Spring Snow

It's sort of oxymoronic, but we've had 3 'winter' storms since spring began 2½ weeks ago. The National Weather Service has issued formal warnings with time limits and everything.

The first was the worst. The school district canceled school preemptively because of it. This is the same school district that hasn't canceled school all winter and only called one delayed start. The kids and I were on our way to school when a neighbor and the father of one of Samuel's classmates stopped me and told me school was closed. I hadn't even bothered to check because it was 35 F, with no current precipitation and no wind. I figured that if the storm really got bad, they'd close school early. Oh, well. So the kids spent the day with Jennifer and her boys, which they loved.

The snow started at about 8:30 and picked up considerably all morning. At work, people were calling in and rescheduling their appointments faster than anyone could answer the phones. Finally, the afternoon schedule was completely cleared and closed off. I left at lunch time and went to Jennifer's house.

I had planned to pick up the kids and go home to ride out the storm but I quickly changed my mind. The snow and wind were so bad, I could only see about a ½ mile ahead of me. I skidded a few feet several times and twice thought I was going to go off the road. It was not fun. It took me an hour to get to Jenn's house; that drive is usually 15 to 20 minutes. So we camped out there until the next morning.

Blizzards are lots of fun the next day, though. We went sledding and had a blast. It was the kids' third or fourth time to go sledding but they've never gone on a hill as big as we used this time. It was really high and really fast and really fun.

There is something simple about sledding and playing in the snow. Being bundled up a la Christmas Story-I-can't-put-arms-down! is a novel experience as an adult. Tramping through snow half way to my knees is hard but it's a fantastic work out. And when I fell, I didn't care. What's to care about? And there's nothing quite like getting a big shove down a 20 foot hill and not having any control over where I stop or if I go flying face first into the snow.

Purging and Organizing

I undertook a huge project when my internet failed. I have a massive walk-in closet that has slowly shrunk in size during the year I have lived here. I started to fear for my safety when walking into the closet and I decided it was time to fix that.

The first step was to e-mail the ex-husband's new wife and tell her that the next time the kids went to spend time with them, I would pack up everything the kids need in Albuquerque and they were welcome to keep it all there. I realized that every time the kids come back, their bags basically stay packed until the next time when the exact same stuff makes the trip back to Albuquerque. Senseless, I tell you. And it takes up my closet space.

So then, I went through each box in my closet and sorted, tossed and organized mercilessly. If it's not useful or very meaningful, I threw it out. I was holding on to a bunch of useless garbage and I hadn't even realized it. I lost track of how many trips I made to the dumpster with two big bags of trash each time. I also filled the cargo space of the vehicle with stuff to donate to Goodwill. I even got the kids in on the action and made them pick out toys to give away.

When I was finished with our bedrooms and closets, I still wasn't quite satisfied so I went on to the bathrooms and kitchen. I have two more bags to take to Goodwill after all of that and I've tossed another half dozen bags into the dumpster.

As a reward for all my hard work, I'm re-doing my bedroom. I found a duvet cover and pillow shams that I really like, added a couple of throw pillows I made and one I couldn't make and some new curtains. It's coming together and I love it.

Part of this project is redistributing furniture. I have a headboard and dresser set that belonged to Great Grandma Eddy. I've had them since I got married 10 years ago. They're special to me because they belonged to her but they take up a lot of room in my already too small bedroom. The solution: give them to Jennifer and Caleb who need furniture for their guest room. So we are doing that this afternoon.

I was going to invest in a small chest of drawers for our pajamas and things that don't hang in the closet but I realized I don't need to. As a result of purging my closet contents, I have more space for clothes -- can you believe it?! -- so I bought a hanging organizer to hold those things.

The last phase of this spring cleaning and organizing will be to go through the kids' toys again while they are still gone. They did well and picked two medium-sized boxes worth of stuff to give away. But they still have too much stuff; with Samuel's birthday party coming in a couple of weeks and the other two having birthdays next month and this summer, we'll have way too many toys. Time to toss and give away.

