On two very different fronts, there are reasons to celebrate. The baby I've asked folks to pray for has successfully come off the ventilator. She's now 7 weeks old, weighs 2 lbs. 13 oz. She's progressing well, moving around. Her parents eagerly anticipate getting to hold her for the first time in the next week or so. I cannot imagine the journey they're on. I still pray they discover God's grace in their lives as He sustains their tiny baby girl.
The other thing that has me doing happy dances is John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin for VP. I have been completely apathetic towards McCain up to now, but with this choice, it makes me think he may actually have some sense.
I am a political junkie, and have been since I was about 12, although I remember being vehemently opposed to Dukakis when I was in 5th grade. (What could I have really known back then?) Anyway, I've been paying attention to that stuff for a long time. Anyone remember the exact date of the Clinton impeachment vote? I do, I got married that day, so I have a reason to remember it, but still. December 19, 1998. We got back from our wedding and watched CNN in the hotel room to find out what had happened since we hadn't been paying attention for a few hours.
Back to Palin... She's conservative, she's a straight-shooter (literally and figuratively!), she's a reformer, she has executive experience (unlike everyone else on the ticket on both sides!), she's a mother, and she'll be tough to beat. However this campaign ends, she'll be a great choice to put up against Hilary in 2012 or 2016. It's a good day for conservatism.
I might actually be motivated to vote for McCain now instead of just voting against Barack.
In my head right now, "The Word," by The Beatles.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
LET'S CELEBRATE!!!
The table is DONE! Not only is it done, but it's dry and it's back inside. We have a table again! I'm so happy, I'm beside myself! It looks so very nice and shiny...
Since coming home, Hubby is on a Soundgarden kick, so in my head is "Fell On Black Days."
Since coming home, Hubby is on a Soundgarden kick, so in my head is "Fell On Black Days."
Wednesday Night Surprise
Last night I was tired. I was the kind of tired where I fell asleep on the couch, and then realized I needed to go to bed, so I went upstairs, did the bedtime routine stuff, and got in bed, all before 8:30. I haven't gone to bed that early (without being terribly sick) since I was in 2nd grade! Before I went to sleep, I called my hubby to tell him that I missed him. He didn't pick up, and I didn't think anything of that since he's been working crazy hours this week, so I left him a voice mail. I told him I was about to go to sleep, even though it was crazy early. About five minutes later, he called me back...
...from the airport. He called from the LOCAL airport to tell me he'd be home in about 40 minutes!!! He wanted to just show up and surprise me, but he didn't want to wake me up, since I was planning to go to sleep. (That would have been quite a rude awakening, since he'd have set off the alarm coming in. Glad he didn't do it that way.)
My first response, other than elation, was to apologize for the house being messy. I was planning to have everything spic 'n' span by Friday, but with no notice, he didn't get to come home to things the way I wanted.
My plan to go to bed early was only thwarted partially. I fell asleep on the couch in the 40 minutes it took him to make it home, and we were in bed with the lights out by 11:00. That's pretty good for a week's worth of catching up.
We all walked Big Girl to school this morning. It was nice. For us, it was like the first day all over again, only without the huge crowd.
And since he worked so many hours this week, he's not going into the office until after Labor Day! I get him HERE for 5 days in a row!!! WOO HOO!!!
Cake has made the song in my head again this week, with "Alpha Beta Parking Lot," and "Waiting." The cool thing about "Waiting" is that the singer, John McCrea, is behind the beat when he sings, but he's not dragging. He's just making us all wait for him to sing. Very clever.
...from the airport. He called from the LOCAL airport to tell me he'd be home in about 40 minutes!!! He wanted to just show up and surprise me, but he didn't want to wake me up, since I was planning to go to sleep. (That would have been quite a rude awakening, since he'd have set off the alarm coming in. Glad he didn't do it that way.)
My first response, other than elation, was to apologize for the house being messy. I was planning to have everything spic 'n' span by Friday, but with no notice, he didn't get to come home to things the way I wanted.
My plan to go to bed early was only thwarted partially. I fell asleep on the couch in the 40 minutes it took him to make it home, and we were in bed with the lights out by 11:00. That's pretty good for a week's worth of catching up.
We all walked Big Girl to school this morning. It was nice. For us, it was like the first day all over again, only without the huge crowd.
And since he worked so many hours this week, he's not going into the office until after Labor Day! I get him HERE for 5 days in a row!!! WOO HOO!!!
Cake has made the song in my head again this week, with "Alpha Beta Parking Lot," and "Waiting." The cool thing about "Waiting" is that the singer, John McCrea, is behind the beat when he sings, but he's not dragging. He's just making us all wait for him to sing. Very clever.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Missing My Kids
Today has been a somewhat strange day. My good friend, Bethany, and I did a kid swap last year, so that every other week, we'd each get a day off. The week we didn't get off, we'd have the other mom's kids (that weren't yet school age). It's a nice system, especially for scheduling doctor appointments, hair appointments, shopping in general where kids would be bored, errands, etc. Today was my first day off of the new school year. The weird thing was that I didn't know what to do with myself. I had most of the day, and I did the things I set out to do, and I was done by around noon. And I didn't get my kids back until school was out. I really missed the girls.Part of me wanted to go hang out at the school and be a fly on the wall where Big Girl was. But I don't want to be a distraction to the teachers setting routines for the kids, and of all the kids in there, I know my girl needs the routine to be well established before we can go about wrecking it, even for something like me just being there to watch. And I don't want to be one of THOSE parents. You know, the ones who don't give their kids any space to just be. And the ones who are constantly second-guessing what should be done about or for their kids. Yeah, I'm not going to be that way. So I stayed away. I want the professionals doing their jobs without interference from me. If there are problems, I'm happy to be a team player and work together to find solutions, but for now, I'll just stay out of it.
It's amazing how much just taking care of one kid gives direction and focus to a day. When Little Girl wasn't with me today, I felt so completely free, it was too much. I need some boundaries and semblance of schedule. Someone to come and tell me she's hungry so I'll make lunch, or snack or whatever. (That's why I need my hubby home at night to tell me when it's time for bed! Although the early wake-up call is changing that somewhat. We'll see what the "new normal" is after he comes home.) And I just plain missed her too. She's got a lot of spunk, and she's not boring. I was pretty boring today by myself. Maybe I'll have enough things to do next time to fill my day without her. That's another 2 weeks off at this point.
My table is pretty much done. I'm leaving it in the garage until tomorrow so the last coat will be good and set before it comes inside. I'm a little disappointed with my last sanding job on the table leaf. I'll probably leave it outside a while longer and mess with it some more, but for the most part, the job is done and we'll have our table back inside tomorrow afternoon.
Time for me to go make dinner. It will be our last one on the card table! YAY!
The song in my head earlier today was from the Galactic Cowboys. "Puppet Show" was the song. Don't know why I had that going, but whatever. Maybe I heard it last night going to bed.
Last night I tried something a little different. I went to sleep with my iPod on. I don't know how long I was actually awake with it, but I kept turning it down every now and then, and finally, I just took it off and rolled back over and went back to sleep (I had already dozed off at least once). That was probably about an hour or so after I first went to bed. It was a way to keep the song in my head from keeping me up, which has happened quite a bit lately. Instead of my brain being active, playing its own song, it was being fed something, and then I was free to drift off. I'll have to try that again. And I could even do it with Hubby back if I need to. With ear-buds it wouldn't disturb him at all.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Mommy the Grouch
The "Good Will Fairy" has left the building. All this no sleep is definitely catching up to me.Tonight we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner, which was a slight change from the usual. We usually go on Wednesday, before church activities on Wednesday night. We don't have anything on Wednesday night this week, and Tuesdays at our local Chick-fil-a is Family Night, where you get a free Kid's Meal for each adult combo purchase. So that's half the kids free, and there's not a reason to go tomorrow, so we went tonight. Big Girl has actually been allowing this change in routine every now and then lately. Any time she's willing to vary from the norm is a good thing.
Family Night at Chick-fil-a is not where you want to take kids that have not napped, or a Mommy who has been sleep deprived. There were so many people in the restaurant, I couldn't find a table with three open chairs in the whole place. Luckily, a girl with a college volleyball team heard me tell that to the girls, and the whole group got up and gave us their tables, since they were on their way out. It was nuts!
If there are that many people in the eating part, you can just imagine how many kids were in the play area. Take that mental number, and multiply it by 5 or 10, and then you're getting close. Oh my, it was OVERWHELMING!! There was also a guy playing guitar and singing VeggieTales songs (somewhat badly), and a crowd of kids around him. After a while, he got out two DDR pads (one was VeggieTales themed and the other was "Dance Praise," but they were the arrow pads, about 4' square). I noticed my Big Girl, who had joined the crowd around the music guy, with her shoes and socks off. Not cool. If you're going to advertize "Live Music" then carry on with the live music. Not something competitive where only two kids can do it at once, and not everyone will get a turn.
