Judy's Journeys

Haircuts

2009-03-24T15:39:00.002-05:00

I finally won the battle with Eric and got the boys little boy haircuts. They don't even look like the same kids. And their hair looks so blonde now. Handsome fellows if I do say so myself!

A boy and his dog

2009-03-02T12:51:00.004-06:00

We rescued 2 dogs last week. They, and their mother, had been dumped at a park. The mother, sadly, had to go to the pound - we could not take all 3. We were going to keep both puppies, but were advised it's not wise to raise dogs from the same litter together. And, over the few days we had them both, we watched them already struggling for dominance and having little dog fights, which only would have gotten worse as they got bigger.

And so we found a home for one, and have kept one. Guthrie named him Edward, after one of our favorite trains from Thomas and Friends. Since the girls of the family all seem to love Twilight (myself included), it works that way too, although the dog does not sparkle in the daylight.

It wasn't deliberate, but we have black pets. Ursula, the black stray we started taking care of last fall, is not sure what to think of the dog, especially since he stole her bed. She is trying to let him know who is boss, and Edward is learning to be careful around the cat. So far, this is her preferred position to keep an eye on things.

Christmas pictures, finally

2009-01-22T13:53:00.004-06:00

I know I'm way behind. I'm way behind on everything, I think, except enjoying life, which I've been doing pretty well lately. Spending Bush's last night in office on the beach at South Padre, then watching the inauguration on the beach with a big glass of wine, and the parrots we've been seeing in our beautiful flowering tree - they have all contributed to the "enjoying life."

Here are a few pictures, since I don't have anything great to say right now. If you've not done so already, you should find me over at Facebook, where I seem to be spending all my time lately.

With my "baby" girl at Christmas.

All 3 of my babies.

Being all girly with my daughter.

Parrots. Green Parakeets to be exact. They love to eat the beautiful pink flowers in this tree (and I still have no idea what kind of tree this is, but it's beautiful, and full of butterflies and hummingbirds too).

Hog Head Anyone

2008-12-18T09:29:00.004-06:00

Yesterday at breakfast I was doing what I usually do - drinking a cup of coffee, eating my oatmeal, and reading the newspaper while listening to the boys play nicely and calmly. (Morning, after breakfast, is about the only time those words can be applied to my boys' play.) I was glancing through the grocery store sale ad when I almost lost my oatmeal.

I realize it may be somewhat culturally insensitive, and really, if you are going to kill animals for food, then doesn't it make sense to use as much of the animal as possible? But at the same time, couldn't they have hidden the WHOLE HOG HEAD (only $ .49 a pound!) on the back of the ad, you know, right next to the "quartered pork feet (previously frozen, $ .99/pound) or the Fresh Beef Tongue ($2.69/pound)? And further, does anyone know, exactly, precisely, what you are supposed to do with a whole hog head? Other than scare the crap out of your children and cause weaklings like me to nearly lose their oatmeal and immediately feed whatever pork products might be in the house (does this picture make YOU want salami?) to the cat?

I haven't disappeared

2008-12-15T10:27:00.003-06:00

I've just been a very bad, bad blogger lately.

Why? Oh, largely due to my newfound Facebook addiction. I waited to sign up, but finally got around to it, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. Because I didn't already have enough ways to waste time around the internet. (Hello, LOLcats and all things related.)

So I thought (after being reminded by a few people that when you come over here, you are still greeted by pics from Halloween) that I could at least put up a few new pictures, give a little update.

We are headed to Missouri in about a week. YEA!!! It's been a year and a half since our last visit, so I am very excited. I'm not sure how we're going to do with the weather though. We had to turn our a/c back on today (really, it was HOT when we woke up), and I'm seeing that in MO it's a whole 8 degrees!!! We are going to freeze. Poor little Turner has never really even seen weather under freezing. We are hoping for snow, though, and maybe to build a snowman. Turner is totally in love with Frosty right now.

Eric was in Paris a week ago. The translation of his book came out, and he was brought over for a festival. Apparently, they LOVE him in France. And I was mentioned in a French newspaper, when they did an interview with him. Ah, how sweet.

The boys are growing like crazy. Turner, who hardly talked at all even a few months ago, has exploded with language lately. He says the funniest things and cracks me up. Guthrie has been going through some crazy growth spurt and outgrowing shoes faster than we can buy them. And Samantha turned 13. How that happened, I don't know, and it must stop, NOW, because that means in just 3 years she can drive. And in 5 she can vote. And then ... I can't even think about it.

Here are the boys with some of their handiwork. They had so much fun decorating this Christmas train, and then eating it. And yes, Turner is a mess, but that's what happens when you let kids play with icing and candy.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:55:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone had a great holiday and is full of treats and not too many tricks.

Turner the UPS man:

Guthrie the scary skeleton (who wiped off all his face paint before we left and wore the mask instead):

The scary sight that greeted the few trick-or-treaters we had:

Even basement cat says Happy Halloween!

Gas under $2.00

2008-10-25T17:57:00.003-05:00

I didn't believe it would happen. Here's the proof, from 4 different stations. Sorry for the picture quality - I took some of them stopped at red lights. And the first one is hard to see - it's $1.95!

Recommendations for your reading pleasure

2008-10-25T08:54:00.004-05:00

And, yes, a couple of shameless plugs for friends and loved ones.

First, a new wonderful children's book everyone will love. The Best Mariachi in the World, or for the Spanish language version, El major Mariachi del mundo tells the story of little Gustavo, who comes from a family of Mariachis. But poor Gustavo cannot play an instrument. His family won't even let him touch their violins, trumpets, or guitars. He is sad and left out, until he goes out early in the mornings to sing the songs he knows, all alone, to the stars. Soon, the people of the village hear Gustavo's beautiful singing, his cousins carry him into the house for a special breakfast just for him, and he IS a Mariachi, singing with his family, and feels he is the Best Mariachi in the World.

The book comes in a Spanish language edition or a bilingual edition for those of us who are still learning our Spanish, and trying to expose our children to as much as we can. There is a glossary in the back with the English and Spanish equivalents, so if there is a word you can't figure out, just turn to the end. There is also a short explanation of the Mariachi, for those of us who were clueless there too.

The illustrations are beautiful and you can't help but fall in love with little Gustavo. It's a great story, and a great way of exposing your little ones (and yourself!) to some more of the Spanish language and some of this beautiful culture. I know what all my friends with little ones will be getting for Christmas this year, and it's NOT just because the author is a dear friend. : )

And since we've now covered English and Spanish, if anyone reads French, I've got a rec for you, too.

Noir Beton was released in France this week. And since I don't speak or read much French, and you must be wondering why I care, well, I'm just in LOVE with the author in any language. (Um, yeah, he's my husband.) And as difficult as he was to put up with while he was ... "editing" this book, it was all worth it when I saw this:

Not to mention the fact that the book has footnotes, explaining things like the 49er's, and various names of cheap booze, which makes me smile. And my absolute favorite part of the book (in French): The book is about rough-and-tumble concrete workers who drink too much, smoke too much, and curse too much, and who I just can't imagine speaking French. At one point, Rex shouts out to the main character, "Broadstreet!" and Broadstreet's response is, "Oui!" And I can't read it without cracking up.

And in case you are like me and can't read French, the book is also available in a plain old English edition as Two-Up, and is definitely a good read, even if I am a bit biased.

Cheap at half the price

2008-10-21T18:30:00.003-05:00

I think it's possible we have the cheapest gas in the country right here in the Valley. We're approaching dropping below $2.00/gallon here. I've searched all over Gas Buddy, and the next cheapest I can find is $2.16. The lowest I've actually seen here was $2.05 a couple hours ago, and I paid $2.15 or so on Saturday when I filled the tank. (Filled the tank for under $50! Miracles happen!)

I can't tell you why our gas here is so cheap, but I'm not complaining. We're still not driving much, and that seems to be the case all over. We've managed to never pay $4.00 for gas, at least not yet - it never topped that here in McAllen, although we did see prices over that when we were traveling to other parts of the state. Always managed to have enough gas and never needed to fill up then. The most we ever paid was $3.95. But here soon, if we keep dropping, we'll be paying half the price that we were just 3 months ago. If ony the prices of everything else would drop that fast!

If Sarah Palin was my mother ...

2008-10-12T08:44:00.003-05:00

I would be doomed. Okay, actually, since I was pregnant at the same age as her daughter, maybe things wouldn't be that different. (Joking Mom!)

But, my name would be ...

Hose Hotrod Palin!

And how do I know this? Because someone set up the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator so we could all find out.

And I am married to Sack Panther.

Our children (in order from oldest to youngest) are:

Axe Diesel (Samantha, I think, is happy with her name right now)
Clip Dragon (Oooh, Rosalind, Dragon is kind of cool)
Crop Schooner (sorry Guthrie)
Staff Wrench (yep, Turner is a better name)

Go ahead, click on over and have a laugh. But I must admit, I think Piper is a pretty cool name. Oh, yeah, and I've eaten both Moose and Elk, and they are yummy. But Sarah Palin still scares me.

Hey - I won something!!!!

2008-10-10T11:20:00.001-05:00

http://www.breastfeeding123.com/if-these-boobs-could-talk-giveaway-winner/

Check it out! I won something! I can't remember the last time I won something, and since I've been having a less-than-stellar last couple of weeks, YEAH!!!!!!!

It's a great breastfeeding blog, so you should go check it out!

W Magazine cover - I LOVE it!

2008-10-10T10:17:00.005-05:00

Yes, yes, I've been a very bad blogger lately. I just haven't had anything interesting to say, and/or the time or energy to say it. I'm still here, still reading everyone else's blogs.

If you haven't seen it yet, you must click here: http://http://perezhilton.com/2008-10-09-the-photo-everyone-will-be-talking-about to check out the new cover of W Magazine with Angelina Jolie on the cover, breastfeeding.

The picture is beautiful. (Have you ever seen a picture of her that is NOT beautiful? Yes, I have a girl crush on Angelina, and have for years.) But even more than that, if anyone can normalize breastfeeding, normalize breastfeeding in public (on a cover of a magazine for the whole world to see counts as public for me), then it must be her. As a long-term breastfeeder - I've been nursing without a break since March 2004, and both of my sons have nursed for 2 1/2 years, at least - and someone who hopes to help normalize breastfeeding, and make breastfeeding in public more normal and acceptable, seeing someone so public putting it right there for the whole world to see - I'm thrilled. Thank you, Angelina Jolie, thank you Brad Pitt, thank you W Magazine.

The Hudson Hornet's Engine couldn't last forever

2008-09-27T10:14:00.002-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/27/paul.newman.dead/index.html

If you haven't already heard, Paul Newman passed away yesterday at the age of 83.

He certainly left his mark on the world, with his great movie roles, his charitable work, his amazingly long Hollywood marriage, and of course his yummy Newman's Own.

Around here, as in many homes with kids, he holds a special place in our hearts as Doc Hudson, the Hudson Hornet. Radiator Springs just won't be the same without him.

His name was Guthrie, he was a Jedi

2008-09-09T18:08:00.003-05:00

Guthrie totally looks like

a Jedi.

(Because I can never get it to work when I try to embed video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNiOMQZyMT8)

We DON"T like Ike

2008-09-09T09:45:00.002-05:00

I've been watching the path of Hurricane Ike closely since it first started to develop over a week ago. Over the weekend I watched even more closely, as it looked like it might head this direction. We had been considering a short trip to Corpus Christi this weekend, but we decided that was probably going to be out of the question, so instead we spent Sunday at South Padre Island. This area is in some ways still recovering from Hurricane Dolly, and the Island especially seems to still be trying to get back on its feet.

And so I keep loading and reloading the Weather Channel's hurricane articles and maps. Even yesterday morning it looked like Ike was going to hit far away, but now I'm thinking what we need to do to prepare. I can't imagine it will be another direct hit like Dolly was, but it's certainly going to make an impact here, if in no other way than to gives us back the mosquites that had finally started to die off.

I'll be happy if Ike doesn't restrengthen, or just misses us altogether, but once again, we're on the lookout.

And lest anyone think the hurricanes are making me dislike where I live, I must remind people of my passionate hatred and fear of tornadoes. Tornadoes give you, if you're lucky, a matter of minutes notice to head to your basement. We've already had over a week to be thinking about this hurricane, and we have a few more days before it will hit. I'll take the week's notice over a few minutes, thankyouverymuch!

Can someone explain the bottled water thing to me?

2008-09-03T12:28:00.003-05:00

If there's anyone here, in the Rio Grande Valley, who can explain to me, in detail, with specific examples, why exactly I should not drink the tap water, I would appreciate it. Greatly.

And anyone else who just wants to make an argument in defense of bottled water, that would be great too.

We've lived here 2 years. We drink the tap water. I believe we have yet to meet anyone else who drinks the tap water, yet no one has been able to explain to me why, exactly, the tap water is dangerous.

I've heard lots of vague "it's very polluted here," "there are lots of dangerous toxins in the water," "it's not safe," "it causes birth defects," but NOT ONE legitimate, specific REASON for avoiding the water. So we continue to drink it, and continue to remain as healthy (if not moreso) than a lot of the people who only drink bottled.

I'm not knocking those who drink bottled water. (Well, kind of, if there's not a good reason for it, why spend so much money and contribute to the destruction of the environment with all those bottles, even if they are being recycled?) Really, if you want to spend so much more money on bottled water, fine, that's your choice. There is a part of me that thinks if everyone else is so scared of it, maybe I should be, too, and so I would like to know WHY the local water is so dangerous.

I do find it funny (in both a genuinely humorous and a sort of ironic sort of way) that a lot of the time the people who think we are risking our lives because we drink the tap water are the same ones who think we've lost our minds because we don't eat dead cows, because we believe it is too dangerous. Or we are way too strict because we won't let our sons drink soda or go to McDonald's - because surely those things are much safer than tap water.

Also, something I wonder - if the water from the tap is really so dangerous and full of toxins that you can't drink it at all, wouldn't it be unsafe for use for anything? Whatever toxins that might be in it, wouldn't those be absorbed into your food when you cook in it (boiling pasta, for example)? Isn't there a chance that those "toxins" would remain behind on your dishes when you wash them? Those toxins - might they be absorbed into your skin in the shower, into your children's bodies in the bath, into all of your skin in the pool? Into the foods in your gardens?

Further, do you have any idea what is or isn't in the bottled water you (general you) drink? I received a copy of my local tap water report in the mail, but I cannot find a way to get one for the Watermill Express or many of the bottled water companies. The government standards for bottled water and tap water are very different, and the standards for your tap water are much more strict.

