When The Kid Is Away

The mom will play.

Well, normal moms, those with full social lives and friends might, play. I sort of just did what I always do, but in a quiet house. And that's all good to me.

Caroline took off on her camping excursion around 11 am yesterday. Would you like to guess what I did first?

Here's a clue:



Yep. Bye-bye yarn trap.

Muahahahaha.

Order restored.



Next up: floor care.

And then I spent some time wishing we had purchased a couch to put in our rather sparse living room. But, as always, I reminded myself that an extra couch is just an extra thing we'll have to move next year. Who knows how big our next home will be? Besides, where else would Caroline and her friends play, wrestle, fight, wreak havoc and plot evil?

Then I went to the commissary for all the things I didn't buy at Trader Joe's on Thursday.

Nothing exciting, but I did buy LOTS of berries.

Berries = summer. Normally I'm not a fan of summer, but I do like summer fruit.

The Gilmore Girls. Completely uninterrupted. That rarely happens.

Laundry.



Lots of laundry.




I even put it all way; instead of leaving it on top of the dryer for several days.



Don't we have a charming laundry room/utility area? It also serves as a wrapping paper holding area and a running shoe shelf.




No, I don't have four feet. I promise.


After burning my quads, hiking up the stairs with all that laundry, I spent some time at the computer. I wrote a few rather lengthy emails to Craig, as I'm currently determining the best accommodations for our marathon next January. YES, it's seven months away, I know. But, hotels fill up quick. And, have I mentioned that I'm neurotic and will worry obsessively until the plans are finalized?

I found myself awfully frazzled with all the choices, pros and cons, and expressed this to Craig simply with the use of the word "Ack!"

I seem to end a lot of emails that way.

Time to walk away from the emails and have an iced coffee. A very creamy iced coffee at that. Half and half makes it all better.



And then some BFB. That's Bedroom Floor Blogging.




Time for dinner.

Vegetable stir fry. And some unpictured frozen veggie egg rolls that I ate piping hot, which consequently burned the roof of my mouth.

Aw, little baby bok choy.

And then some other stuff happened that all went undocumented. Don't worry, you didn't miss anything. I ate some ice cream, read blogs, did the dishes, watched boring television and then I went to bed.


I woke up this morning, bright and early, ready to tackle 10 miles.

I did it. It wasn't entirely pretty, but I prevailed.

Tired.




Sweaty.


Thirsty.

Caroline is home now, practically bursting with the excitment of her first camping trip. We're heading to the pool later today and then it's back to the daily grind tomorrow.

Happy Memorial Day!

Camping

No, not me. I don't camp.
I'm not very outdoorsy. I run outside. Sit by the pool outside. I enjoy crisp fall days and warm, sunny spring afternoons. I'm not opposed to evening walks or drinking iced tea on the front porch.

And that's pretty much where I draw the line.
Camping is just not my thing.

Caroline's friend's family invited her to join them for a night of camping this Memorial Day weekend. She happily agreed, because she's much more outdoorsy than me. I think that's just a kid thing. She doesn't have to worry about her make up dissolving from the heat and humidity. She likes to sweat and stink and will happily pour water on her head without any concern for her hair.

It's really warm this weekend and they'll be spending the majority of the day at a water park. Tonight they'll sleep in a tent and eat the cookies I baked for them.

What do you give someone who has rather bravely and graciously offered to take your child camping? I speak in butter and sugar so, not too surprisingly, decided to make cookies to say thanks.


Any opportunity to unearth my beloved, Ebony, from her hiding spot is a happy occasion for me.

Can you guess what kind of cookie I baked?

If you see cream of tartar, you can easily surmise that snickerdoodles are about to be made.

Action shot

That's vanilla in the bowl; not rotten eggs.

Mickey Mouse.





Ready to go!

Intrepid Bee Hunter

Ever wonder what a neurotic housewife does on a Friday evening? Usually this NH eats copious amounts of ice cream and watches Jeopardy, but last night, things were different. As I swept up some wayward mulch in my driveway and pulled some stubborn weeds, I couldn't help but hear some buzzing by my neighbor's bushes.


Never one to mind my own business, I took a little gander and there, buzzing way, with their stingers in plain sight, were 15-20 bees. BIG bees. The kind that look fuzzy. I'm not up on the names and characteristics of the different types of bees: bumblebees, regular bees, worker bees, queen bees. They all look equally scary and unapproachable to me. I've met a few bees in my time. One time I got stung on my lip at a picnic as I was trying to take a bite of a hamburger. But usually it's my foot that meets the bee's vicious stinger. I can't even tell you how many bees I've stepped on in my life; just thinking about it makes my head a little tingly. You'd think I would have wised up by now, but I still walk outside barefoot.


Such a rebel.


Anyway, the big, hairy bees who were conducting their pollination business on my neighbor's plant, were very intriguing. Rather stupidly, I ran inside, grabbed my camera and tried to snap pictures of the bees in action.

