Pictures for the Clamoring Masses

Iron Girl Race
Diane, Emma and Fiona riding an Elephant!


Emma and the Llama
Emma, Fiona, Ann and Sabrina on the camel
Fiona and Emma w/sheep - my foot is in the picture!

I'm just doing some pictures here - I will write more later.

Vacation in the Midwest

Emma and I are in Minnesota as I write this. We came out to see my bestest friends in the whole wide world aside from Lochmoor Mom. We are having a blast here! Emma has never laughed so hard in her life that I know of. We have spent some time at the Mall of America - not shopping, mind you. There is an area there called Camp Snoopy which is like a small amusement park - roller coasters and all - right inside the mall. Well, Emma braved the scariest toddler rides and came out beaming. Except for the flume ride. That one didn't go quite as well. After the first hill she slammed her hands over her eyes and kept repeating, "Momma, go home now?" She didn't get upset, she just wanted to go home - NOW. We got to the top of the second hill - the biggest- and I told her we had one more hill to go - was she ready? She squeaked out the saddest, smallest "yes" and we plunged. I normally like these rides, except that holding on to a small child gives the ride a whole new dimension, since that means you are not holding onto anything fixed while plummeting down a 45 degree angle. But we all survived and I will post some pictures to prove it. We have eaten at a restaurant called Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company, which is odd since I don't really like seafood much. They have wonderful food and a great atmosphere - even Emma liked the food, but she loves fish. We went back 2 nights in a row and I liked it so much I bought a cookbook from there. It is hard to believe the things they can make money off of from movies these days - but there I was in line with a Bubba Gump Cookbook, baseball cap, and a plush refrigerator shrimp magnet. I would have bought more, to be honest, but there won't be enough room in the suitcase if I do that.

Today we went to the renaissance Festival, which was a little odd and nostalgic. Diane and I went EVERY year together and had many adventures there all the way through High School and then some. So it was odd to be going together and taking OUR CHILDREN. The girls all had a good time - Emma rode an elephant, a camel, a llama and a pony - in that order. Sabrina tried to throw soft tomatoes at a loudmouth bloke in a stile, and Fiona enjoyed feeding some sheep for a bit. We were all baked to a crisp and grouchy when we left, but very happy underneath the dust and sunburns. I bought Emma a princess hat which she immediately decided she didn't like, so I wore it. No use letting it waste away in a bag.

Well, I'll fill in any details later when I get home tomorrow. I hear Jim is pawning Mary off on his mother more than I would ever dare, so I will have to see how that works out when I get home and hear the whole story.

Trivial and Brief

Well, Husband is home, safe and sound at last. It was a nice day, where he should have been able to nap. Unfortunately for him, I fell asleep on the floor for 2 hours and he didn't have the heart to wake me which meant he didn't get any nap. The floor, by the way, is only a choice because I was trying to keep Emma in her crib at nap time, so I say outside of her door and read a book, which kept her from climbing out of her crib. I eventually fell asleep (before Emma did, I think) right there in the hallway with a book for my pillow. Man I was tired. Husband did go to sleep early, but not early enough. I hope tomorrow will be easier for him in the morning, as I am going out EARLY to meet some people at a faboo sale. The last thing I should be doing is spending more money, since I have been a little lax with the budget these few weeks past, however this is an annual sale and I am saving money by shopping during it. Really, I SWEAR it is to save money. I won't go on - those of you who know the rules of sales understand, and those of you who don't cannot be convinced. That is all I really have to immediately tell. I am sure there will be a lot more tomorrow,when all of us are back to a somewhat normal schedule. I may even get to see Diane, if not Derek tomorrow, as they are in town briefly for a wedding. I am eager to see them, as always! So goodnight, Reader -until better news arrives to post about.

The Cuteness Never Ends

Everyone here is asleep - as I should be but am not. Hubby will be home Friday morning and I could not wait another moment if I had too, I think. I am restless in this house of mine, where I see clutter everywhere and an overwhelming need for organization. When Hubby does get home and I have a chance to show him everything that we need to do, he may just leave again out of fear of the Work to Be Done.

