May Day, Sick Kid, Hospital Visit, Busy Week

My Random Thoughts to start off the new month:

1. I know for a fact that I will get an email tomorrow from my sister with pictures of my neice deliverying May baskets to her neighbors. My sister is way more into that shit then I am. It will then make me wish that I would have made May Baskets. I used to make them in grade school and then I'd put them on my neighbors porch and ring the door bell and run. Fun times.

2. I'm home today with Christian who ran a fever all night and early this morning. Other than that he's not really all that "sick" but two kids were sent home this week from daycare for having fevers, so I figured why waste my time getting up early and ready for work when She'll just call me to come get him anyway.

3. I still took Noah to daycare.

4. Thanks to Christian being home, I was able to do some grocery shopping, get some work done from home with no one bothering me, update my blog, check my email and respond, put laundry away, make beds, vaccum, go to the bank, return some phone calls, place my jewelry order and
constantly eat everything I see. And all that before noon!

5. Because Christian is home, I've watched 3 episodes of Kai-lan, 1 Dora the explorer, 1 Go Diego Go, and now we are watching Blues Clues.

6. Next Wednesday I have to take Noah to Childrens hospital for an EEG. My husband and one of my step-sons had what is referred to as Childhood Absense Epilepsy and we have noticed signs of it in Noah. About the only symptom of it is random "staring sessions" where in the middle of doing whatever it is he is doing, he will just stop and stare off for about ten seconds and then just continue on with what he is doing like nothing happened. Most children are diagnoised between the ages of 4 and 12 and with medication, they are usually "over" the epilepsy within a couple of years. I hope he doesn't have it, but my gut feeling tells me he does.

7. I really want to go out for a margarita on Cinco de Mayo.

8. This week has been completely crazy. We had/have 4 track meets this week, 4 baseball games, We had swim lesson Tuesday night, I had my youth group last night at church, I have a total ed meeting tonight at church, tomorrow my step son is having a friend over to spend the night, and Saturday night we have a party to go to. And people wonder why I have no time to do anything around the house except when kids are home sick and why I don't use my gym membership.

9. I placed my first order with Cookie Lee this week to start selling jewelry for them. I love it! It's super fun stuff and I am so excited about it! I can't wait until it gets here. Not sure when I'm going to have time to book parties....hmm....may have to send out some emails and sugar talk my super awesome friends into throwing me a bone and booking some shows!

10. Tomorrow is payday. Whoop Whoop!

30....Here We Come!

Just this week I've been invited to two birthday bashes for friends of ours that are turning 30. I may have mentioned before that I'm not too sure about this turning 30 thing. I have mixed emotions about it to say the least.

My first thought is always how the hell can I be turning 30?! Has time really gone by that fast? I can remember with great clarity my 21st birthday...my 20Th birthday...my 17Th birthday. They are all still fresh in my memory and do not seem that long ago.

Only a few of my very close friends, friends that I have known practically my whole life, have hit this milestone recently. For some reason them turning 30 has hit me harder than my "newer" friends turning 30. I guess that's because I can think back and remember my "old friends" when they were 16, 12, 5 in some cases. To think that we've know each other that long just makes 30 seem so old.

My "new friends" turning 30 to me is just not as big of a deal. In fact I probably didn't even realize they were going to turn 30 until they either mentioned it or I get an invite in the mail for their party. Then I think, "Poor bastard"...you're getting old. :)

I have 3 months and 3 days to get used to the fact that I'm going to be 30 years old. I psych myself up for it by saying it's a great excuse to have a huge party with all our friends. At least it's not 40. I get to enjoy 29 a little bit longer then some of my other friends who have already hit it this year. I think this isn't going to be so bad! This will be fun! Then I start to hyperventilate.

Water Baby

When I was "little", probably six or seven, my aunt signed my cousin and I up for swimming lessons at the downtown Y. My aunt was determined to get me to learn how to swim since my mother never had. She didn't want me to end in the same boat, so to speak. I remember being completely terrified and distraught about the whole thing. I was scared to death to even put my face in the water. I don't recall much about the whole experience, other than spending at least a class or two hanging onto the edge of the pool crying while the instructor tried to get me to put my face in the water to blow bubbles. Eventually I did...but I only put my face in far enough to be able to blow the bubbles and not have to stick my nose under. I was such a wuss.

