so today i went outside to re-park the car. layla wanted use of the driveway, so i moved the car to the strip in front of the yard. as i get out of the car, i hear shane’s voice, “hi mom!” i look up and see this:
well, actually, this is on the return trip. when i saw him the first time, the trailer was full of mulch.
doesn’t get much more ‘shane’ than that.
i’ve been really bad about blogging lately. i really don’t feel like i have anything interesting to say.
we haven’t been anywhere lately.
no one has been sick or hurt themselves lately.
no one has visited us.
i’m still working on my mom’s shawl, but it isn’t done yet.
really. it’s pathetic. i think we need to take this as a hint and plan to do something exciting sometime soon.
we’re kind of winding down and getting ‘mentally prepared’ for the school year. shane’s curriculum for the year is here and all loaded onto the computer, just waiting for him to start figuring it out (me too). i’ve got stuff floating around in my head about what sort of stuff i want to do with layla this year. it’s still preschool, so i have a very laid back attitude about it. fortunately, she thinks that ‘schoolwork’ and anything that seems to have an academic twist to it is SUPER cool, so there will be no struggle with her about that sort of thing, like there always has been with shane. i think the biggest thing i need to do is figure out what our daily schedule is going to look like, so i can start plugging things into it and make sure we have time for everything.
shane, for sure, is going to be very busy… at least until soccer ends in december. even after. besides his daily schoolwork and chores, he’ll have a couple of classes on monday and wednesday afternoons at leota jr. high with homeschool network. he’ll have the ymca program on fridays (hopefully in the morning this year), piano lessons on fridays (plus daily practicing), 2 hour soccer practices twice a week, plus games on saturdays. goodness! i was thinking of trying to convince him to get back into scouts this year, but don’t really think that would be possible anyway.
so yeah, here we go!
well, i made it another 6 months with no cavities!
i had a dentist appointment today. my second in six months, but prior to that, i don’t think i’d been in 4+ years. oops.
i was much less nervous for this appointment than i was for the last one. last time i figured my luck had run out and because i’d been bad about seeing the dentist, this time i’d really ‘pay’ for it. but no. other than a little excessive scraping of tartar (4 years’ worth), everything was fine.
around the time i turned 20, i pretty much assumed, every time i went to the dentist, that this was finally my time for a cavity. i mean, how long really, can one person go without ANY cavities? well, now i’m kind of over that and figure that maybe my teeth are just impenetrable or something. at any rate, every time the dentist comes in at the end of my cleaning, pokes around for a minute and tells me my teeth look great, i breathe a sigh of relief and feel tremendous gratitude for my good teeth.
the no cavities thing is only the beginning of it too.
i have all 4 of my wisdom teeth. they’re fine, straight, and healthy. i may be only 5’1, but i’ve apparently got a big mouth! i’m one of the few people out there that actually has 32 teeth in my mouth!
i never had to have braces or any sort of orthodontic work done. no, my teeth aren’t perfectly straight or anything, but my bite is good, and everything is where it’s supposed to be.
i had a couple of sensitive spots on a couple of my molars a few years ago, but after switching to ‘sensitive’ toothpaste and a battery powered brush, the problem seems to have gone away. (seems i brush too hard when doing it manually.)
the only bad mark on my dental record is a little incident i had when i was in second grade and fell flat on my face on the cement with my hands in my pockets and chipped my two front teeth. well, chipped one, basically broke the other in half. so they are capped and i’ve had to have those caps replaced a couple of times, but that’s about it.
and i need to floss more. :(
but really, i’ve been very blessed, and i’m always reminded of that when i hear other people talking about fillings or crowns or root canals or braces or whatever else they have to deal with. i sure hope it continues!
oh, and if anyone around here doesn’t have a dentist (or one they like), look up gary jarrett in redmond. he’s the only dentist i’ve ever gone to and LOVE him. he’s absolutely the nicest, most gentle man you could ever hope to have poking around in your mouth!
