Sink Load of Dishes

This weekend kicked my ass. We lost on Saturday night and I took a hit to the face and have a giant chin bruise and what I thought was a broken finger (today I am able to move it more and the swelling has gone down, so I think it's just crunched really good - my finger that is not my face.) Yes, this is still totally a lot of fun for me and I really liked the North Star ladies, they're a stand up bunch. On the back of that, yesterday our family and our good friends the Fox Family went to the Madison zoo and walked about 5,000 miles. Pictures of both on the way - I promise.

Today, I just want to lay in a nice hot tub and then perhaps lay on the couch for a bit and then later I'll go lay in the lawn furniture while Ella swings and later yet I'll be laying in bed... but instead I've really gotta get the house back into shape. Inevitably the week before a roller derby bout, the first thing to drop off the list is house cleaning and general maintenance - ug.

Last Bout of the 2007-2008 Season

A Long Way to Go

Bakers Blog writes "I remember seeing an episode of Ally McBeal where her therapist suggests that she give herself a theme song. She was to play that song in her head when she felt down or her self-confidence dipped (I think Ally's was "Tell Him" by The Exciters). Your theme song should be a song that gives you a lift as you walk down the street, a song that makes you feel happy, confident and in control."

My skatey matey DD Hunter posted this about her theme song and asked what mine was and it's a funny thing... It used to be Brick House when I needed a lift or a little strut in my step that's what I would hear in my head but these days I don't hear Brick House anymore. It turns out I rarely need to get the courage together in my head to do daring things, mostly before I do something crazy I need to calm my excitement and collect my thoughts and focus, what song do I hear in my head when I need to get all zen-like?

Ode to Joy, it helps me to revel in the accomplishments of humankind and centers me in a way I can't explain. But that's not all, when I'm skating out onto the derby rink I hear Sabotage, when I'm hanging out with Ella jackin' around I hear Groove is in the Heart, with Dan on date night I hear Them There Eyes, when I am riding in the car with my family almost anything by Orba Squara. So it just totally depends on what I'm doing.

Incidentaly I was gonna throw some pictures behind an Orba Squara track and make a quick video for you all to hear them and I ended up finding pictures spanning all the way from 2002(when I got my first digital camera) to last week and due to the sheer number of these pictures, I realized just how much I really love riding in the car with my family...



So what's your theme song?

Discovery!

I found a new blog I am totally in love with. Not only is the name Stroller Derby the coolest ever, the content is thought provoking, sometimes funny and addictive. I find myself reading every single article they publish - sheesh! Its part of a bigger online magazine type website called Babble that I am checking out today and also enjoying.

I just finished reading a beautiful essay called "The Overparenting Crisis" by Katie Allison Granju who's attachment parenting style I subscribe to, and it's funny 'cause this helicopter parenting is something Dan and I discuss quite a bit (as in trying not to become one). As protective as we are of our kiddo, I do try to let her eat dirt and lick other kid's toys, and that's not completely because I'm too lazy to wipe down the grocery cart before I put her in it, it's because I know about immunities. I let her play far away from me and when she falls off the monkey bars I leave her alone until she finds me and I let her take care of her own bullies on the playground. Does it take all the strength in my body to not run over there and scoop her up? Absolutely, but it's better for she and me in the long run if I wait for her reaction first. Katie also makes the very important point

"When parents micromanage children's lives, overly investing themselves in their kids, everyone loses. Mothers and fathers lose themselves in their roles as parents, while kids never find themselves."

This is another argument for you all too immediately go out and join your local roller derby/ballet/theatre/soup kitchen/bowling/dart/kickball league to save you and your family's sanity. Anyway, I think the article summed up my feelings perfectly. And it's always nice to find a little confirmation from peers.

Flipping & Flopping in the Air Conditioning

Dan’s Mom isn’t well, she made a pit stop in the hospital last week and will be home again tomorrow, thank God. We visited her with Ella yesterday for a bit and when we were leaving Ella commented on the little paper dealios hanging from the ceiling in the hallway and how they are “summer cutouts for the patient's enjoyment” as I inwardly gloated for her being able to put that phrase together when I had just called them “paper beach dealios” I had to stop and ask Dan about THIS summer cutout....see below... We enjoyed looking at several of them on our way to the elevator. In fact, I'm still enjoying them.

