Eh, I don't know....

I'm Lucy!

2008-03-25T23:08:00.001-07:00

Which Chronicles of Narnia character are you most like?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Lucy Pevensie

Lucy Pevensie

83%

Aslan

77%

Peter Pevensie

63%

Mr. Beaver

63%

Susan Pevensie

53%

Edmund Pevensie

53%

Mrs. Beaver

50%

Mr. Tumnus

50%

Ginarrbrik

44%

Oreius

30%

The White Witch

13%

because I was tagged...and it was easy...

2008-03-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

You Are Cilantro

The bad news is that there are some people who can't stand you.

The good news is that most people love you more than anything else in the world.

You are distinct, unusual, fresh, and very controversial. And you wouldn't have it any other way.

What Spice Are You?

Tis pretty accurate, no?

A Perfect Day.

2007-09-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

I had to take Girl-child for some testing to get her release from prison er..... the local school system. Was late for that (I HATE being late) cause I ended up having to take the boys.

Got a flat tire at the testing place.

Spent an hour at Les Schwab getting said tire fixed.

Today was a perfect day.

Yes, yes it was. The rest of the day was wonderful enough to make up for it all.

Dami called it a beach party.

I called it exactly what I needed.

We met The Cs at the Vortex and we traipsed down to the beach. The day started out with fog, which would have been perfect if it had stayed but it burned off and well, we were warm. We had soup, and bread, and cookies and a fire and pumpkin bread, and the kids played lots of games that us adults still don't know the rules of. Trees were climbed:

Yes, that is plural:

Moms knitted:

Friends were found and saved from a most certain (unpleasant) fate

Fires were tended:

Marshamllows were roasted:

And LIFE was enjoyed

Oh yeah...and Niki stood ina tree.....

It's been a while

2007-09-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

I go through spurts updating this thing. I have determined that this latest lapse in blogging is due to sheer exhaustion. I am fucking tired. So, it looks like I last posted in the middle of August and about that time, I started a new full time job and since then, my kids had their first day not back at school!! This is three major changes in the last 5ish months. I am now a single, ft working, homeschooling mama and I am fucking tired. I have been watching what I eat more carefully since I feel that the foundation of feeling good starts with nutrition but I have always had fatigue issues, ever since puberty, and I feel that there is an underlying cause to that, though I don't know what it is and if I seek (mainstream, which is what is covered by insurance) medical help, they are going to look at me and tell me to lose weight. I know that has a huge part in it but folks, I got fat after I started puberty because I WAS EXHAUSTED! I have tried losing weight, I eat relatively well, defintely not a SAD (standard American diet) and while I am not out running triathlons (oh how I wish I could) I have three kids and with my three kids there is no such thing as sedentary. At least not if you want the house to remain standing. I can't, at this point, afford to see a naturopath so I am at a loss.

Bit by the knitting bug

2007-08-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

EVERYONE!

I haven't knit in a while due to lack of motivation and the boys destroying my needles en masse . It was ok though, the were aluminum anyway ;)

Well, Laly got a knitting kit for her birthday. She has practiced knitting for a while now, but my instuctions are not great so I got her the Klutz book, which is actually pretty good and came with some pretty yarn, bamboo needles and other knitting goodies. Seeing her knitting a storm inspired me so I replaced my needles and got some yarn. Damiyan also wanted to try his hand at it and actually does pretty well. His stitches are way tight though, huge (not) surprise to anyone who knows him.

Laly, here on out, should be known as the fiber princess. First the felt, then the sewing, and now this....sigh she is going to put us all to shame I imagine.

So, I did not get it all done....

2007-08-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Not even close, but it was not out of lazyness or anything. I got sidetracked by something equally important, in my eyes.

After MONTHS of having no washing machine, I am the proud owner of a 7 years young high efficiency front loading washing machine. Thank you Craigslist! I had people who told me they had a washing machine available over and over and I waited, not really having the money to spend on one if not necessary, so held out. Well, reaching the very end of all clothes even resembling clean, and starting a new job today, I have been looking around for a used one. I was hoping to find one being given away but even if that didn't happen, I was willing to fork out a nominal sum. Well, this one was available and was way cheap so I went for it. Today has been spent being soothed by the sensual sounds of agitating clothes. And after a few months, you bet your ass that is a sensual sound.