I don't recall for sure if that was my first attempt at swim lessons or my second. I assume it was my second attempt since my aunt insisted I go. I do remember going to the preschool I attended, Christ Child, and being signed up to take lessons there. All I remember is that they wanted me to jump off the diving board on the second half of the lesson, on the first day, and I refused. I was completely freaked out about that as well, and I'm pretty sure I did not do it and I'm pretty sure I never went back.

I eventually learned to swim. The third time is the charm, as they say. I was probably close to twelve though when I finally got the nerve to give it another go. This time at Norris Jr High. I remember doing a back float across the entire length of the pool as my mom and her friend watched and thinking that I finally knew how to swim. Granted the instructor pretty much held my head and swam with me the whole time, but I wasn't scared and so I came back again and finally stuck it out for the whole summer and passed the class. Again, don't remember if I took any more lessons after that, but I assume that I did since I know how to swim now; at least enough to save my life. :)

Yesterday Christian started swim lessons for the first time. I was debating on whether or not he was old enough to do this, but I have friends who have been taking their babies to swim class, so I figured I'd better get on the ball and sign them up. My original plan was to get both boys started in lessons at the Y, but when I found out that if you were younger than 3 you'd have to take a "mommy & me" type of class, I decided it would just be Christian this time around. Neither Scott nor I were thrilled with the thought of having to get in the water with Noah, let alone in a swimsuit in front of everyone. Noah can swim in the fall.

I really thought for sure that Christian would be as big as a wuss at this as me. He has been excited for swim lessons since I told him he'd be starting, and asked me every day if it was time to go to the swimming pool, but I thought for sure as soon as he got there he'd be scared to death of the water. Boy was I wrong.

Of course my kid was the one that wanted to just jump in on his own, and had to be constantly pulled back to the group. When the instructor was introducing herself to the kids and going over the rules, he was dancing around and paying attention to everything and everyone but her. When it was time to finally get in the water, he went it and tried swimming off on this own. He had to be dragged back to the group once again. But he had a ball! The kid has no fear, and for that I am glad. Hopefully these girls can keep him in their sites, because he needs to be watched like a hawk. :)

Mr. Clean

This is just a short little shout out to my husband, aka Mr. Clean. Although he never reads my blog (in fact I doubt he even knows where to find it and was quite taken off guard when he found out that I even had a blog) I feel he deserves some props for all the hard work he does. Thanks to him, I hardly ever have to make a bed, do a load of laundry, cook a meal, clean a toilet, do dishes, vaccum a room, mow the lawn or dust. :) He's a complete neat freak and I am no where near that. 99.9% of the time he's completely fine with this...every once in a while I think I drive him mad. :)

Blue Balls Are Awesome!

I'm talking about the food people. Get your heads out of the toilet! :)

If you haven't been to Blue Sushi, you must. I highly recommend the Blue Balls, The Crunchy Blue Sushi Rolls and the Crunchy LA Rolls. YUM! My friends talked me into trying raw salmon. Not a fan...Heard a rumor that there's going to be a Baby Blue by Roja?

Random Friday Thoughts

1.) Today was a pretty boring day at work mostly because my boss is out of the office and another one of my co-workers in my department, so I really didn't have much to talk about. The rest of the department I really don't have much to say too. :) But I did get caught up on some work I wanted to get done...lots of random papers on my desk cleared up.

2.) Tonight after work a bunch of us are going to the bar for a co-workers last day. Yah! Technically her last day isn't until Tues. but who wants to go out and party on a Tuesday night?Friday is much better. TGIF! Can't wait to get my drink on! :) Not that I'm much of a drinker these days, but a beer or two would be nice.

3.) My stepson is coming to get my car after work so that he can drive it to his pasta feed tonight so my husband can join me at the bar and we only have to worry about driving one car home. Hopefully he doesn't crash it.....again. Plus it means that my husband has to be the DD. hehe

4.) When did surfing the web get so boring? I used to think that there were tons of interesting sites to visit, but now I faithfully visit one or two a day that I like.

5.) It's Friday and It's Payday. 'Nough said.

6.) On top of having to search the store for Nutella, which is AWESOME I might add, and one taste from my husband has him totally adicted, I must now track down this Sassy Salsa? and Rocking Ranch? How do I not know about these things?

