I CAN'T SLEEP!!

Almost 4am Monday morning. I do have to go to work in a couple of hours. Emma has a "free" day today. Because the school only used one snow day they're giving the kids a few freebies. Friday was a conference day so turns out they get a 4 day weekend!! She needs it. I was pretty much useless for the last several days due to a horrible horrible headache and today was just a rough parenting day. We were busy outside with a couple of friends trying to get the chicken coop together. Of course she wanted to be involved, and I wanted her to be involved, but it just didn't work out... I guess that I'll just leave it at that. Darling Hubby (and cat) are sound asleep in bed, the Kid fell asleep on the couch watching Twilight (she LOVES vampires!) and the dog is sound asleep in the chair. We don't normally let the kid fall asleep on the couch, but tonight was just one of those nights. I went to bed early to read a book my Mom gave me - Jimmy Buffett's Swine Not. So far pretty cute. I fell asleep reading and when Darling Hubby came to bed at 2am he turned the light on and I'm pretty sure started a conversation with me - though he claims otherwise. So, of course he was able to go right to sleep with no problem at all and two hours later here I am...

Emmaisms

• I'm in the middle of a crisis! as said while sitting at the dinning room table with Oma, Papa and us (Mommy and Daddy) waiting for and urging the bloody loose tooth to fall the hell out already as we're trying to get out the door to go on a quick Mennonite Bulk Food Store shopping trip before getting back early enough to go on a boat ride.

• A girl could get used to this! as said on Granny Kathy and Bill's boat while lounging - literally, lounging on the back cushion with her bathing suit, sunglasses and sun hat on and eating from a snack bag of chips. Note to readers - I caught a fish!

• This is going to be so yummy it's like a million angels dancing in my mouth! as said while preparing a somewhat disgusting concoction of dessert snack with our visiting neighbor-daughter. Ingredients included but not limited to: bread, mini-marshmallows, tiny pretzel sticks, yogurt covered raisins, gummi bears, Ritz crackers. I should have, but didn't break out the Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, honey, maple syrup and whipped cream!! Maybe next time!

Summer-Time Happenings

Oh, summertime... I had a gloriously unproductive day today. It was an unscheduled day off at the recommendation of my boss. He doesn't want me to overwork myself and thereby be more difficult to deal with. Yeah, I'm a problem employee. Tee hee hee. My boss is looking out for me, I'm hoping that I'm doing the same for my kid... I want her to have enough down time and not always be on the go go go. But, Emma is in a summer program through the school. This summer the program runs like a regular school week, so needless to say the child is whooped when she gets home. I'm almost second guessing our decision to send her, especially since our neighbor's daughter is visiting for a month. The same month that Emma is in summer program. I know it is important to spend time socializing - and E certainly needs to work on her socializations, but at what cost? At the end of the school year we were given a classmate directory. It lists all the kids in the whole grade with their phone numbers. We have yet to set up a play date with anyone. I feel like the weekdays are too short once she comes home and the weekends are our time together as a family. I guess I'm going to have to give in and give up a bit of our together-time for the sake of giggling little girls! Oh, giggling little girls... is there any better sound than two little girls talking and giggling about my goodness only knows what?! Earlier the girls (Emma and visiting neighbor-daughter) were playing with the Magic 8 Ball. Emma hasn't quite gotten the point of it yet. Her first question for it tonight was "why do we die?" C'mon kid, you're six - you don't need to be so transcendental yet - though you do come by it honestly. I explained to her that it is really more for yes or no type questions, so her next questions was, "will I enjoy my bloodbath tomorrow?" WHAT?! I asked her if that really was what I heard her say and, what?! She explained that because she is a vampire she needed to take a bloodbath so she could go outside during the day. But of course my sweet precious baby girl - I totally get it... You see, both of her front teeth fell out withing a week of each other - so of course her fangs are exposed now. During the course of a normal conversations she'll stop and say "oh yeah, and hisssss." She's very at ease being a dark child of the night. I guess she's doing just fine!

Spring Has Sprung!

At last Spring has sprung! What a wonderful whirlwind week! We got the kid back from Oma and Papa on Easter Sunday. She had been at their house for a full week - since last Sunday when we left her there after a weekend stay. Jazzy's bloodwork came back nice and clean and even. Scatt, not Scott (a funny story) got neutered and had his nose flap removed. Finally being able to work outside and in the gardens! Leftovers with the neighbor. Things have been hectic, but so, so good! We must every single day be thankful for what we have. Be thankful for what we have and don't pine over what we don't. I am so in love with our little family and so appreciate our life. I just read a blog from one of our photographer neighbors that worked on a photo shoot for a very premature baby. My goodness. He is so so tiny. I was in tears looking at the photos of a sweet family that I don't know. I may not know them, but I know mother's love. I had to go check on our little sweetie pie. She had her pj top off (because it was too warm)and was pretending to be asleep while watching Gummi Bears.

Later That Day...

