Humbling

After years of piano lessons and god only knows how much forgotten musical knowledge, it's more than a bit humbling to be proud of picking out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for the first time on the guitar.

Note to Self:

Letting the girl play with glitter while trying to clean up that area of the house is an exercise in self defeat. Carry on.

Vampire Teeth

Last night, B was munching on a slice of pizza (his "snack" before bed) at the kitchen table.  He suddenly looked up, gave me a funny look, and asked if I could sharpen his teeth before bed.

HUH???  What the hell?  Sharpen his TEETH?

Before I can say anything, I notice J behind him struggling not to crack up. Ahhh, something's going on here that I don't know about. 

So I told B that no, we don't sharpen teeth. There's no reason to do that, our teeth are sharp enough.

"Well, daddy told me when I was trying to eat my pizza earlier and couldn't bite through the cheese that we needed to sharpen my teeth!"

I looked at Benjamin for a second, and then looked back J, who was grinning like a fool.

Benjamin caught my look at J, saw his big grin, then said, "Daddy!!!  You were teasing me!" He figured out he'd been had.

But the best part was what B did next:  Got out of his chair, walked over to J with his hand in the air like he was about to punch him, opened his hand and said "High Five!" He'd been had, but he laughed at it along with the rest of us. Let's just hope he holds on to that sense of humor. You can't live in this house without expecting some teasing along the way...

Interesting Day

I'm going to see the Dalai Lama speak today in Fayetteville. I had good intentions of doing some research, maybe reading a book or two before the talk today, but alas, no such thing happened. But if nothing else, I'm anticipating a very interesting talk and hopefully some great food for thought.

See you on the flip side.

Quiet Morning

This morning, I took my laptop and coffee and sat out on the back deck for a while. One of the main reasons we bought this house a few years ago was because of the large backyard and the back deck. Since then, we've been reminded (and re-reminded) that a large backyard means lots of yard care. Sigh. And we've not used the deck or the yard anywhere nearly as much as we had initially planned. The cat seems to like it an awful lot though...

But right now, there are all sorts of nice smelling plants in bloom, the frogs are "playing" in the pond, and everything is so lush and cool, it seemed ridiculous to stay inside. I think this might be part of my routine until it gets too hot, settling into the day and making my to do list for the day. Of course, settling into the day before the kids are home and after the kids are home for the summer will be two separate things...I'm gonna bet that my quiet mornings will be a thing of the past once June rolls around. Oh well - it's gonna be an awesome summer. 

Useless Trivia and Fights with Jack

WOW. That was a crazy weekend. Made more crazy due to an argument I had with Mr. Jack on Friday night.  Well, I guess technically the argument happened on Saturday. He thought I indulged a little too much, I disagreed, but in the end - he won. So Saturday was an unexpected bust in general. Still managed two t-ball games and probably 3 hours worth of nappage, but it was a rough day. 

Speaking of Jack, I managed to rally a little Saturday night, and we played a sort-of-new trivia game at some friends' house called "You Don't Know Jack." It's only sort of new because it's a game J and I played on the computer right after we got married. I'm not sure how we stumbled on the game, but we spent numerous nights hunched over a keyboard in our first apartment, trying to outdo each other with useless trivia knowledge. I don't remember getting my ass kicked too badly, although I'm pretty sure I usually lost. Oh well, Lord knows I'm not the world's best at useless trivia knowledge (although I know some folks who are pretty damn good).

Saturday night, we played the Xbox version with some good friends, and much hilarity ensued. Especially when J twisted the rules to make it a drinking trivia game. Go figure. I managed to straddle the line between winning and losing each game, so I wasn't required to partake. Hell, even if I was supposed to drink, I don't think I could have. Damned Jack.

Sunday I got to sleep in a little, play some tennis, go to lunch with some friends, and get some stuff done around the house. I also got to try out a new yummy recipe that involved lots of mushrooms and balsamic vinegar and cream...it was stellar. Of course, I made the kiddos try the sauce but not the mushrooms. No need for regurgitation at the dinner table on Mother's Day. 

Last night, B got the idea to go out and get me something for Mother's Day. If you know me, you know I'm not big on holidays and gift giving - as far as I was concerned, I'd had a pretty damn good day already. Lots of time with the fam, got to sleep in (which would later haunt me), got some things done, got to exercise - what else can you ask for, really? But he asked J to take him out, and they came back an hour or so later with some beautiful blue orchids, a card, and some dark chocolates - yumminess!

Of course, B's first thought after his surprise was that he should get a piece of chocolate, since it was Mother's Day and all. He just looked confused when J pointed out that it was Mother's day, not Kiddos' day, as he reached for the scissors to open the chocolates. It's the thought that counts, right?  Heh heh.

Gentlemen Prefer Blonds?

On Wednesday, B's class had a Cinco de Mayo festival for the kindergarten classes. I took cheese quesadillas (which were made on the stove and not with an iron, thank you very much). During the festival, some vaguely Latin music was played so the kids could salsa. I stood on the sidelines, watching my son dance (using that term loosely here) with various other kids. Of course, he danced with his good friend Andi, a cute little girl with long blond hair that he knew from daycare. And then he found Anna, a friend in his class who has long blond hair. His third partner was a girl I was unfamiliar with, but she also had ... long blond hair. I started thinking that maybe there was a pattern there.

Today, I sat in on some of the classes while the teachers went to a teacher appreciation lunch, including a couple of second grade classes. No, I didn't know a soul in the second grade classes, or the teachers, but how sad would it be to have to miss a teacher appreciation day lunch because no parents could watch your students? Anyway.

