Life comes at you fast.....

So much to update!

Life has taken some exciting, terrifying and gut wrenching turns in the past few weeks.

MIDDLE SCHOOL: David starts middle school this fall (sob). He is attending a transitions program this week and next for incoming 6th graders at the middle school. He’s learning what to expect in middle school, meeting teachers and hopefully making some friends. He seems to be enjoying it. Certainly more than I am. Turns out – dropping him off for summer school at the middle school made my stomach turn into knots and my hands shake. I’m fairly certain I’ll need a sick day on Sept 1st when he actually goes to school. I feel sick just typing it.

FOOTBALL: He also started football this week. I didn’t realize how much of a commitment football was going to be….for both of us. They practice 4 days a week with games on Saturday – And until games start they’ll practice Saturdays as well. And the other moms told me the coach does dinners at his house once a week. 6 days a week. 6??! I’m thinking about petitioning the universe for a 10 day week. I’m gonna need it. Football is going to be so good for him, I can see it already. They run a mile a day and spend a lot of time doing conditioning. There are drills that will help build his gross motor skills and his coordination. Which will hopefully give him a little more confidence in general.
So far they haven’t played much actual ball, but he’s working hard and I’m very proud of him. He’s trying his hardest, I can tell. Not sure if he’s trying to impress the coaches or the kids or what, but I find myself smiling a lot watching him. Now…. If somebody could just teach me the rules of football I can try to keep up at the games. Or maybe I’ll just cheer for no broken bones….

HEALTH: David & I are fine. But life just isn’t fair sometimes. My oldest and best friend had some heartbreaking news recently. Her mom has been diagnosed with stage IV cancer. It hurts. It hurts a lot, actually. I’m surprised by how much this has affected me…. I’m devastated…it makes me cry for my friend and her family. It’s not my mom – and if I feel like this I can’t imagine what she and her family are going through. Cancer Sucks. Futility Sucks. All I can do is be there for her, hug her as often as I can and tell her I love her and I’m here to listen and help in anyway I can. Even if the only help I can offer is a few minutes of distraction or acting like an idiot to make her smile. Please, please keep her and her mom and the rest of the family in your thoughts. It’s going to be a rough rough road.

Seeing yet another family devastated by cancer only renews my commitment to do something about it. I will work my ass off every year until we have a cure. We WILL find a cure in my lifetime.

TRAVEL: I had the Best. Weekend. Ever. In July. We had a girls trip to Vancouver and it seriously, couldn’t have been any better. I am so lucky to have the friendships I have and the people who have been brought into my life in the past few years. I honestly cannot remember what my life was like without them and prefer to not even think about it.

We’re going to Roche in 10 days. The cabin has been listed for sale, and this may be our last year up there. It breaks my heart to even think about part of my childhood being sold…. if the lottery would just hurry up- I could buy it and save myself the worry. But as long as we have access to the cabin, I will continue to go up there and spend my “last summer” there. If I had 20 last summer’s I’d be OK with that. Jacqui and Danyal are coming this year and I expect a lot of laughs, silliness, maybe a few drinks and a great time. Darren will be there for most of the week and his sister is planning on coming up with a friend for a couple days. A good time to be had by all….

A few months ago my work presented an opportunity for people to sign up to crew a sailboat for a race that is put together by our parent company. Every company under the SAFRAN umbrella is invited to have employees crew a boat (or boats) for the company. I expressed my interest knowing I have not sailed in years and would surely not be the most experienced employee, and chances were slim. Many weeks went by and I hadn’t heard, so I assumed the crew was selected and I wasn’t on it. Last week I found out SURPRISE I’m on the boat.

