A Chesapeake Summer Storm Story

So, our story begins today with me deciding to take my very good friend Emily up on her offer to watch her kids for her. I desperately need a job, and she desperately needed someone she can trust to take care of her 4 year old, Jack, and 7 week old, baby Thomas. It seemed very fortunate for me that she would offer this as I just could really use some pocket money right about now.

She and her husband dropped off their children to my house at about 3:15. Her older son, Jack is right around my son's age, so I figured that they would play together nicely. My 6 year old loves babies, so I figured she could help me take care of baby Thomas.

Well, if only wishing made it so. Turns out that my daughter is playing with the older son, and my 3 year old is trying to take care of the baby with me. The first situation is working out very nicely. The two kids are keeping each other occupied and having a great time. The second situation is less than ideal. My 3 year old was bouncing on the sofa while I was trying to feed Thomas his bottle, and it was just not a pretty situation.

My solution to the problem was to take Thomas up to the master bedroom to feed him and relegate the rest of the kids to the basement to play.

I wish my story could end there, but I would be leaving out the massive biblical thunderstorm that hit next. Not a metaphorical thunderstorm (sh*tstorm?) but an actual thunderstorm with incredibly fast winds, continuous cloud to ground lightning, and torrential rains. I could hear it coming before it hit, but I never believed that it could have been as bad as it was.

The clouds were pitch black, and a second or two later the rains started. These were no gentle summer rains, but a waterfall of rain that dumped about an inch of water on the ground in roughly 10 minutes. As the rain started, I next heard the siren from the firehouse go off. A quick look out the window showed gale force winds whipping my outdoor toys and patio furniture around like the unfortunate cow in the movie "Twister". Oh shoot! My first time watching my friend's infant son, and we get hit by a tornado!!! Convinced that an actual twister was descending down upon us, I picked us baby Thomas and hightailed it down two flights of steps to join the rest of the children in the basement.

Some important information you need to know at this point is this: I am deathly afraid of thunderstorms. I am terrified of high winds, having had my parent's house hit by a large oak tree while on spring break from college. I am absolutely petrified of lightning. My biggest fear is not that it will kill me, but that it will hit me and NOT kill me. So, my biggest challenge at this point was to take care of the baby, my friend's 4 year old,and my own two children without letting on how much I was freaking out. I put the baby in the pack-n-play in the office, since it was the only room without windows, and sat down on the basement couch to watch Scooby-Doo with the rest of the kids. It was really hard, some of the flashes of lightning were REALLY close, but I think I held it together okay.

Long story short: we were fine. There was no twister, at least not that I can see. The rain stopped about 20 minutes later and eventually the sun came out. The children were fine, and their mother came back to pick them up around dinner time. There was a little flooding in the basement, but I was able to clean it up with a bath towel. I went out back and collected my things that had blown around the yard, enjoying the now cooler temperatures and lower humidity.

How do you deal with storms? Do your children deal with storms well, or are they afraid? Don't forget to stop by my online community (located just to the right of here) and weigh in on this issue.

Clicking with cliques. Hard, isn't it?

It is amazing how your life can change in only 24 hours. One moment you can be chilling in Mexico on winter vacation, and the next moment your husband can be detained at Immigration for an outstanding traffic warrant. And your whole life changes. One day you can have electricity, and the next day two checks can beat a deposit to the bank, and then "not so much". And your whole life changes. And one day you can have a certain attitude about life and friends, and then the next day have a whole different perspective on the process of making friends. Maybe your whole life doesn't change, but there is definitely a subtle shift in your attitude that can affect certain parts.

Yesterday I had every intention of writing a blog about the difficulties of making friends when you move to a brand new place at the advanced age of 35. I went over the various challenges that make it very hard to break into established cliques. There are the people who just don't like new people, the people with too many friends already who don't have time for new people, and the people for whom you just don't personally click with. I was going to show how there are strategies and techniques for overcoming these obstacles and developing a new social circle of you own. I had the blog already written and ready for editing and publishing. All I needed to do was click on the button that read "Publish Post" and I was all done.

But something stopped me.

I paused on the button and decided to save it until tomorrow. Tomorrow felt like a better day to post it. I felt like after a good night's sleep it would be a better time to post it. Thank God I stopped when I did. I went to sleep last night, and something strange happened when I awoke this morning: I no longer gave a crap.

Let me back up a little. Alli has been going to Art Camp all week at the Kent Island Federation of Arts. She is learning each morning this week how to draw realistic faces and portraits. There are about 8 or 10 kids in her camp. If she had done this a year ago, I would have used this opportunity to introduce myself to all the parents of all the kids enrolled. I would have started conversations with them about the weather, Route 50 traffic, area pools, and anything else I could think of. I would have complimented their clothes, cars, and generally made a pest of myself in an effort to establish my social circle.

