I’m Beautiful Like Me.

Mid-afternoon yesterday, we packed up and headed to Otter Creek again. We weren’t there long, just an hour and a half or so, but it was really nice. The place was packed! Certainly not like going in June on a weekday. The water was still pretty chilly, but it was pleasant to sit on the rocks in the sun. The boy was uncertain about the more swift spots and preferred sitting with daddy on the bigger rock with his feet dangling in the water, as opposed to sitting with me directly in the water.

This little girl and Buddha were super-cute together.

As we were chilling in the creek, I saw B and D waving to me from the bank of the creek. At first I didn’t recognize them or that they were waving at me. They joined us for a few minutes and Husband snapped this rather unflattering photograph of the three of us. B told me that he’s playing football - very exciting. I’ll be sure to see a game or at least a practice. It was great to see them.

Yesterday, T, Buddha and I accompanied P to her niece and nephew’s birthday party. It’s so hard to believe these kids are 20 and 17 years old now - I remember when they were knee-high to a smurf! I love them like they are my own family. Little redheaded Leos, only not so little anymore.

We had pizza and P’s famous Mexican dip. P’s brother-in-law and I talked about our love for Tom Waits and he hooked up me up with the Box Set. T and I won the balloon toss and a water-balloon war ensued. I have battle injuries! I had a great time and so did Buddha. I’m betting T did, too, although she’d never admit it. Between T and I, we took over a hundred pictures! Here’s a less-than-three-minute slideshow of the festivities that took me over an hour to make. Enjoy!

Husband had a busy day. He had a PT appointment, followed by a doctor’s appointment. Afterwards, he had a pile of paperwork he needed to take by his job. While he was away, I mostly lazed, napped a bit with Buddha. Our stimulus check arrived late in the afternoon. Husband didn’t return home until a bit after 5pm.

He brought home with him thee.most.excellent news! He got day shift! YAY!!! When he told me, I squealed, jumped up and attacked him with a hug. He starts right away. He has different days off now, too - Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I’m thrilled about this. We can have dinner together as a family now. He’ll be home to help with the boy’s tough evenings and to help with the girl’s homework. We’ll sleep together at night! Weee! Great news, indeed.

So, we went to Wal*Mart to cash the stimulus check and immediately went out to buy a tool box for the truck. Trying to squeeze 4-5 people into the cab of his truck is tough enough without needing to deal with all of his tools and work gear. We’ve really needed some sort of solution for our travels and for the time being, this is a good one. T made sure it was big enough for us.

Then we went into the Highlands yet again. We stopped at Twisted, a tattoo/body piercing parlor recommended to me by a student at the Hair Design School that Joy and I went to a few months ago (see post). I am interested in pricing some tribal body jewelry. Unfortunately, they are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Phooey!

Then we headed to KT’s. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s my most favorite restaurant of all time, so I was pretty tickled. It was nice outside, so we sat on the patio. I’ve had better service, but the food was outstanding (as usual). I forgot to snap photos before we ate (in my defense, we were all pretty hungry and it is so good!), but I got a couple of good ones anyway. I had the chicken pesto tortellini, while Husband and T both got the Hot Brown. The pictured portions are about half-size.Waiting patiently for our food…
T was less patient. Damn energy drinks.
Her impression of Mr. Napkin Head.After dinner drink?YES!

We lounged for a good while at the restaurant. Buddha was exceptionally well-behaved. He ate crayons, scribbled, nibbled on fries and bites of our food. After my daiquiri, we left. We took the scenic route home (read: surface streets as opposed to the highway).

I decided to stop by the Hobby Lobby for yarn. It was 8:30pm by then and it closed at 8pm. Curses! So then, Wal*Mart again. Different location, though. I was reluctant, as it is a much smaller store than the one I typically frequent. I expected the selection to be more limited. But I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was their selection pretty dern good, it was better than the selection at the nearby Wal*Mart. I bought a boat-load of yarn and some additional knitting needles. And a big, clear plastic bin for storing my growing collection of yarn. Husband bought a new office chair. We’re tired of arguing over the single one we have! On the way home, we spotted a gas station that had gas cheaper than we’ve seen in a while ($4.08 - how frickin’ sad is that?!), so we stopped in for a fill-up.

