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While digging through a box of old letters and junk mail from my mother’s storage shed, I found a little red book entitled “Class Autographs. schooldays Memories of Evalena McGrew, Freshman”

Evalena is my maternal grandmother, and a woman I never had the opportunity to meet as she had passed away suddenly at the age of 50 because of a blood clot to the brain.

I have been paging through this book, and it is full of quotes from her classmates. I can’t decide if they are made up, or if they were common poems/lyrics back in the day. Or if each student just picked one as a signature quote and wrote it in everyone’s autograph book.

I thought I would share a few of them with you. Most are dated November 21, 1933.

Dear Evalena, (They all begin with this saluation)

Some like the tulips
that grow in the park,
But I like the two-lips
That meet in the dark.

Your friend, “Aggy”

—–

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet
and so are you.

Yours till you see Bronner in a gym suit – Howard

—-

The higher the mountain
The cooler the breeze
The younger the couple
The tighter the squeeze.

(And more thrilling, especially a kiss from a certain guy.) Yours till you marry P.K, “Jerry”

—–

When evening drops it curtain, and pins it with a star,
Remember you still have a friend
Though she may wander far.

-Beatrice

——

When the golden sun is setting
and the path no more you trod
May your name in gold
be written
in the autograph of God.

-Your cousin, Violet

—–

I wish you luck, I wish you joy
I wish you first a baby boy,
and when his hair begins to curl, I wish you
then a baby girl, and when her hair is straight
as pins, I wish you then a set of twins.

Love Martha

—–

When you get married
and your husband gets
cross, pick up a rolling pin
and say “I’m boss”

Yours till (ice creams ?) Jean

——

Hold on, Neenes just woke up in a fury. More later!

Morella playing the part of Little Mommy …. or Big Sister and Soren just has to put up with it.

Getting her pink puppy dressed up for … well dancin’.

Morella is all dressed and ready to go and jump in puddles.

Where are those puddles girls? “THERE!”

A hallmark of childhood — puddle jumping/

Man today was a … day. Neeners JUST went down to sleep after taking a nap from 7:15 – 8:30. We gave her ibuprofen and that finally did it. Her teeth must be really hurting her, she has three coming in fast and furious. Today was also Day 1 of Operation Little Brother … no we aren’t having any more kids. We are instead watching my friends son (8 wks) two days a week. It’s a good thing he is so young because he totally wouldn’t have been impressed with my kids manners. Though Morella was a wonderful little Mommy and held him, and fed him a bottle. Neeners however suggested that he go outside.

Photos now.

Tim, Neeners, Kathleen, Daphne, Chuck and Morella at Laima’s Glorious New Beginnings party this past Saturday.

Hilary and Mina at Cool Beans

I know this is blurry, but I wanted you to see the absolute adoration Morella has for older girls, especially Leta (and Mina … they must both be said at the same time).

Morella and I at Olbrich Beach

We all walked down to the beach after the girls had taken a long, late nap and we had written off any chance of a decent bedtime.

Tim found a teeny turtle! It was the first one I’ve ever seen up close in the wild.

Kids observing nature.

Lifeguard Morella is on the look out. She love the beach so much.

Too bad Madison beaches are so polluted and give her a bad case of swimmer’s itch.

Lastly, there is a house nearby that has a giant chicken in their front yard.

The girls are both sleeping. Neeners took longer than Morella to go down after a busy morning of TV, playdate outside and lunch with my friend Hilary and her girls (which Morella loved — she has missed having older girl time). I was surprised that Morella even laid down for a nap, I think part of it was that she thought her big girl friends were home taking a nap too. Plus last week I had bought a little window fan for the white noise, and it is amazing in terms of helping her sleep through the night and fall to sleep for naps. Neeners almost fell asleep on the way home but Morella and I kept her awake, apparently a little too much. Or maybe it was because she needed to poop, because she fell asleep after she did that. So now I have some sweet, glorious free time. Tim came home from work to work at home for the afternoon so it’s pretty quiet around here. I usually have to be quiet during nap time because they wake up from any sort of talking, though the fan has been helping with that.

