So we finally had it, the kid’s 2nd birthday party.
Everything went well. Aside from the 3yo who decided that she should “help” open presents and got a little miffed when I kindly shooed her away. I know young’uns are self-centered and all (do we ever really grow out of that??) but seriously, this is Stephan’s moment in the spotlight!
I wasn’t able to take many pictures, but it seemed like everyone else was taking pictures so I just need to snag those from them. Made it easier to enjoy the party and be in the moment. Andy did get video of the present opening
fiasco.
We started out with pool time and some fun in the back yard, and then ate lunch. All of Stephan’s favorites: Annie’s bunny mac’n’cheese, hot dogs, strawberries & apple juice. The toddlers were in heaven … so were the adults J
After a little break to clean things up (Stephan was picking food off the girls’ plates and I wanted him to at least have a little room for dessert), we did presents. He did a great job opening them and letting us take them away while he did the next one. Then we did dessert. In line with all his favorites we had some homemade vanilla ice cream and 3 Musketeer bars. That’s right, no cake. Kid won’t just eat it.
On to wrapping things up and working on heading home for nappy. He totally fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow. Nice, since I was able to open up and undo all his gifts so he’ll be ready to play when he wakes up.
I used to work at a bakery here in town, and one day a camera crew from Rosetta Stone came through and photographed a cake in different stages of being decorated. They got shots of me with the cake as well as some models they brought along and staged a variety of situations. As it turned out, they offered my boss a copy of the software if she was interested. I found out a few days ago that a copy of the Rosetta Stone Spanish course – the Latin America version was waiting at the bakery to be picked up. I just dropped by there today after the farmer’s market and picked up the box. This is level one and retails at $219. There is also an online option for immersion language training. Shane has got the box out and is already into the software and I guess I’m waiting my turn. But so far we are both very impressed with the gift! So a huge “THANK YOU!” to Boss Lady at the Bakery for my brand new copy of Rosetta Stone software! And thank you Rosetta Stone! We are very grateful and I’m looking forward to learning the language that my children speak.
This is a story of my grandparents, Emil and Antonia. They were first generation Australians. Their own parents had sailed to a new life in Australia as children from Germany. Emil was from a Lutheran family and Antonia was from a Catholic family and so were forbidden to marry by the parents of my grandfather. They relented only when Antonia became pregnant.
They married and lived on the property that belonged to Grandfather's family. His own father had died so as the youngest who had not yet made a life for himself he had stayed to run the family farm. His mother considered herself the boss though.Great-grandmother spoke mainly German and kept a photo of the Kaiser on her bedroom wall. Family history is that she was always very hard on Antonia, but that Emil always took his wife's side...most of the time, anyway.
Their first born child was a boy. When he was two years old, their second child, a daughter was born. It was not until after this story that their third child, my mother was born. The boy would follow his grandmother about the farm as she fed the animals and did her daily chores. Emil had a retired race horse grazing on the farm that was very frisky and somewhat wild which few could ride. Emil himself only rode it once or twice a year. This horse was down amongst the dairy cows where the boy went often with his grandmother. Antonia asked her mother-in-law on many occasions not to take the child in amongst the animals but the older woman thought she knew better.
One day the boy was in the dairy yard with the animals and Emil's little dog came into the yard too. The dog was Emil's special pet and went everywhere with him. The dog ran amongst the animals and spooked the horse, which reared and its hoof struck the boy child in the head.
The year was 1922. They took the child to the doctor in the nearest town, which was a very small village in those days. He appeared to be alright and they took him home, but as the days wore on the child became sicker. Eventually they took him back to the doctor who was of the opinion that an abscess must had formed inside the child's head. In 1922 in small rural areas of Australia medical care was very rudimentary. The doctor advised that they should take the child to a hospital about 90 minutes train ride from their small town. Grandmother could not go as she had a small baby, my aunt.
