tim and lisa cocking

So from the title of this post alone you can probably figure out where this is going! Taxi rides anywhere in the world can strike terror in your heart at the very thought. It’s certainly the case here. In general people obey the traffic laws here and drive in a logical and predictable way. Predictably aggressive, yes, but at least you know that the cars are all going to be pushy.

The taxi however was completely unpredictable, and more aggressive than I have ever experienced, even in China! The streets are narrow and winding and driving is on the right side like America. We pulled up behind a line of maybe 6 cars waiting to go through an intersection (most are uncontrolled, no stop signs or lights). He overtakes them all on the wrong side of the road, goes through the intersection on the wrong side and on the other side of the intersection, predictably, is heading into oncoming traffic. Does he get back over on the right side? NO! Of course not, he’s a taxi! He jogs LEFT and keeps going down the street not only on the wrong side but totally making a new lane for himself to the LEFT of oncoming traffic.

You have to admire cab drivers who want to make good time for their riders.

…or, “When will they get it?”

I just spent quite a bit of time consoling Ellie over her lack of crayons. Ellie LOVES to color. However, like many kids she does not love to clean up her crayons.

My kids were each given a box of 24 Crayola crayons some time ago. I actually wrote each girl’s initial on EVERY SINGLE CRAYON in every box. Think I’m anal beyond belief overly organized? Not if you knew how much my kids bicker, fight and argue over every single item in existence. Either they’re fighting because they want to claim whatever the item(s) may be (”That’s MINE!”), or they’re fighting because they don’t want to pick them up (”But SHE got them out!”).

So as I was saying, Ellie loves to color but not clean up. When she’s finished coloring, instead of putting her own crayons into her own craft box she tends to just throw them into the first available space. This may be her sister’s craft box, the communal craft drawer, or who knows where. I occasionally go through the crayons in each girl’s box and re-sort them, but I avoid the big drawer o’ junk and don’t make much of an effort to find their missing crayons.

I re-sorted crayons the other day. As a result, Micah has a nearly complete set of crayons. Ellie does not. Ellie tried to insist that some of Micah’s crayons were hers, despite the big black “M” on all of them. Great amounts of whining, crying and general unpleasantness ensued. But no matter how much I try to force it into her get it into her head explain gently that if she put her things away carefully she’d be able to find them when she wants them, she just doesn’t seem to get it.

On a related note, I have not had great success in getting the girls to pick up their playroom. About an hour ago they were running wild in the living room. When I suggested they go up to their playroom, Micah explained, “But it’s too messy!” Nice.

Cause and effect. A simple concept. Or so you’d think.

Our friend Christina meme-tagged us. If you’re old like me, you might have no idea what this means. Here’s the deal, straight from her blog:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you. (check)
2. Post these rules on your blog. (check)
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry.

Since this is a family blog, I thought I’d share some things about each of us. Let’s see…

1. Micah likes to talk. And talk, and talk. Her recent favorite subject: talking. “God made me to talk a lot. Because I like to talk, because that’s how God made me. And I talk a lot. I’m talking right now. I’m talking about talking!”
2. Ellie is ambidextrous, and has declared that she wants to be an author-illustrator when she grows up. Maybe she can write the stories with one hand and illustrate them with the other.
3. Bethany has sight-read 900 words for her first grade class, and is trying to be the first in the class to reach 1000.
4. We have a collection of over 260 glass-based (mostly, some are aluminum-based) radio transcription albums, and a custom 1940’s transcription turntable to play them on (if Tim can get it to work). All of it was inherited from my grandfather. The records live in a coffin-sized case, which we call Jaja’s iPod.
5. I kill plants. It’s terrible. I’m so bad, I’ve given Bethany the job of taking care of my plants. I think a six-year-old will be more responsible about it than I am. Of course, I’ve promised to pay her a dollar a week if they live so she’s got some motivation.
6. Tim has amazing hearing. He can hear things that I think only he and dogs can, like the sound the tv makes when it’s turned on but there’s no sound on. I can occasionally hear that kind of sound on a really old tv, but he can always hear it. He also sleeps with his eyes open. Freaky.

Now, six people to tag. This was hard, since I don’t have that many blogging friends! But here’s my list.

1. Kristina
2. Joe
3. Emily
4. Shannon and David
5. Ingrid
6. JR

Have fun!

I realized that we’ve been neglecting the blog for a while, and thought I’d better write something. Except I don’t have a lot to say. Let’s see, what’s been going on since our last post?

In mid-January, I totaled our minivan. Which was not altogether a bad thing. I had a moment of distraction and rear-ended the car in front of me. It was so my fault that I even got a ticket and had to do an online driving school to avoid getting points on my license. Now that was thrilling. Not.

But, our minivan had been showing signs of needing some serious repairs. Fortunately we hadn’t done them yet. Our insurance company handled things quickly and we were able to get a new used minivan that we’re much happier with. We were without a minivan for only about a week and a half, I think.

Let’s see, what else… oh, we had a really cool lunar eclipse a few weeks ago. I set up our little camera on a tripod and took about a bazillion pictures. A couple turned out pretty cool. I think this one is my favorite (click to see full-size):

This was taken with my little auto-focus digital camera, with its itty-bitty zoom lens. I like the way some of the stars are various shades of red and pink.

Anything else… Bethany is “Eagle of the Month” in her class at school. Honestly, I’m not sure exactly what that means. The school’s mascot is the Eagle. Each month, each teacher picks a student from her class who shows that month’s character trait from their character development curriculum, or something like that. Bethany was picked for fairness. Practically speaking, I think it means her picture is on the bulletin board in their class, and she got a free cookie at lunch last week. A side note: there are no male teachers or administrators at Bethany’s school. I think the only men in the building are one custodian and one tech support guy. This is a school of over 800 students, with 48 teachers (I just counted on the school’s website).

Well, that’s all the news I can think of right now. Let me know if there’s something you want to hear about!

My parents went to Disney World with two other couples a few days ago (so they’re all kids at heart). One of the other couples was separated from the group on a ride at the Magic Kingdom, and it took about 10 minutes afterward for them all to meet up again. In this 10 minute period right after getting off the ride, this other couple was approached by a Disney Cast Member and told, “You’ve won a night at Cinderella’s Castle for yourself and five friends!” You just read that correctly: my parents’ friends won the “Year of a Million Dreams” daily grand prize! But get this: THEY TURNED IT DOWN. Once again, you’ve read that correctly: my parents’ friends said no to a night in Cinderella’s castle.

I guess they’ve been getting a lot of calls from resorts and time shares with the typical “You’ve won a free night at our resort, but you have to sit through 18 hours of sales pitches” type of calls and thought this was the same kind of thing. How they hadn’t heard about this promotion in the huge media blitz that’s gone on for the past year I don’t know, but somehow they’d missed it. And so they missed out on something that any other person in the park that day would probably have given their right arm to be able to do.

The Cast Member was stunned. No one had ever turned them down before.

By the time the group reunited, it was too late. A release form had been signed and it was all over with. All except the relentless teasing they had to put up with all day from their friends, especially my dad.