The Crew - Miss Fabulous, Lil Bro, Big Sis and Mr. Man

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Hair Cuts, Driving Nuts, Ah Shucks

So Miss M went to Grandma's over the weekend. Nan drove her up there (1 1/2 hours) Friday after school. Saturday Mom and Dad went shopping for a new used van. We got a "cherry" as Dad's boss called it. Older Nissan Quest with low miles and all the bells and whistles. That took all day, as is typical. We came out with a great deal and are happy with the purchase. Dad makes some kind of drum cartridge thingy that Mr. Boss needs. They worked out a barter system for the funds needed for the new used van. How cool is that?! So we still have no car payment, LOVE IT! Sunday is a blur but I do know that we had Big Sis' friend Izzy stay over Saturday night and she kind of just melted in as one of the group. She was supposed to head back with her family after the meeting Sunday. Some how she ended up back with us and we all went for ice cream. Her Mom called and said that she really did want her kid back. Given our family dynamics, the fact that we travel to other countries and come home with children people seem to get nervous when we keep their children longer than expected. Go figure? Izzy's Dad had plans to spend time with her and wanted her back ASAP. She is a really good kid and it makes our heart glad when our kids have good friends. So they swam in the pool a while longer and eventually we gave her back. Monday Dad and Big Sis took off before the crack of Dawn (no, not those PJ's that don't fit right anymore) I'm talking before sunrise here. They drove over to the Gulf coast to go fishing for scallops with the Jensen family. They had a blast. Brought back a 1/2-gallon of scallops which required shucking. Have ya shucked scallops? I probably won't be eating them any time soon. GEE-Roose. Barf and disgust, yuck! The smell is like a septic tank backed up. It is gut scraping nastiness. What I don't do for that husband of mine. Oh don't worry he owes me BIG. (Sorry I can not get this paragraph to not link to this photo below. ?)

Okay this is not me but a photo of some chef shucking a much bigger scallop. But we will call this example photo. Here is the result of shucking till 1:15 am!


No it doesn't appear smaller in the photo than in real life. That's it! We spooned out all that goo for those 1-inch pieces of white meat. They are currently marinating in our fridge in salt and minced garlic. I'm leaning toward broiling them from dinner. I'll follow up on how they turn out.


Hair cuts. It was time for Nan, Mom and the boys to get haircuts. Here is Lil' Bro's cut.


Does this kid have a great smile or what? Mr. C's hair looks the same. I did not get his pic before he headed out to school this morning. Both the boys did great with getting the haircut. Lil Bro sat in the seat by himself while Mom got her haircut and Nan's cut was finishing up. Of course his cut finished before my cut or Nan's cut and I kind of think the hair stylist was sorry she had released him from the stroller. He sure was not going back in there. He was sporting a new haircut, had a sucker and was foot loose and fancy-free!

This is my attempt to take my hair cut pic. Oh well, you get the idea.



Then we had lunch at Dustin's BBQ.

Then we got on the road to Grandma's house. The video system in the new used van was a MAJOR plus and kept my two back seat co-pilots quiet. YES!

Miss M was doing well when we arrived at Grandma's house. She had a good weekend and enjoyed seeing her adult friends in the congregation there. They commented that she doesn't have children friends in the congregation. She prefers the adults.

We had been there visiting for a little while and Miss M looked at me and said, "It's taking a long time to get out of here. Are we going to leave?" I wish that she could be more to the point, you know? I mean really sweet heart what is it that you want to do? G.O.

Every change is anxiety for her, sometimes a small amount sometimes a large amount. It seems that where she is at in her mood cycle determines in part how well she handles the change or how well she doesn't handle the change. She was nervous about the new van. She asked 15 times like a machine gun "Where is my seat? Do I have a seat in this van? Where do I sit?" I use those times to remind her "Yep you always have a seat in Mom's van. Your seat is this one. I have blah blah blah for you that you like to have when you ride in the van." The video system helped her to chill out and not give tons of thought to the newness.

We stopped half way home at Cracker Barrel for dinner. By this time all had taken their meds (the kids not me, I was driving) :-) The wait was kind of long and they were hungry and tired. Not a good combo but they did well. Nan and I cut pancakes at the speed of light, kept those little peg board games coming and we made it through.

As we leave the CB Miss M starts saying her stomach hurts. I think oh goodness. I asked if she needed to go potty? No. Do you feel like you are going to throw up? No. When we get to the van she starts hunkering down beside the van with this way big drama scene clutching her tummy and giving an Oscar winning performance. It seemed obvious that she wanted some extra attention as she melted back into the group and when your six and have issues you don't say "hey Mom how about a cuddle and some attention over here since I have been away from you for 2 days." You put on an award winning "my stomach hurts" show. So I gave her a hug and asked if she would like me to put her PJ's on. She did. I got her changed. Skid marks in the underwear. OMG that is a whole nother post! Any who ... put her socks on, cuddled her up in her blanket, got her set up in her seat in the van, put the show on and we were ready to roll. She was out in 15 minutes.

The boys did good. They climbed in their seats like little champs and seemed to get that sister needed some extra attention.

We arrived home and put everyone to bed. Well, most everyone. Lil' Bro has this habit that when we are out later than usual he does not sleep. I rocked him and he fell asleep. I tried to lay him down, no go. I laid with him, no go. He announced, "I all done sleeps." And he was. That kid was up till midnight. I had a talk with myself that I could get frustrated and irritated and and and or I could give up and realize that this is occasional, his schedule was off and he would go to sleep eventually. So that's what I did, all the while shucking scallops.

Big Sis and Dad came in late, 10:45 pm on a school night. Are you hearing the tone here? Mom was not happy. Big Sis had a sunburn and ocean hair, which had to be washed and detangled. That's right, all while I was dealing with Lil Bro who would not go to sleep and shucking scallops.

Needless to say we all slept well last night and morning came much too early!

1 comment:

jessica bear said...

OOOh - I always wanted to see that! Sounds like Viv had a great weekend!! And you got a new van! Pics soon?