Happy New Year

Every night at around 8pm, I announce,

"K, it's time for bed!" 

and my 8 yr old (who we now consider to be autistic) immediately replies with,

"But we not tired!"

Every night. 

Seriously, every night. 

But tonight I never announced that,

and tonight he never said that.

Tonight is the first night I am letting him and his 10 yr old sister 

stay up to meet the new year.

It is 11pm. 

One more hour to go.

He is jumping up and down in front of the tv 

playing Lego Star Wars III, the clone wars, on the Nintendo wii.

I asked,

"Are you tired, yet?"

He replied,

"No! It's the middle of the night. I love playing!" 

I am confident he will make it till midnight.

I have much less confidence in myself.

We are tired.

Very, very tired.

2012 can kiss my ass.

Lightning Strike

Most of you know what happened already. I am recording this for myself, but you can read it if you want to. Narratives are fun and easy to write.*

On Friday April 29, around 7pm, my sister in law's house was hit by lightning and burned down. I wasn't home when she called me, I was at my book club meeting in Kansas City. I almost didn't answer, in fact I answered on accident by opening my phone to the keyboard. I think I thought I was gonna text her.

 "Uh, hello?"
"My house just burned down. I've lost everything," she immediately replied, obviously crying.
I exclaimed, "Are you serious?"

Every person in the room immediately turned their attention to me.

It was a weird phone call. I will remember it always. She needed a place for her son and mother to go while she finished up with the fire department. I couldn't get a hold of my husband so I called my friend to go knock on our door to tell him what was going on. She then stayed at my house with my kids while my husband went to see what was happening and I made my way back home.

When I arrived home, everyone besides my sister in law (she didn't get here till way after 2am) had just arrived a few minutes before me. I hugged and thanked my friend out on the front walk as she was leaving and I could already smell it. I wasn't even in the house yet and the smell of house fire was so pervasive on my mother in law's and nephew's clothes, I could smell them from outside.

My mother in law was in her pajamas and barefoot. My nephew was only in his underwear with an over sized t-shirt that one of his neighbors had brought out to cover him with. I hugged my mother in law and told her how sorry I was and how thankful I was that she was alright. I asked her what she needed and she said she didn't even know. When she said this, I realized that she had that shell shocked look. She really didn't know what she needed right then and I experienced what felt similar to an adrenaline rush. I was going to be the one to take care of business here tonight.

I told her she was going to get undressed and shower while I washed her clothes ("sorry, but you do stink."), I found her a large sheet to wrap up in when she was done. I gathered towels, soap and a toothbrush and showed her into my very dirty master bath. I was mortified by the condition of my shower but she insisted she didn't mind.

I then jumped into action giving my nephew a bath, washing clothes, picking up toys, changing sheets and pillow cases, getting out the air bed, dodging overexcited children as they ran through the house. I was sweating and breathing hard. When that was done, I sat with my mother in law and we talked while the children wandered in one by one and settled themselves down. We talked about how hard it was going to be to replace her clothes, she is a "queen" sized woman. It was well after 10pm. I put the kids to bed.

After midnight, my sister in law called and asked my husband to go inside the trailer with her after the firemen leave. He didn't want to, but we knew she would go in alone, and we didn't want that. It's dangerous, after all. My husband gathered flashlights and even a few of the kid's glow sticks and headed over there. My mother in law and I decided to lay down, but we didn't sleep.

A few hours later, I heard voices downstairs and discovered my husband and sister in law sitting at the table with my mother in law. I gave a huge hug to my sister in law and was pleasantly surprised to see a pile of my mother in law's clothes. It felt like a miracle that they had made it! They smelled horrible. I immediately started washing them. I gathered my sister in law something to change into and got her in for a shower. Then, I made grilled cheese sandwiches, none of us had eaten anything since early in the evening. My sister in law came down after she cleaned up and stood in my kitchen. Her red, swollen eyes told me she had cried in the shower.

"I'm like......lost," she said, almost whispering. She looked lost. Complete devastation and confusion was so apparent on her normally confident and determined face. I couldn't (and still can't) imagine what she was feeling.  She struggled to eat her grilled cheese sandwich, but she did eat it. She needed to calm her stomach. My feet and back were killing me. It was after 4am, we went to bed.

*Feel free to correct my punctuation and point out any change in context. I will fix it promptly. 