Did I mention….the race is in FRANCE??? I’m going to France!!!!!! I’ve never been anywhere but Canada (and one booze fueled trip to Mexico I barely remember) and now I’m going to France?? To SAIL? Things like this just don’t happen to people… This isn’t my life. I am excited and extremely nervous. A 12 hour flight with coworkers I don’t know, staying in another country, not speaking the language. It’s been years since I’ve sailed and I’ve never raced anything bigger than a Laser. But I miss sailing more than anything in the world. Driving by the Marinas makes me feel homesick, and I’m sure once I get back on the water everything will be just great. Hopefully. And hey- it’s an all expense paid trip to France – I’ll volunteer to be the galley wench if I have to!

I’m racing tonight with an amazingly nice couple who has agreed to let me join them on their brand new boat. Hopefully I start remembering things, learn some new skills and don’t get in their way…. Or fall off the boat.

(Longest blog ever. I apologize)

Gratitude

There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude. ~Robert Brault


I am so grateful for the people I have surrounding me.
I’m reminded frequently but say it rarely. So here it is.

Thank you.
Thank you for loving me as seriously flawed as I am….
Thank you for supporting me in all of the trials I’ve faced.
Thank you for knowing I need to be in control of my own life and make my own decisions. Even if you can predict the future and know that decision will knock me on my ass.
Thank you for helping to pick me back up.

Thank you for understanding that I sometimes need my own time to detach from my life for a minute and de-stress.
Thank you for rolling your eyes and laughing at the ways I blow off said stress….but never judging me for it ;)

Thank you for always being willing to help when there aren’t enough hours in the day and I feel like I’m neglecting my son or myself.
Thank you for sharing the load, even though it’s not yours to carry.
Thank you for allowing me to help carry your load – it makes me happy to return the favor.

I’m so very very luck to have you in my life.

HAPPY 30TH!!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY DANYAL!!!!

You don't look a day over 29.5

Is it terrible that I LOVE that she is just a little older than me?

Note to self: only make older friends from this point out. If you're younger than me, and I already know you- no worries you're grandfathered into this new plan of mine.

=)

2009 Here I come!

I suck.

How lame is it that it’s now 5 days after Christmas and I got nuthin?

I haven’t even uploaded the Christmas pictures off my camera yet. But you will damn sure know if nkotb post any news- there is something wrong with this picture. AH- well. C’est la vie!

So Christmas went just fine thankyouverymuch.
I was worried. Plans fell through. Things change. Emergencies happen.

We bounce.

That’s what we do.

We ended up having a non-traditional dinner on Christmas Eve. My dad wanted to go to Happy Dragon, the entire thing seemed a little too “A Christmas Story” for me and after about 7 minutes of singing Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra we decided to go to Sakuras instead. Man, I love that place. Grandma & Grandpa came with us. I am sure my brother in law missed our bouillabaisse tradition since he only gets to participate about every 3 years, but nothing says Christmas like onion volcano’s and singed eyebrows.

I have to say, although it was not my first choice, it was rather nice to have the kids home and in bed at a reasonable time. Since we all know kids fight hard NOT to go to sleep Christmas Eve, starting the process a couple of hours earlier doesn’t hurt my feelings.

Santa came and left. The kids had a great time and got WAY too much stuff. Santa doesn’t know when to stop. When to say enough is enough, Santa’s credit cards cant take this abuse for much longer.

We went to a movie, which has become our new Christmas Day tradition since my mom moved to the top of some god forsaken mountain to become a hippy. We saw Bedtime Stories…..What can I say? Not my favorite. We chose it because we thought it would be best for David. It couldn’t keep him entertained; he was out of his seat for half of it. Thankfully David chose seats in the very back row. Right underneath the rotisserie heater. Can you get kicked out of a movie theater for sitting in just your bra?

Here is my thought for the day: 2008 can suck my big toe. (SO GROSS! I can’t believe I even typed that)

2008 was NOT my friend. With the exception of the nkotb reunion and my AMAZING new kids weekend with my friends- 2008 pretty much beat my ass. No joke.

I have decided that the universe is going to hit me with some good karma in 2009. I am buying lotto tickets in preparation.


