Country living is so…special

Have I ever told you, dear reader’s, that I hate moths? I really…really hate them. They’re all spaztic and floppy and they can’t control themselves.

People say, “Oh come on, Amanda. They’re just like butterflies.”

Nay. They are not ‘just like butterflies’. There is nothing graceful about moth as it sputters and slams it’s body into a light bulb. Nothing at all like a butterfly.

What was I talking about?

Oh yes, country life.

So I knew there was a moth problem up here and I was a bit screamy and jumpy the first couple of weeks, but now I have, for the most part, learned to coexist peacefully with them.

Well, that is, until yesterday.

We were headed out for our daily trip to the post office yesterday afternoon when I innocently grabbed my purse that was sitting benignly next to my chair in the living room. I already had my sun glasses on so I couldn’t really see the purse strap as I was grabbing it, but I could certainly feel the unmistakable crunch of dead moth under my hand as I lifted it up.

In the interest of journalistic integrity I feel obligated to tell you that the instant my hand crunched that moth I dropped that purse like a hot potato and began screaming and squeeling and jumping around the room like the sissy girl that I am.

And then I began pouring Purel over my hand with such vigor that youd’ve thought it was holy water.

Kevin, being the manly man that he is, calmly scooped up the purse and tossed the offending creature in the trash. But as he walked past me I caught a glimpse of what looked like hundreds of teeny, tiny sparkly pearls in little clusters all over my purse.

Oh no she didn’t! That hussy had the audacity to lay EGGS all over my PURSE before she died on it. Oooooooh no ma’am. Not cool.

And then…AND THEN I realized that I had YARN in that purse. And not just any yarn. No. I had beautiful self stripping, baby soft wool sock yarn that was already 2/3’s of the way knit into quite a lovely sock, if I do say so myself.

I immediately dumped the contents of the purse onto the floor and started frantically picking apart my yarn as Kevin scrapped off the eggs.

Did I mention this is a fairly rare purse handmade in Uganda and was only available at Invisible Children screenings over a year ago and can’t be purchased anymore? Oh I didn’t? How silly of me.

As soon as I was certain that my yarn was in the clear, I dumped the purse in the washing machine and washed it on Hot. Twice.

Excuse me while I go douse my hand in Purel. Again.

In other news…

The kids seem to be a fan of all the insects the mountains have to offer. Especially Presley. She just loves playing with bugs of all shapes and sizes.

*shudder*

But I’m trying not to instill my utter disdain (read:abject terror) for bugs onto my offspring, so I encourage their blossoming interest whenever possible.

With that in mind, when I was hanging clothes on the line the other day, I happened upon a tiny little inch worm. Well, I can handle an inch worm! No problem! Nothing scary or disgusting about those little guys.

So I called the kids out to the back yard and had Presley bring the little guy in the house so we could do some good ol’ home schoolin’ and research what exactly an inch worm is.

We looked in Caedmon’s insect book and didn’t find anything. So I pulled out the Children’s Animal Dictionary, nada.

The kids really didn’t care anymore at this point, but I was bound and determined to figure out what the heck an inch worm actually is.

Google to the rescue!

I clicked on the first link that Google offered up and as I was scrolling through the page this picture jumped out at me

“Huh” I thought to myself, “that’s an odd looking butterfly…”

“Wait.”

“Is that…? Surely not…”

And then my eyes land on this sentence

“…larvae of moths of the family Geometridae, a large, cosmopolitan group with over 1,200 species indigenous to North America.”

Fantastic.

Surprise vistor for Caedmon!

The other day (read:in bed at 1am) I was browsing around on facebook when I saw that Caedmon’s best friend’s mom’s status was “Going camping in the Sacramento mountains of New Mexico!”

And I stopped breathing.

Because, that’s where we live and such and no one ever just happens to be going where we live. Because we live in the middle of nowhere.

So I frantically typed something in all caps and I don’t even know what it said but evidently I managed to convey the message that I desperately wanted her to call me so we could get together.

She called, lunch plans were made, and I decided not to tell Caedmon.

Longest two days of my LIFE. Ugh. I wanted to tell him so bad!

