Bean makes herself at home at Chez Buck. This is what happens when everyone is having a good time!

We had a wonderful dinner at their beautiful home Saturday night and before we knew it, the clock showed it was past midnight! Bean crawled into the guest bed and was snoring as soon as her curly aired head hit the pillow.

Nope. Orange was not an option.

You can't see her very well, but in the middle of this picture below, Bean is sitting in the corner in a rocking chair under the yellow bulletin board, reading a book, her legs criss-cross-applesauce and her fedora on her head.

Meanwhile, there is chaos and a cacophony of noise from students and parents as it was Art & Curriculum night at Lulu's school.

Bean, was oblivious!

Eddie broke his wrist this past Sunday doing yard work. 

Yep, yard work. 

He'll tell you in his wise hindsight, that he literally did everything wrong leading up to the break. Below, a picture of the scene of the crime. He was in the compost bucket below, trying to push down the current contents using that smaller plastic box you see coming out. I should mention, that the driveway is on a slight hill. The compost bucket has wheels.

He was facing the garage, when he felt the bin roll. Afraid he'd fall and hit his head, he tried to turn his body the other way. This caused him to fall out and down, upon his left wrist.

Eddie said her heard the break, quite clearly.

Ouch!

 

A large ice pack was grabbed from the freezer. I quickly collected the girls from the neighbors house around the corner. I told my brother to stay put (I was watching him for the weekend) and the four of us piled into the car to head off to urgent care. We made good time. Eddie fell at 4 pm, we were in the car and got to urgent care, arriving by 4:16 pm, according to our co-pay invoice.

Good work, Team Camarillo!

Fortunately, I had my wits about me to tell the girls to bring their Game Boys with them for the wait. And a charger!

 

Yep, broken. Or more specifically, a "Fracture of radius, distal, left, closed, initial encounter. Left wrist sprain, initial encounter" for any of you medical types out there.

 

The security guard in the lobby of the urgent care totally knew what Eddie had been doing when he explained how everything went down to the intake nurse.

The male doctor who then saw us said he totally knew what Eddie had been doing (in the compost bin) up before he fell.

Must really be a guy thing!

 

Poor guy. At least it was his left wrist, since he's right handed. However, Eddie realized very quickly how much he takes using both hands for granted. 

It's going to be a long 6-8 weeks for both of us.

This morning Lulu was giving me attitude about emptying the dishwasher. She'd already been up for the past hour and a half, glued to the laptop watching her beloved Minecraft videos while Eddie and I slept in. I'd asked her to take a break and empty the dishwasher for me. By the time she got to the kitchen to do this, she was complaining about how hungry she was.

I told her to empty the dishwasher, first, before having breakfast.

That was when the pre-teen attitude came out in force. And the pre-teen drama and defiance.

She wanted to eat first, I wanted the dishwasher emptied. I told her she'd been fine up until moments ago, and had she been that hungry she would have eaten something, sooner.

With all the attitude and angst she could summon she looked at me and said with a haughty voice, "If I die of starvation, YOU can't come to my funeral..."

To which Bean immediately quipped, matter of fact, "That's okay. Mom doesn't like funerals."

Boy, what a crazy two weeks we've/I've had. Where to begin???

May 1, 2015 - Friday

I learned that the company I've worked for these past seven years, was being sold to a much larger consulting firm, based out of Atlanta, GA. I was told to not breathe a word of it to anyone until the 'official' announcement was made, which at the time was to be the upcoming Tuesday.

Of course I told Eddie!

Tuesday came and went, no announcement. The weekend came and I was getting a little miffed. I mean, come on already!! I just wanted the other shoe to drop instead of having to pretend it was "business-as-usual" at the office.

May 11, 2015 - Monday

The announcement was [finally] made after work to the entire Portland team, and earlier than the higher ups had wanted to do so. I heard through the grapevine that there was a person in the Seattle office whom the new company had hired and then had to fire, who was starting to spill the beans about the sale before it could be announced. Like I said, GRAPEVINE...

Shock waves rippled through the company, natch, at the news of the sale.  It didn't help morale that we were changing the name immediately to that of the new company.

May 12, 2015 - Tuesday

It's now the day following the announcement and practically anyone with a "C" title started arriving from our new company to try to smooth things over and get to know the new members of the "family." As is to be expected, people were hesitant and wary.