I have to say 2008 was almost completely salvaged by our mini NK tour. That one weekend almost made up entirely for all the stress, hurt, crying and pain 2008 dumped in my lap. But take nkotb out of the equation and it might just be the worst year ever. If not for the 5 bad brothers from beantown land- Well. I’ll just say THANK YOU for giving me something to be happy about and to look forward to. BRING ON 2009!

I will post Christmas pictures as soon as I figure out if I got any good ones.

Our family tree has root rot

Last weekend my sister came up. Since we are doing Christmas at my house this year we decided it would be fun for the kids to all pick out and decorate the Christmas tree together. To add to adventure we decided to cut our own tree down. It doesn’t save much money, but it’s definitely more fun.

The plan was for Carrie & me to go and cut the tree down, which would have been exciting all by itself, with the 2 of us cutting down a tree. Which prompted Missy to beg “PLEASE blog about it”.

Well it turns out that the cutting of the tree was uneventful. Not worthy of its own blog. My dad ended up going. We went to a tree farm near Olympia. It had a petting zoo, a tractor to take us to the different areas of the trees and to help us haul our trees back. Santa was there. David was feeling very awkward about sitting on Santa’s lap….maybe he’s getting too old for it? That would make me sad. Luke was terrified and wanted nothing to do with it. He took off running as soon as Carrie let him go.

At the petting zoo

David with Santa

Wagon Ride to the trees

Luke with Papa....just cuz I love this picture

We rode the tractor to the Noble area and wandered around for a little while. I was feeling very picky and found something wrong with every tree. There was one in particular that I was strongly considering. But I wanted to keep looking. We marked it so we would recognize it when we came back and went to another area. I was looking at some other trees, but when I saw people near the tree I originally wanted and that made my decision. Apparently I just needed to THINK somebody might take my tree. So we hauled a$$ back to the tree. DIBS!

Since dad was there, we didn’t have to cut the tree down ourselves. Although my dad would have liked us to volunteer, and would have gladly stepped aside, my reverse psychology skills are beyond comprehension.

“Dad, I don’t know about you being down on your knees sawing a tree, I’m a little worried…..are you going to be able to get back up?!’
“WOULD YOU QUIT TREATING ME LIKE I AM A FEEBLE OLD MAN?! GIMME THAT SAW!”
*evil grin*

There were quite a few choice words coming out from under that tree…..think “A Christmas Story” and you will get the general idea.

Old man, under a tree

Brett helping Papa

David Helping Papa

OUR TREE

Apparently my “perfect tree” had the WIDEST trunk ever known to man. It was quite the chore. Carrie & I were only responsible for holding the tree once dad got half way through sawing it. We failed….. Miserably…. and the tree fell. Oddly it didn’t fall away from the cut, it fell backwards. Onto dad. I wasn’t quick enough with my camera, but I am sure you can imagine it.

That was the most exciting part of the day….

We took the tree back on the tractor. I went inside to pay for it. Dad took the tree to get in line to have it shaken and bundled. As they were unloading it off the tractor, the guy said “Oh. This one must have been by the road huh?” “Uh….yeah…..” “Yeah, I can tell” I should have known that would be a bad omen, but I’m a stupid girl.

I went in to pay and find some twine to tie the tree down while they shook my tree. My dad said it was like something out of a Charlie Brown cartoon. Once they put it on the shaker a cloud of dust arose and was so big, people around started coughing. They shook it twice to get all the dust out and the boy scouts who volunteer at this farm were beating it with sticks.

Well! At least they got all the dirt out!

So we take the tree home. I put it in a bucket of water (still bound) so it is ready for us when we get ready to put it up in the morning.

Carrie & I took the kids to Zoolights. Note to self: Next year, go on a weeknight. It was worse than Disneyland. I have never feared that my child (and nephews) could be swept away in a mass of people before. We walked around with a death grip on the kids. I was literally afraid.

