Marina's Last Day of School

Today was Marina's last day of school. It has been a nice year at the Lutheran Preschool. She has had a good time. She's made some new friends. Her teachers have been very forgiving of me and my preoccupation problems. In my mind she is that much closer to that old rock song, "She loves Jesus, and her daddy too."

We copied her body on paper. We ran around like crazy sang some cute songs. Received a pillow of recognition.

And then ate a lot of sweets. She's pretty hyped up tonight. Looks like an early bed time is on the way!

side note: We are now a fully mobile family! Spent over an hour at ACS setting that mess up. It sure is fun!

another side note: The sun is finally out! Hallelujah!

Veggie Day!

This was the scene from my window yesterday. If you look closely you will see snowflakes.



This is the scene from my window today. Which is better?

Today, Marina had important questions for Vince. They were important questions for Vince because I couldn't find a good answer. These included, "Why does Dad like to kill human nature?" (I'm sure she meant to say Mother nature) and "When can we go to Bali and why can't it be tomorrow?"

We kidnapped Vince for lunch and took him with us to help deliver our veggie boxes and have a treat. We shared a baguette. (I had 1/3 of it and was satisfied). He told Dale and Sharon of his job change and of his living situation plan. (The Van)Dale said that it was a funny thought to think of him camping with the RVs and the grey hairs in the parking lot at Fred Meyers all summer. He said, "I'm planning on putting out a sign, you know like the guy who has the sign that says, Windshields Repaired. Except mine will say, Medication Checks. I think it will be a lucrative side business." We were laughing! And it was nice to laugh. The card I picked for this week was a good one. (see picture)

Sharon brought the boys by, just in time to give me tips on oven baking some pork ribs in a ginger-garlic-hoisun-oyster sauce.

She is a cool friend in that she was perfectly comfortable hanging out at my house with her kids and my daughter in the mess while I went to Falcom's school for meetings. She also kept Marina from feeding our just arrived beautiful organic apples to the friends on horseback who stopped by for a visit. Whew.....

She and I are going to have to start making more time for each other.

I went to pick up Falcom from school and came across the kids in this position.

Chasey's dad said, "What's going on over there? It's like they are passing out cigarettes." I said, "Probably one of them has candy. You know, with this crowds parents, candy is to them like cigarettes were for us." Another good laugh.

Big News in town among the 1-15 year old set: IT'S CARNIVAL TIME! Every time we go to town we have to drive by this corner. We have to go by this corner because of the intense begging and pleading that the children do. Pulezze let us see what they brought today! Pulezze! Through unscientific polling, I have been amazed to learn that this is a behavior which all young children in the town are participating in. Can you guess where we will be spending our Saturday afternoon with the Brothers Wise after the birthday party of Christopher?

Regular Tuesday without Irene

News of the month (and the reason for my emotional eating) is that Vince will be leaving his job at South Peninsula Hospital for a job at Central Peninsula Hospital. He will be working three days on, four off and will be spending two nights a week in Soldotna. He is glad to just be a regular pharmacist and not have to be a manager anymore.

As is true to Vince's personality, he will be enthusiastically living out of the Mel Mobile. If you are unfamiliar with the Mel Mobile, please watch the following short movie:

Now that Vince has come out of the closet, so to speak, I feel like a cork has popped out of a dyke. Hopefully, now I can emote at will (which is my personality norm) and get away from emotional eating.


And now for some Emoting!

The situation creates a medium level distress in me, mostly because it means things have to change. I think I will be feeling distress until we are able to have a routine. The other reason I feel distress is that I really really like Vince and I love having him around. He will only be away two nights a week, which will be nothing, but... to me it feels like something.

This change has made us have to put MY winter planning on hold because we made a pact as a family not to travel without each other again and we won't know if he will have any vacation available for a while.

Because the darkness of winter is hard for me, these travel breaks are critical to my mental health. Between the job change and the kids school situation I was unable to take Kimmy up on her fabulous timeshare offer. The realization of the pending winter has put a funk into my funkiness.

Irene says that something will materialize and I know she's right, but, it's easier to stress about that than the Zombified Legions of the Soccer Mom Army following Vince around in Soldotna.

