March

Whoops. I missed March. Well. Here's a summary:

March 7th was Houston's birthday, and he's now 17 and is a giant of a man-child. He's something like 6'3", and then wears these boots that make him another inch or so taller, so he just towers over everyone. But he's still sweet and a little goofy and is just really nice to everyone around him. He's a little bit like a big puppy, now that i think about it. A giant puppy who really likes to play on his computer. (Oh. He's spent the past year building a computer, which currently has 3 monitors and takes up a giant desk.)

The end of March and the beginning of April was Spring Break. We went down to Kentucky to visit Juanito's family. The kids stayed at Juanito's mom's house, while Juanito and i were a block away at a lovely little bed and breakfast. We went out to spend part of Sunday at Juanito's dad and brother's place. We got to see his youngest brother, who we've barely seen in years. And we visited Mammoth Caves, which was awesome. The last time we were there, the kids were very little, and they remember almost nothing from that trip. (Katrina: "I remember the frogs....")

Yesterday it snowed. On April 14th. A lot. Even Zane was all, "No. There should not be snow. This sucks." And he LOVES snow. 

Interviews!

Who's your favorite band or musician? And what kind of music is it?
Houston - Caravan Palace, electronic dance music
Katrina - U2 or Taylor Swift. But i mostly like a mixture of artists. Like i like a song by this person i've never heard of except for this one song and a song by that person i've never heard of except for that one song. Just random artists.
Zane - I don't really have a favorite. I like a lot of different kinds of music.

What do you think you'll be doing in 5 and 10 years?
Houston - In 5 years, i'll be 21. Probably drinking. LOL. Maybe editing a video and/or a movie and/or a TV show... Editing something. In 10 years, I'll be 27. I'll be married with 15 children, assuming we keep having triplets.
Katrina - In 5 years, i'll be 20 so i'll probably be in college still, studying film but not how to be an actress, wishing i could have a dog. In 10 years i'll be 25. I'll hopefully be a zookeeper spy artist, which i've wanted to do since i was in 4th grade. But if that fails, then i'll be a film person, doing sets or directing or editing or costume design, and i'll have a St. Bernard.
Zane - In 5 years, i'll be going to high school. In 10 years, i'll be working as a scientist or something.

What do you do for fun?
Houston - Stuff. Video games are fun. In school, I mess with my friends on Google Docs.
Katrina - I read. I draw. I sleep. I look at Pinterest. And all the rest of the time, i do homework. Not for fun.
Zane - I lie in bed and listen to audiobooks. I read comic books. I play games like Score Four and Uno.

What makes you really angry and why?
Houston - In the YouTube comments of songs, there will be comments that say, "Who's listening to this in 2019?" and there are like 10 of these on every song that there is, and there are hundreds of people saying, "Oh, me! That's crazy!" And it's like, didn't you see the other hundred people? You're not special.
Katrina - Donald Trump. Because he's Donald Trump. OH! Also Mr. Tu and Mr. Droski and stupid Kumar. With Mr. Droski, it's mostly because he said that you don't need medicine for depression - you can just get over it. And with Mr. Tu, i'm just angry with him all of the time because he sucks. OH! And Spotify ads.
Zane - Okay. When there are a bunch of lines on a paper or something, but there's one that's just a bit shorter, but it's just enough that you can see that it's shorter. Basically things that would make an OCD person angry.

What makes you laugh?
Houston - Things that are unintentionally bad, but are hilarious because of it.
Katrina - Cute puppies failing at doing things. Stupid puns. Mainly just videos of animals being silly.
Zane - Good jokes? Jokes that are so bad, but so bad that they're hilariously bad. Like, "Why did Sally drop her ice cream cone? Because she was hit by a bus."

What do you wish you knew how to do that you don't know how to do right now?
Houston - OH! To be able to speak in Morse Code and be able to communicate with people by randomly yelling grunts. That would be awesome.
Katrina - Do the splits. How to not stress out all the time about every small thing.
Zane - Crab walk faster! I want to be the fastest crab walker on earth.

Do you think you're more introverted or extroverted?
Houston - More introverted. Given the choice, i would be okay with just sitting on a computer for hours alone with music and nobody else. But i would also be totally okay with going to a party as long as i know people there. I don't really like meeting new people. Like, i'll never go up to somebody and say, "Hi. I'm Houston."
Katrina - Introverted. I don't like talking to people who aren't my close friends or family. Some extroverts that i know can sit down with people they barely know and just talk about anything and just talk constantly. They just TALK.
Zane - I don't know. I think i'm 50-50. Because when i'm meeting new people, i hate talking or anything. But when i know the people, i love talking to them.

