FizzyLizzy

Could you imagine having a job where one of your subordinates lies down on the floor and starts screaming and crying in the middle of a company gathering? You could if you had my job. Last Wednesday at the school book fair, William had a huge tantrum when I told him (nicely, mind you) that we needed to select a different book for him because the one he had chosen was too expensive. He would not leave willingly so I had to grab him by the wrist and pull him out of the room. All the way down the hall of the school he kept screaming, "I'M NOT LEAVING!!!" Other parents I know were in the hall. Teachers were coming out of their rooms to see what’s going on (and probably to make sure someone’s not being abducted). It was embarrassing for me. It was embarrassing for Katherine. The entire three-block walk home he was screaming and crying. He screamed and cried in his room for half an hour and probably would have gone on longer if I didn’t have to go up and get him so we could bring Katherine to Girl Scouts. Needless to say, William did not get a book from the book fair. And bedtime has been moved to 7:30.

I know you all think I've fallen off the face of the earth. Things have been a bit hectic in the FizzyLizzy household over the past week--posting had to take a back seat. I even got behind on reading Mrs. Bickerson's blog and so I didn't find out until yesterday that she has decided to not do the marathon. A girl has to do what a girl has to do, but I was looking forward to cheering her on. Last night we had the first meeting of our new circle and I thought I was going to get to see Mrs. B live for the first time in--is it really five?--months! We had a nice time but missed you Mrs. B! I also have two-thirds of a poppyseed bundt cake with vanilla custard sauce sitting at my house. This is extremely dangerous.

Lund's Granny Smith carameled apples are back!

Almost every day, William brings a picture home from kindergarten showing some of the things he did that day.

























On the bottom left, he's going down a slide and on the right he's singing. The drawings always have a heart in the middle (sometimes flanked by two X's for kisses) because he loves me. The figures in the center of this heart are he and I hugging.

If that weren't enough, when we were rushing to get ready for soccer yesterday I commented that I didn't have time to put on my makeup and he said, "You don't need makeup."

I think I'm in love.

I'm glad she lost in the primary so I won't have to see any more of her Debbie Downer ads like this one.



The music they chose as background creeps me out too.

I picked up the Lego Star Wars II video game that was released yesterday. If it were up to me, I'd probably wait until Xmas to --o.k. I just noticed this. Does Princess Leia have boobs above? And Luke has a cut chest? I mean the movie poster was a little provocative for its time, but this is LEGO Star Wars we're talking about here. Alright, yes, this would make a great co-Christmas gift for K & W. But it's going to take all I have to keep Mr. FizzyLizzy's mitts off the game until we have a quiet weekend to enjoy this. I bought the original Lego Star Wars game last spring, hoping it would be a good game to help William learn how to play PlayStation, etc. This might mean I'm a freaky mom, but I wanted him to learn the video game controls so if he were ever invited to a friend's house he wouldn't look like a total loser if the friend wanted to play video games. It ended up being a fun family activity as Mr. FL--a video game fiend in his youth--played alongside K & W. It seemed for a month or so, that a whole new culture of fun had been created at our house. Then they finished all the levels and it just kind of died. We've been jonesin' for some more crack.

If you live in MN, please vote in your primary today!

Two nonpartisan sources for polling place and candidate info:

Minnesota Election Poll Finder
Minnesota League of Women Voters

This is a letter I had written on 25 Sep 01 to my brother residing in Warsaw. I don't remember if I ever sent it. If I didn't, you get to read it now, Tom.

In the morning, I usually have the morning news on in the background. On Tuesday, I had sat down to watch an interview, about what I can’t remember now. In the middle of the interview, the special report screen came on and Bryant Gumbel said that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Center towers. They had cameras on top of buildings zooming in to try to see what happened. He was talking on the phone with some “eyewitness” callers to try to find out what happened. I could see the gaping holes in the Tower and thought about all the people in their offices who must have been killed or injured. At that point I thought it must have been a private plane. Paul was en route to the office, but I called his voice mail to leave a message about the crash. I kind of went on with things, helping William with a stuck toy. As I was doing that, the voice of one of the callers, who could see the towers, became more urgent. As I looked up, I saw an explosion in the other tower, and the caller said that another plane had flown into it. I just felt as if I didn’t know what was happening. I called Paul’s voice mail again to report the other crash. I said something like, “Another plane just flew into the other tower. This is scary.” A few moments later, he called from his cell phone to ask if I had heard about the crashes. The camera footage that they had about the second crash was from some distance and the second plane looked rather small. I even wondered if the second plane had been some “gawker” trying to see the damage on the first tower. They were saying that there were reports that a plane had been hijacked. Then they had better footage of the second crash and I was just horrified to see the large jet crashing into the building. Soon they had footage of the Pentagon on fire—they thought it might have been a bomb. A plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. Reports that the planes were hijacked and full of passengers. I feel as if I went into a state of shock. The towers collapsed as I was driving to work. It wasn’t until I saw the footage of the collapses that my heart really became heavy with the thought of all those who couldn’t make it out of the buildings. As I drove past the airport, you could see at least a dozen planes lined up to land. After everything was all done, there was such a feeling of sadness. Over the next four days they had nothing on TV but images of the plane crashing into the building and then their subsequent collapse. I read one columnist who described it as “mind-numbing wallpaper.” However, in some ways I felt the need to immerse myself in it.

