Chasing Mummies

<-- A mouse and a dragon L sculpted in her Awesome Artists class last week. She has many more creations from her College for Kids classes, but I haven't yet photo'd them. The basement has kept me far too busy to take many pics.

I went to work today but had enough of a headache that I didn’t make it to the Farmer’s Market. I feel pretty guilty about it, as I will have to get my (probably non-local) organic goodies from the grocery store. I had a really productive day at work but was itching to get back home to the basement cleaning the whole day!

For a change, the news I watched before work this morning contained some good news. Catalonia is outlawing the obscenely cruel bullfighting. This is on top of the country’s recent move in recognizing the rights of primates. On top of that good news, San Francisco is trying to pass legislation that prohibits selling animals in petshops. Holy hell, that’s awesome!

I also got to see our (Alliance for Animals’) Simply Vegan billboard on the beltline. I was so excited to see it featured so prominently! It’s gorgeous, and directs readers to our companion website, http://www.simplyvegan.net/. Our director, Lynn, did a fantastic job on the website. Check it out!

We have been trying everything possible to help with Chloe’s hip displaysia and arthritis without much luck until recently. My dad sent me a link for a product that he heard good things about: Flexpet. I looked into it, did my research and thought it sounded promising—more promising than the other supplements we had tried to no avail. I ordered some, and Chloe has been taking it for a little over a month. It has worked wonders! In addition to the fact that it definitely works, it’s a chewable tablet that dogs love. It’s a treat for Chloe, and when she hears the bottle open, she comes running (and she can run now)! I got the three-pack deal, so it was pretty cost-effective as far as supplements go anyway. I highly recommend this product for anyone with a dog starting to be troubled by aches, pains, and stiffness!

We’ve seen such a difference in Chloe that I started researching to see if there’s a human version of the same product. There is indeed, I ordered it, and it arrived in the mail today. I have very high hopes for it, and will update on how effective the human version is. M & I took our first dose with dinner tonight.

I have a new favorite tv show, which is cool, because there isn't currently anything on worth watching (notice I didn't say there isn't anything I watch--because I have indeed watched that which isn't worth watching *ahemRealHousewivesCoughCough*). Chasing Mummies was on the History Channel tonight keeping me company while I cleaned the herbivore room and washed dishes. I will not be missing an episode of this, including the new ep tonight at 9! It's an awesome show, and I'm quickly developing a crush on Dr. Hawass ("You do not deserve to work with me!)

barefoot

While M was gone last week, I got the basement cleaning bug. This is a project that I put on our "to do" list over a year ago. It really needed to be done then. During the time it languished on the list, we continued to add to the problem by just shoving more crap in the storage/workshop area that needed cleaning. Why bother putting it away...might as well wait until we clean/reorganize, and just do it all at once. Added to the piles was the dust accumlated on, around, and under the piles. Added to that was the fallout of the Hunter/Mt. Dew fiasco.

Did I blog that? I totally can't remember and don't feel like looking. In short, he woke up very early one morning and somehow went from watching cartoons to him drinking a can of Mt. Dew from my stash of Throwback (real sugar, no HFCS), which led to him getting the rest of the 12-pack, a hammer, and a screwdriver. Naturally, since it was all right there in front of him, he felt compelled to experiment with various techniques to puncture the cans with the tools. M cleaned up the obvious mess. I suspected he had swiped towels over that which was on top and most obvious. I chose not to look, because I knew that if I looked, then I would have to clean it up. By not looking, I could just accept his "cleaned up" on face value and do nothing. I've paid for that willful neglect for hours, over the last several days.

This job has been dirty, a little gross, and hard on my body. I'm absolutely consumed by it! I'm having a hard time focusing on anything else, including eating and sleeping. I'm forcing myself to take a break and blog and eat a banana. (That's a lot of B's!) I'm about 60% done overall, but about 85% done with the hard &/or nasty work. I'm so happy with what is done so far and am determined to have a sparkly, organized basement by the end of this week! I put stuff like this off because when I do things like this, they are done thoroughly and well. Every item, every shelf, every inch of floor must be wiped clean. Every single object has a 'home', preferably grouped with like objects and sorted (by size, color, or alpha/numeric order). Oh how I love order! It never lasts around here--my family dislikes order. My perfectly sorted music and video collections (by genre, then in alpha order) never last more than a week. But it's SO beautiful for that week!:-D

College for Kids rocks!