The next morning we got up, got dressed. I brought the tree in. Dad had stopped by, so he helped us get it in the stand, but he HATES stringing lights, so he left immediately after it was in the stand. Not that I blame him. Too early for reverse psychology.

We cut the twine bundled around the tree and let the branches fall. It was perfect…..leaning a little, but perfect.

I put in the Alabama Christmas CD (Thistle Hair anyone?) and start stringing lights. When Adam gets up, I pass the responsibility on to him. While I am stringing the lights, I have to stop and wash my hands every few minutes because of the dirt on this tree. It’s disheartening but not a deal breaker……

The lights get strung. But somewhere in the process everything gets screwed up. We started with the female end at the top of the tree and somehow we ended up with a female end at the bottom of the tree. How is that EVEN possible? We also encountered a problem that wasn’t a problem last year…..2 of the strands plug into each other, but will not plug into the other strands…..WTF? Aren’t they all universal?

By this time we had been working on this tree for almost 2 hours.

Carrie & I went to 2 stores to try to find more blue lights since this tree is bigger than previous years and the reject light strings weren’t playing well with others. Kmart apparently had a sale (blue light special?), so the only blue lights we could find were 35 light strands. We figured 3 or so of those equaled 1 regular strand and its better than nothing. So we got them. Except, afterwards we discovered that these ones didn’t plug into ANYTHING! It was just a strand of lights that was all on its own….*sigh* I am starting to resent Christmas.

I send Adam to Home Depot to get an adaptor. After the sales people finished whipping him with vertical blinds for daring to ask for a plug adaptor with 2 male ends…..something about not “electrically safe” or some crap……someone suggests getting a green extension cord, hook it into the middle of the tree, where the male end now lives and running it down the trunk to the wall. EUREKA! Of course, they don’t carry green extension cords, so Adam gets black. Whatever works. I also have him pick up a rake cuz ours sucks and we haven’t raked the leaves up yet, our neighbors are starting to talk.

He gets back, finishes stringing the lights and something else is wrong. Shocked? Me either.

The lights which have a craziest path ever known to man in order to get the plug end from the middle of the tree to the bottom; now refuse to plug into the wall. Why? Who knows, everything worked last year….no idea how 2 light strings changed their configuration and how the wall outlet now seems to be European.

We need an adaptor. Thankfully, we have one of those in the house…..have we had this problem before? Nah.

Adam fits the adaptor to the new extension cord and tries to plus it into the wall….At this point I am outside visiting while my neighbor fixes my trampoline for the 3rd time….Adam comes out, asks to borrow his pliers…..He takes them and walks inside saying “Um, I really don’t want to die today” I have NO idea what he did to the lights/extension cord/adaptor. All I know is the tree was lit when I got inside. Of course I cant figure out how to turn them on, Adam has to do that every night, but no harm- no foul.

This is turning into the longest blog known to man……my apologies……

So the tree is lit!!! YAY!!!

Um…what’s WRONG with it? Why does it look dead? We DID just cut this down right?

After the lights are on you can totally see that the entire thing is covered in dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. The tree is brown and doesn’t even smell like a tree. It smells like dirt.

We call a meeting of the Christmas tree crisis committee (me, my brother & sister) and debate our options. We can take the tree outside fully lit (finally) and hose it off and hope we don’t electrocute ourselves. Or we can de-light the entire tree and take it outside and hose it off. Or we can leave it as is and call it a Charlie BROWN Christmas…..Taking it outside lit was my vote…..but it was already in the stand, in water….Carrie didn’t feel like shocking her kids who were planning on hanging the ornaments, she voted to de-light the thing and re-string them. Adam voted for none of the above, we spent about 4 hours lighting this damn tree.

None of the proposal presented to the committee involved using the newly purchased rake (still packaged) to whack the tree repeatedly until our entire house was covered in dirt.

Adam taking our his frustrations on innocent foliage

What you get when you "beat your tree" -DUST


TIMBERRRRR!

After about 2 hours of cleaning, you can ALMOST walk barefoot in my house again.