The Rescue

It was supposed to be a perfect day.  I had looked forward to it for weeks.  Finally, it was my turn for show and tell and I had brought my most prized possession.  The whole class had loved it.  "It was the best show and tell ever!" my friends all told me. They were trilled!  It was even better than I imagined it would be. 

But now.  Now was the moment I had been dreading. 

They were coming.  I just knew it.  They would be coming for me.  Just like every other day.  Except this day I would not be able to outrun them.  Not for two whole blocks.  I just couldn't.  Not while carrying this big box.  What was I going to do?  What could I do? 

My stomach twisted and turned inside me.  My palms were sweating.  I put my fore head down on my desk and let my long hair splay out around me like a big brown mop hiding my face.  A burning flush started to creep up my neck to my face and I couldn't help it.  I couldn't stop it.  The tears started to fall. 

I quietly wrapped my arms around my head so no one could see me crying.  Oh why didn't I just bring my teddy bear for show and tell?  I'd have a chance with my teddy bear but this was going to be impossible.  

Suddenly there was a hand on my back.  I froze. 

I heard her gray wool skirt move as she knelt down beside me.   

"What's wrong, Kathy?  Why are you crying?" she asked.

I sniffed my nose as subtly as I could and kept my head down on my desk with my arms still shielding me. 

"I'm okay." I answered mortified.  How could I let my favorite teacher in the whole wide world see my crying? 

"Is there something wrong?" she asked again.

"Well.  I just... I don't know what to do."  I broke down.

"Tell me." she said gently.

"Well, every day on the way home from school Trent and Bobby chase me.  Sometimes I can outrun them.  But sometimes they catch me.  And when they catch me they make me hold their hands all the way home.  A lot of times I am faster than them, cuz I'm pretty fast, but I can't run faster than them today because I've got to carry my guinea pig!  And if they catch me and make me hold their hands I'm gonna drop her!  I just know it!  And I can't run with Piggy because then she will bounce all around and I don't want to hurt her!  And I know they are gonna chase me today because they told me so! I don't want to drop her!  I don't know what to do!"  I cried desperately.

"Well I tell you what we are going to do, Kathy.  I'm going to have Bobby and Trent help me clean the blackboards after school for ten or fifteen minutes and that should give you plenty of time to get home.  How does that sound?"  she said with a smile in her voice.

Slowly I lifted my head, feeling relief gush out of me. 

"That sounds good." I said, finally able to break a smile. 

Just then the bell rang.  I jumped up, wiped the tears from my eyes with the back of my sleeve, and got my red, hand-me-down windbreaker jacket on as quickly as I could.  I swiftly checked my shoes to make sure I tied them good and tight.  I certainly didn't want anything tripping me up today.  I ran over to the window sill grabbed my beloved Piggy in her box and headed to the door.  As I got to the doorway I glanced back at my teacher and gave her my best smile.  She winked at me and waved me out the door.  Just as I was leaving I heard her say, "Trent and Bobby?  Would you help me?"  

The sun was warm on my back as I cautiously walked down the sidewalk holding the large cardboard box that my mom had given me to carry Piggy.  Every few steps I would cautiously look behind me just to make sure no one was following me.  But I was safe.  They would not follow me today. 

"Wasn't that the best day ever, Piggy?"  I asked as I looked down into the box.  "I just knew it would be."

This week's RemembeRED assignment was to write a memoir about kindergarten and I thought I'd give it a try. It is my first time joining in, so be gentle. 

It was a toss up between writing this story or writing about the time this same favorite teacher of mine dressed up as a witch for April Fool's Day and told us she was our new teacher (a la the book Mrs. Nelson Is Missing).  She was an AWESOME teacher. Let's hear it for awesome and memorable teachers, y'all!  Woot woot! 

This Is A First

This has never happened to us before.  We heard stories of it happening.  We empathized with other parents.  We nodded and gave hugs and offered our condolences, but secretly we were smug.  After all, we have three boys and it had never happened to us!  It was like a small miracle that we escaped this one nasty little mishap. 

But then the other night I was giving my little princess a bath and just like that our perfect record was tarnished.  One minute she was splashing and playing and I was oohing and aahing and laughing with her, and the next minute she was standing up with a weird look on her face.

"Uh-oh!  Oowie!" Grace said to me as she began to scrunch up her precious little face.

Immediately I knew what was about to happen and I sprang forward and swooped her up out of the bath.  Just a fraction of a second too late.

