Maybe I AM a Writer!

Those of you who write for a living or who haven't just recently discovered your creativity in a dusty shoe box under the bed (so, like, all 4 of you?) probably won't be impressed by this, but I found it thrilling and so I'm going to share.

Yesterday the family and I piled into the car and went to the mall in search of Pants for Pete. On the way home, a story started writing itself in my head. It seemed to have potential so I took a moment to get the first few sentences down when we got home. Then, since Lulu had fallen asleep in the car and Pete had gotten right into her jammies and watched TV with Husbandguy and I wasn't needed for anything, I kept writing. All the way to the end! Guys! I haven't done that in years, just sat down and written a story from beginning to end.

Of course, the story is terrible. Everything I write is terrible and rough at first, but it was (like I said) thrilling to come away from the computer with more than just another idea. And it's good in its terribleness with all the potential and everything.

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So you know, I may or may not have time to increase my NaNoWriMo word count today. Everyone is home from school/work, and our drains stopped draining this morning (a thing which may or may not be the result of an absentminded mistake on my part) so NaNo might not get Wri-en today. It's okay. I have the whole rest of the Mo.

I Wrote this Yesterday

Old Mother Befrigerator (<-- that's me)
Went to the refrigerator
To pack her sweet girls some lunch.
But there was no more
So she went to the store
And and bought yummy things to munch.

It's okay for you to groan out loud. You won't hurt my feelings. I will confess to muttering, "Ouch," after I wrote it. I will not confess to using a rhyming dictionary to come up with the 4th line. That is a nasty and unfounded rumor!

What I learned yesterday for NaNoWriMo:

• Everyday things are going to take time away from my writing, but I can still sit for an hour and get something done.

Day 3 Word Count: 7,044!

That puts me a little behind, but as soon as I throw the whites in the machine, I'll be getting caught up. I am hoping to top 10,000 today...

Two Things

First: I wish the dog wouldn't let the cat eat her (the dog's) food.

Then: At the mall the other day. there was a small stout woman with a bun of black hair on the back of her head near the top. Lulu, from atop her dad's shoulders, said this: "Yep. There's an Oopma Loompa." Then she said, "You don't see that every day."

I am usually sensitive to people's feelings and try to gently correct my children when they say something that could hurt someone's feelings, but OH MY GOSH! I had to laugh. A. The woman didn't hear her, and B. Lulu's observations, both of them, were very, very astute. And hysterical!

What socially insensitive thing have you done recently?

Whatever (some randomosity fer ye)

One: Pete's teachers have been trying to get Pete into the Talent Development program at her school. You know, that little bit of extra attention for gifted students to help them not get bored (my elementary school called it the Gifted and Talented program). We found out this morning that they don't think that she's quite gifted enough. On the one hand, I think they're full of it. Because a. I'm her mom, and b. she's really bright, and c. I'm her mom. But on the other hand, I get it. She is gifted, but I am absolutely positive it wasn't completely evident to them due to the fact that a. she doesn't have a whole lot of experience with test-taking (she's a Montessori kid, after all), and b. she doesn't have particularly well-honed attention-to-details skills (she's working hard on that). But we know she needs challenges and her actual classroom teacher knows she needs challenges so even if the elitist TD people don't want her, we'll still help her develop her talents.

2: Last Sunday we started writing the Follies, which are scheduled for October 16 (mark your calendars Meme, TG, and Moomie - and anyone else...). You may recall that last year I joined the little troupe late and still managed to ROCK the show. Remember? (Click here...) Well, this year I am being all involvedy from the very beginning so it will SUPER ROCK. But not just because of me. We've got a fantastic little group of writers and a bunch of talented performers and I am all full of ideas and can't wait for our next meeting... All I'm saying is that there will be a pink flamingo neon light on stage... And that if we see Zuzu, she will probably be 8 years old...

