throwback Thurthday

Well, I hope everyone had a happy Marijuana Day.   We celebrated in our usual fashion - by making no notice of it.

Meego had the day off school since a while back, many school districts in Colorado decided to give students that day off.  Marijuana Day coupled with the anniversary of the Columbine shootings deems 4/20 a bit of an Asking-For-Trouble Day, so it has traditionally become a Teacher Development Day.

I think it's safe to say that since recreational pot became legal in Colorado, the number and identities of resident users before and after has pretty much remained the same.  I understand that weed has become a bit of a tourist attraction, however.  Oh well, helps the tax revenues.  We've got more to offer than snow now.





But speaking of Meego and before-and-afters.  I was at the orthodontist's office this week.  Meego was getting his braces removed.

As I sat in the waiting room doing some reading for school, a woman of about 30 years old walked in.  I'd say the majority of patients there are kids, but just barely.  I'm a bit surprised at the number of adults - mostly women - with braces.  In fact, I sometimes run into our 50+ year old veterinarian there.

Anyway, the woman was rather tall and leggy with long straight hair.  Pretty.  As soon as she came in, the receptionist was all, "Oh, HI!  You're getting your braces off today aren't you!"

Tall pretty woman with braces replied quietly that yes, she was.

"You wanna be our 'before and after' for our facebook page today?!", the receptionist asked.

"Uh...  okay...", was the response.

Hmm... so Meego didn't make the orthodontist facebook page, but lucky for him, his mom has a blog *COUGH*

I actually couldn't remember when that first evaluation day was.  Lucky for me, I have a blog, and what would oversharing be if it didn't include a kid's first day of orthodontia?  He's had braces for two years, but that first evaluation, I found from digging in the archives, was three and half years ago?!  Sheesh, he was just a little kid...

That's when we learned that his teeth were crooked, his jaws were misaligned, and if we didn't fix them, we were heinous child abusers.

Okay fine.

But, he's made it to the promised land.  Monday, the braces came off.

Later that evening, Chaco stopped by.  He wanted some tax advice - WHAAAT?!  Oh well, that's another story.  I asked him if he noticed anything different about Meego.

"Uhm... he looks... browner"

Okay, not quite the answer I was expecting, but then...

"Oh, he got his braces off!  Now his teeth are straighter than mine".

Bingo

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Linking up with Mama Kat this week for the prompt:

1. Throwback Thursday: Choose a photo from a previous April and write a poem or a blog post.

(I know the "before" pics are not from a previous April, but I thought they were before I found out the truth, and I'm not coming up with something else now...)


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size matters

Happy Easter Sunday!  We have many bunnies out frolicking about, thanks be to Jesus.  Or thanks be to the reduction in neighborhood foxes and coyotes...

It's been a nice spring break week off despite blizzards and such.  I've gotten caught up on a few things and have just enjoyed the time off.  On the last day of school before spring break began, Meego texted me:

• Meego: [band director] wants me to be in the orchestra for the school play
• Me;  okay
• Meego: He wants me to play the upright bass
• Me:  fine
• Meego:  He wants me to bring the bass home and practice over spring break
• Me:  I don't think it will fit in the Echo
• Meego:  And I have to bring my baritione and electric bass home too.
• Me:  HA!  Good luck with that!

Undeterred, he strangely assumed I was joking and would help him get all that instrumentation from school to home somehow.  *sigh*  Fine

I woke our big slumbering van out of hibernation, drove to school, and we somehow got everything to fit. Meego has diligently practiced on the upright bass for hours each day of spring break.

That was a joke.  Well, he's practiced a little.

And it's back-to-school tomorrow.  The van is currently somewhat buried in a snowdrift.  I really don't feel like digging it out and am counting on the Easter sunshine to do the job.

In other adventures, I've begun reading this book and am looking forward to life-changing magic.

I've mentioned here before how I'm a minimalist and hate clutter.  When I first heard of this book, I thought, "good for her", but it would just be preaching to the choir as far as I was concerned.  But I picked it up from the library (minimalist book ownership!) and have been enjoying it.

From the reviews I've read, it seems that readers either love it or hate it.  And I understand where the haters are coming from.  "Thanking" our possessions before we chuck them to the trash?  Finding the "sweet spot" of just how our clothes "want" to be folded?  Discarding anything that doesn't "spark joy" when we touch it?


