Dixon-Ratzlaff Family Blogs

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Carnivals, War Damage, and the Stowaway…

by on Aug.12, 2011, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

 In the Tall Grass: 

I am driving Dad's van and we head towards town. As we are pulling out of the drive, movements in the grass catch my attention; I start pleading with Hoss to pull over, even threatening to hurl myself from the moving vehicle I am so keen to investigate (apparently, I have forgotten I am driving...) I park behind a line of vehicles attending the carnival on the corner, and rush back to find two calico kittens and a beagle pup that have been abandoned. 

Americus has gone Euro:

There is still war damage marring the beautiful buildings in the town West and I am wishing I had money to invest to help with repairs. Something is amiss in the park and Lulu is angry because the bathrooms are out of order and the children must defecate in Wal-Mart sacks; and after all, "Our children are not dogs." Later, in the rain, a man is busted selling drugs and I am sad because Lulu missed the connection and won't be having any fun this evening. 

The Stowaway: 

Boudicca has stowed away in Mom's truck, again, and we are a bit miffed when she hops out of the back and strolls up Mainstreet. I scold her and scoop her up and she rides complacently in my arms purring loudly as I frantically rush between The Whistlestop and The Noose trying to get both opened and organized. I drop Bo off at the stufio and Blanche and Lucy commence to beat her up a little bit and I can't help thinking, "This is a nice turnabout -It's about time Bo got some payback."  
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Mini Vacation…

by on Aug.12, 2011, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

 An entire wall of our house has been dedicated to the most amazing sound system on the planet. From here, I am able to listen in on the private conversations of Tony Horton. Pointless images swirl around in my head while my brain takes a vacation to Europe. 
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Beer and BBQ…

by on Aug.12, 2011, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

Bar Acrobatics: 

Becky gives two regulars I've never seen coupons for free fancy drinks with exotic flavors because we are out of the flavors they wanted that night. The fake regulars then proceed to go around trying to collect signatures from other patrons on their coupon sheets in attempts to get more free things they aren't entitled to; they hassle me and our Japanese owner who points to the kimonos on the wall in subtle attempts to let them know they're barking up the wrong tree. I go out back and proceed to do wondrous acrobatics on the chairs and tables in the beer garden. 

The Barbecue: 

We meet the DeVoe family out at The Ranch where we are all expected to dine on the single perch that is the only catch Mike was able to make that day. Mike works very hard to char the fish to ash in the oven because it will "go further". I am very angry at David because he refuses to take off my favorite dress and because he embarrassed me by urinating on the patio where everyone is sitting instead of using his tree like we asked him to.
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Have to Steal…

by on Aug.03, 2011, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

 Ran across this, very randomly, last night:

http://threesentencedreams.blogspot.com

Absolutely fell in love with the idea. It's just mesmerizing to me. Reminds me a bit of the whole beat movement. I just love the free-form weirdness. Mine prob. won't be half so well written, but they should still be interesting. :) 
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Funny…

by on Nov.11, 2010, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

 A "funny" thing about so many Christians in our society...

They can quote the bible by heart, when needed-

But they know nothing about God or love. 
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David…

by on Apr.29, 2010, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

 Had a cute funny, this evening.

Lucy got up on the living room table while David was having bites and she wasn't bothering his food or anything just laying up there.

David told her, "Get down, Lucy." She ignored him. "Get DOWN, Lucy." She ignored him. So then he got all t exasperated and said...

"LUCY ADAIR..."

*lol*

Go David. .  
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An Insomniac’s Tale…

by on Jan.22, 2010, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

(This is supposed to be mildly amusing. I hope it is.)

Okay, so in my quest for overall better health I've really upped my water intake. I really love water, I just got out of the habit of drinking it. Another perk of this is my soda consumption is down by half, or more, without even trying. If you're drinking water constantly, you just don't have "time" for pop. The problem that arises with this is that when I want a cola, I REALLY want a cola and it's hard to talk myself out of it. My caffeine tolerance is shot, now, too. So last night, after work, I decided to have a Pepsi. I didn't do the smart thing and pour myself a cup... No. I drank a whole 20 ounce bottle at 11:00 at night. (I always lose track of how "late" is is on work-nights by the time we get done with dinner, etc. It's silly, but I forget.) THIS WAS A BAD IDEA.