III: "What's up with Abby?" you ask. (Go ahead and say it out loud. I'll wait...) Well, I answer, something is up. Something not good. I think, perhaps, whatever energy oversees the owner/pet relationships in our house is testing (or punishing) us due to our whole Howie screw-up (we get it - we messed up). Our poor Abby should have been spayed in December, but I opted to wait until January due to the fact that Santa went overboard, as she usually does, and Mrs. Claus was already rolling his eyes about the credit card bills. I made the appointment and everything for right after Pete's birthday, but the vet wouldn't do it because poor puppy had (what we thought was just) a urinary tract infection. So, a monthplus and half-a-dozen vet visits and a heatcycle and several$100 later, the bacteria is gone, apparently (the culture didn't grow anything), but the puppy is still full of crystals and is having accidents on the couch and in the kitchen and on the carpet (she's not allowed on the bed anymore). But there's no stone. No obvious explanation. So today they're checking her liver function. I tell you what, I am really worried about that little creature because a. her mom and both of her litter mates are dead, and b. she's ½ Maltese, a breed that is prone to liver shunts. And Mrs. Claus is rolling his eyes again about how expensive my stuff seems to be, but he gets that there's nothing I can do about it other than keep taking her to the vet to find out what's wrong. I think I'm glad we didn't have her spayed in December, now, because if something is wrong with her liver, we wouldn't have known and it could have been really dangerous to put her under. She's scheduled for spaying this Friday, though, and her doctor is still planning on doing it so maybe they can fix this other problem at the same time and everything will be the way it's supposed to be from now on... Maybe...

FORE! We're planning on putting our house back on the market next week. We're waiting to hear back from the agent, but that's our plan. So fingers crossed for us, okay?

Frustrating Things

AAARRGGH! Pete has something wrong with her feet or something. She'll try on a pair of shoes in the store and we'll buy them and then when we get home and she puts them on to wear them to school or someplace, suddenly they're so unbelievably uncomfortable that she melts down and then puts her old shoes on instead. That's why a person really shouldn't buy shoes for Pete unless Pete is with you, but even then it won't matter.

Saturday I am on the hunt for a short and slutty jean skirt to wear to church next weekend (my church rocks! more about this later, probably), and I recalled seeing jean skirts at that store with the talking mannequins. The skirts were too conservative and cost too much to buy one and alter it, but Pete found these really awesome canvas sneakers with peace signs on them on sale. Even though she actually needs some sneakers, I resisted buying them because I believed they would be an excuse for a school-morning, pre-bus meltdown. She tried them on, though, and promised that she would wear them and not freak out, and I bought them. Dummy.

Monday Pete put on her butterfly dress and tie-dye leggings and some socks while I cut the tags off her shoes. Her new, super-cool shoes. That she had promised she would wear if, "Please Mommy? Can [she] have them?" Really it was just downhill from there. I don't want to tell the rest of the story...

Quick Summary Pete got on the bus with tear-stained cheeks and her old beat up boots on. Husbandguy left for work with a bag with the shoes and a receipt in it. I considered telling Pete that "Daddy took the shoes back on his lunchhour," which will be true, but being Bel, I will probably actually say, "I asked Daddy to..." Then I will be in trouble for 30 minutes. But we won't have to fight about those shoes again.

I really don't know what to do about this. She can't wear her boots everywhere!

Yummy New Things

You'd Be Wrong You would think that, having been a vegetarian for nearly a year by now, I would have cooked tofu before now, but nope, that wouldn't be true. While we were at TG and Meme's this weekend, though, Meme said, "For lunch today let's cook this Tofu with Spinach and Mushrooms in Ginger Peanut Sauce from my really awesome cookbook that also has a yummy recipe for roasted sesame green beans," (that is exactly what she said - pretty much) and I said, "Okay!" and we did. Neither of us has ever cooked with tofu before so we followed the recipe (don't tell HG - oh wait, no, we changed it a little by using crunchy peanut butter and adding water chestnuts - we should have also added red pepper, but anyway...)... where was I? Oh right! We followed the cooking-the-tofu part of the recipe.

And? The Point? My lunch today was really good. And it turns out, cooking with tofu is really easy. And I think I'll be doing that more now. Because the rest of my family eats stuff that used to walk around, and that just doesn't appeal to me.

What's Up?!

Husbandguy should really learn to ask from time to random time what I'm up to. Here's what it is. Some of it he might want to know.

First, today I entered this.
Also, I am in love with this.
I am thinking about baking this.
I bought this.

There is probably more, but I can't think of it right now. If the links don't work, let me know. And don't worry, being in love with something isn't the same as acquiring that sweet, tiny, fuzzy, adorable thing.

Some Thoughts About Food (just to warn you)

The other day I saw an ad for a pizza that was absolutely blanketed in pepperoni, and I had mixed feelings. The pizza looked... good? I guess, but I didn't want it exactly. I didn't want to eat pepperoni, but I did want the satisfied feeling I used to get from eating pepperoni. I realized then that I had been feeling a little lost. It seemed like all I was eating was beans and rice and veggie burgers, and frankly, that's boring. You know? That's not all I eat, but it felt that way.

