Two Conversations Between Two Six-Year-Olds

Conversation #1

Harrison's adenoidectomy and ear tube insertion surgery is tomorrow and he has been telling everyone about it and his hearing loss that led up to the surgery. Telling his friend Taylor about it, he finished by proudly saying, "And the best part is, I get to eat all the ice cream I want!"

Taylor looked at him incredulously and said, "Ice cream's the cure?"

"No, hospital ice cream is."

***************************


Conversation #2



Taylor: Knock knock.
(Six year olds are bonkers for knock-knock jokes.)
Harrison: Who's there?
Taylor: Anakin Skywalker.
Harrison: Anakin Skywalker, who?
Taylor: Dum dum dum, dumdumdum dumdumdum. I cut off your arm.

I love six year olds.

Summer Day

About to sit and watch some TV with my hunny while we eat some ice cream. (I stole his ‘top-of-the-carton’ serving—I’m in trouble now.) Took the boy to the dentist today; he impressed them with his super-clean teeth. (I keep telling him that brushing twice a day is a good thing!) Otherwise, we just kind of hung out. I’m working on the muslin for my jacket and it’s kind of driving me batty, so I think I’m going to think about a different project for a day or two so my ‘eureka!’ moment can happen.

Off to the tube! (Does anyone even have a tube television anymore?)

Waiting for Steve Jobs

No...phone... iPhone backing up… Software…updating… Hours…without…apps… Don’t remember…what…to do…in bathroom…without surreptitious email…and Facebook…checks…

In a nice touch from the Irony Fairies, Robert sold our iPods to fund the acquisition of our new iPhones (about which we have received word on shipping—yay!). I’m working in the office/sewing room tonight and don’t have my phone or my iPod to listen to.

Gah!

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Minutes

So, I’ve reached my goal. I’ve blogged for each and every day of the past year. It seems kind of amazing that I finished it up. I’ll be honest—there were plenty of times when I just flat out didn’t want to do anything. Being sick, being tired (oh yeah, my thyroid is fine, but apparently I have a jinked up iron level), just not feeling like I had anything to say. But I trudged through because I had made a commitment to do so.

And so.

How do I measure a year?

In morning snuggles on the couch with the boy.

In piggy-tail sessions with the girl.

In conversations with my husband about the interesting and the inane.

In kisses and hugs.

In plants planted and subsequently killed (or thriving, as the case seems to be for a precious few in this drought year).

In art pieces that were awesome and award-worthy.

In art projects that made me question what the heck I was doing.

In birthday parties.

In vomit and high temperatures (thankfully, not at the same time!).

In teeth gained (Laura’s up to five now!) and lost (Harrison’s down to 18-1/2).

In jewelry, from the beautiful diamond Robert got me after 16 years of marriage to the necklace Harrison printed out from the internet and colored, stringing on yarn and giving me after telling me that I was the best Mommy in the world, to the red stone bracelet that I made the other day that makes me want to get into beading to Laura wearing stacking rings on her arms as bracelets and trying to steal the thumbprint pendant necklace that Robert made for me from the kids fingers for Mothers Day.

In clean sinks and beds made and floors swept.

In vision restored.

In lots of coffee.

In love.

Maturity

We did our Father’s Day stuff a day early this year, trucking over to Shreveport to go to SciPort. I feel like I should feel guilty for trying to ‘geek’ my kid up, but in all honesty I don’t think I could change him if I tried. He loves science—mostly astronomy, which he is thrilled to share with his dad. One of my favorite moments of the day was when he climbed up in the clubhouse in the younger kids section and saw the telescope. He immediately screeched across the room, “Hey Dad, look! It’s a telescope!” and looked through it to see Robert.

I can’t say how proud I am of how he’s growing up. He reads, much to the surprise of strangers and much to the joy of my heart. I treasure the afternoon reading time we share—he with his book, me often with mine, snuggled on the couch and feeding our imaginations. Sometimes, I’ll share a book with him and let him read to me, filling in on the harder words and letting him stop to ask me questions. Either way, it’s good stuff.

On top of the reading, he’s getting really good at navigating the day to day stuff that used to make me really nervous. We instituted a chore chart for him a few weeks ago and he dutifully does his daily jobs, usually without whining (unless it’s laundry, which he’s still not excited about), and checks them off. He loves having the satisfaction of seeing all that he’s accomplished for the day and I love seeing him develop a healthy attitude about housework. It’s something that will likely never disappear from his life, so I’m glad that he’s not going to have to grow up dreading it.

Part of me dreads him maturing and growing up since it means I’ll be losing my baby to some big, gangly teenager and eventually a real, actual adult. Other times, I wonder if his maturing can go any faster since he’s driving me nuts. Always, though, I’m proud of who he is and who he is becoming.

Itchy

Having Lasik performed on your eyes makes you feel like you always have old contacts on. Sadly, you can’t remove them. You can just moisten them. A lot.

I’m off to moisten and rest my eyes and hope that they feel better tomorrow.

For what it’s worth, the vision thing still rocks my world. I’m just ready to not feel the itchy, stingy, pain in the eyeball business that I’ve been dealing with.

[I know. Baby want a bottle? Yes. A nice Chianti would take the edge off quite well.]

20/20 Achieved!

So.

I can see now.

It’s totally weird. There are individual leaves in the trees. Individual pine needles. Roofs are shingled with individual shingles.

Well, duh, Amy!

Yeah, duh, but it’s amazing the things you don’t see when you can’t see. Contacts never gave me this kind of clarity; glasses never even came close.

Because of the irritation, it feels like I’m wearing contacts. Actually, it feels like I’m wearing old contacts. But I juice them up once an hour, either with the general drops or the steroidal drops that I suppose are going to make my eyes look like Arnold Schwartzeneger’s thighs. At night, I put the soupy, thick stuff in and clock out, wearing my goggles that protect me from scratched corneas and the possibility of sex. I can see that, in the long run, the drops are going to get old, but fortunately, most of them are only for a week or two. It seems a small price to pay to be able to read street signs from far away.

In other, non-eye-related news, Harrison sewed his bag today and it looks fan-freakin’-tastic! I’m really proud of the little bugger. I cut the pieces out and pinned them together, and I drew a line for him to stitch along, but he did all the actual stitching. He also helped with a little bit of the pressing, which made me nervous but he handled it really well. We still need to get a strap on it—I’m thinking of checking Hancock’s tomorrow—and he wants to put snaps on it, which I’ve got in my stash. We should be able to get it finished within the next day, which would be beyond awesome. Who needs crinkled up plastic crappy bags for the library when you’ve got your own Indiana Jones satchel that you made yourself?!?

Off to moisten my eyes and hit the sack. There’re going to be swordsmen (and women?) at the library tomorrow and I need to get rested up before dragging the boy over there.

I Can See Clearly Now the F’ed Up Lens Is Gone

So the lasering went well. I’m already able to see better than I was able to. My eye’s are sore right now and I’m mostly typing this with them closed, opening only to check occasionally when something doesn’t feel “right.” Thank you to all those typing teachers from junior high through high school who drilled home row and qwerty into my brain.

I’m about to put in the last of my five eye drops and head to bed. I napped pretty much from the time I got home until about an hour ago when Robert got me up to discuss my medicine lineup. He’s taken all five of my drops and made me an Excel document that shows all the times I need to put drops in. I truly have the best husband. :)

So off I go. Hopefully, the flap will be more healed tomorrow and I’ll be able to look at stuff for more than five seconds before it gets sore.

Yay for corrective vision!

Pre-Surgery Jitters

So.

Tomorrow’s it.

I’m excited about getting my eyes fixed, but I am just a little bit nervous. Honestly, I’m trying to not think about it a whole lot. I’m supposed to be having the “easy” surgery—flaps as opposed to a big eye scab—but I don’t see any way it can’t suck. (Pun definitely intended…) I mean, seeing will be good, but the laser doesn’t excite me. They give you a muscle relaxant beforehand. I wonder if they could give me two.

In other news, Harrison and I got a little bit of work done on his Man Bag today. He helped iron the fabrics we’re using and I got them all cut to size and I got the seams he’s to sew marked for him.  I’m figuring we won’t be sewing tomorrow (duh), but maybe by this weekend I’ll be up for it. As soon as we get it done, I’ll write up a tutorial for making one—it’s pretty simple and a great project for a beginner. After that, I hope to get a few things done for myself and then maybe go back to showing him how to sew—probably some shorts or pajama pants or something. Lots of straight seams.

Off to bed and my last night with sucky vision!

Beers is Good For Your Vision

Or at least your mental state when contemplating your vision.

One more day with glasses.

I’m excited but I’m also a little bit scared. I mean, I had surgery to get the kids out of my belly, but this is different—this is my eyes. One slip and I won’t be able to see anything. I mean, yeah, they use computers and all that business, but I guess I’m just paranoid.

I’m sure it will be fine. I’ve put off thinking about it too much because I knew that I would do this.

Alas, it’s nothing that a few beers can’t make better. So I’m finding. ;)

So tomorrow in glasses, Wednesday morning in glasses and then no more.

Do they allow beer at the eye surgery place?

A Slice of the Pie

Peaceful weekend at Casa Brown. Aside from taking the boy to Lowe’s for Build and Grow, we pretty much did a lot of nothing. Piddled around the house, cleaning a bit, decluttering, etc. Went to the pool yesterday. Today the kids and I hung out while Robert got groceries. Really, nothing of note happened.