I spent yesterday in a migraine agony, and M left at 3:20 this morning to catch a plane. I've spent tonight working like crazy to catch up on my chores from yesterday and do both mine and M's from tonight. He's in CA (my true home) and I'm in WI and very unhappy. He texted me from the plane (which was delayed of course) to tell me he was sitting across from Ron Jeremy (the porn dude). I hope they enjoyed a very special flight together. I also hope he stripped down and took a bleach shower when he got to his hotel.

What was cool about yesterday was that when I finally got out of bed and staggered downstairs to let the dogs out, there was a gift waiting for me. I have lantana in one of the deck planters, and I got to watch a ruby-throated hummingbird work on them for quite a while. I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting to watch hummingbirds up close! It was so restorative. Until Chloe decided to see what I was looking at, caught site of the bird, and barked like the big cowdog she is. She takes her job of protecting me very seriously, and I suppose with such a sharp beak that little bird posed quite a threat. Thanks, Chloe.

L is having a fantastic week at "college", and she wishes it was longer. She loves her teachers--they both sound wonderful! She's also made friends with everyone in her class and has managed to get their life stories. She took her camera yesterday and took pictures of her projects and her friends.

In "Exquisite Corpses", they are making and binding their own books. They are using so many different media and materials--even some that I've never heard of. She's made the front and back covers for her book and made the paper that will be the pages. She took in tons of things she collected from the garden (flowers, buds, leaves, seeds, etc) and from the birds (feathers) and had enough left over to share with the rest of the class.

This is her gouging the dragon into the rubber. She will be using the carving and a resist technique to paint the cover of her book.

They are working on several projects for her art/drawing class, including a group-drawn project that they screen printed onto their College for Kids t-shirts. Each child was given a body part to draw, and Luce was so excited that she got the head. She got to decide then which creature she would draw, and she chose a wolf.

She takes a bag lunch each day, and the kids eat lunch in the college cafeteria. My mom and I both offered to go in and have lunch with her, as some of the parents do. I was even going to bring Taco Bell for her! After being reassured several times that she could answer either yes or no and neither of us would be upset or hurt, she finally said she would rather just eat with her friends. I love all the time with her that I can get, but I think it's so damn cute that she's having fun with her friends like that and wants her own private 'kid time'.

I came home this afternoon to find our package of science supplies had arrived--finally! I ordered some supplies and equipment for the first portion of our experiments this year. L, being my daughter and thus having no patience, couldn't wait to start digging through the box. She found the buttload of magnets and prisms and hasn't been able to leave them alone. She is having so much fun playing with magnets right now. We had to have a very serious talk about the magnets, however, as some of them are heavy duty and would easily fry any computer they get close to, and with the strength of some of them, they probably wouldn't have to be that close.

Margarita Monday

This is a pic that L made using Paint. It's so much better than anything I could make with any software!

L has returned! M & I went to his parents’ Sunday morning and spent the day with the family. We got home at around 8:30 and had to start in on our Sunday chores (mostly animal stuff), which made for a late night without much time to visit with our girl. She had a great time, though, and she and all four of the cousins got along well for the duration of the visit. I wish she had cousins nearby like I did growing up, but hopefully they will still be able to foster a good relationship as they get older. Family is important—even if you have nothing in common but being family, I think the sense of belonging to a “tribe” is important for children.

Hunter was with M & I the majority of the time that L was gone, so we didn’t have a preponderance of downtime. I did enjoy the extra quiet time, though. As much as I missed my girl, I have a deep and pressing need for my quiet, alone time. I become very dysfunctional very quickly without it. The fact that she can talk for like 14 hours straight with very brief breaks for eating, can sometimes drive me to mentally scream, “STOP!! I need 30 seconds of silence to actually compose a thought!!” While I enjoyed the unusual gift of silence (at least from humans), I was definitely ready for her to be home.

