Oh Townie night! It was fun. With my 3 brothers and 2 sisters-in-law and also my friend Ed, and then I saw a friend I hadn't seen in years and years, Long Tran. And all his brothers and sisters. We all played pool, and I suck. Saw Mike Smith (Vince's little bro) and a few others. Not so many people out due to the chilly weather. I enjoyed it not so crowded. Some of the people I was with got pretty tipsy. I hate seeing my bro Joe resist trying to shake his alcohol addiction. We had a pretty good (and sometimes absurd) talk the night before in which he admits he's an alcoholic. Not by any prompting of mine. The hard-core alcoholics I know best are my brother and then Karl, who is, to Steve and I as a couple, and to Steve personally, a best friend. And really they both carry the same look even though phenotypically they couldn't be more different. I think I can identify an alcoholic at this point by sight and smell alone. It's a form of self-medication and the brain gets dependent. And for those of us who tend toward dependency period, or self-medication, for whatever reason (depression probably) it just compounds that reason and makes it even worse.

My heart breaks for the victims of the tsunamis, especially the children. We have to remember children every day, for every day tsunamis of loneliness, hunger, neglect, and violence engulf so many. Please, please pray for the children and families and everyone but don't stop there. Pray for them all, wherever they may be. Orphanages. Wombs. Everywhere.

Have stayed at my parents' in Oxford for 2 days. Steve's overgrown beard is getting on my nerves. Sorry but it looks just terrible. He's growing it and his hair for 1 year after returning from Iraq. It's driving me crazy but in April he says he's shaving it all off and giving it to the cancer wig charity.
Anyway Christmas is the whitest it's ever been. About 2 plus feet in Oxford. There's ice on top and in layers in between so you don't have to walk through it all. You just walk on top of it. It's interesting viewing everything from two feet off the ground. This much snow doesn't happen very often in one fell swoop where we live. It virtually stopped everything on the 23rd. It's more economical to just stop everything for a few days than spend the money and resources to have the necessary plows and manpower to deal with it like in other, more northern, cities, where this is sort of a standard winter zephyr. Since it doesn't happen that often, the money isn't put into it. :)
Santa made it anyway and we all received lots of gifts. I wish I could be foolish and spend all the Christmas money frivilously and all in one place, but, alas, it will go to paying bills I'm behind in...oh well maybe I'll splurge on something...or two...My birthday passed as only a mild and pleasant event. No black balloons. The people at work sang Happy Birthday and then we all played Taboo before we all went home. Taboo worked surprisingly well among people just now learning English. That was the 24th. In the late afternoon of the 24th we all opened gifts in Oxford, including the Santa gifts for the kids. Dave and Rachel and their kids were there. Fun stuff. It was fun giving and receiving gifts from lands afar. And handmade ones. I crocheted a scarf for Erin and gave Leah some manga I got in Japan. Dave gave gifts from Chile. My parents gave gifts from the Czech Republic and Poland. I now have a chilena dolla and a Czech one.
I did fear (and didn't say until Dave said Kitty already said it) that my little nephew might be mildly autistic. I hope it's something that can be grown out of...I do think it can be...I just hope they don't go into denial over the possibility. I don't think it's as severe as some cases I've seen.
I've seen lots of severe cases of other stuff affecting children lately on my assignments. One family has 5 kids crammed into a small apartment. The baby was a preemie and has MD, though he's moving fine now. Has microcephaly but he smiles and follows my movements around. I love that baby so much. He gets a night nurse every single night. Some of the other 4 kids have health problems. Heart problems and 1 has hearing aids. I don't know how much he hears. But so beautiful, all of them. I just adore them. That baby Yarley just captured me right away with that big beautiful smile. I think he can do more than people realize. With that love, those neurons will connect. Love makes neurons connect. I know it. Hugs and love really do connect pieces of the brain together in electric impulses, like the brain knows it's wanted and needed and welcomed in this world.
I'm in envy of everyone's homes. My house is small and just plain cramped. I'm tired of it. But I don't want to be strapped with a high mortgage. My brother Dan just bought a beautiful home that needs work but once he works his magic on it it will be an absolute gem. I know it. It's on 5 acres in the country. I'm jealous. Why didn't we do that when we had a chance. Well he'll be strapped to a high mortgage payment. My other brother is. He has a little McMansion in Fairfield. My sister-in-law's home is a shining example of utter devotion to home decorating in and out. In an exclusive part of their town. She makes sculptures for her garden and repaints, repapers, frames, does things herself.
My brother who just moved to the country redid my kitchen while Steve was in Iraq. And I redid Nathanael's room. Then we redid the living room. Before he had left Steve had redone the inner bathroom. Micah's room is an absolute pit. What will I do with it. And I find I just can't get along with Steve. He is inert. I can't change him and I don't try. I'm tired of it. Tired of his moods and it's been years and years in the making. I'm so tired of it.
I just now heard that my parents' next-door neighbors are divorcing. This is news that I would have expected less than my being hijacked on a 747 to Timbuctu. These people were married for about 140 years. They have 2 grown kids and grandkids. They are nerdy professors. Who'da thunk this. I mean they spent every year working in the garden. He mowing around and she pruning flowers and bushes. They were actually like two trees growing out of the same trunk. Now he has moved in with someone else, a secretary in his department, who in turn is divorcing her husband. That's weird. There were always affairs and incidents at Miami but this couple....? It's utterly out of character. OK now I'm hearing this is the same secretary that another person divorced his wife over. My brother Joe just said he's throwing his whole life away over a piece of ass. Now he just apologized for his language around Nathanael. By the way, Joe is only here for about 3 days. I was surprised he only spent half a day in airports around this snowstorm.
My gosh WHY is this couple divorcing?!!!! For the sake of her kids and grandkids she was making it amicable. He just up and left her! This nerdy math professor. It's crazy! This guy looks like Beaker from the Muppets. She is nerdy too. What?! They are so quiet and nerdy and had their routines and were growing old together. This is the weirdest and saddest thing. What was this guy thinking? The consummate monogamist. What in the world?!!!

