T - minus 5 days...

Until school starts.

Holy crap - it's the end of summer already. How in the heck did *that* happen?!?! It feels like just a little while ago we left on our vacation whirl wind trip of all things family and now it's time to get back into the daily grind of school, homework, dinner on time, schedules, activities... Yeesh.

For the first time I am on the same page as the girls - not ready. I have really liked the whole "sleeping in" option this summer. One of the bennies of the girls being older is that they like to sleep in too! Who knew?!?! But all of that is coming to a close... Boo.

But it is what it is - time to get another year under all of our collective belts. And at least it will be Fall - not that I feel we had much of a summer (where's my global warming, dang it?!?) but Fall is my favorite season. So there's that...

(I know. I know... Keep diggin' for that pony, Rich! It's gotta be in this pile somewhere!)

And just because I can, here is a pic taken of Sporta and Computa registration day...

At least they look ready, right??

T.G.I F.

Works for me. This week has been kicking my ass...

Happy Friday!

Home again....

And another 1200+ miles logged on the road. Good grief - this has soooo been the summer for driving!! I am beginning to think that I need both a sherpa and a chauffeur in my next life. But I digress...

First and most importantly - Sporta came home from the hospital yesterday. While the doctors are fairly sure that dehydration and heat precipitated her collapse, it was the rest of the episode that called for hospitalization and a number of tests to be run. They are still running some cultures and what not but it looks like everything will be okay. Thank God. The whole thing certainly scared the crap out of WxMan and me... Yeesh.

The folks are hanging in there. It was good to spend some time... And it was good to get all of the stuff I have had in storage in Wyo out of storage and home. Though I must admit, driving a U-haul through South Dakota and Minnesota in high gusty winds will wear your ass OUT! Thankfully I had a co-pilot, or I would have probably lost my everlovin' mind for sure! Thanks TNT!

Today it's time to find homes for everything. Thankfully, most of the furniture already has a spot all ready to go. Like this guy for example...


Looks cozy, no?? To be honest, I would like nothing more than to curl up right there and read all day a while. Oh well... Duty calls...

At least I don't really have to drive anywhere. :)

And the hits just keep on coming...

Wanna know one way to get down out of your tree in a big hurry?? Get the word that your daughter has gone down at football practice and is being transported to the hospital when you are 1200 miles away. That'll do it.

Very early this morning she was transported to a bigger and better hospital with a great pediatric department in a nearby city and WxMan is with her. As her condition seems to have stabilized, I am going to stick to the plan - get my U-haul full of things I really need and want crap as scheduled and beat feet home.

Fortunately I have an excellent co-pilot with me. TNT is the best of the best, and while I will never be able to repay the favor I do sooooo appreciate her coming along for the freakshow ride this trip has been. Good grief.

And hopefully Sporta will be released today. And they will figure out WTF exactly happened to her...

So I am outta here. The stress express is hitting the road... Hope to land intact on the other side...

And I am already there...

In Wyoming, that is. It was time to visit my folks and see how things are going plus get a couple of other tasks done that have needed to be done for some time.

One task involves driving a U-Haul home. Yeesh... Blogfodder there for sure.

At any rate - Pop continues to hang in there okay and all is rocking along. Boring is good these days. I will take it. And they seem to have finally figured out the chemo dosage so he's not hurting so much. Nothing bad about that. And let's face it - we have had enough bad for a while...

My hometown is just the same. Well... okay. Not exactly the same. The bakery closed and is now a bank (wtf??) but by in large things don't change much around here. I keep having flashbacks to 1987... Always weird.

My mom gave me a book to read - The Shack. I highly recommend it!! Wonderful wonderful book. And I needed both the lift and the imagery. Needed it bad. Very very bad. I have been way to far up in my tree of late. Going to try and get down for a while... It's either that or jump or fall and there's nothing good to be had from those scenarios, Eh? Yeah. I don't think so either... Climbing down is much better...

