The other day after picking Norah up at Lina’s we saw two beautiful doe right around the corner from her house. It’s a pretty dense residential neighborhood right off of Edgell Road, but there is a small area of open land nearby. The two deer were standing right in someone’s front yard. Even after growing up in Vermont and seeing plenty of deer in my lifetime, it’s still exciting to spot wildlife. The kids were freaking out and Norah yelled “Hey Santa!!!”.

I can’t wait to take the kids on safari in Africa so they can see elephants and wildebeests on the side of the road. Seriously, that’s what it’s like. You’re just driving along and “Hey! There goes a giraffe!” Once when we were sitting in camp an elephant meandered by, and we also had campsite visits from hippos, bush pigs, and hyenas, who almost ate me on my way back from the bathroom. We also had a leopard cross in front of our jeep, and an elephant charge out of the bushes and threaten us. I was in the front of an open jeep with the guide and after the elephant ran off the guide said, “Mock charge.” I asked him how he knew it was a mock charge and not a real one and he said, “Because the elephant didn’t pick you up out of the jeep.” We eventually got used to seeing wild animals everywhere. When I was in the taxi after landing at Logan, I saw a crow on a telephone wire and my first reaction was that it was a monkey.

When I was looking for a deer picture to add to this post, I found this very cool shot:

It’s really hard to find good service these days, so I have to mention our experience at ScrubaDub Carwash. I bought Ben a gift card to have his car cleaned for his birthday. It was SO DISGUSTING! I made an appointment for the following Sunday, but someone from the carwash called to ask if we wanted to reschedule due to the forecasted snowstorm. We changed the appointment to the following Sunday, and there was another snowstorm in the forecast. I checked the voice mail on Saturday night, and there was a message from ScrubaDub asking if we wanted to reschedule. They had called us 5 TIMES when I wasn’t home, and Ben couldn’t haul his butt off the couch to answer the phone. It was too late to call back, and when we woke up in the morning there was close to a foot of snow. I called ScrubaDub at 8 a.m. and asked if they were open and wanted us to bring the car in. The manager said that he and two employees were there JUST FOR US! They weren’t open because of the storm, but since they hadn’t been able to reach us they came in just to clean Ben’s car. I was very pleasantly surprised and the car looks great!
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We surprised Adlani’s teacher, Maria, for her 50th birthday at snacktime on Tuesday. We marched in singing with balloons, cupcakes, and birthday hats/tiaras. The kids loved it and I think Maria did too. She’s SUCH a wonderful teacher! She’s so patient and loving, and the progress she has made with all of the kids’ Spanish is unbelievable. The good news is that Norah will have her for her second and third years in preschool. I can’t imagine what Norah’s level of Spanish will be like when she arrives for her first day in kindergarten after spending two years with Maria.

I am so glad we changed preschools when Next Generation wouldn’t let us take the summer off. I guess it’s true that everything happens for a reason!
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Even Ben has to admit…Annie has turned a corner. She hasn’t eaten the head off of anything or pooped on the floor for about 2 months. She doesn’t have to be locked up during the night any more, and she submits to being dressed in Adlani’s underwear without complaint. She is currently covered with Vaseline and awaiting a bath, courtesy of Norah. I never really thought I’d see the day when Annie would calm down and give me hope that she could be a therapy dog someday. We need to work on her craziness when she greets visitors…she’s just so happy to see everybody. When my Thursday nights free up again we’ll have to head back to Alpha-Dog for continuing ed.
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On February 7th, Aliya will make her dramatic debut as the Little Redheaded Girl in a performance of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Since I knew that I’d have to camp out overnight to get a good seat for videotaping the show, I had the brilliant idea of having the performance filmed and selling copies of the DVD. I wasn’t thinking that I’d be the one doing the filming, but when I looked into how the school had created their promotional video last year, I found out about FPAC-TV – the Framingham Public Access Channel. For a $20 annual membership fee I became a member and was trained on the use of their cameras, and now I can borrow their equipment any time! I have taken the first of a 3-night video editing class so I’ll hopefully be able to produce an acceptable video of the play. And I look so cool with the big camera and headphones. If all of the parents give their consent we can show the play on the public access channel, so stay tuned!
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