H as an astronaut
(Add 17 more pictures)
Monday, May 30, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Mother Superior
I would like to thank the sweet tired angel who washed all the dinner and dessert dishes before bed last night, instead of leaving them for me today... oh wait, that was also me.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Ripe For Parody
The latest Facebook guilt trip repost:
A 15 year old girl holds her 1 year old son, people call her a slut; but no one knows she was raped at 13. People call a girl fat, but no one knows she has a serious disease that causes her to be overweight. People call an old man ugly, no one knows he had a serious injury to his face while serving our country in Vietnam. Re-post this if your against bullying and stereotyping!!!!
Sorry, but these things push my "mock this" button.
People call me stinky, but no one knows that my favorite grocery store stopped carrying my favorite brand of deodorant and I refuse to shower until they bring it back.
People say "That chick has really hairy legs," but no one knows that as a child, she was involved in a traumatic disposable razor incident and the sight of a pink Daisy makes her go a little crazy (literally).
People call an old man "Sir Drooler" because of his drool bib and the drool coming out of his mouth. And, actually, they kind of have a point.
People say "your" when they really mean "you're" and it drives me bat crap crazy. It's very petty of me, yes. Not everyone received the same twelve years of excellent public school education that I did. Should I shut up about it? Probably.
There, I feel better now.
A 15 year old girl holds her 1 year old son, people call her a slut; but no one knows she was raped at 13. People call a girl fat, but no one knows she has a serious disease that causes her to be overweight. People call an old man ugly, no one knows he had a serious injury to his face while serving our country in Vietnam. Re-post this if your against bullying and stereotyping!!!!
Sorry, but these things push my "mock this" button.
People call me stinky, but no one knows that my favorite grocery store stopped carrying my favorite brand of deodorant and I refuse to shower until they bring it back.
People say "That chick has really hairy legs," but no one knows that as a child, she was involved in a traumatic disposable razor incident and the sight of a pink Daisy makes her go a little crazy (literally).
People call an old man "Sir Drooler" because of his drool bib and the drool coming out of his mouth. And, actually, they kind of have a point.
People say "your" when they really mean "you're" and it drives me bat crap crazy. It's very petty of me, yes. Not everyone received the same twelve years of excellent public school education that I did. Should I shut up about it? Probably.
There, I feel better now.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Oh this little girl ❤
Roz received her first proposal of marriage today. "I said yes, because I love him, because he has orange hair."
Friday, April 8, 2011
Trip to OMSI
 |
| If only. |
Thank you, funky OMSI mirror, for providing what Nature refused me - an actual torso.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Blue and Gold Banquet
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| L to R: ?, Luke B, Austin H, Carter, Ethan W, Cade W |
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| "Ros didn't like the fondant, but she thought it was pretty fantastic that her tongue turned blue." - Pam T |
Monday, March 21, 2011
The New Normal
Part one:
Nine days ago, I wrote a post called "Feel the Angels" that I later took down. It stayed up just long enough to post in friends' blog readers and make them worry (sorry, again). I wrote it at a time when I needed to vent, but couldn't vent to family... then realized that someone who knows our family might see it and it would suck for them to hear about our little crisis that way.
Here's the whole post:
Right now at my house, we're going through some pretty major mental illness-related crap.
I don't want to violate my child's privacy and I haven't told my family about it yet. He doesn't know most of you readers, so it's easier to write it here.
Hubby and I are sticking close together and staying close to our kid.
Going through it relatively alone seems like the best way right now. Privacy, you know. Our child will have to resurface and resume his life at some point and we'd like it to be as smooth a transition as possible.
But right now I need a chance to vent, and support, and prayers.
Part two:
On Friday, March 11, around 12:30, Hubby called me and said he'd received a call from a local hospital. Our son was in the emergency room. He'd been thinking of attempting suicide. He left school and was close enough to doing it that he scared himself and called 911. Two sweet police officers went immediately to him and kept him safe until the ambulance came for him.
I picked up Hubby at work and we went to the hospital together. We spent the rest of the day and evening with our boy until, finally, he was released to our care, but only long enough for us to grab a few things at home for him, and take him to the psychiatric ward of a hospital in a neighboring town.
We had to leave him there, and walk away. In the waiting room, we held each other and I cried. That was when I felt the angels around me.
He spent almost a week there. They played with his medications (hooray for Effexor) and taught him coping skills and helped him identify his "triggers" and counseled with him.
We visited him every day, sometimes twice. We brought him treats and funny little toys from those machines you put a quarter in and turn the knob and a plastic bubble pops out with a toy inside. (The fake mustaches were his favorite.)
