So Long Sweet Summer.

I stumbled upon you and gratefully basked in your rays. I really did. I hit peak tan about July 26th. I love sunbathing. So long sweet slumber. While I did wake up bright and early most of the summer, I did have more restful sleep. And the past two weeks that I've had off I have been taking advantage of extra sleep. I fell into you, now you're gracefully falling away. Work week is happening and it's almost September.

Hey thanks, thanks for that summer. Thanks to everyone who made my summer great. My babysitting friends, my game night friendsies, and our road trips to Pittsburgh and New England and celebrating our first anniversary. It's cold where you're going. It will be cold, but first it will be fall which means football and college gameday. And if it's cold maybe that will be a 2 week blizzard. I hope that your hearts always warm.

I gave you the best, I gave you the best that I had. I really did. Even if it meant 3 hour and 45 minute battles over cup of noodles, burned arms, cooking a lobster, driving countless hours in traffic, and visiting 12 states. Passed down the letters and passed down the best that I had.

So long sweet summer. I will miss you and all my free time and anxiety free mornings, noons, and nights. I stumbled upon you and gratefully basked in your rays. I will miss my tan. So long sweet slumber. I fell into you, now you're gracefully falling away. I hate the winter in Lexington. I hate the winter in Lexington. Lexington, Lexington, Lexington. Virginia, Virginia, Virginia.

So this might have been one of the weirder posts I have ever composed, and Age Six Racer probably has some way deeper, darker meaning, but I'm taking it at face value and saying So Long Sweet Summer. (I may or may not sing this at the top of my lungs multiple times between 10 minutes ago and tomorrow morning at 8:45). I know I am lucky and get more of a summer break than most, but it's always really hard to go back to work after such a nice long break. Here's to a fabulous summer in the suburbs with a new home and continuing to make good memories at game nights and on vacations to see our families. And here is to the 2013-2014 school year. It already promises to be no less than interesting. 

Recipes of the Week!

I know what you are probably thinking..."didn't this blog use to feature recipes?!?!" Well yes, friend, it did. I swear I still cook. I really do...almost every night. I guess maybe I'm in a small slump. I have been making stuff I've already posted, or just normal stuff. The thing I am most upset about though is that we had a housewarming party and I made all these new recipes that I really liked and then was in such a fluster that I forgot to take pictures. I could post the recipes without pictures, but I hate when magazines do that. I do have one coming up for some yum chicken...I promise.

On another note...I can now blog from my phone. I'm doing it right now. Technology. The babysitting lifestyle is rough these days. Pool weather is at a serious minimum this summer.  My sun worshipping ways are suffering, but I hear thats for the best. Here are a few pics from our week so far.

Adventures in Babysitting, Year 3

Traffic

Traffic. Yep. Thanks for the reminder. I have babysat the same kids for the past two summers. I like them, we get along, it's a pretty decent deal most days. Well right after we bought our house their mom emailed about this summer. I was worried about the commute, but I decided to do it thinking it couldn't be horrible. It's summer...less commuters was my thought. Wrong. I don't know for sure what it's like during the school year, but this is no joke. It's a fiasco. For example...I live about 5 miles from 66 (the main road to get anywhere) and it takes about a 1/2 hour to get there. Not necessary. 

So I've tried backroads, multiple routes, every type of traffic research I can think of to no avail. I have two other major issues with these commuting animals. 1. The people I call "cheaters." These are the people who cut in front of people who are following the traffic rules. The people like me who have seen the same light change colors 9 times, but wait impatiently while yelling at cheaters in the confines of their car. And 2. Unpredictability. I think that's up there with one of the worst parts of living in NoVa. You never know when there will be traffic or how long it will take you to get somewhere. It's seriously amazing the difference in traffic on any given day at any random time. And I swear that channel 4 news does no traffic report on 66 any day of the week because no one would actually go to work. I'm so sick of 95 getting all the attention. 

On one final note. Thank god for the Kane Show. 

August

August is finally here! I say this happily for now. Come August 25th I may be singing a different tune. For now, though, here are five things I've been up to:

1. Friday was my last day of babysitting. I will miss my friends and our adventures. I will not miss this...

2. This weekend I made tons of recipes. I used an old favorite that I will freeze and take on our vacation with us for snacks along the way and some new ones too. Look for them in upcoming posts. I also got to use my new KitchenAid mixer for the first time ever. That thing is magic. I should have got one years ago.

3. We also went to my friend Nicole's wedding. It was beautiful and was in one of the coolest venues I have ever been to. Check out this picture of her and her dad. Isn't it awesome?

4. Matt and I spent yesterday evening trying to organize and pack for the next two weeks. This is what our bedroom looks like right now. You should see all the stuff I have already taken to Pittsburgh...

5. I went into BES today to try to get a jump on organizing my life there. So depressing. This summer has gone so fast. It was nice to get some stuff done so our vacation will be a little more mentally relaxing. 

There's my five. August has already been busy, but it's about to get a lot more exciting. I think I have a post of two left in me before I take a blogging vacation...I'm sure the post will be wedding related. 6 days!

