Back to School - Back to Blogging!

What a summer!  I think I made a tactical error some where between the hectic end of school and the beginning of summer.  I said, “I wish it would all just stop so I could just catch my breath.”

Boy did it stop!  I do not believe I will ever beg the world to stop again.

It started with the water pump on the van deciding that it also wanted to stop, stop holding water that is.  I would put fluid in the radiator and watch it pour out the water pump.  This made life come to a screeching halt.  We could not risk driving very far and we live very far from civilization.

We got it fixed though - proving my theory about cars that they are nothing but a big expense.  We pay to buy them, to register them, to insure them, to put gas in them, and to fix them. 

We thought we were on the road again but we were quickly hit by the first wave of summer pestilence - strep throat.  When I say we I mean ALL of us except my oldest daughter Rachel and my husband Mark.

Misery is somewhere in the definition of strep throat.  I always judge it as strep when I get to the point where I would rather die than swallow.  Misery is also somewhere in the definition of cabin fever.  That’s what we suffered as we spent days stranded by the van then house bound by strep. 

Cabin fever is no fun but cabin fever with 5 ADHD kids who are just well enough to be cranky is awful.

We recovered and we were excited to go watch the girl’s band perform at an open mall show.  We were all loaded up and headed down the freeway when the van began making funny noises.  I am not a fan of automotive noises.

There we were going 65 mph, or maybe a little faster, down the freeway when suddenly we had no power steering and no power brakes.  That’s when learned the importance and function of the serpentine belt. 

A car full of ADHD minds contemplating the possible ends of no power steering or brakes is not something I would recommend unless you are into horror films.  The anxiety went through the roof.

We learned later that the new water pump was defective and the entire nose of the water pump broke off taking the serpentine belt with it. 

It’s okay though we made it to the open mall where we enjoyed the girls’ music, the 100+ degrees weather, and heat stroke.

For our next trick we all got food poisoning.  I wasn’t sure if it was the flu or food poisoning at first.  I leaned towards food poisoning because everyone started running to the bathroom at the same time. 

The clincher, for me, was when the dog started throwing up too.  I was trying to get our beloved Aussie, Sid, out the door when I saw left over fast food wrappers empty, licked clean, on the floor.  She is notorious for he sneaky snacking.  At that point I was sure it was food poisoning.

Those volcano nachos lived up to their name.

Don’t get me wrong, we also had our moments of fun. We took an absolutely wonderful and uneventful trip to Monterey.  It was a relaxing and beautiful day with no sickness or car problems.  It was exactly what I had in mind when I thought it might be nice for the world to stop for a little bit.

And now we are officially “back to school.”  My older kids started mid August and the younger ones, the ones I home school, started at the end of August. 

Just to leave the summer with a big bang I hit a big huge cow on the way home the night before school started.  Scrunched the front of the van, stopped us dead in our tracks.  Ironically, the cow has never been found.  The cow ran off; the van has never run again. The beloved “Monster Van” is being handled by the “total loss” department. 

We had the excitement of bunches of us laid out of back boards in the field on the side of the road.  Three ambulances and hours in the ER later, we confirmed that we were all okay. There were no broken bones, just bruises, whiplash, and cow induced emotional trauma.  Flashbacks of the cow rolling up the windshield.

I say bring back the chaos of the school year. I may never ask for things to just stop again, it is too dangerous!

I would not send our summer to the “total loss” department but I am very glad it is back to school and back to the blog!

PS...A special thank you to Amanda for a very inspiring email that reminded me how important this blog is to me and others ~