The trials and tribulations of a junk shop materialist pursued by his possessions... Karl's blog identifies him thusly, and this morning, as we begin preparations to leave tomorrow, I have been thinking about what I want to take home with me from the farm. The material possessions notwithstanding (how sick is it, on many levels, that we had to buy a clam shell to put on top of the minivan to get everything home? Granted, part of that everything is four new sleeping bags, thank you Grandma and Grandpa D , but there were enough new kids' presents to fill a large suitcase...), I have also been wondering how much of the serenity of the farm I will be able to transfer back to life in Missouri. We have fallen into an easy and natural routine here. The kids start waking up and getting up around 8:00 a.m. Every night I have to remake their bed completely, and last night I found out it is because Tommy tears the bed apart to get his brothers up... Joyce and Tom get up around that time t...
Posts
Bertha and Dante The children are behaving so well, we aren't sure what happened to our children, but we have decided to keep these instead. I am telling you, it's because we unplugged them this week. Either that, or it's because they haven't been in school. But I suspect the former. I am becoming a farm girl. I didn't get on the internet today for the first time until 6:00 p.m., and it is now nearly 9:00 p.m. (I have not been on this entire time, I was only on for a few minutes before). This morning when we got up, Joyce was babysitting their friends' two-year-old boy Chase, and so I told the boys I'd pay them to do some chores. They got bundled up and I was loading the dishwasher, when Christian insisted that if he had to go, I did too, and then Joyce decided to take Chase to see the chickens, so we all ended up going. I went and opened the barn door and got the three pans for grain for the calves that have been weaned and are in the pasture near the house...
* Eye of the Tiger I am sitting here tonight wearing a large tiger's eye and silver ring that Dereck got me for Christmas. I just found the following information about tiger's eye stones , not knowing anything about them before except that my mother had a tiger's eye ring I always admired when I was growing up. "Tiger's Eye is a good stone for those born during The Moon of Growth - (20 Apr - 20 May). Tiger eye's calming influences can help people born during this time of year cope with the rapid changes that frequently upset their lives. It can also help them to put down the new roots that will lead to expansion in material directions.Tiger's Eye is a good stone for people with the zodiac sign of Taurus." I asked Dereck whether he had known that ahead of time, and he said no-- but it makes me like the ring even more to know that it is such a cool stone. It also goes with my amber, and all of my brown. I have been offline so long that I shall have to re...
* 1. Your name spelled backwards: Refinnej 2. Where were your parents born? Utah and Utah 3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? Some kind of micromedia flash plug in. 4. What’s your favorite restaurant? Il Spazio, natch. 5. Last time you swam in a pool? September with Karl and Dereck and the kids before Six Flags. 6. Have you ever been in a school play? Yes 7. How many kids do you want? three 8. Type of music you dislike most? heavy metal 9. Are you registered to vote? Yes. 10. Do you have cable? Yes. 11. Have you ever ridden on a moped motorcycle? Yes 12. Ever prank call anybody? Yes 13. Ever get a parking ticket? Yes 14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? Nope. 15. Farthest place you ever traveled: Banff, Alberta 16. Do you have a garden? no 17. What’s your favorite comic strip? Charlie Brown or Bloom County 18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? First verse: Yes. 19. Bath or Shower, morning or night? Bath in the morni...
* Merry Christmas!!!! Man, did we luck out!!! Massive winter storm strands travelers - - - - - - - - - - - -By KIMBERLY HEFLING Dec. 23, 2004 EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- Frigid temperatures, blasting wind and more snow than some places normally see in a year left parts of the Midwest and South paralyzed Thursday, and transformed a section of highway in southern Indiana into a parking lot. The winter storm dumped double-digits of snow from Ohio to Wyoming, the Texas Panhandle to the Great Lakes, disrupting pre-Christmas travel. Motorists in parts of Mississippi and Tennessee were warned Thursday to stay off highways iced up from freezing rain. Hundreds of thousands lost power in Ohio. Southern Indiana barely had time to catch its frosty breath after a snowstorm Wednesday morning when a second, heavier gust pummeled the region, shutting down Interstate 64 eastbound from Evansville to the Illinois State line. "We're still stuck here. It's been about 13 hours," Ken Saba...
