Kinda tired and ready to hit the scratcher, but i havent blogged in a few days so I thought I would get on here.

Took the kids swimming tonight to Huntington Park. What a beautiful pool! Really, we are so bloody privileged to live where you can hop in your car and drive to this gorgeous pool where a whole family can swim for six bucks. It was a little tricky for moi, as Daddyo was working late so I had the three kidlets avec moi. But with Monty in a life jacket and us staying pretty much in the teaching pool, I was able to hold Luce the whole time and just keep an arm out for eggbert when he lost his balance, and Sam was a riot doing all these sort of somersaults and hand stands. "Mom! Mom! Did you see that?!" Of course I didnt really swim but absolutely got my exercise. And after was funny because I hadnt really planned it out, the whole changing thing. I got Monty and Lucy changed but there was nowhere to put Lucy to change myself, so I had to just put my shorts and top back on over my wet bathing suit. Looked really nice going back to the car.

Ah well, it was fun anyways. And I love that woozy after swimming feeling you get.

I am getting the Forderers ready for VACATION this week. We leave on Sunday morning. But Jay's work is having a family barbecue day on Saturday so we need to be finito before that, so momma aint stayin up all night trying to find sunscreen and swimmin trunks. I have a list for each family member. It's nuts. Just for Sam alone is

5 pairs shorts
5 T shirts
2 pairs swim trunks
1 pair pants
1 pair track pants
1 hoodie
2 pairs socks
7 pairs underwear (I can hear it now, "MO-OM! Why'd ya have to write THAT on there?!"
1 hat
1 sandals
1 running shoes
1 pair pajamas
1 beach towel
1 book to read
1 pad of paper and drawing pencils
1 toy (which he is begging me to be his whole Mega Monsters Mountain with five Mega Monsters already)
1 rain jacket

That is just one kid. I am already pooped, how bout choo?

I am handing him the list though, and I will check his Jar Jar suitcase to make sure all is well. He IS eight, he should be able to handle it. Of course, being a GUY he will lose this ability over time, and end up like his father, who can't find a pair of underwear because I have put them ON TOP of the dresser and not IN the drawer.

I bought kd lang's new CD 'Hymns of the 49th Parallel' and I am absolutely loving it. Her rendition of 'Bird on a Wire' cannot be played too many times in a row. Neither can 'Helpless'. (apologies to Jason Silver here, who is probably very tired of hearing me go off about that song.)

Read in the Spec today about a little 9 year old boy who died in a car accident on the weekend. He lived just a little ways from here, on Cochrane street in East Ham. He died and his sisters are critical condition. They were in a van and their mom driving tried to overtake another car, ended up hitting it and going into a ditch. All three kids were ejected from the car because they werent wearing seat belts. The dad was quoted in the paper saying that they had probably wanted to lie down with pillows because it was a six hour drive to the cottage. How do you live with yourself after that, if you are the one responsible for allowing kids to take off their seat belts on the highway? My heart goes out to all of them. And my heart screams out to anyone with kids--SEAT BELTS NO MATTER WHAT. No matter how much they whine. No matter how long the journey. No matter if there is no traffic. What I do with Monty, who is apt to unbuckle his seat belt sometimes, is stop the car as soon as I can. Basically I make it like the car won't drive anywhere unless everybody has thier seatbelt on. Wouldn't that be a good idea? Have the seatbelts wired to the ignition. Car only starts when all the seatbelts are buckled. If someone takes a seatbelt off enroute, little alarm goes off. I mean they make it so you can't leave your keys in the car, that you can't leave the lights on without the ding-dong ding dong. So how hard can it be? And how much more important?

Alright well I have ranted myself into exhaustion. I will signo offo and good night to everyone. Or guten morgen if it is tues morn when you are reading this.

SEAT BELTS.

A.