Friday, April 28, 2006

Law and Order: Toddler Crime Division

They have Christopher Meloni on my kid’s station, Noggin now. He is in the little “commercials” reading books and stuff. I will all of a sudden hear his voice and it messes with my head. Elliot Stabler should not be on my TV when the kids are watching.

Unless being a talking hand is a felony, 'cause that Oobi guy really freaks me out.


Tuesday, April 25, 2006

"I Approached the Computer, The Words of My Blog Sitting on My Fingertips"

Last night, I finished my new book I bought on my wedding anniversary shopping spree. This book, "Vanishing Acts" was pretty good, I got through it in about 3 days with my traditional last night, all night reading session because the book has captured me and I can't put it down. I have a severe problem when reading books in that when I cross over the hump of the middle and feel fewer pages in my right hand than I do in my left, a sort of panic sets in.

"YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO READ AGAIN EVER IN YOUR LIFE-FINISH THIS BOOK NOW WHILE YOU CAN!"


Next thing I know, it is 5:30am, the hubby's alarm is going off and I am asleep with my face on the book club discussion questions in the back.

Last night was no exception other than I didn't have to pull an all nighter, this panic was a mild one that only required an extra hour of my time. The story was told from the point of view of the major characters and each of them took a chapter. We would hear Delia's story, then something that happened to Andrew and then it would switch over to Fitz. It was an interesting style-although sometimes overly flowery and romantic- and, for some reason, penetrated my BRAIN. After finishing the book, I was falling asleep and found myself narrating my day:

"Overall it was a good day, Nathan got to play on the computer and Lucy and I played a forever memorable game with a blanket she got from Grandma Carol..."

(I didn't nay my narrative was interesting.)

"...and involved hiding with her under the blanket. In reflecting on my day, I stop to ponder as I find myself drifting off as to whether or not Lucy will remember the game tomorrow. I enjoyed playing it with her so much and I hope that we can do it aga-"

What?!?!? Am I seriously narrating my day? OK, shut your brain off Bethany, GO. TO. SLEEP.

Somehow that worked, I went to sleep. But upon awaking this morning, my brain picked up where it left off...

"I heard the early morning cries of my daughter and wondered if she was up for the day or if she was just making a little noise in her sleep. I desperately clung to the sound of her cries being ones of noisy sleep. But I stopped myself from letting her cry too long as I would any other morning because that is when I remembered her 103 degree fever I put her to bed with."

I rolled my eyes at myself.
That is how I started my day, rolling my eyes...at ME!

"I pondered briefly as to how my blog readers would read this post. Had I been too trite in my comments? Should I add more detail or will this be their last visit once they discover how their beloved blogger is completely insane?"

Saturday, April 22, 2006

The One Where I Wish Change Never Happened

It's so odd the patterns of life. I planned to sit down tonight and blog about my severe upset and actual rage-that's right, I said rage-at Price Club (don't correct me) for changing the type of tortillas they sell.

For years I have been blissfully feeling myself, my family and specifically Carol and Kristy the sweet and wonderful taste of Porkyland tortillas. They were practically a religion in our household and now that they are gone, I think I am changing my religion to the "Filling the Price Club Comment Box With Complaints About The New Stupid Rubio’s Tortillas Until They Wise Up and Bring Back Porkyland" religion. Join me will you? We have weekly services at our local Price Club and the only tithe we require is you filling out a complaint kindly asking them what happened to their buyer's taste buds that he or she would feel the need to torture the innocent burrito or quesadilla lover with the filth now packaged as tortillas. Contact me if you want to convert.

But tonight I received a phone call about a friend of mine whom I have worked with for many years retiring from her position. She and I have been through hell and high water, literally. She has taught me the meaning of being an effective leader in a church, she has been the perfect example of grace under pressure and no matter what the problem, I have always been able to come to her for wisdom and advice. She has seen me get married, go through two amazing pregnancies and has loved my children as if they were her own grandbabies. She has held me when I was falling apart through the most painful time of my life and she has helped me heal and move on through those times.

She isn't going anywhere. She is simply retiring but as I sit alone on my couch wallowing in my self pity, I realize that I don't plan on stopping by the office as often as I already do. I don't want to go in there and not see her. I don't want to not see my babies' pictures on their computer monitor; I don't want to collaborate on a project without her. It isn't that I don't like the person replacing her, in fact, I love the person replacing her but my friend is the reason I visit. I miss working with her on a daily basis and I miss sharing my life with her. I don't know when I will get to do that now.

I hate change. I like things to be the same always. This is change and I hate it.

Tomorrow they will be announcing all of this in church and I don't want to go. I know that by the morning I will feel better. By tomorrow I will be able to see my friend free up her time to travel with her wonderful husband, visit her family more and simply relax from the pressure of literally keeping a church running even when we were leaderless for a few years. I will hug her and hold her and smile for her. But tonight I will be sad for myself...I wish I had a good tortilla.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Spirit of the Resurrection Filled Eggs

The kids got their first foray into the commercialization of Easter this week with their first Easter Egg Hunt. The idea of which, at least when I was a child, was absolutely blasphemous and you might as well not be wearing an Easter hat to church if you hunted plastic eggs filled with candy. In our house, we decided that the two concepts can, indeed, coexist and thought we'd give it a try.

We got all dressed up, showed up at our friend Gwen's house and the chaos began.

The Shorter One (TSrO) is still one of the littlest of the walkers of our playgroup so I kept an eye on her to be sure that she was trampled by the candy craving hordes of kids darting back and forth on my friend’s lawn. But I also really wanted to see The Short One (TSO) find his first egg. I had a small one in hand, a giant camera around my neck-drop the camera and don’t come home-and I also realized that I forgot to wear a belt. (That is not part of the story, more of a non sequitur that suddenly occurred to me at the beginning of the hunt.) I look around for TSO and suddenly, he shows me a FULL basket of eggs! He’d only been out there for maybe a minute. The bigger mongrels were still hunting and hadn’t started lawn wrestling for the last melted Crunch bar just yet.


RIGHT ON KID! THAT is the TRUE Spirit of Easter! Grab all the eggs before those friends of yours get to them!

Monday, April 10, 2006

This Week's Secret Weapon

Beautiful fabric
Hanging from the walls
Cutting out light
Red: to match the blanket
Green: the perfect shade

Perfection
Found at Wal-Mart (only $14.99)
The Smiley Man comes through again.

Simple fabric
Bringing so much joy
..........and about 1 hour more of sleep in the morning because the kids still think it's dark out.