First Day of Sixth Grade

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Birthday Boy!

Master J is eleven today. That just sounds odd to me. It seems there's an extra digit on that number, that he cannot possibly be that old already. And yet, it's painfully obvious when I measure him on the pantry doorjamb and he is just under five feet tall. Certainly no one year old could be that tall. Somehow eleven years have sped by and we all got older. Sigh.

With every birthday that passes I get a little more of a hint of what my child will be like as an adult. Some of it's good, some of it's not so good. At least for today. Take for instance his stubbornness. As an adult being willing to stick with your convictions and not giving in to the general opinion is a great attribute. As an eleven year? Not so much. Now you're just being defiant (or so I've heard.) He still has a great sense of humor and makes me laugh daily. He's still an amazingly compassionate child who doesn't want anyone to suffer (except maybe his dad I suspect sometimes.) He's still got that spark that lets you know he's perpetually brewing something. And he's still an awesomely optimistic kid who's almost always happy. I adore him and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching him grow up.

We had a family birthday party on Sunday and, as is tradition, I got to make his cake. Master J has gotten into playing the video game Starcraft with Mister C in the last few months. And of course he wanted a cake that represented that new found love. It was a bit of a struggle to find anything in the game that would be easily transferable to cake form. So I headed to the Internet to see what others had come up with. There were some really neat ones out there, but they were beyond the scope of my ability. So I settled on reproducing a Nexus. I'll be honest, I still don't know what a Nexus is in the game but the cake I saw looked to be fairly reproduce-able so I went for it. For the one online, the guy had used fondant. I've never used fondant and with a party of ten showing up I decided I wasn't going to try something I've never done before. Maybe next time. I stuck with frosting and did my best. It wasn't exactly pretty, but I've always been a "taste over presentation" type of gal anyway so I didn't worry too much about perfection. It tasted awesome. It looked less so...



Then Master J insisted on taking a picture of the chef with his cake...



All in all it was a fun day spent with family.

Easley's Fun Shop

We accompanied Master J to Literacy Night at his school last night. His role was that of a colonial soldier. Now, I knew about the whole Literacy Night thing, but I didn't know that he was supposed to dress up for it. I figured that out on Wednesday morning when he mentioned it over breakfast. Having nothing in the house that remotely resembled the uniform of a colonial soldier, and no real way of creating one without a whole lot of time, money and effort, I did the next best thing. Or in this case, the first best thing.

I popped on over to Easley's Fun Shop in downtown Phoenix. This awesome, family owned business has been around for over six decades and been run by four generations of the Easley family. There's an unimaginable number of costumes covering just about anything you can think of. I mean EVERYTHING. When I walked in, some guy was picking up a frog costume, complete with huge froggy head. The wall behind the registers is a showcase of at least fifty kinds of high heels, platform shoes and boots of varying heights. The whole place is wall to wall, floor to ceiling costumes and the props that go with them. It's incredible!

But here's the really cool thing, it only took about fifteen seconds for Debi (probably spelled wrong) to find me a colonial costume. And while I was checking out the costumes for sale, she went and pulled several rental costumes out for me to look at. After seeing the awesomeness that was one of the rental costume, I just couldn't resist. I decided it was totally worth it to rent a costume for just one night.

And I don't think I was wrong...



I know, right? How cool does Master J look all decked out? He was a hit a Literacy Night for sure. Several people were taking pictures of him.

So, if you live in the Phoenix area and you're ever in need of a last minute costume because your kid forgot to mention that he needed one until the very last possible moment, head on over to Easley's Fun Shop. If they don't have it, it probably doesn't exist.

*Also, the fine folk at Easley's did not compensate me in any way, nor encourage me to write anything about how awesome they are. They are just that awesome. That is all.

An Image of Love

I was going through a bit of cleaning last week and ran across the remaining supplies from my photography class. I had bought paper the week before the end of class and still had thirty pieces left. This is paper that is strictly for use in a dark room, not the kind I can use on a regular printer. It's also ridiculously expensive.

Not wanting it to go to waste, I emailed my teacher and offered it to him or any member of his class. Instead of taking it, he asked if I had anything I wanted to print and told me to come in to class and do so. How awesome is that? Because during the class I was doing very specific projects but when it ended I still had film left that I could use however I wanted. And you know how I wanted to use it, on the ones I love. So heck ya, I went in to class last night and after several hours finally got the print I wanted. Then I reproduced it several times over so I could give a copy to both sets of grandparents.

Master J



I did attempt to print out a picture of Mister C and Master J together that I really liked but I couldn't seem to get the contrast right and it just looked flat to me so I finally gave up on it (sorry Mister C, that was supposed to be your Valentine's Day gift.) But at least I got this one.

