Best New Years Ever!

Thirteen years ago at a New Years Eve party my boyfriend looked me in the eyes and said “I don’t think you will ever be a good wife or mother”, thus ending our 2 year relationship. I spent the next two weeks crying my eyes out on the shoulder of my roommate who said things like “you are wonderful”, “you will be an amazing mother”, and “he is crazy to think he’s better off without you”. 2 years later, I married that wise man and have spent the last 11 New Years Eve’s being thankful for another year with him! And every day I work hard to prove him right. I am a good wife. I am a good mother. I would not wish the heartache of that night on my worst enemy. But if you ask me if I am glad it happened to me…my answer would be…ABSOLUTELY!!! Happy New Years honey! I love love love you!!!

Christmas Sing-A-Long

I learned a few things last night.

Even though I cannot sing, I can still have fun at a sing-a-long.

People invite us places for my husband's amazing eggnog. And the look on people's faces when they take their first sip is priceless.

I am going to be an amazing drum player someday! I am currently taking applications for my band!

There are sweet girls Megan's age who snuggle with their moms and don't roll their eyes. Megan will never be one of them.

When I go on Amazing Race, the tag under my name will be "Bookstore Volunteer" because let's face it, "Mom, Wife, Teacher" isn't catchy.

My daughter is a flirt. Complete with the "notice me" way she sits on the couch and the "sing me a song" requests. Sigh.

My son is not a flirt. He walked past the sweet girl snuggling with her mom 87 times without a second glance. Different Sigh.

There are some people that just look good in hats. Any type of hat. I am not one of them.

It's cute when little girls show off their ballet skills. It's embarrassing when my husband shows off his.

Things I Learned in Yucaipa

Don't ask me how we ended up in Yucaipa. It's not relevant. I can tell you, however, that I learned a lot during my short visit.
1. There aren't many mini-vans in Yucaipa. Most people drive big trucks or old mustangs. If you drive a mini-van down Yucaipa Blvd., the people will stare at you like you have landed from another planet.
2. There are a lot of churches in Yucaipa. But the place with the most patrons is the bar.
3. You can see the entire town in 3 1/2 minutes.
4. We like to take a local's recommendation for a good meal spot whenever traveling to a new town. In Yucaipa, this means dinner at a place whose menu includes breakfast, Mexican food, cheese steaks, burgers and fried mushrooms, all prepared on a grill behind the cash only counter. There are plastic benches in their small booths. Their burger special is only $3.25 but if you want any flavor with that, you better make use of the ridiculously hot peppers they leave sitting on the counter all day, or at the very least, half of the salt from the shaker at your table. After dining at this place, you have a 50/50 chance that your icky tummy the next day came from their meat, or the e-coli from the stream water you drank on your hike. Their bathrooms were clean, which was a bonus!
5, In Yucaipa, the entire staff of a restaurant will stop working and sit down to watch the opening ceremonies of the WWE Championships.

I could go on, however my son has informed me that making fun of Yucaipa, and the people that come from there, is not kind hearted. So I will leave you with this, Yucaipa is not a destination location, but if you ever need a good chuckle, take a ride out there. There are plenty of sights to see!

Pay it forward

Last week we went to the Chicago concert. The whole experience was blog worthy, but I will save that for later. This post is reserved for praises for two wonderful women we met at the concert. They were seated next two us. Two friends since elementary school who were about my mom's age. They take an annual trip together and this was their week. They had come from Canada to see the band. They were as excited (if not more) than we were. When they were about to enter, they overheard the security saying any cameras would be confiscated. They were so worried about this, they returned to their room, left their cameras behind and came back into line. My camera was in my purse, in plain view, and it did not get confiscated.

After a few songs, we realized most people around us also had cameras and were not afraid to use them. Our friends were disappointed, we were encouraged to take ours out! So I got a few pictures and videos of our friends and the band. I took an email address and told them I would send them when we returned from our trip. They were so very very grateful! At the end of the concert they asked us if they could buy us a drink or two to say "thank you" in advance. We declined and told them to "pay it forward". We said, someday you will be in the position to make a memory for someone else and we hoped they would take to opportunity like we had.