Grace had pooped in the bath.  My sweet little girlie-girl princess left a huge brick in the bathtub for me to fish out.

I sat her on the toilet as I cleaned out the bathtub and all of her bath toys.  The whole time I was saying, "Yucky!  Don't poopy in the bathtub!  That's gross!  Yucky!"  Grace watched carefully and repeated back to me, "Poop!  Ucky!"

"Gracie!  What did you do?  Did you poopy in the bathtub?"  I asked her again and again.

"No." She answered, using her most favorite word.

"Yes you did!  No poopy in the bathtub!  Uck!"  I kept reminding her.

Eventually she got the idea.  I hope.   

*sigh*

At least she had the sense to look properly embarrassed about it.

Spring Break Wrap Up

Today is the last day of the boys' spring break and we are finishing the week off with another balmy 26 degree day.  Such lovely spring break weather. 

Still, we tried to fill the week with as much fun as we could, despite mother nature taking a crap on our plans. 

At the beginning of the week we took the boys to an indoor waterpark near our house.  Outside it was snowing and super cold but inside it was 84 degrees and full of fun. 

Todd and I couldn't get over the difference from the last time we'd taken the kids to the waterpark.  Last year none of our kids could swim (though they had had a billion swim lessons they were still too chicken to put their faces in the water for more than a second) and trying to hang on to all four kids while "having a good time" seemed impossible.   This year Joey is swimming and Tommy and Ben are very comfortable in the water.  Last year Ben screamed and cried each time the huge bucket of water dumped all the water out on the people standing under it.  This year he raced over so he was sure to get dumped on.  Last year none of the boys wanted to go down the kiddie slide and this year all three of the boys were going down the big slides on their own and Grace was happy to go down the kiddie slide.  It was so exciting. 

Even the big kids had fun going down the slides. 

It was a great day. 

The next day Grace was sick.  We had planned on going up north and doing some skiing for the rest of the week, but I really didn't want to take Grace up north and hang out in the cold with her when she wasn't feeling well.  Todd decided to have some boys' time and took all three monkeys up north with him for three days.  After a harrowing six hour drive (it normally takes three hours) through a blizzard and towing a pickup out of the ditch with the Suburban (the boys' highlight of the trip) they finally got up north to the cabin.  They skied.  They went tubing.  They built forts.  They had a blast.  It wasn't exactly the weather we planned to have fun in for spring break, but it definitely worked out for them. 

Meanwhile back at home, Grace and I stayed in and watched some movies while she recuperated.  On Thursday morning after the massive snowstorm I got up early to snowblow the driveway and ended up shoveling the whole driveway for two hours after our snowblower broke.  It did not make me happy.  Thursday was a really rough day for Grace too as she had a pretty high temperature and was just a poor little potato.  Our spring break was not going so well.  I spent the remainder of the day feeling sorry for myself.  Feeling replaceable and unnecessary.  And pretty much being a big baby that I was home on my butt while my boys and husband were skiing and sledding and having a great spring break.

Still, there were moments.  Precious moments.  Gracie nuzzled into my arm watching Snow White together.  Reading books.  Playing kitchen.  Her constant hugs and kissies.  She is my little buddy.  And I really did relish our time together. 

Friday Grace was feeling a bit better so we went shopping.  That made me feel better too.  Ha!  I bought a few pictures and curtains and homey things for the house.  I got out Todd's power tools (I love his power tools) and got to work.  I fixed up my bathrooms and they looked so good that it turned my mood around.

Saturday the menfolk came back home and all was truly well again.  Todd was exhausted from entertaining the boys for three days of nonstop action so we all just snuggled up and hunkered down in the house.  It was so good to have my family back again.

Today was the last day of spring break.  Todd and I bundled the kids up, plunked them in the car and took them to a nearby woods for a nice, long walk.  The boys immediately found walking sticks, Todd plopped Gracie on top of his shoulders, and I let Molly off of her leash so she could get some of her pent up energy out. 

Single file we walked on the familiar path.  Molly would run 20 yards ahead of us and then turn around and make her way back to us for her "Good girl!" praise.  The boys tromped around pointing out the geese on the river and the cardinals in the trees.  Grace pleaded and begged to walk and did an amazing job keeping up the the boys through the snow once we finally put her down. 

We made it to the teepee in the woods.  The boys' favorite spot.  Grace went inside the teepee with her brothers and squealed as Molly ran in and out of the opening.  Even I was excited to see the giant teepee and had to giggle to myself as the boys told me how "real live Indians probably made this teepee!!!!" 

