Saturday, March 28, 2009

Please Don’t Feed The Bear


Bird feeder….or bear feeder?


When we moved here, they warned us of a bear that occasionally came down off the mountain to root through trash and snack on bird seed. We’ve heard reports of recent sightings of a 450 pounder, but haven’t seen it for ourselves. It has been in our trash, however, and last night paid our brand new, one-day-old bird feeders a visit. They weren’t hanging all too high, but apparently that wasn’t good enough for the bear, who proceeded to flatten our wrought-iron signpost to get a better vantage point.


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Friday, March 27, 2009

So What's New With You?

Anybody who’s been following my blog might remember what the twins (and the kids in general) did to the laptop. Today the new work laptop arrived!!! I’m setting it up now and learning how to use Windows Live Writer, which apparently will make blogging faster and more convenient.

I can already see that it was the lack of laptop that was the biggest impediment to my bloglessness. Having it on my lap means I can blog on the fly, where the action is, instead of schlepping up to the third floor and sequestering myself in the office.

Speaking of sequestering, a jury duty questionnaire arrived in today's mail for me. Last time I got one, I deliberately didn't return it, just to see if they were bluffing when they said anyone who didn't reply would automatically be selected. Guess what? They weren't bluffing. I was summoned for jury duty, but was excused because I was breastfeeding my baby exclusively. Sweet.

On the big news front: tonight is opening night for our high school's production of Funny Girl, in which my son plays Eddie Ryan. For those of us who have never heard of Funny Girl before, Eddie is a leading role. And instead of applauding my heart out with tears in my eyes, I am home with three sick little girls, waiting to see who'll be the next contestant to pray to the porcelain god. If they make it to the bathroom, that is. Sigh.

Here's a picture of what 10:56 p.m. looked like at my house. That's the carpet shampooer on the floor. Yes, it was necessary for me to drag out the shampooer. Sigh. Babies passed out left and right. Poor little things are so wiped out that they can't even lift their heads. The picture doesn't show 5yo Theresa...she had a stomach bug attack while I was busy cleaning up after one of the babies, and I told her she had to use the upstairs bathroom. After a while I noticed that she never came back, and I found her sound asleep face down on her bed, no covers, no security animal. This is the same child who can easily stay awake until midnight or 1:00 a.m. when she's "Not Tired." Putting herself to bed is nothing less than earth-shaking.

Somebody please tell me why we've had the stomach flu three times this winter?

So that’s it. Big whoop. Hi to everyone and I’ll try to get back to blogging on a semi-regular basis asap. I'll even try to concoct a Not Me Monday if my depleted brain can come up with something.

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Monday, March 2, 2009

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week's Not Me really happened, but I can't say to whom. There was an experience recently with another blogger who blogged about something (that has probably happened to all of us moms) but was reported to Child Protective Services by someone on the internet. This makes me leery of giving too many details. But suffice it to say that it really happened to someone close to my heart who shall remain nameless.

A family I know didn't spend an exhausting day shopping out-of-town, and didn't come home laden with packages, starving and cranky. The kids weren't let loose to play in the yard while the vehicle was unloaded. Then when it started getting dark, everyone didn't pile into the house while stuff was put away and dinner was prepared amid chaos.

It wasn't fifteen minutes or so later when the doorbell didn't ring, unexpectedly. Someone didn't answer the door only to find the family's toddler child, who hadn't been left outside, alone and unnoticed. The gate to the yard wasn't open and the toddler couldn't have gone just about anywhere. But instead the toddler didn't climb up the storm door to reach the doorbell once he or she got cold enough to want to come in.

That toddler certainly isn't one smart cookie. And that mom surely didn't feel lower than dirt for not allowing it to happen.

Happy Monday, everybody! Have a great week!



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