Chapter 9

I finished reading Chapter 9 and just couldn't get it out of my head, so I read it again!  And then I made notes in pencil along the margins and circled my favorite paragraph. It is just brilliant!

Fenna has to read The Grapes of Wrath for her American Literature class at school. I've never actually read the whole thing, so I went to my bookshelf and picked it up. She got a copy from the school so we are reading the book together, sort of. I don't think we are on the same page though.  According to her reading schedule we should be on Chapter 17 now, but I just finished Chapter 9.  No worries for me though, I don't have to take a test on the book. Reading along sure does make it easier to have a conversation about the book and it is nice to have a literature conversation with someone. It has been years since I asked anyone what they thought the turtle symbolized and actually received a thoughtful response.

But I got stuck on this one paragraph in Chapter 9. It's incredible.  It is stuck in my head. John Steinbeck earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel prize, now I see why. I've seen the movie and I've seen another movie based on one of his other books. I didn't think much of either one really, and I remember reading something of his in high school, and bits and pieces of GoW when my older girls were in high school.  I don't remember having time to think about what I was reading or reading anything that really thrilled me though.  Maybe this is why its a good idea to reread the good stuff.

Maybe we can start again, in the new rich land-in California, where the fruit grows. We’ll start over.

But you can’t start. Only a baby can start. You and me – why, we’re all that’s been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that’s us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can’t start again. The bitterness we sold to the junk man – he got it all right, but we have it still. And when the owner men told us to go, that’s us; and when the tractor hit the house, that’s us until we’re dead. To California or any place – every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness. And some day – the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way. And they’ll all walk together, and there’ll be a dead terror from it.

It's true. Starting over is never truly starting over. A person can get a fresh start in life, but you always have your experiences to influence you.  And you bring in your memories and your feelings, whether they are good or "bitter", they are in you.

Fenna and I talked about how the characters in the book were starting over, and how they really couldn't since they have a history within them to compare the new life with the one they are leaving behind. And then we talked about anyone anytime starting over.  This concept can be applied to so many situations.

Steinbeck doesn't really say it, but what about the people who know or knew you before your fresh start? They won't erase their memories which makes a new start impossible.  To start over, a person would have to eliminate all ties to everyone. Who can do that?

Have you ever started over?  Think back, did you really start over or did you get a fresh start? Because starting over cannot be accomplished when you have previous experience to compare the fresh start with. Isn't this mind bending? I love it!

Nothing in Particular

This blog post has no topic. Like the thoughts in my head, it is a jumble of ramblings and thoughts that go every which way.

The kids are almost all over their colds. Yay! And I still didn't catch their cooties which is amazing. I've been washing my hands like I have OCD, but usually that only helps fend it off for a day or two. When a snot nosed kid sneezes in your face, washing your hands doesn't make a difference.

Fenna asked her mom if she buy a new laptop while they were on sale over Labor Day weekend. While discussing this with Keith, Fenna says to him, "you could buy a new laptop for Mary too". Ba-da-bing, I have a new laptop!  And Fenna didn't get one! She can have my old one while she is here, it works fine (usually).  It's led a long rough abused life, but she is more careful than I am with the electronics so I'm sure it will work out this way.

The new washer and dryer are awesome! I cannot figure out how much soap to add to the washer though. All of the instructions say "a measured amount of detergent".  Sure, I can measure it, but how much should I measure? I've just been winging it and the clothes are coming out great. It would be nice to know if I'm using too much or not.

 Our trips to the doctor, lab and pharmacy in San Diego have been really fun. Well, not as much fun for Fenna as the rest of us, but we've been making sure to have a good time each time we go. Also, I know my way around much better now. I hope that once Fenna kicks this infection and finishes the treatment for it, we can go other places and limit our outings to once a week or so. In the meantime, we're having a blast!

The medical community at UCSD in San Diego and La Jolla is the friendliest place on earth! I am just amazed each and every time we go or get a phone call, the folks in the clinics, hospital and pharmacy are sweet as can be. They truly care about Fenna and that just warms my heart. They've all been very accommodating and helpful. The facilities are beautiful too (And, they have an awesome playground). I am more in love with San Diego now that we've had this experience.  The hospital where Katie had her baby in SD was also very nice and friendly.

Homecoming is in two weeks! We have a closet full of formal dresses but Fenna hasn't "shopped" in our closet yet. She's pretty sure nothing that my tall skinny daughters wore will fit her, but I think she will be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully the dresses are still in style.

She's actually more excited about Halloween than Homecoming. I took out two big Halloween boxes and the girls had fun digging through them, trying on costumes and giggling.

