Memorial weekend

We went to Mesa this weekend to visit Mike's parents. Drove out Thursday night & arrived in the wee hours of Friday morning. Nothing too noteworthy - played games, swam, napped, lazed about, ate too much good food that I didn't have to clean up after -- lather, rinse, repeat for 4 days.

Thomas, Mike's mom & I did go see Prince Caspian. Good movie - more violent than The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. Eddie Izzard is hilarious as a brave little mouse. And it cracked me up how they did this little love interest thing with Susan & Prince Caspian. I never read the books (take away my nerd club membership card), so I have no idea if that is in the book or some Hollywood baloney.

Mike & I went out for a 'date' (he hates it when I call it that) Sunday evening. We saw the Indiana Jones movie. Not bad. I wouldn't run right out to see it, but it'll make a good one to rent. Mike's so funny - on the way home he said "Harrison Ford must cost a lot these days; there were no other big name actors in it." Hello?!?! Cate Blanchett? I also had to tell him that the Marion character was the same lady from the original movie. Nerd.

I got sunburned pretty bad on my back last Tuesday. Forgot to have the other mom slather it up when she arrived for our swimming play date. Duh. I've been paying for my stupidity since. Peeling, flaking & otherwise itching like the dickens today. Beyond the whole forgetting to apply fiasco - my new sunscreen is working out rather nicely.
Seriously, though, 85???? Yes, 85. I have no melanin & I'm really tired of getting burnt every Friday at the park. So 85 it is. Highly recommended if you are similarly melanin challenged.


Had a couple of really bad dreams while we were gone. The kind of dreams that continue to freak you out when you wake up. Dream 1: Thomas had died and I was in the morgue of the hospital, signing in to see his body. Creepy bad, huh? There are more details, but really, I think that is adequate to let you know just how creepy bad the dream was. Dream 2: a good friend of mine had given her 4 children (though she only has 2 in real life) to foster care because they couldn't afford to feed them. Conclusion: All I can figure is I'm having some serious parental anxiety. I wouldn't have said I was. But, apparently, my subconscious begs to differ.


And because that's too much of a downer to leave a post on . . . I'm baking cookies this morning to take to our neighbors. They were kind enough to pick up the UPS delivery off our porch so it wouldn't sit out all weekend while we were gone. Very kind.

SO excited!

Cue the Pointer Sister's music. At the end of June Thomas and I will be going to Georgia for 12 days!!! Holla! It's all official and everything. Thanks to a generous donation of skymiles, tickets were purchased last night.

Our children's minister there invited us to come so I can help with the kids' day camp that week. So. Much. Fun. Seriously. Do you remember vacation bible school -- making crafts with popsicle sticks, dixie cups and baby food jars?? Singing Father Abraham & maaaaybe playing something fun - if your rec leaders were cool?? This event is sooooo not that. So much so that we refuse to call it VBS. We do great games on stage - remember Double Dare on Nickelodeon back in the day? We work hard to come as close to that as we can get. Including SLIME. We rock out with truly great music. We see a drama that brings the message closer to home for the kids (and me). The kids have a total blast, and so do I. I think they may even actually learn a thing or two. I know I do. Can't wait!

Meet Finny

Here he is . . . the latest member of the family, Finny.

My poor kid, between our travel schedule, my allergies and our lease agreement this is the best we could do for a pet. Every time we are around my in-laws and their dog, my mother-in-law says "The boy needs a dog." Yes, I'm sure he'd love a dog, but it would be really unfair to kennel a dog as often as we travel.

Thomas wanted a pet so badly. It was a constant conversation in our house. We finally found something we could probably work with - the betta fish. Low maintenance, quiet, no dander & a tiny brain that cannot be emotionally traumatized*. Plus, it can be fed for 10 days at a time using a special slow-releasing food tablet. But being the horrible, mean parents we are, we still didn't rush out and buy one. No, we made Thomas earn it.

TMI time - because he is mostly formula fed, Thomas struggles with constipation & general poop issues. (Wow, and you thought we might make it a whole month into a mommy blog without talking poop. Wrong!) We had tried everything. Everything. Seriously. Everything. We had tried bribery before, but either the stakes weren't high enough or he just wasn't ready. So, seeing just how badly the kid wanted a pet, we made a deal that if Thomas could keep his pants clean for 30 days in a row that we could get the betta fish. He had one mishap early on & the 30 days had to be restarted, but he did manage to get it on the 2nd try. Woohoo! I'm really hopeful that we've helped him build some better habits and that poop pants will remain a thing of the past.

