Good Morning

Good Morning, world, how are you?
I hope you're feeling fine...
I've been up since four, but I'm really not that tired,
'Cause I'm really, really wired.

The suitcases are packed. The carryons are packed. The luggage tags are filled out and attached. The passports are in their own little travel wallet (with a string that goes around neck or waist).

Today, I need to call Erin and ask to borrow a suitcase. The suitcases are packed, but the biggest suitcase is pushing the 50lb weight limit. We have three carry-ons. We have one Big Honking suitcase, one reasonable suitcase, and one overnight bag to be checked. We think we should borrow two more reasonably sized suitcase and repack the Big Honking and the overnight bag into two reasonable suitcases. (The original thought was to not have to drag three suitcases through the airport....but getting to the airport and being told that Big Honking is over its weight limit is going to stink even worse than dragging three suitcases.)

Today, Sweetling wants to play on Club Penguin because they are having a member party.

Today, I want to take Sweetling to the library to get her a nice chapter book for the plane ride.

Today, Sweetling needs to take a dose of malaria medication. Its a pill to be swallowed...so this ought to be interesting.

Today, I'd like to get the house clean and ready for us to come back to a clean, tidy dwelling.

Today, I need to fill out medical papers for Sweetling and I to put in our passport wallets.

Today, I have the attention span of a squirrel.

Today, the Jedi wants everyone in bed by 7pm so we are reasonably rested when we have to get up at midnight to drive to Columbus. There's no way Sweetling will go to sleep at 7pm. So really, what will happen is that Sweetling will lay in bed reading for a couple of hours, the Jedi will go to sleep, and I will lay in bed thinking and daydreaming. When I finally do fall asleep, I'll wake up often in a panic that we've overslept and totally missed our flight....usually after having a dream about some similar disaster.

Today, today, today.

Today is our last day in Cincinnati for a while. This trip will be the longest we've been away from home since our honeymoon. And, really, this trip has our honeymoon beat for length by a day or two.

Today, I'm going to go through my day certain that I'm forgetting something critical.

Today, I'm going to need lots of chocolate.

Today, I'm going to pick up some easy novels to read this afternoon when everything is done (yes, it totally could happen) to keep myself sane.

Today is the last day of one chapter of my life. Tomorrow, I start a new chapter.

Thursdays are for Sparring

The back space button is getting a lot of use tonight.

Attempt at a blog entry---take three.

I may as well include all of Energy's journey in this blog. I'm never going to keep up two blogs....and todays blog is all about Sweetling anyway. "Hooray!" says Sweetling behind me.

Thursdays are the sparring days at Tae Kwon Do. Sweetling is now a yellow belt. ("Hooray!" says Sweetling, still behind me.) Sweetling had a belt test a couple of Saturdays ago. She broke a board with her foot. ("Hooray!") Master W worked with her specially on breaking the board.

But Thursdays are for sparring. They all get pads that cover their chests, stomachs and sides and foam helmets. Then they spar. Now, there are two other little girls in Sweetling's class...("and they are both very cute"). Ususally Sweetling is paired with one or the other of the little girls. The girls are smaller than Sweetling, but one is one belt higher, and the other is two belts higher. There is often a lot of giggling going on during the little girls' sparring matches.

Last Thursday, there was perhaps a bit too much giggling, because during the next round, the little girls were not paired with each other. Sweetling got paired with a boy only slightly bigger than her who has a high red belt. (The belt order goes...white, yellow, orange, green, high green, blue, high blue, red, high red, junior black, black.) Against the high red, Sweetling resorted to the time honored technique of running away....which in this case meant that she ran in circles around the edge of the ring. The high red just stood there and watched her. The assisstant instructor said, "Sweetling, why are you running around?"

Sweetling replied, "Because he's trying to kick me!!"

The assistant instructor convinced her, after some talking, not to run around in circles. He demostrated dodging and the side step thing that they do. Sweetling stood there. The high red decided it was time to land a kick.

Now, I've seen in movies where a person gets kicked and gets sent flying, but I've never seen it in actuallity....at least, not before Thursday. The high red landed a kick. I think Sweetlings feet did hit the floor twice before she hit the wall behind her, but they mostly just skimmed the floor like a rock skipping across a pond. But, she got back up, and went right back into the sparring ring.

