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Kate finished her year of clarinet in school with a concert. She gave it a good effort, but really decided that clarinet is not for her. The band did a great job and was followed by the chorus.
The boys were hot and miserable… so this is what they looked like.
This is Coco. We adopted her from a rescue. She is reported to be a Sheltie mix and is about 3 months old. Last night was complete with puppy crying through the night, but she has been very successful with potty training and seems to be very smart. Shadow is not happy. She doesn’t realize yet that she has a playmate. She sees this young whipper snapper as a trespasser! Coco is Kate’s dog. Happy Birthday early! Kate has been pleading her case for a puppy for several months. She wore me down. Petfinder.com is how we found Shadow so that’s where we started this time. I expected the process to take a while, but our application was approved quickly. We found out on Friday that we could pick her up on Saturday! Suddenly our Zoo is one larger and the Zookeeper is loving it. Laparoscopic surgery is an amazing technological feat! Most of you know I had to go “under the knife” last week. I will save you all the gory details, but suffice it to say “female stuff”. The journey was not without a story. Our good ‘ol insurance company thought they could run my health care decisions from behind a desk in a cubical in some other state… Lets just say I trust my doctor. A novel concept really. Lets say that, upon examination and tests, he prescribes surgery. After reading about it, talking with every friend on the planet, and praying for God’s wisdom, I make a decision to go for it and it gets scheduled. wait… for… it… Insurance denies coverage! Yep. DEEEEE NIED! The basis for the determination was “lack of conservative care”. What does that mean?!! They thought I should try other types of treatment that my Doctor didn’t think would work! Who’s in charge here? Did someone just throw my Doctor’s diploma in the trash? Flurry of phone calls: by me, the doctor’s assistant, and even my Doctor! Is there a way to calculate the monetary value of undue stress? Isn’t that what lawyers are for? Considered calling the press. Really. Health Care is a hot topic right now! The Friday before surgery (on Monday) I didn’t know if I was going to go in! The doctor’s assistant, on her way home from work, called with the verdict. Surgery is approved! 4:25PM on Friday afternoon… Relief. Extreme relief. The operation went perfectly. High tech tools and T.V. screens. I spent my one, paid for, night in the hospital before coming home with cool drugs. My doc says you can watch operations of this type on You Tube! I looked it up. It’s true. Crazy! Now: I am so blessed to have so many friends! I have been spoiled with food, calls, cards and offers for help. I am so grateful. My body is healing quickly. Thanks to God for such blessings. As if the construction last year wasn’t enough with the digging and trucks and subsequent tree removal, we are facing it again! Several weeks ago some signs appeared around the neighborhood declaring that the water company would be starting a project. A BIG PROJECT. Replacing the water mains throughout the neighborhood. The box below the sign, kinda like a real estate listing, contained a letter that explained THE BIG PROJECT would be done in summer 2011. Yep 2011. That’s over a year from now! This past week, trucks arrived on our street. Early. 7:30am. Jackhammers jammed before the kids were out of the house. A letter appeared on our door. It began: “We’re please to begin our underground water main replacement project that serves your neighborhood.” It continued in great detail using words like “regretfully” and “inconvenience” and “occasionally”. Blah. Blah. Blah. Who needs water anyway? Plastic pipes were laid over a series of days. Gravel covering them at each driveway.
Then the orange markers arrived.
