snow

The other day, Davy and I, after having moved ourselves entirely ourselves, were tried to unpack a few more boxes one afternoon. We were upstairs, the kids were downstairs, and we were actually throwing things out of the boxes uninterrupted. It was in fact, a small miracle. 

At the exact same time, another miracle was occuring downstairs. Ben began to shout, “It’s a miracle, it’s snowing! It’s snowing!”

And yes, we did walk downstairs to find a miracle. It had snowed.

I know that this doesn’t look like much. But it was everywhere! I mean everywhere. Ben and Summer had happily torn up three or four giant styrofoam box inserts while we were upstairs accomplishing ten minutes worth of unpacking. You look at that snow and think, oh, you can just sweep that up. But let me tell you this snow is amazing. It is so light and fluffy it sticks to the walls. When you try to sweep it, it just flies into the air and floats around. I pretty much freaked out when I saw the enormous, miraculous mess my two munchkins had made. Then I looked at Davy, and he was grinning from ear to ear. He reminded me that children are creative and that our two children had enjoyed every minute of creating snow together. I relaxed, and the kids were thrilled with their creation. One small miracle upstairs = one big miracle downstairs.

That big miracle took an hour to clean up. And I am still finding snow stuck to the walls and under the couch and on the stairs. And I smile each time I do. 

more funny things

I have received quite alot of feedback concerning our neighborly types. Yes. this actually happened. Also, I forgot to add another even funnier thing.

There was a day a couple weeks back before we moved into the house when it was necessary for us to shut off our water for a couple of days. It also coincided with the day our tile guy was tiling our shower. He of course needed water to mix his mortar. Well, no big deal (so we thought), we would just ask our next door neighbors for a bucket of water from their hose. So, approaching their front door with bucket in hand, Davy asked politely if we could fill our bucket from their hose. One bucket. From the hose.

We were answered with this, “It will cost you.”

I think we were both like, “ha, ha… you are funny.”

Until we looked at her funny (read crazy) face. “Five dollars.”

We figured out quick that we would use our neighbors water on the other side of our house. This is another true, crazy story.

I am sure there will be more to come.

For now, I will just keep riding my skateboard in front of their house over and over again, each time yelping with delight as Ben stares happily into the puddles next to their curb fishing out worms. I don’t think they own the street, do they? Life is funny.

funny things

For those of you that don’t know… we recently moved… 

There will be more info on that later… but I have to share a little story about our new neighbors.

We have met most of our neighbors. They are nice. One of them even baked us cookies. Very hospitable.

But our next door neighbors are a very interesting duo. They don’t come out much. But we know they are unhappy with our collection of plastic children’s toys and what seems to be endless home repair projects.

So much despised are we, or crazy are they… that the other morning we awoke to a small pile of rusty nails behind each of our tires. Interesting… I have seen them peeping through the windows at us… possibly casting spells. But how funny is that? Old rusty nails behind the tires. The oldest trick in the book. I think I might have laughed.

What’s next?

Micro machines on the front walk?

An ice cold bucket of water above the front door?

Roofing cement on the driveway?

I had myself a little chuckle after this whole situation transpired. And believe me, I smile big and wave every time I see them.

Landslide

This is something to inspire hope in the future. On a bad day of teaching or mothering, I might just need to watch this to remember that childhood can be so precious.

T – 9 and counting

school days that is.

shameful admissions

I have somehow lost my keys. 

You cannot see the floorboards of either of our cars. 

My house looks like a tornado hit it.

I’m not sure the last time we ate a real home cooked meal.

My bedtime has recently been in the am hours.

The last time I worked out was who knows when.

My life is just a tad bit chaotic at the moment. Ever felt like this? But we move all week and we work all week… so I guess it’s ok, right? At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

love this

Love this. Love this. Love this.

It’s worth the eight minutes.

5/6/79

This girl is smiling. I am smiling because I am sitting at school checking blogs and email and this and that. Most days this luxury is unafforded between breaking up fights, dealing with pubescent body odor, and trying to teach students the wonders of science. But today is movie day. A great day for me. A gift for me on my thirtieth birthday. The students are enraptured in the movie and I am blissfully taking a mental break. I need it. It has been quite the year. It has been stretching and horrible and surprising and unavoidable. What I mean is that I have felt trapped all year by the fact that I have been completely uncomfortable from day one. And here I am, nearing the end of my tenure of training. That is what I have come to call this year. Training. Boot camp. Difficult but necessary. So, there you have it… the initial summation of my year from hell… I mean, oops, my year in training.

Other than that drawing to a close, we are also in crunch time mode for the house process. We are closing on our old house in  eight days, which means I need to begin boxing up all our belongings. Davy is constantly working over at the new house at this point… trying to get everything ready. Floors, Plumbing, Toilets, Paint, Gutters, and the list goes on… We have hired out some help on some of those things… but it is still an enormous undertaking. I have been painting like my life depended on it, and thankfully my mom has been watching the kids alot. But the house is so great and I am so glad we are doing this. I honestly think Davy and I could do this professionally… but that is a whole different story.

Ben got his stitches out the other day and the hand seems to be healing fine. He will be able to flip the bird if he so chooses (it was his middle finger.) But he is still wearing a band aid and does not want to look at it. I learned a valuable lesson from this accident (well several) but the main one is, ask if your child can be slightly sedated when they are being stitched in a difficult place for a long time. They stitched Ben for about 20 minutes on his hand, and that was where the real trauma occurred. All in all, I learned to be pro-active for your child, demanding proper care, and also to talk to the dr. about all the options. (They did not offer any sedatives… but trust me… 20 minutes of holding your own kid down screaming in pain while they try to stitch a difficult spot is torture for everyone in the room.) Thank you Jonathan for your professional opinion. Hopefully, Ben will let us touch his finger again. Thanks to all of you who sent messages for Ben! 

So today is my big 3-0. I am enjoying it enough. I now have visible wrinkles. I really do. I am enjoying the responsibility of becoming older. I am enjoying being a mother and a wife and a woman who can think for herself. I actually feel different today. I feel older, and maybe a touch wiser. 

Love you all and will keep you posted on a belated party that Davy and I are planning (after all the moving chaos has settled.)