wading out of the shallow waters

life is good, right? you know the saying, “don’t let the little stuff get to you” er… something like that. what about, “don’t let the bastards wear you down” (thank you sjs for this). “put it in perspective” (thanks, cjs) all these sayings take on a whole new meaning as you get older and shitty shit happens, doesn’t it? reframe it and it all doesn’t seem so bad after all. i don’t know why all of this is floating in my head. wait, maybe i do.  i’m sick of my job (and the women that hang out there), i want to do some things with the house (i just need 10grand, dammit!), i want to go to the beach with my husband and children (now!), etc, etc…

when things weigh on my mind and i need to escape and retreat i have an overwhelming desire to clean my house and get rid of crap. weird, huh? but not just crap- excess. i think sometimes we just have too much crap in our lives and we must recenter ourselves and realize what’s important. cleaning and purging the crap that accumulates in the house does the same for my mind and soul. as i box up and bag up our possessions that we rarely use, or don’t need anyway, i start to feel the weight lift off my shoulders.

i am lucky to have a job, at least i have a home, and it’s cold at the beach… we’ll wait until summer to venture there.

besides running (too cold right now!) i have been doing yoga here and i absolutely love it. i can’t explain it, but where have you been all my life yoga? i heart you. i love the serenity and calm you bring me. oh! and the soreness you bring the next morning. i love it when i’m working out and i think i’m meditating. can’t beat it.

i’ll stop with my ramblings. time for bed. this is my new “reframing” quote:

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.

– Buddha

my clone

i can’t believe i have a 6 year old (and other revelations)

the title says it all. wyatt is 6 years old and i just can’t believe it. time flies.

he had his friends, miles (8) and bronwyn (6), stay the night. we had pizza from pizza hut (wyatt’s favorite) and a homemade vanilla cake with chocolate icing. we watched the movie “up”. it is a kids movie, but erik and i love it. santa brought it for wyatt this year. if you haven’t seen it, you need to. such a sweet story with great animation. we put eliza to bed at 9 and played board games with the kids. it was short-lived because they wanted to get back to playing their nintendos. around midnight erik and i called it a night and told them lights out. i think we heard the last peep around 12:15 or so. they were up at 7am for playing and pancakes.

eliza had fun with all of the kids here.

i’m realizing that i no longer have a baby

but a toddler in my house.

she’s climbing, getting into things, whining… all that fun stuff toddlers like to do.

evidenced by the photos below.

i left her for what felt like 2 seconds and this happened.

and i wouldn’t allow her to take markers into her bedroom.

recap

it’s been a busy december. i turned 31 (what?), taj went to kitty heaven, i hit a mailbox in our neighborhood while driving eliza (whining endlessly) to the doctor to get a diagnosis of a double ear infection, got hit by a crazed suv-driving mom in the pediatrician’s parking lot (who denied she hit me! and tried to “buff” out the scratch with her sleeve! **she made my van move while i was loading eliza in her carseat!*), shopped for presents, lost use of our refrigerator 3 days before christmas and found out it was the compressor and the part would not be in until after new year’s and it would cost $500, celebrated here at home for santa’s gifts christmas morning, went over to mom’s for christmas morning brunch and presents, came home to cook lasagna for erik’s family (out of the coolers on the back porch, no less), opened presents with them, worked all weekend at the hospital, and finally… took down the tree and all the decorations and said ‘good riddance’ to 2009, especially december of 2009! sorry for all the run-on, but it feels better when i type this way.

i know i sound scrooge-like, but i am so ready to start 2010. after the 25th of december and after santa has finally made it back to the north pole, i want the tree down and the party to be over. don’t get me wrong, we had a blast with the kids over the holidays. they were so much fun and they were both hilarious on christmas morning.

eliza especially loved her car and her new cabbage patch baby. in case you were wondering… we found out it’s a girl and her name is cassandra. she fed it a bottle immediately and said, “awwhh.. baby?” wyatt was completely stoked about his red and black nintendo ds. he is such a little gamer and i guess i’m fostering it because i loooove playing anything mario bros. we both get much enjoyment out of the ds.

santa was good to all of us this year. hope he was good to everyone else! here’s to a fabulous, fun-filled, healthy 2010!!!

hello and goodbye

dear sweet taj, tajy, snickers, snickysnacky, soul kitty, kittykitty… we rescued you from the pound almost 10 years ago. you were dirty and smelly, but sweet as pie. daddy and i brought you home and you were our first. you settled right in and wooed everyone who met you. you went on walks with us, caught all things wild, scratched the door to go out, had an ever-present leaky eye, ate turkey and drank milk as much as we would allow, slept with your brother in his bed almost every night, and purred nonstop. we will never forget you and we will talk about you always. we love you so much!

