Smoke and Mirrors

Stuff is a great word. Please don't pin that on me... I miss some great George Carlin takes on humanity. I love information and all the technology that brings it to everyone, BUT, back to earlier concepts please. Raise children, crops, and not taxes.

Now I really am pissed. I tried a couple times to type up some thoughts (on my MAC) into my old, aged blog, and I think the lack of compatibility did not work in my favor... I should not try to post from here. I'm not MAC smart enough. Suffice it to say/type that I had some pissy thoughts on humanity, tried to convey them via my blog and MAC did not support. damn you steve jobs and your great set of working well stuff. If this post works then I don't know. OK then.

So what

Wow.

My daughter is talking to squirrels right now.  It's pretty amazing.

Weekend fun

Yesterday Lexie attended a birthday tea party.  Each birthday party guest was instructed to bring a doll or stuffed animal to attend the mini-tea party.  Lexie had a great time.  After we got home (Lexie walked while I drove beside her, reminded me a little of Rocky in training) Sam came over to visit.  We were going to play Wii, but the controllers were out of batteries.  I happened to spot the beading kit my neighbor Joanie gave me.  The girls had some fun putting together some earrings and bracelets.  I now am sporting a pair of really cute earrings that my very own seven year old daughter made for me.  As a result, we may go back to the mall today to get her ears re-pierced.  Maybe this time she will take better care of them, and I will keep closer watch on them.

Lexie quote of the day...

"I am not a minion!"

Talking to caregivers

Decent weekend.  Highlight was watching classic B movie "Pod People" via MST3K.  Lex tried to keep up with the sarcastic commentary for a while even. 

Lex met a new friend Saturday night.  One house down from John's lives an 8 year old girl named Brianna.  When Brianna went to walk the family dog (Gizmo), her and Lexie met up and hit it off.  The next day Lex was impatient to go out and play with her again.  John, Lex and I went to the mini-field up the block and practiced some softball.  On the way back to the house, Brianna came out to let Gizmo relieve himself.  None of us noticed that she was in her pajamas.  This fact might have led us to realize that she wasn't out and ready to play, but we missed it.  The four of us headed back to the play area and they played more ball.  Eventually Brianna's mom came out of the house calling her.  Ooops.  She got in a bit of trouble for going out to play without notifying her mom.  She wrote Lex a really sweet note apologizing for not being able to come back out and play. 

Drama world:  It seems as though Alexis and Emma (friend from "Y") have been looking for some adventure.  About a week ago, Lexie asked me to write down what the clock looked like when it was midnight.  I thought this a semi-strange request, so I filed the thought for later.  She copied my 12:00AM. onto her own piece of paper and went back to playing.  Next she is drawing maps from Y camp to Emma's house.  Then Sunday night she puts an envelope on the kitchen table and tells me not to open it until the morning.  I forget about the envelope, and in the morning Lex put's it in the garbage and tells me she did it wrong and she's going to re-do it.  Last night, she puts another envelope next to my purse on the hall table, and tells me, again, not to open it until morning.  At that point, something maternally instinctual kicked in.  I opened the trash and pulled out Sunday night's envelope.  "I am gon Mom. PS I wont come home."  After slight heart failure, I grabbed the other envelope and went into her room.  After asking her what this was all about, and opening the second envelope in front of her, much drama ensued.  Tears shed, hugs given, she swears it is a game her and Emma were playing, I talked on the phone with Emma's mom.   Phew, not liking that one bit.  Emma's mom and I agreed to mention it to the teachers at the Y for backup support.  Eeeeks.

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true...

Lex is having a blast with this new season of Girl Scout Daisies.  This troop is bigger than the last, and she is in at the upper end of the ages.  She feels more confident this time around.  She had her first meeting last Monday, and didn't want it to end.  Of course....she enjoyed the activities, but would rather have just played the whole time.  Grammy spruced up her vest and added the new patches from last year. I'm just as excited as her.

Last weekend we had a great time.  Started off Friday night with John teaching Lex how to play farkle, with real dice and a dice cup.  Next, an attempt at Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with Lex falling asleep at some point (we still haven't tried to watch it again....yet).  Next morning, breakfast in bed a'la McD's, while watching MIBII.  John drove Lexie up to Washington house, I followed in about 45 minutes. We spent a wonderful day traveling to, from, at at Maryhill Stonehenge.  At dinner in Lyle.

