Category Archives: Elise

Sigh of Relief

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Today is a good day.  Peter came home.  He’s been in California at a conference for the past four days.  We all missed him.

When Alethea, Lydia and I arrived home this evening, the sun was setting and there weren’t any lights on in the house.  “It’s dark,” said Alethea.

“Yeah, we’ll turn the lights on when we get inside,” I told her.

“Daddy’s home?” she asked.

Then I realized I told her last night that Daddy would be home tomorrow after it got dark.

That kid has a mind like a steel trap.

I can’t say this week has been easy, but the kids are alive, the house isn’t a complete disaster and while my blogging obviously didn’t happen, I think everything truly essential got done.

And now I finally get to sit down and take a deep breath.  Whew!  I made it!

Clean is in the Eye of the Beholder

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This morning Alethea pointed to a spot on the living room floor and said, “Crumbs!”

Looking up from the lunch I was preparing for her, I replied, “Yes, honey, I know, I need to clean the house.”

She looked at me and said quite matter-of-factly, “It’s very dirty.”

Sigh… just what I need.  A two year old criticizing my domestic skills.

But she’s right.  The house is a mess, piano lessons are starting tomorrow, we haven’t finished potty training (will we ever?!?!) and of course, I’m in over my head with projects in my house, projects at church and projects that are still in my brain, but boy would I ever like to find time to get them out of there.  Oh, and Lydia hasn’t pooped in days (can we say craaaankeeeey)!

Gaaaah!

On the bright side, Alethea seems to be finally getting over this mystery illness that has been plaguing her during the past week, the weather is amazingly gorgeous and well, it’s hard to be too frustrated when your kids are just so doggone cute.

Because purple boots go with anything…

And because there is nothing quite so funny as a baby with a mustache…

And with that I’m off to sweep my floors.

Happy Wednesday!

I Told You So!

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When I was a kid I would always put toothpaste on my bug bites.  I told my mom it made the itching feel better.

She thought it was all in my head.

Just this summer I had to treat a bad mosquito bite on Alethea’s cheek.  I felt kind of silly, but I put toothpaste on it anyway, even though I figured it wouldn’t really help much, since my mom said it was all in my head.

But look what I just found:

It’s a set of household hint books.  And do you see what is on the cover of the toothpaste book??!?!  Yes, indeed, “Take the Bite Out of Burns and Itches”!

Ha!  I knew it!  It wasn’t all in my head!

Age is Just a Number

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Or is it?

Tonight at dinner Peter asked Alethea how old she was.

Her response?

“Big!”

I’m turning 30 years old in just over a month.

Am a little tempted to throw numbers out the window myself and come up with a new answer to the “How Old” question.

Maybe…

“Fabulous!”

Or

“Never been better!”

However, as funny as it was, I don’t think I will be borrowing Alethea’s “Big!”  At my age, that’s just adding insult to injury, don’t you think?

Falling off the Face of the Earth

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No, that’s not what happened to me.  You might think so being as it’s been over a week since I’ve written a post, but it’s not true.  I spent the whole week on the planet.  I was in Iowa some of the time, but contrary to popular belief around these parts, Iowa is not an alien nation.  Here’s a summary of our week, to corn country and back!

Visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa

We spent three lovely days last week visiting my grandparents in Iowa.  Everyone seemed to get along well and it was fun to have Grandpa Jim and Grandma Ruth meet Lydia for the first time.

We took one afternoon to visit the local water park.  The girls thought that was pretty cool.

I jumped at the opportunity to play photographer out in my Grandmother’s garden.  (Someday I hope my yard looks half as beautiful as her’s.)

No wireless for my computer, and lots of nature all around.  Ahh… some rest for my soul…

And Then… Back to Reality

I don’t have any real excuse for why I haven’t posted since our return from Iowa last Thursday.  Just life.  You know, things like dropping a boat load of money on a tent and other supplies at REI so we can take our 2 year old and six month old camping.  (Yes, we might be insane to try it.)

Also, getting my fall registration materials out to my students.  I like being a piano teacher, but typing up forms, writing studio policies and creating a calendar isn’t my favorite part of the job, so at least that’s done for the year.

Got to go downtown and have lunch with Peter today while his mom so graciously watched the girls.  I can’t remember the last time we had lunch. alone. together.  Sort of a weird feeling… but I like it!

Insert various other social engagements, church, errands and assorted things that would not be in any way amusing to read about and that about sums up my week (and a day) falling off and then back onto planet Earth.

Sentimental or Gross?

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Alethea’s hair has finally gotten long enough that we can start doing updos with it!  It’s especially nice to be able to put her hair in pony and pig tails since we are experiencing an awful heat-wave.  I’m having fun playing Mommy stylist and naturally, Alethea is completely adorable in pig tails.

However, despite the fact that we are both having a good time trying out new styles, I am contemplating giving Alethea a haircut, because when her hair is not contained by clips or bands, it’s pretty reminiscent of Albert Einstein.

And that brings me to my dilemma of the day, should I or should I not save the clippings from Alethea’s first haircut?

In my mind, hair no longer attached to someone’s head is something to be vacuumed up and gotten rid of, so I wouldn’t even consider deliberately keeping hair in the house, except that Alethea’s baby book has a page with a special vellum envelope labeled “First Haircut” (and also one marked “First Tooth”).

The germaphobe in me says, “Eeww!  Why would you want to keep hair and teeth in the same book as pictures of your adorable baby?!?!”

But the rule following part of me hates to have an incomplete baby book and is reenforced by the wants-to-be-a-perfect-mother part of me, who thinks Alethea may wonder some day why I didn’t bother to fill up that empty envelope.

