LaLaGirl * Twinfinite Chaos http://lalagirl.org Welcome to the Casa de Chaos! Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:59:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en Road Rage at the Elementary School http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/18/road-rage-at-the-elementary-school/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/18/road-rage-at-the-elementary-school/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:55:49 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1634 I’m about to head out of here in a bit to go pick up P and M from kindergarten. Yesterday, I was in the pickup lane and apparently taking too long getting the kids all buckled up, because a guy pulled up next to me and bitched me out about “holding up the line” - he said “You do this every day!” I do? I had no idea! Honestly, I didn’t know it was a line, as in, nobody gets to go until I move. We’re just parked in the fire lane! I’m not blocking any magical exit route or preventing their kids from getting to their car that I’m aware of? I thought it was a situation like at the old school, where you find a spot, the kids get in, and you pull away. I had no idea it was a LINE situation.

The kids started school in July. Here we are in the middle of November, and this is the first I’ve heard that I’m disrupting the whole zenlike experience of picking up children amidst mass chaos. I was embarrassed! And I felt really bad, like I was the pain-in-the-ass parent, spoiling things for everyone. God, no wonder the other parents never talk to me! They’re probably all gathered together having coffee, rolling their eyes and talking about the bitch in the minivan who holds up the line every day.

I left the school with my tail between my legs (uh, so to speak) and headed for home. On the way, I started thinking about it and I started getting pissed about it. I called Paul and told him about it, and he was ready to take the guy’s head off. In fact, he and I just got off the phone and I had to insist to him that he DID NOT need to leave work to meet me at the school so I could point this guy out to him. He maintains that even if I was in the wrong, it was pretty ballsy for the dude to come up and confront me about it, and yell at me. And he made me promise him that if anyone confronted me in the future, I would be less apologetic and polite and make more use of the phrase “fuck off.”

I really hope things go smoothly today and in the future. I hate making a scene and I hate making a spectacle of myself and I’d really rather just BLEND IN, y’know? We’re different enough as it is. Oy. Suburban middle class white men in SUVs are SCARY!

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/18/road-rage-at-the-elementary-school/feed/ It’s snowing! http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/14/its-snowing/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/14/its-snowing/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:28:28 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1632 Yay! First snow of the season. I’m cracking up at my kids - they are flipping out over the snow, like they’ve forgotten about the existence of snow altogether. They’re ready to go out and build a snowman, and I’m having a hard time convincing them that the light dusting we got of powdery, dry snow won’t stick together at all. Oh well. It’s Colorado, and I’m sure we have lots of snowman-worthy snow in our future. And I’m sure our biggest snowfall will occur after a 75 degree day, since that’s how it always goes around here.

I’m getting ready to meet Kayley and her dad over at her school for a parent teacher conference. (Cue scary music.) I have to take the little girls along with me, but maybe I can bring along some crayons or something to entertain them. I hate parent teacher conferences. I never realized how embarrassing it would be as a parent to have a slacker kid. I hate how WE are always judged by the teachers and given the hairy eyeball when Kayley doesn’t get her homework done or fails to turn it in, as if we’re somehow encouraging her to fail. We’ve done everything in our power to get her to step up and be a good student and she just has no interest whatsoever. I’m not sure where to go from here, but I’m picturing her having a career working at Target or something. Drag.

At least I have the little ones and their future music careers, right? They’ll take care of me in my old age - I’m sure of it!

Maybe it was a ballad?

Fingers crossed that K’s teachers have hopeful words for us!

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/14/its-snowing/feed/ Good news! I’m not dying. http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/11/good-news-im-not-dying/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/11/good-news-im-not-dying/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:30:44 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1630 I have lots more to write about this later, but it’s Veteran’s Day, and Paul has the day off, so I’m busy…but I wanted to let you know I FINALLY heard the results of my MRI from nearly two weeks ago:

It's not a tumor! Nope! In fact, it's nothing. Sorry to make you freak out all month

Yay!

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/11/good-news-im-not-dying/feed/ Haircuts and Physicals! http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/07/haircuts-and-physicals/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/07/haircuts-and-physicals/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:39:56 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1628 Yesterday, all four kids got a haircut. Pablo and Mallory go back to kindy next week, and they were looking WAY shaggy. And Nikki and Lexi had NEVER had a haircut before, ever! Beyond me hacking away at their bangs, that is. And their hair was so long, curly, and pretty. But - they would never let me put it in a ponytail, and it was constantly full of tangles, toothpaste, yard dust, etc. I hated seeing them eat dinner and watching their long hair resting in the gravy. HEEB! So, the little girls got much of their length cut off. All three girls have matching bobs. They are ADORABLE. And my GOD, they all look alike now!! I didn’t realize the problems this would present until I was realized that I can’t figure out who is who from the back anymore. Oh well. They think it’s hysterical.