Our Soldier

One of our very closest friends in the world is leaving for Afghanistan with the Army and we gathered up last night to send him off together over dinner and drinks. He and Dan were in boy scouts together and grew up skateboarding on the same streets. He's the guy who accompanied Dan and me on our first date (the ice cream shop next to the college.) He's the guy who lived at our house briefly between college and his marriage and dutifully stayed out of all the newlywed fights Dan and I had (thank you for not choosing sides.) He picked me up after I crashed the car and brought me to the hospital (Dan had the flu and couldn't come to get me.) This great guy is now our neighbor as well as the husband of a very wonderful lady whom I adore and father to an incredible four year old girl who plays with Ella. He's been a fixture in our lives, and when I went to find a picture of him on my hard drive I found too many to choose just one. He and his family are at every party, every birthday, every wedding, and every baby shower; they are living their lives right here beside us. And now he will be defending us and I respect him for that more than I can say, because I know his family and I know what he is sacrificing. Be safe Friend.

Going Away Party in Rockford, IL 06.20.08

Birthday

It's Dan's birthday today and so I am cleaning house and getting everything ready for tonight. We are leaving Ella at Grandma's until tomorrow and hitting a cocktail party early before we meet up with some of our best friends at a going away dinner party at our favorite restaurant later, so we'll be dressed to the nines... ok we'll not quite that dressed, but maybe dressed to the sevens. It'll be a little bitterswet as the going away party is for a close frined leaving for Afghanistan, but we are looking forward to the evening just the same.

And since I know no better place than to talk to the universe than here; I just want to say thank you for bringing this wonderful man to me. I hope his birthday will be exactly what he needs today and I hope his next year brings forth fruit from every seed he’s sewn, may his hard work pay off and his success reach new heights as his garden flourishes.

Later I'll be Hugging Trees too

Every time I hear Obama speak I am moved to tears, I think it's a combination of his message and the momentous circumstances.

I think I want to order this movie because let’s face it no one around here is going to screen it, but I also think it’ll piss me off quite a great deal www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com

The other day when I was at the store and I told the lady behind the counter I didn’t need a bag for my one item and gave her the plastic bag back so that I could save the environment and then she threw it in the garbage, I wanted to poke her square in the chest and ask her if she was paying attention at all.

June 28th

The last roller derby bout of the season is just a week and a half away. Then we have a little vacation from roller skates for a few weeks and I'm stressing it. The few times I've missed practice I get crabby and I don't know what I'll do if I can't get my skate on twice a week. I think I'll be searching out all the open skates and my skatey matey the Warrior #217 is planning to get up to Sweetwater in July. I think I'm gonna try and check that out with her. So anyway, if you want to come and see the LAST BOUT OF THE SEASON click www.StatelineDivas.com and buy some tix! Since it's the last hooorah it's gonna be wild!

Yeah Yeah! Yeah!

The play list at casa de Bombadee these days has been dictated by our littleist resident. She isnists on songs that have "Rockin' guitars" and lots of "yeah! yeah yeah!"s in them. Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" has been huge and I'm thinking it's time to dig out some Rolling Stones perhaps a little "You Can't Always Get What you Want" will resonate with her anguished four year old soul. you see it is soo unfair that she cannot for instance go up to the corner store and buy ice cream on her own or watch TV nonstop all day.

Well, I'll Be a Monkey's Grandma

Dan doesn’t really want to sleep with marsupials but Ella says she’s Monkey-monkey’s Mom and she hates sleeping next to him, his arms get all underneath her, but she doesn’t want him to sleep alone because he would be sad. Since Dan is Monkey-monkey’s Grandpa, the next logical step of course is to insist Dan keep Monkey-monkey comfortable and warm by snuggling with his little striped body. Dan tries to sneak Monkey-monkey down to floor on his side of the bed but since Dan suffers from pretend narcolepsy and the four year old out lasts him on a regular basis (plus we totally sleep in every day) she picks the stuffed monkey up and neatly tucks him back into bed next to Dan.
This reminds me about the Brass Monkey video challenge that I wanted to complete before Father’s Day that I totally thought about 4 times and then promptly blew off. I’m postponing it until the end of the summer, I just don’t have enough footage of monkey dancing to put anything together yet and since I proposed the challenge I can unpropose it too - so there.

