Archive for family
September 17, 2006 at 6:05 pm · Filed under family
Another thing that working at home has made me notice is that our house is easily cluttered. Peter has two video game systems. The kids bring DVDs up from the basement and just leave them all around the television. (We have one TV. It’s kind of vintage. Big wooden casing — if that’s the right word — and around 30 years old.) I’m not totally innocent, because my knitting stuff sits out in the open, too.
I had a brainstorm a few weeks ago. What if we took the coats out of the coat closet, and installed shelves instead? After all, we have coat hooks by the back door. The infrequently used outerwear (like snowpants) could go in Moon’s closet. Brilliant.
So I went to Home Depot and bought a load of shelves and the hardware for them. Pete goodnaturedly agreed to put them up, and the kids settled in to watch. Because they know how entertaining our home improvement projects can be.
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July 4, 2006 at 9:27 am · Filed under family, shopping
I’m officially another year older, although I always start thinking of myself as my new age way before my birthday. So it’s not too traumatic or anything. I’m still eager to have my hair turn completely grey/white. Anyway, we celebrated at the in-laws’ because Sister #3 and Moon both have early July birthdays, and Saturday worked out for scheduling a family party. Got some awesome presents: sock yarn, Simply Sensational Socks, Freaks and Geeks, the Complete Series on DVD, Dosha Yoga DVD, some $$ and a Starbucks card. The next day, Pete and the kids gave me an awesome laptop bag combo, a stitch marker necklace, a sheep cell phone charm and a embroidery pattern with monkeys on it. I’m feeling quite gifted!
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June 1, 2006 at 4:57 pm · Filed under moon (rachel)
Oh, my achin’ back. Moon’s school has a huge pops concert at the end of the year, and it’s the music department’s biggest fundraiser. Well, the concert was last night. The school gym is transformed into a cafe, and box dinners are available for pre-order. The thing is, when all the tables and chairs are taken, the rest of the audience has to sit in the bleachers.
Guess who arrived too late to get a good seat?
The concert was quite excellent, although the between-number skits were rather cheesy. All the orchestras and choirs perform, as well as the percussion ensemble and jazz band. The seniors present gifts to the teachers. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a long concert. We were there for four hours. Does today’s back pain mean that I’m getting old? (Yes.)
One of my favorite parts of the concert was when the orchestra played “Pomp and Circumstance” towards the end. At the dramatic points in the music, the seniors in the orchestra stood. Then the choir seniors stood. I don’t even know these kids, and I nearly broke into tears. I am going to be an absolute mess when Moon graduates. First I’ll have two more years of crying about other people’s kids.
May 20, 2006 at 9:37 am · Filed under family, knit/crochet, movies
Okay, our family has been incredibly busy. And I’ve been knitting/crocheting more than this little credit card holder (which I’m using for the various punch cards and things that I use). Cute, though, isn’t it? I made it on Wednesday, when Pete and I were at Sundara Spa celebrating our 20th (!) anniversary by being thoroughly pampered. We spent pretty much the whole day wearing robes and relaxing, with intermittant foot rituals, massages, etc.
My mom is doing really well, by the way. There wasn’t any more cancer, and she’ll be starting radiation soon. Her prognosis is very good — yay!
In other news, it’s movie season. The Friday opening-day theater viewings have begun! We saw The DaVinci Code yesterday (which was okay … Moon really was into Silas), and we’re planning to see X3 next week.
And the weather today is unbelieveably awesome. We’re spending the afternoon at Good ‘n Loud for Moon’s master class. I’m excited because she’ll be doing some stuff on drums as well as bass. And I’m bringing my yarn.
May 1, 2006 at 6:42 pm · Filed under family
Today’s horoscope:
You are often preoccupied by other people’s lives, and your devotion to others will no doubt be appreciated today. For example, in the family circle, you are likely to be asked to bandage and heal everyone’s little wounds, be they physical or psychological. But don’t neglect your own energy needs today. As you are no doubt aware, the future is approaching quickly and you will need all the strength you can muster.
Sometimes astrology can be kind of freaky. After I dropped Moon off at school, I headed to Rockford so that I could sit with my dad during my mom’s surgery. She had just found out about it on Thursday, so it didn’t have much time to sink in. For any of us.
