and here's my rookie

another day, another baseball game. this is my rookie, who does a great job at bat but on the field, it's another story. he might lean down to catch a ball if it was heading straight toward his glove, but if it involves running or moving toward a ball, forget it. he can't be bothered. he will tell you he doesn't have time for that.




he looked at me several times to make sure i was taping. because if he had to sit through brother's game last night, he wanted to make darn sure that tonight would be payback. but i was instructed to make his videos longer.



the one below is a bit longer, coming in at a whopping 7 seconds.



he is not thrilled that his team color is purple. he would much rather it be orange, just as he would prefer us to paint his room orange. he brought home a self-portrait of himself from school, in which he was orange and brown. when i asked why he colored himself these colors, he said, "what do you want me to do? paint myself white?" like it was the craziest thing he could imagine. i am just wondering now if he really thinks of himself as being these colors.

who are these people?

three posts ago, i shared some pictures of my fall decor. tonight in the kitchen, ben looked at the plaque i bought and said, "who is the 'cherish' family?"

that's my boy

so baseball season among the rookie set officially started tonight. if you're looking for me during the next several weeks, i will be camped out at the little league fields in my blue chair with a cooler full of diet cokes. because yes, i will be living there. ben pitched his first game tonight, which among the dads, rates right up there with winning the lottery. here's a couple of videos of him striking a kid out.



interesting aside: in the video below, the boy in blue playing catcher is ben's pal alex. they were on swim team together, and their relay team placed second in the finals. they work well together.
(click here for a swim recap.)



but overall, the game pretty near gave me a heart attack. some of the kids don't so much pitch as play dodgeball with a very hard ball, thrown very fast. i mean, kids were literally ducking and hitting the ground to avoid being hit. one pitcher hit the batter in the helmet with the ball. what the heck is that.

me and my 6'er made an early exit to come home and make dinner. he helped with the mac and cheese, reading the ingredients to me: "one slash four cup of milk. four tebesp maga-reen." (that is 1/4 cup milk, 4 tbsp margarine.) it was very entertaining.

do you hear angels singing?

no? what about now?



because this is the cleanest this garage has ever been. at one point every single thing was in a massive pile in the middle of the floor and outside the garage. i should have taken a before picture, but just imagine this: only one car would fit in before, and that was based upon avoiding large boards and trashcans and a grill. yes, a grill. oh, and a christmas tree box that weighs about 4 tons. just ask david; he hoisted it up above the rafters.

we managed to squeeze this organizing spree in between two baseball practices, a scout meeting, a leader meeting, and church. i was so tired when i went to bed last night that i dreamed i was in the witness protection program. hey, i don't write the stuff...i just dream it. carla was helping to hide me while they assigned me a new name. it was never really clear why i needed to hide. and no, i have not been watching too much tv.

first signs of fall

so i finally scrapped the dead plants out of my urns, and hauled my fall stuff down from the attic...which, keep in mind, there are squirrels living up there so this took a great deal of courage. my scarecrow man's pants are falling off and i haven't a clue how to hold them up. i am not crafty in that way, just as i would be lost trying to sew a button onto something. it's just not in my repertoire of "things i do." these pumpkins look really real but in reality weigh little more than a feather apiece. one year, i accidentally stored these with some real "fall fruit" that i thought was fake....well, the next year that box wasn't pretty. i have an orange berry wreath i want to hang on the door. just as soon as i find it in the very disorganized garage.



i bought the plaque below yesterday. i love it. i saw it last year and went back to buy it and they were out. and yesterday i got the last one.



i also got these bookends yesterday. how could i not, having grown up with dachshunds? there was trixie, who was so miserably fat and spoiled. and there was zoey, or "pee pee dog" as my college roomies called her. she would pee the minute someone looked at or talked to her.



so my goal today is to start organizing the garage, which sounds like about as much fun as a root canal. we have lived here four months and can still only get one car in. bikes are buried behind boxes. nails and screws are spilled all over the floor. boards and dowels and shingles were left behind by the previous owner. oh, so much fun awaits. but i figured if we could commit to one hour on each weekend day, maybe it might be done by halloween. and then i could find things! things i love and miss!

my nephew said to me the other day, "this garage is really creepy." and when a kid who loves to play "call of duty 3" and "resident evil" says that, you gotta believe it to be true.

uh, what do you think?

tonight in the burger king drive-thru, we saw a slogan that said, "do you want to eat it? or mount it to the wall?"

to which ben replied: "what kind of stupid idiot would want to hang their food on the wall?!"

and i had to agree with him. so our choice would be "a."

