CHAOS

I am sick and tired of living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) but my house is so Chaotic I can't seem to change it.

Actually...Kid's go to school next week!!! I'll have all the time in the world.

I'm in a reflective mood

It used to be that once school and the church year started, life got really crazy. Now, maybe because the kids are older, it is really crazy before school starts. Everything is due, or needs to be finished, or needs to be filled out, or there's a meeting, or there's an appointment, or a rehearsal, or funeral, or family reunion...I don't remember August being like this before. Maybe I'm just not very perceptive or maybe my memory is bad. Maybe I need to start saying "no" when asked to do stuff. Oh well, maybe I'll get it right when I grow up.

I thought the family reunion was pretty good. I never thanked Deboe for making the new trophies. They were beautiful and I think that will be a great new tradition for the shoe kick. Thanks, Deboe. I also thought that going around and telling about our families was very cool. I'm grateful to Scott for starting it. I have this feeling that if one of us Simon girls had tried to start it, we would have been "laughed off", if you know what I mean. Anyway, that was a good result of the rain!! We did miss all the absent family members though. It seemed like a much smaller group to me this year. I go back and forth about how I feel about the family reunion. I usually do not look forward to it, but then when I'm there it turns out to be a fairly good time. As Jan said, there really aren't many families who still do this. There really aren't many families who choose to spend a week vacation together either, so maybe we are just really different! Actually I like to think that we are very fortunate and blessed to have such a great family.

As you might have guessed, work is slow and I'm the only one in the office, so here I sit, blogging. If I seem a bit reflective today, it is probably because we do indeed have a funeral to go to today. Dorothy Sabend, a Perseverance member who sang and rang for many years, died. It seems to be especially hard when the older folks from Perseverance, who of course took the closing the hardest, are starting to pass away (four in 18 months). It brings up a whole lot of mixed feelings of regret and guilt and sadness that we closed the church that they had worshipped, worked, prayed, sang in for so many years. We moved on pretty easily compared to those folks. It will be good to see many of them at the funeral. (By the way, Dorothy was the person who many years ago, when I was talking about something that happened at Wisowa, said, "Oh you mean in Tomahawk? We used to vacation there!" To this day I can't believe that other people besides us went there. It was ours!!!)
Time to go, thanks for listening to my ramblings. Lots of love! Chrissie
PS Happy Birthday Ronnie!!

EMAIL DOWN

Talk amongst ourselves
Hi All,

I sure hope that someone reads this because Charter is down in Madison and I can't recieve or send emails.

We will be creating new trophies for a women's category and a kid's category for the shoe kick contest. We will also bring hula hoops for the relay race thing. At some point I will be making deviled eggs. We have some paper products which I could bring if necessary. What else can we do?

Also, Aaron's plane is getting in tomorrow so we may need to leave early. We're working on that . . . Carolyn and Dan will be singing at a friend's wedding.

Hope all is well. Love ya,
Deebs

So is everyone out of "vacation mode" yet?

I hope everyone had a great time in Door County!! I can't wait until next year so we can go back. And hopefully Eric and I will be able to stay the whole week. I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens with that.

Again, the Simon Family Singers on Sunday at WGPC were absolutely wonderful! I had goosebumps on my arms everytime I would hear you guys sing!! I cannot compliment your singing any more than I already have. Beautiful!!

I know the Simon Family is hosting the Family Reunion this weekend in Waukesha - as much as I am looking forward to finally being able to join everyone, Eric and I will unfortunately won't be there. We are going to be out of town for the weekend. Hopefully next year we will be able to go. But it sounds like the weather will be beautiful - SO HAVE FUN!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week. Hopefully I will see you sometime soon!!

Hugs!!! :)

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Thank you Lindsay!!!
I am finally blogging with the rest of you. It took several attempts, mainly on Lindsay's end. But I thank her so much for taking the patience to help me out!!

Anyway, back from Door County before many of you are. I had to call in sick yesterday because I was really sick (may have been food related but who knows!) so I am back at work today. So anyway, how was the remainder of the week in Door County for the rest of you? I hope the weather was great!! Oh and Happy 40th Birthday to Betsy today!!

