Jen's Mental Scribblings

At one point last year we had 16 pets in this house. (14 mice, 1 cat, 1 dog). The mice fairly quickly reduced in number and we held steady at 2 for awhile. Then we got down to 1. And that, I admit was nice. We had one of everything. About two weeks Magic Cat (who's paper name, I kid you not was Hoot Owl on a Magic Carpet) didn't seem to be herself. She wasn't climbing onto the bed to sleep with me at night. She was vomiting frequently (even water), and then quit eating. We watched her closely over the Memorial Day weekend and she seemed to get a bit better, as in she was able to keep fluids down, but still wasn't her normal lovey self. I took her into the vet on Tuesday, and we ran some blood work. Turns out she was in kidney failure and yes there was (expensive) treatment, but there was no guarantee it would work. Then we noticed that even though she was keeping fluids down, she lost control of her bodily functions, and really couldn't walk. So last Thursday we said good bye to Magic. The children did very well and there were tears all around. Best kitty ever.

Yesterday, while I was sitting at the table with Gwen working on sight word memorization, Elli comes over to us and puts Cookie (our last surviving mouse) on the table and says "He's dead." Since he was curled up in a ball and not moving, I conceded that her statement was correct....and a hasty funeral was put together quite quickly.

Charlie the dog is the last animal standing. Good dog!

I've put a moratorium on further animal acquisition until we figure out:
  A. If we are moving
  B. Where we are moving if we are, in fact, moving.

I have to admit. This is somewhat difficult for me. I want another cat. And I'm thinking a full size hamster or rat this time around in the rodent department. We have two cages, so we shall see.

I've been lazy. My last
pedicure was in August. Then I spent (what seemed) forever in that boot. And I haven't gotten around to getting another yet. Last night I noticed that the last pedicure had grown out enough I could see the nail bed. It was purple.

 

I removed the polish and found that most of my nail is purple. I then remembered that at some point over the last few months, Joe and I dropped something really, really heavy on my foot, right across the nail bed of my toe. I remember tremendous pain. Check this out.

 

I wonder how long this will take to clear up.

Ever hear Jeff Foxworthy's bit about the Courtesy Sniff? Basic concept: guy finds something smelly, gags on it, and invites friend to smell it too. That was a courtesy sniff. The part of the bit that is important to this post is this:

"You ever seen a car sitting at a red light, and there's like, five guys in it? And all of a sudden all four windows go down and there's four guys hangin' out the car just cussing like crazy? And there's one guy sitting in the middle in the back just laughing. You know why he's laughing, he's cashed in his courtesy sniff! And the only thing that could make him happier was had he been driving and in control of the window lock."*

Friday Joe goes out to lunch with his work group. They went to a South Indian Restaurant. Hot and spicy food with lots of dal. Saturday he starts leaving air biscuits everywhere and its awful. Almost Carlinesque. ("A fart that could end a marriage!") In the late afternoon, we take the kids to the park and on the way back home he lets one fly. He mumbles "excuse me" and then makes the mistake of inhaling and gags.  Then it wafts over to me sitting shotgun.  My eyes water and I'm desperate to unroll the window...but it won't go down! The windows are locked shut. I try to get out a "Unlock the windows!" but I'm laughing too hard to get it out. Finally I gasp it out and Joe goes "Oh! They are locked. Let me fix that." The windows open and the air is breathable again.

Except I still can't breathe 'cause I'm laughing so hard. We laugh and laugh, tears rolling down our faces and the kids (lucky them!!!) have no idea why we are laughing so hard.

I have absolutely, no idea why Ike finds bodily functions the height of comedy at the moment...I truly don't. =)

*find this quote at at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423871/quotes

I did it again...ran something through the garbage disposal that I shouldn't (or at least didn't run the water long enough afterwards) and I've stopped up the kitchen sink. Gel drainer didn't work. Oh poop. Time for the plumber...thankfully this is a morning Joe can stay home and wait for things like that and still work from home.

Did you know I have the best husband in the world? Better than anyone else ever? Well, let me tell you I do.

Friday morning started the last of my Lifeways weekends down at Hill of the Hawk Farm. We were scheduled to be sleeping outdoors in the tents, but there was some discussion back and forth as rain was predicted. In the end, we were instructed to bring equipment consistent with sleeping outside. For me this meant taking this huge ass battery pack for my CPAP. Now I don't have to bring it. The owner offered to run a power cord from the kitchen out to the tents (maybe 30 feet) the first weekend we had back in October. Since I really hate being a pain in the ass, especially since I kept feeling that my food issues was making life a hassle for her, I planned on bringing the battery pack.

And I then left Friday morning without it. And I didn't realize it until about 2 PM when we unloaded the cars (after it being decided to sleep indoors. Good thing too. We got 5 inches of rain Friday night and wind strong enough to knock down trees.). Oh shit.  Oh well, don't need it anyway. And then just went upon my day.