I hadn’t set foot in that hospital for (ulp!) 20 years, and I was shocked by how much it had changed. It was so … modern. There was even free valet parking. My parents actually arrived around 7:15, although the surgery itself wasn’t scheduled until 10:30. I made it there by 10, so I was able to talk with my mom before she went under.
I kept my dad company as we waited, and I was very glad to be there for the consultation with the surgeon afterwards. They found cancer in one of the lymph nodes, so the surgery was a little more involved than we had anticipated. The full pathology report will be available tomorrow.
I’m still a little in shock (and a lot exhausted), but really, the whole thing went pretty smoothly. We all left the hospital at about 4:30. Now my mom is home eating ice cream with strawberries, and I know my dad is doing a good job tending to her.
Oh, while we were sitting with my mom in the recovery room, my cell phone rang. It was Peter: “Can you come and pick me up from school?”
“It might take a while, since I’m 60 miles away.” Fortunately, Moon was getting a ride home from our neighbor who had the day off. I told Peter to hang loose for five minutes while I called to see if she’d be able to rescue him. It all worked out.
April 24, 2006 at 6:32 pm · Filed under peter, shopping
Yep, he’s 12, and he had a pretty happy birthday. For one thing, he managed to get the very thing he wanted most. It’s not just a birthday gift (we wrapped it in Christmas paper and sung “Happy Christmas to you, Merry Birthday to you…”) and Peter traded in some stuff to help finance the whole thing, lest you think that we’ve suddenly come into an inheritance or something.
We gave him another game, too.
Now, about that knitting bag.
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March 26, 2006 at 8:48 am · Filed under family
My mom has stage 1 breast cancer. Way stage 1, so I’m really confident that she’s going to be fine, and she feels the same way. My dad, on the other hand, is pretty freaked out. We went through this last year with Pete’s mom, and thank goodness that turned out out as well as it did. I’m calmer this time, I think.
Here’s how it played out: my mom was at a DAR meeting (yes, she’s in the DAR, which means I’m eligible, too – wahooey!) and the guest speaker was a doctor. His topic was women’s health, and he talked about mammograms, and how often to get them, and my mom thought, “Huh. I think it’s been a while.” In my opinion, that was one of her spirit guides tapping her on the shoulder. She went in, had an abnormal reading, and went back for a second one. Then a needle biopsy. The cancer is very tiny — microscopic — and not growing, so a lumpectomy ought to take care of it. I seriously doubt they’ll recommend chemo, and we’ll see if they talk about radiation. Of course I’ll be there when she’s having surgery.
She described the needle biopsy as no big deal, and she thought it was amusing how the nurse was patting her shoulder and trying to prepare her for it. “After the mental illness when I was young, being straightjacketed and having shock treatments at 23, a needle prick isn’t going to do me in.”
If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger, right? I’m glad I wasn’t born yet when she was having the ’50s-era psychiatric help, but I’m also glad that she hasn’t kept it a secret from me. In case I haven’t said so lately, I think she’s a remarkable woman.
March 16, 2006 at 9:15 pm · Filed under family
Yeah, so tomorrow morning I’m going to court to make my new name all official and everything. I kind of forgot to write about what it was like to tell my parents about this, but a few weeks ago I decided I absolutely had to talk to my mom immediately. I called her while I was on the way to visit my friend Theresa, who lives almost an hour away. Big news on a cell phone (while driving, sorry about that!).
I started out by chatting about some other stuff, and then said, “Listen, there’s something I need to talk to you about, but I’m a little nervous about it. I’m worried about what you’ll think.” She told me to just go ahead, and I told her, “I know this is a little weird, but I’m going to change my name.”
She was relieved, actually, because she was ready for me to tell her I had cancer or something. I think there’s a lesson here: if you have scary news to break to someone, make it seem like it’s going to be something way worse than it really is.
We went on to talk about lots of other stuff, because her acceptance just opened me right up. It was awesome.
