Random Bits

I have always loved that song.  It is one I blare in the car and sing to the top of my lungs when nobody is with me.

Today I realized it was about a 13 year old boy that committed suicide after constantly being bullied.  I don’t love it as much.  I feel selfish to use it as a venting song now that I have learned why it was created in the first place.

Or maybe, it’s good to have a venting song to keep people from getting to that point.  Oy.

Either way, my heart goes out to the boy that was bullied, the girl that took her life shortly after, and everyone else suffering with being bullied, depression, or whatever ails ya.  I also pray for the bully-ers.  They often don’t realize the weight of their own tongues.  And they often are also in terrible pain that oozes out in the form of bullying.

It’s all just so sad.

Em and I had wanted to watch, My Sister’s Keeper since it was in the theaters.  We were’nt sure if it’d be worth a theater trip or if it was more of just a dvd movie.  So, we waited until it came out on DVD.

The other day, after we got our hair cut, we went by Wally World and bought it.  We brought it home and watched it before the boys came home.  Oh. My. Lan. Ta.

I cried through the whole thing.  The plot was very predictable and there wasn’t much suspense.  But, it was a tearjerker.  I really lost it. 

I just kept thinking about all the parents in real life that have to deal with childhood illness and cancer and such.  My heart was/is in wrenching pain thinking about it.

I’m so glad my kids are healthy.  I absolutely know I would not be strong enough to handle that.

On a lighter note…on the night of my birthday I waited for everyone to fall asleep and then I watched an oldie but a goodie, Spanglish.  Still love that movie, every time I watch it.  Love, love, love, love, love it!

And while I’m purging my brain of these rambling thoughts…

I knew I wouldn’t get any store bought presents for my birthday, for some reason.  Brian quit buying me gifts last year, or the year before.  The kids do make me wonderful, wonderful, wonderfully tear jerking presents that I’ll cherish forever.  But that didn’t stop me from going on a little shopping spree for myself the day before my bday.

I just bought little stupid things, makeup and stuff like that.  But the whole time I was shopping, my mind was saying, “Don’t buy this crap.  Your birthday is tomorrow.  You’re probably going to feel guilty when you are awakened with breakfast in bed and presents!!”

Then…

“You know nobody’s going to buy you anything, just go ahead.  It’s your birthday!  You’ll be lucky if anyone remembers you.”

I’m happy to say that nobody forgot me.  The kids baked me a homemade cake.  I’ll post pictures later.  I love my kids.  They are my world.  Without them, I’d have no reason to be here.

LoL–crazy huh?

I forgot to tell you that sis and I got haircutz the other day.  The salon was smart about it this time.  They took me first, and then had someone come get Emma.  They waited until I was 1/2 cut before they took her.  They knew I couldn’t get up and come supervise!  Kudos to them!!

After they cut her hair, they curled it — like prom or something.  It was very, very cute!  And she loved it.

It turned out good because she didn’t want to get her hair cut.  She wants to grow it out.  But when they curled it and dolled her up, it made it much easier to transition. 

And yes, I am letting her grow her hair out.  The problem is that we’re trying to let the slant bob part in the back get even with the front.  It’s taking it a while to get all evened out.

Anyway, they were also smart because I couldn’t tell if they cut it straight until we got home and washed the curls out.  Very much kudos to them!  Nice job, I say!  They found a few ways to keep me from supervising!  JK 

Yep.  It was straight.  They did a fantastic job.  I’ll post pics later.

It was a fantastic day for Em and I!

Ephesians 5:4, “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.”

Some other blogs I read are going to try to give a whole week of ‘thanks,’ according to the aforementioned scripture.  I have really thought about this.  I’m sad to say that even doing it for a day has given me the scary chills.  OUCH!  What does that make me?  Wow!  Talk about an eye-opener…

Anyway…I have decided to give it a go, sort of.  I will try to do it tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday.  Can alcohol be involved??  JKJKJKJK!

The idea is that you don’t gripe, don’t grump, don’t pester, don’t even joke.  You just give thanks for everything.  Example, “Thank you Lord for giving me a healthy body to enable me to get this laundry done,” instead of, “Why in the heck do I always have to do the cooking and cleaning??  I work too, you know!  I wish I could just work and then come home and sit on my arse!”

Get me?

