Sunday, May 23, 2010

And the final results are in...

4.0! I didn't even dare hope what with the weird English professor, but man I'm so happy with that result. Of course these courses are very basic and prereq, but freakin' 4.0 man!!!!

I finished psych with 103.24%. lol I love extra credit.

Monday, May 17, 2010

ants

Tag was sitting outside, vigorously smacking his legs. I went over to have a look.

Tag: Mom, these ants keep crawling on me. How do I get 'em off?

Me: [taking a closer look] By not sitting on their ant hill, silly! Get away from there.

Poor kid felt crawlies on him for the rest of the evening even after a shower.

one more from yesterday


This pic is so amazing to me. The freedom in Tag's body is wonderfully refreshing to watch, along with a little girl in a dress picking clover flowers. It was a great day.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

pics

This kid moves so much when he isn't watching a movie that it's almost impossible to actually photograph him. Does anyone else remember what a chunk he was as a baby??


I love these poses my girls get into. This is also Freida pre-bangs.

Nothing like a summer day to show how absolutely filthy your back window has become.



This one has been picking clover flowers like crazy since they started coming up. I have this bouquet next to me on the desk, smelling like sun warmed honey.



The light was so great for this little series:




I can't even describe how she says "flowers!" You know how kids say things in ways adults can't even begin to mimic. The bangs aren't combed here, but in real life her eyes are even more stunning now that they can be seen.


This beautiful child cleaned my grill! Now I just need to oil it.

metro

Gosh, public transportation is a language unto itself.

I got instructions from someone over the phone on how to get from here to there and this is what he said:

Take the Mark train on the pen line to Union Station, where you'll go downstairs and get on the red line to Tacoma.

Right. A bit of Googling tells me that it's really the MARC train on the Penn line to Union Station where I catch the Red line metro to Takoma Park station. Also, there's a fare I can pay in either cash or credit card on the Penn line or I can buy a card that I can reload at any time to travel on the Red Line and then there's the 6 block walk there and back again because of course a train can't take you right to where you want to go. Walking's no big deal, but we're talking about time. If city life is so frantically paced, who can afford to wait for trains and walk from them?? Besides that, one trip would cost at least $16.

Freaking heck. How do you metro people not flee to the country with frothing mouths and a determination to never shave, drive, stand in line, or pay over $12 an hour for parking again?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

biggest laugh in weeks

So, I guess I could have told this funny story earlier:

We went to the park this morning and were all over the equipment and creek. It was time to go and we started to walk away but Tag cried out:

"Hey! I'm stuck!" but he was laughing.

Me: Nice try, kid. [walking away some more]

Tag: Mom! Wait! Don't leave! [wiggling in his seat and standing on his tiptoes.]

Me: Oh, wait, you're serious.

Tag: Of course I am! I'm mostly a serious person.

So I go over and try to haul him out, lifting him under the armpits and wondering how I'm going to get this super long kid out. I lifted as high as I could go and then told him to get his feet out. He started to yell about his pants. I pulled him away from the swing and lowered him a bit to see that the only thing left stuck in the swing were his big feet, with his pants bunched up around his ankles. It reminded me vaguely of one of the Harry Potter books when James Potter made Snape hang upside down to reveal his bony legs and underwear. Well, there were my kid's bony legs and underwear and I suddenly didn't have strength in my arms anymore from laughing so hard. His sisters gathered around to watch the spectacle and we all laughed so hard that none of us could move for a while. I guess it's a good thing that Tag is such a good sport. He sort of shrugged and said "at least I was wearing some underwear today." It only occurs to me now that I need to chat with him about wearing underwear ALL THE TIME. Sheesh.

By the way, I'm thinking that outside is the only place to eat grilled corn from now on. So much less mess and fuss.

A little bit of catchup

I don't even know where to begin. Finals are starting this coming week, Princess is reading Harry Potter, Tag has been getting more blues at school but the last week or so his disposition has been improving, Pebbles draws the cutest, craziest little monster guys I think I've ever seen, and Freida is putting together sentences like "pweez I wannit" and "I open da door!"

