IT'S RAINING MEN

When it rains...... it pours!

We have been without AC upstairs for over a week. 

Our AC unit needed to replaced, as well as some of the duct work in the attic.

We had to do upgrade our duct work to get some kind of government credit so it is a big messy and expensive job. 

Thank you Big Government!

We had to move things from our attic to the second floor and stack them up in all of the bedrooms. The house has never been such a wreck! 

The installers have been at our house for the past four days. 

I have been at our house for the past four days.

This was the week I was going to finish up all of our back to school shopping so that we could enjoy the last two weeks of summer doing some fun things.

Yesterday, one of the installers decided to drop in unexpectedly.

These are pictures from the first floor looking up at the second floor ceiling. 

Have no fear....

someone will be here all next week to repair and paint the ceiling.

So glad that our ceiling is going to be nice and crisp and freshly painted, while the hallway walls and woodwork are going to look scuffed and grimy. 

Like I said,

when it rains, it pours.

#1's Room

We've been dorm/apartment shopping.

 #1 is living in an apartment this year when she goes back to school.

 I am amazed at how fast the summer has gone by. It is that time again. Time to pack all of those plastic containers and cart them up the road to Chapel Hill. I have been busy trying to get things together for both of my college girls. It has been very time consuming (and expensive). 

#1's apartment is going to be really cute. There will three other girls living with her. She will have her own bedroom and will share a bathroom with one other girl. The apartment is in an old converted warehouse and has high open ceilings with exposed beams and duct work. The floors are stained concrete and there are brick walls in all of the rooms. It is trendy. It is nothing like the places I  lived in when I was in college. 

We've found the some really neat things for her bedroom. We laid everything out in #3's bedroom so that we could see what it was going to look like. I love all of the colors. I think it is going to look great.  

She is using a white quilt over her bed and is using the colorful one folded and at the foot. She is going to use a lot of pillows. The pink pillow and the larger green one is #3's so they will stay here, but the rest of them she will be using. We propped the picture up just to make sure it all goes together and it looks like it was made to go with the little white pillow in the front. We found everything at Crate and Barrel, HomeGoods and World Market. 

#1 has a big job to do this weekend. She is going to be painting bedroom furniture and some tables for the living area. She is taking some older things that we have in the attic and painting them all black.  (I knew we kept those things for a reason!)

I'll take pictures of #2's things next and get them on here. We have a little more shopping to do. Finding Twin XL egg plant colored sheets has proven to be a difficult job. 

SUMMER LOVIN'

Another week has gone by. 

We've had a full week.

#2 had orientation at school. She is so excited about starting college in the fall. 

She is in the Design School and will be majoring in graphic design .  They only select around 155 students into the Design School each year after a long application process, interview and portfolio presentation. She got the opportunity to talk to all of her professors while we were there. 

 One day I'll have to take pictures of her portfolio and post them.

I'm dealing with a sinus infection. I don't think there is anything worse than being congested when it is so hot and humid outside. I'm looking forward to the antibiotics kicking in.

Speaking of hot and humid....

The upstairs air conditioning unit died on Monday.

It is hot as you know what up there (and it smells like a locker room). We just got a quote from a company today

and the price was astronomical! The MOTH was speechless. 

Seriously, the price is 5 numbers long and begins with a 2.

You do the math.

The unit downstairs is running constantly.  I guess it is trying to cool the upstairs too. I am certain it is going to  breakdown due to being overworked. 

#1 and I have been walking and going to the gym as much as we can. 

I haven't be able to go at all this week because of being so congested. 

We've been going to a spin class at our gym.  Have you ever done a spin class? 

That is some serious business. They do not play in there. 

I am just glad they turn the lights off so nobody can see me cheating!

This is a picture of #1 getting home from our walk one day last week. 

I remember those days of having thighs that looked like that. 

I keep telling my girls that keeping their "body" is a lot easier that trying to get it back.

So I encourage/nag them to keep some kind of workout regimen now that they are older.