Erin Jackson on Naked Pole Swinging

Erin Jackson cracked me up last night on Last Comic Standing. Go ahead and click it! There's more Erin here. Also I totally stole this video from her blog. I heart her.

Technology

Last night during the terrible storms:

Me: Honey come down stairs and look at the weather!

Honey: I can see it on my laptop!

Me: No, I mean look at these clouds!

Honey: I am! I’m watching the Doppler radar right now!

Me: No, I mean come down and look out the window and see this cloud over our house that is rotating clockwise!

Despite my dramatic exchange there were no tornadoes in tiny town yesterday. The rotating grey cloud moved on its way, very possibly by me going outside and looking at it hard enough that it decided the surprise was ruined, but I did stay up until at least 1AM listening for train sounds ready to wake everyone up and make a dash for the basement. My Dad said there were tornadoes last night in the next county over. So I wasn’t being a total ninny.

Preserved for Posterity (or for laughing at when she's 35)

We had date night last night and let me say that dinner and a movie once a week is incredible thank you Grandma and Grandpa for saving our sanity and saying simply "she sure is full of energy" on nights I know she wore you out because I saw that you made a pot of coffee at 7pm. Ella was so wide awake last night when we picked her up we had a long conversation on the way home about her future. This is what she said.

She'll be marrying Victor from the Secret Show and they will be having ten children together, nine girls and one boy. Ella will name her nine daughters Jordan, Annie, Emma, Jenny, Molly, Polly, Jackson, Phinnias Ferb, Angel, & Felicia. She will name her son Alex. They will eat fruit whenever they want and Victor will be their father. She also informed us "Whenever our children want to go t the toy store we will take them." She also promised to never throw away toys that are left out she will just put them away for her children. In the summer they will take the children to the beach every day and in the winter they will go sledding and if she is tired Victor will let her sleep and he will bundle the children up warm as toast and take them sledding. Ella will be wearing "fancy schmancy jewelry" and always tell the children "yes" even when they want to try on her jewels. You should also know that Ella and Victor have the same birthday and for their next party in which they will both turn five they will have a pull string piñata, play pin the tail on the donkey, wear party hats and watch movies.

First trip of the summer

Yesterday Ella and I went to the beach with some good friends. We splashed in spring fed water until our lips turned blue (well, not so much me, mostly the kids) and we built an incredible sand castle and ate corn dogs and I got a very funny looking sunburn as I only managed to get sunscreen on chunks of my back and so I have sort of a patchwork of pink going on from 45 minutes of unprotected beach going. Yikes.

Air Show

Sunday

So much for the air show, it's raining sideways every hour on the hour today. Instead I see blanket forts and board games on the agenda maybe even a movie or two.

***

I finally stitched up the little summer dress pattern and fabric Ella and I picked out over the winter. I'm disappointed about it. When I left it long like she wanted she couldn't run in it without it seriously cutting into her stride and when I shortened it, it wasn't as cute and the stretchy part around the torso started to unravel because I didn't run a stitch up the side before I started futzing with it and Ella says the stretchy part is kinda itchy. The few tops and summer dresses I have with that stretchy stuff are itchy to me too so I know what she means. I really just need to find some soft old fancy embroidered pillow cases and transform them instead.

***

Ella is watching the Disney planning guide DVD for the 40,000th time today. Dan is researching booking our room, park passes and meals. He's built a spread sheet and is comparing every option in detail, park hopper passes, character meals, amount of days, differences in resorts. It turns out if we went for 5 days there instead of 3 not only would we be saving some insane amount of money per day but our brain washing would be complete and we'll experience totally Disney Nirvana. I'm pretty sure that like a casino knows they have a slightly better chance at you giving your winnings back to the table if they give you free drinks, Mickey knows that making the 5 days pass cheaper isn't really cheaper, but the rest of my family drank the Kool-Aid already. No matter I'm sticking firm on at least three days at the ocean to deprogram them before the flight home.

