Christmas Art Journal #4

My Perfect Christmas

Finally I have caught up with the rest of the group. At least until tomorrow, then another day, another page. I am not sure how I managed to kick out all three pages in one day. Well now that I think about it I know how....I neglected everything us that I should have been doing today, LIKE HOUSEWORK. Oh well, that can wait until tomorrow, I had fun!!

The script is kind of hard to read so I will retype it for you.

Inside the envelope reads...

Dear Santa

All I want for Christmas is...My Perfect Christmas Day!!!

Is that asking too much? I've been a good girl all year long. On Christmas Eve, as I am nestled in my bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, you will be giving me the Christmas of my dreams. As I wake Christmas morning, this is what I would see...

1. First on the list is to turn back time. See my grandfather died about nine years ago. He is deeply missed and to have my Christmas extra special my grandmother AND grandfather need to be present.
2. As a matter of fact all of my family would be present. I remember way back when our family actually had gatherings. It has been many years and I miss them.
3. The house would be beautifully decorated. A Victorian Christmas would be just about right for me.
4. You would bring with you the gifts that my children asked for. Don't go overboard we don't need to spoil them too much, but let me see their big smiles.
5. Someone special will be there for me also.
6. The meal will be the most delicious meal ever, with all the fixings. Don't forget dessert, you know how I love it.
7. Christmas carolers will come knocking at the door. Why don't we have them anymore? I love Christmas music.
8. Of course there will be a white Christmas. The snow glistening all around me. The tees resembling a crystal forest.
9. I will have plenty of batteries for my camera, since it will be working overtime.
10. EVERYONE will be happy!!!

This WOULD be my perfect Christmas. Santa this isn't too much for you is it??

Happy Holidays 2005

Goodnight....tomorrow is another day, see you then.


**Edit: Looking back at my page I realized I forgot to sign my letter to Santa, and to thank him in advance. I'll remember next year.

Christmas Art Journal Day #3

Almost caught up...just finished page #3...soon to work on #4. I am having a good time though with this. Nice to read all the posts on the message board from everyone, but I find myself having a hard time keeping up with them. There is no way that I can read them all.

I loved this box set of cards when I bought them, too bad I never mailed any of them out. I should be ashamed of myself.

The script on the page reads:

~~

Christmas cards...

I have many good intentions when I run to the local store to purchase several boxes of adorable Christmas cards, such as this one. Unfortunately I have the inability to follow through with my good intentions, because year after year I fail to drop them into the nearest mail box for delivery.

This I find interesting, because I am soooo interested in all of the other holiday traditions. I just can't seem to get motivated enough to send complete this one task. Other than that I am also one of those that probably have an address book around here somewhere, but I am sure with VERY FEW actual addresses in it.

My shortcoming is probably the reason why I receive so few cards in my own mailbox during the holiday season. I have not received any this year as of yet, and I will be lucky to receive five max.

This is going on my list of things to improve in my life. Of course it will probably be something to work on next year, the rest of this year is already full.

~~

*Notice the postmark in the righthand corner of the page. It reads "Merry Christmas..From the North Pole...Dec 25th." So cute, love that stamp.

Time to get back to work on day #4. Keep up the good work everyone!!

Christmas Art Journal Day #2

Okay, I'm moving a bit slow, but I am getting there. Finally completed is day #2 of my Christmas art journal. I am having fun with this, and loving all the other pages completed from the other scrappers in the group. I noticed that the smears on the page from glitter are only on my scanner, luckily not on my original page itself. Sometimes I tend to be impatient like today, so I refused to wait for the paint to dry.

Time to move now, I need to get busy with Day#3 & Day #4

Oh, and here in Michigan I woke up to a wonderful white Christmas this morning.

Christmas journal day 1

As I had promised here is day one of my Christmas journal. I know, I know, I am still behind, but I am working on catching up with the rest of the ladies. I will try to finish the other three tomorrow.

Just in case you can't read the script it states:

"I have decided to create this journal to express my thoughts & feelings during this holiday season."

See you soon, I'm late for a date, but I wanted to get this posted before leaving.