We spent the afternoon wet felting landscapes for a story apron. The rest of the group went on a short hike. Then we made dinner. And of course, we were having a great time. During dinner, we hear kids voices, I look up at the window and don't see anything. I go back to my dinner of salad and talking to classmates. Then another classmate spoke up. "Hey, there's a heavy set guy in a plaid jacket wandering around".

The owner got up and went outside. And we all heard a "Can I help you?" About a minute later she pops back in and says "Jen you have visitors"

I get a half second to think WTF? And I'm bombarded with 3 kids. And Joe walks in the door. "Why are you here?" "To bring you this!" And he holds up my battery back. And my stomach sinks, I didn't think to call home and say not to worry I didn't need the battery pack. I felt so guilty "I don't need it." To my surprise, he didn't blow up. He responded "Well, maybe you'll have a power outage. I don't know. I just know you needed it."

Joe managed to drive down to Big Sur (a 2 hour drive) with no instructions on how to find the place. All he had was the name of the owner and the name of the farm which he found by rifling my email. (Tuesday morning we discovered that had he gone through the sent folder he would have found the instructions and the phone number). I'm still seriously impressed. We had a hard enough time finding it with instructions. (For his take of the adventure, look here.)

The stuck around about an hour. The kids ran around a bit. Elli bat cleanup on the dinner salad (her favorite food). I nursed Gray (eliminating the need to pump), and then changed him. And then sent them home. It was getting dark and the fog was coming in and that makes PCH really treacherous. And that stop light were the section decided to fall into the ocean didn't make it any safer.

All my classmates were seriously impressed. "My husband would never do that" "Mine would have said "you are SOL"". I got lots of compliments on how cute the kids are and how beautiful Joe's and my relationship is. And its true. I have been truly blessed by that wonderful man.

And one day soon, when the kids go to bed early and he's home....I'll show him. =)

I keep enough of my Catholicism to ask Saints for help when needed.

St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost items.

I lost a book I borrowed from San Francisco Public through SJPL. Cost from Amazon? $23.00. Charge for lost book? $115.00

And I just found it under the couch!!! I've been searching for days. Thank goodness!

First, we had the lizard hanging out in our office for a couple of weeks. Now Joe reports the existence of a frog. When in the hell did my office turn into Wild Kingdom???

FedEx just delivered my laptop! W00T!!!! Pretty UNBROKEN screen. Yea!

(Its a little blue box, what else did you think I would name it huh?)

The consultant I've been working with told me to declare this month to be the Month of Joy, rather than the name on the calendar. I've recently realized that....I don't know how to have fun with my kids. I know of people who have fun with their kids, so I'm familiar with the concept...but  actual practice in my life? Not so much. And I don't want to continue to be a stressed out, busy, joyless Mama.

So I'm trying to go through my day looking for the Joy. Which is hard for me to find in the moment.

But I can however look for the Joy at then end of the day to remind myself that Joy does happen....and to keep looking for more.

So, Today's Joy.

• Baby kisses
• Ike dressed up
• little girl snuggles
• a chocolate chip cookie
• Laughter of three kids playing togther
• Splashes of water from the tub
• Three naked bodies covered in glitter glue (the clean up was not a joy, but the picture in my head is)
• a ball hitting the fence with a happy dog chasing it
• Storytime
• Singing my babies to sleep
• an unasked for hug to make me feel better (Ike really is empathetic, it just shuts off when he's in manic mode)
• Joe coming home
• Joe kisses
• Baby giggles
• a nursing baby at my breast
• a sleeping baby in my arms
• Ike climbing a tree all by himself (I LOVE the fact that they can climb the trees at Ike's school. Its encouraged even.)
• My mother cheering me up
• Unconditional Love and support from my Mom
• A beautiful Red Rose

So I found out that there’s a Craft and Folk Art Museum in San Francisco. Since Joe’s Mom and I are big fans of the Crafted goods, I thought this would be a good excursion for the family. So yesterday, I called Ike in sick to school and we all loaded into the van and headed to the City. We left late (11AM) so by the time we hit South San Francisco, people were hungry. We stopped at Chipolte for lunch where all three kids refused to eat. Their loss!

Back into the van and up to the City. Search for parking, going round and round blocks in order to be going the right direction to get into the parking lot at 5th and Mission. (No left turns….Grrrr!) Get everybody out, walk the block or so to the museum where we discover…its closed! And its not noted on the website!

Good thing I had a backup plan.

We reloaded the van with everyone and crossed the city over to Golden Gate park and got to the California Academy of Science. Its the first time we've made it since it reopened. Going to pay to get in, we quickly determined that a membership for us is really cost effective, so we will be going back another time. A great time was had by all, Elli kept running off though. The kids got interviewed by a KRON camera crew about why its important to save the oceans. We got there around 2:30 and by the time the place closed at 5, everyone was ready to go.

We headed home, with a small detour to IKEA for dinner and a few supplies.

Ike and Elli fell asleep on the way home and we were able to transfer them to beds...relatively easy.

It was a long day, but a good one.

Next Adventure on the Calendar? Maker Faire on Sunday! Is anyone else going?