dear people

...who read this blog,

Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting when you do. I really do appreciate it. And forgive (if it's really anything to forgive) my lack of diligent posting. And diligent commenting, too, for that matter. I am up to my ears in boxes. I know there are a few post lurking around the house and when I find them, they shall surely find their way online. But until then, I just wanted to say thanks. I'll be back soon.

I'm getting ready to move even in my dreams

Last night I dreamed that I was at the airport and some how the airline had lost my children, while also failing to provide seats for them on the plane. I mean I guess if the kids are lost they don't need a seat, but amid my panic, I must have been optimistic. We will find my children, so give them their seats, dang it!

In dream like fashion, the waiting area was the actual airplane (or was it the other way around?) and eventually after yelling and screaming at some non-sympathetic airline workers I discovered two of my children in seats far apart from each other. I apparently had found the baby, although she wasn't with me at the time. But come to think of it, my son was no where to be seen. It's always something when you fly the friendly skies, isn't it.

I have no idea if our luggage was on the plane, but I'm going to guess that it wasn't.

what I'm doing

bubble wrap, grab the tape
toss the flowers, pack the vase
pack the pictures, make some lunch
sort through old clothes on a hunch
throw away a bunch of things
an old stained shirt, some plastic rings
my life is chaos, my life feels hexed
tape up the boxes, what to do next?
decide which toys just have to stay
and swhish the other ones away
take off the sheets, our mattress sags
it's time to nap in sleeping bags
what is needed, what is not?
evaluation is my lot
yes, time to eat leftover food
nutella surely makes my mood!
all the pasta bought in bulk
makes kids smile and not sulk-
good bye to the net and my favorite sites.
make a call to cut the lights
box up the PC, hang up the phone
(starts to make one feel alone) -
moving's fun, moving's neat!
I think I need something sweet
Hmmm. There's a Snickers in the fridge...

I'll be back later.

seven

Once upon a time Lei tagged me for this meme. A 7 random things about me meme. But then I had a baby and some other stuff came up and I didn't get around to it, until now.

Presenting 7 Random ThingsAbout Me! In no particular order (you know, random...heh).

1. I didn't get my drivers license until I was 18, the summer after I graduated from high school. My best friend had a car and I often lived at the high school doing dance company and cheer stuff and in a worst case scenario I could walk home because it wasn't too far away.

2. I don't like pudding, except on rare occasions when it goes in some kind of dessert. And that is rare, I'm telling you. Of course eclairs are accepted. (It's hard to live in France and not accept eclairs. But not the flan. I do not like flan.)

3. A good activity for a summer evening is a happy game of croquet. It's also good to have a trampoline on hand that has been pushed into the corner of the yard, but available to jump on when it's not your turn.

4. I'm not much of a flosser. You know, of teeth. I brush religiously at least a couple times a day, but flossing is something I've never really gotten into. And no powered toothbrushes.

5. Also, no battery or otherwise operated massagers. The vibrations go right into my spine and up to my brain and it gives me a headache. Send me to a masseuse any day. That is heaven.

6. In college I performed with a modern dance company for a few semesters (where we learned how to give and thus receive pre- and post-performance massages. Loved it). One of those performances included a dance with songs by the Muppets. (Mnah,mnah - I have no idea how to spell that.) It's a classic. Don't kid yourself.

7. And yes, I was a dance major for a time, until I switched to English, a much more practical major. There was a semester where I danced almost all day long between all the different dance classes I was taking (well I guess actually during all the different classes I was taking). I lived in a leotard and I loved it. Hmmm. I was pretty fit. I wonder where that body went? I guess it's not a body that shows up when the majority of your day is spent doing less active things...

Happy Monday, everybody!

mmm...

For a Saturday evening snack I'm eating fresh strawberries and blueberries. They are making me feel very summery.

just to say I posted

I sat down at the computer to type out a quick to do list and I got sucked into the blogosphere vortex of time suction. Or something like that. So I thought I'd attempt a post of my own. Camille is actually asleep in her bed and not on mom, for the time being. And the three other kids are upstairs playing. And my brain may sustain me through a few paragraphs. I don't guarantee their entertainment or informational value.

This morning I have printed out a form to have our mail forwarded, set up cancellation dates for electicity and gas and phone and internet and t.v. and probably other things I don't even know about. We've booked the moving van and the plane tickets. I have started to pack. Packing is a little bit relief, a little bit of a tug on the heartstrings and a lot living in between stacks of boxes and packing tape.

For the remainder of today I am focusing on living space as opposed to packing, so dishes and bedroom and toys are what I am trying to get done. Oh, and book reading to Oliver, who is sort of patiently sitting at my feet, having crawled down the stairs, waiting for me to finish with a book in his hand. So I guess I'd better finish.

in a former life I was a boy scout

Because I am nothing if not prepared.

My mom flies out tonight for SLC. So after 2 + weeks of lovely help and time to nap I will be on my own. Alone. With four children.

