Not bad, for a Monday

We had beautiful weather again today, and that always helps my mood significantly. I had a pretty good class this morning (not sure my students would agree, as Access freaks them out), and got a parking place when I got to work in Madison. The workday wasn't too bad, except that I had a meeting (BLECH!)--at least it was only 40 minutes long. I made spaghetti for dinner, and that's one of the few meals that nobody complains about or picks at. And, best of all, we remembered Luciana's theater class this week. She had fun but told me that she didn't like when she had to be a witch, because she didn't know what to do. That led us into a long talk about wiccans and the witch/female persecution a few hundred years ago.

I ran into an old friend, that I had lost contact with, at Luciana's theater. Her daughter is in the class with Luciana. I was planning to sit in the waiting area and read The Secret, but Maria and I sat and talked through the whole class. We haven't seen each other for 5-6 years, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We exchanged cell numbers and will most likely see each other for the next three Mondays (the duration of this class). I'm looking forward to being back in contact with another hippie, attachment parenting freak :)

When we returned from class, we had a little time to sit outside and enjoy the last of the nice day. Luciana likes to run across the yard as fast as she can and have Mark score her running. Of course the whole time we sit on the patio, the cats sit in the dining room window, watching us, and making these pathetic, loud MEOOOOOOWs to remind us that they would like to be outside. I swear they love to make me feel bad.

Dej was excited that she got her first job interview today. She will interview this Wednesday afternoon. We will have to squeeze in a quick shopping trip tomorrow night, as she doesn't have any clothes that are suitable for an interview. We will also have to work on some practice interview questions.

Today was the much awaited birthday party. We got to Madtown Twisters at 11, and the kids played there until about 12:30. The trampolines and swinging on the rope seemed to be the favorite activities. The girls basically had the whole gym to themselves, and they all seemed to get along fine and have fun. We left there and went to Old Chicago for pizza and vegan cake (which Sorrel made). Luciana felt bad at the restaurant that she didn't get much time with Sylvan, so we'll have to schedule a play date soon for them. I was really, really hoping to get some time to work in the garden today, but I just didn't get all my Sunday work/chores done in time. We didn't get back from the party until after 3, and that doesn't leave much time to get everything done.

Mark returned this evening, a bit earlier than expected. He's a bit on the grumpy (tired?) side. That's not the way you're supposed to return from a pleasant site-seeing trip. I don't think he missed me as much as I missed him this time.

Friday night, when I took the girls to Target to pick out Sylvan's birthday gift, I also got the girls each something. Luciana got a cd walkman. I was surprised to see how inexpensive they are. I gave her several choices, including a Hello Kitty walkman, and a pink one with flowers. She chose the plainest gray one of the bunch. I asked her why she chose that (I was curious of anything she would choose over pink or Hello Kitty!). She said she chose that one because it had headphones. That was the only model, of the choices I gave her, that showed the headphones--the others all had them packaged behind the walkman. I was glad I asked her that, because once I explained that they all had headphones, she chose the pink floral walkman. She's been listening to it quite a lot since then. She likes to listen to it now at night while she is going to sleep. She puts "calm" (classical) music in. We like to close our eyes when we listen to classical music and just look at the pictures our brains make for us. She told me the while listening to her Nutcracker cd on Friday night, that it made her picture Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall. She just turned off her Franz Liszt cd, who I adore!!, because she said it was dark and making her have angry and scary pictures. She decided that her symphonies cd would be a better choice for tonight.

A Still Life

I don't get to see very much of Dej's art. Some of it is at school, some of it just seems to disappear, and every now and then, I get a peek of something. Dej brought this picture home from art class (drawing II), and I snagged it and scanned it before it disappears into the abyss that is Dej's bedroom. Unfortunately, you really have to see it 'in person' to get the detail and layers of shading in this picture.

It's Saturday night. My little one is asleep. My big one is at the boyfriend's. My husband is in St. Louis. I'm bored. Allegrea and Dejanique were both here last night, and we had a lot of fun hanging out. Tonight is not fun. I won't be able to fall asleep until after Dejanique gets home.

Luciana was the only one in her gymnastics class today. My parents and Dej went along to watch, and she was a little stinker in class. She was very chatty, which is pretty normal, but she just seemed to have no focus or coordination. She was quite silly. We had beatiful weather today. Luce was pretty sad that she couldn't find any friends around to play outside with.