Girl-Child got quite a suprise today too. As did I for that matter. She has been in to needle crafts lately and on and off for quite a while. I communicated this to her Dada (my former stepmother, the kids godmother) who happens to be a life long seamstress and guess what showed up via a brown clad man today? This right here .....

Lucky Girl.

Cooking today

2007-08-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

As I start work tomorrow, and as I will be working a swing shift (at least for the first month and change) and as I am rather picky about what my children eat, I am cooking all the meals (snack and dinner) that they will eat while I am working. As I want to spend a majority of the morning before I go to work, with them and not necessarily in the kitchen, I am trying to get a lot of it done today. My hope is to get this stuff done today:

Two chickens (free range) roasted with which I will make:

Chorizo chicken taco filling

Chicken and dumplings

Chicken Soup
and something else

Chili (2 meals worth)
Spaghetti (2 meals worth)
Pork fried rice
Salmon cakes (2 meals worth)
Meatloaf
Bean Soup
Broccoli Beef
Fried Zucchini
Pinto Beans (VAST quantities)
Green tea muffins
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut butter cookies
peanut butter balls
Granola
Capirotada (Mexican Bread Pudding)

If I can get even most of this done, I will be happy.

In today's toddler related drama, Pickles is mourning the loss of his backpack carrier that he outgrew. I, goodness forbid, decided to pass it on to someone who could use it. That, apparently was not acceptable. Or at least it was not acceptable to let him see me pass it off to the lucky Freecycler, because now we are in distress....

Oh yeah, Now I memmer...

2007-08-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Today was Henna Fest 2K7 at our house. ~L~ did this one day and ever since my Girl-Child has wanted to have her hair that color. Lucky for her, as I don't believe in her chemicaling her hair at barely 9 years old, all natural wonderful henna produces a rather similar hue. Our local HFS has body art quality henna and a wonderful person I know online has wonderfully detailed instructions in henna "how-to".

So, this morning, I got a nice big bowl mixed up ready to glop the Girl-Child up and Boyus Maximus comes in and decides that he wants his hair done as well. So, after all was said and done, we three were gooey, wrapped up and the bathroom was decidedly messier.

Boyus Minimus wanted in on the action but that was to obvious of a disaster in the making that I had to pass...

We are all rinsed out now and everyone is more red on the head that we started the say with. Success I'd say.

I was going to post about something

2007-08-11T14:51:00.001-07:00

And then I forgot what it was.....

"Doctor" appointment today

2007-08-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

For all the kids. I quote doctor because they are seeing a PNP (pediatric nurse pratitioner) and that actually makes me happy. I have gotten on better with the PNP, ARNP and general nursing staff better than actual doctors throughout my kids lives. Well, save for one ped that was awesome but he defected to AZ because health care is so difficult to actually practice here if you have little tolerance for red tape and jumping through hoops, but I digress. Anyhow, I am actually looking forward to meeting here, and even though we (they) don't NEED to be seen for anything, they have not been in almost two years and I think it pertinent to actually have some facade of medical professional input on their records. Also, we need a referral to get Laly to the eye doc again. We are seeing this person on the recommendation of several friends, and thus, don't anticipate a mound of crap at not vaccinating. I also don't anticipate a whole lot of "here take these little white pills and aaallll will be better" when there is a problem.

Now, if only I could pluck up the courage to get myself seen. Alas, this wonderful office does not take 28 yo women and thus far, my friends have not been able to tell me where to go (well, they tell me where to go on a regular basis ;) but that has a whole other meaning)

Starting work soon...