If you could go back in time for one week, what year would you travel to?
Houston - (So much hemming and hawing going on!) When did the stock market crash?! I want to be there for the stock market crash! I would want to go to (looks it up on his phone) October 22, 1929. Just so i can see how awesome everything is, and then everything goes out the window and then everything sucks, and everyone would be sad and that would be funny! Oh.
Katrina - If we died there, would we die for real? (Me: Yes. WHY?) I was thinking if i killed a person like Hitler and someone else killed me, would i die? Okay. So...Ooooo! I'd go back to the LiveAid concert! Because it's also the 80's and i could rock that 80's style! Or if i could go meet JK Rowling before she became super famous.
Zane - Could i bring a camera? Could i bring a computer back and sell it? (Me: No.) I guess i'd go to the time of the dinosaurs and take pictures of how they were wiped out. And then can i sell the pictures? Because if not, then i want to change my answer. Okay. I want to figure out how ancient things were built. Like the pyramids and Stonehenge and Easter Island.

What do Dad or i do that embarrasses you?
Houston - Nothing. Well, on occasion, you'll make me do these weird interviews, and it's really embarrassing, man.
Katrina - Nothing.
Zane - I guess it's a little bit weird when Dad shows up to school to pick me up and he's wearing his headphones. Because every single time i hear somebody say, "Why is he wearing his headset?" Because it's not a headset! It has no microphone!

What do you think about the most during each day?
Houston - "Would it be funny to say this, or would it be offensive?" Because i don't want to say something trying to be funny, but say something racist or something.
Katrina - "I'm hungry and tired. I have homework. I'm stressed out."
Zane - Everything! Like Minecraft. And how it's super weird how circles have zero and infinity sides. And how hot dogs are made. And how space is infinite but it keeps growing, and how is that possible?! And today i thought, could you make a bank account and spend billions of dollars and then destroy your bank account before the end of the month so you don't have to pay for it? And what if the monsters i drew came to life and were angry at me for making them? And how i would make my head if i could change its shape every day before school?  And i think about how humans would think if their brains were the size of dog brains. And how cool it would be if we had eyes on the sides of our heads or on antennae like slugs.

If you could meet anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
Houston - I would want to just meet some random guy off the street in the Middle Ages and introduce them to phones or whatever. Because if i met a celebrity, i'd be like, "Hi celebrity dude," and then just stand there awkwardly.
Katrina - Could they be fictional? Because i really, really want to meet Harry Potter. (Me: No.) JK Rowling? Or Bono? Emma Watson would be pretty cool, and she's the closest thing i could get to Hermione.... I don't know! I just keep thinking of fictional characters!!! Eddy Redmayne! Because he played Newt Scamander AND he's a Hufflepuff! I've researched this.
Zane - Could they be fictional? Because i'd want to meet Voldemort! Or Percy Jackson. (Me: No) JK Rowling or Rick Riordan. Because they wrote awesome books. Or i'd meet the guy who made Apple, because he'd be like, "Here. Have a dollar."

If you won the lottery, how would you spend your money?
Houston - I would want to win one of the not-well-known lotteries, because i wouldn't want anyone to know i won and i wouldn't want the publicity. I would probably save it, honestly, and then just spend it throughout my lifetime and not have to work.
Katrina - I'd put it all in a bank account. I'd pay off college and this house. I'd pay Houston's college and Zane's college. And then i'd make a house that's exactly like i want and has all kinds of secret passages that only i know about, and it would have a giant library. And i'd give a lot of it to charity. I'd maybe buy some more houses and give them to people who need them. OH. And i'd get a St. Bernard named Albus Percevil Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
Zane - I'd buy an awesome house with ten secret rooms or passageways that could have a blender in them and a blueberry tree so that i could make blueberry smoothies. I'd also buy a blender and a blueberry tree. And an apple tree and a strawberry tree. But i just want an awesome house with a bunch of secret places. Like in a carpet room, there would be some carpet that you could pull up and there'd be a room under the floor.

Snapchat, guinea pigs, and heaven

 

 

After a hiatus of 2-3 years, we've started playing with Snapchat again. Katrina kind of started it, and then we started sending silly snaps back and forth, and then Beth joined in, so then Juanito was feeling left out and he started up too. Zane would love to take part, but he doesn't have a phone yet, so he just joins in with others, and Houston refuses to get it on his phone because...some reason. We keep trying to draw him in, though. We shall prevail! (Maybe.)

