Annie is Okay!

We had quite a day on Monday. Annie finally couldn't take it anymore, she had the stomach flu for a week, so she went to the emergency room with Nana. Well, it wasn't the stomach flu....Annie had to have emergency surgery! Carlie watched the kids at home once I arrived and Megan came to the hospital to stay with me (bringing me late night snacks cop style, coffee, Gatorade and trail mix). I was all weepy when I got there because I felt bad I wasn't nicer to Annie during the week she was sick. But seriously folks, who besides Annie gets sick and repaints the bathroom? Then when they started to put her under I got all verklempt again, sheesh. Annie did really well in the surgery and was out in an hour and half, a couple of hours in recovery and we were on our way home. This chick is tough, she once had a baby, walked out of the hospital three hours later and painted a tree on a door.

I am now home with Annie and Silas. Mac and Emmett are at school. Annie is mostly resting, she is taking little walks around and talking on the phone some. She just told me that she feels she is going to get better. Silas has a cough and a fever, so he is laying down next to Mama and they are telling each other stories.
I want to send out some special thanks to Nana/Carlie and Megan for their help and love and all things that they have always given. Thank you to Chris Mackes, my friend who brought us veggie burritos last night. Thanks to all who have included Annie in their thoughts.

Now, for this Mr. Mom thing....Who in their right mind can figure out this car pool schedule? I would rather reread the Immigration and Nationality Act's 2300 pages than look at this again. You need to be half lawyer/half Egyptoligist. Also, whoever thought of waking up surly kids at the crack of dawn and asking them what to eat, convincing them brushing their teeth is a good idea, finding their accoutrements for school etc , is a crazy bastard and needs to be dealt with severely. I have had an easier time managing 92 federal agents in a critical incident/officer involved shooting than I did this morning. I'd also rather hunt armed fugitives through dark alleys before I look for a pair of matching socks in my children's bedroom. I'm actually secretly enjoying this, but don't post it on my blog or Facebook as someone I know might see it. The boys at work are hot on the trail of some bad guys and giving me secret text message updates so I don't miss out on the chase.

All in all this is part of life/marriage and adulthood I guess and I'm glad that we all got to do it together. I wouldn't have it any other way (except without the pain, fear, regrets, anxiety, rude Kaiser receptionists, lack of sleep). No, even with it all put together I think it was quite a day, certainly one we will not forget anytime soon. In sickness and in health and in love.
Matt

Nana, just in case you need this insult tomorrow at work......

...just walk right in there and begin...
"you're nothing but the yellow-bellied offspring of a canker-ridden bunter. You are a bastard, you are, an unlicked cub. A dung-splattered tallow-faced rock-gnasher. A puking villian. A noxious toad. A runting mewling spawn of a greasy sow. I wouldn't give you my last crust if you were starving or a drop of water if you were burning or a beggars grave if you were dead. You have pus for marrow and fungus for brains. You are a scug-backed cheek-biter."

page 90 of BRISINGR by Christopher Paolini

I like this.

Birth Day Boy!

9 years old. NINE! That really sounds big to me.
We Love YOU so very much Emmett. I hope this year is the best yet!







His first guitar!
(but don't worry, he doesn't want to quit piano!)

The look on his face when he realized he was actually getting a guitar was priceless.







xoxoxoxoxoxoxox to our heart bomb!

goings on, for the record

Granpops and Bebe are visiting, taking kids swimming and on little adventures (we've gotta get more pictures before they go!!!); colds and stomach flus have been floating around, sabotaging Emmett's much anticipated sleepover; lots of house projects are moving along, rainbarrels,and gutters, painting, clothes line, looking into solar panels etc; nana is on "baby watch" every minute of every weekend waiting for a new elephant to be born at the Wild Animal Park and loving it; Matt has been to the doctor for his feet and is readying himself for FOOT SURGERY, sometime in the next 3 months while also committing himself to Bikram Yoga, yes, sweaty yoga (he's there right now!) and on top of it all, he works 70 hours a week, always connected to that life-sucker, the Blackberry; Mac is rehearsing for Pippi, full force; carpooling and school stuff keeps me busy and guessing everyday, "what, where and who???"; We have all been completely stumped by the two Rubik's Cubes that seem to show up all over the house. No one here can solve it. (We're not so smart afterall!); It hailed during that huge storm and Silas just loved it. Couldn't convince him it wasn't snow; Silas has been jumping on the trampoline and playing FARM with his friends, thank god for that backyard; Emmett and I have been playing Mancala and we are finally reading BRISIGR out loud with Mac too; Discovered recently that a small bowl of ground coffee is the only thing that gets rid of the smell of rotten milk in the car or chicken poo in the closet or barf etc...it is the miracle air freshener; I had to put bird netting around the chicken pen so the hawks that are circling don't get lucky; I have a refrigerator full of good food but for some reason the thought of cooking AGAIN makes me wanna .... fast.