2007-08-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

So, I got a full time job recently. I start this Monday coming up. It is just call center (in bound, support type. No telemarketing crap. That is so not for me :lol) work but it is a flexible schedule and those of you who know me, or have to listen to me on a regular basis, know that has been stressing me out as far as the childcare/home school aspect goes. So that is a relief. It will be good to have to stress less about money and hopefully get ahead on stuff. I love my kiddos so much and it was scary to consider how I was going to work out them not going to school from 9-3 like their peers in childcare settings.

So, it has been suggested to me many times...

2007-06-18T20:49:00.001-07:00

that I write all this down. I suppose they are right.

*disclaimer...I make no assurance that this is infallible truth. The title of this blog says exactly what this is..."the facts as I RECALL them"*

This particular part of the journey started early early April 28th. I received a phone call from the Washington State Patrol saying the my husband (Guadalupe Ramirez Garcia, but will be referred to as Anthony) had been pulled over and if I could verify his identity, they would process him and release him to me. When I told her his name, she asked if he had ever had ID in the state of Washington because nothing was coming up on him. I told her no, that he was from Texas. She gave me an "ahhhh" and put me on hold again. She came back and told me not to bother getting my kids up, that he was going to jail and probably would be there for a while. I asked why and she said that she had found that he had been deported and is thus here "illegally".

Northwest (almost) sublime

2007-05-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

My wonderful friend ~L~ has coined a phrase; "northwest sublime". I think it is a moment that tells/shows us PNWers exactly why we live here. It usually involves children and almost always involves the outdoors, at least in my interpretation of it. We (almost) had one of those moments today. I say almost because there are several factors that could have made it even better (and anyone who reads the rest of this and knows me a bit can identify at least one of those) but that is not important.

It was a BEAUTIFUL spring PNW day today! Warm, but not HOT. Sunny and since this is spring in the Northwest that means that the world sparkles. I felt it would be a wrong on all things childhood to pick the kids up from their (indoor) school and take them home to our (indoor) house. I just could not do that today. We stopped to pick up a beverage for everyone and headed down to one of the most wonderful places in our city; Pt. Defiance. Pt. Defiance is much more than a park. It is a zoo and aquarium, a forest, a playground, a beach front, a garden, a monument to living history and more. We parked the car, grabbed a bag (for litter) and took off on a path. The kids were so wonderful; they would dash ahead but would always remain within "say your name" distance. Pickles kept a watchful eye out for "trashers" to collect in our bag. They inspected fallen trees from the winters storms, speculated on what critter makes its home in the base of a tree, navigated trails and most importantly, had fun! There was one point near the end of our traipse where the sun was shining through the trees, everything was sparkling and the kids were singing a song that I knew it would have been a crime to take them home after school.

There are almost an infinite number of more desireable places for outdoor adventure but few where you can have a blast, and still make it home at a reasonable dinner time at your home in the urban core?

And ~L~, aren't you proud I updated on consecutive days? ;)

Sick to DEATH of bad drivers!

2007-05-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

My goodness. With all of the stressors in my life (some of you know what is going on, some of you don't. Knowing is not integral to understanding this rant as it is valid regardless) my tolerance for stupidity and bullshit is nil. No, it is less than nil. I am in tolerance it in debt.

It seems, or I may just be more aware, that drivers/driving are particularly suck-tastic lately. And I am beyond forgiving people for "mistakes". Stupidity, behind the steering wheel of a car, is not forgivable. Sorry, not today thanks. Perhaps tomorrow, but that is not looking good either.

To the lady several days ago who ran the stop sign. YOU ALMOST SLAMMED INTO THE SIDE OF THE VEHICLE WHERE THE CHILDREN SIT!!! Like I had to swerve to the left so dramatically that I ended up where YOU were trying to get. I know that rather LARGE octagonal (and RED!) sign on a stick can be difficult to see in broad daylight with no visual obstructions and perhaps I could understand had the street you were traveling not have such devices periodically, or no traffic regulation device at all, which means you should not have been traveling fast enough to NOT see it. I also am not thrilled how you TRIED to just keep going on around me , yes "tried", because I stopped my van directly in front of you unobservant ass so as to stop you from continuing on your path in order to point out previously mentioned big red traffic regulation device, and hopefully prompt you to be more observant on the rest of you journey, and future ones as well.

