RAIN!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, finally it is raining again! It hasn't rained since the last time I posted about it at the beginning of October and we were getting desperate.

In fact, it's a day late, because there was another smoky pall over the area again today. I don't know where the forest fire was this time, but my lungs were not happy. I hope the rain is putting it out and clearing the air.

I really hope that it doesn't rain tomorrow evening, though. Just from say 5 until 9, OK?

The story that DS2 wrote

"The mouse ate the cat and the mouse went back home. He ate lunch and he ate the cat for lunch. And he went out for more cats."

LOL!!!!

baby and kid PICTURES

Godzilla versus Thomas the Tank Engine (coming soon to a theater near you)





(I asked the boys to pick up their toys the night before and it didn't happen...)

Then Godzilla is defeated when she underestimates the size of her body...

Almost ready for Halloween!

DS2 suddenly decided that he was not going to be a ninja again (though last year he wore a ninja costume and a cape with skulls) and instead he is going to be Tremendous T, his very own superhero. So he needed a cape. I bought some cheap, black satin and ironed on a big red T (wonder under rules, y'all!) with a T made of reflective tape sort of under it and stuck a length of leftover bias tape through a channel at the top for a tie.


I got a yard of shiny, hot pink tulle and folded it over twice and ran elastic through the waist for a tutu for DD. I got some matching organza ribbon and made a ridiculous hair flower and attached it to another bit of elastic. She's a flower fairy ballerina princess. Diva. Prima donna. Something.



DS1 is a samurai again this year and I finally figured out how to make a helmet for him. I used a yellow play hard hat and taped foil to it, then made horns and covered them with foil and stuck them on there, too.



If the boys insist I need a costume, I guess I'll be a pirate again.

Gold medal in the Mom Olympics!

Goes to Tami! With an able assist by Deirdre!

She drove her daughter, her friend's son and my DS1 to Lake Tahoe on the class field trip to see salmon run and to run around in the woods up in the mountains. (An awful long way to see salmon, since they're running in the river about a mile from school, too, but anyway)

I warned her before they left that DS1 might get carsick, as he has a tendency toward motion sickness (witness his pukage into Monterey Bay last year) though he's usually OK as long as the roads don't twist and turn too much. Then within an hour, she had to stop the car so he could throw up. Deirdre pulled up and suggested they stop for mint lifesavers and some ice and they got back on the road and DS1 was fine after that. Apparently, putting ice packs on the side of your face and your stomach, along with mint helps control nausea.

So after that, DS1 got to ride up front (I'm not positive he's tall enough, though he's getting close) and she kept a good eye on him.

Honorable mention to the other kids who had to ride with him.

Well, except for the part about philosophy.

Thanks to Jennifer R.!

Your result for Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test...

Intrapersonal

4% Logical, 24% Spatial, 55% Linguistic, 69% Intrapersonal, 6% Interpersonal, 16% Musical, 14% Bodily-Kinesthetic and 39% Naturalistic!

"This area has to do with introspective and self-reflective capacities. Those who are strongest in this intelligence are typically introverts and prefer to work alone. They are usually highly self-aware and capable of understanding their own emotions, goals and motivations. They often have an affinity for thought-based pursuits such as philosophy. They learn best when allowed to concentrate on the subject by themselves. There is often a high level of perfectionism associated with this intelligence.

Careers which suit those with this intelligence include philosophers, psychologists, theologians, writers and scientists." (Wikipedia)

Take Howard Gardner's Eight Types of Intelligence Test at HelloQuizzy

Bleak hardship, strict rationing

of NAMES in 18th and 19th century Germany. Ober Mossau, Odenwald, Hessen, Germany to be precise.

Every single blinkin' boy for 5 generations has been named Johan. The girls are all Anna or Eva or maybe, if the parents are going crazy and living large, Elisabetha.

And this isn't even in the direct male line, these are the female relatives' parents and brothers and sisters, too.

