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Today I realized something big. Apparently, amidst the drama of the water-logged house and the respite for the 2 boys…I apparently forgot to call my father on his 75th birthday. That was Saturday. Today is Monday. Yeah.
So, for him and everyone else…
HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY TO MY DADDY, J.W.T.
We love you very much even if we forget to call you on your special day.
We’re on the last day of respite, and I must admit, I am sick of the sound of video games coming from my TV. I mean, yeesh. Video games are just so time consuming (yeah, as I sit here an blog about it). Anyway…it’s funny, its caused the Jim and I to rethink how we’re intending to parent our own child. NOT SO MUCH TV. I mean goodness. Perhaps, I’m just annoyed because I can’t watch my “No Reservations” or whatever movie happens to be on HBO at the time. Perhaps, I’m adjusting to the reality that when you have a kid or kids, that life is less and less about you. While I knew that, experiences like this are good to reinforce that fact. Basically, the Jim and I get up, take care of the kids, feed, make sure they’ve washed up and all, head them out the door to summer activity, work, pick them up, feed them, entertain them (and we apparently aren’t able to compete with Super Smash Brothers Brawl), and get them to attempt to go to bed. I have a whole new profound appreciation…not that I didn’t before…but I get it.
Oh, and I fully get it that being a parent means = all cool points are out the window. All of em. I think we’re okay with actually being parents…I’m not into being a friend. Anyone can be a friend, it takes guts to be a parent. I say this as I just toned town the video gaming situation.
Ta dah.
Please know…we have a more profound appreciation for parents.
Wow.
In a few words…it was wonderful.
Okay, where do I begin with reviewing a Pixar film? Well, perhaps I should start by letting you know that I had read all the reviews on Ratatouille on rottentomatoes.com and was prepared for one of the best rated Pixar films ever. While I liked and enjoyed Ratatouille, we waited to see it when it came out on DVD. We had been told it was AMAZING. We liked it…but, well “It wasn’t our favorite.” I’m not sure why? Perhaps it was the ‘hype’? You know, when you’re Mom used to tell you not to get yourself too over-excited, because you may be let down? Well…I think that’s what happened for us.
Knowing this and having read the reviews on rottentomatoes.com for WALL*E, I was excited about seeing it, but it was a low key excitement. We took the “borrowed” kiddos and were delightfully surprised that the film held their attention (i.e. they have a little of what MissyB & Jennilu called “A.D.D.oooh shiny!”). First of all, there is NOT a lot of dialogue in the movie. That is a good thing. It makes you feel more a part of the story, like an observer. Second of all, the robots are sweet in a “not over the top” sort of way. They all have their assigned jobs, and while they extend a bit beyond those jobs (emotional/or mother-board-mentally), they’re still believable (well, in the sense that any animated film is believable). There is some warning signs about the fate of the future if we continue to only eat and watch TV, and if we continue to disregard the need to take care of our planet…oh, and there’s a bit of heavy handedness when it comes to apple computer products (all of which I don’t mind because I’m a mac user myself and visually, the film is as stunning as a macbook or ibook is to look at), but all of it is okay if you understand the deeper story and meaning.
It’s about believing you can change things…it’s about believing that better is possible and some hard work and determination can get you there. To be honest, I want to believe that. I liked this movie because it doesn’t exactly pander to children, and it doesn’t make little girls believe that your ultimate goal and ambition in life should be: look pretty, learn to sing and marry the prince. What it did do, is remind us to take a good look at where the world and us who live in it have the potential to “head” and encourage us to focus on taking better care…of our planet, ourselves and most importantly…each other.
**** Out of Four.
We really never thought we’d really do the fostering again, but we became friends with A & T in our PATH classes and agreed with them that if either of us needed respite services, we’d use each other. Well, when our dreams of a fostering situation went sour (which things are okay now with that situation), we figured we’d never hear from them. Surprisingly, we did.
A & T got married a month or so back, and never had an opportunity to honeymoon. Well, they decided to “get-away” to the Gatlinburg area and asked if we’d do respite for their 2 boys, who we’ll call “Big Red” and “Lotsa Energy”. We agreed to four nights of fun, and were a bit worried about doing this all again, but heck as I’ve always told potential foster or adoptive parents, respite is an opportunity to try parenting out or “on” so to speak. If you’re not 100% sure you’re ready for this in any long-haul sense, try respite first. You may decide you like being there for youth, but not 24/7. Respite becomes a great option for anyone who still wants to make a difference but doesn’t perhaps want to make a commitment. Plus, you never know where your heart may lead you…but that’s another story for another day.
