A Lizard's Life

Home!

2010-11-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

I thought I would close out this phase of our travels by saying, "We're home!" We officially got home Halloween evening. We were home in time to get the trailer parked and mostly unloaded before the little ghosts, goblins, and one precious angel were out. However, we weren't home in time to dress up ourselves. Fortunately, we have very easy going children, and the kids were content with handing out candy and not receiving. How blessed am I? Very, in every way imaginable!

I've been cleaning and washing and putting away, reorganizing and remembering a dozen more things I must do sooner rather than later. I'm thankful to be home, and even more thankful that I put a moratorium on activities this week. I just need time to find my new groove. So far, so good. I've made dinner and done dishes every night this week, and I'm back to my daily morning walks. Once I get my vacuum cleaner back with a new clutch, life should be golden!

Off to Yellowstone!

2010-10-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

After a fun filled week in Montana, I think we're finally off to Yellowstone! We've been to Glacier National Park, Great Falls (Missouri River, Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center), Helena (including the Cathedral of Helena), Bozeman (Museum of the Rockies), and Deer Lodge (Grant-Kohrs National Historic Ranch).

Now, time for a change of pace...Yellowstone and more school. Life is grand! Always remember to take time to enjoy the precious little things. LD told me yesterday, "I still have a little bit of baby in me. I like to snuggle."

Back on the road!

2010-10-12T09:20:00.001-07:00

I'm finally heading out of the great northwest. Montana, here I come! The cool thing? I'm going to drive right through Wallace, Idaho. I lived there as a child and have many fond memories of that town. Among other things, Mount St. Helens erupted while we lived there. We cleaned ash for weeks and weeks. That's also where I learned to ski...ah, fond memories.

Off to hitch the trailer!

A whole new day.

2010-10-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

I'm somewhat thankful yesterday is over. It was interesting and busy, but not in a way you might imagine. We tried to let "the big girls" have a sleep over...meaning Little Miss was allowed to sleep in the house with her cousins. There are 7 (yes, seven) girl cousins, and one girl foster child in the house. Cousins 1, 2 and 5 share a room. #5 ended up having to sleep elsewhere since the big girls were so loud. By 10:30pm, we finally gave up and sent LM back out to the trailer so all involved could get some decent sleep. Ah, the joys of raising giggling little girls! I think all the rain and being shut up in the house must have increased their squirrelly-ness levels. :o)

Today is another day. So far, so good. I was hoping to leave today, but I'm not sure how far I will get. Although I may prefer to leave today to avoid commute traffic in the morning. It's not easy being the only adult making decisions on this trip. I need another head considering the options...and not the confusing input of 4 kids who have 4 wildly different ideas. Oy!

I'm trying to check off all my electronic chores before we leave. If I can get those off my plate, I think I'll feel better about moving on. And maybe I'll have a plan again sometime soonish...

About yesterday.

2010-10-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday really was a nice day overall. The end was a little hectic, but reading a book (we're currently reading "The Lightening Thief" by Rick Riordan) and curling up in bed seemed to curb the wiggles.

After investing in new wiper blades, we headed off to the Kingston/Edmonds Ferry. We made it with plenty of time to spare, meaning we just missed the last ferry, so we had a chance to walk around and get lunch. Since it was such a short ferry ride across Puget Sound, we stayed in the car, eating lunch and listening to more of our current bedtime book.

The drive out to North Cascades National Park was beautiful. The wind had picked up and was blowing maple leaves every which way. It was quite peaceful, and brought back childhood memories for me as we swept through the leaves piled high on the road. We saw horses, cows, goats, more horses and a fox during our drive. We also saw several waterfalls...some very impressive, some just inspiring a passing "aw...." We stopped in the Newhalem Visitor's Center and picked up four Junior Ranger books. Two kids managed to finish theirs before the visitor center closed.

We backtracked to Sedro-Wolley, Washington for our overnight stay, where things were a bit hectic. Now, we're about to pick up and drive around the Cascade Loop...through the northern part of North Cascades National Park, and then looping around through the southern tip and back across the Sound...just in time for a birthday party for Lil' Penguin. My niece has been a penguin for most of our 2 week visit. It's very cute and endearing...and sometimes frustrating as she won't respond to her name, only to "Penguin." :o)

Until next time!

So much for that idea...

2010-10-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

I had wild plans of a well thought out and written post for tonight. Unfortunately, I don't think that will be happening. I'm in a hotel room with 4 very loud and energetic kids. My frustration level is obnoxiously high, since we've already moved rooms once due to a complaining downstairs neighbor. I asked for a ground floor room. I'm on the second floor. I asked to be away from other patrons. She put me directly above someone who apparently needed to be asleep before 7pm in order to rise early tomorrow. I give up. Aside from duct taping my children, I'm at a loss to curb their loud enthusiasm and elephantine foot steps.

I've also decided my helper behavior (my desire to help those around me who need it) is side-tracking me from my goal...Canada and the rest of my trip. So I've determined to pick up and get back on the road. I started today by heading out across the Sound (Kingston to Edmonds) and then up into North Cascades National Park. I'm in a hotel overnight, and will continue our adventure tomorrow, completing a Cascades Scenic Loop, recrossing the Sound (Edmonds to Kingston) and returning to Bremerton in time for a birthday party for our second littlest niece...she turns 3 tomorrow.

Saturday we'll go see some steamer trains. Sunday, church. Monday...underway, shift colors.

The plan.

2010-10-05T22:39:00.001-07:00

The deal is, I no longer have a plan. The plan has left the building. Or maybe the state. I'm not sure where it went, but it's gone.

The plan used to be that I would finish up here, then head into Canada, over to Banff, Calgary, then Saskatoon. Then it was to be Glacier, Yellowstone, Arches, Grand Canyon and then home. Now...well, now I'm not sure what the plan is.

There are several options. First, I could do day trips, or an over night trip into Canada and possibly up to Alaska (maybe up to Skagway). I would leave my trailer here at my brother's and just tool around in the truck.

Second, I could continue on as planned, despite wondering if my head is screwed on right. It is getting late in the season, snow is going to start falling soon, and many things are already shut down for the season.

Third, I could scrap Canada and Alaska all together and head home along the coast, or back the US route previously planned, or...so many options!

In any case, the plan is, I don't have a plan. I was going to leave tomorrow. But now my brother has been yanked for another business trip, leaving my SIL to do a birthday party by herself on Friday. I think we'll hang out for a princess party, and then after the weekend, I'll make a plan. That's the plan, anyway. Maybe.

Again? So soon?

2010-09-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Really, nothing notable has happened since I last posted, but I figured since I have an internet connection, I might as well use it.

This week we have been heavily focused on school. It has been nice to have a routine and the space to spread out and really get into our work. And the weather has been more than pleasant here. Lately there's been less rain and more sun and even some beautiful clear skies at night. I love to lay in my bed and look out the window up into the night sky. I've seen countless falling stars, watched a satellite pass overhead and enjoyed the peace of knowing my husband is (relatively) safe on the other side of the world.

In other news, we seem closer to deciding on a mid-deployment meeting point and time. I have a plan for the kids, a destination, even a time frame. Our destination is Rome, and we meet on our 15th wedding anniversary. At the moment, this all feels a little surreal. Perhaps as the time draws nearer, it will become more real. Maybe when I pack. I'm definitely excited and know this will more than make up for our lack of a honeymoon. :o)

Did I ever mention why I've stopped our trip for the moment? The details are fairly boring (unless you would find it amusing that MM put a stick through the awning to drain water for me), but I decided with all the rain we were getting I really needed to have a functional awning. So last Friday we came in to town (Bremerton), got measured for a new awning, which should be shipped this Friday. We should be able to have it installed next week, and then head off for Canada. I'm so glad our travel itinerary is flexible enough to include time for random stops. It's nice to have no deadlines, no obligations, nowhere to be by a certain time.

Just checking in...

2010-09-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

It seems this time around, it is much more difficult to post to my blog regularly. I began to ponder why this was, then realized, this is a whole different type of trip.

In 2007, I traveled in the van, stayed in hotels, and had wifi wherever I went. This time, I'm traveling in our truck, towing the trailer, dry camping in far out of the way, remote parts of the country, usually totally with out internet or even phone access. I suppose it makes more sense that this is the third time I've even turned on my computer in the last 6 weeks of my trip.

So please forgive my lack of blogging. I had terribly good intentions...and I do think my time is being wisely spent...on my kids and on myself. We're having a wonderful time, learning ever so much, doing quite well with school, and enjoying our time together, without electronics. It's really peaceful, actually. No television. No computers. No handheld games. Just good old fashioned books, dirt, and the great outdoors.

Back to Diamond Lake. I feel it deserves a special mention. My high hopes of sharing the thrill of fishing with the kids was short lived, I'm afraid. The day we arrived, it poured as we attempted to fish from the shore. We caught a few snags and one unsuspecting moored boat. The next day, it also poured, but we braved the rain and cast a few times from the shore. At one point, our poor Little Dude cast his line and said, "Well, that was pitiful. Ugh!" I couldn't help but laugh right out loud at his total disgust regarding his ability to cast. That particular attempt ended about three feet from his toes. He wasn't impressed.

The third day was sunny, but cold, so we opted for a morning horse ride through the forest. That boosted their spirits enough that they were eager to try their hands at fishing again. This time, I rented a 16 foot boat with an outboard motor. I was done taking hooks out of trees and mooring lines. I was certain we would have much better luck out on the lake. Armed with power bait and 4,695 different types of lures, we set out. We fished near shore and away from shore. We trawled, we sat very still, we watched boats on either side of us bringing in as many as 3 fish at a time. Alas, it wasn't our day for trout. Not even a single nibble was to be had. Good thing we went horseback riding earlier. At least one part of the day was exciting!

Since then, we've been to Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier and most recently, Mt. Olympus. We're still studying volcanoes. At the moment, I'm in Bremerton, WA vising my brother's family. I've got a few things trailer-wise to take care of before we move on, so that's our focus at the moment. I'm using this time to catch up on the mundane aspects of my life, like balancing the checkbook and downloading pictures to my computer. Soon enough, we'll move on, but for now, it's nice to wash dishes in a dishwasher, plug into an electrical outlet, and have hot water on demand...not just when I remember to relight the water heater after changing campsites. Life is good!

Time to move on...

2010-09-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

I got my electrical issues straightened out yesterday, so it's time to move on to our next stop. I think we'll go to Diamond Lake. It's where I remember going fishing every year as a kid. I caught my first fish there when I was 2. I remember being terrified the fish would bite me...fish have teeth! I'm hoping to share some of that excitement and wonder with our kids.

It's also time to refocus on school and get a new routine. I think the change in weather will help with that. It's chilly and rainy out, so perfect for snuggling in for a good lesson or two inside. We have so many new things to learn!

So for now, so long to all things electrical, and hello to a more relaxed pace. Until next time!

Land of electricity and showers

2010-09-04T23:38:00.000-07:00

I'm temporarily back in the land of showers and electricity. And food I don't have to cook. I swear I had the best slice of Costco pizza the day we came back into town!

Since I've been back in town, I've ironed a half a million tablecloths, done laundry, had my phone hard wiped and reloaded, attended a wedding and a myriad of other things. Truly, it's been both a busy and a happy time. My cousin, once or twice removed or second or something, got married today. I was so happy to see her walk down the aisle with her father into the arms of her loving, new husband. I cried. The kids looked at me funny as the tears streamed down my face, but I just couldn't help it. The wedding was beautiful, the bride was beautiful, the vows were beautiful. I missed my own husband something fierce today. I'm a little bit sad and missing him more than I care to admit.

I'm not sure I have the time or energy to update all we've been doing. The short story is we went from Lake Tahoe to Lassen National Park. There the kids earned their Volcano Club patch, a Junior Firefighter patch, a Green Junior Ranger patch and their Junior Ranger badges. From there, we headed up north to Lava Beds National Monument. Again, they earned their Junior Ranger badges, but also earned a Night Sky Junior Ranger patch.

In Lassen we learned a lot about volcanoes. We even walked through an enormous lava tube called Subway Cave. After getting to hike a cinder cone, learning the four major types of volcanoes and otherwise whetting our appetites for volcanoes, we just had to learn more! So off we went to Lava Beds National Monument, where there are more than 750 lava tube caves to explore. We also learned a lot about the only California Indian War...the Modoc Indian War. Our hike was lead by a Modoc indian who detailed the war and all it entailed. It was fascinating and eye-opening.

In general, we've been learning oh-so-much and having so much fun! We've seen hot days, and snow and everything in between. We've seen wildlife (coyotes, deer, elk), and learned the difference between a ground squirrel, a golden mantled ground squirrel, a chipmonk and a chiccory. And we've had pine cones chucked at us from high up in trees! Some of those squirrels can be pretty darn aggressive!

In any case, please don't let the lack of posting trick you into thinking we aren't having much fun. We are! I just so rarely have the chance to sit and write about our day. This is an entirely different trip from my last long trip with the kids...oh-so different!

Loving hugs to those who read! And for my sweetheart...a picture of me. :o)

First day of school!

2010-08-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

I promise I'll get back to last week, but I thought I would start with today, since I actually have a spare moment (but only one) and internet access.

Today was the first day of school. LM is in 7th, MB is in 4th, MM is in 2nd and LD is in 1st. We started the day in the Topaz Lake, NV area. My parents own a house near Topaz Lake, which makes a convenient place to stop and stay while enjoying the beauty of the surrounding area, including Lake Tahoe.

Back to school...today we focused on math and writing. I didn't want to overwhelm the kids going straight from lazy summer days to structured school days all in one fell swoop. So we're easing in. Math and writing today, math and reading tomorrow, math, reading, writing and science the day after. Soon we'll be into our full school routine and everything will be chipping right along. The beauty of homeschooling on the road is that I have few distractions. No piano lessons, no karate, no classes, no religious ed. Just school. Just nature. Just us on an adventure. I can deal with that.

Currently, we're in Diamond Springs, CA at my parents' other house, my childhood home. We're home overnight to let my parents take care of bills and the garden and sundry other things. Then tomorrow, we'll head back to Topaz Lake by way of David Walley's Hot Springs for a dip in the pool and various hottubs. Wednesday we'll head out to Lassen National Park for a week of hiking and learning about what makes Lassen so special.

Life is good. I thankful to be able to provide this kind of an experience to our kids, and thankful for those around me who make it possible...especially my husband.

Catching up!

2010-08-21T10:36:00.001-07:00

Ok, I finally learned how to tether my phone to my computer...or vice versa. Now it's time to catch you all up on events!

Sunday, 15 August 2010

Today was the big day…time to leave home for a long time. I woke up extra early…well before the alarm went off. Then I packed. And packed. And remembered a few more things I needed to do, pack, print, send…oh my, the list was endless! I knew I had an 11 hour drive ahead of me. But I also knew I needed to get everything done.

By noon, I was beginning to see the end of packing and organizing. We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed out. I was hoping for a smooth trip…unfortunately that wasn’t the case. As we started the drive (meaning we were still on our street), I noticed my speedometer wasn’t working. I pulled over and turned off the truck to see if that would reset it. No such luck. I drove up and over the hill, then turned around and went home.

I wasn’t sure if I should unpack and stay home until I got the speedometer fixed, or just wing it. I decided to wing it. Today was my parents’ 40^th wedding anniversary and I really wanted to just get out of town and on my way. I went inside and got my GPS…the one I knew provided a speed indicator. Armed with my trusty GPS and a healthy sense of adventure, we got on the road once again. This time, it was a bit better. Although my speedometer eventually started working again, it was reading 5 mph off. Well, better than nothing, I suppose.

The trip wasn’t too eventful, thankfully. There was one momentary slow down for a roadside car-b-q. We drove through the desert…it was 104* at one point…hot! We drove, and drove and drove. The kids wanted to watch a movie while we were driving. I agreed, as long as I got to choose. I chose Tom and Jerry. The kids laughed and laughed and rewatched their favorite episodes. It was fun to listen to!

Eventually we passed Mammoth. The change in altitude was quite noticeable, as was the change in smell. If you’ve never stopped to smell a Jefferson pine, then you have no idea what I’m talking about. If you have, then you know how pleasing it was to smell the fresh woody vanilla aroma as we entered the higher elevations. It was intoxicating and rejuvenating. I knew I was close to my destination. We continued on past Mono Lake, and finally into Nevada.

At 11:15, we finally pulled into David Walley's Hot Springs Resort and collapsed into bed. What a way to start off a vacation!