She called us Friday and Saturday nights and wasn’t remotely homesick or sad. I think she had enough going on that she didn’t even miss us! I’m pretty sure she missed her animals more than her parents and other grandparents. I’m okay with that! I love that she can get away from us without any codependency. It’s important that she has outlets like that, particularly when we get into the unpleasant teen years. Even though I miss her terribly, she needs the opportunity to build relationships with other adults and children independent of her parents and their relationships.

This morning was L’s first day of her College for Kids camp. She will be there every day this week from 9-3:30. L has attended this camp every summer since she was old enough, and Dej also attended when she was in that age group. It’s an excellent program! I am hoping to send H next year, too. There was an awesome selection of classes, and she had a really hard time choosing only two, which is all they have time to take. Both of the classes she picked were from the art department: “Exquisite Corpses: Create an Artist's Book" and “Awesome Artists”. I was hoping she would select a science/computer science class, and she almost did, but in the end she went with the art. I wanted it to be fun for her, so she had the final choice.

Additionally, one of the classes I really wanted her to take will be offered during the school year on Saturdays, so she will be able to take that class later, where this is the only shot at the art classes. Because I had to work in Madison today (my LONG day), my mom did the drop off and pick up. I wish that I could have gone on her first day, but I will be able to pick her up the rest of the week, and will be able to come to the parents’ day activity on Friday.

This is L’s first year of going to the camp for a full day and having to take and eat lunch there. The younger kids only go in the morning or afternoon. She’s never had to take a lunch and eat in an environment like that, so I’ve been pretty stressed about it. I so wanted to take off early and go have lunch with her. My mom could have gone for lunch as well. Neither of us did, though, because the truth is that she wasn’t at all nervous about the lunch experience, nor was she concerned with navigating to her classes on her own. New things don’t bother her like they did Dej at that age or me (or my mother). It’s just another adventure to her, and she doesn’t seem to entertain the “what if” thoughts. She makes friends quickly and easily and had already made a new friend before my mom left the building!

Everything about this experience is good for her and has the added benefit of being fun for her. I don’t know why I have to feel so neurotic about it. Seriously, I would like to take off the rest of the week from work, just so I can hang out on campus and keep an eye on her. I will not impose my neuroses on her or even mention them to her. The way she looks at the world is much better, and I don’t want to cloud her view with my crap! That’s the logical part of me. The insane mommy lurking beneath still wants to secretly watch her from afar. I need to get a grip on this, because she will be attending another all-day M-F camp the first week of August, and this one is in Madison! {*I will not stalk my child while she is enjoying her mommy-free camp activities. I will not stalk my child while she is enjoying her mommy-free camp activities.* Now if I write that another 500 times or so, maybe it will stick. ;-) }

The logical part of me also realizes that she is absolutely not a child who needs to be overprotected from life. She is a very strong, confident, well-adjusted girl, and is rightfully insulted when my behavior implies otherwise. It’s very frustrating to know that my feelings are illogical yet I continue to feel that way! It’s not even really that I’m concerned for her safety as much as I just like to watch her experience life. I want to know every detail of her day, and I feel like I’ve missed out on so much without being there. I won’t even get to see her creations until Friday!

