I'm gone for a few days and Ben & Jen get married

this is what happens with my DSL goes down for 3 days... I come back and can't get caught up. My head is still spinning. I've been online for nearly 4 hours and I am still trying to catch up on everything. Bah!

So what happened while I was off in the land without internet access? What did I miss (besides Ben & Jen getting married)? Me? I was going mad and was reduced to cleaning and cooking. It was horrible.

Ben and Jen: They Do! ok, do you even care? I'm happy about it because they seem happy and seem to be suited for each other pretty well. It is at least nice that they finally confirmed Jennifer's pregnancy. Not that we didn't already know. Hello. I love her... though I 'm not sure Ben is a step up from Scott... but whatever.

It's the weekend

For the 2nd weekend in a row kiddo is staying with his grandparents (my in laws). It is strange and quiet with him gone. Since he was outta here hubby and I decided we should go out. We had dinner at Chili's and shared the most amazing fajitas ever. OMG. They were divine! We were both stuffed to the gills.

After dinner we headed to Target to pick a few things up. While we were browsing I had this feeling like, "Oh man. We gotta hurry up." and then I realized. No we totally do not. Wow. You know, it just hit me that I had no responsibilities and could stay out as late as I wanted. Very weird. But nice. It's funny how being a mom changes you.

We came home and watched The Jacket with Adrian Brody, Keira Knightly, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kris Kristofferson. It was interesting stuff... not wow, what an awesome movie. But totally interesting if you're into that sort of slower paced, long story with some Sci-Fi mixed in. Totally held our interest that's for sure.

Happy Father's Day!

I have no father figure in my life. They're alive... it's just that... well, seeing as how I'm not on Oprah I'll just leave it at that.

Anyway, Happy Father's Day to any dad's out there. Hubby got his gifts Saturday night. He kept bugging knowing we'd probably bought him a game and since he's spending Sunday at his Dad's house - he wanted it now. We got him Guild War's for the PC, a camo t-shirt that says, "Ha! Now you can't see me." and two packs of socks. Poor guy needed socks so badly that he was actually happy when he pulled them out of the gift bag. He loves the shirt and of course is thrilled with the game. He figured we'd bought him one of the games he wanted - but said he was happily surprised with the other items. Yay!

Saturday we went out to see Batman Begins. Awesome, awesome movie. Not all comic-bookish like the past Batman movies. This one is actually a good film and not corney or cheese filled. Christian Bale is..... Mmmmmm!

Costco samples are awesome, but beware of Whole Foods

Ok, you know how when you go to Costco they always have tons of people standing around making and giving out samples of various food products? And you know how they are 99.9% delicious tasting with that last 0.1% being just ok? Yeah. Ok... so....

The kiddo loves going to Costco. He would make it a meal, I'm not kidding. Going from person to person getting his food samples and snarfing them down. You can't blame him, it's good stuff they hand out.

So, we went to Whole Foods on Friday. Um, yeah. Can you see where this is going? *snort* We're walking around. I'm looking for a health supplement and some bread that my husband loves. I find what I need, we head to the check out. There's a lady there giving out samples of some.... I still don't know what it was and some goat's milk ice cream. Kiddo takes the samples after I give my ok. Being smart I refuse the samples for myself. Are you kidding me? This is Whole Foods! Yeah, so kiddo takes a huge bite of the green whatever it was and the lady asks him, "Is that good?" and he nods his head. We walk away and I look at him and ask, "So, is it really good?" and he says, "No. It's really nasty." The look on his face says it all. He asks if he can throw the remaining part away and I say of course. He then digs into the goat's milk ice cream. He liked it. A lot.

We're in the car driving away and I tell him that ice cream was made from goat's milk, not cow's milk. His reponse? "Eeeeeeeeewwwwwww!"

When relying this story to my husband I compeltely lost it. I'm probably a horrible mom for fining it so funny, but oh.my.gawd. Needless to say, the kiddo now knows that Whole Foods is not like Costco and to steer clear of any and all samples at Whole Foods. *snort*

Awwww and funny from the Kiddo

So I'm doing the dishes very late Tuesday night. Kiddo is getting ready for bed, once he's done he comes and finds me and starts rubbing my back (yeah, I've raised him well). He says, "Wow. Mom's have so much work. You know, I should start helping you with that." *points at the dishes* "I should do that with you."

Yeah, I melted. He's so sweet and adorable some days.

