Snow wonder

Just so you know, the snow didn't stop for quite some time.


...and there were at least two very big icicles hanging around, until the boys spotted them.

Snow's split personality

We here in Okie-homa are smack in the middle of a big 'ol snowstorm. The weather people in town are all breathing a sigh of relief that the snow is coming down in large quantities, on top of a half-inch of ice...BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN SCREAMING IT AT US FOR SEVEN DAYS!

After it had been coming down for a while I finally slid open the patio door. The boys were upstairs so all was quiet. Have you ever heard snow fall? It hits the surface with little crystal-ly sounds...really softly. If it wasn't 25 degrees I'd have stood there a good long time, just listening.





Then I hear a rumble from above and it's Mickey bounding down the stairs ready to "touch the snow!!!!!" As if he's never seen it before, out the front door he heads.

And suddenly snow is the coolest, rockinest thing on Earth.

And I couldn't hear anything soft at all, unless you count "...woooowwww!!!"

I'm a big dog (for a minute)

I've always liked the photo below. I took it in October of last year at my sister's house...um...not in Tulsa. She lives in a small town but has big views of sunsets. And sunrises. And sky in general. I miss that about living in a small town. In the middle of Tulsa we see our broad views of the sky on TV...or when we visit relatives.

So I love this shot.

And whaddya know...so does The PW. I know, duh, you can see the pic right here on my lil' ol' blog.

But go ahead, take a look at it on the big stage. I'm not sure it's worthy next to shots of the Eiffel tower or beautifully silhouetted couples and children, but for a fleeting moment maybe it's not so mediocre.

Certainly the sunset view from my sister's house is not...

Happy 25

This little girl's got a lot on her mind. She was probably only four at the time, but I think she was already thinking big. Even though she was gazing out the window of her grandmother's house, I think she was looking past that driveway in Oklahoma. I think she already had in her little mind that she was gonna see and experience a bigger chunk of the world.

That little girl, well, she's not so little now. Today's her 25th birthday. She's my niece, and I like to live vicariously through her (and the rest of my nieces, come to think of it. Who knew they'd be good for that?).

Happy Birthday, Brit...keep looking beyond your windows.

Something else I'm procrastinating

My photos. They are sorely in need of attention.

Why, you may wonder.

Behold, the only photo I have in the December 2009 folder on my computer:


Ain't she a beauty!? It was taken by my talented husband. Yes, this photo is a result of talent I say! Since he was driving when he took it. With his cell phone. At night. And yes, he was severely scolded for it. But it was an amazing feat.

More amazing than the fact that Mickey chose to sleep this way for 45 minutes.

But, I've said it before and I'm sayin' it again: even bad pics of our kids are still pics of our kids.

And these bad pics shall be forever cherished.

Even if they sometimes give us a headache when we look at them.

An icy activity when it's 10 degrees.

Northeastern Oklahoma has finally emerged from a cold snap...a cold snap that closed school for two days because apparently there are kids in 2010 who walk two miles to the bus stop. Temps last week were in the single digits three nights in a row and a couple of days we never made it out of the 'teens.

So the boys and I were home for two days, because really even getting in and out of the car just made just made us all angry. In my desperate search for out-of-the-ordinary stuff to do, I came across this activity on 918moms.com (you remember them, don't you?) and had to give it a try.

First of all, I didn't take pics but of the result. Methinks I can explain this one ingredient recipe without illustration:

1. Get a pan, something flat and shallow like a jellyroll pan.

2. Dig out your cookie cutters from the recesses of your cabinet, unless you have yet to put them away from Christmas like me. Lay them in your pan, making sure they don't touch.

3. Cut some string or yarn in lengths of ten inches or so, one for each cookie cutter.

4. Loop the string through the cookie cutter and hang it over the edge of the pan. Do not tie the string, just let the ends dangle.

5. Get a large pitcher and fill it with water. I thought it would be neat to add blue and yellow food coloring to it, so I let the boys drip-drop it in there and stir. That's a activity in itself, believe me.

6. Locate a nice flat area outdoors for your pan to rest. Our nice flat area was one step outside our patio door. Any further than that and the pan would still be out there: too far to go!

