Looking Gorgeous

Today daycare was closed and it was my turn to take the day off and hang out with the offspring. We had a stellar morning. We went to breakfast, played at the Gazebo, picked up eggs for Sunday's hunt and then came home in time for lunch. Then, because mommy needed to wrap a few items up at the workplace, Aunt Jo Jo helpfully arrived and took the children away. When she returned they each had a new chair in their size. Sarah had a purse with phone, license, credit cards and shades. Kate had a princess make-up kit.

We've been promised severe storms today at any moment. The sun was out when they got home, though, so we opted to play outside. Sarah and I decided blowing bubbles would be a good thing to do out there.

Kate asked if I would bring her Sleeping Beauty vanity out so she could put on her make-up. Here's how Kate applies make-up:

Which is eerily similar to this:
All was going well until the over-tired girls disintegrated into wretched behavior and I was forced to put them down for naps. They did not nap. Mommy needs a drink. Here's some more of the cuteness I photographed before I had to put down the camera and get all authoritarian and mean.

Hidden Cove

Yesterday I had jury duty. That's bad. We were released early, though! That's good. I had a ton of work to do so I went home and spent the remainder of the day working. That's bad and kind of good, because now that work is done, which it wouldn't be if I'd spent the day deciding someone's fate.

It was gorgeous outside and since I'd spent so much time indoors working I decided I'd take the girls to a kid-sized nature trail instead of bringing them home from daycare. I picked up smoothies and some Kid Clif Bars and went to spring them from daycare. To my delight, they were extremely enthusiastic about my plan. We headed over to Hidden Cove park. It's right by the YMCA, behind what used to be the Westchester school (it's administrative offices now). My plan was to keep them looking at flora and fauna for about an hour. It went well at first, but then they spotted the playground behind the old school and the fauna could kiss their behinds for all they cared.

Except...I let them climb down into the creek by the little waterfall. The swings are enticing, but permission to risk life and limb wins hands down. We frolicked on the rocks and touched the slimy algae and looked for toads. We collected a few more kids, too. Then Jeremiah joined us and taught other people's children to call each other "dooty", "pee pee" and "booty". Then sent them all home with their parents. It takes a village.

It was a wonderful way to spend the early evening, even though it wound the kids up way more than it wore them down.

True Story

The building in which I work really isn't big enough for us all. We moved in about 3 years ago and even back then space was a little tight. We've got people working in elevator shafts and storage closets. In the past 3 years we've grown a lot so you can imagine the workspace issues we face now.

At the beginning of the year I moved out of the IT department and into Client Services. This was nice, because IT resides in the windowless portion of the basement, behind a locked door, in cubes. I was often a bit depressed there for some reason. Client Services was up on the third floor (where's there's sunshine!) but there was nowhere for me to sit, so I took up residence in the hallway behind one of those little half-walls at an empty receptionist desk, in front of the printer and next to the shared mini-fridge. While this made snacking easy, the desk itself was too small to house both my bigass monitors, my keyboard and any notes, pens, my phone or my arms. I was elated when we learned we'd be moving. True, it was back to the basement, but this section has windows and I would actually occupy an office. A real office. For the first time in years.

So down we went and while it was wonderful, we were lacking in office space (of course) and the walls were missing things like lightswitch covers. There were giant skid marks from frequent furniture rearranging and big holes where various wall hangings had once resided. Oh, and the sign outside our section identified us as Accounting and Finance.

Several weeks after we moved we were granted approval to put up a new wall, thus creating another office, and to get lightswitch covers, some touch-ups on the paint and maybe even a new sign. They put the wall up at night while we were all at home sleeping. Then we started to notice they were doing the finishing work while we were all there. First, they came in to paint the new offices. Our area is pretty closed off, so we all quickly became light-headed. There's a conference room that sits between our offices and the main hallway, so we opened the doors to that and, despite the cold, the windows in the new offices. Happily, I had a meeting which got me out of the immediate area. When I returned, I opened the door to our department and it stopped 2/3 of the way, hitting some chairs. Then I turned the corner into my office only to find all the furniture in my office had been moved into the center of the room and the window in there opened. They'd come in and spackled the holes in my office walls while I was out. I climbed over a couple chairs and eeked my way back to my spot at my desk.

By now the paint fumes were wafting down the hall and permeating the entire basement. One of my co-workers was walking past the open conference door when she bumped into our building manager, who was in the act of closing said door. "The smell." she said to my co-worker in a stage whisper, waving a hand in front of her nose for emphasis and closed us all in with the fumes. My co-worker shared this with me as I sat trapped behind my own office furniture. "Does she think we didn't notice 'the smell'?" she asked then gave me one of those wide-eyed, apoplectic looks.

