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Well this turned out to be an interesting Memorial Day weekend.

I mean if you consider a flood to be interesting.

The great irony is that as recently as Friday morning the local police knocked on our front door to inform us that we were watering our yard at the wrong time due to new water restrictions. Here’s what some of you may not know, San Antonio loves some watering restrictions. If you live here you have to constantly hear about the aquifer and preserving the aquifer and how some blind salamander is going to die if we don’t watch the water levels of the aquifer. I start to feel like Jan Brady because everything is all “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” except it’s “Aquifer, Aquifer, Aquifer!”.

And, listen, I get that we’ve been in a drought. But history has shown that at some point it’s going to rain again. It just is. So my eyes rolled out of my head while we watched the news Thursday night and the anchorpeople were all talking about how we were just days away from entering Stage 3 water restrictions. Stage 3 basically means that you might as well move to the desert because that’s how your yard is going to look before the summer is over.

Then on Friday afternoon it rained. Actually it was a deluge. We got about an inch and a half of rain in about an hour. I was super excited because I was meeting a friend for lunch and I actually got to wear my rain boots that I never get to wear because, well, drought.

The rest of Friday we just kind of laid low. The weathermen said we might get a little more rain, I wasn’t feeling great and still recovering from my late night with Taylor Swift, and so we ordered pizza and just hung out. Then we all went to bed at 10:30 because we are out of control.

Around 3:00 a.m. I woke up to the sound of distant thunder which I thought was odd since rain wasn’t forecasted. Then at 5:15 a.m. a clap of thunder shook our entire house. I know it was 5:15 because it caused me to sit straight up in bed since the end was apparently near based on the noise. But I fell back asleep to the sound of the pouring rain, relieved that it was a Saturday morning and we could all just sleep in.

And that’s what Caroline and I did. We slept in until 10:00 a.m. and woke to discover that it had rained over nine inches while we slept and that roads were flooded and her haircut appointment had been cancelled and that our planned day at the pool wasn’t going to happen because, well, the pool was flooded.

It was the most rain San Antonio has seen in one day since the flood of ’98 which was billed as a 500 year flood. Except apparently not.

So we spent most of Saturday watching weather reports and road updates until P and Caroline finally decided to get on their bikes and ride down the street to see the flood waters for themselves.

Those are the Little League fields right down the street. The good news is that there are no longer homes down that way because they weren’t allowed to rebuild there after the ’98 flood.

On Saturday night we went over to Gulley’s for dinner and that was pretty much our big Memorial Day celebration. I’d envisioned that we’d spend Sunday and Monday at the pool but the pool is flooded. Well, the pump room at the pool is flooded and it appears that the roof of the women’s restroom caved in, so the pool is closed for the indefinite future. I’d complain about it more but it seems wrong to complain about how I couldn’t swim and eat a burger at the pool grill on a holiday that is all about remembering soldiers who died to protect our freedom.

P ended up taking Caroline, Will and Jackson to the ranch for the day on Sunday.

They ended up killing yet another rattlesnake. Clearly Caroline was terrified.

And then when they got home later that evening, I drove the kids back down to see all the flooding because the boys hadn’t seen it yet. Caroline and Will spent some time arguing over who was the “most devastated” by all the flood waters. Last I checked, Caroline won for “most devastated” because it’s closer to our house although they both win for MOST DRAMATIC.

This is the spillway to the Olmos Dam by our house. It’s normally almost totally empty.

Naturally we had to throw some sticks and rocks in the water because why wouldn’t we? I had to threaten them within an inch of their life to STAY OUT OF THE WATER UNLESS YOU ALL WANT TO END UP IN THE HOSPITAL WITH STAPH because I don’t even want to know what all is in that water.

And I could weep thinking about the generations of mosquitoes that will be hatched over the next few weeks. Of course maybe that blind salamander will eat them all. It’s really the least he could do after we’ve saved him all these years by protecting the aquifer.

