I can't believe I am 40 today. FORTY.
Well...I am trying to be happy about it. Can you tell by the picture?
At least I've lived this long.
Just wait 'til I'm 80! I'll have even more stories to share, but for now, here are a few of the memories that make me happy. I wrote forty of them (not in any particular order - the last is just as important to me as the first):
1. Sleeping in my room on Shawnee Hills during the hottest summers wishing I had some huge ice berg I could put in front of my fan to blow cool air on me. I remember sleeping in a pool of sweat and being so angry about being hot.
2. I was pregnant with P and was watching the house and dogs for my parents. They had just moved to Delaware and I was planning to spend the night. Hubby was heading over with me and we saw a dog on the side of the road looking hurt and lost. We got out of the car and chased that dog for 45 minutes and never caught it. Hubby told the neighbors all about it and they said they'd keep an eye out. That night I bled and was scared to death (after two very traumatic miscarriages) that I was going to lose that one too...thankfully I didn't.
3. Laying on the blow-up mattress downstairs while the upstairs carpeting dried from being cleaned. P was 2 and E was just a wee baby. We watched Peter Pan, it was raining, kind of a dark and damp feeling, but we loved being together - the kids and I.
4. 1995 Ohio Rennie Summer - my goodness was that a good time. And, I met Kelly, who is a Ya-Ya to me.
5. Napping in Hyde Park with my buddy Kris Burke.
6. The way I felt the first time I saw a bronze plaque in Rome that represented all the land the Roman Empire controlled. The Romans and their Empire weren't just stories. :)
7. Going to school with my mom for the day. I loved being in her classroom and watching her teach the kids. We'd have lunch together in the teacher's lounge and her teacher friends were all so sweet.
8. Having to get elastic strips put in my go-go boots for my flag corps uniform in high school. My calves were too fat and I couldn't get the boots zipped up.
9. How Phoebe or Hershey would block the driveway whenever I was leaving my parents' house.
10. Watching TV on my parents' white sectional couch in their living room off Trails End. I loved that house.
11. Drinking cheap White Zinfindel and watching Ren and Stimpy with Mary before we'd go dancing at Mustard's. My dad and I would watch the re-runs on the weekends together.
12. Sheilah and I were sitting in the back of the Nana-van after her birthday dinner. She went through every piece of jewelry with me that she wore and what it represented. I loved her love of family and how important each person was to her. What a great lady. I miss her.
13. I was mad at my brother and sprayed Right Guard all over his pillow. He went to sleep that night, got up the next morning, and said "my bed smells so good!"
14. Taking my husband to the wrong hotel after our wedding. What can I say (I was drunk), I got confused.
15. Everything surrounding my wedding - bachelorette party with awesome girlfriends, my showers, and the red wine night telling Jill I didn't want to change just because I was getting married. Shane and I drove to RI and back in 3 days for our family wedding shower out there. My mom commenting on the crystal frame Denise got me as a joke for the one here.
16. P never crawled, she scooted on her butt. Mary always said "girlfriend doesn't want to mess up her manicure."
17. Mary stayed with me for a week when Sam was 3 months old and P was about 5 or 6 months old. We laid in my bed with the babies when it was just getting dark and drank red wine and watched crappy tv.
18. Moving to NYC never having been there. I would do it again today, not NYC, but a place I have never been. It was pretty exciting!
19. My History of Eastern European class at OSU and how much I hated it. The professor was hard to understand and a total snore.
20. Puking down the front of Tammi after too many Electric Lemonades at Purity.
21. Rushing KAO - Kappa Alpha Theta and getting in!...and dropping out after a year. Too expensive and too many ways to get sidetracked from studying.
22. Just getting my new car, which was a stick, and not being able to drive it. I kept stalling it, but dad said I needed the practice. I picked up some girlfriends and had a "rough ride" all the way to The Continent to hang out and flirt with boys. I think some of the girls were drinking Boons or something - I did NOT drink then...I was only 16 for crying out loud (as if that means anything).
23. Shane carried a green lunch box shaped like a monster when we worked at Kreber together.
24. Going to Chicago with Susan. My daughter still talks about that trip. I loved watching her explore the city and enjoy being with her buddy Lady K. Such a great time.
25. Being introduced to playgroup for the first time at Graeters. I met J, S, and H for the first time. Our babies were so little!!
26. Dropping P off at 3 year old preschool on the first day. I couldn't stop crying.
27. Hubby sliding across the floor in his socks at 1492.
28. Watching the Simpsons every Sunday night with our friend "loop" at 1492.
29. Taking a walk with mom on Mother's Day and how upset she was that I waited until the evening to stop by. She thought I forgot about her and that still makes me sad.
30. My dad water skiing.
31. Me attempting to water ski. Took me a while to get it right and I still can't slolam.
32. Ice skating on the river and breaking my leg in 3rd grade. David and my brother thought I was joking! aaaahh! Eddie was working for the fire department at the time and came an splinted me up to get me up to the house.
33. My dad telling me to calm down and take a deep breath when I was walking down the aisle for my wedding.
34. The coo-type giggling P did when she was first born and holding her in my arms while I was wheeled to my room. She sounded as if she was laughing. It was so amazing!
35. Looking at E after he was born and being shocked that he didn't look like P when she was born. Of course, I thought, he is a different baby!
36. Shopping for and buying our first and current home. Hubby and I kept coming over to check it out - we loved it the first time we saw it.