And I’m pretty cool with that. This weekend was one of those ‘slice of life’ times where there weren’t big, dramatic things happening, but rather small, not-important-but-actually-very-important things. Harrison played video games. Laura climbed on anything (or anyone) that didn’t move and felt the force of gravity a few times (from a very low height!). Robert is looking at stars right now. I’m cleaning out fabric scraps so that I can finish working in the office/sewing room. All minor things. All important things in defining who we are.

Tomorrow, another slice will be served up, flavored with kisses, hugs, tears, tantrums, and hundreds of other things.

[Incidentally, I’m not sure why I’m all maudlin all of a sudden. I guess it’s that I finally got a break from work—a real break—and I’m finally relaxed enough to start reflecting on things. Whatever. I’m sure I’ll be back to cranky/dorky soon enough. :) ]

All Play and Some Work

Looking at my office, I’m frustrated that it’s in such a mess right now, but I’m kind of excited about how it’s (hopefully!!!) going to end up. After I spent several days last weekend meticulously going through everything on my desk, sorting, organizing, purging and dusting everything my hands touched, I was able to walk away with a completely organized desk. This doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve ever met me, you know that, as much as I might try to straighten up my clutter act, the desk is kind of a no-win-zone. But it got done, and I was very, very happy with myself.

Flash forward to today. I got the shelf I bought at Ikea put together pretty easily. I mean, it took less than an episode of Sesame Street to get it done. (I had to put something on for Laura to keep her out of my hair while I built it…) But when I moved it into the office to put under my cutting table—the location I’ve been dreaming of for it for months—I found that the legs of the table were just slightly too narrowly placed to allow for my new shelf. Sigh. After much moaning and groaning, I realized that I could unscrew the legs and rescrew them further out in the corners. Grand scheme of things, I think this is going to make just enough room for the shelf to fit.

So, I started this hours ago—I should be done now. Except that we decided to get out of the house for a little bit. Robert was going stir crazy, the kids were going stir crazy. I was the only one who had spent multiple days away from the house so I wasn’t as manic, but I did want to have some fun so I suggested we go to the pool. Harrison had a blast. Laura was, well, not completely unpleased (she liked the splashing after a while, but it took a while to get her calmed down to that point…). Robert and I had fun—we traded out kids from time to time, first me sitting with the girl while he swam around with the boy and then trading, and then trading again, on and on for well over an hour. Getting into the pool was $5 total for the family, which is a bargain for a whole crew of smiles.

I can definitely see taking everyone back for lots of fun this summer. For now, though, I need to get some sleep and then continue working on the table that is still half-legless so I can have my clean office back again.

Home from Austin. Had a good time, learned lots of useful stuff, went to Ikea. VERY glad to be home, though. Glad to not be in a room full of people all trying to out-art-teacher each other. Glad to not be in a hotel FULL of people trying to out-FINE-arts-teacher everyone else. (Those damned theater teachers are SO DRAMATIC!!!) Glad to be home, about to sleep in my own bed and not on a fold out couch in a warm hotel room. (Post-menopausal roommates, while interesting and wonderful people, are kind of a challenge sometimes...) Gladdest of all to be back in the arms of my sweet husband and precious babies.

One Day Left…

Getting ready to crash for the night. CEDFA conference has been ok today. The first workshop I went to was, sadly, a waste of my time but it earned me four hours of comp time, so I’m not complaining. The second workshop, though, was pretty good. The presenters for that session are going to be our presenters all day tomorrow and so I have high hopes for what they’ve got coming down the pipe. Already, looking through the handout, I’ve seen two different lessons that I want to try with the kids. They’re also going to be talking about digital portfolios tomorrow and I’m pretty excited about that idea. I’ve wanted to do those with my students for years and I am hoping that these ladies will have some realistic and workable solutions to help me get that idea up and running.

I’m ready to be through, though. I’m ready to be home with my family, curled up on the couch snuggling and just enjoying each other’s company.

It’s going to be a long day and a long drive home.

But we’ll make it.

Made it to Austin this afternoon. We've piddled around town and are now back at the hotel. Looking forward to the classes the next two days. CEDFA's Fine Arts Summit was awesome last year and I expect it to be great this year, too.

Work-shoppin’ My Nerves

Well, much as I expected, the workshop I sat through today was a total wash for me.

I get so tired of being told that the entire campus has to go to these workshops, only to find that the information being presented is aimed at just the core teachers (English, Science, Math and History).

I don’t for a second want to teach English again—that’s not what this is about. If I must do continuing education—and the state of Texas says that I must—I want to be allowed to spend my precious summer vacation time in workshops that actually target my teaching field. I don’t want to sit and listen to disaggregation of TAKS data or whose fault it is that Little Susie can’t add. (Math is hard, y’all!)

I’m going to spend the next three days doing art teacher specific workshops, so I guess that takes the sting out of today’s waste of time. I got a lot from the CEDFA conference last year, so I have high hopes for this year’s presentations.

Honestly, though, if I had my druthers, I’d druther stay home with my sweet husband and kids and work around the house and just relax. I guess I’ll take along some books to read, just in case, and hope for the best.

At the very least, Austin has some awesome sushi, so at least I can dream about that. :)

Van-tastic!

So.

I had my collision in February. Long story short, it was one of those snow days where we were all, “Holy crap! It’s snowing! In East Texas! Again!” The first time we had one of those, everyone was amazed and all atwitter about it. “What a marvelous thing, this snow!” By the time the second one rolled around, it was toward the end of the month and Spring was on Her way and, well, the snow thing wasn’t so cute anymore. The third (and final, thank God!) time it decided to snow on us, it was March, and I had already planted my blueberries and, good grief, it’s snowing again?!?

So yeah. Snow. Second go around. Yeah, it was cool that it was snowing and yeah, it was pretty, but c’mon, it’s cold!

And there were things to do. Harrison’s class had to have snacks and I was supposed to be the mom who provided them the next day. (I forgot to make note of this on grocery day, of course…) He also had a birthday party to go to. A girl’s party. A girl he had asked to marry him who had agreed. (It should be noted that she later rescinded her agreement—he pestered her to the point that she didn’t like him anymore. Sigh. Kid’s still learning about pestering.) There were presents to buy.

It’s been noted before that I’m kind of a snob. Whatever. I refuse to go into Wal-Mart and that makes me a snob to some, but in my eyes, it makes me really freakin’ smart.

Except when you have to get snacks and a Barbie doll. And it’s snowing. And Target is all the way across town.

I decided to go ahead and truck it across town to Target because, c’mon, it’s snowing! Everyone else will be at home making snowmen!

And they were. Except for this one kid who was driving his parent’s Explorer. He was out driving around.

And the little bugger rear ended me.

Grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that bad a crash. He lost control of his car on a wet patch coming up on the traffic light at which I was about to turn. He hit me at a relatively slow speed and, thank God, no one was hurt. Harrison was with me but he was buckled in and in his booster seat. He was more mad about his milk getting spilled from his cup than anything else.

The kid, on the other hand, was pretty peeved that I insisted on calling the cops to come out. As it happens, it’s good that I did. Apparently, the kid had an insurance card with him, but he was not covered by that insurance policy.

Which we didn’t find out until a few weeks ago. His insurance His parents’ insurance agency pussy-footed around for three months before they finally let us know that, nope, sorry, kid wasn’t covered, so we’re not fixing your van’s tailgate.

Awesome.

Robert has been working with our guys (Allstate, in case you wondered—if President Palmer’s involved, I’m in…) for a few weeks now, coordinating the schedules of me, him, the insurance peeps and the body shop guy with the turning over of my van to be fixed and the getting of a loaner vehicle so I’m not marooned here at the house. It has been no small feat for him and I have to say, when I finally showed up at all the places I was supposed to go to today—insurance place, body shop, rental place—they all knew the score and were ready to do what needed to be done. I have the best husband! :)

As a funny aside to this ongoing story (I should get my van back by the end of the week, which is when I’ll consider it over, although I think our insurance bulldogs are attacking the non-insured kid and suing), the vehicle I’m renting to replace my van is…my van. I mean, it’s identical. The only difference is that it’s a 2010 and mine is a 2008. Color (or non-color—they’re white!), seats, buttons on the dash. It’s all the same. It’s nice, though, because as I was driving home from the rental shop I didn’t have to fumble around to find things—I knew exactly where they were.

I’m really ready for this week to be over so that this chapter in my car adventures will be over.

And if it snows next winter? I’m not leaving the house.

Plans

AlleyFest is over. The first week of my summer vacation is over. I’ve got heat rash and I’m bone tired, but I think I’m going to make it. Next week is a workshop that is all but useless to me and a conference that is directly in line with what I teach. I figure I’ll get lots drawn/doodled on Tuesday and hopefully will have lots of useful notes for the rest of the week.

After this week, I’ll be pretty much free to come and go with the boy during the day as I need and want. We are going to do some cool stuff—bowling, putt putt, maybe a movie or two. All kinds of cool stuff. I’m planning on actually getting around to teaching him how to sew in the next few weeks. I see us doing some art—painting, drawing, shrinky-dinkying, whatever. The library is going to be doing a ton of stuff, so I hope to go see some of that.