I sure wish someone would have told/nagged me. 

We love to sit around the pool in the evenings. 

It is really hard for the MOTH to keep his eyes open. 

Here's #3 posing and swimming all at the same time. 

#1 is on an adult coed soccer team this summer. She has a game tonight and we are going to see it. I haven't seen her play soccer in over a year and I can't wait. 

It'll be just like old times!

GOING-GOING-GONE

Meet my deer friends. 

Aren't they cute?

(This picture was taken early spring)

That is what we thought when we first moved into our house 1o years ago.

It was such a beautiful sight to look out of your window in the morning and see

deer just a a few feet away. 

Well, we are over that.

They are not easy to live with.

They are so destructive. 

going........going........

....gone!

They eat everything!

We are having the most incredible weather here in NC and Friday we were eating dinner out on the patio, something that is usually very uncomfortable to do in mid July.  I looked over towards our cute little veggie garden and saw this.

Someone else was having dinner. 

#3 took off towards the garden and The Man of the House followed.

Our guest left without thanking us.

 

We surveyed the damage and were relieved that only the cucumbers had taken a little hit. 

The peppers were okay (for now).

#3 and her dad mended the tomatoes and staked them back up. 

We prayed over our 30 tomatoes.

We sprayed Deer Off and hung more moth balls around the fence before we went to bed. 

We've dealt with the deer long enough to know that once they discover something, it is as good as gone. You might as well put it on a serving platter and give it to them. 

This is what was left Saturday morning.

They were nice enough to leave us this one.

WANTED

PRINCESS #3

AKA: Sweet Little Munchkin, Burrito, Bear-Bear, and Little Bear

We haven't had too much going on since getting back from the beach.

 #3 is at camp this week.

 We pick her up of Friday. She is growing up so fast and has changed so much just this summer. Last summer she was more interested in how many stuffed animals she could squeeze into her duffle bag. Not this year.  The night before going to camp she had a list of things she wanted to do. 

1. get mom to paint fingernails and toenails (navy blue)
2. try on several outfits to find just the right one to make that first impression (How different do the navy shorts look compared to the khaki shorts?)
3. remind mom, "While I am gone...",  to go see if that Lilly dress I really want is on sale yet (she reminded me several times)

The Man of the House  had to do a double take to make sure it was really Princess #3 in the backseat rattling off  this very "teenagerish" list. I think I saw a tear in his eye when he realized that it was. #1 was with us and actually did a Tiger Wood's style fist pump in celebration of #3 moving over to  the dark side. 

We did the routine things when we dropped her off on Sunday like make her bed, unpack her clothes and introduce ourselves to her counselors. When it was time for us to say good-bye, she gave us a quick hug and I think she said "love you" as she took off towards her cabin. Guess she was missing something that was going on inside..... she definitely wasn't worried about missing us. 

Times have changed. Where is that sweet little munchkin? Please tell her I miss her. 

-------------------------

Summer is going too quickly. I am not enjoying it.

 I wake up everyday with this countdown and long list in my head. How many days left until I have to face reality? I don't want to know. Last week we shopped (waisted) everyday for dorm and apartment stuff. I had to put a stop to that continuous school shopping. I don't want to spend everyday of the rest of the summer break preparing for #1 and #2 to go off to college. I guess there is something to be said about waiting until the last minute to do things. I'm gonna give that method a try this time. 

TOO MANY JAMAICA PICTURES

#2 went to Jamaica on a mission trip with our church's youth group. She has gone on a mission trip every summer since her middle school years. For their senior trip they go to Jamaica. Our church has adopted a family there and has been slowly building a home for them. Also, the kids did some construction work for the family's church. They built a big cement pad that the church will use for EVERYTHING. 

#2 took over 400 pictures and she was so kind to share every one of them after getting home around 1AM.  

The 5 hour delay in Miami

(coming and going)

This is the "Wolfpack" sign.

All of these kids are headed to NC State in the fall. 

GO PACK!