Why I heart DJ.

RT: Is this the hot stuff?

Me: Yes, that's wasabi. Try it. It's like sex! First it's explosively hot and it's unbearable and you can't take any more, and then it's over and . . .

DJ: And then he rolls over and you start crying and counting the money on the dresser . . . what?

OMG! MY SAHM IZ MKING ME CRZY!

Have you ever watched someone eat and thought "This person is the cutest chewer in the history of chewing"? I tried to take a video to explain and she's was all "Mom! Just let me eat!" Yes, I embarrass her already. It's a hard pill to swallow. Last week my skatey-mate Breetlejuice was here for a photoshoot for the latest derby poster. Bree was sitting on the floor crimping her blonde and pink hair in front of the mirror and Ella was sitting crosslegged next to her chatting up a storm. When I walked over Ella said to me "MoooOOOooooOOM! We're talking about girl stuff, we need some private!" Sigh.

Pictures of a June Afternoon

Today is too overcast to make the long trek to the beach but it is warm enough to get the plastic vacuum formed swimmy pool out and put it under the tiny elm that is growing at just the exact rate to give Ella shade. I sit in a lawn chair doing the crossword, Ella sits in six inches of cold hose-water happily splashing and the dog laps at the biggest bowl of water ever. We eat popsicles. I get the chicken out of the freezer and set it on the stove to thaw. Ella discovers going down the slide in a wet swimming suit is incredible. I finish all but three answers on the crossword. I cut the grape vines out of the wild flower patch so the daisies can see the sun. Grass clippings and dead ants float across the little blue pool. Ella bails water into her sand box and forms tiny roadways for a truck. Dan gets home and starts the grill. We talk about our day and discuss the disposition of the chicken. Dan begins to cook. He is trying to use one of the many bottles of bar-b-que sauce left over from Memorial Day weekend. We hear the roar of Thunderbirds flying over. There is an air show this weekend, we'll go on Sunday. My carpool for derby practice will be here soon. When I get home tonight I'll finish the crossword.

Blah Blah Blah

My four year old is fond of grabbing my cheek and squeezing it like she's my great aunt while saying to me "I'm just kidding you." Next she'll be patting me on the head and muttering "they grow up so fast."

***

The first warm and sunny day we have I am packing up the kiddo and going to the beach. We'll leave a sign on the door that says "Gone swimmin' - back after we're done" Then I will turn my phone down to vibrate and put it in the mini-cooler with my keys.

***

I get Cookie Magazine and at first it was a little politics, a few musings on an egalitarian family life, artistic photographs, odd homes, reviews of hip toys, vacation places that are great with kids and articles about the merit of mud pies and sheet forts, it had a rich bohemian flavor, with edgy articles and black and white baby butts on it's glossy pages. I recommended it. Dan even liked the music reviews that gave him ideas for music we like that is compleatly kid friendly but leap years ahead of the Wiggles.

This month I got my latest issue and discovered articles helping me become a "Beach Goddess" and have "Easy Summer Hair" as well as learning how to "Contain Children's Clutter", and of course the Father's Day article quizes me about "What kind of father is he?" - UG! Give me break, if I wanted to know about easy summer hair or beach goddess charateristics I'd be getting some fluffy magazine that tells me all about it along with how to please my man so he'll never leave and what eyeliner I just have to have. And let me also say that I know what kind of father my husband is because... get this... we are IN THE SAME FAMILY and I PAY ATTENTION!* So while the article was cute it was still fluffy and I was originally sold on a magazine that was a little more intelectual. I fret my favorite alternative parenting magazine is loosing it's substance and turning into Good Housekeeping mashed up with Cosmopolitan. If next month, a mear six months from a presidential election, I get a magazine filled with diets and quick tips for vaccuuming I'm cancelling it and ordering Bitch.

*The need for magazines to reduce my complicted and fabulouse husband into a neat little box drives me crazy! I'm beyond needing to put a label on the type of Dad/lover/listener/sock-wearer he is. Did nobody see the Breakfast Club?! We are more than just a The Jock, The Nerd, The Criminal, The Princess, and The Basketcase!

Sweet as Honey

Also go see THIS!