We continued on up the big hill.  Soon we slipped and slid back down the hill on the other side, with Joey doing a major faceplant at the bottom.  Momentum mixed with gravity is just not your friend sometimes.  Still, we all had a good laugh at it.  Even Joey. 

The boys praised their sister for being such a trooper and a good hiker and pointed out all the muddy spots and sticks to avoid.  Every once in a while Todd or I would pick her up and carry her for a bit of the hour long walk but it wasn't long before she was begging to be put back down again.  The girl has her own mind and definitely loves her independence.  I wonder where she gets that from. 

As we walked back to the car we heard turkeys in the distance and saw a bright red cardinal on a nearby tree.  I cursed myself for not bringing my camera as I watched my littles making their way out of the woods.  I guess this is just one I while have to file away in my mind's eye.  It was a really good way to end spring break.

Dinner is in the oven.  A fire is being started in the fireplace.  One of the last fires of the season (I'm sure).  The kids are all playing nicely together and everything is right. 

It wasn't the vacation I imaged.  I suppose they rarely are.  But it was a good one, nonetheless.

Ahhh... Spring

(Taken early this morning)

On Monday we saw signs of life.  Ninety percent of the huge snow piles had melted giving way to grass and sidewalks.  Yesterday it started sleeting and snowing and everything was covered in a thick blanket of ice.  Today it looks like a blizzard outside.  Everything is covered in snow (with sheets of ice underneath) and it will continue to snow all day. 

So glad that the boys' spring break is this week, what with the lovely weather and all. 

Six

Animal lover

Football fanatic

Daddy follower

Nature enthusiast

Sensitive

Emotional

Loving

Moody

Considerate

Smart

Impatient

Silly

Kind

Stubborn

Sweet

Tough

Caring

A world class sharer

A snuggler

Push-ups pro

A budding artist

Friend to all

Early riser

Sleep avoider

Big talker

Full of curiousity

Lover of:

Life Cereal

Looney Tunes

Sports

Sea Creatures

Up North

Big Trucks

Music

Dinosaurs

Outdoors

Loving brother

Caring friend

Fabulous son

Today you are six. 

Six wonderful years of you.

Happy Birthday, Tommy!

I am so proud of you.

I love you.

WW & You Capture- Emotion

Peaceful

Reflective

Hopeful

Shy

Proof of Time

It is going on five o'clock and the sun is still as bright in the sky as it is midday.  The longer hours of sun and the stretching shadows on the emerging grass tell of another winter's (hopeful) passage. 

The boys are outside riding bikes up and down the street and I am inside preparing dinner.  No longer do I stand in the driveway watching every pass up and down the street, keeping my eye on any possibility of a fall, or a bump, or a coming car.  My boys are wise enough to watch for themselves on our quiet cul de sac.

When we first moved into this house a year and a half ago my mom brought over a huge box too heavy for her to lift unassisted.  Inside were journals I'd written in high school and college, scripts from shows I'd been in, a few awards and medals, letters friends had written to me, sheet music from my favorite solos, and poetry from admiring young men who had pledged their devotion to me.  I searched further into the huge box and found poetry and letters I had written.  I thought of how pathetic that girl was as I read her letters begging those same admiring young men to love her still, and felt badly that we shared a body.  How different I was once upon a time.

I read the girl's excitement at new love.  I peeped in on some of the most intimate thoughts and remembered them as if they were mine.  Are mine.  As I read I felt her wavering esteem and listened to her crack under loneliness.  My heart broke for that girl all over again.

For me.

It is so odd looking back and seeing how far I've come.  In both good and bad ways.  I am so sorry for the girl that I was.  And yet very proud too.  All the good and the bad, I'm glad she (I) went through it.  Bringing me to exactly where I am today.  Where I am supposed to be.

I'll hang on to that box.  Every once in a while I'll look at it and I'll remember.  I'll remember how I was on stage (they said I "glowed").  I'll remember that once upon a time I was a girl that young men would write poetry about (though I always thought I was quite plain).  I'll remember my wild teenage emotions (the height of happiness and the bottom of depression).  I'll remember the devastating heartbreak and sorrow (the hopelessness, the loneliness).  I'll remember it all.  I know it will come in handy again someday.  Time is marching on and one day my own will have the same emotions I did.  They will come to me with their heartbreak and their sorrow and I will comfort them.  Watching them hurt will be worse than my own pain.  But I will understand.  And I'll be there for them.  Because I will remember.