Mother May I...

Post a pretty picture?


Emily was given an impromptu golf lesson by my Mom and Jim on Sunday. Hey, if these two can teach her anything it's golf. They have been golfing forever and if I may brag a little, they have each been known to win tournaments from time to time. Emily, my still 9 year old child, is wearing the same size as my Mom, a size 7 women's shoe, so of course she gleefully accepted the gift of an old pair of golf shoes from Nana [my Mom] and wore them for pretty much the rest of the day! Monday morning, on the way to school [we carpool with another family] she proudly told her friend "I'm learning how to play golf."

Yeah, you heard me, we loaded our six pack and drove north for a visit last Saturday and stayed overnight. The best part is that I actually could SIT and VISIT because I was not running around like crazy as I would have been doing if we had stayed home. It makes me wonder why I never take time to SIT and RELAX more at home. Isn't home supposed to be more relaxing? Maybe that doesn't apply to me, or maybe I just need to work on making it more possible. That's it, I'm putting it on the list.

This week has been a blur. All the regular goings on plus we have added T-ball for Sarah and Wyatt. It's very cool to have two on the same team, and a first for us. Things will come to pretty much a screeching halt in about four weeks though. May is the end of the road for school, catechism, and Girl Scouts. June is relatively unscheduled and I have already sprinkled swim lessons and camps for the kids into July and August.

I've still not found my focus and haven't finished many things around the house I start. Much of that has to do with Eva, as I type she is in my lap, wiggling and contorting, positioning herself for I don't know what. Occasionally hitting a random key on the keyboard. Pretty much keeping me that much off balance. She is just heavy enough [at about 35 pounds] to almost hurt me with all this un-balancing. Eva is also still unwilling to make a trip to the toilet without me. She is doing great, still with the diaper at night though, but we're pretty much accident free [insert one trip to the toilet here.]

T-ball pictures up next, I had more fun watching their first game than you can even believe. Details coming up...

I Want My Lemon Twist Back.

My favorite childhood toy has to be the Lemon Twist.

I dream about playing with this toy again. My feet know the motions, my right foot knows exactly how to twirl, my left foot knows just when to jump. It made the coolest noise because it had rocks inside the plastic lemon. Renee and I skipped this thing for hours and hours all over the neighborhood, up and down the sidewalks, the driveways and in the street.

I think I might be the best Lemon Twister of all time. I would challenge anyone in a Lemon Twist contest [not back then, I'm talking right now]. I believe someday, somehow, I will again own one. It can't be any knock off either, it has to be this exact one. I know someone in the world has one mint in the bag, heck, I'd even settle for a used one.

If I had known how much my 40 year old self would yearn for it, I could have bought an extra one [or twenty] in 1975 and put it in a time capsule for me to open in 2008. It's out there...one day my elusive Lemon Twist will come.

Oh good Lord, I can't believe I am sharing this but, look...

I found it as I was searching for my Lemon Twist. It just calls out to me. Come, sit, play, come, sit, play! It's freaking Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!

Pure Happy.

Three days ago, Eva asked the question.

She said "but whyyyyyyy?" Now it's all I hear. Even if I give her the answer why, she says it again, and again. "But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" The way she drags out the y in why so long and pouts her lips and shows a partial smile as she is asking, it just cracks. me. up! I often wondered when she would discover that word...here we go.



Eva is mostly, most of the time, the happiest little girl you'd ever want to meet. Her disposition is pure happy. Another thing she has learned to do within the last few weeks is pedal and steer the red tricycle, she just loves that thing!

As for me, things have improved since my last post. My funk evaporated. My attitude is now in check and I'm feeling more positive and more bulletproof than ever before. Check. Now I am just a little frustrated with myself because I have a list of projects that I want to get started or get finished and I'm not making them happen. Last spring, I busted out and accomplished so much, but for some reason this year my motivation hasn't kicked in yet. I need to figure out how to turn on my turbo blast cycle and get busy. Yeah, I know, turning off the computer will help...I'll walk away right after this post!

More fun:

Guess what Eva calls her fingernails? Fingersnails. Even before her obsession with our friendly backyard snails.