I'm Mister Cold Meister...whatever I touch...turns to ice in my clutch...I'm too much!

If I knew Suomi or Lapp or Inupiaq, I could more accurately describe the 37 kinds of precipitation attacking like gangbusters over here, but suffice it to say we're getting the mother of all storms, and it's kind of fun. Well driving home was a bit tedious- a 15-minute drive took all of 2 hours. My kids are having the time of their lives playing outside. Our forecast is officially for almost a foot and a half. Unusual for a place so far from a lake, but a big band came barreling up from Texas and so while they're getting tornadoes further south, we're getting all the white stuff. Pictures forthcoming. I have a strange feeling I won't be going in to work tomorrow.

For those who couldn't get enough, I'm giving you another concert. This time Nathanael's band- The Finneytown High School Marching Wildcats. They don't march in the winter but sit in black skirts and pants. They are Sitting Wildcats now. With a #1 from the state competition. Only one of five class B schools in the state to receive a #1.

Oh, also there was an orchestra concert- I've included a couple of photos of it- Nathanael's friends.

Micah awaits the show in his army duds.

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I think this is my favorite pic of the band tonight.

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John Weber and Nathan Grubbs

the trumpet row

I pledge allegiance...

This is just a pretty picture of these two sweet girls.

I played with this picture. Like?

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Someone cloned Elijah Wood--- twice! Well, Nathanael has the hairy feet...

the student teacher

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This is Matt, one of Nathanael's buddies. Here he is playing in jazz band. When it comes to studying, the kid is serious as a heart attack, so I expect maybe he'll operate on me one day.

Rosie, one of Nathanael's best buddies at school. She's fun. Her family is Russian- Cincinnati actually has a sizeable Russian community. Of them, many are, like many people we know (including Rosie's parents) Jews who emigrated within the last few decades. The next generation may not know Russian as well as their parents. But darned if Rosie's brother didn't kick my butt in chess. I don't know why I continually prove my ignorance in games I'm unskilled in, but one night at Border's the boy left me dead in the water in about 15 minutes. I didn't know what hit me.