* The time has come for Santa to wrap presents. Sometimes Santa leaves some presents unwrapped, also. Seeing as the boys are getting battle droids and storm troopers, that could be pretty fun for Santa... But before the wrapping commences... This morning when I awoke, Joyce was already putting the finishing touches on an apple pie. I wish I had been awake for that! But the kids helped her. I asked her whether her back hurt-- making apple pie often makes my back ache-- and she said it was her knees. She had one knee replaced last year, and the other one is still trouble. So, I suggested that the kids and I could manage the morning chores without her so she could rest her knees. We put on boots and coats (Sam and I in pajama bottoms) and hats and gloves (not Sam, so I ended up giving him one of mine) and took the scraps of food for chickens and cattle and headed out. Sam and Tommy love the big walking sticks Tom and Joyce have, so each of them had one of those. Sam went to take...
Best Money Ever Spent... Well, all I can say is, if you have not yet invested in a portable DVD player for your long car trips with small children, get thee to Walmart some store that sells electronics and get one! We made it today in one piece (I drove so long yesterday, and I did pose the question in the car that perhaps I am a bit of a control freak, that I woke up last night with aching shoulders) after waking early in Columbus. We hit the snooze and I finally suggested that we watch a morning news program to wake up. Well, wouldn't ya know they had closed all the schools in anticipation of a blizzard that hadn't started yet. That got us moving! We were quickly dressed and on the road and drove through snow for a couple of hours (I told Dereck later that the reason I had driven was very similar to what Jackie Kennedy told the secret service at the beach: the children's safety here is MY responsibility-- not that Dereck can't drive in snow-- I just felt a personal o...
The car is all packed. The errands all run-- except one. Dereck has to go to the post office tomorrow morning, and there we will stop the mail. Today at Walmart, fresh from having deposited a Christmas check from my dad that was ostensibly going to pay for some new clothes for the kids, I came from the bathroom, through crafts, and then down through automotive on the way to pick up the kids in the electronics aisle, and I saw it. For an incredible amount of money, I could get a DVD player for the car with TWO screens. I looked, and was momentarily tempted, but because of the exorbitant amount of money, continued on my merry way. Until. There. There was ANOTHER display of a portable DVD player with two slightly smaller screens, for still an exorbitant price, but not nearly so exorbitant as the other, and not nearly as exorbitant as, say, a cell phone. I whipped out my dying cell phone and called Dereck. "You should never never let me go into Walmart alone with credit cards." ...
Shamelessly ripped off from Jay . 1) WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS? white-- but we are going to change that to yellow, and one wall will have rust patina OR this tissue paper thing we just saw on Trading Spaces 2) WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Seven Storey Mountain-- Thomas Merton 3) WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Dell Logo 4) FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Monopoly or Scrabble 5) FAVORITE MAGAZINE? US Weekly , In Touch , People -- yes, all three 6) FAVORITE SMELL? Coffee 7) FAVORITE COLOR? I wear a lot of brown 8) LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? I don't know 9) HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP? Five 10) MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE? My computer. What would I save after children and pets in a fire?** My journals. ** Assuming that I did not have to also save Dereck, of course. 11) FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM? coffee. 12) DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY? Not daily-- I do whenever I drive long distances, but I can't t...
