We went to Des Moines today to do some school shopping. Hard to believe that my little baby wears a size 8 now. Stopped into Helzbergs and had my ring cleaned, visited our friends Denny and Kathy who moved up there a few months ago, ate at a nice restaurant. Could've been a perfect day if the weight of the world wasn't resting square on our heads.
Some interesting observations from today:
I swear I will never buy shoes for $20 from a tent in a parking lot. Especially not when the man selling the shoes is tattooed from head to toe, beer belly hanging over his jeans and his butt crack showing. No, I will not. Don't care how nice the shoes are.
Extremely, and I do mean EXTREMELY, large people will walk down a crowded sidewalk with their tray of nachos clutched tightly to their chest so that no one can steal one.
It's quite frightening to be the last haircut of the day at the walk-in salon in the mall.
The haircut story is a deal. I really was scared. I should've bolted for the door when the receptionist had to practically make the woman stay to cut my hair. It was an Asian owned salon and the gal who cut my hair was very abrupt with her broken English. First she splattered water in my eyes when she was washing my hair. Then she about poked my eyes out of their sockets when she tried to dry them. No kidding. My left eye has burst blood vessels. Really. Then she has me sit down. Not "Please sit down" or "Sit down here". Just one very commanding "Sit!" So I sat. Then she starts muttering "Thick and tangled and too long. Way long. How much you want off??!!" I said I guessed an inch or so would be fine but whatever she thought was best. She started combing it out, all the while muttering "Thick. Thick. Thick." Then she says "Lady! You stand! Right here!! Hair too long to cut sitting down. Long and thick!" So I stood. I'm a little over 5'5" and I'm pretty sure she wasn't even 5'. Small, angry, Asian woman with very sharp scissors running circles around me. Snip. Snip. Snip. "Lady! Look up!" "Move over!" - each time she opened her mouth, it wasn't a request, it was a demand. I usually point out something I want a little different but when she asked "Okay??", I said "You bet! Thanks!" and took off for the cash register without even really looking at it. It does look okay but dang, I don't think I'll be going back there. I told Todd it would be a perfect case of 'you get what you pay for' except I paid $15 and left with a dripping head.
I think we may be in for a real chore trying to get Miss Giggle Box in bed tonight. Arnold recited some kind of poem to his 11 year old girlfriend that said something like "you ain't got no shape but you make me drool" and she literally exploded laughing. I taped her and played it back to her which resulted in even more laughing and even some snorting. I think she's very tired... what my great grandmother used to call punch drunk. Click here for the uplifting sounds of a very goofy girl.
Ahhhh... the power of Google. Just for kicks, I entered Arnold Dudley Lisa into Google and found the synopsis of the "whatchu talkin' 'bout Lisa??" episode. When I start googling stupid stuff like that, it is surely time to go to bed.
We are sitting in the office and can hear Emily laughing her butt off in the tv room. She's watching "Different Stokes". Todd says "I don't remember that show being that funny." She comes in during commercial break and I asked her what was so funny. She says 'That guy keeps saying "Whatchu talkin' 'bout Lisa??' " I thought she meant "Whatchu talkin' 'bout Willis?" but now I can hear something about Arnold and his girlfriend Lisa and some guy named Dudley. And the giggling continues...
I am the only one up and moving around this morning. The only sounds I hear are the roofers across the street and occasional moans from Emily. She must be dreaming again. From the sounds of it, it's a sad one. She usually dreams sad or scary - like something happening to her cat or a snake chasing her.
I have a lot to do this morning but am putting it off because this is what I miss. I miss the quiet and the calm. Life has become so rushed the last month or so. Yesterday I felt like I surely reached the end of my rope and would burst into tears at any moment. Last night when we put the kids to bed, Benjamin reminded me that I forgot his hug. I gave him his hug and he said "Leee-sha, I love you too much!" Gave Em a hug and she said "I like your kisses" so I brushed her hair from her forehead and planted a kiss. "Nice kiss" she said and snuggled down with a smile. Part of my worry has been that I've neglected them during the frantic pace of the last few weeks. That's one of the best things about kids; they are so forgiving and understanding. I wonder ... at what point in life do we lose that?
In addition to being incredibly sad, this is just crazy. "Outside, about six residents denounced police and placed candles, pictures and flowers near the site of the accident. That followed a larger protest Sunday night." Makes a helluva lot of sense to me... one police officer does the unthinkable so damn them all! I can't think this through properly because Christopher is running around when he should be in bed.
Let me just say this to the general population of cop haters out there: They put their pants on one leg at time, same as you. They have families. They have friends. They have hobbies outside of their jobs. They do not spend their off duty time thinking of ways to put the screws to you and they certainly take no joy in one of their own breaking a law and killing innocent people in the process.
I'm still here. I just had a very hectic week last week. Every time I sat down to post, all I could think of were things to bitch about and I don't want to turn this into a place for bitching. I do enough of that already.
We had all three kids last week which is hectic enough. I had to work every day and I tell ya, I've gained a whole new respect for parents who work outside the home and raise multiple children. I think you surely have to have everything scheduled down to the minute and maintain a strict routine. This house is run strictly by the seats of our pants. Nothing is routine because our work schedules won't allow it.
I am supposed to be on vacation this week but have some loose ends to tie up and am watching our servers due to the latest rendition of CodeRed. Our patch is holding but it's kinda scary to think that a Microsoft product opened the hole for this worm to begin with and now we're having to rely on a Microsoft patch to keep the thing out.
I do have some good news - at least it was wonderful news to me. We're getting a shed delivered today. My car may actually see the inside of the garage by the end of the week. How to pay for it is another one of those deals that makes me cranky but at least it's finally coming.
We drove over just to look at the displays and see how much one would cost. The man who builds them is a Mennonite and they are well known for their craftsmanship. This fellow was no exception. Talk about sturdy - you could literally park a car inside one and it'd hold it. We'd debated buying a kit and putting it together ourselves. After browsing through his display models, we decided we'd never be able to construct something as nice. I'll spare you the details but in true Todd and Lisa fashion, we went just to look and ended up plunking down a deposit on the biggest one.
Got home and did some rough measuring - determined that we might have to remove some tree limbs or maybe even entire trees to get it through to the backyard. Luckily, we have terrific neighbors who agreed to let us come in from their side so it will be a straight shot. I'd take pictures of the massive shed arrival but I'm not sure about photographing Mennonites. I know the Amish will break your legs if you photograph them. Okay, that's an exaggeration but they don't like it. Maybe I could hide up in the tree....
