Overheard

“Aarrrrrgh... I knew having a little sister was going to be a big job.”

-A, this afternoon, while trying to get J to come downstairs and play when she clearly didn’t want to.

Catching Up...

Last weekend was a blissful weekend...time away with D, a visit with one of my very best friends and her fabulous husband-to-be, and birthday cake made by my mom. It was wonderful. Then no school Monday (holiday), another, ANOTHER, calamity day on Wednesday (black ice and pea-soup fog), and meetings all day Friday. Altogether, not a bad week.

And I’m off to visit another of my very favorite people in a few minutes. She had a baby boy last Monday and I’m taking them dinner and gifts. I can’t wait to see the little guy!! Plus I figure a little bit of time in the unsure, bleary-eyed, what-day-is-it-again? upheaval of a house with a new baby should put to rest all of my recent maternal pangs of wanting just one more around here.

Here’s for Jessisca...a little info on big happenings at our alma mater a few weeks ago during the Valentine’s Day snowstorm. The tradition goes that if the archway of the main building on campus is filled with snow, classes will be cancelled for the following day since (oh so wrongly assumed!) no one will be able to enter or leave the building. It wasn’t such a big deal, I suppose, for this to occur back when we were students and this main classroom building was, in the words of my dear friend AM, a s***hole. However, I think the campus folks got a little crazy this time because the building just underwent an $18 million renovation. I think Jess will get a particular kick out of the “passionate pipers” element to the story.

Oh. And one funny before I go... Last night D and I left the kids with my nephew and his wife so that we could go to dinner. When we returned, my niece-in-law said that she and A were playing Go Fish. As she was dealing out the cards, he all of a sudden looked at her and said, “So. Whaddya know about Anna Nicole?” I didn’t know whether to laugh or be horrified. Finally, my addition to People.com is coming back to haunt me.

Not that Anyone REALLY Wants to Hear About More Snow Days

...but here we are. This is day 11. But a much better snow day than the ones just past. I had some things I had to get done at school, so I braved the roads (HA! Not a lick of snow on them...), dropped the kids at the sitter, and went to work. Briefly. Seems that when school’s out for snow days, everyone takes them seriously and stays home. So I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to accomplish, but, well, there’s always next week. And I got the official year-end damage. We’re now up to a whole week longer than we were supposed to go in June because of these damn days off. So much for all my “neener, neener, neener...I’m done before Memorial Day” teasing.

We’re off for a birthday weekend away sans kids. Leaving tonight. Can’t wait. I’m also meeting one of my best friends from college while we’re there. Really can’t wait for that.

I guess I better go fold laundry. Or put it away. Or pack the suitcases. Or unpack the suitcases from the last weekend away. Or, perhaps, all of the above.

Number 10

As in calamity day number 10. As in we’ve already got 5 make-up days in one district and (I think) 3 in the other.

I’m going freaking crazy.

And it’s not calamity enough to make us stay home, which is the kicker. I’m able to get out and do stuff I need/want to do, so we’re going to the mall to play in the play area and to see something other than the inside walls of our house.

Thank chocolate D is home this afternoon, or I might truly, honestly, I’m-not-kidding, lose my mind.

Maybe he’s right

I like to tease D because he thinks he’s all weather god or something. We’ve got the beeping weather station in our room. He makes predictions like he’s been to meteorology school. And this afternoon he predicted that I will have precisely one (perhaps two) days of school this week on account of the big storm that’s supposedly headed this way. I told him I just didn’t buy it, that everyone’s making a big deal out of nothing. (Apparently most of the people in our town are buying in to the idea of something major coming. Wal Mart was about sold out of milk, bottled water, and bread...)

Anyway. I just checked the weather. Not only are we under a winter storm watch beginning Tuesday morning, but the words snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain, and ice pellets are all in the forecast for the next 2 - 3 days.

Ice pellets? That can’t be good.

Logic

Of a 5-year old:

“I’ve heard that drinking lots of orange juice will make me strong and give me a fighting chance against germs. So I want to drink a lot of orange juice so I won’t have to wash my hands anymore.”

Of a 2-year old:

“I not go pee-pee in the potty til I wear my big-girl underpants.”

Ah. Now I see where we’ve gone wrong. We’re approaching all of these problems from the wrong angle. Perhaps we ought to let the children run the house.

What I Know Right Now

...and things I’ve learned this week.

1. As in-laws go, I’ve got it pretty good. I’ve known that for a long time, but this week I learned that, after spending nearly every waking moment with one or another of my in-laws, I’m now in withdrawal after not seeing them for 24 hours.
2. My mom is right. I really ought to be a bit more mindful of what I’m wearing when I leave the house to go out in public. I think I’m well past the age where I can look all right going out in a t-shirt and jeans with no makeup on. And I can just about guarantee that when I do go out like that, I’ll run into people I know.
3. Snow days are nice. That moment in the morning, when I’m just beginning to think about getting out of bed, and my school gets called off...well, there’s little more exciting than that. However...snow days become a lot less nice when we use up our 5 allotted days and cruise right into make-up days. I didn’t sign up for this school gig so that I could be going to school in July.
4. Methodists cook better than Episcopalians. It’s a limited survey I’ve done, but the Methodists are out in front. Waaaaaaaaaaay out in front.
5. When given the choice between leaving plants out in the -ahem- cool van or bringing them in to the warm, dry heat of the house, opt for the house. Apparently plants don’t appreciate below-zero temperatures.
6. Chez voiture is in no way ready to get a puppy. Yes, the one that visited yesterday was a-DOR-able, and yes, he did sort of really like A. But the poop on the floor? Yeah. Not so adorable.
7. Dementia must be awful. I’ve been walking around in a foggy daze most of the last week. It takes me several minutes to figure out what day it is when I wake up in the morning. Between the snow days and the family events going on, I’m having a hard time keeping things straight. I’m hoping that gets solved when I return to school next week. Um...just in time for the next snowstorm.





Papaw, here’s to you. We miss you.

Le grand-pere des Voitures is leaving us. It's a sad time for our family. We've been thrown into that strange suspended time where nothing really matters but the care and comfort of our loved one, and spending moments together. Everyone has been sharing stories around his bedside for the past few days, and even though I've heard almost all those stories before, it's amazing how comforting sharing a laugh about times past can be.

Having lost a parent at a young age, I've felt ever since then that I've somehow been hardened against the effects of loss. And grand-pere is old. We're finding some comfort in the fact that he has lived a long, full life that was largely untouched by illness up until the past month or so. But I'm finding that the loss of someone who means so much to my love's life is immensely painful. It's hard to watch him slowly slip away. It's hard to watch my usually stoic husband grieve.

It's been an unusual experience to walk through this process with our children. J, of course, is too young for attempted explanations. But A seems to understand the idea and appears to "get" what we're telling him, but only at that moment. The permanence of death is lost on a child of 5, as I suppose it should be. I feel so sad for our kids, that they'll only have met two of their grandparents, and that their memories of grand-pere will likely diminish over time since they are so young. I've looked at them differently these past few days. Their blue eyes, for which grand-pere is partly responsible, are more blue. J's resemblance to D's side of the family has become more obvious.

It's strange to me how we can pray for quick and peaceful end, but still wish with some part of our being (a selfish part, I suppose) that we didn't have to say goodbye. My childish being wants to believe that grand-pere is going to a place to be welcomed by those who have gone before. My adult being believes he will be whole again, and comfortable, and released, and at peace. I suppose we are now left to send him on with those thoughts.