Life's Little Lessons

Learn: to gain knowledge of a subject or skill by study, experience, etc.

Me @ 36...little things I have learned in my lifetime.

* Be careful of making promises to your children. If you forget they will always be there to remind you. * Always check to see if the toilet seat is down before sitting. * You do not have to see friends often to know that they are great friends. * If my child wants to wear a sweater in the summer, no need to argue, when he is hot he will take it off. Sometimes you have to let them make their own decisions. * Pay attention to how other's treat their children (even strangers). You may see exactly what you do not want to become. * Take lots of pictures, memories should not be forgotten. * Always check your shoes before walking out of a public restroom (or even worse the back of your pants). * Any man that hits a woman deserves to be out on the curb (my words of wisdom). * Tell your family every day that you love them, there may be no tomorrow. * Never expect that a man will always be there to take care of you, learn to take care of yourself, but appreciate him while he is there. * Be careful when birds fly overhead, sometimes things fall (this I know from experience). * read, read, read, you're never to old to stop learning. * communication is vital in a relationship, learn to do it. * laugh often, out loud. * a smile really does make you feel better. * my mom is awesome. * kids say the funniest things, write them down, you will forget. * keeping kids away from another parent for no reason other than your own selfish reason is just a shame. * kids need both parents. * respect your children, and they will respect you. * take classes, learn anything you want. * If someone tells you a secret, keep it a secret (I've always been good with this one, but I have seen it do some damage). Always check both shoes when purchasing new ones. It stinks to find out you have two left feet, or a size 7 and a size 9. *

Would someone turn off that damn internal clock?

GEEZ, there is nothing I would love more on my two weeks off of work than to have a good day of sleeping in. I mean REALLY sleeping in. I usually get up at 5 am for work, and these last two weeks I have been getting up between 6 am and 7 am. THIS IS NOT SLEEPING IN!!! I believe that I am naturally more of a night person. I am the type to set the clock for the exact time that I need to get up in the morning. Unlike my daughter I don't need to have some advance wake up time to let myself adjust. I am not a morning person, but I jump up and get myself out the door. I don't sit around and drink coffee (I don't drink it at all) or read the newspaper early in the morning. Although the thought of this is interesting to me. I would love to be a morning person, and get up and have that quality time to myself, but I just can't seem to get my lazy butt out of bed. I just am not a morning person, probably never will be. I cherish every moment that I am there in bed, especially since I am a restless sleeper. Maybe one day I'll adjust and learn to be more of a morning person. Until then I'll be a night person trapped in a morning person's body.

What else is going on? Lets see......In about an hour I am going to pick my nephew up from the airport. He is flying in from Florida. He has been raised by my parents, and has now decided to come up here to live with me. I don't mind this, even though Nathan is quiet, he is a good guy. He wants to get a job and he will need to get his driver's license. Unfortunately my transmission went in my other car last week, so he won't be able to drive that, unless of course I pay to get it fixed. I'm still deciding on that one, lots of money.

Yeah, my trans went out while I was on my way to my favorite restaurant last Saturday. It died right in front of the Michigan Stadium, so I parked it. The walked the rest of the way into town and enjoyed my meal. I didn't see why my day should not have some pleasure in it. I was also going to see a movie at the theater, but that was a bit too far for me to walk. So I settled for lunch, and then went back to the car to get it towed. So right now it is sitting out front waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Luckily I have another car, that is probably why I have taken it so lightly, otherwise I would probably have been upset. Life is good.

My man Marvin

Marvin Gaye just happens to be one of my all time favorite singers. Something about his music soothes me. I remember several years ago when I was on afternoons. I would stay up into the middle of the night, and I would turn down all the lights, light a few candles around the house and listen on some Marvin Gaye tunes. I haven't done that in a long time. Usually I am in bed by 9 o'clock so I don't get that peace and quiet that I enjoyed so much. Although lately I have had some alone time in the morning while the kids are in school, but nothing compares to sitting with some lighted candles and listening to some great tunes. Huh, maybe I just need to make myself stay up a bit later, at least on the weekends.

