Living on the Edge

The Queen of Questions...and answers!

My dear 10 year old daughter CC is, if I hadn't said this before, full of questions.  Well and answers too!  Her latest nickname is Wikipedia.  She is spouting little known facts about huge hairy spiders in Iraq, and how an engine works, and how licorice is made, and why the sky is blue...well you get the drift.  Car rides can be very long with her sometimes.  We all just sit back and listen...and learn too!

So on our way to Silverwood yesterday, she asked...

"Dad, why do we celebrate the 4th of July?"  Notice she asked her father and not me...she must have wanted the long-winded-just-tell-me-answer and not her mom the teacher who gives the why-do-you-think-we-do-kind-of-answers.

DD and I were a bit surprised by the question.  We gave each other the what-ever-do-they-teach-you-in-school-look and then filled her in on the details.  It's funny what gaps there are in a child's knowledge.  Makes me wonder what gaps are in other kids heads...as well as in some adults too!

One of the questions she had was "what exactly did they do on the 4th to make them choose the 4th?"

I thought that was a good question so I looked it up.  (Apparently there were some gaps in our learning too...though I think it is more due to age not a lack of learning!)

Here's what I discovered:

By 1776 the colonists were fed up with Great Britain trying to make them follow more rules and pay higher taxes (wow, doesn't that sound familiar?)  People started getting mad and began making plans to be able to govern themselves.  They wanted to become an independent country.

So the Congress met in Philadelphia and they appointed a committee (doesn't everyone) to write a formal document that would tell Great Britain to buzz off.  The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write a draft of the document (passed the buck on to yet someone else!).  So he did this in secret and on June 28 the committee read his copy. After revisions the committee  declared their independence on July 2, 1776.  They officially adopted it on July 4, 1776.  (not sure what they were doing the two days in between--shopping the sales at Safeway for the big Bar-B-Q?)

The actual signing of the official Declaration of Independence didn't even happen until August 2nd!  (Guess that would have been too close to Labor Day....actually I'm sure it had to do with the fact that it was all done by men.  You know how well they keep track of important dates!)

So that was the abbreviated history refresher for the night.  Back to paying the bills that keep coming each month in the mail.  What was that part about getting mad because of the higher taxes and more rules.  Would that be the new cell phone law?  Or perhaps the law that my 12 year old can't ride in the front seat until she is 14?  Is there somebody writing a new Declaration out there yet?  I'd sign! :-)

Wow, it's the 1st of July!

Oh my goodness, June is gone.  It is now officially summer!  We started off the week with temperatures the last two days hitting 103 and 104 in our backyard here on the edge.  Today we should be at a tolerable, yet still above normal, 89!  Woohoo! 

I had to turn on the AC yesterday.  I hate doing that, but I just wimped out and couldn't take the heat another moment.  Plus CC is having terrible allergies so it helped her out a bit as well.  I was melting, along with all the plants in my yard, the trees, the chickens (nearly attacked me through the fence when I took their water can to fill it), the children, the dogs (who hid in the basement shaking with fear that I would make them go outside), and especially poor DD who has to wear a black uniform to work.

For those of you who know my DD...he's been wearing shorts!  Yup!  He actually has more pairs of shorts than I do at this point...pretty amazing for that pale Irish boy.  He keeps showing me the tan on  his legs...yes, honey, pink doesn't count as a tan and neither does red.

Today I am going to venture past the shores of the lake.  The water there is blissfully cold still.  An extreme, yet welcome, contrast to the temperatures we've been having.  So in the coolness of the night last night (78 degrees) I cleaned up the garage a bit more.  Filled the back of the Explorer with donation stuff from the garage sale we had in, yes, MAY!  And today I'm going to drop it off at a local donation drop-off spot, hit the bank, the grocery store and zip back to the coolness of our home.

While out on my travels I will NOT be talking on my cell phone.  Did you know today is start of the new cell phone law?....You can't talk on it while driving unless you have a hands free device.  You must know about the law...although they didn't put it across the top of the screen like they do with the tv changing to digital in 2009. 

