Frenzied Daddy

This is not how to toast your pumpkin seeds. People who toast pumpkin seeds like this probably also set their marshmallows on fire.

In fact, these stunk so badly that when Ms B came home from work, she took one whiff and said “that coffee smells awful!”

This is … wait for it … Miss K sitting on a bear.

We were at the Gateway mall in Springfield, meeting my inlaws and obtaining the beast ( see picture of battle cruiser below ). They also gave us a big stack of flannel sheets for the kids’ beds and a bag of secrets for “later.”

We only eat at the HomeTown buffet when we meet with them in Eugene / Springfield; this time was normal. The food was about what I expect there, but the potroast was surprisingly good.

Or a trip back into the dark ages. There’s gasp no cd player!! Ohhh the horror! And there are no cup holders!AIEE!!

But it’s great. It probably gets 20-25 mph on the highway, we’ll see about around town. It’s clean, it drives well, and it does have a fm radio. So those are all strong points. But there is one thing that makes me ignore the lack of cd player and cup holders; those can be replaced, after all. But I can control the windows in the back seat from the front, and I can lock the kids out of them.

What’s that? Your hands are out the window? Guess you lose it. What’s that? You’re falling asleep on the way home from school? MUAHAHAHAHA how about a blast of cold air! Hurray!

So, aah yeah, we have the 93 explorer, and it’s pretty cool. There’s some minor damage but overall it will last us a year and then some.

And after driving it? I may just name it “Sherman.”

This is probably the saddest cartoon I’ve ever seen. Of course it’s not mine, and it’s not Bill’s. It really highlights to me that my generation loves the creativity and the energy of Calvin / Spaceman Spiff and yet we’re happy to give our kids drugs to “help them focus.” I think we parent too much through medication these days, and we don’t pay attention to the perils of the television or other distractions.

Now get off my lawn you hippy kids!

The last few weeks of driving Ms B to work only to turn around and drive Miss B to school an hour later have been rough on all of us. Fortunately this is coming to an end.

Ms B’s folks found an elderly ford explorer, kept up well by its owners, in her home town. And her bio-mom sent us most of the money to purchase it. It’s apparently very clean, has a tow package, has a luggage rack, is blue and grey, and is in great condition for its age. It’ll be great for tooling around town and getting the kid to school, and it’ll have room for the four of us and the dogs ( which is always a problem when we go out of town ).

Suggestions for naming the car are welcome. I’m particular to ‘percival.’

On second thought, no… eeew. Not miller time.

I put a door up this weekend.

You might think that with a growing ten year old girl in the house that I might have considered a door before now. Well, we’ve been arguing with her over keeping her room clean versus getting a door. You know, treating the door like a carrot to get her to clean her damn room.

Naw, a door’s not a carrot.

It’s also a symbol of growing up. We’re going to have to trust her, there behind her door. I’m sure we now live in a house where there’s a door-slamming nigh-teenager. But if I put a door on her room, then I guess it’s her door and she can slam it if she wants.

We’ve been stressed (as always; when aren’t we stressed?) over money. Well, I got the door out of the garage. It turns out it was this door and it was in baaaaaaad sheep. I sanded it down ( yeah, I actually ran a power tool ) and put wood putty in the holes and the gouge that the washing machine left ( yeah, I know what wood putty is ) and then I sanded down the wood putty ( yes, mom, I can even remember to do that ). I painted it with some primer we had in the garage, and then found a gallon bucket of ten year old paint that we used on our white walls. When I opened it up, it was totally separated; I thought that it was mold, but it turned out to be fine. Fred Meyers’ was nice enough to shake it up for me. I painted it, then … get this– I’ve been watching too much DIY tv! — I sanded down where I ran the paint into drips and repainted those spots!!

We picked up some hardware from the Rebuilding Center. Ms B was totally awesome at picking out the hardware. I expected to be there for at least an hour but she walked in and knew exactly what we needed and where to get it. I hung the door tonight and swung it back and forth- it’s a door!

Well, it doesn’t latch yet. But that’s ok; it means that she can’t lock us out. But that’ll be done “real soon” too.

And then I put this pink hibiscus on the corner of the inset of the door.

Grandmas, Auntie L and Auntie A took Miss B to Hawaii this week. So if you see a ten year old young woman in the company of four assertive grandmothers, stand back.

This isn’t my shot, I borrowed it from CatDancing. Apparently the place the womenfolk are staying this week doesn’t have an internet connection. So I’m suffering without surfing pictures.

It’s quiet here, except for when Miss K decides that she wants some play time. It brings home how much we rely on her bigger sister to keep her distracted.

Miss K is working hard at getting potty trained. Yeah, it’s a lot later than Miss B did, but she’s been in disposables, so I expect her to be training late. That and I’m a slacker. So right now, she’s in a pullup overnight and she’s in regular big girl panties during the day.

Thursday, I was getting her ready to take to the sitter’s to play while I worked and I had to change her panties. I wrestled her out of the pullup and tossed her the big girl panties to put on while I walked the pullup to the garbage. ( Dogs. Don’t ask. ) I came back and, while she’s had lots of practice putting on her panties, she had both legs in one leg hole and they were stuck coming up her knees. I helped her out of them and explained them to her, and put them on and pulled them up to her knees ( so she had experience pulling them to her knees and past her knees, sort of an overall whole-experience thing ). I turned around to get her pants, and she started hollering at me —

“Daddy ! My bottom’s up here!”

Uh, ok, honey.

We have terrible luck with cars lately.

Ms B was driving to work Tuesday morning, in the rain, and her brakes failed. She swerved to avoid the immensely large pickup in front of her and didn’t quite make it. She didn’t do any damage to the steel fender of the ford, but the neon took a bit more damage.

We don’t yet know how damaged it is, it’s been pulled to a dodge dealer. It was drivable, it made it to a parking lot, but right turns were a little stubborn.