Today our cute little guinea pig Buttercup died. We had her for six and a half years and she was at least a year old when we got her, so she lived a good long life, and she was getting skinny and old, but we are still all sad. Poor Zane, who discovered both of our other guinea pigs when they died, also discovered Buttercup this afternoon. Poor little guy.

So Zane and i were snuggling on the couch, talking about Buttercup, and he asked what i thought guinea pig heaven was like. We speculated about the hay and the lack of predators, and he was like, "How do we really know what guinea pigs want, though? Maybe they just really want to play volleyball." So then i asked what heaven would be like if he designed it, and he said, "It would be like a trampoline park, except there would be mattresses on the ceiling and there would be no gravity in that room." Sounds exactly right for him.

Our library "friend"

So. I work at the library, and part of my job at the library is putting books on the shelves and making sure that the books on the shelves are in the correct order. And so i'm usually the first one to notice when this one guy has come been there. It's obvious, see, because he is rabidly Republican, and when the library owns anything that is opposed to his worldview, he gets extremely upset about it.

The first time i noticed him was when we changed the way we did the shelves. Instead of just having all of the books spine-out, we started taking one book per shelf and facing it outwards so people could see the cover. One day i came in, and a book by Hilary Clinton had been hidden behind the shelved books. Other books that were possibly Democrat-leaning had been covered up or moved. I fixed everything and then mentioned it to the ladies who work behind the desk. One of them was all, "Oh. I know who that probably was. He's ... outspoken."

So every few weeks, i'll come in and find books moved and hidden. We all roll our eyes at him. A couple of days ago, after finding an unusually high number of the books being moved, i was up talking to the ladies at the desk again, and our new girl was all, "OH! I think i know who you mean! Yeah, he was complaining that James Comey's book should be in the fiction section." (He had moved the copies to the fiction section.) Apparently he was also very upset that so many of the picture books facing outward had black children on them. It was explained to him that that's because it's Black History month, and his response was, "Well. There should be an old white guy month!"

This is the guy who apparently had a huge problem with a board book named "A is for Activist." His response for that was to check out the book, bring it to the parking lot, throw it on the ground, and intentionally drive over it. Because he is mature.

This week when he was in our library, complaining about all of the "liberal" books, he mentioned to our (old white) guy working the desk that maybe he would just check some of them out and destroy them. He was all, "Oh, sure. You could do that. Of course, you'd be responsible for any damage, and if it's damaged enough to discard, the library would just buy a new copy, which would be good for the author...."

ANYHOW. The question that all of us keep asking each other is this: How angry and unreasonable do you have to be to continue going to the library just to move books around and complain about the ones you disagree with? I don't even understand.

It's February, and i'm done with winter now.

This February has been somewhat insane, weather-wise. After a couple of winter months with virtually no wintery weather, we suddenly got hammered with a couple of ice storms and a polar vortex. The kids had an entire week off of school for snow days, then went back for two days and then had another 3 days of snow days. A good portion of the city shut down - the schools and libraries were closed, the mail didn't run, the YMCA closed, and...other stuff, but it didn't actually affect me because we stayed home where it was warm. We watched movies and played games and read books and it was kind of awesome, honestly. (Of course i'm sure it'll suck if/when the kids have to go to school until July....)

In-between crazy weather days, we did manage to do a few things. Here are some of them.

On the 2nd, Beth and i had all of our youth group girls over to Beth's house to decorate cookies.

On the 4th, Zane got to go to the doctor for his yearly checkup. He's completely healthy and awesome and was completely thrilled that he didn't need to get any shots at all. (He just got all of his shots a couple of months ago.)

On the 5th, the kids and i all had dentist appointments. Nobody had any cavities. Yay!

On the 7th, we had book club at my house. Our book this month was "The Miniataurist," so we had all miniature food. And even though the weather was atrocious, nearly everybody was there. Fun!

On the 8th, we had pizza-movie night. Beth and my parents all came over, and it was super fun.

On the 9th, Katrina got a haircut. She got 5 inches cut off, and it's barely even noticeable.

On the 11th, the kids finally went back to school after almost two full weeks of snow days. Houston and Katrina actually had school every day this week. Zane had a snow day on Wednesday and then had a planned day off on Friday. He's going to die when he has to actually have a full week of school again.

