The What Are You Up To This Summer Thread!

[Ms. Matterhorn]

Hubby and I visited Carsland earlier this week, it is awesome! Also got to ride the new Matterhorn Bobsleds. Roomier sleds. Was the track always this rough, or am I just getting older?

Leaving for a girlfriends trip on Monday to New Orleans for a week, then to Nashville to spend the Fourth with my son and his family.

It was great catching up with all of you, thanks for creating this thread, Bru! Love ya!

[shilohmm]

Sorry to hear about your daughter, Bru. The problem with kids is that you can't make them grow up; they have to make that choice.

The last few weeks have been Ballet Intensive, meaning I have to run middle daughter into ballet at 9:30 in the morning and pick her up at 3:30 in the afternoon, which I hate because it puts holes in both of them I have to work around to do anything. But that's over, so maybe I'll finally get out to the Fernwood Garden and Barker Mansion in Michigan City and tour the Notre Dame campus with eldest son and do all kinds of local stuff I've been putting off.

Yesterday was the second (of four) Saturdays running the kids out to Iowa to foist them off on their grandparents for a week. Dropped off younger two daughters and picked up their brothers. This week I have great hopes of coercing eldest son into doing major yardwork, mainly clearing out the Dreaded Vine and the wild grapevine in the back yard, which have taken over most of the south fence and are threatening to cover over my rose bush. :mad:

August we'll be heading out to Myrtle Beach -- we have two oceanfront units, since they didn't have one that fit my family and my budget, and we're bringing along our adopted grandma, so that'll be interesting. Last time we traveled with her I was having health issues so that was interesting, hoping this one goes better...

We've been to Myrtle Beach, staying in a nice big unit some miles from the beach, and like it, so I'm not too worried. I had kind of planned to stop at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH on the way back, but then it occurred to me that we're good at doing stuff traveling back right up until the last day of travel, at which point everyone except hubby wants to Go Home NOW!

So I'm thinking we'll take a three day weekend in July and do that. The problem with that plan, of course, is the whole "Air Force Museum" and "July" thing. Won't bother hubby much but I may pass on a lot of the outside parts -- which, with most plane museums, is where most of it is. Maybe I'll drop hubby and the kids off and go do something else. I did the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Nebraska (which is nearly all inside, surprisingly enough), that's good enough, right? :p:

Or I could just take a break and go looking for the mating flying saucers...

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2635

[DisneyMom]

Just back from Carpinteria Beach :)
Back to work tomorrow

[techie-13]

:D: :D: :D: :D: I just got a call to come in and work the U.S. Gymnastics event on Sunday. I get paid for a full work call and all that I'm being requested for is...

to turn a light-up sign on and off when they ask. :D: :D: :D: :D: (My boss's comment was "Bring a book.") :D: :D: :D: :D:

[February]

Well I decided to fight this thing with my daughter. I told my ex that I am legally entitled to contact with her and for now at least it seems to have scared him (only because he knows it is true) she's not happy that she may be forced to talk to me once a week but that is too bad, she can be mad at me. She is only sixteen, too young to make a permanent decision like this. Please wish me luck because it is not going to be an easy road, she is really angry.

xoxo bru

[hobie16]

Remember Bud, don't engage. If she starts shrieking, change the subject. You are not the Anti-Christ or the anti-whatever/whoever she currently worships. Don't let her treat you like you are.

[shilohmm]

(My boss's comment was "Bring a book.") :D: :D: :D: :D:

:thumbup:

I had some temp jobs like that. They're great! Although I brought in a western one day that was annoying me with the over-emphasis on the romance -- and then realized the publisher had "romance" in the name. I consoled myself with the thought that the guys who shelved it at the used book store were just as confused, and finished the book. Failure as a western, but for a romance, not too bad.

She is only sixteen, too young to make a permanent decision like this.

I don't know what god she believes in, but coming from the Christian tradition I would argue that God is perfectly capable of imposing his will if so inclined, so the very fact that she is still young enough you have that legal right indicates cutting you off is not God's will. Cults are not much for logic, and neither are sixteen year olds, but I'd still give it a shot, because I think, in her deepest heart, she has to know the whole "God's will" thing is just a convenient excuse.

Cultures define family all different ways, but every human culture I've ever looked into recognizes the tight bond between mother and child, and particularly between mother and daughter. She needs you, and she will continue to need you, whether she recognizes that or not. I would emphasize that you're not trying to control her or to bully her, but that God (or fate, or whatever it is you believe in) placed her in your womb sixteen years back, and that means it is your responsibility to love her and to care about her and to always be there for her.

I'd just say that God put her in the wrong womb back then if it's his will she break all connections with her mom, and tell her to argue it out with him, because not much you can do about it at this point. ;)

[drcorey]

well, I am up to about 230 lbs this summer.
but, I am saving up for a 2 week monster vacation at the land.

[GaTechGal]

Good luck Bru. Sixteen year olds are just brain dead. They think they know EVERYTHING and no one else has ever been through what they are going through. {{hugs}}

[DisneyMom]

Good Luck, Bru.....Maybe she'll change her attitude when she realizes that you are there for her NO MATTER WHAT. She is awfully young and just doesn't realize how rare that is....