Bittersweet

Mike finally found a job -- in Columbus, OH.  It's a bittersweet ending to 2010 to know that I have a short time left here in Albuquerque, but I'm getting excited about our new adventure. I really haven't been able to wrap my mind around it, though. I thought we were here to stay after eight years of roaming around on the other side of the country.  My cousin Sherrie called the other day and mentioned the lack of news on this blog and was wondering if it was true that we were moving.  It will be good to live close to her family in Michigan.  We'll also live close to Mike's family in Tennessee, Indiana, and Michigan.

I'm so proud of Mike, though.  He weathered through a tough year and we made it to the other side.

Mike started work this week and will be able to come visit once a month until we leave in June. Before he left last week we sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".  He stopped in St. Louis and took advantage of going up to the arch the day the tornadoes swept through Arkansas.  Just as my dad called me with concern about Mike's whereabouts, I received a text message from Mike telling me that he was on top of the arch but that they were being instructed to go back to the bottom because it was swaying.  "Because there's a tornado headed your way!!!" I wanted to shout.  In the meantime, the Weather Channel was saying that a tornado watch was in effect in St. Louis until 3:00 PM.  But he was able to leave quickly before the city was shut down and head east to Indiana ahead of the storm as it continued northeast.

I feel like everything is whirling by so fast like a twister -- the children are growing so fast and I rarely have a video camera handy to capture their voices, their songs, their sweetness through the lens.  I feel the clock ticking and I worry that I will miss too much.  I want more time.  Time stands still when I focus on the now.

Time stands still

I'm not looking back

But I want to look around me now

See more of the people

And the places that surround me now.

Freeze this moment

A little bit longer

Make each sensation

A little bit stronger

Experience slips away.

I turn my face to the sun

Close my eyes

Let my defenses down

All those wounds

That I can't get unwound.

I let my past go too fast

No time to pause

If I could slow it all down

Like some captain

Whose ship runs aground

I can wait until the tide

Comes around.

-Rush

Time Stands Still

Here's One for the Boys

The other day I took the boys to the library. Christian got his own card so he can play on the computers.  Then we lugged home a bunch of books and a 'Flushed Away' DVD that Gaby was craving.  I guess the theme was potty humor.  Christian and Gabriel are into superheroes, and Christian checked out several 'Captain Underpants' comic-books-within-chapter-books while Gaby found a Spider Man comic book with the green goblin.  Jojo ran around wildly in the library touching everything and removing books from the shelves as the librarian who was re-shelving politely glared in our direction. 

I was not familiar with 'Captain Underpants'.  I once told my friend Michelle that she has the soul of a teenage boy because she tries to get away with teaching the kids how to do 'wet willies' behind my back and other nefarious acts that she has taught her nephews. The author of this series of 'Captain Underpants', too, has the soul of a teenage boy.

So tonight we began 'Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People'.  I had planned on reading only a couple chapters and call it a night, but 60 pages and nine chapters later we had to stop laughing and put the book down.

The two protagonists/antagonists are George and Harold who write their own comic strip about Captain Underpants, aka their Principal Mr. Krupp.  They are naughty, dislike school, and the teachers are not very bright.  For instance, the two friends changed the sign on the teacher's lounge from 'Push Button to Open Door' to 'Push on Butt to Open Door' and the illustration of the teachers doing just that is, well, preposterous.  George and Harold go into the Purple Potty time machine and end up in opposite land where they meet their evil twins.

A few weeks ago I had forgotten to send Christian's lunch with him to school and on that infamous day my picky eater had to consume cafeteria food.  He told me he cried when he was told by the duty, "You have to eat everything on your plate."  He missed recess "and everything" he informed me.  Even the chocolate milk did not taste like chocolate milk! Christian never wants to eat cafeteria food again. We laughed until we cried at the following excerpt:

The two friends walked to the cafeteria and took a whiff.

"That's weird," said Harold. "It doesn't smell like dirty diapers, greasy dishwater, and moldy tennis shoes in here anymore. It smells like -- like food!" (p. 44)

Michelle would be oh so proud that I am reading this book to the boys.