Lazy Saturday

Thank goodness, the humidity is starting to wane and fall is peeking around the corner. We've had just enough rain to bring the grass back to green, to help the trees make beautiful rainbows of color in the weeks to come and to knock off the Crepe Myrtles' blooms with every droplet. After the rain stops, the yards, driveways, roofs and streets are dotted in all colors of Myrtle confetti. It's beautiful. My Japanese Maple is starting to turn from deep, purplely-red to burnt orangey-red and the tomato plants are looking exhausted from tirelessly birthing Romas for us, weeks on end. I think I'll put them out of their misery tomorrow.

Cotton is just starting to peek from its hard shell and I cannot wait 'til the day it all pops open like so much popcorn! It looks like fields of pure, white, fluffy snow that never turns into nasty, brown, melted mush. Last year, when the cotton popped open, I about made hubby wreck the car as we were driving down the main thoroughfare here in HSV. I'd never seen cotton blooming before and it caught me by surprise. I was lost in la-la land, gazing out the window, when I realized that the fields were white and it caught me off-guard being from the Midwest--my mind instantly went to "snow," except it was probably still 80 degrees outside. It took a minute but my brain overcame my midwestern-ess and went south--"Cotton! I suddenly and loudly blurted out, look, it's cotton!" Well, needless to say, I about scared hubby to death--he jumped and almost lost control of the car; he then looked at me like I had lost my mind.

As of late, the weather has turned off slightly crisp and misty, especially in the mornings. This morning was no exception. Usually, we sleep in on Saturday but today we had the school's Booster Club Pancake Breakfast to attend at one of the local Applebees, which interestingly enough, is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, which is right next to Kansas City, Missouri. I know exactly where the building sits. Small world. So, we were up at 7:30a.m.--slightly earlier than usual, except for Number Four; he goes to be early and wakes early. Must be a mutant gene.

We go eat the yummo pancakes that were cooked by someone else, served by someone else and cleaned up by someone else. Worth every bit of the $5 per plate not to have to scrub syrup off every little thing Numbers Four and Five could possibly touch on their way to the bathtub.

We hop into the car, avoiding getting run over by all the nutty, obsessed, Alabama fans hurriedly heading off to Tuscaloosa and Number One mentions that since it's becoming cooler outside, she needs to go shopping for long sleeve shirts, as she's just recently gone through a growth spurt--at least her arms and feet have; now if those legs would just grow. Ooh, shopping, I say, we haven't really done that in a while--you ask your Dad, he'll tell me "no".

Hubby agrees to take us shopping as he needs to look for some new "basketball attire" since he'll be coaching soon; furthermore, today was a great day to go to the mall, since probably 75% of the town was either at the Alabama/Arkansas game in Tuscaloosa or watching it on ESPN. Still haven't figured out the madness about college football here--I think they are slightly nutty!

So, off we go to "the upscale mall," where we can usually only afford to shop off the clearance rack. We always go into Dillards first b/c if you hit them on just the right day, you get an extra 50% off the lowest clearance price. But today wasn't one of those days; however, Number One did find a cute top "on sale" but not on clearance, then managed to sweet-talk Daddy into contributing 100% of the total price, even though she's supposed to buy all her own clothes, outside of required school gear (she gets $20/wk and is learning how to budget her money--no we're not meanies). Girls are born, sooo-knowing how to work their Daddies, aren't they?

I suggested we hit the one of the local Salvation Army stores, the one that's our favorite b/c it always has many a great deal. Today, we hit it extra big and were able to find two to three outfits for four of the five kids, an awesome stereo for our pool, a kid's Mickey Mouse, 16-piece picnic set w/backpack and a never used, yoga/fitness mat--all for only $60! WOOHOO! Nobody even had time to whine, not even Number Five. Number One bought herself four fall/winter shirts and two pair of designer jeans, barely worn, for $17! She was tickled pink. Ha, ha.

One of these days, I'll blog about our ultimate place to shop: Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL. Only 20 minutes shy of Huntsville. The things people never go back to claim amaze me!

Later in the afternoon, Number Four went to a birthday party at Pump It Up and now wants to have his party there, as I'm sure do ALL the first grade boys. After reading this article, I think I might be heading there myself, real soon!

The rest of the day, we just hung out: hubby washed cars, kids played in the hammock, on their bikes, dressed up like Hannah Montana (she's soooo IT), played Bball--just acted like kids. I was *supposed* to vacuum the pool but I just enjoyed the day. There's probably a tomorrow, so tomorrow, I'll clean the pool.

We had Idaho instant mashed potatoes and chicken salad sandwiches for dinner and nobody complained. I'd never made instant potatoes before; quite tasty and E-A-S-Y. I may never peel & boil another potato again. How DO those little granules that smell funny, suddenly *poof* into edible, white mush that tastes like potatoes?

Lazy Saturdays...is there anything better?