Day 1

Today is the first day of the rest of my life, to use a really bad cliche.

Last night Dr. G. performed my exit interview which is more of a formality than anything else. One of the questions he asked was if there was anything that I would suggest changing, some thing or another that I felt was lacking in the clinic. Jeez, where to start? There are so many things that could use some attention, so many issues and problems and kinks in the system. On the best of days we operate in controlled chaos. But sitting there in the old wooden chair in his cluttered office I found myself without a thing to say. I do that- I have all of these suggestions, ideas, and yet, when I'm finally in a position to speak my mind, it's all gone.

Oh well.

He shook my hand, told me he'd miss me, and out I walked, for the last time. It's finally over.

Last night was a sleepless one- somewhere between elation and total fear. I've never been unemployed before and I'm finding the idea more than a little scary. It's not the money issue, it's the "now what do I do?" feeling that creeps in. I mean, the answer is obvious... I raise my kid, I go to school, I fix this house, I become self-sufficient. But losing that routine- the familiarity of 5 am coffee and long commutes. Just knowing that my hand has felt the slight jiggly looseness of the breakroom door knob for the last time... Man, I'm working myself up over nothing, aren't I?

Today we began our journey into stay-at-home parenthood together. Jonas has been at the top of his game. A couple of major meltdowns at the most inconvenient times- like while I had the entire contents of the freezer spread out on the kitchen floor, trying to get everything rearranged before it defrosted. And of course, no nap today, but otherwise we've done pretty well.

I'm scouting out parks nearby. Most of them are simply not designed with younger children in mind, but I'm not giving up. Jonas loves being outside. There's one park, over in the ritzy area that seems nice (of course it does) and is actually covered, wich is a huge bonus. I think we'll go see if we can fit in over there sometime this week.

I've also set up a date for the air conditioner to get replaced. By Monday evening of next week we'll be sleeping in chilly comfort for the first time in nearly two years. After that, it's carpet for our bedroom, maybe some paint, then we're moving on to the outside. Stucco, paint, porch. The list is starting to seem do-able after months and months of feeling overwhelmed. It would be nice to be able to get it all done before J's birthday. Maybe we'd be able to have his birthday party here instead of depending on the parents.

Before I left Dr. Thomson (no "p" dammit!) took my email address. His wife is a new stay at home mom, too. Their son is not quite 1. She's a member of the local Mom's Club and, according to him, so are a lot of other folks I know. Some of them clients of the clinic, etc. He said he'd have her get in touch with me, that she'd probably love to get together occasionally. It would be nice to have a friend with a kid. I'm severely lacking in that department.

But now I'm rambling and Jonas is getting antsy. He just scaled the back of the couch by creating a tower of toys to climb. ARG!

I'll leave you with my "J's First" of the day: Today he fell in love with peanut butter.



Heh, PB&J?

Better Off Dead

This morning, in an attempt to get my son to eat something at least somewhat healthy I made him oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins.

Over his rather dramatic protest of the spoon I caught myself saying to him, "It has raisins in it. You like raisins." In my sweetest motherly, green glob running off the plate sort of way.

Those of you who need to will understand the humor here. If you don't, go rent the damn movie. :)

Cross Posted From MTC

Eden

He contemplates life,
the tender sprouts amidst
a world of brown
striving ever upward-
a defiance of gravity.

Tiny rivulets run,
swift along innocent fingers
and pool
vast as oceans
to his azure eyes.


Ok, so it's not an incredibly stunning piece, I'm willing to admit that. But what it is, is the first piece of poetry I've written in well over a year. Not real fond of the final lines- they seem, I don't know, cheap, or abrupt or something. It's a start, though.

Emotional Heeling

Ok, so over the past couple of days I've managed to get the heel done on my crock-sock. Despite the title of this post, it was actually a lot easier than I expected it to be. I think the sock bug may have just taken it's first nibble at me. Yay! :) Here's the progress picture for today.