Thursday night we met the in-laws in Rockford, had dinner together, and they took her back with them. As we were leaving (perhaps in an effort to distract me from tears?), M suggested that we stop by Borders before we returned home. I still haven’t finished the last batch of books from our last bookstore shopping spree, so I didn’t really intend to get anything else. I swear the two of us should not be allowed in bookstores without some kind of adult supervision.
M has a bigger pile of unread books than I do, yet he got more. I was trying so hard to be good and just stick with my Somerset Studio magazine, and I almost made it. Damn those checkout displays. Damn them to hell! My eye went immediately to a book I’ve heard about and wanted to read, “Shit my Dad Says It’s totally not my usual genre, but I was familiar with the author from his website, and had laughed to the point of tears while reading some of the quotes. M, like the bookwhore he is, started enabling me by encouraging me to buy it. I resisted…”No, I’ll wait until the library gets it.” He pressed…”Just get it, it looks funny and other people will want to read it when you’re done.” As you can see, I had no choice in the matter and was forced to purchase this book. I felt like a stupid impulse buyer for two days. Then I started reading the book yesterday. I laughed out loud, non-stop! I laugh infrequently. I laugh out loud so rarely these days that it’s quite sad. I continued to laugh out loud until I stopped reading when we got home last night. I think now, that the benefits of that much laughter have to at least be worth the $15 I spent on it, and I’m feeling much less guilty. I’ll be ready to loan it out soon! It’s a very enjoyable read!

Saturday night after H went home, M & I decided to take advantage of our leisure and go see Inception. It was good for the most part. My complaint is pretty consistent across most movies—they wasted probably a total of 45 minutes on fighting, shooting, chasing, and I was mind-numbingly bored the entire time. I wish I could have brought a book, so I have something to do when the boring crap comes on. Especially in a movie like this, where they could have used that time to fill in with more of the cerebral material. They could have easily developed the sci-fi type plot element, which was really quite interesting. It left the viewer to decide how the movie actually ended, and I kind of appreciate movies/shows that leave room for the viewer’s own interpretation. I won’t spoil the movie for anyone, but it most definitely leaves you questioning what, exactly, is reality. It’s a question that I love to ponder (still don’t have an answer, though), and this movie added some interesting angles from which I can view this question.

Chloe and stuff

Here's our Chloe chilling on her favorite spot on her fave couch. She can only lie there for a few minutes before she feels the need to flop on her back and shimmy up and down the couch, grunting and snarfling loudly the entire time. She does this until all the pillows are knocked to the floor. Then she will lie back down in her spot and nap.

There’s been a local minister, Brad Goodrich, who’s been appearing in the papers lately, as his lifelong dishonesty has finally come to light. He’s bilked many people out of their money, so he could continue to live an upscale, unearned lifestyle. It makes me laugh a lot, because I could have predicted this exact outcome for him (and basically did) back when we attended the same church and nightmarish “school”. He was shallow, lazy, stupid, arrogant and ridiculously vain back in high school. He was so vapid, in fact, that I’ve spent the last decade wondering how the hell he was able to fool so many (equally vapid?) folks into believing that he was remotely qualified to be their minister and lead them anywhere. Even in the teen years, he was smarmy enough that you felt you needed to shower after speaking with him, and it has only gotten worse through the years.

I’m also curious as to how his followers were able to convince themselves that hoarding money and spending so much so visibly was following a single one of the tenants of the Jesus they claim to follow. Sheeple are sheeple, I guess, and none of them are known for their blazing intelligence, curiosity, independent thinking or insightfulness.


My parents are some of the few of the “chosen” who actually believe the lies and work tirelessly to be the best Christians they can. I watched my parents give to others, even when they really didn’t have it to give at all, over and over again. They never told anyone else, and I probably wasn’t even aware of all they did. They have been there to talk for hours, give rides, provide encouragement & support (financial and emotional), and help out in any way they could figure out, even for those they didn’t know well or particularly like. In short, despite the fact that I don’t believe in or agree with any of their Christian beliefs, they are among very, very few who consciously try to “walk the walk” rather than just “talk the talk”. Having seen their example, it’s very easy for me to look at other “christians” and notice their hypocrisy and lack of walking the walk.