I admit that I think there is something to this, however.  Clutter makes me feel drained of energy.  Certain outfits make me feel enlivened while others don't.   I similarly believe there is something to feng shui, but haven't studied that either.

And I've been sharing what I've learned with Magnum, which prompted a bit of tidying on his part.  I told him about the whole "sparking joy" thing.  He feared that he would end up naked if he went through his clothes and discarded everything that didn't spark joy.  But, he tried it out anyway, which resulted in throwing stuff out he didn't even remember having and finding apparently joy-sparking things he'd likewise forgotten about.

So, let the life-changing magic begin.  And the upright bass goes back to school tomorrow.  We might need a bit of magic to make that happen.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

First of all, Ima say it.  I do miss blogging more often.  I just spend so much time on the computer for school that I gotta get some balance.  BUT, can't miss the silver liningness.

Truth be told, it's been a somber week, actually.  One of the high school band kids passed away.

I got a call around noonish on Wednesday.  It was one of the school office staff informing me that a student had died and that Meego had been seen by a grief counselor.  I figured the only reason she would be calling me in person was if the student (she didn't give his name) was a close friend of Meego's and/or in the band since that is Meego's main extracurricular activity.

Sure enough, it was a band kid.  He and Meego were not close, and I didn't know his family.  Still, anyone who's been a high school band nerd *raising my hand* knows how close everyone gets just from the large amounts of time spent together practicing and performing - and just being part of something bigger than oneself.  And this just after the they'd gotten back from their fun end-of-season road trip.

His name was Sean.  He was just a freshman.  He played alto saxophone.  He had two little sisters.

We don't know what happened, just that he passed away "suddenly and unexpectedly".  He had no known health issues, and his family was close, happy, "normal".

So, it's been a sad time, but I will say that it seems to have made the whole band "family" closer in general.  Several of the kids have expressed thoughtful and mature insights and tributes to Sean.  And I sometimes poke fun at the band parent stereotype, but truth is, the boosters just really care about the kids - all of them.  And they work tirelessly for the benefit of the program.

It doesn't make up for the tragic loss, but it's silver liningness Sunday, so I'm grasping.

Rest in Peace, Sean







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Silver Liningness Sunday

Greetings Sunday friends,  I hope your respective silver linings are thick!

We had another fine week here.  As I adjusted to being finished with another semester, it was a productive week in getting non-school tasks out of the way.  Some of that involved making way for Chaco and Wolfgang and all of their dorm crap.  Somehow, it has all been squeezed into the house.

In the midst of the college boy flux, Meego turned 15 on Thursday!  My Mother's Day bambino is not so little anymore.

Despite the moving and shaking going on, we all managed to celebrate with him on Thursday with cake and presents.  Then yesterday, we all went out for some Famous Dave's and saw The Avengers.





So now Meego has to continue schlepping to school for two more weeks while his brothers are on break and rubbing it in his face.  Chaco and Wolfgang are both set for summer employment, though, and that's certainly a good thing.  Chaco has an internship here in town and Wolfgang is continuing with Edukit.

I got China in for her early summer grooming this week.  She seems quite happy to be free of her long winter coat, and I'm certainly not complaining about the decreased amount of house hairiness.

We've managed to dry out somewhat from our week of drenching.  I've got an appointment to get the Echo fixed after getting a few estimates.  So far, I like the chosen shop and hopefully, that opinion will remain after the repair. *fingers crossed*





On a side note, the waiting area of the chosen shop has a nice, healthy looking fish tank with large  impressive fish.  It served as a reminder of the fresh heck that is my own aquarium.  I'm starting to think those monsters will never die.


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that thing they do

Terri says, "The percussion stuff sounds like a lot of fun! Maybe you can get video of them sometime and share it with your blog fans?"

I did manage to get an official copy of their show from last week.   It's shot from far enough away to see and hear what everyone's doing without identifying any individual students.  There's a bit of background chatter that I'm guessing is from someone near the camera watching a basketball game?? Making our own videos is frowned upon because of privacy rules and such - although I've seen plenty of cameras rolling in the audience.

Each performance lasts six minutes.  If they go even one second over, they're docked points.  Then there's a mad scramble to haul everything out of the way for the next group.  It's nice for spectators, not much downtime!

