I Love Your Eyeballs
This week went by so fast. My brother and his wife were in town, visiting from California. He's actually been here for about a month, working on getting his new company going. Not all the pieces have quite fallen into place, so he'll be returning to his job in CA for the time being, but hopes that in the next few months he'll truly be able to go full time with his company out here. He doesn't plan to move from California though.
I've become involved with the company as well. It holds some interesting opportunities for me. So far I've been working on the logo and business cards and a brochure, and also trying to help with the color palette of the website.
***
Before it was just an interesting suggestion that I wasn't really even toying with, but now I find myself batting the idea of going to Saipan for a few months around in my head. Sometimes it's like a lazy game of tether ball where the thoughts slowly revolve and switch back every now and again. Other times it's like a rapid fire professional ping pong game with ideas popping around like crazy and occasionally flying off into the rafters.
A few things have come up lately that make the idea more and more reasonable. I've decided my next step is to talk to my brother out there and figure out the particulars of the situation.
***
This busy week has left me with a few items to attend to. I have a number of people to write back to and call who I've left hanging. I don't like doing that, but I hope they'll understand.
***
We had my mom's second birthday part on friday night over at my brother Bill's house. It was crazy and chaotic as it can be, plus Bill had planned all these elaborate Mexican dishes, and then ended up having to work late, so I started the cooking effort. I prepared the chicken enchiladas (which I'd never done, so that was kind of cool), and charred the peppers for chile rellenos (that's a seriously involved recipe with lots of steps), while others worked on the shrimp enchiladas and guacamole, etc. I think we ate around 9pm.
I had the best time ever with my nieces (and nephew too though he spent more time doing his own thing). They are at the stage where they love coming up with "games". First A. carefully cleared off the couch, then gave me a sly look before jumping off the arm of the couch and landing on the soft cushions on the far end. C. caught on quickly and they both bounced all over the couch.
There was a lull in the activity as they got distracted with something else. I sat on the couch and then the girls came back and requested, "hey get off the couch so we can play our game again." I looked at them slyly, and said, "what? you want me to lie down on the couch and get comfy??" "Noooo!" they cried, followed by laughter, "get offff!" "Oh, you want me to scootch over a little bit?" I teased. "No we want you to get off so we can jump on the couch!" "You want me to jump on me?" I asked innocently. I further offered, "I'll catch you!" That's when the first one launched right into my lap. I caught her and swirled her up and around in the air before plopping her on the couch beside me. C. was eager for her turn. This continued with various catching styles and swirling patterns until I was sweaty and exhausted. Of course they wanted more.
Lucky for me, at that precise moment, I sneezed. They both just looked at me wide eyed, no expression on their face. My voice full of surprise and with eyes just as wide as theirs, I asked, "Don't you know what you say when someone sneezes?" A. answered simply, "no." I told them that you say "Bless you." So we practiced. I "sneezed" a few more times, and prompted their response. Bill overheard and said, "It's not "bless you" it's "gesundheit". Ah of course, I was forgetting our German heritage. The girls though this was much more fun to say than "bless you," so they caught on quickly.
Eventually their attention started to wane, and I could see that couch jumping was on their mind, so I thought quickly and asked, "do you know what you say when you wake up first thing in the morning and see that someone else is awake?" They didn't, so I told them, "you say "guten morgen". So then we took turns "sleeping" for various amounts of time, and when the sleeper woke up, the other two would say, "guten morgen!" C. caught the words and said them easily, but A. kept mumbling them and it always sounded more like, "good 'n' mornin".
I love how I can make a game out of anything with them. There's also the whisper game which is really funny. They will whisper secrets in my ear and I can't tell anyone, but the other girl always gets as close as possible to the hear what is whispered, and if they don't hear it, they ask "what did she say?" and I always tell them and the other girl never seems to mind. Usually it's stuff like, "I love you" and "I love you so much". Occasionally it'll be "I love James" or "I love grandmum" so then I make them scurry over to tell them personally. This time they added a few new loves like, "I love your earrings" and "I love your shoes," but my favorite by far was when A. whispered ever so seriously, "I love your eyeballs".
They also started whispering random letters in my ear and asking me to tell them what they spelled. Their favorite was when one of them asked, "what does E R T spell?" I said, "it spells ert." and they thought that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard and then kept saying "ert! ert! ert!" for a while.
***
My mom is going to some kind of meeting this afternoon. At first I was a little bummed because I'd gotten up late, plus the time changed on me unexpectedly, so there wasn't time to go for a hike like we'd tentatively planned. Now I'm kind of glad that I'll have 3 hours or so of pure alone time. After so much activity, I could use a little stillness.
