Katherine

So the previous blank entry was me trying to get a picture of Katherine as a mouse on this site and I couldn't do it, so I read the instructions. I think I could be a stage mom. I loved taking Katherine to the ten hours of rehearsals so that she could be on stage for her performance for one minute. I think it is one minute exactly. I loved putting her in a head lock to do her makeup and buying new tights and shoes that she couldn't wear until dress rehearsal for fear of ripping, dirtying, or losing them. She ate it up. She played with other girls during the ballet and had snacks and watched a movie. When she came on stage, she smiled the whole time. She didn't remember most of the moves, but she smiled at the audience the WHOLE time. Including during the bows and when the mice brought flowers out to their teacher's helper who is graduating. Her teacher gave her a rose before the performance and Kath felt so great!

Then on Father's Day, she got up on the podium to sing the Primary song and just stood there smiling at EVERYONE. She waved at mom and dad but then slowly turned her head so that the whole congregation could see her and smile back at her. She didn't sing much, but she has the parade slow turn and smile down pat.

I have her and James in theature camp in a week. James doesn't care at all about the stage unless it is blowing up, but I figure it will be easier to get Kath there if James is in it as well. And he does like attention as well, but more for his actions or making people laugh rather than just the presence of his being making people happy - which I believe is what Kath believes.

Kath's birthday party is this Thursday. We are having a Littlest Pet Shop theme. I actually ordered everything I need from Party in a Box online, forgot and went to the local party store and bought it all over again. Imagine my surprise when the box arrived. I do try to save money by buying half themed paper products and half in a matching color scheme for a buck a package. So now I will use only theme products for this party and save the purple and pink paper products for a tea party.

I am excited and regretting this party already. She has been discussing her birthday for 11 months and I know she will love the attention and be really ticked once it is over. I am going to have to sit down with her and talk to her about the schedule so that she feels as though she is choosing how the party is organized. Last year I told her what was happening and she screamed at me that it was not the order she wanted... This year, we will right it all down before hand and have her sign it.

I may get it notarized. With Ballina as the witness.

Here's for hopin'

OK, so I just had one of the more embarrassing moments of my life. The place we live on the lake is a semi-circle of small homes and we share a common area. Our places are pretty close together and I just lost it loud enough for EVERYONE to hear it. Let us explain:

This morning, Seth got the lotion and put a nice thick layer of it in his hair. I ran water into the bath tub and he and Katherine got cheetos all over the living room. The boys got in the bath while I got in the shower. When I got out, there were three sopping wet towels. The water had gotten cold and instead of getting out of the water, they wrapped up in towels and got back in. I tried to hang up a towel and the towel bar fell off the wall.

I drove into town to drop my kids off and Seth fell asleep. He had awoken at 4:30 am this morning. I got to the Wilkersons and Seth decided to start to scream. I got him quiet and then I got my hair cut. Side note: It is really cute and I am closer to having a modern hair style.

Kevin forgot something so I had to go back to the condo and get it and then drive to the house. James cried the whole way because our house is boring. He would like to burn it down. Then my babysitter showed up so I could run a couple of errands and I guess Kevin arrived at the house with the kids screaming and the babysitter checking email.

I worked out and then headed back out to the lake. I tried to make some taco meat for taco salad when Seth ran out the door. I asked James to go outside to let me know if he escaped, which he did. I ran after him, but he got into the next yard where a mean old man yelled at me to get him out of there. I wasn't even on his property; just next to it.

Oh, and we got a letter from the condo board - which is one family- which are just obnoxious reminders to watch our kids or to fix our decks - ours is the only one older than 3 years- and it just gets tiring.

So after being yelled at and having the towel bar fall and a stupid letter, I lost it. I walked to the parking lot, saw Kevin talking to a neighbor and started to cry. Then yell. Then Kevin started walking towards the condo to make sure things were ok and I yelled, "Why are you walking away from me?" Then I yelled, "I hate it here" and preceded to let everyone know why.

I was fine 1/2 hour later but then my neighbor says all happy: How are ya, Kevin? Then to me, she says in a quiet and soft voice: You ok Marianne?

I believe I am now the raving lunatic of the neighborhood. And what do I want to do now besides eat the bag of chocolate purchased at Costco? I want to make cookies and send them to the mean old man with a note that says:
"Dear mean old man,
I hear stories all the time about doing something nice for someone really mean and angry and it changes their life and they are nice from then on. Here's for hopin'."

philosophy

I don't believe myself to be philosophical in nature. I more take things as they are, although my English background allows me to create a metaphor out of anything.

