This little baby will be starting kindergarten next week. It's a full day program, and you know what that means....I have to start packing lunches. We had a trial run this summer with daycamp, and I failed miserably. I forgot to pack a lunch on the both first day and the last day - and it was a 5 day camp. The first day, I ran home, threw something together and drove it back. On the last day, we were having a potluck afterward anyway, so he just shared W's lunch.

I used to work at a school - I know how parents who forget to pack a lunch are viewed, and I don't want them to label me as the press-lips-together-and-shake-head-sadly-mother - not yet, anyway. So I'm going to try really, really hard to remember to send him with a lunch. I wonder if I could stash a MRE or something somewhere in the classroom in case of emergency.

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Me: A, how many times do I have to tell you I don't like potty talk?

A: Um, 12?

Me: Well, I'm pretty sure I'm told you more than 12 times.

A: No, I'm thinking we're at 11.

Today was way too hot to play outside, so I shopped on the computer. My birthday is just about 2 months away, so I've put together a kaboodle list. But I'm not nearly as good a shopper as I used to be. I need some other like-minded people's lists to peruse. So if you kaboodle, let me know who you are and feel free to add Lunasea237 as a friend.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

lunasea237's Wish List by lunasea237

Living Dangerously Is....

....giving a cereal called "Optimum Power" to a 2-year-old. I'm afraid he may explode.

Friday

My attempts to track down my laptop at Best Buy have so far been fruitless. They've had it for almost 2 weeks, were supposed to call with an estimate and I haven't heard anything.

I called twice yesterday - the first time I was put on hold for 30 minutes and the second time they just didn't bother to answer the phone. I tried calling the main number (1-888-best-buy) and they can't get through until the store opens, so I have to call back again after 10am. I asked the CS rep, "You can probably get through better than I can, huh?" He answered, "Well, we have lots of practice." Oh good - that instills confidence.

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A. recently picked out a bright pink bicycle helmet. G had a tiny crisis of masculinity in the bike shop with the choice, but went along with it.

Then we noticed that A. wasn't riding his bike. The one time I convinced him to ride it, he jumped off as soon as Neighbor Boy came around. I asked if it was about the helmet.

"W. isn't going to like it," he said. W. is one of his best friends, a real boy's boy who hates the color pink with a passion. A. likes to tease him by telling him how much he loves pink. But to say you like pink and to wear a bright pink bike helmet are two different things.

"Good thing W. doesn't have to wear it, then. Look, buddy, when W. picks out a helmet for himself, he can pick one he likes. Do you not like this one anymore?"

"No, I do like it."

"Then you shouldn't worry about what the other kids think. It's your helmet."

I sighed. I want him to be strong enough to stand up to peer pressure, but to tell a kid that it doesn't matter if other kids tease him is ridiculous.

"Look, I think you should either wear it because you like it, or we can go pick out a different one. But to not ride your bike at all isn't going to work."

The next day, W. was out and A. rode his bike with the pink helmet happily. There didn't seem to be any problem with it. Way to go, A.

The next day he told me he wanted to be a witch for Halloween. It's one thing for a 3-year-old boy to be a ladybug (see Halloween 2005), but it's another for a kindergarten boy to choose to be a witch. I took a deep breath and wondered if I should say, "Great. We'll make it happen," or "How 'bout a wizard instead?"

Fortunately, he saved me by saying, "No, I mean I want to be a pirate. Half-witch, half-pirate. No, I mean I'm going to be a vampire."

(with relief) "OK, you've got some time to decide."

Sometimes it's hard to practice what you preach. Especially if your boy's going to be the one in a witch dress at the costume parade.

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A new bedtime routine is called "Silly Questions." G. started it with A. and Ben isn't about to be left out. At first I tried to get out of it by saying that only Papa knew how to do Silly Questions, but that didn't work.

Silly Questions involve us asking the boys, "If you were going to be/do A, would you be/do B or C?" Like "If you were going to be a dinosaur, would you be a Brontosaurus or a Triceratops?"

The boys then answer something that wasn't given as an option, and we express dismay and surprise. G. is better at that part than I am.

So Ben just walked up to me and said, "I goin' ask you silly question. If you were going to be a banana or a monkey, would you be a fence or a couch?" Then he chortled to himself and walked away.

So I've been checking out scrumdilly-do for kids' craft ideas. We decided to make the foil collages and turn them into cards. It worked well, I think. Ben loved painting with the glue and A. was very proud of his ability to evenly scatter the beads (as oppsed to Ben, who preferred a clumping method). The neighbor kids who came over to play saw them drying and asked to do some more. We made so many that I'm still gluing collages onto cards (see below), so I tried to placate the kids with the soaking chalk thing. It does make the chalk nice and bright, but it also attracts ant tribes, so if you have any ants within 5 miles of your home, I suggest trying something else.
Who wouldn't like to receive an orignal, mixed-media child's collage? Maybe A. can sell them.

Do we know where the action is or WHAT?


I have been slacking in the blog department lately. Without my laptop, I'm just lost. It's much more of a pain to upload photos to this computer (my desktop), and it's also more cumbersome when I think of something to write about. I mean, I have to pull out the desk chair, sit down, scoot in and pull the keyboard towards me. Who has the time?

A. is starting kindergarten in a few weeks. He's turning 5 the same week. Don't have a baby in late August/early September if you can help it. Because I'm a rebel, I bought him a uniform top at Target today since they were on sale. We're only supposed to buy uniforms from Land's End. Way to subvert the dominant paradigm, Luna.

