What Autumn Sounds Like

The weather has cooled and just in time for me to open all the windows and clean. The baby is napping on the couch and the Kid is outside playing. I've just finished the floors and the house smells like the lemon oil my mom always used. I'm having a coffee and the afternoon is winding down. Sounds from the courtyard are wafting in:

Children shouting NOT IT!

An occasional puppy bark

Someone practicing Twinkle Twinkle on the clarinet

The squeak of the swing set

A boy laugh and girl's delighted shriek followed by giggling

Our coconut chimes

The pit pat pit pat of tennis shoes running on the sidewalk

Very faint wind in the trees

Bear Hunt 2010

We've been in Texas long enough for me to learn most of the poisonous spiders, snakes and plants and feel comfortable taking the kids on a bear hunt. So, this afternoon when Jack was restless and bored with all of his toys and I looked out the window and saw Ella climbing that old climbing wall for the quadrillionth time I declared a bear hunt and got the stroller and the camera. We barely made it to the border of the parking lot when we were chased down and detained by the ice cream truck and after paying the driver a handsome bounty we embarked on our expedition with ample supplies; a blue raspberry Two Ball Screwball in Ella's hand and a cherry one in mine.

Upon stepping foot out into the wild we quickly found a trail to follow, something we believed the local wildlife to use often and only after 1/16^th of a mile did we realize how treacherous the path could be.

We barely made it around this banana peel.

Next we encountered what I thought may have been a crude native ceremonial facade over the opening to a volcano, but upon closer inspection, Ella reported it to be either an abandoned jewel mine shaft or possibly a storm drain covered with an old broken pallet. Either way we were sure there were snakes and spiders down there.

Shortly after we encountered this new species of flora we could not identify.

I noticed it was the same color as the blue raspberry Two Ball Screwball which lead me to believe the cuisine sold at the border of the parking lot may be grown locally.

Another specimen, in bloom.

We continued our search for bears who obviously were keeping cunningly concealed, and despite the many interesting specimens gathered on the expedition we are disappointed to announce we failed to get a bear, however we did capture a small wild panther.

Upon our return trip also spotted what we are sure is an alligator foot and tail print. Ella placed her hand beside the footprint for comparison. We estimate this alligator to be about 100 inches.

Back at the lab we spread out all our finds and set to work labeling and cataloging. Pictured below: (2) Fairy lanterns, (1) Lizard lick, (1) Sign of fall, (1) Shell, (1) Lucky fuzz ball, (1) Spherical seed pod, (1) Flower, (1) Golden spiky ball, (1) Lizard hat, (1) Bunch of poison berries, (1) Wild panther, (1) Horton hears a who flower and (2) Brave bear hunters.

Our last expedition was in July 2007, before Adventurer Jack joined the troupe. We hope to be able to embark on them more often in the future.

Halloween 2010

Is Being a Grown-up Fun?

I think we no longer make being grown up something young people look forward to.

We (as a society) let our children’s activities dictate how our free time is spent, we let our teenagers epitomize cool, we think a body in it’s young twenties is ideal and we spend hours recapturing toys we had as a child or forwarding lists confirming we grew up in the 70s/80s when in fact our birthdates provide adequate evidence for which decades we lived through just fine. There’s an entire industry of clothing companies thriving on shirts with Oscar the Grouch/Smurfs/Transformers/Rainbow Bright on them for adults.

I am guilty of all of these things. I’ve shopped in the junior’s department, held my ideal body as the one that fits my prom dress, let my children’s activities run my day, coveted those Hello Kitty diamond earrings and watched every I heart the 80s show on VH1. That novelty Snoopy Joe Cool t-shirt has become daily wear for a lot of us. It really has me thinking. Can you picture your grandmother in a t-shirt with Snoopy on it? How about Michelle Obama? There’s a certain amount of sophistication lacking when constantly reminiscing and simultaneously worshiping youth.

I’ve been wondering if the grown up culture is shrinking and our cultural intellect with it. Are we loosing some of the rights of passage or mores I expected to embrace and instead increasingly believing being old stinks? Ok so, I’m not exactly sure what those “grown up” things are. As a child I was sure they’d have something to do with the nightly news, coffee, voting, cigarettes and slinky dresses. Now that I’m in my thirties, those things don’t seem as fun as I thought they’d be, nor do you need to be a grown up to do them.

