a little briefcase

I flew into Sam's Club yesterday to grab some fruit. As I was whisking by the front entrance lady and waving my member ID card in her general direction ... she said something to me. I guessed that she didn't see my ID card ... so I slowed down some and flashed my card at her a second time.

"I was wondering if you had something to return," she called.
"Nope," I answered.
"Oh ... I just thought ... the ... bag," she continued and gestured towards this ... this stylish, ultra-cool, bag slung over my arm ... with random stickers for the "finishing touch" ...
"No. Nothing to return. I just have a ... very ... strange ... purse." That was the first thought that came to mind. I didn't tell her that I've been calling it my pink briefcase.

Why the pink briefcase purse??? Several months ago, back when it was nectarine season, I had a nectarine in the tote bag I was currently using. {I am a washable tote bag kind of gal ... no fancy designer purses for me.} Anyway, one of my children happened to kneel on my tote bag and the nectarine got squished of course ... and made a fine mess in the tote. In a pinch and in a hurry, I temporarily transferred most of my stuff into this plastic pink gift bag. I also have blue and green gift bags just like this one ... all ready for the next fruity fiasco ...

But alas ... my out-of-town in-laws ... who didn't even know about my plastic pink briefcase ... gave me this darling tote for Christmas. So I guess it's time to relegate the pink briefcase to the trash can. Farewell ...

a little RRR

Recent Random Reports ...

I. Little Dude has discovered how to operate the volume on the boom box ... and he likes it loud :/ While listening to music, he often sits on the floor and taps his right foot ... to be more accurate, he thumps his entire right leg.

II. Little Buddy likes chap-stick. With the cap on, he'll pretend to put it on his lips. He is quite cooperative when I apply it around his mouth {which has been rashy lately}. His fondness for chap-stick is generally a good thing ... except for when Little Buddy tried the glue-stick out as though it was chap-stick.

III. Several days ago, I bopped into Sam's Club while the rest of my family waited for me in our vehicle. All I was planning to do was purchase a few gallons of milk. {We go though about six gallons per week. Maybe it's time for a cow???} Anyway ... as I was aiming for the back of the store and the milk coolers ... I heard this announcement being made ...

"Come on over to aisle thirty-five. Every shopper in the store will get a free knife. That's right. Ev-er-y shopper. No purchase necessary! Just head on over to aisle thirty-five and pick up your free, yes free, knife!!! Each and every customer can get a free knife. Come on over!" Now ... I like free stuff! I know you do too :) So ... I veered off the milk track and headed instead ... for aisle thirty-five. When I got there, lots of other people who like free knives were there too ... as well as a saleslady ... and a cloth-covered table. I could not, however, spot a single knife ... free or otherwise. Then ... she, the saleslady, began her spiel ...

Apparently, we had to listen to a little sales talk in exchange for our free knife. Apparently, I'm a little gullible ... and apparently, there's no such thing as a free knife. Now you know :)

IV. Speaking of milk and cows ... do I really want a cow??? No. I was talking to a couple of friends recently about some farm-fresh milk they've been buying. When I inquired about the milk, one of the gals replied, "Well, it's not pasteurized. And it's really creamy ... because it's whole milk. But it's kind-of chunky ... and it tastes ... a little bit ... like ... straw."

V. I drew my very first lego mini-figure this morning per Halo's request. The kids deemed it "famous". Then, I played around with enlarging it and made photocopies so everyone could color one :)

a little Thanksgiving

This was Thanksgiving ... although you might not guess that from the pictures :)

Little Stoic and Grandpa ...
Give him a ball and he'll probably smile ...
The third-borns ... dressed up and parading about ...
And the cookies ... no, I'm not having a baby. But my sister is! She made these darling cookies and handed this tin around as their "announcement"! Isn't that clever??? It's extremely exciting as they have been hoping and praying ... and waiting ... a long, long time for this blessing.