But after cleaning the house yesterday, I waxed thoughtful.
How, pray tell, after 5 days, do I wash 5 pairs of my underwear, 3 pairs of Kevin's, 9 pairs of Katherine's and 20 pairs of James?
How come children learn how to take their diapers off before learning how to put them on? And why must they do this at 3am and then pee in bed and then scream until I get him out of bed and then when I place him in our bed, Kevin says, "I would have left him in the pee."
How do I gather a bag of garbage every day?
How can all the dishes be clean and the sink filled within an hour? and my kids are complaining of hunger.
Why does my house look as though I did nothing all day yesteday by 10 am today?

Liposuction

School is over. We are staying on a lake and the kids have a great time. I had a great time last year. This year I have a two year old. Seth can sometimes open the screen door. When he does, he takes off running after birds, screaming. We have a fence around the common area and beach, but you can go around it and keep walking. This is done often in search of birds. I have offered otter pops, cupcakes, dinosaur chicken, a car...

He is now walking into the water as he watches me. He is fully dressed. He even has a sweatshirt on. He has really cute leather sandals that I found on massive clearance and they are cute and European. they are now ruined. He is knee high in the water and I ask, why put a bathing suit on now?

We have debated shock collars. Maybe a dog collar so as he wanders after birds, people will know where he goes back to. Or a cowbell. I am hiring a girl to babysit while I do indoor things like laundry.

I know... life is hard; I'm spending my summer on a lake. It may be nice; but so is liposuction. It doesn't mean it isn't painful.

Bus Stops

I miss all of my friends. I want someone to move here that will call me up and ask me to lunch. That is all I really want. I can go to lunch alone, but I need someone to suggest it to me. And I think it is unfair that you meet friends throughout your life and you can't take them with you as you go on in life. Everyone really should move to Montana. The economy is nice and steady. We have really fresh meat. We even have fresh veggies and there are Flathead cherries which are supposed to be the best, but I'm not good at telling cherries apart. They all make things run smoothly for me...

I would like adult conversations that don't revolve around children. But I have nothing adult to say. I try as hard as I can to ignore politics and news because it isn't happy. I don't have many hobbies except knitting and I'm trying to get into photography. I do write, but I get embarrassed talking about writing because I am very good at doing EVERYTHING besides write. My goal is a book proposal this summer because I need a deadline to finish. But that isn't necessarily a conversation I want either.

When single, I think I mostly talked about school and boys. No, wait. I was also slightly politically active so I had some political discussions. Seeing as I did nothing with my views, however, that may have just been feeling self-important. So maybe I've never been much of a conversationalist. Maybe that is my problem. Maybe my friends really do want to move to Montana and freeze, but my lack in conversational skills is keeping them away.

Huh. I think I'm going to start talking to myself to practice conversations. I think that will help me. I'm sure it will help me make more friends. People always want to make friends with someone who is always talking to themselves. Especially at bus stops.

Aquanet

I was so upset yesterday. I put fake nails on my toes and within 20 minutes, two were broken. They were so long, that my middle toe on the left foot snapped in half when I snagged my toenail on a chair. I rammed my big toe into the refrigerator and that nail split. I was really upset. Then I realized I bought these nails for $3.50 at Sally's. Real fake nails at a salon cost around $40 or $50. I'm not sure why I was expecting $3.50 nails would be better. Especially when I did them myself. I think I thought because Sally's says they also sell to professionals, that everything in there would be of professional quality. Of course, then I wouldn't be able to do it myself. And I guess the nails had protected my toes from being slammed into the fridge.

I clipped all of the toenails down so none would snag anymore. I superglued them onto my feet, so I couldn't really take them off. The funny thing is that they actually look pretty good now. If I paint them, I could pass them off as being real. I'm not sure when I will have 30 minutes alone, though to do that.

Katherine's preschool ended last week and it has made it harder to find time to get things done. I thought having more kids was supposed to give them people to play with so I wouldn't have to. I mean, what other reason could there be? It's not working out, that way, though. Katherine wants Dora stuff and James and Seth want guns so they can kill Dora. James and Seth will play until James feels like controlling Seth and Seth says no way and bites James and then they are both crying.

So they often don't play well and it has been FREEZING here. It was 50 yesterday and today it should be 65. I refuse to give money to any group supporting the Greenhouse effect theory. I'm going back to using Aquanet to see if I can get a hole in the Ozone directly over my house. I could really go for weather in the 70's. It is JUNE.

I think I will paint my toenails blue again, but this time it won't be for craziness. It is to enhance the color they are right now anyhow.