Backwards

When I have a lot to catch-up on, it's easiest to start with recent first. And the most recent is my root canal, which happened this morning, 8am. Fun! Remember when I lost the crown on my tooth? My dentist put a new one on, but even after that, I couldn't eat on that side and it was hot/cold sensitive. He determined I have "pulpitis" and would need a root canal. It wasn't too bad, especially once he put the "bite guard" in so my muscles didn't have to work so hard to keep my mouth open. Hopefully I will be back to 100% use of all my teeth soon.

Amanda has been "nothing" crying again lately, and it still drives me crazy. I mostly ignore it after checking to make sure there's no reason. This morning I heard her while I was in the kitchen, and when I came back up and she was brushing her teeth, I asked if she'd been crying and she said yes. I asked if there was a reason and she said no, so I just shook my head and left it at that. The night before, we picked up some groceries before going home, and as I was gathering everything to take in the house, she dropped the few papers she was carrying and her jacket. She got frustrated at that, I guess, and started to cry, and cried to me for help. I looked at her, just sitting crying next to the papers and jacket, and said that I'm happy to help people who need help, but she needed to help herself and just start picking things up. She just cried all the more, and I told her I had my hands full with the groceries. "I'm going in the house, and you can stay here and cry, or you can pick up your things and join me in the house." Wow, you should have heard her scream as I closed the door to the house and went up to the kitchen. Scream and cry, for about 5 minutes. Finally she came in, but even then she couldn't / wouldn't stop the waterworks, so I told her I didn't want to hear it, but if she needed to cry she could go to her room. She stayed in her room crying for quite a few minutes. Good grief!

She had a total meltdown coming home from my niece Amber's graduation party on Saturday. We had a great time at the outdoor BBQ party and got to see lots of family (shout out to Aunt Ardith, Aunt Carlene & Jenae - hi!), but she got a bit naughty at times (spit at Aunt Lynnette, called Babushka something naughty - yikes!) I didn't factor a nap in at all, so that was a big part of it. She fell asleep right away when we headed home and slept about 40 minutes, then woke up and was happy for a bit, and then just started bawling and cried the rest of the way home. I had her go to her room again.

Hmmm, maybe backwards isn't the best way. I'll just jump all over. The weekend started out with my taking Amanda to Aunt Barb's to stay overnight. Saturday at 8am was signup for before- and after-school care at her school (and all the area schools). I had heard that some people have camped out overnight so as to ensure their kids have a spot. I didn't need to do that, but I did want to go a couple of hours early. I really didn't want to have to figure out different child care options, but I also didn't want to have Amanda stand in line with me 2 hours. Aunt Barb graciously agreed to have her as an overnight guest, and we spent Friday night eating pizza, shopping at a local church thrift store (25-50 cent kids' clothes!) and then eating popcorn. Then I headed home and they started their "party". Here are some pictures Barb took of Amanda petting Paco & harassing the cats at her house: Neither of the cats looks too sure about this kid!It was warm when I packed her overnight bag, but the next morning was COLD. I wore my winter long johns and brought a winter blanket for the 2-hr camp out in line, but it wasn't until Barb called to see if I'd gotten up that I realized that Amanda had NO WARM CLOTHES! I didn't factor that in at all. Barb put her in one of her sweatshirts for their morning walk with the dogs, and then a poncho and some other rigged-together things for going to the farmers' market, but she said they were both pretty cold. Bad mom! Not quite dressed for the weather:
Barb also videotaped Amanda singing into her microphone and amp, playing with her guitar and singing me a song for Mother's Day! She presented the DVD to me at the grad party and I had a chance to watch it Sunday night, I think. I'm going to try to post the video, but not in this blog! I told Barb that this sounds like a great tradition to start - Amanda stays w/her, I get a night/morning to get stuff done, she videotapes a present for me... don't you think it sounds like a great yearly plan? =)

I got Amanda signed up with no problem, then took my car to have a bunch of maintenance items done. Fortunately, they let me take one of their shop cars and I returned home to mow the lawn and get a few other things done. Then picked up my car and headed to the graduation party.

Here's a pic of the college grad with her parents, Cindy & Keith:

Patty, Meagan & Abby were there for awhile, although I got there late and they left early. But, we had enough time for Amanda to get some Kansas-cousin time. Barb took this cute pic of Meagan & Amanda (well, actually, Barb took all these pictures). Playing a few rounds of "Polish horseshoes" - not too many rules. The main points are 1) must catch the frisbee (or other team gets a point), 2) must have a drink in your hand at all times and 3) must catch the (empty) beer bottle if the other team hits the pvc pipe w/the frisbee and knocks it off (or the other team gets 3 points). It was fun, and I thought I did pretty well, even in my sandals.

