In a house run by procrastinators...

I present to you, one of our Thanksgiving cactus blooms:

showing signs of excelling in the funny department

I was lying on the floor with Willa sitting in front of me, and pretending that I could blow her down. It wasn't my awesome lung capacity, but my arms that gently brought her to the floor each time. Twenty minutes later she stood in front of me, puckered her lips and blew. Then she said, "mama" and blew again. I blew, and she fell to the ground, giggling at herself.

Loving technology, part 739

"I wonder what all of the bubbles at the top of the water means."
"I think it means he's happy. Is that thing on? Google "beta bubbles."

3 minutes later we're know-it-alls on beta breeding.

Thankful for...

Willa (in pink hat), me (in black hat) and Santa (in red and white hat, behind the reindeer) hangin' at the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade. So neat to bring my daughter to her first big parade and watch her stare in awe and laugh. My parents were there too, and I imagine it was neat to watch their daughter do the same while watching their granddaughter. We also ran into cousin Scott and Ramona, who helped me convince Jim that parade virgins had to wear any beads they caught the whole day. It was his first "America's Thanksgiving Day Parade" too. He loved it! AND he wore the beads the whole day. He wasn't fooled, only a good sport.

Bead wearing Jim, yam loving Willa, dopey looking me.

Here we see Jackie and Bill in the last month of their year long engagement. Also here is MaKenna, enjoying her cupcake frosting, and Lisa, enjoying her first days after being self-emancipated from a job where her newly ex-boss called her Lisa Marie. (grrrr...) Brian's not in this photo, but he and Willa had a super good play time too.

My grandparents. Grandma looked around the room and told Grandpa, "we started all of this." It was a sweet moment. They are so proud of their family.

Willa stacking cups on her Grandpa's lap. Looking to give a toddler an inexpensive gift? A sleeve of colorful plastic cups kept her happily busy for a long time.

Cousin love.

Day after Thanksgiving Belle came over and dressed Willa as Minnie Mouse. These two are BFF. Until Willa tried to use MaKenna's sippy cup later that day. Fences to be mended...

Rach, thanks for asking. Here are the new upper cabinets. Lowers will be done during Christmas holiday. Woo-hoo!!

Have mercy on the liberals. Please.

Talking with a friend...

"Well, Jesus was a liberal, though a lot of churches don't want to admit that."
"I know....um... uh-oh..."
"What?"
"Well, I was just thinking about how sometimes the next generation completely changes political ideology from mom and dad. Which means that God would be conservative. In which case a lot of us are in trouble."
"Oh crap."
"Oh crap."

Willa learns remodeling

We sat at the kitchen table looking at graph paper and little squares and rectangles that represented our appliances for a long time.
"I can't look at this anymore. Let's just do it."
"For real?"
"Yes, let's get started."
An hour later Willa woke up from her nap, walked into the kitchen and froze in her tracks. She was staring at the place where, just before she fell asleep, there were cabinets and a back splash.
"'ERE'D IT GO?!" She demanded with her arms lifted, hands palm side up. I chuckled, and she yelled again, "'ERE'D IT GO?!"

I thought it was amusing until I remembered a weekend home from college. I walked into the kitchen and it was someone else's kitchen. They changed it so much that the next morning, I walked downstairs, opened the fridge, pulled out the milk, and set it down on the island that had been there for the 15 years before. Only there was no island, and the milk crashed to the floor. Upset about home not looking like "home" anymore, I may have cried. Over spilt milk, I know, I know...

Change is so hard.

On the other hand, we have some of the new upper cabinets up and while I'm happy that they look lovely, I am jumping up and down excited about the extra storage space in our small kitchen.

The post where my 19 month old corrects me

Water was flying as Willa sat in the bathtub churning her hands around each other. ".. 'round and 'round, the wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round. All through the town."

Her hand started a patting motion. "Okay. The horn on the bus goes honk honk hon-"

"BEEP BEEP BEEP," she yelled, eyebrows drawn together. I could almost detect an eye roll and the phrase muttered under her breath, "geez, mom, you don't know ANYTHING.

Tea with the animals

A-okay, with D-okay to follow shortly.

A neurologist in Grand Rapids called me unremarkable today. And that's a good thing. An EMG tells us that my nerves and muscles are normal. *Big sigh of relief* Still working on getting my vitamin D levels up to that of normal folks, and hopefully by then I'll be pain free.
The shock and needle thing was weird. I laid on a table watching my hand spasm as small currents of electricity went though my arm. Curious to see my finger move without me telling them to.
Jim wanted to come along to watch his wife become a science experiment, but alas, Labor Law class reading was making demands.

Some responses to recent comments:
Amanda, I picked up my orange tree at Flowerland about 2 years ago. It's only about 2 feet tall. If you have a sunny spot, it's a fun thing to watch grow.

Christina, Jim and I drink a lot of hot tea in the winter. We have about 9 or 10 boxes of tea open, to help deal with the clutter, we bought a shallow basket and store the tea boxes in the basket. Thusly our tea basket was born.