I remember watching about his death on the news when I was a teenager. What a tragedy to be killed by your own father. Marvin died on April 1, 1984.

I have been meaning to but haven't quite gotten around to visiting the Motown Museum. This is a shame since I am close to Detroit. Maybe soon I'll break away from my hectic schedule and go (haha).

Beautiful Smile

People tell me that I have a beautiful smile, what do you think?

Some AWESOME mustard

Have you ever tasted KOOPS Arizona Heat mustard? Oh my, it is sooooo good. If you like mustard with a bit of a kick try this. Hurry now, run to the store and pick some up. I know you'll love it.

Nothing exciting

Nothing really interesting going on in my life lately. I have some kind of complicated things going on in my dating world. Of course this is something that I prefer to not talk about in the blogging world. I'll just have to work them out on my own.

As I mentioned in earlier posts I am off of work for 2 weeks. For the first several days I barely left the house. Yesterday though I actually got out a bit. My went out to lunch at my favorite restaurant with my sister's ex-boyfriend (also a very good friend of our family). I haven't seen him in several months though, so it was refreshing to see him again. He just recently became a grandfather, how sweet.

This is my favorite restaurant, BD's Mongolian BBQ. This one is located on Main Street in Ann Arbor. I also frequent the ones in Novi, Dearborn, and Royal Oak. The one in Royal Oak is the original one. Although they recently moved that one down the street to a larger building. For those of you that are not familiar with BD's I'll explain. All of the raw ingredients are placed on a buffet for you to pick and choose all that you want. Did I mention that it is all you can eat? Anyways, my bowl included (as pictured above):

chicken, sausage, lots of onion, carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, peanut bits, scallions, three different kinds of sauces (all HOT), along with curry.....YUMMY!! Then I take it up to a large circular grill, where the grillers cook it up for me with some large untensils that resemble swords. Once it is done I top it off with some hot sauce. PERFECTION! Served with rice and tortillas, I am in Heaven.

The Grillers job is also to interact with the customers. Joking, laughing, singing etc. Makes for an interesting eating experience. One that my kids and I enjoy experiencing often.

Speaking of my kids, I am taking them afterschool to meet their father. He usually gets them one weekend a month, depending on his schedule. Our visitation schedule is very flexible. Usually whenever he asks for them I let them go. This just happens to be this month's weekend. I have no particular plans so far.

My girlfriend Kathy sent me an email yesterday. The email read "I have been trying to call you but you don't answer your phone, you must be TOO BUSY!" HAHAHA, I haven't been at all, my cell phone has been broken for the past week. I went through hell trying to get them to send me a new phone. It should be here today. The first guy told me no that my phone couldn't be replaced that I would have to buy a new one. I told him that I didn't like what he was telling me, and that I wanted to speak to someone other than himself. I spent about 30 minutes arguing with him about the phone. The next person I spoke with agreed to send me a new phone within a matter of minutes, it was that simple. GRRRR! Moral to story, never settle for no...if I would have I would be spending another small fortune on a phone right now, instead I am getting one for free.

I know it's boring, I'm boring myself right now. Time to watch another movie.

Me & my ramblings

I just finished writing a comment to someone's blog. He had sent me some information about the video of the JFK assasination. It was some facts about the actual video, and the selling of it for an extremely large amount of money. As I finished writing I realized that I was rambling as I tend to do. This is not the first time that I have noticed that I do this. I don't mean to do it, but I guess it is part of who I am. I can't just have a simple answer, or ask simple questions. I truly believe in communication although sometimes with certain people I have difficulty doing it, but I still try and usually fail with those certain people (ie. ex-husband). Sometimes I just feel like a little kid, always curious. Why? but why? I don't understand, tell me why? Trust me I have children I know how difficult the "why" questions can be over and over and over, but we try to have patience.