So I’m still trying to define what “grown-up” things are and aren’t for both myself and my daughter who cornered me on the subject by asking me if being a grown up is fun. Having not really been ready for such a question, like all questions children have, I quickly replied “Yes! You get to vote and drive, get married, push important buttons, have a job, drink wine, spend money, stay up late and do whatever you want with your life AND be the boss of your kids.” But it haunted me that my list wasn’t longer or better or perhaps more that she had asked at all. Did I not appear to be enjoying adulthood?

I wished I had a better answer and after much thought this is what I know. Being a grown up is fun because it means having informed ideas, conversations and interactions that only people who have experienced life can have even if those conversations revolve around novel or childish things. It means having a mature palate and an appetite for things based on experience. It’s having character, convictions, talents and relationships that are solid and strong because they’ve formed slowly over a long time.

This isn't exactly the Justin Bieber squashing answer that makes forty the new seventeen, but having fun being a grown up includes not having to know who Justin Bieber is.

Photo stolen from: www.squareamerica.com

Can of Worms at the Fall Festival

"We encourage kids to wear Halloween costumes to the fall festival (nothing scary & no masks please.)" - note home from the grade school

Who gets to decide what's scary?

Crazy Hour

Most days at about six pm, imps raid my apartment for easy afternoon marauding. They tell the dog if she feels barfy that she should lie down on the couch next to the sleeping baby and that will certainly help expel the grass she ate. The rest of the gang topples delicately stacked clean laundry from the top of the dryer directly into the garbage and a third faction makes sure to incite riots on the play ground insuring the kid will be outraged and in tears when she bursts in the door. The imps make a hasty exit as the dominoes of chaos clack into each other and I grasp desperately both simultaneously trying to stop the progression and knocking down completely new sequences. Sometimes I burn dinner, overflow a bath tub or shatter a glass and assuredly this is the time slot teachers, doctors, my husband and publisher's clearing house choose to call. I stopped being upset and surprised and even ceased bracing for it. Sometimes the imps come on Saturday at ten am or Thursday mid-day just before parent teacher conferences. So if you happen to call me and on the other end of the line you hear a crash and I say “Let me call you back, crazy hour just started,” now you know.

We Went to the Zoo

We went to the Houston Zoo last weekend. The animals were... well they were zoo animals, just like any other zoo. Elephants and monkeys and otters all that, which is indeed exciting to look at but by far the favorite exhibit of The Kid was the new animatronic dinosaurs. For an extra two bucks we wandered through a little side exhibit and stared down the nose of a T-Rex that moved (it made the hair on my neck stand up a little.)

Jack's favorite was the little salt water aquarium (I think a trip to the big aquarium is in order soon)

And I liked the landscaping. Seriously, there are bamboo and palms and other amazing tropical looking plants that most Houstanites grew up with in their back yard, that still make me feel as if I'm on vacation, planted all over the zoo. I may never get over how beautiful a palm tree is.

In the afternoon, we all got crabby...

So, we decided to get some eats. Please note, the food at the zoo is overpriced and gross, imagine my surprise <- sarcasm. Next time we'll bring sandwiches from home. Despite the floppy greasy pizza, we had a great time.

Fredrick's of Hollyween Store

I brought my six year old out to look for a tooth fairy costume. In essence it requires a white tutu a pair of wings and a wand. I figured we could get all these things in one package of Angel stuff and add some toothy things to it. She liked the idea of a bag with "Teeth" written on it but got very sad when I mentioned a set of bloody pliers on a tool belt. So, I took this child of extreme delicate sensibilities to The Halloween store next to the mall, where the percentage of items actually meant for children were almost nil. I drew a diagram

For those far away

Pie!

"The Banquet brand began in 1953 with the introduction of frozen meat pies and frozen dinners first hit store shelves in 1955." I've been eating them since I can remember and today while at the grocery store a light shone down from the heavens and directed my attention to Banquet's new Apple Pot Pies for $1.00. I bought one apple and a cherry. While it doesn't look like what's is on the cover (ok, I burned it a little) it was delicious. Banquet should have been doing these long ago. I recommend them.

The Internet Told Me

"WHY I CAN'T MAKE MOM FRIENDS" by-AGGAL02

Teaching Common Sense?

