Fly Me to the Moon

There is a total eclipse of the moon tonight. These are unusual occurrences, and because of our rainy weather, are even more exceptional in Fircrest. However tonight we have a great view of the eclipse right out our front door.

I have a secret ambition to travel into space. I would love to go to the moon. It doesn’t look like it will happen in my lifetime, though. I told Jeremy he might have to bury me there. He looked at me like I was absolutely crazy. Go figure. I asked him why he didn’t want to bury me on the moon. I was really rather touched, thinking he wanted to go visit my grave or something. Turns out he doesn’t want to go to the moon. Sigh. I told him he could just send me up with someone else.

Josh Has Heart

Today I took the boys to the University of Washington to a bioengineering workshop. It was pretty cool. They showed us what they use for hip, knee, and finger joint replacements, as well as heart valves and stints. They even showed us the catheter used to place stints. Then they got to dissect a sheep's heart. Jeremy didn't have fun with that. The teacher asked him if she needed to bring him the trashcan. He was pretty green. Josh loved it until she showed him how to stick her finger through the heart's chamber, and the valve to come up on the outside of the heart. He turned even greener! He soon overcame it, though and was putting his finger through!

Who Says You Can't Get Good Service Anymore?

I was cleaning my carpets one day and noticed I was trailing a stream of water. My clean water tank was cracked. I ignored my dirty carpets as long as I could. The stains didn't show up that badly, after all.

Then along came Caleb. When I called to let him in the other day, he didn't come. That means he found something good to eat around the corner. I'm sure the neighbors threw a steak over the fence. (I prefer to ignore the fact that he likes to catch birds to eat.) He came in the house, walked in the living room and threw up something very dark. Right in the middle of the floor. Goober.

I now had no choice but to find a new tank for the carpet cleaner. I looked on the Hoover site and could not find the correct model number for a replacement, so I emailed them to find out the information. I was blown over by their response:

We will be happy to ship a replacement tank to your address as a customer courtesy.

I am getting a $40 tank for free! I've had the machine for years, so I never expected this. Hurray for Hoover!

So Proud...

I’m just so proud of the boys. After months, no years, of bickering and fighting, they spent the evening getting together! They are collaborating on a book. They are writing, not just any old book, but A Book of Proverbs. What more could a mom want????

Here are some of the proverbs they have penned:

• You are but a drop of urine in the bladder of life.
• You are but a maggot in this crap we call life.
• You are but a drizzly, chunky piece of vomit in the bucket of life.
• You are but an odd smell in the manure farm of life
• You are but the black center of the bird crap of life.
• You are but a thread in the dirty underwear of life.

I blame it on the Beggs side of the family.

It happened

Josh is 3/4 of an inch taller than Mike.

The Cake

Joshua had his birthday party this weekend. He decided he wanted a homemade chocolate cake filled with mint chocolate chip ice cream. The day before the party I went to Costco. They had a yummy chocolate caked filled with fudge and covered with the dark chocolate icing and chocolate shavings. I called him up to tell him about it. No go. He still wanted a homemade cake. I walked around Coscto and saw the cheesecakes. I called Josh up again to tempt him with the delious, yet no-work-for-Mom cheesecake. No go. Sigh. I might as well give up. I went to the store and picked up a cake mix, ice cream and Cool Whip (for frosting).

When I got home I dug out my fancy-smancy dome cake pan and baked the cake. So far so good. It even came loose from the cake pan. I softened the ice cream and put it in the hollow of the cake, then put on the top, which would soon become the bottom. Back to the freezer to refreeze the ice cream. When it was time to serve it, I iced it with the Cool Whip. All were duly impressed, including myself. It really wasn’t all that hard to do. I might have to do it more often.

Joshua turned 14 today. Or yesterday on British time. He was such a good baby. Now I'm contemplating Mark Twain's advice on teens. Does anyone have a spare rain barrel? hee hee

This, That, and the Other

The day before Mike got the second round of stents, he had to go to the cardiologist. He told us Mike has to eat fish three times a week. Not just any fish. It has to be ocean fish that is rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Not just any ocean fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids, either. It has to be from the real ocean, not farm raised. My grocery bill just shot through the roof. Thank goodness for Costco!

Joshua is going to be 14 this week. They say surly teenagers are nature’s way of ensuring that we push them out of the nest. He did apologize for something today. I about died of shock. There may be hope yet....

I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Hmmm. What I need is a vacation! When we got home from the doctor’s one day we found a gift certificate for the hotel and spa at Snoqualmie Falls. http://www.salishlodge.com/ The note didn’t say who gave it. How kind was that? It will be fun, but I think I want to do that later when the snow starts to thaw. Then the water fall will be spectacular this year with all the snow they’ve been getting in the mountains! I'm going to try the $75 breakfast.

How Weird Is This??

Mike, as you know, entered the hospital on Monday to have a stent placed. I was checking my email tonight and a friend sent me a message saying that the local paper has the obituary of a man named Michael Beggs. (Click on the title to see it.) Her husband thought it was Mike. I bet the church will be getting a lot of phone calls.

Captain Jack Sparrow Burglar

So, I have been having a pity party today. Silly, but true. Then I watched the news tonight and perked right up. This idiot tried to break into a coffee shop a few miles from here. The owner put the surveillancetape on youtube with some great commentary. Click on the title above for a laugh.

The owener posted this on youtube:
Yes, Captain Jack has given himself up and is in custody. The suspect walked in to the Tacoma Police Station and turned himself in and admitted he was the person in the video. He added he does not remember committing the crime because of his intoxication that night. Oh...he also said that he suffered a dislocated knee when he kicked the back door the last time. :)

Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right?