A post about everything and nothing at all

A couple of quick updates will have to suffice for today's post...

Master J woke me up at 3:00 this morning to let me know he was throwing up. Yay me! There's just nothing I look forward to more than doing laundry, cleaning toilets and scrubbing carpet in the middle of the night. Don't get me wrong, I feel awful when my kid is sick and I would never let on that I'd rather be sleeping at that time of night, but, seriously? Why does that stuff always happen in the middle of the night? How about a nice Tuesday afternoon when I'm not trying to sleep and I can see what I'm cleaning? Ah well, such is parenthood I guess. He stopped the vomiting part by 7:00am but then his fever skyrocketed up to 102.8 by the afternoon. With medication it was down to 100 by bedtime. We'll see how tonight goes.

The smoke shop killer from the other night was caught. A fifteen year old boy. A good kid. An honors student who loved science, was on the wrestling team and ROTC and who wanted to join the military after he graduated. All thrown away for $300. Three people were shot, two of them are dead. Three families devastated. This child will be tried as an adult. For a decision he probably made in about two minutes, he will most likely go to jail for the rest of his life. This whole situation makes me so sad.

Lastly, Mister C and I just watched "The End of America" with Naomi Wolf. Interesting show, probably worth watching.

Master J

On the way to drop off a library book after school today, we stopped off at this little man made pond to take a few pictures.



Wonder what I could do with these?



Look Mom, I'm a cockroach! (I'm not making this up, that's what he actually said.)



He cracks himself up!



He's such a lovable goof!

New year, new attempts at Greatness!

Well, here we go. So you guys know I don't generally make New Year's Resolutions. At least not normal ones that would even count for most people.

I try not to put anything on myself that makes me feel badly if I can't/won't/don't follow through with it. So you'll never hear me say "I'm going to exercise five days a week this year!" or "I'm only going to eat organic lettuce for lunch every day this year!" Cause odds are, it's not happening. I might commit to working out "at least once this year" or eating "fewer things that can survive on a shelf for two years" or some such. But mostly, I just don't make yearly resolutions. Would I like to eat better, exercise more and lose weight? Mostly, sometimes and hell yes. But I won't put it in writing.

But I do make daily or hourly decisions. So far this year one of things I've tried to do is to drink a small glass of water before having each cup of coffee. Now, for those of you that know me, I'm sure you're thinking "Lord help that girl, I hope she has Depends on!" I do like my coffee quite a lot and this has forced me to drink a LOT of water. How much? Let's just say that if I were Bear Grylls I could walk out into the desert right now and survive for several days without a water bottle. That much. I'll wait for a few of you to quickly Google Bear and his best known survival tip before we move on.

We done yet? Horrified yet? Good.

Anyway, I made the decision about the water/coffee thing prior to the first of this year and have been really good about following through every day. But it's not a resolution. It's just a decision I make every day. One cup of coffee at a time.

I also have been trying on a daily basis to keep my kitchen counters cleared off. Up until late last year I had five out of five counter surfaces full at all times in the most used room of the house. Stacks of school papers from Master J, stacks of random paperwork from my job, stacks of things I'm going to read as soon as I get to them. Toys, pencils, pads of paper, an empty fish tank and even lens covers for my camera. You know, the usual stuff that normal people have on their counters.

After we got back from spending Christmas at my in-laws, I got on a roll one day and just started digging in. And I was brutal. At the end of several intense days, I had shredded enough to fill the shredder full and recycled enough to fill the small recycling bin several times over. I had sent any and all toys with Master J to his personal hoard of a room (which, side note, he totally cleaned up last week!) The few things that I kept I put in their proper places. Overall, I completely cleared off four of the five surfaces and got most of the fifth one done. Now on the counters surrounding my stove and sink are: a spice rack, the toaster and the coffee pot (in the traditional place of honor next to the sink so it's never far to refill it.) I have graciously allowed the rotating bunch of bananas and cherry tomatoes to sit here as well since neither of them can go in the fridge. Otherwise, completely empty. It's awesome. I love it.

But there's a problem with this. Now that my counters are cleared, they seem to be beacons for Mister C and Master J to set stuff. Apparently, large flat surface equals "I could put this newsletter here, just for a minute" and "my art project could sit here while I work on it" and "what a great place to lay out all my legos." So now, instead of enjoying my clear counters, I fret about them. And I'm constantly picking things up that my menfolk have set down and following them around asking where they would like it. Because it's so not staying where they put it.

