great day

what a great day!

i'll give you a quick run-down of the highlights.

-slept in (girls, too)

-got ready

-shopped in salado for a little bit

-met the girls' nonna for lunch

-nonna took the girls for the night (they were beyond excited)

-more shopping in salado

-big nap

-more shopping

-dinner with one of my most favorite friends at woodland (try it if you haven't)

-in bed watching the holiday (another of my faves)


the girls will be home around noon tomorrow...i miss them tons (shocker).

i can't think of a better way to have spent the first saturday after the first week of school.

can you?

i am so ready for fall.

and football.

and halloween.

and thanksgiving.

and christmas.

life.

is.

good.

very, very good!!!

which file?

i heard the most fascinating thing a couple of weeks ago, and i just can't decide what to do with it.

i am a processor, and my brain is kind of like a filing cabinet. when i hear things, i analyze them and process them into their appropriate file. then i wait for new information to come.

rinse and repeat.

i heard a mom say something to her teenage daughter that i have honest to beezus never heard before.

it's still floating around in my head because i haven't been able to dissect it (believe me, i've tried), and the fact that it's still floating makes me think that its value is gaining substantial significance every single day it remains unfiled.

the mom said to her teenage daughter, 'i could have had you aborted.'

i'm not even kidding. my friend rach (the one who got her head air-humped at the journey concert last year) was there. she'll vouch for me. she does way more amazing things than just getting her head air-humped (she's seriously an angel - with an extra glowy halo, wings that are dusted in gold, and a wonderfully wicked sense of humor). :)

'i could have had you aborted.'

i had to put my hand underneath my chin when i heard this in order to keep my chin from collapsing into my lap.

i still can't quite process it, but i have narrowed down some filing options for this little verbal gem.

here's where i am right now (in order of current priority):

file 26: things i will never, ever, ever say to my own children

file 30: things i hope that i never, ever, ever have to say to my children

file 41: mantras to chant when my teenage daughters are making me angry

file 54: list of witty sayings to refer to when my teenage daughters are acting demonic

**i created file 54 because i know how faithful karma is. plus i thought it would give my mom a good chuckle every time i have to refer to this file.**

have i ever told you how therapeutic writing is to me?

i just made a mental xerox of this saying and filed it in file 1: very funny stuff.

whenever writing creates any resolution in my life, i chalk it up as a worthy and rewarding experience.

filing this under 'very funny stuff' was super worthy.

the 'tired toll' has officially taxed both of my daughters after the 3rd full day of school. they are exhausted. cee almost fell asleep in the car on the way home from school, and jay would probably cry if i looked at her the wrong way right now.

even when they were being not-their-best tonight, and even with my worst visions of what motherhood will be like with two teen girls, i will never forget how sweet and angelic they look right now. sleeping peacefully; breathing in unison; dreaming sweet dreams.

i am pretty sure that the 'i could have had you aborted' thing is going to stay in file 1 forever, and i also think it will find a second home in file 26.

peace and filing possibilities...

ready, set, go.

or don't.

if you aren't ready, it's okay.

we can postpone school for a whole year if you want to...

but you seem like you are really ready to go.

both of you.

who am i to stop you?

i mean, i am just your mom. i brought you into this world.

i nurtured you through every illness and bump and bruise and boo boo.

and now you are ready to create your own path in life.

you are okay doing that without me right by your side.

so let's try that one more time, just in case you were a little bit over-zealous the first time.

are you ready?

if i weren't so biased, i think it would be safe for me to say that you are super cute and not at all ready!!

but the real question now that you think you're ready is...are you set?

hmmm. you are ready and you're set. okay. i get it.

i see how this is going to work.

you're telling me you are ready, you are set, and it's time to go?

it's okay if you're nervous. i'm right here.

you can hang back a little bit if you want.

nobody expects you to be the first ones in the building, or the first ones into your classrooms, or the first ones into your seats....

you don't have to go.

unless you're ready.

and it's totally okay if you aren't.


alright.

great.

you are ready to go back to school.

to meet new friends...

to learn new things...

