Bits and Pieces

-The kids got off to a great start at school this week. We are all very excited about 1st and 3rd grade.

-David took a fall last night. He went to check on Benny the Big Black Lab Puppy around midnight and missed a step on the deck stairs. He landed pretty hard on his shoulder. Poor guy hasn't been out of bed all day.

-This afternoon we couldn't figure out what Benny was barking at. Turned out she had a visitor in our back yard...

This week seemed especially full of antelope. We seem them grazing in the fields throughout the day, but something is bringing them up to our houses lately. On Friday, a whole bunch of them must have gotten spooked because they charged down the side of the house next door and in to the street behind us. Kids riding bikes to school had to slam on their brakes to avoid the startled creatures.

-I thought I was handling my absence from THE wedding of the year pretty well, but come Saturday, missing out on Sarah's wedding hit me kinda hard. Thanks to Mrs. M. I've seen pictures and the bride was absolutely stunning. Much congratulations!

-Soccer starts tomorrow for our family. I'm so excited for them and for me. Even though I have no experience and played only one year as a kid, I'll be the assistant coach to Isaac's team. I just wish we had family nearby to come and watch us.

-The weather is unbelievably unpredictable around here. Today and tomorrow: sunny and 90's. Tuesday: rainy and 70s. We had even bigger variations in the temperatures last week.

-Between me, you, and the fence post: Isaac has a sweetheart. After school they go home with friends from church who have kids the same age as Maddie and Isaac. Love is in the air. His girlfriend's name? Maddy.

Tuesday's With Rory

There are certain sentences that you don't expect to come shooting out of your husband's mouth.

"Have a seat honey, I'll clean the kitchen."

"Go back to sleep dear, I'll clean up the puke."

"Sweetheart, you'd better run to the mall. You haven't been buying enough outfits for yourself lately."

While I keep waiting for these sentences to be verbalized, something my husband said tonight did catch me by surprise.

For the last few weeks my Tuesday nights (and all the nights in between) have been dedicated to catching up on re-runs of the Gilmore Girls. If you haven't heard, I am borderline obsessed with this hour of genius.

But tonight, I had to put my Girls on the back burner due to the hustle and bustle with tomorrow being the 1st day of school for our Maddie and Isaac. With the last minute haircut, outfits to lay out, and a quick trip to the store, my evening, sadly, was without my friends Rory and Lauralie (sp?).

So on the way to Wal-Mart, I called home to discuss a few things with my husband. He rushed the conversation, and attempted to get off of the phone with me. When I questioned why, he said "I have to hang up because I'm missing the Gilmore Girls".

I ask you ladies, is he turning into one of us?

Jessica Tandy Doesn't Live Here

Okay, girls...I've done it. I would bet that a few of us of have thought about doing it after seeing the movie. I've done it, and I suggest you don't. I was not please with the outcome. I made Fried Green Tomotoes.

I've had a bit of curiousity about it for many years, but wasn't compelled to actually try it until my husband expressed interest. Guys can get us to try anything.

I brought home some green tomatoes from our morning at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and then later on went to the store for specific ingredients. Green tomatoes are not regular tomatoes that haven't reached their 'peak' ripeness. They are a different kind of tomato with a distinct flavor (in my opinion).

Keeping with a southern theme, the fried green tomatoes were going along side fried chicken and red potatoes boiled with fresh dill (also brought home from the Farmer's Market). Most of the dinner was quite yummy, and my usually-fussy-eater, Isaac, repeatedly applaused the chicken.

But the fried green tomatoes were plain disgusting. I'm quite sure that it wasn't caused by anything I did or didn't do. The flavor from the green tomatoes themselves was strange and sort of bitter. I can't even come up with something to compare them to, to help you grasp what my taste buds experienced. It just didn't do it for me. My husband either.

I'm glad that I tried it. It's great to put curiousity to rest. But I can assure you that will not ever make fried green tomatoes again. Please accept my apologies Fannie Flag, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker, Jessica Tandy, Chris O'Donell, Cicily Tyson, and last but not least: Cathy Bates.

Bunny's Big Day Out

Continuing on with my chronic boredom, I took a look at a few other blogs floating around in our online world. Boy do I feel so normal and down to earth.

This morning, the kids and I ventured out to our town's Farmer's Market. As previously mentioned, I am not impressed with this new town of ours in Montana, there's not a whole lot to do. But today I was pleasantly surprised, the Farmer's Market was great. 10(ish) city blocks 'downtown' were closed, making a huge square for people to walk around with their families and even dogs. There were plenty of vendors offering lots of vegetables, cotton candy, homemade pies, flower bouquets, loaves of bread, fabulous dinky donuts, there was even a butcher on hand.

There were lots of people there, with beautiful weather after a few days of chilliness and rain, the crowd was out to soak up more summer. Walking through all the foot traffic was shoulder to shoulder, thank goodness I didn't become separated from my kids.

We parked about 6 blocks away, and just as we arrived to the Farmer's Market, a train approached, the tracks were just a couple of blocks away. The kids and I took position to watch the large, loud train cross through downtown. We weren't the only spectators exctied to see the choo-choo. A normal-looking woman quickly maneuvered her stroller to the corner we were standing on so her and her rabbit could get a good look at the train. The bunny was black and perched at the top off the stroller, and down below were recently purchased vegetables. THEN the normal-looking woman leaned over, said something to the bunny, and pointed to the train, as if telling him to look at the big, noisy locomotive. I just have one question: what's up, doc?