i LOVE the various words and pronunciations kids come up with when they’re learning how to talk. i also LOVE how those words find their way into the family’s vernacular, and years later, everyone is still saying them. for the rest of my life, i won’t be able to make skabetti or use the washing shamine without thinking of shane. and when i read about emmy abizaleth in a clifford book, i’ll think of layla.
well now we have nonnies, AKA bananas! micah loves them, so they come up in conversation regularly. he has fun little sentences too: nonnie spill (if he drops it); nonnie done (when he finishes); nonnie peel (also when he’s done because it means he wants to give me the peel). so cute.
i admit this a little sheepishly, but the reason i think this one will find a permanent place in family isms, is because we play a lot of mario kart lately. yes, my name is rachel, i am anti-sit-on-your-butt-and-stare-at-a-screen entertainment, and i LOVE mario kart. there, i admitted it.
anyway, anytime micah sees a banana in a race (which if you know mario kart, you know this is frequent) he points and yells “NONNIE!” he gets especially excited if someone gets the 3 bananas that follow them around.
yup, nonnies. super cute. thanks micah!
this has been floating around a lot of facebook lately. thought it was worth posting. i honestly can’t believe this is an issue… but i guess the fact that it is is just further proof of how backwards our society is. we worship sex, but hate children… ironic, huh?
anyway. this is at least amusing, but so true!http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1501574/Breastfeeding_is_Offensive
i have a lot swirling though my mind right now. what else is new, right? i’m a thinker. that’s what i do. often, i’m an overthinker, which leads to it’s own troubles. but all too often, i spend too much time thinking, and not enough time doing. such is the life of a thinker, i guess.
the main theme of my thoughts right now is stuff.
i have way too much of it. everyone i know has way too much of it. we complain about our stuff. we don’t know what to do with our stuff. we have garage sales, where we try to make money getting other people to buy our stuff. we pay for storage units to keep the stuff that won’t fit in our houses. we wish for bigger houses, so there would be room for all our stuff. every week, we put an enormous can out on the street, full of the packaging our stuff came in, and pay someone to haul it away in a truck to a landfill full of everyone else’s stuff.
one of my biggest complaints about myself and about my life is that i’m disorganized, my house is always a mess, and i feel overwhelmed and lazy because of it. why is this? sure, i spend too much time thinking, and not enough doing, right? but really, how much time would it take me to tidy up my house and keep it clean if it weren’t for all the stuff? have you ever noticed, when you move out of a place, how much easier it is to clean it when it’s empty? cleaning is a huge pain in the butt because you have to organize, move around, sort through and do something with ALL the stuff first! and then you have to clean. i hate vacuuming. why? not because vacuuming itself is so hard, but because first i have to pick up all the stuff laying around on the floor and put it away. that’s the real chore, not the vacuuming.
i’ve always been one to question the status quo. i look at something that’s considered standard, something most people consider a no-brainer, and i question it. why do we do this? is this the best way? how did people used to do this? does everyone really do it this way? so my question now is, why all the stuff?
i suppose some of this is coming from the fact that shane and i are pretty well immersed in the ‘little house’ books right now. i am continually amazed and impressed by how resourceful they were, how little they had, and really, how happy they were, despite hardships and the hard work involved in everyday living.
i compare that with my own life, with my own family and wonder why we think all this stuff makes for a better life.
as a mom, i am continually confronted with mom-type frustrations. i don’t think i deal with anything out of the ordinary and my other mom friends will attest to the absolute normalcy of the things my kids make me deal with. on an almost daily basis, i struggle with layla about her clothes. no, it’s not a huge deal, but it’s annoying, and i find it disturbing because it’s an excuse for her to be stubborn and rebellious against me… not exactly character traits i’m trying to foster. but the source of this? too many clothes. she has at least 30 pairs of underwear and easily that many pairs of socks. and don’t bother asking about the rest of her closet, it just gets worse. WHY? why does anyone need this many clothes? i do laundry EVERY day, just so it doesn’t pile up. i don’t really need to, obviously, if layla’s wardrobe is any indication, doing laundry monthly could be a feasible possibility!