A Christmas Journal

One of the few blogs that I read regularly is written by a designer for Creating Keepsakes magazine, Ali Edwards. She has a great blog, great stories and great ideas. I just bought one of her books (A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking) yesterday at the scrapbook store. I was just sitting here this morning looking through it as I am waking up and trying to prepare myself for my busy day ahead.

The kids are all asleep so the house is still quiet. PEACE, ya gotta love it when you can get it.

Anyways, back to Ali....I was reading her blog and she recommended a online class for a Christmas journal. I have decided to take it. I actually started on December 1st, but I am going to try to play catch up. I signed up last night, and I am hoping to at least get one page finished today. Then hopefully the others tomorrow. I will try to display them on my blog as I get them finished.

There is a possibility that I may be flying to Florida with the kids for Christmas if we can get some plane tickets. My grandmother is 85 years old, and I get the feeling that she doesn't think she will be around for another one. She really wants us to come, so we are trying to make it. Last Christmas I gave my mother and grandmother a journal to write down their memories in. Unfortunately they have not gotten much, if any accomplished. I realize that not everyone is as good at preserving these memories as I am so some folks need a bit of help. So this year if I make it to Florida, I have decided to video record them as I ask them specific questions. Kind of like a documentary. Does anyone have any good suggestions of what I should ask? Let me say that this is my only living grandparent left. So after this everything will remain a mystery.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

I was thinking last night about some of my past Christmas experiences from when I was a child. I was taken back to a Christmas when I was about twelve years old. If I recall correctly I did my Christmas wish list out of a Sears catalog. One of the items on my list was a Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist doll.



I must have been a good little girl that year, because I did get my Christmas wish. I never did get very good with the doll, but I do remember that my sister was terrified of it. We shared a bedroom back then, and she didn't even want that thing in the room with us. It freaked her out so bad, she still has memories of it.

I just looked it up on ebay and they are selling a 1977 version of it for $9.99 so far. I could get one and give it to her for Christmas. Oh that would be so mean of me.

So it really wasn't the Ghost of Christmas Past, but instead the my Doll of Christmas Past that still haunts my sister. Actually if you look at him, he does kind of freak ya out. Like you are just waiting for him to turn his head and say something to you. Weird.

Word confusion

My son Jason was telling me about a field trip that was going to happen at school.

Jason: "Yeah mom, they want all the parents to go. They get to watch the movie for free, but they have to pay for the CONFESSION stand."

Mom: "Do you mean concession stand?"

Daughter listening to conversation and of course putting in her two cents.

Daughter: "That sounds like something they would have at a church carnival."

Of course knowing all along what he meant, but couldn't resist poking fun at her little brother.

Ha, Ha, gotta love those kids.

Some of the ornaments that adorn my tree

Christmas spirit

Oh yeah, Christmas is here!!!

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. I love decorating and the Christmas spirit. I love shopping during the holidays with the exception of Black Friday. I refuse to go out on this morning, although I have no problem going on Thanksgiving day. As a matter of fact, I went this Thanksgiving morning and got some awesome deals for my gift giving. I hate cold weather, but I love to look at the snow as I am sitting in my warm house looking out the window.

Above is a picture of my Christmas tree I just finished putting up today. The Santa is one of the ones from my collection. I have been collecting at least one every year. Since I love to save a buck I tend to buy them the day after Christmas when they have more great deals.

The destruction of my wedding dress

This weekend I have emptied out my storage unit, and managed to part with some things that I have held on to for too many years. One of those things just happened to be my wedding dress from 15 years ago. The dress was ruined on my wedding night, but that didn't make me get rid of it. I am horrible with holding on to things with sentimental value. I have held on to the dress for the past 15 years. Half of those years I have been divorced. So what possessed me to keep it for so long?

Well....it wasn't for me. I tend to collect things for my children, especially for my daughter. I hope that years down the road she will appreciate having it. I have even kept my wedding ring. Well....actually engagement ring, the wedding band is probably lying somewhere along a highway somewhere. Don't think I am too crazy for discarding it, it wasn't very expensive. We were both in the military when we had gotten married, and trust me they don't pay very well. Luckily I did have enough sense to keep the engagement ring. Although I did not trust myself enough to keep from tossing that out a window too, so I gave it to my mother-in-law to keep for my daughter when she gets old enough to have it herself. Again, the ring itself was not that impressive, but the sentimental value of having something from our marriage makes it priceless.