More on my parents, because I feel I have to make it very clear that they are not and never were the type of people I’m describing. Particularly in light of the next anecdote I’m going to share. I want to say right up front that unlike the majority of members in their church, my parents were not racist, nor would they tolerate racism. They were ahead of their time, in comparison to those around them who were similar in age, socioeconomic background, and religion. Neither of my parents were raised to believe in racial equality, so it’s even more surprising that they would have developed, let alone spoken out about their egalitarian beliefs. I’m fairly certain that they were the only regular members of that (quite large, at the time) church who were not completely opposed to and disgusted by interracial marriage.
So throughout the 70’s and 80’s, the youth group in the church of my childhood (nightmares), frequently had little fundraisers—pretty typical stuff. There was one special fundraiser that they had every year for many years, and I still can’t believe the majority of the church felt it was a great idea. Here we go: They had a slave auction. It was called that—“Slave Auction”.

Really. The teens in the youth group were brought up onto the stage and auctioned off to the highest bidder, in authentic slave auctioning style of course, who could then put the teens to work for an entire day, in any way they chose. I remember the teens dressing up in “slave attire” for at least one of the auctions, though I don’t recall if this was done every year. I also have no recollection of what I was wearing when I was auctioned off, so I don’t know if there was slave attire that year or not.

I only remember participating in it for one year. Once I hit 14-15, I wanted nothing to do with church or youth groups. (Unfortunately, I replaced it with drugs & alcohol, which in retrospect, I still think was a more productive, and better way to spend my time!) The year I participated, I and several other teens were purchased by Brad-the-bilker’s mother, also arrogant and materialistic. It was a very hot day, and we worked very hard. I had never worked so long or hard physically before. Among oh-so-many tasks we had to complete, one that took forever was polishing her exhaustive silverware collection. That polishing cream reeks! It was preferable to the straight ammonia she had us cleaning with, though. It was a horrible day that I will always remember.

I know it was the 80’s but seriously, not a single adult in a church with over 200 members (and from 200-500 attendees at the time) thought perhaps the notion of a slave auction was in poor taste? Not one of these pinnacles of love and kindness could come up with a less offensive notion? Not one of them thought that perhaps if there was a god/jesus, they would be horrified at the idea of making light of one of the uglier, more painful events in history.

I had forgotten entirely about the slave auction, but when I was reading the latest Brad article in the paper, it just popped into my head. I have so few memories of that time, but it becomes apparent to me that I haven’t lost the memories, just suppressed them, because I have nothing but bad feelings associated with that entire period of my life. The brain is odd, because they come back at the oddest times.

Occurrences like that make me even more curious about the functioning of the brain and memory. I’ve run into Brad & family around town many times throughout the years and even read other recent articles about his situation in the newspaper. Why was it then, that that particular article, at that particular time, stimulated the neural path that restored a slave auction memory into my head so randomly? I feel driven to discover the exact mechanism by which certain random memories are retrieved like that. I’m still hoping that this will be better understood within my lifetime! The brain is an incredibly fascinating organ!

KIVA

Having almost six hours of sleep last night, versus the less than three I got the previous few nights, certainly improves the quality of my day—even a Monday! I’m trying to stay in a decent mood today, but since I know that my girl is leaving me on Thursday night for three days, I’m already feeling pretty bummed. I really don’t like when she is gone—particularly this time of year when I’m already husbandless! She will have fun staying with M’s parents and playing with her visiting NJ cousins. Her absence leaves a huge whole in our house, though! She’s the person I spend the most time with.

Our living room floor and stairwell are covered with L & H's cat town from this weekend. I'm feeling all sentimental and emotional about her leaving me, so I've left it up. It's comforting to see her stuff all over, so I'm thinking she will get a free pass on cleaning up until she returns from her visit in IL.

Of note in the herbivore room, Kealy and Darwin have constructed a lovely nest, made of hay, feathers, and shredded paper strips. It’s under one of the play cages in the room, and Kealy sits in the nest waiting for something to happen. That could be a problem since Kealy is a male lovebird and Darwin is a male cockatiel. Love knows no bounds, and I wish them the best. Soon enough, they will get bored with guarding their little nest with imaginary eggs and go back to just being a child-free party couple.



Here's L cuddling with Oona & Luna (the mommy/baby pair, though the baby is now bigger than her mommy!) tonight during our herbivore hang out time. Vivi & Jolsie and Pansy & Blossom are enjoying tonights greens.

