Brooklyn

This is who we met instead of Marley.

Marley apparently has issues that they don't mention on the website.

<<<HE is a doll.

We are taking Heidi back tomorrow morning to meet him and see how they take to one another. She sniffed Aunt Lori and I pretty thoroughly when we got home, but she didn't seem too offended. :-)

I am pretty sure he's coming home with us. He's such a love!

Just not ready

My grandmother passed away yesterday afternoon. I intend to write out my feelings eventually, but I'm just not ready yet.

Instead, I'm going to show you the boy we might be adopting for my grandfather for Father's Day.



Isn't he handsome?

I'm going to meet him today.

NERD ALERT!

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O, the joys of folding laundry at 8:00 in the morning-- watching the Today Show being one of them.

1. Listen to that music!
2. LOOK at those dresses!
3. Listen to the message about sharing the music.
4. LOOK at those dresses!!

On folding laundry:

One thing I learned from my grandmother is that if something is left in a pocket, say a tissue, that makes a mess in the washer and/or dryer, it is completely the laundress' fault for not checking pockets before placing the article of clothing into the washer.

I would like to point out that the pieces of washed and tumble-dried tissue issuing from the clothes I am folding are not my fault.

My mom started this load last night when she got home from work.

Mom's fault.

I'm just folding.

"A zoo" doesn't even begin to describe it...

My life, that is.


So, yesterday I went on a field trip to the B'ham Zoo with the day camp where I work. I was with the kindergarten/1st grade group, lovingly known as the red group. 26 kids in that group alone with 2 counselors. It was a fun, but exhausting day.

During one of our many bathroom breaks, one little boy comes out of the bathroom and tells me, "Landon wanted me to tell you he's going to be in there a while." A few minutes later, out comes Landon, smiling away.

We've walked around a little bit, and when we get to the Alabama Wilds section of the zoo, there is an outhouse with the words "OPEN ME!" near the door handle. I was with just a few of the red groupers while we were waiting on the rest who were with the other counselor in the butterfly house. One of the kids read the words "OPEN ME!" and I said, "Well, why don't you?" knowing that it's going to be filled with "poo."

They go over there and are looking and learning about scat (animal droppings), when before I know it, the rest of red group has caught up with us and is trying to cram into the outhouse all at the same time.

It takes me a good 5 or 10 minutes to clear them out ("OW!" "I can't see!" "He's hurting me!" "I can't get out!" "He won't let me in!" "You can't get in because they can't get out because you're in the way. MOVE!")

Then, as we're walking away from the outhouse catastrophe, Landon walks beside me, takes my hand, and says (in a "speaking-of-poo" kind of way), "You know in the bathroom earlier? I don't think I wiped very well."

Did he leave it there? O, no.

Later he says, "I may have to wipe the rest when we get on the bus." It is at this point I tell him we are not allowed to use the bathroom on the bus, and he's all bummed out. Then he says, "I'll have to do it at home. I need to use a wipe."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Out of the mouths of babes...

Sheepish

I am such a stupid sheep. Hopelessly devoted, stupid sheep.

There's something I really want to talk about, but I don't exactly have anybody I think I can talk to about it. So, for probably the first time ever in my life, I have a little bit of a secret, and right now, I don't want to keep it. I know I'll be thankful that I did, but I'm feeling a little bit like a teenager right now. Buh.

This font is almost as small as I feel.

On a much happier note, Williams-Sonoma has the coolest Star Wars pancake molds (pancake molds!) and cookie cutters. Happy... something to me next paycheck.

Can't really think of anything else to write at the moment. Thoughts are all-consuming.

I am doomed.

"And I say, 'HEY!' What a wonderful kind of day!"

Day Camp Stats:

hours at camp - 11.18
# of times I had to teach the same choir rehearsal - 4
bags of ice - 3
quotes of the day - 2*
necklaces made for Miss Kate - 1
Hugs from adoring fans - countless
Yes, you guessed it, working with children - priceless.

Mamaw had a good day.
Text from Momma @ 11:46
"Good news... cancer almost gone... 3 more chemos and another scan... then maybe done.

We had hamburgers for dinner to celebrate when I got home.
Watching The Hunt for Red October while I draw and cut out "jewels of wisdom" (Typed "jews" the first time, which is almost fitting-- Bible study lesson is about Solomon. He was definitely a Jew of wisdom...) for our crowns to wear in class.

Helped get dinner ready and finished picking up and changing sheets on my bed for my great-uncle before that. Prior to that, went to the store to pick up hamburger essentials mom didn't get (Dale's and sweet pickle relish. CRUCIAL).

What I would do if I had more hours in a day...

O, yeah.

Sleep.

* ILBC Day Camp QOTD numero uno:
Not so much a quote as it is ridiculous.

