domestic bliss (and all that follows)

Hi guys!

     I feel like it's been forever since I've written. I know, I know, it has. So I'd like to redeem myself by posting more pictures and giving everyone a small scoop on what we've been up to, aside from trying to stay out of the heat. (Randal would say that outdoors at noon feels like midnight overseas- YEALCH) All the better to be back here, I say. :) Things are going SO wonderfully... not that we don't have our disagreements or miscommunications now and again, but that's all in learning to live together. For the most part, I've never been happier and neither have this kids, and if I may speak again for Randal, the same goes for him..

     We have moved and mostly settled into our new and beautiful home- equipped with a 2-level marble island for Randal, seperate play & bedrooms for the kids (bunks and bare walls in one room, color and toys in the other) and a bedroom with a jacuzzi tub bath for your truly. OH heck yeah, man. That's what it's all about! :) All of those things are fabulous and wonderful, but there's something EVEN BETTER. When the hampers get full, instead of  my old ritual, (trying to remember how much is on my laundry card, walking down a flight of stairs with a full basket of laundry, soap and either two kids in tow or at top speed because they're both blessedly sleeping- across the entire complex to finally getting them in an open washer and hoping no one steals my stuff before I'm able to get get back to switch, then finally retrieve it- whew! That's even too much work to write about!) I simply walk to the other end of the house and into the garage down only *two* steps and put it into our beautiful front-loading energy-efficient tall-so-I-don't-break-my-back washer & dryer. When I turn it on, it even has this cheery, "deedledeedledee!" sound, as if to say, "Hello, friend. I'm glad I'm here, too!" Ahh. Love at first laundring. :)

The boys are doing splendid (heehee- I feel like Mary Poppins saying that, although Samantha Brown (of Great Hotels) has a new show called Passport to Europe and I just saw the end where she went to England and now *I* want to go, but the closest I get for now is the say "splendid!" and "Cheerio!"--, which actually comes from 'chair-o", which is an old taxi term from back in the 1800s where two men carried a chair, but I digress)  Tobin will be starting kindergarten this fall and I've been scouring the internet and city to find where the best place to put such a brilliant boy is, and which we can afford. There are so many things I love about paticular styles of teaching, Waldorf (founded my Rudolph Steiner, German Pscyhologist) uses natural materials, (wool, silk, wood, etc) is vegetarian and organic (obvious goodness) and very earth-oriented, which (of course) I love, too. They also stick to specific routines to create rhythms for the children throughout their schoolday to create a predictable and comfortable atmosphere (which al aldready very homelike- the classrooms have trees and kichens!) so the kids can focus on their activities.

Montessori is another one I like and think Tobin would thrive in.(created by Maria Montessori, an Italian Pediatrician) She noticed not all children learn at the same time or level, but in the same steps. She also noted a child's innate curiousity and connection with nature. She combined these theories to create a method which allows children to go about the room at their own pace, choosing items of interest to them. The teacher then uses the item(s) to teach the child about concepts at his or her current learning level. (ie: This firetruck has four wheels. How many would be left if we take one away?) I really like this for Tobin since he would have so much freedom to choose and learn at his own pace, while still being in a class of peers.

Another option, among the other private schools we're investigating, is homeschooling. I like the idea of  being able to teach Tobin myself, since I am already so paticular about his surroundings, since he is so paticular of a boy. We'd both have to involve ourselves in outside group activities to not go insane, but I think both boys would thrive from such focused attention, and we'd be able to use ordinary trips to integrate edcational activities.(not to mention the cost is considerably less than most private schools)  I know my cousin Kimberly has been homeschooling her three kids (ages 5-9, I think) awhile now, but she's in arizona, dammit! That would have been really awesome if we lived closer.

Speaking of living closer, our new house is under five minutes walking distance to both my parents and my grandparents. (my mom's parents) THAT is awesome. There is $1 scoop night at Baskin & Robbins in our local shopping center in tuesdays (that's today- hooray!) so we make it a date every week to make our fourgeneration trek for sweet goodness. My favorite flavor has been Nutty Coconut the past two weeks, but the Tea of Tranquility is excellent as well. Mmm... ice cream.... only a few more hours! :)

Aiden is SO happy to have his daddy home, and vice versa. His daddy is happy to HAVE a home, much more filled with the click and clacker of  Tech Decks (little skateboards) on the floor. Tobin runs up to him when he walks in the door from work with a big "Wandoh!!" Still no "R"s yet. They'll come. :) Aiden is talking SO much now... he is quite a little.... two year old. Yes. He wakes up virtually every morning and tiptoes past our door to see how many (soy) yogurts (or chocolate, which he preffers if he can find it) he can down before we realize he's up.If all else fails, he goes for a stick of butter. Thaaaat' fun to clean off, especially if he goes straight into a full-body hug to Minnie afterwards. No wonder her coat is so shiny! I can't find a fridge lock to save my soul. Little sneaky monkey!