Finally, at 4:00 I finally said, "Self, you MUST get to bed." So I went in to lay down. Then David woke up and proceeded to play the part of Baby D.J. with his mobile cranked as loud as it would go. I can't sleep when he's awake. It's just how I'm programed. And it's hard to sleep when your body doesn't really think it needs to and you're being forced to listed to machine-generated Mozart. FINALLY that stopped. Then I couldn't find any of my bed-stuff. No water. No lotion. Nothing. (Dan must have moved stuff at nap-time or something to keep prying fingers away.) So my skin had the creepy-crawly thing going on. (Lotion helps this.) Then it sort of felt like I was alternately laying in a bed full of red hot needles and/or a bed full or cookie crumbs. I couldn't stop tossing and turning and scratching. And Dan would NOT give me any blanket despite my best efforts to tug-of-war some of it away from him. It was crazy. Finally around 5:30 I fell into a fitful sleep. 

At 6:00 Dan's alarm went off. He got up. I sprawled out on the bed and fell immediately back to sleep. For about two minutes. Then Dan came BACK to bed... So I had to wake up, get re-situated. Now, our alarm-clock is "broken"... I don't know if it has a short in it, or what, but to compensate for this and to make it so that it actually comes on, Dan has to CRANK the radio. That's fine. Once. Or twice. Or even three times as he's leaning over me to hit the snooze button. After that, it gets a little tedious. I woke up alternately between a "screaming" Ron Thomas and obnoxious KVOE ads for an HOUR. I contemplated calling a cab and going down to the station so I could give Ron a nice kick in the shins, but realized pretty quickly that it wasn't really HIS fault. I then contemplated smashing the clock over Dan's head. That might have made me feel better, but it wasn't really his problem that I couldn't go to bed at a decent hour, either. Somewhere in here the City came to pick up trash, also. Not only are the trucks noisy as hell, but they apparently have this weird sort of strobe on them that flashed brightly and excessively for what seemed like 20 minutes into our bedroom. Nice.  

So now it's 7:00 and I feel wired, but exhausted. And apparently Dan fed the girls last night, but not Hunter, so Hunter was hungry. At 7:00 he decided to start head-butting me to see if I might not want to get up out of bed and bring him some eats. I didn't. I think I finally fell back to sleep around 8:30. 

I don't know when David really woke up. I've been trying to get to him fairly quickly once he does because he's not always real good about leaving his diaper on these days. Often though, he waits to pee before he does takes it off. Today I wasn't so lucky. He apparently took his nappy off first thing when he awoke and proceeded to pee on the floor. On his bed. On his stuffed animals. On about four different blankets that he insists on sleeping with but not actually using. Seems like by the time I got all that picked up, cleaned, etc. it was time to start lunch.

So, in short, my life has been fairly stupid since about 4:00 this morning. Next time I think I'll just stay up. Yes, I'll be exhausted, but not any more so then I already am and hopefully a lot less aggravated. I need my own room (or maybe my own apartment) on Insomnia Nights. 
 
   
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Some Bits About David…

by on Jan.20, 2010, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

*His first joke was back in October. (27 months.) You had to be there. We were at Pizza Ranch and there's a big mural there of a sort of "trail-blazing" scene. Pioneers and the whole bit. So David was asking about the man on the horse and Dan said, "Yeah, Buddy, that's a cowboy." David looked really hard at the mural and said, "No Cow" while holding his hands up in the sign we've always used for "Where?" then started giggling hysterically. Since that set Dan and I off, he went around for tow days randomly saying "No Cow" followed by the cheesiest laugh you've ever heard. 

*At the end of our wedding ceremony, David yelled out "Good Job!" and started clapping and giggling wildly which everyone thought was pretty funny. (And yes, it was 100% spontaneous.) 

*Some Current (favorite) phrases that are funny in (his delivery), which may or may not translate as cute in the retelling: 

- "Oh, yes, of COURSE I will."
- "Yes, thank you EVER so much." 
- "That is DEEEElicious."
- "Piejamimnas" (Pajamas)
-"Scubadubada" (Scuba) (I don't know, either.) 

*Favorite Songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Veggie Tales Theme Song, Little Drummer Boy, Star Wars Theme
*Favorite Movies: The Neverending Story, The Last Unicorn, Veggie Tales
*Favorite T.V.: Tec, Bonny, Banana and Mo, Sushushybye Baby, Jeopardy! (a.k.a. "Alex") 
*Favorite Books: Mouse Soup, Green Eggs and Ham, (Garfield) Fat Cat Rhyme Time 
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Hello 2010…

by on Jan.02, 2010, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

Thoughts:

2009 = Epic Fail. (Well, okay, in all fairness, not really.)