Petey continues to put weight on and do well. As soon as he starts doing naughty things again, I will start to try to taper him off the meds, and see if he can maintain mental health without them.

The most important part of this entry, though, is sharing my new favorite website. I think you’ll be as excited as I am about it! Kiva allows you to provide business loans (from $25 to whatever amount you can afford) to people in third-world countries who are trying to break the hold of poverty. It’s an amazing way to reach out and directly help those who want a shot at “the good life” (you know, things like food and perhaps some shelter for their families). It’s my new hobby, and I only wish I could help every single applicant on the site! Since I can’t, I figure telling everyone I know about it is the next best thing. Have fun and make a difference!!! Service work and giving to others is the best cure for depression! (WARNING: You may find this addictive!) http://www.kiva.org/.

More lilies

More lilies from our garden.

I'm mentally ducking out of our family movie tonight. I'm sitting here next to my girl, trying desperately to not listen to this. We had a Netflix miscommunication, and ended up with a movie called Earth that is not about Earth actually, but the animals. I am near tears, and the crapping movie still has another hour to go. I may have to leave the room. There is too much animal suffering, and none of the animals have died on screen (yet, anyway). I can't stop feeling exactly what they are feeling in the horrible situations, and it makes me sick. I feel vomitty. It doesn't bother L nearly as much as it does me. Luce seems much less bothered by the suffering of others than I am or than Dej was at that age.

I've been trying so hard for months now to convince myself that there is a reason to live--that there's more to life than muddling from one bit of suffering to the next. Seeing the reality of nature and the world we live in reconfirms that I'm right. Oops--and so much for no death on screen. That's now been taken care of.

I meet a baby rabbit this afternoon five minutes before she died. It was a nasty accident that I happened to witness. We stopped by Sarita's house to look at her yard and help with some landscaping questions after L's dance class. As we were chatting in her backyard, looking over the huge shared central greenspace, we saw her neighbor's little dog tear off and run to another little dog. I thought at first that the dogs were fighting, but then Sarita made out that they had a baby rabbit. The dogs people were behind them chasing and yelling. I took off running to check the rabbit. The guys thought she was dead and were going to bury her, but she wasn't dead yet. I rubbed her chest, loved her, and talked to her until she was gone. I hope I provided her some degree of comfort at the end. I walked away knowing she was the lucky one. Her misery has ended.

We then went inside, where Sarita made us a traditional warm weather drink, jaljira. I love that she was generously sharing her culture with us, and I really wanted to like the drink. There is absolutely nothing similar in the U.S., to which I could compare it. The majority of the flavor seemed to come from the roasted cumin seeds, which is just not a flavor I am used to consuming in and icy-cold beverage. M & L took one sip and were both done. I kept drinking, because it is so different, and sometimes you just need to forge through the adjustment period, and strange new things become better. It will take more than a day to accustom my tastebuds to jaljira, though. I will keep trying. I don't ever want L to get the typical American attitude that all things American are good, and all things different are not good.

Okay, this movie is horrible. I'm depressed. I need to leave the room and go spend time with my cats upstairs. And it's times like this I can't help but think, if I believed there was a god of any type, and that thing created a world this cruel (nothing to do with sin of man and other such bullshit--the pure cruelty and misery of the 'circle of life') and nasty, there isn't a strong enough word or series of words to proclaim my complete and utter hatred and antipathy for such a foul being. Seriously, a being with all the power in the universe and this is the best he can come up with. Shit, I'll take over from here and actually do a decent job. My paltry little human brain can come up with at least 5,372 world configurations that would be better than this one. Worship me. I'm much smarter, kinder, and more worthy of worship. Plus, if you throw all your money at me, I will actually help others with it, not build giant blinking crosses and buttery touchdown jesuses.

Good night. Tomorrow is Monday. Oh joy.

