I only LOOK sweet and innocent!

Sometimes something that looks easy, is really the hardest thing you have ever encountered in your life. Meet the Slate & Stylus. My NEMESIS!



2 hours at the table, not one sentence completed correctly. This sucks.

By the way, I had a shirt that said that in high school. I wore it all the time. It was true.

One other note, in this picture, it isn't even being used the right way. See, it's hard!

Randomness

Here's some random thoughts for the day:

I think it is suspicious that KT has lived 1/4 mile away from me for 4 months and I have never seen her house. I think about crashing through the door everytime I drive by coming home from school. But it is 9pm and I don't think she would appreciate that.

Quote of the day: "Mom, why is your tummy all shrivilled up like that?"
Anyone have the number for Dr. 90210?

My goal is to make it from Halloween to My Birthday without gaining 1 lb. OK...I can gain one, as long as it is one each in my girls. They need help.

Is it ironic that the minute I start trying to plan a Vegas get-a-way, only to be stonewalled by calendar, work and school issues, I hear 45 ads a day for Vegas?

I love the Goodwill. I got two pairs of Old Navy pants with the tags still on and a black shirt for $13.

I am so overworked I am staring to make mistakes. This is not like me. I am seriously slipping. I sent a CD of photos to be printed. Only I DIDN'T send a CD of photos. I never actually burned the CD. I just took out a CD, labeled it, packaged it up and off it went to the photo lab. Duh! It was nice of them to call and remind me to burn some images on the new one I send them!

I was outted by my brother last night. I was trying to see how long I could go through the program I am in before someone connected me to Dr. Fazzi (My step-mom who runs part of my program). My brother had to blab to someone he works with that his "little sister" is also taking the braille class right now. So in class last night she asked me if I was "Vince's little sister". 3 people around heard us talking and suddenly it was just like high school again. "She's Vince's little sister." "You are? We love Vince!!" I will FOREVER be "Vince's little sister"! I made it 5 weeks. And then they realized that meant I am connected to the boss. I won't have any friends in class now! Nice.

One of my professors said the other day "The definition of intellegence is holding two opposing thoughts at the same time". She broke it down like this...it's about getting outside of your own head and gaining a new perspective. Listen to both sides, think about what each is saying, process it, talk about it, debate it, weigh it with morality, THEN when you make a decision it is an intellegent one. It may still be the same decision you had a gut reaction to. OR you may find that sometimes what you thought you believed doesn't align with some of the other things you beleive. You might change your mind. Either way, you have now made an intellegent decision! Obviously in Religion and Politics this could be very useful. When she was talking about this I was reminded of sitting in my sister's graduation form a very liberal college a few years ago. The Keynote Speaker was John McCain. We were fully prepared for the protesters and media coverage at this event. What I was not prepared for was the complete lack of respect from some of the audience members. There were some that stood with their backs turned to him. OK, not to bad. The ones that I was bothered by were the ones who sat with ipods on, talking on their cell phones, or having loud conversations with their friends while he was speaking. That to me is not an intellegent way to make a point. I think the more intellegent thing to do would be to LISTEN to what he said. Actually listen. Think about it, weigh it, talk about it, debate it, etc. How can you have an intellegent respone to anything your opposing view says when you don't actually listen? I am not endorsing McCain here. Just using this as an example of what she was talking about. Sometimes you have to shut up and listen. THEN you can make your point with INTELLEGENCE!!! That was deep for me huh?

On a lighter note...I am addicted to hansens Diet Creamy Rootbeer. No carbs, calories, asperatime or sugar. While reading the side of the can to research what it DOES have in it...the can flew from my hand, hit the batroom door and sprayed everywhere. Nice.

Which leads me to this...why can't politicians change theuir mind? I have certainly made some bad choices in the past, hung out with some truly awful people. But I have changed. I have changed my views on a lot of things as I've grown, toothpaste, abortion, salad dressing, homosexuality, favorite flavor Hansens (it used to be black cherry), etc. etc. Why aren't politicians allowed to change their minds as they grow?

And on an even better note, as I was typing this my mother-in-law called to say she booked a flight to CA to watch my kids for 3 days so Jon and I can have a get-a-way to VEGAS!!! YES!! YEEE HAW!!!!

Life is good!

Silly Boys

I tried to get a nice photo of my boys together. This is what I ended up with. BOYS!!!

I Suck!!!

I do not work at 'C' level. I am a "get an A, never a B" sort of girl. I do not expect this of my children, however I DO expect it of myself! I know I have been out of the school game for 10 years but I still work ahead of schedule and expect a lot of myself. So I was not happy after my midterm last week. It was a medical exam and I just cannot wrap myself around thet type of stuff. I had read the mterials, done the assignemnts and studied for hours. This is a lot more than I can say for anything I did for my pre-law degree from 10 years ago. Anyhow, I was extremely disappointed to get my grade. 78/100. I do NOT work at C+ level. I was ticked. BUT today life took a turn for the better when the grades were posted for the whole class. I was third people. Third in the class. Which leads me to say this...I suck! BUT so does everyone else!!

It's Over-Part 2

This weekend I cleaned out Dylan's drawers. Part of this process included throwing out all the underware from the movies Cars and Toy Story. They were replaced with plain white tightie whities. Sniff sniff. He's a big boy now!

It's Over

It is with a sad heart that I tell you, my daughter has officially grown up. Yesterday she told me she is no longer "interested in taking pictures with any Princesses" because she knows "they are just people dressing up" Sigh. It lasted such a short time.

SPIDERS!

Today we went on a field trip to the Spider Pavilion. Check out this crazy spider by Dylan's head.




2 minutes later, Dylan was forcibly removed from the Pavilion for throwing twigs to destroy the webs. His defense, Patrick and Gavin were doing it too. My answer, well you were the only one dumb enough to get caught. I was one embarrassed Mama!