I paced the hall for about half an hour, keeping an eye on two different second grade classes. In one of the classes, a little girl with short blond hair looked at me and said, "hey, aren't you Benjamin's mom?" Yes, yes I am. She is in after school care with him, and I thought I knew her name, so I asked, "are you Josie?" "No, I'm Christina. But he always tries to sit by Josie."

Josie, of course, is a cute little girl with blond hair. I'm pretty sure he has thing for blonds. 

Domestic Goddess

Like many houses, we have an iron and an ironing board. Unlike many houses, our iron and ironing board may not have been used since we moved in two and a half years ago. I don't iron. If it requires ironing? I don't buy it. If it needs ironing? It's probaby dry clean only.

So yesterday, my mom was over at my house hanging some drapes. Did I mention that my mom totally rocks in many departments, including the "deciding on fabric, making, and hanging drapes" department? Yeah. So she was hemming some drapes, and needed the iron and ironing board. After remembering that we did indeed have those items, she got them set up and did whatever she does to make stuff look fantastic. This is not my area.

When she finished, it was late afternoon and she asked me what to do with the still-hot iron. I told her to just leave it on the kitchen counter and I'd put it up later. Of course, it's still sitting there this morning, but that's really not the point of this little vignette. 

I had a tennis match scheduled last night, so I fed the kiddos and hit the road as soon as J got home from work. When I finished my match, I called J to let him know I was headed home. The following conversation ensued:

J:     Ummm...you made quesadillas for the boy's Cinco de Mayo festival earlier today, right?
80:   Yeah, why?
J:      Please tell me you didn't use the iron to make them?
80:   *cracks up.*
80:    That was funny, babe. Good joke.
J:      *silence*
80:     You WERE joking, right?
J:      Well...I just thought maybe you got in a hurry and needed the extra heat or something...I could see it happening. I couldn't think of any other reason the iron would be out!
80:    *silence*

Yeah. Domestic goddess I am not. On the plus side, apparently the expectations are lower than I thought!

On Earworms and Armadillos

I mentioned recently that I've been introducing the kiddos to Jerry Jeff Walker - it's a rite of passage, as far as I'm concerned. I also mentioned that they were not exactly enamored with him based on the songs I had played thus far. They've got a few years before I bust out "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother" and "Trashy Women," in case you are wondering. But somehow, I managed to miss one of the most important songs that I should have played for them. Granted, it's not really JJW's song, but he did sing it, and it is very much his sound.

A few nights ago, J suggested that I play London Homesick Blues for them, also known as Home with the Armadillo. How did I miss that one? So I immediately queued it up and blasted it from the Ipod. We played it once through and got distracted with other stuff going on around the house, but apparently the lyric "home with the armadillo" stuck with Benjamin, whether he realized it or not.

Later that same night, I pulled up the chords for LHB to see if I could pick my way through the song on the guitar. I didn't tell anyone what I was playing, 'cause it's kind of pointless right now; my playing is still pretty clumsy. But I fumbled through it a couple of times, with B on the couch next to me playing Angry Birds. I wasn't too bad as far as I was concerned, I'm still just happy to see improvement. As I finished playing through it the second time, I told him it was time for bed and he needed to head upstairs. He bounced off the couch and immediately started singing "I wanna go home with the armadillo."

I asked him if was singing it because I had just been playing it.

"No!  You weren't playing that! I just like the song."

I'm not sure whether I should be proud of his music memory or embarrassed at my (lack of) playing ability. Maybe a little of both?

Job Stuff

About two and a half years ago, J interviewed for and was offered a job at a plant here in the LR area. With our families still living here in LR, and with two young kiddos, it made sense for us to look for something here. We both felt this was a cleaner, safer, and healthier place for the kiddos to grow up, despite the economic advantages of Houston.

The down side was the job situation. My job in Houston was a godsend - an attorney job that was actually the 40 hours a week it was billed to be, at a firm that I respected, working with people I actually liked. I was not optimistic about finding something like that in AR, so I made a pitch to telecommute when I could, and make trips to Houston when I needed to.

Somewhat surprisingly, they took me up on it, ostensibly on a 6 month trial basis. I never heard another word about the trial period once the details were settled, so I guess everyone was happy with it.

When I proposed the telecommuting idea, I said quite plainly that if it didn't work for either of us - me or the firm -  I had no trouble ending the effort. I never wanted to be in a situation where I felt like I was regarded as not giving a full effort. I also needed to make sure that traveling worked for me.

And everything worked fine, for a while. But I spent four weeks in Houston in January of this year, and it just didn't feel right anymore. The travel schedule is pretty unpredictable, and it's hard to stay connected to both people and cases when you work remotely. Sometimes it worked fine, but sometimes I felt very isolated.

Alyssa will start kindergarten in the fall, Benjamin will be in first grade, and it was hard to stay on top of what all was going on at school with them when I ended up heading out of town fairly often. Not to mention trying to plan activities and keep up with everything going on.  Dear god, the paperwork... So when the majority of my cases wrapped up in February, I started seriously thinking about making some changes.

A few other things happened that pushed me in the same direction, and last week I knew it was time. It sucked, it was not a fun decision, but it was the right decision, and that's what really matters. In another year, in ten years, it will still be the right decision.

So. What's next? I have no idea. I'm going to take the summer off with the kiddos, and once school starts in the fall I'll probably try to figure something out. I have this crazy notion that something will just fall in my lap before then anyway. That is actually what happened with my current job - it could happen again, right?  RIGHT?