Happy Halloween!! Adam woke up knowing exactly what day it was, and wondering when we’d go trick-or-treating. I still had a bit of work to do on his costume, so I stuck some cardboard into the sleeves and painted pathetic looking arm bones onto them with more glitter glue (by this point, the costume was a mix of iridescent/mother of pearl, silver, and gold, but he didn’t care). Then I tried to get as much work done as I could, since I knew we’d have to launch the Mall Crawl tonight and we’d be gone most of the day. We had lunch about noon (pizza!), then I started packing and getting everyone ready to leave.
We had been invited over to my friend Vicki’s house for dinner, trick-or-treating, and general merriment. They were going to provide dinner, so I brought along yesterday’s cookies (note to self: DON’T use Nestle’s chocolate chip cookie recipe ANY MORE) for dessert. We made the drive without incident, except for the weird-ass weather along the way: hail, sleet, rain, clear, cloudy, windy. Who the hell ordered all of that? It’s like the Appetizer Sampler or something, but for weather. Anyway, the kids all napped on the way, and that’s a good thing because they all needed it. The older two woke up as we arrived, so I carried Thomas in while Mike herded the other two toward the door.
Vicki was out getting a platelet transfusion, but her husband Sam and their two boys Kyle and Austin were perfect hosts. We headed downstairs to the rec room to watch TV (Fear Factor, EW!), play games, and eat cookies. Vicki called after about a half-hour. We discussed it, and decided I’d start frying the cauliflower while she was still at the hospital. See, Vicki’s husband is from Palestine, and my ex-husband was Saudi, so we had certain recipes in common. One, magluba, is something we had talked about having together for awhile, so that was on the menu for tonight. The longest step in the whole process is frying florets of cauliflower (it took over two hours, altogether), so I worked on that til about 3:45.
At that point, we started getting kids into their costumes to head over to the little kiddie-carnival. It was super-crowded, with way too many people in way too small a space. Too much noise, too much heat, too many BODIES. But even so, the kids all had a great time. I took Kayla around, and Mike carried Thomas while chasing Adam. Sam followed his two around, and Vicki showed up a bit later. We left about 5, as they were closing. Separately, we took the kids to Burger King. You see, if you bring your kids around on Halloween in costume, they will give the kids free burger kids’ meals. How can you pass that up?? So we got our free meals and headed back over to Vicki’s/Sam’s. The kids ate, while Sam cooked more cauliflower. Once the rugrats had wolfed down their food, we got them suited back up in costume then Vicki and I took the four oldest out trick-or-treating. They were so wound up I only had a chance to snap one picture.
It had been raining and hailing all day, and it got really cold after dark, so we only went maybe four or five houses down before we crossed the street and came back up (making one brief foray into a cul-de-sac). Still, the neighbors were more than generous, handing out double and triple the normal allotment of candy. Kayla even got the hang of things, saying “tick-or-teeeeeeeet!” so sweetly I just wanted to eat her up. Adam was wired for sound, and at every single house I had to tell him to back away from the door. Even so, they had a great time.
Unfortunately, since Kayla was so much littler than the others, she needed a fair amount of holding, carrying, redirecting, etc. Long story short, it fucked my back up. By the time I got back to Vicki’s, I was twinging pretty hard, so I had a hydrocodone. Dinner was ready shortly after we got back, so we all shared in the magluba and had a (gasp!!) grown-up conversation while the kids all played together down in the rec room. In case it’s not obvious, I *heart* that rec room. Anywho, since I was hyped up on pain meds (and you could tell; I was groggy, and having trouble thinking of words), Mike got to drive. We said our good-byes, and headed home. It wasn’t very long before all three kids were asleep.
Ideally, we would’ve all gone to sleep once we got home, because we were all exhausted. That wasn’t to be, however, because tomorrow is November 1st, and that’s the start of the Mall Crawl. So instead, Mike and I stayed up til around midnight, launching the Crawl and doing what debugging we found right away. It seemed to go ok, and we went to bed exhausted.
Usually, I take quick notes of what I did throughout the day, so my journal entries can be detailed and sequential. I didn’t do that today, so everything is kind of a jumble. This time, we’ll just go with bullet points instead, how’s that?
That was really about it.
I have once again been admonished to post more pictures of kids, so here they are. In deference to those not interested, they’re in the extended entry.
Adam can’t have his picture taken without saying “Cheeeeeeeese” anymore.
My little cowgirl.
I swear, officer, I only had a few beers!
I got a peek at the eclipse a couple of nights ago. Mike explained to me that it was the result of the moon and the sun being directly opposite of each other, with Earth in between. Larry has a different explanation:
Every few years, 750,000 French citizens suffer needlessly from the adverse effects of lunar eclipses - eclipses caused by America’s wholesale gang-raping of Mother Nature. During a surprise eclipse in 2003, the entire French city of Bordeaux unconditionally surrendered to the moon for several hours. Bush has yet to issue an apology.
Well, it’s happened again! Me and the mailman done spawned us another happy, healthy boy! Meet “the Kool-Aid Man,” of Subliminal Kool-Aid. He’s ex-military :::swoon, faint, thud:::
Wait, where was I? Oh, yeah… ex-military, pro-gun, pro-huntin’, pro-Bush, and is also in the Inland Northwest. It doesn’t get any better than that!! So please, go on by, give him a visit, and add him to your ‘rolls. You won’t be disappointed.
Here’s another letter to the editor, in the October 28, 2004 edition of the Whitman County Gazette - my local paper. Emphasis is mine. Incidentally, when I re-post these, I title my posts as the editor of the newspaper has titled the letter.
The Iraq situation poses the most important vote in recent history. Neither choice satisfactorily solves the mess. Our job as voters is to forget politics and vote for what is best for America and Iraq as well.
We further have the problem that no reason can be given for our vote. Yet the press and commentators will declare a mandate to the elected candidate. Do you really think it is best for America and Iraq to up and run and leave the Iraqis in the control of the terrorists we have been fighting? They can then claim that terrorism works - kill enough innocent people and you can get what you want, even from the U.S.
Even the peaceful environment of our country comes about every year at the sacrifice of the lives of a good many law enforcement officers. Such an event happened in Whitman County in 1949 when there were only four full time patrol officers, including the sheriff. On Easter Day a Pullman officer was murdered on duty. In the events that followed the sheriff and a deputy were killed and the other two officers were wounded. Peace has its price.
Since the Sept. 11 incident I do not know of one death from a terrorist in the U.S.
The administration is to be commended.
Lawrence Hickman, Colfax
I woke up this morning to find Thomas grabbing my nose. He must have been thinking about it for awhile, too, because he didn’t fumble around on my cheeks or eyes or anything. Great aim! A future sniper?
I did a quick look through email, and a little bit of work, then loaded up all three kids for a trip to the library for storytime. Kayla happily colored the picture with everyone else, but didn’t want to go play the game, so she spent part of the time there just sitting next to me. The librarian gave everyone orange balloons, and they spent a lot of time running around chasing each other with them, and bopping each other over the head with them. One of the other “storytime moms” - Nancy - was making a mermaid costume and wanted my opinion on how to attach the fin. I went by her house to talk to her about it, and let my kids play with her kids. Kayla was more interested in playing with the doggy and kitty, but she still had fun. Adam had a minor meltdown when it was time to leave, but not too bad.
I grabbed the mail on the way back home, and found I had received a present! Mike gave me The Sims 2! Hoorayyy!! Let the time wastage commence! Actually, I didn’t even install it today, and probably won’t get to until the 2nd or 3rd of November. I have a Mall Crawl starting on Monday, so I’m doing my usual scrambling around.
When I got home, I also found an email from the mother of a fallen soldier.
Pfc Jeremy Drexler was killed in
action May 2, 2004. His mom found me because she was looking for suggestions
on what to send for care packages to soldiers.
You see, Mrs. Drexler has two other sons in the military (one Marine,
one in the Navy), but she still sends care packages to Jeremy’s unit,
in his memory. She asked if I made quilts for families of fallen
soldiers. I called and talked to her for a little while, and will be making her a photo transfer quilt,
using some of the pictures of Jeremy in service. [Update: Unfortunately, because of time
limitations, I will NOT be able to make this quilt for Mrs. Drexler.]
Another little bit of email checking, then I got re-packed for shopping with Kayla and Thomas. We went to the grange first, then the grocery store, then the pharmacy. It wasn’t too bad physically having them both around, but Thomas started screaming uncontrollably partway through the grocery store, and didn’t really stop until he screamed himself to sleep. Once we got back home, he pretty much picked back up where he had left off, and was completely or partially unhappy most of the day. I suspect teething.
I soft-launched (meaning with no big announcement or advertising) my newest business venture - Scrap-Poodle. It’s built on the model of my other business, and is a big (getting bigger all the time!), searchable database of all the online scrapbook stores and the services and products they offer. So if you’re a scrapbooker, rubber stamper, or cardmaker, please go sign up for the newsletters! Also, please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested. [end-advertisement]
In the evening, I got a rather unsettling phone call. My mom called, and told me she was going to have heart surgery. She has atrial myxoma, and her heart specialist told her they found it early, saving her life. She doesn’t know any of the details about the surgery, except that it probably won’t have to be open heart. She doesn’t yet know when it will happen, how long the recovery will be, or any other details. She told me I didn’t need to come down for the surgery, but I’m going to wait to hear what the surgeon says before I make that decision.
I had a really hard time working after that, because I couldn’t stop thinking and worrying about her. Work absolutely had to get done, though, so I had to shut down part of myself and work on autopilot.
Mike made a yummy dinner of teriyaki salmon, rice, and corn, then it was back to work for me. I took another little break to watch Iron Chef (pumpkin), and for once I would eat almost everything they made. Then it was back to work, where I went full force for about three hours, finally going to bed with Thomas at almost midnight.
Boy, howdy, SarahK of Mountaineer Musings has been BUSY! The newest Carnival of the Recipes is up, and I like how she’s ordered things. Several of those dishes are speaking to me, and I might have to give four or five of ‘em a try!
Mike woke me up so I could get ready to go to preschool this morning. It’s been over ten years since I had to go to school every morning, and I STILL hate to be dragged out of bed for it. File it under “Best For The Kids.” They, unlike their mother, usually LOVE to bounce out of bed to go to school. They must get it from their dad.
I took a quick glance at email (but wasn’t really able to answer any), then started getting ready to go. We were about 20 minutes late getting out the door. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, though; we do the best we can.
Today’s program at preschool was the Pullman librarian, who did a presentation on reading chapter books with your kids. She’s a very intense, enthusiastic person, and in that respect she’s a terrific speaker. But she NEVER makes eye contact - she looks at the floor, or the ceiling, or her shirt, or anywhere but at you - and she blinks, incessantly. In THAT respect, it’s very hard to watch her. But she’s funny and irreverent and smart, so overall it was an engaging program. Mike, of course, worked on his laptop the whole time. She gave us handouts of books to read with your children - some of which we’ll be buying - and read several chapters from Because of Winn-Dixie to us. Some of the moms told her she should have a Reading-to-Parents storytime, and she seemed to seriously consider the idea. I kind of hope she does; I might go to it myself!