It's My Birthday...

...and I kind of don't care. I mean, I do care, but I don't.  I did make my almost 8 year old autistic nephew say happy birthday to me though.

"Get over here and tell me happy birthday."
"Happy!"
"say happy birthday Aunt Leslie"
"Happy!" (then much quieter) "Birthday."
"Oh! Thank you!"

Now he is laying against me on the couch as I type this. He is waiting for his mama to take him to school.

Now it's time for birthday list-a-rama.

• I asked my husband to get up with the kids this morning. Now the kids are already at school and he is still in bed. Thanks soooo much, honey. 
• I got a birthday check from my parents last week. I spent half of it on a living room chair at a garage sale last saturday. Or rather, I borrowed the money from my SIL until I get the check cashed. I also found a vinyl copy of Purple Rain. Awesome.
• This one time, my brother sent me a birthday card that was a paper taco. I liked it. 
• I have to think for a second about how old I am now days. That means I am well on my way to being old.
• I had a good friend growing up that had the same birthday as me, just a year younger. We used to go eat breakfast at Dee's before school. I would get a hamburger, she would get a cobb salad. 
• Ok, we did that once.
• In my old neighborhood, this week was like birthday week, The girl next door, May 7th. Me and Deb, May 8th. Another chick, may 9th. And then THE TWINS on May 10th. 
• Two years ago today, my husband and I attended the groundbreaking for the Kansas City LDS Temple. The temple is now complete and was just dedicated over the weekend.
• I hate Ben Affleck. That has nothing to do with my birthday. 

What I Learned Over the Weekend

1. Sometimes you have to lose big to get big blessings.
2. It takes a lot of cleaning dishes when there are 8 people living in your house.
3. Probably, maybe, you should keep your bathroom somewhat clean. You know, just in case an extended family member has an emergency and needs to use your shower. (Hadn't cleaned my shower in I don't know how long. Embarrassing.)
4. Not everyone in the world is cold and heartless. (Holla! to all my generous fellow Gardonian peeps!)
5. You can squash that burning spiteful feeling down to the bottom of your chest and just love. (Hope it holds.)
6. It's really hard to get house fire smoke smell out of clothes. (What's that you say? Vinegar? We'll try it.)
7. The longer you stand on a tile floor, the more it hurts.
8. I have a lot of patience. I did not think so before.
9. Maybe I don't need as much sleep as I thought? (Nah. I don't believe it.)

Love Note

He's not very romantic, but he has his moments.

See?

It's an actual love note! I don't think I've ever gotten one of these before.  I liked it.

 The strawberries were delish and right out of our little back garden too.

Dear Dr. Urologist,

Just because 99.99% of your patients are in their 80's (I'm the o.o1%), it doesn't mean that your office has to look like it is the 80's.

Mauve is sooo thirty years ago.

I Watch TV A Lot These Days

• The Today Show insists that floral printed jeans are this season's hot trend. FRIENDS, I exhort you, JUST DON'T. Please
• Good 'ole Jaime Lee Curtis. All concerned about how all us ladies are pooping and stuff. "ACTIVIA!"
• I'm hooked on Revenge. It's like a soap opera but with a bigger budget. 
• Also, I'm partial to Raising Hope on Fox. 
• I kind of just watch The Talk so I can bash it and otherwise make fun of it while I watch. It's half the reason why I watch the Chew too. The other half of the reason is food. Food is the best reason to do anything, am I right? 
• I refuse to watch The Revolution. They took All my Children away from me and I dealt, but when they took One Life to Live away, I made a vow. A vow to never watch the revolution. I take this vow more seriously than my marriage vows. KIDDING. (kind of.)
• Every morning I turn on GMA while the kids are getting ready for school. That's Good Morning America for you non-morning show watchers. (Why you would be a non-morning show watching person, I do not know.) Last Friday, I was in the hospital and my husband was left to get the kids ready for school. Well, long story short, he blew it and my nine year old daughter not only got herself and her brother ready for school but she fed the baby too. When my husband finally gained consciousness, he said she was all stressed out because she couldn't find GMA. Apparently, she gauges where she should be in her morning routine by what segment is on. I did not know that.
• I don't have netflix. Sometimes I think I would like to have netflix. Does everyone have netflix? Seems like you wouldn't need TV if you had netflix. Would netflix kill the pleasure of watching syndicated sitcoms? I like to be surprised when I turn on reruns.
• I was with the baby early one Tuesday morning and they were airing part two of Masterpiece Theater Great Expectations on PBS. Oh man, I was hooked like a fish. I had to go to bed (causes sleep is important) but I watched it online a few days later. Then I watched The mystery of Edmund Drude last Sunday. I had no idea Charles Dickens was so enthralling. I might have to start reading some of his novels.   Masterpiece Theater rocks! Next week? Bird Song. A WWI love story.

