Barbara Walters

Last night before the Oscars Barbara Walters had her special interview show. Braden came up to me and sat down on the couch to watch. Eddie Murphy was the guest being interviewed.

Braden said " He's brown momma...." I replied "Yep, he is..." and then thought - Okay here it is our first discussion on color and how each of us looks different. Alright - where to go from here... Think Julia Think!!! OH! I know, I'll treat it like any discussion on color, we will name ALL the Colors!

So I asked " What color is the lady?" He just looked at me a bit confused. I paused the TV on Barbara and ask "what color is she?" Braden answered "Momma ... she's Momma...." I said "she looks like me?" "Yes" he said...

...and that was end of THAT discussion.

Kvetch

I learned this word from Robin.

Here is my post:

Why do organizations that ALWAYS ask me for a donation (Oxfam, Best Friends Rescue, my Alma mater etc...) send me these elaborate newsletters and info packets telling me how much they need money... "Until you stop sending me pamphlets and handouts with glossy photos and you are down to ONE guy sitting in a cramped office calling me personally - YOU AIN'T GETTIN' SQUAT!!!"

One of THOSE days

Yeah, that's right! (a la Putty)

There was a huge windstorm in Abilene and this is one of the gifts it left us...

Thanks!

Sad Chickens

Tonight at dinner Tristan was being fussy. So Braden and I decided to put him in his swing. It helped a bit and Tristan stopped screaming... to which Braden said "Look Momma, Tristan has stopped crying..." I said "Let's not be so sure....don't count your chickens until they've hatched."
And then in hit me like a ton of bricks - It means that not all the baby chicks are going to be born... " I was devastated on two counts. 1) what a horrible saying and 2) how have I gone 32 years on this earth and not figured this out....

Oh the humanity!

4 months old

The night we got back from Dallas he rolled over for the first time... I remember the turtle stage with Braden... getting stuck on their backs with no hope in sight... so sad :-) Every night since he had flipped over. But of course it is always on accident out of frustration... he has not learned to control his new found talent yet.

Turn-ons include: nursing, people laughing and watching himself in the mirror

Turn-offs include: the car seat, being left alone, sun in the eyes

The Stats: 16 lbs 26inches ( i would have measured his head but i couldn't find a tape long enough)

a few random shots from the trip

I will never own a mini van....

And by "never" I mean NOW!

As if planning for a 5 day long Dallas trip was hectic enough... I also thought I needed a brand new car too!

A friend of mine came over to visit me last week. She had just been in a car accident a few months earlier. She was trying to turn at a very popular intersection here in Abilene (one that I go through DAILY). She got T'd by a truck who thought he should be turning at the same time. She said "the only thing that saved me where my side airbags". I thought, yeah of course.... then in the same breath I realized that the Lexus did NOT have side airbags. That there was only 3 inches of metal between my children and what ever idiot driver was out on the road scared the living daylights out of me.

Mason and I had been talking (and by talking I mean arguing) about what kind of new car we should have. We discovered along time ago that Mason hated the Lexus (don't ask me why I still don't understand it) and that any car he really wanted to have was WAY out of our budget. So now he drives our Yukon.... I thought it was better to just deal with the Lexus for a little while longer.

Side Note: I love shopping... I HATE shopping for cars! Can't stand reading about them, deicing on features, the phrase "trim level" makes me cringe. There are too many cars out there to chose from. I don't care what my car says about me... but I do care how much I paid for it and how useful it will be. I do NOT have any sort of car savvy. I am very un-American in my dislike for cars...I know this about myself. I have accepted it as just another in a long list of things that makes me "special" :-)

So over the course of the talks Mason and I would have about cars I would just list my likes and dislikes...well I didn't realize that what I wanted as a car didn't exist. I broke it down like this

1. Safety 2. utility 3. mpg 4. style which after all was said it done turned out to be a minivan.

Long story short (too late)... I went to Ebay, found the car, got the loan drove to Dallas and the dealer drove from Houston (yeah! for free! try getting that with a regular dealership), Mason met with the dealer and switch out the cars. I didn't lay eyes on it until the next day! Didn't even drive it until yesterday when we drove back home (yeah... I really just don't care about cars).

