more than just a beautiful mess
I actually managed to get 8 pages of scrapbooking done in the last two hours!! Go me! 
So now the two older boys are done up to March of 2005 and there’s an added March 2007 page in the family scrapbook. Alas, no new Gregory pages (I’d have to print out more photos for that.). Next Tuesday will be “catch up on Greg day.”
(scrapbooking-wise)
…David is nearly two years old
…Ben is 18 months old
…Greg is 2 months old
Naturally, there’s a bunch of randomness thrown in. Like the fact that I’ve done all their Halloweens and most of their Thanksgivings. And big trips, I’ve done at least a family scrapbook page for. Right now I’m making pages for all the random pictures I’m finding in my file drawer: the photos that got taken off someone else’s camera or one of those throw-away ones. The fun part is that I don’t usually remember those events and have to figure out dates for them by what people are wearing and who’s pregnant or if there’s grass in the yard. And then I look them up on this blog (see why I keep it up?), only to find a throw-away line about the entire event, like “the trip to the zoo was cranky-making”. *sigh* The photos were sooo cute though, and since I didn’t journal that it was cranky-making, no one will remember that in the future, right?
It was really funny this morning. Yesterday we had heard someone say on the radio that he’d wondered why no one ever sent Labor Day cards or decorated for it or ever wished him a Happy Labor Day. The kids weren’t here to hear that. In any case, David woke up this morning yelling “Happy Labor Day Mom! Happy Labor Day Dad! Happy Labor Day Greg! Happy Labor Day Ben!” And then everyone started wishing each other one.
We’re going over to my parents house here in our town for breakfast. No idea what we’ll do for the middle portion of the day, but then we’ll cook out, if the weather holds that long.
(Hurricane Gustav is on a path straight towards my town. The weather map keeps changing just a little, but it’s always heading our way. Woo-hoo! Last time we had one come our way we were without power for a couple days.)
I have been having the weirdest dreams all week. Couldn’t really tell you what they were about at this point, but man, just full of the weird. I go to bed every night exhausted and wake up tireder still. Craziness.
Greg has some sort of spider bite on his foot. It started off little and red, then got big & round & bullseye-like in appearance. Finally took him to the doctor, as the interwebs said LYME DISEASE and BROWN RECLUSE!! Oh noes! But mr. doctor man says no worries, use benedryl, keep him from scratching, don’t get staph infection. yada yada hippity hop.
I went to see my rheumatologist this morning. Got more blood drawn, oh the joy. Was told many marvelous things, such as: “Your feet are spreading. Soon they’ll be too wide for women’s shoes. You may have to wear mens shoes.” “Your knuckle and thumb joints are getting bigger.” “You need to be more careful–you’ll take at least a month longer to recover from a fall like that than a normal person” “You need to not wear yourself out doing too much. That’s part of why you’re so accident prone.” “The medicine only slows the progress of your disease, it doesn’t stop it.” “Exercise may do you some good in the short run of things if you really want to do it, but won’t appreciably help you in the long run.” “You’re going to have this disease forever.” Add all that to the hour I waited just to get taken back to the next room for yet more waiting and I’m thinking about switching doctors. *sigh*
The sad part about all this? As I sat in the car crying over the inevitability of wearing ugly shoes forever, I realized just how terribly terribly shallow it is to cry about something like ugly shoes and that made me cry more. I mean, really? What do I care about shoes, really? I’m going to be DISEASED forever.
So after I picked up my kids from the house they weren’t at (yeah, that makes so much sense. The family wasn’t home when I went to drop them off and then they weren’t there when I went to pick them up either. It’s been a strange day), I came home and giggled maniacally and ate far too much yummy bread that Nick made. Mmmm….bread…. I’m so easy to cheer up these days.
I just wish I could remember what I’d meant to post about in the first place. (Greg can say “doctor” now. It’s cute!)
The kids have all had their first day of school for the 2008-2009 school year! David had his first day on Monday and the littler kids had their first day today. We missed out on the Meet The Teacher nights because of our WI trip, so this was the first time the kids got to see their new classrooms & teachers.
David had a great first day, with lots of old friends and some new ones, too! He’ll have homework every night this year and he will be graded on a number system for the first time (rather than just E, S, & N). He’ll also have a half hour period of “Counselor” time every week. No one’s explained to the parents what this is yet, but David says the counselor is going to come and talk to the class with a different topic every week.
Ben’s first day of Pre-K 5 was excellent! His teachers both have taught David before this, and both say that Ben is just as smart as his big brother (which does cause a bit of trouble for them, as my kids always need a bit more work to do than the rest of the kids–they finish their work FAST). Ben gets to bring home a folder every day, just like David, and will sometimes have “homework,” too.
