October 2006 Archives

Okay, then.  I'm starting today, and just to make it more exciting (!) I decided that I'm going to have a theme.  I will blog every day in November and part or all of each post will be about some sort of beauty that I've seen that day.  I will try and post a photo to go with.  But, the thing that inspired that thought is this red-tailed hawk that I see nearly every time I drive along a road near our house.  It's the highest road on the side of a foothill and above the road there are houses, but it's pretty rural otherwise.  The hawk is always circling overhead, sometimes there are two crows trying to chase it off.  It is so beautiful, and every time I see it, I lean over the steering wheel so I can look up at it.  The red feathers in its tail really stand out against the sky.  I doubt I could get a picture of it, though. 

The video above was taken today in the backyard.  My neighbor practices the violin with the windows open, which I love so very much.  No matter how crappy of a day I'm having, it makes me feel better to hear it.  It's like gravy on good days.

Alright.  See you all tomorrow with something purty.

Two things.
1) This guy totally tried to put the moves on me at a bar once about twelve years ago.

2) I never told you any of the outright bizarre stories I witnessed while sitting in the county hospital waiting room for seven hours last month.  So, here's one (under the jump) and if you like it, there are more!

We live in a duplex, which means that we have a common wall with our next door neighbor.  Whenever anyone next door runs the garbage disposal, I can hear it in my kitchen. 

Last night, not too long after I a) noticed that *someone* forgot to flush the toilet in the kids' bathroom, and b) flushed it for them, and  c) saw, too late, that there was not a flushable wipe but an actual cloth-like diaper wipe going down, I was doing the dishes and heard the neighbor turn on his disposal.

It went on.

And on.

And on.

And, then we left to go get Sophie, and when we came back it was still going.

I thought about a few things.  I thought that maybe he died or was in some sort of distress and I ought to go check on him.  (He's perhaps 23, a college kid, but you never know.)  Then I thought that we'd plugged up the main sewer line with that diaper wipe and I thought that I'd better never tell ANYONE that I accidentally flushed that wipe.  If I'd thought about it and realized that there was a chance of me getting stuck with a scary big plumber's bill, I'd have totally grabbed it out.  But, I didn't.

Then, I thought that maybe he'd killed someone and was stuffing them down the disposal.  Just before I put the girls in the bath, it stopped.  With the brief exception of my kitchen drain kind of urping up at me until I ran my own garbage disposal, there was no sign of a clogged main line. 

I began writing this last night, but fell asleep.  As of now there are no problems. 

I'm thinking this is all pretty much pointless now, thankfully.  I do have a question though.

Am I the only parent of a toddler who's had to get a small wad of clean toilet paper off the roll and use it to move the used tp in the toilet that is covering up said toddler's poop?  Once she was able to see it, all was right with her world, but before I helped her out, she was having a total panic attack. 

I need to vent complain.  I know how tiresome that is, so I'll ditch it under the jump.

The doctor who looked at Nate's eye injury today told him that he was a lucky guy, but Nate's not really feeling that way.  He had such a rough day that instead of making him take a bath when he got home tonight, I let him chill out and play video games for a little bit before bedtime. 

A friend of his threw a paperback math workbook and it caught Nate just below his eye.  There was a little blood, from his skin, not his eye, a little swelling, and lots of blurred vision and pain.  I figured that he was okay, but I tend to take my kids in more often than not ever since that time that Lex's arm was broken and I didn't get him to the doctor until the next day.

Mother
Of
The
Year

This is very very funny.  I'll never think about Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star the same way again. 

I did something I rarely do: I took the kids out for dinner tonight.  Just the five of us.  Heh.

Willow walked in and past the hostess, right up to a tiny little booth meant for two people and slid onto the seat.  "Boof!" she proclaimed.  "I sit at boof!"

I wasn't kidding when I said rarely, and I have no clue where she learned this restaurant lingo.  I was amused. 

Since there were no boofs big enough for us in the front of the place, we got a whole room to ourselves.  Of course, that was a good thing, even though the kids were fairly well behaved. 

I guess all the recent directives from the media to EAT FISH have sunk into my noggin.  I had fish and chips, which I *knew* even before ordering was not wise.  It was greasy and disgusting and I loved every bite, but now here it is 11:25 pm and I'm hanging out with my friend, Mylanta.  Eh, whatever.

Willow didn't have class today, but we had to go to her school to select her pictures from the two-weeks-ago picture day.  They came out alright, but I'm pretending they are FABULOUS so I don't despair over the cost. 

Dude.  The whole school photography thing is such a racket. 

After writing a fat check for a skinny stack of pictures, we headed up da fweeway to see Papa at his work.  I took that dip fast, and Willow laughed till she kinda gagged in the backseat. 

It's hard to tell from the cruddy photo, but the top left picture is of the dip on the way back home.  I didn't get it on the way there, because when I noticed that there were other cars on da fweeway (which, by the way, is totally just a highway) I thought I'd best put the camera up since the road is overly twisty and turny. 

I got a cruddy photo of the really pretty tree, too.  There are bunches of them peppered along the road that we take to Will's school.  I love them.  They look like they are on fire. 

Don't you love how much bluer the sky looks in autumn?  Maybe it's just the contrast of the orange and red and yellow leaves against it, or maybe it's some fall equinoxy atmospheric thing.  Whatever -- I don't need to know why, I just love seeing it.