So, Mike is now trying to watch what he eats. It is a bit rough going at the moment. He talks about cheese a lot. That seems to be his most difficult sacrifice. We need to get an appointment with the dietitian so we can find out exactly what he should and shouldn’t eat. He is trying though. He actually tasted oatmeal today. It was probably the first time he did since graduating from oatmeal baby cereal. I bought the good stuff from the store yesterday. Not the nasty, vile instant oatmeal in packages or even Quaker’s Old Fashioned Oats. I went to the health food section and bought Scottish Oats. Those are delicious. I made them with cinnamon and a touch of brown sugar. Mike came into the room and I held out a spoon to him. He ignored it. I persisted. So did he. I said, “Taste it.” He said “Not now.” I said, “Yes, now.” He took the spoon. He looked at it. He put it in his mouth. He got a nasty look on his face before the porridge even hit his tongue. He then said, “It’s mushy.” Then a mildly surprised look crossed his face. “It’s not bad,” he pounced. “I taste cinnamon and brown sugar.” An extremely shocked looked crossed my face. I had no clue he had ever tasted brown sugar, much less cinnamon. Althought it wasn't "just right", there may be hope.

Wanna see some elves?

Click on the title above.

To Work or Not to Work: That Is the Question!

I've been asked to apply for a preschool assistant teacher job 3 afternoons a week. I really don't want to take it, but probably should. I substituted a couple of days this week and things went well at home with the boys. We just did the stuff they needed help with first and they worked on their own in the afternoon.

There were some cute kids in the class, but a couple are real stinkers. One is a little girl who looks angelic, but isn't. None of the other kids will play with her. It's sad, really. The other is a little boy who is still in a pull-up. I don't know why they let him in the class as he should be potty trained. He could be, but he is as stubborn as the day is long. I told him he has ants in his pants. He didn't know what to think about that!

Before and After

Scruffy just got a hair cut. I think he is really cute when he has long hair, but when the black rugs in the kitchen turn white, it's time for a trim. :^)

Mmmm

Tonight we had Thanksgiving Dinner at the church. Our church takes turns hosting homeless families and this was our week. My friend Charlee signed up to do the meal tonight and asked if I would help. Charlee and her husband made the most delicious turkey on the BBQ. It was so good. She also made chestnut and sausage stuffing to die for. All I had to do was bring rolls and mashed potatoes. It was an excellent meal. I can’t remember the last traditional Thanksgiving meal I’ve had.

The homeless kids were a real eye-opener for the boys. The youngest was 11 and he had some mental/emotional issues. His sister was loud, obnoxious, and had all the teen-age boys but one at her beck and call. Her mother was totally clueless about how to control her children. It was sad. The boy who stayed away from the girl had a wise grandma keeping an eye on him. The other boys’ mother seemed blind to the fact that if someone didn’t intervene, she would soon be a grandma. And unless they did a DNA test no one would know which of her three sons the father was.

It made me wonder how the homeless kids I worked with in Dallas are doing. They would all be grown up by now. Some of them had wonderful parents and were homeless because of circumstances. I always hoped they would make it.

At any rate, I believe the boys now see that they have many things for which they can give thanks.

Frick and Frack

So, it is almost Christmas. The ONLY thing Leta likes for Christmas are pictures of the boys. Since they don’t go to school, I have to haul them to Penney’s Portrait Studio to get school pictures. Jeremy had his done yesterday. The photographer fell in love with him and commented that he was her easiest shoot that day. It was really hard to pick the picture because they were all so good.

Today I took in Josh. Last year I made him wear something nice and made sure his hair looked good. He was really grumpy as a result and his picture reflected it. This year I left everything up to him. I refused to look at him before he left. My only condition was that he couldn’t wear the t-shirt Mike’s dad got him that says, “I don’t give a…” and has a picture of a rat sitting on a donkey. Oh – and he had the hood of his hoodie over his head so I couldn’t see his hair anyway. So we get to the studio and I look at his hair. Dandruff and oil. Sigh. So I made him comb out the dandruff. When we got into the studio he absolutely refused to smile. He bit his lip to stop smiling because the photographer was making him crack up. The rat. When she finally got all his pictures done, another lady showed them to us to so we choose what we wanted. Usually they try to get you to buy a whole bunch. These were so bad, the lady just sold us the package and let us go. We hopefully found one that will work.

The Battle Over the Hair

It would seem that at some time or another in every family with boys there will be a battle over hair. Should it be long or should it be short? It inevitably will come down to a battle of the wills. Today I took matters into my own hands. I put it in a pony tale to keep it out of his eyes. It was the only way if it wasn’t going to be cut. There was much yelling and screaming, but I prevailed.

Do We Have a Scrooge In the Family???

Inquiring minds want to know. (See poll)

A Time To Give Thanks

When I was growing up, Thanks-giving was my favorite time of the year. I loved the meal, and it didn't hurt that my birthday was always around then. Alas, I have grown up and things have changed. My beloved traditional Thanksgiving meal has turned to a meal of ham and cornbread stuffing. It would seem that not everyone likes turkey and good old bread stuffing, and I am low man on the totem pole. So, I compromise and make a traditional meal the weekend before or after Thanksgiving. As for my birthday, Jeremy is generally the only one around here who remembers it. That may not be such a bad thing...

The Big Emergency

I was fast asleep last night when Caleb’s barking woke me up. He was barking like he does when he is shut up in the bedroom without me. I turned on the light so he could see I was there, but he continued barking urgently. So, thinking something must be wrong, I got out of be and he tore out of the room to the living room. The big emergency? Mike was eating a midnight snack of pizza without him. I was not amused at either of them.