Friday rolled around and when they knocked on the door I asked Caedmon if he would answer it. He opened the door and Beverly was standing there (Evan was getting stuff out of the car. He stood there for about 30 seconds…in complete stunned silence. Then he screamed “EVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!” and shot out the door like a man on fire!

Please take note that his feet are hardly touching the ground

I didn’t get many pictures of them because they didn’t sit still much at all while he was here, but I did manage to snap a shot of them playing Chaotic

And this one…which looks like Caedmon just punched Evan in the face? To the best of my knowledge there were no violent outbursts during lunch

Beverly, Kevin…thank you so much for stopping by the house. It meant so much to Caedmon. See you in two weeks!

A day in the life

I’m not gonna lie, I don’t get up early, but I still don’t like waking up

Breakfast of champions! Hey, check out that poptart package…there’s vitamins and minerals in there! Oh, and the caffeine pills are for my ADD not for staying awake.

While I’m eating breakfast I’m usually checking the weather, my email, and texting. Oh how I love my iTouch. I think I shall compose a poem about it tonight…but I’ll keep that to myself, it’s a very private relationship.

And then I guide my kids through their morning chores. Getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc. Then they usually go play outside. Please note that they dress themselves.

Oh hey, look! A new flower bloomed on our porch stairs

On the way back inside I noticed that I still hadn’t unpacked from last weekends trip to Artesia. My bad.

Who wants to unpack when there’s knitting to be done though?

These are going to be knee high slippers for Presley. The tops are going to be black and white stripped and the bottoms are going to be made of these sparkly red yarns. Anyone catch the reference?

After my 30 minutes of free time is up I finally get around to taking my PJ’s off. But since this was a stay at home day, getting clothes on is as good as it gets…no hair do’s and makeup for me! Hot, I know.

Oh, did I mention I put a load in the wash before I ate breakfast? Well, I did. And now it’s time to hang it on the line…because the dryer is broken.

Kfed made the line too high, so I have to get up on this rickity little ladder and it’s on a hill and I fall…a lot.

All finished!

Oh wait, just kidding. 1 full load doesn’t fit on the line, so I have to hang clothes down the front steps too

Normally I’d repeat this process at least 5 times a day. However, on this particular day, it was really cool outside so the clothes wouldn’t dry so I only got 2 loads done. Bleh.

And while I was doing laundry, my kids were unpacking suitcases. What’s that? You think I’m a slave driver? Why, yes I am!

So, that was 30 minutes of chore time (yes it does take 30 minutes to switch the laundry). So now it’s 30 minutes of free time!

After my free time I got recruited to read Presley-doodle a book

And then Caedmon requested that I attempt to get a lego Storm Trooper through his lego maze. I didn’t make it through, btw, that sucker was loaded with traps!

And while we’re in the front of the house having all this fun, Kfed is in the back of the house working in his office

Presley insisted that I take this picture and…ya know…I do spend a vast majority of my day taking her to the potty…so I thought, why not?!

Time to go check the mail!! This is one of the most exciting parts of the day

A little Johnny Cash for the road?

Oh hey, look, it’s cows! Shocking!

And bulls

Kfed goes and check the mail while we sit in the car and my kids cross their fingers and hope and dream for a package. A package would just make those kids day!

Sadly, a package was not in the stars for them, just a Reader’s Digest

And a little Chicago for the trip home

This little barn is just down the road from our house and everyday when we pass it Presley yells “DIEGO’S HOUSE!!” Actually, she can’t pronounce Diego, so she yells “DE-GAY-O’S HOUSE!!” It’s hilarious…but we never could figure out why she said that

Until we saw Diego’s Rescue Center badge, and then it all made sense

And we’re back!

Lunch time! Ham and cheese sandwiches, all natural Cheeto’s, and organic apple sauce

And while I make lunch, Kfed spends some quality time with the kidlets

After lunch it’s play time!

At some point Caedmon realized his stuffed monkey didn’t have a tail. He was quite sure that all monkeys had tails and he wanted to be sure that his stuffed animal wasn’t a fake, so he whipped out his Animal Encyclopedia and determined that his monkey is actually an orangatang. This was a proud home schooling moment.

