mom...mom...mom...mom...mom...mom...mom

About 7 pm, a part of me started to be aware of how ridiculous the barrage of input I have recieved over the last 24 hours really is, and that I needed to get it down, to process it.  Here is a small snippet.. a cross section...a sampling, as it were.  Enjoy.

Colin crying- mad for 12 min straight because I pushed the buttons on the dryer, instead of him.  He was so tired from being up in the night, that I made him take a nap.  He is here on my lap at 10pm.  From this vantage point, that may have been a big mistake.  "Mrs. Lawrence?   This is the school nurse.  Jackson hit his head on his desk, and can't stop crying.  He says his throat hurts and he has a low-grade fever.."  Colin wants a snack and (long story) I end up force feeding him a banana dipped in hersheys syrup because I KNOW he will like it if I can ONLY GET IT PAST HIS TEETH... The only day in the last 120 days that it rains- the favorite blanket is outside, cold and wet, from a picnic.  Did you know that  some french count buffon claimed that all american animals were tiny and feble because of the poor, swampy air and soil, so thomas jefferson requested that a stuffed american moose be sent asap to france to defend america's honor (fight!fight!) and when it finally showed up a year later, it was rancid, bald, and the antlers were missing, but the shipper threw several deer antlers in the box "to be attached as the sir would like"?!?  I am convinced that was the birth moment of amazon prime's 2 day shipping, but NO!  eric doesn't want to use that in his american revolution report.  If colin grabs my face and turns it to him to show me how driving his toy car over my brush is just like riding the cart over the bumps in the target entry way one more time... Darcy turns down corduroy, even tho they are perfect skinny jeans like she asked for and i tried on 15 pairs of SKINNY jeans, in the tiny thrift store changing room, with a 4 yr old and a swollen bum knee (a labor of LOVE, i tell you) and they were 3$!! Com'on Darcy!  Work with me!   Tim, did you pick up sydney on your way home from town?  oh.  I'll go get her.  Did we really just polish off an entire bag of chips at dinner!?  I ate WAY too many sweet potato fries (which are NASTY from the freezer isle), but I don't admit to them being nasty and make everyone eat theirs cuz I want them GONE so I won't have to eat them for leftovers for a week.  Should darcy take choir (lame class-they watch movies, but easy A) or AP Biology (hates her ap class, getting a C, but likes biology) next year?  She is convinced she has to decide by tomorrow... Jack alternates between screeching with laughter and crying- he has a fever and wants me to hold him - "I just need AAAAPPPLE JJUUUUUUUICE!"  In two square inches of my left forearm, I have a bruise, poisen oak, AND a splinter.  I'm just sayin'.  Colin woke me up at 4 in the morning (by whacking my face..that kid HAS. TO. STOP. TOUCHING. MY. FACE.) to tell me -
"I am sad cuz jackson is dwiving away in da car WIFOUT YOU!!"  ..

He sighs in the dark, next to my bed...

"I had a dweam bout dat."

At least I think that is what he said.  I took an advil PM to try and get some sleep and there seems to be a moose sitting on my eyeballs...

something old, something new..

ok, i am so sorry to be talking about this so much, but i am totally obsessed.  i am pretty sure that i am a recycler at heart.  i really like remaking old (free) stuff.

it starts out looking like this...

then it comes out like this!!

this is an example of what the 4 benches will look like...

it makes me crazy happy.  i get exercise (finally), create something for my family, and it is basically free.  

and i spent 8 (EIGHT!!) hours messing around with it today.   good grief.

so pretty.  (happy sigh)

Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword

In the beginning there was my second try.  Actually, in the beginning was my first try, which is that dark, solid looking thing that reminded me of the special pillows that we give to patients with hemorrhoids or sacral injuries.

"You'll have structural issues," said Viv, vastly underestimating my ability to bake a cake with the density and structural integrity of poured concrete (the hard, flat square you can see in the picture, also a result of try #1).  "I want mangoes in it," said Theo.

Mango cream filling

Three cake mixes later, I began construction.  First layer, concrete cake square, mango glazed.  Second layer, bundt cake cut in half and filled with mango cream.  Top layer, more concrete cake squares, smaller.  Piece de resistance, Lucy's dagger.

