Time Management

Is it wrong to want to request that all sports be played during summer?  During summer, I can't schedule enough for my boys to do so that they stay busy and don't kill each other.  I feel we did nothing this summer except swim at our friends house and count the hours in the day.  Now that school is back in session, I am suffocating because it seems like I need to be at ten places at once.

This past week was chaotic.  And my husband still insists on riding his bike to and from work daily.  That's all.  Just that tidbit of information for you to think about while reading below. 

 On Monday AND Tuesday both boys had either games or practices...at the same time at two different locations.  Again, with only one parent with a car.  Enter the saying..."It Takes a Village."  Luckily we know several parents on each team because I was activating the phone tree in a very big way.  On Wednesdays now, because Rich thought we had an hour an fifteen minutes of uninterrupted time to spare, he signed the boys up for Catechism.  So I have a fifteen minute block of time in between my staff meeting to get the boys to St. Anne's, and then a fifteen minute block after Catechism to get Ryan back across town to practice. 

Thursday I had a doctor's appointment at the same time Matt had practice.  Of course.  And practice is right down the street from our house.  So...it was decision time.  Do I cancel the appointment and make sure he makes it to practice okay, or do we leave him home and teach him to lock up the house and go on his own?  The latter won.  Of course he was thrilled!  It was only going to be for an hour, but at the same time...it was an HOUR!  I must have asked him a thousand times if he knew everything he needed to do and never looking up from his homework, he always answered yes.  I couldn't take it, he acted like this was no big deal and I was freaking out.  So I said, "Listen, I don't feel you are really listening to me right now and it is making me rethink this.  I'm just going to write down all the steps I want you to do before you leave, okay?"  He replied..., "Mom!  I've got it.  Just go!"  I looked at him and said..."I know, I know, but just look at the list before you leave.  Please."  I grabbed Ryan and dropped him off at my Dad's and headed to my appointment.  While I sat there for an hour, I texted Rich three times to call home and see if he was okay.  Rich replied, "I'll call once and he is fine."  By the time I got back into the room at the doctor's, my blood pressure was elevated enough that the nurse looked at me and said, "Well, that's not exactly a safe number, is everything okay?"  Whatever.  I'm not explaining the past hour to her.  I looked at her and said..."I'm fine. When exactly will the doctor be in here?"  By the time the doctor got in and went over my chart she said..."What's up with the blood pressure?"  I said, "Nothing, I just left my son alone for the first time for an extended period of time and I am worried about him."  Her response, "How old is he?"  I said, "He's ten."  She looked at me and said, "Heather, cut the cord already."  I get points for not replying with the first thought that popped into my brain.  I calmly smiled and said, "Can we just get this over with?"  By the time I got home, Rich was already down at practice with him.  I walked in the door and looked down and found the list that I had left with each thing checked off by him before he left. Baby steps. I am not ready to cut the cord, but I may entertain the idea of letting go a little more.

Oh...and side note.  I miss my nice camera,  It hasn't worked in a while and I miss it like crazy.  I want to share pictures of the boys during soccer season, but I would be embarrassing them to no end if I walked out to the edge of the field to get a better shot with my phone.  More pictures to come soon, I'll try to zoom in.

Just where did July go???

All of a sudden, I blinked and July was gone.  This was the quickest summer in the history of summers. 

July started off with the annual pilgrimage to Fresno (moi excluded) for fireworks and some much needed playtime.  This is by far Matt and Ryan's favorite time of year.  The countdown that begins about a month before going is hysterical and its all things Fresno and fireworks and cousins.

The definition of summer.

My sister and her family were here for an extended trip this summer...a whole month.  She is such a tease because right when it felt like it was just normal to have them around, they left...reminding us that they reside on the other side of the WORLD.

We fit in some visits with family while they were out here.  Here is my cousin Heidi's kids, Rylee and Lindsay.  It was a perfect day to be up in Sacramento to play at the park and hit Fairytale Land. 

 

We also just hung out at Nana's a lot! 

I went to a production out at Jesse's Grove, which is a winery here in town, of Wizard of Oz because my former student was the lead role of Dorothy.  It was an amazing performance and as a proud teacher I could have burst into tears several times throughout the night because she was just that good.  She is a natural talent and I loved every minute of it.

And then we took our annual "I need school clothes" trip to Vegas.  Doesn't everyone head there for school shopping?

Road trippin' .  I hate driving.  Have I confessed that before?  I hate it.  And when it took us ten hours to get home because of a huge accident, my hate hit an all-time high. 

