Spontaneous vacation

How's summer treating you?  I know I've been fairly quiet... just not a lot to say.  Summer is icky to me, as usual.  Stressful, hot, lazy.  Ugh.  I tend to get really "blah" in the summer, and this summer is no exception.  I'm trying, but I can't shake it.  

We had Olivia all registered for her summer program that she went to last summer.  It's for gifted children, and we had to apply and provide recommendations and test scores.  So it's a fairly big deal to get accepted.  But she refused to go.  After weeks of her getting upset whenever we brought it up and several days of soul searching, I declined her spot.  I'm disappointed, but I can't force her to do something that upsets her.  It's an anxiety thing, I know... she is frightened of going all alone into a school full of people she doesn't know.  I just didn't feel right making her go.

Since we had the money saved up for that, and we had saved up a little more to put Isabelle in a different summer camp at the same time, we decided to take that money and put all three of them in a day camp 2 days a week for the rest of the summer.  The only problem with it is that the older two get to go off campus a few times to do fun field trips, and Zoe won't get to go because she's too young.  This Friday they're going to Jump Zone, so I anticipate a very ticked off 5 year old when she figures it out.  I haven't told any of them about the field trip.  However, I am hoping that getting them away from the house for 2 days a week will help with the boredom going on with them.

They have been fairly good this summer... up until this week.  This week, the boredom finally really settled in and they have been into EVERYTHING.  It's like the whole house has been turned upside down.  I'm not the world's greatest housekeeper, I will freely admit that.  But even I am just appalled right now.  I can't walk into Isabelle's room to kiss her goodnight, there is just so much junk on the floor.  They've gotten into craft supplies... glitter all over the other bedroom.  My bedroom is trashed and my blankets scattered all over the room every day.  The living room looks like a frat house.

Make them clean it up!  I TRY.  I came up with the ultimate reward for the week.  When we visited my friend last weekend, her daughter had a lot of make up (she's in dance) and they've been begging me for make up ever since.  So I said, "For every day you clean the living room, you will earn one item for a makeup box."  They were screaming, they were so excited.  How many have they earned, as of today (Wednesday)?  None.  I cannot find a reward that works.  I've tried going the negative route... lose the TV and computer for the rest of the day if you don't clean.  They're perfectly content playing without them.  It's really frustrating.

But I am truly sick of living in a pig sty.

Anyway, this morning, my coworker came in to work and announced that she's accepted another job.  :::sigh:::

We have 3 people who work in the front office.  Me, Coworker, and The New Girl.  The New Girl has been there about a month, and it took us over 3 months to find her after The Other Girl quit.  It was a horrible, excruciating 3 months of bizarre interviews and two other New Girls that lasted a week or 2.  It was awful.   Coworker and I have worked together for 8 years now.  I like her.  We get along great.  I hate that she's going.  But... Coworker is the Boss's daughter and working together has taken a huge toll on their relationship and causes a lot of stress at work in itself.  So I fully understand and support her.

I just don't want to spend months trying to find a replacement.  And I definitely don't want to do her job.  Period.  Scheduling.  Just shoot me.  Please.

We do already have an interview lined up, so fingers crossed....

When we were discussing when Coworker's last day will be, I made the decision that the week of vacation that I had yet to plan the dates for needed to happen before she leaves or else I just won't get to take it.  I was going to have a 4 day weekend this week.... today would have been my last day this week.  But I'm not finished with June's billing.  So I'll go in Friday (we're closed so it will be nice and peaceful), finish up the billing, and then I'm taking next week off.

And I'm going to clean.  Purge, organize, clean, clean, clean.  I know it's going to be like shoveling snow in a blizzard, but I'll duct tape the kids to the ceiling if I have to (joking.  maybe.) to get it done.

I'd rather go somewhere and not have to look at the mess for a week, but it's not in the budget to take a real vacation this year.  So I guess I'll be an adult and deal with the mess.  =)

I'm running a 5k in the morning.  I've been Super Slacker this week (or two) exercise-wise (um, diet-wise, too, maybe.  Definitely), so it might kill me.  If you don't hear from me, you'll know why.

