altarflame: (deluge)
I don't even know where to begin.

I spent the school day continuing to work on our library (literal thousands of books on the floor, as we make donation boxes, dust long neglected shelving units, tape up kids' books that needed repair, and revamp our organizational system so we can actually find things again), washing dishes, and doing schoolwork with Jake and Elise. I really feel like I worked on the library for less than an hour (we started on it over the weekend), washed dishes for maybe 15 minutes, and did schoolwork with them for maybe 30 minutes. But the entire school day was somehow gone at the end of those three things.

Once I got Ananda and Aaron, everything promptly went fucking crazy. On our way home, I finally got through to our pediatrician and made Isaac an appt for tomorrow morning - I started leaving messages last week but he's been out of the office (anxiety, probably meds, Isaac's really been having a hard time). My sister called, saying some cryptic crap about me NOT LEAVING MY HOUSE and then hanging up, almost immediately after which my brother randomly showed up from out of town, with his girlfriend and a giant python, like "Surprise!" I barely got to say hi to them, because when Ananda changed out of her school uniform she was freezing up and panicking that she thinks a derby wound from her last practice is infected, and Aaron was shaking and almost in tears because while he was at school, a little hurt spot we'd seen on (his cat) Peter's forehead had turned into a giant swollen freaky spot emerging up out of his fur. Nancy started texting me loooooong messages continuously, about when we can get together during her visit down.

I started calling emergency vets, ignoring the texts coming in all the while, and had Annie heat water to stir up a salt water solution for me to irrigate her knee with. The first vet was too backed up. Laura arrived, with her kids. She took a picture of the knee wound, and texted it to her (paramedic) husband, who said he was working on an emergency. Bob tried to explain all about the snake, and agreed to pick Isaac up from STEM club, as I found a walk-in clinic to take Peter to. Grant agreed to take Isaac to his first counseling session with a new counselor, after STEM, since I would probably still not be back - even though Grant's supposed to be working from home. Annie cried about the saline on her leg, and fought with me about it, and finally agreed to at least sit with a rag soaked in it on the spot, even if I couldn't actually do any irrigation (which is basically just squirting over and over). Wincing, freaking out, etc. Brother in law texted Laura back to say they'd lost the patient.

The ride to the vet with Aaron and Peter was insane. It's barely over a mile from our house, but Peter somehow managed to get the door OFF the cat carrier we'd put him in, in the back seat. Not open, but off. So then he's running and yowling all over the damn car as I drive - he managed to step on the button to roll the back window down, Aaron was flipping out and yelling, Peter's abscess burst at some point and there was yellow puss dripping everywhere, I mean - this is all almost funny in retrospect, in a "laugh or cry" sort of way. Aaron managed to pin him in his lap and I got the window up and the window lock on.

The vet visit was great. They saw us right away, and since Peter's abscess had already mostly drained they just gave him an antibiotic shot, and us a bottle of antibiotics to keep giving him at home. The guy was nice. We were in and out in under 30 minutes. Aaron felt way better.

Back at the ranch, Bob had just gotten back with Isaac, and Ananda's leg looked a little better (and it looked better today than it did yesterday, when I DID do salt water irrigation that took it from dark pink and a little swollen, to light pink and just sore, around the broken skin - but after the vet it looked better than before the vet, with almost all of the pink gone...she just freaks about injury). While applying Neosporin and some gauze, I apologized to my unexpected guests that I basically had to turn around and walk right back out the door with Isaac, to go to counseling. Younger cousins continued to all play together with frisbies and ponies like they don't care what adults come and go, anyway.

Forms, insurance, and then an hour of "intake," as the counselor took a detailed history. She seems ok, and just needs to fully understand how smart Isaac is. He's very capable of real talk therapy and learning some new coping skills, but it seems like he's going to have to prove that to her before she moves past a "play and art therapy for kids who aren't ready for CBT" model... I hope it works out. It's another place within walking distance of our house, if it does. And he needs it. Play and art are both great and Isaac will like them, I'd just like to have some evidence based best practices going down, too. She kept stopping him to ask if he knew what words that she was using meant, like "stress" and "cognitive." He definitely does.