Being home and getting back into the swing of things and making a new normal is always a little exciting. I feel brimful of ideas on projects I could work on – so much so that I don’t even know where to start. There is so much that I could do, so the internet usually wins out. On the plus side, if I am screwing around on the internet I like to throw up a post because then it feels more productive.

The weekend was good. Friday, Tim came home from work a little early (made it up over the weekend) to watch the girls while I went and had a drink with my friend Laima at the Memorial Terrace. It was her last day of work at a evil company and the weather was fabulous and it was so nice to get out and enjoy adult conversation. Though I was a bit of an ass for a moment or three there. You see, while I was away traveling Tim hadn’t done much grocery shopping so there wasn’t much to eat around the house. I didn’t eat much at all during the day and during the long walk to the Terrace I was fantasizing about eating and where I was going to eat. I wanted to get something before I met Laima but then held off thinking she might want to go out. I showed up at the terrace and ordered a large, ice cold microbrew and an order of curly fries. By the time I got the fries and found my friends I had consumed half of the beer and was a little buzzed, and chatty.

There was a woman seated at the table holding a baby boy. I didn’t watch her closely enough to realize that she was one of those “my child is very, very special and I am a super Mom” before I opened my big mouth. I saw that the kid was getting fussy. So I first said “Hey there is some grass right here he could crawl around on” but she ignored me. The baby continued to get fussy so I was going to offer a curly fry to him, but thought to ask first how old he was.

“Oh how old is he?”
“11 months” she replied, holding him like a hot potato. You know the type, very gently but constantly moving around him to make sure he was okay in every sense of the way.

“Oh that is great. Then would he like a curly fry?” I offered, pointing to the fries.
“Oh god no!” She replied, as if I had offered the child heroin. By now, dear friends, I was probably very buzzed and out came stream of conscious. “Oh is this your first child?”
“Yes,” she said.
“That explains it!” I said and then realized what I had just done. I immediately turned my friend Cecci on my left and started talking with her in earnest.

Seriously. I just became one of those old people that young, know it all parents like to blog about having no clue about kids. But for the record, I blame it all on Neeners. ;P

How much you want to bet that kid has never tasted sugar and his first taste of it will be for his birthday — a hand made, organic carrot cake, gluten free applesauce cupcake.

Oh well. That is what happens when you don’t get out much, your foot immediately heads for your mouth.

After the music started the baby got even fussier and she left. Probably had an early bedtime with an elaborate routine that must not be messed with. OKAY! I will stop.

Saturday we stayed home all day. I mowed the lawn with Neeners on my back in the ergo because she was cranky, played with Morella and watched her ride her scooter, got a pedicure and then we all went to a party being thrown by Laima called “Glorious New Beginnings.” Now if you know Laima, you know that she knows how to throw fabulous parties. In fact, I often try to hold myself up to her standards when I plan and throw parties. We all had a great time and ate entirely too much delicious food. The girls went to bed late, though it didn’t stop Neeners from getting up early Sunday morning.

Sunday morning rolls around and Neeners is up with the birds. We let her climb out of bed ( I never even remember how she gets there) and let her putz around before she woke up Morella. A couple hours later, Neeners is pointing to my neck and laughing. I ask Tim what is there and he said it was covered in black/grey. Ugh, Neeners and her markers. Except, how could she have gotten a marker? She had black on her shirt, on her tummy and on her arm. Minutes later Tim calls out from the bathroom that he found the source. She had gotten into one of my eyeliner pencils and had drawn all over the white cabinet in the bathroom, the toilet and herself. She had also played with the cat water and gotten every single hair tye in the cabinet wet and strewn about the counter. The price of sleeping in, I guess.

Tim left to attend Old Man Book Club at Mickeys for a couple of hours. While he was gone, I helped the girls make him Father’s Day cards and then cleaned up the living for him. He was pretty happy with it when he got home later. I made dinner and then we went to Laima’s to get some leftover food and drop off bricks and then over to Sigrid’s house to get some plastic molded chairs she had found in her garage. We stayed and visited and it was nice. Came home, put the girls to bed, except Neeners who kept getting out of bed. Eventually I left and went grocery shopping and came back to put Neeners back to bed. Then I watched that new show Falling Skies and went to bed too late.

Got up this morning around 8:30, made the girls breakfast, watched…well that starts the beginning of this post now doesn’t it?