After working in the garden last weekend, Wyatt came into the house with our tube of toothpicks and they were almost all gone, so I asked him, "Wyatt, why did you take the toothpicks outside?" He said, "we had to," me again, "why?" He said, "for a snail graveyard." That was my last question...I don't even want to know the details :(

Eva uses that toilet seat insert that sits up on top of the regular one, it keeps her from falling in. We call it the potty seat. We already got rid of the potty "chair" because she prefers the "insert". This morning, she asked me to go with her as in "I need to go to da bathroom Momma." When we got there, she picked up her little red potty seat and said, "gotta get my poop seat." What a smart girl, so readily adaptive! We have never called it that before! And, yeah, she got that one right!



Two more things:

On Politics. Emily said recently to Tony, "Daddy, if you were running for president, our whole family would vote for you." To that I say, awwwwwwww.

On Food. I have to rave about the salad I made for dinner last night. It was the Citrus Steak Salad from Everyday Food magazine [May '08, pg. 96]. I just looked for the link but they're not giving it up yet. I did notice that several other sites have a similarly named salad. Mine was so delicious. It tastes a lot better than the picture looks. It took me twice as long than the 20 minutes the recipe claimed but it was easy and so so worth it! Even the kids, except Sarah [she's a little picky pants these days] cleaned their plates.

Happy Earth Day!

Super Why?

I forgot to mention that Wyatt and Eva have both been sick with fever the past few days. They seem to be doing fine today though. A very low key day for me, one piece of crummy news after another, enough to make me feel kind of mas o menos, mediocre, a little lousy really.

We didn't have a babysitter, whole other long story really, so I insisted [and then asked myself "why did he go without me?"] that Tony go to a much anticipated birthday dinner in another town, alone, sans me. Before that he had to go to work for a few hours, some emerging crisis that required his presence. So Saturday has just been whack. The most exciting thing that happened today, was this:



and it's a good thing, I know, but not enough to make all the yucky stuff go away. Maybe a few more sweet berries and I'll feel better. Fresh local strawberries are my favorite time of year.

My four monkeys are driving me nuts tonight too [surprise]. I'm going to go pour myself a glass of wine and watch Planet Earth with them. We are on disk 2 [Netflix, yes] and 'Ice Worlds' is up next. It's the most amazing series, I highly recommend it.

Wyatt just walked over and whispered "I love you" in my ear. That's my cue to turn the computer off.

I just know tomorrow will be super like a superhero. Super WHY, he's my guy.

Rebound Baby.

Eva is so full of surprises. Who knew she would be so excited about the rebound? Just the word rebound sets her off!

Emily had her last two basketball games this week. She had a great time playing and she isn't bad either, she made 3-5 baskets per game. She played with 3rd to 5th grade girls of all sizes. Emily is a tall girl and that's an advantage for sure, but all the girls played well, even the ones that were much smaller. You would think that girls of this age would be more subdued, but they were WOW, aggressive out there on the court. Pure determination, I think is what it's about. I really enjoy watching basketball, it's much more exciting than watching some other sports. Plus, it's easier. You don't have to drag your chairs and umbrellas around like with soccer!

Speaking of dragging stuff around. I feel like I have been dragging ME around all week. I have lots of ick on me. I have had a cold, allergy thing going on and some other kind of emotional creepy crap has left me feeling so cranky, uninspired, and disconnected from the world and all it's contents. Whatever it is, I hope it lifts and lets me go so I can get more done and feel better.

I think I will go and give Eva a few hundred kisses. That just might set me right because I so need to rebound MY SELF!

Succu-licious.

The big attraction for me to the succulents is definitely the fact that they will [hopefully] not die later in the year. I have a strict policy that my investments pay off big, over the long term, I typically don't go for the flashy short term gains. Pretty bright flashy flowers would also be nice...maybe next time!



OK, so I'm not a gardening genius. But they are not really so bad either. Sure, they are small, but small is cheaper than big and they will grow! I really don't know what they will look like when they grow up but I have high hopes for these babies. Here is the best looking one [apologies to the lesser good looking of the two] all hung up.

This is How We Do It.

