liza thinks

Camping Trip - San Simeon

Left Friday after school and headed off to San Simeon State Park down near Hearst Castle on the coast. The drive down wasn't as hot as we'd expected -- thankfully. I was praying for fog and it was foggy. Perfect weather as far as I was concerned. Foggy evenings and nights and sunny but coolish days. Wonderful! We had a great time although there were some major SNAFUs. For one thing, we had a flat tire on the 5th Wheel. The good news was that it wasn't until we parked that it went flat so that was nice. We ran over some piece of metal. We hit an auto parts store and got some tire inflator stuff, sealant, and a 12 volt air pump. Worked great. The other major SNAFU was that I forgot when Greg's birthday was. I thought it was on Sunday so I thought I was ahead of the game when we started celebrating on Saturday afternoon -- of course, it was ON Saturday. Poor guy! Sigh. He took it well and seemed to enjoy the Martinis I made him as well as the great skirt steak we had for dinner. I drove most of the way home yesterday to give him a break and I bbqed at his parents as his dad didn't want to and seemed to think Greg should anyway. Bob would have but I was being slightly martyred at that point.

Today, I made him a cheese pie (secret family recipe) and he was thrilled! :)

Probably the most fun thing we did on the camping trip was go to the beach. I normally hate the beach and avoid going but I had fun once we were there. It's a very rocky beach -- and you can rock hound there. Greg and the kids built a fort that we defended from the encrouching tide. That was fun. We had fun doing that. Gage and Ruth had a blast in the water -- challenging the waves, running in and letting the waves come around their ankles. The water was freezing but we had a so much fun!

We took a drive up a really pretty canyon after that. So beautiful. We could totally imagine buying 5 acres there and setting up a place to park our RV and vacation there whenever we wanted to. Pipedream but a fun one. We love that area so much. My favorite thing to see down there is a gorgeous old farm between Harmony and Cambria. Gorgeous old farm house and barn. They raise Longhorn there which is totally fun. It's lovely.

I saw tons of birds. Most notable were Great Egrets -- probably saw a dozen on the trip. Also saw lots of Red-tailed Hawks, Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures. Saw a bunch of crows at the campground. Delightful birds. Lots of swallows at the campground too. Saw a bunch of Brown Pelicans flying around -- one group flew right over us. Greg said, "Please don't poop!" which delighted the kids to no end. And, thankfully, they didn't poop! Whew!

We're exhausted but it was fun. I got a bad sunburn on my left shoulder (driving in a tank top). Just finished peeling from the Great America burn and I got a new one. Lovely. What a sun dork I am.

Nothing new on the job front. Just waiting to hear about an interview for the 4/5 Combo job. Fingers crossed. Summer School continues. I don't love it or hate it. It just is. Some of the kids are great and some make me nuts. I will survive.

:)

Done and done.

Okay.

I'm done. And, done! Here is the current status in our house.

1. I turned in everything I could at 12:00 midnight last night. Damn. I did not finish one of my assignments. I am feeling REALLY down on myself right now. Are there reasons why I didn't finish LAST NIGHT????? Yup. Do any of them change the fact that I shouldn't have been finished 4 assignments last night? Nope. It just sucks. I screwed up. Not sure what the ramifications are yet. We'll see.

2. The Princess is WAY better but not before scaring the pants off me. In the midst of my cram session yesterday, I checked her temp at she was at 101.2. So, I gave her a dose of ibuprofen. 1/2 hour later, I checked her again -- still hot (really hot). Took her temp 103.9. Yup. That's a nice thing to see on the thermometer. So, I called the doctor who hadn't returned Mr Wonderful's call of that morning. The receptionist was not real helpful but she did finally figure out what to do and handed me off to a nurse. The nurse was awesome. Told me to give her Tylenol while she went and talked to the doctor. So, dosed her with liquid Tylenol (not an easy task -- she hates medicine) and waited. They called in a prescription for me to Walgreen's. And told me to give her a cool bath. Fortunately, this was when Mr W got off the phone (poor guy -- he's been swampped too) and took over. Gave her the bath (taking her temp right along) and let me know when she was down to 100.2 again. Whew! Then he went and got her meds (and got himself a glucose tester -- more on that later). With two doses of antibiotics in her, she hasn't needed any fever meds. Her temp got up to 100.2 again this morning but was at 97.7 (normal for her) this morning. YAY! First time she's had a temp below 99 since Monday night.

Yawn.