and then there are shoes. i personally have at least 15 pairs of shoes that i can think of right now. why do i have all these shoes? well, mainly, to go with all my clothes. i mean really, it would be flat out impossible to wear my brown flip flops on a day that i’m wearing a blue shirt. no, i have to have a pair of blue flip flops for that occasion. why is it we feel that it is not only NOT ridiculous, but absolutely necessary to have all this stuff?
my bathroom is full of stuff too. i have 3 drawers in my vanity (don’t even get me started on why we have a piece of furniture in our bathrooms with that name and we’re not offended by it!) that are full of stuff. the bottom drawer has a hair dryer and 3, count ‘em, 3 different curling irons and (ironically enough) a straightener. i have another drawer full of make up and random other lotions and potions, and then a drawer full of hair thingies and other grooming devices. then there’s the basket on the back of the toilet that’s got lotion and deodorant and hairspray and mousse and gel and shaving cream and toothbrushes and toothpaste and toner and moisturizer and goodness knows what else. now i’m certainly not suggesting that anyone quit using deodorant or toothpaste, but really, how much of this stuff do we need? is any of it really making us better people? is it making happier, really? does prolonging a few wrinkles a few more years really contribute to the good of the rest of the world? why are we so self-centered to think that this stuff has any bearing whatsoever on life?
how is it that we’ve become so vain? so greedy? is it just the sheer availability of stuff that makes us think that we should have more of it? is it that we (even those of us who consider ourselves to be relatively poor) are so wealthy that we feel like we have the ability to fill our lives and our homes up with all this stuff? is it just that we are so completely insecure with ourselves that we see other people with more stuff and think that we’re not as good as them unless we have as much or more stuff than they do? or maybe better or more expensive stuff!
and we teach this to our children. every christmas and birthday and any other excuse we can think of, we shower them with more toys and clothes and STUFF. we think we’re showing love to our children by buying them everything their hearts desire. i think we’re really just feeding this cycle of greed. of wastefulness. this addiction to stuff.
and then we complain that they won’t clean their rooms. that all their stuff is in our way.
we all know how to turn this off. we all have the ability and the power to do so. many of us have felt this urge. this feeling that something is very wrong with the way we live.
but who is willing to change?
i might be. i don’t know. i’ll probably have to think about it awhile longer. i’m a thinker. that’s what i do.
well, the weather is a little more back to normal today. i think we were around 85* or a little higher, but nothing anywhere near that insanity of the last couple days.
it’s also seafair time! to me, that pretty much only means one thing: BLUE ANGELS!!!
oh yeah.
i look forward to this every summer and try to find a way to get somewhere so i can get a good view. this year, my trusty MOMS club came to the rescue!
seafair is always the first weekend of august, but somehow it totally snuck up on me this year. maybe because august doesn’t actually start until tomorrow, or maybe it’s because this last week has been sort of surreal w/ the insane heat and all, but i just totally wasn’t thinking about it being THIS weekend. well lo and behold, there was a beach playdate at a park on lake washington, scheduled for today! we had vbs this morning at church, and this park was like half a mile from the church, so we couldn’t not go. i threw some sandwich stuff, apples, swimsuits and towels into a bag as we were running out the door this morning and boogied on out of vbs as soon as it was over. the park was wonderful! i can’t believe i didn’t know about it before. there was grassy areas where we met up with our friends and had our picnic. there was a sandy beach with a play structure where the kids played and dug in the sand. there was a supervised swimming area where the kids got plenty wet and sandy.
of course, the blue angels were the highlight for me. we had a pretty good view, although mercer island was rude enough to be in the way of some of the good stuff. but we did get one really good flyover, so i should be good until next year. ah! the noise! favorite sound EVER! something about that crazy roar and rumble of those jet engines just goes right through me!
oh, and the kids thought they were pretty cool too… but really, this outing was for me!
