jubilation 28....river running

I love rivers.  

I think I would love to live by a river. 

But today on my jog, I began to wonder..........

Do people that live by rivers desire weird lawn art before they move to the river?

OR

Do they start craving weird lawn ornaments after they move to the river?

If it is the latter, I may have to reconsider living by a river.

And if I throw all hesitations into the current,  move by a river,  and subsequently pick up tole painting or collecting plastic butterflies........ 

please push me in that river.  

jubilation 27....chicken sitting

 We are watching our neighbor's chickens, plants, and cat for 21 days.  We retrieve about 7 eggs a day.  

We will have about 147 eggs.  Our options are: 

1.  eat a lot of quiche

2.  Graciously Share them with friends,

3.  Aggressively share them on the house of a certain bully who is bothering one of our sons. 

Playing sockey (hockey and soccer) on their pond.  

jubilation 26

waking up to this and having my cell-phone nearby (does anyone else ever fall asleep with their cell-phone?)  to document these last bits of bribe or black-mail free affection.  

jubilation 25

Emmy needs braces.  Today was her first orthodontic evaluation. Any time we mention braces, her eyes glaze over with reactionary tears.  You are wondering how there could possibly by anything jubilatory about braces or our orthodontist appointment?    Well, according to the orthodontist's assistant, who gave us a thorough run through of the braces experience,  it is going to be FUN! FUN! FUN!.  

Imagine a female Mr. Rogers.  Imagine a mouth that drips syrup and songbirds each time it is opened.  Imagine eyes the color of rainbows.  Imagine a sparkling silver turtleneck.  Imagine someone who gives you full hypnotic eye contact while she is dripping these songbirds, rendering you completely unable to give one another, "can you believe this person is real?" looks.  This was our assistant.   And the fact that someone like this exists is my jubilation of the day.   I am going to attempt to recreate the conversation.   

"Hello Emmy.   We are so glad you are here with us today!  Here are some pictures of your mouth.  It looks like ripping your gums open may have been a teensy bit uncomfortable.  Can you see that pretty blood pooling around your teeth?  And can you see how your teeth are not really cooperating in getting themselves to line up properly?  That happens a lot and that is where braces come in.   They work to help get your teeth to work together.   Are you exited about braces?"

Emmy's eyes well up.  

"Oh, I can see that you are little scared.  But let me tell you all the fun things about braces.  Oh, look at that wishing dust flying in front of my face.  Hold on a second while I try to get it.  {Yes, that REALLY happened.} Sorry for the interruption.  But I am going to use that wish for you to LOVE your braces!!

Let me show you a model of braces.  See all these colorful bands?  Every 9 or 10 weeks, you will come into our office and we are going to change those bands.  Now for the exciting news!  You can choose any color you want from our band template!   It will be like being your very own fashion designer!! You have such a pretty smile, and these bands will make it even prettier!!!!.   And those two years will go by so fast, you won't believe it.  And then you can even choose the color of your fashion retainer!  You can pick neon pink, or sparkly, or rainbow.  That way you won't ever lose it and it will be fun to wear!  "

{Now at this point I am looking to see if Nitrous Oxide is being pumped in through the heating vents and where I can put my mouth to get the full effect.}

"But first we need to make a mold of your teeth, so doctor can make your own special plan, just for you!  They are going to fill your mouth will clay and have you bite down.  You can pick berry, mint, or bubblegum.  It actually feels kinda good and you might actually enjoy it! "

Emmy walks out of the clay room with tears in her eyes.  

"Emmy, are those tears of joy because it was so much fun!" I ask jokingly

"No!  The clay gave me a brain freeze and it was disgusting!"

We walk out and have a good hearty laugh at how ridiculous it all was.  I can't wait to go back!!!

Jubilation 24...