The pictures are kind of fuzzy, I admit. Bees move quickly and my little point and shoot couldn't keep up. Also, I tried not to remain in one position for too long, not wanting to anger any of the bees. They don't take kindly to camera toting gawkers.

Aren't they scary?

In other news, the web situation has become even more entangled. The kids added blue yarn to the mix and now I'm afraid my living room will never be the same.

Actually, Caroline is going camping with her friend's family tomorrow; the minute she leaves I'm grabbing the scissors and snipping away. I'm tired of limboing and crawling through a yarn entanglement to answer the door.

I've just about reached my tipping point.

The pool opens today. It's cloudy and I'm sure the water is freezing. I obviously have no interest in a.) putting on a bathing suit or b.) setting foot in cold water, so Caroline is going with her friend to the pool. If it goes anything like it did last year, the outing won't last long. Even kids can only endure cold water for so long. Soon enough the water will warm up and I'll be spending every afternoon at the pool with Caroline and her motley crew of friends.

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike summer?

Let's Play WDAB?

That's What Did Alison Buy, in case you were wondering.

It's Thursday, which has somehow become my grocery shopping day. But we'll get there in a moment; I feel a tangent brewing. This particular Thursday has been on the dull side, I must admit. My day started out at 6:30 this morning with me fumbling down the stairs, taking note of my increasingly loud, creaking knees, making a cup of Tazo Awake tea, sitting down to the computer and putting my sunglasses on instead of my regular glasses. Yep, I've got it going on for sure.

Thursday also happens to be my day to volunteer in Caroline's class and stuff the Thursday folders. Today I helped edit the how-to books the kids are writing. After an hour of that, along with offering proper spelling advice to those who asked, enduring several Silly Bandz themed conversations and watching various children hold their breath and make their faces turn beet red, I was ready to bang my head against the wall escaped to the quiet workroom and folded and stapled a zillion reading booklets.

I excel at folding and stapling, so this was, in fact, my favorite part of the whole school volunteering experience. Lunch time falls way far down on the list; while I enjoy catching up on the 2nd grade gossip, the 1st graders are extremely noisy and every. single. week when I'm there, the lunch ladies, and sometimes the assistant Principal, turn off the lights, tell them to sit down and be quiet and every. single. week they don't listen.

My table of polite 2nd graders was once lauded by the Assistant Principal for remaining in our seats, keeping our legs under the table and eating and talking quietly. We're good rule followers.

Here, I thought I'd have nothing to blog about and I just went on and on and on about my two and a half hours at the school this morning. Nothing but captivating.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been grocery shopping on Thursdays. For the life of me, I couldn't drag myself to the commissary today, so I went to Trader Joe's instead. I still have to go to the commissary tomorrow, but for today, Trader Joe's won out. And because I'm sure you have nothing better to do with your time than see what I bought at Trader Joe's, I will now share with you some of the goodies I purchased. Because really? What else could you ask for?

Hastily snapped pictures of food + my brilliant commentary = pure blogging gold.


Fruit+Veg

I can't remember the last time I had a fresh apricot.
Don't they look like, well, never mind....



I LOVE brussels sprouts. Roasted brussels sprouts, especially.

Caroline and I are on a steamed fresh green bean kick. Caroline's veggie love warms my cold black heart.

I have no idea what to do with these, but they were only $1.29 so I impulsively tossed them in the cart.

They were out of my usual crack almond butter so I'm trying this instead. Perhaps this will taste good on the banana thingies I bought. PB + bernaners = tasty.

In my efforts to become more crunchy, I'm trying sprouted bread. Don't ask. I don't have an answer. It just struck my fancy. Please ignore the sticker I tried to remove from the bag. It was super sticky and I gave up trying to remove it before I punctured a hole in the bag.

Because all produce and hippie bread makes Alison an even duller girl, a little sweetness made it's way into the cart.

This is for me and ME only. Caroline found my dark chocolate/toasted coconut squares hidden in the depths of the pantry so this is going in my super secret candy hideout. Just protecting what is rightly mine.

Real half and half makes iced coffee a million times tastier.

My bossy sister told me to buy these. I always do as I'm told, so I did. I told you I'm a rule follower.

Why yes, I think I have...

And so this concludes my captivating recap of my Trader Joe's shopping trip. Now that you've seen it, your life can be considered complete.

I'd like to think that for the most part I bought tasty and healthy things; the antioxidant properties of dark chocolate, included.

But just so you know, I may eat tons of veggies but in the interest of full disclosure, the remainder of the afternoon will be spent finishing this bad boy:

Caroline's teacher needs an empty 2L bottle to make tornadoes with and I've volunteered this bottle. It's now my job to empty it. By tomorrow.

I made a dent in it yesterday, so I think I can manage the task at hand.
I'm tough like that.

Just doing my best to support my child's education.

I'm nothing, if not admirable. ;)

Have you tried anything new or fun from the grocery store lately?