BECAUSE:

1. I learned a LOT.

2. I realized I really do want this.

3. I really know I CAN do this with just a little effort and small sacrifice on my end.


I constantly have to pick myself back up, and that’s okay. This is MY journey. I want this. And I'm learning to make peace with the fact that this is going to take me a bit longer then it could/should, because I’m NOT giving up anything that I can’t live without for the rest of my life. Since this is the way it's going to be "forever", that's the way it's got to be, now.

Can I be more dedicated? Most definitely. Am I going to focus on kicking 2010’s teeth in? Resounding YES. Am I going to screw up many, many times throughout the year? Of course I am. When I fall down am I going to recommit without putting it off for a week or month at a stretch? I’m sure as hell going to try.

NOTE TO SELF: One day off the wagon does NOT justify MULTIPLE days off the wagon.

I want this.

I need this.

I have the power to make this happen.
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Chritstmas and Weekend…

by on Dec.27, 2009, under Imagined Images & Other Tricks with Mirrors

Thursday we got hit by a blizzard. It was quite something. I've never seen snow like that. I was working down the pub. The boys were getting ready to head to the family Christmas party. It'd been snowing and blowing allll day. It was a crazy day. My mom called me about 7:00 and basically said if we were coming out we better do it, 'cause we might not be able to get out there if I waited until 9:00 when I got off work. Fortunately Sandra was down there just hanging out for a bit waiting for Nickel to drop off a key and she offered to work those last couple hours. Which was really sweet of her. So the boys and I had to forgo the family thing to head out to my parents. The main thing was we'd dropped off all of our food and David's presents, so we were keen to get out there so David didn't wake up Christmas morning and not have any presents to open.

Thursday night was really cool. The conditions outside were still horrible, but the snow had died down a bit. My Dad and I bundled up really well (Mom and Dan thought we were nuts) and went for a short-ish walk outside. It really makes you appreciate the whole "pioneer spirit" kind of thing thinking that people used to have to travel through and live through weather like that. We were maybe out 30 minutes or so. I saw my first owl. It was just eerie and cool and impossible for me to explain properly. It was like a mini adventure. :)

It's tradition to stay overnight on Christmas Eve so we bunked down for the night. I love Dan very much but sometimes he does weird things. I asked him what he had packed for us as far as overnight stuff was concerned. He'd packed himself a pair of sweats and a t-shirt to sleep in and stuff for the baby, but that was like... It. I'm not totally spoiled or anything, but I like to have... You know. The basics. I would have liked to had a pair of sweats and a second shirt. Or you know... A toothbrush? Deodorant? Clean undies? My own hair brush? Anything? He brought me a jacket. What the hell am I gong to do with a JACKET?? Like I hadn't already packed my winter coat. Since it was snowing and all. *Sigh*

Friday there was no way we were getting out of there. My folks have a mighty small house and it was okay when I was little and it was just the three of us, but really pretty cramped quarters with five people. David was pretty good considering how badly his routines got messed up, but he was no angel about it.

Saturday we were finally able to get out. When we got home we had a mess waiting. Couldn't pull into our drive and spent 45 minutes shoveling snow so we could... And that's what it took with both of us taking it in turns and that was JUST enough space to pull the car in off the street. Then we ran errands all day. (And met my parents. We had made plans to forgo big Christmas pressies for one another and we went and hit up some after Christmas sales.) (I'd saved enough money that I was able to take everyone out for lunch and ice-cream, too, so that was fun.) (Oh, and my mom got me the cutest frigging boots! I love them. I might have to post the pic. These are the first high top boots I've ever owned and I love them. They're fuzzy and warm and wonderful.) Then my Mom asked us if we were going to come out as it was Saturday. Dan and I were like... "You've got to be kidding, right??" But then my Dad (who hates house-guests and there we were in his house for two days) acted half put out that we weren't coming out. Okay. Fine. *lol* So we went out to see them again.

Then Loi called us last night to see if we wanted to meet at her house for the "family" Christmas that most of us missed on Thursday. So we met everyone today. We went out (again) for lunch and when we got home I did some more shoveling... Improving the path up to the front steps and a bit more on the driveway so Dan could pull in a bit further. I am SO SORE. This is the first physical activity I've had in weeks and as some of you know, that's some back-breaking hard work.

It's been a good holiday, but kind of exhausting. We've just been go, go, go since we woke up Thursday.

Oh, and I'm feeling loads better. Doses of ecinasia tincture that Dad made from herbs he grew this year and my neti pot. I feel almost normal. Hooray.
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