He's a good egg, a golden egg even

This week Pops is out of town on a trip to Canada where he is bird hunting with his father, brother and a friend.
Tonight was the SEPTAR support group, at my clinic. I can't leave my kids at home with Granny and no kids at the support group-yet it was at MY clinic. Earlier today I spoke with jennyalice and while I was preparing to ask her if she could take my darlings for a couple of hours tonight, she reminded me that she and squid were speaking tonight at a different school district. MMMMMM.

Jennyalice boldly offered to... "tell Decartes (her husband) that he is taking care of them tonight."
I offered, "How about if you ASK him."
So she did. But he is no dummy and pretty much knew this was a rhetorical question.
So the poor guy came home from work and while he had help getting Jake to bed, he then had my two, plus his own chatty 2 year old, Lucy, for the evening. Okay, so he also got cheap pizza for dinner.
I swore in my head that I would be back at 8:45. Yeah right.
10 pm I roll in. The only good thing was that I beat wife number one (jennyalice) home. My kids were happy, fed and cross eyed with fatigue on the couch.
Good ol' Decartes. He is a good egg.

SEPTAR Update

Tonight was the first support group of the year for SEPTAR. A WONDERFUL MFT, named Ilana, offered to facilitate these groups for the year, free of charge. So very generous of her. As the VP of Outreach and support, Mama Bea set up and organized the groups. The thing about these groups and meetings for SEPTAR is that we never know how may people are coming.
Tonight was great! The meeting was held at my new clinic, which was special for me to be able to share that space. There were 11 of us, counting Ilana. The meeting itself was great and I anticipate people will return and that the number of attendees will increase. A few people talked about how finding SEPTAR and knowing there was such a group with pre-scheduled presentations and support groups felt like a life line for them.
I felt so touched. One of the dreams and goals in my life of having a PTA and support group for special needs families has been realized.

Grade School Vocabulary

I dumped a shoe on the sofa and it bounced into Aj's crotch.

"Ouch! You hit me!"

"Sorry buddy, I didn't mean to!"

"You know Mom big kids don't say 'penis' they say 'balls and weenie'."

Laughing I could only mutter an "Oh!"

"And when you are in 5th grade you can say the 'C' word."

"Oh, and what (pray tell) is the 'C' word?"

"Crap."

Well, that is preferable to the other 'C' words that my dirty mind generated.

Skunk

Driving on Woodside RD 3 pm a low slung car comes from behind, swerves into the lane beside me and slowly passes. The windows are down, music is on. I turn in time to see the passenger:
~ takin' a drag on a very small cig
or
~ suckin' the butt of a doobie
or
~ finishing off the mary jane
and finally
~now holding his breathe and wildly eyeing the Jack In the Box drive thru

Suddenly Aj yells, "Yuck, it smells like a skunk."

I don't correct him.

Saint Carlos Street Fair

Ki and I headed out last Sunday to the Saint Carlos Street Fair. Just she and I. She wasn't much for shopping at the artsy booths, which is fine as I didn't have excess cash to drop. Instead we enjoyed freshly made strawberry lemonade and a hot funnel cake. We headed over to the Radio Disneey booth. We waited in line with the other pre-adolescent girls to spin the wheel for a prize. Spaces on the wheel included:
green= High School musical poster
orange= High School musical stickers
red= Hannah Montana poster
blue= SF zoo tickets
purple= Radio Disneey shirt
white= your choice of the above

Ki spun white and chose...
tickets to the SF zoo.
She will watch the Disney Channel and also cartoons designed for much younger kids, but the typical pre-teen gaga just isn't her.
This is another way that she feels like such an old soul to me. At times (note, I say "at times") she can not be bothered with the more trivial things.

October Sunday Morning

Clear, crisp, windy day
Pumpkins on the porch await autopsy
Kids at Sunday school,wanting to also go to mass
It's Donut Sunday

Me on the couch flanked by sleeping brown labs
Laptop with kiddy-sticky keys and mouse
KFOG acoustic warms my ears
Oat bran pancakes ala Pops

Refrigerator burps with contentment
A vat of fresh harvest soup
Vegetarian chili adds a kick

Need to make a shopping list
I will clean today
We will all clean the house
The paths and spots of empty on floors and counters are nearly extinct

Pops dressed and ready for church
Handsome in his pine colored Levi's and golden shirt
Tis Mommy is heading to the shower

Is it just me

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that the cleaning pad on a Swifffer Picker Uppper mop looks exactly like a maternity ward issue maxi pad? I'm thinking necessity was the mother of invention here and some gal tied a maxi pad on her worn out mop and she is now rich.

Am I awake or Dreaming?

I have always wanted another child, a trio. But Pops and I started late and piled up a number of high risk issues. So we decided against it. But I still think about it once in awhile.
The other night I was sleeping on my side. And I could feel it. I could feel a baby kicking. Strong, big kicks. How could I have not noticed that I was so very pregnant? The kicks continued and I slowly woke up more and more. It was then that I realized that the body cuddling my legs and hips was not that of my husband, but my dog, Java. She had wedged between the two of us and with her rear paws was chasing down a rabbit in her dreams, right on top of my belly.

Moving Out and Dinner Out

We did it!
Pops and I went out, at night, together, with no children. It has been about 5 months. The last time was the reading of Can I Sit With You, which was fun-but we were not alone. In the last year we have probably been out at night without kids
3 times, maybe 4.

It is difficult because of Granny. We can no longer leave the kids alone with her in the evenings for more than under an hour. Usually in situations where I prep dinner then head out and then Pops comes home from work 30 to 45 min later and serves dinner. The kids and Granny can be like gas and fire. (Okay it is not a lot different when I am one of the components.) I am afraid to leave any one else alone with all this madness as I might be charged with torturing another human being.

Allie was kind enough to take both kids Sat night. They had pizza, a movie, popcorn and rootbeer floats. We picked them up late Sat night. It was a good arranagement!
Pops and I had dinner at The Melting Pot in San MAteoo. A fondue place. We had a cheddar cheese and Lager fondue (bread and veggies)
Southwestern cobb salad
a white wine and herb fondue with chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, lobster & veggies served with 8 or 9 different dipping sauces
Dessert was a Flaming Turtle fondue of milk chocolate, caramel and nuts
served with brownie, rice krispie treat, cheesecake, banana, strawberry, pound cake, oreo covered marshmellows and graham cracker covered marshmellows.
The manageer also surprised us with 2 glasses of champagne with floating strawberries.

PS I think it is the 1st Wed of the month they have ladies night where a similar dinner is only $35.00!!!!

We ate and ate and were there from 6:30 to 9. We then went for a walk then drove and picked up kids. Great time!!

On Moving Out
Our commune has reorganized!
For anyone not in the know-we have a 3 bedroom house. Granny has a bedroom and a bedroom was my office (before I moved into my clinic space 3 weeks ago). So that left...Pops and I sharing our room with kids. It is a huge room, so fitting the 3 beds in was not a problem, but our home has been bursting with belongings and my work stuff. Not to mention the obvious privacy issue.
We bought a cool set of bunkbeds from my girlfriend and they have been sitting out on the back porch. As of Sunday night we now have Granny in the room that was the office, with just her things and not half of the kids things, too. The bunk beds are up in the other bedroom, the beds are made and the kids are asleep in them!! We still, amazingly have junk everywhere as we clear it out of one room into the living room and then sort some more. Very slowly we are thinning down and getting organized.
I'll miss feeling the presence of my little ones. But they do come cuddle every morning. Plus, we still have 2 dogs and a cat that will be part of the snoring symphony at our end of the house.