Summer Break - Week 1

Ahhh, what I've been waiting for... summer break!  Actually, I have mixed feelings about summer break.  I am so glad school is out, but I do dread the antics of bored children.  Two years ago, I had to go to working part-time because my kids were so off the wall.  Last year was a little better.  Hopefully this will be the summer where I just wish I could take off of work to have fun, not to keep the house from burning down.

Since Mr. Bill is off work on Sundays and Mondays, one of those days (or occasionally both) are Family Fun Days.  This week, since there was much yard work and cleaning to be done on Sunday, it was Monday after I got off of work.  We took the girls downtown...

No, seriously, it really is downtown.  Little Rock rocks!

They played on the hills by the Clinton Library and we walked and they played on the playground.  

Tuesday.  Day 2, may I remind you.... Tuesday brought this:

That looks good compared to the next day...

Olivia and Isabelle were playing outside and Isabelle threw a mini baseball bat behind her, not knowing Olivia was right there.  Yep, Olivia took a baseball bat to the face.  There were a few moments where I thought we might be making a trip to the ER, but I eventually decided I would just be told to put ice on it and Tylenol for the pain, and I was doing that anyway.

Here's a picture from today... not the best picture, but you can see the shiner it's become.  Wednesday it was black, Thursday it was purple, today is maroon with a little yellow.

Wednesday is our walking day.  As the weather permits (no rain or 100 degree temps), my plan is for us to take a long walk.  We took a .8 mile trail, and had to walk it back, so they got in a little over a mile and a half.  

Monkeys.

Now, let's talk about work.  There are 4 front office employees.  Me, the boss, the boss's daughter, and the new girl.  Guess who was on vacation this week?  Not me.  But everyone else was.  All three of them.  The new girl was hired with the understanding that she already had this vacation planned, and the other two were gone for a wedding.  So it was me and a girl they pulled from the back with minimal front office training.  How'd it go?

Do you know what that is?  It's an AC adapter.  Not just any AC adapter... the AC adapter to the time clock.  It's broken.  No one could clock in or out Thursday or Friday.  Fun times.  Fun times, indeed.  

Let me just tell you about my Facebook status this morning.  It read, "There was a hole in my coffee cup this morning. And that's a pretty accurate metaphor for how my morning is going as well."  My whole week, really.  I'm glad it's over.  When I found out about them all being gone at once, I joked that I was taking July off.  I really feel like I deserve it now.

So, after escaping hell, I mean, work, today, it was officially "Fun Stuff Friday."  Where I reward the girls for not killing each other or burning the house down by doing something fun.  Yes, there was an injury, but it was a true accident.  Today we went to the sprayground.  Free water fun wins in my book.

That's pretty much the whole sprayground right there in the picture, but it's water and it's free and the girls like it.  I just sit there and watch, with a slight mist hitting me every so often.  It's nice and relaxing.

That's my week.  I'm beat.

I have a couple of facebook pages that I follow that talk about kombucha a lot, and I got curious about it.  Kombucha is a fermented tea drink and is supposed to have all sorts of health benefits.  When I read about how it's made, it pretty much grossed me out.  You can make your own... you brew sweet tea, add this bacteria/yeast culture (that's the gross part) and let it ferment for like 3 days, add some fruit juice and let that go for a few more.  It was described as fizzy, sweet and tart.  If you want to know more, those links go to Food Renegade.  It's pretty interesting.  

As grossed out as I was, I was curious, and curiosity won.  I bought two bottles of it today at Fresh Market and tried this one tonight...

That's some good stuff right there.  I was only going to drink half of it, but then it was empty.  =)  I didn't really know what to expect.  It reminded me of a wine cooler, and I even felt mildly buzzed by it (it's not alcoholic, by the way, it was probably just a mental thing from the taste).  I really liked it.  I'd really consider making my own if I had any sort of counter space to set up a jug to ferment.  It's super cheap to make, but hella expensive to buy (I paid $3 EACH, on sale).  Go figure.