We visited my Mom for her birthday. It was one of the best visits I have had with her in a long, long time.

Morella shows her Grandma how to use the Ipad.

Grandpa B.

Birthday/Going away party for Aubrey.

Morella finds a scooter.

Morella was one of the only kids who hit that pinata with passion and knocked off a leg.

Getting candy in party dresses.

Neeners took her waving at people in the parade very seriously. The more you waved, the more candy was thrown your way. She is a quick study.

“OH MY GOSH! LOOK AT THAT!!!”

Cows on Parade up at the Capitol followed by shopping at the Farmer’s Market. Ran into Chuck, Kathleen and Daphne but didn’t take pictures.

Ride the Drive 2011 — Morella’s and Tim’s third time, and Neeners and I second.

A brigade of Princesses showed up to dance in the tunnel under Monona Terrace for Ride the Drive. Morella was very impressed.

A playdate with some Ho Chunk speaking kids and their cool Mom. Here is a great show of Neeners getting elbowed out for a change, as you can tell she wasn’t pleased.

The kids are all climbing flower mountain by themselves. Builds character yo.

Playing in the mud at my brother’s in Dells Dam.

A close up of Neeners really getting into it. I have to remember to bring twice as many pants as I think I need to bring next time.

While Neeners is playing in the mud, Tega Shane watch the girls play in the inflatable swimming pool on one of the hottest days of the year.

This is about as into it as Morella got.

While the older girls were a little more gung ho about getting wet. My guess is that by next year, Morella and Neeners will be more enthusiastic about getting more than their legs and butt wet.

One day, Shane and I took them all to the Russel County beach in Hatfield. It was awesome. I wish we had a beach like that nearby, and it was free.

Morella wanted me to know every other minute, that she was a big girl and could go into the water herself.

Morella loved the beach.

My little swimsuit models.

Neeners didn’t want to get wet past her knees, even when I was playing with her.

After eating ice cream, Morella demanded that everyone follow her into the woods for “an adventure.”

Exploring and looking for the pony princess castle.

My brother Shane.

Hey would you look at that? I was there too! I chopped off an inch on those ridiculously long bangs when we got back.

Dinner outside, obviously Shane was telling us all something important.

Later, we all told nursery rhymes around the fire (I turned them into stories to see how long it was until someone caught on…it was a long time).

That is it for now. I hear stirring in the other room.

I will get to pictures as soon as I get to the desktop….and want to be there. For now I am enjoying how awesome it is to sit on my couch with an ice cold beer and being on the internet in the comfort of my own home. One thing about traveling that I appreciate is that it makes you love your own place so much more. The girls went down tonight at a glorious 7:45 and I have spent the last hour catching up on blogs, Facebook — and I would like to say email, but no one emails me anymore.

Sunday we went to a birthday party/going away party for one of Morella’s friend’s from Eastside Playgroup. I am also sorry to see one of our core members of our Bookclub heading off to the East for greener pastures. After that we went to Verona for their Hometown Days parade. It was an especially good parade because the route passed Tim’s office and they had prime spots blocked off, in the shade. Not that we needed to worry about the shade much, because the weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny, but in the low 70’s. There were also other little kids for Morella and Neeners to hang out with and fight over candy thrown to them. I was quite shocked to see them hand out Popsicles, snow cones and freezer pops, t-shirts, blow up toys and a frisbee, in addition to the regular parade candy. It was the girl’s first real, enjoyable parade (sure we have been to others but they were too little to really get it, and the St. Patrick’s Day parade I dragged them too was too cold). As soon as we got back from the parade, the girl’s paternal grandparents showed up for a nice long visit. We ended up grilling some chicken and using our first CSA vegetables for dinner, along with some melon. During the visit, we figured out the best time to go up and visit them to take a trip to Bay Beach would be this week. So we made plans to head up there on Tuesday night and return Thursday.