Fireworks

I think the animals have finally forgiven me for abandoning them for camping. Ivan ignored me for several hours. He couldn’t keep that up, and finally had to come get some love. We got home before noon, and he wouldn’t talk to me until after 10:00 pm. Even after giving in, he was still hostile, angry, and short-fused for several days (more so than he usually is). Everybody was well cared for and stayed healthy for our whole trip! That was nice.

Sarita and I braved the sauna and walked over to the farmer’s market today. My 'greens lady' was not there! She’s the only one with organic greens, and though they are a little pricey, they are always fresh and gorgeous. I will have to go to the grocery store and try to find some before I have a mutiny in the herbivore room. They haven’t had greens for three days now, and though they like the other produce and eat it almost as piggishly, they really miss their greens. Their positive reinforcement has trained me very well. I love the squeals when I bring their nightly produce in to them, but I really like the extra happy noises and watching them try to balance on their two back feet while they stretch up as tall as they can get in an effort to get the greens into their little mouths faster. They are much better at training me than I am at training them!

I think that Fiona (the gray bunny) has recently grown to like sweet peas better slightly more than her greens. She gets excited and leaps around when she sees either, but if I give them both to her at once, she will always eat her peapods first. Or maybe she's like me and saves her favorite for last.
We did our own family night of fireworks the night of the third, instead of the fourth. My parents, L & H, and I watched while M lit it up. He only started our woodchips on fire once this year. We did them early, because M chose to work on Monday the fifth, so it made more sense to do them on a Sat. night than waiting until after the fireworks on Sunday like we typically do.

We had a typical, mellow fourth, except for one major problem. SyFy didn’t run the Twilight Zone marathon this year. It was a tragedy of epic proportions for me. I need warning before a change that major occurs! I felt ‘off’ all day. We went to my parents for a mid-day meal, where my fave aunt and her partner joined us, and we all hung around there until M & I had to go home and do our dinner-time critter chores. My parents & L came to get us to go to the fireworks. We weren’t sure if they were going to go or not, because it was raining and looking like more would be coming. Fortunately, the fireworks went on as planned, and there was no rain. They were a little shorter than usual (no $$ this year), but they were nice.


Libby, my mom's cat, spent most of the afternoon in my Aunt Bobbie's purse.

L enjoyed them and brought along a clay dragon she made. She’s made several clay dragons, and has kept some and given some away. Her favorite—the one she is taking everywhere these days—is Gretel. She’s been reading a book series about dragons (surprise!) made of clay who animate and can speak with the special creator (in this case, her). Gretel talks to her quite frequently and was asking her about the “flowers in the sky” during the fireworks. This is a very interesting phase.

She went over to play at H’s Monday afternoon. She was pretty excited, as she doesn’t get to go play at others’ houses very much, and because he was watching his grandma’s dog. I got a call from her an hour and a half earlier than I was planning to pick her up. She had been having fun, but then she dropped Gretel and broke her wing off. She was devasted and could barely keep it together. She just wanted to come home and fix Gretel and said she couldn't play or have fun until she was fixed. We picked her up early, and she ran to the hot glue gun and got her all fixed up. Whew!

Last night Dej came over and the three of us hung out and did a little crafting. I made a bracelet that was SO quick and easy, and since it's bright with lots of colors, it makes me happy. The girls both like it, and since it fits both of them, I'm sure they will be using it. I just used all of the leftover beads from all of our other projects. It's quite a hodge podge.

L made a necklace and created the cover for her tree journal. We used leftover cardboard (which I save for things like this) for the cover, and a heavy corrugated piece for the backing, so the journal is sturdy and easy to write/draw in. We put a spiral binding along the top, and ta-da...her tree journal is ready, so we can start her tree journal project this week. I thought the cover really turned out beautifully. She used her quill pen and india ink to draw all of the black stuff, and I was pretty impressed with the results. Those things are really tough to work with (at least for me)!

Favorites

Here are a few of my favorite shots from our recent camping trip.

More camping

We took some time away from hiking and the campgrounds to go to a couple of places nearby that we thought would be fun. The first place we stopped was The Museum of Minerals and Crystals. It's a small place but was definitely worth the stop. We had so much fun walking through and looking at the absolutely beautiful creations of our Earth. The owner was a very nice man, who was happy to share stories and information with us. It will take less than an hour, but if you're in the Dodgeville area, I would recommend it.