After the program, we had announcements. They mentioned they were going to try to change songtime since it wasn’t working out (huh. yathink?) and now they were going to start songtime promptly at 11:10. They also asked the moms who wanted to participate to already be in song circle (back of the room) rather than greet their kids at the door, like WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IN THE PAST. This turned out to be a classic clusterfuck, confusing the kids, the moms, and with songtime STILL starting before all of the kids were even upstairs. Once the last class arrived, it interrupted songtime even more than it’s been interrupted in the past. Personally, I favor going back to what we used to do: greet your kids however you want, start storytime five minutes after all the kids are there, participate if you want, don’t if you don’t want, and leave when you’re ready to leave. What was wrong with that?
After preschool, we went to grab lunch from Burger King, then headed over to Vicki’s to paint that room. There turned out to be three moms in all to help - me, Ann, and Laura. Mike stayed down in the basement playroom with a varying number of kids - maxed out at 10 - and tried to work and corral kids. We managed to get two coats of primer and two of blue paint on in about five hours. Not too bad, if you ask me! The boys LOVED the room when it was done, and so did I.
Vicki and her husband Sam bought dinner for us, so we had Chinese food and sandwiches for dinner at their place while we watched Jeopardy. It was really nice! I’d almost forgotten what it was like to just chill with another family with all the kids rattling around in the background, watching TV. Been awhile since I did that with Mike around.
Once dinner was done, we loaded up kids and went to ShopKo to shop for Halloween costumes. Adam’s going to be a skeleton, Kayla’s going to be Blue from Blue’s Clues, and Thomas is going to be a dragon. Should be fun!
We still needed to go grocery shopping, but by the time we reached Colfax all three kids were asleep, so we just go gas instead, and came home. Adam and Kayla stayed asleep for the move back to bed, but Thomas wouldn’t go to sleep. So, unfortunately, Mike ended up upstairs with him for some time.
The kids woke me up about 8:30. I tried to get to work, but there was so much email I mostly fought fires all morning. Mid-morning, I talked to my friend Vicki. She told me she would be able to have people over tomorrow to paint her sons’ room, taking it from a Pepto pink to a nice light blue. I was so excited! I’ve been wanting to do this for about a month now.
I kept trying to work, but there was so much email!! Honestly, I wonder if I’ll ever feel caught up again. Maybe after the kids have all left?
Since I knew I’d see Vicki, I got busy finishing the quilt. It only needed a binding, so I put that on while the kids had their lunches. Kayla halfway fell asleep while eating chicken nuggets hunched over the seat of her chair, so I put her in the bed. That woke her up, though, so she ended up lying in bed half-awake for over an hour, before Dad finally lay down with her and got her to sleep.
Adam was in desperate need of a nap, too. He was behaving badly and being gratuitously loud, whcih is usually a sure sign that he needs sleep in a bad way. Mike once again took the reins and got him to sleep in his room.
I worked some more on email, then did a little bit of debugging on my new, soon-to-be-announced website. Once the kids woke up, I went downstairs and started embroidering the label to go on Vicki’s quilt. It was a fairly simple design, and not my favorite label ever, but it worked. Embroidering it carried me through Iron Chef, and afterward I took it upstairs to sew it onto the quilt, finishing about midnight.
Mike, meanwhile, tried to get both kids to sleep in our room, at the same time. This turned out not to work so well, and when I brought a sleeping Thomas to bed with me, Adam’s chattering woke him up. So, Mike took Adam to his room, and I stayed in our room with the younger two, who went to sleep with relatively little fuss.
I just saw the Lonestar video for Mr. Mom on CMT. Oh. My. Gawd. That is SO my life!! Even the # and ages of kids, the little girl who tortures the dog, the little boy obsessed with the camera, the weird neighbors. Freaky!!
I was up at 8, but was just so tired and achy, I decided not to go with Mike to Spokane. It would’ve meant taking all three kids and entertaining them for a couple of hours on my own while Mike donated blood, then dragging them all over town while we ran errands. It just seemed more sensible to stay home and take care of them here.
It was probably easier at home than it would’ve been out, but no matter how you slice it three kids under five is a tough juggling act. Mike left about 8:30. I did Adam’s reading lesson with him, changed Kayla’s diaper, got Adam’s breakfast, changed Thomas’ diaper, cleaned up puke from the living room floor (courtesy of Shay), got a movie for Adam and Kayla, put on a load of diapers to wash, and changed Thomas’ diaper again, all in the space of an hour. It was 10 am before I could even sit down at my computer!
While the older kids had their movie, Thomas decided to content himself with screaming uncontrollably in my lap. Aside from your kid being sick in the hospital, this is the worst thing for a parent - your child is clearly unhappy and in need of something, but you cannot help them - not hungry, not wet, not happy being held. It SUCKS. He finally screamed himself to sleep.
Once he finally went to sleep enough that I could put him down on the bed, I managed a little work and a little more laundry. He was back awake when I came back upstairs, and sat in my lap while I ate a snack of leftover Mississippi Mud Cake (entry below). That was followed by still more screaming. *sigh* In all, it was a very “screamy” morning.
Adam and Kayla showed up hungry after their movie. I took Thomas downstairs while I got them their lunch. He happily played in the Gymini (wonder of wonders) while I made up chicken nuggets, fries, and pineapple. While the food cooked, I even managed a little bit of hoursework - sweeping the kitchen, and picking up the living room. Laundry, I did off and on all day - it’s WAY behind. Both kids ate reasonably well, and Adam got some “marshmallow fudge” (see Mississippi Mud Cake, above) for dessert. Kayla was too full for dessert, so she just played.
I put Thomas in the Gymini upstairs, hoping to duplicate the success with it from downstairs. No go. Back to screaming. It was at this point I started checking the clock… a lot. Mike had said he’d be home around 3, and at this point it was only 12:22. Still 2 1/2 more hours to go. *sigh* Thomas finally scream-fussed to sleep in the Gymini, and I went downstairs for post-lunch cleanup. I convinced the older two to play downstairs, so Thomas could sleep upstairs.
Mike got home about 3, and found Kayla asleep on the couch, Thomas asleep on the floor, and Adam playing quietly upstairs while I worked. Talk about false impressions! ;)
Kayla woke up about 4:30, claiming to be ravenous. Mike made dinner about 5:30 (yummy spaghetti al carbonara (sp?)) which I ate upstairs so we wouldn’t have to wake a sleeping baby. He woke up just as I was finishing, so at 6 I went downstairs to work on Vicki’s quilting and watch Father of the Bride 2. Adam fell asleep during the movie, so I took him to his bed. At 8, those who were still awake watched Iron Chef (blue crab). Kayla fell asleep during Iron Chef, so she got taken to her bed.
Mike took Thomas upstairs while I had a hot bath. The original plan was for him to bring Thomas to me to share my bath after awhile, but the baby had fallen asleep and Mike didn’t want to wake him. We all went to bed and I nursed him, hoping he’d go back to sleep. No go. I ended up staying upstairs with the baby until about midnight, before bringing him to bed and passing out.
God, this was a long day. I never, ever, ever want to be a single parent.
Please keep in mind that these are not the fabled Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s) that Saddam never had, but rather smaller, less pointy, Weapons of Tolerable Destruction (WTD’s). They weren’t important when Saddam had them and are only dangerous in the context of Bush losing them. For years, Saddam held these weapons safely under lock and key, stockpiling them for purely humanitarian purposes - foreworks [sic] displays, blowing up tree stumps, etc.
So I’m perusing through the Washington State Voter’s Pamphlet, deciding how to vote on various initiatives and whom to vote for in various elections. Just for kicks, I decided to check out the statement for the Workers World Party. It reads as follows (emphases mine):
John Parker, Presidential candidate, and Teresa Gutierrez, Vice-Presidential candidate are workers, anti-war activists and organizers in peoples’ movements. Gutierrez, a lesbian activist, and Parker are running on the Workers World Party ticket.
They work towards building a society which puts people’s needs first, not profits. They support a $15/hour minimum wage, jobs, childcare, housing, education and healthcare for all, and the right of all working people, including immigrants, to unionize.
These candidates oppose racism, sexism, and all discrimination and bigotry. They oppose the Patriot Act, the death penalty and police brutality, support reproductive choice for all women, and full rights of lesbian/gay/transgendered people, including marriage.
They say no to the Iraq war and occupation and want the troops brought home now. They call for slashing the huge military budget to create living-wage jobs with benefits, to rebuild cities, expand social programs and fund all human needs.
Parker and Gutierrez say it’s time that working people and all who face discrimination, unemployment, poverty, have their own party—one that represents their interests, and not those of big business and the super-rich.
They believe that working together, the majority of people can build an independent movement to challenge and change government and corporate policies, aiming to end the ills in this capitalist society.
Parker and Gutierrez, who have joined with low-wage and immigrant workers to fight for their rights, endorse and will attend the October 17 Million Workers March.
Parker and Gutierrez see the need for a socialist society, based on sharing the resources and wealth among all here and worldwide, rooted in cooperation, and respect for all peoples, with peace and true equality. Curing AIDS and malnutrition would be priorities, not developing new weapons. Life’s necessities would be guaranteed to every human being; and every child could develop their full potential.
Except the ones we abort. Cuz, you know, we’re all about “reproductive choice".
Just, UGH!
Peppermint Patty puts the smack down on a Catholics for Kerry canvaser:
As long as the Democratic Party treats abortion like some kind of religion, apparently the worship of Moloch, where it should take place at any point up to and including labor, they won’t be getting my support or vote for any candidate.
Well-said.
Last night was the second recipe card swap, and I brought dessert. This is a family recipe, something my mother used to make as one of the (many, many) desserts we had for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s not low-fat, low-cal, low-carb, or low-sugar. It’s not low anything. Enjoy!
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1-1/2 c. flour
1 c. coconut
1 c. chopped pecans
1/3 c. cocoa
2 sticks melted butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
Beat eggs and sugar together until thick. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and mix well. Add to the egg-and-sugar mixture and mix together. Pour into greased and floured 13″x9″ cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven adn immediately spread with 1 jar of marshmallow cream. Mix the following ingredients together to make an icing, and spread on cake. Swirl together with the marshmallow cream to make a muddy look.
Icing:
1 stick melted butter or margarine
6 Tbsp milk
1/3 c. cocoa
1 1-lb. box of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 or 2 c. pecans
Dear Hunters,
Well, huntin’ season is upon us once again. I look forward to this time all year, because it means there’s a possibility that some of you will have luck on your side, and will help eradicate the infestation of four-legged vermin (also known as “deer") from our vicinity. Somehow, this never happens (there were three in my yard when I drove up last night, the little bastards), but still I hope. I would be out there hunting, myself, if I weren’t an on-demand feeding system for my littlest darling.
So, I welcome you. But, there are a few things I wanted to say, since some of you seem to have forgotten them. Please take heed of the following:
1) My property, and my neighbor’s property, is not your personal hunting range. It is my home, and my land, and something I plan to leave in good condition to my children someday. Please stop by and say hello before you go out hunting, since it’s just common courtesy not to TRESPASS (that’s access without permission, for the uninitiated).
2) Do not release your dogs from the truck until you have talked to us first. I have dogs, too, you see, and they’re often out roaming the property marking and cavorting with coyotes. We wouldn’t want things to get nasty.
3) Please clean up your own trash before you leave. I’m not your mother, your maid, or your servant. If you’re big enough to be totin’ a gun around, you by-God are big enough to pick up your empties and dispose of your own plastic bags.
4) Stop by before you leave to say “thank you.” It’s common courtesy, and lets me know I can let my own dogs back out so they can get busy marking all the things your mutts pissed on. That’s a big job, and they need lots of time to do it.
