Tomorrow- January 21, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : TeamWhyMommy , 1 comment so farTomorrow, WhyMommy goes into surgery to remove cancer from her body. The goal is to get it all out and help her move onto to the next phase of life, the one without cancer and with her kids and husband.
Tomorrow, please give a series of good thoughts to WhyMommy!
Only Child… January 20, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Kids, Fun with Crohn's Disease , add a commentLast night, we went to Bugaboo Creek Steak House for dinner with a friend. The girls (and Soleil’s friend R) enjoyed dinner. And then, Soleil went in their car and went home with them for a sleepover!
Luna was very happy at first. She was excited to be an only child. She loved the idea. Until bedtime. Then she whined and cried for her sister. She didn’t want to be an only. She wanted her sister!
On the other hand, Soleil was asleep by 10:20! We’re going over for brunch once Jay wakes up*. This should be fun. It is odd to watch your baby grow into a child. Not a toddler or preschooler, but a real KID. With a real sleepover.
Wow, I must be getting old! But damn, if it ain’t fun!
*Jay is fighting a cold. Given that I can’t let him get a fever (he’d have to be hospitalized due to the meds he is on) I want to let him sleep as long as possible. And he was sleeping through the alarm, so I am just going to let him sleep!
Those are too small… January 18, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 2 commentsLately, I’ve been trying hard to get dressed away from the girls. They have been very interested in the differences between an adult body and their bodies.
Yesterday, I had a meeting and a luncheon. I decided to wear pants that required no VPL. I have a few thongs for this purpose. I quickly grabbed one of those to get dressed and Soleil saw it.
"Mommy! You can’t wear that! Those panties are too small for your butt! They won’t cover it!"
Sigh…
One day child, you will care about such things…..
A moment of silence January 16, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Current Affairs , 3 commentsFor the house in Florida….
Yes, after a whirlwind of 12 days, my parents got an offer, accepted, drove from NC to FL and cleared out the house AND closed on the house in Florida.
A bit o’ history: when Grandma fell ill, mom was close to retirement age. After Grandma died, dad retired and he helped take Grandpa to doctor appointments, groceries, etc. He had an accident and when he was hospitalized, it was found that he had brain cancer, and cancer throughout his body. He died within a week. Mom retired shortly after. My parents lived in my grandparents house for a while. They had come down to Florida in 1999 when our telescope launched. They fell in love with the area and after Grandpa died, they decided to move there. They bought a house under construction. They had it made their own. They moved in late 2000.
Well, turns out Florida is pretty humid in the summer (duh) and my parents weren’t happy. They found that many people from their church went to a mountain town in NC for the summer. My parents followed and got a summer trailer, which then turned into a summer house which then turned into a new house. (yes, Real estate r us.) Suddenly, they realized they wanted to live in NC full time. Last June, they put the Florida house on the market. Given the lovely market, it languished there. They got one offer in early December, but it was laughable ($50K lower than the asking price). Then, late December, an older couple offered the right amount, plus they asked for the furniture. Mom and Dad jumped on it.
Now Mom and Dad have closed off the loans they had on the house, and have extra money left over for taxes and other things.
So, the Florida house is gone, it is not as easy to visit my parents, but they are happy and only own one house!
Vote for the poems! January 15, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , add a comment
What is needed? January 14, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Weblogs, Life...otherwise , 3 commentsMy Canadian buddy,, Midlife Traveler, is trying to save money. Her family wants to buy a house in a rural area and of course, houses mean mortgages, and mortgages mean you need money as a down payment.
Her blog often leaves me thinking, and now is no different. Please go over and read, but a quick summary is this: the original plan was to learn how to save money. This lead to her discovering the live simply theory. Now she is very excited about this concept and the practical implications.
She has asked a very important question "What is needed?"
I think that is a great question and I have been thinking about that the past few days
Things I think I could easily cut back on
- Starbucks. Yeah, I know. Sad, isn’t it? But I love my grande, 2 pump skim no whip mochas.
- lunches out
- My coffee shipment from Gevalia (yes I mail order coffee. get over it)
- my occasional Eddie Bauer flings
- discretionary spending- Jay and I each allow ourselves a certain amount of money each month for discretionary spending. If we have a tight month, then we stop this spending. So far, this system has worked well and we have managed to keep ourselves in check during tight months.
Things that are not so easy:
- Acupuncture. I have to say I love it, but it is expensive
- Health Club. I have signed a 2 year agreement. I need to do this another year, but to be honest, I could find a way to use the Harvard gyms or walking or weights at home. It is just that much more convenient to do the gym instead of finding a way to exercise.
- cable/hd/dvr- Eh, I know, these should be expendable. We love the HD. Just adore it. We love the ability to use the TV to just chill with our sports and the DVR is beyond wonderful for those mornings that the kids just want one show….
- Kid activities. We have 3 activities that we pay for right now, ice skating, swimming and gymnastics. These would be the last to be sacrificed.
To be honest, Jay and I do live pretty simply. We try to eat healthy at home and don’t buy a ton of junk at the store. Impulse buys are low and we rarely buy food that we don’t need. We don’t "shop" often. Soleil and I both have a touch of SID and we both flip after being at the mall for a while. We’ve switched our main lighting to CFLs, and have discovered that our electric bill dropped $40 a month (I kid you not). We’ve added a gas fireplace enclosure on each floor. We are burning less gas to keep the house as warm as before, plus we have sealed out the drafts from outside.