L and M had been there a few years ago on one of their adventures, and she loved it. She's been talking about it since and was so happy to get to go back and share it with me.

From there we went to The House on the Rock. M & L had never been there, and I haven't been there since I was in my early teens. It's a must-see, mostly because words can't begin to describe the place. Neither can pictures. It is very interesting and is an overhwelming visual and audio experience! Some of the collections housed there were absolutely gorgeous (stained glass, tiffany lamps, faberge eggs, carousel horses, etc.). Some were bizarre and wierd, and some were just downright WTF?!



I noticed this lovely lass looking at me from the doll collection and knew I had to have her picture. She's already been featured on two JibJab videos that we made (M, Dej & Luke, and I sometimes do strange things for entertainment late at night).

While the dolls were just...eeeew--neither myself nor my girls have ever been into dolls--the doll houses awakened another artistic outlet in L. She was absolutely enthralled with the gorgeous and elaborately decorated wooden doll houses. She has decided that it must be her new hobby. She has already selected the doll house she intends to build, gotten Hunter to agree to doing the electrical wiring in the house, and has been shopping for furniture and decorating ideas. Since this is perhaps the most ridiculously expensive hobby ever, she's either going to have to come up with a way to earn money and subsidize this hobby or her house will be furnished and decorated very slowly over the course of years.

L had three favorites (she couldn't chose just one): the food, the animals, and the beach.

My favorite part of this trip couldn't be captured with pictures. We spent hours, every night, sitting out by the campfire, enjoying the plethora of stars (it was very clear every night), and the full/fullish bright moon, which arose over the lake as a huge, bright orange sphere. There were also more owls than we have ever heard at a campsite before. It was so cool to listen to the different types of calls. We don't know which owl goes with which call yet though--that's a research project for us. The calm serenity I felt outside, in the dark bustling night was very restorative. I feel very "one with the universe" at times like that. I LOVE being outside at night and the sky is so much more beautiful and full of stars than it is here in our yard. M feels a little less comfortable outside in the dark with all of the sounds around. He kept his stick with a glowing tip of fire next to him, in case any monsters or rabid animals jumped out at him.

Our bedroom ceiling is full of these little glow-in-the-dark star stickers, which actually make me very happy at night. I can pretend I'm sleeping under the stars. I've been looking for a few years now for more of them, so I can add some constellations up there, but I can't find them anymore. :*-(

On vacation recovery

We made it through another camping trip and are trying to get caught up at home and caught up on rest. We had great weather throughout and not a single disaster. It was wonderful!

First and foremost, it was unique and sad. It was the first camping trip that L did not bring her case of cat figurines. She built a fairy house as soon as we got to the site, and it was then I noticed that she had not yet brought the cats out. I asked her about it, and she stated matter-of-factly that she decided not to bring them. I wanted to cry. She had brought along half of the stacks of books she had gotten the day before, when we went to B & N. (Are you seeing the theme there?)

We camped at Governor Dodge State Park, which is not far from home at all! M & L had been there before, but I had not. It was a very nice park, and we had a nice, big campsite which overlooked the lake.

M and L decided they were going to try to cook potatos on the campfire. I was pretty skeptical about the results, but as it turned out, the potatos came out perfectly. They cooked some every night. L seemingly has no limit as to how many potatos she can eat! If we ever have leftover potatoes, which is rare with our girl, they don't last beyond the next day.

As always, we did a lot of hiking, got to see many waterfalls, frogs, toads, squirrels, raccoons, beautiful forests, etc. We did encounter one unusual thing while hiking along a streambed. Periodically, near or in the water, we would see a rock sculpture. There were four in all, and each was quite interesting.

L then added a few of her own. They were NOT easy to make. Whoever made the original ones had a lot of patience!

We played games.

We had a fantastic day at the beach! We swam, and she made friends and built sand castles.