Division of Labor Today, before he left to go grade at his office, Dereck made homemade chicken soup, and I made bread (okay, I used the bread machine, by request. Sue me). He asked me to put in egg noodles around 5:00, as we would eat at 5:30 and have been invited over to hang out with friends this evening, as there is no evening Mass at the student center (doh!). Around 4:30, after my friend Carol left (I colored her hair, what else?), I checked the soup, thinking that I would add the noodles early, because I like them absorb the soup's flavor. The soup had cooked WAY down! So, I added about 8 cups of water to the soup and a couple of bouillon cubes. When it started to boil, I added some basil. It's 4:45 now, and I would love to add more spices, but I'm afraid I don't have thyme...
What a lovely little Saturday, gray outside as it may be. I woke up to hear Dereck jovially greeting someone at the door and gradually came to the consciouness that it was Karl , and so I got up and got dressed and came out for coffee and some sinus headache pills, and that is how I started my day. We are having dinner with some friends tonight, and our kids will play with their kids, but it is tempting, since Karl is in town, to call our sitter and see if she is available tonight. But I have not done it. It is just a thought bouncing around in there. Christian has been hanging out with me all day, with Tommy and Sam intermittently coming either to show me something that they have built (Sam) or to bounce on me and kiss me and tell me how squishy my butt is (in front of company) (and that would be Tommy). Tommy's teacher gave him a book for Christmas and I read it to him last night, but even before then, I heard him reading aloud parts of it, and toward the end of the book, he stop...
Selina wrote this today: "I want to be more like Jen and be totally, completely honest without being judgemental. Sure, outright bluntness may offend some easily offended people and I might run off some patients, but sometimes a little tough love is needed. Sometimes a person won't listen to the advice of their friends or their family, but the opinion of a doctor (or therapist, for that matter) somehow carries more weight. Maybe it's the fact that you are paying for the advice. Maybe it's the fancy degree. I think it really has to do with hearing the advice from a neutral party. At any rate, I am going to strive to be more like Jen when I see patients. No bull, straight to the point, friendly but matter-of-fact." And I literally cringed and almost burst into tears. There is no way that Selina could know that my week has completely fallen apart thanks to the very honesty and bluntness she cherishes. But it was nice that you thought of me anyway. Thank you, Selina...
You Were Nice This Year! You're an uber-perfect person who is on the top of Santa's list.You probably didn't even *think* any naughty thoughts this year.Unless you're a Mormon, you've probably been a little too good.Is that extra candy cane worth being a sweetheart for 365 days straight? Were You Naughy or Nice This Year? You Are a Losing Lottery Ticket! Full of hope and promise.But in the end, a cheap letdown. What Crappy Gift Are You? Your Christmas is Most Like: A Christmas Story Loving, fun, and totally crazy. Don't shoot your eye out! What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?
Well, the kids are all tucked into bed, the laundry is folded (well, mostly) and I have been crossing things off my to-do list like crazy. Christmas cards have been written, presents been assembled and now I am trying to focus on what I need to do to get ready for our trip. Like secretly taking ants out of Christian's ant farm and putting them into his space age ant farm that he is getting for Christmas-- but leaving enough ants in the ant farm that he isn't the wiser. But I can't give him a cool space age ant aquarium for Christmas with no ants in it. And it's not like we can go catch ants in the Pennsylvania winter wild. Thank goodness we got some ants in the mail this week. I am just continuing a steady order of ants to they'll arrive every six weeks or so to replenish the ones that die, but so far, we have been watering them every other day (you try explaining that concept to an eight year old) and feeding them bits of bread. They seem to be pretty happy, but I ...
Another Wednesday Meme for You src=" http://members.cox.net/tjhanton/images/tic01.gif " alt="tuesday is chooseday" border="0" /> either leave your answers or a link to your webpage with your responses. Would you rather be: A garbage collector OR a fry cook at a greasy spoon restaurant? I'd rather be the garbage collector because I've heard the money is pretty decent, and you get the job done early in the day-- and then there is plenty of time leftover for reading and writing. Think of the great stories you could collect, too! The person who repairs downed power lines OR the person who cleans the shark tanks (while they're still in it) at aquariums ? Oh, no contest-- I'd rather swim with the sharks. That would be cool. The person who does makeup on dead people for open casket services OR the person who who has to scoop the ashes of a dead person into an urn ? Um... I just don't feel that comfortable around dead people, vampire boo...
