I have a weird headache that keeps making me think that I should take my glasses off the top of my head -- but they're not there. It also kind of feels like glasses are pressing down too hard on my nose....but my glasses are on the table next to me. I guess this is the lingering effect of the two 40 minute school bus rides I took earlier today with a gaggle of 8 year olds. They were well behaved, but it's noisy on a bus even under the best circumstances - especially when it is hot and humid outside and you're riding on the interstate with the windows open.

The weather forecast was for rain, so I was wearing jeans tucked into some black rain boots, with a rain jacket tied around my waist. This turned out to be not the best wardrobe for a sunny, humid day - but how was I to be sure the weather forecasters would get it wrong again?

The kids mostly kept busy on the bus by reading books, which was admirable and kept the noise level down. (Except for the boy behind me who kept trying to lick his seat mates - which included my own child - in between pages of his Pokemon book and therefore caused a lot of squealing and squirming.) I kept pretty busy reading things on my phone, including Xanga blogs. On the ride home, I tired of the tiny phone screen and asked my son if I could read his school journal, which he had brought along on the bus. Reading his letters to Rick Riordan and J.K. Rowling (his favorite authors) and his principal ("When classes go on a field trip do you have to tell the owners of the place that they are coming?"), along with his poetry and similes ("I wish I was as smart as an ape."), was so enjoyable that I tried to continue even when I began to get nauseous.

Don't worry, I didn't yack on the bus. But it did take a good hour to feel normal again after getting back on solid ground. Whew!

We visited one of the first British settlements in Virginia, a place we had visited before as a family. Some, but not all, of the tour guides were in period costumes and personas. It was kind of weird to be handed off from the very authentically corporal Sergeant at Arms in the settlers village to the hippy-esque girl with ribbons in her hair wearing a rocker t-shirt in the Indian village, but the kids didn't seem to notice. They loved being barked at by the Sergeant, and didn't listen quite as well to the girl who started every sentence with, "Guys!" They came dangerously close to crashing from too-early-snack-time while trying to listen to a long presentation in a settler household, and then nearly uncaged the farm animals when they were finally let loose from the confined primitive kitchen space.

All in all, it was a nice day and I'm glad I got to chaperone. I only had 6 kids to keep tabs on and we traveled in a bigger pack that included 2 other parents and 2 teachers. Easy peasy. Not like the 1st grade trip to the zoo I did 3 years ago, where the 6 kids ran frantically in 6 directions from one habitat to the other, spilling cups of animal feed. I was sure I would lose a kid on that trip. Thankfully, I was able to follow the trails of animal food before anyone got too lost.

Field trip season is over for this year - on to the next round of events.....music recitals  -- drums, piano, and recorder (my personal favorite ). Think that weird ghost-glasses-on-the-head headache will go away anytime soon?!?

So have you seen the picture on the cover of Time Magazine, with the no-longer-a-baby aged kid being breastfed by his thin, attractive, blonde mom? Of course you have, because it's EVERYWHERE online. I didn't watch the news tonight, because I rarely watch the news with our kids around, and they seem to always be around. But if I had watched the news, I bet I would have seen the magazine cover there and heard more about the shock factor.

It is a shocking photo - duh, they want to sell magazines.

I know the article is about attachment parenting, but I can't find the article online to actually read it. From what I can tell, you need a Time subscription to read it there, and I don't have one. Did all the other people who commented on the photo pay to read the article? Or are they more cyber savvy than I and manage to find free access to read it? Or did they (horrors!) not read the article at all and just comment on the cover?

Eh, who cares. I only feel like I want to read the article because I want to know if I need to be on the offensive, ready to be attacked by anyone. There's a war on women, you know, in case you hadn't heard. And thanks to Mrs. Romney, we SAHMs have been taking it on the chin a bit. So when I see the tag line under the photo on Time says, "Are You Mom Enough?" -- I get suspicious as to whether or not I'm being mocked or attacked or judged.

HAHAHAHA! Of course I am. That's what women do to each other. We don't need a magazine cover to get us going. Silly Time Warner.

The real reason I bring up this magazine cover is because a guy I know from college, a guy with a very odd sense of humor, decided to alter the photo today on his Facebook page. He pasted the face of a mutual friend from college (very poorly) onto the nursing child's body and made some lame joke about this being how the guy keeps his youthful appearance. Stupid, not worth my comment. But he tagged me in the photo. WHAT? So now everyone who I'm friends with sees this creepy picture of my now-a-dentist college friend suckling on this blonde babe of a mom and sees my name associated with it? Gross.

