Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, it seems like snow days were few and far between. Usually, if it did manage to snow, it would melt as soon as it hit the ground, and the roads would be covered in ice. And that was the problem. Our area simply didn't have maintenance equipment like snowplows and salt trucks. And much of the area is very hilly, so the ice could really be a problem for school busses. So more often than not, when school was cancelled, it was due to the condition of the roads. Even still, cancellation was pretty rare, if my memory is right. More likely, school would be delayed a couple hours - long enough for things to warm up enough to turn everything back into slush.
In Rexburg, Idaho, where Jesse and I both attended college, it's snowy all winter long. Frigid, nose-hair-freezing cold, horrific biting winds, and lots and lots of snow. I can't remember anything being canceled in Idaho. Even when the roads were covered in at least 4 good inches of solid ice, the show went on.
Then we moved to Colorado. Oh, the snow! It really has a tendency to dump in large quantities (especially as spring approaches) right there next to the base of the Rockies. Still, they had plows ready for the occasion, because they know it's going to snow frequently. And they didn't salt - they used gravel, and sometimes a liquid de-icer. But it seemed like snow was hardly an inconvenience, most of the time, because all that snow equipment would be out there taking care of it in a very timely manner. And of course, most often, the sun comes out the very next day and melts everything. Man, I miss Colorado weather.
So it was quite a surprise when we moved to Maryland. Here I was, thinking - Hey! Northeast! They get snow all the time! And when we drove our moving truck closer to our first apartment, we kept noticing these odd signs: "Snow Emergency Route". What did that mean, we wondered? Did they really get that much snow in Maryland?
Well, soon we figured it all out. Yes, Maryland does have snow plows. And they salt their roads (much too liberally, in my opinion). But they do NOT know how to function when it snows. Not. One. Bit. We watched the local news stations with incredulity when the first snow of the season was forecasted, our first winter here. "Oh no, look out! There's snow in the forecast! We might get a whole inch!!!!" Grocery stores were innundated, shelves made bare. Schools were cancelled based on the forecast. No bothering to wait until morning to see what would actually happen. And that snow forecast was turned into a warning on the TV screen, bleeping an annoying sound every so often, reminding us of the impending danger: Snow. TV shows were interrupted so the weatherman could spend another 5 minutes explaining exactly when snow would be coming, which counties would be hit. It was like a hurricane was coming... only it was just an inch of snow. Maybe. And the whole point of those Snow Emergency Signs? Those are the roads that take priority with the plows.
We quickly learned that for us, snow is no big deal here in Maryland. We wait for it anxiously every winter, go through annoying amounts of rain or sleet before we get to it, and rarely get enough accumulation to write home about. Or enough to even play in, for that matter. It seems that Maryland is right on the border of all the good weather - our friends in the York, Pennsylvania (less than 1hr north) area often get a good amount of snow when all we get is rain. It makes us very, very sad. Still, while the snow is no big deal for us, it seems like the natives here just don't know what to do with themselves. Well, maybe they do know: They go into a full-scale panic.
At any rate, we got some snow yesterday. It was so lovely to see the pretty, fluffy whiteness covering everything. But, as with every other snow we've had this year, the rain soon followed. The snow changed over to a wintry mix last night, with a possibility of freezing rain (which, granted, is a big mess) for overnight/this morning. But in the 5 1/2 years we've lived here, we still haven't adjusted our attitudes. Jesse got up for work just like normal, drove to work with a mere single half-slip as he turned a tight corner, and showed up to a nearly empty office. He looked at his phone - it was blinking. There was a message. Work had been cancelled. He caught up with the other lone co-worker there and told him the news, since he had obviously missed the message, too. And then he went back out to the roads, grabbed some donuts from the grocery store, and came home.
And I, who had not yet dragged myself out of bed, was pleasantly surprised by extra morning snuggles and yummy chocolate donuts. The kids barely reacted, they simple exclaimed "surprise!" when he walked through the door. As if they were surprising him. Which they do every time he comes home.
So we had a lazy day around the house this morning. Jesse took a mid-morning nap. We made shrinkeydinks. Then we decided to grab some paper supplies for some crafts, and get our tax software and a new Norton Antivirus. The roads were all perfectly fine. The parking area right next to our van, in front of our apartment, was interesting, though. In the parking spots where plows can't reach but cars hadn't been parked, there was a layer of snow topped with a layer of ice. Jacob managed to slip on it despite being as careful as a 3-year-old can be. He slid onto his bum, and giggled. And that was the height of the danger today. But oh, you bet, work was cancelled, schools were cancelled, the whole shebang! Because here in the mid-Atlantic, weather is SCARY. Apparently. Though, I think anyone who isn't native really wonders what all the fuss is about.
WASHINGTON – You call this bad weather? President Barack Obama, steeled by many snowy Chicago winters, expressed disbelief Wednesday when his daughters woke up to find that their classes had been canceled for the day.
Schools in Washington and the surrounding suburbs either opened late or scrapped all their classes because of icy conditions.
"Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy very quickly?" the new president told reporters at a gathering with business leaders. "And it has to do with Washington. My children's school was canceled today. Because of, what? Some ice?"
The president said he wasn't the only one who was incredulous.
"As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled," Obama said to laughter. "In fact, my 7-year-old pointed out that you'd go outside for recess. You wouldn't even stay indoors. So, I don't know. We're going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness."
Asked if he meant the people of the national's capital are wimps, Obama said: "I'm saying, when it comes to the weather, folks in Washington don't seem to be able to handle things."
DISCLAIMER: To my local, perhaps native friends reading this blog: I don't count you among the insane. You all know better than to follow weatherman-induced, lemming-like panic. ;) And I love you for it!
I wonder if I could attribute it to her age: Melinda often refuses to use manners. No "sorry", "please", or "thank you"... instead, we get a full-blown fit of refusal, usually followed by dramatic crying. As if using manners is going to literally kill her. And that alone would be frustrating... but when you add to it that she used to use her "magic words" constantly, even when she was so young that she still couldn't say half of what she needed because she lacked the vocabulary.... Well, it goes beyond frustrating, and enters the zone of outright maddening.
In fact, I've been having such an issue with her doing something rude (or dangerously harmful), and then refusing to even try to make it better. For instance, the other day she knocked Alex down a la the now-popular Jacob Belly Bump, and Alex was walking around with a sippy cup in both hands. She knocked him down from behind, and he fell face-forward without any hands free to catch himself. His face connected with the cup, and he got a lovely cut on his lip. She wouldn't say sorry, give him a hug, or otherwise acknowledge the wrongdoing in any way other than cowering on the floor and shaking her head in refusal. I finally sat her down for a long talk, and made her a "contract" of what she would do if she pushed again. She and I came up with two options for consequences: My contribution was to say sorry and/or give a hug to make the person feel better. Her contribution was to clean the room.
That's right. My daughter would rather clean an entire room than utter a single two-syllable word or extend a hug if she's done something wrong. And she did push again the next day, and she did opt to clean the room instead of saying sorry or giving a hug. Call me incredulous.
Fast forward to today: We rearranged the dinner table in such a way that Melinda lost her preferred spot - one that has only been available for a few weeks. She started having a meltdown over the seating arrangments, despite being given a million and a half choices. It continued for quite some time, and morphed into a meltdown about the dinner itself, and then into wanting someone to stir her soup for her.
Well, we parental units got stubborn by this point. If she was going to sit there and have a fit over every single little thing, we weren't going to stir her soup (something she's perfectly capable of, anyway) until she said please. And oh, boy, how she continued to refuse!
Jesse, bless his clever heart, really saved the day. He began trying to "find" Melinda's "lost manners". Jesse really has a knack for being silly. It's one of the things that made me fall in love with him, after all! But he really out-did himself tonight.
