Another day

Listen y’all. Hermine was not playing around. We had some more storms pass through late Tuesday night and got another four inches of rain and some lightning and thunder that may or may not have caused me to sit straight up in bed because I was certain our roof was about to cave in.

And when I went running the next morning (Couch to 5K, Week 3 Day 1. I’m all about the accountability. Until I’m not.) I thought the police were just being dramatic about their barricades until I went to make my usual right turn and came upon this scene.

There used to be a street there. Needless to say, I took a different route because I’m not really up for a triathlon.

Anyway, you know what makes you tired? Attempting to sleep through a storm while your seven-year-old child tries to figure out any way possible to get closer to you, if not actually inside your skin which is what she would prefer.

So today’s post is kind of like hello ladies, look at your man. Now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. I’m on a horse.

1. I can always count on Jon Acuff to make me laugh or to make me cry or to make me wish I was a better writer. I loved his post from yesterday titled Wondering why God makes life impossible sometimes.

It’s worth the read. I promise.

2. Someone sent me this picture of Kyle Field yesterday.

I believe it’s a sign from God that this season holds good things for Aggie football. And that we’ll never have to play in the Gallery Furniture Bowl again.

3. I meant to tell y’all this on Tuesday. ABC Family has begun airing Friday Night Lights every day at 5:00. If you start watching it today then you’ll have only missed the first two episodes.

As Nena would say, it’s on channel 180.

If you don’t fall in love with Coach and Tami Taylor, then I don’t know if we can be friends. Or maybe we can be friends, but the kind of friends that can only get together for maybe thirty minutes at a time before we run out of things to talk about.

4. A reader sent me a link to this photo yesterday:

Apparently I was wrong about not being able to use ammo to decorate for Christmas. Very festive in a get-off-my-property-or-I’ll-shoot-you-dead kind of way.

5. I’m on a mission to really decorate my house for fall. Just as soon as I paint my kitchen brown and get P to plant some yellow mums in the urns on our front porch. Specifically, I want to come up with a really pretty, yet totally natural, fall centerpiece for my dining room table. Which is why I was so excited to see the Fall Nesting Party going on at The Inspired Room.

There are tons of great ideas and you can look at all of them if you have a few weeks to spare.

Also, I feel like I need some mercury glass pumpkins.

The good news is, thanks to Hermine, I can find plenty of dead limbs all around the neighborhood. Including the ones P had to get off our backhouse yesterday.

6. Have I ever mentioned that I love the way Ann Voskamp writes? I love her first post from the Compassion Bloggers trip to Guatemala.

Anyone who can make Shaun Groves’ guitar case seem beautiful and poetic is beyond gifted.

Oh I kid. The duct tape that holds his guitar case together is very chic.

See y’all tomorrow.

I’m sure I had something wonderfully clever and insightful to say a few minutes ago. But then P handed me the computer and it had some kind of brown substance smeared all over the bottom of it and it was also on one of my new throw pillows. It kind of brought our evening to a screeching halt until I made P smell it and he discovered that it appeared to be a pretzel M&M in its former unmelted life.

You may be wondering why I made P smell it instead of smelling it myself. It’s because that’s the kind of thing that falls under his unofficial job description, along with going outside during a tropical storm every fifteen minutes and surveying our property for wind damage. Which, by the way, happened. Every fifteen minutes. All day long.

So, yes, Tropical Storm Hermine made its way to San Antonio and the weathermen are all so pleased with themselves for making an accurate prediction. There have been graphics and breaking weather news and flood updates for the last twenty-four hours. But I’m thrilled because I was able to fulfill my dream of sitting at home in the rain and not doing one thing yesterday. Unless you count all the times I felt like I needed to ask P for an update on any potential property damage.

I’m sad to report that an enormous tree limb fell on the roof of the backhouse. P was worried that it put a hole in the roof when it fell and I immediately became concerned because all my festive holiday wreaths are back there, but I’m guessing he was more concerned about his supply of ammo and weaponry. Like we can hang any of that on the front door come Christmas.

I picked Caroline up from school a few minutes early because the carpool line on a rainy day is enough to push any one over the edge and I’d spent a good deal of time watching What About Bob? earlier in the day and it may have hit too close to home.

We were supposed to have Back To School night last night but it was postponed due to the weather, which was a good thing because it was sprinkling heavily by 6:00 p.m. and the streets were wet. There may have even been a breeze.

So instead of Back To School night, we ended up enjoying our standard Tuesday night activities. If there’s one question that people email me with more than any other, it’s “What do you usually do on a Tuesday night?” Except that’s not true at all because no one cares. The actual question I’m asked the most is “Why do you only have one child and do you recommend it?” which I’ve thought about writing an entire post on but HELLO CAN OF WORMS.