I took advantage and went on to tell him that yes Mom's do have a lot of work they have to do and it's always nice if the Dad's pitch in and help. I told him when he's big, if he gets married he should be sure to help out too. He sighed all serious like and responded with, "I don't know Mom. I'm only 7. I'm a 2nd Grader. That's a long ways away. I might forget by then."

LOL

*pant pant*

I need a nap! Here's it's barely 6 o'clock and I'm ready to drop. I worked out good and hard on my elliptical, then managed to get 7 loads of laundry done, cleaned up the mess in the kitchen - dishes overflowing the sink. I still need to clean the darn rat's cage but I'm thinking that may just have to wait. I'm tired of going up and down the stairs all day. And to think... I still have to make dinner and then clean up the mess. *wahhh* I want to be a kid again.


Yesterday was a day of play for us. We went to Dennis The Menace Park and Kiddo had a total blast climbing on the train. The day was a grand one for him as he got Mc Donald's for lunch (gag), went to the park, then got a snow cone and candy at the snack shack.

Photos should you care to see:

I've been tagged.... again...

Charity got me back for tagging her with the "If I could...." deal. So here goes nothin'.

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Total Books Owned: I'm not sure I could stand to count them all. I own a lot of books and that's even with having got rid of a ton of them when we moved last. I'm about to sell a bunch of 'em on Half.com. I'm a book person as my Aunt would say - so I have a lot ~ my husband is also a book person so our place has stacks of books everywhere.

Last Book I read: One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. I just finished it this evening and have put a hold on the next book in the series - Two For the Dough at the library.

Book sitting on my coffee table I am planning on reading: I don't have a coffee table so I'll take this to mean books I plan to read in the near future. That list includes Baby Laughs by Jenny McCarthy (on loan from the library), the rest of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich and Derailed by James Siegel (recommended by a friend - I'm picking that up from the library in the next day or two).

Five books that mean a lot to me: Oh gosh... I am going to have to think on this one....

1) The Green Mile by Stephen King. I wasn't a Stephen King fan prior to reading this book however I can easily say now that it is my favorite book of all time. Why? Because it was entertaining, very interesting and filled with so many truths about life that I had to stop and think about it more than once. I was amazed. I was impressed. I was touched and felt I was a better person for having read this book. It was so full of truth about reality, people, life and how to live that I'm still not over it.

2) The Bible - for obvious reasons? Or are they not obvious? I am not religious; however I am a Christian and believe in God. I would say the Bible has been the most influential book in my life.

3) Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney. When I was younger I most read the classics and I loved this book about a close knit family of children. I was obsessed with their story -- still am slightly. I would love to get my hands on the rest of the series. I only ever read books 1, 2 & 3.

4) I was going through an Oprah phase. She was doing her book club thing and I was her minion. This book makes this list because it got me back into reading. I loved reading as a child and young adults and then when college, marriage, motherhood hit I only ever read textbooks or medical research. It was past time for me to branch out and the book that got me back into my love of reading was Gap Creek by Robert Morgan.

5) Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Allcott - again with the classics from my childhood. I can't even remember how many times I read both of these books - but I can remember enjoying them while sprawled out on my bed at the age of 12. Good times!

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Ok, so it's my turn to tag... I'm so going to tag back Juls. Juls - woman, you owe me! :) And while I'm so tag happy I'm getting Stacy too just because I seem to love her book recommendations and am curious what she'd say in answer to these questions.

The DMV

I'm sure every adult who has ever had dealing with the DMV has strong feelings about it. Heaven knows I do. I hate the DMV with a passion. There's nothing like having to stand in a line for 40 min. just to be told which other line to go stand in. And yes, that's what my DMV is like here. No longer can you just go to the part of the DMV that you need. You first must check in, get a number and go stand in yet another line. For the love of sanity! Make it stop!

So, here I am giving the DMV kudos. You see, we can renew our yearly registration online now. I did it with my car last year - and today kiddo and I took hubby's car to get Smogged, it passed, we came home (ok, so we did a ton of other things and then came home) and in less than 5 minutes I had the car registered. Thank you DMV! I love the DMV. Ok, so not -- but at least they have finally done one thing right.

It's Summertime!