None of this, of course, mentions the fun stuff I want us to do as a family unit—visits to the zoo, picnics, park visits. We want to go to the drive in movie theater in Tyler (and not the creepy, pervy adult theater but the family friendly one that does double features of kids’ shows).

I think, now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, that this is going to be a very good summer.

Hot Children in the City

One day of AlleyFest down, one more to go. I had to leave a few hours early today as it was so freaking hot I was about to pass out. The one time I went out walking the block with dad to see stuff and get food, I just about passed out from heat and exhaustion. Whoever the genius was who thought it would be fun to have a street carnival in East Texas in June, I have to wonder at their sanity.

Griping about weather aside, it was really fun working the booth today. For my part, I was showing kids how to make recycled paper. We added wildflower seeds so the kids could plant it, which they all thought was pretty cool. I had some awesome volunteers who were helping me out and the folks running the show—weather oblivious though they might be—were really nice. They provided lots of water and we got some cool orange shirts and free food!

In all, it was a good day, but I have to wonder if I’m going to be brave/stupid enough to do it again next year.

Off to sleep so that I can get up and do it again tomorrow.

Alley-Ooop!

Should be in bed right now since I have to be downtown around 9 am tomorrow. Looking forward to AlleyFest tomorrow, but considering the impending heat, I think I’m going to be glad when it’s over. Hope that I get to see some of the cool stuff and that I don’t get tied down to the table teaching how to make paper. Definitely need to bring water to drink!

Finished one of the inservice/workshops today. One more school-mandated-has-nothing-to-do-with-teaching-art one down and one more that is art specific to go and then I’m pretty much done for the summer. Hoping after next week I can finally relax and have some fun and not be worrying about how hyper-scheduled I am right now.

Sigh.

Upcoming Fun

In two weeks, I’ll have perfect vision. As for now, I’ve got corneas that have been prodded repeatedly and pupils that are so dilated I look like a junkies. I look like an anime character without the pert nose or the short skirt. I had to laugh when the guy doing all the diagnostic stuff asked me to open my eyes as wide as I could so he could do some sort of looking around in them. If you know me, you know that my eyes are pretty big to begin with. Me bug-eyeing him had to be pretty…interesting. :)

AlleyFest is this weekend, so if you’re in town stop by and check it out. Longview WOW has some cool stuff planned, as do other organizations I’m sure. Looking forward to seeing what’s going to be available (and hoping that the temperatures won’t be sooooo miserable.

Two (real, non-holiday, non-weekend) days into summer. House is staying clean. Had dr. visits today and more follow tomorrow. Getting my eyes checked out for lasering later this month and getting my thyroid checked to see why I'm always tired. Hope they both tell me something good!

First [Non Holiday] Day of Summer!

Got soooo much work done today. Hung hand towel racks in both bathrooms and replaced the arse-ugly bath towel rack in the guest bathroom. Swept and mopped the floors in both and scrubbed both toilets. Counters wiped down. Installed the shower cleaning system thingies Robert wanted me to get. (They’re cool—cleaning robots!) Labeled the shelves in the linen closet as well as Harrison’s toy shelves (and talked him into putting some of his toys in the garage sale—score!). Dropped off some magazines at work and picked up a few things I need for various projects I’m going to make as demos this summer. Headed over to the library for the Scholastic Book Fair, only to find that it doesn’t start until tomorrow. Sigh. Signed the boy up for Summer Reading Club and let him get a few videos. (He picked science videos aimed at 5th through 8th grade science teachers to teach about the planets and the universe at large. Gah, my kids a dork!) Came home and cooked up Stuffed Squash and Zucchini; I will post the recipe tomorrow—I’m exhausted (really? after all that work?)—but rest assured it was really easy and super awesomely good! Also got the boy’s chore chart worked out so that he can start earning his allowance again. He is very excited about it because he’ll be getting money again. I am very excited about it because maybe now he’ll do his chores without me having to gripe at him constantly. Loved on the baby a little and talked to Robert a little.

Oy, but my feet hurt!

Happy kickoff to summer!

One Step Closer

Spent the day cleaning again. Got the two hall closets cleaned out, which is un-freakin’-believable. Culled out all kinds of sheets, blankets, pillows and tablecloths from the linen closet and Robert got the luggage and tote bags that have apparently been breeding in the other closet under control. I was able to get the sheets we are keeping separated out by size and stacked neatly. Tomorrow I’ll do my favorite part—labeling their new homes. :) (Yes, I’m aware that I’m a complete dork. Whatever. I’ve got a label maker that makes me happy.)

Also spent a ridiculous amount of money at Target on cleaning stuff and handtowel racks for the bathrooms. In all fairness, I’ve wanted racks in there since we moved in, so it’s not like they’re an impulse buy. I also bought a replacement bathtowel rack for Robert’s bathroom—I’ve hated the gold one that is in there, also since we moved in.

In all, a lot of work today, but good results. I’m happy with the day and looking forward to the impending garage sale.

More Declutter

We’ve been working around the house today. Robert took on the ginormous job of getting the garage cleaned and organized, taking everything off the shelves and out of the storage room, sorting it all into related piles and then returning things to their homes. Now that it’s all neat and tidy, we are ready to have a garage sale in a month. We’ll be collecting up all of our stuff that just doesn’t have a home anymore and sitting outside in the Hell-like East Texas heat at the beginning of July for two days. We intend to sell, along with our old crap, sodas, snacks and I think Harrison is going to have a lemonade stand. In all, I think it’s going to be a good thing. We will get rid of stuff and hopefully make some money.

For now, though, we’re exhausted and in much need of sleep.

Fairy Mother

Got to play Tooth Fairy for the second time for my son. Despite the fact that I’m, in fact, lying bald-faced to the young light of my life, it was kind of fun. He couldn’t find his plastic tooth that the dentist gave him for storing disembodied teeth, so I gave him a gold colored draw string bag that just fit the bill. He’s in his room now, crashed out and dreaming of the big fun he’s going to have with the his tooth money. In a five-year-old’s world, you can buy the biggest and most elaborate Lego kits for $1.

On a side note, he got to play with his cousins this afternoon, which was really cool. At one point, though, he got into a little bit of trouble—I don’t remember what he did, but I called him to the living room using his entire name. When he heard that, he turned to the other kids and said, “This is not good. This is really, really bad.”

At least he’s got that much sense about him. :)

Summer’s Here!

I know I’m a humbug, but I really dislike graduations. I’ve not enjoyed any of the ones I’ve had to participate in, either as a student “moving on to the next phase of my life” or as a teacher watching self-involved teenagers prance around the stage and swagger as if they just won the lottery when all they did was scrape by in enough classes to survive.

(It might be noted that I’m effing tired from school and life and all that blah blah blah business and I might be a bit bitter about the fact that I was just at a command attendance for our school’s graduation. It was actually lovely and I was very proud of many of the kids [and, quite frankly, surprised to see some of the others]. I think it’s time for me to take my sweaty, stanky, sleepy self back to bed and get some rest so I can forget about how crappy I feel.)

One. More. Day.

And a half day at that.

Watched the boy graduate from Kindergarten this morning. He looked really sharp in his suit—I’m glad we got some more wear out of it after Cody and Amy’s wedding in November! :)

So now, to make plans for what to do to fill all that precious unfilled time. I vote for naps, TV and more naps. Maybe a trip to the pool. Harrison watched a cartoon the other day where the protagonist made a paper mache solar system (yes, I make my kid watch the dorky “smart” cartoons to balance out all the Transformers he’s obsessed with), so now he’s kind of interested in doing that. We’ll see. Seems like it would be pretty easy and he’d really like it.

We’ll see.

Fed Up

Had six of the ten students scheduled to come take my final exam just not come in. I totally can’t believe that. What kind of audacity makes a kid think that they can just skip a final exam?

“I don’t want to take it.”

Well, whoop-de-doo! I don’t want to be around teenagers right now, but that’s what I’m paid to do so here I am.

“But I don’t get paid to be here!”

No? What about that grade on your report card that says you can now graduate with the Recommended Plan (which requires one year of Fine Arts)? Think you’ll get into college without a high school diploma? Heck, think you’ll get a job at McDonald’s without a high school diploma?

Kids are so dumb.

I’m so ready for summer.

Mystery Garden*

Ok, so this is the weird world I live in.

Back in February/March, I built a new raised flower bed in my front yard. LOTS of work. After putting in layers--newspaper, compost, manure, etc. (I'm lasagna gardening again this year!)--I planted a few things. Blueberries (two bushes), raspberries (one plant), some nasturtiums that I nurtured from seed (four or five, I think). I left it pretty open because I was going to go in later and plant some flowers. Pansies, daisies, whatever.

So after a while, I noticed a few seedlings popping up around the things I planted. I didn't pull them up immediately because 1) I didn't have time and 2) I was kind of curious. Who planted them? (I don't know, still.) What were they? Who many were there? And will the things that I planted survive amid all this other stuff?

I've deduced that most of them are either a squash or zucchini of some sort. And there are LOTS. There's some sort of melon in there--the vine at the end looks much like the cantaloupe I attempted to grow (and killed!) last year.

There are a few tomatoes in there. My nasturtiums are doing the best that they can, spreading to other areas that are not AS crowded. My poor blueberries are stunted. I went in this evening and trimmed out some of the squash/zucchini leaves so that they can get some sunlight.

So.

