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Yesterday I was prepping the golf cart for the parade and was walking out of the garage and my old, worn crock hit something wet, and I slipped. 

I mostly caught my fall with my wrist (scratched my palm), but I also hit my shin and got a little scratch (very minor you can’t even see it today). No big deal, right? Jonny helped me up and we went on our way with our festivities. I noticed the wrist was sore and didn’t do a great job driving the golf cart, but it was manageable. 

I woke up to it being really sore and painful this morning. My hubs offered to get a brace for me, but I told him to get on his way because it’s a busy day (he went to fix his buddy’s brakes and then prep for swim meet). I went to CVS, and I am glad I went because there are a bunch of options and sizes! I ended up getting a really simple yet not super supportive one so I had something to stabilize. I wasn’t super happy with the selection and what would meet my needs so I decided to just try the simple wrap one. 

Well, it’s good, but I decided to do more research to order the perfect one for me. I found a great one, but I can’t get it until tomorrow. It was tempting to get a similar one with same day, but I wanted the best! No big deal – I have the current one and will get the more serious one going forward. I think it will be especially good to wear the sturdy one at night so I don’t continue to cause pain from however I sleep on it. 

My biggest problem is that I don’t want to wear the brace to work even thought I should. I hate showing signs of weakness. Ha ha!

My oldest is Star Rank in scouts so we decided he needs to knock out some Eagle required merit badges this summer.  To go from Star to Life rank, you go from 4 Eagle required merit badges to 7. I want him to get to Life because Eagle is by far the hardest to accomplish, but to get to Life, he needs 3 more Eagle required badges. 

The four merit badges he had for Star were First Aid, Swimming, Environmental Science, and Hiking. It counted for four required badges, but that’s really only three that count for Eagle because you swimming and hiking are either/or badges. My goal was to get him four more Eagle required completed this summer, and he was on board because he knows he needs them. 

I signed him up for Emergency Preparedness at Moody Gardens on Sunday.  They have great merit badge classes. We worked on prerequisites that morning which is really stressful for me, but honestly the kid was not tracking when we were doing these things. We got it done, and I was able to drive him there and drop him off and pick him up easily. A lot of other scouts in his troop ended up taking it at summer camp, but he did Camping even though it was a partial. 

We decided that this would be the week of merit badges. We signed up for Communication, Citizenship in the Nation, and Citizenship in the World three days in a row at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS). I also signed up my other son who is Tenderfoot rank for all three of these merit badges at HMNS this week. If I am taking one kid, I might as well take both!

We started the prerequisites for Communication and Citizenship in the Nation a while ago, but of course for both we didn’t have everything buttoned up until the night before each class. That is so stressful for me as a mom. 

Tomorrow is Citizenship in the World, and thankfully there were no prerequisites for that class so my stress this evening can switch to other areas…such as packing for my son’s trip to Summit Bechtel. They leave Friday!!

I took off this week because we have a lot going on this week with these merit badges, the championship swim meet, the trip my oldest is going on, and the 4th of July celebrations in my neighborhood.

I am super happy that my oldest is enjoying water polo so far. He said it’s been fun learning the skills. I just hope he can step up to the aggression because it sounds like water polo players are pretty tough on each other. 

He did his team picture today. He was supposed to wear jeans for the pictures, but he hates wearing jeans. He told me he didn’t have any, but I knew he did (yep, I am the one who bought them). I went into the guest room where he has been sleeping to see if they were in that closet, and he was acting weird. I went to the bed where he was standing and they were under the bed. He tried to hide them from me. Oh my. 😂

Yesterday he tried on the suits. I ordered him a 36 because that’s what his jammers are, but he said they were too tight and didn’t cover his bum when he tried the brief style on (Delfina brand). So I ordered him a 38. I hope they are tight enough!! He said they are, but he’s not used to wearing that style of suit. And, yes, he’s a big dude! The boys suits are $50 and the girls are $92 with $13 each to add number and name. Boys don’t have add ons. The girls suits are Jolyn which I have heard people talk about but don’t know much about. 

I am super happy that all of my kids are good swimmers. He’s not the fastest, but he has the skills to get it done! He will also be swimming a lot more in school next year so he might improve overall, too. It will also make him a better coach for our neighborhood team next year. I love living in a place where the big kids teach the little kids how to swim.

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!

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. 

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.