Braden loves it though (has a DVD player in it). He keeps talking about "our new minivan that daddy gave you" That pretty much says it all!

In case you were wondering, riding in either a Lexus or Seinna does not have ANY effect on the screaming of a 4 month old...

I finally made it...

On Saturday Mason and I walked down the street from our hotel to Dealey Plaza. As we approached I started to get very excited, I couldn't believe that I was almost there. As we started to get closer I noticed that there were other people milling around taking pictures. I said"what are all these people doing here?" Mason thought I had lost my mind..."what do you mean?" he asked. "Well, I guess I just didn't think of this place as a tourist attraction." But then it dawned on me... it WAS a tourist attraction. Just some place mildly interesting for people to visit on their stay in Dallas. When we arrived the first thing I checked out was the Xs on Elm Street. There were two of them painted on the street where the President was hit. I noticed how small the area seemed to be. In all the TV footage I had seen over the years I had this vision in my head that the area was much larger than it really was. I kept saying over and over again.... "it just seems SO small" We walked all around the "grassy knoll". We ran into a few vendors selling JFK conspiracy books, newsletters and such. They had all the information that I had seen before including the pictures of the presidents head blown open. THAT is when I start to get upset. "A man died here people!" Big deal he was the president. This was some body's husband and father... some body's son. How DARE they try to make a living off of that!!! I was so mad... but said nothing. Just politely refused their products. So I sat down in the place that Abraham Zapruder had stood and filmed his home movie. After that we walked over to the Sixth Floor Museum and took the tour then headed home. I am very glad that I finally made it to Dallas and Dealey Plaza... but there is a little bit of a let down now that it is all over... a bit of ... "is that all there is?"

as my friend Jessi would say "Yep... that's it - now lets get the heck out of here"

And that is exactly what we did!

worth a thousand words

This shot pretty much sums up our Dallas trip. We had a great time visiting with each other and visiting with my family. This shot was taken minutes after Mason arrived... he sure did miss his boys! We miss him already.... more pictures and stories from the trip to come...

Happy Birthday to me!

This is me on the day I was born...

I was born at home at 9:32am Maryland with a doctor, nurse, practitioner and the family dog Lady in attendance. Dad was there too.

Having a birthday on Valentines Day has always been interesting. Sometimes they have been great, celebrating with friends, big parties with hearts everywhere. Some of them have been crappy. Like the ones when I had bad boyfriends or worse NO boyfriends :-). People are always intrigued with the fact that my birthday falls on the 14th.

My last two birthdays have been very happy ones. But there once was a time that my birthday made me sad. They made me sad because they reminded me of my mother. It started the second year of my marriage. Even among the flowers and chocolates and gifts (my hubby is a keeper) I found myself getting more depressed each year.

The worst birthday was when I was pregnant with Braden. That year all I was focused on was "what HIS birth day was going to be like" "what labor and delivery were going to feel like". As a first time pregnant lady there was nothing that consumed my brain more than the thought of LABOR!

My own mother and father had over the course of my life told me MY birth story many many times. It was always interesting and fascinating, even when I had it memorized. I wonder why that was?

The night before I was born my parents were at Friendly's Restaurant in the mall. Mom had a hot fudge sundae to celebrate. (the ice cream was mentioned because Mom had abstained from sweets during her pregnancy) Mom started feeling funny later on that night and ended up throwing up the sundae. They called the doctor. The doctor though she had the right directions to the house... but didn't - and ended up driving around my parents neighborhood knocking on doors (at 2am) trying to find my parents. The practitioner was called and arrived too. And then everyone waited. (this was my favorite part of the story as a little girl.) And they waited and waited and waited. The doctor went to lie down in the guest room.... the practitioner laid down on the spare couch in the den and my father laid down (and fell asleep) on the floor next to my mom lying in bed!!! A few hours later she woke my dad up to tell him it was "time". Everyone started scrambling around and the doctor orders the practitioner to go boil some water. The practitioner leaves and comes back 20 minutes later carrying a hot tea service tray (I kid you not!) I was born. I cried out and my dog growled. They lay me down with mom and Lady came over to sniff me... she gave me her seal of approval!

