Law & Motherhood

Today Monkey turned seven. We treated her to a Waffle and fresh fruit breakfast, and a small morning cupcake birthday song and candle snuffing. She was presented with her gifts; a brand new bicycle, with basket and bell, helmet and pads from her Dad and I, a snuggly bear she had been eyeing from her brother, and a “surprise adventure” from her grandparents. Then she ran off to swim all day at Nana’s and Papa’s while we got down to the business of unpacking PODS.

This afternoon we went to Nana’s for a party and all of us splashed a bit, had a fancy Hannah Montana cake, and finished the day off in style. She will get another party next weekend, for her friends, but we had to delay it due to the completely unpacked state of our house. (Sea of boxes people… cardboard everywhere I look.)

Tonight I sit and review the day, thinking that I really saw how big she is getting today. I clearly saw the length in her stride, heard the clarity of her arguments, and realized her sudden height and strength. I saw the young lady who will lock horns with me in high school, and will likely slay dragons later in life.

I saw my big girl.

Once she nestled trustingly against me, gazing into my face and patting my chin with pudgy baby hands. Now, she negotiates for additional ice pops, or t.v. time, or another bedtime story. She wiggles whenever I try to cuddle, and can’t seem to take off fast enough once her feet are once again on the ground. She wants to ride bikes, see friends, and play outside unattended.

She is busy, building a life outside of mine, a life where my worldly advice will be derisively repeated to her friends with her eyes rolled heavenward. A life where I can’t fix her owies with “magic crayon band-aids” sealed with a kiss.

I am too aware of my mortality today. It has gone by so quickly I can almost believe she sprung forth from my skull fully formed. Where is my fuzzy duck headed girl? Maybe if I sneak in while she is sleeping, and plant another kiss on her forehead, I will rediscover her.

Otter has come down with the stomach flu. He has been sick since yesterday afternoon, poor guy, and can’t seem to keep anything down. Of course, we don’t get our new insurance until Monday, so I can’t really take him in unless things get really bad. Hopefully I can get him to drink some pedialite or something.

It has been a crazy week here. We are waiting for all our worldly possessions to be delivered today so we can unpack and move into our house. In the meantime, we have been trying to prepare for Monkey’s 7th birthday, which is tomorrow, a day sadly devoted to much moving. I asked her Nana and Papa if they would host a small family party at their new house for her, and they happily agreed. Tomorrow evening’s event will feature a pool and a Hannah Montana cake, and then we will host a party for kids the following week at our house.

I am sorry I have not been keeping this updated much, lately I have been a little insane with the stress of relocating. I will share some pics and stories once things are a little more settled.

We are safely ensconced in my parents house.

I never want to ride in a car again.

We drove over 1600 miles, 200 initially, and 1400 in the three days following Lee’s car repairs. In my car I had the kids and three very testy and vocal cats. It turns out cats don’t like to be shoved into a kennel (regardless of the care with which you prepare it) with other cats and then driven across the country in the trunk of a Toyota Matrix. Lee carried the dogs, our luggage, and the trailer. He also dealt with odd noises and a nigh-constant fear of another breakdown. (Turns out Subaru’s aren’t able to do what their specifications say they can do.)

I had fun seeing new parts of the country. I drove through a really cool wind energy farm, and shot some pics I will put up eventually. We saw lots of ranches and farms, and a great number of little oil wells too.

Monkey played travel Bingo and subsisted entirely on candy and chicken nuggets. Otter played with his toy cars, keys, and books, and then resorted to playing with his feet. He was really not happy with the prolonged stay in the carseat. He kept telling me that it was a violation of the torture code in the Baby Geneva Convention, but I told him it was an unavoidable evil. When the kids came close to losing it I popped in a DVD. ( I never want to hear Aladdin again.) However, it has to be said that my kids were troopers. They were amazingly calm and dealt very well with a ridiculously unpleasant situation. I had very little screaming and crying, and very little argument. I am a very lucky mama.

The next few weeks will find me busily moving into our place. However, I am going to try to get back into the habit of diligently posting my permanently numb butt off.