No, I am not sending my kids off to work for UPS. No particular reason and highly unplanned, we just had one of those happy coordination days yesterday. For the record, I was also wearing a brown top and Tony was stunning in white.



Unfortunately [for us both] Eva is no longer a napper. It's extremely unfair, she is only 2 and-a-half! I can find no magic trick to get her to nap, my bag is empty. The exception, of course, is any car trip in the afternoon. Even then, I have only about a 50% chance that she will remain asleep if I move her from the car seat into the house. This was Saturday's lawn and garden trip to Lowe's. We had a bit of a heat wave over the weekend [set records even.] Alas, I cannot officially declare summer because today were back to early spring, and I am grateful for that. I'm just not ready for summer yet, although it will be better for us all who have allergies that are kicking our butts making us nuts. Nope, I'm not ready for 90's yet, 70's will do just fine thank you very much.



Most of the vegetable garden that Tony and the kids planted in February didn't make it through that last blustery storm we had, [just the hearty radishes remain] so they replanted a little bit. Eva is mildly obsessed with snails at the moment. She builds up large collections of them, you could call her the snail hunter. She searches through the backyard plants for her victims snails, shamefully, we have plenty to enhance her slimy collection.



Yeeeeeeeuck!

I picked up all the supplies I need to make two hanging succulent baskets for the backyard. We had an awesome gardening demonstration at my last Mama's meeting [that's what Tony calls it.] If they turn out OK, watch for pictures. If you see no pictures, you'll know it didn't work out for me!

Forgiveness is Good.

My Mom has not shunned me! She even came to my home! Well, mostly because my Aunt Rebecca traveled thousands of miles to be here. We spent the afternoon together last Saturday, it was lovely.



Tony shopped and created lunch for all of us, including Jim and Rebecca's Sister-in-law Fran, who is also a lovely lady that I was very pleased to meet. My Aunt Rebecca is a retired teacher and a world traveler. This particular adventure is a two-month cross country RV adventure with Fran, and also their husbands who they left behind to meet us that day. Aunt Rebecca has been to many exotic places all over the world and just within these last few months she has been to Peru, Africa, and later this year she will travel to Russia. All I can say to that is WOW! Dream big people.



It's a HUGE treat for me to have my very own relatives in my home. Tony has millions lots of relatives that live nearby, but it's sort of rare for us to entertain my relatives, BIG, BIG deal for me and of course I loved every minute of it. Anybody else ready for a trip to California? I'm ready for 'ya!

The Story of Stuff.

I have been meaning to pass this along to you. It is a movie that's 20 minutes long and if you have not seen it, it's totally worth the time it takes to watch it once or five times. I even had my big girls and their friends watch it one afternoon. I always wonder how the amount of trash we makes just conveniently disappears once a week. Yeah, I know the guy in the big truck takes it away but after that, what? And the "where does all this stuff come from" question, I was so enlightened by her simple portrayal of the so called cycle.

The first time I watched it, I was disgusted and mad. But, it also makes me very sad. If what she says is true, it makes me ill to learn that this monster consumer culture we live in was actually devised by some idiot genius guy.

I think I am pretty consumer conscious but now I find myself thinking about every single purchase. Is it necessary? Do I really need this? Needs vs. wants...blah blah blah. Wondering also why everything we buy has excessive packaging, wondering why we can't get past that. Why do they put the tube of toothpaste in a box anyway? Many questions, I can't solve it all but I can make better decisions the more I know. Yeah, that's it, blah blah blah.

Seriously.

Before you read this, go to my blog post titled Big, Big News and check the date of the post and think about what kinds of things sometimes happen on that day.

Pause. Seriously, go back and look at the date.

Pause again.

Deep Breath.

Now you can accept my apology for not being the kind of gal that people expect such silly and truly juvenile behavior [darn it] from, then forgive me and we can be friends again :)

On Tuesday, my Mother accused me of re-activating her 15 year old dormant ulcer, and that is EXACTLY what I was trying to do. You see, when Tony and I broke the news to her and Jim that we were having our fourth child, she had a nervous breakdown [for one day]. Please don't get me wrong, I know she loves her grandchildren dearly, but I think she has a hard time getting past the part where she worries about me too much.