But something weird happened over the past year. I made friends. True friends. Not many, but what they lack in numbers, they more then make up for in enthusiasm and humor. I now have a small number of people I can go to for entertainment and companionship. In the process, I think I have become one of those people listed in the top of this post: Someone who just doesn't have the time or energy for new people. Today, anyway.

There was a whole group of parents talking outside KIFA today waiting for their kids. I guess I could have joined the group and introduced myself, but frankly I was tired and hungry and just wanted to get my kid and get home. I had turned down two invitations for playdates already and I needed my daughter to clean her room today. I had absolutely no desire to meet anyone and talk about anything.

I now understand why when I first moved here it was so hard to meet people. Everyone else WASN'T new to the area, and they had their own lives they were leading already. And now I am at that same point. Which isn't to say that if I meet someone tomorrow who has just moved here I won't try to befriend them. It just ain't happening today. I've got too much to do.

So, if you have uprooted your entire life recently and are having a hard time making new friends, don't take it personally. I have a new understanding of people today, and sometimes we just aren't in the mood. But hang in there, because 24 hours can change a person's perspective on almost anything.

By the way, I will soon be posting pictures of the beautiful creations my daughter has created this week, so keep checking back. See ya!

Various housekeeping updates

Part of the problem of having a busy summer is that you suddenly become so busy living your life that you miss prime opportunities to write about your life.

Case in point: Joining the local pool. After giving the matter a great deal of thought, we decided to join the local pool. Upon investigation, we discovered that it was cheaper to join the athletic club next to the pool, which enjoys pool privileges, than to just join the pool itself. So we joined the athletic club. Since we joined the club, we now feel that we need to use it, so I have been going there every other morning to work out before going in the pool with the children. I have not worked out in any way, shape, or form since I was about 14 or 15 years old and joined the old Four Seasons Sports Complex with my parents. (just a quick aside, I never went back as an adult due to embarrassment over the obvious, raging, hormonal teenage crush I had on my racquet ball instructor, just saying...) So, needless to say, I am a bit out of shape.

So, instead of coming home to write about our marvellous adventures at the pool, like how my previously water-phobic son now refuses to get out of the baby pool, I come home and pretty much die on the couch.

So, I apologize for not keeping anyone updated. Just today, I have finally been able to type on a keyboard without moaning in pain, so I think progress has been made. Also, about half of the equipment that I use is out of commission today because they are replacing the pads. So, I really didn't do a full workout anyway.

I love my gym, though. While riding the stationary bikes and the treadmills, I have a perfect view of beach traffic going over the bridge. I can watch sail boats cruise through the narrows. This morning, I saw many sail boats and a few people trying to fish. It was so tranquil and relaxing that I lost all track of time on the treadmill. When I finally looked down, my easy 20 minute cardio workout had morphed into 40 minutes. Whoops!

Word to the wise: try to never do that. I stepped off of the treadmill and had a total out of body experience due to my weakened overworked muscles. I have vague memories of walking to the stationary bike to cool down, but for the life of me, I don't remember feeling my feet actually touching the ground. Perhaps that explains the strange looks old people were giving me.

Then, on the drive home, I almost had an accident on RT. 18 while swerving to avoid a turtle crossing the road. Gosh, I really love this town!!

Thanks so much

Thank you to everyone who voted in the Pepsi Refresh Everything contest for the Kent Island Discovery Zone. We won!!!! WE WON!!!

So, this means my friend Kim will receive grant money to reopen the Island Secret Garden as the Kent Island Discovery Zone this year. It's going to be a long arduous process, and Kim is going to have to document her progress every step of the way to the good folks at Pepsi. I have no doubt that she will prevail. So for a little while we are just going to soak in it:

WE WON!

I imagine Kim has been sleeping since Monday night at midnight. I happen to know for a fact that she has been up pretty much 24 hours a day for the entire month of May trying to make this a reality. She checked on her progress every hour on the hour for 31 days. Kim, I hope you are taking the week off and enjoying a nice long rest.

So, I am now off duty as far as online cheerleading goes. I can hang up my virtual pompoms and kick off my keds in triumph. Uncrimp my hair and discard the team colored cyber-scrunchi. Tomorrow I will be back with a doozy of a story, one that could only happen in a small seaside town without a bowling alley.

So stay tuned!

vote for the children of all the Chicken-necker moms

Exciting news out here on the shore! In the Pepsi Refresh contest, the Kent Island Discovery Zone has finally reached #10. As I explained in an earlier post, the top ten winners win $25,000 to further their cause.

