Last week at this time, I was so tired I wanted to put my feet up and not move for an entire week. That didn't happen. But I do feel more rested after this first week of summer vacation.
1. The College Boy got his grades already and received all A's. (He dropped Calculus II halfway through the semester, because he was getting a B. Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Because it does, until you find out that he has to maintain a 3.6 GPA to keep his scholarship, and Calculus is a 5 hour class.)
2. Okay, since I bragged on the College Boy, I have to brag on my daughter, too. She has all A's as well. Plus, she's one of only two freshmen in her Biology class and has the highest grade in the class.
3. I have been doing mountains and mountains of laundry this week, thanks to the return of the College Boy. (New rules to the effect that mom is NOT your personal laundress will be implemented shortly for BOTH kids.) But his is finally, FINALLY done. Finally.
3. I have been doing mountains and mountains of laundry this week, thanks to the return of the College Boy. (New rules to the effect that mom is NOT your personal laundress will be implemented shortly for BOTH kids.) But his is finally, FINALLY done. Finally.
4. Our house is pretty big, but it is old (like around 90 years old), and doesn't have much storage (my friend Christine will attest to the fact that big, old houses do not have adequate storage). So when my son brought home all the crapola he accrued during his first year of college, there has been nowhere to put it all. It has moved now from the living room floor (because I went all Exorcist head-spinning-around about it) to his room, which he now cannot walk through (and this is different HOW?). I discovered something this week that is going to be a life saver for some of it. Vacuum storage bags. Fill the bag. Zip it closed. Hold the vacuum hose nozzle to the special valve. Suck all the air out of the bag. Store in about 1/10 of the space it would have taken up otherwise. THESE BAGS ARE LIFE CHANGING, I TELL YOU!
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Note: since writing this, I found one of the two bags I sealed yesterday full of air. So I filled it again and immediately heard the hiss of air escaping. Upon examination of the bag, I found a very distinct puncture, probably, but not proven to be, caused by a kitten's hind claw. Leaving them lying on the living room floor was apparently not a good idea. Resourceful person that I am, I sealed the hole with some packing tape, sucked the air out again, and so far, so good.
Another note: my bag did not vacuum seal with the precision of the picture on the box, but the air is squooshed out of it, even though it's lumpy, and I'm happy.
5. Two weeks ago, I said if I got all the scrapbooking paraphernalia put away from the year-long Mother's Day scrapbook project for preschool, I would list it in my TToT, and baby, I DID IT.
6. My husband and I have gone back to the gym after a ridiculously long hiatus. I'm happy to say that I was able to work out on the elliptical machine without having a stroke or falling off.
7. I found Ruby's favorite eggplant toy under the bed when I was cleaning this week. It will disappear again in a few days, but at least she's happily playing with it for the time being.
8. I ate the last of my hidden Easter candy, so it won't be there to tempt me anymore.
9. My son took this really creepy picture of Ruby snooping in a drawer in my daughter's room in the dark. I'm including it because it makes me laugh. And because Christine is completely creeped out by it.
10. My husband sent me this text on Thursday, which was 50 cent corndog day at Sonic. I haven't stopped laughing since I got it.
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| Pete is lurking in the background. |
10. My husband sent me this text on Thursday, which was 50 cent corndog day at Sonic. I haven't stopped laughing since I got it.
11. This week marked the third anniversary of the Joplin tornado. You can read a little about it here. Thankful our home was spared, thankful we were able to help others, thankful that the town is rebuilding and looking better and better.
12. Memorial Day weekend starts today. The true meaning of the day is to honor the men and women who sacrificed their lives in defense of our country, especially by decorating graves. It grew to include decorating graves of all loved ones. The significance of the day has been lost in recent years, replaced by the weekend being considered the unofficial beginning of summer. Instead of decorating graves and remembering those who died in service to our country, many Americans will be eating bbq, boating, drinking, and otherwise enjoying a three day weekend. Take a moment, please, to be thankful for our service men and women. We enjoy the perks of this three day weekend gateway to summer thanks to them.
You have to be thankful for SOMETHING or ten. Link your list up, below. Read the others. Write comments. Enjoy the community of TToT with us.
Your hosts
A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, Mother of Imperfection, Rewritten, Thankful Me, The Wakefield Doctrine
Wow - well done to both your clever kids - those grades are fantastic! Vacuum bags are just the best thing since slices bread, aren't they? That photo of Ruby is so funny!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lizzy! Those vaccum bags are da bomb! Unless the kitten pokes a hole in one. Ruby is a cat burglar.
Delete#8 makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteHappy Memorial Day!