5) Do not drive over plowed, posted fields in your truck. It pisses me off, it pisses my neighbor off, it’s illegal, and it makes you look like an asshole. It also gives decent, rule-abiding hunters a bad reputation, and that just ain’t cool.
Be mindful of these little tips, and we’ll all be much better off in the long run.
Happy Hunting!
Today was a total soccer mom day (despite the fact that I lack the minivan, and the kids playing soccer). I was awake at 8, and did a little bit of work before having a shower, then dashing off to the bank and then to Adam’s last dance class of this session. He really enjoys that class - even if he is kind of tough to corral sometimes - so we’re planning to sign him back up. We’re also going to try signing Kayla back up, since she seems to have come out of her shell. But, to be on the safe side, Mike will be coming along to help.
After dance, I made a quick stop at the grocery store for lunch, dog food, and a few baking ingredients, then hurried back home to post the last of the Hook-a-Thon auctions and do a bit more work. About 2:30, I got a cake baking for the recipe swap tonight, then had to dash off to the post office (to mail off bills and business packages) and the tiny grocery store in Endicott (in search of pecans - no luck!). I got back home in time to take the cake out and finish it up with walnuts. Unfortunately, I also realized I had run out of cocoa (for the first time in my LIFE), so I just had to make due with less.
Then I packed up for the night (including my handgun) (August 7th entry), nursed the baby, then ran off to the St. John Grange to pick up the organizer that I had left there on Friday. Last stop of the day was in Tekoa, for the bi-monthly recipe swap. I had fun there, but by the time I got home I was completely wiped out. It was gogogogogogogogogo all day long.
The last auctions are now up over at Hook-a-Thon. There are four flags, each flown in combat on September 11, 2004. These are the last auctions we will be doing for Hook-a-Thon, so please bid if you can! And even if you can’t, please spread the word. I’d like for as many people to know about this as possible - it’s for a very good cause.
“Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.” - Will Cuppy
See yesterday, without all the excitement.
I grew up, thanks to people like John Kerry, believing that our troops in Vietnam regularly engaged in atrocities. I thought it was entirely common for us to burn villages, shoot children, torture prisoners, and do all kinds of other horrible things. This is what movies showed me; it was part of the culture. Thankfully, I was wrong in my understanding. Our troops, on the whole, behaved honorably and with valor. Sadly, they were not received as they should have been when they came home.
The KoolAid Man writes about this disgrace in his latest post:
I sat down next to a couple of guys wearing Viet Nam Vet hats. The conversation that developed with them was moving, enlightening, emotional and educational. They explained to me how after Viet Nam there was no closure. No homecoming. No parade. No yellow ribbons. Nothing. The American people had, in their minds, sent them off to war and left them hanging.
There is much, much more. Please, go check it out.
My day was so unbelievably boring, it’s not even worth talking about in detail. I did nothing but work, eat, and watch Iron Chef (abalone). The only really interesting thing that happened was that I switched hosts for this website! I am now being hosted by Lisa of Blogs-About Hosting and web design. This puts me in the esteemed company of many, including Operation ShoeFly, Armies of Liberation, and And Rightly So. Thanks, Lisa!
And for those of you unhappy with the lack of personal contact at your ISP, I strongly urge you to move to Blogs-About. Lisa is the friendliest, most responsive host I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
Does anyone else see the irony in Tim McGraw bitching about “pop in my country“?
Yesterday, I mentioned how the way to get a woman in the mood for sex included chocolate and backrubs. Seems one of Mike’s new co-bloggers has a problem with that.
If I want some, I be like “baby come over here and get on my jock,” and if she come home empty handed I be like “bitch better got my money or she gonna get 5 across the eyes.”
Jesus, Mike, where do you find these people?
On the positive side, he does finally have documented proof that Kerry IS capable of admitting his shortcomings.
I am the #10 Google hit for greatest ass. This amuses me no end. :)
For those of you out there who are in the military, or who are related to someone in the military, or who might be making a scrapbook for someone in the military, I bring you - Operation Scrapbook.
OK, I don’t “bring” it to you… I just found it… but it’s still a cool site! Stickers, papers, die cuts, embellishments, etc. for all branches of the service.
I think Cat in the Hat is really a child molester. Have you ever listened to the words? “Let me show them to you! Your mother will not mind at all if I do.”
“This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.” - Will Rogers
I was awake at about 8, after nursing Thomas yet again. I worked for about an hour and a half, then started getting ready for storytime. Actually, I almost didn’t go, but Mike mentioned it to the kids and they both got so excited, I figured I should. Both kids are exhibiting a growing show if independence. Adam got dressed all by himself except for his shoes (they tie). Now, granted, I had to turn the shirt around because it was on backwards, one sock was inside out, and the other was on upside down, but still - it’s a definite improvement!
As for Kayla, ever since that friend of mine was here the other day, she has really come out of her shell! She no longer needs a parent to be right next to her for her to have fun, nor is she terrified of all adults she sees. At storytime, both she and Adam sat right down and started coloring, making a craft, and listening to the book without my involvement. It was wonderful! I think partly it was a matter of establishing the routine that “this is what we do every Friday", and partly that they know the kids and the librarian now. Whatever it was, I was so glad to be able to step back and let her engage with other people all on her own. My little girl is growing up!
Back home, I did some more work, then made myself tuna alfredo (from a mix and a can) for lunch. It would’ve been chicken alfredo, but we’re out of canned chicken. Late in the afternoon, I took Adam and we went to St. John to buy some paint. I’m going to be painting my friend’s bedroom (she’s got non-Hodgkins lymphoma and can’t do it), and needed to go get the color she requested. A big Thank You to the St. John Grange Supply for giving me such a great discount on the paint and supplies! Hopefully, she’ll feel up to having us by on Thursday to get that project done.
You can probably guess what I did when I got back home. On top of more work, I finally broke down and did some bra shopping. My size has changed recently, and the ones I have didn’t fit anymore. Now, if it were up to me, I’d NEVER wear bras, since I think they’re all evil. Unfortunately, since I nurse, I have to wear them if for no other reason than to hold the nursing pads in place so I don’t soak my shirts every two hours. Luckily, Lane Bryant was having a buy-one-get-one-half-price sale, so I got four bras. They were also having a sale on their coats, so I got a much-needed new one of those, too. I still hate clothes shopping - especially for myself - but the internet makes it easier.
Mike made a very yummy dinner of cornbread topping. Even Kayle ate a decent amount, though Adam mostly picked at it. Post dinner, I bathed Adam, then did a bit of blog-reading. At 8, we once again watched Iron Chef (mochi), then I had a bath to try to ease my aching back and shoulders. I was too fuzzy to work much after that, so I wound the night down by playing games over at Yahoo, before Thomas finally fell asleep in my arms and I could take him to bed.
SarahK of Mountaineer Musings did her own Linkified Lyrics of a song I’ve never heard, but damn, her linking is good! I’m still working my way through all the stuff she linked, but among them I found this very wise advice:
no matter how many times a woman tells you that her butt is big or that she’s got a lot of wrinkles, you never, never, never, never, ever agree with her
That statement is so unequivocally true as to require no further comment from me.
I’ve been taking a look through my referrers lately, to see how people found me. I get a pretty sizable amount of my traffic from searches, and thought I’d answer some of the questions people seemed to have.
how to motivate woman for sex mood - Chocolate. Backrub. Ask about her day. Tell her she’s beautiful. And if all else fails, buy her a new gun. Nothin’ says lovin’ like a nice, shiny new semi-automatic pistol. I know it sure gets ME all wet.
Bubble wrap girls - Well, you can, but a better recommendation is shredded paper. Packaging girls in bubble wrap is likely to trap moisture, which could cause mildew in inconvenient spots.
ho fuckin - Just remember to use protection, even if that means you have to tear it open with your teeth.
toddler conversation - Alternative search: nailing Jell-o to a tree.
bowling toe bruise - I hate when I bruise my bowling toe. My suggestion: try bowling with your hand instead.
how to make a baby pool - Step 1: Find your keys. Step 2: Drive to Wal-Mart. Step 3: Buy one.
little penis - Not as popular a vacation spot as Big Ben, but still fun to see.
sleep sex - Now THAT’S multitasking.
This is a little public service announcement for those who use Firefox:
If you have a mouse with a mousewheel, you can click a link with the mousewheel rather than either the left or right button, and it will open the link in a new tab. If you then click a tab with the mousewheel, it will close only that tab. SexyHusband showed me this, and I can NOT TELL YOU how much more convenient it is than right-clicking the link and clicking “Open in New Tab.”
I wonder how often something like this happens:
A woman came home from vacation to find a stranger living there, wearing her clothes, changing utilities into her name and even ripping out carpet and repainting a room she didn’t like, authorities said.
[…]
During the 2 1/2 weeks the owner, Beverly Mitchell, was on vacation in Greece, Valentine allegedly redecorated the ranch home, ripping up carpet and taking down the owner’s pictures and replacing them with her own.
No word on whether Mitchell’s bunny got boiled in the process.
Note to self: Line up a housesitter for the next vacation.
This letter to the editor appeared in my local paper, the Whitman County Gazette:
I think it is about time someone stood up for President Bush and thanked him for his selfless dedication to our country and his job as leader of our great nation. In the last few weeks, we have read little in this newspaper but libelous untruths about our President, a decent and honest man.
Thank you President Bush for bringing dignity and character back to the White House.
Thank you President Bush for using the intelligence information provided to you to make America safe again.
Thank you President Bush for having the courage of your convictions and not flip-flopping to gain political popularity.
Thank you President Bush for trying to make the lives of the common everyday people better and [sic] by easing our tax burden.
Thank you President Bush for easing governmental restrictions to make small business profitable again.
Thank you President Bush for having FAITH.
Thank you President Bush for keeping control of OUR destiny and not bowing to such organizations as the WTC and UN.
Most of all, thank you for being our President, our leader, our commander and chief. [sic]
John and Sandi Brabb
Colfax
Update: To all trolls: this is not the post to bash Bush. As a matter of fact, this is not even the site for that. There are plenty of other places for that kind of shit - go find someplace more suitable.
“The way I see it, there’s so much love and beauty in world, and someone has to balance that shit out.” - Randy K. Milholland
Mike tried to wake me up at 7 to get ready for pre-school. I didn’t want to get up, but he sounded grouchy so I decided I should.
We managed to leave on time for a change, and were actually at preschool a few minutes early. It was craft day, but I decided instead to try to catch up on magazine and media kit reading. Instead, I ended up chatting most of the time with a friend, but it was still a nice time.
One thing did kind of piss me off, though: I’m the treasurer for our group at pre-school, so I’m supposed to attend meetings of the coordinating committee (basically, chairs of the various committees - craft, program, volunteer coordinators, etc.). One of the two co-mentor/leader’s asked whether October 27th or November 3rd was better for us to have a meeting. I told her the 3rd was absolutely out (that’s the same day as BETA), but that the 27th was open. She went around talking to the other members, and decided to have the meeting at a place called The Wine Bar. That is, until they realized children weren’t allowed there (cuz, um, it’s a BAR). Now, I live an hour away from Pullman, where preschool is, so I would have to bring Thomas along (he’s still exclusively breastfeeding), and the chair of at least one other committee was also going to have to bring her baby, or not go. The mentor/leader found this out, went around to the rest of the coordinating committee, and basically decided we could stay home. This seemed rather stupid to me, since we are, after all, planning for a PRESCHOOL, so having our planning meetings someplace where children are not allowed does not make any sense whatsoever. Especially when it means telling some members they just plain won’t be able to attend. I should mention here that the registrar - who is also on the committee and is the girl to whom I’d been talking most of the morning - offered to have the meeting at her house, since it would be completely empty of people, would be quiet, and everyone could attend. The mentor/leader said she “had already been around to everybody three times and wasn’t going to do it again.”