So my Grandfather made the long train journey to the hospital with his small son....but it was all to no avail. The little boy died shortly afterwards and so he made the return journey with a small coffin.
Grandmother apparently never spoke of the pain and sorrow she felt, and went on with her everyday life. She did want to get rid of the horse, but Grandfather refused and kept the animal for years. It must have pained her everytime she saw that animal, even though it was not its fault. They were stoic German people and got on with life.
A year or so later Grandfather went to town one day, and when he came home...he found that his dog was dead. My grandmother had taken an axe and killed the dog. Its body was in fact scattered across the house yard, She had reached her breaking point. Her grief had burst forth like a torrent.
Grandmother never mentioned her son. It was only in the last few years of her life, before her death at the age of 95 that she said anything about him. My mother learned the story from her own aunt, my grandfather's sister. Grandmother always kept a small black and white photo of him, in a silver frame, on the sideboard in the dining room. I knew who it was because my mother told me, but we did not ask questions.
In time Grandmother had to care for her mother-in-law as senility overtook her. The woman who was the cause of her son's death. Grandmother went on to give birth to 11 children in all. 8 Girls and 3 boys. The last of the 11 was a girl, born when Grandmother was in her 40s and she died at birth. She is buried with her brother. My Grandfather died in 1965, and he became a Catholic just before his death...I think it was his final gift to his wife.
My mother suspects that the marriage of her parents was never a happy one after that sad day. It was as though a light went out in her mother, and the sadness and the fear that the tragedy brought to the family impounded the lives of the children that were born long after the event. My mother has many fears, as do her siblings, and I do think they absorbed the tragedy from the sadness of their parents. My mother said that her father would 'sulk" for weeks on end - he would speak to the children but not to my Grandmother. From the description my mother gives, I don't think he was sulking I think he suffered from severe depression. She says he always "suffered from nerves" too. I think my grandparents internalised their pain and lost each other along the way.
My granmother died in 2000 and I gave the eulogy at her funeral. It was the proudest moment of my life to honor that women. As I spoke with the parish priest before the service he told me that he had checked the church records and we were farewelling my Grandmother on her wedding anniversary. She had been married in the very same church all those years ago and now we were saying goodbye to her on the same date...
The sadness of this tragedy is within the family to this day. It has created anxious, and fearful people, frightened of the world, and with a strong need to control. It has gone form gerneration to generation, and I think it is only now, that the great-grandchildren are growing into adults that the shadow of sadness is lifting.
I don't know why I am telling you this story. I have no lesson to share, no moral to impart. It is just that over the last few weeks it has been haunting me. The sadness and the pain that my Grandmother and Grandfather must have suffered must have been horrendous. I don't think that I could have survivied it. It is the thought of my Grandmother's pain and how alone she must have felt that hurts me and haunts my thoughts and I can't shake it. It is silly, to be involved with an event that happened so many years ago, and for which all the participants are dead...Maybe telling the story to others will free me of it too.
Thank you to everyone for being so supportive, generous and kind to me over the past few days since my derailing by MegaBossBitch. I am over it now. Wiser too. It is her problem not mine so I am not going to waste my life hours over her nastiness. Worse things have happened to me, and no doubt may still, so I have got my perspective back. I couldn't have done it without all of you though, so thank you kind blog friends, for your wit, sympathy and sound advice. I am the richer for knowing all of you.
I took myself out to the garden today and planted my Honey Gem and Coastal Dawn grevillea. The coastal Dawn burst into bloom over the past week sitting in its pot so I can share it with you
Not far from where I planted it the lime tree is in full flower....last season we got so many that we were all taking large shopping bags full of them to our workplaces and giving them away...everyone loves lime in their corona beer!
and the nasturtiums have self sewn and are mutant this year - HUGE.
