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internet DOWN

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments

My internet was down for several hours the other day. I couldn’t believe all the things I wanted to do and couldn’t.

– Check to see if my paycheck was depostited
– Check the weather
– Update my status on facebook
– Read everyone else’s status
– Post on my blog
– Check the time of BSU kickoff
– Pay a bill
– Check my email
– Read everyone else’s blogs
– See if I was out-bid on ebay
– Read the daily news
– Find a recipe
– Get an address to send a thank-you card
– Update my Netflix queue

I’m not sure what to make of it all. I clearly rely a great deal on the world wide web and I’m not sure if that is wise…

Eli steals hearts

/ Jo Bird / 7 Comments

I am rarely able to capture my children’s charm on video camera. This time I was lucky. I must warn you, if you are related to the subject in these videos you might desperately want to reach into your computer and pull him out and kiss him. He is that adorable. (Words spoken by his biased mother of course.) They are short but priceless. (Sound is imperative, if you can’t watch it with sound, come back when you can.)

little rabbits

/ Jo Bird / 3 Comments

The other night I gave each of the boys a carrot stick to appease their growling tummies while we waited for Richard to come home for dinner. I was busy in the kitchen and before long I realized the house was quiet. Not just quiet, but silent. There is no alarm that rings louder or creates more panic for the mother of toddlers than a silent house.

I walked around from dark room to empty room with no luck and started to get nervous. Then I heard something, very subtle. The crunching sound of little teeth biting and chewing a carrot. I found them in the coat closet and relief washed over me.

Relief that they were safe, of course. But mostly relief that nothing was broken, colored on, destroyed or ruined.

this is talent!

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments

In another life I want to be a skipper. I watched this a couple times, with a giant smile on my face. They are probably some of the most fit and toned athletes there are, it looks exhausting. I only wish it were a better quality video.

since it’s November, I’m thankful for…

/ Jo Bird / 7 Comments

In the not so distant past, while Richard was out of town, I had lousy day. It culminated in a hormonal calamity over the cellular network. Those wireless circuits carried my tears from Kuna to Spokane. Of course I felt much better after reassuring words from my husband who knows me best, but as I lay in bed I started thinking. I was thinking about a girl I know and I wondered if she ever has meltdowns. No matter how I tried I could not imagine her being upset or crying. On Facebook she is always so darling and perky. (And doesn’t FB give us great insight into the lives of our “friends”?)
Then I thought of a few women who I know that I had opportunity to see in vulnerable moments. People who under all other circumstances appeared to me to have it totally together. Seeing people in their own “meltdowns” fills me with goodwill and puts me in touch with humanity. No one has a heart so cold or a life so perfect that they are free of disappointment or discouragement.

I’m grateful that my life is good. I am grateful for relationships that allow people to be honest about their feelings. I am grateful for the example of those saintly folks who manage to see straight into the heart of the individual and therefore are full of love for all.

a dragon duo, accompanied by a pirate duo

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments

We had a great Halloween. The boys got a jumpstart on Friday with the annual trick-or-treat at Richard’s office. It’s always an easy and warm way to start filling that pillowcase. And entertaining to see Richard’s co-workers all dressed up.

Saturday night upon returning from the neighborhood trick-or-treating I had the boys spread out their candy and told them all about the “Switch Witch”. I gave them a small bag in which to put their favorites and explained that the Switch Witch was going to come trade the remainder of their candy for a book.

Eli did not understand in the least bit what was going on and began, quite happily, to fill his bag. Cameron on the other hand became hysterical. He frantically pulled all his candy into his lap all the while wailing about how “No witch is going to take my candy!” I explained that he would keep some candy and how exciting it would be in the morning to have a new book. That seemed to subdue him.

Flash forward to Sunday morning. They excitedly go to their pillowcases by the front door and Cameron is thrilled to pull out a book. Eli on the other hand panics when he sees a book in the pillowcase instead of all his candy. He starts wailing “The ‘witch-witch’ took my candy!”

Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

houseguest

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments

The other day as I was loading up the boys to head off somewhere I noticed this adorable dog limping along the sidewalk across the street. It was an all too familiar limp, the kind of limp Misha would get when I would take her jogging on trails. I whistled to him but his paws were so sore he only made it halfway across the street. Sure enough he had goatheads in all four paws. Not wanting him to go back where he came from I put him in the backyard and made a call to animal control. I’m such a sucker for a basset hound.

Since we still haven’t had Misha spayed I put her in her kennel and let “lost dog” (Cameron’s name for him) run free while we were gone. (Although if you try to imagine a male basset hound and female golden retriever trying to mate it is a comical notion.)
I called several locations/organizations to report a found dog and they all asked me if he was neutered. I kept saying to them “How would I know?” Some chuckled and some just ignored my naivete. After keeping him and Misha separated when it was clear they wanted to play I decided to investigate. Turns out it is pretty obvious if a male dog is no longer “intact”. I guess you can learn something new every day.
The boys got pretty attached to “Max” for the two days he was with us. In every prayer Cameron asked for help finding “the lost dog’s person”. The first day when I had Misha in the kennel, Max sat by the kennel and barked, and barked. I heard Eli (who was supposed to be napping) shout out the window “Shhh doggie! I am sleeping!”
Max’s owner picked him up last night. The boys both stood in the doorway and shouted good-byes. I got sort of attached to the little guy too.

so we embark on the plastic years

/ Jo Bird / 8 Comments
What does it say about you when you go to your cupboard to try to find four matching glasses for a nice table setting for dinner, and the best you can do is four matching plastic Red Robin cups.

In my case it probably says either “we eat at Red Robin too much” or “we are too cheap to buy new glasses because we are tired of our toddlers breaking them.”

what does this mean?

/ Jo Bird / 3 Comments

I can’t really explain why, but I am drawn to blogs authored by women who have endured or are enduring some great tragedy. I have been known to spend hours reading these tales of loss of either husband or child.

During the relay race in Las Vegas a runner giving aid to a team-mate was struck and killed by a drunk driver in the dark and early hours of the morning. I first heard rumors of the event just hours after it occurred but spent a fair amount of time over the next few days learning about the man who was killed. A great man who left behind a wife and three young children.

Just this morning I read about another man in his early thirties who died unexpectedly leaving behind his wife and six darling girls ages nine and under. These two stories are just the most recent I have read but I periodically read the blog of a woman who lost her three year old daughter, a woman whose husband was killed in Iraq from complications of an appendectomy of all things, and a woman who after complications from child labor was left blind and lost both her feet and one hand. These are just a few of the many online journals I have come across relaying chronicles of suffering and bereavement.

I do not understand what appeals to me about these women or their narratives, but the desire is insatiable. I read and read about their lives and their struggles. I thirst for their words of pain and yet inspiration. They all share a similar message: “Live for today, tell your loved ones you love them, appreciate them.”

Yet I can not internalize it. I haven’t really changed anything I do with regard to my family. I do love and appreciate them, but I can’t say that I express it any better after observing the lessons of these incredible women, than I did before I knew of them.

Maybe that is why I am captivated by their trial. I know I need to learn and I pray that I can do so without having to go through such an experience personally.

But what is it about me or, if it isn’t just me, human nature that compels me to search out and pour over what seems to be such depressing material? Is it possible that it is a desire to increase my capacity for compassion and empathy? Or is it a dark and frightening part of me that is satisfied to wallow in pity and despair. If my intent is measured by the actions I take after exposure to tragedy, I am afraid that thus far I have failed.