Thank you, Romi! I'm going to be sorry all my chocolate is gone :)
DeleteUh oh. Now that auto correct makes some serious faux pas! LOL! believe me, I hate it too!
ReplyDeleteWhat a relief that he meant corndogs!
Delete1. and 2. Congrats to your smart, hard-working kids!
ReplyDelete3. I've mentioned this before, but the best mistake (honest, it was a mistake) I ever made was washing my oldest son's cell phone. I was immediately relieved of laundry duty by my son, and my other kids fired me preemptively, as well.
4. Plastic garbage bags work, too, and are probably less expensive.
9 and 10 make me laugh!
11 is huge, and I agree wholeheartedly with 12.
1. and 2. Thank you! They do work hard!
Delete3. I WISH I could get fired. Good work!
4. I tried the plastic garbage bag thing, but the air always slipped out, no matter how tightly I thought I had a rubber band on it. You have a better trick for keeping the air from escaping than a rubber band? Because I am all ears!
9. and 10. made me laugh, too, once I got over the initial shock of #10!
11. Huge on so many levels.
12. Absolutely!
Double-bagging helps. We haven't used rubber bands, though, just the bags with the ties. However, we don't use the bags for long-term storage, mainly for packing things into the trunk of the car while traveling, so maybe it wouldn't be a long-term solution. I've also used big ziploc bags when packing clothes in a suitcase.
Deletethank you for a beautiful commemoration of Memorial Day. I lost my great uncle Robert Connell in WWI, He was a balloonist.We have his diary, he was a great guy.
ReplyDeleteThank you as well for the whole post--it is wonderful! Your kids rock! Your Ruby is a total gem!!!!!!! and the autocorrect--I love autocorrect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! love, jean
A balloonist? Wow! My grandfather was a pilot in WWII, flying supplies "over the hump". My uncle was also in it, flying troops in Italy.
DeleteMy kids are pretty awesome rockin'. Ruby is a mess. She's seeing what she can steal out of the drawer.
I turned off autocorrect on my phone. This is why!
1. Gives me hope. I do think I remember you saying you were on this child all through high school to get his work done. Go College Boy!
ReplyDelete2. Your daughter is quite a peach herself.
3. Being unable to do laundry for three weeks has made me crazy. I need to do laundry. I see it piling up and I can't handle it. Feel free to come for a visit. ;)
4. I shall back you up all the way. Closet space is like gold around here. I have been seriously thinking about buying those storage bags for the clothes we keep in the basement for the future. Since we don't have a cat, they should work perfectly it seems.
5 and 6. Good for you!
9. As I scrolled down, I saw that photo pop up. Before I read the blurb, I already had a scolding comment for you about keeping that creepy picture out of social media. And then I read you did it on purpose. It's OK. I know it means you like me. You really, really like me. :)
10. Oh my word, that is hysterical! I love other people's auto correct, and this has got to be one of the best examples as to why.
1. It was like pushing a wet noodle until he was a junior, then he picked it up a bit. Still had to remind, remind, remind all the way through graduation, including, but not limited to, hounding him to get his graduation speech written on time. Y'all will make it!
Delete2. A little bit of a bitchy peach (she'll be the first to admit it), but a peach,nonetheless :)
3. Washer and dryer in the basement like mine? OLD HOUSES! But I'll be there with my Aldi detergent in, like, 12 hours or so, mmk?
4. The Ziploc brand requires you close a little valve after sucking out the air. All I could think of was how much air I lose from an air mattress, so I went with the Magic Bag (Walmart) that has some magical valve that doesn't need closing. Way cool.
5. and 6. Woo hoo!
9. JUST FOR YOU! That's how special you are to me!
10. You think those "Best of Autocorrect" things you see on Facebook are made up. This goes to show they probably aren't.
What a week fo goodness! Pats on the back to both of your kids and to their parents - kids don't get those work ethics from nowhere!
ReplyDeleteI've never been able to get those vacuum bags to work correctly. I think they have to be a scam!
Love the photo of Ruby - reminds me that I should probably put up a post about what happened to all three of the Three Rotten Cats this week - it was horrible. Funny and horrible.
Memorial Day...agree with you there. My Grandfather was a Battle of the Bulge vet and many others in my family have served otherwise and elsewhere - Vietnam, the Middle East, Cuba, Washington, DC and other places Stateside - in times of war and peace. It's too easily slipped into a second place and it hurts me deeply. I have a great poem that I will probably run on Monday.
P.S. - just read your Joplin tornado posts and the ones about your boobies that you linked to - glad I caught up on that part of you. Those were all before I started blogging so I was glad to find them and learn! So glad you are with us today!
Thank you! One of them is self-motivated, the other one has needed a lot of pushes.