Off track I go again....back to the dress. Well today I have decided to ditch the dress. Before doing so I cut the dress into pieces, I know that sounds cruel, but I had my reasons. If I were not going to keep the dress in its entirety I can at least keep some of its pieces. I saved some of the most beautiful pieces of the dress, the lace, bead and sequins work. I gave one piece to my daughter, and the rest I am not sure what I will do with it, but I'm sure that I will find something special to do with it. I am sure part of it will make its way into my scrapbook.

Hey, at least I didn't totally destroy the dress.

Parenting

The other day I went to a parenting class offered by my kids' school. They invited a parenting expert to talk to us. She was pretty interesting and made the evening fun.

Before leaving for the class one of my sons came up to me and told me that I was a great parent and that I didn't need to go. How sweet of him, but I think that any parent that thinks they are perfect needs to think again. I believe that there can always be room for improvement especially as your child enters new age groups and new issues arise. There may even be some things that you already know, but you just need to be refreshed and motivated. Then again maybe you are perfect, and if that is the case I am sure that you may have something valuable that you can share with the group.

Part of the problem with today's children, not enough parents want to step up and take their parental roles seriously.

LET'S GET SERIOUS!!

Twas the night before Thanksgiving

I'm sitting here watching Christmas with the Kranks with the kids. Thinking about all the work I have to do tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner. I haven't been doing much blogging lately. Lots to talk about just haven't had the energy to do it.

Anyways, if anyone is reading HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Latest trip to scrapbooking store

Just a sampling of my latest trip to the store for some scrap- booking goodies.



I picked up these items on my shopping trip this weekend. My son of course wanted nothing to do with it. From the sounds of him you would have thought that it was killing him having to go shopping with me for scrapbook supplies. I didn't hear him complaining at any of the other stores. This was just pure torture for him.

Anyways, a love for scrapbooking can put a serious dent in your pocketbook, but worth it.

My weekend

My weekend plans didn't exactly go the way that I had planned them to, but it still ended up being a nice weekend.

My intentions were to go to the tree lighting ceremony in Detroit, but never made it. Actually I thought it was suppose to be on Saturday, but ended up being Friday night instead. So instead I took the kids to dinner, then to see the new Harry Potter movie.

This was our conversation before the show....

Daughter: "Okay mom, this time don't fall asleep in the middle of the movie."

Me: "What? I feel asleep during the last movie?" (last Harry Potter movie)

Daughter: "YEAH! Then you bought us the movie over the summer and were all surprised when we told you that we had already seen it WITH YOU."

Obviously I am not a Harry Potter fan, and trust me, it took everything I had not to fall asleep during this one. I should probably let you know that my bedtime is usually 9 pm, so I was ready to crash. The movie was like almost 3 hours long, geez!! The kids liked the movie though, so don't take my opinion about it.

Well that was my Friday night. Saturday morning I got up and took Joey shopping with me. The other two stayed with my nephew. I probably did more shopping than I should have, but I got some great deals especially for Christmas. Then last night I had a date with Todd. Usually we go out, but last night we decided to stay home and watch a movie and order a pizza. I ate two slices of pizza and lasted about twenty minutes into the movie and was out. I'm such a great date.

Sidenote: I'm just sitting here and watching my daughter. She is becoming quite obsessed with my Time magazines. She use to read my sister's celebrity magazines, but since I don't read them or keep them around she has now focused on my magazines. I just think it is funny to have my 13 year old running around saying, "mom where is that Time magazine, I had it ready to take to school, I wanted to read it and it disappeared." Yeah it disappeared into my bookbag so that I could take it to work and read it. Not like I actually get any reading time at work, but I take it just in case the opportunity arises.

Anyways, my weekend was the most exciting, but still came out pretty good. As for now I think I am off to the video store to get a movie or two.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

What a day!!

