Turning Sequoias and Sored Thumbed Boys

It has been a very busy afternoon with pick ups and classes and jazz shoe fittings. This is going to be the state of our Mondays for the time being, I suppose, so we will just have to make the best of it. I have been noticing for the past few days, that my vehicle has been coming up on a very important milestone in its ten years on this earth. As I saw it approaching quickly this evening, I felt the milestone needed to be documented for posterity. The kids, on the other hand, wanted to get out of said vehicle and go inside. This is what I was working with:



I tried to go up and back down the driveway several times. The kids begged to get out of the car. They did not understand the gravity of the milestone. So I released them out of the car and into the house with the hub. I drove around the block and up and down the driveway again. I know the neighbors thought I was crazier than usual. And then, after what seemed like 20 miles:



Happy Turning Day, Sequoia!

In other equally riveting news, the boy has had a sore thumb. He tends to rip the skin on the sides of his fingers, not unlike his mother. A broken nail that ripped down the side went bad. And when a 6 year old thinks he is a doctor, it makes things go bad. So pre-thumb surgery by the hub, his thumb looked like this:



Then the hub took tweezers and barely, and I mean barely, scraped the side of his thumb. The gore that escaped from his thumb made him scream. Lots of soaking and inspecting and soaking and stuffing of cotton under the nail happened. It still looks pretty awful, but we are hoping that it will look better tomorrow. All of us were trying to make jokes to make hime laugh and distract him from his pain and make the tears stop. He would start to giggle and then get mad and say, "You all are not understanding my pain...this is not a funny situation." That made us laugh harder. That kid is going to be a comedian someday.

Ending on a somewhat low note, G has been having trouble with some girls in class. One who says mean things and one who sits, knowing that it is wrong, and lets the girl have at her. Tonight G prayed for the girl to be her friend and that the girl will stop being mean to her. I pray that will happen. What an amazing heart that kid has.
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Out of the mouths of babes...

It has been a super busy day. Sundays usually are, but today was a little bit extra busy with lots of rain added in for extra fun. Soggy, cool and busy. Not a great way to spend the day, but oh well. I also just realized that I had gone through the whole day with my ringer off, so for the two people who tried to get in touch with me, I am sorry. I always turn it off while I am working in church so as to not disturb service or a Sunday School class. Just one of those things. The hub and S were having "Dam Day #2" in the basement. As soon as I arrived home from work, I was sent back out for glue sticks and paint. When I arrived home with the specified items, I found G splayed out on the couch conked out, the boy nursing a sore thumb and S covered head to toe in papier mache' goo. She got cleaned up so we could go to visit our friend MC at the funeral home. Her sweet father passed away rather suddenly last week and we wanted to check on her, her daughter and family. She is S's dance teacher and our good friend and we are so sorry for her loss. We left from there for S to go to handbells and choir, leaving to go home just when the rain picked up to that of a mini monsoon. We arrived home to find the hub had prepared a nice meal for a rainy day including nice warm soup. The kids requested mugs to drink their soup today and asked me to pick them out one. Digging into the back of the cabinet, I pulled out a blast from the past that I really thought had broken and been tossed years earlier:



The boy looked at it and said, "That's before she started doing that 'twerking' thing right?". I was horrified, but said yes. I felt better when he then asked what "twerking" was. I never got to explain to him what it was because he suddenly said, "Can we throw that thing away? She's not for this house anymore." After that it became a sort of drawing of straws situation to see who would get stuck with the thing. Sorry, Miley. The recipient was not pleased.

Not a very exciting post tonight. I feel like I need to go to sleep very soon. The threat of thunder tonight may bring one of the kids in to visit in the night. We need to get a head start on sleep. Night all.


