GGT2: We Have A Winner!

The Clue:



Congratulations to John!

The Answer:



Thanks to everyone who played!

Groovy Guess Tuesday #2

Take your guess.... what is this?
Will you be my next SmartyPants Winner on my sidebar?

(Something found in my house.)

View my Groovy Guess Tuesday Flickr Set for Game Clarification.


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If you would like to post the button on your blog, click the button to get the link.

Google Video

Well, since we were traveling we missed ~Date Night~. Date night for us is whenever Survivor is on. We avoid distractions and usually do something fun for dinner and watch the show together. Quality time set aside for us outside our busy schedules.

We were really bummed out that we missed the episode on Thursday. BUT!

Yes, BUT! ...

Google Video has it for sale! Now we'll have two date nights this week - hooray!

And my husband already informed me we're going out to eat tonight...yay! Hot salsa, cold beer... HERE WE COME!

But I also noticed while browsing through the Google Video catalog, that they give you the option of putting videos on your site or blog...

So I'm testing it out by putting my daughter's favorite song (she still LOVES this song...) on the blog here:



How fun! I'm sure as time goes on, more and more videos, movies, and tv shows will become available... Heck, I may not have to subscribe to cable tv after too long!

Home Again

We got back from our quick weekend trip yesterday afternoon. We actually started our trip back on Saturday night so we could get about half of it driven while the kiddies slept...

On our trip up, we saw a coulple semi trucks delivering carrots. I've never in my life seen so many carrots and I sure didn't think they were transported out in the open like this...



We did the drive up in one long trip. We stopped at one rest area to tend to feeding the munchkins and go for a little walk to stretch our legs. The sun was already setting and we had still several hours of driving left. A nine hour drive is long no matter how you look at it.



The kids were really great though, and we didn't stop again except to get gas. We were very tired when we finally got to the ranch, but we had comfy beds waiting for us.

The next morning would be spent taking in the scenery and enjoying the fresh air.



I took the birthday girl and her baby sister out to lunch for tacos (as that's her constant crave these days along with hot dogs...) and then even though I tried to get the eldest of my daughters to nap for over two hours, she absolutely would.not.go.to.sleep.

So when it came time to go to her pizza party that evening, she was tired. And amazingly well behaved considering she hadn't slept.



And by the blur on the above picture, you can note my exhaustion level as well. Wow, I was so tired.

So tired in fact, that I didn't lift my camera to take a single picture of her blowing out her candles on her Princess cake after pizza. Or snap a shot of her glowing smile when we all sang her happy birthday. There were 10 adults that attended her party...and her little face shone brighter than the two candles on her cake. She grinned from ear to ear and you could tell she felt like the most important person in the world. When we stopped singing the song, we asked her, "Do you want us to sing to you again?"

And she replied with the sweetest, little, "Please." you ever did hear. So we sang again and she melted all over again. I can only hope that I can get copies of some of the pictures that other people were taking.

One of her precious gifts she got from her Auntie was a Cabbage Patch Baby. The grandmas wanted to see the two infants lying side by side, so they were laid on a soft blanket on the living room floor. My toddler didn't miss a beat though and went and grabbed her Cabbage Patch Baby and laid it on the blanket right next to the other babies. It stole the show and one could hear a unified, "awwww!" across the room from the ladies and men alike. Again, no energy to lift my camera, so hopefully I'll get a copy of that moment as well.

As I played my Mommy Card that evening to bring the festivities to a close and get everyone headed to bed, one of the last conversations was to have my daughter rehearse her animal sounds again. She's so darn cute when she does this which is probably why we ask her over and over to perform.

"What does a dog sound like?"
"Woof! Woof!"
"What does a kitty sound like?"
"Meeeewwwwwww" <--this response right here is just the sweetest sound ever...
"What does a cow sound like?"
"Moooooooooooo!" "<--said with authority...
"What does a lion sound like?"
"RRRAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRRRRR!"
"What does a bird sound like?"
"Chirp chirp"

And since my husband was holding her at the time, we threw in for good measure...

"What does Daddy sound like?"

And if she wasn't sweet enough already, she leaned over and gave him a kiss...

"Aww Daddy does sound like kisses!"

And with that we left.

We all slept well that night, just not nearly enough.

Saturday was spent running a couple errands, and my husband spent some more time scouting out some more land we purchased. This is a picture my husband took of the hill we bought...



And here's one shot my husband took of the view...



