Here's What I Know

• Our temps have dipped below zero.  They're back up now.  Still freezing.  And I think I feel especially cold because we've been listening to The Long Winter, a Little House on the Prairie book, and they are having a terrible time.  Holy canoli.  They are freezing.  Every day.  And only eating bread and potatoes each day, but now they're out of wheat and they ate the last potato.  Meanwhile Almanzo and his brother are feasting on stacks of pancakes and syrup and some kind of pork meat item.  We are listening to this story in the car and we haven't gone anywhere for a few days and I'm aching to know if Almanzo made it back from his 40 mile trek to find wheat to save the town!
• Paul just found a Culver's gift card from this summer with a $11.63 balance.  If you're cold, you might as well eat ice cream.
• I emailed our local live theater and asked if they would like to have my wedding dress and veil.  And they said yes.  With exclamation points.  I changed my mind.  I'm going to keep it.
• As I was going through my sewing things tonight I got emotional and sentimental about a seam ripper.  It was my very first seam ripper and it was given to me by my Great Aunt Phyllis.  I didn't even know what a seam ripper was before she took me under her quilted wing.  It is an essential sewing tool.  Here's an example:

 It's like 3 inches long.  We're not storing much when we move, and we're bringing just a few suitcases with us when we go.  And yet I feel as if I should save the seam ripper.  Never mind the footstool Paul made me when we were long-distance dating, made from walnut harvested from his father's farm.  Stow the seam ripper.  That's when I knew it was time for a break from cleaning out the upstair's room.

• I'm going back to California.  Next week.  With three children and no husband.  Know why?  It's the 100th Day Extravaganza of the Successful Stem Cell Transplant.  It's the anti-funeral.  My Dad has recovered from the ordeal, has not a bit of leukemia in him, and we're going to celebrate.  All of us.  Except for Paul.  But everyone else.  My Brother.  And my other Brother.  And my Sister.  And their families.  And galleons of aunts, uncles, cousins, and relations.  (Not that they're pirates, but galleons just seemed the word to use.)  It's going to be fabulous.
• When I told Peter about this trip and I started listing all the family we'd be seeing, he got a super cute grin when I came to Cadence.  He said, "I've been waiting so long to see her."  Sweet boy.  I had no idea.
• And the 49ers are in the Super Bowl.  Isn't that wonderful?  Kind of neat for the city of San Francisco - first the Giants win the World Series, now the 49ers.  If only I cared for the Giants.  Which I don't.

• Well, I think that's all I know for now.  We're making peanut butter for math tomorrow.  Reuben squealed with delight when I told him.  Then he hugged me and said he loved me and 'thank you!!!'  I hope it's as exciting as he's planning it to be.

They Called My Name

Last time I wrote, I was visiting my parents in California.  So let's pick up from there.

My parents drove me to the airport, I checked in, and went to Gate 5.  About ten minutes later I heard, "Paging Southwest passenger Stacey Spenard.  Stacey Spenard.  Please somethingsomethingsomething."  I don't remember what they said because I was so giddy that my name was being called on the P.A. system.

Turns out my flight was being delayed indefinitely and I was going to miss my connection in Denver.  "So you'll have to reschedule and fly out tomorrow.  Here's a voucher to keep you happy."  Here comes my second favorite part.

I asked the Southwest lady behind the counter, "Can I use your phone to call my Mom and have her come pick me up?"  I felt like I was five years old.  It was funny.

So my parents turned around and came to retrieve me.  One more day in Cali, but at that point I was mentally geared up to go home and see my boys.  Flew out the next morning and here I am.

In other news...

• Paul submitted his resignation this week, giving the church sixty days notice.  Really, he gave them verbal notice two years ago that we would be leaving about this time.  Many were surprised when it became official.  The first weekend in March will be his last.  We've been here eight years.

• We are moving overseas in March.  You could call it a job transfer.