Aside from that, Mary Leona is quickly becoming the cutest, most enchanting little toddler EVER seen by human eyes. She is surpassing Emma mostly because Emma Grace is now 2 1/2 and is trying every method possible to get me riled up and to want to skin her alive. So Mary, who has quite a temper and is very impatient about things, does do the SWEETEST little baby things right now. We had a picnic today in the yard and she thought the little plastic plate with a quartered cheese sandwich was a seat cushion. Every time I moved the plate, Mary leaned forward onto her hands, with her bum cantilevered out, and swung around to firmly place her back end right on the flat, unsuspecting sandwich. HONESTLY. The funny thing was, she would then look at me and smile, as if to say, "I did it!!!". She did not tire of this the entire time there was a sandwich on which to sit. She was dancing a little later in the day, as was Emma, and she decided that she wanted to twirl - just like Emma. Well, little Mary did her baby best and walked in a tight circle, which she thought was the same thing, and then collapsed with excitement and joy with her new accomplishment. That was the cutest thing ever. When I went out to pick up some Chinese food for dinner, I took her along with me (Emma stayed back with Mum, since she was not quite up from a nap yet - Emma, that is). I let her walk from the car to the door instead of carrying her, because she had grabbed a little purse and was carrying it on her arm with an air of authority. This was so incredibly cute that EVERY person that saw her stopped, stepped aside to let the lady pass, and smiled from ear to ear. Mary even greeted them with a little squawk, which was her version of, 'Thank you, my people, you are too kind'. It was too cute to be imagined. I am sad to think she will be in the middle of her terrible two's this time next year.

Emma Grace has had her sweet moments, too - hers just come with a price. I always sing to her - poor thing. And I have always sung Brahms Lullaby to get her to be sleepy. Lately, she has asked me for "Rock bye baby", which is the other lullaby EVERY person knows. She loves to pretend she is a little baby while I sing this and close her eyes ever so gently as she hugs her blankie. So yesterday, when I HATED her because she would not take a nap, I tried laying down on the guest room bed with her until she fell asleep. She watched me intently for a minute, and I watched her back. She told me "Close EYES", and so I did. Then she sang to me.

"rock bye baby, trEEEE-top"

My eyes popped open and I could not help but laugh with tears at my first baby, singing a lullaby to me. This made her smile and tell me to close my eyes again. Then she sang to me again. Well, she never did nap yesterday until she fell asleep at the dinner table around 5:30 pm. But for the afternoon, she spent it rocking her blankie (a blanket/elephant stuffed animal) in her arms and singing to him. It was IMMENSELY adorable. The day would have been better if she had gone down for a nap and also gone to bed before 1 AM.

Well, I will be on my own again tomorrow, so I'd better go and get some semblance of sleep. I would like to take the girls to the library tomorrow and pick up a video or two that I think Emma would like. Also to see if there are any good videos on South America for the girls to learn something from.

Katrina Help

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, here, but my friend Lochmoor Mom and I have been talking about this whole Hurricane thing. I won't bore you with the details, but I have been bumping around places to see who is doing what for whom. Many volunteers are doing great things that I could not even imagine doing for these victims. Even locally, and I cannot help but mention my best friends in the whole wide wonderful sunny world, Diane and Derek, who are receiving a family (or refugees of un-named quantity) into their home this weekend. They live in Minnesota, Reader, and some person drove a bus full of supplies down to New Orleans and is driving a busload of displaced people back up. Talking with Diane this morning, she said she fully expects them to house these people for about 6 months. I hardly have the sanity to house my own children for that long, so I voted on cannonizing my friends and riding on their coat tails. Then I thought about how that will impact them financially. What if the family they took in had 6 people? Sure, they have the space in their finished basement, but what about food? It's not like they can eat dinner and let the refugees fend for themselves. And what if there are kids? THEY are not going to be able to sit in one pair of jeans until February. And even the necessities - think about how much you spend on personal hygiene for a family. or diapers and formula if there is a baby.... So, I wanted to see if there was some way I could help the people who are helping the people directly who need the help. I found this organization: http://www.modestneeds.org/ . Click on the Katrina link - they are helping people like Diane and Derek afford things for these refugees that they have taken in. They are helping the people who managed to get out but will be living in hotels for many months and the costs associated with that. I challenge you, Reader, to look at what help YOU would need if your entire city were devastated by any imaginable force. Then post on comments, so that I can know I have helped spread the word.