On the 12th, we got another bout of terrible weather. The roads were horrible - that's a picture when i was sitting three cars back from my street, waiting and waiting and waiting to be able to just get home. There's a hill, though, and nobody could get up it going either direction. And yet, this was one day when all of the kids actually DID have school. I'm sure they would have had a snow day if they hadn't just had TEN SNOW DAYS in TWO WEEKS.

The 13th was Katrina's birthday! It was freezing cold and the snow was super deep, but she was a trooper and went out with me to take birthday pictures anyhow. Beth and my parents came over to celebrate her, and we had cake and ice cream, and she opened presents, and it was a really fun and laid-back birthday. And i really, really love this girl. She is just amazing and beautiful and just the sweetest girl in the history of the world. I keep waiting for her to become a typical bratty teenager, and she still hasn't.

And that brings us to today! It's Katrina's birthday weekend, so she has some friends over for the night. But tonight is also the school dance (Katrina's first real dance!), and so her friends all came over here to get ready and then came back afterwards to sleep, which is awesome, because that means that i get to take pictures beforehand and then hear all about the dance afterwards! Katrina was Very Unsure about going to the dance at all, and only decided to go after she found out that the friends she invited over were going and after i sort of totally pushed her to go.

But they just got home, and they all had lots of fun, and now they're all in their sleeping bags talking about everything, and they're close enough that i can hear, which is awesome because i'm nosy.

COLD!

As i sit here right now, the wind chill factor outside is -25 degrees, and our heater is working really hard to try to keep our house warmish. And also it's been snowing for three days, and the plows have completely not been able to keep up (our street hasn't been plowed yet). And so the entire city has pretty much shut down. The schools have all been closed for three days, and even the library is closed today.

It's the kind of cold where it's too cold to actually go outside, and so we're planning a day filled with snuggling up and watching movies and trying to huddle together to stay warm.

Update: And all of the city's schools have been cancelled for the next two days. So! A full week of snow days!

Snow! And doctor!

We finally got snow, and Zane is extraordinarily thrilled. He spent hours outside building a little snow fort in our front yard, and then when i got home from work, he begged to go sledding, so we went to the park near our house. He gleefully went up and down the hill while i watched until i was freezing and went to read in the car, and after another 15 minutes, he came and said, "I'm just not having fun...." And so we were just getting ready to leave when Katrina texted and said, "I'm coming sledding!" So then we stayed for another hour or so. And as we were leaving, Zane was all, "Can we go sledding again tomorrow?!" Such a weird kid. Snow is cold!

They already called (and texted and emailed and called two more phones) to say that Zane's school is cancelled for tomorrow, for a giant snowfall that we're expected to get overnight. I half expect us to get no snow at all now, because that would be par for the course, snow-day-wise. (Terrible roads? Have school. No problem at all? Snow day.) Houston and Katrina are keeping their fingers crossed that they'll have a snow day as well.

Oh! I never wrote about Houston and Katrina's doctor visit! I mean, it wasn't anything mind-blowingly interesting for the most part. Except a couple of notes.

1. Katrina and needles. Guys. She has developed herself a full-blown phobia of needles. I intentionally didn't tell her about the doctor's appointment until the day before, because as soon as i told her, he asked, "Do i need any shots?!?" I didn't know, and so for the next 20-ish hours, she worried and freaked out and annoyed everyone around her with her worries. My friend Linda sent me a screen shot of a text conversation between Katrina and Linda's daughter Ella that went like this:

Katrina - I'M KINDA FREAKING OUT
ELLA WHAT IF I NEED A FLU SHOT?
I'M NOT EVEN THERE YET AND I'M SHAKING
HELP ME
I'M IN THE FREAKING LUNCH LINE

And so when we got to the doctor's office, i immediately asked the nurse if Katrina was going to need a shot, and if so, if she could get that first, before seeing the doctor, which is one of the very best parenting decisions i've ever made. She was an absolute disaster until the shot was finished, and the entire appointment would have been horrible if she needed to wait until the end.

On the bright side, she didn't have a full-blown panic attack like she did last time she got shots, so...yay!

2. My kids are tall. Houston is 6'2" and still growing. Katrina is 5'7" and still growing.

3. Both Houston and Katrina have phenomenal eyesight. They could both read the bottom line of the eye chart without even squinting.

4. Both kids are super healthy and completely awesome. Yay!