Friday, February 15, 2008

A few things overheard at our house

UNO: When I grow up, I'm going to be an urban planner.

RCH, impressed: Oh really?

UNO: Yeah. That means I get to be in charge of EVERYBODY!

* * *

RCH to DOS: Don't you want to be a grownup? If you ever want to be a grownup, you need to learn to pay attention to the pee in your bum!

* * *

DOS to TRES: Hey, Tresy, Tresy! Hey there, little Tresy! Will you be my Valenstime? Hmmmmm? Will ya? Will ya?

TRES: *Pppbbfffttt!* [She has learned to make motor boat spitty noises.]


~RCH~

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Toddler Miracle Diet

Note: I didn't write this -- I swiped it from the online Mommy group I belong to; its real author remains unknown to me. But boy, can I relate, lol! My New Year's resolution to lose weight isn't going so well, so maybe I should try this.... ;-)

Americans are always on the lookout for a new diet. The trouble with most diets is that you don't get enough to eat (the starvation diet), or you don't get enough variation (the liquid diet) or you go broke (the all meat diet). Consequently, people tend to cheat on their diets, or quit after 3 days, or go right back to stuffing their faces after it is all over. Is there nothing you can do but give up and tell your friends you have a gland problem?

Well, now there's the new Toddler Miracle Diet! Over the years you may have noticed, as I have, that most two year olds are trim. It came to me one day over a glass of water and a carrot that perhaps their diet is the reason. After consultation with pediatricians, X-ray technicians, and distraught Moms, I was able to formulate this new diet. It is inexpensive, offering great variety and sufficient quantity. Before embarking on this diet, however, be sure to check with your doctor, otherwise you might have to see him afterward. Good luck!

DAY ONE

Breakfast: One scrambled egg, one piece of toast with grape jelly. Eat 2 bites of egg, using your fingers; dump the rest on the floor. Take 1 bite of toast, and then smear the jelly over your face and clothes.

Lunch: Four crayons (any color), a handful of potato chips, and a glass of milk (3 sips only, then spill the rest).

Dinner: A dry stick, two pennies and a nickel, 4 sips of flat Pepsi.

Bedtime snack: Toast a piece of bread and toss it on the kitchen floor.

DAY TWO

Breakfast: Pick up stale toast from kitchen floor and eat it. Drink half bottle of vanilla extract or one vial of vegetable dye.

Lunch: Half a tube of "Pulsating Pink" lipstick and a handful of Purina Dog Chow (any flavor). One ice cube, if desired.

Afternoon Snack: Lick an all day sucker until sticky, take outside, drop in dirt. Retrieve and continue slurping until it is clean again. Then bring inside and drop on the rug.

Dinner: A rock or an uncooked bean, which should be thrust up your left nostril. Pour grape Kool-Aid over mashed potatoes; eat with a spoon.

DAY THREE

Breakfast: Two pancakes with plenty of syrup eat one with fingers, rub in hair. Glass of milk; drink half, stuff other pancake in glass. After breakfast, pick up yesterday's sucker from rug, lick off fuzz, and put it on the cushion of your best chair.

Lunch: Three matches, peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Spit several bites onto the floor. Pour glass of milk on table and slurp up.

Dinner: Dish of ice cream, handful of potato chips, some red punch.

FINAL DAY

Breakfast: A quarter tube of toothpaste (any flavor), bit of soap, an olive. Pour a glass of milk over bowl of Cornflakes, add a half cup of sugar. Once cereal is soggy, drink milk and feed cereal to dog.

Lunch: Eat crumbs off kitchen floor and dining room carpet. Find that sucker and finish eating it.

Dinner: A glass of spaghetti and chocolate milk. Leave meatball on plate. Stick of mascara for dessert.


~RCH~

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Today's total

It snowed yesterday, canceling preschool. It snowed again today, from at least 4am (when I got up with Tres) until 2pm, when I went out to shovel the damage. It's supposed to snow some more tomorrow. When will it ever end??

Today's snow depth in the undisturbed areas: 28 inches. It always seems like more than the measuring stick says, though.


~RCH~

Monday, February 04, 2008

Angels among us

Uno makes a snow angel

Dos makes a snow angel

At least someone's enjoying the snow.


~RCH~

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Snow Day

The bishop canceled church today because of the snow (apparently none of the congregations in the area met). We had a fair amount already, we got dumped on again on Thursday afternoon, and then overnight last night we got another five or six inches. I went out this afternoon and stuck my measuring tape in the snow: Only (only!) 19" in the undisturbed areas (I thought it would be more), and drifts of 44" and higher.

