September 7

Ahhh, Labor Day. As Jack said today: "It's like Sunday, but it's Monday!"

Today was a great day together. We did some cleaning, unpacking, unwinding, and a lot of shopping! We started at Bed Bath & Beyond, where we got stuff to make our bathroom Autumn-tastic, and then ended up here for several fun but tiring hours:

Evidently IKEA turns Jack into a master carpenter, since he opted not to buy anything in the place, but rather, to head over to Lowes, buy wood, and build everything from scratch. 500% more work for about 10% less cost? Alright, honey. Go for it.

September 6

It was quiet.

We sat on the front porch of Jack's parents' little country house in East Texas, sitting in the cool shade and enjoying the trees. The dog was sunning himself in the yard, and Jack, his parents, and myself occasionally struck up a conversation about nothing in particular. The grill heated up and flies buzzed around us, evidently triggering an urge in Jack to practice his "Karate Kid" moves.

A fly would land on Jack's leg. He would slowly lift his hand up behind the fly, then launch his hand at the fly suddenly in an attempt to catch it.

Miss.

Another would land on me. Jack would try and fail at catching it once more, this time slapping me in the process.

"You're not going to catch one, Jack," I told him.

"I am! I am going to catch one!" Then, with renewed motivation to show me that he could, he would try again.

Another miss.

"What are you going to do if you catch one?" I asked.

"I'm going to shake it up and pop it in my mouth," he joked, with animated pantomime, then he went back to trying to catch flies.

Miss. Miss. Miss.

It went on like this for a while. A very long while.

Another landed on his knee. Like all the other times, Jack raised his hand and readied himself for the attack.

Swipe!

Jack closed his hand into a loose fist and looked up at me with wide eyes and a big smile.

"I caught one!!" he said, excitedly.

"Did you really catch one?" I asked, skeptically, as I took his picture with my phone.

"I did! Watch!" he said, as he slowly opened his hand. A fly crawled out of his hand and flew away.

He did it. My husband caught a fly with his hand.

What a freak.

September 5

I've been looking forward to this for weeks. As evidenced by my current extremely chipped toenail polish. I was holding out for today.

My mother-in-law, Cathy, and I planned a pedicure day while I was in town this weekend, and we were both really excited about it. When we got there, it was the usual rolly-back-but-I-turn-the-poundy-part-off-because-I-don't-like-it massage chair and hot bubbly water for my tootsies.

Ahhhh.

And then she came over. She didn't look like a professional torturer at first glance, but I came to learn that this was no ordinary pedicurist. She was a sadicurist.

It started like they always do. She grabbed a foot and started clipping the nails. Still relaxed. Then she picked up the nail file and it started going terribly, terribly wrong.

Perhaps it was a bet she had with somebody else in the salon; maybe she said "watch this - I'll bet I can get her to kick me because she's in so much pain." Though that seems like it wouldn't be a good bet even if she won. Maybe she was just mad at her husband.

Anyway.

She opted for the "jam the nail file between your toenail and skin and rub hard" route, which was unpleasant but manageable. I got through both feet of filing without screaming out or reacting too much. 

Then, she began using her clippy tool to remove parts of my skin, which was even more painful. By the time she got to the metal stick thing with the millions of tiny blades on it, she was putting all her weight into it, shaving away the entire outer layer (and probably a few layers underneath) of my skin. 

Then, just when I thought she was done with the metal stick thing, she started over with it. I don't know if she just forgot that she had already done that one or what, but the second time was obviously worse.

Evidently when I said "Ow. Ow. Ow ow ow ow. Owowowowowow! OW!" she heard "I really like that, and having skin on the bottom of my feet has really become a drag. Please keep doing that." My mother-in-law even asked her "is that supposed to hurt?" 

And for picking up on hints and context clues, you get a D-.

After she put the torture devices away, however, she did a great job with the nail polish. And after I left, my feet felt pretty good (other than the spot that she literally rubbed raw on my left foot), and my toes are super-sparkly and cute.

I guess sometimes beauty is pain.

Sidenote: Did you see that Jon and Kate might split up? Oh no! I'm so worried about them! I hope they make it!

September 4

We drove to Nacogdoches today. Evidently that turns Jack into a loon.

September 3

Can't decide what the highlight of my week is - the 2,000 hits on SurvivalModeParent.org, or the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino I'm drinking. Tie.

Welcome back, Fall. Welcome back.

September 2

My husband is quite the multi-tasker. The end.

September 1

Today has been unreal.

I'm not going to lie, it's pretty cool to see a lot of people get excited about something you were hoping was as exciting to others as it was to you. It's pretty cool to see influential bloggers pour their heart out to promote your cause, or incredible authors and professional scrapbookers tweet about you.

It has been less than 24 hours since I launched Survival Mode Parent, and it already has more than 1,000 hits. Even better, almost 60 people have signed up to be volunteers. When I put the locations of all the volunteers who signed up today into Google Maps, the final product took my breath away a little bit.

There are people from everywhere signing up to help others. There are people from everywhere hearing about this website, signing up, and telling their friends about it.

There are people from everywhere expecting me to match them with people from everywhere who need help. There are people from everywhere expecting this website to function as it should.

That's a lot of pressure.

But, you know, the good kind of pressure, like the kind that makes diamonds. Or something like that.

Diamonds or not, every time I think about the scope of this project, I hyperventilate a little bit.

I'm going to need somebody for every city in the whole US! Do you know how many cities that is, Mandy? And, really, I need way more than one person for big cities! What if I can't keep up with all the needs?

And oh my gosh what about a background check? How do I do that? How much does that cost? Who will pay for that? Am I going to get sued if something happens between the two parties?

And then I got an e-mail a few minutes ago from a lovely woman, asking if I had any plans on expanding the service to Canada as well.

A whole 'nother country? Um... sure! Go ahead and sign up! We can match in Canada too!

It's an interesting feeling, riding a wave of uncertainty and trusting God to provide. And judging by today's results?

He is. Um, a lot.

I needed support, and there was Ellyn. I needed a way to get the word out, and there was Facebook, Twitter, the MckForum, the Tip Junkie giveaway directory, and so many bloggers who were happy to help. I needed a way to bring people in and there was my silly little business where I could give away something that was pretty much free to me.

Oh my, what a coincidence. Oh my, how well that just happened to work out.

So the next part? The part where I lay awake at night wondering how I'm going to be able to continue to get this many volunteers every day so that there's actually a chance that Survival Mode Parent will be able to provide names of people who can help to parents?

Well, I doubt I'll have to worry too much about that part.

He seems to have it pretty well covered.