7. Put the waterless pan out on the flat area. Carefully carry your pitcher of food-coloring-ed water away from your white carpet and around furniture to the door. Poor the water into the pan, making sure it comes up about half-way to the top of the cookie cutters. Strings should still be dangling over the edge.

8. Check on the freezing process often. I had the boys checking every 15 minutes...they thought they were big stuff giving me the play-by-play. Alex got curious and wanted to touch it about halfway through the process (10 degrees outside, mind you). My first reaction was not to let him since it was so cold, then "sure, honey, you go right ahead!" So, yeah, about 15 seconds was all he needed before he scrambled back inside.

9. When the pan is frozen solid (took ours about two hours) bring it inside and get creative as to how to release the cookie cutters. We boiled water and drizzled it over the top, wiggled and jiggled and loosened...probably for 20 minutes. You'll have to pull on the strings a little to get them loose, too. When the ornament finally breaks free, tie the ends of the string together and put it on a plate in the freezer.

10. Here's some advice though: don't use the food coloring. Some of the ornaments froze clear instead of the beautiful blue green, even though they were all made from the same water. I'm sure there's a sciency lesson in there somewhere, one that I'll never know.

11. Hang the ornaments on your frozen shrubbery. They're really kind of cool!

10 degrees when we put these outside, but Alex had to have a look. 5...4...3...2...1...

"It's cooooollllddd!"

My mom. And responsible blogging.

I didn't write the book on blogging. Lordy, I didn't even READ the book on blogging. So I plan to make a lot of mistakes doing it. One big one, which I'm sure is covered in some beginning blogging guide somewhere, is to not neglect a major topic after you've written about it, leaving your readers hanging on for more information.

That's exactly what I did with my mom's heart attack. "...hey, everybody, mom had a heart attack!"

(crickets)

Not too fair to you guys, sorry about that. Hmm, wonder if my readership would increase if I paid attention to little details like that.

Enough mea culpas...on to being responsible:

Since my last post on December 10, mom has indeed returned home. She was tired but ready to be home, and then she went back into the hospital about four days later. She had internal bleeding due to the beginnings of a ulcer, exacerbated by blood thinning medication she was taking at the time.

Over the course of the last three weeks, she's had several transfusions and ended up spending three nights in the hospital, including Christmas Eve. Add in the freak snowstorm we had in Oklahoma that night, and it was a Christmas to be remembered (or forgotten!) for sure.

Mom is adjusting quite well to her new, salt-free and carb-counting diet. The family is trying to be there as much as we can so she will always have someone with her. She's not ready for making all her meals yet, though she's probably ready for that after my shift last weekend. As my younger sister said before I arrived "...you better bring your A-game..." in the kitchen. Um, what A-game?

Mom has a doctor's appointment this morning (my brother is there in Muskogee to chauffeur her!). She will be getting another blood test to see if the internal bleeding is still under control. If it is where it needs to be, it would be the third successful test in a row...very encouraging!

I know I'm leaving out a lot of details; I'm not sure Mom wants her every health detail posted out here. But I know a lot of you have been asking about her and she doesn't mind me posting an update here and there.

Thank you for forgiving my blogging faux pas!

New year, new blog?

Yeah, right. I can't even take care of the one I have, much less start up a new one. For now, I'd just like to figure out how to change the language on the gray bar that appears above my blog from Dutch to something I can read. But for now, trial-and-error clicking gets me where I need to go...

So New Year's Day is supposed to be all about making a resolution...but I've found that if I give it the name "resolution," and proclaim it to a lot of people, then I have a 75% chance of not meeting it (or some such big number).

For that reason, I'm not calling any of my new little endeavors RESOLUTIONS. Then maybe I'll be more likely to stick to them. And since "a lot of people" does not equal my blog readers, I'm in the clear on that point, too.

My list:

1. Lose the weight that's holding me back. This, friends, MUST be the year I get serious about getting back in shape. I will be 44 (gasp!!) in four months and I am not living another year tired, sluggish, and unable to catch my kids when I need to.

2. Blog more often. And maybe join up again with a regular posting group again. I just need to get out there in the blogging world again and the first step is, um, blogging.

