It's school fair time of year!

This week is one of those weeks that zips by because it's a four day school week.  Add in two school fairs and a field trip and we're talking about a week that flys!  And, just for fun let's toss a 2nd grade end of year luau planning meeting on top of that.  And I thought I was in for a nice relaxing week.

Today I got a 6:54AM wake up call from the school district.  It was a recording letting us know that the Spring Fair was on for today.  Yesterday we had some cold, miserable, rainy weather.  I was actually banking on either a rained out fair or a chilly day outside.  I was hoping for the chilly day with a side of ominous cloud cover.  The day started off glum enough.  We had cool temperatures and plenty of clouds.  By noon it was warming up but some of the clouds were still kind enough to lull me into a false sense of security.  I decided that a short sleeved shirt and no sunscreen were the way to go.  Five minutes later I pull onto the field to park and realize that it's a little warmer at the school than I expected.  Figures.  We live essentially two blocks from the school, and every single day I find that it's always colder at the school than it is in my front yard.  So, of course, I'm perplexed that it's warmer over there today.  Then the clouds decided that they should make their exit.  As a result, Ellie and I both have sunburn now.  I can deal with myself having it.  I know better and it's my own stupid fault that I have it.  What I can't deal with is Ellie having a burn.  I knew I should have put sunscreen on her before we left, but I started rationalizing all the reasons why I didn't need to.  I wasn't planning to be there for very long, it was cloudy and it wasn't that hot out there.  None of these are or ever will be valid reasons to not use sunscreen when you have very fair skin.  So thanks to me, Ellie has some very red skin.  I have a nice heaping pile of Mommy Guilt.  Someday when my skin cancer ridden daughter granny-dumps me at the worst nursing home she can find and never looks back I'll have no one to blame but myself (let's hope this scenario never actually comes into play).

We had a pretty good time at the fair.  I met up with my friend Amy while we were there.  Her daughter was in Madeline's class last year, and she has a little brother who is around Ellie's age.  Amy and I had a pretty good time wrangling our crazy three year olds and trying to keep tabs on Madeline and Angie.  

I mentioned to Amy that I volunteered to teach a CCD class this year, but I was waiting to hear back from the deacon about it because I was going to have to bring Ellie with me to the class.  I've been trying to figure out if I could get a neighbor to watch Ellie and I would take their kid to CCD with me and bring them back in exchange, but I hate to burden someone like that.  Amy perked up when I told her about me wanting to teach and she actually volunteered to watch Ellie for me provided the deacon will put Angie in the same session that I teach.  How awesome is that?   If the deacon agrees, then Ellie will get to play with her friend every week and I'll get to volunteer like I wanted.  Not to mention, Amy's generous offer just sets off a nice chain of good deeds.  

I'm so happy to be surrounded by such nice people like Amy and my neighbors.  I actually feel like I'm part of a community now.  I haven't felt like this since I moved away from my hometown nearly 9 years ago.  After almost two years in this town, I can now go places and recognize lots of familiar faces on a regular basis.  I love it!

Clearly, I'm a glutton for punishment

I wound up the color of a tomato yesterday.  I tried to avoid the sun, but it simply wasn't possible. First, there was Madeline's soccer game where we had to be there at noon.  I try not to keep company  with the sun at noon when it's hot out.  I get burned every time (pun intended).  Then, I tried to hide in the house once we got home and it was evident that I was a tad on the red side.  That didn't last very long.  Bryan wanted my input on some landscaping stuff and the next thing I knew I was sort of trapped outside.  After giving Bryan my approval the landscaping, I got sucked into helping him with the weed block.  Next thing I know, I'm now helping with putting the safety fence up around the pool and other random things.  I wanted so desperately to run inside and hide from the sun, but Bryan needed my help so I stayed out there and baked.