• Charlie celebrated his first time-out this week:

• Paul and I have a trip planned to go to an International T. Networking conference in Arizona next month.  It's totally focused on our future move.  Bonus that it's in Arizona in the midst of winter.  And double bonus that we paid for our plane tickets with Paul's voucher from flying in November and my voucher that I got this last trip when I had to fly out the next day.

• The upstairs' back room needed to be painted, so as a family we tackled this task.  The person who painted this room many moons ago, painted over striped wallpaper that we could see through the paint.  So we decided to strip the wallpaper and then paint the wall anew.

 Removing old wallpaper is fun!

 Reuben enjoyed using the scraper.

 Charlie took initiative to get a trash bag and pick up all the wallpaper bits.

I love intiative-takers.

 Hello Paul.

 Later that day.

The wall still has not been painted because...

like every 'easy' project we've attempted in this 1800's home,

the project always has an unexpected surprise that complicates our efforts.

The bare wall behind the wallpaper has cracks and divots and mega-unevenness that is going to require mudding.

Which is probably why the people just painted over the wallpaper.

• In our history lessons recently, we reenacted the Great Fire of London:

 In just a few days, four-fifths of the city burned because

the homes were so close together and made of wood.

 Poor London.

•  We've had lots of snow.  Peter & Bros. Snow Removal has made lots of dollars this winter.

 After a long morning of scooping snow,

Pete and Reuben went to play on this pile.

See Peter reclining on the mound?

•  Charlie, like his older brothers of yore, climbed his way into the snack cupboard.

 He's answering our question, "Where's Charlie?"

Apparently, he doesn't know.

• The kids go to youth group on Sunday nights.  Here's one of their very spiritual lessons:

 They wrapped Reuben in toilet paper.

 Looks like a piggy snowman.

•  Earlier this week I was tricked into going camping.  They said we'd be staying in a cabin.  They said we'd take turns preparing meals.  They said it would be lots of fun family time.  And I believed them.  'Camping' never came to mind... until I started packing.  The problem with camping is all the prep (work!) and all the cold (cold!).  I know, I'm a whiner.  Poor me, had to go stay in a cabin in the woods and hang out with family.  It was a really nice time.  Paul's parents and his sister's family came too, and we stayed in two large cabins.  With the cabins came arm bands to get into the indoor waterpark.  Three days of water play for the cousins, board games, and down time.

 Know this game?

Settlers of Catan with Papa, Peter, Paul, and cousin Benen.

And Nana keeping watch on the couch.

 Fascinated by the popcorn popper.

With Aunt Anna.

 Popcorn Party on the cabin floor.

With cousin Cecily.

• And I have a fun video demonstrating Charlie's organization skills.  But it won't load.  So maybe tomorrow.

An Update of my Knowledge

Here's what I learned today as a result of hanging out with my parents.

• Hillary Clinton is the shoe-in president of our country for the 2016 elections.  No need for any of us to vote.  According to the Rush Limbaugh show.
• Joe Montana really wanted to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the day, but, alas, they turned him down.
• Joe was a "system" player and he's okay with that because it earned him several "system" rings.  Does that make sense to any of you besides my Dad?
• Mr. Montana's son does not play for Notre Dame any more and it makes him sad.

• A banana and dark M&Ms makes a really tasty snack.
• Spinning around on the bar at the playground can cause bruising to the back of the knee.  That never happened when I was 8.
• Sometimes plastic surgeons use their skills to change the identity of mobsters.  Thank you crime tv.  Castle, I think.

• Ok, I learned this on Saturday:  "Pavone" means peacock.
• I observed the footwear of many women as we waited at the City of Hope.  Lots of professional type ladies are wearing really big/tall high heels that make them walk in a very unnatural way.  The other end of the shoe spectrum here in So Cal are the casual ladies wearing warm fuzzy boots.  In So Cal.  It was 75 degrees.  Hm.
• I am a terrible hospital companion.  I.V. racks and syringes still make me weak, light headed, and nauseous.  It's embarrassing.
• The City of Hope is very near where I bought my motorcycle.  It was a cute red Honda Rebel.