A week ago, we went to a birthday party for my dad, and my parents made sure to tell their friends about my new name. I told them that they have parental privilege, which means they can call me whatever the heck they want to call me. But it was kind of fun explaining it to the older folks. They seemed to think that I was honoring my dad with the Irishness of it all.
Anyway, court tomorrow. If I have time, I’m going to hit the social security office and the DMV, too. Big fun!
January 23, 2006 at 3:23 pm · Filed under family
So, the bedroom idea met with much more enthusiasm than I ever dreamed. Another big change happened first, though: Peter had a haircut. A major haircut. It was his idea, of course, and I think he enjoyed thoroughly shocking everyone who had become used to seeing his mop-head.
He was the one who suggested doing the big move the very next day. Pete and I gave up the huge basement bedroom in order to get back into the master bedroom (Peter’s room — located in the relationship gua of our house). Peter went into Moon’s former bedroom, and Moon snagged the basement bedroom. Because all teenagers long to live in the basement, right?
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December 26, 2005 at 1:43 pm · Filed under family, knit/crochet
One of the final touches on our pile of gifts this year was a pair of crocodile mittens for each of the cousins whose names were drawn by our kids. (At the in-laws’, the adults exchange names, and so do the kids.) The larger pair were for Sister #1’s daughter, and as you can see, she’s old enough not to try to eat googly eyes. The other pair were for Camden, the next-to-youngest cousin.
Before we headed for the in-laws’, however, we had our immediate family gift exchange and various church adventures. Pete still directs a choir at the Catholic church he used to attend, and he was scheduled to do music for the Christmas Eve mass. I decided to sing with the choir at my former church, too. We had tofurky for our mid-day meal, and as soon as the sun set, we piled into the car to go see the lights. (Foxxi included.)
My parents, Brother #2 and his wife drove up last Sunday for holiday festivities, as my parents are visiting Brother #1 in Seattle this week. My mom left a small package for each of us to open on Christmas day. Imagine our surprise when we all received …. underwear. Not just any underwear, either. Mine were white cotton granny panties, a size too large. Moon had the same, but with snazzy multicolored patterns. Peter’s were adult men’s briefs, which I’m sure would have come up to his armpits. Pete’s were two sizes too big (and not his preferred brand).
So basically, my mom gave us the gift of laughter for the holidays. And that’s cool. (Plus, we were able to return the errant undies.)
Our other presents were pretty awesome, though. The kids and Pete gave me a sewing machine and a JBL OnStage for my iPod. Now we can hear my tunes all through the house! We gave Moon a video iPod with 60GB memory. I downloaded all her music into it and bought a few music videos for her from the Apple Store. I think she was surprised. Peter got a PSP, and I’m sure he had it all figured out in advance.
Later, when the 20 of us gathered in my in-laws’ living room for gift exchange, Camden showed us that he knew exactly what to do with his new mittens: dominate them!
Pete, Sister #1 and Sister #4 went outside with some of the kids later and built a snowman. Peter hauled his cousins around on a sled and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I put my feet up and watched them all out the window with Moon by my side. It was lovely.
And it was all over so fast. In a few days, 2005 will be but a memory. Merry Christmas!
November 9, 2005 at 9:28 am · Filed under family
My mother-in-law’s lumpectomy took place yesterday. They found a golf-ball-sized growth that may or may not be cancer, but the good news is that her lymph nodes were clear. So she’s not going to have chemo, and was given the choice of whether to have radiation. (She’s doing it.)
This is such a relief. I know it’s not over yet, but we’re happy to have such a positive report.
November 8, 2005 at 12:03 pm · Filed under peter
I don’t know how I missed posting about such an auspicious occasion, but Peter has braces now. He did very well in the dentist’s chair, although I suppose he’s had plenty of practice during all these months of preparation.
The cool thing is that the staff actually invokes Peter’s name when they are talking to other kids about following instructions. Can you believe it? He did an awesome job with his appliance. Now it’s a mere souvenir.
October 26, 2005 at 12:02 pm · Filed under family
We’ll start with the baddest bad thing: My wonderful MIL was diagnosed with breast cancer last week. She didn’t want to tell any of us kids, but Sister #3 convinced her that we needed to know. (She’s living with her parents right now, and has the added advantage of being a physicians’ assistant … so when she has an opinion about health stuff, people listen.) Although mom has a admirably positive attitude, she didn’t offer up much information. Sis #3 did some detective work and translated.
