Same as it ever was.
Tonight I was reminded of the last days at my childhood home. I’d had a rough patch, the kind of thing where you had to grow up way too quickly in the months prior, and life took a turn that you’d never intended or thought that it would.
I had all my stuff piled up in the den, some clothes, a radio, odds and ends, the things you accumulate by the time that you’re 17, or 18, or 20, that you consider the things in your life that are “yours”, and the things you want to carry with you.
I don’t remember what I did that night, its been lost to the years that have accumulated after (not too many years, sometimes, sometimes more years than I’m willing to admit), but I remember the feeling of finality. I was the oldest, and the first one to leave, and I knew that I was breaking up “the team”. That when I left, things in my little house that had been the same for a lifetime weren’t going to be the same.
I remember the sadness, the bittersweet feeling that because of this freedom I was taking, that I was almost wrecking the lives of my Mom and Dad in a way that is inevitable, but profound. Its a sadness that tinged the excitement felt by taking a new life and making it mine.
I had a mohawk. It was a crappy little mohawk, my head wasn’t shaved, and the thing only stood up about 4 inches, and thats what finally hit me THIS night, 15 years after my night, when I watched a kid who’s practically my little brother, with the same crappy mohawk, say goodbye to me, and to friends, and to family, on his last night before his life.
He’s joining the Navy tomorrow. I met him a few years ago, when he was in high school, the son of a family friend. He calls me his big brother, and I’ve loved him like a little brother in that time. I’ve watched him be a dumbass and a hero. I’ve watched him, like me years ago, lose sight of what he wanted at times, and clasp on what he wanted at other times.
He has always reminded me so much of myself, that first child, with the combination of brains and reckless independence that ends up keeping him from meeting “potential”, as they like to say, and the damnedest thing is that I never realized how much we’re alike until I watched him with that mohawk, and his brown eyes watching a chapter close. Just like mine did, years and years ago.
Life is amazing. I’m so glad that I’ve been part of his life, and that I’ve been lucky enough to be as close to him for the time that he’s been here, and I can’t wait to find out where life is taking him next. I’m going to miss the boy, miss him more than I can say, but I’m SO EXCITED for him, because he’s going to find himself, just like I did.
It wasn’t easy. The boy I know intimately, who wore that dumb mohawk 15 years ago, had a rough time. But the rewards, oh man, the rewards of that life he took for himself are more than could ever be spelled out in letters.
I pray that Tripper finds rewards, even if he has to go through the hard to get them. I can’t wait to find out.
Love you, Tripp.
It’s been a busy weekend around here.
Friday night (well, starting at 5pm) we hosted a birthday/slumber party for Dragon (HAPPY #13!!!!). Four boys and one girl (Girl didn’t spend the night…though we’re glad she came– VERY BRAVE).
A night chock full of pizza, soft drinks, cake, ice cream and other various sugary snacks… Numerous Nerf gun wars, a scavenger hunt, Rockband, movies…etc. I’m pretty sure they were up until at least 3 or 4 am… based on the history on the web browser (the last site loaded at 2:58am)….
Then… in the morning, we filled their bellies with pancakes, sausage, bacon and chocolate-drizzled glazed donuts.
And then there was another Nerf gun war.
And another…
And then there was some Wii action.
And then I left for work.
And then…one by one… they all went home.
And Jake took Dragon and Wildcat to spend the night with their grandparents in Knoxville.
And we had the night alone. Whew!
—–
Grandparents took the boys shopping…got some new toys, new clothes and some new shoes.
These are Wildcat’s new shoes….
.
…. Wildcat’s new shoes…with MY feet in them.
Yep.
He’s wearing 5’s (which is a 7 in womens) — My toes are little cramped b/c I wear 8s… but DAMN! THE SEVEN YEAR OLD IS WEARING SHOES BIG ENOUGH TO FIT MOST NORMAL WOMEN!!!