Anyhoo, I edited the video down to three minutes to give the gist of the thing.

Take the floor!

 


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the prodigal returneths

Tuesday was check-in day for Meego at the high school.  EEP, my *baby* is in high school!

It so happens, I was tutoring one of Meego's classmates over the summer, and Tuesday morning, just before check-in, was our last session. 

My tutee showed up looking crisp and alert.  At one point, he was working and a small hair clipping fell onto his paper.

"Oh, ha!  I'm shedding!", he remarked, "I just got a haircut".

And I knew it was probably because it was check-in day, which is also Picture Day = photo ID day. I'd been thinking of that because, lo and behold, Meego had actually requested a haircut a couple of days prior!  But, alas, I - being the barber of Abbyville - had yet to get around to it.

And there we were.  Picture Day was upon us.  And there I was, with my crisp looking, freshly shorn student - someone else's kid - while Meego languished in his mop top on the verge of being before the camera.

I think it was band camp that did it.  All that hair... trying to stuff it under his hat each day, thinking how much cooler and easier short hair would be. 

So he not only requested a haircut, but he said he was seriously contemplating a short haircut, like from the days of yore. Works for me!




Except... I was busy, y'know? The schedules just didn't align properly to get it done before check-in day.  So, off Meego went to get  his school year ducks in a row.  He returned with his fresh photo ID.






Then yesterday, we finally got to the shearing. 

He seems happy with it, while feeling a bit weird.  There's also some concern about the start of school next week. 

When he shows his ID...

will anyone believe it's him?

Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy first weekend of officially summer!  Gosh, the days feel so much shorter now.

Another fine week was had.  First of all, Meego FINALLY agreed to let me cut his hair.  Afterwards, he actually confessed to liking it.

    

We'll see if it adversely affects his guitar-playing.

Also, I FINALLY went to the "squishy place" this week.  Recall that I got a bit of a nasty-gram from my doctor a while back because I hadn't gone in for that mammogram she'd ordered several months ago.  Well, I got another nasty-gram a couple of weeks ago because I still hadn't gone.  Fine.  Now it's done, so hopefully the mail stops.  I have to admit, the place is very efficient as far as most medical places go.  Get in, get squished, get out.

We watched Catching Fire this week.  I'd never read the book after reading the first Hunger Games.  It's not that I think the story/writing bad, just the opposite really.  I find the whole premise so disturbing.  Magnum says I'm supposed to find it disturbing, and I DO.  Anyway, I was glad I hadn't read the book because the big reveal at the end totally threw me.

And in general, it's just been a pretty productive week.  I'm switching programs at the university - that's a whole 'nother story.  My application for the new program was accepted, and I'm looking forward to getting going in the fall.

I'm slowly getting to know my new PEO sisters, and they're a fun bunch.  We had a meeting this week at the Colorado chapter house - I think there are only 3 chapter houses in the country - which I'd never been to.  Nice setting.  AND, we're making inroads into the mainstream!  Broke into Jeopardy last week.  "I'll take initials for 600 please, Alex!" (actually, I know neither the category nor the dollar amount, I just got the screen shot in my e-mail).

Anyone?  (Not you, Judy)

are you sure that's a good idea?

It was a 50K bike ride.  That thing.  On Sunday.  Magnum found it after my fail.

It was an event to support [THIS] very friendly looking group that provides services and activities for autistic children and their families.  I'd never heard of them.  I never heard of the event.  Had I known, I would've very possibly done the bike ride.  Maybe next year?

I often hear about these worthwhile events after the fact, much like the Doggie Dash the previous weekend.  But although China's come a long way since her shelter days, she's still not that comfortable in a crowd, so maybe no Doggie Dashes for her.  But I know Alice and Bella would both be up for a Pedal Through the Puzzle!

In the meantime, we have our own interventions to be concerned with.  It's Meego.  He's kind of started hanging with a different crowd.  Magnum and I aren't too concerned as we trust he has a good head on his shoulders, but Chaco's big brother engines are revving.

Last night, he drilled Magnum and me.  Did we think it was a good idea to allow Meego to do these activities?  What about peer pressure?  He's at that susceptible age.  And just what are they teaching him?  And how?

