Saturday, May 06, 2006

May 6, 2006

Man, I am still so tired. Caffeine should be kicking in soon, although I'm very worried that I'm developing a tolerance for it, as I don't seem to have as much energy even with the caffeine. Well, I've got nothing I have to do tomorrow (panicky double-check of schedule, huge sigh of relief...nope, nothing) so I'll try to get some extra rest.

Pretty soon I'll have to jump back on the merry-go-round for the day, with dropping Kira at India's and going to Mark's baseball game. Kira wrapped India's present this morning all by herself (boy was she proud). Then she was scribbling on some paper and was writing things like "I can not wate in tall I go to India's house" over and over. Right now she's up in her room listening to "Rockin' Robin" and boppin' around. :)

Donald's tomatoes came yesterday. Mom & Dad and I went over to deliver them. Of course, when we got there Donald was gone, at the beach with Zoe (and the woman who cleans their house had gone along, too....what is up with that???). We visited with Dorothy for a little while, then Donald did come back while we were still there, so I was able to give him the tomatoes. He was really pleased with them. It's funny, he's not an emotional or affectionate person, so it was really obvious that he didn't really know what to do to express his pleasure (he is totally one of those taciturn Yankees you hear about, one of the most sterotypical Maine-ish Mainers I know). I'm really glad I did that for him. Apparently he's doing okay with the cancer diagnosis....when Dad went over earlier that day to see if Donald needed any help with anything, he was outside on a ladder washing windows. The man is almost 85. (he and Mark celebrate birthdays on the same day) Amazing.

The tomato delivery came after I went with Christina to get Xrays of her back (at a hospital about 40 minutes away). I had really wanted to spend some quality time on my house getting caught up on some housework....the house is really looking the worse for wear. Sigh. But she didn't want to go alone, and I couldn't let her do that, and I know she'd do it for me. So I went. Fortunately, she got in early and we were home before noon....we had expected that it would take until just before the kids got out of school. So then when I got home Mom told me the tomatoes had arrived, so I drove down to deliver them. THEN I stopped up to camp with Mom & Dad to look at the HUGE suitcase of clothes that Kristin had outgrown, that Ginnie sent up for Kira. Totally awesome, the girl is just about set for summer, just needs a couple of bathing suits. (she's got quite a lot for next fall, too!!) Need to remember to get a thank-you out to Ginnie, and make sure Kira does a thank-you also.

Oh, what else from yesterday. Oh yes, Mark did a lot of work on his Academic Fair project on killer whales. I got the fabric hot-glued to the display board (not letting him use the hot-glue gun quite yet...as it is, I burned my fingers a few times with the hot glue, klutz). Mark traced out a big killer whale out of posterboard to have coming out of the top of the display, and got it all painted up (looks great). I did the cutting out of it, though....also not letting him use a box-cutter quite yet. Also while he was at school he cut out the letters for the title. We got most of the background set up for the shadowbox. Today he'll paint the top and sides and outside of the box, and we'll glue in the water fabric and the "sand" bottom (Mark came up with the clever idea of having construction paper that was all wrinkled up for the sandy bottom of the ocean....it looks quite neat). Then all X has to do is get little killer whale figures and suspend them in the box and cover the front with blue Saran wrap. It'll look great. He *should* be able to handle it. Mark also wants to get the facts written up for display today. I'm going to try to convince him to do them on the computer instead of handwriting....it'll go MUCH faster and look really good. He has a fantastic painting of a killer whale that he did in school, AND he found his report in his bedroom (thank goodness) so he has all those pieces that he needed. So he's coming along quite nicely on the whole thing, and he's really excited about it all, which is awesome.

Mark and I watched Ghost Whisperer, Close to Home and Numb3rs last night. It's nice for us to have that time just the two of us (so much of the time Kira just butts right in and tries to take over all my attention), and the topics that are on the different shows really give me a great opportunity to talk with Mark about some pretty important stuff. Last night we talked about homosexuality and acceptance and the importance of not being mean to people who are different. We made a pact that whenever someone started saying something derogatory about someone else because of being different, that we would speak up and say "lay off" or "that's not cool" or something. We also agreed to remind the other one (in a subtle way) if we saw the other person just letting teasing like that go. I told Mark that one thing that would really help him be a person he could be proud of is if he doesn't get into teasing or picking on people. We also talked some about bullying (not that Mark is a bully, but one of his classmates has started doing some bullying, and it's becoming an issue with Mark and with at least one other kid I know of).

It was really great that we could talk about this stuff, and it was just easy talk during commercials, non-confrontational, etc. Plus we got to watch some pretty good TV. :D

OK. I've been putting off getting my teeth brushed and getting some laundry going. I really need to do some of that. I've got at least 3 loads of laundry that need doing today, and less than an hour before I need to get Kira to India's. Oh, and darn it, just completely forgot that I need to call Mary S. and see if she and Mark are going with us today. Sheesh.

I'm off.

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