The small child is fascinated by the idea that both TW and I spent many hours making all of the projects in that book – over and over and over again.
She also seems interested in doing almost all of the projects in them, too. Heh.
Old fashioned fun never goes out of style.
Things to Make and Do Read More »
I know this season of Survivor is in Gabon but Michelle embarked on her first solo road trip and is CAMPING. It really feels like Survivor and I’m wondering when she will call me and tell me that she got voted off the La Fayette, Georgia island and is heading home early – or at least to a hotel.
When the kid was here a couple of weeks ago, she started a new 101 things in 1001 days list (after making fun of the fact that I gave up on my list and let it expire without updating it or ever thinking about it again. The kid is a brat, she takes after her father – and TW.) On her list was something like “go on a road trip all by myself”.
Yesterday after class she got in TW’s her little blue car and hit the interstate.
This is a really big deal. Not because Michelle isn’t independent, she is – mostly. It’s a big deal because she just got her license last spring. She’d never driven on the interstate at all until earlier this week, and she only did it then in preparation for this trip.
She called me after she crossed the Georgia border – and yes I was a nervous wreck until she called. Then, she called me from Perry, Georgia (which should have been around the halfway mark.) And then, she was supposed to call me in another 1 1/2 to 2 hours… and she didn’t! 3 hours went by and she hadn’t called. And yes, I was an honest to God wreck.
Because after Perry, Georgia comes I475 which is not a big deal but the merge back onto I75 can be a freaking nightmare. A gazillion lanes, people driving a gazillion miles an hour, people merging all over the place.
So, I called her – and left a message – and then, my phone buzzed, I looked down and there was a voice mail from an hour ago! She had called and my phone hadn’t rung – and it hadn’t told me it was a voice mail until after I called her. Thank goodness. I could stop worrying. Sort of.
She called me back a few minutes later and said she was almost there, “looking for the road to turn on in what should be six miles”. I told her to call me when she got there… another hour went by and I called her again. She was sort of maybe lost. Except she had talked to Fred, Fred, Wet the Bed and she was close, but she was stopping at a gas station to find out exactly where she was and Fred, Fred, Wet the Bed would meet her.
A few minutes later, she called back again – and her journey to La Fayette was over. Next up… camping.
She called this morning – she slept in TW’s her little blue car last night. She had not had any food, she has no idea what they eat while they’re camping. And then, she screamed… BEE!!!!!!!!!!! And I suggested maybe she should just continue to sleep in the car but she insisted she was going to hang up and set up her tent – which probably means she was going to hang up and make Fred, Fred, Wet the Bed or Ned, Ned, Good in Bed set up her tent.
*Fred and Ned are long time friends – they started as Chris’s friends and became Michelle’s friends. They are on a little road trip – driving around, camping, rock climbing, visiting Fred’s family in NC and then onto Missouri or some such place. They’ve been hanging out at some place called Rock Town for awhile, and that’s where Michelle is trying to “Survive” for the weekend.*
Survivor – La Fayette! Read More »
I’d better hurry and update you on the goings on of the oldest child, the one I tend to call the bad daughter, before her siblings arrive at O’Hare in a few hours.
First, she is getting married (and if Prince J was here, he’d be yelling PATRIARCHY – darn I love that boy.) The date has been set. March 21, 2009. A location has been chosen. It will be an outdoor wedding, at some place in Monks Corner, SC. (I’ve got a link here somewhere and I’ll post it another time.)
They’d planned to do an indoor wedding at this place but the stuffed dead animals were a turn off. Apparently they aren’t thrilled with a full sized dead bear being in all of their wedding photos?
Also, her bank hasn’t failed and they’re doing a thriving business due to MY poor bank’s failure.
And, she tossed in the fact that she had a abnormal pap smear a few months ago that she completely forgot to mention, and was heading to the doctor for a colposcopy this afternoon. My kids never tell me anything important.
Oh, one more thing about the wedding – she’s not having anything pink. Weird. This is the bad daughter who loves, loves, loves pink. She’s thinking “olive green”? The kid has gone nuts. Patriarchy does bad things to people. Remember that.