to discover all kinds of new pieces of information...

you are ready.

you are ready to do all of this on your own.

without me.

aside from the 'without me' part, i am totally stoked about how excited my girls were to go back to school today!! i think they loved every minute of it!!

i am seriously blessed that i have two little girls who love their new school and their new teachers so very much...

it's a little bittersweet to know that the tears for the new school year are mine and not theirs.

that's just the selfish part of me babbling.

i loved my first day of school. i had great kids. i have a great team to work with this year...

it's just that i am really going to miss my time at home with my sweet baby girls.

i want my cake and i want to eat it, too.

we all three had a wonderful day and i thank You for that.

a whole real lot!

peace!!!

christmas in august

i don't know if it's because the sweltering, oppressive heat is making us see visions of sugarplums, but the girls and i are so ready for christmas!! the fluffy red guy's name came up several different times today.

i was just putting some things away in the top of my closet, and i saw jerry the tiny elf chillin' out in his box. i'm glad i saw him because i forgot where i had hidden him.

i can't remember what sparked the original conversation today about santa, but it had something to do with buying glue sticks.

i could hear their conversation in the back seat and they were discussing how the invisibility factor of the elves works. do they use paint? do they have magic powder?

and then i started wondering about the invisibility factor of the elves, too. are they like harry potter and they make handy use of an invisibility cloak? that has always seemed like the most plausible option to me...wait. we're talking about elves.

their questions continued...

jay: i wonder how santa comes down our chimney without setting off the alarm?

cee: if jerry leaves our house every night and comes back every morning, how does he get around the alarm?

jay: you know how when babies are really tiny they need a lot of sleep and as they get bigger they don't need so much sleep? well, the elves are really tiny - so what are they doing traveling all over the world in the middle of the night? with none parents?

cee: you know what confuses me? mom always answers our questions about santa with another question and then before you know it, i forgot what my question was in the first place. i think she does that because nobody really knows the answers to the questions. i mean, nobody. she just doesn't like when she doesn't know the answers. she's stubborn like that.

jay: i don't think it's really that good of an idea for mrs. claus to let her husband out for the whole night. i mean, not to be rude, but it's just not that good of an idea. do you think he's a vegetarian?

man, oh man. i wonder what kind of things they talk about when i'm not in earshot. it's really scary.

i am sitting on my couch looking at my mantle and imagining how happy it's going to look once it has stockings and garland hanging from it. where will i put the tree this year? what flavor of candles should i buy? will i have time to hang lights on the outside of the house this year?

oh, i just had a brilliant thought: what if it was christmas all year (decorations-wise) and then we took all the decorations down from thanksgiving until new years, and then we put them back up all over again? don't you think everyone would be super happy almost all of the time that way?

all i know is that i am ready. hobby lobby can't get their stuff out quick enough.

oh - tomorrow's the first day of school. kinder for jay and 2nd for cee. a brand new school for them both. and a whole new crop of 11 year olds for me. i can't wait!!

alright...gotta go. there are fingernails to be painted, heads of hair to brush, outfits to select, and sweet dreams to be had.

merry christmas (in august) to you and yours, and a happy school year...

peace!

brown bag special

out with the bad air, in with the good...
out with the bad air, in with the good...
out with the bad air, in with the good...

what a day. it was jam-packed and beyond busy. in short, i wrapped up ‎6th grade orientation, met jay's teacher, met cee's teacher, and thought i was done with the stressful parts of my week.

and then i realized that i completely forgot what a fabulous sense of humor God has.

i just read cee's 2nd grade syllabus.

yup, i used '2nd grade' and 'syllabus' in the same sentence.

i might use the brown paper bag that was sent home tonight as her due-on-the-first-day-of-school assignment to prevent myself from hyperventilating.

would that be completely horrible?

because right now it's looking like the brown bag is going to be a necessity in order for me to maintain healthy vitals.

out with the bad air, in with the good...
out with the bad air, in with the good...
out with the bad air, in with the good...

