... but then my life got busy.

Okay, I intended to start doing yoga again. What is that they say about the road of good intentions?

I'll get there. Honest.

Right now, I'm bogged down in unfinished Christmas shopping, blank Christmas cards, and a three-year-old that was ready for Christmas to arrive two weeks ago.

This is a fun time of the year, though.

It's Coming On...

I have felt it building for a while now. Last school year buzzed by. Planting my garden flew past me, as did the watering and harvesting. Now I'm deep into another school year.

Right before I was able to transfer into my current school, life was crazy. I was trying to conceive a child, to no avail. DH and I were building a house while each completing our Master's degrees. My respite was yoga.

Oh, I know that you are thinking that I'm getting all New-Agey and yuppified on you. I started yoga intending to find some new techniques to de-stress. Yoga definitely taught me how to release stress. Then I began seeing my body tone up, which made me dive in even further. I felt really strong and powerful when I was regularly practicing yoga. I loved that.

I denied that I would buy into the spiritual angle of it all, though. I am Catholic, to the point that it's a cultural aspect of my life as well as religious.

The weird thing was that I found that yoga enhanced my religion. Catholicism was focused on the how to live in community. Yoga made me focus on how I was interacting within that community. (i.e., Catholicism was the societal rules while yoga enhanced my personal rules.)

When I finally conceived my child and delivered a son, I dropped the yoga. I went head-first into survival mode, trying to care for my child while my husband flew in and out of town. Diapers and feedings were the focus, not chaturanga and savasana.

Yoga is calling me back, though. I'm preparing to step off of this crazy treadmill of days that melt into one another.

So I'm throwing a promise to myself out into the universe: It is time to refocus and reflect. Yoga is back in my life. I'm not sure where it will take me, but here goes...

Calm

This is the happy time. We were on a piece of driftwood, looking at my sister and the Atlantic Ocean behind her. Mark was racing around on the rocky shore, trying not to slip on the seaweed exposed by the low tide. The wind was blowing and the sun warmed our shoulders.

We had a great time up in Maine. It was so much fun to hang out with my sister and BIL! We had a great day up on China Lake, getting as much time in the water as we could. Lobster was eaten every day. (It's cheap, cheap, cheap right now! Get your lobster now while it's inexpensive...) We shopped while it rained, so we were able to squeeze every last minute of fun out of our long weekend.

Sometimes...

Idealogues can be quite tiresome. I've been on a bit of an anti-Republican kick lately, not because I'm anti-conservative but because I am tired of politicians that only look out for big business. (Some Democrats can be the same way...) And I hate being preached at conservatives who believe that any viewpoint aside from their own is the stupidest drivel ever conjured by man. There's no discussion, just derision.

So I found an article posted on CNN's website quite interesting. It's posted by a conservative, and I find myself agreeing with many of the commenters that his central example is very flawed. You read it and decide.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/01/feehery.franken/index.html

And just so you know, I believe that political gridlock is good. I wrote more than one paper on political gridlock in my poli-sci classes in college. So I am quite nervous about the combination of the executive and legislative branches both being led by the same political party.

Purge

I realize that I'm a clutterbug. I know that it's my Achilles heel.

Therefore, my project of the summer is to purge. I want to get rid of stuff.

My first step was to begin listening to Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much. I wanted to hear the advice of a professional as I started.

The next step was to tackle the pile next to my bed. I had literally nine square feet of carpet covered in clutter. It took one trip to the transfer station (or the dump, if you live in the Midwest) and eight bags of donations to a local thrift shop.

My summer project has begun.

Done

Well, everything is packed away. The classroom is covered and boxed. I'm not due back until August.

This might sound strange, but it really doesn't feel real yet. It seems like I need to be back at school tomorrow.

Instead, I'm heading off to vacation tomorrow. Weird.

Summer '09 has begun.

Berries

Today, we went to a strawberry patch.  Since my friend enjoys strawberry jam and syrup, I convinced her to make some at her house.  

The plan was originally to go to the roadside stand (or roadside back-of-pickup, but I think 'stand' sounds a bit more elegant).  Chance intervened, and that didn't work out for us.  