And then I checked my email and I had a fantastically well-timed note from my friend A-ME, who is way better at Being Vegetarian than I am because she's been doing it longer. The note was all full of advice and resources and exactly what I was needing. You know the biggest thing I got from her email, though? I should buy a vegetarian cookbook. Duh! How am I supposed to know what to eat? I have never been a big vegetable eater. I like grains and legumes, and every day I find that more and more vegetables aren't as gross as I thought they were (like mushrooms), but I have very little experience with most of them and so felt lost. Not lost enough to want a ham sandwich (even an accidental one), though.

Husbandguy and I had some nice time to ourselves this past weekend. Moomie took the girls for Friday night and all day Saturday so we went to the bookstore. Usually this is kind of a production unless we end up just spending all of our time in the children's section so it was nice to be able to browse the cookbooks without having to say every 10 seconds, "Just a minute, sweetie. Mommy is looking for something. We'll go look at your books in a minute." And I found a useful volume with a ton of information about the different whole foods vegetarians eat and a lot of yummy-sounding recipes that are cross-referenced in the info section. So if I happen to have an eggplant on hand and am wondering what I can do with an eggplant and why I should eat it in the first place, I can look in The Vegetarian Cook's Bible and learn all about eggplant and quickly flip to recipes in which I can use it. Who knows if this is the best vegetarian cookbook or not. At least I've got some help now. And I feel a little more confident. Thanks, A-ME, by the way.

I still don't want to eat pepperoni. I'm not grossed out by it or anything, but it doesn't look like food to me anymore. My family loves it, and HG would live on it if he could, but I'd as soon pluck the leaves off the holly bush by the driveway and eat them. So there's progress!

Bread Bowls and Truancy

I have been looking for an excuse to keep Pete out of school on a day when Lulu has school so Pete and I could spend some time, just us. I didn't want to just give her a day off because that would send the wrong message. Plus she's been having some trouble focusing at school and didn't really deserve a day off. But an opportunity presented itself the other day when I was picking her up for her piano lesson and one of her teachers mentioned that she had been complaining that her ears seemed clogged ("It sounds like I'm talking out of a speaker," Pete said). Ah-ha! This cold that's been hanging on to her for the last 2 or 3 weeks has finally done some real damage. Ear infection! Woo-hoo!! Oh wait... That's not actually a good thing. Is it?

So since she's not sick-ish except for the speaker thing and a cough and runny nose, I thought about sending her to school and just picking her up early for her doctor appointment. I considered it for just a moment because that's what a responsible mom would do. And sometimes I'm a responsible mom. But here's the thing. Ever since Pete turned 3 and started going to Montessori schools (school-for-real, in other words), I feel like I've been missing out on those days when we would just hang out together and read or paint or go shopping or whatever. We still do that stuff, but now Lulu is with us all the time when Pete's not in school, and you're really not supposed to just take your kid out of school to hang out with you because you miss them. But if she's sick or has a doctor appointment or something? Then it's okay, right? So, again, yay for ear infections... but only minor ones that don't hurt and stuff. I get to spend the day with just Pete and no one else. The morning, anyway.

We shuffled Lulu off to school first, and then we spent the morning visiting the doctor and doing some shopping, then went out for lunch. The lunch thing was very important, to me at least, because Lulu and I have lunch out every other week or so, and Pete always looks disappointed that she missed it and that makes me sad and so this time she didn't miss it and that was fantastic. Plus, she got to pick the place (she wanted broccoli soup in a bread bowl from Panera). Then we picked up Lulu together.

It wasn't an extra special Pete-Day-of-Play or anything. In fact, aside from the visit to the doctor, it was pretty much just a normal Mom-Day (plus lunch out), but she seemed content to be tagging along and we had a very sweet time. It was better than when she was little and I would blow off work to keep her home from daycare just to be together because she's that much bigger now.

The next day, she didn't hesitate at all to go back to school. In fact she seemed kind of refreshed. I think she needed the day off as much as I needed her to have it. Apparently 7 year-olds need Mental Health Days as much as grown-ups do.

Who the Heck Bought All This Pumpkin?!

When I got home from the grocery store this morning, I was putting the black beans in the pantry and noticed a can of pumpkin sitting where the beans should go.