I decided today that I was going to stay inside not matter what, but I'm crazy and decided to go pull weeds.  I was smart enough to run inside when I realized that once again the sun was beating down on me.  I'm sure I only added to my sunburn. And, I'm willing to bet that I'll be back outside again later today once Madeline gets home from school.  There's no way my girls are going to be content staying inside on a day like this.

 I'm happy that Ellie is smart enough to play in the shade.  I used sunscreen on her yesterday and the poor girl got burnt at the soccer game.  So I'm suffering from Mommy Guilt again.  If I didn't go to Madeline's soccer game I'd feel bad because Madeline would be upset, and because I went to the game I feel bad because poor Ellie is now red.  I just can't win sometimes.  Ellie, unlike me, has a pretty good understanding that going out in the sun just isn't good for her and she tries to avoid it anytime she has a sunburn.

I think I may be more compliant with staying indoors if I wasn't so worried about making sure the front yard looks good for Madeline's First Communion.  I'd like to be able to take pictures of her on the lawn before we head to the church.  My neighbors spent all day yesterday working on their yard getting it ready for their son's First Communion (same Mass as Madeline's).  Maybe I should just walk Madeline over to their lawn.

I'm going to be totally exhausted by the time Madeline's First Communion rolls around.  I have 12 more days left to obsess about getting the house ready, making sure I have everything I need for the party and of course, making sure I have Madeline looking picture perfect for her big day.

Seat theft at Mass and sunburn at soccer

Today is shaping up to be a long day and it's not even 2pm yet.  We have a few hours of yard work ahead of us and we still have to go out for lunch.

I knew when we were taking Ellie into the school for CCD that I was in for one of my rare form days.  As we were walking into the building I crossed paths with a man who had the hairiest ear lobes I've ever seen.  I have a bit of a hair plucking fascination that Bryan is usually the victim of, so I notice things like rogue ear hairs on men.  Fortunately, this man wasn't sitting near me at Mass or else I would have been distracted. Bryan likes to point out things at Mass that he knows will make me laugh and he would have had a field day with the hairy ears.  

I wound up having a different distraction at Mass.  After Madeline went downstairs for the children's liturgy, the usher crammed three larger adults into our pew.  I made sure I let the woman next to me know that my daughter was sitting where she currently was and that she'd be back.  I guess she thought I was talking about my imaginary child, because in the middle of the homily she waved her teenaged son who smelled like marijuana and kept texting people during Mass into Madeline's seat.  I can't tell you how incredibly annoyed I was.  Once all the kids came back after the homily, I think the seat stealer's mother felt guilty.  Bryan had to drop back a pew and sit with one of the dads from Madeline's soccer team and CCD class. 

The other thing that can set me off at church, besides mutant ear hairs, on a day when I'm in rare form is the folk song group at church.  For a while there we thought this was the church choir, but I discovered at the Good Friday service and the Easter Vigil Mass, that the church actually does have a decent choir.  The Folk Song group is "special" so they're not part of the choir.  This group apparently exists to wage a ruthless assault on the ears of the parish.  Since we go to Mass at 9:15 every Sunday while Ellie is in CCD we, sadly, never get to hear the good choir.  Today was particularly bad to the point that I almost burst out laughing while in line for communion.  The Folk Song group comes up with some of the worst songs ever created, and then they butcher them unmercifully. I'm pretty sure even God couldn't like these songs, especially when they're sung totally off key. I'm not sure why no one has stopped this group yet. Once CCD is done for the Summer I think we'll be going to Mass at a different time.  My ears need a rest and I think I'd like to hear the real choir instead.

Madeline's soccer game went pretty well today.  She played for almost the entire game and she played a good game.  It was 95 degrees out while she was playing, so by the time the 4th quarter was nearly over she was totally wiped out.  Madeline played goalie for a quarter and she only got scored on once, which is great since the other team was really good. 

We all came home from the game with sunburn. Ellie and I got the brunt of it since we have very fair skin.  I sprayed Ellie with sunscreen before we left for the game, but it didn't help.  I'll probably be lobster red by the end of today.