Does your tv station do that where you live?  Now that cracks me up.  I can just picture some little old guy and his wife watching a show on NBC one night, the only channel they get with their roof antenna, when the announcement plays across the screen (like some urgent weather update) and they suddenly realize they won't be able to watch tv any more in 2009 because the world is going digital! 

Actually, now that I think about it, our family over near Mt. Adams won't be able to get tv anymore....what will DD do when we visit?

So back to the cell phone law.  I have spent the last two months shopping for a hands free device.  My phone isn't blue tooth compatible so I can't wear that Star Trek/Stargate Atlantis thing in my ear.  I have to get one that plugs into my phone or talk on speaker phone.  That's not so appealing...anyone that drives by will wonder why I am shouting at my car while I drive.  Have you ever tried using your speaker phone?  You have to talk LOUD to be heard by your caller.

Anyway...I have bought and returned three different hands free devices.  I can't wear those earbuds, they are either too big or they fall out because they are too small.  The third one barely picked up my voice so I found myself yelling as if I were on speaker phone.

Any recommendations out there?  I'd love to find something that costs less than the price of the ticket :-)

I've been to Best Buy, Circuit City, Target and Walmart.  Any other ideas...or online places?  Help!

Kung Fu Panda

I saw this movie yesterday with thirty or so middle school kids.  My oldest, Q, earned the reward field trip from raising a certain amount of money in their school fundraiser.  So for raising $150 they earned a day off from school and a trip to the mall which included Baskin Robbins ice cream, lunch (on their own), 45 minutes to wander around the mall, and a movie at the theater.  It was a nice reward for the kids to have a day off.

OK, so I went as a chaperone.  There were 35 kids going and 3 teachers.  As someone who rarely goes to a mall...our kids are not the kind of kids who get dropped at a mall to wander around on their own.  So the idea of the school dropping my child off at a mall to wander around was a bit unnerving for my husband and I. Since my dear hubby has probably only entered that mall a total of 3 times since we moved here, it was left for me to go.  Keep in mind that I've only been there maybe 8 times myself in 3 years!  I have to grab a map every time I go or I get lost.

Ice cream, lunch and store wandering went without a hitch...I think.  It looked as though a few kids brought a bit of money to spend.  We saved ours for treats in the movie.

The movie we saw was Kung Fu Panda.  Now I like the actors who did the voices in the movie.  I also liked some of the words of wisdom in the movie.  I particularly liked when the wise old turtle said:

"Yesterday is History,

Tomorrow is a Mystery,

Today is a Gift,

that is why they call it the Present."

But I don't know if it was the pace of the movie, the time of day or something in the popcorn, but I had a very hard time staying awake in the movie.  I am sure Q dozed off a bit too!  Maybe it was the animated-ness of it.  But it was cute...a bit overdone on the heftiness of the main character I think.  I think they crossed the 'emphasizing big' vs. 'flaunting fat' line.

When you read the description of the movie it mentions that he

"is a clumsy bear.....just another portly panda bear....lumbering panda bear" 

Call a spade a spade for heavens sake.  He is a fat bear who is eating every chance he gets during the movie.  To use his inner power he imagines the enemy to be food!  The movie description says:

"if the noble Po can master the martial arts and somehow transform his greatest weaknesses into his greatest strengths, he will fulfill his destiny as the hero who saved his people during their darkest hour."

So now Hollywood has made a politically correct movie by creating a fat hero.  That's great!  But call it what it is...don't give it fluffy names to mask what he is....a 300 pound teenager who lives on McDonalds fries and shakes.  Dressed in a Panda Suit, calling him portly and lumbering, he becomes socially acceptable to Hollywood.  Think about this:  If this had been a movie with real people and not animated...would it have worked?

Every day should be treasured as a mother

I was cruising through the emails in my 'bulk' google account.  (If you don't already have a separate email account for stuff you subscribe to...I highly recommend it!) All the newsletters I sign up for, the blog feeds, the news updates, my daily inspirational quotes and more, all go to that google account. 

