D Whynn Designs

Homecoming 2006, I Survived

. . . . . but barely!

Last weekend was the annual high school Homecoming event for the Teen occupants of this house. In my opinion, the whole thing is over the top but since no one is asking me, and The Teens are tired of hearing my soapbox rant, last Saturday progressed with a flurry of activity and considerable Mother stress and anxiety caused by one Teen Boy.

To say that the child was High Maintenance would be an understatement. In retrospect, I think he was nervous, but he walks around here with such an air of Joe Coolness that I didn't figure it out.  By midweek he was a mouthy nag with an argument and an answer for everything all accompanied by an ATTITUDE the size of Mount Everest.  By Saturday -- YIKES!!  And all aimed at the Mother, of course.

I'll spare everyone the lengthy post that would be the events of the day -- and in re-telling it, it is all pretty funny, but while it was happening laughing wasn't the first emotion I was going through -- more like a lot of speaking through gritted teeth.

I'll just summarize the end of the day:  At approx. 3:45 (with much company due to arrive about 4:15) I'm frantically ironing Teen Boy's shirt and oh yeah, his buddy's too, because "Mom, he forgot to get his mom to iron his shirt.  Can you do it?"

I have managed to shower but still haven't dried my hair, etc., when I hear a horrific crash coming from the kitchen.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear -- but an Entire bottle of V-8 juice (yep, red, tomato, liquid, sticky) Exploded all over the kitchen.  Think inside and outside of refrigerator, all over the floor, seeping under the refrigerator.

Using a very even tone and the most exact diction my response was "Leave The Room.  Just Leave The Room.  Do Not Talk.  Do Not Help."

To which High Maintenance Teen Boy replies "I don't know why you buy that stuff anyhow.  I mean, who drinks it, it's disgusting."

Of course, my fault for buying the stuff in the first place . . . . . . . . .

Teen Girl and The Beau looked lovely and probably did not get near the Mother attention she should have due to the fact that the younger sibling was running me ragged . . .

On top of all of that, I made Teen Girl a beautiful burgundy velvet bag to carry and in the chaos of the day I never did take a picture of it.  My quilt shop owner gave me a gorgeous small piece of velvet and because I can be the Queen of Procrastination I didn't even begin the bag until Saturday morning ---- and now I remember exactly how slippery velvet is.

Thank goodness, bags don't have sleeves . . . . and exactly where is my good seam ripper, my favorite . . . . Teen Girl swears she didn't take it, but I sure could have used it in the velvet construction bag crisis.

In the end the bag was finished, my hair was dried, Teen Boy had some shoes (I'll skip that story for now), the refrigerator was cleaned inside and out and the floor mopped, shirts starched, company arrived, I snapped some photos and a good time was had by all.

This picture being a favorite because you know exactly what they are saying to each other.  "Just smile -- shut up and smile, if you just smile she'll stop taking pictures because it's a billion degrees out here and I'm sweating and now I'm going to have to put on more deodorant.  Yeah, just smile so she stops taking all these brother/sister pictures."

By Sunday Teen Boy was his good old Medium Maintenance self again!  PHEW!!!

No Sewing Content Here.

My sister came to visit. She hasn't been here since last December. It was just a "hang out" kind of visit and that's exactly what we did - just hung out - and enjoyed it. My sister does not sew - she knows how, but it does not occupy her every waking moment. While she appreciates my finished products and covets as many as she can get her little hands on, she gets no thrill from fabric shopping or project planning. She's the only person I know that can go into a quilt store and find the *perfect* fabric in 4 seconds flat and she's good to go. I'm still looking at the first bolt.

So what did I do while I did none of this:

We went to the beach.  We went to the pool.  We went to lunch. We rented and watched lots of movies. Even in the day and I never watch TV/movies in the day. I made her go to work with me one morning. She was a good and helpful sport about it so we went to lunch again!

I bought one of these. Because my sister wanted margarita night. She was in charge of the margaritas. I made the Sticky Pork and homemade salsa to serve with the margaritas.

To make sticky pork, take boneless country pork ribs (or a pork shoulder roast), cut into large chunks and simmer in water/orange juice and garlic for hours. Like 3. Until the meat is so tender it falls apart.

Simmer out the liquid. Drizzle the top with bourbon and turn up the heat. The bourbon and high heat put a sticky crispy coating on the pork.

Serve with tortillas, cheese, homemade salsa, guacamole (if you can get avocados) and, or course, margaritas.

I used to have a blender. About a year ago Teen Girl dropped it - on the tile floor. Boy, does blender glass shatter!

Teen Girl is happy that her Aunt wanted margaritas because Teen Girl loves smoothies and we didn't have a blender . . . .

We checked out a Medium Far Away Local Yarn Store that has a new owner. The new owner has turned the MFALYS into everything a yarn store should be. Friendly staff, great big table to hang out at, lots of books to look through and she got in lots of new stuff.

Like this Mission Falls cotton, which had to come home with me. I love the stuff. So I let my sister pick the movies and control the remotes and I worked on this!  I will definitely be visiting my MFALYS again (although more yarn is NOT what I need).

We also tried this.  Grilled pizza.

Hubby was (very) skeptical when I told him we were going to make pizza on the grill.

I did it anyhow.  It was EXCELLENT.

Pat out the dough for personal size pizzas. Brush both sides with olive oil.

Throw it on the grill for a few minutes. Turn and grill a few minutes more.

Let everyone make their own pizzas with the toppings of their choice.

Put the pizzas back on the grill.

Close the lid and grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts.

