Epicness and Stressness

So everything is terrible. After 7 years of constantly lying about what Obamacare was and what it did and then calling vote after vote on meaningless and empty Obamacare repeals, Republicans apparently never bothered to actually think up any healthcare ideas of their own, so now they're frantically drafting increasingly shitty, harmful bills (the latest literally written in the Senate cafeteria hours ago; remember when they claimed Obamacare was "rammed down their throats" after 11 months, 220 hearings, dozens of public town halls, and over 120 Republican amendments accepted into the bill) that no one has read yet, to attempt to vote yet AGAIN (now scheduled for 2 a.m., totally normal) to increase the number of uninsured by 16 million, restrict access to healthcare, and send premiums increasing by a minimum of 20% (your employer provided plans too! because removing people from a marketplace increases costs/duh) which totally fits with their usual "pro-life" and "pro-economy" hypocrisy. Also Trump remains a deeply horrible person who is damaging America, its reputation, and its institutions in pretty much every way possible and his new Director of Communications might be even more unhinged than he is. It is a difficult time to be an informed person who is pro-America/humans. I haven't been able to blog in days because though my rage at the awful human being who is our current president is always present, it's usually more of a simmer, but every few weeks it boils over and this was one of those weeks. I worked out a lot, drank a lot of wine, doubled our monthly donations to the ACLU (AGAIN), yelled about it all in solidarity with my mom, and then deleted facebook from my phone. You know, the usual coping mechanisms.

But on Saturday- a goddamn LIFETIME ago- we hosted a really great 10th birthday party for Landon, so let's go to there.

It was, in the words of another 9-year-old, "epic."

We had 7 kids over between ages 8-10 for 4 hours of non-stop activity. It was a little longer party than normal, but I decided 10 could be a big one and also Landon REALLY wanted to swim after dark. For the first time ever there were no other parents or siblings- just the big kids and the birthday boy, plus Claire because Landon formally invited her without my knowing, which was kind of adorable.

There was swimming, then a dinner of Landon's favorite things (Costco pizza, cheeseballs, watermelon, and pizza flavored Pringles which are exactly as awful as they sound), then a silly string war, then a whole bunch of pool games, then ice cream cake that I made myself and was AMAZING (and so easy I'm almost embarrassed to tell people how to do it), then inside for an episode of Crashletes (Landon's new obsession), opening presents, and assembling 200 glow sticks to then finally go BACK in the pool for the much anticipated NIGHTTIME SWIM.

You guys, it really was epic.

And while it was kind of exhausting to be the only two adults (next year I'm making another friend stay) because we couldn't take a break from watching the pool, the kids were SO good and well-behaved and clearly had so much fun. My favorite part was how seriously they took the pool games. They needed to know all the rules and were so earnest and adorable about it.

After a round of coin toss (that one was great because it was silent; they were all under water collecting their booty) and various relay races and jumping contests, I just started making stuff up because they were having so much fun. Ping pong balls on plastic spoons? Sure!

Everyone left at 10 p.m. and after clean-up, unwinding, sorting through pictures, and taking a much needed hot bath, I was in bed at 1:30.

super hot lifeguards

So obviously, after that super long pool filled day, we got up on Sunday morning and headed to a water park.

It was one million degrees outside (actual temp = 108; "feels like" temp = 122; "cement water park temp" = one million), and I was not sure we needed to be at a water park, but Cora's school had a social event with a cabana, food, and discounted tickets, so there we were and it was SO FUN.

I forgot how much I love water slides. It's been 11 years since I was not pregnant and not in possession of a tiny, non-watersafe person and a big water park never sounded fun under those conditions. We had our pool, our zoo's awesome splash park, and we were good. I knew the big kids would love it, but I did not want a hundred dollars to helicopter lifeguard Cora around some giant concrete jungle. But now she's water safe! And the big kids are big! We all get to have fun at the same time!

There was hardly anyone there so your only impediment to how many rides you could fit in was how many times you wanted to climb the many stories of stairs. Even Landon tapped out after a little while and went with Claire to the wave pool.

It was awesome. Claire even went down the huge super fast drop water slide and was SO PROUD of herself that she did it 2 more times.

And when we got back to the house around 3 p.m. we ate all the leftover ice cream cake and then zoned out watching a movie until we went out to a margarita dinner because no way was I cooking dinner at that point. Then we watched another half of a movie. We nearly broke our children (and ourselves; I fell asleep Sunday afternoon; the last time I took a nap I was nearly dying and very drugged from the flu), but it was such a fun weekend.

The rest of the week, which I'm now realizing was a whole other 4 days consisted of work, working out, internet rage blackouts, and Winston giving me smiles at the end of the day.

I love this picture of Beauty and her Beast. Or Snow White and her dwarf...

We've been having some issues with aggressive episodes with Winston which are also a source of concern and stress this week. We have a dog behaviorist our vet recommended coming over for an evaluation on Saturday. I'll write more about it later. Short version, we adore this dog and are consulting with our vet, the rescue group, and experts to work with him and us, but it is unpredictable and well, a source of concern and stress.

My other stress coping mechanism is to internet window shop and make plan of things, so I've redecorated and redesigned every room of my house, now with saved internet folders and hand-sketches of custom built-ins in our playroom and hall bath. As soon as I get an extra few tens of thousands of dollars, it's really going to be epic. Until then, another glass of wine and/or box of cheez-its, if you please.