We soldiered on, only wondering aloud once or twice how many brain cells we were losing. It was close to 4 and I'd gotten used to my new office arrangement, and to being cold (it meant the smell was less pungent). I was on the phone when, without warning, a man walked into my office, set up a ladder and began painting the crown mouldings. He said nothing to me. I said "Errrr..." Then his boss came in carrying more paint supplies, he gave me a warm smile and wished me a good afternoon. "His ladder is blocking my exit." I said, indicating the painter with my head while I was still on the phone. "Yes, sorry. We're painting the trim today and we'll paint the walls tomorrow. Maybe you want to come in around noon tomorrow?" Yes. I want to come in around noon. Because I don't do anything here. "You know I'm working here, right?" I asked. "Yes, yes, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I mean, if we can't get this done now when will we do it?" I blinked at him. "Are we on a sitcom?" He laughed uncomfortably. I decided it would be a good time to go home. I climbed over the chairs again, squeezed behind the back of my desk, ducked under the ladder and escaped the office. I took a picture of the scene with my phone. How could I be mad? This is easily the funniest thing that's ever happened at my office (notice how I don't mention work much? ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). And, I did want the holes in my walls patched...

Michael

"I'm going inside, I need to make you girls some dinner. Are you staying out here, Sarah?" I asked the other afternoon after we'd arrived home from work and daycare. "Yeah, I'm going to stay outside with Michael." Michael? She turned to chat with Micheal, forgetting me. Well, whaddayaknow.

After dinner Kate and Sarah retired to the TV room for some Goofy cartoons. "I want Michael to come inside." Sarah said to me. I opened the door and called outside. "Miiiiiiichael! Time to come in with Sarah." I held the door, watching Sarah so I'd know when Michael was safely inside. She gave me an almost imperceptible nod and I closed the door and walked out of the room, leaving the 3 of them with their cartoons.

Today as I picked the girls up from daycare Sarah said to me "Michael isn't here, he went home already." I zipped up her jacket (freakin' freezing out today, it snowed!) "Where does Michael live?" I asked her. She rolled her eyes "at his house!" How could I be so obtuse? "I see, " I said "well, I thought he might live at our house. I mean, he's there a lot." She shook her head "No no, he doesn't like Rex and Lola." Who wouldn't like Rex and Lola? I started to wonder about letting her hang out with this Michael character. Of course, he may be very tiny and if that's the case, Rex and Lola could really terrify him with their incessant rough-housing. Kate fluttered past me, piling on scarf, hat, mittens, sweater and coat like Heidi in the fields. "Michael is her imaginary friend." She said it like one might say "Mary is my cousin's wife."

When we got home, sporting her first ever pigtails*, Sarah made a smoothie in her blender for Michael. He wasn't there, so I had to drink it. As you might notice, it was made of an entire ear of corn on the cob (with pat of butter) and a Tinkerbell lip gloss compact. Delicious.
* I tried to get a rear view of the adorable hair style here, but mostly what you can see is that she's only wearing one shoe. She left the other one in the car.

Early Earth Day

Several months ago Keith posted this on his blog, and I was inspired. We plan to one day have a garden...once our contractor finally gets the grading completed on the project we began over a year ago. I still have faith. On this gorgeous Saturday afternoon, Steve & Joy joined us on the concrete slab in our back yard that will one day be our square foot garden, and we made worm bins. I picked up the supplies at Lowes Friday during my lunch break and Steve & Joy picked up some worms at our community garden (which you should totally join if you live near-by).

See? There are the worms, in their existing compost. It's pretty yucky.

So first, we cut up a whole bunch of newspaper. Everyone helped with that. Except Sarah, who thought the project was dumb.


Sarah entertained herself by tormenting Lola, who was just trying to lounge in the sun, and drawing with chalk all over her gymnastics outfit. All that ended when the power tools and water squirting commenced. More on that in a moment.


Next, we drilled the holes in our bins. Kate learned how to use power tools! Then she helped her sister.






Then, after we glued screening over all the holes, it was time to lay down the worms' bed of shredded newspaper and moisten it with a spray bottle. The girls primarily enjoyed spraying one another. It was pretty hot on that sun-baked slab of concrete that will one day be our square foot garden, so you can't really blame them.


Next, we piled on lots of old leaves and dirt. Happily, we hadn't cleaned up any portion of our yard since October, so there was plenty of that type of material all around us for the taking. After the dirt and leaves went in, it was time to add worms and some organic material for them eat. Eeeewwwwh.

Hey, check out Kate holding that worm in her bear hand. Remember when she was this kid?



We added more wet, shredded newspaper on top of the worms and their food, and put the lids on. Our bins were complete! Now, to feed them each day, and turn the compost from time to time. It's going to take a good 6 months before it's usable, but that's okay, since our square foot garden is currently a concrete slab. Not that I'm at all irritable or impatient about that. Not at all. Once that fun was completed, Joy planted wild flowers by the driveway with the girls.



We tucked our worm bins away from the drying sun and now...we wait. Wish the worms luck! Not that they have anywhere to go yet, since our square foot garden is currently just a concrete slab. I'm cool with that, though. It's no big deal.