Father, Can You Get Your Little Butt in Your Swimming Suit?

What is up with Goose calling me and Husband "Mother" and "Father" lately? She is so funny to talk with right now.
On another note, I felt invincible as I was running down a hill this morning, almost like I could keep running forever. Then as I started running up the opposite hill, I thought that it was a good thing I was close to home. True to form, I am the slowest runner in the world.
Last week T-Bone discovered that the two asparagus crowns we'd planted next to his garden spot had finally sent up something green. It was a wonderful surprise. In the spring, I had bought six asparagus crowns and then planted them and so far the ones that T-Bone spotted are the only ones that have produced.
Cheeseball found a Harry Potter Uno game in mint condition at DI. He has been fun to play with.
Beulah has finally discovered the joy of gardening.
Janey is still the reigning Cheese Queen amongst her friends.
Oh, last week we celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd and 5th. The family, burgers and fireworks on the 3rd were wonderful and the parade on the 5th was fun. The most incredible thing to me about the weekend was how comfortable the temperatures were. I can't remember the last time I felt a cool breeze on the 4th, but the whole weekend was absolutely beautiful. It has been the prettiest summer since we've been in Utah, with all the spring rain we've had. The mountains still look green.

Dead, Dead, Dead

Well we came home from a very relaxing and enjoyable trip in Phoenix to meat juices seeping out from the refrigerator and spilling onto the floor. Right before our trip, we noticed that our fridge wasn't working. We called the repairman and he checked all the connections and got it working again. But he wasn't convinced that there wasn't some other problem. We put all the frozen food that we could into the garage refrigerator, but it couldn't all fit in. So we left a few things in our kitchen fridge, crossed our fingers, and left for several days.

The rest, as they say, is history.

We have decided that we will pay to repair it again, rather than buy a new one our move in our garage fridge (it has broken shelves in the freezer, so things tend to slide and fall out.)

Also, Beulah's guinea pig Sarah died the day after we returned. Who knows why? Beulah keeps checking the online classifieds to get another one but I am hoping she'll drop the idea.

My kitchen basil, which was pathetic at it's best moment, seems mostly dead. One sad little stalk has four tiny leaves that aren't all shriveled up.

But on a happy note, our flowers are all still alive and blooming (and this after they survived a snow storm!) Our garden areas are overgrown with weeds--I don't think it's ever been worse and I've sprayed Round-Up 3 times this spring, at least--but our tomatoes and peppers are still alive and some other plants are popping up. Let's just hope we can distinguish between the seedlings and the weeds.

The weather in Phoenix was hot, but not too bad. All we did was swim and fish and make one 40 minute trip to the 99 cent store. On the way down, we stopped at Goblin Valley for a couple of hours and saw some amazing sandstone structures.

Yesterday the kids had their piano recital. It was nice; it would have been even better if everyone had practiced their songs in the days before the recital but our being away from the piano made that impossible. I am grateful for the efforts that they all make in practicing. It's nice to have music around.

Now I have to make good on my promise to get a summer membership at the rec center so we can go swimming.

Some Things a Mother Doesn't Know

Goose is very interested in death lately. Her curiosity runs the gamut from what happens to our skeletons as they decompose to what happens to our bones when they're resurrected. Today she asked me if there were toothbrushes in Heaven. Umm. I have no idea. We'll have perfect teeth, right, and we'll be able to eat, right? Will there not be bacteria to form plaque and bad breath or will our mouths be be impervious to said bacteria? These are things that I don't know. I also don't know if there will be potties in Heaven, another question Goose had for me last week.

Beulah questioned me about evolution today, telling me that her teacher told her there was more evidence for evolution than there was about the Holocaust. First of all, I told her that the term "evolution" was inadequate. Obviously, we see evidence of biological genetic change all over the place. But as for Evolution meaning humans descending from apes, I challenge any scientist to produce a homo erectus that can tell us about his daily life in a cave with his clan versus finding a survivor from a concentration camp who can tell about living under the Nazis.

Spring Break with a Sick Goose

A week after I returned from Hawaii, Goose got sick. She had a fairly high fever for three or four days and all I got get her to eat was popsicles. It was the first time she was sick for more than 24 hours. And she got way too much attention and lost a little bit of weight.

Two weeks after that (the night before Easter), Goose got sick again. This time she was vomiting. And instead of getting better after 24 hours, which always seems to happen, she developed a high fever and kept throwing up. I brought her to the doctor Monday morning hoping he would tell me she had some bacterial infection that we could treat but instead he told me that she needed to be in the hospital. I'm such a baby that I called my mom and cried and kept bawling all the way to the hospital (in clothes that Goose had thrown up on). We were checked in and they put an IV in (which she hated). Husband joined us shortly. He kept asking the nurses and he called the doctor with his concerns about the cost of everything (we do have a very high deductible health insurance plan). No one could tell him what anything cost until he met with the financial office to pay the bill the next day. It was interesting how un-consumer driven health care really is.

