Saturday Apps - Netflix a winner

So I'm a TV-holic.  I always have been.  I have my steadfast favorite shows.  I watch mostly drama and the occasional reality shows.  I love General Hospital.  I use to be a TV Guide subscriber, and even now I try to read about most all of the shows on network and cable TV just to stay in the know. There are times that critics have told me a show will be worthy and I've had another commitment, or I didn't believe them, or I waited too long to jump on the bandwagon and couldn't catch up.

Thanks to Netflix I can finally watch those shows that I should have watched back when they were on prime time.  We started a monthly subscription with Netflix several years ago and we ordered movies.  Then the new TV season began and we have as much time.  I suggested we only use Netflix during the offseason and that is what we did until they started streaming.  We have been with Netflix's streaming for over a year now, but only recently have I begun using it to catch up with old television shows.

The first show that I caught up with was Army Wives.  Not exactly earth shaking television, but it fit the bill for something to watch during those summer evenings while eating dinner.  The plots were always simple and didn't require much thinking, but it did give me a small glimpse into some of the things the Army and the spouses who marry into it go through; not that I believed everything.  The acting was good.  The friendships were strong.  We finished the entire arc that Netflix had to offer, and I thought that the cast and crew had done a nice job of ending the series.  Of course, Lifetime picked the series back up due to an Army Wives fan club protest, and because I was already invested in the series we recorded and watched the follow up season.  This last season is still on our DVR and the kids attention has waned and I've moved on.

The next show I got hooked on was In Plain Sight with Mary McCormack, an actress that I thought seemed familiar, but couldn't place.  I later found out that I watched her in Murder One and possibly the West Wing, a show I came in on a few years late.  In Plain Sight McCormack plays Mary Shannon, a Marshall Deputy for the Witness Protection Program.  She is hilarious, caring, and a butt-kicking deputy.  The show ran on the USA Network for five seasons, and unfortunately for me, Netflix only has the first three seasons, 40 episodes.  I still have two more to watch because I hate for it to all come to an end, although I did see that the show is out on DVD.

While not wanting to finish with In Plain Sight I looked for other shows to jump aboard on.  I introduced my kids to The Wonder Years, and although they indulged me for about six episodes they weren't interested in any more.  I made Madison sit through the two hour pilot of Magnum P.I., but she hasn't opted to watch any more with me.  I watched the first season of Scandal in three days, but not soon enough to jump onto the current season two.  About this time came news that Netflix was going to get into producing its own shows and they would start by resurrecting an old show canceled years ago, Arrested Development.

I loved the idea of Netflix resurrecting canceled shows, and that show was one that my friend Kelly kept insisting that I would love, so I decided to watch all of the first three seasons before jumping in on the resurrected season four.  And how glad I was!  If you haven't watched this comedy, you are missing out on same well written, hilarious, well acted television.  I don't know how the actors kept a straight face during shooting.  I spent one whole day watching Arrested Development and then re-watched episodes with Madison, something I rarely do.  I am now on season four, two shows into it, and while I admire what they are trying to do I'm not sure that the show and/or the writing is the same.  Perhaps letting sleepy dogs lie is better, especially years later; the actors are older and too much in life has happened since that time.

All of us now have our electronics hooked up to Netflix and we are each watching something different.  The girls are into Psych, thanks to my nephew and niece, Tom is watching Weeds, and I've started watching Alias.  It isn't a bad way to pass the summer.

Letting my birds stick their beaks out of the nest

I am a worry wart.  I am one of those mothers that lies in bed at night worrying about things that I envision in my head like aliens landing on our roof, sucking our kids out of their beds into their aircraft, and whisking them away.  I am very suspicious of most everything.  That guy walking down my street that I've never seen before?  He is casing my house.  He will walk out of sight of my open door, circle around through my neighbor's yard, and appear at my front door before I even have time to react.  I should get up and lock my door.  And I did.  That happened just this morning.

When Madison started high school I had to loosen the grip.  I was dealing with my mother and doctor appointments and there were times Madison had to walk from school to the library because I couldn't get to her in time.  When soccer started she either walked or rode with her coach to the field down the street from the school.  I was a wreck about it all, and had once instance where I went to pick her up and the coach had decided to change the venue for practice that day.  I did not take that one well, but Madison was just fine.  She wanted the responsibility and made sure to walk with other kids where ever she was headed.  The next year I let her take the bus.  While I worried all the time about it I knew I had to let her do it.  I figured taking these tiny steps would help me in the long run.