Anyway, we’re on evening 3 of 4 as I write this entry. Things have gone really good! Both Big Red and Lotsa Energy are really good kids, with more energy than I’ve had in a long time. Pre-teens, they still have a sense of wonderment with less of the attitude that I happen to love sometimes that teens bring to the table. All in all, these 2 boys are well mannered, polite and a great opportunity to realize that all foster children are not super stressful. Now, that’s not to say that they are not overly dependent on video games or TV or whatever…but they are distractable, thank god! However, going to a temporary family unit of 4 has made me realize that I don’t know how anyone can afford children?! I mean, here’s what we’ve done so far this weekend:
- Cici’s Pizza (not our choosing, puhleeze!) $40.00
- Blockbuster Video (3 Wii rentals) $27.00
- WALL*E at the Movies (4 Tickets & Snacks) $47.00
- Games & Fun at Zuma and Sir Goony’s (Thanks to Jim) $50.00
and this doesn’t include the groceries and such. So, even though I felt like I was writing the script for a new Master Card commercial, I cannot imagine doing this 365 with our current budget. HOW do people do this!? I mean, there must be some amazing financial budgeteers out there that do the adjustment well and believe me, I applaud them.
Thankfully, we had a free dinner night on Saturday night getting to go to a cookout with friends including: The Douglas Family, Please Feed The Monkeys, The Dotsons and others…all in all a fun night and restoring my belief that kids can entertain themselves.
So, all in all…a good weekend and I think we’d both recommend that if you ever had a thought to try out foster parenting – being a respite parent is a good way to get your feet wet and to test-drive the whole Mom & Dad (or Mom/Mom, Dad/Dad, Mom or Dad), thing. It’s actually kinda fun.
Jim and I are moving our blog back to WordPress. We were using iWeb, but since the flood and the computer becoming toast, I realized that a web-based blog site has its value. So be prepared…we’ll be updating the old space. Lots to cover.
I’ll be posting to my wordpress blog for a little while since the “unfortunate incident” (what we’ll call it), occurred at our home last night. We upgraded to a nice double door fridge with water in the door and ice making capabilities. We were excited about using less plastic (we used to by bottled water), which we felt would = less use of petroleum which is used to make the plastic bottles that we buy to have convenient water. Now, I know, why not just drink tap water? It tastes funny to me, perhaps because I was raised on “northern tap water” (ha), and unfortunately I’ve heard that Knoxville has pretty highly chlorinated water (there’s no snope out on that one so I cannot verify). Anyway…that was a digression.
The Jim worked his buttocks off to get the water in the door set up, and by Sunday night it was working and rockin. However some time on Sunday night, the hose decided to file for a divorce. It apparently was one of those 12 hour marriages. The fridge, the hose decided, was just more than it bargained for…so it divorced the fridge. In plain ole’ terms…the hose disconnected itself at some point and proceeded to fill our kitchen up with spurting water. So much so, that it went through the kitchen floor and down through the ceiling in our rec-room. So, when we woke up this morning…The Jim went downstairs to let the doggies out and there was a shout of “OH MY GOD.” I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter! What to my wondering eyes should appear, but no miniature spray and a lot of rain, dear. The water was gushing at a nice clip from the hole in the ceiling. I didn’t fret, or freak…I calmly said – just shut the water off to the house. What else could we do at that point? The basement was soaked, the couch served as a great sponge as it took the brunt of Niagara Rogers…the worst part was my purse was siting on that couch as well as my laptop. So…new camera, new laptop, cell phone, etc…all TOAST.
So, I’d like to say it’s not so bad and believe me it could have been a LOT worse. All I know is that we are blessed to have home owner’s insurance and a claims adjuster due to be out for a visit in the next day or so. I will keep you posted.
After what I will not affectionately call a day off of WTF (sorry, but that’s about the only way to describe it)…involving:
Picking up a car rental, where no car was reserved/available (think Seinfeld episode);Picking up a pizza, where hot, fresh and now was none of the above;
DirecTV installers not knowing how to keep scheduled appointments;
More calls than I have EVER received outside of being a triage person for a crisis line;
Some strange woman coming to the house saying she’s from AT & T Community something and wanting to sell me something called Cram and Scam, to which I told her to Cram and Scram;
Fridge deliverers late, but great and deserving of a bottle of wine for their thanks;
A second trip to the car rental place (after a haggling experience regarding coverage insurance), yielded a SWEET ride of a Prius! I have wanted to drive a Prius since they came on the market and I think Jim has wanted to too. It’s kind of a test-drive to see if we’d ever buy one. After we figure out how much upkeep costs on them, and after one of our cars dies (we’re riding them till the drop folks), I think they’d be in the running for one of our top, next choices. They are quiet, smooth riding and definitely more gas efficient overall. It also felt like a less destructive option since I’m driving back to Nashville on Sunday for a baby shower for a good friend. So, all in all GREAT ride.