So, This Is What Happened

Yeah so, it's been a little while since I blogged. There are multiple reasons for this, but that is not what we are here to discus today. Sorry to disappoint you, I just don't believe in excuses. Okay, I do believe in excuses. I just think that it is none of your beeswax.

But I think it might be okay to share some of the things that have happened since the last time I blogged. Like, for example, this:

My daughter tapped danced in a recital at the Lied Center on the KU campus. She killed it and afterward  she said it made her feel famous.

Then, all of a sudden, I looked like this:

We weren't sure how it happened. I just thought it was a real scorcher of a bladder infection. As you can see, it was not a bladder infection.

So then this happened:

and I still looked like this:

so I was sad and frustrated.

But then my doctor said it was okay to induce and that there was no time to waste.

And then this happened:

Mostly because I was dilated to a 9 for over six hours and I developed a low grade fever. Plus the baby's heart rate was dropping with every contraction.

It was a boy.

Then a week later, I got a blood clot under my incision and my doctor had to open it back up. After that, I had to go to the wound center many times where they poked and prodded and otherwise inflicted pain upon me. They also outfitted me with a handy dandy wound vac. Oh, you've never heard of one of those?   Neither had I, but let me tell you, it was a load of fun. A. Load. Of. Flippin. Fun. 

Then the Relief Society organized and helped me clean my house and brought me food. God bless the Relief Society. And my mom. I could write another long post about everything my mom did to help. I couldn't have done any of it without her.

So after that, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas brought a multitude of blessings and messes for me to clean up. 

Then I briefly considered divorce several times.

After that, we had our 11th wedding anniversary and my husband made sure we had fresh flowers in the house for two weeks. Then he bought me a new computer. 

Now, it is spring break and I expect to lose all semblance to sanity. 

Any questions?

Dear Lisa,

Hey! I am doing fine, just fine. However, unlike you, I find myself suddenly with more time than I know what to do with. So, I sleep, clean (just a little), and I just started a new cross-stitch, which I am loving. I haven't sat down and just sewed liked that since I started going to school. And of course, you know what I'm talking about when I say that I have been making the rounds through the "cross-stitching movies." You know the ones we have watched so many times we don't even need to watch them, just listen- North and South, Little Women, Happiest Millionaire but I need a copy of Beaches. Cross-stitching just isn't the same without Beaches. Am I right?

But I have a plan, a cross-stitch plan. Every year we walk through the open class building at the Johnson County Fair and there are usually less than five cross-stitch submissions and every year I think to myself, "That blue ribbon winner is a chump. I could do better than that in my sleep." So my plan is to enter my latest cross-stitch in the county fair and clean the floor with it. Blue ribbon, here I come! (What, so I need a little ego boosting, is that so bad?)

I laughed when you wrote about riding the sky ride with Peyton and you felt like you were going to have a panic attack. That's exactly how I felt the whole time we took the kids on the big Dora Ferris Wheel at MOA. Could you tell? I tried not to show it, but you seem to always read me like a book. When you rode the Tidal Wave at Lagoon, did you shout "More taste!" or "Less filling!"? Do they still do that? I hope so.



(Why do we never get an answer when were knocking at the door?)



So, all my fantasies came true last night as I got to see the Moody Blues in concert. The venue was an old theater in down town Kansas City, not a bad seat in the house. The place was full of old ornate woodwork and red velvet. I walked in and kept waiting for the chandelier to fall and the opening score of Phantom to play. Justin Hayward still sounds just like he does on my records that he recorded in the '60's and '70's. And just like I posted on facebook, I cried. I don't know why, maybe it was the hormones and maybe it was just so amazing for me to be there and see them live and you know, me and the Moody Blues go back nearly 20 years now. (Oh shizzle, did I just write 20 years? I am old, how did this happen?)



(Love my new Moody Blues shirt. It has the words to Tuesday Afternoon in the background. Eeeeeee!)