Once home, Husband assembled the new chair, Buddha played happily with the new box and I photo-documented my additional stash. Buddha got a bath, then he and I snoozed a while. Husband came to bed and I got up to knit. I completed my first swatch and want to get started on a project of some kind. I browsed Ravelry for some patterns, but everything requires much smaller needles than I have. Impatient as I am, I’m going to improvise a black and red stripey scarf. I knitted (and purled!) 4-5 rows while watching Forensic Files before turning in. When I went in to bed, Husband was still awake. He and I ended up staying up way too late, talking. Much needs to be done today again, particularly for him. I was unable to sleep with all these things swirling around in my head. He set the alarm for 8am and set the coffee pot. Time to condition ourselves for a new schedule.

Now, he’s away at another PT appointment, stopped by the Post Office and the bank. Afterwards, he went by his school to talk about his major and then to Lowe’s to see about J hooks or U bolts or somesuch for the new toolbox. I drank way too much coffee this morning to compensate for lack of sleep and ended up with the shakes because I didn’t eat. So, I ate my leftover chicken tortellini just now. I’m so tired, but I’ve got things to do as well. I need to make a call to pay off a rather large debt of mine, do some laundry (*groan*) and some serious cleaning. Obviously, I’m ignoring all of those demands by blogging, uploading photos and creating slideshows.

Later tonight, I am going to meet up with some people from Ravelry to do some knitting together. I’m excited. I haven’t met new people in real life in quite some time! Plus, they all enjoy the same crafts I do and have gobs more experience, so I look forward to learning lots.

I’d be finished by now because the boy has been playing quietly, letting me do my thing. I turn around to see what he’s up to, and well, it was just so darling, I had to get out the camera:

While I am here, I meant to share this cute one from the other day. Daddy got Buddha to fall asleep in his arms. These types of things are really, really rare for our little guy.

My supplies and yarn stash!

Under normal circumstances, we make weekly trips to the area parks during the summer months. Last year was anything but normal, what with a new baby, moving and adjusting to our new situation. So it’s been really swell getting back into the rhythm of the season again.

When Joy was about Buddha’s age, we used to visit Tyler Park almost daily, because it was walking distance from our apartment. It had a large field, a play area (actually 2), and a fountain that the girl loved to splash in when she was little. For the past several months, I have been seeing what looks like the park in the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Player’s video featured on Jack’s Big Music Show on Noggin, so I’ve been eager to take another trip out there for photo comparison. Sure enough, it is my beloved park!

A screenshot of the video.

A snapshot I took yesterday.

So P picked us up in the early evening. Her oldest, L is at summer camp this week so she just had 4 year old C with her. The girl got along swimmingly with C, which was a pleasant surprise. The girl was even nice to her brother and kept an eye on him for a few minutes for me so’s I could have a sit-down with my friend for a few minutes adult conversation!

The girl loves the fountain.

C with Joy.Joy and Buddha.The boy crawls through a tunnel.Buddha models T’s shades.P and me Just a cool picture of Buddha.

Afterwards, P and I took the kids out for a bite to eat. It took a lot longer than we’d hope or expected, but it was nice. I always have a good time hanging out with P. Then we came back to my place and hung out a bit longer. I gave the boy a bath and we both conked out while he nursed around 10pm.

Today, we’d made plans to visit Otter Creek again with another friend of mine, but she flaked (later found out she worked late and was still sleeping at 10am when I called). So, we opted to go down to Iroquois Park instead. It’s much closer but still got the kids out of the house for a bit so Husband could focus on getting his last bit of schoolwork completed for the quarter. There are fountains there, too, and the kids - especially the girl - love the water. I packed up some PB&Js, the sunblock and we headed out.

T was in a mood today.

Joy splashing around in the park’s fountains.

The boy was a bit nervous.

But I stayed with him and got soaked in the process.

We had a lot of fun, but packed up early. Buddha was getting cranky and I figured taking him home and getting him down for a nap wouldn’t distract Husband too terribly (it didn’t). I took T with me to Kroger for a few miscellaneous groceries and picked up a copy of Jumper to watch tonight while I work on my latest crocheting projects. Another few hours of work and I should be done. I’m getting really excited as I near the end, because they are tur
ning out quite nicely.

