Where's Waldo?

Cari, Oh Cari
Where have you been?
I've been to London to see the Queen



Cari, Oh Cari
What did you there?
I frightened a mouse
from under her chair


OK not really, but I do feel a little like Mother Goose. Or the old woman who lived in a shoe. My motherly duties have brought me great joy and buckets of sweat in the last week. That is why I have been absent from bloggerland and I think it's a pretty darn good excuse. Wow. Someones feeling a little defensive.


While I would love to provide you with all kinds of awesome photos, photoshopped to perfection, of my activities of late, I lost my camera a while back and now only have my phone with which to take photos. And although my phone takes photos, it does not want to give them up so that I can share them with you. Turns out I needed to have bought a media card to go in my phone if I wanted to get the pictures out of my phone. One questions why my phone is enabled to take pics if I can neither email them nor download them. But one also questions why the sky is blue, why Joe Biden cannot self-censor, and why cupcakes can't be calorie free.

Where have I been?


3 days: washing dishes and setting tables with the other mom and alum volunteers at Tessa's sorority during rush week. Which led to the question - why does it take an industrial dishwasher two minutes to wash a load of dishes when it takes the dishwasher in my kitchen a full hour.

The girls displayed their smart, beautiful and accomplished selves and did an awesome job on recruitment. I think they are feeling very proud of and excited about their new recruits and have actually now gotten some sleep. We volunteers displayed our servant selves, our sweat pants and T-shirt selves, and were decidedly less beautiful but still had fun bonding in the heat of the kitchen.

1 morning: cheering Angela as she competed in the Hillapalooza Sprint Triathlon. Seriously I do not know whose child she is. It just goes to show that no matter how you were raised, you can still be your own individual self. She was definitely not raised to be a triathlete. In this case nature wins out over nurture in the eternal social debate.

1 day: volunteering at Angela's new school, putting desks together before opening day. It's tough getting a brand new school all ready! There are a million little details. I'm proud of her ability to roll with it and successfully teach a room full of 5th graders with no textbooks or other resources. Hopefully she will get access to her boxes of teacher stuff this weekend and be fully resourced by Monday.

1 day to prepare for and teach the first night of one of the university courses I teach.

Somewhere in there I managed to celebrate my 49th birthday. Happy birthday to me. And to my twin sister, Shari.

Aaannd now we're back to Friday. I think it might be a lay-by-the-pool day. I'm worn out!

Once a mom, always a mom... I just can't help it!

It's that time of year when mothers everywhere, or at least in North America, start dragging themselves out of the summertime lethargy that hit back in March and begin thinking of back-to-school shopping. Now days schools post classroom supply lists on their websites. When I was a kid we just bought the standard lined notebook paper or Big Chief tablet, pencils, erasers, scissors, paste, maybe a new ruler and one of those little zip bags to put the pencils and erasers in. In High School we bought Trapper Keepers to keep all our stuff organized. That typically lasted about one week.

From http://www.flickr.com/photos/briankusler/4519605551/

"Overheard today:'The iPad is just a Trapper Keeper for adults!' "

These days I don't have to fight the other mothers at Walmart for school supplies. But I've been busy the last few days shopping for "back-to-school". Yesterday Tessa and I accomplished a feat thought impossible - we bought all the necessary clothing, shoes and accessories for sorority recruitment week in one afternoon. Since Tessa is now a senior, it was the last such shopping trip and we are quite proud to go out with a record-breaking day. (Note to self: Remember to sign up to help in the sorority house kitchen during rush!)

And then there's the elder daughter...With a teacher for a daughter, back-to-school shopping springs eternal. I'm pretty sure Angela still has enough tissues, glue and anti-bacterial wipes to supply the entire 5th grade. I did pull the mom card when H1N1 was a daily presence in the news last fall and lecture her on how the anti-bacterial wipes and hand-gel were doing no one any good shut into her classroom cabinet. So maybe take the wipes off the list.

Is it weird that I enjoy helping her set up and decorate her classroom? Maybe it's that latent teacher in me from my days of playing school in Susan's basement. These days I love going into the teacher's work room and playing with the little machine that cuts letters and shapes. Angela's not a big bulletin board fan so I'm all "pick me, pick me" when it comes time to set those up. (Those over-eager kids were always so annoying!)

This year we are dreaming up fun artwork to go on the virgin walls of her brand new classroom in the shiny new school where she will be teaching. Left to my own devices I'd furnish a whole little reading corner, complete with a kid-sized sofa and beanbags galore. But since that's not in the budget, I contented myself with shopping Goodwill for used books with cool artwork for the mixed-media creation we're planning.

Now I'm feeling nostalgic and thinking I might have to dig out some "first day of school" photos. Or go smell some freshly-sharpened pencils. Or maybe go open a fresh box of crayons.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akacreativity/634022438/

Too much information

I gotta tell you, Mother's Day with grown children is a pleasure. They don't have to rely on another adult to help them pick out a gift, they can cook, they get it when their mother plasters her blog with Mother's Day reminders. I pretty much got spoiled yesterday with a home cooked meal I didn't have to make or clean up after and a nice walk in the park. After that we spent a relaxing couple of hours doing cleansing facial masks and manicures and such at Angela's house. And my son-in-law was good enough during that part of the celebration to go to his man den to play video games and take a nap and not wander around pointing out how not beautiful we were with our mud masks. I always said he was a smart young man!