OK I'm gonna brag a little. Nathanael took the PSAT a while back and the results came back the other day. He scored the highest score of all the sophomores- a 217. Higher than any of his brainy friends. A 180 is considered really good and 15o is average. In SAT scores it translates to well above the national merit scholar level. In all three categories he did better than 99% of other sophomores. OK I've got a gem on my hands. I mean I hope he gets lots of scholarships and grants. But really I have a kid who is destined for the best of the best and he can get into many types of schools including Ivy League. So when he DOES decide on a college, despite so many things we've done, it's gonna be a financial nightmare. Despite the fact that he will be able to work part time, will be able to do several things. I want him to apply to as many places he wants and then once he decides we'll worry about the cost. There are a lot of great places in state but if he qualifies for someplace unlike anything we have here, I will encourage him. I talked to my folks, like "Help me!" and my mom said not to worry, there are lots of grants, etc. available. She's always said she'd try to help in college but stated point blank she can't put all the grandkids through college 100% and what she does for one she does for all of them. She says she's not worried about Nathanael because he's smart enough to get a lot of his college paid for. We have SOME money earmarked for college for the kids but I'm going to be blunt, the mutual fund which did so well kinda lost impetus in about 2000. It's slowly made its way back but there just isn't enough there to pay even a year at an Ivy League. If he lives away from home we not only have tuition but all the room and board issues. When my mom taught school for 20 years about all of that was spent on putting us 4 kids through school and to tell you quite the truth we 4 kids in our irresponsibility wasted a LOT of her hard-earned money. A couple of my brothers had a terrible year or two before getting their act together. My own husband solved his problem by joining the military for 4 years after his sophomore year. His grades during freshman and sophomore years were so abysmal that certainly his parents were NOT convinced they should shell out more until he was serious about it. Well he came back after 4 years very serious and then when he went into graduate school his master's GPA ended up very high, 3.8 or so. My own freshman year I flunked calculus. Now I have a kid who is focused enough not to screw up like so many of his forebears. Yay, yay, yay, did I actually raise a kid who has learned from our mistakes?!!! What did I worry about in high school and even college- boys, relationships, blah blah blah...such a WASTE of time!!!! I should have REALLY focused on getting the professional background I needed and I would have a better career now! I also battled depression and that made me go on half throttle a lot. Now that my brain is stabler I know how to channel and focus more. If I had only had this medicine then....OH WELL hindsight is 20/20...anyway, the focus is NATHANAEL and his outstandingness even though he is STILL a procrastinator. For example he had a chemistry project that was due and his partner got mono. After waiting for about two weeks, I think, the day before it was due he said, "I can't turn my project in because my partner's got mono and he has the data." DUH!!!!! OH if you're smart enough to qualify as a SOPHOMORE to be a national merit scholar, then HELLO can't you FIGURE OUT A WAY TO GET HIS DATA?!!!!! We have SO MUCH TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT these days...I mean we have telephones, e-mail, and bipeds have learned how to use the spoken word...there are WAYS to get information...the stinker is going to shoot his smart little self in his smart little foot by testing far beyond those little kids that spend their lives studying but procrastinating. He even has a t-shirt that proclaims PROCRASTINATE NOW!

Anyway I'm SOOOOOO proud of him. Please let him know on his blog how proud you are of him, too.

Busy day at work. I'm doing Azza and Steph's stuff. Steph's health is a wreck, poor thing, but we can't keep all these projects in the air. When she is well we will send her to interpret but not manage projects. Sorry but some of the ones she did manage were not done right and we even backaudited and had to contact customers about this. I was the one that did that auditing but I don't want to get all high and rigteous either. Every time I feel that little itch to step on someone helpless or use their weakness to get ahead, oh YES we all have it, don't deny it! anyway, I pray about it. I know it's been done to me and I know how it feels. So anyway...I need to pray to hang onto that self-control, tolerance, and acceptance that I screw up just as much as anyone, if not more. I try to do my best and cover all bases and I don't want to just pass out free credit to others if I deserve it, because that's not right either, but there is a saying...the best things you do are the things you do in secret, with no one but God looking, and no one but God will EVER know about it.
I have an interpretation way down in Cynthiana early tomorrow, could find no one else to do it with me (they need 2) and then bang, last minute Chris's 2 appointments were cancelled, and he can do it. First time doing this type of thing for him. I have to know what I'm doing and so often I don't. I never know what I'm walking into. Anyway this one guy Claudio was going to go, then he decided at the last minute he didn't want to drive that whole way (he lives in Oxford)...waited until 5:20 to tell us, and so we were left high and dry and it looked like I'd have to go myself. That after giving my OTHER appointment to someone else even though it should be me, but I have more experience in courts (huyeah, right)...and anyway we were scrambling and scrambling and of the dozen or so appointments tomorrow those very 2 were cancelled...can you believe it...is it divine providence? Could very well be! Divine coincidence? This little miracle saved me lots of time and effort. I really hope all goes well tomorrow and I will pray about it. In the meantime during Azza's absence I assign other people to their translation and interpretation places. I know Rosario's job so I can follow a job now through the beginning quote until its closure, looking at all the people through whom it passes. Every day things are more and more cohesive.

