Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Officially in my 30s...

And how do you celebrate your 30th? By pretending you're a kid and heading to Disneyworld!! We went up the day before my birthday and were there a total of 5 nights. Five days at the parks was both a blast and exhausting. I loved seeing Dylan see all this stuff for the first time and Jason was totally a sport, even though it was a million degrees. My favorite times were at Magic Kingdom, where there were hardly any waits and I could just walk on to all the rides on a whim and ride them over and over. Can't beat that!

2009-09-12 Magic Kingdom (41)

2009-09-13 MK (58)

2009-09-13 Magic Kingdom (58)

hollywood 5

2009-09-16 Both Kingdoms (69)

Yup, I'm now in my thirties. I don't know what to think about this new milestone, even though I've spent a good portion in one way or another obsessed by it for a good portion of my 29th year. I did not want to be that person who obsesses, but nevertheless I was. It's not that I'm just a drama queen, it's just that my own mortality has come into focus and all the violence and sadness around me and in the world suddenly at once felt like it all could, and would, happen to me at some point. I've always been under the belief that bad things happen to other people, and I realize death and illness happen to everyone, and suddenly the tick tocck timer was running out. I'm working on not obsessing on that, but the fact of the matter is that one day that pain in my arm will be my heart stopping or that car running the red light might run into me and one day I will be walking towards the proverbial light. So what to do in the meantime?

I assume more Disney once we've recovered from this, some more travels, more milestones and some good times in between. Definitely need to start working towards some new goals so I can grow as a person and bask in the glory of being me =)

Monday, July 20, 2009

Anything to avoid work...

Yes, I should be working right now. However, I am very busy trying to think of anything in the world other than that to do. I've uploaded pics, trolled Facebook, watched the rain and laid with Dylan to smell his Skittle breath and watch WordGirl. Now I'm here!!

I've been out and about lately, had to hit up Annapolis for a work meeting and then Anne and I took a train from Baltimore to NYC. I want to ride a train again, there is no better way to travel. I mean, it's fast, easy and there are power outlets at each seat. Heaven to a girl who never puts down her laptop! I also managed to pick up Anne's cold, which weeks later is still holding on. Fantastic. Highlights of Annapolis:

Anne and I at an Irish pub:
2009-06-30 Annapolis QA (4)

Crab Omelette (that's heaven!)
2009-07-02 Annapolis QA (1)

And a boat ride in the Bay
2009-07-01 Annapolis QA (22)

NYC was fun, though short and made terribly short by how sick I was on Saturday. Basically I had to hide out at the movie theatre and sleep because I was throwing up everything I'd had all week and with check-out at noon and our flight leaving at 8...well, you get it. So I missed Central Park, but got to play downtown, see 9 to 5 with Allison Janney on Broadway and catch a comedy show at like midnight on the upper west side.

Anne and I in Times Square (yes, the mullet is slowly growing)
2009-07-02 NYC Times Sq (13)

As close as we got to the Statue of Liberty on 4th of July weekend
2009-07-03 NYC Battery Park (8)

Headed to the show
2009-07-03 NYC Up all night (1)

And the after-show at the comedy club
2009-07-03 NYC Up all night Stand Up NY (2)

And guess what, Mom?! I was on the subway at 3 am and totally was not raped or killed. Whoo hoo!! Unfortunately, being sick on Saturday meant Anne and I were not able to fulfill our dream of laying as though dead in Central Park and taking a picture, as if Agent Stabler and the SVU crew were on their way to pick us up. A real tragedy there.

Had a quick lunch with Andi, Chad, Mom and Jim on Sunday
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And then Tues, Dylan and I headed to Galveston for our annual beach trip with Heather and hers and Rita and hers. Turns out Dylan despises the beach, as he has deemed it "dirty." He's right, so I didn't fight it. I was happy to work in the condo and he played video games and then we spent some time in the pool too. I'm very excited about the addition of the game Blokus to my game vocab and
can thank Heather for that one. Good thing I took beach pics as quickly as I did or it would be as if he were never there. At least he got a Nintendo DS out of it, since he fell in love with it as everyone else already has one.

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Galveston is still recovering from Ike last September, you see fields and wonder if it was always a field or it is just one now. Many things under construction, lots of new piers and stairs to the beach. I have to believe this will be a calm hurricane season because none of us have fully recovered from Ike. At least I've learned to put plants under the places where my sun room still leaks from the tree that fell on it. Thanks to Jason for that stroke of genius! Later, tators...

Sunday, July 05, 2009

I know, I know...

If I don't just sit down and post something, I think I never will. Basically, I fell off the end of the world, but I am back. And before I forget, I was trying to edit the names on the links on the side and some actually got deleted. It's not worth cutting yourself over, I promise. Just let me know and I'll add you back, I'm not sure what all I screwed up on there and who I am missing. Sorry 'bout that.

Stuff...

