A Hole in One

Because the sun came right through the hole in the trees!

Swype Me

Anyone use Swype on their smart phone? I was so excited that I was going to get this feature when I actually got my Droid, so excited in fact that I didn't even use it for a year.

But boy did I love that auto correct on my phone that would text, tweet, facebook or email out something that made NO sense what-so-ever. And you get the response of "huh?" Until you really look at it you really had no idea what the problem was.

So then a friend said "Just use Swype"

Oh sure! LOVE TO! It's so easy, just pick what you want to say put your finger on the first letter and move your finger to each letter and TA-DA!

Ohhhhh I just love it. Until....

I really believe that Swype reads your mind through your fingertip.

Meaning, I have a friend her name is Marie, she is the ultimate tree hugger, organic eating, recycling, friend of the Earth you could ever possibly know, and when I swype her name, it comes out "Nature"

I have a friend who has several girls and when she was telling me a story about them, my 1st thought was "What a BRAT" and I tried to type "Oh that is to bad" and it actually came out "Oh that is so brat"

Opps, tell me how you really feel. I used swype because it was supposed to be easier but now I am thinking it's a bigger pain, if I don't read my responses to everything with keen eyes, My fingers and swype might type out what my 1st thought was, which isn't always what I want to come out in text, tweet, email or facebook.

Do you use swype? Because I am starting to think this smart phone is smarter than I thought.

School Stupid

Are you school stupid?

I sure am. I am pulling my hair out pouring over all the schools in my area.

Remember the days when you lived here and you went to that school which followed into this school and then dumped into that high school and you are all set!

Only deviation from that was a private school, then you could go to anyone you would like, as long as you wanted to pay the money and provide the transportation to get there.

If you wanted to go to a different public school you had to do all kinds of sheistering to adjust your address, borrow a friends, relatives or random open house to get your child into the school you wanted.

Now? Oh no, you can go to any school you want, whether it’s interoffice, interdistrict, school of choice, out of district. And there are a million schools to choose from. One school has a better lunch program, one has longer recess, one has after school provided to you by the district, another has a private after school care called a homework club. Then there is always the school where the boys and girls club is right next door. Not to mention that some don’t have a primary language of English, or they have ESL's in place. Then don’t even get me started on the Charter and Magna schools.

I logged onto the internet to look into what school I want my child to have the best chance at, as we all know not all schools are the same or even teach the same. Sure at the end of their school career they will (should) all learn the same thing, they will all know how to read, write and do math.

What school can they go through that will take them with the same kids from elementary all the way to High School graduation, versus a elementary school and then have to switch schools and friends and all that in either middle school or high school, some of the toughest times in a tween/teen’s growing up.

A school that will give them the best opportunities academically as well as athletically or artistically depending on what they are interested in. So tonight as the innocence is asleep in the other room, I will be scouring the internet and trying to find the best school for my boys to attend.

What’s most important to you when choosing your child’s school, or did you just pick the school that was closest to your house and in your district?

The Pacific Joy

I long for the dampness that weighs heavy when I have a pressing and complex issue lying on my heart. I return to the beach. A place where the waves sing with sympathy and understanding. Where the sand welcomes me as it to say "I've missed you, welcome back". I draw in the sand, doodles that represent the turmoil of my mind. I hug my knees to my chest and I look out along that vast horizon. And suddenly my issue doesn't seem that big.

When triumph appears, I run to the beach, slide on that wetsuit and jump onto my board, letting the glistening sun blind me and the waves guide me. I feel the waves pump through me like the blood through my heart. I put my knee on my board and push down on the nose, duck diving through the crashing waves, feeling it's power wash over me. A Christening of the soul.

When tragedy strikes, the salt water soaks up my tears so that no one will notice. I inhale deeply and I smell the salt water like the first rain on the concrete. It fills my lungs and it pulsates through my heart and it fills me, completes me, makes me whole again, if only for a moment!

When I leave it pulls me back, it calls to me. It reminds me that one time when I was young it became a part of me in more ways than one. It reminds me that it will always be a part of me. It reminds me that no matter where I've been, where I am, or where I am going.... I will always come back to the Pacific Ocean, it's only a mere part of what gives me joy!

Tongues that Think

In this house if we have Mouths that learn

We have tongues that think.

When asked this evening while coloring why Thomas' tongue was hanging out there

His reply "Because it's thinking"

Oh ok

So whenever he is thinking or constructing or well doing pretty much anything, that tongue is waggin' and he is "thinking".

Mouths that learn

When the boys started talking and repeating things we said, my husband and I made a bet as to who would say the first cuss word and after whom. And I think I lost that bet the minute my oldest at about 18 months dropped something out of the high chair, looked over the edge and said "Shit"
Ok so I need to curb my frustration using more positive words. The fact that he used it in a correct way at 18 months was mind boggling.

So now comes the how do I explain to an 18 month old that he can't say that word because it's bad?
The answer....you don't, you just said "Hey don't use that word" To which he repeated time and time again for months. Reminding me over and over again that I lost that bet, love that!

Next child, next word....Idiot. While sitting at a make shift drive in movie in the parking lot of the local high school they couldn't figure out how to get everything working all at once, the sounds, the picture and the volume. After being told that when it got dark the movie would start, Christopher gets frustrated that the movie isn't coming on to which he shouts "Come on you idiot"

Of course we laugh, what were we supposed to do? We were thinking the same thing anyway.

So for months he called anyone and everyone an idiot. That, once again was all me, because I am a skilled driver and everyone around me is just an idiot, he would proceed to tell me the same thing I told him, "Don't say that word, it's a bad word"
To which my reply would be "Right, I won't say that anymore" And I wouldn't, at least until the next idiot cut me off.

Then they got into Toy Story, and they repeatedly would call people, like mom and dad among them, idiots, morons and stupid.