Hump Day
Oh, Hallelujah! Wednesday already. Yesterday, after hacking up a new assortment of fun stuff into various kleenexes, I called into work, took the kids to school, and crawled back into bed until 1:30 p.m. and I am much the better for it. Much the better. The cold is still here today, but just barely. I am squishing it like a little bug. After I got up, I cleaned my entire house (except for Sam's room, he noted), changed the vacuum bag, vacuumed the whole house (after sweeping, I know! Quel miracle!), and then changed the bottle and the bottom of the swiffer wet jet and used that on the whole house, put all the dishes in the dishwasher and wiped down all the counters, and cleaned the bathrooms. Now that Jen is graduating, I am either going to have to hire a new Jen (if I can find one I like as well as her) or just be Jen myself. I have to say, even though it is much nicer simply to walk into a clean house, I did feel better about myself as a human being for doing it myself. And more ...
Your Hump Day Meme
Stolen From Kathy Howe through Jay . LAYER ONE: – Name: Jenorama – Birth date: April 28th. -Birthplace: Denver, Colorado -Current Location: Work – Eye Color: blue – Hair Color: my actual color? Who knows? I dyed it light ash brown this weekend, and then added blonde highlights. – Height: 5'7" – Righty or Lefty: Righty – Zodiac Sign: Taurus, sign of the Bull. LAYER TWO: – Your heritage: ? Mutt, I suppose. – The shoes you wore today: Red Mary Janes. Kenneth Cole – Your weakness: books-- can't leave a bookstore without spending money – Your fears: Unemployment, harm to my children-- not in that order. – Your perfect pizza: Artichoke heart and shrimp from the now defunct Late Nite Pizza in Athens, Ohio – Goal you’d like to achieve: Job Security; PhD LAYER THREE: – Your most overused phrase on AIM: ya – Your first waking thoughts: Coffee--who has waking thoughts before coffee? – Your best physical feature: Eyes, probably. – Your most missed memory: ? I don't even know what...
Dinner Time Conversation:
Christian : Maybe it took all kinds of gods to make the world. Maybe God just needed some help. The Egyptians had lots of gods. Tommy : But they weren't real. Dereck : When people need to attribute things to a god, they make gods in images they can understand. Like, look at the piano. Do you love the piano? Sam : No. Dereck : Do you love your mom? All : Yes. Dereck : Then you are going to make a god like your mom, right? Tommy and Christian to me : Hi, God! Christian : But maybe there was a huge war in heaven because the devil was jealous of God. Jen puts down her fork and looks at Christian : Where did you hear that? Christian : In Santa versus the Snowman . After Dinner Conversation Dereck : Well, he's right. That is what that movie is about. Christian : So, maybe there are lots of gods. Jen : But God said there aren't. He said there is only one God. Christian : But maybe that isn't true. Maybe he just said that to trick us because he is a tricky God. Bedtime Conversa...
What D&D Character are YOU?
I Am A: Neutral Good Dwarf Cleric Neutral Good characters believe in the power of good above all else. They will work to make the world a better place, and will do whatever is necessary to bring that about, whether it goes for or against whatever is considered 'normal'. Dwarves are short and stout, and easily recognizable by their well-cared-for beards. They are hard workers, and adept at stonework and engineering. They tend to live apart from other races; generally in deep, underground excavated systems, and as such tend to be distant from other races. Clerics are the voices of their God/desses on Earth. They perform the work of their deity, but this doesn't mean that they preach to a congregation all their lives. If their deity needs something done, they will do it, and can call upon that deity's power to accomplish their goals. Find out What D&D Character Are You? , courtesy of NeppyMan !
Help!