Now I'm to a place where it tells me to continue in established pattern until I've reached the desired length. At first I thought that meant return to doing the original stitch pattern that I used for the ankle, but upon some thought, I've realized that what the mean is to continue knitting all of the stitches on the first and fourth needles and do the pattern on needles two and three. At least, I think that's what I'm supposed to do. It's what would make it look like the picture. Anyone want to confirm that before I end up in tears over a bunch of work I'll have to rip out?

In other news, Steven is spending the day with us today, and I'm sure he's bored out of his little skull. But here's a cute picture of him and Jonas playing in the kitchen with some magnetic letters and such. He's really a great sport when it comes to entertaining his little cousin.



That's all for now. Hope y'all are having a good weekend.

It makes me wanna wag my tail

There's something about getting a package in the mail! Especially when it's for no reason in particular.

Today a package came from Amanda. Here's what was inside. :)



Does she know my kid, or what?

The yarn is a fabulous purple/green/blue/white cotton yarn. I'm just itching to know what I'm supposed to turn it into. The note inside the package said it would be explained once I got it. After an hour under the spotlight, it's still not talking.

Thanks Amanda, it's awesome!

Sock update

As a child I remember reading a story about a native american girl. Every day she would watch her grandmother weave blankets. One day she asked her grandmother how long she would live. The grandmother replied that she was old and that this would be her final blanket. So every night, after grandmother went to sleep, the child would go and unravel the day's work, assuming that if the blanket were never finished her grandmother would never die.

Of course, in the end she had to accept that change was inevitable, and regardless of whether the blanket was finished or not, grandmother would soon be gone.

Now, my poor little sock project certainly does not hold the weight of life in it's threads, but as I move along through the familiarity of the pattern I realize that sooner or later, I'm going to have to give in and journey into unfamiliar territory. I'm on my tenth repeat of the pattern, meaning that here very shortly it will be time to begin the heel.

I've never done this before. And so far the sock is so beautiful that I can't even begin to imagine how hard it's going to be for me to admit defeat if I totally screw it up.

I guess, eventually, we all have to cross over into to unknown and take our chances, don't we? So, wish me luck on this and let's all hope that I don't go ruining a perfectly good thing with my novice skills.

An old friend

I found this picture yesterday. This is Jonas and Puppy. He is exactly one month old here, one week after Hurricane Frances made landfall here. In this picture we are living in Wil's parents empty house because the electricity and utilities had been restored there, while at home we didn't even have running water, much less the comforts of air conditioning, etc. That, and it was closer to work for Wil. It's funny to think that, even at that time, puppy traveled with us. Not sure what made me decide that he was a hurricane must-have. It's not as if Jonas was interested in lovies at that age. But come, he did, and it makes me wonder if maybe kids really do attach themselves to familiar smells/textures, etc. from a very young age.



And here he is yesterday, hanging out with his old friend, watching his new favorite movie, "Finding Nemo". He's starting to look a bit shaggy and worn, but that's what gives him character, right?

Next post: Garden Pics! :)

I've got the bug

I guess maybe it's just a spring phenomenon that everyone goes through, but I've got the gardening bug in a really bad way.

This may be a dangerous thing, simply because of my past experiences with all things green, but so far I seem to be having much more success. A few weeks ago Jonas and I planted a few tomato plants, some basil and a pepper plant. They're all doing amazingly well. We even have 9 decent sized tomatoes hanging from them and many little buds eager to form fruits.

It's actually been fun having our little evening ritual of going out and tending to them, pulling weeds, watering, checking their progress and talking about how much they've grown. And the smell! It's so fantastic!

So today, being sick of work, I left early and ran to the garden center for a few more things. I picked up some little pickett fence sections and some more potting soil and a couple more pots, and a couple of hand tools and, of course, seeds.

Now, this may be the demise of my garden- seeds. I've never really had any success with starting things from seed, but it's so much more cost effective when compared to purchasing actual plants. And you can't pass up that lesson for the kid about how things grow, now can you? Heh, not that I actually expect him, at the tender age of 21 months, to totally understand. I'm not that whacked out, yet.