The tumor is less than 1 centimeter in size, and it’s considered Stage 1 cancer. (This is a good thing.) After MIL/FIL/Sis#3 return from the cruise they’re taking next week, mom will have a lumpectomy. The fact that the doctors are allowing the trip is another good thing. There will be radiation, but possibly no chemo. However, the tumor is invasive (bad) so we won’t know until after the surgery.
I want to point out here that mom is an active, young-for-her-age kind of gal, with virtually no risk factors that we are aware of. We’re all kind of freaking out in our own special ways, but we also have the comfort of knowing how strong and upbeat she is … which can only be good.
Another good thing: Sister #4’s new baby, Riona (I’ve decided I can’t keep these names to myself anymore), was baptized on Saturday. In the picture at right, which was actually taken the following day, Sis#2’s daughter Ambria is holding her. Who could be sad with all these beautiful children around? My in-laws have nine grandchildren around, which translates into seven nieces/nephews for SpiritMan and I to play with.
On Sunday, we had our fall birthday celebration for Sis#1 and her lovely husband, who were born four weeks apart. Click here to see a photo of Ambria’s 11-month-old brother Camden, who reminds me so much of Turbo at that age that it brings tears to my eyes. (Just imagine brown hair and no upper teeth. Moon was our redhead.)
A minor bad thing: I think I picked up a bug. My nose stuffed up yesterday, and then started running during Moon’s orchestra concert last night. I only slept a few hours before hauling myself out of bed for step aerobics at 6 a.m. So I decided to stay home from work after doing my morning dropoff at the high school. A deep and satisfying 4 additional hours of dream-filled slumber is most definitely a good thing.
October 21, 2005 at 12:11 pm · Filed under knit/crochet, moon (rachel)
Yep, I’ve finished the Ravenclaw POA scarf, and I think Moon is pretty happy with it. She wants to be suitably attired for the opening of the Goblet of Fire movie. We’ll be attempting to get tickets for the first day, since school will be out for conferences. I can’t wait. Over the summer, Friday was typically our movie day — I’ve missed going to the theater with the kids.
Moon re-read the sixth book as a warm-up. I’m reading the first book over again, and my plan is to read the second, third and fourth one before November 18. That might be a bit ambitious, but oh well. (I mean, didn’t most of us read Book 6 in 24 hours or less?)
Now I’m working on a scarf for Peter. At first, he was asking for Slytherin colors … but he thought the better of it and went with Hufflepuff instead. (Maybe he was afraid people would throw stuff at him in the movie theater?) I’m really liking the colors and how the stitches show up in the butterscotch areas. I think I might make one of these for myself with the leftover yarn. Hufflepuff is my house, too, you know.
I really like this photo. It makes all those hours of stockinette worthwhile.
October 12, 2005 at 6:34 pm · Filed under family, peter
Vermont Valley Farm had its annual pumpkin pick on Saturday, so we went and harvested some excellent orange orbs. The cows were quite curious about what all the people were up to.
The fun continued on Sunday, when Pete and I took the kids to see the Wallace & Gromit movie. Weekends rock.
October 8, 2005 at 8:36 am · Filed under family
…but I haven’t been writing about it, and that’s a problem. So many thoughts have been swirling around in my head, I can hardly put them in any coherent order. The other thing is that a lot of my concentration has been devoted to parenting stuff lately. How does one write about those things when the kids being parented are old enough to care about what’s being written? It was a lot easier when the issues had to do with sleeping, eating and bowel movements. And fussing.
Well, they still fuss sometimes, but it’s different now. More heart-rending. Truth be told, the older the kids get, the more intense the emotional stuff gets, too. We have more fun. They make me laugh harder. Our conversations are even more interesting. It makes sense that their worries are more worrisome, and their hurts are more painful.
There’s other stuff going on, but I want to take pictures. (That, my friends, can mean only two things. Knitting. Nature.) Stay tuned.
