new job, no sink, big scary turkey

okay, so I will start with the turkey, he or she weighed 23 pounds post mortem and that is how I feel about my meat, esp when so much is involved in the preparation before eating. I now understand why after cooking a big thanksgiving feast my grandmother (step) would eat a couple bites of veggies and consume a large glass of brown booze on the rocks. Thanksgiving is for the eaters, not for the cookers. By the time I am done it all just looks like work, not delicious food but my mom definitely should be taking a break this year (even if I am forcing her to do so) and I know it will not taste as good, but a good daughter does not let a mom cook thanksgiving post surgically. I am tired, I will live. For her this year it is just too much for my mom.

So now enough with the turkey's gynecological exam. The seven years unemployed person got a job (and part-time as requested to the goddess of stay at home moms). It was the only employer who responded to my resume with an interview request so I thought it was best to accept the offer. I asked for all school release days off and for 2 dollars more an hour than the range they were offering. I was also not feeling well on the day of the interview so that if provoked I might have asked for a trip to Disney world as well. My new boss asked the typical question, "where do you see yourself in 5 years" I of course responded "in my forties..." I guess sarcasm still rules the day.

Must go to sleep now but will leave you with the fact that our recently purchased dream home has no bathroom sink on the main floor. We were quoted an astronomical sum to add one so I am thinking that dear husband is about to become amateur plumber, god help him not to lose his real job while he tries.

pecan pie and blessings,

Muriel's Granddaughter

so this is what it is like to win! YES WE CAN!!

OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA !

fun to say, fun to type. What an inspiring speech last night. So nice I watched it twice. Is there really any doubt in any one's mind that Obama is the right person for the job? Not after that speech.

Dear little girl prayed the whole rosary for Obama to be elected last night in bed. What a sweetheart. Both kids are inspired and excited although Theo really needs to work on his Barack pronunciation-"Merack Obama". Good job Merack

can you see this?

okay, I am testing my settings for dear auntie Jean. Can you read this. My settings are fine for all readers so maybe I just need a new posting to activate...dunno.

So, the update from our casa is that Kindergarten is great. They do yoga, they are happy, they are buddies, they have dinosaurs, Ms. R@@b is fantastical. 2nd gr@de, not so much... we are overly structured, can't have snack, only allowed to write non-fiction, oh and there are some 2nd grade bitches. You get the gist. These are things I cannot correct outside of pulling my child from school. Whaddaya do when the world is unjust?

i had a bad dream...

I have a guy in my life who by day is happy and at night is our nightmare factory. Anyone else like this?

potting not prosperity

I am at the wheel again. My pots are looking more normal but progess is slow and I want to do, more, better, now. Sticking to cylinders right now. Checking out gobs of books on throwing, decorating, glazing...My teacher is right, I really do center all wrong. I am UNCENTERED> shocking....So I have no job but I just leave all my undone household projects now, and sending of resumes and go to the studio for as long as I can stand it. I have a little tear along my right hand so the rest of the week must be spent, carving, deconstructing and decorating. I am busy but it doesn't pay well, it doesn't clean my house and it sure as ever doesn't make dinner.

summer of 08, we will miss you!

grandpa harry gets the 3 wheeled bike going...at last

back yard fireworks, 4th of july!

vacation bible school, we all know who's vacation that was!

we catch butterflies, bugs, and toads!

sumer fun album, more

cowgirlie at the pet and wheel, doesn't she look a little overheated??

robbinsdale diggers, we'll miss you

because you have a marvelous beehive...

album of summer fun

we eat strawberries and don't brush our teeth!

staying up late celebrating dad's birthday, we should go to bed and brush our teeth!

grandma made a lot of pies, another time to brush our purple teeth!

pet and wheel parade no teeth brushing nec. he is a jedi after all.

un-sahm

So my little guy is in kindergarten full-time and I still do not have a job. I no longer believe that I can be called a stay-at-home-mom, unless I am the dog's mom and we just won't get into that. Okay, I just spilled a cup of luke-warm coffee on the dog, she doesn't want me to be her mom.