See, Meego's gone Biblin' again.  He's volunteering all this week at a VBS down the street.  Recall that he did similar volunteer work last summer, but that was at a different church.  That was at the Methodist church UP the street, not the church DOWN the street.

SOURCE

The church DOWN the street is a relatively large evangelical/born again church.  At least it's not THAT Big BIG evangelical/born again church in our fair city that attracts all the (well deserved?) snarky publicity.  If it were there, I might honestly have some motherly concern.

I won't get into a long, drawn out biography of my own church experiences and opinions.  Suffice to say that, like many others, the hypocrites drove Magnum and me away from church.  Suffice it further to say that the biggest examples of the hypocrisy have been a couple of neighbor families who claimed both the most blatant bullies and the most disrespectful kids I've ever known.  This along with both families' hateful stances against homosexuals.  One family went to that big BIG crazy church, the other, the church down the street.  And there've been other examples along the way.  I do get along fine with the families, one has since moved.  Just let's not talk religion, and don't expect me to be best buddies.

And now Meego is a VBS volunteer down the street and I'm fine with it.  Two of his good friends are at the upper age limit and are attending.  They don't belong to the church, they're just doing five fun days of 3-hour VBS, so Meego and another friend his age from the neighborhood decided to volunteer.  The whole gang will likely do similar at the more-acceptable-to-Chaco church UP the street later this month.

"Of all the things a 14-year-old kid could be getting into, I'm okay with it being VBS volunteering", I told Chaco.

But it's nice to know that Chaco cares.
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the continuant

Last day of school for Meego.  Finally!  We went to the 8th grade continuation ceremony last night.

I will say, right at the get go, that I'm not a big fan of these 8th grade continuation ceremonies.  I mean, okay...  Have some sort of commemoration for leaving one school building and moving onto another school building, but other than that, I don't think finishing 8th grade is all that much more ceremonious from finishing say, 7th grade or 9th grade...

The last of these I went to was Chaco's, six years ago.  It was long, overly dramatic, and a bit ridiculous.  I missed Wolfgang's the following year because I was teaching a class that night.  Despite my lack of enthusiasm for these things, missing Wolfgang's 8th grade continuation show will remain a source of everlasting Mom-guilt.

When did he get taller than me??

Anyway, I'm glad to say that Meego's shindig was not as long or dramatic or ridiculous as Chaco's.  Maybe the school got feedback.  Maybe I'm not alone.

It was, however, just as hot as I remember.  With everyone and their grandma crammed into the non-air-conditioned high school gym, furiously fanning themselves.





So today was just the typical last day of school.  Be rowdy, sign yearbooks, etc.  I perused through Meego's yearbook, filled with various messages about how he's "nice" and "fun" and "nerdy" and "smart".  I'm particularly proud of the "nerdy".  *sniff* chip off the old blocks!

I'm leaving in a little bit to go tute.  This student is a high school junior who also celebrated her last school day today.  She's leaving tomorrow for a fun camping trip with friends.  She's nice and smart, and not notably nerdy.  If it were up to me, I'd give her a pass on this session, but I suspect her hard-driving parents want her to complete and not skip this after-the-last-day-of-school-before-going-on-a-fun-camping-trip tute.

I'm sure she'll be totally into it.
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boxed in

*DING * DONG *

Me:  Oh {SHOOT!} Don't answer that!

Meego:  What?

Me:  Don't answer that!

Meego:  Why not?

Me:  Don't answer that!

Meego:  Go answer that?

Me:  Don't answer that!

Meego:  Who is it?

Me:  Don't answer that!

Meego:  It's UPS.

Me:  Don't answer that!

Today is Meego's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Meego!  Born Mother's Day of 2000.  So we ordered him a thing, and it was due to be delivered yesterday afternoon.  Meego and I were both at home, but I had to leave to go tute and was hoping that UPS driver would get here so I could intercept the thing.

I had to get ready to go and stepped into the bathroom to do in-the-bathroom things, and of course, that's when Mr. UPS arrives.  Hence the above "conversation", me shouting from the bathroom.

So I made it to the door to intercept the thing, which by then, Meego was on the up and up about.  At least it was in a nondescript brown box, so I took it down to the rec room to help it blend in.

