I Could Write a Book

This is one of my favorite photographs I’ve taken. It is of my eldest son and my middle nephew. They took the canoe out that day. (obviously)  I’m laughing inside at a funny memory with that canoe and my sister. She and I actually sunk the canoe, but in shallow enough water that it stayed sitting upright. We just sat there in it till one of the kids brought us buckets and pails to bail the water out. We were dying laughing and just praying that if anyone saw us that they would think we were just sitting still in the water and not actually stuck in the canoe.

 After canoeing that day, we sat on the beach and watched the sunset. There is just nothing like the gorgeous sunsets. Yes, in Michigan. I was quite surprised myself. I didn’t go to Michigan this year. Said I just wanted to stay home. I’m missing it. I think it is in the forefront of my thinking right now because summer is coming to an end. The kids and I will definitely go next year. Here’s looking forward to seeing my sunset again next summer.

     Isn’t that the cutest puppy you’ve ever seen ? Winkie just reached 5lbs. Whew. He’s a big one. lol. He is perfect for carrying around. Almost like carrying around a little baby, but the best thing about Winkie - he sleeps through the night.

    I honestly believe that he thinks I’m his mom. He follows me everywhere. He lays by feet when I’m on the computer. He is definitely what you call a "lap dog". He’s probably a tiny bit spoiled. What else could you expect from me ?

    So, there’s "Elvis-Pierre Winkie Dogg". He is 4 1/2 months old now. I love him.  

Oh my goodness ! Tonight, I was on the floor rolling with laughter over something my eldest son discussed with me. He and I were having a discussion about how we like everyone and how we never make fun of people based on their height, size, color, etc. I told him that we love all people no matter if they are different from us or not. He replied, "well, you didn’t like me when I was different." I was very confused and asked him what was he talking about. He said, "well, I once was "brown" and you didn’t like me "brown" so you put me under those lights and made me white like you." My poor baby. I tried very hard to tell him that he was "brown" because he was very sick as a baby and had to be in the hospital. That he wasn’t born brown. LOL. He said, "I wasn’t ?". My poor child has been thinking all of this time that he was born one color and that we didn’t like him that color so we made him to look like us. It was truly an eyeopener. I could see how he had the misconception that he did.  A very serious conversation with my son, but a very funny one between adults.

  "I once was brown"

What a lazy Sunday. I did a couple of productive things, but that is truly it. Just a couple. Tomorrow(Marvelous Monday) starts our last full week of summer. Makes me so incredibly sad. My eldest is going to basketball camp and I will be spending a lot of time helping my sister with her newborn. Sighs. Summer has just flown by. I want about another month.

I hope to sleep well tonight. Not sure if I will after falling asleep on the couch this afternoon. It was that lazy of a day. And oh man, I hope to stop having these stupid nightmares. Last nights’ was rough.  

    I turned 40 this year. Eek. Gasp. Sputter. Me ? Yes, me. Well, whatever. I’m still alive and kicking. That’s all that matter’s, right ? Anyways, to the point of this post. When I was 29 and having a difficult time turning the big " 3 - 0 " (poor me. I could kick myself, now) dh told me he would take me anywhere in the world for my 40th birthday so that I would not have a difficult time. Well, the dumb me said "Hawaii". Why Hawaii ? I had never been. Always wanted to go. I had this goal of going to all 50 states. (that goal was when I was 29). Now that I’m 40 my goal is to pretty much travel the world. I’ve got a good start on it.

    So, now that I’ve given you a little background, here is one of my Hawaiian Sunset pics. Yes, I took it. Hawaii was or is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Just gorgeous. Expensive as heck, but breathtaking. Sit back where you and pretend you’re in Hawaii with me. It was very neat spending my 40th there.

Zoe Jane was born today. My cutest, newest niece that I get to spoil. Yes, she is named after a song. Her father said that if she was a girl he wanted her named Zoe Jane after this song.  I think it is one of the sweetest things around. How many daughters get to say that their father picked out their name ?