So, I was a little concerned this Thursday when Sweetling was paired up against the same high red. But Sweetling did a really good job of holding her own. She took a couple of hard hits, and she went down a couple of times, but she didn't give up and she kept trying to land her own kicks and punches. I saw her face twist up on the verge of crying once or twice after the high red had landed a solid hit, but she didn't cry, and she didn't whine, and she didn't fuss, and she didn't give up. She stuck it out till the end and I was really really proud of her and of the progress she had made.

On Tuesdays, by the way, they work on their forms and practice various kicks and punches on pads. Last Thursday, Sweetling was struggling with this elbow thing and this sucker punch looking thing (yes, Mommy knows so much about this subject). Master W pulled Susan aside for private instructions. Sweetling still wasn't quite getting it with the pads, so Master W put the pads aside and showed Sweetling how to elbow him across the face and how to sucker punch him in the gut. So Sweetling practiced her elbow thing and her sucker punch thing on Master W's face and stomach rather than on the big thick pads. I just had to throw this one in there.

Why I hate gardening

Yes. You heard me right. I love gardens. I love flowers. I love designing and planning gardens. I hate the actually gardening. Why?

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.
I hate thee to the depth and breadth and height
The weeds do reach while seedlings hide out of sight
For the ends of Hopes and idelic dreams.
I hate thee to the level of pointless days
Most uselessly spent in hot sun and mosquito filled night.
I hate thee truly, for you look a fright.
I hate thee purely, you mire of a plight.
I hate thee with a passion poured at first
In my visions of what you could be, and with all my broken hearted faith.
I hate thee for what I tried to bless, you cursed
Through bitter betrayal, --- I hate thee for the worst
Repayment of all my love and labor! --- and, if my plans be ever shattered ,
I shall but hate thee as the Round-Up I sprayeth.

Cadoo

It's 9:45 am. I have four girls in my living room playing Cadoo. They are all still in their jammies. They are surrounded by piles of sleeping bags, pillows, and assorted articles of yesterday's clothing with a few stuffed animals and baby dolls thrown in for variety. The only bare patch of floor is taken up by Sweet Streets buildings and people. The downstairs is covered in dress up clothes, play dishes, and more stuffed animals. I have a bowl of oatmeal sitting on my back patio because someone spied a stray cat during breakfast. The little school desks are covered with cake racks upon which tiny little clay tea sets are drying.

All is right and well in the world.

I need to make a decision though. I have several people who have asked that I keep a blog about Energy. I think this is a fantastic idea. Here's the tough one though...I originally started this blog as a "me time" sort of thing. I really want to keep it that way. But, I know me, and I know that I wont keep up two seperate blogs...one for me, and one devoted solely to Energy. So, which should I do? I thought also about posting twice on this blog...one for me, one as an Energy update...but, I'm not thrilled with that option either. At that point, I may as well have two separate blogs. The Jedi wants to run the blog for Energy off of our own servers...but I don't think that would allow for comments. I like comments. I'm needy that way.

We fly on May 26th :)

We leave Cincinnati between midnight and 1am to drive up to Columbus OH, arriving at the airport around 3am. Our flight departs at 6am. We have an hour and half layover in Houston and then we arrive in Guatemala City at 11:35 am local time (which is two hours earlier than our time).
We get picked up at the airport by the director of the orphanage where Energy lives. We'll be staying at the mission house attached to the orphanage so Energy can get to know us in a safe and comfortable environment. Then on Tuesday, the director drives us with Energy to the Mariott in Guatemala City. We stay there overnight with Energy. Our appointment at the American Embassy is at 7:15am Wednesday, May 30th. We get Energy's visa on Thursday afternoon.

We fly home, departing at 12:15? pm on Friday and arriving in Columbus at 11:35pm. We're spending the night at a motel in Columbus. On Saturday, we're meeting with the Jedi's parents (who are driving down from Canton OH)...hopefully we'll have a picnic or something at a park with a playground. Then we drive back to Cincinnati Saturday afternoon.

I figure the more I repeat this, the more real it will seem. Right now, it still has a very surreal quality to it.

Energy's drawers are full of clothes and his shelves have fun toys. I just finished the last of the fish on his walls. There's a table in the rec room/computer room stacked full of stuff that needs to go with us on the trip.