I've been Googling this, trying to come up with ONE legitimate reason to drink bottled water. Aside from certain areas where the water is known to be a problem, I can't find anything. At all. In fact, everything I'm finding is showing why tap water is likely as safe or safer than bottled.

I'm not meaning to attack you bottled water drinkers. I just want a reason, an explanation, something in the form of EVIDENCE to show me you're right. We don't eat beef, because we believe conventionally raised beef is dangerous to our bodies and the environment. Aside from the environmental impact of it all, I don't care if you (general you again) want to eat dead cows, that's fine, and I'm not going to tell you otherwise. If you ask me why I don't eat beef, and why I believe it to be unsafe, give me an hour and I'll give you dozens of links to websites, news stories and video explaining my decision, and then you can make your choice for yourself.

That's all I'm asking for with this whole bottled water issue. WHY do you believe the local tap water to be unsafe? What proof can you offer me, especially if you are actively trying to convince me that it is dangerous to my (and my children's) health? Anyone? At all?

Allergic to the air I think

2008-09-02T21:49:00.005-05:00

Inspired by the mushroom incident of a few weeks ago, I finally went in today for allergy testing. I've been wanting to for about 10 years, since I first suspected I was allergic to dogs, but never had health insurance that made it reasonable and affordable until we moved here. Then, I just didn't make the appointment, until recently.

I didn't find out for sure whether I'm allergic to mushrooms. Apparently it's pretty uncommon, so I would have to have a blood test for that one, and I just figured if I can't eat them, I can't eat them, whether it's an allergy or not.

But I am allergic to ... everything else. Okay, not quite everything, but I think there were more positives than negatives. Cats was a big old itchy bumpy positive, as was dog, feathers, most weeds (Ragweed, I hate you), some grasses, a few trees, multiple molds, dust mites. Totally explains why I can't sleep under a down comforter - allergic to feathers and dust mites.

The one that upset me, because I just didn't know? Peanuts. It was mild, but definitely noticeable, and I have a mild allergy to peanuts. Funny, because I ate peanut butter before I went in to my appointment. I've never had any allergy symptoms from it. I LOVE peanut butter, and eat it every day, usually. Makes me wonder if I'm one of those who just has such mild allergy symptoms all the time that I think it is my norm.

I feel much better knowing what my allergies are, for sure. It gives me an excuse to get out of vacuuming (which Eric normally does anyway). Debating now if I should plant the fall garden or not, which I need to decide pretty fast.

We talked about the option of allergy shots. If anyone has any experience with those, give me your opinion. I need to learn more before I consider, and find out if the insurance would cover it.

I was given samples of an inhaler, which I sometimes do need - cats, specifically, can trigger severe wheezing and an inability to breathe - scary stuff. Also samples of Nasonex. I thought I'd give it a shot for the 2 weeks until the follow-up. I'm sorry I tried it, and I've only taken one dose. I'm sure there are people who experience relief with this drug, but for me, NO WAY! I started having mood swings almost immediately - severe sadness with no real cause. My heart is racing and all over the place. I have a terrible headache and nausea. I was terribly bloated earlier, with no other apparent cause. I'm dreading trying to go to bed. I'm jerky and jittery to the point where I'm having real difficulty typing this, because I keep hitting the wrong keys or in the wrong order.

Anyone else taken Nasonex? Was it good, bad, or ugly for you? If this is what it's like, for me, on the first day, I'm not going to try again. My day-to-day allergy symptoms are not bad enough (I rarely actually have symptoms unless exposed to a known trigger - cats are the big one, usually) to deal with side effects. I feel fine without the drug, but like crap with it? I'll take the default norm, thankyouverymuch.

And I have to say, as pleased as I was with the rest of the experience (the doctor and nurses were really great and friendly and helpful), I really wasn't given any information on the drug and possible side effects AT ALL. Not that I can say I ever really have been, but shouldn't that be an important part of the job? It's so frustrating, and moreso to think of how many people take a drug, don't know of the side effects, then take another drug to counter the side effects, which then might have side effects of its own ... and the cycle goes on and on. Not so much a complaint about this doctor, specifically (really, I liked her a lot), but a problem with the whole system. And I'm sure those drug commercials don't really help.

I don't even know what to say

2008-08-27T09:26:00.003-05:00

Why is it that when something from down here in the Valley makes national news, it's always for something like this:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/27/obese.prosecution.ap/index.html

Defense: Woman too obese to kill nephew

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) -- A nearly half-ton Texas woman charged in the death of her toddler nephew couldn't have beaten the boy to death because of her limited movement from weight problems, her attorney said Tuesday.

What kind of mother leaves her children with a 1,000-pound woman who can't even get out of bed? And then, why is it such a concern about how they will take care of her medical issues if she's in prison? I mean, okay, maybe you figure out a way to treat her until she is convicted. But once someone is convicted of such a horrible crime, why in the world to we continue to provide them medical care? We don't have medical care guaranteed for the good, hard-working, law-abiding citizens who haven't done horrible things like, oh, say, kill their nephews. My own father bled to death in his living room, even though there were treatments that could have helped him, because my family could not afford those treatments. You know, maybe I should have just encouraged him to do some horrible crime and go to jail. What a thought - if my father had been a criminal, he might still be alive today!

%@:**$#% Mosquitoes

2008-08-26T11:41:00.004-05:00

Ah, yes, it's that time of year again. It does seem to be a recurring theme around here. This is our third year in the Valley, and each year so far we have experienced the wrath of the little blood-sucking biters.

The mosquitoes are back.

They got bad after Hurricane Dolly and the rains before then. A few weeks ago, we were scared in the early evening by the sounds of planes flying very low overhead to spray to kill the little buggers.

Since then, we've had more rain. Lots. There was flooding in places, there is more rain in the forecast (every day in the extended forecast there's a chance), and Gustav, which looks like it's going to be dumping on Haiti very soon, has me worried. There are large pools of standing water everywhere you look. We're trying to be sure to make sure there is none in our yard, but we live next to a slow-moving canal with a runoff ditch next to it, and there's nothing to be done there.

As I started to type this, sitting at my computer in my house with all the doors and windows closed, I swatted a HUGE mosquito who was having a feast on the blood near my left elbow. I looked up to see blood had splattered onto my computer screen, nearly 2 feet away.

In Target yesterday, pulling out my wallet to pay, I had one land on my shoulder and try to take a bite.

I killed at least 3 in our van, and there may be more.

Guthrie has a dozen bites on him, and the only time we've spent outside the last 2 days was walking in and out of the library, and then in and out of Target. I opened the door yesterday when UPS arrived, and there were dozens visible right outside the door.

Eric said he got bitten inside his classroom while he was teaching yesterday, and was attacked walking to his car at dusk. A report in the newspaper said we shouldn't expect much relief until Thanksgiving, but spraying is being attempted. The problem is the forecast for more rain and maybe wind is making spraying difficult or impossible.

It could be worse, I know. They could be carrying much worse diseases than the ones we fear, but West Nile is certainly a consideration, as well as other illnesses that sometimes make an appearance in this part of the world. We had no flooding in or near our house, we live in a sturdy house with no leaks - the only way they get in (and they do) is when we open the doors to go in or out. There are people who are not so fortunate - they've had standing water in their houses, and many live in houses where there is little proection from what could come in from outside.

Still, I'm at a loss for what to do, again. Later, we will go to Chick-Fil-A (I should mention that I'm totally in love with Chick-Fil-A now), and let them run around in the playground. I can't, at least not yet, bring myself to slather us all in bug repellent so that we can go outside. I'm trying to keep the living room/playroom clean enough that the boys can run around in it some, because I just don't know what other options we have for them to get any exercise and burn off energy without being a mosquito feast.

And with guilt I admit we'll probably watch more Bob the Builder and Thomas for the next few days than I would normally like, but a little movie time seems like the lesser of evils when West Nile Virus is the possible other option.

*sigh* Really, there are things I love about living here. Come January, when I'm hearing about other places having snow and ice storms, while we're wearing tank tops and going for long walks and bike rides, I'll feel differently than I do right now. But at the time, the outside world is a very scary blood-sucking place, and I think we'll stay inside today. ANY suggestions at all would be appreciated. Or at least a little reassurance that if we eat at Chick-Fil-A every day this week and watch a different movie every day, the boys really will survive.

Is this what aging is like?

2008-08-19T21:23:00.002-05:00

I turned 30 about 2 months ago. Yes, 30, and yes, it is painful to type that. I was a little, um, terrified of that number, but it's come, it's gone, and there's no stopping it now. And I figured, really, I was in some of the best shape of my life, healthy, fit, happy, strong, great family, stable. So, what's 30, really?

But I turned 30 while we were having visits from our daughters (who each live with the other parent) and Eric's niece. We baked more than usual. We ate out more than usual. We took some shortish and weekend road trips, and drank sodas and ate Sun Chips and cheese dips and hotel breakfasts. Did I mention we baked a lot?

And the net result of that was about 7 pounds extra (7 pounds in 6 weeks) of which 4-5 are stubborn and trying to become permanent. No big deal, I just need to get back on the elliptical/bike/step machine/walks with the family.

Last week, I'm not sure how (but I know it wasn't interesting or exciting), but I hurt my neck and shoulder. The pain comes in waves, but for about a week now, the left side of my neck has been really sore. It might have been from moving up the next size in weights too soon. Or laying in a weird position in bed to write in my journal. No matter how I got it, it HURTS, and I've been relatively inactive - no weights for right now - to try to help it heal. I'd visit a doctor, but I'm not sure there's much they could do.

Motrin helps some. Icy Hot does too, but then I smell like an old person. The perfume I put on to cover it made me smell like an old person wearing Peony perfume.

Tonight, my dear husband suggested out of nowhere - and my husband never suggests this out of nowhere - that we go out for some dinner. Guthrie's been wanting IHOP, so okay, we went to IHOP. I had the Chicken Florentine Crepe, which was YUM (but I'm sure had 6,000 calories), and a couple bites of Guthrie's pancake. Thoroughly enjoyed the dinner, then stopped by a pet store, where both boys fell in love with a Pomeranian puppy, which we cannot get because I'm allergic.

And then the dinner confirmed a suspicion I've had for some time: I'm apparently allergic (or intolerant, whatever difference it makes) to mushrooms. I used to HATE mushrooms - just looking at them made me gag - but now I really, really enjoy them. The last few times I ate them, I had stomach pain. Tonight, I figured I'd try the food to see how it was, but also do a little test to check on the mushrooms. Sure enough, it's all I can do not to curl up in the fetal position clutching my belly. I'm making an appointment for allergy testing tomorrow.

So, I turn 30, gain 5 pounds, injure my neck, smell like an old lady, and end up doubled over in agony from mushrooms.

I think 30 sucks!

"Not cars, not trucks, not other things with wheels"

2008-08-16T12:53:00.015-05:00

(Don't panic. This is a wonderful train museum in Temple, Texas. The tracks are part of the museum, as is the train. It doesn't run. It's not nearly as scary as it looks.)

Guthrie likes trains. The above quote is how he described his love to his Grandma Mac (Eric's mom) before her visit last fall. "I like trains. Not cars, not trucks, not other things with wheels - trains."

He has had this love of trains all of his short life, since he was first able to communicate his interests to us. His first real Halloween costume was a train.

During our brief trip to the Chicago area for a friend's wedding when he was 18 months, we ended up at a hotel in Aurora with a train theme, right next to Walter Payton's Roundhouse, and the train station. We rode a train to Chicago, and this was the highlight of the trip for him.

For Christmas that year we got him a train set. Eric, of course, couldn't wait until Christmas for him to have it, so he ended up with it early. It started out pretty small, and on a table.

When we moved into our new house, Guthrie was 2. We still had boxes everywhere, the beds weren't set up yet, but we unpacked the trains.

Slowly the train table got less and less use, and every time we found ourselves in a toy store a few trains and a few more tracks, or track sets, found their way into our cart. The trains started to take over the house.

He got himself a costume so he could pretend to be a train conductor any time he wanted.

For his third birthday, we rode on a train from Warrensburg to Kansas City and back, and he got to meet a REAL condcutor.

Then when we were back in Missouri last summer, we happened to be in the same town that was celebrating its annual "Railroad Days" and got to ride a miniature train, before going to ride on the real Thomas the Tank Engine and meeting Sir Topham Hatt. Poor thing was getting sick, but we didn't know it until he started to develop a fever while we were on the train ride.

We went back to see Thomas in Austin in October, and followed that up with a night in Corpus Christi, where we stayed in another train-themed hotel, and rode on the Great Ocean Drive Scenic (GODS) Railway.

A few months ago, Eric got the idea to spray paint some of Guthrie's tracks. Guthrie then insisted they do them all, and carefully they worked on this together, taping off places that should not be painted, unscrewing roundhouses to pain inside them, using brushes on pieces that wouldn't come apart. Now Guthrie has beautiful, colorful tracks, and we spend many of our days (like today) building elaborate layouts that do take over much of the house.

We've read books on trains. Fiction - the entire collected original Thomas the Tank Engine stories cover to cover (all 405 pages) at least 4 times. We've read many other Thomas books, those we own and many from the library. We've read "The Subway Mouse," "A Cricket in Times Square" (because they live in a subway station), "Pano the Train," "The Little Engine that Could" with 2 different sets of illustrations, "Choo Choo" by Virginia Lee Burton, and so many other fiction books I've lost count. For non-fiction, we've read children's books that tell how train works, and we've also read much of an encyclopedia of trains in which the second half of the book describes hundreds of the great rail lines of the world. I learned many places I want to visit and ride the trains.

I do wonder just how long this love will last. It is fun, and he learns so much, but oh, I've looked at the hobby stores. I've seen the electric model trains. I know how much they cost and how much room they require. And we have a friend who works with the railroad, and we know there is a term for people like Guthrie. Yes, that's right, he's a Foamer.

Made me laugh

2008-08-07T10:18:00.002-05:00

Turner is 27 months old. Still nursing - a lot. More than I'd like for him to be, but I'm not really ready to forcefully wean, and I'm lazy, so we're still going. He's still two months younger than Guthrie was when I weaned him. And I'd like to try child-led weaning, although I'm not sure what my limit is. I guess we'll see.

He just climbed up on my lap to nurse, and who knows why, but he pulled off, looked at the nursies, and said, "Icky. Sick." I told him the nursies were yummy and good and wouldn't make him sick, and then he looked at me, pointed to the nursie, and said, "Compost."

I totally cracked up, and now he keeps saying it.

Apparently, I need to compost the icky nursies. *sigh*

For all those people who think babies *MUST* be weaned by one year, or whatever other abritrary age, and are definitely too old to nurse when they are old enough to ask for it, they just don't know the fun they are missing with a baby who is able to tel you how much he loves his nursies, or, even, that they should go in the compost.

