Am I There, Yet?

Sometimes it helps to know what’s going on in the rest of the world.  J and I watched Oprah yesterday.  It was a re-run about what women my age are doing around the globe.  It was interesting, but may be a little skewed.  For example…there was a woman from
Mexico on there talking about how fabulous Mexico was.  She was a very rich soap star and she couldn’t possible represent the average 30 year old woman in Mexico.  That’s as ridiculous as asking Julia Roberts to represent the average American woman.  Not all of us are wealthy and rub shoulders with the rich and famous and have high-profile jobs.  This Mexican soap star didn’t once mention the poverty that most Mexicans live with.  I have a little friend who moved here from Mexico to a boarding school on an athletic scholarship.  She’s a fabulous runner.  Her parents are literally living in a dump in Mexico.  They seriously do not have a home and the town dump is where they find shelter and food. 

Another interesting thing is American TV.  I don’t know if I should get started on this because I may break the soap box I’m standing on.  I enjoy TV.  We Americans like extremes.  For example…I have had mother-in-law issues in the past and I love to watch Everybody Loves Raymond because my mother-in-law issues are just a tiny percentage of the issues Debrah has to face with her in-laws.  They exaggerate to be funny…and it is funny.  I’m almost embarrassed to say this, but I’ll say it anyways.  I’ve been watching Who Wants to be a Hilton?  My husband makes fun of me, but the reason I like it is because it is a peek into a world that I am not a part of, nor do I want to be.  It’s extreme.  Does it represent the majority of America?  No.  O.K.  I’m now picking up my megaphone to be heard.  WOMEN FROM OTHER COUNTRIES…DO NOT WATCH AMERICAN TV AND THINK THAT WE AMERICANS ARE ALL LIKE CARRIE ON SEX AND THE CITY.  THIS IS NOT AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM.  THIS IS A FANTASY.  WE ARE NOT ALL LIKE BREE OR SUSAN IN DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.  THESE SHOWS ARE EXAGGERATIONS.

O.K.  I’m stepping off my soapbox.  Mainly because I have to go somewhere in 30 minutes and I haven’t had a shower, yet.

To the American women:  Check out this website and find out what’s really happening to women across the globe.  You won’t hear this on the news.

http://www.persecution.com/

The kids were sick yesterday.  Both of them had temps of 102+.  One nice thing about it was that they were too sick to fight.  I didn’t hear, “Mom!  T hit me!” or “Stop that!”  I didn’t hear any screaming yesterday.  Of course, I didn’t hear any laughter, either.  We pretty much sat on the couch, cuddled and watched TV and videos all day.  All kids shows, all day long.  It was an unproductive day for me…but I think that’s a good thing.

I think that we, as adults, can learn something from kids when it comes to being sick.  My kids were in touch with how they felt and they went with it.  They didn’t run around.  They ate only healthy things when they were hungry (chicken noodle soup, apples, pretzels and lots of water).  They took their naps.  What do we, as adults, do when we’re sick?  We worry about deadlines and go to work regardless of how we feel and we don’t take the time to rest.  My kids feel better today.  If/when we get sick, it drags on for days because we don’t take the time to take care of our bodies.

Just another life lesson I can learn from my kids.

We have a new psycho neighbor.  He’s about 2 feet tall, black and very loud.  I’d have to say he’s the most annoying neighbor I’ve ever had.  This stupid crow has been hanging around and harassing our neighbors since Saturday.  He starts squawking early in the morning to wake us all up.  Yesterday he flew towards a friend of mine who was coming to visit and almost landed on her head.  He’s been collecting toys from our neighbor’s yard and putting them on the roof of another neighbor.  He walked into the house (through the doggie door) of another neighbor and started to harass her cats.  He found his way into another house and started to eat the cereal off their table.  My daughter was playing on the back porch last night when he came and hung out on the fence staring at her.  She got a little freaked out and came inside.  I saw him on our neighbor’s fence last night tapping on the door with his beak and peering inside their windows.  Our neighbor told us that he took all of his BBQ utensils and threw them on the ground.  They also told us that they named him “nevermore.”

My theory is that some “good Samaritan” somewhere decided to “rescue” this bird and domesticated him.  He probably got too out of control so they decided to “free” him into the wild.  The stupid bird now relies on human interaction and probably won’t survive in the wild.  If Keiko (Free Willy star) couldn’t survive in the ocean without human interaction, why would this bird all of a sudden go from a domestic home life to wild living without a problem?

We don’t know what to do with this bird.  One neighbor called animal control and was on hold for too long and eventually hung up.  We may be stuck with this pesky neighbor until somebody comes up with a plan.  I just don’t want him attacking my kids (he’s about as tall as my 2 year-old) or spreading a disease.

Keep wild animals in the wild, people!!! 

J’s office has been demolished because of a new remodel project.  He’ll be working from home for the next couple of months.  That will be interesting.  I think it’ll be fine as long as the kids can handle it.  We’ve set up a secret signal for them.  Lilly let him borrow her Dora door hanger.  When the Dora door hanger is on the doorknob then they are not allowed to bug him because he’s working.  When the Dora door hanger is off the doorknob that means that Daddy’s home and is available to play with.

I set up his office up in the laundry room.  I know that doesn’t sound very lovely, but I think it’ll work out really well.  It’s a huge laundry room with room for a washer, dryer, sink and countertop plus a closet and some built-in cabinets below the sink and above the washer and dryer.  I put his chair in there and cleaned off the countertops.  I’ve even hung some family pictures up so he’s not looking at blank walls.  He has room for his computer and phone and some extra counter space for reading/writing.  There’s even room for a small bookshelf in there to store some books he may need the next couple of months.  We were originally going to set him up in the garage, but it’ll be hot down there and we still have a ton of unpacked boxes to go through that are stored down there.  We moved into this house 3 months ago…you’d think I’d have them unpacked by now.

I’ll just have to do my laundry in the evenings for the next couple of months.  Yup…another exciting day in the life of a housewife.

My blog is back!  My blog is back!  Woohoo!  Bandwidth exceeded?  My butt!  We’ve been down for 2 months, but we are now back and ready to go again.  I had to have a temporary blog (http://www.mountaingirl2.blog.com/) in order to get me through this horribly long separation.  But, it just wasn’t the same. 

I missed you, blog!  Welcome back!  Will you please forgive me for exceeding your bandwidth? I hope we’ll be able to pick up where we left off.