OMG! it is so uncharacteristically hot right now! most people, when i tell them i live in seattle, say something along the lines of, “oh, i couldn’t handle all that rain.” i’m usually quick to tell them that the summers are really quite nice here.
well this is NOT what i was talking about.
it’s 105 degrees right now!
seriously! this is not seattle! sea-tac airport (the official temperature recording of the area) broke a record today at 2:53pm when the temp reached 101*. that’s not just the record for this day. that’s the ALL-TIME heat record for seattle. EVER!
this kind of falls in the same category of snow in seattle. people in other parts of the country hear about this and say oh boo hoo! but it’s all relative. in minnesota, they have snowplows! in arizona, they have air conditioning and swimming pools.
well, we have neither. and although i like warm weather, it’s official…
it’s way too hot!
i hate you.
actually, i loathe your existence to my very soul.
and i refuse to have anything further to do with you.
you can consider our relationship OVER.
please do not try to contact me, as i will be unavailable.
do not stalk me.
do not try to make me feel guilty for abandoning you.
YOU SUCK!
sincerely,
rachel
so, i’m not sure why i didn’t make #5 blue earlier. i had discussed, with dave, getting it on wednesday, but he said he wanted to get the kit that comes with the skimmer and the vacuum, so he ordered it right then. we should have it by early next week. heaven knows we need it! gotta love all those little things that fall off of fir trees.
i went to my parents’ house today. and then i sat (knitting) and chatted with my mother all day while the kids played and helped my dad outside. so i’m going back tomorrow. but i did take the cooler with me!
i think i must have felt guilty about not getting much done today, so at 10pm, i suddenly go on this cleaning binge and do #8 and #11. well, i still have to do the bathroom floors and the tub in the hall bathroom, but the rest is done.
i’m SO dreading messing with the tent and all the camping stuff. UGH! can you tell i’m putting it off?
okay, well yesterday wasn’t quite as productive as i wanted it to be. but in my defense, i wasn’t home in the morning or in the evening, and during the middle of the day, i was ‘watching’ shane’s friend over here AND the power went out for about an hour and a half.
so i should have #7 completely done. i cleaned out the cooler, set it on the front porch to dry, drew my dad’s attention to it, and he chose not to take it with him. NOT MY FAULT!
#20 got done, it just needs to get done again… they went to get the bike, paid for it, but couldn’t bring it home because they didn’t have one that was assembled. so the bike shop is building the bike as we speak, and dave is going to pick it up tonight. shane is being VERY patient about it.
i’m not overly optimistic about my progress today. cleaning at my parents’ house will take up a big chunk of the day. but i’m going to take the stupid cooler with me when i go. and i’m going to go pick the raspberries before i leave… just as soon as i finish my coffee!
i put #15 and #16 in blue because they’re done, but i didn’t do them. last night after dinner, i took shane and layla with me to cold stone to get a little birthday treat. my wonderful husband did those for me while i was gone!
today, i have to do #12 :( and while i’m out, i figure i’ll do #21 and maybe #5. i absolutely HAVE to do #3. this evening, dave and my dad are taking shane to go and pick up his new bike and then #20 will be done and i’m going to try and have #7 done so i can give the cooler to my dad when he comes to get shane. oh, and i’ll finish #9.
here’s to being productive!
so i’ve been having issues getting pictures up here from our trip. but they’re all on facebook now, so you can see them there if you so desire. we had a good trip and now i’m dealing with the whole post-trip thing. so much to do. house is a sty. laundry never-ending. and i’m totally lazy from not having to do the normal stuff while away. ugh.
but anyway, i’m going to try and make a to do list here for the week. hopefully i’ll get things done so i won’t have to feel depressed about it. yes, it’s my birthday, but stuff still needs to be done.
ugh. that should be enough. there’s a million other things that need to get done as well, but i’m not super enthusiastic about that list so far, so i think i’ll leave it alone. if i, by some miracle, get all that done and then some, i’ll be impressed. i wish i could make a different list… maybe something like:
i think i could handle that.
i’m sure in a couple of years, the main character in all my posts will be micah, but for now, the squeaky wheel gets the oil… or at least the most blog space.
layla is, once again, driving me insane.