At our favorite Mexican restaurant Border Grill.

The dudes.

So grateful to our Mom who watches the kids while we get to go play.

Maybe my favorite picture of the trip.  My two husbands.

And this happened.  Lynn hit a jackpot on a penny slot and we celebrated.  And celebrated.  Then celebrated some more.

These next few pictures are proof we were here for a while and made friends with our cocktail waitress.  Why I feel the need to document this is beyond me.  But oh well.

And this was when we finally made it to dinner that night.  At 11:15pm.  It's amazing we were able to actually order dinner because at no time could we actual focus long enough to read the menu.  This was a fun night.  If I remember correctly.

In all of our years going to Vegas, this was by far the best view from our room.  My first thought was...I wish the boys could see this view. I'm sure it will still be there to see in 20 years when they finally come.

 

 

 

Perfect night out. 

 

Lunch at Tommy's before we left.  Don't we look relaxed?  That's because we have no idea that a ten hour drive is in front of us.  I hate driving.

 

 

And then back to reality.  UGH.  The first day of school.  I mean....THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

The conversation I had with my sixth grader on the first day of school....

Me:  Hey big 6th grader!  Big class on campus now.

Matt:  My last year being on campus with you.  I have waited so long for this.

I'm going to take that as love.  Pre-teens show their love by insults, right?  It's either except it as love, or cry myself to sleep.  So...love it is.

The day before they left.  :(   Annual cousins pic.

This makes my heart swell.

So it's back to school for us.  Soccer will be starting soon for both boys and flag football for Ryan.  I love when school is back in and that's when the hectic sports schedules begin. 

Midwest Lovin'

I think I was supposed to live in the Midwest and I just haven't moved there yet.  Flying in the other day, I kept hitting Rich saying, "Look how green it is!  Look at all of those trees! Look at the land surrounding those homes!  Look how beautiful it is here!!!"  He was like, "Yeah...because it is humid and it is constantly hot and wet here, so of course everything is green!"  I think if I never wanted to blow dry my hair and curl it again, or ever put on make-up again, and owned nothing but sundresses and tank tops, then Nashville (or one of the many affordable suburbs surrounding it) is the place to be! 

We were in Nashville for Rich's work.  I had one objective for the entire trip...get Rich into a country western bar and make him listen to country music until his ears start to bleed.  The first night we were there, we walked around downtown to check out the night life.  You can't walk ten feet without there being a bar with live music in it.  My only complaint was that no one was singing the same song, so it sounded like there were twenty concerts going on simultaneously.  No bueno.

Here are a couple of shots from our walk.

Nashville Predators Arena. 

It's world famous people.  I wonder if the same Tootsies I saw in the airport was also world famous.

I told Rich that unless it says Honky Tonk, we skip it because it is just a waste of our time.  We are on a strict Honky Tonk mission.

 

 

 

Not bad for a Wednesday night.  Place was hoppin'.

And here is Puckett's.  This little gem quickly became our favorite place, for two totally different reasons.

When we were looking online to find a fun place to eat and get local cuisine (yes, I said that), we came across several great reviews for this place.  It was one block away from our hotel and we quickly found out that we were not the only ones who had heard of this place as well.  At 8:00pm, there was an hour and a half wait.  We put our name in and then took off for a walk.  It was apparent quickly that only a few places were open past a certain time.  We must have passed five to six places to eat that are only open until 6:00pm.  For a city that was crawling with people on a Wednesday night, it was a mystery to us why there were so many restaurants closed.

Anyway, back to Puckett's.  When we got back from our walk, we decided to wait inside until they called our name.  Best wait in a restaurant for a table ever!!  Who doesn't love a restaurant that has a live band on stage performing while people enjoyed their meal??  As we were standing there looking over the menu and deciding what to order, the nice cowboy on stage played three cords on the guitar and my eyes lit up and magic happened.  For the next three or so minutes, I sang Callin' Baton Rouge at the top of my lungs to my husband.  I would like to say that he loves my singing and is supportive of my occasional extrovert behavior when I am in a city where no one at all knows me, but he kept trying to cover my mouth and face with the menu and so I was getting mixed messages about how he actually felt about my performance that was for him.  I mean what other declaration of love is there other than signing Garth at the top of your lungs to your spouse!  It was AMAZING!!

