Jo's Boys

Happy Anniversary to Us!!!

Well, it's official ~ it's our tenth wedding anniversary!!  We've been married ten *fabulous* years!

(Okay, well, some of those years were maybe not-so-fabulous due to circumstances beyond our control like losing babies and being horrifically poor, but you get the drift).

Now, I'm all upbeat because even though James isn't here and therefore we can't celebrate together, he's coming home on Christmas Eve (YAY!!!!!!) and will be home for a WEEK!!!!!  Double YAY!!!!  So I'm not in my total doom and gloom mood that I'm usually in, so it's a good time to blog! 

Because what's my rule?  I'm not going to blog when I'm in a horrid mood.  There's just no point.

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So here are some cool pictures for you!!

The last of the monarch butterfly babies hatched a few days ago. 

When they first hatch, they don't really know what the deal is.  They are just sort of newly born and stuff.  It's kind of like human babies... they need time to adjust.  They don't just leap out of their cocoons ready to take on the world.

But in those few minutes when they start exercising their wings, before they fly away out into the big world, you can get them to sit on you. 

First you can get them to sit on your fingers

And you have to be very, very gentle.

And then they decide that your finger isn't high up enough; that they want to go HIGHER.  So they start climbing....

And by the time they make their little butterfly way to your shoulder, you sort of start to get worried, because you aren't sure that they'll be prudent about how to get from point A to point B....

And then the unthinkable happens, because your face is, of course, ON THEIR WAY and in their path and have I mentioned that their butterfly feet tickle dreadfully??

And you have to do EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER to allow them to climb up your eyelashes and eyelids in order to get as high up as possible.  You have to clench your little eyes shut and not swat them away while they're climbing...

And you try to stay awfully still...

And then they fly away, off into the world!!

But aren't those just totally cool monarch butterfly pictures??  Have any of YOU had a monarch butterfly march right up your face????  I thought not...  :)

And honey, if you're reading, Happy Anniversary.  You're the most wonderful husband a girl could ever hope to have.  We'll celebrate when you get here.  :)

My Boys are Seriously Cute

I mean, take a look... this is my Youngest being a space dude:

Too Short to Fit the Suit

and this is Youngest being chased by something:

Youngest is a Girl?

and for those of you (read: My Mother) who always think that I give Youngest wayyyyyy more air time than Oldest, I will give you Oldest dancing on Mars or the Moon or somthing:

Who KNOWS What He is Doing or Where

I mean, really.  My boys make cuteness and art form.

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Lessee.  What else. 

Daddy comes home on Christmas Eve in the evening and gets to stay for something like three days, so that's good! 

This being a single parent thing SUCKS.

And let me ask you a question:

Knowing that I am the ONLY homeschool mother in the neighborhood (and therefore don't get a break during the day while my children are in school like the rest of the mommies)... knowing that I am the ONLY mother without the father in the home... and knowing that I am the ONLY mother whose house is on the market (and therefore could be show any minute and must stay perfectly clean at all times), why is it that the moms in the neighborhood all send their kids, that they NEVER EVER SEE, to my house after school and on the weekends to play??????  I always have something INSANE like eight children here (all in the 1st through 4th grades) whenever they're not in school or in bed. 

Isn't that just WRONG somehow????

Medicine

My family is insanely lucky. 

As a Federal Employee Family, we have great health insurance in a country with the Best Medical Care Ever.  Okay, our copays suck since we chose the type that lets us see any provider we want (hence higher copays) but that was our choice.

We are the Lucky Few.  There are millions and millions of folks out there who are uninsured or underinsured.  Which is just too awful for words. 

There is a continual discussion in the medical community (and outside of it, of course) about "what can be done."  Lots of people don't have access to medical coverage.  This really sucks.  What Can Be Done???

I'm not brilliant and I have no great answers, but today I was reading through a great medical blog by a doctor in Great Britian and this is what I read:

"Tony drives a fork lift truck. He loads and unloads lorries. He is in his mid-thirties and, until this year, has only had one week off work in ten years. He is married with two children. His wife works part time. A large part of Tony’s income comes from working overtime.

He presented three moths ago with what he called a groin strain. In fact he had a right inguinal hernia. He has seen the surgeons and he is on the waiting list. Over the last month or so, he has had problems with the hernia. Not to beat about the bush, it “bloody hurts, doc”. He cannot do any heavy lifting. That means he cannot do his job. So he is signed off work. His employers are excellent and understanding. But they are not going to pay him overtime when he is off work. So Tony and his family are hard up.

I wrote to the surgeon, who I know well, asking if the operation could be expedited. In the old days, I would have phoned the surgeon personally and asked him to slip Tony in as a favour. I know, I know, it was arbitrary, mutual back-scratching, arranged on the golf course medicine (I do not play golf). As long as you did not ask too often (and I did not) the system seemed to work. Anyway, the purists amongst you will be glad to hear that that the government has stopped this sort of old fashioned nonesense.

The letter arrived back from my surgeon:

Dear John

I regret that I am not able to bring Tony’s operation forward.

We have recently been instructed by the PCT that all routine non-urgent operations are to be delayed for a minimum of 20 weeks.

Sorry.

Yours sincerely.