When we got home, Laura and Bob were gone, to their house and their city, respectively. My phone was still blowing up. Grant and I worked together to get more dishes washed, dinner cooked, figure out what Isaac needs for the rest of his science project, write down when his "family science night" at school is, swing by the store for a can of tuna to hide prescription cat antibiotics in, and make sense of Nancy's texts with our calendar. Planned a visit with her. The kids are very excited to see her - everyone wanted her down for this last Thanksgiving, since she'd been with us for the one before.

We finally sat down with Annie - she's been waiting 2 days since she brought it home, to show us all the art in her school portfolio. It has to go back, tomorrow. That was like half an hour, mostly comprised of her leading up to each piece with lots of disclaimers and then fretting over whether or not to show us the next one. Jake sat nearby with HP#5 in his lap the whole time, waiting pseudo-patiently for me to read to him.

When I was reading to Isaac, in his bed, Grant came in to tell me his mother's coming down in 3 days, with her husband and the twins, to stay here for 5 days. This IS good news... and she's coming to the derby bout Saturday (that Annie is hoping she can actually skate in...) which is great, just, uh - GAH. *sigh* My library is still half shambles, my kitchen is still not really clean, I'm overbooked morning, noon and night til they arrive - AND I HAVE A LOT OF SCHOOLWORK OF MY OWN DUE BY AND THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND, MAN.

Right now I'm trying to think of how I can even begin to lie down in my bed and just sleep... I have to put away leftovers and then dig through the safe, for Isaac's post-assessment Generalized Anxiety Disorder diagnosis, from a couple of years ago, to take to the doctor tomorrow morning. It's very 50/50 that it will be there, and if it's not I move on to my desk via flashlight, since Grant's asleep in there. I'm supposed to get my shot in the morning - if I can squeeze that in, between the cat antibiotics/taking A&A to school, and getting Isaac up to his appt, with Jake and Elise. The office where I go says I can only show up for shots between 8:30 and 9 now, for some new reason I didn't question. After that appt, I have to get things printed at Office Max because we're out of stupid toner. There are things written on just about every day of our calendar for the next month - aside from things I've mentioned here, and our "regular" stuff, there's a filling, an oral surgeon consult, an out of town fieldtrip, a family roadtrip, a birthday...

I feel like a big scribble on a page. I've got gregorian chants on as I type, and am thinking of doing a stretching and deep breathing session somewhere nearby, before I brush my teeth.
altarflame: (deluge)
I do not even know where to begin. I've let this thing go for too long.

It's wild, just nuts, how different I feel when I'm really engaged with people and the world (as opposed to spending all my time alone with my kids in our house, with very minimal adult interaction). It is truly the difference between feeling mentally ill, as opposed to being like, "Wait what? I have PTSD? I guess technically I do." Sometimes I feel sad about this, because I used to be so (relatively) content to be home alone with my children. Other times - like now - I feel really happy that such a simple thing can make such a huge difference. Things get complicated because I can be very picky about who I really want to spend time with...

Many things have changed over the years on my Myers Briggs test results, but the most significant and startling was definitely watching my stubborn, moderate "i" turn to a just-over-the-line "e," last year.


I'm sitting here tonight, agitated and stressed with everyone else asleep, wondering what the hell my problem is - and it occurs to me that this is the first day in weeks that I haven't seen anyone that doesn't live in my house. There were other reasons to be stressed: a bank error I had to spend awhile on the phone about, some tedious crafting time with Elise that really took a tremendous amount of patience, realizing at the last minute during cooking that I was missing a crucial dinner ingredient... But all that is just life, it's the kind of shit that happens every day and hasn't been tying my shoulders in knots until today. Maybe it's isolation. Maybe it's not. There was a lot of arguing with Aaron about cleaning his room, and a lot of moodiness out of Jake, and a lot of Annie eye rolling and Isaac homework procrastination.

