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Thursday, December 2, 2010
Tradition
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Keeping schedules straight in my head for four people is going to kill me--or at least destroy my teeth!
Normally, I don't remember my dreams. But after visiting the dentist today and being told I clench and grind my teeth, and the streak of dreams I have had lately, I am beginning to think that I am working out my stress at night.
When I do dream, I tend to remember the ones that happen because of a change in my schedule. I am always afraid that I am going to miss important events--the first day of school after a long break, important meetings that I have, that sort of thing. This week, being a holiday week, was a strange one to keep straight in terms of schedules. I had work on Monday and Tuesday. The girls were scheduled to have school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday--with Wed being an early dismissal day. Months ago I had decided that I would not be getting up today to take them to school for only a partial day. As it turned out, G ended up with a dental appointment at 7:30 this morning and I had one at 10:30. I also had to deliver G to a friend's house in the afternoon.
On Monday night, I dreamed that I bustled through the day, realizing at the end that, although I had taken G to her appointment, I had missed my own. On Tuesday, as I ran through in my hand what I needed to do the next couple of days, I was glad that I had just dreamed my error. Then I had a moment of panic that I missed taking Lili to dance class. Realizing it was only Tuesday, I breathed a sigh of relief that dance class is Wednesday and I had not missed it.
Today, all the appointments were kept with no problems. I even got to enjoy taking G out to breakfast and visiting with my baby brother. After a busy morning and early afternoon, I was ready to snuggle in for the evening.
While I took a little nap, Lili cleaned up the kitchen with the ulterior motive of wanting to make mini-surprise-cupcakes in the new Xpress Read Set Go machine from Nana. We were enjoying our little cooking time together and were sitting in the living room waiting for a batch to finish cooking. Lili mentioned to me that she had a weird dream last night. I was about to ask her to tell me about it when my stream of consciousness started talking to me. It went something like this: "You had a strange dream the other night too. Isn't it great that you didn't forget any of your appointments? Yep, you are truly a great mom. Even that panic attack about forgetting dance last night was a false...Hey, did you forget that dance is tonight? The last time you looked at the clock it was 5:44. You know dance starts at 6:00, right?"
While I was fairly eloquent in my head, all that would come out of my mouth was, "Lili! Dance!" Her eyes got wide, she scrambled to get dressed, couldn't find her shoes, and we had to wait for a batch of cupcakes to finish cooking. But we were only 10 minutes late. Yep, I'm still a great mom! But now that I have to remember where 4 people are supposed to be and when they are supposed to be there, maybe I need a better system. Otherwise, I'm going to have some restless, dream-filled sleep and less than healthy teeth!
When I do dream, I tend to remember the ones that happen because of a change in my schedule. I am always afraid that I am going to miss important events--the first day of school after a long break, important meetings that I have, that sort of thing. This week, being a holiday week, was a strange one to keep straight in terms of schedules. I had work on Monday and Tuesday. The girls were scheduled to have school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday--with Wed being an early dismissal day. Months ago I had decided that I would not be getting up today to take them to school for only a partial day. As it turned out, G ended up with a dental appointment at 7:30 this morning and I had one at 10:30. I also had to deliver G to a friend's house in the afternoon.
On Monday night, I dreamed that I bustled through the day, realizing at the end that, although I had taken G to her appointment, I had missed my own. On Tuesday, as I ran through in my hand what I needed to do the next couple of days, I was glad that I had just dreamed my error. Then I had a moment of panic that I missed taking Lili to dance class. Realizing it was only Tuesday, I breathed a sigh of relief that dance class is Wednesday and I had not missed it.
Today, all the appointments were kept with no problems. I even got to enjoy taking G out to breakfast and visiting with my baby brother. After a busy morning and early afternoon, I was ready to snuggle in for the evening.
