere. Proffitts is being replaced by Belk's(yuck). Best Buy is changing its' focus to Geek Squad and businesses instead of retail customers. Restaurants disappear overnight. Oak Ridge is a company town but all of East TN is becoming Wal-Mart town and that is a shame.

My brother and his family are in town for the rest of the week. The middle three children are thrilled to have their cousins visiting. Now I just need my other brother to visit when he gets done goofing off in St. Petersburg.

Another toon tune to hum today.

Mom - "Sarah, do you like my hair better wavy like it is now or straight like I used to wear it?" Sarah - "I dunno. Either way I guess. Your hair doesn't matter any more." Ouch.

Read what TN legislators have been doing this year.

Time for a music break - "I remember way back then when everything was true and when We would have such a very good time such a fine time Such a happy time And I remember how we'd play simply waste the day away Then we'd say nothing would come between us two dreamers"

It's just my opinion, but I always thought of sexual orientation as a spectrum. Most people are somewhere between 100% homosexual at one end of the line and 100% heterosexual at the other end of the line. It is perfectly normal for a person near one end to find someone of the same or opposite gender attractive. Can someone be right in the middle of the spectrum? Of course they can. However, it doesn't matter what my theory is. We should spend less time trying to prove why or how people are sexual beings from birth until death and more time studying things that we want to change. Then again, this is the exact sort of thing that caused so much friction for me that I quit going to church. I got tired of trying to tell people who know everything, are never wrong and only accept people just like themselves that there is too much we don't know and that everyone is as different as they are the same.

Happy Independence Day everyone! Today is best celebrated by making sure you always vote.

Blech! I'd rather have a nice steak for the fourth.

Evan understands that holidays are for relaxing and doing what makes you happy. 

I just spent the past hour folding clothes and pondering the hidden meaning of "Higglytown Heroes".

Amy has a tiny red burn on her thumb because somebody let her (and her siblings) play with fireworks even though I don't think they should. It was the same person who keeps a bb gun at his house for them to play with in his yard. The person who likes to say "They're not doing anything I didn't do and your brothers did the exact same things when they were young." It was the person who loves the children as much as I love the children but he thinks I'm overprotective and I think he's too dangerous.

Must be one of Doug's ancestors. 

Interrupting Pink Floyd with announcements and commercials is just plain WRONG.

For everyone traveling with children this holiday weekend. 

The blogosphere has gone silent as everyone, everywhere travels for fun and family. I feel like an old woman missing her soaps.

There are a lot of fireworks displays scheduled in and around Knoxville this 3-day weekend. Doug will be juggling before a small fireworks show on Sunday night. Will you be going to see a big, professionally choreographed show, a small local show or are you creating your own fireworks display?