Speaking of Minnie (aka: Minerva when she's in trouble).. she alsofinds herself hard at work before I wake in the morning. She has taken quite a liking to all this space and freedom, and uses it to retreive EVERY FLIPPING MOUSE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD and drop them onto our lawn. *shudder* There were two babies this morning, five yesterday (her current record) two the day before, etc, etc. It's HORRIBLE! Yesterday was the worst, for sure. Aside from my general empathy for all things living, (or formerly so) as I scooped them up (with a paper towel- eeeeeeeeew) all I could see were them singing, "Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day it's Cinderelly..." in those cute little clothes. Horrible!

But there is something. worse. When I finally mustered up enough gumption to stomach picking them up to throw them into the (very bushy) ivy in our yard (where we must have QUITE a collection going on- eeeeeeeew) one hit a leaf and bounced back out at me. This is the point where Gus Gus morphed into Flying Zombie Death Mouse- I am NOT kidding and it was NOT funny. My immediate reaction was exactly like the stereo-typical female prototype I'm always trying to avoid... I threw my hands up, wrinkled up my face and hopped backwards up and down squealing until it occured to me there might be MORE dead mice on the grass which would be the ultimate in mentally domestically damaging events if I stepped on one. OH man. Not ever, ever again. (bonus points if you can find THAT entry!)

It's so nice to be able to sit and write... Randal is teaching Tobin the fine art of playing "Go Fish", with Aiden serving as the fisherman, should they need to draw, or "fish", if you will. It'll be time for our my family walk soon... we're going a bit early today, since my parents just got back from SoCal for their 28th (?) anniversary and they brought us some piratey surprizes from Disneyland. Super! (speaking of Disney, we're thinking of making a family trip to Disneyworld around the holidays- you're free to save up and come, too! :) And yes, we've seen the new Pirates movie which was SO RAD, even at the front-row neck-kinking closeness. Randal and I went with Sister (aka: Amy) and her boyfriend Ryan and also Porky, (aka: ... wait, she has a real name?) which was a nice suprize. It was nice to hang out with the three of us sisters, which never seems to happen anymore.(mostly since Pork moved her entire life and mind to Mike in Oregon, but she's an adult and I'll be happy as long as she is, but then it doesn't seem like she is, but again, I digress. We miss her.)

We had a dinner party the night she was here, since my Auntie Sioux (or Ah-Ah Shoo, if I regress about 24 years or so) was visiting with her husband Erik from Missouri. We have three small cafe tables out on our patio, so we enjoyed each other's company and Randal's culinary genious al fresco, which was so wonderful and relaxing. There was so much food and goodness, we were all full to the brim, inside and out. You can see by all of the pics above! The others are from our visit to Grammy & Boppa's on Father's Day, when Aiden was baptized (by Boppa, of course) and we took some great pictures of flying kites at the beach, which was all Randal wanted for his first Father's Day home, which was incredibly relaxing and wonderful for us all.

Not everything has been sunshine and roses, though. On the opposite end of relaxing, there's yesterday's story of Amy falling down my parents' driveway and giving herself a cuncussion and me a panick attack.... ( a combination of hot sun, a glass of wine, platform heels and a steep driveway, then the side of my car and the hubcap, which is what she actually split her head on) I don't know what happened, and neither does she since she has a cuncussion, except that I was in my car & she was walking to it, and then I heard a thump on the side of my car and she wasn't anymore. I was about to laugh even, and said, "Yeah, sister? You're just gonna fall over, huh?" but then after 5 seconds and no sighting of a sister, I got out.

She was pale, not moving, laying on her back. I figured she was just waiting for a hand up and I was waiting for the "daaaamn" or "ouuuuuch" or whatever she was going to say, but she was just laying there. I crouched down saying, "Sister.... Sister!" and began patting her face, trying to get her to wake up, a thousand things running through my head...  she has to wake up. She has to wake up. Do I call 911? My parents? Randal? This isn't working.... what if she really hurt herself? among many, many others. She never stopped breathing, or I would have really been panicked. I know CPR, but not what to do with a two kids strapped in the car with no one home and an unconscious sister bleeding from the head in the driveway. Finally, after almost a minute of being unconscious, half of it filled with rigorous patting to the face (which is all I could think to do) she screamed, "NOOOOOO!" (which she doesn't remember) and then said, "Hello. The sun is in my eyes." To which I fetched her sunglasses, which were covered in blood. Yuck. We applied cold pressure to her head, which freed her up to realize she'd really hurt her shoulder. She has it in a sling now and has a nice gash on her hairline, but is otherwise doing well. My nerves are healing, also. Sheesh.

Well, I believe that is enough to fill the gap in my writing for now... it's no nice to have someone else here to help! I hope you all are doing well, and I promise to get pictures up as soon as I can. Our canary (Zaphod) is singing, our Finch (Beeblebrox) is meeping and it smells like dinner is ready. Ahhhh, domestic bliss. (and all that follows :)

quote for the day: "Nor need we power or splendor, wide hall or lordly dome;
The good, the true, the tender -- these form the wealth of home." Sarah Hale