"Hm, mom, I think Melinda's lost her manners! I wonder where they could be?" (Melinda continues to sob, but her eyes peek up in interest.)
Jesse started asking a long series of questions, trying to discover where those lost manners might be. On top of her head? Under the bag of chips? Inside the vase? Eventually, when Melinda continued to cry and stubbornly refuse to participate in the quest, he got up from his seat, and started wandering around the room. He picked up a couple tissue-paper-decorated vases from the kids' Art Play class last fall, and held them on his head like antlers. "Are these manners??" He tried getting her attention with no luck, and was soon dancing a silly little jig with those "antlers" on top of his head. I couldn't help myself, when I looked at what he was doing- I burst out laughing. Jacob followed suit, too, giggling his head off. Alex looked at him with obvious delight. Melinda still huddled in her chair, oblivious to the new tactic. I convinced her to look, finally, and she hid a bit of giggles in between her sobs. Jesse moved along, now picking up a thick book from my desk. "Hmm, I wonder if this might be manners? Where would it go? Inside my head? Can I fit this inside my head??" And he suddenly starts making a show of shoving the book into his head (by putting it behind his head). Jacob was now beside himself with giggling, and Melinda was even starting to let obvious laughter escape unhidden. But she quickly reverted back to crying.
After a few more tries, Jesse came back to the dinner table. We sort of hemmed and hawed about what to try next, when Jacob joined in: "I have an idea, Daddy!" And when we asked him to show us his idea, he ran off in search of manners, too. First he mimicked the vase-antlers. While giggling. Nope, that didn't work - not manners! Then he ran to the front room, and came back with a pillow on his head. "Is this manners?? NOoooo!" Giggled and ran off. He kept coming back, with lots of variations of things on his head. It was quite entertaining. Finally Jesse called him back to the table, declaring that he tried hard enough, but needed to finish eating now.
We started using exaggerated manners while Melinda continued to sulk. Jacob: "Can I have more milk, Daddy?" Jesse: "What do you say?" Jacob: "Please!!" (with a grin, even!) Jesse: "Yes, Jacob, here you go!" Jacob: "Thank you!" Jesse: "You're welcome!"
And so on. Melinda still sulked. Jesse proclaimed that Melinda's manners must be lost for good. "But what if they're lost somewhere inside her, dad?" I asked. (Yes, I'm one of the ones who always addresses her husband by "dad" when children are present. And sometimes when they're not.) "How are we going to find them if they're inside her??"
FINALLY, Melinda starts playing the game. It's been long enough for me to finish two bowls of soup by this point, even with all the discussion in between bites. "Mommy, I want you to look for my manners," she says timidly. "Oh!! Where should I look?" I pry open her mouth and and exclaim, "Oh, look! There's something hanging down at the back of your throat! Is that your manners?" She yanks her head away from me, now giggling, but nope, that wasn't it. I check her pinky toe, maybe it's hiding them. Nope, not there either. A few more tries, and I'm out of ideas, and go back to feeding Alex a few beans from the soup.
Melinda then gives her spoon to Jesse, without a word. He says thank you for the spoon, and sets it down. Then she gives him her bowl, again without a word. He says thank you again, and sets it down near his own bowl, and goes back to eating. After a few moments, she peeps out a quick "Stir!" followed by something that might have been "please". But it was hard to tell, so we wondered if she might mean that she wanted daddy to stir the cheese. So he picked up the spoon and "stirred" the block of cheese. Oh, the giggles! She's coming out of the ridiculous fit, now! But no, she didn't want the cheese stirred, she wanted her soup (now cold) stirred. So she peeps out another "Stir!" followed by a chirped "please!!"
"Melinda found her manners!!!!" we exclaim with joy. A large round of applause! Oh, Alex likes this game! He joins in with his own exuberant clapping, grinning like there's nothing better in the world than dinner time with clapping involved. And you know what? Melinda's smiling, too! Jesse picks up the spoon and stirs the soup, and hands it back to Melinda happily. She looks so proud of herself!
And then she wants some water - with ice. "Can I have more water, please?" "Yes, you can!! Here you go." "Thank you!" "You're welcome!" And every time she used a manners word from then until we were down from the table, we erupted with "Hoorays!!!" and another round of clapping. What fun! Even Melinda was enjoying the magic words by this point.
It makes everyone happy to use manners, doesn't it??
You could say I had a bit of a crazy week last week, right? Between my dishwasher breaking, Jesse being gone a lot for work and other responsibilities, me going into a mini-spurt of depression (thanks, hormones), Jesse leaving for Grandma Lewis' funeral, the power going out, Alex teething (and sleeping poorly, again), making crazy long drives with a screaming baby, the kids being their normal crazy off-the-wall selves, trying to fix the car all on my own, and other such randomness... it was crazy, right? I'm not making it up?
So why, then, was I so shocked to discover my first gray hair this morning? I knew the day couldn't be too far off. I think my younger sister even admitted to having a few already. But I guess anticipating that "some day" you'll see physical evidence of age and stress is a bit different that seeing it right in front of your face in the shocking present.
I yanked it out, of course. I did allow myself a few moments to contemplate the oddity of 6 inches, from the root down, being a white-silvery color, and then transitioning to the remaining couple inches being my normal brown. After fully examining the evil little thing, me and my crinkled-in-disgust face went back to blow-drying my hair. And then I caught a flash of another oddly out of place hair reflecting the light differently. I nearly gasped. TWO?!? I yanked that one out even more unceremoniously than the first. And again I caught myself in disbelief that it could actually be happening to me. I'm only 28!! Too young, too young!! (I know, I know, it's not. But it feels like it!)
I went about my day, a bit miffed and slightly more scatter-brained.
And when we were at a friend's house, I helped Jacob in the bathroom. He took forever washing his hands, like always, which allowed me enough time to end up glancing in the mirror and spotting another little gray demon-hair. WHAT IS THE DEAL?!? Three gray hairs, all on the same day?!?!?!
{whimpers}
And please, since I'm obviously at a loss anyway, will someone explain this to me? Why can Alex not stay asleep for longer than 30-45 minutes in the very late evening without waking up and crying and wanting to nurse back to sleep, even when it's dark and quiet and everything.... but as soon as it's morning and kids are up and screaming through the house, slamming doors with full force only a few feet away from him, and generally making an absolute ruckus... why is it that he can then magically stay asleep in his own bed without even flinching a single muscle, for several hours??? WHY?!? Why not put that lovely solid sleep to good use when everyone else wants to sleep, too? Why save it for the hours that he should be awake?!??
Today, I am one stumped (and apparently aging) mama.
You know, I'm tired.
I haven't managed to get caught up from picking Jesse up from the airport, yet.
His plane was delayed about an hour, so instead of leaving here at 10:45pm, I left at 11:45pm. I had nursed Alex, given him a fresh diaper, and into his jammies/jacket/shoes & socks, and he fell asleep at about 11:15. I got the other two kids ready, and then we headed out the door. As soon as I picked up Alex, he woke back up. And the second his bottom hit the car seat, he started crying. At first, it wasn't too bad - it was the kind of crying that led me to believe he'd be asleep before we even got to the freeway.
