fostering

OK here is our first venture into dog-dome.

We are fostering two yellow labs. As always, it's a long story.

more later when I get my bearings.

the flowering hello

Spring is my new favorite season. I used to love the fall for all of its reasons. But as I get older I find the newness and rebirth of the land inspiring.
This is the view from my bathroom window where a Bradford Pear tree marks the seasons for me. I am always eager to see it bloom, because it reminds me so much of my mom. There are certain flowers and trees that remind me of her, plants that she loved. All of them bloom. So when I see one in all of its glory my heart aches with pleasure, because I know she would have loved to be here to see it with me.
March is a time when my mom would love to come south to visit me. The weather in Georgia is great. March in Ohio is just a pain in the butt. You feel like winter should be ending, it just gets warm enough to tease and then whammo three more inches of snow. And there is plenty of cold rain too. I used to live on a streets lined with dogwood trees and she seemed to come around they time they were in full bloom. She even painted a picture for me of a robin (since my street's name was Robinwood) in a flowering dogwood. It hangs at my front door in honor greeting everyone with the note "Peace to all who enter here."
Although I'm not an expert I don't think the Bradford Pears are named that because they bare fruit, I think it is because of their shape. Anyway they are blooming now, everywhere. Again I get that little achey feeling, because five years ago this month, mom died. I went to stay with her for a while and then came back home. My sister called on a Wednesday to tell me she stopped eating. When we were packing for our trip back north again. I looked out my bathroom window and noticed that the tree was almost ready to bloom. She died on that Saturday. While I was gone, my bathroom tree bloomed and turned green.
Now the trees are blooming again like white heavenly tears reminding me of how much she misses us.

crazy is as crazy does

You know, I've been around a bit. I've seen the world. I knew there were crazy people out there, thought I met most of them. Thought I was related to a few of them.
Boy was I wrong. There are far more than I thought.

When I went to the coo-coo lady's house out in the country with the pack of wild animals living with her she said, "you know I meet a lot of nuts in this business." She proceeded to tell me about a woman that adopted a cat, "she was NUT and I mean that with a capital N-U-T."

hmm, I thought. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

So I find this dog on craiglist. She is a 1. 5 year old yellow lab/golden retriever. The owner never had her spayed so she had two litters of puppies. A rescuer came in and took the second litter from her and paid to have the dog spayed. The owner wants to give her away now.

I sent her an email inquiring about the dog, that again sounds way too good to be true, she calls me at 11pm last night. Something about the lady sounds really strange.

Now I feel like I have to rescue the dog from her.

I wanted to go get her today. But my hunka wants to go with me. He's worried about us endangering ourselves for the sake of the dog.

She implied that if I do not get the dog, she is going to put her down. All of this because she says she has been diagnosed with the "C word." I think "C word?" what is that.....cooties? crabs? crazy?
clearly the last one

crazy ladies

I'm addicted to petfinder.com. I thought this morning that I would NOT look for another dog on that website. But I couldn't make it past 11am.
After my Maggie dog had gone away to two people that are 40 years older than me and clearly faster, I knew I had to let go. The Maggie dog was too good to be true. She had a bump on her nose from a bite she got as a small puppy, and because of that the breeder couldn't sell her. So an elderly man took her and trained her, a lot apparently. She could sit, stay, come, sit and wait to eat on command, sit and wait to be dismissed, fix dinner, iron your shirts and take out the trash. The 84 year-old man went to the hospital, and the dog went to his daughter who turned him over to the lab nazis.
So yesterday, K had a day off of school so I drove the boys to the "country" to an animal shelter that I found out about on petfinder. Fran is the lady that runs this "shelter" from her two bedroom home. Imagine what a little cottage house would look like with 35 cats and about 18 dogs. Imagine the smell.
The tiny puppy that was pictured curled up with a cat is now nine months old and part of a pack of wild dogs. She has had little or no interaction with humans. She came in to see us and coward in the corner.
Needless to say Fran the pet lady is a little coo-coo for cocoa puffs, if you know what I mean. K whispered to me as we left, "Do you think she lives here?"
"Yes," I said. "And I think she loves every minute of it."

oh woe

My dogs are gone. oh woe
The two dogs that I had picked are gone.....adopted by someone other than me.
I've just boo-hooed to my husband about it. I'm so disappointed.
The lab rescue folks (aka the labrador nazis) said if I wanted to see a specific dog I could make an appointment. If I wanted to meet several of them, I had to wait until the dog adoption day (March 17th). So apparently "two" means "several" nowadays.
I suppose I should have just jumped on one of them, but I would have always wondered what the other one was like.
They were trained, so much of the work had been done on them. One was three years old and more settled.
If I get a puppy it is so much more work, oye.