3. Don't try to be so perfect. I think one of my greatest flaws is that I limit what I do because I'm afraid it won't be perfect. I think there's counseling available for that...although decorating my boys' birthday cakes works too: they are always far from perfect. Anyway, perfectionism, if you take it from a psychological point of view, DOES NOT mean the person is perfect...I know there's only One perfect person to ever walk this earth. What it does mean is that the person is afraid of trying or doing in fear of failure.

For instance, there are several rooms in my house that are as yet undone. We've lived here six months and there are still boxes that need unpacking...mostly wall hangings. Thing is, I'm loathe to unpack them because I'm afraid I won't find the best place in the house to hang them. Or I find a place and then we decide to move furniture and then the wall hanging looks out of place. The horror!

So the boxes still sit, waiting for me to get started on my new non-Resolution.


Alrighty! Maybe down the line I'll post updates on these things I want to work on...and I hope I'll have good news with them. Happy New Year, everyone!

Lessons

I suppose I'll never be too old to learn. For instance, this week, and the past few months, I've learned that blogging has taken a back seat. More than a back seat...it's being dragged by rope through the mud.

See, I like to take 45 minutes to write a post. I know...pick yourself up off the floor: it takes me that long to come up with this genius. But over the last few months, since moving to the new house and a host of other excuses, 45 quiet, uninterrupted minutes only occur at 3:00 in the morning, or during desperation clothes laundering.

So the painful lesson, people, is that I must learn to post a here-and-there update without waiting for the coveted 45 minutes. It's that...or the blog shall be no more (let me grab a Kleenex). I have to learn that in my mind I want to post rich content for the masses to print and post on their refrigerators and forward to all their friends. In my heart...meh...the desire to take from so many other areas of my life in order to make that happen just isn't there.

Lesson learned, I suppose. I just hope you'll stay with me for those posts that might offer you something useful.

Or maybe just a diversion from your everyday.

One pesky test and Salt is Evil

Mom is doing much better and she will probably be going home today. We are waiting for the doctor to assess the results of one last blood test and then discharge her.

Today we have had a barrage of professionals telling my mom what she can and can't do when she leaves here. Mostly what she can't: can't lift anything heavy, can't exert herself in any way for at least a couple of weeks, and can't be friends with Salt anymore. Apparently salt is bad at letting the body rid itself of fluids. And extra fluid is a dangerous thing. And mom's heart is pumping out fluid at a rate of 35% when it should be in the range of 65%. (That is the watered-down version, no pun intended, of what's going on...but I'm not a medical professional so that'll have to do ya.)

The good thing is that mom is already sensitive to the amount of salt she eats: no shaking it on her food and she really limits processed foods and eating out. A lot of us would have been more than a little disappointed to learn that salt in our lives was virtually banned, but I think mom will handle it just fine.

That'll give her something to write about

Dear Mom,

I know I've been scarce around here. I know you are painfully unaware of the goings on in my life since I haven't posted in so long. I understand your disappointment each time you come here to see if I've awakened from my bloogging slumber to grace your screen with new (albeit mundane) material. I get it mom...and I'm sorry.,

Don't go having a heart attack or anything.

Seriously.

Wait, really, mom, surely there's a better way to coax me into posting.

But if you insist on using a heart attack to get me to surface out here, so be it.

And the post I write will seem like it's all about me, but trust me: it's not.

It's all about you...and you getting better so you can ask me when I'm going to post my nothingness again.

And it's about you getting better so you can boss your kids around during the Christmas festivities. We are ready to be bossed, believe me.

And it's about your health, and your well-being, and your determination to get out of the hospital so you can get back to the business of mothering, and grandmothering, and mother-in-lawing, etc. And doing all that in a way that causes your heart ZERO stress.

Yep, this post is all about you.

So get better, know that in the last 24 hours your family has been through shock, and fear, and anxiousness, and hope, and now relief. And we'd like to stay here please.

And I'd like to know that for a long, long time, you're going to look forward to my posts of nothingness...which are always something to you.

Love you mom...


(For those of you who didn't know, my mom had a heart attack yesterday morning, actually during the night. Her prognosis is good: no surgery but lots of rest and monitoring. She'll probably endure another three or so days in the hospital. After that she'll just have to deal with her family getting all in her stuff so she doesn't have to exert herself for a long time.)