7.) I'm starting to get a jewelry fettish. Mostly just crazy earrings, but I've actually broken down and agreed to have a jewelry party next week...which is so not me. I generally decline to go to most I get invited too because they are crazy expensive and I never like anything I see, but then I saw this catalog for the jewelry party I'm having and I'm actually excited about it. Really cute stuff and nothing over $32!!! Whoo Whoo!!

8.) My friend Gina gave me a picture the other night of me and the boys that she had taken at her home like two years ago...that's how long she says it takes her to develope pictures. :) Anyway, Noah couldn't be more then 9 mos in the pic?? He has no teeth and still has all his long baby hair, so I know it's before I cut it for the first time. It's actually a really good picture of me, which is hard to come by...and it totally depressed me. My hair is all cute and long and curly in the picture and I love it...and it makes me wish I would have never cut my hair because now I look like my mother. YIKES!

Ghetto Fabulous

This past weekend my oldest stepson had a track meet that just happened to be at my high school alma mater. He'd be running his sprints on the same track that I dreaded running the mile in gym class freshman year. Where they'd force us to go out to "play" some sport during "individual sports", which was just some fancy name for PE when you took it sophomore year. The same track where my best friend got into a fight with another girl over a co-ed softball ball game during class that resulted in an awesome bitch fight once we got back to the locker room; complete with hair-pulling, scratching, and hitting eachother with their hair brushes.

Ahh...those were the days.

I was actually quite excited to go back. I was pumped when I found out that the meet would be actually at the school, on their track, and not at the football field where we had our home football games. I thought it would be nice to see what the old place looked like. I was excited to tell the boys that this is where I went to high school at; that I ran on this same track. That essentially, this is where I came from. This was my hood.

I was horribly disappointed. Embarrassed really. This was my hood indeed.

Often I find myself questioning whether or not I grew up in a bad neighborhood? Did I go to a bad school? I obviously did not think so when I lived there. When I grew up there. When I went to school there. But 12 years away from that school, that neighboorhood, that life. Is it worse then it was? Has it changed. Have I changed?

Two years ago when I had my 10 Year Reunion, I arranged for a tour of the school and was plesantly surprised. It looked pretty much the way I had remembered it, but better too. The school is a performing arts and computer technology magnet. The theater is state of the art. There is an entire room dedicated to computer animation and sound mixing. More MAC workstations loaded with the latest and greatest software then I have ever seen. That I was ever exposed to when I was there.

If everyone who was at the meet that day could have seen what we saw on our tour, I'm sure it would have impressed them. They'd be talking about all the great things the school had to offer. Instead I'm sure most went back to their homes and talked about what a horrible neighborhood they were in. How run down and crappy the track was. How bad the houses around it looked.

So many of the businesses that I remember being there, the places we hung out at, the homes of the kids we went to school with, were either gone or unrecognizable. Did their families still live there, I wondered? Did they really just let the place go like that?

It made me sad to think that maybe the students there now were not proud of their school, or their neighborhood, or their lives. But maybe they didn't know any different, just as I had not when I was there.

Every year I get a letter from our alumni association asking for donations to help build a new youth sports complex on the very land I stood on that Saturday afternoon. New football stadium. New track. New soccer and softball fields. Every year I open the letter. I read the letter. I throw the letter away. Today I wonder why do I do that? How awesome would that be for the kids here today, the kids in this neighborhood to have those facilities. I don't think twice about the facilities my kids have at their schools. The building dedicated to wrestling for a school that has 14 consecutive state wrestling titles. The little league they belong too with great fields and nice new uniforms every year. The tracks they run on everyday at their schools. The opportunities they have because of it. Alot of it made possible by private donations. By the generousity of many.

I don't know if my neighboorhood will ever see these facilities get built. I don't know if these kids will every get to run on a brand new track. Play soccer on a grassy, litter-free field. Be proud of what their school has to offer. But I hope they will. And seeing it first hand has made me realized that every little bit helps. I'll do what I can to contribute.

I've never for one day regretted the school I attended. The education that I received. The experiences I had, the friends I made. I can truly say I had a wonderful time there. I have fond memories. I still have awesome friends. I had a fabulous experience. I hope the kids that are coming out of that school, that neighborhood now, can say the same.