The August 6

August is my least favorite month. I call it my "Mean Month". It's the end of summer, the blazing heat has evaporated my patience, and everyone is fairly sick of being together all minutes of the day. It's just yicky. (Is that even a word? Yucky? Icky? Maybe a combo of both?)

1. The Fosters went boating. With friends--people who actually do this kinda stuff for fun. You know what this means, right? Me+swimsuit+sunscreen+sand. My lethal combination. If someone would have thrown in glitter, I would have dropped dead on the spot. No joke.

I must admit, it was good times. And it forced me to do something very un-Lisa like. And that's always a good thing. I think.

2. I love a good buffet. I'm not kidding. Love. Somehow, all those food options let you throw caution to the wind and eat everything. Fifteen dessert choices just feels like heaven. Why? Because I eat all of them.

Child #3 ate 4 servings of cotton candy and a roll. For dinner. I didn't even care. I told her just to make sure she drank a lot of water. I'm pretty sure she drank 5 glasses of root beer instead.

During dinner, my sister fell on top of her chair. Well, it was more like the chair tipped over and she didn't notice before she sat down. So instead, she fell on top of the toppled chair...and then onto the ground. It was one of those slow motion kind of moments. I didn't even try to help her up. I was too busy laughing. It was the special kind of laughter that reached all the way down into my soul and made me happy. Geez, that was a special moment. See what I'm saying? Buffets are awesome.


3. If I could write a letter to my teenage self, here is one of the many things I would tell her: save all those books you read in English class. Because one day, you'll spend endless amounts of money buying the same ones for your teenage daughter.

4. My oldest will be 17 in less than a week. It's starting to freak me out. I don't know why this birthday feels so hard. It just is. 17 feels too close to moving out and college and life on her own. That's a hard fact to swallow.

She told us the other day that her and a group of friends were swapping "dad" stories. A few people stated that they were scared of their dad. Sam then said, "That's nothing. You guys are scared of your dad, but my dad raises butterflies." That shut it all down real quick. Because honestly, how can you compete with that? Then she had to spend the next 20 minutes explaining, in detail, how you can actually hatch a butterfly in your house.

People, I'm telling you. Being a Foster gives you special powers. I should sell tickets to let anyone brave enough spend a week over here.

Butterflies.
Holy Moly.


5. My hair is having a mid-life crisis. It's kinda ridiculous I even feel this way. But, whatever. The young women at church told me that my long hair is "cute" and makes me "look more like a teenager". I have no idea how I should feel about that.


6. We bought the soon-to-be-17 year old a car. The story involved in that is so overwhelmingly crazy, it will have to remain unspoken. But, with all things teenagerish, the car has brought on it's on set of new challenges. Um, car insurance? Not even talking about that either. We need some 'Car Rules'. I've been thinking some over. I'm feeling the need to make a list and share it with you. I'll keep you posted...


Here's to a lovely September :)