So even though I really just wanted to stay home today - I got out and took kiddo to the library. He signed up for the summer reading program (you sign a paper saying you're going to read _____ each week, bring in the paper each week with your progress, get a little prize). He did it last summer and really enjoyed it. They also had a Magician come in and put on a show. Kiddo went and loved it. He got to be an assistant for something too. I didn't get to see it though, I stayed out as last year they were always turning kids away so I didn't go so someone else could. I sat out in the library and read some of One for the Money. Love it! :D

Home now, going to nap just because I can. Ha! :) I got up this a.m., forced myself to eat something and got right on the elliptical to get my workout in before I showered. Love it! My husband ended up not going to work today. He didn't get up with his (or my) alarms. *no comment* I woke up at 9 a.m. going, "Xxxx! It's 9 o'clock". He called into work and is doing some stuff at home for them.

On our list of things to do this summer is:

Train park - actually it's Dennis the Menace Park which features a locomotive in the front that the kids can climb on. We'll probably go a couple of times. We also have a park right across the street that we'll go to a couple of times.

Beach - I hope we go several times to several of the different beaches here but the weather must cooperate. I refuse to go on a 63 degree day and have the chilling ocean wind freeze me to the bone. Picky, I know. :)

Chuck E. Cheese - he wants to go and we probably will next week. It's not local though which is the biggest con for me but it's just for an afternoon... they ought to make this place nicer for the adults that have to go. I'm not sure how, but something. I'll just bring my book and attempt to read.

The Wharf - we definitely need to play tourist at the wharf at least one day this Summer. That's always fun!

There's also a chance we will go to Disney next month, but not 100% on that just yet. We are really hoping it pans out.... it would be for my niece's b-day. Lucky little girl is having her birthday party at Disneyland!

What's everyone else doing for summer? Any plans? Vacations? Day trips?

Kiddo's last day of school was June 3 and he goes back August 1 (year round school). Last week he got to play in the hot tub at my grandparents house. He loved every moment of that. So far he's having a good summer. I have told myself we will get out and do all the things we want to do. It's got to be a priority otherwise it will be the last week of July and I'll be sitting here wondering what happened. LOL


Kiddo 'swimming' in my grandparents hot tub

PSA ~ Movie to Avoid

Just a public service announcement from me:

Avoid Alone in the Dark "starring" Christan Slater and Tara Reid at all costs. Like you already knew that, right? Yeah, I knew it too - but watched it tonight with my husband who actually paid good money to rent it. It was so beyond horrible now I'm going to have to say up even later to watch something decent to get that outta my head.

My husband is afraid of spiders. What I'm afraid of doesn't even compare.

My husband is afraid of spiders. What I'm afraid of doesn't even compare.

I'm the spider and bug killer of the house. Most of the time I find my husband's fear of spiders funny, other times, like when he must turn all the lights on in the middle of the night, thus waking me up, rather annoying. It's almost a joke in our home, what is mom afraid of? He asks me that and every time I try to come up with something and can't. You see, my fears are things that don't even compare. Spiders? Nah. Heights? Nope. Snakes? No.

My son was playing outside today. My husband, being the sheltered and over protective person he is doesn't really think it's such a good idea for kiddo to play outside unsupervised. I made a compromise with the kid. He may go out and ride his scooter, play with his balls, whatever so long as he stays right there inside the apartment complex. I have to be able to see him should I poke my head out the door or look out the window. I have to be able to hear him should he fall and get hurt or need me for something.

My child is 7 years old. He's going into second grade at the end of summer. I remember when I was just 5 years old and went to Kindergarten. I walked to school by myself. My mom didn't even watch me walk half way. Thanks to either the changing times and or my own (nightmarish) childhood experiences I'm much more protective and aware than that. I don't trust people with my child - even “good people”. In my experience those good people were not always so good.

I walked outside this afternoon. It was getting later in the day and it was about time for the kid to come inside. He wasn't there. I walked around, I called his name. He wasn't there. That feeling - that horror, the nausea and absolute disbelief is not something you can compare to anything else. I came inside and put on my shoes. I went back out and started looking feeling very frantic inside, panicked. There is was. He was fine. He hadn't stayed right where I told him; he had gone out of our safety bounds but not by much. He was till in the apartment complex. He'd found a kid from his school and they were playing around being little boys. But that feeling won't leave me even an hour later.

I just looked at him. I told him it was time to come inside now. He said he was sorry. He knew he wasn't supposed to leave the area we'd set. I try to explain it to him. How his father and I would never get over it. How we would never be ok. How he really is the most important thing in our lives. How we have nothing if we don't have him. How there are evil people in the world. How he can't tell if someone is bad or not just by looking at them. I try to explain it, I try to tell him. I don't want to scare him, but he needs to know. The thing is, he is 7 years old. He is still innocent, thank God. He can't comprehend how evil people can be. He doesn't understand and can't at this age. He knows what I tell him yet that doesn't mean a whole lot.