However, I’ll tell you that our Tuesday nights are delightful. We usually eat dinner as a family. Last night we had Frito Pies made with Hormel chili from a can because we are sophisticated. Then after Caroline goes to bed, we begin our reality t.v. marathon. First, we watch Duck Commanders which has the honor of being the only hunting show I adore. After that P watches Uncle Ted while I play Words with Friends and/or Angry Bird depending on my mood. Finally, we end the evening with The Rachel Zoe Project.

In the interest of full disclosure, P usually seems to be more interested in looking at hunting paraphernalia online during Rachel Zoe. But I made him watch last night because Rachel and Brad dressed Johnny Weir (the figure skater) for some event and then he showed up to another event wearing the same suit as someone sitting at his table. It was a FASHION EMERGENCY LEVEL 10 CRISIS and ended with Brad helping him pick out a red velvet blazer to wear instead and citing the 90210 episode where Brenda and Kelly show up wearing the same dress to prom.

Which I just mentioned on Friday.

I don’t know when anything has brought me more joy.

I’m thinking I probably need to get out later today and do something productive with my life.

Maybe I’ll start with moving my wreaths out of the backhouse until our roof situation is remedied. And, also, scanning the couch in search of rogue pretzel M&Ms.

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There’s a group of Compassion bloggers in Guatemala this week. You can follow them on the Compassion bloggers’ site.

Also, I have a new Kellogg’s giveaway post up. Click over to my giveaway page for the chance to win a $100 gift card.

There are two important things going on here right now. The first is that Tropical Storm Hermine is allegedly heading this way. And the second is that I left my hair up in a high ponytail for too long and now the whole left side of my head hurts.

Of course the whole high ponytail thing is pretty much irrelevant unless you happen to be me, so I’ll talk about Hermine. (Not to be confused with the youngest Mandrell sister, Irlene.) She used to just be Tropical Storm #10, but got upgraded with a truly unfortunate name sometime late yesterday afternoon and the weathermen are all abuzz about the fact that we might get anywhere between zero and eleven hundred inches of rain over the next forty-eight hours. All I know is that I made a special trip to HEB yesterday to stock up on the essentials (Pretzel M&Ms! York Peppermint Patties! Fritos! Hormel Chili! InStyle Magazine!) and am planning my entire day around being socked in by the rain. If it doesn’t happen I am going to be terribly bitter and forced to say disparaging things about our local meteorologists.

But for now I’ll focus on brighter, happier things than a possible tropical storm, namely our Labor Day weekend. Never has so little been accomplished or proved to be not even remotely interesting in a three day time span.

On Friday night we met Mimi and Bops for Mexican food.

And then we went home and went to bed.

Saturday proved to be a little more eventful. P and Caroline headed down to the ranch to do whatever it is they do down there and I stayed at home. I’d like to say that I was out of my pajamas sometime before 2:00 p.m. but it would be a lie. I blame College Gameday. And, also, I may have gotten sucked into several episodes of 90210, but it’s hardly my fault considering they were the episodes where Dr. Martin dies and Gina reconciles with the family and Dylan finds out that his dad isn’t really dead but in the witness protection program and David and Donna realize they still love each other. If that’s not compelling television, then I don’t know what is.

Ultimately I decided I needed to do something productive to make myself feel better. So I ran a dust cloth over the coffee table and a few other prominent pieces of furniture and then went to Gap to return a shirt that I’d bought for P a few weeks ago and he’d deemed unacceptable.

I’ve decided one of my goals for the next few months is to update P’s personal style, but it’s proving to be harder than I thought. Mainly because P isn’t one to quit on a look just because he’s been wearing it for the last twenty years and also because all the clothing manufacturers have begun making their dress shirts with a cut designed to fit twelve-year-old boys or men who don’t eat a box of Nilla Wafers in one sitting.

Oh, and I went by Sherwin Williams to look at paint chips because I’ve officially decided that I don’t like my turquoise kitchen and emailed Holly to ask for her advice. To her credit she didn’t email me back with a big I TOLD YOU SO even though she did tell me so when I asked for her thoughts on painting it turquoise back in May. And she was right. The turquoise is pretty but it doesn’t go with the rest of my house. She suggested that I paint it dark brown and I’m currently obsessed with that idea and will not rest until the kitchen is repainted.

(Actually, that’s not true. I won’t have time to paint the kitchen for at least a week. Clearly I’ll need to rest between now and then. I’m just using a little thing called literary license. Or whatever.)

Unfortunately the Aggies weren’t on T.V. so I had to console myself by watching other televised games and constantly hitting refresh on Fox Sports to get the latest score.

Anyway, Sunday morning we went to church and then Caroline and I decided to go shopping out at La Cantera. The night before we’d looked at clothes on different websites because she claims “my taste has changed, Mama”. Apparently that’s true because I pointed out an adorable sweater dress and she laughed as she said, “PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE KIDDING”. Which made me look back fondly on the first two years of her life when she let me dress her in whatever I wanted and didn’t have an opinion.

