A Week In A Warmer Land

Well, I've been meaning to blog about my week in California, so here I go. We (Renae, Steph, Mom and I) started out of Thompson Falls Sunday a couple weeks ago (wow, almost exactly TWO whole weeks ago! Sheesh. Where does time go?) The plan was to stay the night in Spokane so we could park our car at the motel and get shuttled to the airport early the next morning. Somewhere between shopping at Burlington Coat Factory and Sushi World, my mom realised that her driver's lisense was not in her purse. We searched and searched, feeling pretty panicked because for one, you need your driver's lisense at the airport to actually get to FLY, and for two, and more importantly, we needed to go across the border (and mostly BACK from the border) into Tijuana. One of the major reasons for the trip in the first place was to take Mom to see her doctor at the Hoxsey clinic down there.

We called the airport and they said Mom could still fly because she had her birth-certificate and social security card, BUT she would have to be stripped searched (hehe, not really strip searched, but she did get patted down both on the way down and on the way back. Renae took pictures.) So flying didn't present too big of a delimma. However, as Monday was presidents day and Tuesday was the day we were going to Mexico, there was no time to get ahold of any of the goverment agency's that could help us. So we decided to just take our chances.

We stayed at a motel in San Ysidro, a town right on the border of the US and Mexico. We could actually see the fence across the road from our room. It was so warm *sigh* and pretty. We didn't have a car, so we had to walk, take a shuttle or take the bus. Public trasportation rules.

Tuesday morning the shuttle came to pick us up to take across the border. We hoped for the best (both that everything would be okay for Mom AND that we could get back into the US at the end of the day), and we got in. There were eight other people on the shuttle with us, all going to different places in Tijuana to get some sort of medical treatment that either isn't available in the States or that is too expensive in the states. On the drive across the border I listened to the man in the row ahead of us talking to the couple next to him. He reminded me of my pa-in-law with his soft southern accent. The whole way there he was talking about his wife, where they had met, how he had "tricked" her into marrying him. He was so sweet, and so obviously in love with his wife. I hadn't even met him and I liked him so much. When we got to the Hoxsey Clinic, he told us more about his wife, that she has pancreatic cancer in the final stages and he had come to Mexico for her because she was so sick. It was heartbreaking. But we also met a couple from Alaska who had been coming to the Clinic for years because the husband had cancer. With no other treatment except from the Hoxsey clinic, he is still going. They have a huge book there where different ones have come to the clinic with all sorts of cancer, varying stages, and most had done very well. Mom's check-up went very well. She had been tested the month before in the states too, so we knew everything was probably gonna be okay, but it still blows my mind to see how well she is doing. It is not too often a person with Stage 4 colon cancer gets to have this kind of health again. Not to promote it tooo much, but if I ever get cancer, I am going to the Hoxsey Clinic right away. It is an awesome place.

At one point I went with my mom while she had to have some x-rays done. While I was in the waiting room I saw that I was getting a phone call, so I wanted to go outside to take it. I walked to the door and saw that it was a glass door. There were no handles. I stared at it in confusion. The door was not opening and I could see no way to open it! Finally I looked behind me to the patients waiting for their turn and had to ask "How does this work". Turns out I just needed to push it. I swear, technology here is making me stupid! I will be the one to burn in a building because I do not know how to open the door.

Anyways, with a pretty much clean bill of health (provided she stayed on her diet and tonic), we were back in the shuttle, wizzing through Tijuana to all of the phamicias to get everyones medicine, and then it was off to the border. We all held our breaths. I, for one, was hoping maybe they would just wave us on through. Turns out that didn't happen. They had us all get out of the shuttle bus and walk through customs one by one. Renae, Steph and I all waited in line behind Mom, waiting our turn, thinking maybe a couple extra days in Mexico wouldn't be that bad (?), but hoping we wouldn't find out. Finally the moment of truth arrived. Mom, looking simply pitiful and cute, waved her birth certificate at the Mexican official and told him her story of woe, about how she had lost her driver's lisense and this was all she had! She has skills. I have underestimated her. Unfortunately, the man (who was obviously touched at her delimma), told her that she HAD to have picture ID. So Renae and I put our passports on his table and said "We are her daughters!" and Steph put her passport down and said "I am her granddaughter!!!" It was a grand moment. The man looked at all of us and smiled, waved his hand toward the door and said,"Get out of here!" It was awesome if I have to say so myself!

So, we made it through. I had a horrible headache though, so we all crashed when we got back to our room. When we woke up, we decided to take a bus into San Diego and go to a Seafood Restaurant. The food was only so so, but venturing out into San Diego, just us four Montana girls, was pretty fun.