Oh, If I give you my google email address, please don't think I consider you any less of a friend or that you are now just the "bulk" in my life.  It's probably the one adress that I remembered at the time.  I think I have 4 different emails, each with its own purpose.  It gets kind of crazy.

So I was noodling through the emails.  Hitting delete right away on some, skimming some, saving some for letter...when one stopped me in my tracks.

Heather writes a blog to go with her online business.  She is this real cool mom who lives in North Idaho with her husband and two kids.  She runs an online business for Mamas that she started when they first lived in San Diego.  She's an awesome mompreneur!  And last fall she became pregnant with their third child. 

All winter they planned, prepared and prayed for this new little boy that was entering their life.  And with Mother's Day just around the corner and the birth of their baby a couple weeks away, they discovered he would not be joining their family.

Here's the LINK to her blog.  Please read what she wrote...with a box of kleenex nearby.  She is so well-spoken...or I guess in a blog it's well-written...even in the midst of her great sadness. Now, I'm not trying to make everyone sad right before Mother's Day, just inspired.  Inspired to hug their little ones tighter, to treasure every moment of every day that you have with them. 

Take some time between the loads of laundry, the dishes, the menu-planning, the carpooling and the full time job you may have outside the house, to truly realize what Mother's Day means. Although the newspapers and tv commercials push the agenda that love and appreciation for a mom can only be shown through the giving of gifts...and expensive ones mean that your mama is worth A LOT! 

Mother's Day is really every day.  It's not really what purchased gift you are given on Sunday, it's the gifts you already have been given that are important...you know, the ones making the mess in the living room!  Those children were the biggest gifts you could ever be given.  So spend the day with them.  Talk with them.  Do something fun together. That's how I like to spend my Mother's Day. 

What Will the World Be Like...

in 100 years?  I know I won't be around to see that, but how about even in just 10 years? When I think about the things we have now that we didn't have just in the time that our own children have been alive it's pretty awe-inspiring.  There are lots of things that have changed over the years...but here's just a few that jump out at me right now:

Computers. We bought our first PC right about the time our first daughter was born...11 years ago.  Before that I did all my college work on one of those little mac cube shaped computers.  Man, that little screen?  I couldn't even think of using anything less than the 17" one I have now!  And now I can even get to the internet on my cell phone...ok...screen IS WAY TOO SMALL...but I can do it just the same!

Calculators. Those became affordable and small, when I was a kid.  The one my husband was required to get for a math class could do just about anything short of driving the car.  I can't even imagine the one we'll have to purchase when the girls go to college.  What are all those darn buttons for anyway?  I got an A in college statistics...but it was all on with paper and pencil...oh yeah, and the brain!

Cars.  My first car was a truck!  Literally.  I loved my cherry red Toyota 4 wheel drive truck.  I could fit my life into it and go anywhere.  Now we overflow a 6 yard dumpster and the garage still doesn't look empty!  Cars are equipped with everything these days.  No stove, but some have built in mini fridges, stereo systems better than the one in my house, tv's and dvd players, seat warmers (that make you feel like you've pee'd your pants), individual temperature zones, and gauges that tell you when to fill tires, change the oil, fill the gas tank, and take a potty break (ok, maybe not the last one, but that would be handy when DD is driving).  Oh, and the new back-up screen, so you can see what is behind you...who needs those stinking side mirrors anymore!?  Some cars are even equipped to talk to you...that would be handy since I talk to my car all the time!  Maybe it's mad at me cuz I'm not always saying nice things.  I'll have to work on that!

Phones.  Now this one is incredible.  We don't have to put our finger in little holes and "dial" the number.  Has that term, "dial", left our phone lingo yet?  The kids saw one at their daycare and didn't know what to do with it. LOL!  Now the other thing that has been going by the wayside are the handsets connected to the phone by one of those curly cords.  We had one temporarily in our kitchen once and one of the girls tried to go too far with it...forgetting that it was attached...and pulled it out of the wall. Oops!  Now we have nothing but the cordless handsets (thank heaven for the seeker button or I'd never remember where I'd put it!)  Maybe dial has left our vocabulary, but it's been replaced with many other words:  hands-free, blue tooth, call forward, call waiting, voice message, I-phone, texting, cell phone...and others that only my kids know.