After buying some GPS systems and visiting the Daniel Boone Homestead, we high tailed it out of PA yesterday, and drove lazily through to St. Clair Ohio where we rested in a Red Roof Inn high on a hill overlooking a tiny little rest stoppy town-like thing. We ate Denny’s and Monkey rode her scooter up and down the Inn’s sidewalk. We gazed at the wall of shimmering fireflies in the hill behind our room and snuggled the Otter a lot. All was well with the world, as we were finally out of the Motel 6 in PA.

This morning we hit the road a little before 11 and drove 530 miles into Troy Illinois, where we are staying at another Red Roof Inn, this one with pool and WiFi (Hence my hello!). We are a little more than halfway home.

The dogs are sleeping most of the time (yay for Dramamine) and the kids have been very well behaved with their movies and snacking. Otter isn’t a huge fan of the car seat anymore, and he has begun to cry real tears in the hopes of getting out of it, but I tell him there is very little we can do. Luckily he really likes classical music, so I can calm him relatively easily.

The cats have begun to fight over a tiny little balcony spot in their habitat. Everytime I check on them they are squeezed on top of each other mewing piteously. They are making me quite mad. Luckily I can drown the mews out with my ipod (it’s either that or listen to audio from Barbie’s Repunzel twelve times a day.)

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the last post. I was about half a step from complete madness when his car started smoking, so I am glad to be back on the side of sanity. I still haven’t begun drinking, but I will take you all up on your offers and just spend my first week home on a bender.

DON’T SHOOT IT!!

I swear, New Jersey does not let it’s people go!!! This has been an absolutely wretched trip thus far!!

We left New Jersey yesterday at about two o’clock after spending the day madly packing, cleaning, and sweating. We made it about two hours out of Freehold when Lee’s car started making a really bad noise and lost all power. We stopped at a rest stop and decided to call the dealership. They asked us to bring it into a location about twenty minutes away. The car began to smoke on the way to the dealer. Billowing clouds of white smoke every time he started off a light, went up a hill, or turned a corner.

Turns out he blew the turbo, hopefully won’t have hurt the engine. So we are ensconced in a Motel six in Limerick PA, with two kids, three cats, and two dogs for a couple of days while we wait for repairs.

The Good news:

This didn’t happen in Amish country miles away from the nearest (non-buggy) tow-truck.

Due to our delay, I had time to replace my bald tires (I had no idea they were bald) with safe tires.

The warrantee covered the repairs.

The town we are stuck in is named Limerick.

(In Limerick they sat and ate snacks,

while their Subaru sat up on jacks,

they’d lost several days,

in mind numbing ways,

while awaiting their chance to make tracks!!)

The Bad News:

Well…. I don’t need to repeat it all do I?

Anyway…. anyone out there want to take me for drinks when I get home? I would like to forget this experience as quickly as possible.

We leave tomorrow for our cross country trek. The kids are all set with games, art, music, and dvds. The cats have a two level palatial habitat to while away the hours in, and I have fig newtons and more water than you can shake a stick at.

I will try to keep you updated on the journey, it should be an interesting one.

A day at the beach

cool salt water splish splashing

perfect summer start.

I never thought my heart would grow roots in this foreign place.

New accents, new manners, sidewalks full of cracks, twisty limbed trees, the endless cry of seagulls. These features were not homey to me. They were daunting, intimidating, uncomfortable. I longed for mother, and a glimpse of prairie sky.

Then I met you, Moms like me, trying to fit all your roles, past and future, into a single pair of pants. We made playdates, we drank wine, we ate fondue. We spoke of birth, poop, lonliness, contrary natures, arguments, and the silliness of men.

You opened your hearts to me, and in doing so opened my heart to New Jersey.

Now here I am, tearing up again. I will miss the organic smell of spring, and the patter of heavy rain. I will sigh when none of my parks are near water,  and weeks pass without me hearing someone say “Yeah Right?” Most of all, I will miss you.

The saying goes, home is where your heart is, and it’s true. My home is back in Denver, but now, it’s also here with you.

In one day I have handed off all the big items remaining unsold from the yard sale. I listed them yesterday afternoon, and they are all being picked up by various people today. I love, love, LOVE freecycle.

that she would almost rather set all her possessions on fire and start over.

I am going quite mad. For two weeks my kids have been ill while I have been packing the house. The baby screams and cries whenever I use the packing tape, by daughter complains and whines all day long, niether of them are taking naps, and it’s all I can do not to simply sit down and cry.

I don’t ever want to move again. It’s awful.