t-15 hours

And we'll be on the road. I'm brain dead from packing and thinking about packing. We aren't going to kill ourselves to get to Indy in one day. We've done that way too many times. Instead our destination tomorrow is the great state of Tennessee. Nashville, here we come.

THE GRAND MIDWEST TOUR!

I'm sitting on the couch, still in my pajamas, still feeling a bit under the weather, wondering when are we going to plan THE GRAND MIDWEST TOUR! For months we've known we would go to Indiana and Michigan in July, but despite this understanding we have yet to actually pin down our dates (and it's July 2 already). Craig and I give different answers to the same question: when are you leaving? For me, we depart July 6; for Craig, it's July 9.

I've been apathetic about planning, which always makes me wonder if I have some other issues at play. So in no particular order, here they are:

1) I have a TERRIBLE haircut, and I don't want to be seen by anyone! Seriously, you would think I would learn that wearing short hair in the south is HAIR DEATH! Women just don't do it. The woman who cut my hair kept pausing to say "Are you sure about this?", which I should have taken as a sign that my hair would be TERRIBLE! Wearing short hair in the South also creates confusion; how can I have short hair and yet I'm not a lesbian. The worst day for my hair was last Sunday when my elderly african american neighbor told me, "Your hair looks bad, I don't like it. Did the woman who cuts Craig's hair cut yours?"

Sigh.

2) Grace starts Kindergarten on August 6, and I'm freaked. I've worked myself into such a frenzy over it that I've actually considered homeschooling (egads!). When my best friend was here last weekend, she hit the nail on the head:

Me: This is going to be such a big change for Grace, and I'm really nervous for her.

Q: That's true, but this is also going to be an ENORMOUS change for you.

Cue the tears. I've been giving myself pep talks (she's going to love it; she's ready; just because she'll be around kids who are older and exposed to more mature subjects, I'm not feeding her to the wolves; and finally BE CONFIDENT IN YOUR PARENTING, it doesn't end with Kindergarten).

She's going. I'm not homeschooling, but I will cry a lot (in private, so I don't freak her out).

3) Craig just finished his summer teaching (for which I should be thrilled), but I haven't transitioned out of my spouse is working insane hours and I feel like a single parent mode. I keep waiting for him to announce that he has to work. I don't know how to keep a schedule when he's home. It throws everything off. I know, I'm such a whiner!

4) My high school reunion is at the end of the month, and we can't decide whether or not we will stay long enough to attend (see number 2). My mom wondered if I might be anxious about attending the reunion, and with the exception of number 1, I'm not anxious in the least. I have a good life (even if I complain about number 3). However, my indecision about the reunion makes determining a departure date that much more difficult. We don't want to be gone for too long, and yet we want to see a lot of people.

Sigh again.

Regardless of these issues we will be heading north shortly. Perhaps instead of THE GRAND MIDWEST TOUR! I should refer to our trip as INDECISION SUMMER 09!

mispronunciations

Warning: We are just over a month away from Grace's first day of school. You should expect me to be fairly weepy. You should expect that the posts for the next month will be nostalgic and schmaltzy. I'm such a wimp.

There are words, or rather pronunciations of words, that I want to remember. Since this blog serves as a baby book of sorts, this seems like the logical place to write them down. From the time Grace started to talk, she's had some funny pronunciations. For the longest time, she couldn't say "G's", so as a toddler she was "baby Bace" and Grammy was "Bammy". There have been so many others: playground was "p-pound", pizza was "pippa", oatmeal was "ewtmeal", girl was "gorl", breakfast was "brektist", and remember was "bermember".

By the time she was 3, she could say G's. I don't remember when "P-pound" left us, but it was probably around the same time. "Ewtmeal" stayed with us until about six months ago, and her most memorable, "gorl", just vanished last week. Grace and Julia were playing in the hallway when I heard her say "Julia, let's go have some "girrrrl" talk. She lengthened the word so she wouldn't say "gorl", and then she practiced it a few more times:" girrrl, girrl, girl". She still pauses each time she says the word, but it always comes out right.

I know this sounds silly, but it makes me terribly sad to see these vestiges of toddlerhood leave us. She's so clearly a little girl, no longer even a preschooler. I don't want those words to go, but I know they will--and should--and that it's probably better for her to lose them at home than in Kindergarten.

There are only two remaining: "brektist" and "bermember". Just this morning, I noticed the care she was using with "brek-f-tist". It's only a matter of time before that one's gone for good. It remains to be seen when and how "bermember" will leave us. I hope I'm in the room when it does.

intermission extended

While I suffer though some nasty bug. Serves me right for 1) laughing at Craig when Grace threw up and 2) feeling all proud for orchestrating the best summer ever. About once a year, often after a period with little rest and high stress, I break out with fever blisters. Craig will get an isolated cold sore from time to time (just like 95% of adults do), but I have to do it my own way: BIG. I have fever blisters around my mouth, up my nose, and down my chin. Add to that nausea and a fever and there you have my last four days. Not fun.

No more bragging for me. No more laughing at my spouse.

intermission

Having the best summer ever isn't supposed to involve projectile vomiting, but that's where we are. It's entirely cruel of me, I know, but I had to stifle a giggle when I saw that Grace's spew had landed on Craig's cheek. He took one for the team.