Sunday, November 08, 2009

Playing Catch Up

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in over three weeks. I haven’t read any blogs in that time, either. (I’m not a very good bloggy friend.) So here’s a synopsis of what’s been going on around here.

Katie turned 15 on October 24. Fifteen. As in oh-my-goodness-my-baby-is-so-not-a-baby-anymore. I know I sound like a broken record, but how does that happen?? Crimanetly! That same day she was in a voice recital and sang beautifully. Okay. So I’m her mom and I’m a little biased. A lot biased. But she did a lovely job singing Castle on a Cloud from Les Miserables and she and her friend, Lexie, were cute when they sang Sisters from White Christmas. In fact everybody did a great job. Little Devlin was adorable in her glittery dress as she sang Let’s Get Together from Parent Trap and some of the other singers really were phenomenal. I can hardly wait for the next recital. The teacher, Katie, may not be in such a rush because I know it was a lot of work for her. But she organized and put on a great show.

***

The other morning I was putting our dinner together in the crock pot and it called for a cup (or a cup+) of white wine. Todd came walking in the kitchen as I was uncorking the bottle and gave me a look. You know that look. The one that says, Have you lost your ever lovin’ mind? I just kept at my task and told him I forgot to make coffee and I needed something to get me through the day. Then I had this thought. What if the cork was difficult to pull out and when I finally managed to dislodge it I spilled wine all over me? I wouldn’t have time to change so I would have to go to work smelling like alcohol. For a preschool. At a church. Thankfully that didn’t happen so I went to work smelling like my usual self – whatever that is. Hopefully not bad, but you know how it’s hard to smell yourself and people are too nice to tell you if you’re odiferous. Especially at a preschool in a church. Except for kids that age are very honest and I think if I smelled bad one of the kids would have mentioned it by now. Then again, I’m not really that close to the kids on a regular basis. But I do shower every morning so I can’t imagine I smell too awfully bad. But I digress.

As I turned the corner from the stairway to the offices I saw Leanne, the Preschool Director, sitting at a table with a bunch of paperwork and a strange man. Let me rephrase. A man who was a stranger. I don’t know if he was strange or not. But anyway, it turns out he was the State Inspector who dropped by for a surprise visit. And do you know what my first thought was? Thank you, Jesus, that I didn’t spill wine on my clothes this morning! ‘Cause, you know, if I had walked by him smelling like a Wharf Licker wino he might have been disinclined to pass us with flying colors. But pass us he did – and with those flying colors I mentioned – because we have the best preschool in the area, if not the state, if not the entire country – maybe even the world. Just sayin’.

***

Several years ago Todd had hair. Then one summer he agreed to play Pharaoh in our church’s VBS dramatization of the story of Moses. So he channeled his inner Yul Brenner and shaved his head, much to the surprise of just about everyone. It was priceless. He had this big headpiece on so no one had any idea. Then he got mad at Moses and threw his headpiece on the ground, revealing his bald head to everyone in the audience. The corporate gasp was priceless. So was the small scream 3-year-old Katie let out when she saw her daddy without his hair. He made a great Pharaoh and even threw in an Etcetera, etcetera, and so forth every now and again which was really funny considering it was the wrong Yul Brenner movie altogether.

From then on he never let his hair grow more than a quarter of an inch. He decided it was so much easier for me just to trim his hair every now and again. Then finally, about a year ago, he went back to the Mr. Clean look. He uses Head Blade products to shave his scalp and then buff his head to a nice sheen. The other day, however, he not only shaved his scalp, he scalped his scalp. Took two honkin’ chunks out of the top of his head. I had to cut a flap of skin off one of the chunks! Of course, since these were on the top of his head they bled like a stuck pig, though I don't really know exactly what that means other than to say they bled a lot. So I had to put bandaids on his head, too. Lucky for him it was cold enough to wear a hat! But he’s going to have to let his hair grow some now because he can’t shave until his head is completely healed. Oh, the irony…

***

Today was absolutely beautiful. Sunny, blue skies and low 60’s made it perfect for a walk in the woods. So Sookie and I walked for a little over two miles on the Perkiomen trail. One of the things I love about living where we do is all the trails around here. The Perkiomen trail is the closest to us and it follows the Perkiomen Creek, meandering through beautiful woods and alongside the ski slopes of Spring Mountain. There were a lot of bikers and almost as many walkers or runners today, but also we came across two different groups of horseback riders. Sookie had never seen horses up close and personal and I was a little concerned she might start her vicious I’m really afraid of you but I’m going to stand my hackles on end and snarl at you so you might think I’m a coyote thing, but she didn’t. Instead she slunk down to the ground and weaseled her way behind me. But as soon as the horses passed she decided they looked like they might be fun to chase. I finally had to stop and let the horses get out of sight because she wasn’t heeling very well.

When we got back from walking, Todd took her over to Brady’s house and I joined up with him soon thereafter. The dogs ran and jumped and nipped and played and did their peeing rituals (where one of them pees and the other one sniffs the area and then pees on top of it) while Todd and I visited with Bill and Laura. I left early to go home and make dinner and when Todd and Sookie got home she was one pooped puppy. Just the way I like her!

***

So there you have it. A few things that have happened since my last post. I can't promise when my next post will be because I want to make some blog rounds, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to wipe out my Google Reader and start over. I hate doing that because I'm so afraid I will have missed something really great or important, but I'm too far behind to catch up.

Until next time...

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Mused by Jenster :: 8:39 AM :: 9 People musing:

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