Mixed Messages

It's possible we're damaging our children with mixed messages. Case in point...last night was a serve yourself/eat when you want type of dinner. We had some chicken, some rice and bread, etc.. I wasn't paying much attention to whom was eating what, or when, before I became distracted by the apron I started before Christmas - the one onto which I had attached the pockets unevenly. I decided to fix it right then and there, and didn't realize Sophie hadn't been served any food. After I had been working on the apron for a while, I walked into the living room and found Sophie still in her ballet leotard eating her dinner on the living room floor, complete with half a loaf of french bread, and surrounded by her animal figurines. She had picked out and eaten almost all the center of the loaf, and had her hand deep down inside for another piece. There was also a discarded chicken bone behind her. I thought her resourcefulness was about the most adorable thing in the world, and ran upstairs to grab the camera. I took some pictures, laughed and laughed, and kissed her and told her how cute it was that she had served herself dinner and was eating it on the floor with her animals - then I went back to my apron in the other room.

About ten minutes later, Matt comes down stairs into the living room and I hear him saying, "Sophie, what are you doing? Why are you eating that whole loaf of bread like that? Rachel, did you know she was in here eating the entire loaf of french bread on the floor?"

Sophie starts crying - it doesn't take much. She never wants to do anything wrong, because she's sweet like that.

I don't answer right away.

Me after awkward silence: "umm, what?"

Matt: "did you know Sophie was in here with her arm down the middle of the french bread eating it on the floor? No Sophie, you can't do that."

Me: "Oh, yeah......I did see her doing that...and was kind of letting her."

Do you think she'll need lots of therapy when she grows up, or what?

Sacajawea Rap

This is what Ella and her friends did for a history project instead of writing a paper. It's kind of a ghetto fab/CMT channel version of Sacajawea - prepare to be amazed!

Ella's sporting the soul-patch

Happy Hair Ending

Wow...who knew we were all still harboring such harrowing bad perm memories? The pain in my comment box was palpable. I think some group therapy, at say...North Beach Pizza in San Francisco, is in order! Let me know when you're all available and I'll bring a comfy portable couch along.

Well, my junior high bad perm saga had a happy ending. My hair wasn't permanently (pun intended) damaged after all. But then there was my 8th grade graduation dress...

Here I am taking modesty a little too much to heart - or was this my mother's fault again? I have my suspicions. Possibly more salt her way cometh...

Hmmm, looks like all my BFFs went shopping together without me. Check out the way my friend Amy is checking me out. She's all like, "giiiiiirl, we're in the twentieth century now."

Here I am, gracefully gliding back to my seat like a delicate and proper Victorian lady-in-waiting. I was only 100 years late and one parasol removed from being Monet's muse.

An Abridged Conclusion

Okay, this IS IT!!! I'm not getting up from this computer until I have finished this freaking heartwarming story of deflating my mother's bum foot!!! And it will be an abridged version, which will no doubt cause great joy for all my lovely readers :) The details are simply too boring blog.

So...I grocery shopped and read lots and lots of labels, blah blah blah. I discovered most everything frozen, processed, convenient or tasty was off limits and that I am awash in sodium, blah blah blah. I purchased all fresh and natural foods, blah blah blah. I cooked, and or prepared, three square low sodium meals a day - plus nutritious snacks, which were very delicious, blah blah blah. I became the sodium Nazi, blah blah blah. After a couple days, wrinkles appeared on the bottom of my mother's bum foot, blah blah blah. And in a few more days, her toes also began to wrinkle, blah blah blah. By the end of my stay, her ankles nearly matched one another, blah blah blah.

And now for the heartwarming part - when I returned the following week to stay the night (after I'd come home the first time), she was talking to a friend on the phone and told her friend that for the first time in fourteen years, her ankles matched each other, and that it was all because of my cooking and good care :) Isn't that so neat?! It really made me smile :)

PHEW!!! I am sooo glad I finally got that out! Wow, what torture that was for some reason. I feel like a weight has been lifted - aaaahhh...

But you know what happened this week? I kind of wanted to invite my mom over for dinner in order to slip a large quantity of salt into her dinner after I went on a Facebook frenzy and took a trip down memory lane. All kinds of childhood friends were suddenly in my life again, posting pictures and reminiscing. I decided to go look for some of my old photos, and came across some pretty frightening stuff. Here's the deal, I had amazing hair my very first season of playing soccer in 1979, as seen below.

Ummm, I was a babe in 1979!

The next season I had a perm, which wasn't bad. It's kind of cute actually because it was pretty loose, but my mom really really really wanted me to keep getting perms because my hair is rather thin and tends to be stringy.

So then, by 1981-1982 I had this hair!!!!! What the what???? How did I go from the first picture, to this poodle-ish monstrosity, in only two or three short years, and why did my mother condone it? And not only did she condone it, she LOVED my hair like this :0

And to make it all worse, look. No one else had a perm! It was NOT in style!!! Everyone else wasn't doing it!!!

Oh, be certain of it - something salty her way cometh, believeth you me!!!

In Your Face Neighbor Girl

We all know Neighbor Girl ain't got nothin' on me! Well she ain't got nothin' on Eva either!!! Dig this

On drums - she's only 9 people.

Neighbor Girl doesn't even have a pair of drum sticks.

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I'm only delaying the much anticipated conclusion to my low sodium saga in order to build more tension and suspense. I'm a master like that ;-)

Winter Coats

Eva's been home sick for the last couple days, so I took her out for a drive to get out of the house. We drove up to see the wild horses, and you know what? She was bored right out of her mind! Can you believe that? Oh well. I had a good time :)

The horses are all decked out in their thick winter coats now. They look very different than they do during the summertime.

