Mardi Gras

It was Mardi Gras yesterday, and we had dinner guests. Amy made muffalettas and salad and an apple dessert. Kristi made gluten-free cookies. I sat around looking pretty.

I forgot to take any photos other than the ones of Isabelle posing with her handiwork. I need to put my camera in a place where I will be forced to pick it up and use it. Isabelle decided to do some fancy cut-outs with cookie cutters. Everyone was afraid to eat the gingerbread man, and there was no fox around to do the deed.

What else is new? Calvin has a messy room and a D. He is in big, big trouble. It is a good opportunity for a poll though.

I've been working washing dishes and writing requests for $ and visiting St Louis. The usual.

Yesterday I was in town doing some stuff early in the morning. I got out of my car, heard an airplane, looked up and saw our little yellow one flying right above me. I waved vigorously. When I got home 1/2 an hour later, I heard an airplane, looked up and saw the same one flying above my house. I waved even more vigorously. The first time it was Roger and a TV reporter; the second time it was Sebastien.

Heard at our house last night:

Boy: Mom...
Mom: You better stop and think if it is worth tattling about.
Boy: Freddy spit in his cup!
Mom: Well, if I were you I'd get back to that table and guard my cup.

Design for me

OK...so I'm sitting at the kitchen table after dinner is over too tired to get up and wash the dishes and clean the counters and bake the Persian cookies and prep for tomorrow and I'm staring at my kitchen and then it hits me:

I have an island in the center of my kitchen. I have rows of counters on either side. All the cabinetry is painted white. The island is topped in white while the sides are topped in blue. Look down below at the photo on V Day to see what I'm talking about. I'll wait for you.

OK...isn't the island just begging to be painted a color?? The sides would be color topped while the island would be color bottomed. Now, Ladies, what color????

And if you are wondering about the last design project, the bathroom, it's on hold while we finish tearing the tiles off the wall and repairing it. It's more work than expected, but it will be worth it. Painting a bit of the kitchen would be like child's play compared to that. So, what color????

4th of 4th photo

Laura did a fourth of the fourth photo and didn't tag me. She doesn't do tag; neither do I.

Here's the fourth photo in the fourth folder in my photos:
Awww, isn't he adorable? That is a spear in his hand. It's summer. June. See the little foot over his shoulder? His sisters had friends over and they were painting the doll house furniture. The other photos in this folder show Calvin's birthday, a visiting Grandpapa, and some very, very brown children. Freddy is super white, but the others are brown like mud. No wonder I got all those comments about the mailman.

Cake and dinner and Pompey and Bibles

Poor Pompey. This is the time of year that his little paws get covered with mud and his fur gets chock full o' thorny sticks. It doesn't make him very popular around here.

I'm pretty popular though. Here's what's happening:

Hospitality update: Remember my goal of two gifts of hospitality at home and two away from home each month? So far, so good. It's mid-Feb and I've got four at home and three away. Seb has told me that I can't count Sabra's family because I've adopted her as my littlest sis. I say she counts anyway because I invite her, she accepts (without even consulting Bryan!), and I cook. Soon he's going to say that I can't count Amy either.

On my birthday I took 18 choc/banana muffins to Freddy's class and made them sing to me. If only I'd had my birthday present early; I could have worn it to class. The girls would have been VERY impressed.

Today I took dinner to a friend. She has a bit of a sickness that is causing her to be a lie-about. When you don't move your body, you get cold. She said to me, "...one of those Snuggies might be nice. Have you seen them on TV? Oh, you don't get TV." No, I don't...but I have this friend, so I know all about the Snuggie.

And after I gave the dinner to the one friend (at school pick-up time), another friend walked up bearing a cake for my family. It was a clear case of what goes around comes around. It is a lemon cake that smells delicious and tastes very good, according to my four tasters.

Red letters: Freddy was looking through a stack of Bibles and asked about the words in red. He assumed that those were the spots where the printer was running out of ink.

I don't remember what else I had to write about, so I'll just call it a day.

Engrish and French for all

When I was in France (and in Canada), people laughed at my attempts to speak French. Sebastien still does. He laughs at my attempts to sing also. And spell. He might have been laughing yesterday at my comments about my future attempt to make decent brown rice, but I'm not sure about that.

Now it's my turn to laugh at others' attempts to use English. Donna will love this site. It had me laughing so hard today that I was crying. And I didn't even get to see much of it because of the dial-up.

Sabra told me about it at dinner and Seb called her a linguist. There goes her squeaky clean image.

My favorite post so far...although it is terribly difficult to choose just one! I did hear about this site over dinner you know.

Rant

The bulk of the volunteer work is done. The party went well. My helper couldn't make it, so I had to be the party executer all on my own. The class on Ghana went well, although I've had enough of the behavior of young boys. I don't think that I'll teach again.

