It just doesn't seem like 8 years ago. It seems like so much longer and at the same time yesterday.

My middle daughter, Flower Child, is 8 years old today :) We have all manner of celebrating to do today so I'll just take a few minutes here to get in the Way Back Machine and remember the day she made me the mother of 2 :)

I was at my 39 weeks appt. at Kaiser and was in more than just pain and irritation. I had this whole body itch thing going on, and had been for weeks, they couldn't figure it out so I was going in for tests 3 days a week. That's hard to do

GIGANTICALLY pregnant and with a four year old. So I looked, pathetically, at my doc and said "When, dear GOD when, will this baby come?" Expecting to hear the "Oh baby's come when they're ready" speach I heard when my first baby was 2 weeks late. But instead I heard "Well, I'm working in Labor and Delivery on Monday, how bout then?" I was like "WHA???" Then I said OK, booked it and got the HELL outta there before she realized it would still be 5 days before I was due and change her mind!

So after much research and contemplation, it seems I have whats known as "The Creeping Death".

Or that's what my husband has decided anyway.

At first he was sure it was SARS, which I told him was just a fad in the early 2000's. So then he figured I had the bird flu. Again I told him he was a little late jumping on the bandwagon for that disease. When he said Swine Flu, well we both just laughed, and when THAT was over ... he decided it MUST then be The Creeping Death.

Ladies, I am the first known case. Watch out. We don't yet know how it is transmitted.

But I'm not usually one to let made-up-but-horrible-sounding diseases keep me down so I did end up taking the girls to the pool yesterday.

A good time was had by all ...

Even me. I basically just sat or laid out and read a magazine (don't be confused by the Good Housekeeping, I promise I'm not secretly 55 years old, but my copy of Hustler was on back order)

(totally kidding btw ... I'm much more of a Playboy kinda girl)

(again, I kid)

So when the sun and 73* temps were too much to bear for some we headed in.

This pool thing has worked out pretty well, timing wise. We go out at 10:30-11 before it's too hot and NO ONE is there yet. We stay for like an hour and a half then head back in for lunch. They eat lunch on the porch while they dry off (more time of them outside for me :) and that rolls right into Quiet Time!

And in my weakened condition, Quiet Time is absolutely necessary. I spent yesterdays watching True Blood, Season 1 from Netflix and then catching up further on Weeds while they watched the first Harry Potter movie. LOVE them all. And on a side note: Netflix, I am eternally grateful to you for your Watch Instantly category :)

Well I should get going and try to think of something else to do with these people so we don't end up hiding in the bushes, stalking the mail lady, waiting for our next Netlix shipment and totally freak her out.

Hope you all are HEALTHY and enjoying the heck out of your summer!

So summer has officially begun ... and I've got a cold >:-/

Like a kickyouintheass kind of cold. A sore throat, up all night coughing, lose your voice and can't yell at the kids - kind of cold. It's seriously messing with my plans.

Thankfully it didn't start until after Memorial Day Weekend. Not that we did much. I spent most of the weekend cleaning the house for a business dinner DH had scheduled for Sunday evening.

Then Monday morning brought The Boy home ... and the first day of all 4 kids in the house ... all day ... with me.

Don't worry, we all survived. The same can not be said for Sapphire ...

Meet the Crickets. These noisy little buggers are currently residing in my garage RIGHT NEXT TO MY CAR. Lil Miss is quite taken with them. Their names are "Sophia", "Matalie", and "Sapphire" ... though ... "Sapphire is the broken one {dead}. She fell off the top of the box and got all broken ... on her legs." LOL

You'll be glad to know that even the smallest of our new residents is living on our new Real Food menu ... "They eat MELON! AND CORN!" And each other, apparently. But we don't tell Lil Miss about that part.

So on Monday, when my house {and patience} had reached capacity, we headed for the pool.

I am truly blessed to have the neighborhood pool right outside my door. That is, unless, I'm not taking them to the pool {because it's 40* outside} and every time they pass the window they say "Can we go to the POOL?!" and every time they pass the patio door it's "Hey! Can we go to the pool?!" or when they look out the other eleventy hundred windows I hear "HEY! How bout we go to the POOL?!"

Other than that, it's lovely :) This picture cracks me UP ... on the left you will see Flower Child working on her "Angry Sloth" for the group jump LOL

This is the Angry Sloth in action LOL

So I let the little monsters swim and I laid out with a magazine and a Rockstar and it was the BEST hour and a half all weekend :) They were gloriously entertained and got some great exercise and *I* didn't have to participate in ANY of it!

If I can gather the strength to walk across the street despite this SICKNESS that has taken over my body, we might head there today too. Gotta be early though, so I we can get there and back before lunch and quiet time cause Mama NEEDS her quiet time.

When else am I going to sift through candidates to replace my former BSF {BestShowForever} LOST {LOST,YOUAREDEADTOME} I just got True Blood from Netflix so we'll see how that goes. I don't hold out much hope though, I'm a little jaded and the wounds are still fresh. But as long as the names JJ Abrams/Carlton Cuse/Damon Lindeloff are NO WHERE NEAR ASSOCIATED with this show ... it might be able to break through my post break-up emotional wall.

Here's hoping ...