After pre-school, we again did the McDonald’s drive-thru for the kids’ lunch. I held out for slightly better food from the grocery deli. Mike, of course, refuses to eat fast food, and waited til almost 4pm to eat his lunch. Other stops on the way home included our usual: bank, grange, groceries, and post office.
Back home it was a day for work, work, work. I’ve been out of the house a lot lately, and there was a TON to do. Over 600 messages to wade through, and that was just to get caught up on email, not to make any headway on other things. I worked for several hours, and finally took a small break to put away some clean diapers, dump some dirty ones in the wash, and have dinner. I also shepherded Adam through his bath, then went back upstairs for more work.
At 8, we watched Iron Chef (scorpion fish). The challenger won, for a change. It was all food you couldn’t have paid me to eat. One of the tasters actually said, “The best parts are the meat around the cheeks and the gelatin in the lips.” G-R-O-S-S.
Post-Iron Chef, more work. I did finally get my inbox emptied, but not one more thing got done all night. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive.
Someone reminded me that I haven’t posted enough pictures of Thomas lately, and as he’s four months old today, it seems fitting. So here’s my baby (pics in extended entry):
Amazing! The flag auctions over at Hook-a-Thon went like gang-busters, one finally closing at $520!! This money will do GREAT things for the FRG. There will be three more auctions posted on Monday, again of flags flown in combat on September 11, 2004, so be sure to check back over there for your chance to bid.
Thank you to everyone who bid on the flags, and to everyone who helped spread the word. I am very, very grateful for everyone’s support.
A note to those IT professionals out there - bounced email messages such as these are not helpful:
Mailbox currently suspended - Please contact correspondent directly
How the hell much more direct can I get? I’m not exactly sending smoke signals over here, people!
Why, yes. Yes, I am in a bitchy mood today. Why do you ask?
In the 1950’s, mothers needed large quantities of alcohol to get them through their day.
In the 1970’s, it was marijuana.
In the 1980’s, it was ginseng and echinacea.
In the 2000’s, we need caffeine. Lots, and lots of caffeine.
I am so. freaking. behind. In work, in housework, in email, in blogging, in everything. Combination of being out of the house too much lately, and having too much to do. If I owe you email: bear with me. I’ll get to it. Don’t know when, but I will, eventually. Meanwhile, I’m thinking of taking up coffee-drinking, so I can stop giving up precious productive hours to that pesky sleeping habit.
I was up pretty early in the morning, and decided to do some work at the computer. I know, I almost never do that but I was feeling like doing something different. [/sarcasm] I didn’t really make much headway, though, and actually may have dug myself in deeper in terms of email I needed to answer. So it goes.
Late in the morning, I finally gave up and went downstairs to start getting ready to leave. This meant packing a diaper bag and a sack of toys, dressing the two younger kids and myself, and packing up all my scrapbooking stuff. I had a class to teach in the evening, and wanted to do some scrapbooking during the daytime. I got Thomas and Kayla loaded up, then we headed to Tekoa, with stops in St. John (snacks/lunch), Steptoe (gas), and Oakesdale (the new latte/gift/quilt store). I had fun “scrapbooking", though I didn’t even finish a single page. Crops away from home really just aren’t very productive.
The class went well, although I only had one student, and she was 8 years old. If I don’t start getting more sign-ups for classes, I’m going to ditch the whole idea. It’s probably just as well, because I’m stretched pretty thin as it is. I had arranged for a babysitter (one of the volunteers from Kayla’s preschool class) to look after the kids while I worked, and that went quite well. It was pricey, and I can’t afford to do it very often (even if we COULD coordinate schedules), but it was a nice change to hear fussing and not have to address it.
Both the kids and I were getting tired about 8, and the store owner wanted to go home, so I started packing up. An hour later, I was ready to go, so I put two sleepy kids in the truck and headed home. Kayla stayed out enough to get her in from the truck. Thomas, on the other hand, kept me up until 12:30 in the morning. That kid is hell on sleep.
In the comments to one of my journal posts (October 19 entry), reader Tom-with-a-dream (glad to have you back, Tom!) suggests that perhaps I have a twin modeling for Mamsi. So I dug around in my pictures, and found the one that most closely resembles the pose (if not the expression) of the picture. So what do you think, readers? Were we separated at birth? (My kids and I are in the second picture.)
I am quite amused that both of our sons have that “Oh, shit!” look on their faces… mine more so than hers.
I was up way too late last night (like, 2:30AM), so I was up too early this morning, even though it was only like 7:30. I probably could’ve slept longer, but I needed to get up and do a pass through email so I could help Mike get the kids ready to go to Colfax for Thomas’ 4-month checkup. Four months already!!
We had a hell of a time finding a parking spot, and ended up way over by the ER. It’s a small hospital/clinic, so we only had to walk maybe 200 feet, but still, I wonder where all the cars came from! I expected the waiting room to be abslutely packed, but while there were more people than usual there weren’t THAT many more. Maybe they were having some kind of meeting in the hospital or something.
They didn’t weigh him this time since the baby room was occupied and he was just weighed a couple of weeks ago, plus he’s clearly a chunky, healthy boy. But my guess would be about 14 1/2 pounds. The appointment went great, and Thomas is still healthy as a horse. He had to get three vaccinations today - the first in his left leg, the second two in his right. For the first one, he didn’t make a peep, but he really screamed on the second one, and right through the third. He calmed down before we left, and even gave the offending nurse a week little smile when it was all over. He’s such a good kid!
By the time we got home (after a brief stop at the post office), a friend of mine was already here. It’s hunting season, so we’ve got hunters coming and going. We unloaded kids and gear, brewed a pot of coffee for the friend, and sent him off in search of deer. Then I had lunch, the kids got a movie, and Mike and I got settled down to do our own work. Around 3 or so I hit the wall, and decided I desperately needed a nap. I went to bed and instantly fell asleep. Mike brought the baby down to me, who was also asleep, thinking we’d nap together. No go. Thomas steadfastly refuses to nap with me during the daytime, so after a frustrating twenty minutes or so, I gave up, stormed upstairs with baby in tow, and growled at everyone to Leave. Mommy. Alone.
Thomas, for his part, was understandably fussy and grouchy all day because of the shots. At one point he had a mild fever, but nothing too bad. He had some redness and swelling on his right leg, and generally required a lot of holding and attention. All in all, still a whole hell of a lot better than a bout of polio would be!
In the evening, my friend came back in from hunting just as Mike was finishing up dinner. Both of the older two kids had fallen asleep, so it was just the grownups and Thomas, who mostly dozed through dinner. Near the end, both kids woke up and had partial dinners of their own. Then it was time for Iron Chef (sea eel) which was just DISGUSTING. Wiggly, squirming, all-muscle fishy looking snaky things that wormed their way right out of their basket. And the ways they cooked them! Just EW.
We left the friend to play with the kids, both of whom had developed a real sweet spot for him (and, I think, he for them). Mike and I went back upstairs for more work. Around 10 I decided I just couldn’t be awake anymore, so I went downstairs to get ready for bed. Mike brought Thomas down, too, and I nursed him to sleep while Mike took the older two upstairs to play.
Adam had another dance class, and we missed last week. So even though I was still feeling pretty crappy, I went ahead and packed up him, me, and Thomas, and we all headed out. Dance class went great. I took Thomas out of his carseat and let him play on the floor while Adam and I did our dance thing. He (Thomas) just wiggled and squirmed and watched and had a grand time. Next week is our last dance class, and I’ll have to decide whether or not to sign him up for another session. He really seems to enjoy it, but MAN does it take a lot of time out of the day!
After class, I took the boys over to Applebee’s for lunch. Both were very well behaved. Adam and I shared some cheese sticks, and he had fried shrimp and marinara pasta. I had the Crusted Herb Shrimp Caesar Salad (my favorite). Afterward, we each had a Triple Chocolate Meltdown for dessert. That’s a miniature chocolate bundt cake, with white chocolate shavings and hot fudge poured into the middle, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream which is topped with more chocolate fudge. Adam called it a chocolate volcano. We were lucky enough to have our favorite server - Claudia - and we had a GREAT time, even though I accidentally spilled the rest of my Coke on Adam as we were leaving. Thomas was a little squirmy, but not at all fussy, so the meal was thoroughly pleasant.
Afterward, we came home, stopping on the way to first watch a couple of skateboarders, then to do a bit of shopping at the scrapbook store. By the time we got home, it was late afternoon and we were all pooped. Most of the rest of the day was spent working and trying to do a bit of laundry in preparation for a houseguest.
I am amused to note that I am the number 4 Google hit for Quality Parenting. This is all the more amusing when you realize that it was on a post (March 12 entry) by Mike, before he was my co-blogger, and before he was a parent.
Once again, it’s time for a caption-a-picture-of-John-Kerry-trying-to-look-like-a-sports-enthusiast-and-regular-joe contest. Entries taken until Friday, or until I remember I need to pick a winner, whichever comes last.
It must be my week for introducing new blogs! This time, it’s a brand-spankin-new one called Subliminal Kool-Aid. The first post was intriguing:
Having just gotten up this morning I sit at the computer to check E-mail and find waiting for me a note explaining how to use my new Blog page. There it is….directly in front of me…an electronic styrofoam cup of sweet smelling brightly colored liquid that I’ve been told to drink.
But the second one totally hooked me:
Being that hunting season has opened and the smell of gunpowder and Hoppes No. 9 fill the air, it’s time for “show and tell” for the newest toy.
I LOVE the smell of gun oil. It’s right up there with coconut and vanilla for me, and probably ahead of coconut. Oddly enough, I have a strange urge to clean my Sig and go shoot up some errant paper circles.
As for Subliminal Kool-Aid, he (?) has a toy of his own for you to check out - including pictures!
Via SuperSuess I found this quiz.
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I am a hybrid of:
Girl Next Door Progressive Girl Click on the pictures below to read more:
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I was a little suspicious of the Progressive Girl part, until I read this from her description:
Think of Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. She’s America’s sweetheart with an urban sensibility.
Well, ok then, that fits. Then I saw:
She’s a post-Christian spiritualist, a pre-Monica Clintonite, and a dues-paying member of at least one social-change organization like NOW, Planned Parenthood, or the Sierra Club. You won’t find her at an Earth First or PETA meeting, though. Those are the Granola Girl’s stomping grounds. Progressive Girls want the world to be a better place, but they live out their politics in a moderate, left-of-center way.
Definitely post-Christian (post-Muslim, too, for the record), I actually helped Clinton in his 92 campaign (that was pre-Monica), and have been a member of an environmental club or two. Oh, and I was a patient (for pills, not abortions) of PP for almost a decade. So I guess if you look at Progressive Girl as my “social liberal” side, and Girl-Next-Door as my “fiscal conservative” side, that sort of fits.
Though I still say a summer spent in New York would be a sentence, not a vacation. A week, ok. A whole summer? Shoot. Me. Now!
“Idealism is what precedes experience; cynicism is what follows.” - David T. Wolf
I woke up at about 7, and came upstairs to do some work. After a while, I went downstairs to go to bed, but instead decided to do some housework. I finished cleaning the bathroom, including mopping it twice, then started the bathmats to wash. I made up some scrambled eggs and a piece of toast for me, and a half-bagel with cream cheese for Kayla.