Greg’s first day of Toddler B class was really good. He’s in a new classroom for the first time. He wanted to wear a backpack and lunchbox like his brothers, so we upgraded Ben to a bigger backpack so he could take the little one. Greg is in a class with a teachers that have had Ben before (and they’re surprised by how active he is compared to Ben). He got a little upset when I left, but mostly it was because the only other child in the classroom at the time was screaming hysterically. The teachers say he calmed down as soon as the next kid came in (one of his friends–he has a couple other little boys he likes in there).
I’ve finally posted all the labeled photos from our trip to Wisconsin. These aren’t all the photos, but are all the good ones. Here’s the link to the photo-set.
Originally uploaded by awamiba.My parents have been married for 40 years now. (They knew each other for at least 10 years before that.)
Nick and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this year on August 16. I was in Wisconsin, he was here in Texas. We did our dinner out the night before I left town. Also, I called him as close to 10 times as I could manage that day (he was out-of-pocket for most of it since it was the Sabbath) and yelled “Happy Anniversary!” every time (although he beat me to it once). We exchanged presents & cards when I came home (he got me perfume for the first time and I got him two kinds of mead and a perfect-fit-for-his-hand coffee mug).
(The picture says “nearly 10 years” because it was taken the Sunday before our anniversary.)
Day six:
We got up and drove to Hayward, WI. We walked around all the touristy shops. We stopped at the huge candy shop and bought a bunch of candy and fudge. Then we hit the bakery and bought two days worth of breakfast rolls (seriously). We followed a helpful woman to the city beach and sat around there eating our rolls while the kids played on the playground (and complained about their lack of bathing suits). Eventually we started back towards Superior. On our way back, we stopped in Iron River so I could buy Nick some locally made meade and we had an early dinner in a mostly deserted bar. I don’t remember what we did the rest of the day, sadly.
Day seven:
We got up and went to the WWII museum/memorial. My grandpa has a plaque there with his name on it, and it’s coincidentally right next to the plaque of my cousin’s other grandfather (who we called “Grandpa Peters” and loved so much, and he died literally within an hour of my grandpa 10 years ago). The museum was really expensive to get into, given its size, and we would have liked to have been able to spend more time there, but we didn’t have enough time scheduled for that. At that point we split up. Me, my mom, and Greg went out to lunch with my mom’s friend Nancy. My dad and the older two kids went to the train museum and on a two hour train ride. Then the kids and I went back to the hotel and went swimming until it was time to go out to dinner. We went over to my dad’s cousin Nancy’s house (not to be confused with my mom’s friend Nancy). A bunch of my dad’s cousins, spouses, kids, & grandkids came over and everyone had a great time. David decided he was going to trade places with his new cousin Shea and go live in Florida near DisneyWorld with her brother Tristan (Tristan & Shea’s dad works for DisneyWorld, designing…something. My brain refuses to give up that detail at the moment). It was so cute seeing the kids get along so well.
Day eight:
We got up and drove, drove, drove until we hit somewhere in Kansas.
Day nine: We got up at 5am, after a mostly sleepless night, and drove, drove, drove until we got home. Sadly, an hour after Meet the Teacher ended (Nick went, but it wasn’t the same and me getting to go).
We had a really really good trip! Pictures to be posted later, after their labeled.
Day four was packed full of stuff.
First off, we went to visit my Grandma. She lives in an assisted living apartment, just next door to her old down-the-street neighbor. She’s got all the stuff in her apartment that I really identified as “Grandma’s house stuff,” like her giant wooden spoon & fork (from Thailand) and her beautiful desk and her corner hutch. I was glad to see she got to bring so much of her house with her. The kids bounced around her little apartment, asked her questions, and touched everything. David was excited to see all the golf-related stuff around (it belonged to my Grandpa). We took pictures together and then headed out the door (but not before one of the kids accidentally pulled the “Pull here for Help” cord in the bathroom. *sigh*)
Then we drove out to my cousin Erik’s cabin outside of town. It’s a beautiful cabin, nearly totally rebuilt (he had to leave part of the original cabin for the neighborhood association to be happy), and quite homey. The lake is lovely, with a little beach and a new dock. The kids got to fish and swim with their little cousin Brody (first cousin, once removed, I think? *shrug*) . Me and David and my dad kayaked (I made it all the way around the lake, to the surprise of everyone else). After a late lunch (provided by my fabulous Aunt Gloria), we went over to another lake and rode around in my cousin Brian’s speed boat. My dad and David & my uncle Stew all got dragged around behind the boat on a giant intertube. That was quite exciting. No pictures of that, though. Then we ate dinner and made s’mores around a campfire.
