Thursday, March 29, 2007

Quotes from the Car

Lolli: I love Jesus.
Me: That's good. How about you 'Shroom? Do you love Jesus?
'Shroom: Yeah. I love Jesus. I like dinosaurs, too.
[pause]
'Shroom: I like Jesus and dinosaurs.
[pause]
'Shroom: I like dinosaurs more.

Lolli: Mommy, Poh-Poh [Grandma] doesn't have a basement, does she?
Me: No, she doesn't have a basement. Why do you ask?
[pause]
Lolli: Then how does she wash her clothes?
[silence - I am so surprised by her reasoning, I don't come up with an immediate response]
Lolli: She doesn't wash her clothes then.

Lolli: I like Mini-Coopers and Volkswagon Beetles. They're small and cute.
Me: You mean just like your red Mini-Cooper and your yellow Volkswagon Beetle?
Lolli: Those are just toys. I want real ones. So I can park them in my parking space.
Me: Oh.
'Shroom [muttering to himself]: I like toy cars. Toy cars are fun.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Convicted

These past several days has been a bit nerve-wracking and stressful. Between getting our house ready to market (our green house has now officially been on MLS for four days now) and the fruitless search for employment in LA, we've gone through a myriad of emotions this week. A roller coaster ride I haven't been particularly fond of - and I usually love roller coasters.

Oh - and I was involved in a hit and run car accident earlier in the week that has somehow become more than I would have preferred it to have become [perhaps this incident will be a separate blog on a different day . . . ]

In the past three days, we've been displaced from our home. As our listing agent said, "You've moved out of your house and I've moved in!" Tonight we've just eaten our first meal in our house in the past three days. Seven private showings and two public open houses (with a total of close to fifty different PARTIES - not people - represented), we're so thankful for a quiet evening at home.

As I was driving to our local market to replace our wilting tulips (I've never had so many bunches of fresh cut flowers in my house before), I was sudden struck by a quiet voice with an unmistakeable message, "Trust and hope in me - not in men."

In this short ride to the market, I was so convicted of my weakness and faithlessness in God. Here I was stressing and wishing that our listing agent would market our house in a way that would generate numerous offers, that Air Boss's head hunters would throw dozens of career opportunities at him, that the police officer who responded to my 911 call after the hit-and-run accident would protect me from the other driver who now has my home address and contact info.

I've never felt so convicted of my own weak trust in God before - so clearly too. I realize so much more now that trusting God is something that needs to be refreshed and renewed every day and sometimes many times throughout the day . . . like the moments I'm sitting nervously waiting to hear the phone ring from our realtor about whether or not an anticipated offer on our house has come through.

Ah . . . these are the life lessons that age us so well.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Spring Fever

Spring has always been my favorite season. Sometimes, unfortunately, in New England, it may also be the shortest. I believe it theoretically begins on March 21 but snowfall can occur until mid-April and heat waves can begin as early as late May. When that happens, I would only get a month of my favorite season.

Anyway, we still have several inches of frozen crusty snow on the ground (sprinkled with dirt and pebbles). Not your "soft blanket of pure white snow" that Norman Rockwell would paint.

Well, snow or no snow on the ground, I'm glad it's spring! Lolli and I are commemorating the passage of time with our first picnic of the year. Yup, we're sitting on a dark red plaid blanket with our sandwiches and juice boxes . . . in the middle of our playroom floor. Okay, so the weather is still a brisk 45 degrees out but who cares! It's warm enough to melt snow, right?!

Lolli is simply tickled pink (or maybe just dressed in pink) to have the freedom to eat in a room that has always been a food-forbidden-area.

"I like today," she had said with a big smile on her face (and her mouth jammed full with PB&J).

"What do you like about today?" I had asked her.

"I get to eat a picnic," was her response.

Yup, I'm going to miss these spectacular seasonal changes. But at least having a picnic will be more of a year-round thing in CA, right? =)

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Fire Drills on the East Coast...

...I assume are the same on the West Coast.

Today, as I was dropping off 'Shroom at preschool, a fire alarm sounded throughout the entire elementary school, including the attached preschool wing. Based on the relative "panic" level of the school administrators and teachers, I'm guessing that it wasn't a planned drill.

Kids, parents, teachers, and everyone else in the building were evacuated to the parking lot several hundred yards down. Sounds like a pretty routine thing, right? It should be. Except . . .

. . . in the case of a fire, all people are to evacuate the building without grabbing personal effects or appropriate outerwear. There were children ranging in age from toddlers (sibs of students?) to ten year olds and all school-aged children were outside without jackets.

'Shroom and Lolli (and myself) were lucky. We still had our jackets on and as we stood outside shivering. I still had 'Shroom's school bag which had his hat, mittens and snow pants. The other kids were shivering in the freezing cold (literally as temperatures were in the low 20's with 25 mph winds and based on the temps and winds, the windchill was at 3 degrees) without their jackets. If it weren't for 'Shroom wimpering for the cold, I would have loaned out his hat and mittens to the nearby kids.

Two young girls (maybe six or seven years old) in front of me were hugging each other to stay warm. All they were wearing were thin long-sleeved T-shirts and short skirts with tights. I was just about to unzip my 3-in-1 jacket (for those of you familiar with NE apparel, this is just as important as underwear) and give one girl my inner fleece and the other the outer jacket shell, when the children were allowed to re-enter the building. Even then, waiting for the masses to enter the building was slow and tedious.

Freeze or burn. That's a choice not too many Southern Californians have to make.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Thoughts on Growing Up

"Mommy, are you a girl?" 2 year old Lolli had asked the other day.

"Yes, Mommy is a girl. But when a girl is a grown-up, she becomes a woman," I had responded.

"What about 'Shroom. He's a boy. Will he grow up to be a woman?"

"No, boys grow up to be men. And girls grow up to be women."

Well, this morning, as Lolli was giving me my good morning hug, she turns to me and says, "Mommy, I'm going to grow up to be a woman very soon!"

My little girl is growing up too quickly! She's already thinking of womanhood at age two! The days of little girl cuteness are rapidly fading away - much quicker than I thought. (sniff, sniff)