So anyway, we got a couple of different flower seeds to go around the mailbox, and some herbs for our new pots, and some zucchini and summer squash to go in the freshly dug plot on the north side of the house.

And since I still had a few hours before Abuela was expecting me to pick Jonas up, I took advantage of the time and came home and started clearing some over-growth from the north side of the house. I also cleared the spot around the mailbox and installed the pickett fence border and prepared the soil there. I raked and I hoed and I hauled and now I'm exhausted, but in that good "I accomplished something" way.

Tomorrow, as long as it's not raining- which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing- I think I'll take J out with me and we'll get our hands dirty planting the seeds. Then it'll just be a matter of crossing our fingers and hoping we continue to have the same luck we've enjoyed thus far.

Mucho pictures to come- once it's daylight again and I can take some.

Oh yeah, and I guess we'll have to take our dirty laundry across town and wash them at Granny and Daddy Dave's. Until we can organize our schedules we're washer-less. Ugh. For a house that does laundry on a daily basis, this is difficult!

On the sock front- I'm 7 repeats in and they're looking great! Yes, I really am that slow at knitting! But I enjoy the process, so it's all good.

And that, my friends, is enough rambling for one day.

Monday Morning

We had a productive weekend around here. Wil gave in and purchased a new lawnmower, despite the fact that we have two sitting in the shed. Both of them were in such state of disreapair that it would have probably cost more to fix them up than it did to just go buy a new one. He also bought a new trimmer that has inter-changeable heads so that we can also use it to trim the pepper trees and palms around the house.

So yesterday Wil spent the better part of the day working in the yard. It's been way too long since he's done any such thing, and now it's like a whole new world out there. One that I'm not afraid to let the munchking run around in.

We've got great plans for some outdoor renovations here in the next few months. New landscaping, a new porch, and leveling out of an area that, over the past several years, has eroded down making our brick patio area off kilter.

Wendy is also going to build us a fancy new garbage can holder to hide the unsightly things and also to prevent late night theivery from the various wild critters. It'll also have room for our recycling bins which have always been a source of frustration. The city provides these open style bins that, with the least bit of wind, scatter your recycling all across the yard. Quite frustrating to constantly be picking up your trash!

We're also slated for a new porch addition shortly. It's been a long time coming, and I'm hoping that, once I'm no longer working and trying to fit all of my house work into one day a week, things will start moving along at a faster pace. It'd be nice to have everything done before J's birthday. Then, maybe, we could actually have his party here, rather than depending on the parents so much.

In other news- our washing machine finally gave out over the weekend. Good thing it happend on the very last load I was washing. So J's Sponge Bob bed cover had to be wrung out and and finished off in the bath tub, but no big deal. We've already been pricing new ones. And in the mean-time, we're going to borrow Wendy's. She lives in an apartment that doesn't have washer/dryer hook-ups, so hers is being stored in the parents shed right now. Might as well put it to good use for a little while- at least until we can decide on what new one we want.

So, nearly 6:20 in the morning. I need to go wake up the munchkin and get him ready for what will be my final full week of work. I'm approaching this with a sense of dread. I really am ready to be done with it all. The only thing that keeps me from not showing up this morning is that I have my dog scheduled for a procedure on Thursday. As an employee I get a hefty discount on surgical procedures, etc. If I quit now, I'll be shelling out full price for it. Yes, I did that on purpose- scheduling it for the end of the week. Sometimes I'm smart like that.

Anyway, time to nuke the leftover coffee, get the kid in some clothes and trek off to Abuela's. She's agreed to watch him this entire week so that I don't have to send him back to daycare. Thank God for inlaws, eh?

Flickr

Because I tend to share so many photos of my munchkin, and on the advice of Jim, I have created a flickr account. Of course, that in no way means that I'll have fewer pictures here on my blog. It's just easier to dump a whole bunch of stuff into flickr. If you go look right now you can even catch a few shots from Barnhenge. My favorite is the one of J and Laura in the sprinkler. It just looks so... I don't know- serene?