So Johan, son of Johan, father and brother of Johan... Ah. SO yes, we need to follow the middle names, but yeeeeesh.

ETA: Hold the phone!!! Anna Mueller wasn't from Ober Mossau. No, she's positively a foreigner. She's from UNTER-Mossau. Rock on, girl!

Can you tell that this part of the research is a bit... repetitive?

But PHEW! When you get back to the 17th century, some of them have their own names!

More about NaNoWriMo

I have started to see a couple of new characters.

Look at the Princess Line and Cuirass Bodice here and that's how the heroine will dress when going out formally. At home, I have a feeling she dresses like a maid. She's not very good with class distinctions. I don't think she's brave enough to wear bloomers, though she'd like to. She definitely doesn't want to wear more than 7 pounds of undergarments, doesn't usually put on a corset, but is too shy to go around telling people that.

She reads a lot, she has friends but is not beautiful and is too shy to be popular, she always thought she'd be unmarried and be a governess, but married an older man who wanted a new wife to help raise his son, they liked each other a lot, the man died after only a few years, etc.

OK, I'm busy looking at the site I mentioned above. Good stuff :)

So anyway, I think I have a couple of characters, though I don't have a plot yet.

three whole micrograms!

I've had a thing of pureed carrots open for almost a week now and will put less than a teaspoon into a plate and feed her a tiny taste or two and then she'll be done with it. Last night, she must have been outrageously hungry and she ate the entire half teaspoon I first put in and then had a couple more nibbles. Wowza!

I don't make homemade baby food. After my experience with my older two who rejected it in a similar way (though DS2 would sometimes eat a few bites of store baby food, just not what I made), I consider it much too soul-destroying to spend that much time making tiny quantities of mush that a baby won't even eat.

She loves gnawing on real food, though she rarely swallows more than a couple of crumbs. She had (um, bad Mommy) bacon today for lunch. She swallowed a bunch of yummy salt and nitrites, I am sure, but actual pieces of bacon? Well, she was hacking and coughing and choking on a piece at one point and never spat it out, so she must have swallowed it.

we call her Stripey

This morning, I was getting something out of a floor-to-ceiling cupboard in the kitchen and DD came along to explore. She was shoving the juice bottles on the bottom shelf around and grabbing at cereal boxes and then..... "Ah-choo!" thump "Waaaaaaaa!" The bottom shelf is about4 inches above the floor and she nailed her forehead right on the edge of it. So she has a little stripe a bit more than an inch long on her forehead.

And why does Blogger keep logging me out?

"This looks like a job for two Supermans"

http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1578&b=1

Wishful thinking about political vandalism

I'm thinking I should get hundreds of little square signs that are yellow and printed with "Bigot on Board" and go around putting them on cars with bumper stickers that support a certain proposition. I wouldn't do it, but thinking about it makes me feel better.

swimming?

Oh yeah, she moves pretty fast now.

my color

you are dark slate gray

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well.

Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan.

Your outlook on life is dark. You're generally a pessimist and everyone knows it; you're the one the come to when they don't want the sunshine blown around, they just want to straight truth. You can miss good things in life if you make up your mind too early though.

Photo session - tooth - PICTURES

Mom wanted a picture of the baby's tooth.

Well, I tried.


Stinkin' lag time on my digital camera.



Stinkin' lag time on my digital camera.


Stinkin' lag time on my digital camera.

Oh wait, I got it.....


Too much glare off the slobber next to the tooth - the bright spot is NOT her tooth, a bit fuzzy, let's try again.


Har!


Veeeeeery funny, baby girl


Dang! SO close! You can sort of see the tooth up at the top. I was holding her with one hand and my aim was off.


Nice. Now take those out of your mouth.


Mouth OPEN! Mouth OPEN! Drat!




Perfect. Well, except her tongue is covering her tooth completely.

Maybe I'll try again some other day.