I just kissed my Sweetling for the last time as an 8 year old. Tomorrow she'll be nine. We need to bake and decorate her cake, and tomorrow night three of her "bestest friends ever" are going to spend the night.

Vaya got married on Saturday. I about held my breath during the exchange of vows, and then again during the exchange of rings. I did *not* however, cry. Again, the whole surreal quality.

Vaya got marred, Sweetling is turning nine, and we're flying to Guatemala.

See, you can't tell me that any of that sounds real.

Christopher Robin's life movie would be....

An animated musical!

Your life would be the kind of movie where a guy and girl sing mushy songs and birds flutter and flowers bloom and little bunnies giggle and hide their eyes. It sounds too good to be true and, in fact, it is -- but that doesn't stop you from dreaming. You're a true romantic and your friends wouldn't have it any other way.

Certainly this friend wouldn't. My face hurts from grinning as I typed that in. Here's the scoring system they used:

1. c--2
2. a--2
3. b--2
4. c--4
5. d (one of my only girlie traits)--4
6. b--3
7. c--2

You just barely missed "A goofball comedy" (12-17 points). But strangely, I'm thinking pegging you as "animated musical" is more amusing than a "goofball comedy". Here's the description for the other category:

A Goofball Comedy
All your life, you've been makin a whole lot of funny. Firends know they can count on you for the perfect smart-aleck remark, so, of course, the movie of your life would have them rolling in the aisles. Remember, they're not laughing at you, they're laughing with you.

Just for Christopher Robin

So, Christopher Robin, who is totally *not* high maintenance, is feeling left out because she hasn't been the star of my blog in a while. Not only has my entire blog not centered around her, but I had the audacity to write about someone else...twice! The nerve of me! (See, I can tease like this on my blog, cause she can't reach me until she's had a few days to calm down.)

Therefore, I have a blog that's JUST for her. No one else. This is all about my non-high maintenance friend. Nevermind that I introduced her as the woman who was in the delivery room with me when I had Sweetling. That, apparantly, doesn't count as a sign of my deep friendship and appreciation for her presence in my life.

No, no....its all about blog time baby.

And, since Christopher Robin just loves girly girl things, I have a personality quiz for her. Just for her. Too bad for the rest of you.

Without further ado....presenting........

Christopher Robin's Life as a Movie!!!!!!

If your life was a movie, what kind of a movie would it be?

1. Which of these signs would you hang on your bedroom door?
a) I *heart* kittens.
b) I'd rather be skydiving.
c) Warning: Contents Under Pressure
d) Private! Keep out! This means you!

2. If you could be a superstar athlete, which sport would you choose?
a) basketball
b) skateboarding
c) figure skating
d) gymnastics

3. You get a aper cut at school---what do you do?
a) ask to go to the nurse's office--immediately--before you die
b) gross out your friends with your blo-o-o-o-ood
c) put a bandage on it
d) pass out

4. Which fictional character would you most like to eat lunch with?
a) Bart Simpson
b) Prince Charming
c) Harry Potter
d) Black Beauty

5. There's a nasty insect in the shower. You....
a) squash it
b) name it
c) rescue it
d) scream

6. You and your date want to make a big impression at the dance. How do you arrive?
a) on a motorcycle
b) in a horse-drawn carriage
c) in a helicopter
d) in the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile

7. Surprise! Your parents redecorated your room. The worst color they could paint your walls would be
a) black
b) plain white
c) pink with flower stencils
d) no new paint---they left the walls as is

Now, Christopher Robin gets to pick the answers to her questions. Then I'll score her quiz for her and post with a sneak preview of the genre of her life movie.

"Perfect"

You know the scripture, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. Well, I think the definition of perfect we generally think of is wrong and I think Heavenly Father's perfect is that he accepts all of His children just as they are, so in that way I can be perfect and accept others and myself just as we are.

Flybaby in UTAH

I lied

I'm not answering my questions from the last blog. Not today at any rate. Those of you who know me aren't surprised.

Another big non-surprise... All spring I've told myself, "I'm not gardening this year. I don't have time for any gardening this year. I am not going to be sucked into starting a gardening project that will fail miserably in August anyway."

