Jesus' kisses

On Sunday as MI dipped her hand into the holy water font she turns to me and asks whether they (the water) are Jesus's kisses.

Gee. I thought that was one of the cutest things in the world. Better than when her two sisters down my supply of holy water like it was some sort of fantastic potable. Not sure how the Church rules on drinking holy water.

That's it. I have nothing else.

And the drama continues

Last night we went to the library to hear a local children's author speak about his work. DQ asked if she could sit with her friend. I said sure. I then led my little tribe down to the first row so MI could see the screen without a big person in front of her.

Now this man is a very good storyteller beyond being a good author. He was a very engaging speaker. I really didn't want to miss a bit of it. Unfortunately right in the middle of his talk DQ comes up to me. There she was with a bloody mouth. That snaggly front tooth finally was ready to come out. I got up and took her to the bathroom where I pulled the tooth and cleaned her up.

After the talk I went up to DQ and told her how angry I was at her for loosing her tooth. I told her that we had pictures to take on Sunday. I had told her at some point to hang on and not let the tooth fall out until the pictures were taken. Poor thing. I'm either a very good actor or just a regular abusive mother because the poor thing thought I really was angry. I had to assure her that I was only teasing and joking with her.

Now let's fast forward to after we get the kids into bed. PF and I had some words with one another that might be lie the fact that we are truly happily married. I swear he is just as sensitive as I am. I was only reporting what other people thought when they find out we still have a house that we haven't lived in for 3 years. PF then acted all miffed and put-out. He did a real good martyr act. He used phrases like, "I never do anything right. I can't please anyone." Okay. So now you might understand why I got ready for bed as fast as I did. I read myself into drowsiness. I turned the lights off and went to sleep.

Unfortunately the God of sleep thought that I was sleeping too well. Why break a good run with one night of perfect sleep? I was awakened by a knock on the door. ST was out there. She had had a nightmare. I walk her back to her room and lay down with her. Now I am suddenly wide awake because I realize that I haven't put the money under the pillow. I go back to our room and ask PF if he as a dollar. Then I remember my piggy bank in the bathroom. It's where I put all the money I find in the pockets when doing the laundry. I have a perfect dollar. I fold it up and go back to the girls' room.

Now I'm wondering how I will get the dollar under the pillow without ST seeing me doing it. The only way to do it is to wait for her to go to sleep. Seems simple enough in theory. The only problem is ST has programmed herself to awake at the shifting weight of the bed. I lay there in bed worried that I will fall asleep and not do the deed. Then I worry about what I would say to explain the toothfairy failure to show up. Why I'm wondering are we doing this to ourselves. I know the answer is I want my children to have a sense of magic for as long as possible before they turn into the jaded youth of today.

Soon I think I can feel ST relaxing and breathing regularly. I slowly edge away from her. Then I get out of bed. Yep. The little stinker turns to me. She puckers up, and I lean in for a kiss. Then I turn to DQ's bed. I cover her up. Guess what? That stinker wakes and asks me to sleep with her. So I slip into bed. As I make myself comfortable I slip the dollar bill under the pillow. You know I'm wide awake now. So I realize that I can't leave the tooth under the pillow. So I think about what I could tell her about why the toothfairy didn't take it. Of course none of the explanations are going to work. So I dig around and find the nifty little 4H club tooth pillow designed to hold the tooth. I find it but the tooth won't come out peacefully. No it's giving a good fight. Suddenly I become aware that there is movement in the other bed. ST is awake. Now I have no idea whether she realized what I was doing. I hope not.

What an eventful night. This was definitely one of those stories one must preserve. To all of us toothfairies out there, "Good luck and good night."

Drama Queen

Oh my gosh folks. Drama Queen is a wreck. I mean it. This morning she spent some time dancing around the kitchen. I had watched her. But then I turned around to stuff the dishwasher. Suddenly I hear this huge loud clunck that reverberated through the whole house.

Drama Queen in all her enthusiasm for the dance must have lost her balance and knocked her head on the door jamb. I knew she had to have the biggest headache. I mean this child is lucky she did not knock herself out with that little stunt.

On my drive to work this morning. I wondered what happened to my graceful little girl. Instead of the beautiful, flowing arm movements DQ slings her arms and her legs around. Inhibition has set in on this child. It makes her stiff. How did this happen? When did she become aware of others. Why? Why is she not graceful anymore? Why do I cringe watching her dance? Now. Now, I must worry about her flinging herself into solid objects. Is she going to be the one who is going to be the walking wounded one?

To top off all this DQ is becoming the most emotional girl in the world. I may run off to a nunnery to survive her coming of age.

Physical world vs. Cyber world

I've been reading blogs by others in my profession. After this reading I have to say that the thought of dropping out of society seems more attractive than ever. I am a dinosaur. I'm not sure that there is any place for me in this changing world.

