organic is not shmorganic afterall

Ok. It wasn't the organic laundry soap clogging up our pipes. It was tree roots. When we moved to our house five years ago, the same thing kept happening everytime we used the washing machine. I shoulda known. However, we spent $4,000 fixing the tree root problem by getting a whole new pipe out to the street. Actually, the city of DeKalb spent $4,000 because, sadly (or happily, depending how you look at it), we qualified for a low-income grant from the city. Apparently, the new pipe has a crack in it from when we had the tree cut down and its stump dug out this summer. Yes, it happens to be the same tree whose roots were growing in the sewer to begin with. And apparently, tree roots grow for like five years after a tree is cut down.

Prairie Dawg did a whole blog on how to poop at work. Well I want to ask him something. What do you do when 3 plumbers are in your basement cleaning up your poop? I tried to watch T.V. But, I could hear and smell the whole debacle. If it was only one plumber I think it would've been ok. But, three? I had this thought that maybe it was my fault the sewer was clogging up. I imagined them coming up and asking, "Maam, how many organic vegetables do you eat a day?" Plus, our basement was a mess so I was embarassed. I decided to vacuum the upstairs. I didn't just vacuum- I heavy duty vacuumed. The kind of vacumming that works up a sweat. I couldn't hear any plumbing work and I faked like I was a good housekeeper. After the plumbers left, I cleaned the basement. Nothing like spending $600 for a clean pipe, clean floors and a clean basement.

Thanks Lady Di and Queenie for linking me! It got me off my ass. This story is from about 2 months ago!

oh hell

I wasn't going to write this story because it seems all the posts I've done (they number in the thousands) are about Alex. Plus, the last one about Alex was about the fall of man and original sin and stuff like that. I didn't really want to follow it up with this story.

This one's for you edp. It's for Steener, too.

No, Alex didn't bring a Viking in his Superman backpack. He brought a rosary. Yes. A rosary. He was scared of kindergarten: He spent the better part of the kindergarten teacher conference under the table. The night before kindergarten, we were in bed reading stories and talking. We fell silent for a while. Then Alex asked for the rosary. I got it down from the nail it hangs on and gave it to him. He said that Mary was like a good ghost and would fly out of the rosary and into his heart. He slept with it and the next morning he put it in his backpack to take to school. The first day of kindergarten was a breeze for him and for us.

We've been calling him Pope Alex ever since.

the lady in the garden

Alex needed to get one last immunization before Kindergarten and since we are shopping for a new pediatrician, I made an appointment with a new doctor. Today was the day. Alex was nervous all afternoon. He wouldn' t talk much at our lunch date with Steener: usually Steener gets him a-jabbering. About a half hour before leaving, he called to me from the next room. He asks, "Mom, if the lady in the garden listened to God, would I have to go to the doctor?" Any suggestions P-Dawg? I said that we didn't believe doctors were in God's original plan. He said, "So, if she listened, there wouldn't be any germs or sickness?" I said, "Probably not." He said, "Don't you wish she would have listened to God?" Theology from a 5 year old. Questions I ask all the time, too.

Superman in San Francisco

We relished all the moments on our west coast vacation. Seattle was mellow and relaxing hanging with my sis and her daughter. Our days were filled with walks, hikes, swims, and good food. sigh. Oh, there were the whiny moments a la Alex. And, then there was his first outwardly defiant action. It was time to get out of the pool and, of course, he wanted to stay. After a few warnings, he got out and I thought we were on our way. He walked over to the other side of the pool to get his towel and on the way back, dropped the towel in the water. As he dropped the towel in the pool, he looked at me. Then, he jumped in, grabbed the towel and got out. As we walked back to my sister's townhouse, he screamed because he had to carry the sopping wet towel. Also, a big black fly kept flying around his head and landing on him. Sweet justice.

We had a great time in San Fran with my aunt, uncle and cousins. They are crazy funny and we laughed for 2 days straight. Even though I loved seeing the fam, I missed my hubby and my home and my life. Vacation made me remember how much I love my life- warts and all. I forget all too easily.

