Field Day

My son has field day at his school, the one day a year where the children are actually allowed to play for an extended amount of time with no worries about studies. Each classroom is assigned a "spirit color". Since there are about 10 second grade classes, the color choices are limited and one class will get stuck with a tough color, a color like purple. Now those of you who have girls probably are saying "What's the big deal?", purple is a popular color. It is - for girls. For boys, not so popular. In fact, I've been to several stores looking for a simple purple tee for a boy and have not found one. They have pink, turquoise, peach, but no purple. I decided that I would just dye a white tee shirt purple, maybe make it tie die. The boy was adamantly against this idea. Actually, he was adamantly against any purple tee.
Now, I'm not one to pressure him on clothing choice. In fact, most days he looks like a blind hobo when he walks out the door with the choices he makes in clothing. However, I know that as soon as he gets to school he'll want to have a purple shirt like everyone else in his class. I know from experience - the last two years of field day.
So, I was still going to die the shirt and stuff it into his backpack so he would have it when he went to school and changed his mind. We happened to go to a sport shop to look for a birthday gift for his dad who needed some new work out clothes. Dad happens to like the Armour line of work out clothes - they are a tight fitting, spandex/lycra combo type of clothing. We picked out a new shirt for his dad - there was purple as a choice. Hmm. Let's check the kids section son.
Sure enough, they have the same style shirt in kids sizes. I mention he could try it on, but don't worry if you don't like it. He tries it on, is a bit self conscious (it is tight fitting). When I mention that it's more of a running shirt, it's ok that it doesn't fit; he tells me that he'll be running, maybe we could get the bigger size.
The power of dad. A shirt which would never have been considered if it weren't for the fact that his dad wears the same one. The superpowers of dad.

Green, green, green

Today, being my day off, is the day I would normally tackle the lawn. I have yet to mow it since last time, when I had no gas, fugitively and literally. I went out and bought the additive for the weed whacker, made sure there was enough gas for both lawnmower and weedwhacker and was all set to mow today. But then...I forgot to turn the sprinklers off. The grass is soaked. It would normally dry by midmorning (our temps. have been in the low 90's). But we also got rain showers; drenching, soaking, lightening-inducing rain. There is a lovely little river running from my backyard to the street. I don't think I'm mowing today either. Instead, I'm going to watch the jungle that was once my lawn grow even more.

Comings and goings

Hubby was able to come home this weekend in between business trips. It was nice to have him home again. He was suppososed to leave again on Wednesday to a foreign country, but that country is currently having a coup, and the powers that be decided that it would be bad to send people into a country that everyone else is fleeing at the moment. So that trip was cancelled.
Unfortunately, he still has to go on another trip. His grandmother passed away yesterday and he needs to be with the family for the wake and funeral. It is a sad event, but not completely unexpected.
His grandmother chose (I truly believe this) to die exactly three years to the day that her husband died. She had been preparing herself and her family for some time now. She's been giving away things and saying that there was nothing left for her to do on this planet. Then she took a very sudden unexpected bad turn in health and things went downhill rather quickly. I don't know how, but she just knew it was her time to go. We'll miss her.

Vacation plans

I'm finally done. I've been making plans for Hawaii in a rather piecemeal fashion for the last few months. My sister-in-law is getting married there in July. It will be a small wedding, as my husband's family is in no way wealthy and I do not think the groom's side is either. The ceremony is on the island of Kauai, which is supposed to be a very beautiful, relaxing, tropical paradise. We're making the trip into our 10 year anniversary get away as well. It may be a year late, but we never celebrate on the actual day anyway.
We'll be able to socialize with the other adults without worrying about anyone's bedtime besides our own. Hubby and I are going sans child, as I feel that the boy will not appreciate the wonders of the island and therefore does not warrant the cost of the trip. He gets to go to his grandparents house, for quality time and activities that he will find much more enjoyable than staring at sunsets - fun stuff like fort building, fishing, and silly time with cousins. My sister-in-law is disappointed; but hey, she is not paying for the trip!

Silent birth

Silent birth and Scientology. It's been in the entertainment news a lot lately, with many an opinion given over whether or not it is a good idea. I've thought back to my son's birth and wondered if I would have liked to have gone the "scientology way" with the delivery.
Let me clarify that - I could not have gone complete, no spoken word - I had previously undiagnosed serious complications that had to be talked about during the delivery. However, because of these complications, I was not allowed to take the route of epidurals and painless bliss. Yet, I did not scream during delivery. In fact, I kept shushing people - the doctor counting to ten (he counted to slow everytime), hubby counting and talking (shh - just hold my hand), and I found the noise of the nurses disturbing. I've also been in several delivery rooms, and all the noise from the various relatives and friends who were there is distracting and not helpful. So this point I have to cede to the Scientologists.
(Does this mean I have to like Tom Cruise now?)
Scientology suggests that the noise of birth can be disturbing for the child and that years later some of what was said during birth might resurface from the subconscience and cause repricussions. I don't agree with that. If you are told to "push, push" in delivery, years later when you tell your child to "push, push" a toy, I doubt he will experience pyschologial trama from the resurfacing memories. I don't believe any memories at that birth will resurface.
I like the idea of a quiet birth (I did not say silent), but not the Scientology reasoning behind it. So, I believe I can continue with my distain of all that is Tom Cruise with a clear conscience.

Things that shouldn't need explaining...

Things that shouldn't need explaining, but do to a 7 year old:

Juice pouches once opened can not be stored back in their lunch kit. They will leak all over binders, backpacks, and couch seats.

spring cleaning

It's a beautiful day out - the sun is shining, it's in the low 70's, perfect for doing lawnwork. Let me go to the shed, pull out the huge box of outdoor toys (the box which is made of leftover plywood from the hurricanes, the box which weighs more than the entire shed and gives splinters at the merest brush of flesh against it), wiggle the lawnmower out of its corner. Start it up, well try. Nearly rench my arm out of it's socket as I continously pull the start string. Finally get it going, only to run out of gas. No problem, I'll just refill the tank with the spare - oh it's empty. It's blade needs to be sharpened anyway and I can't figure out if clockwise or counterclockwise to loosen it.
Well, I'll weedwhack instead. After throwing the weedwhacker to the ground out of frustration (you need longer arms than mine to use it's start string), realize it's out of gas as well. It's spare tank is too. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Maybe I'll just sit and enjoy my flowers. The grass will be here tomorrow.

Hectic life

Things are a little crazy around here. Hubby is away on business, pretty much through the first week of May. All the end of year activities for my son's school are cycling into high gear, which means I'm busier than usual. I'm back on my regular work schedule, with no more days off until July. On top of that, my friend went back into the hospital today, with more complications from the birth of her second daughter. So, if I post more infrequently than usual, you know why.