diamond in the rough

we have had some serious shitty weather around these parts for the past couple of weeks. it rained for, what felt like, days on end. it was windy and cold, too. the kids were couped up inside the house and it was getting on all of our nerves. the weather changed this past saturday for the better. i was at work, so i don’t count that. i was couped up inside the hospital friday, saturday, and sunday. 40 hours in 3 days just isn’t very fun. i know erik and the kids enjoyed the weather, though.

yesterday, though, we had a taste of summer. it was 76 degrees and gorgeous! eliza and i went on a great walk and after that we picked wyatt up from school and headed to colonel francis j. beatty park in matthews. for those of you that were here for poppie’s memorial 3 years ago, it is that park. it’s awesome and the kids love it! we played for about 3 hours with some friends and then headed home. we all needed a day like that.

checking out the lake and the ducks

eliza lingered a little bit. she loved the ducks and was trying to run down the hill toward the lake to get a really good look. you have to watch this girl closely.

swinging back up at the play area

 

shop girl

eliza loves to shop now that she is more mobile. here she is at ikea, helping me out.

we looked around, mostly, and lusted after some ikea kitchens. man, i would kill to do a little work in the house. i love all of the clean lines and simple style at ikea.

so did eliza.

halloween

i missed work this weekend because of a bug. ugh, no fun. i felt pretty bad on saturday, but by the night i was able to help get the kids ready for a very short trick or treating trip. it rained pretty hard here. wyatt was happy to get some candy and eliza was happy to take her spider costume off and play with her treats.

she wasn’t sure if she wanted to put on the spider outfit…

wyatt is spooooookyyyy…

she decided she was okay with it…

our last stop was at nonnie’s house to get the real goods. they scored candy and glowing necklaces, a flashing pirate bag, and a kitty cat bag with a pumpkin necklace.

hope everyone had a happy halloween!

it’s a party

wyatt had his kindergarten halloween party for his class today. he was so excited this morning when he woke up!

we made necklaces, ate caramel apples and sugar cookies, read a story, and played halloween bingo!

 

time for FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS…

 

wyatt’s best girl in the class, kaley…

 

his best friend in the class, efrin, is moving this week. wyatt came home last week and told me about it. i asked, “are you upset, bud?” and he said, “no, i’m just very sad mom.” he went to the couch and laid down. ugh… breaks my heart.

here is efrin and wyatt…

 

class photo with ms. sutphin, his teacher, and her assistant, ms. kessler…

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

atl and greenville

we made it back from our weekend excursion to atlanta to see the georgia aquarium. we picked wyatt up from school and headed out. of course, we had to stop at chick fil a because wyatt eats lunch at 10:30 and is always starving after school. we went through the drive thru and we were on our way! we all ate. even eliza. i threw her a chicken nugget or two back in her car seat and she was happy as a clam. we all had drinks from chick fil a, except for eliza. this always pisses her off royally. she wants a damn cup with a lid and a straw. nothing reusable. only what we have! i obliged and gave wyatt my drink and gave her wyatt’s small cup with water in it. whatever will make a 16 month old happy on a 5 hour drive. i never looked back. big mistake.

we stopped in gaffney, sc to hit the starbucks and, more importantly, the bathroom in it. i got drinks and made my way out to the car and i noticed eliza’s car seat sitting out in the parking lot. when i made my way up to it, i knew why. it was soaking wet and so was eliza. the chick fil a cup was torn and open. erik stripped her down just to her dipe and we tried our best to clean the seat. i, thankfully, had a blanket in my bag to put under her. wyatt then declared he had to “take a doo.” ugh. the projected 10 minute stop ended up lasting about 35 minutes. oh well. we are on vacation, dammit.

besides that side excursion and hitting atlanta’s drive home the trip there was not bad at all. everybody did great. eliza and wyatt watched ‘the jungle book’ and were great the whole way there. eliza only had tiny bits of shrill screaming just to let us know she was still in the van and that she was ready to be in atlanta.

we went out for mexican that night and watched a little basketball on tv. lights were out and eliza did surprisingly well in her pack n play.

the next morning we were ready for the aquarium!

it was a neat aquarium and we got there before it got too busy. when we were leaving, it was getting very busy. wyatt loved the stingray touch pool. they felt slimy and slick. eliza’s favorite part was the huge tank theater. she got to get up close and personal with the sharks, fish, and rays. she was pointing and kept squealing!

this was how big the theater tank was…

it was really fascinating and educational.

we left with goodies and headed out. we decided to stop in greenville, sc on our way home.  i love this town. the shops are neat, the people are friendly, the food is good. besides, we needed to stretch our legs and we get something to eat. we walked main street for about an hour and then ate. we made sure to hit the toy store and the mast general store for candy. yum!

the weather was warmer here and the sun was out. the leaves are pretty much at their peak here, too. it was beautiful and relaxing.