Please note shading effects of two-toned frosting.  I think the six year olds were impressed.

Finally, the test:  Is Theo the true birthday boy?

He was!

The End

Hal, one year old

Hurricanes vs Protests

When we lived in Puerto Rico, there were two times that hurricanes were (maybe) headed our direction.  Here in Thailand there are political protests with occasional rumors of tank movements and coups.  Different events, yet they feel surprisingly similar.  Here is an analysis:


1.  Church-  at no point was church ever cancelled because of a hurricane threat.  In contrast, two weeks ago we got to go home from church two hours early because of crowds in the street. 
Winner:  Protests.


2.  Food- in PR I boiled all of our potatoes and eggs, anticipating power outages and food shortages.  Yesterday we drove to Chris's work to retrieve an ice cream cake that was going to melt when they cut the power to the government compound.
Winner:  Protests


3.  School- I think I remember Lucy coming home a little early one day from preschool because of hurricane concerns.  Although many schools here were closed today, Patana British International School thumbed its nose at danger and stayed open.  Any country that stared down the Blitz is not going to close because some people are standing in a street.
Winner:  Education


4.  Anticipation- I have to admit, getting ready for a hurricane was a little bit of a thrill.  Checking the hurricane tracker online, licking your finger and holding it up to the wind...
The protests, on the other hand, are just annoying, in the way traffic jams are annoying.  Admit it, if you had to pick between a hurricane or a traffic jam, you just might pick hurricane too.
Winner:  Hurricane.


5. Personal touches:  A hurricane is not considerate.  It will just wipe you out.   The "Shut-Down Bangkok" protests today on the other hand, while blocking all major intersections in the city, left a few traffic lanes open, "because we don't want to inconvenience the tourists."
Winner:  Good luck with that.


6.  Danger:  If the hurricane had showed up, it would win this category hands down.  But a hurricane that never showed vs. a bunch of polite protesters?  Bit of a tie, really.

These are a few of my favorite things

I think "favorite things" christmas dinner tradition is here to stay for the Thomas household.  It was very fun deciding what everyone wanted to have. 

For the record, 2013 menu choices included:
Gwen:pesto shrimp pizza
Levi: fruit salad (must include raspberries and fresh pineapple)
Rachel: Bacon-wrapped shrimp ("my number 1 food wrapped around my number 3 food")
Vivian: Nicoise Salad
Jerry: Chocolate ice cream on chocolate brownie
Friends:Baked Brie, Guacamole yum yummm

Well, what would YOU do if YOUR mother let YOU?

   In Thailand the concept of government safety regulations is a bit nebulous, and if you combine that with an exchange rate where the odds are always in your favor, suddenly you start to feel like maybe anything is possible.  Does your local Zoo Safety Commission refuse to let you into the cage with the tigers?  Come to Thailand!  Always wanted to light something on fire and send it flying into the electrical wires overhead? Thailand! Want to fish for crocodiles with a chicken tied to a stick? Shoot off fireworks in the middle of a crowd? Float down a river within feet of a nervous mother elephant? Send your 5 yr old zip-lining 200 ft above the ground, completely unsupervised? Thailand, Thailand, Thailand!

We did all of these things, with the exception of crocodile fishing, because who really wants to catch a crocodile? The only thing I can say in defense of the excesses of our recent trip to Northern Thailand is that when I was planning it my kids (and I) were very sad about being away from family for the holidays. Fortunately, we're easily distracted.

 

A Christmas Miracle

Remember the dead sister clock?  Well after Beth tried to steal it back, it stopped working.  I was sad, but didn't have any time to do anything about it until we got to Thailand, at which point I bought a new clock and installed the dead sister picture into it.  At which point the new clock stopped working and has since just been being moved around various counter tops in our apartment by a puzzled Khun Moo.

WELL, on Christmas Eve I was finally drifting off to sleep when I heard a soft ticking sound.  I lifted my head from the pillow and finally tracked the noise to the dead sister clock!  After three months of dormancy, the clock is back from the dead, just in time for Christmas.  I thought for sure it would quit again when we were gone on our trip, but no.  I hung it on the wall today.  It is impossible to tell the time on it, because the hands blend in too well with the bodies, but really, who cares?