Gotta pay attention around here, things are moving pretty fast and it's easy to just feel busy and
forget to 'smell the flowers'....so I think I'll go get a cup of tea and feed the chickens. Doing my best.

I am too exhausted to blog much, but...

I have been newly inspired by Obama's 'state of the union'...but we all know the man can speak...
Even more than that speech...WAY MORE SO is his 'question and answer time' with all the Republicans in the house, that HE asked to be televised. It is very telling and I think everyone should watch it.
These are the teabaggers and moderate republicans alike asking all their most pointed questions (very respectfully, I will add) and Obama's answers.

Maybe, just maybe, things will turn around?? (oh yeah, I forgot for a second...USA is owned by corporations so that's highly unlikely....but still....)

Check out the video here, I think in it's entirety. If not, find it because it's worth it.

Washington DC

I was sent to Washington DC for a meeting. I was there to provide "ground truth" to a bunch of bureaucrats making a training manual on Unified Commands. If that wasn't surreal enough, I stayed at the Willard International, a very famous hotel, where the term lobbyist came from. I'm serious, look it up. Anyway, I walked around a little. I only went to one museum, the Holocaust Museum. What else would I do. What else could I do. Some photos from Rome....
Matt

HUGE STORM RAGES FOR DAYS...

.....chickens stay inside!!!

Sadly, More Political Nightmare Nonsense

Ted Kennedy is rolling over in his grave about this crazy Scott Brown business.
I really just can't believe it.

Read This Article.

Our girl is TWELVE today!!!!

Happy Birthday Mac! What a wonderful person you are!
xoxoxoxooxoxoxoox

7:00 AM

Mac and Emmett slept on the trampoline to watch out for the chickens.
And Nana brought them snuggly coats so they could sit and warm the chicks this morning.
No one could sleep. I kept imagining the heat lamp bulb burning out and the chicks freezing.
Emmett worried about predators. Yikes.
I have a feeling they will be in Mac's closet during the huge week long storm that is coming.

Anyway, it was very cute to wake up to these kids being little mamas/papas/nanas! ;)

update: Mac's Americana Chicken is named "Secret" and The New Hampshire Red is officially "Butterfly"
So now we have Toby, Puppet, Butterfly and Secret

Birthday Surprise!

A most exciting day! I kept Mac out of school for a supposed shopping spree (ugh!) and
got completely lost on 8E and ended up in Crest at some god forsaken farm. ("Wow mama
you really need a GPS!" she said.)
And then she found out that we were there to pick our her BABY chicks!
They are 3 weeks old and just getting feathers. They are quick to snuggle under a warm hand
and seem very happy.....

...our only worry is Zarina the Huntress. We have already caught her hanging by
the chicken wire upsidedown, freaking the little ladies out!



Mac can't stay away for more than a few minutes and Emmett is in love!
Just look at them!


4 Hens: yellow headed red bodied one is a New Hampshire Red and is the grown-ups chicken. She is yet unnamed. (hard to get consensus here;)
The "hawk" looking greyish brown one is an Americana. She is Mac's and is also unnamed as of yet although the names in contention have ranged from Hera to Hawk Girl to Charlotte?!
The dark reddish one is Silas'. She is a Rhode Island Red and her name is Toby the People Rescuer. He will tell you that her short name is just Toby.
The soft peachy one is a Buff Orpington and is Emmett's. He has named her "Little Puppet".
We have noticed that Puppet seems to be in charge but very gentle, which we hope will set a nice tone to our flock. Next in the pecking order is Toby and then Mac's. The most timid one is the New Hampshire Red.

The backyard that once seemed very sad and dog poopy now feels full of jumping chirping life!

Mac's Birthday Bedroom Remodel Master Plan

She's not so much into this room (above) although
she likes the lights...but it's as close to the color
as we could find to print out for the paint guy.
She wanted "orchid" and has obviously inherited my color fearlessness
(for better, often, or worse, "oftener"!)
Now for the labor. The only thing that makes this
fun is that we get to do it together. Let's hope Silas cooperates!

the beard is going...going...gone...

............................my personal favorite! the village person!!...................................




... and now it looks like I am married to a much younger and extremely
handsome man. (ruggedly handsome, as he likes to add!)

Junior Theatre !

Mac is ecstatic because she got a part in PIPPI in Junior Theatre!
She doesn't know which part yet but she was worried she wouldn't get in at all
as the audition was kinda intimidating. After, she said she would be lucky
to be a "villager" or even on the crew.
She's been skipping all over the house today!
And Emmett is excited because his class is going on a field trip to see it in March!

There's nothing like seeing your kid happy!

I JUST LOST MY MIND AND MY TEMPER (publicaly!) OVER...

...two things I cannot be trusted to discuss rationally...because I hate them.
And they are... CAUTION TAPE all over the school garden and CHAIN LINK, in general, unless it's
in West Side Story or covered in Morning Glories but that's different.

And now I have to go apologize.
This day is sucking.