Not sure what's going on here, but someone short, with curly hair, looks to be trying to get the keg to work. I wonder if he/she had success? (not!)

After leaving the party, driving back to Omaha and handling her meltdown, we headed to the ballpark to join Barb for "Bark in the Park", featuring therapy dog groups (both of Barb's dogs are therapy dogs). People were welcome to bring their own dogs, and Amanda was in heaven petting all the dogs.

My friend saw Amanda on the news that night, petting a dog, but she couldn't remember the station and I couldn't find the clip later. Oh well. They had people taking pictures and this is the one they took of our group. Barb, Paco & Amanda are cut off, but it's not a bad pic of me & Jake.Ok, that's about all caught up on the weekend and this week. Oh, except that Sunday morning, I decided we'd go to early church and then I'd signed up to clean/set-up communion between services at 9:30. We were dressed and I was making breakfast when my choir director called to ask did I remember I'm singing for early service (should be there at 7:30, current time 7:35)? Uh, no, I thought I signed up for communion (Cantor, Communion - both start w/C, so I guess my brain saw what it wanted to see when I looked at my purse calendar). I threw the breakfast in a container, poured some milk in to-go containers, and we raced out the door. Luckily, the verse & offertory were simple (some are very weird, for lack of a music-educated way of putting it) and the anthem was one I was familiar with and enjoy singing, so it all ended up just fine. I'm so glad we were dressed and ready to go!!!!

That afternoon (Mother's Day) we joined my friend and her kids and went swimming in the public indoor pool. Turned out MDay is a great time to do that as everyone else in town was doing other things. We had the entire pool and three lifeguards to ourselves! It was great fun. Then home for some down time before the week started off.

Going further back to last week. Tuesday night was Brandon's choral concert. I had a thousand shots of him from Barb's and my cameras, but it looks like I didn't download one here, and every time I add a picture, it adds tons of carriage returns everywhere, so I'm not going to do it! I guess I did select a pic of Lynnette holding Amanda at the concert. (Sorry, Brandon - like I mentioned in the confirmation blog to Joshua - it's all about us, or Amanda, really)Here's a pic of Brandon w/Amanda at the house afterward.

We should have headed home as it was a school night and we were going on 5 nights straight of being away from home, but it was fun to hang out with the fam, eat pizza and popcorn and laugh and talk. Teaser #1 (not in the order of mention from the last post, but in the order that I'll explain them): X and you're not my friend. Lynnette (red/white shirt) snuck Amanda's pizza from her plate. She noticed and asked where it went, and when she looked around, Lynnette snuck it back. I joined in by fake-harassing her about complaining about no pizza when it was right there - what are you fussing about?!? She had this very confused look on her face until I winked at her, and then she turned around and say Aunt 'Nette trying not to laugh and she got very indignant and made a big 'X' sign in front of Lynnette. That made me just bust out laughing. Everyone asked me what that was all about, but I just said it must be something from school. It just struck me so funny - Tease me? Well, X on you! Then Amanda said, "You're not my friend" and she crossed her arms in a (fake) harumph. We were all just laughing. It was so funny.

The previous night was her little dance recital, which was fun, especially since Barb & Lynnette came up from Lincoln. Teaser #2 - watching her spot. The teacher had green tape to mark each kid's spot, and I had put their initials on the spots for ballet. The tap was in a different room (the facility doesn't want their nice floor marred) and I didn't have a chance to mark those spots, and in rehearsal, the girls kept getting jumbled up if one person took the wrong spot, so I marked those and made sure they all saw what I did so they weren't distracted during the dance. What I didn't count on was Amanda wondering what was exactly on the ballet spot (I'd added a heart or a star to some of the tap spots to differentiate between A for Angie and A for Amanda). They'd been practicing with those - shouldn't be a distraction, right? Well, the show started and after skipping in, all Amanda did for the first 1/3 of the dance was stare at her spot while the other girls did the dance (bigger girl is there to lead them):

People were chuckling, and Barb especially enjoyed watching me with my hands over my face. She did recover and do the rest of the dance. Big finish:

Then she came over to me (instead of running out with her class) to tell me her nose was bleeding (a tiny bit). Well, yeah, because you were picking at it in line before the dance started (I saw her). I told her to join her class (the other girls hadn't followed Sara out - they just watched Amanda). Amanda got pouty and I told her to JOIN HER CLASS and she went back and then the teacher tried to get them to follow Sara out, which they did eventually. *sigh* We had a little discussion in the bathroom then about picking your nose and not listening to Mommy. (I'm probably too hard on her.)

