Awkward question

The kids have been out of school for a week and summer is in full swing around here. The weather has been warmer than usual for this time of year and humid so we have been in the water a lot. In the last week we have taken 2 trips to the beach and I bought a family pass to the local pool. The kids have also spent a lot of time just playing in the yards with the slip & slide, water spouts and our little blow up pool.

Today we were at the public pool. I was on the steps playing with Elyse and Christopher. Another mom asked me how old Elyse is, I told her that she is 2. She also had a 2 year old daughter so we were talking a bit. The older kids would come over and talk to me occasionally too. Since we have been spending a lot of time in the sun the kids are quite tan. I use sunblock #50 on them but it doesn't matter, they are about 152 shades darker than I am.

Then the other mom asked me if my kids were mixed. Mixed. It took about 4 seconds for the question to process through my head. "Yes, I guess they are" I answered. She then told me her kids are mixed too, they are half Chinese she said. Like we were supposed to bond over that fact that we both had kids that are mixed or something.

I then moved away from her a little bit. I had to think about her question. I don't really think of my kids as mixed. The word mixed made me uncomfortable. They are half Caucasian and half Peruvian, so I suppose mixed is a word that can be used to describe them. But it is not a word that I am comfortable using to describe my children. I would never tell them they are mixed, it sounds second rate to me. My kids are not second rate, they are wonderful people.

Now, I know this other mom did not mean to make me feel uncomfortable or to offend me in any way. The more I thought about it the more I realized I have been asked that question before, but in a better way. Occasionally I will be asked about the heritage of my kids father. They will ask if he is Hispanic or Latin. I am always more than happy to share that my kids are in fact half Latin, and no they do not speak Spanish, and yes their dad does speak spanish etc. But the word mixed just took me aback.

Don't even get me started on the forms that I fill out for the kids that inquire about race. I never know how to answer that question.

Frustration in the form of a cube

Some people knit, some people needle point, I do this.

And I suck at it!

I have been working on this since New Years.

I have been known to fling it across the room or open the back door and throw it out in the yard for the night.

I have also thrown it in the garbage only to dig it out the next morning, then I apologize to it and beg for forgiveness.

I won't give up! I made a bet that it would be completed in one year. I may lose.

An Important Birthday and show and tell: Hat

Today's show and tell for Blackbird had great timing for me. I found this hat at the Dollar Tree yesterday while shopping for birthday supplies. It fit so I bought it. You see, I have a rather big head, I guess, because regular girl hats don't fit me. If I want to buy this style of hat I have to buy men's hats and then they are too big.

I thought this hat would be perfect for the beach and pool. I have to keep my head covered when I am in the summer sun for long periods of time or I tend to get heat/sun stroke. I think it is the red hair and fair skin that cause that, hee hee. This hat is light weight and I like the flowers, they seem very summer-ey to me.

My favorite hat is still this hat, one I showed for show and tell a while ago. You may notice that I have cut my hair since the last hat show and tell. I have my hair cut to my shoulders every spring. My only requirement is that there is enough hair left to pull into a pony tail. It looks and feels so much better now. I really should make more of an effort to get my hair cut more often.




We also have a birthday boy in our house today! Christopher is 5 years old!!! I can hardly believe that 5 years have passed since he made his quick entry into the world. Three easy hours of labor and half a push and there he was weighing in at 9-7. Of course his older brother made the journey easy on him, Jeff weighed 11 pounds at birth so anything smaller than that was a piece of birthday cake. More pics of his big day tomorrow.

Lazy.

I am now washing the same load of laundry for the third time in two days. It isn't that hard to transfer them from the washer to the dryer so why don't I? Could it be the constant child care, cooking of the meals, vacuuming, organizing, errand running or maybe it is because I am hot and tired from being up with a 2 year old 2 nights in a row. Or could it just be sheer laziness.

And when Dave sees this picture on the camera, he is going to wonder what the heck I am doing now. Yes, I will probably be too lazy to just delete it.

Sanity

We were on the road a lot this past weekend. The kids were plenty happy watching their DVD's during the hours of driving we did. So why do I feel like such a cop out for having a DVD player in the car?

When we bought this car we weren't looking for a DVD player, the car we were interested in just happened to have a DVD player in it, much to the kids delight. We hardly ever use it, my rule is that we have to be on the road for at least the length of a movie to use it.

I will admit, it does make long car trips more manageable for me. DVD's mean I don't have to pack so many books, toys or snacks for the car. Since it is pretty close quarters, it also cuts down on arguing. The car becomes silent once a movie starts and that means I can relax. Dave and I can also listen to our own CD's and talk to each other without constant interuptions. And I will confess, that on more than one occasion, I have crawled into the back seat with the kids to watch the Incredibles to curb my own boredom on those long rides.

Hosed

That's how I have been feeling lately. I am overwhelmed, overworked, unappreciated and invisible. But when I see the faces of my kids it all melts away. It is worth it!

The pool is open!

So it's not much of a pool, but it keeps the kids busy for HOURS and they have FUN!

The Jacuzzi, every pool has to have one.

Unwanted adventures at the dentist

So, I went to the dentist last week. I hadn't been in a long, long time. I am embarrassed to even admit how long it has been. It has been at least five years, there I said it. Not sure why I haven't gone, we have dental insurance. Just chicken I guess. Actually I am scared to death of the dentist and that drill of his.

So, I went to the dentist last week. How did it go you may be wondering? It went as bad as I thought it would, worse really. You see, I have this tooth on the bottom that the filling fell out of years ago and food gets caught in it constantly. I thought for sure it would need a crown, my worst case scenario. Sure enough, it needs a crown AND root canal. And I need four other crowns on various teeth and several teeth need to have filling replaced. With insurance, my out of pocket cost will be a little over $3,000.00.

So here I am kicking myself for not getting myself to the dentist 4 years and six months ago when my teeth were still in decent shape.

I had the root canal done yesterday. It really wasn't too bad, it just took over an hour. The left side of my face was numb for over six hours. The whole left side was numb, the novicane even worked itself up to my eye which turned blood red and was half way shut most of the day. If I were an optimist I would say it was half open, I suppose.

The truly humiliating part came when I had to walk down the long hall with a square green mouth tarp hanging out of my mouth about two inches for x-rays. Three times.

The first of many appointments to come...