MAYHEM IN THE MIDWEST

Life as we know it........as told by Heather

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Mother's Day

So Mother's Day was going smoothly...the kids had been behaving, Jason got up early and fed them lunch and they were quietly coloring at the kitchen table. Enjoying my lazy rainy day I was still in my pajamas and halfway asleep on the couch when "it" happened. If you live here, and you know me fairly well, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, the tornado sirens went off. My mom has always said I have selective hearing, but I think a tornado siren could bring me out of a coma.

At first I thought it was routine. Our old house was in Franklin County and they test sirens at noon on Wednesday, but our new house is in Delaware County and they test on Saturday. So I thought that's about right, it's lunch-ish time and it's Saturday. But then I remembered that no, it's Sunday, and it's after 1 p.m. Surely, I thought, there couldn't be a tornado when it's not even 60 degrees out, the dew point is low and there's been no heating of the sun in the atmosphere since it's been raining all day. I'm a connoisseur of weather, always have been, and I've hung out with Jym Ganahl www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/authors.Bio.-content-midwest-cmh-authors-jim_ganahl.html enough times to know that even though tornadoes can be sneaky, the conditions just weren't right.

But true indeed it was, as I turned on the TV and saw the giant weather-map, the one they force you to watch the whole entire time the storm travels until it reaches the next closest state. Because we all know that whoever broadcasts the weather the longest, and shows you the most videos of the impending death (be it tornado, flooding, snow, what have you) is the best news station in town. So anyway, I had a slight panic as Xander starts asking "what's that noise" and Jason's in the driveway looking for funnel clouds, when I realized that the storm isn't even coming towards us. In fact, if anything it was starting to get a little sunny, so I couldn't even take any good scary sky pictures. It was going towards Jason's parents house though, so luckily we had been there the day before because they don't have a basement and things would not have been pretty had I been there for that. And speaking of which, we had a lovely cookout there and then we took the kids out to the neighborhood pond to race remote-controlled boats. There were some baby ducks at the pond as well, so the kids had two things to get excited about.





Once the storm hoopla was over things got back to normal and the kids were none the wiser. They both took nice long resters and I spent all day on the couch. Made myself some tomato soup for lunch and ate it in the family room. Then I finished reading my all-time favorite book that, for once, was actually not checked out at the library -- "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." If you're familiar with the book, which I know some of you are, don't laugh at me, I'm quite aware that it's children's literature. But I've loved it since the third grade when my teacher, Lynn Thompson, read it to us. I love the idea of it, the mystery of it, and the fact that sometimes what you find on the journey is more important than what you were looking for. To my credit, it WAS a Newbery Medal winner, and I'm not the only adult who enjoys it. The comment section at Amazon is full of other grown-ups who still love this book. www.amazon.com/Mixed-Up-Files-Mrs-Basil-Frankweiler/dp/0440431808 So to those of you teachers who sometimes feel like you don't make a difference, you never know what your students will remember 24 years after they leave the 3rd grade.

After my book I labeled some photos in an album from last year's vacation. I've come to terms with the fact that I will never ever get around to scrapbooking them, and that's okay. So I wrote on all the little tabs next to them in the album while I watched the "Jon & Kate Plus 8" marathon. tlc.discovery.com/tv/jon-and-kate/jon-and-kate.html If you've never seen this show it's about a family who had fertility treatments when they couldn't have a baby. They had a set of twins and then wanted another baby and ended up with six. So this show follows them around and on bad days with the kids I just have to watch one episode of this show and it makes me realize maybe things could be worse. Though there have been days when all of their 8kids collectively are behaving better than the two of mine. Oh yeah, and I ate a Cow Tail without having to hide from the kids in the laundry room.

Jason and the kids got me very nice cards and our combined Mother's Day/Father's Day gift will be painting the office and putting up shelving. Jason was going to make steaks and baked potatoes for dinner but the rain kind of put a damper on that, so we fed the kids and then after they went to bed he went and got us a late dinner, my choice. I went round and round of course because I can't ever make decisions. I kind of wanted Bob Evans breakfast food but thought it's really too much money to pay for breakfast things I can make myself. I always want Chipotle and Jason would have gone to get it because he loves it, too, but I couldn't justify sending him on a 40 minute round-trip when gas is $4/gallon. Oh wait, sorry, it's only $3.95. Finally I decided on Donatos. I got a Big Don sub and a small cheese pizza, ate half of each and then had yummy leftovers.

Tonight my mom and step-dad took us to dinner at Max & Erma's which was tasty as usual (best tortilla soup EVER) and the kids were fairly well-behaved. I got them to pose for pictures there on various chairs in the lobby and before that we had a nice time at the playground outside of Jason's work while he was there attending a meeting. Xander put on a great show of singing and dancing on the outdoor stage, but sadly my new phone apparently doesn't E-mail high resolution videos.



Xander, being the ham that he is.



I was in a bad place to take a picture with the streaming sun, but the kids were side by side and strapped into a cart at Home Depot, so it was a rare opportunity to get them together without Jordis trying to run away.




Jordis didn't want to share the chair at Max & Erma's, so Xander sat on a stool and scouted the parking lot.



Thanks to everyone that contributed to my Happy Mother's Day. I think I got more E-mails, cards, phone calls, texts and MySpace posts than I get on my birthday, and I appreciate every last one of them.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Unbridled Laughter

So not much is going on around here this week. The fridge is fixed and we have groceries, so that's nice. I have a cold which shouldn't be a shock to anyone who talks to me on a regular basis. April is the only month so far this year where I haven't been sick, so it was to be expected. The hiatus couldn't last forever.

The past few days have been pretty nice so we've been taking a nightly walk. The path that runs along our subdivision has a little hill and Xander's new thing is to quit pedaling and coast down the hill, laughing all the way. It's the cutest thing, especially when he turns to see if we're watching and almost always crashes. We decided that little laugh won't last forever, so today Jason went ahead a bit so he could tape him on his jaunt down the path.




That wasn't Xan's only fun today. Our neighbors went away for a few days so we're checking on their new puppy for them. Xander went with me both times I checked on him today but little Tango just wouldn't be still long enough for me to get a good picture of the two of them together. He's such a cute little guy, a coton de tulear, and I don't think he even weighs 10 pounds. Xander likes to get the dog to chase him but then he gets mad when he actually does it.



Jordis isn't as easily amused. She had her one-year follow-up today to check on the tubes in her ears. The one in her left ear has fallen out but the doctor said he's not concerned about it unless she gets fluid in there. So hopefully she'll be good where that's concerned.

This is about as much fun as she could muster for tonight's photo taking. She's not quite the poser that Xander is. Last night there were eight tiny ducks in the pond and I think she assumed we got her out of the stroller to look at ducks again, so I'm sure she was a little ticked that we threw her down by the tree and tried to get her to smile. She's not one to oblige to our requests for congeniality anyway, so as long as she sat still I was okay. Can't be too choosey when it comes to her.