When Darcy graduated from eighth grade recently a group of kids decided to go to a movie.  I said yes.  Then the group wanted to walk from the movie to a restaurant in the same vicinity clear across the other side of the outdoor mall.  Then they wanted to eat and turn around and head back to the other side for ice cream.  I said okay after much begging and pleading.  I felt better about her in a group.  It was a huge step for both of us.  I explained how this was a concern for me and that this was her first opportunity to show me that she could handle this type of thing.  The group did well and had a great time and all was well.  I was hoping that was the end of it.

Two days ago I was cooling off and working out in the pool after my nightly mile and a half walk when Darcy came outside.  She lifted her hand to show me the two Redbox movies she held.  My first thought was that Tom was home and had rented some movies.  My second thought was %^&* we forgot to return those free movies.  It was now 8:21 and the movies were due back by nine and I was in the pool wet.

Me:  "Well, get in the car take them back.  (I was kidding)  This is why Madison needs to learn to drive."
Darcy:  "Would you let us ride our bikes up there?"

Uh, no.  That response was immediate.  The Redbox we use is a mile straight up the street from our house.  In my day that would have been no big deal to jump on our bikes and ride up there to deposit the movies.  But the street the girls would have to travel on is not like the street I lived off of.  It is very busy and there are no sidewalks.  They would have to walk their bikes from our street two streets over into the next neighborhood where they could safely ride up the road which then would have to cross to get to the Redbox.  Do you have any idea the things that could happen to them in just that short amount of time?  Immediately my brain started thinking of them.

Darcy:  "We are 16 and 14, Mom.  At some point you are going to have to let us go."
Me:  "It is almost dark, Darcy, and it is going to storm.  If you had asked me an hour ago I would have let you."
Darcy:  "Really?"
Me:  "No, but I would have listened to more arguments from your side."
Darcy:  "What if I text Dad and ask him what he thought?  You know, just to see."

I argued some more about the weather and the darkness and about the horrible things that could happen to her.  She argued some more about how she had a safe route to get there through the other neighborhood and that she and Madison were perfectly responsible.  And then Tom texted back "sure" or something along those lines and against my better judgement, because I know that I have to let them go at times, I said yes.  And then I began lecturing them about the crosswalk and bike safety, and they were gone.  It was now 8:30 and as I pumped in the pool with my arm buoys and water jogged around the deep end I envisioned them in my head riding the route.

Then it thundered.  We live in Florida and in the summer here we have night storms.  Sometimes it rains.  Sometimes we have lightning.  Most of the time it thunders.  I looked up at the thunderheads, figured they would hold off a half an hour since they were in the opposite direction of where the girls were headed, and got out of the pool.  The entire time I showered I worried.  What if someone in a van pulls over in the neighborhood and  grabs Darcy off of her bike?  What would Madison do?  Would she think to get the license number?  To call 911 on her cell phone?  What if Madison falls off of her bike and hits her head?  What would Darcy do?  Would she allow a stranger to help them?  And on and on it went until I was hyperventilating in the shower.

I got out and got dressed, and as I dressed I pictured Darcy calmly taking control of any situation because for the most part Darcy does this.  Her teachers always told us this in conferences and even when I don't know the answer to something Darcy will find it out and report back.  I relaxed some as Darcy handled my imaginary scenarios, and then my phone rang.

Madison:  "I'm just calling to tell you that we are headed back.  We didn't get to Redbox because Darcy doesn't know where she is going and she is freaking out because of the thundering."
Me:  "You guys are lost?  OMG.  How can you not know where you are?  We have driven that neighborhood plenty of times.  I knew it.  I knew it."
Madison:  "Ok, first of all, you and Darcy need to calm down.  I know where I am.  I'm not concerned other then the fact that Darcy is pedaling like a maniac because of the thunder and lightning.  I just wanted to tell you what was going on."