I signed Lexie up for Softball in the Spring.  She really wants to do it.

My little Runaway..

For Christmas Lexie got tons of stuff she loves, including an art set and a new DSI.

She is doing so fabulous in school!  She loves math and is learning to read so well, it's wonderful.

Lex caught a 24 hour stomach virus over New Years, but still managed to enjoy herself to the hilt, including having snowball fights with Jason and John, and a big old wrestling match.

She is excited about signing up for little league this spring.

And....She got mad at me Sunday for not paying enough attention to her, so she ran away from home.  Her and her friend, Sam, packed a few things in backpacks, she gabbed her purse, and they headed up the street for a friends house she's only been to once.  Sam's mom found out about the plan in minutes and was over at my house.  We walked out of the court and around the corner.  There the two were, marching back home.  Lex walked past me without making eye contact.  It was all I could do not to burst out laughing.  I said, "I guess I know where you're headed."  She went into the house, dropped her backpack in her bed room and climbed into my bed.  We had a nice talk about how scary and dangerous that was.  She was in tears, already beat tired from playing all day.  She fell asleep immediately.  She is still feeling super bad about it.

Mini updates

Favorite quote for October on Halloween, post trick or treating:  Lexie-  "By my calculations, we should have enough candy to last all week."

We had the best trick or treat ever! I didn't take very good pics, just used my phone.

My birthday weekend was Super Great!  Saturday we all went to Spaghetti Factory, then John, Lex and I watched The Dark Knight.  Sunday we went to the zoo after breakfast and a trip to the Dollar Tree.

--
Iechyd da!

First 1st grade parent teacher conference.

Heads up/note to self/advice to other parents...  If you want a decent amount of time with your parent teacher conference, schedule it early in the day.  They work like doctors offices, I know the rules.  The first few meetings run over, and exponentially later, the later meetings are rushed.  Uck.  Still, it was a good experience for two reasons.  The first was that Teacher assures that Lex is doing wonderful.  Second, because Tall Handsome Dad drove a decent distance to be a part of it.  Lex really appreciated it, so did I.  I was mucho embarassed that I instructed John to call when he got there, realized 10 minutes into it that my phone was turned all the way down, then when I explained to Teacher, she was so rushed, she told me not to go get him, it would be over before I could, we could all meet later.  I didn't explain to her how far he drove to be there, but I did tell her a few times how I wasn't fond of how rushed it all felt.

Greatest Day Ever!

Ok, so I wake up with a cold.  So what!  We made plans, sort of, last night to find a stretch of dirt to play marbles on....Lex want's to learn. 

Post 7:30  I wake up and head out to facebook, and what not.  8:30  Lex is on me like white on rice to get a move on....  Some time later, John is eating breakfast at Denny's and texting us this very fact  (oooh, I forgot to mention Lex and McBreakfasted about an hour earlier...)  John shows up, we go to Freddy's (Griff gets to go too!) and get three wiffle balls for Lex and a crazy ball for Griff.  Super Dad takes us to Brookwood Elementary where we spend a splendiforous amount of time playing baseball, or sort of.  Then John goes to get beverages while Lex and I play marbles on the home plate dirt.  Mmmmm!  Frozen coffee beverage!  Lex gets orange frozen drink!  Super Dad drives home and the three  (or four or more if you count the animals) watch the first Harry Potter movie for the first time!  Lex is still putting spells on everything!  I am still in awe of what a day can be!  LOVE life!

--
Iechyd da!

Dinner for three

John brought dinner over tonight, and the three of us ate, not at the table, because there is no "table" in this house.  But we ate together.  It was very nice, very nice. We laughed about our creepy, but funny, psycho rat toy. and just chilled. It was a wonderful feeling for me, and obviously for Lex.  He is her Dad now, I know it because she keeps saying so without anyone asking her to.  Dad put her to bed, it was so right and sweet, I had to leave the room to not cry. Thank goodness my mom called to inquire about recent reports of swine flu at Lexie's school.  eeechhh.  So tired of flu.

Iechyd da!

Lex can read!