i was prepared for the breaking point (aka: tears) of my day to be walking into jay's kindergarten classroom for the first time and feeling her cling to my leg because she was unsure about meeting her teacher...and then glancing at me with both fear and confidence as she let go of my leg to walk over to her teacher.

the tears didn't happen. her teacher was seriously phenomenal. she had this presence about her that said,

'i have it under control and your child is going to *love* school because of me. oh, and by the way, i am so sweet that you can totally thank me later for all of the astounding things i am going to do for your baby this year (just like all the other parents are who keep coming by to blow kisses my way)...if you want to.'

i know that should be enough. and it is enough for a big part of me...for my ability to be content with jay starting kindergarten.

i think.

on the other hand, i can't seem to grasp the word 'peace' tonight. and i want to end my post right now, and 'peace' is the word that always pops into my head when it's time to stop writing. but i am just not feeling it tonight.

maybe tomorrow will be better.

maybe...

what could i be so worried about?

is it that i just don't want to see them grow up so quickly?

am i regretting how much time i've spent working in my own school for the last two weeks that could have been spent loving on them?

or maybe i am just so tired that i might cry.

yup.

i think that's it.

maybe...

myth busters

warning:
if you are someone who isn't into hearing girlie stuff,
then it's okay if you stop reading now.
but please come back next time!! :)

they say blondes have more fun.

i think i'll be testing this theory for the next few weeks.

i got 'highlights' today and i really really liked my hair when i left the salon.

i still really liked it two minutes later when i got in my car and did the standard new-do-rear-view-mirror check.

i liked it the three times i rechecked it in the rear view mirror on the drive home.

now, four hours later, i am pretty sure that i was trying to fool myself.

what the salon called 'highlights' loosely translates to 'frosted' in my world. if you have never met me, i need you to know that i am not a 'frosty' kind of gal.

not even a little bit.

i was happily envisioning delicious honey-hued highlights with a spattering of warm brown lowlights. these strands were going to blend perfectly with my natural color. i was thinking of a little something like this:

instead, i ended up with something a lot more like this:


so...yeah.

my sweet color specialist promised me while pulling the crispy foils out of my hair that i was going to love it. she assured me that everyone always loves her color work.

she added that there were only a couple of people who had not liked her work, and she was pretty sure they were crazy.

then as a final reassurance, she said that if for any reason i didn't like it, then she could always go back and give it some more warmth.

but i knew i would love it. practically everyone loves her work.

unless they're crazy.

i'm not crazy.

i'm not crazy about the frosting on my tresses, either, but i am 100% confident that my sanity is fully intact.

i'm the kind of person who likes to go get her hair colored and then if people notice, they are swayed to think maybe i styled my hair differently (aka fixed it) or got a new shade of lipstick.

i'm the kind of person who does not like for people to actually notice her hair color.

weird, i know. but not crazy.


it looks like i'll spend the next couple of days finding a place to part my hair so that the frost isn't quite so frosty. my hair is the type that refuses to part in any other place than it has parted for the last 33 years of my life...it's a creature of habit.

in the meantime, i am going to consider myself blonde.

i'll let you know if the myth is true.

this could be fun.

peace and platinum...

graceful

scene 1:
at a table

character 1:
[inquisitively]
what are you doing?

character 2:
[matter-of-factly, while digging in ear]
i feel a pimple in my ear and i'm trying to find it.

character 1:
[fantastically amused]
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

character 2:
[proudly]
oh, i found it.

end scene.

----------

love those girls. what a great time, what amazing friends!!

also noteably funny...i'm watching jimmy fallon (i think?) and he just did an 'all-call fill in the blank' thing on twitter. the tweet prompt was 'it ought to be against the law...'

my favorite one was:

'it ought to be against the law for my girlfriend to say my couch is ugly just because it has flowers on it. my couch is ballin' so you best DEAL.'

peace and pustules...

wow...

as a single parent, it absolutely stinks to watch my girls go to their dad's house. however, it does feel good to know they are happy to go there and that they stay with him a couple of nights a week and occassionally for the weekend.