My biggest fear is something happening to my child; someone or something harming him in a way that he and we would never recover from. I fear that someone or something will snatch away his innocence in a second and not slowly, gradually over time as he's old enough to hear, learn and see the things that will take it from him. I fear I would be left without him and I fear I would never be ok again. I fear that my life, however rich, is really meaningless without him. And I fear the exact same things about his father, my husband.

My husband is afraid of spiders. What I'm afraid of doesn't even compare.

I'm it, apparently.

I have been tagged by Juls!

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Choose five things from the list below and complete the sentence.

If I could be a scientist -- I would invent a cream to get rid of stretch marks... and so I don't sound overly shallow I'd also cure cancer and AIDS.

If I could be a farmer

If I could be a psychologist -- I would try to be as cool as my college psych teacher.

If I could be a librarian

If I could be a professor

If I could be a writer

If I could be a llama-rider -- I would have a very sore bum and walk funny.

If I could be a bonnie pirate

If I could be an astronaut

If I could be a world famous blogger -- I really would never log off the 'net and I'd have the coolest, most tricked out computer ever with at least 4 flat screen (huge) monitors. Yeah baby!

If I could be a justice on any one court in the world

If I could be married to any current famous political figure -- I would shoot myself in the foot for being so stupid.

If I could be an innkeeper

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Ok, moving on.... I'm gonna tag Charity! Charity - you're it girl!

It's 6:55 a.m. and I've already broken out the Diet Pepsi

It's the last day of school for kiddo; the last day of First Grade. Wow. I'm a bit stunned. It went by so quickly.... and yet so not.

Couldn't sleep last night, finally just got up around 5:30 a.m.; played around on the computer while trying to wake up and find the motivation to shower. Took a shower and felt like death warmed over so it was time to start on Diet Pepsi. I used to drink it this early in the morning but haven't in years (I don't drink coffee - it kills my stomach).

I just know these next several weeks are going to fly by us and before I know it, it'll be August 1 and he'll be going to 2nd grade. Eeek!

Blah, blah, blah

I showed off the book that we (er, I, as room mother) made for the teacher today for her end of the year class gift. Showed it to some of the class parents, a friend of mine, kiddo's Kindergarten teacher and my mother-in-law (she works in the office). Everyone was highly impressed with it and loved it. B's Kinder teacher - I had asked her what she thought of the idea and she said it sounded good, but apparently she didn't fully understand that it would be a hard cover, professionally bound book. MIL was also in awe and said, "All the teachers are going to want one". Yes, I'm all proud and happy. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. For those who haven't heard of it before now, I had all the children draw a picture for the teacher, write some sentances for the teacher and asked the parents to send in photographs. Then I scanned, edited, etc. everything and made up the pages for a hardback, professionally bound book. You can do it through Shared Ink. They are amazing! I was so shocked at how impressive it looked. Wow!

My mother-in-law told me who kiddo is getting for his 2nd grade teacher. Apparently she had wanted him to get Mrs. Z and his first grade teacher also wanted him to have Mrs. Z - so that's who he's getting. Its very cool to know before school lets out who he's going to have. They don't let you know until the weekend before school starts. Having an insider is nice at times.

Talked to kiddo's teacher ~ she said over the summer break to just work on his writing down what he wants to say more. This is a problem w/him -- when he was younger it was actually saying what he was thinking. In fact that was an issue just last year in Kindergarten. I'm pretty sure it's related to his CP that somehow the wires just get crossed. It makes him so mad, too. Poor kid. So we'll do that - no problem.

She was so sweet, gave me a little gift (darling little vase with gold trim) and a very kind card. Just one and half more days left! We made plans to go to my Gran's house Friday after school gets out. Kiddo will 'swim' in the hot tub and I'll just sit around, drink Diet Pepsi and relax. I can't wait!

I got all the teachers gifts wrapped (a candle for the reading teacher, a candle for kiddo's kinder teacher (we adore her, so got her a little something) and of course something for kiddo's teacher and then the class gift). Kiddo is almost done making the cards for everyone and I want to hand write a few notes out as well. So almost finished with all of that....

I was a total idiot today and didn't eat lunch before I left to pick kiddo up from school at 2:15. Then, we ended up staying at the school talking to people and stuff until 3 and then we went to the store. So it was after 4 before I ate again after having had a bowl of cereal for breakfast at 7 a.m. Why do I do that to myself?! Argh.