Speaking of bugs and such, I took the kids to see Epic on Monday since I may have mentioned that the pool was closed. And that’s when I realized that I have a complete phobia/aversion to any movies that involve humans becoming the size of insects. It’s why I disliked Honey, I Shrunk the Kids all those years ago and it’s why I didn’t care for Epic yesterday.

I don’t need to see a world where people wear acorns as helmets or ride hummingbirds or get attacked by a mouse. I’m all for suspending reality but it’s just more than I can handle.

Much like worrying about the aquifer.

So Wednesday night I took Caroline to see Taylor Swift in concert with my friend Julie and her daughter Sadie. And we had the best time. She puts on a serious show. There were violinists, ballet dancers, fireworks, and an amount of confetti so great that I can only imagine the staff at the AT&T Center is still picking it up right now.

(Our tickets nor my iPhone camera were sufficient enough to get that picture. A friend texted it to me.)

As it turns out, the only problem with a weeknight concert is that you don’t get home until midnight. And then you toss and turn for a few hours because you’re still so wound up from the whole thing. So I spent all of yesterday feeling like something that cat hocked up. Except not that good.

In fact, I felt inspired to write my own version of Taylor Swift’s song 22. I call it 42.

It feels like a perfect night to put on our jammies
And go to bed early, ah ah, ah ah.
It feels like a perfect night for Modern Family
To fall in love with Cameron, ah ah, ah ah.

Yeah,
We’re hormonal, tired, confused, and hot at the same time
It’s miserable and magical, oh, yeah
Tonight’s the night when we pour a big glass of wine
It’s time

Uh oh!
I don’t know about you
But I’m feeling 42
Everything will be alright
If I stay away from you
You don’t know about me
But you don’t really want to
Everything will be alright
If I get some sleep because I’m 42.

You’re welcome for that. I can’t imagine why Taylor is packing stadiums full of people and I’m not.

Now let’s move on to clothes since that’s why you’re here
.

1. old navy jersey tube romper

These are apparently only available online, but they’re super cute and come in several different colors. Perfect to throw on over your bathing suit this summer.

2. max & mia crinkled maxi skirt

It’s semi-annual sale time at Nordstrom right now so it’s a great time to find some good deals. I really like this maxi skirt because it isn’t knit and clingy like some of them which can leave a person with some serious undergarment issues. And it comes in several colors.

3. embroidered ikat tee

I think this top would be so cute with shorts or jeans for summer. And it’s on sale. Plus it comes in a few other colors. Is it just me or is this several other colors thing a trend?

4. old navy embroidered gauze top

Love a good lightweight top to throw on with shorts or jeans all summer long. And this one is on sale.

5. paisley trails tee

I hate to be repetitive, but this is also on sale. And really cute. And also comes in white.

6. kypria gauze tank

Okay, this only comes in blue or yellow. Both of which I like. But I think I’d lean towards the blue.

7. marpesia kimono top

I love this so much that I don’t know what to do with myself.

8. gap essential rugby crew top

I tried this on in Gap the other day and fell in love. It is so soft and looks so great with a pair of shorts.

9. veronetta tunic

I nearly linked to this last week and then decided not to because, well, spaghetti straps. This requires a strapless bra situation which means it’s out for me. However, maybe you don’t have my issues. In which case I really like it a lot.

10. gap sunkissed shorts

Okay. I am really picky about my shorts. But I tried these on the other day and really liked them. Plus this green? I DIE.

I’ve also been looking at various colored cut off shorts. I love these Gap cutoffs but they feel just a wee bit too short for me. However, I’ve ordered them online in a tall so we’ll see how that strategy plays out.

In the meantime, I have my eye on these riley shorts by Lucky. And you can find them a lot cheaper but in limited sizes and colors here.

Or you can always just do my Plan B which is going to be to buy some cheap colored jeans from Old Navy and cut them off myself to a length I find acceptable. Necessity is the mother of cutoff invention.

And that’s it for today.

Y’all have a good Friday and a great Memorial Day weekend.

Listen.

I’m not even going to pretend like we might start doing these on a regular basis, but we managed to crank out a podcast yesterday with little to no emotional distress. And that feels like a victory.

