Monday, May 29, 2006

I dove into the CD closet today to digitize some of our 2,000+ CDs and am listening to Depeche Mode's The Singles 86>98 and drinking a Shiner. While Judah takes a nap, Micheal & I cleaned our downstairs office. I mopped the floor with too much bleach in the water and now my eyes are cloudy and I think I may have burned out all of my nose hairs. Happy Memorial Day!

We have been very low-key all weekend, spending Saturday hiking again where we encountered some geocachers who asked if they could explore the park bench where we were sitting, eating some potato chips and taking in the scenic beauty of Texas wildflowers and butterflies. I had never heard of geocaching before, but now that I looked it up, I totally want to do this sometime. It sounds like a lot of fun and Judah loves to look for hidden treasure.

Yesterday, we went to White Rock Lake and some Korean Baptists had parked themselves right under a shady tree beside the playground. They had a boom box and some song sheets and were singing along to really annoying white people gospel songs. One lady was doing this offbeat whirling dervish and singing loudly with a throat warble. It was such high entertainment that we sat on a stone wall nearby to observe. One thing I have never understood is why people put their hands up in the air, palms up when they're full of the spirit. Micheal said it's so they can be closer to the Lord. I just don't put my religion out there in such a public way...never have. I'm very supportive of freedom of expression, so I wasn't overtly annoyed other than the fact that for me, gospel is more along the lines of Mahalia Jackson and Kirk Franklin. I was pretty happy once they wrapped it up and started the BBQ portion of their picnic.

I've been knitting a little here and there this weekend and am somewhat hopeful that I'll finish my pink kid mohair poncho by 2010. It is finally 25" long, so only 30" to go. Ha!

Friday, May 19, 2006

Yesterday when I picked Judah up from school, I parked right by a Chevy Tahoe which had the motor running. As soon as I got out, I noticed that the driver was revving the engine while it was in park. It was then that I saw that there were two little boys, around 7 years old, and a baby in the car and no adult was in sight. It was in the 90s outside. When Judah's teacher greeted me at the door, I asked her if she knew where the parents were and she went to the car to try to handle the situation. It took me about five minutes to get my son's gear and when I went back out, the kids were still sitting in the car, revving the engine. Still no parents. The teacher had gone inside for a minute (I suppose to find the parents). When she came back out, and as I was putting Judah in my car, I saw the little boy pulling on the gear shift to go in reverse. We finally got them to open up the door (they'd refused the first time) and the teacher pulled all three of them out and took them inside.

I called the director of the school (my sister-in-law's mother) and told her what happened. She said she was aware of it, that it was not parental neglect, and that the mother had been trapped on the playground alone when the door locked behind her. She had to scale a fence to get back out and was hysterically crying.

I'm still confused about this sequence of events, such as how the kids got the keys, how they got in the car before she did, etc. Maybe she has more than 3 kids and was looking for her 4th or 5th? I have no idea. It seems incredibly irresponsible, even if unintended. I was positive that at any second, those kids were going to kick the Tahoe into gear and mow down all the pedestrians that cross the street there.

I'm sure she freaked right on out when she finally scaled the fence, got to her Tahoe, only to find her three children were no longer sitting in it.

There is no way in hell I would leave Judah alone in a car, with or without keys. I know he would drive away or someone would snatch him. Not to mention it's Texas. It's May. It's one block from an interstate highway. The whole situation had me feeling anxious for hours afterward.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Mother's Day 2006


Yeah, I'm a sucker. Wowie withdrawal lasted about two more hours after I posted here and then I caved. There's only so much crying and pleading that I can take when I'm simultaneously caring for a sick child who is demanding I produce the sacred wowie and read a white paper and four case studies before posting opinions on our intranet BBS to a rather large group of senior managers and colleagues.

Queen for a Day, I requested that we pack up our little family and head out to Cedar Ridge Preserve for a morning of leisurely hiking. We chose a moderate trail, hoping to get to Fossil Valley, but Judah got hungry about a half mile in, so we headed back for a picnic lunch of sandwiches, fresh fruit and veggie chips. It was a really nice way to spend time with my two men.

I was also anxious to get Judah out of the house. He had strep all last week, after already being home with me the prior week for what I thought was a simple sinusitis (little did I know a big, bad bug was lurking). While I was able to make my escape out of the house on Friday with a business trip to Tulsa, he was just about completely fed up with the situation of being trapped indoors. Micheal took him to Union Station to see trains and to play at a large fountain where he chased pigeons. He was starting to be very grumpy by Thursday...everything was "NO!" and he was put in time-out at least five times within a few days for dumping every single toy out and spreading it all over the living room, then refusing to clean up afterward or pitching violent fits where he hit me or pushed me when he didn't want to eat or sleep. Yesterday, he had a meltdown at the grocery store because he couldn't sit in the main basket part of the cart. This lasted at least six aisles and only when I finally tickled him to death did he straighten up. At one point, I told him, "Judah, I love you even when you're not nice to me." He replied, "Don't say me that!"

Big news at our house -- Micheal won a black 60GB video iPod at his office. I have loaded up nearly 1800 songs and every episode of my favorite podcast Tiki Bar TV. This show is hilarious! Highly recommended for people with a sense of humor.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Wowie Withdrawal, Day One

It's time. Judah has to ditch the "wowies". He is so severely addicted that I already know that we'll have to bust open a bottle of tequila just to sustain ourselves through the next few days (weeks? months?) of his imploring us to give him his wowie back. I told him that if he can go the whole day today without one, that we will go shop tonight to buy a new toy. I can't bribe him on a daily basis, so I really need to figure out something else to motivate him. This is going to be rough -- he can be very demanding and I'm not good with constant begging just because after the 100th time of asking, I'm about to come unglued and just want silence.