#2 and some of the children that live in the house.

You gotta love the little guy peeping in the back.

Their house 

Adding on a room

Grandma

She enjoyed these kids so much. 

She loved it when they would go and sit with her and just talk.

I bet she could teach them a few things about life.

She has lived in the same one room house all of her life and is raising her grandkids

and other family members.

Moving Mountains

This girl was getting married but didn't have a wedding dress.

There was no way the girls were going to let this happen.

They took her into town, bought her a dress and shoes,  got her hair done and a manicure.

She looks beautiful!

He's falling asleep during a church service!

A sweet good-bye

(Notice the puffy eyes....here comes the mono!)

CRABS, MONO AND THE ER

The Party of Five went to the beach this past week.

 Getting there was a major event.

#2 got home from Jamaica at 1:00 AM Saturday.  Of course, their flight was delayed for several hours because of thunderstorms in Miami. When she and her dad walked in the door, I tried to pretend that I was wide awake and waiting for her. Actually, I was waiting for her, but I was just "resting my eyes" too.  She crawled onto my bed ready for Show and Tell. She had taken over 400 pictures and wanted to not just SHOW all of them to me, but TELL the story behind each one. She and the group had a great trip and I will share the pictures one day this week. Well, at least some of the pictures. 

Saturday was going to be a busy day for all of us. We had a lot of errands to run and a lot of things to do around the house before going out of town. #2 was exhausted.....we thought it was because of her trip and late flight.

 We got a call mid day last Saturday that a good friend of ours and The Man of the House's co worker was being rushed to the ER by ambulance. He had had a stroke while having lunch out with his family. Well, everything came to sudden stop at our house and we rushed to the hospital. We sat in the ER for the rest of the day, along with  about fifteen other friends. His wife came out and gave us updates. At first, it didn't look too promising. Right now, a week later, there has been great improvement and he has been taken out of ICU and is in the rehabilitation center of the hospital and is being evaluated.   Scary stuff.  

Our beach plans were very much up in the air at that point, understandable so. We didn't feel good about leaving town with our friend in such a serious condition. Also, things were up in the air about the office and what was going to happen there with the turn of events. We found out that our friend was not going to be able to have visitors for at least a week. So with that, it was decided that we were going.  The packing, house and yard prep kept us up all night. Isn't it amazing how much prep goes into going out of town? I have to clean my house before going. I cannot stand to come home to a dirty house. I wish I could break that habit!

We finally got there!!!!!

We took lots of pictures!!

Monday night, The Bachelorette was on and we couldn't wait to sit in front of the TV and watch it while we ate. 

Our favorite thing to do for dinner at the beach  is to go and get fresh shrimp straight off the boat!

Summer on a Plate!!

All the veggies were straight from the field!!

Taken care of business while at the beach.

(Un)fortunately the Blackberry worked there.

I kept telling #2 that she looked puffy and swollen. (She was very appreciative of the compliment!) We all thought she was still recovering from her trip. When she started to complain of a headache and sore throat, I knew it was something that needed to be checked out.

After a trip to an Urgent Care:

strep - negative

mono - positive

She rested for a few days.....

...even though her siblings had a hard time letting her!

One day #2 felt good enough to come walk with us. 

At low tide, we waded out to a sandbar to look for shells. 

It was a strange feeling to be sitting on you own "private island" and look back at the beach. 

#3 was having some sun issues! HA!

That's better!

**********

We've dealt with mono once before and know that #2 will have good and bad days for about a month. For the most part, she will be exhausted some days that all she can do is sleep. The sore throat will come and go. Right now her tonsils are the size of nickels and look gross!  Her spleen is enlarged so she will have to careful about lifting things. It is an interesting virus to have to deal with. I am just glad she has it now and not in the fall when school starts. #1 missed three weeks of school when she had mono several years ago. The bad thing is that she was contagious while she was in Jamaica with all of her friends on the mission trip. She says they all shared food, water bottles and shared very tight quarters the entire week. OOPS!!!