Her calm, collected voice reassured me and I told them to be careful.  Then I got into my car and headed into the other neighborhood to find them, to pick up the DVDs, and to return them before 9:00.  It was now getting dark and the storm clouds were rolling in at an alarming rate.  I turned into the neighborhood and peered down each road that they could have chosen to take to get to Redbox.  I didn't see them on any of them.  I then drove down them, getting more frantic each road I traveled as they weren't on any of them.  I tried calling both their phones and got no answer.  It was now completely dark and the radio was informing me that we were under a severe thunderstorm warning.  I cried some as I wondered aloud where could they be.  I tried blocking out the horrible thoughts swirling through my head and then my phone rang.

Madison:  "We are fine.  We are almost home."
Me:  "WHERE ARE YOU?  I am driving looking for you.  OMG!"
Madison:  "Mom, seriously, calm down.  You need to relax.  So does Darcy.  We are walking our bikes along the road and we are almost to our street.  I really can't talk on the phone or I'm going to lose Darcy who is running like a crazy person."
Me:  "Ok, ok.  Be careful."

I hung up and turned my car around and sure enough found them where Madison said they were about to turn into our street.  I barely saw them as it was now completely dark outside and they had no lights on their bikes.  I relaxed.  I led them up the street to our house where they parked their bikes.  Darcy ran into my arms. She was worried about the lightning and the thunder and she couldn't remember which road was which and it had all been too much.  Why did I say yes?  Madison stood behind her rolling her eyes.  She explained that she knew where they were, but Darcy wouldn't listen to her.  She had finally taken out her phone and pulled up the area and shown Darcy where they needed to go and they had followed her instructions, but when they got to where the store where the Redbox was located Darcy had not wanted to cross the street and was too worried about the approaching storm to think beyond that.  Then she had taken off pedaling like she was in the Tour de France time trials and it took all Madison had not to lose her.

Darcy:  "I'll try it again tomorrow when it isn't lightning."
Me:  "Uh, NO.  No, that is the last time you are going outside without me.  I said no in the first place and you guilted me into this and look what happened.  Never again.  Not until you are heading off to college."
Darcy:  "I'll try again tomorrow."

I knew she was right.  She needed to get right back on that bike and attempt it again, but I'm having such a hard time with letting her do it. While I had thought Darcy was the one that would keep a cool head it had been Madison, the elder, who had done so.  It made me feel more relaxed about Madison and her learning to drive, another thing that I'm having issues with.  I've spent my entire life as a mother keeping them safe and now I'm suppose to just let go?  Is there a book on this that I haven't read yet?  Deep down I know that I have to do this.  I have to open my arms and gently push them out into the world and trust them to remember what we have taught them, but then my less than normal worry brain congers up all sorts of horrific imagines and I'm pulling them closer. 

This is our summer for trying new things, but luckily it stormed most of the next day.  Of course, I had already decided that I would go out first and buy a bike for myself so that I could follow at a safe distant.  Little steps.  No, I wouldn't do that.  But it isn't a bad idea.

Free Redbox movies...well, not really

I rented the movie Jack Reacher the other day from Redbox, our favorite summer place to hit.  I had been refusing to see it because the books featuring Jack Reacher are in my top five best mystery series books, and I do not believe Hollywood knows how to take plots, characters, etc. from books and put into movies.  Despite my admiration for Tom Cruise and his acting abilities, did you people see Rock of Ages, OMG loved it, he was not Jack Reacher who is taller and older.  So I did not spend the big money to see the movie at the box office, but I was willing to spend the $1.50 for the Blue Ray disc at Redbox.  Which did not work. 

Something was wrong with the disc, but I spent fifteen minutes cleaning it and trying it again.  Then Madison spent fifteen minutes working with it.  Then Tom came home and spent a an hour making us all work and work and work on it.  I saw the beginning of Jack Reacher so many times that I knew the script and could play all of the characters up to the point when the disc stopped working.  By this point it was midnight and I was annoyed.  I got on the Internet and found out that to report this to Redbox I had to either call them or speak with them live over the Internet, neither of which I wanted to do because I was tired and pissed off.  I went to bed and took the movie back to Redbox the next day and left it for the next unsuspecting person.

This did not sit well with hubby.  When he found out that I had not requested a refund he did.  He chatted live with a Redbox employee who scolded him for returning the bad disc, but also gave him two free rentals.  Which he promptly used renting Jack Reacher (non Blue Ray) and Skyfall.
 