Better late than never...

2010-08-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well, instead of stressing myself out about how much I needed to get done, I just decided to leave when I leave. Looks like it will be noon instead of 7am. Oh well! So, an 11 hour drive...I'll pack some caffeine. :o)

Let the fun begin!

Too busy to blog!

2010-08-11T23:27:00.000-07:00

Crazy busy just touches the tip of the iceberg of my busyness. Holy moly! Needless to say, I'm packing and organizing and running around like a mad woman. The frustrating thing, is I keep sending boxes overseas, only to discover that I forgot yet another vital part of the package. So I send another one. And tomorrow, I'll send a third. Darn it, those customs forms are a pain in the neck...I need to get a hold of myself and think before I seal and send!

We now have 4 swimmers in the family...two of which passed the official swim test to be able to go in the deep end of the pool on their own. A third may pass it tomorrow. And the fourth...well, he's just a wee widdle guy. I don't expect him to pass the grueling test anytime this summer. But he can dive, and that's awfully adorable as well. I posted a video of his diving on Flickr...just don't ask me to link, that would be the last straw!

Life is good, and moving fast!

The beauty of having nothing planned

2010-08-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today was unusual in that I had nothing planned. No obligations, no errands to run, no commitments to keep. It was a much needed break and a very low key day.

I think all four kids were exhausted from their respective weeks of activities. LM and MB came back from camp happy, excited, exhausted and just a little bit sick. Thankfully, it was nothing like last year, when LM came home with H1N1 and MB came home with pneumonia. This seems to be your run-of-the-mill common cold. Unfortunately, LD also seems to have his own version from VBS this week. So today was a day of lazing around in jammies, watching cartoons, playing with Legos and then playing on the Wii.

Meanwhile, I spent the morning and part of the afternoon cleaning out the trailer, organizing what we're taking, and packing some non-perishables. I feel pretty good about what I got accomplished today. It takes me one huge step closer to being ready to leave. There are still many things I need to get done, some big, some small, but I'm confident I'll be ready when the time comes.

Today also marked the last little bit of yard work/construction I wanted to have complete before I left...the last 3 feet of fence. Our dear friend, John came over and finished building it. The fence looks amazing. After 3 months of hard work (mostly on John's part), phase one of our yard demolition/redesign/landscaping project is complete.

The next thing on my list is to get ready to take school on the road. There are books to check through, supplies to organize, paper to be packed, lessons to be planned. I think we're going to learn a lot this year and I can hardly wait to get started!

Thoughts on Thursday...

2010-08-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

It seems my life revolves around one thing...the kids. I suppose that is true, and quite possibly how it's supposed to go. My husband and I brought them into this world, and it is our responsibility to see to it that they are raised to be self sufficient, capable, competent young adults. That's what our parents did for us. That's our duty to our own children.

I guess when I was a kid, I saw all sorts of possibilities for the future. The door was wide open, and I got to choose to do whatever my heart desired. My heart lead me to the Naval Academy. From there, my heart lead me down many paths, some good, some less than desirable. My head lead me through and enabled me to earn my BS in Political Science. I had dreams and aspirations, most of which have not been realized, and probably never will. And somehow, in all of that, I found the Lizard, and fell in love. Life certainly hasn't turned out the way I planned, and that's okay. I kind of like how it has turned out.

We've been through a lot together in our nearly 15 years of marriage. However, I wouldn't trade a moment of it for something different. Everything happens for a reason. I may not immediately know the reason, and I assume sometimes the reason will never come clearly to me...but everything does happen for a reason.

There's a quote by Erma Bombeck that I particularly enjoy. I've always thought she had a fresh, down to earth, realistic take on life, and this case is no different.

"Maybe all I could do was mother.... And yet, why did I feel so fulfilled when I bedded down three kids between clean sheets? What if raising and instilling values in three children and turning them into worthwhile human beings would be the most important contribution I ever made in my lifetime?" ~Erma Bombeck

I think that sums up today rather nicely. I mothered. I took the kids to VBS, then to swim lessons, then to karate. Little Dude is still under the weather, so he skipped karate and opted for some extra snuggle time. The three of us said our prayers snuggled together, holding each other for comfort and warmth. I rocked our youngest until he was nearly asleep, then gently tucked him between clean sheets, tucked a well loved Chip under his arm, and then kissed him good night. It doesn't get any better than that.

This time God has given me is so precious. I'm so thankful to be the guiding beacon in our children's lives. I'm so thankful to have a husband who is willing to stand up for what he believes in, and who provides for our family, come what may. I've been richly blessed with four healthy and happy children, and one loving and devoted husband. This is the wealth I have stored up. The love of our family is what will sustain me when nothing else can.

A new day, a new adventure.

2010-08-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

Today was unique, different in every imaginable way. It started before my alarm woke up, when Little Dude crept into my room, and asked, "Mommy, please can I snuggle with you?" Poor thing has a stuffy nose and couldn't sleep. So we snuggled until it was time to get up and head out to VBS. On our way to pick up some friends, he told me, "I brought I headache with me this morning. I wish I didn't." His comments are so endearing and so very precious.

Later today after swim lessons, he told me, "Mommy, I don't feel like 100%. Only about 1%." He really is feeling fairly miserable today. I think tomorrow will be a day of rest for him. He's just so sad and pitiful when he's sick. I hope getting him in bed early tonight will help him kick whatever it is he's got.

I managed to get to karate tonight, expecting to be tested for my next belt. This has to be the most drawn out karate testing I've ever known. I found out I was on the list over a month ago...and still haven't tested! I'm glad for the reprieve, and hope I can catch a bit of practice in the next week. Tonight was the first time in nearly two years that I've practiced self defense in class. I'm still a bit leery of involving my wrist in risky activity. In fact, I braced up before we got too far into class. It's a good reminder for me, and those around me...it's still tender, and if I break my wrist again, there's no guarantee it will be fixable. I think I'll exercise a bit of caution. Maybe someday, it will feel normal again and not twinge at the slightest provocation.

Ah, life. It's never dull!

Honey-do list update...

2010-08-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Earlier I posted the start of my honey-do list. It's changed, so I figured I should let the world know. Because the world cares...or something. :o)

reinstall the downspouts in the back yard done
reinstall the Bose surround sound in the living room
get a few things down from the attic done
put a few things back up in the attic done
give me a back massage

Since I'm about to leave, we can skip the surround sound. But I really need the back massage. Kitty happy paws just aren't cutting it.

A busy day.

2010-08-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

Today was both a good day, and a rough day, all wrapped into one. The good:

My morning walks...always refreshing and re-energizing
Littlest two monkeys are enjoying VBS, and I'm enjoying a bit of time to get things done
I got the chest freezer cleaned off...and can actually get to it and get things out
Swim lessons are fabulous: Little Dude put all the pieces together today and really started swimming! Mighty Man has discovered he can swim completely across the pool...and back. I'm so proud!
I made it to open workout at the karate dojo this morning...I do remember some of this stuff. Maybe there's hope for my test after all?
As of this morning, I'm down 6 pounds of the nearly 15 that I gained just before The Lizard left. That feels pretty good!
Our life is full, we're busy. LM and MB are off to camp, and MM & LD are busy, busy! VBS 9-12, swim lessons 2:30-3:10, other swim lessons 3:50-4:20, karate 4:30-5:30. And busy keeps us out of trouble, for the most part.

The not-so-good:

Saying goodbye as The Lizard left the country. Cell phones with iffy coverage just don't let you say goodbye properly.
The tears.

I know I need to just let go and have a good cry, but I feel conflicted. I'm trying to portray a strong, competent woman. I think I'm doing a pretty good job. But I know I can't hide and suppress all my feelings indefinitely. I'm learning that it's easier to just let go and cry, then pull myself together and move on. The catch is, I don't want the little guys to be concerned. I want them to know that their mama will always be here, a beacon of strength and a tender-hearted shelter when they need to have their own come-apart.

While we do talk about how mommy feels, I rarely let down my guard until I'm alone. And then I feel terribly alone. It's usually late, after the kids are tucked securely into bed, and much too late for a phone call (my father was adamant that phone calls were not to be placed after 8pm. Period.). Thankfully, even in my most lonely hours, I feel the love and support of those around me. I feel the prayers holding me up. I know I have friends who would welcome a phone call, no matter what the hour. I know that I have only to ask, and nearly anything under the sun will be done for me. And I sincerely thank all of you who are there for me: spiritually, emotionally, physically, electronically...you mean the world to me. ♥

In other news...here's the quote of the day:
"That's ok, mommy. I put my kazoo in that pocket in my underwear."

Excuses, excuses...

2010-08-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

I feel obliged to tell you that I did not unexpectedly fall off the face of the earth. I just got a new phone, that's all. :o) Since I got my new phone last Tuesday, I haven't turned on my computer. Unfortunately, blogging isn't all that easy on a touch-pad keyboard...one letter painfully pecked out at a time just isn't my thing. So as a result of getting a new phone, my blogging suffered.

Such is life! So...what happened last week? I'm not sure I remember...stuff, mostly. I did go to karate, and bared my soul about self defense...or a certain willful lack thereof. And Little Miss had a birthday. And I missed the Lizard something fierce. We had swim lessons, and karate, I had my morning walks...in general, life has been running along fairly smoothly. I have a good solid routine. Dishes done every night, cooking done every night, laundry done according to plan with folding and putting away getting done the same day as wash...miracles do happen!

Sunday, Little Miss served at the early mass. After we got home, we (LM, Monkey Boy and I) packed for camp. The oldest two are at church camp all week. It's a little bizarre "only" having two kids to feed, mind, put to bed and otherwise wrangle. It's definitely a different dynamic here at home. And way fewer dishes.

Today, the littlest two monkeys started off with VBS from 9 until noon. Then we had lunch and packed up for a few errands and swim lessons. We dropped off some boogie boards for a friend, returned a pile of books to the library, did swim lessons, shopped at the exchange, shopped at the commissary, returned a pile of granite and marble tile samples, shopped at REI. Then came home, had grilled chicken for dinner and headed out for our Mission Trails hike. It was definitely a fun-filled day.

Unfortunately, the day ended on a sad note for me. The Lizard leaves the states tomorrow for an unknown amount of time. He should be back in a year, and we hope he'll be back for a visit sometime during that year. I've decided that an IA (Individual Augmentee) deployment is much harder than a regular deployment. A shipboard deployment, you leave (for example) on 6 December and return 6 June the next year. Six months to the day, nearly guaranteed. Takes an act of congress to change that. IA he just goes. No hard and fast day he'll leave, no written in stone day he'll return. Throw a dart at a calendar...that's as good a method as any to determine his return date.

So tomorrow, he leaves the states. He'll be in transit for a few days...and then...? Who knows. It's just a gaping expanse of blackness...the uncertainty, the unknown.

Success!

2010-07-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today, I had two major chores on my list: clean out the garage and clean off the pool table. While I certainly didn't get both of them done, I definitely consider today a success. Initially I cleaned out a corner of the garage and reorganized the shelves. I was absolutely shocked to discover that the 72 pints of strawberry jam I put up has been reduced to 15. Fourteen if you don't count the one that got opened today. Apparently I'll need to do that again sometime soonish.

From there, I moved on to the attic. I spent a good portion of today up in the rafters sorting through totes of clothes, marking boxes, consolidating and reorganizing. I was able to move quite a bit of stuff up into the attic, and some stuff (more shorts that actually fit Little Dude) down. After sweating considerably, I moved on to the rest of the garage. While I still have much work left to do in the garage, the fact that the car (for the first time in months) fits back into it's spot in the garage is enough for me to call today a success.

The pool table, however, still needs significant attention. I've been purging pre-school items, consolidating my school collections and streamlining my storage and "treasures." It's an intense process. I did manage to put away 3 boxes from around the pool table in the process of cleaning out the garage, so I believe there is still hope. It's just another one of those big, thankless projects that gets put off far too long.

My motivation for all of this comes in the form of time. I have precisely two and one half weeks until my big trip. While I'm gone, two college age kids will live here. I need to get the house back in order. It was April when the roof leaked and things generally fell apart. It's high time I get my act together and put things back where they belong.

In other news, I may have signed up for the craziest schedule known. Today went something like this:

3:45 drop 1 off to teach karate
3:50 drop 3 & 4 off for swim lessons
4:15 pick up 1 from karate
4:20 pick 3 & 4 up from swim lessons, start them changing
4:30 drop 1 & 2 off for swim lessons, drive like mad to other side of town
4:30ish drop 3 & 4 off for karate
5:00 pick up 1 & 2 from swim lessons (other side of town from karate)
drive back to karate dojo to...
5:30 pick up 3 & 4 and drop off 1 & 2 at karate
run errands
6:30 pick up 1 & 2 from karate

Thursday should be slightly less crazy because Little Miss won't have to teach karate before swim lessons. Wednesday and Friday should be just peachy since no one has karate after swim lessons. There is a reason for all of this madness. Swim lessons for 2 weeks are just $20 for each kid. The times lessons are offered aren't ideal for our schedule, but for $20, I'm willing to go crazy for a couple of weeks. And perhaps by the end of the summer, we'll have 4 strong swimmers instead of 2 1/2. :o)

San Onofre Beach - Camp Pendleton

2010-07-26T08:53:00.001-07:00

This weekend was a chance for me to get out of town, out of the house, and out of my routine. It was a wonderful and welcome break from the upheaval of last week, and I'm so grateful we went! When we got there, it was a little overcast, but still beautiful. We set up our tent, arranged our campsite, and then headed down to the beach to play for a bit.

San Onofre Beach - Camp Pendleton, originally uploaded by Miska195.

Later we returned to our campsite for dinner and s'mores. This was the sunet...

Saturday we spent the entire day at the beach. We were briefed by the head life guard about the rip current, the shore characteristics and other safety items. Then we headed out for some boogie boarding. It was a beautiful day and we all had so much fun! Little Dude insisted on trying a bit of boogie boarding. He learned quite quickly that waves bigger than he were not to be trifled with. After being swept away by two consecutive waves, he opted for the safety of burying himself in the sand.

Otherwise, the day was a huge hit with the kids. They all thoroughly enjoyed the day with the rest of our Scout Pack and playing in the ocean for hours and hours. All told, we were in the surf and sand for 8 hours! Little Miss spent the entire day in the water...but then took a two hour nap before dinner, heh. She was exhausted!

I wouldn't mind doing something like this again. It was so much fun, and I even discovered that I really enjoy boogie boarding! I think I'll try a beach with a little less surf next time, so Little Dude can get out without being attacked by the big waves! Maybe the gentle slope of North Island will be a good start. Life is good!

Getting ready

2010-07-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get things organized all week, but have been frustrated by unexpected events popping up. My brother dropped in Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The fence mysteriously showed up a couple of weeks early on Tuesday. And since I'm the sponsor for a Cub Scout camping trip to Camp Pendleton this weekend, I've had to field numerous questions and help people figure out how to open, print, sign and return waivers.

All I want to do is get the garage cleaned out! I don't want to tell people what they should pack for camping. I don't want to plan their meals. I don't want to plan what toys they bring for their kids. Honestly, people! REALLY??? I have 4 kids of my own to figure out these things for. Act like a responsible adult, not like a poor little lamb, bleating and uncertain where to go or what to do! It's camping. You need to eat, sleep and play. Figure out what you need in order to do those three things, and go from there.

I've taken to telling people they should be sure to bring their tent, a sleeping bag and some clothes. Maybe if I'm sarcastic enough, they'll get the idea that I'm simply getting them on base, not volunteering to hold their hand and come pack for them. Sheesh. Anyway, I feel better now that I've aired that little vent. :o)

Today was the last day of this session of swim lessons for the kids. They've been at MCAS Miramar for the last two weeks. Little Miss moved up to Level 4, Monkey Boy will remain at Level 3, Mighty Man passed Level 2 and will join his brother in Level 3, and Little Dude is this close >< to passing Level 1. Yesterday the whole swimming thing clicked for him. He went from blowing bubbles and bobbing, to doing 10 yards of superman kicking followed by 10 yards of kicking with arms (front crawl). It was so cool to see him "get" it out of the blue! The only thing he hasn't mastered quite yet is floating on his back. He can do it, just not quite long enough.

Next week we'll move to the local high school for another 2 weeks of lessons. I'm hopeful that Little Dude will be a bona fide swimmer after that session! It's so nice to see them finally becoming the little fish The Lizard and I have always been. All in good time, though.