 I do wish I could come to Boise next week. I am so proud of Taylor for graduating. It's a lot of work! But I will be looking for those texts and pictures you promised.
Love,
Leslie

P.S. It just occured to me that I could have been 15 and wrote about all this same stuff. I'm a dork.

R&R

Last Tuesday, my husband got the kids up and off to school. I stayed in bed. It was my first day of classes and I was glad to have the extra hour or so of sleep. I had been irritated for over a year that he has never once offered to do this, and finally, FINALLY, he was doing it. Thank God.

At first I wasn't sure he was going to do it. He has a tendency to "forget" things (Mostly he just doesn't remember anything if it doesn't directly benefit him), I was awake before the alarm thinking that I was going to have to get out of bed, but he got right up after all and even verified the kids' morning schedule: Get dressed, eat breakfast, potty, brush teeth, book bag and coat, then the bus at 7:50'ish am.

I did go back to sleep, I did....but I kept dreaming about how disastrous things where going downstairs. In one scenario, I walked into my little boys room to find him still hiding under the covers, with no clothes on and the bus arriving just then, followed by me yelling at my husband that he can't handle the simplest things. Nightmare.

But in reality, as I snoozed, he had things completely under control. The kids didn't even ask why I wasn't the one who got them up.

Later, I couldn't help think how funny it was that I knew I had the morning off (and had even been wanting it for a significant amount of time), but my body totally didn't . My subconscious was doing it's darnest to remind me that I had something to do and it was important, dang it!

I do hope that he is willing to do this again sometime (supposing that I am willing to out right ask him, shouldn't he be able to read my mind?).

I just also hope that I will be able to enjoy the extra sleep not dreaming about what I'm not doing.

Hey, look at me Ma!

Every year in October, the Jazzercise centers in the Kansas City area join together with the Chiefs to raise money for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation. To participate in the half time program, each participant raised at least $150. I have wanted to do this every year since I started Jazzercising six years ago. (Yes, I said SIX!) This year, one of my beautiful Jazzercise instructors offered to sponser me so I could participate.

The Chiefs Vs. Panthers, October 24, 2010, I had an absolute BLAST!!

Coolest thing ever.

He Always Wants to be the Bad Guy

We've started calling him Justin Beiber (For obvious reasons).


(My little boy, also, Justin Beiber look alike.)





(Justin Beiber)

But I don't think he really appreciates it. I'll be all, "Hey, Justin Beiber, you want some white milk?" and then he'll be all, "I not Justin Beiber! I Jafar!"

Jafar? As in the creepy bad guy from Aladdin? Really?

Yep, it's been all The Return of Jafar all the time over here. He always Roots for the bad guys, what's the deal with that?

But anyway, the real point of this post was that he really, really needs a haircut.

Yeah, I'm a Hippie. So, What?

This video blows my little hippie mind...Yeah, it's NPR, so?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWIvfE01J0k.

Peace. :)

So...how's it goin?

Yesterday, my family gathered together in Utah for the baptism of my beautiful niece. I've lived away from my family for near a decade now, I miss family functions a lot. Even though its been a long time I still get a little homesick for my family when I know they are all together and I'm not there. I guess I just feel like I'm missing out on all the fun. (And maybe I'm a little scared that they don't miss me.)

I set out for a little reassurance in the form of a short, nonspecific, text message to my sister- "So, how's it goin?" and in response, I got these:

"Goin Good"



(My little bro Tay-luh and his cute wife Tara)



(My Mom on the right with my Aunt)



"We miss you"



(My sister Lisa strategically placed to show my cousins in the background)

Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to hear, and yes, I teared up for a sec. Thank you, Lisa! (BTW, super cute glasses!)



Rut-Rohh!

