Five Question Friday

Check out Mama M at My Little Life to participate.







1. Do you know how to play a musical instrument?

Not as well as I would like to, but then again, this particular skill wouldn't get used much these days anyway. I used to play the flute. In junior high. Now the only thing I can do is put my fingers in the right place. I also play the piano a bit and would like to a lot more, but (1) I don't have much extra time to do it and (2) we don't have a piano, which is actually more inhibiting than the time thing.

2. What is your pet peeve while driving?

It used to be people that would zoom past a long line of cars waiting to get on or off some freeway and then cut in at the very last second. Now? I can honestly say I don't have any. I don't care anymore. In fact, I'm the annoying car that let's all those "zoomers" cut in front of me. What changed? I'm glad you asked.

The first time Wesley had breathing issues (asthma like, but only manifesting with every other virus he gets) we took him to the clinic and walked out with a nebulizer and a prescription for albuterol and a steroid. Being the novice that I was when it comes to such things, we left the clinic for lunch with Sean since Wes seemed to be doing better after his treatment at the clinic. By the time lunch was over Wesley was in desperate need of another dose of albuterol and we had a 20-minute drive ahead of us to pick it up at Target. If you've ever heard your child wheezing and crying and seen him retracting you can guess what kind of mental state I was in during the endless drive down 169. In order to make it through the stop light that was the last obstacle between us and the albuterol, I had to make a left hand turn from the left side of a two-lane turn lane. Then I needed to immediately turn right. I knew I wouldn't be popular trying to sneak back over into the right lane, but I never dreamed that someone would actually do everything in her power to prevent that from happening. Well she did. And I was mad. And I wanted to follow her into Target and tell her why I was being such a rude driver. I didn't. The prescription was more important. I scooped up Wesley and his new nebulizer, rushed to the prescription counter, opened the package and "nebbed" him right there in front of the Q-Tips. I learned a lot that day. First of all, don't wait to get help or treat your child when he can't breathe. Secondly, people do things they wouldn't normally do, i.e., drive rudely, when they are in crisis-mode. This second lesson has given me empathy for those "rude drivers" and, in turn, so much more patience. You never know what someone is dealing with at the moment and how that may influence their decisions and behavior. So I err on the side of compassion and driving is a much more pleasant experience now.

3. Would you rather have a housekeeper or unlimited spa services?

Housekeeper! I didn't even need to read what came after "or" because I would choose a housekeeper over almost anything else.

4. Is there a song that you hear that will take you back to the moment, like a junior high or high school dance?

I'm not completely sure what moment this question is referencing, but I think everyone has songs that remind them of events. And now that I'm sitting here trying to think of an example, I'm learning that the song must trigger the memory. The memory, most definitely, does not trigger the song.

5. What song best represents your life right now?

Is there a song about sweeping floors, wiping noses, reading stories, playing legos and feeding children? Because that's the one that represents my life.

Fruit and Family

It started with

an ENORMOUS

strawberry

and ended

with a very

happy

mother's

day

Yes, yes I know this post is a bit out-of-date, but I'm working on catching up so you'll have to live in May with me for awhile.

Five Question Friday

Time again for five question Friday with Mama M.





1. What is your favorite thing about summertime?


That it's not winter. I pretty much like everything about summer except the abundance of bugs. If I have to pick just one thing, though, it would probably be sleeping with the windows open on cool summer nights. Pure. Restful. Bliss.2. What is your ideal retirement location (if money didn't matter)?


I don't really care much where I retire as long as I'm close to family and friends. Maybe because retirement is soooooooo far into the future I don't really have an accurate perception of what I'll want, but I'm not sure why I would feel much different than I do today. I'm happy here in Minnesota, but I'm sure I would be just as happy in South Carolina as long as my friends and family were near by. Oh - and my church. I love my church.


3. Do you live in the same town you grew up in?


Sort of. I grew up in the inner city and thought I'd always live there. Now I live in a suburb and, I have to admit, I really like suburbia. I've even considered living further out where we could have more than a 1/4 acre lot and 10 feet between our house and the neighbors.

4. What nervous habit did you have as a child that you kicked to the curb before becoming an adult?

Hmm...I don't know if it was a nervous habit or not, but I used to bite my fingernails. Then when I stopped biting them the were brittle and thin. And then I got pregnant and something about those pregnancy hormones changed my nails and now they're pretty normal. I think. I guess I don't spend a lot of time examining other people's nails to see how mine compare.


5. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while on the job?

I'm sure there is something that I've blocked from my memory, but I really can't think of anything. However, during all three of my pregnancies I had nightmares about needing to deliver at work. We have a trained emergency responder team so I know, medically, everything would have been fine. The only problem would have been finding a new job during my maternity leave because, after my coworkers saw more of me than I would want to share, there would be no way I would set foot in the door again. Now that would be my most embarrassing moment, you know, if it happened. But it didn't. Thankfully.

Somewhere Out On the Rainbow

What, you may be wondering, could be so interesting in the back yard as to capture the attention of...

 

all three of our children...

 

for over an hour?

Here's a hint...

And another...

 

Ta da!

 

After two agonizing hours of practicing their patience, the Rainbow Man (notice I said "the," meaning one...uno...all by himself...in two hours...a feat that would have taken novices such as ourselves two weeks) made all of their back yard dreams come true when he came to the door and announced that he was finished.

 

Since that gloomy (just the weather) day in May, we've spent lots of time sliding (not the snow kind),

 

climbing,

 

rope-swinging,

 

baby-swinging,

 

and tire-swinging.

 

So this summer, if you can't find us, we're probably out back...on the "park," as the kids call it...swinging, under-dogging, pirating, rock-climbing, fire-fighting (the hose is a great free! accessory) and having as much fun as our imaginations can imagine!

The Crew

When you're in charge...

you have to keep a close eye on your crew...

 

in case they start doing something...

 

you don't want them to.

 

If you want something done right...

 

make sure you tell them exactly how to do it.

Dinosaurs, Balls and an Electric Man

Not a low-budget sci-fi thriller...sorry to disappoint. Rather, an immensely exciting trip to the Science Museum on a Preschool Playdate Monday. Did you know they had those? Me neither until very recently (or maybe not so recently given that it's been a gazillion years since I've updated the blog so anything within two months seems recent). An entire morning geared toward preschoolers (read, "it doesn't matter quite as much if your children run amok because they're younger than 5 and the staff at the museum know what to expect that day"). So much of it was over their heads, and mine to be honest, but they had a blast trying out all the experiments even if they didn't walk away with a complete understanding of quantum physics...maybe next time.

This guy was posed like The Thinker except that his left hand was holding some 'tricity in a globe instead of resting on his knee. Perhaps he was almost done thinking. 

Of course there were dinosaurs. Jack and Wes posed by the triceratops (my paleontological husband will be horrified to learn that this dino was almost labeled a stegosaurus...good thing I just visited the museum website to do some blog post research). They obliged my request for a picture, but I couldn't keep them long. They loved seeing how big the dinosaur bones were. They ran from one fossil to the next while I ran after Elise trying to keep her from climbing up the bones. I'm pretty sure the museum worker was close to a heart attack several times during our stay on the dino floor.

Next stop? The entire floor with things my children could play with. The last time I was at the science museum there was a small section on one floor with various hands-on activities for school-aged kids. Now it's an entire floor for kids of all ages! Actually it's pretty much the whole museum, but this floor especially. They ran from one experiment to the next learning about physics, biology, meteorology, etc. They played with magnets, measured their heart rates and made a tornado. And then they discovered the "ball machine."

Wesley did not throw this ball in the air nor is he waiting to catch it. Well maybe he is, but it's probably not going to come down.

 

This is like the opposite of a huge powerful vacuum. It blows air that holds the ball in the air. The idea is to rotate the air as far as you can without letting the ball drop. The kids didn't quite get that, instead preferring to see how quickly they could get the ball to drop out of the stream of air and on to the floor.

 

Probably their favorite display was the giant funnel with balls that rolled around and down into the hole in the center. It's the first thing they want to do when we visit the zoo too so I'm always sure to have three pennies on hand. The great thing about the one at the science museum is that it doesn't cost money. You just have to battle all the other kids for the shiny little balls to drop in.

Around and around and around and around and around and around and around went the balls. Back and forth and back and forth and back and forth went my little girl's head as she tracked them. It was a fantastic reminder of how much children have to learn and the wonder they have about the world around them.

 

Remembering that may make it easier to answer Wesley when he asks me "Why?" for the 5,368th time of the day...maybe.