shoot first, ask questions later

growing up in texas, this is the general idea. if you hear something in the night, you shoot first and ask questions later. when i went away to college, my mother warned me never to show up unannounced in the night for this very reason. and one time, i drove home and arrived around 2:30 a.m. - i had to find a pay phone (this was before cell phones, people) to call and announce not to shoot, that i would be walking in the door ten minutes later.

so this morning when i heard scratching and running above my head, laying in bed, i yelled to my husband, get the gun! he went up to the attic with the flashlight and saw two little squirrels staring back at him. i said, shoot them. he said, are you sure? i said, SHOOT THEM.

don't let their pretty fur fool you into thinking they are cute animals. they are rats that got the pretty gene. they carry rabies. they have scratched away at my pretty house and made a hole. they must be stopped.

i look out the window and see my husband in the front yard with what looks like a rifle. it is actually my son's bb gun, but i am on the phone with my friend and i say to her, my god, we are rednecks.

here is what we learned: bb guns are not very powerful. they can make a squirrel whimper but they do not necessarily kill. so later today, my brother-in-law is bringing over an "arsenal of weaponry," and a high-powered light. he was supposed to go hunting last weekend but had to cancel the trip. so now, today, it is open season for hunting in my attic.

good times at the dentist

why, yes, of course i am kidding. but here is how insane my life has become. and by "my life," i refer to anyone living in the gulf coast area that was hit by hurricane ike.

so i drive into town to the big, tall building where my dentist works. several glass windows are blown out, but so what's new. so we're halfway through my dental cleaning when all the electricity shuts off. just powers down. and quits.

we're all looking at each other, because we are all now too familiar with this darkness and quiet that accompanies the olden days. centerpoint is working in the area, and we all know what that means: as they try to reinstate power to the nation's fourth largest city, it is highly likely that your power will be cut, again, in the process. so we finish up by sunlight, and then i begin the fun task of trying to leave a high-rise building with no elevator, no lights, no power.

i've gotten quite handy at using my cell phone as a stand-in flashlight, so i say my goodbyes and they warn me that i won't be able to open the door again once i disappear into the stairwell. so i tromp down many flights of stairs, land on the bottom concrete floor and walk toward the sunlight. but, guess what, the emergency exit button does not work because it is ELECTRIC. so i am about to have a full-blown panic attack, expecting the building to next catch fire and me having to break thick glass with my bare hands to get out.

it doesn't take long for more people to come down these darkened stairs and finally my dentist, my new hero, just pounds the crap out of the door until it opens. and i really, as much as i like him, did not want to spend my day trapped in his office.

and now here i sit, with a fan blowing my face, a drink cold from the refrigerator, typing on the computer, about to watch a pre-recorded show on my tv. i heated food in a microwave and made a phone call on my cordless phone. none of these things do i take for granted.

I LOVE ELECTRICITY.

you know you're from the gulf coast when....

you have fema's number on your speed dial.
you have more than 300 'c' and 'd' batteries in your kitchen drawer.
your pantry contains more than 20 cans of spaghetti'os.
you are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering your windows.
when describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has three bedrooms, two baths and one safe hallway.
your SSN isn't a secret, it's written in sharpie on your arms.
you are on a first-name basis with the cashier at home depot.
you are delighted to pay over $3.50 for a gallon of regular unleaded.
the road leading to your house has been declared a no-wake zone.
you decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.
you own more than three large coolers.
you can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the least bit guilty about it.
you have 2-liter coke bottles and milk jugs filled with water in your freezer.

three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemble a portable generator by candlelight.
you catch a 13-pound redfish - in your driveway.
you can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner's insurance policy.
at cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw.
you have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.
there is a roll of tarpaper in your garage.
you can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at the weather channel.
someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.
ice is a valid topic of conversation.
your "drive-thru" meal consists of MRE's and bottled water.
relocating to south dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.
you spend more time on your roof then in your living room.
you've been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder or a tree worker.
a battery powered tv is considered a home entertainment center.

i didn't write this. i don't know why it printed in blue. i can just relate to it.

and life goes on

isn't it amazing how life continues to tinker on no matter what is going on? i always kind of think it stops when something big happens. like a hurricane. or a family crisis. it's kind of insulting that the world doesn't stop. but today, it was a relief. hello, routine.

the kids went back to school today after 10 days at home, only there was so much debris on the sidewalks that the crossing guard was standing several feet away from the crossing lane, and crossing the children into the parking lot. the PARKING LOT, people. i walked with mine all the way to the door, just as i did when they were in preschool.