But happier news

An online friend had her surprise baby yesterday - 9 lbs and 13 oz, about 2 weeks late. And is naming her Isabelle ;) (or some variant on the spelling - they hadn't decided yet). Yay Charlene!

Sad topic for a 500th post

My mom's friend who has survived breast cancer three times and various other metastases more than that, the same friend who had what was thought to be a gall bladder attack and had some stones out and they thought she would be fine, the one I posted about a couple of times such as here and here, well, they've done more exploration and it does look like pancreatic cancer. I don't know if they know yet about what the treatment will be or the prognosis, though pancreatic cancer at least used to be one of the worst.

Pray 'em if you've got 'em. Send happy thoughts and white light. Vibes. Whatever joy and love you can.

Send some extra to my mom, OK? And to J's daughters and family, of course.

PICTURES

DD rolling around on my bed, irritating the snot out of DS2 who was trying to read a Tintin book.


V. cute on the floor by an office chair where she spends half her day (though that's changing lately, as she tends to roll out the door and then army-crawl down the hall)


DS2 on his field trip yesterday. Yes, he's wearing all black. That's my goth boy. LOL


DS2, again on field trip.


DS2 and DD on field trip.

I don't know how I'll do it

I really do want to NaNo this year. I really don't know WHEN. I'm going to have to cut out all my email and blog time and books and eating and other various things.

Right.

I'm doing it.

Well, 10 days to decide if I am or not, anyway.

field trips and non-academic academia

I went on DS2's class field trip yesterday to a pumpkin farm. At least they chose one that was fairly close to the school - I went with DS1's class last year for an hour drive each way with bad directions and OK, it had better other stuff like a train and a show and a big slide and shops, but eesh.

They went to a park after for lunch and then to play on the playground and then it came out that even though it was only a bit after 12 and school gets out at 3, they weren't going to do any classwork for the rest of the day. Huh? They can't even go back and read and do free choice jobs or anything? So because I needed to get going because DD hadn't fed or slept at all and was melting down and because I only had DS2 in my car (They forgot to assign me anyone and didn't really need me to drive, but DS2 said he wanted me to drive so I did), I just left and brought him home with me. He watched Animaniacs and I fed DD until she was about to pop.

We had all last week off school for a fall break/Columbus Day. Then DS2's field trip with no intention of doing anything vaguely academic afterwards, then one full day of school today, then the next three days they get out at noon for parent/teacher conferences. What is that all about? Why don't they just take the whole month off?

FINALLY

Just over 1 1/2 days ago, I informed the boys that they could watch a movie or play on the computer when they got all their stuff in the living room and sewing room picked up.

They did a lot of it right away, but just never could get the last bit done.

Finally this morning, DS2 wanted to play Crazy Machines enough that he went to pick up the last of the stuff in the sewing room. It took 1/2 an hour and constant intervention from me ("No, it's not picked up if there are 100 small toys around the edge of the room. No, it doesn't count if the train track box is in the middle of the floor") but it's picked up.

Now to vacuum before it's all covered with toys again...

Anf then to find a motivator for them to pick up the stuff in their rooms...

Don't hit your daddy with a duck

Now there's a new sentence!

The infinite creativity of language :)

rats!

I just read Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn. It's her second book, the first was Silent in the Grave. They're mysteries set in Victorian England with a widowed woman from an eccentric family as the narrator. There's an element of romance and a lot of humor. And I can't believe I didn't mention Silent in the Grave after I read it, because I liked it even more than than this second one. No, I loved it. I adored it. It was really, really good. Mom, you would like it, I am sure. Of course, Mom probably already read it.

Anyway, I requested and checked out Sanctuary and put off reading it for a while, because I knew it would be good. And it was and now I NEEEEEEEED to read the third book.

And now I have found out that the third book doesn't come out until NEXT MARCH. That's FIVE MONTHS.

Woe is me.