I caved.

It was mother's day. The Jedi has been mowing the yard all spring. But the grass by the edge of the lamppost had mingled with the daffodils around the lamppost and was looking really gnarley. So, it was mothers day. I was only going take care of the tiny tiny area around the base of the lamp post. Its at the end of the driveway, near the street and the sidewalk, and one of the first things people see when they pull up to our house, and it looked terrible. One quick weeding project. That's it.

But it turned into, while I'm out here and I'm wearing old jeans and have my gloves on...

Theres a strip of ground on my side yard where I had smothered weeds and scraggly grass last fall and planted daffodil bulbs. But the daffodil flowers are gone now, and here's this bare piece of earth that is threatening to turn back into a weed patch. And there were packets of flower seeds in the butter door of my fridge from last year. So, I figured I should put those two things together. I had a bag of humus in the garage. I made need little rows of rich humus for my seeds and I edged each little row with white rocks that I had dug up from the path in the butterfly garden in April (remember...the strawberry patch was supposed to be relocating to the butterfly garden). I trimmed the little bed with these logs/branches that were blown down last winter but were too big to fit in the shredder. The Jedi had already stacked them and trimmed off all the side branches. So, now I have a little bed of seeds in neat, cute, little rows all tucked in. Will they grow?

And of course, while I was going through the leftover seed packets, I came across a packet of pumpkin seeds that Sweetling had picked out last spring that we had never planted. I had another bare patch of earth that has been waiting for three years for me to start a container herb garden. I sent Sweetling to the back yard with a spade and a bucket and told her to dig up some of the nice earth from the strawberry patch. She did and then made little mounds of it to plant her pumpkin seeds in.

Everything got watered yesterday and again this morning. We shall see. We shall water and wait and see.

It turned cold again before we could get the strawberries moved. Now they've already flowered and started to form berries....so its much too late to relocate them. Maybe in July after we've harvested their June berries.

Mom tag

from Cranium. I'll even answer these sometime.

What better way to spend Mother’s Day than learning something new about the lady of the hour? We came up with 12 fill-in-the-blank questions to ask mom (or grandma - or, hey, even dad!). Check them out below, along with responses from some of the moms here at Cranium Central …

1. I’m giving up my name and nicknames, so from now on I’d like you all to call me ________.
2. What’s the longest stretch I’ve ever gone without sleeping, in hours?
3. I may not be perfect, but everyone knows I’m excellent at ________.
4. The strangest thing I’ve ever eaten is ________.
5. Next year is the year I’m going to learn how to ________.
6. If I were stranded on a desert island, the one thing I’d really want to have with me is a ________.
7. The best costume I ever wore on Halloween was ________.
8. I used to hate ________, but now I love it.
9. If I could travel back in time, I’d want to meet ________.
10. If I was a superhero, my secret power would be ________.
11. If I landed in a vat of food, I’d want it to be full of ________.
12. If I ruled a country, the national anthem would be ________.

Ball-point pens

I haven't blogged in a while. I mean, really blogged...not just putting up webkinz screen shots or posting lists of busy-ness. I think its because the things that are really on my heart and mind are just too difficult to write about. So instead, I use activities as a shield.

One of the women in my bible study group on wednesday was sharing an annalogy about the healing process. Its like scrapping off wall paper in an old house. You start to get the first layer off, and realize there is another layer of older, ugler paper under that, and maybe another layer under that. Each layer has been put up to cover the old, ugly stuff that no one wanted to look at or deal with anymore. But, to truly get a fresh start, you have to get every layer off, sand the wall down, and start over. And the process is hard, hard work. And the process is messy. And things are going to look and feel worse for a while before complete healing is possible. But once you start, you need to stick through it and finish the job.

But I think its all right too, to close the door for a bit, take a break. Go drink some water, get refreshed, and then come back to it. That's where I am right now. I've had enough of the layers of wallpaper. I'm not even sure, in some points, what the real wall is supposed to look like or when I know I might have reached it. So, I shut the door, and took a break. I will go back to it. I have to. But not just yet.

And in the meantime, I'll post my lists, whine about my losses to stuffed animals, and buy two packs of different kinds of pens before deciding that ball-point pens are just not worth the money, even if they are cheaper, cause I'll never write with them. Yes, it took two packs to figure that out. Anyone want some pens?

