If anybody wants me I will be in my cocoon

What a week!! James has been on and off sick- leaving me pondering every morning "should I or shouldn't I take him to daycare?" We had quite a bit of foul weather and snow on Thursday morning, which incredibly hampered everybody's way to school, winding up with me and half the students being late. But I had fun counting all the cars in ditches along the way ;)

But the two events that really took the cake was first when I wound up involved in a four car accident Wednesday afternoon. Physically, I was okay, and my car only got a couple scratches on its bumper. Emotionally, it really took a toll on me as two cars in the accident and people in the cars were somewhat damaged and had to be taken to the hospital. (Just the people, not the cars, they were towed.) As I was for a time the only adult on the scene in the midst of horribly hysterical teenagers, I was temporarily in charge. Yuck.

I didn't think it had taken quite the toll on me it had, until that night and the remainder of the week I kept having panic and anxiety attacks and acting really really strange. Loud noises would make me dizzy, and I mostly just wanted to be left entirely alone. Sometimes I wonder how Jay puts up with my rampant psychoticness....

But the piece de la resistance was Thursday evening. Or rather Friday morning. Take your pick. I woke up at 2:45 am to the sound of what I thought was gunshots, (later learned it was an explosion) and a megaphone saying "THIS IS THE POLICE, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" Yikes!! I spent the next few moments wondering if I was awake or still dreaming. Then the megaphone came on again, and I decided, yep, this was definitely for real.

Jay was nowhere to be seen which of course added to my confusion and wondering just what the hell was going on. A few minutes later he came inside the house and informed me that the police and the S.W.A.T. team were in our complex trying to coax a man holed up in his town-home to come out. This had apparently been going on since about 10:00 pm that evening, when the young man apparently had a bad reaction to some medication?? and commenced firing shots into his neighbors home- a single mom and her two young children in bed. Fortunately no one was injured.

I was of course oblivious to most of it, having fallen dead asleep at nine. But explosions do tend to wake me up. Getting woken up in the middle of the night by the police on a megaphone is a new one for me. But as long as they are not coming after me, well, I guess it's fine.

Anyway, I would totally appreciate a nice, quiet, boring week, with no S.W.A.T. team, no traffic accidents, no horrible snow traffice, and no sick children. The sick child thing may be too much to ask for as I think James is coming down with his annual croup, but as long as no police are involved at 2 am, I think I can deal with that.

On following up with my resolutions

Sometimes I actually follow up on my more altruistic resolutions. Remember how I wanted to volunteer? Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but I got sucked into the humane society where Jay works. I decided that since I had two hours between classes at work, it might be fun to walk dogs.

I should perhaps explain here that I like dogs, but only when they don't belong to me. I have doggy-sat for other people before and walked other people's dogs as well and it was always enjoyable. But I don't really like how noisy they can be, I hate what they do to my yard, and really don't like doggy smell. So mostly I just like dogs I can play with for awhile and then give back. Of course I also claimed to like other people's kids because I could give them back when I was done, and now look at me...

So far, I have been to an orientation, an interview, another two hour training, and have yet another one to attend this Saturday. Sheesh, being altruistic is hard work. Today I had to spend an hour working on the steps I learned at the previous training. These steps consist of feeding dogs treats and practicing leashing them.

I just wanna walk some dogs already!!

No Room For A Sneeze

This blog title may sound somewhat familiar to some of you. It is the title of a book my sibs and I grew up with. Here is a brief synopsis:

A farmer and his wife have so many kids there is no room in their house. So they go ask the wiseman what to do. He tells them to bring the chickens into the house. They do that, then go back and complain again. This time he tells them to bring in the goat, then the horse, cow, pig, etc. Eventually when their house is completely overrun with chaos, the wiseman tells them to remove all the animals. Once this is done, they realize how peaceful and adequate their house really is in comparison with what it might be.

What does this have to do with me? You see, I spent the better part of this week looking at different apartments to rent- not because ours was too small, but because we are not entirely sure we can continue to afford living here, whilst paying the heating bill and managing to eat all in the same month.

*Word of Warning- Never live in a place with huge vaulted ceilings unless you are prepared to pay triple what you normally would in heating*

We went out looking at apartments on Saturday to start us off. The first complex we were pretty sure the manager was on meth-amphetamines. The second complex would have taken two months worth of salary just to cover the deposit, and I refuse to declaw our cats. By the time we came home from that, our home was looking pretty good.

I went out again on Wednesday between jobs. This time, I looked at at least four different places. I think I lost count after awhile. Some were fine, some were scary, and some were just totally impractical. Nothing we looked at had adequate storage for all our extra baby furniture, camping supplies, and all other excess baggage we are not ready to part with.

I think I really like our garage.

Also, none of the apartments had more than a few feet of counter space in the kitchen. I really just don't see how I could put my grandma's mammoth fruit dehydrator on the counter, or make assembly line enchiladas, or even cook anything besides a box of macaroni and cheese in the kitchens we saw.

Suddenly my tiny kitchen is looking quite spacious and lovely.

After looking at the last apartment for the day, the book No Room For A Sneeze just inevitably popped into my mind. I realized that perhaps moving into a smaller cheaper apartment may not be the best solution and perhaps where we are is really the best place for us right now. Although it would be nice to save 300 dollars a month on rent and heat (and actually have a warm house for once) it would take an extraordinary amount of resources to move again, even if it was just down the road. (six hundred dollars just for a cat deposit??? Come on, cats aren't that bad.)

