Hallowed ground

I don't really understand why one of my latest favorite shows is "House Hunters" on Home & Garden TV.

The entire concept of the show is that you get to know a little bit about a family or couple and their current living arrangement. Then they look at three new homes. Then they pick one of the homes. That's it.

They have two versions of the show, one for American couples and one called "House Hunters International," where a couple or family does the same routine as above, but in Rome or England or Belize.

It's fascinating to see what you can get for $500,000 in Rome (a one-bedroom apartment with some character) or in Buxton, England (a seven-bedroom home with room for a mother-in-law) or Belize (a three-bedroom house with a pool, beach, and boat slip, fully furnished).

It doesn't make me want to move, however.

Family not dynamic

Weekend mornings are always very slow in the Lee household.

Usually, Greg gets up with whatever child comes walking into our bedroom on Saturday mornings and I do the same on Sunday mornings. What time that arising occurs is strictly a matter of chance.

Yesterday, I got up when Julia and Allie both wandered into our bedroom at 7:15 because Greg had flight delays and didn't get in until 12:30 p.m. He stayed in bed for awhile and got up later.

This morning, when Julia came into our room at (gasp!) 6:10 or so--because of the time change last night--Greg heroically dragged himself out of bed to try to convince her to go back to sleep. Didn't work.

I lazed in bed for quite a bit longer, then was the last in the family to get up, past 8:00 (are you jealous, Dan?).

And we haven't been doing much since. Greg made an amazing breakfast and cleaned up afterwards (yes, I protested). I read the paper. The girls played in the living room. Greg watched TV.

That's pretty much what happens every weekend morning, until we get motivated by whatever we're supposed to get accomplished and someone gets in the shower.

It's pretty bad when your three-year-old begs to get dressed.

I can't even count how many times Dan has seen my family in their jammies because we get online with him on Saturday or Sunday mornings and no one has dressed yet. Fortunately my weekly call to my mom is by phone, not by webcam, or we'd be doing that with even more people.

Today, we need to go buy Allie more winter clothes, especially pants. Greg asked me mid-morning when I was going to be finished with the newspaper. He then started watching an hour-long program on TV. I stopped reading and came upstairs to shower. Now I've been ready to go for awhile, it's noon, and Greg is still watching TV (Tivo, by the way). On other weekends, it is just as frequently me that's dragging their feet.

The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day to get those outdoor autumn projects done, plus we do have to go shopping.

Yet I sit in our bedroom typing and my family is downstairs playing and watching TV.

Just call us the potato family!

Morning edition

On a normal work/school day, I get up almost an hour before Greg and over an hour before I wake up the girls.

I use the time to shower, do my hair and makeup, feed the cat, eat breakfast while reading the paper, brush my teeth, sometimes check online, and to get my thoughts organized for the day.

It's my quiet time. I don't watch TV and I don't talk to anyone except maybe Greg, if he's not still trying to get nine more minutes of clock radio snooze.

Greg is in Pittsburgh (he'll be home tomorrow), so this morning I got up quietly and went down the hall to get fresh towels for my shower. The linen closet door sticks a little, so it made a little bit of a noise as I opened it.

I went back down the hall to our bathroom, got my things organized, and I noticed that the bathroom door was open slightly. I've set the cycle on our electronic thermostat to kick in and start bringing the house temperature up as I get out of the shower, so I went to close the door against drafts.

And in walked Julia, holding her blankie up to her eyes against the light. She was awake, and I couldn't pan her off on my husband to try to get her to go back to sleep.

Did I mention it was 5:30?

Things have been just a little bit off all day, ever since. They'd both better sleep in until I wake them in the morning, or I'm going to be panning them off on Daddy as soon as he walks in the door.

Welcome home, honey. Bye!

Is it breakfast time yet?

I usually eat toast for breakfast, obviously. Two slices, nicely buttered, no jelly, made sequentially.

But when I was little, I almost always ate cereal for breakfast. Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Froot Loops, and Super Sugar Crisps (which they wimped out on and renamed Super Golden Crisps some years back, the losers--like they're fooling anyone). You have to admire a cereal company that actually put "Sugar" right on the front of the box in huge letters, however.

I think my favorite cereal, though, was Quisp.

Remember Quisp? With the little martian guy? Weird name for a cereal, but it was gooooood.

It wasn't until I was in college that I realized Captain Crunch was exactly the same as Quisp. What's the matter, Mom and Dad, was Quisp cheaper?

Occasionally, I'll still see Quisp in the cereal aisle of our local supermarket, but it doesn't seem to really be around anymore. Greg and I both snatch it up when we see it.

Someday, that little martian guy is going to find his way home, and all we'll be stuck with in America is the Captain. That will truly be a sad day.

Lessons from the tub

Allie is 6 1/2 now and I'm trying to teach her how to take a shower. I guess I never realized that shower-taking was a skill but she apparently has not been paying any attention the last approximately 476 times she's been given a bath or shower because she doesn't seem to know how to do it.

When I instruct her, facial feature by facial feature, how to wash her face, she doesn't seem to get it that in order to actually effect the removal of dirt, she needs to unball the washcloth and scrub more than gingerly.

