It's about time

Okay, so I will post on my own blog too. Just to keep you guessing. The space bar on this new keyboard is sluggish, so all typos shall be blamed on it. We had to go with washable keyboards. Teenagers, pizza, rootbeer, need I say more? I'll let you know how the washable feature works after the next World of Warcraft party.

News from the (other) Walker house: Chelsea got her SAT scores back. We are runing out of people who are willing to listen to Mark brag, so you are the new victims. 780 verbal!!! 640 math. 660 writing. Wahoo!!! Of course she can't figure out what she did wrong to miss twenty points. I don't know anyone who got 780 in any section. I hope there is a scholarship in her future. She wants to go somewhere expensive. The go part is hard for me. I know all of you with little ones would pay good money to have them go anywhere for a while, but all those people who said it would be over too soon were right. I'm not ready too be done. Don't take me all the way back to the diapers, up at night phase, or the sassy three-and-a-half-year-old phase, but if time could just slow down a little that would be nice.

Hugs all around.

It's all good if you squint a little

Happy Halloween! I just got back from Hope's class party. Too cute. They are big kids, but the are still so excited about the costumes and goodies. We are having a traditional Halloween weatherwise. It is always, without exception, either pouring rain or freezing cold or both. This year we are doing the freezing cold option. I'm afraid I might have to go out trick-or-treating too. I want to be the one to stay home and pass out the candy. Sipping some spiced apple cider. Wearing fuzzy slippers. Putting the puppy in her hilarious bumble bee costume. Yes, I have turned into one of those crazy people who dress their dog.

Calvin and Susan are arriving on Thursday. I really like this method of baby enjoyment. I have all the fun and she changes the diapers and when I am tired they go home and I can sleep in on the weekends again. Perfect!

Updates:

The emergency supplies are done. Bring on the disaster. I'm ready!

I think we are flea free. Smudge is on his meds now, but doesn't seem to be any better yet. Still stressed. She said to give him six weeks and we are at four. He does have weird growths on his elbows and one toe that we have to go to the vet for on Friday. Ugh! All my money goes there lately.

I can't tell you how THRILLED I am that you actually read my post. Not only read it, but commented. I hope I can continue to make it worth your while to read it. My therapist says I make a joke out of things to avoid emotion, but I think that I find the humor in things because generally people who don't see humor in rediculous situations tend to get upset about things that can't be changed. I think having children can either make you tear your hair out by the roots, or it can keep you in stitches. Of course some days you can experience both at the same time. Come on, we all have had that day at least once in the last week.

That's my rant, here's my blah-og: The ongoing saga of my emergency supplies. Silly, silly me, I get so busy with my insane projects. I need to check in with the planet more often. I have been tiling the garage step and installing cabinets therein, organizing 72 hour kits, and stockpiling supplies. When I mention this to anyone from Utah they say, “good for you”. When friends here hear about it they look cross-eyed and attempt to figure out a way to change the subject before I try to get them to join my cult. Really about one winter in three we end up snowed in with the power out for at least three days, so it is a good idea. That explains the soup and chili, the twinkies and tp. I guess you have to go to another level to accept the prudence of purchasing backpacks, rain ponchos, waterproof matches, multitools, etc. We have had several minor earthquakes since we have been here and the one fun 7.2 and we live in the shadow of Mt Saint Helens. Statistically we can go a hundred years before we hear from the mountain or our tectonic plates again, but I’ll be the one who’s laughing through a mouthful of twinkie while everyone else is scrambling, right.

Somehow when the kids were smaller I imagined that once they were school age I would be home free. Still waiting for home free. It seems like I am on a hamster wheel, running as fast as I can and making no progress. Does this get better once they leave home I wonder? I know some of it I do to myself. I got a puppy who needs obedience school, I volunteer myself at school, I sign myself up for a class every quarter.

I find that if I don't take a class I tend to get songs stuck in my head that never leave. If I am taking a class then my little brain has enough to do that it doesn't get bored. When I go too long without then I find I wake up with the same song that was running round and round in my head when I went to bed. Or perhaps I need to learn all the words to more songs. Ever notice that songs that you know all the words to never get stuck in your head? Think about that.

No big spider sightings this week. The back has been put back on the hot tub and the rats should either be trapped in or out. The mole guy caught two more moles. All is right with my world. Although I did have a dream where an extremely large rodent was chasing me around the yard and I couldn't get away. This is a subliminal reference to the time I was chased by the chicken when I was seven mixed together with all the current infestations in my life. At least it wasn't that dream I always have where I am back in highschool and I can't get my locker open or remember where any of my classes are. I have actually finally graduated to the dream where I can't remember where any of Chelsea's classes are. I had that one a few weeks ago. Does this mean I am finally growing up? Dream analysis please.

So, my puppy has fleas, there are several rats living under the hot tub and a huge spider just crawled down the wall behind my computer. I am sensing a theme. It's a normal day at our house.

I have been trying to get our 72 hour kits organized. Living in an earthquake zone like we do, and also where the power tends to go out for several days at a time most winters, it seems like a prudent idea. However, here people think I am a little crazy and paranoid. I'll be laughing when they are cold and wet and without toilet paper, I can tell you that. In desperate times it is all about the emotional eating, so I have decided to stockpile chocolate. Never mind the bags of corn and wheat my parents called food storage. I also confess I have a big box of twinkies. It's true that they aren't the same since they stopped using lard in the creamy filling and switched to partially hydrogonated vegetable shortening, but if the apocalypse comes and only one thing survives I have a feeling it will be twinkies. We are nearly ready for anything. I am just waiting on one box of stuff I ordered on the interrnet ironically from a company in Orem, Utah.

Kid Update: Chelsea is sick with a sore throat, but other than that she is doing great this year. The surgery went really well and she looks fabulous. She got contacts last week and she cut twelve inches of her hair off before school started. New girl!!!

Braden hated all four days he attended ninth grade at our junior high, so he is doing BYU Independent Study classes online. He is burning through the material. He is through with over half a semester of three classes (he is doing three at a time). He got a job offer today from a friend of mine who is opening a business, so he is designing and constructing a website for her.

Hope is great. She loves school. Her teacher is said to be the very best one at the whole school. Fourth grade girls can be difficult socially, but I think she has figured out how to work the system, at least for now.

Smudge is going on anti-anxiety medication. He's too stressed out and he has nipped at a couple of people who didn't understand his personal space issues. He has "crabby old man" disease says my friend Jan.

Our puppy is cute as a button. Her great shortcoming is that she doesn't like to go potty outside when it rains. Wrong location for this dog. At least the forcast is five warm, dry days in a row. This will give me time to come up with plan B. The fleas, just discovered today, are a new area for us. Smudge has never had fleas in his whole life. Ugh!!! Just when I think I am going to spend the whole day watching soaps and eating bon bons. That plan was ruined, again.