RIP Tree

We had a dry hurricane here last week. We had wind registering 100 mph at the University. Two miles away at my house our 60 year old huge evergreen went down. I drove home increasingly nervous about our tree because I saw tree after tree down. When I turned left on my street I saw this:

I said to the kids, oh my god, stay in the car. I think our tree ate a car. I got out of the car and ran over to find a man standing there. He said he was stopped at the stop sign in front of our house, looked up and the tree fell on him. Down the road a bit a tree totaled a car - just smooshed it - it was in all the papers and all over the news. But my tree landed on this guy in his car and did no damage.

Here you see the tree from the street - notice that it is blocking most of the road. The white truck behind the tree is the City guy who said to me "it's your tree." I said, no shit, I know it's my tree. Let me wave my magic wand to fix it - because what they wanted was for me to pick it up and move it off the street. When I indicated the odds of my moving it in any kind of timely fashion were pretty slim, he called some other city guys and they chain sawed the guy's car out of the tree and cleared the tree off the road. Miraculously, the guy backed his car up and drove away - he has made no claim against my homeowner's insurance. Then two kids showed up and asked if we wanted to have him cut it all up and take it away for $500 - I said, yeah, go for it.

I cried and I laughed as I told this story. On my little quarter acre of land I have - had - 8 trees, now I have 7. And I loved my big evergreen - it housed the magpies who came every year to teach their babies to fly. It blocked the sun from the house and made the Princess's room very cool in the summer.

Once, when I was crying, the Princess told me it would be okay, we could plant another tree. She's right, and we will.

In the Black

This was a hard week for me. I got a stomach bug that resulted in my not being able to stand for two days, missing two days of work, losing my voice, and 6 pounds. Then, as I rebounded from the stomach bug, I got a major head cold so now I can't breathe. I had sushi last night and at one point almost suffocated because I couldn't breathe around the dynamite roll in my mouth.

My nose hurts, my head hurts, my stomach hurt for a long time, and I am tired because I can't sleep.

BUT - through relentless hand washing and carefulness, my children have remained bug free. That is a positive. AND - my mammogram was normal this time as was my chick app't, so I am happy. No doctor's appointments until next August!!!

Thus, while down a bit for the count, I consider myself in the black.

My Puppy

This is my Hobbes - from a few years ago. He was the best dog ever. I miss him every day. The house is too quiet and there are far too many cheerios on the floor.

Spring in Utah

Another reason I love it here in Utah is the spring. Spring in Utah is beautiful. It doesn't rain on you or plop big, gross sleet on you. It's not cloudy 2/3 of the time. It is beautiful. The sun is out. The days are long. There are no bugs. It is beautiful.

Made even more beautiful this year by a 2 year old singing "ride my bike...ride my bike...ride my bike" as she rides around the ten foot square block we let her ride her bike in. (lest you think I am a Nazi mom, which I may very well be but not for this, we have no sidewalks)

From a distance I now hear a little radio flyer bell chiming and the sound "I did it!!" as last year she could not make it ring.

I love spring.