I asked her, Allie, do you understand how Mommy and Daddy rub you to get you clean? She said, I guess I was playing.

No more rubber duckies for her, if I don't want to still be doing this chore when she's 10.

Dance, Elementary School Style

Last night, Greg was tired from shoving crates around all day, so I took Allie to her fall school dance.

Last year, Greg was traveling and Allie begged me to go, so I took both girls. It was not fun to have Julia trying to climb me all evening because of the scary costumes (despite the school's plea for kids not to wear scary outfits).

So this year she stayed home with Greg and Allie and I snuck out. We put our canned food donation in the barrel, checked out the D.J., looked at the costumes of the other kids, waited in line for a snack, checked out the pumpkin contest entries (yeah, I completely believe that all of those were prepared by kids--give me an f-ing break), took Allie's picture, tried to get Allie to do the hokey pokey, and watched as her principal was duct-taped to the wall for charity. At the end of the night, they take away the stool he's standing on and see how long he sticks there.

Allie was not having fun, because she hadn't seen any of her bestest friends yet. We were on our way to the door to leave when, hallelujah, we ran into one of her friends, Hannah.

A sweet hug followed between a harvest princess and Supergirl (Allie) and the two of them ran off to chase boys, which they did for the next half hour. Then Allie's quarry turned around unexpectedly and she got her tooth bumped. Suddenly, she realized she was tired and hot, so she said goodbye to Hannah and we left.

No underage drinking, no sex, no rejection from a crush, no teasing for her style of dancing or because of what she was wearing. First grade dances are great, from a parent's point of view!

My favorite things about this weekend

My favorite memories about our weekend in the beautiful Door peninsula:

Trying wine samples at the Von Stiehl Winery in Algoma and remembering how we liked the tour the last time we went, 11 years ago, on our first real vacation together as a couple.

Stopping at my grandparent's graves to put flowers on. I haven't been there for at least 10 years and it was way overdue. It doesn't fit with the tone of the rest of the weekend, but I'm glad we stopped.

Eating at the Inn at Cedar Crossing restaurant and afterwards reading Greg's funny comment from 11 years ago in the B&B's guest book.

Getting to our cottage and finding it even better than I had hoped, cute, immaculate, nicely decorated, quiet, and even better overall than the pictures that made me book it online.

Having Greg unclench after only 10 minutes at our cottage.

Visiting Wind Cave County Park and watching my husband get wet by being daring.

Spending time exploring the county with my husband and having a wonderful time despite the fact that it was very cold and very windy and occasionally snowing.

Seeing a good play in an unheated theater, surrounded by people wearing hats, mittens, hoods, blankets, and boots.

Sleeping in a wonderful bed with the window open, so we could occasionally hear the waves on the shore.

Not having to get apple juice in sippy cups as soon as we got up.

Having an entire second day to do exactly what we wanted to do and no more.

Being with my husband.

Seeing my girls again on Sunday morning.

Overheard

"Leave your panties on. Julia, leave your panties on! If you don't leave your panties on, the police are going to come and arrest you."

Gregory, my dear, just because that worked on you when your mom told you that 35 years ago doesn't mean it's going to work on our little one. The child thinks it's funny to be naked.

Fortunately, winter is coming closer every day and she also doesn't like to be cold. I'm think the naked thing will be short-lived.

Bad cat

Last night, we had chicken for dinner. The bones went into the trash and we forgot to close the door to the mudroom where the trash can is. What does this mean?

Pig went scavenging at 3:00 this morning and had herself a little snack! We were having a thunderstorm, Allie had called me to come into her room, and I was trying to go back to sleep with I heard it go over.

She's naughty. What a surpise that she didn't eat all of the food we gave her (in her dish) last night!

That's a whole decade!

Ten years ago this month, I was a busy woman.

Greg and I were in the final stages of planning our wedding, which took place on October 19.

My dad had selected the polka music he wanted played at the reception, Greg and I had practiced polkaing together, we'd found the cartoon videotape we wanted playing for the kids (and adults) at the reception until the bridal party got there, we'd arranged the rental of the popcorn machine, Greg's sisters were getting fitted for their tuxes (they were our ushers), Greg had arranged for the school bus to take us and the wedding party from the church to the hall, and other assorted sundry details were being handled.

We had a lot of traditional elements to our wedding, but we tried to put in fun touches too. One of the things we weren't able to do was to have a snowcone machine. The reception hall was too freaked out about possible carpet stains. As it was, we had to guarantee extra money for the popcorn cleanup.

Did I mention that my Uncle Jim had many, many drinks at the reception and forgot a batch of popcorn in the cooker? Just a little smoke, no big deal. (Though it was a no smoking hall, which was marvelous.)

We had an amazing, wonderful day with our families and friends. As soon as it was over, we both said that we'd like to do the entire day over again from start to finish, as long as we didn't have to pay for it again.

Did I mention the Chinese Fire Drills around the school bus in the middle of traffic?

It was the happiest day of my life and it still is. It's been a wonderful ten years. I love you, Gregory!