The morning homework has been so GREAT, I can't even think of many more adjectives to describe it.  She is learning to read, wait! She is reading, it's wonderfu!.  After school and daycare, she is so resistant to "doing more" school work.  So...  I get up at 5:43 am (every frickin morning), pull the covers off the bed so she won't snuggle back up, throw the covers and blankets onto the rocking chair in the corner of the room., and on to next step.  I place her backpack on the bed with my pick of clothes for the day.  No saying if she'll go along with my choice or not.  Then I get two dollar bills for lunch money and a Chocolate Brownie Cliff Bar and put them on her backpack.  I pick her homework out of her backpack and arrange it on the bed.  I get her favorite homework pen, place it on her homework and go outside to play on the computer and wait until she wakes up.  I go back in in 15 minutes, and she's discovered there's no blankets and is squirming around.  I kiss her forehead, and she says, "I have to go to the bathroom."   I get my own self dressed and ready, and when I'm done, she's awake.  Giggly morning girl.  There is no order to the rest of the morning.  She does her math with her favorite pen.  I come in and check her work and sign off on it.  We banter about everything.  She feeds her two fish.  She puts her clothes on....slowly while watching morning show on Discovery Kids, and I come in and check on her every 5-10 minutes.  She practices for her Friday spelling test, I sit on the bed with her and we read her reading assignment, well, she reads it anyway.  We go through the words she's learning on flash cards, and then she just giggles, giggles, giggles!  By now she's mostly dressed, put the two dollars in her pocket (gets upset with me when I pick an outfit without pockets!), put her snack in her backpack, put her jacket, socks, and shoes on. Then she washes her face and takes her vitamins after much protest.  Brushes her own hair.  It's Euphoric!

Spider Girl

Lexie has decided that she is half human and half jumping spider.  Where she got the idea, I'm not really sure.  This morning, after we finished her four homework questions, she was sitting with me and telling me that there was a "fellow" jumping spider in the library yesterday.  She related their conversation, then thought about it and said, "Actually, I couldn't talk with him, because I'm half human."


Saturday, Lex and I went bowling with John, Shannon and Bill.  She's starting to enjoy it pretty much.

First Grade

I'm upset with myself for not keeping up with this sprite blog.  I have a new resolution to do better at it.  Lex started first grade last Tuesday. She loves it, but she comes home so tired from the extra hours. 

 

Almost exactly at the same time, both Lex and John thought up the idea of a webcast for Lex.  Unfortunately, they picked me as the camera girl, so while I've got some great stuff, it's not edited, and I've been lazy enough to not upload it anywhere.  I'll get on that too. 

 

Lex's latest antic is to try to get Munkee, our one year old adoptee cat, into the shower.   She actually having some success.  Oh, I remember the days when I tried to get my cats into the bath/shower with me at a younger age.  It seems so much more difficult to supervise as a parent!  I remember the excitement of the project at a young age, but I'm pretty sure I was more clandestine at it than Lex is. I believe I wanted to keep it a secret from my Mom, but she actually wants my help...  and I'm not sure why, but I try. Munkee is her cat as much as mine, but she has some power over him that I'm baffled by.  He'll let her take him into the shower without so much as scrathing her, let alone tearing her to pieces.  He just comes back out and licks himself dry.  Rather stoic cat.

 

There is so much else that's been going on, I'll have to work on putting it all into this diary/blog.
--
Iechyd da!

more pics

Mini Update

Lex got her first bee sting last week. Middle finger left hand. When asked if it hurt, she said it did a little at first. I'm such a baby. I remember mine hurting like crazy.

Lex "graduates" from kindergarten next week. She's pretty excited.

Her latest "thing" is the Nintendo DS [our Wii is broken :( ]. She has six different games already. They range from taking care of pets, adventure games, and her latest is a fashion plate game. She loves it.

Life is a highway, eh?

Rules of life as discovered on the highway:  In the fast lane doing 60, I'm supposed to be in the right lane, eventually, for my exit, but I feel it's moving too slow.  I figure that by the time I get up past the Pepsi truck up about 30 cars, I'll still be enough back from the tunnel to change lanes.  Goal setting.  I approach the truck minutes later, move into the center lane, then into the right lane just in front of the truck.  As my head revolves back around from checking my mirrors to change lanes...nine cars up, another Pepsi truck.  As I'm laughing at myself, I spot one log truck heading East bound, another log truck West bound.  Figure out that riddle.

Lexie Speaks! (a little)

I ask Lex if she wants to do another "Lexie Speaks," and she yells, "Yes!" Then, Lexie runs into the room, “guess what! I was playing with the cat and the string, and you know what the cat’s name is? It’s Munkee, and he’s arriving, and that’s all for the day.” As Lex giggles like crazy and runs outta de room with Munkee chasing her and a long piece of yarn. She's still giggling, It's the best!