Libby's birthday is coming up quick. Her real third birthday! I was feeling confused about what to do since Libby already celebrated her birthday back in May, and she is convinced that she is already three years old. Finally, the calendar is catching up with her!  Keith said we need to have a party for her though because Charlie's party was a lot of fun. So, we'll have a party! I have to hussle up and get it planned because her birthday is soon! Not sure how we'll explain it to her, but it will be fun anyway.

We've been learning a lot about Holland: The flag is red,white and blue but the royal color is orange.  Kids and teachers smoke on the school grounds, even right by the doors.  People in general smoke a lot more there than here and so there is a lot more second-hand smoke to deal with. The Netherlands, specifically Amsterdam, is known for drugs. Katie and Lexie both knew that and Keith and I didn't. Hmmm.  We are learning about each other too!  Kids sing a song when they trick-or-treat in Holland.  We've been discussing how the education systems work there and how they differ here. The food there is the same, but it is cooked and eaten differently. I'm still not sure what that means; I might have to go to Holland someday and find out. They do not have Starbucks on every corner like we do, nor do they have fast food everywhere.

We've also been learning a lot about Cystic Fibrosis. The condition affects respiratory and digestive systems which in turn affects everything else. I thought it was just a constant cough and you hawked up a loogie once in a while. I had no idea it was so involved! It is really eye-opening to learn so much about CF and it makes me count my blessings. A lot of people have asked me if I have to pound her on her back every day. The answer to that is No. Fenna has a lot of medications she takes daily and with her infection she had a picc line placed (an iv that goes in the upper arm and a tube is in the artery all the way into the chest) and she "shoots up" some iv medications three times a day. It's amazing to see her manage everything with so much ease and grace. The picc line is supposed to come out next week. Whew! Just in time for homecoming!

Keith is teaching two evening classes this term, back to back. And he's teaching 63 miles away in Azusa. 63 miles doesn't sound like a lot, but it can take him 90 minutes to get home depending on traffic. After teaching middle school all day and then college, that drive is a long one. Poor guy is pretty tired by the end of the week. But, he's still running the Champ or Chump game at his school! This silly game takes up a lot of his time, but he enjoys it and it helps bring the staff together in a friendly way at work. It's a good thing even though it drives me nuts.

I finished the Belle dresses a couple of days after starting them. I love my serger!  And I finally hand-sewed on the little red roses for embellishment. The Belle doll the girls have has red roses on her dress, but most Belle dolls don't and most Belle costumes don't. But, I really like the red touch! I will take pictures when they both put the dresses on. Gracie tried her dress on and it fits, but she said it was itchy and she wanted to take it off. Libby loves hers. I went to JoAnn Fabrics to look for Rapunzel fabric but I didn't see anything in the right color that cost less than $12.99 a yard. I'll have to wait for a sale. But, I did buy a ton of fabric anyway!  I got Minnie Mouse red polka dot fabric, I couldn't resist! And I picked up a lot of baby boy soft flannel prints to make receiving blankets for a nice lady at Keith's school who is having her first baby.  Now, if I could just find some sewing time I'd be set!

I will briefly blog about our latest outings on my outing blog, with pictures.  In the meantime, I will leave you with some of the questions that Gracie has been asking me at the most inopportune times but she thinks every question requires a thoughtful intelligent answer.  I usually do not have one.

What are teeth made out of? Like what's inside them and what's the outside called?
What are hippos afraid of?
Are there more kinds of talking like Spanish and Dutch and English? What are they?
Where do farts come from?
Why do we call brown people black?
How do airplanes fly?
What's an exclamation point?
Why aren't there any girls on Mount Rushmore?
Why are the clouds gray and yesterday the clouds were white?
What's under the carpet?
Why aren't there more red cars?

We survived the Great SD Blackout

Fenna did it.  I told her it sure is fun to have someone to blame for all the crazy things that go wrong around here. She just laughs.

On Thursday, we needed to go to San Diego to the pharmacy to pick up some medicines and then to a lab in La Jolla for a blood draw. Neither appointment was expected to take long at all, just quickies but they were very important. And, we had to be at the lab at 4pm but had to pick up the meds before going to the lab.  Ok, we can do that (maybe). The timing was going to be tight with school letting out at 2:30 and mucking through after-school traffic always takes a while. There would be no time for Starbucks.

Fenna wasn't feeling well on Wednesday night, she looked like she was at the low point of her miserable cold. It was just after midnight when I suggested that instead of going to school from 7am - 2:30 feeling cruddy and sleep deprived and then heading out to San Diego again how about this idea: Stay home and sleep and eat some soup and sleep some more and then we'll go to San Diego. She didn't have to think very long about that one. I figured she would either miss Thursday at school or Friday. Either way, she needed to take care of her cold. She did just that, stayed home on Thursday to take care of her cold and it really helped a lot.