Still and all, I could list three times as many positive things about each of them. So. *shrug*




Previous non-isolation:
G and I had an awesome trip to Maryland ♥ Grant had enough flyer miles and hotel points stored up from business trips that we could fly and stay for free, and his mom was here in town with a friend for a couple of weeks, and spent those days with our kids. So, all we had to pay for was food! Totally awesome, and he has a ridiculous amount of paid time off accrued since he rarely uses it. We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday exploring Maryland together, which was just fucking great. It was all awesome sex and sweet cuddling and a picnic in the park and a picnic on our hotel room floor. We walked all over and found great farmer's markets and a cool Thai restaurant and an interesting Ethopian place. The weather was lovely, we laughed a ton - it was really cool to be on foot and transit for a few days with no car whatsoever attached to me. Talk about a paradigm shift.

Then he left, Sunday night, to come home, and I stayed at my friend Kristin's house Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday. She works in the evenings, so I was free for those hours. One evening I took Jenne/[livejournal.com profile] the_waker to that Thai place I mentioned, which was awesome. I hadn't seen her since she came by Dama/[livejournal.com profile] mommydama's place while we were there with newborn Elise in 2007. I think we could be really close friends if we just lived closer together. Totally easy and natural to hang out with her and talk about ANYTHING.

Another evening I met Amy/tumblr user Bohemianelitist, with her kids and Kristin's kids (who I love, and have known for a decade...they're like family and only moved up there 6 months ago). We had great food and then moved over to a playground. The time went too fast.

I was going to meet Ruth/former lj'er "meileki," but she got too booked up at the last minute by a high needs kid and study demands, which was disappointing but I totally understand (obviously).

Staying up til 4am laughing with Kristin after she got off was great, as it always is. And her brunch spreads were fantastic. And her kids are pretty much what I would call friends, 8 and 11 though they may be :)

The week+ since we've been back from Maryland has also been a connected, networking sort of week. I didn't really experience the coming down of a vacation being over, because:

-My mother in law was still down and visiting and wonderful until a couple of days ago. She is really great. I got so lucky in the mother in law department.
-I spent a half hour at our evaluator's house talking when I picked up all our forms. We have enough in common that this can be an actual good time.
-Cybele and I caught up for at least that long, when I dropped Aaron off to hang out with Adrian. They've been gone all summer.
-The most recent weekend at home Grant and I had was riding high on the utopic chemistry of the previous weekend away (we barely see each other during the work week, it's mostly texting honestly).
-Laura brought the kids over one afternoon and we all sat around the bar eating and the library floor talking.
-Shaun came to dinner last night, with his new girlfriend. We pulled out all the stops (my husband actually made two different meals) and it was a pretty cool time.
-Aaaaaand a bunch of little things - needing to run errands and interact in small ways, meeting Isaac's new teacher, bringing the snack for Annie's derby team this last practice, all that sort of stuff that I don't even think I care about, but, what do I know. It probably makes a difference.

Tomorrow, my Fall semester begins. We had a big family meeting tonight before bed about the kids' meals and activities (Grant is working from home when I'm in school, so though here we need to have enough stuff set up in advance that they aren't constantly interrupting him).

I'm sure I was going to say more. Sure I gotta go to bed.

I'll leave this with a bunch of pics that will be outdated, if I don't hurry...

I had to take a picture one day when I realized that I was treading water in the deep end, with all five of my kids nearby - not a flotation device in sight - and we were all just hanging out, casually having a conversation.

It really hit me like, "Whoa." I kept counting them, unable to process that they were all there and everything was so simple and easy.



Diner (breakfast for) dinner.



Yes, that diner is actually in a pharmacy O_o

This is Elise before GMYS camp one morning, Isaac the day they were going to perform, and the three of them after the performance...


My "little kids," at 7, 9 and 6...

This is Elise after she went around and found all the pieces of that table, reassembled it, and started doing her art outside, and Jake doing a trick he learned at camp with water and vinegar (making tones sound by running his finger along the tope of the glass...pitch changes based on water level).


Ananda and Aaron, after breakfast one morning and waiting for me in the FIU library while I took a makeup exam.


Ananda came home from Mia's house with this lovely hair...we were at a coffee shop in the Gables that afternoon :)


We kinda look alike.


More than 5 years, we've had Aaron's cat, Peter...and finally he's starting to almost, sort of trust me.