a little perch

We had, as most of you know, the most wonderful fall ~ nicer than any I can recall. And here is Little Dude about a month ago ~ on one of those lovely fall afternoons ~ sitting on the front step. He is quite happy to perch himself here ~ probably because it's just the right size "bench" for him :)

Anyway, as I mentioned, the autumn days were overwhelmingly beautiful ... and it almost seemed like the cold and the snow might never arrive. And then Saturday came ... and we woke up to several inches of *S*N*O*W* ... and it was beautiful too. For a few brief moments ... it was beautiful ... until I started to feel a bit trapped. Then, my husband suggested I venture out into the cold and shovel. Oh joy! I guess winter is here after all ...

a little firstborn

Happy ELEVENTH (oh my!) Birthday to our precious Halo!!! We were telling her a bit about the day of her birth today ... and so I got the idea to blog about it for posterity ... for when Halo is older ... and the details are more fuzzy in my mind. So if you're not up for a birth story ... or if you've already heard how we got our precious Halo ... then come back for my next post :)

So ... Halo's due date was November fourth. I don't remember what time I went to bed on November fifth. Probably late ... as I'm prone to be a night owl. Anyway, it was a Friday night. I think I was just laying in bed for a while in a state of uncomfortableness and then I was suddenly in agonizing PAIN. Anyway, by 1 am ... maybe 1:30 ... on November sixth ... I was writhing around on our bedroom floor. Insane pain in my back. After having more children, I now know that we should have been heading straight to the hospital at this point. But no, I was told to call the nurse hotline when I thought it might be TIME. So I did.

I told the nurse that the pain in my back was so crazy that I couldn't determine when the contractions were beginning or ending. The nurse then instructed me to get in the bathtub, try to time my contractions, and she would call me back in about an hour or two to see how I was doing. Oh ... and Jeff was supposed to pour hot water over my back. Okay. Here I am ... past my due date ... in TONS of pain ... and I'm being directed to get into the tub??? It was time for the baby to come! What else would it be? I'm past due. But no ... I needed a dip in the tub.

Sooo ... how does a full-term pregnant person WITH BACK LABOR get in and out of a bathtub??? Not easily. No ... not easily at all. Nonetheless, we followed the nurse's orders. We had never been through this labor and delivery stuff before ... and so we knew very little. The bathtub idea was disastrous ... and I ended up on the carpet again ... continuing to writhe. When are they going to call back??? When are they going to call back??? That's all I kept asking whenever I was able to utter anything.

Finally, they did call back and gave me permission to proceed to the hospital. My lucky day! When I arrived, I was too far along for the epidural ... so that decision was already made for me.

So ... back labor ... we heard about it in birthing class and that "it's so rare" ... so I figured it probably wouldn't happen. But it did. We had brought our Brookstone Thumper Massager along and Jeff used it on my back for a half hour or so ... until it blew up. Then ... pop cans! We recalled from the birthing class that pounding pop cans can help alleviate some of the pressure from back labor. So ... Jeff spent the next hour or two pounding full pop cans into my back. I was quite bruised after all of this ... but he couldn't pound hard enough! I wanted it harder.

Then came over four hours of pushing. The top of Halo's head kept peeking out and then slipping right back in. The blood vessels in my face were shot. My eyes had changed shape. I did not look like myself. By this time, two nurses and my husband were constantly holding my limbs ... nearly holding me together ... I was so weak. Next, my midwife decided to give me another fifteen minutes to try and get the baby out ... otherwise she was going to resort to suction, vacuum, whatever it's called. {I, however, didn't know about the fifteen minutes and suction.} But ... lo and behold ... Halo came out in the next fifteen minutes! 11:52 in the a.m. Praise the Lord! She was 8 pounds 12 ounces and I can't remember her length anymore ...

Then, I looked at Halo and called out, "It's a boy!" In celebration, Jeff repeated after me, "It's a boy!" I think I was anticipating a boy ...