An oldest child update Read More »
You may have noticed the new widget in my sidebar, or maybe you saw my post on BlogHer on Wednesday? The DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge stuff? Maybe I even sent you an email about it?
Don’t pretend like you haven’t heard about this. You have. Now it’s time for you to DONATE and BLOG about it yourself. Or maybe even created your own giving page for the challenge.
I created a giving page that features five projects, from five schools, from five cities where our kids have gone to school.
There’s a school in Fairfield California. Jenn and Chris both went to school there.
There’s a school in Burlington NJ. The actual school Jenn graduated from.
There’s a school in Anderson SC. The actual school Michelle attended.
There’s a school in Gainesville Fl. The actual middle school Michelle got suspended from – twice. Hah.
There’s a school in Evanston Il. Prince J, RJ and Liz attended Evanston schools now.
Donate – even $1 will help these classrooms, these teachers, these kids. And in most cases, kids who attend those schools in years to come.
DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge Read More »
Liz has this thing for the vinyl record player. She constantly turns it on. Constantly. Drives me insane when I’m trying to work.
Today, she turned it on and somehow Barry Manilow (Or Barry Man-hole-cover as my brother and I used to call him when we were kids) came on. Aye yi yi. I’m now cursing my mother for giving us all of her albums.
It’s very troubling to me that I know every damn word to every damn song. Also troubling because I have some burning desire to find a couple of decks of cards and play canasta or kings on the corner.
Cursing my mother…sort of Read More »
Because Lee has been waiting and because it is wrong to always allow the middle child to be overshadowed by his siblings… an update on Chris’s whereabouts and activities. Or, as much of an update as I’ve got.
When last we saw the boy, he was moving all of his belongings to a storage warehouse thing in Micanopy with plans to live in a tent (that happened to have a broken zipper) on the 1/2 child’s property in Micanopy. He was going to live in said tent just until “they” built a storage shed/barn thing to live in. And he was going to just live in this storage shed/barn thing until the group of “American Turd Association” kids in the greater Gainesville region built communal housing on said property.
Well, things being what they are in Florida in the summer (hurricanes) and Chris being a child who is somewhat addicted to his computer (OK completely addicted due to WoW) and the “American Turd Association” kids being errr “American Turd Association” kids nothing got built and Chris is now living in a nice little two bedroom apartment in downtown Gainesville. The half child is also living there, in his own bedroom.
(Chris made this clear on the phone to me yesterday – why he felt the need to make that clear is beyond me. Did he think I suspected him of living in sin with the 1/2 child? I mean I wouldn’t be surprised or anything, knowing the crush the 1/2 child has always had on Chris. But whatever. Who cares? As long as they’re in a house and not in a tent with a broken freaking zipper.)
He’s also down to only one cat (Astroth) and the three turtles (they’ve gotten larger because he put them in a much bigger tank and I’m sure it won’t be long before he decides to get an even BIGGER tank to see just how big those things can get.) As far as I know, he has no girlfriend but there were some text messages from him indicating he was having difficulty texting some girl I’ve never heard of… hmmm I’ll have TW question him appropriately on that front next week when he is here – and we can watch him blush.
The boy has been “threatening” to get a motorcycle and though my so-called friend at the LYS tried to tell me he had done so (along with getting more tattoos) it turns out he’s purchased a bicycle instead. And he’s happily riding his bike from downtown (near GRU) to work everyday (not near GRU at all) and home again. He says it’s a great way to kill an extra hour everyday. (Ah to be young and in need of ways to kill time!)
The kid is very happy with his iPhone though he is disgruntled with iTunes for reasons that most of us are always disgruntled with iTunes. (Not being able to use more than one computer etc…) He’s also looking forward to visiting us next week.
There you have it – an update on the oh so boring middle boy child. Lee’s favorite.
The tent without a zipper Read More »
Since we didn’t have an opportunity to take the kids away for a summer vacation prior to the move north, we thought we’d use Liz’s 10th birthday as an excuse for a mini vacation. The problem we had was – where should we go that wouldn’t cost a fortune, we are after all still recovering from the move.