When we finally sat down for dinner, we quickly realized that there was a bucket going around taking requests for songs.  WHAT?!?!?!?!  Rich turned to me and said, "No".  Rude.  How did he know what song I would pick and that he wouldn't love it just as much as the first.  He doesn't appreciate good music.  Let me tell you why.  When the band started to play The Devil Went Down to Georgia by The Charlie Daniel's Band, I may have squealed.  And by squealed, I mean scream out loud in a pitch only dogs could hear.  As I have done for the past 47 year we have been together, when a song comes on the radio from a well known movie, I say to him..."Quick...name this movie."  He is wrong or doesn't play like 97% of the time.  (He is a real good time people, let me tell you)  So, it was no surprise that when they started to play The Devil Went Down to Georgia, I screamed out...."Dude, name this movie!"  Silence.  Crickets.  He said, "I don't even know if I have heard this song before.  I think I have, but I am not sure."  I looked at him, wasting precious time that I could be singing along, and said..."Are you even an American????  I mean I know that Urban Cowboy is an acquired taste as far as movies go, but you may not even remember the song period???  How have we been married this long and I not know this about you???"   It's a good thing the food and sweet tea made up for my date with Debbie Downer after that.  Oh, and the band closed out the evening with Alabama's song Mountain Music.  It was like a little gift given to me on account of my husbands lack of culture outside his bubble of hip hop and rap.  I turned to Rich and said, "Just so you know, tonight was my favorite night of the trip."

And now on to the meal. 

Fried pickle appetizer.

Rich's dinner.  It was BBQ pulled pork on the bottom of a skillet, topped with Gouda mac n' cheese.

I went with a more traditional cuisine, chicken fried chicken.  The mashed potatoes (and I consider myself a connoisseur) were horrible, but the chicken and green beans were good.

And dessert.  A fried brownie, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and a slice of bacon, just because they can.

On our way back to the hotel that night, we found this gem.  A three story public library.  A THREE STORY PUBLIC LIBRARY!!!!!!!   Remember that movie With Honors?  When Joe Pesci lived in Harvard's Law Library.  If I go missing people...consider this your first hint.  Oh, and Madonna had the hit song from the movie called, "I'll Remember".  You are welcome.

And this is where we both were the next morning (after the USA soccer match, of course.).  This is the picture I took while on the treadmill  (Hello, you saw our dinner last night, right?)  of it pouring rain outside.  That's why the pool is indoors???  That'd be my guess because the hour we were down there, it must have started and stopped pouring rain several times. 

 

On Friday, Rich's friend Aaron joined us for lunch.  We had heard this little place called Back Alley Diner.  And it was the perfect name because it was so back alley that it took three grown adults a while to locate it.  And seriously, it was a block away. 

I was grateful for the detour because while we were on our scavenger hunt from our Google map we stumbled on a few fun places to see.  This reminded me of New Orleans.

 This is the alley that we had to walk through to get to the other alley where the diner actually was.  I loved walking through here because there are flags hanging from every state in the union.  This is the stuff that makes me happy and geek out a bit.

And I have to share this picture.  Right now Matthew is OBSESSED with Finding Bigfoot.  In fact, on a daily basis he and I get into heated discussions about the hard cold facts and evidence that is concrete proof that Bigfoot exists.  If you're bored one day, I dare you to strike up a conversation with him about it.  Here's your opening line, "There is no Bigfoot."  Then just sit back and enjoy.  Cut him off a couple of times so he can catch his breath and gather his next argument, but I promise....it's a good time.

This sign was hanging on the door of the bathroom in the diner we were in.  There was no door on the first stall, just a sheet hanging with this outside.  Classy joint. 

On Friday night we headed to a minor, minor, minor, minor, minor league game.  We were lucky  to have box seats because it was hot and humid outside and I was wearing a sweater sitting inside. 

And I blame Aaron for this.  This is my very first Fireball Whisky shot.  It was good.  And that's all I am sharing from my experience.  Again....I blame Aaron.

Who loves the retro scoreboard???  They are actually moving this team to a new stadium at the end of the season and my wish is that they take that sign and do something with it at the new stadium.  How could you leave it behind?

Post game fireworks.

Midwest Love.  All the kids were able to go out and see the players and run the bases after the game.

Look at this old school Nashville Sporting Goods Store.  Yes, that is a mesh steel gate that is out front working as security.

Store hours on a Saturday were a disappointment.  We wanted to walk through it, but who plans for it to be closed at noon on a Saturday.  And we think they don't have any Lebron's or Jordan's, but that is just our Wheel of Fortune guess.

 

 

All in all, this was a great trip.  Next time we go, I'm renting a car and driving to the burbs to check out real estate.  I want something with a ton of trees and land surrounding my property.  Oh, and air conditioning.