Babywearing Baby

Eyes on the Prize

I have had a plan in mind for the past few months to move out of Vegas in a year and a half. But I didn't like it much. I wanted to find a way to do it sooner. It just feels like we've been waiting for far too long and waiting for a whole year and a half more seems unbearable. Why has it taken this long? When I look back and try to think about it, I can't really come up with anything definite. Too poor, for sure. But then I think about when I was five years old and my mother, soon-to-be stepfather, and I moved from Vegas to Telluride, Colorado with nothing but the back of my grandpa's pick-up truck full of our stuff. Maybe we have just been too fearful. People can make geographical changes with very little.

picture of a picture, circa 1980

In the above picture I am either hiding my face in all that hair because I am tired from the drive or because I am disappointed that Telluride is not, in fact, "Toyride", which is what I had been expecting.

A couple of days ago I came across a blog post somewhere that talked about "doing it anyway." Even if things aren't ideal. Even if you're afraid. Follow your dreams and do it anyway.

So I got all inspired and I thought, why not? What are we waiting for? And thoughts have been swirling around in my head about how we can maybe possibly maaaaaybe make it happen sooner, rather than later.

I don't know what the future holds and I don't know if we're going to be able to manage it, but I'm feeling excited and somewhat anxious about the possibilities. I've often felt pathetic because my biggest dream has been to get the hell out of Vegas and all around me people were managing to do just that very easily (or so it seemed) and still we were here. I don't want to feel pathetic anymore, I want to feel excited.

Recent Doings

We had a water balloon fight. 45 minutes of prep, 7 minutes of play. It was worth it though. Pat lost.

Pat, the littles, and I went to a plant store that has ginormous turtles, bunnies, and a plethora of exotic birds, some of whom will say hello to you. There was also a resident cat wandering around who was very sweet. After that we went to a combination thrift store/art gallery, which was pretty neat. Then as we were driving to the craft store and the going out of business Borders where I bought three books at 90% off, there was some cloud awesomeness, which I then photographed.

Yesterday at park day we took a walk over to the "chipmunk bridge," a bridge that spans a drainage ditch that is filled with large boulders over which dozens and dozens of chipmunks gambol and frolic and eat trash and stuff. I also saw a few rabbits and some sort of large mouse/rat/chinchilla/definitely-not-chimpmunk-though. There was also access to train tracks, which of course the children wanted to check out, which made me nervous and annoyingly hover-y, despite the fact that we could see for quite a way in both directions, and trains obviously don't speed through an area with houses and parks, and they sound their whistles (they're probably not whistles nowadays) all the time as they go. What can I say? We recently watched Stand By Me. I'm a worrier.

weather

This morning around 3:30, I was awoken and didn't immediately know why. Then the whole room flashed white and there was a deafening boom. Oh. Thunderstorm. Actually, more like THUNDERSTORM. A minute after I woke up, another huge crack woke Pat up and after that another one woke up Irina. Silas slept through the whole thing, which was kind of amazing. This was the kind of thunderstorm where there is no one-Mississippi after the flash of lightning, it's just flashBOOM. So, that shit must have been like, in the desert across the street, in our backyard, on our neighbor's roof, in the upstairs hallway. That storm was not fooling around.

Then, all of today has just been lovely and cool and I didn't turn on the air conditioning all day and the littles and I walked over to the park in our neighborhood and it was just very good. After three months of more than 100 degree weather, I appreciate weather like this all the more. For three months Las Vegas has been sucking out my soul little by little, but today I regained a bit of it.

Mornings

Silas and I wake up before everyone else. Except Pat, who goes off to work. The older girls stay up very late and sleep during much of the day. Irina wakes up a couple of hours later than us. So we have the house to ourselves. I like this time with just him.

Though he is a somewhat grumpy riser. Lately, he will often ask for food and then immediately reject it. When he has something in his belly though, he will settle down. We like to watch Team Umizoomi and Max and Ruby together.

On Mondays and Thursdays, he'll hear the rumbling before I do and say to me, "Hear it? Hurry! Upstairs!" And then I pick him up and we race up to the only window from which we can easily see the garbage truck and he watches it and the men until they drive away.

Angel's Turn

A Refrigerator Message

Not Back to School

Here are some pictures from our Not Back to School party with the Life Learners.

cornstarch goop

being chased by the "zombies"