A Young, Female Gulliver

My kids with Dawn's (my SIL) girls.

My kids with my sister's son.

For Piglet

6 years ago today, my second child and firstborn boy was born. His birth was the most pleasant of the four for me, but it was fairly traumatic for him.

He was blue.

They never told me why he was blue, and he was only blue for a very short time (it's all kind of a blur). I only remember thinking, "I don't think Tigger was that color when she was born." And when the doctor and nurses were saying "Come on, come on, breathe!" I thought, "I don't think this is normal."

But all was well and he's been normal and tormenting his brothers and sisters since then.

He's my funny one, without trying to be.

He's my friendly, mean, sweet, deceitful, loving, manipulative, obedient, rule following, playful, leader.

He stutters and he's anxious. But he's calm and friendly with people he knows well.

And he's never afraid of blustery days.

He's the only one that was planned for.

He's my Piglet.

Give a 6 year old a camera where he can see himself while trying to take the photo and he will take a photo of him looking at himself.

Zombie Cat

We returned from Houston to snow.

Our garden was covered in snow.



Except one patch.



That's E.D.'s grave.

AND, before there were all those kid footprints in the snow, there was a trail of cat footprints that surrounded the house.

Just one trail of cat footprints.

Starting right around E.D.'s grave and going completely around the house. As though she was looking for a way in.

So, um, how do zombies get in your house? Are they like vampires? Do you have to invite them in?

'Cause I'm just gonna go bolt all the doors now, and we're going to stay inside for the next few months.

At least until the snow melts and there's no more proof that a zombie cat is trying to get in.

'Cause that's kind of spooky, scary. And not in a good way, like a werewolf Bar Mitzvah.

"My" Harley

She's pretty, no?

Sorry, there are no photographs of me riding her yet ("That's what she said!" Teehee, I'm 12). The only time I took her out was when I stole her because I was angry with my husband. And I didn't have my license yet, so I didn't want evidence that I was illegal - I'm generally not big on having evidence. The photographs of me will have to come, at this rate, in the summer.

Having a Bad Day? Try the DPS.

Over our Christmas holidays, I earned my motorcycle license. That's right, I am now legally able to drive a motorcycle (really, really poorly...). The state of Texas will apparently give licenses to anyone. Although...

The easy way to get my motorcycle license was to go back to my "home" state and take a motorcycle safety course, then go to the DPS (Department of Public Safety) and have them add the "M" class to my license.

I finished the course (on the only cold, rainy day they had all year in Houston) and went to the DPS the next day. If you are ever having a bad day, just go stand in line at the DPS and people watch and eavesdrop on conversations.

To start with, a young man (probably about 18) walked in behind me in line. He loudly told everyone that he had been there at 7:30 that morning (this was about 8) but had been told that he had to go take a drug and alcohol class before he could renew his license. If the volume with which he told this story was any evidence, he was very proud of this.

The couple behind him in line asked him if he had ever had a DUI (they were probably in their mid to late 30s). He assured them that no, he had never had a DUI. He continued to loudly complain about this until someone asked him if he had ever been busted with drugs. At which point he said, "Well, the cops caught me with a joint once, but that's supposed to fall off your record when you're 18."

Um, yeah.

Then there was the girl who was wearing the red heels with the maribou feathers around the top and capri jeans. Her nails were about a foot long and when she scratched her head, all of her hair moved with it. Now that I think about it, she very well may have been a he. I wonder what gender she/he put on the license.

In order to get a motorcycle license you have to either take the driving test, or the safety course, and take a "written" test (which now means computer). The first 2 of 15 questions are your name and date of birth. The kid behind me failed the written test. It was at that point that I realized I didn't want to be on the road with most of the people in the DPS. Which is good, because I don't have to be on the road with those people.

I'm very sorry for all of you who do have to.

I'm still making my blog rounds, so sorry if I haven't caught up with you yet. I promise I'll be around soon:).

We're BACK!

Hello Internets! I'm back to my rusty old desktop and mostly awake, but my goodness the jet lag is killer. So it will just be a short post for today, as I'm not sure I'll make a tremendous amount of sense.

Some highlights:

- In the Frankfurt airport, Dylan forgot to take his cell phone out of his pocket while going through security. This resulted in him being escorted to one of those little cubbies and a nice man with latex gloves coming to interrogate question him about his intentions. It's a very good thing that the Poles confiscated my scissors before I got to Frankfurt, otherwise the children would have been left to their own devices.

- On going back to Warsaw, I had an ongoing conversation with Tigger about liquids in her carry on. (Tigger CAME to Houston within .2 kilos/half a pound of her weight limit on suitcases - apparently she figured she wouldn't acquire anything during the trip.) Finally she relented (after several hours) and coughed up all of her makeup, shower gels, hair care products, etc. and put it in a suitcase. This from a child who makes regular flights through Europe (they're sticklers for the liquid thing). She was totally assuming that she could get through by telling them that all her make up and hair stuff was medicine. A little part of me wishes I had let her go through security in Frankfurt with all that stuff.

- Returning to 5 degree F Warsaw from Houston, where the temps were mostly in the 70's and 80's. Global warming has fooled me again.

And there will be more (oh, yes, there is always more). I'll be making the blog rounds today. I'm sure my google reader has over a billion unread items.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the land of "I have only one laptop to share between six people and even though we got a PSP for Christmas, someone who is not me tends to dominate all the computer time".

Yep, that's where I am.

And my New Year's resolution? To never take a car trip with my dad. Oh, wait, guess I blew that one already since I'm off on that today.

I should be back to my rusty old desktop on Wednesday with some good stateside stories for y'all.

How's your new year?