The upcoming weekend is going to be hectic. But I am looking forward to it. Sunday I will be attending service at WGPC to hear the lovely Simon family sing!! Then Eric and I are taking Maggie and Ryan to the Brewer Game. (shhh - they don't know - it's still a surprise!!). I can't wait!! Should be fun.

Well back to work I go - I have lots to catch up on!!!
See everyone on Sunday!!

searched OLD emails - no Lindsay invite!

So DID THIS FINALLY POST? IF IT DOES, THANK YOU LINDSAY!

LOVE,
Deebs

Talk amongst ourselves

Don found out yesterday that his entire division is moving to the Franklin campus in 2 years. It is a long way off, but it would be a huge change after working downtown, and riding his bike downtown for such a long time (26 years+) Jesse thinks the Franklin campus is so nice, but it takes a lot longer to get there, and it's not downtown! No more parking for the 4th of July, or Summerfest! ACH! He says that a lot could happen in that time, so I'm not stressing about it at this point. I'm stuck here today for the 3rd day without a car, so I can't go shopping to buy stuff for D.C. Argh! Guess I'll have to do something else that I don't want to do, like washing clothes, or paying bills or something icky. Had a nice evening last night with Julia Jesse and Katelyn. We ate tortellini in creamy garlic sauce, and fruit salad, then sat out on the deck and played UNO. Julia won. Don't ask who lost, whatever you do. Don was in charge of an outing for his division. They went on a tour of the Historical Society, and took a river cruise followed by enjoying an Australian band at Pere Marquette Park. Sounds like it was a big success. They wouldn't go home! But he was happy that it was so successful. Now we are winding down here so that we can PARTAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where body go?

Where de go? Has the novelty worn off? Are you too busy? Nothing to say? Getting ready for a week of being together, one big happy family, all under one roof? Actually, now that I mention it, gotta go!

They're off and riding...

Yes they are off and riding! Took off at about 7:45 this morning and we're awaiting the official report this evening. Hope all had a wonderful first day!
And here is the rookie of the year...Leslie!

Too long to be a comment

I started writing this in response to Betsy's post, but then I realized it could be a post of its own. Plus it got longish.

Like I said in my post the other day, the heat is making everyone act crazy. We're all irritated, things are difficult, we're doing things we wouldn't usually do. You get a weird perspective on human trends in terms of weather, holidays, etc when you work customer service for a huge organization. Also: however baby humans are acting is how everyone is acting. "Oh, my baby is crabby cuz she didn't sleep enough." "My kids went to a birthday party and ate a bunch of crap and sugary things and now are out of control." "My kid is acting clingy/crazy/shy/outgoing/dumb/whiny because of the hot/rainy/cold/beautiful weather." But nobody ever says, "Sorry I've been such a dick on the phone today, all I had to eat this morning was a pop tart and I was tossing and turning last night because my sheets were soaked with my own sweat." Or in your case, "Let's all have the bitchiest check depositing situation possible, we're deyhdrated and trying to move quickly through an impenetrable atmosphere, and then I'll stay here and wait on this line of cranky whiners while you truck your smelly kids to the zoo to meet up with your other irritated friends and see a bunch of pissed off animals, and then for fun we'll throw in a problem-solving, weight-lifting, seat-moving challenge for you to execute in front of your impatient acquaintances. And also a little bit of hide and seek to prolong the time you're stuck outside, that'll make for a hilarious story!"

Betsy, I think this insane weather lets you off the hook. Brains and bodies function best in a controlled environment, just like computers, plants, and recipes.

P.S. I'm not sure you really want my brain. For more information, please refer to: parking tickets, overspending, overdraft charges, leaving shakers in the city when your WW class is in the suburbs week after week after week, driving almost to O'Hare before realizing you have been on I-90 instead of I-94 and missing the class that you teach in the same place every single week, perfectionism, stubbornness, self-criticism, inability to forgive one's self, taking things personally, overthinking, high expectations.

Food for thought?