While he was busy doing that, I was enjoying time with the kids and filling all the bird feeders on the ranch. I've never had bird feeders, but it was so much fun watching the birds and getting out all the fun bird seed, that I think I'm going to buy some!



We had a wonderful dinner before we headed out where my daughter got to open even more gifts. She had a very spoiled birthday weekend.

We drove about half way home and stopped at a Holiday Inn Express for the night. It was late. We were so tired. The kids were sleeping in the car.

My husband got a room and we as quietly and quickly emptied the car. Of course, both children woke up. By the time we were situated and both kids were back to sleep, it was 12:30am.

My husband and I had just drifted off...about ten minutes later, believe it or not, the smoke alarm batteries reached their low point and the thing started to CHIRP loudly... high pitched, LOUD, chirp every few seconds at 12:30am.

My husband starts standing on the bed to fiddle with it, and I hollar out, "NO! Don't touch it! My gosh, if the stupid thing goes off the fire department will show up!"

So he gets down and calls the front desk and they tell us we need to move to a different room.

I tell my husband to go to the next room first and get it all set up exactly how are current room is. That way we can transition the toddler from one room to the next hopefully without a whole lot of hoorah. I could manage the baby and all the bags if he could just tend to Munchkin #1.

Off he went with our oldest daughter, and shortly after I followed with the baby slung over one shoulder, and the diaper bag, the toiletries bag, the blankets, and snack bags, and my purse, and shoes, and and and...I was loaded! When I got to the new room's door, I tried to push it opening thinking my husband left it unhitched for me to sneak in. Nope. The door didn't budge.

So there I am in the hallway after midnight of some strange hotel thinking, "Ok, well I'm sure he'll come get me as soon as he gets our daughter settled..."

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I'm rocking our infant from side to side on my shoulder and entirely bogged down with bags and other things.

I wait some more.

Finally after about five or more minutes of waiting, the door opens with a very groggy husband looking at me in his tshirt and underwear, "Um are you going to come in and sleep or what???"

"Well, yes that would be nice as soon as you.let.me.in!"

He thought I had a key of my own for the new room and he.had.gone.to.bed!!

Glad he came to look for me...

The next morning we finished our drive rather uneventfully and arrived back home in the early afternoon.

I think I'm done with road trips for a little while.

Now to unpack and do laundry...

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Baby step:: eventually getting there


2. Wasted:: time


3. Reggie:: Jackson


4. Pitiful:: excuse


5. Acting out:: terrible twos


6. Tomato:: tomahhhto


7. Bad night:: typical


8. Trip:: stressful


9. Finance charges:: bank


10. Sport:: rugby

Thursday's Photo Challenge: PINK

Happy Birthday, Little One!

Happy Birthday to my munckin #1... she's a big two year old today!





We're heading out of town for her birthday to see family for the weekend.

Ten hours each way in the car with two kids under 3... Does anyone feel sorry for me? And no dvd player. No cd player. A tape cassette with no tapes. I don't even know if the blasted thing works even if I had tapes!


We had a fun time playing at the park yesterday with friends...

Is she a little budding athlete or what? :)

I Had To Laugh

"I can't believe you wasted your precious breath on analyzing and criticizing me on such a trivial matter..."

"Did you hear that? Mommy thinks Daddy's breath is precious..."

Sweet Surprise

My husband surprised me with these three fun things when he walked through the door from work tonight.

A cute girly movie, Fever Pitch.

Chocolates.

Movie Theatre Buttered Microwavable Popcorn.

All were wonderful...it was a nice treat and unexpected!

Groovy Guess Tuesday: We Have a Winner!

Manababies figured it out...

Here is the clue picture:



Here is the original:



Congrats to the winner!! I suppose I should make a ~SmartyPants~ list...

Groovy Guess Tuesday #1

Every Tuesday I will post a new photo, macro or relatively close-up, of something in my house that's been kaleidescoped. It's up to you to guess what it's a picture of... the original photo will be revealed on the following Tuesday along with the next puzzle.

Who will be the first one to guess? and win??

I'll post a second ~easier~ version of the original before next Tuesday if it looks like no one's guess is close... Good luck!


Click on the photo for more viewing options.

If you would like to post the button on your site, click the button below to get the link.

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Button:



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Monday's Weigh-In

Scale reads: 141 lbs

This is the last Monday for a long while that I'll be doing a weigh-in. It's having negative results on me. I spend too much time thinking about the pending weigh-in...

And since I'm thinking about the scale too much it triggers me thinking about my weight and that triggers me to think about how I'm eating healthier and that reminds me that I'm hungry and it's all down hill from there...because it makes me hungry ALL THE TIME.