So we made our way to the mall and had the best time shopping together. I let her pick out the things she wanted to try on and make the final decisions according to my budget and what she actually needed. She was a little bit upset that I nixed the faux leopard print fur vest, but who wouldn’t be? I just wasn’t sure it seemed like a necessity for second grade.

And we went to a delightful store called Naartjie that has won me over body and soul. Oh my word at all the cuteness. Best of all, she actually liked some of it even though there wasn’t a sequin or piece of faux fur to be found.

We came home and watched The Sound of Music together while P cooked burgers on the grill. Then yesterday morning we stayed in bed until almost 10:30 and watched it all over again.

So, assuming you didn’t have the strength to read through all that (Who can blame you?) and just skipped to the bottom. Here’s a brief summary.

On the plus side:

Mexican food
College football
90210
Dreams of a brown kitchen
Aggies win
Shopping
The Von Trapp family
Grilled burgers
Possible torrential rain from a tropical storm not named after the youngest Mandrell sister

On the negative side:

Left side of my head hurts from ill-conceived high ponytail

How was your weekend?

I feel like this week has been a big blur of school and alarm clocks and packing lunches and heating up Eggo waffles. It’s hard to get back in a routine and I am just a little bit exhausted. So I’m going to share a few quick things and call it a day. Or a blog post. Or whatever.

1. I came home yesterday afternoon to discover that P had finished the bag of pretzel M&M’s. I went through the seven stages of grief and ultimately decided it was probably for the best. He can afford to eat an entire bag of M&M’s in one sitting because he can drop fifteen pounds in a week if he just mentions he might eat some baked fish for dinner.

It’s not fair.

2. I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday because I couldn’t contain my excitement. Gulley and I ran in Gap just to check things out and they had their yoga pants on sale for $9.99. I would have bought a pair for every day of the week but they only had one pair left in my size.

It’s not fair.

3. I’ve recently become addicted to Angry Bird on my iPhone. I’d played it a few times before but became frustrated when I got to level 10 and couldn’t get past it. But while we were at the beach, W told me that you can tap on the screen and the little gray birds turn into three separate birds. I’m not sure why I didn’t know that. Needless to say, that piece of information has revolutionized my Angry Bird abilities. However, I’m currently stuck on a new level and all the screen-tapping in the world doesn’t seem to be helping.

It’s not fair.

4. I’m leaving on Friday morning for Richmond, VA for a Living Proof Live Event with Beth Moore. I just realized that sentence makes it sound like I’m leaving for Virginia with Beth Moore. We’re not actually flying there together or anything. I’ll just hear her speak once I get there. Anyway, I’m excited about it.

And the forecast shows that the high temps will only be in the low 80’s on Saturday. I’m planning to pack a sweater to ward off the chill. How come they get that kind of weather and it’s still 100 degrees here?

It’s not fair.

Although the cold front that blew violently into town on Tuesday afternoon dropped the temps from 106 to the high 90’s. I never knew 97 degrees could feel so refreshing.

5. Caroline has decided she’d like me to curl her hair every morning. I’m thrilled by her new hair aspirations and I don’t mind curling it, except for the fact that she never stops moving the entire time. It’s like trying to curl the hair of a Persian cat on amphetamines. And it doesn’t help that I’m still a little groggy at 7:15 a.m.

The good news is it appears her hair can hold a curl all day long in spite of the massive humidity.

I’d like to say it’s not fair, but, honestly, I’m thrilled for her hair success. Even if she won’t really appreciate it for many years to come.

I’ll be back tomorrow and there’s a 64% chance I’m going to take the plunge and discuss fall trends.

I’m going to have to make this brief. Not because I don’t have much to say. On the contrary, I have volumes and volumes of things I’d love to share.

But the short version is that we’ve spent the last four days at the beach and got home yesterday afternoon and I have misplaced the power cord for my computer. It’s tragic really.

The worst part is I can’t guarantee that I didn’t accidentally throw it away in the midst of my pre-vacation cleaning frenzy. In fact, P believes there is a better than 82% chance of that scenario.

I brought my laptop to the beach, but never ended up actually using it because they didn’t have wireless access at the beach house and I couldn’t bring myself to plug into the router like some sort of twentieth century savage. So I can’t even remember if I had my power cord there or not.

And then I let Caroline watch Barbie: The Princess and The Pauper on the computer on the way home and, thus, I have about three seconds of power left.

IT’S ALL BARBIE’S FAULT.

So after I do the whole first day of school drop off thing, I’m headed to the Apple store to buy a new power cord to replace the one I may or may not have thrown in the trash.

And I’m trying not to think of all the other things I could spend that money on.

Like perhaps some herbal supplements that help with memory loss.