I'm off to bed. I'm too emotional about this. I've been up since 4am. I had the opposite happen to me with the time change....I actually woke up way earlier than I should have.

dog obsession

OK so I haven't posted lately because I've been feeding my dog obsession. I spend every free moment reading about dogs and looking for dogs on petfinder.com.
My hunka has been amazed how much time I'm online looking for dogs. He concedes perhaps it is better this way that at least I'm not meeting in chat rooms with other men.
There are two promising dogs. I'm going to meet them on Saturday the 17th.
I have been approved for adoption, which was a real nail biter. I've heard horror stories from friends that were turned down after the home visit. One person had a leather couch and the foster mom thought that would pose a problem. Another person got the "nay" because she didn't have a fence. Small point that she wanted a chihuahua.
My friends indulge me as I talk over every facet of dog ownership.
My biggest concern right now, other than whether or not the dog will be a good match for us, is that my hunka wants to go to Florida for spring break. Doesn't sound like a good time to get a dog right? If I wait until after the break, I'm worried that someone will get that magical dog I have my eye on.

bye bye binky

I just spent the past four hours or so in my kitchen preparing food that my children would not eat. I did get them to help clean the kitchen though so all is not a loss.

I'm trying to fatten up the oldest boy who is just skin and bones since he's been sick. Not that he was exactly a porker to begin with, but one flu spell and you'd thing he'd been sitting in a refugee camps with an empty bowl and flies on his eyes.

I also went to the doctor's today for a bone scan and blood tests. It sounds worse than it is...it is just part two of a physical that I started last month.

Somehow, I got my cholesterol down to 134 which is what I wish I weighed, but never mind.

I can say this with confidence now.....drumroll please....we have broken the baby of his pacifier habit. I thought it would be harder and more painful than it has been. We had to wait until he was completely healthy. He was using it mostly to sleep but it started to get silly. He'd wake up crying in the night 3 or 4 times because he couldn't find his binky. I'd go it fumble around slapping the mattress looking for the holy grail. I even used baby links to attach it to the crib rail, but he never caught on to my ingenuity. It was just easier to hollar for me.

I am sitting here waiting for a website to email me and tell my what my user name and password are.....
The boys are sick, again.
I'm hoping to call in the reserves tomorrow.

How long should an email like this take? ugh. I have no patience.

How many junk drawers in a house is acceptable? It seems that I have more than my allotted number.

Yesterday Q and I went to visit some dogs a lab rescue had at the pet store. I knew some of the dogs already, so when I sighted them it was as if I had spotted a celebrity-- oh wow there's Lacey, Max and Doc!!! I felt like I knew them already. I still am not quite ready for a dog yet. They baby is still small. And I haven't pored through every available book or DVD yet. I've got about 5 or 6 books and DVD's on hold for me at the library. I started Cesar Millan's book and tried some of his techniques on our friends dogs when I took care of them yesterday. I was pretty amazed that just a few things seemed to work .

My long time friend back home thinks I have lost my mind. She said to me "What a DOG! You with the germ thing? Do you know how dirty they are? Think about the poop! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?! I don't know you anymore."

The dog thing is just another way to invite chaos into my life...for me when I am searching for more chaos, I start work, have another baby.....or in this case get a dog.

Driving the Jeep in the cluttered garage

Taking time to stop and smell the pansies

Things I never thought I'd say

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've got a little list going I call it "Things I Never Thought I'd Say."
Here's a sample of ....

* Please take that salami off of your brother's head.

* Please don't lick the sink.

* We don't rub our bodies all over the walls of a public bathroom.

Here are a couple some friends have added

* Please don't put cheese on the dog.

*Please don't pick your nose and eat it.

I have a new one tonight.

I prepared another healthy delicious and nutrious meal with love and tenderness. ahem.
It was chicken salad....with chicken. carrots, mayo, salt and pepper on bread....all things my children eat in great quantities, I may add. But something about the combination of all of them together was enough to make one son start to retch and gag at the table. We have a rule, everyone must at least try their food. I am sooooo against preparing more than one meal for the people at the table. If you cannot eat what is prepared, you will go hungry for the night.

But his brother happily ate his entire sandwich and asked for dessert -- in his case popcorn. (because for some reason and at some time, pop corn became a dessert in our house) So fine, permission granted which caused the urping party great distress, weeping and whaling.
So the retching brother tried mouthful after mouthful and spit them in napkins which orbited his plate. Then he stood on his chair hovering over me with food in his mouth gagging-- eyes watering.

"Please don't throw up on me while I'm eating," I said calmly and put another bite in my mouth.

Dad's night at preschool

letterboxing and clubs

The boys and I have discovered a new hobby-- "Letterboxing"
I read about it in Family Fun Magazine a few months ago and it looked way to complicated and like a lot of work.
On further review, my friend Jenny helped simplify it for me. Her kids are even younger than mine and if she could scratch interest in it, I thought I could give it a try.
So with stamp pads and directions in hand we started out. Part scavenger hunt, part nature hike, part math/reading assignment and stamping project we hunted for the hidden treasure.
The boys were thrilled.

