Calgon!

So I'm watching some classmates of my son's this afternoon.

They are a raucous couple, by my standards anyway.

I've had to put away a little noise maker that usually hangs on my refrigerator because one would not stop activating it and then running around the house until it stops.

The other let the dogs in when I didn't want him to.

Then I heard what I thought was the house falling in while I was out of the kitchen. I come in to see a chair over turned, one kid on the floor, and a hole in the wall. !!! My care and concern wore off quite quickly when he refused to answer me or let me help him up and then laughed when I pointed out the whole in the drywall.

And they've only been here a half an hour!

Calgon!!

Update:

They've gone now, but not before trying to make one of our chickens jump off the roof of the coop, throwing tennis balls into my son's pond, and (accidentally) kicking the dogs' water bowl over in the kitchen. 

I ended up yelling and forcing them to sit on the couch and watch Bewitched reruns.  That'll teach 'em! 

And I'm signed up to do this all week!! 

They're staying at the school aftercare program until it's time to take them home tomorrow.  That's crazy.

Sure makes my kids look pretty good . . . for today, anyway.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

People place candles and lay flowers in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, April 10, 2010, as news broke out about Polish President's Lech Kaczynski death. Polish presidential plane with Kaczynski and wife on board crashed near the airport in Smolensk, western Russia, early morning Saturday, killing all passengers.

AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

Former Polish President Lech Walesa reacts during a Mass dedicated to the victims of the presidential plane crash in Gdansk, Poland, Sunday, April 11, 2010.

AP Photo/Krzysztof Mystkowski

A man's reaction is reflected in a glass covering the photo of the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria that was displayed at the Poland Consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, April 11, 2010. The sign under the photo informs about a week of official mourning declared in Poland. Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's most prominent military and civilian leaders died Saturday along with dozens of others when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog near Smolensk in western Russia.

AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky

Sunshine and Darkness

Well, as you can see, I survived the water park.  Despite water being definitely not my thing, nothing makes me happier than watching my son have fun . . . so a good time was had by all.

I received this lovely Sunshine Award from Donna at Brywood Needleworks.  She is a very talented woman with a sassy side, and I really enjoy her blog. 

I really want to thank Donna for this award because it comes at such a special time.   

It is a dark, gray day around my neighborhood -- inside and out. 

My friend was supposed to be in surgery today, having those brain tumors removed. 

Yesterday, the surgeon cancelled her surgery due to his own family emergency.  What it takes for a surgeon to cancel such a critical surgery, I surely don't know, but it must be something terrible.  The surgery has been postponed a week.

Last night, she had another stroke.  She is struggling more by the day.

If you're the praying kind, or a vibe-sending kind, or a positive thought-er . . . please do your thing.  Her name is Jacqueline. 

Thanks,

Spring Brakes

When you're a parent, you do things for your children.

Right?

Whatever they need, you do. You're a parent.

Me, I'm a mom.

I would lay down my life for my children.

You know I would.

There is no sacrifice too large for my children.

I have been pregnant. I've watched my feet swell beyond my own recognition. I went months without eating any salt. (Oh, yeah? Try it for, like, 4 hours.) I endured hours of labor only to submit to a c-section in the end.

There were sleepless nights of rocking and lullabying, and kicking and flailing (no, not me).

There are the adventures with food. Things they like, things they don't and whatever ramifications thereafter flow.

I don't think I have to mention the soiled diapers . . . and pants . . . and socks . . .

There are the nightmares.

And the first days of school.

The fevers. The scrapes and bumps. The stitches.

Hours spent watching shows starring purple dinosaurs, green grouches, and animated rabbits

And round-the-clock, on-demand psycho-therapy regarding the delusion of monsters existing under the bed.

But all those pale in comparison to what I am being asked to endure today.

Today.

ugh.

This may be it for me today.

As you may know, it is spring break in our little kingdom. We did the usual things, Easter, picnic, playground, shopping, cleaning rooms (yes, it's not all beer & skittles, even when you're 9).

But we planned something special for these last few days of spring break.

A water park.

Not just any waterpark.

Great Wolf Lodge.

If you're not familiar with Great Wolf Lodge, allow me to elaborate:

Indoor waterpark.

Six story water slide.

Wave pools.

Splash mountain.

And much, much more.

That's right? Who needs sleep? Who needs food? When you can just swim and splash and swim some more.

I watched with horror as my son pulled a robe that caused a pail to overturn and dump water onto an unsuspecting boy on the level beneath him.

I sat forward, ready to jump up and save my son from the certain pummeling he richly deserved.

But the unsuspecting victim just wiped the water from his eyes, laughed, and went on his way.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE??

Surely, they are not my kind.

This is my kind:

I hate the water.

I don't like water on my face.

I get mad.

My maiden voyage on an innertube in the wading pool ended with me grabbing for my husband and screaming (between gulps of water), "Help me! I hate you! HELP ME!!"

I got water up my nose and, obviously, on my face.

(Think back to yesterday. Remember that weird little moment in the afternoon when the sun was suddenly covered over by a black cloud and a strong, mean breeze blew through? Yah, t'was me.)

I have a new strategy today.

You. See how you're protecting me? Here I sit with my cherry mocha from the in-house Starbucks, still in my pajamas.

Nice and dry.

The kids and my husband have already gone ahead to the waterpark.

Interestingly, no one implored me quite as passionately to join them this morning.

Too bad.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Spring Time in Washington, D.C.  Cherry Blossom Peak Bloom.

7 Things You Don't Know About Me

That wonderful Penny at The Hen House gave me this lovely award. She is a delight, and it would do you good to go visit her blog, if you haven't before.

Now then, with this award comes the duty to tell you 7 things about myself that you don't already know.

Here goes:

1.  I worked part of one summer as a carnie ("carnival worker" for you more refined types) . . . even ran the ferris wheel myself a couple of times.  That requires more thinking than you would think as ferris wheels must be balanced correctly to run smoothly and safely.  The ferris wheel operator guestimates each rider's weight as they board.     

 2.  I took piano lessons for 10 years, beginning when I was a child.  When I moved out on my own, there wasn't a piano, and I didn't play for 10 years.  Since acquiring my own piano again, I have only played twice in 12 years.  Silly, I know, and must be changed.

3.  When the accompanying tune is played at a baseball game, I yell "Charge!!!" louder than anyone near me, usually causing people to look my way.  I consider it an homage to my father who always sat on the first-base side and taught us to cheer for our team with all our hearts.

4.  I hate beets.  No changing my mind.

5.  I once held Vic Damone's hand.  Nevermind that I was 9 and my grandmother was pushing me up to the front of the stage through hoards of little old ladies with their hands weakly extended.  And that I had no idea who he was at the time.

6.  I moved out the minute I graduated from high school.  I put myself through undergraduate school while I worked full time . . . it took me 7 years.  By the time I went to law school, my husband and I were a team, still have the law school loan scars, though.   

7.  I have a fear of water and never did learn to swim.  Every childhood summer of mine was ruined by the swimming lessons my mother forced me to take to no avail..  To this day, the smell of the chlorine in an indoor pool turns my stomach.

 (not me)

So there you have it.   

My thanks, again, to Penny.