While I took a little nap, Lili cleaned up the kitchen with the ulterior motive of wanting to make mini-surprise-cupcakes in the new Xpress Read Set Go machine from Nana. We were enjoying our little cooking time together and were sitting in the living room waiting for a batch to finish cooking. Lili mentioned to me that she had a weird dream last night. I was about to ask her to tell me about it when my stream of consciousness started talking to me. It went something like this: "You had a strange dream the other night too. Isn't it great that you didn't forget any of your appointments? Yep, you are truly a great mom. Even that panic attack about forgetting dance last night was a false...Hey, did you forget that dance is tonight? The last time you looked at the clock it was 5:44. You know dance starts at 6:00, right?"
While I was fairly eloquent in my head, all that would come out of my mouth was, "Lili! Dance!" Her eyes got wide, she scrambled to get dressed, couldn't find her shoes, and we had to wait for a batch of cupcakes to finish cooking. But we were only 10 minutes late. Yep, I'm still a great mom! But now that I have to remember where 4 people are supposed to be and when they are supposed to be there, maybe I need a better system. Otherwise, I'm going to have some restless, dream-filled sleep and less than healthy teeth!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sorry, kid, I can't help it!
The despised and detested MEAP begins today. This is the state level test for Michigan,designed to torture children in grades 3 through 8, as well as their teachers.
So this morning, I was dropping Genevieve and Lilienne at Papa and Nama's house. They hang out there for about 25 minutes before walking to school. As they were getting out, I wished them good luck on the MEAP. Then I proceeded to give them a little motherly advice: Take your time. Reread the passages if you need to. Use your test taking strategies.
Genevieve's reply: OMG, mom, you're such a teacher!
So this morning, I was dropping Genevieve and Lilienne at Papa and Nama's house. They hang out there for about 25 minutes before walking to school. As they were getting out, I wished them good luck on the MEAP. Then I proceeded to give them a little motherly advice: Take your time. Reread the passages if you need to. Use your test taking strategies.
Genevieve's reply: OMG, mom, you're such a teacher!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Good Bye, Besa
Today we had to put down our Besa Cat. Our family has had many pets from cats and dogs to rabbits, sheep, goats, even a baby raccoon that was orphaned in a storm; and yes, that infamous flying squirrel. But Besa was by far the oldest pet we have had and putting her down was a difficult decision.
Besa was a gift, given to me in my first year of teaching by an 8th grader named Brent. I had another cat, Paco, die that year and was quite upset about the loss. Brent, wanting to make me feel better, gave me a sweet little striped kitten. I named her Besa, Spanish for kiss, because she loved to kiss me by licking under my nose. I was the only person she would do this to, and it was a habit that lasted her whole life. Seventeen years. I think that is pretty old for a cat.
Besa, like most cats, had some funny quirks. She was not a cuddly cat. She did not often curl up on a lap. But she showed her affection in other ways. While I was the only one she would "kiss," she rubbed up against anyone who would come into the house, marking all of us and any guests as part of her "family."
Besa kept the other two cats, Pumpkin and Josie, alive. When we sometimes forgot to check food and water levels, Besa was the one who would follow anyone around the house meowing until one of us replenished the supply. One time the basement flooded and Besa told us about that too! It was a running joke when Besa started following us quite vocally, getting under feet, to ask, "What's the matter, Besa? Did Timmy fall down the well again?" In the last couple of years, I guess she got a little tired of waiting for us to fill the water dish. She took to spending most of her time on the kitchen counter. Then when anyone went into the kitchen, they would just turn on the faucet for her. But having a cat living on the counter meant I had to keep it picked up a bit. She made a bed one time out of a package of dinner rolls and another time out of a box of clementines.
Besa was a sweet and unique cat. She was a good cat. In the end, she was not much more than skin over bones, even though she ate constantly. She injured a back leg in a trip off the kitchen counter. Her hair was falling out. I know that she was suffering and I am thankful that she is suffering no longer.
RIP, Besa. Find Paco and Whitey in cat heaven. Romp in a field of catnip. We will miss you.