It will be hard for me.  I know this because I spent all day yesterday watching what I say.  I’m really bad at ‘jesting’ or ‘coarsely joking.’  AKA, I have a smart mouth.

Oy.

My guess is that this is probably me being ‘emo’.  However, I can’t get past a few things that have happened recently — or that have not happened.  I’m so sad.

I woke up this morning and realized that it’s quite possible that nobody gets me.

The other morning I woke up and proceeded to get the kids ready for school.  Once I got to Breyt’s school he says (in his most’est serious man tone), “Mom, I just got a call from the US Government, and they are after you.”

“What?  Why?  I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“That’s illegal.  You can’t do anything right.  Mom, I love you.”

“You do?  I love you too, baby.”

“Yes.  Will you buy me that?  It’s perfessly safe…just like making fire and stuff.”

I can’t keep up with his mind.  It matches mine on the inside, but he’s not afraid to wear his out loud.

The other day both kids were arguing like crazy.  I’ll admit it.  It was driving me nuts.  So I brought them both downstairs to have a serious talk with them.  I told them if they didn’t get along with each other than I wouldn’t give Breyt a ride to wrestling and Em would have to miss basketball.

They knew what they had to do.

They turned to face each other, scrinched up faces and all, and each offered a hug to the other.  Then they gently hugged each other as if they were afraid they were going to catch cooties or something.  I appreciated the effort.  I come from a large family.  I know all about sibling rivalry.

Anyhoo, out of nowhere Breyt just really squeezed the heck out of emma.  She was grunting for air.  She wanted to smack him, but knew I meant business about bball.  She endured the pain.  When I caught Breyt’s eyes, he knew he was caught.  He so pitifully looks up at me and says, “I did that cuz I love her a lot.”

I laughed so hard I could barely stand it.  I don’t know why it was so funny.  Maybe it was just because he really thought I’d believe it.

Apparently, Hi-Top Punky Brewster shoes are the in thing.  I’ve already written about them once, but I continue to see growing amounts of them on the street.  Were they featured by Oprah?

Speaking of…wouldn’t you just love to see Oprah in a pair of Hi-Top Punky Brewster  shoes?  I can see the headlines, “Oprah working from home in her Hi-Top Punky Brewster shoes!”

Jk.  I don’t know why I wrote that.  Just being silly, I guess.

I’m REALLY trying to get back into blogging regularly because I TRULY love to go back and read the old posts.  It is chock full of memories, I tell ya.

Sometimes it’s hard to slow down long enough to realize what you have been enjoying. 

Both kids are staying busy.  Breyton is a wrestler now.  He just finished soccer.  He also plays tball/baseball every year.  He can’t wait to try football, basketball, and he (for some reason) really wants to be in Boy Scouts.  I like very much that he’s so hungry for life. 

Breyton is really good at all sports so far, if he doesn’t lose focus.  It doesn’t take much to bore him.  If he gets bored, he kind of disappears to another place.

You can literally see the difference in his face.  His body will be there, going through the motions, but his eyes are all hazed over.  If you try to talk to him, he doesn’t respond.  Really, seriously.  We haven’t decided if it’s a gift or a curse, but his wife will not be pleased with this ability to phase the outside world out, I’m sure. 

He is also uber competitive.  They both are.  You didn’t really get to see it from Emma until her brother came along.  Now, I think she is more competitive than him. 

She is like me though.  She competes in EVERYTHING.  You can think you’re having a simple conversation with her, but actually you are in some sort of competition — always.  You may not always know what it is, but it always exist.

Emmy is in Girl Scouts, Tumbling, and Basketball.  She surprised me by how much she loves basketball.  Her old standards in life wouldn’t allow her to sign up for anything that required running. 

She’s not really lazy, she just doesn’t like to run.  Her ankles hurt.  She has been complaining about them since she was two.  I have had her in for x-rays more than once and they can’t find anything wrong with them.  Poor chica. 

But yeah…she’s loving the basketball.  AND she’s good at it.  She is right handed, but when it comes to dribbling she actually does better with her left hand!  Cool, eh? 

She’s not ambidextrous.  We’ve checked her a million times since she was born because Brian wanted a left handed kid…(especially a boy for baseball, but Emma was stuck being his boy until Breyt was born, lol).