"Um, no. It's a girl!" said someone. Probably a nurse.

I was very happy about that. Way back then, I felt a bit unsure about having boys. I have two boys now though ... and they're wonderful ... of course :)

"Well ... I would rather run a hundred miles in my bare feet ... tomorrow ... than ever have to go through that again." That was the next thing I said. My commentary on labor and delivery. And I was determined that next time ... I would make sure to get to the hospital in time for an epidural. Did I??? No, but that's the story of Buddy ... and I'll save that for February.

a little bravado

One day last week ~ I can't remember which day anymore ~ was a busy and full day. Like most days. And the sun ... it set hours before I prefer it too. And so it was evening ... and it was dark ... and I was still hoping to cram a walk into my day. I announced I was going for a walk and Foofie said she wanted to bike along. Then Buddy ... trying to practice his male role of protector ... informed us that he was coming too. He didn't really want to go ... but he wanted to keep me safe. What a son I have!!!

So ... we bundled up a bit and set out. Not long into our jaunt, Buddy spied something and remarked, "Mama, I see a figure."

Now most kids would have said person ... instead of "figure" ... but if you are an eight-year-old who reads lots of mysteries and obsesses about legos ... then you say "figure". The correct term for lego people, by the way, is "mini-figure".

"No, you don't. It's probably a sign." I disagreed.
"No, it is a figure. I know the difference between a sign and a figure! It even has the form of ... legs and a body and a head and stuff." Buddy continued.
"I don't see any figure. You're just imagining things," I insisted.
"There is a figure, Mama. And it's moving now. And ... it's ... watching ... us," he said.
One might think he was trying to frighten his little five-year-old sister ... but he wasn't. He was definitely convinced he saw a figure ... and he ~ our protector ~ was just a wee bit scared.

Next, Foofie piped up ... with rather impeccable timing ... "I had a nightdream the other night. We were on a walk and a bear was coming at us!"
"Don't talk about that! You're giving me the creeps," Buddy ~ our protector ~ said.
"What color was the bear?" I asked ... wishing to hear more of her nightdream.
"Seriously! Don't talk about bears right now! I'm cold and I'm ready to go home!" Buddy stated.

Needless to say, our walk wasn't terribly long. Lord willing, Buddy will have a greater supply of bravado in a few years ... and we will be able to go on evening autumn walks with more confidence :)

a little mist

So ... back to facebook :) A couple weeks ago ... I was on facebook and this guy I knew from my junior year of high school ~ this was the only year I attended a private school ~ had posted an album with old ... er vintage ... pictures. We aren't "friends" ... but the reason I could see his album was because he "tagged" {facebook lingo} a gal in one of the pictures that I am "friends" with. As I was clicking my way through the album ... to my surprise, I came across a picture of myself!!! It was of me and the guy I went to prom with ... almost half a lifetime ago... AT PROM! Kinda funny. So ... I thought ... I wonder what he {prom date} is up to these days ... I wonder if he ever got married ... stuff like that. He was one of those charismatic whirlwind types ... full of energy and big ideas ... a disarming smile ... always fun to be around.

So ... I tried to look him up on facebook ... and from what I found, I was guessing he and his wife maybe shared their facebook. Then, I was looking at their friends ... and I could see someone had posted on their own facebook to pray for the wife of their friend from a certain college. It sounded drastic or serious or something. I can't remember the exact wording ... but this guy {prom date} went to that college and I got this funny feeling in my gut. So ... next, I googled ~ what an age we live in ~ his name to try and figure out something more. And I did.

He died. Back in May. Pretty shocking. I couldn't find out any cause of death online. I contacted a friend and she had heard that he perhaps had an unknown heart issue.

Why am I writing this? I don't know exactly. I think to remind all of us not to get hung up on the little things. Our life is but a mist. It was just so weird ... when I saw our picture from prom and began looking him up ... I assumed he was still alive. You know??? He was thirty-four and one just assumes that thirty-four year-olds are usually still living.