Is it too early?

2010-07-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have a question that has been bouncing around my noggin all day. Is it too early to start a "honey do" list? The Lizard has been gone 3 whole days. There are just a few items I'd like to start with.

reinstall the downspouts in the back yard
reinstall the Bose surround sound in the living room
get a few things down from the attic
put a few things back up in the attic
give me a back massage

Normally, I'd throw "do the dishes" on there as well. However, I think I've found an acceptable alternative to having The Lizard do the dishes...have Little Miss do them. She even leaves a comparable amount of dishes out, so it's just like having him home to do dishes. :-)

Today did not go the way I planned at all. I got a phone call while I was out at swim lessons. The fence guy called to let me know the fence was made and maybe they would come to install it today. What he really meant was "the fence is made and my guys are already coring your cement for the install." Yipes!

All in all, the install went well and I like the new gates. We had one installed on each side of the house, to go with all of the back yard construction, new retaining walls and new fences. I'm glad to have that done before leaving. Now we just have a small part of the fence to finish before we have our backyard privacy back. Hurray!

The rest of today, I decided to hang out inside instead of walking back and forth from the shed to the garage and getting in the way of the fence installation. So I worked on getting the living room back in order and excavating the pool table. April 24 was when our roof leaked and things went crazy inside. I suppose it's time to starting putting things back together! I finally got all of the pictures rehung today. It looks a little less bare in here now. I also went through 4 boxes of stuff and purged a bunch of it. I think there's hope that we may eventually "fit" into the new furniture arrangement. There's been a lot of purging and cleaning going on here recently, and it's very freeing to do that.

Tomorrow I should pack for camping. I should also start preparing for my next belt test. It was supposed to be tonight, but I ended up staying home from karate. Somehow my children seem more important than a belt test. Mighty Man needed some special time to reconnect and find his way back to his "green zone." I'm glad to be able to recognize the need, and put off "important" things for the truly precious and fleeting moments our children desperately need me.

The birds...

2010-07-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

So yesterday one of my myriad of errands was to take the two youngest boys to the doctor for their well kiddo checks. Poor Little Dude was accosted by a needle wielding nurse and jabbed 3 times. This morning, I woke up to a pitiful, sobbing little monkey next to my bed. He was warm, uncomfortable and unhappy to be awake. I gave him some motrin and pulled him into bed with me.

Tonight we were talking as I tucked him into bed and learned what woke him up so early. The birds. "Mommy, the birds were making so much noise, it was giving me a headache. They just.wouldn't.be.quiet." I had to laugh. Recently we've been having mocking birds chirping away in the morning. They are rather obnoxiously loud, but it never occurred to me that they might be responsible for waking up my baby!

Right now, I'm on a mission: to clean out the garage. We cleaned out the shed when we had some yard work done. Well, now I want my garage back. I'd like to park the car in the garage again. Which means I need to sort, clean, purge, organize, and otherwise create room for the car. I think I need to make another run to Goodwill. And donate books to the church. And give some clothes away to friends. So much to do, so little time!

The hubby

2010-07-19T23:12:00.001-07:00

The hubby, originally uploaded by Miska195.

Just for giggles, I thought I'd post a quick picture of my dearest. This is him at 0530 the morning he flew out...all dressed up and ready to tackle the world.

Day 2?

2010-07-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

I think I'll need to stop numbering the days. I've got nearly a billion (give or take) to go. I think I'll stop numbering them so it doesn't seem like so many.

Today was another extremely busy day. I thought I ran just about every errand known to man today. However, I feel compelled to note that Little Miss adeptly pointed out that we simply could not have done that today. After all, we didn't buy a horse, nor hay or a suitable barn in which to house said horse. Therefore, it follows that we did not run every errand known to man. I stand corrected.

I'm starting to stand up, brush off, and get started again. I'm running on a high of energy, fueled by my knowledge of how fast time will pass. Soon, our first trip will be upon us, and ready or not, we're going.

Mid August brings our next karate tournament. Shortly thereafter, I plan to head up to Nevada to visit my parents and brother (with family) for a week. That will be followed by a week or so at Lake Tahoe, followed by a week or so in Lassen, followed by a week or so at Diamond Lake/Crater Lake. Then I'll throw in a wedding for good measure and then head out for the bulk of my trip: Washington, Canada (BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan), Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and eventually I'll wind up back home.

So before I leave, I've got to get my schooling stuff in order. I'll need to pack for both warm weather and cold weather. And of course, I always bring along a healthy sense of adventure.

The first day...

2010-07-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

I decided today needed to be a day that was completely full. Not just busy, but really FULL. I think I succeeded. We started out the day by going to mass at 8:30, which was interesting and different.

It was interesting and different for two reasons. Reason number one: the church is being repainted, so we had mass in the Social Hall. This shouldn't normally be a problem. However, reason number two, today the early mass was packed. And when I say packed, I mean to say that there were no more than 2 seats together anywhere. I guess people were leery of the bona fide summer temperatures we've been having lately, so they all hauled out of bed early for the first mass to beat the heat...which meant the 5 of us had to figure out how to sit in 2 folding chairs. Fortunately, one lady was kind enough to move and let us have 3 chairs together, so with Little Dude happily hanging out in my lap, the other 3 could share 2 chairs.

I guess I should say that the kids are good, but not necessarily angels. I eventually had to send one child to fend for herself and sat between two boys with LD in my lap to prevent the inevitable poking and prodding siblings seem compelled to subject each other to. I'm thankful it was different and an adventure. It was a great way to start off our new year.

The next thing we did was take a 5 mile bike ride. We stopped at a playground about 2/3 of the way through and I let the kids play. We're so fortunate to have the Santee Lakes only two blocks away! Lunch was rather mundane, but afterwards, we played Mario Kart for a bit until it was time for a meeting.

Normally, I don't do a whole lot of "work" on Sunday's. It's my rest day. No laundry, no chores, no housework. I enjoy having one day a week where I don't feel obligated to do anything in particular. However, today's meeting was on a whole different scale...it was the camper meeting for the summer camp LM and MB will attend in 2 weeks. It was fun and the kids ate lots of cookies...I'm pretty sure one had enough to ruin his dinner, which helps explain his mysterious lack of evening appetite.

After our meeting, we headed over to the neighbor's house to cool off in the pool for the rest of the day. It was a good way to wind up a wonderful day. And if the kids don't sleep in tomorrow from all the activity today, I think I'll find another job. I'd like to see my hard work pay off some dividends!

And so the adventure begins...

2010-07-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

This morning my loving husband flew to the east coast where he'll commence three weeks of training before heading overseas for a year. To say that last night and this morning were rough would be a tremendous understatement. I don't remember the last time I cried this hard and this long. I'm tired, but this is only the beginning.

The tough part about the next few weeks is his training regimen. It sounds reminiscent of Plebe Summer...no cell phone until after hours, long training days beginning between 4 and 5am and ending between 7 & 9pm, no weekends. It's the way to go with training, IF you're 18 with no family. It's miserable for a family who is used to being able to talk to him after working hours.

So we'll see. Maybe it won't be as bad as it has been made out to be. Maybe we'll be able to text and chat from time to time. Maybe I won't hear from him until his first day off. We just don't know.

Up next: the plan. What I'll do for the next few weeks at home, and then what I plan to do once I leave in mid August. But here's a hint: I'll be packing for both winter and summer!

It's been a long, long time...

2010-06-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

Things are about to get interesting around here, so I suppose it's time to resurrect my blog. I post pictures and a great many things on Facebook, but I think it's time to also blog a little more.

In the future, I see a trip to Oregon (family reunion), a trip to Nevada (a family vacation), another trip to Oregon (wedding), an extended trip to the east coast (maybe for 15th reunion for USNA), a trip to the Mediterranean (Rome, and possibly Germany), and a trip to Canada and perhaps Alaska. There will also be many, MANY camping trips interspersed along the way. Anyone up for a visit? Anyone have a "can't miss destination" up their sleeve? I'm open for suggestions!

For now, perhaps I'll even see about the mobile blogging feature...oh, the technology we have! Regardless, let this serve as a wake up call. Feel free to check in...it's been all too long!

Reflections.

2009-04-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today has been a long, emotional day. The Lizard's Aunt K passed away last Tuesday, her memorial was today.

I'm beginning to think that it's almost better to be in the thick of things than it is to be on the periphery. With my grandmother, nearly two years ago, the memorial services held little emotion for me. For the 1-2 weeks prior, my parents and I had been in her home, making arrangements, pulling together pictures and information and things for her memorial. We buried her privately: just my mom, dad, me, the guy from the mortuary and the grave digger. We said good bye. We held each other. We cried together. And we laughed and cried together as we sifted through her treasures and dealt with idiots from her insurance who did not understand any of the following phrases: she's no longer with us, she passed away, she's deceased, etc. He finally "got" it when I said quite bluntly, "She's dead. Do you need to see a death certificate?"

Anyway, when we finally got to the memorial services, my grieving was done. I had said good bye and made my peace with events. In a way, the services were anticlimactic (there were two, for the benefit of friends and extended family).

Today was definitely not the same. My emotions are still raw, and fresh, and bubbling to the surface quite easily. This week I've had to focus on living life and moving forward with everything else, not reminiscing or laughing at the fun times or crying that she's gone. Very little of my grieving was done until today. It was bottled inside, simmering quietly. It's so hard to say good bye under those circumstances. It's much easier to be in the middle, moving through the grief one step at a time, one memory at a time, until you have digested each small piece of the process. Today was like trying to gain control of a fully charged fire hose; it's nearly impossible as it whips around erratically.

The one thing that has helped most today is the following thoughts from Bishop Brent:

What is dying? I am standing on the sea shore. A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean. She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her until at last she fades on the horizon, and someone at my side says, 'She is gone' Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination. The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, 'she is gone' there are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up the glad shout, 'there she comes' - that is dying. Bishop Brent

What I learned today.

2009-02-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

So Facebook has a bunch of little "things" to write on, talk about and generally reflect or be narcissistic. For the most part, I ignore them. Yes, it is interesting to read about people and the fascinating things in their lives, but I hate posting a big list of stuff about me. I'm just not that "into" me...I'd rather hear about other people. However, one that was floating around was a series of questions to ask your children. Now that I'll do. And I learned a lot today. Here's the interview. Each question has 4 answers arranged youngest to oldest: Little Dude, Mighty Man, Monkey Boy, Little Miss.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Don’t put your feet and fingers in your mouth, right mommy?

If you need help doing something, you can ask for help.

I love you.

Brush your hair.

2. What makes mom happy?
When I don’t put my feet and my fingers in my mouth.

If you clean up every single day.
Me doing my school work.

Spending time with me.

3. What makes mom sad?
Putting my fingers and my foots in my mouth. That makes you sad, mommy.
If you don’t clean up all the toys and all the magnatiles every single day.

Me not doing my school work.

When we don’t love you back.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Tickling me!

By tickling me!
By tickling me!

You tickle me!

5. What was your mom like as a child?
You were like toys.

I don’t know.

I still am a child. You? I don’t know what you were like as a child.

I have no idea!

6. How old is your mom?
Five? Are you five mommy? How old are you again? Are you firdy five?

I forgot. Sixteen?

Thirty five.

You’re thirty five, almost 36.

7. How tall is your mom?
You are so big mommy, but I am so ‘mall.

A little tall.

I don’t know. How tall are you?

64 ½ inches.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Play Mater’s National?
Watch movies and play with magnatiles.

Playing Spider.

Spend time with us.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Play work? I don’t know. What do you do mommy?

Uh…go wild!

How would I know? I don’t know what you do when I’m not around.

You relax!

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Playing Mario Karts.

I don’t know!

You would be famous for being the best mommy.

Probably for being the best mom in the world.

11. What is your mom really good at?
Working and doing school. And reading me books.

Helping me read and helping me build a bunch of ideas.

You’re really good at Mario Kart! You’re good at being fun and being nice.

You’re really good at helping me do my math.

12. What is your mom not very good at?

You are not very good at driving the car.

You’re not very good at chopping off sticks and cleaning the floor.

You’re not really that good at Mario Kart. But sometimes you can beat Mighty Man.

Playing Mario Karts.

13. What does your mom do for a job?
You do school.

You vacuum.

You do school with us.

You watch us.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Cereal.
Whisper it to me, I don’t remember. Meat?

Cheesecake!

Ramen Noodle soup.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Um. You don’t have gas.
That you give me hugs and kisses.

How nice you are.

You’re a really good mom.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
You would be a mommy!

You would be Tinker Bell, because I like her!

Bambi, because he’s cute.

You would be Kanga.

17. What do you and your mom do together?
We do school together. We do the reading a whole bunch together. Can I draw a maze on my big book?
We help doing things right.

We do school together and go on rides at Disneyland.

We snuggle.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We’re boys! But you are a girl, mommy. And I am a boy and daddy is a boy. And Little Miss is a girl too and Mighty Man and Monkey Boy and daddy are boys.

Our feet are the same.

We both are in the same family.

Our hair is the same color.

19. How are you and your mom different?

You are a girl and I am a boy. (whew! I'm so glad he figured that out, lol!)
The sizes of our feet are different.

We are both different people.

We have different personalities.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Because I know. Because you are makin’ sandwiches and macaroni and cheese and hamburgers and cereal and milk!

Because I do good things and we have connected brains. That’s how I know.

Because you say you love me.

Because you do things for me.

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Lovin’ each other. Like kisses.
That he helps you every single day.

You like how much he loves you.

You like that he’s a good dad.

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

You like to do to the zoo and go to Disneyland.

Disneyland!

You like to go to the Birch Aquarium.

Disneyland!

What I learned from interviewing our children: That I don’t have gas, I’m a terrible driver (who knew?), I'm nice but I suck at Mario Kart, I’m really good at “doing school,” my housekeeping skills are lacking, we have lots of tickle fights, I’m the best mom in the world and I’m married to one terrific husband. Oh, and I like to go to Disneyland. And for the record? A good steak followed up by cheesecake is my ideal meal.

And now for your local news...

2009-02-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

BANK EMPTY!

More than 5,000 people were disappointed to find all their money gone. The bank only held a little money in the first place. Then, PayDay players Little Miss and Monkey Boy Lizard admit emptying the bank while playing.

"It did make us rich, though," said Monkey Boy.

"Yep," replied Little Miss, "I counted the money afterwards. He had $141,900 and I had $229,000! We had a lot of fun!"

So, end this article...now about the dead skunk...blah blah blah

The above "article" was written on a scrap of paper I found tonight while cleaning up a table. Little Miss apparently wrote it a couple of weeks ago when we were experiencing prolonged exposure to a dead skunk somewhere in the neighborhood. I laughed when I read this. I never know what I'll run across when Little Miss has been up to her writing.

Finally!

2009-02-12T22:15:00.000-08:00

After months of being in a cast and not being able to do much (especially when taking loads of painkillers), I finally feel like I'm back on top of things. Most notably, I am finally caught up with school for the kids! This has been a huge challenge for me, but I'm so glad to be back on schedule.

The kids are enjoying the perks of being caught up as well...more walks, more time to play, and of course, more free time to play the Wii. :o) Life is good!

Daily reading

2009-02-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

About a week and a half ago, I started teaching Little Dude how to read. A few days ago, he started sounding out words. Here are the words he sounded out and read to me today:

am
me
see
sat
ram
eat (his favorite word)
rat
at
seed
sam
seat (his second favorite word...he's weird)
sad
mad
meat (yep, another favorite)
read
it
sit
meet (not the same appeal as meat)
ear
is
seem
this
that

We stopped there today as he is sick and his attention span (usually about 20 minutes for reading, longer for other things) started to wane. He is so eager to learn, which makes him easy to teach. If only they were all this easy! :o)

A poem.

2009-02-11T09:06:00.000-08:00

Little Miss likes to write, a lot. Recently we visited the zoo and we saw a baby takin who was 24 hours old. Here's the poem she wrote about the baby takin:

The Takin
Dainty hooves dance and stomp,
Someone tiny is on the romp.
It’s plain to you and me,
He’s as happy as can be!

Teaching Little Dude to Read.

2009-02-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

So I've been teaching our youngest to read. It has been quite entertaining to say the least. Today we were reviewing sounds and sounding out new words. It's supposed to go something like this:

MamaLizard: "Sound it out."

Little Dude: "mmmeeee"

ML: "Now, say it fast."

LD: "Me!"

Today we were reading along quite nicely, until...well, they weren't going along quite nicely.