then i went to the grocery store, where i have not been in almost two weeks. there were aisles of bare frozen food shelves. there was a limit of two loaves of bread per family. and my 2-liter was $1.69, as opposed to the $1.25 i'm used to paying. they were completely out of baking soda.

when i sat down to eat lunch, i heard a most unfriendly sound of scratching at a window. it was a squirrel - a rat in a fur coat - trying to get into our house. i started screaming and throwing things, soft things, at the window to try to shoo it away. it actually LEANED IN to stare at me. so i ran outside to continue my rant and it was clinging to our bricks, defying all laws of gravity. it started to slide towards me, at which time i would scream, then it dropped to a ledge. i was looking for stuff to throw at it but it was just very calm about the fact that i was having a hissy fit. finally it disappeared but now i am completely freaked out that there is a hole in which it could enter our attic. nothing like a rodent to bring you back to reality.

my porch plants are now completely dead from sitting in the garage for so long. but don't be sad, plant lovers...they were on their way out anyway. this seems like a good week to buy some fresh plants, get my fall decorations down from the attic, and start thinking about pumpkins and halloween.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

a week after our electricity went out, it flickered off and on last night, and finally seemed to come on for good. friends were calling: do you have power? and if they didn't yet, there was a trace of jealousy in their voice. and now there is gas at the gas stations. and food in the grocery stores. my lord, what a wild ride it has been.

much, much, much of this big city is a giant mess. we haven't had trash pick-up in a week. a WEEK, people. i drove from the medical center in downtown houston today across the city and saw miles of debris, hanging traffic lights, dead traffic lights, trees through fences and on houses, dozens of bags of trash per house. the parking lot at reliant stadium is full of 18-wheelers, i'm guessing they are full of food.

one thing this past week has reminded me of is that life, and people, are so very fragile. things can change overnight. what is present right now might not be present when you wake up.

we have a loved one in critical condition in the hospital. and it happened suddenly, unexpectedly, which leaves you with so many things you wish you had said, or done. and it is moment by moment, and deep breaths and prayer. prayers for peace and comfort and healing and light.

let there be light, in all these hearts and faces of this family who are hurting so much.

let there be light, in this great city and in our neighbor city, galveston, who took a brutal beating from hurricane ike.

just let there be light.

our neighborhood, the morning after ike

these pictures have been trapped in my camera for a week. here is what we saw, walking around the block.







in the picture below, you are seeing three oak trees that crashed into the backyard of two boys in our scout den, taking most of the sidewalk and the fence with them.














all the crepe myrtles, below, were laying on the ground like so many fallen soldiers. there were dozens along this street, all down.



below, this street behind our home is actually two lanes on each side, but there was so much fallen debris it looks as though there is only one.

s-l-o-w recovery in houston: centerpoint can suck it

day five of no electricity, blah blah blah. we are now being told we will have it back by monday. monday?!? what are we, on gilligan's island here? are they trying to reinvent electricity? because frankly centerpoint: I AM NOT IMPRESSED. but i am as bored of writing about this as you probably are of reading it. so, onward.

i am still watching my two nephews every day, along with my two boys from dawn til dusk. it's not a bad gig. there is a tough family situation going on, and i feel really lucky that my job is to spend the days with these four boys.

so we went today and bought several new toys. one of the 6-yr-olds bought a pedometer, which he immediately clipped onto his shorts and proceeded to jog laps around the park. i told him that probably a kid his age would only need to take 2,000 steps a day, which is the rough equivalent of a mile. he told me he was aiming for 50,000. so what happened is that he passed out as soon as we sat down to dinner. he has awoken twice since then, but only to look confused and say, "where's dinner? did i miss dinner?" at which point he immediately falls back asleep. so, 50,000 steps was a steep goal. (he made it a bit past 2,000.)

the other kids bought nerf super blaster power guns. or something. but all i know is there was an all-out nerf war as soon as we got home. another boy came over so the five set up 'camps' all around the house. my 9-yr-old's favorite phrase right now is "fall back! fall back!" so i heard this repeatedly. i also insisted they must wear eye protection since i was not taking anyone to the hospital unless an eye fell out and rolled across the floor. there weren't enough so they made do with swim goggles and sunglasses. it was a ridiculous looking war, even to me.

my friend who brought the fifth boy over told me her kids were having relay races earlier with eggs on their head. eggs that are now smashed all over their street. does she care? no. because when your electricity has been gone for days, you cease to care about things like this.