This is directly from the web site :

... there are many thousands of people who were able to leave New Orleans,
Gulfport, Biloxi and other cities devastated by Katrina. These people are now
spread throughout the United States and stranded for the duration. In most
cases, they are staying with friends, family or in hotels, often five or six to
a room. Because these people are now out of the disaster areas strictly
speaking, Modest Needs has confirmed that there will be precious little direct
assistance available to these people from larger, more conventional agencies.

Thoughts and Struggles

So, reader, you may or may not know that I was surrounded by a lot of religious teachings as I grew up. My actual denomination is Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. My parents are both Baptists, and that goes quite a ways back in the history of both sides. My husband is Catholic, but not practicing, and of course, his whole family is also Catholic. When we moved to Canton we landed ourselves right in the middle of Baptist country. I even played for a small Baptist church for a while. I found, however, that their services and celebrations are a completely different breed than what I was accustomed to. All of the best things I loved about my religious upbringing were rather lacking in the other churches I have tried. There are no large Missouri Synod churches in or around Canton, and I have struggled (for 12 years now) to find a church that I would like to attend regularly. There are some large ones that are Evangelical, but they seem cultish to my traditional ways and not what I am looking for in a church. I have attended some of the big and wonderful Catholic churches in the area, but struggle with the intrinsic differences between protestant and catholic teachings. So during a long drive home today I was thinking that I am tired of not having a church to belong to. But I cannot figure out where to go. I have now looked into Episcopalian churches in the area - I need something very traditional. There is an enormous congregation in Plymouth that has female rectors. Having grown up in the "women in the church are a bad thing" era, I do not know how I feel about this. I am sure Jim will give me that look when I tell him I am going to try this church out - the one that says 'you know I hate organized religion and really want to not have to do that whole church-y thing' and I will be off on my church finding mission alone, again. I often think of those guys that go to the religious conventions and wonder, for just a moment, what it would be like to have men in my family who are strongly religious. Then I realize I would have been dragging myself to a Catholic Church I didn't like for the last 12 years. So, hopefully, this weekend I will be out and about, "interviewing" the next church candidate for my growing family.

Interesting Blog

I just tripped across this blog: http://dancingwithkatrina.blogspot.com/ . I was amazed at the pictures. For once they were not of people floating by in a river or standing on a raised highway. The are of wreckage in the trenches and are probably the most silently powerful ones I have seen yet. I would recommend it.

Venting Rage

People really piss me off sometimes. Now I know this is a "family" blog - I have kept things pretty PG here for a reason. But I am just so fairly annoyed by multiple people that I cannot help but write about them today.

I took pictures that included the neighbor's kids playing in the yard. I called the neighbor. I said, "Hey, neighbor, I took some pics of our kids playing together, specifically in princess dresses and later in the kiddy pool. They are so unbelievably typical yet endearing that I have printed some off for you and would like you to take your choices before I go and scrapbook them. Tonight." Neighbor says, "Wow, thanks - that is very generous of you. And it is good, too since I never take any pictures, I would love to have some." I say, "great - come on over when you are out picking up toys," ALL of them - before I have to look at them for one more second of the day. Please feel free to read this as Get Your Lazy still-in-pajamas-at-1:00-this-afternoon-too-skinny Bum out there and pick up your toys on your way across the yard to come and get pictures I want to give you - NOW. Readers, it is 10:32 as I type, and skinny lazy neighbor has not been out to pick up her kid's toys yet. I am more than mostly annoyed.