DeleteYou have purchased the wrong bags, then. I recommend the ones that are pictured. Available at Walmart. You can thank me later.
Ohhh, you must tell what the Rotten Cats did! You saw the footprint on my checkbook cover. I am no stranger to the antics of rotten cats!
My great aunts always called it "Decoration Day." It was a BIG DEAL to them to go to the cemetery and put flowers out. Plastic ones.
I'm so pleased you read the tornado (and related) posts! Thank you! Thank you!
I havent read all the comments but wouldnt you have loved to be there when Ruby snagged the bag and it started blowing up? I love the photo although I agree it is a bit spooky... as are all those A's ... thats unnatural! well maybe just in my lifetime!
ReplyDeleteIt must have been like the Dick Van Dyke Show episode where Laura kept opening Rob's mail and one day, after promising not to anymore, opened an inflatable raft.
DeleteThe photo is super creepy. It was dark in her room, with just a little light coming in from the hallway, when he took the picture. Looks like an oil painting to me.
I never had all A's.
8 and 10 were my favs. Sometimes you just have to eat the candy to get it gone. It would be wasteful to throw it out. And that text is hilarious! You should send it to Damn You AutoCorrect. I have always wondered out those vacuum bags. Good to know!
ReplyDeleteExactly! Couldn't throw away perfectly good candy, so it was my DUTY to eat it, right?
DeleteI should send that text to Damn You AutoCorrect. It's a good one.
The vacuum bags are WORTH. IT.
lol (pretty much from start to finish)…thank you zoe for getting to that visual before I had to… the opposite of vacuum shrinking giant bags of clothes is an exploding bag of clothes…
ReplyDeleteI agree with the general consensus on the photo, though not as creepy as many make it out to be…especially one Commenter, from the great state of stampeding-herds-of-spiders-that-cover-the-unwitting-old-farmhouse… (ask Christine)… I would totally rather deal with a secretly bi-pedal feline than to deal with the Indiana scourge.
We have stampeding herds of spiders of the brown recluse variety. Putting out-of-season bedding and clothing in sealable anythings is good business.
DeleteOh, my that text is hilarious! And well done to your kids.
ReplyDeleteI laugh every time I read it. Every. Time.
DeleteAnd thank you!
It was a beautiful moment in family texting history.
ReplyDeleteCollege Boy just took it the other day. I put it on Instagram, but Christine refused to "like" it, because it was so creepy.
I'll try to keep the no-stroke rule in play indefinitely.
Rather proud of meeting that goal.
Next week already? Holy cow, time flies!
I love magic bags! Great for family vacations!
ReplyDeleteDo you have to take your vacuum cleaner with you on your trip?
DeleteSo many things I love about this list - first is to commiserate and then feel pride at wading through ALL that laundry! And those vacuum bags - I so hope I can find some now - would help immensely in packing away baby clothes!
ReplyDeleteThat photo is SO CREEPY and hilarious too! Looks like a little person in a cat costume.
A million congrats to your kids on those marks! They must be thrilled and you must feel so proud. Great accomplishment.
We don't celebrate Memorial day here in Canada but I did go visit my 94 year old war veteran grandfather today, and I'm always thankful to stop and think of the amazing things he did for us. I cna't even begin to imagine what his life was like (and I love hearing all about it from him - his memory is crystal clear - truly amazing).
I used an entire bottle of laundry detergent this week. Let that wash over you (no pun intended). The bags are AWESOME.
DeleteThat picture makes me laugh almost as much as that stupid text message from my husband.
Thank you - I've got two pretty sharp kiddos.
I really need to write down more stories from my parents. They are in their early 80s and have great stories from when country people still used horses and wagons and plows and stuff. So cool that you have a 94 year old grandfather!
Oh my goodness LOOK at your KIDS??!!! Straight A's?!! I think I will probably be whistling while doing the hundreds of loads of laundry for my boy if that happens!! What a proud mama you must be!
ReplyDelete(But hate the laundry thing. ugh.)
This is such a great list Dyanne! I love that you are back at the gym (yikes- guilt go away!) and finishing your scrapbook project? You have on a ROLL girl!!
Hey, I cleaned out the kids' backpacks! Yay ME! lol
Major projects ahead this summer. I hate them already... sigh.
If he flunked out of college AND had a mountain of laundry, it would probably have been a different story :)
DeleteIt was hard to get back to the gym, but it's funny how quickly your muscles remember what to do (which, for me, is stay on the elliptical and not fall off).
UGH! Cleaning out the backpacks is usually disgusting! I always find old candy and crumbs and God only knows what else.
I need to get some major projects done, too. Gives us something to add to our TToT list!