This morning, as K readied for school he said, "Me and Joey have started a 'Get Rich Quick Club." As part of their public school experience, they have fast learned fund raising and salesmanship.
This is a marked departure from last year when he said to me as a kindergartener, "Lindsey and Erin let me in their "Girls Only Club." And they let me be the president!"

First Hair Cut

of boys and dogs

The baby is better. Praise God.
He is still out of sorts though, because his sleep schedule is all out of whack. We brought him into bed with us during his illness so we could get a little sleep. Now he is having a hard time being by himself in his bed.
He has developed what appears to be a run of the mill cold and is still a little clingy.

But life is good.

Thank you for Fat Tuesday. I am giving up desserts for lent. So next to me sits a Godiva chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I am waiting for my friend to arrive and hope she will share her turtle cheesecake with me.

I thought I should give up my biggest vice...diet pop, but I know that I am not ready for that yet.

The older boys are great. Q has been taking swimming lessons at the Y. K has begun rock wall climbing there too and soccer is about to begin for both of them.

They are in love with the two puppies of our neighbors (who were pictured in an earlier post). And luckily the neighbors endulge them and let them play and walk them and it gives everyone just enough of a puppy fix to get us through until 2.3 years go by and we get our own.

At this point, my carpet is trashed. The furniture is in rough shreds covered with slip covers. We'll get a dog before we get new anything.

My hunka is not thrilled about a dog. He says we should give the money we'd spend on a dog to the church. My friend AE says it is spending money taking care of God's kingdom.

The debate goes on.

a sunday for the dogs

So the baby is sick again. Oh how I hate it.
A fever this time. This is the third day in a row he's had this mysterious fever. He shivers and shakes when his Motrin wears off and is just generally miserable.
And to add another mark in my "Mother of the Year" resume, I left the sick baby and two older perfectly healthy children ((Griper and Hyper)) in my husband's care all day yesterday so I could go scrapbook.
I tend to get in a bit of a downward spiral when I have a sick kid. I start to worry. And then I obsess.... maybe this is the start of something worse? Isn't this just how Ebola begins? ! General malaise and a fever? OH wait. I'm starting to not feel so well myself. Oh wait you over there, do you have a runny nose... Isn't that how a brain hemorrhage starts?
So needless to say, it probably was better I was out of the house.

Speaking of obsessing, I am warning you I may write about this for 2.3 years until the event finally takes place, but I've begun looking at taking the plunge and getting a dog. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I've been on petfinder and a local Lab rescue website, looking for that hole in my head which I've been so desparately missing.

vday

befoe I stat i have to mention on thing....i am typing on my hubby's laptop....and the "R" key is broken off....which means sometimes it types and sometimes it doesn't....so please keep this in mind while eading.....
I'm about to sound like a foagie here, but I remember the day when Valentines Day at school was about making those constuction paper coveed boxes and eveyone put in the small little cards.
Nowadays, it is not enough to put just a card....there must be attached a pencil, candies, rubber animal, eraser....some kids....(childen of the alpha moms)....come with an entie gift bag full of crap.
i miss the letter R.....I will sign off for now..

Weekend Warriors

We have emerged from the wreckage.
Bruised but not broken.
Weak but not worn.

Operation Stomach Influenza commenced Thursday night.

Son #2 woke to the pounding pains of stomach turmoil.

One by one we fell.
literally.
For me, I had my first fainting experience.

Over the days and nights of infantry battle, younger troops shouted and cried,
"This is the worst _____ ever." Fill in the blanks here, because it was used many times.

Though we tried hard for days to protect the youngest and perceived weakest in our company, the babe woke from his nap and played happily in his own vomit, Sunday 2100 GMT. The last of our battalion to go.

Now we walk among the wreckage, piles of laundry and linens piled high and low like the forgotten dug trenches of war. Cups, spoons and crusts litter the landscape. Lysol and bleach wipes laugh at our attempts to do damage control.

The worst is over, for now.

As one of the soldiers proclaimed in the heat of battle, "this is the worst night of my life."
All I could tell him was "Oh how I wish it could be."

oh baby

We are in full blown climbing stage around here. KC also got his first dose of "what happens when you torment a cat." It usually only takes one facial scratch, and the babies' tend to learn.

black hole of the internet

I am sucked into the internet tonight like an addict chasing a fill.
I bounce from bill pay to a charity search.
I check the baby care schedule of a friend to a search for a dog which I clearly do not need.
I have six email accounts.
I check my sister's, niece's my space pages. I check in on two blogs that I like.
I delete 2893 emails from my work account....I do this one at a time until I cleverly call the tech guy at work to ask him how to highlight the emails to speed this thing up....so now I delete 25 at a time. brutal.
I check out the vacation bible school curriculum for ideas for charities the kids can work for.
I try to put money in an IRA, but the page has rejected me.
I want to pay a bill, but can't find the account number.

