I finished Harry Potter's latest installment this evening. I know Megan will be ecstatic when she realizes mommy's not reading anymore. I'm relieved to not be so hooked I'm trying to figure out how to get my next fix. And overall I have to say I don't think this installment of HP was as well delivered as the previous 5. I could see scenes set up for the movie more than I could previous books, and this annoyed me. Don't get me wrong it was a great book and I was entertained and I'm looking forward to the next (supposedly last but I doubt it), but I think it was more thrown together, more ad-hoc.
We've had a house guest since the bitch "Rita" decided to take aim at Houston and all points east. Its been great to spend time with my brother Michael, though the first 2 days he was understandably stressed about being here while his family was in Texas. Once Saturday morning broke and it was clear that Katy was safe from Rita, we had a lovely visit. Yesterday we hung out with Pam and Yvonne and did the Corn Maze, then came back to the house and cooked a great big pasta feast.
Today we took Megan to Chabot Science center to see the Living Sea on Imax, followed by lunch at Buffalo Bills, home for naps and then tonight Michael join Jack and myself on an already planned outing of the movie Flight Plan. Tomorrow Michael finally gets to go home which he is anxious to do.
So we get back from the movie and Megan is still up. While Jack took the sitter home, I put Megan to bed. She had been watching Toy Story 2 and it was past her bed time so I said "bedtime" implying no books tonight. She said "mommy read books".... I looked at her beautiful face and said, "ok but just one"
"three" she replied holding up 3 fingers..... "No one" I assured her..... "two" she questioned holding up the sign for peace.... how could I refuse. We headed to her room where she dutifully picked out only one book. It was short and she was so lively that I relented and let her pick out another book.
Ok I know ... I was the manipulatee and not the manipulator :)
When Oso killed the snake it was after weeks of interest in the Rosemary bush. He wouldn't leave that bush alone and he drove us all crazy with his determination to watch the bush 24/7. Afterwards he never even went near the bush so I figured that must have been the snakes home.
For the past week he's been getting anxious in the bay window as if a cat or squirrel was in the front yard, but when ever I looked there was nothing... until today. Today when I saw him intently staring out the window just outside and under the bird feeder I looked and saw - a little brown mouse!
Oso is a great hunter. He is really being wasted in the burbs :) though I don't mind - I figure the mice won't be coming in the house if he's this intent on monitoring them now.
I Tivo'ed Kathy Bates new movie on Life time called Ambulance Girl. Mom would have loved this film. i've been laughing my butt off as she's been going threw her training. If you get a chance check this out.
So Excuse me, but while we're in the quagmire that is Iraq, where we invaded another country with no reason but piss and venom, that the Taliban kill 7 in Afghanistan for having voter registration cards on them. Didn't we take the Taliban out of power when they were harboring Osama? Didn't we make sure that country was secure before we started putting our resources elsewhere. What a great big mess this Failure of a president we have now has gotten us into.
Megan started School today. She was so happy to go, so happy to say Goodbye mommy! apparently she was the big helper of the group, trying her best to get the criers to stop and tried to help the teachers as well. When I showed up to get her at noon she was happily playing with a mr potato head she didn't even notice me until the flash went off on the camera. I took plenty of pictures which I'm sure Jack will have up later.
For me after dropping her off it was a sudden realization that I had nothing to do... well not really but my first morning mid week without Megan. I went up to a teachers supply store to get something I'd ordered and then I got my car detailed which was really nice. I did have a few moments of seeing the empty car seat and feeling like my stomach feel out from under me.
I was vacuuming the kitchen earlier and a fly was buzzing all around. So I took out the wand from the Dyson and cornered it and the sucked it up. When I emptied the Dyson later I saw the fly body sans wings.
Sadie was our fly catcher before she went blind.. now its Dyson.
Megan is loving her new bed, though she hasn't realized yet that she can get out with out me which is really cute. It took her 4 nights to go from sleeping in one very small quarter of the full size bed to spreading out and pretty much sleeping all over the upper half. She seems to love the duvet, though when she was in the crib I couldn't seem to keep a blanket on her. She was sick on Sunday after we had a lovely day at Del Vallepark in Livermore. We went swimming and Jack and Megan went boating, and we had a lovely picnic and the all the kids from 5 different families played. It was such a "Norman Rockwell" type of sunday. But when we got home Megan was drained and obviously not feeling well. I figured she was dehydrated but by 2am she had 102 fever. Some Tylenol and cuddling later we made it through the night and by morning she also had a stuffy nose to go with the fever.
The strange thing is the stuffy nose lasted a day by tuesday she was only mildly congested, Jack is usually more so with his allergies on a daily basis. She had no fever by tuesday night. It was a weird bug, and thankfully a quickly passing one.
So next week Megan starts school. I have yet to touch the pile of forms I'm supposed to be filing out. I think Megan is really going to shine at school. She loved it when we visited there 2 weeks ago.
Megan ask for a new bed this week. We were rocking and chatting in her room and she said Megan want a pink bed. I said great, and the very next day we bought the new bed (all new pick bedding to go with). Well it was delivered today, and while Jack and Megan went to SF to play with friends, I stayed home and put her room together. I moved her dresser and bookshelf to act as bookends on the bed. I ran up to LInen's and things and got her a bed skirt and found some really neat butterfly curtains. I had to move the valance rod down to act as the new curtain rod. I set up the bed with all the bedding and the guard so she can't roll out. She has a pile a pillows and a pile of stuffed animals and well its cool bedroom if I do say so myself :)
She was so excited to see it and she said New Bed... Megan new Bed several thousand times tonight. She loved reading books in it but not before she tried to skip it entirely and just go straight to bed. But once she realized I wanted to stick to routine she was happy to do so. We read, we cuddled, we sang we snuggled and in the end she was oh so happy to go to sleep.
A place for people to post concern for trapped loved ones its a tough read. All the news is going on and on about the super-dome and the convention center but there are so many people trapped in their houses.
I stumbled onto Amanda's blog this morning. Her house was destroyed but she's safe and alive and relived to be so. It made me feel more connected to read it and yet I don't know her at all. But reading back a few dozen entries, makes anyone feel like a friend.