Don't Hit the Potty!

I have had so many ideas for posts that I no longer know what to say. So I'll say a little bit of everything:
Ben, Happy Birthday! Enjoy your last year of the 20's...you are yet young. Although in many ways it doesn't seem like you are my "little" brother any more. At some point in the last couple of years I ceased to feel like your "big sister" and instead I simply feel like your sister, an equal and comrade in sibling-ship. Does this make you older or me younger? I hope you have had a wonderful year and enjoy many to come!

Dad visited with Sandra recently, and Mom came shortly after. I was afraid when we moved here that we wouldn't be near anyone so no one would come to visit us. Instead we are ON THE WAY for everyone and we get one-nighters with lots of traveling relatives. Way fun!

Inga loves school, and she's good at it. Her teacher told us last week that she and another girl are the top readers in the class. That's pretty amazing, since she only really learned to read around a year ago and boy, did we struggle to get there! But when she got it, she got it.

I was telling Lena that I would love her no matter what, trying to hint around the idea that no matter what she looked like or what parts she might be missing this in no way affected my devotion to her. She wanted to know if I would still love her if she got her legs chopped off. I assured her I would. Then she asked about her ear. Of course, I would still love her. I got enthusiastic and asked her what if her nose got chopped off? She gave me a horrified look and said, "Oh, no, Mommy, then all of my boogers would fall out!"

Big huge topic of the month: should we have a sixth kid? It's Fall, and as Ben K. can attest I seem to start adoption paperwork right before Thanksgiving (and call him with the onerous request of picking up my Ohio marriage license from a usually over-crowded Department of Public Health or some such important location), so out of habit I am starting to think toward that direction. No answers yet. Just lots of questions. And yes, there is a specific child in mind.

Annie, thank you for the awesome letters! I haven't had time to write back, but the kids loved them and I loved my birthday letter. You have an amazing way with words. I can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving!!

Mandy asked if I got my quote at the top of the blog from a forum. Umm...what's a forum? Since I don't know, I don't think so. But I did steal it off someone else's quote on their website. It was authored by anonymous, according to this person. I like the quote...I want to have that attitude, and most days I achieve it (at least usually I have to take a shower the next morning).

There is a port-a-potty at the end of my driveway. They are re-paving our whole area (called Hernwood Heights) where we live and the workers chose our little neck of the woods for their loo placement. The problem is that they put it right opposite our driveway, so when we back out I almost hit it, every time. I have trained the kids to remind me by saying, "Don't hit the potty, Mommy!" every time I start to back out of the driveway. So far, I have avoided spilling the contents of the port-a-potty all over our little dead-end street. When the tractors finally made it to our part of Hernwood this morning I was all happy. Surely they would be finished with their project soon and not only would we have a newly paved street with a more level sewer connection but I would also no longer have to be worried about inadvertently destroying state contractor temporary toileting facilities. They did move the port-a-potty this afternoon before they finished for the day...and left a large bull-dozer sort of thing with a caterpillar attached to it...right across from my driveway. This is much bigger than the Tardis-sized toilet box. I must now put our van through several contortions to get out of my driveway--that is, if I remember to do so instead of simply plowing into the thing before checking in my rear-view mirror.