I am so tired, but yet I cannot stop. I will regret this at 6am when my morning son will come and wake me for the day.

I feel like I get nothing done, and this is why I don't.

Sorry couldn't get this blown up to scale....

There's got to be an easier way to do this....

http://www.babyblues.com/Testing/index.php?formname=getstrip&GoToDay=05/09/05

OH brother....

Yesterday these are the words I heard my four-year old speak to his brother, "Who art thou?"

"Who art thou?"

As I type this I can hear him upstairs....chanting that classic Queen song "We Will Rock You."
The boys were exposed to this ditty at a Braves baseball game. Here's how it goes in our house, You know how it starts.....STOMP STOMP CLAP....STOMP STOMP CLAP....STOMP STOMP CLAP....
"we will we will....rock you
and sock you
and flush you down the toilet.
We hope you enjoy it. "

Oh brother who art thou?

real world

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to join the land of the paid working. It gave me the opportunity to work a different part of my brain.
I also feel more like a granny when I do things like that. When I go back to work I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle.....
The new technology....how do I turn this thing on?!
HEY where did they put the break room?!
I rub my eyes and wonder, "how did everyone get so old....so fat?"

Then I think they must be thinking the same thing of me.

I also learned a thing or two about the new world of music. One of my younger collegues...gave me some suggestions for my workout music selection.

i'm back....hail to the chief

I couldn't stay away from my blog for too long....ten days. big deal.

I went back to work for a few days. So that had me scurrying around a bit.

Here is a letter I came across in my foyer.

It was in an envelope.....the paper was folded four times and decorated with red white and blue and pictures that resemble an American flag. Here is what it said......


"Dear Gorge bush
how is evry thing going
if it is to hard I can do it
and I Know that it is hard to be the presadint.
so try your best.
Love your friend K..."

blog break

I'm taking a break from my blog for a while....I'm giving it two weeks.

I used to have constant blog dialogue running around in my brain. I'd take a pause in my day to write about our lives documenting it like a mini-Truman show.
Blogging is strange....therapeutic....challenging.....
I started out looking at it as a way to have conversations with my far away friends and family, but it has become more than that....part on-line scrapbook, part family history, part dear diary, part...it's cheaper than therapy.

But I need a break from it for now.
We'll see if I can do it.

If you could

Random meaningless thoughts run are running around in my brain......

If you had a time /space machine and could go back and tell yourself some things you just would NOT have believed. What would they be?

Tonight these are the only three things I can think of...

1.) You will eat blue cheese....and like it.

2.) You will have THREE sons.

3.) You will drink coffee.

And you wonder where I get it?

I love this picture.
This is a picture of my grandfather in the 1960's in White Sands, NM doing some version of Lawrence of Arabia.

saturday

There is this odd feeling I had today. It is called, "I think I got enough sleep."
I put the baby down for a nap and then did the same to myself. I think I must have slept for well over an hour maybe two.
Now my head is remarkably clear...It is a very weird feeling.

Tonight K said he wanted to camp in the baby's room and "take care" of him. So he is in charge of fumbling around in the dark for a pacifer to stick in that baby's mouth if he needs it. Sounds good in theory to me, but this seven year old kid sleeps like a rock. This, despite his first two years of life when a creak in the floor in another part of the house would raise him fully awake and crying.

Q says he wants to be in charge of baby duty tomorrow night. Funny, as this is the kid, who can appear fully awake while he runs circles around your bedroom but is in full blown REM. One night, he came into my room crawled up on the bed, stood, and started to pull his PJ's down to pee on me. "DO YOU HAVE TO GO PEE PEE?!" I shouted. "Yes," he answered as I pulled him to the bathroom. He remembered none of it.

No wonder I don't get enough sleep.

wheeee

food

One of the many great reasons to have kids is to live out all those great food memories.
Today I think I perfected the "inside s'more"
Q had a friend over to play. I pulled out the microwave popcorn and started making my s'mores.
2 long graham crackers
chocolate chips on top.....microwave for 1 minute
top with the mini marshmallows and broil until they brown in the toaster oven.
My two kids were psyched. The friend didn't want anything to do with it and I was glad. As my mom used to always say....more for me!
I had to make a pot of coffee because I always crash in a terrible way after eating that much sugar. So I use one food drug to counteract the other.
In other food news, a friend is having a girls night out at her house for a home cooked Italian meal tonight.
And Friday, I'm organizing another girls night at Super Suppers on Friday so I can get out of my cooking rut. I'm even tired of my own cooking.

You know THAT look

It is the look. You know it.
When you approach the door of the child's classroom, and the teacher has THAT look on her face.

Today, I got THAT look twice.

I approached to pick up baby KC from the church's nursery. The nursery worker was standing, holding him and looked at me with relief in her eyes "thank God you are here."

"Ahm, we had a little thing with him...He crawled to the top of the bookshelf and was standing there like he was surfing."