Lexie Foos

"Well, I wanna show everyone a picture, but I have a couple words to say. Are you writing every word I say? (mom, yes) Come on, come on all my friends. everyone I know you all think I'm going to make words for you today, but I'm not actually write words to you, I'm going to show you a picture."

Back to Mom. Lexie wants to go to Hollywood. Why you ask? Because it's a cool place and according to Lex there are pop stars there and she now, just this moment, would rather go to Hawaii.

Now we're going to find a picture of something on Google. BRB

Lexie Speaks!

"Everyone:  Names family. The bestest things in the world are the greatest things.  Like candy and toys and puppies.  What can you do without them? They're the cutest things in the world. Also candy is sweet.  Do you remember our Halloween? I hope you had a great time on Halloween, when it was Halloween a long time ago. And Santa gives you toys.  So give him a thank-you on the next Christmas when he comes. Give him a cookie.  Try to see Santa.  If you give him a bite of cookie and he's gone and you didn't see him, that's ok.   He will still like you.  Also he gives you swimming pools, toys, lots of stuff. Friends are friends. If you have a friend, and go up and meet him and you see someone talking please don't interrupt.  Because they're trying to say something to somebody.  And that's all for Lexie's speech. Bye.  See you later."

Lexie Speaks!

“Did everyone like this day? I know it was kinda rainy outside. But, at the end of the day it got a little sunnier. Today was a strange day for me. Well what happened today was I got picked up by Grammy and I had to go to this school that will help me read better. And it was some guy telling me what to do. And I almost got them all right, but I did a really good job. I earned the prize to keep. It was a little parachute guy, but then I didn’t want the parachute so I took it off. Good bye.”

Lexie Speaks!

World, it's summer today, so you should be going to fun places. You could go to a swimming pool, you could play outside. You could even play outside with your friends. Think of anything you can do on these lovely days. Oh guess what, my Grammy told me today that it will be raining tomorrow, but sunny all weekend. I'm hating the rain. That's all, bye, see ya later.

Lexie Speaks!

Everyone in the whole world: Did you think of your plans yet, because I'll be here to see what your plans are today? I'll be here to read your plans and well, just be happy if you did all the things. I want to do something. Guess what. Today was fiesta day. For the whole weekend, celebrate the fiesta, and see what your parents say about the fiesta. Bye, see you later, have a great weekend of fiesta. (Mom says, "but it's not the weekend yet.) But when it is the weekend, the greatest in the world, you celebrate the people in the world. What happened to me today, I um, Mom, what is that thing called? (we go out into the living room, hook arms and spin around) Square Dancing! So if you know the square dance, then tell me what you think of the square dance. Telling the world. Could you please stop writing everything I say. Ha ha giggle giggle. I'm serious!

Junior Ranger

Lexie is now a junior ranger of the National Parks Service! The weekend before last, John took us to a National Park Family Day at Ft. Vancouver. We had a great time, Lexie especially. At the beginning of the event was an information booth where Lexie learned her 'mission.' To become a Junior Ranger she needed to go to at least five different booths to collect stamps. She colored a bear, panned for gold, visited with an owl and a turkey vulture, made a 'sea biscuit', touched a beavers tail (at which point she asked the ranger why they took it off the beaver!), made a paper bat, and looked at a vast and sundry assortment of park-ish stuff, all while learning about Northwest parks. At the end she had earned a Junior Ranger patch, pin, and signed and dated certificate with her name on it. Another fabulous weekend!

Junior Ranger

Lexie Speaks!

Every one is charms of joy, everyone is a big hug. Share. All the chipmunks and squirrels that need homes, come back to this dot-com and tell us what you have done to help the world. And it's the bestest thing to do when you help an animal. So go right to this dot.com and tell all the things you have done to help the world. It's the greatest thing! Bye! See you later!

Thanks JDK

Thank you John, Sweetie! You have always been my best friend and I will always treasure you. Lexie thinks the world of you and we will be yours forever! Lexie sends love and "when can we go do something again!" as she begrudgingly lays her head down for the night. Love!

Lexie Speaks!

Lex and I decided to try something new. We were sitting out on the back deck, her swinging in her favorite hammock swing, me sitting in a camping chair. I asked her, "If you wanted to say something to the world tonight, what would it be?" Her answer is this, "I'm a little girl, I want my mom to get married, I have superpowers but I don't tell anybody about them. And I have the bestest friends in the world. I went to Seattle, in a hotel. And I went with my new friend Jason, and that's all."