we heard on the radio that a tiger was loose in galveston. the kids were immediately excited, thinking it might be in our neighborhood. the reporter also said the tiger "was hungry." it escaped from a wildlife preserve. to all these kids, being out of school all week with no conveniences is the adventure of a lifetime. they love it. i just want to vacuum my house very badly. i missed my dental appointment today and called in to apologize - they said not to worry, their windows were blown out. i mean, is this insane? and i just say, oh, okay, like it's nothing newsworthy. because at this point, it's not.

even the wealthy people in my neighborhood are making daily stops at the local fema pod. the kids today were so excited when they saw i had ice in a cooler. "ice," they screamed, "there's ice!" if it weren't so funny, it would just be plain sad.

and i have no idea what is going on in the world. i miss 'the view.' i miss my weekly steak salad from chipotle. i miss garbage pick-up. i miss my cold diet cokes. i miss my daily routine.

do you know what i miss most of all? normal. i can't even smell it from here.

day four of no electricity...

has come to an end. i don't even know what day it is anymore. the days are l-o-n-g long. we found gas today, which was about as thrilled as i've ever been to see gasoline. this is what it was like: first, i had to drive to another TOWN to find it. then i see a long line of cars and scream, YES! GAS! to which the four boys in my car barely look up from their ds'es to see what on earth i am talking about now.

there are three people in orange jumpsuits directing the line which pump to go to. it is honestly like being in some futuristic will smith doomsday movie. all they have is regular unleaded, and it stunk to high heavens. then we went to eat HOT FOOD. again, thrilled beyond belief. all of this was so insanely exciting we went back home and i passed out on the couch for what felt like four hours, but was probably 20 minutes. because that is exactly how long it takes for some fighting to break out among 6-11 year olds. they were actually whisper-fighting because i had threatened them all with bodily harm if they didn't let me get some rest.

people are starting to look a little crazy. their hair looks crazy. their faces look tired. their clothes are, how shall we say, not fresh. people sit down and fall asleep two minutes later. it's tiring, doing nothing all day. refresher for those of you just joining us: there's no school. there's no work. there's no electricity. there's no gas. no stores open. hurricane ike has left a pile of poo here.

i drove home tonight, after curfew, to let the dog out and close up. what's the big deal, you say, driving after curfew? just that it's pitch black with no street lights, and the intersection lights do not work. so all you see are headlights coming right at you.

then i totally creeped myself out at home. it's deadly silent in the neighborhood, not a light in sight. there's no hum of ceiling fans, no rattling fridge, no distant tv. dead calm. i shone the flashlight around and it hit a mirror, and i think i almost passed out.

so that is enough excitement for one day. if you are in montana and you hear distant screams of utter joy, you will know that electricity has been restored in texas. but for tonight, it's just too very quiet again.

loudness, testosterone

it is day 3 of no electricity.* and while that may sound like no big deal to some of you, i say to you: why don't YOU try it.

and i have four boys with me today for god knows how long; my two and their cousins. and they have energy out the wazoo, like crazy pigeons that have just had a taste of freedom. and there is fighting and running and laughing and screaming and name-calling but there is not sitting still and being quiet. oh, nosiree.

and one of the boys, for reasons we won't go into right now, was brought to me in pajama pants.

and i have two cars, a choice of what to drive. one has a nail in the tire (and discount tires is not open, people); the other has a tiny drop of gas in it, and there is looong lines at any gas station that is open. so doesn't that sound like a fun russian roulette to play, with four boys in tow?

and let me just say right now: T-MOBILE SUCKS EGGS. i am now quite sure that in a case of emergency, you do not want t-mobile. bec i only know when my phone rings after someone has left a message. i can't get a signal at all. and today we had a family emergency and i have all these boys with me and no one can reach me.

and do you know what else sucks eggs? CNN. bec we saw, at my SIL's house, that galveston is a side story, kind of like cole slaw with barbecue dinner, and houston is just whatever. a city of millions has NO ELECTRICITY??? to me, being here, it is a major story. i wish i could load all the pictures i've taken, and i will when i get the chance because they are unbelievable. there are power lines down - in neighborhoods, on roads, in fields. there is debris everywhere; no trash pick-up; no mail since last week; i mean, i hate to compare it to katrina but it is a major disaster here. and i feel like we are being ignored.

so anyhoo, i'm going to take all these boys to a park, and to target (we found one that's open!), and let them expend some energy. bec their surplus of energy is in direct contrast to my lack of it. and the weather could not be more fabulous, so there is that. we take it where we can get it, we do.

