Juggling Life

Magic Moments

The always eloquent Jennifer H. at Thursday Drive wrote about the magical evening she had with her kids on Saturday night. I read her post after a magical day with my kids; as it often does in the blogosphere, it felt like kismet.

My husband works (obviously--we need to eat and pay the mortgage), I attend college full-time, and the kids all have busy school and sports schedules. We are together more nights of the week than not, but there is homework and laundry, and well, you know how it is . . . life.

Saturday was a day where we had no agenda but enjoying being a family. The kids were on their best behavior since the outing was part of my birthday celebration, and I truly appreciated that. My husband didn't bat an eye at the $88.00 museum exhibit admission price (A Day in Pompeii--totally cool) and I truly appreciated that. We wandered through Balboa Park on a sunny, but not too warm day. We strolled, we looked at flowers, we took pictures. We watched a musician and listened to a sax player. We walked rapidly past a mime, 'cause we think mimes are kind of creepy. We saw lots of beautiful flowers, and watched a wedding in a gorgeous setting, the organ pavilion. We had an early dinner at a favorite restaurant.

When we got home the kids all went to do their own things; things that required no driving on our parts (always a bonus). I got to read my book and Mr. Fix-it got to watch March Madness. Pure bliss.

I hope all of you get to have a magical day soon. As Jennifer points out, sometimes they happen when you least expect them.

P.S. In addition to magic there were great presents. The kids chipped in on a series of 6 facials for me. Now not that I don't treasure all their handmade creations from the elementary school years, but . . . ! This definitely falls under "The Upside of Teenagers" category--they have jobs that pay actual money, which equals cool and (more importantly) thoughtful presents!

Politics As . . .

 

 

Yeah, It's a lot like that!

Birthday Post Post Mortem

I had quite the enjoyable day yesterday. First off, 54 comments and 129 unique visitors, an all time high ! Yay readers. I started the day off with a walk (always makes you feel virtuous), then went to lunch and a movie with a friend. We saw 21. I'd say wait for it on DVD. Yes, it has Kevin Spacey and a great, new young actor, Jim Sturgess, in the lead, but it's a little long and TV movie-ish.

Between the walk and the lunch/movie, tragedy struck--the power cord on my laptop (which had been chewed on by the cat) gave out and my laptop died. First off I was upset that I had to blog on the desktop. Then the realization dawned that all my school stuff was trapped inside my laptop and as much as I lam obsessed with love the blogging thing, the trapped school work was a catastrophe bigger problem. Of course I can order a new cord, but WTF? $69.00 plus $16.00 for overnight shipping? Luckily, Mr. Fix-it has rectified the situation--I don't know what exactly he did, but it involved a solder gun and electrical tape. Voila! I am back in business from the comfort of my own couch. Which is exactly where I like to be in business!

Due to scheduling conflicts (Big Red was scheduled to work 3-11 at Jamba Juice, Social Butterfly really needed to get to open gym since cheer tryouts are in a couple of weeks) we were having a hard time with the family portion of my birthday celebration--so that will be taking place this morning. Big Red suggested a museum--very sweet since that's definitely way more up my alley than the kids. I have zero problem with turning my birthday day into  a birthday weekend.

Speaking of Big Red . . . I really wish I had photos, but oddly enough he was reluctant dead-set against having his photo on the 'net in this particular situation. Thursday we let him cut school, and drive a couple of his friends up to Big Bear for one last day of snowboarding. (Big leap of faith, what with the driving up a mountain thing). Everything went well, they had fun, let us know when they got there, started down the mountain, etc. Then he walked in the door. Good lord, boy, have you ever HEARD of SUNSCREEN?! You are, after all, a redhead with fair skin. So the calling in sick to school thing had to happen for a second day, what with the fever, dizziness and nausea from the sun poisoning. Lots of aloe has helped. Now he just looks like Alex Supertramp from Into the Wild--with the patchy beard over the raging sunburn and the hair with a vague dreadlock quality. Hopefully he'll be able to improve upon the look before we hit Balboa Park this morning.