In the meantime, Chaco and Wolfgang are to be out of their dorms by the end of this week, and have brought "a few" of their things to the house already.  So I have plenty of camouflage for Meego's Birthday thing.

Anybody remember where I put it??

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and they're off!

I'm sitting here waiting to watch The Kentucky Derby.  I don't gamble, I don't own a fancy hat, I don't know what's in a mint julep, but I love to watch these big horse races.  Most exciting two minutes in sports and all that.

And I know there are those who say the horses are pushed too hard and/or drugged up.  I think they're beautiful, and hope there is no abuse.

Speaking of athletes and beauty and strength, in contrast, Meego and I did a 5K this morning at his middle school.

Meego's never done a 5K before, but his school was doing this book drive, and organized it around "The Grizzly Dash 5K".  This week, I asked him if he wanted to do it, and he was good to go, so we rounded up a few books to donate and jumped in the fray.

It was a great day for it - sunny and warm, no more b*tch wind.  We were urged to dress in super hero garb, so I of course went ....

...
...
...
...

Oh, sorry.  The Kentucky Derby just happened and I had to watch.  Awesome!

Okay, back to the contrast....

so of course I went as Storm Trooper Hello Kitty.

There were, I'd guess, about 150 runners.  Mostly middle school students, staff, and parents, as expected.  I took second for the "girls".   First place was a foregone conclusion, as Meego's school is home to both the regional boy and girl middle school distance badasses.  The boy took first overall, girl was not far behind.

Here they are lined up next to each other for the start of the race.  Boy on the left with orange shoes, Girl as The Female Flash.  Meego and I are behind them, trying to catch their juju.  I have no idea what I'm doing/saying.  Do I always look that strange?

mark... get set....

The race clock had me at 20:45 which leads me to think that either the clock was a bit off, or the course was just short of a full 5K.  I don't think I was going quite that fast.

too hot today for all black!

Meego made a great showing at 23:40 and now knows that he can handle a 5K just fine.

Who is he?  Captain Underpants?

I swear the  grizzly bear is real!

Magnum came along as cheerleader and photographer.

This was the first annual Grizzly Dash, with hopes of many more to come.

We can say we were there.









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Silver Liningness Sunday

Well, it's been a busy and - I think - productive week!

It started last Sunday when we went to Magnum's sister's for Marijuana Day Easter.  She and her husband live just a little over 10 miles from us, but we don't see them all that often.

Magnum isn't particularly close with her (politics!), and she and I drifted apart about 10 years ago when she married a new guy - who turned out to be not so new ifyaknowwhaddimsayin' - after a bit of homewrecking drama for her daughter.  Nothing against the new guy, just the circumstances.

But time heals and people mature and I've noticed her making efforts to socialize with us more.  So when she called to invite us over, I was glad when everyone said yes, although it's pretty easy to get Chaco and Wolfgang to play along when there's lots of good food involved.

She cooked a lovely crown roast that I doubt would even fit in my smallish oven.  I realized that having a smallish oven helps to take the blame for some of my lacking skills in the kitchen.

In other news, Meego had his first track meet for the season this week.  He ran the mile, the 800 meters, the 4 x 200, and threw the discus.  He's not a big contender in any of those events, but nice variety, no?

The main thing is, he's having fun.  Save the vomit inducing pressures for high school.

The weather today is total crap.  Windy, cold, cloudy, drizzly.  In true silver lining form, I'm trying to stay positive with the we-need-the-moisture mantra that is so popular on days like today.  

Also, I went for a chop job at the hair salon yesterday.  Actually, I went for a nice haircut and ended up with a chop job, but hair grows, right?   Don't anyone dare me to do the buzz cut.  At this point, I'm actually tempted...(but won't)...

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Silver Liningness Sunday

The meteorological powers that be forecast wet, rainy/snowy, and cloudy for today, starting last night.  I got up and it was dry, clear, and sunny.  Screw 'em, Alice and I took advantage and went a-riding.  Lovely ride it was.

That's not to say spring hasn't had its relapses so far.  This was Thursday:

Dude!  Where's my dog!?

The silver lining to that is that we need the moisture.  The area has been dry lately, and the talk around the water coolers is not "if" something will burn again this year, but "what".   Magnum and I are betting on the suburb of Rockrimmon - barely spared in the Waldo Canyon fire, and they still hang on to their tinder box covenential landscaping rules.  You heard it here first...