She's gone now, so I'm going to go enjoy my quiet time.
I've become involved with the company as well. It holds some interesting opportunities for me. So far I've been working on the logo and business cards and a brochure, and also trying to help with the color palette of the website.
***
Before it was just an interesting suggestion that I wasn't really even toying with, but now I find myself batting the idea of going to Saipan for a few months around in my head. Sometimes it's like a lazy game of tether ball where the thoughts slowly revolve and switch back every now and again. Other times it's like a rapid fire professional ping pong game with ideas popping around like crazy and occasionally flying off into the rafters.
A few things have come up lately that make the idea more and more reasonable. I've decided my next step is to talk to my brother out there and figure out the particulars of the situation.
***
This busy week has left me with a few items to attend to. I have a number of people to write back to and call who I've left hanging. I don't like doing that, but I hope they'll understand.
***
We had my mom's second birthday part on friday night over at my brother Bill's house. It was crazy and chaotic as it can be, plus Bill had planned all these elaborate Mexican dishes, and then ended up having to work late, so I started the cooking effort. I prepared the chicken enchiladas (which I'd never done, so that was kind of cool), and charred the peppers for chile rellenos (that's a seriously involved recipe with lots of steps), while others worked on the shrimp enchiladas and guacamole, etc. I think we ate around 9pm.
I had the best time ever with my nieces (and nephew too though he spent more time doing his own thing). They are at the stage where they love coming up with "games". First A. carefully cleared off the couch, then gave me a sly look before jumping off the arm of the couch and landing on the soft cushions on the far end. C. caught on quickly and they both bounced all over the couch.
There was a lull in the activity as they got distracted with something else. I sat on the couch and then the girls came back and requested, "hey get off the couch so we can play our game again." I looked at them slyly, and said, "what? you want me to lie down on the couch and get comfy??" "Noooo!" they cried, followed by laughter, "get offff!" "Oh, you want me to scootch over a little bit?" I teased. "No we want you to get off so we can jump on the couch!" "You want me to jump on me?" I asked innocently. I further offered, "I'll catch you!" That's when the first one launched right into my lap. I caught her and swirled her up and around in the air before plopping her on the couch beside me. C. was eager for her turn. This continued with various catching styles and swirling patterns until I was sweaty and exhausted. Of course they wanted more.
Lucky for me, at that precise moment, I sneezed. They both just looked at me wide eyed, no expression on their face. My voice full of surprise and with eyes just as wide as theirs, I asked, "Don't you know what you say when someone sneezes?" A. answered simply, "no." I told them that you say "Bless you." So we practiced. I "sneezed" a few more times, and prompted their response. Bill overheard and said, "It's not "bless you" it's "gesundheit". Ah of course, I was forgetting our German heritage. The girls though this was much more fun to say than "bless you," so they caught on quickly.
Eventually their attention started to wane, and I could see that couch jumping was on their mind, so I thought quickly and asked, "do you know what you say when you wake up first thing in the morning and see that someone else is awake?" They didn't, so I told them, "you say "guten morgen". So then we took turns "sleeping" for various amounts of time, and when the sleeper woke up, the other two would say, "guten morgen!" C. caught the words and said them easily, but A. kept mumbling them and it always sounded more like, "good 'n' mornin".
I love how I can make a game out of anything with them. There's also the whisper game which is really funny. They will whisper secrets in my ear and I can't tell anyone, but the other girl always gets as close as possible to the hear what is whispered, and if they don't hear it, they ask "what did she say?" and I always tell them and the other girl never seems to mind. Usually it's stuff like, "I love you" and "I love you so much". Occasionally it'll be "I love James" or "I love grandmum" so then I make them scurry over to tell them personally. This time they added a few new loves like, "I love your earrings" and "I love your shoes," but my favorite by far was when A. whispered ever so seriously, "I love your eyeballs".
They also started whispering random letters in my ear and asking me to tell them what they spelled. Their favorite was when one of them asked, "what does E R T spell?" I said, "it spells ert." and they thought that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard and then kept saying "ert! ert! ert!" for a while.
***
My mom is going to some kind of meeting this afternoon. At first I was a little bummed because I'd gotten up late, plus the time changed on me unexpectedly, so there wasn't time to go for a hike like we'd tentatively planned. Now I'm kind of glad that I'll have 3 hours or so of pure alone time. After so much activity, I could use a little stillness.
She's gone now, so I'm going to go enjoy my quiet time.