Anyway, today on my ride back from school (alone), I got to thinking about the nature of staying at home with kids these days. Do we do it because they will become better people? because we want them to grow up and have great careers, a beautiful life, memories of mom being there when they got home from school. Mostly we say we do it so they will grow up and be sucessful adults. But the argument always follows that by the example I am setting I am training my children (and especially my daughter) to strive to stay at home with their kids. Not really what any of us sahms usually had in mind.

Basically over the years I have learned about myself that this decision is based on the fact that I wanted to be at home with them. I wanted to spend time with them before a day like today came and being five and seven years old has now determined that both my children are now part of an institution, SCHOOL, COLLEGE, WORK, NURSING HOME etc. So I am happy for my kids that they are ready and eager to be at school. I hate the rush though. Rush to eat breakfast, hurry practice your piano, hurry get to bed so they can spend 7 hours a day at school where still the second grade teacher says there is still no time during the day for a snack. Boo!

A week into school and I am the only one who misses summer.

Settling In on Amherst

Paint, paint and more paint. What can I say. We are just rounding the corner on getting the third story painted so some flooring can go in to cover the asbestos tile (yes, that sounds like a great idea). Tonight we were trying to figure out why this is taking us so long and then we figured out that we have rolled 10 gallons of paint plus 2 more for the kitchen. Plus 5 more in the basement (thank you Chad, that was awful).

We are definitely the hippies of the neighborhood. Maybe I have set the bar so low that I can only go up from here. Or I will be the scourge. Interesting note two doors down we have a home designed by Cass Gilbert who also designed our MN State Capitol. It is pretty fancy I am told but I still like my little heap better.

Ivy Jean

My dear friend Kristin had a baby yesterday morning much earlier than expected but a nice healthy 5lbs 4oz so I think everyone will be okay. If you are in the internet universe send a little hope of love, health and happiness to them.

Ivy is a long awaited little girl and once upon a time I told Kristin that if she really wanted to be a mom that she would and now she is, so... Welcome Kristin to the wonderful (and weird) world of MOMS. I am a little teary now typing this so if it sappy please forgive me but I am so happy for my friend and her dear husband too, I know how much this means to them and I share in their thankfulness.

Be well my friend and have a peaceful week with a new baby.

144 Amherst, coming soon!

The move to our temporary digs went off without a hitch (aka, we lived) and now we are on our way to closing on a new home in St Paul. Our real estate journey back to the East as been 7 month in the making but I think it might all end up being worth it. As always fingers crossed are appreciated.

sold!

Okay folks, it really is going to happen. Our house is gone to the lowest bidder. Papers are all sign off on. Bank appraisal came back much higher than her bid (duh) and now we just have to close on July 18th and oh yeah, find a place to live.

Scrounged up some rental opportunities but we have also placed a bid on a big heap of a house in our old stomping grounds of St Paul. We should know by the end of this week if it is accepted so cross your fingers and then we will be charmed indeed.

Other than real estatuary pursuits I am enjoying time by the kidddie pool (glorified community bathtub) with summer reading. Just finished the very disturbing but couldn't put it down Towelhead and have just begun American Cookery. So far I give myself high marks for summer reading. My apologies to the library for the wet pages. Kids splash you know!

selling the gd house...

cross thy fingers ladies and gentlemen. We have a signed purchase agreement, an inspection scheduled for friday and a closing date of July 18th. No place to live yet but we don't want to put the cart before the horse or egss in baskets or any such thing that might jeprodize good luck...Have I mentioned how much I hate this whole process.

the artist

Check out this little gem. A self portrait done as an artist working on two easels. Now my girl is constantly depicting herself as a brunette. Foreshadowing on a goth-like adolescence?

spring resisted, but finally came!

hostas,
iris's poking through,
sunshine,
rain,
green grass,
trees bud,
freckled noses.