Last November, a seven year old boy mistakenly brought a toy gun to school. His teacher went into his back pack and saw it. He was suspended for the rest of the school year. When his parents tried to send him back to school this year the school board says he may still be suspended.

Come on people! When will we stop hiding behind rules and use some reasoning? Do we really value bureaucracy over our own humanity? I am fed up with hearing people say "Sorry, that's our policy" in turn wasting time, money and any last shred of common sense this society has. Do we really all have such poor self esteem that we need to beat each other down while hiding behind regulatory red tape instead of showing wisdom and caring for each other?

Let's start calling each other out on this foolishness.

Read the whole story here.

Drop the entire Broward County School Board a message at schoolboard@browardschools.com

The toy Samuel Burgos was suspended for pictured below

Back on all Eight

Last night was my first night back on skates. It was exhilarating, scary, totally fun and painful. I fell in the first five minutes while executing a turn around toe stop but my body remembered how to fall and fairly quickly started to remember how to stay up. Later, I scrimmaged and crunched my own fingers pretty good by falling on them. Besides the familiar old aches and pains, I feel pretty good today.

Sat. from 2-8pm is the Bayou City Boss Fundraiser

at

Cecil's Tavern

600 West Gray

Houston, TX

There will be Boss merch, food, silent auction items, sno cones, shot block, Boss skaters, AND MORE!

Scavenger Hunt Details:
*1st, 2nd and 3rd prize trophies, winner splits the pot with the Bosse$.
*$15 pre-register up to Sept. 10 at 7 pm. Buy tickets form any Boss skater or at hrdbosslove@yahoo.com.
*$20 day-of at the door.
*Arrive @ 2 to register and gather teams.
*Teams are released @ 3pm sharp.

I have tickets and even if you live far away and can't make it, donations to the team are welcomed. :)

One Less

Dear Kroeger,

When you put my whipped cream and M&Ms in one plastic bag, my apple pie in another, my frozen pizza in a third and my apples and cheese in a fourth, followed by asking me if I wanted my milk in a bag and after I told you "no" putting a sticker commending me for using one less plastic bag on the top of the milk, it was funny, but not really.

Try Harder,

Jenny

Happy Monday - 6 New Things

Jack gets to go home today. Sunday morning his IV fell out and the doctor opted to give him once a day shots instead of restarting an IV (very difficult when the patient has tiny veins.) Since the shot is good for 36 hours his last dose is today and after that I can bust Jack outta this joint. That gets me home in time to get Ella off the school bus. I wasn't sure what I was going to do today, Dan couldn't leave work early because it's his first day at his new job. Yes, amidst the chaos of Jack being sick Dan switched jobs and bought a car. On the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale we are off the charts this week, I'm sure.

Dan accepted the new job a little more than a week ago and Friday he had to turn in his work truck. We thought about managing with just one car, but this week posed a problem and we suspected every week would pose a problem. We bought a used car and because it's just for me to run to the grocery or whatever place we tool around during the day we had the luxury of getting something totally unreasonable. We looked at convertibles, we thought about a Mustang but in the end we decided it needed to fit car seats so we went all out and got the luxury ride - 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis with leather bench seats, tinted windows, automatic everything and a trunk I could fit a gangster in. I named it Marquis Mark, and sure - I think we will be the funky bunch riding around in there. I get to drive it the first time today home from the hospital.

So this few months is a plethora of new things:

New Baby for us

New Health for Jack

New School for Ella

New Job for Dan

New Car for us

New Roller Derby Regime for me

Dear Universe, Thank You.

Also

ouch

Accepting

The fat, lazy triage nurse moved really fast.

His doctor dodged the questions because she didn't know.

I traded tight smiles in the elevator after we both pushed #6.

I heard the finale for another mother in the hallway that night,

Among cribs that looked like cages so the toddlers couldn't escape.

And I didn't mind anymore that people prayed for us.

Getting Well Soon

Jack is doing so well, they may move us to a regular room today. This is good news, it means 4 less cords three feet long that chain us to a tiny invisible cell surrounding the machinery. We are on day 4/10 today, they started day one later than I thought, (it's day one from the first negative blood culture.) Next Wednesday we hope to bring our baby home from the hospital for the second time.

Adventurer Jack

Day 4/10 on the IV