I woke up as usual at 5 am for work. My workday went fine, just a typical day at work. I called on my way home from work and told the kids and my nephew to be ready so that we could go to dinner and the mall. When I got home they jumped into the car and off we went. We had Chinese for dinner. I tried to convince Joey that I didn't have any money for dinner so he needed to pick up the tab. He didn't fall for it though.



My fortune read: "A smile is nearly always inspired by another smile."




After dinner we hit the mall. Approximately five minutes into our shopping spree (daughter & myself were at Maurices) a woman came over the loud speaker "TORNADO WARNING, ALL CUSTOMERS PLEASE GO TO ELDER-BEERMAN." Actually at that point we couldn't hear what she was saying, but a younger boy that looked to be about sixteen years old repeated it to his mother. She looked at him like she didn't believe him and went back to shopping. I of course was being nosey. Right after that shoppers began walking briskly past the doors. Of course this peaked my curosity, so I had to walk out to get the scoop. The kid was actually telling the truth. A security guard was trying to gather up all of the shoppers and head them into the right direction.

Now this was great!! My boys took off with my eighteen year old nephew. We didn't go where we were suppose to, we took off to find the boys. My daughter started freaking out. Isn't it funny how siblings act like they hate each other. You have no idea how many times she has told me that I should have stopped having children after her. As I have always suspected she had been lying. She was in tears as we looked around for them, saying "mom, we have to find them." Finally we ended up finding everyone (as soon as they saw us they started running) then we headed for Elder Beerman.

A torando coming wasn't about to ruin MY shopping experience. I continued to shop, I was just limited to the confines of this particular department store. Better this than a KB Toys, although the kids would have loved that. Of course Jason said, "Why couldn't we be stuck in a Radio Shack?" I thought this took about thirty minutes, but the kids said that it was more like an hour (from about 6-7pm). I guess I was preoccupied, you know how a woman can be while shopping.

Finally they gave the all clear so we wandered out to the rest of the mall. The boys got some toys, my daughter a sweatshirt from American Eagle and I ended up with a few ornaments for my Christmas tree.

Finally about 8:30 pm we left the mall and headed home. Driving home my daughter was sitting in the back seat and heard a faint noise, she said, "What is that noise?" I was too busy talking to my mom on my cell phone (yes, while I was driving in the rain). A few miles up the road we heard it again, this time not nearly as faint. We realized that it was the tornado siren again. Damn it!! I just left that about two hours ago, don't tell me another one. We were driving out in the boonies so it was dark as heck out. We could not have seen a tornado coming if it was. My kids then started freaking out. We just happened to be driving past a police department, so to calm them down we stopped to find out what was going on. The officer said that a small tornado was sighted in Monroe (where we had just left). He said that we were welcome to stay in the community center and wait, but we decided to go home. I gave them the speech though..."if you guys see any cows flying through the air, let me know, I'll stop the car and we can all jump in the ditch and take cover." ;)

Well that was about it for our excitement for the night, but let me end with just this one memory from my childhood.

I remember when I was in junior high we had a girlfriend staying the night. My parents woke everyone up in the middle of the night because of a tornado warning. They got everyone out of bed and into the car to go to the nearest shelter. My dad pulled the car out of the driveway, drove around the corner then said, "Where's Rhonda?"

See they remembered to take the girl staying the night, but they left poor little old me in bed sound asleep. Of course they turned right back around to get me. We all survived so it was a happy ending.

Campus Martius, Detroit

Besides my mishap with the family member, life was good this weekend. The kids were gone to their father's house for the weekend. I hung out with Todd, he is great about making me forget about whatever is on my mind.

We went to downtown Detroit, to the Campus Martius Park. Shops, skyscrappers, a deli and an ice skating rink surround the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. I tried to find a good photo of this monument to show you, that could do it some justice, but I have failed. Next time I go I will be sure to take some photos. If you clicked on the first link you will Campus Martius before and after pictures. The after pictures shows the new ice skating rink right in front of the Christmas tree display. The tree lighting will be next weekend, on November 18th. I would love to take the kids but I am sure that Detroit will be a mess, but I'll give it some thought.