I was wrong by a long shot. A very, very LONG shot. He cried the entire way to the Dulles airport. An hour and a half, folks. And I could do nothing to stop it. I kept thinking to myself, "Surely he'll fall asleep before we reach I-70", and a million other variations of that. I tried to soothe him as best as I could. But by the time we reached I-95 over half an hour later and ran across a rest stop, he was still screaming, only a million times worse, and I was in tears, too. So when I saw that rest stop exit, I jumped across three lanes of traffic to take it. Once parked, I bolted out of my seat and ran back to the side of Alex's seat to try and soothe him again. I thought for sure he must want to nurse, since nothing else was calming him. But I was wrong. He wouldn't even try to latch on, and I tried a good 5 minutes!! I was at a loss. No nursing, no pacifier, no diaper change needed. All I could think is that he was dead tired. He had managed to stay awake from about 3:45pm until he fell asleep at 11:15 before we left, and of course, then he only slept that half hour before I picked him up. So I concluded that he was simply overtired, accepted that there was nothing I could do for him, and started back on our drive, thinking he would hopefully fall asleep soon.
But as we kept driving, he kept screaming. Poor soul, I prayed so hard that he would be soothed and just fall asleep, but it took so much longer than I ever imagined it would. When we passed the temple on I-495, almost an hour into the trip, he was starting to have small breaks between crying, like he was about to fall asleep. But he would always start back up again with renewed vigor. It was simply tortuous. Finally, finally, he fell asleep within sight of the airport. Almost a full hour and a half later. Just two minutes before Jesse called me to tell me he had arrived.
Luckily, Melinda and Jacob didn't cause a fuss. They stayed amazingly awake, too, and fell asleep only minutes before Alex did. All three of them stayed asleep the whole drive home.
Jesse joined us in the car around 1:30am, and we started the drive back home. We missed the exit back to 495 (poorly marked - it gave me trouble on the way home from dropping him off, too, but it was daylight then), and had to go a few miles on a different highway, then backtrack, before we could resume our journey. We got home just about 3am, and had to transfer all the kids into their beds. Melinda freaked out (she doesn't do well at this sort of situation) and couldn't/wouldn't walk. I had to carry Alex, of course, and Jesse was going to carry Jacob, but it turns out that he was perfectly fine with walking, though he should have been more out of sorts than Melinda. And so Melinda was carried in. Funnily enough, Jacob fell back asleep almost instantly, despite the walking in the cold and back inside, up the stairs, but Melinda had some trouble.
After getting Alex back to sleep, too, I got myself ready for bed as quickly as humanly possible, and laid down on my pillow at promptly 3:21am. Much too late for grown, aging people like myself! And even then, it took me a while to fall asleep, just like it always does, even when I'm extremely tired. Luckily, since the kids stayed up so late, too, they slept in for us. I'm actually not sure when they did get up, but I think it was somewhere around 10am. I personally stayed in bed until almost 11, but it still wasn't enough.
On Monday, Jesse took the day off, sensibly. He needed the sleep, too, after all. We actually got snow on Monday, FINALLY! We enjoyed watching it fall most of the day, on and off, but it still only accumulated barely enough to cover the grass. It was kind of humorous, there was a group of children across the way that were at the top of the hill with their sleds when the grass was only half-covered. I'm not even sure how well their sledding attempt could work. If that doesn't give you and idea of how long it seems like we've been waiting for snow, I don't know what could.
We decided to cut the kids' hair while Jesse was home. Melinda was way overdue for a trimming of her bangs (since she doesn't want to just grow them out), and Jacob was looking more and more like a big ball of hair than a little boy. Jesse just trimmed the back and sides of his hair, and a teeeeny bit of his bangs, so he looks more presentable now. I did a fairly good job with Melinda's bangs, if I do say so myself, and got them just the right length and almost perfectly straight on the first pass with scissors. Jesse re-buzzed his hair just before his trip. Now I'm the only one in desperate need of a haircut.
After they had their hair cut and a good long soak in a bath to get the itchy pieces of hair off, the snow was coming down pretty good again. And we realized that if we weren't going to completely fail at parenting, we needed to get them out in the snow to play while it was here. Because if we've learned anything this winter, it's that we aren't getting much snow at all. And kids love snow, of course. It just was too bad for us that we were so tired and didn't really want to go out in the snow...
So, we rushed around, getting them dry and in two layers of clothes, mittens and coats on, and Jesse took them out to try and catch a few snowflakes before they stopped again. I ran around trying to find a bunting to put Alex in. I hadn't really bothered looking earlier in the winter, since we weren't getting any snow. And after a few minutes of looking, I was only seeing a rather small one, but I gave up and squeezed it into him, anyway. Poor kid could hardly move in it, and fell down and could only pretty much lay there while I got my shoes and coat on.
Which is why I am embarrassed that I actually put him down on his feet once we got outside, expecting him to be just fine. What can I say? Can I blame sleep deprivation? But yes, within one second of me putting him down, he fell forward and face planted right into the snow. Oh, I felt so terrible!! Even for someone who knows what snow feels like, it's an absolute shock to get snow in the face. But Alex didn't even know what was coming! I wiped off the icy wetness as quickly as I could, but his face turned so red. I was lucky that he was too curious about all the snow to complain very long. I sat him down to explore it a little, and he could still hardly move around.
Melinda and Jacob were having fun, too. Jacob was almost exclusively trying (and succeeding, despite our warnings) to eat the snow, while Melinda spent her time almost exclusively throwing handfuls of snow up into the air. We didn't venture far from our apartment, and we don't have a sled this year, so we ended up not staying outside very long.
I took dinner to a woman that night, so I got to drive in the snow. Only our parking lot was bad, the streets were well-salted. But I admit to having a little too much fun doing a little fish-tail around a parking lot corner. ;)
We got the kids into bed as soon as possible that night. It was obvious that they were very tired - they complained of being hungry but wouldn't even touch their dinner. They fell asleep quickly, which was nice, and Jesse and I watched a movie. And went to bed early.
And here it is Tuesday now, and I still feel like I crossed a few time zones instead of just picked up my husband from the airport.
Alex is cranky, he's definitely teething. Whether that's the source of his runny nose or not, I don't know. But he's got a 7th little tooth just barely poking out of his gums. It will be his 3rd one on the bottom.
I watched the inauguration on TV today. Well, as much as I could. It was hard to hear more than a few sentences at a time coherently, with Jacob and Melinda literally bouncing all over me. On Sunday, I summarized what Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is all about for Melinda, since she was curious. It felt very meaningful to be celebrating that specific holiday just before today's inauguration. I didn't vote for Obama, I voted for Chuck Baldwin, who represents my overall views better, but I still think Obama will make a good president. And I won't deny that his speeches are very moving. I'm hopeful that perhaps there will be some good changes made in our country. And I'm certainly proud of step that the country has taken. As he said in his speech,
"This is the meaning of [America's] liberty and our creed: why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath," the president noted.
"So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled," he said.
It's certainly a day worth remembering, the day our 44th president took office. I saw a link to a slideshow of American presidents today, and it sort of shocked me - I have essentially lived through only 4 presidents before this. Reagan took office before I was 1. George H.W. Bush was president when I was 9-13. Clinton was elected and took office when I was 13 until 21, and George W. Bush was obviously president from then until now. It's a little humbling to think I really know so little of American presidential elections... I only have a solid memory of 4 changes of power, if you include this most recent one with Obama, and you can hardly count when George H.W. Bush took office. I was hardly concious of the political world at age 9, after all!
Anyway. A new week. My husband's home. Our country's president is new. What a day. :)
I need to learn to stop making predictions about myself and my life. Really, I do!
Yesterday, at the end of my post, I said:
Now I have to get back to my more womanly duties of feeding children and bathing them. At least I know I have more chance of being successful on those counts, even if it is a bit dull.
Within 2 minutes of posting that, I walked into the kitchen with the intent of making dinner. I paused for about 5 seconds, surveying the dishes that needed to be done, then looked at my dinner choices, and decided that there was no way I was going to convince myself to do any of it right then and there.