We JUST BOUGHT Wildcat brand new 2′s in July…….THIS PAST JULY!!!!
So… yeah, he’s been running around in shoes that are 3 sizes too small for him. (refer to “How to be a Bad Parent, vol 3″ … but you’ll have to wait…it’s still being written)
It also explains why the stitching on the toes was popping off.
————-
My toes come to the end of the laced section on Dragons new PAIR OF 10s !!
OMG!! 10s!!!
(That would be a 12 in womens…fyi)
—- Ok- So.. I know I married a monster tall person..who comes from a family of tall people…and was probably SURE to pass those genes over to his children (cause I’ve been told K-genes always win….hmmph).
But his KIDS were A LOT SMALLER when they moved in here 2 years ago…. and watching it happen has been amazing.
And a lot has changed.
They have “little boys that are growing into some sort of really big monsters tall people” appetites.
They WERE picky eaters… and they WERE slow eaters… and we USED TO always have leftovers.
Heh. Not anymore.
Bring on the big feet!!
I love it!
YUMMY!!!!
I remember making pies with Grandma and Mom when I was little.
It was an art to my grandmother. They were her masterpieces.
And she ALWAYS said she was sure it probably tasted like awful… but it never did (and she knew that…)
From scratch crust … any flavor on the inside.
-
Grandma was famous for all her desserts…especially her pies.
And my mom learned from her…
And I learned from my mom…
And my brothers learned from my mom.
And tonight…. I taught Jake.
I’m proud of him. I bet it tastes awesome. Probably the tastiest apple pie he’s ever made
I suppose he’ll find out tomorrow. He’s taking them to his work for their Thanksgiving party.
I wonder if he’ll tell them I made it if it isn’t good.
Yesterday was my 34th birthday.
Last night, after we ate our yummy steak dinner, I was sitting at the dining room table…. all the boys were clearing the table and doing the dishes in the kitchen (I was told to stay in my chair).
I was reminiscing about the last few hours….. surprised by a bouquet of daisies, spontaneous little kisses and hugs, the new Wii Super Mario Bros. game, phone calls from family members and little nieces and nephews singing to me over the phone, grilling our dinner together on the back porch…what a great year it’s been…. I decided that I must be the luckiest girl alive. I love my life. I love my little family. This is the good stuff.
————
And then there was a blast of laughter from the kitchen… Jake appears in the doorway…he’s face is red, his eyes are watering..and he’s doing the “I’m NOT gonna laugh at my child’s question” face….. he says, “Wildcat….go ask your mom that question..”
Oh Lord…
Here it comes…
Wildcat cautiously walks into the dining room…looks at me like he might be in trouble… turns his eyes toward to floor while he twiddles his fingers into a knot…
Wildcat: Ummm…. Why do you have Tampax? I thought you LOVED Dad. Me: ** blink, blink ** uh…. Me: ** awkward pause ** Me: ** holding in laughter **
Wildcat: Ummm…. Why do you have Tampax? I thought you LOVED Dad.
Me: ** blink, blink ** uh….
Me: ** awkward pause **
Me: ** holding in laughter **
Wow.
Me: What does that mean? Wildcat: Weelllll… I heard that Tampax means you’re angry at the person you love. Me: ** speechless**
Me: What does that mean?
Wildcat: Weelllll… I heard that Tampax means you’re angry at the person you love.
Me: ** speechless**
At this point, I’m not really sure where I’m supposed to go with this conversation.
I told Wildcat to hang on a sec… I walked into the kitchen.
Jake and Dragon are LITERALLY doubled over on the floor laughing so hard they are almost crying.
WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY NOW? IS ANYONE REALLY READY FOR THIS PART OF PARENTING? I THOUGHT YOU PLANNED THIS TYPE OF CONVERSATION… WAS THIS PART OF THE DEAL??….
I decided to go for it.
I walk back into the dining room with a piece of paper and roughly sketch the female reproductive system… yep…. I went there.