ML: "Sound it out."

LD: "mmmeee."

ML: "Say it fast."

LD: "Rat!"

ML: "What?? Sound it out again, please."

LD: "mmmeee."

ML: "Good! Now, say it fast."

LD: "mmmeeeT da RAT!"

*snort* I'm sorry, but how in the world am I supposed to keep going when I'm giggling? It's just not possible!

just a little update

2009-02-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I last wrote, and I would hate for any of my blog readers (ok, my one blog reader besides my hubby, right Jay?) to think I had inadvertently fallen off the face of the planet.

So here's the deal. Last week I fell apart. After 4 months of being in a cast (yes, 18 weeks) I just could not take it any more. I emailed my surgeon who was unfortunately (for me) in the OR for the day. Then I went in, had them remove my cast for a routine cast change and refused to get another until I had been seen by someone. I ended up seeing Little Miss's ortho, who tried to get orders for me to get out of my cast. She wasn't able to find anyone willing to sign off on new orders, so back in a cast I went. She told me my surgeon would be back in the office two days later. I came back two days later and parked my happy hiney in the orthopedics department until my surgeon gave the ok for me to leave cast free.

So, I now have a thumb gutter splint to wear for the next several months. Every joint remotely connected to the thumb and/or wrist area is completely locked up. I am out of the cast, but have no ability to move my hand. At all. It's atrophied down to skin and bones and one nasty scar. The scar is completely adheared. I've been down this road before (to some extent) during each of my three carpal tunnel surgeries. I'm not thrilled with the length of the road ahead of me, but I'll take it one day at a time, one hot tub soak at a time until I'm able to use my hand again. It won't be fun, but I'll get there some day!

Oh, and after having an entire month (all of January) with temperatures in the 70's and 80's, we seem to be having a bit of winter. My toes are cold and it's raining. Oh well. Maybe this will cause our tree to finally lose all its leaves before spring? (which should be here in the next couple of weeks...heh)

Birch Aquarium

2009-01-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

last wednesday we took the day off from school and went to the Birch Aquarium at La Jolla. it was in the 80's at the coast and quite a beautiful day. here are some of the things we saw:

A sea cucumber:

an enormous lobster (11+ pounds):

hermit crabs that tickled:

seahorses:

sea stars:

abalone:

lots of jellies:

some weird fish:

we also stayed to play in the water tables. we raced boats over and over again!

then we watched the sunset and went home!

it was a fun filled day and a great break from our daily routine.

winter in SoCal

2009-01-17T13:49:00.000-08:00

so it's been in the 80's for the last week. all of the windows are thrown wide open. the kids are barefoot outside and in shorts. life is peaceful and good at the moment.

i hear so many stories of harsh weather, unfathomable cold (-58*F??? how do people survive?), and flooding and the likes. i tell you, i'm perfectly content to keep my weather, thank you very much. i'm thinking of having the garden tilled so i can start my garden. my roses are in bloom. i have a vase of wildflowers on my table. i have a tan. life is good.

the only (very minor) down side is that my cast stinks. it always stinks these days. i'm very ready to be able to shower without a plastic bag on my arm. some day...

15 weeks down, 5 more to go.

I'll get to it eventually...

2009-01-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

it's not easy keeping up with all that i'd like to keep up with. for instance, i really wanted to take Christmas pictures of the kids. i did that this week, after Epiphany...well, at least it's done! the laundry needs to be folded, i need to do some more school with the kids, i should tidy the house before my parents arrive. or, none of the above. it's 80 out right now. we're having my favorite january weather of all. bright, clear blue skies, sunny and delightfully warm. it's time to trim my (blooming) roses and turn over the garden. time to enjoy the windows being wide open and the warm breeze ruffling the papers on my desk. time to relax and be thankful for the many blessings in my life.

this past week, i also saw my surgeon for a checkup. after 14 weeks, he finally said the words i wondered if i would ever hear...you're healing. the second surgery and my good behavior (who knew doing nothing would be so hard?) have done the trick and i am finally on the road to recovery. i have another 6 weeks in the cast, then hopefully i will be allowed a removable splint. i get dreamy when i think of being able to take a shower sans bag over cast, or swimming or simply the opportunity to soak in the hottub. life is good, just different from normal!

a little update

2008-12-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

i would be remiss if i didn't at least make note of the last few weeks. i had a second surgery on my wrist the day before having 19 people at our house for thanksgiving dinner. thankfully, we were picking up that dinner and not making by hand from scratch! i slept most of thanksgiving day.

having a second surgery was a road i didn't wish to travel, but one that was necessary since the first screw was stripped and ineffective. the second surgery also restarted my 3-6 months in a cast timer. i hope to be out of this cast sometime between late february and late may. funny thing is, this time around i rarely feel the cast. it's become very much a part of my body, barely registering sensation as i go about my day. this time around was much more intense pain the first two weeks as i adjusted to the much larger screw. however, i minded my surgeon and have used my hand little, if at all. for the first time in months, i have hope that it may someday heal.

one other item of note. little dude is also in a cast owing to his big brother's loving shove and the resultant dislocated ulna. we're quite the pair, and i've taken to telling people that i've learned not to arm wrestle my 3 year old...no one wins!

go ahead, try it.

2008-11-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

try to open a ziploc bag with one hand. try to dry off your back after a shower with one hand. try to wash your face at the end of a day with one hand. just for the sake of giggles, try to pull on your pants with one hand tomorrow. then try to button those jeans with one hand. now tie your shoes with one hand.

how about your hair? i use mousse in mine. try to dispense mousse into the same hand you're using to dispense the product. now try to put on deodorant. try to put toothpaste on your toothbrush while it lays unsupported on the counter top. or try to open a child proof medicine bottle with one hand.

next time you do laundry, try to fold it using one hand. let me know if you figure out how to fold socks or sheets. then try to strip a bed and remake it with only one hand.

i'm not complaining, i'm only suggesting that my life is significantly changed. i had no idea how vitally important having two functioning hands was until i temporarily lost the use of one. also, please excuse my lack of caps as i struggle to tap out a post with one hand. it's not as easy as it looks!

broken

2008-11-06T22:36:00.000-08:00

in case you're wondering, i'm broken and typing is a challenge. i broke my wrist 3 october, had surgery 9 october, took a whole lot of percoset and am on my third bottle of vicodine. fun times! still managing to keep up (catch up) with school for the kids, but the house and anything computer related is woefully neglected. maybe i'll try to catch up in 2-5 months when i get my cast off.

next time honey, don't kick me so hard! oh, and i promise not to block like that again. :o)

Is it really September?

2008-09-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

Funny how time has a way of speeding away from us. Here it is, nearly the middle of September, and I have no idea where the summer went, or the first three weeks of school. My, how time flies!

We've been busy, but a very good kind of busy. All three kids are really enjoying piano lessons, and of course, Little Dude would like to start now, too. They're all doing soccer (well, Little Dude just plays with the mama), all doing karate (um, again, Little Dude has his own way of doing this, although he's working on charming Sensei Martha into letting him start early), and of course, all doing school. Even Little Dude is beginning to read with his older brother. Who says 3 is too young to start Kindergarten???

Last week, we dealt with an Africanized bee hive in our tree. I'm not as loving as I once was toward bees. It certainly doesn't help that Little Miss is sensitive to bee venom (and has an epi-pen), and those weren't your run-of-the-mill European honey bees. I still twitch when anything flies by, including flies.

Our latest adventure was to go to the AIAA Space Conference & Exposition here in San Diego. Education Alley was a blast, and we certainly will look forward to whenever this conference returns. It was fun and quite educational!

Never a dull moment around this house, but maybe I can manage to update a bit more often. It's all about routine!

Yes, I did fall off the face of the earth.

2008-08-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Apparently having your spouse away for an extended amount of time, dealing with ER visits, doctor visits, legos up the nose, visiting friends and trying to get organized for school is more than a full time job.

So I fell off the face of the planet, and survived. I'm still here. I'm still considering those "finished bathroom" pictures and I'm still managing to survive. In case you're counting, we're in week 5 of the Lizard's travel. He comes home soon. I hope I remember to pick him up from the airport!

School officially starts next Monday, but I started yesterday. It kind of feels good to be teaching again, and I'm excited about what this school year will bring. I have classes scheduled, speech therapy scheduled, piano lessons (for the three oldest) are scheduled and karate continues to go full bore.

Speaking of karate, we've recently had a slew of advancements. Mighty Man received his first belt promotion to Yellow Belt. Little Miss advanced to green Belt as will the Lizard, when he returns from his worldly wanderings. And Monkey Boy and I both put on Orange Belt right before the other three promoted, so in a month, we've all advanced! Watch out world, here we come!

That's it for now...I'm back to the grindstone. I must get all of my paperwork and books in order if I'm to continue with school in the morning! Until I write again...

What a dive.

2008-07-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

With The Lizard in Hawaii, we've been talking about scuba diving. We're both certified divers, but haven't been diving in nearly 10 years. The last time we were diving together was the month before I got pregnant with Little Miss. Little Miss turns 9 next week, and gets her cast off the same day.

In any case, we've been talking about diving again. I dug out my dive log and reminisced about some of our last dives together. In 1998, The Lizard and I met up on Oahu in Hawaii and dove every day, sometimes twice or three times in a day while we were there together. We did Waimea Bay (the Maui Wreck and surge canyons), Shark's Cove and Three Tables. We saw sting rays, sea turtles, octopuses, shrimp and thousands of fish, including bunches of Moorish Idols. It was definitely a good time.

It will be nice to pick up diving again now that the kids are a bit older. If only we had unlimited time and money. Personally, I'd love to go back to the Gulf of Aqaba and dive off the coast of Jordan again. There's something to be said for bathtub warm water and unlimited visibility.

"Just a widdle wego wheel."

2008-07-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been so scarce. I've been a tad preoccupied with other things.

Wednesday night Little Dude woke up sobbing about his ear hurting. Took a long time to get him settled...tylenol, motrin, and finally pain killing drops in the ear (he has tubes). Called pedes Thursday morning and got him in only to be told "all looks good, nothing wrong, nothing we can do." He was still screaming in pain throughout the day, so I called his ENT and left a message. Got a call back, nothing we could do except continue to treat the pain with alternating tylenol and motrin, instructions to call back if he had a fever. More pain and sobbing Thursday night. Mighty Man randomly says something about his ear, which I ignore because I'm dealing with Little Dude's ear and thought it was attention seeking on his part.

Little Dude's still sobbing/screaming in pain Friday morning and spikes a fever (nearly 102 with both motrin and tylenol on board). Call ENT, he tells me to take him to pedes and get a second opinion.

The oldest three had karate camp from 10-11:30. The only urgent care appointment available is 11:30 unless I want to wait until 8:30 at night. Oh, and The Lizard? Is on a plane to Hawaii. I call a friend to pick up the kids, drop off 3 at the dojo and run to the pede early. Turns out, Little Dude has swimmer's ear. From swim lessons. Pick up numbing drops and antibiotic drops for his ears.

I got home, then made lunch for my friend and her son who picked up the kids. We sat and chatted while the kids played. I'm so thankful for her help!

As soon as she left, I started getting the kids ready for swim lessons. Mighty Man mentions he wants me to look at his ear because there is wax in it (he's had wax problems before and we usually pull a big chunk...pencil eraser size...out when he complains). I pull out the otoscope and take a look. Sure enough, there's a huge chunk of wax, so I try to get it out. It's weird, so I ask if there's anything else in his ear. He assures me there's nothing. I try again, and the wax really feels hard, which I find strange since he's been in swim lessons for the last 6 weeks. I ask again if there is anything in his ear (not believing for a moment that there is, but just wanting to make sure).

"Wewl, just a widdle wego wheel."

*JUST* a little lego wheel??? I called the pede, who told me that I needed to go to the ER. Neither the pedes or the Intermediate Care have the sterilized instruments needed to extract foreign objects from the ears. So guess what? I had to take Mighty Man to the ER yesterday afternoon.

Fortunately, The Neighbor called just as I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, and he was home from work and sight seeing for unexpected reasons. He came up and took Little Miss, Monkey Boy, and Little Dude down to his house while I took Mighty Man to the ER. We were in and out, including getting meds (the same exact pain killing and antibiotic drops I got for Little Dude earlier) in about an hour.

Turns out it was really a hotwheels sized tire, so not quite as big as I thought. Also seems as though Mighty Man put it in there a couple of days ago, so he also has an outer ear infection from having a foreign object in his ear. *sigh*

So The Lizard is in Hawaii and I'm here at home dealing with three trips to the doc in less than 24 hours, plus the trip for Little Miss and her finger on Monday. Oh, and the random virus that is causing 24-48 hours of unreasonably high fevers with no other symptoms. Monkey Boy had it first, then Little Miss and Mighty Man. Little Dude probably has it now, right along with the ear infection. Fun times in the Lizard household...when it rains, it pours!

Maybe not the best laid plan.

2008-07-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

When planning swim lessons and karate in the evening, I guess I overlooked the necessity of eating dinner. Tuesday I made homemade pizza (Hawaiian and some pesto/mozzarella/tomato pizza on whole wheat crusts) and tonight...well, let's just say we did drive through. Not ideal, so I'm going to have to plan a little better on this one.

Little Miss isn't exactly thrilled with the idea of not swimming. She's even less thrilled about the idea of not participating in karate. The doctor insisted on taking Monday and Tuesday off, so tomorrow will be her first day of karate with a cast. Sensei isn't exactly thrilled with the thought of having a cast in class, but I think as long as Little Miss takes it easy and doesn't do drills, or sparring, she should be fine.

I'm doing much better about it as well. I still hate that she can't swim, can't do karate (there are several mini-camps coming up, plus a tournament that she'll miss) and can't ride her bike. At least there is the Summer Reading Program at the library. I checked out 11 books for her today. She's read 5 so far. :o)

And I got a little farther on the bathroom finishing today. Tomorrow I'll frame out the door and then work on the window. Almost there!

Something a little lighter.

2008-07-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today was a much better day than yesterday. Little Miss isn't in a whole lot of pain and seems to be dealing rather well with the addition of a cast to her arm. For now, it's a novelty, but we'll see how long that lasts.

In other news, my big brother came down to see Disneyland with his family, and we went up to have some ice cream and let the cousins play in Downtown Disney. With our four and their six (all girls), we got some looks, but hey, it's Disney, who else do you expect to see there? Grandparents?

Without further ado, here are the cousins:

View Miska195's map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

All the cousins: Little Miss (8), Cousin R (6), Monkey Boy (6), Cousin M (5), Mighty Man (5), twins B&E (3), Cousin C (just turned two), Little Dude (just about to turn 3) and Cousin L (8 months).

The story of the broken finger.

2008-07-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

One thing I know for certain, is that Mama Lizard's do not like holding little lizards while bones are being set. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love holding little lizards when all is well, or even when all is not well and they simply need a hug or snuggle. However, holding little ones so bones can be bent, tweaked, squashed and prodded, is definitely not my cup of tea.

This afternoon, I took Little Miss in to see the orthopedic surgeon while The Lizard kept the boys at home. I expected that it would take some time to get things taken care of, but I did not expect the trip to take 4 hours. We got checked in and taken back to a room to meet our surgeon. She was so very nice, and really understood that Little Miss needed to know what was happening, every step of the way. She looked at the x-ray and noted that there was considerable displacement which needed to be fixed. So off we went to a cast room, equipped with a live x-ray machine and everything needed to cast her little arm. So far, so good. Now for the rough part.

In order to manipulate her finger as much as they needed to, she needed local anesthesia. In a nutshell, Little Miss hates shots. With a passion. Fortunately, they had some handy dandy make-your-hand-cold spray to help numb up the area before the finger block was placed. That served to freak her right the heck out, but we got through the shots without an unreasonable amount of tears. Then we waited.

The finger block was placed in the knuckle at the base of the finger. It swelled a bit, and went numb. But the rest of the finger did not. Begin round two of the shots. No further numbing. Begin round three of shots. Numbing in her middle finger. Begin round 4 of shots. Numbing down to the second knuckle, but not where they need to manipulate. Begin round 5, 6, and 7+ of shots. We now have 6 different kinds of pain killers/anesthesia in her finger, including shots directly to the area of the fracture. And unfortunately, we have no further numbing. She still has feeling in the second knuckle. She has inherited my resistance to local anesthesia. I'm crushed.