See I'm kind of like a tree in conversation, a very large tree. I start out at the roots (the original conversation) then I go up the tree trunk (the original conversation gets more detailed) the all hell brakes loose and I am up amongst the branches. Every conversation I have, branches off to another story or question which into turns into another and yet another. Next thing you know several hours have past and you're still talking to me. If you are smart when you see me heading up into the branches, you had better start running. The hardest part is trying to climb back down out of the tree (getting back to the original part of the conversation). I will have you so lost up there in the branches that you may never find your way back, haha.

Oh getting back to the "why" part of me. As we know everyone has a way to learn that fits them best. For me discussion is the best. They say I excel in reading comprehension, so I understand what I read, but my long term memory isn't always the best. I always do great on tests, but that is short term. Ask me something a month down the road and see if I remember. It seems to be getting worse for me, I'm only 36 should I be losing it already? Possibly there may be another factor to consider, but I don't want to get into that now. So again the discussion works best for me. I get to hear it, and possibly read it if in a class, but most of all I really relate things with discussions and they usually tend to stay with me that way. So that is the WHY. I can read it, I can hear it, but if I don't know why I'm not going to get it.

Another thing about me....it is usually very easy for me to write. When I say that I don't mean that I write beautifully with words flowing through the entire length of the page. Or that whatever I have written is so meaningful that everyone would want to read it. Ha, ha, most of the time I don't reread what I write, just because I know that afterwards I will be thinking what the hell was I thinking. I think everyone understands what I am writing because I understand it, of course until I read it again. Ok what I mean when I say easy for me to write is that I can write about anything and everythign that goes on in my little head. What I ate for breakfast? I'll tell you about it (I ate a little late so it was a grilled cheese, brunch actually). Want to hear about Depression, IBS, twins, parenting, divorce, dating, work, life....anything I'll tell you about it. If I know about it, if not be prepared because I'll ask you. You would be amazed at the small amount of time it would take me to fill a page up with words. I write easily, I didn't say I write well. (smile)

Okay, I'm bored so yes I'm rambling. The next thing on my mind right now since we are talking about writing (well I am talking about it) are some letters. Some letters I received some time ago (1991) while in Saudi Arabia. I had many individuals that I didn't know send me letters. These people don't realize it, and have probably forgotten all about me, but they were very important to me. For every letter that I received I promised that I would write one in return, which I did. Believe it or not I still think about those letters to this day. They are packed away in storage from when I moved and it will take me a while to find them, but when I do I want to write those people again. Many were school age children that probably do not even remember ever writing the letters, but I am curious to see how things have been for them, and to thank them again. Many others were just people from the community that I grew up in that did not know me, but still choose to write. Others were just from people around the country. There was one particular women that sent me a care package. Her name was Joyce, I don't have her contact information anymore, I lost it, but she really supported me (a total stranger to her). I would really love to contact her again if I could. How I came to know her.....someone wrote an article to Ann Landers. This article was from a woman in Desert Storm that supplied a list of items needed by female soldiers during the war. The Amercian people responded by flooding her with carepackages from all over. There were so many carepackages that her everyone in her entire until received one, everyone in my unit (at least 400 people) received one, and who knows how many other units received one. I did not know the woman that wrote the actual letter to AL. Anyways, they had a huge box loaded with these packages and each of us got to pick one of those packages. Mine just happened to me from a lady here in Michigan, Joyce. A little funny tidbit....one of the guys in our unit just happened to pic a box containing nothing but pantyliners. hahaha (you know he was bummed). Luckily mine was filled with many wonderful things, things that we could not get over there. We lived in a tent for 6 months so to us these were treasures. Well, I wrote a letter to Joyce thanking her and explaining how I happened to come into possession of her package. She responded by sending me another package, and yet another. She sent several of them before I returned back to the states. We kept in contact for a while afterwards. When I had my daughter in 1992 she sent a present for her, I thought that was the sweetest thing. We have never met, and now I live back here in Michigan, but I have no idea how to contact her. She was an older woman, and this has been 14 years. I would love to keep in touch with her again and possibly even meet her. It is a wonderful thing to have people that do not even know you to show you such kindness. I know I'll remember it forever.