So I end up eating bad food ...and more bad food than good food because of the endless hunger and thus I think I'm much worse off than I was before!

UGH!

So, no more scale reading for me. I'm just going to go live life and strive to be healthy without the constant focus on numbers. I'll weigh myself every blue moon, but like I've always done before, I primarily just go by how my clothes fit.

I'm too obsessed otherwise.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Right time:: To have a baby.


2. Funeral:: A very private moment.


3. Calculate:: Figure out.


4. Believe me:: Trust.


5. Chat:: MSN Messenger


6. Anniversary:: June 14


7. Let you down:: Depeche Mode


8. Shout:: Hear me already!


9. Sweatsock:: What the hell is a sweatsock?


10. Prayer:: Answer me, please.

UPDATE:
I decided to do a Google image search for 'sweatsock' and here's a few of the interesting results:










I think I might be a bit more confused now than before the search....

Baby

So I came across this site and it looks like fun. So here I go...my first step toward participation:

: Baby



Click on the picture for more viewing options.

My Mouth's On Fire!

My husband and I had an interesting discussion last night at the dinner table. After he ate seven packets of hot sauce on his tacos, I learned something (once he was able to speak again):

Not to eat seven packets of hot sauce at once no matter how much you like the taste of an individual packet of hot sauce.

But more than that really...

We all know our tongue is covered with taste buds. And that our taste buds allow us to taste specific flavors- salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and then something called umami.

Copied from Dr. Gourmet to refresh your memory:

There are five types of receptors on the tongue that sense all of the flavors that we taste. They are salt, sweet, bitter, sour and one called umami. Umami is a taste receptor that was identified only about six years ago and is best described as savory.

Each of these flavors acts on their own, but how they interact with each other is key to making recipes taste fantastic. Activation of any one taste will enhance another taste bud.

So what was it exactly that was ~tasting~ the hotness of the sauce in regard to my husband? I certainly don't see 'hot' as a category listed above.

I learned that the receptor that's triggered when we have the sensation of 'hot' (spicy hot not temperature) are our pain receptors...

So really, when we're enjoying that tasty basket of chips dipped into that yummy HOT salsa... and we reach for our beer or glass of water to quench that undying heat... it's our body demonstrating pain at it's best...

I thought that was fascinating!

Caught Being Curious

"There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Daunting Dreamland

I haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep lately. Mind is full. Children are busy. Hot. Cold. Strange noise. Phone. Hungry. Uncomfortable. List.goes.on.

But when I have been sleeping, my dreams have been entirely crazy, long, and vivid.

Last night I had a dream where I was in a restaurant and my mother decided to hang from the curtains naked. Now mind you, she's an attractive woman, but watching your own mother hang from curtain rods in public place completely nude...dreamland or not, it's not really a pleasant experience. And when our waitress noticed what my mother was doing, instead of being aghast, she decided to join her... only just as soon as she hung from her knees upside down, the only hair she had on her head were two braids hanging from the sides of her head and she was bald as a trailer hitch on the top. It was freaky to say the least... and her bald head was a bit disturbing too coupled with the scary grin she had on her face.

Then the night before last my dream was so very long changing from one location and scene to the next and yet somehow it was all tying in together.

I was at some house that's unfamiliar to me in my waking world. I don't know if it was a familiar house to me or not in my dream world. The house was long and full of white woodwork, lots of windows and hardwood floors. Country/beach house style in decorations...and quiet. Very quiet. Lots of doors and a couple staircases. But primarily windows...walls of them. I had decided that the quietness of the house was too much for me and I decided to investigate what some of the commotion outside was about. As I left the house and began walking up the dirt road, off to my left was a hillside and lots of trees scattered about a green lawn shaded by the evening hours coming to rest.

Up in the trees I heard shouting and yelling and other muffled noises expressed with gruffness.

In the dusk, I changed my glance to my right and noticed a group of children playing. Among them were a handful of adults.

As to not be in their way, I ventured toward the left just a bit and one of the men that was supervising the children ran up to me. He warned me that I had no belonging up in the dark area of the forest at night...even in the early evening there were precautions one should take. I believe he was a police man of sorts, but in recollections I can't be sure.

I brushed off his words of warning and walked a bit into the dark forest anyways. Just on the edge of it, no further. And the details are hazy, but I recall being approached verbally from a distance and I felt alarmed and scared. I ran back to the house, to which no children were playing on the path any longer. I locked the door and proceeded through at least two more doors and locked each of them behind me. I had been hoping for a feeling of security with each door that I locked, but I could still see the dark forest looming outside since the walls were all windows.