Did you learn anything interesting today?

Me and Cali

So here I am in California.  I've eaten an In-n-Out cheeseburger, three ice cream bars and one avocado, knitted four dish cloths, walked ten miles, slept ten hours every night, driven in traffic nearly everyday, been spit-up on by baby Cadence, and have been introduced to crime television shows.  I've also hung out with very important people - the true reason for this trip.  And I have photos all ready to show you, but I can't get them uploaded.  Let me try again...

Okay, so I was able to post them over on facebook, including an exclusive video of my acrobatic feats of amazement.

I came out to help with housework and hang out with my mom and dad who are recovering from my dad's stem cell transplant.  The bonus is that my sister also came to visit with her new baby.  So we've had some unique family time.  I got to go with them to City of Hope, where my dad is being treated, and meet a few of the people who helped save his life from leukemia.

What I've learned from this trip is that I need to persuade my therapist to prescribe unto me a quarterly trip to visit my family.  It is so restorative.  Special family time, perfectly temperatured sunshine, no children to care for or cause me to wake before my ten hours are up, familiar places and food, no children to care for or...  It's just so nice.

Now I pause to express my love, appreciation, and greatest gratitude to my husband who is home with one vomiting child and two highly active children.  Isn't he wonderful?  He is.  So is his mom who is also caring for our children many days while I'm not.  A break in parenting is so golden.  Thank you, thank you!

Time for football tv and the beginnings of another dishcloth.

How One Loses His Transportation

Have you ever done it?  Lost your transportation?  I have to pause to laugh...

This afternoon the boys and I went to the garage to mount our bikes and strollers for an excursion uptown.  Peter declares, "I can't find my bike.  My bike's not here."  Hmm.  He's totally right.  Bike gone.

My first thought was that someone stole it.  But then I remembered that he is his father's son.  So I asked him, "Did you ride it somewhere recently and leave it there?"

He thinks for a moment then replays yesterday's solo trip to the market.  "I rode my bike to the market to buy meat for dinner...  And then I walked home."  I smiled hugely in disbelief that he actually did this.  Because...

More than once, Paul has been out and about driving somewhere and he ends up at the local cafe, which is a two minute walk away from our house.  After spending hours solving the world's problems with the farmers, he heads out and, forgetting that he drove the car, he walks home.  Then later in the day one of us goes to use the car and we don't know where it is.

"Oh, heh heh, I left it at the cafe."

See how funny and ridiculous this is?  It brought great humor into my life that Peter, never knowing that Paul is also prone to losing his transportation, took a one-way trip on his bike.

The truly sad part of the story is that his bike is gone.  It was not at the market when we went to retrieve it today.  I'm hoping that it will magically reappear, but I imagine one of the nocturnal youth who traverse our town in the darkness of night took it for a joy ride.

Cue Reuben's act of mind-blowing kindness.  He told Peter that he could ride his bike any time he wanted and that he would ride his scooter.  Yes, Reuben.  You're amazing too.

Legalities and Love

Passports
Jury duty
Sleeping Paul
Conference
Nexus
Wassail
Snow
My sister


So Charlie joined our family August 4, 2011.  His adoption was finalized November 17, 2011.  We received his birth certificate with the wrong birthday on it in February-ish 2012.  When the corrected one came, we applied for his Certificate of Citizenship, which just came this fall.  With all of these documents, including his adoption decree, I went to the Social Security office to get his social security number.  Six weeks later I added this to my stack of really important documents to grab if our house is ever on fire.  Now comes the grand finale... I took all of the aforementioned papers and my legal husband to the courthouse to apply for Charlie's American Passport!!  And it came in the mail last week.  So all of our children are labeled as American citizens and we are free to move about the globe.  Which we will do shortly.