So. It's 6:35am. I'm barely conscious. Mocha not quite cool enough to drink (only those tiny tongue-scalding sips that are very unsatisfying). I'm reelingly tired due to late nights cramming to get all my work done for my program. Scared that I won't get it done. Anyway . . .

The Princess is sick. She has what The Boy Wonder had last week -- fever up to 102 for no clear reason. Virus. Let it run its course. Oh joy. Midnight:30, we got her up to give her meds and she was 101.9 and talking her little silly head off. Chatterbox! I figured she'd sleep in some this morning but no. I can hear her in her room singing. I'm on the other side of the house, if I can hear her, Mr Wonderful can certainly hear her in the next room with the doors open. Heh.

The trouble is that tomorrow, The Princess has a HUGE field trip to Elkhorn Slough to see birds and experience the wildlife. Poor thing is totally bummed about possibly missing it. But, she's being brave. I told her I'd take her out if she can't go on the field trip and she's happy about that.

The Boy Wonder has been giving me fits. Don't know WHAT is up with him. Monday morning he didn't want to go to school. It was awful. Clinging to me, crying. His teacher (bless her!!!) had to hold him while I peeled myself off and left. Sigh. She called me in my room later to let me know that it took him 45 minutes to join the group. On the upside, it was Math that called him out of his funk. That's my boy. Last night he completely melted down after dinner. Crying miserably because "It wasn't fair that she got to sit on the rocker and he didn't." Of course since they were BOTH supposed to be eating their dinner, they didn't get much sympathy. I suspect he's picking up on my stress levels and showing me what it feels like to live with it. Swell.

I got the camera lens (telephoto) that I ordered for my camera yesterday. I'm not even opening the box until Saturday morning. It'll suck me in and I'll waste precious time I could be working. Sigh.

This too shall pass. This too shall pass.

Do you want whine with your morning coffee?

Spring is here!

Look at those gorgeous flowers. They are stolen with all due credit and amazement from Julie Zickefoose [click]. She makes me wish it was fall so I could go buy more daffys and plant them so I could be enjoying them right now. They are Salome -- utterly gorgeous. Why don't I have any planted in my yard? I'm so enamoured of the traditional yellow daffys that I forget the glorious nature of other colors! I need some Mt Hoods growing (in honor my father) and some Salomes and other pink daffys to brighten my spirit. I need some itty bitty daffies and some great huge ones. I need doubled and ruffled daffys. Basically, I need a LOT more daffies in my life! There are so many beautiful choices out there [click].

Or is it?

As I sat listening to the rain POUNDING the roof last night, I mentioned to Mr Wonderful that it is one of my favorite sounds in all the world in November but in April it makes me feel sad and dreary and hopeless. I honestly wished that the phone would ring at 6am this morning saying that a tree was down and school was cancelled. Of course what that really means is that our late Spring Break is really too late. By this time next week, I'll be sitting here gloating that I don't have to work. But, today. I do have to work. And, Mr Wonderful will be out of town all week -- oh joy.

I need a theme this week. I think I'll be humming "I Will Survive!" under my breath. Sing it, sister.

A rare day

What a difference a week makes, eh? Snow is rare in our neck of the woods but we got a good blast of it this morning. By mid-afternoon, I guess it was GONE but still it was a fun way to start the day. I walked into the kitchen to make my coffee and thought, "Wow, that rain sure is heavy . . . and white." What can I say, it was early in the AM. I woke up Mr Wonderful and the Boy Wonder (The Princess was at a sleepover in another town and missed it!). So fun!

Here is my gorgeous maple tree dressed for winter . . .

AHHHHHHHH!

Hormones. Are. An. Ugly. Thing.

Must control.

Half way to the grocery store (a one hour round trip -- not counting the time in the store), I realized that we still had to do Valentine's for school tomorrow. Great.

Then the grocery store was ridiculously crowded (nothing says, "I love you" like last minute flowers from Safeway?????) and despite the fact that we were $37 in groceries, we had to wait 20 minutes in line. Then food for dinner -- fast food. Then home. I griped and moaned the whole way (see comment above on Hormones!).

My little darlings ran into the house and told me not to look while they proceeded to clean the living room. Now, they did it their way which meant that many things were missed and some odd choices were made but this was clear evidence that they a) recognized my grumpiness and b) wanted to do something to help and c) realized that cleaning up a mess they made was a good way to accomplish that. Evidence of higher thinking!!!