Blog promises

I've been neglecting this blog so much lately, I've wondered if the inertia would lead to the end of it. But no! I won't laze out and let it gather too many cobwebs. I have pictures and news. Lexie is doing better than ever! And so am I! We've been having a blast, and love of weekends has taken on a whole new meaning! For the last few weeks, I've been using my break-time at work to walk and listen to a fabulous book (Outliers Rocks!). Starting this next week, I'll make a serious effort to update this blog on one of my breaks. "Life is good," is and understatement. Right now, Lex is lounging and resting while re-watching The Incredibles. We got home from a wonderful trip to the beach. I'll try to parse out some of the last few weeks in the next few blogs.

Probably a video only a mother could love, but since the blog is dedicated to roller sprite... I happen to get softy towards the end when she waves at another little girl. Then she waves at Lucas, who is falling down under the camera I'm shooting the video with. She throws the thumbs up sign and rolls on.

Lexie couldn't get enough of the fact that we were going to take the train (Max) to the train.

Lexie crawls into one of the African Village exhibits at the zoo.

I have no idea where they came up with the pose. There was no direction going on by the moms.
I'm looking forward to getting Lexie's pictures developed.

Her Grammy bought her a disposable for the trip. I can't find her little cheapy Barbie digital she had a couple years ago.

I like the Giraffe exhibit better than Oregon also.
Giraffe!

A slpash of color, this guy was still hard to find.

The homies chillin'


Here's grandma. She has a reputation for this face. I have a video of her that a little amusing too.

A beautiful Bald Eagle...
And his ginormous nest! The zoo keeps them until they are rehabilitated from whatever ails them, and then releases them.

A Wallaroo...



And a Wallaby on the move.

This zoo has the best habitats of any I've seen. I love how natural they look and how much space there is.
This would have been a better shot if the sun was out, but oh well...
There are even Salmon in the water! The display says that the depth of the pool makes it more challenging for the bears to catch the fish, and most times they have to work as a team.

Beautiful cat!
I just love this zoo!

Lexie practices the art of camouflage.

Flamingos...

Sneaky duck getting into the flamingo soup...hmm...

It's extremely difficult to get a decent shot of the city from the deck of the Space needle, especially at night. No tri-pod or even a spot to put the camera down, plenty of wind, obstacles, etc.

So these were the best I could do.
Bathroom sign at the Sci-fi museum.

Seattle Skyline from the harbor tour. On Saturday, we walked from the train station on the far left to the Space Needle.
We got to sit in the front of the monorail each time. The train gets up to 40 mph. It's quite fun!
Taking a corner on the monorail.
The side of the sci-fi/music museum.

clam, black tipped shark, and Lex and Jason at the Seattle Police Museum

New ears

Little angel gets earrings.

Yesterday was great!  Tracy and Sierra met us at Cedar Hills Crossing to go to Claire's.  Lex got her ears pierced.  She was such a little trooper.  Didn't even flinch.

This morning in the car on the way to daycare Lexie gave me the lowdown on Leprechauns.  She informed me that if you catch one you get to make one wish.  She then let me know that if she catches one, her wish is going to be that she can read.  Gotta love her!

Crazy sadness

Tiki, 15 1/2 year old magnificent cat is on to a better place. Lex visits his grave site every day, and generally takes the whole ordeal with much more stride than I do. I'm pretty sure the first time I had a animal companion loss was when I was in junior high. She is so much more resiliant.

Today Lex and I are dealing with two under the age of four, over 80 pound, dogs...who love to pummel each other. Our dog, Griffen, and Corky's, Chance. We're boarding her for a couple days while they go do the camping thing. Payback is that Next weekend-into-the-week, they will watch Griff while Lex and I Amtrak up to Seattle with Carrie and Jason.

It's a brilliantly NorthWest typical day, and we are enjoying the obligation to vegetate in non-public attire so as to appreciate lounging around. Lex is sprouting a cold, again. Thanks be to Jah that she handles them so well. I have been feeling remiss that I haven't blogged in a while and then came about a friends blog I hadn't realized existed. Before beginning my parusal, I decided to make a mediocare entry in this tribute.


Mareseatoatanddoeseatoatsandlittlelambseativeyouwouldeativytoowouldntyou.