A Conversation about Chickens.

A baby chicken hawk we found out by the coop one night.
It was smaller than the chickens but eying them with predatory instincts.
The chickens were FREAKING out.

We are living in a tiny ecosystem and even though it’s hard to imagine that nature is still natural in our little suburban bubble…it does exist. I am particularly talking about survival and chickens. We have had several instances of chicken death (besides the hatchet and roast chicken for Sunday dinner): our neighbor’s dogs, chicken hawks, perhaps an owl and now—a mystery predator. We think it’s either a coyote, fox, or even a possum or skunk? Not really sure, all we know is that something found our chickens and they’re reliving a culinary dream every night. We find the fence torn into, feathers EVERYWHERE and a missing chicken or chickens (sometimes with parts left behind). It’s a mystery and we can’t stop it. So here’s the conversation between my husband and I:

Dustin: You know, Ma would’ve figured out how to protect her chickens by now.

Me: Pa would’ve slept outside with his gun and killed whatever was getting his chickens.

Dustin: Pa would’ve been on his 40 mile trek to town with his pelts and his wheat; getting essential supplies to keep his family alive (you know, things like sugar and white flour).

Me: Well, Pa would’ve seen to it that Mr. Edwards was doing the chores and Mr. Edwards would have, FOR SURE, slept by the woodpile to kill the chicken killer. Or he would’ve at least left a gun above the door, loaded, for Ma to use. I’m just sayin’.

Dustin: speechless.

To Librarians Everywhere: Angels That You Are.

Dear Librarians,

Once again, you have pulled through for us. For the first time in a long time (since I was a girl marathon reading with my own mother), I have had to “share” a book. And when I say ‘share’ I mean it very loosely, a better definition would be sheer literary subterfuge as I snatch said books from a sleeping daughter and she, as cleverly, klepts mine into her backpack as she rushes off to school.

It all started when I decided that I’d better take a book to Disneyworld to read to the kids. I picked a book I’ve been wanting to read: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I started reading it out loud to them at Disneyworld and right away Lily wanted to ‘read ahead.’ So she started taking it—and—let it be known that I also wanted to ‘read ahead’ and so the battle began. Luckily I had the foresight to download it onto some i pods—but Lily and I both prefer reading to listening…so it continued to be a fight for the book. I also made the mistake of leaving it out while my brother-in-law was here and he started reading it too. Now it was even being stolen and taken out of the house! There were three of us reading one book…and none of us were going to finish it because most of our time was spent coming up with elaborate plans to steal the book. This had to stop. On Tuesday Jane and I walked to the library and I pleaded to you to help me. You didn’t even bat an eye and within five minutes had two book ones for me, a book two, and two book twos on hold in neighboring libraries. I spent the rest of the day driving from library to library (I couldn’t even wait a day for them to deliver to my library) to get all the books. Whew. You saved our lives. We can read now, quietly, without guilt and in perfect harmony—no more middle of the night ninja larceny. In time, we may even be able to laugh about it.

I also happen to know some librarians personally and know how seriously they take their jobs and how grateful we are to you for always finding us what we need; be it new recommendations for a voracious eight-year-old, Star Wars encyclopedias for a six-year-old padawan-in-training, and princess recommendations for Alice in Whineyland and Jane the Beguiling Terror. We will return our books promptly and pay our sixty cent fine (from some previous minor infraction). We thank you, once again with humility in our hearts and apologize to any local Rick Riordan fans as we have literally cleaned the Library of any evidence that he even existed.

Our hearts are with you always—faithful, dutiful Librarians.

With deepest regard,
Emily Prusso

On Disneyworld.