And while being pregnant myself I had thought many times about what Braden's birth story would be like. I centered that whole day around me and what I was going to have to go through and how it would affect me. Truth be told I didn't think to much about Braden in all of that. He was little more than a concept to me at the time. I remember telling my friends that on kids birthdays we were really the ones that should be getting the gifts and attention.

So that birthday(2003) was heartbreaking for me. And so was the next(2004) .... It wasn't until Braden turned 1 that June and I stood in the kitchen lighting his candles on his cake that I realized " I was so excited to celebrate Braden and HIS big day"! The course of the year had turned me into a real mom. I was horrified at my own thoughts of getting presents and celebrating me - what a ridiculous idea. I was all about Braden that day and EVERY day.

The spell was broken - the curse lifted... my next two birthdays were FABULOUS!!!

Today this birthday is wonderful too.... no fancy plans, no dinner out, no movies. But happy nevertheless. I no longer feel depressed and that is a gift in and of itself.

I know what my mom would say to me today if she was here..."Happy Birthday, I love you!"

I love you too Mom.... thank you for everything.

Laughing !!!!

Tristan caught in mid-giggle! He kinda looks looks like Jon Stewart doing a George W Bush impression !

Happy Valentines Day!!!

and now you know!

This is my dad... At some point I am sure I will write a whole post about him, but now I just wanted to share his words regarding my Dealey Plaza post. (it is in the comments, but I know not everyone checks them.) As I have gotten older I have found out more and more truths about my dad that previously were unknown... here is yet another one!

I don't think I ever thought the photo with the gun was a forgery. But I did have a direct involvement with the assassination. I think it is okay to reveal it now. When I was living in Dallas in 1965-1967, I was a student with a part-time job driving a taxi and a radio station news cruiser. It had a huge sign on the top with hundreds of light bulbs which would spell out the latest news headlines scrolling like a ticker-tape. My "job" was to drive around town and be seen. One day I decided to park in a left turn lane at a light. It was a new-fangled light that did not illuminate the green arrow unless it sensed motion. So it turned green once, and I just parked there. Until someone else came up behind me, I just sat there and let the fast-moving traffic be distracted by my news truck. One guy wasn't looking where he was going and smashed into the car in front of him. I never did that again. But I digress. Shortly before leaving school for good and moving to California in January of 1967, I crawled into the back of the van, and copied those famous words into the teletype machine which would make their way to the moving lights on the roof, "Jack Ruby dies in jail". Yes, that was me, I admit it. I actually typed those words for all the drivers in Dallas to see. It was I who informed them that we would never get it from the horse's mouth that he was paid to shoot Oswald. I have lived with that for all these years. And now you know. -Dad

Surgeons got nothing on MOM!!!

Last night I was trying to trim Tristan's fingernails. I feel like it is a never ending task. It seems like once they are the right length it is time to do it again. Sitting on the couch with him lying in my lap facing me I remembered the first time we tried to clip Braden's fingernails.

In an effort to balance the care of the child and keep the dad in the loop both Mason and I had decided that he would be in charge of baths and nail trimmings (not unlike the dogs really). Braden was about a week old and Mason sat down to the task. But he only got 3 fingers in when "OW!" he clipped down to far and Braden started bleeding. Mason put down the clippers and has not touched them since. So it has been my task.

So here I am with a sharp instrument pointed at my sons flesh and he is none the wiser. Wiggling around I am trying to hold his hand still while his foot keeps kicking my wrist. I thought, "why are surgeons so highly thought of? all of their work is done on a PERFECTLY still body!" That is nothing compared to this... the words of my mother in-law ring in my ears... "I used to clip Mason's nails while he slept)".... I don't know which would be harder.... doing it while he is awake or trying to do it while he sleeps....

No matter - it is done for now. I think I am going to put a certificate on my wall stating how nimble and agile I am. Now if I could just pull in the 6 figure pay check!!!