Next, the hoses for each house…(note the lack of grass and pristine sidewalk we still have because of last summer)
Water began flowing from the open ends down the streets creating flowing rivers that Shadow must now navigate on our walks. Wet puppy feet even in the sun… It promises to be an adventure. And entertainment for all those kids who never have anything better to do than hang around our front yard! So my Love has joined the ranks of 40+ In order to honor this accomplishment, we had a party at the house. We invited many close friends and musician types. The house was crowded and loud and “rockin’!” Rich got a small keg of one of his favorite beers, we had tons of food, and of course a cake FULL of candles. (The smoke alarm miraculously did NOT go off!) The old college buds cranked out many of the old set list and obviously had a fun time doing it. Here’s to another 40! The snow continues. It began last night and closed schools this morning. It was wet this time and hung to every surface. The early morning was beautiful and quiet… Then the kids had snowball fights for hours this afternoon. The trees dripped off the blanket and the yard became rumpled and dirty. I prefer to remember the morning! The Stay-at-Home-Mom (SAHM) role is always loaded. I mean that in both senses of the word. Loaded with things to do and loaded with controversy. Many people can’t imagine how we must be able to afford for me “not to work”. Others simply state “It must be nice”! Yeah, I sit at home and eat bonbons all day! Then in the newspaper recently, an article about how much “leisure time” moms have… This included exercise and other things that are just time fillers… Today, after my walking Shadow, I ate breakfast and dressed to go get James out of school for a dentist appointment. It was the second trip to the dentist in a week, because the first time, when I took the younger two sibs, James had exams. (The newspaper article says time in the car with kids counts as childcare.) After the dentist and re-deposit at school, I came home for lunch and bonbon time. I consider the early afternoon “down time” since when the kids get home starting around 3pm, I am hands on with work. Back to bonbons. I made my lunch on a tray and went to sit in my big comfy chair to catch up on recorded TV. Two hours. Including a slice of lemon meringue pie! Hate me if you must. The phone rings shortly thereafter. A good friend ill and needs me to care for her young (almost 2yrs) one. Of course I will. The work begins. As soon as I have her in and settling, James shows up from school with one of his buddies. SO, zero to three in less than 30 minutes! Snacks for the boys. Toddler exploring and climbing. Less than an hour later, buddy leaves and the revolving front door shoves in Kate and Alexander from the school bus. More snacks this time including Toddler. Maybe 30 minutes later, Toddler’s big Sis comes over to “help”. Can you say “bonbons”? Dinner time is fast approaching. I set them all around the table to snack and do homework. Not much focused work gets done, but I snapped the pic above. The homework is merely an excuse to contain the mayhem so I can get the chicken and brocoli chopped and the pasta water to boil. Ill momma calls feeling somewhat better after her rest. We share dinner, some silly banter, quick kitchen clean up,and hop into the van for church. We actually made it there on time! Home again and marching orders are issued for PJs and teeth brushing and bedtime. One hour later. I sit. Full from all my bonbons. We all have them. I guess it was my turn. Plumbing–Homework–Sickness–Broken Car… We have had a long standing plumbing problem that finally got fixed yesterday. The county has snaked our drain about every 6 months for a few years now. Then they took down the tree that was causing root interference. Then dug up our front yard to replace the pipe. Our drain was still backing up! The plumber snaked out our main basement drain and our tub. Now I can do laundry without having a flood… The afternoon brought with it grumpy kids. James is sick. Kate and I had communication breakdown. Homework help turned into tears… Leaving the house for dance class I was not “feeling the love”. We have all been there—distracted and emotional. It led to me sideswiping our (open) van door into our friends’ car. Now it won’t close all the way… Yep! I broke the car. Humbled, I explained to Rich. We wait to see if a salvage replacement door can be found. The whole situation reminded us of this video. At church today the band, Levite, was praising God with songs like “Hosanna” and “By Faith”. These pix are the only ones I took…I don’t really like taking pictures during church. I feel like I am distracting to others–even if I don’t use a flash. But in this auditorium with very poor lighting…flash is required and pix are still dark! Rich, Rich, Scott, Fran, and Katy sounded fantastic and I enjoy singing along! Thanks for the worship! The end of the year brings, for most, a time of reflection and goal setting. I hate that. I guess it’s because I am a rebel at heart and don’t want to conform to what everyone else is doing… I also don’t do well with keeping New Year’s resolutions and therefore see no point in making them! And, for the record, I HAVE reflected and set goals this year. Remember this post? It felt good to do it then and it feels good now since I am freed to focus on doing them now. I have a sense of success to start the new year because accomplishing this list has begun. One of the goals is to create everyday. It is becoming easy since I learned to knit. I constantly have a project going. For Christmas I ended up knitting 3 scarves, 4 hats, and about 15 washcloths. I also made several other gifts including my first batch of soap! I kept only one bar for myself, it’s great, and I look forward to making more. I also made a set of dinner napkins and printed some photos for dollar frames. I wrapped many of the gifts in sheet music (from a book Rich had tossed to out recycle) and ribbons rescued from the thrift store. Creatively using what I had and making what I could. Very gratifying. Here’s to all of you who are setting goals. I hope your time of self reflection is productive and excites you into 2010! |
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