But I am prepared. I went to the store this morning and loaded up on pretzels, famous amos CC cookies, mini oreos, marshmallows, etc. For fun snacks, you know. Otherwise known as bribes. Also, no plans to pack the DVD player and TV until the end.

In truth I am big on limiting sugary snacks and TV consumption, but with Ben super busy at work for the next little bit, and with a house to pack up, and a newborn who likes to sleep on her mom, I'm happy to indulge a little bit. Or a lot. As the case may require.

the last 24 hours have confirmed it

I am not going to be able to live on a postpartum diet of chocolate. My baby will not let me sleep if I do, and sometimes one must choose sleep over all else.

twinkle toes and fairy dust

There are little sparklies everywhere. While some may be inclined to suggest that this is simply my brain on irregular sleeping patterns, it is actually the result of two small girls and their Nana, having a good time making snowflakes that sparkle. And having such a good time in fact, that glitter has been scattered to every corner of my small and humble abode. The carpet is alive with hidden gems. As is the couch, the chairs, the kitchen table, the baby's hair, the mom's face, the dad's face and the bodies of the other three children. It gives a kind of nether-world charm to the events of the moment.

The bummer is that although we have all of this fairy dust around, no one has shown a hint of being able to fly about the house and out the windows with ease. This has nothing to do with the fact that all of our windows except for one are screened. We just aren't able to get off the ground. It's not a lack of faith, at least on the kids part. Why shouldn't they fly?

Well, actually, everyone is pretty good at the moment at flying off the handle. Why is this? My children all have a sudden desire to return to an infantile state, one that does not include any of the charming moments of their younger years, as soon as a new sibling enters the house. We have had our fair share this past week of tears and outbursts, talking-back and outright tantrums that have scared the one year-old, but led him to experiment with that kind of flailing show himself. Fortunately he is a happy child and tantrums do not become him and so we laugh at him and he will usually laugh back after a moment.

It's not an easy thing, this growing up. And even though you are the same age as you were the day before the new baby was born (give a day or two or three) your place in the family somehow shifts and everybody has to adjust. So we're thick into the adjusting phase. I think the key is this: we just have to let things be where they are, and let the fairy dust sparkle where it's at.

there's a check list

In between midnight feedings and daytime catnaps it occurs to me that in one month I am moving across the country.

I have a list of major life events, most of them my own, that are coming together to impose themselves on me all within about an 8 week time period. Things like having a baby. Check. That's been taken care of. Or packing up the house. For that we're waiting for the moving guy to come and give us an estimate on cost, after which we can schedule a time to move our stuff, which will then allow us to book airfare for six people, hopefully at a semi-reasonable price and hopefully all together in two rows, instead of scattered through out the plane, for the sake of the other passengers.

Once that is taken care of, we will find ourselves in Utah, crowding my parents basement just in time for one sister to return home from her mission and another sister's wedding. Then we will look to buy a house, a minivan, and eventually a real live piano that I can play carols on at Christmas time. Also Ben will jump into his new position and try and prepare for the classes he'll be teaching at the same time as helping me take care of the above.

It sounds kind of fun, huh? It certainly has the potential to be overwhelming, but I think I've hit a nice little patch of oblivious denial where I look around at the green, green trees, turn on the air conditioners to help contain the creeping humidity, watch my mom wrestle the girls out the door to the park, hold my sweet little baby and think, this has real potential for crazy, but life is good.

always a good time...

There's a log they like you to fill out in the hospital when you've had a baby. You're supposed to write down time and length of feedings and how many diapers you've changed and what the content of those diapers were. I actually didn't do it because a) no one told me to, b) by the time they did tell me I had a day left but then they didn't leave me a pen, and c) it was my fourth baby and I felt pretty well qualified to decide whether or not she was eating enough and if her digestive system was dealing with said eating appropriately without having to keep track of it on paper.

Also, the title of the paper was the Daily Feeding Dairy. I am pretty sure they meant diary and not dairy, but as I am breastfeeding I became a little suspicious that either some hospital secretary was having a little fun at a lactating mother's expense, or that the subconscious power of suggestion was just too great...

The funniest thing someone said to me was while taking my blood pressure as I was just waking up from a nap. "You know who you look like? That girl on Full House. You know that girl? What's her name? Stephanie? I just about did a double take!"

Okay, if you scroll down a bit to an earlier post you'll find a picture of me from my wedding day. Even though you can't see my whole face, you can get a pretty clear idea that Stephanie Tanner (age 10 in that show?) and I don't really share much of a resemblance.

And my favorite set of question/responses was this:
"So, is this your first?"
"No, fourth."
"Fourth??"
"Yes, fourth."

Last but not least was the television controller lady who lets you have a day of free daytime television and Seinfeld reruns before she comes in 24 hours later and says that the remainder of your visit will cost you. I had enough of my faculties in tact to say no thank you. She literally locked up the T.V., it took two keys, and then all that was available to me were the hospital channels, informing me of their great menu selection. She left with a grumpy look on her face. And so I read Pride and Prejudice instead.