shady pines bound

I was having what I thought was a good intellectual discussion with my five year old the other day (hmm....maybe that's a bit of a stretch) about how people in ancient Rome used to speak primarily latin and not English. She was fascinated about the whole concept of people and their lives a long time ago and asked alot of really good questions - most of which were language related. Then much to my amusement and horror she asked me what language we spoke when I was little. HUH?????!!!! I'm only 27, that hardly groups me with the ancient Romans...then again....maybe the memories already starting to fade.....eh well.....Anyways...off to go celebrate the coming of the new year and all that...have a good one....

We watched Pirates of the Carribean last night with a bunch of friends. The baby slept through all of it, which was nice...actually almost everybody there slept through most of it. It's funny how much you come to appreciate the small things in life once you have kids. A night of uninterupted movie watching is almost a cause for celebration. I was almost giddy with anticipation waiting for the movie to come out (like I said....small things....) When I was five that was my life goal...to be a pirate. Yo Ho and the whole bit. I was going to have a kick ass ship, a cool pirate hat and a parrot named Tracey (don't ask) My family gave me dolls with the hope that I would learn how to be a normal girl. I would lock them in cages and make them walk the plank or scub the deck. On more than one occassion I got in trouble for tipping the swivel rocker upside down and using it as my steering wheel. Yup...I can still remember with embarrassing clarity the moment that someone told me that pirates were actually Cubans with machine guns who rode around in motor boats. It was crushing. I can't remember any of the other typical childhood disappointments like there not being a santa claus, but I do remember that one. Otherwise not much else new. Haven't started Christmas shopping, decorating, baking or any of that other stuff that mom's are supposed to do. I should probably get on that.

It's funny how despite the fact that something may be a right decision, it doesn't necessarily make you feel very good. There should be an emotional clause somewhere that states "correct decisions will generate the following emotions: contentment, happiness, relief etc." At this moment, I should be somewhere near Elie, drinking a truly horrible cup of joe, listening to some driving tunes and cursing the fact that I'm on the way to a truly insane weekend of endless classes. I should be....but I'm not, because I quit school. (Quit isn't really the right term either, because, I fully plan to resume my studies once I have half a clue where we will be living next year.) It didn't seem overly prudent to waste 5000$ to get half a year's worth of education if we aren't going to be here next year to finnish it off. Unless I win the Super 7 tonight it's just not happening.I felt pretty good about the whole thing until this morning when I gave a friend in the city the heads up...now she's upset and I feel lousy. I guess it kind of made the weight of my decision more apparent. There's a lot that I'm really going to miss and it isn't just the friends that I've made there, it's the whole being a student thing - I'm good at it, i've been one for the last 22 years. I also kind of get the idea that i will be letting alot of people down and I'm not too happy about that. I wish things could have been different, but they can't.

Other than a bizarre penchant for ritual human sacrifice and violence, the mayans were really onto something with their method of child toting. The lady from Soul Mother just dropped off my much anticipated maya wrap sling and I am extremely excited. In fact I am giddy with anticipation....oh the things that I can accomplish now that I have regained the use of my one arm. In the last couple of weeks Tatyanna has decided that the world is a much better place when viewed from the vantage point of my hip thus rendering one side of my body incapacitated. She is also teething -hard core, and a teething baby is not something to be trifled with, so we just give in and do whatever it is that will keep her happy. With this funky sling thing it's hands free carrying. I am way to pleased with this....maybe i need to get out more.

life in waco...

Cults are generally considered to have a charismatic leader who promises salvation in exchange for blind subservience. But what if the leader is not flesh and blood but rather is constructed of plastic and various electronic parts.... and it isn't salvation but instead a temporary escape from reality? Sacrifices are continually made to this god but they are not tangible and their value often goes unrealized. Conversations are now decreased, work goes undone, and promises are forgotten as the male half of my family must pay continual homage to the electronic god that sits on top of the tv. But, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if it really upsets me that xbox is all that they do, or if it's because I never seem to get a turn.....

It's amazing how much free time you don't have when you have three kids in the house. This past week has been way too busy. On the upside, I got my hair dyed (it's pretty sad when getting ones hair dyed has been elevated to major event status). My daughter told me that it looked like a kitty and my son said that I freaked him out, so I guess I can consider it a smashing success.

On the not so fun side, the kids got a minivan. Unfortunately, none of them can drive, or even see over the steering wheel so it looks like I will have to do most of the driving. As long as I can keep telling myself that it's not my minivan, I think I should be ok.

I have to keep telling myself this so that I don't forget and get too comfortable in my new role as a roofer. Comfort being a figurative term only because I have now become critically aware of muscles that have long been forgotten or given up as lost. Instead of making the $40+ plus dollars an hour that i'm trained to do, I'm perched percariously on a roof, covered in dirt, wielding a hatchet......for free. Yay!!! Actually it's not that bad...could be worse, and it is a break from my usual diaper changing, house cleaning routine. At least with this crew there are no breaks given for me being female. An excellent example of this being the other day as I found my self wearing a climbing harness in a shade of pink that has not been seen since the 80's, tied to the top of a three story roof with a glorified piece of string and what appeared to be a blue dog leash. I had been stripping shingles from the roof for what seemed like a very long time and from my angle hadn't seen or heard from anyone since I had been up there, when all of a sudden one of the guys climbs up the ladder below me. When I asked where everyone had been, his response was that they were sitting in the shade, drinking pepsi, talking about Dust (friends game) and larp. They are all very lucky that I was tied to the roof.