Molly Was A Monster In The Car...

... and I shot her.

Lydia was not there.

Rowan was there.  She was sitting next to me.

Molly was a monster in the car and I shot her.  I'm 'fraid her.  She was 'rowling.

-Desmond

I am thankful for my current job

I go to Dottie's classroom (Dottie is a friend of the family, who does not teach), and she is treating all the teachers to fake nails.  I don't like any of the color choices.  Her son Thomas tells me I should pick the green ones, or the purple ones.  I don't like either of those.

I look at my phone and have a voicemail from the people I worked for this summer.  They tell me they need me to work tomorrow and the rest of the week from 7 a.m.- 6 a.m.  I won't be getting paid they say, because I was already paid enough.

The next day I'm on my way to Dottie's classroom and there are people walking lots of pit bulls.  The dogs are peeing on the sand and I am barefoot.  I don't know where to step!  My mom says I need to hurry if I want to see her speech (she was running for some sort of office).  I hurry to this hall and there are many people to see her.

I look at my phone and have messages from the people I work for, they are saying that I am late and I need to watch their kids.  I try to call, but I erased their numbers.  I call the lady at her work and she tells me to go to the house.   I go to the house with no supplies for the kids to do crafts with.  We watch t.v. and the kids are the nicest they have ever been.  The girl in middle school tells me about her school and she is suddenly mature and beautiful looking.

Oscars, Dogs and Spray Paint

I am watching the Oscars on TV. They announce the next act and out dances Matt Baugh!!! He does this goofy dance that brings down the house. Next up is Janet! She sings a funny song and is also a huge success. I am amazed! I call Jen to tell her the news. She is not at all surprised, in fact she is there too! She tells me Lydia is performing next! I am shocked I did not know about this. The next thing I know I am driving my car, it is packed full of dogs (all black and white), kids and luggage. I am pulling a trailer full of luggage, and have more strapped to the top of my car. I see Matt at a gas station (he is driving a Vespa and pulling a silver camping trailer behind it). He tells me to go meet Janet for lunch and he will put new tires on my car and have it lowered. I take off again but end up at mom and dads house. I go up to my old room and go to sleep. I wake as the sun is coming up and realize I left the dog in the car. I decide to sneak downstairs and get the dog before anyone else realizes what I did. As I pass the porch swing I see dad sleeping on it (snoring loudly of course!). I open the door to my car and a whole pack of black and white dogs of all sizes pour out and jump over the fence into the yard. Only then do I see that I also left Collin in the car overnight too! He is crying and upset. But wait, Molly is in the car too! She has a can of spray paint and is spraying it over the top of my car, I tell her to stop but she won't. Dad wakes up and tells her to stop...

Then I woke up!

Wedding Blues

I'm the only one in the whole family who could make it to Matt & Janet's wedding.  The WHOLE Baugh family.

 As I drive to their house, I wonder why I've never been before.  I'd always thought it was too far, but the drive only takes an hour.

The wedding has been moved to Matt & Janet's house.  I'm not sure why.

As I wait for the wedding to start, I look around and feel very old.  I think I'm the oldest person there.  The only other people are Matt & Janet's friends.

No one talks to me.  I feel very uncomfortable.  Like a matronly chaperone.  I decide to wait in the basement.

Babysitting is giving me nightmares!

The kids are hitting me and the mom is overly relaxed about the whole thing.  She is telling them to stop, but she isn't to firm about it.  I am trying to get them to stop, but they keep hitting me and laughing.


HAHA!! This is terrible!!

Crazy Cabin Visit

I am on my way to visit the Watsons at their cabin.  First I have to go to school for an assembly, so I put on butterfly wings and read a chapter book to all of the students.  After the assembly I go to the cabin (which is actually my grandma's old house.

It is very early when I arrive and I hear Desmond crying, everyone else is asleep.   I go to hold Desmond (he is a little baby) and then he yells "5 minutes".   Jen wakes up and comes to get Desmond.  Desmond is now a toddler.  Jen is cooking something in the microwave and tells Desmond it will be done in five minutes.

Rowan is asleep on the bed and she is a baby.

Dave cooks everyone a dinner on the grill, and Matt and my brother kill two rattlesnakes that are on lawn chairs.  Lydia yells and they kill another rattlesnake in the playroom.

Joann and Kasey from work ask if I can sell my wedding dress so they can pay for their rent.  The lady at the store tells me she will give me $130 for it, and I appologize that is such a low amount.  Joann tells me it's okay because they got 500 for Dana's dress.

