And I’m alive!

We are moved in, unpacked, and ready to go (more or less!) We have all of the necessities, including toilet paper (no Charmin extra-soft here, though, or anything like unto it) and finally, Internet (and with Internet comes Skype, which means contact with family again). I’ve brushed off my trusty iMac, which has weathered upheaval fantastically well, and am ready to blog our Adventure, the mini-series. With any luck, it will rival the Pride and Prejudice mini-series. (Probably not the writing, though. Or the plot. Or the romance. Or the excellent morals. But maybe length. Maybe.)

Coming to healthcare near you

Today, I learned some very important facts about our insurance. Mostly, I learned that no matter how long you spend on the phone with various offices, none of them can do anything to help you. I also learned that if you happen to be doing a lot of traveling out of your coverage area, that you should probably just settle for ER visits, because there is no way that anyone can approve any other sort of a doctor's visit. But wait, what if . . . your daughter breaks out in hives and appears to be allergic to the cat, or the sun, or maybe just the whole state of Utah? That's just unfortunate, and hopefully, somebody somewhere else can fix it. But they can't, because with government-run healthcare, the approach to cost-cutting seems to involve placing a wall of bureaucrats between you and your doctor. Which would be awesome if it were a penalty kick or a game of dodge ball with those hard rubber balls.

Ahem.

So, I changed my blog.  It's a work in progress, since I'm on a sloooooooow PC, but it will come together--maybe.  It's still not really a mommy blog, and it's not a scrapbook paradise, and I will probably never give away cool free stuff that I make in my free time (1.  because my cool stuff is pretty rudimentary--hey, look!  a piece of paper glued to a popsicle stick!, and 2.  I have no free time.)

We leave for Europe in ONE month, so it's time to step up and share a little more. 

Today I'd  like to share that after a month in Washington state, and a week in Utah, I am tired of living out of suitcases.  That is all.

We're leaving!

We are pulling out of the campground and heading out. It's been a great experience--we all learned a lot about unselfishness, love, and seizing the day. Next item on the agenda--pulling a camper trailer from one coast to the other. It's going to be a great week!

(Is starting the trip with a speeding ticket a bad omen? Naah.)

Georgetown

A rainy weekday afternoon in Georgetown

The street is full of well-dressed women

clip-clopping to and fro.
I am a thrown-together woman
with no particular place to go.

I have a few hours free

from children's quarrels and ABCs,
And find myself in the enchanted halls
where merchants serve liberal proclivity.

Stiletto shoes with Italian names,
Parfum from France, and lace from Spain:
A patina of gorgeous from each arcade.
No rinky-dink bargains. Nothing mundane.

The well-dressed women race in the streets:
They have no dilly-dally time today.
They have careers and social obligations:
Theirs is not to seize the day.

I find a treasure for my beloved
and touch and smell and look my all.

I imagine myself a well-dressed woman

-pleasant, but fruitless after all.

I seize the day and seize some more
when I return from my afternoon stroll.
Children caper at the door:
Miraculous. Glorious. Wonderful.

I am a thrown-together woman.
Yells and smells of moppet and mite,

pose my hows and compose my whys.
Carpe diem, joyful soul, grasp the day while there's yet light.

Kristin H. Kent
March 2010

Olympics

This appears to be a slightly different kind of biathlon.

Today was a good day

Today was a good day. Oh, sure nothing went as planned and some things went wildly wrong, but it was still a joyful day. I woke up with a glad heart and kept it all day, despite:

~calling for a doctor's appointment at 6:00 am.
~walking into the doctor's office at 10:00 am (with six kids) to find out why no one had called back about my "urgent" condition.
~discovering that the appointment line had not yet passed on any urgent care notes.
~walking back to the car to discover that it wouldn't start.
~discovering that the essential battery ($4.95 for two) in the key fob was dead, thereby setting off the silent alarm in the van, and keeping me from starting the car.
~after a friend in the area took off from work and helped us out (including a jaunt to the BX which was out of batteries and another jaunt to Walmart, which was not close) discovering that the silent alarm had drained the car battery--so now we also needed a jump start.
~having six kids crowd the doctor during my appointment (true fact: even very professional people have a hard time thinking on their feet when confronted by so many little people)
~the computer system was down, so I had to return to the doctor's office and get a paper prescription (they were very fast and kind.)
~grocery shopping with six kids who were, by this time, starving and stir crazy
~and last, but not least, standing on the doctor's scale and staring at the ugly (but truthful) numbers.

also today:
~I held Briellen and Brigham's little hands as we walked down a snowy hill in the stillness of an early morning.
~I carried Vilate in a pack and could feel her warming my back.
~Mirielle's fears of turning into a personage of "bones, skin, and spirit" (her words) never materialized (she's afraid of starving to death. But not afraid enough to actually eat the food I cook. True quote from Tuesday night: "Mom, that's the first thing you ever cooked that I liked!")
~Sarai got her very first pocket knife. (But she hasn't yet earned her tote and chip card, so she doesn't yet have actual possession of the knife.)
~Analise's cat and Sarai's fox got married, in a very elaborate ceremony (complete with a rabbit throwing real rose petals, Mendelssohn's Wedding March, and a ring bearer holding two tiny hair elastics) . They also had a child. (Q: Analise, how long have they been married? (since time is flexible in these sorts of situations, y'know) A: About an hour. Q: Then how do they have a child? A: Mirielle gave it to them as a wedding present.) Excellent.

It has been a great day.