We went to Kohls with my mom. Now that I'm working through the summers, I need some nice short sleeved shirts--I don't want to wear tank tops and t-shirts to work. I don't enjoy shopping for clothes at all now that I'm chubby. Nothing looks the way I want it to on me, and most of the really cute clothes are not appropriate for me at this size:( I got a few shirts--they're okay, and the only one I really love is sleeveless, so I probably won't wear it for work. We also went over to my parents' this evening for dinner. My dad made pizza. Dejanique even made it over to eat with us. We watched the first two episodes of LOST season 1 episode 1. I think the parents enjoyed it. How could you not?!!

LOST day!!!

No pictures from today, but a fun one nonetheless. It's Petey (named after Peter Young, of course) on one of the rare occasions he isn't being naughty/destructive. He's sitting up in the chair like such a big boy.

Wednesdays are always happy--especially when there is a new LOST episode on! YEA!! It was a long Wednesday. I was tired when I got to my first job this morning (teaching) but made it through the class, the drive to Madison, parking tribulations, a long work day at my second job, an end of the day meeting, and the commute home. Whew! It all gets better after that. We had a delicious stir fry dinner--I did most of the prep work on Sunday, so it wasn't so much work tonight. Dej went to Brandon's, so I missed having her there for dinner. Haven't seen her since this morning :( After dinner, we had a rousing game of Scooby dominos, then reading.

The bird made it through the night. Allegrea said she was flying around and mobile throughout the day but came back to the same spot on the fence to roost after sundown tonight. She'll keep an eye on the bird and let me know in the morning what's going on with her. We chatted for a bit on the phone tonight. I always feel a bit happier after talking to one of my (real) AR friends, but I don't get to do it nearly often enough.

Oh, and we got our package from Amazon today--I love those. I ordered the next two books of the Fairy Realm series for Luciana, along with Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. I have a copy of it somewhere already, but I'll be damned if I can find it. I just gave in and spent $5 on a cheapy copy, because I think she will really enjoy the book.

We just finished a book called Claude and Medea, by Zoe Weil (she's the president of the Institute for Humane Education). It's her first fiction book and is a mystery for kids. It was an AWESOME book, and Luciana and I both enjoyed it. The hero and heroine develop quite a social conscience and also solve a dog-napping crime ring mystery. As it turns out the dogs are stolen for cruel experiments. Sadly, that part is more fact that fiction. I am really hoping Zoe develops this into a series or at least continues with kids fiction. Anyway, the quote in my header, "Is your life the message you want it to be?", is from this book. It's such a powerful quote. It really struck me, and it's wonderful for children to think about this as well. The book was discussing Ghandi, and his answer to the question asked by a reporter, "What is your message to people?". Ghandi answered beautifully, in his profound, straightforward way: "My life is my message." I strive for that. What an amazing thing to be able to say!

UGH!

Today was just unpleasant! Didn't sleep last night because of rotten headache. Hit horrible traffic both to and from work. We had dinner at my mom's--kind of an eat and run thing. Mark had to teach a Master Gardener class, and I had to introduce the speaker (Mike) at my AAUW meeting. I took Luciana to the meeting with me. She worked on art quietly, while Mike spoke about trees. It wasn't the most fun, but I enjoy the topic, and at least I got a little time with my girl today. Dejanique wanted to go someplace (?) with Kelley tonight, but since she went to a friend's last night and has plans tomorrow night, I didn't think tonight's plans were necessary. In what world do kids get to do social stuff every night during the school week?! I'm finally home and have the little one in bed, and it feels like I've been running all day. The headache is still with me--a true friend.

I still haven't found a home for the little girl kitty, and I'm afraid I will end up with it. I am continuously amazed by how many people have so much time and so much space, yet refuse to share it with those in need. I can't imagine having a spare inch of room and not sharing it with a being (person or animal) who is in need. It's really hard to not get pissed off with the selfishness of the general population. I guess that's why the few people I really consider friends are as crowded and financially strapped as we are! I don't respect the selfish masses.