Here is why I love my townhome:
1. I have a yard which is totally my own space and I can grow anything I want in it.
2. An excellent neighbor with whom I swap child horror stories and dinners.
3. A garage for all our STUFF.
4. A forest behind us to shield all the weirdos who live in the apartment complex behind us. (Someone pitched a tent and camped out there all summer, who does that?)
5. An extraordinarily cat-friendly environment- we had no extra cat deposit here, and all the cats are so nice they even share their fleas with us.

So, basically, I think we decided that if we really want to save our pennies, we should stay put and not pay well over 1500 dollars in deposits, not have to buy extra storage, and not have to pay reconnection fees for the cable.

I am glad it took several hours of apartment hunting and a childhood book to show me that.

Take Me The Way I Am

This first blurb is totally unrelated but.... Hooray! Hooray!! James has finally used the toilet and today he even pooped in the potty for the first time!! I won't go into great detail, but I have never been so excited about seeing excrement in my life;)

Ok, onto the next matter of business. This is a belated Valentine to Jay, sorry it is a little late, but I just discovered this song and it struck a chord with me. I discovered Ingrid Michaelson on Pandora Radio, (I may be just a bit partial to her because of her name) and there are two songs of hers I really like. I have posted them here to give you a sampling. And I dedicate the song "Way I Am" to Jay who really does take me just the way I am.

"The Way I Am"

"Breakable"

Who Does This Sound Like?

We are attempting to potty-train James now. Or rather, my babysitter claims she succeeded in potty-training James, but I have yet to see him go in the toilet at home even once. Sometimes I think she makes this stuff up..

But I love her anyway.

A couple of days ago James and I were fighting over underwear. I wanted him to wear them instead of a diaper and he quite vocally refused. I insisted, and, sort of, won. Five minutes later I took him potty where he completely refused to take off the same underwear he didn't want to wear in the first place!!! I realize I shouldn't look for logic in a two-year-old. He is just trying to assert his independence.

Every day James grows more and more like his mother. Be afraid folks, be very afraid. He can and does scream for an hour. He doesn't like anything if it is not his idea. And most of all, he doesn't like other people to show him how to do something.

This reminds me greatly of the times my dad tried to coach me in softball.

Dad: Throw the ball like this, Inger-Lis.

Me: I know! I am throwing it like that!! Besides I want to do it my way!!

Dad: Make sure you swing your bat in a straight line.

Me: I know! I am swinging in a straight line, just like I threw the ball perfectly. I can't help if you can't catch it.


Or we could fast forward to last year when Jay taught me how to ride the scooter...

Jay: You have to go faster to get the scooter to stay straight.

Me: I know! But then I will fall off.

Jay: You won't fall off if you speed up.

Me: I know! Just let me do it.

Jay: You need to press down with your leg to turn it.

Me: I know! But I would rather stop, get off, and just walk the scooter around the corner, ok??


I think you get the idea...

I tried to teach James how to pedal his tricycle this week. His feet are finally long enough to reach the pedals and he is coordinated enough. He could really move on that thing if he could use the pedals. So I put his feet on them and showed him how to pedal.

He looked at me as if to say "I know, Mom!" Although he caught right on to the idea, he then returned to using his feet on the ground to propel him forward.

Mom and Dad, I give you permission to laugh your heads off at me.

Don't You Wish You Were My Neighbor?

Pardon my ego for a moment, but I just have to flaunt my cookie making talents.



I made these, and I think they are oh so pretty. Yesterday I was looking for ideas for a valentine themed dessert because we were invited over to a Sunday dinner, and I just HAD to make something cute and special. Somewhere along the way I discovered ganache. Ganache is chocolate pieces melted into heavy whipping cream and can be used for frosting, truffling filling, or eclair type stuff, and DAMN is it good!

Whipping up the sugar cookies was the easy part. Ganache is pretty quick to make, but kind of temperamental- I made white chocolate ganache which was a little runny, and dark dark chocolate ganache which was too thick to spread. In the end I just combined the two and made a very yummy milk chocolate ganache.

I think my mistake with the chocolate was that I followed the note that said "a good way to find out if your chocolate will make good ganache, is to determine if it is good to eat out of hand." I would probably eat pure cocoa beans out of hand, if you gave them to me. I picked 60% cocao chocolate chips which turned out to be heavenly for me, but way too rich for anyone else.

If I could just bake all day, and have someone else do all my dishes, I would be in heaven. I am trying to convince Jay to open a bakery with me. I could all the baking, he could do the business end, and James could wash all the dishes and sweep the floors. Nothing better than cheap child labor!

I envy turtles

Hmmm, what should I blog about today? I could tell you the exciting story of how James puked all over the cat yesterday (something I am afraid the cat will never forget), or how the dinner fairy showed up on my doorstep with a homecooked meal tonight, OR something that I have been both simultaneously dreading and excitedly anticipating. I had to ride the scooter. Or rather, I GOT TO RIDE THE SCOOTER!! It's such a two edged sword with me. Although I have practiced riding the scooter, I have never actually driven it to a specific place as a means of transportation, but since Jay has been seriously sick lately, I let him take the car to work while I drove the scooter down the road to the middle school I tutor at.

The first thing I noticed after wobbling out of our driveway was that there were no seatbelts. The second thing I noticed was just how soft and vulnerable my little body is compared to all the metal and plastic cars that were whizzing by me. I felt a bit like a lobster or turtle out of its shell. I longed for the protective casing of metal and fiberglass of a car surrounding me.
But whoa check out the speed and the wind in my hair, and I am just too cool for words on my little scooter!

I think the highlight of my trip may have been the looks on my kids faces when I walked into the school where I tutor. Their jaws just dropped when they saw the helmet. "Oh my gosh, teacher, you have a motorcycle?!!"

"No," I proudly replied "I have a SCOOTER!" I could tell they were impressed.

Now I just need a pink helmet with flames along the side.