Thursday, February 4, 2010

Time Outs: not just for kids anymore

As I pound out this post, I have locked myself in my room, put in earphones and cranked the volume on my iPod. The reason? I have been most snippy in the completely unprovoked way that afflicts the female population in general on a monthly type basis, but my thyroid (being the overachiever it is) has hit yet another ball OUT of the park. Like, an INTO ORBIT WAY OUT OF THE PARK kind of basis (like 5 times in the past two months, arggh).

So.

I am in self-imposed time out, Mr. O has taken care of dinner, and except for the occasional attempted break-in the kids really are being great (if not completely baffled by the alien that must have taken over their mother's body).

Anyway, distractions and therapeutic posting beginning....now:

Recognize this tree?

It's from Winnie the Pooh.

When we first put in Ty's chair lift (basically a very tiny room with a moving floor) he was about 7 years old and I, or maybe my mom, had this great idea to paint the walls with a two-story tree mural to make his trips downstairs more interesting/entertaining. One friend suggested that we skip the mural painting and just hand him a marker or crayon to drag down or up the wall each trip.

That idea was nixed (bout wouldn't that have been fun?). We never got around to painting the tree in the elevator shaft and Ty grew up. I'm not sure what wall art would be thematically appropriate for a 17 year old male (being, as I am, a 38 year old female), but I'm open to suggestions. I did get my mom to paint it in Ellie's room, and I love it. It's full of texture and, in person, you can even see the leaf detail.

Speaking of Ellie:

Today was Retro Day at school, and it just so happens that this dress is authentic 1970s vintage. We inherited it from our neighbor because, for some reason, her boys wouldn't wear it. We love it.

And now a word from Ellie:

Ellie: Nicole, I had a dream about you last night.

Nicole: Really, what was it about?

Ellie (with much exasperation): But you were there.

Wouldn't that make life interesting if we were actually jetting in and out of each other's dreams at night? Hmm, that might make for a good storyline.