I honestly don’t remember a whole lot of the rest of the day. I know I worked on my new business’ website a lot (can’t link it quite yet; we’re still debugging), and I know I tried to have a late nap (all three kids aborted those plans), and I know Mike made a yummy dinner (including some really yummy pea soup), and I know I read through a scrapbooking magazine, and I know I visited for awhile with a neighbor who stopped by. Her son is going to try to ride and show Danny as a 4-H project, so she was coming by to visit her and Musty and to deliver treats.
More power to her. :)
I woke up a little after 9 with the younger two kids starting to stir. Kayla and I went out to the kitchen to get her her usual breakfast: a poptart and water. Then I took her and Thomas upstairs. I worked until about 10:15, when I realized I was late for a stamping Open House in Endicott that had started at 10. So, I packed up all three kids, plus diaper bag, and headed out in the rain. The open house was a lot of fun, and I even got to catch up with a friend I used to scrapbook with in Colfax. She has a third baby due in December. I really should try to get together with her more often; her kids are similar in age to mine, and she and I have similar interests. Just gotta pick up that phone more, I guess.
After that, I took the munchkins to McDonald’s for lunch, and to “pay in da baws,” as Kayla says. They really enjoyed “payin” in the “baws,” especially since there were a few other kids to interact with. I had a great conversation with a gentleman who was there with two of his grandchildren. Turns out he was a Marine for (I think) 23 years, and both his daughter and son-in-law are in the Army: he in Iraq, she in Germany, soon to be in Afghanistan. The grandparents have been looking after their children off-and-on for many years. We talked about politics, and our mutual convictions that a) we need to re-elect Bush, b) Kerry is an idiot and an opportunist, and c) we either finish Iraq now, or in two years, when it’ll be much tougher. And get this: he had heard of blogging! Very few people I meet in meatspace have heard of blogging. He even knew who Chief Wiggles was! I gave him my URL; we’ll see if he shows up as a reader.
We left McDonald’s and headed home. On our road, I passed a mom who was looking for a hunting spot with her kids. I told her she was welcome to come to our house and pick off any she could find. She tried to take me up on it a little later, but between my offer and her acceptance, another group of hunters came by. Just as well; it was almost dusk then, anyway. Both groups said they’d be here in the morning, and Mike told them both that whoever got here first, got dibs. Should be an interesting morning!
Adam was asleep when we got here, so he got carried to his room for more sleep. Thomas and Kayla came upstairs with me to play. I worked. Later on Mike made dinner, which we ate upstairs since the boys were both asleep, and we didn’t want to wake Thomas to bring him down. A little after that, we all trooped downstairs for Iron Chef (cod roe), then back up for more work. Around 11, Mike took Adam to bed, and I took the younger two. Well, I TRIED to take the younger two. Kayla went to bed after one story, but Thomas wasn’t ready for bed yet, so Mike took him back upstairs while I crashed.
Those of you with little ones simply must understand, from the wisened perspective of hindsight and experience, how special this time in your life really is.
Take pictures and videos, journal, make scrap books, record your conversations, do whatever it takes, to help you remember when down the road, as the seting sun of that time as a parent with kids at home begins to darken the memories and you struggle to relive the moments, you’re able to bring them back via those long ago captured snippets of time.
I do try to live in the moment and take note of life’s little daily gifts. It’s hard not to when they’re always demanding attention of you!
It was a rough night for Thomas and me. He woke up wet and hungry several times during the night, and since Mike was off tending to Adam I had to handle both intake and output myself. This made Thomas very cranky, since he prepares to be simultaneously serviced at both ends, and has not yet developed what we adults call “patience.” Still, we all made it through.
Mid-morning, I took Adam and Kayla to storytime at the library. There were only two other girls there today, and both my kids were much more involved in what was going on. I was very happy to see that. I don’t want them to be mindless sheep, but it is important to learn to function in a group environment, and that’s part of what storytime is about.
Once we got back home, they watched a couple of the movies they had checked out, and had lunch. I spent the morning reading blogs and working, including a very long phone conversation with an ad sales rep at a quilting magazine, about trends in our industry. It was nice! Made me feel like a real professional in this field.
In a display of developing imagination, Kayla named an imaginary kitty she apparently held in her hand “Paula.” No idea where she heard that name. Later in the day, I realized she was actually saying “Purrl,” the name of Margi’s cat.
I spent a fair amount of time on housework. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do, and since work was reasonably well in hand now was a good time. The kitchen had been a disaster from all our extra cooking lately, so I ended up doing three loads of dishes (we wash by hand) which caught me up! I also did a bit of laundry and some general pick-up. The majority of my cleaning time, however, went to dusting, scrubbing, and sorting the stuff in, on, and around the sink area. You know - throwing out (very) old medicine, cleaning the light fixture cover, sorting vitamins, scrubbing the sink, tossing toys back into the toybox, etc. It looks great right now, but I have no idea how long it will last.
Mike made a yummy dinner of Philly steak sandwiches, tater tots, and corn. Unfortunately, Adam was asleep at the time so he missed out, but the rest of us thought it was yummy.
After dinner, I worked for about an hour before it was time to go down and watch Iron Chef. This time it was just me and Kayla. Adam was still asleep, and Mike stayed upstairs with a sleeping Thomas. The theme ingredient was cuttlefish. Ew. I folded clothes while I watched TV, so at least I pretty much got caught up on that chore.
After Iron Chef, things kind of devolved into various people going to various beds to get some sleep.
Yaknow, I’m usually not attracted to Asian men, but this guy is a definite exception.
When I stopped blogging at Eat the Lettuce and went solo here again, I worried about my then-co-blogger, Mike. I wondered if he’d quit blogging, or worse, find a new, better co-blogger. Turns out the latter was closer to the truth. But instead of replacing me with one hot chick, he’s found a whole bunch of freaks to co-blog with him.
I’ve enlisted the help of quite a few people I’ve met around my college campus to help me blog.
[…]
I certainly can’t forget about my friend Ryan. Oh, oops, I mean, Mac N. Ez…. I’m pretty sure he’s the guy that Offspring wrote that song about. He’s as white as Opie but you can’t tell him that. Mac N. is only 19, but he’s as much of a pimp as you can be when you still drive your mom’s Escalade. I had to work on
RyanMac to get him to write for ETL and stop pretending to be illiterate, so let’s make sure he feels welcome.
Mike’s friends sound very interesting, and I can’t wait to see what they’ll post about, but… “Mac” kinda scares me. Actually, he reminds me of every guy I dated my senior year.
Another recent addition to the blogroll is Lady Mac’s Musings. I didn’t know about her until she emailed me, but she’s a brand-new blogger (started yesterday). She’s gotten off to a great start already, though, including this post about how complicated it can seem to get started blogging. Those of us who’ve been at it a little while can sometimes forget that there is a learning curve, and it’s tough to know who to turn to for help.
So, I thought maybe this would be a good outlet for me. My sister readily agrees and encouraged me to get on with it.
I started yesterday and now I’m in brain overload! There is so much to learn! It feels like I’m eating under water… Also, I’m not really computer literate. It seems like I just learned how to download my digital pictures! I have my trusty Mac laptop and all my ideas but putting them in a format and getting everything in order is tough!
So, please bear with me as I try to muddle through. I also welcome any constructive criticism just be kind… I tend to bruise easily.
Please go by and leave her a hello and a little encouragement - we’ve all been the new kid on the block before.
A woman seduced and had sex with strangers while she slept and later had no recollection of her infidelities due to a sleeping disorder, her Sydney doctor said Thursday.
The middle-aged woman had no idea that she was sneaking from her house at night in search of sex with random strangers until her partner awoke, discovered she was missing from the bedroom, and found her having sex with another man…
… and that has some Americans all in a tizzy.
“It’s a day for the good Lord, not for the devil,” said Barbara Braswell, who plans to send her 4-year-old granddaughter Maliyah out trick-or-treating in a princess costume on Saturday instead.
[…]
“You just don’t do it on Sunday,” said Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, Ga. “That’s Christ’s day. You go to church on Sunday, you don’t go out and celebrate the devil. That’ll confuse a child.”
I’m sure God would be glad to know you’re saving your “devilishness” for another day. Certainly devil-revelry is much more appropriate on Sabbath Eve than on Sabbath. I must have missed that commandment: “Thou shalt not sin… on Sunday.”
I was checking my referrer logs for the third
fourth time today, and I noticed someone found me by googling “geese
pregnancy period.” Now, I can only conclude that someone wanted to know
what the gestation period for a mother goose was before she gave birth
to a gosling. As I raise my husband raises geese, I
can speak on this subject with some authority, so I would like to
inform you, deer goose-googler, that a gosling will emerge from its
mother approximately 3 to 4 weeks from impregnation.
Christina has a new blogskin, courtesy of Lisa of Elegant Webscapes. It looks fantastic! Lisa is very, very talented at blog-skinning. If you’ve been thinking about getting a facelift, please give her a try. She’s also disgustingly easy to work with, and friendly to boot.
Fried turkey bologna sandwiches suck. Fried pork bologna sandwiches rule.
Thatisall.
This is for the Carnival of the Recipes. I was in on the first one, but never found the time to get a recipe in before the deadline on any of the others. I went to a recipe swap on Monday, though, so I got to try lots of new dishes. This was easily the best of the bunch.
8 boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, about 2 pounds worth
Pepper to taste
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
Paprika
1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill or 1 tsp dill weed
1 can (4 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained
Place chicken in a single layer in a 13x9x2 baking pan coated with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle with pepper. Combine soup, soup mix, sour cream, lemon juice, dill, and mushrooms, pour over chicken. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 1 hour or until chicken is tender and juices run clear. Yield 8 servings.
Check out all the other great recipes, too!
I was awake too early this morning - about 5AM. I think that’s a product of the congestion, which makes it a little tough to sleep. I did a little web-surfing, then went back to sleep about 6. Mike woke me a little after 7.
It was another preschool day, and it was our turn to bring part of snack. Mike went all out, making three tapenades with fresh focaccia bread, rice pudding, and an onion/ham/biscuit crust casserole. A few other moms brought things, too, so it was quite a spread! Today we had a young, hunky firefighter come by to talk to us about fire safety, then a not-as-young, not-near-as-hunky university cop talked to us about carseat safety. It wasn’t the worst program we’ve ever had, and there was some eye candy, so that’s always good. :)
After preschool and the obligatory drive to McDonald’s, we went to the bank, gas pump ($2.11/gallon, sweet Jesus!), grange, then the grocery store. Luckily it was a light shopping day, because we had a lot of stuff to bring home from preschool.
By the time we got back home, the boys were both asleep. We got them into their beds for more nap, and Kayla played in the yard. She was happy as a clam out there, until the poor baby got into a bed of ants that bit her neck and shoulders. After a long bath, she played upstairs with Daddy while I went to go have a glorious, wonderful, revitalizing, decadent, unaccompanied two-hour nap. It was even better than when I got my new mouse (October 11th entry)!
Once I woke up, he had a nap while I rode herd on kids. I took the easy way out, and let the older two have a movie. Thomas slept most of the time. I couldn’t interest anybody but the dogs in dinner until the movie was over, and Mike woke up just ask I was getting Adam some chicken nuggets and leftovers. Kayla had fallen asleep during the movie, and stayed out until quite late.
Thomas has begun scooting, so he can now no longer be safely left on the bed unattended for any length of time. This is the beginning of the end, folks!