Long story short, I need help. What the heck are these? I can't tell if they're squash or zucchini, but whatever they are they are round and not elongated. Any thoughts?
Incidentally, the squash, zucchini and tomatoes I DID plant in the backyard raised bed are doing ok, but no where near as good as the ones in my Mystery Garden.

*This is a repost of a photo post I made at Facebook last night. Whatever. I still want to know what the danged things are!

Final 24 Body Count

I won’t be posting specifics about the episodes tonight in case anyone is avoiding spoilers. Rest assured, things come to those for whom they are destined. People reacted in much the way that I figured they would. There was nowhere near the bloodbath that I figured would happen. It was nowhere near as Shakespearean as I anticipated it would be.

That said, final counts are as follows:

• Episode count: three, none of whom are attributable to Jack. (What!!!! I know, right?!?) There was an almost-attributable to Chloe and one of the actual might survive with brain damage, but we, the audience, are not sure.
• Season count: ninety-one, twenty-nine taken by Jack

I’m curious, now, what the counts are for the entire series. If we use this season for an average, and there are eight seasons, that puts us at 728. Jack had twenty-nine this season; over eight seasons he could have logged in 232. Ish.

Guess I know what I’ll be doing this summer…

Tired. Duh.

About to embark on the last week of school. Squeee! Could not be any tireder (is that even a word?). Dad and I spent the day working on the can house for the Longview WOW booth at Alleyfest. We’ve got probably 70% of it done, so that’s cool.

Heading off to bed now to rest up for my last week of teenagers for a while.

What To Do With Expired Medications (and Other Adventures)

Despite the leftover margarita glasses hanging around this morning, the mess cleanup was astonishingly quick and simple. After the ten minutes it took me to put the sticky glasses in the dishwasher, wipe down the counter and sink and put away the bottles that had been left out, I decided to really push the mess-envelope: I made waffles. I kept the mess maintained to one counter and regularly swiped it with a paper towel so that when it was all said and done, I sprayed the counter with some Windex to loosen up the stuff that had dried in the time it took me to cook two dozen waffles (!) and was pretty much done. Oh, and mom made some brownies right after I cleaned up the waffles. And the mess was a non-issue since it was cleaned up by the time the pan was in the oven.

Which is all to say that I can’t believe how easy this keeping the kitchen business is. I know I keep harping on this, but you have to understand that I am not a natural born cleaner. I like things clean, but I’m not terribly interested in doing it myself because it’s just too much danged work.

But it’s not, apparently.

Cool.

Aside from keeping my kitchen clean despite all my best efforts to eff it up, I also got to something else that I’ve been wanting to take care of for some time now. Last weekend I cleaned out the medicine cabinets and removed tons of outdated meds. Pills, syrups, lotions, you name it. Vitamins, pain meds from dental work and post-natal-post-surgery experiences, cold meds, ointments for rashes, eye drops… The list could go on and on.

I was concerned because I didn’t know what to do with this big ol’ box of drugs. Flushing it was out of the question because that puts these narcotics directly into the ground water which ends up back in our drinking water eventually. Bad juju. Throwing them away made me nervous because I didn’t want someone to find them and use them in improper ways.

My school nurse friend finally told me what to do. She said that at the end of the school year they take all the left over meds that kids bring up there and then don’t take home and the put them in a big container with a lid. (She suggested a coffee canister, and I intended to take one home since I’ve got several in my supply closet. Best laid plans being what they are, though, I ended up using an old wipes container that had a lid.) Once all the meds are in the container, fill it with water to an inch or two above all the drugs. This sits, with its lid on, in a cabinet for several weeks. What you’re doing here is dissolving all those pills and things. After a few weeks, she said to bring in some kitty litter (presumably unused…) and dump it in to soak up the moisture. After stirring this around and letting it clump up, replace the lid, secure it and it’s ready to toss in the trash.

This is what she said the EPA told her and the other nurse to do, so that’s what I’m doing as well. It’s a load off my mind to have this taken care of (or to have started taking care of it, actually); I’ll be glad to finally have it all out of the house.

Half a margarita in to relaxing for the weekend. Can't even say how worn out I am from this week but rest assured the rita is helping.
Scrubbed the tub and vacuumed the office tonight before Cody and Amy got here so at least I got some work done. Don't know how shiny my sink will be when I go to bed but it will be the first time in three weeks so I'm not sweating it.
Looking at the rest of my drink and wondering if I've got the energy to finish it. I'm such a lightweight.

Eye on the Prize

Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six…..

(Yes, I typed all of that. No cut and paste for this girlie! And yes, I’m ready for school to be over.

Side note: Does anyone else remember going into stores—Sears was where I would do it, but fill in the blank for yourself—and them having electric typewriters set up that you could test type on? And would you, then, type something over and over? Perhaps something mildly [but not supremely—I was a pretty good girl, for the most part!] offensive?

No?

Me neither.)

…more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more days. Six more………..

………

Seven more days.*

Ugh. I hate the end of the school year. The kids are tired, sick of being at school, sick of being around each other, sick of me. I’m sick of being at school, sick of being around them, sick of it all. It’s just bad.

I think I’m one of the only teachers right now who isn’t showing movies to the kids. Seriously.

While some of them have been watching things actually tied to the curriculum—Forrest Gump, October Sky, Back to the Future (seriously), some kids have been watching Paul Blart, Mall Cop.

Seriously.

I thought of showing them a documentary about one of my favorite artists, Dale Chihuly, I am now rethinking that plan and will probably just let them play cards after they clean my room for their final.

(Yes. Seriously.)

(*Not that I’m counting…)

Ironclad Awesome

Had an unplanned but very pleasant date night tonight. Robert decided to break out of our daily grind and take us to dinner and a movie. I, exhausted from the still-nascent week, tiredly agreed. A Smashburger with smashfries and a Hagen-Daaz shake followed by some Iron Man 2 action later, I’m still freakin’ tired, but man, I had a great time! Love that my honey still knows how to surprise me and keep things from grinding us both down to a worn out nub. :)

In other news, I got a few yards of some beautiful fabric that I fell in love with last month at Sewing Club. I was heartbroken when I couldn’t find it last night at meeting but when I called today with a product number and a description, they went right to the shelf and got it. I’ve got some skirt plans brewing; now that I’m working in the office area this week, I’ll have room to lay it out and cut it, as well as actually sew it very, very soon. Yay! I’ve not sewn anything (aside from Harrison’s Lowe’s patches) in almost four months. I think it’s time…

So, off to shine my sink (my parents, while awesome at watching the kids, are not so much trained in my FlyLady routines), pick out my clothes for tomorrow and head to bed.

24 Body Count

Episode 22: 1 pm to 2 pm

So it seems that everyone else in 24 Land is pretty much off Killin’ Patrol, because Jack’s the only one who is logging any stiffs these days.

• He shot to wound three Secret Service agents in his mission to get Logan the Weasel. The Weasel quickly sang like a bird and gave up the name of the Russian ambassador, thereby signing that fella’s death warrant. Jack immediately took that information, found the Russki's hidey-hole and took out five of the Russian Secret Service guys and Ambassador Now-I’m-Dead. The corresponding American officials, of course, are all crapping themselves. Jack, of course, knew that the Weasel would be calling his other Russian bad guy friends and so he planted a bug on him. He. Knows. Everything.

Episode count: Six, all Jack’s. Season count: eighty-eight. Jack’s count: twenty-nine. He’s officially up over one third of the kills for the season. Ba-bam!

I’m really sorry to see this show ending next week. I know it had to end eventually, but it’s really been one of the best things on TV in the past decade and I’ve enjoyed all the intrigue, plot twists and mayhem it’s afforded. I’ll miss watching it and, quite frankly, I’m not sure where I’m going to get my smart action flick fix. I suppose we can keep watching back episodes of The Unit (yay, President Palmer!!!), but that is also already ended so there’s only so much I can get from it.

I refuse to watch CSI, though, so I guess we’ll have to figure something out.

Scrubbed Clean

Did a test run of the seed paper I’m facilitating at Alley Fest in a month today. It went pretty well, but I’m definitely going to want to do a little bit more planning on it before the actual day. Harrison and his friend Jace “helped,” and Jace’s mom actually helped, so it all came out well. The boys said the paper pulp reminded them of alien poop, which begs the question: when has my son been exposed to alien poop? ;)

Got the kitchen pretty sparkly today and made some serious headway in the guest bathroom. Organized the medicine closet, culled out a big, horkin’ box of old meds (need to find where to take expired prescriptions—anyone?) and Robert scrubbed the toilet out. I’ll be spending this week working in there and in the office, so I am excited about that.

I also got Harrison to work in his room for about an hour today. We moved his bed around so it’s easier for him to make it in the morning and we cleared out some trash. His desk is still buried under a ton of crap, but at least we’ve made a good start. I think I’m going to have him work on his while I’m working on mine.

The baby birds are doing well, as well.  Momma Bird has even deigned to come back to the nest while I’m on the porch and doesn’t fly off immediately if I show up, so I’m feeling a little bit less traumatized.

In all, a really nice Sunday. Very relaxed and very much enjoyed.

Have a good week!

No Bathing Beauty, She

I let the kids play in the sprinkler today. Harrison loved it. Laura, not so much. I mean, she was ok at first, but when the water hit her she decided that it was not really what she wanted out of the experience.