The other silver lining to all that heart attack snow is that, as is typical this time of year, the next day was lovely.  

Also this week, Meego FINALLY got his braces.  I say finally because it seems like this has been in the works forever.  Appointments were postponed for various reasons.  My class schedule and state assessment tests at Meego's school, where I complied with the "good night's sleep, healthy breakfast, and no unnecessary appointments", put certain limitations on the schedule.  THEN, we have the orthodontist himself, who takes every Friday as well as school breaks off.  

Oh well, it finally happened - on snowy Thursday, of course.  The weather was borderline close enough to shut down the orthodontist office.  That would be just our luck.  But we slushed on over and got Meego all blinged up.  

Meego has a theory that the human mouth has been trying to evolve, but orthodontists keep forcing it back to its unevolved state.  Since I can't think of a way to test the theory, we are doomed to generations of unevolved mouths, so he'll just have to deal with it. 

Speaking of progress, recall that I introduced the blog to my 2nd cousin (?) Ybarra last week.  He'd just received his bachelor's degree.  Here he is, now freshly entering the world of responsible educated adulthood.

I want to go there.  It looks... 

 warm.

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nice rack

Greetings, Spring Breakers!  I've been enjoying the week.  I've realized that it's a good thing that I had some homework to keep me from getting rusty.  Surprising how quickly that can happen.

It all balances, and I've enjoyed the time off.  Meego has been asking for a tablet for a while and wondering what he can do to earn one.  We thought it would be a handy thing for him to have, plus if we got some work out of him, all the better.

He did a few things around the house this week, and I rounded it out with having him solve some math problems - muahahaha.  He even agreed to throw in a haircut, so today, he and I went to the store to get his Nexus 7.  Once he got it home, he realized he couldn't get onto our WiFi without all of the secrets that Chaco built in .  Good thing Chaco lives nearby.

The weather's been decent, so I've managed to get in quality time with the bicycles for running a few errands.  Today I ran by the grocery store.  Check out the bike rack...

... if you can find it.

Silver Liningness Sunday

I wrote a paper for school earlier today, and I guess my brain registered it as my silver liningness post for today.  Be thankful it wasn't, you'da been bored to tears!  AND I've managed to do a brain override and get my silver liningness post in afterall.

Meego had the day off on Monday for President's Day.  He celebrated by puncturing his hand with a piece of fence post.

The way I understand it, he was playing tag with the other street urchins when he went to scale a fence a la parkour?  But i guess there was a big old piece of wood sticking out of the thing he grabbed, and the big old piece of wood went into his hand.

He came inside to wash it off and showed me where it went in.  Then he turned his hand over and showed me where it went out the other side.  Eew!

Really not that bad though.  I patched him up, and he was sort of the one-handed boy for a couple of days, but none the worse for wear after that.  In fact, I was going to post gory pics here, but it's just not gory enough anymore to make an impact.

And Magnum took the opportunity to remind me that I am way overdue for a tetanus shot.

I still am, by the way.




Also this week, we had an appointment with the Heavenly Orthodontist.  It's time for the braces to commence bracing.  They gave him this for motivation.


So now he's totally thrilled.  Not.











But enough about Meego, this is MY blog!

School continues, I'm enjoying my classes and classmates, and I haven't been kicked out yet.  Also, this was another P.E.O. week and I'm grateful to have found a good group of sistahs.  All these weeks floating along as the beloved newbie guest are soon to be a thing of the past, though, as I sense they are about to put me to work.

In movie news, Magnum and I watched Let the Right One In.  It's creepy.  I think it was well-done for what the producers set out to do, and there were things about it that I liked.  But I was kinda creeped out afterwards and so have mixed reviews.

But go ahead and [click this link] and watch the trailer!  I DARE YOU!!

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Super Silver Liningness Sunday

Greetings on this beautiful sunny winter Sunday!  Really, I wish you could see the views today.  After two or three days of clouds-fog-snow  (Clofo snow?), the mist finally left leaving behind a post-card perfect view of the world!

GOT ME A BEER MUG!

And strangely enough, I found myself spending the morning running the local Super Half-Marathon.