*my mother's is back on again so we have dropped in to eat. her electricity comes and goes; mine went and never came back.

update

things are looking up. we spent the night in a/c at my sister-in-law's. (thank you francie and dave!) we ate hot food, we slept in beds, and a cool front came in! my mom thinks her power came back on and is about to drive back in.

several grocery stores (yay, h.e.b.) have reopened. gas is being brought in (though the lines are out into the street, and david has maybe 1/16 of a tank left). school has been canceled for the first part of the week, at least, due to no power.

people are going stir crazy. if you can imagine there is no tv, no computer, no fridge, no oven/stove -and for cleaning freaks like me there is no vacuuming, no laundry ability, no blowdryer. so it's a lot of sitting around and getting pissed at each other.

but so that's what for now.

state of emergency

this will be short. my mom is now without electricity and running water, as are we and all of our neighbors. it is getting very scary here. i am at my sister-in-law's, way out in richmond. we don't have a lot of gas, and all the gas stations are closed - out of gas.

the water is running dry. but supposedly fema is here and will be dropping mre's and water at different 'pods' around houston.

it is hot. people are short-tempered. we have food and bottled water to last awhile. it's just scary because we couldn't leave town if we wanted to - roadways are closed and again, so are gas stations. hopefully the situation will improve drastically, quickly.

i will update as i am able. my sister-in-law's phone/dsl is coming and going, so don't know how much longer it'll be up.

i've received your phone calls, although my cell phone is not working too well. the lines are jammed. that's all for now.

slow down. stop. breathe.

hurricane ike has come and gone, like a very bad party guest, leaving a stinking mess behind. stinking, as in my fridge, which thanks to no electricity, is starting to smell faintly of frozen catfish thawing, milk getting warm, and other things i'm not quite sure of. stinking as in, when you have no a/c to circulate your glade plug-ins to cover the fact that you have a dog. it just smells faintly of dog, mixed with all of the above. and it's dark, and hot. how did pioneers live? are we all just spoiled brats? do you have any idea how much i love, love, love a/c and glade?

and the yard is a mess but i can't find the rake, because it is in the DARK garage behind all the patio furniture/kids toys we had to move in. so how do i have computer access? i'm at my mom's, she has her electricity back. what, you thought i'd sit home in the dark all night? do i look crazy to you?

and anyway, there is a curfew. that's right, just like you're a teenager all over again except it's 7 p.m. instead of midnight or whatever.

it's like the twilight zone. no drive-thrus are open. stores are still boarded up. the lights are all out - red lights, street lights, everything. the houses are all dark. a lot of people are outside, which is actually quite nice. and they're smiling, and asking how you made it through. it's so odd that this happened right at 9/11, which had much the same effect. it made you slow down, and stop, and breathe.

and for that, at least, i am thankful.

hurricane ike: we made it!

we made it with relatively no damage. thanks for all the emails. our power went out around midnight and is still not on. we are all at my mother's - three miles away and she has full power. yay.

our neighborhood is a mess. trees down, fences down, shingles gone....but our home is - thanks be to god - perfectly fine. we were ready for the worst. and let me tell you - it was one long freakin' night. the wind was howling and blowing like you've never seen, then the sky would light up all green with lightning.

the streets look like we survived warfare. and i feel like we did. please tell me hurricane season is almost over?

the calm before the storm: ike is a-coming

loading my urns and dying plants up. in case you didn't believe me when i said that matthew never wears a shirt, here is proof.



these urns are much heavier than they look. that is why i am inside taking pictures.



ben has a true scout's heart.



why the basketball goal has been laying in the backyard since we moved here, i'm not really sure. lizards like it. hopefully after this weekend, it will be upright in our driveway.



this is not our house. this is one of the very few in our neighborhood who are boarding up. looks like a lot of work.



this is not our house either. this one i just find peculiar because there is a massive glass window over the front door. completely unobstructed.



this one is just silly. this is a lazy man's board. and really, what good does a bunch of blue tape do? why not just wrap it up with some christmas paper and scotch tape?



we stopped by the park at the end of our walk to swing and play. the wind is picking up. i take a hopeful look at all the dozens of pretty trees lining the park and hope they will be here this time tomorrow.



okay, yay, we have a shirt on now.



scaring the last duck into the water. because there's nothing like a screaming 9-yr-old coasting down the hill on a scooter to scare the pants off the poor thing.


and i'll keep you posted, as i am able, on the severity of the storm. say a prayer for galveston and houston.

hunker down: here we go again

so maybe you've heard if you've turned on the news or looked online, or perhaps if you are even half alive, there's a little fella named ike coming our way. good times. so here is a little photo essay of life on the gulf coast.