And this blog entry would be much more entertaining if I had pictures to go along with it, huh? Sadly, I don’t. I took a couple, but my camera isn’t anywhere near me at this moment.

After haircuts, we picked up Auntie Kim and she accompanied us to the doctor’s office, so the big two could get their kindergarten physicals and (gasp) SHOTS. Well. THAT whole ordeal kind of sucked. They all did quite well during the examination, but when it came time to get the shots, there was lots of drama. Pablo was very brave, and mostly upset about being held down. He broke my heart, though, when he got down from the table and held his face in his hands and just WEPT. Awwww! Then, when I opened the door for him to go to my sister, he BOLTED. She had to race down the hallway after him, and when she finally caught him, he fell into her arms and cried, saying, “Pablo RUN!” :(

Mallory was a thousand times worse. It took myself and three nurses to get her on the table and then hold her down. And she screamed, honestly, LOUDER than I’ve EVER heard Pablo scream. Ever. I had no idea she had that in her. She was terrified. Ugh! Horrible, horrible day. But…ya gotta do what ya gotta do. We left the doctor and dropped Auntie Kim off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and got cookies for everyone. It’s amazing to me how my parents raised me with so little junk in the house, and nowadays, that’s all they eat. I guarantee you at any given time there are two or three varieties of cookies and pastries from the bakery in their pantry. They love sugaring up my kids! And I know my mom does it just to bug me!!

The kids actually were great last night, considering the day they had. We all hung out with daddy and enjoyed ourselves, and then went to bed, uh, pretty late actually. Bad mommy. I really, seriously need to get us back on our good schedule, since the kids go back to school in four days. We’ve slipped into bad habits having these three weeks off from school!

Today, we are stuck in the house. It’s bitter cold outside anyway, so I probably wouldn’t be too excited about going anywhere, but just the IDEA of being stuck is the worst part of it, y’know? Paul is driving my van, because his own van DIED. Yes, it died a horrible death. Actually, it’s not officially dead yet, but it will be. The mechanic gave it about 50 more miles. The transmission is just blown. Paul was coming home the other night and it started squealing and grinding and locking up and just…yeah. It’s sad. Of course, it’s got almost 200K miles on it, so…perhaps it’s time to say goodbye. We’re shopping for a new vehicle this weekend. The timing sucks, but…when doesn’t it suck? When do you sit around going, “This would be a really super time for the water heater to take a crap. I’ve got all this time on my hands with nothing to do and money burning a hole in my pocket!” Never.

Anybody want to run to the liquor store grocery store for me? :mrgreen

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/07/haircuts-and-physicals/feed/ Uh oh! http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/05/uh-oh/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/05/uh-oh/#comments Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:42:40 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1626 Last night, I went out to dinner with my best girlfriends and my favorite Christy. I hadn’t seen her since she moved away last summer, and it was sooooo good to give her a hug! We had dinner and watched the election returns and it was lovely. I sort of raced home, trying to catch Obama’s speech - I missed the first 5 minutes, but heard it in my van on talk radio. So I missed seeing the cute kids and all that, but I saw most of it. Pretty amazing day for our country, huh?

Anyway, I cuddled up in bed and a few minutes later, I heard someone fussing in the other room. It was little Pablo! He was cold and coughing a little bit. I snuggled him up and stroked his hair until he fell deeply asleep. Poor monkey. Then this morning, I was in the shower when Nikki came in crying, “I’m not feeeeeling very well today!” Awwww! It appears that my kids are catching a cold. So, I guess forget everything I said yesterday about how I couldn’t wait for fall break to be over. If they’re gonna be sick, lets get it over with now, so they don’t miss any school! I hope they pass it around FAST. Usually, they stretch it out over like 12 days. Ugh.

Share those germs, kids! Share! (But, not with me. Thanks.)

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/05/uh-oh/feed/ Unplugged. http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/03/unplugged/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/03/unplugged/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:38:33 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1624 It’s feeling weird, really. Over the past ten years, I’ve been at various times a full time college student, a full time employee, a full time mommy (toddler twins and newborn twins? Yeah, that’s pretty damned “full time”) and now, finally, I should be at a place where I can get more done. I should be able to find plenty of time to write. I should be able to do more freelance stuff. But instead, I find myself nearly disconnected from the ‘net. Even during those early, crazy days of having babies at home, I still got online to talk to my mommy friends. But not now! I can’t manage to catch my own ass, and when I find myself with some free time, I don’t want to be online. I want to be outside in the sunshine, listening to my kids bicker with one another. I want to lie on the living room floor while they drive cars up over my head and under my knees.

I’ve got so much on my mind lately that I can’t seem to get anything DONE, though. I have a to-do list a mile long, and I’m walking around in a daze. The house is a pit. The kids are wearing crazy mismatched clothes. I keep getting distracted by stuff, so I have a thousand half-finished projects all over the place. And I’m seriously getting to the point where I want to throw a lit match at my laundry room. Even if I ever manage to get all this laundry done, I’ll NEVER get it put away.