Well...our friends really took this to heart. After sending the pictures, I got a reply that warmed my heart. Let's back up for a minute. During the concert, there was a man who got to come on stage and sing a song with the band. He had won this opportunity, backstage passes and front row tickets after being the highest bidder on an auction for the opportunity. The money raised all went to breast cancer research. Awesome! So flash forward to the email I received...after returning to Canada, one of the ladies went on the band website and found they would be playing this weekend only a few hours from her home. She eagerly bid on the chance to sing with the band and won! She was really excited about the opportunity, and then remembered our "pay it forward" conversation. It was then that she contacted her local breast cancer survivors group and asked them if they thought they could find a survivor who loves Chicago and might want the package. Yep, in addition to donating money to the research fund, she also donated her winning tickets to a survivor! What a woman! That is the most awesome "pay it forward" story I have heard, I think, ever.

Opposites Attract

My husband and I don't have a whole lot in common.

I get excited about the Chicago band tour bus.


He gets excited about the Nom Nom truck.


Enough said.

Notable Quotables

The last few days have been filled with some quotes that just have to be documented.

Dad-"2 minute warning guys and then we have to get out of the pool."
Dylan- (Gets out of pool, stomps to Dad and then cries big tears while saying...) "Why can't it be like and hour and a half instead of only 120 seconds?"
(Clearly the art of compromise is lost on him)

Friend-"Gina, you are so awesome people ask me how they can get into your club. So many people, too many to even name names, have come up to me and asked me how I got into your club. They want to know how to be a part of the inner circle!"
Me-"You're cut off!"
Friend-"Seriously! I tell them you're really nice and welcoming and that they just need to go say hi to you. Then later they'll come back to me and say 'WOW! I tried it and you're right! She really is nice. She said hi back to me!!'"
(No, this conversation did not take place in high school. This was really an adult saying this to me)

Spinal Surgeon-"My advice to you is to take a Vicodin and go to the gym. If it hurts to work out, just take your pain pills when you want to exercise."
(This guy is obviously an advocate for addiction to pain pills. And possibly my new best friend! I mean think about it, why would I ever want to actually recover from my injury when I can just pop pills for the next 50 years! Brilliant solution! Sign me up!)

Dylan-"Look! Some Japan guys on a roller coaster!"
Dad-"Ummmm....no, those are Buddhist Monks".
(Maybe you had to be there for this one but it was worth a mention)

Friend-"I am a total Facebook addict now! I logged in 3 times last month!"
(I had nothing to say to this. She clearly needs help for this addiction. Anyone have any references for a good inpatient recovery program?)

Advice to Graduate Students

Today I spent some time grading assignments from my graduate level students. Here is some advice for those of you that may be considering pursuing this level of education:

1. Put your name on your paper. You have been doing it for approximately 16 grade levels. Now is not the time to stop.

2. When the questions asks for four examples, don't give me the same example worded four different ways. For example... Sam showed limited cognition when he was unable to remember what time to feed the baby. Sam forgot to feed the baby, therefore he has no cognition. If Sam has to have help remembering to feed the baby, this shows he needs help with cognition. Sam does not have the same cognition as normal people as evidenced by the fact that he cannot remember to feed the baby. That is ONE example.

3. If it says reference the text, reference the text. Don't say "The textbook has a chapter about Mental Retardation". Show me you read that chapter with a quote or two genius!

4. No fancy colors. I do not need each answer written in a different color font. This may have been cute for answering questions about your boyfriend in high school, but it is not so cute when discussing the heartache experienced by parents of children with profound disabilities!

5. If it asks for a limitation...don't give me a strength. I know the strengths already...that's why I didn't ask about them.

6. Get a new printer. I can hardly read your dot-matrix text. Or save it to a flash drive and print it out at Kinkos.

7. When making a video of yourself to be viewed by the instructor...
Clean your house first. I do not need to look at your sink full of dirty dishes. I have my own thank you very much. Do I really need to mention throwing away dirty diapers sitting on the couch? Make sure that the camera operator knows the importance of the instructor actually being able to see what you are doing on the video. Your grade will reflect the fact that I watched your camera operator's hand eat french fries for 3 minutes. And I BEG YOU...please take the battery out of the beeping smoke detector before filming! I will deduct 1 point for every beep I hear.

Consider this a public service announcement!