Nothing to see here

There aren't as many people at my house as there used to be.
Gene is in the Navy. Neil is in the Air Force. Travis is at WSU. My house is quiet. Gus is a senior.  Bay is a teenager. I have no kids in elementary school. I am a Crossfitter. I'm a bit bad ass but not as bad ass as people like to think.  My lung function is either "stuck" or "stable" at 57% depending on how my mood is.

We must be doing something right.  Twice this week the 18 year old and the 14 year old sat in the living room with the 45 year old and the 43 year old and we all chatted for an hour.  Given that the 45 year old and the 43 year old are the parents I find this scenario quite adorable.  I like these two.

We have another child... what's his name... the middle guy...

Neil is cool and calm.  He is loud but not destructive.  He has a girlfriend.  He is a closet swearer.  His sassy side is becoming more and more apparent.  I get emails from the school far more frequently than I would have guessed regarding his potential for disruptive behaviour.  At his age Gene did not have a single complaint against him.  By the time Gus is his age his academic career file may take up a whole shelf by itself.  But, Neil is funny and kind and more apt to help out if he sees me getting overwhelmed by the grind of daily housework.  Gene is very like me by nature, he's a people person although he has a tendency to be a wee bit morose.  Neil is way more Trent, laid back and affable.

INconsistancy

Personal:
Maybe I'll try to blog a few times before the kids go back to school.  It's not like my time is taken up by my (once consistant) workout.

Family:
All are well, growing, eating and very noisy.


Home:
Concrete almost done (i.e. spells the end of the mud season, typical here from mid-October through early June.)

Garden:
We skipped one this year.  We have joined the local CSA though and so we are at least enjoying locally grown produce.  Gus LOVES to go with me to pick up the order which is based on a simple honors system.  The discussion this honors system provoked was interesting.  He is most intrigued by the root cellar with a hand-hewn door accessed by rough earthy steps down underground.

CF:
Honorable mention due to recent annoying, psychotic reaction to a routine oral antibiotic.  Suffice to say that it was NOT more convenient to use THIS particular antibiotic over a Home IV course.  I consider myself fairly stoic but I can only say that  Minocycline makes me crazy.  Literally.  (Or at the very least MORE crazy than usual.)

Animals:   Drake is still the Dog of Dogs!

Eighties Movies Revisited

I am a fan of the big gesture.  John Cusack standing in the rain with the stereo, forever set the standard.  I did NOT marry someone who is a man of gesture.  He is a man of actualities.  This is a good thing if you are a wife who likes things done.  Stuff built.  Actual stuff.  Fixed.  Dug.  I am such a wife.  But I also want that John Cusack serenade (and if you grew up on a steady diet of eighties movies you know exactly what I'm referring to).  What we have here is a case of Starry-eyed Romantic marries Clear-sighted Steady Realist. I finally figured out that I might want to start seeing the gesture in the completed projects: enjoy the romance of the elegantly executed bookcase I requested, for example.  (Might make me seem less whiny.)   Gene might take after his dad.  Neil is my boy.  Pretty sure Gus will make me and Neil look about as romantic as Darth Vader.  The jury is still out on Bay.  She sure does like her sparkly jewelry though and she has this whole narrative about "weel diamonds".

Thank Jesus for Zen

Gene's truck broke down a few weeks ago and in the name of frugality (AKA: the kid's got no money) Trent encouraged him to attempt to fix it himself.  There was something-something, wrong/burnt out/fried with the something-something head gasket.  Or that's something like what they might have said.  Gene had a friend who "knew how to fix it" and well the bottom line is that for a family who just a few years ago would have EASILY and QUICKLY  PAID someone to do the job, GOT the job done themselves, saving someplace in the region of one thousand (yes, that's THREE zeros, folks) dollars.  This weekend as Trent was on his way to Enumclaw to meet the rest of his family (lovely wife and four marvelous children) in order to help move some of the contents of his mom and dad's house.  (Said parents will be moving to Sequim before the end of the month.)  Blah, blah, blah, blah.... Trent called from Purdy to say that his transmission had blown up (again, bear with me on the automotive technical terms here....  I *think* he said "blown up").  All plans became quickly cluster fucked.  (Great technical term here... military origin, I believe.)  Our good friend Logan (and Katie) came to the rescue for Trent, giving up all alternative plans on Saturday morning to drive their trailer two hours, pick up Trent and truck and drive him and it two hours back.  In the meantime I locked my keys in my car at Shirley's house.  Friends of hers came to MY rescue and got my car opened using a variety of tools and muscle saving me many hundreds of dollars.  As Saturdays go, it was not one of my favorites.  Of course one of life's great mysteries is that it is destined to be one of the Saturdays that will never be forgotten, no matter how hard I try.  In order to come full circle with this post I will end by saying, Trent's truck is now at a neighbor's house, who is some kind of engineer, who says he can fix his truck for around $500.  If this is possible, then regardless of our apparently appalling car-karma, we may be in the middle of some kind of good money-karma.

In an attempt at add some more positivity to this otherwise questionably positive post there were a few more bright spots:  I got to spend some great time with Tori.  Bay bonded with Shirley.  Gene kept a level head, aided in Trent's rescue and drove a "big ole" truck and trailer on some pretty major highways with limited geographical knowledge.  Gina and Gigi arrived (in the middle of the locked car fiasco) and we got a bonus visit in with them.  Who says it was all bad??

