From Florida, with love..
So, by all accounts the Band is having a SPLENDID time in Florida. Of course, I’ve only the OH SO GIDDY hundreds of text messages to go by, but I’m pretty sure it’s a safe bet that if Peppermist could somehow live in Miami and Alaska at the same time? She totally would.
Observe:
Peppermist: OH! HEY! I’m in FLORIDA! ooooooooh lookit the pretty lights… SHINY.
Peppermist: HAPPY ME! We walked in a THUNDERSTORM. Real rain, mama! Lightening and thunder! Next to a highway! Kept getting splashed! Three miles! I’m DRENCHED! I LOVE THE RAIN!
Peppermist: Two Words. COLLEGE BOYS.
Me: One word. DEAD.
Peppermist: College student walked by on phone – all we heard was “It’s fuckin’ DIAGONAL!” HAHAHHHAHAHA!
Me: O_o.
Peppermist: My hips hurt!
Me: Why?
Peppermist: IDK. I have the insides of an 80 year old man.
Me: Well give them back! I’m sure he NEEDS his insides!
Peppermist: HAHAHAHAHA! I love you.
Peppermist: I’m watching the OLYMPIX! FROM THE FUTURE!
Me: What’s it like in the future?!
Peppermist: Full of stupid teachers and homework. Just like always. WHERE’S MY FLYING CAR?
Me: Hey! THAT’S MY LINE!
Peppermist: I stole it. FUTURISTICLY.
Peppermist: You need sleep?
Me: ….usually. Why?
Peppermist: Cuz I’m SO COVERED IN SAND that I could be the SANDMAN!
Me: Happy Beach Day!
Peppermist: I TOUCHED AN ALLIGATOR!
Me: WASH YER HANDS!
Peppermist: Uh. Sunburn. Also? Hives from sunscreen.
Me: Benedryl.
Peppermist: ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.ow.
Peppermist: LOTS of pictures of Gators! And? I CAPTURED ONE! I’m bringing him HOME! He’s FEISTY!
Me: O_o….he’s living in your room.
Peppermist: Nah, the dog will eat him. He can live in the crawl space!
Me: SCORE. Home security!
Peppermist: That’s what I thought! Cant get him through airport security though. Have to ship him home UPS.
Me: Feed him first. Don’t want him to eat the UPS guy.
Peppermist: Of course. We won’t need the chaperons anymore by then, right?
Me: O_o.
That’s mah girl. I can’t wait till she comes home. My life is EVER so boring without her. 🙂
Hey Josh – Dating advice for guys!
Hey Josh has done it again – you boys want some dating advice? Here’s some examples of what NOT to say to your date!
I love that Hey Josh. And I want to pet his hair. Is that so wrong?
The saga of DOOM…
DOOOOOOOOOOOM I say!
It started when Peppermist decided she wanted to go on the band trip in February. I knew then that I’d need to get her at least a State ID for the trip, and of course SHE was certain that meant I would let her take her Drivers Permit test. The boy, of course, said no way – since I hadn’t let HIM get HIS until just before his 16th birthday, because I just wasn’t ready and he was already mad that she got her cell phone a year before he did. (….inorite?)
ANYWAY, I quickly ran into a problem – I’d put the kids Social Security cards in a safe place so that I wouldn’t lose them. And…promptly forgot where the hell that place was. Whoops. No problem, I knew where their birth certificates were, so it’d be simple to get them the cards right?
Wrong.
You see, apparently, to get a replacement SS card, you need a picture ID. And, as stated, I couldn’t get her a picture ID without a SS card. And her School ID wouldn’t count, because it doesn’t have her birthday on it. OH ISN’T THIS FUN? FINALLY, after getting the runaround for months, they said they’d accept a copy of their shot records, as long as it was stamped by the Health Center making it semi-official.
So, papers in hand, I get them all signed up, I’m told it’ll take two weeks for them to get here, which is plenty of time to get a State ID, so everything’s cool, right? RIGHT! So they arrive in the mail…. The Boy’s, the Pup’s… and that’s it.
The one. card. i. needed. and it. didn’t. come!
NOW I started to panic, but I gave it another week just to be sure, and FINALLY Peppermist’s card showed up. Which brings us to today…
You see, she leaves on Tuesday, and because I’m all about procrastinating (tomorrow…) and she had no school today, I took her over to the DMV to get her State ID. On the way there, I told her “If you think you can pass, I’ll let you take the test to.” KNOWING that she’d only read the book twice, and not for some time. She assured me she could, and that she’d thumb through the book while we waited.