I've recently been fascinated by the HBO series Big Love. We don't get HBO, so I rented a couple of the first DVDs after catching a bit on the HBO flat-screen TV on vacation. One of the ways we know we're on vacation is we get to watch cable. Anyway, I love Mormons. G and I have been watching it on the weekends after the boys go to bed. Boy, does HBO show more sex than regular networks - I had no idea. So that's been cutting into the blog time too.

I haven't heard from the Geek Squad. I suppose I should call tomorrow since they've had it over a week now. I have this superstition that if I show God how patient I can be, he will have the Geek Squad call me and say, "We've recovered everything - it was easy and we're not even going to charge you for it because you've been so patient and you obviously deserve some good computer mojo."

I'll let you know when that happens.

Heaven In a Carton

Toffee ice cream with caramel swirls and chocolate caramel cups. Oh. My. God.

Just so you know where I'm coming from, I love ice cream. I don't think I've ever had a flavor I didn't like. However, I have found the best ice cream flavor in the world, and I don't say that lightly. This is the kind of ice cream that can make you continue eating it when your stomach is full because it tastes SO freakin' good. I've even stopped going to Safeway because that's where it's sold (under the Safeway Select label), but today Albertson's is changing into Lucky's (Me: "Oh, the store is closed. We have to go to Safeway. Albertson's is changing into Lucky's." A: "AGAIN?") and we needed milk and juice so we went to Safeway where I was powerless under the Caribou's spell.

I'm baaaaack!

So the day before we left:

1. I go to KMart on my work break to get a pill case. My pill case has spaces for 7 days. I'm going to be gone for 10 days and don't need one of those multi-week things they give patients over 70. I take 3 pills a day and just need a small pill case to carry 3 more days' worth. I'm very good about throwing away old medicine so I don't have an old Rx bottle to use.

Ah, but I forgot Kmart is the land of lines. And something has happened to the register at the front of my line which causes me to be stuck there for 20 goddamn minutes with a stupid pill case, time running out. I dump the pill case and a few other odds and ends on the counter and flee.

2. At my next break, I go to the bank and Safeway to grab lunch. I head back to the pharmacy counter. Time is short and the Safeway is huge, so I ask the pharmacist (I know she's the pharmacist because it says so on her white coat) where the pill cases are. She stares at me and says, "Um. I don't think we carry those."

I stare back and say, "Seriously?"

"Noooo, we don't carry those here."

"Really?"

We do this a couple more times....and finally it is revealed she thought I was asking for pillow cases. She produces a small medicine vial and my problem is solved.

We both have a chuckle and I'm grateful for the free vial, but C'MON - you're a pharmacist, you're surrounded by pills all day and wouldn't it make more sense to think I was asking for PILL CASES even if I WAS asking for pillow cases?

There was more stuff that I don't remember right now, and then I tried to backup Quicken and my laptop died, as explained below.

Other than the laptop tragedy, we had a nice time. Rustic but fun at Diamond Lake in OR with the Wild Turkey (the bird, not the liquor) and Old Time Fiddler conferences - how lucky were we they happened to be there at the same time? They had a fiddler jamboree in the activity hall every night. My family was less enthusiastic about it than I was.

Then on to SunRiver near Bend - very nice except I spent the entire time with my 2-year-old since he's too young to bike or fish. On the last day I managed to rent a bike and get a bike ride in. It really IS a great place to ride bikes. And I would have liked more time at the swimming pool and less time playing Red Light, Green Light with Ben, who won't let you go more than 5 steps at a time. Took for freakin' EVER to take a walk.

Then we drove to Portland to stay with my sister for a few days. Then we drove back....12 hours driving today. From 7am to 7pm straight through with only potty and gas breaks. And a new portable DVD player from Best Buy.

I told G, "The problem with this vacation was we just didn't spend enough time in the car." Pictures tomorrow, maybe.

Checking In

So we did our long car trip from California to Oregon. The night before we were to leave, my laptop died. Yep, the laptop I love and adore, my lifeline, the device the kids were going to watch 3 new DVDs on, the device I was going to catch up on work with, etc., died. I was trying to backup Quicken, it spurted some error message and then gave up the ghost. I had to reinstall Windows XP, which of course wiped out my hard drive, and of course the re-installation disks don't have the drivers for the DVD player or the modem on them (who really wants everything on their computer to work, after all?) so I couldn't even get it to play DVDs. It's terribly sad and I feel a great sinking grief in my heart. Mostly because I'm lazy about backing up and I lost 3 months worth of pictures and work accounting info.

I'm posting this from my SILs laptop in Sunriver. We're impersonating an active family and doing bike rides (not me, though, because none of the bikes fit my short frame, darn it. Ben wasn't up for it either so I stayed home with him but I'm told that I MUST rent an appropriate bike because I MUST try out these trails), hikes and swimming.

I have to give the computer back, but when I return, I'll tell y'all about the day before I left, on which my laptop dying at 10pm was just the culmination of pretty much everything going wrong. I think I brought my luck with me. We've been in the house my ILs rented for less than 24 hours an, there are men fixing the broken garage door and a locksmith fixing my FIL's car that won't start, the lady's been out to fix the wireless internet. And now it's RAINING. In Sunriver. But, the DVD players in the house work. And Ben's sleeping so it's not all bad.