All About Angie

I’m Still Here

Due to recent household changes (no, Mark has not taken on a second wife or anything weird like that), I have not been my usual bloggety self. Just what are these ch-ch-changes? First, Master Luke has started on the road to eating smooshy food with a spoon (which I am preparing to post about….yea, right) and Lydia is on the road to diaper-freedom (and there WILL be much rejoicing). These things are taking up quite an incredible amount of time. In addition, these two sensitive situations - if followed to their bitter end - lend themselves to even more nasty things to which I will only refer to vaguely so as not to offend those who have sensitivities beyond those of a 33-year-old mother of 3 precocious and delightful, yet messy and highly aromatic, children all under the age of 5. All this, when tossed in with the usual household muckety-muck (read: “sanitation experience”), leads to not much energy left over to pursue the onlined-ness of oneself. SO, when I sit down to my computer, I mostly just cruise through my favorites (see “Links” on right) and a few others I have recently found, but haven’t updated my “Links” yet. And then promptly return to the proverbial grindstone. (I’ve been checking with Curmudgeonry daily to see if we have an air-breathing baby yet, but so far, it’s still tucked inside! Good Luck, Jordana!!)

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Pumpkins with Pumpkins

In an aforementioned post, I mentioned that we went to a Roadside Pumpkin Stand. Well, here are the Pumpkins with their finished pumpkins (Note the noses on the wee pumpkins…the girls requested their initials for that specific facial feature):

Immediately after this picture was taken, we took the guts and roasted them and ate them. How barbaric!

My Japanese Name

Here’s one for the files….

My Japanese name is (and I don’t think too many folks who know me would disagree):
猿渡 Saruwatari (monkey on a crossing bridge) 三千代 Michiyo (three thousand generations).Take your real japanese name generator! today!Created with Rum and Monkey’s Name Generator Generator.

I can’t wait to see what kind of comment spam this generates.

Swiped from amy loves books.

The Best Birthday So Far

Yes, a few days ago (the 9th) was my birthday. And you missed it. It’s ok, though. You probably didn’t know. Well, just for missing it, you will now have to read about it. So there. Ha! (Or not)

My parentals came for a visit this past weekend and we had quite the birthday time. It rained the entire weekend (come to think of it, I can’t remember any birthdays when the weather’s been non-overcast on the actual day), but the rain did not spoil the fun.

First on the agenda was…..an appointment with the photographer. Seeing as it is always a good idea to bring in the reinforcements, I asked my parents and Mark to go along this time. Thank goodness!! Now we have some great pictures of the little munchkins AND I got to use a coupon!! Hooray!! And this time, Lydia did not freak out. Things were looking up.

Since we were already at the mall, we rewarded the children with a ride on the carousel. Then it was time for lunch, so we scooted on over to The Cheesecake Factory where I indulged in the largest and yummiest birthday lunch I can remember (of course, I can’t remember much past last week, so the sample size is quite small). The lunch was topped off by a piece of Snickers Cheesecake. Yum!!

And now, a word about my husband’s behavior. He was perfectly kind and attentive while at the mall. Why shouldn’t he be?, you may ask. Well, this time of year is, no doubt, his favorite, but not because of me. The real reason is college football. This particular day, the Sooners of Oklahoma (his favorite team and our alma mater) were engaging in the annual Red River Shootout against the Burnt Orange Cows of Texas. Every TV in the mall was a magnet for him, but he was participatory in my birthday-goings-on, so I was ok with that. As it turned out, OU was successful in its match and even shutout those beasts, first time in a long time that has happened. So the merriment and revelry continued.

We stopped at the roadside pumpkin farm on the way home and picked up three HUGE pumpkins prime for carving and seed-roasting. After the kids went down for naps, a few of us went to Garden Ridge (also known around my house as “Garbage Ridge”) to look for suitable picture frames for the momentous pictures procured earlier. The rest of the day was spent eating dinner and opening a few presents (Yay! I love presents!) and going to bed. The next morning, we all got up and went to church. It was delightful (even though it wasn’t my birthday anymore).

