It's Hard to Blog

It's hard to blog when your ex is yelling at you on the phone and in public, calling you obscene names while you stand on his front porch to drop off kids and their security blankets.  It's hard to blog when you drop your keys and he kicks them away from you.  It's hard to blog when your daughter has been throwing up and running a fever after spending a day with your ex and you find out later that he has been yelling at her, too.  It's hard to blog when you have to ask people for help every day.

It's great when your friends are there for you, though.  This weekend I had so much support from Nikki, Willemina, Kathy, Ron, Shamelle, Ben, Connie, and Michelle. You guys are my rock and you all rock, too.

I am sitting with my girl while she plays with my new phone (you can doodle over photos!) and we watch Sesame Street and I blog.  She's home from school, of course, having run a fever yesterday.  We are just hanging out peacefully.  I love her so much my heart is breaking.  I love my son, too.  It's hard to blog when you are worried about your kids. 

If my blogging gets more sporadic, you know why. 

Annie Get Your Pistol

It's Pistol Patent Day.  Whatever that means.  I think the next pistol design should shoot common sense rather than bullets.  Here are some people I would shoot with The Common Sense Pistol.

1.  All Members of the US Congress
2.  All Illinois elected representatives
3.  Khaddafy
4.  Anyone with the following last names:  Palin, Lohan, Limbaugh.   This list could be lengthened with just a little bit of work.
5.  Most doctors.
6.  All lawyers.
7.  My ex. 

I don't really know how to design this type of tool.  I may ask Sierra to work on this.  Any design suggestions are welcome.  Thank you!

Early Morning Date with Miss C

I had coffee with Miss C today...that would be my monthly date with Miss Clairol.  I had my usual 112A serving along with my coffee.  We linger for 45 minutes and then I hop in the shower and watch her wash down the drain.  I say "Thanks again!"  I say "See you next month!" 

She doesn't answer.  She's already too far gone.  Poor baby.  At least I own up to being her friend.  Some of her friends hide her in the closet, don't admit that they even know her.  Imagine how she feels.  No wonder she's so quiet.

I was working the other day with a patient who is 79-going-on-80, still running his own business that involves very heavy physical work and big equipment.  Not exactly farming but just as demanding.  He had a friend visiting him who called me a redhead.  I told him that anyone could have this color, but it works better if you are Irish.  My patient perked up!  Irish?  Yes.  He then invited me to a bar in Wapella called The Irish-something-other where on Sundays they have karaoke night.  He likes to go there with friends and he plays the harmonica.  Harmonica during karaoke?  Hmmmm.  Might need to see this.   I told him I'd go if his wife was going.  He said that would work.  So....road trip!  Kathy?  Mom and Dad?  Anyone else?  Bring your harmonicas and possibly your kazoos. And maybe some bail money. 

Going to the Dogs

Today, according to the Bizarre and Wacky Holiday website, is International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day.  Not just Dog Biscuit Day.  Not just International Dog Biscuit Day.  No, it is International.  Dog.  Biscuit.  Appreciation.  Day.

I'm confused.  Am I supposed to appreciate only international dog biscuits?  Or is it an international holiday?  Do I have to appreciate the biscuits?  Maybe only international dogs should be appreciating biscuits.  French poodles, Scottish terriors, German shepherds.  If you are just a beagle or collie, you can just forget about appreciating a dog biscuit.

It seems the holiday name has gone to the dogs. 

My dog Wolf, part shepherd of some kind though possibly not German shepherd, possibly Australian shepherd according to our vet, Dr Matt (who is about 7 feet tall and still manages to look like he is 12 years old).  I didn't know there was such a thing.  But because Wolf is not very big, about 40 pounds, he is a candidate to be some other kind of shepherd.  Who appreciates his biscuits, for sure.  But he did not appreciate being asked to work for them the other day.

Don't get me wrong, he is willing to go through his "tricks" for a treat.  The kids have him trained to do a sequence of tricks including sit, down, crawl, up, and around to get one.  What he didn't like was being asked to get his treat out of a Kong.