At this point, another surgeon was brought in to survey the situation. Little Miss was in considerable pain, begging for no more shots. Her choices were to try one last set of shots, or simply grit her teeth and get through the manipulation. She chose to have manipulation done with incomplete pain relief. They pulled her hand under the live x-ray scope and began the process of straightening her finger. Oh, lord. I know God gave me the grace and strength I needed, but I sure hope I never have to go through that again. Ever.

Now comes the tricky part. They can manipulate her bone into position, and can get her fingernails even (so her finger isn't twisting in a funny direction), but as soon as they let go, it slips right back out of position. Through more manipulation, they find that by bending the finger into a loose fist, the bones align in a favorable position. Slap a cast on it, bend the aluminum, tape the fingers and call it good. We followed this up with a set of regular x-rays and a second run through the live x-ray machine. One tiny tweak of the metal and we're finished.

But here's the catch. There are three pieces of bone that need to fuse into one. That may not happen. We will monitor her progress with weekly x-rays, then decide if surgery and pins are needed in three weeks. Please pray that her bones heal properly and we avoid surgery. Basically, we're trying the long shot of casting before surgery to see if we get lucky. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. But if it works, it was worth the effort to avoid surgery.

In case, you're interested, here are some snapshots of the x-rays. A warning: don't peek if you don't like broken bones. (Descriptions are after the pictures)

You can see here how it is broken right at the growth plate of the second knuckle, displaced to the side, with an extra chip off to the side.

Again, you can see the displacement is also down, with total separation from the growth plate and extra chip to the top.

I took the splint off so she could have a shower (per doctor's orders to shower before the final cast went on)...finger is huge and green/purple all around.

Here you can see how crooked it is.

Here is her black eye. This picture doesn't do the purple color justice. It is swollen all the way around the eye, including the eyelid. Plus the scrape where her glasses cut in both at the corner of the eye and at her temple.

And of course, Little Dude got in on the action with his scrapes as well...three on his head, one massive one on his knee.

And without further ado, here is the new cast:

For the record, Little Miss is not a girly-girl. She likes her fire truck jammies. :o)

A New Belt!

2008-07-07T11:19:00.001-07:00

Monkey Boy tested and put on a new belt last week! He's so proud of himself, and so are we!

Receiving his new belt from Sensei T.

Putting on his new belt.

Bowing to his class as a brand new orange belt! Hurray!

Good news on the bathroom!

2008-07-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got around to some of the final finishing touches for the bathroom! Yea me! Sorry, but someone has to be the cheerleader around here. :D

Today I finally did the color-matched grout caulking around the base of the toilet, sink and up against the tub. The only thing remaining to do on the floor is to seal the grout, which I'll try to do tomorrow. I also cut and painted all the baseboards, the trim around the door and all except one piece around the window. So those are drying and waiting to be installed, again, hopefully tomorrow. And once I get those final finishing touches complete, then I can take one last set of pictures of the bathroom and post the whole process, start to finish. Whew! I bet you can't wait. Well, neither can I! It's been a long month of hard work, but I'm really pleased with the results. Hopefully I won't have to redo anything in there for another 20 years or so! hehe!

Also, please say a prayer or two tomorrow around 3pm Pacific. That's when I'll take Little Miss to get her finger set. I've been looking at the x-ray, and honestly, I'm surprised that's all they're doing is setting it. I guess we'll see tomorrow when an ortho actually looks at the x-ray. I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow. I had her take off the splint/cast tonight so she could have a full bath before getting a regular cast and having to deal with that. Her finger is an excellent mix of shades of green and purple, all the way around the finger, from tip to base. My poor, poor daughter. I'm so sad that she's hurt. I wish I could take her hurt away.

Update on life...because it moves fast!

2008-07-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

Today did NOT turn out how I planned. Not even a teeny, tiny, little itty bitty bit. Today, I was supposed to finish up some stuff in the bathroom (yeah, the same bathroom I promised you pictures of, what, a couple of weeks ago?), strip beds, do laundry, fold and put away said laundry, clean house a bit, and a myriad of other things. I was not supposed to run outside in my pajamas to scoop up bleeding children and run one to Intermediate Care for a possible dislocated finger. Nope. That wasn't in my plan at all.

The Lizard was working outside on the truck and went down the street to borrow a shade to work under from the neighbors. Little Dude always wants to go see his Godparents, so Little Miss threw him on her back and went running (ack!) after The Lizard with Little Dude riding piggy back. She fell, which prompted both Monkey Boy and Mighty Man to come screaming inside to get me (and yes, I was still in my pajamas...d'oh). Little Dude was screaming bloody murder, so I scooped him up and took him in to assess the damage. Little Miss was hurt, but not badly enough that she couldn't walk back into the house, so she followed me in.

Little Dude's knee is mega torn up, and he has 3 scrapes/cuts on his head. I cleaned him up (thank you lidocaine in the Dermaplast) and got him patched up enough for the tears to stop. Meanwhile, Little Miss had an icepack on her head and asked to lay down because she felt sleepy. Being familiar with concussions and seeing the massive bruise forming on her temple, I wouldn't let her go while I was patching up her littlest brother. I didn't want her to pass out on me so I made her lay down on the bathroom floor until I was done with Little Dude. As far as I could tell, only a mashed up knee and black eye were the major hurts, so she waited patiently.

The Lizard finally got back just as I finished patching up Little Dude, so he took charge of LD while I turned my attention to Little Miss. She has a nasty black eye, with abrasions and cuts where her glasses cut into her temple. Her glasses are toast. Her knee is torn up pretty good, and her elbow has a scrape. As I worked through each scrape, cleaning out rocks and applying bandaids as necessary, she told me her finger hurt, too. I had already cleaned out a deep cut on her middle finger, and thought that was what she was complaining about.

I took another look at her fingers, asked her to make a fist, and then discovered the index finger on her left hand was not straight at all and starting to swell. I yelled at The Lizard that I thought she dislocated her finger and that I was taking her to Intermediate Care (looks just like an ER, and is kind of like the ER, but without the wait and without the huge co-pay, much faster than waiting for an appointment with urgent care). I threw on some clothes, combed my hair and flew out the door.

Turns out Little Miss did not dislocate her finger. She broke the index finger on her left hand in two places at the growth plate (right at the knuckle) and displaced it. I thought she had dislocated it, by the angle in the middle of her finger. No such luck. At the moment, she's in a plaster cast/splint, wrapped in an ace bandage. Monday we head out to the orthopedic surgeon to get the displacement set and a fiberglass cast, which she'll wear for the next six weeks. Monday is not going to be a fun day in the Lizard household.

Anyway, so no swimming basically for the rest of the summer, which means she will not get to participate in the last session of swim lessons starting on Tuesday. I'm not sure how karate will work either. She definitely can't do sparring or weaponry. I think she can still do katas. We'll see on Monday once they set her finger. Poor girl is just so beat up. I'm glad we have a spare set of glasses, since she scraped up the lenses pretty badly, and mangled the frames something fierce.

Tomorrow, I'm not making any plans. Maybe that way I can actually get some things done around the house. Do you think it will work?

Oh, and yesterday, Mighty Man lost his first top tooth, bringing his total tooth loss to five! I can't believe he's lost so many teeth already!

I must be insane

2008-06-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

The kids have been taking both karate and most recently, swim lessons. Two things have changed or will change in the near future to upset the balance. Little Miss recently passed a swim test to move into Level 3. Problem is, Level 3 is not available during the time slot we've chosen for swim lessons. Second issue is that Little Dude turns 3 in bit and will begin lessons with the start of the next session. What to do? So I did a Mensa level puzzle of fitting swim lessons for 4 children into an already established karate schedule for 3 children. Oh, and did I mention as an added constraint, one person must be able to do the entire afternoon? Because The Lizard heads to Hawaii shortly, then off to Norfolk after that. So here's what I came up with:

Monday:
MM has karate 5:30-6:15
no swim lessons

That's not too bad. But wait, there's more!

Tuesday:
LM & MB have karate 4:30-5:30
MM & LD will have swimming 4:30-5:05
LM & MB will have swimming 5:50-6:25

So, if I drop LM & MB off at karate a few minutes early, then head over to the pool for swim lessons, I can get the two littlest dudes dried off and dressed before rushing back to pick up the two oldest from karate in order to get them changed and back over to the pool for swim lessons. Ok, that might be doable. Let's see what the rest of the week will look like.

Wednesday:
MM & LD will have swimming 4:30-5:05
MM has karate 5:30-6:30
LM & MB will have swimming 5:50-6:25

Again, I'll have to be superhuman to make this, but I think I can hit the pool, get MM ready and dropped off at karate, head back to the pool for LM & MB's lessons and get back to pick up MM a smidgen late. The good news is, the dojo is good at keeping track of kiddos, and MM will be perfectly content to sit and watch the next class. Then there is the rest of the week...

Thursday:
LM & MB have karate 4:30-5:30
MM & LD will have swimming 4:30-5:05
LM & MB will have swimming 5:50-6:25

Lather, rinse and repeat.

Friday:
MM & LD will have swimming 4:30-5:05
LM & MB will have swimming 5:50-6:25

Oh, that's easy! I think I'll just pack a picnic and head to the park between lessons. And the good news??? I'll only do this for 4 weeks! woohoo!

In case you're wondering, we're doing nearly the same schedule this week (minus the later swim lessons...they have lessons 3:50-4:25 this week), with the added bonus of doing Vacation Bible School every day, 8:30am-1pm (-ish...depending on when we finish setting up for the next day). Wait, I thought summer vacation was supposed to be a vacation? What happened there? Maybe I'm making up for lost time last summer. Hmm. I'll have to think about that.

P.S. Want to see the new bathroom? You do? Really? Well, you're going to have to wait. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow. *smooches*

Think of it as elevator music.

2008-06-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

So while you wait for me to get around to updating you on the progress being made in the bathroom, please allow me to bore you to tears with some more pictures. We went to Disneyland last Tuesday, which explains the following pictures:

First, the Sword in the Stone. Although, as Jay kindly pointed out, it's more like the Sword in the Anvil. But, whatever. This is right in front of King Arthur's Carousel, which the kids also enjoy. And since we'd just had a lovely ride on the carousel, we had to stop by the sword, to see if it was any easier to pull than the other 59 million times they've tried.

All four try:

Then the lady gets bored and wanders off, leaving the three boys to try.

We lose another kid and another, until we're left with this:

I have about 14 other pictures of Mighty Man trying his darnedest to get that sucker out, but I'll spare you the gore. Let's just say he has a particular talent for making faces. He always has. Maybe I'll pull up some old pictures for your entertainment...

More than likely, I'll forget that I ever promised to dig up old pictures of Mighty Man as a wee babe. In the mean while, I'd also like to beat you into submission with more flower pictures. All of these were taken at Disneyland, and none of them have been processed. They're sooc. Hey, I have 4 kids. Knock yourself out if you want to play with them in PhotoShop and kick up the saturation etc. Otherwise, just enjoy them, ok?

Yeah, I'll get there...

2008-06-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

In the meantime, have a picture:

Please forgive me

2008-05-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

I know I really left you hanging on Tuesday. Came blazing in with the horrors of a broken drain line on the tub, and then ran off with nary an update. I've been busy, ok? REALLY FREAKING busy.

Hmm. So, let's see. Where was I? Where am I? What time is it anyway? I have no idea. I'm kind of awash in a sea of, well, I don't even know what. But I'm awash. And I may soon be able to wash my kids again. If I take them to the neighbor's house.

Anyway, enough of that. When I last left you, I had gotten a plumber over, who promptly ran away, insisting that he couldn't give me an estimate. He had to bring out the field manager because this wasn't your ordinary job. Fine. Whatever. Chicken.

So Wednesday morning, I had a couple of plumbers out to give me estimates and selected a plumber who started the one day job on Thursday. The bottom line was we needed new santees in the bathrooms (yes, plural...our bathrooms butt up against each other, so I had the santee for the masterbath sink exposed), a new connection for the pipe I broke and he was also going to rough in the bathroom for me (completely re-plumb the bathroom...toilet, sink, shower/tub). Fine.

One reason why I chose this plumber is that he didn't say he was going to jack hammer the foundation without even looking. He wanted to see if he could replace the connection without major rework, and he was successful. He cut out vent lines, replaced quite a bit of pipework and had things nearly wrapped up when the first bad thing happened. The drainpipe for the masterbath sink snapped as they tried to make a connection. Cast iron pipe, folks, just snapped in two.

As a result of that little oopsie, we found a crack running down the length of the pipe. We're on a slab foundation, and the drainpipe and its crack, ran straight down into the concrete. Since it was already 4pm, they cleaned up and promised to be back first thing in the morning to saw and jack hammer into the foundation until they had good pipe for the connection. They were pretty sure they would be done no later than 3pm with an 8am start time. Joy. I had to get up early.

So my morning started off painfully early, with the cat beginning her morning meowing an hour and change early. Normally the cat alarm goes off at 6:20. This morning, she went off at 4:54. I should have drop kicked her furry little tail into next week. I was a little miffed. The next thing I heard, was Little Dude chatting away to himself at 6-something. I went out to investigate and found him happily perched on the couch...in soaking wet pajamas. Apparently all this construction threw him off his groove. He peed on the couch. I retrieved a towel, and started sopping things up.

At this point, at 6-something a.m., I should have known it was shaping up to be a not-so-fabulous day. I showered, fed the kids breakfast, and ripped out a few rows of tiles while I waited for the plumbers to show. They arrived at 8:30am. First, they sawed into the foundation around the pipe. Then, the jack hammering began. Oh, my goodness. Next time someone wants to jack hammer in my house, I think I'll sell it and move out. They jack hammered for hours. Then, all the sudden, I hear shouting and one of the guys comes flying out, and shuts off the water to the house. They've hit a water line.

I went in to take a look. The rest of our slab is 4-5 inches of concrete. The first thing I noticed about their hole, is that it's about a foot deep...and still totally encased in concrete. Guess what. The drainpipe for the master bathroom? Is in a footing for our house. Great. Just flipping great. Cue the music. Yeah, that's right, we're going to suffer through many more hours of jack hammering while they try to find the bottom of the concrete, or the bottom of the crack in the pipe.

At this point, I decided that I needed lunch. The kids already had lunch and I was hungry. I came out to the kitchen, got out the bread and peanut butter, then opened the cabinet to get a plate, and the door came off in my hand. GREAT! You know what Mr. Murphy??? Screw you AND the horse you rode in on! What the heck, man? WHY??? So I spent the next hour looking for wood putty to fill the stripped screw holes so I can reattach the cabinet door. Cleaned out a few things in the garage (because I was bored) and found a couple of new movies for the kids. Also located all of the paint I will need for various wall repairs, but that's a different story for a different day. Anyway, at some point, I did get my lunch.

Back to the bathroom situation. Eventually, nearly another foot of concrete later, they finally broke through to dirt. And discover that the crack, goes all the way down to the coupling. They have to excavate more, so they can replace the entire joint. Hoo baby. With their continued digging, they realize that all the dirt under the pipe is soggy. The crack has been there a while, we just hadn't paid the piper yet. We were lucky.

So, fast forward a bit to 6pm. The pipe gets fixed, the hole gets refilled and compacted, the water line is repaired and both lines get sheathed, and the top gets cemented in. Time to set the tub. At this point, I bailed. I went to church to help with a parish retreat. Bottom line was I had no water, I had no toilet, and there was no way I was going to try to make dinner. Going to church was the easy way out. Sure beat trying to drum up something in my kitchen anyway.

I left my number with the guys and they promised to call when they were finished. They thought they would be done by 7 or 7:30. Or? Or, Mr. Murphy will hang around and mess with things to the best of his abilities. They set the tub, and then realized that something was seriously wrong. The sides were wonky. So they pulled the tub (no easy feat), troubleshot the problem and reinstalled the tub with the proper side supports. Then they soldered in the new PosiTemp (single) handle, the spout and shower head. The last thing that needed to be done was running the water to the tub to check the new plumbing for leaks. Turned on the water and...

I heard a freight train rumble through my house. Good lord, I thought the thing was going to come straight through the walls! I traced the noise back...down the hall, out to the garage...it seemed to be coming through the water heater. I had no idea what the heck was happening, but it sure didn't sound good to me. They checked the water pressure in the house, and it was a whopping 113 psi. It's supposed to be right around 65 psi. The regulator blew out the diaphragm, so that now needs to be replaced. That'll be another $275.