It’s been a long two days for me and I wasn’t even the one having the baby. I’ll be glad to get a good night’s rest tonight. Sweet dreams, All.  

    The kids and I had an absolutely wonderful day today. Wow. Tons of fun. Tons of water. Tons of climbing lots of stairs for the "scarey" waterslides. I got quite the workout today. I just loved this waterpark.  I also love that I am supporting an area that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

    On the way home, I saw the weirdest sight. Wow. Driving down the interstate. Doing just a tiny bit over the speed limit. I look at a car that has pulled onto the shoulder of the road. I look again. OMG. A woman has a boy 8 - 10 years old by his arm - spanking him with a leather belt. My mouth flew open. My brain registered shock. What in the heck do you do in that situation ? By the time it actually jived with me what has happening I was passed them. The traffic was crowded and everyone was cruising along. It wasn’t like you could just stop. Ugh. Such a weird thing. Guess I’ll have nightmares over that one tonigh. Blah.

    I had considered taking the kids to the pool tomorrow, but I think we’ll skip that. They need a day or so to get over all the sun they got today. I did line up a babysitter for a little while tomorrow. Woooohooooo. I’m going to have some me time.

    Oh yeah - all those letters( Jr League ) I had to get out - task accomplished. Whew !!! 

Last night I had one of the worst nightmares I can remember. I dreamt that I was watching the news and a "breaking news" came across the screen to report that tigers from a little circus had gotten out and was attacking the 2nd grade class that was watching the circus. When I heard the headline my heart just sunk. I had let my eldest son go to that school that day because it is where my sister teaches just so he could watch the little circus. I flew across town to my friend’s house (her father was the prinicpal of that school) so I could ask her if she had heard anything. It was raining and storming the whole way as if the fear of my son being eaten by tigers wasn’t bad enough already. I ran into her house and somewhere along the way I lost my cell phone. I kept asking her if she knew anything and I got the impression that she had been contacted by her father and told not to reveal any info. I turned around to see the TV on and there was a picture of my son. His right arm had been partially bitten off, his foot was injured and he had a horrible look of pain on his face. The tigers were still after him and he was trying to escape. These views of the children were being provided by a news helicopter. The next thing they showed on the TV were clothes laying in a heap. The tigers were eating the children but not their clothes. I remember looking at the clothes and being so thankful that they were not T’s. ughh. At this point in my nightmare I actually started saying "I pray that I am just dreaming". It was such a horrible feeling knowing that my child was in pain. I think I came to grip with the fact that no one was going to be able to save my son and I kept saying "if he dies I hope it is not painful." All during this time I had my friend’s cell phone and was trying to dial her father to get info. She wouldn’t come out and tell me the phone number and kept telling me to dial " a family ". Do you know how difficult it is dial by alphabet when you know your son is being eaten by tigers ? I kept messing up the number. Her cell phone was pink. Inside her house was very dark. The storm was still going on. I will never forget the look of pain on my son’s face.

Thankfully, the dogs (real life) barked to say that they were awake and needed to go potty. I rolled over and looked at my eldest’s son face and wanted to start weeping that it was just a dream. I didn’t because I didn’t want to frighten him. I’ve never been more thrilled to realize that I had just been dreaming as I was this morning. UGH and whew.

I always try and figure out why I dreamt something that I did. I think I had this dream because not long ago I watched part of a documentary on "Grizzly Man" (I think that is the correct name) about the person who lived and interacted with the Grizzly bears in Alaska and was eaten by them. He and his girlfriend. Dh just had to tell me that they didn’t put the part of them "screaming while being eaten" on the documentary. Gee thanks, dh. Just what I needed to hear. I’ll never forget that and it haunts me.

Here’s to peaceful sleeping tonight. I need to dream about soft, fuzzy kittens and sunshiney days, with rainbows in the sky. Go to my "happy place" as Melman says. lol.

Oh, just realized - this is not a good start to my "Marvelous Monday".  