Today, we went to our local pick-your-own strawberry patch.  There were two moms, a four-year-old, two three-year-olds, and a one-year-old.  And five buckets.  It went relatively well, considering.  My boy now knows to not stick his finger in a bunny's mouth.  (He was bit hard enough to learn the lesson, but there was not a mark to be seen.)

  

I went to my friend's house and made syrup and jam while my three-year-old caused general mayhem. 

It was a good day.

(Thanks, E., for the pictures!)

My New Toy

It's mine.  Mine, mine, mine.

I've waited for over a year now, and I have had it for about 24 hours now.  It's a 13" MacBook with the machined aluminum case.

I am such a happy girl.  

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  I got an iPod touch, too.  (Remember that iPod Nano that my DH sent through the clothes washer?  Let's just say that we're square now.)  I am loving the touch.  And I'm spending waaaay too much time at Panera.

My cell phone is just not working.  I've chosen a new phone, but am waiting for DH to make the move and get it.  Once I get that, all of my technological needs will be met for the forseeable future.

Random observation

I'm looking forward to the time when I don't have to sit down to see what dried, crusty, or smushed food item might be in my seat.

It is kind of cute when Mark calls the dark brown loaf of bread from Outback Steakhouse, 'chocolate bread.' (Umm... not chocolate. It probably barely qualifies as 'wheat.')

Another day, another trail of crumbs.

Drama, drama, drama

Last night and this morning were busy. At school today, we had our volunteer luncheon. The staff at my school cooks and we put our potluck out for the volunteer reception. It's always a successful event. Of course, DH was out of town and I had to prepare a lunch entree while the 3-year-old was running around.

I made barbecue pulled pork in the crock pot. It smelled awfully good, so I was really looking forward to lunch, because the staff also gets to eat from the luncheon table.

This morning, I loaded my CSA vegetable box, the buns for the barbecue, the crock pot filled with pork, my purse, my school satchel, a jacket, Mark's water cup, and oh yeah, my child. I thought I had it all together.

I talked to my sister on my way to school, dropped Mark off, and went to school. I got the crock pot in, got the vegetable box in, unpacked the buns, and discovered that I needed to find an extension cord. Then I was buzzed by the office that my day care was on the phone. Never a good sign.

Mark had put a rock up his nose. Way up. I needed to pick him up and take him to the doctor.

I raced around, posted sub plans on my chalkboard, and ran out within 15 minutes of getting the call. I picked him up and his voice sounded nasal to me. As I sat in the waiting room, I looked up his nose and saw the rock.

When the doctor saw him, the ped. thought that my child might have to go to an Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialist to get it removed. The doctor tried anyway. He used a small tool twice, had the nurse and I held him two different ways. Once the doctor repositioned it, he blocked Mark's other nostril and had Mark blow. The rock went shooting across the room.

As I prepared to go, the doctor told me that Mark was very lucky. He said that most times when an object is that far up the nasal cavity, it has to be surgically removed.

Whew.

Another try

Take two on the link. Thanks, E!

Check it out...

New post at my other blog. I'll describe why gardening has now ruined a Stephen King movie that I used to adore.

Unintentional teasing

We're back from Germany. I am so glad that I'm no longer having to rack my brain to get my needs met in a different language.

DH went out of town right after we returned. (The workplace was frantically emailing our home account while we were still on vacation to get his trip lined up. He's blessed with job security.)

Mark and I came home together. I saw a rabbit. (I must explain that the bunnies are my nemesis at this time of year. The cute bunnies do a number on the lettuce that I'm growing.)

I let Mark out of his carseat and invited him to go after it, saying, "Go get the bunny, Mark."

My three year old went tearing after the rabbit. Yes, the rabbit took off. The ball of fluff was soon hidden in the woods that surround our house.

As Mark returned to the garage, he said to himself, "My bunny left. No more bunny. My bunny is gone." It was then that I realized that he thought that if he caught the bunny, that he had a new pet. He thought he missed out because he was too slow.

Poor guy.

Germany... with an American Twist

There's just something comforting about your native language. While I always flirt with the idea of attempting to speak a foreign language when I'm visiting a foreign country, I always get in a situation where I feel... stupid.