Headin' to Dallas

Dealey Plaza


Step into Dealey Plaza, and you feel you are on sacred ground. No, it doesn't matter that you may be a hard-bitten believer in Oswald's sole guilt. It does not matter that you believe that the assassination was an historical fluke, with no particular larger significance. This is The Place where all assassination buffs, conspiratorialists and lone-nutters alike, have to go. This is the necessary pilgrimage.
Dealey Plaza has changed a bit since 1963. The famous Stemmons Freeway sign is gone, and the Hertz car rental sign is gone from atop the Depository. Some of the train tracks over the Triple Underpass have been replaced with electrified commuter rail tracks, and the parking lot behind the Stockade Fence is now paved. A plaque now defaces the grass between the Pergola and Elm Street. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same place, The Place.


Even if you have know me for a long time, one thing you have never heard me talk about is my JFK assassination obsession. I was raised by a JFK conspiracy nut (sorry dad). He was absolutely convinced that the Warren Commission got it wrong and that there was more to it than some crazy ex-commie. I remember the 25th anniversary of the assassination. It was 1988. I was living in Maine. It was just me and my dad then. My mom had passed away that January. For the whole month of November (or at least a full week of it) we did nothing else but watch the "look back"s and the "tribute" shows. They even broadcasted the actual telecast of Walter Cronkite announcing to the world that the President was dead. We watched and watched all of it. From the beginning all the way through to the funeral with little Jon-Jon saluting his fallen father. I watched as they played the Zapruder film over and over and over again. Seeing Jackie O in her pink skirt suit with the pill box hat splatter with blood. LBJ taking the oath of office aboard an airplane. I saw pictures of the presidents head from the autopsy.... EVERYTHING.

I remember watching with my dad. Lying on my beanbag in from of the television. We had this huge tv that sat on the floor. It was a brand new. I remember talking about the assassination, wondering what the truth was. He would say "see the picture of Lee Harvey Oswald with his gun? It is a forgery, you can tell because of the shadow, it is not lined up right" I remember my father telling me about Dallas. (he had lived there in the late 60's) What a wonderful sounding place this Dallas Texas (very far away from Maine). I remember him talking about Zapruder and his video camera. My father was an amateur videoagrapher and I think he liked the idea of a regular guy with a camera capturing something so important. I remember asking what a grassy knoll was. What an adventure and mystery!

Well, after almost 20 years I am GOING TO DALLAS!!! Next week Mason and I are meeting there for presidents day weekend (he has 4 days off). I am so excited I can't stand it. Our hotel is right down town only a few blocks from Dealey Plaza. Speaking of... I found the above article from http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/dealey.htm and felt it spoke very accurately on how I felt about the whole situation so I included it for you all!

BTW in case you are wondering a few years ago Peter Jennings did a special on JFK entitled something like ABC News Presents The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy (2003). They took the Zapruder footage and entered into a computer to generate a 3D image and then they studied it for 2 years (or something like that) and it turns out that LHO was in fact the sole assassin.... and now my father can't be convinced otherwise..... doesn't matter though.... doesn't matter because I AM OFF TO DALLAS ! Yeee Haaa!

http://www.amazon.com/ABC-News-Presents-Kennedy-Assassination/dp/B0001BFDKU

Fireants Poop and Cigarette Butts

Today was the first warm weather we have had in about a month. I kept telling myself that when it warmed up I was going to give the dogs a bath. But like all items on a non-existent to do list... it NEVER got done. So what did I do.

Well, the True Green Chem Lawn guy came out. Now, before you get too excited, let me explain. As you know I am NOT a fan of chemicals, and I have always thought that the company name "true green chem lawn" was an oxymoron... BUT after two years of battling with fire ants biting me and then all last summer dealing with Braden getting bit (even when wearing shoes) I decided to bite the bullet and call someone to come out... which they did... this morning... at 7:45am..... whatever!

The man left without saying goodbye. And since I was nursing I couldn't tell if he had done the back yard. So I called him to inquire about what had been done. Good thing I did... it turns out that "yes" he did do the back. During our conversation I asked him how long we had to stay off the yard... he said "well, this treatment needs water, but it is okay to walk on after it dries". OH? Water? Was someone going to tell me that it needed water? I wondered how I was supposed to know this since I only found out because I CALLED HIM.... whatever. So I ran the sprinklers.