Since we were racing the clock, we loaded up the little kids and went to Gracie's school to take her out ten minutes early. That turned out to be a very good decision. We hit the road and made it to San Diego in an hour! Fenna opened the door to the pharmacy and rang the bell for service right at 3:35 exactly.

As soon as she pushed the button, the power went out. Poof! Fenna broke it!

Fenna picked up her prescription and we started across town to the lab. The traffic light that we had just gone through was now dead. Not even flashing red. So was the next one. Fenna, being funny, said "I hope I didn't do that!".  Stoplight after stoplight was dead. The streets were becoming more and more clogged because of the four way stops. We were realizing the magnitude of the power outage the further we went. People were pouring out of buildings and everyone had a cell phone in hand. I couldn't get any cell service though. Traffic was going from clogged to pure mayhem. Emergency vehicles were trying to get through but every street was a sea of vehicles.  I started to wonder if we were caught in a terrorist attack.

When we finally got to the lab, we found out that the hospital was closing down. Emergencies only. The lab was closed and the people working there were all sent home. People were all on their cell phones trying to get service, and talking together. We found out that they thought the power might be out all across the county. How can that be? San Diego County is huge! I asked if the power comes back on, would they like us to come back? They said no, they were calling the day over and it would be best if we just come back tomorrow. Ohhhh, no. My brain started spinning trying to figure out the logistics of a Friday trip.

The people in these San Diego medical offices never cease to amaze me with their friendliness. They were so nice! Gracie had to use the bathroom and a lady said she'd check first to make sure there was a light on in there, and there was. (Backup emergency lighting) This lady also gave Libby a little book and Libby was thrilled. They were very nice and apologized for cancelling the lab appointment.  No apologies necessary, it's a freak thing that happened. At least we didn't have to pay for parking this time, the parking permit machine wasn't working.

Before we left the house, we had decided that our fun thing to do today would be to spend some time at the beach. The kids could play and we could put our feet in the water and watch the sunset over the Pacific. Luckily, the power outage didn't spoil our beach plans although it did make getting there quite a challenge due to the traffic. Instead of going further into San Diego, we called Katie and told her not to meet us and we went to Oceanside.

Finally, we arrived at the beach just after 6pm.  The kids had so much fun playing in the water and sand. Fenna and I played lifeguards. The sea was angry. Waves were pounding into the shore and the water was loud. It even threw rocks at us. Libby didn't want anything to do with the angry ocean, but Charlie and Gracie were fearless and they didn't care if the water had a bad attitude; they ran in anyway.  Luckily, I brought lifejackets for Libby and Charlie and I had a leash, er, child harness, for Charlie. We put the lifejacket and leash combo to good use!

We took lots of pictures. The kids were adorable and Fenna too, the waves were huge and the sunset was beautiful.

After twilight, we started to go for a walk down the pier, but the lights weren't coming on. Power was still out!  We decided to head for home. My friend called, her husband works for the electric company, she said that the power will be out for hours if not a couple of days. She was concerned about Katie and Henry.  I told her I would pass along her concerns. Katie called too, and I told her what my friend said and Katie decided to drive up to our place for the night.

Jokingly, I said "I'll race ya!".  Darned if that didn't jinx me! We took the 76 home and it took forever! I didn't realize how many stoplights were on that road. But none of them were working. It took us 90 minutes to get from Oceanside to the 15.  From there, it took us 15 minutes to get home. We got home after 9pm Katie beat  us!

Murphy's Law continued to be the strongest force of the day. If something can go wrong, it will. All of the photos we took mysteriously disappeared off the camera! .  How weird. Luckily, they were just beach pictures and we can go there again. It's good to learn that the photos are super easy to delete on this camera. Nobody knows how we managed to lose the photos but nobody is upset over it since they were just fun pictures of the beach. We'll have to do it over too. 

Luckily, the power was back on in San Diego on Friday so Katie was able to get home. I called the lab and they didn't want us on Friday because the power outage caused chaos and they had to catch up from that. They suggested Saturday or Sunday. Sunday it is!

I'm Armed; They're Dangerous

The kids are sick.  Three out of the four are little cootie-monsters. I'm ready for the battle though. I have the new washer, the rug dr, and a bottle of bleach on my side!

Gracie has been battling a fever for several days. Along with that, she's been vomiting and coughing. My little firecracker has no energy. She's sleeping a lot and when she's awake, she just lays and rests. If that wasn't fun enough for the kid, she shared it!

Libby has a fever too. She doesn't have any other symptoms, but she is a bit "off" with her energy level.

Fenna has a cold too. Hers is different though, and I'm waiting for them all to swap germs.  Fenna has a sore throat, stuffy nose and plugged ears.