    Hairspray, what a great movie. Definitely the "Grease" of 2007. I love it that my main man, John Travolta, is in both. It’s an awesome, feel-good movie. You’ll smile and laugh through 90% of it. The other 10% of it is serious and it made me wish in a way that I had lived during the 60’s.

    Got some really cute quotes from it : "The darker the cherry the sweeter the juice" and "The darker the chocolate the richer the taste." I’m sure I screwed those up a little bit, but it was so cute and funny I was laughing too hard to remember them correctly.

    Go see it. You won’t be sorry.  

What more could a girl want all in the same night ? Well, maybe some chocolate would do. Sushi would be heavenly.  I could think of a couple other things to add to the list, but I’ll keep this child-friendly.

So, I’m off to see Hairspray and then if I stay awake long enough - I will be in line to get my Harry Potter book !! Woohoo. For once, I’m glad it’s Friday. It’s actually been a very nice day. I haven’t left the house yet and I was pretty productive. Go me on the organizing. I’m still going strong.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday singing and reading. This has got to be one of the best Fridays of the year !

Peace out, Muggles. 

      Women, you all need to listen up. If you are going to drive cars, you need to learn what to do if you have a flat tire, the car won’t start, the oil light comes on,  or it stops running while you are driving it. The last one usually means you’ve run out of gas(or the timing belt has broken, but that is too advanced for this lot of women). That tidbit of info is so that you don’t look completely blonde the next time that happens and you don’t have a clue. If you don’t won’t be bothered with learning how to do the simple things on your car or you’re afraid you might get some "grease" on your manicured hands, invest in AAA. It’s not expensive. You can call them from the roadside. You know you’ve always got a cell phone with you. This way, I don’t get a phone call that goes like this: ‘Omg, K. I went to get into my car and it wouldn’t start. I’ve over here by Bed, Bath and Beyond. What do I do ?" And this was said to me in about 20 seconds in a such a high-pitched tone my dogs couldn’t even understand it.  I’ll spare you all the boring details, but will say, I diagnosed her car, got her to a mechanic shop and while standing there talking to the mechanic I was offered a job. And I’m a female, too. 

   I’m off to my class on kindness. LMAO. Hey, I was kind last night. I loaded up 3 kids and spent 2 hours making sure her car got fixed and her groceries didn’t spoil. That counts, right ? It is definitely time for another dose of kindness teaching. Seriously, it is a shame that "kindness" has to be taught. It seems that everyone is in too much of a hurry to be kind. The simplest act of kindness that a person can do is smile at someone else. Try it today. You might be surprised at the results.

Peace out.
 

Baton Rogue is my favorite Louisiana city. I love it. I know that lots of people do not like how bad the traffic has become or how big the city has grown since Katrina, but I still love it. Obviously, my kids love it too. This morning, early-early morning, I was awakend by my eldest with "I’m dressed, mommy." It is pitch black dark and I squint to look at the clock and it reads 4:00am. Holy crap. 4 AM ? I politely told him to get back in bed and he proceeds to crawl into my bed fully dressed. Arghh. At least we got another 2 hours of sleep. lol.

I love spending time with my friend there. We can go months without seeing each other and pick up immediately where we left off the last time. I love it that she has so many schooling tips for me. I don’t know what I’d do without all of my teaching buddies. It is also nice to see another person not have perfect children. Woohoo. Didn’t make me feel so bad in regards to some of the not-so-stellar children’s behavior, today. . Now, I did have to stop my Godson from killing a tree frog. I have no idea what he was thinking. I love my little froggies. I guess my daughter got that part from me. 

I love my children. I love my life. I wish my house was lighter on the inside, but otherwise, I love it, too. I’m in a happy mood today. It’s been a terrific Tuesday in my book - despite the freaking storm that I had to drive back home in. Whew. Can’t say that part of my day was much fun. I’m exhausted now. My Jr League meeting tonight was a little longer than I was expecting. I’m headed to pass out.

Sleep tight.  

    I’ve had a great day today. It has been one of my best days of the summer so far. My eldest had his hearing appointment today. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting. Whew. What a relief. The kids and I had a wonderful day today. Just spent time together. It was a very calm day. I think me setting the "calm" tone with them this morning started the ball rolling.