Anyway. That's all for now.

you can check it out at My Flickr Account

No Doubt Now

You know that the day is off to a good start when the first person you help in the morning looks like she just crawled out of the back seat of her car, oozing cheap whiskey from her pores, missing all of her teeth except for one broken and black one in the front, and her cell phone ringer, which she has to answer despite the fact that you're in the middle of a transaction, is "Sweet Home Alabama".

Good Lord! This can't go on much longer! And it won't.

Between the clients, the doctors and the co-workers, I just can't take any more. I guess once you've made the decision to leave some sort of magical curtain is pulled back to reveal all of the things that you've been sort of denying for so long, or have been blinded to by buying into the mindset of the collective.

"We are the borg." I doubt I have a whole bunch of Star Trek fans as readers, though.

Anyway, on top of my horrible day, I got one more confirmation that I'm doing the right thing. The picture below is living proof of the piss poor care kids get in daycare.



Ok, so accidents happen. I understand that and fully accept that my kid is going to eventually have scratches and bruises. But why didn't I get a phone call to let me know that he'd been injured? Why didn't someone tell me anything about it before I picked him up and walked in to find him all beat to hell?

What happened? Well, according to his accident report (hey, at least I got one this time!) one of his classmates pushed him while they were on the playground and he fell and scraped his face on a piece of mulch.

Must've been one of the biggest, meanest pieces of mulch in the world! I mean, look at him! The scraping and bruising goes from the top of his forehead to mid-cheek, and just barely misses his eyeball!

So we're done with daycare. Done Done Done. I've still got one week of work left, plus an odd Tuesday because no one wants to work the day after Memorial Day, but Wil's mom has already confirmed that she'll keep him for us those days. I just can't send him back there again and feel good about it.

For the record. I wasn't mean to the staff, either. I was actually incredibly calm and collected, once the initial shock wore off. I earned my gold star for the day.

Ok, so nearly 11. I've still got laundry spinning, the boys are sleeping, and it's another day at work tomorrow. But Granny's taking the kiddo to the Public Works fair tomorrow, which means that he'll get to look at all kinds of big trucks, ("Ohhh! Vroom!") and maybe even get to sit behind the wheel of a few of them. That's like Jonas heaven! Hopefully she'll get some pictures for us.

Goodnight, y'all.

Garden Gnomes, Socks and Long Days

Wow! Today was one of those days that totally reaffirmed the fact that I'm making the right decision by leaving my job. I'm not one of those people that takes anything lightly. I often agonize over things as simple as what to eat, so when it came time for me to say "Yep, it's time to quit. Time to stay home and be a Mommy and nothing else for a little while." I lost a lot of sleep over it. Still do, to be honest.

Today Dr. G. had me officially sign my resignation paperwork. I never thought that something like that would be so hard or seem so final. It's scary. I mean, I've done the math- I know we can live without my salary. I know that it's going to benefit Jonas in huge ways- but it's still a little unnerving to know that after the 30th I'm not going to have any demands on me- nowhere to be at 6:30 in the morning. You'd think I'd enjoy the idea of less stress, right?

The day itself was rough, too. Bad clients, long hours, grumpy co-workers. Or maybe I was the grumpy one- and to top it off, the drawer was $20 short. Interesting coincidence on my closing night when I'm getting ready to leave, eh?

On the bright side- at our monthly staff meetings we always do a drawing. One of the drug companies provides two folks a month with a $50 gift certificate to the store of thier choice. I won this month. So, as my parting gift, I'll finally be getting myself a new pair of shoes- courtesy of Merial. Thank you very much! I've been wearing the same shoes since I was pregnant with J. I just hate shelling out big bucks for shoes. So it'll be nice to indulge myself at someone else's expense.

Ok, so onto other stuff.