Crash! Bang! Boom!

2008-07-28T15:01:00.005-05:00

That's what the back of Guthrie's head looks like right now. He has 4 staples in his scalp. Yes, they were put there intentionally. Oh, yes, we paid good money to have a doctor put staples in our son's head.

Yesterday started off normally enough. The house is total chaos, and really has been for weeks, with the girls visits and then the hurricane, so we decided our mission was to get things under control. And to start with the kitchen. And so, we spent hours cleaning the kitchen, and if you looked at it right now, you couldn't tell.

Okay, back up: Late Saturday night I got a call from my almost 17-year-old niece asking me if she should go to the Emergency Room for her injured wrist. Not quite sure how she injured it, but something about a ledge and her cat. She didn't have her insurance card, couldn't get ahold of her grandparents, and so she called me, thousand miles away that I am. And I didn't know what to tell her, so I spent the night worried sick about my poor injured niece.

Ah, yes, the kitchen. And the boys acting insane because we were ignoring them so we could give them a clean house, a hot meal, a nice home. Fighting, tantrums, the normal for 2- and 4-yo boys.

I napped with Turner. Things felt hectic but okay. I was scrubbing fingerprints off wallpaper when I realized it was about 5 o'clock, time to call Samantha.

She answers, says she's home alone, and that it's stormy. I was at the computer anyway, so I pulled up the weather channel for where she is, and - TORNADO WARNING!!! Anyone who knows me knows I HATE tornadoes, and Samantha freaked out (just a little bit) too. Home alone, going to the basement, sirens going off.

While I'm on the phone, Eric's making dinner, and I hear Turner cry. Eric says Turner broke his piggy bank. (This bank - it's a bear holding a honey pot, and I think actually belongs to Rosalind - has become Turner's "lovey" lately. He calls it "Puppy." It's hard and not cuddly, big and unweildy, but Turner insists on sleeping with him.) Fortunately, it was a pretty clean break and fixable, but Turner was pretty upset. He kept kissing it, holding both pieces, and saying, "I sorry," over and over again.

I'm still talking Samantha through the tornado warning. Asking her when her dad will get home, trying to find local (for her) news stations to see what they are saying. And then -

BANG!

Guthrie was playing on the exercise tower I got for my birthday. He was hanging by his legs off the bottom bar, swung backwards, and BOOM! cracked his head on ... something. I'm not sure if it was the bottom bar of the tower or a wooden block on the floor. He screamed and cried, but, you know, little boys bang their heads all the time, so I was still on the phone with Samantha, Eric was still trying to make dinner and comfort Turner with the broken "Puppy." Guthrie climbed into my lap, and then we found the blood.

Oh, the blood.

I've never before seen that much blood come from one of my children, and I hope to never see it again.

I told Samantha I had to go, slipped on my shoes, and we took off for the ER. Eric was in a panic. There was SO. MUCH. BLOOD. We had a wet towel on Guthrie's head, but by the time we got to the ER I had blood all over me (and my purse and my cell phone), and Guthrie's hair was pink. He was crying, more in fear than pain. Eric's crazy driving there and his sense of panic probably didn't help much.

And then, 5 hours later, we left the ER, Guthrie with 4 staples in his head. Yes, staples. The doctor (she was really, really awesome, and really helped keep Guthrie calm through it all) said staples are better than stitches because they are much faster. Guthrie thought it was all awful, and I'm not sure how much the topical painkiller did to ease the pain of his head BEING STAPLED. And the thought of taking those staples out of my son's head? Not looking forward to Friday when he gets them removed.

Today, things are more normal. We didn't get much sleep. Eric fixed "Puppy," and Turner was distraught he couldn't sleep with him, but Puppy sat right next to Turner on the bed, and that's how he fell asleep. Samantha survived the tornado warning without any problems. Stacia, my niece, has some kind of fracture in her wrist and can't work for a week.

It was after 10 p.m. when we got home from the hospital last night, so too late for any treat. But today, to make up for the horrible owies Guthrie had to endure, the decapitated piggy-bear-puppy bank, and the general chaos of the day, I did what needed to be done: We went to Cold Stone. YUM!

And how was your Sunday?

Goodbye Dolly

2008-07-25T11:01:00.002-05:00

Dolly has come and gone, and we survived mostly unscathed. We lost a lot of our garden - one okra plant is still standing, and the melons seem to be okay. We're going to have to cut down most of the banana plant, trim up the pretty pink flowering tree in the front yard, and just do some general cleaning up, but we didn't suffer any real damage.

We fared better than much of the Valley. We were without power for about 12 hours, without any real problems, never lost our water supply. Others are still without water or electricity, and there are areas with pretty serious flooding and damage. So far I've only heard of one loss of life, from Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, where a man was electrocuted. It could certainly have been much, much worse.

Hanging in There

2008-07-23T12:01:00.003-05:00

The first casualty of the storm seems to be my okra. About half of it has been knocked over on its side.

Otherwise, all is well so far. Dolly still hasn't made landfall, but is very close. Rain, some wind, fussy little boys.

We've got water, food, a full gas tank, coffee on to brew and a thermos full already. Now we just wait and see.

Getting ready

2008-07-22T18:31:00.004-05:00

We made a quick run to Lowe's and Target for last minute supplies. I'm following the lead of others in our neighborhood as to what precautions we should take - the only windows I'm seeing being boarded up are those with the huge single panes of glass, and all of our windows have many small panes, I'm guessing designed for this very reason.

Eric laughed at Target when, along with disposable diapers (can't wash diapers if the power goes out, and just don't want to have to deal with it right now), I insisted we get wine and chocolate. If I'm going through a hurricane, I'm darn well going to have wine and good chocolate, gosh darn it!

All of Guthrie's play today has centered around the hurricane. Thomas took shelter in the roundhouse for protection from the impending hurricane. His toy taxi drove very quickly out to South Padre to pick up people stuck on the beach before the hurricane hits. Turner is oblivious.

The clouds are moving in, it's getting dark outside, it's hot and sticky with an occasional wind.

At Lowe's, I thought Eric might be a little crazy when his idea was to buy bags of dirt instead of sand bags - they would work the same purpose, but then we could use the dirt in the garden afterwards. There was one other person in the Lawn and Garden section, a woman buying dirt, and it turned out it was for the same purpose. She said she'd done it before and it worked perfectly, unlike sand which just eventually gets thrown out or makes a mess!

Hello Dolly!

2008-07-22T10:07:00.004-05:00

I grew up in a land-locked state - Missouri - and, except for spending most of one year in Alaska, lived there my whole life until June 2006, when we moved to South Texas. I've experienced my fair share of natural disasters - in Missouri, an ice storm that left some people without power for weeks, a couple tornadoes that left me shaking in fear in a basement (yes, I have an irrational fear of tornadoes), and in Alaska, a very minor earthquake while eating mediocre Italian food.

As it appears right now, I'm about to experience my first hurricane. Last year, there was one storm (Dean?) that originally looked like it was going to get us, but ended up just giving us a little rain. This time, Dolly looks like she's headed straight for Brownsville, just 60 miles down the road from where I sit right now.

As I type this, the sun is shining, there is no wind, and a few clouds are just starting to appear from the east. I feel totally unprepared with no idea what to expect. We have batteries, we're filling up all of our water jugs we can find with water from the tap (NO we don't drink bottled water), we just went to the grocery store on Sunday and have lots of food to get us through (I think). The gas tank in the van is full. When Eric gets off work, we're going to the store to check for any last-minute provisions.

The prediction is that it will hit as a Category 1, and there are no calls for evacuations, at least not yet. Eric lived in Houston for years, and so he's been through these before, and I'm trusting him on this. Wish us luck!

The Mystery Melon

2008-07-09T16:27:00.003-05:00

Still never figured out exactly what it was. I swear the seeds I bought and planted were for a plain old cantaloupe.

This is what it looked like on the inside. It tasted, mostly, like cantaloupe. The kids really liked it. I, on the other hand, absolutely cannot stand cantaloupe (I adore watermelon, love honeydew, but can't stomach even a few bites of cantaloupe), and we waited until Samantha got here to try it, only to discover that she is apparently still allergic to melons (and bananas, for that matter, becuase she had a reaction to the bananas we cut off our tree too).

We have a few other melons growing - the watermelons just don't seem to want to do anything at all though. We caught another mouse (the livetrap rocks!) who was eating our tomatoes. We've gotten a TON of okra (more than we've been able to eat), blackeye peas, and we have a bunch of sunflowers, including one that is about 12 feet tall. Now I'm looking at what we can plant in the fall and thinking about getting ready for that.

With all the rain that we (finally) got, our front lawn looks like a jungle, and we have weeds in our backyard as tall as the boys. We're not the only ones, though, as until today there wasn't enough of a break in the rain to get out and cut it, so everyone's lawns look pretty bad. We needed the rain desperately, but I was starting to get worried that we weren't going to go to the beach or do any of the fun stuff we had planned with Samantha here. No worries - it's sunny right now, and the weekend should be nice and warm and sunny - we're off to the beach this weekend! Yeah!

Name That Melon!

2008-06-28T12:05:00.002-05:00

Our game show for today is Name That Melon!

What I thought I had planted in the spot where this grew was cantaloupes. We do have cantaloupes growing - ate 2 of them yesterday, as a matter of fact, and you can see one in the picture behind this melon. This, however, does NOT seem to be a cantaloupe. It was dark green until a couple days ago, then turned yellow. It smells kind of like a cantaloupe, and we're going to cut it (and another one just like it) open later. It's about 4-5 pounds, 20 inches around. Anyone? Any clue? I'm calling it the mystery melon.

(Birthday pictures later.)

You might be a mother to a toddler if ...

2008-06-16T15:18:00.002-05:00

You hear yourself saying, "Do NOT put a bean up your nose!"

Yep, we got beans from our garden. And yep, Turner put one up his nose earlier. Thankfully, it popped right out, since I didn't put 2 and 2 together right away. (He was walking around laughing and saying "Bean. Bean. Bean." while putting his finger up his nose, and I finally asked, "did you put a bean up your nose?" to which he responded by laughing hysterically, causing the bean to fall out of his nose.)

That wasn't, quite, the point of the garden.

I'd erase all of Turner's toys

2008-06-10T14:01:00.003-05:00

We've been reading Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Guthrie loved the poem about the child who uses his magic eraser to erase someone.

Just now, he came up to us in the kitchen, and said, "If my pencil that I bought had a magic eraser, I would use it to erase all of Turner's toys. Then he wouldn't have ANY toys to play with, and he would leave me alone."

I think the logic is faulty, but the sentiment is right.

Thank goodness there is no magic eraser, or brothers everywhere would instead erase each other.

Bad Mommy! Bad!

2008-06-07T23:19:00.003-05:00

We'd bought a bunch of limes since they were cheap, planned on making limeade and some other things. We finally realized they needed to be used, so Eric and Guthrie started squeezing. I asked him to keep some back so we would have lime juice to use in cooking, but the only bottle we had handy was an empty water bottle. Eric filled that up with lime juice, used the rest for yummy limeade.

Well, Turner's gotten creative and independent lately, and opened the fridge to get himself a drink. He saw the bottle, and I guess he thought it was water. I couldn't resist the opportunity and grabbed the camera, just as he took a big swig of straight lime juice.

I know, I know, it's cruel. Don't worry, I rewarded him with a little piece of dark chocolate after, and he seems to have forgiven me.

I act 30. And I'm almost 30. Scary.

2008-06-06T16:31:00.002-05:00

I got this from my daughter on MySpace. When I looked at my number, and realized it's age 30 - and I'm about to turn 30 (3 weeks from today), I laughed. And then I wanted to cry.

For the record, the one detention I got was in Advanced Chemistry class. One of my best friends, Tonya, and I wouldn't shut up during class - don't know why. I think we had the highest grades in the class, but we just couldn't stop talking, and the teacher got sick of it and gave us a detention. We had a blast!

[[x] You know how to make a pot of coffee
[x] You keep track of dates using a calendar
[x] You own a credit card
[ ] You know how to change the oil in a car
[x] You've done your own laundry
[ ] You vote in every election
[x] You can cook for yourself
[x] You think politics are exciting
TOTAL SO FAR: 6

[ ] You show up for school late sometimes
[x]You always carry a pen in your bag/purse
[ ]You've never gotten a detention
[ ] You have forgotten your own birthday at least once
[x]You like to take walks by yourself
[x]You know what credibility means, without looking it up
[x] You drink caffeine at least once a week
TOTAL SO FAR:10

[x] You know how to do the dishes
[x] You can count to 10 in another language
[x] When you say you're going to do something you do it
[x] You can mow the lawn
[x] You remember to water the plants
[x] You study when you have to
[x] You remember to feed your pets
TOTAL SO FAR: 17

[x] You can spell experience, without looking it up
[x] You clean up your own mess
[ ] The people at Starbucks know you by name
[ ] Your favorite kind of food is take out
[x] The first thing you do when you wake up is get caffeine
[x]You can go to the store without getting something you don't need
[x] You understand political jokes the first time they are said
[x] You can type pretty quick
TOTAL SO FAR:23

[x] You have realized that the weather forecast changes every hour
[ ] Your only friends are from your place of employment
[x] You have been to a Tupperware party
[x] You have realized that no one will take you seriously unless you are over the age of 25 and have a job
[ ] You have more bills than you can pay
[x] You have been to the beach
[x] You use the internet every day you have the chance
[x] You have been outside of the united states
[x] You can read a book and actually finish it...
TOTAL: 30

Stay out of THIS courtroom

2008-06-05T09:42:00.002-05:00

There are downsides to where we live. Check out this headline:

Lawsuit: Los Fresno JP ordered spankings

It doesn't give much detail about what the 14-year-old girl in question actually did, only that she would be fined and found guilty of truancy if her father did not give her repeated spankings in open court. With a large heavy wooden paddle!

Apparently, the father did it. He felt he had no choice. I have no idea what I would have done in a similar situtaion - I imagine being too dumbfounded to do anything.

In some places, even a slight swat on the butt might get you charged with child abuse and your kids taken away. Apparently, here, it's abuse NOT to, and I suppose you could be held in contempt of court if you didn't spank your child - in open court.

This is insanity. This was Brownsville, and not McAllen, but sometimes I hear stories like this, and think, "Where am I again?"

Ah, Texas. There's nothing like it.

C-sections mean no insurance?

2008-06-03T15:30:00.002-05:00

Navelgazing Midwife has much more to say about this, but this article talks about women who have had previous c-sections being denied insurance coverage, or having to pay additional expenses for their charges (unless they have been sterilized), because of the past c-section.

