Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Blast from the past - meme
My sister-in-law at Smiles and Trials is sharing this meme, so, where were you? Consider yourself tagged, just for stopping by!
15 years ago - Sep 1993 - One year married to the best guy on earth. Newly moved to Virginia - altho hubby was in England at the time... gotta love dual military life...this was but one of many separations during the first part of our marriage, but we knew we would face that and took it in stride. I was driving an ugly old land barge and discovered it was the perfect vehicle for DC. Never parked in. Didn't even have to look when merging, etc. Hmm? I don't have many photos back from then - wedding photos aren't digitized, no September photo - but here's one from the Halloween the year before. :-)
10 years ago - Sep 1998 - A few months before we left the military for good. Big life change for both of us, but it was time. Mom had heart surgery during which she suffered a massive stroke that left her in a near vegetative state. We moved to SC, with our two cats, to help Dad care for her. Over the next year, with tons of therapy, mom regained her ability to eat, speak, walk, etc. Her short-term memory was gone, and she still had difficulties with her health, but she was not confined to a home, and managed to outlive my father, her husband of 37 years, and continued to live comfortably for the next 10 years. No good digital photo from this time, so I'll dig into the past even further:
5 years ago - Sep 2003 - Mom to two wonderful little kids, we lived in the DC area again in a family-friendly neighborhood, near a nice lake. My father was to make his last visit to our home in order to see his new grand-daughter, little did we know, he would contract a fast moving lung-cancer and leave us before another year passed. I miss you Dad - hope you're keeping up with my blog!
3 years ago - Sep 2005 - Now in Cairo, almost one year, and gone native. Well, not really. But we had already decided that we really like it here. My babies aren't babies anymore.
1 year ago - Sep 2007 - The kids were one month into their first school year at the new school. They really loved it, and still do. It will be so hard to move away from this school. I quit work in the middle of this year to be a stay-at-home mom... huge challenge for me, but I can tell it was the right thing to do.
Today - Sep 29, 2008 - Kids are in school right now, and I am having a second cup of coffee. I'm tired from dealing with nightmares last night, and am thinking about how to stretch leftovers into dinner tonight. The family was hungry yesterday and my dinner plans for today were eaten.
Tomorrow - Sep 30, 2008 - Will be the start of the week-long 'Eid break from school. It was supposed to be one more day, but as this is based on the sighting of the moon, the schedule has changed. The month of Ramadan is drawing to a close, and Egyptians are preparing for the 'Eid. Brad has some days off, but will also be working some. We plan on hanging around the house and being lazy. I think we'll be getting together with neighbors tomorrow evening to make some Halloween crafts for a party.
15 years ago - Sep 1993 - One year married to the best guy on earth. Newly moved to Virginia - altho hubby was in England at the time... gotta love dual military life...this was but one of many separations during the first part of our marriage, but we knew we would face that and took it in stride. I was driving an ugly old land barge and discovered it was the perfect vehicle for DC. Never parked in. Didn't even have to look when merging, etc. Hmm? I don't have many photos back from then - wedding photos aren't digitized, no September photo - but here's one from the Halloween the year before. :-)
10 years ago - Sep 1998 - A few months before we left the military for good. Big life change for both of us, but it was time. Mom had heart surgery during which she suffered a massive stroke that left her in a near vegetative state. We moved to SC, with our two cats, to help Dad care for her. Over the next year, with tons of therapy, mom regained her ability to eat, speak, walk, etc. Her short-term memory was gone, and she still had difficulties with her health, but she was not confined to a home, and managed to outlive my father, her husband of 37 years, and continued to live comfortably for the next 10 years. No good digital photo from this time, so I'll dig into the past even further:
5 years ago - Sep 2003 - Mom to two wonderful little kids, we lived in the DC area again in a family-friendly neighborhood, near a nice lake. My father was to make his last visit to our home in order to see his new grand-daughter, little did we know, he would contract a fast moving lung-cancer and leave us before another year passed. I miss you Dad - hope you're keeping up with my blog!
3 years ago - Sep 2005 - Now in Cairo, almost one year, and gone native. Well, not really. But we had already decided that we really like it here. My babies aren't babies anymore.
1 year ago - Sep 2007 - The kids were one month into their first school year at the new school. They really loved it, and still do. It will be so hard to move away from this school. I quit work in the middle of this year to be a stay-at-home mom... huge challenge for me, but I can tell it was the right thing to do.
