An odd morning

So I was chatting with my neighbor this morning and we ended up talking for about 2 hours. While we chatted, we observed the following bizarre occurrences: (yes, I'm colon happy today)

- A molecule-looking cluster of medium blue balloons tumbling down the lawns at quite a clip on the opposite side of the street, feeling only the slightest breeze ourselves.

- Two foam plates which looked perfectly clean and unused rolling like wagon wheels down the road next to each other. They went several yards before one fell over. The other wavered in the breeze that knocked over its fellow, did a sort of twisty flip, and then continued past our viewing range. We later found that it had fallen another several yards away. We wanted to reunite them since they seemed like such great friends until the gusts of life drove them forever apart. Sadly, tragedy was meant to be and they remain fallen and undisturbed.

- Tag made a keychain at that festival over the weekend to which I attached a carabiner so it's about 6 inches long now. He randomly tossed it high in the air and it got stuck, perfectly placed and balanced on the highest point of the playground equipment, about 15 feet in the air. That, folks, is a 1 in at least 1,000,000 shot for a kid his age.

- As E was explaining her favorite author, a feather flew from across the park on an almost perfectly steady course only to glide swiftly and effortlessly between her knees.

- A single humming bird, the only one I've seen in several months, came to inspect my nasturtiums.

Funny how the strangest things seem to happen all the time. How glad I am that E was happy to share my wonder at these small but somehow thrilling little things. I consider the morning well spent though. A little wonder can go a long way in refreshing ones perspective. E says that physics was merely taking a break this morning.

Jingles

Have you ever thought of a random jingle but you knew your genius would never see the light of day? Prepare to behold my genius.

The back of my little Softsoap soap dispenser has the following trademark phrase: Wash away the germs, feel the softness.

It occurred to me that this phrase was really dumb sounding and not catchy at all. When I think of catchy, it usually comes from songs or movies I've liked and that fit the meter of the message. If I were in marketing I'd buy the rights to "Killing Me Softly" and fork over this baby:

Killing germs, Softly.

Then you'd have the whole jingle (come on folks, imagine this with me)

Killing germs softly with this soap,
Killing them softly, with this soap,
Filling my whole nose, with its smell.
Killing germs softly.... with this soap!

Can't you just see it? Wouldn't you remember Softsoap forever as the germ killing, soft soap? Are you just totally dazzled?

Yeah, I won't quit my day job.

My daughter, future domestic goddess

Princess just loves telling me what rules and foods she's going to have for her future children. Today we made zucchini muffins and she asked with gusto after her first buttered muffin if I could please write this recipe down so she can make it for her kids. lol!

I remember my Mom's zucchini bread. Oh, that stuff was so great. Like her strawberry bread, cinnamon rolls, homemade bread with chicken soup, and believe it or not I still occasionally crave that tuna-cheddar chowder with buttered toast. Oh, and those rolls stuffed with that egg and olive stuff (hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it. They were super-tasty).

Then there's Dad's potato salad! He always made enough of that to feed a whole houseful of people at the grandfolks' house, with leftovers for a couple of days afterward.

He also used to make jokes about omelets. Or... maybe we thought he was joking sometimes and then it evolved into really being a joke. Anyway, every leftover we had we would say that Dad was going to make an omelet out of it. Spaghetti, pizza, potato soup, enchiladas, chili, hotdogs, you name it, we thought of and laughed at and reviled the idea of them all. Then, years later, it occurred to me that many of these formerly gross omelets actually sounded pretty yummy. And who doesn't love a good chili and cheese omelet?

Weekend

Do you ever make something for dinner with a fair amount of regularity, then somehow forget about it, then have your spouse recall it with amour, and you have no idea how to make it anymore?

Well, I have. I used to make a hoisin chicken dish that Man just loved. Even if I doubled the recipe there was never enough for him to take to work the next day. I've been trying to remember how to make it all over again but this time I'm trying to get it right with the pregnancy olfactory unsystem working against me.

Let this be a lesson to me!! Always write recipes down once I get them right.

Speaking of getting recipes right, I stumbled upon one for ginger bread that looks really yummy. I mixed it up and with relief found that I had just the right amount of molasses on hand, smelled it baking and longed for that first, moist bite. Well, when that first bite came I found that it tasted a lot like burnt tree bark. Man took a bite, contemplated the flavor, looked at my molasses jar, and said "holy cow, you used blackstrap molasses! Ugh, argh!!"

Let that be another lesson to me. Black strap molasses is NOT what recipes call for when baking ginger bread.

We went to a back to school festival yesterday at the local outdoor mall. It was just another long series of tables featuring various merchants and non profit organizations handing out pens and lollipops. Princess and Tag got to make beaded kaychains though, and we now have enough keychains from the Army table to last us a very long time. We did have lunch at Chipotle, so that made up for a lot.