Getting back to my trip to the city. Todd actually took me there for lunch. I love a good sandwich so he took me to the deli right next to the rink. Then he took me to see some of the sights, the architecture of the city. After that we went into Barnes & Noble to get a few books, and talk for a bit. Then we hit the Hard Rock Cafe' for some dessert. It was a nice experience. Even though I have always lived near Detroit, I have never really taken the time out to experience it's good qualities that exist there.

Jarhead

I had the day off for Election Day, so I decided to make my nephew go to lunch and the movies with me. We decided to watch the movie Jarhead. I am still not exactly sure what I think about this movie yet. It isn't your typical war movie, it is based on the experience of a single soldier. It shows how his experiences changed him. It brought back a lot of memories, and some things I found disturbing, but many things seemed so accurate. I guess that is part of why I haven't decided yet, because I think that I expected more, more of Hollywood. The movie wasn't about the special effects, it was about how war changes you.

Here is one story that I can share with you that I was reminded of in the movie. It has to do with trying to make a phone call home and our chemical suits.

When I first arrived I was at Kobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, this was an inprocessing center. It was an apartment complex taken over by the military. They had set up phone stations in parking garages. I'm not sure how many phones were in each structure, but there were a lot. When we wanted to make a phone call this is where we would go. Of course this took forever to do, this particular time the waiting time was approximately 4 hours. After standing in line for about 3 hours a voice came over the loud speaker in our compound "SCUD launch, MOPP 4." This of course meant that a SCUD missle had been launched and that we were to take cover and get into our chemical gear. Now remember at this time we still thought that Sadam was using chemical warfare. If you can, imagine people scattering everywhere. In the movie I was reminded of this when Jamie Fox went into the tent and said "GAS" and everyone hurried to get on their chemical gear. This is kind of how it went for us too. Some soldiers ran to take cover then put on gear. While others put on their gear right out in the open. Let me tell you those suits were hot, and sometimes it seemed like we had to keep them on forever. Eventually they called "all clear MOPP zero" and this was when it got funny. See MOPP zero means that we can take the suits off, but of course those of us that were smart, took that as an opportunity to get back in the phone line. I was one of the smart ones, although I was not smart enough because I ended up pretty much in the same position that I was before, but at least I wasn't further back. I just wish I had a video camera to record what happened after calling all clear. In the movie they show them in their chemical suits with boots on, this is not what we had to wear. We had these huge rubber covers that folded up and tied around your boots so they were very difficult to walk in. We had our chemical masks on still, just like in the movie which made it more difficult to see, but hey I only needed to look straight to see the phone line. Every time I remember this I have to laugh to myself, it was like revenge of the swamp monsters. All you could see were these things that resembled creatures running to the garage. I know it is one of those you had to be there to see it to find the humor in it things. One of my highlights of the war I guess.

Since Veteran's Day is this week I guess it is a good time to tell these little stories. Maybe tomorrow I'll think of another one to tell.

What a good day!

Today was a nice day, with a little upset in the end, but it all ended up good. I had a lunch date with Todd at a nice little deli in downtown Ann Arbor, Zingerman's Delicatessen. I ordered the #62 Jay's bbq chicken sandwich-pulled amish chicken in zingerman's own bbq sauce with vermont cheddar cheese on a soft bun. Served with a side of applewood smoked bacon-baked beans. It was pretty good. It had kind of a fun personality to the place, I will more than likely go back again.

After eating we walked up the street and looked at a few places, then he suggested that we go to the University of Michigan Natural History Exhibit Museum to see the dinosaurs. I can't remember how this actually got brought up, but I thought it sounded like a great idea. So we went, and it was really nice. I'm gonna take the kids there after they get back from their father's house. Of course next time I will remember to take the camera.

Did I mention that I love Ann Arbor?

Edit: oops I split up the link to the museum, only click on one, they both take you to the same place.

Making up for lost time

Well I guess today I have made up for all of the time that I have not been blogging lately. So there is the rest of my scrapbook pages, at least for now. The other ones are located at the beginning of my blog. My daughter is spending the night over her girlfriends house, so I am here with my nephew and the boys. Luckily my nephew helped me out again with the computer and showed me how to scan, merge and get my pages on my blog much quicker than my way. Thanks Nate!!