Day five:
We didn’t do as much on day five. My mom, Gregory, Ben, and I went out and toured around her old neighborhood while waiting for the two David’s to wake up. Then we ate dinner at Grandmother’s (a sports bar) and walked up to the lighthouse and watched the lift bridge go up for a big boat. After that we took a cruise around Lake Superior on the Vista Star. We went back to my aunt & uncle’s house for pizza after that and the kids got to play with their little cousin (they were sooo cute together!) Brody again.
Short amount of computer time, so short post:
Day one: Driving, more driving, followed by vomiting child. Then I got sick, too. Oh the joy.
Day two: Still sick. More driving. Realized we forgot the jackets. *sigh*
Day three: Feeling better. Visited Mall of America. It’s an amusement park surrounded by a mall. Oh the terror! Spent our food budget for three days on rides. Finally got to Wisconsin. Swam in the hotel pool, ate food from the vending machine. Someday we’ll sleep.
Tomorrow we visit my grandma, then go to my cousin Erik’s cabin. We’ll canoe & visit with family & maybe go to another lake for speed-boating? I’m not sure about that part. Must go now, as people are wondering what I’m doing. Whee.
Dear you,
Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. Been busy with stuff that’s not interesting enough to post about (as if I ever have anything that interesting to post about). Cooking, cleaning, keeping kids from repeatedly climbing on my hurt knee, etc.
Saturday was exciting though. Drove up to DFW (left-footed, so as not to hurt the knee) in the no-air-conditioned car to see Kay for her birthday. I was really early to our meeting place; she was really late. So I went to find A/C somewhere and ended up getting back to the meeting place later than her after all. Found out that we didn’t really live up to the dress code at our chosen lunch place. Went to the mall instead. Ate an enormous meal at Chili’s (so much so that I didn’t feel hungry at dinner time, so I didn’t eat dinner). Shopped for shoes & make-up for Kay. Made fun of the $800-on-sale dresses at Neiman Marcus. Went to Build-a-Bear workshop for my birthday gift (Kay and I aren’t real good at the timeliness of gifts) and built a TinkerDog (named Miranda–why Miranda? I couldn’t have told you at the time, but have since realized that I was halfway through watching Serenity last week and that’s the name of the Planet of “Everybody’s Dead”). Got a call after that from Nick saying that a) they missed the birthday party because it was lightning and thundering in the morning hours and b) the van broke down halfway to church (his church is nearly 40 minutes away from our house) and that he and the boys had had a tow truck adventure. Eventually made our way back to Kay’s house (after a dozen or so phone calls of insanity about who is where and who is watching the kids, etc.) I left a couple hours later than expected, but made it home safely.
Sunday I finally got hold of my mom and found out that her van’s A/C had stopped working…and the brakes…and the transmission. So our trip might be postponed. Oh Noes all around.
Monday I got our van towed in, it got diagnosed, & fixed by 8:30am today. Fuel pump. $600ish. My mom’s van also went in, got diagnosed, and was supposed to be out by 6pm today. It got done around 10:30am. $1300ish. Yay.
So now my parents are almost here, Nick is almost off work, Greg has colored everything in my entire wallet and the living room floor and the carpet and his legs with a permanent blue marker, David has taken out all his legos, and Ben has taken out all his Duplos. The kitchen is not clean. But! Library books have been returned early, BookMooch trades have been mailed (never sent anything to Chile before), a jacket for me has been found (although trips to stores were made, nothing was found there), and money has been acquired from the bank. Woo hoo!
Tomorrow we leave. I know not how early. Just keep your thoughts and prayers with us as we travel across the country in a not-so-large van. Thanks, y’all.
Love,
me
In a week and two days, the kids, my parents, and I will be traveling north to visit the families. I say “families” because not only are we visiting my mom & dad’s family, but we’re hoping to visit my biological family on the way back to Texas. We leave on the 14th and won’t be back until the 24th, which is the day before school starts. (I know, it’s insanity, but the kids need to get to know their great-grandma before something bad happens.)
So I’m scurrying (or hobbling, as the case may be) around trying to make sure we have everything ready for school starting now. Washing all the clothes, labeling all the things needing labels, organizing the kids at-home school supplies, checking to see that still needs buying, etc. We’ve already got everything off the official school supply list, but I think the boys still need jeans and new shoes.