C-sections, of course, cost much more than a typical vaginal birth, cause many more complications, and are much more dangerous than a normal vaginal birth.

Now, before anybody goes throwing a fit saying, "But I had one because (the baby/I/both) would have died if we didn't!" well, I do know that there are times when a vaginal birth is impossible and a c-section is absolutely warranted. I am thankful they are there for the women and babies who truly need them.

BUT - the current c-section rate is the US is somewhere around 30% - in some places it's higher, and I've even heard of places where the rate is closer to 50%.

VBAC's (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) are not "allowed" in many hospitals, and many doctors refuse to atted them. So, the general line of thinking (whether right or wrong) is "once a caesarean, always a caesarean," and even if a woman wants to have a VBAC, she is likely to be unable to find anyone to attend her birth or a place in which to deliver.

Now, many of those women who had unnecessary c-sections (and there is no way possible that 1/3 of babies NEED to be born by c-section, or the human race would not have survived this long) are being denied health insurance, being denied coverage for a repeat c-section (which, given the unavailability of VBAC's, is basically refusal to cover a subsequent pregnancy and birth), or being charged higher rates or separate riders for a future c-section, arguing that they can exclude them on the basis of a c-section being a pre-existing condition.

The implications of this are pretty scary. Many women go into birth not fully prepared or educated, and trust their doctors completely, so if they are told they "need" a c-section, "need" to be induced, "need" to have their labor augmented, or "need" any one of the long list of potentially unnecessary and harmful interventions (many of which eventually lead to that c-section), they trust their doctors. They never consider that many doctors never see a normal, natural, intervention-free birth, that doctors are trained to use all their equipment, that they are practicing in a way to protect themselves from a potential malpractice suit (and if a doctor has performed a c-section and there is a negative outcome, the doctor is generally assumed to have done everything in his power, whereas if he has performed an unnecessary c-section, he faces no repurcussions). And so they go along with it, end up with a c-section, and never have any option for anything else in the future.

And now, they may find themselves unable to have children in the future, unless they can figure out how to pay for a c-seciton out of pocket. And I don't know about you, but I can't really pull out my checkbook and cover that one right now.

First, how about universal health coverage, so this isn't an issue? Figure out a way to cover everyone, so we don't have to worry about whether a previous c-section, a birth defect, an inherited health problem, or our genetic makeup will exclude us from coverage. Radical idea, I know, but it seems to work for all those other industrialized nations.

But second, how about letting pregnancy and labor take its own course unless there's a darn good reason to do otherwise? Like not scheduling 38 week c-sections because a baby is "too big" (and then turns out to be 7 1/2 pounds). How about allowing truly elective c-sections only if the mother is willing to pay the full cost out of pocket, and understands all the potential implications?

Yes, I get riled up about this issue. I think women, and babies, deserve better, and sell themselves short when they don't trust their bodies to do what their bodies are designed to do - carry a baby and give birth. Plus, if I'd gone with a convential OB/GYN for Guthrie's birth, I'm pretty certain I would have been scared into having a c-section because he was "too big" for a vaginal birth. Oh, he was a big baby - over 9 pounds and 21 inches - and he was my longest and hardest labor of my 3, but he certainly wasn't "too big" - born after 7 1/2 hours of labor without a complication, without a tear, without an IV, epidural, or any other intervention.

The only good I can see coming from this development is that if enough women find out about it, and know what it could mean, maybe they will think things through and question whether that c-section is truly necessary.

(And because this comes with bad timing, as one of my friends just had a baby by c-section, if she reads this - as if she has time with a new baby - it's not directed at anyone in particular at all. Just my frustration with "the system" as it is.)

"Retrospective Courage"

2008-05-30T12:22:00.003-05:00

Eric was quoted today in the Baltimore Sun, speaking about Scott McClellan's new book. (They still have him listed as teaching at CMSU, which isn't even CMSU anymore, but whatever. Should be the University of Texas, Pan-American.) My new favorite Eric quote is where he says Scott McClellan will be "remembered as having, let's say, retrospective courage."

Well said, my dear.

Homemade Yum!

2008-05-24T17:19:00.004-05:00

Along with the gardening, we're trying to do other things as we can to cut down on our environmental impact, along with saving money and in many cases being healthier. The kids are picking up on this message of "let's do it ourselves." So when Guthrie asked us at Lowe's the other day if we could get the ice cream maker "and then we will never have to go to the ice cream shop to get ice cream again," well, we couldn't say no.

Today he told us he wanted ice cream sandwiches. Okay, easy enough - we'd made ice cream already and had some in the deep freeze, and then made chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. Slap some vanilla ice cream between two cookies, and there you go - ice cream sandwiches.

And then there's Turner, who wouldn't eat it like a sandwich. He had to have a spoon, and once he was done with the ice cream, he ate his cookies with the spoon too.

Okay, so not exactly a "green" food choice, and not really healthy, but we did it ourselves, and was it YUM!!!

Gardening hazards

2008-04-07T13:53:00.002-05:00

I needed to break off a branch of the aloe vera plant to rub on the all the cuts I got pulling the weeds around the ... aloe vera plant. It injures and then heals!

There are at least two lizards living in the aloe vera. They eat bugs. This is not a hazard, but a good thing as far as I can tell. They don't mind me, I don't mind them, we co-exist peacefully.

Sunscreen is a good thing. Shoulders are pink, arms are brown, ears red. I have a tan line on my wrists from wearing gardening gloves. Must purchase big floppy sun hat.

My new strength training regimen consists of a shovel. That's the only equipment needed. Well, and some dirt. I never knew what a workout you can get digging - arms, shoulders, legs, butt, I can even feel it in my abs.

When you hear rustling nearby when you turn on the garden hose, step away and watch. Yes, we had a snake in the yard (under the banana tree, where no one goes anyway, and we have frequently seen frogs toads and other things yummy to snakes). As best I can tell, I don't think it's poisonous or otherwise dangerous. It disappeared and hasn't been seen again. Also as far as I can tell, blonde woman with shovel beats snake in most battles.

Not a gardening hazard exactly, but: If you don't want your mom (who is coming for a visit in 11 days, and is terrified of both flying, which she is about to do, and snakes) to know there was a snake in the yard, then don't tell your son as he is dialing her number, "Whatever you do, DON'T tell Grandma there was a snake in the yard!!!" Because the surest way to get a child to do something is to tell them not to, and of course then the first thing he said when she answered the phone was, "Grandma we saw a snake in the yard!!!!" (Which he in fact did not see.)

And finally, who wants to take bets on how many things will actually grow when as soon as I had some seeds planted and done, Turner immediately went over and sat in the garden patch to play in the dirt?

Why does my garden grow

2008-04-03T11:29:00.002-05:00

There were lots of things that prompted me to consider a garden. I just read Michael Pollan's latest book, In Defense of Food, (which I highly recommend, btw) and one of his tips is to grow a garden - the ultimate in local, seasonal, organic eating.

The increasing food prices have made me think about it too - it's not hurting our budget too much yet, as we don't eat a lot of the foods showing the biggest increases - little meat, we've cut back on dairy already - but it is enough that if we grow our own produce, or what we can, then we don't have to be as bothered by the increases in other things.

I've also thought this would be good for the boys. Our kids (and adults) are often so separated form nature, and our food supply, that they don't get it at all. We don't know where our food is coming from, what it looks like growing, what it tastes like fresh.

And so I decided what the heck, let's give it a shot.

Only I've never been successful as growing any non-human living things before (I've had a few pets, but I've not been the best pet owner and they've mostly been other people's responsibilities, and I've become allergic to cats and dogs), and I've never really witnessed gardening in action, and I'm basically clueless as to what I'm doing. My dad grew a garden a few years when I was little, but I didn't pay much attention to what he actually DID, just helped pick, prepare and eat things when they were ready. Last year we tried a couple strawberry plants, but the birds always got to the berries before we did, and I gave up on it pretty fast.

I've gotten some books from the library, found some good websites, and gotten reassurance from the guy working at Lowe's that it's just not that hard, and we can really grow just about anything here. I got a few tomato plants yesterday, put the cherry tomatoes in barrels and put the tomatoes in the ground. Guthrie and I planted some flowers, and put some cilantro and basil in some other little containers. Containers are not nearly as intimidating as digging up the lawn and putting things in.

I find the whole thing frightening and intimidating, but a little exciting, and I feel good already having started.

Just now, we went out in the back and I started digging, trying to get the grass pulled up out of the ground. (Turner does not seem to be scared of the shovel today.) I can tell the garden is going to be good for me in more ways than one - healthy fresh veggies for fuel, and the workout that is digging, shoveling, hoeing, and planting. I'm hoping the boys will be more eager to eat more veggies if they have helped grow them too.

It's an adventure for me, and we'll see how it goes. If the only thing we get out of it is some tomatoes and playing in the dirt, it will be time well spent.

Because there is something to be said for feeling like a 12-year-old girl again

2008-04-02T21:57:00.004-05:00

http://nkotb.com/

and

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20187202,00.html

So, we don't have a TV or cable, so I'm checking to see if I can watch this live online. And if not, I've gotta figure out where I can go to see it live, even that early in the morning. (Denny's?)

Oh, yes, I am a total dork. But, see, it gets worse. My bedroom, when I was 12 or so, actually looked like this:

Okay, stop laughing. I'll wait. Done?

Obsessive is probably the right word to use. But anyway ...

Who knew Joey would be the hottest one 20 years later? Or that time would be the least kind on Jordan (whose poster I had hanging on my ceiling - it's not in the pictures - so I could look at it as I fell asleep at night)? And you know, Danny wasn't all that hot back then, but time HAS been kind to him! Whoo!

The big question has become, when they finally announce their reunion tour dates, who am I going to go to the concert with? And where? Goodness knows they're probably not coming to the RGV - Austin? Do I go back to KC?

So ... who's in for a little old-fashioned NKOTB party? I'm still "Hangin' Tough" as long as they've got "The Right Stuff." Just taking this all "Step by Step."

(Oh goodness I've gone over the edge now. Someone stop me. But I'm practically giddy right now thinking about it. I do feel almost 12 again.)

How does my garden grow

2008-04-02T15:42:00.002-05:00

So the totally insane and brilliant idea I had to try to grow a garden might be going much better if Turner was not frightened to death of the shovel. Yes, the shovel. What was I doing with it? Trying to dig a hole to plant some tomatoes. Pretty scary stuff.

Yes, the kid has some weird fears. At Wal-Mart (don't ask - we try to avoid it, but sometimes we just have to - plus it's the only place we've found that carries the kind of cheese we eat) in the Garden section they have these enormous fans on the ceiling. Those are so scary he had to cling to me - while still sitting in the cart - whenever they were in view. The vacuum he thinks might eat him. Same with the leafblower that was being used at the park. The street cleaner? Might as well be a monster from Mars. Lizards are not at all scary, but flies cause screaming hysterics. The mop - the MOP - at the restaurant last week had him jumping out of his seat.

Otherwise, Guthrie and I planted some flowers while Turner took his nap. Eric dug up the nasty rose bush (that didn't bloom, and housed an enormous black bumble bee) and the tiny oleander in the front yard. I planted two cherry tomato plants in barrels, and as soon as Eric can dig the hole (because I'm not going to try again) I'll put the other tomatoes in the ground.

We have a TON of seed packets, because the boys (and I) went a little nuts at the store, buying everything that seemed interesting. I have to figure out how much space I'm actually going to have and prioritize what I want to try. I've always had black thumbs, but I figure it's worth a shot. Wish me luck. And hope Turner gets over his irrational fears.

Our lazy Sunday afternoon

2008-03-16T20:57:00.003-05:00

We walked out this afternoon and looked at the outside of the bedroom window to see this:

As I have two young sons, they were of course fascinated by the lizard on the window. Which proceeded to be terribly frightened by the two tow-headed two-legged creatures which so desperately wanted to touch it that it jumped right onto Guthrie's head and now his back, only to hide under a table, where it was much easier to get to.

We spent the next 45 minutes or so watching it,

squealing with joy at it,

curious as to what exactly it was

whether it was going to get us,

and why it didn't understand our repeated explanations that we were, in fact, people, and not a predator going to get it, and why wouldn't it just let us give it a kiss or hold it for a minute,

before it finally got away.

And such is life with Guthrie, Turner, and our various and sundry lizards and other wildlife here in the Rio Grande Valley.

The Birthday Boy!

2008-03-12T12:27:00.006-05:00

Okay, two days late, here are 4th birthday pics.

(I don't know what's up with all the weird spacing. It does this sometimes with pictures. I'm not going to fight to get it just right.)

Breakfast at IHOP:

Presents:

Making the cake

(No comments about raw eggs. Yes, I'm letting them lick the bowls. It's the best part.)

The Play-Doh doggy doctor set (he got this for another little girl for her birthday a few weeks ago - because he wanted it of course - so we got it for him, too)

Play-doh beard

Cake - he wanted orange icing.

Happy Birthday little boy!

Sick, sick, sick

2008-03-11T14:56:00.002-05:00

Guthrie's birthday was yesterday. He is now 4. I've been trying to post pics and stuff, but our internet has been slow. I'll try again later.

In other news ...

Eric was in New York last week, from Wednesday through Saturday. Friday I thought I had allergies, but it turned into a cold, and I've been feeling generally icky. I was looking forward to Eric getting home (he was in Savannah the previous weekend) so I could maybe get a nap, a long shower, start to feel better. Except his flight was late (just a little) and when he got home he was complaining of aches and pains.

Sunday morning: 102F fever. By yesterday it was 103. I think he officially has "the flu." He's sicker than I've ever seen him. He couldn't even eat birthday cake with us.

Daylight Savings Time is a PITA. How do you get toddlers and preschoolers to transition without having screaming tantrums at weird hours of the day?

For his birthday, we got Guthrie the Thomas the Tank Engine movie, Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Guthrie loves it, of course, although Diesel 10 is scary. But the movie? It's awful. Get it for your sons if they love Thomas, but try not to subject yourself to watching it if you can get away with it. It's just dreadful.

Cheesecake Brownies (I got the recipe here) are HEAVENLY and definitely worth making.

And without trying, Eric figured out how to save us money. See, we were going to spend a night (or two) of spring break in Corpus Christi or Austin. But now that he has the flu, and has only emerged from the spare bed a few times in the last few days, we're not going anywhere. So that's a few hundred more dollars in our pockets, right?