And that, my friends, is what we did. In short, the weather was totally crappy yesterday. It rained and was cold, but we still went. Neeners loved the place, but Morella seemed to have lost enthusiasm for it after it started to rain (which unfortunately was at the same time she went on her first ride). We managed 3 1/2 rides (jeeps, a boat ride that Neeners wanted to stop after one spin around the circle), the carousal, and the train. We had a long leisurely lunch in the big white building with food that was very reasonably priced. All in all, Bay Beach was great for a budget and barring future crappy weather I would totally go back! Next up, is checking out Little Amerika, which is a little more local. We capped off yesterday by eating a great dinner and watching most of Pete’s Dragon. I kind of liked the movie, and could probably watch the whole thing uninterrupted. Even Morella was able to make it through most of it, and trust me folks, she is a total scardy cat when it comes to movies. Anything even remotely “exiting” is too scary. Neeners of course, couldn’t care less.

Today we got up, cleaned up our mess and headed out to visit my college friend Sarah and her two kids on our way back to Madison. Morella greeted them at the door bearing birthday gifts and saying “Happy Birthday!” It was not my idea for her to do this …. she had the idea on her own. I think she got into the habit of it after going to my Mom’s last week and bearing gifts with a ‘Happy Birthday.’ I think she likes being a Birthday Fairy. The kids played, the adults chatted (I think it is the most actual talking I have done with another person in a long time), had lunch and went for a short walk. These days I really appreciate having the girls hang out with other kids. Having them play with other kids, especially if they are older, frees up so much more head space for me. I am excited to explore this theory more tomorrow when our young Mother’s Helper arrives to play with the girls.

The drive home was uneventful. Tim had dinner made when we arrived which was a nice surprise. He left soon after for his Thursday night game night, but at least the girls got to see him for a few minutes. Then we had a big dance party watching the dance segments from ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ which I started taping. We just fast forward through until they dance. I could not believe the moves these kids were doing. Even Neeners was amazing, and Morella’s hand stand break dancing move is awesome — that girl can actually hold it for more than a second. She learned it of course from watching the Fresh Beat Band. I am so glad that all that dancing with the girls is starting to pay off.

I guess it is time to settle back into the swing of things a little here and enjoy summer a bit more. I have had a great time traveling and will admit it is a wonderful feeling to be able to just pick up and go without a whole lot of worry. I can do it! Even if I do forget Morella’s underwear, deodorant, or the camera battery recharger. That said, I think Neeners needs a little stay at home time. She was the one who cried about wanting to go home this week, and missed her Daddy. Morella is just in search of the next big kid, to have play with her. I also wouldn’t mind a few more lazy days like we had on Monday where I didn’t commit to anything, though we did end up going to Menards to get a fence for our garden because Morella wanted to go somewhere in the afternoon.

Oh man Neeners threw a mighty fit in Menards because she kept standing up in the cart. I counted her twice before she hit three and I had to give her a time out – sitting in the car seat part with the strap on. How this child howled, I can not begin to describe, all I can say is that everyone within half a store made sure to look at us. I was quite surprised and pleased to notice that Morella and I were able to ignore her with ease. Heck, we even had a conversation about some soda in between howls. I think in the end though, folks were happy when her time out was over.

I noticed though she had cut another tooth on the top and is cutting another on her lower left jaw. Finally she is getting some teeth…it explains why she is so grumpy.

Disgusting — I just saw a house centipede cross my floor to under the couch. I hate hate hate these fucking things. I tried to kill it with a file folder but I think it got away. To haunt me in my sleep — I am sure or end up on the wall so that the girls can point it out tomorrow and see their Mom freak out.

Wow, that week went by fast. I thought I would have all this time to write, reflect, hike, read, study ho chunk, work on fixing the place up and sorting through things, relax….and well, I did get a lot of relaxing in. I also got a few things done around the house like putting some rugs down upstairs, putting together a bitch of a wooden shelf, fixing a support beam, going through a box of stuff, convert a tiny room into a girls room…er guest room and fixing a five ring hook on the bathroom door. But mostly it was a blur of activity. Morella had so much fun I don’t think she even thought about Madison once. Neeners starting pining for Daddy about a day ago and when we got home today she screamed “Daddy!” upon sight of him, and then hugged him several times over the next hour and was his closest and dearest friend. Morella however, walked into the house and maybe said “Hi Dad” before going to her room to tongue suck. I think her week of solid partying, staying up every night until 11-12, and getting up around 6-8 finally caught up with her. She was a miserable, crying beast this morning and passed out in the car 15 minutes into the drive home. It was kind of funny watching in the rear view mirror because she and Neeners fell asleep at the same time. I am really struck by how much she seems to have matured in the past week, acting a lot more like a big big girl instead of my 3 1/2 year old. It is amazing how much of a difference hanging out with older kids can have an affect on the information sponges that are preschoolers.