On Wednesday I started getting sick. Just a generic summer cold. But in the cleaning/tidying I’d done earlier in the week I’d found my RA medications list of stuff you should know about your meds and read it and it said “Should you get a sore throat or cough or cold, CONTACT YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY.” So I called the doctor’s office late in the afternoon and left a message saying “Hey, this seems ridiculous, but I’ve got a cold and I’m following my med’s instructions and letting you know.” The next morning, first thing, the doctor’s office called back and said “Stop your meds. NOW. When you’re completely over your cold, then you can restart. But if you get a fever, CALL US IMMEDIATELY.” So of course I got a fever during the night. Friday I call them to let them know, even though the office isn’t actually open on Fridays. The nurse called me back late in the afternoon, apologizing for not getting back to me sooner, but they’d already called in my antibiotics, so I could go get them right now. But by then I was feeling too poorly to go do that, so I waited for Nick to get back from wherever he was. Yeah, we didn’t get them that night. Saturday I was feeling better enough to say that I’d go get the medicine myself. Then I got into organizing my scrapbooking stuff ( after 3 hours I was about half way done) and didn’t remember to go until the pharmacy was closed (they have really short hours of operation). *sigh*
Sunday morning, as I was walking the baby child back to our house (my parents are in town & we’d gone over for breakfast) to get a diaper, I neglected to look where I was going and stepped into the gutter, wearing weird platform sandals. So naturally I twisted my ankle and fell down…while carrying the baby. He hit his face on the cement pretty hard and I was bleeding everywhere on my knee & leg. Fortunately, Nick was doing yard work (we were nearly home) and came running to rescue us. The baby soon seemed fine. He shunned me for a while, turning to his grandma for comfort. I sat on the couch with my leg up and whimpered. My mom offered to take David home to CS with her and I agreed. Eventually the pain meds kicked in and I felt a bit better.
The big kids came home and Ben cried and cried that his big brother was going to get to go to CS without him, so my mom offered to take both of them. We packed them some bags and off they went. The baby and I sat on the couch and snuggled for a while until Nick came back in from finally getting my antibiotics. Then we watched Cast Away, which we’d never seen before. Nick and the baby played on the floor. The baby and I colored. It was good. We eventually put the baby to bed and had a “romantic”dinner…well as romantic as you can have with a bloody knee involved.
Anyways, we’re feeling okay this morning, I guess. The antibiotics are the 5-day kind and they make me nauseated. The knee is all stiff, as is my shoulder on that side. I’m glad that the big kids are out-of-town so that I only have one kid constantly patting my hurt knee. They’ll have fun with their grandma–she’s taking them swimming and bike riding and maybe even to Chuck E. Cheese’s again. Gregory and I have a fun day of sitting around planned. He’s taken out all the games from the cupboard that he wants to play and I think we’ll sit on the floor and play until Nick comes home for lunch. (It’s good to have a plan.)
Friday night I went to a Ladies Game & Craft Night at church, where I was regaled with stories of a certain lady’s husband’s pack-rattery. So naturally Saturday morning I awoke to a maniacal urge to clean everything in the whole house. I started with the garage. By the time everyone else came home from church, one half of the garage was eat-off-the-floor clean and the other side merely tidy. The stuff I got rid of filled the dumpster and the back of several freecyclers vans. It was good.
Sunday I started tidying up my room, which had all the clothing the children had recently outgrown in bins, a large pile of laundry to be folded, and the detritus of scrapbooking projects all around. I didn’t get very far, unfortunately, as I was also trying to get the children to tidy the living room on their own (a process which took several hours, sadly, and only 10 minutes when I actually pointed to items to pick up and told each child individually which bits to pick up and where to put them).
Yesterday we decided to switch the biggest kid with the smallest kid, room-wise. I put out bins (newly emptied from the garage project on Saturday) and David managed to fill them all with his stuff. So out went his stuff. Then we started ferrying Greg’s stuff into the room with Ben. That took ages, as we were attempting to not get in the way of the path we’d be moving furniture through later. Eventually everything, including the closets, was done.
This morning I realized that the way we’d arranged David’s new room (really the only way the bed would fit in there), had David’s headboard directly behind the wall from the headboard of my bed. Which obviously would not do. So instead of doing something fun (like, oh, going to book club for the first time in over a year), I rearranged my own bedroom. And put away all the children’s clothes. And started to reorganize my scrapbook stuff (I really need an office of my own.)
Photos to follow, once we’ve finished the tidying up of the rooms. Right now we’re still in that everythings-everywhere stage.