Organic, Shmorganic

My poor husband has been cleaning out our sewer on and off for a long time now. The problem happened when the washing machine would empty: the water would just come right back out and flood the laundry room. It happened randomly and we were perplexed. The plumber was perplexed. Last week when the plumber was out snooping around, I said, "Well, at least, I have the best smelling laundry room in the south side of DeKalb." He said, "The suds are coming back?." I said, "Yeah." He said, "It's your laundry soap." Oh my gosh!!! My Trader Joe's, organic, cruelty-free, environmentally friendly laundry soap is causing this!! Needless to say, you will be seeing boxes and bottles labeled Cheer, Fab, All and Purex in my laundry room from now on.

I hope the plumber's right because everytime this happens, edp unhooks the machine, opens the sewer (even though there isn't a back up, it's still a shitty job), cleans it out and runs the garden hose through. It messes up the laundry room, smells up the house and gets me behind with the laundry. Poor edp. This isn't the first time he's had to pay for my hippie ways: I buy Tom's of Maine toothpaste. I think as a treat, it'll be Colgate next time I'm at the grocery store.

goin' home

Many of you already know that my mom is fighting a recurrence of breast cancer. We just found out this week that she is still cancer-free. Yeah!! Her cancer is super aggressive so everytime she gets this state-of-the-art roaming tumor cell blood test, we hold our breath and say lots of prayers. The chemo she gets is specifically made to fight this little protein that makes the cancer so aggressive. That's cool.

Over the past 2 years, I've spent a lot of time in the south suburb where I grew up. After this ordeal was juxtaposed with the experience of having a kid of my own, I have fallen in love with my hometown- a town I've never been in love with.

I took Alex to the park down the street from our first house in the OF (yes, my parents bought two houses in Oak Forest). This park happens to be at the elementary school I first attended-the same park I played at as a young child. So there I am with Alex, watching him play with tons of kids surrounded by homes that look like the Brady Bunch house (but, not as nice). I was finally thankful for the place my parents chose to raise us. It's a place full of working class, family oriented people. No pretensions. I'm glad we are raising Alex in a town with the same qualities- minus the Brady Bunch looking houses (forgive me, there are a few in DeKalb).

On the way to the park I told Alex we could buy a toy because he did such a great job helping Gooey at the doctors and keeping her company during chemo. He wanted gloves from the hardware store. Then, when we got there, they had vinyl gloves like the doctor. So, there we were, driving around the OF with doctor gloves on- yes, I was wearing them, too. I did refuse to wear them into the restaurant. He didn't. My little OCD son. As Steener will atest, he even wore them the next day out at lunch. And, thanks to old dog's ocular surgery, Alex received another pair while visiting Uncle Ogy. We love Aunt Steener and Uncle Old Dog!

I don't know how ot use spell check on this thing- sorry.

second

I picked the worst time of year to start a blog. Oh well. Part of the reason why I started the blog was to take a break from the craziness that is my life in May/June. It gave me a bit of a break during the most difficult tasks of the school year. I love the day to day stuff of being a teacher. I love the kids, the lessons, moving around the classroom helping solve problems- it's a very physical job. I even love the end of the year organizing and cleaning up. It's the paperwork that gets me. I have files upon files to check, recheck, staple, sort etc. I literally go berserk trying to get these things done. I have to take lots of breaks and play lots of mind games to get through it. Now that it's all done (when is it ever all done, really), I will hopefully have some time to blog.

On our first official day of summer, Alex and I went to the library to sign up for the summer reading program. Before we left though, we had to burn his underwear in the grill. Potty training was rough for the little guy and we decided to burn the training pants. After the ceremony, we hustled on over to the library. The summer reading program has some sort of pirate theme like "Ships Ahoy" or "Reading Adventures." That worked well because Alex happened to have a sword tucked into his boxers. Since he had shorts on, the sword came out the bottom of his shorts. To top it off, he was wearing his "i-pod." It's this yellow clay pumpkin necklace (teacher gift) that Alex uses as his pretend i-pod. As I was thinking about my day, I realized that I burned underwear in a grill and then went to the library with a sword weilding, pumpkin-i-pod wearing kid. What a great way to start out the summer.

first

I read the HH dress code yesterday. I shouldn't have. As I was standing on the altar today waiting to give out communion I kept wondering if my outfit was appropriate. The HH dress code said that if you wondered if your outfit was appropriate, it probably wasn't. Oops.