He can R-E-A-D

2008-02-23T13:38:00.002-06:00

We don't own a TV. We had one when we moved here, but we never set it up, so we gave it away. Besides, we're not going to pay for cable, and with just an antenna we could only pick up Spanish language stations. (Although I know that would be a great way to learn some Spanish. But do I really want to learn a language by watching Mexican soap operas?)

That said, we're not entirely anti-TV. Guthrie gets to watch movies on a DVD player or the computer, and Turner has been watching with him some lately. Guthrie also LOVES to play on the computer.

A couple weeks ago I started letting him play the games and watch the videos of Word World, a show on PBS. He loves it. And he's started wanting to write his letters and spell out words since he's been watching the show. We have a big table (it was actually a bed frame, but now it's a low table) that Eric and Guthrie painted with chalkboard paint, and we clear that off and take turns writing words. He wrote his name on the Valentine he sent Grandma.

I still wasn't sure how much he was learning, and how much of it was just recognizing the words he'd seen on the show, though, and how much he really "got" sounding words out.

Turner has been in a stage for awhile where he FREAKS OUT if I go to the bathroom. I can leave the house without him, and he will stay home with Eric just fine, but if he hears me saying I'm going to the bathroom he'll start crying and won't let me out of his sight. A little while ago, I told Eric I was going to go off to the P-O-T-T-Y, spelling it out so Turner wouldn't know and would let me pee in peace.

As I was walking that direction I heard Guthrie saying "po-t-t-ee" and sounding it out. "POTTY!" He announced. "You're going to the potty!"

And so, from someone who doesn't even own a TV set, and hasn't had cable in over 6 years, evidence that it CAN do some good.

But I don't want to think about the fact that he's not even 4 yet, and we're already past the stage where we can spell out words when we don't want him to know what we're talking about!!!

The most Romantic LolCats ever

2008-02-14T21:59:00.000-06:00

moar humorous pics

Too much sweetness for me. I hope she said yes.

Happy V-Day!

2008-02-14T15:06:00.002-06:00

We're celebrating with too much junk food, some wine, and the boys' new shovel and some dirt.

No heart-shaped sushi this year. Nothing over-the-top and romantic. Guthrie goes to tumbling class tonight, and hopefully they'll be asleep before 10. We've got a party platter of salami, cheeses and crackers to put together, chocolate covered almonds, chocolate dip for strawberries and pretzels, and I'd forgotten that the boys and I ate the whole thing of Choxie truffles we got from Target in the parking lot as soon as we left the store.

And I'm currently dunking chocolate almond biscotti in my coffee.

Apparently, Feb. 14 has become an excuse for me to seriously overindulge in chocolate. Does anyone see anything wrong with that?

Oh, yeah, and Eric and I have been married for 6 years today. Happy Annviersary to us!

Blogger Issues/Phishing?

2008-02-08T22:20:00.000-06:00

I'm currently getting a "Phishing" site warning from my internet security (I have Kaspersky) any time I try to open any blog supported through Blogger. Including my own (which I opted to open anyway).

Anyone know anything about this? Anyone else experiencing this problem?

Should I be concerned?

2008-02-02T19:43:00.000-06:00

My husband (age 46) just came into the room, laughing hysterically at something he was reading in a newspaper we'd picked up free today.

The reason I was frightened? The newspaper was the "Senior News."

And now he's reading about what activities are offered in the area for the older crowd.

Scary?

(Oooh, he just said something about the annual "Chocolate Festival." I wanna go.)

Customer Service?

2008-01-31T13:21:00.000-06:00

Begin rant:

You know what really ticks me off?

When you call customer service for something, because you just have one simple tiny question, and they make it some huge hassle. Like, they need your name and information just to tell you how much something costs.

Sorry, but if you want my all my info (probably so you can then pester me with phone, mail or e-mail solicitations, or sell my info to somebody else who will do the same), you are probably not going to get my business.

If I call a business I already have an account with - my cell phone provider, for example, or my internet company - to see about a rate change, okay, fine, I see where it might be helpful to be able to look up my account information.

But if I'm calling a gym to find out what the monthly membership fee is, you don't need my name, address, and phone number, and if you ask for it, and make one very simple question and answer exchange (Me: "What's your monthly fee?" Them: "It's __ dollars, plus a __ dollar enrollment fee." What did that take? 20 seconds?), take longer than necessary, use up my cell phone minutes (no home phone, why spend the extra money), and generally make it into more hassle than it's worth, you are NOT going to get my business. Because if it's that difficult to find out the answer to one little quick question, what would it be like to do regular business with you?

End rant.

Our future chef and baker

2008-01-24T16:01:00.000-06:00

All the cooking lessons you need - Guthrie teaches you how to make cookies. Don't follow his instructions too closely, though, or they may be a little ... burnt.

They're yummy. If you listen closely, you can hear Turner humming. It's 8 notes from the Nutcracker.

Who says I can't cook?

2008-01-14T19:43:00.000-06:00

My men - all 3 of them - disagree.

I had a loaf of bread, fresh out of the machine (okay, it's made with a machine, but it's not from a mix, so does that count as homemade?), and we were tearing off pieces to eat. Until Turner realized it's easier to just pick up the whole loaf. And as someone who has a complex about her cooking abilities (or lack thereof), it made me feel like a MOM to have my boys running around loving something I had cooked. Just warmed my heart, and then my belly. Because there is nothing in the world like freshly baked bread.

It is a Happy New Year

2008-01-12T14:02:00.000-06:00

I know things have been kind of quiet on this end for awhile. First off, we've been busy - we had to get our daughters back to their other parents, Eric's been traveling and working, and we're still trying to recover from the Christmas "break."

More than that, though, I've been worried. Why? My mom was tested a few days ago, because they suspected colon cancer. I was scared. I'm not ready to think about those kinds of issues with my mom. So I was a general nervous wreck, impatient with my husband and children, unable to sleep well, and that's only how I was doing - let's not even talk about how she must have felt.

I talked to her after the testing, though, and guess what? They said, at least now, she's fine. FINE.

I'm sure you all, in your various parts of the world, heard my sigh of relief.

So now we can get back to normalcy, worrying about the everyday issues of what's for dinner and do we need milk?

And my big concern now is convincing my mom that she should move here, to south Texas, where she'll never have to scrape ice off her windshield again and she can watch her grandsons grow up, and go to the beach a good once a month.

As the New Year fast approaches

2007-12-31T20:06:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about past New Year's, especially those since 2001 and as long as Eric and I have been together, and I realized something.

We suck at celebrating New Year's.

This year? We're sitting at home, drinking wine (me) and beer (him), eating cookies, maybe YouTubing later for fun. (Oh, how lame we are.) At least we did put on some nice(r) clothes and a little makeup (well, I did) so we feel a little more festive.

Past years? I realized I couldn't even remember most of our NYE's together. 2001 we were in New York City. But as we walked around the city earlier in the day, and saw all of the preparations - including what felt like armies of police officers on various corners preparing for patrol (this was the first NYE post-9/11), we decided Times Square was the last place we wanted to be. We went to a party with a friend, but it was totally lame (what I remember most was a bunch of kids of various ages all sequestered in a bedroom that felt more like a closet, and some guy talking about how he'd been working on his dissertation - on James Joyce, of course - for way too many years). And so, at midnight, NYE, 2001, in NYC, we were in our hotel room, watching the ball drop on TV like everyone else in the country. Lame.

2002? I don't remember. At all. I don't think this is because I was too drunk, either, unfortunately. Looking back at pictures and trying to figure it out, I think we were either in a hotel somewhere, or were spending one night in our apartment after getting back off one road trip and about to depart on another to fetch Rosalind from Houston for her Christmas visit. No pictures, no memories. No clue.

2003? I was pregnant, with Guthrie. We had a party platter of meats and cheeses, drank sparkling grape juice with Sammie and Roz from pretty glasses, and watched the ball drop on TV. There are pictures. I remember that one.

2004? At our farmhouse, we drank a bottle of champagne Eric had gotten during his week in France promoting his book. (He was given the bottle as part of the festival he attended.) House full of kids. Not much excitement.

2005? No memories, again. None. *sigh* See a trend yet?

2006? That one was okay. We stayed the night in a hotel on South Padre Island, watched fireworks on the beach from our room, had a party tray and wine and beer, and stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning on the deck of the hotel room, kids asleep in the room. That was our best NYE.

We were going to go back to the beach this year, but the holidays left us broke. *sigh* Next year maybe.

So, this year, we're boring and lame again. I hope everyone else is having fun for us. Turner is already sleeping, Guthrie is watching a movie, Roz is reading, and look at what I'm doing. The neighbors are shooting off fireworks (illegally).

2007 was a decent year, but 2008 is going to be better. Much better. Good things are on their way.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T17:43:00.002-06:00

The goods, the treats, and the aftermath.

And this doesn't even show the Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake from my mom (there's still plenty left), half of the goodies (Santa - and my mom - were very good to us this year) or half the mess.

Guthrie is still sick, but better. His fever got up to 104 last night, but today it's been mostly normal, and he was up to doing Christmas. But what kid isn't?

Hope everyone's holiday was wonderful, and Santa brought you just what you wanted!

(And the pictures were taken with my present, a new digital camera that's just the right size to fit in a pocket or purse, so I can always have it with me! Yeah!)

'Twas the night before Christmas

2007-12-24T18:25:00.000-06:00

And Guthrie was sick. 102F fever. Passed out, on the living room floor, at 4:30 in the afternoon, with Christmas cookies waiting to be decorated and left out for Santa, a Santa tracker to track, and all the other Christmas Eve fun waiting to be done.

Poor kid. Turner was sick Saturday, in the hotel in Austin, then while we had to wait for my mom and Samantha's plane to arrive - 7 hours late! The up side of the illness (if there is an upside) is that Turner slept Friday night for a 7 hour stretch, for the first time in his life. His previous record was 4 hours. I knew something had to be wrong, though, and that was confirmed when I felt his hot little belly first thing the next morning.

Hopefully all will be well tomorrow morning, Santa will have come, and we will have a Merry Christmas after all.

Santa!!!

2007-12-15T20:32:00.000-06:00

Guthrie liked Santa.

A LOT!!!

Turner ... didn't.

I think we're *almost* done shopping. One more gift to get, and Eric is insisting he get some money to get me a gift (which I'm reluctantly agreeing to, after being unable to stop getting him gifts once I started). Oh, stocking stuffers too - that could get expensive. Maybe we're not quite done after all ...

This was a very good Santa too. Not quite the one I grew up with, who is the *real* Santa I am certain, but he was still very very good. But oh, if only the threat of "behave now, or we'll go back and tell Santa that you are not minding" would work all year long. It works so very well.

Fun with stickers

2007-12-13T16:10:00.000-06:00

Turner has fallen in love with stickers. He will play with them for hours, decorating whatever we give him. So we decided to wrap some of our gifts in plain brown paper and let the boys decorate them. Turner loved it - wouldn't stop when it was time. But he got tired of decorating the paper, and decided to decorate me instead. So. Much. Fun.

(PS - I saw that this is my 200th post. Missed my 100th, so we're celebrating 200 instead)

Whether the weather be cold

2007-12-07T21:38:00.000-06:00

I clicked over to the Weather Channel's website to view our local current weather. Right now, at almost 10 p.m., it's 75F, and the high tomorrow will be low 90s. The headline at the top of the page was "Storm Watch: Ice Storm Coming." And I couldn't help but chuckle.

(I'm actually ready for a little cooler weather, and was excited when the forecast was showing a couple days next week with highs only in the 60s. But it looks like they've changed that now. Hard to get too Christmas-y at 90 degrees.)

Cleaning

2007-11-29T12:54:00.000-06:00

My mother-in-law will be here in a matter of hours.

Nothing like an impending visit from your husband's mother to motivate a girl to wash the windows.

Life with Guthrie

2007-11-27T19:08:00.000-06:00

'Nuff said.

Maybe Santa's not such a good influence after all

2007-11-27T14:45:00.000-06:00

My mom (thank you Mom!) sent the boys some Christmas DVDs - Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown, the standards. Turner still has no interest in sitting and watching a screen (maybe if it was bigger than the 7-inch DVD player), which is not a bad thing. Guthrie has been watching them, though, and even figured out how to put them in the computer and start it up all by himself.

He just walked up to me, holding a little stick in his mouth, and telling me he was smoking a pipe. Now he has hte stuffed Santa smoking the pipe. I asked where he learned that (don't think anyone has ever smoked an actual pipe around him) and he said on his movie Santa smokes a pipe. I hadn't noticed that part, or thought anything of it.

So, what do I do? I remember my older cousin and I used to pretend our crayons were cigarettes and "smoke" them. And candy cigarettes and cigars used to be popular everywhere.

I suppose I just let him keep it up, and the novelty will wear off soon enough. If I don't let him, or make a big deal, he'll just want to do it even more, huh?

See, I knew watching TV taught you bad habits.

Let's build a fence

2007-11-24T15:09:00.000-06:00

This is a story to remind us all why all illegal immigrants should be stopped. Why they are all evil, horrible, nasty people. And all that other BS propaganda some crazy fraidy-cats everywhere but around the border seem to believe.

Hopefully you can feel the sarcasm in my statement.

The story (really go read it) is about how an illegal immigrant in Arizona probably saved a little boy's life. The van he was in with his mom crashed, his mom was trapped inside, the boy crawled out to try to go for help but didn't know where to go. The man came along, tried to get the mother out (unfortunately, he couldn't, and she didn't survive), and then stayed with the boy, building a bonfire to protect him from the cold.

The boy, whose father had only recently died too, is fine, and the man is in custody. Because he's an evil law-breaking life-saver, or something.

There's one little boy who is glad there is no fence. Yet.

Things that would have once looked weird to me

2007-11-14T16:51:00.000-06:00

no longer do.

The fact that there is a roasting pan sitting empty in the hallway.

The instructions to a "Dora the Explorer" computer game in the refrigerator.

All the kitchen towels in Eric's office, on the floor.

The chairs to the kitchen table in the living room.

And not a single room in the house (bathrooms and closets included) that does not have at least one train.

Really, I don't even bother to pick the things up most of the time anymore. If I do, Guthrie will just come wondering where the roasting pan is, and why I took his (boat, garage, shed, tent) away.

"If Turner cries again, I will put a bandage over his mouth."

2007-11-11T11:00:00.000-06:00

Said by Guthrie, of course.

It's not quite as bad as it sounds. Turner has been a rather, well, LOUD child lately, screaming, whining, you know the rest. It was worse than normal - he was crying about everything, and none of us could figure out why - and Guthrie had given him a band-aid earlier when he fell and hit his forehead. So, I guess Guthrie figured a band-aid over the mouth would stop the crying.