August 26, 2005 at 4:38 pm · Filed under moon (rachel), peter
Moon’s registration for high school was actually pretty cool. (I wrote about it elsewhere. Let me know if you want the link.)
When I took Peter to middle school registration a few days later, it didn’t bring on such feelings of nostalgia. More like raw dread… as when we were being taken around to the classrooms by a 7th grader who pointed out the detention teacher, prompting Peter to respond, “I guess I’ll be getting to know her pretty well.”
I *think* he was kidding.
Anyway, for those of you who are awaiting parenthood (Jeff) or watching your sweeties go off to kindergarten (Sis#1)… Moon’s registration set me back $101 for fees, and Peter’s was a whopping $280 (including bus fare). Plus about $150 for their school supplies. Start saving your pennies!
August 14, 2005 at 7:46 pm · Filed under family, moon (rachel)
We had quite the busy day on Friday, which also happened to be Pete’s 40th birthday. He celebrated by taking Moon to her extra bass lesson and then donating blood. We also gave him some alone time while we shopped in the afternoon and baked a cake. Pete chose Imperial Gardens for his birthday dinner. It was all very nice and low-key.
Peter had his first drum lesson Tuesday, and Pete realized he’d better retrieve the drum set from the back of the basement this weekend. More than six months ago, we crammed most of our extraneous items into the area that we didn’t plan to finish. Until yesterday, it was almost impossible to get to key household implements such as the water heater.
It took some squeezing to get to where the drum set was located, snugly tucked away in its dust-covered cases. I stood and watched, overwhelmed with the mess and disarray. Once the drum set was out, it seemed logical to move on to vacuuming and dusting the next item. Sorting the piles of junk nestled between boxes. Moving shelves and boxes to newly-cleared areas.
By dinnertime, I’d taken a whole carload of junk to Goodwill. We now have usable storage space. Have I ever mentioned how much I love that sort of thing?
Today, as you might surmise from the photo, was Moon’s master class at Good ‘n Loud. It took place at the new store on the east side of town, and I must say, it’s quite snazzy. Pete served as lead singer for most of the songs. Moon made an impressive showing. And we even had additional family in the audience — SpiritMan’s mom and Sister #3 drove up for the afternoon. (Their hearing still seems to be intact, thankfully.)
August 10, 2005 at 10:48 pm · Filed under peter
I still want to sleep until 10 a.m., but I’m successfully resisting. We’re pretty much back to the regular routine. Our sunburns have healed. Moon had her bass lesson last night, and Peter had his very first drum lesson. Which he loved. Now we just need to get the drum set dusted off and back in place, since it’s currently packed up in the storage area of the basement.
Ugh, that strongly resembles housework.
This morning, I took Peter to the dentist. To his surprise, he needed to have a new set of impressions. This did not go particularly well. He accused our favorite assistant, Melissa, of using too much plaster goo in the mouthpiece. He ripped it out of his mouth, ruining the impression and tearing a small piece of upper palate skin in the process. Then he threw up.
The rest of the day has been more enjoyable. I wish I could trade our weather for San Diego’s, though.
July 19, 2005 at 9:54 pm · Filed under family
During the celebration of July birthdays at the Homestead, I had quite a surprise. When I unwrapped my gift, I found a series of numbered envelopes. The first contained this intriguing rhyme. (Click on the photo to see a larger version.)
The next few clues were a little confusing. I would have concluded I was getting a digital camera, if I hadn’t already had one. The “hot hot hot” thing didn’t seem to make sense, though.
Hmmm. After reading the last clue, I was still scratching my head. What in the heck was a “meHusk”? As I headed out of the room to find my surprise, I finally made the connection….
Aha! Yes, it’s an iPod. And not just any iPod… an iPod Photo. Woo hoo! I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I first laid my greedy little hands on its colorful box. Isn’t it cute?
After all, it gives me handy images. And it’s full of hot hot hot (music, music, music… in Russian). It has a whopping 30 GB (or 3% terabyte) of storage. Don’t you think meHusk would have been a much catchier name?
The mastermind behind this presentation was none other than Sister #1. Bravo! And thank you, thank you, thank you for the hot hot hot.
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