We're moving

Quick update: We sold our house, to close late next month (August). We had our offer on a new house accepted. We'll close on that a few days after the other. We're moving. OMG. Again.

Gotta get me some!

OMG, it's happened. Bacon Salt. You can sprinkle it on anything and the target will get a bacony-goodness taste. These guys are geniuses! I gotta get me some!! BACON!!!

ps - it's fat free and vegetarian friendly! i know some veggies that are going to be very happy!

Suckage. Mine, that is.

Last night, after dropping Burger off at gymnastics practice, Zippy and I made a grocery store run because we had ZERO food in the house. Condiments galore, but nothing to actually eat (well, you could fill up on olives, but oddly, the rest of the family won't. I would if it meant I could avoid shopping for another day). No meat. No veggies (I lie. There were jalepeno, habenero, and solano peppers. Hubby makes salsa, and it rocks, but salsa, alas, is also not something the family is willing to eat for dinner. They're so selfish.)

The hardest part of grocery shopping with the Zipster is getting her into the little seat in the shopping cart. She does not like it, and wants to be sure that I understand this. Her preferred method of letting me know this is to make her body go limp like a dead fish, which makes her extremely hard to pick up, much less contort her body into the little seat. This wasn't a problem for her until recently, and I'm peeved that I have to deal with it.

The problem is that Grandma is nice. Grandma rocks. Grandma could walk on water. Really. Because Grandma lets Zippy push the cart. Grandma does not make Zip suffer the indignity of riding in the cart like a baby. Oh no, Grandma is great. Mommy sucks.

The good news is that I'm still bigger than Zip, and that she actually listened when I told her that Grandmas and Mommies have different rules. We'll see how long that lasts.

No more shopping with Grandma. At least not until the next time the Zipster is driving me up a wall. ;)

Zippy's so happy!

The ice cream man came! The ice cream man came! For a four year old, there's nothing better on a summer day than hearing the music from the ice cream truck and getting told, "Yes, you can have ice cream!" Zippy chose the classic sno-cone for her treat, and was just the happiest sunniest child alive when we came in to open it. I don't think she'd ever had a sno-cone before, but she chose it and was extremely pleased with her choice.

The fun of a sno-cone is that the first lick just tastes like ice. It's once you get through the outer crust that you really find the flavors. Yum. I swear she ate this in record time - it was gone in under three minutes!

It's the little things like this that can make my day. Call me easy, whatever. But I'd buy her a sno-cone every day just to see that smile.

I received the best compliment today. A friend I respect told me that I'm the mom she always wanted. I'd adopt her, but she's older than I am and we really don't have room in the house for her to move in. (We'd make room if necessary, though.)

Thanks, Peggy. It really meant a lot to me to hear that.

(sorry for the lack of a title. Blogger isn't letting me add one. Waah.)

My friend Bart died earlier this week. He had been sick, but hadn't told many people about it. I don't know if he was embarrassed by his illness or if he didn't want a fuss. He had problems with his liver (I still don't know what, specifically) and was told about a year ago to stop drinking, and from what I'm told, he did. But I guess it wasn't soon enough and the damage had already been done. I wouldn't have judged him, and wish he'd shared his thoughts and the fears he must have had with me.

Bart didn't have an easy life - he lived hard, and spent a few years living on the streets. He was always open about his past, and had made a good life for himself. His wife, Carolyn, is a wonderful, funny woman, and his children are charming, and he loved them all well. He doted on those kids, and I know it will be hard on them, and for Carolyn, now that he is gone.

Bart hadn't always made the smartest decisions in his life. Who does? I've done some gloriously stupid things in my lifetime, and I'm sure there are screw-ups to come. But he tried, and he was succeeding. I'm so sad that he is gone, and I will miss him.

RIP, Bart. October 12, 1961 - July 3, 2007

Making Puppies

Hubby just walked out the door to go help the neighbor, um, hook their female dog (who is in heat) up with the loaner male dog there to do his duty. You really wouldn't think dogs would need a lot of help, but I guess everyone can use a little assistance every now and then. I'm just glad the call was for him instead of me.

School is out

Burger is THRILLED that the school year is over. She's been having the busy social life that any 14 year old would envy - going to the beach, to friends' houses, having sleepovers... We should all have such activities on our plates!

Zippy, on the other hand, is BUMMED that school is over - while she didn't go to a regular school, she did have speech therapy three times a week (for an hour and forty-five minutes a shot) during the school year, and she LURVED it with all of her little heart. She misses Miss JoAnn (who she called "Miss Jo-Man" oh-so-endearingly), Mr. Brian (Miss Jo-Man's assistant) and all of the other kids in her class. She asks DAILY if today is the day she goes back to school. She's just so sad.

To brighten Zippy's days, we've been trying to go on excursions and do more with her - more trips to the park and the beach, more bike rides, more more more. And it's so much fun.

The Zipster's speech, btw, is coming along nicely. She keeps us in stitches, and has a wicked sense of humor. Her biggest fault is that she repeats whatever it is she wants until it's done - she doesn't wait well. Yesterday, I was trying to fix something, all the while with her in the background repeating "I NEED JELLY BEANS, MOM" in her loud little voice. It's hard to whine about this habit of hers, though, as a year ago we were thrilled when she occasionally strung three words together.

I love my little Zippy (and my big Burger too).

On Parenting

A recent conversation, copied from Instant Messenger:

Burger says: could you and daddy please talk about unlimited texting?

Mom says: burger, we have and the answer is no. it costs too much right now

Burger says: ughh finee, but seriously. maybe a little more than 100? thats really extremely harsh

Mom says: not true. no phone is harsh. this is nice

Burger says: i hate you for your cruel ways of making me feel stupid.

Burger says: haha

The questions are: is the child too sassy? Should we take away her phone?

The answers are probably, and no. Because we created this mess. The child has ALWAYS had to deal with not just one, but two overly sarcastic parents. Did she mean that she really hates me (as some I've shared this with have thought)? Not a chance. She was saying, "oh. okay, now you've gone and made me feel like an idiot, and that bugs me. but yeah, you're right."

I wonder how much damage we've done, and what she'll have to go through to get others to understand that the snarkiness is cute. Or something like that...