i can't imagine what it would be like to send them away for six weeks in the summer or for an entire holiday...i have friends who do this and i can't imagine how hard the goodbyes are. i am lucky that we have made a very smooth transition with this part of divorce.

the girls just left with their dad for the night.

jay gave me a big huge hug and kiss as she walked out of the door. i let her close the door behind her...i thought she had gone all the way to the driveway, so i quietly opened the door to wave goodbye.

instead of getting to wave goodbye, i caught jay standing right on the door mat blowing me a secret kiss.

be still, my beating heart!!!

i caught her kiss, pulled it to my heart, and blew one back to her.

she caught it, wrapped it up and put it in her pocket, we smiled at each other and my heart melted into gooey, gooey mush.

my heart will be fluttering for quite awhile from that little episode.

thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You!!!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

we have a date to meet underneath the stars at a picnic in our dreams tonight, and i can't wait to see her there!! jay is pretty sure that selena gomez and taylor swift are going to be at the picnic, too. :) a good time will be had by all.

peace, picnics, and stolen moments...

wild child

i let cee eat apples with caramel tonight for dessert. that sounds pretty healthy and innocent, right?

in the last few minutes she has said:
-'my face is my instrument.'
-'i am an actTOR and i need my face to concentrate on my performace.'
-'my expression was a representation of candy. with caramel sauce.'
-'once you try it, all of a sudden your heart starts pounding, your hands get sweaty, and your mom and dad should just tattoo on your forehead *let's dance some more.*'

remember - she's seven.

did i mention that all of this was while she was on the phone with her grandparents? i had to reassure them that she was not 'on' anything-except sugar and a natural high courtesy of caramel-to assure that i could maintain primary custody of her.

candy, caramel, ice cream, and any other sugary substances are offically banned from my house.

the part that cracks me up the most about this is that they can be *so* super shy in public...shy to the point where people who read my blog and then meet them think that i must be making things up.

sorry - i tried not to end that sentence with a preposition, but it didn't really work any other way.

here it is, people: proof.

warning: do not attempt to do this at home unless supervised by an adult.



yup...this is the kind of entertainment that greets me every day of my life.

i seriously cannot think of a better way to spend each and every moment of my life.

ten years ago i couldn't have imagined anything besides going out and meeting new people...now i know two of the most amazing people in the whole wide world, and they bless me every single day with their massive amounts of humor...

peace...

verbal assault with a side of plumbing issues

today was a particularly plentiful day in the world of verbal assault. quick run-down of the highlights:

cee: no offense, but i think it all really went south went you tried to do it yourself. did you learn your lesson? (regarding the top kill extravaganza from last week)

jay: mom, that guy smells like he smoked a pack. can we, like, lysol him or would that be child abusing? (about the plumber who fixed our issues from last week...where in the heck did she learn the phrase 'a pack'?)

cee: my favorite part of 1st grade was the 'daily five' - one of the rotations was when we listened to a book on this box thing from the olden days. you had to push buttons and put this plastic thing in there with a plastic cord attached to it. did you have those or was it not invented yet? (ummm....a tape recorder?)

jay: mom, are we going all the way to the store just to get wine? because that's always the first thing on your list.

cee: mom, i know it was a rough day. i just made you a really hot bubble bath. wait-can you and jay take a bath together? (me: no, that's kind of inappropriate.) oh okay, well then jay can take a bath after you. wait a minute. exactly how dirty are you?

jay: mom, dinner tonight was so good that i almost could eat it.

oh.

feel.

the.

love.

on the bright side, i guess there is something to be said for honesty.

right?

right.

let's just say that the most classic part of the day is when cee made me a perfectly hot bubble bath. she told me to just relax and enjoy it. she even made me a pillow out a fluffy towel.

she told me i could soak for twenty minutes. i was nodding off into my own blissful world when she started loudly counting backwards from 500 (her equivalent of 20 minutes).