first i went to the gas station, after i found one that hadn't run out.




then the grocery store. in case you don't know, this is a full parking lot. on a thursday.




this is the water aisle. actually not too bad, there's still some bottles. grocery stores are more prepared now, now that they've realized there's a hurricane coming at us every other week.




this is the bread aisle. when they forecast a loss of electricity, it's looking like sandwich city all weekend long.




this is the battery display. again, not too bad. there's still a few on the wall. most of us still have batteries from dolly and gustav.




no ice. i already have a project lined up for the kids when they get home from school. after they stop jumping up and down over the news that there's no school tomorrow, they're going to fill up every water bottle we have. then they're going to help daddy move all the stuff in the backyard into the garage.




this is the line at the grocery store. i have never in my life seen every lane with a real person cashier up until today. okay, maybe on wednesday night before thanksgiving, but i really don't think so.




this is mommy's sustenance. it has proven to be good for whatever ails you. i will share. but i will also hide half the chocolate bars.



and no, we're not evacuating. just see the post "waiting for gustav" if you want to read about our good times with evacuation. once is enough. we may be floating down the street in a boat, but we are not leaving.

so much for the custom bed...

so the brand new, custom monogrammed dog bed finally arrived from l.l. bean. it doesn't shed, it doesn't stink, it's super padded. and this is who slept in it last night: the orange toy "bad cuz."




and upstairs in the game room, on the hard floor, i find the queen herself. this is where she chose to sleep. suit yourself, woman.

miles to go before i sleep

so i came back to real life today, which goes something like this:

3:00 - kids come home
4:15 - i get home from taking cousin to airport
5:15 - kid 1 has baseball practice
5:45 - kid 2 has baseball practice
6:30 - open house at school
7:30 - kids come home from baseball

which leaves something like one hour to squeeze in baths, homework, dinner, and backpack unload. do you have any idea how many papers two kids can bring home in one day? here's a hint: i stopped counting at 30. there were graded papers, homework papers, pto forms. one form was two typed pages long about discipline procedures. in small type. my fourth grader wanted to read every word of it with me - i summed it up for him in two words: BE GOOD. the school would save a lot of paper if they had me typing up the memos. i am concise.


see these flashy shoes? they make it very easy to spot my 9-yr-old on the field.



and the little one, well he's easy to spot in the field. he's the one throwing his cap up into the air and counting cloud formations.

cousins, family, good times

if there is one thing i've learned from my years on this planet, it's that everyone likes a big family. maybe not their own, but at least someone else's. there is nothing like the comaraderie and chaos and laughter and tears of a lot of people with a shared history in a small space. i'm double-lucky. i married someone with a big family. and my mother had a big family, and thank god because i am an only child. my cousins are my family...i would feel rather orphaned without them.

my cousin sue flew in from d.c. for my uncle's funeral. my cousin ronny drove in from austin. three came from idaho. and there is nothing like seeing people you love and miss and remember all in one spot. it'll hold you for awhile and fill you up and make you remember why we're all here.



and i'd like to share my good fortune at knowing the people i know, and being born into a great family. where singing (and maybe not your own) and laughter will help pull you through a hard time. so without further adieu, i will share a too-dark video of just one of many, many songs we sang and laughed through while celebrating the life of our uncle, their dad, my mom's brother. here's my cousins steve and pat, two of the sweetest, most squeezably huggable cowboys you could ever hope to meet. enjoy.

the jig is up

what is the deal with some of these husbands i know who carry on as if they are still single? they are, literally, single husbands. they lead separate lives. when their wives are busy or out of town, it is as if a bugle call went out: MY PARENTS ARE OUT OF TOWN! only sadly, they are the parent. and sadly, it is their wife, not their mom. and sadder still, they are fooling no one.

we know a guy, i'll call him B (for Bad Husband). it seems no one told him that he is married. he still parties, he still cavorts with his guy friends, he does things his wife doesn't know about, or chooses not to see. he goes to clubs. he goes to bars. he goes other places. and why? no one told him to grow up. no one is expecting him to be a man.

i just (almost) finished reading a (very wordy) stephen covey book - the 7 habits of highly effective families. and guess what? sneaking around and wanting to par-tay did not make the list. because it seems there is a time to put down the things of the past like, oh i don't know, your 20s?

and anyway, in this book, i came across this statement that i love:

"some men see the rules of marriage as a prison; others - the happy ones - see them as boundary lines that enclose all the things they hold dear."

