Mmmmm...Autumn!

Do you know about those glorious days in Portland? The ones where there is a light breeze, the sun is gentle, white clouds scud across the skies and you feel like taking a walk on the Waterfront or going for a jaunt down Hawthorne -- those days that are so fleeting that you have to grab them when they come, quit work, rearrange schedules and take advantage of every golden moment...

We get those here in Texas. Except that we get about 3 months worth of them in the fall, and another 3 months in the spring. I've got to brag because everyone knows that everything is BIGGER in Texas. So, our golden days are bigger, longer, whatever you might want to call them, and because of them, we forgive the six weeks of unbearable heat that we suffer every summer.

Like today. A long yawn, and we were up at 8:00am, stretched our way to church and then back home via Target, Toys-R-Us and Starbucks. The girls curled up on the couch and read books until a sunbeam made them squint, and then it was shoes and a clamorous rush for the back door. Squeals of laughter followed their jaunt across the yard to play with the lamb and the slide and the swing. It made me wish that I didn't have lessons to teach and dinner to make.

Then one of those ideas came to mind that made the impossible, well, possible. We managed to stretch time so that a walk, a park, and a picnic dinner all fit into a very short hour and a half. All of that accompanied by soft breezes, laughter, running, skipping and talking. It prepped me for lessons, lessons, lessons. A few long goodbyes and it was time for wet, snuggly kisses of freshly laundered children and bedtime.

Yes, we have days like that. Days when a carnival is a tempting treat not a cold, miserable idea. Days that start out with a fresh, crisp breeze and finish like warm chocolate cake. Days where Popsicles melt in the mouth not in the hand. Yes, we have them, lots of them, and we enjoy every single one.

A FUN weekend, but, alas, no pictures!

This was a great weekend for our family. Tanner took Saturday off, and I had two off-site events to go to for AWIC. So, since I was planning to do them solo, we loaded the kids in the car and took 'em with us!

The first event was just down the street at Wolf Pen Creek, and it was called "Wienerfest". No, it wasn't a festival celebrating hot dogs and bratwurst. It celebrated those little wiener shaped dogs. The little tiny, short ones. They had a costume contest, races, best of the breed, etc... The girls were in dog heaven. They probably petted and stroked over a 100 dogs. They watched me hand out countless coupons while Tanner paraded around as Frostbite. Right next to us was a bounce house, so we were able to let them bounce to their hearts content while we schmoozed. I sent the girls home with Tanner around 1:00pm and I stayed a couple more hours handing out coupons and monitoring kids playing in the "snow".

Today, after church, I had another off-site event called Buddy Walk at the same park. It's a fundraiser for Down Syndrome Research/Awareness. This one was only a couple of hours long, so the girls managed to have lots of fun playing in the snow, going into yet another bounce house, playing with bubbles and stuff like that while Tanner and I did our thing.

I worried that it would be difficult to monitor the kids, but they all managed to stay where I told them to stay. Kate was Georgi's "buddy" so they stayed together most of the time. We had beautiful weather. It was cool in the morning, but quickly heated up to the low 80's, so it was easy to keep the kids hydrated and cool. Kate said that her favorite thing about this weekend was getting to be at work with Mommy. Reagan was just excited to get to go bouncing 2 days in a row. Georgi doesn't say much, but she slept soundly last night.

Routine, routine, routine

Stress seems to be oozing around the corners of our life. Nothing is routine anymore. We try to keep a routine, but when Tanner stays up till 5:30am to study for a test and finish homework, Kate has to make it to school by 8:00, oh, and so does Tanner, Georgi decides that 3:30am is the new 7:00am...well, routine just doesn't exist.

We all managed to squeak by in the morning with Mommy (that's me) collapsing on the couch while the little kids watched Barney (here a silent prayer of Thanksgiving for that oft maligned show). The collapse didn't last very long since I still needed to do the laundry, wash dishes and try to slow down the inevitable journey to absolutely messiness, and then pick up Tanner at 11:30 to drive swiftly to a routine doctor appointment and then to Walmart and then home for a nap.

I foolishly thought that at least the doctor appointment would be routine. Just a simple thyroid panel. How many of these tests have I taken? I can't count the ways. Every six months for 7 years plus once every two months when expecting. Routine. Just say hi to the doctor, hi to the phlebotomist and I should be on my way. 15 minutes, that's what it takes.

I got there on time, but the doctor didn't. 30 minutes later, he says, "Hi. Breathe in. Good. Please, swallow. Good. I'll send in the nurse." Exit doctor. Really, that is how fast it is. Enter nurse. I should have known to ask for another nurse when she swabbed my arm with a pad without gloves on. I've done this way too many times. They set up the needle, the tube, the band aid, the cotton ball, gloves on, swab, stick. Always.

They NEVER complain about my veins. I've got a great one in my left arm. It NEVER collapses. The only time they weren't able to get that vein was when I was pregnant with Reagan and started puffing up, but they found one near my wrist. After she collapsed my lovely veins, I told her about the wrist one. I told her they can't EVER get blood out of my right arm. Did she listen? Nope. She re-used the alcohol swab that was sitting on the counter, and messed around with my right arm. I told her that even "Lazereyes" at the hospital couldn't get blood from that arm. She stuck it in any way, and I almost took her head off because she hit a tendon, so one jerked around tendon later, a couple more OW's! (that's right, she kept trying even after she hit the tendon), and she looked at me and said, "I think I'll send you to the lab to have your blood drawn."

Of course, by this time my "routine" exam is no longer "routine", and I can't get my blood drawn which was the whole part of the exam, my arms are actually sore, and Tanner has to get back to school, Kate needs to be picked up, and I am not dragging 3 kids to a lab. So, I have to try on Monday.

On the bright side, Georgi slept for 2 hours this afternoon, and without much fuss went to bed at around 8:30pm.

Okay, it's cold...

I woke up in the middle of the night to find a two year old snuggled up against my back, shivering! All of my attempts to pull the sheet over her were to no avail. She kept kicking them off until I put her baby blanket on top of her.

I stumbled around in the dark looking for our long discarded comforter. Then I searched for some REAL pajamas and some socks. I couldn't believe how cold I was. Sometime between sundown and 2:00am Autumn decided to roll into town. I went through all the rooms to make sure the fans were turned off, covered a couple more little, shivering bodies and then went back to sleep.

The morning didn't make things any better. Kate huddled in the corner of the house and quickly slurped down her hot oatmeal. Georgi stumbled around looking bewildered because of her numb toes. It's going to take us a bit to get use to this weather, I think. Off she went to school, and off I went to get ready for work. I took a hot shower for the first time in MONTHS. I shivered my way into long pants, searched for a sweater and contemplated what to do about this miserable weather, so naturally I logged onto weather.com to find out what the temperature was. I guess I've acclimated very well to Texas. It was 72F.