My friend and neighbor's birthday is the day before mine, and his party was last night. How convenient was that? We had a night of pizza, drinks, and general conviviality with some great friends we don't get to see often enough. Thanks, M & M! I drank just enough alcohol to have a great time and just enough to water to ensure I woke up feeling great. That can be a difficult balance! Plus, I got to hear this great comment: "Oh my goodness, I didn't recognize you! Your hair is so cute!" Ummm, thanks? I knew what she meant and we had a good laugh about it.

So, I'm off to shower, open presents, enjoy some culture, and go out to dinner with my husband tonight. Good times for sure.

P.S. If you have time, go back and read Grown-up Girl's comment from my birthday post--it brought tears to my eyes and boy does she know me well! Hers is number 52.

You say it's your birthday/ It's my birthday too--yeah

Really idiotic new baby picture courtesy of Glendale Memorial Hospital and the Dippity-Do corporation.

My birthday is smack in the middle of our family's Birthday Bonanza. Between February and May there are about 20 birthdays, including cousins and in-laws, around Casa Juggling Life. Whew.

Of course once you have kids your own your birthday just isn't as vitally important as it once was. My family is great about making sure I have a special day though. I've had a homemade cheesecake dumped in my lap by Grown-up Girl (before she was grown-up!), delicious meals made by Big Red, Danger Boy was himself an early bday present one year, Social Butterfly always gets great presents, and Mr. Fix-it arranged the best surprise birthday party ever for my 40th.

 

It makes me sad when other mothers tell me that their family didn't do anything for their birthday, or that they made their own cake. Something is wrong when your family doesn't show you that they value you in the same way you value them.

Since it is my birthday I thought I'd ask for a special present from all of you . . . In honor of my 44th birthday (which I'm going to have to concede certainly probably does make me middle-aged), I'd LOVE to get 44 comments. 32 is my high up to this point; my statcounter tells me I have a fair number of lurkers and I know I have friends and family that read but don't comment (yes, Grown-up Girl I'm talking to you), so it should be totally doable. You don't have to write a novel, just a Happy Birthday! will suffice.

For those of you who've never commented on a blog, just click comment (at the bottom of the post). You don't need to sign in. Just put your name and e-mail address in their appropriate boxes. You can post as anonymous if you wish. It asks for your URL, but just ignore that if you don't have a blog.

So, um yeah, please comment. I'm going to feel like a real idiot if I don't get any comments. And you must know how hard it is for a Controlly McController such as myself to turn control over to someone else (that would be you). Hey Ma, look I'm doing it!

What Would You Do?

While perusing the New York Times online, I came upon this article about a boy being bullied at school. When I was done reading it I had many thoughts, but the first one was "What in the hell are this kid's parents thinking?"

It's not a long article, in fact it left me with a lot of questions. The gist of the article is that this boy, who is now 15, has been bullied for years. The parents have let the school know; they certainly have documented the bullying. Yet they still send their son off to school every day, knowing that he is likely to be tormented, mentally and physically.

Why? Because they shouldn't have to take him out of the school; the school district should deal with the bullies. I am just baffled by this attitude. There are times in life when right and wrong, should and should not, are taken out of the equation. Protecting your child's mental and physical health and well-being is one of those times. You do what you must do for your child in the short-term and deal with the bigger issues in the long-term.

I find the approach schools take towards bullying in schools, at least at the elementary school level, bizarre interesting. It is all about "conflict resolution skills." It is seldom about "cut it out, you're being a jerk." There may be a boatload of research that supports this approach, but I haven't bothered to look. Mostly I've just gotten annoyed by it. Luckily, bullying, with them as either as perpetrators or victims, has not been something my kids have participated in. Well, there was this one time . . .

Social Butterfly was in first grade. She has an umbilical hernia, which looks to another first grader pretty much just like a big-ass, outie belly-button. Frankly, it wasn't terribly attractive. One day she was on the monkey bars and her t-shirt rode up, exposing her stomach. A couple of little witches girls proceeded to point at her, laugh, and generally mock her mercilessly."Ha, ha, your belly button is a hot dog!" SB is made of pretty stern stuff (she does have 3 older siblings), so she just blew this off. She did mention it to me--not because she was upset; she just found it interesting.

I was friendly with the teacher, so I mentioned it to him. I thought he might want to address the issue with the little witches girls, so they would realize it wasn't nice to make fun of people. He went beyond addressing it--he engaged his "conflict resolution" training. He talked to the witches girls, and then had SB join the girls in the quiet room so they could make their apology. "I'm sorry we laughed at you. It's just that your belly button is so gross it makes me want to barf." Okay, enough with the apologies already! BTW, those girls are in 8th grade now and they are just evil.