I sat in the house alone and soon found myself wandering a bit.

I came across my grandfather who has been long passed for nearly two decades now. I was so surprised to see him standing before me.

"You're back!??? You're back!!!"

He said nothing.

His silence didn't seem strange to me in my dream, I was so focused on the fact that by some miracle he had come back from the dead.

From that scene I ended up at the hospital with my husband and daughters. We were supposed to go to room #108. It had felt like we hadn't eaten all day, so my husband sent me to the hospital room while he gathered up some food for us.

I walked down the hallway and glanced at the door to #108. The door was closed, however doors #107 and #109 were wide open and those rooms were emtpy. I thought it was strange that our door was closed, so I opened it slowly. In front of me was a woman on a large exam table hooked up to endless wires and contraptions.

"Oh I'm sorry. Pardon me!" and I closed the door quickly and walk back to my husband.

He assured me we were to be in room #108 and we all walked back as a family. Only this time, my husband told me it was a hospital policy that we walk naked back to the room. So there we were. Walking naked down the hospital hallway back to our room #108. I felt so embarassed and exposed and thought the hospital was rather strange to make us walk so indecently.

When we got back to the room, my husband opened the door all the way this time compared to my partial opening of it... to show that the room really had four areas for four different families to stay in. My husband asked the woman on the end if she could move to the next station over. For some reason we needed to be on the end by the door...perhaps because we were expecting company.

My grandfather showed up again then and my grandmother (who's now been passed nearly a decade although in my dream it didn't feel like she had ever died) and another girl showed up. She felt to be a peer of mine. Someone I confided in. Someone I had attended courses with. Her face and demeanor were unfamiliar to me.

We were happy that my grandparents had arrived and my grandmother was being her silly self and was walking backwards away from us toward the curtain that separated our area from the next family's. She stepped wrong and fell flat on her bottom. She kind of chuckled as we all asked if she was okay and tried to help her up.

But the family next to our area was so irritated that we asked them to move over from their original area because their area was now smaller. The woman in the next area over who was elderly was fuming mad and very belligerent. She decided that even though the curtain designated a wall of somesort, she was going to push the hospital bed over in to our area anyways to give them more space. She did this in such a hasty manner that she ended up knocking my grandmother in the head.

We all let out a wail of alarm. Only the woman didn't stop. She proceeded to bulldoze my grandmother across our area and smush her up against the wall. I grab my grandmother, who at first glance looked terribly beaten and pummeled, and helped her up. I looked her closely in the face and asked if she was okay... but then she only had a small scratch on her face and beyond that was fine.

I turned to ask my grandfather something and POOF he was gone. The only person left in the void room now was the girl my age who appeared to be my peer of some sort.

I turned to her and asked her where my grandfather went... She told me he was never really here to begin with. And I resisted her words and insisted that he had come back. At this point she brought up the fact that he hadn't spoken at all and how could he have vanished so quickly if he had really returned...

From this moment, her and I head off to some sort of seminar or course. I was unprepared as usual. I didn't have anything to write with. I didn't have any paper. I took a seat in the small attic setting of a classroom next to a window and watched the other seats filling in with more peers...

I turned to the girl I came there with, "Can I borrow some of your paper?"

As she handed me a few sheets, I woke up.

Note To Self

Do not give your nearly 2 year old child brand new, rainbow colored, high heeled, flip flop sandals just before nap time - she wont sleep.

Off In the Distance

My mind is daydreaming today.


Click the photo for more viewing options.

It's Going To Be Okay

In an effort to get another gift for my husband (several beers wrapped up in Valentine gift bags to fill half of the bottom shelf of the fridge...) my daughters and I headed out for a late afternoon walk to the grocery store. We also needed milk and a light bulb...oh the excitement!

The store was actually pretty crowded - lots of men picking up flowers and/or balloons and chocolates...some looking at end-of-the-isle wine glasses... lots of booze buying.

The shopping itself was uneventful. I had a good chuckle watching a man try to pick out milk for himself. He took out one half gallon and realized it wasn't what he wanted and put it back. He went to take out another half gallon, and then paused and watched to see which milk I was going to get. Then he rerouted from the second half gallon and bought what I had.

I snuck into the Express lane even though I had a few more items than the limit of 15. It's Valentine's Day...a day of love...what were they going to do to me?

And in the next isle over I hear a woman's voice speaking toward me, "You're really busy aren't you??"