Besa was a gift, given to me in my first year of teaching by an 8th grader named Brent. I had another cat, Paco, die that year and was quite upset about the loss. Brent, wanting to make me feel better, gave me a sweet little striped kitten. I named her Besa, Spanish for kiss, because she loved to kiss me by licking under my nose. I was the only person she would do this to, and it was a habit that lasted her whole life. Seventeen years. I think that is pretty old for a cat.
Besa, like most cats, had some funny quirks. She was not a cuddly cat. She did not often curl up on a lap. But she showed her affection in other ways. While I was the only one she would "kiss," she rubbed up against anyone who would come into the house, marking all of us and any guests as part of her "family."
Besa kept the other two cats, Pumpkin and Josie, alive. When we sometimes forgot to check food and water levels, Besa was the one who would follow anyone around the house meowing until one of us replenished the supply. One time the basement flooded and Besa told us about that too! It was a running joke when Besa started following us quite vocally, getting under feet, to ask, "What's the matter, Besa? Did Timmy fall down the well again?" In the last couple of years, I guess she got a little tired of waiting for us to fill the water dish. She took to spending most of her time on the kitchen counter. Then when anyone went into the kitchen, they would just turn on the faucet for her. But having a cat living on the counter meant I had to keep it picked up a bit. She made a bed one time out of a package of dinner rolls and another time out of a box of clementines.
Besa was a sweet and unique cat. She was a good cat. In the end, she was not much more than skin over bones, even though she ate constantly. She injured a back leg in a trip off the kitchen counter. Her hair was falling out. I know that she was suffering and I am thankful that she is suffering no longer.
RIP, Besa. Find Paco and Whitey in cat heaven. Romp in a field of catnip. We will miss you.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Rabbits Run Amuck
My husband grew up with all kinds of animals in and around his house. From those infamous flying squirrels to ferrets to baby skunks to farm animals like goats, chickens, and pigs. So I should have realized that animals would factor quite heavily into our lives together as well.
And we have had many animals, but this post is about rabbits. I was able to avoid rabbits for several years. We had one when Genevieve was very little, but it lived outside and escaped. After Lili came along and was big enough to talk, getting rabbits was something the girls brought up over and over.
After Jeff's brother moved to the west end of the UP, Jeff began to make a visit to a big annual animal sale every spring in Bruce Crossing. It is where he bought our first peacocks. Jeff noticed that for a couple of years, there were no rabbits at the sale, so he came up with a plan. He purchased $80 worth of rabbits and took them to the sale to make a tidy profit. The problem was that everyone else had the same plan that year. He couldn't give the rabbits away, so $80 worth of rabbits came back home.
As he arrived home on a weekday before I was home from work, he decided to set the rabbits free. This began a many-year challenge of ridding the yard of rabbits. The rabbits ate all my flowers, they destroyed the foundation of the barn, and the concrete floor of the barn cracked and collapsed after they burrowed under it. So we managed to capture and get rid of most of the adults. But a few lingered, so every couple of months, we'd spend a few days netting babies.
At one point, we seemed to have them under control, but we must have had 40 rabbits in cages. The cages were in two areas inside the barn, on the wall outside the barn, and inside the chicken coop. In the winter when the waters would freeze, it would take the girls and I over an hour to take care of them. And when we began to spend much of our summers on the houseboat, it was a pain to have to run home to take care of the rabbits. That was when we loaded up a bunch and sold them at the Trufant flea market. Since then we have also given many away through free cycle.
In the last couple years we haven't had much problem with rabbits. Someone once must have confused our house for a rabbit sanctuary and dropping off two cute lop-eared rabbits was the worst we had to endure. I captured the tamest one and gave it to a student but the other one has been hanging around for about two years. As of late, Floppy has found a tipped mate. And this leads to our latest baby catching necessity. When Lili and I got home from school, he had three in a Rubbermaid tote. Then I tried to help and we caught one. But Jeff is a pretty intrepid rabbit hunter all on his own. I took Lili to dance tonight and we come home to find that we now have 7 baby rabbits in the house. Lili is in heaven. She has named each one and claimed them all as her own.