Then Presley decided she wanted to play school

I got up from ‘playing school’ to switch the laundry and when I came back my children were dressed as pirates. There’s lots of costume changes with these two.

This particular game of dress up required a treasure map

While they hunted for treasure (candy that Caedmon had buried in the yard), I got to work making chili for dinner

And then it was snack time

And Noggin time. Poor Caedmon, it was Presley’s turn to pick the cartoon

This was my snack. Why am I not skinnier?! Well, maybe it was the poptarts for breakfast…and the frito pie for dinner…and possibly the cherry RC cola I’m having right now.

Moving on.

Apparently I crapped out between snack time and dinner time? I’m fairly certain that I knit and the kids ran around outside and I didn’t feel the need to take pictures of that since I already had pictures along those lines.

So…dinner time! Frito Pie with homemade chili!

Bath time for Presley and shower time for Caedmon! I elected not to humilate Caedmon with a picture of him in the shower.

While Presley bathes, I clean the bathroom

And then I quickly tucked the rugrats into bed so Kfed and I could watch So You Think You Can Dance? Oh sweet heaven how I love this show. And there’s going to be a fall season?! Yes please!

The rest of my evening was spent putting these two blog entries together. I’m wiped and I’m going to bed.

Thanks for spending the day with me!

A day in our life: going to town edition

The kids were coloring and whatnot while Kfed and I loaded up the van. Please note that Presley elected to dress like Minnie Mouse for this particular trip.

Some the wildlife we encounter as we leave the mountain

A quick stop at the dumpster. We have to drive here (about 10 miles from the house) everyday to take out the trash

Driving down the mountain

We’re literally in the clouds up here

…and then our windshield wiper broke…but Kfed fixed it

20 miles down the road and we’re in the desert!

See that white stripe in between the hills? That’s White Sands. It’s about 25 miles from where this picture was taken.

Here’s a better view

This is the view from town (Alamogordo) looking back home. It was about 68 degrees at home and about 92 in Alamo!

Town. Woo! Exciting!

So, we decided to eat at this restaurant, Memories, because it was cute and we like cute things.

I mean, of course we like cute things. Why else would we keep these kids around all the time?

Wait…what is that hideous faux finish behind Presley? Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Well that’s not cute at all. You know what else isn’t cute? $13 for chicken strips. We won’t be eating there again.

Then we had to go to Wal-Mart to get our tire fixed (which a whole ‘nother story) and get groceries. This is Presley begging Caedmon for change

2 hours, 2 shopping carts, and an unspeakable amount of money later…we’re ready to go home.

When we finally got home (at 9:30pm) Presley went nuts trying to find the toy she bought with her dollar

Jackpot!

And then we all put away the groceries and passed out. The end. Amen.

Well, hello there…

In an effort to not send myself over a virtual cliff, I’m not going to even look at the date of my last blog. I’m just going to act like I still have a few people out there reading my sporadic ramblings.

So, for those of you not ‘in the know’, Kevin got a new job. He’s working from home full time now which rocks. It’s very surreal, actually, to wake up every morning and have Kevin home with us all day. To be able to come and go as we please. Very strange, very awesome.

Of course, because WBU has this silly rule about former employees living in staff housing, we’ve had to move…again. If you’re keeping score that’s 8 moves in 7 years. We’re hoping for this move to be pretty permanent. While the house is a bit of a tight squeeze, it’s located in the neighborhood of our dreams and I think we’d all 4 be thrilled to settle down here for good.

In other news, we’ll be doing first grade forever. Between several weeks of sickness this year, and the move we’re about 6 weeks behind where we need to be. Good times. However, Caedmon seems to be thriving pretty well in the hectic environment. He’s had a huge leap in his reading in the past few weeks and his math skills are out of this world. I’m going to have to start saving up now for a math tutor because there’s no way I’m going to be able to keep up with him!

Wow, I’m putting myself to sleep here. Seriously. This is the most boring post I’ve ever written.