Thankfully, he didn't try it. But Eric and I couldn't stop laughing. I'm still laughing about it.

MaaaaaMaaaa

2007-11-03T22:18:00.000-05:00

Turner only calls for me when he is crying. I've been somewhat concerned over his lack of speech (although the ped told me not to worry, as has everyone else), and disappointed at not hearing him call for me, ever.

A few weeks ago when I came home from working out, Eric told me the whole time I was gone Turner screamed and cried, and he beat on the bathroom door (assuming I was in there) calling "Mama!" over and over again. He stopped (calling, not crying) before I got home.

I've now heard him too. Just a few minutes ago, when he woke up, he came running out of the bedroom, face wrinkled in a cry, calling "MaaaMaa Mamamamama MaaaaaaaaaMa."

I do feel better knowing he can talk, when he needs to. But it sure would be nice to hear him call me when he's happy and just wants to play.

NoMo

2007-11-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

So I had this fantasy of doing NaBloPoMo, although I didn't sign up - something about my fear of commitment. I thought it might actually lead me to write here more often, and maybe, occasionally, write something of some merit or substance, let people actually get to know something more about Judy, not just how cute my kids are or how many trains I tripped over today.

It is night, now, and the only time I could really get to write something of substance. Unless I steal the time during Turner's nap, and let Guthrie watch another movie. My "me" time that I get on a regular basis is Monday, Wednesday, Friday (and sometimes Saturday) mornings going to the gym at roughly 9:30 (because that's when Jeopardy is on) to work out. And instead of writing something of substance, I am tired, and have decided to do what I usually do at this time, and sitting down with a glass of wine to converse with my husband, hopefully about something adult and substantive, that does not involve talking of poop, toys, or Thomas the Tank Engine.

Tonight's conversation, so far (Eric got called away briefly) is about taxes, and why they are not evil. That could be a post to itself, but it all frustrates me, and I start feeling so hopeless and angry at people who can't get their head around the whole idea (you drive on roads funded by taxes, you send your kids to schools funded by taxes, maybe your salary is even paid by taxes), that I just want to give up, and go join a group of Communists out there somewhere. Except I don't really want to become Amish.

And so to turn the conversation around, I'll probably bring up new words said by Turner, Guthrie's sudden interest in expanding his vocabulary, and Thomas the Tank Engine. Such is life around here.

Happy Birthday!

2007-11-01T14:52:00.001-05:00

Yes, my daughter is 12 years old today. 12. 12?!?!?!

How the heck did that happen? 12?

Just as beautiful and smart as ever, too. Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl.

We survived the crash

2007-10-25T13:01:00.000-05:00

The computer crash, that is.

Saturday afternoon, after returning from getting our pumpkin, and as just a part of the insane and nearly catastrophic weekend we had, my computer crashed. Guthrie hit the surge protector button, I turned everything back on, then he did it again, and once again I was trying to get everything started, when bam, nothing, crash boom bang.

And I had just been talking to two different people who had had computer crashes recently, and thinking I do a pretty good job of backing everything up. Except, when the computer crashed, I realized I hadn't backed things up in at least a week, a week in which we had taken 500+ really awesome pictures. And Eric and I had a little miscommunication, where each of us thought the other was backing up his e-mail, so it wasn't getting done at all. it wasn't as big a fight as it could have been.

The good news? We were able to salvage all the pictures (it was only a few hundred that weren't already on the external hard drive), Eric's e-mail is all there, and the computer is now fine, and just like new. Well, that's part of the bad news. Now I have to reinstall all my programs, add back all the files, and get everything figured out again.

The really bad news is that I lost my e-mail. Yes, all of it. My address book, my messages. Everything.

I'll recover. This happened once before. I am learning to back things up even more often.

In the meantime, send me an e-mail so I can have your address again, and if I haven't gotten back to you, this is why.

Fall is on its way

2007-10-20T11:18:00.000-05:00

The big news of the day:

Yep, that's right, fall is officially going to arrive Monday. And it was the headline of the newspaper.

If you could read it a little more closely it says that the highs next week are only going to be in the 80s and lows might drop all the way into the 50s!!! Break out the parkas, baby. (Kidding, kidding.)

On Monday and Tuesday, the high might not even hit 80. Whoa!

Middle of October, and we were still playing in the kiddie pool, and I'm currently dressed in a tank top and shorts. But oh, am I ready to turn off the AC and open the windows. I like it hot - really, I do - and I hate the cold (and I've lived in Alaska, so I know cold), but I'm done. Now come the months of paradise that is fall and winter in the Valley. Our tree in the front yard is starting to bloom, and I'm very much looking forward to a tree full of pink flowers full of butterflies and hummingbirds. Here it comes!

Woo-Woo!

2007-10-16T22:13:00.000-05:00

Another reason I don't like battery operated, noise-making, light-activated toys:

When I walk past the train puzzle with all the pieces missing and my shadow causes enough change in the light to cause it to go off, but I can't figure out what the heck that weird noise is at 10 at night, it scares the heck out of me, and I'm sure there is a pterodactyl in my house.

And there wouldn't be batteries in it at all if Guthrie hadn't figured out that the little slots in the backs or bottoms of certain toys hold batteries, which cause the toy to do something.

Help!

2007-10-16T15:12:00.000-05:00

Can anyone tell me what the block-like round toys, in the picture below, might be called? I have no idea. Guthrie had a blast with them a few months ago, and so did Samantha for that matter, and I remember playing with them in elementary school. My mom asked about them today, about a possible Christmas present, but I'm clueless as to what they are actually called, and the internet is not turning up any solid answers. So, to all of you out there, anyone know? Anyone? Help, please. Even if we don't get them for him, I'm going to go nuts until I get their name.

Good riddance

2007-10-06T09:10:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty left-wing bleeding-heart card-carrying-ACLU-member liberal when it comes to most issues. I have some problems with our "justice" system, and have come to be pretty much against the death penalty. When Eric was offered two jobs when he took this one, one of my big concerns about the other offer (but not the reason he didn't take the job) was that we would have been living in the place where Texas conducts its executions.

However, when it comes to people like this guy , well, I just can't see how we can justify a suicide watch. While I still don't support the state putting him to death, if he wants to do it on his own (and he did), then why should we stop him? Why not let him save the taxpayers the money of a trial? And the hassle?

Although maybe suicide is the easy way out for people like this. Goodness knows he would have gotten his due in prison, and maybe that kind of justice would be more fitting.

Losing the Battle

2007-09-21T19:16:00.000-05:00

with the toys. The toys - and the boys - are winning.

I realized that most of my day seems to consist of picking up toys, putting them away, picking them back up, putting them back away, rinse, lather, repeat.

And for some reason, Guthrie's new favorite pasttime is dumping out all of his toys all over his bedroom floor. And today he decided he wanted to play with puzzles. And by "play" I don't mean actually try to put puzzles together. Oh no,not a chance. He wanted to dump out all his puzzles all over the floor. And then, while I was trying to put all the puzzles back together and put them away, Turner had to "help." And by help I mean dump them all back out and scatter the pieces all over the floor. And then they discovered that one of the puzzles had a switch on the back, and still had batteries in it, and they spent the rest of the day making the puzzle make noise. ("How much is that doggie in the window, I sure hope that doggie's for sale.")

We've all been slightly ill around here, too, which makes it even more fun. No sleep, I don't really have the energy to chase them outside, and so I know it's from going stir crazy.

Anybody have Mary Poppins phone number? E-mail? Blog address? 'Cause I'm about ready to quit. Or at least take an extended break. Heck, 3 hours would be good.

He looks like a genius

2007-09-20T17:12:00.000-05:00

Like Turner's Einstein bed-head? Yes, he still calls all animals "woof woofs" and doesn't really talk much, doesn't know how to do algebra or calculate the energy of an object in motion, but at least he has the hairstyle of a genius. It's a start. And the story I've always heard is that Einstein didn't talk until he was 3, so maybe Turner's on the right track after all.

Our little Biker

2007-09-19T13:10:00.000-05:00

Guthrie has been riding his tricycle everywhere lately - wanting to ride it when we took our walks, and go for rides every night before bed. But he's getting kind of big for it, and we saw a little boy not too much older than Guthrie on a bike, and decided it was time for him to get one.

I wasn't sure how he'd do, but Eric was confident he'd figure it out fine. Well, apparently I should actually listen to my husband on occasion, because he's doing great on his bike. It has training wheels of course, but he's learning and having a blast. We go for rides most mornings and every night, and stop and have a nice little visit with a neighbor's cat while we're at it. (Turner still thinks it's a "woof woof" but he also now says "cat.")

For Christmas, I've told Eric I want a bike too. Eric has one, and if I got one, I figure we could all go for rides together, at least on the weekends. Good way for us all to get in shape and have some family fun.

NIP

2007-09-12T18:26:00.000-05:00

This is an awesome post about the whole "nursing in public" ignorance that takes place so often. Go check it out. It illustrates how so many people get all riled up seeing a few centimeters of skin exposed for a mother to feed her baby (honestly now - how many times have you seen a woman nursing in public exposing her nipple for any serious length of time, or at all? I don't think I EVER have) while they will tolerate all kinds of skin exposure in magazines, on billboards, in advertisements to sell beer, jeans, CDs, or whatever.

I am convinced it is not about the real exposure that comes from nursing in public (NIP) that bothers people. Most of the time, if a woman is nursing in public, there isn't much exposure at all, and certainly no more than you will see in other places in hot weather when girls are running around in skimpy clothes. It is, I'm certain, the ACT of NIP - the act of breastfeeding in general - that upsets and offends people.

I don't have the time or energy to go into much depth with this, but I think a lot of it comes from our need, as a culture, to overcome nature, to deny that which is natural and biologically normal. This extends to our obsession with hygiene and showering constantly, shaving every part of our body we can, prefering to take drugs to treat our ailments rather than concentrating on the root causes and fixing our diets or lifestyles. Breastfeeding is the perfect example of what our bodies, our most basic human NATURE, can do if left alone and allowed to do what they need, and it it offensive to many. The baby bottle, baby formula, the sterility and unnaturalness of it all, seems so much more safe, and so much less offensive, to the majority.

Remember Demi Moore's magazine cover, where she posed nude while very pregnant? Remember the uproar? It was beautiful. Remember any of the covers linked to in the post above? Christina Aguilera on Rolling Stone, or Janet Jackson on another issue? Where was the uproar there? There wasn't, because they were presenting breasts in their culturally acceptable context - as sex object - not in their natural context - as objects for feeding and comforting a baby.

Proud!

2007-09-11T21:21:00.000-05:00

First, excuse my absence. I smashed most of the fingers of my left hand into our garage door about a week ago (don't ask - my clumsiness will be my demise, I'm sure), and although nothing was broken or otherwise seriously damaged (at least I don't think - I didn't actually go to the doctor or anything) my left middle finger is still in some serious pain, still hasn't regained all the feeling, and is just now starting to develop a pretty serious bruise under the nail. So, typing hasn't exactly been easy, or fun.

BUT ---

I talked to my mom earlier today. My mom is ... okay, I won't reveal her age here. (She says she's 19, again, on every birthday.) She has never, once, in her life, flown in an airplane, anywhere. She has, as many people do (myself included) a fear of flying. We've talked about it in the past, and she has given her excuses, but shown not much real desire to overcome this fear.

A week or so ago, I talked to her on the phone, and invited her here, to visit us, for Christmas this year. The thought of traveling to Missouri with the boys, the hassle, the cost, not spending Christmas in our own home (again) just seemed so ... not fun ... to me, and I thought she and Samantha could come here, to Texas. I even looked up the Amtrak schedules to see how it would all work.

Well, today on the phone, she said that she is thinking about coming, and thinking about FLYING!!!!!!!!!

I cannot properly express here, on the internet, for anyone in the world (or, okay, the 6 people who occasionally read me, LOL) to see, how terribly proud I am of my mother for taking the first steps to conquer what has been, for her, a lifetime fear. Truly, fear of flying is nothing to be ashamed of (John Madden anyone?), but taking steps to overcome a fear is a huge accomplishment, and I am so so proud of my mom for even considering it. Whether she does it or not, she rocks for trying! Yea!!!

And come on, everyone, all 6 of you, give my mom a little encouragement. Missouri is cold and snowy and icy and cold and ... COLD at Christmastime. She could fly down here, spend a couple days in San Antonio, and then spend Christmas, not slaving over a hot stove cooking a huge feast, but on the BEACH on SOUTH PADRE ISLAND (or Corpus Christi - we love Corpus too) eating perfectly yummy junk food and being WARM and on the BEACH. Hmmm, someone really has to think about this?

Toys

2007-08-25T13:11:00.000-05:00

This past week has been one to show us - or at least remind us - that the best toys very often aren't. Specifically toys, that is.

For awhile now, Guthrie has enjoyed playing with rulers. Just plain wooden rulers, which he turns into a million different things - tracks for his trains, roads for his cars, bridges across boxes, ramps up onto higher levels, a pogo stick as he holds it and jumps up and down, a knife to cut play food, a sword to fight dragons, a gate for his trains, he uses more than one to become a fence, or to mark off a parking space for a bigger car.

The other day, my mom reminded me that the space shuttle was going to land, and so Guthrie and I sat at the computer, pulled up one of the news websites, and watched it landing. This piqued his interest in space shuttles (at least momentarily) and we searched YouTube for videos of shuttles taking off and landing (but not blowing up - skipped the Challenger). Then he asked lots of questions about them, and a drumstick became the space shuttle, with a ruler serving as the boosters which fall off.

Another drumstick was an airplane, and he showed me the differences in how the two take off - space shuttles go straight up, while airplanes gradually ascend at an angle. But they both land (roughly) the same way.

We looked through my photo albums, and found a picture of me at the space center in Huntsville, Alabama, as a little girl, sitting in a model of an old space shuttle. He spent hours laying on his back, pretending he was in a shuttle taking off, flying all over the place.

Two cardboard boxes brought in from the garage have served as places to hide, a turtle shell when held on Guthrie's back, a cage, and a home for a Jack-in-the-Box, or I guess a Guthrie-in-the-Box.

Yesterday, I heard lots of giggling coming from the library, and found Eric and Guthrie sitting on opposite sides of the large low table, playing what Guthrie called "Bounce and Roll" with a new roll of scotch tape. For nearly an hour, Eric, then I, sat across from Guthrie sending this roll of tape back and forth, then putting it down and trying to blow it across, figuring out ways to make it roll on its side, roll in a boomerang that came back to us, using a doorstop as a ramp for it to roll down. It was delightful to see the joy and discovery in Guthrie's face.