I’m so darn proud of both of my kids.  They are amazing people, and I don’t deserve to be their mother.

But anyway…keep your eye out for those Hi-Top Punky Brewster  shoes.  They’re everywhere.

Dad…are you going to meet us in Atlanta??  Maybe we can get Laura Lou to cook us an early Thanksgiving dinner.  I think you and mom should crash at her apartment with us.  How fun would that be?   

We were going to stay at the Marriot, but she said she wanted us to chill at her crib.  Here’s your chance.  You can get both of your daughters to stop nagging you, if you make the 1 hour drive down to the ATL from your house.  Come on…you know you want to.  It’s no ice rink, but it’s a good start in restoring our faith in your love. 

(HHHHHHAAA!  I bet you’re loving my crackah butt right about now.)

Throw caution to the wind and hop on I75 South.  If we’re feelin froggy, we’ll head on down to Florida, or Hilton Head in South Carolina.  You know, I have mobility in my work now.  I can do it from a laptop, at the condo. 

Brian has to actually and physically drive to his place of work to do his job.  Can’t really do electrical work from a remote location…  BUT!  That’s okay.  We’ll send him pics.  (JK ‘Hon.  We want you to join us.  We do.  Really.)

Anyway dad…call me, and let’s do this.  For Really Though.

I just wrote and deleted TWO ranting Working from Home posts.  I won’t publish them because I don’t want to be mean.  Let me simply say that just because I’m working from my home office, doesn’t mean I’m not working, or that I have less responsibility than before.  Let me also add that noncompete agreements are a bitch.  If I knew the last one I signed would require vaseline, I never would’ve signed it.

Now for the post consisting of only topics that are bright and cheery, and full of things like elephants burping rainbows (or turtles farting butterflies)…

I’m going to Atlanta this weekend, and I can’t wait!!  I get to see my sis.  Woot!!!  We can sing Hanson songs, stay up late and watch dorky movies, eat til we blurgh, and talk about our feelings.  lol.  Maybe she’ll do my nails for me?  Maybe I’ll wait until this weekend to get my hair did.  Then I can have one of dem der fancy ATL stylist do it for me.  Maybe.  Just maybe.

It ’s so odd that everyone talks of what a country bumpkin I must be – being from GA.  It makes sense.  I get it.  But, I only had to live in IL for about 10 minutes to realize that that stereotype was actually backward.  WAY BACKWARD, ya’ll.

We can’t even get good radio stations here.  If it weren’t for the internet, I wouldn’t even know that Blink 182 got back together, or that Green Day released a new album.  I didn’t even hear about Kings of Leon until WELL after their hits canvassed the whole nation (except here…in the country).

Here, the only traffic jam I’ve ever seen is when a combine is on the highway.  That’s an Il traffic jam.

I shouldn’t slam it here.  It’s not all bad.  It does crack me up though.  I think it wouldn’t crack me up at all if it weren’t for the fact that when I lived in Georgia, we always thought we were the epitome of ‘country’.  Dude, yo, bra – we didn’t even know what ’country’ was.

And it’s even funnier, because like I said before, people that haven’t come to visit me yet seem to visualize that I live in a Chicago-esque place.  LoL!  When you think of IL, you generally do think of Chicago, right?  So. Not. True.

So I guess it’s true, I’m a liar.

I keep saying I’ll come back and update you with what’s going on in our lives.  There’s just no time!  …in a good way.

Breyton did lose his first tooth a few days ago.  He got $4 from the tooth fairy.  Emma has to get braces.  Her top two teeth won’t come out, bless her heart.

We had parent teacher conferences.  Breyton has had a TON of first quarter improvement.  Emma is gifted…we knew that.  I love them both so much, and I’m so proud of both of them for their accomplishments.  They both work very hard at being good people.  They’re my superheroes.

Anyway…yes.  I’m a liar.  Please forgive me!  I am trying to get back in the habit of blogging regularly.  I think about it all the time.  I just don’t get to it.

If you hover over the pics you can get a title to pop up.  We have been so busy…camping, fishing, fairs, museums, ocean, trails, first day of school, soccer, tball, girl scouts and on and on and on.  Life is good.

Oh, and I quit my job.  Eeeeek!  It’s all good though.  So far, it’s working out wonderfully.