So I ordered in some chinese. And it was fantastic, by the way. But still... there I was claiming I have a high chance of success for cooking (although, I suppose maybe it's a good thing I didn't use that exact word?), and I turn around and just order food almost immediately. At least I washed the dishes while I waited for the delivery! That's something.
And the bathing? Holy cow. Apparently I've never bathed all three of my children at once, before, without any backup help. And I think I will avoid doing so ever again. Because I've never been more soaked during the bathing process than I was last night. If there had been room for me, it would have been safer just to get in the bath with them, you know?
As soon as I had put Alex in the bath, he was a CONSTANT ball of moving and spalshing. I could not take my hands off him for one fraction of a second. And with Melinda and Jacob both in there, too, things were.... um, interesting. So I washed Alex as fast as I could, held him for a couple more minutes while he non-stop-splashed for fun, and then took him out and threw a towel on him. And tried to block the opening to the tub so he wouldn't dive right back in. Now, see, at this point, I would normally hand him off to Jesse. But I didn't have Jesse. And I didn't think far enough ahead (bad me!) to think that maybe I should bring in a back-up plan, like a high chair to strap him into. So then I'm trying to wash Melinda and Jacob while also trying to keep Alex from diving into the water, and we were missing our dumping cup, and Jacob hates putting his head in the water, so it was a fight to get him to lay down for rinsing and everything. At least Melinda didn't fight me, but she has the most hair and took the longest, all the same. And then, during the time that I was taking care of the two older kids, Alex peed on the floor. Yay. And then in the time it took me to get them both out of the tub and into their own towels, he peed on the rug. Double yay. And then we had to dry everyone off.... and still keep Alex out of trouble in the bathroom, which meant sitting one child on the toilet (so he couldn't open it) and guarding the toilet paper, while quickly drying the other off. Jacob did a spectacularly worse job than Melinda did at guarding the toilet paper. But at least we didn't have any toilet incidents. I suppose I was successful in that I did actually bathe them, and they got clean... but it sure didn't feel like a success.
And I was so tired by the end of the night, that I even went to bed early - gasp!!
And church without Jesse... another big ball o' crazy. Especially when all 9 of my kids showed up to our Primary class. At least I had one of the moms in there for an extra pair of hands (which was very needed, since Alex got cranky and had a big ol' runny nose)! But 9 (loud, wiggly) kids in a small classroom... and that was only one part of the exhautstion. I'm not afraid to say I went home early. I'm not quite crazy enough (or maybe devout enough? I don't know) to sit through a full 1.5 hour "reverent" meeting with those three kids all by myself. It's hard enough with Jesse there, to keep them quiet and contained.
All you single mothers out there.... I honestly don't know how you do it. Truly. I'm so very, very glad that Jesse's on an airplane home right now, and that I'm leaving to pick him up in just a little more than 3 hours from now. And, also, that the weather forecast has changed for no snow tonight, so I don't have to drive to Virginia with possessed windshield wipers. That's definitely a blessing!
I have to admit I was thinking about blogging, or at least bragging rights, when I went about a few bits of my day. I was patting myself on the back before I had even finished my work, thinking how cool I was that I could fend for myself and get important things done without the husband around.
Yeah, there's a rhyme and reason to that phrase "don't count your chickens before they hatch", after all.
Remember how I briefly mentioned that our windshield wipers were on the fritz, and we ordered a new part that should fix it, and it may or may not come in time for Jesse to put it in the car for me? Well... It arrived at our door only half an hour before we had to leave for the airport. And Jesse was still getting ready. So, definitely not time for him to mess with it. But, I wasn't worried, I'd been keeping tabs on the weather, and it looked like I would luck out with precipitation for the drive, anyway. And it was certainly true on Thursday, which was (too) bright and sunny. But as we got closer to Sunday, it became apparent that I'd more than likely be driving in snow when it was time to go get Jesse from the airport. (And isn't that lovely irony? That we desperately want snow ALL WINTER LONG, and then we finally get it the one day I DON'T want it????) So, I buckled down to reality. I needed to try and change the part myself. It should be fairly simple, just unscrewing the plastic covering around the steering wheel, unplugging the switch (which controls the turn signals as well as the wipers), and put it all back together. If I can change a tire, I can handle that, right? Right.
But first, I needed to add brake fluid, since the brake light has been staying on almost constantly lately. Which was something else that Jesse was also supposed to do, but forgot about on the days he actually had time. So after he explained over the phone where I should be able to find the brake fluid, I felt like I could handle it. Unfortunately, since nobody else is home, I had to drag all the kids out to the car with me. And buckle them in so they couldn't get into trouble while I worked. So, I popped the hood, looked for the brake fluid cap, and couldn't decide which one it was. I consulted the manual and it confirmed that my best guess was correct (yay me!). I filled it up and closed the hood, glad for one job well done and easily completed.
Then we went for a drive and got gas, both because we needed the gas, and because I needed some heat in the car for all of us. It was only 18 degrees at the time. Not the most comfortable temperature for just sitting in a car that's not running, you know? While we were at the gas station, I decided to finally get around to filling up the tires with air, too, since they were all getting low. Check, another job done.
Got home, and it was time to fiddle with the steering wheel. I couldn't get underneath it without either opening the door or moving the seat, and you KNOW which one I chose, with the freezing cold. I had to recline the seat as flat as it would go, and scoot it as far backwards as it would go, too. And then I got to do fun acrobatic indoor car tricks, and lay with my feet hanging off the end of the seat with the headrest, and my head hanging upside down off the seat underneath the steering wheel. Wasn't that fun?! Oh, well, aside from the novelty, it wasn't, not really. I'm not as young as I used to be, it seems.
Anyway, so I unscrewed it in three places, carefully setting the screws aside, and then took the plastic coverings off. Found two more screws that attached the switch to the steering wheel shaft, and took those off, setting them aside again. I then unplugged the switch, plugged the new one back in, and screwed it back to the steering wheel shaft. Of course... I remembered that I should probably go ahead and do a test at this point to make sure it was working before I put the whole thing back together again. So I turned the car back on, turned the wiper switch, and, ahhhhhhhh, CRAP. It was still broken!!! (That's me in my best righteously furious whining voice, there.) They wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe and THEN finally turn back off, no matter when you switch it back to off. And forget about any intermittent delay, it doesn't exist right now. And I couldn't get the wiper fluid to spray at all. I'm not sure if it's mechanical or not, that problem. Jesse says he just refilled it several weeks ago, and though I couldn't see the fluid under the hood, he did remind me that it's waaaaay down there, aside from the place you pour it into. And there's a light that comes on in the van if it's needing refill, and that wasn't on. So I tend to think it's mechanical, since the fluid is controlled in the same place.
Anyway, so while I had been patting myself on the back and excited to blog about how I got the car all fixed up all by myself, even with kids to worry about at the same time, it backfired. I certainly did not fix the most important thing on the car. And I don't get to be so proud of myself anymore. And neither Jesse nor I have much of a good guess as to what might still be wrong. All I know is that we apparently didn't need that $80 part. And on the heels of a $350 plane ticket, that's not exactly something that has me sighing with relief. I guess we'll see if we can sell it on eBay or something?
Well.
Now I have to get back to my more womanly duties of feeding children and bathing them. At least I know I have more chance of being successful on those counts, even if it is a bit dull.
The good news: They're ordering me a new dishwasher. Even after all their inspecting and fiddling, it still wasn't spinning water inside, and the controls were still all finicky.
The bad news: No dishwasher until sometime next week. And with Monday being MLK Jr. Day .... heck, I'll be surprised if it gets installed before Friday. Which means I'll have been washing dishes by hand for two weeks.