and what really ticks me off the most is that these men - or women, because i know some of them, too - they think what they do affects no one. the constantly going-out. the sneaking around. the drinking. well, guess what? i know their children, because some of them are grown now and my age, and are having a very hard time reconciling what they saw their parents doing. because that was their example of how to be.

so if i could say something to B, and all these other grown-up parents acting in this way, i would. i would say, dude, the jig is up. you're not the young one anymore. you're old. you're too old for it. that season is long past. the ship has sailed. you have a family and they need you to be there and be honorable, and worth respect. so grow up. you've taken too long.

in the spirit of election season

i want to do some spin. i'd like to brag. and then, i want to tell the truth.

so here goes. i am team mom of my son's baseball team. this thrills my husband, for whom baseball is life. it does not thrill me, although it will look good on a christmas newsletter. i did not seek the position, rather, it landed with a thud in my lap. because as any mom who has sat in any baseball stand for any length of time knows, there is not a big power play to become team mom. it is more like you accept, then everyone else lets out a big sigh of relief that they will not have to do it. thank you, thank you, thank you, they all silently say. i heard them say that.

i am vice president of the pto. that sounds really impressive until i reveal that there are seven vice-presidents. i'm sure there could and would be thirty-seven vice presidents if they thought that would bring more people into the volunteering bull pen. i picked what i thought was the easiest position, vice president of room parents. sounds easy, right? just find one parent to cover each class. i can do that. what i did not realize is that i am also now in charge of teacher appreciation week, which at our school is a full-blown extravaganza of daily parties for the teachers in april. at my house, i am told. yes, you read that right. because it is tradition at our school to host it at your home, if you are vp of room parents. i think it might be time for a major kitchen renovation long about march.

i am fundraising chair for the boy scouts. i was told that, if i accepted this position, my garage would smell like fresh pine from the christmas wreaths we would be selling and i, being naive and a complete sucker, thought this was a good trade. a fresh-smelling garage in exchange for doing a good deed. and now, in hindsight, do you really care if your garage smells good? do you know how many hours it takes to tally all these orders, add in our profit, get the stragglers to turn their orders in before christmas is long gone? however long you think it might take, add a week. make that 10 days. because here is a secret: people do not care about deadlines. never have, never will. which puts you in a pickle. a very unchristmasy-smelling pickle.

and so, in my few years of parent volunteering i've learned some things i will share with you now.

1. volunteer. because the good parents do. and because if something is important to you, you will find time to do it.
2. you will meet the best people. you will know everyone, that is a plus, and the same people you volunteer with on scouts will, guaranteed, be the same people by your side on the pto and everything else. people who care, do.
3. you will meet the worst people. they do not volunteer - they complain. and they have loads of ideas for how it could be better, but guess who they think should do it? you.
4. volunteering heightens the experience. it deepens your friendships. because if you've gotta be there anyway, don't do it half-assed. make your time matter.
5. your kids like it. at least when they're in elementary school. i live next door to the world's greatest volunteer, and her oldest is now in high school. and so is patty. her daughter rolls her eyes because her mother just keeps showing up. patty told her: get used to it. i'm your worst nightmare and i'm gonna be everywhere you go.

and that, to me, sums it up. i'm gonna be everywhere you go. because they're not gonna be little forever. we are not always going to know where they are. we can't always watch over them, and protect them, know who their friends are. but for right now, i can. and i plan to do it to the fullest extent possible.

two hours of baseball is not enough...

...when you come home, dripping wet, and run to get your boxing gloves. ironically, one hour of sitting in the stands just watching is enough to send me home ready to pass out on the couch.



let's fight some more. because we haven't fought enough this week. let me just punch your lights out before bedtime.


the little one does all the swinging. the big one is purely on self-defense.



have my muscles gotten any bigger?



...and he's out. (but really, he's just faking. he just wants you to come close enough to get a good swing.)

love is...

sharing the last of your trix yogurt with your dog.

you call that a pencil?

so i'm checking over my fourth grader's homework and happen to see these three stumps in his pencil bag. this is after one week of school! the middle stump's eraser is so far gone it is almost hollow. the two beautiful pencils on the left are the ones i put in his bag after he went to sleep. and i can almost guarantee that within a week they will either be missing or dismembered, like these other sorry looking things.

hello chocolate, my best friend

in breaking news, i think i might have possibly eaten half a chocolate cake yesterday. we lost a beloved family member. one of my best friends lost her mother. and as my friend carla said, if there is ever a day for eating a cake, this is it.

my 6-yr-old is home with me today. because what better night to get sick than after your mother has consumed six pounds of chocolate, right? i was supposed to start walking again today. especially after one of the kids pointed to the treadmill last night and said, mom, why do we have this?