Next culprit of making me pissy tonight - helpful (NOT) people. "Oh," said Helpful Person, "I am sorry we can't have you over for dinner tonight like we said, or last night either, like we said, but if you want I will come over and watch your kids while you have some time to run around and do whatever you want." Aside: Helpful People like to invite me and the girls over for dinner when Jim is traveling - I like that in a person. Well, Reader, surely you are scratching at your hairline right now, wondering, how could this go badly? It certainly went badly, you are probably saying to yourself, because otherwise she would not have written about it. Unfortunately, it went badly enough. Right before Helpful Person showed up, I burned the neurons right out of the pad of my right hand. This was not Helpful Person's fault. It did, however, cause me to use my Precious Time running to Rite Aid to find SOMETHING that would stop the searing pain, and it also caused me to return early from my Precious Time to restock the ice pack I had been using to tolerate the pain. I returned early to find a HUGE dent in my freshly baked peanut butter cookies. 'Oh, Canton Mommy,' you chuckle, 'you are having a bad time of it and over-reacting - you probably don't need to eat all of those anyway'. DON'T VEX ME, READER. Those cookies were specifically made to give to a friend who GAVE BIRTH today. Now, I cannot give her a nice sized tupperware that is a little more than 1/2 full. I swear Helpful Person ate at least 9 cookies out of there. I counted. They were in a sealed tupperware container NEXT to the cookie jar. DOESN'T ANYONE USE A COOKIE JAR??? The cookie jar is full of purchased, yummy cookies that would be fine for snacking but just will not do for a thoughtful treat for a young family. And no, I cannot put them in a smaller container - there just aren't enough there now to look like an appropriate gift amount. Man, I hate it when people force me to use caps so much.

Another neighbor has managed to get my hackles up, too. Having spoken to a couple of the bookclub members, it came to my attention that we would have a few holes in the monthly meeting on Tuesday. This month we are picking books to read for the upcoming discussions, and 3 of the people not coming are the ones that bring the best choices. In addition to this fact, I was feeling particularly low after having found out that my husband's business trip was extended another week. Reader, I called off Helpful People for the weekend based on this wallowing. I haven't put in my contacts since then. In short, I was sad and depressed at the news and did not want to see another Person, let alone clean my house and entertain 8 or them on Tuesday. So I sent out an email. Reader, I have NEVER moved a bookgroup date in the 2 1/2 years we have been meeting here. And only 2 of those months did we meet anywhere else, and that was, predictably, when I was expecting to go to the hospital and have Mary, and the following meeting after that. So I come to find that another neighborhood meeting is scheduled for the following week and we would lose 3 people to that if we moved it. So, Prissy Neighbor writes an email to the whole groups and says, "I think it is counter productive to move a meeting to accommodate some people while losing others. Just my two cents." Two Cents - well, two things, Reader. 1) I did not KNOW there was another meeting, that is why I sent out an email asking if the change of date would be reasonable, and 2) THANKS FOR CARING, PRISSY NEIGHBOR.

I won't even write about the neighbor that came over Friday night and verbally checked me IN MY OWN HOUSE when her 4 year's safety was an issue. And a family issue which would not be appropriate to record here - but the ones who have talked to me KNOW WHO IT IS. I will just say this, Reader, I am not sure when everybody thought they could just say or do anything to me without hurting my feelings or just plane being considered rude. This is why Husband should not leave for long, long trips. I try to make new friends and look where it lands me. I'm going to bed now, so that one more day in the Wifey Solitary Confinement will be gone. Come home quickly, Husband, and save me from these insipid interactions with others.

Cupboard Day

Today I cleaned out the spice cabinet. Emma and Mary were happily playing in the sand box - which means they were dumping sand out as fast as possible. But since I could keep an eye on them while organizing spices, I took my moment. I had purchased a tiered spice rack at www.organizeeverything.com - this type of store should be OUTLAWED for people like me, who really believe that adding one more item into the cupboard will somehow make it more organized. Well, Reader, I could NOT believe how many spices we had - they go like this: Allspice
Apple Pie Spice
Anise seed
Basil leaves
Bay leaves
Caraway seed
Cardamom
Celery seed (2 unopened bottles - huh.)
Cilantro
Cinnamon - sticks and ground
Cloves - both ground and whole
Coriander - seeds and flakes
Cumin
Dill seed
Dill WEED (is that one for smoking?)
Garlic powder
Ginger - ground
Mustard - seeds and ground
Onion powder
Onion salt
Oregano
Paprika
Parsley
Pepper (Black, white, and peppercorns)
Poppy seed
Red pepper flakes
Rosemary
Sage
Sesame seeds
Thyme
Tumeric