Fine.
(NONONONONONONONONO)
Whatever.
So our number is called, and it turns out that the lady who we were dealing with, not only was the one who passed The Boy when he took his driver’s test, but ALSO happens to be a chaperon on the upcoming band trip! SCORE! I HAVE A SPY! We joked around a bit, and she went to take the test, and 15 minutes later?
She passed. In fact, she only missed 2, which is better than the Boy did (much to her delight). Which means?
I now have ANOTHER teenage driver in my house.
Hold me.
Super Weekend!
It was a BIG WEEKEND here at Casa de Lessa, folks, dominated by the PreTeen and her cousins and the Big Swim Meet in Soldotna. Oh yes, there was kids to wake up early, early, the buglet to be dropped off here with Peppermist, the others to get to the pool, dressed in swim gear and on deck by 9am for warm-ups for the meet to start at 10:15.
That’s stupid early for a Saturday, ya’ll.
But there we were, our collective four kids on deck, on time, with our spot in the bleachers staked out, programs and highlighters and cameras and sharpies in hand – the later gets a real workout, see the picture to the left, ready for five hours of cheering on The Pup, Ladybug, Bug, Dman and all their teammates. (Why yes, I am the crazy cheering mom. Why do you ask?)
It was an especially nervewracking day for the pup, as she had decided to swim a brand new event: The 100yd Individual medly. She knows all the strokes, of course, but there’s the ORDER to remember, and TWO HAND WALL TOUCHES, and DON’T DQ and OMG MOM I’M SO NERVOUS! Peppermist, loving big sister that she is, told the pup an “easy” way to remember the stroke order: just remember that you can BUTTER the BACK of your BREASTs, FREEly. This, naturally, spread through the team like wildfire, and MUCH laughter resulted – including laughter DURING THE BACKSTROKE LEG by the pup AS SHE SWAM.
INORITE?
All our kids had a VERY successful meet, though. Not only did the Pup swim that IM, but it got her her very first DUCKY! The winner of each heat gets a little rubber ducky as a prize, and the pup has been sure she’d NEVER win one – and then she did! VERY happy Pup – in fact, they handed it to her, she looked up to find us in the stands and held that ducky high in the air as we all cheered VERY LOUDLY for her. She could have fallen off the blocks in every race thereafter and not cared. She had a Ducky. A PRINCESS ducky, even, with a PURPLE crown.
She didn’t fall off the blocks though – in fact, she pulled out a 3rd place heat finish and a 2nd place heat finish as well, and improved on all of her times. The Ladybug swam her first 50yd Freestyle (She’s a wee bit of a thing, and usually swims 25s) AND she also won a ducky for herself! All Bug’s hard work paid off and he got to swim the Freestyle relay with the BIG BOYS – including his teammate who recently got the chance to swim with Michael Phelps. There is no SMALL amount of hero worship going on THERE, I’ll tell ya!
And then, Dman, my 13 year old nephew, he tells me “I’m never gonna win a ducky, you know.” I, of course, reminded him that the Pup felt the very same way and today was her day. His day was coming. NOT TEN MINUTES LATER – GUESS WHAT HE DID? That’s right, Dman came away from the pool with his very first Ducky too!
And in between it all, there was Dman and his Girlfriend, who also happens to be the Coach’s daughter. There’s nothing quite as fun as teasing two thirteen year olds as they follow each other around the pool. There were a lot of “Remember! 6inchs of light between you!” and nudges and winks, and chuckling. And then? We spotted them waaaaaaaaaaay across the pool, sitting in folding chairs under the yellow sign, waiting for Dman’s next event. I looked at Mama, and Nana, because I saw them first.
Me: That’s NOT 6 inches…
Mama: oooooooh HELL NAW.
Nana: BUSTED!
So we yelled the girls name across the pool, to get her attention – we knew Dman would just ignore us, and she’d answer – and followed it by “THAT’S NOT 6 INCHES!” complete with gestures demonstrating the proper distance between them, and were rewarded by them jumping apart, BRIGHT RED BLUSHING, and looks that could kill.
God, I love teenagers!
Needless to say, we spent the weekend pretty well pumped. The Boy even showered the Pup with affection and attention, and took her out to breakfast Sunday morning to celebrate. If you’d like to see the Pup – here’s her video of all her events. Note that she beat that girl for her ducky by a FULL POOL LENGTH. Yeaaaaaaaaaah, baby! Way to do it in STYLE, baby girl!
So how was YOUR weekend?