She also has the picc line and all of her IV medications to battle her lung infection. The medications make her tired and kind of nauseous too. Only two more weeks of this and then the picc line can come out. Hopefully it will make her feel super wonderful and keep her healthy for the rest of the school year!

Charlie is the only survivor. He's healthy as can be, but he gets his 12 month shots on Friday, so he will be sick all weekend. I wonder if he will get Chicken Pox from the vaccine like Gracie and Libby did. Our family seems to be extra sensitive to that virus.

I'm very happy to report that the new washer and dryer are awesome!  Gracie puked on a quilt and I just tossed it in the washing machine. It came out so nice and wonderfully clean!  This particular quilt is one I didn't like to use much because I didn't want it to get dirty (or puked on) because it just barely fit into the washer. With the new washer, there was plenty of room for it! I even tossed in a towel and it wasn't full.

Having the rug dr ready and waiting at any given moment is a godsend. It is the only way to spot clean some good old fashioned puke on the carpet and couch.

Gracie missed two days of school so far with this round of germs. I looked in the school student handbook and it states that a student is allowed 5 absences per year. This has got to be a typo!  Five?  My kid has missed four already! And it's only the first week of September. Poor child is doomed. Her future as a Kindergarten student is secure for many years ahead. Wonder if I'll ever see her graduate.

Fenna tried to go to school, but I had to go get her after an hour of toughing it out. When I wheeled the double stroller of toddlerness into the nurses office,  I wasn't one bit surprised to see that it was packed with sickly teenagers. The line of waiting chairs were full and a few sick ones were standing. The health clerk was swamped!

This evening we have an appointment to get that picc line checked, a new bandage and restock the meds. I guess since the kids aren't in school today and we have to go, we might as well leave an hour earlier to make the best of the day and go to the aquarium.  Maybe I'll let them lick the glass this time. Hell, why not, they're already sick! We'll test that Darwin theory: Survival of the fittest!

Living in the Fast Lane

We've been living the past couple of weeks in the fast lane!

Since my last blog post, we've had two trips to La Jolla and one to San Diego for Fenna's doctor appointments. Since we were there, we made the trips fun and visited the La Jolla Westfield Mall, San Diego Zoo, and the beach and shopping in downtown La Jolla. Katie and Henry came for an overnight visit and she sang at a back-yard party. I attended "Back to School Night" at MVHS and Keith had his back-to-school night at his school the next day, which is an overview of the curriculum for each class.  Fenna went to the first home football game. I had an orthodontist appointment.  Plus, we've been busy doing homework and on occasion, actually attending school.

To top off our busy couple of weeks, we have seen a lot of improvement in Gracie's pre-reading skills, Libby's art, and Charlie runs faster with less of a wobble. Keith has gone from an amateur coffee cup salesman to a packaging expert. Henry has grown so much that he's ready for a high chair; we had a successful shopping trip to the baby store! The best improvement is Fenna is finally getting the meds she needed to get better. Yay, no more cooties!

I started a sewing project and hopefully can finish it up and give you a fresh new sewing blog post to read very soon. I blogged about our excursions on my other blog; hop on over there and check it out. In the meantime, we have declared this holiday a lazy day. We are catching up on house cleaning, homework and just recharging our batteries for another week in the fast lane.

The Whole Fam Damily

I bragged about Libby, now to give Gracie equal billing here is her latest Kindergarten homework project. She was to paste pictures of her family onto a Tshirt shaped piece of paper.

First, I had to get on the computer and find pictures of everyone. We do not have one picture of the whole  family, someone always needs to stand behind the camera I guess. Maybe we can resolve this problem at Christmas when we have the tripod out and everyone is together and photo-ready.  In the meantime, we have plenty of pictures of everyone, including lots of group shots that include nearly everyone. We sure do have a big family!

I asked Gracie who she wanted to include and she named everyone in our house, Jillian (her best friend), and the grandmas. She also wanted Katie in it since she is her sister and of course, Katie's family.  I talked her out of adding Jillian because it is a family collage, but I promised her she could make one just for home with pictures of her friends.  After she named everyone, we chose the photos to print.

I printed a couple of photos of each person so that she had options when it came to cutting and gluing. Good thing I did, she had a few cutting mishaps and a couple of photos turned out too big. Gracie cut each person out and arranged them. She put herself in the middle and stuck everyone around her. I think it turned out so wonderful! 

Top: Sandy, Great Grandma Gracie holding Henry, Lexie, Grandma, Andrew, Katie. Bottom: Fenna, Libby, Mom, Dad holding Charlie. Gracie in the middle. 

Smarty Pants!

Libby wrote her name all by herself! She knew the letters too, nobody told her what to write next.  I'll let the photo tell the story. 

For the record, she is still only two years old. Oh Yeah, I'm a proud mama!