Had coffee this afternoon with Priscilla. It was funny.



Topics Discussed:

• This beautiful bouquet of Mother's Day flowers from J.H.
  
  Chris's birthday cake and how to best make it
• 
  
• Her ongoing Carpel Tunnel problem and her visit to see Dr. McCallum


• Her lawn mower and who should service it


• This Thursday, Marina, school picnic which I or Vince needs to be there for


• Priscilla in the newspaper and how it should have said, "Wise Family and Grandma"
  

• Matt and Vince in the newspaper. How one of them needed to have their name scratched through the list.
  

  Chris going to school looking like a rag-muffin in ripped jeans which were high waters! Unthinkable! The child of a doctor and a nurse no less!



• Queen Maya

I ended up fixing her lawnmower by changing the spark plug. I felt very macho doing it. Totally butch, like I am becoming the full package: totally hot-stage-former school bus driving-coffee drinking-butch mom. It also allowed me to feel as though I had paid for my coffee and babysitting time.


Chicken update: The chicken Veronica is no longer in our basement. She could not keep those eggs warm. She stopped being into setting about four days ago and Vince and I decided to get on with it. DeeJay was sad to say good-bye to his room mate, but alas... Maybe next month.

I've Got a Girlfriend That's Better Than That...

Bear and Dog Tracks

I decided I'd better get back on the program this morning and started the day with a jog with Falcom.

Did I take a picture of the snow that had fallen in the morning? No. Should I have? Yes.

I plodded along in my usual way. I caught up with Falcom, who was having a meltdown because 'You Left Me!' I said, "Honey, don't we do this everyday? Don't you know where we go?" He got it together and we were finally able to continue on. That is until our neighbor drove up (no not Terri) and said, "We had a grizzly bear with two cubs in our yard this morning. I know they were heading west, but you'd better turn around." Falcom and I turned around and as we did the snow started again, and the rain, and the wind was in our faces. Falcom had another meltdown and screamed: "I HATE THIS MOTHER NATURE!"

Yes, I might be doomed to fatness. It is nice to see though how this fatness started in the first place: through my unwillingness to participate in this awful weather. It is hard to motivate when you are confronted with the ultimate dysfunctional mother...NATURE! I'm so glad Falcom was here to help me see it so clearly.

As I predicted in my last post; the house did not have a Mother's Day Miracle. When I got in from the attempted jog, Vince was walking around half mumbling about the mess around here. "Oh, Gross." He'd say or "Arg!" Then I opened my email and received this bit of good news from Mindy Hunter

Hi Girlfriend,
So, did anyone tell you that I called Sat morning about having coffee together this weekend? Just wondering... We have appointments for our “side-by-side 60 minute Couples Massage (we can hear each other’s moans of pleasure and shrieks of pain),” on Sunday, May 25. We can have our pedicures after lunch that day (like around 2:00, I was thinking), but only one lady works that day, so one of us would have to wait and be witty and entertaining for us all. OR, we could do our pedicures at the same time, “side-by-side pedicures...” on the day before, Saturday, May 24, any time after 11:00. What do you prefer?

There were other, finer points, in the email that I won't go into here, but the entire document was a well written reminder that I am not the only mother in town who is feeling a pinch of depression accentuated by screaming children, disastrously messy houses, and this unusually cold weather.

Luckily, I am able to grasp to the good news: Mindy Hunter and I will be having Massages and Pedicures on May 25!

Vince took the kids away when he saw that I was feeling motivated to clean. What happened next? The phone started ringing... I spent an hour and a half on the phone discovering that:

• N.R. had sex this weekend! (Few of you will understand the importance of this, but it is remarkable and I need to mark it for posterity. )
  
• Suzanne wanted to know if I had taken a picture of the snow from this morning.


• Suzanne drank to much and then ate too much and thought about ditching on WW, but I said, "If we don't go tonight, then we'll never go again!" She admitted I was right.
  
• S.R. thinks I've made great strives this winter in the various aspects of my life and needed to pick up the phone to tell me that.
  
