Home again, home again, jiggity jog

Well, H and I made it back from Kentucky yesterday afternoon, which felt like yesterday night, due to the 3-hour time difference and also the fact that 4 hours real-time on a full plane with an 8-month old is the equivalent in felt-time to 8 hours. I do not want to play finger puppets, peek-a-boo, "this is the way the lady rides," or read That's Not My Dinosaur again for a loooong time. Let's just say it's good to be home! Here's a summary of the trip . . .

The lows of the trip:

• The plane rides with curioso H, who did not sleep a wink the entire 4 hours of the flight out and only took a short nap on the flight back. And that nap only occurred after a nice little dose of Benadryl and almost an hour of crying as I stood in the aisle and jiggled him. (At least I got a quad workout, as the man behind me so generously noted.)
• The UMass dinner, which is usually a high of the trip. This year, the food was lousy, we waited 2 1/2 hours for that lousy food--until 10:30pm, H was with me (and did I mention it was 10:30pm?!), H choked on a piece of pita bread and threw up all over himself and me, and I was awkwardly seated next to someone who had called me a "Mormon freak" in the past. Lovely times.

Other than those 2 lows, it was such a nice conference and such a nice trip!

• My session was really well attended!
• One of the attendees was Beth Daniell, whose well-known work in literacy studies and literacy and spiritual practice has meant a lot to me in my own studies. She introduced herself to me afterwards and thanked me for my work.
• I attended some really interesting sessions, which I'll summarize this week in another post, if you're interested at all in what I do at conferences :)
• I got to see all of my old Umass friends, who I genuinely care about; BYU friends, two of whom are old students of mine; and my fellow mother/ph.d. friend
• I got to stay with my cousin and her great family. They were so hospitable and it was so fun to talk with them and get to know them better. And they took me to a great restaurantto make up for my lousy dinner the night before.
• I made the flight home! (This was doubtful for a while, thanks to eating at the great restaurant and closed freeways.)

(Image from www.pa-legion.com )

The Ostrich Festival

While J was gone this weekend, I put on my brave, adventurous mom hat and decided to take the kids to the Ostrich Festival. After we first arrived, I did some serious questioning of my sanity and made some under-my-breath snide comments at the 15-minute wait to park in a large, allergy-inducing, non-stroller friendly field; the $5 charge to park in said field; the ensuing 30-minute wait to buy entrance tickets (not ride tickets, just entrance tickets--they couldn't actually have them in the same place, now, could they?); the lack of maps/directions (just where were the actual ostrich races?); and the inflated price of food ($4 for a little ice cream cone).

But after we handed over plenty of our money, finally got into the event, and figured out the basic layout, we had such a good time. The kids savored their $4 ice cream cones, loved the caterpillar roller coaster and the big dinosaur bounce house. Mister chose to spend his last tickets on the fun house while Sweetie rode the swings and "made a new friend" with the girl sitting next to her.

We watched the cowboy/horse show with tricks. We watched the medieval knights joust and sword-fight. Sweetie was so concerned that the men were really going to get hurt: "Mom, are the swords real?" "Mom, are the swords sharp?" "Mom, just how sharp are the swords?" "Mom, are the swords made of metal?" You get the picture. Mister was slightly disappointed that our black knight did not win, despite our cheering. We also visited the petting zoo (then waited in line 10 minutes to wash our hands). And, before heading home, we finally watched the famed ostrich races, which were pretty hilarious. The ostrich races consisted of people actually riding the ostriches, people riding in little chariots behind the ostriches, and people trying to race the ostriches themselves. All I can say is, Who knew? Who knew? So the day ended up being fun--fun to actually go, but even more fun to watch my kids having fun.

Although I managed to bring water bottles, sunscreen, snacks, baby food/bib/spoon, baby bottles, change of baby clothes/diapers, I did not manage to bring the camera, so I got a few pics from my camera phone and some from the event Web site.

Join me

over here today.

Smothered

When you are the youngest, there is always someone on top of you or underneath you. Poor little H just cannot get away from them.

The highs and lows

Every night at dinner I ask the kids about the days highs and lows--their favorite things and their least favorite things. Sometimes I get an answer, sometimes I don't. Here's what everyone reported tonight:

Sweetie

High: Meeting Duncan, Grady, and Ava at the Dino Dig and park by the library for lunch, digging, and hide-and-go-seek.

Low: Not getting to play one more game of hide-and-go-seek.

Mister

High: Playing outside after school.

Low: Not getting to go to the park with Duncan, Grady, and Ava. Not getting to go get ice cream like Tyler did (the boy next door). (Poor Mister, forced to eat leftover turkey for dinner and to actually attend school. Where's the humanity?)

Me

Highs: (1) Having the pediatric neurosurgeon declare the H's skull is healing nicely at today's first follow-up to his bad head day. (2) Playing hide-and-go-seek with Sweetie. (3) Having a warm-fuzzy flashback to when it was just me and Mister when I drove by the construction vehicle dealer today. I noticed the front loaders and bulldozers, a habit I picked up when Mister was a little guy and would call out "Tractor! Tractor!" whenever we passed. Made me think of him with a smile.

Low: J gone to the MountainWest basketball tournament.

It's Monday, 3:35pm

and I have just recovered from yesterday.

It started with my opening the fridge before church, just to have all of the half-used containers of baby food fall out and splatter all over the floor, rug, and cabinet--peaches, peas, squash. I rolled the rug up, stuck it in the laundry room and thought, "I'll tackle the rest later."

Because it was a rainy, cool day (56 was the high), I had cooked our last frozen turkey for a nice, big Sunday dinner. H was screaming on the floor, so I used warm broth instead of my usual milk to make the roux for the gravy, and when I shook up the flour and broth, BAM! explosion. All over the kitchen--cabinets, floor, remaining rugs. Everywhere. I rolled the rugs up and took a swipe at the main traffic area on the floor and thought, "I'll tackle the rest later."

Just then, J called to say he wouldn't be home at the planned 5pm for dinner. It would be after 6pm or whenever they finally finished the tithing/fast offerings. Turkey dinners do not wait and neither do hungry kids (and hungry moms), so I gave the turkey carving a good try, fed everyone, cleared the table so we could play games for family game night. After family game night and kids in bed, I looked at the dishes stacked up high--turkey dishes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas, dishes from making chocolate chip cookies for game night. And I said, "I'll tackle that later."

Today was later, and later is finally over. Just in time to make dinner again for tonight.

March means . . .

Leaves back on the trees

Daffodils at Trader Joe's

Green eggs and ham for Dr. Suess's birthday

Our chrysalids will be turning into butterflies

Summer clothes and trips to the zoo

And for those of us in composition and rhetoric, March means 4Cs: the Conference on College Composition and Communication. H and I will be attending in Louisville, Kentucky in 2 weeks. Here's hoping that March also means me getting into gear and writing my conference presentation since I'll be giving it in 2 weeks. Yikes!