About this time a lady comes out of the play area and says there's a little blonde girl with a bow trapped in the top of the playscape. Fearing it was my little bow-headed blonde, I went in, and sure enough, it was Little Girl screaming way up in the corner of the play thing. She wasn't actually trapped. She was just screaming because a bunch of rowdy kids were running over her in the tunnel and on the slide and she had had enough. I can't blame her. I told her it was OK, and that she needed to come down, and so she started toward the slide. I thought things would be alright, but then two rough little kids, plowed over her to get down the slide. I let one of them have it. You just don't climb over someone. It doesn't matter how slowly they climb through the tunnel.
After I got my girls' shoes back on, we left, which greatly disappointed them both. But we had to get out of there.
Both girls got a quick shower (no hair-washing), and off to bed. Now it's my turn. Each day it's getting easier and easier to go to bed early. I hope it doesn't mess things up for hubby to come home. He's usually heading to the bedroom to read about 11:30-12:00, lights out at 12:30 or so. I just won't be able to function if he does that. He's going to be in for a rude awakening (litterally and figuratively) if he wants to keep those kinds of hours! The days of sleeping til 8:00 AM are OVER!
First Day of Kindergarten
Today is the day. This morning I walked my precious little baby to school, taking pictures along the way, and sent her off down the hall to her classroom all by herself. I'll admit it, there were tears, all mine. She did beautifully, as I expected she would. (We'll have to see how the day went, I go pick her up in about another hour.) My mom, Big Girl's music teacher, went around the back way to check on her in the Kindergarten hallway to make sure she got to where she was supposed to be (parents weren't allowed past the doors at the end of the hall). Of course she was fine.The PTA threw a "Boo-Hoo Breakfast" for Kindergarten moms. I was one of those. They had tissues on the table next to the fruit and muffins. Very cute. By the time I was in the breakfast, I wasn't crying anymore, but still, I appreciated the thought.
Today has been pretty quiet around the house with just one kid. When we got home, I went to work on my table (hopefully for the last time), and I sent Little Girl outside to play in the back yard. Of course she came in with muddy shoes, so I got to clean the carpet this morning too. Lunch was quiet, except for Little Girl spilling her milk partly on the carpet (in nearly the same place as the mud), and partly on the tile. She watched a couple videos, no fighting over what to watch, and now she's taking a little nap (I hope).
One of the strange things is that Little Girl was talking about going potty last night. Then this morning, she was back to her usual "I wanna be a baby and wear diapers forever" self. Today I printed out her penny chart and showed her that if she goes potty, she can get pennies. After that, she wanted to sit on the potty for a while. She didn't do anything, but I'm not going to discourage her from voluntarily going to the potty! I'll try and get her chart laminated soon so I can actually give her the pennies she earns. Could that be what she's been waiting for? Well, I'll try to not get my hopes up. After her attempt at potty today, she asked to be put back in a diaper. It's OK. Baby steps are still steps.
On one hand I'm anxious to go pick up my big girl from school. I want to know how the day went. On the other hand, I'm not looking forward to the walk in the heat and humidity. I'm determined to walk, though. It's better for me, and it saves gas, and we really live so close to the school, it would be almost embarrassing for me to drive! Plus, the line of cars at pick-up time moves very slowly, and would actually take longer than the walk there and back home.
I've got "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" in my head. It's by a band called Cake. There's just nothing quite like Cake. I don't like everything they've done, some songs I won't even listen to where they use foul language, but for the most part, they write some great hooks that easily get stuck in your head, and you don't even mind because they're really cool. And I know that was a run-on sentence, but I don't care. My baby started Kindergarten today, and I don't feel like editing.
Monday, August 25, 2008
School, Sand, Pennies, Perception & Humor
The trial run this morning was a complete success. The clock in the office showed 7:31 when we came in the front doors of the school. Both Big Girl and I were up before our alarms, something we can't count on in the future, but will probably be the case tomorrow, for me at least. It was a good thing I wasn't counting on the alarm. I had set it, but forgotten to switch it on! I'm all ready to go for tomorrow. I won't make that mistake again, at least not until after I turn it off for the weekend.
The plan to play in the sand was also a complete success. The girls had fun, and we could have stayed longer if Little Girl's diaper hadn't been so wet it looked like it was holding the equivalent volume of the Gulf of Mexico. What can I do? We had to go home and take care of that. It was a good 45-60 minutes at the park. It's not like they didn't get a chance to play.
We did go shopping. The things I was unable to find a Wal-mart yesterday were readily available at The Container Store, so I'm good to go. One thing I needed to find today was to fix up the ailing penny chart. I mentioned it yesterday, so I'll describe it in detail today, since one of the mini-projects I did today was to support that.
When Big Girl was about four years old, we were struggling to get her to be independent about some particular tasks, like dress herself, wipe herself (that was a big one!), eat her dinner, play nicely with her sister, and stuff like that. We were given advice to use stickers or something to motivate her with positive reinforcement. I'm not a big fan of stickers as rewards because you have to constantly keep buying more stickers, and then where do you put the stickers? Do you make a new chart every time? Not my idea of how I want to do things.
Then one day after my husband took her to school, he told me about a system they were doing with her using money velroed to a chart. Now that I liked. You put the velcro on the money, and then use it over and over again. So here's the chart we have (pictured).
And what I made today was the bank. Prior to this we had a strip of velcro with adhesive magnets on the back, and it was not working well at all. The magnets weren't holding, and the whole strip fell down between the fridge and the cabinets several times. Our penny chart is just an excel file I created. (The smudgy areas are where I blocked out her name. Yay for Photoshop!) To the left you can see the end of the hand-written list of things that she can do to earn pennies. She's graduated from things like "Wipe yourself after going poo-poo" to "Get dressed and put on socks and shoes before 7:00 AM". She and I worked on the new list together this morning over breakfast.
I'm hoping to start this system with my little girl pretty soon. One of the things she'll have on there is GOING POTTY!!! I hope the reward system will work for her. I'll have to bribe her with Polly Pockets and stuff when she earns big amounts, like a quarter.
In addition to being reusable, the money system has also taught Big Girl about denominations of money. She knows what equals what. She'll be better at making change at age 7 or 8 than most 16-year-old cashiers at McDonalds.
At the bottom of the chart it says what she gets as rewards for each level of achievement. She gets computer time for a nickel, a special surprise for a quarter (the dollar bin stuff at the front of Target!), and for a dollar, she gets a trip to our local inflatable play park, a particular favorite outing for them both. I'll probably have to change the rewards for Little Girl, like I was saying. Computer time is a big deal to Big Girl, and that's such a great motivator for her.
I want to share a couple more things before I must go rest (those 1 AM nights are really catching up with me!!). One is that my little girl today asked me why I was mad at her. I was not mad at her, but I wasn't being playful at that moment, and I'm super tired. Still, this caught me entirely off guard. It was a very perceptive thing for her to ask me.
The other thing is my big girl's attempts at humor have been funny for their un-funny-ness. Last week I taught her the joke, "Why is Six afraid of Seven? Because Seven ATE Nine." Then Sunday afternoon she tried to tell this one, "Why is Seven afraid of Eight? Because Eight, Nine, Ten!" Oh, so very un-funny. We (my parents and I) tried to tell her that the first one is funny because eight and ate are homophones (she knows what homophones are- about six months ago we had great fun making a list of them, and since then, she brings it up when she notices one). But she doesn't get it. Another one she's been telling is this, "Why did one shirt chase the other? Because they were playing tag." I understand why she thinks that one is funny- because shirts don't play tag. But it's not anywhere close to yuck-yuck funny, and yet, she cracks up telling that one. She is a pro at telling her 3 or so knock-knock jokes. Even then, she delivers it just a bit off, "Orange you glad I didn't say A BANANA?" It's close, but slightly off.
And with that, I'm about to fall asleep in my chair. I must go rest. I'm so tired I'm not hearing a song right now, which frightens me somewhat. Oh well, I made up for it last night!
The plan to play in the sand was also a complete success. The girls had fun, and we could have stayed longer if Little Girl's diaper hadn't been so wet it looked like it was holding the equivalent volume of the Gulf of Mexico. What can I do? We had to go home and take care of that. It was a good 45-60 minutes at the park. It's not like they didn't get a chance to play.
We did go shopping. The things I was unable to find a Wal-mart yesterday were readily available at The Container Store, so I'm good to go. One thing I needed to find today was to fix up the ailing penny chart. I mentioned it yesterday, so I'll describe it in detail today, since one of the mini-projects I did today was to support that.