• J.M. is dying to move somewhere warm and dry and was seriously shopping for property in New Mexico after driving for a field trip to Mud Bay where no kid wanted to participate because it was so cold and wet out there!
  
• Valda's pictures are still not downloading from her camera properly and she is coming over to check it out.
  
• Jeanne wants to do the celebration mobiles on Wednesday after the school camping trip meeting.
  
• K.F. wants to know if Vince and I will be attending the employee banquet on Saturday. Yes we are.
  
• R.S. said, "I'll have the ADD test done before Wed. I've already picked up the tests from his teachers. I'm thinking that you should make the appointment now, because sometimes it can be hard to get in..." I had to laugh.

I was relieved when Suzanne picked me up for the WW. I was ready to be away from this mess. Her dog Pit came with us. Pit is an enormous version of Scratch. Very sweet dog, Very huge!

In the new WW location there is a lovely group counseling area that Suzanne and I took full advantage of. Some people might think of this as 'the line to be weighed', oh no! It's the therapy line.

And boy did I need it! It was so nice to feel supported and loved when I learned that I'd GAINED 2.2 POUNDS! Look at these lovely and supportive women... Neither of them groaned at me or scolded me... They were so sweet and quickly pulled out the week three booklet and referenced the quiz that enables a person to see some potential problem areas.

I left the meeting feeling loved and so Suzanne and I immediately left to go out to eat. Suzanne had something to celebrate: all of her 10th graders passed the High School Equivalency test. I needed to go out to the spit to take pictures of my beloved Zac's Flat Stanley. I was going to make a quiz that said, "Which of these plates did I eat after learning about my significant weight gain this week?" In looking at the shot, I think it's pretty clear who wanted cheese for dinner.

I must mention here that for the money, if you want to have a salad and chicken on the Spit this summer, Boardwalk Fish and Chips is not the place to go. Go there for fish and chips, or burgers and fries. This ice burg lettuce salad with large chunks of onion and regular old dressing is far out shined by the salads at Fat Olives.

Suzanne told me I could share her fries. (oops! Did that give it away who ate what?)

We were talking about her success, and the stresses in my life. I think I will be able to go into more detail about that tomorrow, but, I realized that when I started talking about Vince I reached out to nab my first french fry.

Immediately, I got into my purse and yanked out the week three booklet that I got from the meeting: I quickly went over the quiz... I eat for comfort... If I overeat, I feel guilty, which leads me to overeat more... But the biggie...I eat more when I'm unhappy, angry, or stressed...

That french fry grab made it painfully obvious that I am an Emotional Eater! Today I will study pages 39-45 and find out ways to manage this situation.

When I got home there was a note from Irene who took time to write from her fun trip which said, among other things:

Chin up, old girl. I love the Virgin Mary logos on your blog, where ever did you find them? And thanks for putting pictures of my boys on your blog. I don't have any of my old photo files on the laptop, only new ones. I updated my profile,check me out! I love having a friend that is totally into me. I love you! You're better than a husband or a boyfriend!

I swear, I am the luckiest woman around, because I have the best coolest girlfriends ever!

Thank you all for everything!

Mother's Day

It's been a lovely day here at the Greear House. Vince helped the kids to help me sleep in late. I didn't start moving around until 8 this morning. Then, he made me a wonderful breakfast and I spent the day relaxing and doing nothing.

Oh, yea, I was doing something. Eating. I ate unhealthy things. I ate a lot of them.

What is the secret of a successful Mother's Day? I think the answer may be specific detailed lists of what you'd like to see happen. One thing that I have finally connected with about this holiday after these 7 years of being fortunate enough to celebrate it is that I get to do whatever I want and no housework will get done. Therefore, I will get to do it all tomorrow.

I guess I instinctively think that because it is Mother's Day the guys and kids will think to mop. Note to new Mothers: No, they will not. If your husband is nice and you give him a specific list of things that you would like to have done and mopping is on it, he would certainly do it. Otherwise.... I'm not complaining, because it has been a very nice day. I'm just saying that no, the gift of a clean home was not given.