I'm definitely ready for spring, but while this is more than the usual amount of snow I know it's not unprecedented for the area. It reminds me of my senior year of high school, when it snowed for 14 days straight -- sometimes just a light flurry, but continuously without ever really stopping -- and the drifts were far taller than I was. DH, on the other hand, is not accustomed to this much snow. He's feeling pretty bitter about it, lol. Welcome to the Rocky Moutains, I say!

DH stands alongside the snow drifts on our freshly shoveled walk

Our poor backyard swing set, buried in snow

We probably won't be grilling outdoors for a while

Looking West from our back deck


~RCH~

Friday, February 01, 2008

The sign

I was cleaning out our old, falling apart, second-hand grad school desk so that DH and I can put together the shiny new one that's been sitting in two boxes in the kitchen for the last 11 months -- we are not handy people; we do not get excited about building things -- when I came across this, the horoscope that changed my life. Now to clarify, I'm not a believer in astrology; I read the occasional horoscope strictly for its entertainment value, and Rob Brezsny's are always entertaining. I loved this one so much at the time that I turned it into a little postcard using a stock photo (with all that hair, I thought she made the perfect Leo, and she looked manic enough to really need the advice).

the horoscope that changed my life

I know the scan isn't great, so I'll reprint the text for you:

Congratulations! You've made it through the trivial ordeal! As a reward, I'll spare you from moralistic preaching and load you up with poetic soundbites. Here goes. Play a joke on your fear, Leo. Elude "helpers" who force you to need them. Ask a soul-deepening question you've never had enough courageous curiosity to imagine. Stand in a wide open space and pray for a slow-motion volcano in your heart. And finally, as a special treat marking your release from the strangleholds of annoying little demons, please accept my gift of this mind-massaging Zen koan: Go wash some water.

16 September 1999
Rob Brezsny's Real Astrology


Despite occasional feats of bravado and derring-do, I've never been particularly brave. (You may have figured that out if you read the kissing post.) But by the turn of the century, with nearly a quarter century of living behind me, I had grown tired of the frazzling insecurity that ruled my behavior. I had grown tired of the constant fear that I wasn't good (smart / talented / pretty) enough, and the constant fear that maybe I was.

Still. What to do about it?

My first clue came as I drove down Orchard Drive in my hometown, and saw the sign posted outside the community church: Do what you fear and your fear will die. "Oooh!" I thought to myself. "I like that." I tucked the bite-sized homily away in a corner of my brain and forgot all about it ... until a couple weeks later, when I stumbled upon the horoscope above and the message finally clicked for me.

Play a joke on your fear, Leo. Don't merely soldier through it, don't endure or even try to overcome it. Acknowledge it, gently poke at its absurdity, deflate its unearned power over you. Do what you fear and your fear will die.

I don't believe the universe controls my fate based on the time of my birth and the position of the stars; I'm sure there are plenty of people born between July 23 and August 22 for whom that horoscope was completely irrelevant (though let's be honest, still a fun read). But I do believe that we're sometimes sent important messages via random coincidence -- tender mercies, let's say -- if we're open enough to receive them. This was one of mine.

I'm not brave even now, lol; I think I'm stuck with this mousy little personality (and that's okay). But this particular pep talk at that particular moment led me to make some decisions that altered the course of my life in a fabulous way. I can't help but smile, looking back on my art project and reading those words again for the first time in a long while -- Congratulations! You've made it through the trivial ordeal!


~RCH~

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I've got a lot of catching up to do

Inspired by my dad's recent post on the states he's visited, I decided to map my travels as well:




Create your own personalized map of the USA

Apparently I've only visited 76% of the United States; that's what, a C? C+? Of course, there were some states I wasn't sure about: I may have been to Delaware and Rhode Island (did we hit either of those when the fam picked me up from Peace?) and while I've never been anywhere else in Georgia, I have been to the Atlanta airport seven or eight times so maybe I can count that (I didn't on this map). Depending on how you figure it, then, I still need those states (maybe) plus Wisconsin (we've talked about visiting the Dells), the Dakotas, Maine, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida (we may go there for a "medical conference" next fall, if we can swing it financially) and the far-flung Alaska and Hawaii.




Create your own visited countries map

The 10 countries I've visited (US, Canada, Mexico; Brazil; Austria, Germany, Portugal, France, Spain, UK) represent only 4% of the world. F. Now that's disappointing! I've definitely got to get out more. :-P

Where have you been?


~RCH~

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