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| Wednesday, 31-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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Hump Day
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I've never liked the term hump day. It makes me think of camels.
But ah yes, it is the middle of the week. And I write as I'm doing the morning rush, which really isn't a rush at all this morning. I have to take the child who had a baseball accident to the pediatrician this a.m. He does wear glasses, but he's had a change in vision since the accident. That, and he reports dizziness. I'm hoping that that is just a lingering effect from the concusion. Anyway, he has to go and get the eye checked out.
Aside from that, I have to clean house. I have to get the house all perky and cute bc I'm having a lil party at my house this weekend. Nothing big. It's opening season for baseball and our association is throwing a big carnival and parade. Should be nice. The mayor is going to come and speak and offer the opening day prayer (they would not get away with this in some parts of the country, however, here, in VA we fall under that tight bible belt.....the 700 Clubs' headquarters is just down the street from me). I'm still working on banners for the parade in the football stadium. It's been so crazy with all the practices and paperwork and events and fundraisers. I tell ya, it's my part time job.
OK, back to the morning rush. I guess when I'm at the computer, it gives the kids the impression that they don't have to do anything either and can sit down and watch TV. 7 minutes until the first bus comes.
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| Tuesday, 30-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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I love Jane. Jane Monheit that it. Beautiful. Jazzy. She's been here for me today as I've created spreadsheets and completed paperwork. With her, I always feel as if I have my own personal song bird sitting on a tree just outside the opened window.
If you haven't heard her music yet, what are you waiting for?
Once I Walked in the Sun
Chega De Saudade
Twisted (love her version)
Never Let Me Go (slow and breathy)
More Then You Know (cool and confident)
Since You've Asked (that little birdy i was talking about)
Anybody else like her like I do?
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| Monday, 29-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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Down on the Farm
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What is it about farms that make this Jersey Gal feel so utterly (no pun) refreshed?
My son has been at home with me all this past week with his head concussion from the baseball mishap. And don't forget I had Vertigo with a side of stomach flu. We stayed pretty close to home all week. I'm feeling much better this week and he returned to school this morning, thank you. I HAD to get out of the house. On Friday I told my son that we were going to the farm. It always makes me feel better. The farm itself is no big deal. It's pretty small, but there is a lot of life there.
We spent 2 hours there. We stopped for lunch on the way, but ended up having ice cream at the country store. Then we found a cozy spot in the field to sit and sip on our old fashioned coca cola's and watch the cows. It was a picture perfect day.
My only hang up was that the "mothers" were out in full force with their kids. You know?...."THE MOTHERS".......the one's who make play dates and think it's "oh so trendy" to take their clone children to the farm?....the one's who look like they just fell off the L.L Bean truck with their shiny white keds and khaki capris and denim short sleeve shirts with a white t-shirt underneath?....you know the ones, don't you?...the ones who whisper scream to their children?.....the baby gap moms?.....
Now before you get the wrong impression from me, I have nothing against them personally. I have issues with the whole collective "air" that you find at the playground. I've always been a "what you see is what you get" kinda gal. I go to all the PTA meetings. I drive a mini-van. I've even been on a few play dates. That's not the problem. You either get what I'm saying, or you don't. There is a certain way that these Moms act on the playground/playdates/meetings/etc. vs how they really are. I swear to you, if I spend the day with one of these Moms, I start to sound like one.....I become a frikkin parrot! It's scary. Anyway, I resist it. I don't like to be grouped into the lump of them. I have no problem showing up to a PTA meeting in jeans and a tshirt. I don't dive head first into the cliques. I mingle with everybody. I don't exclude anyone.
