My Must See TV

I watched the finale of The Bachelorette last night. And sadly came to the conclusion that I know no single women who I could fix up with Chris. Because I'm pretty sure he is The Perfect Man. Unless, of course, they failed to show him leaving his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor or something shocking like that. But this is The Bachelorette. They would never edit someone to look better or worse than the actually are.

And then the news that Ali and Roberto are moving in together. Ah, young love. I wish them all the best. I really really do. But here's the reality I would like to see.

• Roberto finding a drugstore in a strange town at 7:00 in the morning because Ali forgot to make sure there was an emergency tampon in her suitcase and, um, she needs one.
• Ali watching Roberto move all of the dishes around in the dishwasher for the millionth time and wondering why she even bothers. (Okay, I realize that in most marriages in America the roles are reversed but this is my reality I'm projecting here.)
• The two of them looking at each other at 9:00 on a Saturday night wondering if going to bed to sleep is a ridiculous idea. Except they're going to be living in San Diego without three kids so maybe this won't so much happen for a while.
• Ali and Roberto driving cross country to go home for Christmas and realizing that there is absolutely no restaurant that they have any desire to ever even consider actually eating at in the small Kansas town where they are spending the night. Projecting again. I get it.

So there are my Bachelorette thoughts for the day. For now I'm off to face my own personal reality show of laundry and coupon clipping. Living the dream I am.

I Prefer Frugal

I've been doing some different things around here to try to save money and help our finances. I sort of look at it as a job that allows me to hang out at the pool with the kids in the afternoon. And drive soccer camp carpool. And sleep until 8:00 in the morning if I'm ready to face the kids without at least one cup of coffee first.

So I've been clipping coupons, entering sweepstakes, and looking for other ways to save money. Which led us to what I had been calling Melissa's Free Friday. Until I remembered that it was actually Thursday. I'm pretty sure that the kids need to get back to school soon if for no other reason than that I might then remember what day it actually is.

But our Free Thursday not Friday went like this. First we went to Borders where the girls each got to pick a book for participating in their Summer Reading Double Dog Dare program. I got to brush up on my negotiation skills by managing to convince Abby that The Witch of Blackbird Pond was the book she wanted. There's a slight possibility she finally relented just to humor me, but I'm sticking with superior negotiating skills.

Next stop? Barnes and Noble for free books from their summer reading program. Abby actually chose Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH without my having to pull out the heavy negotiating skills. It's as if she knew what she was up against.

We then went to the library to turn in all three of the kids' reading logs and claim their coupons for free ice cream cones from the Dairy Queen. But the bonus was it was scavenger hunt week, so they each left with a free coupon for lunch at Noodles & Company.

All in all a good afternoon on the cheap. I just don't know how I'll ever be able to top that excitement. Maybe we can find some cement to watch dry.

The Time Traveler's Mother

We took a mini vacation earlier this week. This year has been all about the mini vacation and not so much about the long relaxing week on the beach that I crave. But we're having fun and making memories as a family.

This vacation was "up north" Michigan. I've lived in Michigan for over 20 years (oh how it pains me to write that), and I still can't really define up north. I can tell you that it doesn't include the Upper Peninsula--that part of Michigan that can't be represented by holding your hand up and using it as a map. The Upper Peninsula is the UP. It too is a destination in and of itself with no need or evident desire for city names. Seriously, people here don't refer to a town if they are going up north. It's simply up north. Yea. I don't get it either.

We visited Mackinac Island. In case you're not familiar with it, Mackinac Island is about a 10 minute ferry ride away from civilization as we know it. There are no cars on Mackinac Island. There are bicycles and horse drawn carriages. There is Fort Mackinac where you can visit a recreation of a 1880's era fort. The kids actually got into the experience. They enjoyed it. They had fun.

We returned to Mackinaw City and the rest of civilization. Two days later Abby told me she wants to go back in time. But not to the 1880's era fort. She wants to go back in time to when someone else pumped your gas AND washed your windshield when you filled your tank. That's her memory from the vacation. The quaintness of the Mackinaw City gas stations having attendants who pump the gas for their customers. I'm sure that with her incredible knowledge for history Abby is guaranteed to have exceptionally high ACT scores. Gotta love it.

School's Out for Summer

I have to admit that while I definitely have been known to sob almost uncontrollably at a Hallmark commercial, school activities usually do not even bring a tear to my eye. I've always looked at beginnings and endings of school years as a natural passage of time. And I've enjoyed watching the kids grow and learn new things. I try really hard to live in the minute with the kids and not to spend a lot of time looking forward or back.

But something about the girls getting off the bus today struck a chord. I now am the mother of two 4th graders. 4th graders. How did this happen? It seems so old all of a sudden. And I'm definitely starting to see that maturity. I see it in the cooperation last night in deciding what clothes they would wear and a joint raiding of closets. For the record, Abby went to school in the outfit Madelyn wore on the first day this year. Madelyn went to school in Abby's t-shirt.