Therefore, I've been saying, "Ich spreche kein Deutsch. Sprechen-sie Englisch?" a lot since I've arrived. (My apologies to the Germans for not spelling things correctly.)

On the other hand, it's comforting to be able to be on a military installation where English is spoken, I see Chevys and Fords in the driveways, and everything is written in English.

We have ventured outside the gate, though. We went into the charming downtown Nuremburg and had a wonderful schnitzel meal. It was fun to eat at an outdoor cafe, looking at the Europeans busily walking to their destinations, and gazing at the old church. What was a bit disconcerting was that we were picked out as the American tourists quickly, and a panhandler and her young daughter approached us for a donation. Guess the polo shirts were not the best choice that day. (Or was it my fabulous Vera Bradley bag?)

The zoo (tiergarten) was a nice non-language activity. It was interesting to go to the same zoo that had the whole polar bear cub brouhaha. (Turns out that my nephew got to see one.)

Yesterday was ribs, pasta salad, and corn on the cob day.

Like I said before, I think that part of our enjoyment so far is that we are taking some short incursions into Germany and then returning to our American enclave.

Hello to everyone. We miss you, and wish that you were here with us! (And we have already had Bitburger over here, A. and E.!)

The digital saga...

I have known about this trip to Europe for quite a while. One of the little things bothering me in the back of my head has been that our cell phones will be useless there. This bugs me because... my DH disappears. He'll be beside me, and will then be gone. So I pretty much use my cell phone as an electronic leash.

So I'll be with my toddler in a country where I have a modest handle on the language (I can ask for a bathroom or a coffee, and can declare my hunger or thirst). My husband is not fluent, but has a good handle on the language, and once again-- he disappears.

Therefore, I wanted a Europe-friendly electronic leash. We looked at cell phones. I can't really justify switching cell carriers for an iphone. (Cool, yes. Practical for me, no.) I thought about buying a low-end GSM phone, but why should the phone that I will carry for the next two years be decided by an 11-day trip?

I then thought about a touch for wi-fi capability. After all, DH had just sent my 10-month-old-last-year's-birthday-present nano through the wash cycle. (It's not dead yet, but the end of that story is pretty inevitable.)

Then I really put things together and thought-- since I've been lusting after a new laptop for roughly 18 months or so, isn't it time to get a new one? After all, the touch I considered buying was $399, and new laptops could be had for the $650 range. I looked at a Vaio after school today, which I liked. DH and I returned to look at it more closely (with the tasmanian toddler) and we looked at other models.

And then it was shown to me. And I really lusted. It was the HP TouchSmart tx2 notebook, or tablet pc. (Follow the link and click on the pictures to see how cool it looks.) I thought these things were $3-$4K. But this one was $900. (My mental justification was, I can play with a touch for $400, or pay $900 for something that I can use at work.) I looked and liked, and played and fell in love. The case was stylin', the touch screen was practical, and the rotating screen and folding capability made my mouth water.

I. wanted. that. laptop.

DH made it clear that he would not hand over the store credit card (with the 18 month free financing) until we went home and researched it online. Grudgingly, poutingly, snottily, snappily, and snarkily, I went home.

And discovered that people fall in love with it in the store and then hate it. They have to send it back multiple times, they have to exchange it for a new one that will then also quit working, the fan whirrs so loudly that it becomes unpleasant to listen to music. I wanted to cry as I read the reviews.

I'm now hoping that I can find a cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone in Germany. That I can activate in English. I'm not holding my breath.

Facebook Conundrum...

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law make me crazy. He means well, but ends up being one of those trying-to-hard-to-impress-for-approval types. She's just... weird.

I'm a public school teacher, and they homeschool. It's cool with me-- but they get very defensive and threatened whenever I expertise in the educational arena. (Their third/fourth grade child didn't know his address when I asked. They didn't respond well.)

I could go on about the religious conservatism, the lack of bra-wearing, the sending of an email that contains with--oh surprise-- a picture of an aborted fetus. But I won't go there.