Hubby and I alternated between feeling utterly stunned and overwhelmed, and trying to keep life normal for the other four kids. I cried when I was alone, or while on the phone with my parents.
Last Thursday, he came home. Minus the screaming and diapers, it was like having a new baby in the house: we were excited to have him at home, and way freaked that we would do something wrong.
Part three:
With heavenly help, we are making it.
Underlying all the other feelings has been gratitude, which is so not what I was expecting. I have been so grateful this last while - for that strong will to live that our Heavenly Father has been wise enough to place inside us, for 911 - the number and the dispatchers, for ambulances and paramedics and police officers, for hospitals, doctors, nurses, social workers, and MEDICATION. For medical understanding and knowledge. For my family. For my friends. For loving ward members. For good food and a nice home and clothing. For those silly vending machines that spit out fake mustaches.
For our four other wonderful children, who helped keep us going. Otherwise it would have been really easy to just climb into the kid's hospital bed and grab him and not let go, and cry my eyes out (which would have been awkward).
And now, for the "new normal."
Learning about mental illness.
Joking around about mental illness - it can be done.
Enjoying our son's medication along with him (he takes it, we get to watch his pupils dilate). He might need to have it tweaked yet again... but it's keeping him alive and helps him enjoy things he hadn't enjoyed for a long time. How much fun it is to hear him LAUGH again. How long had it been since the last time we heard him laugh?
While running errands, seeing an ambulance with sirens and flashing lights take off toward our home. And following it to see where it goes. And feeling relief and laughing at our paranoia, when it goes down someone else's street. Hoping that wherever it goes, the person needing the ambulance will be OK.
Car voices and house voices. Loud sounds are one of his triggers.
Fielding questions from family and friends. Hearing their stories. Feeling loved and supported and understood.
Hugging all five babies more often.
Easy weeping - for joy and for pain.
Knowing it could happen again any day. Enjoying the good days. Bracing up (and keeping the laundry caught up) for the bad ones.
Knowing that Heavenly Father knows our family, as a whole and each of us individually, and loves us, and wants us to be okay. Knowing there are lessons for us to learn.
And again, underneath it all, gratitude, for all the good things - for all the things it was, and all the things it wasn't - for what could have happened, that didn't.
I will be forever grateful.
Nine days ago, I wrote a post called "Feel the Angels" that I later took down. It stayed up just long enough to post in friends' blog readers and make them worry (sorry, again). I wrote it at a time when I needed to vent, but couldn't vent to family... then realized that someone who knows our family might see it and it would suck for them to hear about our little crisis that way.
Here's the whole post:
Right now at my house, we're going through some pretty major mental illness-related crap.
I don't want to violate my child's privacy and I haven't told my family about it yet. He doesn't know most of you readers, so it's easier to write it here.
Hubby and I are sticking close together and staying close to our kid.
Going through it relatively alone seems like the best way right now. Privacy, you know. Our child will have to resurface and resume his life at some point and we'd like it to be as smooth a transition as possible.
But right now I need a chance to vent, and support, and prayers.
Part two:
On Friday, March 11, around 12:30, Hubby called me and said he'd received a call from a local hospital. Our son was in the emergency room. He'd been thinking of attempting suicide. He left school and was close enough to doing it that he scared himself and called 911. Two sweet police officers went immediately to him and kept him safe until the ambulance came for him.
I picked up Hubby at work and we went to the hospital together. We spent the rest of the day and evening with our boy until, finally, he was released to our care, but only long enough for us to grab a few things at home for him, and take him to the psychiatric ward of a hospital in a neighboring town.
We had to leave him there, and walk away. In the waiting room, we held each other and I cried. That was when I felt the angels around me.
He spent almost a week there. They played with his medications (hooray for Effexor) and taught him coping skills and helped him identify his "triggers" and counseled with him.
We visited him every day, sometimes twice. We brought him treats and funny little toys from those machines you put a quarter in and turn the knob and a plastic bubble pops out with a toy inside. (The fake mustaches were his favorite.)
Hubby and I alternated between feeling utterly stunned and overwhelmed, and trying to keep life normal for the other four kids. I cried when I was alone, or while on the phone with my parents.
Last Thursday, he came home. Minus the screaming and diapers, it was like having a new baby in the house: we were excited to have him at home, and way freaked that we would do something wrong.
Part three:
With heavenly help, we are making it.
Underlying all the other feelings has been gratitude, which is so not what I was expecting. I have been so grateful this last while - for that strong will to live that our Heavenly Father has been wise enough to place inside us, for 911 - the number and the dispatchers, for ambulances and paramedics and police officers, for hospitals, doctors, nurses, social workers, and MEDICATION. For medical understanding and knowledge. For my family. For my friends. For loving ward members. For good food and a nice home and clothing. For those silly vending machines that spit out fake mustaches.