When Big Girl was about four years old, we were struggling to get her to be independent about some particular tasks, like dress herself, wipe herself (that was a big one!), eat her dinner, play nicely with her sister, and stuff like that. We were given advice to use stickers or something to motivate her with positive reinforcement. I'm not a big fan of stickers as rewards because you have to constantly keep buying more stickers, and then where do you put the stickers? Do you make a new chart every time? Not my idea of how I want to do things.
Then one day after my husband took her to school, he told me about a system they were doing with her using money velroed to a chart. Now that I liked. You put the velcro on the money, and then use it over and over again. So here's the chart we have (pictured).
And what I made today was the bank. Prior to this we had a strip of velcro with adhesive magnets on the back, and it was not working well at all. The magnets weren't holding, and the whole strip fell down between the fridge and the cabinets several times. Our penny chart is just an excel file I created. (The smudgy areas are where I blocked out her name. Yay for Photoshop!) To the left you can see the end of the hand-written list of things that she can do to earn pennies. She's graduated from things like "Wipe yourself after going poo-poo" to "Get dressed and put on socks and shoes before 7:00 AM". She and I worked on the new list together this morning over breakfast.I'm hoping to start this system with my little girl pretty soon. One of the things she'll have on there is GOING POTTY!!! I hope the reward system will work for her. I'll have to bribe her with Polly Pockets and stuff when she earns big amounts, like a quarter.
In addition to being reusable, the money system has also taught Big Girl about denominations of money. She knows what equals what. She'll be better at making change at age 7 or 8 than most 16-year-old cashiers at McDonalds.
At the bottom of the chart it says what she gets as rewards for each level of achievement. She gets computer time for a nickel, a special surprise for a quarter (the dollar bin stuff at the front of Target!), and for a dollar, she gets a trip to our local inflatable play park, a particular favorite outing for them both. I'll probably have to change the rewards for Little Girl, like I was saying. Computer time is a big deal to Big Girl, and that's such a great motivator for her.
I want to share a couple more things before I must go rest (those 1 AM nights are really catching up with me!!). One is that my little girl today asked me why I was mad at her. I was not mad at her, but I wasn't being playful at that moment, and I'm super tired. Still, this caught me entirely off guard. It was a very perceptive thing for her to ask me.
The other thing is my big girl's attempts at humor have been funny for their un-funny-ness. Last week I taught her the joke, "Why is Six afraid of Seven? Because Seven ATE Nine." Then Sunday afternoon she tried to tell this one, "Why is Seven afraid of Eight? Because Eight, Nine, Ten!" Oh, so very un-funny. We (my parents and I) tried to tell her that the first one is funny because eight and ate are homophones (she knows what homophones are- about six months ago we had great fun making a list of them, and since then, she brings it up when she notices one). But she doesn't get it. Another one she's been telling is this, "Why did one shirt chase the other? Because they were playing tag." I understand why she thinks that one is funny- because shirts don't play tag. But it's not anywhere close to yuck-yuck funny, and yet, she cracks up telling that one. She is a pro at telling her 3 or so knock-knock jokes. Even then, she delivers it just a bit off, "Orange you glad I didn't say A BANANA?" It's close, but slightly off.
And with that, I'm about to fall asleep in my chair. I must go rest. I'm so tired I'm not hearing a song right now, which frightens me somewhat. Oh well, I made up for it last night!
Whoa...
OK, this is the ULTIMATE song-in-my-head moment. I must share...
I was just now laying in bed, in the dark, trying to fall asleep, and the songs I heard on my iPod as I worked on the table this evening were rolling around in my head, everything from Weird Al to 2nd Chapter of Acts, and back to The Beatles, Ben Folds Five, and on and on.
My brain drifted to "Dizzy Miss Lizzie," which is the last song on the Help! CD. (My dad tells me that it wasn't on the LP back in the day, but whatever, it's on the CD, and
that's what I have.) In the middle of going over that song in my head, my brain jumped to "In The Mood," the 1940's big band standard. And it took me a minute to figure out why, but then it hit me. Both of those songs have the EXACT same chord progression through the verse. You could actually sing "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" over "In The Mood," and it would work. The rhythms in the "riffs" are not quite the same (not that "In The Mood" really has a riff), but the chords are dead on. The recording of "In The Mood" is a little fast, but it works. I tried it just now. After a little while it's just hard to keep the other song going, but hey, it's a wild experiment!
And with that, I have to calm back down and try to go to sleep. I'm still going to do that trial run, and whether I like it or not (NOT!!!), the alarm is going off at 6:30.
I was just now laying in bed, in the dark, trying to fall asleep, and the songs I heard on my iPod as I worked on the table this evening were rolling around in my head, everything from Weird Al to 2nd Chapter of Acts, and back to The Beatles, Ben Folds Five, and on and on.
My brain drifted to "Dizzy Miss Lizzie," which is the last song on the Help! CD. (My dad tells me that it wasn't on the LP back in the day, but whatever, it's on the CD, and
that's what I have.) In the middle of going over that song in my head, my brain jumped to "In The Mood," the 1940's big band standard. And it took me a minute to figure out why, but then it hit me. Both of those songs have the EXACT same chord progression through the verse. You could actually sing "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" over "In The Mood," and it would work. The rhythms in the "riffs" are not quite the same (not that "In The Mood" really has a riff), but the chords are dead on. The recording of "In The Mood" is a little fast, but it works. I tried it just now. After a little while it's just hard to keep the other song going, but hey, it's a wild experiment!And with that, I have to calm back down and try to go to sleep. I'm still going to do that trial run, and whether I like it or not (NOT!!!), the alarm is going off at 6:30.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday & Sunday
Yesterday after our donut breakfast (so very healthy!), we had a pretty busy day. We visited the young widow I've written about, hugged on her and loved on her for a little while. It's so sad, there just aren't any words. On our way there, I wanted to warn my big girl not to say anything that would be upsetting, and I told her that our friend's husband died, and that she may be very sad when we visit her. And my profound little girl said in a very sad voice, "That means she will live all alone in her house." I'm glad she said that in the car and not to the bereaved young woman. And that's exactly why we had our conversation in the car. It was a good visit. My girls and her dogs diverted attention comfortably from the uncomfortable truth for a little while.
After that we came back home, ate a quick lunch and then went to my parents' house. All summer my mother has been working on sewing drapes for her bedroom,
and they were ready to be hung. She made swags for each window and pleated end pieces that all had to be staple-gunned to a board, and the board mounted to the wall just above the window. She wanted me to do the stapling and assist Dad with the mounting. Everything turned out beautifully, and I got to do another project, taking my time and attention away from pining after my husband. The end result is pictured. There was another skinny window on the other side of the bed from this set of windows too, so there were 4 swags to staple, and 4 ends too.
When I got home from all that, it was time to put the girls to bed, and I shot my husband a quick e-mail to call me when he got in from the Royals/Tigers game he was attending. (Apparently he has this goal to visit as many major league parks as he can, which he mostly does when he's away on business trips. He went to a Toronto Blue Jays game, and now a KC Royals game that way. Fine with me. That means I don't have to go!)
I was pretty tired, and turned in early, and was just about to really go to sleep when he called. It was really fine. I wanted to tell him all the fun things I've been doing. I was such a sad sap the last time I had talked to him, and he needed to know I had turned the corner. Talking about all that stuff, the IKEA day, the table and then the drapes, got me so keyed up that I couldn't sleep when I got off the phone. I laid there in bed thinking about the dishes in the sink, and couldn't stand it, so I got up and cleaned my kitchen from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, and also started reorganizing some things. I put all the things I need to make my big girl's lunches in the same place, things like that. (Hubby won't know where things are anymore! And although he's an internet junkie, he doesn't read this blog much, so it will still be a surprise to him when he comes home!) When I went to bed for the second time, I was exhausted, and went right to dreamland with no problems! It felt so good this morning to come in to the cleaned kitchen to make the kids' breakfast.
Then today was promotion Sunday for the kids' ministry at our church, and my big girl graduated out of the pre-school department. For kids at our church, that means LOTS of changes. For one, they go to class in an entirely different building. And for two, they come to "big church" for the opening half of worship, and then go "Pied-Piper"-style to Children's Church. I wasn't sure how my mildly autistic child would take to all these changes at once, so today I went with her throughout the morning. It was also a good way to give all the adults working with her a head's up about her special needs so they won't be surprised if she has a problem.
During Children's Church, the children are divided into groups and go to several different rooms and rotate to the different stations. While in the Prayer Room, the children were encouraged to bring up different prayer concerns that they would pray over at the end of the group time. It was then that my daughter blurted out, "Cookie Monster is voracious," in a very loud voice. It was all I could do to not crack up laughing at the back of the room. That's my kid! That was a great example of what my kid does! She loves big, fancy words, and knows how to use them. And she's very indirect about stating what she thinks and needs. That was her way of dropping a hint that she was hungry and she wanted a snack.