The next day, a friend of mine told me a story. I can't remember it too clearly anymore ... but here is the gist. A friend of my friend realized she had never really had any family photographs taken. So ... she arranged a portrait sitting for her family to remedy that. One of her children, a son, happened to be engaged ... and his betrothed, however, was not invited to be in the photo. When his betrothed found out about this, she was really mad ... outraged ... and the future mother-in-law was in the doghouse for a long, long time. Seriously??? Waging war over a family portrait??? Our life is but a mist ...

a little "pregnant lady"

Today, during a lovely Saturday afternoon walk, a neighbor darted out of his house and chased me down, bearing a large tomato in each hand. "Oh thanks!" I said appreciatively. "We're getting down to the end here," he said ... by way of explanation for he wasn't offering me eight or ten of the red spheres like he had on other days ... earlier in the summer. "Say ... what's your name?" he asked.

This man lives on the street that my street connects to and I have walked past this man's house dozens ... probably hundreds ... of times and we {and his wife} have exchanged many a pleasantry. I've admired their gardens and they've admired my kids ... but we had never exchanged names.

So ... I said, "Dana. And how about you?" "Dave," he replied, "and Wendy," he added ... pointing towards his house. "Good to know," he continued, "We've always just called you the pregnant lady." "That's funny," I said ... with a laugh and a wave.

As I was continuing on homeward ... now holding a large tomato in each palm ... I laughed again when I realized we had been calling them "the tomato people" ... or "the tomato guy" and "the tomato lady".

So ... is there anyone that you've made up a name for???

a little doctoring

On Saturday afternoon, after Foofie abandoned her doll playing and headed outside ... I discovered this ... Foofie's poor dolly had needed some doctoring. It appears that dolly got a "smooosh" on her chin ... just like Foofie's "smooosh" :) Some snipped pieces of kleenex and blue tape were the bandage. See the bed dolly is laying on? The bed was a puffy book supported by a candle on one end ... and then a toy cup with a roll of blue tape stacked on top to hold up the foot of the bed. I don't know what else befell dear dolly ... but apparently it wasn't good. Dolly also needed a tube in her mouth attached to a silvery vial. The tube was made out of bendable, gummy eraser and the vial was some foil-wrapped nail polish. Poor little dolly ... And another little Foofie story from just yesterday ...

"There's only two big boys in our family ... because one of our boys is a baby. But there are THREE big girls. You are big and Halo is big ... and I am big."

"Oh yeah? How big are you???" I teased.

"Oh ... like 42 ... or 41 ... or 43 inches .... probably."

a little Hermie {by Halo}

On Monday afternoon, my Mama found a HUGE, HUGE ... I’m talking HUGE, people ... caterpillar! She named it Hermie. It was really neato. It had a light green body with spiky orange, yellow, and blue knobs on it. We only had it for ONE day until it started making its cocoon! This morning, it was already fully encased in the cocoon. How cool! I hope it will be a butterfly ... but Daddy is guessing a moth.

P.S. This is a jumbo-sized peanut butter jar ... 40 ounces I think ~ Dana {Mama}

a little smooosh

It was the first day of officially being a kindergartner for Foofie ... and her second experience of racing off to get stitched back together :( She had a biking accident this evening. Apparently her brilliant older siblings constructed a little makeshift jump with some scraps of wood that were lying around ... and you know Foofie ... she just had to give it a whirl.

The doctor called her injury a "smooosh". He said it with seriousness as though it's a technical term, but I'm guessing it's not. A "smooosh", he said, is more hole-like ... versus a wound that is like a split, or a line. Poor little Foofie ...{PHOTO TAKEN THE FOLLOWING NIGHT}

a little speaking

Last night, I went to the annual kick-off meeting for the home-school co-op that we belong to. "Co-op" sometimes confuses people ... it's just a group of families ... we don't trade seeds or granola or anything. When we first started homeschooling and my kids would get asked where they go to school ... they would say, "we go to a co-op". This reply often raised some questions ... if not eyebrows. Rather quickly, the answer changed to ... "we're home-schooled".

