For the love of the blog

Robert requested a blog update today.  Hi honey!

I'm not going to lie to you: I was dreading the start of summer. All four (five) kids home all day long was not sounding like my idea of a good time. They had been fighting like . . . well . . . like siblings more and more the last few weeks before school let out. I was plotting and scheming my way through the weeks until August 20 showed her lovely face.

But you know what?

As the days come and go, I have come to a highly enlightening conclusion: my kids are actually kind of cool!  No, "kind of cool" does not do them justice.   They are creative and hilarious and witty and insightful and thoughtful and adventurous and talented and kind and so funny I almost pee my pants every day. They are the kind of people I want to have as friends. I absolutely can NOT get enough of them.

I know I have thrown the blog under the bus these last few days . . . I mean weeks.  I know I have been neglectful to my own blog and a very unfaithful reader of yours. (Shannon! You got a dog?! I feel like Debra Messing in the episode of Will and Grace when they were in a little fight and hadn't seen each other in awhile and then they finally do see each other and Grace offers Will a hunk of cheese and he has given up cheese and she's shocked and she chastises him by telling him "Ya gotta call me if you're goin' off cheese!" I mean, Ya gotta CALL ME if you're gettin' a DOG!)

The long and short of it is that I'm having way too much fun right now to blog about all the fun I'm having.

But, around here, when your husband starts to notice and comment about your lack of presence in the blogosphere, it's time to leave a little note.

1. Are you watching the Bachelorette?  I am.  Do you have any thoughts?
   
2. I'm quite blonde right now and I finally found that special someone in this town.  You know what I mean, someone who is allowed to come near my head with a pair of scissors more than once.
   
3. I have gained twenty pounds in the last 5 months.  I've never done that before.  I like trying new things, but I didn't like this.  I'm not going to try it again.
   
4. Last week I went camping with a bunch of 12-18 year old girls from church.  It was Dang-Fetch fun.
   
5. Jack wants to try tackle football in the fall.  All I can say is yikes.
   
6. Every single night I have to remove books from sleeping boys' chests and turn off lamps.  Boys after my own heart, I tell ya.
   
7. Stella said to my friend recently "Well, my dad's okay.  But my mom? (and here she opened her arms and threw her head back) My mom is MY WHOLE WORLD."
   
8. Robert's father's day card from his little girl said "You look Great!"
   
9. Ohmygosh, that's right, we've had ballet recitals, baseball, graduations, family in town, weekend visits to close cities, painting the house, finally decorating a few spots in the house and I don't know what else going on around here since the last time I logged on.  Oh!  Planting the garden, how could I forget that?  I planted zinnias in the front flower bed this year and I LOVE them.  The veggies are thriving (no tomato rot!  Hooray.)
   
10. I can't figure out how to make the bullets on my list show up as numbers on my blog.  As I type, they are numbers, but then when I publish, they are silly flowers.  Ugh.

Regular blogging may or may not commence shortly.  I'm tempted to just start posting my favorite recipes.  You know, the ones that have helped me gain 20 pounds.