First, I am going to say that although I intend to spend some time on a boat this weekend, I always remember the men and women responsible for maintaining my freedom to do just that. To all of them, I say thank you even if it seems terribly inadequate.
ReplyDeleteHooray for your kids for all their hard work. I know you are proud of them.
I hate laundry and I truly dislike clutter. I don't think I'd have use for those bags but I've seen them advertised and always wondered if they worked. Now I know.
Now, I got toward the end and didn't see much else after the (YES, CREEPY) photo of Ruby. I had to really look because it's a little unreal looking! Then we get to the text! I will never stop laughing at that!! Oh my goodness, that is classic!
I hope you enjoy your weekend, even though I don't like boats. I am sitting at the lake, looking out at other people in boats, and that's good enough for me.
DeleteIt's a relief not to have to worry about grades with my kids. Because there are plenty of other things to worry about without having to deal with that!
The bags were awesome for putting my son's college bedding in and being able to store them in some of our inadequate storage space. We're talking a comforter, two sheet sets, two blankets, and a Snuggie, all in one bag.
The picture of Ruby y didn't know even look real. But you can't make shit like that up. Like the text. I can't stop laughing when reading that text!
Here's to school years well handled and over! We've been doing the home from college thing for five years now and still are stunned by how much crap there is to trip over at the end of May. I have to confess the laundry part doesn't bother me at all. After having them away for so long watching their things go through the laundry cycle with ours again.
ReplyDeleteHe's lucky I didn't kill him on the spot when I found he had packed NOTHING. And I get what you mean by having their laundry back mixed up with yours. It means they're HOME.
DeleteCongratulations on those grades! To students AND parents!
ReplyDeleteThis storage bags look awesome, we should look into them.
That picture of Ruby is hysterical! And yeah, kind of creepy o____O
Thanks, Joy!
DeleteThe bags are way cool. Keep cat claws away from them, though.
We have a magnet on our refrigerator of an oil painting we saw at a museum that is very similar in style to that creepy pic of Ruby. I need to take a picture of it and post it as a comparison.
LOVE the autocorrected text! That's hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThe pic of the cat makes it look like they just saunter around on two legs when humans aren't looking.
Maybe they do, Cyndy, maybe they do....
DeleteLove the text from your husband!! I despise corndogs but might eat one if I got that text! Congrats to your smart children!
ReplyDeleteI despise corndogs, too! And I can't imagine how auto correct got "condom" out of "corndog." And thank you! I've got a couple of pretty good kiddos.
DeleteI think your photos sum up your post very nicely -- a time/space saver, a silly kitty and a hilarious husband. I think you should submit that text to Damn You Autocorrect.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear both kids are doing so well in school. I understand your son's reason for dropping Calculus. I was *this* close to dropping Astronomy in college because that one class would have tarnished my GPA greatly. Though unlike your son, I was actually failing the class until the professor offered extra credit. I guess most of the class was failing though when every one signed up to take it. In that case, if the entire class is doing so poorly, I think it is a reflection of the professor, not the students.
I DO need to submit that text! I keep hearing it from people.
DeleteIsn't it a shame to have to drop a class for a B? He has to keep such a high gpa to keep his scholarship, that he had no choice. (It's a full ride, so we don't want to lose that.) And definitely, if the entire class is doing poorly, it is a reflection on the professor, although so many of them have such egos that they wouldn't want to admit it.
Yes, dear, please pick up some condoms for the kids!!! AWESOME!!! I wouldn't stop giggling either (which just brings up a certain picture of Violet bunny-hopping butt-naked through the house). Wow, maintaining a 3.6 in order to keep a scholarship sounds harsh, but it will help him focus on what's important! Congrats to both your kids for getting straight A's!! Have a great new week, Dyanne!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that HILARIOUS? I really wondered if he had finally lost all his marbles. The 3.6 is pretty rough, especially since he's got a tough major (Cell and Molecular Biology, minor in Chemistry). He could be working towards a much easier degree and getting that gpa wouldn't be that difficult. Have a wonderful week, Stephanie! Keep packing!
DeleteCorndogs, condoms. Tomato, tomahto. Long live autocorrect.
ReplyDeletePractically interchangeable.
DeleteDyanne! I know you must be so proud of your kids. That sounds so wonderful. I certainly remember bringing wayyyy too much to college my first year and then having a lot of crap to lug home in different breaks and throughout the different years. My mom still has lots of my stuff in the basement still :( She probably asked me about it off and on up until about a year ago. Sounds like you are having a great time with summer just getting around to starting though! Great list!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brittnei! I still have stuff in my parents' basement from when I was a child, and most of it hasn't fared well, due to an ugly sewer pipe break. Really need to go through it and throw 95% of it away!
Delete