This morning we woke up with every last one of us either in the midst of illness or still on the mend, so we decided to skip Stake Conference, bum around, and make toxic-tasting ginger bread. Oh, and we watched a movie called Mobsters and Mormons which I recommend. The stereotypes were just etched in neon but the message was really great.

Miss Pebbles has been feeling significantly better in the last couple of days. It's such a relief to have her smiling and playing on her own rather than crying and clinging all day long. It makes such a world of difference to have my happy, sweet girl back!

Hehe. Time for another fun filled week. Events to look forward to: Watching a friend's kids for a couple of hours three days this week and an ultrasound on Friday. I feel tired even thinking about it.

A new snack!

The kids love their synonym toast. They ask for it every time I toast some bread.

An interestesting day (again)

This morning we decided to just drop Princess off and let her find her own classroom. As she trotted off to class, I pulled up a bit in the drop off lane so I could get a good view of her classroom and the adjacent park to make sure she got there alright. Of course she did, and I watched for just a while longer. It's funny how it was harder for me to drop her off like that than it is to walk her to her classroom. She really is growing up.

All of my maternal hormones are kicking into high gear. I read about someone I know and how she went in for an induction, had her IV in, and then her dr comes to tell her that he won't do a VBAC after all, so she can either have an immediate C-section or go home and wait to go into natural labor or go ahead and have a C-section at 42 weeks anyway. I cried a little. Books, news, and movies don't bother me unless it involves children or parents (well, except for Super Inframan last night that Man and I watched while I folded laundry... that was cheesy enough to be enjoyable).

I'm also finally getting sick but thankfully with a mild cold rather than the devastatingly energy sucking, misery inducing monster the girls both got. Maybe I've already paid my dues in the respiratory illness department. Some of my relatives will remember how often I got those growing up.

Yesterday I had gone to pick Princess up from school then went to the grocery store, got home, got the kids out of the car, then realized that I had locked my keys in the car. Along with the groceries. Thankfully I hadn't bought much in the way of cold things. I got Tag to break into the house for me so we weren't locked out, but we did miss an afternoon appointment. Man came home about 3.5 hours later when we went to inspect the damage to food. To my amazement, the frozen ground beef I bought was still frozen through, having been placed next to our picnic blanket and under other groceries. It's also a good thing that it wasn't a Costco shopping trip I locked in the van or I woulda been pissed off. Lesson learned: extra keys will be made today.

I made a big pot of stew for dinner with the intention of sharing with a lady who had recently had a baby. I misjudged how long it would take to cook and it wasn't done until 9pm. We had french fries, watermelon, and homemade cheddar biscuits for dinner. It's a good thing stew has great reheating value.

So, at the end of a day filled with some semi-spectacular errors on my part, it was nice to just laugh at an old 80's Chinese super hero movie and decide to honor my new "non-guilt" policy.

Oh, and one more thing for this really long post -- Princess came home to let me know that she shouldn't have any more juice in her lunches because it's been upsetting her digestion, that I had been filling her thermos too full which made the teacher spill when she opened it, and this of course came after the locked van thing. I can just see it happening right now. I'm already losing some credit in her eyes because she now has opportunities to correct my mistakes with authority and experience. It's all downhill from here on out until she has her first baby, and even then I'll never quite be the glorious guru and haven of security I used to be in her sparkling eyes. I love you Mom! You're a glorious haven figure! Really!!

It's so.... quiet!

First day of school was quiet because Princess was gone, Pebbles was taking a nap, and Tag was behaving himself. Second day was quiet because Pebbles slept twice and Tag was gone at a friend's house almost all day long. Well, quiet while Pebbles slept and noisey while she was awake because she was so miserable from illness. Today... Pebbles feels a bit better, Tag is once again at his friend's house, and I'm just in heaven. Who knew that despite the extra chore of dropping off and picking up my sweet girl, it would make such a difference in the overall noise and stress levels?

I wonder if the house will stay cleaner this way. Who knows.

Oh what a day!

Yesterday!! What the day. Poor Man came home to quite the series of stories.

First of all, Princess had her first day of school yesterday!! She already had a backpack so we went and got her a lunchbox and thermos and stickers to decorate them. She did so well in the morning. She had laid out her clothes the night before, made her own lunch the night before, and practically danced into her classroom. She danced on the way home. We inspected her backpack and found a simple worksheet (draw A's and a's). I asked if her teacher wanted it back the next day. She didn't know. I said, well, do it anyway, take it back, and that way you'll be prepared. Next thing I know, she's coming out to the living room crying that she can't make a's. Why not? I asked.

They aren't perfect!!

That plaintive whine pierced my sorry little heart. We had quite the talk about "perfect" vs. "wonderful" and which one really was ok. And of course how it's ok to work to make something absolutely wonderful and amazing, but for right now just practice.

It took her about an hour of whining and crying about her inadequacies to finally sit down and write out 4 a's, which I praised, sighed in relief, and told her to put it in her new folder in her backpack.