I am done for the night. It is time for me to give up the computer, and read my book a bit before heading to bed. My current book is The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. I started Atlas Shrugged (also by Ayn Rand) a while back, but it managed to disappear before I finished it, so I will have to start that again another time. Both are great reads though.

Quote for the day...."Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth-a sense of humor."

Cherish the moment

Joey & Jason
summer fun 2003
on Lake Erie

Michelangelo

I have a new found
interest in the Renaissance Arts.
One day I would love to
travel to Italy and see first hand
these beautiful treasures.
One of my favorite artists from
this time is Michelangelo.
Some of my most admired
works of his include:
The Creation of Adam
Angels of the Sistine madonna
and the statue of
David

Michelangelo
An incredible scene from
the Sistine Chapel
ceiling, God creates Adam.
The touch of God's hand
awakens the newly created
Adam and thus begins
the life of human kind.

Mother

Me & Mom
May 2004

Mothers ARE angels
in disguise!

Nothing like a trip to the cider mill

Michigan of course is loaded with all kinds of cider mills. Apple Charlie's cider mill was the one that we picked to go to on this day in 2003. I took this picture with one of those disposable cameras. Jason was off in the pumpkin patch picking out his pumpkin so he didn't get in this shot. I had not realized that this was the last shot in the camera. This same day we bought some apple cider and some fresh donuts. YUMMY! They also have an animal farm that we visited. Along with that the boys got pony rides, and we all took horse and buggy ride. It was a good day. We left happy, with 4 pumpkins to carve the day before Halloween.

Follow your dreams

Here we have my sister and her oldest son Ted (T.J.) at his highschool graduation (June 2004). Ted has since gone on to college and is working on being a teacher. Ted is a great guy, he is like a walking encyclopedia. He can remember every little fact, especially about space, he loves it.

School Dance

This was Rona's very first school dance. She was in the sixth grade. They presented the class honors and then we went to the gymnasium afterwards for the dance. It was actually pretty fun. We both had a good time, even though I pretty much stayed back and let her do her thing. Although I did get out and do the chicken dance with her and her friends. NO, I did not embarrass her, at least not any more than I normally do, haha.

World's greatest mom

Well I have realized why I am getting the shadows on my pictures. The silver studs on the page are just lifting the photo so that the light doesn't distribute evenly on the page. The original pages do not look like that.

These pictures were taken at Christmas 2003 while I went to visit my parents at their home in Florida. I probably haven't told you guys enough, but I have an awesome mom. I couldn't ask for a better one. I just wish that she lived closer to me.

That's my boy!

This was taken on Mother's Day 2004. Joey is always good about having a photo session for/with mom.

Stars & Stripes

This picture had to be taken sometime in 2001. I am very proud to be an American, I couldn't imagine being anything else.

NEVER EVER AGAIN!!

Last summer my friend Danny took all of us to Cedar Point Amusement Park. For those of you not familiar it is in Sandusky, Ohio (right off of Lake Erie). We also went with his best friend, daughter and his girlfriend. We decided to take his boat there. On the way home we realized how much of a mistake this was. After rollercoaster rides, eating junk food, walking in the sun all day long we should have realized what was about to happen on our way home. We left the park at about ten that evening. The waves were rough on the water by then. Rona was the first one to get sick, I was about two minutes behind her. Joey lasted about 15 minutes after me, then he apologized to Danny for getting it on the side of his boat, my poor baby. NEVER EVER will we do that again, from now on all trips will be by car.

Merry Christmas Boys

Christmas 2000

Christmas is my favorite
time of the year.
There are so many wonderful
reasons, but the one
I love most is the
memories I have with
my children.
How could faces like these
not fill a person
with love?

Jason & Joey

Dreams

Rona Leigh
May 2004


"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you've imagined."
~Henry David Thoreau~

Captured in Time

This again is my maternal grandmother. Her short lived life is the inspiration for my scrapbooking. She died when my mother was just twelve years old. She was just thirty-six years old. It kind of makes me think, since that is my current age.

She was a beautiful woman, and took some wonderful photographs. I'm not sure why there is a shadow in the middle of the page, it must have happened during scanning, but it is not on my original page.

