Lunch Lady Land

Coming this fall to my resume: volunteer lunch lady.

Yup, among the scads of forms I collected at Ben's kindergarten meeting today - health, uniforms, school supplies - was the most coveted of all: school lunch volunteer sign-ups. I couldn't resist!

So, I made a once-weekly commitment. After all, I have the time, I live nearby and, let's be honest...my favorite pastimes include (#1) spying on my kids and (#2) critiquing people's food choices. Oh, and (#3) being called a "lady."

Perfect-o!

Now, make no mistake: school lunches scare the bejeezus out of me, and I have a feeling we'll be packing picky little Ben's lunches. But, I'll gladly take the weekly bird's eye view of my son and his little pals...with a side, naturally, of fancy tomato ketchup.

 P.S. (#4) I'll do most anything to pay homage to Chris Farley in drag. (Sloppy joe, sloppy, sloppy joe...)

Nice Little Saturday

Some days (weeks, months) whip by so fast, but today was the most gloriously long, leisurely Saturday.

This morning, I taught class and Anthony raced a 10k (personal best time of 39:15!) at the Easter Sun Run. So, we crossed "productivity" off the list by 9 a.m., then loafed through the day.

Ben's preschool hosted an Easter egg hunt, which surprisingly had NO eggs (maybe we're just bad hunters), but instead had Portable Pets, an organization that (as they boast): "brings the farm to you." Apparently, that's a desirable thing.

Now, normally I'm no fan of petting zoos, but the Portable Pets people had the decency to bring only cute, baby, not-yet-cock-eyed animals.

The boys rode a horse for the first time, then petted, fed and chased the sheep, billy goats and roosters. We - that's all four of us - had a fine time, especially at the expense of the Portable Pets guy charged with catching roosters at the end of the day. (They're fast; he's clumsy.)

Of all days, then, this should have been one of a vegetarian lunch, but we tried Tanya's Soup Kitchen for the first time, and I had the chicken tortilla. (Mmmmm...rooster soup.)

Awesome lunch, big naps for my little equestrians, a trip to Target (duh, it's Saturday), then a surprisingly incident-free egg-dye-ing session, in preparation for the Easter Bunny's arrival.

Speaking of...time time for this bunny to go hide some eggs.

Thursday chatter

Conversation as we left First Friends, Roman's weekly playgroup/bible school:
Roman: "Mommy, that's the cross where Jesus died. He was naughty."
Ben: "That girl just talked about a penis."

Hours later, I still haven't addressed either one.

'Night

Roman, I couldn't agree more. Sometimes bed is just too far.

Universe, you've done it again!

I've started the week with a top-five difficult parenting decision: how to pronounce Uranus, our esteemed seventh planet.

Over the weekend, the boys moved beyond the states, skipped the world, and went straight to the universe. And now I'm stuck: URINE-us? ur-ANUS? Seriously, folks...who's in charge of these things?

Thankfully, our #1 resource, Dr. Seuss' "There's No Place like Space," graciously mentions Uranus only once, so I only have one uncomfortable mumble to stumble through.

But if the people-in-charge can update the solar system to delete Pluto (and get the Dr. Seuss people to revise their rhyme...impressive!), surely they can rename Planet #7. In the meantime, I might adopt an Australian accent during solar system discussions.  (ur-AU-nis...nope, still terrible.)

Speaking of speaking, today Benny started his pre-K speech therapy today with the wonderful Mrs. Hickerson. In 30 short minutes, she taught him to do what we've overlooked for five years: Ben can now curl his little tongue and pronounce a hell of an L sound. Wions are now lions, wunch is lunch, and Scognamillo...well, that's still tough for all of us.

Dang Song

It's a sure sign of rock-bottom homesickness when the song "California Girls" (er, sorry, "Gurls") makes me choke up. I'm not normally one to quote Katy Perry, but truly nothing comes close to the Golden Coast.

Must be today's Wichita weather, which is what they call SEVERE. That's code for, "don't open your door or it'll blow off its hinge." Children under 40 lbs. (that's Roman) blow into hedges and, in more SEVERE cases, houses land on unsuspecting witches.

Thankfully, we don't have to go far today. After an incredibly busy-but-fun day yesterday, we're in today, with only laundry and naps on the agenda.

But, alas, we'll be on the coast soon enough; we're traveling to San Pedro in two weeks for Anthony's dear Grandma Jean's 90th b'day. In the meantime, I've got to get this damn song out of my head.

Speaking of travel, before the weather turned SEVERE (you can't help but write it that way!), we popped out to get big-boy Ben his own suitcase with b'day money from his great-grandfather Ben. When you turn 5 in this house, you dress yourself (note the muscle-T, Hawaiian shorts and camo shoes) and haul your own suitcase. Let the traveling begin!

Meat

I've long suspected that the city of Wichita is sponsored by meat producers.

Take, for example, the frequent sightings of frantic chili-cheese dog consumption at stoplights. Or consider the "I'll take the BLT, but with no lettuce or tomato" order by coworker-who-will-remain-nameless. Or, there's my personal favorite, the "salesman" who stopped by to sell us steaks from his pick-up. At 9 p.m. (We didn't buy, thankyouverymuch, despite his sales pitch of: "Ya like steaks, doncha?!")

Today on our shopping trip, however, I was thrilled to have my camera ready for this. I'll let Romy's face tell the rest of the story. 

Hippo, by Roman

Roman, what does a hippo say?

Getting started

It's like the digital camera. And the ipod. And the flat screen TV and the "fancy" toaster. I resisted, then discovered them for the life-changers they are (especially that toaster!). Likewise, I avoided blogging with all my might, but am happily caving because, with every day that goes by, I think...

"Man, I should write this stuff down!"

The biggest blog battle so far was the name choice. Incredibly "ScogBlog" was already taken, meaning some cousin-in-law has beaten me to blogging. Zoe in Oz seemed like the next logical choice; I'm a California girl who's found her way to Kansas, via Arizona, via Colorado.

So, we're off...down the yellow brick road, tracking life with my boys, the heartful Ben and courageous Roman. Behind the curtain, of course, is my partner-in-it-all Anthony.

More to come as we navigate life in the plains. (Some days plain-er than others.)