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May 31, 2005

Field Trippin'

Xenophod (7:28:16 AM): Jake wrote Trevor's name on his lunch for his trip today
Xenophod (7:28:18 AM): it says
Xenophod (7:28:34 AM): "Trevor, here's your yummy lunch, Love Mommy"

Posted by krystal at 7:41 AM | Comments (2)

May 17, 2005

Fandango!

We're going at 6:30 Thursday night to see the new Star Wars. Yay! <3 fandango.

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On a funny note: My dad called me today from his cell phone to say "HI SAUCY!!" He was so tickled.

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I am a bundle of hormones this week. I've cried off and on for 2 days over the stupidest shit. So if I'm suddenly furious at you, it's probably not your fault.

***

Hey Tree, go look at this: http://www.nataliedee.com/051605/greenie.jpg

Posted by krystal at 2:57 PM | Comments (1)

May 11, 2005

Eff you Kate.

I got heartbreaking news this morning.

Mrs. O'Brien,
Thank you for interest in chaperoning the 8th grade field trip. Due to
overwhelming responses, we were unable to fulfill all of the requests
for parent chaperones.

Thank you,

Geoff White

***

I had so looked forward to seeing Kiss Me Kate with Jake. We were just talking last night about how we were going to pack a huge lunch for the trip. Now I don't get to go and I'm sad. Oh well.

Posted by krystal at 9:22 AM | Comments (3)

May 9, 2005

Mother of all days

Yesterday was the most wonderful mothers day I've ever had. In fact it was more of a mothers weekend. Dan's folks were in town so we got to spend time with them, then yesterday I got treated like a queen by my wonderful husband. Sometimes I feel like I'm just waiting for something bad to happen to remind me that life can't be this good. I'll let ya know if it happens.

The highlight of my day yesterday was watching Dan and Jake fight over a large plastic flower pot that I want thrown away. Jake wants to jump it with his skateboard and Dan wants to plant something in it. They ended up chasing each other around the yard ...over a flower pot... with my parents watching in awe. Just when they thought I'd matured and settled down they see what our life is really like. It's ok though we were all laughing the whole time.

Posted by krystal at 1:20 PM | Comments (2)

May 4, 2005

Jake

Last night we were on our way through the drive through at Mcdonalds. Tuesdays are .99 Happy Meal night so that's where we get dinner every Tuesday even though Jake's now so grown up that he needs 3 happy meals and Trev needs 2. They still fight like 3 year olds over the toys that come with dinner though so I guess it's still a successful dinner.

We were sitting in the long line waiting to pay for our order and listening to a billboard hits cd from 1983 that Kendall swiped from Dan. Total Eclipse of the Heart came on and I said "Oh Jake, you sing the boy part, I'll be the girl!!" So we sang along, him singing "TURRRNAROUNNND BRIGHT EYES!" and me singing the "everynowandthen I fall aparrrrt!". It didn't take long for him to realize that I had more lines though and then he insisted on singing the girl part.

I thoroughly enjoyed those moments with my son and made a point to tuck them away in my memory for later. As he gets older I still love him all the time, but he's growing up and doesn't need me as much. I'm his transportation and his money source but I worry that we'll lose our special bond.

So last night Dan and I were watching tv in our room and Jake came in and explained hastily that he's got to "stay after" to work on a school project he hadn't done. Dan says "you mean detention?" Jake stammered and tried to fidget his way out of calling it "detention". I sat there a little dismayed because I thought detention was something that came with a letter from the school and a call from a teacher or something. I'd heard nothing of it. Jake finally said "yea, it's detention, sort of...it's in Mrs. Sapp's class though so I can finish my work". I signed a note allowing him to stay and didn't say much more about it. I wanted to preserve the feeling of "like" that I felt for my son earlier in the afternoon for just a few hours longer.

I'm not stupid though, this morning I emailed his teacher and I WILL get to the bottom of the detention thing. Such mixed emotions come with parenting, especially a teenager. I love him so much and I trust him so little. The key so far seems to be in finding balance and keeping our household kind and happy. This is going to be a wild ride.

Posted by krystal at 7:23 AM | Comments (2)

May 2, 2005

Fruit or foe?

Yesterday we made the dreaded mistake of going to the grocery store as a family. This doesn't just mean that I had to spend $61 on groceries that won't even get us through 2 days. It also means I left swearing "NEVERFUCKINGAGAIN will you animals go to the store with me. EVER".

Jake and Trevor were fighting over who would drive the cart. Jake was winning which caused Trevor to turn all red in the face and scream at Jake and try to shove him, which sent Kendall spinning away since she was sitting on the rack under the cart. I was trying in vain to remember why we'd come to the store in the first place, wondering how many people were staring at my kids acting like assholes and wondering where Dan was.

Dan, as it turns out, was over by the fruit. He came back to the basket with one little fruit. It was the size of a large apple that looked like this:

So I asked him a. what it was and b. how much it costs. Dan tells me it's a quince and it costs like $1.49. I think to myself that it's 1/2 of the price of the entire bag of apples I also had in the basket. But Dan's a good husband and he rarely asks for anything. He can have his little fruit, besides I was entirely too preoccupied with my kids who were still arguing and spinning our grocery cart around in circles. Kendall was looking green around the gills and I honestly couldn't remember what in the name of god we were doing at the grocery store ANYWAY.

Finally we got everything in the basket (and I do mean EVERYTHING...way more stuff than we needed and nothing that we did need...sorry kitty, there is no food for you). So the cashier rung up that fruit and as it turns out, the fruit is not quince, it's a kiwano horned melon...AND it doesn't cost $1.49 it costs $3.99. That's 1 dollar more than the entire bag of apples. So I fume about it and give Dan a ration of shit and tell him that he better eat that fruit really slowly because it cost more money than the apples. When we got home, he chopped it in half to see the guts and there were tons of little seeds and some weird green gel. I remarked that his fruit smelled like freshly mown lawn, rolled my eyes more and put away the remaining groceries.

Dan googled his new fruit and found out this:

[the kiwano] is grown as an ornamental fruit in New Zealand, Kenya, Israel and the USA and its market is expanding. Since the fruits have a long shelf life and retain their decorative appeal for many months at room temperature it can be developed into a major ornamental fruit.

...

So now we have an ornamental fruit that we can't eat, only it's no longer ornamental since it's been disected.

I was googling that fruit a little more since my daughter has been sick today:

[bitter, nonvolatile compounds] are present in [the kiwano], making it extremely bitter. These compounds are very toxic to mammals, however as they are the most bitter substances known they are also feeding deterrents and very rarely eaten by mammals.

I wonder if this is why Kendall's been home puking all day?

Posted by krystal at 1:13 PM | Comments (3)