My cell phone is dying. Lately, it turns off at the drop of a hat. It turns off if I close it. It turns off if I am talking to: my babysitter; my mother; Liza. It turns off and then back on repeatedly in my pocket when I am driving to the shitty cell phone company where I have my service. They look at my phone. They tell me that a liquid has gotten into the circuits, and they are corroding. They diagnosed death for my cell phone. They can't tell me how much longer my phone has. Weeks? Days? But probably not longer than that, because it is acting the way it is. It turned off while it was sitting on the counter, while we were talking about it. A new battery won't fix it. The only option? I have to buy a new phone because I didn't buy insurance for this one. Here are your choices: These phones over here, for $50,000, or these over here, that have digital cameras, for $55,000**. Whichever I decide, it is going on a credit card. I said, "I'll think about it and come ...
Dude? Seriously.
There must be something wrong with me. Normal people just don't behave this way. I just called the vet clinic and asked them if there were any people looking for homes for their cats. And I have 55 minutes in which I could go to the cat shelter, but we don't even know who is watching our cats next week, and we will be gone for two weeks. I haven't actually called any of the numbers I got though. What is wrong with me? For one thing, I am bored out of my mind. I need to start bringing a book to work with me, I swear. Or get back to work on my memoir. B.O.R.E.D. There are two perfectly good hours left in the daylight that I could go and get my children, spend time with them, shop for dinner, do a little housekeeping... And I am sitting here why??? Looking at my list of things to do. Anything pressing before new year's? No? I don't even know what some of these things MEAN. So, maybe it's time to blow this little popsickle stand, eh? Til tomorrow? Tomorrow, when per...
Pre-Inaugural to-do list!
I don't have pneumonia or bronchitis-- I'm half-way through an upper respiratory infection and should be good as new by next week, in time to drive for two days with three kids... Things to do before the January 20, 2005 Inaugural. Better get crackin,' there's not much time left!! 1. Get that abortion you've always wanted. 2. Drink a nice clean glass of water. 3. Cash your Social Security check. 4. See a doctor of your own choosing. 5. Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild. 6. Visit Syria--or any foreign country, for that matter. 7. Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying. 8. Hoard gasoline. 9. Borrow books from the library before they're banned: Constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc. 10. If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix, do it now. 11. Come out. Then go back in. HURRY! 12. Jam in all the Alzheimer's stem cell research you can. 13. Stay out late before the cur...
Still Sick...
I told Liza today that I've barely been online at all this weekend, and she said, "Wow, you really are sick." Yesterday, without effort or planning, I slept in until 2:30. Today, I had plans to go down to church in Columbia, but realized last night that I actually needed more sleep. I slept into day too, and had a nap late in the afternoon, but I am still not feeling better. I am drowning in my own mucous and coughing. Not pretty. So, I have already called the dr. and left a message. I don't have a fever, but come on, this is getting ridiculous. My dad called. "I've been reading your blog. You have bronchitis. And you know what the number one cause of bronchitis is, don't you? Smoking." My dad is the president of the American Lung Association, Utah, so he should know. I called them back and left a message: "Does this mean I need antibiotics?" My mom called me back: "You need to see a doctor, yes." Liza: "First comes bronchit...
Well, Duh.
Oops! I should have previewed that post! I actually mean to say this: Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator. What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?
Funky Friday
I love casual Friday. I am still hacking things up. This morning I had to do a pretty close inspection to determine whether it was yellow or green. I think yellow. But I went to bed pretty early after ER last night with a sinus headache. But we had pretty close to a perfect date night last night (except for the sinus headache): we ordered Mexican food, and while they were preparing it, zipped up to the store for tequila so we could make margaritas. Then we settled in with our yummy food and our TV shows ( Joey , Will and Grace , and ER ). Bliss! Sam's class is having a "read in" today-- they earn points for doing their work on time, so today they get to read. All. Day. I wish I was in that class! I talked to Sam last night and he said that they are allowed to bring snacks and I asked him what he was bringing. "Nothing." Now. I don't think Mark is so much of a jerk that he wouldn't let Sam take one-- I think Sam just sometimes doesn't like to ask us,...