I changed the hose from the regular sprinkler that I have set up to water my garden in the backyard  to the Elmo sprinkler in hopes that she would lighten up and decide to play and have fun. (Yes, this is the sprinkler that was recalled last year due to lead in the paint. No, mine was not part of the run that had too much lead.)

Not happening.

Very far from the squirting demon Elmo. Very safe.

Sigh.

She did play around in other parts of the yard, though, and Harrison had a blast, so it wasn’t a total wash.

Afterwards, when she was dried off and warmed back up, she hid in her new favorite hiding spot. Nope. No water here!

Peep-Peep Little Birdie!

Watched a robin feeding her babies tonight. We’ve had a Momma Bird camped on our back porch for some time now. I noticed her nest on the crossbeam of the patio about a month or so ago; it seemed to appear out of nowhere, almost magically. I pointed it out to Robert and Harrison and we began watching her come and go.

There were times I figured she would leave her little haven. Robert grilled one night and reported back that he got an earful from her for his efforts. His grill, alas, is right below her home, and I’m sure that she didn’t appreciate the banging of the lid, the rising heat or the smell of burning animal flesh.

I, on the other hand, scared her more directly, although not really intentionally. She was in her nest one afternoon when I was out there and had frozen into a sort of ‘Don’t See Me!’ position. I, seeing her not moving when before this she had been moving quite a bit, thought that she had died in her nest. Don’t ask me why—I’m not always on the ball, I suppose. Anyway, I started making loud, aggressive movements, swinging my arms and jumping around. To her credit, she barely flinched, but she finally did move a little bit. I, realizing that she was probably trying to keep me, a potential predator, from noticing her little home, felt like a doofus and quietly went back inside the house.

But it appears that all is well, because she was feeding her little ones tonight. I looked out the window as I was feeding my own babies (albeit, not regurgitated grasshoppers or worms) and saw the Momma in her nest. I’ve been watching her through the windows for days, seeing her sitting serenely, often sleeping. Tonight, I saw her sitting at the edge of the nest and I saw two little baby heads popping up, wiggling around and peeping.

I immediately pointed her out to the rest of the family and we spent the rest of our meal watching the little ones eat the rest of their meal. Additionally, we saw several red birds zooming in to eat from the bird feeder we hung from another crossbeam on the porch. Harrison built this feeder at Lowe’s a few weeks ago and the birds are finally noticing that it’s there.

I’m not sure why watching birds eat had such a magical effect on us all, but it really did. Harrison liked seeing the babies and we got to talk about the birth cycle of a bird and really tie the information he had learned in school over the past few springs in to real life.

I, on the other hand, feel like maybe I didn’t mess up so badly with my Momma Bird friend. 

Hurtin’

My tooth is killing me.

Strike that. My jaw is killing me.

I hate having dental work done. I hate having crowns put in. I hate waiting for my gums to heal so that I don’t cringe every time I take a bite of food. I hate my tooth still being sensitive to temperature and pressure while I’m wearing the temporary crown.

I hate paying huge amounts of unexpected money—money that should be going to fixing my eyes instead of fixing my geed-up teeth.

I hate taking pain meds. I’ve taken more Tylenol the past week for this than I have in the past year for all my aches and pains combined.

Think I’m going to go take some more Tylenol and go to bed.

Cleaner

Clicking away on getting the kitchen cleaned up. I’ve accumulated two boxes of stuff from two sets of cabinets already. The stove is shining, much cleaner than it has been since we moved in three years ago. The sink, as ever, is shining. I help with the dishes, a job that I have avoided my entire life because when I was a kid it was always my punishment and therefore I never got to see it for what it is—a job—instead of something to dread.

On top of this all, the laundry room is cleaned up and has stayed that way. The front porch could use a little bit of a sweep, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was. The kitchen table, one of my worst dump spots, has stayed relatively dump-free.

I can’t help but be excited about all of this. Having never had a ‘cleaning habit’ instilled in me, it feels refreshing to be formulating one. Granted, other parts of the house are still a mess—the bathrooms are in pitiful shape and the kids’ rooms are not much better—but seeing how not-quite-two-weeks has made a difference gives me hope.

It feels weird saying that I’m excited about the probably thirty minutes, total, that I spend cleaning every day, but I am.

So that’s cool.

Typing this as Robert sits at my computer, uninfecting it.
Despite the virus, despite the toothache (the gums around my temporary crown are killing me!), despite the TWO meetings I sat through where we worked on plans for an event and then reiterated those plans in the second meeting, I had a pretty decent day. My house remains clean(ish), my kid behaved at school (!), and I got to work on a real-honest-to-god painting that I chose. Now if this computer issue would resolve itself so Robert could be happy and my world would be complete.

24 Body Count

To borrow a phrase from my sweet husband, tonight’s episode was a real sphincter clincher.

Episode 21: 12 pm to 1 pm

• Jack used his crackerjack knowledge of how government agencies work to draw the bad guys out to the mall and their eventual doom. He called the reporter chick from early in this season (I could look back at my archives, but it’s getting late…) and dropped a few keywords that were picked up on CTU’s spy channels. Once he told Brenda K. Starr that he was meeting her at the mall in 20 minutes, it was only a matter of time for him to get there and shoot up all four of the Russian operatives who were on the floor.
• Mr. Blonde, meanwhile, had the Russian sniper who killed Renee contained in a service room, waiting for Jack to show up. Jack, Brenda, Mr. Blonde and Sniper went to a deserted room in a building nearby and Jack began his aggressive negotiations. Punching the crap out of the guy didn’t get him to talk, but I’d venture a guess that it made Jack feel a little better. Pinching off a bit of belly skin with some pliers, while also ineffective in the long run, was also probably therapeutic. Ditto for scoring Sniper’s skin with a knife, pouring alcohol on the cuts and then hitting him with the flame from a mini-torch. Jack finally decided to cut ties with the fella, as it were, when he realized that Sniper had swallowed the Sim card from his cell phone, taking his involvement with the assassination and terrorist plot from earlier in the day to the grave with him. Jack gutted the guy from gut to gullet and retrieved the nasty card. I will say this—the phone worked perfectly with the quickly swiped electronic device replaced into it. If I could guarantee that kind of product quality, I’d be using that kind of phone too.

So. Sim card replaced, Jack quickly made a phone call to the last number which turned out to be Logan the Weasel. Something tells me that he’s about to regret his request to speak to Sniper personally.

I see a very Shakespearean ending coming here. Jack’s pretty much got to die, I think. Logan’s going down. I think Taylor might even bite it. Russian head of government is probably gone. Logan’s guy who took over at CTU is a goner, and I can only hope his assistant will be with him.

Episode total: five, all attributed to Jack. Season total: eighty-two. Jack’s season total: twenty-three.

Happy Day

Have really had a great Mother’s Day weekend. My feet are sore and my shoulders are beat up (that bobsled ride at Six Flags, while all kinds of awesome, really knocks you around if you’re not holding on right!), but I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

After spending the whole day at the park—we left after 8 pm (with two kids in tow—yeah, I know we’re crazy!)—we stopped at McDonalds to let the kids eat before heading back. Now, we don’t eat at the Golden Arches very often in our house because the food is appalling and, well, that’s pretty much it. Harrison, of course, thinks this is a travesty, but has finally stopped asking for it every time we drive by one. We decided to stop there, though, because Laura had spent the majority of the day in her stroller, only getting out and playing for short bursts of time, and we figured that somewhere with a playground was a good answer.

While driving around looking for somewhere to go, we saw several fast food places and Harrison started naming them as suggestions, but he never once said the ‘M’ word. “No, son, we’re not going to Sonic.” (Would have preferred it, but no playground…) He replied, “Well, I’m just out of ideas then!”

When we finally drove into the McDonald’s parking lot, he asked, disbelieving, “Are we going in there?”

Begrudgingly, I said that we are.

“This has been the BEST. DAY EVER!!!!!”

Guess we need to take him to eat crap food more often. :)

As for today, we lolled, which is one of my favorite things to do. The kids and I played, Robert bought groceries and brought home pizza, and we just relaxed. Laura can climb up on the couch now, so that’s stressful, but exciting all the same. We napped, watched movies and Harrison and I saw that the morning glory plant in the front flower bed is blooming.

Life is good.

Heading home from Six Flags with Robert driving and my babies asleep in the backseat. It has been such an awesome day. The kids really enjoyed the rides--Harrison was FEARLESS, begging to go on all the rides, even those he was too small to ride. I can't wait to take him next year when he's a little taller and can ride them all. :)
Happy Mothers Day to all the Mamas out there!

Winding Down

Another week down. I’ve got fifteen more days of school left and I’m more than ready for them to be over. By and large, I really do like my job, for all the griping about it that I do. This time of year, though, the kids get more squirrely than usual and I just reach a point where being around teenagers is the last thing I want to do.

I’m going on a field trip tomorrow with the art club to Six Flags. I’m dragging my family along because it’s been too long since we’ve all done anything fun and I think they’ll enjoy it. Harrison is in full-blown Super Hero Worship and Six Flags happens to own the Warner Brothers/DC Comics franchise; I’m looking forward to seeing him meet Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and all the others.

Off to rest up because 6 am comes early on. Sigh. It sucks living so far from the cool stuff.

Shiny Sink

This sounds kind of silly, but I’ve cleaned my sink every night now since Monday.

I know. It sounds stupid. Who doesn’t clean their sink every night?