"Well, yes. Yes, I am." as I gesture to my baby in the Bjorn and then to my toddler in the stroller.

The woman asks me how old each of my daugters are and repeats how busy I must be and goes on to explain that she is newly pregnant and her son is one so she'll be in the same boat as I am. She asked me how it's going.

My oldest daughter is a spunky princess and it's no secret that she hates to sleep. She's hated sleeping right from the get go. Even moments after she was delivered she was looking around the room taking in her environment. She even turned her head to look at my cell phone when it rang. She screamed for the first 45 minutes of her life and she's not lost that sense of energy since.

"It's a lot of work, but it's manageable. It's a lot of fun, but you're just tired most the time. It would be easier if our oldest liked to sleep, but she doesn't and that's what makes it a challenge with having two."

The woman nodded at me with an understanding gaze.

"My son hates to sleep too."

And with that we smiled at each other and bought our groceries and went on our way.

I met up with her in the parking lot as she was loading her groceries into her car and I was heading on my walk home.

I offer up, "Congratulations on your coming addition!"

She smiled again and thanked me and said, "I don't know what I'm going to do if this new baby doesn't like to sleep..."

The look in her face changed from happy to worried and her cheeks became flushed.

It was as if a rush of emotion had run over her, and I just wanted to hug her and tell her I could relate to what she was going through and the worryin her mind of what's ahead of her.

I assured her she'll be fine and that things have a way of working out. It might be difficult at first, but in the end it will be easier.

"Just think...we're working our way through sleepless nights and endless diapers all at once..."

She nodded at me with tears in her eyes.

"What am I going to do if the second baby hates to sleep??"

And as I do best...I answer her in my own comic relief fashion...

With a smirky tone in my voice, "Well, look at it this way...you're already up anyways..."

And through the tear filled, emotional moment that she was sharing with me came a laugh and a smile, "You're right...thank you."

I wished her the best of luck with everything and a healthy pregnancy and went on my way.

Mmm Mmm Good!

This was such a fun, and terribly addictive snack-until-you-feel-sick, cooking adventure!

Shhh! Don't tell him, but these are for my husband for when he gets home from work.

And as you can tell, his oldest Princess was a big help in making them too.

L'amour!

Click the picture for more viewing options.

Monday's Weigh-In

Scale reads: 140 lbs.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Unorthodox:: Relationship


2. Skate:: Ice


3. Hold on:: For dear life


4. Europe:: Adventure


5. Reminder:: Elephant


6. Gold:: Rush


7. Calcium:: Kidney stone


8. Rated R:: The Blue Lagoon


9. Saturday night:: Boring


10. Tell:: Kiss and

Eerie

They (whoever that is exactly) say that when you spend a lot of time with someone or are in a relationship with someone for a very long time that you tend to think alike...

My husband and I, since having children, really have had several occassions where this has happened. What's really rather eerie though is that we've had three incidents THIS WEEK alone.

First we both dreamt of broken legs the very same night.

Then I was craving a Cadbury Caramello chocolate bar and having not had one in MONTHS, I picked one up at the store to eat during Survivor. My husband came home from work the same evening and had picked me up the very same candybar at the store.

And Lastly, we were chatting and both brainstormed up the exact same idea...in a topic of endless options, we came up with the very same specific idea...

It's a wee bit freaky if you ask me.

Johari Window

I learned of this over at Leesa's blog:

The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingram in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.

What am I?

accepting adaptable bold brave calm caring cheerful clever complex confident dependable dignified energetic extroverted giving happy idealistic independent ingenious intelligent introverted kind knowledgable logical loving mature modest nervous observant organised patient powerful proud quiet reflective relaxed religious responsive searching self-assertive self-conscious sensible sentimental shy spontaneous sympathetic tense trustworthy warm wise

You get to pick up to six...I wonder how others' perceptions correlate with self perception?

To participate in my personality awareness mapping, click >>HERE<<

View Insanity Infusion's full data.

My Feet Are So Spoiled!

My new toe ring arrived today...

I am so happy!

Memory's a Garden

I was reading the blog the spinster girl's guide to love like I so often do, when I came across a comment that Peregrinus wrote in response to one of the posts. His comment really stood out to me and made an impact so much so that I wanted to post it here. Perhaps it's an old batch of prose that's well known, or perhaps he wrote it himself...I haven't a clue. I just know I have never read it before now...and I wanted to share. Thank you, Peregrinus.

Memory's a garden,
It's changes come from how it's tended.
Some soil fertile, some ground hardened,
Some growth flourishing, some ended.