For our four other wonderful children, who helped keep us going. Otherwise it would have been really easy to just climb into the kid's hospital bed and grab him and not let go, and cry my eyes out (which would have been awkward).
And now, for the "new normal."
Learning about mental illness.
Joking around about mental illness - it can be done.
Enjoying our son's medication along with him (he takes it, we get to watch his pupils dilate). He might need to have it tweaked yet again... but it's keeping him alive and helps him enjoy things he hadn't enjoyed for a long time. How much fun it is to hear him LAUGH again. How long had it been since the last time we heard him laugh?
While running errands, seeing an ambulance with sirens and flashing lights take off toward our home. And following it to see where it goes. And feeling relief and laughing at our paranoia, when it goes down someone else's street. Hoping that wherever it goes, the person needing the ambulance will be OK.
Car voices and house voices. Loud sounds are one of his triggers.
Fielding questions from family and friends. Hearing their stories. Feeling loved and supported and understood.
Hugging all five babies more often.
Easy weeping - for joy and for pain.
Knowing it could happen again any day. Enjoying the good days. Bracing up (and keeping the laundry caught up) for the bad ones.
Knowing that Heavenly Father knows our family, as a whole and each of us individually, and loves us, and wants us to be okay. Knowing there are lessons for us to learn.
And again, underneath it all, gratitude, for all the good things - for all the things it was, and all the things it wasn't - for what could have happened, that didn't.
I will be forever grateful.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
It's Here!
Spring is here!
It comes at 4:21 PDT (the time zone which includes my lovely burg of Elk Snout). I'm trying to think of what to do to commemorate it. I'll most likely be pulling into my driveway after coming home from church, which seems horribly ordinary and boring. I was kind of hoping to be home so I could lie on the bare ground and, I don't know, be equinoxed.
If I speed all the way home, do you think the officer who pulls me over will accept "I was trying to get home in time to fully experience the equinox" as a legitimate excuse?
What will you be doing at 4:21 PDT today?
It comes at 4:21 PDT (the time zone which includes my lovely burg of Elk Snout). I'm trying to think of what to do to commemorate it. I'll most likely be pulling into my driveway after coming home from church, which seems horribly ordinary and boring. I was kind of hoping to be home so I could lie on the bare ground and, I don't know, be equinoxed.
If I speed all the way home, do you think the officer who pulls me over will accept "I was trying to get home in time to fully experience the equinox" as a legitimate excuse?
What will you be doing at 4:21 PDT today?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The Insomnia Habit
...has me firmly in its grasp lately.
I suppose it's a good time of life for it. I'm still at home, but all five kids are in school. Once they're gone for the day, I can sleep. I'm not fond of living this way but I can do it.
My biggest problem is being awake at night (duh). I don't mind it. We moved a TV into our room long ago, which I know doesn't help insomnia but it distracts me back to sleep sometimes. My body doesn't like to wake up in the middle of the night, but my brain is always ready to. Waiting for it, even.
At night, I always think of everything I could be doing instead of lying in bed trying to go back to sleep. Hubby is a light sleeper - if I'm thinking of something unpleasant and sigh heavily, he hears it and doesn't quite wake up, but I can tell he knows I'm awake. Having me in bed helps him sleep better, so I stay in bed, since he has a job and can't nap all day like I can (I don't, but I can).
Like right now, I'm listening to some farming show on PBS, texting this post on my phone, and gazing at the fingerprints I'd like to Windex off my mirrored closet door, if only it wouldn't wake up Hubby.
During the day I couldn't care less about the fingerprints.
I can think of several things I could do to change this malady, but they, like everything else I feel like doing, will have to wait until daytime.
How do you handle bouts of sleeplessness?
I suppose it's a good time of life for it. I'm still at home, but all five kids are in school. Once they're gone for the day, I can sleep. I'm not fond of living this way but I can do it.
My biggest problem is being awake at night (duh). I don't mind it. We moved a TV into our room long ago, which I know doesn't help insomnia but it distracts me back to sleep sometimes. My body doesn't like to wake up in the middle of the night, but my brain is always ready to. Waiting for it, even.
At night, I always think of everything I could be doing instead of lying in bed trying to go back to sleep. Hubby is a light sleeper - if I'm thinking of something unpleasant and sigh heavily, he hears it and doesn't quite wake up, but I can tell he knows I'm awake. Having me in bed helps him sleep better, so I stay in bed, since he has a job and can't nap all day like I can (I don't, but I can).
