late october treats

Pre-halloween fun at the pumpkin patch




Princesses



Princess


and that princess with her monkey and mommy



and this guy



these three--arrrgh---



and this band groupie pirate at the 2nd annual bash with the band



And finally, the band--"Hold the Mustard"





and that one other band--



All in all, the party seems to have been a success--candy, pizza, soda, costumes, three or four bands and black-lights...Lots of fun, pretty much aerobic workout for me during piano man. But so much fun.

the vacation

I had a lot of time on my hands, so I made some of these:



And I spent lots of time in this:


We ate dinner here one night (that's the Satisfied Ewe Cafe)



Jack got to use this big tool and hammers and chisels:



and cut these big pieces of wood so they fit together snugly









I was ready to come home...

because we all love to talk about calculus

I was going to post about how my left wrist has been killing me lately and I think it's something to do with calculus.

But then I remembered that today marks 33 years since Jack and I made it official. I was five. He was older. or maybe we were both older. I can't remember, it's been 33 years.

Right now though, we are officially on vacation. In a complete switch of roles, we are staying in a hotel and Jack will be attending a class for a couple of days while I wander around town and see the sights. True, I usually attend classes in places like Orlando or San Diego or D.C. or New York and Jack has an unlimited number of sights to see. But the class Jack enrolled in is located in a bit less 'bigtownish' place. It's a timberframe construction class and in theory, after he finishes the class, we should be able to raise a barn or a cabin on our property. Well, as soon as we have the money scraped together and a building permit and all of that. The class is at Snow College. And I have the option of seeing the sights of Ephraim and Manti or just kicking back at the hotel. I brought some stuff to occupy my time but when we stopped in Nephi for gas, we picked up a copy of the local mug shot magazine--seriously, all of the mug shots for the five or six nearby counties for the past week--who can think about calculus when you have pages and pages of pictures of people who've just been arrested to gawk at? If that isn't small town, I don't know what is.

in case you're wondering

I was right. I had a virus. While I'm not completely healed, today was much better than the previous three days.

Yes, I still have calculus. I dragged myself to class last night. Waited in the hallway with the other kids for the teacher to arrive. Was utterly surprised to hear them all talking about the quiz the teacher had announced a week ago. What? Quiz? Seriously? Tonight? You guys quit messing with me. I'm sick and old and this is not a thing to joke about. Wait. You are serious? Really, he said we were having a quiz? Crap. Or something like that. I am totally dead. I must have been so stunned by my unacceptably low quiz/test scores last week that I was checked out mentally when he was discussing his plan to give a quiz last night.

I've been in college for a long time now and I've been vaguely aware of some rule about how if the teacher doesn't show up after a certain number of minutes, class is canceled. That seems so bizarre to me but the other kids in every class seem to have it figured out.

I kept checking with the other kids last night--how many more minutes? Now? Can we leave now? Really, it's only been one minute since the last time I asked? Now? Are we there yet?

When we had but two minutes to go, I offered to take the class to dinner if everybody would just leave then, but you know how there's always one smartypants kid who doesn't want to leave because he's studied soooo hard (that's said in an extremely whiny voice)? And then the teacher showed up.

First thing he said was, "Did I say we were having a quiz tonight?" And whinykid said, "Yes" and most of the class echoed him and I said that I did not remember him saying that but apparently everybody else remembered. And he said (and this is why I adore this teacher in an appropriate student-teacher kind of way) "Let's wait until next week on that quiz."

And then we did calculus problems for the rest of the time. And guess what?


Wait for it.


I am every bit as good at calculus as any other kid in the class. Finally. I just had to study every waking minute. Which is what makes me the true smartypants in the class. Well that and most of my teachers are around my age and give me bonus points for trying so hard even with all of the rest of the insanity in my corner of the world. See, I was the only one who had finished the homework and practice test so I knew the questions I still had and for the first time in calculus class the world was right. I took back my rightful place as teacher's pet.

Score. Too bad so sad whinyvoice kid. But I'll still share cookies from Subway with you when I bring some to share with the class in a few weeks. See that--cookies from Subway--that is the secret to appropriate fellow classmate adoration between the other kids and me the crazy older woman. Cookies with huge doses of self-deprecation. While I'm swallowing down my A.

and then i'm going to calculus

Over 24 years ago, I was pregnant with the drummer. Pregnancy was not easy. Probably isn't easy for most, but I spent most of the first four months either puking or recovering from puking. Then I got really big and surgically delivered a baby and spent six months recovering. Or at least that's the way Jack would describe it.

Okay. Wait. That sounds like I was miserable. Okay. I was. But I was also, always, very excited to welcome a new baby into my arms and I was more than willing to go through the pregnancy to get the baby. Especially the part when I felt life, evening the kicking. Relished it all. Seriously. I loved pregnancy and motherhood.

But there was this one time, a few days in the spring of 1986, when I knew I was pregnant because I'd been barfing out my guts for days, and this time, I wasn't so sure I could love pregnancy. I was sicker than I'd been with my other pregnancies--barfing, yes, but this time, I was achy all over. I could hardly drag myself out of bed or off the couch or away from the toilet, but I remember especially, how difficult it was to drive my two older kids to their preschool classes. I remember thinking that I didn't know how I was going to do this, this mothering thing, while I was feeling so, so bad. I didn't remember it being so hard, but, I reasoned, I hadn't had a four-year-old or a two-year-old to care for and drive to and from preschool three days a week. I even considered quitting preschool.

But then, miraculously, on day four of this misery, I felt better. My aches stopped. I was back to just the usual pregnancy-induced vomiting. And I remember very clearly driving to preschool to pick up the kids and realizing--WAIT--THAT WASN'T PREGNANCY, THAT WAS THE FLU." Aaaahh...pregnancy with the flu! No wonder I felt so sick. What a relief.

And right now, I'm getting ready to go to calculus class. And I'm telling myself that the achy feeling I've had for three days now, that isn't calculus, it's the flu. Or some other viral thing that will miraculously go away by tomorrow. And I will feel better even with calculus for another six weeks.

I have yet to determine the payoff for suffering through this thing they call calculus. I suppose it could be worse--what if I was trying to do calculus while pregnant in 1986 with no calculator! Oh yes, that would be worse. Definitely worse. But I'd be getting a baby.

walk when you're one, talk when you're two

Finally, I've figured out why this semester is kicking my trash so hard.

I am trying to learn two new foreign languages--calculus and labor economics.

Doh! I'm fifty years beyond the prime age to be learning new languages.

random plan for today

In the ongoing battle to overcome, I offer the following:

1. Spent several hours over several of the last few days at various doctor's offices and hospital rooms with dad and mom and mom's bloody nose. Blood thinners. Can't stop the bleeding and yet can't live without them.

2. Worked from home this morning and totally played the liver biopsy card on four separate occasions when I simply couldn't deal with these lawyers for another moment today. To be honest, is it really playing the liver biopsy card if you really can't deal with anything else but that for that period of time? I think not.

3. Made serious attempts to document the beautiful:

This view out the window of our office from my treadmill:



The dahlias that Jr has begged me to plant for years and years that I finally planted this year--thank you dear Jr:




4. After much rearranging, have, captured, I think, the chaos that feels so comfortable to me:



or, if that shot is too much chaos for your belly, how about little pieces of chaos, bit by bit:









or there is the diningroom--who would have thought I could find these colors--

and remember this yard sail find:

that is now this delight:

And finally, an update on the Gus loves the kitties and they love him project, aka, the big lie.

Adorable as he is, I don't think I will ever again let myself be tricked by cuteness when it comes to animal shelter pets. But he is cute, right?