I'm done rambling for now, I still have stuff to do around this place, I keep putting it off. I said Monday that I would make some cookies yesterday. I failed to follow through, and if your kids are anything like mine they will let you know when you have failed to follow through. "MOM you said you were going to make cookies," gosh they really know how to make you feel bad. So today I have to make sure to do it before they come home from school. I can make some pretty good chocolate chip cookies from scratch.

Hope I didn't bore you too much.

"Che il bel giorno!".....What a beautiful day!

What exactly is a planet?

Just when I learned the names of the 9 planets traveling in our solar system they had to introduce the possibility of what?....5 more. The 2003 UB313, 2003 EL61, 2004 DW, Quaoar, and the Sedna.

Well that is depending on whether or not the International Astronomical Union can come up with a precise definition for the world "planet."

Plans to create a scrapbook for my grandmother

I still need some help with trying to figure out how to stitch two pages together with the computer. My scrapbook pages are 12x12 so they won't fit in my scanner without splitting the pages into two parts. That is easy enough I can do that, but I can't figure out how to get them back together. My nephew did it for me a while back, but he can't remember how he did it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am trying to complete a scrapbook for my 85? year old grandmother. I have many old photos that I have collected from her lifetime. I was hoping to have it completed for her birthday (which has already passed), but it looks like it will have to be for Christmas. Along with that I have some cardigan sweaters that were my grandfathers before he passed. My father (who believes in getting rid of everything, preserving memories are not important to him) wanted to throw them away when he moved my grandmother down south near him. I refused to throw them away and took them home, I wear them around the house when I am cold. Some people might find that weird, I don't know, I don't. It reminds me of him, and he was a awesome grandfather. I told her once about the sweaters and she said that she would like to have one, so I am going to send it to her for Christmas along with the scrapbook with all of the pictures from her past.

I made a scrapbook one Christmas for my mother. Her mother passed when she was just twelve years old. I made the scrapbook the Christmas following the passing of her father. She loved it and I am hoping that my grandmother will love hers just as much.

My Tequila Sunrise: My Inspiration for scrapbooking

My Tequila Sunrise: Time

I'll live like I'm dying next week, for now housework!

I know that I am suppose to "live like I were dying," but there is so much to get done around here on my two weeks off. Before I can enjoy I have to get everything that I need or what to get accomplished done before I drive myself crazy. That might take about the first week off, then hopefully the following week I can actually kick back and enjoy myself a bit. Actually next weekend the kids are going to their father's house again so maybe I'll get out of the house then.

I'm working on changing some things about my life. Organization is a big one for me. I imagine that for me a life without children would be much more organized, BUT it is not that way for me. This is something that actually DRIVES ME CRAZY!! I can't imagine a life without the rugrats, so I need to find a way to make them more organized. This will be a major task especially with my boys.

Well more about this later, for now I am off to the store for some oven cleaner and trashbags. The garbage men are going to love me tomorrow. I'm about to take care of business.

It is just a typical Sunday

This was me on my Sweetest Day. I was in my daughter's bedroom where we were messing around with her camera.

Today, Sunday, is a chill out around the house day. I usually do housework on this day and watch some movies. Today's choices are Civil Action with John Travolta (I pretty much enjoy most of his movies) and Courage Under Fire, with Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington. You have probably seen them already, I know I have but worth seeing again. Right now I am watching Courage Under Fire (yes I am a woman I multi-task, oh yes and I am cooking dinner). I'll get back to you when it is finished.

Happy Sweetest Day

How it started...

Over 60 years ago, during America's Great Depression, a Cleveland man, believing that the city's orphans and shut-ins too often felt forgotten and neglected, conceived the idea of showing them that they were remembered. He did this through the distribution of small gifts. With the help of his friends and neighbors, he distributed these small remembrances on a Saturday in October. During the years that followed, other Clevelanders began to participate in the celebration ceremony, which came to be called "Sweetest Day". In time, the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the underprivileged was broadened to include everyone, and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small remberance. And soon the idea spread to other cities all over the country.

