reminders of miss jane

The last two times Janey came to play, she had definite ideas about what she wanted to do during her visit. Two visits ago, she wanted to take a baff. I thought she wanted to get into the hot tub but it was stinkin' windy so I distracted her with some other event like getting a drink or drawing on the white board.

After she left, I went into the bathroom and was immediately aware of how very much Janey had wanted to take a baff. All of the bathtub toys were strewn about the tub, just waiting for me to add water so Janey could stir. Oh sorrow, we missed a perfect water time together.

When Janey came to visit on Saturday, she played and we read stories and did all kinds of fun things, and when it was almost time for her to leave, she came out of the toy room carrying a pair of giant sunglasses that needed to be placed on the nose of the rocking horse outside. Of course. Where else would you put a pair of giant orange sunglasses if you were two? She must have been planning for a big race on gack booty that day.

it's august and then there's the dogs

August is the best month.
Two reasons:
my birthday
floral glory



These are on my list of favorite dog parts:
Jo's white toenail
Gus's curlicue tail



This year's garden includes old friends and new



old favorite black-eyed susans
and a new grande variety



did I mention the new variety is grande?


In case you didn't follow that, these are not sunflowers.
They are black-eyed susans that are taller than Jack.



Then there's the dogs.



which lead to this:


And the dog, the neurotic bug chasing dog



which leads to this:



This is the nonstop, all day, all night activity






yep, lots of pictures today
how to chose? what to eliminate?

oh you are so proud of me

Got my grade.

A-

what does this mean?

I had a dream a few nights ago and I've been trying to figure out what it meant.

I was a college student attending Kent State. It was the end of class time and all of the kids were ready to leave our classroom and head off to their next class. I knew that would be a bad idea. I told my classmates that we should stay in the classroom or we wouldn't be safe. But the kids thought I was being silly and they needed to get to their next classes. So, hesitantly, I followed the kids, but I knew we were headed into trouble. And I was right. Guns started firing. It only lasted 13 seconds, but several kids had been hit, some wounded badly, and others were dead. I kept thinking that I knew they shouldn't have gone outside, but they wouldn't listen. And then I realized I'd been shot twice in my right hip. It was surreal and real all at once. And a bit disturbing.

feeling good

these activities produce a sense of good feelings in me:

A simple meal

a pleasant conversation with the next older generation.

massive amounts of huggings and kisses and i wub yous.

slightly ignoring the assigned item for the reunion feast, replacing it with water balloons because if you have to choose between carrots and celery sticks, who does not go with water balloons.

freshly mowed lawns, with freshly mowed weeds, but lawns too.

freshly weeded and pruned flower beds full of gloriously producing perennials. a poppy here, a gladiola there, grasses and flox and flax and carnations and daisies and cone flowers and black-eyed susans that are tall tall gloriously tall. and the cosmos will bloom their delightfully simple addition very soon.

bathing the two dogs. JoJo who loves the water. Gus who fears nearly everything. But especially water. And dog shampoo. But he was brave. Ultimately brave and patient. And much cleaner.

finding the three cats in the basement, encouraging them each to come out to visit, with much stroking and calming, and chatting.

Seeing those chubby cheeks, chubby thighs, dimples, chin dimples, sparkly eyes, tiny little teeth, and the hair, oh the hair--blondest blonds one curly, one straight, the redheads, one long, curly, auburn, and the other, finer, a bit lighter, but still on the curly side. And then the brunette, the curlycues framing her face her ever adorable face.

putting together clothing that feels good and looks good and also reminding myself how much fun it is to create a style, a statement of my style that includes jewelry, made by me for me because i dared to and i like the finished product and really, who should decide how I will dress any better than I can?

bringing up some of the exercise paraphanelia so i can exercise while watching mad men. I may be headed back to a more fit state of mind and body. Or I may just cuss everytime i stub my toe on one of the weights.

These are all things that I feel good about while doing them.

What about you? What are five things or ten or more that leave you feeling good.

conversations in my head

1. Jack offered to take care of the dishes and the garbage around here. We discussed how long we've been married, that we both have full-time jobs, and we might both be capable of some contribution to the upkeep of the place. He suggested that he would be responsible for dish doing and garbage control.
2. Jack hired someone to come in every other week to clean bathrooms, floors, dust, wipe off fingerprints and smudges, and vacuum. Do I feel some guilt? Only until I remember that he's hired a person who is in college and is very pleased to be earning $20 an hour. He pointed out that my time has value and he really doesn't see himself doing any of these jobs on a regular basis, which I thought were both highly credible data points.
3. Math 1090 is complete. Took the final last night. Holy cow was it hard. So hard that it caused the kid sitting behind me to define it as "one of those below-the-belt tests." Seriously. I had a solid A before the final, but it is worth 30% of the grade, and I'm only for certain sure that three of my answers were correct. If my brain weren't so mathdead, I'd figure out how many answers I needed to get right to keep that A. Instead, I spent the first 45 minutes, searching, attempting to find even one problem that I could solve easily, only to realize that not even one of my answers for the multiple choice problems were one of the options a,b,c, or d. And there was no "none of the above" choice. sheesh.
4. We are now working a 9/80 schedule. What is a 9/80 schedule, you ask? We work 9 hours, Monday-Thursday, and then 8 hours on every other Friday, which means we get the other Fridays off. Every other Friday off! Did you hear that? Tomorrow is our first Friday off and I can't even describe how excited I am to have a day off when everybody else at work will be off work, so there won't be a heap of catchup work on Monday. Sweet.
5. Back to that housecleaner? When I got home last night after my final, the place was, well, tidy. Jack had done the dishes and taken out the garbage. Last night before bed, I noticed that both of my two shelves of pretties--elephants, angels, naked girls, etc.--were dust free. And the toilet paper in the hallway bathroom was folded over on the end, just like it is when you stay at a hotel. I'm feeling pretty good about all of the above.

i changed my mind

Overhead during pre-timeout:

Shilo: But you love your little sister.

Audrey: I changed my mind.