Jonas has really enjoyed helping me in the yard. Every afternoon when we get home we take time to water the new plants and pull the weeds around them. It's not a lot of work or anything, but Jonas finds it to be a lot of fun. Wil has also taken the spreader thing out of the shed in preparation of scattering some grass seed to fill in all the dead patches from the drought. Here are some really cute pictures of J pushing the spreader with Puppy- his favorite stuffed animal.




It was really cute watching him try to figure out how to carry puppy AND push the spreader at the same time.

And in another strange turn of events- Jonas actually ate vegetables willingly yesterday! Zucchini and tomatoes that I was cutting up to go in a pasta salad.



And finally- the socks. I haven't been able to get a whole lot done on them because I've been so busy, but here's what I've got so far- one row short of three repeats. I think they look great. Maybe this weekend I can actually get more than twenty minutes of free time, eh?



But for now, it's J's bedtime, and we've got an early morning ahead of us, so I think I might just crash along with him.

G'night y'all.

Morning filler

Sent to my by Laura Amos this morning. Figured I'd do it here rather than mass-mailing it to all my buddies- feel free to copy, paste, fill and post to your own blog. Or not. :)

***Copy and Paste people, nobody likes those nasty arrows!***


1. FIRST NAME? Angie

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Oh Jeez! Happy cry? Just last night, watching Jonas sleep. Sad cry? My Daddy Dean's funeral last month.

4 DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Not one bit.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Salsalito Turkey from Boars Head

6. KIDS? Yep!

7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I sure hope so. But I'd probably only call when I needed something. :)

8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Used to have several of them- now there's just this.

9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? More than I should sometimes.

10. Do you still have your tonsils? Nope.
Pr
11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Despite my fear of heights, I probably would.

12 What is your favorite cereal? I'm boring- Rice Chex or Oatmeal

13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No.

14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Yes.

15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Vanilla, or Moose Tracks
16. What is your shoe size? 9-9 1/2

17. RED OR PINK? Red

18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My belly

19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? There are a lot of people, but probably my brother and sister-in-law. They're soooo far away! Everone else I could probably drive to in a day or so. :)

20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Why do they include this question?

21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? Ummm... NoneR

22. LAST THING YOU ATE? Reese's Peanutbutter Cups before bed last night. (blame it on PMS, ok)

23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? "Weebles Wobble! Weebles Wobble! Weebles Wobble, but they don't fall down!" C'mon Laura, sing it with me!!

24. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Probably one of the blues- like cornflower. Plain, unassuming, not very bold, but everyone seems to like it.

25. FAVORITE SMELL? My son's hair after a bath.

26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Wilfredo

28. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Love her to pieces.
29. FAVORITE DRINK? Coffee, coffee, coffee!

30. FAVORITE SPORT? Watching- Football. Playing- Umm, is kid chasing a sport?

31. HAIR COLOR? EYE COLOR? Dark blond, blue
33. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No

34. FAVORITE FOOD? Sushi, or just a good sandwich

35. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? I don't watch a whole lot of movies. Prefer Happy, I guess.

36. Last movie you watched? Finding Nemo

37. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Not. Now I feel like I have to explain- no shoes, no pants, no shirt! I'm wearing my new Mother's Day robe.

38. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter

39. HUGS OR KISSES? Both

40. FAVORITE DESSERT? Cookies

41. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No clue, really.
42. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? See above
43. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? *Hangs head sheepishly* Nothing.

44. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Don't have one, there's enough junk on my desk already.
45. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Star Trek with Wil. Food network
46. FAVORITE SOUNDS? J's laughter- complete silence.
47. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles

48. THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Washington

49. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Not really.
50. When and where were you born? November, Memphis, Tn.

Total sock drama

Ok, so I've visited both of the craft stores in town and it's been confirmed- people in Florida just DON'T knit socks. You can't get sock yarn anywhere within a 60 mile radius of here.

So, feeling frustrated, defeated, and resigned to ordering my yarn over the net, I spied some really pretty cotton yarn and thought... hmmm... cotton socks.

Maybe it's a huge novice mistake and cotton is really hard to knit with or something, but I'm going to give it a try. If I fail miserably, I suppose I can always rip it apart and use this yarn for something else, right? Besides, it really was such a pretty color that I couldn't resist.