    What made me so calm ? I think my cleaning all day yesterday did. I cleaned the house so well. I did laundry. I did organizing. I’m not done by any means, but I had a peace inside of me that things were okay. I truly wish I could "relax" about things like this, but I can’t. It’s not my nature.

    I’m waiting for the phone call at any minute that my sister is in labor. She doesn’t think she is going to go into labor on her own. I think she will. I think I’m nesting with her. LOL. My cleaning and organizing is all her fault.

    Tomorrow the kids and I are headed to Baton Rouge. I bet those little suckers are up at the crack of dawn. Lol. They are so excited. We’re going swimming - if the weather is good. Pray, oh please pray, for RAIN. Storms. Lots of lightning. LOL. I don’t want to put my swimsuit on in front of strangers. haha. Actually, the strangers don’t bother me at all. It is my friends seeing me that makes me cringe. Oh, rain. Glorious rain. We need rain tomorrow. (yes, I’m finally cracking up)

    Well, I’m off to do my nightly routine. Yep, I’ve got one. Same thing every night. Maybe one day when I’m old - I’ll change.

Peace out, babycakes ! 

I think there is no greater bond than between loving sisters. I don’t know what I’d do without mine. It sometimes makes me sad that my daughter doesn’t have a sister to form that type of bond with. People tell me all the time "but she will have a best friend". sighs. Will that be enough for her ? Would a mother as a best friend fill that missing sisterly bond ? I wish I knew those types of answers.

Tonight was my sister’s babyshower. We had the best time. So much fun talking with people I haven’t seen in years. There is just something nostaglic about going back to your hometown. Brings back floods of memories.

So far I’m making it okay with my crazy weekend. I hope tomorrow is just as nice as today has been.

Night night all.  

    You didn’t read that wrong. Today is really Friday. I’m just tired of Fridays. I’m starting a "Thank God It’s Monday" club. Even though it is summer my Fridays are still bringing on the craziness. Oh, but what fun craziness. hehe. Tonight is my sister’s babyshower. Tomorrow is my leadership day. (Jr League). Tomorrow afternoon and night is Cub Scouts crap with the Zephers. Of course, then there is Mass on Sunday morning and maybe on Sunday afternoon I might actually do some laundry and cleaning. Joy.

    This morning I went and worked out with my friend. If it hadn’t been for her, I would not have been at the gym. Lol. I’m trying to get back on the bandwagon. Aiming for 4 days at the gym next week. One day I’m in Baton Rouge. Woohoo. My favorite Louisiana city.

    Remember, TGIF stands for "Toes Goes In First" in my book.

Peace out. Have a great weekend.  

I’ve never owned a "little black book" before. I may go purchase one now, though. I’ve never been so happy in all of my life to get addresses and phone numbers and emails for people. Woohoo. I only need about 6 more contact information thingies and I’m all set. What a relief. (for the Jr League stuff)

Now, what exactly constitutes plagiarism ? Just how many words does one need to change so that it isn’t plagiarism ? How many copied words does it take to constitute plagiarism ? Why am I so concerned ? Cause I plan on doing some much needed "copying". Contact letters. I’m going to change all the pertinent info, but I’m sure going to use them as "guidelines". That’s a good word. I’m using them as guidelines. Have you noticed that I just might be losing my mind lately ?

Hmm, 7 chapters to read tonight. On kindness. I bet I’ll end up taking this class a 2nd time. LOL.  My hair looks nicer. She cut too much off. Supposedly, I have hair that grows quickly. Yea, whatever. I prefer my hair longer. I prefer my body to be skinnier. Anybody have a free genie ?

Peace out.  

    I’ve got a little black cloud hanging over my head. Egads. I can’t wait till it’s gone. I used to think that I might want to go back to school. Nope. Screw that idea. LOL. I’m too old. Much too lazy to be writing papers and letters and crap. I’m too lazy to wrap gifts. Why on earth would someone think I’d want to write stuff - for free ? Okay, I’m shutting up with the whine. Got any cheese with that whine ?