It is the middle of May but finally it came to MN: SPRING!!! My yard is lovely thanks to all the perennials passed to me through MOM, neighbors, friends and those who have passed and unlikely strangers on craigslist even. I did not think I could survive this past winter but I did. I need to keep this fact in mind. We must relocate, we must, winter is so depressing and petty. It preys on me by wearing me down to just bits of cold and self pity. I HATE WINTER!!! Yeah Spring!

mom makes an elephant cake!

cup cakes, elephant cake, he is 5!

turning five

Becoming a great big five year old is great, exhausting, you get a party with your friends (not just grandma and grandpa) and it is an event that I can remember and relate to. My first memories are of Five. So today my little guy celebrated his fifth birthday with 13 of his buddies (and ladies, he is a ladies man you know!) and it was a good little fet after all. I was very nervous about the amount of kids in my home but my new neighbor and brother helped greatly with crowd control and I handled elephant shaped cakes and twisting of crep paper.

Pictures forthcoming but really he is not Five until Saturday!!! Until then can he just be my baby a little longer.

minnesota: not for the faint of heart!

Merry Christmas! April Fools, it's really spring. We have a lovely dusting (4-8 inches) of the white stuff today and yes it is April 1st! I would post the pics for proof but I snapped the flimsy little card reader off my computer, boo no pictures for me. Yesterday my son lamented that is upcoming spring birthday will never come because of all this nasty weather. I think my seasonal crabbiness is wearing off on my kids. I will refrain from complaint about this storm.

I was expecting to be much more depressed about more of this weather but it all just seems like one long wicked joke, so why not give in! I came home last night after throwing some dangerously heavy (and UGLY) pots-and I was actually in a great mood despite nearly skidding off the road. Potting is really lots of fun but frankly I really wish I was better at it. There is some late night throwing going on on Thursday night that I have been invited to by someone so much better than me but I think I will go earlier and alone. I need to suck less at this and I only have 6 more weeks to stop stinking.

more proof!

This is the ceiling of our hotel (thank you hotwire.com, 79 bucks a night, cheap!). Chad caught working on his waffel while having dinner. Chad at Millenium park, pretty cool spot, eh? We have now been legally bound for 10 years. Good lordy time goes by fast.

getting away from kids-proof!

Some snapshots to proove that indeed we did leave our children(with Grandma) to go to Chicago

what are we skerd of

I will start out with admitting that this weekend has sucked in no small part because of me. I am a ball of pms, depressed (seasonally and otherwise), alchohol infused SHIT. I have also been working my arse off for a stupid open house because "HELLO WORLd" we are trying to sell our house here. Well real life decided to really poke it's nose in our hundred dollar newspaper ad (yes folks, when you see an ad in the paper for a home and it is basically the size of a postage stamp, it costs us blokes a hund-y)

Dear husband is sick, like sick as a sick assed dog. Fever-ish, weak, emotional basically when you are so sick that that is all you are sick. He is flegm. Sorry babe you are toast.

Kids had simultaneous birthday parties to attend and oh, I accidentally started painting my daughters bedroom before I realized DH was sooooooo sick. SO now I am full of cleaner, coffee and beer hating the hell out of the spot we've put ourselves in but god almighty, his commute is murder and this house is lovely, big, and already nicely decorated with all sorts of new crap in it with a nice neighborhood to boot. SO please let someone buy our house this week. We have already lowered our price far below the breaking even point so can we just be done already. Oh and get well soon my love.

winter 4 f-ing ever!

Could this pie chart possibly cheer me up? Well, it sure is trying.