I know this attitude of mine comes from high school where I was the popular kid for the first half of my high school years. I didn't claw and scratch my way to the top or anything like that, but I hung out with the rich kids (i myself was not rich) and it was a priority to be with the "in" crowd. I got invited to all of the parties, I dated the class president/football/gorgeous guy, I was THERE. But I also got to see first hand how unhappy some of these kids were. They had money, so they also always had drugs (parents would throw several hundred bucks at them to go to the mall with, they'd shoplift EVERYTHING and then have money for weed, etc). When all was said and done, I was glad that my Mom was a single, hardworking woman. I know that she made me a stronger person. When she announced at the end of my sophomore year that we were moving to North Carolina, it was a relief. I was burned out from trying to keep up the facade of popularity. I was sad to leave friends behind, but it was a chance to start over at a school where nobody knew me. I blossomed my junior year. I was quiet and kept mostly to myself at first, but then continued with my singing and performing with the music department and their programs. And guess what? That's where I met my husband. We sat across from eachother in a music ensemble class. I'll save that story for another day though. But the point is, we started dating and had a very close knit group of friends that we finished high school with. We weren't the popular ones. We really weren't concerened with what we were. We fell somewhere beautifully in the middle of it all and didn't even care.
It makes me wonder who "the moms" are. Are they happy? Are they living the way that they really want to? Would they have less problems if they were just themselves? I really don't know. My intent isn't to offend anybody. Today I can only be responsible for myself and the choices that I made in youth and make today that make me who I am. I pray for us all to live genuine lives. 
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| Friday, 26-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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My neph Tazion....yes, the bottles were empty....
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that's a head full of hair!
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Taz with my bro (on rt) n 1 of his stoner friends..i'm assuming.
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What a funky week.
Sick but somewhat productive is the theme-o-da-week.
I can't shake this Vertigo that I've had for weeks, so I'm making ANOTHER appointment with my doc. The pills for nausea and barfing only knock me out and make me drool, and it's really hard to be a Mom Taxi in that condition.
Boys baseball practices have been just about every single day. Each practice is 2 hours and then we just got lucky (I guess) to have coaches who are dedicated and lose track of those 2 hours (so they drag on to about 3 hours). Well, lets do the math, shall we? 2 hours x 3 teams (twinz r on the same team & remember one isn't playing now courtesy of a fast pitch to the face) x 4 days (this past week) per week = husband saying "I'm just about done with this practice mess". Mind you, he was deployed on a ship "cruising" around the world during all past seasons. Then he has the nerve to say, "ya, but the youngest was just a baby and you only had 3 players". At this point, I just pretend he has a head injury and doesn't know what he's saying.
Ya, 3 kids PLUS an infant was SOOOO much easier.  because we all know how little attention an infant needs. Our youngest took his first steps on a baseball field. Not to mention that during deployment, you're pretty well a single parent. Hats off to single Momz/Dadz out there. Nuff said.
A train ripped through my house. You can see it on...the....news....well, OK, a train didn't physically come through, but to look at it as an objective observer, I'd believe it. One thing I can't stand to get behind on is laundry. It's very, very rare that I have more then one load of whites, colors and darks. To fall behind in this house is to be overcome. I have a cute little sorting basket in the laundry room. When one of the three fills up, I start a load. This system works. Rite now, I can barely push the laundry door open. And my room, where the folding process takes place, looks like a yard sale barfed. I can't talk about this anymore.
Oh, let me put in a little "plug" (I wish) about the stomach flu that's been circling in the tidy bowl of my intestines.....3 days and NOT holding... I have been able to stomach chicken boullion and cheerios and rice and water. That's about all that sounds appealing. Vertigo + stomach bug. Welcome to my week.
So how does my doggie top the week off for me???? Hmmmmm??????? Being the Jack Russell that she is (which means that she's smarter/more determined then most people I know), decided that while we were eating dinner she should sneak into my bedroom. Remember that cute little hamster Roxie that I posted earlier in the week? Well, she was living in my room...not wandering free in the laundry, but in her cage on top of a book tower. Maxi-super-dog was able to shake the tower long enuf to make the cage fall off. I'm so sick about this. It didn't end pretty.  Peace to you in Hamster Heaven Roxi. Maxi hasn't looked me in the eye since. She knows that she did something wrong but she just can't figure out why we were keeping her treats in cages.
Have a good weekend folks. I'll be hopped up on anti-nausea/anti-vomit and in the bathroom thinking about hamsters for most of the weekend while my husband is shuffling the boys around to practices and birthday parties. 