I am crying because now I don't have a wedding dress, and Molly shows me some gently used dresses that are only 30 bucks.  There are tons of dresses in a big old store with a staircase. I want the black one with big pink sleeves.

Swimming Hole

I'm a teenager.

Michael (Zzyzx) Montague & I are at a swimming hole.  We hold hands, jump off ledges and look for turtles as we swim back.

I don't know anyone there but him.  It's my first time going to the swimming hole.


As I listen to the conversations going on around me, I realize that everyone else is talking about last nights' prom.   I feel a little left out.  I wasn't invited.

Michael & I jump off a ledge that is new to me.  It's way off in a hidden corner of the swimming hole.  No other kids are there, just some old people drinking 40s.  It's scary because I can't see how deep it is.  After we make the jump, we start to swim back to a more populated area.

As we swim out into the open water, we see that a cliff ledge is on fire!  We swim towards it and I yell for people who are on it to jump into the water.  I tell others to swim to the grove of trees where everyone eats lunch.  I swim to the grove myself.

When I get to the grove of trees, Wave asks me where Rowan & Desmond are.  I tell him that I don't know, but I'll go find them.  As I run off to find my children, I tell people to gather for a headcount.

I quickly find Rowan & Desmond.  It's easy to see Rowan on stage in her hot pink leotard, and Desmond is copying her every move.

I tell them to go find Daddy and continue the other way, telling people to gather in the trees...

No Trouble Sleeping...

I don't know how they ended up like this, I was at gymnastics with Lydia.  I do know they were watching Sleeping Beauty when they fell asleep.  (I bet she didn't sleep with her mouth open!)

Desmond Sleeps

Tuesday night Desmond woke up around 2am.  My mom tried to get him back to sleep, but he cried until she put him in bed with me.  In the meantime, Rowan had woken up and climbed into my bed.  I didn't get back to sleep until 6.

Wednesday, Desmond woke up EVERY HOUR asking for a bottle.  He drank 5 bottles that night!  Needless to say,  I didn't sleep much.

Thursday, I fought a cold and sleepiness.  Towards late afternoon I felt like a zombie.  (Okay,  maybe not a zombie.  I wasn't craving brains.  I felt as if I might fall to the floor in a dead sleep at any moment.  What is the proper simile for that?)

Thursday night I decided to take the plunge and tell Desmond he needed to sleep WITHOUT HIS BOTTLE.  He was actually very calm about it.  Rowan got in bed at 9pm, as usual.  Lydia flitted around the house coming up with millions of reasons she couldn't sleep, as usual.  Desmond calmly refused to put on his pajamas.

Every time I asked him if he was ready for his diaper and p.j.s, he said, "Bottle?"  I would tell him "No."   He would continue calmly playing with his toys & reply, "No jammies."  Around 11:30 I asked him if he'd like to get in bed with me and he agreed.  I helped him into his diaper and pajamas and he quickly fell asleep in my bed.

He only woke up once the whole night!  When he cried for his bottle I told him no and said, "Shh, sh, sh...". To my great surprise, he fell right back to sleep!  He didn't wake up again until 8am when Rowan came into my room talking about bunnies.

Friday night we went through almost the same routine as Thursday.  The only differences were that he calmly held out until 1am (!) and he went to sleep in his own bed.  He slept until around 6 when he cried for me and his bottle.  Without getting out of bed I told him, "No bottle. Shhh, sh, sh...".  He went right back to sleep until 8am or so.

I am so happy this has been such an easy transition.  I had been dreading sleepless nights of wailing, but not having the bottle has actually made Desmond sleep better!  I am really hopeful that now I will sleep better too!

The Luxury of Dreams

It's been a while since I've remembered a dream.  I think my sleep is too fragmented for me to really grab hold and process my dreams.  It seems I'm awakened every hour by one baby or another.  Even if I don't need to get up with them, their crying and noises wake me.  It's usually difficult for me to fall back to sleep, so by the time I've reached the REM stage, it is cut short by another wake up call.  


In reading about sleep, I came across this, "During the deep stages of NREM sleep, the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and appears to strengthen the immune system."  Perhaps that is why I've been dealing with more aches and pains, not to mention colds, lately.  I had assumed they were a normal part of aging and the season.  Maybe not...


I suppose this whole blog was born out of the difficulty our family has had with sleeping and dreams.  I am certainly not the only one of us to go without adequate sleep.  Hopefully, my children with grow out of their disruptive sleep patterns and allow me the luxury of dreams again soon.