The Sandwich Life

Random Notes from the Sandwich Life

1.  Time is moving too quickly.....summer hasn't really begun and I'm already feeling as though it's over.  The upside to this is that we have one tiny little green tomato on one of our plants.

2.  I'm always saying how pleased I am that the boys generally get along so well, etc.  So I got a boatload of Leo's homework from the past year the other day and while going through it I found this gem:

3.  I love my parents dearly, I really do, but let's just say I've seen more of them lately than perhaps one would wish....on Friday a couple of hours at the wound clinic with my Mom, then back home, made them lunch and left.  On Saturday went to medical supply place and got the stuff I needed to dress my mother's foot, took care of that and actually left the guys with them for awhile so I shouldn't complain.  Sunday, did the church stuff, grocery shopping, Ernie worked in their yard.  Monday, the Memorial Day service and lunch with them.  Tuesday went before I left for Chicago to take care of my mother's foot, made coffee, got them breakfast.  Yesterday, went over after work and today I take my mother back to the wound clinic.  This Saturday I have to take my mother for a haircut.  Sunday is Ernie's birthday so I was thinking of taking my father to church on Saturday so we'd have the day free but I don't know----it would feel like the whole day was parent day then....  Thank God I love them or this would kill me.  It's like thanking God that the boys are so cute....because otherwise they'd be dead....

4.  I've got to get going finding another homecare person or housekeeping person or SOMETHING for my folks.  I must say having someone take care of mowing their grass is a huge load off.  Their yard is huge and takes a long time to mow----when I went over yesterday it was freshly mowed and it was so nice to know it hadn't been Ernie sweating over it.

5.  Here's some more homework.  This one deals with three of Leo's great loves:  trains, bikes and Luke:

6.  I love my mother.  When we were at the wound clinic last week her doctor asked me what I did and I said I worked at Japan House on campus.  When he left the room my mother said, "Cynthia, when someone asks you that you need to say that you are Assistant DIRECTOR at Japan House.  I'm your mother and that's what you should say."  O.K. Mom.  Will do.  I love my mother.

7.  When I was at my parents  last night Dad gave me $5 and wanted me to get a really good treat for the boys.  I think we'll take them to Custard Cup this weekend on Grandpa....

8.  Ernie and I did have a giggling good time watching the Vertebrats stuff last night.  It all holds up.

The rest of the Vertebrats clips

I'm putting the rest of the Vertebrats Dance Marathon and documentary clips here so I can happily stay on my own little blog when I want to watch them all (the first clips are in the post below).

And yes, Ernie and I are sitting here drinking wine being bad parents by doing what we want and letting our kids watch Jimmy Neutron....

AH AH AH AH AHHHH.....a Vertebrats fix...

Oh man am I ever happy.....I didn't know there were a ton more Vertebrats clips on youtube.....the 1982 dance marathon....   

oh. my.   

I may have forgotten all about my tiredness.....

PSA's, Fireflies and the Loop

oh my gosh, a good but very busy weekend.  Woke up yesterday morning tired from a night with a sleepless Owen feeling the pain of an ear infection.  I had to run to my folks, change the dressing on my mother's foot and then take off for a meeting in Chicago.  Ernie had to haul Owen to the doctor and then go to his oncologist for a check up and PSA test results.  I was very upset at not being able to be there as I have sworn that I will always be there whenever he has to go to the oncologist but scheduling the meeting was very complicated and I couldn't back out.  So I left Ernie with strict instructions to call me as soon as his appointment was over and took off with my cel phone sitting next to me.  I grabbed it as soon as it rang and  when I heard it was Ernie I anxiously said, "well, how was everything?" and he casually said, "oh it's an ear infection, they gave him some amoxicillin...." and I had to yell "NOT OWEN YOU BIG IDIOT....WHAT ABOUT YOU?"  sigh.  He is totally confident--I'm the one that worries incessantly.  But he was correct and his PSA was undetectable and the results have been so good that he now switches to appointments every six months.  Woo-hooo!

I got to the Loop a bit early and wandered around.  I lived in the city and worked in the Loop for many years so it's incredibly familiar to me but of course I've also been away a dozen years so there's a new, Daley-ized gloss to it all that is unfamiliar.  Still nice to be there though.  I went to The Store Formerly Known as Field's (I guess it needs a unpronouncable symbol now) and got an iced tea.  I still love that building.

It was a hazy, hot day but I took some pictures so the boys could see where I sat waiting for my meeting to begin.

As nice as it was to be in the city, it was nicer to be back at home.  The boys greeted me with kisses, showed me their Lego constructions and then got busy catching fireflies and begging for jars with holes in the top.  Leo put his jar in the center of the table with the candlesticks so they could light our dinner.

And of course seeing my undetectable-PSA husband made me very happier than anything else could....