Of course she didn't like it when I pointed out that she'd been whining for so long, it takes less than a minute to write 4 a's, why is she torturing herself? And I'm finally starting to see more of what my own attitude toward myself is doing to my daughter who is more than a little like her old lady.

A friend I talked to about this said "Hard to see our imperfections in our kids, isn't it?"

My reply: It's brutal.

Anyway, she played with a friend after that and all was well.

On to Tag's cast. Right after we dropped off Princess, we wandered on over to get his cast off. I mentioned to the dr and nurse that it had itched that week so I let him use a chopstick to get some relief. They both looked at each other and said:

"uh-oh."

Me: No, no, it's didn't break off or anything. Nothing got lost in there.

Nurse: Oh, good. What did we find just the other day? An acrylic fingernail? [shudders]

Me: Oh, gosh, that was quite the itch.

[break for actually taking Tag's cast off]

Nurse: Holy cow, a penny!!
Tag: Yep! I was keeping it safe.

A friend came to visit me, the kids brought their friends over to play, I cleaned the house while the kids were distracted, we had dinner, and then I got an email to let me know that while my dad had experienced another stroke, this one was much more mild and wasn't likely to affect him as much as that last one. I had phoned my parents' house so Tag could talk to his Oma on the phone and got Uncle Romeo instead, who let me know that my parents were on their way to the hospital due to Dad having numbness over half of his body. I felt some fear, dread, worry. I found myself wondering if he had written out his mission or theater stories. We used to love it when the Missionaries came over for dinner because out the stories would come and we'd laugh so hard and just loved sharing something with Dad that he loved so well. And none of us can tell them as well as he can.

Pebbles cried all day long in the misery of her illness despite my best efforts to keep her comfortable. We put the kids in bed early. That was nice.

Today: Errands. Maybe a nap. I went to be too late last night.

10 Minutes After a Bath

Of course, this pic does not do justice to the peanut butter on her hands, clothes, and my pants by the time I was done taking her picture.

Politics and policies

Last night we had an FRG meeting for the company during which I found myself conversing rather extensively with the Captain (who commands the company) regarding the calendar. One of the items coming up next month is an AFAP panel (Armed Forces Action Plan) which is of interest since the panel discusses issues of concern across the whole spectrum of military life. After the FRG meeting, the Captain and two Sergeants were chatting about some AFAP issues they were particularly interested in but they had all congregated around my table since the Captian had come over to me to again discuss the calendar. It was odd to be chatting with an officer and a couple of NCO's while Man kept busy on the other side of the room, keeping kids in line while he waited for me so we could go home. Oddly, some portion of what I had discussed with the Colonel (who is a Garrison Commander) came up in the conversation as well, not that I bandy an officer's name so lightly.

Afterward I asked Man if it bothered him that I was rubbing shoulders with several of his superiors when he, technically, shouldn't. He said it was fine but I could tell that it made him nervous, hoping that my being on the radar would have a positive or neutral impact on their view of him.

The truth is, I hate politics. I treat people with respect but I don't play the flattery game. I really don't like how some people try to "get one the good side of" or "try to make head way with" or otherwise play people. The reason I do the calendar is because I like to have information. Being part of the system means that I get to hear a lot more of what the higher ups personally have to say rather than relying on rumors or websites. I'm not looking for classified information or an edge on my husband's career. I just want to know what going on in the world around me, what impact it'll have on my family, how to negotiate the difficult bits, and how to survive. In the mean time, that means putting forth a bit of effort and interest in the community. And maybe making my husband a bit uncomfortable.

Why does this matter? I sort of wonder if I'm being played. I wonder if the system is so scintillatingly enticing that I'm being suckered into playing for what I want and being made useful so that others have what they want. And then I wonder if that's really so bad. It's all one common cause, isn't it? I've spent most of my thinking life enjoying my differences as a defense against not being able to play along, being torn between the rebel and the benefits of just fitting in. Once again, here I am justifying my involvement in the community by saying it's all for selfish purposes. It doesn't really mean that I'm trying to fit in. But I find that even though I'm not trying to, a place is slowly being made for me. In my quest for finding and knowing, I've sort of unwittingly created an acknowledgement of a need I fill. It's awkward for a semi-backward country girl with little "real life" experience to be dropped in the middle of the military and find that I have a place. I didn't mean to!!

But aren't my experiences real? Bad relationships, great relationships, living in a few states, totalled cars, health problems for children, my husband's job so directly impacted by politics, and all of this I have studied and experienced and plunged through and come out alright so far. Can I now say that I'm no longer totally ignorant, sheltered, and inexperienced? I guess I'm waiting for my permission switch to flip so I can fully acknowledge and accept my adulthood and autonomy. I've spent too long in the mentallity that others have assigned to me and recalling labels that felt too real to me. Maybe this is the root of my angst concerning the organization of my home among other things.

Well, that's good to know. Moving on.