After church today we went to my mom & dad's again where I took a fantastic nap on the couch for a couple hours. That's what Sunday afternoons were made for!
In my crazy busyness last night, I started making a list of things I needed to buy today to be ready for the week. One of those things was a new radio alarm clock for Big Girl. She has an alarm clock, but it only wakes up to the "beep-beeps" which scare her (my husband doesn't like them either, and will ony set his clock to the radio). Since she's going to have to be getting up at 6:30, I figure she needs a softer wake-up call so that she'll actually use it. I've informed her that she gets a reward each day for being dressed before 7:00, so that she'll be on time for school. (She earns pennies on a chart- I'll show it to you one of these days.) Anyway, where was I... oh yeah, we went shopping after we got back from Mom & Dad's late this afternoon, and picked up some odds and ends like her new clock. We also stopped off at the grocery store and she got to pick out what she will eat for snack in Kindergarten.
I've really enjoyed my children these last couple days. Today hanging out with my big girl all morning was really neat. She really is one of my favorite people. She knows quite a bit of sign language, and I've been signing to her, "You're my favorite girl," as often as I think of it. Of course I say the same thing to my little girl. They really are both my favorites. It's been a "stop and smell the roses" kind of weekend with them. I'm trying to make the most of these moments, even out running errands, when I let them make choices (like Big Girl's snack), and just "hang out" with them. We ate a fast-food dinner out in the midst of our shopping tonight, and that was so fun, sitting at the table with my two favorite girls. They looked pretty cute today in matching dresses, matching hair bows and matching sandals. (I love doing that, and I know the day will come when Little Girl won't let me anymore, so I enjoy it now while I can!) And it's fun to see the looks on the faces of other patrons, seeing us three sitting there, obviously enjoying each other's company.
Tomorrow the girls and I will do a trial run, to practice getting to school on time. Hopefully getting up that early will make them tired enough to go to bed early tomorrow night. We'll go to the school (aiming to get there at 7:30), go in and meet one more person who will be working with Big Girl whom she hasn't had a chance to meet yet. After that, the plan is for us to take our kids' meal toys (sand diggers) that we just got tonight over to the sand volleyball courts at the park next to the school and play in the sand. That will be fun for the girls. Then afterward we'll need to go back home, get cleaned up, and then shop for the last couple things I wasn't able to find when we were out tonight.
I'm getting less sad about Kindergarten, at least for the moment. That's a good thing, right?
As we've been driving around these last couple days, I've been introducing the girls (mainly Big Girl) to The Beatles. She thinks it's great that they spell it wrong! Today we listened to Help! twice, skipping some songs like "Act Naturally." I just can't stand that one. I really like others on that album like "Help!," "I've Just Seen a Face," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." Big Girl really liked "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", and that's the song in my head now. She was trying to sing it as we were setting up her new alarm clock this evening. She's such a doll! I love that kid so much!!
After that we came back home, ate a quick lunch and then went to my parents' house. All summer my mother has been working on sewing drapes for her bedroom,
and they were ready to be hung. She made swags for each window and pleated end pieces that all had to be staple-gunned to a board, and the board mounted to the wall just above the window. She wanted me to do the stapling and assist Dad with the mounting. Everything turned out beautifully, and I got to do another project, taking my time and attention away from pining after my husband. The end result is pictured. There was another skinny window on the other side of the bed from this set of windows too, so there were 4 swags to staple, and 4 ends too.When I got home from all that, it was time to put the girls to bed, and I shot my husband a quick e-mail to call me when he got in from the Royals/Tigers game he was attending. (Apparently he has this goal to visit as many major league parks as he can, which he mostly does when he's away on business trips. He went to a Toronto Blue Jays game, and now a KC Royals game that way. Fine with me. That means I don't have to go!)
I was pretty tired, and turned in early, and was just about to really go to sleep when he called. It was really fine. I wanted to tell him all the fun things I've been doing. I was such a sad sap the last time I had talked to him, and he needed to know I had turned the corner. Talking about all that stuff, the IKEA day, the table and then the drapes, got me so keyed up that I couldn't sleep when I got off the phone. I laid there in bed thinking about the dishes in the sink, and couldn't stand it, so I got up and cleaned my kitchen from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, and also started reorganizing some things. I put all the things I need to make my big girl's lunches in the same place, things like that. (Hubby won't know where things are anymore! And although he's an internet junkie, he doesn't read this blog much, so it will still be a surprise to him when he comes home!) When I went to bed for the second time, I was exhausted, and went right to dreamland with no problems! It felt so good this morning to come in to the cleaned kitchen to make the kids' breakfast.
Then today was promotion Sunday for the kids' ministry at our church, and my big girl graduated out of the pre-school department. For kids at our church, that means LOTS of changes. For one, they go to class in an entirely different building. And for two, they come to "big church" for the opening half of worship, and then go "Pied-Piper"-style to Children's Church. I wasn't sure how my mildly autistic child would take to all these changes at once, so today I went with her throughout the morning. It was also a good way to give all the adults working with her a head's up about her special needs so they won't be surprised if she has a problem.
During Children's Church, the children are divided into groups and go to several different rooms and rotate to the different stations. While in the Prayer Room, the children were encouraged to bring up different prayer concerns that they would pray over at the end of the group time. It was then that my daughter blurted out, "Cookie Monster is voracious," in a very loud voice. It was all I could do to not crack up laughing at the back of the room. That's my kid! That was a great example of what my kid does! She loves big, fancy words, and knows how to use them. And she's very indirect about stating what she thinks and needs. That was her way of dropping a hint that she was hungry and she wanted a snack.
After church today we went to my mom & dad's again where I took a fantastic nap on the couch for a couple hours. That's what Sunday afternoons were made for!
In my crazy busyness last night, I started making a list of things I needed to buy today to be ready for the week. One of those things was a new radio alarm clock for Big Girl. She has an alarm clock, but it only wakes up to the "beep-beeps" which scare her (my husband doesn't like them either, and will ony set his clock to the radio). Since she's going to have to be getting up at 6:30, I figure she needs a softer wake-up call so that she'll actually use it. I've informed her that she gets a reward each day for being dressed before 7:00, so that she'll be on time for school. (She earns pennies on a chart- I'll show it to you one of these days.) Anyway, where was I... oh yeah, we went shopping after we got back from Mom & Dad's late this afternoon, and picked up some odds and ends like her new clock. We also stopped off at the grocery store and she got to pick out what she will eat for snack in Kindergarten.
I've really enjoyed my children these last couple days. Today hanging out with my big girl all morning was really neat. She really is one of my favorite people. She knows quite a bit of sign language, and I've been signing to her, "You're my favorite girl," as often as I think of it. Of course I say the same thing to my little girl. They really are both my favorites. It's been a "stop and smell the roses" kind of weekend with them. I'm trying to make the most of these moments, even out running errands, when I let them make choices (like Big Girl's snack), and just "hang out" with them. We ate a fast-food dinner out in the midst of our shopping tonight, and that was so fun, sitting at the table with my two favorite girls. They looked pretty cute today in matching dresses, matching hair bows and matching sandals. (I love doing that, and I know the day will come when Little Girl won't let me anymore, so I enjoy it now while I can!) And it's fun to see the looks on the faces of other patrons, seeing us three sitting there, obviously enjoying each other's company.
Tomorrow the girls and I will do a trial run, to practice getting to school on time. Hopefully getting up that early will make them tired enough to go to bed early tomorrow night. We'll go to the school (aiming to get there at 7:30), go in and meet one more person who will be working with Big Girl whom she hasn't had a chance to meet yet. After that, the plan is for us to take our kids' meal toys (sand diggers) that we just got tonight over to the sand volleyball courts at the park next to the school and play in the sand. That will be fun for the girls. Then afterward we'll need to go back home, get cleaned up, and then shop for the last couple things I wasn't able to find when we were out tonight.
I'm getting less sad about Kindergarten, at least for the moment. That's a good thing, right?
As we've been driving around these last couple days, I've been introducing the girls (mainly Big Girl) to The Beatles. She thinks it's great that they spell it wrong! Today we listened to Help! twice, skipping some songs like "Act Naturally." I just can't stand that one. I really like others on that album like "Help!," "I've Just Seen a Face," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." Big Girl really liked "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", and that's the song in my head now. She was trying to sing it as we were setting up her new alarm clock this evening. She's such a doll! I love that kid so much!!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Donuts!
Today for breakfast I made the girls donuts. Basically, it's biscuit dough fried in a skillet with powdered sugar sprinkled all over. It tastes more like a funnel cake to me than a donut. Anyway, my mom used to do that sometimes when I was a kid, and I wanted them to have that memory too. My mom used to make icing and spread it all over, but I thought powdered sugar would be easier, and I don't know how to make icing (I'm sure I could look it up, but why bother?). It was a hit!