The girls don't think anything of it. They just absorb and accept.  That's great and adaptive of them...but sometimes I worry that the simpler things in life will be overlooked because it doesn't talk to you, ring, or somehow send you a message.  Guess that's where us old parents have to step up!

But when I don't know how to change a setting on the phone...it sure is handy to be able to hand it to CC and have her do it for me!

Mean People

I remember seeing a bumper sticker that was popular when I was a kid.  It said: Mean People Suck.  Being a kid, I thought this completely summed up the world.  The world was full of nice people and mean people. I could easily categorize the people I knew into those two categories. As a kid things are simpler.  Very black and white.  You are learning about life day by day, moment by moment.  You aren't thinking about the existential stuff yet like; Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?  What legacy will I leave behind?

Now as a grown-up, and parent, I have learned, through life's experiences that things aren't quite as simple.  As a parent, life is full of grey.  Planning for the future...yet not knowing what the future will bring.  Going to work everyday...yet not knowing what situation you will run into.  Paying the bills...but not knowing what huge expense will hit you next.  Sending your children out to play...hoping in your heart that nothing will happen to them.

It would be nice to be living life as my kids do... catching bugs and making bug environments in all my canning jars, riding their bikes around the neighborhood to see who can play, laying on a warm, sun-soaked trampoline and giggling with their friends, swinging in the hammock as only sisters can and  talking about what you did at school that day.  Life is pretty simple for most kids...for our kids anyway.

But being a parent is not easy on so many levels...but the hardest thing these days, which I don't think my parents faced with us, is keeping life simple for our kids.  It doesn't matter if you live in the heart of an urban jungle or out in the country.  Many of life's modern "conveniences" try to suck the "simple" out of our lives: the television, video games, computers, Internet, telephones, MP3 players and the list continues to go on as more and more of these conveniences are invented.  They make it is easier for kids to sit in front of something and be stimulated rather than going out and creating the stimulation...aka PLAY.

So we send the kids out to play.  We do so knowing that the world is full of black, white and grey people as well as situations.  We are faced with knowing that our girls are growing up and need to take on more responsibility and that we need to let them grow as well as their boundaries grow. They need to be able to make decisions and be in situations where they can exercise their character and moral fiber.  We can't hold their hands forever.

This expanding of their boundaries is a lot like blowing up a balloon. It takes a lot of work at first to get it started.  Stretching and pulling at the balloon to get it started.  Trying a few times before you can get it to hold air, then once it finally starts filling it becomes easier to make it grow and expand. 

Unfortunately, balloons pop and then you have to start all over! 

Yesterday, for our oldest daughter, the balloon not only popped, but was trampled as well.  She discovered all on her own that Mean People Suck! 

We finally let her go with a friend and ride their bikes to the school only a mile down the road.  During that ride some cars went flying by them. She yelled "slow down" to them because they nearly hit them as the cars drove down the middle of the road.  The second car stopped abruptly, backed up, the driver got out of the car, charged at the girls yelling at them.  The girls were terrified by the lady's anger, so they dropped their bikes and ran into the trees along the road.  Then they proceeded to watch the lady throw my daughter's bike into the back of her truck and drive off down the road!

Now if this wasn't bad enough, it turns out to be a neighbor from around the corner.  And worse yet she totally denied doing it to us and to the police.  She claims she only smiled and waved at the girls when she drove by them and that they smiled and waved back. 

I could understand if she took the bike expecting the parents to show up and apologize for whatever wrongdoing she thought our kids did, but to take the bike and ditch it somewhere so our 11 year old no longer has a bike?  How mean is that???   

Our children have unfortunately learned a lesson early on that Mean People do indeed Suck!