I can’t believe it’s not butter!  And I can’t believe I have not posted since May.  I’m so sorry!!!  It has been very busy since then.  We went on our mini-vacay down to the ocean, changed career paths, started school (3rd grade and Kindergarden), fell madly in love with our spouse, learned of two-faced people around us and who knows what else?  There’s so much to say and so much to talk about!

I promise to make an effort to get some pics up this weekend and talk a little bit about what we’ve missed.  It’s important because one day I’ll want to look back on this blog as precious memories.  And we all know that my memory is fading fast!  I can hardly put a sentence together without having to stop and think about what I’m saying and I put the Fritos in the freezer the other day!  Eeeek!

I prefer Tretorns over Punky Brewster shoes.  I always have.  Even when I was a sophomore in high school I loved Tretorns.  They were the perfect pair of ‘everyday’ shoe.  They went with jeans, capris, shorts — you name it.

It’s a wonderful thing, this internet.  It’s been a long time since my highschool days but thanks to Google, I was able to locate some Tretorns.  White with navy blue.  Thank you, shoes.com. 

I will say the laces seem a lot cheaper and thinner.  The outer lining seems cheaper as well.  However, after a few days of breaking them in I couldn’t be happier.  Aaaah.  Now if I could just find some suspenders and a Blossom hat. 

JKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

When I picked daughter up from school today she said the greatest thing in the world happened to her today.

Then she shoved her finger in my face and said, “Smell this mom!”

She was so excited; grinning from ear to ear.

I have a five year old BOY so I have learned a strong lesson about smelling things randomly offered to my nose.  No matter how cute and delicate she is, I politely refused.

“Please mom!  Just smell it!  It’s important!”

So I take a little sniff only to find that I don’t smell anything except the ordinary smell an elementary school aged child holds after a long day with other stinky kids and a cafeteria and a gymnasium and a playground. 

Don’t make that face — you know the smell.

She finally lets me in on the secret that she finally stinks and is therefore ready to wear deodorant!   I haven’t seen her happier in weeks!

“Honey, it smells fine.  I’m very sorry to say this but baby you don’t stink yet.”

She informed me that I was wrooooonnnnngggg!  BUT! She knew that I would try to ruin her life so she had safeguards in place because see she first let her BFF smell her finger (that had been in her pit) and she confirmed the stench.

She knew that wouldn’t be enough for me so she then took the finger with the alledged smell to her ‘almost’ bff, a.k.a. ‘bff in training’ and this girl too confirmed it was not a pretty smell.

If I don’t believe her I can just, ‘call her friends’.  They will tell me the truth.

“But daughter, why do I need to call them when I can clearly see you smell only like clean laundry?”

Tears.  Pain.  Agony.

“Mom,” sniffle sniffle sob sob “I really don’t need your sarcasm right now.  Please.  This is hard enough without you making jokes.”  cry cry cry cry  “Can’t you see I’m becoming a woman?  It’s a trying time for me.”

WHAT????????  WHAT THE HAY??????????  WHO?  THE WAHT?DKJS:LK*#&%^% $#$)(^*#$

oy.

Son was sitting at the dining room table enjoying his breakfast.  I was in my bedroom drying my hair and getting ready for work. 

I notice his clean unnie wear sitting on my bed so I yell in to ask him if he remembered to change his unnie wear.  Lately, he has just been putting his new unnie wear on top of his old unnie wear without actually changing.  Then he tries to see how long he can go before anyone notices he has on two (or more) pair of unnie wear on at the same time.  It’s a regular riot at our house.  I’ll tell ya!

So anyway –  I see him peek down his britches to see if he’s wearing any shorts under his shorts.  His eyes get really big and he makes an, “OH!  NO!” face.  He undoubtedly just realized that he wasn’t wearing any underwear!

My son though…doesn’t skip a beat.

He quickly yells back in to me,

“What mom?”

chomp, chomp on the breakfast as if nothing is going on

“Are you there??”

another bite…

“I can’t hear you mom!  You’re breaking up!”

everytime I try to cut in and say something he replies with something like,

“Can you hear me now?”

Finally I just bust out laughing because I’m peeking at him and can see that he has a straight face the whole time as if he really was on the phone with me.

At last he says, “I’m sorry mom.  I’m going to have to call you back.  I can’t hear you at all now.”