He found a little chair pushed it to the shelf and started climbing. He hollared when he reached the victory of his everest, and they approached as quickly as they could without scaring him down.

When I approached the 4-year-old room, the Sunday school teacher had THAT look too. Apparently Q decided he couldn't part from his mother and protested when his father forced him into the room with the rest of them. So he stood in the corner for the hour kicking the cabinet.

School starts tomorrow for elementary and Tuesday for Q. I just realized that when people look at me I may have THAT look on my face all the time.

The boys on Christmas eve

Christmas morning 2006

K was really patient. He woke up early and waited upstairs until 745am when we finally could wake his brother. Here he is waiting for his papa to get the video camera ready.

Yeehaa!

Mr Grumpy Pants.....unhappy because we woke him up so early. He refused to be photographed in his pajamas so we had to wait for him to get dressed.
Rescue Heroes command center

K opens his telescope from Aunt Pat. This is the face of jubilation.

better her than me

I went to try to help my friend that has the 4 year old, the 3 year old and newborn triplets. TRIPLETS.

Man, thankfully that is not me. whew.

I fed two babies, cleaned bottles, changed two diapers, and planted a small flat of pansies with the oldest boy. It was only two hours, there was so much more to do, but I had to leave.

She said once that she always looked at me with three small boys as the ultimate of busy and overwhelmed.

Let me tell, you she trumped me. big time.

A new year

Things are in shambles around here.
More shelves and a light fixture for my ever evolving craft room. Two trips to IKEA and another two to Target, and now it is time to stay home and get things together.
Except oh yes, I have three kids. Two that fight and argue and bicker. And another that climbs and walks and falls and eats things he shouldn't. So I run interference, follow a toddler around, put grumpy kids in the corner, feed, wipe.....

Hunka and I went out for the first time as a couple on new year's eve. We were home by 9:30pm. So lame are we.

K has written Santa a thank you note. Here's what it says....

"Santa,
Thank you very much for the toys and books."

Then he adds an insert, an early request for next year,.... a picture of a boy playing with what looks like a large conch shell and a note that reads....

"I want a tuba Santa OK?"

winter

Ah winter vacation...
the best part is the sleeping in. I get about an hour extra now adays. If I would have stopped at two kids. I could easily have slept into 10 am today. Q sets a daily goal on how late he can sleep in. He is so proud in the morning when he walks in full dressed and says "Guess how late I slept in today?"
K is a morning person. He wakes up early with a clear head and voice. He happily putters around alone making crafts, quizzes and experiments all without interuption from younger siblings. Last week he was in tears at 10am sobbing, "I LOOOVE morning. I don't want it to end!"
Yesterday KC started climbing, climbing, climbing. everything. As a result, he's been falling down quite a bit. Today for some reason when I went to get him from his crib, he looked more like a boy than a baby. His hair is growing out and becoming more parted and less baby like. Little man.

the jeans oh the jeans

The jeans are a lot tighter right about now.
Oh wait...the boys are screaming. I was about to write another insightful bit about my life.
But they are screaming at each other.
Santa comin+g6
n in
a couple days doesn't mean a thing to these jokers.
the mistyping is from a 14 month old that likes to grab the mouse and the keyboard while I type. This is my mental health escape. blogging4653210

He has just wandered off to eat the food from the cat's bowl.
ho ho ho

one wish

Today I helped with K's Christmas party. Since it is a public school, technically was an "international holiday party." So I did a little thing with the kids on Japanese new year.
I had the kids toss coins into a box, make a wish and clap three times. Then they picked a fortune (written by yours truly Confucius) and tied it to a small tree branch so the wind could carry the wishes away to come true.
One little girl, who was apparently new to the class said she wished for friends, and surprisingly her fortune said that her good and kind nature would bring her many friends. Her eyes lit up with her sheer excitement.
Most of the kids wished for a remote control robot, this or that kind of game. My kid wanted to go into outer space. One kid even wished that his birthday would come more than one day a year.
When I asked a little girl what she wished for she quietly told me that she wished her mommy would get better from brain cancer. This quiet little girl struck a nerve with me in the midst of the mayhem of dredels, donuts and candy poppers. I told her I would make the same wish, so I threw my coins in, clapped three times and said a prayer for her mothers health. Then the rest of the kids asked for more coins so they could wish for her mom to get better too.

look in the sky

What should I be doing the past few days, decking my halls? baking delicious holiday treats? wrapping presents? What could it be in this last week before Christmas would this mom of three be doing?
Nope, raking leaves of course. Because the weather is something like 100 degrees outside and the leaves didn't get the attention they needed a month or two ago AND because this is the south where trees take their own sweet time dropping leaves.
So I'm outside raking, while my hunka hunka honey lay inside with a bum back. Merry Christmas, I think and then start to obsess about global warming and what damage we are doing to the earth. My hyacinths are poking through the earth about two months before they should be. Buds are forming on trees. OH THE AGONY!
What is going on? Hunka says I (aka "Chicken Little") should just enjoy the 75 degree weather. La la la, how nice it is to send our children to live in a green house.
I watched the Oprah show about global warming and the "Inconvenient Truth" documentary. Let me tell you, it scared me. So now I'm carpooling with another mom and saving about three hours a week in drive time.
I'm out to get my oldest from the bus stop. Then off to rake more leaves...They just keep falling. Or is that the sky?