B~, Willa talks. Looking forward to a conversation between her and Rosalie next month.

Agriculture in my office

I've got a small orange tree in my office. It blooms in quick cycles and produces fruit too small to enjoy. I have eaten one orange from it every four months or so, but have never truly enjoyed it. As the tree ages and grows the fruit is reaching larger sizes and sweeter tastes. Sometimes I squeeze it's sour citrus juice into my water. Good little jolt. If you like your eyes to roll back into your head and your tongue to curl.

At the rate we're going, I may have truly edible oranges in 8 years.

Right now I've got 5 orange babies on the tree. They'll mature to about the size of your eyeball.

In 2 months, I'll probably have a tree full of blooms again.

There's something almost magical about stomping snow off of boots and removing mittens and scarf to be welcome by my citrus laden office.

North Country, late autumn

The grey of November has moved in.
It's time to pull out soup recipes, and put away the garden trowel. Flannel sheets on the bed, and find that frost and ice scrapper. I've rearranged the tea basket, and Willa's new mittens are ready.
It's time to daydream about the days living in South Carolina and Georgia. Even DC...
There's something about the drive to hibernate that is tempting.

Getting on my nerves

In the continued quest to figure out why, at random times, my limbs feel like someone slammed a large and heavy dumpster onto them (a dumpster with a lot of sharp edges)... on Monday, I'll go to a neurologist who will put small needles under my skin and send little electric shocks into me. And I'll pay him to do this. Hm...
I hope this will bring some answers, I'm not sure that the vitamin D is making it better. Maybe I need more time with the D?
I'll tell you that this is something that isn't bothering me every day, and when it does it isn't constant. But at it's peak it's more than unpleasant.
Please join me in crossing fingers. Thanks, dudes.

My dad saves the day

"This is Bed Bath and Beyond calling to say that we found the cow finger puppet. If you'd like to reclaim it, it is at the service desk."
Great, I thought, except I'm already in Lansing, and an hour away from the store, and more importantly the cow.
And it was just a $3 finger puppet that we picked up on the way to my parents house, but for Willa it was love at first sight.
"MOOOOO" she bellowed from the backseat of the car, cradling her new pal between her jaw and her shoulder. 2 minutes later she was asleep and drooling on him.
And then we went to buy a shower gift the next morning and, well he got lost.
I called my sister who lives the closest, but she didn't answer. I called home and talked to Brian. He wouldn't be near there in the next week. The manager of the store would send it to me, if only I arranged for prepaid shipping.
My dad called me a minute after I hung up with Brian. He was on his way to get it.
"No, dad. Don't make a special trip, it's just a cheap finger puppet. IF you're near there in the next week or so, you can get it, but really...."
"I'm on my way."
The cow has been picked up. Willa has a new hero, only she doesn't know it yet. I'm looking forward to witnessing a reunion of Willa and her moo, thanks to her super swell grandpa.

A girl, two dogs, and autumn leaves

New entry for top 5 in favorite parenting moment so far

Willa, Jim and I were lying on the floor in her room. Jim pretended he was sleeping. Willa walked to her crib and tried to pull her blanket and Bay-beeeee through the crib slats. I lifted them out and handed them to her. She covered Jim and offered Bay-beeeee to him. He snored. She laughed and started tickling him. He woke up. Over and over until she laid back down and pulled the blanket over her, staying very quiet and still. Jim and I discussed all of the possible locations Willa might be at that moment. She ripped the blanket off of her face yelling "'ERE SHE IS!!" and laughing from her toes. Over and over again. Then it was my turn to sleep. Instead of covering me with the blanket and tucking Bay-beeee into my arm, she launched herself onto my chest laughing. Over and over.
Twenty minutes later we left the room.
This Parenting thing? Totally awesome!

It's oh so quiet...

Yesterday on NPR a fella with a handsome vocabulary was saying that he doesn't want to use a bunch of big words to impress people, but sometimes there's a word that is exactly right and he just has to bring it out, polish it up and put it out there.

Two minutes later, Nancy Pelosi answered Neal Conan's question about what surprised her about the first session as Speaker of the House by saying that she had little use for the word surprise in a role that calls her to be ready for anything.

1) What a great way to answer that question.
2) "... little use for the word..."

This got me thinking -and talking to a coworker/friend (hey Sarah, thanks for the opportunity to explore this)- about use for words in different spheres.

I read this tidbit of awesomeness yesterday too. Oh Andrea at Superhero Journal - I would like to sip tea and make cards with you.

Jim mentioned last night that I've not posted an entry of meaty content here in a while. I kind of blew that off but...

I've been feeling quiet lately. I don't know if it's an autumnal thing, or if I'm not tapped into myself or what I find energetic lately.

Hi, um, Yesterday? What are you conspiring?

I'm going to let this all churn for a while and see what words I have a use for soon.