Now on to the rest of our day!
Song in the head, "Philosophy," by Ben Folds Five. Not one their best, but that's the one stuck in my head at the moment. I heard it last night on my iPod while I was working on the table. (Just a couple more coats of polyurethane, and I'm DONE!!!)
Now on to the rest of our day!
Song in the head, "Philosophy," by Ben Folds Five. Not one their best, but that's the one stuck in my head at the moment. I heard it last night on my iPod while I was working on the table. (Just a couple more coats of polyurethane, and I'm DONE!!!)
Friday, August 22, 2008
IKEA
The song for today has got to be "IKEA" by Jonathan Coulton!Here's the story:
Today started out to be another sad day for me, still wallowing in the absence of my husband for another solid week, and having to deal with the start of Kindergarten all alone. (I think I'd be emotional about Kindergarten even if Hubby was home, it's just exponentially worse because he's gone.)
I did a little bit of back-to-school clothes shopping yesterday, and wasn't completely happy with what I found, so today I thought I'd head over to the outlet mall and check out what they had to offer. Everything I saw yesterday seemed to have been picked over for 6/6X/7, which are the sizes I need. My not yet 6-year-old child is a bit of a giant among her peers. She looks more like she should be starting 2nd grade than Kindergarten, but I digress. The outlet mall had some cute stuff in her size, and I totally scored. The prices weren't Wal-mart prices, but they weren't regular mall prices either, and they still had some good sales going. My big girl kept up with me pretty well, and my little girl rode the stroller and didn't fuss too much that I wouldn't let her out. (Why would I let her go uncontained?? What am I, CRAZY?!)
The outlet mall around here is right next to the IKEA, so on a whim, I thought we'd swing by there before we headed home. The line at Smalland should have tipped me off that this part of the outing was going to take much longer than I anticipated, but I couldn't change the plan on my big girl, so we stood there in line. About four families ahead of us, I recognized the back of a head I thought I knew. I looked around and saw a blonde girl with the lady, and sure enough, it was my friend, Buffy, from church and her daughter who is the same age as my big girl. I said hi, she said hi, we chit-chatted for a minute, then she checked her kid in and went back to where her mom was waiting for her, somewhere in the store.
By the time I got to the front of the line, I had already heard the lady behind the desk telling the woman in front of me that there was only room for one more kid in the play area. The woman in front of me had three kids. My kid couldn't go in until her kids went in, and her kids couldn't go in until there was room for all three of them. I was not happy. We were ushered to wait at the little area by the front doors where they have little tables and chairs and some grown-up chairs around a TV that was playing a sequel to one of the Disney classics that there shouldn't be a sequel for. It was only about 5 minutes before the three ahead of us got to go play. Only one more kid had to be picked up and then Big Girl could go in. That shouldn't take too long, right? We waited there for at least a half hour before they had room for my one.
And of course Little Girl cried that she couldn't go play, and I didn't pass up the opportunity to remind her that if she goes potty that she could play too. I didn't harp on it the whole time, since that wasn't the day's mission. I really only had one thing in mind that I wanted to buy, and a couple other things I wanted to look at. After that wait, you bet I was going to take my time and make it somewhat worth it!
Not long after I'd made my way into the part of the store where you actually shop (I always go in backward when I know what I'm looking for, rather than looking at all the display rooms), my friend I had seen earlier came up to me and asked me what I was driving, and if I'd be willing to help her get a big piece of furniture home to her house. I was in my mini-van, so it was no problem, and I really had no plans, so that was fine.
It took a little while to coordinate getting my car rearranged to fit the long box for the bed she bought for her daughter. My van has been the storage place for our pool gear, so I don't have to remember to go find the floaties, etc., every time we go to the pool. I also just stocked up on Coke Zeros at Wal-mart yesterday where I found 24-packs for $5. (That makes them only $.20 per can!) I hadn't unloaded the car yet so I had to move those around today too. The back seat of my van folds down into the floor, and the middle 2 seats come off, and I had to take one out, so my big girl rode with my friend, and her furniture rode with me and Little Girl, and my cheap Coke Zeros.
For some reason, the traffic going to my friends house was horrible. There was one stoplight we had to wait at for at least 15 minutes as the long line of cars slowly crawled toward the intersection. The extra time it took us to get over there allowed for the little girl with me to have a nice little nap.
When we got to my friend's house, we unloaded the furniture. I am very strange when it comes to projects. I LOVE projects. Give me something to do with my hands that can be done in a few hours, and I am a very happy girl. Furniture assembly is one of those things that makes me feel good. Painting a room is another. (Painting furniture used to be one of those things, but after this table is done, I don't want to deal with that again for a LONG time!!!) So I offered to help build the bed. Her husband is the guy who usually does that stuff in their house, and he's like me and thinks that it is part of the fun. So he and I spent the rest of the afternoon building this bed for Chloe.
I have built furniture with my husband before. Every time we finish, we have to repair our relationship. I have the kind of mind that sees how it goes together, and he has the mind that has to read the directions. IKEA directions don't even have words, so that makes it even harder for him. My friend and her husband have a long-standing policy of not building furniture together, probably for many of the same reasons as my husband and me. It's really not good for the relationship. But building furniture with someone else's husband was a completely different story. It was harmonious from start to finish, and very enjoyable. I was very aware that he was sharing the furniture assembly fun with me, and maybe that was the difference. When it's your furniture, and you HAVE to put it together it's not as fun. I know that when I suggested we do something a certain way, my husband would have questioned my thinking, and we'd have to duke it out, whereas in this case, it wasn't like that. I guess not having any relationship going into a task like that, there's nothing on the line, and so there's no arguing. Or maybe my friend's husband has the same kind of brain as me and can see how it goes together, so we're not fighting about the directions so much. Whatever. It was fun. I'd do it again. Buffy, if I run into you at IKEA again, I'll drive your stuff home and put it together with Chris anytime! Especially when I'm depressed about my husband being out of town, and I don't have anything else going on!
I know that God worked it out so that I would have something to do, that the kids wouldn't be bored sitting at home all day, and that I'd have people around me to talk to who care about me. And I also got the added bonus of feeling good at the end of a project! And the sun was out today too. It was a good day!
And so now you see why the song for today HAS to be "IKEA" by Jonathan Coulton!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Blah, blah, blah
It's probably not a good time for me to be blogging... My husband left on his trip today, we've had "Back to School Night" already, and soon I should be putting the girls to bed. I'm in the kind of mood where I don't feel like doing anything, and even things I usually enjoy are just ho-hum. I know it's only temporary. I'll cheer up. For now I kind-of want to wallow in it.
And with that, the song in my head is the Teamwork song from Wonder Pets. Thanks, kids. I'll have a side of insanity to go along with my depression.
Tomorrow is another day. I hope it's sun-shiny tomorrow. I will need it.
And with that, the song in my head is the Teamwork song from Wonder Pets. Thanks, kids. I'll have a side of insanity to go along with my depression.
Tomorrow is another day. I hope it's sun-shiny tomorrow. I will need it.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
"Random" Thoughts
There is now less than a week before school starts for my precious little Kindergartener. And just over 24 hours before her daddy leaves again on another business trip. Today is an "exciting" day of laundry. Woo hoo. Really.
That last bit reminded me of something I hadn't seen in years, the Sarcasterizer. It's a "great" online resource. You just type in a URL, and it will appear with "random" words throughout the text having "quotation marks" around them, adding a much "needed" punch of sarcasm. I'm "sorry" to say, however, that it seems the Sarcasterizer is out of order. None of the sites I was trying would come up. I still greatly "appreciate" the idea.
I have worked on the table in the last few days. I've faux finished it with black glaze, in a "ragging off" technique. It looks very much like it did before the table tragedy, and all that's left to do is a couple coats of polyurethane. Soon we can eat on a real table again and put the card table away. I'm sure I can get that done by the time my husband comes back from him trip.
I'm pretty down today. The looming departure of my husband is definitely weighing heavily on me. The weather has been cloudy and rainy, which adds to my doldrums. (It makes for good working conditions in the garage, which is how I've gotten so much done on the table in the last few days.) I need something to look forward to, and instead I'm just sad about tomorrow, when he leaves, and then next week, sending my girl off to Kindergarten.
Along with sending a kid to school comes a much earlier wake-up call than I'm ready to face. We've been taking it easy this summer, and that will have to end. I'm not a morning person, not at all, and getting out the door before 7:30 is just not my style. My baby growing up and my forced life-style change all at the same time... I'm sad about it all.
The kids are watching Veggie Tales, "Larry's Wonderful World of Autotainment," and the song currently in my head is from that DVD, Pa Grape singing "Eerie Canal".