But before I leave the country, my services have been requested to solve a legal dispute.  Word of my smooth ability to daily fix a bajillion crisis must have reached the jury selection committee.  "We want her!  Did you see her bring immediate peace in her house when her middle son..."  And, "Whoa, she just put him in Time Out.  And he's staying there."  I hope I get to sit on a jury.  I would like to add that to my list of life experiences.

Paul went to bed by 8 o'clock tonight due to being up past 3 am last night.  Isn't that interesting?  Last night I went to bed before 10 o'clock and woke up just before 8 am.  That's the way to do it.  It was lovely.  So tonight, we switch.  And I'm about to dig into my secret stash of blueberry/pomegranate ice cream with cute little chocolate hearts in it.  This staying up later than everyone is a good idea.

Tomorrow we head to a conference.  But I'm deciding right now not to write about because it's not going to come out very interesting.  Next...

So, we have never owned a cell phone.  And we get a bit of, um, crap about it.  But we really really like the cell phone-free lifestyle, so we take the snide remarks and then go eat a bowl of ice cream, or whatever, because we don't really care.  But, I think this next thing I'm going to tell you is going to help The World accept us a little bit more.  We recently got a tablet thingy.  Right?  It's a tablet?  A flat rectangle with a touch screen that gets on the Internet and lets us download books and stuff.  Isn't that cool?  Aren't we totally with-it?  I knew it.  I knew it would make up for us not having a mo-bile.  You can't call me, but we can Skype!  And now I have Apps.  Everyone has Apps on their rectangular device-of-choice.  Our Saturday night pastor even did a whole sermon series around the Apps theme.  Now I have Apps and can totally relate.  Except that sermon series was months ago and I don't remember what he said.

It's Wassail time.  I make it several times in the fall and winter for gatherings and such.  It's super good, so they say.  Here's the recipe I use.

1 gallon of apple juice
1 quart of pineapple juice
6 oz of orange juice concentrate
8 cinnamon sticks
27 whole cloves

Put it in a crock pot (that works) to warm it up for a few hours.  Delish.  And your house will smell all holiday spicy.

It snowed on Monday.  Here.  Outside my window.  Paul came to tell me as I was doing my hair and I asked if the kids knew yet.  Cue children squealing.  "It's snowing!  Ahhh!"  Charlie grabbed his sandals and brought them to me with a high sense of urgency.  He did not like having to wait for me to find his snow-appropriate shoes.  And Charlie and Reuben went out to play.  I think Peter read a book on the couch.  Snow shmow.  This first baby snow is our reminder to start contacting last year's clients for Peter and Bros. Snow Removal.  And my cue to get the hot chocolate supplies ready.

And it can snow all it wants because I'm going to California for two weeks.  Aha!  Just don't order snow for Denver because that's where my layovers are.  I was the opposite of encouraged when I saw that Southwest plane slide off the Denver tarmac last week.  Flying Southwest for this trip.  Through Denver.  Double whammy.  Remember that show?  I barely do.  So, to California I go.  Without anyone else.  And hopefully I will make it there.  Because I get to spend time with my parents and my sister... And this baby who needs to meet me:

Did you read her onesie?  This is my sister's new baby Cadence.  Before she turns one she will be a big sister.  Why keep The World waiting for more extreme cuteness when it could be available in an easy nine months, I always say.  Excited for them.

And, I think that covers it.  I've had my ice cream.  You've read my nonsense.  It's time to bury myself in my flannel-shod bed, pre-warmed by Paul.

Oh, let me tell you one more thing about Paul.  Today was a special day.  The beginning of It All in the world of PaulandStacey.  This day, November 14th, back in 1998, Paul and I became PaulandI.  So sweet.  I've probably already told you about it.  We were sitting on a bench on Lover's Lane at PCC and he held my hand...  Then the next November 14th, he called my Dad to ask him if he could marry me.  Then he asked me what I thought about that plan.  I thought it was a good idea.  A great idea.  The best idea.  So a few months later we were married and really became PaulandStacey.  And that's the story of November 14th and why the boys thought I was all weird and sappy today.


*What I learned while writing this post:  'tarmac' is short for 'tarmacadam.'