(This entry was suppose to be about something else entirely, but somehow has rambled on about movies and Redbox...hey, maybe I'll just get two entries from it)

The girls were both out with friends at different activities when we sat down to watch Jack Reacher, which by this time I was sure was a crappy movie.  Tom insisted on starting from the beginning of the movie because he had missed it, although how he had missed it after all of our attempted repairs was beyond me.  I entertained myself by saying the lines before the actors which I'm sure annoyed Tom, but he was kind enough not to mention it.  The disc worked.  We saw the entire movie and I was not wrong.  It was a terrible movie.  

I was willing to overlook Tom Cruise as the casting for the Jack Reacher character, but even that couldn't make me like the movie.  Yes, there was humor like in the book, but it was a typical Hollywood movie of car chases and fight scenes and a convoluted storyline that confused me at times and ended up just being juvenile.  Why can't people get books into movies correctly?  Why do they even try?  Are there not scriptwriters out there writing original stuff?  I ended up forgoing the next movie since I'm not a James Bond fan and went into the other room where I quite happily tuned in to Netflix streaming and watched Arrested Development.  (OMG, have you seen these series?  Hilarious and well written, but that too I'll make another entry for later.)

When Tom finished the movies he took Skyfall and put it on his desk.  He left Jack Reacher above the DVD player.  I suppose he did this because in his mind Skyfall was his movie and the other was mine.  He should have put both discs back in the Redbox on his way to work, or at the very least, on the kitchen counter by my purse and keys to remind me to take back.  I didn't see either disc and didn't take them back.  Tom didn't see them either until after the 9:00 deadline.  Oops. 

This is where the entry I started to write comes in, but now I'll write that for tomorrow.

Needless to say we didn't learn from our mistakes.  Tom took his movie and put it with my movie above the DVD player instead of in the kitchen.  I didn't move them into the kitchen either.  The next day the movies did not make it to Redbox until 9:05 (tomorrow the reason) and so our two free movies cost us $4.80.  It made me think of the time my friend got into legal trouble for never returning a movie to a rental company.  It was a huge hassle and cause quite the uproar in her family, and by the time everything was straightened out, she said, "Trust me, if I had wanted to steal the movie I would have picked a movie better than 9 1/2 weeks."  That is exactly the way I felt about Jack Reacher.  Which is also why I don't go to movies and wait for Redbox.  Just didn't work for me this time.  Oops.

It is now their time

I wrote this article several months ago, but had it in draft because I was waiting on photos.  Finally got them posted and finished the article.  

Darcy's school, where she has attended since she was three years old, is a small Montessori school.  Her 8th grade class has fifteen kids in it, the largest graduating class the school has had.  When it comes to sports we play other Montessori based schools and the teams are coed to accommodate the small enrollments.  It is all about learning the sport, teamwork, and sportsmanship, and you make the team no matter your playing ability.  Everyone who wants to play plays.  We play football, soccer, and basketball throughout the year and the main rule is that two girls must be on the playing field at all times.

For some of the schools this has been hard especially in football, but for our school the girls outnumber the boys.  Darcy has only 5 boys in her class and that's only because one just moved here last month from Germany.  Madison's class had only one boy, and back then our problem was getting enough players to participate.  Those girls in those years were more into make-up and social activities then sports.  Madison finally joined basketball her sixth grade year.  That year was one of those "too few kids" years and because that was anticipated because of each school's size the rules stated we could move up kids from the 5th grade as long as they were ten years old.  Enter Darcy.

She was only in her 4th grade year when she was put on the practice squad of the basketball team so that they could practice scrimmaging.  She and two of her male classmates played against the team, but couldn't compete in games because they weren't ten years old yet. 

Basketball Spring 2009 - Darcy 4th grade

The next year, her 5th grade year, she was of legal age and immediately started out playing the first sport of the season; football.  Darcy, the two boys from basketball, and a third 5th grader were brought up to complete the team and they were thrown right in.  She loved it.  She played both defense and offense and was the one who ran out into the huddle with the plays.  Because of this she had to learn the playbook to relay it to the the other players between downs when the coach wasn't allowed on the field.

Football Fall 2009 - Darcy 5th grade

 

Darcy's classmate, one she has known since she was three, was the quarterback.  These four kids were playing against middle school kids on the other side and actually holding their own.  Unfortunately, due to size and strength we weren't winning.  For Darcy that was no big deal at that age, but the boys took it hard.  We kept telling them that one day they would finally be the older, taller kids, but back then it was no consolation.