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Dam day

This is blog post attempt number two. My Blogger app crashed and deleted three lovely, and somewhat humorous, paragraphs, never to be retrieved. It is funny how my previous attempt at a post talked about how I try very hard not to use profanity in front of my children, and I should attempt to not use it ever...and when my writing got deleted, well, some words were said. Luckily the children had retired to their rooms upstairs and their sweet, sensitive ears were spared the "foul filth filth and fouly filth foul" that escaped from my lips. It is certainly no excuse, but I am pretty tired. S had to make a model of a hydroelectric dam as part of a major school project, so she and the hub have worked and toiled on it all day. Words have been exchanged. Dam words. I chose to save myself and went outside to move the mass of leaves from the back to the front gulley, while the boy "peeled" sticks to turn them into "real wood" for his father. After moving several tarps full to the front, I went inside with the boy, sent him to Home Depot with his dad and sister and started walking G through baking some pumpkin muffins for our neighbor who was injured in a cycling accident. G is quite a little baker and immediately took over with only minimal instruction:



Sorry for the messy kitchen. It had dam stuff all over it. The muffins were baked and delivered along with the super leaf blower. We visited with our sweet buddies, A and CR, played show and tell with their new boot purchases and arrived back home in time for the Depot-ers' return. They got to the dam building project:



Before you cast judgement on cleanliness, they were in the hub's workshop in the basement. The massive lathe is right next to S. Behind them is our Christmas decoration shelf. Anyhoo...they did that so I then took the youngers outside to play in the front yard while I raked leaves out of the flower beds. S soon cale out for a break while the dam project dried in the oven. A sibling fight broke out, so the two youngers went to the back and S and I played soccer in the front yard. The across the street neighbors blew leaves with the massive blower. S kicks the ball to me...I trap it and try to do something I have done a thousand times before. Time 1001 was a massive fail as I learned that I am not destined to play soccer in Doc Martin boot, caught my foot on the flat ball, had my legs fly up in the air and busted my hump in front of the whole neighborhood. S had a split second look of horror which quickly turned into crying laughter. I did the same and popped right back up, noting that my hip and shoulder were screaming a bit. I have already informed the hub that he will truly have to kick me out of the bed tomorrow.

The bulk of the dam project is done. The kids are in bed and the hub has had his Saturday night bowl of ice cream. I am going to enjoy a cocktail of motrin and Airborne and hit the hay...if I can drag my sorry self up the stairs.
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The search officially begins...

Our beloved sweet puppy dog, Cosby, died June 23 of this year. It was her time and she was ready. Since then, we have navigated her loss in a bit of a fog. The house is so quiet and the habits of dog owners are hard to break. This morning, as I was cleaning up the crumbs from breakfast pumpkin muffins, I took the tablespoon of crumbs and turned to throw them in the dog bowl that wasn't there. I stood for a few minutes in the breakfast room, my breath gone, contemplating her loss like it was yesterday. My oldest has taken her loss the hardest as she was considered one of Cosby's pups and had been with her the longest of the children. The hub and I decided long before Cosby met her great reward that we would follow the lead of the children as to when we decided to start the search for a new companion. Some people worried that the kids would want a new puppy immediately, but I trusted their hearts. They have needed time as much or more than we have. So when S decided last month that she was ready to consider a new furry friend, we started online research. Yesterday, a friend sent me a picture of Rex, and English Lab mix who had been surrendered by his moving owner. His description called him a "leaner". I loved that. Sooo while the kids were in school, I paid old Rex a visit. He was leaning in his cage when I got there, looking bored and ready for some action. They took him outside so we could play for a bit. Bless his heart, he needed to lose a substantial amount of weight and was a bit of a mouthy guy. He never bit me, but he liked to taste my arms and hands with his whole mouth. We found a ball and played fetch for a bit. He faithfully brought the ball back every time, wearing out quickly due to the barrel he ate, based on his shape. He finally flopped down on the ground, eyes begging me to put the blasted ball down. As much as I wanted him to be the one to come home, I knew that we were not the right family for him. While I know he is totally trainable and can be free of his arm chewing habits, I feel that the kids would be too nervous around him during the training process. He will make someone an excellent pet. Sadly, just not ours.

Our journey has just begun and I know that we will find the right pup to join our family. It will be fun to play with a few litters before making a final decision. There could be worse jobs.