I untagged myself, because apparently my Google skills are good enough to figure that one out.

(I know @ordinarybutloud is now mumbling about how Facebook is the devil, so let's pause for a minute so she can get that out of her system.)

There. That's better.

It's really not that big of a deal, but it made me mad to have someone else trying to mess with my Facebook persona, which is carefully constructed, I might add. If you were to spend some time on my FB page, you would get inklings of my political leanings and causes that I support. But I'm not in-your-face about it, because you know what I always say - keep it light and fluffy on the devil FB. That picture did not really scream light and fluffy, what with the middle aged man face and all. Maybe I should go post a picture of a teddy bear or something, to restore the fluffiness.

Today was Field Day at the kids' school. It was a very hot day, and I've been around the block a few times.....so I was smart enough to pass on the outdoor morning activities this year. Like everything else at school these days, parents are encouraged to participate. Unlike most other things, though, they don't really ask parents to contribute any supplies or volunteer time on Field Day, so that's a nice change of pace. Lunch is eaten in the classrooms (or outside when it's not sweltering) and many parents head up to school to eat with their kids.

This year, I asked the kids if they wanted to buy the bagged lunch sold through the cafeteria. That was a negative, times two. It seems that last year our daughter ordered a hot dog in her lunch, and it was served frozen on a soggy bun. (GAG) My next question was, "Do you want me to eat lunch with you?" Our son said yes right away, but his sister gave me a sort of non-committal head wag/shoulder shrug combo. "Let me rephrase that -- do you want me to bring you something to eat for lunch?" That got a big nod, especially once I mentioned sandwiches from Subway. So, in case you're not clear - she doesn't want my company, but she does want whatever food I might be delivering.

Truth be told, that was just fine, because they were both eating at the same time and I can only be in one classroom at a time. What I didn't expect was the reception I got from the 4th grader when I hand delivered her Subway sandwich, bag of Sun Chips, Honest Kids berry drink, and fun sized Skittles bag. Her classroom was dark, as they were cooling off from the heat while watching a movie in the room. I snuck in and she darted out of her seat when she spotted me. As I leaned in to whisper a hello, she must have thought I was going to give her a --- wait for it --- KISS! Naturally, her embarrassment level immediately went to DEFCON 1, and she sort of nudged me toward the door as she took the bag of food and scurried back to her seat. Wow. She's lucky she mumbled a thank you as she sprinted away from me or I would have broken into a dance right then and there and made sure everyone knew I was HER mom!!!

My ego was soothed when our son gave me a kiss on the lips right in front of all the other little 2nd grade boys and invited me to sit on the carpet and eat lunch with him and his buddies. He wanted me to stay for the afternoon activities, and since they were inside in the air conditioning, I obliged. He also invited me to dance with him right there in the cafeteria, in front of his entire grade level. I was the only parent who got up there and did it, and I loved every minute of it.  If my daughter had walked by, I would have gotten down on the floor and done some sort of break dancing solo while screaming her name at the top of my lungs.  Lucky for her, she was in another part of the building then.

Now that they are home from school, they are both having idyllic childhood afternoons. Our son's best friend came over to play in his room, away from the heat. There, they discovered some old plywood from a school Tae-Kwon-Do exhibition. They proceeded to break those boards into little shards of wood all over our front porch in a glorious display of boy power and prowess.  And then they cleaned up, using an elaborate system that involved one kid holding a stack of wood shards while the other quickly opened the big garbage dumpster lid, and then both kids holding their breath and running away for precisely 5 seconds while the air cleared. They repeated this until all shards were trashed. Now they are swinging together in the neighbor's yard while listening to their respective iPods. I wonder if they are each singing their own tune? My guess is yes, but I can't hear them from here. That's probably a good thing!

Our daughter had some down time to clean up and recuperate from hotter than hot Field Day. Her favorite part was "the part where we got to be inside." Yup, that's my girl. Now she is down the street at a friend's house for an American Girl party. She has never been to a party like this before, and her friend put it together "just because" - it's not her birthday or anything. The small group of girls are all 10 and 11 and have loved AGs for years. They are quickly approaching the age where they will outgrow them, so it is so sweet to know that they are gathered today making crafts and "tea cakes" for their dolls. So few girls are interested in dolls at that age anymore. Everyone is in such a rush to grow up, so I am more than happy to have a girl who is equal parts mature and innocent.

See what nice things I say about her, even though she finds me hideously embarrassing?!?! It's much more fun to embarrass them on purpose than it is to do so without even trying.

What do you do to embarrass your kids?