Husband left early to swing by campus to take an exam before work. Fridays are usually a long night for him and usually come Saturday, I’m ready to strangle all the kids. Considering how little sleep he’s gotten the last several nights, he will likely come home, pass out and sleep until it’s time to work tomorrow. Sucks for me, but I wouldn’t blame him. He’s got one week of school left, so it’s crunch time. I’m proud of him.

For a few weeks now, I’ve been feeling a bit down in the dumps. On two different evenings about a week apart, I drank and cried. I’ve been feeling lonely, missing Husband and out of sorts. I haven’t wanted to get out of the house. I haven’t wanted to be intimate. I haven’t chatted on the phone. I’ve just kinda withdrawn from the entire world. I’ve got a history of losing myself and my identity to my family. Most of my time is spent with a 2 and a half foot boy who has virtually no vocabulary and demands I figure out his every need. The girls have both challenged me since the school year ended. Instead of looking for growth in these situations, I have lost my patience and generally felt sorry for myself.

I’m happy to report that mostly, those feelings have dissipated. Getting out of the house has helped immensely. Leaning on my Husband - who is my very best friend and my rock - has been reminded me that I needn’t shoulder the world. I remember that I can turn to God and prayer instead of sitting on a pity pot. I count my blessings.

I have been itching to get out to Otter Creek since before we returned to Kentucky to live. It wasn’t possible to make it there when we came for our visit in June of 2006 (not enough time) and when we first moved here, money was really tight, so that kept us from going. Then, by the time Spring rolled around, we had a new baby. Then we moved and well, it just never happened.

So the last few days I have been feeling pretty down in the dumps and decided that I’m just going to pack up the kids and go. Husband surprised me by saying that he wanted to come along, too. I’m glad for it. It was good for us. It was good for my soul.

Some shots of the creek.

We left much later than planned, but the drive was shorter than I anticipated. Good thing too, how we were all mushed into the truck. In any case, we unpacked our stuff and set up a spot by a picnic table. It was fairly quiet out there on a Wednesday morning. We braved the cold creek for a bit, taking the baby, who was both intrigued and afraid. He lost his inhibitions after a bit and enjoyed himself throwing rocks. As we were entering the creek from the bank, there was a spectacular swirl of butterflies fluttering about. The girl even managed to catch one! The current rushing over the rocks was just as beautiful as I remembered. It was too cold for me to thoroughly enjoy, however, and I vow to revisit in August when it simply must be warmer.

As we were setting up and getting ready to head to the creek, Buddha decides he doesn’t care for the sand on his toes.

Joy.

T sunbathing.The boy loved throwing rocks and watching them ker-plunk!Joy in the creek.

She’s a mermaid!

Husband and I.

Then Husband and I packed in the boy and took off hiking, leaving the girls at the creek per their request. It was invigorating to hike. Also a bit disencouraging, as the realization set in that I am completely out of shape. I plodded on faithfully though and made a conscious decision to dedicate more of my free time doing things of this very nature for both my physical health as well as my mental health.

It was peaceful and beautiful. I quickly found my knack for spotting things again. We saw fish swimming in the creek, a toad, a caterpillar, poked interest at a red cedar… I reminisced about previous occasions that I hiked these trails to Husband and how much I missed Furthur Dog as she had always accompanied me. I went on to say that we had always listened for but never saw woodland creatures because her presence had likely scared them away. At that very moment, I looked off to my right and spotted a large and majestic doe! Of course, my movement frightened her away, but it was magikal all the same.

We made our way back after about 30 minutes of walking and packed up to head home. We stopped off for a bite to eat at A&W. It was delicious, but pricey for fast food. When we arrived home, Husband conked out for a bit. I made him lunch for work and then conked out myself.

Ahhhh, today was a good day.

So, yesterday I find out that Theee One and Only Tom Waits is doing a Summer Tour! Oh, goodness, my heart skipped a beat. Dare I imagine what type of experience that might be?

I almost wish I hadn’t. There are absolutely no tickets for the two closest venues (which, might I add, aren’t that close at all).

I’m heartbroken.

Since I first “met” Tom many Springtimes ago, I have loved him. He is The Storyteller. He intrigues me. It would be his name I would answer to the question “If you could lunch with anyone, who would it be?” I don’t even need to speak to him. I just want to listen. Well, and take pictures! We could smoke too many cigarettes and drink coffee ’til I get the shakes (switch to beer?) and I would just listen and he’d tell me some stories. I wouldn’t even care if they were true.

Sigh.