Pumpkin Season

Everyone has been talking about Fall, but I have remained silent.  Fall is my favorite season, so I am as excited as everyone else, but sadly, Fall, true Fall, comes late here.  It was over 100 degrees here last week.  Only now do I feel safe welcoming you to Pumpkin Season.

Though most of the leaves are still on the trees, the weather is cool-ish and breezy.  And, while there is no frost on the pumpkin, there is a pumpkin on my mantel, so I am very happy.

I am ready for shorter days, and heavier clothes.  Warm meals cooked in a hot oven.  I even went so far as to cook the roast chicken on the cover of this month's Sunset Magazine.

Bengali Five-spice Chicken.  It was yummy.  And made the whole house smell exotic.  (The twenty dollars in gas it cost me to drive around and find all of the ingredients is a story worthy of it's own post.)

I hope you are all enjoying your Fall.

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There's No Such Thing as a Free Mocha

Have you ever noticed that when you change your routine, just a little bit, it can throw off your whole day?  Well that is what happened to me last Friday.  Jonah had to be at school by eight, instead of eleven.  A monthly quirk of the year round school system.  And that little change was what did me in.  I was doomed before I got out of bed.  Only I didn't know it.
I woke up excited.  Well, okay.  I woke up.  And, I got out of bed.  Earlier than normal, but I was ready to rock Friday.

Sam and Cate and I walked Jonah to school by eight.  We walked back, got in the car, and got Sam to school by 8:30.  Then Cate and I set off on an errand adventure.  We were going to get the car washed, then go to the cleaners, to drop off Hubband's shirts, and pick up his suits.  I even had the forethought to go to the dry cleaner after the car wash, so that I would only need to vacuum around dirty shirts and not freshly cleaned suits.

First, however, I went to Starbucks.  A luxury I seldom allow myself, but I had missed my morning coffee with the early start.  I was about two hours behind on my daily dose of caffeine.  I wanted a mocha and I wanted it bad. 

There is a drive-thru Starbucks near the car wash, so I indulged myself.  As I was fishing through my wallet for money, I found an old Starbucks gift card.  Long spent, I was sure.  But, I had the barista check anyway.  Sweet mother of warm, frothy, milky, goodness, there was enough on there to pay for my coffee and a slice of banana bread for Cate.  I teared up a little, I'll admit it. 

As the pleasant (or was she just caffeinated?), young woman handed me my order through my car window, I let out a low little moan.  I felt the weight of the cup in my hand, the warmth seeping though the cardboard.  Then the smell wafted toward me.  Warm, sweet, coffee and chocolate.  "Ahh.  It's been a long time, dear friend, " I may have whispered to it, before I put it in my cup holder.

Sadly, it was too hot to drink, so off to the car wash we went.

The car wash is one of those semi-automated affairs where you drive your car through, the machine washes it, a few well tanned fellows at the other end dry it off, and then you drive over to the vacuum station to clean out the inside yourself.  I pulled up, and gave the nice man my credit card.  There was some problem on his end, for which he did not want me to wait, and he did not want to lose my business, so...I got a FREE car wash.  Woo hoo!  Friday was turning out to be my day!

After our wash and dry, I attacked the inside of the car with a plan.  Keep Cate strapped into her seat while she ate her banana bread, vacuum the driver's side first, them move the things that needed to stay in the car, like my purse and Hubband's shirts, into that spot and vacuum the rest, finishing up under Cate.  My plan was perfect.  I was even rather proud of myself for having a plan.

The drivers side went off without a hitch, then, as I was vacuuming the front passenger seat, I looked up to see that my coffee, had, somehow, found it's way into the driver's seat.  Just sitting there, as plain as you like, except completely inverted.  And, strangely, it was somehow hung up on the pile of Hubband's shirts and the buckles on my purse, so that it was suspended, in mid air.  As my brain tried to process this information, I could actually see the coffee, pouring out of the little spout in the white plastic lid.

Glug, glug, glug.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

My coffee!  My seat!  Twelve ounces of hot milk poured into my cloth upholstery.

Luckily (if you can call anything "lucky" after that), I had a roll of paper towels and a paper grocery bag in my car.  I used the entire roll to mop up what I could, while simultaneously vacuuming the rest of the car.  Cate just giggled and flung banana bread crumbs everywhere I had already been.  I want to be two again.  Then I sat on the grocery bag while I drove to the dry cleaners, or, as I like to think of it:  The place with the free plastic bags.

One free cup of coffee cost me most of my weekend, as I had to spend Saturday using my mother's carpet cleaning machine to suck mocha out of my seat, before everything began to smell like two day old milk.  I think I did a sufficient job, as it is now Tuesday, and there is no smell.  But, I never did get my coffee.

