32 all over again

Happy Birthday Nana!

You are the only woman I know who can take a Friday the 13th birthday and make it magnificent!

Love you!

Talking talking talking

There are so many things about running in the dark of the morning that I love.  One of them happens to be the company I keep and the discussions that occur.  It’s almost a data dump of the mind and then we confer and then we move onto the next subject and then we are done and ready for the day.

Today we talked about the following:

An amazing play Erika saw by a Polish playwright
Big M’s trip to Turkey
Crohn’s Disease
Odawalla Dan and how his new baby changed his life
Recent car accidents in the news
Upcoming trips over Thanksgiving
Then a lost dog, Stella, found us.  We tried to figure out where her home was for several minutes, then her owner showed up with not even a thank you.
Finished up discussion of upcoming trips
Chess Club
Yoga
My dad

For me it’s like doing the Artist’s Way morning pages but running and using my mouth as my pen.

Little fingers

We just inherited a piano from our neighbor.  It was his as a child, the bench is even filled with all his old music books.  After getting it tuned and finding the right wall to put it next to, now come lessons and learning how to play.

PJ is very excited.  She has been asking for lessons for a year.  Last year for Christmas we even got her a key board to start playing around on.

Since the piano has been in the house, every night before bed, PJ says, “Can I go downstairs quick?  I’m going to say goodnight to The Old Chum.”

And then she walks downstairs and says goodnight to the piano.

The camera of my dreams

So I’ve done it.

I finally, after years of pining, purchased an exquisite camera FOR MYSELF.

What can I say but…I’m giddy!

The art of the hug

Some people have it, some don’t.

This kid has it.

If your ever needing a little love, come on over and get yourself a hug from him.

It always curse what ails ya.

Originally uploaded by sellke

Homework

Any guesses on what PJ is doing on that sheet of paper?

Multiplication tables (1-9)!  It was two pages long when it was all said and done.

Practice makes perfect.

Climbing out

Good golly, I’m sot sure what has happened over the past few weeks or was it just a week or maybe a day?  Ok, I guess I might know what has gone on, but it is a little hazy so bare with me.

The trip to Ohio was great!  The highlight for the kids was the pool at the hotel on either side of the trip and the artificial hips and pace makers they got from my cousin who owns five funeral homes.  There was a good amount of time spent at funeral homes.  Oh yeah and then there was “Clyde’s Funeral” that the kids (and my parents) played out and we got it on CD.  How do you get that on CD do you ask? Well, I come to find out that people steel stuff off of dead bodies during wakes.  So what is a funeral director to do, but put in hidden cameras to catch all the sheenangens.

In all my great smugness of being THE BEST DAUGHTER ON THE FACE OF THE PANET for having brought my parents and three children on a 28 hour car trip to see The Relatives, on the way home I got sick.  And I remained sick, with fever and cough, for SEVEN days.  I just know it was God’s way of taking me down a peg or two, you know that smugness I referred to earlier?  However, PJ got sick too.  Upon reflection, she does need to work off some of her evil ways, so she wasn’t spared either.

During my week of ill, I was crawling out of bed trying to help Omar plan a fairly substantial event called Darkness Day at Surly Brewing Company.  If you did not make it out this year, you should certainly try it out next year.  The food, bands and of course beer were amazing.  So by Saturday, the sick was gone and the party was on!

This week has been filled with catching up on all the other things that happen when three weeks of your life have vanished and you actually forget what your name is and what day it is.

Hi I’m Mary and today is Wednesday Thursday.

Middle of somewhere and nowhere

Last week we got the news that my dad’s cancer has spread to his liver.

It was the first time, in the past 2 1/2 years, that I “lost it” in the room with the doctor and my parents as she shared her fine news.  As I continued on with my award winner performance, the doctor said in her oh so very cold oncologist trying to be warm and trying to help kinda way said, “At least he’ll make it through the Holidays.”

WHAT?  AT LEAST WHAT???  ARE YOU KIDDING ME…WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?  The voice in my head was screaming.  As I calmed that voice, I found my voice saying, “He better fucking make it to Easter!”

Yeah, the F-bomb and crying and new metastasized cancer all in one visit.  That was something.

So with the kids off of school for a week, I decided to throw out the idea of a road trip to my parents at Sunday dinner.

And tonight, after a 10 hour car ride filled with movies, candy and 326 Johnny Cash songs, I find myself sitting in a pitch black hotel room in the middle of Indiana, listening to my three kids snoring away and my parents sleeping across the hall.  We are on our way to Cincinnati to visit my dad’s sisters, my cousins and my dad’s old friends.

Oh the stories we will bring home.

Good Luck

To all of you who are running the TC Marathon, my you have a great race, may the sun shine on you, may the weather be cool, my your legs stay fresh, may your mind stay focused and may you not soil yourself!

Best of luck:

• T-odd who is going for a 3:20
• Courtney, JJ and Julie, who are going to run a 3:30
• Whitney and her whole posse who will, as a group, be running  both a first marathon and a 14th (or something like that)
• And to Ann who is running her first 10 mile!

I will be on the right hand side of Summit, around mile 24, right after Lexington cheering you on home.

Have a GREAT race.

Life Lessons

Really it was only a matter of time until a teacher or counselor or bus driver talked to me about something KP did at school.  Oh don’t get me wrong, he’s a wonderful child, but he does have a lot of exuberance AND doesn’t always think before he does.

So when he was dropped off from school on Tuesday the bus driver yelled out, “MISS MARY, MISS MARY”, all the while curling his big thick finger up and down showing me I was wanted on the bus for a little talkie.

He proceeded to say, “KP has something to tell you and then you can call me tonight.”

SWEET!  Being a parent is awesome!  What the hell?  What on earth did you do?

Once we got inside he told me the whole story, he didn’t even try to hide it.   Then around 9:00 pm I got to call the bus driver at home (that’s weird…am I right on that one?) and get his side of the story.

Then KP got to write him a little note of apology.

It says:

Dear Mr. Chuck,

I am sorry for poking holes in your bus seat with my pencil.

KP

Then he had to hand it to him the next morning, THAT was the hardest part of the whole deal.