To big BMW lady at Safeway. You know that diagonally striped area you were driving through? Yeah, that is a pedestrian walking area. Those white lines are telling YOU that people are you know, going to be on foot in that area likely going from the grocery store to there car, or vice versa. They did not put those stripes there to look pretty, BUT to some, they are rather intriguing. Some like my three year old. Yeah, the kid likes stripes? So do lots of elderly men, probably not in the same way though. I regret that my son's joy at hoping from strip to stripe caused you so much delay that you felt the need to honk at us and make aggressive "hurry up" type gestures with your hands. Perhaps if he had done that for a minute or more, because I know how long that can be to those with short attention spans, I know because he, being 3 has one. However, you only alloted us THREE hops before your loud auto-outburst. THREE! That was what, less than 5 seconds I would guess. Perhaps I should not have called you an asshole in front of my son (because then I had to explain to him, when he asked, why you were an asshole) but the young gentleman in his late teens or early twenties with the little souped up import car thought you were being a jerk to, so hey, I was not alone in that sentiment.

By the way, trying to get a toddler to do something by scaring the piss out of them with a car horn that happens to blare rather close to their ear level, not the best idea.

And finally, Mr. F250. Ok, I know that some of you are not real big on change, or things out of the ordinary. That could explain why you are driving such a beast of a vehicle when we are losing plants, animals and health in response to not taking care of our Earth. That is probably to much of a discussion to add into this one so we will leave that there for now. However, I know that "T" shaped intersection is wonky. The people going straight across the top of the "T" have a stop sign and the people turning from the base of the "T" onto the top do not. I am sure that throws you off. However, choosing not to follow the directions of the stop sign, i.e. STOPPING and staying stopped and yielding to those with the right of way, is not an option. It's just not. However, if you chose follow your own "stop sign policy", please do not get irate at those who follow the official "stop sign policy". Whether it makes sense to you or not, it IS your fault. It just is, accept it graciously and move on. It makes you look like a whole lot less an asshole for the vehicle you are driving.

Well, my dad has cancer again.

2007-04-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

My dad had colon cancer back in 03. He had surger to remove it that summer and underwent chemotherapy treatment the following fall and winter. Since then, his colonoscopies have been clear. In the last several months he has had a lot of abdominal pain and after a whole lot of crap (which none of you who feel the way I do about doctors will be surprised about) he found out that he has cancer again. It is adenocarcinoma I think.

*Sigh* I am not scared in a "my dads going to die" way, but just anxious at what it means. I am very codependent and feel that I have to take care of him. Before, he lived with us and so it was not that different that having another child. Now he does not, but lives close and I know that I will still have to go over to his house and take care of him. Which is fine. I worry about him being alone but I can't have him live with us again. I know that I will feel guilt if I can't do things for him but I also know that I won't be able to do everything for him either, if tha makes any sense. I have three kids, a business, a part time job, things that I am working to accomplish some of my life goals, etc...

Sigh, I wish there were more hours in the day.

The New Author Challege

2007-04-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am a member of Paperback Swap (if you would like to join, leave me your email address and I will send you a referral) and on their discussion boards, a challenge was issued to read a new author for every letter of the alphabet. I need to read more and I have a such TBR list so I decided to get in on this. Here is my list, the ones that are crossed out are ones that I have already read this year and the others are ones I am thinking of reading for that letter.

A Alvarez, Julia-----How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent
B ~~Ben Mezrich-----Bringing Down the House~~
C
D Dumas, Alexandre-----The Count of Monte Cristo
E Esquivel, Laura-----Like Water for Chocolate
F ~~Ford, G.M.----Who in the Hell is Wanda Fuca?~~
G Gregory Maguire-----Wicked (currently reading)
H ~~Haddon, Mark-----the curious incident of the dog in the night-time~~
I
J ~~James Frey----A Million Little Pieces~~
K Khaled Hosseini-----The Kite Runner
L Lahiri, Jhumpa-----The Namesake
M Moe, John-----Conservatize Me (currently reading)
N Nafisi, Azar-----Reading Lolita in Tehran
O Otto M. Frank-----Diary of a Young Girl
P
Q
R ~~Rapp, Anthony----- Without You: A Memoir of Loss, Love and the Musical Rent~~
S Sue Monk Kidd-----The Secret Life of Bees
T Tolkein, J.R.R-----The Hobbit, LOTR
U
V
W Washington, Booker t------Up From Slavery
X
Y ~~Yee, James-----For God and Country:Faith and Patriotism Under Fire~~
Z