And when the regulator blew, it blew the masterbath toilet innards to smithereens. So, now the masterbath toilet has new guts. I finally got the kids in bed around 9:30, which is obscenely late. More than 2 hours past their bed time. I'll pay for it tomorrow, I'm sure. And the plumbers? Got everything together and left my house at 10:15pm...nearly 14 hours after they started this morning. Ho.ly.cow.

So there you have it. That was my Friday. Happy, happy, joy, joy! So much for camping this weekend. I think gas went up another 15 cents today, or something equally stupid. The cheapest gas in the county is $4.07. If you want diesel? Prepare to pay $5.29 a gallon. Uncle. I give already.

Oops.

2008-05-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

When starting a big project, I never assume it's going to be as easy as it looks. I also never like to hear "oops" at any time during said big project. *sigh*

Today was a good day, right up until I thought I was finished. That's when it got a little tricky. For what it's worth, a girl like me can pick up a cast iron tub and lug it around. I learned that tubs are actually nailed to the wall, so I pulled each and every one of those nails out. Then I learned that tubs won't move while still puttied to the floor, so I broke the caulking seal. Then I unscrewed the drain couplings underneath the tub and set to work on figuring out how to pull out the tub.

Before long, I realized that I also needed to remove the drain inside the tub in order to detach that part of the tub. Apparently, unscrewing the two pipes (drain pipe and overflow pipe) wasn't enough, and I also had to remove the drain in order to release the tub from the piping below. No problem. I'll get a wrench and fix that. Or not. I stuck a long nose pair of vise grips down the drain to grip the cross pieces in the drain. Oops. Yeah, those were corroded. Wanna guess what they did? Disintegrated. That's right, they ceased to exist. Hmm. So then I used my crowbar, chiseled into the enamel and bent up the edges so I could grip them and remove it that way. No luck. So I sat and thought, and sat and thought some more, and finally decided to see if I could wiggle the pipe out by lifting the tub.

I pushed the tub a bit and was surprised at how easily it moved! I pulled it a bit and voila! The whole thing was free! So I turned it on its side, hefted it up and moved it out to the back patio. That wasn't so bad! In fact, that was amazingly easy. I had called a friend who agreed to come over and assist me with the rip out. He was also going to see if he could bring along his two (young adult) sons to help. Turns out, I had the tub out before they arrived, so I called and let him know of my success. Then I went back to the bathroom to clean up a bit before starting to reinstall new fixtures.

That's when I noticed something wasn't quite right. Turns out that the pipe wasn't up to the task of me taking out the tub. Don't get me wrong, everything up top looked normal. All the plastic drain work was fine...P-trap, drain and everything was just hunky dory. Want to know what broke in two? The cast iron pipe right where it enters the foundation. Doh! Thankfully, I can quickly recognize when I'm out of my league. This is one of those times. I called a professional. Actually, I called two, because the first guy I talked to sounded scared. I decided that maybe this was a big job for a really big company, not just your local plumber dude.

I think this is going to involve tearing up part of our foundation and replacing original cast iron piping. Or worse...the whole thing. I think this is bigger than our economic stimulus check. All because I could no longer tighten a valve tight enough to turn off the water. Such is life.

What a difference a day makes

2008-05-26T20:31:00.001-07:00

Today is day 3 of my bathroom project. While it may not look vastly different, I can assure you, a great deal of work was completed today.

I completed the drywall and tile rip out, pulled all the extraneous nails, pulled the toilet and removed all the rubble. All in all, not a terribly demanding day, but a good solid four hours of work, nonetheless.

Tomorrow I'll tackle removing the tub and then the tile floor. Once that is complete, I'll rewire that bathroom and the master bathroom (they share a wall and all the wiring is exposed for the master bath...might as well do it while I can...you know, to ground the gfci plugs...), install the new tub and start installing the new drywall. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Might take me a few days...especially since I'm going to run away and go camping with the kids this weekend. Never a dull moment, is there?

Bathroom renovation, day 2

2008-05-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I had a wild hair, bought enough materials to cause the Lizard to contemplate working overtime, and began gutting the kids' bathroom. Here's what it looks like tonight:

Two things: yes, our bathroom is small and yes, that is the bathtub along the back wall. It's just buried in dry wall and tile that once graced the walls.

Today I learned that quarter turn valves aren't as infallible as they claim. Two of the three valves I installed a mere 9 years ago leak more than just a little bit. I turned off the water to the toilet and flushed as I prepared to pull it out. I was stunned to hear the water running when the valve was turned off. Needless to say, I had to secure water to the whole house in order to cap the valve. Note to self: buy new valves before reinstalling sink and toilet.

Stimulating the economy

2008-05-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

The tub faucet leaks. I stripped the handle trying to tighten it down. I swapped out handles with the tub fill/shower diverter handle, so I can at least turn on the cold water. Just can't take it off shower mode without pliers for the moment.

The base cabinet for the sink is water damaged 4 inches up due to toilet stoppages. I'm tired of putting bandaids on every little thing in there to nurse it along. So I'm going for the big rip out. I'm close enough to done with school for the year to call it a day, so this morning, we (me, myself and I and the 4 kids) went shopping for a few items. Here's what we bought:

Ceramic tile
spacers
grout
adhesive
adhesive trowel
tile cutter
grout sealant/applicator
grout sponges
pedestal sink/pedestal
bathtub
tub faucet
tub surround
bathroom fan

I think that's it for now. Later I need to go back and buy the toilet, dry wall, mud, tape, texture and paint for the walls. I'm ok hauling the tub and surround in by myself, but I think I'll wait for help to do the drywall. Those buggers are unwieldy. :o) I guess I also need to get some copper pipe to raise the height of the shower head. As it currently stands, it's too short for me, and I'm short. Really short.

So there you go. I'm spending our economic stimulus check, just doing my part in stimulating the economy.

What do you hear on a typical day?

2008-05-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

In the past, I've highlighted a few choice statements from the kids. This morning, they're in rare form. Here's a few of the statements I've heard so far:

"Be careful with my patience. I'm running out."
~ Mighty Man

"If you don't let go of that, I'll lick you 59 million times."
~ Little Miss

"Maybe I should put on my penis protector."
~ Monkey Boy

"Aw, man. Hey mommy, our clouds came back."
~ Mighty Man

How much more of this do you think I can handle? I guess time will tell. In the meanwhile, I'm praying that those clouds that just came back aren't bringing more rain. As if we need any more. I don't think I need to water the lawn for a week or so with everything that has fallen in the last 3 days. It's been interesting to swing from 100+ temperatures to the 60's all in the span of a couple of days. We've done that twice in the last couple of weeks. It's pretty crazy!

Why it was a long day.

2008-05-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

I mentioned that Wednesday was a long day. It was, in so many ways. I was so ready to throw a white flag up and call it a day.

My day started hours earlier than it should have. 6am, is way too early, in my book. I like 7:30 or 8 much better, thank you very much. And I don't care for crises quite so early, either. I don't mind something cropping up after you've had a chance to wake up and get going, but to wake up to the crisis is something else entirely.

So, here was my day:

6am wake up
6:05 start the day
6:20 start first laundry
7 am get kids dressed
7:15 breakfast, start manual watering of front yard (the valves crapped out on the automatic sprinklers and I haven't had a chance to get to Home Depot for replacements and the Lizard is away on business)
7:20 shower
7:45 feed the critters down the street
8:10 start second laundry
8:20 have breakfast
8:45 start packing up for piano lessons
9:15 off to piano lessons
10:35 off to computer based testing for Little Miss
12:30 off to Burger King for lunch
1 pm other errands
2 pm stop by the credit union to deposit a check (I received a check for the repairs I had done to my van after being hit last week...)
2:17 discover keys are locked in van and call AAA
2:48 AAA hero comes and rescues me and 4 kids who are restless
3 pm home again

I also learned today that my college roommate of two years passed away yesterday. That hit me hard. Terribly hard. I'm so incredibly sad. She had her whole life ahead of her. She did everything with gusto. And now she's gone. There are so many unanswered questions burning in my mind. I'll probably never know the answers to most. I suppose that's just the way it is.

"Mommy?"

2008-05-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

My eyes flew open this morning to the sound of Little Miss whispering my name. In case you're wondering, in my experience, it's never a good thing to awaken to that word whispered in your face at oh-dark-thirty. Never.

"Mommy? Little Dude stinks. He pooped and he knows it because he's hiding it under his blanket and is laughing. And I can't get back to sleep because my room stinks. I don't think it's very funny at all."

Now, call me crazy, but I'm not all that keen about "pooped," "blanket" and "laughing" being used all in one sentence. Especially not at 6am before I've had a good stretch and enough time for my brain to awaken from its slumber. That's just wrong on so many levels.

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the fact that Little Miss was standing at the side of my bed staring at me. Maybe I could wake up again later and it would have been a dream. "Mommy?" She was still there. "My bedroom stinks and I can't sleep." Once again, reality was shoved in my face. I couldn't ignore it. I heaved a big sigh, pushed back my covers and rubbed my eyes. We traded places and I shuffled off to assess the situation while she snuggled in to my nice, warm bed.

The first thing I noticed was the open bathroom door, the empty spindle of toilet paper and a toilet bowl full of paper. I decided to risk it and flush. Thankfully, it all went down without the need to plunge. The second thing I noticed was an open bedroom door and a missing Mighty Man. I hunted him down and sent him back to bed. Now all I had left was the next bedroom: the one with the door closed and light escaping around the edges. The one from which a distinct odor was wafting. I took a deep breath and then went in.

On many occasions, I've noted that Little Dude not only resembles Little Miss, but acts just like her. He's highly verbal and very easy to understand, just like she was. He potty trained himself, just like she did, and at the same age. There are many other similarities, but this morning, he took it one step farther...just like his sister. He painted with poop. Joy. Obviously I was mistaken in my belief that only our little angel of a girl would have the creative impetus to paint with poop. I stand corrected.

So this morning at 6am, I gingerly extracted Little Dude's bottomless self from his bed and put him in the bathtub. I then began to assess the damage. The large stuffed dog had nails painted on its paws. I hauled it off to the washer and started my first wash of the day. I returned with a container of disinfecting wipes and contemplated where I should begin. I stripped his bed, turned on the fan and opened the window. Then I scrubbed walls and determined that the carpet could wait. There were several little footprints, but not enough for me to feel the need to break out the steam cleaner at 6:15. I headed to the bathroom to discover Little Dude had continued his painting efforts. Thankfully, it was all contained in the tub.

One quick bath later, and I emerged to find that all 3 older kids were gathered on the couch for an early morning showing of Brother Bear. Well, why not. I'm not in the mood to fight the early rising or the tears I'm sure to experience today as a result of everyone being up so early. I did eventually get the carpet cleaned...right before I put the kids down to bed. We had such a full day today, that was my first chance to get it clean. It's been a long day.

Are you a pussy that just never gets any attention?

2008-05-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

And no, this is not a psa (public service announcement) about hooha's. Call me juvenile, but it always cracks me up when I hear words such as these uttered from my children.

The situation was this: we have a cat. One who meows. A lot. Incessantly at times. We love this cat dearly, but man, can she ever get loud. Like when the children are outside. Or when we're all asleep. Well, today, she was just wandering around, meowing her ever loving head off. Little Miss sat down next to her, scratched under her chin, and said compassionately, "Are you a pussy that just never gets any attention?"

So glad I wasn't drinking anything. Or eating anything. That wouldn't have been pretty. Kind of like last night at dinner. Last night I had a spaghetti shower courtesy of Mighty Man. Ew!

Why I never get anything done

2008-05-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

I started out today thinking I needed to plant my rose cuttings so they don't die. They're starting to show their age in the water, and they definitely need to be put in dirt. So from the kitchen (where the rose cuttings are), I went to the bathroom...I know, not the most direct route to outside, but I'll get there, I promise. While in the bathroom, my daughter came in to report that her second youngest brother was digging a hole in the back yard to go poop in.

So I yelled out the window for Might Man to come inside to put away his shoes. He did. He put away his Crocs and went back to digging a latrine hole. So I went back to my bedroom window and asked that he come inside and put away his church shoes, which were in his bedroom. That would give me an opportunity to talk him out of his outdoor potty mission. While waiting, I decided to sort some laundry since I'm sure that taking two days off from it has given me enough for three loads. So I sort some laundry, clean up the blue bedroom, clear out all of their laundry, and head to the pink bedroom to clean it up and clear out laundry. Discover that I should probably change Little Dude's sheets. He didn't have an accident, I'm sure, but they smell...funky. So back to my bedroom I go with laundry in hand (haven't touched the bed yet) to get new sheets and a water proof pad (the clean ones are still on my bedroom floor from the last round).

Instead of doing that, I finish sorting my laundry, have a talk with MM who agrees that we only go potty in the toilet and not outside, and then head to the garage with my laundry basket. Start a dark load. Come back into the kitchen and look around blankly. Realize that I don't have my menu on the fridge, so back out to the car to find the list. Get my list and cell phone and realize that the Lizard has text messaged me about my earlier report of being backed into and needing a new bumper. Go back out to take a couple of pictures of that.

Back to the kitchen. Clean off the counters a bit, lay out bread for the kid's lunch. Remember that I need to bring lemonade to tonight's meeting. Find the container, figure out how much mix, add water and stir. Then remember to ask if I need to bring cups. Get on the computer. Also remember that I have some pictures of my finished front yard, some Mother's Day pictures, and some pictures of a really cool beetle that Mighty Man found. Download pictures and write a blog post.

See why I never get anything done? Right now I have a load in the washing machine, clean sheets and pad in my bedroom, one bed that needs to be changed, bread on plates and jam out (but not the peanut butter or honey), lemonade made, but not in the refrigerator, my camera is connected to my computer but not turned on, and the kids are still outside, hungry but quite content to dig in the dirt. All because I wanted to plant some rose cuttings. Life is complicated!

Random stuff

2008-05-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Just because I'm feeling the need to keep blogging, so I don't get out of the habit, I'll update you on a few things around here.

First off, Mighty Man lost his fourth tooth. That's right. He's 4 years old and has already lost 4 teeth. He's just fast like that. And he rides a two wheeler...no training wheels (he started that last November). You know how some kids are "a really young 5" or "a really old 5" when they start Kindergarten? Well, MM is on the old side of that scale. He has a passion for learning things and learning them well and early. Or works on his teeth until they fall out. Ironically, of the four children, he's the only one who doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy. He's certain that the Lizard is the Tooth Fairy. Or I am. Don't ask why, because I cannot answer that question for you! He's a smart little cookie.

Second, last weekend (yes, it was a busy weekend!), Little Miss and Monkey Boy had a piano recital. Once I figure out how to post those videos, I'll do it. This was MB's first, and boy howdy, was he ever proud of himself! LM played "Fur Elise" and the "Star Wars" Theme and MB played "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "My Invention." It was great to see them playing on a grand piano!

And last but not least, I've been puttering around in our front yard lately. First, I weeded the entire parkway and remulched that. Did I mention that I'm so glad the kids will weed large expanses of flower beds for 50 cents apiece? Because I really am! They do a great job! And they're cheap too. Did I mention they're cheap? :o)

With all of their help, I was able to move on to the flower beds in the front yard. I now have 5 new rose bushes and a full complement of petunias out front. Some of the petunias are left over from last year, and are just prolific! I love how they bloom for me all year round. I think that's one reason why I like living here...I have roses year round, petunias year round, and never any snow! In any case, here are a few pictures from my front yard. These are all "before" pictures, so you won't get the full effect of the mulching and beautification that has taken place in the last two weeks, but they'll do for now!

This is my Disneyland Rose (my favorite):

Opening Night:

Voodoo:

Disneyland (again):

Mr. Lincoln:

Fragrant Wave:

Locks of Love

2008-05-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

If you've never heard of Locks of Love, be sure to check out their website. A couple of years ago, I whacked my hair from mid back length to super short (and super easy to care for). Apparently, this made an impression upon our daughter. She tried to grow it out then, but finally begged me to cut it for the summer. That was two years ago. This time, she stuck with it, and grew it until she had more than enough. So this weekend, we went to get her hair cut for Locks of Love.

Here she is before. I think she looks a bit like Cousin It. She really hated brushing all that hair every day. Because I'm a mean mom and make her do it.

Then she sat down, got her hair braided and whacked off!

And here she is, sporting her new 'do:

Oh, and then there was one other thing we did on Saturday...she got her ears pierced!

Our Little Miss is growing up right before our eyes. And I'm ok with that. It seems each stage brings a new excitement to our lives.

There comes a time...