Poor Wolf, I thought he would enjoy having to work to get his biscuit out of the ball.  The kids thought he would chase a ball, finally!  But alas, he sniffed it and managed to lick out a little of the cheese I put inside with the biscuit, but then ignored the kong and did what Wolf generally does best:

Sweet dreams Wolf!

Smoke and Fog

The Social Studies project is done, except for typing up the list of references.  Jeremiah chose, as his project on the southeastern region of the country, to create a brochure for Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  He worked very hard at it, and as I'm sure his teacher wanted to happen, he got interested in reading about the park even beyond what he needed to do the project. 

He's been to the park.  He's hiked almost to the highest point, Mt LeConte.  He's spent the night in LeConte Lodge.  He remembered some of the places along Alum Cave Bluffs trail.  What he couldn't remember is what we didn't see:  any of the views more than about 10 feet in front of our noses.  The two days we spent hiking there were rainy, foggy, cold, and windy.  We were soaking wet and cold.  The kids were miserable.  The trail was steep and difficult.   They swore they would never hike again after that.  Unless it was sunny and the trail was short and flat.  I think they had in mind walking around the block at home.

The photos we looked at while researching his project gave us both an idea what we missed by hiking in that weather.  The views, of course.  Also much of the wildlife.  We didn't see a single bear!  They were too smart to be out in that crappy weather, I guess.

Here are the troopers at the end of the second day of that trip.  I can't believe it was only 2 years ago.  They look so much younger.  Ack!  Where does the time go?

Yesterday after the project was done Jeremiah said he enjoyed doing the project because he did it with me.  I was glad to hear that.  Maybe someday he and his sister will feel that way when they look back on the trip we took in the rain, cold, and fog.  But I wouldn't bet the bank on it!

A Nice Day, Plain and Simple

Church services yesterday involved the kids presenting some of the Sunday School curriculum called "A Joyful Path."  Sierra and her buddy Will announced a song that to be honest, they said they would not sing in public.  But they wrote a little introduction and read it.

The program was a big hit, of course, and well attended.  That was a nice feeling for the kids and their parents, too.

In the afternoon Jeremiah worked on his social studies project.  He is making a brochure for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. 

This is one of the three views of Jeremiah we saw yesterday.  The other two views involved a basketball and a baseball glove.  It was 50 degrees out, so we took study breaks to play some hoops and take some fielding practice!    I also folded laundry

and kept Sierra busy with a bead stringing project which we will use to transition the Christmas-Valentine's Tree to it's new incarnation as a St. Patrick's Tree!

In the evening Sierra and I had a "girls night in" as Jeremiah went to his dad's to watch the NBA All Star Game on a channel I don't get at my house.  Sierra and I had a big juicy steak for dinner.   She found a mystery box left by her grandma in the downstairs closet and set it up:

and of course added a little green tree of her own to the scene.

We skyped with the Player to Be Named Later:

Sierra went crazy with the camera and took lots of pictures of the same things:  her mom, her dog, and her new little house.   We stayed up later than usual since there is no school today as we honor dead presidents by sleeping in and being lazy.

Boogers

The word "booger" seems to be something the kids like to laugh about a lot lately.  That's better than one of them screaming "weiner" over and over from the back seat of the car.   That's because I can actually steer the car safely when there are Booger Jokes coming from the back seat, as opposed to nearly causing a 7-car pileup when Sisi made her weiner routine debut. 

The booger thing started after we watched Despicable Me.  At one point Dr Nefario has created a bunch of Boogie Robots...he thinks that's what Gru wanted, when actually Gru asked him for Cookie Robots.  But the Boogie Robots are adorable and they dance to the song Boogie Fever.  Somehow, in the warped minds of my children (ok, mine too) we morphed that into Booger Fingers. 

The rest is backseat history.

Jeremiah's program at school the other night featured a song about Booker T. Washington.  Sierra promptly started called him Booger T. 

The possibilities seem endless.  Thank goodness for that.  Laughing about snot and farts with the kids is just fine as the highlight of any day for me.