I end up tossing and organizing roughly once a year and it always amazes me how much stuff I can collect in 12 to 18 months. It's staggering. And I am, by no means, a pack rat. I've never gone through each and every part of my house all at once, though. This feels pretty amazing.

Miriam vs. Princess Leia: The Battle of the Cooties

Miriam has complained for years that she is surrounded by too many boys. She has two brothers, two male cousins that we spend a lot of time with and in Texas, our best friends were another mom and her two boys. No girls, save for another friend and her daughter that we didn't see as often.

Miriam has asked me repeatedly why she doesn't have a sister. I tell her that's just the way things are. She's really excited about her new step-sibling-to-be because it might be a girl. For Miriam's sake, I hope it is. I really do.

A couple of weeks ago, Miriam was again bemoaning the fact that she has little girl interaction and the following conversation ensued:

Miriam: Boys have stinky cooties. They rub off on me. Princess Leia must have a lot of boy cooties, too. She has as many boys around her as I do.

Me: Who has more contact with boy cooties, you or Princess Leia?

Miriam: :thinking hard: Probably Princess Leia because Darth Vader has worse boy cooties than Solomon and Samuel.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I've been absent from the internet lately. Something is wrong with my router or my modem and my wireless connection is failing. I'm not sure what the deal is but it has severely hampered my posting capabilities. I've been too busy to figure it out so my internet access has been limited to lunch breaks at work and right now at Einstein Brothers.

At first, I was going to summarize the last three weeks in one big post but then I realized I don't have the energy for that. It's tough to organize that many days' worth of news into one cohesive post.

Long story short, I have taken advantage of the extra time not spent on the internet to get some stuff done around the house and -- ahem -- go to bed earlier. It's been great. I feel so productive.

Nice Moments

I took the kids out to dinner last night for no reason really. I just felt like surprising them and they love Red Robin so we went. We had a great time laughing and talking about their school day and my work day. At one point, I said, "I love you guys so much. You know that right?" Solomon looked at me and said, "That's the thing you say to us the most!"

I was really happy to hear that from him. Sometimes I feel like so much of my time is spent nagging them to pick up their shoes and do their homework and brush their teeth that they might look back on their childhoods and wonder why I was so uptight. I know I can get pretty intense about that stuff but if they're not hung up on it now, maybe they won't be in 20 years, either.

What is Wrong With People?

I just watched as a woman left her mother sitting at the curb in her wheel chair while she moved her car to an empty portion of the parking lot. Then she came back to get her mother and pushed the chair half way around the building to the car. Why did they have to do this? Because someone with no business parking in a handicapped parking space did just that. This woman and her mother had no room to maneuver the wheel chair in a regular parking space. Seriously, what is wrong with people?

People Watching

My vehicle is having extensive work done on both the brakes (Yes, again. In December they just made it functional with a minimum of time and money.) and the engine. This means I am without a car today and hanging out near the mechanic shop. They have a courtesy service that would take me home but I told them I'm going to hang out in the area for a while.

I'm doing this for a few reasons. One, my living room is collapsing under piles of unfolded laundry and I don't want to look at them any more. Two, the library is near here and I will walk over there in a bit to return some CDs. Three, I have a ton of household management stuff to do: grocery listing, to do listing, schedule organization, bill organization, etc. and if I hang out at home, I'll get distracted by the laundry avalanche. (The plan is to get that stuff done while I sit here but so far, it's not getting done. Go figure.) Finally, and ultimately, I think I deserve a nice morning out to drink a caramel macchiato, listen to music and people watch.

So here I sit in the coffee and bagel shop. It's rather interesting to be here for an extended period of time, rather than running in quickly for a latte and running out again. This is a great place to people watch.

I've seen multiple business schmoozing sessions. It's easy to spot them; business casual, some glossy brochures and artificially broad smiles. The longer they sit, the wider the smiles, the harder the sell. It's interesting to listen to a salesperson on a commission wrap it up and get the powers-that-be to sign on the dotted line. I'm terrible at that kind of thing. I'm so grateful that the only thing I have to sell is a flu vaccine.