May 14, 2015 - Thursday

More people from corporate show up at the office and of course, right at the same time Eddie calls me at work to say: someone had broken into our house that same morning after we'd all left for school/work. Fortunately, the alarm had been on, but he person had still gone through the entire house and then left through the front door before the police arrived. The good news, he said, was a canine unit had been taken through the house and no one was inside. But Eddie wasn't sure if anything had been taken.

I dropped everything to head home to help him figure it out.

That was one of the longest 15-20 minute drives of my life!

When I got home the police had just left. Eddie was waiting for someone to come over to dust for fingerprints. I carefully walked around the house to see if anything looked out of place or missing.

The first thing that seemed unusual to me was that all of computers were still where we'd left them earlier that morning. Including in the kitchen. The guy who'd broken into our house had used a garden chair to boost himself into the house through an open kitchen window. He'd literally pushed a tablet computer out of his way to get through, but left it on the counter. (He'd left all the computers and tablets we had, through out the house.)

Once he tripped the alarm, it must have flustered him enough to hurry and try to find whatever it was that he was looking for. (The police believed he was looking for prescription drugs and said he was probably disappointed that he didn't find anything.) He somehow managed to get through the entire house, including my sewing room, which is located within the furthest corner of the basement. I should note, there are bars on all the basement windows. Once you're down there, you can't exactly get out easily or quickly.

However, as I made my way through the house, I really didn't see any signs of rifling through our things other than in our bedroom and one small box in my sewing room. Amazingly, nothing looked like it was taken.*

Even more incredible is that he didn't get trapped inside due to how messy our house was!

As I walked through our house I started to realize that the mess in the house was the mess we had all made as a family! As the work/school week goes on the house tends to get messier and messier. Come Saturday, I try to get things tidied up a bit and come Monday, the cycle re-sets and starts all over again.

I started to laugh to myself, thinking what must have been going through this fools mind as he tried to navigate through our house which once had the furnace repair man lost and confused as we have so many goofy doors and entrances/exits to try to keep straight.

The bloke who broke in must A): think we have nothing of value, or B): if we have anything of value it's very well hidden, but he most definitely C): thinks we're utter slobs.

I can totally live with that.

I'm also grateful that nothing was taken and that according to the police, the chances of a re-occurrence are slim to none since he didn't find what he was hoping to.

Still with me? At this point, it's just Thursday.

May 15, 2015 - Friday

My boss calls me into his office before lunch to deliver the news that the new company is letting me go. I have 30 days remaining before my last day as the office manager.

Hmmmm, this totally explained why everyone else got their new packets from North Highland and I didn't.

Fortunately, there is a severance package attached. This is wholly unexpected for me especially considering I was as an office manager. Granted, I had helped the company grow these past 7 years. But still, typically, admin's just collect their last paycheck before they go to the unemployment line. Just a reality is all I'm saying, not complaining.

My boss tells me he's committed to helping me find an even better job. I can also take whatever time I need in the next 30 days as I look for my next gig. I call Eddie from the park across from the office to give him the news. He's stunned, but once he recovers, he realizes as did I, that this is a good thing. I have been ready for a change for the last two years and now this is the best kick in the pants to start that up. Fortunately, I had been preparing for the past two years in the hopes of finding a new work position. Our financial house was in fine shape. I'd had my resume professionally re-done the two years earlier, which was really paying off now, and I'd respectably built up a great LinkedIn profile during the same time period.

We'd be just fine...But wow, what a week!

The Unpredictable Lulu Factor

Lulu is not good with change. Never has been and most certainly, never will be, no matter how much we work on that with her. Still, I knew well enough that when she learned the news about ACME being bought and changing it's name, she'd freak out. And then the company let me go and I knew she'd really freak out!

She had just given me portraits of everyone in our family she'd drawn for Mother's Day and specifically drawn me in my black Mountain Hardware ACME-logo jacket.

I was ACME, to her.

When I'd first learned the secret news of the upcoming sale, I had said to Eddie, "We can't tell Lulu about the name change."  And then when they told me I had 30 days remaining I said to Eddie, "Now we now can't tell her that I'm not going to be working there come the end of school!"