Between the water drinking, counter clearing and Ta-Da list, my first week of the new year has been pretty productive (no pun intended there.) I'm feeling pretty good about where I'm at in life and I think that's what's important. Not making big plans to fail, but instead making small changes today. Yeah, I can do that.

And here are a few random pictures that have nothing whatsoever to do with this post because everyone loves photos.

The Antagonizer and her sidekick the Hooligan trying to get a look at the hummingbird that was buzzing around my fountain.



The hummingbird in question. Taken with the 300mm lens because I'm too lazy to get up off the patio furniture to get closer. (f5.6, 1/250)

Size Matters

We stopped at the grocery store last night after doing Movie Night at Master J's school. We were primarily there for one item but ended up buying a bunch of steaks that were more than half off. I think we got enough for the rest of the year but whatever. Anyway, while we're standing in line Mister C decides to pick up some Hershey's bars that are labeled as a two for one sale. Master J is perusing the candy and he notices the really big Hershey bars at the end...

Master J: Hey, these are called "King Size" candy bars.
Mirth: Yup.
Master J: Where's the "Peasant Size" ones?
Mirth: Hahaha!
Mister C: What did he just say?
Mirth: He asked where the Peasant Size ones are.
Mister C: That's really funny.
Mirth: Yup.

Did I ever tell you guys about the time he requested a "Rook" size bed? He was really into chess at the time.

Chickens!

Mister C and I have talked extensively about having some chickens around and up until recently the consensus has been that we don't have enough space in our yard and a coop would take up too much of what little we do have. Today we stopped by the local feed shop "just to ask about chickens" and what they require. It turns out that they don't require as much of a coop as previously thought so long as you can let them outside of it every day. And since our yard is surrounded by a six foot block wall...well...

Meet the girls....

(Clockwise starting with the brown one on the far left:
Leia-an Ameraucana; Rocky-a Barred Rock; Red-a Production Red; Wedge-another Ameraucana; Peaches and Cream-the two white leghorns.)



Yeah, I know, they're just chickens. And chickens are for eggs and eating and all that. But these are babies. And babies of any species are adorable. Especially when they fall asleep on you, which Leia did to me twice and to Master J once. The coop won't be delivered until Wednesday, so in the meantime, the girls are hanging out in a bottomless guinea pig cage. We're alternating them between the patio during the day and the garage at night (just in case of a wandering coyote.)

And of course Master J is just in love with the girls. Especially after I told him that chickens eat bugs. Even more so after he saw Peaches snag a spider and gobble it up in about two seconds flat.

I'm a bit slow

So Master J just finished his third week of school on Friday...and I'm just now getting around to putting up his picture from the first day. Meh, it's just been that sort of whirlwind of chaos around here. Better yet, the picture below was not actually taken in the morning before his first day. No, I finally thought about it some time right before dinner. I'll be honest, I'm not even sure that's the same shirt he was wearing at the start of the day.

The last week has been like this

Here's the scene:

I'm sitting on the couch, trying like hell to get some work done. Master J is flitting from one area to the next playing.

Mirth (to myself): Okay, they want to offer $150,000 on this property in Sur...

Master J (also to himself): AHHHHHHH! (Commander Cody goes flying) Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!!!!!

Mirth: Holy crap Dude, settle it.

Master J: Sorry.

Mirth (back to myself): Now where was I? Let's see, that property is a bank owned and they're looking for highest and best by...

Master J (running through room with light saber): Pew! Pew! Pew! Swooooosh! AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Mirth: Not reacting, not reacting...

Master J rushes back in, does a beautifully executed tuck and roll coming up fighting and dodging his imaginary opponent.

Mirth: Okay, you're going to have to take that elsewhere, I'm trying to work here.

Master J: Sure thing Mom! (He fights his way out of the room)

Mirth: Okay, I need an As-Is Addendum and a...what the hell?

Master J is now making siren noises at the other end of the house. They are amazingly accurate and exceedingly loud.

Mirth (to myself): This is why I can't do anything. I don't have ADD, I have insanity running through the house. (To Master J) Is there any way you could settle down and play quietly down there? Maybe close the door or something?

Master J: Sure Mom! I'll just close the door.

Mirth: Thanks!

Master J slams the door and commences his epic battle in his room. It is not noticeably quieter and he is now flinging himself into things in his room.

Mirth: Only four more days until school starts. I can make it four more days (twitch, twitch). Really, it's so close that I can cetai...

Master J (bursting into the room): Hey Mom! Mom! Izzy chewed off Captain Rex's legs! Bad Izzy! You shouldn't chew off his legs.

Mirth: Just pretend he was caught by mines.

Master J: What's that supposed to mean?