A coffee klatch sat down across from me just now. It appears to be a family: a woman, her daughters and one of her daughter's daughters. They are the sort that looks like they worked hard at looking like they worked out this morning. The baby is cute. She's having a bottle while the women have something that is not coffee. I guess that would make them a soda klatch or maybe a fruit smoothie klatch.

Before they sat down, a couple was sitting there and discussing their mutual misunderstanding of an emotionally charged subject. They both had that frustrated, tight-lipped expression that says, "Why can't you just see this the way I do?" I think she was upset at the way he handled a phone coversation with an ex. I'm glad I don't have those conversations any more.

Out the window beside me has to be the most entertaining thing I've seen all morning. It's a group of three people, two women and a man. One woman is dressed normally. The other is wearing short shorts, a button down shirt and a puffy ski vest. On her head is a massive faux fur hat with ear flaps tied up on top. The man is wearing pajama pants covered with what looks like a stenciled design of confetti. He has no shirt and his skin looks as if he hasn't worn a shirt for the better part of the last decade. He is wearing a hat that looks like it belonged to Gilligan before it washed ashore and someone sponged it with neon paints. They are all carrying 10-ft long dried reeds. I assume they are sitting outside because the man is not wearing a shirt and because the reeds probably wouldn't be welcome inside, although I'm not completely sure of that.

Well. I'm not sure anything else here could top that so I should quit while I'm ahead. I should also quit this because I have a long list of stuff to do and no one is going to do it for me.

You Can't Make This Up

Unless you're a comic book writer, that is.

Wanna See Me Bald?

I'm volunteering to have my head shaved at a St. Baldrick's event and, in the process, raising money to fund childhood cancer research. I've been thinking about it for a while and I'm finally just going for it. There's no time like the present, right?

Anyway, I'm excited about it. I'm a firm believer in 'every little bit counts' so any help I can give will be given and I am happy to do it. Plus, I'm excited to add shaving my head to the list of stuff I've done.

Here is a link for more information on my event. Psst ... you can also make a donation to the cause.

Diabetes

Mom, did you know that sometimes coyotes have a disease called diabetes? And if a coyote bites a person, that person can get diabetes, too. Diabetes is a poison disease and you can die if you have it. You don't want to get diabetes, Mom.

Or so says Samuel.

What We Did Today

After I spent a couple of hours spring cleaning, I decided we should take advantage of the beautiful weather. So we drove a few minutes to Cherry Creek State Park and played on the beach. This was our view for 2 hours. I love living here.

Possibly the Cutest Thing Ever

Drama King

I can't help but laugh at Solomon several times per week. He is so dramatic about illness and injury that he becomes convinced he is knocking at death's door on a regular basis. He just came to me, gasping for breath, and wrote a note that says, "Samuel brok my ryb. He hit me with his nakel." When asked what a 'nakel' is, he croaked, "His knuckle." I laughed and he made a face of impotent fury.

Now he is lying on the sofa with an ice pack on his side and looking very sorry for himself. For the record, he provoked Samuel into wrestling and he doesn't even have a red mark on his skin.

Last night we had dinner at Chick-Fil-A and Solomon refused to eat anything from the fruit cups I had ordered. He was anxious to go play with his siblings and cousins but I told him he had to choose 5 pieces of fruit to eat first. He nibbled on half an apple chunk and claimed it had given him a headache.

Solomon once told me his appendix had just exploded. I told him that if that had happened, he'd have been lying on the floor writhing in agony. He let it drop then, but he called me at work the next day and said, "This time I'm sure my appendix exploded. I can feel it." I had him jump up and down and when I didn't hear screaming I felt pretty sure he was okay. It's a good thing I'm not as much a hypochondriac as he is, or we would be in the doctor's office every other day.

Sure, You Will

Nervous 8-year-old-boy: Am I getting a shot today? Or a stick in my throat?