The kiddo graduated his first year of Preschool; there was a wonderful little graduation ceremony where Dylan refused to sing along and instead stared at the ceiling out of sheer boredom. He's a cutie, this one:

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Then came Dylan's fabulous 4th birthday party. The invites were seriously the cutest, though I did rip them off from some eBay people. The party went well but there were WAY too many people in this house. The highlight was the mostly finished garage playroom where we set up a projector and actually got to rock out to Guitar Hero. That really served as the afterparty, but for the peeps who didn't want to walk away from free beer and Capri Sun, it was pretty fun.

2009-06-07 Dylans 4th Bday (18)

2009-06-07 Dylans 4th Bday (51)

It was great to have everyone over, to show off our pretty much done house and stunning yard and all that but SHEESH too many people. Always a bummer because you never get to spend anytime with anyone, you just run around like a chicken with its head off.

Dylan and I got a Wii Fit for Jason for Father's Day. I was going to post the video of Dylan doing yoga and then giving himself a thumbs up when the instructor tells him "good job," but Flickr and Blogger aren't wanting to cooperate. Sigh. Let me try this:



Hey, I think that worked. Other than that, just been working hard and looking forward to celebrating my 30th with Dylan, Jason and Disney! About to update my scrap stuff too, if anyone is still interested in anything like that. You can find it here

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother Loving Day!!

Dylan's school did an adorable little song and dance for Mother's Day on Friday... kids did a song of "I'm a little teacup" and "You are my sunshine." Let's just say that my Guitar-Loving punk of a kid was dancing to the beat of his own drum. The other kids were so stoic and standing up straight while my kid was flailing arms and booty dances. Classic Rockstar Dylan. Afterwards, the kiddos served the parents drinks and snacks and we got these cuties:

2009-05-08 Mothers Day School (6)

2009-05-08 Mothers Day School (9a)

And because you know I could never resist, some Mother Loving from Justin and Andy... Happy Mother's Day, everyone!!

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Heard...

...in my living room tonight:

The three of us are in the living room and we're playing Guitar Hero, per Dylan's pre-bedtime ritual. Basically he makes us play guitar and he sings and dances the songs he chooses for us before we read books.

Dylan: "Mama, don't get booed off"
Mama: "I'm trying"
Dylan: "You're trying to get booed off."

Insert laughter here =)

Not as funny as this:

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Spring Break, fin

**but first of all, eek! Justin Timberlake as comic character Cathy's husband on SNL last week was so cute, but then his skank nasty fish lipped girlfriend came on too. Boo!! Still worth it, love me some Timberlake!!**

It's almost over. My car hasn't left its spot in days and Jason actually confronted me on it. Whatev.

I managed to deal with having my kid home all week, rain and muddy weather for the first half, and being sick several of the days and still ending up super productive in many ways. I got more than my fair share of reports in for work. I managed to finally get someone in to come grind all our stumps (you can actually run in my backyard without tripping now unless you're just clumsy). I planted a ton of junk and got my order of Galveston Euculyptus in (click on it, they are cool). These boogers grow 6 to 10 feet per year so soon I don't have to acknowledge anyone is around my house. I want to be an island...or at least a house that doesn't border the least nice part of the Mexican border. I mean, I am almost sure that someone escaped from there through our back yard last night. There were flashing lights (will the trees block those? we'll see...) and I swear I hear noises, but my current insomnia has me imagining everything. The lights really were there, along with loud yelling in espanol. It's like a telenovela back there, all night long. Anyways, trying to pull the proverbial curtains on that whole thing.

Nothing else much going on. We watched "Zach and Miri Make a Porno" last night Sidenote - if I didn't put the quotes on that it would look like Jason and I witnessed our acquaintances do this. Which would have been fun as well, I think being a fly on the wall at a porn set could make for delightfully hilarious conversation. Others may disagree. But what we can all agree on is that Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are both adorable. Loving them both. And being a fly on the wall in any room that guy is talking would also be hilarious.

Finally, if anyone (like Heather) cares, I finally updated my scrap blog. There's a link on the side over there ========================>
Did you know I even put all my stuff there? Well, it's most of it and oddly it goes back to 2006, if you can believe that. Anyways, still not buying stuff but I can occasionally be convinced to make a card with some stash. At some point it started to feel like the corniest, most superficial hobby in the world. That said, I like making people stuff and I need to do something with all the pics. And it turns out poetry wasn't any less corny. You'd be shocked at how similar the worlds are, in fact. I don't know what awesome, cool thing it is I think I should be doing with my time. Maybe it's part of the thrisis, who knows. I'll just keep buying my Stampin Up stuff and hoping the urge comes...

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Congrats! You have earned a post!

There seems like very little to talk about, but Heather said to and so I shall.