Truth is a seed, and for the rest
We fools still judge by what has grown.
Take care, and know what manifests
Is only truth to you alone.

Too blind and frail to do the weeding,
We hope, and bluster, pray and weep.
We seldom harvest what we're needing.
The gentlest seed oft stays asleep.

And someday soon we shall be planted.
Then memory is all we're granted.

Thank you.

Music Hits - I've Been Tagged

So I never rarely participate in the taggings that go on in the blogosphere, but Raging Red has tagged me with listing seven songs that I currently really like...and since she's a new favorite read of mine, I'm going to play...

The rules: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to. (Via Knit, Purls & Curls.)

1. The Church - Under the Milky Way
2. Soft Cell - Tainted Love
3. Kermit the Frog - Rainbow Connection
4. 3 Doors Down - Here Without You
5. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
6. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
7. Dave Matthews Band - Satellite

As far as tagging seven people to do the same...first seven readers! TAG! You're it!

Just For You

Trying this for Leesa.

Aren't I a good friend?

Playing Outside

Another awesome day outside. I took the girls out walking for over an hour again.

I had to pick up bread at the grocery store, and ended up snapping more photos in the Produce Section. I really wasn't going to, but some of the lighting was really neat.

~*~Today's Uploaded Photos~*~

It's amazing to me that my younger daughter is two months old today. Time really seems to fly by ...and the older I get the faster it goes.

Maybe I'll write more later, but right now it's simply too nice not to be outside...

I'm off to play!

Sunny Skies & Warm Breezes

We spent the morning out walking. It was amazing outside! It felt about 70 to me although the Weather Channel said it was only 63. Very sunny, warm, things in bloom...

A definate change from what I'm used to...

I was able to get in some shots with my camera which always brings a smile to my face...



Manababies introduced me to a new photo term today ~Multiplicity~. Here's my first attempt at it...it was a fun, new challenge for me! Apparently from the photo comment, it looked convincing!



And a little word of advice:

Don't trust the produce guy at the grocery store when you ask him how hot a particular pepper is.

He told me the peppers I bought were not hot. Wow was he wrong. I chopped those green little suckers up and the entire house was fuming with hot pepper gas! Even after washing my hands twice, my tongue would still catch on fire licking a finger to test. I scratched my arm (after washing my hands twice) and my skin turned bright red and stung!! I am not kidding here... and the guy said they.were.not.hot.peppers!

But you know what?

I still had my husband taste a bite of one when he got home from work... "Honey, the guy in the produce section said these peppers aren't hot, will you make sure?"

~*~snicker~*~

Monday's Weigh-In

Scale reads: 140 lbs.

The Night's Sky

Someone once said to me, "If you look up at the moon from where you're at, and I look up at the moon from where I'm at...then it will be like we're together and you'll know I love you."

The night's sky is magical like that.

And on a clear sky the stars can be so hypnotizing and make you feel dizzy. It's almost as if your glance up into the night's heaven takes you deeper and deeper with every star you find.

And the silence, if you're in the right place and the right frame of mind, can give you such a warm sense of peace... It allows for your thoughts to be realized and a better understanding of yourself to be gained.

The stars dance upon your eyes as if to bring light to all that's shuffled to the side during your busy day when the noise of routine seems to drown out the true you.

It's been a long while since I've had the luxury of enjoying a night's sky and many stars have come and gone since I've gazed upon the moon, but I hold my memories close to my heart to guide me through until I can see those twilight sparkles again.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Taking sides:: family disputes
   
2. Couples:: nausiating
   
3. Right of refusal:: first dibs to buy a house you're leasing before it's put on the market
   
4. Marla:: crazy chick from Fight Club
   
5. Mutliple:: Sclerosis
   
6. Trinity:: cool chick from The Matrix
   
7. Sneeze:: God Bless You
   
8. Sweatpants:: stretchy waistline
   
9. Steve:: Martin
   
10. Fabulous:: sarcasm
    

We're So Many Cookies Beyond This

Click on the photo for more viewing options.

Happy Birthday!

It's John's little boy's birthday today...Happy Birthday Little Guy!





This picture was taken at the end of December 2004. You can see he's quite the little man now though if you go to John's blog.

As He Sat There And Cried, My Heart Broke

A number of years ago I was teaching fourth grade in a suburb of a large city. I had thirty three students and despite the cramped for space and jam packed curriculum, we all formed a pretty close bond.