1. It's Fall again, and again I am obliged to say, "I hate fall!"
2. This is also the point in the semester where I think I'm horribly failing at EVERYTHING, but soldier on anyway.
3. I just can't seem to get enough sleep, and believe me, it's not for lack of trying. I've been taking naps and sleeping through the night, I'm just so tired all the time.
4. *Sigh* you guys! A few of my in-laws decided to show up to church on Sunday. Surprise! Yeah, thanks for letting us know, jack holes. I love walking into extremely stressful situations with my in-laws, at church, with absolutely no warning. It was lovely.
5. Going back to #4. Yes, there is now cause for repentance. Apparently, it doesn't feel good to be rude to someone at church, which just made me more mad. It was awesome.
6. My transmission went out. :(  I have to ride up to school with my husband 3-4 hours before my class starts. It's really not sooooo bad, except when it is. Also, I haven't been able to exercise as much as I want. I'm only getting 2 workouts in a week, which, lets face it, is lame-O. Special thanks to Steph who keeps giving me rides. She's so nice.
7. But all these crappy happenings aside, things really aren't so bad around here. It just seems like it, I promise.   **SMILE**
8. I made a nice diner and sugar cookies last night. I asked my husband if the fact that I cooked that night made me more sexy. He said that, yes, in fact, it does.
9. My little boy has another ear infection. It's one those really bad infections were the doctor seriously cringes when they see it, and there he was, jumping around, laughing and smiling. I swear if the school nurse didn't call me, I would never know he was sick.  
10. Oh this just in! I went up to school at 9am for my 12:30pm class (remember my car broke down) just to have my class cancelled. Hooray. I love wasting time like that.

Right.

1. So the count down to Mockingjay came down today. I'm actually really sad to see it go, it's been on here for hundreds of days. Now I feel like I have nothing to look forward to.
2. Speaking of Mockingjay, I have finally read it and I liked it. What's your problem with it anyway?
3. We went to Minnesota for Labor day. We had fun and I still can't get over how good that Juicy Lucy with the blue cheese was. Holy Moly.

4. You know? That actually pretty well sums it up. Not a lot going on around here. Then I guess there is  nothing left to do but look at some pictures.

There, I posted.

I Just Got Done Folding The Laundry

Is it silly to say that I feel like taking a victory lap? I mean I would say yes, but I still really want to take that victory lap.

I do know that if my husband had folded the laundry, I would have been all, "What? You want a trophy or something?"

 But sure as heck, when he comes home from work tonight, looks around our messy house and asks, "What did you do today?" I'll puff my chest out, throw my hands on my hips and declare, "I folded the laundry!" like I was announcing that I found the cure for cancer. Then I would expect applause or something equally gratifying, like his standard response, "Wow, you're wonderful."
Oh wow!! I just had an epiphany. When my husband helps around the house and wants major praise, I should give it to him, because I expect the same thing! Whoa......I did not expect this post to take this kind of turn.

Neat, blogging totally "marriage counseled" me today. I should do this more often.

I'm Totally Going to Get in Trouble for This

But, I don't care! Because it's so funny!

If you have met my husband, than you know he is about the coolest person you have ever met.  You see, I can prove this coolness. Someone who knew my husband "back in the day" posted this photo on facebook, and of course I stole it (Ha,ha!). I'm guessing it was taken between '90 and '92 sometime, that would make him 16, 17 or 18.

Now, I know what you are thinking, that this is just some stupid photo of my husband chasing a girl. But I say, forget about the girl already, and let's take a closer look at him.

Isn't he the dreamiest?

He is totally my density.

(He just didn't know it yet.)

First Day of School, 2010-2011

Did anybody else recite this to their kids when they woke them up this morning?

I did. This what he looked like after I did it:

"Good morning, Sunshine!"

Here they are, waiting on the bus.

And then they were gone and I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. I wasn't expecting that.

But then they came back, so it was okay.

(My kids are awesome 'cause they ride the short bus.)

Keep Your Eye On the Sky

(This isn't gonna be the most exciting post, just wanted to post something, so here it is.)

In my little town are two airports. One is a little bigger and accommodates private jets and also has a military hanger. The other is a municipal airport and serves mostly hobby fliers. It just so happens that we live under the flight path of both airports. We see lots of stuff fly over, some more noisy than others.

Military. They were hauling something that day, you see that long pole attached to the side? These helicopters are by far the noisiest that fly over.

There was a Hot Air Balloon festival in town over Memorial Day Weekend, I didn't get to go, but they came to me so it was okay.

I assume this is military also, I have no idea what it is.

This guy flies over our house often. Mostly on Saturdays.

When the Stealth bombers were stationed at Whitman Air force base in Missouri, we would see them fly over all the time, also. We see lots of old war planes from World War One and Two as one of the airports hosts a fly in every year. I guess some might consider all the noise a nuisance, but I like to hear the rumble and run outside to see what is flying over today. It's fun.