One of my 1st-going-into-2nd graders began to sing his own rendition of Ke$ha's "Tik-Tok" about, drum roll, please... pickles.
If your mind was in the gutter (like mine, apparently), I think it could have been worse than the actual lyrics.

y numero dos (mi favorito):
Green Group Girl: Do you have a husband?
Me: No.
GGG: Why not?
Me: I'm not married.
GGG: Do you have a boyfriend?
Me: No.
GGG: You're crazy.

Clearly...

Desperate Unhousewife?

The clothes on my floor have returned to their respective homes in my closet and drawers. *nod*

I came home from work today (via letting a friend's dog out for a friend... I get roped into that a lot, lol) to find my frail grandmother's hands covered in her own excrement. Papaw was asleep in his chair (per usual) and I heard her moaning a little in the baby monitor he has sitting next to his semi-permanent sitting place. I went back to their room to check on her, and there she was. I went to get some baby wipes to begin the cleanup process and to wake my mom up to let her know.

My mom works the evening shift at the North Harbor Pavilion, the psychiatric units of one of our local hospitals, affectionately called "The Harbor." Within the past month or two she and her co-workers have had to clean up some of the patients' excrement (on several different occasions) because they'd decided to play in it. (If mom had a blog, it'd be titled Fun With Feces... And Other $#!^.)

I wish this had been the case with my grandmother. I could handle the weakness and senility if she were at least enjoying herself.

I'm here to tell you, she's not.

She's in pain (yay cancer and it's @#%&! treatment), but she doesn't want to be a nuisance to anybody and simply refuses to ask for help when she needs it (which ends up causing much more trouble than there would have been had she simply "bothered" us in the first place).
3 years ago she would have refused because she's stubborn and independent.
Now I think it's mostly because she's confused.

I try for the most part to keep my home life separate from, well, anything that happens outside of home. It helps to keep me peppy and optimistic most of the time, but sometimes it just bleeds through...

"Stop pretending everything's all right..." Thank you, Serena... (Playing on my iTunes as I type)

Anywho, I just wanted to take a break to relieve a little bit of this before I return to picking up the house. Dishes piled up in the sink, more laundry to do, and alllllllll kinds of clutter for which I have to find appropriate places to put it.

Today one of my red groupers (kindergarten age) at day camp said, "Miss Kate, looking at you makes me tired."

I really wanted to say, "Imagine what it's like actually being me, sweetie!" Haha! One thing I will always love and that will always pick me up is working with kids.

I don't even have a boyfriend and I can totally sympathize with a desperate housewife.

Granted, I'm feeling a little whiney, but I think I'm right in saying, "That's just not fair."

P.S. The reason I don't have a boyfriend and why I will probably remain a career-driven spinster is because my grandfather has ruined me for all men.

For my grandmother's sake, I'm so glad he did.

Thoughts Driving Home (Blogging myself to sleep)

This is the sweetest baby there ever was. She has my whole heart.


•I am the walrus.
Not in the groovy-hippie-chic-John-Lennon kind of way, but in the I-feel-bloaty-and-whiskery-with-bad-teeth-kind-of-way. (Not looking for any comments. One, because I realize I look nothing like a walrus, and two [and more to the point], because nobody reads this.)

•Successfully wore white pants (for the first time ever?) for a majority of the day without spilling anything on them.

•So tired I feel buzzy. Today was the first day of Summer Day Camp. I was essentially there for 10 hours, but today went SO well. Possibly because it went by so quickly that there was no time for anything to go majorly wrong.
Undecided if I want life to be like that, but definitely decided that it goes by so quickly AND there still seems to be plenty of time for things to go wrong.

•Half of my closest is currently in a heap on the floor because I have not had the gumption to put the them away for... o, a month, give or take. I fold them on my bed with every intent of putting them away, sleeping on the couch to avoid the aforementioned heap, but ultimately shove them off my bed when have not followed through with my intentions and I want access to my bed (dammit). It's an ugly truth, but the truth nonetheless.

They're all clean, I'll have you know.

•It was my grandmother's 71st birthday today, and I didn't get to wish her a happy birthday. I had to leave my card on her bed as she slept about ten minutes ago.

•I am determined to get to the 'dad-gum' gym this week. No matter how many more interruptions life throws my way, it's gonna happen.

•If you are between the ages of 6 and 70, I clearly don't have a whole lot of patience for your needy schticks.

•Pretty sure I left Never-Never Land indefinitely yesterday. Not infinitely, but indefinitely.

•Found a way to relate Miss Evangeline Travers to my current state of affairs without involving men: We are both in a transitional period-- on the edge of a grand adventure, and graciously (if not gracefully...) walking through any doors of opportunity that open themselves before... ourselves...

•Currently preferring blogs to romance novels because, as far as I know, they're real.

Now, if I can just slip off to Dream Land, perhaps, with visions of my own Marlboro Man in my head...