Guess What?

Hey guess what?

In three days, I will have been a non-smoker for 5 whole months! Whoo Hoo!!!!!

In the past 3 weeks or so I have lost 5 pounds and 2 inches in the waist. Whoo Hoo!!!! America's Next Top Model, here I come!!! (Yes, I KNOW I am too old for that show!)

And speaking of old, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!~!!! I am a raging, ravishing 41 year old today! And yet another Whoo Hoo!!! for me. And for the first time in my ENTIRE life, I have not mentioned my birthday to anyone at all in the past couple of months (like I usually do). I want to see who remembers on their own. This is gonna be fun, I can tell!:)

So, I'm healthier, lighter and one year more experienced . Does it get any better?!?!?

Blessings on everyone!

Peace allllllllllllllll....................

Anonymity and A Tear or Two

You know, I was over at Slade's blog just a little while ago and she posed an interesting question. She wanted to know if any other bloggers sometimes wished that their blogs were anonymous so that they could relate events,stories and whatnot about people without other people knowing who they were. (I think I got that out right.) My answer to this is a resounding YES!!

I think that anonymity=complete and total honesty. If people don't know who you are, then you are totally free to say what you want, to give your honest opinion and to present your feelings with complete abandon without fear of repercussion. And, although I like to consider myself an honest person, sometimes I just want to let loose with some of the darker things that plague me from time to time. Such as:

Sometimes my husband gets on my nerves. I love him, I really do. But sometimes, late at night, when he farts in his sleep for the thousandth time or when he steals every last one of the three (count 'em 3) blankets off of me and I wake up freezing while he is wrapped up like King Tut, yeah....I kinda want to punch him in the back of the head. On the occasions that he is in a somewhat perverse mood and decides to bait me until I get really irritated and then complain that he can't deal "with such an oversensitive person".....yeah, I kinda want to punch him in the front of his head.

Sometimes, I worry about my kids' futures. I worry that they may not go down the right paths, despite all that we are trying to teach them about being good Christians and good people. You know, you read so much in this day and age about children who were raised the right way and then decided to chuck it and do some pretty awful things.

Sometimes, I don't even feel like talking to people. And sometimes, when people are talking to me, I look like I'm listening but inside my head I am really thinking, "Are they ever going to shut up?......EVER?" And then I smile and nod and that gives them encouragement to just keep going.

All in all, I am normally a pretty happy person. But, even the best of us need to let the junk out sometimes. And at the risk of offending someone, or sounding crazy, at this point, I just wait on Grover to go to work and the kids to go to school and then I let the junk out....by cleaning, exercising, writing, yelling...whatever. See, this way everyone stays safe, and happy...and oblivious.:)

Peace allllllll................

P.S.

Just had to add this: Last night, I was putting the boys in bed and as they were laying there in the dark and I was sitting on the foot of their bed like I always do, Lukas started crying. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me "I miss Sunny and Izzy (the two kittens...Izzy passed away and we gave Sonny to a friend of ours.....the other two still live here)" I told him that Sonny had gone to live at Ariels house and that Izzy had gone to live with Jesus. As a concession, in the hopes of making him (and Jakob, who by that time had gotten a little upset himself) feel better, I asked him if they wanted to go visit Sonny over at Ariels house this weekend. They said yes, and the matter seemed to be settled. Then Lukas pops up with "And then we need to go see Izzy at Jesus' house." After I told them that we wouldn't be able to do that for a long, long time, I asked if he needed a hug and he said yes, "And a kiss too please." So, I hugged them both for about an hour (or a minute or two) and they went on to sleep. And I cried for the next hour. Sometimes I don't think we realize how very hard life can be on the little ones. And how very carefully we must nurture and protect tender hearts and gentle spirits.

Hug your kids today and tell them that you love them. They need it, no matter how tough they are.

Peace allllllllllllllll....................

HBD

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LUKAS AND JAKOB, THE BEST BOYS IN THE LAND!!!!! (Even though your teachers haven't realized this yet:). Give 'em time, give 'em time.....they'll come around. Mine always did....sometimes:) ANYHOW- MOM LOVES YOU!

Peace allllllllllllllll....................