Me: No, the doctor just needs to talk to you and your mom.

Boy: Are you sure? 'Cause I don't like that stick in my throat. You know, the one that makes you want to throw up? And then you do throw up. I don't like that.

Me: Yes, I'm sure we don't have to do that today.

Boy: Good, because if you were going to do that to me, I'd just run away. I'd run away to the Big 5 store.

Me: Big 5 is across the street and there's a lot of traffic. That might be dangerous.

Boy: No, because if I run fast enough, I can fly over all the cars. I think sometimes I could fly over the tallest building in the world.

Me: tries -- unsuccessfully -- to stifle laughter

Goose Stepping

I don't know if the geese are on their way back north for the spring or what but flocks of them have set up camp on our parking lot at work. They are eating their fill of whatever they eat and the by product is ending up all over the parking lot. It's so attractive. And I'm having the time of my life stepping over and around it. Nasty birds.

He's On To Me

The Spider Spray is actually Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar body spray. Jennifer gave me a set of lotion, body wash, spray and cream for Christmas. I've been using the lotion and Solomon commented that I smell like Spider Spray. Uh-oh.

Overheard

Mother to her daughter at the chess tournament: It's okay, honey. That was a hard board. You'll get an easier one next time.

The Chess Tournament

Solomon played in his first chess tournament yesterday. He's recently become really interested in the game and will play anyone who takes the time. He joined the chess club at school on Wednesday mornings and he's learning a lot there.

I taught him the basic moves 3 years ago and he started beating me shortly afterward. Granted, I am the last person who could be called good at chess but he was not yet 6 at the time! Now it's gotten to the point that he surprises me with some of his moves, ones that I had no idea were coming. Which, again, doesn't take a lot when I'm playing chess, but still. Can you tell I'm proud of him?

I was really impressed yesterday. Solomon is an impulsive kid and doesn't always listen when it counts. Since this was his first time in a setting like this, I was worried that he'd miss out on important instructions and be sorry about it later. But he didn't. He sat right in front at the players' meeting before all the action began and he soaked up every bit of it. He was calm and focused.

He lost his first two games and I was worried that he'd start to get down on himself after that. But he impressed me again. The tournament directors did a good job of constantly reminding the kids that this was all for fun, that they should do their best and enjoy the games, that they might learn something from the games they lost.

And then Solomon won the third game. I've never seen a happier smile on my child's face. It was a great feeling, for both of us. He lost his fourth game and won the last. I was floored by his composure during the whole thing. It was a long day with a lot of waiting around for pairings and standings to be posted but he kept his cool through the majority of it.

He received a participation trophy and lots of valuable pointers for the future. And it was nice to find out that of the three kids who beat Solomon, one was undefeated all day and another only lost one of his games.

How Did They Get to be This Cool?

Samuel and Solomon like Linkin Park. (Obviously, I censor what they listen to.) All three kids are well on their way to appreciating music as much as I do.

Miriam is compassionate. Her teacher told me she translates for the child in her class who knows very little English.

Solomon wants to be a movie director. He's making a movie in his head already. Every once in a while he tells me about a new part in it.

Miriam wants to be an artist when she grows up. I tell her that she already is and she beams. One of her art projects was chosen to be displayed in a shopping mall near here.

Solomon really loves chess. A few weeks ago he said, "Chess club is kind of a dorky thing to do, isn't it? That's okay, I like being a nerd."

Samuel has a mental running list of his favorite songs. Every once in a while one comes on the radio and he dances along or plays air guitar. Sometimes he informs me that one of his favorite songs has changed or he gets mad at me for changing the station in the middle of a new favorite song.

The kids' favorite shows are on the Discovery Channel. They love Dirty Jobs, Man vs. Wild, Mythbusters and Cash Cab.

Invasion of the Radio Snatchers

My Spanish radio station disappeared. It has been replaced by another Spanish station that plays music I do not enjoy. Not only do I not enjoy it, I actively dislike it. The rhythms grate on my nerves like a spoon stuck in the garbage disposal.