What it is...

Sweetest Day is not based on any single group's religious sentiment or on a family relationship. It is a reminder that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning.

Because for many people remembering takes the form of gift-giving. Sweetest Day offers us the opportunity to show others that we care, in a tangible way.

This bit of information was taking from a flyer that I had gotten from work, so I just thought that I would share it with you.

I may be without a date this evening, but at least I'm with my sweeties Rona, Jason & Joey.

Happy Sweetest Day everyone!!!

Tim McGraw--"Live Like You Were Dying"

It is really late and past my bedtime especially for a work night, but since I have this on my mind right now I want to get it off my chest.

I was dumped this evening by a guy before anything even got started. It was my fault I guess, but I am sure that it is a good thing because the last thing I want is to be with someone that doesn't find me absolutely adorable even with my flaws. Anyways, let me just say that he is a good guy, things just didn't work out. This doesn't matter though it still hurt briefly. Even so it doesn't take long for me to realize that "he just isn't that into me." Ha, ha where have I heard that before (possibly yesterday's post).

Anyways, right after my conversation with the guy that burst my bubble this evening I talked to my ex-boyfriend Danny. He just happened to be online. We have been friends since I was 14. He was my very first and I guess you could say my very last boyfriend since I have not been in a relationship with anyone since, but that has been over for a year. So I cried to him about being dumped and he told me that he just got dumped a few days ago also. In the end he ended up making me feel better. He told me about 4 months ago that he would teach me how to play golf (he owns a golf course) but I never got around to it. Since I am off for the next two weeks after tomorrow I told him that I was going to take up his offer. I said I would be over there about 12 one day in the next couple of weeks to get my lessons. He said sure, but I know that he was hoping that I wouldn't because he knows that I am not athletically inclined and that I will probably tear up his course. Actually he said that he was going to take me to another course so that I could tear up theirs (I think he was joking). Although he did say that the other course would be easier for me because it is a Par 3 and his is a Par 5. Anyways, that is on my list of things to do. Not that I have this deep desire to play golf, but lots of people I know enjoy it and I think I should at least give it a try. Plus this gives me a chance to drive him crazy, lol.

Well I ended my conversation with Danny because I was listening to this song by Tim McGraw (one fine looking man I might add) and I wanted to write about it before I headed to bed. I think this is a great song "Live Like You Were Dying." This is something that I don't do often enough. I let things bother me that I shouldn't, something I really do need to work on (and I am). I am currently reading a book by Anthony Robbins "Awaken The Giant Within." I'm just starting it so I can't really comment on it yet. What I want to do is live my life to its fullest potential (Live Like I Were Dying).

In the song he asks someone what they would do if they found out that it might be the real end. What would you do?
and he said...
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named FuManChu???
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgaveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.

What would I do??
*I would definately make sure my kids knew how important they are to me
*I would try sky diving
*maybe even Rocky Mountain climbing
*I'm not so sure about riding a bull named FuManChu
*I'd hope to find someone to truly love deeply
*There is a forgiveness that I have been denying, I have been thinking about this lately
*I'd take that trip to Italy and see the Sistine Chapel and others works of art from the Renaissance period.
*I might consider flying lessons
*Learn to speak Italian
*Do better at letting those that I love know it. I am so good at doing it with my children, but I have a harder time with others.
*Detail all the important things in my life for my children to read. The good and the bad.
*Take a photography class and take endless pictures
*Make sure my kids know how great it feels to help others less fortunate

What would you do??

Well all for now, I must get to bed, 5 am comes awfully early. It is amazing how a mood can change so quickly from just having a friend to lean on and listen to you and listening to a song that has such a great message to it. Life is not easy, and I may be single forever but what the heck I've got great people around me right now and I need to enjoy what I have now. Thanks to everyone, even you Chris because I know that you are reading this and you will give me your opinion as soon as you run into me again. Oh yeah we will be off for two weeks, I guess you'll have to catch me online. NIGHT

He's just not that into you

I was reading a book titled He's just not that into you. I got about half way through it and I had to stop reading it. It was comical, but if I were to continue reading it I would probably never want to date again. I think that I have pretty high standards as to what I am willing to accept from a man, that is probably why I am always single. At least let me have some hope that there is one out there that knows how to treat a woman right.