Allegrea called with a potential baby-bird problem. It's pretty early for birds to be fledging already, but I suppose the sparrows & finches (she thinks it is one of those) could be at that point. It's sitting fairly safely on her fence for tonight, but she will continue to watch. If it doesn't move after the sun comes up tomorrow, it might be time for an intervention. It's probably going to turn out fine, but I will worry about it until I get good news from her tomorrow :(

Monday - THE game

So far it's been a pretty uneventful Monday. I'm kicking myself, because we forgot Luciana's theater class tonight. Her first class was last Monday night, and she had a blast. She made friends and took to the class immediately. We were so excited for her to come back. Then we forgot it. I kept thinking I needed to make something quick for dinner (the class would have been at 6, and I got home from work at 4:45), but it just kind of faded from there. I made dinner, and Luciana asked Mark as soon as she finished if they could play Dungeons & Dragons. They started to play, and I started to clean up and work on some odd chores around the house. I realized at 7--class ended at 6:45--that we had pissed away her class time. I prepared for her sadness and disappointment as I came running downstairs to tell her what we had done. She said, "That's okay. We got to play D&D." She then shook off my interruption and returned to fantasyland. D&D is her latest addiction. She has to sit right on the dining room table, so she's right on top of the action. I don't think Mark anticipated, when he introduced her to his beloved game, that she would actually want to play MORE than he did. They have a lot of fun playing together, and as long as he keeps the violence out of the game, it does help her sharpen her troubleshooting and creative thinking skills. It bums me out a bit, though, that we don't get to spend all our evenings playing family games now. I have to share my girl with D&D! Never anticipated having to say that.

Dejanique just called to tell us she's coming home early. We were going to pick her up from her friend Levi's at 9, but instead, she'll be home at 7:30 or so. Hmmm. Usually when she calls us, she's trying to get her curfew extended, not cut it short.

The D&D game has ended for the night. Time to check our turtles in the Great Turtle race. Luciana's turtle, Billie, was in first for a while, but then made a near-record-breaking dive (both in terms of depth and time). The big dive cost Billie some time, and now she's in second and fighting to regain first place. Allegrea's turtle is doing some site seeing and in eighth place, while my turtle, Genevieve is pacing herself in seventh place. There are only six days left of the race, and I will really miss the whole turtle thing when it's done. The curriculum that we've been doing on the turtles has been lots of fun too. We can probably continue that for a while, depending on Luciana's interest.

Earth Day

We enjoyed more beautiful weather today. It was around 80 and sunny. We had so much to do today, though, that we didn't get to be outside nearly as much as I would have liked. Mark and Luciana took an adventure and hiked through Lee State Park this morning. I used that time to get some housework done and start dinner. When they returned, we had to run some errands--not particularly enjoyable, but definitely necessary. One of the errands included picking up a new collar for Petey, who lost his old collar sometime between last Thursday night and Friday morning. We had no luck finding it, and he is the most likely to sneak outside on us, so he really needs a name tag. I made him a new tag, put on the newly purchased collar, and about a half hour later, found the old collar. The parents stopped by while we were finishing up our lasagne. Luce had a nice long bath after dinner, and since it was still so nice this evening, we hung out outside until bedtime. Luciana entertained us by running around barefoot in her pajamas--swinging, singing and giggling. Dej went to her friend, Shanda's, this evening. Mark just returned from picking her up, and we're off to re-watch the last Lost episode!

A beautiful, busy day

We enjoyed a beautiful spring day today. We started off the morning with a protest at Petland, followed by a KFC protest. The whole family went today--even Dej. We had a mad scramble from the protest to Luciana's gymnastics. She was the only child who came today, so she got a lot of attention from her two teachers and got a lot of work done. Mark and Luciana went on a bike ride/picnic after gymnastics and had a great time. They rode all the way to Palmer Park, ate, Luciana made a couple of friends (of course), and came home.

We then went to Madison for the Alliance's spring vegan dinner/silent auction. We had a lot of good food, and Luciana won two of the three items she was bidding on. Best of all, she made a friend. She met a 7-year-old girl (who will be 8 next week), named Sylvan, and they really hit it off. They drew pictures, talked a mile a minute, and played outside at the park. We exchanged phone numbers, and Luciana will be attending her birthday party next weekend. How cute is that!! We picked Dej up from Brandon's and made it back home by 9:30. Luciana was out right after we read. She had a big day. Now I'm heading downstairs to spend a little bit of time with my husband before he passes out for the night.