So, the girls are in school and Clark is off to his first day of preschool. It’s not my carpool day, so I didn’t even drive him. I’m just in the house, alone with Max (who is, admittedly, trying to electrocute himself as he’s fascinated by all things powerstrip), but still, it’s a weird feeling. I’m not going to hear anybody speak for a few hours.

This is my annual, solitary rose that, while a bit late this time ’round, blooms and fills the left half of my front yard with a powerful scent of sweet lemon every year. Just one flower a year. The bush itself is a sad, neglected little thing, competing admirably with the weeds and over aggressive shasta daisies (which are also weeds at this point) that crowd it. And since the shoot and foliage of my one flower looks completely different than the rest of the non-productive bush, I think it must be the root that a “more desireable” rose was grafted onto that makes the flower. I’ve heard they do that with roses. But this one smells so intoxicating and so ridiculously strong…. I wonder why someone tried to force it into a different variety?

It’s lovely.

It’s that kind of day. Gray, drizzly, everything is wet but it’s not exactly raining…

Has me all melancholy. Of course, it’s also Thursday, which means I’m a few hours away from Thursday night, which is never a good thing. So that might be contributing.

I want to eat a huge bowl of hot, creamy mashed potatoes. ‘Cause, you know, that’ll fix everything. Or totally not.

What do skinny people do when they’re depressed?

I don’t think the house is cold. It doesn’t feel cold. But Autumn must be approaching because this morning, my toes were officially cold. Which makes me think about knitting socks.

For me, all of summer is spent in Dr Martin sandals, which callous the heck out of my feet. I have huge, tough callouses on the inside edge of each of my big toes, a full length ridge along the outside of each foot, (which is really freaky) plus the usual heel splits and such. It got pretty bad midway through the summer, so I spent some time exfoliating daily in showers and moisturizing in socks. It’s definitely time for that again but I’m putting it off ’til the sandals get packed into the closet for the winter. Perhaps it’s time?

They’re always upset when I cut Clark’s hair,

and this time, we got Max too!

It’s his first haircut! In addition to getting his haircut, he also had a bath. It hasn’t been a very good day for the little guy.

So, there’s a new line of Fender guitars that have humbuckers as opposed to the more traditional single coil pickups.

I think I’m going to need to try out that Telecaster.

It’ll be fun.

I’d never been to a soccer game before. Ever. Liv’s first game (ever) was on Saturday.

Wow, they run a lot.

It was fun. Since both teams wear purple jerseys, our girls had to wear white t-shirts instead. I must say that my favorite part is listening to the coach yell from the sidelines. He’s hilarious. At one point, a girl on the opposing team fell right in front of Liv, who had the ball on the far side of the field from where the parents and coach were. Liv stopped and kind of looked at the fallen girl as if she didn’t know what to do.

You should have seen him.

“You don’t apologize! There’s no apologizing! We’ve been OVER this!!!”

Oh my gosh, I was laughing my butt off. Maybe you had to be there.

Our fearless leader-

Liv loves him.

And as a parting shot, here’s a pic of Max eating strawberry shortcake.

I bought this silver pendant on eBay a couple weeks ago from Turkey, it just arrived , and I luvs it!

And my knee is much better now, thanks.

I stepped on a strand of plastic beads on the hardwood floor yesterday and went down hard on my left knee. Dangit. So I didn’t lift weights today because I don’t want to aggravate it. But I was able to put 50 minutes on the elliptical while watching the last third of Dil Bole Hadippa!

Totally don’t know why this movie isn’t rated well. It’s tremendous fun, and Shahid Kapoor (known around these parts as “Hottie” Kapoor) is serious eye candy.

Nate’s sister and her family have been in from Tennessee for a few days, so it’s been all party, all the time. Which has been really fun.

Max is getting more teeth. I’m hoping that’s why he won’t let me put him down, ever, not even to nap. Argh. But he’s going down for a nap anyway, he’s just not sleeping. Or maybe he’s “going down for a cry.” Dunno. But I’m getting absolutely nothing done and it’s driving me insane. With the girls back in school, I really want to get caught up on the housework. I’m not at ease when there’s mess all around me.

However, I’m still in a relatively good mood. Exercising and eating better has me feeling better. And that’s nice.

The girls started school yesterday. Clark doesn’t start preschool for 3 weeks. I have to tell him about 30 times a day, that no, we’re not leaving for his school yet. It doesn’t start for 3 weeks.

He doesn’t seem to get it.

Or if he does, he’s just hoping that if he continues to ask, the answer will change.

I’ve made a bit of a happy discovery. My mom recommended this brand of stevia powder (they make a pure version that is much more concentrated if you have issues with maltodextrin) and I just tried it. It’s really good. The stevia I used years ago had a strong aftertaste, and this doesn’t. And it’s cheap.

I just used it for the first time, in a glass of milk with unflavored protein isolate powder and vanilla, and mixed it up with my new little toy (which I bought at Costco yesterday for $30).

Very, very good. No funny aftertaste, very sweet, no calories, and it isn’t artificial! I’m so excited. When we went to Oregon last month, my mom’s boyfriend was growing stevia in his garden. We plucked a leaf and chewed on it. It tasted just like the stevia extracts you get in the store, so they can’t be messing with it too much in processing.

So now I can make my protein shakes without sugary syrups, which is what I’ve been doing because artificial sweeteners are scary.