So, do you have any suggestions for the letters that I have not decided one yet?

Lory yelled at me again....

2007-04-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah, she yelled at me to update my blog, so here I am. It is hard sometimes because when I have something blog-worthy (not to be confused with sponge worthy, which is something ENTIRELY different) I rarely find myself at an opportunity to actually do it. Like the other day, in the shower, with the glass. That was blog worthy, but wet, broken glass, naked....not a great time for blogging. I have so much to be doing, but it is hard to figure out where to start. I need to clean, clean, clean, finish the taxes, work on a grocery list, READ as I am about to be buried alive by my tbr pile, you know stuff like that. I will get started one omsething and then get distracted and then forget where I was. It is so irritating.

Dami's dairy free is going well. We have seen small changes but not monumental. It has been only 2 weeks, and I want to give it at least a month. He has been un-leaky(leaky is the term I have given to his physical symptoms. When he is reacting to whatever it is, his eyes and nose start to leak, and his lips and cheeks get chappy) and his behavior has been somewhat improved but he most certainly has his rowdy, loud, obstinate times. However, there have been a couple slips like my last blog and the other day when he "forgot" and ate a TJ cheese puff thing. So, we shall see, I hope.

The first complication

2007-04-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, seriously honey. What part of "Don't give the kid dairy" is it that is difficult to understand? Ok, so I would be able to let it go if it was one of the hidden dairy things that you are probably not aware of. But CHEESE? Dude, really cheese....HOW could you forget that? And I SPECIFICALLY said "NO CHOCOLATE" last night, did you think that applied only to LAST NIGHT? No chocolate means "no chocolate last night, today or three weeks from now. NO chocolate unless I tell you otherwise!" Got it now? When I say "call me if you have any questions", I mean it. I would rather you call me and drive me bat shit thank give the kid dairy, and then...AND THEN go to sleep and leave me to deal with Boyus Maximus on crack, k? Thanks.

The first week

2007-03-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

Damiyan has been doing real well with the new diet. He knows that there are somethings that he cannot eat and he is ok with that. I would say that we have seen mild-moderate change. He has been rather sensitive. He has not been nearly as loud, or as rambunctious, though there are certainly times!! It is definitely a PITA to make different food for him sometimes, especially for complicated meals but it is ok. So far so good!

Dairy elimination diet

2007-03-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

After much reading, I have decided that eliminating dairy is the best place to start for Damiyan. It was odd, I talked to him about it, as I have about different things I have looked at regarding his respiratory and behavior issues. Most of it he has been pretty non-responsive about. When I mentioned this to him, he asked what dairy meant and when I told him, HE AGREED with me. He said "yeah, I think milk and stuff makes me breath funny and act wild"...well the kid should know better than anyone so we are going to try it. He is very much on board with this, his only concern was that "daddy will eat all of my dairy free food, because he eats everything". When I assured him that I would mark his food, he was fine...lol

So I plan on using this as a diary of sorts to document how it does. We will see.

The vortex is REAL!

2007-03-24T17:15:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went to the house of ~L~ yesterday for lunch and a beach trip. She, and others, will tell you that once you arrive at the hacienda that you enter a sort of vortex where time and reality are not on the same plane of existence. We left for the beach around 1530 or so and I swear that we were only there for about 30 minutes. Take the 15 minutes to walk there and back (each) there is no reason that we got back to the house at 1740. But we did. And that 1740 somehow got to be 2045 by the time we left. There is just no other explanation for that other than THE VORTEX!