A little over a week ago,  I was at a meeting of that local PEO chapter I've been stalking.  One of my sisters there likes to do marathons and half-marathons and she urged me to do this one.

The Super Half?  Well, I'm not really... well, maybe I'll think about it.

So I ended up signing up on Thursday, then Mother Nature commenced to continually dumping snow on us over the next two and a half days.

Ironically, my PEO sis didn't make it!  She lives up in the mountain boonies and was kinda snowed in.  Too bad because it turned out to be a beautiful day for it.  The course was pretty well snow-covered, and a few miles were a real slog, but still good times!

Maybe I'll give a runnerly review later on, but for now, the stats:

time:  1:48:46
20th overall female out of 189
65th overall human out of 357

I got 2nd place in my age group, but I also know of two women in the next older age group who placed ahead of me.  One is a friend of mine who is FIERCE!  I notice we old lady runners tend to watch out for each other...

SHIRT,  MUG,  PRETTY SAFETY PINS

I'm happy with how I did considering I've never done one and two weeks ago, I would've said, "Whachu talkin' bout, half maraton??""

Must give credit to the hat.

And I'm grateful for my friend putting the idea in my head, because it was quite fun, and the day was pretty.
 Plus I got some loot.




In other Silver Liningness news, Meego got his official honor roll bumper sticker this week, thus maxing out.  I think I've mentioned before that I don't do bumper stickers in general, and I DEFINITELY don't do "My Child is an Honor Student at..." bumper stickers.  Not dissing those who do, it's just not in my Mom code.






However, I do think it's worth a nod, so we've put the kids' stickers on our bedroom door.  They can get one per year of middle school.  Note that we now have eight, not eligible for any more.  The reason there are not nine?  Well, Chaco had a bumperstickerless semester one year.


We laugh about it.  Now.

And lastly, I want to give a shout out to the bus people again ("bus" is the non-fancy word for bus.  "Metro" being the fancy one).  Travel was really nasty this week.  Even though I can now ride the friendly bike path to school, there was still about three miles of slop between my house and the bike path trailhead, so I was back on the bus for a good portion of this week.

Beats driving and fighting for parking.







And now, I hear there's a football game later today.  Maybe I'll check out the commercials.

*Magnum tells me the SuperBowl starts at 4:20 our time.  How appropriate...

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it's his fault for not even knowing what he owns

Text exchange with Meego earlier today....

My phone - texts read from bottom to top:

SCORE!

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Silver Liningness Sunday

Lovely sunny Sunday morning to all!  It was a bit chilly - mid 30's - when I headed out for a bike ride earlier.  The sun made it feel nice and friendly, but I did break out the foot jackets.

Another good week is in the books.  We're about halfway through the semester at the university.  Mid-term exams (I really only had one) went smoothly.  Grades were just posted, and I'm happy with how I did.  I felt that it went well, but there's always that nagging feeling that I'd done something stupid that messed everything up after the stupid thing.  pffffft.  math.

Meego had his first middle school band concert this week, so here's the token grainy cell phone pic from the cheap seats:

They sounded really good, and their progress is noticeable.  The band program has dwindled over the years, and is not as big as it was when Chaco and Wolfgang were there.  In fact, I noticed that we didn't need to sit in the cheap seats as there were better ones still unoccupied.  But Meego is used to us sitting in this spot, so we assumed our positions so he'd see us when they made the grand entrance.

I did a bit of grocery shopping with Wolfgang yesterday.  Always nice to spend some time with either college boy, even if just selecting pop tarts.

And I'd already mentioned the backpack and stuffings I won earlier this week.  Wolfgang confirmed that, yes, the orangish thing in the photo is a plastic food container.  It's still a mystery as to why it's shaped like a fat peanut.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy final week of August.  I don't know about other places, but it's been HOT around here lately.  I'm ready to put August behind us!

After getting all the kids established back to school, this week was my turn.  One week in, and I'm happy with my decision to go back to the halls of edumcation.

I was being a bit of an ingrate, grousing about Cookie Lady asking me to tutor her son.  But really, I do love teaching.  That's the main reason I find it so hard to say "no" when someone asks.  And that is the reason I'm jumping through the various hoops to get my license so that I can teach even more.