Oh Crap!

Did I really marry this man????



Happy 9 year anniversay my love!!!! XOXOXOX!

Coffee And Ice Cubes

Jon and I are celebrating 9 years of marriage this week. Add to that the 2 1/2 years of dating before that & the 3 years as roommates/friends, his quirkiness has been in my life for almost half my life!

There is one thing about him that I think is so strange, it is actually cute. He has to drink his coffee with an ice cube. He pours it straight out of the coffee pot, puts a cube in it and claims it to be the perfect temperture. If he is reheating coffee, he heats it up, then sticks a cube in it. Once I asked him why he doesn't just heat it for less time and he said it's because his way makes it perfect.

I guess it is one of those things I will never understand. But I always put a cube in it for him when I pour him a cup.

So...what about you? Does your spouse do anything strange like this that makes them unique? Lets share!

Scary!

It is 11:45 pm. For the past hour I have been listening to doors slam, hammering, and power saws coming from next door. A car just pulled out of their driveway. I think my neighbor is pulling a Scott Peterson. You heard it here first!

Giggling Girls!

I have to do a language sample for one of my classes. The other day I left the video camera on while Megan and one of her friends were playing. Today I spent a few hours transcribing every word they said. It was very hard to do since a lot of the time was filled with giggles. Lots and lots of giggles!!!

Here are some of my favorite tidbits from their time together:

Jon came home from work and went in to talk to the girls.
m-daddy can you get um some duct tape?
j-duct tape?
m-the yellow type.
j-are you gonna catch ducks?
m-fake laugh
l-fake laugh
Jon walks out.
l-that’s not funny of your dad.

The girls were blowing up balloons and letting them fly all over the room. There was a lot of giggling and laughing going on.
m-Don’t blow it up. Don’t blow it up. I’m going to go to the bathroom because last time we did it I laughed so hard I, I, some of the you know what, the bathroom came out. Sometimes if you laugh too hard it just, swish!


m-There. Ok. So. This is gonna be a machine to blow it up, put it down, blow it up, put it down. So it’s gonna fly and then we tie it again. OK, so. It’s gonna, so we’re gonna have like a pump and we’re gonna step on it to make the balloon fly when it’s all pumped up OK? And then we’ll get all of our silliness out and then we can do it because fake laughing, it just, I, I can’t. I can’t help it, so. Um. So, we’re gonna tie this to here. Oh no, we’re not tying it there. Ok. Do you know where. Do you rem. Do you remember when I had that thing when you step on it and a rocket shoots up

HUH???? What were they doing?

Le Coq

This weeks Boston Legan was laugh out loud funny! I am going to miss Denny Crane.

My Petals Are Perky

Got your attention didn't I?

I am the new Daisy Leader. Enough Said.

For Heidi

My mother in law has this hanging in one of her bathrooms. Reminded me of you.

The Kindness Of Strangers

So I have been training for this race. We have a few problems going into it. 1. We really have no idea what is in store for us. 2. We have a borrowed bike straight from a garage sale with no shocks. Who knew they made a mountain bike with no shocks? 3. My "buddy" hates biking. Hates it. She is terrified! 4. I haven't run since the first week of June. The few times I tried my bursitis hurt too badly so I stopped.

So we have a few strikes against us. One thing that we do have is a sense of adventure. It is that adventurous side of me that has me going out to ride the mountains with a group called "Trail Angels". This great woman started the group almost 10 years ago as her ministry. She is sharing her love for mountain biking with women all over So Cal while at the same time leading by example, and just spreading joy and love for God and Jesus. It is simply a great group of women who took me under their wing on my first ride, taught my about my bike, encouraged me, and took me down some fun hills. Slightly embarrassed by my ghetto bike and lack of funds to buy proper biking equipment, I took what they taught me and have been riding on my own for the past few weeks. But the e-mails have been speaking to me, calling me out and making me crave another ride with the Angels. Today I decided to suck it up and ride with them again. I am so glad I did!

First, I was pushed, hard. It was done with a lot of love and encouragement, but I was pushed. After a nice 4 1/2 mile warm up I went 1/2 mile up hill. Straight up hill. I only stopped once when there was some sand I couldn't get through. I need to practice that. At the top it was decided to go down a hill called "Rock It". I thought they meant "Rocket" as in speed. I am naive. It was as in rocks! Lots of them! I was guided down by someone who saw me ride last time I knew I could handle the challenge. During this time she saw my love for the sport and my (in her words) "natural ability" and decided to give me a bike. Literally. She gave me a $1400 bike that her son outgrew within a few months of buying it. It's my size. It has shocks. It is awesome.

For me this is a big deal. I am a giver. I give and give of myself, my time and all I can afford. I do not receive well. This was hard for me to accept. But when she said it was headed to the Goodwill I drove her home and picked it up. I am incredibly grateful for her generosity. I am so thankful that there are people like her in the World, who sincerely care about others and are willing to give without an expectation of anything in return. Of course I will do something in return, probably in the way of a gift card to the local cycle store I know she goes to.

The Trail Angels are truly Angels. I have enjoyed riding with them, am grateful for their instruction, and love riding with women who do it for the love of the sport, in the spirit of The Lord!

And now that I have a real bike with real equipment, I will be anxious to ride with them again soon!

BTW...My ass is killing me! Uphill is hard!!!

Shhhhhh.....

This is what I did today when I should have been studying.


This isn't me (obviously) but it gives you an idea of how steep the hill was. It was also very rocky!

Sweet Home Indiana

Dude...I am drinking red wine out of a styrofoam cup and eating salad out of a coffee mug. I am in Indiana afterall. I love my Hoosier!!!!