There is no such thing as a free mocha.

Another Agatha Tracey Mystery

Another crime has been committed here at uno, dos, tracey.  These are the facts.

On the morning of Monday, October 4, 2010, the family awoke to find that someone had eaten the last seasonal apple doughnut.

It was a crime with too many suspects.

But there was evidence, if one only knew how to read it.

A chair, where a chair did not belong.

And, on that chair, one little girl's favorite snuggle toy.  AKA "Bubba."

There was also a trail of crumbs,

leading to one polka dotted foot.

It was then, that I knew I had the culprit. 

Caught red handed!

Another case solved by Agatha Tracey.

The Week in Kids

This week...

Has been strangely quiet, yet overwhelmingly busy at the same time.  A lot of little school things to remember during the week.  Meeting, book fair, another picture day, lunch with the principal, cookie dough fund raiser.  We were, all of us, under the weather, and the weather was hot.

Also this week...

Jonah had his class pictures taken.  For this he needed a hair cut.  I usually cut it myself, but he ends up looking like Sinead O'Connor.  Not my fault really.  He asks that I give him a hair cut just like Grandpa Dick.  Grandpa Dick is bald.

Bald would not do for an official Kindergarten class portrait, so I took him to one of those places that specializes in kids.  He sat in a chair like a fire engine and played Mario Kart while the nice lady gave him a proper cut.  Best twenty dollars I ever spent.

Our handsome (and not bald) boy

Also this week...

Jonah made so much money running in his school's Fun'd Run that he earned a pizza lunch with the principal.  "There were also carrots and grapes, so we would be healthy," he told me afterward.  He was really proud of himself, you could tell. 

Also this week...

We had a small family gathering for Samuel's birthday.  When I asked him what kind of cupcakes he wanted for his party he answered, "Green."  Okay, then.  Green they were.

On my fourth birthday, when my mother asked me what kind of cupcakes I wanted, I answered, "Blue."  It must run in the genes.

The highlight of the day, for Samuel at least, was the green balloon.  He was a dervish.  I did the best I could to get photos.

Also this week...

Catherine did nothing of note, except be excruciatingly adorable.  Of this, there are no pictures.  My apologies to all, but especially her Uncle Justin.

Oh, okay, here are a few I rejected for last week.  Just for you Justin.

You can see why this picture was originally rejected, but I think she looks just like her Auntie Cara in this one.

Hands-free cupcake eating.

See you next week...

Tiny Victories

Hubband is sick.  Jonah is sick.  It turns out I was sick, last week, but I was told, "It's just allergies.  Suck it up, Princess."  So, I did.  But once I knew I was really sick, I could barely function for the fatigue.  And the coughing fits.  Or maybe it is the triple digit heat.  That's right.  A plague, and a heat wave, all in the same week.

Today, I am feeling a bit better.  It might be the extra sleep.  Yesterday when I got home from errands, I told Hubband I needed to lay  lie lay down, just for a few minutes, to cool off, and got up three hours later.  Whatever the reason, I felt it was time to conquer the house work.

Unfortunately, the house, as a whole, presented an insurmountable challenge.  It was so tempting to recline on the fainting couch, and put it all off another day.  Or three.

All the dishes were dirty.  All the laundry needed doing.  Every room looked like it had been lived in, by raccoons.  I was daunted.

But, I know me.  I thrive on victory.  If I can get one small victory, I can move on to the next battle.  So, I started small.  The kids' bathroom.  It looked bad, but really wasn't.  I had just scrubbed in on Sunday.  It only needed a little attention.  And, it is self contained, with no view of any other room.  Once it was clean, I could, conceivably, hang out in there, and pretend the house was clean.  So, I swished, and swiped, and closed the curtain on the tub, and voila!  A tiny victory!

Yay, me!

Next up, Catherine's room.  I picked up, put away, vacuumed, and dusted.  Voila!  Another victory!

Yay, me, again!

Then onto the boys' room.  More laundry to be put away, two beds to make.  Well, okay, I only made one bed, and put away all the stuff underneath it.  I left Jonah's side for Jonah, as that is actually one of his responsibilities.  Nevertheless, another tiny victory!

I was so proud of myself, that I took the opportunity of the baby's nap to get on the computer, as a little reward.  So, here I sit, writing to you all, my back to the kitchen and its looming pile of dirty dishes.

