Wordless Wednesday: Finally.

Eclipse triple feature with my fellow Twi-Moms.

Total Eclipse of the non-beating heart.

***quickie post. You Loyal Seven know I just HAVE to talk about the Eclipse Premiere!***

Back in November I harassed my friends to no end about going to the New Moon midnight premiere.  "Really guys?? A midnight showing for that??  And you have on matching shirts?! Bwwahaha!" 

And then a month later, I saw the light.  The beautiful sparkly Twilight.  I converted. I became one of them, a Twilighter, and found my sisterhood. Excuse me while I take a bite of this lovely piece of humble pie...  

Tonight is the night many of us have been waiting for.  The midnight premiere of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.  [insert teenybopper-esque squealing and clapping and a little jumping] Not only will I be attending the premiere, my group is seeing a triple feature with Twilight and New Moon beforehand.  We have our matching t-shirts it wasn't planned, pinky promise, and I'm the purveyor of Volturi body shimmer (see photo-- long skinny box on the right side; Thanks R.B.!).  I really can't make this stuff up.

surprise New Moon goody box from one of BigDaddy's friends!

Tonight, I gladly trade my world of feuding munchkins for feuding vampires and werewolves, to join my sistas in a dark movie theater for more than six hours. I'm excited to be a part of this world-wide phenomenon. To be in the not-so-secret-club of Twilighters or Fanpires, Twi-Moms, Twi-Hards, Cullenists... and to get out of the house and to have an interest is something that is completely about ME and my quieros. To be given permission to wear matching t-shirts, black nail polish and Volturi body shimmer and say this is gonna be the best.night.EVAH!  and then I'll giggle with my girlfriends and say "I totally <3 Edward!!" [insert more squealing, clapping, and jumping.]

gone fishin'

Sassy's ready for her 1st trip to Disneyland!

Time for a little bloggie break again.  My plate is pretty full... CA trips, BigDaddy working camps, BigDaddy's own camp, moving, having two munchkins full time while flying solo....  and I'm melting.  it's.just.so.hot.

I keep feeling guilty that I'm not getting to lunzygras at all these days.  So to stop the guilt, I'm giving myself a Get Out of Jail Free card. again.  But do not fear, I have so much on my plate that includes FUN stuff too that I will absolutely have to blog about.  One week from today I will have gone to the Eclipse midnight premiere (triple feature thankyouverymuch) eeeeeck!  And soon we will be doing the Family Olympics again in CA.  And then....drum roll please.....  Twilight Tour 2010.  eeeeeck!  And I already have some fun stuff planned for the travel blogposts.

I don't have a garden at all this year, sniff, sniff. It's too hot to really go anywhere, and my house is half filled with packed moving boxes.  I've got a million phone calls to make, emails to send, stuff to mail. sigh.  So Loyal Seven, know that I will be back, but just not too often right now.

Kinda Country contracts

photo courtesy of: flickr via corey olsen

I've mentioned in passing that we are moving.  Well, we are.  At least I think we are.

You see, in the Kinda Country things are done on hand shakes, on your word, through promises.  It's still a hard concept for me, the CYA Queen of paperwork.  I personally give my word and follow through, pinky promise.  But I've been burned too many times to count on the flip side and document e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, scan all papers, etc.  We were told last summer that our faculty/staff house rental is on the chopping block to make more space for student housing.  No time-line, no promises, no nuthin.  So we've been softly looking at buying a house and keeping an eye open for a possible rental.  And there, one day, in all it's glory the Rental Sign appeared on a house we saw last year-- a few months before we found out we couldn't be here long term.  of course.  But it became available again and we jumped on it.  And it's ours. Kinda.

The current renters trashed the place, so our walk through was a bit gnarly and we need to do another walk-through after it's cleaned up.  We were told it would be ours, but we haven't signed a thing.  However, BigBoy came home from school last week and informed me that we will be living near one of the school's second grade teachers.  He knows this because the teacher TOLD HIM.  Wait, what?!

To recap for you.  We haven't signed anything, haven't notified anyone here and don't have anything official in any sense of the word.  But word on the street is out. So it must be true.  My friend and I were discussing this and she started to laugh.  She's a foreigner here too, btw. They are getting their kitchen remodeled and spending a ton on new cabinets.  They look gorgeous but she realized that she too, had nothing in writing from the cabinet guy.  No details, no contracts. Just a handshake.  But if he were to leave them high and dry, EVERYONE would know. So that in itself is your insurance for your verbal contract.

So we think we are all set. We are looking at a July 1 date, which means we are about 4 weeks out. minus one week for a CA trip, and another for BigDaddy's camp week, and another for his travel camp week. So I'm giving our 30-Day notice today, but have yet to sign anything.  Is it any wonder this Kinda City Girl is a stress ball of nerves and up at 4 AM? Again?  Long term this will be a great thing for our family, short term? Well um, let's just say I'm loading up on boxes and tequila.

We know our farmers.

Me and my peeps!

I'm not sure how I can top the great day we had on Monday!  BigDaddy came home the night before he was due to surprise me for our anniversary. (fyi: surprise visit in the middle of the night = wife heart attack) But sweet nonetheless.

I had planned to take the kids to one of my Happy Places with some friends.  Polyface Farm.  If you are learning about the Slow Food Movement, saw Food Inc, read Omnivores Dilemma or Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, you've crossed paths with Polyface.  The Salatins (And Wendy, their PR Queen) are so friendly and I just love visiting.  We went there on one of our "homeschool field trips" last fall and wanted to return in the spring/early summer to try and catch some baby animals.  Since BigDaddy came home early, we got to go as a family. Hooray!

It's vital for kids to learn where food comes from, and the difference between feeding your body junk and good, nutritious food. I won't lie and say we eat healthy all the time, but I do try to follow an 80/20 rule of good vs. junk.  And we are in the process of eating better and better each day.  It's a slow, on-going process, but a process of moving in the right direction.  When the munchkins know we are eating a steak, they know it's from a cow-- not just the meat section in the grocery store.  They know what vegetables look like, even if they know they don't like them.  We try to reinforce the the source of our food, be it an animal or a plant.  I want them excited about food, and knowledgeable about food.  I still cringe at Jamie Oliver's food quiz in an elementary class where the kids didn't know what  vegetables looked like.

One of my farmers! Me and Joel Salatin from last Novemeber.

So back to our day. After frolicking about the farm with baby bunnies and chicks, we grabbed our lunches and I met the crew at Polyface and learned all about ordering.  Yep, you heard me, ORDERING.  I mentioned we were upping our game.  I'm not sure what or how much or how this is going to work, but I got the form, talked to Daniel (Joel Salatin's son) and told them I'm ordering.  Now my food not only has a face (and a happy one at that), but a farmer. He knows me. Knows my name and he knows I'm supposed to make this step.  Creating some peer pressure for myself will force me to eat better.  Lame, I know.  But when other people know what I'm up to, I'm accountable, not only to you, My Loyal Seven, but to my farmer too.

I highly encourage you to meet someone, anyone, in your area that you can buy a food product from.  The Farmers' Market.  A local farm.  A U-Pick berry patch.  Find out about the person behind the product.  I'm embarking on a Know Your Farmer Tour with a friend. Challenging ourselves to not only buy local, eat organic when possible, but to also talk to the farmers whose hard work created what we get to eat.  So get out there, Loyal Seven, and talk to some farmers!  Tell me about it after your done.  Gimme names, products, locations...