May 21, 2015 - Thursday

Eddie and I are talking about work and some of my job prospects at the table over dinner. It was merely a continuation of the conversation that we'd been having while I had been preparing dinner. Lulu picked up on something one of us said in our conversation, "What do you mean, your company is changing it's name?"

Uh oh. Busted!

I started by saying that my company had been bought by another company and they were changing the name (to the new company).

"Why?! No! They can't change the name...It has to be ACME!!!!" she started to blubber, her voice rising.

"Honey, this is what happens, it's okay." I calmly answered.

She wasn't buying it and I could see the emotion building in her. "But you'll still work there..." she continued.

"No, they don't need me in my position, I'll find another job, it's okay. Really!" I answered matter-of-fact.

Well, that sent her over the edge.

Tears! Sobbing!! Wailing that they couldn't change the name and that I couldn't NOT not work there any more. "But you know I don't like change!!!" she wailed.

Eddie and I exchanged smirks across the table and did our best to keep from laughing over our dinner. Finally, Eddie had to tell her that if she couldn't calm down and pull it together, she'd have to leave the table.

Boy, she took it hard. Harder than I ever did!

(*It should be noted that we suddenly can't find any of our many wash cloths, now. Coincidence??)

There is a young man in his 20's who has recently taken to pressing the intercomm button at our office and placing his order for various items ala Wile E. Coyote. He loves it when we go a long with the joke and banter back with him.

Yeah, we're good sports around here!

I'm hoping that he'll come by again next week, so I can actually buzz him inside and give him a "real" order. It will totally catch him by surprise, but I am confident by how he's responded up to this point, that he'll love it!

I picked up some "poppers" at the Chinese market in China town on lunch and then made my own sticks of dynamite out of old envelopes.

 

Voila! Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Three sticks of dynamite, coming up!

 

I can't wait for the next time he swings by, won't be soon enough.

 

Happy Squirrel recently went on an awesome bucket list trip to Eastern Europe and brought me back this lovely floral fabric bead necklace, all the way from Krakow Poland. 

I'm a lucky gal!

(Doesn't it look awesome with stripes?!)

 

I've finally tried out all my new decorative stitching and two embroidery designs...

Thursday (yesterday) was dress up as your favorite superhero day at Bean's school. She announced she wanted to go as Wonder Woman (natch, after me!) so I got busy Wednesday night, pulling the rabbit out of the hat. I whipped up a headband and wrist band out of some wool felt I already had and used some red ultrasuede scraps for the stars, from a bag of ultrasuede scraps inherited from my grandma recently.

I buzzed along in my sewing room while Eddie got the girls ready for bed and read them stories. The client came down to check on my progress and I got a "Good job, mom - High five!" from her. :D

Here she is, striking a pose on Thursday before school:

 

Eduardo (my concert buddy!) and I went to see Stephin Merritt at the Aladdin Theater last night.

Great show, what a treat! It is truly amazing how deep his voice is and can get. Stephin also has a very dry sense of humor. It was fun hearing how he got inspiration for some of the songs he'd written.

He played a song that corresponded to each letter of the alphabet for his set including songs from solo works to his band the Magnetic Fields, to two side projects over the years The 6ths and The Gothic Archies. (The latter being reference to the wonderful A Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket. Stephin wrote a song for each book in the series - 13 total- that corresponded with each books themes and perils. )

That's Stephin, for you!

 

I was sharing an email conversation I'd had with a friend, to Eddie tonight after dinner, about how my clothes from long ago are no longer fitting me as I inch closer to older age.

How it's bittersweet for me, because I love, love, love my clothes. I've had most of them for a long time and taken good care of them over the years. I really love the clothes I have and have been fortunate to have and be able to wear them as long as I have.

I realize, I'm lucky to still have things from 10-15 years ago that I've been able to wear up until now, but I also realize that its unrealistic to expect clothes I have had (and loved) since I was single and childless, to still fit me now that I'm middle aged, married and had two kids.

Still, some mornings recently, I've put something on I've had for a long time only to find the buttons now pull at the bust or whatever it is, isn't fitting quite right in places it used to. I have a board on Pinterest called "The Wardrobe I Want When I'm Fifty" and its mostly full of layered, lagen-look ensembles of funky, fun and creative outfits, well suited for colorful women of a certain age. My favorite dresses by Marcy Tilton that I keep making fit into this category very nicely. While I had hoped to incorporate more of these fun pieces into my wardrobe as I really inch closer to age 50, many of the things in my current wardrobe collection seem to be happily obliging in making this a reality much sooner than I had anticipated.