We considered one of those nifty chain hotels that has the indoor water park. We considered one of those funky towns around here that are trying to turn themselves into tourist destinations by having tons of mini golf and mini water parks. We thought about a lot of things but when TW said “How about House on the Rock?” and I said “Huh? A house? On a rock? Fine, whatever you want” I thought maybe we should just stay home. What kid wants to go to a house on a rock for her 10th birthday and what teenagers would want to accompany her on such a trip. Hah. I changed my mind as TW started explaining it and the minute I loaded the House on the Rock webpage I knew it was perfect. I booked the hotel immediately. Creepy, interesting, relatively close (though I did have second thoughts when I saw it would take 3 1/2 hours to get there) and inexpensive (less than $300 for a 2 room hotel room that sleeps up to 8 and full tour packages for 5.)
On the Saturday morning of Liz’s birthday weekend, we loaded everyone into the car and started to drive toward breakfast. None of the kids have even mentioned breakfast and none had mentioned a stop at Starbucks either. So, as we were approaching the last turn toward our breakfast destination… “Anyone want breakfast?” All three replied that they did. TW asked Liz what she would like to have for a birthday breakfast and she said “Pancakes or waffles” Huh. Weird. So I asked “If you could have ANY breakfast in the WORLD for your birthday, what would it be?”
KRISPY KREME
Hah, that’s more like it. I told her to look to the left and there it was… Krispy Kreme, her favorite. I think we could have eaten our doughnuts and turned around and gone home and she’d have been happy. But we didn’t. We carried on down the freeway until we reached the first rest area in Wisconsin. We used the facilities and then wandered around their travel brochure area where Prince J and I discovered the PERFECT tourist attraction for us… The Mustard Museum where the King of Condiments lives. Hahaha. Since I know the Prince would rather stay home for his birthday than drive 3 1/2 hours, even for condiments, I decided we should take a bit of a detour and head to the Mustard Museum before House on the Rock. TW indicated it was pretty much on the way so we were set.
Almost to Madison, we started thinking about lunch and TW said “Ella’s!” This is the restaurant TW talks about all of the time. It’s the restaurant she wants to recreate someday, but do better. So, we took another detour and headed into Madison for lunch.
Ella’s was totally packed but it was exactly what TW always said it was. Full of toy gadgets and fun things and we all enjoyed the food (and some of us enjoyed the desserts) and the girls enjoyed the carousel.
Then, it was condiment time! A mustard vending machine! All the mustard tasting a boy could ever want! Crazy mustard puns. And lots and lots of old fashioned mustard jars. They even gave us a little mustard song booklet when we left.
Onto House of the Rock hotel, boy what a long drive. The last “six miles” were hell. Pure hell. The kids were ready to get out which means they were touching each other and yelling and screeching and just being generally idiotic and ridiculous. Once we released them from captivity and went in, they were fine. Thank goodness.
The hotel room, much to my surprise, was very large and very clean. 3 queen beds and a pull out couch. Microwave, fridge, very large bathroom. Only two problems – only 5 channels on the TV and no wi-fi in the room. The kids pool with the submarine – HUGE hit.
Finding dinner wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be – we ended up at Culvers and I got Culverized with a butter burger (never heard of it and don’t even want to think about how to “journal it”.) Fried cheese curds! Custard for the kids. Everyone was happy.
Next day – House on the Rock. I’m not even going to attempt to describe it. It’s not possible. It’s like Ripley’s Believe it or Not but better. The infinity room – the dude must have had some great drugs to come up with that. I didn’t really stop to think about what I was walking on (air) until TW mentioned the swaying and then RJ started to bounce and then… OMG amazing and frightening all at the same time. The Prince didn’t even get halfway and started backing up, which is good since I’ve seen him barf in tourist attractions before – it ain’t pretty.
We toured the whole place, we ate more fried cheese curd, we had to tear RJ away from the carousel. We had a super super time – obviously since as we were leaving the Prince said “We did a LOT of walking for fun and exercise and it REALLY was FUN.”