I don't want to be plugged in and tuned in. I don't want to have a network of friends that I only interact with through a computer interface.

This makes me think that those people who embrace this "cyber reality" because I just read today that they believe that the cyber world is more real than the physical world, are really being sucked into the beast. For those that don't live in the Bible belt world. The beast is satan. Folks around here believe that those that aren't saved will be marked by the sign of the beast. Years ago I had to suffer hearing about how the UPS symbols on products is the mark of the beast.

I'm a vilifying the Internet? No not really. I'm vilifying the social networking software. I do not have a My Space page; a Face page or any of the multitudes of social networking. This blog comes the closest to this function in my life. I communicate to those I love dearly but am seperated by land. I also have some friends who are in the area that read it. Actual I can only think of 2 that meet that criteria.

Here's my common thread in my blog. People are getting so tied up with these cyber worlds that they are unable to see; interact; function in the physical world. People no longer use their manners. Parents aren't teaching manners. I'm seeing an irony here that I've noted before. How are all these people going to know that the person they were just extremely rude to wasn't the very same person they were "connecting with" just a few minutes ago.

Somehow the nunnery just sounds better and better. Give me peace and quiet. Give me solitude.

Miss Independence

Have I ever mentioned that MI talks with a Jewish accent? I remember when she was going through the babbling stage. MI made a lot of German type sounds. Sounds like iech, shin were her favorites. Perhaps I am the cause of her pronounciation? I always thought it was cute to hear the iech coming from her. So I would iech right back. MI uses a lot of oy's in her speech, too. Turkey sounds like toykey. Thoysty for thirsty.

Well last night we were working thourgh the project bag the preschool sent home with her yesterday. They were shapes. Little plastic shapes that you use to create other shapes. Essentially they are math manipulatives. While we worked MI kept saying, "I need a whombus." We all thought that was pretty cute. Passionfruit asked her where she heard that. Passionfruit explained what whombus meant to DQ and ST.

After a while I get the instructions out of the bag to find out what we need to be doing with these things. That's when I realize that MI wasn't saying whombus. She was saying rhombus. Rhombus is a diamond shape. I don't know if I ever knew that. Anyway, I tell PF that MI is saying rhombus not whombus. We both laugh for a while.

Yesterday evening was a very nice evening. ST and MI were pretty wild but they weren't fighting with one another. We had a really nice time with each other. So we spent our 13th wedding anniversary with our children. It was a nice quiet evening. It was cold and wet outside but it was warm and loving inside our house.

Big Undertakings

Last night Passionfruit and I watched a very, very funny movie. Undertaking Betty is it's name. YES! Folks, I remembered the name of the movie! It got us laughing. We laughed so hard and so long. We even ended up remembering the many funny things that happened to us during our life together.

See we were getting ready for bed. We were laughing. We couldn't do some things like take our meds because of the laughter. Brushing our teeth, laughing and trying to talk about the movie got us both thinking about the time when I was brushing my teeth. Passionfruit asked me a question and I tried to answer. Well I don't know how I did it, and I've never been able to reproduce the sound but I made a noise that sounded like Chew Bokah on Star Wars. More laughter. Thus began the reminiscing.

Which of course only led to more laughter. See our first year of marriage was pretty funny. I've talked in the past about how finky Passionfruit can be about somethings. Cleaning the lint tray of the dryer is one of them. I was young and in love. I wanted to be a good wife. So I did my best at cleaning the lint tray and trap. I frequently used rubber scrappers as tongs to get clumps of lint out of the lint trap. One time I lost one down there. My hands were too wide to get down there so I tried getting another scrapper to dig it out. Well finally after loosing that one down the trap I finally managed to get one up to where someone could grab it. Unfortunately I didn't have a third hand. So I started calling for help. Passionfruit did hear me calling for help but he thought I was only using profanity. Yes, folks I swear horribly. I also have a horrible temper. So Passionfruit ignored me. I had to go find him and drag him back into the house to help me.

Here's another appliance story. This one involves the dishwasher and Passionfruit. Our dishwasher at the time was the original appliance from when the house was built back in 1975. This was 1994. Anyway Passionfruit became aware that the dishwasher had been running for hours non stop. So he takes the knob off and sees a wire wrapped around the rod for the knob. Passionfruit then picks up a pair of metal scissors and sticks it into that orifice. I grab a wooden spoon and place it next to him. Passionfruit asks, "What's that for?" I reply, "For when you electrocute yourself." Passionfruit scoffs at me. I turn away. The next thing I hear is a popping sound. I turn to see Passionfruit jumping away and giving a very good imitation of someone with voltage running through his body. I mean he had the shimmy and the shake going. Of course the puff of smoke added to my distress. I just knew my new husband had done himself in this time. I imagined that people would accuse me behind my back of killing my older husband. I was so angry with him. I was so scared.