I am trying to cut down on the number of books I have lying around waiting for me to read because it's almost November, which is NaNoWriMo. I'm going to try again this year to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month. I won't have the time and long stretches of concentration like I did last year. The baby's about to start crawling, which takes a special sort of vigilance.

achy breaky back

The big boys, especially DS2, and I worked in the garden a bit this morning and afternoon.

We have a HUGE can for green waste that is picked up every other week. It's full.

There's STILL a ton of buffalo grass in the garden. It's been 2 years since I was lively enough to do more than the bare minimum out there, so it's not surprising. Not that I'm likely to get around to picking out every bit of buffalo grass. D*** stuff just grows back out of tiny bits or a speck of root left in the soil.

But my body's completely worn out and aching. I'm not sure if green waste pickup is this week or next, but I guess I don't have to try to get rid of the rest of the grass until then, right?

At least I think it's called buffalo grass, because I can't find a picture and description of it on the first page of google results. Doesn't mean it's NOT called that, just that I'm too lazy and ignorant of grass species to spend any more time on it!

we don't need no stinkin sleep

DD was up every 2 hours all night long. i turned out my light just after 10 - i didn't even stay up late reading or anything - and i'm pretty beat.

fingers crossed that she won't be cranky all day like she was yesterday and maybe i'll get a nap today. i can always dream, right?

whoooooooooo

Instead of one beer that I have a couple of times a week (sorry, one beer at a time), tonight I had 2 over the course of more than an hour. My head is still spinning. At least tonight, things seem funny to me. Well, fairly surreal anyeway., Sometimes beer just makes me crankier.

Son #2 just told me

DS2: "Mommy? Mommy? I really like tools."

me: "That's good!"

DS2: "Why? Why is that good?"

me: "Because it's really good to know how to use tools."

DS2: "But I especially like power tools. mrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"


He's all boy.

ah... interesting

From Poison Pen by Sheila Lowe (a murder mystery I just finished reading. The main character - and the author - is a handwriting analyst) (p.66, Capital Crime Press, 2007) (and no, I don't remember how to do bibliography and footnotes correctly anymore, besides that they kept changing what they wanted us to do throughout school and college.) :

"People who block print only occasionally are usually making a point, being emphatic. Habitual printers generally tend to have intimacy issues. By breaking the links between their letters, they were symbolically breaking their connections to other people. Also, those who chose the block style of printing were often egocentric, seeing themselves as the center of the universe."

Would my handwriting tell you that I have unresolved issues with my father?

SHould I be worried?

DH is sitting behind me, listening to a lecture given by David Icke. That's the guy who promotes the idea that the whole world is run by a vast conspiracy of reptilian space alien shapeshifters.

The scary thing is, that some of it makes sense - figuring out who the power behind the throne is, etc.

But reptiles?

More evidence that I'm a bad mom

Isabelle's rolling around on the floor in teh office while DH and I sit back to back at our computers (no, we don't IM each other while we're doing it!)

I was having crackers and cheese for lunch. I was craving salt, what can I say? But about halfway through, it was too much salt, but I ate them anyway.

Where was I?

Oh, Is was watching me eat, so I gave her a Wheat Thin. She immediately used it to bang on the base of the chair. This child ate a 2-inch-long piece of carpet fiber at the chiropractor's yesterday, but she wouldn't put a cracker in her mouth. Anyway, pretty soon, she had it in manageable pieces, a few of which she put into her mouth, turned to mush and coughed out. Then she rolled in it.

From icanhascheezburger.com

It's a LOLduck.

Well, somewhere in Europe, anyway

Somehow, I managed to get on the email list of the regional chain of grocery stores. They send me an email with recipes (probably why I signed up, though I never follow recipes) and a few coupons (which I never print out).

Anyway, this time they claimed it's recipes for Oktoberfest.

"Enjoy a hearty helping of German dishes, and recipes made with Oktoberfest's celebrated brew."

Guinness

Oh, my brain!