more breaking news: we might finally be getting mirrors in our master bathroom today. might being the operative word. because we have only gone over three months without. that is 103 days of brushing your teeth, doing makeup, styling your hair, getting dressed with no face-check. just hoping for the best. no mirrors, people.

i will tell you the story of the mirrors. and if you are bored enough, you will read it. the painters took down all the bathroom mirrors to paint. why? because there was ugly wallpaper peeking out from underneath. so for weeks, we had giant mirrors leaning against the island in the kitchen. and this is a great idea with two boys and a dog, in case you're wondering.

we decided the mirrors were crooked and dirty and we'd get new ones. only how do you dispose of mirrors that are 60 x 40? i know how NOT to do it: put it out for the garbagemen. because they took one look at them and started laughing. this is never a good sign.

i pleaded my case. they told me that the mirrors were too big to fit into the cruncher, that glass would shatter all over the street. i begged some more. they did it, glass shattered, it sounded like armageddon. i got my broom, my dustpan, and cleaned it all up. and waved to all my neighbors giving me dirty looks out their windows. because who doesn't love a neighbor who smashes glass all over the street, right?

so it's a beautiful day. fall season is starting on tv, and soon in real life. i may have mirrors. and i think there's a little bit of chocolate cake left in the kitchen.

make way for one more cowboy in heaven

there was a quiet passing of a great man last night. he started out with not much more than a song and a prayer but he made something of himself. he had a wife, and five kids, and a whole slew of family who loved him. he was, as someone said, "a giant of a man."

he was blessed with a beautiful singing voice that he did not hesitate to share. he sang at family reunions. he sang, at the end, to the hospital staff. he would sing whenever the mood struck him. he had his favorites, but what my cousins and i will most remember is john denver, with steve and pat on guitar. and somewhere off in the distance, i'd like to think there's guitars playing, and lots of singing, and seeing long-lost brothers, with one voice singing out above the rest:

"country roads, take me home
to the place i belong
west virginia, mountain momma
take me home, country roads"

those country roads took him home. rest in peace, ole cowboy.

waiting for gustav

when you live in the gulf coast, hurricane season is a big deal. i didn't know how worried about gustav we should be, but when i went to the grocery store and saw the water aisle completely stocked (as opposed to being completely empty) i felt better. because i have seen it bare more times in the past three years than i care to recall. and no lines at the gas pump, relieved. it was not coming our direction. at least not yet anyway.

why are there so many more hurricanes now than there used to be? and why are they so much more intense?

growing up here, i remember maybe two that knocked some trees and fences down. but now, it's a real hurricane season. every year.

katrina changed everything. we now take hurricanes very seriously. and because so many of its victims relocated to our city, my children have friends who know what it is to have lost everything. and had to start all over, unexpectedly, in a new place.

a few short weeks after katrina struck, rita came. but instead of being a category 3 like katrina, this one was coming right at us and it was a category 5. everyone was evacuating. friends from out of town were calling to offer up a place to stay. and the really weird thing about hurricanes is how much time you have to prepare. it's not like an unexpected terrorist attack, or a random act of violence. no, we know days in advance of impending doom.

so i began to pack. to prepare to leave. we were some of the last in our neighborhood to leave because it was just so surreal. my husband was staying; he was going to ride it out. but i was packing through tears everything i thought i might never see again. i packed as much of the kids things as i possibly could - toys, books, stuffed animals. if it came down to it, i wanted their lives to be altered the very least.

and we left. and i backed out the driveway, and waved to my husband, and looked good and hard at that little house that had blessed us so much. we had brought both our babies home to it, had spent so much time and money and sweat making it better, having birthday parties and easter egg hunts and christmases there. love definitely lived there. and i drove away from it.

and then we sat in evacuation traffic for over three hours, and made it a measly nine miles. and it was hot and the gas was ticking away - because, surprise, gas gets used up whether you're moving or not. and so we went back home. and we laughed because a lot of our neighbors had turned back also. it was impossible to leave.

and then we tried to find a restaurant to go eat at because we needed to relax, and then it was not so funny because all the restaurants were closed.

and to make a long story short, we were spared. rita went a different direction. and even that is a mixed feeling, to know that someone else's life is going to be shattered.

and so we wait and watch to see where this latest monster is going to go. and hope to god that new orleans will be spared because they have suffered enough. and as our pastor said yesterday, let's just hope and pray that it goes nowhere, that it just dissolves out there in the ocean. but we will wait. and pray. and watch.