First Day, Hopefully Not The Last

Lukas working on his next masterpiece. (The calm before the storm:))

5 minutes after this picture was taken, Jakob decided he needed a flatter piece of Play-Dough and proceeded to sit on some until it was flatter than a pancake. Then he made butt flavored castles.:)

My babies started to school today. And truthfully, I was more upset about it than they were. They were excited, they were ready to go, up and at 'em at 6 this morning. They were happy to see their teachers and ready to have a great day. We dropped them off in their classes, took a few pictures and they forgot all about us. We wondered and worried and prayed that they were having a great day all the way up until it was time to go and pick them up. It was at that time that we discovered we had a problem. (See, we kind of figured it out when we pulled up in the car and their two teachers were like "Oh, THERE they are!!" with looks of gratitude that we had come to rescue them.)

This is the problem: somewhere along the way of getting them excited about going to school, we may have neglected to tell them that they had to stay there ALL day. I'm sure I told them this at least once, but then again maybe not. Because my children were under the impression that they could just come in for a while, hang out for a minute and then pack up their backpacks and leave. And so they did. Both of them at separate times packed their backpacks up and just walked out of the room. Jakob came back when the teacher called him but it took a teacher, an assistant teacher and a music teacher to corral Lukas. If they weren't my kids I would think that it was pretty funny. Oh, let's face it. I STILL think it's pretty funny. Unfortunately those teachers didn't.

That is one thing that I had forgotten about, despite having been around teachers most of my life. They have a tendency to get that worried look when things like this happen. You know what they're thinking but don't want to ask: "Is your child alright? Is there something wrong? Does he have ADHD or PTSD or BAD?" So they simply ask you how you handle these things at home. And I had to tell them that since they have been 2 they haven't tried to pack up and leave home. It is, after all, their HOME. I don't think they appreciated my humor.

So, I made the mandatory apologies, put on my concerned parent face and brought my children home. And yes, I put on my concerned parent face because I don't really think that this is cause for alarm. They are almost 5 and 6 years old, they have never been to school before. They evidently decided they had had enough for one day. I just had to explain to them that the day is not over until I or Dad come and get you. Easily understood. I think. We'll soon see. I've given the teachers my reassurance that they will probably be fine with the new rules and structure and whatnot by the end of the week. Heh......I love that word "probably". It's kind of like "maybe". Doesn't mean a whole lot, it just sounds like it does.

So, who knows what kind of shenanigans will take place tomorrow. All I know is: when Lukas and Jakob get together wackiness ensues!!:) Yeah, they need to have their own sitcom.

Peace allllllllllll.................

Out of Shape Blues

Oh .......my.......goodness.

First off, thanks for your encouragement and ideas on how I can lose this extra fluffiness of mine. It got me off to a really good start. I went and registered at the Daily Plate, borrowed a workout DVD from a friend, gave the contents of my kitchen cabinets the once-over and got started, just KNOWING this was gonna be a breeze.

After the first 5 minutes of the exercise DVD, my body said "What are you doing? It's time to sit down now.....please.....NOW." And when I didn't, my body proceeded to curse me like a dog, all the way until the end. Today, over a week later, it's not as bad...but it still ain't good yet. Does it ever get good? Really? Because I see these people that just LOVE to exercise and while part of me is kind of envious because they are in such great shape, another part of me is just thinking "Freak......you twisted, abnormal, exercise loving freak."

I guess I just didn't realize how out of shape I really am. My teenage glory days of running a kazillion miles a day without being out of breath are gone. Used to be my heavy breathing was reserved for amorous occasions. Now, I'm gasping by the time I reach the end of the block. Not quite as sexy I'm sure but, oh well. It serves a better purpose anyway. (Not really....I'd love to count sex as an exercise but it doesn't burn enough calories.......I mean, it could, but you'd have to get the pony and the top hat and........well, never mind.)

And this evening, there is meet and greet at the boys' school where we get to go and meet their teachers and so on. Sounds like fun, except they are calling it an Ice Cream Social. That's right. My fat tuchus and a room full of ice cream. Does it GET any better than that? Oh, well, I guess I can walk an extra mile (or 20) to work it off. If my body will let me get out of the chair that is.

Peace allllllllllllllll.....................