So I'll finally get to cast on for my croc-socks tonight after the munchkin goes to bed. Yippie!

Mother's day here was rather relaxing. We pretty much just hung around the house until the afternoon. My boys gave me a beautiful boquet of flowers. I also got a couple of gift cards and a new robe. It's really cute! White with hot pink trim and little pink cherries all over it.

In the afternoon we went to my parents and had spaghetti for dinner, and then dropped by Wil's parents. See, nothing majorly exciting or anything, but it was nice and relaxing all the same.

Back to work today where the new girl (yes, they finally hired my replacement) arrived this morning, but after being informed that she'd have to take a drug test, she promptly quit. What a winner! :) So now they're scrambling to find someone to replace me and I'm left laughing my ass off because I gave them a friggin two MONTH notice and they're just now looking to hire. I almost feel sorry for the girls I'm leaving behind, but certainly not bad enough to hang around any longer.

So anyway, it's time for me to take the dog out before she pops, and Jonas and I need to go water our new plants. He's really taken to this gardening thing. They have a cute little kids set of gardening tools, complete with a hat and gloves and trowel at the store. I think I'm going to have to splurge before he kills himself with our big shovel.

My very first

Ok, so I've gone and done it now. I've joined my sister-in-law's sock knit-along!

I know... that's highly un-entertaining to those of you who don't knit, which is, well, all of you I think. But it's very exciting for me. Not only is this my very first knit-along, but it's also my very first pair of socks ever. Neat-o!

Yes, I do realize that means that I'm sort of sidelining two or more current projects in order to jump aboard this one, but that's ok. I need a break from the larger project because, well, it's just so large, and boring, and the smaller one is more of my "car knitting" thing anyway, and I'm more than 2/3 done with it, so it won't take me long to finish. And that particular piece is not time-restricted.

So Jim and Laura, if your baby never gets a blanket from me you'll understand, right? Or if he gets it as a high school graduation gift.

Ok, so I'm excited to be jumping into this, but at the same time, I'm a little nervous. You see, I'm a really, really, really slow knitter and very much a novice, and I'm not used to being at the rear of the class on anything. But I really enjoy knitting, despite my obvious lack of skill and speed, and I think it'll be fun. So croc-socks, here I come! Yippie!

Well, ok, I suppose I need to go get yarn first, right? Hopefully Jo-Ann will carry something worth having. Otherwise I'm going to have to internet order and then I'll just be that much farther behind everyone else. :( I guess it's not really a race anyway, right?

Ok, that's my knitting news for today. Tonight Wil, J and I are going downtown for Friday Fest. It's just a small block-party sort of thing the city puts on once a month. But it'll be cool- full moon, drum circle down towards the river, and lots of good coffee, maybe even a beer if I'm feeling froggy. I have to work in the morning, though, so probably just coffee.

Better go get dressed now and see if I can get J to eat something.

If I don't check in again before then, I'd like to wish all of the mommy readers out there a happy mother's day on Sunday. Hope your kids do something nice for you- or at least let you sleep in past 7:30!

21 months

It's J's birthday today. It's hard to believe that he's 21 months old already. I mean, we're just that close to two, right?

I look at him and every day I am amazed. He's so big, so handsome, becoming so independent, and yet he'll still tolerate all of my smothering and affection.

Yesterday, when I picked him up from Abuela's after work, he was sitting in a chair with a book they had bought for him. It's one of those "My first word" type of books, only bi-lingual so that they can read it with him. Funny that the grandparents are learing right along with the babe, eh? Anyway, I was saying... He's looking at this book, and he's got it turned to a page full of different shapes. I've never really reinforced shape names with him a lot. I mean, when we do the shape sorter we'll talk about which shape he's putting in where, and how many sides it has, etc. But I've never actually quizzed him on it. So I asked him, "Jonas, where's the square?" and I'll be damned if he didn't point to it! Thinking it might just be a fluke, we moved on. "Jonas, where's the circle?" I asked. Again, he pointed to the correct shape. We went on like this through every shape on the page, and the only one he missed was star, for which he chose a diamond. Pretty close, I think.