It snowed a bit yesterday. Hoping there would be good weather to play in it but alas today it is 14 degrees and the Salty Hot dog lover has a cold that gives him a smokey voice. I am depressed over this winter and frankly it is no fun to be around a person like me lately. I went to buy gallons of yellow paint to help cheer me up but it all seems pathetic. I have been zapped of all motivation. Unshowered, unlovable I am. It is just no good to be around a person who is pining for a summer day. I go bitch-cakes on my kids, they are annoying and whiny and my house is a mess. My dogs hair is snarly and she is getting fat. Going for a swim in a bottle of red wine doesn't help. Season finale of Project Runway didn't even work. I hate winter to death.

My resume is posted on Monster.com now. Just sticking my toe in every water possible to try and figure out what I will do for the rest of my life. I called my old boss and he agreed to send my resume around the world. That funny little relic hasn't changed since he last saw it but I added some lies and fabrications to make me a little more palatable. I need some thing good to happen. Sell the house. Get a job. Move to California. Win lottery. All of the above. Just no more damn winter. Bring on the brown spring.

tastes like salty hotdogs!

Now being a parent can be pretty disgusting. There is poop, pee, barf, drool, snot and BOOGERS. Now as of late my children are pretty self sufficient with the poop and the pee. Not in complete control of where barf lands but that happens rarely. BUT we all make boogers everyday and what my son has decided as of late to be done with them has officially grossed us all out (well not the dog, she is gross too). Our dear son has decided in the last month that he is not only a nose picker but a BOOGER EATER! So last night we confronted him over WHY WHY WHY...He confessed that they taste like, yes, Salty Hotdogs!

I will never eat a tube steak again...

new peace, stays at home for the day

I hate to be happy to have a sick kid at home today; but my goodness, lordy lordy, what a nice little girl to have at home with me. Hanging out reading (& sneeezing), playing the piano (& coughing), watching old movies (National Velvet!-streaming on Netflix is fantabulous). It has been such a fine day of hanging out together. Little brother came home (NO FIGHTS). Makes me think what the heck good is school. IT is stressing us out.

Get well soon baby girl but not too soon...

gym class hero?

Lately I have been substitute teaching at my kids school. It is a huge departure from my former career but frankly NOBODY wants to hire me. So the principal at the school has kindly overlooked my seven year employment gap. Literally seven years on Wednesday when my oldest child will be SEVEN. Seven. A four foot tall blonde drink of water who is so good at everything. So needless to say, I am not sorry that I have taken these years of to spend with her.

So today the assignment was to cover the gym teacher's post. I made the kids run (gasp), do calesthenics and everything else I remembered that happened in gym when I was a kid without balls(couldn't get the equipment room unlocked!) . I also added yoga which they LOVED. They are a really out-of-shape bunch except for the Kindies who still have little kid energy and not an ounce of attitude.

So now I am dog tired. I have counseled tears over side-aches, cheating, and people who tag to hard. Someone cried in every class, except the Kindies. I ran every lap that I made every class run, I did jumping jacks until I almost peed, and killers at 37! I am definitely in better shape than 90 percent of the fourth grade population.

oh-bama baby!!!

Our Caucus Rocked last night. Senator Amy Klobuchar came to our humble little precinct room. Awesome. We voted overwhelmingly for Obama! Also some screwball from the postal service came to put some phoney crap up for a vote to be added to our platform. 1 yea, 204 neas! Hilarious. Kept the kiddies up way too late to learn about the political process but how on earth to you explain Superdelegates? That our vote doesn't mean that much in the initial process. Superconspiracy I say. Good luck Barry, you will need it babe.

caucus for obama!

http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us/

Here is your caucus finder folks. Now get off yer hinney and keep Hil' off Capitol Hill! I am all done whining about Edwards and throwing full support behind Obama! Plus it is a fun name to say OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA! Tomorrow is Super Tuesday. It would be completely lame if we go for Hilary. Remember folks we elected Jesse Ventura as Governor. Be brave white people-vote for a Black Man! It's not that hard. I know you are really, really Scandinavian, but you can do it!!

finding your voice before you die

Nobody really reads this blog except my husband and he has duly noted that my blog is boring. He told me basically that he was expecting me to write something insightful and interesting about our last days here at home together before everyone is at school and I am back to work. And honestly, I have tried writing post after post and each one looks like your prototypical whining over the doldrums of daily life. Life at home with kids is pretty predictable and it is sometimes difficult for me to pin point and explain the nuances that make the day worthwhile and interesting.