I do wonder about the bullies in the NY Times story. Were they ever taught that there is RIGHT and there is WRONG. There is SHOULD and SHOULD NOT. And when you are wrong and do what you should not, your parents and teachers come down on you like a ton of bricks and life is just no fun.

Junk/Treasure

This week's Weekly Word Challenge words are . . . you guessed it, junk and treasure.

This chicken belonged to my mother (does this sound familiar?). When my mom died I was executor of her belongings (my husband was the executor of the money), and it was a huge source of contention between my sister and me.

I didn't give her everything she wanted, and she was pissed. The reason I didn't give her much was that she had a track record of abandoning or ruining pretty much every nice thing my mom had ever given her. When someone's things are all you have left of them they take on a lot of meaning. I did give my sister this chicken though.

How did I get it back you ask? My sister lived in a house just around the corner from me (it was "acquired" through some sort of sub-prime lending scam involving multiple people and ending in foreclosure), when she was diagnosed with cancer in January of 2007. She wasn't paying for the house, plus there was an abusive boyfriend involved, so she moved from effectively abandoned the house the Saturday before Easter. A week later I drove by her former house and there was a garage sale going on. I stopped. I grabbed this chicken from the hands of a very startled woman and told the owner of the house that he "might think this was just a bunch of junk, but this belonged to my mother and I'm taking it."

What my sister considered junk to be left behind turned out to be a treasure to me.

Food, or Lack Thereof . . .

Last week I came to the realization that just thinking "I really need to lose some weight," while continuing to eat whatever I want, is not a very effective weight loss strategy. Surprise! I've decided to try Weight Watchers--it's my first time. I do think the whole points thing might appeal to my competitive nature in a good way.

I'm trying to convince a friend (you know who you are) to do WW with me. I talked to her about how it was going for me (day 4) today. "But are you hungry?" she wanted to know. Umm, yeah! Since I don't eat every time I have a hunger pang, I experience hunger. Not something I'm used to, which would probably be why I need to lose weight.

I'm (hopefully) not going to turn into a boring person who only talks about the points I ate, or how many I earned by exercising. Please slap me if I do. I am going to share one thing I've already learned though. The Baja Fresh Grilled Veggie Burrito that is my out and about standby lunch, which I virtuously get without chips, is 40 points. 40 points, people! To put it in perspective, that is roughly double the points I'm supposed to eat in one day. Hmmm, maybe that's why I've been gaining weight.

It boils down to what we all know: eat lots of leafy greens, cook at home, up the exercise, yadayadayada.

I am hopeful (but still a little hungry).

Shopping Spree

I hate shopping, but I love my daughter. That's why Saturday found Social Butterfly and I at the mall. It was about 80 degrees and it was an outdoor mall so I can't say it was total torture. Well outside wasn't torture. Inside . . . that's a different story. Why in the &%$@ do the insist on playing the music so *%$#@ loud inside Forever 21 and Journeys? I, for one, might spend more money if my throbbing head didn't drive me out after one round in the dressing rooms.

Me, an old fuddy-duddy? Why do you ask that?

Anywhoo. ... Since I hate shopping I go infrequently. So it just makes sense, while I'm buying SB some new jeans and shoes, to pick up a couple or three four things myself. Behold . . . and nothing was over $14.99. And since SB and I are sharing the red flats that makes them even cheaper!

Sometimes shopping is a little okay.

Expanding Peeple

You all may already do this, in which case I'm lame. However, if you don't know this I couldn't bear for you not to have the high level of fun we have around here at Easter.

1. Take a peep and set it in the microwave.

 

2. Turn the microwave on and watch through the glass as the peep expands and expands to several times its normal size.

3. Open the microwave door just before the peep explodes and watch it shrink down to its original size.

 

Note: Because the peep starts shrinking as soon as you open the microwave door this is the best shot I could get--it gets much bigger than this.

4. Laugh and repeat as necessary.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL MY PEEPS!

Spring, Spring, Where Art Thou Spring?

This is for all my friends in the frozen hinterlands . . .