That last bit reminded me of something I hadn't seen in years, the Sarcasterizer. It's a "great" online resource. You just type in a URL, and it will appear with "random" words throughout the text having "quotation marks" around them, adding a much "needed" punch of sarcasm. I'm "sorry" to say, however, that it seems the Sarcasterizer is out of order. None of the sites I was trying would come up. I still greatly "appreciate" the idea.
I have worked on the table in the last few days. I've faux finished it with black glaze, in a "ragging off" technique. It looks very much like it did before the table tragedy, and all that's left to do is a couple coats of polyurethane. Soon we can eat on a real table again and put the card table away. I'm sure I can get that done by the time my husband comes back from him trip.
I'm pretty down today. The looming departure of my husband is definitely weighing heavily on me. The weather has been cloudy and rainy, which adds to my doldrums. (It makes for good working conditions in the garage, which is how I've gotten so much done on the table in the last few days.) I need something to look forward to, and instead I'm just sad about tomorrow, when he leaves, and then next week, sending my girl off to Kindergarten.
Along with sending a kid to school comes a much earlier wake-up call than I'm ready to face. We've been taking it easy this summer, and that will have to end. I'm not a morning person, not at all, and getting out the door before 7:30 is just not my style. My baby growing up and my forced life-style change all at the same time... I'm sad about it all.
The kids are watching Veggie Tales, "Larry's Wonderful World of Autotainment," and the song currently in my head is from that DVD, Pa Grape singing "Eerie Canal".
Friday, August 15, 2008
Crazy Thursday
Yesterday it seemed like nothing went right.
I finally got all geared up to take the kids to the pool (we're running out of summer with school starting soon), and when we drove up to the pool, I thought it odd that NO ONE was there. Our neighborhood pool has been packed all summer every time we've been, and all of a sudden no one is there? Well, maybe we lucked out, I thought. To be sure, I left the kids in the open and running car while I made sure there wasn't some reason why no one was there. Sure enough, the pool was closed, with a hand-written marker sign taped to the gate and a giant chain with a pad-lock insuring no one would bypass the sign. I then had to go back to the car where my children were waiting in anticipation, wearing their cute little swimsuits, and tell them that it was closed and we'd have to go back home. But maybe we could still go swimming, if I could reach my friend who lives in the next neighborhood over. We've been swimming at their pool several times this summer. So I got home, left the kids in the open car again, and went in the house and grabbed the phone and started calling and went back outside. She didn't answer the house phone or her cell phone. We were out of luck. (There are other people who live further away I could have called, but I gave it a shot, and didn't want to drive all over just to spend a couple hours at the pool.)
I had already been planning to help my mom set up her classroom at some point in the day, so plan B, to soften the blow that we weren't swimming, was to go visit Nanna's classroom, which they usually enjoy. We had already passed her school on the way to and from the pool. She's an elementary music teacher, and usually has lots of fun instruments and things for them to play with when we're there. Seeing as it was her very first day back at school, nothing was set up at all, and she even had to go digging in her closet to find a box of something for the girls to entertain themselves with. I managed to set up 2 computers, connect her stereo, DVD player and VCR, and help move some furniture, all in about an hour, just long enough for the girls to start getting bored, so then we came back home. That was the only part of the day that really went like it was supposed to (although we should have been at the pool).
After that, we came home and the girls went down for naps. That's always a crap shoot around here. My big girl is really starting to not need them so much, and the little girl doesn't WANT to take a nap, no matter how badly she needs it. If I can just get them both to stay in their rooms and be quiet for an hour, I've succeeded. At least it's some down time (for me and them).
After nap time was over, I had to go get some oil-based glaze for my on-going table project. I'm finally far enough into the redo that I'm starting to see the end product, and it doesn't make me completely sick to think about working on it. I just need to get the faux finish on, then polyurethane, and then it's done. So I packed the girls up and we went to Lowes. I don't know if you've ever looked for oil-based glaze, but they don't have it there. You have to find a specialty paint shop for that. Of course, there weren't any all that close to where I was at Lowes, so I had to drive another 20 minutes to get to one. On this errand-running trip, I asked my big girl what she wanted for dinner (that's the hard part for me- ideas!), and she suggested tacos, so we had to stop and get the stuff for that on the way home from the paint store.
Between the paint store and the grocery store, my little girl fell asleep. Aparently she didn't really nap. She was drooly when I woke her up to get her out of the car. Poor baby.
At the grocery store, my big girl, who is mildly autistic (that's her special need, in case anyone was wondering), needed to go to the bathroom. Well, the poor child is sometimes afraid of public restrooms because they are much louder than residential flushers. (And don't even get me started on the auto-flushers!) Sometimes she does great with it in public, and other times are like yesterday. At the mere mention that she'd have to go at the store, she started melting down. I'm sure the lady coming out of the bathroom as we were going in thought I was being mean to her, but I was just telling her that if she had to go, it was here or in her pants. We were only about 5 minutes from home at this point, but I'm not going to leave the store, go home so she can potty, and then come back. We only had to pick up 3 or 4 things from the store. Anyway, the poor girl was screaming, "I can't go here!!" as she was going there. After she realized she had already gone, she was trying to calm down from that hysterical breathing, and she said, "I need drug!" She's into vocabulary, and in her mind she was saying she needed medicine to help her calm down. (We don't give our kids tylenol when they're upset, but I did give it to a friend's kid when he fell down the stairs and hit his head on the tile at the bottom. In that case, it was to calm him down, but mostly to help him with the headache that was surely coming his way.)
As if that wasn't enough of a crazy, nothing's- going-right kind of day already, when we got home, we had no electricity. The power was out for everyone on our side of the street, I learned from some neighbors outside. No tacos for dinner if I can't cook. (Even though we have a gas stove, I didn't want to light the burners with a flame, that just doesn't seem safe to do if it's not made for that.) So I called my husband on his cell and we met for dinner at Applebee's, where we still had some free kids' meal coupons leftover from VBS. If you're going to have your dinner plans change, going out is always a nice change.
When we came home from dinner, we still didn't have power, but we had a mission to accomplish. Our new sectional sofa was coming Friday, so we needed to mov
e the old furniture upstairs that night. We've had our La-Z-Boy furniture since 2001, and the piping on the sofa has been fraying since about 2003. We like that stuff because all of it reclines, but it doesn't look like a recliner. What we had fit in our old house, which was MUCH smaller than this one, but it was pretty small in the family room of this house. So that stuff got demoted to the game room upstairs (pictured). The backs come off but then you still have to carry the bottom parts with the recliner mechanism inside. My hubby and I carried the chair up the stairs, with me huffing and puffing the whole time, and I knew after that there was no way I could handle the sofa. So we called a friend to help with the sofa. Keep in mind that we still had no power, so no AC. After all that, we were HOT, and didn't really have a good way to cool off.
During the furniture moving, I called my mom to tell her about our electricity issue, and to see if we could stay at her house if it didn't come back online pretty soon. We tracked down the repair man we had seen in the neighborhood and he still didn't know where the problem was, and it was getting to be bed time for the girls. So we bailed on our no-AC house, and went
to stay with my mom (Dad was out of town on business).
And that was my crazy Thursday. Glad it's over.
This morning I had to be back home for the couch delivery (YAY! - see picture), and we have power again, THANK YOU, GOD!!
The current song in my head is "Chili Con Carne," a vocal ensemble arrangement. I have 2 versions of it on CD, one by One Voice (1998-1999) and antoher I can't remember who it's by. I haven't actually heard that song in AGES!
I finally got all geared up to take the kids to the pool (we're running out of summer with school starting soon), and when we drove up to the pool, I thought it odd that NO ONE was there. Our neighborhood pool has been packed all summer every time we've been, and all of a sudden no one is there? Well, maybe we lucked out, I thought. To be sure, I left the kids in the open and running car while I made sure there wasn't some reason why no one was there. Sure enough, the pool was closed, with a hand-written marker sign taped to the gate and a giant chain with a pad-lock insuring no one would bypass the sign. I then had to go back to the car where my children were waiting in anticipation, wearing their cute little swimsuits, and tell them that it was closed and we'd have to go back home. But maybe we could still go swimming, if I could reach my friend who lives in the next neighborhood over. We've been swimming at their pool several times this summer. So I got home, left the kids in the open car again, and went in the house and grabbed the phone and started calling and went back outside. She didn't answer the house phone or her cell phone. We were out of luck. (There are other people who live further away I could have called, but I gave it a shot, and didn't want to drive all over just to spend a couple hours at the pool.)