Mirth: That means you left Captain Rex on the floor and the dog decided he was "Mine". Don't leave your toys lying around.

Master J: Well that's not fair. She shouldn't eat my toys.

Mirth: Which part of "I'm working" are you not getting?

Master J: Oh yeah, sorry! (Captain Rex goes flying) AAAAHHHHHH! I'm hit! I'm not going to make it! AAAAHHHH!

Only four more days, only four more days...

Post #500

And I'm suffering from writer's block. Can you believe that crap? I, who almost never run out of things to say, am at a loss for words. I thought this milestone would be more momentous, have more oomph. Or something. Instead, I will thrill you with an update post.

1. Real estate is picking up, but not in a good way. There are multiple offers on every house my clients want. Good houses go under contract almost before they're on the market for twenty-four hours. Buyers are still working with how the market used to be (about two months ago) and thinking they can low-ball offers and get their dream home. They might be right on properties that need work but the ones that are move in ready are going for well over asking price. Sigh.

2. I finally, just five minutes ago, finished painting my kitchen ceiling. As soon as I post this and grab a bite to eat, I'll be starting on the family room walls. Painting, the bane of my existence.

3. My child got accepted into the "gifted academy" in our local district. He would have to change schools in order to attend. Even though we weren't looking forward to him changing schools, we were very excited about him getting accepted. Until his new teacher sent out her welcome letter. When I saw what her curriculum for the school year was going to be, it seemed a little familiar. So I asked Master J. Yeah, he learned all of the things she mentioned (specifically the math) last year in his normal fourth grade. I'm going to speak with his current school about what their curriculum is for this coming year and if it's what I think it is, he'll be staying where he's at.

4. Remember the HOA issuing the "you have to wait 30 days for us to approve the thing we can't disapprove" letter? So that letter arrived on a Saturday. Mister C contacted our solar guy on Sunday and asked him to hold off on finishing up the project until we had approval. On Monday we got a another letter from the HOA saying "Go ahead with your project that we can't disapprove, we give you permission." Can't tell you how thrilled Mister C was to have to call back the solar guys and be told that they can't come back for a week because they started another project. If it weren't for causing unnecessary setbacks and delays our HOA wouldn't have anything to do.

5. Picked up my Bountiful Baskets again this morning and it seemed a little short. It's supposed to consist of six different fruits and six different vegetables each week. This week's basket contained:

1 5 lb bag of potatoes
1 head of cabbage
1 butternut squash
1 head of romaine
2 bags of green beans
2 tomatoes

4 bananas
1 bunch of grapes
6 peaches
4 plums
1 cantaloupe

So unless I'm counting wrong, that's six vegetables and five fruits. Unless they're questionable about the tomatoes and are counting one of them as a vegetable and the other as a fruit. Then I'm good. It's still at good deal to get all of that for $16.50, especially since it's all fresh and most of it's local.

Vacation - Day 10

Well, today was Mister C's forty third birthday. Which I forgot until almost noon. Because I'm an awesome wife like that. Anyway, most of today was spent doing not a whole lot but eventually we meandered over to my sister in law's house for an early dinner of pizza. And got to watch a semi-decent storm come through with lots of lightning, but not a lot of rain. Ah well, at least it dropped the temps substantially around here.

And while we were hanging out over there I got to take a few pictures of my nephew.



Also, on the way to my sister in law's place, we stopped off to visit my husband's grandfather. Which allowed me to take a picture of four generations of the family.



And seeing Mister C's grandfather just made me wish his grandmother were still here. She was such a wonderful, vivacious woman and she always made me feel welcomed and loved.



Even though she was in her late eighties when she passed, some people just don't live long enough and she was one of them. Love them while they're here because you just never know.

Vacation - Day 2

This post was supposed to get uploaded yesterday but since we had not internet service I had to wait until today. Sorry about the delay!

Mister C at Rick's Spring, Master J is somewhere behind him exploring a small cave.



The water has been higher than normal due to snow melt this year. This is the footbridge at Rick's Spring which is unusable. Side note, the water was also running over the open path and it was freezing!



Somewhere in Wyoming, lots and lots of views like this one.



Grand Tetons



We saw this guy running along the side of the road as we drove into Yellowstone Park. My first thought was that it was a wolf, mostly due to the sheer size of it. It's hard to tell from the photo because I was taking the picture from the passenger seat across Mister C while we were driving, but this is about the size of a large dog (like German Shepherd size). But the muzzle bothers me because it looks more like a coyote. So, either a real wolf or a coyote on steroids, either way pretty cool.



Again, not really sure where this is but it's somewhere in Wyoming.

Vacation - Day 1

We headed out at 5:20 this morning and started north for the first day of our driving vacation.

