Happy Birthday To Me!

OK, so my birthday was actually a few weeks ago, but bear with me . . .

I guess you’re scratching your head right now wondering why I would post such an ugly picture on my blog.  It’s kinda gross-looking and there’s not much of interest in the shot.  No cute kids hamming it up for mom.  No close-up shots of interesting wildlife. 

What is it?  Well, that’s where it gets interesting.  You see, that’s a picture of a broken clam shell taken underwater in the river behind our house.  A couple weeks ago I alluded to the fact that James, my in-laws and my parents gave me spending money for my birthday, and I decided to spend it on a waterproof digital camera to use while kayaking.  My camera arrived this afternoon!

Now, wouldn’t you know it, James is on-call and little drops of ice water are falling from the sky today, so I can’t go out in the kayak.  But eventually I will get out there and you can bet I’ll be looking for some interesting water shots to share.  I’ve already appointed myself official Water Divas photographer.

Thanks so much to my family for making this possible!

The Little Postmistress

The past few days, Margie’s taken it upon herself the job of family postmistress.  If there’s a letter that needs to be delivered to the mailbox, she quickly volunteers to take it to the end of the driveway.  And she insists on bringing the mail home in the afternoons.

This afternoon she headed out into the blustery day to retrieve our mail.  After she’d been out for a few minutes I cracked open the front door in order to check on her . . . and heard her screaming, "Mommy!  Mommy!" as she raced frantically up and down the frontage road that runs perpendicular to our driveway.  It seems the wind had snatched a stack of circulars from her little hands and had strewn them up and down the road.  Thinking they were important items of mail, she was desperate to gather them, but the wind continued to tease them away from her.

Then it was my turn to be frantic.  Hearing my little girl calling for me like that, I wanted to rush to help her, but I also had to stop to put on my shoes and jacket (mothers are not only protective, but practical as well).  I shouted out the door that I was coming to help her and ran down the driveway as fast as my 30-something legs (and post-childbirth bladder) would allow.  Margie didn’t calm down until we had stuffed every last one of those silly advertisement into her plastic WalMart bag and headed home.

The poor little dear!

What’s that they say about the US Postal Service? "Neither snow nor rain not heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."  Well, it doesn’t say anything about wind! 

Especially For Julie

Junior signs "bird" this morning in honor of the Eastern Phoebe, who returned to our front porch yesterday.

Stop laughing, Julie.

Paddling – A Family Affair

We had just enough time before the storm rolled in this afternoon to take the kids down to the river and play around with the kayaks.  Baba hasn’t been in a boat since last summer, but he still handles the boat pretty well.  Margie’s doing some of her own paddling for the first time, and Junior seems to be a natural.  Have a look:

Kayaking With Daddy (Click on the photo to go to the album)

Sunday, March 25, 2007

(Click on the thumbnails to view the videos)

A Beautiful Sound

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You don’t have to be a paddler to think that’s one of the most beautiful sounds in the world . . . but it helps.

Today

1. Cleaned
2. . . . and cleaned
3. . . . and cleaned
4. Laundry
5. More laundry
6. Even more laundry
7. Made bread
8. Sorted Junior’s clothes
9. Played outside
10. Read from Caddie Woodlawn
11. Ate lunch
12. Went paddling
13. Played outside
14. Made dinner
15. Answered email
16. Read
17. Ate dinner
18. Dishes
19. More laundry

I’m tired.

A Dirty Job

"Mom, sticking my hand in this hole in the wall is kinda like a Dirty Job!" . . .

You may wonder why there’s a hole in the wall. That’s because Daddy had the very good idea of cutting a "window" in the wall between our kitchen and dining room in order to open up the space. However, he reckoned without the foot-wide metal heating vent running smack dab through the middle of the wall. Now we’re left scratching our heads and two non-functional holes in the wall.

Of course, Junior believes anything she can do he can do better:

The blog has featured Margie quite a bit lately, hasn’t it?  She’s on a roll.  By that I mean we’re laughing almost non-stop over here.

Playing Sick, Part II

This morning we performed Margie’s production of Playing Sick.  She and Junior built a tent in the basement, and she dressed up as a germ (which bore a striking resemblance to a ladybug).  Then it was time for me to play my part.

Margie cast me in the role of Human Who Ate Germs.  My job was to sit at the "head" of the tent.  So I plopped myself down next to the rocking chair you see there in picture . . . but that wasn’t enough.  My interpretation of the role disappointed Margie.  She coached me: "Mom, you’ve gotta go like this–cough, cough."  Fortunately, I was able to draw on my life experience and pulled off a convincing rendition, at least by Margie’s standards.

That’s how I spent my early morning: hacking away, trying desperately not to giggle because I was pretty sure that my director would have considered that out-of-character.  Margie took her part seriously enough, making all kinds of "germy" faces and encouraging Junior to do the same (which didn’t help my feeble attempts at a serious demeanor).  After a few minutes, the germs decided to go contagious and infect their big brother, who was sleeping upstairs and had no warning of things to come. 

I have no information about an encore performance.  The director/writer/producer/star moved on to found-objects sculpture.  She just produced a masterpiece out of a mint-green earplug, a plastic bottle cap and a paper napkin (held together with double-sided tape).  Apparently, her muse has directed her to stamp hearts on the napkin–using my stamps, of course.  I must heed the call.

Happy Birthday, Auntie Drina!

Happy Birthday, Auntie Drina!  This is Margie!  I made this picture for you for your birthday.

The banana is you.  But the cake is with those points and those circles and with the humps.

You’re very special.  Happy Birthday!

Note from Mommy: That large, scary-looking thing on the right is the banana (you–sorry!).  The caterpillar-looking thing in the bottom left corner is the birthday cake.  Yes, we are going to have her analyzed.   Happy Birthday!  We love you!

Playing Sick

The first thing I heard out of Margie’s mouth this morning:

"Mom, I had a good dream about something fun we can do today!  We can dress up as germs and get into a tent and pretend someone ate us!"

Anyone want to try out for a part?