On a positive note, the dishes are getting done sooner, which is keeping the kitchen cleaner longer... but then again, me and my slightly dishydrotic eczema-prone fingers aren't too happy. Water aggravates the problem when I have blisters or skin healing from blisters. And I have issues with gloves. Well, and as long as I'm being honest, I also have issues with washing dishes by hand, period. ;)
But... here's to next week and a new, functioning dishwasher!!
Last night, just before 7pm, everything suddenly went dark. The power had gone out. After a shocked second or two, Melinda and Jacob quickly grew concerned about why the lights weren't working, and the fact that the computers were turned off. I felt my way around to a flashlight (thank goodness it hadn't been left in some corner by one of the kids! And for that matter, that it had working batteries!), turned it on, and dug around to find some candles to light. Turns out I only really have tea lights, and only a couple containers. Better put decent candles on my to-buy list, huh?
Anyway, Melinda was pretty scared. I stepped outside for a minute, into the apartment building's common hall, to see who else had lost power. Melinda nearly had a breakdown that I left her in with Alex, because, she claimed, she was afraid of "ghostses". So I made it a quick look. As far as I could tell, everyone in my range of vision still had power. I couldn't see the buildings that neighbored mine, but across to the front and across to the back both still had power. Odd. But I made the phone call to the power company, waded through the voice-automated reporting system, and was informed by a computerized voice that our power should be back on by 8:30pm. Great.... Not a long wait, but still. What am I going to do with my kids in the dark for that long?
Well, first Melinda decided that we needed to walk around the house with the flashlight and scare the monsters away with lights. I asked her how we would scare them - a loud noise? A phrase? No, she told me, just the light would scare them. Oh, and we should say "Gotcha!" when we find them. We got one out of the corner of the playroom by the toybox, another one out of dollhouse, one behind each panel of the living room curtains, and no less than THREE out of the coat closet. And we ran off a few scragglers who were hiding back in the bedrooms, too. Melinda was concerned that the candles weren't bright enough, and we only had the one flashlight, and of course that was fought over.
We tried making shadow puppets for a while, but Alex was causing too many problems. Even though, oddly, he was the least affect by the dark. He happily continued on playing, as if nothing odd was happening (and you wonder why this child has no problems with wanting to play in the middle of the night?). Jacob just kept trying to switch all the light switches in the house, repeating that they weren't working. Anyway... we had to quit the shadow puppets. So we tried reading a book, instead. Only, after about the first half of the chapter, Alex was not content to play anymore, and started screeching. Loudly. I could hardly hear myself over him, and I'm certain that the kids couldn't understand a word I was saying. So, book reading came to an end, too. I picked up Alex and started nursing him, while Jacob and Melinda went to the bathroom (nervously) to start getting ready for bed. Melinda about freaked out any time Jacob left her alone, even if she had a light with her.
We called the power company and their too-sensitive-to-children voice system again, to see if there was any change in the expected return to power. Nope, still 8:30. But they did include information that a maintenance worker was on their way. They didn't say that the first time!
Alex fell asleep pretty quickly, so I transferred him to his crib. Then we got the kids pajamas on, and tucked into bed. And it was still dark, and I had nothing better to do, so I sang songs for a nice long while. Had to be something like 45 minutes. Long enough for Alex to wake up again and make me rock him back to sleep while I kept singing, at least. Finally, I ran out of things to sing, and the kids seemed sleepy enough to not be concerned about the dark, so I left the room. It was about 8:15pm.
I decided to go ahead and start reading a book, since I couldn't do anything else in the dark, without power. So, I picked up my copy of Lord of the Rings. I flipped through the first few pages of forewards and book printing histories, and soon enough, I began reading the preface, Concerning Hobbits. I was almost to the point of needing to turn the first page of the preface, when the lights came back on.
Huh.
I looked at the time. 8:30 on the dot. 8:30 and 40 seconds, to be exact. They are timely, aren't they?
With my evening still open, I decided to scrap the book, since I hadn't had it open long enough to really get into it yet, and go back to my original plan of finishing up Jane Eyre. But first, I had to check a couple quick things on the computer. And while I sat at my desk, my phone rang. It was my brother, Dallis, calling. He got his mission call (St. Louis, Missouri)! My youngest sister kindly took a video and posted it on her blog, so I could experience the fun, too. After all, we only have the one brother, though who knows if Kaija herself will go on a mission? So we chatted for a couple minutes, and just after I hung up the phone, good ol' reliable Alex was waking up again.
I tried getting him back to sleep (again), but like the past few nights, he preferred to get up and play instead of go back to sleep in the nice quiet dark. So once again, he played happily in the front room until 11:30pm. At least he went to sleep without a fight... I always appreciate that! And I really enjoyed watching Jane Eyre. Enough to maybe even convince me to read the book one of these days! :)
I had a hard time falling asleep last night. It was too quiet, and the bed was too empty. I laid in bed quietly for a long time, wishing I had someone to talk to, even if most of my thoughts were completely random and unimportant. It still would have been nice to voice them and talk myself sleepy.
Jesse sent me a text message when he was finished traveling last night. He arrived safely. Which is a really good thing. Because, apparently, a US Airways flight in New York had a crash landing in the Hudson river yesterday when a flock of geese ran into them just after take-off. A little too close to home, you know? Just up in New York, just a couple hours away, on the same airline that Jesse was flying that same day. Nice to know it wasn't a mechanical problem at all, but still... not the nicest thought to go through your head. Thank goodness nobody died. And thank goodness Jesse's trip was uneventful.
Today's going a lot better.
A few of you wondered if the song I posted cheered me up - it did! Actually, it calmed me more than anything. I've heard that version before, and loved it, but this was the first time I had it at my fingertips. I think I played it about 12 times through before letting it stop. I have to say, yesterday was just one of those days when I was just feeling absolutely buried by negative emotions. I felt like I desperately needed to claw my way to the top, but had no way to do it. Despair, I suppose, would be a good word for it. Even if it does seem a bit drastic for what was actually happening around the house. I just felt overwhelmingly bad/sad/frustrated, and like it would never end. But it did. A lot with the help of the song... it helped me center myself and lift up my heart, like I wasn't buried by negative emotions quite so deeply anymore. Once Jesse got home from work, he finished up the rescuing, and I felt so much lighter. And, like I say, today is going a lot better!
All the clean laundry has been folded. All 6 loads of it. Hooray! I was getting so tired of digging through so many full, jumbled baskets to find an article of clothing I wasn't sure was even there or not. Now it's all folded and put away. And I can start filling the baskets again, ha! Well... I'll try to have them folded and put away sooner rather than later, this time.
The dishes are all washed and put away again. Still no fixed dishwasher. We left another message with maintenance last night... they returned our call today, saying it was filled in as completed. The maintenance man had come, run the dishwasher, saw the soap empty out, called it good. I looked at my dishwasher again, while I was on the phone. Nope, there's definitely still murky water sitting at the bottom of the dishwasher, and dry, untouched soap in the dispenser. Plus, there was no maintenance ticket left, like there usually is after they complete a job. Looks like they went to the wrong apartment, huh? Anyway, she told us someone would come by this afternoon. They did. And the note they left said that they entered, the office called, and had to leave. They'll come back tomorrow. Sigh.