I honestly think it's because I quit acting like it's preposterous and just accepted that he understands English, and speaking to him like I do people. Now, I can put him at ease. He is the weirdest and most complicated animal I've ever known, and the 11 year old cat I had who died, before we moved into this house - was a pretty developed personality.

Three thirsty chickens.


There are a lot of pictures of everything from Elise's doodles and her and Jake's cross stitching, to Maryland trip pics galore, on my tumblr in the personal tag. On the second page there's also a montage of my trip to Fairchild Tropical Gardens, with the big kids and our friends Gloria and LJ, a screencap of my grades and some degree planning, and many other random things :)
altarflame: (Default)
Jake, who got a tooth pulled 6 months ago: When can I go get my other teeth pulled?
Me: Uh, hopefully never. I'd like it if your baby teeth fell out on their own, you know?
Jake: But can't they just pull them all out now?
Me: That might be painful...and you wouldn't be able to chew...and you'd be missing your one adult tooth forever, then.
Jake: But I'd be rich!




Annie: Is Adele like Florence, like all giggly shy and quiet when she talks even though she belts out the enormous singing?
Me: Not really, Adele is kind of awesome in interviews because she's really not afraid to tell people the truth.
Annie: Like what?
Me: Well I saw one where someone mentioned pressure on her to lose weight, and she was just like, "I make music for people to listen to, not to look at".
Annie: Ooooh, take that society!!




"(mostly) culinary highlights"

Last-last Friday night, we had a party at Kristin's - I made white chicken chili and peanut butter fudge, and brought (multigrain) chips and (Chachies, mmm/ow) salsa. Shaun brought homemade pesto and maple syrup chocolate chip cookies. Ananda made and brought brownies. What can I say, I feel self conscious showing up at a potluck with 3 adults and 5 mega-eating children. As a result, people usually end up raving about all the stuff we bring for most of the night :)

Grant was in Fargo for work for 5 days, which led me to make things I might not otherwise, since he's more meat-centric than the rest of us. So one night it was just green bean casserole and (fresh) cranberry sauce (children were thrilled); the next it was a ton of broccoli and cashews stir fried up with soy sauce, on basmati brown rice. My new favorite place to eat breakfast out is the Royal Palm Grill, and my new favorite breakfast to have at home is a fried egg, sauteed shrooms and sliced tomato on toast :)

Grant and I spent basically all night out, Saturday night, for the Sleepless Nights thing in Miami Beach. We were in such a sweet happy Wow I really missed you mood that it didn't seem to matter that we kept missing the free shuttles, or that we went up five flights of stairs for nothing once, or that we never did find the burlesque show. Our night ended at the 8oz Burger Bar where, apparently, one can watch William Shatner documentaries, listen to Mumford and Sons and get plates of asparagus until 5am daily. This is useful information! The food was "above average", but the DRINKS! I had a pumpkin bomb that was a. maz.ing. Pumpkin ale, goldschlagger and cinnamon sugar. Mmmm....




Assorted pics from the last two weeks...

Grant, calling in for a conference call while we were out to lunch.


Some ladies I chill with. Laura took me to Cracker Barrel for breakfast for my birthday. Elizabeth told the waitress, "Bacon right away!"


Isaac with Georgia after TLC one Tuesday.


The latest thing Aaron can do that causes staff to approach me saying, "Ma'am, is that your son?"

He can go all over those pipes like an orangutang.


Halloween! Annie as Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, in a dress made of my scrap fabric and her Sharpie.


Aaron as "a time traveler from the 1970s". He actually got that shirt at an antique store and earned the headphones by doing ALL the laundry in the house.


We did later remove that errant tag.


This is one of the several costumes Elise wore on different days. She was a princess at Kristin's party, and Princess Peach specifically for trick or treating, but went as a ladybug to TLC the following afternoon - all assembled from our dress up chest. I think it's pretty great that what you're seeing here is an old recital leotard of Ananda's, 2 year old homemade wings and last year's Christmas photo tights.




Grant wore the same thing he does every year.


