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Spent another day at home

I decided to stay home another day from my original plan to head back to summer camp yesterday. A fellow troop parent who lives in the neighborhood grabbed the portable sink that I was going to bring up so that is at least taken care of.  I also sent a package of stuff up for my middle child who had a bloody nose the first day that was still having issues the second day.  He’s fine now, but I sent the stuff up anyway just in case.

Both of my boys lost $15 at camp.  I gave them each $20, and both lost $15.  The older one left his money in his backpack and left his backpack in the STEM center.  When he went to retrieve it later, the money was gone.  Tough lesson.  He is using ApplePay on his phone now, but he will have to pay me back for anything he spends.  Turns out my other son also lost $15.  He had it in his pants pocket and thinks he lost it during Lifesaving training when he had to jump in fully clothed.  He’s also using his brother’s ApplePay and will owe me for anything extra he gets. I just feel like these are expensive ways to teach responsibility.

I had a good couple of days home with my daughter.  We went to a total of three long course practices before her summer swim league practice.  I am happy that I have been able to take her.  The ability to take her today was also part of my decision to stay home another day.  I want her to get these practices in with the year-round team.  I am not looking forward to her meet on Sunday because of the drive, but watching her swim makes me happy.

We also made a quick YouTube short of the dogs destroying a toy yesterday.  This was after Blu destroyed one of Pepper’s toys the day before.  The big dog makes short work of the little dogs toys.  We bought Pepper a new toy Tuesday night when we went to Petco for puppy class, and it’s the one they destroy in this video.


Puppy class was not a success last.  The trainer apparently didn’t work there anymore.  They never sent me anything saying the class was cancelled, and my husband even got the confirmation text that class was happening that night.  Oh well.  At least I got to show her the other animals at the pet store and she had a little fun with the toy they destroyed.


Tonight will by my first night away from her!  How crazy is that??  I am not ready for it!

swim momming

I took this week off work. It comes with a strange sense of relaxation and guilt for the work things I am not doing. But let’s just think about the good stuff. I am being full time mom this week!

As I write this, I am at swim practice with my daughter. It’s her first summer practice with her year-round team. I am so happy she’s here. She’s been swimming with her summer league team this summer, but she has a long course meet with her year-round team this weekend so I want to get her back into a big pool again. 

It’s hard to make this team work for the summer. Most of the practices are during the day. I am fortunate that my in-laws help take her to summer swim practices. If they didn’t, she would be taken by her brothers which adds more drama and phone calls. 😂 I would like to get her to this practice more often, but I will just do what I can when I can and not let it stress me out too much.

The boys are at summer camp this week with the scouts. I want to be there, too. I was there earlier and will go back this week. My biggest reason for delaying the return is to get my daughter to this practice while I am off work. I do have to go back though. The troop needs me to bring something, and I need to camp out under the stars one night. My son also has a busted up nose so I need to bring him stuff to keep that cleaned up. It’s always something!!

It’s really crazy to me how I can take off work yet still be so busy just with what my kids and I have going on. I am just feeling blessed in my current moment watching my daughter swim while I drink iced coffee. It feels good to stop and live in the now for a moment. 

Just Keep Swimming

Summer is so much more stressful than it should be! There are so many kid things during the day that it makes it hard to keep up!

For me it all has to do with swimming right now. My kids are in a lot of swimming related activities. All 3 are in the local summer swim league which has morning practices all through the month of June among other things. We have been doing this for years. I am fortunate that my mother in law has been able to help. What’s stressful about that right now is that she is out of town. We are making it work though. My father in law is taking my daughter, and my boys are riding their bikes. Well, my middle kid is. My oldest and I are struggling with him going because he is also doing strength & conditioning for water polo. 

Yes, I will be a water polo mom this fall. My kid made the high school team. Granted, he has never played water polo, but he is huge and can swim so I am guessing it’s worth a shot to teach him how to play. He’s two days in and liking the intense workout schedule so far. I am really proud of him for trying it out. 

I ended up ordering him a couple more pairs of jammers (those longer but tight swim bottoms) since he is in the pool so much. I also ordered him a water polo ball so he can do some practice work at home. We do not have a pool, but I got some suggestions from friends on exercises he can do with the ball at home. 