We have been saving every cork from every wine bottle we use for some time now. (And since I am generally the only one who drinks wine, if you saw our collection, you would be convinced I am an alcoholic. I am not. It is a few years' worth of corks. And I can't recall the last time I was truly intoxicated - certainly before Turner was conceived.) When we visited a friend of ours a few years ago, he had corks, and his son and Samantha took a bunch to a creek and had "cork races." I took a bunch into the bathtub for the boys to play with, and said they were boats. Well, Guthrie put a couple in the "fish holding tank" part of his toy boat, and they were fish. He put a couple in his toy canoe, and they were people riding in the canoe. Another one went into the seat at the front of the boat, and was the person sitting up front fishing (and he reeled in a cork fish). There seems to be no end to what a little imagination can turn corks into. Thank you, Yellow Tail.

A large red plastic container, which up until now had housed extra sheets and towels (which we finally sorted through this week), was filled up with all the balls we could find in the house, and became an instant miniature ball pit. Both boys loved it. Guthrie then hid in the container, and insisted we put the lid on top for him to repeatedly kick off.

We have a house full (really, we have entirely too many toys, although most of them are variations on one theme - TRAINS!) of toys, and again, what the kids like the most are all the other things.

The Mouths of Babes

2007-08-25T12:55:00.000-05:00

Great recent quotes from Guthrie:

At the post office the other day, after we'd been there roughly an hour or so, and everyone's patience (the line was huge) was worn thin, and we were quite possibly the only white people there, he looked at Eric and announced, loudly, "You are a Gringo!" Um, yes, Guthrie, you are correct. Thankfully, the reaction from customers and employees was loud laughter.

When things at home start to get really crazy, and I feel like my brain cells are disappearing too quickly, I jokingly threaten Eric that I am going to get a job. I said this the other day, and Guthrie protested, "Don't get a JOB! You are my teacher!" Melted my heart.

And on the phone with my mother today, when he asked what she was doing and she said she was watching TV, he told her she needed to give her TV to someone else (we recently gave our TV, that had been sitting unplugged in our garage for over a year, to some friends), because "it will make you fat again." (Not that my mother is fat, but she just announced that she had lost 7 pounds.)

I have no great quotes from Turner. He still doesn't talk much. Mostly he points to pictures of animals, plays with toy farm animals, and repeats "oof oof oof" over and over again. Because you know, cows, pigs, dogs, cats, elephants, birds, even dolphins all say "oof oof."

6 Legged Hell

2007-08-24T13:45:00.000-05:00

The Six Legged Life here in the Valley leaves much to be desired. At least for me, at least right now.

Due to the rain (we assume) our backyard is again covered in fire ant nests. Two nights ago they weren't there, we were all running around playing and having a blast. Yesterday it rained off and on all day, and just a while ago we were outside again, and there are a ton of nests. A couple of them are really big, and one in the front yard is HUGE! Eric spread some poison, and so for the short term I don't feel terribly comfortable taking the boys out there to play - either they get eaten by fire ants or they eat the poison. Neither is a good option.

There was an enormous black bee on our mango tree, but I think he's just doing his job, and has never even attempted to bother us, so as much as I didn't like looking at him, we let him be.

There are bees everywhere (which I guess I should be happy about, given how freaked out I was at the reports of honeybee dieoffs all over the world a few months ago). One kept me from going outside for a few minutes. (I'm not about to open the door when there is a bee looking at me on the other side) And for some reason, lately, every few days I have a bee in my bathroom window. Eric kills it, everything is fine, and then a couple days later, there's another bee. Today there were several. Now, bees, I know, big deal, I'm not allergic, they sting and that's all.

Except ...

We live in Hidalgo County, where the first Killer Bees were found in the US in 1990. And occasionally, we do hear of people being killed by bee attacks. So I do admit to being a little irrational when it comes to bees, here.

The mosquitoes are gone, though, at least for now. And although today I found a goodness-knows-how-old half-eaten apple cinnamon rice cake buried in my closet, there were no bugs of any kind in there, thank goodness.

Shoes

2007-08-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

Do all kids go through a shoe stage? I don't remember this with Samantha. Both of my boys, though, have gone through a stage - at about the same age (Turner is in it now) where they became obsessed with shoes. Have to wear them, even at home, doing nothing. Must try on any shoes they see on the floor. Love nothing more than to stand in Daddy's cowboy boots.

Turner is currently walking around with one shoe on. He brought it to me, and I put it on him, and he seems to think it's the greatest thing ever. Don't know where his other shoe is, but he seems to be having fun this way.

The shoes, btw, are red Crocs knock-offs. Guthrie thought Turner needed pink ones, but I talked him into getting red ones so that they both matched.

Fun

2007-08-15T11:56:00.000-05:00

We currently have a plumber here. Why? you ask. Oh, just because yesterday, right as Guthrie was flushing the toilet, Turner decided to throw a Weeble into it. And I couldn't catch it fast enough. And it went down.

Turner threw another one in, but I caught it in time. Guthrie was absolutely hysterical. I thought it was all the way down, gone for good, too, and so after trying to calm him down, calling Eric, figuring out just exactly which Weeble it was that went for a swim (Baby Bear, from the Goldilocks playset), I did what any good mother would do - I took them to Wal-Mart. To try to find a new Weeble house, to replace the way which I thought was then on its way to the sewage treatment plant.

No luck. Not a Weeble to be found in the entire store.

So I looked on eBay. If the Weeble is indeed gone for good, then I will be ordering a replacement on eBay. I'm guessing it's going to be around $100 for the plumber, plus another $30-ish for a new Weeble house. Very expensive toilet flush. Thank you, Turner.

To get a little work done while Turner is napping, I let Guthrie watch some Looney Tunes on his DVD player. He only watched for a few minutes, and is now running around saying, "Beep Beep," like the Roadrunner.

And we are currently under an Inland Tropical Storm Warning, whatever precisely that means. I think it means a lot of rain, some wind. Good times. It's bright and sunny and HOT right now. But more rain means ... more MOSQUITOES!!!! Oh, YEAH!!!

Oh, fun fun times these are, fun times.

UPDATE: Baby Bear is safe! The plumbers are Guthrie's Heroes!

Advice

2007-08-13T11:54:00.000-05:00

to moms of young boys:

Don't let them share an iPod earphone set with a 16 year old girl on road trips. If you do, they will, as Guthrie has just done, walk into the room singing "My humps, my humps, my little lady lumps," followed by an emotional proclamation of, "Baby Got Back!"

He announced he likes the "Big butt song" (Baby Got Back) and "Barbie World."

He was singing the Chattanooga Choo Choo and other Glenn Miller. Now it's Fergie, Sir Mix-A-Lot and Aqua. What have I done?

41 months

2007-08-08T12:12:00.000-05:00

I missed World Breastfeeding Week. I've been busy, with Samantha and Stacia (my niece, who will be 16 on Saturday) here, going to the beach, to Mexico, to the zoo, and generally having fun to take any time to sit here and write a blog.

I realized last night that I have now been breastfeeding, continuously, for 41 months.

Add in pregnancy, and I've been giving part of my body over to another (or two other) human being(s) for over 4 years now.

It's become so normal, so routine, that I don't know what I'll do when (if) Turner ever weans. Maybe sleep, and have a really, really, really big margarita.

We have a visitor

2007-07-25T22:17:00.000-05:00

An uninvited guest. I've named him Gary, and I don't know why. I wanted a "G" name, and it was the first one that came to mind.

Eric says he's harmless, and will, in fact, eat bugs (which I've been watching him do), and so, right now, we're keeping an eye on him and letting him have a meal of our insects before kicking him out. These kinds of creepy-crawlies don't bother me at all - I only wish Guthrie was awake to see it. Isn't he cute? Almost?

Skeeters

2007-07-24T17:10:00.000-05:00

The rain has stopped, at least for now. The weather report I just read had a warning that the Valley could get some pretty serious rain in the next few days. There is, however, still a lot of standing water in places, and that has caused a huge growth in the local mosquito population. And has caused the mosquitoes to grow to be enormous. I've never before seen skeeters this big, and on one of my legs alone I have more than 30 bites. (Yes, I counted. I'm weird like that.)

And so, if we want to go outside and play, we must coat ourselves in bug repellent, which I'm not going to do. But just walking to and from our van we get bitten, and if you leave the door open for any length of time at all, you have them in the house. We are currently rather miserable.

The boys are going completely bonkers. For a week we couldn't go outside because it was raining, and now we can't because we'll be eaten alive, get West Nile or Dengue fever (there are occasionally cases along the border), and that would suck.

So today I did what any mom under the circumstances would do: I took them to ... Chick Fil A. (You didn't really think I was going to say McDonald's, did you?) It was my first time ever eating at one (they don't have them where I'm from), and I figured if I was going to do fast food so we could let the boys play, well, Chick Fil A was the least of the evils. (Other choices were McD's - NO WAY - Burger King - no thanks - or Peter Piper Pizza, a Chuck E. Cheese kind of place) The food was, eh, okay, the play area small and without a place to eat while you watched the kids, and so overall I was not impressed, but it did salvage a little of my sanity. Just a little.

The good news is our banana tree is thriving in this weather. And our fire ants are gone (although everywhere else we're going I'm seeing mounds everywhere).

Any other suggestions for not going insane with two little ones when the weather sucks? I think all of Texas is dealing with some variation on this right now. I'm about to sign them up for the Little Gym, but by the time I did, the weather would clear right on up. *sigh*

Our House

2007-07-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

... is a very very very messy house
With a toy camel in the potty
A toy diesel who is naughty.

And as I'm no Weird Al, that's as far as I can get.

Turner has finally decided to start sleeping better. He's now sleeping regular 1 1/2- 2 hour stretches at night, and naps are about 1 1/2 hours too. I know, for a 15 month old this seems like not sleeping much at all, but for OUR baby, this is amazing. I don't think Guthrie was doing it at this age.

BUT - Guthrie has decided to start waking up at 4 in the morning, sometimes earlier, on a fairly regular basis, or waking up in the middle of the night and being awake for hours. Thankfully, he has been kind enough several times to crawl on the futon next to Daddy, and keep Eric awake half the night while Turner and I just sleep, but it's still dragging us all down.

And then last night (this should be its own separate post, but I'm too tired, so it's not) we had visitors, a writer and photographer from France, who are doing their own sort of literary Alexis de Tocqueveille tour of America, and one of their first stops was way down here in South Texas to interview and photograph my very own husband for their project. Not too shabby. And we had a great time, but as such were up waaaay too late, and so the the 5:30 wake up call was waaaaay too early.

We were all grumpy, and Guthrie was sleep-deprived crazy. Turner was extra needy. Chaos was the word of the day. We (meaning mainly me and Rosalind, and honestly, mostly Rosalind, as I had a baby attached to me most of the day) picked up toys almost constantly. Cars, trucks and trains flew through the air. I really did discover a few minutes ago a toy camel in the potty chair. We went to our favorite local taqueria for breakfast tacos, in the early afternoon I napped with Turner while Guthrie and Rosalind watched a movie. Once Eric got home it was meltdown after meltdown after meltdown ("I want Goldfish." "You have Goldfish. Eat those and you can have more." "But I want those Goldfish!!!!" Followed by screaming and throwing himself on the floor. And Turner sitting in his high chair watching and laughing, then throwing his Goldfish on the floor, doing his favorite mealtime trick and feeding the invisible chihuahua.)

Bedtime could not, and did not, come soon enough. Another meltdown, over what stories we were, or weren't, going to read. Once he was laying down, though, the eyes couldn't stay open, and halfway through a book about pandas, Guthrie said, "no more," and was snoring in seconds. Finally, the house is quiet.

And it is still raining. I know part of the meltdowns are cabin fever from the inability to go outside, but even when it is not raining, it is too wet to be outside. And can we talk for just a second about bugs? A couple nights ago I was attacked by fire ants. I'd heard about them, been bitten by one or two, but this time I was attacked - my flip-flop wearing feet were covered, and it hurt. Today, in between downpours, Eric and I were in the backyard to check on the banana trees (and look for a pair of shoes that disappeared in our home somewhere) when we discovered a giant fire ant mound. Last night we had left the boys' room window opened (screen intact) a few inches, and when we went in there to turn off the light, it was filled - literally, there were thousands - with some sort of weird white flying ant-like creature. I don't like chemical poisons anymore than anyone else, but let me tell you, these bugs - fire ants and crazy flying things - gotta die. Eric sprayed the bedroom, shut the door so no one would go in, and this morning I vacuumed them up. Yes, I had to use the vacuum. And our front door was covered, too. Gross. The fire ants are going down tomorrow (if it stops raining long enough).

My head still feels like it is spinning, and no, I haven't had enough of my fruity green drink for that to be the cause. Maybe it's because Guthrie's new trick today was to lay down and spin in circles on the kitchen floor while announcing, "I'm a ceiling fan." Or from the circles I had to run today to keep the boys from killing each other (or me - I got pegged in the face with a toy truck today). Whatever the case, fruity green drink is helping, and the bed is looking better by the second.

Why I'm an even bigger dork

2007-07-17T17:25:00.000-05:00

Because I was so excited that I felt the need to blog about it.

Why I am a Total Dork

2007-07-17T17:15:00.000-05:00

Because this news made me squeal with joy. Seriously.

In case you don't want to click on the link, the news, the wonderful news that made this Total Dork squeal, is that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are both on board to do another X-Files movie. Yippee!!!!!!

I guess this means Eric and I have to get back to watching our DVDs of the series. We still haven't made it through the first season, but since Turner is starting to sleep better, maybe we can waste our evenings with Mulder and Scully. Ummm, Mulder, Yummmmmm. I mean, that was a great show, uh, yeah, great show. I actually didn't see much of the last season, so I still don't know how it ended. Gotta find that out soon.

Yippee!!

He talks to the clouds

2007-07-16T20:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning it was cloudy, and looked and felt as if it were about to rain. We went to the store to get some things, and on our way back Guthrie asked if it was going to rain. I told him I wasn't sure, and he should ask the sky and the clouds. He looked out his window, turned his head up, and had a little conversation.

"Sky and clouds, are you going to rain today?"

"Yes Guthrie we will rain after it is dark time at night."

"Okay sky and clouds. Thank you."

I thought this conversation was adorable. It didn't rain at all during the day. Then, last night, as soon as it started to get dark, we started to see lightning. And drops of rain. And when Guthrie woke up at midnight (and told me thank you for "saving" him when I went into bed with him) I told him he was right, and it was raining, and he got a huge smile on his face.

Maybe the clouds really do talk to him.