On the way home, we took another detour to Peck’s Farm Market, which we had passed on the way to House on the Rock. It’s a farmer’s stand with a petting zoo. Llamas! Goats! Pigs! and Carriage rides!
It was a fun weekend and a good birthday for the little one. (more photos here)
The House on the Rock Read More »
We grabbed subs and ice cream at Tony’s Subs in Deerpark and then drove over to Wheeling to visit the Dam #1 Woods.
If you have children of a certain age, then you know this led to many many uses of the word “dam” and much giggling. We brought home a dam beetle and it pooped, dam it and there was a lot of dam trash and we could go on and on (and we did) but now I’m done with dam. Unfortunately, others around here are still going strong, dam it.
We entered Dam #1 Woods west and I think maybe we should have entered at at the east. We’ll try that the next time we need some dam fun.
The Word of the Day: Dam Read More »
The little kids have finally arrived in Illinois. Finally. They arrived at our house yesterday afternoon and after showing their father and step-mother their new bedrooms, they dived into unpacking. OK I dived into unpacking and TW tried to dive into unpacking but we ran into some issues. The Prince was only interested in unpacking his TV and game cube. Once he got those unpacked he was too tired to unpack anything else.
Liz was very interested in unpacking but she was easily distracted when she discovered Michelle had allowed her American Girl doll to move to Illinois. From then on, Liz stood next to me with the Molly and ran commentary on whatever I unpacked. (Or Molly ran commentary on everything I unpacked.)
RJ showed no interest in unpacking. TW made the mistake of handing her the scooter and from then on, the child came in only to get some water and talk about whatever she’d been thinking while she scootered. She did head upstairs with me shortly before dinner to get her bed into place and she was interested in getting her bird lights hung up but we had some technical difficulties with that and got called down to dinner before we were successful.
They begged to watch Gilmore Girls, so after more technical problems related to TW having control of the remote control, we watched a few episodes. Liz has suggested we need to watch three a day to make up for the entire month of July. geez kid, I don’t think so.
It’s good to have them “home”. Really good but if you’re still reading, here’s where I tell you that it’s also really hard to have them here. It makes me miss the big kids even more than I already was.
The new normal isn’t going to include running into Chris in CVS or seeing him run into the LYS on Sunday just to say hello or having him stop by a couple of days before pay day to “borrow” some money or to have him drop off his laundry swearing that he’ll be back to move it to the dryer.
The new normal doesn’t include Michelle stomping around overhead, telling us all about what the dumb people at work did or the cool people at work did. It doesn’t include her talking endlessly about her wardrobe or her life plans or not talking endlessly about those things.
The new normal will be fine but right now, it’s not normal and I don’t love it.
Starting the new “normal” Read More »
As I check to make sure her tuition is paid and everything is set for her to go back to classes, I thought some of you who are still lurking from the Storm School/Fast Times blog(s) might be interesting in an update. And of course, my mother is lurking (if her Kindle is letting her get here.)
I mentioned tuition, yes she did manage to get registered as a “real” college student and not a dual enrolled college student. It was touch and go for awhile but she made it. She didn’t manage to get the classes she wanted for this quarter, instead she got the classes she had planned to take next quarter.
* Human Sexuality
* Comparative Politics
* American National Govt
She’s had some rough moments, adjusting to living alone and I think she’s probably spent more time sleeping at other people’s houses or having them sleep at hers than she has actually living in her apartment “alone” with her cat. Michelle is an interesting person – she really likes people but she reaches the point where she really must get away and hide in some dark cave and regroup completely and nobody must ever bother her while she’s hiding in that dark cave. I guess that’s what she’s using her apartment for – that dark cave where she can go and regroup and just get away from all of the stupid people. 😉
Michelle is tired of her job, which is really nothing new since she quite a good long while ago and went back because they “needed her”.
Michelle is heading to Charleston this weekend with her sister and “the boy” (who will be in Florida visiting friends) and is planning on seeing her father. Willingly. That’s a first, ok not a first, but a first in a long long while. She’ll fly back to Florida next week, probably to a very empty bank account… she will be able to pay her bills on the 15th, right? 😉
A quick Michelle update Read More »