By the time we got home, Trent was calm and happy.  He HAD imbibed two Dark and Stormys and it must be said was feeling no pain.  How we all laughed about our day... well... no... he wasn't feeling THAT much no pain, and I had just spent three hours in the car with ALL our children.  (At one point Tori swore to me that after spending just this one car journey with us she would NEVER have children.)  But we were all home.  We survived and we will probably look back and laugh at this some time in the distant future.  Maybe.  (Maybe not.)

Catchup, Aisle 3

Too many catch-up style posts.  This will not be fun to read in the years to come.  Too many gaps.  This portion of family is life if very scattered.  We eat meals together every night but sometimes that seems like very little to hold the whole fabric together.  Gene is in between sports.  Needs a job.  Loves his girl.  Thinks we are fine, but annoying.  Neil is in danger of becoming chronically middle-childed.  He rarely needs bribes because he has his shit together and so often gets nothing whereas Gene and Gus are always on the take someplace.  Trent and I need to address that.  If I were Neil I'd have figured out the advantages to holding back a little, putting forth a little less effort but I was WAY sneakier than Neil.  Bay is Kindergarten-Pop-Culture-Girl.  If it's the fad, she wants it.  She is in the middle of a group of girls who will probably be pretty tight right through school.  It will be fascinating to see this group given that she stays with them through high school.  Gus rides Neil's big heavy-duty dirtbike and has no fear.  Trent and I use up all available fear as we watch him.

In a brief conversation with Gene a few nights ago I realized that he really doesn't appear to understand the gravity of CF.  I was very annoyed about this until I realized (in rather an epiphany) that I have always explained to people that when you ALWAYS "have" something, it is very different emotionally and psycologically than "developing" something.  The journey is vastly different.  This makes me look brave and daring and heroic and all those fabulously admirable traits.  The truth is however that I don't know any other way,  I could impress the hell out of people just by telling them how many pills and tablets and now even SHOTS I take a day.  But it's just a number and it takes a minute and I can (impressively) swallow many pills at once.  (It's not as impressive as you might think and it's not a skill that you can be paid for, unfortunately.)  BUT the epiphany came when I realized that I expect Gene to understand the "gravity" of the "situation" although I go to great lengths to down play it and work around it in my day to day life.  My kids grew up with me taking pills, doing occasional Home IVs, being healthy, being sick, going to long, drawn out, far away doctors appointments.  My kids knew someone who'd had a double lung transplant long before they knew anyone who'd had a broken leg.  I never gave them credit for adapting to having a sick mom in the same way that I have adapted to being a sick mom and GOD  FORBID anyone call ME sick!    So why in the name of GOD would I be annoyed that the kid would take CF in his stride.  Wasn't that my goal all along?  And isn't it still?

January Catch-All

January: Boys, Mud, Rain, Green Smoothies, Tonsils, Rain, Mud, Boys, Steroids, Basketball, Mud, Boys, Rain, Lattes, Books, Mohawks, Boys, Rain, Mud.  And it rained a lot too.

Snowed IN? Or Snowed OUT?

I didn't really get snowed IN in Bellingham, but I did get snowed OUT of Freshwater Bay Road.  My Thanksgiving Celebration with Dearbhla was extended by four days (which was fine with me!)  We had lots of fun, I got to go to Target and squeezed in a trip to my favorite Goodwill.  Gus missed Trent horribly.  His moods swung accordingly.  The forbidden words "dumb" and "stupid" were in frequent use, as was the not forbidden though overused word "annoying". 

Dearbhla makes these ridiculous Vegetable Smoothies and the idea has taken hold in our house, with even neighbor kids coming by to drink the bright green, veggie packed, mineral rich, icy slush!  Trent is reluctant but I added extra fruit to yesterday's and he admitted it was "okay".  Food color can be a powerful stimulant or an even more powerful depressant!!!  A bright green drink is a hard sell, but four out of six of us are on board.  Gene likes it because I told him : "you drink this and you don't have to eat another vegetable for the rest of the day".   Here's the ingredient lineup:
Kale, Handful of raw almonds, celery, apple, pear, banana, squeeze of lemon juice, tablespoon of honey, strawberries, ice.
The look is "yuck".  The taste is surprisingly fruity.  The boys still agree that "chugging" it is the only way to get it down! 

As for the other people I live with:

Bay has her first loose tooth.

Gene has a girlfriend and we LOVE her.  (That's him: #55 above.)

Gus found one of his Christmas presents.

Neil is getting his tonsils out on November 1.

You Are Here

Bay unfolded a big map tonight at bedtime and asked Trent : "where is Auntie Dearbhla's house on this map"  it was a map of the peninsula, but anyway...  Here is where we all are...

Gene is : basketball, driving, smirking, schedule
Neil is : homework, fitting in, home, cooking
Gus is : loud, running, what-are-we-doing-today
Bay is : loud, bossing, directing, demanding, princess-shoes, pink, animals
Trent is : tractor
Dara is : chaos to order, yelling, picking up other people's shit, attitude, cooking
Our family is : mostly making it up as we go along, but we're still here, still talking (man, is there EVER a more talkingest crowd).  It's not always pretty and I'm a little worried that Gus's ipod has camcorder capabilities that could easily put us on youtube.  Heaven forBID.