Well, I have been reminded by Leslie & Bradley that last year we tried something new on the chore chart, and had families prepare a meal each night. See John & Jan cooking together?
1. Do you remember that?
2. Did you like that?
3. Do you want to do it again this year?
Of course it would depend on who from each family is actually there, and perhaps two families could pair up if the numbers were small, but I would like to get some feedback about this.

So, talk amoungst ourselves!!

If I Only Had Lindsay's Brain

Hi all,

What an evening I had last night. What does it mean when you spend most of your evening retracing your steps to find/get stuff you've lost/forgotten? It all began when we were ready to leave with our neighbors at 6 pm to go to National Night Out at the zoo. (well, I should mention that I FORGOT that Maggie still has dance for 2 more weeks and so didn't take her to her 2nd to the last classes from 2 - 3:30 this afternoon) Anyway, I realized that I needed to stop at the bank first to deposit checks and get some cash. I told them to take Maggie and I'd meet them there with Ryan after the bank. So I got to the bank and Ryan refused to get out of the car to go into the bank. I did what all excellent Mom's do...I screamed at him till I embarrassed him enough to go in.

I was pretty hot at this point. We went in and teller gave me a hard time telling me that they have to put a 2 day hold on my payroll checks because they are hand written. I complained to the manager that this has never been the case before, and they "made an exception" for me. We left and drove 3/4 of the way to the zoo (about 10 minutes) when I realized that I'd left all my paper work at the bank, including the registration form we need to get into National Night Out. SO, we turn around to go back to the bank. I go up to the teller to ask if I had left any papers behind and he says "who waited on you?" Realizing I'd made a lasting impression on him I say "you did. I had some papers with me that...I see right there behind you on the counter!!"(I say in a happy voice) The woman next to him saunters over and says "you didn't leave them here you left them on that counter over there" in a snotty voice. "I didn't know where I'd left them, that's why I was looking for them!!!" ARRRG!!

So we get back to the car. Race to the zoo. Park the van. Walk about 100 yards, realize I left the cell in the car (I need it to hook up with our neighbors, the Pauls/Maggie). We run back get the cell. Register/call and bump into Ryan's best friend. He stays with their family and I go to meet the Pauls. (As I look back, this was when I should have packed up and gone home!!!) I finally meet up with them at 7 p.m. We eat go on some rides. Stand in a long line, as we get to the front they close the ride because someone saw lightning. John decides to go home. I will take Pam and Melina home, but I tell them that I have to put the back seat back into the van. We meet Ryan and Tyler/family and do the flash light walk with both the Pauls and the Klossowskis.

The walk ends around 9:15 or so. We walk in the dark to our van. I open and start our steaming, messy van. I climb in the back and try to figure out how to re-attach the seats. With Pam reading the instructions to me from the manual we figure it out and I think (that wasn't so bad.) Then we realize that it's the wrong seat and the seatbelt will not work. ARRGGGG. So I have to take out the big heavy seat. It won't collapse completely so I have to move the big heavy awkward seat onto the parking lot, then I install the other seat, figure out how to collapse the first seat and put it pack into the van. After apologizing all over the place to Pam (Hard to imagine I know) we leave the parking lot at 9:45 p.m.

Did I mention that it was HOT as HeLL???

Finally pull into the drive way. Get out of the car. Talk to the kids about our new pool a bit. Turn to walk in...my keys are gone. Can't find them. Bring everything in. Dump out everything. No Keys. I don't need them at the moment...but they are gone. I take flashlight out. I clean the van, check all around the van/pool. Can't find them. Pat puts the kids to bed. I cry on his shoulder.

I go to bed. Wake up...send Ryan outside...he comes in with my keys in the inside door pocket of the van. (which Pat and I had both checked the night before...but they were there this morning and yes pat had locked the van over night but had left his key so we could get around.)

So....WHY WHY WHY are these things happening??? I guess I'm distracted by so much I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing at the moment. I think that my brain's ability to multi-task is losing it's umpf!!!

Oh did I mentioned that my really nice, expensive glasses have been missing for 2 weeks.

If you have any advice or condolences for my brain...I'd appreciate it.