So, we sat down and cranked out a bunch of Ninja Turtle and Polly Pocket valentines. Then The Princess made two handmade cards (with a little help from moi) for her Big Buddies at school. And, then I finally herded them to bed . . . an hour late. Sigh. When I went to gripe at The Boy Wonder for not being asleep yet, he said, "But I wanted to show you something." I stifled a sigh and went into to see. He was writing in his journal and had written . . . by his little kindergarten self, mind you . . . the following: "I love u Mom. Gage." And, then he told me that he wrote his name in case I forgot. What a doll.

So, my babies are growing up. The Princess prances around here looking adorable with her long, leggy body that at 7.5 makes it all to easy for me to envision her at 14 and therefore scares the crap out of me. And, The Boy Wonder proves to me over and over again that boys are not inherently less loving and demonstrative but that our society must beat it out of them and I wonder how I can possibly keep him from turning out that way. His dad is pretty good and getting better so maybe there is hope.

And, despite all that, my hormones rage. And, when Mr W does come home, I'm sitting all grumpy on the couch watching the Olympics and not wanting to be touched.

Hormones suck.

lizalee

[click!]

Just rediscovered my old livejournal site. I did that for ages and then stopped in favor of blogger and now I'm usingTypepad. I guess I can't make up my mind about what tool works best. Anyway, it was fun to peek back through old posts.

Thanks to This and That for reminding me to look/see.

What if you gave a party and . . .

no one came.

And, what if it was a party for your kindergartener?

That was us on Sunday. The Boy Wonder's 6th birthday party. And, no one showed up. Well, our neighbor's son -- who half lives here when The Boy Wonder isn't living over there -- came -- thank goodness. But, that was it.

Two parents RSVPed that they were coming-- including my best friend -- but they didn't make it. One family gave The Boy Wonder his present at school today -- their car broke down on the way to the party. But no word on anyone else.

One of the families that didn't make it was . . . family! The Boy Wonder's cousin didn't come or RSVP. Sigh.

It's really disappointing.

The Boy Wonder handled it really well. N asked him at one point, "Where is everyone?" The Boy Wonder said he didn't know. N said, "I must have come really early." He's a good kid.

Still and all, The Boy Wonder did have fun. I got some great pictures and it was certainly more manageable than a real party.

To help make up for it, we took The Boy Wonder out to dinner. He picked Burger King. Ahhhhh, to be six again.

On the other hand, the house is clean and looks fantastic. Very motivating. I think I'll get organized tonight and see if I can't use RTM [click!] to help me keep on top of things.

Procrastination

[click]

I love this. I'm not wasting time when I procrastinate . . . I'm working towards a higher purpose.

Seriously though, does my doing a Sudoku puzzle [click] count when I'm supposed to be doingany one of a thousand other things? Hmmmmmmm. I'll have to ponder that for awhile -- in the back of my mind while I do a Sudoku to relax.

Yea, that's the ticket.

What a day!

At 12 minutes to 3 today, I was finishing up Math Club with a great group of 6th graders. An announcement came over the intercom tellingus that the main road to our town was closed due to a downed tree and powerlines. They were estimatingit would be closed for at least 2 hours. Oh boy! No buses could get through and many parents would be unable to get to school quickly to pick up there kids.

So, lots of jugglinglater, Homework Club continues but wow was it chaotic. The kids were all in a tizzy over the excitement. We also had to figure out how each child usually gets home. Then when it was over, I released the kids who walk home or go to the Y and then escorted the rest to the MP Room. The Princesswas thrilled -- they were playingNemo really loudly on the TV in there.

I ran around and helped where I could and eventually when most of the kids were picked up, I went to gather up my things and go claim The Princessie.

My feelingwas that The Princesswas fine. She was watchingNemo and having a snack and seemed happy as a clam. But she also was absorbingsome of the energy and trauma around her. She had gotten a new snack toy at the Prize Room for the ReadingZone at lunchtime. A cheap toy snake. And, while watching the movie, she sat on it in such a way that she broke it. She completely came unglued. It was awful. It wasn't until after we left, got g, and came home that I was able to get her to calm down. We sat in the bigblack rocker/recliner and rocked. She slowly relaxed and was okay.

I think we can fix the snack (although it's totally not worth the crazy glue to do it) and it'll be fine.

So, I expended a lot of extra energy today soothingall sorts of kids. Now, I think I'll go soothe myself awhile. I think I'm ready for my observation tomorrow. I also think I'll lay out breakfast and lunch and all our clothes too. Just so the morninggoes more smoothly.

Oh yea, we had a CRAPPY morning too. Totally late, bitchy mom. No wonder The Princesshad a meltdown this evening. Poor munchkin.

Tomorrow is another day.