Memorial Day-impairment

I am Memorial Day impaired.  I don't know what my problem is but I always have problems with Memorial Day.  It is a holiday that has become extremely important to my father as he has gotten older so it no longer means a cook-out and the beginning of summer to us---it now means finding a ceremony honoring soldiers at an area cemetery.  Every year we try a different one and I always manage to get something wrong---the year we went to the wrong part of the cemetery and missed it, the year I thought we were seated at Memorial Day ceremony only to find ourselves sitting through mass.  Every year, there's something.  This year we were going to try a 'new' one and headed over with two vehicles to pick up my parents because between wheelchairs and chairs for them to sit in it is too much for one lone minivan....  Ernie and the boys stopped for gas and managed to take an hour, I got to my parents and found my mother not well, so she wasn't going.  I waited and waited and the guys finally showed up but we were definitely running late.  Now my father moves rather slowly so there I am bellowing from the back seat of the minivan (which makes me totally claustrophobic) COME ON DAD--WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE.  He calmly is taking swipes at dandelions with his cane. argh.  So off we race across town....only to be stopped by a mile long freight train.  GRRRR.  Ernie whipped the van around and we raced off to a road that goes over the railroad but let's just say we were a tad late.  Once there I tried to make the adrenalin stop rushing.  People spoke, laid wreaths in front of the flag, a group of women sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic acapella....and my Dad stood with his hand over his heart as he faced the flag.

Happy Memorial Day.

Bob

Bob, otherwise known as the nicest cat in America, napping on a windowsill

Friday night of Memorial Day Weekend

Pork barbecuing from 10:00 in the morning until 7:00....it was supposed to be done a few hours earlier...but it was worth the wait....

the overwhelming silence of seven kids with their mouths full of hot dogs, macaroni and cheese and watermelon...

Sasha's girls, Kirsten's kids, Sophie and the guys....all madly playing for hours on end...

the sighting of the first fireflies

Ann reading Owen's new firefly book with Sophie and Isabel curled up on her lap

a few bottles of wine and many bottles of beer

Sophie taking home a giant slug in a tupperware container (no need to return it thank you very much)

Leo, Owen, James and Isabel all sitting in a circle in the middle of the field late at night, passing the flashlight around and telling ghost stories....

I think summer must be here....

Cross your fingers....

Things seemed to be moving along relatively well with my parents so when I got my Mom's phone early yesterday morning at work my heart kind of dropped.  She just had that tone in her voice----I knew she was upset about something.  Well, it turns out she has a diabetic ulcer on her foot and it had gotten worse and the top of her foot was bleeding and they couldn't get the bandage off.  She called her podiatrist's office and they said they could get her an appointment in a couple of weeks.  Gee thanks.  They said she should go to convenient care or the emergency room.

So I headed over there---got there and there homecare person told me it was her last day.  OOOO. K.  I'll think about that later I told myself.  So after spending quite some time searching closets for clothes my Mom could wear--as the only pair of her pants that my father could find were in the wash--we took off for convenient care.  I was afraid if she went to the emergency room they would somehow siphon her off to the hospital and I would have to bring my Dad to our house and we're having people over tonight damn it.  So anyway---ended up seeing a doctor in family medicine who sure didn't like the look of her foot.  So some antibiotics and today a two hour appointment at the wound clinic.

I was supposed to take her to the cardiologist yesterday afternoon but we canceled that.  I figured since I'd be busy with her this afternoon I could be productive yesterday instead.  HA.  Ernie and I sat around reading recipes for barbecued pork and watched Leo, Luke, Duncan and Owen race around the house eating more popsicles than they should.  Later we dunked the guys in the bathtub and then sat outside in the front yard with our neighbors Gail and Jeff, watching bats and talking until it was dark and way past the boys' bedtime.  So much for being productive.

It's funny---just yesterday morning I was thinking that I was finally feeling rested and caught up on sleep.  I was so stressed out about this stuff though that when I got home I felt exhausted again.  Made me realize how much of my tiredness is because of stress.  Sometimes I think it's because of this or that----and not that being thinner or exercising more would hurt---but I realize that my reaction to stress is to be tired....oh well.

Sooooo, cross your fingers that this doesn't get too bad.  Cross your fingers that my father will be o.k. by himself while we're at the wound clinic.  Cross your fingers that my mother doesn't fight me on getting another home care person.  Cross your fingers that I don't get too tired from worry.  Just cross your fingers.....

The smell of new books and other miscellany

I've discovered a delicious new vice.....buying books for Leo.  I mean, who doesn't love to  go into a bookstore, browse in the coolness for awhile and then buy some new-smelling books?  MMM-mmmm.  However, of course books are expensive and I have a perfectly good library card and I don't find as much time as I'd like to read anyway....... 

However, if the  books you buy are all for the good of your child----well, what the hell, huh?  And if you find a copy of the Boxcar Kids where they live in a caboose again, well, what are you going to do?

I love bookstores.

............................

As I was cooking dinner the other night I heard yelling and various expletives coming from the media room.  I went in to see what the problem was and my husband (who can have a hair-trigger temper even though people who don't know him well never believe that) was yelling at the cat for ripping his shirt.  From the sound of things, Ernie was convinced that this was the last shirt he owned.  I was really going for a peaceful evening so I calmly and lovingly told him I would buy him another shirt and not to yell at Harlan, he's old and decrepit and we never trim his nails.

After I returned to the kitchen, Ernie said Owen turned to him and said, "Isn't Mommy a nice girl to come in here when you're upset and make  you feel better?  I love her."

Everybody should have an Owen.  Everybody.

The ability to sleep?

Is it just me or does this ad strike you as a tad odd?  An ad for the National Fatherhood Initiative asks 'have you been a dad today?' and then shows the father sleeping.  I mean, I know the child is on top of him and theoretically they fell asleep after some meaningful bonding time.....but it just just seems a bit misguided that they are promoting the importance of fatherhood by showing a man sleeping on the couch.  Huh, I don't know.....maybe it's just me....