So what does that say about us? That bribery is our best parenting technique? Does it make it better if I call it behavior modification??

*Don't tell the kid this. He has been talking to the fish as if it were a dog. "Hey, Finny, do you want this, huh? Do ya boy?" while shaking the blood worm container in front of the tank.

backyard happenings

more stuff blooming




apricots

peaches



early girl tomatoes - living up to their name


yellow pear tomatoes

I am soooo excited about my tomatoes -- nothing like a vine-ripened tomato, still warm from the sun. I tried to grow tomatoes in GA, but didn't have the right spot. They rotted before they ever ripened. Had lots of green ones to fry, but no ripe ones. Hoping this year will be different.

Funny story about the yellow pears. One year my dad had 2 tomato plants in containers out on the back patio. One was yellow pears. They were awesome. My sister and I went out every day and picked all the ripe ones before dad ever got any. I'm not sure if he thought they never produced or what. All I know is that it was the last year dad ever had tomato plants.

daredevils

Yes, that is my husband and son waaay up there. I know you can hardly tell. That's because I was far away. You know, with all the sane people.

We went camping this past weekend up in Moab. We went to Dead Horse Point state park. My, what an uplifting name. It was actually really beautiful. I'm sure it's blasphemous to say this . . . but maybe even more beautiful than the Grand Canyon. There's a great view of the Green River cutting through, winding it's way through, carving the canyon walls. It was just neat to be able to see the river, doing it's work. We also went to Arches national park & Canyonlands national park. Much hiking and I know we didn't even scratch the surface of all there is to see there.

One of the cooler things we did was driving down some side road that goes through a bunch of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. There is one area with really high, straight cliff walls and there were a bunch of people rock climbing there. Just cool to see people doing stuff I am utterly incapable of.

Camping was good. The nights were cool but not intolerable. I still wish we had been able to have a fire, though. I don't have any idea if it's local ordinance or just this particular campground's peculiar policy, but no wood fires. Marshmallows don't really roast very well over the dregs of the coals from cooking dinner. Just sayin'.

sub-cultures

So I was up for a few hours in the middle of the night. We've been blessed with a kid who doesn't normally have sleep issues, so I shouldn't really complain. Last night was no fun though. It started around 1 am. I heard whining through the monitor. (We still use a monitor because Thomas is tube fed overnight & we need to hear if there are any problems.) So I went in to check on him. It went a little something like this:

me: What's wrong?
T: I want my blanket.
me: So get it from the floor.
T (whining): But there's a shadow on the wall.
me (laughing):There's nothing in here to be afraid of.
T cries
me: Why are you crying?
T: You laughed at me.

So at this point I felt pretty low & much apologizing & comforting ensued. After T was settled back in I went back to bed. I was almost asleep when the whining began again. This time it was a stomach ache. After a trip to the bathroom, a drink of water & instructions about not getting out of bed too early in the morning, T was settled back in.

I went back to bed but could not get back to sleep very easily. My mind wandered to weird places. Among them . . . the similarities between the FLDS and the Travellers (i.e. Irish Gypsies). This probably won't interest anyone beyond Seanna & Sheila, feel free to tune out now.

• clannish to the point of inbreeding - check
• child brides - check
• distrust of higher formal education/ state schools - check
• settlement on a state line - check (easier to escape state-level authorities??)
• mode of dress/hairstyle that distinguishes them from outsiders - check
• use of fraudulent means to sustain their lifestyle - check Travellers will swindle anyone they can. FLDS "bleed the beast" through use of welfare programs.
• distrust of outsiders - check They both have a reputation for following outsiders who enter their enclave & running them off. Sheila, remember our little jaunt around Murphy's Village in the Caddy?? Ah, good times.

Totally weird where the mind wanders sometimes. Not sure why I wanted to post that other than I thought Sheila & Seanna might appreciate it.

just a photo

Taken on the petrified dunes at the state park about 5 minutes from our house.

Thomas has been making up some interesting poses for photos lately. I swear, I never watch America's Next Top Model in front of him.