Before the start of each school year, teachers get their list of students. While my opinion was never swayed by hearsay, I did like to get a little background information on the students that I was going to be teaching.

I had a lot of interesting characters this particular year, however one student comes to mind...

I was told I was going to be getting a transfer student from another elementary school. The mother had decided that the other school was bad because they were going to retain her son (my student) to repeat the 4th grade. My administrator told the mother that he'd accept the transfer of her son to my school, however, he had to demonstrate serious conviction that he was ready to move on to 5th grade. So this student was given a trial run for the first two weeks of 4th grade to show that he didn't need to repeat the grade.

This boy was smart. The problem was his life was so dysfunctional and him being so young, he wouldn't focus on his studies. Before the transfer took place, this child had over 200 missing assignments at his previous school. He simply refused to do the work.

His mom had had several different boyfriends. The latest one and the longest term one had been in and out of their lives as "Daddy" far too often, and at one point the mother had a restraining order against the boyfriend for suggested inappropriate adult behavior toward her teenage daughter, my student's older sister.

There was no extended family in the picture and no real father to speak of...it was the boy, his sister, and his mother.

My point is, at the age of 9, my student already had a lot to work through.

But then something devastating happened.

Two weeks before he was to start the school year in my classroom.

Two weeks before he would be meeting an entire school of new kids and teachers and trying to make himself comfy and situated in this 'better' academic setting where he might be able to progress normally into 5th grade instead of being held back to repeat fourth. I had the full intention of supporting this child into doing his best so he wouldn't have to stay behind in my classroom.

Two weeks before the school year started, his mother died in a car accident.

And seeing as how the closest thing he had for family was the mother's boyfriend at the time, that's who got custody of my student and his sister. And the boyfriend didn't mind because he got state funding to help support them.

Naturally, my student didn't meet the required expectations to be able to progress to 5th grade, so it was determined that he would be spending the entire year with me.

He was in trouble often outside the classroom. Him and I had a good understanding of each other so he was pretty well behaved for me, and I was good about picking my battles.

I recall one day the principal personally delivered my student back to my classroom after he didn't return at the end of the lunch period. He was sweaty and had a look of rage in his eyes. His clothes were shuffled about off set on his shoulders and he was out of breath.

"Thank you for returning him..."

"Yeah, not a problem. He was fighting. Again."

Of course the other students in the classroom were wide eyed and some with that motherly tsk-tsk look on their face as if to say, ~that boy is such a troublemaker~.

I got the students situated into their studies while the boy sat in his chair still very obviously angry. I called him up to my desk to discuss the matter of what happened, as we always kept an open dialogue between us.

One of the 5th grade boys who had plenty of issues to work through himself, loved to pick fights with my student. While they were somewhat kindred spirits, they were also a bit of oil and water. They just didn't mix. They would pester each other back and forth and sometimes, like this day that I'm referring to... the insults would get out of hand.

"What happened today during lunch?"

"He...he...(chokes back crying as his eyes filled with angry tears)...he said he was happy my mother was killed..."

I didn't blame him for hauling off and attacking the 5th grader. I don't condone violence, but I do understand why he did it. I would have done the same thing I'm sure.

I saved him my lecture on how violence doesn't belong in school and instead just said, "I'm so sorry...he had no right saying that. I'm sure he doesn't mean it, he was just trying to upset you."

The school year continued with several episodes similar to that on varying degrees.

And he never really discussed what had happened to his mother. Maybe that's why the kids picked on him. Maybe that's why the anger inside him festered and was slowly killing the sweet, rational person inside him. Few got to see that sweet person. I was lucky to be one of them.

And then it happened.

One day during Health, I opened up discussion with the students. I was sat on a stool in the front of the classroom facing all 33 of my eager minds. We were talking about safety and things on the nature of not smoking and eating right and several other topics along the same lines.

Then this little boy who had been struggling so hard during the year raised his hand.

With my intuition, I knew it wasn't going to be any ordinary comment or question coming out of his mouth. And with that gut feeling, it was as if time slowed down to what felt like each second passing was a minute long...

I scanned the room for any hand other than his that I could call upon. There was no alternative for me and as his name rolled off my lips, I knew this was going to be emotional.

He looked around at all his peers and then looked at me.

"Well, another safety rule is don't drive with people who are tired. My mom did that...and she died."

And the classroom sat still as night and stared and listened. I sat on my stool as composed as I could be choking back my own tears and trying not to break down in front of my students.

The boy started to cry as he continued on with the story. He told the whole class exactly what had happened to his mother. The late night drive. The driver falling asleep. The crash. How the contents in the car had flown around from the backseat into the front seat and hit his mother. That she had died.