Lots of people, apparently.

I found, through the recommendations of some friends on a sewing list I belong to, the FlyLady. While she isn’t an insect, nor does she actually fly around, she does offer lots of encouragement and advice for cleaning your house up. Her system involves learning new habits in small increments—baby steps, if you will—that feed upon each other until it becomes second nature to do things like put something away when you’re done with it or clean something up when it’s messy.

These all seem like common sense, logical things, but unfortunately lots of people never really get good at these things. We’re more interested in the fun that comes from getting the things we want out and interacting with them. When we’re done with our activity, we’re ready to move on and do something else and not worry about cleaning because, jeeze, that’s work!

One of the things that I really like about the system is that she has you declutter your house before you try to intensively clean it. As she says, you can’t clean clutter—you can only get rid of it. It totally makes sense and so somehow doesn’t seem like it’s as much work.

I also like that she breaks the home up into zones so you don’t get overwhelmed by trying to get it all done at once. I’m currently in the front porch/entry way/dining room zone and the little bit of decluttering and cleaning has made a huge difference. She cycles through the zones each month so whatever you don’t get picked up and taken care of one month will be waiting for you the next month. Your house didn’t get messy overnight (unless you had an Animal House style party over the weekend, and then you’ve got a whole other group of issues…), so it’s ok if it takes longer to get it done, as long as it gets done right.

As a working parent who never seems to find much time to do anything, the best part for me is that she teaches you to clean in little spurts. Most cleaning occurs in a fifteen minute interval, but there are some that are as short as two minutes long. For the three days that I actually worked on the house these past four days, I’ve set my timer and buzzed around my zone and was amazed at what I was able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. My front porch is swept; my laundry room has been decluttered, organized and swept; and my dining room table is completely cleared of all crap that is unnecessary to our mealtime. For each of these areas, I spent fifteen minutes working quickly and efficiently and then usually two to five minutes after that putting things away that had been left out.

I’m also finding myself keeping the areas I’ve cleaned much cleaner than I did before. I have not made a mess in the sink since I soaked it and cleaned it out intensively. It’s almost a game for me now—how long can I go putting dirty dishes into the dishwasher instead of into the sink? I’ve gone for three days now, which is pretty awesome, I think. Robert and I are also making the bed first thing in the morning when we get up. It seems silly, I know, because lots of people make their beds immediately, but that was something that we just didn’t do regularly.

Both the sink and the bed are nice surprises when I walk into their areas every day. The house is pretty awful in many ways—the bathrooms are pitiful, Hurricane Laura blows through the living room every evening and the kids’ rooms are eyesores. But these little spots of clean and calm are relaxing, both visually and mentally. I’m finding that as I go along with the program, the calm areas are expanding and so I’m seeing them more and more often.

I totally didn’t expect this to become a full on testimonial for the FlyLady, but if you’re having trouble keeping your house clean I absolutely suggest looking into her site. I’m so glad that I did—it has changed my outlook and I foresee great things happening in the Brown house.

Queen for the Day?

Got crowned today, in a dental sort of way. :(

Actually, it wasn’t too bad. They gassed me up so that I didn’t feel how much the Novocain shot hurt—all I felt was the pressure, but not the sharpness of it. Then, I pretty much napped through most of the rest. I mean, I was awake and alert, in a manner of speaking, but it was a very dozy kind of awake, if that makes sense.

I’m not really excited about paying for this new work, but considering that I was having trouble eating, I guess in the grand scheme of things it’s good.

I’ve got the temporary crown in and they will put the final one in in a few weeks. I’m going to need to get another one done on the other side of my mouth pretty soon, but I think it’s just going to have to wait. The pain from that one is nowhere near as bad as this one was, so I can probably put up with it for a little while longer.

Sharing

In a weird, synergistic mixing of fate, two of the blogs I follow touched on some things I found pertinent to my life.

• growing. still.
• Use the Good Stuff 

I won’t belabor the reasons that these two essays touched me—anyone reading them with a shred of humanity will probably feel similarly. I was surprised and a bit unnerved to think that maybe I’m not as developed as I’m ever going to be; that I am also growing, still. And the admonitions to use the good stuff really hit home with me. My dear, sweet husband can attest to the fact that I’ve got years and years (and years and years…) of crap nice things that I’m not using. I don’t know what signal, what important event I’m waiting for to use them, but I’ve been kind of compelled to do just that lately.

Mostly, I just wanted to share these beautiful thoughts with others. I’d like to help others know that the journey is far from over and that they should enjoy every glorious detail along the way.

I know I plan to.

24 Body Count

Dry spell’s over!

Episode 20: 11 am to 12 pm

• Jack saved G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. from Toepick and his crew, killing the former figure skating wunderkind and three of his associates.
• Jack takes G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. and Scooby into the bank where she is holding her evidence in a safe deposit box. Turns out, there’s a small ignition charge in the box that knocks Scoob off his feet. Very forward thinking of her. It doesn’t kill him, but knocks him out pretty well. On the other hand, when the bank fella who brought them in to the viewing room with their booty returns to check on them, she pops him with her gun, which was also in the box.
• G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. calls 911 and gets the police to come to catch Jack. Silly girl—did she really think a few NYPD Blues were a match for Jack Freakin’ Bauer? (No offence to the NYPD—I’m sure they do a wonderful job. It’s just that this is Jack we’re talking about here.) After relieving one of his gun, he shoots the other in the foot so he can escape their clutches and resume his chase for G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. She sees him and, using a pedestrian as a shield, shoots another pedestrian.
• In a building that is empty because of the apparent renovations, Jack and G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. get into a long, drawn out gun battle. Jack finally corners her, gets the evidence he’s looking for and puts the poor, misguided thing out of her misery. I’m pretty sure Scooby is going to have some issues with that when he comes to.

Episode total: seven. Jack’s episode total is five. Season: seventy-seven. Jack: eighteen.

Just for clarification, there might be one more fatality attributed to Jack. When he and Scooby are breaking into the building to save G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. (so that he can kill her later), they distract the guard stationed on the roof. Jack throws him over a low wall onto an adjacent roof and says something about how he’s out of commission or something. (I’ll be honest, the beer tonight is making actual conversational points float out of my head. I remember what happened, just not what they said about it. :) ) So my point is, I’m not sure how ‘out of commission’ this guy is.

Anyhoo, elsewhere in the episode: Logan the Weasel is proving more and more weasely by the minute. He’s got his guy on the inside at CTU so that he can help the Russians hunt down and dispose of their one big problem—Jack.

And that’s pretty much it. It looks like there’s going to be some pretty squirrely action in the weeks to come. Russian torture. M.E.P.’s wife won’t be very happy to find out that her husband’s murderers were covered up, so that should be interesting. I’m curious as to whether Mr. Blonde will show back up. And dammit, there’s still no Tony! I have faith, though!

Stressed

You mamas who stay at home all day with the kids and actually get anything done are going to have to give me a clue. I can barely work on the weekend, housewise, without the kids destroying it all. I was working in the bedroom tonight with the kids playing nearby and literally two minutes after I would finish a task, Laura would come behind me and undo whatever I had just done.

Pants on a shelf for Daddy? Oh, those need to be on the floor. (This, actually, is one of her favorite games—un-shelf the shelves.) Clothes in a laundry basket? Much better on the floor, except for the underwear that should hang around my neck while I toddle around the house. Should you decide to remove the underwear from my neck, I will become a combination harpy/banshee. Oh, and if I get in your way and you accidentally bump into me the slightest bit, I’m going to fall down as if you whacked me with a hockey stick and scream bloody murder. Because I can.

I swear, I felt like Sisyphus and was a blubbering idiot by the time Robert got back from the grocery story.

I know I sound like a wussy idiot who hasn’t a clue about anything in the world. I’ve got two kids—this shouldn’t be anything new to me. I’m telling you, though, that I’m worn to a nub. I don’t know if it’s because she’s teething and that has upped the ante or if I’m really just not that great a parent and it’s finally showing through. (Yeah, I know, shameless plug for praise. Whatever. Get it where you can…)

Anyhoo. I’m looking into Flylady as a way to hopefully collect my clutter, if not my sanity. I’ll post back at some point to tell whether I’m a new person or whether I gave up after two days. She wants me to shine my sink…

For The Dad-folk Among Us

I had a revelation of sorts recently.

I’ve been reading these ‘mommy blogs’ for the past year or so. It started last summer when I was home with the kids several days a week during the summer and I knew that if I didn’t get some ideas for activities, we’d all sit around watching TV all summer. Harrison, of course, would be completely fine with me letting him watch TV and play Super Paper Mario all summer, but I just couldn’t stand the mush that his brain—and mine—would become if that was all we did.

So I found activities. We did crafts, we went to the library for story time, he helped me cook. We had a very busy but very enjoyable summer. And he did get to watch a little TV in there from time to time because, lets face it, I’m only human and there’s only so many games of Candy Land I can handle.

I found many of our activities on blogs, one blogroll often leading me to another blog and on and on until I was inundated with stuff for us to do. Pages included Amalah, Just Tutes (which became indietutes), Life of a Dairy Queen, Make and Takes, No Time For Flashcards, Simple Mom and The Crafty Crow, to name a few. My feeds list was kind of out of control for a while there…

Anyhoo, the point of this story is that I still read lots of these mommy blogs. I like to see what these women are up to in their day to day life; they’ve become virtual ‘friends’ of sort, even though I mostly just lurk in the shadows of their craftiness and steal their ideas.

