Fay was pretty much a drencher with an occasional wind blowing through.

We're pretty wet down here in the FL swamplands. Our houses are looking like they were built on little islands. And for all intents and purposes, I guess, they are. When a house is built here, they build up the foundation either by digging a pond on the property or bringing in dirt. We have some standing water, but not too much, it'll be gone tomorrow I think if the rain is done soon. We don't mind the storm since it keeps the temperatures down in the low to mid 80s. That's a dreamy day for August in S FL A few place around town lost a number of branches, I think we're down a total of one small pine branch. Here's a picture of the local elementary school. I was kind of surprised at how many branches were down.



Our yard has a lot of water in the lower areas. Here's one side




Across the street, our neighbors' two ponds have joined into one. Usually there's a driveway in there.




So a lot of water and a few downed limbs, not too bad. Fay's a wimp Though she's gonna try a little more wind here, yet. We'll see.

Pounding Rain in the Swamp!

I can't imagine what the morning will look like outside our door. Tropical Storm Fay is dousing us. We probably won't get too much wind, but the rain, oh my! Thankfully, our little pond was low on water. This means somewhere on the water system (and south Florida has a very intricate water system to keep our homes out of the water) they opened gates. Hopefully there won't be too much standing water in the morning.

My girls are still awake, too and my temper is not pleasant because of this. Not sleeping at night is a huge problem here and truly is begin to frustrate me beyond belief. I'm afraid they get it from me, though. The weather made it very difficult to even walk the dogs today so everyone has an abundance of energy still. I'm ready to drug everyone, including myself!

Dinner Hugs...

My nearly 13yo ds just hugged me. I didn't even ask him to. It was a spontaneous pre-teen hug! I think I'll mark it on my calendar!

And, what, pray tell did I do to earn such a rare treat from Sir Moodiness??? Why I made a dinner consisting of Beef, Broccoli and Potatoes. This is my young football star's favorite meal, according to him. What? you say. NOT pizza? Spaghetti? Nope, not those.

All of my precious offspring do love those things, but they do not rank as #1 for any of them, lol. My dc are a bit more sophisticated, and I had very little to do with that. Right after Beef for ds ranks Salmon, go figure! Even the youngest who doesn't care for veggies at all, will scarf down broccoli and cauliflower. I think I need to consider growing those in a garden. Who needs tomatoes? Give me a garden with broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and carrots.

So what earns you spontaneous pre-teen hugs???

So I mentioned football season is here!

I'm really impressed with ds' coaching staff this year. Let me say, they are awesome! I know it's only little league, but just ask some of the big names in the pros where it started for them and they'll say in little league. Now, I'm not under any crazy ideas that my ds will play football in the pros, it could happen, but the numbers aren't all that great in his favor. But a college scholarship, certainly, Maybe a full ride, but at least a partial one based on sports. He's pretty dern smart, too. FTR, anyways ;)

Last year was his first year and he had a pretty good coach and his team went on to win the super bowl in the division. Pretty good stuff. Exciting, and all. We'd love a repeat this year, but we'll be okay if it doesn't happen. What we're really thrilled about is the chance to play under this coaching staff. One of the coaches is actually a coach on the high school team. He loves to coach these guys and he's dedicated. The boys really respond to him. And Jacob is blossoming. The down side is the time commitment. Egads!

This week, 4 days will be have a portion of them spent on football. And that's just a start. Oh, did I mention Emma is cheering? Yeah, for a team NOT ours, ewww. LOL and then Raina has softball starting up in a couple of weeks. I think we've lost our minds. I never thought I'd be this sports mom. But I'm really loving it, strangely enough.

So tell me, who else is a bit nutty with kids in multiple sports? Please, I can't be alone????

I'm alive, really I am...

I'm sorry! I just disappeared after my trip to California! I had a great time meeting my forum friends! Just a total blast. I got home and life seemed to become a free for all.

First, good news, since returning home from CA, I have dropped nearly 40 lbs. Yup, 40 lbs in less than 3 months! If you want to know how I did it and if you can do it, drop me an email/comment and I'll let you know how I did it.

Second, football season is about to began. This is ds' second year playing in our community's little league. We're very excited. But along with him being in football, we're trying something new. Our youngest, Emma, will be cheering and the older dd, Raina, will be playing softball. We are obviously gluttons for punishment. I'll try and post some pictures soon.

Third, we started school today! It actually went very well. But Emma was at cheer camp this morning from 9 to 12 (and tomorrow, too.) The olders are much easier to do school with. Emma really, really has a hard time with the idea of doing school work. Not sure why, but she really makes it hard for me. So I'll get the first two days started with the older two and then Wednesday, perhaps we'll get somewhere with Emma.