Coolest Thing EVER!

I was walking out of Chick-fil-A with my free chicken sandwich (the perks of being a teacher), and I saw what has been dubbed The Coolest Thing EVER! I wish I had gotten a picture of it, because it was, as I said, Super Cool, but I have a new fan-dangled phone that I'm not used to, and I'm a little slow on the uptake. But I will describe it here:

Red. Ferrari. License Plate that said "MAGNUM."

Folks, only one word comes to mind: BITCHIN'.

What's Happenin'?

Yes, I do realize that I have AWOL in the blogging world. And guess what? I don't really feel that bad. About six years ago, when I began teaching and had my first summer off, I realized a couple things about myself that had never been quite evident: I am a homebody, I don't like the telephone, I am perfectly happy not leaving the house for a week at a time, I hate the heat, and I feel no need to do something "home-makey" with my time. And these qualities have become much more clear and more exaggerated every year I teach, so that now, after six years, I am practically a recluse, secluded from the heat I hate, and perfectly happy with not doing my hair, wearing makeup, or going on "outings." I think it's just the nature of the school-teaching beast.

Maybe not. Maybe I'm just weird. Or maybe I just live on the third floor, and the thought of going up and down my stairs several times a day with a 15 month old in the stifling heat and humidity is too much for my fragile book-reading/crocheting existence. I don't know. And I have never really cared about it before. But I have to admit that this year I have felt a little guilty with my recluse-ing-ness of my summer life, because, and I'm sure if you have ever met my little firecracker you will understand, Alice is NOT a homebody. She gets bored walking up and down my hallway from her room the front room where I spend the majority of my time. She is stir crazy, as I am sure you will be able to see. The downfall of this is that she is still too little to do things on her own, like climbing the stairs to the slide, or playing in the park, or swimming without me. And this cramps my style.

As mentioned before, I HATE the heat. This is probably due to my elevated body temperature that I have always had that causes me to sweat like a black man in the NBA. It's embarrassing, quite frankly, and not to mention expensive when I have to keep my house at a cool 73 degrees with a vaulted ceiling. So I prefer not to go out in 100 degree weather and help Alice climb the stairs and slide the 1,000 or so times that she would if she were able. What I wouldn't give to have fall, winter, spring, and then right back to fall, skipping over summer completely.

Anyway, enough of my complaining--I believe my point was, in the summer, I prefer to disappear completely and shut myself off to all human life. And poor Alice was forced to accompany me. Hence the lack of the blog. (That was quite the long explanation for such a short point....sorry.) But, locked away in our little house as we were, we were still able to keep ourselves busy. What were we doing? Well.....

I have been doing... a little barbecuing (grilled peaches with low fat ice cream...YUM!),

a little writing,
a little reading,
and A LOT of crocheting.

Joe has been....trying to convince Alice to let him play with her in her new tent,
tearing down walls in our bathroom,


and then deciding that the wall wasn't enough, and the flooring and the vanity must go, too.

Alice has been... playing dress up (and yes, that is a Transformer's Mr. Potato Head box on her head),

climbing into places she shouldn't,



and feeding herself, which results in numerous "tubbies."

So here we are, nearing the end of summer. I have been busy being a wonderful stay-at-home mommy, a homemaking wife, and a crappy housekeeper. It has been wonderful, except for all the sweating I have done.

But it's not over yet. I still have a few good, solid days before I have to go back to being a hard-ass English teacher. And I have one more project...

This is the vanity I get to sand, primer, and paint this week so Joe can install it and start tiling. Quite the summer, if I do say so myself.