Football  Fall 2010 - Darcy 6th grade

Basketball Spring 2011 - Darcy 6th grade

These kids moved on to soccer and basketball where they would be crushed sometimes by a score of 40 - 4 in basketball.  Each year we kept giving them the wait speech; one day they would be the winners, that they would grow, that these kids on the other teams would graduate, etc.  But while they heard that they didn't care about it because it wasn't now.

Football 2011 - Darcy 7th grade

Basketball 2012 - Darcy 7th grade

This year is the final year.  Darcy and the other three boys are now 8th graders.  They started the sports season out in the fall of 2012 with football.  When they took the field for the first game they looked around and noticed they were taller then the other team.  They took that first snap and realized they were stronger then the other team.  They ran down the field, scored, and realized they were faster then the other team. 

Football 2012-2013 - Darcy 8th grade

Finally!  Finally they got what we had been saying all of these years.  This was their time.  They went undefeated and won the championship in football.

Mustang Football Champs 2012-2013

Next came soccer.  They towered over the other soccer kids.  They dribbled, passed, and weaved their way through the teams.  We had a secret weapon in one of the girls who also played competitive soccer.  The day she was at another match we lost by one.  Didn't matter in the end.  We made it to the finals and won the championship.

Darcy 2013 soccer - 8th grade

Mustang Soccer Champs 2013

Basketball took place two days after the soccer season ended.  In the beginning there weren't enough kids to even substitute players, but by the second game we had added a few.  The practices were outside in the heat and quite intense.  The pressure was on for the kids to win another championship to finish out the year with a three-peat. 

Darcy 2013 BBall - 8th grade

It wasn't hard.  Where we had once been the laughing stock of the other teams we were now the dominators.  The kids came together passing and shooting like a pro team.  Their defense was great and their picks the best I've seen at that level.  They ended the season with no losses and the championship trophy.

Mustang Basketball Champs 2013

Three championships had never been done before in the history of the school.  Finally all of that "keep working, one day you will be bigger and stronger" talk became a reality.  It was a nice way to end their 8th grade year especially after all of the previous years.  

 

                                                                                                                    

I think I miss the good ole days

I am still a newspaper reader, and I'm not afraid to admit that.  I like to spread out the paper when I eat breakfast.  I like how it folds neatly on my lap when I sit on the couch or poolside with coffee.  I like to use a pencil to work the crossword puzzle, and don't even get me started on the many uses newspaper has when reading in the bathroom.  That being said, one of the things I hate about newspapers is all of the turning to different pages to finish reading a story.  Who came up with that one?  I've never understood why papers and magazines feel the need to make us turn to different pages, several pages away from the beginning, to finish the story.  Yes, yes, I know it has something to do with placement and enticement, but seriously, those of us who read newspapers will read them no matter all that other garbage.  I just really hate having to search to finish the article.  It is always placed on a page with several other half finished articles and no matter the placement of titles I always seem to finish halfway through before realizing I'm on the wrong article and no wonder that made no sense.

Now blogs are doing this weird search for the article nonsense, and frankly, it has caused me to stop reading certain blogs.  I want to check in on the blogs I read daily, but that isn't always easy to do and so I try to do it at least once a week.  That being the case I want to start where I left off and work my way back up the screen to present day.  One of the blogs I've read for years has changed and no matter how much I try to navigate the site I can not find articles past those that appear on the screen in tiny bubbles that I have to click on just to pull up the full story.  There is no consistency to the order of articles anymore, and I hate it. 

Then there is the whole mobile device sites now days that these devices insist that you use.  If I try to go to a site on my Iphone while at a store to check for coupons, another screen always pops up first telling me, suggesting to me, or asking me to download the mobile app.  I have so many apps on my mobile device now that I never use.  Why would I want to add another one when all I really want is a coupon?  Or that week's ad?  Which is why I still insist on a newspaper because those coupons and ads are in there.  I just couldn't find them to cut them out because they wanted me to turn umpteen pages and I SERIOUSLY LOST IT. 