Like right now, I'm listening to some farming show on PBS, texting this post on my phone, and gazing at the fingerprints I'd like to Windex off my mirrored closet door, if only it wouldn't wake up Hubby.
During the day I couldn't care less about the fingerprints.
I can think of several things I could do to change this malady, but they, like everything else I feel like doing, will have to wait until daytime.
How do you handle bouts of sleeplessness?
Friday, February 25, 2011
Such a huge geek
My new "text" ringtone
Charlie Sheen's shenanigans put me in the mood... some of his best work was done in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Yeah, I said it.
Downloading movie quotes as wav files is my new favorite thing to do with my phone. My life is ... uneventful lately. Yay :)
Charlie Sheen's shenanigans put me in the mood... some of his best work was done in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Yeah, I said it.
Downloading movie quotes as wav files is my new favorite thing to do with my phone. My life is ... uneventful lately. Yay :)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Being Sick is Gross
But I'm grateful for the nice man who stayed home from work long enough to help sickly me get the kids ready for school.
I'm excited to see the new episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Rosie O'Donnell, tonight. I have conflicted feelings about Rosie - I feel like she's been through a lot and has some issues, I don't agree with the things she says much of the time, but she's very talented and funny. Should be an interesting episode. There's so much great history in these shows - I loved Brooke Shields' episode last season.
Wisdom of the day: May we all live our lives so that nothing we do will ever land us on the Dr. Phil show. (Guess what freak show I was watching today.)
Later this evening: If a bad cold with a debilitating sinus headache isn't enough to get me out of driving people to soccer, what is? Polio? Scabies? Tourette's?
I'm excited to see the new episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Rosie O'Donnell, tonight. I have conflicted feelings about Rosie - I feel like she's been through a lot and has some issues, I don't agree with the things she says much of the time, but she's very talented and funny. Should be an interesting episode. There's so much great history in these shows - I loved Brooke Shields' episode last season.
Wisdom of the day: May we all live our lives so that nothing we do will ever land us on the Dr. Phil show. (Guess what freak show I was watching today.)
Later this evening: If a bad cold with a debilitating sinus headache isn't enough to get me out of driving people to soccer, what is? Polio? Scabies? Tourette's?
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
No Solicitors
What's a nice way to tell Facebook friends, "If we're only Facebook friends so you can bug me to buy whatever crap you're hawking, please dump me right now"?
I'm not talking about family or close friends or people I knew long before they started selling. If you sell something and you're reading this post, the odds are good that you're not who I mean. I'm talking about acquaintances from high school or former ward members I was never close to, whose posts almost always revolve around their product. It's obvious they never saw me as anything more than a potential customer.
Which is fine. I see most people that way.
What I would sell, I don't know.
But that's beside the point. The point is, these people must be STOPPED and I have to STOP them.
Now to think of some diplomatic way to do it (besides unfriending them - I still have a hard time doing that).
If you come up with something, let me know.
I'm not talking about family or close friends or people I knew long before they started selling. If you sell something and you're reading this post, the odds are good that you're not who I mean. I'm talking about acquaintances from high school or former ward members I was never close to, whose posts almost always revolve around their product. It's obvious they never saw me as anything more than a potential customer.
Which is fine. I see most people that way.
What I would sell, I don't know.
But that's beside the point. The point is, these people must be STOPPED and I have to STOP them.
Now to think of some diplomatic way to do it (besides unfriending them - I still have a hard time doing that).
If you come up with something, let me know.
Friday, February 11, 2011
WHY
I'm a bit peeved at finding out that my child's class' Valentine's Day party is TODAY. Can we not hold the party on the actual holiday? It's not like Valentine's Day doesn't fall on a school day this year.
I half-think this teacher is trying to trip me up. (wink) I'm sure teacher had a good reason - it was just very unwelcome news at 8:15 this morning.
Then I got to the store and found out that someone had forgotten to put my debit card back in my wallet.... *yipping and snarling*
It worked out. The kid was late, but had valentines to give out. You want the kid there on time, you hold the party on the right day!
Now that the GREAT CRISIS is over, I'm bummed. We were going to make cute homemade Valentines this year. Wahh, wahhh... The other kid will still be able to, since their party is on Monday, but it would have been nice if they both could have.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Random Observations
1) I recently had a birthday. I did not shout "hurray" but I did eat as much of a Costco All American Chocolate Cake as I could stomach. That is RICH cake (and I love rich stuff).
2) It's sad that there's a whole generation of people (younger than me) who don't quite get the significance of 80s musicians showing up in cameos on "Yo Gabba Gabba." Come ON. Biz Markie teaching kids to beatbox isn't awesome?
