You may have noticed the conspicuous omission of The Child’s room here. I guess there may have been (not so) veiled references to the Bermuda Triangle that was my daughter’s domicile, but I’m pretty sure I never horrified you with a visual of the carnage.
There was very good reason for the omission… you will thank me later.
Her room in San Francisco started off with two major strikes against it: it was impossibly small; and the only window did not look outside, but upon the kitchen (yeah, don’t ask – I have no idea why either). I tried to be very creative in my space planning. I got her a loft bed and put a desk underneath. Her dresser was tucked in an awkward nook. I made every possible attempt to preserve as much floor space as possible.
My efforts were in vain.
The third, and quite possibly largest, strike against her room in SF was that I really tried to let it be “her space”. I didn’t want to nag about keeping it clean – hoping that she would also want to have as much space as possible by making efforts at tidiness. No dice. On at least 4 different occasions I took everything out of her room (overfilling the livingroom), and put it all back neat and orderly-like with “fool proof” organization systems.
The day The Child started packing to move, THIS is what her hovel room looked like. Yeah, I warned you… Honestly, it’s so dark in there because the drifts of detritus eclipsed all light sources. Honest.
So once all of our stuff landed in Sebastopol, one of my first priorities was to create a new and beautiful room that was exceedingly realistic for a 10 year old to keep clean. I wanted lots of open space, a lot less crap, and the threat of great bodily harm whatever is out of place going in the garbage can if she goes to bed even once with a messy room.
This is the result…
She LOVES it. It needs curtains and an area rug, but it’s darn close. In fact, she’s been living in it for 2 weeks straight and I didn’t move a thing to take these pictures. This is exactly how she left it.
Last week The Child’s school had their “Family Projects Fair” (aka school science fair). I had weeks to prepare, but kept putting it off due to a number of flim-flam excuses.
We searched on-line and found a fairly easy cool project where you took soil samples and extracted the little creatures that lived therein. It was a good excuse for a trip to the hardware store where The Child was not kicking and screaming for once The directions were pretty straight forward and we had high hopes on producing something that made us look like one of those smart, involved families – yet was not just another baking soda volcano.
The result? Epic fail. Apparently either our dirt is mite and nematode-free – or our scientific methods were seriously lacking. (I’m putting my money on the latter.) So as we’re waiting in line at Walgreen’s, contemplating our impending failure, I bemoan why we didn’t just do something “simple” like an illustration of the tidal zones….
EUREKA! That was it! All we had to do was get some construction paper, some pens, and – WOW! – lookie there! Blo-pens are even on sale! Ring it up! This will be easy.
HA!
Famous.
Last.
Words.
In an unprecedented cooperative effort, we got A LOT done in the 2.5 hours before Haley went to bed (yes, the night before it was due). I tucked her in to bed thinking that I would just do the finishing touches and it would be done in another hour or two.
I’m sure you can guess what happened next… When I woke her up at 7a the following morning I had just started picking up some of the 10,000,000 little scraps of paper littering the entire living room. Yes, I stayed up all night working on that bastard. You would not believe how long it takes to cut out anemones, urchins, free-hand crabs and sea lettuce. (Having a printer sure would have been a time-saver. Ugh.) I even channelled my inner UmberDove and painted (becuase cutting and glueing and measuring and drawing weren’t stressful enough… I needed to add paint to my perfectionist-A.R. insanity)!
I was pretty pleased with the result and sent Haley off to school with it. Thankfully my life of leisure allowed me to crawl in to bed until it was time to go to the evening festivities. Much to my surprise (and shock and dismay and – dare I say – delight) our project was the subject of much praise! Haley’s 3rd grade teacher even asked if they could keep it to use during the upcoming Water Week at school!
So, now I’m officially one of those parents that stays up all night doing science projects. *sigh*
This last weekend we went on the annual Christ Church Lutheran ski trip. It’s one of many reasons our church rules. You’d be hard pressed to find a better bunch of folks – and you’d be hard pressed to find better snow conditions than we had this weekend!
We rented an amazing house in Tahoe City (thanks for finding it, Lois Anne!) where the kids played, we ate like kings, and the grown-ups killed many bottles of fine wine
We went to Squaw Valley on Saturday. Haley took a lesson in the morning while I had some time on my own with Elizabeth and Annie (my current favorite teenager). At various times we spent time on the hill with everyone in our party – quite a feat!
Sorry this post is a day late and a dollar short cashing in on the Inaugural hoopla, but like I said, I was only firing on two cylinders maybe.
