16 Random Things About Me

from Facebook:
16 Random Things about Me (written in December 2008)

1. I love recessed lighting, especially if the "cans" can be dimmed.
   
2. I get bored in Paris.
   
3. I love taking road trips with my husband.
   
4. I would have been one of the pioneers and formed a wagon train if I had been born in that time period. I think I would have loved homesteading.
   
5. I can barely tolerate little girls who scream.
   
6. I would insert the Internet into my head if I could, or at least a really good search engine, even if it were a little bit risky.
   
7. I want to call myself a writer and not smirk after I say it.
   
8. I prefer white lights on Christmas trees, but colored lights on houses.
   
9. I want to travel for my 40th birthday to a place where I do not speak the language *at all* and if possible to a place where I do not recognize their alphabet
   
10. I love the view from my house, but sometimes I wonder what it's like to live on flat ground where one can walk out onto nice flat sidewalks.
    
11. I always ask, "Where do they go the bathroom?" when watching things like balloon races, around the world plane tours, small boat regattas, and Times Square on New Year's Eve.
    
12. If I say "I love you." I mean it, even if I say it often and seemingly to many people.
    
13. I cried while watching the John Adams mini-series on HBO...several times. I wept when the states ratified the Constitution. I have a flag flying at my house (but I'm a Democrat! Ha!)
    
14. I always plan for the worst thing to happen. Sometimes I need to remind myself that nothing bad has happened.
    
15. I don't like chocolate that much, but add caramel or nuts and I might bite.
    
16. I think envy is the greatest sin of all, and I rebuke myself whenever I am ensnared.
    

and a few more for good measure:

1. I have always wanted to live in a 'flat' with a metal fire escape.
2. I keep buying all of the tools I need to become a great artist, but have yet to complete an oil painting larger than 4"x4".
3. I would label everything in my house/life if I didn't think that I might then be labeled OCD.
4. I don't regret much, because I am genuinely thankful for the lessons I have learned, but I rarely forgive myself.
5. I can remember being two years old very clearly.
6. I hate unloading the dishwasher.
7. I still have hopes of playing the piano fluently.

and now I have been self-indulgent enough for all of 2009. If you need to know anything else, just ask.

New Day

Photo by Esther Lee (via Facebook) Someone has changed the Bush street signs in San Francisco to read Obama... love the Bay Area

Son Rise

Not *that* Son Rise.. although I did look at their program quite a bit for Jake..no MY son..woke this morning nearly an hour before he normally does. Yesterday he was difficult to wake and get moving out of bed. His teacher called me yesterday to say he was spending a lot of time with his head down on the desk, and seemed more agitated than ususal, especially given how well he's been doing both in December and back to school in January.

I think it's time for another episode. We forget. In between the bad parts we really do forget that those bad parts ever happened. Jake has been so happy lately, and making choices. And what's better than that is his new ability to make choices (scanning across items or icons) in nearly real time. It sometimes took minutes, many of them to process and make a choice, now I am seeing him scan acrosss the choices and decide... right there and then.

Let's just hope that this episode can be thwarted with some Maxalt.

Lucy was up between 3:40 and 4:20 she just wanted someone to talk to...someone named Mommy.

little troubles

I have an extra ward this week, Lil' Miss is staying with us until her brother is feeling better, so Lucy has a playmate again. We have had a revolving door with children 3 and under so I am hoping she figures out that life is not always a sleepover. given that she is my child she may be pretty sad when the friends/cousins aren't here all the time.

The girls were both precious and rotten when I took them to the Cal Academy today. Lucy had trouble being sympathetic to Lil' Miss when she was having some need to control her environment by declaring things "scary".  "Why are you scared of the fish when they are so beautiful?" I was inclined to agree with Lucy, but we left just the same. The girls sat nicely art lunch and ate some fish instead... .followed by cupcakes.  I am not into denying Lil' Miss anything this week., and if this is the hardest thign in my life right now I am truly blessed. 

Although I am having trouble writing lately. Not just because my house has been filled, but because my mind is tired of planning things out. You know those: Big Life Things. Things like college accounts, and major repairs and medical bills and investments and the recycling. It sort of feels a bit overwhelming to plan out 5 paragraphs in a row. I think everythign is okay, but them I wake up in the middle of the night and remember somethign else that needs to come together.

Liek all of Jake's new technology...his talkers need ot go on the wall, and Jake got an awesome new touch screen monitor for Christmas. I just got some kiddie software that he likes (apparently) from speech therapy at school, so I am hoping this can be an activity we can do together, because his new favorite thing is not my favorite... 

lately, in addition to needing to be in the backyard allthetimealways even when it goes below 50 degrees.. he is standing in the corner of the yard and peering through the fence into the neighbor's yard. There isn't anyone there, and the neighbor would not mind at all if Jake was found out, but it creeps me out a bit. It is especially a good view after the sun goes down because the neighbor has those lights that are solar powered and glow blue.. so it looks like little floating blue dots in the darkness. Honestly he does go to the corner mostly after the sun goes down.. in the brief time before dinner when it's dark  but he can still sort of see. Maybe if I tell them what the lights actually are he will not be so intrigued, but when I was his age I still wanted to believe in fairies and gnomes (even though Santa was so clearly my parents), maybe I will hold off and just let him peer into the lights a bit longer. 

I still want to believe in fairies and gnomes. A little magic could do us all some good.

Help! You Need Somebody

The hardest people to help are the ones who need it the most. Lately.. it seems to me... and

I know I have also been guilty of this.

So let me announce right now:

Let 2009 be the year, my friends, be the year in which,  if I offer to help you... you say "YES please!", and tell me what I can do. Then I will tell you if I can do that thing. If I can't I promise to tell you that it won't work for me, and I will suggest something that will work for both of us.. or I will suck it up and do it for you anyway because that's what  we should do sometimes. I want to help you. I want to be there. It is easy. And if we all take care of each other we will get through all of it, the sick kids, the bad plumbing, the out of control behavior, the food poisoning, the "I have nothing in my fridge.", the "my babysitter cancelled for the third day in a row." We can do this... together. 

p.s. and I also promise to ask my husband, or at least tell him before I embark on any major aide.

Happy New Year

The house is quiet. My brother and his family have gone home to deal with their identity theft problems, so there are no little girls tearing around the house. Jake is having a calm breakfast with only 1 dog at his feet instead of a pack. It was so good to have them here, and it will be good for us to rest as a small little family for a few days before work and school start again. Descartes is still sleeping. He's had a cough that makes him rattle all night...and he's had it for days, but I finally found a medicine that helps him sleep, so even he is still.

Our house has limited water use due to some as yet unidentifiable problem which has cost $375 to not fix so far. I am considering that if this is the hardest/worst thing in my life... we are having a great year so far.

and I'm about to make bacon, so who could have a bad day if it starts with bacon. I just heard that one of Seymour's friend's is going for a New Year's resolution she can keep... bacon 365. Hmm probably easier than the "year with out negative" my parents are trying.