Dogbeard's Bathtub Battles

I'm losing again. This time to Piggy the Pig.

Today was a 'be careful what you wish for' day. I complained to Smurf that Sweetling's dress was taking a lot longer to make than it should, for no good reason. Fate then decided to give me good reasons for the dress to take longer.

My nice little break was losing an animated version of battleship to Piggy. The dress isn't finished, but the bobbin thread ran out, and I don't feel like messing with it anymore tonight. Tomorrow is a new day to overload with activities.

'Cause its the...second... of May

Not nearly as catchy as a tune.

Good news:
--We'll have a date for flying to Guatemala sometime next week. Is it sad that I've already picked out my entry title for the blog on that one?
--My dress for Vaya's wedding came. Its a little too long, and I don't know what to do about that, because the bottom edge is covered with embroidery...so I can't just cut it off and re-hem the dress. Well, I could, but at the loss of the embroidery.
--I bought the pattern and the fabric I needed for sweetling's dress. I still need buttons and some trim, but I thought I'd take Sweetling to the fabric store with me to pick those out. Plus, I need to get the dress made first, so I can measure exactly how much trim I'll need.
--Mango Margarita called me on Monday just to say hi and chat. (insert small victory sound byte here). I sent her a vase of red roses on Webkinz world. I hope that wasn't too forward of me ;)

Other news:
--I'm trying to avoid stressing and panicking. I tend to do that when I start feeling overwhelmed. I really want to enjoy the cool upcoming events in my life. Right now I'm taking more of a 'lets get this over with attitude' and not only does that not match the many blessings going on in my life, it means I'll miss out on a lot of events that should be bringing me a great deal of joy.
--Sweetling wants to have a birthday sleepover. There is not a single weekend that we can do this in before the Guatemala trip. I think we'll stick to the original plan of a park birthday party. I have no rain plans. As it is, I think the plans are, the Jedi goes and scouts a location. I stay here and wait for most mom's to drop off and talk one mom into following me over and staying to the party. The Jedi calls me when he has a location, and we head out. We asked the park about reserving a pavilion. On monday-thursday, you can reserve a pavilion for half the cost of a weekend rate...only $57. We're going with the scout and squat option instead. I still need to come up with a craft and a game for the girls. You know, if I HAD a flippin weekend night open at all, the sleepover would be the much easier option.
--The other option that I take when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed is to say "forget this" and go read a book. I have a box of VC Andrews that MIL sent back from Canton with me. And you can all get off your literary high horses about the author (I'm looking at you, Smurf)....these are my mind-numbing alternatives to facing responsibility.
--Telephone really really wants to come over and paint fishes on Energy's wall. So does Smurf. I don't think I need to spell that one out any further.
--I'm putting off going to the grocery store, because the prospect of trying to come up with a dinner menu for May is just daunting. I'm envisioning a lot of spaghetti in our near future. I am, however, almost out of cocoa...which means my hot chocolate is in jeapordy. Am I a bad mother if I come home from the grocery store with mutliple boxes of spaghetti, jars of sauce, peanut butter, bread, and two or three tins of cocoa? Oh, and cookie ingredients. Maybe a brownie mix or two.
--Mother wants me to go the to bank, take cash out of my account in the drive through, then use a deposit slip to go up to the tellar and deposit it in her account, so she can use her check card to get gas to get home from work. I'd make a few comments there, but I'm feeling rather guilty that so many of my blog entries have turned into venting sessions recently. (She doesn't know her account number, so I don't have that to put on a deposit slip either).

Oh, more good news. I'd scroll up, but maybe putting this at the end will off set my little pity party (with snacks).

The light is visible at the end of the school tunnel. We need to reach 90% completion on the core lessons, and we're at 86%; 75%; 81%; 81%; and 78%. That's doable right? That's 7 math lessons, 15 literature lessons, 20 total language skills lessons (includes vocab, grammar, and comp), and 12 history lessons. Those of you who are particularly observant will notice that I skipped that 75%. Yeah, that's in spelling. We're taking a new approach to that for the remainder of the year, so I'm not too fretful of the percentage there.

Speaking of which, Sweetling is finished with her math, so I'm going to go do grammar with her.