i swear the girl has pms! i realize she’s not exactly ‘of that age’, but it’s like she goes through these ‘cycles’. there are times when she’s perfectly normal and delightful and obedient and happy! and then there’s times like this. she cries about everything, she whines, can’t listen or obey anything, throws fall down tantrums, argues about everything, latches onto the stupidest things and digs her heals in and CANNOT get past it, no matter what you do to her. she goes absolutely hysterical every time shane leaves the house without her. UGHHHH!!!!! and the worst of it is that she seems so unhappy! i’ve also noticed that when she’s this way, she has more accidents too. it’s like her whole body is just totally out of whack. she seems so unbalanced.
it’s like the closer she’s getting to 4, the worse she gets. i thought 4 was supposed to be better! well, actually, i thought 3 was supposed to be better than 2, but i was wrong. so maybe i am about this too.
the last time i remember the problem being this bad was last fall when we were trying to do the preschool thing. eventually, we dropped out, thinking that she was just overly tired. she had recently given up naps at the time and between preschool and evening out the gap between giving up the nap and adjusting to not taking one, i attributed her outrageously horrid behavior to that.
so we recently went through a very pleasant period of behavior. layla was just wonderful. would entertain herself for hours, showed signs of gaining self-control, stayed out of trouble, for the most part.
i don’t know what to blame it on now, and makes me wonder if what i assumed was the problem before, was just a coincidence.
but, OMG, it is annoying!
i know i park her in front of the tv more than i should, but sometimes it’s the only thing i can find for her to do that doesn’t somehow lead to a hysterical fit! it was the same way last fall.
so… here’s the question. is my child just a freak? has anyone else experienced this? yes, i realize i have degree that would lead some to believe that i might be the best one to answer this question, but they don’t really have a section in those textbooks on preschoolers with pms. HELP!!!!
well, someday.
i just had this actual conversation with layla and it cracked me up, so i thought i should write it down.
layla: mommy, when can i have my own kids and be a grown up?
me: when you’re all grown up!
layla: when i am a grown up, can you invite makenna over so she can be one of my kids?
me: no, when you’re a grown up, makenna will be too. you’ll have brand new kids that you’ve never met before.
layla: really? brand new ones?
me: yes. they’ll be yours.
layla: and when they get sick…
me: you’ll have to take care of them.
layla: and when they get in trouble?
me: you’ll have to discipline them.
(for some unknown reason, this, in particular, evoked a big smile and some giggles… hmmm…)
layla: and when they poop in their pants?
me: you’ll have to clean them up.
layla: oh, yeah. i’ll need the changing table out of your room then, so can you and daddy give it to me for in my own house? mommy, will you build me my own house when i’m grown up?
me: no. you’ll have to get your own house.
layla: well, can i have my own car then?
me: yes.
layla: will you drive me and my kids to the place so we can get our own car?
me: sure.
layla: i want a car with 5 seats because i’m going to have 5 kids.
me: okay.
layla: and will you drive us to the toy store and buy toys for my kids?
me: of course! that’s what grandparents do!
… but i just don’t get why the entire world is so torn up about the death of michael jackson.
yes, he had an insanely successful career as a singer/entertainer/pop star. yes, he took a lot of that to a whole new level. yes, i remember thriller and doing the moonwalk. yes, i remember wanting one of those red leather jackets, and one of those sparkly white gloves.
however… i’m also wondering why everyone else is seeming to forget how he bleached his skin (and then had a big hit stating that it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white… always wondered about that one), underwent so much plastic surgery that he barely looked human anymore, made crotch-grabbing an acceptable dance move, hung his kid over a balcony, showed up for court in his pajamas, and, oh yeah, was accused of child molestation HOW MANY TIMES??? this was a VERY disturbed man.
i have never understood why being a celebrity excuses people from upholding the same morals and standards that we expect of normal people.
i will never understand the position we allow these people to have in our lives. he was not God. he may have been the king of pop… but really, that’s not a kingdom i’m much interested in if that’s the sort of king we appoint to rule.
yesterday, we joined some MOMS club friends for a trip to remlinger farms. we call it “rumbling farms” because that’s what shane used to call it, and now layla has started. it’s pretty funny. and no, it wasn’t loud, and we didn’t hear any rumbling. but we did…
this is a great place for the kids. they could all have fun. it’s a little expensive, but we try to make it once a year because everyone loves it so much!