Then he quietly finished his breakfast as I  rolled around on the floor laughing hysterically.

He ended up going to daycare with NO unnie wear on.

Sheez. 

Had to add how awesome it would be to take my Jeep to Tybee Island and chill at the cean to the O…  Right?  Right.

Don’t let me do it.  Not a wise decision.

We are in a recession.  I could lose my job any day now.

BUT on the drive down I could see my peeps.  Heck!  Maybe I could even have a few follow me down to the each to the B.  Right?  Right!

No.  Don’t let me.

Vroooom!

Remind me later to post some pics of my kids riding their new bikes.  They can both ride now and it is awesome!  We ride our bikes to the park and to the trail and wherever else we feel like riding.  I’m so glad winter is over.  We needed some sunshine!

We are back to being crazy busy but it’s worth it.  Everyone’s happy.  Life is great.

Thinking of buying a Jeep…  Oh yeah!  One of my little lifelong dreams… It’s so tempting this time of year when they’re all sitting out bright and shiny and new.  Maybe I’ll do some test drives this weekend but hopefully I’ll be strong enough to not buy my own Mother’s Day gift.  That would be wrong.  Right?  Tell me that would be wrong.  Don’t let me do it.  Talk me out of it.

Navy blue or White???

Beep Beep!  Who got the keys to the Jeep?  Vrooooom!!

This is Mai Diva. She requires sunglasses, even in the rain. She is beautiful and not nearly as diva as I make it sound but I like to give her a hard time about it. And she likes to be called, Mai Diva.

This pic is how she looks in the morning when I take her to school. Once we arrive, her diva party awaits her. She has a dedicated fan base of four who patiently stand grouped together at the fence until Mai Diva arrives. Once they see our car pull up, they start jumping up and down and screaming. The whole play yard pauses for a moment to see, Mai Diva, step out of the car and, you know, Arrive.

One day we got there a little early and I told her she should let the other girls know how good it feels to have a posse waiting. She said, “Nah.”

Diva!

The end.

When did my daughter stop admiring me for everything I am and everything I know? When did she begin thinking I know nothing unless SHE taught ME?

When?

My very young daughter flashed a peace sign the other day with her fingers. We were walking out of the daycare building and the daycare owner waved goodbye to us as we walked out. Daughter, instead of waving goodbye, flashed a peace sign.

When I looked down at her confused as to WHY SHE WAS FLASHING A PEACE SIGN she said, “What?”

I still kept looking.

She said, “It’s a Peace sign. For peace. You know.”

“Yeah! I know.”

“What?! It’s a P-E-A-C-E sign!”

“Yeah! I know.”

“It’s cool mom. You know…”

“YEAH! I know.”

“It means peace mom. It’s a good thing.”

“YEAH! I KNOW.”

Lately, she feels the need to explain EVERYTHING to me. She thinks I don’t know anything. How did we get here from there??

Yep! It’s that time of year again! Put a fire in the pit. Put the kids in the yard with a popsicle or on the trampoline with their shoes off.

Put the grown-ups in comfy chairs around a fire and hand them all a weiner to roast.

Thank you for such a wonderful thing.

Marshmallows…beware. I don’t really care to eat you but you’re fun to roast!

“You want funder?! I’ll give you funder!”

Those were the words of my five year old son this morning as he firmly held both fists up, boxer style, in an effort to be more ‘manly’.

I’ve shared lots of stories about my dad to my children and they cling on to them for dear life. I knew my son was referring to how my dad used to jokingly show us two fists — one ‘thunder’ and the other ‘lightening’.

He would flash his muscles and we would tell him they were as big as bowling balls. It was a barrel of fun and I really miss those days.

Sometimes I would tell my dad his muscles were as big as baseballs just to watch him continue to flex until I agreed that on second thought they were much more bowling ball-esque.

I still get to talk to my dad on the phone and make random trips for quick visits but it’s not the same. We’re all older and always in a hurry. I’m too big to hang from his bowlilng ball arms like a monkey.

BUT! It’s so much fun to watch my kids grow up with some of my memories. They hang on their daddy’s arms they same way I did. Son tries to bring the “funder” and daughter is forever reminding me of my life as a 2nd grader.

I’ll take that Funder anytime. And! Bring on all the 2nd grade girlie drama. I’m all over it! BUT! I miss my daddy.