My husband has been talking about getting rid of the newspaper because our subscription is up and they want $200 for us to renew it for a year.  Mr. Computer Man wants me to download the newspaper app (which I admitted I already had) and read my daily dose of murder and mayhem on my Ipad.  I think he is going to renew, however, when I asked him what to do when I run out of toilet paper.

Pictures from our week with family guests

We spent time with Grandma Connie taking her to doctor appointments, her sleep study, the grocery, the library, etc. We sat and talked and talked and even the kids joined in in between checking their phones for new Instagram photos and texts.  We also worked in the pineapple plantation with Susan planting her very own pineapple in a stolen planter box she took from the neighbor.

Gabby getting the cart for Grammy

Working in the plantation

Grammy's growing pineapple and Susan's newly planted one

At the sleep clinic

Here comes the gang

This pineapple matches Gabby's pineapple outfit she has on

Working with Grammy's walker

We also did a lot of eating, both out and in.  I cooked quite a bit this trip and Susan ate out a little less this year.  All the way around the food was scrumptious.

Frenchy's Saltwater Cafe

My chiptole lime shrimp tacos

Breakfast at my favorite hang out

Sweet Tomatoes

Guppy's...the pina colada was delicious after my beach burn

Susan also got back in touch with her palm trees around my area of Florida, something she insists we take photos of every time she spots one.  I can't tell you how many of these pictures I own.

The rest of the time was spent in my backyard by the pool or at the beach to soak up rays.  Tom took the girls to swim with the manatees in Crystal River one day so Susan, Kelly, and I went to the beach.  It was a cloudy day when we got there and looked like rain so Kelly and I did not apply sunscreen, something we knew better about, and so you can write the rest of that story.  I fell asleep in my chair and Kelly and I also spent considerable time in the water while Susan, who never applies sunscreen, tanned and tanned.

Swimming with the manatees

It was a great visit and much too short.  Hopefully, they will be back or we will see them in Indiana.