She was cheated by time, but at least it captured her beauty.

Twins

Here is a picture of my boys Jason (L) & Joey (R) taken about three years ago. This would have made them about seven years old.

The text read....

TWINS

You were bonded together in the
Heavens before the came to the Earth.
You heard each others hearts begin to
beat and you shared your day of birth.

If one of you began to cry the other
joined in. To show how much they cared.
You began learning about your differences
and about interests that you shared.

You have doubled a mother's love in so
many ways and in all the things you do.
I am truly grateful to have received such
a special gift, for I was blessed with two.

by Wendy Silva

Yes, I do feel truly blessed to have had twin boys. My maternal great grandmother had several sets of twins. Her twins were all fraternal, mine are identical. I'm not sure if I have given details about the twins birth in my blog, so here I go (possibly again).

I was two months pregnant when I found out that I was pregnant with twins. It was a shock to me, especially since we had just gotten out of the military and we had both just gotten our jobs. Remember I already have a daughter so we were not exactly prepared to another child, let alone two more. That didn't stop them from coming and I am so happy that they came.

I was in preterm labor for a long time before I actually delivered them. The doctor gave me some medicine to stop the contractions. I had an appointment with the doctor at 36 1/2 weeks. At that time he said that I was far enough along and told me to stop taking the medication. The last dose of medicine was taken that moring before the appointment. Within hours after stopping the medication I started having my contractions. I remember sitting there eating dinner when I realized that this was not what I normally felt, these were getting stronger and closer. My ex was at work at the time, so I had my mother call him and take me to the hospital. There was a bit of a mixup at the hospital with the positions of the babies, so they had to bring in the ultrasound machine at the last moment to check the positions. See Baby A (Jason) was in the birth canal, but Baby B (Joey) was breech. The doctor actually thought that the babies were reversed. I know this of course because that made my 5th ultrasound that I had seen, so I knew exactly how my babies were positioned. Anyways after figuring that out it was about time for me to deliver. Off to the birthing room...

As far as I know they always do epidurals on twins just in case they have to go to a c-section to get the other baby out. I have never worked in a civilian hospital, but this is how we always did it in the military. I worked in the operating room, which is who did all the c-sections for Labor & Delivery. Although they also called us for twins, just in case, but never did I ever come across a case of twins having to go to c-section. So I have seen many vaginal deliveries because of this. Anyways, this is what they did with me, they gave me an epidural. Of course for some reason mine didn't take. I kept telling them that I could feel everything, and they kept asking does the pain feel any less? NO!!!! They found out the next day that it didn't work when I had my tubal ligation and they had to use general anesthetic instead of the epidural they had planned on using. They kept the setup in my back to use the following day for my surgery.

So my delivery went on with me FEELING EVERYTHING. I pushed Jason out and the doctor was trying to get me to push out Joey. I told him "no way, I already gave you one baby you're gonna have to go in and get that one yourself!!" Especially since this was after I pushed one baby out and he had two arms up there trying to turn the second baby around. OUCH!! Eventually I surrendered, I let him have his way, I PUSHED. Actually I thought I was having triplets the placenta was so large. Because they are identical they shared one huge placenta instead of having two different ones.

Well finally my little ones were here. After bringing them home from the hospital we were afraid that after taking their wristbands off we would not remember which one was which. We decided to paint the oldest baby's toenail with nailpolish. When they were infants it was very difficult to tell them apart, but as they have grown older I look at them and see two totally different boys. I know when others see them they think they look identical, but to me they do not look identical at all, I know....because I am the mom.

Oh yes, they both weighed 5 lbs 6 ozs. Funny how they weighed exactly the same, usually one is larger than the other. There shared equally while in my womb, unfortunately I can't say that now. Also they were born 2o minutes apart, it took the 20 minutes to turn Joey around and convince me that I needed to push him out. I was just a bit stubborn.