Finally I get to be a school chaperone

Jason called me today on my way home from work. He just wanted to tell me about his fitting at school for his band instrument. He was so excited he couldn't wait for me to get home. I love to hear that kind of excitement in their voices. It makes me smile.

Then after I got home the boys told me about a field trip that they have to Greenfield Village. Usually because of my work schedule I am not able to chaperone. When they told me though, they mentioned that if they couldn't get six chaperones that they would not be able to go. I said, "well I guess I'll just have to chaperone then."

"What? Don't you have to work?" They are so use to me working, but luckily this time it is during another two weeks layoff for me so I will be home for the next two weeks. I am hoping though that they will both be able to be with me because even though they are twins and in the same grade, they have different classes. The entire 5th grade is going, but hopefully they can both go with me.

When they first started going to school together I had them both placed in the same classes. The following year I was kind of irritated when I found out that they separated them even though I had requested that they stay together through their elementary years. I didn't bother to say anything because I though maybe it was something that was better considering the teachers could not tell them apart. Also when they were in classes together they didn't really associate with each other. The teachers did not place the apart, but they choose to sit at different tables. I figured maybe they needed their own identity, so I let it go. Now this is one of those times when I wished that I still had them together.

Anyways I am excited about it. This is the bad thing about being a single working mom, it is so rare for me to be able to do school activities with them.

Luna Pier III

More photos from yesterday at Lake Erie. They need some haircuts, but they are still cute little dudes.

Luna Pier II

These photos were also taken today at Luna Pier, Michigan. In the top photo my daughter is on top of some concrete blocks looking up at me as I am standing on the pier. At first she didn't want any pictures of her taken, but gradually she accepted the fact and allowed me to. I'm glad she did because I do like these two shots of her. I might have to crop the first photo so that you can see her better.

In the second photo she is looking out into the lake as she is playing with her necklace. The necklace she is wearing is something that she bought from a store in Ann Arbor yesterday for her birthday. The necklace has three silver circles on a black string. The circles represent "Forever," "Acceptance, " and "Luck." On her left wrist is a beaded bracelet that she made a few weeks ago.

I asked her what she liked about going to the lake. She said that it was just pretty. Actually Lake Erie is not known for being one of Michigan's most beautiful Lakes, but if you could look past all the ugly you can find the pretty. I think it was relaxing for her. They asked if they could go back again, and I am sure we will. I took them there years ago, but I am not sure if they remember it or not.

Tomorrow I'll try to post some more pics that I took of the boys at the lake. Rona wants to have a bit of time on the computer before bed, so I'm gonna close for now.

Luna Pier I

Jason took this picture of me today while at Luna Pier. This is a little town just into Michigan on Lake Erie. The boys saw their father this weekend, on our way home I decided to stop to enjoy the lake with the kids. I think Rona found it to be relaxing and pretty much kept to herself. The boys on the other hand had a blast checking out all the treasures (or junk) that drifted up onto the shoreline. Most of the shells where broken into tiny pieces, but they found a few that they decided to keep.

This picture I altered a little bit. For some reason I really like black and white photos, so that is what I did here. Also I thought it was interesting how I made a reflection on the bottom of the photo which gives the impression that I am actually sitting in the lake, with a bit of my reflection looking back at me. Okay, I am not a professional photographer, so yes I get excited when I find something new to do with my photos.

Also, for those of you that know me, yes I have gained some weight this summer. That is work in progress though, give me time and it will be back off (at least I hope so). Also ignore the fact that I am not wearing any makeup in this picture. I got up this morning and took off to Ohio to pick up the kids, last thing I was thinking about was whether or not I looked cute or not.