The next day my nephew Brandon came to pick us up with his girlfriend Lyndsay, her mom Sharon and her brother Dillon. We went to the San Deigo zoo (where I took a gazillion pictures), then we went to the beach for sunset, and then we went onward to Yukipa, where they live. The rest of the week included making sure our bridesmaid dresses fit (they DID!!! I needed a whole size smaller than I though!!! Yeah for me!!! I am mainly so happy about this because I had to get a dress two sizes BIGGER for the last wedding I was in) , getting shoes for the dresses, getting gifts for the bridal shower (which was awesome), cutting thousands of peices of material to make seat covers for the wedding reception (they are getting married December 8th), and just generally hanging out and having a fun time.

One thing I was introduced to over there that you may be interested in is the practice of eyebrow threading. It is awesome. It is practiced in India, and so it was an Indian woman with her giant peice of thread held between her teeth and hands raking it over my eyebrows. She was able to pluck and shape them perfectly in under five minutes, and it lasts longer than waxing!!!

Anyways, there is so much more that I could say, but this has really turned into quite a long blog! I must start some dinner...

The Sugarland is Delicious

So, here I am in Derrick's grandparent's computer room, somewhere in Tennessee (Walland to be exact), sitting in the dark, listening to the family in the living room switch between watching Jeapardy and a country music award show (?). Not my usual ruetine (my spelling is especially bad tonight. I blame it on swelling of my body and brain which is a consequence of being in a different state, time zone, temperature, as well as hormone fluctuations that occur this time every month, AND Grandma Betty's awesome cooking ability and her tendancy to keep her house fully stocked with chocolate.)

We have been exploring the state of Tennessee (at least the part near us) in a strategic and well thought out manner. We drove up the Smokie mountains on Friday to hike up and see the "chimney tops", a mountain where you are supposed to beable to look down the peak into a hole that goes clear to the bottom of the mountain (thus the name "chimney top"). Unfortunately the hole has crumbled sometime in the last twenty years. But the hike was fantastic. Even made me feel less swollen and more like myself. The kids even enjoyed it after initial grumbling that they would rather be at home with their Grandma Betty, her hugs, and her chocolate;)

Saturday we went on another drive with some friends of Derrick (Javier and Ramey- Derrick was a southern boy in his youth and grew up with Javier in a little town in Texas), once again to see all the colors of fall. It is pretty, although everyone here says the colors are not that great this year because of the drought here.

Today we went to Pigeon's Forge to the best site yet- outlet stores. We went to so many! And apparently there are many more we have not seen yet, so we will be venturing into Pigeon's Forge again in the next couple days. Also, we found a pretty good sushi place today, which was definately a contrast to the southern fare we have been enjoying at Grandma's.

Unfortunately, the kids have been sick most of the time we have been here. They have both been running fevers and Derrin has a hacking cough which Kloe is getting right now. Hopefully they will be feeling better when we fly out on Thursday!

Another Kid Moment

The other day during dinner, Derrin slyly tried to put the rest of his food in the garbage after being told he had to finish his corn by his Dad (I know, I know, there is no nutritional value in corn, but I make it and therefore the kids have to eat it... here goes another moment to mommy guilt). He promptly got sent to his room by his father to consider the error of his ways.

Afterwards, in a move designed to declare SHE was not afraid of her daddy, Kloe called Derrick A black banana. The conversation went something like this:

Kloe: Daddy, You are a Black Banana

Derrick: Well, then YOU are a GREEN Banana.

Kloe: Well then, at least I will turn YELLOW.

She makes me laugh. She is so so funny.

Being Me

It is Friday night, exactly 8:24pm (according to my computer )and I find myself (again) in the situation of a quiet house. So seldom does this happen that it requires documentation in the form of a blog.
The kids are in bed. Derrick is gone for too many days to think about comfortably. I am listening to Sarah McLachlan. The house is SPOTLESS... the reason being that I feel out of control when Derrick has to work elsewhere so I gain back my sense of control by being super-vigilant about cleaning, mopping, sorting, arranging, organising, dusting, vacuuming, washing every inch of my house. Even the kids rooms got a good going-through today by both myself AND the child-owner of the said room (I'm sure they will need some therapy in their 30's to understand the OCD I have created in them). Even this blog is snatching a little bit of control out of the air. So far I have googled at least four of the words I have chosen to use, and according to google I was CORRECT in my spelling. I am cool and in control of my word spelling AND usage (okay, the word "usage" fouled me up because I REALLY wanted to spell it ussage...)