I actually had a plan for myself this year, but since I ALWAYS end up doing Halloween last minute, I was blind-sided by needing to go to ten stores and call for advice to get Jake and Isaac's overalls. Store clerks at Walmart, KMart, Target and Sears were acting like they didn't even know what overalls WERE. I went to THREE Goodwills. *sigh* Kristin finally steered me towards the Osh Kosh Outlet. Anyway, I was bent over the sewing machine finishing Ananda's dress, like, as my three younger kids circled with their bags panicking that it was already getting dark.


And now, the Many Faces of Elise.

Elise in the morning:


Elise at night:


Elise before preschool every day, with Sophie.


Elise hiding in the front seat with my frappuccino, while the other kids run around at PATH none the wiser.


Elise and Oliver.

He looks bigger whenever she's holding him :)


Isaac lost a tooth!




Kids skyping with Daddy while he was in Fargo.


Dinner time, sans one sleeping beast.

(Is it known that we call Elise a beast? Elise-y Beast? A yeasty beasty at points in her infancy?)

Tamer of other sorts of beasts. Nobody else would attempt to co-lap these two O_o





In other news, my brother has gotten himself a girlfriend. I know, right, who would have thought? The thing is, happy as I am for him, this news is mostly manifesting itself in our house as him suddenly mismanaging his time and needing rides because he's missed the last bus 4 times per week, and neglecting all of his chores, and I'm not even ready to talk about the total insanity of him sneaking her in and then SNEAKING OUT WITH HER...while I was trusting him to babysit the three youngest (A and A were up at Cybele's: I do not force Bob to babysit, he has to be free and willing and we always ask if he has plans. All I want him to do is BE HERE if he's agreed to be because holy shit they're 7, 6 and 4!). Also, it doesn't help my opinion that during my one conversation with her she told me outrageous obvious lies nonstop... and now he's constantly asking for things I feel can't possibly be appropriate, like "Can she stay with me for the 3 week Christmas break?" I'm trying to encourage his independence, educated him about hostels and how they could go do something like that together fairly easily if they just save their JobCorps money, I just do not even know. I keep hearing that Bartok voice saying "This can only end in tears". *sigh* Sometimes it is really weighing on me that I do not have the time or resources for an overgrown 6th kid. Like when he calls me up at midnight and says, "Tina, I don't know where I am...can you come and get me?" Uh, dude, you are not microchipped, how the fuck am I supposed to know where you are?!

Also, my shin splints, which have never recovered from NYC, are acting up bigtime and it's causing me to have to stretch a lot and wear (gasp) sneakers.

Mostly things are really good :)
altarflame: (Alice)
Aaron's cat, Peter, is still acting as though he just got back from 'Nam around everyone in the house - leaping from a litter box amidst a fine spray and diving under furniture as soon as anyone enters the room, and so on. Except with Aaron, of course, who he nuzzles and loves on and purrs loudly with. The other night I peeked in his room and Peter was in some kind of state, I could hear him purring from the hallway and he was acting like he wanted to fuse himself to Aaron's shoulder and face. He was laughing and scratching him and said, "Look Mom! Peter's in love with me! He wants to marry me, and make millions and millions of little cumans!" Oh, Aaron.

So. This has been Surreal Week for the Walker family. I have been having extreme dizziness from antihistamine withdrawal (OF ALL THINGS), Grant is in Tooth Pain Hell, and so both of us are largely useless as my mother calls with updates every few hours because my Nana is in the hospital. She had aneurysm (sp?) surgery a few weeks ago, and it seemed to go very well. We sent flowers and called her and it seemed all good. But it turns out that some thing they did wrong in there was blocking an artery from supplying blood to her kidneys. Two weeks of undiagnosed kidney failure later...and we're dealing with all kinds of horrible effects. She's in the ICU, with my poor mother who is still horribly grieving for her Dad that JUST DIED two weeks ago (her parents are/were only 61 years old here...) Nana has significant neurological damage from swelling around her brain from excess fluid buildup while her kidneys weren't working. She can't move one leg, can't see well, and doesn't know what year it is...this is my Nana who I lived with throughout high school, who we go to be with every year for Christmas Eve, who has a full time job and takes vacations...who's husband that is still fit and active is 18 years older than her.