Now I remember why blogging consistently mattered so much before, since the months are flying by in a blur.

I find that I just don't have the emotional strength to write the major events out right now. So here's a slight summary:

Medboard: no news. His last appt is at the end of May which is coming up fairly quickly. It may have to be rescheduled since his schedule just had a major, though temporary, shift. Rescheduling it means that the whole process will be delayed a month.

Accident: still dragging out. I'm so mad at State Farm insurance (the company the other lady has) for their low down, sneaky, dishonest tactics. Of course they save their people money, because they play dirty. I will never, EVER even consider getting insurance through them.

School: I don't have to take the math final, woohoo!!! The only final I'm a bit worried about is English. That'll be over on Wednesday though. I'm starting to realize why people get terrifically trashed after finals.

Princess: I've referred her to the professional counselors from Walter Reed who visit the military schools here since her stress levels have been increasing. She's starting to show signs of stress illness through headaches and stomach aches. We've kept up the breathing and muscle relaxation exercises at night, followed by cuddling, which seems to help quite a bit. I got her some pencils and a drawing pad. Already she has turned out some really great pieces.

Tag: I just can't believe how much he is growing in maturity and capability. He takes good care of himself, sometimes doing all of his chores without being asked, getting his own home lunches made when he wants them, and keeping his room a lot more clean. He still has some moments of inexplicable emotion (like big, silent tears when he didn't get to ride in the three seater grocery cart) but has mostly settled into a deep throated, closed mouth growl when stomping to his room rather than full Wagnerian war bellows.

Pebbles: She has a decided preference for full length pants. It's a rare day I can get her to wear shorts at all. Such a cute and funny quirk. She got to spend a couple of days in hourly care while I went to classes and Man went to work. She was absolutely enchanted with the whole situation. One day she was there for about seven hours and still didn't want to come home.

Freida: Just as cute as can be. We Will Rock You is still her favorite, and now she sings "please" in the same notes changes as a fog horn -- first high, then low. Pleeeee-eeeeese. She is also going through a mondo growth spurt resulting in incessant hunger and one instance of a 15 hour nap-turned-night-sleep.

Me: of course I havn't given many details at all, but suffice it to say that I'm exhausted. Happy, happily busy, happily making charts and study schedules and avoiding housework and adjusting my balanced-carb diet and finding new cookbooks and trying to make sure that the gym happens and not going to Michael's every time I get a coupon in my email and wondering how I can organize even more and work on foodstorage without going nuts before maybe a move and... occasionally, I even breathe. You know how that goes.

Once again, without going into details, please keep us in your prayers. Life has gotten more complicated lately and it's really taking its toll. Thank you.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

relaxation

My psych prof had us go through some relaxation exercises in class a couple of weeks ago. Tonight I went through them with Princess. After the breathing and muscle exercises, she sort of sighed and turned on her side. We cuddled for a while, she shared a few thoughts while I ran my fingers through her hair, and then I left her to sleep.

Tag asked if I could do the same relaxation stuff with him. No problem.

So he laid down, without his glasses but with a bemused half grin on his face. I started him on the breathing which he did with some impatience, until he finally said "mom, when are we going to be done so we can cuddle?"

Heh. I can take a hint sometimes. He soaked up the cuddling, holding still for the first time in weeks. I watched his face in profile as he shared some thoughts, as well, speaking of the substitute in his class who yelled a lot, and the boy on the playground who called him a baby. I marveled at how he looked so young if he turned his face just a little away from me, and so mature when he turned toward me.

Both of these sweet children cuddled as if drinking in a cool oasis after a long journey. It made me miss them a little, or their pure innocence. I wished to protect them from the daily grind and frustrations and feelings of loneliness and impotence. Pebbles has also been seeking refuge in extensive cuddling and story time. Freida seems to be the only one among them who is unaffected by the storm of life around her. They all laugh and roughhouse, whine about a dinner they don't like and relish a good game of kung fu tickles.

This, too, shall pass.