ANYWAYS, it is Friday night and part of me is reveling in the fact that it is so early in the evening and for at least the next three or four hours I OWN this time. I have to say that again. I OWN the next three or four hours. Even though I need to stay at home, I can choose to either play on the internet as long as I would like too, OR read (I have a really good book I am reading right now), OR I can take a bath, OR I can call someone, OR I can watch television, OR I can do nothing but sit on the back porch and breath the forest-fire smoke and look at the bright pink smoke-created sunset. All interruption free.

The point is I have the choice and there is no one here to look disappovingly at me for being a total bum. How awesome is that. Not that I don't cherish the time with my family but sometimes it feels so GOOOOD to just be Rachel.

My Addiction

My Addiction




I woke up thinking of you today



My head foggy, my body tired



You were the missing link



Between now and my future



I am yearning to be intoxicated



By the strength of your dark charms



Your taste sends me reeling



Your erotic aroma



Carries me home



I can not begin another day without you



I have succumbed.

Declined

I reluctantly admit to being a "goody-two-shoes" sort of gal most of the time. I am okay with that. In fact, I have chose to be that. But every once in awhile even the goodiest of two shoes feels the need to be a little daring.

My only claim to "being daring" comes in the form of a little ring in the top of my right ear. I admit, it isn't much. BUT, it does allow me to go to my favorite tattoo place (Altered Skin) from time to time to have the ring changed out (they are nearly impossible to do by yourself).

Tuesday on a whim I decided it was time to change the earring. I was by myself and feeling a little bit daring. I admit, going into that place totally intimidates me in the most delicious of ways. All of the guys who work there are super tough looking, burly, tattooed, peirced and actually very nice. The peircing guy (can you believe I still do not know his name? how rude of me...) always tries to persuade me into getting a different ring than I really want. This last time I chose one with a little blue sparkliness on it. It was obviously not my peircer's favorite ring there. He told me I should just go to Claires in the mall and find one like it. How insulting. Then he pointed out the fine array of titanium rings they were offering, stating that they were much better quality and I imagine he thought they were just way more cool looking. But I love sparkly things. After insisting on the blue sparkly earring we went into his "office" where he kindly inserted it in my ear for me. I am such a nerd. I get nervous every time, looking around at all of the crazy pictures on the walls and making awkward conversation with Mr. Burly Tatoo Peircing Man whose name I don't know. I also am sniffing the air nonchalantly. It smells so good in there, like soap and metalic cleanliness, and the faint scent of cigarrettes being smoked outside.

When it was done I silently congratulated myself on facing my nervousness. Then I told myself that I was way cool. I mean look at me. I'm in a tattoo parlor with burly type men, making pleasant small talk. I rock. Then it was time to pay. I had a check book... turns out they don't take checks. I had a debit card BUT... it was the last day of the month.... and sweating bullets I tenatively handed the card to Mr. Peircer with a hope and a prayer that money had been transfered into the right account so it might work BUT... it didn't. Declined. Declined in the tattoo parlor. In front of Mr. Peirce... I smiled weakly and felt myself get a little clammy. My moment of coolness was suddenly obliterated. I offered a Discover card BUT turns out they don't take Discover either! I was reduced to begging for mercy, offering to leave my ID while I went to find an ATM to get the required money. Mr. Peirce smiled kindly and said,"No need to leave anything. Go find an ATM and come back, I trust you".

You know why he trusts me? Because I am so obviously not a badass. I am goodytwoshoes with a little sparkly earring. And I'm okay with that. But the next time I go to have my earring changed I am bringing cash.

Parallel Universe

Kloe and I usually rock along fine unless there are other children involved, even if that other child is her brother. This year that meant that from 8:25 until 11:00 every morning during the school year, we would have a peaceful household. The rest of the time (including summer vacation) is a total crapshoot. Sometimes she loves her brother but a lot of the time she could totally annihilate him if she had superhuman powers to do so. Fortunately she is smaller than him and can do no serious harm.

This week was EXTRA difficult for Kloe because she had not just a brother to contend with, but also her little cousin Aiyana. Now, Kloe and Aiyana absolutely LOVE eachother for the first day. After that all walls come down and they enter a temperary sisterhood that includes both love AND fighting to the death over any toy, chair, blanket, or pinecone that they deem worthy of their affections. Throw Derrin in the mix and you have a screamfest worthy of any rockstar. Derrin and Aiyana seemed to shift from war time to peace time with relative ease, but Kloe doesn't switch gears quite so quickly. She was on edge most of the week. She was in trouble most of the week. It was a hard week.