So there you have it. Birthday 2004 was a huge success, by all accounts. The eats, the company, the football, the gifts, and let’s not forget those pesky pictures…it was all wonderful. And here is the blog to commemorate it. So I won’t forget it.

You Know You’re In Texas When

….on the way to church (2 weeks in a row) you get passed by a van pulling a closed trailer with signs all over it that say in BIG letters:
“CAUTION: LIVE SNAKES!!!! TEXAS’ LARGEST TRAVELLING SNAKE SHOW”

Call me squeamish, but I would probably go out of my way to avoid a wreck with something like that.

Kindness

Far be it from me to write a blog with that title, for I am certainly no expert on the subject. But after today’s events, I feel like I should say something. Don’t worry. I did not assault another poor photographer or have a nasty rant about shopping carts. You see, those would be my examples of UN-kindness. I simply locked my keys in the van. The only set of keys for our van. With two of the three children (Susanna and Luke) inside. At the gas station. Read on, kind and patient reader!

Mark had taken Lydia to a birthday party in the the morning and the after-party plan was to meet up at Pop’s for a fun filled afternoon of football-watching (Mark’s dad, affectionately known as “Pop”, has cable). After I started the van, I realized we didn’t have much gas, so we popped on over to the Kroger gas station for a fill-up. And that’s when I locked the keys in the van.

The engine was off, but all the windows were rolled up. Thankfully, the cold front came through last night, so instead of 90 degree temps, it was only about 72 degrees or so. Evidently, I must have looked completely distressed, because a very very very very nice couple (the woman, in particular) approached me and asked if I needed some help. The man offered me his cell phone (a very kind man, he was) and I called Mark who told me to call 911 (he was already at his dad’s house). So I called 911 and they dispatched the fire department to the gas station and the operator told me their method of “unlocking windows” is to break them, so if I knew of a locksmith, I might want to call them. I called Mark back and he and Pop went about procuring a locksmith (weekend hours, don’t ya know). In the meantime, I tried (through the closed window) to give instructions to Susanna on how to unbuckle her carseat. She was trying really hard, but just didn’t have the finger strength to get the bottom buckle apart (yes, I plan to work with her on this. Starting tomorrow.)

The fire truck arrived very quickly with all the loud sirens and flashing lights commonly found on a large fire engine. Five firemen in all and one policeman thrown in, to boot! The firemen didn’t really want to break the window, since it was a cool day. Instead, their contribution was to continue talking to Susanna in an attempt to get her out of her seat and to unlock the door. So all 5 firemen were gathered around the back end of my minivan peering in the window at poor Susanna, who was doing her best to free herself from her carseat. The baby was chewing on his blanket (as best as I could tell), completely oblivious to the commotion around him. The Very Very Very Very Nice Couple (who were dressed up, I now realize) asked if there was anything else they could do (there wasn’t). I profusely thanked them and sent them on their way.

All of a sudden, I was aware of Some Guy with a “Slim Jim” at my driver’s side door. With a quick little ::pop::, the lock came up and the children (and my car keys) were freed. One of the firemen said that Some Guy is a mechanic and just happened to be driving by and decided to stop. By the time I had made it over to the driver’s side, Some Guy was already getting in his truck and leaving. I hollered (Okie word) a few “thank yous” at him, but I couldn’t get to him in time. So I’m not sure he heard me. (An open note to Some Guy: “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!”)

The firemen and the policeman (they were MEN, all 6 of them, so forgive me if I’ve neglected to be PC) all SHOWERED Susanna with gifts, including hoards of stickers and a coupon for a free Slurpee and a stuffed teddy bear! I guess she now wants me to lock her in there every Saturday from now on.

In the meantime, Mark had found a locksmith and they were both (separately) enroute to the Kroger, but both arrived about 15 minutes after it was all over.

There are many lessons to learn from this…
1. Always have more than one key to any vehicle you own.
2. Cell phones help, but in this case, even if I had one in my possession, it would’ve likely been in the car, thereby making itself a non-participatory member of the scene.
3. The kindness of strangers is a very very very very nice thing.

And, as Mark solemnly suggests, the number one lesson is:
DON’T LOCK YOUR KEYS IN YOUR CAR!!!!