We arrived at Civic Center Plaza before 7a to watch the simulcast. I thought it was important to be part of “something” for the occasion since Haley was involved in the campaign. Even if she didn’t have fun there when her children were reading about January 20th, 2009, she could say she was there, she was part of it all.
There weren’t many people when we got there but Haley immediately noticed the news crew to our left. Within no time the news lady from KRON Channel 4 approached us and asked if she could ask us some questions. Of course, once she found out Haley had made Get Out The Vote calls she asked if she could ask us the same questions on a live segment. Ten minutes later we were on the news! I thought Haley was going to explode she was so excited! As soon as it was over my cell started ringing – Rae Rae saw us! There she was – all innocent, getting ready for work – when BLAM! there we are on TV! Apparently they replayed the clip on the 5 o’clock news because Haley’s friend, Mary, called all screaming and freaking out
Someone made this really cool origami image of Obama and handed out Sharpie markers for people to leave their thoughts. Of course Haley had to jump right in and leave her mark!
The crowd soon swelled to the thousands and we all cheered together. Haley was swamped by all the tall people surrounding her but the spirit of Hope and Change prevailed: some kindly strangers pushed her up to the front so she could see. We were separated for the swearings-in of Biden and Obama but my super-sweet baby girl immediately squirmed her way back to me to listen to Obama’s speech. We stood there in a crowd of people who were truly “all the colors of the rainbow”, embracing, cheering together, and many sharing a tear together – full of pride, hope and enthusiasm for the hard work this country has yet to do.
So after listening to Obama’s speech tell me what is it that you plan to do for your country?
(I promise to get some snippet of the newscast!! Please hold!)
Yes! We were right in the middle of Inaugural festivities bright and early this morning! Yes! We have great pictures! Yes! Something awesome happened (hint: HALEY WAS ON TV!!)
But…
My sleep has been non-existent and my brain is like swiss cheese. So bear with me until tomorrow and I promise to have something worthwhile to waste your time reading
I was pretty convinced that I would – so all these years I stayed safely in bed until 7:00 am. I was just thinking of the The Child, you know. We can’t have her growing up without her mother, right?
Actually, this morning I was dressed, out the door and to the end of my block at 5:56 am! Even more shocking is that it was 6:48 am by the time I returned AND I was sweaty!! And if that is not shocking enough The Child and I walked for more than 30 minutes last night after dinner! We have instituted our daily constitutional. Be forewarned… if you have dinner with us you will have to walk afterwards.
Now I need to get one of those exercise bike contraptions where you have to pedal in order to watch TV…
p.s. This post is brought to you by Ambien CR. Thank Jeebus for nights with good sleep! Hopefully this “exercise” thing will alleviate my need for it soon.
Today I got all the other kids in our office “family” to come in to work. It turned in to an unofficial holiday outing – we had a blast! Between me and two guys in my office we have 5 kids aged 8 to 11 and they all get along famously.
After skating my boss gave me a nice little gift… “working from home” for the rest of the year (Of course there’s nothing I can do from home!)
Well, we’ve certainly had a few days of CHRISTMAS!! festivities around these parts. They have largely sucked the life force from me worn me out so I’m going to rely on pictures rather than my usual witty narrative
Thursday – Haley’s Christmas program… Her class did a “news story” where she played her 2nd Grade teacher, and the Easter Bunny who lamented how Santa got all the good publicity…
Saturday – yesterday – we went up to Willits to see Sandi and Sal. They had snow on Tuesday and some still stuck around. Haley had fun being a country girl, playing in the last bits left in the yard.
Today Tim & Robin and Rachel came to see Miss Haley in the Christmas pageant at church.
We were all a bit surprised her halo didn’t burst in to flames
Tomorrow will be another big advenure day – all the kids in my office are going ice skating. Pray for me. I’ll take pictures!
Most of you know (but do you care?) that the Girly Fabu-Palace is a vegetarian household, but the matriarch is getting a little tired of being f-a-t. That, and she works with a very recipe-minded creative vegan who has been feeding her deeeeelish yummy treats
I was reminded that back in my vegan days I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and however much I wanted… and my weight never varied more than 5 pounds for years. Size six, painlessly.
So yesterday The Child and I decided that was the way to go again. The weight thing is great but really no one in our families has ever died of old age. Ever. The Child has diabetes, heart disease, cancer – to name a few – all within 1 or 2 generations. We have decided to play it safe. It’s not hard – it can be YUMMY!
We filled the fridge with fruit, veg and whole grains and are looking forward to guilt-free gluttony Tomorrow night we start after-work/school exercise too. I figure 30 minutes can’t be that hard, right?
