Worlds Apart

Nine Days in Africa.

 

Returning to Nine Days of Snow in Chicago.

Won't Be Long

Before rolling eyes meet me instead of these.

Misty Morning Runs

Exist here.

They make me happy. 

Old with grace

"Mommy!  Your grey streak is getting bigger!"

 

"What?!  I have a grey streak?!!!  take a picture and prove it to me...."

 

You should see what it would look like if I didn't color the rest....

Mommy Away

And Daddy does the grocery shopping:

 

Chips, lots of nuts, beans, and Hot Tamales

 

None of it made it to the pantry, of course.




 

I'm pretty sure they just ate whatever showed up, and looking at this they may have covered whatever showed up with jelly, but that's about it.

Work Travel

Sometimes it isn't so bad to be away.

Mother's Day is Long Over

The Interrogation.

(Trying to keep a straight face.)

 

The culprit: Nicholas

 

Perhaps correct since my first reaction was to correct his spelling, although I didn't get out my red pen. My second reaction to tell him he has a better vocabulary if he wants to slander me.

Perhaps correct as well, since I find this sort of sentiment to be a measure of some success.

"Vacation" Photos: Uganda

Sunrise on Lake Victoria, Entebbe, Uganda

 

The kids always ask why I get to take vacation all the time when I travel for work.

I'm not going to lie, I always make sure to do some vacation-like things, even if the schedules are a little grueling.

Chimpanzee Reserve.

A short 90 minute boat ride across Lake Victoria...

 

Said boat.

 

 

During which we crossed the equator.

 

 

Later, we decided to go into a remote National Forest one day. (somewhere way down there, you can see the local park station where we started.)  Not quite like doing the same in the US.  Here you have to hire a guide to take you.

 

And she will have a gun.

Probably more effective in an emergency with a wild animal than the letherman tool I had stashed in my pack. We needed neither.

 

But before getting there, when the car wouldn't make it the entire way because the roads are that bad, we had to walk up the mountain just to get to the hike we were going to take.  The walk up the mountain took us through a few local villages, where they let out school to come look at the strange people. One brave girl approached me and touched my skin.  When I smiled at her, she shrieked and ran back to her friends and they rolled on the grass laughing.

 

 

You would think this would make me tired, but not enough to sleep in ever.

This is sunrise in Mbale, Uganda.

 

Yummy food.

I chose the beans and rice at this restaurant.  I was the clear winner.

 

And the Nile.  We were halfway across when we asked the driver what we were crossing.

Oh, that's the Nile, he said casually.

 

That was about half an hour after he had casually shrugged off the moment when he rear-ended the driver in front of us during a traffic jam.  The traffic jam during which we bought Fanta soda from people selling to the car windows, considered buying bananas, and my traveling companion strictly forbade me from buying the meat on a stick.

Soccer Mom

I am not.
Daddy signed them up.
Daddy left town the day after Labor Day for four days, on eight hours notice.
Mom figured out where to get them, what they needed, and what time to arrive.
Mom did not figure out that the shin guards go inside of the socks...
Soccer Mommy Fail. But, they are so crazy cute and proud not knowing their faux paus. And I am constantly looking for other Pee Wee players that are similarly dressed, hoping that we're just setting a trend... We're not.

Exactly

During a recent lunch with the kids at school, one of their teachers asked Patric, "What's it like to parent a genius?"
He heard: "What's it like being married to a genius?"
Well heard Patric, well heard.

Mommy Away

And as I randomly found the photos from the most recent mommy-away days on daddy's phone, I found our most recent random randomness.  

Halloween in January, wherein Alida has turned her sister into a dog.

Sure, why not.

Friday Nights

Pretty sure I can tell you where to find me.  A tradition this year; good to be back at it after the move.

Recently

I became a work-from-home sort of lady.

Two trips with two dollies on a Saturday afternoon, and we got ten years of files cleaned out of the office and tucked randomly throughout my house, my garage, a storage unit, and scattered across my dining room table.

No more daily Houston commuting: priceless.

Multi-talented

smiling and crinkling my forehead all at once.

My appliances, however, look pretty darn clean from this angle.

Pictures of Me

I might show up as a consequence of some other activity.

You can almost bet that if I am there, it is Saturday, and there is no make-up, an over-sized T-Shirt, and a pony-tail.

And generally speaking the perspective is off.

Really off.

And that is why you don't often see me here.

10 Mother's Days

Mother's Day 2000: I was ignorant. I made sure I went to church so that when I called my mom later in the day, we could talk about it.