Serve, but not with margaritas because everyone is all margarita-ed out from the Sticky Pork night.

DELICIOUS.

Listen to Teen Boy and His Buddy tell you that *this* pizza is the best pizza they have ever had -- even better than Papa John's!!

Wow, bask in that compliment!

Thanks for the compliment, Boys!

Yes, of course, I will make you more pizzas, and homemade chocolate chip cookies without the nuts, and from scratch cupcakes, and pasta and pasta and more pasta . . .and let you drink 2-liters worth of soda between the two of you even though when you were little I never ever let you have soda . . . ..

My sister left two days ago and I have been very disciplined about Not Sewing, but instead catching up on chores, laundry, groceries, lesson plans and all that other living kind of stuff that I let slide while "hanging out" with my sister.

How very adult of me.

The "Fall" Schedule

Today officially starts our new "fall" back to school schedule even though it's the beginning of August and only about 8 gazillion degrees outside. Gone are the days when some of us were going to bed in the wee hours of the morning, waking up when the sun was high in the sky, spending the entire day and night in nothing more than a bathing suit and eating every thing in the refrigerator or offering it to our buddies on the hour each and every hour.  (And I didn't fall into any of those categories.)

Here are the sophomore and the senior humoring the mother by posing for back to school photos because "I have taken one of these every year since preschool and this year is no exception so SMILE."

I had promised Teen Girl that I would finish up a bag she had designed, and then changed the design of more times than I can count, so she could take it to school.  And due to, ummmm procrastination? . . . I was up at 6:00 a.m., THIS morning, the back to school morning, sewing in the lining.  Oh, and making muffins for a morning treat.

Here's Teen Girl and her new tote bag. Check out the expression. For those of you that don't know her you may not recognize it, but that expression says "I CANNOT even believe that you are asking me to stand out here and pose for a picture for a stupid blog when I am a SENIOR today . . ." This was the better of the two shots. The other expression is just priceless. I'm going to save it so I can whip it out some day when she is the mother . . . .

That expression right there prompted the little mother speech this morning that went something like "While I understand you are a senior this year and excited about this time in your life, keep in mind that you are still just one of us and senior or not, I expect you to be a kind and caring person to everyone. I expect you to be careful driving, to have no more than the alloted number of people in the car, to drive safely and defensively, to be kind to those not on the same plane of bliss that you are (most especially your Younger brother) and act like a responsible human being." Because I Am The Mother so I can deliver speeches like this on one's big day!

It was my back to school today too and I got to meet my 10 little three-year-olds. Five boys and five girls and we had a great morning with zero crying, no potty accidents and only a few "Mine. Mine."

The afternoon was spent with an outing to Barnes and Noble where I picked up a couple of magazines and Joann fabrics to use my 40% off coupon to buy the entire bolt of interfacing (11 yards) because I ran out of my favorite kind last night when working on Teen Girl's tote bag and had to use the kind I don't like which caused me to ruin the original handles and was indirectly responsible for my frantic 6:00 a.m. sewing this AM. But she'll never know cause she's a senior and all . . . .

The Times

. . . They Are A-Changing . . . .

What's with all the song lyrics?  I just don't know.

I have never liked this time of year. The dog days of summer as they say. The heat has set in and my patience for it is diminished. (My sympathies to those of you in other parts of the country who have suffered with the extreme heat.)  It's prime hurricane season and I become *obsessed* with checking the weather websites and watching the weather report.

But the worst thing of all is that it's Back To School around here. I never liked sending the kids back to school, even when they were little and bickered over ridiculous things for 11-1/2 of the 12 hours they were awake. I still didn't want school to start.

This year is worse than ever. Teen Girl is a Senior and it has hit me hard that this is it, she's basically all grown up and I have no idea how it all happened so fast. She has a job and we just got her a C.A.R. We opened a checking account this summer and I taught her how to do her banking and she has a debit card and her senior schedule is pretty relaxed. Grown-up things. Not playing with her American Girl dolls or spending the entire day setting up a complex Playmobile zoo and marineland around the entire swimming pool.

My attempts to stop time have been futile and so I've put on a happy face and did the school shopping and was enthusiastic over registration and new schedules. I should get an Oscar for my acting skills. They go back this coming Wednesday.

I've decided to go back to school as well. I'll be teaching up at the preschool again this year. A three-year-old class, just three mornings a week so that should leave me with plenty of crafting time. I've been teaching at this preschool off and on for over 12 years and the ladies who work there are my best buddies. It will be good for me and it will force me to stay away from the weather web sites! My classroom was a mess and I've spent the past week and a half painting, cleaning and purging in a room where the AC is on the fritz. My little class starts this coming Wednesday as well so I will be way too busy to feel sorry for myself - at least for part of the day.

Teen Boy will be a Sophomore so in another few years I'll be re-posting a post of this nature!

I enjoy pictures on blog posts but I don't think anyone wants to or needs to see a photo of me sulking, which would be the appropriate photo for the post. 

Instead I will leave you with a picture Teen Girl took a few days ago of the sunrise over the Atlantic.

What A Handsome Boy!

. . . . . .with a real attitude . . . . .

Yes, he's an Australian Shepherd and yes, he's sporting a new 'do.

The poor boy's allergies have been so bad that he's just been scratching and scratching and scratching. He has had a terribly thick undercoat and this is Florida in the summer in the heat and the humidity.

He's quite proud of his new look and I think he feels better. 

In this shot, he's a little annoyed with me.  I made him get up from his nap in the air conditioning under the fan in the middle of MY bed for a photo shoot. 

Kind of like my daughter, he was not amused with mom's blog antics.