My Friday End of Day

I pick up my daughter from her pre-school at 1pm and then head out to my son's day care to pick him up. What used to be a 6 minute commute now takes 1 hour. I get home and pull in my driveway about 2pm. It's freezing outside in the low 20s at my house. I get my daughter out of the van and say, head to the door, it's cold out here. She says she's getting the mail and runs down the driveway. I drop the four bags I am carrying, two of hers and two of mine, and chase after her. Luckily she stops before hitting the street and the car that was zooming around the corner. I say, here's the mail, please go to the house. She says okay and starts up the driveway. I walk to the other side of the van to get my son in his infant carrier. I turn and look and my daughter has taken off down the middle of the street running. I drop the infant carrier and the two bags my son has in the driveway and haul ass down the street in my heels. I catch my daughter and run her back to the driveway. I walk her up the walk and grab my son's infant seat. I get him inside the house and turn to see that my daughter has decided to climb the rather large evergreen in the front yard. I also notice my dog has eaten one of my plants. He has been barking at us ever since we pulled in the driveway. I run to get my daughter and get her inside. My son is screaming because I had to wake up him from his nap at daycare to bring him home. My daughter is telling me repeatedly to take off her coat and that Hobbes has destroyed a plant. I get her coat off and send her off for her play in her room. I get my son out of his carrier and into his crib, where he proceeds to scream for about 30 minutes before resuming his nap. I go back outside to grab the six bags I have left in the driveway and on my way back in realize that not only did my dog eat my plant but also decided to poop in the dining room. I drop the bags and proceed to clean up the dog poop, during which time my daughter screams that she needs lollipops. Of course we don't have any lollipops, but this reasoning is lost somewhere in the fit as I persuade her that actually she wants to eat some fruit for her afternoon snack. Finally I have her situated so she's eating fruit and calm. I then can finish cleaning up the poop in the dining room. Now, finally, I can have something to eat at 230pm having not eaten since 6am when I woke up my household because it takes us all hours now to get out of the house. I eat quickly and then take all the stuff out of the bags and put the items where they go. Laundry into the laundry basket, bottles into the sink, and bags put away in closets. Then I chase my daughter around the house while trying to get her to use the potty. The dog has gone to the door 15 times pretending he'd like to go outside and then pouts when I open the door. In two hours my husband will arrive at home having spent the day watching someone else teach and say how exhausted he is.

I really would like to know how my LDS friends and neighbors do all this without saying the F word. Seriously, I just don't think "oh my heck" covers it.

Blu Ray Stuff is Cool

We are almost all set up here. Just waiting for DirecTV to come and give us our HD box. But we now have internet streaming into our giant television - so we can movies from Netflix and we can get Pandora radio on our surround sound. Pretty cool stuff.

Morning with New Television

At 1230am last night we fed the baby and finally went to sleep - so the television is in. I think it looks good - the biggest problem was actually the sound system, which is not supposed to be a problem. I offered Paul a beer but he didn't think that would be helpful. We were very worried we had blown the subwoofer that is only a couple of years old - and then Paul realized he had the wires in wrong. Then everything was fine - for everyone.

This morning Lily came down and said "it's too high."

I love children.

Installing the New Television

We bought a new Plasma HD whatever blah blah blah snore television for my husband's Christmas gift. I saved for it, collected donations, and he thought and thought about what to get. It took months of agonizing about this decision.

First thing he suffered serious buyer's remorse. "I don't deserve the television." Seriously? We are in the Best Buy two days after Christmas with a toddler who is newly potty trained and a 3 month old infant. The infant slept, pretty much, the whole time. The toddler had to "try the potty" three times - which entails one of us rushing to the restroom - we have learned to scope out the facilities the second we walk into a store, we know all the restrooms now after years of never having used a public one - saying rather loudly, "try the potty try the potty." The toddler was also dismayed when some IDIOT decided to turn Cars off the televisions and put on True Blood - seriously? Now, I love Eric as much as the next kook, but seriously? She was not happy. Running around the store in her boots, jacket, sunglasses, mittens and hat. You never know when a blizzard with a major sunny day might just blow through the Best Buy. Oh - and - seriously? We're having buyer's remorse now? Who has time for this?

Second thing we broke down the old system. Let me explain this: when I first met my husband I think there were 45 remotes in his living room. You needed 5 to turn on the other 40 which then in some bizarre combination worked the sound, television, cd player, etc etc. I have begged for years for a single universal remote. These pleas apparently are in Swahili because he doesn't ever understand or hear them. Breaking down this system took quite a while. Then my husband read a book while I vacuumed and swept and generally got the areas ready for the new installation. His reading a book didn't bother me as I understand the low frustration tolerance we are working with here and that reading a book lowers his heart rate in preparation for the big project.

Third we built the new television's stand. Apparently these new televisions need magic stands which take 90 minutes to put together and weigh 129 pounds. We will never move this thing again - we will hire big men to move it when we have to move it. My husband and I are very synergistic when we put together furniture - so no big problems, just a lot of double checking the instructions. Because apparently instructions no longer have words.