Goose was in the hospital for about 27 hours. She got hydrated and her fever went down and she was so miserable with her IV that we were all begging to leave. Her recovery at home was very slow but she's doing well now. Our fun for spring break was filled with bowing to Goose's wishes in all things, going to Hee Haw and celebrating Goose's 4th birthday.

Aloha!

My trip to Hawaii was wonderful, all the more so because so many people helped me and my family out during our 10 day separation.

A list of some of my experiences:

Standing on the street in Honolulu (Waikiki) in my pajamas at 4:30 am because someone pulled the fire alarm. "Alert! There is a fire in the building! Please exit now!"

Being blasted by wind at the Pali Outlook, Waimea Canyon, on the ship, and just about everywhere else.

Watching a Samoan make fire from a stick and a coconut

Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay and seeing yellow, blue, pink, and green tropical fish

Eating warm banana bread and fresh coconut and pineapple on the road to Hana.

Loving the black rock beach the the stone church in Maui

Eating yummy pineapple whip at the Dole plantation

Hiking the half mile of fern rainforest on the way to the lava tube

Walking through the lava tube

Watching chickens fly across the road

Looking at steaming craters

Being just about last on board in Hilo and Kauai

Eating yummy hashbrowns from the buffet for breakfast

Singing happy birthday to Donna with the family at our table

Spying the sea turtle in Hilo

Seeing the whale off of Maui! I caught an itty-bitty picture of its tail.

Almost swimming near a sewage treatment plant out of desperation.

Taking a taxi with Tenesa to be brought to a more acceptable beach.

Being repeatedly knocked over by powerful aqua waves that were so heavy with coarse sand that I got exfoliated from head to toe.

Finding a tooth of unknown origin in my swimming suit

Meeting Mr. Photographer

Loving the beautiful umbrella trees all over Oahu and Kauai

Walking with the sea urchins on the pahoehoe shore near Kona

Listening to Darcy and Reed's tales of Lyman

Sailing past the magnificent NaPoli coast

Seeing the whale through the window right when someone talked about seeing a whale the previous day!

Looking at the names at the Arizona memorial

Watching the gray-haired ladies dancing the hulu beautifully

Seeing: Spouting Horn, Kauai lighthouse, blowhole in Oahu, crazy parasailing windsurfers, amazing banyan trees and rainbows and sea creatures.

Getting reaquainted with my brilliant, beautiful, fun and talented cousins and aunts and uncles and hanging out with my generous and fabulous parents.

But the best part of all was getting off the plane, walking to the baggage claim, and seeing Husband and the twinkies waiting for me, the three youngest holding a big banner that said, "Welcome Home Mom." My family is more beautiful than anything in the world to me and I'm so grateful to be with them again and feel their love.

My Lovesong to Eliot

Having just read my sister-in-law's blog about her favorite poem, I find that I have to copy her. Initially, I tend to be a fairly lazy reader--it takes a really compelling story or very interesting characters to get me to read "lyrical" prose. And poetry? I don't think I've read much since I graduated from college 15 years ago. But there is one poem that I do remember. And return to again and again. It is very famous; I studied it in high school, and in both my American and English Literature classes (those darn expatriots).
"The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock"
It has lines like:

And I have known the eyes already, known them all--
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned, and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-end of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

and

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After all the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say, "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say, "That is not what I meant at all,
That is not it, at all."

I don't mean to be melodramatic, but I have occasionally sensed this emptiness and uselessness and impotence in my life. (I think it's called being human.) In general, I am happy and feel great, but there are times when I feel so misunderstood and incapable of articulation and simply invisible. This poem just seems to capture all those sentiments and the absurdities that accompany them.

Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and Nuclear War

I had to make some Emeril's Essence today to put on our ribeye steaks for Valentine's Day. All was going well, till I had to put in 1 tablespoon of black pepper. I have a magic pepper mill, you see. It's doesn't take too terribly long to grind a quarter teaspoon. But when you try to work up to a whole teaspoon, it seems like no matter how hard or long you turn it, you never reach the teaspoon. It's as if it knows that an important milestone is coming up and it doesn't want to reach it. So I had husband twist the mill for a while. And we went in spurts, dumping it out every quarter teaspoon or so and measuring the pepper. And I'm not kidding you, by ten minutes later we had increased the size of the pepper granules but we still hadn't reached the tablespoon mark. However, I decided that in the matter of measuring pepper, almost is good enough.

Last Friday was the sixth-grade dance. I have a bruise on my arm from pinching myself so I wouldn't CRY when the music started and Janey ran off to do the line dance with all the other kids. It was the same song that Beulah had danced with her class to three years ago. And I tend to get emotional when I watch performances anyway, but I was just overwhelmed with feeling like my little girl is growing up. She was one of the few girls who wasn't wearing makeup but she had a good time.