Circle of fuzz

I remember like it was yesterday. My mom took me to the town's fire station for a visit with Santa Claus. I wore very yellow patent leather shoes with buckles, sweater stockings which I hated with all my being, and a very 70's navy and red dress. When I saw the jolly man, it was if a celebrity had appeared. Getting close to him was like a dream. And just like a dream was his beard. All fluffy and flowing, pure white....I had to get my hands on it. So I did. And like I said it was like a dream. The picture shows me sitting on Santa's lap with the side of my face and neck snuggled into the old man's hair and my behind hanging to the side on his knee. If I were good I'd find the picture and post it here. But that is a little too much right now. But I post today because life has an amazing way of going in circles.
Notice how Santa casually grappled the little boy's hands into place.

I

Doggone it

Friends have two new puppies. So cute. They couldn't decided between the two which to pick, so they took both.

She says it is a little crazy, like too much puppiness.

I feel the same way, like I have too many kids. But don't know which one to get rid of.

cart -a what?

"cartilaginous"
This is the word my 7 year-old used on me yesterday.

I had to look it up....
–adjective
1.of or resembling cartilage.
2.having a skeleton composed either entirely or mainly of cartilage, as vertebrates of the class Chondrichthyes, which includes the sharks, rays, and skates.

Ah ok, when did he get smarter than me? Oh I see, at seven, I get it.
But then when we got out a shark book, he laughed for 15 straight minutes about two words "anal fin."

uganda be kidding me

I don't know who or why would be reading my blog in Uganda, (or at least that is the closest African country I could figure from my hit map,) but wow, or weird. What a strange little global community we live in.

I made Chicken Tortilla Soup tonight. My friend I went on the scrapbooking weekend with made it the first night we were there. I tried to recreate it from memory and a little help from the internet. The boys topped it with three or four handfuls of cheddar cheese and lots of tortilla chips.

Here's the recipe more or less

2 Poblano peppers chopped
1 onion chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
1 tea cumin
4 chopped tomatoes
3 or 4 C cooked chicken (rotisserie or canned)
1 -2 cups frozen corn or one can corn drained
2 large boxes chicken stock
2 tea worchestire sauce
salt to taste
1 C cilantro chopped
1 lime

1. cook onions, peppers, garlic and cumin in large stock pan until soft
2. add tomatoes and cook a few minutes longer
3. add the rest of the ingredients and simmer
4. squeeze lime in before serving. top with more cilantro, cheese and tortilla chips.

I love cilantro and lime together so I add more than a normal person would I think. I'm also thinking about adding black beans next time.

back to reality

Each day on my weekend, I opened my eyes and looked out the curtainless floor to ceiling windows to the tops of trees as they reached up to the sky. A small river ran through the back yard with small waterfalls.
My weekend was everything I hoped it would be, and then some.
I completed 81 12x12 pages of my scrapbooks. Over half of those pages were of a trip, my mom, sister and I took back in 1985. The magnetic album the photos were stored in had started eating away at most of the pictures. Remarkably the pictures we had developed in Japan had color and form as brilliant as 21 years ago.
The rest of the pictures were of baby's first year.
The baby got sick on Friday while I was gone. Fever and a cough that made him cry. Hunka handled it remarkably well. He talked frequently with the call nurse and took him in to be checked on Saturday. Yesterday was the first full day of him being back to his happy self. Now we just have to get him back on his sleep schedule.
In addition to massive hours spent scrapbooking, I walked daily, ate nutritious food, drank lots of diet beverages, excercised, watched movies, showered when I felt like it, took care of myself...filled up my tank.

Mountain bound

You know I couldn't leave without one more post about how thrilled I am to be going to my scrapbook extravaganza. I can't wipe the smile off my face.

I've got my aqua green sweats on with the drawstring waist. Three more pairs of sweatpants and a pair of jeans (you know. for dressing up--for going out to eat).

Hunka says he thought perhaps the rain would cause the event to be cancelled. But scrapbooking doesn't work that way, pal.

yeehaa

Seven is heaven

Here are some pictures of K on his 7th birthday. This year we decided to let him have a "friend" birthday party, so he chose four friends to go to Chuck E Cheese for the grand event.

I am not a birthday party mom. I do not have the ideas or the patience for all the party details. Chuck E was the way to go for me.

I know why now people have these crazy birthday parties for their kids. The look on that kid's face was pure joy.

Q and I left the party a little early. I took him to the doctor to look for an ear infection, turns out he had that, plus strep throat.