If you’re new here, this is my friend Sophie and me basically talking about a variety of nothing. Topics may include college baseball, makeup and a fear of symmetrical round patterns.

It promises to be nothing short of riveting.

You can click here to listen. Or here. Or you can subscribe on iTunes.

If I seem distracted while I write this post it’s because I have something in my eye. And I’ve had something in my eye since around noon. But when I look in the mirror and roll my eye all around I can’t see anything.

Which makes me fear that maybe I’ve scratched my eye and I’ll have to go to the optometrist and maybe even have to wear a patch.

Before you laugh at that, you should know that this actually happened to me in ninth grade. I got a speck of paint in my eye and it had to be lasered out and I had to wear an eye patch for two weeks. If you can think of anything that is more damaging to a fourteen-year-old girl’s self-esteem than wearing an eye patch for two weeks in front of all her peers, I sure wish you’d share it with me.

Anyway, I just attempted to go rinse it out with saline solution because that was P’s suggestion. I think he suggested it because he was tired of hearing me talk about my eye. And it doesn’t seem to have helped but that could also be because I’m not good at putting anything in my eye and the majority of the saline solution ended up running down my cheeks and the front of my nightshirt. Which is really just a twenty-year-old UCLA baseball t-shirt and doesn’t really deserve to be called a nightshirt.

But you probably aren’t here because you were curious about the state of my eyes.

So now I’ll just tell you what we’ve been up to over the last several days.

I spent most of Friday at the Alamo with a bunch of fourth graders. It was every bit as soothing and peaceful as you might imagine. And while my child loved the IMAX movie beforehand about the Alamo, she wasn’t nearly as impressed with the actual structure. Which is understandable considering it’s right in between two hotels and across the street from Ripley’s Believe It or Not Wax Museum. It lacks a little of the raw frontier-ness she was looking for. In fact at one point we were walking across a grassy area behind the Alamo and there were all these holes in the ground and she asked, “MOM? Are these the BULLET HOLES?”

And I hated to tell her that it was just where they’d recently aerated the grass.

But she did get to buy a Dr. Pepper from a vending machine so it’s not like the whole day was a total loss. I also nearly passed out from the heat because summer officially showed up last Friday and apparently it’s very angry.

Then we spent Friday evening at home doing nothing but waiting for the results of Caroline’s soccer tryouts because P and I were both feeling sick. Not sick because of the tryouts. I think we both had a cold. But we did wait for the soccer results like it was the NFL draft. Which is funny because we knew she’d make one of the teams and it didn’t really matter to us which one.

And so we spent Saturday basically doing nothing but texting with other parents as we figured out who was on our team for next year. I remember when we used to have a life.

By Sunday I was still feeling kind of yuck and P and Caroline had a trip planned to go fishing. They left to fish and I caught up on four episodes of Call the Midwife, last week’s Nashville, and watched The Philadelphia Story for the 4,564th time. I also may have gotten caught up in a bit of a colored cut-off shorts frenzy. As in, I decided I might want a pair and spent a significant amount of time looking at various options on the internet.

Sadly I didn’t sleep well on Sunday night because I never sleep great when my people are out of town. But I think it was exacerbated by that night’s episode of Mad Men and the woman that broke into Don Draper’s apartment. If you watch the show then I’m curious if you agree it was one of the most bizarre episodes ever.

And so I spent most of Monday trying to be productive but failing miserably. Although I did drop some clothes off at Goodwill and ran by Target to buy dog food and a few other things we needed. Then when I came back home I walked up to the back door with my hands full of bags and the key in my hand.

That’s when I noticed there was a chameleon on the back door about six inches above the lock that I needed to unlock to get in my house. I’ve never missed Caroline more. She would have just picked him up and moved him. I guess I could have done that but it seemed easier to think about selling our house.

So I stared at him for six minutes trying to Jedi mind trick him into moving. But he just stared at me. I finally just decided to unlock the door quickly and that’s when he jumped. He jumped. HE JUMPED ON MY ARM. HE JUMPED ON MY ARM THAT WAS CARRYING ALL THE TARGET BAGS.