I recieved emails last night, showing that they had put in friend requests for my facebook page. They are among the last people that I'd want on my facebook page. Truly.

Right away, DH said ignore and do not friend them. I feel the same, but there's some guilt there, too. Oh well, I guess I'll be the beotch at the next holiday gathering.

I Can Make It 11 Days...

Until Germany, that is.

I have the standard whines-- I won't bore you with the details. Same poo, different day.

Therefore, I have random thoughts tonight...

• I'm loving Numi's Dry Desert Lime tea. It tastes like Key Lime pie would taste, if it were a tea. Not quite as satisfying as the pie, but yummy all the same.
• I have reserved tables for my friend and me to sell stuff at a yard/craft sale. Have I marked anything to sell? Nope. Have I even located my price stickers? Nope.
• My toddler is actually becoming... agreeable. And he's starting to respond to logic and humor. Now if I can just get him 'across the pond' without a temper tantrum, I will be a happy mommy.
• My friend's pictures with green beer are so flippin' hilarious. The perfect end to a St. Patrick's Day.
• Speaking of St. Patrick's Day, the patron saint of the church from childhood was St. Patrick. We had a huge potluck dinner that at which the entire town turned out-- the annual St. Patrick's Day dinner at the Moose Lodge. (Yes, there was an actual moose head inside that freaked me out.) I miss that.
• One of my life goals is to see The Chieftains in concert.
• The Last Snake in Ireland is one of my favorite children's books. You'll see the end coming, but your kids might not!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Freakin' Economy

My Mom lost her job.

She's saying that she got fired, but I'm calling it downsizing. (When they RIF roughly half of the staff of the business, I think that qualifies as downsizing.)

I'm really, really disappointed.

Ha...

I had to chuckle tonight. I was catching up with old Daily Show episodes that had been saved on my Tivo, and watched the episode from the day after the Oscars.

Jon Stewart's 'Moment of Zen' was Hugh Jackman's momentary lap-dance for Barbara Walters.

You heard it here first.

Are the End Times Near?

I just saw Hugh Jackman give Barbara Walters the tiniest bit of a lap dance just now in her pre-Oscars show.

It will take a few weeks to get that out of my head, I'm afraid. Yikes.

Slogging through

It's been interesting around these parts lately.

Work has been hopping lately. Standardized testing will commence shortly, so the reviewing has begun. Behaviors have popped up as a result. I cannot allow mutiny-- so it should be interesting.

Mark has been sick. He has been at home with bronchitis since Thursday. DH has been taking leave, since he has months of sick leave. (I consider it fair-- I have to take off when he's away, and he has gobs more sick leave then I do.) We now own a nebulizer. For those of you not in the know, it turns the steriod medication into an inhaled vapor to open up the clogged airways. Which leads me to my rant.

DH's mom and aunt arrived in town on Thursday night. I administered two nebulizer doses that night, and then DH was responsible on Friday as he stayed home. He didn't do any until I chewed DH out around 11 am. And this is with his mother, the nurse, and his aunt, mother of eleven kids, in the house. His mom then stuck up for him when I let my displeasure known on Friday night. Uh, excuse me, but four doses means four doses. (The excuse? Mark didn't want to do a breathing treatment. I can't tell you how many times I've heard this excuse at school, so my pissy factor kicks in pretty quickly every time I hear it. Who is the parent, after all?)

But the in-laws are gone now. Ahhh, where's the wine?

Crafty

The stamping/crafting bug is biting me. It's also helping me to get drawn into the ebay web again. I used ebay quite a while ago-- back in the day when I was newly married and, as they say nearby, po'.

Now I see that ebay has changed. Granted, I've gotten a few bargains. (Clothing bargains.) However, I'm going back and getting retired stamping supplies. And, uh, I am getting in bidding wars rather than finding bargains. Oh, and due to my disorganization, I am discovering that I have been bidding on supplies that I already own.

I'm thinking about cranking out some cards to sell at a craft sale. Perhaps I can justify my collection if I sell something. ;)

Not Fair

My husband is gone. A lot. For example, he's been gone at least three days of each week since we returned from Minnesota.

