Weekend Mornings

We live in a gymnasium. A total echo chamber. You can hear and feel every thud, bang or tap amplified by 1000. I swear I could hear you if you were whispering in the other room. The building is an old spanish style duplex from the early 1900's. It is loaded with charm but this comes with a price. It has hardwood floors and tile throughout with a hollow crawl space below and no insulation. We have children. Children that do not float along the floor but instead stomp like wild bohemians and so do their friends. Most of the time we just deal with it, but weekend mornings in this vortex of sound really gets to me.

Saturday morning I was wakened by Thomas racing his new speed racer car around the perimeter of my bed. Back and forth, around and around, stomp, boom, stomp, weeeeeeee! Then I hear something starting in low and starting to grow... (wait, didn't I just quote Dr Seuss?) it was Ella singing an off key Wizard of Oz medley. "Were off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz, we here is a wiz of a wiz as ever a wiz there was, whoever, ever a wiz there was the wizard of oz is one because because because because beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecause, because of the wonderful things he does...! The kids were up loud and clear and Wade was on his walk. Where are my earplugs? Oh yeah, I don't have any and it wouldn't help anyway. On Sunday morning, we were wakened by the sweet sound of Ella composing music on her electronic keyboard. Bless her heart it was adorable, but damn was it annoying. Then Thomas chimes in and they have the keyboard on auto-replay, volume pumped and they are jumping on and off the beds. Heeee, hee, hee, blah, blah, blah, blah, weeeee, thud, thud, bang. The neighbors just love us... Good morning... good morning to you all on this lovely Sabath morn. I love our apartment for many reasons and I love our kids for many reasons, but man, can't a mama get a good quiet sleep in on the weekend morns?

Utah

Thomas: Where's my baba?
Me: At home in California
Thomas: Where's dada?
Me: He's in California too
Thomas: Where's Ella?
Me: Ella's at Grandma Cher's
Thomas: Where's my suitcase?
Me: It's over there on the floor
Thomas: Where's my backpack?
Me: It's next to your suitcase.

While in Utah, all of these questions needed to be answered each night before we went to bed. On this trip to Utah, Thomas was old enough to understand that we were away from home and that we were at grandma's house. He was better at socializing and was attempting to understand our connection to all of these people we call family and friends. Almost every time Grandpa would come in the room or try to talk to Thomas, Thomas would say..."Mommy, is that your dad?" He was even bonded enough to Grandma to say... "You got booger grandma?"

It was nice to be home again. It was great to just do nothing and hang out with the folks. I fell in love with my nieces and nephew again too. They are so awesome! They have grown up so much and I love to watch them and follow all their new interests. We did all the down home things I wanted to do. We ate a pot roast for Sunday dinner which was proceeded by the lounging around on the floor and the reading of the Sunday paper. We ate mom's brownies with powdered sugar on top. We chatted about this and that. Throughout the day the front door would open and close...people coming in and out. Thomas would play with Winnie and Winnie would play with Thomas all the while licking the stickiness and goobers off of his chapped lips and cheeks. (Winnie's a dog by the way.) Mitchell and Mom played hymns on the piano while Ella and Emma danced. We watched Masterpiece theater and ate more brownies.

The trip was a whirlwind, but a good whirlwind. We spent time at the cabin and went sledding in the heavy dirty April snow. My sister Jennifer gave me a sewing lesson and let me peek in her studio to see her new oil paintings she has been working on. Her talent blows my mind every time. I saw alot of dear friends that I hadn't seen in forever and we all have kids now... babies and kids and kids and babies. It was great to just hang out and talk old times and let our kids roam. We went to Monroe for a couple of days to see Grandma Cher. We held a few baby goats, jumped on the trampoline, saw some elk and Ella got a perm. She's been wanting curly hair for the longest time because Susan from Beverly Cleary's Ramona books has boing boing curls and Ella had to have them too. So when she found out about permanents she just had to have one. And ...shudder, shudder, eeeek! Let's just say she left Monroe not looking like Susan, but looking like Juliette Lewis from National Lampoons Vacation circa 1989. Totally RAD!

Here we are ice skating...


FYI I am pleased to say I have the first copy of the Elizabeth and Mitchell collaborative project... To me it has a Jack Black, Bob Dylan, White Stripes, Moldy Peaches vibe to it. Mitch has the mad guitar and harmonica skills and Elizabeth's lyrics are so creative... I love it!! You seriously rock! Keep it up!

felted bowls

These bowls are fun to make with leftover balls of yarn from old projects. The pattern is from Oneskein by Leigh Radford. This is such a great book. All the patterns call for one skein or less of yarn. This makes it possible to splurge a little more on your choice of yarn and get the nice stuff. I have done many a project from this book and have been pleased every time.

sometimes I wish I was more type A

No matter how clean my house is I still can't find...

1. the phillips screwdriver, you know, the one size that you always need. It is never in the toolbox but instead floating around in a drawer somewhere.

2. a good sharpened pencil with an eraser. Either the lead is dull or has broken off. The eraser is either chewed off or not there.

3. the pencil sharpener.

4. socks!! Every morning I seem to be scrambling to find a matching pair for Ella or Thomas. I don't get it, where do they go?!?

5. the kitchen timer...why the hell can't I just have a spot for it? It's always found in the most random of places and let me tell you, it is never the kitchen and in the mean time my banana bread is burned.

6. baby wipes. They are never near the diapers.

7. the remote...I know I'm not the only one. This is a source of much marital contention.

8. Ella's hair brush... it's bright orange, you think I would be able to at least see it.

9. The thing that goes to my electric mixer. You know, that thingy? It's never in the right kitchen drawer.

10. Chargers...the charger to the camera, the charger to the air bed, the charger to the dvd player. Chargers who needs em!

I think I'll stop at 10.

Wolverine amongst red roses

Read more about our super weekend here...with the digga swigga...

Splat! Bam! Kapow!

Goin to see Bro bands with my Bro dudes

Bros, bros and one ho. Me being the ho. We just got tickets for REM, The National and Modest Mouse for May 29th at the Hollywood Bowl! I am so excited I can't stand it. I've always wanted to see REM and it just so happens my favorite band of the moment, The National is opening for them. It will be great to see Modest Mouse again too. To top off this sweet cake we get to go with our dear friends. Pete and Anthony are coming from NY and Eric is coming from Vegas. Party-ri-fic! It will be so great to see them again. Happy, happy day!