This is funny. (Thanks for the link, Lelo.)

OK, I haven’t wanted to say anything, but all of those junk mails I keep getting that say:

“you look really stupid wackymommy”

No, I don’t. I look really sassy! They look really stupid.

Wouldn’t it be great if instead of being at war (and killing people who have done us no harm) (and being killed, ourselves) the government went all WPA? Wouldn’t that be cool? We could work on the levees and the roads and the schools and save lives, instead of taking them away.

Just a thought.

Have a good weekend, y’all. Peace. Please send out love.

wm

I kinda like Twitter. It’s faster than this.

My daughter she is getting braces next month. No more gum, no Laffy Taffy, no caramel apples. (Yay! says her mom.)

random bullets for my Thursday 13:

1) Iowa is settling down. Now it’s everyone along the Mississippi we need to worry about. Life is getting too crazy, weather-wise, with the tornadoes and flooding and fires and whatnot. (If you want to see a YouTube video of the “Book Brigade,” look here.)

2) It’s my birthday next week. (more…)

Marriage has turned out differently than I thought it would. We have too many scares and tears and ER visits, but we also have more flowers than I ever expected, good meals, sitting around together talking, playing dominoes or gardening. I planted herbs and flowers all afternoon yesterday. We sent out for pizza and ice cream, stayed up late watching movies.

But Iowa is on our minds. I never expected, when I first married, that Iowa would become such a big player in our lives, and that I would love my husband’s family this much.

My son is disappointed he’s not there with his grandparents this weekend, in Iowa City, going to the park, playing in the yard, having Pagliai’s Pizza instead of Eddie’s Flat Iron.

“Poppy’s coming here?” he just asked my husband, hopefully.

“No, honey. He’s staying home with the big flood. The road from his house to the airport is closed.”

Cedar Rapids (where we fly in when we visit my in-laws, where my husband’s brother and wife live with their three girls) is a mess. Our family is fine, their neighbors are fine, but whole sections of town — homes, businesses, cars and bridges — are toasted or severely damaged.

My in-laws are stuck on their side of town — no way to get to downtown Iowa City. They have been helping how they can, but how can you stop a river? How can you stop nine rivers?

Steve put up some pictures on his blog — they formed a book brigade to save the books in the main library. I love that library, where my father-in-law worked for many years. I love the campus and the Writers’ Workshop. Kurt Vonnegut and Raymond Carver did, too, along with about a zillion other writers. I love Iowa. The people, the boating, the farmlands and the huge barns. The parks and great schools and my husband’s old high school, City High, where we went for an ice cream social one time when we were back home visiting. Steve teases me when I call Iowa “back home,” but you know, Iowa is not that far from Arkansas, where my mom grew up and all of her extended family still lives. For me, that all is “back home.”

Ice cream socials and huge gardens and my kids, running with their cousins all over the place. Having gin and tonics at cocktail hour, watching the fireflies — that’s home.

We were about two seconds from moving there, but a lack of jobs (and lower wages, if we managed to find jobs) stood in the way. I wish we were with our family right now, but am so relieved that my husband and kids didn’t fly out. (I was staying home to work and wrap up end of school year.)

So, prayers please, and good thoughts and I can’t believe that the next time we go to my husband’s home state to visit, it will be all different. We still don’t know the extent of the damage and won’t for a while.

Here’s to things calming down and an attempt to get back to normal. Whatever that is.

For now, much love and a Happy Father’s Day to my father-in-law, brother-in-law, and of course, my excellent husband.

please send out prayers and good thoughts to my in-laws in Iowa.

wm

Junie B., on trying to stay calm until Show-and-Tell:

“Yeah, only I don’t actually know if I can do that,” I said, “‘Cause I’m already trying to be calm. And this is how I’m turning out.”

— from Junie B., First Grader “Aloha-ha-ha!”

Dear, dear readers,

It is a sad day for a parent when her child outgrows Junie B. Jones and Elmo. (more…)

When’s the last time I wrote a Thursday Thirteen, anyway? Ah, well. And it hasn’t been a “real” year of teaching, it’s only been a few months. If you will recall, dear readers, as of last September we were considering moving across town. Changed our minds, unpacked the cartons, and I got myself a job at our neighborhood school. I’m working in the library, and how I got there is a kind of long story, so I’ll cut to the chase. Here is what I’ve found out in the last few months: (more…)

Do you ever, those of you who are parents, wonder if you’re traumatizing your children? (If you’re not a parent, substitute “co-workers” or “pets” for “children.”)

I, myself, never wonder. Because I know it. I know that every single day I am trying, and failing, to not traumatize my children. (more…)