She Laughs at the Days

It came, it went, I am finally commemorating it. When you turned 5 months there was a lot going on. Daddy was trying to start a new business and bidding on a contract at the same time. He also made himself a knife, two actually but the first became too brittle when he heat treated the steel, and it broke. HE's a much happier man when he's doing something creative that daddy of yours. He's a pretty spectacular guy you know. You lucked out.

Mommy was filling out immigration forms and going cross eyed trying to read the fine print and make sure that every thing was there by squinting at 30 odd pages of directions in what seem to be completely random order. And then I tried to get you a social security number but it's a little tricky when babies are born out of hospital so it might take me a while to chase down the extra records.

Your older sister is turning into a mother hen, clucking and guiding and taking care of her younger charges, teaching the little 1 and 2 year old g…

I need your help. You see, I grew up in Canada, and although we do have summer in Canada and it gets pretty warm, most of the year is mild or cold. I'm really good at dressing for cold weather. The problem is, I married a man who loves the heat. Loves it! Once the mercury rises above 85 F and stays there his whole mood improves, he enjoys the sensation of sweating while sitting still, he likes humid stick to your skin temperatures. Last year he moved us from my beloved Canada with it's pretty trees and cool breezes and cold mountain lakes to Southern California with it's palm trees, and Santa Ana, and dry desert. He talks of moving us to places hotter still, like Florida and Thailand. Oh and did I mention that he hates air conditioning, he will drive through the desert in July with the windows open. That's his idea of keeping things comfortable in 100 plus heat. My problem is that I really dislike the heat, and sweating at all, let alone while sitting still. In fact, s…

She was looking at pictures in a book about Native Americans. Then she disappeared into the bathroom for a while with some felt pens. Here's the result.

(I can't get it right side up.*&#$@!)

Well, I will have to file with immigration again. It will cost another $400 on top of the $1500 we have already spent on paperwork this year, and I have a week to fill out ALL of the forms and reassemble all of the required documents. But if I get this done it should work out all right, and no removal proceedings will begin. It's lousy timing, the GH is between jobs, we have a lot of other things to pay for this month, like our life insurance policies, so it really hurts to realize that I basically flushed almost a thousand dollars down the toilet from the last time I filed. But we will get through it, and after walking a good 20 miles, that he's still limping from, my husband came home and forgave me. To say that this week I am grateful that I'm married to him is and understatement. He is steadfast even when I disappoint. I can't really ask for anything more.

This evening I received a letter that caused a rock to form in the pit of my stomach, a knot in my throat and I am entertaining an almost lethal amount of guilt that is bouncing around my brain. My application for a green card has been denied, due to my error in returning paper work late. It's an error that I have several very good excuses for, but I don't know that the US gov't will be accepting them. In 30 days they will begin removal proceedings, meaning sending me packing back to Canada unless I can convince them to get the paperwork ball rolling again. I talk to an immigration lawyer tomorrow, the GH is on a long walk somewhere to blow off steam...but that's not what I want to remember from today.

I want to remember the Girl running around in an orange cotton tie-dyed dress with braids in her hair playing with her friends. I want to remember her swimming at the pool and then putting on the towel poncho I just made for her with a ducky hood from her favorite old rat…

So let's see. Last Sunday we celebrated the Genius Husband's birthday. He loves to cook and entertain and hold large parties so that's what we did for his birthday. Most of the guests have known him since he was a teenager, so it was a lot of fun, lots of kids and adults running around on his parent's property. Why did we hold the party there instead of at our teeny tiny apartment you ask, aside from the obvious? Well, we don't really have the space to keep live goats or to butcher them and roast them afterwards. The GH is decidedly not vegetarian, him likum roasted meat. UGGGH! So we bought a few young kids, the animal kind, cute little white things with little horn buds from a family who raise meat goats and took them back to his parents' place. The next morning he dug a hole out of sight of the goat pen. A little bit later, with all curious children and party guests assembled, including our own he carried the cute little white kid over to the hole. Straddlin…