Today - Sep 29, 2008 - Kids are in school right now, and I am having a second cup of coffee. I'm tired from dealing with nightmares last night, and am thinking about how to stretch leftovers into dinner tonight. The family was hungry yesterday and my dinner plans for today were eaten.
Tomorrow - Sep 30, 2008 - Will be the start of the week-long 'Eid break from school. It was supposed to be one more day, but as this is based on the sighting of the moon, the schedule has changed. The month of Ramadan is drawing to a close, and Egyptians are preparing for the 'Eid. Brad has some days off, but will also be working some. We plan on hanging around the house and being lazy. I think we'll be getting together with neighbors tomorrow evening to make some Halloween crafts for a party.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Splat!
The sound a kid makes on the floor in the hallway when goofing off goes wrong.
How many times should I have to tell otherwise very bright little kids NOT to grab legs out from under people?? I dunno. Doesn't it make sense?
It was Honor who splatted - she smacked hard, but was not hurt. Scared both kids (GOOD!). She might have a bruise on her knee.
Lately, both have been very irresponsible about bedtime rituals. We've had a lot of picking and pushing and playing and wrestling.. which is, I admit, typical, good natured kid stuff. They really do love each other and play well, but two problems with this. One is, it is bed time. Teeth and hair must be brushed. PJ's on. Beds made ready. etc. Especially if they want time for a book. The second problem is that tired kids rough-housing in a confined area, like the hall and the bathroom which are NOT soft locations, is never a good idea. But tired little kids do not always listen to logic.
They both also know about grabbing feet or legs. Yet, this very afternoon, Honor nearly tripped me by grabbing my ankle as I walked by her door. Then, for some reason, after dinner, she and Brian got after each other and Brian grabbed her foot and she went down hard. I was on the other end of the apartment washing dishes and heard her hit the floor. Brian ran to the freezer and got the ice pack, but as I got to Honor, she was laying there screaming and I saw a white bit on the floor - I knew it had to be a bit of candy she'd been chewing on... but you know that I had to check all of her teeth. Her teeth were fine. It was candy. Took a while for my heart to chill out though.
I took the opportunity - all three of us sitting on the floor in the hall by the bathroom - to talk. I had them smack their hand on the floor, I asked them to then smack the marble entry to the bathroom, and I pointed to the edges of the doorjamb, sink edge, and doorway to the shower and asked them to think about how hard those objects were. I felt bad scaring them like that... but I really do not like the thought of teeth busted out, or the thought of having to run out to the hospital for stitches at bed time. Honor had a bit of pain to make her think. I could tell Brian was scared about his little sister. I think they actually listened this time ... we'll see...
How many times should I have to tell otherwise very bright little kids NOT to grab legs out from under people?? I dunno. Doesn't it make sense?
It was Honor who splatted - she smacked hard, but was not hurt. Scared both kids (GOOD!). She might have a bruise on her knee.
Lately, both have been very irresponsible about bedtime rituals. We've had a lot of picking and pushing and playing and wrestling.. which is, I admit, typical, good natured kid stuff. They really do love each other and play well, but two problems with this. One is, it is bed time. Teeth and hair must be brushed. PJ's on. Beds made ready. etc. Especially if they want time for a book. The second problem is that tired kids rough-housing in a confined area, like the hall and the bathroom which are NOT soft locations, is never a good idea. But tired little kids do not always listen to logic.
They both also know about grabbing feet or legs. Yet, this very afternoon, Honor nearly tripped me by grabbing my ankle as I walked by her door. Then, for some reason, after dinner, she and Brian got after each other and Brian grabbed her foot and she went down hard. I was on the other end of the apartment washing dishes and heard her hit the floor. Brian ran to the freezer and got the ice pack, but as I got to Honor, she was laying there screaming and I saw a white bit on the floor - I knew it had to be a bit of candy she'd been chewing on... but you know that I had to check all of her teeth. Her teeth were fine. It was candy. Took a while for my heart to chill out though.
I took the opportunity - all three of us sitting on the floor in the hall by the bathroom - to talk. I had them smack their hand on the floor, I asked them to then smack the marble entry to the bathroom, and I pointed to the edges of the doorjamb, sink edge, and doorway to the shower and asked them to think about how hard those objects were. I felt bad scaring them like that... but I really do not like the thought of teeth busted out, or the thought of having to run out to the hospital for stitches at bed time. Honor had a bit of pain to make her think. I could tell Brian was scared about his little sister. I think they actually listened this time ... we'll see...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)