Points For You and Me

Here's the lineup of tonight's discussion:

Charlie and the dentist
Paul gone
Bonus plane money
Polyp
Date at the museum
Voting tears
Ju-seok
Car battery
Pork chops

They say you should take your kids to the dentist when they're young.  Peter and Reuben were older than the dentist preferred, like fiveish.  They've always had a good time at the dentist though.  But Charlie, being fully two, wanted to keep his teeth to himself.  He clamped his mouth shut and fought with great might.  So much for bringing them in young to ease into the dental experience.  I brought him in at this younger age because we're moving soon and I wanted his formerly cleft lip checked out.  And I wanted the dentist to explain what she saw in English, you know, so I could understand what she was saying.  She said the something something arch looked good and all of his teeth are in the right place.  Ten points to Dr. Rucker.

Paul is not here.  Maybe he is with you.  Just go ahead and give him a big ole kiss for me.  If you have any extra pity sitting around you could share it with Paul, poor guy.  He's out in California where it's all sunny and warm and filled with people he likes to hang out with. It's really sad.  Whereas I, I get to take the trash out to the street tomorrow morning in the 28 degree cloudiness after being woken up by a Charlie telling me he's "All done."  Negative 50 points to jealous me.

But Senor Paul did scored us -ME- some bonus airplane dollars by volunteering to take a later flight.  He said I can use them this winter when my annual I Must Go To California Right Now urge appears.  Sweet man.  One million points to Paul.

Okay, so what if your doctor found a pretty small little growth attached to your insides?  And what if he wanted to remove it?  Would you let him?  Me neither.  Thanks for your input.  I feel better about it now.  Zero points to impending doom.

What's next?  Oh, our date.  We spent a lot of hours at the art museum last Friday.  We went on three docent-led tours discussing American impressionists, Flemish painters, and Islamic art.  We were really nerdy and very romantic.  It was so nice to do something that WE wanted to do without having to manage our dear, but needy, children.  A thousand hundred thank yous to Debbie who fulfilled all the needs of our children that day.  75 points to educational dates in the city.

Did you cry when you tried to vote yesterday?  Me too.  I just looked at that ballot and those two names and implored God to tell me which one to pick, because I didn't want to mark either of their names.  And ultimately, I didn't.  Then I fought back my tears of frustration that there were not suitable men listed to lead our country.  It felt odd to deposit an empty ballot, but perhaps I am not the only one who did.  Negative a lot of points to man's sinful nature.

This is to formally notify The World that the child formally known as Reuben would, from this point on, prefer to be called Ju-seok.  He will remind you if you forget.  Cute points to the Korean.

Last week our car failed to start, so our friends at Bradley Tire tested our battery for us.  The little machine said it was fine.  And then Paul went out of town.  Which leads us to this afternoon when I loaded the kids in car to take them to piano lessons and... nothing.  Not even that little clicking sound.  Everybody out, call to cancel piano, and call to Bradley Tire to come rescue little me.  And they totally did.  An hour later they returned my car with a new battery.  They brought it to me.  And before that they came to my house to jump my car (after pushing it out of the garage) and take it to their shop.  This is small town love.  And I'm going to miss it.  So I baked those boys some of my favorite brownies and cookies and brought them to  the shop, which I could do because when I turned the key, my car started.  600 points to small town America.

Since my car stopped working, my crockpot followed suit.  Porkchops and stuffing and sauce all laying nicely in there all afternoon.  Cold.  It was plugged in and turned on, yes.  So I microwaved them.  Isn't that silly?  And then I hoped really hard that we would not get sick from eating meat that sat on the counter and may or may not have been fully cooked.  It's been five hours and we're okay so far.  Negative 6 points to my crockpot that let me down.

Let's end with a positive score board.  I am now going to read my Perspectives book and attempt to complete the homework.  200 points to this fantastic class.  And 4973 points for me because I earned 18 out of 20 on my last two assignments!  And the crowd went wild...