things i want that i don't need

this is much more than wanting clean bathrooms - i want a live in cook, nanny, cleaner, and foot rubber. is that too much to ask?

i don't know. i have fantasies about driving an old, two-toned ford truck. with a bench seat. and something fun hanging from the rearview. my brother made me swear never to buy one for the sake of our fragile environment and my husband made me swear never to buy one for the sake of our fragile budget. but a girl can dream, right?

i know, i know! i have two kids, two cats, and a fish that won't die. why do i need a pug? but LOOK at it?! it needs me! it needs love! it would be so sweet and snorty and i would name him romeo and scratch his little belly...

eavesdropping...

...on The Girls in the shower. i missed the offending comment, but meg immediately burst into tears.

(meg) "that hurt my feelings!"

(kyra) "i'm sorry. really. i was joking."

(meg) (crying) "it's not a joking matter!"

(kyra) "well, i said i'm sorry. do you forgive me?"

(meg) "NO."

(kyra) "well i said i'm sorry. you have to forgive me."

(meg) (emphatically) "fine. i forgive you. but i don't want to."

ah, the sweet sounds of reconciliation. :)

sailing, sailing over the bounding main!

ahoy! i have decided that in a former life i was probably a sailor... not necessarily a pirate, tho i can't really rule that out. :) in this life, i went sailing for the first time yesterday! not boating, but sailing...on a sloop with masts & jibs & booms & nothing but the flutter of the sail to soothe your soul. ahhhh.... i got to "captain" the boat a couple of times, cricking my neck sharply to see the direction of the wind and keep the sails in line with it - only over correcting once (causing the rails to ride the lake...eep!). i was a good captain, all in all! sailboats are glorious things. if only my favorite (only) cap hadn't blown away, the whole day would have been flawless.

and curtis noted something fascinating... on our way home, we sailed directly into the wind... think about that for a second - we used the power of the wind which was blowing straight at us to sail forward into said wind. i have no idea who that works! so cool...

not as smart as they look

i came home from a busy morning to find this on my deck.

totally stone cold dead, jim. and i took a picture of it. i couldn't bring myself to get any closer with the camera, or even with the zoom. i didn't even look through the view finder - i couldn't bring myself to. it was too... creepy. and yet, i couldn't not take the picture. many of you know this is the 2nd time in 4 years this has happened to us... and some of you thought i was lying about the first time. well, guess what. i wasn't lying. squirrels can't swim, and are apparently stupid enough to jump in the pool.

the kicker is that i called curtis home to dispose of the poor thing before the girls got home from school - and he said that rigor mortis was so set that when he lifted it out of the pool with his pitchfork, the tail stood straight out. eeeewwwwwww!

but he buried it respectfully - aside from having to use the shovel to break the squirrels tail to get it to fold into the hole he had dug - because God made squirrels, too. even the stupid ones.

apologies

so, a couple of weeks ago meg came home complaining that there was a boy in her class who continuously bugged & bothered her. nothing serious, not bullying, just being a general pest. so i told her that sometimes little boys bug girls they like. she grinned and seem to take it rather well.

yesterday, she came home in a bucket of tears. the same boy had been pestering her at recess, and when she wouldn't respond how he wanted, he growled at her, "i hate you!". for all her own bluster, meg has a sensitive little heart, and was so sad! so she came home and we sort of talked it over, and she decided to write him a note.

it was a very nice, sincere apology. she said that his words hurt her feelings, and she was sorry that she hadn't just told him that they were playing princesses. it was very conciliatory... right up til the P.S. which said, in very careful & swoopy cursive, "you may already know this, but boys are mean to the girls they LOVE!"

sadness

sitting cozy on my couch last night, kids safely in their beds and all being right with the world, i was tucked in to watch a couple season finales i've been looking forward to, when the phone rang. i let it go, since it was a number i didn't recognize, and checked the message. it was my 8yr old's teacher, calling to tell us that the mom of one of my daughter's friends had died over the weekend. suddenly life telescopes. 8 year olds should not have to go to their mom's funerals. i told meg this morning - called her into my bed to talk. she took the news solemnly, but had moved on by the time breakfast was over. this is one of her first brushes with death - she remembers her greatgrandma passing away, but she was very small, and gramma sarah was very old. i wonder what today will be like for her? what her teacher will tell the class? what her friends will say? i told her that her little friend would need lots of love when she came back to school, and meg is a good "lover"... but what a loss. i prayed for their family, the dad and two little girls. i hope they have people around them to love them, too.

love the people you need to love today. it may be the only day you have to do it.

weekend reading

oooo! my brother vincent just linked me to the most interesting blog - uglyoverload.blogspot.com - not for the faint of heart! ranging from the food you could sample if you went to china for the olympics to a coconut crab that can live up to 60 years and crush a coconut with it's pincers! fascinating stuff, but not for those of you that are easily creeped out! enjoy!

also, for a quick laugh, failblog.org - it's sort an america's funniest home videos in photo essay - i laughed hard!

have a great weekend!