T-minus

It's T-minus two until the scrapbooking extravaganza. I've got a 12-pack of Diet Dr Pepper ready to go.

I'm packing my gear, my pictures....my snacks.

As this is a girls only weekend in a cabin in the woods, when I wake up at whatever time I feel like it, I'll decide then.....hmmmm should I wear the gray sweatpants or the darker gray sweatpants? Or maybe I'll just stay in PJs.

all day

Theres a new sherriff in town

Q with his new police man shirt and badge from Aunt, Uncle and Cuz in So.Cal.
He really wants me to spike his hair straight up, but his hair really wants to lay down flat.

I added this tough-guy-pose only because it shows some of the bow I went on and on about in a previous post.

My curly Q

I really do love this age. Today I asked the boys a series of questions that I save in the scrapbooks....things like....favorite color? what do you want to be when you grow up?

Q's answers haven't changed that much in the year and a half since I last asked.

His favorite person --Mama

Who does he like to play with -- Mama and KC

What makes him happy? when I see Mama the most

Often when I point out something gorgeous like a sunset or flowers in full bloom. He'll say "but Mama, it's still not as pretty as you. You are the beautifulest."

What a change from the day when he said, "mama, do you know what is special about you?...." A big fat zero

For the record here are the questions and answers for both boys

Q -age four

Fave food?
--hot dogs, pizza, macaroni and cheese and chicken

Fave drink?
-Kefir (a drink yogurt)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
- a policeman, a highway 'control' ('patrol' - like his uncle Rob), President, ambulance driver

what do you like to do?
-watch TV, play computer

fave person?
-Mama

Fave animal?
-crocodile, alligator, lion, tiger and leopard

what makes you happy?
-When I see Mama the most

Fave person to play with?
Mama and KC

If you could change your name what would it be?
still Q

What are you proud of?
-Mama and KC

Favorite color
Red


K's answers as a seven year old

1. food?
Stouffer's chicken parmesan

2. drink?
ginerale and sprite

3. Be when you grow up?
Mostly a mayor, a bus driver, a judge, an inventor

4. hobbies?
Teach, invent

5. Fave person?
himself

6. fave animal?
Gila monster (lizard)

7. what makes you happy?
doing scientific stuff

8. fave people to play with ? Matt, Alex, Andrew, and David

9. If you could change your name what would it be?
"Kaz"

10. What are you most proud of?
himself....
"Me!....inventor me, scientific me, bus driver me, mayor me, judge me!"

sunday food

We let the kids pick a restaurant when it is their birthday for a family meal.

K picked Macaroni Grill. The boys always eat everything and things are fairly healthy there for them. They eat broccoli, chicken, spaghetti and mac and cheese. There is always at least one cup of chocolate milk and a big bowl of ice cream with fudge at the end.

Tonight there wasn't even much to put in the to-go bag.

there are still...

There are still boxes in my foyer.

I still have an annoying cough.

But I am packing my things for my scrapbooking extravaganza. hope.

The weather has been beautiful, so I just don't know why it feels like winter to me. 60 and 70 degrees is not winter, but still it feels like it.
The boys have been off sinceTuesday. Maybe that's why I'm a little stir crazy. .

Hunka comes home and wants to go to Home Depot. We decide that he will delay it until after boys are in bed. He says he has to "get out."

I look at him with glazed eyes. "Get out," I think, honey let me tell you about not getting out.

thoughts of santa

Thoughts from the oldest the seven year old about the jolly man.....all uttered today while adults tried to assemble a "self-lit" tree.

"Why would I waste my time talking to the mall Santa? The real Santa doesn't have time to sit in a mall all day. "

"Does Santa ever die?"

"Does Santa have kids? Because if he dies, one of his kids could take over."

"Does Santa Claus know what you are thinking?"

"Maybe Santa Claus will know that you have really been trying to be good, but sometimes you just make mistakes."

scrappin

I'm going scrapbooking. Three glorious days of scrapbooking. It is keeping me going, just the thought of it.

Technically it is a girls weekend in the mountains, but it is full blown scrapbooking time for me, baby.

My scrapbooking passion comes and goes depending on what is going on in my life. I'm just heading out of a scrapbooking famine, which would be also be known as labor, delivery and post partum. OK so post-partum for me equals a full year, but who's counting.

deck em

I don't know how people do it.

As I put up the holiday, I mean Christmas, decorations (I know some people are very sensitive about that...more on that later). I don't feel all that merry or bright.

Though the boys are so thrilled with deck the halls and fa-la-la.

I made a big gold bow. My mom was the maker of all bows fancy. She did teach me how to make them years ago, but I have been salvaging her bows from the boxes year after year. Because to use another bow, would seem to be well, just plain wrong. Her bows are sad and ratty by now.

I pulled them out once again and thought that mom would be annoyed with me for hanging such a bad bow for another year.