These events are still such a part of our daily culture and I imagine they will be for some time. Last night Katherine asked why the bad people crashed the plane into the good people. I even wonder about these images being imbedded somewhere in William’s brain, not for him to remember, but just to always be there. I know you are saddened by what has happened, but you may not know how much it has affected everyone over here. Jerry and Linda were in Norway and Sweden when this happened and came back a week and a half later. Jerry told Paul that they didn’t realize how depressed everyone here was over these events. It is something that I think about several times a day, even when not triggered by the reminders everywhere—news reports, flags, etc. Our country must bear this or the ultimate goal of this attack will have been realized.

"Pimples and bumps on your face is not a good look." --Diddy aka Sean Combs

I think I knew that already. But it's nice to have it validated by someone famous, and put so eloquently too.

When William's soccer coach called to tell us he was on the White Lightning team, she surmised that meant they would have white jerseys. Yep. Awesome. I can't wait for their first game after a rainy day. Why couldn't he have been on the Green Hornets like Katherine. The Dark Green Hornets.

Did you all see Brenda's boys on the front page of the StarTribune today? Cute, cute!

Just when I think it's time to retire the J.P. hit counter, I get another hit. You jinxed it, Mrs. B! : )

After loading them on the bus, I walked up to school to meet William at his classroom and go to the first day coffee. When I got home, there was a message on our machine from a friend who spotted William on the bus at a later stop. She said he had a huge smile and a big wave. The other day we were watching a Sesame Street where Big Bird was nervous about an upcoming change. William said, "I never have any bad changes." What a blessing.

For Katherine's fifth and final year at this school, there is no fanfare, no hoopla, on the first day of school. I'll save that for the end of the year. I already got misty-eyed when I was paging through the school calendar and came across the date for the fifth-grade middle school orientation in May.

William and I waited at the wrong bus stop at the end of the day, but even that was uneventful. The infinite wisdom of the computerized student logistics system has Katherine and William getting off at different stops coming home. We're not supposed to complain about these things until next week, so I dutifully waited at the stop printed on her card. The bus driver dropped her off at William's stop, at the end of our block.

On Katherine's first day of kindergarten, I came home from work to see her get off the bus and hear about her day. As I waited at the corner I thought to myself, "What if she doesn't get off the bus?" The bus came. The neighbor kids got off the bus. No Katherine. I got on the bus and called her name. No Katherine. My mom was at our house caring for William so I got her to wait at the corner while I frantically drove to the school. No Katherine. I drove past the other bus stops. No Katherine. Finally as I got to our street, there was the bus at our corner, dropping off my tiny Katherine. She had been sitting at the back of the bus, didn't recognize the stop, and didn't hear me call her name. After the driver finished the route, he checked the bus, found this little five-year-old, and dropped her off where she was supposed to be. The whole ordeal probably took all of twenty minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime.

I hope everyone--parents, children, and siblings--had an uneventful first day of school.

Serves 18:
























32 brats, 12 pieces fried chicken, 2 potato salads, cole slaw, whole watermelon, crab salad, olives, fruit, szechuan noodle salad, hummus, macerated raspberries, sauerkraut, smoked salmon, pringles, tortilla chips, cucumber salad, cheese platter with fig spread and crackers, terra chips, apple pie, 20 m&m cookies, oreos...
























Needless to say, we went home with more food than we brought.

In between innings at the Saints game on Friday (see below), they would trot out the pig with different get-ups on. One time it was dressed as a cow, complete with faux milk producing anatomy. Today William was describing this to his grandpa: "The pig also had gutters once."

If you are looking for something to do with the kids between now and September 10th, I highly recommend the Secret Gardens at the Arboretum. While it was difficult to pick a favorite, the garden pictured above, Voice of the Willows, was at or near the top of all of our lists. Katherine and William are sitting in only a small portion of the garden.



















This garden (once again, only a small portion pictured here), Under the Oak: Secret Dreams, Forgotten Pastimes [sic], was also one I loved. This reminds me of the kinds of forts we used to make as kids--before they came along with Rainbow play structures. Bottom line: the fort pictured above might not display your wealth to your neighbors, but is 1000 times cooler.

Geardaddies

It was a miracle of miracles that it did not rain at all (o.k., maybe two drops) at the State Fair Grandstand, but our Park and Ride lot two miles away was quite wet when we got to our car.

at Midway Stadium



















Thanks to Mr. FL scoring some tickets at work, we got to go watch the Saints win some sort of championship tonight. It was a really great way for our family to end the summer.