It struck me that we had no spices after T. Are there spices that we do not own that start with U, V, W, X, Y or Z? Why is that? There are so many spices that start with "C", can't we share the love with all of the letters? Well, anyhow, I combined open jars and reorganized. It looks nice and neat (and YES, alphabetized, which is how they SHOULD be). But they do not really look any more accessible. The tier idea is a good one, but to get a jar off of the back row one will probably knock off a few of the front ones. I wish I had space for a drawer spice organizer - I really think those are the best idea, especially if you are shooting for the whole alphabet of spice potential - including multiple jars of Celery Seed. I did let Emma "plant" some of the old, OLD seeds, like the Caraway seed which was still in the original, unopened jar from my spice rack I received as a wedding gift - 13 years ago. I really loved that spice rack - thank you Mrs. B for buying it for us - but I apparently had no use for Caraway seeds. So Emma planted them in her sand box. I don't know why. Perhaps they will grow. What do Caraway seeds grow, anyhow?

Well, that is it for the blog tonight. I had some neighbors over (with their kids)and we played Euchre. Emma did not go to bed until waaaaay after 10, so I am hoping there will be sleeping in tomorrow. I had a lot of fun, but my sinus headache is creeping up the back of my ears, so I am well ready for bed. This is good, as it is the earliest I have even thought about bed since Jim left. Maybe I will make it there before 3 AM like last night.

To Walmart We Will Go

I am not an avid Walmart shopper. I have nothing against them, they just don't sell bananas. My girls eat bananas by the gross and I cannot go anywhere that does not sell them unless I am going to try to venture 2 stops in one trip with the girls in tow. So I go to Meijer - ALL OF THE TIME. It is amazing what you can find at Meijer. But, I found today, it is amazing what you can find at Walmart DIRT CHEAP. Honestly, I have never been so excited to look at plastic Dora placemats or any of the other myriad of things I did not know I needed until I saw how cheap they really were. WHO CAN RESIST OREOS WHEN THEY ARE CHEAP AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MAIN AISLE, I ASK YOU?!?! So I also wanted to comment on how it is amazing WHO you can find at Walmart. My dear friend, Lochmoor Mom, recently visited the Walmart in her little town and called me to pontificate on the level of society that seems to congregate there. Now, I am not usually a biased person, Reader, but let me just say in a very vanilla area, Walmart is, well... Local color *AHEM*. And even the vanilla sort is really kind of... Well... Freezer burned? I need to stop with these analogies. I used to call Walmart "The Screaming Child Store", much like I call Mexican Fiesta "The Screaming Child Restaurant" for the very fact that no matter WHAT time of day or night you visit these places there is an inordinate number of screaming children. The first time we shopped at the newest Walmart in Canton it was well past 10:00 PM (this was before children in our little lives) and there were 2 little boys, about 4 and 6 years old that found it to be great fun to roam around the store aimlessly, moaning, "Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama?" and they would take turns crying, too, so that there was a continual stream of lost child mantra occurring. As we shopped (I recall now that I was pregnant, because I was AMAZED at how cheap a body pillow was at Walmart and I had heard it helped you be more comfortable when you slept with your hugely extended belly - and that is not true, by the way), the boys' cries and supplications would fade as they wandered farther away, and then crescendoed as they maddeningly made their way back closer to us. This went on for the entire time we were there. After about 20 minutes I took a vested interest, as I was suddenly feeling the need to eat the children and put them out of my misery, and realized that their Mama was not missing but walking in front of them the whole time this was occurring. They were not lost. They were pleading for a lighter sentence of going home and going to bed instead of wandering around shopping at Walmart after 10 Pm at night.

Well, so as to be in perfect form, today I went and my children were screaming. It was mostly Emma, as she is determined to walk on her own and this means walk on her own wherever the wind currents take her. When I am looking for a particular plastic paper sorter tray that I actually went there to buy, she was forced to be contained in the cart. This resulted in prodigious wailing and pleading, in very good form, I might add, that I completely ignored. Because the one thing about Walmart is that you cannot find one damn thing you are looking for, if you know what I mean. Sure, you can find 100 things you are NOT looking for and realize how much you need to buy, but finding the one thing you know you need is a whole other story, which you just read. So the wailing child mystery is solved. That mother of the two wailing boys was probably looking for the same thing I was, and she knew that if she stood still that her children would be doing pretend snow angels right there on the office supply aisle floor, while holding an American flag, just like mine was, until I corralled her and made her do cart time.