Almost Famous

I was at the village library today picking up some held books when a lady I know only by sight came in and exclaimed, "Hey, I saw your kids in the paper!"

Say what?

Turns out that yesterday when I was with Charlie at the pediatrician and A. was with the other two kids at the library in the Big Village (conveniently across the street from the pediatrician's office), a reporter from the paper took a picture of Cubby and Jack playing in the kids' room. It was on the front page today. The caption noted, "Their father sat nearby, keeping an eye on them while reading a book on Adirondack deer hunting."

Sounds about right.

A. even had a quote in the caption--a thrilling, "They have a good collection."--but he neglected to mention this whole thing to me, so I was very surprised to see Cubby and Jack on the front page of the paper.

Of course, the reporter spelled our last name wrong, even though A. actually wrote it down for him. Dutch names are too confounding up here in French-Canadian country, I guess.

Good thing I went to the library today. Otherwise I would have missed our family's five minutes of fame entirely.

Unappetizing

I was planning on making meatloaf for dinner tonight. I made tuna noodle casserole last night, which I think means that I am a 1960's housewife, right? Except my tuna noodle casserole didn't involve any cream of anything soup from a can, and I had to use 100% corn pasta instead of regular gluten-laden noodles. It was still good, though.

Anyway. Meatloaf.

Meatloaf requires ground beef. The ground beef is in the big freezer downstairs. Also in the big freezer downstairs, unfortunately directly in front of the ground beef, is a garbage bag full of raccoon skins awaiting tanning*.

We had ham steaks instead. Because I could reach those without hauling out the raccoons.

Deer hearts in the car and raccoon skins in the freezer. This is life in the woodchuck lane.

* A. gets them tanned and uses the tanned hides to make hats and mittens for the kids. Fur mittens are the only thing that will always keep their hands warm. So I acknowledge the raccoons' utility, but I begrudge them freezer space nonetheless. 

Tease

Perhaps you have noticed that all the people who live in the normally frozen wastelands of the United States at this time of year are jumping online to proclaim from the rooftops the unseasonably warm weather? You can add me to that list.

Even here, in the Great White North, it is crazy, CRAZY warm. When we left for Arizona on February 18, it was 24 degrees and there were two feet of snow on the ground. When we got back the following Friday, the snow was almost gone and it was warmer at our house than at my parents' house in Tucson.

Say what?

The day after we got home, it was so warm I actually opened up the windows in the house.

It was a nice re-entry for the children, who I think were relieved they could go out to play without trussing themselves up like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Nobody likes that, especially me, because I still have to do much of the trussing for them.

It's supposed to be below zero this weekend, with several inches of snow on Monday, so it's a temporary reprieve. But it is a reminder that spring is on the way.

These goobers are ready*.

* In case the saguaro cacti in the background don't give it away, this photo was taken on the roof of my parents' house in Tucson. One of my dad's favorite stories from our visit was when he took the kids up there to look at the mountains and Cubby said,"Wow, there sure are a lot of houses here." You must understand that this is one of the least-populated neighborhoods in the entire Tucson metro area. But I guess to a country mouse from the northwoods, it looks crowded.

Jiggity Jig

Yes, we are indeed home again, thank the deities of traveling with small children.

Yesterday's journey back was . . . well, it wasn't the best day I've ever had. Could've been worse, though, in that we did actually make it back, about 11 p.m. Which means that everyone is now still sleeping at 7:20 a.m. Alleluia. Let's hope that continues for a good long time.

Anyway.

We had a wonderful time in Tucson. There was much family, much sun (though it was blessedly rainy and cool the first couple days we were there, which was all that saved my northwoods children from melting immediately), and even some camping. Not by me, thankfully, though I understand A., Cubby, and Charlie enjoyed it immensely.

Maybe I'll post some pictures later. For right now, I have some northwoods air to breathe. And a lot of laundry to do. Peace out.

Getting Myself Together

Or rather, getting myself plus every other member of the family together so we can all leave our house at 4:15 tomorrow morning. We're going to Arizona. For a week.

I am so not ready for this.

I mean, I'm ready to be there. Hello, 68 degrees and sunny in February! But I am not ready to get there. Then again, can a person ever really be ready for a 16-hour cross-country odyssey with three small boys? Not really.

My feeling of unpreparedness is exacerbated by the fact that I basically lost Wednesday due to Jack's stomach ailment affecting both A. and me on the same day. I managed to repair most of the chaos from that episode yesterday, but it put me behind in my laundry and bread baking and so forth.

Anyway. Who cares! Tomorrow we're going to wake our small children hellishly early and get on a plane (three planes) with whatever I've thrown in our bags for a week of fun in the sun!

WHEE!

This one is psyched to swim in a pool. And that Valentine's chocolate he's holding that came from my parents? I bet there will be PLENTY MORE where that came from. Because we're staying where that came from. Vacation, here we come.

The Romance Report

Well, we kicked off Valentine's Day by pushing A. out the door at 4 a.m. so he could make the five-hour drive to Blackrock with the dog in tow.

Okay, I didn't really push him. He went voluntarily, because he has a court appearance in that county today. I even got up to offer a mumbled "Happy Valentine's Day," and a limp hug before I stumbled back to bed.

I know. My devotion is really inspiring.

He has the dog with him because we're leaving Saturday for a week in Arizona (!), so Mia is going to stay with the MiL and Sky while we're gone. As irritating as old dog Mia finds Sky's relentless energy and attempts to play, she'll be much happier there than in a boarding kennel.

Cubby and Charlie have Valentine's Day parties in their respective classes today. Thankfully, I am not on the hook for any required treats for these parties, but I did, of course, have to provide the Valentine's Day cards for all the classmates. When I surveyed my choices at the grocery store, I found that my only non-branded option were cards that can be folded into paper airplanes. Since I have Big Issues with branded children's anything, I could not bring myself to buy anything with Barbie or Ninja Turtles on it. So airplanes it is!

When I opened the boxes last night so Cubby could write the names on them (and I could do Charlie's), I looked at the instructions and realized I am NOT going to be beloved of any parent who has to fold these things for their kid. They're all, "Fold A vertically to B, Fold B left to C" and on and on for an entire page.

Sorry, parents.

A. did one for Cubby and Charlie, and they are pretty good planes. If you can manage to follow all the directions.

Really, though, my only hope for today is that Cubby and Charlie actually GO to school. Charlie has been sick with a mysterious malaise for two days now, Jack woke up yesterday covered in vomit, and Cubby was complaining last night at bedtime that his stomach hurt. So if no one is throwing up today and the two older ones go to school, I'll consider the day a success.

Happy Valentine's Day, my lovelies! Doing anything fun to celebrate?

Seven

Happy birthday to

the amazing Cubby.