Wildcat knows a little about these things. When Jake had his surgery last year, we explained a little bit of it to him.
Consisting mostly of “To have a baby… the daddy has a piece and the mommy has a piece….and when those two pieces get together….you get a baby….and Dad’s surgery was so that he could help make a baby” — no major details.
SOOO– While my brain was saying “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!” — I tried to use what I knew that he knew…and educate him a little more.
On my birthday.
After dinner.
While my “support team” was hiding in the kitchen trying to unfold from the laughing cramps in their sides.
I drew a body shape…and a uterus.. and some ovaries.
I asked him if he remembered about the little bitty mom-part and the little bitty dad-part that make a baby. He did.
I showed him where the EGG was made… how it traveled down when it was ready to look for the boy-part…. where it stays for awhile waiting for the boy-part… why the uterus is full of tissue and such (to start taking care of a growing baby)… AND THEN… when the little bitty boy-part doesn’t show up, the egg leaves… with all the other stuff too.
And that’s why I have Tampax.
He was satisfied with that explanation. He was a little concerned that there was blood involved… but Dad chimed in and explained that it was normal…and not like an injury. That made it a little better.
After we put the kids to bed, we were trying to figure out WHERE THE HELL he would pickup the idea that “Tampax means you don’t love someone anymore” –
The only thing we could come up with was that SOMEWHERE, SOMEONE has answered a question or described something to do with….
P. M. S.
And Wildcat turned that into what he could understand… he stored it away. When he saw the Tampax box that came home with the groceries, it caused him great alarm.
Sweet boy.
We’ve been busy. Sorry for the lack of posts. This summer…being crazy busy (Europe, concerts, promotions, camping, )… we couldn’t wait for the fall to get here so things would be “normal.”
And then there was this… and this… AND this…
Yes. That was silly of me to say. I know… what IS normal? Well…we’re pretty good at appreciating it when we have it….whatever it is.
Fall is here. It hasn’t really calmed down any…
In the last 2 months, at work… Jake has learned to love and hate management…yes, both can happen simultaneously. I’ve fired and manager…trained a manager…covered for 2 managers on somewhat of “maternity” leave… then been through 4 weeks of vacations (because we cram all the last ones in before the holidays start)…
We still have THIS… and then we had Halloween… and then we had lice on one of the kiddos…
This past weekend was busy (BUT SUPER AWESOME), too.
We headed down to the Blueberry Farm to celebrate Jake’s sister’s (Moose) 30th birthday…with a surprise party. It was actually pulled off!!! And it was fun. GOOD JOB to Damama and Bullet for awesome party planning (and scheming).
Jake’s lil sis (Lil Sis) had her 15th birthday, too. (there are actually 7 people in this family with birthdays in November)
We had lots of fun.
Here’s a video (could have been more, but my battery died….cuz I didn’t think about charging the camera before we left : P )
The party was awesome. Yummy food, friends and family..dancing, giggling, and Twister. Then we went back to the farm and had a campfire…chatted and sipped on yummy stuff…and played Twister some more. I’m glad all these people are my family. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it more with anyone else.
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
(more pics coming soon…there are A LOT)
So this is a lazy Sunday (not necessarily a Lazy Sunday) with coffee, cinnamon rolls, and sitting around in the den on various electronic devices. Bell’s on her desktop, Wildcat’s on the couch with the DS, and I was on the couch with the lappy.
I was doing my Wikipedia excursions, and today my wanderings had brought me to the SubGenius entry to check on ol “Bob”, when I found a link to Magritte’s Ceci n’est pas une pipe.
Sure ain't, Rene
I don’t know how I’d gone 31 years without fully appreciating this work, but upon finding it this morning I realized that I had to get a big ass print of it and either hang it in my house or maybe in my office (did I mention I have an office now with 4 walls, a door, and no windows? no?).