We are back from Disneyworld and we had, if you can imagine, an amazing time. The kids were great…Lily and Canyon were real troopers as they had to hike around sans stroller (Canyon was known to sneak a ride here and there) and Jane and Alice did well sans naps. We had help from our friend Jed and Dustin’s Uncle Bill and Aunt Laura. It was nice to have a ½ dozen extra hands to keep track of the kids. We also were introduced to the world of pin trading and Lily latched onto that and LOVED it. She was able to collect (with the help of generous friends and family) a dozen or so pins. Canyon was not interested in it as it requires talking to strangers and Alice had difficulty with the concept of ‘trading.’ She seemed to think that people should just give her pins without any in return. Jane, well, she was pretty clueless and was more interested in playing with straws than anything else. Here are the highlights of each park:


Hollywood Studios:
• A life size Imperial Walker.
• Indiana Jones stunt show
• Rockin’ Rollin’ Rollercoaster (I’m taking Lily’s word on this)

Animal Kingdom
• Seeing ‘real’ animals (as opposed to the Jungle Cruise at DL)
• A great playground and tons of stuff for the little ones including: nature walks, rides, shows, characters
• The ‘Everest’ rollercoaster ride. Lily went on it 11 times.
• Talking Canyon into an intense dinosaur ride and watching his terrified face (now, that’s the only thing that he talks about).

Epcot:
• Sneaking Alice onto Test Track and her LOVING it (never to be able to get her on again)
• Mission to Space (I’m taking that one on others’ councils as you’ll NEVER see me on that ride)
• Soarin’ Over California (making us a little homesick)
• And the countries and kidcot (where the kids decorate a mask and gather tokens from each country): Canada, Britain, France, Japan, Morocco, Colonial America, Italy, Germany, China, Norway, and Mexico—I LOVE epcot and seeing all the countries.
• The fireworks

Magic Kingdom
• Tom Sawyer Island (of course)
• Fireworks and a Castle that changes colors every few minutes
• A really smooth Thunder Mountain and a not so smooth Space Mountain
• Seeing castles and princesses, it’s a Small World and Peter Pan
• The Monsters Inc. comedy show (really funny—and not at DL)

We spent our last day at Animal Kingdom again because it was so great. We could’ve easily spent another week there—but I think our kids teachers would’ve freaked out! It’s nice to be home again and we’ll just have to let the memories sustain us for a few more years before we can take another trip back there.

Jane's Favorite ride.

2009

This isn't actually a picture from New Year's Eve. It is a picture from a few weeks ago. I would've posted a picture of us on New Year's Eve, but I didn't think that anyone would be really interested in us lounging around on the couch...falling asleep around 9:30--hey, at least we made it till an east coast midnight.

Notes on Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some of the highlights.
• Beginning with a rainy trip to San Anselmo to visit Papa and Katrina.
• A Christmas Eve of new pajamas, hot chocolate, The Nativity, and falling asleep to Swiss Family Robinson.
• Canyon sneaking into the family room to announce calmly that: “Guys…Santa did come.”
• Alice opening and loving her Princess Leia Barbie.
• Canyon jumping up and down upon opening his Star Wars lego shuttle from Nana & Papa.
• Dustin, Lily, and Canyon spending the rest of the day putting together said shuttle.
• Jane opening her dolly and within five minutes “giving” it to Alice (at least according to Alice).
• My new rain jacket I was coveting.
• Lots and lots and lots of kitchen supplies for ‘The Barn.’
• Having an amazing Christmas dinner with family and playing with our new toys with our cousins.
• Watching Wall-e that night, exhausted, but snuggly in our new pajamas.

We then had a few great days spending time with Brooke and her darling, amazing, smart boys playing outside in the sunshine, legos, a trip to the movies, and yummy sushi.

The relative calm before the storm.

Dustin and the Star Wars shuttle.


The state of the family room after.



Alice and Princess Leia.

What's a girl to do?

So Alice, yes we’re talking about Alice again, is not like Lily. Maybe that is obvious to most of you parents out there…that your kids are different. It’s adjusting to these differences that takes a little effort. So Lily is not, except for a few month stint when she was two, the girly girl type. She’s not necessarily a tom boy, but she’s just less interested in princesses and the color pink. Alice was born a princess and Jane is quietly following suit. While embracing every whim and sensibility that define what a princess is…she has recently taken an interesting turn brought about by this household's OBSESSION with Star Wars. She officially LOVES Princess Leia and just to qualify the differences between Leia and, let’s say, Sleeping Beauty—in Alice’s own words (as she’s watching Princess Leia strangle Jabba the Hut): “Mommy, Princess Leia can save herself!” So the light went on and Alice realized that she doesn’t need a prince if she’s a Leia. Let’s just say that she’s not waiting for a prince to come and rescue her.

