rachel's continued ramblings

i'm going insane! my daughter is the most neurotic person i have ever met. not to mention aggrivating. we are now on day 3 of this particular round of what i have come to call 'the poop dance'. every 3 days (or so, depending on how long she is physically able to keep it up), we have to deal with layla's absolute insistance not to poop. when i tell people about this, they get all concerned and say that she's constipated and that we should give her miralax, because that's what worked for their kid when they were constipated. well, let me just clear this up. she's not constipated. it's not that she can't poop. it's that she won't. she flat out refuses to poop. eventually it does happen, obviously, but everytime it does, she freaks out, cries, and then apparently makes a mental note of what caused that to happen and then remembers not to do that next time. she used to say, 'i need to poop.' now, you could pay her a million dollars (or m...

so it completely cracks me up how people are around here when the sun comes out. and i'm not exempt from this either, so i'm making fun of myself as much as everyone else, although i'm not the lady in a tank top that i saw at the gas station. hello? 55 isn't exactly a tropical paradise! at any rate, pale, pasty seattleites crawled squinting out of the woodwork yesterday and could be found in all areas of 'the outdoors' working in their yards, biking, playing family games of football or frisbee, or doing what we did... playing at the park! after some yardwork, we met up with the hakalas at marymoor. it was awfully nice to be outside for a change and not dodging raindrops or shivering as you watch your breath rise like some sort of sacrificial incense to the gods of winter. shane and sean did some biking and tree climbing, while layla and robin enjoyed the playground. layla and i went on a fruitless search for ducks, but did see some well-fed park squirrels, abou...

so here's what i want to know... how do people have clean, tidy houses? and by people, i mean people with kids and no cleaning or landscaping service. in other words, people like me. i have this perpetual guilt complex about the state of my house. it's not even really that bad, but i have this (apparently unreal) fantasy about living in a house without crumbs on the carpet, clutter on every flat surface, clothes on bedroom floors, laundry half folded and not put away, and a garage that you can actually park your car in. i know these people exist, i just don't know how they do it. then i start to feel really guilty when i think of people like my great-grandmother who, at the turn of the century, was raising 8 kids on a farm in nebraska. she didn't have a washing machine or dishwasher. they didn't run out to the mall when they needed new clothes or bedding. they didn't have safeway.com delivering their groceries. they didn't have frozen costco meals...

most people who know me relatively well are aware of my ridiculous fear of vomit. so essentially, the last year or so has been the embodiment of my worst nightmare. we have now embarked on stomach flu episode 4 of the last 13 months. is that not ridiculous? is that not excessive? what's the deal? should i be concerned? or maybe i'm just paying my dues. shane never had the stomach flu until he was 6, but now we've got it all the time. since may last year, he's now had it 3 times. between january and november of last year, layla had it 3 times, and now we're just waiting to see when she's going to come down with this latest strain. WHAT THE HECK! i never had it this often as a kid. maybe i was just lucky. i don't know. is this normal? how many times can you get this stuff in a certain amount of time before you should think that something is wrong? and how can you prevent it, if at all? i don't really think we have weak immune systems. th...

so this is mostly aimed at mary, but anyone can feel free to participate because i think it's kinda funny. i got 'tagged' by innocently reading a friend's blog, so now i feel compelled to comply. Find the closest 123-page or longer book to you and turn to page 123. (No cheating!) Find the first five sentences, then post the next three sentences. okay, so the closest book would be the soundtransit 'ready to ride transit guide', but i'll spare you that... what's next... from 'child honoring: how to turn this world around', raffi cavoukian, sharna olfman; editors: to illustrate this, here is one afrikan story. once upon a time there was an old man who wanted to have a monopoly of knowledge. he collected all the valuable knowledge, skills, and wisdom in the village, put them in a calabash (gourd), and tightly corked it. well, that was a bit random, but i think that's the point. have fun!

i don't have any pictures to go with this, so it'll just be me ranting. i am totally baffled by how rude and inconsiderate some people can be, for no apparent reason. today during the sunday school hour, we and the hakalas went to tully's for our sunday morning ritual, 'heathen coffee'. we sip coffee and layla and robin play, micah usually sleeps. today when we were coming in, layla ran past an elderly lady who proceeded to start yelling at dave to 'control your child'. hello? do you have no experience at all with small children? so dave apologizes profusely to her and then conspicuously lectures layla about not running in there and watching out for people. then the lady comes over to me (we had unknowingly chosen a table right next to the one she was apparently sitting at, although she was standing elsewhere when layla ran past her). having just come in, micah was in his car seat, which i had set on the floor near our table while taking off my coat...