Mother's Day 2001: I was hopeful. We had decided to start a family. I went to church smiling at all of the mothers, just knowing I would be joining their club soon.

Mother's Day 2002: I was prayerful. We had put this in His hands. We made it through church.

Mother's Day 2003: I was angry. Why was every single woman in this church 8 months pregnant?

Mother's Day 2004: I had a plan. He would go to Iraq next year; I would go make a baby. We hoped God was on board with that plan because that was what we were going to do.

Mother's Day 2005: I was scared. God had agreed. When the mothers are honored, do you stand up in church when you're newly pregnant? No. No, my husband is in Iraq, it'll look funny.

Mother's Day 2006: I was exhausted. I had two five month old baby boys. It didn't even dawn on me that this was my first Mother's Day as a mother. We went to church because the nursery would take them for an hour and a half.

Mother's Day 2007: I was shocked. And I spent that morning in church trying to de-emphasize my six-months-pregnant-with-twins belly because I remembered wanting to whack those women back in 2003.

Mother's Day 2008: It was a repeat of 2006, I think. But I can't quite remember.

Mother's Day 2009: He had drill for National Guard. It rained. After breathing a sigh that no one threw up on the way to church, Alida puked as we pulled into the parking stall. The boys climbed around the van as I changed Alida into clean clothes because we've learned to pack them. My back was out of the car getting wet in the rain. Nicholas was trying to open the umbrella in the van. I drug everyone out into the rain and the boys insisted on holding the umbrella--at their level. So I held two girls' hands and shuffled horizontally and about three feet over the ground under the boys' umbrella. We stumbled and lost a shoe and the boys' pants were soaked and Elaine fell behind and got wet. And as we neared the door to the church, the man opening it remarked that he wished he had his camera because that was the most wonderful Mother's Day picture he could imagine.

So mom I just wanted you to know. I get it now. Thanks.

Jury Duty

I've been trying to teach the boys to say "sequestered" all weekend. Nicholas almost has it. By October 9, I'll have him chanting it for me.

Kaleidoscope Eye: My so-called painless migraine

I haven't had one of these since the day the girls were born. I have heard it is called a "Painless Migraine." I don't think they have had to try to help five Benjamins use the potty with Kaleidoscope Eye because that is painful in it's own, very real way.

Please, No Coffee Snobs

So the best part of this National Guard weekend was by far....
Getting this package in the mail (and perhaps the discovery that The Incredibles NEVER gets old no matter how many times you watch it).
Yes. Benjamin was in his pajamas already when the mail got here on Saturday. What?It was as if Sarah had magically known what I would be needing this weekend. Because quickly snatched out of that box was my very own J&S Coffee (otherwise known as the Dukes' coffee shop).
And I lovingly lined them up on the counter next to my new [possessed (but that's another story)] coffee pot. Yes, I even arranged the fruit around them like an art school still-life. Yeah, yeah, we'll leave the art to Patric. What? Leave me my fun. And I stared at them. I considered making my very own pot of new coffee at 5 in the evening. I decided to wait. I took pictures. I walked away. I came back. Really, I'm so tired, the caffeine wouldn't really keep me up would it? I walked away. No, I'll get up early and go sit next to my Mother's Day bush in the yard. It will be a new day and a new pot of coffee, and I had a special moment planned just for me--even if it was for 4:30 in the morning.
And while they look like they both just shared a pot of coffee themselves, they acted even more like they had just shared a pot of coffee all night long--beginning at 10 in the evening and ending at 3:30 in the morning when every last what-could-it-be had been checked and the darlings were left to figure it out for themselves so that mom could get 2 hours of sleep please. Seriously, does anyone have an answer for the babies that flip themselves over, are perfectly capable of flipping themselves back over, refuse to and instead just lay there and scream during the night? I was lucky on Friday, they waited until 12:30 to start the show.
But I had my coffee as they slept-in after sucking down bottles at 6:00, and I got half an hour to shower and relax before the boys popped up. And I drank the WHOLE pot. And then I made another pot, and I have to say, that was excellent coffee that I shared with no one yesterday. Many thanks Sarah.

How Tired Are You?

There should be an amazing story of some sort to go along with that. But there isn't. Why? Because I am so tired that I remember thinking, "That'll leave a mark." But, honestly, I cannot remember how that happened. Cropped out of that photo is my seriously-in-need-of-repair-sole-of-my-foot, which is just too embarrassing to post here.