What to do, what to do…

Your thoughts please.  Keeping hair and teeth in a baby book: sweet and sentimental or germy and gross?

Seven Dollar Chicken

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Last night Peter and I went on a date!  (Hurray for free babysitting courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa!)

We went out for dinner.  He ordered a shrimp entree, I ordered pasta, but feeling the need for a little protein in my life, I asked them to add chicken breast to the dish.

The food was delicious, the company, even better!

Then the bill came.  “Just out of curiosity,” I asked Peter, “how much did they charge for that chicken?”

Seven dollars!  That’s how much!

“Maybe it was free-range organic chicken,” suggested Peter.

For that price, I’d say my free range little friend had better have been laying golden eggs shortly before she landed on my plate.

So yeah, it does bug me that they overcharged so much for a small breast fillet.  I didn’t ask though, so I guess I have no one to blame but myself.  And really, I was figuring they’d charge four or five dollars, so seven really isn’t that much more, except that I was already rolling my eyes at the imaginary five dollars on the bill in my head…. and seven is certainly even worse.

So here’s the question, when you go into a restaurant and would like to add something to your dish, do you:

a) Not do anything because you know it’ll be way too much in any case

b) Ask the server how much the addition will cost and then make your decision from there based on whether it’s overpriced or WAY overpriced

c) Order it without asking and then whisper “Seven dollars!??!” to your significant other when the bill comes

d) Order it without asking and then not look at the bill because you just. don’t. even. want. to. know.

Help me!  I need a strategy for the next time I’m tempted to order Beanstalk Jack’s magic egg-laying chicken.

Corn on the Cob

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Alethea may look like Peter, but she is my daughter through and through.

Peter doesn’t like corn on the cob.  He says he never has.  I however have many fond memories of eating Minnesota grown sweet corn all summer long.  Yum!

Alethea is on my side of the debate:

Tonight after quickly polishing off one half-ear, she asked for another.

“Why don’t you eat some of your sandwich?” asked Peter.

“No. More corn on the cob,” was Alethea’s firm reply.

As I buttered another half-ear for her, Alethea called across the table, “Need salt!”

Because of course, the more butter and salt, the better the corn on the cob eating experience.  As a child I’m sure I would have licked my plate free of melted butter ‘n’ salt goodness if only my parents would have let me. I did have a sneaky trick though where I would pretend I was rolling the corn in the butter on my plate, but secretly I was also dragging several fingers through it too.  Then when I would life the ear of corn to my mouth, I’d quickly lick my fingers.  Mmmmm…

Don’t tell Alethea about that though.  I have a feeling this girl will continue to enjoy corn on the cob with or without the extra salt:

Color Your Summer

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Snapfish is currently running their “Color Your Summer” photo contest where you upload a photo each week featuring that week’s color for a chance to win a new computer.  Now I don’t really need (or even particularly want) a new computer, but if you upload seven pictures, you automatically get a free photo book, so I figured I give it a whirl.

Here is my entry for “Blue”:

And of course, I had to go with this classic for “Green”:

I think I’ll submit this one for “Yellow” next week:

Like I said, I have no anticipation of winning anything, but it’s sort of fun to go back through my photo collection hunting for the colors.

Busy, Busy

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My Week:

1) Two days of excellent learning and networking at a piano teacher’s conference.

2) One crazy day of garage sale prep in which a large portion of our storage room and two shelves in the garage were mostly emptied (woo hoo!)

3) Two long days of selling stuff to strangers, during which I vowed never to have a garage sale again.

4) A very cool answered prayer when I decided I needed to pack up the sale early on Thursday, but had a fussy Lydia with me and no one to help move tables.  Fifteen minutes after I asked God to send someone by to help me, an acquaintance from a few years ago happened along and was very willing to help me pull everything into the garage.

5) One day of cleaning up the garage after the sale.  I’m pretty sure we have less stuff now than we did before the sale started, although since I made the mistake of telling my mother that she was free to bring any of my stuff over that I’d left in my parents’ house, we might not actually be much ahead of where we were.  More sorting/getting rid of stuff will be necessary before Peter can get his car back in the garage.

6) An evening out with one of Peter’s co-workers and his wife, who treated us to a fabulous dinner downtown.  Scallops, calamari, and swordfish.  Mmmmm, I do love swordfish… and since I’m not pregnant I could order it!  (Why are all the best foods the ones you’re not supposed to eat when you’re with child?)

7) Church this morning with a very challenging message about living under the authority of our good King.  It was the best sermon I’ve heard in a while, although as Peter noted, it was rather ironic that the one weekend we decide to stay out late on Saturday would also happen to be the one where our pastor felt led to preach a 40 minute sermon on Sunday morning.  I just hope he didn’t take my yawns personally.

8) A well-deserved afternoon nap today, followed by a trip to Target for much-needed groceries.  Alethea surprised me by spontaneously pointing out that the aisle signs hanging overhead were triangles.  (She also correctly identified them as ‘green’ when asked.)

9) A birthday party for my sister-in-law this evening, followed by bedtime for the girls, followed by me preparing for the beginning of summer piano lessons tomorrow.  I’m really looking forward to applying some of what I learned this week to real life teaching moments.  I feel like I’m becoming a better and better teacher as the years go by, so much so that I think I really ought to track down my first piano students and give them their money back.

10) Finally getting a blog post written, which you are now reading.

Not too much on the schedule for this coming week, so hopefully posts will becoming more plentiful.  At the very least, I will get Lydia’s 5 month pictures taken and write her monthly update.  Stay tuned!