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Things I've learned today...or again

I've had kind of a lonely day today. Never been one to just call someone out of the blue and ask if they want to go to lunch, well except my brother and sister in law. Fear of rejection? Maybe. Just never been good at that, so I hang at home by myself a lot. I got some cooking and baking done and took some experimental pumpkin muffins to a friend stranded inside with a sick child. I looked at some shoes I couldn't afford. I spoke with a neighbor, went to the grocery and watched a TV show that no one else in the family would watch without great complaint. I looked at the clock...12:18. Good grief. This day is dragging on and I am going to lose my mind. I picked children up from school, helped the boy with homework and put my inaugural batch of homemade meatballs in the oven to bake. I went out and blew leaves and raked and froze my toes off. I had various other things going on and I was bummed that I couldn't go see a concert with my friend, A. I have helped with bath time drama, school drama sadness and little known African country research paper tedium During my different travels and cooking and whatnot, I learned, or relearned, some things. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Just because a recipe says "Easy to make" doesn't always mean it is going to taste good. Sometimes effort and multiple ingredients really are essential to make a tasty dish.

1a. Don't promise to bring a sampling of said recipe to people before you have tasted the final product. You don't want your cooking skills judged by a new awful recipe.

2. Meatballs are fun to make and the meatball sandwiches we had for dinner tonight were a big hit. My 9 yr old called them "Mini meatloaf ball sammiches". Whatever it takes to get them to eat.

3. No matter how many of your childrenhave gone through it and come out the other side, when mean girls start their BS it breaks your heart every time. I just want to hide my baby away and reason with the others. But I know that is a waste of my time. I thank God for parents who loved me through it many years ago and so appreciate the love they gave me.

4. When you work for a church, friends near and far assume that this means you immediately become an expert on church doctrine. Thank goodness I have patient pastor friends who patiently answer my questions and steer me in the right direction.

5. People are very possessive of their place in the pickup line at school. Because I had a day like I did, I got to school early and got the first spot in line. The Jetta that usually gets the spot was ANGRY. Oh well.

6. And the topper of the evening. When sitting in the tub and playing in the water, sometimes one gets bored and "great" ideas come in your head. When experimenting on how fast the drain works and what will slow it down, 4 is the number of soggy sheets of paper it takes before the tub will no longer drain water. Yes, I said paper in the tub. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Still shaking my head on that one.

Time for the evening to come to a conclusion soon, I hope. A research paper is due tomorrow on a country that has very little information available about it...at least here. I have a feeling tonight's episode of Scandal will be viewed tomorrow. Oh well. Nothing new.


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I am creeped out...totally

So for some reason, I have started watching this season of American Horror Story: Coven. When I was in middle school, high school and college, I loved scary movies. The scarier the better. I don't know what it is, but after I had children I lost the stomach for the really scary stuff. I would watch action things and the serial crime drama, but none of the real hard stuff. The other day, in the midst of folding a mountain of socks and underwear, I went on demand and started watching this program. It has become like a spectacle...I can't take m eyes off of it. I am now completely caught up with the season and will be watching tonight but not sleeeping afterward. Jessica Lange has never been one of my favorite actresses though I completely appreciate her talent. She is fabulous in this.

On a completely different note, I got my hair cut today and got ingredients to make a new kind of pumpkin muffin. That is as exciting as my life is. Maybe tomorrow will be different.


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Call from the past

My heart is heavy for many people today. Illness and sadness and tragic loss has been heavy on the menu today. My troubles and complaints seem so very small. Facebook was usually my lifeline to keep up with and lend typed commentary support to those who I don't see often or don't live near going through these situations. Once I got off there, I kind of felt off the cliff of knowledge and was even more clueless than usual. Every once in a while, I send a text to some people to check on them and make sure life is going as smoothly as it can go. I sent one of those texts to my friend Wes just to check up. He sent back a text saying they were dealing with childhood illness issues. I sent him a brief synopsis of our Spring and the still unresolved uncertainty surrounding what all happened to S's body. Tonight I got a sweet phone call from him, checking up on her and telling me the scary story surrounding his child's health crisis. I, truly, had not spoken to him since the day we graduated from high school, more than ahem cough cough years ago. It was nice to trade ideas and concern as parents and grown ups, not in English class together, but as people well past the immaturity of high school. I appreciate so much his and his wife's concern for our child and feel the same for his. In the midst of the negativity I feel towards lots of the aspects of social media, I am grateful for the support it gives during times of fear, of worry, of joy and of sorrow.

Say a prayer, hug the special special people in your life. Life is just too short.


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