Wordless Wednesday

Always securely tie up your horse before getting in the bath.

And don't forget to let the dogs out.

You live, you learn

You live, you learn
You love, you learn
You cry, you learn
You lose, you learn
You bleed, you learn
You scream, you learn

You don't properly save a document you've spent 4 hours working on and lose the entire thing, you learn

You grieve, you learn
You choke, you learn
You laugh, you learn
You choose, you learn
You pray, you learn
You ask, you learn
You live, you learn

Thank you for this wisdom Alanis, but I'm guessing you can't help me with document recovery.

Toothbrushing Scare Tactics

A local dentist visited Milly's Preschool class today, to talk to them about good oral hygiene, and send them each home with a new toothbrush. When I asked her about it, she gave the following account:

"Mommy, did you know dat when you eat sugary snacks, dat sugar bugs get in your teef? An we haf to brush our teef because if we don't, den da sugar bugs make a hole in your neck and you can die?"

No sweetheart, I did not know that. Is this the lengths dentists are going these days to get kids to brush their teeth? Or, is my daughter just a little too much like her Dad...?

Why I should probably drink more, reason # 4

The girls were playing outside with chalk, making "fairy dust". Seesa decided to cover the dog in her fairy dust. Awesome. I took a wet towel and cleaned him up. Afterwards, my husband asked if I had given the dog a bath. Ten minutes before dinner was ready? Um, no. No, I did not bathe the dog. I wiped the chalk off the dog sufficiently.

My husband insisted that I should have washed the dog because what if the chalk gets on his skin and he has some kind of reaction to it and his pores get clogged from it and it gets into his system and he gets a kidney infection and dies.

You'd like to think I'm kidding right now, wouldn't you? I am not even exaggerating. I may have even left out a couple of the disastrous things that might happen to the dog, because I didn't really pay attention to most of it. It's a survival tactic I've developed over time.

My husband...the King of Overreaction, and my inspiration for the 4th reason that I should probably drink more.

The winter of our unemployment

I've learned that losing one's job, like many other changes in life, involves a grieving period. Grief has many stages... denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. My husband and I have been firmly entrenched in the denial phase of the loss of our jobs, and so have been escaping up to Lake Tahoe every chance we get in an effort to avoid the depression phase. Everyone has their different ways of dealing with grief. This is ours.

Denial is an essential part of the healing process. I prefer to think of it as seeing the silver lining in any situation. In this particular situation, the silver lining being both of us having the time off to head up to the snow as much as possible this winter. Avoiding the depressing processes of looking for a job is just an added benefit! I may even write a book after all of this. "The benefits of denial; A Users Guide" Or something like that. Got any clever title ideas? If I can get it published before BlogHer, they may even let me do a panel discussion on the subject! See? Yet another thing I can focus on rather than the depressing process of looking for a job. Did I mention that the job searching part of being out of work is sort of a downer? Great. Let's move on to the UP side of being out of work...!

Here's a little sampling of the fun we've been having in the snow.



My husband is an avid skier, so he is thrilled that both of our girls are taking to the slopes. Seesa is now skiing the intermediate runs with her Dad, and Milly is on her way to being able to handle the big hills too. I didn't learn to ski until I was older. I'm happy that my kids are learning while they are little and I hope it's a hobby they continue to enjoy as they grow. As for me, I'm content to help carry every one's gear and then hang out drinking my chai tea latte and admiring the spectacular views.


This past weekend is probably one of our last trips to the snow this winter - and I'm hoping that we move right on to the acceptance stage upon our return to reality, and find some freaking jobs so we can get a ski lease next year!!!

Happy St Patty's Day

Once again I am reminded...it's the little things,

like a green bath on St Patty's Day,

that bring joy to our lives.

When they say that looking for a job IS a full time job...

...they are not kidding.

That is all.

Happy Birthday to Daddy

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We all hope you enjoyed our new tradition of spending your birthday in your favorite place in the world...the snow. We love you very much!