being rooted and established in love… ephesians 3:17-19
31/10/2007
random halloween, holidays, jokes, knock-knock 5 Comments
it’s October 31… do you know what that means? no, not that it’s halloween, i mean, yes, it is halloween, but it’s also national knock-knock joke day and a good knock-knock joke is better than candy any day – okay, who am i fooling, but it’s better than cheap candy.
i’ll start…
knock knock
okay, this isn’t a knock-knock joke, but in the spirit of halloween…
what do you get when you cross bambi with a ghost?
(to see the answer highlight below.)
bamboo
30/10/2007
i couldn’t help but mention that today is october 30 which is create a great funeral day… time to start plotting.
30/10/2007
family, friends real & cyber, random, to do list asia, moving, thai tuesday 2 Comments
this whole move thing is getting slightly frustrating; it’s not the move itself it’s the standing still. there’s only so much i can do but i want to get it all done now. we’ve been assured that chiang mai is the place, but we’ve yet to get our visas. and reading other blogs it might not be all that easy to get one. bh has applied for his and we should hear pretty soon – then the kids and i will apply. i did learn something interesting on another blog. now i want to get all the bill paying figured out – and i don’t even know what kind of bills we will have. we’ve still got 9 months – and in my mind i think i should be accomplishing something every day so that we’re not in a frenzy when the time to move finally gets here. oh, and the possible trip to chiang mai over thanksgiving is no longer a possiblity. maybe spring break…
i pulled up my original to do list so i could see how far i’ve gotten…
that’s some progress.
29/10/2007
a13, c15, family, kids, love all around, me me me, motherhood, s10 holidays, parenting 3 Comments
i hate halloween. and no i haven’t gone nutty - it’s not the candy i hate; i love the candy.
it’s the costumes. and the jack o’ lanterns. see back in the day when i was fakin’ it as super mom who does it all and does it well, and by golly it will be home-made (i’ve since willingly relinquished that title to some other delusional mom) i used to make elaborate costumes; we cut out jack o’ lanterns; put up a few halloween decorations; made halloween treats; etc, etc… so there’s now an expectation of the same and a lack of understanding from my progeny that i’ve become “do what it takes to get by” mom. i’ll still make a costume, but if you want a homemade costume and i don’t want to make what you pick then i get to pick. all was going pretty good this year, lb wants to be an angel, i can make that – buy a sweat suit (it’s always cold for trick-or-treating) make a fancy skirt and a pipe cleaner halo, ta da. tb wants to be a rebel, i’m thinking james dean, he’s not -we’re still discussing it – really, he’s 13 he just wants the candy. now ff, he wants to be some elaborate pokemon that i’ve never seen. he has tried to explain it to me, but i get a little dizzy at spikes on the back and a horn. it’s not a costume you can buy. seems a little unfair to say i won’t make it and we can’t buy it. we reached a compromise. he’s gonna be a skeleton. black sweat suit and masking tape. makes me happy.
next the jack o’ lanterns. bh usually handles those. any day during the week before halloween i’ll walk into the kitchen and see three pumpkins. it’s my signal to disappear for several hours. i know it’s safe to return home when i drive by and see the jack o’ lanterns lit up on the front porch. this year, bh isn’t here. i was planning on no jack o’ lanterns. the kids had pretty much come to grips with that. but all has been saved – it’s nanny to the rescue. while i’m at work today, nanny will be home with the kids turning pumpkins into jack o’ lanterns. she’s taking one for the team. makes me happy.
so come thursday this halloween nightmare will be over and i’ll be keeping myself busy searching for my kids’ hidden stash of candy looking for the mr. goodbars.
oh and for those of you don’t know, it’s october 29 and that means it’s internet day. go crazy, celebrate – stay on line all day long!
27/10/2007
family, kids, random, s10 2 Comments
every year they do eye exams at school and every year we are mailed the results and every year the results are the same for ff – color deficiency. this year i decided to see exactly what that meant. today we went to the eye doctor. here’s what i learned…
this is what a person with no color deficiency sees
and this is more or less what ff sees
i think he must see the shades a little better than this… when you ask him a color he can usually tell you what it is, but it seems that his red isn’t our red and his orange isn’t our orange, etc… he can thank his great-granddad for this gift.
i wonder if i can use “he’s color blind” as an excuse for his telling the teacher, “maybe you just need to be quiet”
26/10/2007
drum roll please – make a drum roll sound on your desk or table or whatever hard surface is available, it will make the announcement of this award much more suspensful – the winner of last weeks haiku challenge is nadine.
Choosing a straight line
After going in circles
Dreams are taking shape
so what’s this weeks challenge? well, since i just posted about lb’s car date, how about anything car related…
The car it has died
Radiator cap left off
Silly, silly me
your turn… if you need help here’s how
26/10/2007
family, friends real & cyber, kids, random parenting, school Leave a comment
last night was our kids’ school fund raiser at chuck e. cheese. and apparently the prospect of not having to cook dinner was enough to cause temporary insanity because we went- my mom, too. off for yummy pizza and games galore – got to earn those tickets. we get through the doors and we all get our arms stamped and lb is gone. off to chat with a friend from chess club. he‘s in her class. they spent the evening together, earning tickets, playing games, how sweet. then i can’t find her, i’m looking and looking and she’s no where to be seen. now i know she has to be in chuck e. cheese because we have the high tech security stamps on our arms, but i am a tad concerned. my mom decides to go looking – you know, because her eyes are better than mine. she heads off very determined to find lb – she starts at the back and makes a very thorough search of the place. she makes it to the front but no lb – grandma’s not gonna give up, she’s determined. then she spies her.