I told Bell about it, cuz I wasn’t sure if she was familar with it, when Wildcat piped (heh) in, without looking up from the DS, saying “Hey, I know that painting! Its got a picture of a pipe and it has words underneath it saying that ‘this isn’t a pipe’. Its weird. Its a surrrrealeeeism painting.”
…
I stared at him for about 10 seconds with my jaw gaping open.
Once my brain had worked enough to get past the fact that my second grader is schooling me on surrealism, I asked him what else he knows about it.
He said “Its usually weird paintings that don’t make a lot of sense. I think that Sarvoladore Dali is my favorite surrealistic painter. He likes to paint melting clocks.”
Melty clocks for the win
So I pulled up some Dali (now, I’m not as much of a rube with ol Salvadore as I am with Rene) and he pointed out Persistence of Time, saying that he recognized that one from his art class.
“See the thing underneath the clock [on the right]? Thats his face peeled off.”
So we went through other surrealism paintings, and he recognized some, and I had an intelligent art conversation with my 7 year old.
Before he went back to the DS.
So, holy crap, Oak Ridge public schools for the win. I emailed his art teacher something babbling about how “OMG MY CHILD IS KNOWING TEH ART TALK !!!!1111!!”
So, now I really, really want to get Ceci n’est pas une pipe.
This one ain’t bad either, and arguably more my speed…
We LOVE the new Beatles RockBand. It’s something the whole family can play. Jake and I are both music geeks, anyway….and now we’ve managed to pull the kids into it.
Sad part is…they already know the songs.
Reminder: We love The Beatles. We ARE NOT The Beatles.
Enjoy!
See you guys in a few days… we have some…uh… stuff to do : )
Wildcat and I had the following discussion this morning:
George Washington
I looked it up for him.
George Washington DEFINITELY did not die from falling off of a cliff.
Just in case you were wondering.
It’s that time of year…
Ugg. (well, part of me is like WOOO HOOOO!!!)
Luckily when Wildcat started his new school year, it was in the middle of July. There wasn’t all the crazy running around looking for specific types of scissors and glue sticks. We drove to the “local” Target (18 miles away), walked to the school supplies section, I called things off the list and Wildcat found them and put them in the cart. There was not one other soul in that section. It was awesome.
Yesterday, Dragon came home from his first day back to school with a big ol’ list of things (which we knew was coming) — aside from the $7, have-to-buy, “planner” that is specific to the school (which he already purchased), complete with a fancy holographic cover–
overdone planner
Seriously, holograms? on the front of this thing. How much did THAT cost? REally, people. Necessary cost? Hmmph.
Anyway–
My plan was to go shopping for these other items sometime on Tuesday morning, since I don’t work until later. And Monday night, we were just too plain exhausted from the day to go fight all the back-to-school shopping craziness.
Dragon comes out on the porch while we’re grilling some yummy hamburgers (oooo… <tangeant> and we had our first batch of tomatoes out of our garden- alas, they are a little bigger than golf balls, but they tasted oh-so-awesome), and tells us the he was told he needs the other stuff TOMORROW. I know that he needs it. He knows that I know he needs it. It just wasn’t gonna happen late Monday night. Sorry.
This morning, I decided to look in our “art supply” containers (put together in an attempt to “organize”…heh) — located in Wildcat’s closet (which means there is A LOT of “NOT art supply” things crammed in them, too).
Success.
Dragon went to school this morning with most of his required supplies (minus one spiral notebook) — the only complaint he had was about the covers on the 2 spiral notebooks — where his younger brother has, at some point, very artistically illustrated some scenes — one seems to be a mentally disturbed rabbit (reminded me of the Donnie Darko bunny) and the other looks like a Stegosaurus battling with some other kind of dinosaur (I’m sure Wildcat could fill me in on the correct name).
But you know what?
<start happily singing> We don’t have to go SCHOOL SUPPLY SHOPPING!!!! <stop happily singing>
Until next year.