    I’m still not back into a routine. I’m getting to the point in my life that I would rather just stay home. When I go away it seems to take me a solid week just to get back into the groove of things. Yes, I know I’m weird. I also know I’m not the only person who feels this way. Once I get my routine going then I’m okay. Having this black cloud (and dirty floors) over (and under) me are driving me crazy. sighs.

     I’m getting my hair done tomorrow. Thank the good lord for whoever invented hair dye. Just call me "Elvira". LOL.

Peace out. Night night. 

I’m home from my mini vacation at The Grand.  We had a wonderful time. I want to go back every month. LOL. The kids had a great time all except when G got stung by a big ole jellyfish. That was our only down moment.

We celebrated J’s "gotcha" day. I think she is finally starting to understand a bit more what that actually means. Tonight, I composed my first letter to her birthmother. After talking to J yesterday about the day I "got her", it really made me want to contact her birthmother even more. I hope that we are able to find some info out for J’s sake.

Short and sweet tonight. Tomorrow starts another full week. 

Peace out, Babycakes.  

    Fireworks don’t mean the same to me anymore. Now when I hear them I think of my father’s death.  In my mind, the fireworks started right after my father died. 8 years ago today.  He died at 7:35pm, holding my hand or rather I was holding his hand. I can remember everything. How he looked. How he sounded. It was horrible. When I think of the time he died and the timing of the fireworks they couldn’t have happened right after his death but more like 1 1/2 hours past his death. It really doesn’t matter. That is what I will always remember.

    The last words he ever spoke outloud were "I love you". He told that to me and he must have had to use a lot of energy because when he said them they were very loud. I hope that no one ever has to watch their loved one die. I know in reality that it happens daily, but it is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. 

    Aww, man. I’ve done so well today - until now. sighs. I’m glad we’re going out of town tomorrow, but in one way I wish we were staying home. My sis and her family are having a BBQ at my father’s old house tomorrow. I hate that I am going to miss out on that. We always talk of my father and tell tales of him. 

    I wish that my Poppa was still here. I know he would be a wonderful grandfather for my children. I’m sad that they miss out on that experience. I hope that I am a good grandmother one day. Not any time soon - but one day in 20 or 30 years. LOL.  

    So, ~~Happy 4th of July~~ for tomorrow.  

Today was a different day. I really enjoyed tennis. So much better than last Monday. It was quite unusual, though. Out of the blue, dh showed up to watch. hmmmm. Tomorrow ought to be real fun playing tennis. Holy moly. I watched the girls we are going to play against for a little while today. There were times when the opposing team could not even get their raquet on their serves. Fun times to be had tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.

Other than my fun at tennis, the rest of the day has been sorta sad. One of our neighbors’ relatives was killed in a car wreck. 17 years old. They are all so sad. Asked me if I could help them out a bit. Tomorrow is the anniversary of my father’s death. I’m always sad around this time. Blechy. I miss him.

I did decide that some of the work I’m supposed to be doing for Jr League can wait till I get back from the beach. It felt good to make that decision. LOL. And that’s about it for my day.

    Dh is still at the Seafood Festival showing his boat. His boat that he named "cappseyzed".  I just got off the phone with his brother. He is in the E.R. in Michigan and wanted to let us know that he "capsized" our boat and that the boom hit him in the head. He is not positive that he is okay. He has a previous head injury and he is very cautious with his nogin.

    So, does "capsize" mean our sailboat sunk ? I wouldn’t ask because it really wasn’t the time to be wondering if the sailboat is now sitting on the bottom of the Lake.

    For some reason, I just find the whole situation "ironic". Probably just my very warped mind.

   I did a lot of cooking today. All yummy food, too. I even shared with my neighbors. After my first "Hidden Power of Kindness" lesson and seeing "Evan Almighty", today, I’m really trying to do a little "act of random kindness".

   Please, oh please, I’m praying for a "Marvelous Monday" tomorrow.

Peace out, Babycakes.