Then Passionfruit brought up the time when I slid off the bed. I love satin. I was wearing a satin night shirt and I had a satin comforter on our bed. I was young back then and I got cold so very easily. Our bed at the time did not have a foot board. So I crawled across the bed to get another blanket that had fallen on the floor, and that's when it happened I lost my balance and went careening off the bed. All I remember is how fast the floor was coming up to meet my face. Passionfruit's perspective was far more amusing because he said that he saw me go slidding and then the next thing he knew my feet were up in the air.

These are the highlights to our first year of marriage. I know there were several others because back then we had weekly dinners at my parents house. When we would get to the table everyone wanted the newest story from our married life. I'm pretty sure that there wasn't a week we weren't able to give everyone a story. Passionfruit and I love to laugh. We laugh at each other. We laugh with each other. But laughter is so very important to us. Life is too short to be so serious.

Driving home

Last week I went to a conference. It was in Little Rock. I got to drive there. Of course driving is one of those times that I get to think. What I thought about the other day was-- how Passionfruit has held me in his arms in two different occassions. It's funny that they were both linked to my father. The first time was before we were even dating. My father was lying in a hospital bed. He was recovering from surgery. We were expecting cancer as diagnosis.

Anyway my mother sent me off to contra. Passionfruit saw me and asked me where had I been all these many monthes. I told him that my father had major surgery and a bleeding ulcer over the last 3 months. Passionfruit put his arms around me. I remember how his chest seemed to be large. I snuggled in and enjoyed the warmth and support he offered me. We started going out within a couple of monthes after that.

Then we need to fast forward by 10 years. We are in Jamaica. We are celebrating the wedding of his nephew. My father had just died 2 monthes before we went to the wedding.At the time there was a song that talked about how a father died and how he wished his parents could have had one last dance together. My parents had met at a community dance hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While Passionfruit and I were dancing that song came on and I broke into tears once again. Once again Passionfruit's chest seemed so large and strong as he held me.

Passionfruit is not a large man. He is short and slender. Passionfruit is not by any means a buff kinda guy. Where he has some nice muscles are in his legs. But he doesn't work that upper body. But you know he is a strong man. My man has always fought for me. Let me correct that. Passionfruit has always fought for me when I am right. When I am running half cocked and wrong he finds a gentle way to bring me back into the reality of the situation. I thank God for this wonderful man. To have and to hold... I love those words in the marriage ceremony. By his touch my husband can give me so much-- so much strength; so much love; so much compassion; so much empathy; so much comfort. Yes, dear Lord you have truely blessed me. Thank you.

Our wiggly ways

The other night we ate dinner. Of course, we eat dinner every night. What was singular in this ordinary event is our two oldest daughters.

After the meal was mostly consumed DQ and ST sat wiggling their upper front teeth. Each of them have a loose front tooth. They are the exact opposite of the other. DQ's is so loose that the tooth is just hanging on by a thread. It's really gross to look at her. It gives her a really odd look to that tooth. I mean it's literally slanted. ST's tooth isn't quite so loose. But I suspect ST will lose her tooth first since she tends to be far more active than DQ. ST has reported that it hurts to brush her teeth so I'm guessing she doesn't do much tooth brushing.

Yesterday ST reported that she spent the recess period sitting under a tree wiggling her tooth. DQ doesn't seem quite that pre-occupied with her tooth. I really, really can't wait for her to loose that tooth. Of course once they loose one it makes the other unstable and it generally falls out pretty quickly; or so the dentist says. I wonder if this Christmas DQ and ST will sing "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth."?

Fremont St. Rules

I celebrated my birthday Sunday. It was a good birthday. The kids were well behaved and excited about the party. My family came over for a lunch party. I received several cards with cats on them. One of my sisters couldn't resist. I hate cats for those that don't know. Plus we recently had a cat volunteer to be our pet. I finally took it to the pound. I co-worker made me feel better; she said, "That way the owners can be reunited with the kitten." I no longer feel guilty about doing that.

We ate so late in the afternoon that by 6:00PM I wasn't hungry and I had to force myself to fix a dinner for the kids. DQ and I played UNO together. We started out with MI and ST but they quickly lost interest. Actually MI wanted to play the game her way.

Which leads me to last night. MI came home with homework. It's a game. After dinner MI and ST were playing it. Passionfruit, DQ and I were still eating. We over heard MI saying that they were cheating at the game. She said this with pride. I told her she wasn't cheating; she was playing by Fremont St. rules (this is the street my father grew up on and their rules never remained the same and always changed to benefit the players in possession of the ball.) MI turned and told me she was too cheating. So I left it at that since MI was getting upset. I think my father would have loved it.