Here's Lili with the first three babies.
The little tan one is her favorite.
Two in the upper left corner, three in the lower left corner, one each in the right corners.
Lili will have all sorts of fun loving them up while they are little. But as they grow, she'll spend less and less time with them. That won't stop her from crying and fussing when it is time to get rid of them. Luckily (for her) Floppy and Tippy seem to be working on the next batch already!
And we have had many animals, but this post is about rabbits. I was able to avoid rabbits for several years. We had one when Genevieve was very little, but it lived outside and escaped. After Lili came along and was big enough to talk, getting rabbits was something the girls brought up over and over.
After Jeff's brother moved to the west end of the UP, Jeff began to make a visit to a big annual animal sale every spring in Bruce Crossing. It is where he bought our first peacocks. Jeff noticed that for a couple of years, there were no rabbits at the sale, so he came up with a plan. He purchased $80 worth of rabbits and took them to the sale to make a tidy profit. The problem was that everyone else had the same plan that year. He couldn't give the rabbits away, so $80 worth of rabbits came back home.
As he arrived home on a weekday before I was home from work, he decided to set the rabbits free. This began a many-year challenge of ridding the yard of rabbits. The rabbits ate all my flowers, they destroyed the foundation of the barn, and the concrete floor of the barn cracked and collapsed after they burrowed under it. So we managed to capture and get rid of most of the adults. But a few lingered, so every couple of months, we'd spend a few days netting babies.
At one point, we seemed to have them under control, but we must have had 40 rabbits in cages. The cages were in two areas inside the barn, on the wall outside the barn, and inside the chicken coop. In the winter when the waters would freeze, it would take the girls and I over an hour to take care of them. And when we began to spend much of our summers on the houseboat, it was a pain to have to run home to take care of the rabbits. That was when we loaded up a bunch and sold them at the Trufant flea market. Since then we have also given many away through free cycle.
In the last couple years we haven't had much problem with rabbits. Someone once must have confused our house for a rabbit sanctuary and dropping off two cute lop-eared rabbits was the worst we had to endure. I captured the tamest one and gave it to a student but the other one has been hanging around for about two years. As of late, Floppy has found a tipped mate. And this leads to our latest baby catching necessity. When Lili and I got home from school, he had three in a Rubbermaid tote. Then I tried to help and we caught one. But Jeff is a pretty intrepid rabbit hunter all on his own. I took Lili to dance tonight and we come home to find that we now have 7 baby rabbits in the house. Lili is in heaven. She has named each one and claimed them all as her own.
Here's Lili with the first three babies.
The little tan one is her favorite.
Two in the upper left corner, three in the lower left corner, one each in the right corners.Lili will have all sorts of fun loving them up while they are little. But as they grow, she'll spend less and less time with them. That won't stop her from crying and fussing when it is time to get rid of them. Luckily (for her) Floppy and Tippy seem to be working on the next batch already!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Add a day...
I am going to preface this post by saying, my husband is a wonderful man. He is so smart and can figure out how to do just about anything. This is a great thing when our budget has shrunk, money is tight, and things often break or stop working around the house.
The down side is that whenever he tells me how long it is going to take to fix something, it always ends up taking longer. I have learned that whatever time frame he tells me, I have to...add a day. Let me share a couple of examples.
Two weekends ago, I was away in Detroit at a reading conference. I left on Thursday night and did not return home until Monday evening. Jeff had to take the girls to school on Friday morning and on Friday afternoon, he had to attend Genevieve's last volleyball practice but the rest of the weekend he had free to work on the plumbing in the house, as the girls would be staying with Nama and Papa.
His plan for the house was to install two new water heaters and a new rust remover, and to replumb the entire house. Our well water is very iron-y and our old rust remover stopped working several years ago. This caused iron build-up inside all the pipes. It was so bad that at times there wasn't enough pressure through the water heater to even make it kick on. Ice cold showers might wake me up in the morning, but they don't make me a ray of sunshine to be around!