Slide Mountain in the background

Don't you just want to take it home, give it a nice hot bath, and then cuddle up with it?

There is a spot up on a certain hill where someone (possibly a government agency worker?) brings them hay during the winter. If you go up there, they walk right up to your car and are very friendly. This brown one tried to eat my jacket through the window. Parking there has kind of a Pavlovian affect on them I think. It's the Pavlovian parking spot.

And do you know what else I saw today? Prisoners in black and white stripes cleaning up horse stuff on Steamboat :D I didn't know they still wore stripes! Crime really doesn't pay!!!

I've never actually seen the horses on Steamboat, but they made a huge mess on it over the last few weeks! I kind of imagine it happening like a Far Side cartoon - they sneak over in the middle of the night, mess the place up, and then laugh their heads off at the prisoners cleaning up after them. You just have to love that they do whatever they want, wherever they want, and whenever they want!

Not in the Band and Almost the Conclusion of the Salt Saga

Oh my goodness - guess what! We really are starting a girl band...Matt bought an electric guitar on Friday. I can't count the number of times I've already heard the intro riff from 'Iron Man'. Suddenly we're metal-head rockers!

But guess what else...I'm a failure as a mother. Last night while watching the Grammys, our musical worlds collided when The Jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder took the stage together. In a painful illustration of how my attempts at brainwashing have had absolutely no affect, Ella said, "oh my GOSH! Stevie Wonder is soooo lucky to get to play with The Jonas Brothers!"

(Did you see Nick forget the words to 'Superstition'? Was totally awesome and vindicating - hee hee hee)

But that was just the first wound.

Today I was told that the neighbor girl (I used to call her by her name, which is Deanna, and I used to really love her) is going to be the drummer. In other words, I'm not in the band.

Geez! She doesn't even have her own mock/wannabe/pseudodrummer drum set to practice on like I do. She probably couldn't even pass the easy level on any of the easy peasy songs! I'm pretty sure she sucks as a Rock Band drummer - I challenge the neighbor girl to a drum off! And if I still don't get the job after my inevitable victory, guess who'll be cleaning the garage this week? And guess who'll then never have band practice with the neighbor girl in said newly cleaned garage?

Think about it...

;-)

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Epic salt saga continued...

I was kind of nervous about taking care of my mom up in Susanville by myself. For one thing, all of her doctors are either in Reno or the Sacramento area, and she doesn't like the hospital in town. There just isn't much available in terms of super duper emergency medical care.

And, I was also nervous that after a few days I would really turn into Nurse Ratched. Sometimes my mother and I bring out the worst in each other, and I can get a little bit crazy!

But all the worry was for naught, because I turned out to be more like Florence Nightingale than anyone - pleasantly finding the remote for her, refreshing her drink and ice regularly, fetching the mail, watching chick flicks with her, tucking her into bed at night, etc., etc., etc.. I truly was an excellent nurse! But on top of looking after her in those ways and many others, I took it upon myself to cook meals for her with the least amount of sodium possible, in order to bring her swollen foot (see earlier posts if you don't know what I'm talking about) back to a comfortable level.

And that's exactly what I did! To be continued...and hopefully finished in the next post, because it's been so long now, the details are becoming murky (and I'm losing interest).

Useless Rock Band Talent and More Homework

Remember a few weeks back, after Christmas, when I shared my moving testimony about Rock Band?

"And finally, I want to share my testimony, that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Rock Band (the family gift) is true, that I will someday receive a 100% playing drums on 'Black Hole Sun' (I'm still on easy, baby steps people) and that I want to be with my family forever when we're rockin' it together!"

You probably thought I was just being silly right? Check this out

On drums

Yes, you're right, it's not the same song. But did you notice the level is 'EXPERT'? It wasn't pretty, and it's not one of the hardest songs, but I passed - 6 times!!! Matt keeps asking me if I'm embarrassed about my Rock Band addiction...

...um, no. Because I'm totally awesome and I know Rock Band is true :) Sheesh

Plus, it's one more amazing thing to add to my long list of useless talents :)

And little Eva is hot on my trail

On drums

I think we're going to start a girl band!

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My salt homework continues...

Besides being profoundly weak (it took all the strength she could muster to make it with her walker from her bedroom to the living room), my mom also had a leg swelling complication. Fourteen years ago she had a chunk of melanoma on her right inner thigh removed. The doctor also removed the lymph-nodes in that leg (apparently it was unnecessary), and as a result, fluid does not easily drain anymore - meaning her ankle becomes extremely swollen if she consumes too much sodium. Normally, she takes a water pill everyday, and something else I can't remember the name of, but these medications were exacerbating the kidney failure, so she had to quit taking them. In addition to all that, the hospital, which was excellent in every other way, could not seem to provide a low sodium diet, so by the time she was discharged, she could hardly wiggle her toes from the swelling.

The really exciting and heartwarming part coming soon...why...am...I...still...torturing...myself...this...way?...

'Yellow' by Ella

Tonight Ella was running late getting to bed but needed to print a poem she had written for a class that was on a flash drive, so I told her to go to bed and I would print it for her. Here is the poem:

“Yellow” by Ella Hamrick

Yellow is the color of Joy

An unexpected surprise

To a deserving young child

There are yellow daisies and yellow sunsets

Childhood feels yellow, joyful and bright

Yellow is a stroll through the meadows

Yellow is bright and happy

Always smiling upon you

Yellow feels like happiness, joy, and excitement

Yellow is the lilies floating on the water

Or the refreshing lemonade on a sunny yellow day

Yellow feels like tomorrow

But seems like yesterday

With every heart beat and joyful smile

I think Ella is Yellow

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More salt coming soon, but in the meantime, my mother made a miraculous return to work today :)