Fourth he is putting back together the sound system with its 45 remotes. Well, all right, to be fair, I have him down to 5 remotes now. This system has 6 speakers, many wires, a receiver that pretty much could launch a shuttle to the moon and a whole bunch of cables. All of these cables look exactly alike but do many different things. The concern here is we are adding a Blue Ray - I have NO idea why but apparently we have to have one, I guess it will be cool to have Netflix stream directly to our television although I do worry a bit about the potential Post Office ramifications, I mean will people lose jobs? - and who knows what cable we are supposed to use. I have removed myself, because pretty much I am useless at this. I hear from the den low muttering sounds as my husband tries to figure out how all this goes together.

We started this whole process at 7pm. It is now 11pm. And we have yet to turn on the new television which will apparently change my life for the so much better.

Thank God for technology.

Made me Laugh

Paul gets Esquire magazine and this edition has a beautiful picture of Matt Damon on the cover. For those of you who don't know, you could ask my best friend from college, my type of guy whom I find attractive is a type that looks like Matt Damon. I've made my fair share of mistakes with guys who look like Matt Damon. I have always thought Paul looks like Matt Damon - in fact I first kind of noticed him after I saw Good Will Hunting right before I had a grad school class with Paul.

Anyway - yesterday the Princess came across the Esquire magazine and said "Daddy!"

Made me laugh.

70s

It's beautiful out right now. It is in the 70s in August and my backyard looks great - especially since there is a little girl wandering around in it with a skirt on, carrying a Ted and a potty training book.

My Backyard

This is what it looks like from my back deck in the morning as the sun comes up over the mountains.

Snow

It is about 60 degrees outside my house right now - I have doors open and windows open to let in some fresh air. It's beautiful. Two weeks ago it looked like this - snow everywhere, Lily in a snowsuit. How quickly it changes!

Weather

We're having some weather here in Ogden. It's not a white out - like we used to have white outs in New York - but its heavy, wet snow. Pretty stunning, actually. Thank God I don't have to leave the house today.

New Furniture

My parents gave us a new kitchen dining set for Christmas - which we needed. We were using an old dining room table as our kitchen table, and it really was just too big for the room. We updated. After some funny assembly problems (I'm not allowed to talk about them yet because Paul doesn't think they're funny yet, but trust me, I've been laughing all day), the set is in. Looks good, yes?

$1300

So - my fabulous crash into the CURB - yes, the CURB, will cost me $1300. I tried to make a claim in car insurance, but apparently, after 6 years of perfect driving, I've never had an accident, and paying them $900 a year for basically giving me a piece of paper, they said, if we pay for your crash, you will owe us $1250 a year for the next three years.

Here comes a tangent - I really do not understand this at all. I pay thousands of dollars to an insurance company which does nothing for me for maintenance of my car nor in the event I have an accident that is my fault. I pay thousands of dollars to health insurance, but they cover my maintenance and if I fall (due to my negligence of walking on ice) they would cover my cast. Car insurance must be like 100 percent profit. Seriously. Off the tangent now.

We decided that $1300 now which we can pay off a credit card over the next 3 or 4 months with little interest accrued is better than the extra $350 a year for 3 years plus the $500 deductible.

AHHHHH!!!!!

So My Life Can't Get Any Better ...

Today I was driving my family to get a haircut. Going 10 mph I hit an ice patch, could not get control of the van and we slammed into a curb. No biggie, right? Wrong. Smashed up our hub cap. And did so much damage to our alignment that when you are driving straight, the steering wheel is about 45 degrees off center. This takes constant vigilance while driving.

Seriously - can I have 2 weeks without having to shell out some ridiculous amount of money?

ARGH

Our furnace just ended, died, caput. It was 20 years old, it will cost $2k to replace it. And we were already broke and already running a bit in the red - ARGH!!!

Seriously.

This is my backyard over Columbus Day weekend. Seriously.

Our New Downstairs

Beautiful

Aren't they gorgeous? Our new wood floors - well wood laminate, but we like them just like they are real wood!!