And then I died.

The end.

Not really. But it felt like it.

So that’s what we’ve been up to around here. Soccer, fishing, head colds, insomnia, T.V., and lizards.

And possibly a patch for my eye.

I realize I didn’t post anything yesterday and today isn’t going to be much better. But I haven’t felt great all weekend and hardly slept at all last night. I wish I could give you a reason but I think it just falls into the category of “Things That Happen in Your Forties”.

So here are a few things I wanted to mention:

1. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Oklahoma. I’ve been watching the news reports all day and the images are unbelievable. It is just devastating.

Here’s a link to an article that lists organizations and ways you can help the people of Moore.

2. I really cannot express the impact that Amy Grant’s music has had on my life. I first heard her music when I was at camp during the summer after fourth grade. And I immediately came home and bought the Amy Grant In Concert Live cassette and played it on my sweet stereo system with dual cassette players until it was completely worn out.

I’ve continued to be a huge fan over the years. Like she falls into the category of people I would act totally weird around if I ever actually met her in person.

And that’s why I was so excited to download her first brand new album in ten years. It’s called How Mercy Looks From Here and features some of my other favorites like James Taylor, Carole King, Sheryl Crow and Vince Gill.

I can’t express how much I love it. It’s become my personal soundtrack over the last month. Best of all, one of you has the chance to win a signed copy of Amy’s new CD. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post letting me know your favorite Amy Grant song of all time.

(Just for clarification, the CD will be signed by Amy. Not me. Because that would be strange.)

3. Every year Willow Creek Church puts together a Global Leadership Summit with the purpose of equipping leaders whether in a church or business setting.

This year it’s scheduled for August 8-9 and features speakers like Brene Brown, Colin Powell, Mark Burnett and Andy Stanley. So, you know, some people that seem to know some stuff.

There are host sites everywhere, but I wanted to mention to those of you in the San Antonio area that my church, River City Community Church, is one of the local sites this year. And if you register by May 21, then you can qualify for the early bird discount rate.

So that’s it for today.

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of Amy Grant’s How Mercy Looks From Here CD.

I hope the title didn’t lead you to believe I would be discussing underwear today. Because you’ll just be disappointed.

The truth is I feel a little bit of a head cold/sinus issues arising (tearing up watching The Office finale didn’t help) and my head feels heavy and I want to crawl in bed sooner rather than later. Especially because I’ll be up bright and early to chaperone a field trip to The Alamo. As in, remember the.

So, without further adieu, here are a few things I found this week:

1. mitered stripe maxi dress

I am powerless to resist a good maxi dress and this appears to have all the makings of a good one. Love it in blue or pink.

2. afternoon out top

For a long time I was conflicted about the return of mint green. But now I think I mostly feel good about it.

3. sheer chevron coverup

I believe I have to have this coverup. It’s a little fancier than my coverups of yore, but maybe I’ll turn over a new pool leaf.

I have no idea what that means.

4. ruched mini knit dress

Now this? I love. It also comes in some other colors.

5. strapless print blouson dress

I realize this isn’t for everyone. Or for most people. But I really think it’s cute and summery. If I were ten years younger and going on some fun beach vacation, I would totally buy it.

6. sweet life dv sandal

I’m sad I can’t show you a picture of these sandals because I saw them the other day and decided they were the perfect nude sandal for summer. Best of all, they’re on sale for only $19.99 right now.

7. magenta dinner plates

What? Plates? This is madness.

I saw these on Nordstrom’s website and thought they were too cute to not share. So fun for all your summer entertaining.

8. santorini printed dress

I really love this blue. And you could totally wear this over white skinnies or black leggings.

9. timeless tee

I’ve mentioned this before, but the timeless tee from Banana Republic is one of my favorite staples. They hold up well and last forever.

10. essential rib tank

The same goes for Gap tanks. I know they’re cheaper at Old Navy, but the Gap ones last longer and just feel a little bit better. I also think they lay better under clothes.

And there you have it.

Y’all have a good Friday.