Here's Master J looking bright and perky (much more so than the rest of us I might add.)



He didn't know I'm was taking the picture or he would have acted goofy.



Vermillion cliffs.



Burned tree on the side of the road. The wildfires have done a lot of damage the past few years but the amount of regrowth is really amazing.



The Colorado river, taken from the original, 1929 Navajo bridge.



The new Navojo bridge is on the left, the original one is the right. These two bridges are one of only seven land crossings of the Colorado for 750 miles.



Mister C with Master J on the Navajo bridge (you can't get out of your car on the new bridge.)



The bunch of us looking a little rough after the first six hours in the car. Only five more hours of driving after this picture was taken...

Bowling

Today was "Mother and Son Bowling" for Master J's school. Master J has never bowled before. At one time, for several years, I was on two leagues and had a 120 average.

This video is from the fourth frame of the first game. Yes, there are bumpers and he is using them.



What he says at the end (after the "Oh yeah! Oh yeah!") is "That's the third spare in a row!" It actually wasn't. It was the third spare in the first four frames though.

I ended the first game with a respectable 108. Master J ended it with a ridiculous 131. Showoff.

Thank you note from Master J

I ran across this thank you note in Master J's backpack recently. It was some sort of assignment they had on letter writing. It's translated below due to the fact that while Master J's intelligence is high, his handwriting is atrocious.




Translation:

Dear Mom,

Thank you very much for the electric guitar. I was so excited I couldn't express myself. Now I can play Star Wars. I love the guitar. It was the best gift ever! It was even better than legos! It must have cost a lot of $$$ (money). I hope you are not broke. What was your favorite gift?

Love,

Master J

By Candlelight

Here's something I didn't know about the camera I've had for almost two years, I can take shots using longer exposure times in low light. It only took me thirty five attempts to get one that wasn't blurry, underexposed or perfectly clear but with him looking goofy. Thirty five shots and finally one that doesn't displease me greatly. I gotta tell ya, I am really enjoying this class.

Not what it seems

If this were a scene from a movie, we might infer that something terrible had happened to the child character and that his loyal dog was running for rescue.



This is not a movie. Instead, this is business as usual around here.

My child has thrown himself to the ground after suffering some horrific wound in a pretend battle against sith overlords or some other such evil doer and his "loyal" dog is skipping away in search of rocks to eat. She honestly does not seem to notice when Master J collapses in a pile in random locations, it's just that common.

On the plus side, I think it's a pretty good example of showing motion in photography, which works out nicely as that's my current assignment in my class.

Photography Class: Project 1

I started taking a photography class over at the local community college so I could hopefully, eventually, figure out what all those buttons are on my camera. I've only had it for two years now, I guess it's time I took it off automatic. So far I've really enjoyed the class and I foresee it becoming more enjoyable the more I learn.

Last Thursday we were assigned our first project. A sort of introduction to your camera project. We were given a list of fifteen subjects or ideas that we needed to capture. They ranged from "order" to "chaos" and a bunch of things in between.

So far I've had some great opportunities to cross about 2/3 of the items off my list because in the last few days I've been all over the valley. I was previewing a house in an older, less desirable part of town and captured both old age and a street scene. And by the way, did you know that for just $2.99 a pound there is such a thing as "take out buffet"? I did not know that.

We went to Pueblo Grande, one of the few remaining sites of Hohokam ruins, and I took a picture of a petroglyph for "trace". I also took a picture of a spider but that was only because he was hanging on the door I was trying to go through and I wanted evidence of what bit me should he decide to attack.

Anyway, so we also had to take a picture of the light at sunrise and sunset. After much frustration I finally managed to get a picture of Izzy at sunrise. It took forever because every time I'd get lined up perfectly, she would pop a wheelie and try to hop over to me. Evidently she knew she wasn't supposed to be getting up and walking around and this seemed like a viable alternative.

For sunset, I decided to sit Master J down at the end of the day and see if I could do any better. Because I know that the class will be critiquing our "work", I have done a little pre-critique. I know that while the lighting in this shot is acceptable, I should have shot it in portrait and zoomed in closer. But I didn't, at least not the first shot.



However, in the time it took to snap the shot, look at to realize what I needed to change and implement the changes, the light changed. And I got this instead. Sigh.



Oh, and lest you think he's being overly compliant, here's a picture from a few days ago where he was apparently doing some sort of Elvis impersonation. I worry about the boy, I really do.



One more thing, I think I showed great restraint in NOT taking a picture of my child holding a sign saying "I am a 9 year old boy with ADHD and my Mom won't medicate me" for the example of chaos. A lot of restraint.