Although they could stop raining now. Story hour was canceled today because too many roads were closed, we got 5 inches already, and lots of people are having trouble with flooding. I guess I'll need Guthrie to ask the clouds for their plans again tomorrow.

Raining on our Parade

2007-07-04T20:16:00.000-05:00

I've been preparing Guthrie for a week or so for fireworks. Last year, we didn't even try taking the kids to a show, but some were still shot off close enough that Guthrie couldn't sleep through them and got scared. At New Year's, he refused to look out our hotel window to watch, again scared of the noise and lights.

So I decided I'd spend plenty of time explaining, we watched the videos Karrie posted on her blog. We talked about how they are loud, but won't hurt us. And Guthrie was all excited that he could stay up late and watch fireworks.

And then Mother Nature decided that we needed rain, and to play a joke on me. And so it rained - a lot - and there was lightning, and thunder, and big, dark clouds. At around 7 I looked out, and saw more big clouds (although it wasn't raining) and there was still lightning in the distance, and so Eric and I talked, and figured the shows would all be canceled or postponed, and I should put the boys to bed. And so I did.

And now, it is not raining. I see blue in the sky. I hear people shooting off their own fireworks in the distance. And the boys are sleeping right through it, and I have no plans to wake them up.

Mother Nature is not very nice to me today.

So, our Fourth was completely uneventful. I don't believe I even walked out the door of the house today. The big event was whipping up some Jiffy corn bread mix (one of my big food indulgences, that I don't do often - I generally try to avoid the word "lard" in food labels). Guthrie is having a blast with Roz being here, and I hope he won't be too sad he missed the big pretties in the sky.

And to add my own lame patriotic touch, for those who, like me, love quizzes, have at this one.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19552808/

Can YOU pass the US citizenship test? I apparently deserve to be here - I got 100%. (Although why it's really important to know some of this stuff to be a citizen is beyond me, but apparently I retained enough of my social studies lessons - thank you to most of my SS teachers)

Hope everyone is having a more eventful Independence Day than us.

Aging

2007-07-02T19:44:00.000-05:00

My 29th birthday came and went with little fanfare. I got a few phonecalls, some comments on MySpace, a card in the mail from my mom and one from my niece and nephew, and I got to take a (very short) midafternoon nap, but other than that, the birthday itself was pretty uneventful.

I've come to understand that having a birthday which falls at the end of the month, when payday comes only once a month and is at the beginning, is a definite downer. The money is all gone, forget about the party.

Eric made up for this, though, by surprising me with a Very Nice bottle of wine. I've been telling him, for a long time, that I'd like to try a Very Nice, Expensive even, bottle of wine, to see if it's really worth all the hype, and if I would ever, if I could, trade in my Little Penguin or Yellow Tail (why have I come to be so fond of the Australian wine makers?) for the Really Good wine.

We enjoyed the bottle Saturday night, at an Econo Lodge in Corpus Christi, where we stayed on our way to pick up Eric's daughter for her summer visit. We remembered the cork screw (I, like a good wino, keep a cork screw [although I'm not sure now if cork screw is one word or two] in my regular travel bag when on road trips), but not glasses, and so we drank the Very Nice, Really Good, Expensive even, bottle of wine - every last drop - out of the cheap plastic cups provided by the hotel, on the balcony overlooking the pool and while watching the other overnight guests returning from the George Lopez show across the street, and with the hotel room door open so that we could stand just outside the door and be able to look in and make sure the boys were still sleeping. (Turner slept a very long stretch that night, bless his little heart. Kind to us he was.)

And the verdict? Would I, if I were able, trade in my nice cute-named Australian friends for the Very Nice bottle of wine? Nah. It was worth it - definitely worth it - and tasted great with our pre-sliced sandwich cheeses, but I think I'll stick with my kangaroos and penguins. (Why is an Australian wine called the Little Penguin, anyway?)* Not that I have an option, now - that Really Good bottle was definitely a Big Splurge for a birthday - but I'll know, when that long lost uncle who no one has ever heard of decides to shower me with his fortune.

The best part of the bottle? It did cushion the blow of the fact that I now have less than 365 days until I am no longer in my 20s. And last night, while sitting up with my husband across from me and a glass of one of my Aussie friends in my hand, I caught myself saying something that not so long ago seemed an oxymoron. When discussing with Eric whether we would ever have more children, I said there's no need to spend too much time thinking about it now, I have plenty of years of reproduction left. After all, I told him, I'm only 29.

*I looked it up on Wikipedia, of course, and discovered the ignorance of that statement. Penguins live in Australia. What do I know? I'm as bad as the people who asked me, when I lived in Alaska, if we saw lots of polar bears.

Home

2007-06-20T11:31:00.000-05:00

After a nightmarish day of flight delays and spending 4 hours wandering Houston airport with the boys, plus then spending over an hour sitting on an airplane waiting to take off, we successfully made it home late Sunday night. Oh, yes, we'd had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to be sure we made it to the airport in time for our 8 a.m. flight, which ended up being an 11:40 a.m. flight, and then the flight from Houston was delayed - repeatedly - and our 12:30 arrival home ended up being at nearly 10 p.m.

We had a mostly fun and eventful stay in Missouri, with a very full schedule. The only real downside - and a big one it was and is - was whatever cold or other virus we all managed to pick up while we were there, which left the boys with a low grade fever and general ickies for a few days, my mom with a pretty serious illness which kept her from work for 2 nights, and me with a nagging cough and stuffy head and headache here over a week after the fever first hit.

Well, the lack of sleep - none of us slept well while we were gone - is a bit of a downside, too, and probably another reason I'm still trying to recover from what for the boys was a rather minor illness.

We spent time at the Knob Noster fair, where Guthrie had a blast going on lots of rides and eating lots of junk food, we saw lots of old friends, went to see Thomas the Tank Engine in Baldwin City, Kansas, and spent some time at KMOS (the local PBS affiliate) Kids Day, where the kids got to see Clifford, Curious George, and Jay Jay the Jet Plane. .

We are glad to be home now, and trying to get settled back in. I feel like there is a ton of work I must do, and feel the need to have it all done RIGHT NOW, and Turner is still being a velcro baby and needing to be held about 23 1/2 hours a day., I'm trying though. And Guthrie is helping me type this post, so any extra "dots" or commas can be blamed on him.

Today is Eric's birthday, which he had forgotten about until we started singing to him this morning. I even had to remind him how old he is. If Turner ever goes down for his nap, Guthrie and I are going to get to work on a chocolate cake topped with strawberries, at Guthrie's choosing.

Made it!

2007-06-05T17:13:00.000-05:00

Arrived safely in Missouri this afternoon, after completely uneventful traveling. The flights went fine, although the second leg was delayed and arrived about 15 minutes late. The boys were both great on the airplanes, and I managed to keep my fear in check. Even managed to catch the last, oh, two questions of the Cormac McCarthy interview on Oprah. (Apparently it airs again later so I should be able to see the rest tonight)

Getting settled in to my mom's house for our stay, so glad to see Samantha, and Guthrie was obviously thrilled to see Stacia, as he practically attacked her on getting off the airplane.

Travels, travels, lots of travels

2007-06-04T15:54:00.000-05:00

Friday morning, my dear husband, who I've come to believe might have gone off his rocker, announced (okay, so he hinted Thursday night) that we were, as soon as he got through with his morning meeting, taking off for the weekend. This wouldn't be such a shock except that he's done this 3 out of the last 4 weekends. And who am I to say no to a weekend away, especially to keep me from spending the entire weekend stressing about the impending travel to Missouri by airplane?

So off we went, about noon on Friday, to Corpus Christi. We are quickly falling in love with the whole Texas Gulf Coast, and Corpus and the surrounding area is filled with fun stuff for kids and adults. There's the beach, obviously, but so much more, which we've only started to explore. We've gone ahead and gotten a membership to the Texas State Aquarium, and love to watch the dolphin show. (The first time we were there, after the show we sat looking out at the bay and watching wild dolphins following a big ship.) We haven't done the USS Lexington, a retired aircraft carrier, yet, but will when the boys are old enough to care. And we bought our annual parking pass for Port Aransas, with its beautiful beaches.

Guthrie just loves the swimming pools, which was great because the beaches were so covered in seaweed this weekend that it was hard to play in the water too much. And we saw our first jellyfish, which I must admit was a little creepy for me, having grown up landlocked.

One of the highlights for me was heading up to Goose Island State Park, to see the "Big Tree." Eric wasn't nearly as impressed as I was, but I thought seeing a 1,000+ year old tree was pretty cool.

Guthrie enjoyed taking the ferry up to Rockport, and I'd never been on one either. Turner just screamed. Surprised?

And to further show that kids really are amused by the smallest things, Guthrie thought the surf shop was the coolest ever. I figured he'd get scared walking through a shark's mouth, but no, he said it was a nice shark, and he even touched its tooth on the way out.

And now, I am all packed for our adventure tomorrow, and I think we're ready to go. I'm hoping there won't be any meltdowns and I have prepared Guthrie enough for all of the details of flying (going through security, the layover in Dallas), but there is always something that comes up that I will have forgotten. If you feel so inclined, just glance up at the skies sometime between 7:30 and 12:30 central time tomorrow to send me good vibes for safe and fearless air travel.

Visiting Missouri

2007-05-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

A week from now the boys and I will be in MO, visiting our friends and family, eating the wonderful ... oh wait, sorry.

Then again, I chose this time to visit because it was a time when Eric will be having to work like crazy and will have no time for the family, and also because it will be during the Knob Noster (yes, I come from a town called Knob Noster. go ahead, laugh, get it over with. Done now?) Fair, so I will be eating one of my favorite yummy junk food creations ever ... FUNNEL CAKES! Oh dear gourds how I love funnel cakes. And those giant ridiculous baskets of fries?

(So I just discovered that Knob Noster has a website. I linked to it above. Wow, high-tech.)

I'm looking forward to the visit, seeing everyone, and taking Guthrie on the caruousel and ferris wheel and all that junk food. I am not, however, looking forward to flying. First, I'm a teensy bit afraid of flying. Irrational, stupid, ridiculous, I know, but still ... we all have our irrational fears. (Someone I once knew practically panicked at the sight of grasshoppers. I think fear of flying is a little more rational.)

More than that, though, I'm not looking forward to flying, alone, with a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old. And even more, the 2-hour layover in Dallas on the way out.

Guthrie is really excited at the thought of flying -can't wait. Keeps asking all kinds of questions, and climbing on the futon and pretending like he's "driving" the airplane. Turner is absolutely clueless, of course, and has recently turned into super-high-needs clingy, "don't-you-even-think-of-putting-me-down," needs to nurse 37 times a day, won't eat real food and won't sleep more than 45-minutes at a stretch, velcro baby.

Which should make for fun traveling.

I have 6 days until we fly, but I am already trying to make lists and get a bag together. trying to fit as much as I can, for all 3 of us, into one big bag, and keep the carry-on as small as possible - diapers, granola bars, toys. I am going to be that mom, and I'm buying a carrying case for the portable DVD player. I'm actually thinking of it more for the layover in Dallas, when I'd like to not be running all over the world with the two little ones, and if I could get Guthrie to sit still and watch a movie during that time, great! I'll try to avoid it on the plane if at all possible.

So, any tips for traveling with 2 little ones? I haven't flown in 4 years - since before I got pregnant with Guthrie. My usual coping mechanism for flying - massive quantities of booze in the airport bar (which our local airport doesn't have anyway) won't work with little ones, so I'm thinking I'll pop a valerian before I leave for the airport, and that might help a bit. All the samples of baby products I got at the Baby Expo will come in handy now, too, for staying under the limits for liquids.

And any old friends who happen to be reading this and might want to get in touch during the prime social event of the year, the Knob Noster ~~Fall Spring~~ Whatever-The-Name-Is-Now Festival, e-mail me.

And wish me luck!

First Words?

2007-05-28T18:36:00.000-05:00

I've been a little concerned since Turner, now 13 months, does not talk. AT ALL. For about a week's time, he would say "uh-oh," but that stopped rather quickly, and he didn't pick up any more words.

Today, though, Eric and I both heard him say what we thought might have been his first words. Oh, yes, he is definitely our son. What we both heard was, we believe,

"Damn. Damn. F#@*."

Would not be a surprise, since a few days ago Guthrie said, out of nowhere, but still at an appropriate time of frustration, "God. F#@*ing Dammit."

I'd like to be able to say he gets it all from his father, the one who is known by some for the language he uses in his writing, but no, I'd say he got it all from me. And when I hear from the back of the van Guthrie burst out with something that should not be coming out of the mouth of a 3 year old, I try not to laugh and encourage him while I also hide my head in shame that he got it all from me.

Go Has a Cheezburger

2007-05-05T20:57:00.000-05:00

If you have not done so already, go here. I was LOL, really, so hard Eric wondered what was wrong.

I'd link to my favorites, but the one that had me laughing the hardest was not kid or work appropriate, so you have to find it yourself. The "invisible" tag has some of my favorites.

Oh, dear, why do I find it so funny?

Thank you, Karrie, for guiding me to this site which has sucked so much time from me. It's made me laugh a lot, though, so the time was worth it.

His kitties

2007-05-01T19:28:00.000-05:00

A few days ago there was a shooting at a mall in Kansas City. I am from the area (an hour east, but still), and still read the Kansas City area news fairly regularly. As if the story of the shooting, especially after Virginia Tech, was not enough to make you wonder what is going on with the world, and how to feel safe, and what is going on in these people's heads, this story was on the web tonight.

Apparently, the shooter left a voice mail with his sister shortly before going on the shooting spree. He asked his sister to take care of his kitties, saying they were all he had to love, and that it was too late for him.

Now I know that we are supposed to hate these people, to paint them as entirely evil, inhuman creatures capable of the unthinkable, and to feel only for the victims. And don't get me wrong - I feel for the victims, for their families. But this story, this man's voice mail to his sister, has me heartbroken. Yes, I feel heartbroken for the man who shot innocent people.

Because, really, what is it that causes someone to do this? A person who has been loved, and who has lived a happy, fulfilled life, does not do this. A person who has nothing left in the world but his "kitties" does not go to a mall and shoot innocent people. And though their lives were cut short, maybe those victims felt at some point something this man never did - loved.

Maybe I'm reading too deep. Maybe I'm thinking too much. Maybe I'll be attacked by all sides. But I just can't help but think that just maybe, if we all stopped for awhile, slowed down a bit, held our babies, rocked our children, hugged our spouses, smiled at strangers, and the world loved a little more, then there might not be people who felt so unloved that they did these horrible, horrible things, and that those innocent victims might still be here.

He did a horrible, unthinkable thing. But at the same time, I hope his sister takes good care of his kitties.