I think a lot of this is because the kids are off track from school. Do you have any idea how hard it is just to take a freakin’ SHOWER with all the kids home? Unless I lock them in the bathroom with me, they’ll be outside walking across the back fence while I’m conditioning. It’s nutty. I’m not sure which is the biggest challenge, having a child with autism or having four children who are very close in age. In both situations, the kids feed off the bad behavior and do things as a group that they would NEVER do individually.

Another week. Then I can find a new excuse for why I can’t get anything done.

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/03/unplugged/feed/ Frankenberry and Count Chocula. http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/03/frankenberry-and-count-chocula/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/03/frankenberry-and-count-chocula/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:44:10 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1622 I tried really hard to convince Paul that he should be Booberry, but he would have NONE of that. So my sister and I had to be cereal monsters all by ourselves! Amazing what you can whip up in an hour with construction paper, markers, and packaging tape, huh?

Frankenberry & Count Chocula

Sadly, we didn’t win any contests. But we did get lots of laughs!

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/11/03/frankenberry-and-count-chocula/feed/ The MRI is OVER! http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/30/the-mri-is-over/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/30/the-mri-is-over/#comments Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:34:25 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1620 And it kind of sucked. It was creepy and confining and SO INCREDIBLY LOUD. Like, loudness in a way I was not even prepared for. My ears were ringing when we left last night, like I’d been sitting next to a speaker at a concert or something! I had earplugs in, thank God, or I’d probably be suffering some sort of permanent hearing loss now, I’m thinking. This is what the machine looks like:

And this is what the thing looked like that they snapped my head into:

And then they slid me inside that machine up to my feet. It was like being in a cannon or something. I couldn’t move anything except my feet. I mean, you’re supposed to lie perfectly still, but I couldn’t have moved anything. It was like shoving a Barbie into a paper towel tube and then screaming into one end of it for 30 minutes.

It made all kinds of crazy, ridiculous noises - I kept almost thinking I was going to crack up laughing, because it just seemed so insane! I was like, really? Seriously? A whole NEW set of noises now? What is that, a truck horn? Oh, now a jack hammer? At one point, I was seriously thinking the fire alarm was going off in the building and they were going to yank me out of that thing so we could run for our lives. But, nope! That’s just what it sounds like. Like you’re sitting on the front bumper of a semi while it’s honking it’s horn repeatedly, and someone next to you is firing a machine gun.

I found this page online that has recordings of an MRI machine. It was surprisingly hard to find any other recordings anywhere, I guess because the magnet is so strong, you can’t have any metal in the room at all. So, probably no tape recorder. I saw lots of YouTube clips of chairs and mop buckets and shit that flew into MRI machines, though!

Click here and listen to those sounds, so you know I’m not exaggerating.

The guy told me it’d be about 5 days before someone read the scan. Of course. I’m so glad it’s over!

The tech guy told me something interesting, though. I asked him if he sees a lot of brain cysts. He said, “Arachnoid cysts?” I said I wasn’t sure what it was. He said, “My wife has one.” I said that seemed like a weird coincidence, for the wife of an MRI tech to have a brain cyst! He said a lot of people have them. I asked if it was a big deal and he nodded, but then said, “They just keep checking on it to make sure it doesn’t get bigger.” And then we were done talking because it was time for me to get packed into my little MRI coffin so the machine could scream in my ear for awhile.

I sure hope I hear something soon. Stupid Kaiser.

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]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/30/the-mri-is-over/feed/ For this moment anyway, all is right in the world. http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/28/for-this-moment-anyway-all-is-right-in-the-world/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/28/for-this-moment-anyway-all-is-right-in-the-world/#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:16:11 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1617 So here I am, grilling chicken. The sun is setting, the fall leaves are gorgeous, the kids are drawing with chalk on the patio. I’m having a glass of wine and listening to Coldplay. It feels like just a perfect, beautiful moment in time, and I felt like it was important enough to quickly log in here and mention it, since I’ve had so many sucktacular moments lately.

Just sharing!

Random LaLa Goodness

]]> http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/28/for-this-moment-anyway-all-is-right-in-the-world/feed/ She looks better in it than I did! http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/26/she-looks-better-in-it-than-i-did/ http://lalagirl.org/2008/10/26/she-looks-better-in-it-than-i-did/#comments Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:17:48 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=1614 Kayley & Dylan - Halloween

Kayley wore my costume from last year to her buddy Dylan’s birthday/Halloween soirée. Doesn’t she look cute? She LOVED being so tall - between the wig and the shoes, she was a good 8 inches taller than her usual shrimpy self. I think she had fun, but she was worn OUT by the time I brought her home. I guess teetering around on those shoes all night wears a girl out. She was asleep in bed before I had my pajamas on.

I love this time of year.

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