Now that I am writing that I am thinking that it would not be 'the gift of a clean house.' At this point it would be, 'The sky parting Mother's Day Miracle of All Times!'

Yes, this house is that trashed. DeeJay came home from work today with a beautiful Lily for me to plant and a card. Very nice kids. Good Job!

Falcom came to the door this morning and said, "Mom, come and see Jason." I thought, 'you must be kidding! Jason is here, on Mother's Day?' I opened the door and saw this:

Falcom and his rooster that he has named Jason...Jason Castro (after Jason on American Idol).

Vince is now making me ribs and potato soup and french bread. Luckily, tomorrow is Weight Watchers because I will need this:

pictures courtesy of Our Lady of Weight Loss by Janice Taylor

When The Game Outshines the Day

This was the most Life I got out of Friday.

Some days are just like that.

Now it's Saturday and Irene's technology problem rubbed off on me and I was deprived all day! This is a problem because there were fantastic photo ops all around me:

• Pancake Breakfast at the Methodist Church
• Beekeeping and the Finding of our Queen
• Riley and Chris having my first golf for kids lesson (I'm not just saying this because I am biased, but they really were fun to be out there with)
• Hot dogs in the clubhouse after the game.
• The kids out riding bikes on our road
• The chicken in my basement

Tomorrow...we will have better blogging tomorrow!

Two IEP Meetings - Zero Panic Attacks

Walking into Two Sisters after an IEP meeting is like traveling on a hot, dusty road and stopping at a cool lake for a dip: Samantha was finishing a quilt, bread was in the oven, pastries were in the cabinet, Sharon was wielding a knife. It's a refreshing delight.

DeeJay's meeting went well. No, he did not attend. We got more done that way I am sure, I still think that he can not adequately learn to advocate for himself until he has an ability to understand what all these people have been saying about him all these years, but... this isn't the year to include him I suppose. When we explained to his history teacher that he was in the room finishing the project, the teacher started laughing. At the end of his part of the meeting he said, "Well, I'd better go, I've probably got 20 kids freaking out in line behind DeeJay...hee hee hee." We were laughing too.

It's great to work with experienced professionals. It was a very encouraging meeting. DeeJay's teachers really like him and they all had really great ideas about how to make next year enriching and successful for him. They all said, "He is so positive and into the 'blue and gold' (Homer High Colors) we'd hate to see him turn to the dark side." To that end the new principal had an idea about having him tutor the severely math challenged kids for credit (since he is drawn toward the helping professions), work study for credit, vocational rehab starting next year, and other great ideas. I am glad to see that there are new and exciting things that we can try in place of doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

After the meeting I ran into an old Head Start friend of mine in Safeway. She also has an IEP 10th grader. We have talked before about the need for remedial English and so I told her that I just had my IEP meeting and that it went well. She said, "Gosh! I never thought of planning next years schedule before the school year starts. Maybe I should call them." I felt that this was validation that my year of DeeJay Angst was worth it.

I pulled this card at the bakery today. It made me laugh because Matt always makes Irene and I laugh with his concept of a magazine for people like us. It is a complete juxtaposition of "Simple Living". It's called, "Complicated Living." Here is my confession. The new principal at the school is coordinating a new K-12 PTA and wants me to join it. She hooked me in with the theme: 'Wellness'. I said, "Do you mean tackling these gross hot lunches?" She said, "Yes." I said, "More physical activity?" "Yes". "Sign me up." I am one step closer to the fully 'Complicated Life'.

I also finished my traffic school for the judge today. The memory of the judge looking from behind her desk at me and saying, "You, you admit that you did it, and yet you marked not guilty?" is surely one of my more gloriously goofy memories.

Falcom came home from voice lessons today with a new favorite song. This one comes from the movie Kinky Boots and is called, "Beautiful". Very campy and European. We went to McNeil School last night and watched their spring concert, "Bugz". They were amazing, very coordinated and fun to watch. There was a stink bug that kept walking through the scene making all the bugs cringe and finally took the microphone and said his feelings were hurt. Marina turned to me and said, "He doesn't stink in real life mom, no he doesn't, just in the play." Very cute! What a fantastic job training the kids and orchestrating that.