He's also begun to open up with his vocabulary a lot. I've always known that he understands us just fine, but he's never been a big talker. Ever since our trip to Barnhenge he's been a little chatter-box. I guess being around two really intellectual people for a few days rubbed off. :) Seriously, he's asking questions and everything. Mostly "what's that?" or "what is it?" or "where did it go?" But then he listens intently to the answers and it's like he's building this huge memory bank of stuff- cause and effect, relationships, objects. Amazing!

And for some humor- while visiting Laura and Doug, J was sort of nicknamed Onomatopoeia Boy for the simple reason that even if he doesn't know the name of an objet, he knows and will mimic the noise it makes. I found this incredibly cute, but when I tried to share it with some co-workers yesterday, they just gave me that blank-stare sort of look. Not a single one of them understood what it meant. God I hate feeling like I'm "above" someone.

Anyway, I've got to go get J ready for another day at Abuela's. She offered to keep him again today so that I don't have to deal with paying daycare this week. Man, I wish I could talk her into keeping him for the next two weeks as well!

Y'all have a good day.

Insert title here

Today Jonas and I decided to get out of the house for a little bit and play in the yard. I've been itching to get something green in the ground, but with the drought it's seemed pretty pointless. Despite my better judgement, we found ourselves in the garden center picking out a couple of plants.

I'll readily admit to being a terrible plant parent, allowing everything to die off from either under watering, over watering, or just plain old neglect, but I figured I'd give it a try, and perhaps by getting Jonas involved and making their care a part of our daily routine I'd do a better job than usual.

So we planted four different tomato plants, two basil plants and a pepper plant. Most of them went into pots that have been empty since the hurricanes nearly two years ago, the others into the front flower bed.

Here are a few pictures of Jonas helping me out. Yes, I know, the yard and what few plants I actually have look like something out of a horror movie, but I swear, I'm working on changing my ways.


Jonas waters... ummm... himself.


Dig, baby, dig.

Fairy Dust and Fire Smoke

Sunday night I almost resolved to never wash my hair again. Lying on the pillow in Doug and Laura's guest room for the last night, wrapped in the warm scent of smoke from the fire and glitter shimmering from my hair.

I could sit here and tell you guys every single detail of my trip and how amazingly cool it was, but it almost seems like doing so would cheapen the beauty of it- as if there aren't the right words.

I will say this- Doug and Laura are two of the most amazing and beautiful people I've ever met in my life. They simply radiate goodness. I've been truly blessed to have crossed paths with them. Truly, truly blessed.

Thank you guys for some of the greatest days of my life.

Maybe later I'll be able to fill in the details, maybe even share some pictures, if D and L don't mind having their mugshots posted here. For now, I'm simply exhausted in that super-content sort of way.

Not Today

I'm going to Barnhenge, dammit... but it won't be today.

There's a massive brush fire that's been raging in the north part of the county for the last week or so. Overnight it flared up to over 5000 acres and all of the roads north of Rockledge, which is about 20 miles north of here, are closed. There's no way possible that I can catch a flight in Orlando if I can't get to Orlando.

So, while sitting in traffic detouring off the interstate and heading back south I call the airline to see what my options are. Well, if I can get to Orlando I can pay a small fee and sit on standby until a seat becomes available. Ummm... what part of roads closed do they not understand?

Or I can pay a $100 fee to reschedule. Now, if it were my fault that I wasn't getting on my flight I could understand the reschedule fee, but I have no control over acts of God, do I? But despite three phone calls from both Wil and myself, in two different languages, and to every "supervisor" at US Airways reservations, they are unwilling to even meet us halfway. I find this incredible. Poor, poor customer service. But I suppose it is a business. The guy on the phone tells me that there's no way that he can confirm the brushfire and the fact that the roads are closed. So I turned my radio all the way up, pressed the phone to the speaker and let him listen to the traffic report. Still no budging.