So Tony will stay off work, and be hard up, and the country will lose the services of a conscientious worker, and the operation will still have to be done at the end of the 20 weeks.

Crazy."

We've been there.  When my husband was a police officer, we NEEDED his off-duty money in order to make it.  If he hadn't been able to work his off-duty jobs, it would have been UGLY, so I can totally and completely understand the above family's scenario, and it's just downright scary.

So what I'm trying to say is that I don't have the answers in terms of making medical coverage more accessible, but dear LORD let's to all we can not to have the above scenario happen in our country.  Whatever plans are proposed, let's make sure we NEVER have that. 

We're still alive

Hi all!!

I know that I haven't blogged in forever and I'm sorry.  The truth of the matter is that, now that my husband is gone, I feel like the weight of the world is pressing down on me... there is SO MUCH that needs to be done and I'm the only one to do it. 

James was home for a WEEK though over Thanksgiving ~ hooray!!!!! ~ which was so wonderful I don't have words enough to describe it. 

What else have you missed??  Well, let's see...

In the middle of November my sweet mother-in-law watched the boys for a couple of days so that I could fly out and actually SEE the wonderful section of the world to which we are (supposedly) moving (someday, if our house ever sells). 

Yes, Portland, Oregon is beautiful and lovely.  But it just so happened that the two days I was there contained deluge-type rain, so heavy that sightseeing out the car windows was totally impossible.  No, we're NOT talking Normal Portland Rain.  We're talking about FLOODING.  So I didn't get to see much of anything.... except my husband.  So even there, the trip was well worthwhile.  :)

Late November found my children turning in their Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.

Oh my goodness I LOVE LOVE LOVE this ministry.  We have been doing this for YEARS.  It is a tradition.  In fact, my boys always gather up their Halloween candy on Halloween night and immediately set ALL of the hard candy aside (chocolate cannot be placed in the boxes because it melts) for the Operation Christmas Child boxes. 

The church we have been attending, which is the most awesome church in the universe, is a drop-off location. 

Get this!!!!

The huge 18 wheeler pictured next was FULL TO THE TOP of boxes, and there were something like 10 SUV's following behind it that were ALSO full of boxes!   This drop-off location generated over TWELVE THOUSAND Operation Christmas Child Boxes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Look at that full truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then it was Thanksgiving, and thank GOODNESS Daddy was home!!!! 

We ate lots of food and went to various and sundry Disney locations. 

My boys think that by FAR the best Disney park EVER is Disney Quest.

Never mind Magic Kingdom, or Epcot, or Animal Kingdom.  Oh, no, my friends.  They love Disney Quest, which you probably haven't even heard of.  Your life is better this way, actually.

Disney Quest is a five storey Disney indoor building/park filled to the brim with nothing but video games and virtual reality rides.  A boy's wild dream.  A mother's worst nightmare.  I SO hate that place, but that's probably because I hate video games.  The boys can't get enough, even (especially?) James.  So they have fun playing together, which is wonderful, and I go read a book, which is even more wonderful. 

But all good times, of course, come to an end. 

James left yesterday and I wanted to die. 

Yes, I'm still homeschooling the children.  I get no breaks.   Yes, I still am responsible for keeping the house perfect/the laundry done/ etc.  I'm trying really hard to not whine, which is why I'm not blogging.  Because I feel like all I do is whine, which is just totally insane.

We are happy, healthy, and wealthier than 90% of the world's population.  (Everyone in the U.S. is, statistically).  Plus, we've been stranded in the Fun Stuff To Do Capitol Of The World. 

So after we dropped Daddy off at the airport yesterday, the boys and I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom, which is basically a really big zoo. 

Rule #1:  Yes, Disney is in Florida.  Thus, Disney photographers that pose us to try to take our pictures should be trying to pose us so that we are NOT squinting into the sun.  I know this is hard, but meets with....

better results.  (Same posing place.  Same Disney photographer.  Three hours later in the day and thus no squinting.)

Disney Photographer Tip # 2:  When posing people in front of the famous Tree of Life (as in the first two photos above), it is actually a really great idea to turn the camera around and INCLUDE the Tree of Life in the pictures.  (Duh.)

Youngest likes Donald Duck.  The feeling seems to be mutual. Let's hope Donald Duck isn't actually a random pedophile wearing lots of heavy costuming. Which would probably be a really fun place for a pedophile to hang out. 

True story:  my high school was only about 45 minutes away from Disney World, and I was in singing/drama programs, which meant that some of my classmates moonlighted as Disney characters (and dancers in the parades and stuff).  But one of my high school classmates was super tall and he would be Goofy on the weekends.

(This was like a zillion years ago in 1990)

So he used to tell us all that he loved dressing up as Goofy because he got to pose with gorgeous high school girls/ladies at Disney and he would, um, how shall we say, place his hands as borderline inappropriately as he could whilst still retaining his job.  Nice.

At this point, there were enough complaints about stuff like that that Disney characters now usually don't even touch tourists with their hands ~ usually when you take a picture with a Disney character, the character's hands are in the air.

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So, anyway, that's what's going on here!  Thank you for still checking my blog, even when I haven't updated in absolutely forEVER.   :)