Alrighty then, if you made it through that I owe you a cookie. Perhaps I’ll be back in another few months to wow you with a witty retelling of how Presley likes to pee all over the floor and laugh at me as I clean it up. Stay tuned!

He may never be the star athlete

But he will always have a heart the size of Texas.

At Caedmon’s soccer game yesterday the kids were running down the field and a little girl from the other team fell down and got trampled by everyone running behind her. Caedmon (being at the back of the pack) stopped, knelt down beside her, asked if she was ok and helped her up. Once she got up he patted her on the back and said “Come on, let’s go. You can do it!” and ran along side her till she caught up with her team. All the while the game was still going full swing. Never once concerned for himself or the game, just that that little girl was ok.

Then, at half time, Caedmon and another girl from his team came and sat down on the ground in front of us. Presley toddled up and sat down beside him. He looked over and, with a huge smile on his face, says, “Hey Pooh!* Whatcha doin? This is my friend McKinnley. Can you say hi to her?” He sat and chit chatted with her during his break then when it was time to go back to the field he gave her a hug and said, “Thanks for sitting with me Pooh, that was so nice of you.”

I know that no matter what happens in the weeks to come, no matter what diagnosis we receive, it won’t change this amazing boy God has given us. It won’t change his heart.

*Pooh is his nickname for Presley, which is a spin off of Poodle, which is one of my many nicknames for Presley.

Why I’m glad we don’t own this place, a story in pictures…

The winds they were a blowin’ in West Texas today!

And while I was walking around assessing the damage I noticed this little prize. Turns out this is what the bottom of the fence looks like pretty much all the way around the property. Can we say tetanus everyone?

I know we should’ve noticed that already since we’ve been here a year, but in our defense…the yard is really big. In the year that we’ve lived here I’ve never even been to the far left corner of the back yard. There could be Hobbits living over there all I know.

Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes Wayland to fix it?

Happy birthday little girl!

Where did these 2 years go?

244

That’s how many books my kids have. That’s not including curriculum. If you include just the literature in our curriculum that number jumps to 307. That does not include text books or work books.

I think it’s time to admit we have a problem.

Flashback blogging part duex

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Um…Thanks? I had the privilege (read: duty) to attend one of Caedmon’s many pre-school parties this afternoon. I generally love going to these little events, however, the last 4 weeks they’ve learned about a new country every week and had a country-themed party EVERY FRIDAY.  I know a party doesn’t sound like anything to be annoyed with, but “party” in pre-school language roughly translates to: “all-the-stay-at-home-mommies-come-and-bring-all-the-food-and-set-up-the-entire-party -then-stay-and-clean-up-the-party-because-really-what-else-do-you-have- to-do-besides-eat-chocolate-and-watch-Oprah”. I can deal with that once a month, but every Friday gets old. I digress, even though I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of serving juice and animal crackers to eighteen 4 year olds, I was somewhat excited about the prospect of a little adult conversation. That being said, I actually took the time to put on makeup and even iron my clothes (gasp!).  So, I waddle my large self into the party room feeling like I looked a notch or two better than a bloated beached whale. Then the following conversation took place between me and one of  the other mom’s. Other Mom:  “Wow, you look like you’re about ready to have that baby.” Me: *looking down at my gigantic protruding belly* “Yeah, I’ve really gotten big these last few weeks.” Other Mom:  “I can just tell by your face, you’ve got that…that…” *At this point I’m already smiling and batting my eyelashes, thinking she’s going to finish that sentence with “that glow”. So I was getting all geared up to tell her that, in fact, I fake that pregnancy glow with my new Bare Escentuals Mineral Make-up (which is FABULOUS, btw).* Other Mom cont.: “…that pregnancy look, ya know? You’ve filled out…your face has gotten fat.” Me: “Well, you see it’s this new…wait, what? Oh, um…I guess…well…yeah…um…I hadn’t noticed.” Other Mom: “Oh yeah, it’s definitely filled out. You’ll be having that kid in no time. Your due date is the end of this month right? I bet you won’t make it another 2 weeks.” Me: “Actually, my due date is the last week of March/first week of April.” Other Mom: “Oh…” *Awkward Silence* Me: “I’m gonna go help Carol with the juice…”