And at the end of the day I got to spend a little time with my own precious mother. I still can't believe I have the good fortune of living in the same town with her, my twin sister, and my married daughter. After living for decades in far flung places, it still seems like a miracle. We used to call one another, jokingly say "want to go get a cup of coffee?", then shed a few tears knowing it wasn't possible across so many miles. Now when someone says "Want to go get a cup of coffee?" we can say, heck yes, and jump in the car and go. Miraculous.

So after all that sweetness and light, you probably don't want to hear about how cranky I am this morning. It's raining AGAIN, I'm HUNGRY because I'm on a strict food plan, and my RLS is driving me crazy. The diet is something I'm not going to talk about until I actually have some positive results to discuss, because really, who wants to hear about yet another failed attempt at losing weight. And the Restless Leg Syndrome everyone thinks means I get a few cramps in my legs, when in reality, it means violent, full leg, creepy crawly cramping that keeps me from resting comfortable in a chair, from falling asleep, and wakes me up long before the sun. And for some reason the medication I take for it has stopped working. And I'm working all day, then teaching a four-hour class at a local university tonight on about five hours of sleep. So right now I"m CRANKY. If you know me in real life, I would suggest just staying the heck away today. Might be in your best interest.

Just when you were lulled into thinking this was a sweet mommy blog, it takes a nose dive into midlife. At least I'm not having hot flashes.

Hello world, what's new?

Whew, the last couple of weeks have been crazy at work, leading up to our big annual meeting and volunteer appreciation event, among other things. I've been planning, thinking and creating non-stop for weeks and it all turned out well. Fantastic even. So I'm thankful and relieved and happy to take a few days off.

Now I have time to think about what is going on in the world around me. Let's see. Swine flu? I'm somewhat confused by the mixed messages. It's near pandemic proportions says the World Health Organization, President Obama says it's a cause for concern but not alarm, photos of masked citizens riding the subways of the world fill the news. From what I read, the best way to prevent catching and/or spreading the swine flu is a complicated and technical procedure.

1. Wash your hands often.
2. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough.
3. Don't pick your nose.
4. Stay home if you have a fever.

Wait. I'm pretty sure mothers everywhere have been drilling those things into the heads of their offspring for generations. I've always said just use the good sense the good Lord gave ya!

Now that we've solved that problem, what else is happening. Looks like there's a need to avoid raw alfalfa sprouts due to possible salmonella. Check. What else. GM is getting rid of the Pontiac. Duh! Oh, here's a stunner.

By Andrew Stern – Mon Apr 27, 12:15 am ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Children given stimulants to treat
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms score higher on math and
reading tests than children with the condition who do not get drugs, researchers
said on Monday.

Oh for crying out loud, I should certainly hope this would be the case. It doesn't appear to be a slow news day, but apparently stating the obvious is now newsworthy. Here's another good one for the use of common sense.

Fri Apr 24, 12:13 pm ET
ZURICH (Reuters) – A Swiss insurance worker lost her job after surfing popular social network site Facebook while off sick, her employer said Friday. The woman said she could not work in front of a computer as she needed to lie in the dark but
was then seen to be active on Facebook, which insurer Nationale Suisse said
in a statement had destroyed its trust in the employee.

If people would just listen to their mother, we wouldn't need to be reading all these headlines. That's my summary of today's news. And speaking of mothers, just another subtle reminder of what's coming up in a mere two weeks...Mother's Day! The Bible says, and I quote: "Treat your mama right and you'll score major points". That's from 1st Carinthians, if you want to look it up.

Unsolicited Advice

Tessa was home this weekend. Although she was sick and missed most of the Easter festivities, I still had the opportunity to offer some unsolicited advice. Because that's my job as Mom and Head General Manager of my children's universe. Truthfully, I gave up trying to manage their universe about the time they went off to college. I really don't have much leverage. I mean, what can I do, take away car keys, limit television, enforce a curfew? Not from long distance. I figure I did what I could in the first 20 years and it's up the them now. But I sometimes can't resist throwing little tidbits of wisdom in here and there.

Which got me to wondering what things my mother tried to tell me when I wasn't listening. And because it's Monday and you know what I love on a Monday. Everybody in unison. Because on a Monday Cari loves...all together now..."a good list".

5 Things My Mother Probably Told Me While I Wasn't Listening

1. Wear more lipstick. Life needs more color.
2. There's no such thing as "safe" sex.
3. Don't wait for a Prince Charming to rescue you. Sometimes you have to rescue yourself before your prince will seem charming.
4. Donuts make you fat.
5. Sometimes life sucks, sometimes it doesn't. Get over yourself.

What did your mother say when you weren't listening?