Tonight The Child and I bundled up and headed downtown with cameras in-hand. The lights this year are over the top and it was a fun cheap date on a Friday night.
Possibly the most pathetic attempt at the construction of a gingerbread house kit. It was actually supposed to be a stable but we failed to figure out the lean-to configuration. We were successful though at making a tragic mess.
*Sigh* The final product was not much better…
Gee. doesn’t the “pond” and “woodpile” make it all better??
Even though I personally searched the school grounds, every square inch of the house, called the school district and the bus company… the violin HAS BEEN FOUND!
Funny enough, my 2nd riding student ever just so happens to be the dispatcher for the SF school busses. I called her last week and left a message for her. Well, she went and talked to the bus driver, who loves her, and he said “OH! That’s HALEY’S?” Luckily he’s been holding it under lock and key – and not where they usually hold lost items. Thank God for my friends in odd places!
Haley and her violin will be reunited this afternoon. How much do you want to bet that will never happen again?
For the first time in recent memory Haley has lost something – and it isn’t lost because I took it away! When she “loses” things they are BIG: Nintendo DS, her laptop, Webkinz, TV for extended periods… And the maddening thing is that once she’s had a cry about it, she’s over it like it never even existed. (Great “punishment”, eh?)
But last night when she was getting her school bag ready for the morning so realized something was missing – and she LOST it. Not only is it something she loves, it is something with which she has set a goal for herself with zero pressure from me. Really, that’s a first. I’ve been waiting and waiting for her to find something she was really In To, all on her own.
And you know what? For once I feel sorry for her. We have looked high and low for it and it is nowhere to be found. My budget has no room for replacing it any time soon.
Haley’s hosting a study group where she’s working on a class project with two of her classmates. They are deciding how they would spend $1,000,000. Apparently they are going to Croatia for a month.
Twenty minutes in to it, I have a feeling this is going to be more like herding cats…
Update: Croatia was too random… Here’s how they spent A Million Bucks (with lots of input from me and Cameron’s Mom )
Vacation (3 kids + 3 moms)
Airfare – $15,000.00
Around the World cruise – $114,000.00
Spending Money - $60,000.00
Wanton Spending
charity – $10,000.00
plasma TV’s (3) - $24,000.00
haley’s horse - $25,000.00
haley’s truck - $50,000.00
mary’s puppy - $1,000.00
cameron’s game library - $25,000.00
Cameron’s bacon of the month club - $1,000.00
portrate of mary - $5,000.00
future college? (3) – $300,000.00
shopping spree (3) - $75,000.00
Camerons green house - $25,000.00
maid service (10 years) - $90,000.00
toys - $60,000.00
cars (3) - $120,000.00
TOTAL $1,000,000.00
Well that really gives you hope for the future, doesn’t it?
My recent frustrations with life in the avenues has sparked my wanderlust in to a raging firestorm.
Hotels.com sent me an email this morning, asking me to write a review for their Millionth Review Contest. (Yes, I’m fully aware that they also asked everyone registered with them to do the same.) The prize? A trip to Bora Bora.
Are you kidding me? I would give my left eyeball for a week in one of those huts, filled with sun, sea and debauchery. *sigh* I need to work on finding myself a boy to travel with. One that will be an adventurer – and not just a vacationer (grrrr UK trip grrr)
BUT… come September ‘09 Suzanne and I will be packing our bags and heading someplace incredibly super fabulous: RIO DE JANEIRO!
Oooh weee – I’ve got about 9,678,285,335 lunges to do before that trip!
If my group at work has made their accruals and our bonuses are going to weather this financial storm, I am going to take Haley on a trip this summer. The final destination is still to be determined, but Paris is the strong front runner (though I may try to talk her in to some place abroad that may be cheaper – Portugal?)
BIG TRIPS are fabulous without a doubt, but I’m also a huge fan of long weekends. I find them to be more restorative than the epic adventures: high impact fun, low impact sleep deprivation :-p
First off… ARIZONA! Thanksgiving Tofurky with Mom and Clyde *hugs*, quad riding in the desert (Dathan is coming to play, too!), maybe some fishing, lots of playing with the dogs, and hopefully some swimming.
And… I am SO happy to say that I reconnected with a friend from my early days of college - someone who was always a fantastic friend and tons of fun (like a barrel of monkeys – adventure-sport loving monkeys!). He just so happens to live near Moab. I haven’t seen much of the red rocked version of desert and I am *dying* to! It’d be an extra slathering of icing on the cake that I’ll have a kick-ass blast from the past for a tour guide!
So – I figured out how to get paid to ride horses, now I need to figure out how to get paid to travel!