The reason for our trip to Nashvegas was to see the wonderful, brit comedian and mostly dramatic actor: Eddie Izzard. For anyone who knows us, you know how much we like Eddie. He’s one of those wonderous, intelligent british comics that truly satisfy the thinkers in the crowd. He knows his pop culture, but he knows his history and can riff on the stone age and provide a funny, while honest personal philosophy on religion – he’s just ADD and great. He performed a great standup routine for over 90 minutes and then met with some fans outside after the show to do a Q & A sessions. I was lucky enough to be there, as was Chris and Maria who journeyed with us (pics will go up on on our Photo section, and a jarring movie of the experience will be in the Home Movies section).
It was good to finally see him LIVE! I hope with the great response, he’ll always keep Nashville on his touring schedule. If you don’t know Eddie Izzard – we highly recommend catching his performance called “Dressed To Kill”. It’s the best sampling of this great comedian. Afterwards, I had the driving shift from 12 Midnight to 3 AM. I should be sleeping right now…but alas, I blog. Beautiful reminder that a weird day can certainly rise above.
Got to go to lovely ladies lunch today with House of Flying Monkeys, My Crazy Little Mixed Up World, Curiously Kaylea and Overly Trite (we actually don’t fit the standard profile of the Ladies Who Lunch, but I like the song and I’m claiming it for my own use…just cope). Thanks ladies for the uplift at the delicious NAMA downtown. Yummy stuff folks…and I highly recommend going there for lunch and adding the “lunch box special” – I mean to get the addition of Soup and Salad – ROCKS. NAMA has become a Jim and I favorite for Saturday lunching…it’s wonderful.
Now for part 2 of the title. Earlier this week, Jim dropped his Motorola Krzr which proceeded to crack/shatter like the case outside is made of glass. As of right now, the phone is still working…will it continue to work for long. We don’t know. Then today, my LG decided that it had served its purpose in this cell phone life. It just stopped working. It froze on “Verizon Wireless” front-page wallpaper and any attempts to turn it on resulted in a red flashing light. I don’t know about red-flashing lights in your world, but typically they signal something not so go. So, I take my cell phone sadness to the Verizon store. I hand over my cell phone and she says, “Um…well…let me see if the tech can fix this.” She proceeds to leave the front counter and go into the back where the titan of techs apparently resides. All I hear is his laugh. Laugh means about the same thing as the flashing red light. Urgh.
So my LG is toast. Good news is that I’m eligible to upgrade on THIS June 30th. The bad news is that I’m eligible to upgrade on THIS June 30th. Which means I’m now the proud owner of an extremely LOW tech limp-along phone. Hooray. I think, though that MissyB has talked me into a BlackBerry, but I’m also interested in the current version of my phone. We’re also going to need to figure out Jim’s phone situation. He may use his old rzr phone if we can get a replacement battery. So…if you read the last post, we’re on total overhaul. Is it possible for 2 people to stimulate the economy? I don’t know…but we’re trying.
The above is in reference to a Propellerhead’s song…well, we finally surrendered to a few appliance upgrades in the past few weeks. First went the washer. Look, the washer works, but it sounds like a jet engine. Since it would cost more to fix than to suck it up and buy another one…we did. So FAR, we LOVE IT. It’s a Samsung and it’s more high tech than a washer should be. It stabilizes automatically and plays music when it’s done. It even has a power button. Wow. A week later, we went and got the matching dryer. Thank god for Craigslist – we’re putting the older 2 up there, especially since the both work and the dryer is still in amazing condition.
Speaking of Craigslist – we got a steal on a 50” dlp widescreen high def TV…so we got that. Now we actually have to upgrade to DirecTV high def. We’re coming up in the world. Okay, not so much…but our crap is getting bigger.
Then, thanks to the lovely “gift” from the government (like we’re already not paying for it), we upgraded the fridge to a side by side. We had a little one that came with the house. We’re excited to have an ice maker again, and water in the door. My god how your priorities change when you’re an adult. I am actually excited about a new fridge. So…wow, things are definitely getting bigger around here. Ummm…we need to go back on our diets. Ha!
I know. I haven’t written lately. It’s been a bit of the above overall – which I’ll explain at some point – everything is fine at home so don’t worry. In the meantime, I’ll put up my review of Sex and the City and wish Missy B a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Brandi & Loren a CONGRATULATIONS and C of P & D a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY.
Love and miss you all.
Will write more soon…BTW, the flower above is the small busy blue ball flower. Had to.
Okay, so it sounds more elaborate than it really is right? This is our little slice of internet nonsense, which basically is our on-going effort to keep our friends and family up-to-date on our lives, our love and our continuing pursuit of pomegranates. In this modern age of movement, we’ve realized that distance is not an excuse to not keep everyone posted, so please - stop by anytime - in person or internet-ly and know that you are all never far from our thoughts.