Alex .... oh, Alex. Still not sure what's going on with him, but he made life miserable last night. He woke up at 8am yesterday, after only going to sleep at 11pm the night before. So when he only got about an hour and a half of nap yesterday (because grrr, I had to wake him up to go grocery shopping), I thought for sure he'd stay asleep when he fell asleep at 8pm. It seemed like perfect timing! But he started stirring only an hour later. I rushed back to try to nurse him back to sleep, and it seemed to work. And right when I thought he was so still and breathing evenly that I could leave, just before I had made any move to leave, he started stirring again. He squirmed around a bit and ending up burping a couple times. But I laid still, hoping he'd settle back down and go to sleep, since it was dark. But, no. He sat up and started to play. As if he hadn't just been sound asleep. I tried, I really did, but he was just too awake. I don't know how. But he played happily, not seeming the least bit tired, until 11pm again. Got him back to sleep at 11:30pm. And guess who then decided that 2:30am was time for waking up again?? Right, Alex. Talk about a nightmare. I was so tired I could hardly move... and all he wanted to do was squirm and cry and stand up and try walk around. I gave up pretty quickly, being too tired to deal with it, and Jesse took over. It still took a good 45 minutes to get him back to sleep, and he was screeching like a banshee the whole time. For no apparent reason.
At least Jesse can sleep on the plane. ;) I was hoping Alex would sleep the whole car ride to the airport today, but he only slept until Jesse opened up the door to get out of the van. And was awake the whole way home. And still now. Apparently, he just doesn't like long naps right now?
But even with the lack of decent sleep last night, my mood is still much better. Most likely because Jesse was home this morning as we got ready to take him to the airport. And of course, he was key in helping with the laundry and dishes. I have such a great guy!
By the way... 3 hours in a car? Not a whole lot of fun. Especially when you're tired. My eyes really want a nap, especially after the bright sun we had today. But the kids were good.
Speaking of cars, on Saturday we installed a new booster seat for Melinda so we could do the whole car seat juggling thing. Alex officially outgrew the infant carrier. Not that I had been using it as a carrier, not for a long time now, but he was too big for it, weight wise. So, we got Melinda a new booster seat, Jacob is now in Melinda's old car seat, and Alex is in Jacob's old car seat, still rear-facing, of course. And the old infant carrier that we purchased when Melinda was still not yet born has finally been tossed out. If we do have any more kids, we'll get a new one. This one was over 5 years old, and showing it.
By the time we got back home from our big drive (in which we luckily dealt with very little traffic congestion), it was near dinner time. Since the kids had all been sitting in the car for so long, we decided to stop at Chick-fil-a for dinner, and take advantage of their nice little playground and use up some energy. They had a lot of fun! And I randomly became acquainted with one of the most naturally talkative and outgoing mothers I've ever met. She naturally dove into talking about all sorts of different aspects of life. She even gave me her card and told me we should get together sometime. I have to be honest... meeting people randomly like that would be really exciting for a lot of people, but for me, it's very, very intimidating. I have this odd need for things to be on my terms to be comfortable, and meeting strangers when I least expect it, however nice and friendly they are, makes me feel waaaaay out of my comfort zone. Especially when they very obviously hope that you will get together again with them sometime in the future. Soooo not my style. I feel intimidated and nervous in those situations. But, she was very friendly, and very entertained with how over-the-top my kids are with play equipment after a 3-hour car ride.
And now, I am very tired. After the kids are in bed, especially if Alex is cooperative, I intend to curl up on the couch with a blanket and finish my Jane Eyre movie. Sounds like fun! :)
Not having a great day. I Googled "I need something to cheer me up"... and came across this wonderful remedy. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole. Enjoy.
So, we realized why Jesse's options for plane tickets were so unbelievably ridiculous.
The Presidential inauguration. Of course. He's leaving only 5 days before the inauguration, and coming back just 2 days before it. Well, more like 1 day, with a just-after-midnight arrival. It would also explain why there were so few seats available. Everybody and their dog wants to be out here, this time in history, I guess. Stinks for us. :(
Though, honestly, with this epiphany, I'm a little surprised that it's actually cheaper to fly in and out of Washington Dulles instead of Baltimore.
Anyway, blah.
Still waiting for someone to come over and take a look at my dishwasher, too. I am not so happy right now. Who knew something as simple as dishes would make me so annoyed?
And why does our playroom have to be the coldest room in the apartment, anyway? By a lot?? It's a miracle that the majority of the mess stays in there, instead of being dragged out to the front room.
Well, maybe not quite a miracle. I hate to admit that we've been entertaining ourselves with the Webkinz online more than is healthy, the last couple days.
And you know what else is fun? Our van's windshield wipers are possessed. Driving home from Pennsylvania the other night, after visiting our friends Cara and Russ, it was raining/sleeting, and partway home, they just went crazy. Absolutely crazy. Switch them on, and they go at regular speed, no matter what delayed interval you selected, and they wipe about 8 or so times before you can finally get them to turn off. Fun! We ordered a new part for a lovely $70 that should fix it... but it may or may not arrive in time for Jesse to install it before he goes. And it just figures that he's leaving on a day with possible snow, and coming home on a day with possible snow... so the two times I *have* to be in the car, I'll probably have to use the wipers.
It may be simple enough that I could figure out how to install it, myself, but we'll see how desperate I am. The only thing I'm really nervous about is the possibility that instead of remaining possessed, they just stop working completely, and then what - I can't drive with any precipitation, that's what. I'm so over this van and all it's problems. At least the random engine stalling seemed to stop all on its own. Jesse and his dad Ron conjecture that it's perhaps the additive they use in gasoline during the winter, and maybe we just need to use an engine-cleaning liquid or something to fix the problem otherwise.
I need to force myself to make a grocery list and go grocery shopping today. I have to say, I'm seriously entertaining the idea of trying grocery delivery, that's how much I hate going shopping with all three kids. But no, I'll buckle down somehow and get it done. At least I have an idea of what I want to cook, this week. That's better than some weeks, for sure. But I can't put it off another day without risking having no food in the house that the kids are willing to eat.
Enough random rambling for now. I've got a grumpy baby to attend to. I can't decide if he's getting a cold or growing some teeth. He's not been sleeping soundly (though at least he's going to sleep earlier!), and his nose is runny. And, of course, the grumpy part. Just in time for Jesse to abandon me for several days. (love ya, hon!)
First, let me just say that I have things to blog about - a lot of them! But between being a bit busy, and not getting very many comments at all, lately, I've been taking it slow. Sometimes when I have time and have only gotten 1 comment, I decide not to write another post, just in case there are really that many people who haven't come by to check for updates. But pretty soon, I'll stop taking that into account, mmkay? ;)
So, instead of staying 2 weeks behind, permanently, I'm going to throw a bunch of random things into one post. Don't you just love those??
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We really did take down the Christmas tree and decorations! A whole week ago, yikes! The house looks so bare now. It doesn't help that I never did hang up all of our pictures from the old apartment. Wishful thinking, I suppose, that we would be moving soon, and therefore I shouldn't bother putting a bunch of holes in the walls. Oh, well. I really do love Christmas decorations, and it's always so sad to put them away.
The kids helped Jesse take down the ornaments and the tree while I worked on garland and other things in the house. Alex was too funny, he actually started grabbing ornaments from the box and taking them back to the tree, and just setting them on a branch. What a smart little guy! Amazing that I was so worried about him tormenting the tree to death, literally.
Melinda looks really freaked out in this one... I think I just caught a startled face, as she was wiggling the pole a lot and probably afraid she was going to drop it.
Alex was following me around so I could pick him up. See the raised hands? He was also happy, don't let this picture fool you. He's been walking around, clacking his tongue for the last week or so. That's what he was doing here, too.
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We had 3 different pine cone bird feeders hanging from our porch around Christmas. Two we made at winter-themed activity/lesson with a friend, about what various animals do during winter. The third was given to Melinda at church one week. We hung them each on a hook on our porch, but I don't think birds ever found it. Guess who did, though? Squirrels. Acrobatic squirrels.