I'm truly conflicted on how I feel about this.

It means that I have particular mornings (like this morning, for example) where I make the (wise) decision to change into something else more comfortable and appropriate. And I sort of mournfully, fold up the item that no longer can take up real estate in my dressing room, and place it in the pile of "Future Lulu/Bean" items for immediate storage, to be opened as a time capsule in the future.

Eddie quipped, "Yeah, most of your clothes are pretty timeless. You only have a few things that are dated."

Me: "Dated? Which ones do you think are dated??"

Eddie:(walking out of the kitchen and calling out to the next room) "Girls, time to get into bed for a story!"

Well played, Mr. Camarillo. Well played.

One of the (many) things I love about Lulu is her HUGE heart, empathy for others and kindness.

We went spring/summer clothes shopping on Sunday, a very necessary but last minute decision. 

While we were in Nordstroms, paying for a pair of shorts for her, Lulu brought over this squishy baby toy to show me. She wanted to know if I could buy it on her behalf and she'd pay me back from her allowance when we got home. Seems there is a special needs classmate in her school (first grade in another teachers class) whom Lulu knows of because she's special needs like my brother/Lulu's uncle. This classmate often needs signs or toys used by her teacher and care giver to get her attention and to get her to come down the slide or off the equipment when needed to. Lulu thought that she'd really like this little squishy toy.

It was $3.00.

I told Lulu that I'd be more than happy to buy it and she didn't need to pay me back, either. I told her that she had been particularly well-behaved on this shopping experience and it was my pleasure to get this toy for her that she wanted to bequeath to her schoolmate. I added that I was really proud of her and loved how she was a wonderfully kind and generous spirit.

Here is Lulu before heading off to school on Monday. (She was also very particular about putting in a box for the little girl to open and so the chick wouldn't get damaged in Lulu's backpack.)

Monday night after school I asked Lulu if her schoolmate liked the toy and she said she did. 

On Tuesday, Lulu shared at dinner time that the little girls mother told her directly how much her daughter liked her present and how thoughtful it was for Lulu to think of her.

I am one lucky mom!

I have no clue where Bean got a crazy idea like this. We/I have successfully avoided true camping so far in our family up to this point. 

I'm hoping she means summer camp, which is an entirely different, and totally acceptable animal.

Lulu in some of her new clothes for spring/summer. 

It's official, our family, all of us, look awesome in stripes!!!

Well, she has now successfully merged two weekends events together. Sauvie's Island (the girls both think it's 'Sophie's') was the weekend before!

I think we have to put away the Game Boy.

And the Pokemon are her sisters. Lulu will NOT be pleased if she finds out Bean has been claiming them to be her own.

Today is known as Free Comic Book Day in many comic book stores across the land. Folks line up at their favorite participating comic book shop and wait to pick out their free selections. Fortunately, we have an awesome comic book store in our neighborhood. The whole Camarillo family went to get our freebies (5 free selections per person!!!).

It's nice to have piles of comic books around the house, now!

I volunteered as a chaperone in Lulu's class yesterday for their all-day bridges tour. It was a great experience, though it was an exhausting day! They'd told everyone to wear comfortable shoes, but they really meant it. Even though we did, I think everyone failed in that department by the time it was all done.

After taking the city bus down town (which was an experience in and of itself: 22 students, teacher, aide and 6 parents descend on a city bus, only to have a group of special needs adults, one of whom was in a wheelchair, along with their support staff, pile onto the bus four stops later. All those late morning bus commuters wondering why they hadn't gotten the memo to walk or ride their bike, instead.) we went to ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) to meet our guide, Nathan, for the day and see where the traffic is monitored from.

Next, we jumped on the MAX (light rail train) and two stops later, got off to walk up the many stairs to get to the center of the Morrison Bridge. Here is Lulu and her two friends/classmates, Bella (navy) and Juliette (gray) on the Morrison Bridge with the Hawthorne Bridge behind them. This threesome was my "group" to be in charge of for the day.