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky"

"Try to take over the world!"

And that to introduce a rather serious topic. Naomi Wolf predicting the rise of totalitarianism in the US. Actually, saying that it's already happening. Bush has deployed troops within US borders now to go along with the secret torture facilities, arresting reporters, etc etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI

Theodosia!!!!!

She's out! She's out!

Oh, sorry. *ahem*

The second Theodosia book, by Robin LaFevers is out. I was going to pre-order so it would arrive as soon as it was officially released, but seem to have blanked on that.

The first was Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos and is an excellent kids' book - about 5th grade reading level, probably a bit scary for my sensitive 3rd grader who reads at the 4th/5th grade level (brag brag). This one is T and the Staff of Osiris and I hope it's just as much fun.

Theodosia is a know-it-all 10-ish year old girl whose parents run the Museum of Antiquities in London. T has the rare skill of seeing and feeling the curses on objects and has done considerable research in removing the curses by reading various ancient Egyptian papyri and carvings. Of course, no one pays much attention to her, which she heartily encourages most of the time, because otherwise her parents are likely to pack her off to boarding school (she tried it once and never went back) or get her a governess which would greatly curtail her education in hieroglyphics and curses. The setting is the early 20th century, with WWI brewing and Germans trying to snap up ancient Egyptian artifacts with curses in order to improve their chances and weaken England and their other enemies. So Indiana Jones meets schoolgirl meets Nancy Drew meets.... I dunno, maybe the Addams Family?

Well, I need to go buy it. It's been in my amazon shopping cart, saved for later, since June 3rd!

Forwarded from a bulletin board I visit

Jen R will have to tell me more about this ;)

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

much better

DS1 is much better. he's had some juice and a small serving of soup and some milk all that stayed in his stomach. i think supper will be applesauce and yogurt. maybe i could make him a smoothie with yogurt and fruit. maybe some tofu, but that will be our little secret ;)

he's up and stable and has finally had to go to the bathroom (he didn't eat or drink anything from 9 pm last night until what he threw up at 2-ish).

he has also watched Animaniacs, volume 2, disc 3 about 3 times more for some of the cartoons.

Like totally tripping, dude

DS1 had oral surgery today - his baby canine on the top left wasn't being pushed out by the adult tooth, which was growing sideways up in the gum. They gave him some Vercet - based on his weight - at about 8:45 and when it started hitting him, they took him back with him staggering all over and them holding him up, and got it out. He's still halfway knocked out 2 1/2 hours later.

They kept him for a long time afterwards, waiting for him to wake up more, then I brought him home. I had to carry him in from the car and DH took him to bed. I tried to give him a bit of milk to drink because he hasn't had anything to eat or drink since last night and I figured it would help soak up the drugs and then left him to sleep it off when the milk was running down his chin and he was trying to tell me something about two holes. I heard a rustle and thump a bit ago and went back and he was sitting on his floor, trying to look at his clock. He wanted to know when he was going to get his tooth out.

The surgeon's office called to find out if we made it home OK and I told the woman that and she said the Vercet has amnesia effects.

I just have to keep him from falling out of bed for a while. Maybe I'll just let him stay on the floor.

I heard a door and found him swaying in my room so now he's in my bed with a bed rail.


ETA: 12:30 now and he's finally asleep. He informed me at noon that he was hungry, which is good but he still couldn't sit up unaided. I have soup cooking for him now.

big kids

ds1 is 55 1/2 inches tall - that's 4' 7.5"

ds2 is 50 inches - 4' 2"

dd is 29 inches - 2' 5"

no idea what that is in percentiles, but the boys are both the tallest in their classes.

Well, I haven't seen or heard any of the debates so far

But this flow chart has brought me up to speed on the VP one.