FAB-U-LOUS!

Sitting at a light in the car listening to the radio, sort of, mostly I was thinking about all I needed to get done and I hear my little one in the back "Shut Up and Drive" to which I immediately looked up at the light that was green and I thought, my kid just told me to shut up and drive. And I immediately said "Hey you don't say that, that's not nice" and he said "it's on the song mommy"

So now I am thinking, I might have lost the bet, but if anyone claims that it's my fault for the mouths on my boys, I'm calling BS, it's Toy Story and Rihanna that have taught my kids to have these mouths!

Stick a fork in me

I am completely spent. 100% completely spent, stick a fork in me I'm done, I can take no more.

This adorable-I-just-got-my-hair-cut-and-she-put-gel-in-it little boy went from this epitome of cuteness

To this horrible, evilness of asthma stricken, hospital bound, pneumonia brewing, fluid in the lungs, non breathing, always coughing, can't catch his breath, fever blistering no sleep little baby I once held in my arms.

Even though he is not yet back to normal, he still has fluid in his lungs, he is still on a million different meds, he still has yet to go back to school as he can't walk down the street 4 houses without having an attack. But he is FINALLY able to sleep.

This picture he was sleeping sitting up next to me as that is the only way he could sleep without coughing his little lungs out.

But he is finally able to sleep. And I am just done. Not to mention my own medical issues that I am dealing with. I just want to hide in a hole for a year and sleep! Wake me when the world looks normal again please?

I don't know what I would do without my friends who were there to commiserate with me and help me cope!

Is it the weekend yet?

Is it too late for Gingerbread?

Is it too late for Gingerbread houses?


We FINALLY got around to doing our Gingerbread houses.

Then of course they wanted to eat them....I looked at them and I said I don't think they are edible!

It's a good thing they don't read, because the box says "100% Edible" and I immediately said Yep....it says right here NOT Edible. Opps!

Are you kidding? Do you know what that amount of sugar would do to my kids? I think on the side of that box in the ingredients were Sugar and coloring, that's it.

And aside from watching Daddy's team lose in the wild card spot in OT, it's been rather lazy!

You're wearing that?

Everyone knows that when you hear that dreaded "You're not going to wear that are you?" You immediately look in the mirror and blink and say "Well no, I guess not" and then you stand and wonder "Why the hell not?"

You know you've said it...We all have either said it to our husband, best friend, or mother even....and God knows if you had a mother like mine and tried to dress like I did when I was 15 you heard it on more than one occasion.

But I had my first "You're not going to wear that moment", FROM MY HUSBAND!

I had on a pair of black leggings, they are tight, and I get I still have weight to lose despite the 30 lbs I lost in 2011, but it's not like I stuffed myself into them, I have tiny legs and not an overly huge butt. And I put on a nice red sweater, and was going to put on my Uggs. The sweater didn't completely cover my butt, but it went half way down and looked ok, at least to me. I turned and ran into a wall....

"You aren't going to wear those pants are you?" Husband says

"Umm, (looking in the mirror) no? No I guess not" I said
"Wait, why? Do they look bad?" I asked

"Uh, umm No, they don't look bad, but they just umm show off a lot don't you think?" he said

Turning this way and that looking in the mirror, thinking in my head, yeah I guess they do but not so much more than my pair of black skinny jeans I was going to wear instead.

I hung my head and said, I guess I will go change. I mean I don't want to look like an idiot or anything.

Seeing that I was decidedly unimpressed with the fact that I had to change, once I reappeared in the kitchen to finish preparations for Christmas dinner the husband tried to save himself by whispering "I mean I think they make you look hot, but you don't want to show that to everyone do you?"

"Well does it make me look hot or slutty and trashy?" I asked

"nothing like that" he replied

#FAIL

I will be 40 this year, of course I want to look hot, I don't want to be 18 again but dang I want to at least look good and impress!

So I did put on my jeans for the day but was still shocked that I actually got the "You're not going to wear that" especially if it made me look "hot"!

Resolution? Is that what they call it?

I don't make resolutions, although that is what some people MAY call it.

What do I want to do this year? I want to be Fabulous and Forty.
No really, anyone who knows me knows that I ADORE my birthday, I am not one of those that say "oh it's just another day" or "uggh, don't remind me"

I didn't have a problem turning thirty, And I'm not going to have a problem turning Forty!

Especially when I have a huge smashing "Fabulous and Forty" birthday party in September. And you are all invited!

I am talking 5000 of my nearest and dearest! Ok well not that many, but still. I want all my friends and family to come and be fabulous with me.

I had two surgeries on my face, one in 2009 and then again in 2011 to remove cancer that left me self conscious about how I look and how others look at me. And you know what? I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm not going to worry about them, and after a lot of time, they don't actually look that bad.

I busted my butt and lost 30 lbs last year and hope to lose another 10 lbs before my birthday. Because I want to be that woman that my husband is proud to have on his arm, the woman who is so stunning that he just walks around and says "Yep, that's my wife, she's fabulous and forty"

I want to be healthy and live long enough to see my sons live their life. I want them to be proud of me, I want to be able to run with them at soccer practice, to practice Karate moves with them. And I want to be Fabulous!

So is it a resolution? If you wanted to call it that you could. For me I'm calling it a way of life! A life I can't wait to get busy living!

Change

So I am in the bathroom this morning and this happens to be on the counter

Thomas: Look Mommy, money.
Me: Yes, but it's daddy's money so please leave it there.

(this avoids fighting between the two boys as each one wants it all)

Thomas: This is Daddy's money?
Me: Yes it is.
Thomas: WOW he sure does make a lot of money!

I couldn't help but laugh....ahhh to be a child again and not have any idea what the differece in value of a penny vs. a quarter.