The complicated grant came together nicely. I just have some details to work out and it will be ready. The other two grants have to wait, but there is no deadline on those.

In the midst of all that, Sebastien called me in to temp. I worked for him every morning last week, except for Monday when I worked in the school library. At the airplane factory I am in charge of a project that involves printing, copying, stapling, hole punching, binding, stamping, and boxing. These are skills that any (former) homeschooling mom has perfected. I'm very good at my temp job and even got a compliment. I'm hoping for a raise now.

On Friday I got an invitation while working and followed this guy to this airplane:
where we took a spin around. It didn't last long because I got sick.

Now it's time for ranting.

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Pregnancy: I am not pregnant. I've done enough of that. I loved my precious children enough to carry them for 42 (girls) or 42.5 (boys) weeks. I gained 200 lbs. And I came through it all with bigger feet and motion sickness. Before preg, I never got sick in the air or in the car unless I was reading. Now I get air sick every time I go up and car sick 1/2 the time that I'm not driving. It's just not fair.

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Public School: I've just about had it. I'm losing my patience, and I'm a very patient person. The latest is the news that we got this week: If Calvin misses another day of school this semester, he'll have to do Saturday School to make it up. Four hours of study hall. (Remember the Breakfast Club? Surely he's the geek who knows Moliere.)

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So, he will have to sit in school being bored for four hours after weeks and weeks of being bored for 7 hours per day and learning next to nothing. His 100%+ in every class won't get him out of it either. All because he was sick. And when he's sick I'd rather he stay home and rest and get better instead of sitting in school where he learns nothing!

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Hicksville: I couldn't wait to get back home after my day away in the big town. Sebastien, at the same time, was wishing to move to the big town after dealing with local frustrations. One example out of many: He's in the grocery store on his lunch hour buying his precious daughter flowers and a card for her 13th birthday. The folks working at the store had to figure out the price of the card which was on sale for 20% off. They couldn't figure it out. He told them. They didn't believe him. He explained how he arrived at the #. They looked at him suspiciously. Eventually they came up with a # that was a little more than 20% off, but they were happy with it. He was happy to leave.

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And when I was reading through the high school handbook trying to find the attendance rules, I came across the dresscode (which I see broken every day in warm weather by boys with pit hair blowing in the wind). Does any other school have a rule requiring that both straps of suspenders or overalls must be worn on the shoulders and not hanging down?

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Maybe working makes me cranky.

Attraction

And to celebrate Valentine's Day, we have photographic proof that opposites attract. The top photo is his workspace and the bottom photo is my workspace:

Yes, I have offered to help him clean it; it's an offer I extend every week or two. He took me up on it once, maybe a year ago.

Volunteering

Here is Isabelle walking a shelter dog named Kisses on Saturday at a pet adoption event:
He was very popular and will surely find a home soon.

That was Isabelle's volunteer work (and mine because I was supervising and transporting her). I am still buried under the huge pile of my volunteer work. So far, I've climbed over the taxes and W forms, the bills and the computer work, a class on Ghana, and the bulk of one very complicated grant request. At the top of the mountain pressing down upon me is the budget, two simpler grant requests, and finishing up that complicated one. Plus there is 3.5 hours in the school library and a Valentine party to throw this week.

When I am on top of it all, I'll be back to let you all know how I feel about being 40. And maybe I'll show you my one and only birthday present.

Our weekend

I spent all weekend sneezing, mostly in bed, while Freddy walked on water like his papa...
and Calvin bowled a 209. That's right, a 209! He has been trying for months to hit 200. We are so proud. That's about all I remember of the weekend.

Freddy and Sebastien found some interesting rocks, including part of an arrowhead. And a bone cutting tool.

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And we finally had our party. It was the MLK, Jr party, but because of the delay, it was also our Inaugaration Day party and our Susan's First Paycheck party and our Super Bowl party and our Groundhog Day party and our Crepe Day party.

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Freddy's friend Christopher joined us. We had special food for dinner and cookies for dessert, with juice and juice champagne. We watched some of It's a Wonderful Life after dinner. Sebastien and I haven't seen it in a decade or two, and Calvin is the only young person who has seen it. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. And that, for us, is a party.

Man escapes disease

I know that the top question in the minds of all our friends and family is: "Why didn't Sebastien succumb to the Deadly Disease?"

Simple. When it became apparent that I wouldn't be climbing the stairway to heaven, Sebastien packed his bags and flew off to Florida...

where he cruised around in a (junky) rented convertible...

and drove a racecar...

and nearly decapitated himself on an airplane strut while zooming around on a "souped up" scooter made from a cooler (with soup in it??)...

and joined the navy, piloting a big ship and gunning down an enemy cruise ship.

That's how.