Seriously. It was hanging by its back feet, dangling 2 stories high, grabbing the pine cone. A couple seconds after I took this picture, I looked away. When I looked back, it was gone, leaving just the string behind. I have no idea if the squirrel pulled it back up to the 3rd floor porch, or if it fell down to the ground. But it was sure a sight to see! Before this happened, one other pine cone had gone missing, though I had guessed that the wind blew it down (string and all). Maybe I was wrong. And, it wasn't long before the 3rd one was gone, as well. Oh, well. At least one sort of winter animal was getting some food. I guess the birds had better sources.
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New Year's Eve, we went to a party that our friend Natalie from playgroups invited us to. It was a family party, so if you left before midnight, it was understood. Good thing we had that part planned in, because the kids started melting down at 10:30. Actually, I'm surprised they lasted that long, since they had no nap that day - neither one! We left as soon as they started acting overly hyper/crazy (our cue that they're tired ... why do they get more energy as they get more tired, huh? Is there ever a point where they'll just stop getting worse, and actually crash and fall asleep??). Still, Melinda had a world-class meltdown when we got home and tried to put her in bed. Oh, my, it was astounding. Kicking, blood-curdling screaming, whole-body flailing, refusing to do anything associated with bedtime.
And they didn't even sleep in the next day. A word of advice to myself for next year: Don't expect the first day of the new year to be a pleasant one if you allow your young children to celebrate New Year's Eve with you. Because seriously, New Year's Day was one of the worst on record, just a nightmare all around. Cranky, crabby, uncooperative children. Who napped and then repeated the whole terrible bedtime process that night.
But the New Year's Eve party was fun. Company was fun, children were amusing (Alex even learned how to dance! I'll have to get a video of that sometime soon, it's so cute!), food was so yummy. Definitely fun. Except for the part where Jacob peed all over the hosts wood floor. And I had no backup underwear and pants, since, um... isn't my son potty trained? Oh that's right, he is! Except for when he's at New Year's Eve parties, apparently.
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But that actually brings me to another point. Jacob's been having a lot of accidents lately. Going through a lot of underwear and pants. Pooping in them, even, claiming he can't come and tell us ("doesn't know how") that he needs to go potty. After weeks of being almost accident-free. I think I'm beginning to see that it's a problem mostly when he's tired. This is a frustrating conclusion, however, because I have a problem with naptimes. If Jacob takes a nap, he won't go to sleep until 10:30pm. Without fail. If he doesn't take a nap, he gets really crabby, and apparently pees and poops like he's forgotten all about the potty. Also, if he takes a nap, and doesn't go to sleep till 10:30pm, obviously he'll need a nap the next day, throwing us into a viscious cycle. What do I do?? I don't think I can really compromise on the nap thing - he is a poor waker. If I go in and wake him up, he is completely crabby and prone to meltdowns for at least an hour. So I either give him a full nap, letting him wake when he's ready, or wake him after a short nap, see what it does to bedtime, and deal with the crabby boy all afternoon. Again... What do I DO???
Also, along the lines of Jacob and napping... I gave him a nap today after he pooped in his underwear for the second day in a row. I fell asleep on the couch while Melinda watched Peter Pan next to me. When I woke up, I went to check on Jacob (because I could tell, before I fell asleep, that he wasn't going to sleep right away). I was scared by what I found there: Jacob had pulled his blanket up over his head, and tucked it between his head and pillow, so it looked like he was in a cocoon. He was laying face-up, head completely covered, with no breathing room. His face had been pressed right against the blanket. And who knows how long he had been like that. Maybe an hour? I was so glad he seemed to be breathing normally and unaffected, other than the sweat.
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Jesse and I had a fun little Lord of the Rings DVD marathon last week. We pulled out all our special, extended edition versions of the DVDs, which we hadn't watched since we got them, and watched one per night. Those things are about 4 hours long each, people!! Two DVDs!! We'd start them right after putting the kids in bed, and they wouldn't be over until right around midnight or later. It was so much fun, though. I have a feeling I'm going to have to re-read the Lord of hte Rings books really soon, I enjoyed it so much.
I hold a pretty firm opinion that the LotR movies are the best-made movies ever: The casting, special effects, transformation from book to movie, music, everything is just so extremely well done. I wish every book I love could be made into a movie of this quality. Jesse and I talked a bit about what our favorite parts are. It's so hard to pick, when you've got about 12 hours to choose from. But some of my favorites:
-In the Two Towers, Gandalf comes to the rescue at the Hold, cresting over the edge of the mountain with a legion of Rohirrim behind him, with the breaking light of dawn illuminating them just as they reach the orcs. Love that effect. It gives me such goosebumps!!
-Eowyn facing the Witch King in Return of the King:
Witch King: [taking Eowyn by the throat] You fool. No man can kill me. Die now. [Merry stabs the Witch King from behind; the Witch King shrieks and falls to his knees. Eowyn rises and pulls off her helm, her hair falls down over her shoulder] Eowyn: I am no man. [she thrusts her sword into the Witch King's helm and twists; he shrieks and implodes]
I just love the way she says, "I am no man", and how simply the fact that she is there, and acting in her bravery, she essentially wins the battle. Even Gandalf couldn't defeat him! -Also in Return of the King: Aragorn's speech at the Black Gates:
Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you *stand, Men of the West!*
Again... this is one that gives me goosebumps every time. I just love the way Viggo Mortensen says this part, the different inflections in his voice, strategic pauses and tilts of the head. It is a masterpiece, in my not-so-humble opinion. Simply perfection!
Despite two of my favorite parts being in Return of the King, I think The Two Towers is my favorite overall of the three movies. Return of hte King has a lot of darker elements, which I wouldn't take away... but the Two Towers seems more evenly balanced to me, and also has a lot that I love.
Anyway... movie marathons are fun. :)
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Jesse will be going to Grandma Lewis' funeral alone. He started looking at airfare last night, and what we saw was shocking. The lowest we could find was $638. SIX HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT DOLLARS!!! We began to worry about just him going, even, for that much money. And immediately ruled out any possibility of the whole family going. Nope, that'll definintely have to wait for an official family get-together. Anyway, in the end, we were able to use some credit card reward points to get a $325 credit towards a flight, and we also crinkled our noses and grudgingly took the opportunity to have him fly out of the Washington Dulles airport to further decrease the airfare. And once you add fees onto the ticket, we still had to pay a lovely $360... what I was guessing he might have to pay originally. Ugh. He'll be gone Thursday through very late Sunday night. I just wish I could go with him. Or at least have a child go with him for free. But no, the only child young enough to be eligible for free air passage can't be separated from me that long. ;)
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Take a deep breath, we're getting close to the end of our random things, now!!
Last week, our dishwasher started acting up. It was washing the top rack very poorly, and eventually started looking like it simply wasn't getting any water up there at all, the dishes were still so dirty. I was just reaching the end of my rope and determined to call apartment maintenance when I decided to run one more load, just to make sure it wasn't my fault. Well, that last load I ran, the powder soap in the dispenser wasn't even wet/cleaned out, the dishes were definitely not clean, neither top nor bottom, and at the end of the cycle, the water didn't even drain out of the bottom of the dishwasher. Yup, something definitely is wrong. I'm not-so-secretly hoping that instead of trying to fix it, they'll just give us a new dishwasher. Because this dishwasher is ancient, I can't turn off the heated dry (which makes the dishes too hot to even touch if you try to empty it too soon after it dries, and I can't always be there to stop it after a rinse), and overall, it could really just stand to be replaced.
In the meantime, we're waiting for maintenance to show up. I was hoping they'd come today, but maybe tomorrow? I certainly hope it doesn't take longer than that. Because as long as I have no dishwasher, I have to wash everything by hand! I know, I know, lots of people do that... but I haven't had to wash everything by had for such a long time. In fact, the last time I did, it was when I was in college... and then, I was only cooking for one. Now, every time we eat there's practically a whole sinkful of dishes.