The everything post

Here we go: kind of like the Everything Bagel, which I never get because I'm not sure if it's supposed to be eaten for breakfast or for a snack.

But this post...it's good all day. And probably for the next week if I'm gonna be consistently scarce out here.

To update you on the Home Team's goings on:

1. My new nephew Stetson is still cute. Is it possible to desperately miss a baby when it isn't yours and you've only spent an hour with him? I'm sayin' it is...

2. I won a drawing! I hope this'll be the start of a contest winning streak for me...it's been way too long since I got sumpin' for nuttin'. My latest gift from the Internets is a gorgeous piece of Frankoma bakeware, made right here in Oklahoma. Somewhere close to Tulsa, too, but I have no idea where. Anyway, Frankoma's been around forever, and their pottery is great quality. In spite of the fact that it's "very easy to use," it came with two pages of instructions. Maybe I'll just look at it for a long time.

But the prize isn't the fun part of the prize here. The fun part is that I won it from Cook Time with Remmi. Little Remmi Smith is the daughter of a fabulous woman I used to work for in my previous life. She was my boss's boss but I was lucky enough to work directly with her on many writing assignments. Hmm, maybe I should rephrase: she gave me writing assignments and I did them. Happily.

But, like me, she moved on from the corporate world. She's helping her daughter help kids develop a love for cooking and for healthy dishes. Check out their site, and put your kids to work in the kitchen!

3. My friend Lori sent me this Xerox-sponsored link to thank our troops. It's legit. It's easy. It's free. No excuses. Thanks, Lori!

4. I ordered a personalized Christmas gift and received it yesterday. I was basking in the glow of having ordered it so far in advance and also the fact that I created it...until I realized it has a typo. This kept me awake last night. Then it gave me nightmares. I should just think of this item before I sit down to a meal and I will instantly lose my appetite. Should I reorder it at a cost of $35 or patch it? Frankly, neither of those options settle my stomach.

5. I went to have my eyebrows shaped for the first time. I'll save you the long story: the short story is the woman wanted me to come back in three weeks, and during that time I was not to tweeze at all. I lasted three days. Was she serious?!

6. My dear husband subjected me to Paul Blart: Mall Cop last night. When should I forgive him? If you see this movie anywhere, please spend that hour and a half scrubbing your toilet with a toothbrush...you'll feel a lot better afterward.

Ya'll have a good Wednesday!

Stetson = Sweetness

Great Grandma. How many babies have those arms cradled?

Is there anything more perfect than a newborn's toes?

Self-inflicted scratching already. And apparently those little mittens can keep ears warm, too.

Guess which one is pretending to sleep. Ahhh, and the Swee' Pea gown! May rival his toes for cuteness.

24 hours old. One day down...that wasn't so hard, was it?

Yee-haw! Stetson is here!

My great nephew arrived today at about 4:50 p.m. Little Stetson weighed a strappin' 9 lbs. 11 oz. Even though he was bound to be running out of room in his temporary housing, he still held on for several hours even after the door was...

Ew. Never mind.

It was a lengthy process.

But he's here and beautiful. And my nephew was floating around the halls grinning. And so was his mom. And his dad. And his two sisters. We were all floating around the hospital corridors...it was a happy time.

Especially when he caught his waiting-room-weary entourage off guard and burst into the room:

"...he's a big boy!!"

You'd have thought someone had yelled "FIRE!"

Oh, and since this blog is about me, I must publicly thank my good friend Amy who picked up Mickey from school and took him to her house for two hours or more while I waited for Stetson to come. And she did so with a smile on her face. I didn't actually see her but I know Amy and she lovingly helps people who barge in on her with 30 minutes' notice. So thanks, Amy...you truly are priceless.

Yep, and Alex waited it out with me and other assorted family members, even one who is engaged to the family...er, my niece. Aaron very generously turned over the reigns of his IPhone to Alex for most of the wait. Without his help I'd have been searching the hallways of the hospital for a mild sedative. For me and Alex.

So thanks to the people who helped me today.

But even if this blog is about me, today was SO not.