I'm not sure who on earth told this sweet boy all the details of the accident. He surely didn't need to know them.

And the class continued to sit in shock and silence.

With a wavering voice I thanked him for sharing his story with us and that I was so sorry about his mother.

Then he laid his head down on his desk and disassembled. It was as if he could finally let it all go.

One of my other students got up from his seat and walked over to him. He rested his hand upon the boy's shoulder and said, "You're going to be okay. I lost my mom too..."

They exchanged a glance of heartfelt understanding and then the boy lowered his head again. He spent the entire afternoon with his head burried and I figured that's what he needed...

I could have asked him to become engaged in his studies, but why? The studies I had lined up for him and the subjects I had to teach him that day weren't going to make any profound impact on his life and he was in a serious moment of coming to terms with what happened to him...to his mother...to his life.

I knelt down and told him to take his time and if he needed anything to let me know.

We became wonderful friends during the year....him and me.

I never got to say goodbye to him though. I was moving after the school year ended and he was very upset about that. Like I was another woman he cared about leaving his life.

The end of the year came and before the final bell rang, he took his backpack and ran out of the classroom. I had hoped he would have come back, but he never did.

Itchy

It's in my blood. My grandmother always said I was part gypsy. I'm itching for change already. I rearranged our bedroom funiture a couple weeks ago. I rearranged my daughter's bedroom today. I've glanced at different living options online. I've dreamt up entirely different living environments for us in every nook and cranny of the globe.

I've decided for the most part that I want to get rid of just about all the clothes in my closet.

I'm going to lighten my hair toward the end of this month.

I am continuing to walk...walked a mile or so yesterday and about half a mile or a little more today. I'm going to try to get in that 2+ mile walk tomorrow. Getting out for fresh air is so important but it also makes me feel more alive - like my blood circulates better and every cell in my body is taking deep breaths in and saying "Ahhhh!~".

I'm still trying to eat healthy, but I'm definately having my splurge moments (which is okay - I'm still nursing the baby after all).

I bought a new bikini top..Whee! But I'm still in search of cute board shorts to go with it. Gotta work on this tummy of mine first...but I've whined about that enough where I don't need to any more.

I bought new make-up.

Had a pedicure a week ago.

Have a new toe ring that's due to arrive soon.

I'm just itchy!

I'm Excited!

...well, excited and exhausted, but let's focus on the excited bit shall we?

Tonight Survivor starts again! I'm not a big watcher of TV, but I do love Survivor. And this time around it's starting with four teams as far as I understand and then there's something about ~scary 'you're doomed' music playing~ !! Exile Island !! if you're voted out???

As CBS states on their site:

MEET THE NEW SURVIVORS
Stranded on an island off the coast of Panama, 16 strangers must live together and compete for the million-dollar prize. This time, the castaways will begin their competition as four tribes: older men, older women, younger men and younger women. At least one Survivor each week will be banished to a separate island miles away from camp. How will this change the game? Who will outwit, outplay, and outlast all others? Don’t miss a single episode of SURVIVOR: PANAMA--EXILE ISLAND, premiering Thursday, February 2 at 8 pm ET/PT, only on CBS.

BANISHED?!?! Eeks!

I can't wait to find out how it all starts...

Then to find some much needed sleep. Although to do that, I think I really need to be laying in a hammock under the shade of a palm tree without a care in the world and no one to cater to.

Shots From My Walk

Click on the photo for more viewing options.

My Sorry Butt

After my doctor's appointment on Monday and the nurse practitioner agreeing with me that I should have lost more weight by now... and after Tuesday was spent being exhausted and me having a calorie stuffed pity party for myself - today I took my sorry butt out for a walk.

A 2+ mile walk. A 2+ mile walk with one baby in the Bjorn and one in the stroller. And a coffee too of course - Now that there's a Starbucks within walking distance from my house. I'm already sore! (How pathetic is that?)

After getting my coffee and flipping through my entirely depressing Victoria's Secret Swimsuit Edition, the three of us headed off to the park. It's so nice out today so the walk was fantastic, however, when we got to the park we were greeted with two guys who were letting their BIG dog run amuck off leash right in the middle of the playground equipment. Needless to say, we turned around and went right home. How annoying. Big dogs shouldn't be off leash - no dogs really in public areas where children are playing...And what business does a dog have in the middle of a children's playground anyways other than doing his business...BLEH.

At least we all got out for some fresh air though!