I also ordered him a new bag to take to his summer training. It’s a mesh bag with real backpack straps and large enough to fit his slides. He was happy to see it. I have also been having him bring two PB&Js to eat when he gets done. The kid loves to eat! He didn’t have a good bag to carry it all so this works much better for him than the string bag he was carrying. I have bought the kids mesh swim bags in the past, but they were cheap looking. The one I bought for this summer is much nicer looking. 

I am excited to see how all of this goes, but right now I just need to survive my week!!

Beach Weekend

We are at the beach this weekend. The breeze feels absolutely amazing down by the water. Yesterday we backed the truck up to the surf, set up a tent, and watched the kids play in the water. We are here with friends which is so much fun. We share meals and the kids have lots of friends to hang out with. I love that these kids are friends from camping and all know how to be good camper kids. 

We have 5 RVs in our group. Three of us are in travel trailers, one in a 5th wheel, and one in a Class A with an extended golf cart they pull behind. This really is a good group we have. I feel blessed to be here right now. I will probably get on my computer in a little bit to check on some work stuff, but being here feels a million miles away from my daily life so the stress level is definitely low. I am glad I have had some relaxing days. ❤️❤️

We talked about summer clothes for my daughter after she liked another girls skort outfit so I will definitely post more about that when I figure out what summer-wear we are getting!  We have also been inspired to get more bling on our crocs and bogg bag. We have 5 girls and 5 boys in our kids group (and 5 moms and 5 dads and 6 dogs – I have the pleasure of being in the camper with 2 dogs 😉). 

We are in an area of the RV park that is by a pond so we have good views around us. This is my family’s 50th trip in our trailer!  I keep a list that I plan to double check, but this appears to be #50!  I need to better update the list to show how many times we have been to Galveston, but it’s been a lot. 

Time to enjoy more of my day!  I hope you are enjoying yours!!

Hello from a Band Mom!

Yes, I am a band mom…and, wow, it’s pricey!

Tonight is the first time my son will perform with the high school marching band. It’s something he is very excited about so I am excited about it for him, too. I just didn’t realize how much it costs to be in the marching band!

The first set of item orders will be tonight. At a minimum, he needs a water jug and brass buzzer from the booster club for summer practices. The second, much larger payment will go to the booster club at the end of summer to cover meals and transportation. All in all, the required sum to the booster club is $362. There are also options to join the booster club and order more gear like a dri-fit shirt and a duffle bag. I will probably do all the things. I would love for him to have the shirt and the duffle customized with his name on it. I will definitely be paying more than the bare minimum, but I want to make this as great of an experience as possible for him.

Then there are fees you pay to the school. They include the program fees, the custom uniform, the summer uniform, shoes, a polo, a hat, and a garment bag. The amount owed to the school totals $912 although I will be able to pay $300 of that at the end of summer ($612 is due tonight).  So yeah, the bare minimum to be in marching band is $1274 between the two organizations. Over half of it is due tonight!!

I am very excited for my son to be in marching band. It’s not something my husband or I did in high school so it’s definitely a whole new world for us. It will add to the complexity of life, but hopefully it will be beneficial to him in many ways.

I have many questions as a new band mom, but I look forward to learning more about the process and enjoying the experience. I also look forward to sharing it here!

Trumpets

Welcome to my new blog

After decades of using LiveJournal to blog about my life, I have decided it’s time to part ways and do my own thing.  I have loved LJ over the years, but I just don’t get the same participation that I used to from readers so I have decided to try something new and completely start my own blog from scratch.

First, I have no clue what I am doing, but I want to jump in. I am going to see if I can email post like I did on LJ and what I can do by adding a little html in the emails for easy customization. We will see but don’t be surprised to see changes as I learn more.

I have used blogging to release stress and organize my thoughts and plans so I am hoping to do that here. The second thing I would like to point out is that I am going to start with a publicly viewable blog with plans to create a password protected section for family and friends to replace what I did with LiveJournal.

I chose the name stressed out working mom because that’s where I feel like I am in life right now. I am busy working and momming and doing so much more.

I want to write about the complexities of being a mom as it fits into my life.  I hope you will join me on this next step in my journey.