“Whether injected directly into the human bloodstream or enjoyed as a spread on crackers, stem cells can also cure male pattern baldness, sleep achnea, chronic bad breath, problem flatulence, rigormortis, dandruff, genital warts, and even insomnia - as long as you’re touching the screen when John Edwards is on TV.” - Liberal Larry
I just had a two-hour nap all by myself. I woke up from it on my own, without benefit of screaming, arguing, whining, jumping, or screeching. I had nearly forgotten that was even possible! All hail SexyHusband, the giver of naps. I’m now ready to go back into battle.
*cue gladiator music*
Recently, I was contacted by Spc Robert Goosey. He found a list of suggestions for military care packages that I posted almost two years ago, before I ever had a blog. He wanted to thank me for posting the suggestions. (Sidenote: I am always utterly humbled any time someone in the military wants to thank me for anything, considering all they and their families sacrifice for my family’s freedom.) Robert is a Mail Clerk with the U.S. Army, and he was also offering me a little bit more information for that page about shipping to deployed military personnel.
In passing, he mentioned that he was doing a Christmas package drive for soldiers. I asked for more details, so that I could enlist the help of the blogosphere. Spc. Goosey is stationed in Iraq, and I would really like to inundate him with packages for soldiers for Christmas, with your help. So please spread the word, and help with packages, if you’re so inclined. Here’s what he says:
Thank you for putting that on the website.
If you would like to help, that would be great, and would mean a lot to all of the soldiers here. What I am asking for, like what to put in the boxes, is just the suggestions that you have on your website, and anything that anyone would like to send to us. The only thing that will not work for us is phone cards. We use a system called Segovia Network, and we have to purchase the minutes on the internet and use a pin when we call. There are many sites that have lists of things that can and can not be sent to soldiers in whichever area they are in. I found several with just one Yahoo search for “care packages”.
The address that the packages could be sent to is mine. I ask that it not be published, but if they are interested, that people either e-mail you or me, and we will give it to each person. I feel uncomfortable letting my address out on the internet so freely.
[…]
Thank you very much for your support!!
Sincerely,
SPC Robert Goosey
Overnight we had yet another round of sleepy-time do-si-do, with both kids and parents switching beds. This is getting old, fast. I only got little snippets of sleep, the longest (and last) lasting from 6:30AM to 9:30AM.
I woke up feeling a little less sick, but still definitely not well. At least my head was clear enough that I could concentrate, so I did some work over the course of the day. I also did some laundry, helped Adam with his reading lesson (he finished Five Silly Fishermen in one go), and posted some auctions for the Hook-a-Thon. After lunch, I scrubbed an area of my floor clean (shut up), and basted Vicki’s quilt. I managed a bit of quilting on it, but not too terribly much. I was going to try to finish it, until I heard from a mutual friend that she wouldn’t be at pre-school tomorrow (relieving pressure on me to finish it).
Mike made a yummy casserole dinner for us with noodles, ham, and peas, around some other cooking he was doing for pre-school. Why yes, I do know I’m spoiled. Why do you ask?
Post-dinner, I elbowed my way into the kitchen and baked up the last of the cookies I made on Monday (I had refrigerated the leftover dough). I am now officially SICK of coconut-oatmeal-rice-krispies-cookies.
Adam, Kayla and I watched Iron Chef (soybeans) while Mike and Thomas worked together upstairs. After that, we all went upstairs together for awhile. Mike got Adam to sleep early, then I tried to get the two younger ones to sleep myself somewhat later. It wasn’t happening, though, so I fished Mike out to help. Unfortunately, he was UberTired, so he wasn’t coping real well. So I nursed Thomas to sleep and took Kayla upstairs to whine herself to sleep in my lap, then got her back to bed about 20 minutes later. Not TOO awful a bedtime, especially compared to what we’ve had lately.
Through my referrer report, tonight I found out about a blog called Feisty Repartee. Christina is a lawyer, and mother of two daughters, ages 11 and 3. She is a fantastic writer, and has the rare capability of keeping me engaged enough to read even her longest posts.
One that is not very long - but was especially poignant for me - has to do with her three-year-old’s experimentation with the potty mouth.
The child was immediately chastised and informed (through gritted teeth) that WE do not hit one another and children do not use bad words. Her only response as she glared back at me: “Dammit.”
There’s more. :)
There are three new auctions up now, benefitting the Hook-a-Thon. Each one is a flag, flown in a combat mission in Afghanistan! These flag auctions (three this week, three next) will be the Hook-a-Thon’s last hurrah, so please help us go out in a bang!
Goldie started it, but I found it at the YayaEmpress:
5 famous people you’d have your way with regardless of marital status
Toby Keith
Kenny Chesney
Eminem
Matt Damon
Trace Adkins
Democrats in a race for a state House seat in District 82, are circulating a flyer that shows a retarded child with President Bush’s face running in a track race. The headline says: “Voting for Bush Is Like Running In The Special Olympics: Even If You Win, You’re Still Retarded.”
I have to agree with Jay when he says, “Let’s hope the good people of district 82 don’t vote for this piece of shit” but not “Or brake if they see him crossing the street…”
Subhuman flesh is hard to clean out of a grill.
This has been one of the most miserable weeks we’ve had as a family. Everybody’s still sick, and now the parents seem to have the worst of it. Mike’s recovering, but I spent the day alternating between “bad” and “worse.” Overnight, it was another night of musical beds for Mike. I slept terribly, and woke up feeling worse than ever.
I tried to work in the morning, but it was hopeless - I just couldn’t focus. The kids were bubbly and chattery and wanting attention - attention I didn’t want to give. I tried not to get mad or irritated at them, but I don’t know how successful I was.
Around 11, I realized I needed to eat, so I made some scrambled eggs and toast. I couldn’t taste any of it.
I finally got my inbox emptied a little after noon, and decided to do a little housecleaning. It’s REALLY gotten away from me lately, between being sick and being out of the house a lot. I made a valiant effort; I swept the kitchen, dining room, and mudroom, cleared old food packages off of one shelf (we’ve found weevils in some stuff we’ve had around for awhile), started a load of laundry, and did a load of dishes. But then, I hit the wall. I could barely focus my eyes, much less my thoughts, so I spent the rest of the day in a stupor.
I played computer games, had dinner, and watched Iron Chef. Period.
Then came the fun of trying to get kids and parents off to bed.
I know this isn’t going to be my most popular post ever, but here goes:
George Soros is not the devil.
I thought he was. Seriously. I thought he was some sinister, half-deranged, insipid little billionaire who was nothing more than a shill for the Democratic party. But I heard the opening segment of an interview with him on NPR yesterday, and here’s the thing: he’s just a guy. He has different beliefs than I do - different fears, different convictions, different notions of what’s the right course for America - but I don’t think he’s immoral or mean-spirited or sneaky. As far as I know, he hasn’t done anything illegal, or even questionable, with his millions. He’s contributed to candidates, PACs, 527s, MoveOn.org, and other organizations, all in an effort to affect the outcome of the election. Fine. So have many of us. He’s just got more to do with. There’s no crime in that.
Now, do I think he’s RIGHT? No. I think he’s wrong, wrong, wrong when it comes to the direction this country should go, and who we should choose as its leader. I think it’s wrong for him to say that we should oust Bush just so we’ll be able to blame the entire Iraqi war on him, and beg the world’s forgiveness. Bush got a declaration of war from Congress. Many members of Congress (including Bush’s opponent) authorized him to use force. If a mistake was made (and I don’t believe it was), Bush is not the only one at fault. Elections should not be about scapegoats. That goes for George W. Bush, and it goes for George Soros as well.
Is it just me, or does John Edwards seem like more of a pissant every time we hear from him? He reminds me of the annoying little brother in that commercial: “I’m not touching you! I’m not touching you!” Take this article, for example, which CNN (CNN!) entitled “Edwards mocks Bush for not naming mistakes.” That’s right, “mocks.” The man who could be a heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world is busy “mocking” the President. These are the people who are supposed to bring us together?
In an appearance before several thousand cheering people, Edwards, a North Carolina senator, noted the president’s vague answer to the last audience question at Friday’s debate in St. Louis – on what specific mistakes Bush believes he made.
Edwards said he “listened very careful” but did not hear an answer from the president.
I
saw Edwards use this same tactic in the debate against Cheney the other
night, trying to draw attention to a perceived failure to answer a
question. OK, first of all - pot,
kettle. Second, is anyone really under the illusion that a politician is actually going to answer
a question directly? Especially one that is so loaded? It’s called
politics, and in an election when every single word a candidate uses can will come back to haunt him, everyone is trying to be especially careful which words they use.
Well, almost everyone (October 11th entry).
“Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.” - H. L. Mencken
We had a horrible sleep schedule, with both Mike and I playing musical beds. I don’t think I slept longer than a couple of hours at a stretch. Being sick is no fun at all.
For breakfast, I had some rice pudding that Mike made, then settled down to do some work. Around noon, I got some lunch for the kids: chicken nuggets and a banana for Kayla, peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Adam. While they were eating, I did a load of dishes. Afterward, I baked up a double batch of Coconut Oatmeal cookies, with help from both Adam and Kayla. I baked up four dozen, then put the rest of the dough in the fridge. Three dozen for the recipe swap, one dozen for us at home, and I’ll bake up the rest for snack for pre-school kids. Thursday will be our turn to bring snack for the 2- and 3-year-olds.
Just about the time that was being wrapped up, UPS showed up with a new mouse. The clouds broke, the sun shined down, and angels sang. There was peace and wonderment throughout the land, and Jesus wept.
You see, a few weeks ago, we all went to Moscow, Idaho for a round of shopping. Kids were not very cooperative, however, so by the time we got to Staples we were all a bit cranky. Mike stayed in the truck with kidlets, and I went in by myself to do some shopping for my mouse. I wanted to replace my trackball, because it didn’t have a mousewheel function, and I had really missed that. Since everyone was waiting for me, I felt a little rushed and didn’t pay as much attention as I should have, and ended up buying a wireless mouse. Big mistake. I tried valiantly to get used to that piece o crap, but it just never happened. There’s a lag between actually moving the mouse, and the pointer moving. It’s a small delay, but noticeable. Also, the refresh rate for wireless mice is too slow, so I felt like I was wrestling the pointer into place. Very aggravating.
But now, I have a regular old 5-button mousewheel mouse, and life is good.
Armed with my new functional mouse, I spent the better part of the afternoon emptying my inbox. Luckily, this mostly involved copying text from email and pasting it into a form, because I was feeling steadily worse, and honestly doubt I could’ve accomplished much more than that.
By the time I was done with that, I had to hurry to get ready to leave. Tonight was a recipe swap at the Scrappers Getaway. So I had a quick shower, then packed up a diaper bag, the cookies, my recipe cards, and a couple of other odds and ends. Grabbed the baby, and we were on our way. The recipe swap was great fun, and there was lots of yummy food. My favorite was the Dill Chicken. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to cook it at home, because it calls for canned soup (on Mike’s no-no list). It was also fun to meet a few other women in the area.
About 9 o’clock I headed home, arriving at 10. Everyone was still awake, but not for long. Mike took Adam to bed and got him to sleep. I tried to get the other two down, but Thomas wouldn’t stop screaming, despite being fed and changed, so after Mike got Adam to sleep he took Thomas upstairs. Kayla and I were finally able to sleep, despite a few protests from her that she wasn’t tired.