2008-05-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in life, when you feel the need to slow down. To take a break and catch your breath. This is one of those times. I think I deserve a break! I did eight or nine laundries today. I taught Little Miss about the industrial revolution and then how to solve for x. She's 8 and we're already moving on to algebraic equations...which I find to be so cool! I also spent some time excavating what used to be our school table, before I had 4 kids who all wanted to do school at once.

I've still got a million things I feel like I should do. I need to plant the poor tomato plant that is slowly wilting on my back patio. I need to finish up the front yard...my roses are flourishing and my petunias are planted, but alas, the bags of mulch are still waiting to be spread. I have window planters ready for radishes to be started. I have rose cuttings that are budding on my kitchen counter. Those need to hit the dirt very soon. I also have grape bushes running amok in the back yard that need to be trimmed back. And I have seeds for a little herb garden...good thing we are currently studying plants and whatnot!

I have the Himalayas of laundry beat back (for the moment...see above note about laundry), and two of the 5 beds have been changed for the week. All the laundry has been folded and put away, and the dishes are all done (although not by my hand today...thank you my hubby in shining armor!). And the cat has been fed...even though she's still meowing about starving. Little Miss has recently gained some new responsibilities.

Which reminds me. This weekend our very own little girl decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love. It was so amazing to see her eager desire to help someone else. She has such a pure heart. I'll try to get to some before and after pictures later. For now, that's it...I'm taking a break now. I'm trying to break myself in easy you know. :o)

I'll be back, I promise!

2008-04-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since my last post. I've all manner of excuses, but honestly, I'm up to my eyeballs in things to do and too little time. Most notably, I've taken a lot of time to, um, heal. The day after my last post, I took a not-so-graceful step off the tailgate of our truck and have then spent the last two weeks on some very pleasant mind altering drugs to mask the horrific pain. The last two days have been pretty good, but today I might have over done things a bit, trying to catch up. I haven't touched my house in two weeks, haven't lifted a finger to cook, clean or even do the basics of feeding the kids. Thankfully, Little Miss does a bang up job at feeding her brothers breakfast and lunch.

So, with all that in mind, I'll try to get back to work, but I can't promise anything. This time of year is when I start planning our next academic year in earnest, including ordering books and writing lesson plans. So if I'm scarce, know I am well and the kids are thriving. And that you are loved for checking in on us!

More best laid plans...

2008-03-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

I have approximately 1300 (ok, so 1308) pictures from our most recent nearly two week jaunt out into the desert. We went to Joshua Tree National Park and had ourselves a ball. However, unless you're privy to (or savvy enough to find) my flickr account, you'll just have to hold your horses! Life in the fast lane of school and Marriage Encounter is grand!

Oh, and I'll also add that Little Dude has discovered the direct connection between going pee and poop in the potty, and getting a car. Cruisin' Ramone, Piggy, Pit Crew Doc, Pit Crew Filmore, Woody, etc. He's got quite the collection, and I'm a happy mama! And for those who are counting, 7 pees or poops earns a car. So it's definitely not a one for one exchange, unless you count the one for one exchange for stickers. Little Dude loves stickers!

Best laid plans...

2008-03-05T22:16:00.000-08:00

I intended to grace you with another post or ten of pictures and whatnot that I've been saving up. Or, maybe I'll just go to sleep. I'm tired! Little Dude has been making a habit of visiting multiple times per night. *yawn* Good night!

Don't worry!

2008-03-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

If you have a kid or more than one kid, I'm sure at one time or another, you've sat and listened in on a conversation, or monologue from your child. I still enjoy each and every snippet I catch. Here's an example from our little Mighty Man, talking about and to a Western Fence Lizard he had caught. He had the terrarium out, and was prepared to keep the poor unsuspecting reptile for all time. At one point, the lizard warmed up sufficiently to run away, but not far enough...

An announcement to anyone within earshot: "Don't worry, I'll capture him again!"

After some time and considerable effort to catch the poor guy: "Wewl, apparently he doesn't want to be captured again. Oh, but don't worry, I'wl get him in there again, even though he doesn't want to be captured again."

And then after the lizard was safely secured within the terrarium: "Don't worry, widdle wizard, you can poke your head out waiter (later)."

The poor lizard! He needed just a few more minutes in the sun to get his runnin' away legs warm enough, lol!

And...we're back!

2008-02-28T22:41:00.001-08:00

Let's see...where were we? Ah, yes, catching up on life, that's where we were! So, while we were in Oregon, the kids had the chance to do just a little bit of horse back riding. What fun! It was a tad chilly that day (ok, it was below freezing and the wind was blowing...it was waaay too cold!), but the thrill of riding a horse was more than enough to keep the kids warm.

Little Miss went first, being the oldest and the biggest horse lover of the bunch.

Next was Monkey Boy, who is trying very hard to emulate his big sister. :o)

Then Mighty Man decided to give it a whirl all by himself. He proved to be quite the horseman!

And last but not least, was Little Dude. He absolutely refused to be left out on this opportunity. His giggles were terribly contagious!

Coming soon...

2008-02-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

I've taken a bit of a break, but fear not. While I wasn't writing, we certainly weren't lacking in adventures. I've uploaded quite a few pictures of our latest escapades, and shall be back to writing soon!

In the mean time, Little Dude had surgery yesterday morning to have tubes placed in his ears. Aside from thinking everything was a tad loud initially, he seems to be none the worse for the wear. He's quite the little trooper! In fact, he woke up from the anesthesia quite happy and started putting his world right immediately. There's no slowing down this little guy!

When you're bored...

2008-02-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

What do you like to do when you're bored?

Pick your nose
Channel surf
Surf the 'net
Go for a run (yeah...right!)
Read a book
Chase squirrels
Other equally enriching activities

So it's 5 days until Christmas. In the past 4 days we've gone to the Wild Animal Park, the zoo, climbed a mountain and spent a day at Disneyland. On the 5th day, we rested. Except the boys, apparently. Here's how they chose to occupy their time:

For some unknown reason, Monkey Boy decided to take a pair of scissors to his head and that of his youngest brother. I was thrilled. Overjoyed, even. Or perhaps I was just a smidgen steamed that they had chosen to whack off hair just days before Christmas and all of the family stuff (and pictures) that goes along with that.

This picture does not paint an accurate picture of just how hideous the hack job was. The entire top of his head was a patchwork of exceptionally short hair. It was awful.

And here we have Mighty Man, in all of his glory. He did a superb job. Hacked it off down to the roots. Not even a 1/4" guard could make it look right. Oh well. I did my best.

As you might imagine, all 3 boys got buzzed that afternoon. It wasn't on the schedule, but it certainly needed to be done. Fortunately, as my grandfather used to say, "the only difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is 3 days." Thankfully, we had 5 days until Christmas. By then, the scalping of December, 2007 was just a distant memory to my little monkeys. Not even the threat of Santa leaving them lumps of coal could coax them into angelic behavior. What can I say...they're definitely all boy(s)!

After the rain...

2008-02-03T20:49:00.001-08:00

Even here in sunny SoCal, it rains on occasion. Like today, for instance. It rained all day. But then you're faced with the interesting quandary of what to do after the rain. Wait for days on end for it to dry? Take a walk around the block while carefully avoiding contact with all standing water? High tail it out to the mountains to see if there's snow? Or to the desert to see if the wildflowers are in full bloom yet? Or, just wait to see what the kids come up with?

Well, let's just see what the kids can come up with. Because I'm busy doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, teaching, sitting in my rocking chair with a glazed over look on my face...you know, normal mom things. It's always nice when the kids can get outside for a little bit of...well, just what were they doing outside??

Oh, yes, well there you have it. The boys were outside using the tiki torches to dig to China from my garden. Well, that's a perfectly normal boy activity, isn't it? And apparently, some days you just need to ditch your pants in favor of more fresh air. Or something like that. I never did figure out why Mighty Man took off his pants. Something about keeping them dry or clean or whatever.

Um, yes, and those are brand new shirts that had only just been worn for the first time ever. One should always break those things in the first opportunity one gets. Right? Good thing my washing machine has a way with dirt and mud. Ew!

And here we have the saddest, most pathetic face on the surface of planet earth. Can't you see the poor boy is crying real mud tears? He was highly distressed that I had the gall to stand there at the door, taking pictures and not allowing him free reign in the house. Moms are so misguided sometimes. Especially when it comes to a guy's need to put muddy finger and foot prints far and wide inside. The nerve! Ha! All right. I admit, he was also cold and really mad that I wouldn't pick him up and cuddle him right away.

Anyway, needless to say, the hour I had kid-free to do all the mom-things I needed to do, was quickly erased by the hour+ that it took to strip off clothes, rinse clothes with a hose, do laundry, bathe kids, redress kids and then I could start dinner. Which is why we just hit the drive thru. Heh.

A brief side note: I'm catching up on pictures and posts I could have/should have done earlier...say December or January, but haven't. I also should be doing my Christmas cards, but haven't found the motivation to finish those. The cards are printed (have been since November) and the letters are done (have been since well before Christmas) but the envelopes aren't addressed. A pretty sad state of affairs, no? Ah, well. Life goes on!

Wonder where the spider went?

2008-02-01T19:12:00.001-08:00

Honestly, as I got up on New Year's Eve, I wasn't really looking to take pictures. I was simply going through my routine: get up, go to the bathroom, open the curtains...and this was the sight I saw right outside of our bedroom window that morning.

It was just so beautiful to see this dew ridden spider web, alight with the early morning sun. We have orb weaver spiders who come and go around here. While I don't much care for the sight of one of those bad boys (and oh, my, they're HUGE!), nor do I particularly relish doing the spiderweb flail when encountering one unexpectedly, I do really enjoy the beauty and intricacy of their webs. Even more so when they are adorned with tiny droplets of water and highlighted by the cool rays of sun on a crisp, clear morning.

And just so you can be jealous, our tangerines are just getting ripe. This spider had particularly good taste when it came to choosing his tree.

It's broken

2008-01-31T20:48:00.000-08:00

Continuing our journey north on I-5, we ran across a couple of truckers who had a bad day. We have no idea how this happened (and believe me, my parents and I discussed it and still can't figure it out), but there were two big rigs busted wide open, both on the same side. Anyway, here are a few pictures...again, taken by Mighty Man. This first picture is of the truckload of Gatorade.

Here's part of the other truck, which was loaded with fresh vegetables. There were heads of lettuce everywhere, plus parsnips, cabbage and other assorted veggies I couldn't readily identify.

Here's one of the trucks. See, it really is broken! Although you can't really see it from this shot, the nose of the truck was bent down to the pavement. I just don't know how they managed to break it. Whatever they did, they did a good job of it.

And just as we were sitting in traffic, inching our way forward, we saw this front end loader coming south on I-5 toward us. I thought it was a little odd, until I saw it whip a U-turn and trundle up the side of the road toward the wreckage. Admittedly, I thought that was a little odd, too, until I saw the extent of the produce and cases of drink scattered over a mile of freeway. Then it all became clear.

Honestly, I'm just thankful that during all of our traveling this month, we managed to keep our noses clean, our trucks out of the ditch and our family safe. Because that's really what matters. :o)

Future photographer

2008-01-29T21:35:00.000-08:00

Now that we're back home, safe and sound, and the mountains of laundry are clean (although not yet folded and put away), I have a moment to reflect on our trip to Oregon. Our drive north on I-5 was absolutely beautiful. Along the way, we passed Mount Shasta. Now, before you get all up in arms about these photos, let me preface it by saying...none of them were taken by me. I was driving!

So here is Mount Shasta, in all its snow covered glory. It is a magnificent mountain, covered in glaciers and usually shrouded by a stray cloud or two. Sometimes, it is completely obscured by the cloud cover, but not the day we drove up.

Here's Mount Shasta from a slightly different angle...a really artistic shot, if you ask me. You have the standing water from recent rain storms in the foreground and a snippet of the rumble strips in the lower right corner.

And one last shot. Really, you'd never know these were taken out the truck window while speeding down the freeway...by our four year old, would you? I think we have a budding photographer in our midst. :o)

It just seems so strange

2008-01-23T22:52:00.000-08:00

We (the kids and I) have been here in Oregon with my parents, cleaning out my late grandmother's house. For two weeks, we've been cleaning, organizing, packing, sorting, tossing, burning, recycling, perusing, moving and otherwise sifting through her belongings. It's been a fascinating journey through time. Time has stood still in this house. So many treasures were found in amongst the junk mail and newspaper clippings.

The last two days we have spent loading a trailer and the back of my truck. Tonight, as I roamed the house looking at things here and there, I was suddenly hit by a wave of sadness. This is the last time I will be in my grandma's house. It's the last essence of her in existence. After we shut the door and drive away tomorrow, that's it. That part of her ceases to exist outside of our memories.

My hands are cracked and bleeding. They burn when I wash them. They've been so used and abused and sadly neglected. All to preserve that which used to belong to grandma. I'm sad to leave the house that bears so many memories. I'm sad to close the door on this chapter in my life. The last 7 months I've spent a great deal of time with my parent's in one of the more difficult times in their life. We've become closer, laughed together, shared private jokes together (ask me about the shoe shine kit some day...it's worth the time to tell), cried together, slaved together. I hope we can continue the closeness we have, it means so much to me.

So I honestly don't know where I'm going with this entry. I suppose wherever my hands take me. My mind is lost in the sadness and quietude of it all. I feel a profound sense of loss and a deep desire to be able to give my grandma one final hug and kiss goodbye. I can only hope she hears the cry of my heart. It's all I have left.

Next time, look a little higher

2008-01-16T21:25:00.000-08:00

Mighty Man has a habit of taking off his clothes and flinging them. I find his clothes and pajamas every where. Behind the dresser, under the dresser, in the clothes hamper, hanging from door knobs, on his bed, in his bed, behind his bed, under his bed, on the book shelf, in the book shelf, behind the door...you get the idea. It can be a challenge to find them in order to have him wear the same pajamas two days in a row.

Well, just before we started this road trip, I was madly doing laundry and in the throes of preparation for living for 3 weeks without doing any laundry. Imagine my surprise when I found his shirt, but not his pants. Actually, I wasn't very surprised at all, but you get the idea. I checked all the usual places. I checked the bathroom, the bathtub, the hall, the laundry basket, the toy box, the family room, behind the couch, in the entertainment center...every where I could think of (because I've found his clothes in each of those places before). I searched and searched and finally gave up.

For the better part of the day, I ignored the fact that I couldn't locate his pajama bottoms. I'm not sure what prompted me to look here, but this is where I eventually found them:

They were, in fact, still in his bedroom. I simply had not looked high enough. Next time, I'll remember to check the ceiling fan for wayward clothes. *le sigh*

Jack Frost

2008-01-15T21:56:00.001-08:00

When the kids woke up this morning, they were greeted by a winter wonderland. Since it rained quite a bit yesterday, and froze hard over night, the whole landscape was drastically changed.

Little Miss was the first to exclaim, "Look! Jack Frost came and visited last night! It's beautiful!" And then, faster than fast (and believe me, I had no idea my kids could move this fast), they had bundled up and were outside, exploring the wondrous sights.

The whole yard was a sea of frosty green grass, adorned with tiny crystals of white. Standing water was frozen through. Water in buckets sported a nice layer of ice, through which one could punch a well aimed fist. There was much to see and experience, and nothing could persuade them otherwise. Unless it was the bitter wind, tugging mercilessly at their wraps.

My grandmother's house has a ramp at the front door, to allow free and easy wheelchair access. Imagine how wet this carpeted ramp became yesterday. Now imagine how slick it was this morning, frozen like a skating rink. Wow! Needless to say, the adults trod carefully there, while the kids slid down with abandon. And my poor truck...was absolutely fuzzy with frost, and stuck closed quite nicely. Note to self, do not try to open the back without a crowbar!

teeth, teeth, everywhere, teeth

2008-01-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

By the way, I'm not sure what caused it, but kids have been losing teeth left and right here lately. Monkey Boy lost a tooth the first day of our trip and Little Miss lost her first baby molar two days later. The poor, poor tooth fairy is having one heck of a time trying to remember who lost what and where the heck those bad boys go after they fall out. They each claim to have a slew of loose teeth just waiting to fall out. Where's the Gorilla Glue when you need it? Stop losing teeth already!

Lizards do not like it cold

2008-01-14T22:51:00.000-08:00

Brrr! Currently, I am in Oregon with our children. Being from southern California, this COLD, wet, dank, freezing, cold, wet, and did I mention COLD, weather is for the birds. Seriously, it's not for lizards like me. Or my poor children.