I wish I could say that we could all relax, but we can't. The contest runs until May 31st, so other organizations have 5 days to try to kick us out of the top ten so they will have a shot at winning money too. I wish everyone could win. I have read through the other entries, and they all sound like worthy causes. Unfortunately, winning this contest may be the only chance we have to rebuild the indoor playground/children's center that was destroyed by that act of God otherwise known as Winter 2010.

Now I really have no idea how many readers I really have. I have a read count, but for all I know it could really be the three lonely followers I have just reading over and over. But on the off chance that I have more readers than that, please take this opportunity to vote for our center to receive the funds we need to reopen for the children of the Upper Eastern Shore. Get all of your friends and relatives to vote also. Details can be found at the bottom of this blog, so scroll down and check it out.

The sooner we get through this and win, the sooner I can get back to writing about parenting in a tourist town. Summer is coming, and with that the promise of adventures (and misadventures). And if you are a regular reader, please become a follower so I know you are out there. Much love to you all, and help us out and VOTE!

Deja-vu, all over again, and again, and again!

Wow!

That's all I can say at this point. Wow!

It has been way too long since I have been on here. I almost couldn't remember my password, it has been so long.

Things have been really busy. Sometimes I feel like that proverbial chicken with her head cut off, or at least running to keep her head from being cut off. (That's a really gross saying, now that I think about it. But all the really busy descriptors seem to be) I found an extra curricular activity for my daughter that requires the appropriate shoes (soccer) and I found, and then lost, and then almost found a job again before I even started going back to work.

Did that sound confusing? I wish I could say that the news was better, but I can't. My fabulous tutoring job for the fall, the one that fit perfectly with my life, is in serious jeopardy. I was supposed to teach a class of homeschooled eastern shore middle and high schoolers about American History. The hours fit perfectly with the very popular preschool that I already enrolled my son in, and it was going to be my entry into secondary education (which is where I really want my career to start to move towards). Sadly, the school did not enroll enough students to justify my position.

I wish I could say that this is the first time this has happened to me, but it isn't. The private school where I taught second and third grade had a similar situation about 5 years ago. I got to wait all summer for word on whether my class would even exist for the fall. The first year they didn't enroll enough children and I had to go work at a job that I absolutely hated. The second year luck worked in my favor and I was able to teach my class again.

So, here it is, 5 years later, and it's deja-vu all over again. Everything old is new again, and I get to wait all summer to see if the fates will work in my favor. The tutorial said they would keep registration open all summer in the hopes of still having my class. All I can do now is pray, and have a lot of faith that things will work out in the end.

So, if you know of any high school home schoolers in the Queen Anne's County area who are dying to take an American History class with a FABULOUS teacher, please send them to Bridges Christian Tutorial in Centreville, MD.

If you don't, I am probably going to have to work at the mall. Yikes!

Oh, and don't forget to see the bottom of this post to vote for the Kent Island Discovery Zone to receive money from Pepsi to reopen it's doors. Help my friend re-open our beloved center, and give local kiddos a safe place to play!!

Save our Indoor Playground!

I don't usually do this, but we on the Upper Eastern Shore are sort of desperate. We have lost something that we held near and dear to our hearts, and are finding it hard to live without. Those of you with small children will certainly feel our pain.

I don't know if you heard at all, but the east coast of this country has had a pretty hard time of it this winter. We suffered snowstorm after snowstorm. Two of them were blizzard condition storms and occurred about 4 days apart. The Federal Government was forced to shut down for 4 days, and many houses, buildings, and structures were damaged beyond repair. Many businesses needed to close their doors forever. There is an outlet mall in Queenstown that lost half it's stores and may never be restored to capacity. On the other side of the Kent Narrows Bridge was a little place known as the Island Secret Garden.

The Island Secret Garden was a fabulous indoor playground. It had tons of toys and climbing structures for children to play on and with. It had a comfortable parent area with couches and rocking chairs for quiet parent time while the children played. It offered enrichment programs for preschool children in science, reading, math, and gymnastics. But most of all, it provided a place for children to go when the weather was bad.

The ISG was forced to lose it's space in the old outlet mall in Kent Narrows after massive amounts of snow collapsed the roof. Without help, we will probably never get our beloved indoor playground back again. If my story has moved you at all, or if you are just looking for something to, please see the very bottom of this post. There is a link to click on to vote for our beloved indoor play area, now renamed the Kent Island Discovery Zone, to recieve a generous gift from Pepsi to get it's doors open again. Please help us! It is a very worthy cause, and costs you nothing but the two seconds you use to click a link!