P.S. and the comment on the Boing Boing blog saying it's more of an ebb chart. Well, that just says it all, really.

yawn

ds2 came to our bed at who knows what wee hour of the morning and slept between me and the bed rail. i had about 12 inches of space and had to use my arm as an extension of the pillow. i was already severely stiff from karate class yesterday and now have a really sore neck and a headache.

i also apparently fell asleep on my book last night. i don't remember turning the light out and when DD woke up to be fed in the wee hours of the morning (just before ds2's arrival), she was playing with my book.

but anyway, the boys are sprinting up and down the hall and slamming doors and screaming. my head hurts.

SUPER genius

DS1 is on the floor next to me, writing words on those magnetic erase writing thingies. Doodle something? Magna Doodles. Anyway, he is then placing those words with a toy and teaching Isabelle to read. I, of course, thought that she was writing the words herself.

DS2 is using the cordless drill to drill random holes. The charge is about gone, so his fingers might be safe for another day. Phew!

Oh, it's not raining anymore, but the boys are playing in the computer room while DH and I are both on computers. Yes, it IS the smallest room in the house.

It's raining! It's pouring! The old man is snoring!

Is that because the humidity makes old men snore?

But yes, rain. It has been raining off and on, mostly on, since yesterday early afternoon.
What is this water falling from the sky? The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

groooooan

I went to karate last night. It's killing me this cycle because a couple of our moves involve dropping your opponent on the floor, which means that we work with partners and get dropped as much as we drop them. One of the moves involves pinning your partner's arm to your chest, grabbing them by the back of the neck and spinning them around and down to the floor.

Which is just wrong on so many levels.

My partner last night was K, who was a belt ahead of me when I started and who now is about 3 belts ahead due to my maternity leave. She's about my age. Neither of us is as spry as we used to be, so the necks, backs, and shoulders were aching and getting up off the floor was getting harder and harder.

And a 16/17 year old black belt (nice enough kid, just very young) had the nerve to tell us before class when we were griping to each other about aches and pains, "You're not old!" OK, so we're not 60 or 70 or 80, but 40-ish with back problems is a bit older than 17, dahling.

Renshi M, the director of the center and a good guy was making all of us do push ups with our feet up on the base of the Wavemaster which means they were about 18 inches off the ground. Let's just say that I didn't even do ONE. I don't know if anyone else had to other than me, but he said that if we couldn't do it, to put our knees down.

We were also doing sit ups with our feet up there and were supposed to be touching the bag as high up as we could. Well, I could almost touch the bag. Not quite. Unnnng.

Weather!

We have clouds!

We have humidity!

We might have "few showers" by 4!

Then it's supposed to shower tonight and all day tomorrow.

DS2 wore his boots to school because it might rain. DS1 loudly declaimed all the way to school that if it rained at recess, he'd yell "Boo!"

But I'm not sorry if they have to do indoor recess; that's just toooooo bad. We need the rain. The area's crumpling under drought conditions. On top of it almost never raining from April to October in a normal year, we haven't had enough rain down here and snow in the mountains for the last 2 winters.

toof!

Isabelle has her first tooth! I haven't even seen it, but I can feel it in there.

Here's a charming shot I took a few minutes ago. She was sitting and looking back over her shoulder and looking very pert and cute. But by the time the camera warmed up and decided to take the pic, well you see the result.





And here's my big guy's poor little heady-head:


You can't see the bruise too much yet. I made him go to school even though his head hurts a bit. We'll see if he makes it through the whole day.

Political terminology of the day

"The Bradley Effect"

In which polls are inaccurate which attempt to predict the outcome of an election which includes a person of color. From Tom Bradley, LA mayor who ran for California governor in 1982 and was predicted to win in a landslide and then didn't. Apparently, various people who don't want to get into a discussion about why they would never want a black man to win would answer undecided or just outright lie.

Discuss....

Ding ding ding! It's BB's mom for the win!

I was getting DS2 from his Best Buddy's house and for some reason was required to drag DS1 along. I pointed out the bruising on his chin and she said it looked like suction.

