What We Did This Weekend

My fantastic sister, Shannon, is home from Antartica and graced us with her presence for a few days. The girls were happy, happy, happy! She is on her way to vacation in Costa Rica with her boyfriend (Although they have been together for some time, I have never met him. I am unconvinced that he is real. We shall see.)

I heard through the grapevine that she got in a wreck and totaled out the rental car. She had called and left a message on the phone, but did not mention anything about the accident. (She is all stoic like that. I would have been bawling like the baby I am.)

Since I have not had the chance to talk to her directly, and I know that she reads this....

Hi Shannon! I'm glad you are okay! I hope you don't have a sore neck or other injuries that will dampen your trip. And holy crap, I'm glad it was no worse. Have I told you how much I love you? 'Cause, wow, I really do.

And the second near tragedy of the weekend involved the guinea pigs. Sunny Cisco was the one that was used in the Science Fair project. Frere Jacque (Sophie's guinea pig) somehow broke his top teeth off at the gumline. They were hanging by a thread of gum too big for me to pull the rest of the way out so his teeth were flipped out from between his lips and resting on the outside of his upper lip. They were all bloody and horrible looking and Maya almost hyperventilated.

We were able to take them to the vet who pulled the teeth, cut their toenails (Sunny was along for moral support), and told us that they were "very fat guinea pigs". Frere should be fine. We are babying him terribly and feeding him strawberries and broccolli. (No oranges so the acid won't sting his gums. That would be torture.)

Maya and I had a fight on Sunday about her birthday and her expectations. I have done many things for her. This year has us in a great spot. I can pay bills and provide without panic. But her expectations of me tend to compare me with her father. She doesn't know that he pays $300 in rent and pays no bills because he is lucky enough to have just moved in with his well-to-do buddy of his. I pay three times that for rent, all the bills and also the incidentals that come along with having kids in the house.

He comes on the weekends and takes them to movies and buys them DVD's and CD's and clothes. Basically, all the things that are just not in my budget. He puts on the hero cape and Maya has been buying it hook, line and sinker. I think she understands a bit better now though. The fight involved her in her room crying and me in my room crying. Then, apologies, cuddling and making construction paper flowers.

If in doubt, ALWAYS make construction paper flowers.

We decided that we always did fine when we had NO money at birthday time before. We made do with what we had and it was always fantastic. So, we discussed what we could do like that this year, and came up with decorating the house with spring flowers and "snow" since her birthday is right on the edge of winter and spring. (the "snow" is cotton balls) There is nothing better than being in a house with homemade flowers and cotton balls hanging from the ceiling. If you don't believe me, you should just try it.

And Maya also hates cake. Which challenges the birthday imagination. Last year I made a tiered "cake of chocolate chip cookies and whipped cream frosting. Huge hit. This year I crafted a lemon meringue pie. Totally from scratch. From lemons and eggs and stuff.

I so rock.

Geez. I'm tired.