So I guess if I really want to go- and I do really want to go- I'm going to have to pay the fee. Either that, or they can refund my ticket, minus a $100 processing fee. Ummm... WTF?!

I'm trying to find a flight out tomorrow and hoping that they've got this beast of a fire under control by then. I think I'll try and get a later in the day sort of flight and that way Florida Highway Patrol has more time to figure out what they're going to do.

BTW, Laura is supercool, and funny as hell. When I called her to let her know not to drive all the way to PA to pick me up, instead of getting all bent out of shape over some botched plans, she simply said, "Ok, I'll put the horse and buggy away."

For now I'm going to just cross my fingers, and hope that we make it out of here tomorrow.

Packing... again

J and I have been packing our suitcase today. Or, more correctly, I've been packing and he's been unpacking. We're off to Barnhenge tomorrow! Yippie!

I'm so excited about this trip. I haven't had a "vacation" in a very very long time. Sure, we've travelled around, visited family, etc. But a vacation just for the sheer pleasure of getting away? Nope, I can't even remember the last one.

This morning we shopped. I've told you before that I can't go into any store that sells kids shoes without checking them out. Well, today was no exception. So I went to Toys R Us simply looking for a bag they advertise on their website to hold the carseat. According to the reviews this bag is rather roomy and would hold not only the carseat, but some of the other stuff that we're taking, which would solve some luggage problems. Of course, they were sold out, which is just my luck. But I did get J a new pair of shoes. They're nothing spectacular, but they're nice and lightweight and actually a name brand shoe for under $20. Of course, he won't wear these to school- ever- if I plan on keeping them beautiful and white for more than a few hours. Good thing he only has about two weeks of daycare left before that's all behind us.

So, after buying shoes that we really didn't NEED, we stopped by Target, hoping that maybe they carried this bag. Nope. But I did find a nice large duffle bag with wheels and a handle, which will make dragging luggage, a carseat and a kid through the airport a bit easier. I'm not taking his good carseat due to it's sheer size and weight. Instead he'll be travelling in ghetto luxury in the borrowed Dale Earnhardt, padding chewed by a nervous dog, lightweight version. Good thing he's too young to have an opinion about it.

So the bags are pretty much packed, other than the last minute stuff. I'm still trying to decide which of his toys will be airline friendly and fit in a small carry-on bag. And quite honestly, I'm worrying way too much over this stuff. I mean, it's not like we're going to the end of the world. I'm sure Laura and Doug have a store somewhere within driving distance of their house if I should forget anything important, right? I'm the chronic over-packer. But at least I can admit my weakness, right?

In other good news, a check came in the mail last night from the people who financed my car. Apparently we overpaid them when we paid off the loan. So, all that extra shopping I did, it's sort of a wash.

Ok, so off to the airport at an ungodly hour because, even though our flight doesn't leave until 8, Wil has a meeting at work in the morning and has to be there an hour and a half earlier than usual. So, in order to get us to the airport and get himself back to town in time, we're going to have to get there way early. I'm sure the airport serves coffee and breakfast, though. And J will enjoy running around the terminal and all of the gift shops.

Jeez, I've typed all of this, and I've still failed to mention how absolutely nervous I am about the fact that we'll be invading Laura and Doug's little zen space for so long. I hope they don't get sick of us! :) If so, I'm sure there's enough acreage for us to disappear for a while.

I told Laura this morning that I've got that feeling that you get as a child on Christmas Eve as you're trying to fall asleep- that magical feeling where you actually believe that Santa really might leave a pony under the tree in your livingroom.

Anyway, It's 5 pm. Jonas just finally gave in and took his nap. This is going to make for an interesting evening. I should probably wake him up soon, despite the crankiness it will cause. That, and I need to finish up some stuff around the house before I go. I wonder if Wil is going to survive without me for a week? *I'm joking, of course* We do have a microwave.

Until later...

Addiction

Yup, I think my son may have a problem.