Video is here!

Thanks to my friend Anna Jane, I can put video up now. I haven't figured out how to turn it so you'll have to crane your neck to see this one but next time I'll have it oriented properly. This is Shane playing with the mop. He loves to play with the mop and broom and dashes into the laundry room any time the door is open to get them. Weston is feeling better today and went to school. That is all.

News flash: Not all scrapbooks have drops of wine and chocolate smears!

I went to craft night last night and learned a hard lesson on what a novice scrapbooker I am. In fact, I think it is pretentious to call myself a scrapbooker after seeing what everyone else was working on. More realistically, I could be termed a 'crappy baby-book maker' or 'sloppy picture gluer'. My friend Kristie organized the event, and in the words of one of the other attendees, I was sitting at the feet of Yoda. My 'skills' make me more like the stupidest Ewok. With a cast. And a patch over one eye. But I did get a few pages for Shane's book done, and I met some new friends, so it was a rousing success.

Random events

My USB cable has been miraculously rehabilitated. I guess. Anyway, it works today. But somehow, it has been set to take low quality photos, so now I will have to either remember how to change the setting (very taxing), or find the book (virtually impossible) or take crappy pictures until the camera dies (most likely). For proof, here is a photo of the vacuum cleaner trials.

In other news, part of the ceiling in the hallway outside our door has fallen down. It has been getting more and more waterlogged, greeny-gray and gravid over the last week or so, and now it's laying in clumpy chunks on the ground.

Weston is sick; he has a fever and is sleeping on the couch. Shane feels great so he went to school with Lloyd. As they were leaving, I was thinking that was the first time Shane and Lloyd have gone anywhere by themselves. I said, "Bye, bye Shane, have fun at school!" and he didn't even turn around.

And, finally, I recently discovered www.jezebel.com and am reading a story about Chandra Levy this morning. I am really out of the loop here; I never watch the news (Lloyd was shocked, simply shocked that I didn't recognize pictures of Tony Snow), but apparently Gary Condit has just lost a lawsuit related to the case, causing some renewed interest. You would think he would have enough sense to just shut up and realize he caused all of his own 'misfortune' with his bad behavior, lying, and obstruction of justice. But I guess he is not quite as smart as me, even though the bar is low.

A tale of two vacuums

Ever since we got here, we have been using a loaner vacuum and it really sucks (hahahahahaha, I crack myself up). I have been keeping my eyes peeled for one, especially since we moved on base and actually have carpet, but no luck. Today I was at the thrift store and saw a Hooverific blue beauty for $10. I toted it home and waited for Lloyd to come home so I could show it off. He was helping one of his friends move out today, so I wasn't super surprised to hear him come in a little early. I was surprised when he pulled in a sucktastic green machine, that he got for FREE. Drat! They are both nice looking vacuums, so we set up a test to decide which one we like best. The floor was unusually clean so we actually had to scatter sawdust (from the bird house construction) and cheerios all over the floor. I have some photos of Lloyd conducting the tests but the computer says there is something wrong with my camera cable. Very distressing.

What, you want to know who won? Okay, okay: they are both excellent vacuum cleaners and we decided to keep them both! You can never have too many vacuum cleaners, you know.

Room for rent: 1 BR, great view, luxurious perch

Here is the new birdhouse! Lloyd and Weston worked on it all morning. The final touch was the perch. Weston found it outside and carefully placed it in the hole on the front of the birdhouse. Then he said, I'm so proud of myself!" Now he wants to find a baby bird to put in it. Hence the ad in the Avian Daily Times.

Perspectives

The other day at the thrift store (don't you love how all my stories start like that? I should call this 'Stories from the thrift store!) I was talking with two other volunteers about someone we know who is pregnant and doesn't want to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. One of them said that with one of her kids she HAD to know because the baby was going to be born when her husband was gone and she wanted to have a name and have everything all ready. This passed without comment from anyone else and I didn't even think about it until later.

Lloyd was gone for the last half of my pregnancy with Shane, and he didn't make it home in time. He missed the birth by 6 hours and 55 minutes. Not that I counted. I drove myself to the hospital and had him by myself. When I got to the hospital, I rang the bell and the nurse came to unlock the door and let me in, and she kept peering out into the dark behind me to see who was coming with me. Usually if I tell this story to people who are not military spouses, they are horrified; they actually gasp sometimes. They feel entitled to have their husbands present at their deliveries. If I tell it to a military spouse, I get the same reaction as if I'd told them I ran out of eggs this morning. To them, it's just a part of everyday life, and everyone does it.

What we're reading

At the thrift store the other day, I found a partial set of the 'Little House' books. We already had 'Farmer Boy', and now we have 'Little House in the Big Woods', 'On the Banks of Plum Creek', 'By the Shores of Silver Lake', and 'The Long Winter'. We have been reading some of the 'My First Little House' books to Weston and he really likes them, and so I've started reading some of the 'real' ones. They're not quite as warm and fuzzy and innocuous as I remember them, however. Little House in the Big Woods starts with a chapter about the giant wolves in the dark outside the little house, and Farmer Boy starts with a murdered schoolteacher and a violent horsewhipping scene in the schoolhouse. I just improvise through those parts. Instead of 'Bill's trousers were cut through, his shirt was slashed, his arms bleeding from the bite of the lash...', I read: 'Bill was a very naughty boy and Mr. Corse sent him to the back of the class to think about what he did wrong while the rest of the class picked flowers and sang songs."

Also very popular with Weston lately is a book Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rey sent him- it's a very funny version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. When Goldilocks gets the too-hot porridge she says 'Patooie!' and spats it out. Weston thinks this is hilarious for some reason and has us read it over and over and over. Shane has been listening to stories now, too. Until recently he would just amuse himself while we were reading but now he pays attention.

I am reading two books: 'When Men Become Gods' about Warren Jeffs, and 'School of Dreams' by Edward Humes. I am enjoying both and would have some commentary on them but I am too tired right now. Shane has been waking up before 4 all week and he won't go back to sleep. He has a big bump on his lower jaw and I think the tooth is bothering him. And I know it's bothering me. And Lloyd. And the neighbors.

Lloyd has been reading up on root cellars, seed storage and raising goats and chickens. But he is tired of reading and planning and wants to DO. So this weekend he and Weston are going to make some birdhouses.