The only positive thing to come out of the whole situation is the conversation that our two girls had last night.  They told us they understand now why we sometimes tell them they can't go do something on their own and that it's not because of them, but because of the Mean People in the world!  So although their boundary bubble popped and will take some time to grow again (by their choice) they also discovered some of the grey in the world to go along with the black and white....our girls are growing up.

How to Keep My Man Happy

The Easter Bunny left this for DD on Easter!  He was in heaven.  Such a simple thing....

It's amazing to think that the two of us have stayed married for nearly 14 years!  The last time we had a can of spam in the house I used it to prop the window open in our old victorian house.  I don't thnk we ever opened that can either. It's probably still good...hmm...it could even still be in the emergency earthquake kit we keep in the garage

April Fools Day!

I haven't thought of a good April Fool's joke to play, but I did discover this interesting bit that I thought was perfect to share today....

So yesterday I was talking about learning new stuff.  I try to keep up on the news and national as well as local events.  One of my major sources of information is, pathetically enough, the MSN homepage.  That page is full of good stuff you know! Updates on Britney, my horoscope, the latest drug testings of sports athletes...all the important things in the world you need to know.

But this headline caught my eye:   TOP 10 USELESS BODY PARTS

Now apparently rolls of fat don't count as well as the toenail on my right foot that doesn't grow straight. Not sure what rationale they used in picking only these 10.  The list kind of has a feel of one of David Letterman's top ten lists, but anyway, here is the list compiled by The Science Channel:

#10  Plica semilunaris--that is latin for a third eyelid.  Yeah, apparently we have remnant of one.  Ew, gross!  Or way cool---I'm related to an owl!

#9 Body Hair--Well, I'd sure miss shaving my legs and under my arms if I didn't have to.  Wouldn't you?

#8 Sinuses--This one I would agree with.  They are truly annoying when it's allergy or winter cold time!

#7 Adenoids--Never had a reason to hate these. Really didn't know I even had them.

#6 Tonsils--ditto for tonsils. They never acted up in me.  I still have the remnants of them which apparently is a great accomplishment.

#5 Coccyx--If I didn't have this then 3 months of my 16th year would have been much more pleasant.  Bad fall during roller skating...I need not say more.

#4 Arrector pili--this sounds more like a guy thing....but actually it's the fancy name for goose bumps, and as a mom I think they are very helpful...right along with mom's intuition and the eyes in the back of my head.

#3 Wisdom Teeth--I only had 3 of these. I'm apparently more highly evolved.  But the 3 I did have were torture at age 17.  I could have done without them just fine.

#2 Appendix--no attacks for me, though my husband ate lots of ice cream as a kid after getting his out.  Hey, I thought that was just after tonsils!  Not fair!

#1 Male Nipples--I'm not sure whether the list was generated by a woman or a man.  There are arguments for either sex putting them on the list.  But I'll let you ponder that one. 

What else would you put on the list?

I'm Always Learning Something New

As a mom who works outside of as well as inside of the home, free time is fleeting. 

There's the laundry,

the forgotten homework project Sunday night due Monday,

the sudden accident the dog had all over the carpet (from the basement all the way up to the kitchen door),

the little pre-teen problems to settle (I hear one brewing right now as I type),

the 4 phone calls in one evening (nobody EVER calls my house)

paying the monthly bills

and so on....well the list is probably similar in your house.

At some point I get to do one of my hobbies.  And sometimes I forget my train of thought...just like right now.  My thougths derailed somewhere between the quibbling kids and the phone calls.

Oh yeah, I just looked back at the title of the post and remembered what I was talking about...learning!

I love to learn something new....sources of information can be limited Living out here on the Edge.  But from time to time some new bit of information makes its way into the cells still active within my mommy brain.  This week I learned something new at church.  I learned where the phrase "Doubting Thomas" came from.  The pastor this past Sunday shared the story about the Apostles learning about Jesus' resurrection.  Thomas the Apostle was not there when Jesus visited the other Apostles and since Thomas didn't see him, he didn't believe it.  I'd heard the story before about Thomas the Apostle who didn't believe in the resurrection of Jesus (John 20:24-29) but I had never put the saying and the bible story together.  Yeah, sometimes you have to hit me over the head with a 2 by 4. I know. 