In SoCal, I send my children out barefoot year round. On really cold, wet (*cough, cough*) days, I may send them out in Crocs. But that really isn't often. It's rare that we don't get to at least the 60's during the day. Yes, 40's and sometimes 30's at night, rarely below freezing and always pretty nice. So we're weather wusses. And I freely admit that. Proudly, even.

Here in Oregon, it is a completely different story. Take today. High's in the mid 40's. The kids are dying to get outside. It's not that bad looking out there, just a bit of wind and lots of clouds. And it's cold. Did I mention that it's cold? Because it really is COLD out there. And inside, too, but that's another story. So we all go outside, and I dig out our "winter" gear from the back of the truck. It's stuff I've collected by hook or by crook, and gathered up specifically for this trip. So I put their jackets on, and they claim they're cold. Heh. Unzip those, wrap fleece scarves around their little necks. Rezip the jackets. Still cold. Put turtle fur hats on. And another jacket. Plus mittens. And gloves under those. I'm laughing because they look like Weeblows...Weeblows wobble but they don't fall over...right? Their arms are sticking straight out. You can barely see their eyes. It's a funny sight, but frankly, I didn't care. Because now they were all relatively happy and warm. Off they go to frolic and play, the Eskimo way.

You should have been there to hear the comments from the locals. Perhaps a bit of background would help here. We're at my grandma's house, helping my parents sort through her belongings to settle her estate. So the neighborhood is mostly older, retired folks who go out for a brisk walk during the day. And laugh that there's no way the children could get cold in all those clothes! This as Little Dude is turning blue and chattering. Because it's COLD out!

Honestly, Little Dude is a snuggle bug and a burrower in bed. He likes blankets. Lots and lots of blankets. And two pairs of pajamas, please. In southern California. Now imagine him out in that cold, COLD weather. He was a popsicle! Luckily, we were given some fleece lined pants, and he's been living in those plus a sweatshirt, socks and shoes in the house.

Oh, which brings me back to the house. It's a 5 bedroom house, with the original aluminum windows (read: drafty, noisy, pathetic excuses for part of the wall). With the fireplace going, it runs about 56*F in the house. Which makes my nose cold, and my fingers and toes numb. Occasionally, we run the furnace, but that doesn't do a whole lot against the drafty, gusty things that let in the sun as well as the wind. Fortunately, I brought a space heater to combat the chill a bit. Unfortunately, it tends to pop the circuit breaker every now and again (at least every couple of hours at random), which requires a trip out to the garage. Which is also COLD. My dad has taken to wearing his insulated coveralls in the house. My mom and I wear scarves and jackets. And the kids wear all manner of things, but always shoes and socks. Funny how important those long forgotten articles of clothing became.

In any case, there you are. A glimpse into the life that is mine for the next two weeks. Does Oregon get Santa Ana's? Because I could really use some 80+ degree weather right about now. My hiney is just flat out cold right now.

Dead Sea Scrolls

2007-12-17T20:34:00.000-08:00

If you ever have a chance to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls in any kind of exhibition, do.

We expected to spend maybe a couple of hours looking at some old parchment that documented some of the formative writings of Judaism and Christianity. What I didn't expect was that the two youngest would be attentive for 3 hours and that we would spend about 5 hours total exploring, learning about and viewing the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It was an incredible experience. Not only was it incredible from a personal religious standpoint, but it was unfathomable from an historical standpoint.

Part of what we saw was a copy from Deuteronomy, specifically, the passages containing the 10 Commandments. The portion of the scroll on display was maybe three inches across and perhaps 10 inches long. It contained the 10 commandments written twice (two different copies...hard to explain) including interpretive text in the original paleo-Hebrew. The writing was positively minuscule and perfect. The condition of the parchment was impeccable. It just blew me away to see such a beautiful example of writing from so long ago.

Really, I'm struggling to put into words how much this affected me. I expected to be wowed by our visit today. I didn't expect to be so deeply moved. This was well worth every penny we spent today. I'm so glad we went.

Has anyone seen my horse?

2007-11-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

So I'd like to get back in the saddle with the whole blogging thing. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my drive and direction...my horse, if you will. If you see it wandering around, aimlessly and without purpose, please send it my way!

Until then, rest assured that Little Dude is recovering well from nearly breaking his nose, Monkey Boy didn't just break his foot...it just hurt like crazy, and The Lizard has a nearly functional back again. Oh, and my ankle doesn't still hurt at all. Nope, no it doesn't. Well, maybe a little. It's still purple. I think we're good on bodily injury for awhile, don't you?

Just a little update

2007-10-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

We are home, we are safe, and our home and neighborhood are intact. We went to Yosemite and enjoyed some time away from the smoke and the stress of watching our county burn. Once my head is screwed on straight again, I promise more stories and more pictures. For now, enjoy your Halloween tomorrow night!

Going to a safer place.

2007-10-23T18:00:00.001-07:00

If you've been watching the news much, you know that most of San Diego county is on fire. I've lost track of how many fires there are right now, last count I saw was 17. While we are miraculously not under a mandatory evacuation (as more than 600,000 are in the county), we are nonetheless leaving.

Pray for those who have lost everything and pray for a quick end to the firestorm. The smoke is thick and it's not easy to breathe. So we are headed out to cleaner air and safer surroundings.

It's a tooth!

2007-10-22T22:09:00.001-07:00

Yep, he's four. And that's his first lost tooth. I think he's taking after his sister. Little Miss lost her first tooth at 4 and 8 months. He lost his at 4 and 5 months. Good thing the tooth fairy is loaded!

I have a hole in my head!

2007-10-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Listening to kids is like listening to a skipping record. (uh-oh...did I just date myself there?) Sometimes, the words come tumbling out and you listen intently, but you're still not sure what just happened. Case and point...Mighty Man at breakfast:

Yesterday, I had a hole in my head.

Do you have it today? (I asked, because as a mother, I had to know.)

No, it's gone. But if you open up my hair, you might see it. But I'm making it so you cannot take my hair apart, all right? No one made a hole in my head. Am I right? So, I am right.

Whew. So my question for you is this: does he have a hole in his head or not? Oh, and in case you missed seeing his angelic face...here he is (and yes, he regularly moves our couch...the sleeper portion...that thing is heavy!).

"My heart was screaming NO!"

2007-10-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again. Yep, time to pack up the kids and head out to pediatrics for our annual flu shots. If you don't get a flu shot, you really should. The flu is nasty stuff. And I'm not talking about a little cold that imitates the flu, I'm talking about true influenza. A lot of people think they "get the flu every year" or have had the flu. Probably not. Lots of viruses imitate the flu virus, but few are actually as bad as the real thing.

The flu is sudden. "I got sick around 4pm on Friday." Not "I got sick a couple of days ago." The flu makes you wish you were dead, or at least totally unconscious. A cold just makes you achy and whiny. With the flu, you're so sick, you can't whine. See the difference? It's a big one, and trust me when I say, a shot (and the piddly little side effects, if you get them) is nothing compared to getting true influenza.

So, we went for our annual flu shots. Normally Little Miss pitches a fit the size of Texas on steroids. It's not pretty. At all. This year, we made her go first (nice, huh?) and made her relax. She sat, squealed a bit, but then was amazed to find out that it wasn't as bad as she thought it was. Whew! One down, 5 to go.

Monkey Boy sat down and took his like...well, a monkey. He giggled a bit when it was over. Not bad, this could be a record for us! Then the Lizard went (and dads don't cry) followed by me (and no, I didn't cry either). Next up was Little Dude, who, unfortunately, had fallen asleep in the car on the way over and was still sound asleep...right up until he got hit with an alcohol wipe and a needle...OUCH! Needless to say, he was a little peeved at the whole situation. Can't say as I blame him.

Now, to fully appreciate how Mighty Man took his shot, you must understand that he is very, VERY strong. And built like a brick house. When he has it in his head that something is or is not going to happen, well, then that's that. Let's just say that he wasn't thrilled at the prospect of getting a shot. At all. Not even one itty bitty, teeny tiny, little bit. So he fought, but I'm pretty good at battening down all flailing appendages. He got his shot.

Later on the way out to the car, he discussed the chain of events leading up to his inoculation. "I didn't want a fue shot, mommy."

You didn't? Why not?

"Wewl, my heart didn't want a fue shot. My heart was scweaming NO! Didn't you heaw it, mommy?"

I had to admit I didn't hear his heart screaming no. I promised to listen harder next time. And he promised to consider letting his nose get the flu medicine instead of his arm. He said he needs to ask his heart. He's always so serious about things. It really cracks me up.

Friends of Little Miss

2007-10-17T20:30:00.001-07:00

Our daughter has many friends. Two legged friends, four legged friends, six legged friends, even some of the 8 legged variety. She's passionate about animals, insects and other flavors of critters in general. I suppose it's a good thing that lizards, crickets, spiders, snakes and katydids don't phase me. Black widows, yes. And rattlesnakes. But she can identify both of those and avoids them.

What really cracks me up is that Mighty Man has an intense disliking of all varieties of creepy crawlies, except for worms. So while his older brother and sister catch and torment study these vermin, he's howling at the top of his lungs that there's a pinchy bug, or a spider, or some other heinous beast about to attack him. Meanwhile, I just sit back and laugh. Or take pictures.

This was one particularly hoppy katydid. Darn thing would hardly sit still for a mug shot. Except on Little Miss's head. Which didn't bother her one bit.

And here's her friend, Cricky:

She was just a little disappointed that Cricky wasn't happy enough in her hand to sing. Maybe it was his one and a half antenna set up? Maybe he needed both to feel well enough to sing? I wouldn't really know, since I'm not a cricket. At least, I wasn't last time I checked.

When in doubt...

2007-10-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

When your main line is backed up and you have no toilets and four kids who use the potty and you have to go yourself...pack up the kids, head out to the library (to use the potty, not to check out books) and then off to the beach for the day. It's a sanity saver.

For your viewing pleasure...some pictures from our trip to the beach:

This is where we went. La Jolla Shores, just north of the Children's Beach. It was a perfect day for the beach...why? Well, because there was no one else there except us, of course.

Here's Monkey Boy doing his monkey boy thing: Scoop up the water, dump in the sand, transport it somewhere, empty the bucket. Repeat.

Little Miss having a quiet moment on a rock. She needs her quiet time, you know. That special time to contemplate life away from the noise of her little brothers.

Oops! Hey! I thought this rock was high ground! Where'd all the water come from???

Little Dude, doing his little dude thing: Hi Mommy!

It really was a gorgeous day. I'll give up a rainy Saturday to do school in order to get outside and explore on a day like this. It does wonders for your mental health!

I've come to the conclusion...

2007-10-15T21:33:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking lately. And I think I have the answer. No, it's not 42 (the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything...please tell me you "get" this one). I'll tell you what it is, though.

Homeschooling and housework are mutually exclusive. I can have a clean house and clean laundry. OR...I can teach our children and have happy kids. Tough choice, isn't it?

So if you're ever in my house and you notice the fine artwork on the carpet, you'll know I'm doing my job. And yes, that is indeed 10 colors of dry erase marker decorating our wall to wall carpet in the living room. I'm quite certain that you could sustain a small village in a third world country from the collection under the dining room table. I'm not saying it's all food, just saying you could probably sustain them for a good month or so. Maybe we should get a dog, then I wouldn't have to clean under the table quite as often. But then, that would be two (or ten) more things for me to do on a daily basis, so never mind.

Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed and over worked, all I have to do is look around me. I'm not talking about looking at the mountain ranges of laundry needing to be washed or folded or put away. And I'm certainly not talking about the piles of dishes in my sink. No, I'm talking about looking at other moms around me.

I don't mean that I pull others down to feel better about myself. I just think I feel a little more normal when I see others around me struggling to run the same race. It's like I'm not the only one. We each have our strengths. But when I look at friend X's house, and see that my disaster area is Martha Stewart's home in comparison, I feel just a touch better. But she has her laundry done. So I look at friend Y's house, and see her piles upon piles upon piles of undone laundry, and feel good that I'm two laundries from being "caught up." But her living room is immaculate. And her kitchen is clean.

So there you have it. All my dirty secrets. When my house is at its filthiest, that's when I'm working hardest with my children, and leaving them with memories to last a lifetime.

Dear Little Dude,

2007-10-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

I'm so proud of you for using the potty without me having to ask. You're doing a great job and I really am pleased that you like to use the potty on your own. Please keep up the good work!

However...I have just two small details I'd like to clear up with you before we move on, okay?

First, let's talk about using commodities available to us wisely, shall we? When you go tinkle, you probably only need a square or two for the little dribbles. Maybe even 3 or 4 squares if things got a bit out of control. Using the whole (brand new) roll of toilet paper in one shot is a tad excessive and really a waste of our resources. I'm not saying you shouldn't use toilet paper after using the potty, I'm merely suggesting some restraint in that area.

Second...oh, how to put it. I really appreciate your screeches alerting me to the fact that you had flushed and were alarmed at the rapidly rising flood waters. Nothing brings a mommy out of a reverie faster than hearing "uh oh, mommy. Uh oh. OH NO!" That being said, once water is everywhere, it does not mean that our bathroom has now become the community swimming pool. Please, step aside, seek out higher ground, and DO NOT PLAY IN THE TOILET WATER! It's bad enough that I have to go wading, fishing and paddling through it, but to then also see you splashing and laughing...spreading the joy that is the toilet water everywhere? That...yeah, that, is just too much for my delicate senses.

Love,
Mama Lizard

Hardest part of being a mom.

2007-10-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

The hardest part of being a mom is when your little monkeys are sick. And you know they're sick when they don't want to play in a bounce house and ask to go home. My poor little guys.

Both Monkey Boy and Little Dude have pneumonia. Unfortunately, they have the contagious, bacterial variety, so I've got my fingers crossed that the other two don't get it. Meanwhile, I hope the antibiotics kick in really soon. :o(

Science experiment

2007-10-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

You know, teaching the kids at home always leads to some very interesting observations and questions. Take, for instance, a recent conversation I had with Little Miss.

1. Define the question.
"Mommy, is lead magnetic?"

2. Make observations/conduct preliminary research.
"What do you think? What makes you think lead is magnetic?" Is lead a metal?

At this point, she showed me her math page and clearly demonstrated how, once she wrote on it, it became "stuck" to her binder. Based on her observation, she completed the next step in the scientific method.

3. Form a hypothesis.
"Lead is definitely magnetic."

4. Make a prediction.
Each time she would peel her page from the face of the binder, she would "re-magnetize" the page by writing on it. She predicted that the page would "stick" to her binder as long as there was writing (lead) on the paper.

5. Perform experiment and collect data.
So we decided to get a new, clean sheet of paper to compare with the first sheet. She put the new sheet on her binder and held it up. The paper slid a bit, stopped and then peeled off. Then she put her math page back on and held up the binder. Same thing...it slid, then fell off.

She looked at me, devastated that her math page no longer stuck to her binder. I reached over, rubbed it around a bit and then told her to pick it back up. She lifted her binder, and was amazed to see the math page securely adhered to the binder once again. Then she peeled it off and replaced it with the clean sheet and looked to me for help. I rubbed the lead free sheet on the face of the binder and left her to ponder the curious effect this small act had.

6. Analyze data.
"Mommy, how come they both stick to my binder?"

At this point, she began to think that maybe the lead had nothing to do with the paper sticking to the binder. She finally realized that her binder wasn't made of metal, but rather of plastic. And that it didn't matter if the paper had writing (lead...really graphite, but hey, who really cares when you're 8 years old??) or was a fresh sheet. Now we were starting to get somewhere.

7. Interpret data and draw conclusions.
After rubbing the paper against the plastic a few more times and listening to the sounds of the page peeling off the plastic, I suggested that perhaps it wasn't magnetism we were dealing with. I asked her if there was anything else she could think of that might make those noises and create the appearance of the paper and binder being magnetic. She thought for a bit, while peeling the paper up, laying it down, peeling it up, laying it down....

I could see her brain working. Turning "the facts" over and over. Mulling the data and trying to find something else that could explain the attraction between the binder and the paper. She finally came up with static electricity.

So maybe this wasn't the most exciting thing you've read today, but this is my life. This is what I do, day in and day out. I love watching the cogs turning. I love asking the questions and watching the pieces fall into place. I love to see the eager excitement as we dig through layers of questions.

I love my job. I really do.