Then to the other room for the tap dance, where they all wore Sponge Bob felt tops made by one of the parents. (Well, she made the top and gave us the pieces to do our own decorating) Yea! We were originally supposed to decorate boxes for them. Her idea was much better, and more comfortable for the girls. Hopping in:

Posing for Aunt Barb:

Teaser #3 - hugging air (no pictures). First, some background and irritation: Sunday night, after driving back from the weekend in Kansas and having just enough time at home to mow and take a shower, we headed to cousin Lloyd's for dinner. I'd told him numerous times we'd be there btwn 5-5:30, and in an earlier e-mail said that she would need to eat about 6pm, no later (he tends to have late suppers)(and I don't think he reads my blog)(and Lloyd, if you do, what's a little irritation among family members, right?) =) Just after I arrived (Lynnette was already there), he said supper wouldn't be ready for another hour to hour and a half. What?! 7pm? Lynnette & I were both very dismayed. He said he wasn't sure when people would arrive, but we both dismissed that quickly - he knew 5:30. Anyway, ok, break out the appetizers, Lloyd! The child needs something to eat - peanut butter, cheese? Bring it on.

We had a nice dinner (eventually) and took a walk outside, and then it was time for us to go home. Amanda was heading toward the door, and I told her to remember to say goodbye to everyone. She turned back toward Lloyd and his friend Betty, and Lloyd started to open his arms to hug her. But she diverted toward a side of the room where there was no one, and proceeded to hug imaginary people goodbye, complete with words! "Goodbye, it was nice to see you" - something like that. Meanwhile, Lloyd's standing confused and amused with his arms out and Lynnette and I are just busting a gut. Where does she come up with these things?!? It was hilarious. She then sort of laughed and gave Lloyd and Betty hugs goodbye.

Going way back, on 4/18 I got invited to the UNL Husker football spring game.

Barb again watched Amanda for me (she's going for sister/aunt of the year, although everyone has been so awesome and supportive for me). She and her friend Christine took Amanda to the Children's Museum. They'd been walking by one day and mentioned that neither had been and it would be fun to go. Barb e-mailed me and asked if she could borrow Amanda some day to take her to the museum. Sure! Anytime! When would you like her? =)

It worked out great with the Spring Game, and I got to relax in the sun (although we'd prepared for cold weather and didn't have enough layers to shed, so we sort of sweated in our long-sleeved tshirts - I did take my shoes and socks off, and that helped a bit)(what's the deal with my preparing for opposite weather than reality?) Here's one of many museum pics - I thought it was cute w/the big chair:

I also forgot to mention that on 4/15, Amanda & I went to our local Tea Party after work to protest the government spending all our money and putting our children in horrible debt. It was great to be with others who feel that the government has gone too far (and it started with GBush, so don't think I'm just anti- the current administration)(although it would be nice if our president stopped going around the world apologizing for our country and calling us arrogant. I guess he missed that we're the greatest nation in the world and have a lot to be proud of. Makes me sick how he makes apologizes for this country!)

What I found very interesting about the Tea Party thing country-wide was how it was portrayed in the mainstream media. I found out that I'm a bigot just for showing up, that it really was a non-event (I guessed they missed the fact that turnout was huge in some places), and a lot of other negative things I guess I've forgotten, which is fine. Most of them didn't understand the Boston Tea Party connection (um, people not having a say in their government? Government acting outside of the best interest of the people and the country?) Didn't seem like much of a stretch to me. But the media is so anti-conservative, it's horrible. They're supposed to be objective and non-partisan. I worry about this country, it's becoming terribly divided. Half of the people (or less) are paying crazy taxes and supporting the other half (or more), who think it's just fine and continue to put that idealogy in power. Really worrisome.

Sorry, soap box is now put away. BTW, did you notice that a recurring theme of this blog was parenthetical phrases, mostly in pairs? (annoying, do you think?)(I sort of got in the groove and couldn't stop)(...maybe kind of fun?)

(OK, I'll quit!)(It's time to go to bed, anyway)