My little brain said, "Ding ding ding!"

He was in the car this morning making a stacking cup stick to his face by sucking on it.

So my 8 year old has an enormous hickey on his chin.

I'm so proud.



Then on the way home, we saw friends of ours who are coming to the end of a complete home remodel (so complete that they've spent the last 6 months in a rental duplex) and we stopped and had a tour of their "new" house. Wowza! It's really been opened up and added to and looks fabulous. My friend, the mom of the family, is still stressed and there are things that aren't right and that somehow got changed from when the plans were approved. My advice was to just keep the 3 lights in the kitchen instead of two and just get it over with. They need floors and kitchen counters and drawer handles and appliances and bathrooms finished, but really, it's almost there.

house of PAIN

We got a call at about 12:45 from the school because DS2 ran into a pole on the playground. When I arrived to pick him up, the playground woman told me that she had blown the whistle for the end of recess and the kids were gathering up and she looked over and he was standing by a pole crying. He's not really clear on what he was looking at just before he saw the pole and literally RAN into it. He had a bloody nose (briefly, but it stopped right away) and a big goose egg in the center of his forehead, so he definitely caught the pole right in the middle. I gave him some tylenol and his pupils are responding normally, so I think he's OK.

Let's just say that it's a lot funnier when Wile E. Coyote does it. Though, well.... Boiiiiiiinnnnng

I also brought DS1 home early because they were home almost 2 hours early from their field trip and didn't have big plans for the afternoon. His chin looked dirty and his hands were definitely filthy, so I told him to go clean up. Well, he went to karate a bit ago and came home and his chin was still dirty. I sent him to go wash it, but when he did, I realized that it is bruised. He doesn't know what he did to it. It looks more like pressure than like he was hit in the face.

Oh, and DS2 went to his Best Buddy's house anyway. No word on how that's going. BB was taking a nap when I talked to his mom a bit before DH drove DS2 over there, because BB was cranky and grumpy and tired and annoyed. Let's hope that the nap helped BB's mood and that the headache isn't too bad!

So far today, DD has sustained no injuries. Well, DS1 hurt her on the leg slightly this morning when crawling over here, but she didn't even get up a good cry on that and it didn't leave a mark. Small mercies, eh?

coals to Newcastle and general screams of frustration

DS1 is going on a field trip to Apple Hill today. We're out of bananas so I packed him an apple in his lunch. Would seem easier and less like coals to Newcastle if I could just give him some money and he could buy his own apple, doncha think? I guess I should have given him strawberries or grapes or something, but they're not supposed to take lunch boxes (so the teachers won't have to worry about bringing them home), so I figured anything less solid would be a pile of mush by lunchtime.

And did you hear that scream? At about 8:10? I was feeding Isabelle and checking my email and I called out to the boys, asking if they were ready. DS1 said he wasn't dressed yet and I said, "Hurry!"

So 3 minutes later I walk out and see DS2..... sitting there in just his underwear. So I told him to hurry and get dressed and he ran off and locked himself in his room. DH went after him a couple of minutes later and brought him out, still just in his underwear. He got dressed in the car and had to wear the shoes that are a little too small because we couldn't find the right ones, which he swore up and down were in the closet but they weren't.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Oh, and then we were almost to school, going up the residential street at the speed limit (25 mph). I slowed to go over the speed bump, maybe down to about 20, then sped back up to 25. Then this fine fellow in a shiny Lexus SUV zoomed up right behind me and was atetmpting to push me along, then he swerved out and passed me. On a nice, quiet residential street, on the run up to a school. I figured the SUV was stolen, but no, there he was, dropping his kids off about 2 cars in front of me at the same school. Yeah, I worry about getting there late, too, but I try to obey laws and common sense, both of which tell me that it's better to have to get a tardy slip for my kids every now and then (which we didn't have to do today - we were cutting it fine, but still were there on time) rather than endanger the lives of children. Crazy ol' me.