In the afternoon when everything had dried I let the dogs out to go potty. I noticed that some of the granules had gotten on the back porch. I thought "I really should clean off the porch". Since winter had come and Mason had left I had not really done anything to the outside living areas. So on went the gloves out came the paper bag and I started to put all the dried leaves and grass and yuck in the bag. Which then led me to the flower beds. Took out the dried leaves, fixed (or at least attempted to) the edging bricks. As I walked out of the back yard to do the front stoop I noticed that there were granules of this junk all over the driveway. No big deal you say? YES big deal. That is where the bikes get ridden and Braden lies down and colors with his chalk and so on and so forth.... So out came the hose and the broom.

What started out as a quick clean up project ended up being an hour long wash down of the driveway and front walkway ....I couldn't stop once I started. I just kept puttering around spraying and sweeping ...

My dog Calhoun eats my other dog Chloe's poop. I am totally disgusted by this. Apparently it is very common in the dog world. Nonetheless .... I am totally disgusted by it. So twice a day I pick up the poop in the back yard. My dogs have an area that is fenced off from the large play yard area. Even so, sometimes they find their way into the big yard and leave a surprise for us.

On one of (what I call Easter Egg hunts) I noticed some poop behind our storage shed. I didn't think that much about it. Until the next day I found poop there again. This time it looked like it had come from UNDER the shed. Every day I looked and everyday there was the poop. Real old looking dried up poop coming out from under the shed. And then it stopped. No poop. Then a week later it started again. Then no more poop. Then poop. You get the idea. Two days ago there was poop. Today - no poop. WHERE IS IT COMING FROM! it always looks old and it always looks like it is coming from under the shed.

With dried leaf bags and poo pick up bags in hand I head towards my trash can at the curb. (yes I keep my trashcan at the curb, because I NEVER remember to set the trash out) I look down and see 4 cigarette butts in my front lawn. I see them from time to time. I remember when I first moved to Abilene and didn't know our neighbors I though they had a smoker in their house that would just throw the butt onto the ground as they drove into the driveway. Then I thought it was a service guy (meter reader or something) who just happened to finish a smoke while checking my electricity usage. But I was wrong on all counts. The cigarettes appear the day after trash day. They come floating down the street on a currant of wind and land in the crevice of my driveway and lawn.

Just another Tuesday ....

Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day Everybody! I remember this day as a kid in school... talking about weather and blah blah blah....but now thanks to this flick the term Groundhog Day has a whole new meaning... I might say that GD makes my top 10 movie list and if you have not seen it, WATCH IT! I promise you will not be disapointed!

Weather Report

Phil Says Spring is Right Around the Corner!

Phil's official forecast as read 2/2/07 at 7:28 a.m. at Gobbler's Knob:

El Nino has caused high winds, heavy snow, ice and freezing temperatures in the west.Here in the East with much mild winter weather we have been blessed.
Global warming has caused a great debate.This mild winter makes it seem just great.
On this Groundhog Day we think of one thing.Will we have winter or will we have spring?
On Gobbler's Knob I see no shadow today.I predict that early spring is on the way.

Just for fun....

(click on picture to enlarge)

In my last post I wrote about Braden eating his spaghetti -o's. Here is a picture I took of him almost EXACTLY 2 years ago... chowing down! and YES it was MUCH warmer 2 years ago!

Hillbilly Housewife

Just last night I was thinking about how much Tristan nursed. Way more than Braden ever did... which got me to worrying. Braden (3) eats as much as a grown-up (yet still thin as a rail). I remember when he wasn't yet two he could eat a WHOLE can of spaghetti-o's (yes the organic kind with soy balls !!! LOL) And if Tristan's nurse-a-thons are any indication, feeding these two boys will become an increasingly expensive project.

But tonight (while googling "fussy baby") I ran into a blog that had this link.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

Thank goodness someone is on the task!

AGAIN

Not the best quality video... and although it sounds like rain IT'S SNOW!!! If you were wondering the weather forcast called for 50 and cloudy with some wind! Yeah Right!