Archive - October 2009

Happy Birthday!

Eleven years ago today, our Boo entered the world, all 6 pounds of him.  He stubbornly refused to come out without the use of vacuum and forceps and he’s been giving us a hard time ever since.  Alas, he is cute and funny, smart, helpful, generous and an all around nice guy so we can’t help but love him deeply.

Happy Birthday, my young Jedi.  May the force be with you.

A Bit of Excitement

So there I was, minding my own business, wrapping up some last  minute things before putting Bip down for his nap.  He and Boo were playing Wii Fit and it was Boo’s turn.  Bip was sitting in a little chair in front of the fireplace.  What I didn’t see was that he was actually tipping his chair back.

Oh yes, he did indeed fall back and hit his head right on the edge of the brick hearth.

You know, with all my children, I have never had to deal with a head wound.  I’ve heard that they can bleed a lot and you know what?  It’s true.  I ran to poor Bip, scooped him up and carried him to the kitchen, dripping blood as we went.

I put a clean wash cloth to his head and then instructed Boo to clean up Bip’s hands which were quite bloody and was scaring him.  Seriously, there was a lot of blood.  I had Pumpkin Girl call Philip so he could start on his way home in case we needed to visit the ER.  By the time he arrived, we had Bip, me, and the floor all cleaned up.  Bip had on a nice clean shirt (at a clean chest, which had also gotten covered in blood!) and was settling down.

It was hard to look at his wound since it is in his hair, but as far as we can tell, it doesn’t need any further care.  Philip helped me settle him down for his nap and then returned to work.

Later in the day, Pumpkin Girl and I got in the car to go to ballet class.  Can you believe it – the car wouldn’t start!  Last night it had been snowing on our parked car and when we got home, the passenger door was stiff and snow was caked on the window, so I had trouble closing it.  I guess it didn’t close completely and the overhead light stayed on and drained the battery.  Thank God we didn’t need to take Bip to the ER!

Bip seems to be fine now, other than the bump and his matted hair.  When we got home from ballet, I asked him how he was doing.  He said, “Bad hair day,” and pointed sadly to the back of his head.

Sadness

I really was going to write this over the weekend, but Saturday morning I was pulling on my socks and I managed to rip my right index fingernail off, halfway down.  It bled and hurt.  Alot.  So much I cried when I had to get a new bandaid.  Hello?  Band-Aid brand?  Whatever happened to the no-stick pad?  Cuz it stuck and naked nail bed hurts. Really badly!!

So I really can’t use that finger much, which makes it hard to type and really interferes with my computer games household chores.  But I’m here now, hurty finger and all, making about 12 typing errors per sentence, but here it goes…

One of the most striking things about our new home was the view.  All the people that traipsed in and out of our since we moved in, the locksmith, carpet cleaner, movers, furniture repair guys…all of them commented about the view.  Of all the windows that face the back yard, only the bathroom and bedroom had window treatments.  It was just too beautiful to block.

Well, the city, in its infinite wisdom decided that the dry creek behind us needed to be cleared of the trees.  Something about improving drainage and delaying erosion.  I’m thinking that tree roots help with erosion, but then again, I’m not in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Now our backyard view is pitiful.  It’s like mighty Samson, shorned, betrayed, weakened and blind.  It hurts to look at.  It hurts to know that this view, this one thing was our home’s crowning glory.  It hurts that it will never, ever look the same again.

Here is the view from the deck, looking to the right of our house, as it was the day we bought the house.
rsz_dsc01750

Here it is now. Make sure you click to make the picture bigger so you can truly appreciate the horror.
rsz_dsc02038I know, I know.  I think the drainage pipe is a nice touch, don’t you?  Reminds me of the L.A. River.

Here is the old view, looking to the left.
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And now…
rsz_dsc02036Oh look – neighbors I never knew I had.

We were spared one single aspen and one other tree behind our house.
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I know they are just trees.  I know that in the grand scheme of life, this isn’t that important.  But I loved those trees.  Looking out our windows brought me such joy.  Sitting on the deck, listening to the wind through the aspens, spying the deer walk along our fence, getting a snack – this is exactly what I thought of when I thought of Colorado.  Even though we were moving to a big city, being surrounded by such Coloradoness was the unspoken dream of my heart.  And I wanted aspens. Imagine my joy at finding all that I wanted.

So my heart broke last week, listening to the chain saws and mulcher turning my trees into wood chips.  I’ll admit it, I cried.  As I sat in the office window one night and could see my across the creek neighbors, I realized we would need curtains.  I’ll never be able to sit outside with my coffee and enjoy the beauty of nature.

It’s tough, accepting the things you can’t change, losing the things you love so much.  I’m sure there is a lesson here, but I don’t really want to know what it is right now.  I’m such an Eeyore anyway, always sad about something and now I’m mourning my trees.

Halloween Snack Mix

I thought I’d share the recipe for our favorite Halloween snack mix.  It’s so easy and so yummy!

Fall Snack Mix

The whole recipe is this: equal parts (like 1 or 2 cups each) of M &Ms, peanuts and candy corn.  Mix together and display fallishly!

Well, I said I wanted snow

We woke up to snow this morning.

rsz_dsc02012This is from my front porch, looking across to the park.

rsz_dsc02015It’s not a lot of snow, but still…it’s October! And it stuck around til lunch time.

Of course, this was the scene, back in September:
rsz_dsc02004(I know it’s hard to see, but trust me, that’s snow.)

So if we wanted snow, I guess we picked the right place to live.

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