Also, I mustn't forget the days when I first started taking private tutoring jobs, how I was willing to tutor anyone for anything just to have students.  Now, I'm able to teach my favorite subjects and to have to turn business away.

Life is good.

Speaking of life, recall that we just moved King Reese the snake to a much bigger tank after he'd outgrown his 20-gallon long tank.  That left us with a lonely 20-gallon long tank.  Meego has been project manager on renovations to transform it into a lush vivarium.

It's nearly ready for plants and critters now.  Plus, it's a nice project for him, with some help from Magnum and me, as the three of us adjust to being just the three of us.

Also, after a week of true bicycle commuting to school, I can give a highly favorable review of the new bicycle tires.

When I went to the bike shop to replace the old tires, I had no idea there were so MANY varieties.  A technician brought out a fat fat catalogue, and we stuck our noses in it to find just the right thing for Tessa and me and our commute.

Their greenness aside, after a week of putting them to work, these tires are noticeably a perfect choice.

They grab the curves, are smooth and fast on the straights, and can deal with a fair amount of road debris.  They were actually designed with bicycle messengers in mind.  Cool!

So, a shout out to the Kenda  tire company, and also to Bike Tech Byron, who I don't think got any commission for helping me pick them out.  The green was (mainly) his idea.

As always, I'm grateful for blog friends and readers who continue to keep me entertained, inspired, and connected.  I hope everyone has a fun Labor Day Weekend!  Holiday for the working man! (and woman).  Plumber Butts all around!

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So, you know who Jesus is, right?

I inquired this of Meego this morning.  A little background:

When I was growing up, my family didn't attend church, but my dad arranged for brother Guano and me to crash the local Lutheran church and attend Sunday school and VBS as church orphans.  Looking back, it was a positive experience.

I was not a churchgoer when I met Magnum and neither was he.  But by the time we became parents, I felt maybe we should at least expose the kids to "the basics" of our Judeo-Christian society like I had been.  With that, we dipped them in a few church experiences spanning about three years.

It started with a non-denominational church that was so ridiculously non-denominational that we didn't see the point (rhymes with "spoonitarian").  From there we went to Christian Science - not to be mistaken with Scientology.  While we had a few issues with the church itself, that I won't expound upon here, we were happy enough with the Sunday school.

But when we moved to another town and another CS church, the hypocrisy smothered us out.  We began  attending a non-denominational Christian church in our somewhat rural community, Chaco and Wolfgang did Sunday school.  It was all right, the people were nice, and I don't really remember why we stopped going.  I think the hypocrites at the previous church had just left such a bad taste in our mouths.  We were churchgoers no more.

Meego was just a baby then.  His sole church experiences were of either sitting in my lap drooling on the hymnal, or spending time in the nursery with the Noah's Ark pillow pets.

I did think about it over the years - what to do about Meego.  I vaguely remember getting a book of Bible stories from the library and reading a few selections with him.  And we've talked to him about what Christmas and Easter are to Christians.  Haven't we?

Which brings us to this morning.  This morning is his first day as a VBS volunteer at the church up the street.

So how did this young heathen become a VBS helper?

Meego has a couple of good buddies in the neighborhood, twin brothers K and J.  K and J are nice kids.  Playful, polite, boy bundles of activity.  They're about two years younger than Meego, and the three of them hang out for hours at a time, shooting hoops, riding bikes, playing video games, etc.

summer daze

Last week, K and J were at VBS at the church down the street.  Meego sat around the house ho-humming until they were released in the afternoons.  Even the kids next door, a.k.a. "the girls", were at VBS.  Everyone was out having VBS fun except Meego!

K and J announced that this week, they would be attending the VBS UP the street.  Meego should go!  I said I thought he was too old.  He is, but learned that older kids could volunteer as helpers.  

I got the contact info for volunteers, e-mailed, and left it to Jesus.

Jesus... er... Julie e-mailed me back quite directly.  "Yes!"  

We walked up there, set foot in that church for the first time in our lives, talked with whom we needed to talk with, and it was a done deal.  

So this morning, as he prepared his breakfast before heading out for a rip roaring good time with Jesus, I inquired the title of this post.

He gave me a look that said "duh", and reminded me, "We learned about him in humanities, remember?"   

Oh, right.  They did a unit on world religions in school.  

Hopefully public school Jesus will suffice for a VBS helper.

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