Anyway, today I finally cracked down and washed all the dishes that were sitting in the dishwasher, dirty. That was.... definitely not fun. But partway through, Melinda and Jacob decided they wanted to try to help me, so I let them. Can you believe this was the first time I'd let them have a crack at dish washing? Maybe I should have done it sooner. They didn't do a half-bad job, really, once I explained to Melinda how you have to get the whole dish, and rinsing only takes a dunk, not 5 minutes of swishing...
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If you got this far, I saved the best for last. :) A cute little Alex video!
He's been shaking his head back and forth (no-no-no!) for fun recently. He actually does a whole series of copy-cat-like motions, now, in a pretty fun little game. He'll sit and look at you pointedly, then clap his hand. You clap your hands in return. Then maybe he shakes his head, then you shake your head in return. Clap hands again! And maybe even throw in some raised arms (like, "so big!" or "throw it in the oven!"). But here, in this movie, I took not long after he first started to shake his head over and over again in that sort of copy-cat game. I love it. :)
Jesse got a call from his family Saturday afternoon, and received some bad news. His Grandma, Norma Lewis, who lived in Idaho Falls, Idaho, passed away just about an hour before he got the call. She had suffered a stroke shortly before Christmas, but been recovering well. Even at the ripe old age of 90, she was still living independently, despite challenges like poor eyesight, and failing hearing.
Grandma Lewis was a wonderful woman with many talents. We haven't seen her in many years, unfortunately, so I only personally have memories of her from early in my days of meeting Jesse, since we both attended Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) in Rexburg, Idaho. Grandma Lewis celebrated Thanksgiving with Jesse and myself. It was a Thanksgiving I'll never forget, truly. She cooked enough food for about 10 families, despite it being only 5 people (Sarah and Doug came, also). A large turkey, a ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, every vegetable you could imagine, rolls, pies, and all the typical sides like olives, pickles, etc. It was an belly-popping feast, and Grandma Lewis insisted you eat until you couldn't possibly touch another bite. There were so many leftovers that it was apparent we'd be eating Thanksgiving food for at least three days. Jesse and I nearly panicked when Sarah and Doug up and left the very next day, before they could help make a dent in the leftovers. We literally begged roomates and friends who were in the area to come visit and eat!! But it was still left to us to do the majority of the eating. We always get a good laugh at the memory.
Aside from being a fantastic cook, grandma Lewis was an accomplished pianist and organist, and taught piano to many children. She could sew very well, and each of my children have a baby blanket that she painstakingly made, even with her poor eyesight. And she was so frugal: gardening, saving, and re-using long before the green movement ever came into play. All in all, she will be greatly missed.
We're not sure about funeral plans, yet. There's no doubt in my mind that Jesse will be able to go, no matter when the date is finalized, but I'm unsure about the whole family being able to attend. So, we'll see.
I was thinking about this today, and also thinking that I haven't done a spiritual thought for Sunday for a while. I thought I would tie Grandma Lewis' passing into a spiritual thought about death and resurrection. For, even while we are sad at her leaving this mortal life, we have great faith that we'll see her again.
6 For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.
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10 O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. 11 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave. 12 And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.
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15 And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God.
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19 O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.
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26 For the atonement satisfieth the demands of his justice upon all those who have not the law given to them, that they are delivered from that awful monster, death and hell, and the devil, and the lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment; and they are restored to that God who gave them breath, which is the Holy One of Israel.
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39 O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal.
Our late Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, said about death:
Since the creation of man, no fact of life has been so certain as death with the close of mortality. When the last of life’s breath is drawn, there is a finality comparable to no other finality. When a father and mother lay the remains of a beloved child in the cold of the grave, there is grief almost inconsolable. When a husband buries the companion of his life, there is a loneliness that is poignant and unrelieved. When a wife closes the casket on the remains of her beloved husband, there are wounds that seem never to heal. When children are bereft of parents who loved and nurtured them, there is an abject destitution comparable to none other. Life is sacred, and death is somber. Life is buoyant and hopeful. Death is solemn and dark. It is awesome in its silence and certainty. Appropriately did Sir Walter Raleigh cry out, “O eloquent, just and mighty death” (in Alfred Noyes, Heath Readings in the Literature of England, 1927, p. 1132). But death is not final. Though it seems so when its dark shroud overshadows mortal life, to those who accept the Christ and His eternal mission there is light and comfort, there is assurance, there is certainty. I penned these lines some years ago while seated in the funeral service of a friend:
What is this thing that men call death, This quiet passing in the night? ’Tis not the end, but genesis Of better worlds and greater light.
O God, touch Thou my aching heart, And calm my troubled, haunting fears. Let hope and faith, transcendent, pure, Give strength and peace beyond my tears.
There is no death, but only change
With recompense for victory won; The gift of Him who loved all men, The Son of God, the Holy One.
And of course, I love the simplicity of the Gospel found in the teachings and songs of Primary. It seemed appropriate that today the children were learning this song, from the Children's Songbook: I Lived In Heaven (click to listen to the mp3!)
It tells of the Plan of Salvation set forth by our Heavenly Father, beginning with our premortal existence, and ending with the hope we have in a glorious life yet to be, thanks to our Savior conquering death.
As sad as we are for her passing, and that our children haven't had the opportunity to meet Grandma Lewis in person, we are so grateful for the knowledge we have of life after death, and our Heavenly Father's plan for us. We are so grateful for eternal families.
(Photo of Eldred ("Bud") and Norma Lewis. Notes on the back of the photo: "Grandpa was home on leave from San Diego about 1944")
I wish I could remember exactly where this idea came from, but I've been meaning to try it for at least a couple months now.
The idea is to give your child some paper and a coloring instrument, provide a couple different types of music, and get them to focus on drawing how the music makes them feel. So a really upbeat, jazzy piece would hopefully inspire something like more bold, jerky movements compared to a slow, fluid piece inspiring some smooth, peaceful scribbles.
I picked up some posterboard at the store the other day, and decided to make it even more fun with Crayola Slick Stix, which are very much like oil pastels for kids. Combined with the posterboard, coloring would be nice and smooth.
I let Melinda help me out with the music choices, and we ended up picking two songs from Laurie Berkner's Rocketship Run album. I'm not perfectly happy with the fast song, since it is actually a combination of fast and slow, but it worked out well enough. I couldn't convince Melinda to consider any other choices once she made up her mind, anyway.
Here are our videos with our fast and slow songs, and what the kids did with the idea.
And here is just the still pictures of their final projects:
They really enjoyed doing this activity! And actually, we kept on going with it for a while longer after I stopped the camera, with extra pieces of paper, and my own choices of music (including Enya and My Chemical Romance). We had a nice little coloring-to-music party, all three of us! We even tried coloring with our eyes closed... it really was fun.
My only regret... giving Jacob a Slick Stix. I wasn't paying attention to how careful he was being, and he ended up coloring all over his shirt, the table, and the upholstered chairs. Thankfully, the clothes washed out just fine with our regular stain remover, detergent and a hot wash. The table just took a bit of rubbing. The chairs, however, were the biggest problem. He didn't color the chairs, but he was pressing his crayon hard enough that it got a bit crumbly. When the crumbs fell off the table and onto the chair, they got rubbed in by his hands and knees. I did my best to stain treat it and blot it, but it wasn't making much of a dent. Then I added some steaming, and eventually most of it came out. But they're not as clean as they used to be. And of course, smart ol' me stuck Jacob on the cleanest chair we had, and sitting right next to the other clean one. Well, maybe the extra dirt will eventually make them match the other hideously gross chairs. Though I'd truly be better off getting or making some washable chair covers.