And the non-fans can get kind of snotty about it. I don't quite get it.
3) It's never good to try to jog wearing Birkenstocks and no bra. It just doesn't work. You heard it here - now you don't have to try it.
4) This is my new ringtone. I am satisfied.
5) Hummus is surprisingly good on whole wheat plain toast. Kind of like crackers.
6) I don't WANT to take my Christmas tree down. I will. But I hate doing it. We have a fake tree, I'm not sick of looking at it yet, and it's tedious, horrible, boring, stupid, barf-inspiring work.
7) You blog people are awesome. Smooches to you all.
2) It's sad that there's a whole generation of people (younger than me) who don't quite get the significance of 80s musicians showing up in cameos on "Yo Gabba Gabba." Come ON. Biz Markie teaching kids to beatbox isn't awesome?
And the non-fans can get kind of snotty about it. I don't quite get it.
3) It's never good to try to jog wearing Birkenstocks and no bra. It just doesn't work. You heard it here - now you don't have to try it.
4) This is my new ringtone. I am satisfied.
5) Hummus is surprisingly good on whole wheat plain toast. Kind of like crackers.
6) I don't WANT to take my Christmas tree down. I will. But I hate doing it. We have a fake tree, I'm not sick of looking at it yet, and it's tedious, horrible, boring, stupid, barf-inspiring work.
7) You blog people are awesome. Smooches to you all.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
TOOOOOOOOES
 |
| Tiny Toe Zombie hits the jackpot |
I'm preparing a church lesson, and I don't like teaching "with paper", so I'm copying the lesson from the church website to my phone.
<3 Always and forever <3
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
"I enjoy it auditorially."
Thus quoth Bella, regarding Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", which she recently bought from iTunes. Her mother's geekiness is rubbing off. Awww.
Enough motherly goopiness. Let's get down to business.
Ease Up There, Love Chop Award
I'm not one to blog much about weather, unless I'm out in it. With our car now dead (or at least looking that way), we've been hoofing it this week. The Old Lady Grocery Cart has been used twice now - once by Hubby, who reluctantly agreed that it was a good purchase and might be joined by another cart, since our family is full of locust-like children and we have such a hard time keeping groceries in the house. Not buying them, just keeping them around. "There's nothing to eat!"
But back to the weather. We've experienced quite the gamut since the stupid car was stupidly thrown into the stupid lane divider (by the stupid ice), ranging from "colder than a well-digger's butt in January" to sunny to windy to cloudy to sprinkly to "What new car? We need to buy kayaks!"
The end is in sight, as we will soon know if our stupid car is worth stupidly fixing - Hubby and I are guessing, and I admit, hoping that it probably isn't - and our mechanic, a family friend, has another car for us to look at and possibly buy. We will only have to walk to the store one or two more times.
So I'm asking the weather: Ease Up There, Love Chop. Please take pity on our footbound family. We really don't mind walking. We lack a sense of societal convention. We're armpit-hair-sprouting dirt-munching hippies and have chosen to see this situation as an adventure. But weather, can you just cooperate? Until we have our new car, or can buy a few more umbrellas?
In other news: Life rocks. We're healthy, we're happy, we're warm, we're full, we have toys to play with. The Year of Ease continues.
Enough motherly goopiness. Let's get down to business.
Ease Up There, Love Chop Award
I'm not one to blog much about weather, unless I'm out in it. With our car now dead (or at least looking that way), we've been hoofing it this week. The Old Lady Grocery Cart has been used twice now - once by Hubby, who reluctantly agreed that it was a good purchase and might be joined by another cart, since our family is full of locust-like children and we have such a hard time keeping groceries in the house. Not buying them, just keeping them around. "There's nothing to eat!"
But back to the weather. We've experienced quite the gamut since the stupid car was stupidly thrown into the stupid lane divider (by the stupid ice), ranging from "colder than a well-digger's butt in January" to sunny to windy to cloudy to sprinkly to "What new car? We need to buy kayaks!"
The end is in sight, as we will soon know if our stupid car is worth stupidly fixing - Hubby and I are guessing, and I admit, hoping that it probably isn't - and our mechanic, a family friend, has another car for us to look at and possibly buy. We will only have to walk to the store one or two more times.
So I'm asking the weather: Ease Up There, Love Chop. Please take pity on our footbound family. We really don't mind walking. We lack a sense of societal convention. We're armpit-hair-sprouting dirt-munching hippies and have chosen to see this situation as an adventure. But weather, can you just cooperate? Until we have our new car, or can buy a few more umbrellas?
In other news: Life rocks. We're healthy, we're happy, we're warm, we're full, we have toys to play with. The Year of Ease continues.
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