Here are pictures of my nephew Tazion, who, even with a stomach bug this week too, doesn't have a care in the world. Such a happy guy. Him and my sis are coming my way for Easter. I'll have to hide the soap
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| Wednesday, 24-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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anything more peaceful then a sleeping child?
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I give it a thumbs up....
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well, I think it's OK....
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I dunno. Maybe it's because of all of the adult stress? We get so wrapped up in our own little serious lives that we forget to be goofy, silly, nutty, obnoxious. Well, some people don't have a problem with that. I just remembered last years christmas office party. Wait.....I don't work. Nevermind.
I think me and the significant other of 15 years have been feelin the big STRESS with work, family, personal life. I'm 32 and I'm pretty sure I shouldn't still be asking on a daily basis to myself what I want to be when I grow up. Do we ever really grow up? Is it just my age? Was it my upbringing. Is it because I got married so damned young? Is it because I'm surrounded by my children that I can't help but to feel like a child myself? Ahh, adult ADD....who knew?
So here's to fun. Here's to laughter. Here's to lightening up and enjoying the journey. Nurture your inner child or they'll throw a tantrum and it really messes up a perfectly good spring day.
How do we make God laugh?
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We tell Him all of our plans... 
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| Tuesday, 23-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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Animal House
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my husband says that it's turning into an animal house....this coming from the man who I believe, if i hadn't insisted, we'd still have no children.......RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!!!!! So now we got our girl Maxi....doggie x5 years (who I'm getting ready to breed), the 3 hamster (which will become 15 or so very soon now with a hot chicky hamster in the cage), and 3 fish. I know, you say, we're missing cats. No problem. My girlfriend Shelly's cat is about to bust with kittens, so most likely I'll be adopting some. Don't tell my husband though..Thanks.
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| Monday, 22-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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Clutter
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I suppose there are worse houses that are cluttered. But some days days I feel like I'm drowing in trinkets, clutter, papers, shoes, toys, randomness. I'm always fighting the war for organization and a clutter-free home. I know what I want in my head. I can make all the excuses in the world (4 boys, lack of time/energy), but if I want a neat home, it's up to me. I took these photos on a day when my youngest was home sick with me. I did absolutely no cleaning that day, so the pictures are untouched. I didn't go and straighten out the mess on the dining room table. I didn't dust my mantle. I didn't straighten the cushions on the couch. I want a professional to come in and re-do my house in every sense of the RE-DO word. I have a genie in a bottle somewhere around here, but I can't find him in all the clutter.
PS. last pic....chinese stories....this one cracks me up to no end. I don't expect for it to do the same to you. Whenever my kids start babbling/trying to fib/stretch the truth/make excuses, etc, we always tell them that "they're telling chinese stories". truthfully I don't know who started this. I don't know the origin and I certainly don't mean to offend the chinese. It's that the kids are talking in a language we don't quite understand. The phrase "chinese story teller" is enuf to send them into a nerdish seizure. So when going thru one of the kids backpacks, you now have a better understanding of how hard I laughed and why now it is on my refrig. 
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| Saturday, 20-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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| Friday, 19-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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Baseball Boo-Boo
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Well, baseball season is over before it began for one of my guys. They're all practicing for opening season on April 3rd. Unfortunately for one of my 9 year olds, he's gonna be on the bench.
He was up at bat during a scrimage game. The pitch was launched and he caught it....with his face. It all happened rather quickly. He didn't have time to jump out of the way. No time for much of any reaction. I heard the impact. I saw him fall to the ground and the next thing I know, I'M sliding into home base to tend to my injured guy.
Off to the E.R. Short story long, several fractures to his maxillary sinus bone and a decent concussion. When the swelling goes down and he starts to heal a bit, he may need some type of surgery. But for now, I'm praying for 1) no surgery and 2) no infection.
Anyone have any suggestions for a less "contact" sport that I can get him involved with for the next 6 weeks? Comments appreciated.
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| Thursday, 18-Mar-2004 00:00 |
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not much to post, so here's some of my photo edits.
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Yes H. S. is a hard time for teens 