Prior to the gardening I went grocery shoping with Daughter1 who did indeed survive the school camp and we had coffee and citrus tart at Gloria Jeans before we commenced the trolley trek. Daughter even put all the groceries away and made us chicken and corn soup for dinner while I gardened. A pretty terrific way to get your groove back!
Onward, ever onward!
We decided to try a bed rail for the full size bed in Stephan's room. He's been asking to sleep in the bed and we want it to be safer for him. Of course this is yet another transition for him so the next week could be a mess. We're going to offer him the choice of the big bed or his crib mattress on the floor. For nap the past few days he wanted the big bed (and did a good job in the big bed at nana & papa's yesterday too) but that was with an extra pillow reigning him in, not a bed rail. He was a little wild this evening after we put it on the bed, but toddlers sometimes struggle with change.
He choose to sleep in the big bed tonight, we'll see if he falls asleep fine or not. He should be tired at least!
All I really want to say is ... damn you Jardine for even making us have to deal with this right now!
Whenever our voucher comes we'll head out and buy a new crib, take it all out of the box and make sure we have all the pieces and that the parts are fine, put it back in the box and sore it somewhere ... who knows where ... till we have to start getting ready for baby #2.
At least if Stephan transitions to the big bed we can be done with bed transitions. Here's to hoping for the best.
I just wrote a long post about my week and now it's gone. Internet Explorer just completely flaked out.
Short version:
- I'm exhausted. It's been a long week. Not in a bad way, just a lot going on.
- Charter sucks. Fortunately it will soon be gone from our lives. I don't care if they offer it free, after next week we will never be Charter customers again.
- My Norwex party went well. I'm getting free stuff! If none of my guests end up booking a party, I might book a second one so I can get a free mop. (I can't talk about having a mop without thinking about Michael Richards' character in UHF. Yep, the Weird Al movie. Rent it if you want a mindless laugh.)
- For the first time in a month I'm feeling semi-caught up on school. I think it's because I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Just a couple more weeks, hopefully, until I get a break.
- Bailey came home from camp yesterday. She had fun.
- The bathroom remodel is going well. Brian had the place gutted as of last week and Monday-Wednesday, the plumber, electrician, and ductwork guy came & went. Yesterday Dale Earnhardt, Jr. came and hung the sheetrock. Who knew that was what he did during the week? I wouldn't think he'd need a second job, but whatever. :) Some pictures:
Sophie and I got a girl's day out today. Victoria had a slumber party and Josiah went to Six Flags with his bestest friend in the whole wide world.
I had to track down a movie theatre in the area that was still playing the American Girl Doll movie. Seems it got bumped from a bunch of theatres because of The Dark Knight. I had been promising her all week we would go. Most of the showings were too early. I finally found one in Annapolis that was showing at 4:10pm.
I got everyone else to where they were going and we headed out. I was super excited because there is an Amish market AND a Whole Foods in the same shopping center. I needed more truffles (Yes, I finished off the box I bought Monday night, but in my defense I shared with the kids, my mom, my sister in law, and broke them out on TV Thursday.) and wanted to grab some creme fraiche since no local store sells it.
The movie was good, but a bit of a tear jerker. Not once, not twice, but like 5 times at least. The Great Depression was definitely depressing. The cool thing was almost every group that came in consisted of a mom, some kids, and a great grandma (at least, I'm assuming it was a great grandma, they all looked like my Mom-Mom). There was even an elderly couple by themselves. I couldn't help but think that my Mom-Mom would've enjoyed it, considering she lived through the Great Depression herself.
After the movie we hit up Whole Foods. I bought my truffles and creme fraiche. I also picked up some cute grocery bags that were made from recycled plastic bottles. I love me some reusable bags. I hate plastic grocery bags with a vengence. They always seem to multiply and it's gotten to the point that I feel horribly guilty throwing them away knowing they are just going to sit in a landfill somewhere. The hardest thing is making sure I remember to take my bags into the grocery store when I shop.