That's not right, I thought. The pumpkin goes over there behind the 2 cans of tart cherries.

This sounds just like your pantry, right? Everyone keeps pumpkin and cherries on hand for pie emergencies, don't they? They're staples. Right? Like milk. Or flour. Or grapes. Right? (Just say, "Right.")

When I reached to put the pumpkin where it goes I found 2 more cans of pumpkin!

Who bought all the pumpkin and what kind of emergency were they planning for? Seriously. I don't remember buying all that. If I had, I would have thought at some point, You need to stop buying pumpkin. You already have 3 cans. And I definitely did not think that (before today).

I worried for an instant that maybe I was turning into one of those crazy old ladies who hoard strange things like newspapers or slippers or cats. But see, I'm in therapy and the biggest thing I've learned there is that it's usually best to say, "So what?" about situations that worry me. So I did. I thought, So what if I'm the crazy pumpkin lady? and then I made cookies.

4½ dozen pumpkin, raisin, chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. 4½ dozen. Now I'm also the crazy pumpkin cookie lady? So what?

For Future Reference

If you want to give someone a Nintendo DS right after Christmas, buy it before Christmas because they are really hard to find in early January.

Also, since I'm not getting my little dog for my birthday, I would like a Nintendo DS and some cool puzzle or hidden object games.

Vaca Do-Over

You may recall that we went to the beach at Christmas time last year (if not, click here) and that it wasn't a ton of fun for me because Lulu was sick the whole week. We tried again last week and it was way better this time. Sometimes do-overs work out great. Like one time when we were newly dating, Husbandguy and I were playing pool and I totally miffed a shot and I batted my eyes at him and asked for a do-over and he, being all in love with me then and whatever, said okay and then I cleared the table - that was a great do-over. And this one was pretty good, too, but not great. I'll just tell you the not-great stuff up front and then we can move on. Okay?

Nana showed up at the beach with a cold. Nana is not a particularly healthy person in the first place so this cold, which would have just been a nuisance for most people, sent her to urgent care our 2nd full day there. They gave her a breathing treatment and a prescription for an antibiotic and Mucinex and sent her back to us with the instructions to come back 2 days later for a follow-up and to go to the emergency room if she got worse in the meantime. Well, she got worse, like didn't-get-out-of-bed-all-day worse, and I thought she should probably at least go back to urgent care early if not to the hospital, but it wasn't my decision. So the day she was supposed to go for the follow-up, Poppop and HG took her as soon as she was awake (and I took the girls to breakfast by myself - more about this later, probably) and the urgent care doctors sent her directly to the emergency room where she was fairly quickly (for an ER) admitted with congestive heart failure and pneumonia. And there she stayed. For the rest of her vacation. We went to visit her a couple of days later, well HG and Pete did while Lulu and I saw the ER doctor ourselves about croup. In the meantime, though, and croup aside, the rest of us had a pretty nice vacation.

We ate at a couple of buffets. HG and his family like buffets. I do not. I DO NOT. Meme very astutely pointed out that my quality over quantity preference probably has something to do with my dislike for them. There's more to it, too, though. Like, they're expensive and I don't eat nearly enough for them to be cost effective because I don't like to be uncomfortably full. Especially not uncomfortably full of fatty, lukewarm, overcooked, salty food. Buffets just don't seem sanitary, either. In fact, one time I watched someone who worked at a buffet (not at the beach - this was a long time ago) wipe lo mien noodles back into the pan from the counter thingy! EW! We haven't eaten there since. Or at any buffet, really, except for last week. Because apparently you have to eat at a buffet or 2 when you're at the beach. Bleh.

But that was it, really, for the not-great stuff. Everything else was cool. The weather was pleasant pretty much the whole time. We stayed in a nice condo on the 21st floor with an ocean view from the balcony. We played on the beach several times. I found some pretty sea shells, and Pete took some great pictures (that's hers up above there). We went swimming in the pool. The breakfasts were all good, for the most part. I drove the girls to breakfast once so HG could help his dad with his mom. Then the 3 of us went to the aquarium, and I realized that a year ago I wouldn't have been able to do all of that as easily as I did this time because I would have been all anxious and neurotic about driving HG's car in a strange town to places I wasn't familiar with. Turns out vacation is nicer if you let yourself enjoy it instead of worrying about everything. Pete had an early birthday dinner at Planet Hollywood on New Year's Eve and then there were fireworks. And there was shopping and coffee and other wonderful things.