Anyway, I went to this meeting ... and for the fifth straight year ... listened to all of the teachers give their little talks and then each of the board members shared a bit too. Every year, when I hear the speech teacher speaking, I think something like ... she's neat ... I like her ... I bet my kids will enjoy her class. She teaches seventh through tenth grade ... so I hadn't had any reason to make her acquaintance thus far. Last night, however, the speech teacher and I just happened to find ourselves at the snack table at the same time {getting cookies, of course} ... and I said, "I think you're so neat and I'm looking forward to having one of my kids in your class." She thanked me and then I added, very spontaneously, "You know ... when I was in school, I never had the chance to be in a public speaking or speech class ... maybe you could offer a little elective class for the moms sometime." Where did this idea come from??? It seemed totally out of the blue ... I had never even thunk this thought before ...

Then, tonight, my mother called me and we chatted about this and that and some nonsense too, I suppose. We were about to hang up when she said,

"Oh ... I've been meaning to tell you about this guy that I met at Savers a few weeks ago ..."

"Yeah?" I encouraged.

"Well ... there was this guy with a cart full of yellow tee-shirts ... new shirts. So I asked him what he was going to do with all of those shirts. And he said he was sending them to Africa. So I told him that my daughter {that would be me} had been to school in Kenya for a semester. And I found out that he is the pastor of a church. And he said it would be great if you would come speak to his young people."

"Hahahahahahahaha." This was me ... LAUGHING.

"Are you kidding??? Did you tell him I was there like fifteen years ago???"

"There's plenty of things you could talk about." Mom encouraged. "He gave me his business card so you can call him."

"Hahahahahahahaha. That's really funny. Really funny," I said. "Actually ... you know what makes it even funnier?" I continued ... and then, I proceeded to tell her the story, from just the night before, of my asking the speech teacher to offer a speech class for the mothers.

"See? God's lining it all up," Mom declared ... half-kidding ... half-not.

a little scribble II

Well friends ... Daddy and Halo returned to Wal-Mart again today with the now scribbled-on prescription in hand. A different gal assisted them this time and the mission was finally accomplished! Halo's new glasses will be ready on Sunday :) Can we get a woo-hoo???

THE END.

P.S. She loved reading all of the comments on the last post :)

a little scribble

Honest to Betsy! I think it would be easier for me to go out tomorrow and purchase some illegal drugs ... than it will be for me to ORDER SOME EYEGLASSES FOR MY NEARLY BLIND (okay, not quite) TEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER!!!

In the afternoon, on the day when we returned home from our blissful cruise ... Halo's glasses broke. Boo Hoo! I think two other mishaps happened as well ... but I can't recall them just now. Anyway, her glasses broke ...

So ... a day and a half later, Sunday afternoon ... we went to Sam's Club to buy some new glasses. Although we had a paper prescription in hand, the gal there tried to verify Halo's prescription on some database and couldn't find it ... so she would not order any glasses for us. Is there some shared database for this type of stuff??? It seems goofy that there would be. Anyway, she was going to call the doctor the next day to see if it was supposed to expire six or twelve months from the date of issue. I said, "Look. We have a prescription. It doesn't say that it is expired. It has been less than twelve months. She can still see well through her old, broken lenses ... so this is still a good prescription for her. We just need a new pair of glasses. We're not ordering these for kicks ..." She refused to bend.

Sam's Club did call us the next day to say that the prescription is indeed valid and we should return to the store to do the actual ordering. In the meantime, however, I had learned that Wal-Mart has frames for at least $50 cheaper ... and decided to look there instead, given that eyeglasses are quite fragile and prone to breaking ... especially with a baby brother who likes to grab at them.