As I've sat in my office with the room spinning, trying to avoid standing, trying not to dwell, trying to help Grant feel better with heating pads and liquid tylenol and chewable Motrin because he can't take pills and hot tea and distractions of every womanly sort that can be mustered when one feels that they're falling down while just sitting there...I've been doing a lot of browsing around online.

And I've found some awesome stuff! For instance. Alexander McQueen, who I think rocks, has designed some clothes for Beth Ditto. Who is fat. And unashamed of it. And beautiful anyway, in a way that SHOULDN'T BE SO SHOCKING. Like...ok. I am not someone who thinks all fat is good fat or that it's awesome to be huge, I understand there are real health risks and it's important not to forget that. But, I also know that you can take two people and feed them both the same thing every day, and one will get fat while the other stays thin. And I know that a large proportion of Americans are overweight, and yet we continue to idolize EXTREME thinness as the only thing fit to be displayed in any arena, and eating disorders and our young girls and blah blah blah. So anyway this singer who has so many cool things to say has nude magazine covers, she has spandex costumes for onstage, she says that growing up her mom and grandmother would tell her not to wear a bikini but SHE never thought she shouldn't wear a bikini. She thought she wanted to wear a bikini. She thought it was just her body and not so different from a lot of other bodies and what the heck was the big deal that the mere sight of her could offend?
Cut cuz there are four fairly large pics here, including some non-graphic nudity )

Even though I am not really into nudity on magazine covers in general...I can't help but think how AMAZING it would be if there were more like THAT in the grocery store checkout lines. How different all the ladies might feel as they checked out. I mean, wtf, there are guys that like this. This is what was being painted as the pinnacle of beauty for, oh, THOUSANDS OF YEARS. Why do we try to program everyone to think only one thing is beautiful now?

I am also really hoping my kids join forces and buy me this for Mother's Day:


Browsing through it on Amazon is an ethereal experience.


It is really horrible to imagine my Nana permanently mentally impaired. I know so much about neuroplasticity because of all the lay reading I did when Elise was born, and I have some hope, but she has a lot of strikes against her...age, sedentary lifestyle, lack of enthusiasm for new/challenging activities. Still and all the word is that she is in a fighting mood and they'll be starting physical therapy. *sigh*

Aside from being freaked out that my grandparents suddenly appear to be dropping like flies just because I love THEM in their own rights (my Dad's dad has also recently been hospitalized, and I've been talking with him as well...) it's also terrifying to me to feel as though there is some buffer being removed that protects MY parents. Like...once my parents' parents are gone...they're next.

*sigh again*

I set up a flickr account to chronicle my stolen images, btw. I doubt I'll be posting them all here. I'm just altarflame there, too, like most everywhere.

I'm also doing incredibly well with super healthy eating, and feeling good about that...I'm sure I'll expound soon, probably with pictures of weird and wonderful things like cheeseless pizza.

Lastly, Elise's 2nd birthday is May 1. And I am very excited about it. How many THOUSANDS OF TIMES have the Boston peds' words rung through my head? We'll know more in a year - we'll know A LOT MORE in two years, that is huge... And the first, oh, five thousand of them, two years seemed impossible to wait for. "One day at a time", like being boiled in oil to wait and to see what would happen. I am ready to celebrate this miracle child.
altarflame: (deep thoughts/trapped in my skin)
I am ready to bust right out of my skin! Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez I do not want to try to channel this energy into fucking cleaning. Argh argh argh.

The good news is, I've abandoned all pretenses at specific strict diets and have returnedto the only thing that ever REALLY really worked for me - relying on God rather than food in times of emotional upset, boredom, exhaustion, etc. It's a lot of prayer and a lot of bible study but it's very rewarding and works very effectively. I don't think I would ever have thought to come back around to this method, sinner that I am, if it hadn't been for larger spiritual struggles going down. But here I am, and it benefits in countless ways...