On the way home, Sophie was dropping hints about going to dinner at Sakura, a Japanese hibachi restaurant. I was trying to steer her toward a local Korean restaurant, even reminding her that Jon and Kate Plus 8 just made Korean food. She could have some just like they made. She wasn't buying it though.
Steve got home shortly after us, and was like, let's go to Sakura, without Soph ever saying a word. Needless to say, she was thrilled. She was also thrilled to find she is too old for the kid's menu, so she got an adult portion. Nothing like a good dinner and enough leftovers for lunch the next day. Knowing Sophie, she may just break it out for breakfast.
So, anyway, I'm rambling. Soph's in bed, so Steve and I are going to curl up and watch a movie.
So Jen's already lost two pounds, which is awesome. :) I have not lost any weight although the positive news is, I haven't gained any either.
I've been really hungry today, but fortunately I got a bunch of 100 calorie snacks at the grocery store, so it's not as awful as it could be.
The bad thing about this diet is it feels like all I can talk about now is food--what I'm eating, what I want to eat, what I plan on eating...ugh. I'm boring myself so I feel for all of you. On the plus side, I know that since I'm telling Jen what I'm eating for meals and snacks, I'm eating a lot better than I normally would be.
I need to go to Whole Foods on Monday and pick up some green tea. I got the berry flavored kind marketed by Coke (which actually does taste like wine coolers, Janie!) but the Whole Foods kind is cheaper (and who would ever think that would be true?). It isn't flavored, but for something that will enable me to burn up to 150 extra calories a day, I think I can force myself to deal with whatever it does taste like.
Still reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which is awesome. Also, while I was in Salisbury, I picked this up:
Mostly for the title. I think that'll be a really good companion to Breaking Dawn and the way I'm going on Edgar Sawtelle, there's a really good chance I'll only have a chance to read one book between the two of them.
I post this rather sheepishly
because I know it's not extraordinary to grow tomatoes. I've read they're
some of the easiest vegetables to grow. But, for me the following photo
does show a gardening feat (as I tend to kill anything green)...or at least vast
improvement from where I was in garden cultivation a couple years ago.
They taste amazing. Which is definitely worth the little bit of work it takes. Also, in the age of the salmonella scare the peace of mind knowing these were grown in my backyard helps.
I will definitely be growing more of these babies in subsequent years. Now if only I could move to a new residence with a little more land...
The other book about zealots I read was on a much lighter topic than religion, violence, polygamy and society: Scrabble.
The book “Word Freak” from Stefan Fatsis chronicles the author’s foray into competitive Scrabble. Initially, Fatsis (a Wall Street Journal reporter) had decided to cover competitive Scrabble from a human interest story – a get to know ‘em piece, but also one with a bit of “hey, look at these crazy obsessed folks” angle – and in the “walk a mile in a man’s shoes” idea, he begins playing competitively. And he gets hooked.
The book covers a couple of years of Fatsis’ obsession as he tries to climb the ladder towards the top ranks. He’s a good writer and his self-observations are pretty funny as he goes from smirking observer to obsessed insider. He interleaves his story with those of some of the more colorful players that he meets and gets to know. These folks are really savants – memorizing tens of thousands of words, and analyzing (and re-analyzing) game-strategy – as much as any chess champion. The ultimate back-handed compliment is “pretty good for a kitchen table player”. It's a really fun, easy read, and I recommend it for anyone that enjoys the game.
This has been especially fun for me since (as many of you know) I’ve been playing a fair amount of online Scrabble these days – the book was lent to me by a friend who routinely wipes the board with me. Fortunately, I’ve got enough other things going on in life that I probably won’t fall into a pit of obsession about just-one-thing (like the players described in the book), but memorizing a few word lists couldn’t hurt, right?
* I know, I know – there’s a DLS in there and if you play all seven letters you get an extra 50 points, but I was going for simple.
My Groups
-
Ugly Outfit Friday Updated: May 8, 2008
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