I had already been planning to help my mom set up her classroom at some point in the day, so plan B, to soften the blow that we weren't swimming, was to go visit Nanna's classroom, which they usually enjoy. We had already passed her school on the way to and from the pool. She's an elementary music teacher, and usually has lots of fun instruments and things for them to play with when we're there. Seeing as it was her very first day back at school, nothing was set up at all, and she even had to go digging in her closet to find a box of something for the girls to entertain themselves with. I managed to set up 2 computers, connect her stereo, DVD player and VCR, and help move some furniture, all in about an hour, just long enough for the girls to start getting bored, so then we came back home. That was the only part of the day that really went like it was supposed to (although we should have been at the pool).
After that, we came home and the girls went down for naps. That's always a crap shoot around here. My big girl is really starting to not need them so much, and the little girl doesn't WANT to take a nap, no matter how badly she needs it. If I can just get them both to stay in their rooms and be quiet for an hour, I've succeeded. At least it's some down time (for me and them).
After nap time was over, I had to go get some oil-based glaze for my on-going table project. I'm finally far enough into the redo that I'm starting to see the end product, and it doesn't make me completely sick to think about working on it. I just need to get the faux finish on, then polyurethane, and then it's done. So I packed the girls up and we went to Lowes. I don't know if you've ever looked for oil-based glaze, but they don't have it there. You have to find a specialty paint shop for that. Of course, there weren't any all that close to where I was at Lowes, so I had to drive another 20 minutes to get to one. On this errand-running trip, I asked my big girl what she wanted for dinner (that's the hard part for me- ideas!), and she suggested tacos, so we had to stop and get the stuff for that on the way home from the paint store.
Between the paint store and the grocery store, my little girl fell asleep. Aparently she didn't really nap. She was drooly when I woke her up to get her out of the car. Poor baby.
At the grocery store, my big girl, who is mildly autistic (that's her special need, in case anyone was wondering), needed to go to the bathroom. Well, the poor child is sometimes afraid of public restrooms because they are much louder than residential flushers. (And don't even get me started on the auto-flushers!) Sometimes she does great with it in public, and other times are like yesterday. At the mere mention that she'd have to go at the store, she started melting down. I'm sure the lady coming out of the bathroom as we were going in thought I was being mean to her, but I was just telling her that if she had to go, it was here or in her pants. We were only about 5 minutes from home at this point, but I'm not going to leave the store, go home so she can potty, and then come back. We only had to pick up 3 or 4 things from the store. Anyway, the poor girl was screaming, "I can't go here!!" as she was going there. After she realized she had already gone, she was trying to calm down from that hysterical breathing, and she said, "I need drug!" She's into vocabulary, and in her mind she was saying she needed medicine to help her calm down. (We don't give our kids tylenol when they're upset, but I did give it to a friend's kid when he fell down the stairs and hit his head on the tile at the bottom. In that case, it was to calm him down, but mostly to help him with the headache that was surely coming his way.)
As if that wasn't enough of a crazy, nothing's- going-right kind of day already, when we got home, we had no electricity. The power was out for everyone on our side of the street, I learned from some neighbors outside. No tacos for dinner if I can't cook. (Even though we have a gas stove, I didn't want to light the burners with a flame, that just doesn't seem safe to do if it's not made for that.) So I called my husband on his cell and we met for dinner at Applebee's, where we still had some free kids' meal coupons leftover from VBS. If you're going to have your dinner plans change, going out is always a nice change.
When we came home from dinner, we still didn't have power, but we had a mission to accomplish. Our new sectional sofa was coming Friday, so we needed to mov
e the old furniture upstairs that night. We've had our La-Z-Boy furniture since 2001, and the piping on the sofa has been fraying since about 2003. We like that stuff because all of it reclines, but it doesn't look like a recliner. What we had fit in our old house, which was MUCH smaller than this one, but it was pretty small in the family room of this house. So that stuff got demoted to the game room upstairs (pictured). The backs come off but then you still have to carry the bottom parts with the recliner mechanism inside. My hubby and I carried the chair up the stairs, with me huffing and puffing the whole time, and I knew after that there was no way I could handle the sofa. So we called a friend to help with the sofa. Keep in mind that we still had no power, so no AC. After all that, we were HOT, and didn't really have a good way to cool off.During the furniture moving, I called my mom to tell her about our electricity issue, and to see if we could stay at her house if it didn't come back online pretty soon. We tracked down the repair man we had seen in the neighborhood and he still didn't know where the problem was, and it was getting to be bed time for the girls. So we bailed on our no-AC house, and went
to stay with my mom (Dad was out of town on business).And that was my crazy Thursday. Glad it's over.
This morning I had to be back home for the couch delivery (YAY! - see picture), and we have power again, THANK YOU, GOD!!
The current song in my head is "Chili Con Carne," a vocal ensemble arrangement. I have 2 versions of it on CD, one by One Voice (1998-1999) and antoher I can't remember who it's by. I haven't actually heard that song in AGES!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Clarity
Some answers have surfaced about last week's horrible tragedy. Nothing makes sense at all until you factor in one thing: ALCOHOL. He was drunk when he killed himself. This young man was not in his right mind. He'd been struggling with alcoholism, and trying to quit drinking. He blew it again, and thought it better to end his life than face the disappointment and anger of his wife.
I'm not a drinker, and never have been. Somehow my mom got it through to me when I was young that nothing good happens when people drink, and I made it through my entire high school and college experience without even wanting to be a part of that scene. I don't condemn anyone for drinking, and I don't think it's a sin unless God has convicted you that it is a sin FOR YOU, but that's none of my business. Drunkenness is clearly defined as sin, along with idolatry, fits of rage and jealousy in Galations 5:19-21. In that list is also dissension. For every "goody-two-shoes" (in the church especially) who has condemned someone for getting drunk, there is plenty of dissension to go around! Just count how many churches there are of any given denomination in your town. They can't all be mission churches, launched in harmony and unity of spirit...
Anyway, the point is that in order to drink too much, you have to drink. So I don't drink, then I never drink too much. This one area of my life is in good shape. There are so many others that are not. It's a good thing that drinking too much Coke Zero is not clearly defined in the bible as sin, or I'd be in trouble! Idolatry is listed, and if my Coke becomes an idol to me (more important than the things that should be important), then I have a problem.
Seriously, none of the people you look at and think are perfect are really anywhere close. No one can stay on a pedestal, there's not enough room to move, and everyone falls off eventually. This is not to condemn all human-kind in one stroke (although the bible does say that all have sinned, Romans 3:23), but however good you think someone is, there are things you just don't know about that person which might change your mind somewhat if you did.
If you ever think the world would be better off without you, that's not true. The world would be better off without your sin (and mine!), but not better off without YOU. If you were to go away, like this guy did, you'd leave behind many lives that would never be the same without you, and not for the better. Look at what this young widow is going through. And her father too, whose best friend just died seven months ago. And that's not even taking into account the young man's parents or brother. Their world is shaken too. So much pain, and so much grief, all because he thought things would be better if he weren't there.
But he wasn't thinking clearly.
I'm not a drinker, and never have been. Somehow my mom got it through to me when I was young that nothing good happens when people drink, and I made it through my entire high school and college experience without even wanting to be a part of that scene. I don't condemn anyone for drinking, and I don't think it's a sin unless God has convicted you that it is a sin FOR YOU, but that's none of my business. Drunkenness is clearly defined as sin, along with idolatry, fits of rage and jealousy in Galations 5:19-21. In that list is also dissension. For every "goody-two-shoes" (in the church especially) who has condemned someone for getting drunk, there is plenty of dissension to go around! Just count how many churches there are of any given denomination in your town. They can't all be mission churches, launched in harmony and unity of spirit...
Anyway, the point is that in order to drink too much, you have to drink. So I don't drink, then I never drink too much. This one area of my life is in good shape. There are so many others that are not. It's a good thing that drinking too much Coke Zero is not clearly defined in the bible as sin, or I'd be in trouble! Idolatry is listed, and if my Coke becomes an idol to me (more important than the things that should be important), then I have a problem.
Seriously, none of the people you look at and think are perfect are really anywhere close. No one can stay on a pedestal, there's not enough room to move, and everyone falls off eventually. This is not to condemn all human-kind in one stroke (although the bible does say that all have sinned, Romans 3:23), but however good you think someone is, there are things you just don't know about that person which might change your mind somewhat if you did.
If you ever think the world would be better off without you, that's not true. The world would be better off without your sin (and mine!), but not better off without YOU. If you were to go away, like this guy did, you'd leave behind many lives that would never be the same without you, and not for the better. Look at what this young widow is going through. And her father too, whose best friend just died seven months ago. And that's not even taking into account the young man's parents or brother. Their world is shaken too. So much pain, and so much grief, all because he thought things would be better if he weren't there.
But he wasn't thinking clearly.