37. My first green 8-hole docs from a place in Little Five Points in Atlanta with Mary.
38. Going to see the first Cirque with Kris at the big yellow tent set up in the city (Manhattan).
39. Nursing P and watching Ugly Betty. She'd always fall asleep nursing and I'd stare at her for the last half of the show and then put her to bed. I hated letting her go, even for the night. :)
40. I had my parent/teacher conference for P's 4 year old preschool yesterday. They say she is doing beautifully and they are glad they got to have her in their class. Yes, again, fight back the tears.
cousin Darcy found this really cool place where the kids could make fish prints on t-shirts for $10. They chose their fish (P chose a bass because she just caught two bass the week before on our camping trip) and their t-shirt, painted the fish with fabric paint, and then pressed the shirt on the fish. The guy that owned the place heat dried the shirts and we picked them up a few hours later. V. cool.
We love to handpick berries and other fruit.
Such a great activity to do with my kids because it incorporates fun and eating.
But, I don't think I picked enough berries this year.
Yeah, 10 jars of jam and two days of inhaling fresh berries all day long is just not enough. I feel like such a berry hoarder.
My friends and I had so much fun doing the Warrior Dash on Saturday. The guys all dressed up as "business men" and looked hysterical when they were finished all covered in mud. I was going to dress up, but I need to be cool when I do a run or I am miserable. John carried his briefcase the whole time and pretended he was sending faxes over his phone.
We ran in the 2p wave, and waves started on the half hour. We lined up in the corral and the race was started with crazy music and fire spewing from torches - very exciting stuff here....plus, we had to get amped up b/c the first leg of the race was straight uphill. The Hocking Hills area is quite hilly - the course was pretty much all hills on the running parts - more up than down. I can imagine people doing it during the rain would be miserable because of slipping and sliding in mud.
We started with small walls to climb and barbed wire to go under. Then we went through swinging tires and onto a huge pit of water with rolling logs. We swam across the smelliest water and ran around to go over junkyard cars and trucks. The first car had the backdoor open and I slid right through, the second round I had to climb over a huge utility truck...mind you, water is tiring, so it was a double whammy to put something climbing next on the course. Then we ran through tires like linebackers. At this point my friend Bridgette and I saw the guys jump into the water. They were passing the briefcase around yelling "don't get my documents wet!"
Then...more hills. Bridgette and I were an awesome team, by the way. We had to go through an old school "spider web," two huge walls (one netted and the other just a huge slab of wood with rope), crawl through a tunnel-type thing on our hands and knees, waded down-river for a while, a netted crab walk that didn't seem to end, walked planks, jumped over two sets of fire obstacles (yes, I felt the heat! it was crazy), and then ended with a mud pit with barbed wire where you *could* walk over (but, then you'd get hazed by the crowd) so you had to get down on your hands and knees and go under. We were covered in mud when we were done.
It was exhausting at points, but seriously one of the most fun things I have ever done. Seriously, none of us can wait to do it again. Everyone was on a high. Of course, then we had to get sprayed down with the coldest water EVER. Then we got beers. Our timing chip was also a token for a free beer for after the race. We hung for a while and then headed home. Minor knee scraped injuries and mud laden clothing for the win.
My awesome friend Daryl watched the kids for us while we ran. P nor bubbies would get near me because they didn't like that I was covered in mud. Of course, I took that time to chase them around pretending to be swamp thing. Before we left, I donated my running shoes. There was an enormous pile of shoes for donation to Green Sneakers.
Well, my girl had her last day of preschool yesterday. She's been attending a preschool for two years that has made her feel safe, loved, enlightened, educated, involved, and successful. For me, I wish she could go there for the rest of her grade school years, but alas, it is time to move on.
I am in the white baseball cap.
My mom and me. The woman who gave me an amazing example on how to be mommy.
Image from: www.metmuseum.org
Candyce was an early childhood educator - she gets kids. The girls that were there were P's three cousins (Candyce's 2 and Brett's 1), Candyce's soon to be step-daughters, and then two of Mindy's little friends. All the girls were in kindy or first/second grade - and P loved being "taken care of" by the older girls. It was so cute. Well, when I was starting to get things together to go I pulled P aside and asked her if she wanted to stay. It was an immediate YES! Then I said "you know, mommy, daddy and E are leaving, so we won't be here." She, in her mature manner, said "mommy, it is okay. I won't be alone. All the girls are here!" I felt confident letting her stay...for her, not me.
A 3 year old boy wouldn't truly be 3 until he shoved something up his nose. I've heard horror stories from my friends about when they were little or of their own children shoving things in their noses or ears. These stories always ended up with infection or a trip to the emergency room. So, I was a little panicked when I say across the room "who wants a cookie" and his response is "I do, but I need this cwayon out of my nose fiwst."
enough in that I would probably have had to take him to the pediatrician's office (who I've visited probably 4 times already in January. The kids' doc and I are becoming BFFs) and ask them to remove it.
Day. We made special enchiladas and Rosca De Reyes (which took ALL day). So, I ran on Friday. I only got in 2 miles because I had to run the treadmill. I call it the "dreadmill" because I really really do not like running on it. I can't get pacing, I feel claustrophobic, and I get really bored. I will have to do it though, and I am hoping the only times are when I have short runs to do. I also did the Jillian Michaels Shred workout. I am still sore from the chest flies!
Papa Bill painted for her for charity. My next step was to find a suitable charity for her, and well, it kind of fell into our laps! Her preschool collects for "One for Books" through Scholastic. For every dollar donated, Scholastic matches monetary donations with a donation of up to one million books to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Kids in Distressed Situations, Inc., and the Kids in Need Foundation. Given P's love for books and reading, this seemed perfect.