After school diet coke and mentos explosions

jubilation 23

Are there are any other husbands in the whole of the universe who would spend a large chunk of his vacation day willingly clothes shopping for a sprouting 6 year old and, in addition, bring home an unsolicited gift?

jubilation 22

A random Monday off of school and work +  constant rain = finding indoor fun and violence

Jubilation 21

I think it has been years since I made caramel popcorn.  I am the only one in the family that really likes it (Ansel said, "it smells like popcorn but tastes like popcrap")....and I love it......and thus end up being the only one who eats it....in one sitting.  In light of the fact that my stomach screams every time I eat popcorn, I am fairly certain that I probably shouldn't eat it.  But life without popcorn would be completely dejubilating.  Bring on the delicious pain.

Jublilations 20....Skiing with Willie Nelson

 Highlights of our Saturday Ski School:

 1.  Fresh Powder

2.    Finally advancing from our family green run belt to our family blue run belt,  giving us a chance to see the other side of the mountain.

3.  Free Telemark lessons from my own private instructor

 4.   Ansel and an inept employee completely shutting down the ski-lift for about 20 minutes causing a massive line-up.

5.  Corey and I waving and yelling at the girls during their lessons......without any response.   We continue to yell, wave, and embarrass until they at least give us an abbreviated wave in return.

6.   Eating lunch at 11:45 and 12:45 simultaneously.  

7.  Until someone proves otherwise, I maintain that this was Willie Nelson snowboarding.  a)  he had fancy gear and was with two bodyguard looking guys....b)  we are close to the Canadian Border where he may be making one of his routine bud pick-ups c) I know that he was snowboarding in Vail, Co. on Wednesday and humble Lookout Pass would be a natural next stop.  

Jubilation Day 19....Another adrenaline rush.

Geez, this isn't quite what I had in mind when I wanted more adventures in my life this year.  

Careful what you wish for. 

And we are all fine.

Jubilation Day 18......My hit of heroin

I am changing my New Year Blog Post Title because:
1.  I like the word Jubilation and my favorite artist, Josh Ritter, was the inspiration for my New Year's Resolution.  In his song Lantern, he wrote

"So throw away those lamentations

We both know them all too well

If there's a book of jubilations

We'll have to write it for ourselves

So come and lie beside me darling

And let's write it while we still got time"

2.  I am sick of writing 'New Year'.
3.  The word Jubilation covers all the categorical genres of my Resolution.....adventures, firsts, simple pleasures....  basically, things that brought joy to my day.

Today, I heard a song that I instantly loved.  There are some songs that you hear that change your life and that you immediately know will be a song of which you will never grow tired..  I have always equated it to the feeling of being in love....in that I either want to jump from the raftors, sob in a ball in the corner, or both.  I read a fascinating article about what happens to your brain when you hear music  that resonates with you.  You can read it at www.salon.com/books/review/2006/09/05/levitine.


My favorite paragraph was:


"But it's not just the cerebellum that perks up to songs. What's interesting about how our brains respond to music -- rather than, say, language -- is the large number of systems that are activated by the experience. In addition to the cerebellum, music taps into the frontal lobes (a "higher-order" region that processes musical structure), and it also activates the mesolimbic system, which Levitin explains is "involved in arousal, pleasure, the transmission of opiods and the production of dopamine." This is why certain music can feel so pleasurable, producing such deep emotions -- it's simultaneously operating on various parts of our brains, and the response is something on the order of taking a hit of heroin."

This song was my hit of dopamine today.  In fact, I took about 25 hits of it.   I wanted to dance and sob in a corner.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqtlcHiSHTE.....Furr by Blitzen Trapper.

New Year Adventure Day 17.........

Another advantage???? (for the kids) to not being able to ski was being able to spend time in the indoor waterpark at our hotel.  This is truly almost like a living H*** for me.  The chlorine rips apart my throat and I don't think there is enough oxygen for more than one human being.....but I love watching the kids have fun and will sacrifice my brain cells in order to do so.   Ansel was in wipeout heaven and jumped on these plastic logs at least 50 times, asking me to evaluate his time with every attempt.   And today he is wondering why his arms are so sore?  

I am so proud of my daughters for their ability to manipulate a small ball with their brain waves.

We even made it home in time for a football scrimmage, a beautiful moonrise, and some mascarpone cheesecake.