Which is where my epiphany comes in .

Robert does not read mommy blogs. He reads Geeks are Sexy, The Drudge Report and Harry Knowles. Not a lot of crafts in his world, which I’m ok with.

But I noticed that darned near every danged one of the mommy blogs I follow has recently had a Mother’s Day craft featured on their pages.

Doesn’t this seem kind of weird? I mean, am I supposed to get my kids to make my own gift?

I’ve seen the same phenomenon in parenting magazines, too—they’ll have totally cute things for kids to make for mom, but neither dads nor children, by and large, read Parenting or Parents or any of the majillion other magazines out there that tell us how to raise our offspring unless the copy of Wired has migrated from the bathroom and even then, they’re just skimming.

So. Say you’re a dad who needs a gift for a mom and you don’t want to spend a lot of money. Say your wife already has a Snuggie and jewelry and you’re scratching your head about what to buy for her.

My suggestion is to make one of the following items with your kid(s) and present it to the mom in your life, along with a cup of coffee and breakfast in bed.

Bookmark for Mom

Bloomin’ Handmade Plantable Cards

Fingerprint Pendant

Photo Soup Cans

These are the things that appealed to me, personally. If none of these blow up your proverbial skirt, then just Google ‘Mother’s Day crafts’ and I guarantee that you will have more good ideas than you can shake a stick at.

Now, the obvious problem with me posting this is that I’m pretty sure not a whole lot of dads read this blog, outside of my own sweet husband. Ladies, if you’re reading this, go on and forward it on to your significant other. If none of these gifts blow your skirts (proverbial or otherwise) up, go on and Google and find something you do like. Believe me, your husband is going to be grateful for the ideas—anything to help him avoid getting you another knick-knack or a bottle of perfume  or pajamas. The bonus is that he gets to avoid a trip to Wal-Mart or the mall with kids in tow.

And if there are any fellas out there who are reading me, first up, thanks for stopping by! Secondly, pass the word along. I’m pretty sure the dads out there will be grateful for the help. :)

Date Night

Made it through another week. I’m beat, but that’s nothing new. Robert and I dumped the kids with my parents and went to Marshall to get my ring resized. The jeweler took off about 1/4 of a ring size, which seems miniscule, but my ring’s not flopsing around anymore so I think it’s awesome. We then grabbed some Sonic and headed out to a movie—on a Friday night! At 7 pm! Crazy stuff afoot when we get a date night on a Friday. (Incidentally, we went to see Date Night. Good parallel, no?)

Ring is fixed, movie is enjoyed, eyes are killing me because, well, I don’t know, I guess it’s just spring and pollen and maybe I’m just tired!!!

Long weekend ahead. Need to rest.

Runnin’ (but not the exercise type, which I should be doing instead if I only had the time…)

Busy day. TAKS testing in the AM (is there anything worse than watching someone else take a test?). Longview WOW World of William (Shakespeare, natch) planning meeting this afternoon. Going to be a killer workshop for the kids in conjunction with the Texas Shakespeare Festival at Kilgore College this summer—very excited about it! Karate class so Harrison could get some sparring practice in anticipation of his tournament this weekend. He’s doing better, but he’s still squirrely and has to do lots of extra pushups for goofing off in line. At least he’s starting to use better form as opposed to the random flailing he was doing a few weeks ago.

Bed time and up and at ‘em again in the morning. Harrison’s got his field day at school tomorrow, so I’ll probably play hooky for an hour or so and go watch him run around. Should be fun.

Bloomin’ Great!

Had several nice treats in the garden today.

First of all, the nasturtiums I planted way back in February are finally getting blooms. They’ve had leaves—lots and lots of leaves—for ages. But I stepped out of the garage this morning and noticed a bright red burst of color. There are several buds ready to open on each of the three plants I’ve got in the front bed, so I’m looking forward to seeing that display.

Secondly, I was looking at the sunflowers this afternoon and one of the seeds I planted yesterday is already poking its head up! I was floored at how quickly it sprung up. I’m very excited to see how this garden is going to come along. I’m very nervous about it now after all the work, the anticipation and the letdown, but I’ve got high hopes for it.

Finally, my green beans are going crazy! I planted six seeds in each mound and there have been at least five plants pop up in each one. I’ thinned them back to three per mound today so that should give them a little bit more room to spread out. There is only one gourd plant poking its head out, but I’ve got some more of those seeds, so I might go out and pop them in the ground this week.

The robins are singing and there is a nest on the beam right above the grill so I get to watch the mama bird come and sit in it pretty regularly. She didn’t care too much about Robert cooking out there last night, but I’m hoping she’ll stick around long enough to hatch her babies out. I watched her taking a bath in the water from the sprinkler this afternoon when I was watering the sunflowers and the lasagna garden.

Pollen and TAKS tests aside, I have to say that I really love spring!

Replanted

I know I’m flogging a dead horse here, but I’m so glad that I finally got the sunflower seeds back in the ground. The actual putting them in took about ten minutes, but I did have five different varieties I was alternating between, as well as some morning glories I had been soaking for a few days. I’m just hoping that they do well in the new, improved soil. So far, I’ve not seen any slugs around, but then there aren’t any tender new shoots for them to decimate, either. I’m going to invest in some cheap beer this weekend to put out in saucers for my slimy friends. Maybe some Lone Star or some Pabst.

Heading to bed now. We’ve started TAKS testing at work and I was able to spend today working in my room. I’m administering Thursday, but the rest of the week I’m on standby so I’m hoping to get my desk and the surrounding areas cleaned up some. Either way, I was exhausted when I got home today and the nap I took didn’t really help.

24 Body Count

Episode 19: 10 am to 11 am

None.

Again.

Seriously.

I can only take this to mean that Jack’s going to be kicking some hella-ass next week. My money is on the Russian sniper going down ASAP, and then after that, it’s pretty much a free for all. I think G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. will probably meet her end before the end. Maybe Scooby.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I think Jack might be dying at the end of the last episode. I mean, I heard they were making a 24 movie, but how stupid would that be? It’s completely counter-intuitive to the whole show. The whole reason I bought into the thing in the first place was that they took an entire twenty-four hours to tell what happens in twenty-four hours. It was revolutionary, minus that crappy Johnny Depp movie, and has had me on the edge of my seat since the second season. (We missed the first season and spent the better part of a weekend watching it right before the second season started. Not early adopters, but early-ish.) At this point in the game, he’s pretty much lost it all. His wife. His new girlfriend. His dad was evil a few seasons back; that had to hurt. His daughter has pretty much grown up without him. Oh, yeah, he’s got a grandkid, but really, he’s kind of played out. You know he’d just spend the rest of his life in retirement, always looking over his shoulder and wondering when another one of “those days” was going to happen.

Anyhoo.

In the meantime, President Taylor has backed herself, via the “help” of Logan the Weasel, into a nasty corner from which she will likely be impeached. Funny—she sent her own kid to prison for her involvement in a murder last season, but this season she’s so hell bent on getting her peace accord signed that she’s allowed her cohort to be murdered by the Russians, one of the nations in her peace deal. Screwy.

Jack’s on the run from the authorities. He’s talked Scooby into working with him. He recognized that Chloe was leading him into a trap, albeit against her better judgment. He’s in cahoots with Mr. Blonde, who has provided him with all the guns and armor he’s going to need to get his bloody job done.

Oh, and acting on behalf of Logan the Weasel as a private security agent, D. B. Sweeney came by CTU to pick up G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. and cart her off to ‘extract evidence’ from her. Is he going to make her watch hours of figure skating?

Season total, seventy. Jack, thirteen. I can only imagine that that’s about to change…

Down With Slugs!

That’s mine and Harrison’s battle cry.

i inadvertently killed all the sunflowers night before last by trying to kill the slugs. You see, we planted all these flowers around a perimeter in the hopes that they would grow to be a ‘house’ of sorts, as per the instructions of Sharon Lovejoy. I’ve got several of her books and really liked the looks of this sunflower house so I gathered up my materials (four varieties of sunflowers, all [potentially] reaching different heights, and a packet of morning glories) and set out to plant. I’ve been nurturing them for about two weeks now, excited every time I see another seedling sprouting out of the ground.

Alas, I had heard that slugs and snails really like the tender new shoots of flowers, particularly of the sun variety. I also read (in the above mentioned author’s books) that you could take paper cups, cut the bottom out and slide them over the new growth to act as kind of a collar to keep out any unwanted beasties.

Seems, though, that they have to be firmly affixed in the ground.

Der.

I went out two afternoons ago and noticed a baby slug sitting atop one of my very tender, very much anticipated, very much mine seedling sprouts. I saw red. I decided that if the collars won’t keep the critters out, I’d douse around the plants with something I knew would keep them out: salt.

Turns out, this is a terrible idea. Something that should have been researched in one of the dozens of books I’ve got on gardening in the house.

Funny, though, you’d think in all the books I’ve read on gardening, that one or two of them might mention not to put salt in your garden!!!! Perhaps I overlooked it, but I definitely don’t remember anyone saying not to do that.

So here’s my PSA to the gardening world: DON’T PUT SALT IN YOUR GARDEN!!! IT WILL KILL YOUR PLANTS!!!