I’m not sure how many of you noticed (or cared), but with the site re-design comes a new “About Me” page. There might be a couple of surprises in there for some of you. :)
Ed has a fascinating look at Kerry’s latest unbelievably out-of-step statement. To whit, Droopy said:
‘’We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance. As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.'’
My first reaction was, “Oh, so now you’re playing the ‘former law-enforcement person’ card instead of the ‘Vietnam veteran’ card?”
My second reaction was very similar to Ed’s, namely:
Kerry’s statement speaks to what may seem to be an unstated campaign theme:
“John Kerry for President. Because We’re Never Going To End Terrorism.”
Maybe this remark won’t make much of a difference on Nov. 2. But it speaks to the man’s thinking and thought process and what we could have in the White House next year should he win.
And that, friends and neighbors, is a damned scary thought.
Those of you who have so kindly bookmarked me in the past, will you pretty-please check the link you’re using? When I was on Movable Type, the blog was at http://www.noteitposts.com/main. Now that I’m using Wordpress (thanks again, Lisa!), it’s at plain ol’ http://www.noteitposts.com. Lisa put up a redirect page for me, but without the direct link, I can’t see where traffic is coming from (hey, I’m my own best referrer! heh). So could you please, please take a moment and check your blogrolls, and make sure they point to noteitposts.com and not noteitposts.com/main?
Thanks. :)
Everyone around here is sick, and I’m starting to feel it, too. It’s an awful congestion cold - runny nose, mild fevers for some, cough, burning throat, loss of appetite. Come to think of it, that last bit might be a blessing.
I did Adam’s reading lesson with him this morning. He read a few pages from the book A Fish Named Spot. Later in the day, he asked if he could read some more, and finished the book up. That’s my boy!
I got caught up on work in the morning, then went downstairs with the older kids to do a bit of schooling. With Adam, I did ten or so pages in his Reader Rabbit Pre-School workbook, on things like shapes, colors, counting, and a bit of writing. With Kayla, I finished up her shapes sticker book. I’m not sure many (any?) of the shapes actually registered with her, but it still helped her practice some useful skills, like placing a sticker in a particular spot, counting, and naming colors.
Next, I actually did some coloring. At pre-school last week, I had stamped some cute little scarecrows onto cardstock, so I colored them in with chalk pencils (gonna have to get myself some regular map pencils - chalk spreads) and made cards from them, adding a bit of corrugated paper for looks. Then I addressed three of them to the new BETA members. I also snuck in some Food Network while I was coloring (Bobby Flay had a scholarship program to a cooking school? Who knew?!).
For lunch, I had some canned clam chowder (which I forgot to dilute and which was, therefore, SALTY) and the leftover squash stuff that Mike made last night. I wasn’t hungry, though; I was eating because it was lunchtime, and I figured I probably should eat. I tried to work after lunch, but was just too exhausted. I tried to nap on the upstairs bed, but the older kids were less than helpful. So, I took Thomas down to the bedroom and tried to nap with him. He, too, thought Mommy oughtn’t have a nap. So I left Mike with all three kids and slept fitfully for a few hours. Honestly, I’m not sure I came out ahead on the deal, since I woke up dehydrated and with a raging headache that never did go away.
Everyone else was just as miserable. When I came upstairs from my nap, I found Kayla, lying on the floor and crying, looking perfectly pathetic. She felt a little warm to me, so I took her temp - 100.7 - and gave her a shot of Ibuprofen. That seemed to perk her up, and she was fine from then on (albeit quite snuffly).
I did some work on recipe cards I’m making for a swap tomorrow, while Mike made dinner - burgers and fries. After dinner, I finished the cards up, then went downstairs to Adam’s room to play with his sea animals felt board thingie. Once that was all put together and he had shooed me out of his room, I did a load of dishes (with Kayla’s “help", and with interruption from a hungry nursling), then took the younger two to try to get some sleep.
I don’t really have much to add to this New York Post Op/Ed piece, so I’ll just quote part of it, in hopes you’ll go read the rest.
First, consider the latest smoking gun to emerge in the media war on George Bush (news - web sites): The internal memo written by ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin that popped up right before Friday night’s Bush-Kerry debate.
Halperin, described by the network as “responsible for the planning and editorial content of all political news on the network,” issued new orders.
Both sides distort the truth, he said, adding in effect that Kerry’s lies don’t matter — but that George W. Bush’s most certainly do.
“Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.” In contrast, he wrote, “the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done” — a point he said was echoed by reporters from such paragons of objectivity as the above-mentioned Newsweek and The New York Times.
Then came the instructions:
“We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn’t mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides ‘equally’ accountable when the facts don’t warrant that.
“It’s up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public in- terest, now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right.”
Woohoo!!! Welcome to my new digs, courtesy of BlogGoddess and Graphics Designer Extraordinaire, Lisa of Elegant Webscapes. I asked her for something “feminine but not frou-frou", and something that would let you know from the very first look that I was a girl. I think she definitely pulled it off!! If you notice any problems, please let me know.
With the new look comes a new format. I’ll still be doing the daily journal (and have added a category for just that purpose), but will also be doing my regular (what I think of as real) blogging here, too, rather than at my other home, Eat the Lettuce. So if you liked what you read here, or you liked what I wrote there, it will now all be in the same place.
Thanks once again, Lisa - you rule!!
Update: Apparently, when I was still on MT (you know, WhenTimesWereBad), I neglected to change my journal entry from September 2nd from Draft to Publish status, so it never made it to the web. Nonobadblogger! Well, here it is (September 2nd entry) now, in case you’re curious.
Finally, a stay-at-home day! Mostly, I worked and caught up on blog-reading, but I also managed to get Lisa the information she needed to do this great re-design of the blog. But honestly, there wasn’t much to distinguish this day from any other, except that my ass spent more time planted in my chair. Sometimes I need to have days like that, just so I can make up for all the other days!
I was awake at about 9. Not exactly sleeping in, but at least better rested. I got the kids ready, then we headed out to the library for storytime. I sat with the kids rather than the moms this time, so both Adam and Kayla participated in all of the activities the other kids were doing. That was a nice change. Once again, I let them run around in the park with the other kids. That’s something they really seem to enjoy, and it’s nice to be able to let them blow off some steam now and then.
I got home and got to work again, trying to empty my inbox. About lunchtime, we asked Kayla what she wanted to eat. Her response was, “I want a honey pot full of Cheetos.” She settled for a corndog instead.
After lunch, I got a diaper bag packed, and the younger two loaded up into the truck, then we headed to Spokane. I stopped in St. John along the way to pick up some paint chips, a few Twix bars, and some stickers for scrapbooking for Vicki. She’s in the hospital up there because of issues surrounding her chemo, and when I talked to her on the phone yesterday to see what she needed/wanted, she requested movies.
So I delivered the goodies from St. John, along with some movies we had at home, to her room. Unfortunately, her blood cell counts (both red and white) are so low that she wasn’t allowed to have visitors who weren’t wearing face masks. The kids have been a little runny-nosed the last two days, and I knew I wouldn’t get Kayla into a face mask, so I just turned over the loot to a nurse to deliver. The paint chips are for a proposed painting party we preschool moms want to have, where we convert the boys’ pink walls into a nice light blue color. I’ve also offered to do a mural for them, similar to what I did for Adam’s room. Perhaps she’ll take me up on it.
Once we got out of the hospital, I drove over to Margi’s house and spent the afternoon with her. She remains just about the coolest chicka I know, and is ubertolerant of my kids and their (inevitable) messes. She even watched my two little rugrats while I had a shower at her place, complete with my choice of one of her special bars of soap! How cool is that??
She invited us to eat dinner with her, and both Kayla and I enjoyed spaghetti and French bread. I indulged in some Vanilla Coke (mmmmm), and then we started getting ready to go to the first Inland Northwest Blogjam. It was me, Margi, her husband, TheBoy (Margi’s son), Kayla, Thomas, and Nathan. We had a GREAT time, indulging in chat about blogging, parenting, sex, blogging, politics, cultural anthropology, blogging, potty-training, relationships, blogging, appearances, food, and blogging. There was also beer, chocolate, and ice cream to satisfy the masses. We must do it again!
After we left the Blogjam, I drove the kiddos back to Margi’s to pick up some things I had left there. Kayla was in full-on overtired tantrum mode by this point, so I didn’t even get the kids out of the truck. Probably just as well, since it was 11:30 by this point, and I still had to drive home. I mostly stayed awake on the way home, and I was finally able to collapse into bed at about 2 in the morning.
Mike woke me up this morning at about 7:45. I don’t know how long he had been trying, but I was SO exhausted he said it took three times of coming in and shaking me before I finally dragged ass out of bed. Poor guy, he had four kids to wake up this morning!
Thursday, so it was another preschool day. I didn’t have any baked goodies to drop of, so we could forego the school this time. It’s just as well, because we were running later than we would have liked, and just barely got there on time. It was home project day, so everyone was supposed to work on their own “thing.” I brought Vicki’s quilt so that everyone could sign it, and one of the other moms took on the unpleasant (but necessary, it turned out) job of going table to table, goading everyone into signing the quilt. Between dealing with that and nursing/comforting a wiggly baby, I did a bit of work on some cards.
After pre-school, we did the Golden Arches drive-thru for lunch for the kids. I couldn’t face a Big Mac, myself, and their salads don’t appeal, so I just did without until we got to the grocery store. We gassed up at the grange, using our new grange gas cards, then got feed from the grange and groceries from the grocery store. All in all, a pretty uneventful day out.
Back home, both Mike and I got back to work. I always feel overwhelmed on Thursdays, because I come home with the newspaper (which needs reading), bills to review/pay (heaviest mail day, I think), preschool tuition spreadsheet to update, and a whole day’s email. This time it was worse, because I didn’t work last night. That meant all of the email that came in last night (and overnight) was waiting as well. Still, I somehow managed to get reasonably caught up.
Mike made a yummy dinner, and at 8 (as per usual) we watched Iron Chef (bean sprouts).
Adam is really being a great big brother to Thomas. He is playing with him more, talking to him often, making sure he has toys around, alterting us when there is spit-up, drool, or a runny nose to wipe. It’s very nice to see Adam finally taking notice of and interest in people other than himself.
Kayla fell asleep in my lap, and I took her down to bed. Mike took Adam to bed, and I stayed up to work some more, eventually going to bed around midnight, I think.
Thomas has discovered his thumb. He often self-soothes by working it into his mouth then sucking on it, even when he’s in our lap. He actually has hickies on his little knuckles from sucking on them. It’s all quite cute, especially since neither of our other children displayed this degree of interest in thumb-sucking.
Sending out a bunch of emails last night (related to the upcoming Mall Crawl) meant a ton of emails to answer this morning. Honestly, it’s like this never-ending cycle of beating back emails! It almost feels like fighting brush fires that start spontaneously when I’m not looking (and sometimes, when I am!).
For breakfast, I made myself some scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and chocolate milk. It’s not exactly gourmet, but it’s better than a granola bar.
Kayla has been playing the same few computer games to death, and is starting to get bored with them. So, Mike and I are trying to encourage her to play other, slightly more advanced games. One of these is the They Might Be Giants “No” CD. She wasn’t very into it, until I showed her the interactive shopping bag song, which allows you to - among other things - pour out jugs of juice and empty a carton of bagels. She told her brother, “See? You can make a mess!” Joy.