Anyway. I am glad to be home, showered with my own soap, shampoo and conditioner. Using my own towels having clean clothes to put on that don’t smell like woodsmoke (not that I mind, I do like the smell of woodsmoke –we had a fire going for hours almost every day.

As many of you know, we had a heat wave. It was miserable, but memorable. On the third hottest day, I helped Shane by getting an air conditioner, and we slept in his bed while he took the couch. But since I want to get started on playing Borderlands with Tim and drinking margarita’s…oh wait he had to do his ho chunk studying. I will join him on this venture one day. He started a new habit of studying a half an hour every day. It’s good so far….I feel a like a total slacker and loser. Let’s just jump to the highlights shall we?

–Took Morella and Neeners to a real beach for the first time. I even bought my first swimsuit in 17 years and wore it. I had to get Morella a second swimsuit because I forgot to bring hers from home. She pretty much lived in a swim suit for two days, and I suspect it is going to be her fashion item of choice. They had so much fun playing in the water with her other “big girl friends” followed by ice cream afterwards at the little camping store.

–All the girls played in an inflatable pool for hours and hours

–Visited my Mom and brought her a birthday present. For her birthday this year I decided to make her bed. I bought new sheets, pillow cases and a beautiful blanket to go on top, along with a new foam memory pillow and regular pillow in case she didn’t like it. She said it was the first time that her bed had been made in years, and I believe it, and that she had never had anything so nice. She hasn’t been feeling very well lately and has been sleeping a lot so I wanted to give her something that would help make her life easier. I also bought her flowers, diet coke and cupcakes which we all shared. As an added bonus I went into storage things in the shed that hasn’t seen the light of day in 18 years and found the two things she wanted most – a collection of agates that we had collected in my childhood and a collection of letters from her parents to each other during the war. I am proud to say that I braved that shed, with a bawling Neeners haranguing me at every turn in the dim light to find these items. I also found an old doll I loved as a kid, some legos, a box of miscellaneous bills and letters which turned out to be a gold mine of correspondence. I also found a box of Mom’s old art stuff from when she went to Art school that I know she would like. So was pleased that I was able to give her those losts things for her birthday too. The best part was that we didn’t call to tell her we were coming until we left. She didn’t spend a week getting little to no sleep worrying about the visit and being a zombie when we did finally arrive. She was actually awake and rather chipper which was such a nice change of pace.

–Playdate with a family who is only speaking Ho-Chunk to their kids so that they are bilingual. It’s really cool and something to see/hear in person. My brother came along for his first playdate to help get the air conditioner and get out and about. The date went well and all the kids seemed to have a good time. As it is with playdates I wish I could have talked more … but it was the first time we were meeting so there is that to consider. I have often been accused of asking too many questions and making one feel as if they are being interrogated. I can’t help it…I just want to know everything.

–Morella watched Tangled for the first time and liked it. I don’t think she was too scared — Tinker Belle and the Lost Treasure, however was too scary. Nutter butter because it was actually a good movie. I had a hard time explaining to the older girls that Morella doesn’t like scary, exciting, or tense movies because she rarely watches them — and gets too emotionally involved.

–I got a princess scooter at a garage sale the week before for $4, and brought it with me. Morella rode it around and around on the cement where Grandma’s old trailer used to be. She went from just learning to balance to full on pushing and coasting for several seconds by the end. I am excited for Tim to see how good she is at it tomorrow. She spent hours playing on her scooter.

–I had some drinks with my brothers around the campfire last night and at some point I started arm wrestling my little brother (he is 20) and he couldn’t beat me. We tied on the right side and I beat him on the left. I think both he and my older brother were shocked. Dude, doing pushups everyday will do that too you. Speaking of which I need to get back on that horse now that mini-vacation one is over.