Anyhoo - it's not my patio, but the deck here is nice. Think I will go hang out for a while... And maybe read a little more. :)

Another Mom to the rescue!!

And all I can say is thank God she saved me. I was seriously in over my head...

Why, you ask??

Sporta and I were shopping for cleats. Ok - that's not exactly it, because I would never willingly shop for cleats with Sporta on my own accord. WxMan has certain jobs around here - spider killing, lawn mowing, and most things sports related (equipment wise) for the girls. Generally that means cleats.

And shopping for any kind of shoe with Sporta is the bane of my existence. Seriously. It is excruciating and tedious. She's like Goldilocks on steroids when it comes to shoes. This one's too this... That one's too that... and it's endless. And Gof forbid *I* make a suggestion - I can collapse a whole genre of shoes because I made mention of them! Looks always play a part, but comfort is in the mix too. And she is picky. Picky picky picky picky... This, of course will serve her well as a grown-up! Any shoes she gets will be shoes she really likes. But to go shopping with her?? Oh my God, it's awful...

So anyway, WxMan had taken her to get cleats this morning. They made it through the decision making progress in a record 45 minutes! Woot! And got out for $25.00! Double woot! And I didn't have to go!! Triple... Well I am sure you get it by now.

Flash forward to just a couple hours later - WxMan is at work and Sporta is showing her buddies her neato bajito brand new cleats during which I hear a distressed call... "Mom?? Moooooom???? Come here quick!!"

Oh great - now what.

"Mom!! They say my cleats are illegal!! I won't even be able to practice tonight with them!!"

(In our defense, we just found out about this whole gig last Wednesday and got her signed up. the coach was thrilled as one team in the league really really needed another player.)

So I queried the little buggers, sent WxMan a text, and determined that odds were pretty good that they were about as illegal as they get. Shit. Do we have time to go return them? Yes. Great. I am so thrilled. Not.

Because I knew what was going to happen...

Just like with all shoe shopping experiences I have had with Sporta, she would fight me every.step.of.the.way. Wanting this - not wanting that and never ever agreeing to my suggestion of the basic normal "sure to be legal" plainish black cleats that would surely be in the mix. It's just how it is with her...

And as I mentally predicted it - sure enough... We got to the sporting goods store, she led me to the "cleats" section, and the fight was on! She picked out (after much discussion) the most freeking complicated looking cleats EVER. Declared that as you could "see no metal" they MUST be legal. Holy crap - I don't think she would be able to walk in the damn things, let alone run in them. I mean I get it and all... They really did look pretty bad ass - but she's a beginner fer gottsake! She's only been playing in neighborhood games!! I could see her digging in and though the "let's just get outta here" vibe was hitting me hard, I decided to call in reinforcements if I could.

So, there was another mom at the end of the isle who obviously had this whole "cleats" thing down to a science. I needed an expert - bad... Really bad. So I approached her and just asked if she knew about the ins and outs of the legality of these particular cleats?? Because as I told her, "I have absolutely no clue what I am doing and it is patently obvious that you do!!"

OMG - the woman was an absolute doll... in about 5 minutes she explained the whole "which cleats are legal" thing to me and advised Sporta to go with the much more sedate (plain black) cleats that I had suggested. Because those mac daddy cleats that she had picked out would most likely hurt her feet and make the games and practices not very fun. And Sporta??

She listened.

Holy crap.

We left with the slightly more expensive plain black cleats - and Sporta is thrilled with them. I should bake that other mom a cake, but I didn't get her name and that would be a little stalker creepy anyway. I did tell her thank you though! Big time...

So Sporta's got her cleats and she's all ready to start practice tonight. Wanna see what sport she chose?? Check it out...
Badass. I should probably get a blindfold, eh? This isn't flag football after all. Wait until you see her in her pads. Holy crap.

Oh and the wristband?? She got that at Disney Land. She got it because she thought it was really pretty and she wears it all the time... **sigh** I don't have the heart to tell her that it can be perceived another way. Sheesh.