Snakes & Volcanoes & Birthday Parties

Lyd couldn't wait for me to get home after she finished school yesterday. She was so excited to tell me that she, "got to pet a real snake today!" She went on to tell me all about the snake. It was a gopher snake and we could sure use one in our yard to get rid of our gophers. The rangers had come and given their talk about Smokey Bear and introduced them to all kinds of park ranger stuff. She adored it all. She got a really nice goody bag full of Smokey Bear paraphernalia, which included an extra pencil she asked for from the rangers for her brother. She never ceases to amaze me with what she will actually like. On the very surface, she is the most prissy, princess & doll loving girl you will ever meet. She is more lady-like in her stature and demeanor than I know I ever could be. She flat out refuses to wear brown. I had bought her nice pair of brown pants and she simply would not wear them. I am sure the battle of my trying to force those pants on her long shanks must have been hilarious. She has never worn those pants. I gave them away. She is VERY comfortable with her femininity. But on the flip side she is very fond of getting dirty and not taking baths, she likes snakes (an all other creatures for that matter), she can throw a football, and she loves to climb trees. Once, while watching Bambi with the baby sitter while we were out, the babysitter starts whining at the hunting scene, "Oh! Those poor deer! That bad, bad hunter!" Lyd looks at her stone cold sober and says in the most disgusted mommy voice she could muster, "Oh, Leighanne! The hunter has to eat too!" The babysitter said she about fell over laughing from being put in her place from a then 4 year old.

Roo is very much into volcanoes right now. He wants to see one RIGHT NOW. He keeps asking me to tell him all about them, and he has a million questions I can't answer because I don't really know didly about volcanoes. I know the basics, but he is asking way more than basic stuff. So, I told him I would take him to the geology teacher on campus to have a chat with him. Well, they were gone on a field trip to Death Valley. They are back now, so I may take Roo for a visit today if our division meeting doesn't go too late today. I did stop by to warn the instructor and asked about which volcano would be best to see. I told him that Roo wanted to go to Hawaii to lava tubes. Well, my lucky day, he told me we didn't have to go to Hawaii. There are some at Mount Lassen. So, I think we may have to head up there soon. He would be thrilled beyond belief to see those.

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one. Both kids have parties to go to tomorrow. Lyd was invited to a Princess party, and was also invited (along with her brother) to a party for her classmates younger brother. I thought both parties were at the same time, but the princess party starts two hours before the other party, so I am thinking she will be able to attend both. Roo is going to the later one, so I will just pick her up a little early from the other party and go to the other party a little late. All strategic planning of course.

Now, one of my best friends (J's older sister) turns 40 today. I kept the weekend open as long as I could without committing to anything because I thought she may have a party or something going on. Yes, I should have called, but I didn't so shame on me. Well, I hadn't heard from her by Wednesday afternoon, so went ahead and told the people who invited us to a birthday dinner earlier in the week that we would go, Friday night. They had waited long enough for an answer. Wouldn't you know it, later that evening C calls telling me that they are going to have a Cinco de Mayo party at her house Friday and would like it if we could go. Damn. I told her I didn't know if If we could because we had already committed ourselves to a dinner party Friday night at 6:30. She sounded a bit disappointed, and told me her brother H was flying in from Texas, and that everyone except J was going to be there. I tell her I may try to make it before we go to dinner, but didn't know how plausible that was because she lives 20 minutes away, so that would be 40 minutes of driving. To throw in an extra wrinkle, our division meeting was rescheduled to this afternoon, and I need to be there because we planning our big move into temp buildings this summer while they remodel our old building. This is going to run until at least 3:00 o'clock which prevents me from leaving early today to drive my 40 minutes home, get kids ready, and go to C's party for an hour or so before heading out to dinner tonight. How do I get in these messes? I just should have told C I couldn't make it. We have known each other practically our entire lives, so that isn't something to easily disregard either. If we get done with dinner soon enough, I may go solo over to the party for a bit. I would really like to see her and everyone else. M will probably have had enough of parties and whatnot for that night. That is NOT his strong suit. He can stay home and read his books. Man loves to read.

My flowers are coming up nicely. My bulbs did well, but I was a bit disappointed at the size of the early bulbs that came up. They looked HUGE on the package. I expected 14" stalks with a good 5 inches of flowering buds at the top. Well, I got about 5 inch stalks with about 1 inch of tiny flowers at the tops. My other bulbs are doing well now. The leafs are much to look at resembling very bad parsley, but the flowers are just starting to bloom and those are pretty. My roses are also doing very nicely. My pink and yellow roses are absolutely gorgeous right now. The kids ran out yesterday, "LOOK at Mom's flowers!"

Is Friday over yet?