He just got home tonight. We met at Cheeseburger in Paradise, because our big three-year-old wanted to go to the beach tonight to celebrate his birthday. (Possible where we live, but waaaaaay too cold. Cheeseburger was a good comprimise.)

We ate dinner, came home, and I carried things in. He served Mark cake.

And then he fell asleep.

I'm planning on lodging a formal complaint in the morning.

I do things the hard way

My friends tease me. I can and freeze my own made-from-scratch food. My husband loves it-- peach barbecue sauce for on top of pork chops, tomato salsa, strawberry jam, apple butter, chicken noodle soup-- he enjoys it all. The toddler is not so excited-- Mark would much rather eat radioactive orange mac and cheese from a blue box. Sometimes when I come home, I'm tired and wonder if the effort is worth it.

Then I remember. Tonight, there is a blog post about mercury in high fructose corn syrup. And a peanut processor didn't like the positive samonella test results they got, so they lab-shopped until they got the result they wanted.

I don't care if I get teased. I want my son to grow up healthy.

It Wasn't Me

Oh my.

When we went to Minnesota for Christmas, we told DH's family that we were heading to Germany. They were excited for us and happy that we'd be seeing DH's brother, just back from Iraq.

But DH's only sister immediately decided that she wanted to go too. She kept going on and on about how fun it would be to meet up over there and explore. Which was fine with us.

Then we got an email a couple of days ago. It was from DH's sister and had all of her flight information. DH and I looked at each other and both stated that we hoped that his sister had cleared this with his brother in Germany.

Fast forward to tonight. She called us to talk to us about the trip and ask if we'd noticed that she was flying over. To which I responded, "Sure. So what did your brother and sister-in-law say about you coming over?" Cue silence. Then she said that she sent them an email once she bought the ticket.

Which basically means that they had NO IDEA that she was even thinking coming over until she sent them her flight information. And her dates coincide with ours.

Wow. If nothing else, our Deutsch Marriott awaits.

Dry

Just a quick one tonight.

The laundry room is now dry.

We're thinking about replacing the lineoleum (now gone) with ceramic tile.

Sometimes it stinks being a grownup.

The One Where I Break Down and Cry

When DH and I built our house, there was one area where I went around and around with my construction-savvy father. Out of practicality, I wanted the laundry room on the second floor, right by the bedrooms. My father basically told me that I was crazy and that I'd regret the decision. He didn't give up the issue for weeks. I was smugly confident that I had made a fantastic decision that would save multitudes of trips up and down the stairs, hauling laundry.

Then our laundry room flooded yesterday. (I love the men in my life, but they aren't supposed to be right when we argue, doggone it!) It all started with the water stains that appeared on our living room ceiling. Which led to the discovery of standing water on the lineoleum under the washer. Then came the moving of the gargantuan washer, which left marks on my hall carpeting. And DH cleaned up the mold from the wall. This morning, we pulled off the trim and discovered more mold/mildew. We cleaned.

And then my husband left. After he gave me a verbal 'to-do' list.

However, I do understand that he needed to go. An engine test has been scheduled. For a long time.

It still stinks. It stinks as much as the pants of my child, who decided to do some attention-getting-pant-soiling today. Yay.

It was as my son sat on the hallway potty, with smears of 'number two' all over the toilet seat, that I thought I was going to lose it. (Uh, I cannot do any laundry until all of this has been solved. And it is not solved yet.)

All topped off by a phone call from my mother-in-law. Who tried to make small talk by discussing how a family in her town lost their home in a fire. I attempted to sympathize by saying that I know how horrible that is-- my apartment in college burned down, and I still miss my hand-embroidered baby quilt and the yellowed photos of my great-grandmother's high school graduation that I lost. To which she replied, "Well, that happens."

Uh, I feel a little better about my day now that I've had two glasses of wine. But not much better. I'm now tivo-ing Waitress so I can get a good cry in before I go to bed.

P.S. We have cleaned the laundry area as much as we can and are using fans to dry out the closet. I've ventilated upstairs so we're not recirculating mold spores in the air. I'm watching my child very closely for any respiratory symptoms. We're now in the drying process.