Every year we draft up a budget of what we want to do for the house, what expenses we expect to have that year from an annual grocery bill to travel costs (personal travel, not work travel), furniture purchases, electronic expenses and that oh so important savings. We actually put our savings into the budget and insist on a certain level of savings.
So I guess we have already simplified our lives. This holiday season was a perfect example. The girls got 1 present a day. Some presents were simple, a game that I purchased at a rummage sale. Or Leapster cartridges that I was able to pick up on a buy one get one free sale. The 8 gifts were not all from us. Parents and aunts/uncles were giving gifts too. That helped. In September/October, I had the girls do a toy purge with me. We discussed how we need to get rid of what we don’t use and that we should help those who could use it instead of throwing it out.
What do you find is needed in your life? What can you simplify?
I chat you too! January 10, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 1 comment so farBeing a long distance parent is hard. Here I am in the land of Bush, (OK, is it just me, or does that sound pornographic?) and I am worried how Jay is going to manage Temple school and get both girls picked up in time today…. He’ll do fine, I know that.
Every evening, we have managed to ichat. The girls and I talk via the internet and we say goodnight. Last night, Soleil read me a book! That was really neat. But at the same point it is hard to watch them so far away. They are thrilled that mom is talking to them, but at the same point, I am sad to be away.
Travel is a doubled edged sword. I love the freedom. Last night I had 2 margaritas, and was so relaxed. But, I also miss playing with the girls, chatting with them, just being with them…
Dear Hilton Hotels, January 9, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Current Affairs , add a commentListen, despite that Paris chick (don’t you have enough money to get her a shrink? and underwear?), I really like you. You are a wonderful hotel. You are almost always clean. The staff is wonderful and you have so many pillows on the bed I can have a separate pillow for my head, my torso and every limb. But I digress. We have a problem.
I really do love you, but I think we need to discuss this. Bluntly. You see, the problem is this. You’re too greedy. I have stayed in your low end hotels before. They are still clean, sans the extra pillows, but with wonder staff. I have never had a problem staying at homewood suites, even that time we had to go out for a pacifier in the middle of the night. At your low end hotels (which are still pretty pricey), I get free Internet, free pool, free breakfast, free butt scratching (OK, no free butt scratching, but you get the point.) Now here I am, in Texas at a downtown Hilton. I am paying $9.95 per 24 hour period for Internet. Hello? I am asleep about 8 of those hours. 10 if I am lucky! And you are already paying for the Internet access anyway. It’s not as if the cable company charges you more if more people are using the line. Come on, this is just plain greedy. If you must ask people to pay for it, charge $9.95 per stay. And this afternoon, I went to work out. I brought my workout clothes, including sneakers, just so I could keep my exercise routine going. $10 a day or $15 for the stay to use the equipment. Dudes? Dudes! The stuff is here. You have got to be kidding me! I blew the $10 since I know I need to keep my mental health going.
Now just to be sure, I checked with the front desk. The two bottles of water in my room? Those are free. (although I could just drink the tap water, which is what I am doing) In Hawai’i, that Hilton charged us $6 a bottle of water. (I am NOT kidding).
I know, I know, you are saying "most businesses pay for these extra. It’s not like it REALLY comes out of the pocket of the people who stay here." You see, I COULD charge this to work, but my gut says no. I am not going to charge the government for the exercise room. (On the other hand, I did do work today from my room, which required Internet connectivity.) This is just a lousy business idea. Don’t screw around on the little things. Charge what you charge for the room and make the other stuff free (okay- you had a great breakfast buffet this morning and I don’t mind paying for that!).
Okay? let’s just work on not screwing over the companies that use you for business.
And seriously, get Paris some help. That woman is seriously messed up.
Spacemom
Red, red wine… January 8, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Weblogs , 3 commentsYesterday was a crazy day. After spending the morning with the girls, running to the gym and then following up with an afternoon with friends, I hopped a nice flight to the state of Texas. There’s an astronomical meeting here and I decided to luxuriate in a bed by myself.
Since I was in Texas, I let Johnny know I was coming. Today we met up at my hotel, went for a tour of the area and then checked out the renovations at his house. I got to meet the dogs (I love them!) and the wifey (who is much nicer than Johnny paints her. She is so sweet.) and the Girl and the Boy. The Girl warmed right up to me. I love playing with kids, something I never thought I would like when I was younger!
We got most of the afternoon to sit back and chat. That was really nice. You can learn a great deal about someone via email, but it is much nicer to sit back and talk in person.
Johnny took some, um, photos. Including the One with the Pimp hat…Oh yeah.. the p1mp hat…(sorry, I tried to find the blog entry about that, but I couldn’t find it… sigh…) You’ll just have to wait until he posts them!
Right now I am contemplating sleep after 3 glasses of wonderful red wine!
Thanks Johnny!
Ediited to add: I found the P1MP POST!
Write Stuff- Poetry Contest: On the Summit of Cerra Tololo January 5, 2008
Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , 2 commentsOn the Summit of Cerra Tololo
by Spacemom
The stars sparkle in the midnight sky,
in the mist below, the condors sleep.
The Milky Way blazes overhead,
a collective of billions of stars.
Stars not related, not known to each other
except a small gravitational pull,
as they live as the remnants of past stars.
My heart is up with those stars.
He is gone. He will never return.
And the winter wind of the Andes
makes me shiver and think
of the bitterness and cold in my life.
Knowing each other, but not knowing.
My love reached out like an invisible thread,
but never brought him to me.
How our paths are similar
the stars and I…