First of all, I learned the term for what I'm going through/emerging from while I was watching "ER" yesterday while scrapping. It's called a thrisis, or like the third of life crisis I have alluded to in the past. I am also going to mass diagnose and say that a lot of my friends and their loved ones are emerging from thrises (?) and I'm glad we all survived. It's not my place to share other people's business and I certainly don't feel like highlighting all my lunacy, but basically many people I've known have spent, ah, let's say September through February in a funk. I'm not pulling out the nose ring today, but I may grow my hair back some and I am trying to be a little less self destructive. May or may not get the back's worth of tattoos I have sketched out. Less time focused on the things I perceive are missing in my life (which are mostly BS and come from watching too much TV instead of reading books) and more time being hella (yeah, I'm bringing it back) grateful that my life is good as it is. And believe it or not, my brief foray into meds and my decision to stop them has been incredibly productive as to bringing me back to a little place I like to call Earth. Another post will have to be dedicated to my Lexapro withdrawal, I had no idea that stopping would imitate heroin withdrawals, but my brother (the actual street drug addict) has verified that it is. The stuff is toxic, stay away.

Speaking of ER, I went to one last week. I had a migraine and decided to shower. I slipped a la a cartoon character slipping on a banana peel. Hit two places on my head and my elbow and wouldn't have thought much of it had my elbow not enlarged immediately to the size of a baseball. It was Go Texan Day (non-Texans, it means the rodeo's coming so dress your kids like little cowboys and cowgirls, lame) and I was bummed because instead of watching the stick horse parade, I was going to the ER. Boo. Here's Dylan and his #1 Cowgirl, Angelina before we left:

2009-02-27 Texan Elbow (2)

So we settled on Memorial Hermann over at Memorial City which was terribly nice, believe it or not. Got an x-ray and catscan, but really the bonuses were the IV meds including morphine for my arm (which I stopped feeling 2 minutes after I got it) and the anti-inflammatories. Between the meds, my migraine was taken care of and I left with only a golfball sized lump on my elbow. I felt ridiculous for going to the ER since I had never been in my life, but the way my elbow hurt all week and looked gross, it was the right thing to do. Still, I felt like a drama queen until I finally got some gnarly bruises to show for it, which ended up stretching all the way around my arm. Never could get a photo that accurately represented the huge nastiness it was though, sad. So now you will all think I was faking it too.

2009-02-27 Texan Elbow (4)

2009-03-02 Elbow

Other than that, not much going on. Guitar Hero continues to run Jason and Dylan's life to the point where they broke the drums twice and we had to bring the whole thing into Target for a new set. Go Target for kindly exchanging it with no questions. I am a big believer in, if this isn't quality merchandise and it breaks and I spent a lot I want a new one, but not all the merchants agree and I didn't expect Target to be one that did. But they were, as was Fossil who replaced my brand new sunglasses that spontaneously fell apart in my bag after I wore them twice. I already hated myself for spending that much on stupid sunglasses, so that wasn't going to work. Brought it in and they gave me new ones. Whoo hoo.

2009-03-05 Sleepy Hero

Where the post gets uninteresting for most... me talking current events. The economy has me bummed a lot because I see my loved ones suffering for it (parents and brother unemployed, others dropping like flies). It's really frustrating because I feel this had to happen. They talk about housing bubbles and tech bubbles, but Americans have lived in one big bubble, period. I feel like this is an opportunity to ground ourselves and figure out where we really stand instead of looking for the next big bubble to jump on. I always have hated people who think they can get something for nothing, via gambling or stocks, and I expect my fair share and not much else. I know I won't strike it rich, no lotto for me. If I have extra money, I expect extra bills will materialize and they do. So, as Notorious BIG said, mo' money, mo' problems. I also hate when people feel they are entitled to "the good life" and I resent those people plus all the people who thought they could achieve "growth" in their respective industries by supplying those people with that life via big screen TVs and new houses and were shocked when they couldn't pay. People need to determine their means and live within them. Period. Industries need to accept honest growth instead of inflated forced numbers. The American economy going forward isn't going to work if both don't happen. Just my opinion, self righteous as ever.

Me? I heard the FDIC had to ask for a loan. They are the guys who, ahem, insure our bank deposits. I've got as much in savings as I intend to have for right now. I am investing my money in the things around me - my home, my car, etc. It's good for the economy that the money is still being spent and frankly if it is lost this way, I won't feel so bad as I will if the banks go bust. So I've dumped tons into paying off the Prius a year early and I will be saving the rest for the biggest down payment I can on the one we need to buy in the fall to replace mine since it is getting old. And no GM for me, I'd like someone to be around to enforce the warranty in a couple years. Sticking with Toyota and hopefully another hybrid. No more gas dependence on foreign oil and I'd be happy to spend more money on a vehicle that can make that happen. Whatever I spend now won't be as much as we got taken for on the Prius, ouch! But that's a good investment, in energy and conservation and we don't mind being the ones to take the step and hopefully start a trend. Still working on house renovations. I figure if no one gets jobs, we can have everyone live here, right? So we'll continue the renovations on the back buildings which could work out to be someone's home at some point. Armageddon ready, that's all I'm saying =)