Long Time, No Blog

TEN DAYS and no blog post!!! Can you believe it? Maybe you can since my blogging habits have seriously gone by the wayside this summer. I did seriously intend to write a post 2 days ago then ran out of time, and then yesterday I even sat with my computer with the blog page open, but guess what happened? Yep, my antique, original MacBook Pro deciding blogging was far too much for it to handle. And even now I am using Matt's computer so I don't have to wake mine from it's slumber and argue with it. This is a problem I fully intend to solve before getting married. A new computer is going to happen ASAP.

Anyway, speaking of wedding. Last Thursday night we traveled to Pittsburgh (I can't believe this was a week ago) to get our last wedding details taken care of. We got our marriage license, I had my dress fit, I wrote a lot of emails, finalized numbers, etc. It was busy. I almost had my first official, full-on bridal meltdown on Monday morning. I had to get my hair trial done which I didn't want to do in the first place, but I sure am glad I did. It was a hot, hot mess. I made the poor girl redo it since it looked like I was going to the 8th grade dinner dance. The second time was only slightly better and still not what I asked for. This is when I almost freaked out, but somehow held it together. The third time it was going in the right direction, but not quite there. I'm sure I was definitely talked about the rest of the day. Bridezilla.

I guess the other main highlights include the Penn State sanctions (maybe we should say lowlight)...I'm sure you can guess my thoughts on this. I think I've decided not to blog about it. I'm accepting it and moving forward because I believe that Penn State is Penn State. We will prevail.

Lastly, I only have six days of babysitting left this summer. I'm excited for a nice vacation, but at the same time I will (sort of) miss my little friends and this also means summer is flying by way too fast. I hate that! I think those are my main updates for now. More reliable posts to come post computer renewal!

The Good, The Bad, and Mainly The UGLY

Yesterday babysitting was UGLY. Behavior was beyond unruly. There was a lot of bickering amongst all sisters, so much whining I thought I was going to cry, hitting, pushing, and best of all lying and peeing in the pool. It was so out of control that one of the mom's friends (who witnessed the whole peeing incident...cause let me tell you NOTHING is sacred) text the mom at work and the mom knew the whole (sort of) story when she walked in the door. At least she put the smack down on with me when she got home. I also made them write these letters to their mom before she got home because their behavior was embarrassing to themselves, me, and their mom.

Today we were back to normal...well as normal as we get...

Adventures in Babysitting (Round 2)

So it has been forever since my last post. Things have been a little busy. Wedding planning was in full swing for the past couple days and I started babysitting last week too. Plus life in general just needed some attention. Anyway...I have lots of updates, but I am going to start with my adventures in babysitting...the rest will follow some time soon. I was going to write about the first hectic week last Friday, but didn't get to it. So here it is....

Miss E, Miss K, Miss C, and Miss G
I am not typically responsible for Miss K. 

MONDAY: The first day of summer...65 and rained all day, naturally. Three swim practices (not canceled in the rain). Introduction to the worst swim practice schedule ever.

TUESDAY:  Dog runs away. The mom can home mid dog chase through the neighborhood and had to get him back.

WEDNESDAY: Previously mentioned dog peed the most amount I have ever seen a dog pee on the carpet right in front of me. It was like nothing I have ever seen.

THURSDAY: Six kids, one babysitter. That's enough on that.

FRIDAY: Had to go to BES with the kids and interview counselor replacements. Took my charges for the ice cream seen below. Little did I know they had already snuck popsicles from the BES stock from end of the year parties. Bratsies.

It's already been an eventful summer.

The Week is Whack

Let me begin by saying...I was in an earthquake. I'm sure you all already know this, but I'm still trying to make sense of the fact there was an earthquake in Virginia. Whack. I was babysitting. Obviously an adventure to begin with, but add an earthquake to the mix. Extra adventurous. And apparently there's going to be a hurricane this weekend? Ummm, seriously? Where do I live? These events combined with my last week of babysitting and the beginning of the school year coming have caused a little chaos in my life. Oh, and Matt is starting grad school. Things need to slow down. I can't believe how quickly this week crept up on me. The good news is I took the kids to school on Monday and they were fabulous (or as fabulous as you can be) and we got a lot of stuff done so I have more done than I thought I would at this point. I have officially decided to not go into work tomorrow and to try to enjoy a day to sleep in before the real madness begins on Monday. It seems like I will have quite a bit to report about the weekend. Stay tuned.

Facing the Facts.

Summer is almost over. It's sad, but true. The good thing is the heavy blow of having to go back to work also comes with more pleasurable fall temperatures and football season. It always makes things a little easier. Things will get a little more real tomorrow. I am planning to take the girls I babysit to Bennett to get started on setting up my room and to get a few things done (hopefully). The activity level of these three may prove to be difficult, but I'm going to try my best. Hopefully they keep themselves out of trouble and me out of embarrasment.