Incidentally, if you’ve got some weeds in your plot—say, in the cracks on your driveway or somewhere similar, but definitely not near plants you love and adore and have spent countless hours babying, sprinkling a little salt might be exactly what you want.

Just sayin’.

So. I feel stupid. I have to start from scratch. I’m frustrated.

But I did get started again today. I took another idea from Sharon Lovejoy, this time from her blog that she writes for Lowes, about using paper sacks to plant in. She had a similar problem in her gourds, so she restarted them in her greenhouse in bags and transplanted them to the garden. I, more impatient being that I am, just trimmed some paper sacks down to about eight inches, cleared out a furrow in the compost/soil perimeter I had previously established for growing, and filled the bags with the cleared out soil. The bags are directly placed in the ground with about four or five inches showing above the surface. I figure I’ll keep them like this until the stalks get some decent growth to them and then just remove above the soil line. Or I might just leave them. Either way, they’re biodegradable and will make a wonderful barrier to keep out those slimy leaf eating bastards who insist on invading my garden.

I’m also thinking of investing in some cheap beer. I’ve heard that you can put shallow dishes with beer out in the garden and the slugs and snails will drown themselves in it. I’ll just have to make sure that I remove it before the kids go into the area to play. :)

Computer is hosing up.
AND I killed all my sunflowers. All of them. I'm going to replant seeds tomorrow, so it will be ok, but I've been pretty torn up over it today.
Otherwise, the garden is doing pretty good--the green beans are coming up, as are the gourds. I gave blood today, which was also pretty cool.
Going to bed now to toss and turn over my blundering black thumb. Sigh.

Moody

End o’ the week.

Tired. (Natch. What’s it like not always being tired? Anyone?)

Cranky. (Kids stole my tape dispenser and the Splenda tablets from my coffee center. Brats.)

Proud. (Son got stickers all week for behaving at school! Plants are taking hold in the garden! I got my soaker hoses in place in the flower beds and the sprinkler in place for the lasagna bed and the sunflower house! The sunflower house is sprouting pretty well! My green beans are sprouting really well!)

Annoyed. (Now that my watering systems are in place, it’s raining. I mean, yeah, I’m saving money by not having to manually water, but still, I was kind of proud of my work.)

Anticipatory. (Giving blood in the morning. Have been meaning to do so for about eight weeks now, having intended to give eight times this year [the maximum allowed in a year], but just haven’t been able to make it in. Doing it tomorrow; enough is enough. Also going to the Lowe’s clinic tomorrow with the boy to let him build a bird house. If you’ve got kids kindergarten and up, these workshops are awesome! They build stuff for free and, well, it’s at Lowe’s, so that’s a win. These two things aside, the hubby and I are planning on…doing nothing. No out of town engagements. No visits. We had been invited to an barbecue for some friends who are celebrating their birthdays, but that got canceled in light of the aforementioned rain. )

Sick to death. (Of the TAKS test. We’re administering next week. I hate my job, sometimes. I mean, not really, but I do hate the bullshit that goes along with it sometimes.

Going to bed. (Because I’m freakin’ tired.)

Gardening

Garden is coming along nicely. Got the veggies I bought last weekend in the ground yesterday. Seeds have been going in pretty regularly as my time has allowed. The sunflowers are sprouting, for the most part. I’ve got a few areas of the ‘walls’ that do not seem to be growing, but I’m going to give them a few more days. If all else fails, I’ll just replant those spots—I’ve got markers where they should be, so it won’t take too long to get it corrected. Green beans are sprouting from seed on the other side of the yard and I’m hoping to see my birdhouse gourds coming up any day now, as well. Still need to get the rose Robert got me a few weeks ago in the ground, but that will probably end up happening this weekend. Today I got my soaker hoses placed, but I’ve got to see about finding a little bit longer connector hose for the small bed—the one I had planned to use is about four feet too short. Drat.

All in all, it’s been a nice spring for getting my hands dirty. I’m ready to have my stuff in the ground, though, so that I can get to maintaining (which doesn’t take as much time) and get back into my sewing room and make some stuff. I’m feeling kind of sad that I’ve not done any of that lately. All in good time, though. :)

Simple Pleasures

Harrison and I had been working in the lasagna garden and had just gotten it finished.

[Correction: I was working in the garden while Harrison roamed around the backyard, occasionally stopping by to see what I had gotten done and offer suggestions. I think he’s ready for management.]

The tomatoes, tomatillos, squash and zucchini had just gotten in the ground and Harrison had just made his last suggestion for the project (“You should move this tomato plant here and put the tomatillo plant here.” [Basically, switch them.] “Why should I do that, son?” “Because it would make me happy.” Imp.)

I turned on the sprinkler and Harrison stood watching it, fascinated. About that time, Robert came outside with Laura; they had just gotten home. Laura was thrilled to see me and even more so to see Harrison and squawked her happy noise so I picked her up and snuggled her a bit.

She, around this time, noticed the sprinkler and became engrossed, as well, so I put her down to go explore. She promptly sat down near the slide where she could simultaneously pick and eat grass blades and watch the water over in the garden. I took this as my cue to quietly entertain her and her brother, so I broke out a small bottle of bubbles she had gotten back at Easter and started blowing them.

It took a few blows, but she eventually did and squawked again, signaling that I was doing something very good. She clambered up and came over to where I was sitting, grinning her ‘magic is afoot and I must partake in it’ smile. She was content to just watch the bubbles rise up, higher and higher, until they delicately popped. Harrison, on the other hand, took each bit of soap lather as a personal challenge; he jumped, lunged, twisted and annihilated those bubbles. They didn’t stand a chance against his cat-like ninja skills.

As mundane as this is—the kids chased bubbles and watched water squirt out of a sprinkler!—it’s this kind of ‘slice of life’ business that I really enjoy the most. Holidays are nice, birthdays are good, but I treasure the day to day time I spend with my family the most. Emily wanted to go back to a special day in Our Town, but I really have to say that I would trade almost every birthday party and all the stress over invitations, cleaning and exhaustion for just the simple days.

Time Suck

I came in here 30 minutes ago to post quickly about how tired I am (I ran tonight—at least I have an excuse this time!) and how I was going to be hitting the hay. I know, groundbreaking. Totally new stuff. Never before seen.

Oh, yeah. I’ve said all that before.

Well, dammit, I am tired. I did run and I am worn out.

And I was going to do a quickie and go to bed by 11 pm tonight.

And then Facebook sucked me in.

Man, that thing is dangerous. I try really hard not to spend too much time on it. I played one of those neighbor games on it last summer, but c’mon, I was home all day every day and I had the time to do it. Nowadays, I do good to just bathe the kids on a semi-regular basis, much less trade goodies in a pretend city.

But it’s always fascinating to see what things people are posting, only because I think it gives you an insight into their psyche you might not get any other way. What people are drawn to—and are willing to share with their entire friend list—is pretty telling.

Are you a bleeding heart liberal? Red hot conservative? Don’t care, just want to get stoned all the time? Listen to music with disturbing lyrics?

I’ve got friends who I would never discuss any of these things with, but yet I know all of these things about them. I know who has new piercings, who got a new pet, who thinks the Democrats are bleeding idiots, who thinks the Republicans are soulless devils and what TV shows they all watch.

I really kind of like the Facebook universe, but sometimes I have to just look away because it can be too much to take in.

Sometimes I just don’t want to know.

24 Body Count

Episode 18: 9 am to 10 am

None.

That’s right. Not a single, solitary kill tonight. Jack’s got cold sweats, ready to kill someone, anyone, just to get the bloodlust out of his system but he didn’t log a single shot. No stabbing. No necks being broken. Certainly no heads being cut off.

So. Season total is seventy, Jack logging in thirteen.

And we wait.

Chloe is still in charge of CTU. President Taylor came to visit after she realized that Jack’s planned interrogation of G.W.W.F.H.O.H.S. would undermine the peace treaty she’s been working on for months; the involvement of the Russian government in the assassination of M.E.P. could make folks…uneasy. Taylor ordered Jack to step down from his investigation, which was not what he wanted to hear, and then she told him she was ‘removing’ him from CTU for debriefing at the local Air Force base.

He wasn’t so keen on that idea.

A stolen chopper later, we have Jack heading off for what can only be total annihilation of anyone who gets in his way.

Still no Tony….

The Boys Are Back In Town

My boys are home.

Robert has been gone for the past two nights to a guitar show in Dallas with James, helping to sell James’ amp modifiers. Considering how many times I go out of town for art teacher conventions and workshops, I didn’t begrudge him this but it certainly did get lonely without him around.

Harrison was also gone for much of the weekend. He spent the past two nights with my parents, coming home for his sojourn to Lowe’s for some building action. I missed seeing him, but I’ll be honest—I am around him day in and day out from dawn to bedtime. I love him more than I love the air I breath, but sometimes I just need a little bit of a break from him.

This weekend with him at my folks’ was just about perfect. Not only did I get some much needed ‘Just Laura’ time—something that I hardly ever get as opposed to the goobs and gobs of ‘Just Harrison’ time—but I also got a good bit of ‘Just Mommy’ time during naps and at night. When he returned this afternoon, I was able to relax with him in a way that I’ve not been able to do in a while.

I guess we all need a day or two of break time every now and again to recoup. I’m glad, though, that my men-folk are back because as much as I like my break, I like them even better.