so back she comes to let me know she’s found her and she wants to know, “how old does lb have to be before she can go on a car date?” why does she ask this? because lb is in a car. with the boy. alone. no chaperone. talking and flirting and, well, whatever else you do when you’re ten and way above the rest of the room in one of those plastic cars that’s at the end of the climby thing. down they come. it’s time for us to leave. ff has already cashed in his tickets for some cheap junk valuable treasure – the exchange of tickets for whatever is my least favorite part of these outings – tb has no tickets to cash in, he spent almost the entire night playing dance, dance. you don’t earn tickets for that, but man, he’s now got some moves. i tell lb to get a move on if she plans on trading her tickets, but she has none to trade. she’s given them to the boy, he really, really needed them. now these aren’t only tickets she had earned last night – she’d saved these tickets for the last few visits so she could get something big. and just like that – they were gone.
it might be best the bh is still busy with the kgb.
25/10/2007
a13, family, kids, motherhood parenting 3 Comments
any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it ~ henry david thoreau
it seems lb’s teacher would like me to be the second fool in that quote – that must make her the first. i’m pretty sure it does. i’m doing that pick up thing yesterday and once all the kids have gathered – it takes extra long to get them all together – lb has something very urgent she needs to tell me. it seems that the fool her teacher has declared that it would be best if none of the students in her 5th grade class be allowed to bring a beverage in their lunch box, because a few (3 or so) drinks have spilled in their lunch box and the fool lb’s teacher is all about punishing everyone because of a few. after lb sees the look on my face she panics. her eyes become wide, she starts to tremor and she asks, “you’re not gonna go talk to her, are you?” actually all i heard was, “you’re….” because i was already up the stairs into lb’s classroom. the conversation went something like this…
i say, very sweetly and giving the fool teacher the benefit of the doubt, “lb tells me that her class isn’t allowed to bring a drink in their lunches.”
teacher – from here on out read teacher as fool, “yes, some of the drinks have been spilling in their lunch boxes and i told them that if it happened again, they wouldn’t be allowed to bring drinks, they could just drink water. and one spilled today.” i’m sure it was intentional – that malicious drink.
me, i might have bristled, but i know my tone stayed perfectly pleasant, i’m sure of it, “i don’t really think that’s a good solution.”
teacher, “ummmm, well, they are allowed to have water bottles in the class.”
me, probably not perfectly pleasant anymore, “that won’t work. i’m going to be sending a drink in lb’s lunch.”
teacher, “ummmm, well, that’s a choice.” she said this with a bit of a threat in her voice. like she might give me detention.
me, “all righty then and thank you.” i mean really, how do i argue with “well, that’s a choice”? i’m the first to agree, it is a choice.
i must confess, i’m a rule lover. i love rules. i’m also a rule follower. it goes against everything in me to not follow any and all rules, no matter how arbitrary they may seem. but lately i’ve come to realize rules can be stupid; i’m pretty sure this one falls into that category. and it feels kind of good to buck the system. but i also feel guilty. not for bucking the system, but for being a bad example to lb. i really believe you should respect those in authority over you – that would include following the rules. and today, when she sits down to lunch and takes her drink out of her lunch box it might seem to be a slap in the face to her teacher. it’s possible i cold also be setting a good example. you don’t always have to be complacent.
now before anyone gripes at me about teachers not being fools, don’t. i agree, not all teacher’s are fools and i never once said that, i’m talking only about this one and henry david thoreau called her a fool first.
24/10/2007
me me me, michael travel, work 2 Comments
on bh’s last jaunt home he needed to get some passport and visa situations taken care of. and it was rush. and it was expensive. it started with him needing more pages in his passport because he gets to go everywhere while i get to stay home. he also needed to get a visa for somewhere in asia. so he arranges to send his passport off for a one day turn around to get the extra pages. that would allow him to then send it off for the visa and have it all back in time for the trip he’s now on. that’s where it gets sketchy. the passport office calls and says they can’t give him more pages; his passport is mutilated. but they would like to keep the money, k? so back comes the mutilated passport (it has three spots on the cover) – with no new pages which means no visa for where ever it is in asia. the timing of all of this is essential. he can wait to get the visa until he gets back from moscow, but he will already need to have the extra pages. the solution? drive to denver for same day service on the passport. this is cause for a little concern – his russia visa and india visa are both in the mutilated passport so he can’t really give it up. not to worry, in denver he gets an all new passport and he gets to keep the old one; that way he should be able to, at least they said he should be able to, use the visas in the old passport. so off he goes to moscow both passports in tow. everything goes smoothly, no problems, he goes through dallas/fort worth through chicago through london and no problems. then moscow. they don’t like that his visa is in a canceled passport. they detain him. yes, i said detain. then they call in boris and natash – you know, from rocky and bullwinkle – to start the interigation. they withhold food and liquids. it is inhumane. after 60 minutes they come to a conclusion. they know he’s weak and rather than drag it out they go straight for the jugular. tell him it’s gonna cost. he braces for it. they approach, oh they look mean. then they say, “it vill be ten beeg ones – american”
so he gives them $10 and is on his way. bh now has his most important assignment – find the starbucks in moscow and get me a city mug. if he returns without it, he will see that what the russians did was only child’s play.