Willow and I were driving home from preschool and she was, again, screeching at me to "get on da fweeway," which I finally figured out means that she wants to take the road to the school where John teaches.  The school is up a mountain highway, and there's this wicked dip that we always take a little too fast so everyone's stomachs will drop out from beneath them.  She asks me to drive her there because she knows we go by the turnoff as we go from her school to our house.  I never take her, though, because I have Stuff To Do.  I should take her, but I know that once wouldn't cut it and she'd just keep asking for more.   Last week on our drive home, she cried and cried and cried for "da fweeway."  Then she got quiet and tried to bargain by asking "da twoway, den?"

Tomorrow we have to go to her school, even though she doesn't have class, to pick up her school pictures.  Maybe, if I'm not too cranky, we'll take the fweeway on our way back.  I find it really hard to balance my time between play and work.  I'm afraid that too much play time would make my life crash down around my ears, so I over correct and work too much.

Tomorrow my to-do list is going to start with "schedule massage."  I feel better already.

for Love Thursday. 



This is a shot of the top of my sister's wedding cake.  She picked this little couple because the boy reminded her of her husband.  Except, he doesn't generally have bluebirds on his hat.  Their wedding was so full of love.  They totally ought to have had it on a Thursday.

Me to Nate:  Hmmmm.  Maybe the Tooth Fairy didn't come last night because you didn't take a bath before bedtime.

I'm awful, I know. 

Sophie has a nasty cold, but is bent on going to school anyway.  Even though I gave her a dose of Sudafed, her nose is all green and percolating.  I'm sure they'll send her straight back home. 

Right now, she's sitting on the floor next to me, cutting out the stick figure she drew on a piece of printer paper.  He's a fragile, thin little thing, sure to break her heart when he loses a limb. 

Did I mention that I think I have arthritis in my neck?  Not. Happy.  Off to take more advil.  More old photos:

I feel like such a nerd to be so very excited that we are getting a new! garbage! company! early next year.  Seriously, I'm so happy about it that I'm feeling a little sad over how long I'll have to wait. 

Not that there is anything wrong, really, with the current service, but the new folks are going to let us have ONE CONTAINER for recycling instead of the current three.  And, they are going to give us new, pretty trash receptacles and take away the old stuff (to recycle, natch).  No more sorting!  Awesome!

I can just imagine my teenaged self seeing this little burst of sunshine in my future, and how she'd roll her eyes over it.  It does make me feel a little, uh, mature, to get such a thrill over household stuff, but whatever. 

I already have arthritis, I may as well embrace the fact that I'm not a kid anymore.   Here's some old photos of Willow, just for.



(they don't look so great because they are scanned in.  remember film??  it's that old stuff.)

Last night, Nate read a bedtime story to the girls, like he always does if everyone is cooperative.  He picked Dr. Seuss' Oh the Things You Can Think.  When he finished, he closed the book and Sophie piped up:

    I can think about farting jelly fish!

Then, the four of us had a lengthy discussion about whale farts and what big bubbles they'd make. 

I love this picture that John took of Willow at the park a couple of weeks ago.   That was the same day that we met a HUGE dog, and I got to lay on a blanket and read.  A novel, even.  See?

Time just got away from me this past week.  My little sister got married, today is Lex's birthday, and I'm working.  Sometimes I look up and a week has slipped by.  Now I need to run get the kids from school.  Here are some photos:

Hey, hey!!  I am in the latest Big Fat Carnival!  My post is called "Amazing Body," and was submitted byDebbie Notkin and Laurie Toby Edison of Body Impolitic. 

This article about childbirth is well worth reading.

  Nate reading to us by candlelight 
  Originally uploaded by jenijen.

Last night the kids came home, and I was so glad to see them.  They did really well at the funeral, and Lex was the first one up when the priest asked if anyone wanted to come forward and share memories.  I'm proud of him for that, though not at all surprised.

I wanted to have a nice evening, so I suggested we all pile into the big bed and read by candlelight.  The kids thought it was great, but Willow kept making noises and then crying because she was scared.  Nate was frustrated, but he still kept trying to reassure Willow by saying, "There's no monsters or skeletons in our house," which set off more tears.  She had, after all, only been afraid of the open window.

Nate flat-out refused to go to school today, and then Willow copied him.  I asked Nate to get ready so Willow would, and then when it was time to leave, they both did so without a fuss.

I'm feeling so sick and angry about the Amish school shootings.  Part of me wanted all the kids to stay home with me today.  Willow's preschool is in a high school, and sometimes I question whether I'm being foolish sending her there.  I know the chances are that she'll be safe, but frankly the world scares me more and more.  Sometimes when the kids are afraid and I tell them not to worry, that they are safe, it feels like I'm lying to them.   

  lightened up 
  Originally uploaded by jenijen.

Yesterday my mom and I went and had haircuts together, then drove home by way of an apple orchard.  I love autumn, and while we were driving down the road that bisected the orchard, we could smell the apples. 

My older kids are out of town to attend a family funeral (on their dad's side) tomorrow without me.  A funeral for someone wonderful, someone we all cared about.  Nate's sick, and I feel really sad for all of them.  I wish I could be there or they could be here.  I hate not being with them when they're upset.  I know they're in good hands, but it makes me anxious all the same.