I'm hearing it in Madelyn's giggles as she talks with a friend about what they're going to wear the next day to school. (For the record, they decided to wear skirts.) Madelyn then asked me if she can go shopping with said friend sometime this summer. I see matching outfits in their future. Funny that she doesn't want to dress just like her twin but will more than likely embrace the idea of dressing like her BFF.

I see it as they spend time with Zach in the shallow end of the pool at a party this afternoon. There were tons of their friends there, but they spent time entertaining and playing with their brother. And some of their friends followed suit and played with Zach too. Making Zach feel like a rock star if the smile on his face was any indication.

So as we walked home from the bus stop (That would be the bus stop that is right next door. The bus stop that the girls are more than capable of finding their way home from without my help.), there were a couple of tears in my eyes. I am so proud of the young women that the girls are becoming. They are fun and intelligent. They get my humor more often than not these days. They make me think.

Next week, of course, I'll be knee deep in preparing their summer learning programs. But for today I'm enjoying the moment with my new 4th graders.

Lifestyles of the Soccer Families

Where do I even begin? Memorial Day weekend the family traveled to Toledo for a soccer tournament along with what seemed like hundreds of our closest soccer friends. And it probably was hundreds since almost all of the teams from our club went. And we have memories to last a lifetime.

Memories of what is probably the most disgusting hotel in the state of Ohio if not in all of the Midwest. I had read the reviews. I thought I was prepared. I wasn't. When Kevin told me that he was pretty sure that he had stayed at this hotel in the late 70s or early 80s when in Toledo for some official GMI co-op work, I should have been worried. I wasn't.

There are really no words to describe what we experienced. And I was in too much shock the entire weekend to think about taking pictures. Which should pretty much tell you how I was feeling. Because I take pictures of everything.

It's been over two weeks. The memories are fading. I've heard we're going back to the same tournament next year. If they suggest that all of the teams from our club stay at the Ramada again, I'm exercising my manager executive power and finding another hotel. One that has been cleaned since my husband stayed there some 20 years ago.

So that's what I've been up to. Trying to erase the images from my mind.

It's Like I Don't Even Know Him

So while I'm trying to find the perfect job where they pay me a ridiculously large amount of money for working a ridiculously small number of hours, I've decided to try my hand at entering sweepstakes. There are whole websites out there devoted to doing this. Who knew?

But I saw a piece on Good Morning America one weekend about people who were doing this. And, as Kevin puts it, I haven't seen a story on Good Morning America that I don't want to try. He just doesn't understand that my new found desire to find the perfect mascara came from the Today show.

I haven't had any earth shattering wins in the couple of weeks I've been doing this. A coupon for some free salsa. A soccer ball. (Because we just don't have enough of those around here.) A coupon for a free bag of Combos.

Okay, so I was excited about the Combos. Life's perfect road trip food. So imagine my shame and shock when I received an e-mail from Kevin telling me he doesn't know what Combos are. Who exactly is this man I've been married to for almost 15 years? Doesn't know what a Combo is? Are you kidding me? I KNOW that I have eaten them with him at least once since we've been married. Because if you've ever traveled down I-75 from Detroit to Dayton on Christmas Day, you know that the only food available is found in questionable service stations.

So he now understands what a Combo is. But he doubts its perfection. And he's asked me to find a beef jerky sweepstakes. Because he mistakenly believes beef jerky to be the perfect road trip food. Poor uneducated soul.

Imagine If You Will

We're shinguard deep in spring soccer here. Somehow I have managed to have girl twins on two different travel soccer teams. And while I know that things could be much worse, (We only had 3 games on Mother's Day--one for each of the girls and one for Zach. And the girls' games were back to back at the same park on the same field. Friends of ours had 5 games between 4 kids all at different places the same day. I've got nothing.) I also have to admit to dreaming about the day when they are reunited on the soccer field. And reunited with the same schedule. But for now I smile and laugh about how they wouldn't be on the same team if they were 21 months apart instead of 21 minutes apart. Who am I kidding?

So part of our spring season is the big tournament that most of the teams in our club are attending. Two nights (maybe three if one or both of the girls ends up in the finals) in a hotel with what are probably the worst tripadvisor reviews in history along with about 200 other soccer families. Soccer families that I actually have to be nice to because, well, we're from the same club and I actually will run into these people again. And, honestly, plans for the team that I manage--Madelyn's team--are going pretty well. Parents have volunteered to take care of some of the extra things, and the girls are super excited.

Abby's team? Well, what can I say about Abby's team? No one really wants to do much of anything. And if Abby were an only child I probably wouldn't know any better or care. But Abby's a twin. A twin with a sister on the other U9 girls team in our club. A twin with a sister on the other U9 girls team with parents who seem to know what they're doing. So, yea, I've decided to become Super Mom so I don't have to pay for an extra year of therapy for Abby so she can talk about the year she was 9 and her sister's soccer team had better spirit type activities. Last night's task was making a poster for the girls to put on their hotel room doors. And I'd love nothing more than to share with you my beautiful creation. But I decided that it would be a fantastic idea to use digital scrapbooking to create my masterpiece. So all I have is a digital piece of 12x12 paper with one picture on it. You'll just have to picture my masterpiece for now. And maybe for the next week or two.