layla is convinced we need to build our own roller coaster in our front yard!
i love my daughter. i really do. if i had only 3 words with which to describe her, it would be “full of life”. and she really, really is. she is someone who wants to experience all that life has to offer. i love the age she is too. her excitement about things is always contagious and her ideas hilarious and creative. she’s one of those kids who can’t just paint the paper, and whatever the rules for the game happen to be, they’re too boring and she’s going to play it her own way, darnit!
there are a few things that come with this fabulous age, however, that i could easily do without.
the screaming fit she had today, for example, over a graham cracker. she had the intention of giving it to micah, and broke it in half, even though, the whole time she was doing it, i was telling her NOT to give one to micah because he was having his lunch. i told her to eat it instead, since she was also pulling one out for herself. to which she responded,
“BUT I WANTED A BIG ONE!!!!”
i calmly informed her that the one she had was perfectly fine and that if she wanted a graham cracker, she cold eat that one.
“WWWAAAAAAAA!!!!! I WANTED A BIG ONE!!! WWAAAAAA!!!”
at which point, i sent her to her room to collect herself. a minute later, she crept back into the room and said,
“mommy, (sniffle) i (sniffle) really (sniffle) wanted (sniffle) a (sniffle) big (sniffle) one (sniffle sniffle SNIIIIFFFF).”
i informed her that she was not, in any way, obligated to eat the graham cracker, but that i wasn’t going to be getting her a new one. then she says,
“if i eat the broken one, THEN can i have a big one?”
to which i replied affirmatively, causing her to throw her arms around me and very dramatically declare,
“oh mommy! i love you soooooo much! you’re the BEST!”
sheesh! what am i going to do with her?
last night and tonight were the performances of donald and the dragon, the play that shane has been working on all year. his drama class (3rd – 6th graders) were the performers in this play, and it was directed by 3 high school students (all part of the homeschool networks program). i have a few pictures that i took tonight. most of them came out blurry, since you can’t use a flash and the theatre was obviously very dark. but i have a sampling.
shane had two parts. the first was of a ‘fruit stall holder’. he had a few lines, most of which were funny. and he delivered them all very well, totally audible, and without any hesitation or prompting. i was very proud. 
his other part was bigger and also pretty funny. he was ‘bartholomew’, the dragon’s servant/butler-type-person. he did a good job of figuring out the whole sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek attitude behind them all. 
in the final scene, he was still bartholomew, but in disguise.
all in all, they did a wonderful job and we are very proud of him.
shane, who got cold feet about it a month ago, told me tonight that he wants to do plays forever now! and when i suggested that we make a better effort to go and find some plays to see, he said, “no mom, i don’t want to see them, i want to act in them!” i guess he’s got the bug!
so this post is going to be mostly pictures. on wednesday, i went with my kids and my parents over to the hiram m. chittenden locks – better known as the ballard locks. i hadn’t been since i was a kid, and my mom and i had been talking all year about getting shane over there for a sort of educational field trip.
it was a gorgeous day, and there was lots of activity at the locks. in case you’re not inclined to click on the link above and are unaware of the functions of the locks, this is directly from that site:
The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks are a complex of locks that sit in the middle of Salmon Bay, part of Seattle's Lake Washington Ship Canal. They are known locally as the Ballard Locks after the neighborhood to their north. (Magnolia lies to the south.)
The locks and associated facilities serve three purposes:
The complex includes two locks, a small (30 x 150 ft, 8.5 x 45.7 meter) and a large (80 x 825, 24.4 x 251.5 meter). The complex also includes a (235-foot, 71.6 meter) spillway with six (32 x 12-foot (3.7 m), 9.8 x 3.7 meter) gates to assist in water-level control. A fish ladder is integrated into the locks for migration of anadromous fish, notably salmon.
we’ll just say that it is fascinating! my favorite part was this tugboat which was pulling a HUGE barge/warehouse through. pay attention to the water level in all these pictures. here it is totally full. they are coming from the lake union side, and heading out into the sound, likely on to alaska.
well, i’d say that’s about enough educational stuff for one post, eh?
