I'll Miss You While You're Gone

Goodbye to my peace and to my sanity.
It was bound to happen ~ just wish not so soon.

Today is the last full day of school for my kids.
Tomorrow is only a 1/2 day and Friday they let out at around 10:00 for summer break. At 10:01 I can already predict what will happen ~ all I will hear for the coming months are the 2 words, "I'm bored". I don't know how they will possibly be able to say this but they will.

I will hear, "We don't ever do anything", "We don't ever get to do anything fun", or "I want to go to Disneyland like everyone else". I will spend the next months asking myself the same questions, "Why me?" and "They have to be kidding".

We plan on leaving for Houston sometime next week to stay about 2 weeks. My daughter doesn't want to go and wants me to agree to let her stay with a friend while we go. She already knows she is going to be bored if she goes ~ it's already set in stone in her brain.

At some point I plan to take a trip to Colorado to spend a week or two with my mom so she can see the kids ~ it's been almost a year since we've seen her. She has big plans to take them shopping and take us to some hot springs up in the mountains ~ she & I are both really excited. But my son who hates to leave the house is already saying, "It's too far ~ I don't want to go ~ I don't want to go to the hot springs because the water will be hot". I'm sure we'll go camping and riding through the mountains in their dune-buggy ~ hiking, fishing, and swimming.

I do know this:
All my son wants to do all summer is play on a slip & slide.
All my daughter wants to do is shop.....everyday.....nonstop.

What is the deal with slip & slides anyway? I'm sure we all had one when we were little but now that I'm older I just can't understand what makes a kid want to throw themselves down on a piece of wet plastic and keep their fingers crossed it is wet enough that you do not hit a dry patch and take all the skin off their body. (Side note: I know why he suddenly wants one ~ he begged me to buy him one the other day and when I didn't he came home and drug one of my extra vinyl shower curtains out into the front lawn and put the sprinkler on it ~ it was too short so he didn't get to slide far enough ~ and YES, this DOES TECHNICALLY MAKE US REDNECKS but you gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes.)

I'm sure the slip & slide will keep him occupied for about 2 hours out of the summer.

My daughter on the other hand thinks she has won the lottery ~ which technically for being 12 years old, she has. My wonderful father decided to employ her as a fence painter. He told her he would pay her $400.00 to paint a corral that he had built. To me ~ that is alot of money for someone that age, but my thinking at the time was that should keep her busy over the summer spending that much money and that she won't be begging me for any. So, I volunteered my assistance to her which has now turned into "my" thing. It has been 3 weeks now and we should be finished by now but we are just over 1/2 way done. Since it's gotten so hot during the day and I need to stay out of the sun only leaves me about 2 hours/day to work on it. She, on the other hand, will not work on it if I'm not out there with her.

I have tried to get her to fire me but she won't.
I have quit ~ but I keep going back.
If we want this done in my lifetime I cannot quit.

When she is out there she generally has her radio blasting to someone singing something about a "Candy Shop" which leaves me blowing a gasket and about breaking my neck to get to the stereo to shut it off before it poisons my childs brain. All I have to say to that guy is "Mister.....my child is not taking you to the Candy Shop........she is 12!!"

So, with all the work that has yet to be done she already has the money spent of course ~ just waiting for it to be handed over to her. She is buying 3 pair of Abercombie & Fitch jeans, a pair of Abercrombie & Fitch capris, and I think 2 or 3 Abercrombie & Fitch shirts. She knows that will take every last cent of that money but she doesn't care. I have only been in that store 1 time with her. I have no desire to return there seeing as how I am too old to wear those clothes yet I still would love to without looking like an old lady trying to be a kid again. Not to mention the fact that I would never in this lifetime pay that much for 1 article of clothing. I really do hate shopping with her in these stores she wants to go to ~ for example:

Abercrombie & Fitch
I walk in to this ungodly racket they call music that is going to shatter my brain ~ at which point the long blonde skinny little thing that works there has to literally YELL at me over the music, "CAN I HELP YOU FIND SOMETHING TODAY?!?!??!" I'm thinking why don't they just turn it down a notch?? Of course I want to ask where the heck is the clearance rack but I know my daughter would just die.

Spencer Gifts
I remember that we had one of these stores in our mall when I was growing up and I liked going in their too ~ they had lava lamps, woopie-cushions and fun stuff. I'm not sure if the store has changed or I've got older and crankier but where in the world did all the sex stuff come from?? Every T-shirt, every bumper sticker, every poster ~~ everything implies something about sex. Of course I am trying to shield my daughter from all this crap at which point I insist we leave because it's not fun like it was when I was 12. I just can't believe my mother would have let ME go in there seeing all that.

Rue-21
Why are they hanging only 1/2 the shirt up ~ where's the part that actually covers your body and why is it only the consistancy of a paper napkin?

Journey's Shoes
Really, why does someone need a pair of Doc Martin's that weigh 40 pounds? I don't know if it's my daughters big foot or if they are just heavy but I say no thank you to lugging those things around. Her 'thing' is Converse and Van's.....ick, ick, ick. Even the Converse that goes up past her ankles....and of course they have to be black and a screaming hot pink And I should add on the Van's (this is what my daughter says), ".....they must be 'old school' Vans". What does that mean? Kids wore Van's in the 80's ~ is that 'old school'? I really am not sure she even knows what she's talking about.

I don't know what the last place is that she loves but it has something to do with skateboarding and punk stuff. I can never figure out why we are even there because she doesn't even have a skateboard. But 1 thing about the whole punk/skateboard thing that confuses me is that when we were in this store she found a pair of pants and called across the store, "MOM, here they are!! This is what I want!! Come look!!" ~ I thought she was kidding when I saw that they were a pair of pants made by "Dickie" ~~ I could have sworn that Dickie brands are for farmers. I know for a fact that back in the 80's when I was growing up, only old men wore Dickies.

I did learn my lesson yesterday about just keeping my mouth shut on what I think is cute for her to wear. We went looking for a dress for her to wear Friday night to the 8th grade graduation ~ almost all of her friends are in 8th grade and everyone is going to be dressed up and she said that the only skirt she had to wear was too "puffy". ???

I always promised myself I would not be like my mother. I would always have style no matter what age I was. Ok, that must not have happened. "Pre-teens" do not like flower prints on anything. Mine just happens to like leopard print ~ uh, yeah ~ that ain't happenin'. So, she picked out the ugliest dress on the entire rack, tried it on and she thought she was absolutely beautiful. I bought it. All I cared about at that point is that she was covered in the places that needed to be covered.

So, things are going to be changing around here in the next couple of days and going back to the same power struggle as before. Our refrigerator will be empty again ~ lots of popcicles and ramon-noodles. What is that.....50 cents a meal? Because they will want 10 meals a day because they will always be hungry because they are "soooo bored".