Monday, August 11, 2008
School Supplies & Gearing Up For Kindergarten
I'm getting ready to send my oldest child off to Kindergarten (like nearly every other parent who had a baby in the Fall of 2002 or Spring/Summer of 2003), and I had to get school supplies for the first time. Like a responsible parent, I did my supplies shopping early, ahead of the rush, and didn't wait until the last minute. This was somewhat unusual for me, and I'm probably a little too proud of myself.What kind of a racket are these Kindergarten teachers running? Most of the things on the list made complete sense, and I have no objections. Parents should buy crayons, markers, colored pencils, folders, pencil boxes, glue, scissors and stuff like that that. But there were a couple things on the list that I don't think the kids will be using. Vis-a-vis markers for overhead projectors are not something I'd expect a Kindergarten kid to use. And yet, one marker per kid is on the list. Do the Kindergarten teachers need 20 of those things each? The worst thing of it is that I couldn't find a package with less than 5 of those markers in it at the store. So my solution is to sell as many as I can (up to 4, so far I've solicited 2) to my friends with Kindergarteners at my kid's school to offset my cost, and to keep the extras from going to waste. Hopefully they haven't all done their shopping yet.
The reality of sending the first one to school is hitting me over and over again. Our big girl has special needs, and has been to school before, for 2 years already, but this is REAL school. Everyone goes to school at this age, not just our special kid. Whether my husband wants to think so or not, it's different this time. It's for real. They start counting tardies and everything.
While I'm not looking forward to the emotional part of the start of school, I am looking forward to it for my big girl's sake. I know she'll do very well. She's so much more ready than I am. She'll be glad to have more structure back in her life. I just can't give her that at home. I'm not wired that way. I've tried to keep things predictable for her this summer, like trying to go swimming on certain days of the week, and shopping and stuff like that. And we've been pretty good about rest times (we used to call it nap time, but that doesn't go over as well lately), keeping that at approximately the same time each day. But whatever I can do, it's nothing like school. Sure, she eats at the same times nearly every day, but that's because she's watching the clock and coming to me telling me it's time for breakfast/lunch/dinner. At school, she'll have the teacher watching the clock more closely than she will be, keeping the well-oiled-machine running on time.
For every part of me that is sad for my baby to go to Kindergarten, I am also rejoicing that she is ready for it, progressing through her childhood appropriately. If she weren't starting Kindergarten, something would be wrong.
I'm also getting ready to have my little girl be the only one at home. I think we'll have fun. I hope she'll decide she's ready to use the potty. (Please, God!)
I hope that my earlier wake-up call will result in getting more done. Hmmm... We shall see.
We still have 15 days until school starts. I want to make the most of them!
It's been a while since I've taken the time to think about the songs in my head. They've been there, but some I've been embarrassed to share. I'll bite the bullet on this one, even though it's awful. "From a Distance," by Bette Middler was in my head for the better part of the day yesterday. Pretty bad, huh. I know. I haven't even heard that song in weeks, and when I did, it was only because it was on an episode of Pop-Up Video. Thanks, VH1. That was horrific.
The song currently in my head is the last song I heard in the car, "Rain All Day," by Fleming & John, off The Way We Are. They also recorded this song on their first album, Delusions of Grandeur, but the newer one is a bit longer with an extended intro, a tad slower, and a touch more melancholy, which suits the song better. They also added some auxiliary percussion, like rain sticks and such. They are my all-time favorite band. Amazingly talented people! If I could have someone else's voice, I'd want hers. Go have a listen and see for yourself!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Joy and Sorrow
Early in 2006, my friend, Kim, moved away when her husband got a great job out of town. She was one of my closest friends, and it was so very sad to see them go. This week, Kim and her son came to see us. We had a great time chatting the day away on Wednesday, and then on Thursday, I invited as many friends from our old Sunday school class as I could get hold of, and we had 8 moms and 16 kids in our house. It was so great. Most of the kids were babies when we used to get together, and five of those kids weren't even born yet. Even though we haven't moved out of town, we moved our church membership shortly after Kim and her family moved away, so I hadn't seen many of these friends in a long time either. Getting caught up with old friends is always so much fun.
Then Thursday afternoon, after the dust had settled, and everyone had left, I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law, my husband's sister. Her best friend since childhood was widowed yesterday. They found her husband shot in his car outside the shooting range where he worked his second job. They don't know if it was an accident, suicide or murder. I'm sure they'll do everything they can to find out what happened. He was less than 30, I'm not sure exactly how old. His widow is only 28. They were married 4 years and have no children. My husband's family and this family that has lost their son-in-law have been intimately connected since the early 80's. The dads were best friends, the moms still are best friends and the daughters are best friends. They don't have a son anywhere near my husband's age, or else they'd probably be best friends too.
This young couple sat with us in the hospital last January when my father-in-law was dying. No one would have guessed that this young man would be the next one (of us sitting there) to go to heaven.
For my sister-in-law, her mom and best friend were widowed in the same year. Something about that doesn't seem right.
But who am I to say what's right?
12:16 PM Edit: Officials are saying the death was a suicide. I hope they're wrong.
Then Thursday afternoon, after the dust had settled, and everyone had left, I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law, my husband's sister. Her best friend since childhood was widowed yesterday. They found her husband shot in his car outside the shooting range where he worked his second job. They don't know if it was an accident, suicide or murder. I'm sure they'll do everything they can to find out what happened. He was less than 30, I'm not sure exactly how old. His widow is only 28. They were married 4 years and have no children. My husband's family and this family that has lost their son-in-law have been intimately connected since the early 80's. The dads were best friends, the moms still are best friends and the daughters are best friends. They don't have a son anywhere near my husband's age, or else they'd probably be best friends too.
This young couple sat with us in the hospital last January when my father-in-law was dying. No one would have guessed that this young man would be the next one (of us sitting there) to go to heaven.
For my sister-in-law, her mom and best friend were widowed in the same year. Something about that doesn't seem right.
But who am I to say what's right?
12:16 PM Edit: Officials are saying the death was a suicide. I hope they're wrong.
Monday, August 4, 2008
My Glass Is Pretty Full
As you can imagine from my online absence, I spent the weekend with my husband. We had a nice time together attending a wedding on Saturday, and church on Sunday. It was a rare thing for us to sit together for the whole service, since one or both of us are usually on stage singing or playing in the band. I think we'd both rather be participating in the music, but we did enjoy sitting extra close and holding hands. Oh, it's so good to have him home!
So we're beginning a "regular" week, with Daddy working in town, and coming home at the end of the day. There's a chance we'll have some out-of-town guests, but so far, I haven't heard for sure if they're coming.
Tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy and cooler (thanks to another tropical storm), so I'm planning to get back to work on the table. I have given it another coat of primer since the last time I mentioned it. The progress has been slow because I haven't worked on it when it's 100+ degrees outside. I'm not crazy. And by giving it several days (OK, two weeks) between coats, I know it's dry, and it's going to stick, as opposed to how things went last time. (Let's never speak of that again.)
So my outlook for the week is quite positive. I hope yours is too.
The song in my head yesterday morning was another Weird Al song, "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi." Today, it's "Get Together" by The Youngbloods, but only because I heard it on a commercial a little while ago. Don't you just hate it when that happens?
So we're beginning a "regular" week, with Daddy working in town, and coming home at the end of the day. There's a chance we'll have some out-of-town guests, but so far, I haven't heard for sure if they're coming.
Tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy and cooler (thanks to another tropical storm), so I'm planning to get back to work on the table. I have given it another coat of primer since the last time I mentioned it. The progress has been slow because I haven't worked on it when it's 100+ degrees outside. I'm not crazy. And by giving it several days (OK, two weeks) between coats, I know it's dry, and it's going to stick, as opposed to how things went last time. (Let's never speak of that again.)
So my outlook for the week is quite positive. I hope yours is too.
The song in my head yesterday morning was another Weird Al song, "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi." Today, it's "Get Together" by The Youngbloods, but only because I heard it on a commercial a little while ago. Don't you just hate it when that happens?
Friday, August 1, 2008
Giddy!!!
I'm so ready for my husband to come home!!! I'm absolutely giddy!!! He should be home around 9:30 tonight!!! That's only 5 and a half more hours!!!
(Please excuse my excessive use of exclamation points!!!)
(Please excuse my excessive use of exclamation points!!!)
I Know My God Is Real
Just look at this picture. If after looking at this picture for a minute or two you don't think God is real, then we need to have a talk.Only God could make that tiny hand. Only God could sustain this little life that isn't quite ready for the real world outside the womb. Only God could unlock the mysteries of what it takes, and what needs to be done by doctors and nurses, but even so, the doctors and nurses can only do so much. They need God to actually keep her heart beating and lungs developing and breathing.
This tiny little girl was born on July 8. She wasn't supposed to come until October. Please join me in praying for her continued development and survival. And praise God with me for the miracle of this little life.
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