Aiyana went to her Gramma's house yesterday. Kloe cried her eyes out. She is still sad. Kids are so funny. Even if they fight the whole time, they would still rather be with eachother than apart. And the next time they are together they will still be best buds.

Yesterday at the daycare they were doing face painting and hand painting as I came in to pick them us (side point- I cleaned my house while they were at the daycare and it is finally really clean- yeah for me!!!). Kloe wanted a rainbow on her hand. They have a picture there with all of the designs the kids can choose from and there with an example of a delicate little rainbow. She wanted THAT rainbow. The girl with the paints started the rainbow and right away Kloe could tell it was not right. It was too big. The colors were in the wrong order. She kept saying in her four year old voice,"No, that is not right. The colors are WRONG", to which the girl painting would say,"just a minute, I will make it right." Well, anyone could see it was just getting bigger and bigger. Kloe's anxiety was growing with the rainbow. I was just mentally thinking "paint faster paint faster" because I had a lot of things I needed to finish doing at home. When the girl announced she was done there was a moment of silence from my daughter. Then her lips began to tremble. It was building inside of her... a burst of," I HATE THIS!!! IT IS ALL WRONG!!!", which she has been saying quietly the whole time... My knee jerk reaction was to shake her (of course I didn't), but instead I took my shrieking daughter to the daycare bathroom for a couple minutes, tried unsuccessfully to reason with her, then took her to the car to wait for her brother to get his face painted. She cried the whole time. Brokenheart. Hating the Rainbow.

My daughter is like me. I could explain and explain to her why she should settle down, but she is not hearing words, she is just feeling her disappointment. I just have 27 more years of experience that keeps me from shouting when I am disappointed. Just last week we had our family portrait taken. I knew I didn't like it as soon as it was time to pick our package. Instead of having an outburst, I put on my big fake smile and picked the picture I hated the least. Then I went home and stewed about it all night. The next day I was so aggravated I felt like punching walls (I was also pmsing *very dangerous*). I called my mom and complained. I called my husband and complained. Finally I called the store and asked them to redo the pictures, which they said they would do. The point is, I have impulse control. Instead of shrieking,"I HATE IT! IT'S ALL WRONG", I waited until I felt calmer to discuss the issue. Impulse control. But it took many years to develope it! When impulse control is still so hard for me, how in the world am I supposed to teach it to my little daughter? Any ideas?

On a completely seperate issue, I wanted to say something about my Mom. She is doing awesome!!! Before they did the surgery on her liver her CEA count (cancer count) was at 4000. We had it tested post-surgery, and after two months of hoxsey and her special diet and it was down to 38.9. This week she had it tested and it is down to 13.4. A cancer-free persons CEA level is 2. It is working! I am excited to see what it will be next month!!

What is Up

i've been sorta non-communicative this week and i didn't even realize it until this morning i woke up and remembered i hadn't hardly returned any phone calls or emailed any of my buddies this week! i hurriedly made a phone call to my ma, and that sorta broke the ice. then i made a couple phone calls. then i paid all my bills (something else id been putting off)... now to turn my attention to more important things, (aka myspace:)

i did have a lovely time in kennewick. we went to a convention over there called "follow the christ"- it was three days of different discourses about various ways jesus modeled the best way of life. it was thought provoking- always good to have reminders since my brain doesnt retain information for very long. i was a little bummed because i didnt feel super good the whole time so i sorta sat in my chair like a lump and wasnt very sociable but my buds over there seemed to forgive me for my non-fun ways.

anyways, it is now thursday, and i am almost all done unpacking (we got back monday), and all of the travel laundry is now done. going anywhere with kids always ends with about twenty loads of laundry-not sure why. derrick is working in whitefish again this week (left tuesday morning), so the kids and i have had the house to ourselves.

we went to "lunch in the park" yesterday- they have it every wednesday during summer time at caras park. they bring about twenty food vendors from various restaurants down there, and there is always a band or two to listen to while you have your lunch. yesterday was awesome! the clumsy lovers played there the whole time and the kids loved it:) the band did their traditional handing out of the shakers (they toss out colorful pop cans with popcorn inside), only this time it was to all the little kids boogying down on the grass in front of the stage. watching the kids have such a great time was as fun as being able to listen to one of our favorite bands during lunchtime.

and today.... finishing laundry. maybe a little dusting? maybe i will find my way to the gym for the first time in over a week... who knows. it is a quiet summer day. my favorite kind.