:)

when i finished my bath, i got out and dried off. she had me come in her room so she could give me a manicure. (yes, they spoil me)

when cee started the lotion on my arms, she asked me how the bath was. i told her it was fabulous and i loved it and i love how she takes care of me. then she asked me if i noticed the cotton balls floating in the tub.

ummmm....no.

she said they melted like marshmallows in hot chocolate when she dropped them in... so she kept putting more and more cotton marshmallows in to watch them melt.

interesting...

with perfect timing, jay yells from the bathroom, 'mom!! the water won't go out of the tub!! it's, like, stuck and stuff!'

the plumber is going to make lots and lots of $$$ off of me this week...holy cow, i need the cash cow to come cruising through my yard. i haven't seen her in awhile.

i am seriously touched by such thoughtful, amazing, and sweet little ones. thank you, God, for these miraculous and funnny-as-all-get-out little girls. i am blessed to be their mom.

peace and plumbers...

i survived.

the end.

just kidding, it's not the end because i really couldn't stop with a two word post. but i did survive my presentation.

i was pretty much a big ball of nerves at the beginning. i had a great audience and they made it a lot easier than i thought it would be.

i feel like i just conquered a major hurdle, and now i can't wait to present again. :)

the girls got their backpacks today, courtesy of hanna andersson, and they are pretty darn cute. they just finished loading their school supplies in them, and now i get the dubious honor of making sure they don't mess with them for the next 2 weeks.

jay's is way too big for her, so i think i'll just keep her home another year so she can grow into it. :) i can't believe she's starting kindergarten. cee is all grown up going into 2nd grade and loaded her backpack like a total pro.

you know i had to snap a quick picture...the straps aren't adjusted yet, and jay's seriously sags to her knees.



they are both super duper excited!

okay...that's all i have for now.

happy wednesday!

peace and walla back atcha...

it's time

tomorrow is my presentation.

i have no fingernails left.

i seriously contemplated trying to lose my voice tonight and then i decided i really didn't want to deal with a sore throat or the shame of being a quitter.

i am going to walk the plank and i will either sink or swim.

'hello, i've forgotten my name, what grade i teach, what school i am from, and why i am standing here in front of you. but you can bet your bottom dollar that i am going to give you a mind boggling amount of information about differentiated instruction. hold on tight, it's gonna be a wild ride.'

i had training for the last two days and the presenter was really, really good at what she did. i tried to absorb some major speaking juju from her.

wish. me. luck.

cross your fingers, say a prayer, or send positive thoughts into the deepest realms of the universe...do what ever it is that floats your particular happy karma boat, and send some love my way.

please?

and thank you.

peace.

happy half birthday

my girls are amazing! today is jay's 5 1/2 birthday, and cee is the one who figured it out for us. cee orchestrated a fabulous party in about 2 hours, and we had a wonderful time celebrating!! here are a few pics.

cee started the fun by giving jay a chance to take a whack at the pinata...

hidden inside the pinata was a pack of skittles, some heb buddy bucks, and of course a party hat...everybody needs one. :)

cee had a complete agenda for the festivities...

there was a card...

money for the piggy (errr, ducky?) bank...

cupcakes...

and see-food for everyone...

cee was so proud of herself for all of the adorable creations. i am proud of her, too. she is so incredibly thoughtful and generous.

jay was way excited to realize she is 5 1/2. she was so thankful and greatful for every single thing cee did for her. i think she said thank you about 200 times and cee and i got tons of hugs.

they both make my heart very, very happy.



how on earth did i ever get so lucky?

you know what makes me love this moment even more? i just realized that a birthday party can be thrown together in 2 hours for less than $20 and my kid is more excited and pleased than she ever is after a month of planning a regular party.

(and i am not even remotely stressed or broke)

it's kind of like at Christmas when you spend tons of money on great gifts and your kid loves the box more than the toy. :)

all smiles

i am all smiles after a great weekend with great friends!


lots of laughs, yummy food, cool drinks.

i haven't been to galveston in awhile, but it was nice to be there. we went, we saw, and we conquered.

quote of the weekend: 'i've never met you before. i'm not sure who you are.'

i'm already looking forward to our next trip!! where will the travel bug lead us?

i missed my babies so much and i am glad the three of us are back home together again.

lots of peace headed to ya...