August 17 and no posts yet??

While I fully intend to update this blog with stories and photos from our adventures the first week in August, when we traveled to D.C., Niagra Falls, Toronto and then Ohio for birthday party memories...it's been just plain crazy and I have not had the opportunity to sit long enough to load the pictures and describe the fun things we saw and did.
Here's why I haven't had that time:
After returning on a Sunday evening, getting unpacked and back in order, I worked the following Monday through Thursday- all without a proper grocery shopping trip. Ended that week with a nice large pinched nerve in my right shoulder and unable to get an appointment with my massage lady!
That Friday- my first day off, I grocery shopped in the morning, took a car load of boys to the army surplus store to shop for airsoft supplies and camo wear. Picked up a car we've been looking at/negotiating for, to bring home for an overnight visit. Cleaned the downstairs and prepared food for eight as we were expecting visitors from Pennsylvania for dinner as they were in town dropping off their youngest at NC State for her freshman year :) We had great fun with them. FYI- the grill was not cooking properly and I thought my sunflower seeds were rancid- but dinner turned out great and no one got sick!!
Saturday, I dropped three girls off at church at 9:30 for a "welcome to middle school" day long party, stopped back at the dealership with said borrowed car. Keith met me where we negotiated for the price we wanted, I drove home in my minivan one last time to get the spare key, title, insurance info, unload our stuff from it, and grab a bottle of vodka for the salesman and manager who we now LOVE. Grabbed Keith's car, and headed to the soccer fields to "card" our players for the year...then "moved" into my new ESCALADE (his name is bert and he is known as the "caddy wagon"). He is a 2010 dealer demo with 20K miles. Great price, great car and much easier to drive than I initially thought. Like riding on a cloud :) Keith went to pick said girls from church party in my new car. They were covered in ketchup, mustard, ranch dressing, flour, whipped cream, etc. Thankfully I sent towels with Keith.
Sunday was church, pack and head to Wrightsville Beach for a mini vacay- our last trip of summer and first beach trip of the season. Less crowded= love!! So....we get back this afternoon and I take Justin to football. He comes to me at 7:15- an hour and 15 min into practice. Crying. Swollen pinky and wrist. Pain. We stop at urgent care for xray. Their xray is broken. We pick Keith up at home and head to ER. Four hours later....we find the pinky is fractured clear through the middle knuckle. No more football. Not sure even guitar is possible for six weeks. He had to have three injections into the finger and then they set it. It was gross. So swollen. Now he's splinted and has to see an orthopaedic doc to evaluate. While in the ER, we saw a slightly older guy in with a broken thumb and another about Justin's age with a very swollen ankle. I had to wash his hair tonight. I will likely have to do this for the next five or six weeks. YIKES.
Anyway...these are my reasons for the delay in photos and stories from our vacation the first week in August. It's just been plain busy!!