A week in review

1. Darcy's birthday party with the kids went off quite well.  I kind of got over the birthday parties when my kids hit double digits, but Darcy kept bugging me until I gave in.  We had eleven kids at our house for swimming and fondue.  The fondue was my idea after finding four sets while cleaning our garage.  It wasn't one of my better ideas as the kids would have been quite happy with pizza and soda.  Instead Kelly, Madison and I slaved for hours in the kitchen cutting up food, stirring up different cheeses and chocolates, and sweating in all the heat and stress of timing the food.  Then we didn't get to really enjoy the fondue.  Didn't matter in the end.  Darcy had a blast and so did the kids.
2. I have company.  My sis-in-law and niece arrived last Monday evening and it has been a whirlwind of suntanning, swimming with manatees, game playing, suntanning, coffee drinking, shopping, suntanning, pool time, eating, and suntanning.  Sleeping a full eight hours has been a bit lacking.  It is great to have them here, however, and they will soon be flying back to Indiana and we will have plenty of time to snooze.
3. I finally sent my camera off to Sony repair in Laredo, Texas.  I followed the instructions on the website which were very detailed:  go to the website (which I was on) or call this 800 number.  I called the 800 number and spoke to a nice Indian gentleman named Chris, who obviously was new on the job.  I had a hard time hearing him and he had to spell everything back to me using words that began with the letter.  Example:  "You live in Largo, that is L as in lettuce, A as in alligator, R as in ranch, G as in gas, O as in over.  He did this with everything.  I made a game of guessing what word he would use.  By the time the phone call ended he told me to do what I had already done which was box up the camera with a paper that had my name, address, phone number and the problem written on it.  A week later I received the camera back with a response that said the technician didn't find anything wrong with the camera.  I still can not hook the camera up to my computer and download pictures.  Don't know yet about the battery charging as the battery was charged upon arrival.  In the meantime I'm using my Iphone and old reliable Canon camera, which I really much prefer.  Hail to Canon!  Pfft to Sony.
4. Elliot loves my sis-in-law.  He follows her everywhere and sits outside whatever door she is behind waiting for her to come out.  He now has her routine down pat and today he whined and pawed her legs when she wasn't move fast enough to get outside by the pool with her morning coffee.  When she gets up and uses the bathroom in the middle of the night and then goes back to her room, shutting the door behind her, he howls.  It is like a mini vacation for me.
5. The first three days of our vacation were a tad hectic.  Madison worked full time babysitting three kids each day and Darcy had to attend a high school boot camp to prep her for next year.  It was three days of up early in the morning and going, going, going.  Madison would bring her charges down to our house for a break in the day, along with their large dog.  The dog ran through the house eating up all of Elliot's water and food.  She would mouth all of his toys, jump on the furniture, jump on Elliot, and lie in Elliot's bed.  Elliot was quite happy to see her go.  Maddy and the kids would come in, eat a ton of food, make some type of food whether it was cupcakes or Popsicle, and then leave behind a sticky kitchen floor.  I would chauffeur three kids back and forth to the boot camp, clean up Madison's mess, and sit with Susan by the pool when I had a free minute.  Everyone was quite happy when all of that came to an end.
6. Tom took the girls to swim with the manatees on Saturday so Susan, Kelly and I went to breakfast, the beach, and then out to lunch.  Susan has been walking three or more miles daily using an app called Runkeeper to monitor her progress.  She walked the first day she was here, but I felt guilty that she wasn't keeping it up so I suggested we walk to breakfast.  We left at 7:15 in the morning after Tom and the girls had driven off and hiked the mile and a half to my favorite breakfast spot.  Kelly drove there and took us home thankfully since I arrived at the restaurant looking like I had just gotten out of the gulf.  The day was overcast so Susan hauled us to the beach where Kelly and I did not put on sunscreen, thinking we would only be there for an hour.  Two hours later we went to lunch where I had to suck down two pina coladas just to cool off.  Needless to say, Kelly and I were fried to a crisp.
7. Connie spent a night in a sleep clinic to check for sleeping issues.  This was a recommended by a couple of doctors in her various hospital stays, the last one coming from the lung doctor who also is a sleeping specialist.  Susan and I took her to the clinic, which did not resemble the Holiday Inn, and left her there after watching a video on what to expect.  Connie half halfheartedly watched the video and apparently missed the part on how many wires would be attached to her head, face, and nose with sticky goop.  She was not the happiest person the next morning when we arrived to pick her up at 6:30 am, having had to sit through the removal of all the stuff, which took longer than normal due to her thin skin. She did, however, sleep through the night.  We will know the results of the study in ten days.
8. Back to the swimming with the manatees...the girls had a blast doing just that.  The three of them and Tom rode out on a boat with ten other people to a spring and got to observe and touch briefly several manatees.  They were very educated on respecting the animals and hopefully got quite a few good pictures.  The escapades after the swimming expedition made for the great stories that we have heard twice now through lots of giggling. 
9. I shall follow up soon with photos of this week.  If you can't wait for that, then check out my Instagram at cmkerwin.  It is much easier to post there when using the Iphone.

Out of the mouths of my babes

Darcy had a birthday party at our house last night with boys and girls from her class this year.  She planned the pool part of the party, and I planned the fondue part of the party.  She had fun while Kelly, Madison and I worked our butts off cooking and prepping fondue.  We had cheese and chocolate fondue with various dippers including pasta, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, and sourdough and pumpernickel bread for the cheese and apples, bananas, raspberries, strawberries, marshmallows, pound cake, birthday cake and pineapple for the chocolate.  While cleaning up the leftovers we discovered that cauliflower, pumpernickel, raspberries and pineapples were not big hits.

Kelly:  "You guys didn't eat the pumpernickel bread?  Why wouldn't you eat that?  Pumpernickel bread is delicious."

Darcy:  "This is a bunch of kids.  If you put down a plate of brown bread in front of a bunch of kids they assume it is whole wheat.  Kids avoid anything whole wheat."

Removing cherry pits

We have this insert in our paper called Dash.  For the most part I never read inserts, but since I've decided to save with coupons I try to peruse these sections now.  I love Dash.  It has all these great food and drink recipes that I cut out and never use.  This issue of the little magazine was all about summer grilling, something that I do not do because it involves fire.  While I have progressed to lighting candles, after being an administrative assistant to a Partylite consultant, I don't do anything else that involves fire.  But that's another blog entry for another time.