...and later that same day a somewhat loudish ruckus in the living room... The response to my usual mom-ish type question was, "nothing for you to worry about!" You know, I'm not even sure what that ruckus was from. Maybe by that point I was just a tad worn out / worn down? Rewind to this morning, not too early... Daddy had to go to work and Emma was snuggled in watching some pretty crappy Saturday morning cartoons. Having already demolished a bowl of cereal, she was good to go for quite some time. Twenty-seven minutes later I woke up realizing that I was in the middle of a game of peek-a-boo. My darling girl made a beautiful little "wake-up" card for me. She's been making me cards on the weekends for some time now. I, of course, have kept them all. After a round of hot choco-coffee (me) and hot chocolate (her), the kid was off and running. Well, not literally, as it was a pretty biting and dreary day. Not long after her breakfast she was hungry again. She decided on a pear. She likes pears. At first she asked me to cut it up in tiny pieces, but then realized that there was a greater probability of her loose top tooth coming out if she ate it whole. As she was nearing the core she proclaimed the presence of seeds! Seeds! Yes, pears grow well around here. That is exactly why the kid rushed off to get a dixie cup and a paper towel. The dixie cup was too small, so in an adorably frantic voice she urged me to get her a bigger cup. Please! Not an exasperated "oh, pu-leez" from me, but a very courteous "please" from the wee one. As courteous as she could be in her frenzied state, anyways... We just happen to have a good supply of the kegger cups on hand for yearly seed starting. That was perfect. So, with seeds, paper towel and cup in hand she went into her bathroom to get the seeds started. The paper towel was moistened. Moistened in terms of a six-year-old-water-baby means sopping wet. We drained off the excess water and wished the seeds well... AND THEN ... And then came one of my worst parenting moments to date... The cat was in her arms and as she was closing her door she asked if she and Scatt could have a little tea party. I told her that he probably wouldn't like it, but "what I didn't know won't hurt me." What?! Did I really say that?! And, to make matters worse, I was on the phone with my Mom at the time - there is a witness. I know better than that. I do know better than that! Scatt finally broke free and hid under the table. Our day continued somewhat uneventfully for about 18 minutes. I realized that there was an eerie calm in the house. A friend of ours told us, even before Emma could walk, that we should worry when it was too quiet. This was probably the best piece of parenting advice we received! So, with the precarious quiet still looming, I creeped into her bathroom to find her sucking on her old pacifier with drool running down her chin. She was drooling because of the orange vampire teeth she was wearing. The not-so-smart cat happened to walk by at that point; wearing a green scarf and a yellow baby doll dress. Emma decided maybe the vampire teeth and the pacifier were a bit much and that maybe the cat would enjoy the pacifier more... here kitty kitty kitty! The cat was not impressed when the kid pinned him down and tried to stick the pacifier in his mouth... Snack Time - cherries and coffee? No. You really do not need coffee and I don't happen to have any cherries on hand. Thank goodness Daddy will be home soon!

bloggy blog mcbloggerson

I had the best of intentions to write about something insightful, but I'm not really sure that it will happen this evening. I am, at least, writing in my notebook. My notebook makes me feel a little more private. I'm okay with that for the 'right now.' Who knows, that may change here very quickly. I'll just take it as it comes.

My, How Time Flies!

I can hardly believe that it has been one year since our dumb ass cat has come to live with us. I can also hardly believe that it has been one year since my Brother-In-Law, Robert, passed away unexpectedly. Life is just that - unexpected. Emma is on hour 5 of a marathon nap. She may just sleep the whole night through. I'm sure we'll see that she's grown overnight. She's been goofy lately. Very goofy. She's also been totally worn out after school. Such a long day for her. She sleeps hard on the bus ride home. We had a pretty rough start to the school year, but Emma has since mellowed out pretty darned well. In fact, she just got "Student of the Week" for at least three weeks in a row! The only problem is there may be a missing library book (that we totally sent back!!) and the case of the missing snow pants (brand new!). Our baby just turned six years old. SIX YEARS OLD?! How the hell did that happen?! It seems like she was five forever. She made a really awesome five year old. We're pretty sure that she's going to rock six, though! Scatt, on the other hand has not fared as well. In the year since he has come into our lives he has been beaten up by the neighborhood cat-bully multiple times - twice really badly, and peed in our house THREE TIMES!! The first time was our fault, the second time he was recovering from a bad nose wound and just recently, come to find out, he is recovering from a big ol' gapping hole in his shoulder... so, I'm pretty sure his system is out of whack. Luckily, given the circumstances of his first inside pee, I was fully prepared for his last inside pee. I, again, was on the potty when he started circling. No problem... I sprang into action! I'd rather clean up a little of my piddle than a puddle of kitty pee! I very calmly chucked his ass into the shower. Ok, I sat him gently in the shower. He did his duty there and then I chucked his ass outside... Last summer he came back from a day of prowling with a wound to the inside of his eye that was so bad that we thought that he had lost his eyeball! A month or so ago he came home from a night out on the town with half of his nose ripped off! Holy cow! What do you do about that?! Well, according to the vet that we didn't actually go see, nothing. He didn't get an infection, luckily. Well, at least not from that. Now he has a dime sized hole in his shoulder that started out as a small bb-sized puncture wound. I must say, it is pretty gross - even by my standards. This poor little guy will be going to the vet next week. He's lost a good amount of weight, too. We thought that was due to his excessive whoring around as of late. Hopefully that's all it is. This damn cat is a real stressor! I have much more to ruminate about from the past year, but I'm too whooped for now.