THiS iS JuST aN uPDaTe

Well this blog post has no sentiment or tears or emotion, just a plain old update so I guess that's pretty good. I'm sitting here wasting my day scrolling through Facebook and listening to the sounds of the house -- Ajers is jamming on the electric guitar and he has a friend over, Tukey is playing Billie Jean on the keyboard and Diva is watching Nickelodeon. Am also having the bathroom painted and chose a fairly dark color. Dark enough that it needs SIX coats of paint for the bottom color! Oh wow!

Things are very much settling down here, but while it's definitely not a normal, it's feeling nice, for lack of a better word. My parents left a week ago, and it was awesome having them here. I haven't had a tear-jerking emotional nervous breakdown since the Jack In The Box parking lot incident like 10 days ago. My hormones must be leveling off.

We did some family stuff this weekend, saw Grown-Ups, which was kinda raunchy, but had a cute message to it. We also went "church-hunting" Sunday. Going to a new church for the first time is not like going to see a movie. You can't just decide that you're not into it and walk out on God (plus, you don't get popcorn). You have to stay for the whole thing. So we did. It was a nice church, just not the RIGHT kind of church for our family. We need more BAND. Heck, we need MORE COW BELL for this family! It was a small church and we didn't know that. We also didn't know that apparently, newborns and toddlers can receive communion DIPPED in wine. Which freaked us ALL out, and you know how liberal I am with a lot of things, but man, THAT just weirded ME out a little too much. BABIES getting communion ... SO NOT RIGHT. So, we will go to another church next week until we find the right one for us. I think we have one pegged. We've been Googling for God.

The kids all survived a week at Boys & Girls Club Day Camp. I wanted them to go so they could have something to do and possibly meet some kids they might get to know and recognize in school. They had an OK time - got to go on a field trip to Laser Tag, and Tukey had an extra trip to the circus (and how had the poor boy NEVER been to the circus!??!) We also joined Lifetime Fitness but haven't gone yet. This week we'll all go. It looks promising. I went to lunch with my new neighbor (hi Tracy!), and it was awesome and just so nice to feel NORMAL, like hey, I have a friend and I'm going out to lunch. Normal is good.

I did tell Mr. Manic that I have enjoyed being able to focus on just our family this past month, and the bonding we've been able to do. I think the kids are adjusting fairly well. If I had to guess which kid is having the most difficult time, I would say it is Ajers ... He is so used to being outside with a ton of kids running around and it's been hot, and he just has one pal here now, and I think he was expecting masses of kids, and I'm sure there will be soon, but for now, it's a ghost town atmosphere. But generally, they've all been in good spirits, have been swimming lots, eating plenty of FroYo (we can walk to The Yogurt Bar near our house!), playing together, and watching YOU'RE CUT OFF, my new favorite reality TV show on VH1 -- HAVE YOU SEEN IT? Rich princessy women live together in a modest house and have to fend for themselves - it's AWESOME! We have the boys already taking guitar and keyboard lessons, and are looking for art lessons for Diva. I've been trying to catch up on reading, as you know from my last post, and in the evenings we all head outside to hang out and have dinner. Sometimes it does still feel like we're on vacation.

Anyway, that's my boring but necessary update for now. Not sure if I will have any exciting stuff to share, but that is a good thing. Boring is normal, normal is good, and good is definitely what I need in my life at the moment!

Hope the summer is shaping up the way you have hoped it would!

PeaCe uP!

~MaNiC MoMMy