A few hours after I posted on April 1, my sister Renee called me. She casually said "what's goin' on down there?" I said "nothin'...whatchu doin'?" OK, you get the picture, she knew, she was maybe the only one who knew I was capable of such mischief. She told me that Mom was "losing it" and had begged her to call me and find out.

Renee was burglarized [by some very ugly soul-less bad bad mean people I'm sure of it] a few months back and her laptop was one of the items taken, so my Mom had phoned her and read the post to her word for word. When Renee asked Mom if she knew what the date was, she said my Mother replied in a whiny voice, "I don't know, April something." Somewhere in their conversation my Sister asked my Mother "how old is she anyway?"

Soon after I talked to Renee, my Mother called with, "WHAT are you trying to do to me?" I think I had nearly the biggest laugh of my life that day.

This all just cracks me up down to my last bone. You might have to know my mother to understand how I feel. I just wish I could have seen everyone's reaction in person. My brother-in-law Chris must have momentarily flipped out when Renee shouted to him "Mel's havin' twins," and my cousin Jerry in Texas, I wish I could have really heard the conversation in his home with Kris and my Aunt Teri! I wonder how many OMG's were shouted out loud. I feel a little bit bad, a little bit Machiavellian, but not so bad that I regret doing it!

Thank you for all the BIG love and well wishes. Sorry, please don't be mad at me.

You know I love you people! XOXOXOXO

A Beautiful Day.

This post is overdue...we went on an adventure last week, we hit two missions and the beach in a single day. We headed west and stopped at Mission San Juan Bautista. We were there for a wedding about three years ago. The picture of the kids on the bench, under the bell was taken in the gardens there. It's a nice place, rich in history, of course, and beauty.



We left there and made a beeline for Carmel. Before we toured the mission, we found a secluded place in a nearby park and made a picnic. It was fun. I am usually not prepared with the necessary accoutrement for any picnic but we took a few extra minutes to pack before we left that morning. So glad we did because it was nearly a perfect picnic. It was a heck of a lot better than scrambling for a place to eat lunch in not all that familiar territory, while cranky, hunger laden, and trip weary in the middle of the day.

Funny thing is that now, wherever we go, Eva insists that we go home to use the potty, even if we are two hours from home. That makes things a little interesting, but with her own private toilet seat in tow and some major convincing, it all worked out OK.

And the Carmel Mission itself, I'm sure I have never been there because I would definitely remember it. It's maybe the most beautiful place I have ever visited. It's real name is San Carlos de Borromeo de Carmel Mission and I can very much understand why they made it a Minor Basilica [implying great historical and artistic importance] in the 1960's. This photo of Sarah in an old wooden chair in the courtyard is my favorite of the day.



Tony found a large engraved block on the floor in the chapel commemorating Pope John Paul II's visit there in 1987. He was so surprised when he realized that it was the very day he himself [along with 50,000 others] had seen the Pope celebrate mass in nearby Monterey.

My kids were desperately trying to climb into the fountain even though it was not such a warm day and there were signs posted for no climbing [duh]. I think I must have warned and pulled Wyatt off of at least a hundred things he tried to climb. I just don't want to be responsible for the destruction of [relatively] ancient California artifacts as much as my son wouldn't mind if I were.



The beach was cold and windy but we found a warm mountain of sand and played for about an hour. Very nice. We ended the day with a quick visit to Rafi and Miriam in Gilroy and arrived home promptly at 11 p.m. It was a very good day.



I took hundreds of pictures, you know research purposes, it was an educational trip after all. You can see lots more here. It was really hard to take a bad picture with all that beauty around us that day.

Big, Big News.

Yep, we're skipping five and heading straight through to six! Just like Granny did it, and if she hadn't, I wouldn't be here, right?

I hope it's two boys so we can even out the score in this family, make it equitable, genderly speaking. Good thing my vehicle seats 8. We're happy, get over it, big families are "in."

Love to you all, please pray for me and wish me luck. You know how big I got with just one inside, with two there I will be the biggest freak you have ever seen! Too bad giving handicapped parking to pregnant ladies didn't pass. Oh well, I'll manage, I always do!