Broken Bones

The Imp spent last week at a retreat. She called Wednesday and told me she hurt her foot when landing on a leap during a liturgical dance. I asked all the mom questions: "Do I need to come up? How bad is it? Have you iced it? Are you wrapping it?" She answered with all the kid responses: "Yes, I'm icing it. Yes, I'm fine. DON"T COME UP!" There are adults on retreat so I figured if she were really hurt, they'd take her to the ER. I pick her up yesterday afternoon and her foot is 3 times the normal size, black and blue and basically looking 'not good.' Took her to an Urgent Care center today...yep metatarsal #5 (running from the pinkie) is cracked. She's in a temporary cast until we can get in to see an orthopedic doctor. Now, none of this is earth-shattering or terrible in itself and with it being only cracked, she apparently didn't do more damage by her walking on it, but the standard period of time in a cast is 4 weeks. 4 weeks from Wednesday is August 10th. 4 weeks from Monday is August 15th. She leaves for World Youth Day August 12th! So I'm storming heaven for her rapid healing.

We all went to see Harry Potter last night. As always, the film just can't do what a book does. The most disappointing part was how the film dealt with Fred Weasley's death. One of the best parts was Mrs. Weasley giving it good to Bellatrix LaStrange. It's great to see movies where the theater is full and everyone cheers and laughs and gasps at the right time. Being the conservative that I am, I was amazed at how many children under 10 were there. Not only do I think the content not appropriate for that age, but it was a 9:00 showing that didn't get out 'til close to 11:30 PM. Kids need to sleep.

I'm beginning to get a little stressed about World Youth Day and all that we need to get done for that. I'm really trying hard not to borrow trouble and worry but to turn the anxiety into productive planning. (Right. I'll keep telling myself that and maybe one day it'll work.) Summer is over then. Way too quickly. And I've not done half the projects I'd wanted to complete. And now I've added more doctor appointments into the mix.

In the mean time, we're trying to get the Imp's class schedule fixed. Currently her schedule shows no class for period 8 Semester 1. And she's in both AP Government and DE Political Science (she wants one or the other...not both). Her guidance counselor left the school and the new one has not started, so she's without a guidance counselor. We'd been dealing with the department secretary who is a very sweet woman who knows a lot...but not everything. Finally got an appointment with the head of the department for Tuesday. Ugh.

Painting with Monet and Merlot

Two of my friends convinced me a few months ago to sign up for an evening of "Painting with Moent and Merlot" It was a deal offered through Living Social so we paid half price. It sounded like lots of fun. And it was.
Last night we headed off to a restaurant where the party room was set up for this little class. The instructor walked us through step by step on how to copy the work displayed. I love doing creative stuff anyway and this was perfect. Add a glass of sangria and life was really, really good.

Hubby and I have been talking lately about 'things' we want and other than getting a slightly larger TV when our current one dies (It's 10 years old and is a 32-inch) there aren't many actual things we want, we'd like to spend our money on experiences. We'd like to travel to Italy and the Holy Land, go to more live entertainment (plays, concerts) and things like that. We'd like to be able to take our future grandkids to museums and ball parks and amusement parks, and the beach and the mountains. Experiential.

Last night at the painting class was the very thing. I learned some new things (always, always a plus), spent time with 2 great friends and walked away with a painting. Life is very, very good.

The first picture is of our instructor demonstrating the next step. The rest are the progression of my painting.

Summer

I have a love/hate relationship with summer. I love having my girls home with me and I love not having so many meetings and such that only occur during the school year. But somehow, I am always busier during the summer than during the school year. Maybe I'm not really busier, but my expectations are that summer is a time of relaxation and it really isn't. For years, Hubby told me I had it wrong. He said that as a SAHM (Stay at Home Mom) summer would be my busy time of year. And I guess I agreed with that when the girls were younger. I had to provide some structure to their days. And the summer has always been when I tried to teach the girls some 'real life skills'. They have to make dinners (from planning a balanced meal, to getting the ingredients on the grocery list, to making it) and they always have a sewing project. At first it was just something like a pillow but each year I wanted them to do a more intricate project. In addition, the summer was when we cleaned out closets, etc. But as they got older (21 and 17), I guess I imagined that things would be less on me and more on them. Not so. In fact, this year I'm doing all the sewing! They picked the patterns and material, but I'm doing the sewing. To be fair, the Imp has done the pinning the pattern and cutting it out and the Singer works 40 hours a week plus has a 40 minute commute each way. And somehow extra stuff always gets thrown in. But even with all the stuff, I still love summer.

The Imp is off for a week. She's helping to run a retreat-type week for other teens. She helps train the teens to be retreat-helpers during the year. It's a great way to spend a week and it has given her great confidence in her skills and has helped her know things to help her stay firm in and being able to defend her faith. This is her 4th year. They have theme nights. This year one night is Famous Characters. Her friends all decided to go as Disney characters, so her friends are Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel. The Imp gets to be Tinkerbell. That's amusing in lots of ways, since the Singer has always had a love of Tink and has tons of Tinkerbell stuff. But once you stop to think about it, Tinkerbell is a great fit. Tink has got an attitude, as does the Imp and truthfully, the Imp just isn't "Disney Princess" material. So this week I had the honor (right!) of making her a Tinkerbell costume! Working with tulle isn't as easy as one would imagine. But I got it done. I can't wait to see the pictures!

Both girls are getting excited about going to World Youth Day. They leave on August 12 and return on the 22. Both girls will be missing the first days of school, but I think the experience is well worth it. Yesterday we found out that their group was given the opportunity of picking 3 participants to sit in the FRONT ROW of seats at the prayer vigil with the Pope. The Singer was picked as one of the three! What a thrill! The Singer is studying theology and spent this past semester studying many of Benedict's writings and is a big fan. She's so excited, I'm not sure she'll sleep between now and then. I'm so happy for her. She refers to Pope Benedict as El Papa or Benny.

I'm sitting here in a darken house as it storms outside. It began about 7 this morning. I love listening to the rain and am thrilled with the rainfall, as we desperately need it.  However...I have errands to run and don't really enjoy driving and running in the rain.  We actually got rain last night, too, so the roads have standing water.  But I won't complain.