I finally did get (briefly, gloriously) caught up on email, then broke for a lunch of leftover corned beef hash. Then, I got to work on another piece of sheetrock. What. A. Pain. In. The. Ass. That. Was. Somehow, the piece that fits next to it (the last one I put up) didn’t get square, or this room isn’t square, or SOMETHING, because while it fits flush against the bottom half, there’s a nailhead-width gap at the top. I’ll fill it with mud and hope for the best (and probably mask it as best I can with lighting and curtains), but this job is FRIGGIN HARD! Anyway, I finally did get it nailed up, so that wall is done. That makes 2 out of 3 walls (except for a small 6″ wide piece I still need to do) done! Then I spent about an hour de-stapling the third wall and drilling holes in the studs to pass the electrical wiring through. Now I just need to wait for Mike to do his part, then I can move on to the next step: installing insulation in that wall.
I started a couple of loaves of pumpkin bread, and Mike made a dinner of leftover beef brisket in barbeque sauce, with noodles, peas, and miniature pizzas. Yum! While he was finishing the cooking, I had a quick shower. I scarfed down dinner, then did a bit of work on the quilt (putting on the outer border) while I watched TV. The bread finally finished baking just in time for me to take a loaf to the next BETA meeting (it was a “sunshine prize” - think door prize, but homier).
The BETA meeting went great, and we had four new people show up! They’re all very interesting, and one is a scrapbooker/stamper, so that’s just peachy keen. Maybe I’ll wind up with a local scrapbooking buddy, after all!
Thomas behaved himself perfectly well, and it was really nice to catch up with some of my local friends. We got home a little after nine, and Kayla was already asleep. Around 10 or so, Mike took Adam to bed, and I took Thomas to bed.
The phone rang, waking me up about 9. I hate waking up this way - it starts the day off on a cranky note. But I suppose since I generally wake up either to the phone ringing, kids hollering (or being hollered at), a baby screaming, or roosters or guinea fowl squawking, it’s really a toss-up, huh?
I did some email catch up and ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Adam was very wild this morning - kicking everybody, hitting, talking back. I don’t know what’s up with him, but the first one to tell me it’s a “normal developmental milestone” gets it.
I finally went downstairs and popped in a movie for the kids. I usually let them choose what to watch, and for at least the fourth straight day, it was Winnie the Pooh. Kayla, in particular, will virtually always choose Pooh when it’s her turn to pick. I really shouldn’t complain, though; other than Rabbit’s tendency to get snippy and bossy, it doesn’t really teach them any bad language or behaviors.
I took a break from the computer and went to do some laundry. Adam was pretty low on socks, so I wanted to do a load of whites. You moms will be able to commiserate with this: I began the Great Sock Hunt. Children (at least, my children) shed their socks on a regular basis. Shoes, too. Problem is, socks are never shed together, or in an obvious place, so you must hunt them down. One sock may be wedged against a bookshelf. Another could be inside a book. Innumerable socks squirm their way under the bed and between sofa cushions. Some socks manage to hide so long and so well that you never find them, until the day after you have finally given up on them, and tossed their mates into the garbage. My hunt yesterday yielded about 15 socks, only two of which matched. Maybe some of them will match the dozens that always line the bottom of the laundry basket.
We all had a quick lunch (corndogs for wee people, sandwiches for adults), then headed to the clinic. I was concerned about Thomas, and wanted to have the doctor look at him. A few times, I’ve noticed that he will suddenly just beging shaking all over his body, for up to 30 seconds at a time. He stops just as suddenly as he started, and never seems bothered by it in the least. In fact, one time he began his shaking during a nursing session, and just kept right on shaking, without missing a beat. Still, I wanted it checked out. So we saw Dr. Parsons, described to him what was going on, and he checked things like reflexes, grip, ability to see from peripheral vision, etc. before he pronounced it nothing to be concerned about. He theorizes that it’s just a transitory phase of Thomas’ neurological development, and that unless it increases in frequency or becomes associated with other symptoms, to just not worry about it.
The older kids were very well-behaved at the doctor’s office, so we all went to the grocery store for going-home treats. I was very tired by the time we got to the house, so I tried to have a nap. It wasn’t to be, though, so I ended up with an hour-and-a-half rest instead. I finally gave up, and went out to the living room to start cutting pieces for the outer border of that quilt. I watched the vice-presidential debate when it came on at 6. There was no real new information there, though I was surprised to see just how arrogant, impatient, and smug John Edwards came off. By all accounts, I was to have expected bad behavior from Cheney. The truth was quite the opposite. Still, I thought they both did a better job than the presidential candidates, and watching Cheney makes me wish he were president.
Midway through the debate, Mike brought me a plate of dinner (because he is the best husband in all the land), and I munched on broccoli with pepperoni and corned beef hash while I watched. Once the debate was over, we all watched an episode of Iron Chef (angler, and that is one fugly fish!) together. All the while, I kept working on the borders. I finally got them assembled, and tomorrow I just need to sew them onto the quilt itself.
Once TV time was over, we all came upstairs and Mike and I did more work. Kayla fell asleep in Mike’s lap, and he carried her down to bed. Then about 10:15 or so, he took Adam to his room to help him fall asleep. I stayed upstairs with Thomas, and worked and chatted with a friend online. I finally went to bed about 1 in the morning, but once again wasn’t able to fall asleep until 2. This cycle can’t last.
I spent my morning working, once again. I finally managed to get my inbox empty, for a few brief, glorious moments. It didn’t last long, though.
Adam and I went to dance class again this week, and this time I even remembered to leave on time. On the way through town, I saw the postal carrier getting ready to make his rounds. I stopped and asked if we could pick up our mail, and he obliged. Hallelujah, royalty checks! One for both me and SexyHusband, so we can keep the wolves at bay for another couple of weeks.
Dance class went fine, though Adam still has problems being herded into doing what everyone else is doing. Ah, well, that’s part of this exercise; getting him more used to following instructions.
Back home, I paid the bills then had a bit of a domestic fit - I did some laundry, and swept the dining room. I would’ve done more, but once again my ankle was hurting like a son-of-a-b*tch. So instead, I went back upstairs to do more work.
About 4 in the afternoon, I realized I hadn’t had lunch, so I made a plate of leftovers. Then dove in and did still more work.
Mike made dinner of pork ribs, corn, and mac and cheese. The ribs were kind of overdone, but that’s partially my fault. Last time I made cookies, I teased him that I had to wash my cookie-cooling rack, because he used it for roasting meat on and bits of the meat were still stubbornly hanging on. So this time, he tried to use the broiling pan instead, and it ended up not giving the ribs the moisture they needed to cook properly. That’ll teach me to whine!
After dinner, I did more work until it was time for Iron Chef. Today, it was the 1999 New Year’s Special, and the battle was between Chen Kenichi (my second-favorite Iron Chef, after Morimoto) and the head chef of the biggest Chinese restaurant in Japan. Seems the guy had sent two of his chefs in previous battles, and both of them got spanked by Chef Chen. The new guy - Xie something - won this battle, so his “honor was restored.” Too funny.
Back upstairs, I did still more work, all the while trying to ignore the pain in my ankle. Thomas started showing signs of fatigue about 10, so at 10:30 I took him to bed and nursed him to sleep, while Mike took the older two upstairs. Sometime later, Adam got wild and struck Kayla in the face with a toy, so he got sent to bed. Mike took Kayla down to bed about 11:30 (I think), and I stayed up to work. I finally got too tired to think about 1AM and went to bed myself, but couldn’t fall asleep until almost 2.
Incidentally, thank you to everyone who responded to my question yesterday about why you read. The message I’m taking away is “keep it real.” :)
This is a little out of the ordinary for this site, but I just have to know: why do you read Note-It Posts? I mean, don’t get me wrong; I write publicly because I want people to read, but it’s all just a little mystifying to me: this site currently averages about 250 visitors per day. I think of this as my journal. The site where I co-blog - what I think of as a REAL blog - gets about a third of that. That just boggles my mind. I mean, my life is utterly mundane. The highlight of my week is going grocery shopping, for goodness’ sake.
I’m really not trying to scare of readers (God forbid), just understand. I mean, I know there is some traffic from search engines (about 30%), and some from family and friends (maybe 10%), but for the remaining 60% of you, if you don’t mind… what keeps you coming back here?
I woke up and immediately started in on work. I knew I was going to be gone most of the day, so I wanted to get something accomplished before I left.
About 9:00, Adam, Thomas and I left for Pullman. My friend from preschool - Vicki - was moving with her family to a new house, and she needed help moving some furniture. Since I have a pickup, I offered to help haul. She had another friend there with her pickup, so the furniture she needed us to move only took one load. After that was done, I put her two boys in my truck, and took them off to play while Vicki and her husband moved boxes.
First we went to Burger King, where the boys pretended to be Three Musketeers, Batman, the new Batman (??), Robin, and various other super-heroes. They spent about an hour and a half capturing and dispensing with bad guys, and even found time to eat a little crappy fast food. Next we went to Zeppoz, which is a game/arcade/bowling alley place in Pullman. The boys played a few video games, then we all played a game of bowling (don’t ask), before I decided we should call an end to that and go have dessert.
We went to Denny’s for treats. Adam and I had ice cream (ok, I had a banana split!), and Vicki’s boys had pie (apple and French silk). Just as we were finishing up there, Vicki called my cell to say she was done, so I took the boys to their new home. We said goodbye, then made our way back home ourselves. I had fun with them, but by the time I got home I was tired and achy, so I had a hot bath. I ate dinner while I was still in the tub, then got out to do some more work on the quilt. I got the center part assembled and the inner border put on. Now all I have to do is make and sew on the outer border, and it’s ready for the next phase: signing by other pre-school moms.
Much of the evening was spent watching Food Network (no Iron Chef, alas), which is having its “Cook With Your Kids Week.” Adam was sent to bed for bad behavior, and I took Kayla to bed. Mike took Thomas upstairs to get him to sleep, since I was having no luck.
I was up and out of bed at 6:30 this morning, making me the first one up for a change. I’m not a morning person, but the kids are trying to turn me into one. Bah! I spent most of the morning catching up on work and blog-reading. I never did get completely caught up on either, but I made good progress on both.
Mike made pancakes for breakfast, as kind of an olive branch to Adam. The two of them have been doing battle over food lately. I guess you could call it our own version of Iron Chef. Kayla slept late - until almost 9:30 - so she got her pancakes later.
After breakfast, I started working on quilt for a friend - Vicki - who is going through treatment for lymphoma.
In the afternoon, I decided to give Adam a haircut. I had bought a pair of clippers just for this purpose, and decided to try them out. I don’t know if his hair was too long, or the clippers were set too short, or they just plained sucked, but they did an AWFUL job of cutting his hair. I finally gave up and got out the scissors, then cleaned it up as best I could. Adam was amazingly tolerant of the whole thing, and I finally got it finished. But GOD that is a messy process, one I’m only too happy to leave to the professionals in the future.
Mike made dinner, and afterward I watched Iron Chef America, Battle of the Masters with the kids. Mike didn’t want to watch it with us, and by the end of it I could see why he’s not a fan of Bobby Flay. He got totally out-classed in the kitchen. He burned his finger, turned the blender on with no lid on it, and burned his orange sauce. Still, Chef Morimoto picked up his slack and they won in a landslide.
I let the kids play with Play-Doh afterward, while I did some more work on the quilt.
I woke up at 8:45. I did a bit of work, then started scrambling to get the older kids ready for storytime at the library. They were both really trying my patience; Kayla dragging her feet at every turn, and Adam at one point took off the shoes and socks I had put on him. They damn near didn’t