It was about a milestone my nephew and his wife will never forget. It was about them meeting their little boy for the first time. It was about two people suddenly realizing there's a life on this planet more important than their own. At least they'll feel that way...they're parents now.

Great Monday!

Already November?! Let's pretend I posted cute Halloween pics and beautiful photos of fall leaves from our backyard. That's not so hard is it?

The big news in our family for November is that I'm going to be a great-aunt for the...hmmm, third time, and the little one arrives tomorrow. Being a great-aunt has nothing to do with one's age, by the way. It just means I'm great.

Yep, my nephew will be a first-time daddy...I can't even stand the anticipation of seeing him hold his baby in his arms. Oh, my. Why is it that I can remember him as a newborn like it was yesterday but I cannot remember what I had for breakfast yesterday? The years...they just fly by, and yet our memories capture the important moments and let us keep them forever. Thank goodness.

So they'll be starting their journey as parents tomorrow morning at 5:30 a.m. Good practice, since it could be five or six years before they get to sleep in again.

Best of luck to you W and L. Keep your baby, and your memories, close forever.

Book character day

In lieu of Halloween costumes, my son's school has Book Character Day today. So the kids still get to dress up in a costume, but they're required to find their inspiration in a book so maybe they get a little more creative than Batman and Spiderman (but check back here after Halloween for those staple costumes).

So Mickey chose Mike Mulligan of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.** What an awesome story this is...Mike Mulligan has confidence that his Steam Shovel (who he gave the woman's name of Mary Ann) can live up to his lofty expectations, even though he wasn't sure until she was put to the test. I love that: a man laying staking his entire reputation on the confidence he has in a woman...er...Steam Shovel.

But that message is lost to Mickey, of course. I think he just likes how much of the book revolves around digging in dirt.

As for the costume, my friend Julie came through with the hard hat, thankfully. Pete just called from school, however, and said Mickey thought the hat was too uncomfortable to wear. Oh, well...

I got a couple of pictures, though, before he realized that.



**Thanks to my sis Judy. She passed along to me a shopping bag full of books one day and made it a point to recommend MM.

Note to self

Don't leave blogging interface open.

Without locking my office door.

Or my boy in the closet.

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Wait, we have movement

Who knows why I'm compelled to post a video here tonight. More of "talking to myself" I suppose.

And this one has way too much information in it when you consider I haven't even posted my boys' real names. Just disregard that stuff. And realize I did not prompt him to repeat it, either.

Try to also disregard the lack of pitch, rhythm, and tune.

And pay attention to the cute.

Just make sure your good wine glass isn't too close to your speakers.

Is it still shopping if you don't buy anything?

Shopping alone is rare for me. I usually have at least one of the boys or...the horror...the whole family waiting impatiently for me in the car or on the other side of JCPenney.

So when I do go by myself...ah, the bliss. I can browse and compare prices and visualize to my heart's content. Except I don't do that because I can't relax because I'm flipping open my cellphone every ten minutes to see what time it is so I don't forget to pick someone up (you'd think I had ten kids or something. Truly it's a miracle I wasn't left somewhere to be raised by truck drivers when I was a kid.).

All that mess to say: I try to have a definite plan when I shop. A carefully crafted mission considering the needed item and the amount of time I have to find it.

I had that all that today...mission miserably failed.

All I wanted in the world was a plain red long-sleeved T-shirt for Mickey to wear as part of his costume. But those are not to be had anywhere, since boys' clothing makers tend to puke graphic designs of monster trucks and boxy superheros on the fronts of all shirts.

So looks like Mickey gets to wear one of Alex's red shirts, which will probably still fit him anyway.

The other part of his costume I needed was a hard hat. Like a construction hard hat. Little boys like to wear hard hats, don't they? Well, apparently not enough for Giant Halloween Store to stock them. But fake rubber b r e a s t s must certainly be in demand, since a couple of versions of those were available. And big axes shoved into rubber masks...thank goodness no one will have to go without those this Halloween. (Note to self: wait ten years to take boys to Halloween store.)

It's a very real possibility I'll have to buy an entire Bob the Builder costume in order to get the stinkin' hat. And I'll have to go to Walmart for it. Ugh.

And I'll probably be dragging people with me when I go.

I may be the one who needs the hard hat...