So when Alice insisted on a Barbie for Christmas I did what every self-respecting mother of a princess would do: I went to the Disney web site and found a myriad of Barbie princesses (on sale even). As I’m browsing through the Snow Whites and Cinderellas I casually ask Alice which princess she wants and….duh…she wants Princess Leia. So, the Leia barbies are only hundreds of dollars on ebay, collectables of course. They probably haven’t made a Leia Barbie since 1979. So, what’s a girl to do? So I pooled all of my mom resources and made myself a Princess Leia Barbie. My friend Jill who also happens to be an expert on barbies, a seamstress, and a creative mastermind agreed to make the Leia costume. Then she coached me on what Barbie to try and find to substitute for Leia. Apparently I needed to find a Barbie with hair already parted in the middle (so we could make the infamous buns) because, unbeknownst to me, you can’t just part a barbie’s hair wherever you want (these are the sorts of things I need to learn). I found a perfectly respectable Dorothy (Wiz of Oz) Barbie on Amazon for $12. She passed the Jill hair test and we were in business. The dress, of course, is perfect and to add to the outfit, I raided all of my friends, who are mothers of girls, Barbie stashes and stole some Hannah Montana boots from Trisha’s daughters. In case you didn’t know, Hannah Montana boots look a lot like Princess Leia boots. And finally, my talented sister-in-law, Trieste, personalized the cardboard suitcase I got for her and her Barbie. The whole ensemble: Barbie, dress, boots, suitcase, was much, much less than the ebay Leia—and, in my opinion, better. What Alice will probably never understand, maybe until she’s a mother, is how many people and resources pulled together to get her a Princess Leia doll—in the hopes that she can one day kick some Jabba butt.

Somthing About the Christmas Season.

I know that my parents agree that In-N-Out Burger is a magical place. Well, we have proof. We went to In-N-Out for dinner the other night for dinner. It was one of those rare occasions when I didn’t make dinner and Dustin was too hungry for pancakes (usually he’s totally ok with pancakes). We got all the food and all six of us squeezed into a little booth. We were just being our natural charming selves, eating our fries, fighting over shakes and guarding our diet coke with an unrivaled passion (that last one was mostly me), when a man came over to our table. Dustin said later that he was sure that the guy was panhandling and was drumming up an excuse not to give him some money when he said: “I hope that you and your kids have a Merry Christmas,” set something on the table and jetted out the door. It took us a few moments to realize that he had so casually given us a hundred dollar bill. Wow. Dustin’s mouth was officially opened in disbelief. It was a little weird and awkward at first, I mean who gives complete strangers a hundred dollars? Don’t get me wrong…the awkwardness wore off really fast. We then became infamous to that In-N-Out crowd.


Guy at the table next to us: “Wow, what just happened?”

Us: “That guy just gave us a hundred bucks.”

Him: “Wow, what’d he say?”

Us: “He just said Merry Christmas.”

Him: “Wow, you don’t see that everyday.”

Later, Dustin and I wondered why he gave us the money. As far as we know, we didn’t look too white trash, our kids were somewhat clean and we seemed to have plenty of French fries and burgers for everyone (we were making them share milkshakes though…). We finally decided that he was charmed by our family, Dustin’s obvious love for me, Lily’s witty remarks, Canyon’s freckles, Alice’s spunk, and Jane’s pretty smile. Our friends, respectfully, disagree. They think that it was the sheer number of kids—I mean we obviously have a lot of presents to buy. I like to think that we charmed him.

Anyway, as much as I would love to spend that money on me, me, and me—we decided that the best lesson to the kids would be to pay it forward. We’re going to the police station where they have a tree hung with cards stating the needs of some of the people in our community. We’re going to pick some, all go shopping together for the items and then return the gifts to the station. I hope that, because the kids are participating in this process that they can learn something about what Christmas is really about. However, in the mean time, I am happy to admit that charity is not dead and that there are decent and giving people out there in the world. And I just wanted to thank that random stranger for his gift and wish him a Merry Christmas.