This weekend my dad and stepmom arrived for their first visit to our place here in Georgia. It's been a long time since we last saw them, because we used to live within driving distance and now one has to be organized enough to make plane reservations, plus they recently spent the better part of a month in Australia because they love wallabies and echidnas more than me. Not that I'm bitter. Anyway, they showed up on Saturday afternoon and we were all very excited to see them, and also to give them the grand tour of our new digs. "Chickadee, why don't you show Grandma and Grandpa your room...
This morning while the children slurped their Cheerios and I slumped at the kitchen table, half awake, sipping at my orange juice, Otto slid a section of newspaper across the tabletop to me. PUBLIX GRAND OPENING TODAY, 7:00 AM! I checked the clock. 6:45. Chickadee craned her neck, allowing her to read sideways instead of just upside down. "MOM! It's today! You should go right now! Otto can take us to school!" Methinks my daughter is tired of walking up and down the aisles at Kroger with me while I comment on the fruit flies, the gray meat, and the fact that no one seems to actually work...
We have been taping Mythbusters every week and watching it as a family on Friday nights, but there hasn't been a new episode in a while so we've had to come up with another activity to celebrate making it through the week. Thus began a brief period of trial and error, wherein we discovered that laundry is perhaps not quite celebratory enough, while body shots may be just a tad overdoing it. So last night we decided to play Uno. Otto announced that it would be cutthroat Uno, meaning that everyone was expected to play to win, which the kids took to mean that the first time they each had to...
It must be Fall because it's dark when my alarm goes off and dark when I wake the kids up and dark while I pack lunches but almost sorta kinda getting light out when it's time to leave for school. It must be Fall because the yard is covered with fallen leaves. The fact that the trees are still covered in (green) leaves is a little confusing, sure, and I hear that a drought can make the leaves fall off, too, plus the fact that it is still hitting 85 every day is not feeling all that Fall-like, but---what was I talking about?---oh, right, the leaves on the grass mean it must be Fall. It must...
I am going senile. Not only did I use "Meanwhile, back at the ranch" as a post title once before, I used it only about a month ago. I never would've even realized this, except that I happened to notice that the permalink for yesterday's post had a "2" at the end, and being the bright human that I am, I went, "Huh. I wonder why that is?" Now I'm afraid to title anything, for fear that I've just plain run out of titles. Please look for my next book, coming soon (and by "soon" I mean "never") to a bookstore near you. It will be called "Insert title here." It's riveting stuff, I tell you....
As I may have alluded to here once or twice (ha!), my transition to southern belle has been a little rocky. I love it here, I really do; this town is, as I'm fond of saying, very much like my hometown but with more bacon. In the sense that a new area could feel like HOME purely on objective environment, it's aces. Nevertheless, it's a new place and that brings its own stressors along with it, like having to find everything again and make new friends and just feel like I BELONG. I don't know if you have noticed this, because I hide it so well (what with the being incredibly suave and all),...
Last night in bed (oh, how my husband's throat must close up to see me starting a sentence on my blog that way, it makes me giggle) I grabbed Otto and insisted there was a SNAKE! SNAKE IN THE BED! And he did not seem to find it all that amusing. I cannot imagine why. Because I thought it was completely hilarious. I plan to preface all important announcements this way from now on. Just because I think it's a snappy way to get someone's attention. He got me back this morning, though. Oh yes he did. Not only did I have to rise at the buttcrack of dawn and get the kids ready for school, after...
Dude, yesterday was like Christmas. New computer! New iPod! New scanner/printer/copier thing that may or may not also julienne vegetables! My wee little mind, it is blown. Anyway, I have to remain Very! Excited! about all of this, to help lessen the reaction I will have when the bill arrives. I mean, yes, business deductions and all of that (the printer and iPod were free, even), but you know, it PAINS ME to spend money. Especially since it's not as though I can recoup the money from my other stupid computers. Otto did suggest that we get a boat... seeing as how we'd be all set for...
I guess I considered myself an involved parent when it came to our old school. I volunteered at school; I belonged to the PTA; I brought stuff in when the teachers needed things. Whatever. None of it required all that much effort on my part, is my point. And I am nothing if not lazy by nature. It's become apparently very quickly that the new school---having less money, fewer resources, and plenty of parents who don't help out in any way---needs a lot more in the way of parental participation. I am trying to do my part even though, honestly, sometimes it feels like Just One More Thing piled...