Last week was quite the week with my little friends. When explaining to them (after they accused me of being so unfair for not letting them watch TV and play Wii alllllll day and having them read each day) that I went to the pool and played with my friends in my neighborhood everyday. I was asked by the eight year old (and she was completely serious) if they really had pools when I was little. She thought that we only had lakes to swim in when I was little "back in the day". I was like the 80s and 90s was not "back in the day." She looked at me completely dumbfounded. This experience could only be topped by going to the back on Friday afternoon and while I'm talking to the teller I overhear my little gems debating over whether the person after us was a girl or boy. I was so caught off guard it almost got ugly, but I ended up with a controlled reprimanding.

I can't believe how quickly this summer has passed by. It has been a good one, even with no sleep-ins, and no real days off. I think I made the right choice in not going to Boulder for my usual summer job. Being able to stay here and have nights and weekends off has been fun and much less stressful. The question is what will I do next summer?

Payback's A...

You know the saying. I'll leave it at that. Today I reaped the benefits of a payback that's been coming to me for about 21 years. When I was going into first grade my parents built a new house in the neighboring town to where we lived. One day shortly after the move into the new house my seven year old self and my six year old sidekick decided it would be a fabulous idea to get out our nail polish while we were supposed to be taking baths and getting ready for bed. I proceeded to paint both my sister and the bathtub with the nail polish. I think I was purposely painting my sister and it inadvertently got on the bathtub. Whatever. My mom walked in on this mess and we were banned from nail polish until about high school I think.

Fast forward to today. I was back to babysitting after a wonderful week's vacation (vacation post soon to come). Things were going great. Then at about 4 o'clock all hell broke loose. I was tipped off when the five year old was sent downstairs to get paper towels by her older sisters. I asked why she needed them and she wouldn't tell me. I said I think I will come upstairs with you. She ran ahead and said "Erin's coming" and then I heard from the oldest say "please don't yell." There was blue nail polish on the bathroom tiles and the bathroom sink and poor Barbie had hot pink nail polish highlights. The sink was also highlighted in hot pink. After I trained them in cleaning up nail polish and assisted in the clean, we went downstairs and I found dog poop all over the dining room. Thank goodness the oldest is 100% responsible for that dog and has to clean up after it. She finished that up and then the other dog puked in the family room and the kitchen. Awesome. All this in the 45 minutes just before the mom came home. After I was begged not to tell on them to their mother...we came to the compromise that the oldest would come clean, but I had to stay while she told her mom so she wouldn't yell too much since I was there.

I'm curious to see what the punishment is tomorrow. Probably no nail polish until high school.

Hot Child in the City

It has be HOT here in DC the past week-ish. When I say hot I mean like 115 degree heat index. Brutal. On a typical day in Adventures in Babysitting we go to the pool. Well that lasted until about Wednesday this week and then I could take no more. The bugs were biting and the sun was burning so we needed some new indoor activities. You know how they say there's no such thing as a free lunch? Well I have some data to prove those people wrong. We did four free activities on Thursday and Friday last week.

We began on Thursday morning at the Fairfax Corner movie theatre. We watched Marmaduke free of charge and it went over well. Every Tuesday and Thursday they have free kids movies at 10 am. This week we will be taking part in Ramona and Beezus. Thursday afternoon we went to the library, not too original, but still free. The Friday adventures crossed state lines. We stalked out Georgetown Cupcake on facebook and decided to go to the Bethesda store (better parking situation) to receive the free cupcake of the day. We also took a trip into the Apple store which I think they liked better than cupcakes. In the afternoon? Free bowling. We covered a lot of ground this past week, right? Here are some happy cupcake faces. Let's hope for a quick, less hot, week and then...VACATION!!!

Erin Plus Three

Who takes a summer job when it's basically the equivalent of a bonus in teacher world? That's right...this crazy person. I'm babysitting the three fabulous ladies above all day, every day for the majority of the summer. So far it's good, but 4 girls all day is a lot of drama. To say the least. We've had a lot of adventures already and it's only day eight...including one (semi) lost child, a dead car battery, the day when no one listened or told the truth, swim team, and this one to Sweet Frog. Sweet Frog is one of my new obsessions...self serve frozen yogurt! More adventures to come...with no lost children I hope.

Adventures in Babysitting?!?!

Remember when I posted last Friday in my excitement that summer vacation had finally arrived? Well my day, seriously one day, of leisure is today. This summer I have decided to take a job babysitting three girls, elementary age no less. Not that working in the summer is something new for me, but this is alll summer, alll day. I have heard a lot about how I'm crazy for working when I don't have to, but I have to believe that this is somewhat mindless and easy compared to my real job. My new friends (who I don't know and have met once) are on swim team and LOVE the pool. Considering I have had a pool regimen in past summers for getting ample sun and outside time, I figure we are the perfect match. I have looked into some other activities including free bowling and movies. I will also be making my debut in Fairfax Corner as one of the fellow nannies. It should no doubt be an interesting summer. So wish me luck tomorrow on my first day, fingers crossed.

Yes, friends this means my retirement from Summer Study in Boulder is official. Shocking, I know. I thought I might start to regret my decision to fore go my Colorado summer, but that has not happened. Although I will miss those beautiful flatirons and my yearly visit with my good friend Jordan. I will not miss sleepless nights, no air conditioning, and 200 high schoolers. Here's to a hopefully long and fun summer :)