There were plenty of people visiting and stopping by. I like that. I remember that from growing up, and I know it bugs people when I just show up at their house on a whim for a short visit or whatever without calling or making elaborate plans first, but it is what I am used to. I don’t care if your house is clean or whatever — we can always stand outside on the porch. I am there to visit you, not to judge the cleanliness of your living room.

When we got back Tim had cleaned the living room, kitchen and bathroom. I walked around enjoying the space and how awesome our house is and how nice we have it. Maybe I can use that as a jumping point to getting more little projects done around the house. Being away for a week seems to help with the motivation too. It is going to be a busy summer, I just know it. I mean, summers are always busy but this seems like it is going to be exceptionally jam packed — especially now that I know I can handle both girls, by myself in less than ideal places.

Oh time to play!

Sometimes I think, if a disastrous event were to occur, that I would head up north to live with my brother on the homestead. We have a good 40 acres of wooded land to fortress ourselves with, and it is further away from hordes of civilization. Though it is almost a 3 hour drive up north, it is a distance that I could feasibly make on bikes with the girls. Falkor would be left to his own devices to follow us or not and we would send the cats out to possibly become roof rabbit stew. I digress.

Today I am heading up north with the girls. I bought a small pharmacy of supplies (pain killers, anti itch, three kinds of Deet, sun block, liquid skin bandages – along with my well stocked emergency first aid kit courtesy of Gaga Lori and bacitracin). I also made sure to buy some new angled tweezers that comes with clippers, which is handy because I borrowed Shane’s to cut Neeners talons last week and it was the first time I ever encountered dull clippers. Last night, aside from indulging in a caramel Frappichino without having to share it with anyone or hide it while drinking it, I bought a Brita Water Filter pitcher and replacements. Now, I drink tap water. I drink it all the time even though people often offer me brita filtered, ice cold water from the fridge. I enjoy the convenience of it, that I can consume large amounts of it fast, and that it isn’t super cold. However, my brother has well water and it is some of the most rancid, oily bitter tasting stuff I have ever consumed. Ugh, just thinking of it now makes my nose wrinkle. I had to gulp that water as fast I could and try not to breath last week to get through it. It was better if I ran it for awhile before drinking, but I hate wasting water like that. So I got a filter pitcher. I hope it works. I drink a lot of water.

I set up two playdates – one for Tuesday and one for Wednesday with some other similarly aged kids, and then after that the neighbor girls are out of school and free to play with Morella every single minute of the day. I had some great luck at garage sales this past weekend, the point of stopping because I didn’t have any more space. I got a huge carpet remnant, some smaller runners, and a nice 8×5 rug for $10, an unopened, brand new wooden book shelf for $10, a drip coffee maker for $3 (so we don’t have to do the percolator each time) — owners didn’t drink coffee and just started to serve instant coffee to their guests, and a bunch of clothes for the neighbor girls. I have a bunch of other little things around the house that I am bringing up too. To most folks it wouldn’t seem like much, or like things that you take for granted (a bathroom rug to replace the towel on the floor) but to a person who has so little they are such pleasures. Shane’s house is a bachelors zone through and through, and I plan on going in there and making things a little homey (and little more kid friendly).

So I will be gone from today through next Saturday, almost a full week. I would have stayed until that Sunday but too many things are calling us back for a part of the weekend. Tim will be working from home and living the life of a hermit for a solid week. I hope the neighbors take pity on him and talk to him a little, otherwise I suppose Falkor wouldn’t mind the extra attention. Tim plans on “eating the shit out of seafood all week”, skating, and cleaning the house to the point where it would appear that children do not live here.

I was super excited about this all week until yesterday when I started to get a little nervous. Cell coverage is a little spotty in Dells Dam. I also have an extremely old cell phone plan that charges me an absurd amount of money for being out of range (trust me, it’s old, no one had it anymore). So if anyone calls me, be assured that I won’t pick up. The best way to reach me is to just text me (texting is free…er covered in our old, modified plan). My brother has dial up, so I can check my email once a day I am thinking…. we will see!

I have a billion things I want to do – like study ho chunk, read magazines, write, clean and fix up the place, relax…..I might even work in some specialty posts. Like write them and then upload them later, what do you think?

As for now, I should think about taking a shower, slathering more aloe vera on my sunburned dowagers hump and getting the kids dressed and ready for Ride the Drive.