So I bought a big roll of gold wired ribbon and set to work. I could hear her coaching me from years gone by. And let me tell you I did it. It took a few times, but it is now hanging on my front door. I'm so proud and she must be too.

The boxes of decorations sit in the foyer. There is so much to do. I wonder how I can decorate, when I can barely find the time to do the normal things I'm supposed to do....like take care of kids, feed them, wash them and their clothes.

Oh and here is another thing that gets under my skin lately.

Merry Christmas....Happy Holidays...... Some people seem so bothered that people are taking the "Christ" out of Christmas. I remember being a kid hearing people getting all riled when people would abbreviate Christmas to Xmas.

I say who cares. Say something, say anthing, as long as it is nice. What a change that would be.

People also get all riled about the sacredness of the "Christmas tree." And don't want people calling them "Giving trees," "Holiday trees"....whatever. Isn't this one of Bill O'Reilly's big complaints.
I say puuleeeze. First of all I don't remember Mary and Joseph taking time in Bethlehem to decorate an evergreen pine tree. Second of all, you can call a french fry a "freedom" fry...but it still is what it is....bad for your thighs.

Take a kid to the mall, point out a tree and say what is it? No matter what religion or ethnicity....I bet any kid will say.....ahm it is a Christmas tree, duh.

I wonder why in a nation that is predominately Christian are we so worried that others may have any voice. And for the most part, I think it is Christians trying to be sensitive to other peoples, and concern that they may exclude others. For once as Christians, excluding others, is probably something we should be able to avoid at Christmas.

eve of joy

My boy will be seven tomorrow.

I don't know when this happened exactly.
Seems so big to me.

He got a bike today. He found it by doing an extensive treasure hunt to our friends' (his babysitters) house.
(btw--babysitter family-- I think I deleted the message I told you about. anyway a shout out to babysitter and family)

This boy has been struggling lately with a bad case of the grumpies. I don't know how he got so mean. Though sometimes when he growls to his brother, "You know better," I think I may have a hint of a mini mirror in front of me.

Q spent one day playing with a friend. Just before K got home, he warned his friend, "Be careful, he can be very grouchy."

We work with him daily.... almost to the point of insanity. Relax we tell him, through clenched teeth. RELAX!

Though tonight when I went to his room to check on him I kissed him on his head. He woke up momentarily and drowsily asked, "Mama, how big is heaven?"

"Oh very big. Infinity. It has no end." I told him.

"Oh cool," he said and drifted off to sleep.

a frisket a frasket a freezer full...

I have a freezer full of promise.

This week I walked through the frozen food section with a thankful heart for all the people out there that grow, wash and prepare food.
I call it my ode to Marie Callender.

Nevermind her 17 grams of fat in her chicken pot pie. That woman has single-handedly saved my behind at 530pm many a night.

Walmart has expanded their organic and gourmet lines of food lately. So now I can get so much of the foods that I had to make a different trip for right there with all my massively marketed items.

I also buy in bulk. It is a genetic thing. I don't just buy a loaf of bread. I buy four. I've realized that milk freezes and thaws with the same taste.

We bought a freezer four years ago, and life has just never been the same. I love my freezer. It ranks up there with the appliances I love....microwave, TV, refrigerator, washer, dryer.....all things invented to make my life easy. right?

why didn't i think of that

After an exhausting trip around the block trying to teach a 4-year-old how to ride a bike with woobly training wheels, the two of us stretched out on the floor of the toy room staring at the ceiling.

Boy, were we tired and thirsty, but mostly just tired. Way too tired to get up and get a drink. At some point I realized that K's bus would be coming soon, I tried to convince my tuckered pal to get up and check the clock in the kitchen for the time.

"No Mama, I'm too tired." I begged some more in a way you only do when you are tired.

"Mama, what time is it?," he asks also concerned about our schedule. I don't know I say pleading with him to go look at the clock.

"But mama, we have to meet the bus. What time is it?"

back and forth we play this game....get up....no you....not me....i'm too tired...you go....

"Mama," Q says, "Why don't you look at your watch?"

So I did. silly me

i've been neglecting you oh blog of mine.

kids, work, house, kids, school, driving, reading

rainy days and elections

The boys are primed for the elections. Today they had campaigns for mayor and president in the living room. They are interested in this electoral process, which in turn is interesting for me because I never remember caring when I was a kid. I suppose I am planting the seeds of what they will become when they grow up. I don't know if my mom realized she was doing it when I was growing up. But I have a good idea that my grandfather knew he was grooming my political thought. And he was absolutely right, I mean correct.

so far so good

so far so good today.

boys are happy.

playing school.

they are healthy.

as my non native English speaker friends say...

Thanks God

my purple room is coming together

slowly

I try a new thing

for 15 minutes

I clean sort organize--one space.

then I stop or am stopped

I have coffee

and cereal

so far so good

who could ask for more?

a howling good time

Halloween 2006

Canine unit of the special forces