Also I was lucky that I was able to have my mom and husband both in the deliveryroom with me. Of course that was along with what seemed like the entire hospital staff (okay I'm exaggerating a bit, but the room was packed). There was me, anesthesia, two doctors, my mom & husband, many nurses, and who knows maybe even people passing by to visit other expectant mothers. See they left the door wide open, so that everyone walking down the hallway could see the delivery, I was not sure why they did this, but at the time it didn't matter to me. I would not have cared if CNN was there covering the event. I just wanted them out!!! Of course later seeing it on television would not have made me very happy, but at the time who cares.

Oh one more thing to point out about my delivery. Actually it was about their names. See when we had my daughter they never told us what we were having, but we just had a feeling that it was a girl so we never picked out boy names. Well with the boys I went to see a specialist for one of my ultrasounds, and I asked him two questions. #1. What are their sexes? He said for sure one was a boy, but he couldn't be sure about the other one. #2 Are they identical? He was not positive but he thought that they were identical, but he couldn't tell for sure because there was like a seam down the placenta. This could have been just one large placenta, which would have made them identical, or it could have been two placentas fused together, which would have made them fraternal. Well again, we just knew in our minds that it was two identical boys, so we picked out two boy's names. Of course as I was sitting in the delivery room waiting for the staff I thought to myself "Oh my God, what if I have a girl." How can I have babies and now know what to name them, so we all brainstormed and tried to come up with a name. I knew that I wanted the initals to match, and that the first boy out would be Jason. So if a girl came out I would have to come up with a name for her, luckily it wasn't a girl because I never came up with a girls name that started with a "J". So here I am with Jason & Joseph (Joey).

Latest scrapbook page

As I said I worked on my scrapbook the other day. This is my finished page. The picture and the text were taken from this blog. The picture was taken this sweetest day, and the text was taken from "Me @ 36...Life's Little Lessons."

I finally learned how to merge two pages together. The program was from my old printer a Canon (photostich). No wonder I couldn't figure out how to do it, because I no longer had it on my computer. My nephew finally remembered and told me, so I pulled out my old discs and copied it again to my computer so that I could scan the rest of my scrapbook pages. Once the program was found the rest was pretty much easy to follow.

A little bit of the edges have been cut off in the process of scanning, but overall it worked out pretty good.

I'll try to work on a few more this weekend if I get the opportunity. Sharing my computer with all the kids and my nephew has made it difficult for me to get a turn. Since it is getting colder outside they are not as interested in playing outside all day. Although the past couple of days have actually been pretty nice out.

Halloween Pics

A neighbor's yard all decorated for the holiday!!

Our candy tray used for passing out candy to the lil' creatures
of the night. Actually this guy is pretty cool, when
you push a button he will move his
eyes from side to side and give out an eerie moan.
FRIGHTENING!!

This is the same neighbor's yard. This doorway
leads to the haunted house that they created.
They did a great job, the kids loved it.
They had to pass through this to get their
treat at the end.

Carved pumpkins leading up stairs to haunted house.

Okay, so I'm not the professional
photographer,but you get the idea.
My daughter was passing out candy, so I called her
and told her to come over to this house so she could
go through it. She chickened out so
neither of us went through it.
The boys were brave, they went
through it twice.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2005!!

Where have I been??

What? Did you think I left? Not a chance!!

I've been kind of busy lately. Lets see.....Went to Greenfield Village on Friday with my boys' class. I think that last time I went there was either when I had gotten married or about the time I was pregnant with the boys, either way a long time ago. We had a good time though. Then Saturday... I had a date, which went well. Sunday....I did housework all day. Monday....was suppose to be my first day back to work in two weeks, but I had to go for jury duty instead. Luckily I wasn't picked so I was home fairly early. Of course Halloween with the kids that evening. Today was my first day back to work, my wrist is killing me. My body needs to get use to working again, other than that it was a good day, and I am glad to be back.

Another reason that I have not really be posting is that my nephew came to live with me as of Thursday. He is a computer freak, so between the two of us and my children we have to divide up computer time. I actually did write a post yesterday, but I went to plug in the pumpkin and managed to unplug the computer instead. I figured what the heck, I'll write something tomorrow. I took a couple of pics from last night. If I get a chance to I'll post some soon.

*Quote for the day "You can't build your reputation on what you're going to do." Henry Ford
Since I took a trip to Greenfield Village that seemed appropriate.

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.