He said he could have the job all done by the time I got home on Monday. Now, to me, having the job done means that everything looks the same as it did before I left. Apparently, he and I have differing definitions. On my way home Monday, he called from G's volleyball game and said, "Ignore the mess. It's going to take me one more day to clean stuff up." Yep, that's right, add a day!
Again, I will sing his praises and say hallelujah for water. Hot water. With pressure to run out the sink and shower at the same time. However, he had also hoped during that weekend to replace the pump in the well. There wasn't time for that, so it got put on the to-do list.
At the beginning of last week he asked me if I wanted him to replace the pump this week on Wednesday or Thursday. I had to work Monday through Thursday, so I asked him how long it would take. He very confidently said, "It should only take me a couple of hours. I can get it done while you are at work." Scenarios began flashing through my mind and I told him I wanted him to do it Thursday. Any guesses why? That's right, I had to work Thursday but not Friday. By adding a day, I knew that the day after he started the work, I'd be out of water because he wouldn't be done yet. I didn't want that day to be a day I had to get ready for work.
So, you may be asking yourself, did she underestimate her husband? Surely he was able to change the pump in a day. Well friends, I am writing this blog post from the office in my dad's house. I spent the night here last night (Thursday night) because...he wasn't done yet.
To be fair, Jeff ran into many obstacles in his quest to install a new pump. I won't go into them here. I will say that when he finally does finish, I know the water will work fantastically. But I will continue to stand by my motto that whenever he tells me how long a job will take, I add a day.
The down side is that whenever he tells me how long it is going to take to fix something, it always ends up taking longer. I have learned that whatever time frame he tells me, I have to...add a day. Let me share a couple of examples.
Two weekends ago, I was away in Detroit at a reading conference. I left on Thursday night and did not return home until Monday evening. Jeff had to take the girls to school on Friday morning and on Friday afternoon, he had to attend Genevieve's last volleyball practice but the rest of the weekend he had free to work on the plumbing in the house, as the girls would be staying with Nama and Papa.
His plan for the house was to install two new water heaters and a new rust remover, and to replumb the entire house. Our well water is very iron-y and our old rust remover stopped working several years ago. This caused iron build-up inside all the pipes. It was so bad that at times there wasn't enough pressure through the water heater to even make it kick on. Ice cold showers might wake me up in the morning, but they don't make me a ray of sunshine to be around!
He said he could have the job all done by the time I got home on Monday. Now, to me, having the job done means that everything looks the same as it did before I left. Apparently, he and I have differing definitions. On my way home Monday, he called from G's volleyball game and said, "Ignore the mess. It's going to take me one more day to clean stuff up." Yep, that's right, add a day!
Again, I will sing his praises and say hallelujah for water. Hot water. With pressure to run out the sink and shower at the same time. However, he had also hoped during that weekend to replace the pump in the well. There wasn't time for that, so it got put on the to-do list.
At the beginning of last week he asked me if I wanted him to replace the pump this week on Wednesday or Thursday. I had to work Monday through Thursday, so I asked him how long it would take. He very confidently said, "It should only take me a couple of hours. I can get it done while you are at work." Scenarios began flashing through my mind and I told him I wanted him to do it Thursday. Any guesses why? That's right, I had to work Thursday but not Friday. By adding a day, I knew that the day after he started the work, I'd be out of water because he wouldn't be done yet. I didn't want that day to be a day I had to get ready for work.
So, you may be asking yourself, did she underestimate her husband? Surely he was able to change the pump in a day. Well friends, I am writing this blog post from the office in my dad's house. I spent the night here last night (Thursday night) because...he wasn't done yet.
To be fair, Jeff ran into many obstacles in his quest to install a new pump. I won't go into them here. I will say that when he finally does finish, I know the water will work fantastically. But I will continue to stand by my motto that whenever he tells me how long a job will take, I add a day.
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