So ... I didn't make it to Wal-Mart until last night ... eight days later. Halo and I picked out some frames ... waited a little while until THREE customers were helped ahead of us ... and then handed the lady our prescription and the frames we had selected.

"Oh ... I'm sorry ... I can't order these without a doctor's signature," she began.

"Are you kidding??? Sam's Club was going to order them but wasn't sure about the expiration. They never even mentioned a signature. There's not even a spot or a line on here for a signature. See the list of doctors? See how the doctor's name is exed? And I've already had this prescription filled once before ... last fall ... for the glasses that are now broken ..."

"Well, if we were to get audited ..." she started saying.

"If you were to get audited, it would be terrible that you filled this DOCTOR'S PRESCRIPTION for EYEGLASSES??? Are you serious??? It's not like we are getting these for fun. Oh ... my ... stars!" I said.

"I can't do anything without a signature," she continued.

"Okay," I said, very calmly. "How about you forget that I came in here ... and I walk out the door and then I just scribble something on here ... and then I come back in and we order the glasses?"

Wanda, that was her name, Wanda ... also refused to bend ... not that I expected her to. Nutso, I say! Who or what agency has time to see that all prescriptions filled for EYEGLASSES are signed by a doctor??? Good night! Eyeglasses! It's not like we are trying to acquire some drug ... pick one ... I can't think of any scandalous ones at the moment ... okay, Jeff just suggested oxycotton ... there you go!
Anyway ... tonight we tried again!

We had a plan. Jeff was going to scribble on the prescription ... but then he advised me to do it since, "a woman scribbles differently than a man." So ... I did a little scribble ... I didn't try to sign her name ... I just scribbled where one might have signed if that was actually necessary ... and then Jeff was going to take Halo in and attempt to order the glasses provided that Wanda wasn't working. But guess what???

Wanda was working :/

a little cruisin' conclusion

Halo ... happy to be helping with cousin Luke ...Our Anniversary ... complete with song and cake ...
Our last stop was Skagway ...
where we just bummed around a bit ...
appreciated the flowers ...
visited Sarah Palin ... and posed with totem poles :)
See if you can spot Halo and Foof ...
Ping pong was a hit ...
Our little cowboy ...
A visit to the bridge ...
Refreshing our palates ~ with something sorbet-like ~ in between courses ...
My lovely in-laws ...
The napkin wave ...
done to the tune of When the Saints Go Marching In. Isn't my sis-in-law the most dignified napkin-waver you've ever seen???
During this hoopla, the servers paraded in with the famous Baked Alaska dessert. FYI ... my father-in-law, a seasoned cruiser, informed us that they do the Baked Alaska dessert on every cruise that he knows of ... it wasn't just because we were in Alaska.
A formal shot ...
The last creme brulee ...
The babies ...
Foofie playing frogger at the airport ... running back and forth across the hallway ... dodging people, suitcases, and motorized carts :)

a little cruisin' III

It was all six of us, my father-in-law {aka Grandpa} ... and an afternoon in Juneau. We went on a fifteen-minute bus ride which brought us to this salmon creek and a hiking trail which led to an enormous waterfall and the famed Mendenhall Glacier. It was about a one-mile trek each way.

The glacier from a distance ... the waterfall is just to the right of it.
Happy Hikers :) This little adventure, by the way, was the first thing Foofie mentioned when I asked the kids what they liked best about the trip.
And here it is ... the reward at the end of the trail ... I don't know how to take those two strangers out of the photo though ...All three ... Halo, Buddy, and Foofie are great hikers ... and no, we didn't see any bears. Grandpa was a great hiker too ;)

a little cruisin' II

FYI ... photos can be enlarged by double left-clicking on them ...
This was Tracy Arm Fjord morning ... 6 to 10 am. We got up early ... snagged a table with a good view to have breakfast at ... and then returned to our room to enjoy the incredible sights from our deck.