In the beginning of the issue was a tiny blurb about removing pits from cherries.  I found this interesting because one, I had just bought some expensive bing cherries, and two, I find removing the pits a major concern.  In the summer I make a lot of fruit salads because the fruit is plentiful and my girls eat it like crazy.  They do not eat cherries.  Their reason is that they don't like the "seed".  I try to sneak in cherries in the fruit salad, but find it a pain to remove the pit.  This consists of cutting the cherry in half, digging out the pit with my fingers because it is easier then using the knife, and tossing the halves into the salad.  I usually get bored of doing this around cherry number 5.  But the cherries are always beat up looking and for the most part sit at the bottom of the bowl because my kids eat around them.

The blurb suggested two ways to pit a cherry.  The second way involved using the flat end of a knife and that is pretty much all I understood of the complicated removal.  The first suggestion was easier.  It said to take a straw, insert it into the dimple of the cherry, push it through, and ta da pit removed.  Hmmm...  .

 I washed and de-stemmed my cherries

 

The straws that I have are the tiny flexible, "bendy" straws because that is what my grocery sells.  I looked at this straw and looked at the cherry and thought, "No way in hell."

Luckily, I have a daughter who purchases Slurpees 24/7 with her babysitting money.  In my straw bin was this Slurpee straw that was certainly much more worthy.

I pushed the straw through the dimple.  (The ugly looking bruise on my thumb is just lighting and remember the no nail biting was last year's resolution)

The first cherry I did, before filming, worked like a charm.  The straw went right through the cherry and the pit actually came out the other end attached to the straw.  The rest of them didn't work like that.  But it did work.  I just had to put some muscle into the pushing and ta da out came the pit.  And quite a bit of cherry juice.  Note:  Make sure to do this over something that will not stain.

When finished the cherries are whole, but with a large hole in them.  I managed to do this with five cherries before I got bored and tired.

I've decided to stick with my full-proof method which is:  take a cherry, bite off half, remove bit with teeth, spit pit in garbage.  Usually the second half gets tossed into my mouth, but sometimes it makes it into the fruit bowl.

Bon Appetite'

First day of summer

And here is how my children spent their first day of no school.

Okay, in their defense we did have Tropical Storm Andrea pass through, but the rain only lasted half a day.  Madison actually got up at 9:00 pm, showered and dressed for the evening.  It is going to be a long summer.

Call me Thumbalina

I am not the gardening type, something I've fessed up to multiple times, but this summer since working in Connie's pineapple plantation I decided I would give gardening a small try.  I received a cilantro plant from my girls on Mother's Day which I kept for awhile in the kitchen enjoying the scent.  Then the plant started wilting so I researched the care for cilantro online and realized I would have to plant the darn thing in a planter that could go outside.

To do this I accompanied my husband on one of his many weekend trips to the hardware store.  I wandered the gardening section while he bought nuts and bolts and hardware type things.  I didn't find a planter I liked well enough, but I did find some mint and spearmint.  Remembering I had a long planter at home I decided to plant all three together.  We bought some dirt and some plant food and came home to put all three plants into their new home.

While I felt like a farmer with my hands in the dirt, I did not care for the bending over and kneeling parts of the planting.  I carried on, however, with some help from the hubby.  The planter is sitting below my bedroom window so that it receives the morning sun and not the afternoon heat.  Cilantro doesn't like high heat or sun.

While I was at it I got some hanging plants.  I used to have these every summer hanging on my front porch, but the doves would get into them, build nests, and deliver babies.  While we enjoyed that whole process we didn't care for their skittish behavior every time we entered or exited the front door.  I was also gone during the month of July and Tom got tired of keeping up with the watering of the plants so we haven't had them in the past three years.

Now that the house is painted and the lawn is in and growing I thought it time we brought back the hanging plants.  Tom wasn't too keen on it.  He doesn't think I will take care of them, but he relented and I bought three hanging planters.  I was very good the first week pruning and watering until I realized that my husband was also pruning and watering them.

We got that straightened out and so far so good.  A few days later found these little creatures that I put around the front of my newly landscaped yard.

Then I found this little worm that you put into your plant and he keeps track of whether or not the soil needs to be watered.  He darkens when the soil is moist and lightens when it needs water.  I love him.  I put him into the herb planter.

The front of the house looks fabulous now and we have been lucky with the rain so far.  Now we have to start on the back of the house.  The plan there is to xeriscape it as we had to remove the irrigation system when we put in the pool.  We have repainted the pool deck and Tom is busy decorating with some art work that he discovered while acting like a tourist one day on the beach.  Slowly, but surely we are making change for the better.