Aaron's cat has finally stopped acting like a vet from 'Nam and is starting to come out from under the couches and allow himself to be touched sometimes. Aaron is beside himself with joy about it. I am relieved, I was starting to think we were stuck with a mouth to feed and litter box for cleaning attached to nothing more than a blur streaking by a couple of times a day. I feel like a cat classist, it is so glaringly obvious looking at these two cats that the terrified, jumpy, anxious cat is the rescued shelter cat, and the playful, sleeping with us, sweet cat is the socialized-daily-from-birth and generally pampered cat from a breeder. Mine has a double identity: My sweet adorable kitten is Chrysanthemum. The nutcase who scales bookshelves, pounces on the bigger cat and attacks our sleeping feet, is her alterego Roxanne. The old lady who handled Peter's adoption through PetNetwork and brought him to our house, and the guy who breeds Maine Coons that I got Mum through, are both clamoring for updates and pictures constantly. I come home every day to emails and voicemails, and while I understand the concern, I think it might be time for them both to move on.

We got a Christmas tree. It's nice and fat. I'm thinking of taking a minimalist approach due to toddlers and kittens, like maybe lights; some strung beads, cranberries and/or popcorn; a topper; and our usual Christmas cookie ornaments. I'll probably make up a big old bunch of gingerbread dough soon so we can make them in batches over the coming weeks (as they have a tendency to quietly dissapear).

The Christmas season in general is like prozac for me - just driving around with lights on houses and the city having decorated, with carols on the XM Radio, makes everything seem better.

Tediously mundane BS: our dishwasher isn't working. Our brand new stainless steel KitchenAid dishwasher, that I have raved about since it was purchased. You can't imagine the backup in my kitchen, where normally I do 2-3 jumbo loads a day.

Sidenote: You can't imagine how much I can cram into a dishwasher without compromising cleanness. All those years of Tetris were good for something after all.

Tres

Nov. 26th, 2008 08:31 pm
altarflame: (boomdeyada)
1. CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTSS!

With an S O_O

Grant said that he thought that the amount he did not want cats was not equal to the amount I, and Aaron, would benefit from having a cat each. This was after we found a poor, pretty, soft, 5 month old rescued cat that had been found in a dumpster sitting in Pet Supermarket when we went to buy hay for the bunnies, only to go back home again to sensitive, heartbreaking Aaron who needs more affection than is possible to give lately. I'll write about what he's going through another day...maybe. But suffice to say he's going through some really difficult emotional stuff. And he is basically the Cat Whisperer, and still talks longingly about Sebastion on a regular basis, a year later. It was one of the biggest excitements of my life to eagerly anticipate presenting him with his OWN cat.

He is not just thrilled but moved, holding the cat and tearing up with happiness or burying his grinning face in it out of embarassment (that is just how Aaron is, this giddy embarassed grin when he is just so full of joy is one of my favorite things about him).

The cats name is Peter, like from Narnia, and since my Nana's cat in Lakeland is Susan, now they think I have to name MY cat Lucy. Ha! I say.

So. Having gotten the rescued shelter cat and given it a home, I feel less guilty for doing what I want to do, which is get another Maine Coon cat like I had before. I got HIM as a rescued kitten, free from a box at a vet's office, but it was a big stroke of luck and the vet was mad that the nurse had offered him with the rest when he saw which one I was taking home. I used to get random strangers in his office offering me $300 for my cat when I'd be there for an office visit O_o I found out through research that it was not only Sebastion but all Maine Coons that are bigger, gorgeous-er, smarter and more full of personality than other cats, and I've been talking with a local breeder about it. Let me present to you, My New Cat. That I will be picking up Friday at nearly 8 weeks old.





I mean. Damn. THAT IS FUCKING CUTE! Those are the pictures I fell in love with from the breeder's website.




2. This is socialism I can get behind.




3. Our Thanksgiving Menu

Out All Day on Platters


-homemade cinnamon chips with apple dip
-grape and cheddar skewers
-mixed nuts of various types
-rice crackers with cream cheese
-multigrain crackers with tomato slices

The Feast
-20 lb turkey brined overnight and stuffed with apples, onions and sage a la Alton Brown
-garlic mashed potatoes
-gravy
-sweet potato casserole
-green bean casserole
-sauteed squash with onions
-corn
-homemade cranberry sauce
-wheat rolls
-sparkling juices

Dessert
-apple pie with vanilla ice crea
-pumpkin pie with cool whip
-banana cream pie with nilla wafers

May 2017

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