It was a beautiful day for a walking tour!!

If you have been to Portland and over the Morrison Bridge, you've seen the little tower house buildings on the bridge. We got to go inside to check it out! (The lady in red below is Lulu's 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Hjorth. She is awesome!!!)

Below, this is the view from inside the tower building looking northeast.

This gentleman below works in the building on the Morrison Bridge when necessary, and on the other bridges as well. Generally, there is only someone inside the building in the summer during special events (like Rose Festival) or if they need to open the bridge for boats. If for the latter, they require 2 hours notice to get someone into the bridge tower to open the bridge up.

Lulu was the one in our group of kids who asked the question about the unusual items in this stairway railing. They are found objects, mostly, that have to do with the bridges over time. The most interesting, is that big bolt wrench down below. Many years ago, they discovered they didn't have the right tool to do something on a bolt exactly this size on the Burnside Bridge, so they had to have one made. This is it!

After we saw the tower room, we got to go downstairs and see the inside of the bridge itself. We were looking to see if we could recognize the counterweights for the Morrison Bridge.

Looking up at the stairs we just came down...

Going into the bridge itself to look for the counterweights.

Can you see them??

I'll give you a hint, it's the big metal 'box' right at the top of the picture below!

Here is a better picture of it (below)!

In the "cooler than cool" category, they shut down the bridge and opened it up WHILE.WE.WERE.INSIDE!!! I captured it on video but unfortunately, this blog can't support my video recordings. You'll just have to take my word for it, everyone was blown away by how cool an experience it was. Personally, it sounded like we were in a sci-fi movie and the big doors of a spaceship were being opened. Creepy, but cool!

One of the other parents quipped to me, "How cool is it we get to open the bridge in the name of education?!" I concurred. If our schools and teachers aren't going to get supported financially like they should be, the very least they can do is stop traffic and open a bridge for us, right?!

Once we were done at the Morrison Bridge, you know, stopping bridge traffic and opening up bridges all in the name of education, we hopped back on the MAX for one stop and got off at the famous Skidmore Fountain stop to head to Waterfront Park to eat lunch. Once lunch was over, we kept walking north and headed over the lower walking/biking bridge of the Steel Bridge to the eastside of Portland.

From there, we crossed several smaller bridges before we walked past Moda Center and then took the Broadway Bridge (red bridge below) back across the river to the westside.

Lulu was pretty much done with bridges, stairs and walking before we even got to the Broadway Bridge. Frankly, so was I. I had forgotten to bring sunscreen, too. Lulu actually started crying quietly at one point while we were walking because her feet hurt so bad. My only recourse was to distract her with helping me plan dinner for later that night. Strawberry cupcakes, I'd seen earlier at Safeway, garnered a lot of interest.

There was a welcome bathroom/rest break at the train station. And then our bridge tour continued, much to Lulu's chagrin. She was not happy to see the next set of stairs awaiting us.

Here we are on dock, east of the train station and my version of a panorama view of all the bridges on this beautiful and hot afternoon:

Arched bridge in the distance below, Fremont Bridge, red bridge, Broadway Bridge.

The Steel Bridge, below...

Afterward, we walked all the way back to our downtown bus stop to head back to school and noticed another class field trip behind us. Ms. Hjorth hoped these 8th graders and their teacher weren't taking our city bus back across the river.

They were.

We let them take the next bus since our tour had concluded early and that bus was the other classes scheduled bus to take, anyways.

Once we got on our bus, the excitement didn't stop. It was 2:20 pm in the afternoon and a busy time for commuters on a city bus. We all piled on, most having to stand and as we went over the bridge and stopped at the stops along the way, more people got on the bus than off the bus. We came to an busy intersection to see a group of blind/vision impaired adults waiting to get on our bus. NO ROOM!!! They fortunately, decided to wait for the next bus that was after ours. (And I haven't even mentioned the "local color" that was on this bus ride home, as well!)

By the time we got off the bus at our stop by the school (and everyone got to checkout the dead squirrel on the street corner) Lulu's teacher walked the students who took the school bus home to their bus and Lulu, tiredly, went off to Camp Fire. 

I went to the grocery store for ingredients for dinner, later, then home to take a nap. :)

And yes, dessert was strawberry cupcakes!!!