Alas Micah indeed has strep- culture came back positive (orinally a false negative, just like the very first false negative with him- MY PREGNANCY with him)- that explains the headaches, the throataches, the eyeaches, especially in the mornings. He didn't have much of a fever. But now he's already on the amoxicilin and is really feeling much more chipper. :) I had especially worried about those headaches since they were back of the head headaches, not run-of-the-mill sinus ones like I get. He was out of school 2 days this week and returned today. Now he's his usual big bad little old cute self.

Following are some pix of Micah's 6th grade Christmas concert. More to come.

Malia (Micah's crush) is in the middle.

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Micah has had a crush on the middle girl, Malia, for oh about seven YEARS.

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Find Micah.

Micah

This little girl really sang and emoted well.

I forgot to put this in with the last group and I love it. Fall day about 2 weeks ago. No this has nothing to do with Micah's concert.

grades 5 and 6

That Aromatic Boy Smell

Well I posted this over in another group I belong to- we moms were all discussing messy boy rooms- how we deal- anyway, this is what I said.


Definitely a member here of the stinky boys club. Rooms have been nasty for years. Not to mention the little creatures from outer space called friends. My younger son has 2 friends who don't like each other. And when either is over here they destroy the room a hundred times over. It was bad enough with my son, who LOVES to collect "valuable bottles" and stuff from the trash- cleans out old beer cans, bottles, etc. and says "I can sell this on e-bay for $20!" right...anyway he has this display of old stuff on his shelves. Over the years he and his friends have poked holes in the walls with I don't know what, light sabers? There's a huge hole in one of the walls and now we have to replace the whole piece of drywall. (sigh) Not to mention the scuff marks, the spills, the snuck in food...oh yes, the PS2 (which his friend gave him in exchange for a pea shooter), the TV, the endless barrage of electronic garbage...I've had it. I constantly throw stuff out but that junk, the toys, the piles of parts that once belonged to something...they reproduce...he's destroyed a dresser, two bed frames, all kinds of stuff...I mean he doesn't even deliberately do it. It's just a part of existence for him...he just walks into a room and stuff falls apart. All except for the army of Lego things he has, I think I have about one million Lego blocks in my house. How the heck do those tiniest ones creep out all over the house into MY bathroom so I step on it first thing in the morning? Oh, the boy smell!!! Socks hanging from the fan blades- he likes to fling the socks off the blades as the fan is running. I love little boys SO MUCH despite the endless chatter which consists of about 3 words: fart, butt, and penis.

When they get to be teenagers it gets even crazier. I JUST remodeled my 15-year-old's room and he has uncompleted projects everywhere, old clothes spontaneously generating out of corners. I'm afraid to find out what's in some of those corners! Will it bite me?! Are there ogres and gremlins hiding under his desk? Moldy food? Well I do clean every now and then (when I have to go in there and do it correctly since his idea of cleaning is different from mine) and I've got an awesome kid- never any pot, cigarettes, crack, pipes, condoms, guns, knives, porn, or anything else! Not that I am even suspecting that kind of stuff- he's pretty straight and narrow-

They're messy but I just can't complain too long about my kids.

Nice week. Still paying bills, or trying anyway. Working, interpreting. I'll be doing Azza's job from Dec. 10 to the end of January while she's in Egypt. There's not a person at Conversa whose job I don't know and haven't done. Rosario- done her job. Stephannia (when she's there which is rarely she's so often sick)- done her job. Brian and Dan- done their job. Azza- done her job. All the interpreters- done that job. Gerry- done his job. Carmen- done her job. Been there done it all. If I had 50 hours a day I could run the company singlehandedly.

:)

More pix to come. Hey if you even glance at this, PLEASE give me a shout and let me know you still read this. Please?