* This Morning was a protracted continuation of last night. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, despite the Hy-Vee knock off brand of Ny-Quil, and so I slept in this morning (that needs to STOP) and when I got up this morning, I coughed up all kinds of nifty things, none of which were green, so here I am at work. Started the tub, said good morning to Sam in the bathroom, and woke up the younger two. Christian: "So, are dementors real?" Tommy (with covers over head): "I am NOT going to school!" Go into kitchen to make coffee, and Christian appears very quickly. Christian: "So, when Harry Potter sees the Grim at the Quidditch Game, that means he is going to die in two seconds?" Me: "Well, did he die?" Christian: "No, but the Grim means he is ABOUT to die, right?" Me: "Well, that's just the opinion of that one teacher. But she just thinks it's a Grim, when it's really Serius Black, because he is an animagus. Th...
* Out of the Mouths... At 9:00 tonight, there was a knock on the back door and it was Liza, but for a moment, I thought our sitter had forgotten we cancelled her because I was sick, and if it had been our sitter, I would have grabbed her by her shirt and begged her to stay. I told Liza that I had just been talked at for four hours straight. And it was true. My oldest can talk. Boy can he. And my father will read this and laugh and say, "What are YOU talking about, Miss Motormouth?" But honestly. You get it back in spades. And tonight, it wasn't me, and it wasn't my oldest. It was Christian, the middle. First, I got them fast food for dinner because Dereck had a Religion dinner to go to (he is in the Religion Discipline-- it was for work, not some Religious thing he was doing), and then Christian did his homework and Sam worked out, and Christian talked at me the entire time. And he talked at me as I tried to download some kind of media flashplug for this computer...
* Has This Ever Happened to You? My eyes just fell to a piece of paper by the keyboard that had red scrawls all over it and I felt a vague sense of dread, because red scrawls mean that I need to fix something... I looked at the paper a couple of times. It took several times before I realized that it was MY handwriting on the page. I had made the corrections. But for the longest time, I didn't look at it as anything that I had ever seen before. Boy, how out of it was I yesterday?
* Law and Order By 5:00 yesterday, maybe a little before, I had crawled into bed with a book, having almost swooned twice when walking around. I forgot my gatorade, so I was just kind of lying there, half asleep, pathetic, when Dereck walked in. I felt like crap. We took my temperature, and it was normal, possibly due to Tylenol I had just taken-- because I had chills, aches, the whole nine yards. It was feeling this way and not thinking that I could handle a 40 minute round trip drive plus wrestling three energetic boys into bed that caused me to decide to call their father and ask if he would keep them overnight. He agreed, and I talked to each of them who expressed sympathies that I was sick. I had forgotten, though, that he teaches at 7:30 a.m., so he would be bringing the boys by here for me to take to school anyway. Great. Still no sleeping in. I am feeling a bit better today-- the cold seems to moving upward to my nose rather than south to my chest. And my neck doesn...
Sore Throats and Mondays... I am home sick today. I should have known it last night when I was drifting off to sleep with the little boys, and could feel my nasal passages draining into my throat, and Tommy kept yelling at me that I was snoring (which I never noticed). I went to sleep essentially at 9:00 p.m. and was draggy all day yesterday, but I thought I was just feeling blue. Well, apparently, I was also fighting off a cold. I have a sore throat. I am choking on my own mucous. It did not take me very long this morning to figure out that going to work was a baaaad idea, so I took the boys to school, came home, and went back to bed (after notifying work, of course). I got some much needed sleep, and I am wondering how much more I can get away with without risking my sleep this evening. I would like to work out, get those bodily fluids moving, but just now when I moved from the couch to the computer, I felt a little woozy. Yes, I have eaten today. I probably need to push more fluid...