I am not worried.  I know I will get to them.  If there is one thing I have learned about dishes, it is that there are ALWAYS dirty dishes.  There is no victory over dishes.  I could stand in that kitchen all day doing dishes, but since folks keep using them, there will never be any victory.  So, I do dishes at certain times.  In between those times, or if I am sick, they can wait.

Until then, I will revel in my tiny victories.  In fact, I may even ride the momentum of those victories into the living room, where I can see from here, an apple core, wedged between the sofa cushion.

CHARGE!!!

This is Your Brain on Kids

If you are the mother of an American child under the age of five, you may already know this.  PBSkids has a new show.  It is called The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That.  Jonah has been talking about it for two weeks, even though he has only seen the ads.  He's never seen the show, not because of some responsible limit on television watching imposed by me, but because it comes on at the same time we must be running Sam to school.  Poor, poor, Jonah.  He has even lobbied for me to take Sam to school early.

As luck would have it, The Cat in the Hat Know A Lot About That, is re-run on our local station on Sundays.  So, last Sunday, as I was making breakfast, Jonah, got to watch it.  "Finally!" said he.

As I was scrambling eggs and baking Monkey Bread (affectionately known around here as Monkey Brains--you can imagine!) I heard a familiar voice.  It was The Cat in the Hat, played by...

This is where my Mom Brain kicked in.  That addled, confused, and sleep-deprived side of me that is sure it knows something, but can't quite put it's finger on what.  The internal dialogue sounded something like this.

"Oh, that is that guy.  The comedian.  The one I don't like.  What is his name?  Not Dana Carvey.  But he used to be on Saturday Night Live.  Jimmy?  Jimmy Something?  Not Fallon.  Not Kimmel.  He had a TV show where he wore a fat suit and did celebrity interviews.  Ugh.  I hate that guy.  He was in Father of the Bride with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton.  He played the wedding planner.  Frank.  Pronounced Frahnk.  Oh, what is his name!?  It is driving me crazy.  Frahnk had a side-kick, played by B.D. Wong."

B.D. Wong.  Seriously?  Who knows who B.D. Wong is?  I can remember B.D. "Nobody-knows-what-he's-been-in-but-his-mother" Wong, but NOT the name of the really famous guy I don't like.  This is Mom Brain.

I knew I could go to IMDb.com to look it up.  But that was not the point!  I knew this guy.  I knew him and I knew his name.  It was in there somewhere, darn it, and my brain was going to give it up.  I wracked and scrambled and baked and listened to that voice I hated coming from the television.

I could remember the name of the actress who played the bride in Father of the Bride (Kimberly William).  I could remember the country singer she is married to (Brad Paisley).  I could remember that Kimberly Williams has a sister names Ashley who was in a short lived sit-com, set in Miami, with Suzanne Pleshette and Tom Poston, who both used to be on The Bob Newhart Show and were married in real life, and they both have both dies recently, and ARGHHHHH!  I felt like was having some kind of seizure.

Finally, I could not stand it any longer.  Hubband walked into the kitchen and I pounced on him.  "Who played Frahnk in Father of the Bride?" I asked, a tone of manic desperation in my voice.

Hubband, either not noticing my tone, or very used to it by now, calmly answered, "Martin Short."

MARTIN SHORT!!!!  Of course.  I hate that guy.

My breathing grew more regular.  My heart slowed.  My blood pressure went back down.  This episode of Mom Brain had passed.

The Week in Kids

This week...

...was a big one for Samuel.

He turned four.

There were even over-frosted cupcakes with Disney-Pixar characters on them to prove it.

And, plates to match.

You have to love black frosting, don't you?

I have to thank Samuel's teacher, Miss Regina, far salvaging these pictures for me after I left my memory card at home.  Teachers rock!  And, we have a family celebration planned for this weekend, so there should be more to come.

Also this week...

...was a big one for Catherine.

She did a little dance.

She found a way to sit on her bottom, yet still disobey her mother.

She embraced her maternal side, when straped her Elmo doll into her old high chair and fed him a snack.

She wore her first striped tights.  "Ty, ty."  She LOVED them.  This girl needs to move to a cooler climate.

She got her first pair of Levi's.

And, she took advantage of the fact that her mother was busy trying to get a picture of her, to do a little exploring.

Also this week...

Jonah was a good sport about not being the center of attention.

Breakfast presents.  Sam's new booster seat, that he got to ride to school in.

He helped Sam open presents, and he really helped.  He didn't just rip them open and then try to get to them before his brother could.

Before dinner presents.  Sam is so tired from a full day of school and cupcakes.

Jonah, also told me he wanted to build me a magic castle, where dinner would fix itself.  I love you, Jonah!

I hope you all had a festive week, too.

See you next week!