I think I might see if I can talk Poppop into renting a house for next year instead of the condo so high up. But if we end up there again, I won't complain. Unless we have to go to more buffets...

Get This!

Lulu's Pull-Up was dry when we got home from the mall today. It was the one I put on her when I got her dressed this morning, and it had been about 5 hours. She held her pee the whole time. I had her sit on the potty when I changed her for her nap and then gave her a great big Hello Kitty sticker because that's pretty cool.

Dunh, Duhn, Duuuhhnn...

Last night I bought myself a t-shirt with an image of Santa and text that said, "I believe." Pete was with me. She eyed the shirt and said, "Mom? Do you believe in Santa?" I said, "Yes, I do," because for the last 6 Christmases he has been real and magical and wonderous to someone I know and that made him very real to me (but I didn't tell her that part). She looked thoughtful so I said, "Don't you?" Her reply was, "Maybe. I don't know."

Misleading

So this store near us called Totally Wine also sells beer. All kinds of beer (except the one I've been looking for), but if we hadn't been following Lulu around killing time before meeting Poppop for lunch, Husbandguy and I never would have gone in there because we don't drink wine. They should call it Almost Totally Wine or Very Nearly Totally Wine or Totally Wine (and Beer) or something. You know?

I Don't Think She Likes Me

Recently I've been feeling rejected. By Pete. She doesn't want to do anything with me anymore. Well, sometimes she does, but other times she'll say she wants to and then changes her mind right at the last minute. Like puppy class. Or going to Target. Or making dinner. It makes me a little sad. Aren't little girls supposed to want to hang out with their moms? You know, right up until their moms get all embarrassing and everything?

(Lulu doesn't want to hang out with me either, but that's just because Husbandguy is here all the time and of course she prefers him.)

Puppy Class

So, last week, we taught Howie to come and sit at our feet when we call his name (we're about 94% on this and still practicing), and this week we learned "touch" and "leave it," both very useful commands for us to master. We can use "touch" to call him away from Lulu, and we can use "leave it" when he's sneaking up on our shoes/dolls/books/laundry/toys/mushrooms-in-the-yard/etc. We need lots of practice on both, but Howie did really well with the little bit of time we had in class to practice.

And next week? Next week we're learning walking-nicely-on-a-leash!! WOO-HOO!!!! Howie and I sooooooo need this training. We've done a little on our own, but since he rarely walks nicely, we haven't had much opportunity for rewarding and so aren't quite getting it yet. Also, it'll be good because Howie really needs to learn walking-nicely-at-PetSmart. He's a people person dog, and a dog dog and so gets to the end of his leash a lot.

Also, I have been hunting for the perfect collar and I think I found it. It's black (so you can't really see it) and nylon (I might get leather eventually) and good for tie-out, which is essential since we don't have a fence. So Pete and I used the engraving machine while Howie got his nails clipped ($9! but worth it) and got him an ID tag (it was cool to watch). When we got home we put it and his rabies tag on his collar and strapped the collar around his neck and then sat and laughed at him flopping around trying to bite the jingling things on his neck for the next 10 minutes. He seems used to them now, though, so no more funny. Also, at the moment, he is wearing his collar and his harness, simply because the harness is hard to get off but important when walking so he doesn't hurt his neck. Hopefully we'll be able to take it off for good soon (see above)...

So far puppy classes seem like a good investment. Thank goodness for 3 calorie dog treats!

LL Says:

At the mall yesterday, Pete and I were walking in front of Husbandguy and Lulu and I heard Lulu say, "Look at that!" Then HG, sounding very embarrassed, said "Sorry!" and chuckled. I looked to see who he was apologizing to - it was a couple of young (pretty) women who were also laughing and giving Lulu that isn't-she-cute look. When I asked what had happened, HG said that Lulu had grabbed one of the women's butt and said, "Look at that!" Silly kid! Too bad HG wasn't looking to meet a pretty woman. That'd be a great opener...

LL Says:

Husbandguy and Lulu were walking through a department store, and Lulu was Ooo-ing and Aah-ing at all the dresses on the mannequin shapes. The exchange went like this:

HG: Lulu, are you going to wear pretty dresses like that someday?
LL: Yeah. When I grow up and don't have a head, I will wear pretty dresses.

LL Says:

LL: Look! Holes! For shoppin'!