I guess in the back of my mind that I always hoped I had a writer in me. My teachers always loved my well constructed essays and this skill definitely smoothed the otherwise shaky path toward college graduation. After awhile though that idea becomes fainter and fainter. Because of my advanced age it seems unlikely that I might develop my own voice on paper. At least not one that wouldn't make all parties involved (myself especially) freeze into a permanent cringe.

So then we come to the blog. The blessed blogger who unabashedly puts forth the contents of the moment and publishes it instantaneously without an ounce of self consciousness and with an accompanying photograph. Freedom from edits and rewrites just a well placed spot at the end for public comment (props or scorn?). Really this is a new generation without painful geekdom, everyone is a superstar, nobody hides under big sweatshirts and baggy pants. It is all out there, learning to ballroom dance in front of the world. A personal evolution taking place in full view of anyone who will watch. There is no more solitary confinement in youth and that is a trait that I will dare to take on in my advancing years. Daring to publish my voice in whatever public terms without fear of reprisal.

negative six or "why do we live here anyway"?

It is that time of year here in north country. The expletive inducing cold-ass weather. It is really a cliche of this town that we constantly talk about the weather (yes we do) but we exist in such horrendously extremes of both hot and cold. Yesterday balmy and 40 degrees today, NEGATIVE six. Now folks, wouldn't you bitch and moan about the weather when it drops a whopping 50 degrees in 24 hours. It is soul sucking, painful eyebrow weather; biting cold that pierces through insulated mittens. Please don't make me explain windchill.

Now here is some fun stuff from today to counter balance the complaining parts. My guy I went to Macdonalds with his buddy today and grabbed some junk to-go. We ate it at the gym before "working out" (aka reading trashy novels while on stationary bike). It felt a little like having sex in a church pew. People walked by in horror or amusement but it was good for us either way. We chose the "girl" toy for our Happy Meal which included a small stuffed cat with a baby bottle. When I picked the boys up from Child Care they were completely soothed from the activity of caring for their newborn cats. There is a reason it is called a Happy Meal.

My realtor is in Mexico for 3 extra days. I hate him. We should be in Mexico. No fair. Sell our house dammit. Speaking of homes prayers for Jean.

funny how you can be out in the blogosphere of the big, big world and find great work in your own back yard.

http://willworkforfood2.blogspot.com/

i hate my cell phone....

everyone who knows me is thrilled that at last for the first time since 2001 ( yes I am that old) that I finally have a cell phone again, everyone except me. I resisted the pressure to get a cell for so many years because it feels like money down the toilet (two piano lessons, half a week's groceries, a couple cheep concert ticket....Haley Bonar, Cedar Cultural Center, go, go, go....) Am I allowed to pay the ransom for my cell and let it go? after all we bought it so I could stay in touch with the realtor (he has skills, anyone get that?) well I really only use it to bitch and complain and drive into other people's lane. my kids hate when I am on the phone anyway, now I have only added another one so that I can hollar at them for bugging me while I am on the phone.

more paintings by jean metcalf, enjoy...

emotional rescue

sending internet love to our good friend in pain. we all love you!

b-day fun

paintings by jean metcalf

I have the pleasure of knowing this artist. I will try to upload more images of her paintings soon. Enjoy

i demand a re-measure

I am shrinking dammit-all! Went to the doctor yesterday and found out that I am NO LONGER 5'7"! I am not amused. I am going to stretch my spine and chug some calcium. 5'6" sucks.