I was a teenage product of horror movies--the original Friday the 13th and all--I wouldn't watch one now if you paid me $100.  Well maybe if it came with heavy duty earplugs and a mask.  I could possibly get a good nap in for once...dark theater and all.  So while I was listening to the sermon last Sunday, I was trying not to get too grossed out with the thought of Thomas sticking his fingers into Jesus' wounds to quell his doubts.  I was ready to raise my hand and interrupt and say..."I believe!  Let's move on to the rest of the story please." But I behaved myself and the sermon concluded without any embarassing outbursts on my part.  My mind wanders like that you know.  Does anyone else have wandering mind syndrome?

So now I know where Doubting Thomas originated.

I Learned a New Language!

I was looking to see the traffic on the blog and sometimes you come up with pretty strange ways and terms that people use that hit upon you site.  But this morning I found that someone had my site's content translated to another language.  How fun is that?

So someone from Gistel, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium viewed my site! Welcome world traveler!  Not sure what language they speak in Belgium...from reading it, it has the sound of German.  But I don't know enough German to tell.

If anyone out there knows what they speak in Belgium or what language this was translated to...let me know.

Alaska's Iditarod race

Spokane heeft zijn Bloomsday. Boston heeft de Marathon. Hawaii heeft het IJzeren man triathlon ... maar Alaska is de Iditarod Race. Het is echt een fantastische race en het is niet voor het weekend atleet. Het is genaamd "The Last Great Race op Aarde. "

De race gaat over 1150 kilometer over enkele van de zwaarste, maar mooiste terrein. De route van Anchorage naar Nome. De slee race teams bestaan uit 1 musher en 12 tot en met 16 honden. Het zal ze 10 tot 17 dagen voor de reis 1150 mijl. 96 teams zijn slated om te beginnen morgen in Anchorage. Er zijn 60 musher uit Alaska, maar musher hebben reisde uit de onderste 48, alsmede uit landen als België, Frankrijk, Canada, Duitsland, Italië en Noorwegen. Het is nog steeds een Mannen gedomineerde sport, maar er zijn 22 vrouwelijke musher dit jaar!

De officiële website Iditarod heeft tal van grote informatie, alsmede de huidige updates over de status van je favoriete musher. Www.iditarod.com 

Onze favoriete musher is # 10 dit jaar weer. Ik zal uitleggen waarom op een andere post. Plus Ik beloof afbeeldingen te gaan met het. I've got to head off to school today.  HAPPY FRIDAY! Ik heb aan het hoofd van off naar school vandaag. HAPPY VRIJDAG!

Spokane heeft zijn Bloomsday. Boston heeft de Marathon. Hawaii heeft het IJzeren man triathlon ... maar Alaska is de Iditarod Race. Het is echt een fantastische race en het is niet voor het weekend atleet. Het is genaamd "The Last Great Race op Aarde. "

De race gaat over 1150 kilometer over enkele van de zwaarste, maar mooiste terrein. De route van Anchorage naar Nome. De slee race teams bestaan uit 1 musher en 12 tot en met 16 honden. Het zal ze 10 tot 17 dagen voor de reis 1150 mijl. 96 teams zijn slated om te beginnen morgen in Anchorage. Er zijn 60 musher uit Alaska, maar musher hebben reisde uit de onderste 48, alsmede uit landen als België, Frankrijk, Canada, Duitsland, Italië en Noorwegen. Het is nog steeds een Mannen gedomineerde sport, maar er zijn 22 vrouwelijke musher dit jaar!

De officiële website Iditarod heeft tal van grote informatie, alsmede de huidige updates over de status van je favoriete musher. Www.iditarod.com 

Onze favoriete musher is # 10 dit jaar weer. Ik zal uitleggen waarom op een andere post. Plus Ik beloof afbeeldingen te gaan met het. I've got to head off to school today.  HAPPY FRIDAY! Ik heb aan het hoofd van off naar school vandaag. HAPPY VRIJDAG!