Just Another Week on the Books

I try to stick with one theme for my blogs. But there is so much bouncing around in my head that the blogging horizon could be wide open tonight.

I started my new, low-paying job on Monday. This, with around 120+ employees, is the biggest company I've ever worked for. They are so big that websites are blocked, I can't even click on the headlines at Yahoo for the whole story. So I am completely in the dark about current events. I will not be logging on to my favorite blogs. I cannot hit the Channel 3 website back home to keep me up to speed on the going ons of my old stomping grounds.

This company I work for fills up storefront-type property downtown, like a less-glamorous Old Sac, but instead of facing the Sacramento River we face train tracks, in a charming way, not an old Roseville way. This company has filled in several spaces, with some stores in between, then we have more spaces, then a hotel, then more office spaces. I am not fortunate enough to be one of the employees that has their desk against the old brick wall with a mural. It's beautiful.

I am not quite as germ-a-phobic as Monk, but a runner up to Howie Mandel. On my first day, the human resources director took me throughout the whole company to introduce me to everyone. I shook hands with about half of the 100(ish) people that I met. How much soap does it take to get all those germs off of my hand? For that answer we'll go to Jack Nicholson's character in As Good as it Gets.

Today at 4pm they had 'beer hour' at work in honor of an employee's 10-year anniversary with the company. You don't see that a lot in California, no sucker wants to take on that liability. I quietly ate 2 meatballs, a handful of chips, and a cookie and was on my way. No one will miss the new girl. By the way, what clued them in that I'd be more interested in a soda than a beer?

Like anyone else who works a 40 (or more) hour week, I'm chanting the old T.G.IF., but my weekend won't live up to my hopes. Somehow it feels even more empty than usual. I am restless. The thought even crossed my mind of being the cool mom and gathering my kids from the neighboring houses and running off to do something fun tonight. But what? There's nothing to do. There's no family to drop in on. There's no Leatherby's. There's no Galleria Mall. There's no Lake Tahoe to drive to. There's nothing.

With this new week our little family is very much looking forward to the 1st day of school. Even at the ripe old age of 30 I still get excited about the new outfit (the one my kids don't even know I bought; for them, not me), the new shoes, the anticipation of meeting their new teacher and the excitement of picking out their new desk. After all these years, it's still exciting.

Catching Up

* I start a new job on Monday. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to help contribute to the family finanaces, even looking forward to learning new things. But I've been absolutely sick over the wages. Apparently Montana has retro-$$, my hourly wage is less than I made in 1993.

*Being so sad and feeling sorry for my financially-challenged-self, I spent more money to get my hair done. I chopped it short and got highlights (more than I expected). It was a great pick-me-up: I love getting my hair done and the hairdresser was a young, 20-something that engaged in plenty of girl-talk with me.

* The big sister turned to the little sister: I took a picture of Jill to show the hairdresser what I wanted.

*The weather has been crazy. A tornado touched down Thursday night about 20 miles from here. Yesterday we froze. At our block party/BBQ last night, everyone was in long pants and winter coats in effort of surviving the 50 degree temps. Yes, that means that back home in California, their temps were exactly double what ours were yesterday. Did mother nature forget that it's August? It even snowed in SW MT.

* Due to the cloudy skies I missed out on the meteor showers Thursday and Friday nights. We did have a good sunset a few nights ago.

*I just had lunch with my young cousing Kristine, in town for a wedding. More beloved girl-talk. Her timing couldn't have been better, as we sat at Olive Garden, my family was gathered together for sweet baby Corbin's 1st birthday party (with out us).

*I nearly lost control of my emotions when we entered Olive Garden. When the anvil hit me on the head, it reminded me that the last time I was there, it was with my husband and my parents. During that meal, we got the phone call letting us know that the offer we made on our house had been accepted, and we were in escrow. Today when the hostess asked how many people were in our party I had to hold up fingers instead of verbally answering her while I composed myself.

*As if starting a new job on Monday wasn't stress enough, I will be putting David on an airplane tomorrow morning headed for Arkansas. I'll be juggling all the change of routine on my own (including daycare).

* My internet has been off and on, the tech can't come fix it until next Saturday. I'm afraid that if I have to go through the week with out email or blogs I might shrivel up and die.

Just a Little Change, Small to Say the Least

Before

After

I'll Take What I Can Get

No matter where I go, the greater-Sacramento area will always be my home. Nearly all of our family is there (both sides) and it has EVERYTHING.

I still keep on on it's local news via internet, trying to stay up to speed on the going ons back home. I follow Sacramento news more than I do the news here in my MT town.

I was elated last night to stumble upon a re-run of COPS set in Sacramento. Though it was taped around 10 years ago, it was great to identify the neighborhoods, even seeing old family friend: officer Dave P.

I love these little tastes of home (even though it comes in the form of criminals), and can't wait to be there again.

David & Jess' Question:

Oreos without milk vs. brownies without milk?